 deputy city clerk if you'd like to make your statement yes I will oh we don't have our interpreters yet so we can go ahead and proceed vice mayor say that one more time city clerk we don't have our interpreters on yet but we can go ahead and proceed if you yes please in that case we'll go ahead and skip the interpreter statement and we'll go ahead and see the time is now 1 o'clock 1 30 even let's go ahead and open up public comment for public for a close study session a vice mayor we need to call them a meeting to order and do a roll call okay let's go ahead and do that part first thing okay councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer councilmember Rogers present council member McDonald here councilmember Fleming here vice mayor Alvarez present mayor Rogers okay let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of mayor Rogers and councilmember Sawyer all right thank you with that being said let's go ahead and open up the public comment for close study session okay we're now taking public comments on item two closed session items if you wish to make a comment in person please put your name in with the administrator at the top of the well or via zoom please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand you'll have three minutes for your comment and a countdown count down timer alert at the conclusion of that period seeing that no one is here with us today are there any recorded there are no voicemail recorded messages and I don't see any raised hands very well that concludes the pre-recorded or actually the opportunity for public comment let's go ahead and close that and with that said we will recess and we will be back be back shortly hello Charles and Pablo thank you for joining us I am going to put Charles into the Spanish Channel and then Pablo if you will if you will translate when the council resumes please Charles understood I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish Channel to commence translation of the meeting for those just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish Channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar it looks like a globe once you join the Spanish Channel we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation Pablo can you please restate this in Spanish good afternoon for those of you in regards to this meeting interpretation in vivo will be available and the members who wish to listen to the interpretation in Spanish can join the channel to join click on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar that now looks like a globe terrarium once you join the Spanish Channel we recommend you turn off the audio primarily to listen to the interpretation in Spanish thank you I'll go ahead and place you in the Spanish Channel as well good afternoon everyone the time is now 2 30 city clerk would you like to call roll call thank you my smear councilmember Schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer councilmember Rogers president councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming here vice mayor Alvarez present mayor Rogers let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of mayor Rogers and councilmember Sawyer thank you we'll move ahead into a study session item 3.1 city manager presenting staff thank you vice mayor Alvarez and members of council item 3.1 is the short-range transit plan SRTP 2022 update I'd like to introduce deputy director E. Thank you thanks very much and good afternoon vice mayor Alvarez and members of council we're pleased to be with you here today for this study session on the city bus short-range transit plan update transit planner Matt Wilcox is the project manager for this SRTP update and we'll be providing today's presentation with myself and planner Yuri Coslin also in attendance to help answer questions or provide any additional information that's needed before handing the presentation off to Matt I wanted to provide some brief context for this effort going back to 2020 in the spring of 2020 we had just begun our regular short-range transit plan update which is a process we go through every 3 to 4 years following guidelines provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission MTC the pandemic hit right as we were getting started and we have placed the effort on hold for the past 2 years but it's time to get us started again both with new guidelines from MTC which Matt will discuss as well as needing to get back to regular planning work for the future of city bus so we will be moving let me back up and say you know this effort has been on hold in part because we're still working to restore service that we cut during the pandemic as you all know and staffing continues to be the limiting factor in that service restoration but as staffing grows and as we have the staff available to further restore service we are planning to do that aggressively so even more reason to get into this planning effort to shape any changes to the city bus system that needs to be made at this point in time combined with that we're also needing to begin planning for the go Sonoma sales tax measure which kicks in in 2025 that measure will be bringing new operating revenues for local bus transit in Sonoma County so it's a good time now to start thinking about what what would be the best use of those new operating funds for transit in Santa Rosa to help support the needs of the public in our ridership so despite the fact that we're very much still in pandemic recovery mode here at city bus the time is right to do this focus planning work on the future of the city bus system and the Santa Rosa paratransit system so as you know we implemented a full system restructuring of the city bus system back in 2017 and leading up to the pandemic that system was performing really well so at this point in time we aren't looking to start from square one what we'd really like to do is focus on the pre pandemic system as the framework but look to identify both the shorter term changes that need to be made to better meet riders needs as well as start to think about priorities for future service changes or expansion of the system Matt will be talking more about the planning framework that underpins the current city bus system to give you some additional background and context and answer any questions you may have I also want to highlight that this SRTP update is taking place in the context of unprecedented local and regional regional efforts to integrate transit service provision among multiple operators so you know the goal is to develop as we've discussed in the past a seamless transit network here in Sonoma County that operates as one unified system from the standpoint of the rider so you know while we're looking within for this process really focusing on the city bus part of that that countywide and regional transit network what we learn and the recommendations that come out of this process will be brought forward into both the Sonoma County as well as the Bay Area regional integrated service transit planning process so they're not exclusive you know this this inner look at city bus doesn't include us then being being able to participate in those larger integration efforts I'll conclude by noting that we have provided Prince's printed system apps for council as well as any any members of the public in the chamber there's also a link in the agenda that that would take people to the online version of this if people are watching on zoom and want to have a point of reference for the current city bus system and we look forward to your feedback both on the SRTP process coming up as well as your priorities for the city bus system any concerns or questions you may have that we need to take into consideration and look at throughout this process and with that I'm going to hand it over to Matt but I did want to note that this is not the first slide of our presentation so if we could kind of scroll back that would be great one moment I'm having issues with the PDF okay thank you oh while we're waiting for the presentation I also wanted to know advice mayor we're happy to answer questions during the presentation or wait till the end however you would like the the study session to run we're very flexible so either way if you don't mind council if you wish to ask questions as the presentation goes please feel free all right now take it away we'll do thank you racial good everyone as Rachel mentioned this is a the city session for short range transit plan it is something that we do update every three years and it was postponed and with that postponement NTC actually changed the structure of the short range transit plan so for some of you this will be all new some view may have experienced the short range transit plan before but either way we'll kind of give a background of what we did previous on previous short range transit plans and then move into what NTC is asking transit operators this time around and go to the next slide please so just to give you an overview of this presentation we'll jump into a overview of our service trends over the last four years including the current fiscal year give you kind of a basic see basis to go off of where we are from a service standpoint and then just move into the actual process go over the old process and go into the new process and what that entails specifically this planning scenarios that NTC has provided us this go around and you'll see that's not normally how these things progress then we'll jump into service planning which as you see isn't necessarily a requirement of this new SRTB but it is a past and as Rachel mentioned we're kind of at a point in our service delivery that we need to see what what is changed as we come out of the pandemic what needs for our writers have changed the demographics our writers have changed so we need to tweak our service to to meet those new needs and then obviously part of that will be a rather robust public engagement campaign to make sure that not only are we just looking at the data and what that tells us we're actually engaging the public to help understand what people need and we find that sometimes those stories are often what push us in the right direction on delivering an effective service for the community and then finally we'll wrap up with just a timeline to give you a sense of how long this process will take and what to expect from us in the future we can go to the next slide thank you so just a kind of a state of service overview comparing fiscal year 1819 which was our last whole year of non pandemic number is comparing to our current fiscal year so our average monthly ridership was in the mid seven thousands and now we're close to six thousand that's about a 40 sorry it's a not a precipitous drop but it is you know about 80 percent of our service hours versus what we were before on average going down to fair media demographics have changed and I will note from the get go for all you people doing your mental math that those do not add 200 percent and that is because within our fair structure we have a lot of additional categories that aren't really rolled into adult and youth things like our transfers which are free the s rjc free program the veteran free program those programs have a different categories of fairs but looking at just cash adult passes looking at our 318 passes my apologies are in tickets we can actually categorize those and our new youth free fair program so as you can see the youth free fair program has a dramatic effect on how our wider demographics break out age wise so that is something we also need to look at because how we deliver service and if it's more answer it being that getting kids to and from school which has always been the case but there's more we can do to kind of rebound off of this growth and youth ridership and all the better and just looking at general trips taken on your average weekday we're down 44 percent versus what we were pre-pandemic on weekdays roughly the same for saturday and sunday we're doing a little better at 35 percent sundays have had relatively the same service level before the pandemic during the pandemic and now just because it is our lowest span of service that we offer and I'll go to the next slide please so just looking at ridership trends or the past four years it's very obvious where the pandemic happened you can see a very precipitous drop in ridership and we had our lowest ridership in may of that year our highest ridership was in recent years was in october of 1819 was almost 170 thousand dollars riders a month and then as we move forward you can see as we we can't have the pandemic and we're still going through it we're growing ridership back and our highest ridership to date was last month sorry april we're not in may anymore at 93,326 and may and june are projected out right now we haven't finished doing the ridership for may and june is not but as you can kind of see the trend for most junes is that we do see a drop and with youth riders being such a large portion of our ridership now we believe that ridership will probably drop significantly but we we may see a new trend where it doesn't drop that much with school being out as children are still able to in school children are still able to ride free so we may not see that big of a dip you go to the next slide thank you this is a review of our revenue hours over the same period each of the blue dots represents a service change so for context during non-pandemic times we only change our schedule on average two times a year and as you can see that changed greatly with the pandemic and when you've done 13 service changes and once again if you're doing mental math and counting the dots since that's the pandemic we actually ended up doing two service changes in the month of january as you can see there's a pretty large drop in this current fiscal year and that was mostly due to the el macron surge where we had staffing issues people being out sick and not able to drive so we had to reduce service that way we could provide at least a consistent level albeit a lower one than we would have desired at that point we can go to the next slide so the old srtp process which also might be the new fold for some of you is broken out to six key parts and we when we presented this to mtc each of those three years the update we provide an organized organizational structure so we would give them a breakdown of how we operate santa rosa is one of the unique transit operators in the bay area as what we're called directly operated where our bus drivers are city employees it's the exception being peritransit but at least for the six fix about fixed route bus service our drivers are employees whereas most agencies contract out their services then we would provide goals objectives and standards so i'm sure you've heard a lot about the general plan and it's kind of the same idea where we have things we want to achieve and then how do we measure the success in those those goals whether we use certain metrics usually key performance indicators like the number of pastures we have how many riders we have for our things of that nature and then we do a service and system evaluation so comparing our key performance indicators to make sure that we know which routes are performing if they're performing poorly or if they're performing better than expected you know what service do we need to add or remove and based off of that evaluation then all that kind of culminates into an operations plan which allows us to determine what we want to do over the next 10 years which is the planning horizon for most short range transit plans and then we update those every three years obviously we want to create a budget that's sustainable and sustains that service that we plan for and then capital improvements are always important making sure that we have a state of good repair on our fleet and facilities and also that we are keeping on top of purchasing our buses in the proper intervals as dictated by the federal government we can go to the next slide so the new process takes some from the old process but it's much more specialized this time around than the what NTC is asking of us one of the major shifts is actually that all transit operators in the Bay Area will be submitting their touring transit plans at the same time and this is unique usually they're staggered and the reason NTC wants to do this is so they can get a very holistic view of what is happening to the transit operators in the Bay Area are there certain trends is everyone feeling the same effects are the effects different by county so they're trying to get an apples apples comparison and the way they set this up is to provide us with the template for service data so we can provide them the hours of service for providing our riders how much bears we've collected and what we anticipate to collect and then within that we need to tell NTC their narrative you know why we've come to these conclusions you know what have we seen in our service area that leads us to believe that the ridership will go up or down why we say we haven't done that yet so we're not really sure but that's what this whole process is for and then all that is within three different scenarios that NTC has provided the transit operators they want us to look at what a robust recovery looks for us a recovery of our revenue by having cured riders on our system and then some recovery and if we go to the next slide I'm going to give you a better idea of what each of those recovery or those scenarios entails so our bus recovery is 100 percent recovery of revenue to pre-pandemic levels and to the various funding sources that we have local state federal with escalation you know we're bringing in more funds and ridership is recovering and then revenue recovery but fewer riders in this scenario we've exhausted our relief funds but our other funding sources are recovered so that would be our local funds and state funds and then barebox revenue is 20 to 15 percent below pre-pandemic levels and then finally they're defining some recovery as federal relief money also exhausted like the previous scenario and then totals of all funding sources are 15 percent below pre-pandemic levels so that's state and local for the purposes of city bus we we're really looking at kind of the last two or the first and the last scenarios and then the middle scenario the revenue recovery for your riders is kind of for us combined with the summer recovery mostly due to the fact that albeit that barebox revenue is a portion of operating budget we're not as reliant on it as some of the other operators an example would be that art is highly reliant on its barebox revenue as a source of operating funds so that's kind of one of the things we're looking at this regionally MTC is covering all its basis is to ensure that they can kind of see moving based off of that how is one agency bearing versus another in these very varying scenarios and then their intent is to decide how they want to allocate funds in the future or where more strategic planning on their part can take place in the future we go to the next slide please so financial considerations for us we have a five-year operating plan and a five-year capital plan the five-year operating plan is you know we're we're basing it off off of anticipated changes in revenues so we as an agency still have about 2.9 million dollars of our COVID emergency relief funds which we can use the backfill barebox as we go forward so we're relatively well off in that regard and you know the things go swimmingly you know that will easily carry us towards when goes to know my revenues kick in in fiscal year 2025 or 2024-25 and then five-year capital plan we are looking at our fleet electrification you know it's a requirement but also something that you know we imagine we would go forward with anyways as you know we move to be a more environmentally friendly transportation choice than we already are and we also want to make sure that we're maintaining the fleet that we have as you know we progress towards an all-electric fleet we still have I think diesel fleet that we need to maintain and then start to maintain those electric vehicles as they come in and then kind of the overall financial plan is a culmination of the capital plan and the operating plan and that we need to make sure that we're sustainable in those parts of it where we're not overextending ourselves on an operational basis therefore you know we have to shift funds over to capital because we need to purchase new buses and the other way around where we want to make sure that we strike that balance and we can make sure that we're providing the service that the community needs you know we need buses to provide it but we also need to make sure that the hours need the needs of the community we can go to the next slide please so to go into the service planning portion of this as I mentioned before there is in a specific request from NTC to do a service plan or create an operations plan part of that falls into what they're asking in the narrative portion of the new process but we felt that we need to provide a more robust service plan so as an agency we have an idea of where we want to go over the next few years and how we want to deliver service and all that service planning is kind of couched within the council adopted service design guidelines so and when reimagining happened in 2017 council adopted service design guidelines that act as kind of a well guidelines for us and how we deliver do our planning across the system and those key components of the service design principles are best practices and transit service signs so these aren't necessarily unique to Santa Rosa but more of industry standards and transit planning and you would see these with many other transit agencies and how they plan their service how we allocate service you know where where does a bus go in the city and you know and how many times does it come per hour so we have a methodology for that and then we also have a definition for route and service typology so when we're saying we're allocating service here we're saying we're allocating this type of typo or this route typology or service typology because it meets the criteria where we know that having 15-minute service on a highly dense corridor is optimal whereas that may not be appropriate for a neighborhood suburban type development and we can go to the next slide so we'll get into the details of each of those right now so the principles of service design are frequent service, direct alignments, bi-directional service, strong anchors, spacing and connectivity and all of these play off of each other and you will actually be able to see these in play with the system as it is currently seen today so frequent service for us is 15-minute service or someone like uni in San Francisco some of the routes don't even operate with the schedule because there's a bus every five minutes but for us 15-minute service is is pretty frequent especially for a density that like Santa Rosa. Direct alignments are very important if you want people to get a trip that is not necessarily exactly if they would drive in a car that very close which makes transit service more enticing so a direct alignment is in your head I mean most of our routes we attempt to make direct alignments but routes like the route one that goes up Mendocino Avenue to Clottingtown is probably one of our most direct routes and the bi-directional is also really important to ensure that someone's trip from say their house to their place of work takes the same amount of time as the trip back home once again trying to make it equitable with a car trip as possible to entice people on the transit and just make it a better experience for riders where they're they're not one part of the trip is 10 minutes and then the other part is 20 minutes because they have to go the opposite direction of where they want to go. It's very important to have strong anchors so housing density is a strong anchor the higher the density the stronger the anchor is for transit. Job centers where jobs are clustered in a single area provide a strong anchor and then also health and human services when those things are clustered in single areas it's easier to provide transit service to them and it's also indicative of a stronger ridership for the routes serving them and then spacing is equally important closeness and how far away things are. We don't want routes that go down the same roads but we don't want also don't want routes so far apart that we kind of create a transit desert in areas where there's not service and it's not walkable but spacing is very relative that if you have very frequent service that's bi-directional and it's direct you can get away with spacing service more because study after study shows that people are willing to walk further to higher quality transit services higher quality can break frequent direct and bi-directional and then finally connectivity also related to spacing routes that go north south and east west can intersect each other allows people to make efficient transfers between routes having the connectivity at major transit hubs is equally important not just for riders going across the city but going regionally so we want to make sure that as we work with our transit partners like Sonoma County Transit that we can make efficient connections that they provide a more regional trip for somebody but once that person arrives in Santa Rosa or some new leaving Santa Rosa they have a very quick trip to their connection from say their home to go the next cycle so these are some diagrams kind of giving the visual of what I mean by service allocation methodologies the two not necessarily competing but just different ideas our coverage versus productivity coverage is dispersed everywhere just to the diagram there's lots of buses there's lots of coverage but there's just one bus on each route so you will have a bus that probably comes very close to you and once they're important to the people that use it because that is their lifeline if they're using that bus but it's hard to get places quickly and it's hard to attract more riders if you're applying this methodology everywhere in a system if we did this on like a highly dense corridor it would probably not attract people to use the system or make the system very useful to people that are using it however if we're trying to make sure that people do get service we can apply that to neighborhoods versus productivity service where it stays on major corridors buses are coming very frequently but it is very limited in where it goes in the sense that it has a very specific start and end location it doesn't meander it's not going closer to people's homes necessarily unless they're directly on those major arterials that these routes are generally on but the end goal is generally higher ridership on these routes as they provide more frequency there's more opportunity for trips let me go to the next slide so to tie in with the allocation methodology are our route technologies and if you look at the system map that that was provided you can kind of see a little bit of the different service allocation methodologies and also the technologies the one exception being rapid bus we don't even though it says 15 minute frequency which is what the route one traditionally operates on we don't consider rapid bus because for us rapid bus means there are some other factors as part of the route that allow it to run more quickly than say a vehicle in some cases or a personal automobile whether it be tracking the transit signal priority not to be confused with preemption we're not an ambulance we're not changing the lights as we're going up to the intersection but as more of it changes the timing based on what the bus is doing so if it is late the system recognizes it may hold the light at the intersection to allow the bus get through before cycling or the other thing that is part of this typology is our Q-jump lane so it's a lane that is at the intersection that allows the bus to leave before the light turns for the rest of the vehicles in the queue so the bus can get ahead of traffic that's backed up at the light and then therefore making it a faster service and also more desirable service for riders what we see on our system is the three other typologies so trunk routes you would be thinking of the route one the route two to be where frequency is every 15 to 30 minutes there are long major corridors in areas where we know they're high demand local routes are 30 to 60 minutes examples of those would be the route eight and the route four for the where they're they're not as direct but large portions of them are kind of that inbound outbound bi-directional service whereas they have loops at the end to serve neighborhoods but do you eventually connect to a major arterial and major hubs and then finally circulators are flex service these are more of what you would expect in that coverage based model where they're covering a lot of geographic area but they're not as frequent so they are providing the trips but they're not coming every 15 minutes and something like that in our service right now if you like the route 18 where it covers a lot of distance goes lots of places it gets you where you want to go but the buses are not coming as frequently as some of our other service we can go to the next slide so now that we have a basis of how we want to plan the service where we have an intent to move into the public engagement and kind of bring these ideas back to the public and they may be familiar with it from reimagining it for a long time writers but we have a couple of different processes that we use when engaging the public and to reference back to reimagining it was that the chancellor was really home our engagement skills and since then there has been an increase in collaboration across departments in the city and us and kind of the best practices of how to get out to the public and get the feedback that would need so one of the things that we do plan to engage the public is a writer survey and a component of that will probably also be aimed at non-writing residents to get a sense of you know why don't they ride will they ride if you know things change but predominantly it's going to be aimed at our current writers so better understand their needs as we move out of the pandemic and have those changed and then other part of it is providing trade-offs for them we've heard from feedback over the years that different desires from different writers there you want to kind of get a bigger a better sense of is there a bigger idea that most writers would agree on is the next step for us to change our service and some of those are you know sunday service that's equal to saturday service later evening service on the weekdays are increasing frequency on the the major portals and in the in-person outreach the one thing that we stand by is a direct outreach to the writers that where they are so that's on the bus major transit hub that stops we want to make sure that we get that anecdotal evidence we can get the responses from the survey we can look at our data but we often find that the just speaking with the writers gets us pointed in the right direction and more often than not and kind of leads us down past that we may have not considered before or at the very least it reaffirms our suspicions based on what we found in the data and then in cases where we want to be we want to change service we will do a more specific outreach to the on those routes so not just the major hubs to kind of get the overall picture but really getting to a lot of the stops on a route if we do have a targeted route and you'll see later in the the slides that that is something that we are planning to do and then stakeholder outreach is equally important it's a great way for us to get a lot of comments from a single source whether it be helping service agencies or other community partners often their clients speak to them about their issues and sometimes city bus is their issue and we can get that feedback and from a single source and it's good to know what these community partners are hearing from the writers and what we can do to better their services and then public workshops and community meetings are always key to us especially we imagine later in the project when we can come back to the public and say you know we encourage your feedback and here's the changes that we think are you know meet that feedback and once again it's another great opportunity for more feedback to us and then finally we want to make sure that if we can tie into other engagement other of these stuff with the general plan or other departments where there can you can get that synergy you know transit and land use are intertwined it was feed into me by my transportation professor we had to say it as an affirmation before every class so you know as we improve our densities to make that you have higher density developments different jobs coming into the area having a good transit to those locations is key to community well-being. So as I mentioned before some of the things that we're looking at are news fans and destinations that's part of the trade-off questions we want to ask the public so service extending further into the evening equaling spans of service for the weekends Saturday and Sunday go start at the same time and at the same time so there's less confusion there for our riders and then also expanding service areas part of reimagining which had two phases phase one was already implemented is what's on the street now but phase two included some expansion of service and that's been reaffirmed from the public feedback we have as you can note on the map to the right the areas highlighted in orange are areas that we've heard from multiple constituents that they would like service in those areas and that's the thing we want to look at to you know how best to serve those areas is it extending routes that we already operate is it putting different service typologies in there and then an area not necessarily highlighted on here not necessarily a new area but would be the fountain grove area where the route 19 served prior to the pandemic there are obviously things changing up there there are places that need service so we can take a look at what is the appropriate service for that area because it is something that people have mentioned that they were sad that it did go away and it's one of those things that unfortunately we it was a trade-off and we had to prioritize more impactful areas of our service area that generated and more riders and had more riders using them we go next slide so as I mentioned before route realignment is one of those things that we are looking at in one of those instances where we would do very route specific outreach so not just the major hubs but all all the stops in between if possible so one of the routes that we are looking at is the route nine as you can see the Katrina left is the route nine as it currently is which is a loop with kind of an inbound outbound tail that starts at the transit mall and ends at the transit mall and one of the things we want to bring to the public is a concept of a bidirectional service that ends at Coddingtown and the transit mall and it begins there as well and this kind of ties into those service principles you know bidirectional service it's direct and if we can make it frequent all the better and one of the you know reasons to do this is to once again fill a gap that the route 19 left along North Dutton and it provides better transfer opportunities and connectivity for the riders of the system if you live along West ninth or West West college and you wanted to go to say Kaiser one of your options is to go south to go north essentially you're coming back on the nine to go to the transit mall to get on the one to go north and that's just not intuitive and it's not fair to riders but with this configuration you have more opportunity to to transfer the one you can get to the one at Coddingtown and it's a little more intuitive to go north and continue to go north to your ultimate destination the one downside of this is that there is that section of Dutton Avenue between college and ninth that would not have the service directly on it but if we can get that bidirectionality and that frequency it could still be enticing to riders as it's a it would be a stronger route in the end but this is for us to find out from the riders and ultimately they will provide kind of the the cherry on top of you know which way we go we go to the next slide and then finally is something that we it wasn't it hasn't really discussed in other plans in great depth but it's kind of you know talked about between staff and new service typologies and as technology has progressed these become more viable and one of those things is using a deviated fixed route or on-demand services and you may have heard the term micro transit that kind of that kind of there's a catch all for those two essentially we can use ride sharing companies or provide our own vehicles provide on on-demand service where people can request rides through their smartphone where this wasn't covered the whole city that's not feasible but it could be used in areas where we see less ridership but there is still a demand there and there's still need city transit service we're in access as a program that we're in transit is using their services aligned around major transfer hubs and those being the smart stations and their transit centers essentially there's a 200 or 2.5 mile radius around each of those hubs so if you do arrive at a smart station there you can request to ride and essentially get door-to-door service within that service area or if you're going beyond that they'll at least connect to you to another or to a transit hub that would allow you to complete the rest of your trip so if you say you were in Santa Rosa and you want to travel to Marin and you needed to go out to Fairfax they could get rescheduled to the transfer hub from the smart station and then have a ring transit bus take you the rest of the way next slide please so as this all kind of wraps up and we go through this service planning the SRTP in this process we're going to be looking internally a lot and we're going to be looking at our own service as that's what MTC is asked and that's kind of what we need to do to get a sense of where we stand as a transit provider but ultimately whether it's regionally or within the county regionally or the area regionally a lot of what we're going to do the information we provide the answers the questions we're going to ask are going to inform that regional effort specifically for our planning service planning integration with snow accounting and public transit what they find from their SRTP process will help us kind of figure out where are their overlaps in demand where are their overlaps whether it be where service is allocated all affairs these are all things that we need to also look at on a regional level and this process will allow that to be easier as we move into it but probably through the actual SRTP process as I mentioned will be more of a look internally than externally maybe over the next slide please so to give you a sense of how this project will play out we are here in June 2022 at the council study session and as we move into the rest of June we'll start getting our public outreach campaign into July and with that information come August, September we will kind of take that information in once we receive it look at the data that we have on how many riders per hour our general ridership trends by new stops things of that nature kind of what we call a line by line analysis and also the data that NTC is requesting to compile that a lot of overlap in there as well and then in September NTC is asking for a draft plan to be submitted so that won't probably not include our service plan but it will include all the components that NTC is asking for that we spoke about in the previous slides and then once we have comments from them we will kind of re-engage with the service planning part of our process and any changes that they provide or changes from comments that they provide and the public engagement will be us requiring a service plan so this is bringing we've taken in what the public has said we've looked at the data and kind of cited this is the this is the direction we went ahead take it back out to the public and let them tell us you know yes you're headed in the right direction I totally agree with that that's great or no it's all wrong hopefully that doesn't happen but we want to make sure that there's multiple opportunities for people to comment and kind of push us in the right direction and that will hopefully better serve them and then November we will bring it back to council to review and approve the plan this will probably at that point be the whole plan including what NTC is requesting and our service plan and then we will submit to NTC in December for their adoption and the rest with the rest of the transit operators in the Bay Area next slide please so being that this is study session we want to create a dialogue we've set up some questions here that if council is happy to ask would be greatly appreciated and it would certainly help our process so one of the first question is what transit related concerns or opportunities have you observed in your district across the city are there changes in the travel needs of your constituents from before the pandemic what service changes as what service changes do you see as a priority for improving city of us in Santa Rosa Paratransit service and access for all residents and what else should we be exploring the short-range transit plan update and by all means you know we don't need to answer these questions today you can ruminate on them and you know get back to us but we'd have to open the floor up to comments and questions thank you very much with that council do we have any questions today yes please so thank you so much for the presentation I just have a couple questions for you as we are looking at more electrical vehicles and buses do you have an estimate of the cost of the fuel of one of our buses to fill that up I do not that might be a question she may have the answer but I'm not sure what our current fuel costs are and and council member are you specifically asking about the fueling costs for our electric vehicles versus diesel I'm sorry I'm reading the prompter in front of me so I'm sure that I heard you correctly yeah I'm looking at if we were to move our buses to electric how much would we be saving in fuel costs like over the years so we're meeting all of our climate goals but in addition to that as far as budget goes are you able to reduce cost of fuel and then actually have more routes more buses more employees to drive on those because we're not paying it for something else yeah that's a great question and how I would you know without having you know a dollar figure to give you how we've been thinking about this transition in terms to electric vehicles in terms of the fuel costs is that you know we may just sort of break even electricity you know with the the rate that we should qualify for as a transit agency it should be less than diesel fuel especially right now with the current costs we are paying a higher rate because we are paying for the evergreen plan which we think is a great thing because you know we will be fueling these buses with a local renewable electric fuel source which is fantastic but you know until we really get there and understand the variable rates for different times of day when we're charging and how that plays out we're not anticipating a big savings in the fuel arena right out of the gate where we may eventually see it more as in maintenance costs the the feedback from early adopters of battery electric buses is that maintenance costs do tend to run a good deal less because there are just aren't as many moving pieces as a different propulsion technology so I think it's a little too early to speculate on exactly how much savings that might be but I think we are assuming that there will be an operating cost savings overall with operating the electric vehicle fleet which you're right could then go into a potentially higher levels of service out on the street so I think we're optimistic that that will be the case but at this point in time I'd be wildly speculating exactly to what that might be but we'll certainly as we get those buses here in august and have some some experience fueling and operating them you know we'll be able to provide some feedback within you know the coming year thank you that's so helpful do we need to invest any more money in infrastructure if we are moving to electric vehicles and have we anticipated where that might be I know we have a yard maybe but do we have to have more infrastructure around the city if we're looking at recharging stations for a vehicle that size and and has that been considered as part of our goals and yeah I have you on the line I'm going to ask these questions so it's helpful to know thank you it's absolutely it's and they're great questions they're all very relevant to the capital plan that's a key component of this entire exercise because we need to make sure we're adequately funding that capital program and and then maintaining that sustainable service level as well so in terms of infrastructure you know we've we've been very fortunate with the competitive grants we've applied for and so we do have about 20 buses worth of infrastructure funded through federal and state grants the first phase is breaking ground this week that will fuel up to our first nine buses and then this year we received an additional federal competitive grant that's going to pay for phase two of that charging infrastructure at the yard so that's the overnight charging where the buses will come in in a day and we'll plug them in and charge them up overnight so so we do have those plans in motion and already a pretty good funding program for the the first two phases of of the yard infrastructure we need to do some some further work to think about and recharging out in the system and and that's something we're talking about with Sonoma County Transit ultimately we might be talking with Golden Gate Transit you know the other operators in Santa Rosa that are also going to be transitioning to zero emissions fleet to see if there's an opportunity or a need to create you know for example the transit mall and enroute charging station or at Codding Town um we're kind of early days on that analysis right now with the way our system is structured it makes more sense to do the overnight charging and it's certainly much more economical especially as we get our feet wet with this new technology but I think we'll evolve into that conversation and frankly I think that also plays into the integrated service planning conversation like as we build this integrated service network in Sonoma County we're going to be need to be thinking about the charging facilities out throughout our service area to accommodate the kind of service we need to provide so again these are great questions I don't I don't have a a perfect answer for you at this point but there are definitely items on the list for for us to further investigate and evaluate thank you and then I just have one last comment to the youth in our community whose ridership is up a pretty good percentage I just want to thank those that are willing to go and catch the bus that's something that I did um you know as a child here in Sonoma County in Santa Rosa specific and then just to see if we had done any outreach to the schools so that they know how to use our apps or have um our maps available to students so that they actually are really aware of times and routes and I know we were like received a little card that showed the times that the buses would be at specific routes when I was young and I know it's probably on a phone now because I'm not old but uh just to see if that's been done and since we're going to be in the summertime but going into school session if we could maybe do um that and you probably already are but just thought that would be good to note as well yeah um great comment and and yeah the the schools and school districts have been wonderful and um Yuri Kozlin who's on the line as well who's the project manager for the ur-free program has been doing a ton of outreach and working with school sites and with districts to push out information and you know some particular schools have been more active than others but overall I would say the response has been really positive in terms of us being able to provide information that then can be shared with the students and families I think there's an opportunity to take it to the next level in terms of providing um you know additional training resources you know we've been talking for a while about doing a short video that shows you how to use our app you know that you know you could watch in a couple minutes and you can understand how to use the real-time information a lot of the youth pick it up like super easily right it's it's some of us older folks who maybe need a little bit more hand-holding um but uh you know I think I think we're we're already in that conversation with the school sites to talk about what we could uh roll out in the fall to further support that program and make it even easier to use city bus for the um the youth thank you so much thank you are there any additional questions before we take public comment seeing none let's go ahead and open up public comment if there's anybody in the public here who would like to make a a comment please move forward to the dice if you're visiting us from zoom go ahead and raise your hand if you're dialing please hit star nine do we have any pre-recorded messages um we have no pre-recorded messages they see nobody coming forward in the council chamber and no raised hands very well let's go ahead and close public comment and bring it back to the council council uh before we go into recess are there any questions seeing shaking heads uh it looks like it's time for us to take a recess uh it is now three twenty five we will be back at four o'clock thank you hi john this is stephanie um can you do a quick mic check and um oh i see you i don't see you okay hey i see you and hear you that's all that matters oh hold on hold on stephanie what was that brand um i'm swiping to the left and nothing's happening you know i'm not oh here we go um let's see you do you still want me to keep my video active john you can just nod your head so you can run through this or are we good i think just definitely you can you can take me i think you can brian is okay if she takes enough video yeah you can take me off video status okay well you're coming in claire your video is coming in claire and we can hear you hear you yes good and i'm not getting any and i'm not getting any feedback so that's that's a good thing that's a good thing yes i just can't see that's i can't see any so it says though i'm not in the meeting visually but i am coming across um locally oh okay on r and you are coming and i can't also okay well you are coming in and i can't change and i can't change the view i can't change my view okay well we we can see the way it would normally we can see you and hear you so that's what's important so that you can make any motions or um introductions or comments so and we can see you just fine okay we are on a recess right now so um just so you know that that may be why you're not seeing the chamber um but yeah brian was brian is concerned that that it's that i'm not really as far as my ipad is concerned i'm kind of not all together there but um that may be as close as as as we're going to get okay well as long as we have you for audio then i think we're fine as far as on our end and your ipad i know you use to access any documents but we can certainly we can get and assign anything that you need to end somebody else okay thank you okay thanks we have 10 minutes i would keep that this may be as good as we're going to get but well i'll i'll talk to brian about it okay thanks okay thanks stefanie do you think we should just let it let's keep sleeping dogs live brian you're still you might want to mute your yourself john thanks good evening council members how's everybody doing welcome to tonight's city council meeting this is as hybrid as they come as you'll notice we have five council members in the chamber we have myself and council member soyer who are zooming in let's go ahead and begin today's meeting with a roll call vote please thank you mayor council member schwedhelm here council member soyer here council member rogers president council member mcdonald here council member fleming here vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers here let the record show that all council members are present all right thank you so much and before we get into our items for the day a quick psa for folks who are watching today is election day if you have not returned your ballot yet you still can remember that all ballots in california now can be postmarked on election day and still count and you don't even have to put a stamp on it so if you haven't voted yet uh go vote uh with that we'll get into our regular agenda for today and we're going to start with a proclamation uh we have some folks who are in the chambers here to accept it including my good friend kirsten but i'll turn it over to council member rogers write them 6.1 thank you mayor whereas the emancipation proclamation was signed on september 22nd 1862 with an effective date of january 1st 1863 and whereas june 10th is the oldest known public celebration of the end of slavery in the united states commemorating the day when those enslaved in galveston texas finally received word of their freedom on june 19th 1865 and whereas last year president joe biden signed a bill to establish june 19th as june 10th national independence day officially making june 10th a us federal holiday and whereas the santa rosa juneteenth celebration was founded in 1954 by miss martrell mother perry and whereas the local martin luther king juneteenth community festival celebration was merged in 1970 to keep the dream of dr king and the spirit of juneteenth alive this year marking the 52nd anniversary of the celebration in santa rosa and whereas the 52nd annual martin luther king juneteenth community festival celebration our history is our strength sponsored by over 14 community organizations through sonoma county will take place on saturday june 18 2022 at martin luther king jr park in south park neighborhood and is free and open to community members of all ages now therefore be at resolve that i christ rogers mayor of the city of santa rosa on behalf of the entire city council recognize and acknowledge the historical significance of this celebration in due hereby proclaim june 19 2022 as juneteenth thank you so much council member and do we have some folks who are at the podium ready to speak we do mayor all right i'm going to turn it over to sandi to go ahead and run public comment on this item on behalf of the juneteenth committee i'm proud to be here to accept this proclamation along with christin who is also part of that committee we have to give a shout out to nancy rogers who has worked diligently for this year and previous years to bring this community event to santa rosa we're really excited about this year being a 52nd year of juneteenth we have a fabulous a fabulous lineup of musicians and community organizations and and we even have just a number of activities for children as well as adults and so i'm really proud to be part of this committee we've been working for over four plus you know to really bring it this year so we are bringing it to santa rosa and we appreciate the proclamation in honor of this very important federal liberation holiday thank you all and i'll just add we will be doing a march in honor of vince harper who i know holds a dear place in all of our hearts so if you all would love to join us in that effort marching from juliard park to mlk park we welcome you at about 11 a.m thank you thank you so much folks do you have anybody else uh looking to provide comments in the chambers um i don't see anybody walking towards the podium and i see no raised hands okay we'll bring it back council members does anybody want to make any comment perfect we'll go ahead and take a two minute break here so that a picture can be taken uh all council members who were there who want to jump in feel free i don't know if there's a way that you can get john in my head in the background so we can participate but uh i guess we'll just have to miss the photo off mayor we will be sure to capture you and john thank you all right thank you everybody i'm actually gonna jump back for a quick second here i inadvertently glossed over our acting city attorney's report from closed session let me double check and make sure and see if there's a report out from that uh there is thank you mayor vice mayor council members item 2.1 conference with labor negotiators council met with the team in closed session and gave direction short and sweet let's see if we have any public comment on the report out um i see nobody walking towards the podium and no raised hands in zoom okay uh madame city manager if you can go ahead and jump to item number seven that's our staff briefings for tonight thank you mayor members of council item 7.1 covid 19 response update as of today sonoma county has reported an average daily case rate of 34.3 per 100,000 residents as case rates continue its downward trend the county of sonoma does not foresee a need to reinstate a mask mandate however is it it is important to remember that vaccinations remain the most effective means to protect yourself from getting serious seriously ill and being hospitalized to due to covid 19 for more information about the status of covid 19 in our community testing locations and vaccine information information for all ages please go to socoemergency.org thank you item 7.2 is our community empowerment plan update uh deputy director tell us we'll present the report thank you good afternoon mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez mejana day is here uh members of the council um here with the community empowerment plan report we are very grateful to report that um we are back in community um so between the we've also been taking some um information on how many community members we we've reached out to since march so from march to may of 2022 we've engaged with over 2,800 community members via events tabling opportunities and presentations in the community uh we've led or provided thought partnership or development for 12 different community events including the mary lou lowrider reveal event earth day latino family educational summit south park ice cream social wildfire ready and more um we were invited by community to six community partner events including cultural heritage day at rosen university prep the wellness fair lc l in high school uh four c's preschool enrollment drive-thru lc l in high school elac meeting and two differences of chavis language academy outreach uh youth outreach events we've also worked on activating the crisis response team to address community needs after violent occurrences and specific neighborhoods have taken place um or where violence prevention partnership was requested by community partners and these calls were due to gang incidents uh de-escalation and mediation needs or community outreach and follow-up in in the neighborhood uh so we've also held four town hall meetings uh three of them in person um being measure o educational meetings and also an introductory town hall with our city manager um arkisha smith and we've launched and culminated the school outreach pilot program which we will have more information on um soon uh in terms of the results we had a pre and post assessment this was a direct result um for the need for social emotional training and participation for youth that are getting interested or getting involved and our team's been invited to participate in um this year's juneteenth event at MLK park uh on june 18th so we are excited to be uh participating there with the mary lou low writer engagement the mary lou has been out and about town so many of you may have seen the mary lou at the pride parade um she was a hit and so um also she was out at the south park ice cream social and public safety day wildfire ready and um many other uh programs and events and you can see her again at the peggy soup car show and cruise uh this saturday um again at juneteenth at the father's day show and shine at julia park on june 19th on national night out in roseland on august 2nd and the fiesta de independencia at the el vc in september um so with the multicultural roots project um this month the project will share stories in honor of both pride and juneteenth we've also been invited by the arts in public places program to display um a multicultural roots project exhibit at the finley community center during the month of august the exhibit is set to start at um on august 1st with a reception tentatively scheduled on august 11th and we'll have more info on that as well uh for the month of july due to staffing shortages we will be pausing new feature stories during um that month because we're going to be using this time to recruit and train a new intern to assist us with the project um as well as to prepare for the exhibit at finley um we also were at the lucian event uh which we were really grateful to be able to participate and um be back at community four the herne community hub project um there's in a lot of community questions um and excitement around this we're very excited um on june 21st we'll be bringing this item um as a consent item to council to help us finalize the process of hiring a final candidate consultant who will be working with our team on a community needs assessment for what will ultimately be a multicultural center space or whatever the community needs to be the need and in sort of that area so uh once approved the consultant will begin working with our team on community meetings getting um getting folks to the table and um there was sorry one other item regarding that that just absolutely has slipped my mind but um there is a let's connect page sorry i forgot to mention that there was a let's connect page if you want to sign up your community member you want to sign up and you want to make sure that you're able to um participate in the community listening sessions and the community input we will make sure to um to notify community so that is available and that is the end of my report thank you council do we have any questions for the deputy director all right i'm not seeing any let's go to public comment on our staff briefings for tonight one moment please may i make a comment please yes please just give us one minute dwayne hello my name is dwayne d witt i'm from roseland and i'd like to thank the director of the community engagement effort for the report that was just given at the same time i'd like to thank uh council member natalie rogers and council member alvarez for coming into roseland on the first of june and talking to folks in person it's become a relatively rare situation to have that occur during this covet activity so i wanted to mention the covet response and say that it's time to open up our government again to the people it's great having folks being able to zoom in but i'm from a community where many people are not on the internet and if they use the library to get on the internet there are restrictions that might keep them from being able to participate in many of those meetings that community director just spoke about one of the dilemmas that we face over in roseland is we need to have more action on a lot of activities a little bit less talk we got some really bad graffiti problems the city used to have a graffiti removal team that would come over and take that out we've had gang killings recently and that has meant even more gang graffiti that's a form of community engagement for those people and their community we need to overcome them we need to wipe that graffiti off of our neighborhood it's a stain upon the regular community who would like to be engaged with our city my hope is that the city's approach will broaden have more in-person meetings out in our community and advertise them at our local library i never saw anything about any of these meetings that this director just spoke about they happen at schools so parents are getting involved and that's good but there's a whole bunch of other taxpayers who support the bonds for the schools they should be involved in this community engagement activity also so i'm hoping and i know it's a long shot but let's get the people more involved now that we're coming out from under the cover of covet if you will let's look at it like the opportunity is here for community engagement to actually occur with community activities such as neighborhood cleanups over in my area we citizens have been cleaning up debris in a park that's been left to kind of fall by the wayside under covet the city can do maintenance doesn't need reports to do maintenance so with all that said thanks for even trying to have some community engagement um mayor i see nobody else walking towards the podium and no raised hands all right thank you so much we'll move on to item number eight good afternoon again mayor the city attorney's litigation report is included in your materials there are no settlements to report i'll just briefly mention that our office has 30 pending litigation matters many of those are inactive phases of discovery about five are proceeding to trial we do have one new claim alleging that a car was hit by san rosa police department uh police officer when exiting the parking lot and that is the end of my report thank you okay council any questions council member fleming yes right mayor oh i apologize i thought you had a question no sir thank you okay we'll see if there's any public comment on our quarterly reports from our city attorney's office um excuse me mayor i see nobody walking towards the podium and no hands raised all right we'll keep moving through our agenda then thank you let's go to item number nine are there any statements of abstention by council members on tonight's agenda okay saying none we'll go on to our mayors and council members reports oh i apologize before we do that i skipped over the city manager report as well let's go back to our esteemed city manager thank you mayor and council members on behalf of the city manager jason dot assistant city manager um i mean we're excited to talk about and give an update on a new mural by rough edge collective that is being placed on the fifth street parking garage uh the site specific mural titled help each other grow by rough edge collective uh with artists mj lindo lawyer and joshua lawyer broke ground on may 25th and is scheduled to be completed by june 8th 2022 a dedication ceremony will be announced soon the primary goal of the project has been to increase the visibility of often overlooked fifth street garage while enhancing the pedestrian experience the art will not only improve the aesthetics of the garage it will distinguish it from neighborhoods neighboring structures serving as a creative wayfinding and identification element the public art program released a call for artists in february of 2021 seeking qualified northern california based artists and artists teams after a public survey and initial selection process three finalists were identified and invited to submit design proposals the selection panel ultimately chose santa rosa based rough edge collective for the project the selection panel was comprised of six people representing downtown residents downtown businesses the art and public places committee art professionals and the city's parking division if you're interested in more information please visit www.srcity.org forward slash fifth street garage art all one word thank you very much for the opportunity to present that mayor thank you mr assistant city manager uh and mr assistant city attorney did you have anything to add in addition to your report i do not thank you okay all right council any questions for the assistant city manager all right let's check on public comment mayor i see nobody walking towards the podium i see no raised hands all right we'll come back to our city council members reports is there anybody who'd like to provide a report tonight don't all raise your hands at once all right mr vice mayor kick us off appreciate that mayor first of all i want to thank council members well i am for being the provider of candy at the pride uh parade uh at first i thought everyone was cheering me on us as i was handing candy out little did i know that they were actually cheering on the marilu vehicle it was the hate of the day and what a great investment by our community to really get people involved in in city government so i have to applaud the different departments and the different community organizations that were involved in the creation of the marilu also on on i think uh magali touched on it we had a town hall meeting and really the first town hall meeting in in district one with an actual elected representative that that specifically uh is responsible for the people of district one and i'm not ashamed that the turnout was low i wish that it had been greater but it's definitely starting point and i i look forward to to creating more involvement and and more engagement but the seat has been planted and i'm very proud of of what we've been able to accomplish thus far and i definitely look forward to even more involvement in the near future thank you mayor thank you council member we'll go to council member sweater thank you mr. mayor we'd like to echo our vice mayor's comments it was pretty funny as we're walking there and everyone starts applauding oh it's got to be us oh marilu we had gustava behind the wheel of the marilu and did an awesome job along with lieutenant kuker going through the route but a wonderful event i really appreciate all the staff and assistant city manager jason nut who was also there and sequora will help organize and it was really a wonderful event also just wanted to do a shout out i was able to attend the sandals of scuba divers opening night at doile park on may 26 really encourage others to be out there had a little hiccups as would be expected first time but some good balls being played there's a great community event it was nice to see so many folks show up there thanks council member phleming as it turns out everybody wants to talk about the pride parade so i'm going to talk about it as well first of all i was offered a seat as an honoree which was quite hilarious because it had my name on it but it didn't have my title and many people came up to me and said we're so glad you're here but who are you so it was both hilarious and humbling it was it was pretty great um but the thing that i wanted to highlight about it that just filled me up with so much joy and happiness was that our streets were full with so many people and you know it seemed like at least half of the folks who were there were children and there was a lot of so many pets and it was just a beautiful example of what i know everybody imagined our square to be and how much effort people have put into getting us to this point where we can have a vibrant downtown and how heart-wrenching it has been the last few years to see it so quiet and it just filled me up with hope and made me so excited for for the rest of the summer and to see what comes next so thank you mayor for that opportunity and i want to thank sonoma county pride for all the work it took to pull off an incredible event as well as our office of community engagement and socorro shields as well as the rest of the council was a not to be missed even if you were in rino event did i see a hand from councilmember mcdonnell i sure do um so i have a few different things to report on um yesterday i was able to attend the santa rosa jc college um foundation the president's address to the community an award ceremony and i just want to do a shout out to our incredible santa rosa jc for not only the education that they provide to our kids and and those who want to take classes not even kids but the expansion that they're doing specifically in construction and career technical education in the stem building and the housing that's going to be built there and so that you know those students that are attending there that want to have an on-campus experience of living in housing or those who need housing so that they can continue their education they'll have that opportunity and so it was so wonderful to see um pam uh uh chanter uh received the president's medallion a very well-deserved award to her who has done so much not only for our community but actually around our nation and in the world so uh a congratulatory um and thank you to those who have um done so much for our community uh next i want to say thanks to the parks department for the tour last week i was able to go out and tour two different um parks to see how much they're doing with the very small staff that they have um we are not back up to where we were when cuts were made to departments and i just want to thank them i was able to meet somebody who has worked for the city of santa rosa for 48 years um and so it's incredible to see that much dedication and and thank you to uh mr casher for taking me out to meet with our employees and and really thank them for their dedication to the city of santa rosa and and what they do to make sure that we are living in such a beautiful community um so thank you so much to them and last but not least i would like to thank um the fire department um i apologize for not being at the pride parade last week i had to be taken out of the community for a family emergency from one of my grandsons and uh i just want to say thank you to the fire department for a few different things one for their dedication when we are in crisis or an emergency situations and how they work with community members and reassure them that they are there to help and support them and the response time to community emergencies is incredible and also thank you for the training i have never been in more pain after i attended that training for a full day it was exhausting i had to go home and lay on the couch for several hours after that um but it was very intense to see the work that they do um the equipment that they use and how strong they physically have to be and how quick witted they have to be to be able to think on their feet in emergency situations and so i just want to give my heartfelt thanks to them and appreciate all they do and um and and the helmet is heavier than you think and they had to literally carry me out of the burning building because i could not live the pack so i was quite annoyed with my um weakness physically and so i um i just want to thank them for all their assistance that day it was it was quite an event so i appreciate it all right thank you councilmember councilmember rogers thank you mayor um on june first i was able to meet with spiritual leaders in district seven um and happy that city manager was able to attend and i would like to thank her for that um we looked at ways to cultivate relationships and uh transmit information between the city um and also the congregations that we have in our community collaborate and opportunities um to collaborate um within the city um so that was actually very nice and we are going to uh attempt to meet regularly so um and on may 24th um we had a study session here um and in that study session it looks like we went over uh police oversight independent police auditor and civilian review models i was unable to attend and i apologized due to being out of town at my son's graduation one i would like to apologize to community members and to anyone that assumed my absence showed a lack of support for uh wanting transparency accountability um in the possibility of explore the possibility of exploration uh to improve practices within the city um around public safety that was not my intent um when i was informed of the outcome um of the vote i was disappointed to say the least um i know many will not understand but account accountability does not um right wrongs but it helps people to feel that no one is above the law and that everyone will be held accountable um mayor i apologize to you the city manager um and my peers on council um and the staff for all the hard work that they put in um to the study session and for me um not being here i know that as a council member it is really hard for us to juggle both family um and trying to be here um to to run the city um and this is one where i feel like i dropped the ball and um but i love my babies and i i wouldn't take it back so i i do apologize um but i am respectfully requesting um if there is a way um and i'm not sure that there is i would like to make a motion to bring back for further discussion the police oversight independent police auditor and civilian review models because i do believe that if all council members were present um during the study session that the outcome would not have been the same as it was so i'm not if there is a motion on the on the floor i would i would be honored to to second that motion okay uh and council members what happens now is uh because it's not an agendized item we don't talk uh about the specifics about it what we do is as you'll see later in tonight's agenda we'll agendize the question uh for our next available council meeting where we can weigh in on whether or not folks would like to reconsider uh or or bring that topic back for discussion um so if that works there's a motion in a second you don't need any other information but we will bring that on the item or that item for discussion uh about whether to reconsider thank you mayor for hearing my report out thank you council member soyer nothing to report mayor thank you all right thank you uh first i wanted to start uh by uh talking about the pride parade i was not able to attend on friday and i'll around excuse me on saturday and i'll get into that in the moment but i did want to start with a big thank you to all of the staff who worked hard uh both at the city and and externally from the city from the planning committee who worked very hard to plan uh the entire weekend worth of event uh and then also the folks who plugged in when inevitably something went wrong and uh as i was uh heading out of town on thursday i was on emails and text messages uh as things inevitably were going wrong and seeing just a huge wave of support from our interim chief from the chamber of commerce from our staff to make sure that the events that had been planned were able to go off without a hitch and so i just wanted to say kudos to the team uh it from the from the pictures and every report back that i've gotten from folks looked like just such an incredible community event and it wouldn't have happened without people going above and beyond uh to make sure that they got past some last-minute barriers so a big thank you on that and then my report out and i can definitely do more of this when i'm back in santa rosa in person uh but i've been spending the last couple of days at the u.s. conference of mayors uh meeting with mayors from around the country to talk about the issues that they're facing and talk about what resources are available uh the conference opened with a quote that good mayors borrow ideas and great mayors steal them uh and so in that vein i'm coming back with a whole bunch of great ideas that i've heard from other mayors around the country who are dealing with some of the same same issues that we are uh and how they're addressing them uh staff also was kind enough to load me up with uh the alphabet soup of meetings uh while i've been gone uh department transportation department of justice epa every single one going in looking for funding for the city's priorities such as the turnover crossing in response for those other things that we hold hold dear so i'm coming back armed with quite a bit of funding opportunities for us that that staff's going to pursue uh and then today i made my way to new york and i'm at the u.s. conference of may or excuse me the uh yale mayors and ceo's college talking with ceos from around the country about economic development done control other issues that are pressing on the national level and and bringing really the experience from santa rosa and talking about our uh disaster responses um so wanted to let folks know that's why i'm not there in the chambers but that doesn't mean that we're not all working hard and i'll be bringing more of that information back here in the coming uh weeks and we'll be back tomorrow with you all uh with that we'll go and see if there's public comment on the report out from our council members tonight um mayor i see nobody moving towards the podium we have no raised hands and no voicemail public comment okay and then as i mentioned uh last week uh our last council meeting we did have a motion for reconsideration of an item it was item 15.1 on the may 24th agenda uh that motion was made by council member soyer and i seconded the motion so tonight what council is considering is not the merits of that item it's not the merits of item 15.1 tonight the council has to weigh in on whether or not we would like to reconsider that and so we'll take public comment on it first it does already have a motion in a second so we won't need that uh but then if four council members agree that this item should be re heard it will go on a future council agenda for reconsideration uh and with that i'll go and turn it over to public comment to see if anybody has an opinion that they'd like to share about whether the council should reconsider item 15.1 uh from our may 24th council meeting um mayor nobody's moving towards the podium and i see no raised hands and we have no voicemail public comment on this item all right thank you so there is a motion in a second that's on the floor uh let's go ahead and call the vote if you would one moment council member schwaitham aye council member soyer aye council member rogers aye council member mcdonald aye council member fleming aye vice mayor alvarez aye mayor rogers aye that motion passes with seven ayes all right thank you council we'll go ahead and bring that back on a future council uh agenda and for the public uh it'll likely be uh at the next one although i believe that the to the attorney's office is going to have to weigh in to make sure that the timing of everything works uh correctly so keep an eye on the future agenda items as they pop up we have no minutes for tonight so madame city manager if you can go to the consent calendar please item 12.1 is a motion received 2021 general plan inclusionary housing and growth management annual review report and wave council policy 200-01 requirement for a joint study session on the general plan annual review item 12.2 is a resolution ninth amendment to general services agreement number f 000 308 with granicus llc item 12.3 is a resolution first amendment to agreement f 000 2155 with a cella incorporated for the cella crm mycena rosa tool item 12.4 resolution approval of one tow vendor to the tow vendor franchisee list for police generated operations item 12.5 is a resolution approval waiver of competitive bid and issuance of blanket purchase orders for asphalt concrete supplies to boating company ink and sire industries incorporated item 12.6 is a resolution authorizing submittal of a grant application for improvements to koana springs community park item 12.7 is a resolution state of good repair program authorization to apply for the annual annual annual formula allocation and project approval for fiscal year 2022 2023 item 12.8 is a resolution transportation development act article four and state transit assistance annual formula allocation claim submittal item 12.9 is a resolution acceptance and appropriation of the state of california department of housing and community developments infill infrastructure grant program for the downtown santa rosa qualified infill area item 12 10 is a resolution first amendment to professional services agreement f 002 for 2049 with cooperative personnel services doing business as cps hr consulting thank you thank you madam city manager council are there any questions on the consent calendar yes may rogers may i pull item 12.9 please sure we'll pull that one for now and we'll discuss that one separately mayor all right you go ahead um having no questions um i suppose i'll wait till later i just wanted to say that there was a couple of great things on the the consent calendar but i'll wait until after public comment okay i'll have uh i'll come back for comments at that point anything else council uh mr assistant city manager just as a point of clarification for the public uh previous direction and this is for item 12.5 previous direction from the council has been uh that we would not patronize uh the bow dean asphalt plant so long as they were not in compliance with city rules and regulations uh can you give us an update on where that sits uh as the contract comes before us uh thank you mayor and i do have assistance by the city attorney's office if needed um at this point in time complaints have been filed in certain areas but at the but there's not necessarily an open code enforcement case or violation at at this point uh should one come and be um put into effect uh then the maintenance team would not procure asphalt from that particular plant or facility until that violation is cleared and identified as cleared from our building department perfect thank you so much go to and as uh as was mentioned we'll take uh items uh except for 12.9 uh correct council member well just a point of clarification on that would i be able to just ask a clarifying question and then we could do them in gross yeah go ahead if it's uh if it's clarifying question feel free if you need to pull it for further discussion uh that we can do so as well but go ahead and ask your clarifying questions my clarifying question is um just so i was aware as reading the item is does this specify a specific area in um the grant where we would have to put housing and is it drawn on a map somewhere so we know if we're receiving grant money specifically the area where we would need to then move for approval or um look at the land and i apologize if it wasn't clear before thanks good evening mayor rogers and members of council and beggin passenger director of housing and community services and this specific grant is for um an area that we developed with the renewal enterprise district known as the downtown Santa Rosa qualified info area it identifies four specific housing projects which are listed in the stacker board and they are the caritas homes phase one which is currently under construction the cannery at railroad square which is adjacent to the smart site and then two market rate um primarily market rate developments one santa rosa avenue and then 425 humble so those would be the housing sites that would benefit from this grant funding and there also will be an infrastructure project for the city which is the southbound turnpocket at third and these streets and i'd be happy to answer any other questions and megan can you clarify these are specific to the developments between third and b streets correct so the the turnpocket is a separate project that the city identified within the general area that was defined and then the four housing projects are located within the boundaries of the area which are so all the funds will go towards those five projects four housing projects and then the infrastructure that's very helpful thank you so much i'd be comfortable moving engrossed then with that um response thank you okay so we will not pull item 12.9 at this time uh let's go to public comment if you have a comment on item 12.1 through 12.10 now is the time for your comment um and uh dwayne dwayne is heading towards the podium go ahead please okay hello my name is dwayne dwayne and i do believe because item 12.9 is important i should be allowed to speak separately on that for the full three minutes item 12.1 the general plan process i believe you got your three minutes for the whole concept calendar i just want to make sure we're clear well once again keeping the public at a disadvantage i do believe that the entire general plan opportunities have been and disadvantages the low income and unconnected members of the community you who are well off might laugh and say oh well that's no big deal but this whole general plan process under cover of covid has essentially locked out most of the community i would be willing to say that less than one percent of our community residents have been able to actually participate in this general plan process i do believe that once again it disadvantages the community if you take away the joint planning commission and housing authority meeting in public that's coming up this week and they're doing it only by zoom and they said well we can't have the public there we don't have the staff i think this is just a canard that they are just keeping us from being involved especially at the housing authority which funds a lot of projects but doesn't really get a lot of housing that is for the extremely low income population of our city built and that'll come out later in this report because you're not really presenting it to the community the community is not seeing how we're getting cheated on the amount of money that's going forward and how you want to raise the population of santa rosa by 2035 to another 60 000 people according to what this report says now those are big changes and if that were to come forward that would require the people in this community to take on perhaps added tax burdens and increased infrastructure provision which hasn't been happening just with the basic building going on over in roseland thousands of housing units are coming forward and we're neglecting the infrastructure that's necessary for the people that live here that's what should be in this general plan how to deal with what we have going on right now but it's not and you've essentially cheated the people out of the opportunity to actually participate in the discussions and now you're saying well it's all good because we're together on it we're working on it behind the scenes nothing should be behind the scenes on a general plan especially when it comes to involving the planning commission and the housing authority those joint meetings were put there on purpose in the past to make sure that the public could participate if you take them out it shows how you don't care so actions speak louder than words thank you mayor i see nobody walking towards the podium but we do have two raised hands um uh gray grie ferron are you able to speak and see the screen yes i can and i can see the timer go ahead thank you thank you um good evening uh mayor rogers and members of the council i too am concerned about um item 12.1 um but i'm i'm wanting to tell the council that usually the consent calendar is full of things that are not as really exciting and this one seems to have quite a few that in my opinion are you're getting lots of money for things you're doing right and you're and several of the items independently of the whole collection um are warranted you know comments saying good job council the one that i want to comment on actually there's two 12.1 and 12.9 because they're kind of connected dwing is right you have not provided housing for the extremely low the report on 12.1 says gives you the documentation of what the last six years of your housing development has been two percent of the extremely low need housing has been built two percent the above moderate which is the other end of the scale has had 113 percent every bit of their need has been met uh that's sad it shows how the market and your subsidy of low income housing has not kept up you the markets providing plenty of housing the upper income has gotten what they needed uh i i really don't understand their complaints about not being able to find housing uh i compared to the low income and the extremely low income and the very low income all at the other end of the scale oh come on there's no housing being built now having said that the report also identifies four projects caritas cannery the other two that make and talked about which you are building and have a tremendous amount of extremely low there at 37 percent of the need of the housing being aimed at extremely low so i'm on one hand saying the past has been miserable on the other end i'm also saying you're doing a much better job kudos and i hope those projects get built and i hope they get occupied by people who are extremely low i'm going to do everything i can to help that so keep it up uh the only other comment on any other item is i really think we ought to take a new look at um the towing contract you know you really can do a better job of allowing those people who have their vehicles towed to retrieve their possessions to get them vehicle back and we've got to take a wholly different look at how we help those people keep their homes if my home needed something from the city i'd get it and you'd be supportive i can understand why not helping those vehicles and then hold on just a moment please adina floris please hi can you hear me we can thank you okay good afternoon council i had requested earlier today to pull consent items 12.10 for discussion once again this was not pulled um this is funny because the county of Sonoma does the same thing when i request for consent items to be pulled um so this is pertaining to the approval of the first amendment to professional services agreement number f 002049 with cooperative personnel services dba cps hr consulting to increase time of performance and increase compensation then the amount of $80,000 for a total contract amount not to exceed $185,000 300 sorry $185,360 to provide professional humans resources services to temporarily support the department with current vacancies and to appropriate $80,000 from unassigned general fund balance i cannot find a business by this name that is legally registered with the county sorry there was a plane flying over me um i could not find a business by this name that is legally registered with the california secretary of state according to the public records database for sacramento county where this business is based the fictitious business name expired in 2016 i'm unsure as to why competitive bids were waived for this contract upon the initial approval of the agreement in january 2022 since the tax ID must be verified via a w9 one initially establishing business with a contractor that's standard practice with any corporation or government entity why was this completely bypassed i'm looking for clarification on this just for reference the lcl and high school foundation also just accepted millions of dollars of donations but there uh they were actually legally suspended with a franchise tax board and uh healdsburg forever who's distributing millions of dollars worth of grant funds they're also not legally registered to operate within the state of california so i just really like to know where our taxpayer dollars are going because right now i'm extremely confused thank you i see no more hands raised and um there's no voicemail public comment on this item all right thank you uh mr assistant city manager do you want to answer that last question or weigh in on that or or madam city manager um mayor are you referencing cps amy yeah correct so cps consultant has been in business for as long as i know since about 1985 so we've been using cps consulting um here since i arrived for covid um for to augment our personnel because of staff shortages um the reason why is not bid because it was just um an amendment to our current contract um i have amy reeves um that can pop up on the line if you have any additional questions amy did you have anything to add i did thank you may rogers and good evening members of the city council i'm amy rave director of human resources i did want to respond to the caller's concern and clarify that cps is actually a joint powers authority a jpa and therefore they actually have fought with the secretary of state instead of as a regular corporation so that might provide some clarity to the question if there's any additional questions i'm happy to answer them great thank you so much the council do we does anybody have any additional questions on the content calendar okay uh councilmember fleming you had some comments you'd like to make yes i wanted to thank the um public works department for their follow-through on item 12.6 um in terms of getting the grant submittal for koana springs park i know that a lot of folks are really looking forward to the day and sometimes we joke about whether or not you know our children or grandchildren or great grandchildren will ever get to use that park and so when i saw it pop up on the consent calendar i thought oh you know it's a shame that it won't get any airtime and i wanted to make sure that staff knew that this is a big deal to our community and we're really really grateful and i wanted to note on um item 12.9 that the the getting this funding for the infill infrastructure is going to be one of the pieces that's going to it's going to be a piece on which the capstone sort of ties together with what i was talking about seeing downtown lit up with the pride parade we're going to have so much affordable housing and more density downtown and it's going to make our downtown business community more vibrant and it's going to be a virtuous cycle so while the consent calendar doesn't usually get a lot of attention i felt that today was a day to to thank staff um both in housing and community services thank you to megan and your staff and jason and your staff well done all right thank you council member are there any other comments from council mr bisoner yes thank you on item 12.4 we heard a statement about removal of property from vehicles that are being towed um um are there any other agencies that whose policy allows for an individual to remove their items from a vehicle that has been towed this item 12.4 do we see lieutenant on the line yes one moment please good evening everybody um so this is a franchise agreement i i don't know if we're getting into are you asking if people can remove items from a vehicle that's been towed that's not what i don't believe that's what this is this is no sir no sir my question is if there's any other agencies that were aware of that do allow people to remove their items once their car is towed or before the car is towed or if it's just general practice yeah it's general practice okay if there's personal and a vehicle it's it's very common practice for people to remove their items versus having uh any of the tow companies or the police department or whoever's joining the vehicle having to um put those items into evidence or into storage so pretty common to allow people to take their stuffs out their items out of the vehicle very well i appreciate the answer sir thank you sir you bet all right if there are no other questions mr vice mayor do you want to put a motion on the table thank you mayor i move items 12.1 through 12.10 and wave further reading of the text second so we have a motion from the vice mayor and a second from councilmember mcdonald uh any other comments or discussion all right let's call the vote councilmember schwedham hi councilmember soyer hi councilmember rogers hi councilmember mcdonald hi councilmember fleming hi vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with seven eyes okay uh it is five o'clock on the dot so we'll roll into our public our first public comment for non-agenda items period if you have a comment that is on an item that is not on tonight's council agenda go ahead hit the raise hand feature on your zoom or make your way towards the podium and mayor we have dwayne dwitt heading to the podium okay hello my name is dwayne dwitt and i'm from roseland and i wanted to thank a number of people for helping roseland recently earlier i mentioned mayor alvarez excuse me vice mayor alvarez and natalie rogers for coming to roseland on wednesday the first of june to try to talk with community members mr alvarez also on his own time after came over to macmillan avenue to see an illegal encampment he spoke with two school board members uh patricia kruger and mary bolsorek and got to see firsthand how it's negatively affecting the community to have a dozen people living within 10 feet of a residence in an area where they're burning fires in an oak woodland with dry grass just by chance perhaps on friday a work crew came out i'm hoping it's because mr alvarez made a drop to dime thing is we want to thank officer more from the santa rosa police department for friday officer richman for coming out on saturday for our roseland creek cleanup effort where community members gathered and did work along with supervised adult crews from the probation department we also got to meet members of the debris removal team today that was derrick and darin and they had come out to help out so one of the things we'd like to see now that we're coming out from under the restrictions of coveted is an effort to re-establish volunteerism and to have us neighborhood volunteers be able to work with the city to get things done in a quicker way specifically we got those graffiti problems i mentioned earlier you wouldn't have it on humboldt street or mc donald avenue for more than a day or two we've had it for weeks at the corner of herne avenue and whitewood just down from ketten court where a man was murdered the other day so we've got these serious problems and we're thanking the people who are helping us we want more of that to continue and i'm here to put up my effort and say i'll walk my talk i will volunteer to go paint over graffiti i will volunteer to be out there like i've been for at least 10 hours over the last four days working in that neighborhood to clean it up and keep it nice and you can't hide behind the fact that somebody asked for an environmental impact report to say well we don't do the maintenance you can do maintenance in parks you don't need a report so we need you to step up we're stepping up we're out there and we'd like you to be out there again on the weekend the debris removal team told us they'd come back next wednesday we'll have things bagged and tagged and ready for them thank you kindly for your help there we have another person heading to the podium if you'd like to state your name for the record if you choose okay my name is bernadette borough when home sharing began it was for someone who wanted to couchsurf in someone else's home for a period of time since then it has turned into an investing vehicle that destroys the fabric of our neighborhoods the rental housing market and communities what is the true concept of home sharing home sharing is what people do in councilman alvarez's district by many people sharing a single residence that are entry-level workers in retail hospitality vineyard and agriculture they share a home so they are able to afford to live here home sharing is multifamily generations sharing a property to afford to live in sonoma county home sharing is what we all did through the tubs nuns glass and dixie fires opening our homes to people that were evacuated or lost their homes opening our homes for free to help our fellow community members home sharing is neighbors behind me that are a hosted short-term rental owners that rent a room to only two guests at a time home sharing is not the house next to me that is out of town investors and corporations coming into our neighborhood for the sole purpose of turning a profit home sharing is not wall street players like avance stay buying up houses in our neighborhoods knowing the rules and how to get around them offering homes for large gatherings kidding home purchases for high net worth individuals who want to have a short-term rental investment portfolio this type of str owner is turning our neighborhoods into a boutique hotel zone this is a non-conforming use in a residential zone they have no ties to the community nor do they care about the health and well-being of the neighborhood of santa rosa or only hosted short-term rental should be allowed in the residential areas only primary home owners should be permitted to rent their homes as an str operators in good standing should not only be for taught collecting the property next to me has had 30 plus calls from code enforcement but somehow they are still permitted to operate under the current ordinance this needs to be addressed and revised santa needs rosa needs to join other communities around the county and put strict limits on short-term rentals the members of rra have tried to paint a rosy picture of why there should be no rules and regulations that hinder them to run commercial businesses in our neighborhoods they tell a tall tale of how their operations have no effect on the neighborhood around them i am here to tell you they are wrong thank you for your time excuse me i see nobody moving to the panel or the podium i have one um let's see adina floris if you want to go ahead please good evening council um so i wanted to follow up on my comment from earlier i did have time to verify um that the cps hr consulting is not listed as a joint power authority within the state of california and i've already verified that again their fbn is expired and they do not have a they they've never filed um ever with the california secretary of state so if you know something different or have access to a different database that the general public does thought i'm asking for um a screenshot of the secretary of state filing to be emailed to me um i just have a lot of issues because again time and time again i've proven that this entire pandemic and the wildfires have been orchestrated which our elected officials are profiting from and therefore supervisor gore the county chairman decided to file a restraining order against my fiance in an effort to silence us um i'm tired of being told i'm full of basement accusations i just find this interesting because supervisor gore on the same day that he told me i'm full of basement accusations received a sworn complaint from the fbpc confirming that all of my accusations were legitimate and they have opened an investigation because he failed to disclose that his wife elizabeth gore possesses a business by the name of war country which he uses for his political campaigning as well so i don't understand how this is permissible um that's been omitted for all years um initially you know he said only hello alice was omitted but um there are many other businesses which the gores have in their possession that aren't being disclosed um there is a tremendous lack of transparency in this community for example um healdsburg councilwoman rl kelly was extremely taken aback by the fact that i called her out on her statement of economic interest several months ago because she's personally invested in visor she's not vaccinating latinals because she wants equity she's vaccinating them because she knows she's harming people of color and profiting from it um she said that her visor investments apparently she inherited those from her deceased grandmother um and disposed of them last year so fast forward to april 2022 her 2021 statement of economic interest shows not only does she still have visor in possession she added biotech and also mckesson distribution who possessed the uh contracts for three billion dollars with the cdc to distribute the vaccines um which was actually initiated in 2017 before the pandemic existed so i would just really appreciate transparency thank you and mayor we have one uh one voicemail public comment okay hi this is eris weaver executive director of sonoma county bicycle coalition uh general public comment agenda item 13 or 17 items not on the agenda as i was cycling to work on thursday last week june 2nd i was the victim of hit and run right in front of the bike coalition office uh we were both traveling slowly and i managed to remain upright but even though my neither my bike nor my body were injured i was quite shook up by the experience it was frightening to see a large machine advancing toward my unprotected body and i was angry that the driver continued down the road apparently unaware that he had struck me for my involvement in our local road safety plans and vision zero project i know the importance of data about collisions i constantly tell my staff and my members that they should always report collisions so that we have documentation of the problems that cyclists face on our streets my experience of filing a police report with the city was awful and i now have a greater understanding of why so many people don't bother i first called the pd to try and file it over the phone as the online forum stated that you shouldn't do it online if there was a known suspect and in my case the person who struck me worked in another office in our building so i recognized the driver in the car after i told my story the dispatcher said no i did need to go back and file it online after which i then tried to do so but the online forum is not at all user friendly and all the drop down menus for filing a hit and run report don't allow anywhere for you to say that the victim is a cyclist or pedestrian it asks what kind of vehicle you're on and i should state that i am not uh i am someone who is very um competent with computers i've been a network administrator in a programmer and uh things like that so it's it's a really bad form so i called back and said you know i can't this forum isn't working and was told now i had to come in and file the report in person so i wrote over to the station to do so i filled out all the paper forms including contact information for witness and submitted video from my front and rear cameras that documented the incident the entire process from the first phone call took over two hours and i have yet to be contacted by an officer i was coherent uninjured motivated i knew what to do i had time to come down to the station without worrying about missing work or childcare or anything like that how much more difficult this would have been for someone who had been injured didn't know the system didn't speak english well had no computer access or limited literacy this process is unacceptable and needs to be fixed thank you mayor that concludes public comment for this item all right thank you so much and i know eris's uh comment was a voicemail uh i will follow back up with her that it is something that we'll talk about with our team and try to fix uh for adina i will ask uh amy to go ahead and email you so that you have the accurate information that you were looking for as well mayor if i could respond we have the documents ready to forward and myself and interim chief cregan have already made contact with eris and are resolving the situation perfect thank you so much go on to item 14.1 report item 14.1 is approval of agreement with touchstone gulf llc for management of benet valley golf course uh enterprise i'd like to introduce deputy director santos thank you one moment will i promote her please all right can you everyone see me thank you uh sorry just need to be promoted there um good afternoon or good evening i guess it's evening mayor roger's vice mayor alvarez and council members i'm jen santos parks deputy director tonight we will discuss the recommendation before you to approve an agreement with touchstone gulf to manage the benet valley golf course next slide please so although you'll mostly be hearing from me tonight i really want to acknowledge contributions of this presentation and the contributions uh folks have made to moving this entire process for forward with the benet valley golf course um of course acknowledgement to jason not our assistant city manager for providing oversight and direction for getting us through this process and um a recognition to our ad hoc committee who's had over 12 meetings since forming at the mayor's request in 2021 to assist staff in the community with a path forward for the golf course also the national golf foundation has provided insight into the options for future operations capital improvements and long-range funding and operations options uh and last but not least uh i definitely want to thank our city attorney's office and the chief financial officer and uh his staff and of course uh the folks from the transportation of public works department next slide please so on so we have 150 acres of golf course are shown here in two images the one on the left is an aerial image showing the golf course and the red shapes uh show the building locations the maintenance buildings are near the top of the screen and the restaurant and pro shop buildings are near the bottom of the image just for reference if you look to the image to the right you'll see a graphic version of each of the 18 holes and the driving range the restaurant pro shop and of course you can see the tanzas creek very clearly next slide please so the just to remind you the golf course is a full 18 hole golf course r72 with a pro shop and a crop very popular unlit driving range and has a priority need for capital investments to repair the water supply irrigation and drainage issues on the golf course as presented to council in february this year by national golf foundation the restaurant um was designed in 2004 and built and finished in 2005 contains a main restaurant and a bar an outdoor patio banquet facilities for events the kitchen is designed to uh run both operations for the restaurant and the event center simultaneously and we know that there are a few capital investments needed at the restaurant in order to reopen to the community next slide please so in 2004 the city sold bonds and received a loan from the southeast and northwest park development impact fee zones for a total of approximately 10 million dollars overall these uh were used to fund the new restaurant and the banquet facilities and modernized the pro shop so in 2005 after construction was complete the city entered into an agreement with the vinnett valley golf course shop um and followed with an agreement with the sports restaurant of vinnett valley golf course to operate and manage the restaurant and banquet facilities next slide please so by 2020 the restaurant and event center were no longer profitable due to the pandemic restrictions regarding gathering inside and the city granted termination of their lease in december of 2020 and the restaurant and banquet facility have remained closed we did try some food truck providers at one point uh was working really well and then it just uh fizzled out so uh we don't have food truck providers there right now and of course we have the vinnett valley golf shops agreement expiring on june 30th of this year and the owners retiring and not seeking renewal so we have been working diligently over the last couple years to look for solutions moving forward to provide golf to the community next slide please so by february of 2021 staff presented an option in a study session for future golf operations that included real estate options to help fund the capital investments needed at the golf course and fund the existing debt services that we have following this presentation in 2021 citizens of the golfing community and the sports community formed the save the vinnett valley golf course for vinn opposition uh to the options that include real estate and they advocated and encouraged the city to look for alternatives mayor rogers established the vinnett valley golf course ad hoc committee on march 2nd 2021 which consists of council member soyer as chair vice mayor alvarez and council member tidbits mayor rogers joined the committee following the resignation of council member tidbits and as part of their first meeting in april of 2021 the ad hoc committee recommended that staff provide a comprehensive analysis regarding the future operations of the vinnett valley golf course without real estate options and so we move forward on that recommendation next slide please so on august 17 2021 council approved a request for proposals to solicit for qualified for a qualified firm to evaluate the golf course and make recommendations for how we should operate the future operations capital projects and what sort of funding mechanisms we could find to help us with that the national golf foundation was recommended by that review committee and approved on november 4th 2021 by the city and before the end of the 2021 year national golf foundation had provided a rough draft of their future recommendations for the vinnett valley golf operations capital projects and funding mechanisms the ad hoc committee received those recommendations from national golf foundation and further recommended that staff move forward to council with the option for a single operator as recommended by national golf foundation the council received this update and the ad hoc committee from of the ad hoc committee during their council meeting on february 1st during the staff briefing next slide please so on february 15 of this year 2022 knowing that time was of the essence council approved a scope of services for an RFP a request for proposal to solicit for a single operator to manage the operations and maintenance of the vinnett valley golf course and includes restaurant etc during that presentation council received a comprehensive presentation from national golf foundation detailing their analysis and recommendation for a single management operator following the solicitation the city received five proposals very high quality proposals on march 24 2022 the vinnett valley golf course proposal review committee which consisted of one council member on the rotation assignment and one member of the golfing community and staff members familiar with the operations and maintenance of the vinnett valley golf course they reviewed and interviewed the top ranked firms and recommended the highest ranked firm touchdown golf for future management of vinnett valley golf course next slide please so approval to finalize an agreement with touchdown will provide for the operations and maintenance of the vinnett valley golf course for three years with an option to extend up to two additional years some key elements of the future operations are to implement the transition plan which provide the framework for bringing on touchstone in june prior to the end of the current operators term in order to facilitate a smooth transition we really need that time in there there's a lot of details of work out in between now and july 1st approval of this agreement will also put into motion the support services necessary for this future operations such as as example internet services golf cart contracts goods and services to operate and maintain the vinnett valley golf course enterprise touchstone has a proven track record at providing professional level management service for municipalities with similar operations all over california and the united states touchstone is not only recommended by the vinnett valley golf course proposal review committee but they are also recommended by every municipality contacted for reference regarding their performance references were contacted that were provided by touchstone as well as those not specifically mentioned by touchstone in particular the city of burbank california operates develop golf course which is an 18-hole golf course and restaurant with event center facilities similar to the city of san rosa touchstone began operations and maintenance of the develop golf course in 2019 and the city of burbank is extremely pleased with touchdowns performance and they do highly recommend touchstone i had the opportunity to work with the folks from the city of burbank over the last three weeks and they've been really instrumental in helping me understand how they've been working with touchstone and how the transitions are going it's it's been a really great experience for them we spoke with a lot of folks but we also specifically i want to mention the city of chilebista california we spoke with them about their financial agreement with touchstone and they also reported very similar positive aspects of touchdown including their revenue flow there were lots of other references that we check the golf courses and one in texas and one in colorado again all very similar highly positive comments and all made recommendations that we work with touchstone that they're a great company to work with of course touchstone is a highly highly skilled golf management they operate over 21 i believe in california alone 21 facilities which do include management of restaurants and banquet services on municipal golf courses touchstone will as part of this agreement will also reopen our restaurant and event center facilities and operate a beverage and snap cart which is of course highly desired by the golfing community it's often hard when you're golfing in the middle of golfing to stop and make it make time to go to the restaurant so my other golfing community is looking forward to that touchstone will utilize their expensive marketing and outreach skills for both the restaurant and event center and the golf course they have staff dedicated just to that purposes which is really exciting one of the many comments i received from doing the due diligence with touchstone was hearing that they are quote an extension of our staff which is really a pie it's something that really resonated with with staff there's there's a lot going on with looking at a new management organization and this is really helpful their expert knowledge of golf but also being able to to meet the uniqueness of vinnett valley golf course and work with our existing staff is really exciting in negotiations with touchstone so far they have proven to be very easy to work with and they bring a wealth of experience to the table i know that touchstone themselves are very much for looking forward to meeting our community and encouraging the sport of golf for everyone in the community next slide please so as a single operator under an operations and maintenance agreement touchstone will receive a base monthly management fee of eight thousand dollars a month for ninety six thousand dollars annually and an incentive fee of approximately 20 of the net revenue goals which is estimated to be around twenty thousand dollars annually for the first year and as we increase revenue the incentive will of course correspondingly increase as well the city is expected to earn every dime every bit of revenue comes to the city and the first year is estimated at approximately three point four million dollars and by year three we're looking at four point six million the city will use these revenues to fund every expenditure including the management and incentive fees and all operating and maintenance expenses and all existing debt services next slide please so as a reminder of where we're at for our debt services the bond debt services is approximately three hundred ninety five thousand two hundred sixty one dollars per year plus the annual park development impact debt service is approximately sixty three thousand two hundred forty four dollars annually combined the existing debt service annually is around four hundred fifty eight thousand dollars that's generally where it's at there is some fluctuation in the bond debt service but very little so it's around four hundred fifty thousand dollars with just the debt service so if we were to pay off this existing debt service for all the remaining years we're looking at a little over four million dollars right now if we were to pay it off as scheduled in the previous slide we mentioned that touchstone is projecting about three point four million dollars in revenue and their estimate for the first year of expenditures is approximately two point nine million which does not include our existing debt service and are the transitional costs that we need to transition from an existing operator to a new operator so annually once these costs are added we are projecting a first year loss but I also just want to add that the projected expenditures for your for your three are looking at three point eight million as the revenue is also projected to increase and correspond so we're looking at a first year loss and years after that are projected to earn revenue a positive revenue next slide please so if we look at the budget available we have projected around five hundred thirty seven thousand dollars touchstone is projecting once you add in our debt service and the transition costs a first year loss approximately two hundred thirty four thousand six hundred eighty two so we've got that number there we also have six hundred eighty one thousand five hundred seventy four in council reserve policy requirements what that number includes is an estimated initial estimate of four hundred sixty six thousand dollars plus a twenty percent increase to uncover the increased risk inherent in the new operating agreement so we expect that by the end of the first year we will need to have all these funds for instance if the revenue projections aren't met we need to have a larger reserves to protect ourselves there is an increased risk with this type of management agreement where the city earns all the revenue but we also are on the hook for all these expenditures so there's a total reserve requirement of six hundred eighty one thousand five hundred seventy four dollars moving down we also have about three hundred seventeen thousand dollars in additional needs this first year that we need to add into this analysis and so i'll just go through that bear with me there's that three hundred seventeen thousand dollars is made up of twenty about twenty thousand dollars of city maintenance staff and salaries for maintenance of the buildings and major repairs infrastructure repairs things like that to the buildings and grounds as well as preventative maintenance there's professional banking services fees and fire and earthquake insurance etc for about the same amount around twenty thousand dollars there's overhead costs for citywide for the citywide cost plan of approximately twenty thousand dollars we also need to maintain an operating cash flow of a bank account for about seventy five thousand dollars so that we have enough money to make sure we're paying everybody and doing all the paying all the expenditures as expected we also have the golf maintenance equipment and repair at about two hundred forty one thousand dollars and traditionally the city is not budgeted for these which has led to all sorts of issues with our fleet equipment we have out there now at the golf course there's been no replacement funds established and no dedicated ability for getting repair so we're pulling money from different locations to try to accommodate these we really want to move forward with a structured process like we had it all of our other agents all of our other departments here similar with the fire trucks i know that we didn't have this with our fire trucks as well so we really want to make sure that the equipment is getting replaced and that we have the funding to do that when we have to wait to ask council for funding for some way or another or fine funding from somewhere else it creates all sorts of problems as you can imagine the golf course so if you are totaling that on a piece of paper that's about three hundred seventy seven thousand dollars in total what we do is we take the revenue that we're earning that was not calculated also from the cell tower and subtract that and we have about three hundred seventeen thousand dollars so thanks for bearing with me on the math i just wanted to make sure i got all of that out of there so what that leaves is it is a remainder and we're looking as part of this approval process to include three hundred forty five thousand dollars of funds transferring from the vinnett valley golf course capital fund to the operating fund at approximately three hundred forty five fifty one and two hundred twenty five thousand dollars from the general fund to the vinnett valley golf reserve fund so that will bring the balance to zero and our projected expenditures for the budget to zero i just want to emphasize it's an extremely tight budget this first year there's a lot of there's a lot of risk involved starting any sort of new contract up and we're very excited to get started with touchstone but we also want to make sure that we're secure in our budget situation and so i just i just want to extra emphasize that that is a zero balance there's no remainder we're hoping to have a much higher projection of revenue coming in especially as we reopen the restaurant which has been closed for years so we're looking forward to that next slide please so i want to talk about capital projects here a little bit when we do move forward with our high priority capital projects that the national golf course foundation specified in february 15 it is we expect that revenues will also increase which is really exciting until then all of touchstone's projections and the city's projections are based on very minor capital project improvements in year one we're talking about you know revising the sand traps a little bit thinning trees minor improvements to the restaurant and vent facilities these are really minor projects that we really just need to do to make sure it's an inviting space and a safe space for people to come back in and use the facilities touchstone is also committed $50,000 of their own funds towards the front entry landscaping area for an immediate positive impact and there's no obligation to the city whatsoever for that so that's really exciting if any of you have been to the front of the golf course there it needs some definite attention and during the national golf course presentation in february of this year the high priority capital projects were identified and ranked and preliminary evaluate and preliminarily evaluated national golf foundation recommended a two-phased approach towards looking at our capital projects and that includes first conducting a full site master plan and then second undertaking those improvements immediately and closing the golf course in order to do so national golf course foundation estimated that the high priority needs at the golf course are approximately 6.8 million which of course includes the irrigation system and the water supply system it's a it's a huge component those of you that have been out to the golf course understand it's it's it's a real urgent need over the next couple years to make sure we take care of that going forward next slide please a national golf foundation also presented strategies for how do we fund all of these capital projects that we need to do they offered three strategies to look at and some sort of combination there they looked at a general fund investment or bonding for the capital improvements to occur as soon as possible they also put on the table using net gains from the vendeval golf course revenue that are saved over the years to use to fund capital needs as we can do that these strategies are predicated on the city implementing these high priority capital needs as soon as possible while also implementing an increase to the golf fee structure which we recognize needs some attention next slide please in working with touchstone so far they have mentioned they have the capabilities to manage capital projects and they've mentioned cost saving alternatives that national that the national golf foundation alternatives to the national golf foundation recommendations I should say for completing golf course for completely closing the golf course so we could potentially look at an option where only we're only closing a portion of the golf course so that golf can still happen so we really want to explore that with touchstone with national golf foundation we want to look at all these alternatives so we'll be evaluating the national golf financial options as well as touchstones current and future recommendations and we will evaluate what we can do with our financing options to move that forward and also we'll be evaluating the golf fee structure and we'll be returning to council prior to the niggier budget cycle in a study session to discuss all those options tonight though we are focusing solely mostly on the operating of the golf course and we'll return to discuss the capital projects as well as the fees and I recognize that the fees would not only fund capital projects but they could also fund the revenue going forward but we do need the time necessary to do a deep dive into those fee structures as compared to the other golf courses and so in order to count we wouldn't want to raise fees and not have any anything different at the golf course necessarily we want to look at what our options are and come back to you so we will thoroughly evaluate all of those financial strategies the options for funding these and we will return in a study session prior to niggier budget cycle to discuss those in depth next slide please so pending council's approval to negotiate a final agreement with touchstone a draft operations schedule shows a kickoff meeting with the city within a few days of the fully executed agreement the touchstone transition plan will be implemented with in a couple weeks and touchstone will implement their transition checklist which has over 100 action items and deadlines to ensure a smooth transition from our current operator to the touchstone operators we anticipate that there will be three days or less of golf on the golf course following June 30 of 2022 and that the restaurant will be open by mid-July I know that touchstone is very excited to have zero days of golf but we do need to make sure we have a buffer in there in case we need a few days to get something set up so once touchstone has a fully executed agreement a final schedule will be produced and the city will share this information on the city's website with key dates for golf and restaurant services and we keep that updated and monitored so if they as we update the golf website you could at least come to the city's website to get information temporarily until that July 1st deadline next slide please so if we look at following the recommendations from National Golf Foundation to bring on a professional single operator management company this is really the best the city's best method for achieving its goals for golf continuity revenue generation sufficient to cover operational expenses and it also includes those options for long-range capital improvements that we'll bring back in addition touchstone is committed to engaging with the golfing community and to provide an inclusive golf experience and have the staff to help diversify the golfing experience at Venetballi Golf Course I know that they are interested in meeting the community members and understanding how they can better support and generate interest for the sport of golf for everyone next slide please so with that it's recommended by the transportation and public works department that counsel by resolution approve and authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with touchstone golf LLC to manage the Venetballi Golf Course enterprise in accordance with the business terms set forth in the staff report and the resolution and to authorize increased appropriations in the Venetballi Golf Course fund in the amount of three hundred forty five thousand dollars to fund the transition plan capital costs from the agreement with the source of the funds from the Venetballi Golf Course capital fund and three authorized increased appropriations in the Venetballi Golf Course operations fund in the amount of three hundred fifty one thousand two hundred twenty five for the creation of sufficient projected reserves with the source of the funds from the general fund and four authorized the chief financial officer to appropriate all operator fees and operating and maintenance expenditures from the Venetballi Golf revenue to touchstone golf LLC as described in the agreement and five approved and authorized the city manager to negotiate and execute assumption from the current golf course operator to the master lease agreement for golf carts with Yamaha Motor Finance Corporation USA for the remainder for the master lease agreement term through October twenty twenty two next slide please and so I am here to answer questions we also have members from four members from touchstone if they can be promoted to help answer questions that might arise thank you all right thank you so much director before we get our questions from council members I just wanted to thank you I wanted to thank Jason I want to thank everybody who has worked so hard on this to say that there was a fair amount of skepticism from the public about the ability of the city to pull this off on the timeline that we were presenting would be an incredible understatement I think there was a sense that the city was trying to kill the golf the golf course by having the timelines drag out far beyond when the existing operator would be able to operate and I know that you've been said staff in your resolve to make this happen and now staff has done a good job and now it's on the council you have it here with an opportunity for us to have continuity of services and we'll get to questions and deliberations but I wanted to thank you and thank the assistant city manager not just for the heat that you took getting us to this point but for continuing day after day to keep plowing away to make this a possibility so thank you to both of you and into your teams I'll start with one simple question and it's because it's perhaps the thing that I hear the most from the public outside of just the desire to keep the golf course and it's it's emblematic of our community as a whole but concern for the existing staff and concern that we could lose folks who have a wealth of knowledge and who know the golfing community and have supported Santa Rosa and I'm going to put you a little bit on the spot Mr Mr. Luffman and and our city attorney's team but have there been discussions about continuity of staff certainly and mayor rogers and vice mayor alvarez and city council and city staff members we appreciate the opportunity to speak with all of you here this evening I'm joined by Steve harker who is touchstone golf CEO ashley van dissel who is touchstone golf's vice president of sales and marketing and also james birchall who is our vice president of operations in northern california I'll hopefully have an opportunity to share a little bit about touchstone golf later on in greater detail but I want to get right to your question mayor rogers and very much so our goal is to retain as many of the existing staff members at the golf course that are interested in working with us at bennett valley continuing to work with us to that end we're planning our first providing your approval of our agreement this evening we're planning our first meeting with the current staff members next tuesday that i'll be leading and it will be an orientation about touchstone golf and a little bit about who we are and our expectations for ourselves as responsible employers in the community and a brief overview of what our expectations are for touchstone golf staff members at our courses but yes in summary you're looking forward to meeting the existing staff members and getting to know them and providing for a smooth transition for them all right i appreciate that and uh yeah i wanted to jump right into it but i would be interested in allowing you to introduce yourselves a little bit talk a little bit about touchstone what's in the community know about about you and about the proposal and then i'll come to council members for additional questions certainly thank you very much well i um took a minute there and introduced my colleagues who are joining on the call today and a little bit about who we are we are a medium-sized golf course management company based here in northern california we work with 41 golf courses around the country although primarily in the state of california included in that is 10 golf courses in northern california although this will be our first that we're operating in the north bay area um our specialty is working with municipalities such as yourselves and uh i really have to say and and gen thank you for that gracious lead in it was humbling for me and for all of us to hear about the positive experiences that our clients uh at the municipalities that we work with have uh about working with us and the impact that we've been able to have at the facilities that we've been entrusted to operate i think if i was to say and every single golf course is is different of course but if i were to say one overview mindset that we bring to all of our assignments particularly our municipal assignments it is operating the golf course in such a way that it is viewed as a community asset for the golfers and the non-golfers in the community and we do that in a variety of different ways that that will um can get into further but really it is having the santa rosa residents knowing and understanding and valuing bennett valley as a community asset thank you so much for that i appreciate it in council let's go ahead start with questions uh for folks who are on the zoom or in person we'll do questions from council members turn it over to public comment and then bring it back for deliberation and a decision uh so i will see if there are any questions from council members to begin start with council member rogers first question um and a question i heard in the community is what is what is the difference between a lease and um management company certainly so there's a two main ways that municipalities go about operating their golf courses you mentioned the lease arrangement and management company arrangement we are involved with both types of arrangements at various facilities i would say over the last 15 years management arrangements are more common and the biggest difference between those two is a lessy pays a city a certain amount of rent and realizes the benefit of the upside of the financial performance of the golf course to its largest extent um in doing so they relinquish some large amount of control over the golf course because there is the lessy involved and the lessy pays rent and the lessy is making all the decisions as it relates to the business a management arrangement which is what we are contemplating and discussing here for bennett valley is much more common in this day and age and in that arrangement we is the management company report to the city and we take that responsibility very seriously but the city ultimately makes the final decision on anything that happens at the golf course we make recommendations based on our experience and city staff and city council ultimately improves those recommendations thanks mark and i'll just i'll just add um council member rogers that the national golf foundation also uh echoed a lot of what mark was saying and and is recommending the management contract for our company uh because we are on a very restricted timeline to have continuity of golf and looking for a lease of lessy is a very long and protracted process and it could take us time and and also we do lose the ability to have that type of control in the situation and involvement the way that we as the city agency wants to be involved so we can ensure high quality golf going forward so i'll just add that to that so thank you thank you um and in addition to that so um when you're a management company what is your um what is your interest in the golf course doing well i know when you are are leasing your interest in trying new things and wanting the golf course to be profitable and doing um as well as it can and can do is is very high um right because you get the profits from it doing that but when you are just managing um it seems like your investment or your your interest in in that happening could i'm not saying will but could potentially be be less so um how can we be guaranteed that your enthusiasm today will continue to be your enthusiasm um further down um in our our friendship it's a very appropriate question and um i think there's there's two main answers for that the the first answer if we want to talk about the dollars and cents point of view on it it is building in level of incentive management fee in order to align the interests of the city of santa rosa and touchstone golf so that would that would be the the first answer but the the second answer is is really the most important answer to us and that is um as a management company the most important thing that we have is our reputation is a management company and i think the reason we have been able to grow from having one golf course in 2006 2006 to the company that we are today is because of the strong references that jen mentioned earlier about the job that we do operating those golf courses and so that is our principal motivator to be doing a great job for the clients that entrust us with their golf course and then hopefully two years from now three years from now if somebody calls any of you or somebody calls jen she can provide just as glowing of a reference for touchstone golf um just two more things um one would be uh i am very very uh very very interested in community engagement um and having people on the golf course that would not normally uh be able or would be interested in going to a golf course um that don't even know about golf um so that is something that i think is very important um and that is something that i hope that we uh strive to do we have basketball camps we have football camps we have soccer camps um and i hope we have someday have golf in all different kind of camps and have kids that come from all over our community to partake in um something that they might end up enjoying and we may be able to watch them on television one day and they look different from all the other golfers that we see um because that could be amazing and they come from santa rosa california i think that that would be great um in addition to saying that um city manager um 351 thousand dollars if this is approved today how do we know we don't know we don't know anything actually but um what is the likelihood that there no additional monies will be asked for in the future councilmember rogers uh so there you had two questions there um let me go ahead and respond to the second question and then i'll ask mr luffman to respond to the first which is their community outreach on the second question when it comes to um the request for general fund dollars uh this is based off a pro forma that uh is is looking at historical revenue uh and their management fees associated with this um it's our intention as miss santos mentioned that we'll be coming back to council prior to the mid-year budget with with updated revenue dollars in an effort to hopefully confirm that in fact uh not only was the 351 more than adequate um but that no additional general fund dollars will be needed moving forward with that said that's part of the reason we're coming back uh mid-year is to basically justify the revenue and expenditure dollars that we're seeing um this will be our first opportunity to work with a management company such as touchstone uh and you know we're we're going to go off of their great experience their knowledge base we have a high level of confidence in the information um but they haven't worked benet valley uh and we haven't had them at benet valley so the mid-year is going to be a very important time for us to reconcile the information and thank you for that question council member rogers i wanted assistant city manager nut to answer since he had been so involved in the process but i do understand your concern i know one of the things that we've talked about is we want this to be a true enterprise fund so this is something that we will talk about long term with the management company and we will bring it back to you and we will continue to look at revenues because this is not something that the general fund can continue to maintain and lastly mayor if i may um i i just want to say that and i've said it before we have definitely a gym the the benet valley golf course is is beautiful and i am not one for to to sew into something that i believe only benefits a small number of people but i think that it can benefit more people and i think that if we think out of the box and we keep the the gym that we have and we find a way to keep it and utilize it more that we can make it even more you know um worth the community's time and effort to have it and so i do want to thank everyone that has been working on that from my peers and everyone that has been on the the committee um because it was something that i did not see at first um but after going out there and seeing all the work that has been put into um saving the benet valley golf course i know why people um want to save it and why it is so important so thank you councilmember if i could ask mr luffman to respond i think they do have an engagement program that you might be interested in hearing about uh from from their experience we do and uh i've been doing a lot of talking here this this evening i i uh like to invite my colleague steve harker touched on golf's ceo he can talk about our vision and also our experience with engagement at some of our other golf courses yeah it's a it's uh it's an honor to be able to uh share with you some of the programs we're running at our other golf courses that we hope to be running with the city of san rosa but i do want to say that we really want to spend time with you spend time with staff spend spend time with our golfers and the non-golfers and understand uh from you um really who are the who are the folks that we need to get out there and who are the organizations that we can partner with to make the golf course much more diverse and inviting and accessible to everybody in the community a couple of things that we've done uh recently we've started junior golf camps a new golf course that we took over december 17th tilden park i was up there today kids everywhere 225 youth signed up for that program and uh it's going fantastic we um we've been taking golf to the high schools we'll take over an athletic field we'll bring some low-flight golf balls that are very safe and we'll run a pe class for every single hour on the hour for the entire school so the entire high school gets exposed to golf and then during that session we introduce them to our junior golf programs at the golf course we also have a program in oakland uh that we're involved with ace kids which actually picks the kids up uh from uh high schools and junior high schools and brings them to the golf course we'll be looking at that as an option and uh last week we met with a group in santa rosa of voices that helps uh underserved youth and we talked to them about a combination of a golf program along with a job training program and they're very excited about that we're working on uh transportation to bring their youth out to the golf course so we can provide some golf instruction but also share with them the different opportunities there are to learn a job or a trade that they can use uh later on as they become active adults um and then we're also uh we'll adopt and be using the pga's get golf ready program looking at expanding programs for women looking at expanding uh senior programs we've done senior clinics for senior centers if santa rosa has a senior center uh busing the seniors out to the course for lunch and to talk about golf and an opportunity to hit a golf ball so we uh we embrace your vision we want everyone in the city santa rosa to know that this is their golf course and uh in addition to that we're also going to be running a number of non-golf events for people that aren't interested in golf just so they can uh they can dine at the restaurant or partake in another type of activity uh could be a 4k run could be uh breakfast with santa could be could be anything so uh we're excited again to be involved and humbled by the opportunity uh to come in and work with you all on on the programming and building the business plan that's right for the city of santa rosa other questions from council council member mcdonald yes thank you and thank you for your great presentation today um can i i just have some clarifying questions and and then i have some statements but uh is touchstone out of berkeley or out of delaware on the resolution i saw that it was out of berkeley but under the contract it says that your business is actually out of state out of delaware yeah well yeah it's just it's just for the corporate document purposes it's just easier to set up your company when we started with one golf course i i uh was advised that that would be the simplest way to do it but yes i live in berkeley i'm a resident of berkeley and this is our home base mark lives in san jose james lives in santa rosa and ashley's in colorado of all places but she's out here all the time and she's a californian she's from southern california thank you and then for clarification on the actual golf course fees which i i think was somewhat what natalie was um asking about is who sets the golf course fees um currently i do know that benet valley is lower than most of the other local golf courses and that could definitely play a part in the revenue that the city receives so who would be setting the golf course fees so um all of you would we will uh as a part of our budget process each year make our recommendations and those recommendations will be based on the overall golf experience that golfers are receiving at benet valley when compared to the local competition as well as what the local competitions rates are so we'll make those recommendations but ultimately all of uh all of you would approve them okay thank you and then councilmember if i could chime in i just want to say that that is part of the difference between the contract that we've had in place where we're working collaboratively with the operator the operator actually institutes uh part of that fee um in this particular case the city owns the fee and that would be part of our annual fee approval process thank you for that clarification so um mayor rogers is it appropriate for me to make some statements and they may actually be questions that you can answer as well right now would you like to move forward on something let's stick to questions if you have questions from your statements go ahead and ask them otherwise let's get all of the other questions answered from the council members and listen to public comments before we do statements so just so i'm clear as far as the proposal it looks like the first year you're proposing a deficit of 234 682 dollars and that the reason that the budget would be balanced is because we're pulling from reserves to backfill that am i clear on that specific amount that's correct we have two options we have an option for funding from within the existing enterprise fund a portion of that and then the remainder to help offset the need for additional reserves we're asking from a general fund so those two sources and as far as any repairs that need to be done on the course is that coming out of general fund or was that something that's already in the enterprise fund that will be covering that there are might there are accommodations in the existing budget for minor repairs if there's anything major we'll have to look at what options we had at that point but we'll be coming back mid-year to talk about those major capital improvements before the major budget cycle but there is the ability for some minor improvements right now we have some might you know we need a sign for the restaurant we need a few minor updates we need some trees trimmed and we have a budget for that and as for any of the rfps that were submitted could you share with me perhaps the top three groups that were considered um and any of the details around that and then in addition to that were any of the other proposals willing to take on some of the repairs needed at the golf course sure and i i believe i can share um those because we're having this discussion right now uh but i'll check in with the city attorney's office i have if i have any restrictions council member mcdonnell can you clarify your question please yes i asked if they could share the top three rfps that were considered by the subcommittee jen please feel moved forward with answering the question you should be fine thank you okay thanks we have um of course uh touchstone was that in the top three of course and then we had um course co and we also had uh trune was in the top three and i i need to search uh through the information i have to see if i can find that there was any any uh bit about construction similar to touchstone i don't have that answer right this moment but those were the top three that were uh moved forward to the interview process and then how many rfps did we receive in total five we received five total proposals i think that does it for questions right now for me i just have some comments that i can save go to council member schwedhelm thank you mr mayor thank you for the presentation and i think jason you test based on a little bit um regarding the pro forma but i guess my question would be for mark um and again this is not a criticism of our of our previous golf operator but i frequently had heard from some staff that um the deal that we had with previous contract really benefited the operator versus the city a mark are you aware of what that contract was and do you have any thoughts about how this will benefit the city in a greater extent than what previously had been in place because again i'm looking if we've learned from what our experience has been in the past moving forward for it is this a more sustainable model in your professional opinion uh certainly i i am not familiar with the details of the existing arrangement enough to to comment on it as it relates to the arrangement moving forward with us i think there's a few reasons why it is sustainable for the city um moving forward first this the city retains control of the golf course um so that is that is the number one and so the the best interests of the city residents and the city itself are put into play through our management of the golf course and second i would say it is i would point to what our track record is for operating a golf course in such a manner that between course conditions between community programming between bringing new golfers to the game of of golf all of that um is important at every single golf course and our proposal considers doing just that at bennett valley great thank you right and if i if i might add it's just two different ways of looking at the at the same thing our current operator retains a great deal of the revenue right now so as we move forward with touchdown we'll be receiving all of the revenue and have a lot more flexibility than we do right now so it's it's i think in my opinion it's a much better way of operating for us we have a lot more flexibility for attending to the needs of bennett valley golf course the other questions from council members mr vice mayor thank you mayor i'll begin with asking a question about the contract uh or or life of contract what at what point is it no longer feasible to enter into a contract such as a month to month i do see that we have a five-year with the one-on-one extension i might need some clarification on that counts vice governor as i'm sorry no no problem i'm asking that at what point is it longer profitable for for the management company to enter into a contract with with an agency i imagine such as a month to month would not be feasible because of the startup costs as well as the the administrative fees that go into setting up even though something simple as an account so i'm wondering if if if there's a time period where where the management company wouldn't longer be interested in entering a contract with an agency vice mayor if i could chime in first let me just say that national golf foundation came in and provided a presentation in the preliminary discussion with staff it was identified by them that a three-year contract is generally a minimal in order to select a management firm and and with the startup costs with the the need to be able to hire staff to retain staff and to provide certainty for that particular organization that that was the that was the minimal need we did talk about whether there was a shorter term that we could enter into and and to to be frank their their fear was that we would get less interest from the management company that are management companies that are out there and so that that would be the response that i would provide based on the feedback that we received from our consultant and that does make sense again i do i'm a cognizant of the fees that are involved with any any management company that enters any type of agency that you would hope for a long-standing relationship opposed to a short one in regards to we spoke about leases i want to go a little bit further into subleasing uh is there is there a strategy where we're subleasing is practiced such as fighting an operator for for the restaurant that's not in-house in in the past marker steve would you be interested in talking about your particular operation and the restaurant component of that certainly um as it relates to subleasing the restaurant um we are open to anything that's in the best interests of the city and particularly is that would relate to getting to know local operators in the community that's part of our desire to get to know many many folks that operate businesses in the community i think the most important thing for us with operating the food and beverage operation at bennett valley is that it is closely integrated with the golf operation so as such that they benefit each other both golfers coming to the restaurant and restaurant goers coming to the golf course and planning and organizing and being able to implement uh events that are geared toward non-golfers all of that is what we do to great success at the facilities that we operate elsewhere in california where we operate the food and beverage operation as well as the golf operation that said we're open to any conversations um in the best interests of the city i do appreciate that especially seeing that the food truck did fizzle out but nonetheless you you have some type of interest how many properties do you manage and and or how many golf courses do you have in your portfolio we operate 41 golf courses right now 10 of them are in northern california and 20 of them are in california perfect others 41 have you subleased any uh of them in regards to the food or the restaurant if those are components of the other 41 there is is one golf course where we have a food and beverage partner operating um that facility it is mainly a result of the size and scope of the catering operation that we thought that that was a beneficial relationship at that course um at every other golf course we work with we operate the food and beverage thank you and for staff uh how long before we revisit uh the the golf course in the future if we are successful in picking an operator today so i'll just uh we'll first of all be coming back uh during the study session or before the mid-year budget review in a study session to look at those long-range capital needs we have at the golf course is i think that together with what you're hearing today is the big long-term picture for the golf course so you'll have an opportunity at that point but if we are successful today uh the contract expires in three years so we can look at that in three years and look at different options if we want to consider some other different option at that point or we can renew for additional two years if things are going the way we anticipated i think we always have outs but we that's that's what's in the contract right now thank you can't pull any other questions all right let's go to public comment on this item if you are interested in providing comment or asking questions go ahead hit the raise hand feature on your zoom and sandy i'm going to turn it over to you to handle thank you um we have a person approaching the podium and go ahead and state your name for the record if you so choose hi i'm richard carlyle i'm uh the president of safe benet valley golf course group we have about 4 000 people that strong that is in our group and uh we we feel very fortunate in being able to work with the city and staff on this process um i want to thank mayor rogers for forming the benet valley golf course ad hoc committee because that allowed us to have a platform to work with the city staff the city council and eventually national golf foundation to craft this rfp rfp is a very complicated process and it weeds out the people who shouldn't be making an application in the first place and we're very pleased to see that touch touchstone golf has come to the top and is the highest rated uh we we feel that they're somewhat local and being out of berkeley and having a lot of golf courses in california they have a great reputation and an excellent references people that are saying to us this group knows how to manage a golf course so we're very pleased with that and so we would encourage the council to approve this contract tonight with touchstone and move on to the next phase of this which is a transition phase along with integrating the food and beverage with the golf course that's a big item and is really needed out there and um so i i just want to say one other thing save benet valley golf course is here to stay in the long run we're a non-profit 501c3 we want to be around to help the city and touchstone with a lot of the fundraising events community outreach we think we can go a long ways in in helping particularly the community outreach and events and charity events and integrating some of the uh collaboration that's necessary with the galvin park events so we want to be here to help in the long run thank you and dwayne duit is approaching the podium go ahead please hello my name is dwayne duit i'm from roseland which if you remember from the portrait of sonoma county 2021 update is at the lowest and most disadvantaged community in sonoma county while benet valley is number one the most advantaged i actually worked in benet valley before this golf course was put together at the safeway i'm very familiar with benet valley and i can appreciate all that's been said today except i think this course should be privatized it benefits benet valley residents those houses that are near have become uh some of the most expensive in our community and from the numbers that were just tossed out it appears that less than two percent of santa rosa residents are members of this benet valley organization that's now a non-profit one of the things that was emblematic of the whole if you will in the past is the number of members of this course i remember a previous discussion said only 118 members it would be best to stop giving any any general fund money to this project let this carry its own weight it's 150 acres housing along there could help more of santa rosen's than what this project will do i'm a member of the sonoma county housing advocacy group and what surprises me is that all through this entire life of this golf course the people in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of santa rosa have been told there's not enough money to do the things that need to be done and yet they've always found a way to make sure there's money for the benet valley golf course based on what's been said tonight be looking at 696 thousand dollars off the top this first year you know you can actually hire a supervised adult crew to trim trees for $1,200 a day i bet that's not going to happen at the golf course it could happen in roseland a few folks would use that money from the general fund to help us and that previous issue earlier about growth management on page 18 when it mentioned the city is going to go up to 237 population in 13 years 65,000 more people coming in it also pointed out over 30 years he'd only been able to provide 1,870 affordable units supporting with the housing impact fees it's an average of 62 houses per year i think you should be looking at helping with housing out on that 150 acres and let the golfers pay their own way privatize it benet valley folks can buy it it helps them the rest of the community can go forward with housing thank you mayor we have two raised hands mr cox are you able to see the timer mr cox are you able to see the timer let's come back to mr cox let's move on to gregarry mr farron go ahead please thank you mayor rogers and members of the council my name is gregarry farron i'm a member of the board of directors of the center of the benet valley golf club but i'm not speaking for them i'm speaking as the guy who represented them for lots of years before your council every time you had the choice of what fees to charge on this course every year you would try to as one member said to me reach that sweet spot where the fees were just high enough to avoid people not playing you you did compare yourself to other courses and which is wrong because there are apples and oranges in courses about how they structure fees but you didn't hear that you heard let's try to keep an enterprise out of this have it pay for itself now the flaw in that was the golf course is like a loved grandmother with cancer the cancer on this golf course was the decision originally to build it with such high costs that the bonds that it took to be able to repay every year came off the top every time i'd ask for some kind of break on junior fees on keeping the prices low on paying for the courses upkeep every time those decisions were asked for by the operator or by the club or by anybody else but the answer was nope we got to pay the bondholders all right so now that it's come down to the roost you still got bondholders you still got bond fees and these fools are telling you that they can raise the rates and be management associates and help you as the responsible parties avoid the bondholders and the costs of the of the course you're on the hook for it leases encourage them to be able to pay within the system management doesn't they have no responsibility for the problems you're going to encounter this is not the end of your general fund this is just uh stop along the way you've been paying out of general fund for years making excuses to try to get to an enterprise this is a failed financial arrangement that was started by the previous council long ago that agreed to ten million dollars worth of not asked for overly expensive hard to run facilities not the course the facilities uh weight you haven't seen anything yet in costs you're going to have to burden while these guys sit around collecting their fees annette arnold please thank you thank you my name is annette arnold i live in the south park neighborhood and i think that the golf course is a really nice for the rich people who can afford it but it really is not going to benefit a lot of the people in this community who really need some basic resources not something that is extracurricular like a golf course i think when there's not enough money to do an after school program that got closed in our neighborhood or to fund the senior center that got closed in our neighborhood this isn't our same district but there's money to fund a golf course that is ridiculous i think the priorities are for helping out rich white people and not really the majority of people in this community who cannot afford these resources for themselves and i have nothing against the program that wants to operate it i just think it's a lot of money it's a lot of resources it's a lot of land that could be put to much better use by people who really need it versus those who can probably afford it on their own that's all i have to say thank you um mayor i see nobody else rising in the chamber no additional raised hands and no public comment voicemail public comment on this item okay i'll go ahead and bring it back to council uh councilmember schwedhelm have you put a motion on the table for a discussion and then we'll do any additional questions or comments from council members thank you mr mayor um i'm making motion to approve staff's five recommendations as it appears in the report for item 14.1 second sounded like that was a second from councilmember soyer yes thank you mayor okay let's go ahead councilmember soyer as the chair of the ad hoc i'll let you start with your comments all right thank you i appreciate that i do want to think our our committee that came together quite some time ago um vice mayor and um also um mr tidbits um at the time um it was a fair amount of work and um commitment and um i really want to thank vice mayor alvarez for for his help in moving this project forward um and i also want to thank councilmember fleming for um recognizing the value of recommending uh if in the rfp review committee um touchstone um it is clear in listening to their their um comments today and their presentation that they are highly qualified not only to run a golf course that has less challenges but also be able to run a golf course that has challenges like like ours and has had challenges for for for quite some time so i am very um pleased that they are that they would be assuming that they are selected by the council tonight that they are would be at the at the helm not in front of the of the council in the city but with us i think that's really important this is a bold move uh and there it is and there of course as mentioned um already that there are risks involved and anytime that there is a bold investment done by the city that there are risks but i believe that there are a number of issues that have been long long standing that need to be rectified and i believe that this company is not only capable but dedicated to the improvement of this of our this very important asset for the city um the city wide regional region wide um it just there i i can't think of uh a a better way to to enhance and um improve um both those those standing challenges that that golf course has faced over the years and also to be able to um present a plan to be to truly create an enterprise for the city centrosa so i wholeheartedly endorse the the moving forward with this contract and look forward to a very profitable future for centrosa um for the centrosa golf course and just um i don't i don't see a downside but people need to be patient and they need to be supportive and at the end of the day i i believe that everyone at the day it's would be pleased um to see the results of their action tonight assuming they move forward thank you councilmember we'll go to councilmembers with them thank did you have a question councilmember flamie no i thought i would pipe in um since i was on the rfp committee but i'm nothing urgent i'll have the next councilmember flamie i'm sorry mr. mary do you want me to make comments or go ahead councilmember spudhelm i'll come to councilmember flamie after great thank you um i really do appreciate the um the presentation and i'm really pleased with test stone and what they will be bringing to the table i mentioned earlier with um you know what we've gone through in the past and for me you know jason when you mentioned pro forma this is a business and sustainability and i think staff has put together a sustainable plan and the whole benefit for the community i know when we first i think more i won't say first but in february of 21 we first talked about this in different options you know i continue to hear members of the community and um this council talked about what a gem and a jewel it is the crown jewel of centrosa and that is going to take some investment because it is an asset of the city of centrosa in the part that i really liked hearing from touchstone is what they are planning on doing what they've done elsewhere regards to the outreach because i have personally seen those different groups out there golf courses throughout the north bay whether it be um high school players which is always encouraging to see out there but the multi-generational and we heard that from many members of the community where um a grandfather can play with his or her daughter or son in three generations all playing the same sport together and there's not many other opportunities for that type of engagement it's a social thing and even during um covid as we're starting to come out of covid it was pretty much the only thing a lot of people can do right and i don't think it's just a blip in the radar that yeah if we saw more golf rounds go up during covid i think i think it's sustainable it's just a wonderful active sport there and you know one of the other things that as we're having this conversation you know centrosa one of our visions is leaders of the north bay i think this is actually setting that mark so i'm really looking forward to seeing what we can do and the improvements to the golf course moving forward i really appreciate the efforts of a this company being recommended because again is i think during gen say during a report i haven't heard a negative conversation i've asked a lot of people in fact i've even talked to the current operator what do you think about them highly recommend them because again if if we're going to move this needle and make it profitable and sustainable these are the folks that are going to help us get there so i really appreciate it thank you thank you councilmember councilmember phlemon thank you mayor i had the unique experience of sitting um as the council member on the rfp committee and i'm a non-golf or i i do come from an enthusiastic golf family who thought it was quite amusing that i was in this position and you know i've read the five rfps and we interviewed the three finalists and you know it was really clear to me that touch tone would bring to san aroza what it is that we're looking for and specifically their answers and we heard it again today around engagement around equity and around community building really stood out and so you know after talking with the golfers in my life um i learned that i i definitely made the the right recommendation and um you know as somebody who's not um ever been a golf player i do look forward to to learning to play and i i think that this is going to really turn things around for us and that it's going to make this um an asset that attracts people from across san aroza and if it is not i'm prepared to to hold them accountable and i think that they're prepared to be held accountable and so i am um enthusiastic to learn how to play and i'm sure i will annoy many people when i'm out there and i just want to thank all of the participants all of the staff and all of the um respondents to the rfp um you know what beyond just touch to own for participating in this process um as well as the community members who came out and volunteer at their time it was uh definitely a learning experience for me thank you council member let's uh jump to the other end of the day as to go to councilmember rogers um i pretty much said my comments with the exception that i was very impressed with the community engagement part and i cannot wait to see it in action and uh within our community um if this goes through so um i'm really happy um i i do know that there are other ways that we can be spending our our general fund dollars i'm very aware that um there are different parts of santa rosa um that historically have not been equitable we can say are have not been equitable but we cannot right that wrong by spending all of our money in one part of santa rosa um and so as a council member i think that i it is my duty to to look at that but to also know that we have to look at all of santa rosa and although i represent district seven i have to i have to be one seventh of a vote for the entire city and the vinnett valley golf course like i said is a beautiful gym and i would hate for us to lose um that beautiful open space um because because we have it and so if this is an opportunity for us to preserve it and to look at another way um to preserve it then i'm i'm all in i don't know how many how many different ways we can look at preserving it so i hope this this way works i'm i'm just going to say that um but i i definitely look forward to our success in our in our partnership thank you we'll go to council member mcdonnell thank you mayor so i want to first say thank you to the vinnett valley save our vinnett valley golf course folks in that large group that works so hard to bring it to the attention to the council um of what a gym we have in our community and that we needed to step in and do something to make it a more profitable organization out there um i have a few dissenting comments from my fellow council members and it has nothing to do with i'm sure the phenomenal business at touchstone runs but i do have concerns that we're going from an out of town business um and some of it is i ask this question on almost every single item are there any local businesses that can do this work do we have a business out of sonoma county that can come and do this work for us so that we can have and assure that there's more local jobs being created and that we aren't bringing folks from out of town to do work in our county if possible um so i would like it if we could maybe consider a couple of different things and the original rfp process my understanding was that the restaurant was supposed to be separated out as an opportunity for us to potentially work with somebody who has different types of restaurant experience because it's also a huge investment of an invent place that we have in santa rosa so my concern is that by going with um this particular group is do they have a background in working that restaurant business and the event space as well as making sure that it's a profitable organization for sonoma county and santa rosa specific so so that's one of my concerns um corisco is actually a local company that runs a couple of golf courses locally they run oakmont who just went through the same process santa rosa did and chose them as well as roner park and so uh my concern would be that the full council didn't see all the rfps to see the comparison and i know that's the purpose of having a committee but i would like to see if we could perhaps pull the restaurant part of the contract out um if that's an option or to send back the contract to city manager and ask her to take a look at maybe the top two or three rfps my concern is that we will have interrupted um play which is not my desire uh my hope would be that by allowing our city manager to make the decision we would not have interrupted play and actually may be able to maintain the golf course um and to keep that very healthy because i do realize that when golf courses are neglected on maintenance that it can go downhill quite quickly so that would be my recommendation is my concern that um we are are being brought a contract that may not be in the best fiscal in um decision for the city of santa rosa and we are up against a very tight timeline and so i don't mean any disrespect for the process that's been done but i do feel that it's a little bit tight for us and i hate to potentially approve a contract that may be um problematic in the future or to see similar results based on us making a decision quickly um so i would like to amend the motion if i may at this time to move to have the city manager have a look at the top two groups and give her authority to negotiate and execute a successful contract to avoid interruption of services and for the contract to be brought for ratification only to the council and in addition i would like to have the option for the restaurant portion of the contract to be removed from the contract to seek a more preferred operator with experience in the restaurant businesses and events so there is a substitute motion on the table is there a second for that motion i would i would actually support the motion but i would ask our city manager if that is something that she would be interested in taking on if that's a proper question to ask um to councilmember mcdonnell i believe i already have authorization to negotiate the contract based off the recommendations that we have in front of us but legally i don't believe i'm authorized to pull out the second part of your motion which is to pull out the restaurant portion if i am hearing my council correct for clarification was that because the rfp went out with the two items to be connected that is correct vice mayor alvarez are you still seconding the motion or did that motion die i will second the motion out of interest to give the people senator the best that we can but from what i'm hearing the legal council is saying that you cannot separate one from the next so councilmember mcdonnell that if you could re-clarify your motion based on that information from the city manager we'll see if there's still a second and then according to our rules for operating that motion would supersede and we'd go to a vote once we're done with comments on the motion on the substitute motion if that motion failed then we'd have the original motion so i would move to have the city manager look at the top two or three groups to give her authority to negotiate and execute a successful contract to avoid interruption of services and for the contract to be bought back for council for ratification only and i will remove the last part of my motion and i will second okay and mr vice mayor it's your turn for comments absolutely i think i've just proven that i'm willing to go or and do whatever it's needed in order to give the people senators the best representation that we can uh measure twice cut once i know it's painful to even hear that we're procrastinating on an issue that's so important as such as a fire line that that separates and and and provide safety for the residents of san rosa it is truly a gem i truly believe that being that i represent district one which will love to see more low-income housing anywhere it can be placed in other places other than district one i know that i'm definitely definitely going against the grain but as my father taught me in order to make money you need the best money and that does point me in the direction that we need to do whatever we can in order to come out with the best program that we possibly can and that's why i want to see us go beyond the yes beyond the no and see if maybe we could be innovative in creating a program that we did not devise originally and i am part of the the the subcommittee that voted to present this today i believe truly that if we got rid of a middleman such as uh uh what we had before it provided a greater level of of profitability to the city of san rosa and that we at san rosa and we at city council have more control over what happens at the benavali golf course and i think we're demonstrating that before you now thank you all right thank you mr vice mayor um i wanted to start off by thanking pretty much the only person who hasn't been thanked so far and that's our current operator bob uh who has done a wonderful job and has known this golfing community very well and i know he's probably watching this to make sure that he's leaving things in in good hands and i know uh he did reach out i had a chance to read an email from him earlier earlier today on this as well um i want to thank our our staff for working with the diligence that they have and i understand the uh thought process of uh evaluating it and evaluating it and making sure that we're getting the best that we can and i get that particularly given that we have a track record of uh having a a contract that we're now being told wasn't the optimal one i get the hesitancy from council uh we've got to make the best decisions that we can make to meet the expectations and the desires of our community and and i'm going to respect the process that got us here tonight which included a ton of community collaboration it included council members becoming specialists and understanding the needs of the golf course it included an rfp process that was clear and concise for the folks who are responding and it involved uh experts including a council member reviewing the ins and outs of each of those proposals in detail and making the best recommendation that they can for santa rosa so that we have continuity of operations so that we can continue to to grow golf in our community that that asset is available not just to benet valley but to people throughout the community i don't live in benet valley but i play benet valley i don't live in ridgeway but i swim at the ridgeway pool we have community assets that are scattered around our community for a reason uh and we are making investments in every single district and in every single area since rosin's been uh a part of this city for still under four years or right around four years this council has put 20 million dollars aside for a what will be a gem for the entire community in rosin but not just for rosin that will include a pool and in other amenities hopefully once the the community decides what they want we need diverse opportunities for folks to have recreation throughout our community and i'm really grateful to staff for finding a path forward that will have continuity of services so i won't be supporting the substitute motion but i will be supporting the original staff recommendation and the original motion with that i'll go ahead and see if there is any additional discussion on the substitute motion before we take a vote on that saying none uh madame city clerk if you could call the vote on the substitute motion thank you ma'am councilmember schwedhelm no councilmember soyer no councilmember rogers no councilmember mcdonald aye councilmember fleming no vice mayor alvarez aye mayor rogers no that motion fails with um five four nos and two yeses by count vice mayor alvarez and i'm sorry five nos and two yeses by councilmember mcdonald and vice mayor alvarez okay and so we now have the original motion from councilmember schwedhelm and seconded by councilmember soyer is there any additional discussion before we go to a vote mayor rogers i have one more um potential amendment to the motion not to be a dead horse but i feel pretty strongly about this so i'm going to offer one more amendment if i may absolutely thank you on page five of 223 of the contract i'd like to amend this section of the terms of agreement to 18 months with the option to extend the contract to three years upon successful report to the council the operation of the facilities as well as a restaurant from touchstone see if there's a second from another councilmember second okay uh madame city manager and team is there any input on that substitute motion or amendment to the i'm going to take it as a substitute motion because otherwise uh i don't think we'll it would be discussed to the same level councilmember mcdonald for clarification can you repeat your motion sure i move that we amend the contract on page five of 223 for this section to read move the agreement to 18 months with the option to extend to three years upon successful report to the council and pardon me successful report to council and successful operation of the restaurant and all other facilities so in in essence turning this into an 18 month contract with the ability to extend with the ability to then come back to council with a report on data on how the golf course is doing and then to be able to extend it to the full three years from that term on uh can i have a question can i ask a question mayor or absolutely uh can we have it to where they they bring us a report and we if the report is unsatisfactory we have the option to to amend the contract because the other way makes it sound like the contract is over and i don't we're just starting this relationship and i want to start it off on a on a on a good note like so it's all in wording for me and i and i want this to be a a good beneficial relationship for everyone so i want to start it off so like i i do want reports to know how the golf course is doing obviously um so maybe 18 months we get a report we know how how it's doing they come back to us but we do have the the option of um of not continuing like some clause in there that if they're not remember how i was asking like what is your investment but some clause in there that we do have the option of not continuing with the to council member rogers if i understand you clearly what you're recommending is a policy decision which we could move forward forward with and i believe we could make it part of the terms of the agreement yes we would have to enter back into negotiation with uh with touchstone to determine if that's consistent with the the agreement that they proposed to us if that's part of their proposal and so we would have that discussion with them but but we do have the opportunity to make a recommendation to alter the terms of the agreement and that would just be part of the negotiation because 18 months is not a very long time um it's not long at all and um i don't think that we're really going to uh see what it is that we want to see although we do we will be able to see numbers and we will start to see a trend so i i understand that we want them to report back to us but i don't want them to report back to us thinking that oh they might not um depending on who's sitting up here like we might not want the contract to continue that that's not the the desire the desire is that we're doing great bennett valley golf course is doing great and no one else is asking for any more money out of the general fund that is the desire um so if i could just respond to that i i think one we're proposing coming back at the six month mark in an effort to try to revise and re uh look at the actual numbers the expenditures the revenue to try to validate the pro forma or to make adjustments in that as we need um but uh it's our intention on an annual basis at minimum to come back to council as part of the budget process to provide a detailed update if you remember our budget process right now relating to the golf enterprise is fairly minimal um the intent here is we have a much more dramatic and detailed information because it's it's it's our revenue it's our expenditure uh that we're having yield with it it's not the operator's revenue and expenditure or we just have a single line item so as council you'll be able to review the performance of that particular of the operator every year uh and if what you're requesting is that we do that evaluation with council more frequently we're happy to do that there's a policy decision you can ask that to come back and provide you updates and i will also mention uh council members that the intention is to keep the ad hoc uh going to be able to make sure that there happens a level of oversight as well let's go to council member fleming yes mayor may i um through you ask a question of council member mcdonald to further understand um her perspective i'll just go ahead and do it so council member mcdonald um i would like to better understand where you're coming from so having sat on the rfp um committee this was not the most local but it is a local group and one of the things that stood out about them and set them apart from some of the other respondents was their ability to manage really premier municipal um golf courses in a way that that was unique and so um i'm trying to understand what the root of the concern is is it that you have an affinity for the other golf course that you mentioned or is it about good governance or is it about a particular worry that we're not getting the best value or that there's can you perhaps explain a little bit so we might meet a resolution that meets your concerns thank you for the question if i may mayor respond to that um so i don't know how to golf at all i guess the responses when people ask me do you golf the the response is supposed to be not yet but i have no intention of ever golfing because i am terrible at it so i um my intent is truly around ensuring that whatever contract we go into it is the most profitable for that specific enterprise because of some of the neglect that's been done to our gem and so by doing making sure that we are in the most profitable um contract i feel that not only does our community win but our our asset wins because we're able to go back and reinvest in the course and so my concern about using um an out of the area um uh operator is that they don't have the same investment as sometimes people who live locally um or or have worked with our community locally many people who golf at bennett valley also go to oakmont and also go to our other courses and so the intent was just to make sure that we are selecting them the um the most profitable uh contract for the city of santa rosa and there's no other uh intent behind it other than that and i don't want to in any way dismiss the great work that touchstone does around our state and i don't um believe that they would even do a poor job i just want to ensure as a fiscal steward of this um of this group that we are insuring that we're going to make the most money so that we can invest that money back into the course thank you and i really appreciate that response i think that it is absolutely our job to always be investing the public's money in a way that yields the best returns and provides the most public good i do think that um that for me i won't be supporting the substitute motion that would have them come back for a reuphid 18 months i don't think it's long enough i would certainly support um the already planned for response uh or update in six months and then annual responses and um i would just note that one of the pieces of this that was um alluring was that the the gm of the restaurant was a local and so i hope that that might allay some concerns but i do share in general your your desire to keep things hyper local but i think what this will do it will help us to uh be be a leader in the north bay in a way that that i'm not sure we could achieve otherwise all right so there is another substitute motion on the table uh motion from councilmember mcdonald with a second from councilmember rogers mr vice mayor go ahead yes i appreciate that mayor uh i'll ask it in form of a question are there performance clauses within the contract that assures that they're performing to a certain level and that would therefore alleviate some of the concerns when it comes to their performance at the benna valley golf course so i i will let me start and then jen can chime in there is a clause within the within the agreement that allows them to see an incentive for performance obviously if no performance exists then there's no incentive and they just get their management fee we have the opportunity as it's part of our normal contracts to be able to um establish a termination methodology should we find that the operation in the agreement is no longer working for us uh and that's true of any agreement that we would we would enter into with any operator and so uh yes there is an incentive for touchstone to be successful i think you heard that from touchstone themselves uh and i think from the city's perspective uh we expect and anticipate that we're going to be monitoring uh that work we don't want to see this golf course fail anymore than we think touchstone wants to see it fail and so we'll be working with them hand in hand in an effort to make every possible adjustment we can if it if there isn't a product there then we'll look at what our other remedies and options are moving forward thank you and with that said i wouldn't be able to support the 18th month contract for the reasons of actually the question that i posed earlier today with a three-year minimum so that we also hope that touchstone can also succeed in their venture in san rosa thank you right madam city clerk if you could please call the vote on the substitute motion thank you mayor councilmember schwetham no councilmember soyer no councilmember rogers as dated by council member mcdonald no councilmember mcdonald aye councilmember fleming vice mayor alvarez nay mayor rogers no that motion fails with only one aye by councilmember mcdonald and six noes by the remaining council members okay so we are back to our original motion which was the staff recommendation is there any other substitute motions discussions questions councilmember mcdonald no there's no more for me okay let's go and call the vote on the motion then okay so just a point of clarity that was seconded by councilmember soyer correct correct thank you councilmember schwetham aye councilmember soyer aye councilmember rogers aye councilmember mcdonald no councilmember fleming yes vice mayor alvarez aye and if i may i love the way that we can actually take something and tear it apart if it means it's good if it's for the good of of san rosa so i with that thank you and mayor rogers hi that motion passes with seven eyes with councilmember mcdonald voting no okay all right well to the touchstone team we look forward to our partnership and get moving and i know that the public is is really anxious and excited to get to know you as well and we'll be checking in as you as you heard so thank you thank you very thank you we we look forward to it we're just thrilled to be involved with san rosa and the community and can't wait to get started right the council we're going to take a 30 minute dinner break so we'll come back at 735 and we'll come back with item 15.1 before we make our way through the rest of our items eddie do you want to swing the gavel for me yeah you'll have to hear it mayor do you all in a half hour like they at the gym all right council i'm noticing a quorum so let's go ahead and call the roll to re-establish and get going okay councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember soyer councilmember rogers councilmember mcdonald here councilmember fleming vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers here okay and councilmember fleming probably will be joining us shortly so let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember fleming and councilmember soyer great thank you madam city manager let's move to item 15.1 item 15.1 is the public hearing authorizing submission of the fiscal year 2022 2023 action plan and approval of grant agreements for public services fair housing and housing opportunities for persons with aids i would like to introduce program specialist julie garen thank you good evening mayor rogers and council members my name is julie garen and i'm a program specialist with the housing and community services department the public hearing tonight is for the submission of the fiscal year 2022 2023 action plan to the u.s. department of housing and urban development and approval of funding recommendations next slide please hud requires a submission of the action plan to receive community development block grant home investment partnership act and housing for persons with aids grants council actions requested tonight include the offer authorization of submission of the plan to hud and approval of funding recommendations next slide please hud requires submission of the action plan to receive these funds the purpose of the action plan is to define how federal funds will be spent and identify housing and community development needs goals and priorities the action plan template is provided by hud and is based off the 2020 through 2024 consolidated plan next slide please action plan goals first priority goals are to increase supply of affordable rental housing for low-income households provide housing assistance support for low-income households of hiv aids preserve existing affordable housing stock and provide housing and services to special needs populations action plan second priority goals if there is additional funding include to increase access to home ownership and provide funding for public facilities improvements and promote economic development so as you can see from the table below fiscal year 2022 2023 estimated allocations the grant allocations from hud for each funding source are in the first column and then program income and total available funds follow in the second and third columns so for fiscal year 22 23 the total available funds include $1,579,132 in cdbg funds $845,012 in home funds and $481,043 in hop-off funds and I would just note that program income comes from loan repayment from the prior use of funds next slide please so staff held a public meeting on February 4th 2022 and conducted public outreach through the COC listserv and traditional and social media announcements the draft annual action plan was available for review and public comment from March 11th through April 11th 2022 and then again after receiving updated guidance and a waiver from HUD an updated draft action plan was available for an additional review and comment period from May 3rd through June 3rd of 2022 next slide please public comments received to date are included in the draft annual action plan and additionally any comments received that tonight's public hearing will be included prior to submission to HUD for annual funding 85% of cdbg funds are used for housing and administration and up to 15% of cdbg funds are used for public services on November 12th the city released a request for proposals for the provision of homeless services funding recommendations for cdbg funded public services are as follows the living room is being recommended for $38,870 the homeless service center is being recommended for $102,000 and the family services center is being recommended for $96,000 fair housing fair housing is a federally mandated program that must be responsive to the impediments to fair housing fair housing advocates in northern california is being recommended for $45,000 for the fiscal year 2022-23 from real property transfer tax which is part of the general fund next slide please hapua the city has received the hapua allocation of 481,043 dollars three percent of that allocation is used by city for administration um face to face the city of san rosa's hapua service provider is being recommended for $466,612 for the fiscal year 2022-23 so the recommendation has four parts the first part is to authorize the submission of the fiscal year to the 2022-2023 action plan to HUD the second is to approve the fiscal year 2022-2023 grant agreements for public services fair housing and hapua and the third is to authorize the director of housing and community services to execute the grant agreements and the fourth is to authorize the city manager to execute the federal funding agreements with HUD and any additional documents required to implement action plan let's see if there are any questions to start all right i'm not seeing any so i'll go ahead and open the public hearing and let's see if there's any public comment um i see nobody rising in the chamber and no raised hands and we have no voicemail public comment on this item all right we'll bring it back council member phleming this is your item thank you mayor i'm bearing a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa authorizing submission of the fiscal year 2022-23 action plan and approving grant agreements for public services fair housing and housing opportunities for persons with AIDS and way further reading of the text second the motion from council member phleming and it sounded like a second from council member mcdonald see if there's any additional comment from the council i'm not seeing any so madame city clerk if you could please call the vote council member schwedhelm hi council member soyer council member rogers hi council member mcdonald hi council member phleming hi vice mayor alvarez mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with council member soyer absent right thank you so much team let's move on to item 14.2 item 14.2 is a report operating agreement for the samuel jones hall homeless shelter and homeless services grant agreements for fiscal year 2022 and 2023 housing and community services manager kikendall will deliver the report thank you city manager good afternoon mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez the members of the council the item before you this afternoon seeks approval of an operating agreement for the samuel l jones hall homeless shelter and homeless services grant agreements for fiscal year 2022-23 i am kelly kikendall a manager in the housing and community services department here with me this afternoon or evening i also have sasha cohen she's a program specialist that joined our team about two months ago and we're very happy to have her and we'll be presenting together this evening next slide please this slide provides an overview of the the presentation i'll provide some background on the request for proposals uh council direction from february and then the subject of this evening's council item which is the fiscal year 2022-23 uh agreements next slide please so in november of 2021 the city issued a request for proposals for the provision of homeless services and seeking an operator for sam jones hall for the upcoming fiscal year that was issued in november and proposals were due december uh 2021 an evaluation committee was convened in january of this year and based on the recommendation of the evaluation committee staff came forward in february with recommendations on the operator and providers next slide please so based on the rfp process the recommendations of the evaluation committee and staff recommendation on february 22 council approved catholic charities to continue as the operator of sam jones hall this was a competitive process we received three proposals and out of the rfp process catholic charities was selected as the operator for homeless services this was uh non-competitive we received proposals from existing providers and that includes catholic charities homeless outreach services team the homeless service center and family support center as well as ywca sinema county their safe health shelter program and this is an emergency shelter for victims or survivors of domestic violence council also directed staff to prepare agreements for these programs um and return for your consideration that's what we're doing this evening and i'll provide more information about the five-year term in the upcoming slides next slide please uh julie garon program specialist in our department just presented on um the public services program and recommendations for uh that program uh and you just approved contracts for the homeless service center family support center and the living room um she she went into detail about that i will say that uh those three programs do receive uh community development block grant um hsc and fsc also receive an augment from the general fund um we will be funding our homeless services this year with uh the american rescue plan act funding arpa um so long as those programs meet the funding source requirements just to provide you with a little additional context these three contracts were considered under the public services program per HUD requirements there's also a community action partnership of sinema county their hc family fund program they applied to the public services program however due to limited resources under that program they're being considered under this item and they'll be funded with general fund and or arrest or and or arpa funding as i mentioned will be funding our homeless services programs this year with arpa unless they receive a different funding source um we have the provision in there to allow for general fund resources in the event that a program or service is not eligible for arpa funding however working however we're working closely with finance and our consultant to share ensure compliance with with arpa with that i'm going to turn the next couple slides over to sasha thank you next slide please thank you so these next two slides are an overview of the operating agreement and grant agreement that we're seeking your approval on this afternoon i won't be reading out the goals and outcomes but the information is here on the slides for you to review so the first program here is catholic charities the host program it's the homeless outreach services team they're a street outreach team that's focused on engaging individuals residing in encampments and getting them into services shelter and housing the budget is one million thirty five thousand and four hundred and fifty dollars the next program is catholic charities for sam jones hall that's the emergency shelter for single adults it provides up to two hundred and thirteen beds basic services plus housing focused case management the total budget is two million hundred twenty thousand and seven hundred and forty two dollars um please note that the budget did increase by sixty six thousand dollars and that was for the annex portable toilets those do need to be in place until a permanent bathroom facility can be built and then the budget also so you know does include funding from the county and community foundation as well as city resources and then just so you know the total here at the bottom the three million two hundred and seventy four one hundred ninety two dollars that's actually going to be the total of slide six and seven that we're seeking approval for today next slide please so here we have program for ywca sonoma county safe health shelter that's our emergency shelter for homeless victims of domestic violence the budget for that is fifty thousand dollars and that's for five emergency beds plus supportive services and then we have community action partnerships sonoma county's hca family fund that's um financial assistance with security deposits rent and mortgage the funding for that is provided by a private donor we fund sixty thousand dollars and that is for the program administration kelly did you want to talk about the ywca budget yes briefly before we move on to the next slide though the ywca did request seventy five thousand dollars for this year and based on feedback that we received from the budget team we did try to keep our budgets as flat as possible so we've kept it at fifty thousand i do believe that there is a representative of the ywca available to speak during public comment if they have held on this late into the meeting thank you next slide please so the contracts included on this slide are just to give an overview of the other programs that are part of homeless services they were included and approved as item 15.1 of today's agenda so this is catholic charities homeless service center that's our drop-in center that provides basic services such as showers laundry telephone mail referrals and shelter intake the budget is two hundred and thirty six thousand dollars then there's catholic charities family support center that's the emergency shelter for families it provides up to a hundred and thirty eight beds and basic services plus housing focused case management that budget is one hundred ninety six thousand dollars and then there's the living room they provide case management counseling to transitional housing and meals for women experiencing homelessness that budget is thirty thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars next slide please sasha real quick sandy sorry can you go back to the there was just one thing i wanted to highlight on this slide is for the homeless service center the budget has increased by thirty five thousand thirty four thousand dollars this year and that's for the warming center should the city decide to activate it those funds are intended for that purpose only thank you next slide thank you and i also do want to advise that we did meet with the providers this year and so the scopes of the services and the outcomes may have some minor changes so in summary we've provided the agreements with catholic charities for sam jones hall and host community action partnership sonoma county for the hc family fund and ywca sonoma county for the safe house shelter these are for the fiscal year twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three and continuing for up to five years to fiscal year twenty six twenty seven on a conditional basis that subject to contractor performance and funding availability and they give the housing community services director the authority to execute the amendments to agreements subject to these parameters and this is contingent upon the approval of the budget on june twenty first next slide please so it is recommended by the housing and community services department that the council by two resolutions approved the following first an agreement for the operation in use of the samuel l jones hall homeless shelter housing focused program with catholic charities the dsc's of santa rosa and the amount of two million hundred and twenty eight thousand seven hundred forty two dollars for the initial period july first twenty twenty two to june thirtieth twenty twenty three which is year one and continuing for up to five years total so fiscal year twenty two twenty three to fiscal year twenty six twenty seven and that's on a conditional basis subject to contractor performance and funding availability and next slide please the second is the grant agreements for the provision of homeless services with catholic charities the dsc's of santa rosa for the homeless outreach services team in the amount of one million thirty five thousand four hundred and fifty dollars ywca sonoma county's safe house shelter program in the amount of fifty thousand dollars in community action partnership of sonoma county for the hca family fund in the amount of sixty thousand dollars for the initial period july first twenty twenty two to june thirtieth twenty twenty three which is year one and continuing for up to five years total fiscal year twenty two twenty three to fiscal year twenty six twenty seven again on a conditional basis subject to contractor performance and funding availability and this concludes our presentation and we are available to answer any questions okay thank you so much council who has questions to start councilmember rogers thank you i had questions about the process of um one being able to go to sam jones hall um what is the process of being able to go to sam jones hall and um yeah what is the process to be placed at the shelter is that your question councilmember rogers yes so our system of care is switched from using coordinated entry for shelter placement for using it only now for housing and so in order to access a shelter at sam jones hall an individual would have to reach out to catholic charities to to access that um and we do have uh i don't have it up in front of me there's a new flyer that was released with the change of coordinate entry and access for individuals seeking shelter throughout the county and at sam jones hall and so i can share that information um with the full council and it's also available on our website um and so uh one would reach out to catholic charities and is that during certain hours or it's typically during business hours so i i just find it hard to conceptualize because emergency shelter um is people tend some people will need emergency shelter not during uh business hours so what happens in in those cases for after hours response i'm not aware of a resource right now we do have some um some beds that has died for uh first responders um after hours and they would reach out direct directly to the shelter operator to catholic charities but outside of that you know the response right now or the availability after hours is pretty limited throughout the county okay and what what team or what who do they reach out to in catholic charities so they have to contact catholic charities and i think sasha is working on pulling up the information as i'm trying to answer these questions so thank you yeah so it to get into sam jones hall applications can be made by calling the homeless service center um the phone number is available on the county's website for them and applications are accepted monday through friday from nine a.m to four thirty p.m and what about after hours i don't believe there's any information about after hours on the flyer and again that is a need throughout the county i'm asking because people are brought to our er's or um brought for emergency services um by our first responders and um they're not being provided access to our shelter so if you call the shelter the shelter has beds and we're paying for a service and catholic charities cannot be um contacted in in my personal first hand experience and so i want to know how that uh it hopefully is changing um with this different coordination of of care or is it changing or because it's it's really difficult when you have someone that goes to the er for something or the police can't contact catholic charities to get someone into a bed so they drop them off at an er that's not proper care because they have nowhere else to to take them and and that's the normal in our community so i want to know how this is being remedied if we're paying for a service the service needs to occur and providers shouldn't say oh well we never can get ahold of them that's not okay i i called from 10 p.m until 3 a.m in the morning and i would call the shelter and the shelter said you have beds but you have to call this number we have beds but you have to call this number we cannot accept someone you have to call this number you have to call this number so and i and i brought this concern up multiple times but we cannot keep having people stay in our emergency psychiatric system or our emergency medical system if we have services within our community that we are paying for with tax payers dollars that are clogging up other areas of care if because providers are not providing the service and i i just i i would like a resolution i want an answer and i don't want to just keep kicking the can down the road because it's not acceptable care so the councilmember rogers i don't i don't want to speak for catholic charities but i mean i think we're in a situation we don't have a perfect system it's almost like we have in response as well and we're trying to make that 24 seven i think this is something that we can have a conversation with our providers about um i believe kelly did speak to this is a concern that we have throughout the county i think it's something that we can have a conversation with with our partners as we you know continue to build out our shelters i don't have the exact answer for you right now because i don't know the operating capacity but i think it's something that we can look into and get back back to you with councilmember do you have more i will i will be quiet for now but uh yeah i'm sure i do because i've been saying this this is not the first time that i've said this and i still don't have an answer and all right we don't have the capacity in other areas but yeah i'll wait for an answer but i don't i don't really care to have an answer i want to see results not an answer councilmember fleming thank you i want to just um echo what councilmember rogers is saying that this is a persistent experience that we have in the emergency rooms we both work in emergency psychiatric services where often the access to the shelter is the thing that's putting it the um a person unnecessarily in emergency services but i think would be a reasonable resolution would be to work with catholic charities to get a phone number that could not just be provided to what we think of as traditional first responders like police and fire but also to the emergency rooms into the county psychiatric unit and i think that if we could have that done within the next week or two so that we can all have access to that intake number that would be just a simple and seamless resolution to this issue i don't mean to speak on your behalf councilmember rogers i just think that that would be a tangible and simple solution i would love to agree with you but when i have police call for me because i think that that would be the resolution and they say that they cannot contact anyone um that they have the same problem then i know that the problem is not a title the problem is the process of actually getting a hold of someone so when i actually say you guys drop someone off here they are medically cleared we're done with them they don't need to be in a medical facility or whatever the case may be and so now they need to be discharged but we don't have anywhere to discharge them so now they're in a medical facility and they cannot be moved can you come pick them up well we can't get a hold of anyone at catholic charities either but we will keep calling and they can't get a hold of anyone that's a problem and well what number are you dialing and we're going back and forth well we're everyone's dialing the same number and no one can get a hold of them so it is a little frustrating because it's that it is a system that isn't working but when we have a part that we're paying for that should be working and there are beds available it's not that we don't have beds we're paying for something that we should the community should be receiving so that is the problem it's not that we don't have the capacity we have the capacity it's there but the service that we are paying for is not being provided that's my problem right council any other questions Mayor Rogers may I speak yep thank you so on the contract under the agreement on page two of 44 it says so scope of service is a shelter the shelter shall be open 24 hours per day seven days a week 365 days per year in addition to that bullet could we then add any number shall be provided for us to contact the shelter to obtain services so that we can actually put it in writing in the contract that a number is then provided for that 24-hour care council member mcdonnell I think we can add that to the contract thank you mayor may I add yep good council member Fleming may I add to that that that number will be staffed as well 24 hours a day by somebody who has the capacity to accept people into the shelter thank you an amendment to the amendment we'll consider that a friendly one well we don't have any motion on the table yet so we'll bring that back do we need to have a motion Mayor Rogers for us to add that contract or can we just direct it now it's not the appropriate time for us to make a motion yet we're going to finish our questions and go to council member sweathound and then do public comment but we'll include that when we discuss them and thank you thank you Mayor Rogers I guess my question would be adding I totally get the need in if our goal is to have 24-7 access where people can enter it if we have capacity of the shelter there's got to be a cost for that because I'm guessing the people that answer the phone are different than the intake people just being part of the conversations with coordinated entry as to why that system was not working because there was not enough funding from HUD so that you could do both the housing and emergency shelter intake same thing with one of my colleagues mentioned want to release someone from the hospital well we have a nightingale program that also has capacity issues so again all the stuff sounds great but there's a cost attached to it and at this point where we have dollar figures here that if our desired goal was to have 24-7 opportunity for intake with a number but actually people where you could take them in I would like to know what are those additional costs going to be if I may Mayor Rogers yeah please so thank you for this input and we will look into this and come up with a solution I know that councilmember mcdonald has presented one today one of the issues that we'll have to navigate is the conditional use permit does not require us does not allow us to do intakes at the shelter they're done out outside of the shelter off site again you know something we can navigate but I do want to raise it tonight and the intent of that condition of the permit dates back to opening the shelter and trying to prevent you know people showing up at the shelter potentially impacting the neighborhood to get services the other issue is I'd have to talk with catheteries about and costs associated with having a phone number excuse me staff for 24-7 access to the shelter to councilmember schwinhouse thank you any other questions council councilmember rogers um is it not is there not already a um a phone that is connected to catholic charities um did that change when we change the coordinated entry so intakes for the shelter are done via the homeless service center and so that is operational during business hours and so I don't have a phone number available for you this evening I can look into that and and get back to you so my question initially was how um do we have beds available outside of the business hours and you said that for uh I think I want to say you said for first responders do those there are go ahead do those individuals not have to go through an intake process that I I don't know councilmember um rogers I'm not entirely familiar with the after hours process and so I can look into that and get back to you you're asking some excellent questions this evening and I'm sorry I just don't have the information available for you right now so and by by any means I'm not saying let's open up the intake process for 24-7 that is not what I'm saying what I am saying is that there are circumstances in which people are within our community that require intake into our shelter um like if someone was in a situation where they're being battered we don't say come back at 9 a.m you need to stay where you're at in the situation you're in until 9 a.m please come back to the woman's shelter or the shelter where we will help you and your children until 9 a.m please stay in and where you're at so there are situations where people need emergency shelter that is what I'm saying in the hospital in our emergency psychiatric facilities including uh our police uh fit under that criteria and so if the police dropped someone off somewhere I think that fits under that that that criteria um and so that's what I'm saying what is what is that process um and how do we do that I don't think that that would be an additional cost if it is already there just how do we access that is what I'm saying because I was just told it's already there we're just not being able to access it so thank you so council member what I'm hearing and I'll let staff tell me if I'm wrong is that it's not the uh necessarily a capacity issue with the shelter it's that the use permit for the shelter as it currently exists prevents intake from being at the shelter so if there's going to be intake off-site there could potentially be a staffing cost to have an additional person at a place that didn't otherwise wasn't open uh so what I'd suggest is we let staff talk with the provider and come back to us with any type of fix that we can come up with to try to work around that that barrier uh council member Fleming go ahead yeah I think that what might help me with this piece of under a reconciling council member Schwedhelm's concern about the funding to make sure that these services are more accessible to our you know most vulnerable folks is understanding what the current mechanism is for first responders and if it is or isn't working for them and then you know not reinventing the wheel but going from there and making sure that system does work and then figuring out how that we can tap into that instead of setting up or standing up a whole new service sir rogers may I ask a question since the contract specifically says the shelters shall be open 24 hours per day seven days per week 365 a year would we not just need to get clarification on how to access the shelter that seems to me to be the missing piece of the contract is the access the accessibility of the shelters that we have it's not that they don't have a bed it's not that we have a problem in the intake process we have a problem with access after hours so I think if we had that clarification brought back to us we could move even forward with this contract to not interrupt services for the folks that need it the most right now but that is a necessary component and so I would feel more comfortable adding it to the contract so that it's very clear what our expectations are for the shelter and that we were it would be able to the community would be able to access somebody on-site or off-site because a phone can actually go to somebody's home in an emergency situation if there's a 1-800 number and it's routed through to somebody who could potentially be on call that night i'm looking to kelly or the city manager councilmember mcdonnell so I believe what we need is clarification on what is meant by 24 seven and if it's 24 seven then where's the intake process who can actually do the intake what is the process for first responders um I think that's that's all I have if there's other questions that I'm missing and and perhaps the contact information yeah the contact of the telephone number yes my concern is that it shows in the contract that we have access to the shelter as councilmember rogers has stated what's not clear is how we access it and that's probably because it's not delineated in a contract for anyone to be able to go back to and say this is what's expected so we believe we're paying for a service and then if that service is not accessible to community members that really are in need of it that is where the frustration I think is lying to many of our first responders including those families that perhaps councilmember rogers has been working with so that would be my solution to this clear problem that we seem to have and I think that Catholic charities who'd be able to give us that information if we went back to them we can bring you back that clarification thanks my rogers I just want to point out and I understand we need to clarify the accessibility issue raised this evening 24 7 operation is different than 24 7 um access to the shelter there are currently five beds that are set aside for um for first responders or for public safety and so I hear the feedback and appreciate it about how do we access those beds particularly after hours um but there there's a limited uh limited amount of beds that are available I did clarify with Catholic charities the intake process so somebody could come in in the evening after hours and then the intake could be done the following day so just wanted to provide that additional information thank you any other questions council yes so why isn't the phone being answered for people to access those beds so councilmember I think that I think that you have gotten an unsatisfactory answer and I get that but I think staff what I'm hearing from staff is that they need to be able to take this back they're not going to have a good answer for us tonight well she just got some really good answers right now on the fly and I just thought that would have been one of the questions about the the phone and what phone that is and what is that process and who answers that phone but okay and Kelly can you get back to us with that answer in this moment no but I can get back to you after the meeting yes okay any other questions council all right let's go to public comment on this item then okay don't see anybody rising in the council chamber and I have Madeleine O'Connell go ahead please hi everybody I hope you can hear me yes we can I don't see my clock but I'll try to keep it short thanks Kelly and Sasha yes the YWCA hung in there I was there in person and then I did have to get home as my children are headed to bed soon I just am very grateful for the opportunity to speak on behalf of YWCA Sonoma County's singular vital and only domestic violence service provider we do have the only one and only shelter for families fleeing violence inside their own homes to flee violence in your home immediately creates homelessness in your life we started back in 1975 we the very first thing we did was start a crisis hotline and that number for everyone listening in the 707 area code is five four six one two three four we answer that call 24 seven my staff of advocates are on an on-call system which includes overnight shifts it's not inexpensive but it's vital to support families enduring a situation where they need immediate triage it might be three in the morning and it might be three in the afternoon but we're here to answer that line I want to tell you a little bit about the shelter that you support and I recall very distinctly being in your chambers back in 2018 for our original contract our home is a 4500 square foot Victorian from the turn of the century eight bedrooms two kitchens we've remodeled every single window has been replaced new roof new flooring new HVAC so it's got air and heat on all three floors we're asking for an increase in our contract which we have not increased from our original amount back in 2018-19 of $50,000 we're asking for an increase of 25,000 and the numbers just add up inflation and the cost of living increases for our staff has been quite an expense over the past year that's increased by 35 percent and there's been a 20 percent increase in employer costs related to staff benefits we are solid in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County we're not going anywhere we've been here since 1975 and we're here to support families trouble is it costs money to do that and I'm hopeful that you will see fit to increase the budgeted amount from 50 to 75,000 call me back anytime I'd love to be part of your study sessions on how to respond to our most vulnerable citizens whenever they need us and you can learn more about us at ywcasc.org thank you so very much for your time and attention to my comments mayor I have no additional hands raised and no voicemail public comment on this item great thank you and Madeline just a huge thank you from all of us for all the work that you and your team do we know it's not easy work but it's important work and you've been a really great partner for the city I just want to say thank you for that councilmember sweat helm can you please put a motion on the table sure I've got two resolutions start with the first one move a resolution of the council of the city of Santa Rosa proving an agreement between the city of Santa Rosa and Catholic Charities of the diocese of Santa Rosa for the operation of the Samuel L. Jones homeless shelter housing focused program for fiscal year 2022-2023 year one in the amount of two million one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred forty two dollars and continuing for up to five years total fiscal year 2022-23 to fiscal year 2026-27 on a conditional basis and authorizing the chief financial officer to pay all proper claims and costs and waive further in the text now councilmember do you want to articulate again let's go to councilmember mcdonald I think you were the one that was word smithing a little bit what additional bullet point you were hoping to have added let me get back to the contract my Roger Rogers I apologize for that well while you do that let me make sure I have a second on the motion oh second okay there you go if I may if I may through the city manager I thought I heard the motion is only covering the first resolution did you intend to do it one at a time or correct okay thank you so would you like me to amend the motion to add that language to the bullet in the contract or would you like me to just direct staff to ask that that be added I think if I think you ask to make a friendly amendment if that so suits you and we'll see if Tom is amenable to it sorry I'm trying to read the text below so I'm sure that I heard you you wanted me to go ahead and make an amendment to the contract under bullet C to add the language to add it well councilmember Fleming had additional language that she added on to my suggestion so would you like us to combine our suggestions I apologize if I'm not hearing you correctly no it's all good I'll say if somebody would like to make a friendly amendment I'll entertain that now okay we'll see if councilmember Schwedhelm is okay with that amendment and for my part councilmember McDonald I had asked for something that came with associated costs that were unknown to me so I will allow you to put forth your friendly amendment as you see fit and then we'll get on her thank you so under on page 2044 under section agreement bullet C where it says shelter shall be open 24 hours per day seven days per week 365 days per year add the additional language of any number shall be provided to access the shelter I'll say good okay and councilmember Schwedhelm are you okay with the friendly amendments I guess I would just need clarification what do you mean by access the shelter so if someone answers the phone because I'm hearing what the issue is people want to have to be able to actually enter and stay there which again I think has some additional costs so what is your definition of access well I guess my clarification on this is if the shelter is saying they're open 24 seven in 365 days a year there's clearly people there what seems to be the barrier is no one to call to get into the shelter so you can be at home and take a call but someone will need to meet that person that's in need to allow them entry into the shelter if it's a temporary bed of the five days by beds or whatever we do have but it seems to me the first barrier is we can't access a person to get to the shelters the second barrier perhaps is we have no one on staff to bring them into the shelter we just don't know that right now based on tonight so but because it says we have access to a shelter 24 seven it would seem to me that a phone number should be provided of how to get to that shelter like I guess where I'm struggling because I heard staff say basically this is consistent with our temporary occupancy or our operating permit so if we were to make some changes here we may be in violation of our own use permit did I hear that correctly I do I think what we have I think we can provide a phone number because it's my understanding that we can do intake correct Kelly shake your head yes or no or there is access to beds the intake process would have to take place the next morning so what we need to do is provide a phone number for someone whether it's first responders or the hospital we need to provide a phone number so someone can call so they can have access to the shelter correct the intake part seemed to me that could be delayed it's the access to a bed that's necessary and imminent under those circumstances that would be my concern of not adding that we are requiring a phone number is provided so that our first responders can get a hold of you it sounds to me we're just talking about logistics that there needs to be a number for individuals to call to make certain that there are beds available if first responders or if there's a release from the hospital they can call this number and I will clarify with Catholic charities to make certain that we're not adding anything that would increase the contract right my concerns so they call they talk to someone yeah we have bed space okay we need that right now that's what I heard from some of the colleagues and that is going to add some additional costs is what I'm hearing and might be in violation of our conditional use permit of doing taking care of that person who needs an emergency shelter bed I don't think we have the 24 7 ability to do that based on our conditional use permit that I heard staff say there's access to the bed but the intake process would take place the next morning I guess that's what I'm questioning would that be a violation of a conditional use permit if that if a person who needs an emergency shelter bed outside the normal hours being violation of conditional use permit I do not believe so Kelly can you clarify that so go against the conditional use permit I will say that our declaration of shelter crisis which provides us greater flexibility for public property so city owned property that we do have some flexibility to make adjustments to the conditional use permit not formally not going through a formal condition use permit process but we have made adjustments to that over the past several years to for example increase our occupancy in response to the demand for shelter beds in our community so bring it back I think we're all on the same page I'd love if we got a bed let's get him in there but are there some unintended consequence of this decision because we don't have the operator here to say this is why this process ended up the way it is now and doing this live when we don't have all the data I totally get we're all familiar with the situations where someone needs emergency shelter we have no way of getting it this contract is you know if we need to modify it can that specific aspect of it once we get more feedback from the operator come back without delay of the contract versus making a decision now without having feedback from the operators to why the system is set up the way it is right now because it does sound like an easy solution so again I'm not opposed to what we're trying to do but if there's going to be a problem because the same issue whether it be the crisis response center nightingale this is not the only place where this occurs so look at the system as a whole I'm not comfortable making a change on the fly with that a little bit more data about are there some unintended consequences of what we're all trying to do so how about this idea you approve the contract with the change that the council member recommended conditional on one no increased cost and two that's consistent with the conditional use permit so I'm all for that so moved I think somebody has to second that if I so move it well actually if it's a front amendment I will accept that as long as the clerk has got the language that our assistant city attorney just shared yeah mr. Burke if you could repeat that please sure so the motion would be to approve the contract with the amendment that was made about inserting the phone number conditioned on two things one that there's no increased cost in the contract and two that the change is not inconsistent with the conditional use permit that's what I meant okay so we have a motion and we have a second is there any additional discussion on that point I hate to believe yeah I hate to belabor it mayor but the last piece about consistent with the conditional use permit given that we're under a and also consistent with the state of emergency so that staff and catholic charities has some flexibility because if we go all the way back to the original conditional use permit and don't take all those other subsequent factors into consideration it may limit some of the things that staffing catholic charities might be able to do to improve access but I heard is the language that mr. Burke suggested but then also saying and also consistent with the conditional use permit and or the emergency declaration okay that's what I wanted to make sure is in there that I'm I'm I'm clarifying and making sure that I heard you correctly and mr. Burke would that be acceptable yes all right let's check with councilmember sweat helm absolutely that makes sense okay and the second councilmember mcdonald do you want me to second that again I made the motion no I'm making I make sure you're good with that I'm happy with that amendment thank you okay any other discussion all right madame city court can you please call the vote thank you mayor councilmember sweat helm hi councilmember soyer councilmember rogers hi councilmember mcdonald hi councilmember fleming yes vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember soyer absent okay and councilmember sweat helm your second motion thank you mr. mayor I would move a resolution of the council of the city santa rosa approving the following one grant agreements for the provision of homeless services with catholic charities of the diocese of santa rosa homeless outreach services team in the amount of one million thirty five thousand four hundred fifty dollars ywca sinoma county safe house shelter program in the amount of fifty thousand dollars in community action partnership of sinoma county hca family fund in the amount of sixty thousand dollars for fiscal year 2022 2023 year one and continuing for up to five years total fiscal year 2022 23 to fiscal year 2026 27 on a conditional basis and to authorizing the chief financial officer to pay all proper claims and costs and wait for the reading of the text I'd like to second okay I had a motion from councilmember sweat helm and a second from councilmember rogers any discussion very make a friendly oh I apologize yeah go ahead councilmember rogers um can we can I make an amendment to a friendly amendment to see if we can provide them with the additional 25 000 that's the motion from the amendment from councilmember rogers uh councilmember sweat helm do you accept the from the amendment I would ask the impacts from the city manager because I know we have mid-year budget and where I'm hesitant very again once again where the cause is heck I'd rather increase their contract by a hundred thousand but I don't know what other impacts I would have could it potentially be a discussion at or mid-year budget update where we get a big picture of all of our funding needs and ask and what they are versus doing it right now in isolation on this item yeah councilmember sweat helm thank you for that question this is a cost we talked about bringing back mid-year I know mid-year didn't take place till almost February of this past year but we're hoping to bring back the mid-year budget around September October so if you know you don't mind waiting until the mid-year budget I think it's probably a cost we could bring back or an excuse me a recommendation we could bring back to you then and so that would be my preference because again I think let's increase it and I don't think not funding it tonight would have any operational costs on the safe house and again I would like to look at it with all the other funding challenges that were being faced so I wouldn't accept it on this motion right at this point okay would you like to make a substitute motion then councilmember rogers um yes let's do that mayor so walk me through this one how do we I think you're I think your substitute yeah I think your substitute motion would be essentially the the staff recommendation with the change of the added 25 000 yes I would like to make a substitute motion with the staff recommending recommendation um with the additional 25 000 is there a second for that motion for clarification would that 25 000 be brought back at mid-year budget review are you asking for that to be brought in tonight so that it's added to this budget for clarification on your motion now and then that would be it councilmember Fleming yes I um hearing no second I have a slightly different motion that might be more acceptable which is is it possible to bring that back when we adopt our budget this month so that we can look at it holistically and make changes as we last minute small tweaks that are usually you know the size are even a little larger at that point I would need to defer that question to my cfo because we are bringing back some other recommendations do I have the cfo on the line I think Alan needs to be promoted but I do see him on there didn't he just get a promotion don't get me started with bad jokes councilmember so I think the question to you mr Alton and congratulations on both promotions is would it be possible to have the 25 000 increase brought to us as a line item on the budget that will be hearing later this month so during the budget period you could or during the adoption you could request that I would say this that additional amount would then take our balance budget and put it out of balance by by that amount so that that's the decision that you would weigh at that time but of course it could be added to the request added option by how much would it put our budget out of balance right right now we're we're literally balanced so it'd be 25 000 over okay I will hold off on my substitute motion and and suggest that we wait till the mid-year review okay so the motion was made by councilmember rogers to do a substitute motion with the added 25 000 is there a second for that motion okay seeing none we'll revert back to the original motion which was the staff recommendation is there any additional discussion on that motion madam city clerk if you could please call the vote councilmember schwedhelm hi councilmember rogers hi councilmember mcdonald hi councilmember fleming yes vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember soyer absent let's go to item 14.3 i mean mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez my name is again here bringing you the measure of violence prevention partnerships choice cycle 11 grant program funding recommendations so before i jump into this presentation i want to extend my deepest gratitude to our violence prevention partnership staff member madeline brown who's been absolutely instrumental in the success of this launch launching this has been a huge lift because i'm new and we have a lot of staff who are new and we could not have gotten this far without her help and dedication so i just i had to say that so thank you the next slide please so some quick background on the choice program measure out past in 2004 so this comes from our measure o funding which was a quarter cent transaction tax and use for the last 20 years and it will be concluding in fiscal year 2024 2025 the violence prevention partnership and recreation neighborhood services division received 20 percent of the measure o revenue of that 20 percent 35 percent of that is allocated for grants to community-based organizations and local school districts so we launched the community helping our indispensable children excel grant program in 2006 and it's been instrumental in our violence prevention efforts and we can go into the next slide please so after rebranding from the mayor's game prevention task force in 2015 the partnership expanded the scope of its mission to reduce youth and gain violence by adopting a public health approach consistent with other local initiatives such as health action cradle to career and upstream investments the violence prevention partnership is designed to improve the health and safety of the community this upstream approach of understanding the root causes of violence provides the partnership with an opportunity to identify strategies that will address key determinants of the community's overall health and safety the community safety scorecard articulates the idea that safety is more than just crime statistics and incorporates indicators across from four major domains those being economic conditions crime and safety family and community connectedness and school conditions in 2017 the strategic plan was launched which included data gathered and analysis through surveys and focus groups with community members and partners complemented by extensive research of evidence informed practices and programming the plan that the strategic plan that the violence prevention partnership needed to found that they needed needed to invest in numerous programs that supported pro-social activities and behavior in youth and families and provide alternatives to gang involvement by supporting community organizations that align with our four pillars which are school readiness street outreach and mediation student engagement and truancy prevention and workforce development and next slide please so if approved funding for the agencies will commence on July 1st of this year and end on December 31st of 2024 each funding year we will be able to allocate $750,000 with a cap of $150,000 per program meaning that no program will receive more than $150,000 per year the allocation will take place contingent on available funds satisfactory performance of scopes of work completion of required outcomes and measurements and discretion of the city manager or doesn't need another point to keep in mind is that the recommended agencies must provide a 50% undine match with up to 25% of that being available to be in kind so that's another point to make and we can go to the next slide please the process for identifying and selecting the community agencies began with the 2021 community needs assessment where we identified a deep and urgent gap in services for youth ages 13 to 18 through this report we identified further important needs or items to consider for cycle 11 one of those being a need for pro social activities and in and out of schools need for mentorship and access to positive role models guidance and support during and post pandemic need for trauma-informed care among school staff and community partners and a need for culturally relevant programming the the request for qualifications was released on January 10th of this year our team provided a technical assistance orientation shortly after the release for community agencies to inquire more about the grant opportunities and partnership by the last day to submit we have received 17 applications totaling an ass of over $2 million per year February 24th the grant review team met for an orientation on the selection process April 5th our grant review team who represented various community sectors came together to culminate the selection process I do want to note that in addition to the framework from our 2021 community needs assessment the review team made the selection using again the 2017 to 2022 violence prevention strategic plan the 2016 community safety scorecard and the measure ordinance so these documents highlighted and specific focuses on positive use justice model trauma-informed care wraparound approaches culturally relevant methodologies results based accountability place-based initiatives and high needs areas as identified by our scorecard finally on May 18th we shared the upcoming recommendations with the violence prevention partnership policy team and the executive advisory board so we're going to go to the next slide please so the grant review team was made up of the committee members and partners that you see here we have Bridget Beck from Sonoma County probation uh interim chief John Cregan from Santa Rosa police department superintendent Anna Trinnell from Santa Rosa City Schools Dr. Hector Rico from Rosalind who's a superintendent at the Rosalind school district and Leslie Graves who is our chair for the community advisory board. Jesus Rosales not only works for Verity as a as a youth outreach specialist but also is one of our Latino service providers pro-promotores and works very closely with with youth in and out of the juvenile hall and in our communities. Jeff Tibbets who is our director of recreation and we can go to the next slide please so to get us started in the categories we have school readiness and the grant review team selected four C's early education outreach intervention program which works one-on-one with at-risk families in prioritizing communities and connect families to early education childcare as well as all needed family supports four C's will also offer early care scholarships to families needing immediate support and additionally four C's will continues has continued to successfully launch grassroots outreach strategies including door-to-door on the radio social media and they have a very strong presence in community at community events. Next slide please. In the category of student engagement and truancy prevention the review team selected center for well-being project true which is a school-based leadership program which empowers youth in high need areas it employs a strength-based and harm reduction model that is effective in increasing student engagement and fostering student success community matters safe school ambassador program this is a evidence-based program it which empowers and equips carefully selected students with intervention skills that reduce bullying and mistreatment lamp hats brooding youth in nature providing teens ages 13 to 18 with culturally relevant healthy outdoor recreation trust and relationship building addressing stressors through nature and supporting adults to support youth all alongside peers and positive adult role models. RISES Collective Programma Josecha this is a student-led community-facilitated program which will allow students to identify current social emotional needs which will both bolster RISES capacity to serve as critical partners in delivering culturally relevant and informed workshops that will meet student identified needs. Next slide please. The Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma Marin's REACH program which is divergent and intervention program is housed at our local juvenile hall the REACH program aims to mitigate dangerous behaviors of high-risk youths through outreach mediation and intervention along with life skills education and cognitive development programs to change the lives of youth community action partnership of Sonoma's rosin strong program it's a continuum of integrated place-based programs providing services in southwest San Rosa focusing on youth and family success including building strong relationships with residents and connecting them to partners and the larger community. LIFORC's Sonoma counties and Puente program provides in-home therapy to youth and their families using a culturally responsive strength-based approach focused on healing trauma building communication connection and enhancing resiliency the program is delivered by two bilingual by cultural counselors trained in evidence-based therapeutic modalities who join families in creating their own goals breaking disruptive cycles honing in on existing strengths and building effective skills. Next slide please. So the process of selecting the affirmation agencies was very difficult and there were a lot of important factors that went into the deliberation taking into consideration the framework elements and the need to meet specific earlier mentioned indicators and given the limitations of the funding amount for this cycle there were no agencies selected for the workforce development category but we can speak later to how we will still be working with agencies on that. Next slide please. So it is recommended by the office of community engagement that the council by resolution adopt the funding recommendations of the grant review team for the measure of choice cycle 11 grant program for July 1st 2022 to December 31st 2024 and direct the city manager or does it need to enter into funding agreements with approved funder providers and authorize the city manager or does it need to approve and execute the funding agreements and amendments with choice cycle 11 funded agencies subject to approval as to form by the city attorney and we'll go to the next slide and that is the end of my presentation. Thank you so much deputy director and I want to appreciate all of the work that goes into this from from you from your staff from community partners from the whole team and the rest of our staff as well. Let's open it up for questions from council members council member McDonald. Thank you and thank you for the presentation. My question to you is do we ever get any data on how the programs that we funded are working or is there something that they report back to the city of Santa Rosa and then how do we access that or does it just go straight to you? That is a great question. Thank you for asking that. We do have our choice grant update it's like an updated scorecard. We have our 2020 updated scorecard available on our website and it and it's used our results based accountability so it'll tell you how much we did how far we got and are we being successful. We're very grateful to upstream investment who got us sort of started on that and that will be available every year and we are hoping to soon be able to close out cycle 10 to let the community know how collectively we did within cycle 10 cycle and then we will be doing a close out at the end of cycle 11 as well so it'll be a larger more extensive report. Thank you so much. Any other questions council? All right let's go to public comment on this item. Thank you mayor. I see nobody rising to go to the program or podium and I see no raised hand oh hold on I do one moment please. Sandra Valencia please go ahead. Yes I definitely we're stand here as a choice fund today just see with community chocolate council I just want to hopefully support that you support moving forward with approving this funding. I am first hand at working with families and being in a community with a community chocolate council for 28 years have been able to do intensive case management in a whole different level things to this funding and be able to secure more families to be able to provide for their families at the same time make sure that their children are safe healthy environment which nurturing adults and being able to support this program to really impact the families and the community overall in Santa Rosa and the families and adults in the children that are not here today to represent to say please support them so thank you very much. Thank you um I see no other hands and there's no voicemail public comment on this item. Okay let's go ahead bring it back to council then and council member Fleming I believe that this is your motion. Thank you mayor I'll bring a resolution of the council of the city of Santa Rosa adopting the funding recommendations of the grant review team for the measure O 2004 choice cycle grant 11 or choice cycle 11 grant program for July 1 2022 through December 31 2024 and granting authority to the city manager or designee to approve and execute funding agreements and waive further reading of the text. Second. Do we have any additional comments? Okay let's go ahead and call the vote. Council member. Mr. Mayor could I make a comment I have my hand up there oh yeah my apologies go for it just for the vote. I really want to thank the grant review team having done that a couple years ago reviewing 17 different applications and have to select just eight is quite the challenge so I really appreciate the time energy and effort and the volunteerism especially for those couple superintendents I know they've got busy schedules but it was very impressive that they agreed to participate on this and I also like to thank the voters of Santa Rosa because without this measure O funds here's almost two million dollars going back into the community this is exactly what we said we were going to be doing and the golly thank you for talking about the evaluation of it because these programs do work but again we have just to thank the voters of the city of Santa Rosa who approved this funding stream and it's just been a great collaboration throughout the community thank you. Council members now we will call the vote. Council member Schwedhelm. Aye. Council member Rogers. Aye. Council member McDonald. Aye. Council member Fleming. Aye. Vice Mayor Alvarez. Aye. Mayor Rogers. Aye. That motion passes with six ayes with council member Sawyer being absent. All right thank you. Item City Manager let's do item 14.4 please. Thank you mayor and if you would just give me one quick second before we go to item 14.1 deputy director tell us jumped in before I could make a comment I just want to remind this body sometimes we will bring comprehensive reports onto this body and we may not always have all the answers we may not have answers that you like but I have a extremely dedicated and hardworking team and I want to make certain that that we are respecting staff for the hard work that they put in and that if we have to come back to you with an answer or we need to make adjustments I just ask that you remember to respect the staff thank you. Item 14.4 is a report it's the parklet program manual adoption I'd like to introduce deputy director Osborne and deputy director De La Rosa. Good evening Mayor Rogers and members of the council so at long last deputy director gave Osborne and I are here along with a number of other dedicated and very involved city staff to present a pathway to move us from the temporary parklet program to permanent one and if we could get the presentation up that would be great. Thanks okay so this has been something that has been an interest particularly to economic development for many years well before the pandemic but like most things the city does it is far more complicated than the name implies and this is because parklet programs are informed by local state and federal regulations and touches almost every department in the city that said we believe we've created a program that will be easy to navigate in as affordable a manner as possible so next slide please. Okay the purpose of adopting the parklet program manual is so that we can clearly outline the process criteria and costs for safely delineating and repurposing certain spaces within public streets and the benefit of this is to broaden the potential of these spaces from auto-centric uses to uses that create or really bolster vitality and social activities predominantly in commercial districts but in residential centers as well so I want to note here that parklets are mostly associated with eating and drinking establishments but this isn't always the case certainly it isn't the only thing we're proposing in the manual they can be built by other business types for other community oriented purposes as well. Next slide so years ago when we first began looking at developing a program we hit many many internal roadblocks starting with whether businesses should even be allowed to privatize public space and that's on top of just a myriad of other operational concerns and considerations but you know necessity is the mother of invention and once COVID came along we were able to very quickly develop the temporary program that we have today that is operated out of the planning and economic development department obviously with the support of all other departments and we did this using the encroachment permits as the permitting path and this is really the model that we'll be using moving forward using encroachment permits but specific to public versus private parklets by a way of background before COVID when parklets became a thing in other cities they were almost always public spaces though primarily used in Service 2 and budding private businesses to where it wasn't always evident that they were open for public use so COVID changed this and is actually continuing to change and inform programs even in cities like San Francisco where those programs were adamantly designed to be public so while our temporary program allowed parklets to be private spaces moving forward what we'll be presenting to you covers two options either public or private parklets with the difference really only reflected in what fees are applied so we'll get that into that in a minute but just so you understand so public parklets will still be sponsored by a business organization or community group but they're open for public use regardless of whether people patronize the sponsoring establishment or not and then private parklets are just that they'll have more costs associated with them but the sponsoring organization has the right to limit the use of the space of those patronizing their business and I just want to mention here that fairly soon we'll be rolling out a small business facade improvement grant program and parklets are or will be an eligible expense within that program next slide so I'm actually going to hand this over to Gabe here in a second to get into the technical details of the manual but before I do I just want to point out the isolated area this this program addresses so on this diagram uses that fall within the frontage zone and the furnishing zone so really any area of the public sidewalk that is not the shaded five foot uninhindered through zone the the other sidewalk areas are covered under a separate approval and permitting process and especially in the downtown those uses are generally permitted by right and so with that I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Gabe. Thank you Risa and good evening Mayor Vice Mayor and members of the council as Risa mentioned our proposed parklet program today really adds to a portfolio of existing programs the city has in place for outdoor seating and that's really what this exhibit is intended to show we do have existing programs for sidewalk or cafe seating and we do have existing programs for the expansion of patio seating on public excuse me private property the parklet program for reasons Risa mentioned earlier on in the presentation has definitely been most challenging mainly due to the location it is located in an area that historically has been programmed for parking and it creates a significant number of challenges to address all the variety of issues that potentially it can present long term in that area but what we hope we're able to present today is a program that not only focuses on aesthetics but also focuses on safety and a program that alleviates some of the burdens from a processing and time standpoint on the applicant as well as the fees because we really do want this to be as successful as it possibly can next slide please so as we step through today's presentation I'll dive into quite a bit of detail on the specific requirements and permit processing steps I'd like to begin by a very brief overview of what that permit pathway duration and process looks like we are proposing to allow parklets to move forward under encroachment permit applications that is an existing application type that is supported by our city code it also has an existing fee structure associated with it so the manual will actually supplement the code and it dives into some of the details that are very unique to parklets and addresses those but it will work in conjunction with the code requirements we are proposing to issue those permits for one year with annual renewals and we are not restricting the number of renewals hence the permanent program the reason we have it on a one year cycle is because the universe around a parklet in the public right of way can change so parklets have to always be associated with an active business and that can change and then obviously in the public infrastructure arena we're dealing with a lot of capital projects that might temporary displace the parklet so the one year cycle gives us the ability to review to make sure that it's free and clear for that year from a process standpoint we are pushing it through two reviews the first is an initial review that really what that looks at is site suitability and that's intended to provide clarity to the applicant through that process and that process can be submitted by a business owner it does not require a design professional we will approve the site and that will provide clarity in the process before they engage architect and start investing in final design the second process is the final design review and that is a review of the design drawings reviewed against all manual requirements code policies and standards that will have a public noticing process associated with it which is a 15-day public noticing and then obviously once approved we'll be generating construction drawings and the encroachment permit will be issued next slide please so when looking at the location criteria we didn't want to create a policy that created any allowances or restrictions based on geographic areas we really wanted to look at a solution that would allow parklets to go throughout Santa Rosa when the location criteria is met and that location criteria falls into a few different categories the first is traffic safety so we're only proposing to allow parklets on a street with a speed limit of 25 miles per less and a trip volume of less than 5000 vehicles a day we're proposing to create a separation from intersections of 15 feet so that would be 15 feet from any street corner intersection or active driveway we are allowing the traffic engineer some discretion in this area so if a lesser distance actually meets the same safety goal we can allow it we're not allowing installations in any blue curb zone or red curb zone those are accessibility and emergency parking we are allowing parklets to go on yellow zones but they actually have to replace the yellow zone that is a loading zone the other category that can control the location is utility clearances the biggest being hydrant clearance so in the public right of way we have to maintain access to all hydrants and fire department connections so we are creating a buffer of seven and a half feet parklets can go over the top of other utilities that exist in the right of way those are typically underground utilities we are requiring that the parklet provide access to most utility covers so those can be valve covers they're generally areas where we need to operate the utility from the surface and the parklet will have to provide direct access to that through this process we worked closely with PG&E because obviously they have infrastructure in the right of way as well and they have more stringent requirements in some situations utility covers are vented because of air circulation reasons the parklet cannot be placed over the top and PG&E also has requirements with overhead power lines so we actually incorporated those PG&E requirements into our proposed program the other item that can control the location of parklets really is the public process so in this particular case we are restricting the parklet to the fringe of the building so that really means the width of the business a parklet that wants to extend beyond the business has to obtain permission from the adjacent owner or tenant that individual can approve or deny that request and we're also going to analyze unique site specific issues that are brought forward as part of the public noticing process we don't necessarily see that that would result in a denial of the application but we want to open it up for that public review and we want to be able to address the community's concerns next slide please so obviously parklets take up public parking and one of the challenges is balancing out the need for public parking with the desire to activate that space in a different way and to create that balance we are restricting the number of spaces that a parklet can occupy parklets can be in either parallel perpendicular or diagonal spaces and they can either occupy three diagonal spaces or three perpendicular spaces or two parallel spaces i think it's important to note that we in the policy are adding staff discretion to increase the number of spaces when unique circumstances exist and that would typically be when an applicant cannot take full advantage of a parking stall and that type of situation would exist when the buffer increases so as you can see in the detail we're proposing a buffer of three to four feet from the adjacent parking stall just for operational purposes for example you may see a fire hydrant right along that line which would include that separation of seven and a half feet which would further push the parklet away from the edge of the parking stall so you can run into a situation where a property excuse me a business owner is essentially getting 20% of the parking stall so in that type of situation we would allow an additional stall to be brought in the mix to be able to provide the same amount of space next slide piece so what i mentioned before is really when we go through our preliminary site plan or preliminary review we're really trying to determine site suitability and we also wanted to make this a simple process so we provide a significant amount of guidance in the program manual including plans that can be submitted obviously you can see that this is the digital representation but if an applicant wishes to prepare this by hand we will accept it but this is generally what we're looking for we're looking for the footprint of the parklet and all the surrounding features that are in the right of way and where the parklet is in relation to the business so this does really add its guidance for the applicant next slide please so although we really wanted to create a program that was universal to the city of Santa Rosa when the location requirements are met we did have to place a specific focus on the downtown station area and the downtown station area is the downtown and railroad square area and the reason being is we really wanted our permanent program to be informed by the lessons learned in our experiences under our temporary allowances so right after COVID when we had the initial shelter-in-place requirements we stood up two programs that allowed temporary seating in the right of way those had very minimal requirements limited cost and we learned quite a few lessons from that and we also were able to see where the demand existed for that and 100 percent of those applications were issued in the downtown station area so we knew that there was a definite demand for permanent parklets so we had to focus on some of the unique issues in that area and the biggest issue is associated with the paid parking so in addition to balancing the parking needs with a desired activate public space we're also incorporating into the discussion a potential impacts to the parking fund by allocating or excuse me placing parklets in areas that normally would generate parking revenue so as we first started down this road a year or so ago to start working on the manual we originally came up with a proposal that looked at potentially recovering some of that parking fund and that was looking at a one-time fee and then an ongoing fee for that parking impact and as we started doing our community outreach and engaging the community on that front there were some significant concerns about the overall fee package parklets are not cheap to build and just the cost of construction can be fairly pricey so we were looking at developing a model where overall from a development of the plan standpoint and a fee package that we were balancing that so that didn't really create avoidance because we wanted this to be successful so once that came up we started taking a harder look at the parking fee and from a methodology standpoint if we look at the downtown and the railroad square area there is surplus parking so when we look at a limited number of parklets they are isn't potentially an impact on the parking revenue and that's due to the fact that as a vehicle approaches a space that has a parklet in it it is able to further maneuver in that area to utilize surplus parking and that surplus parking is generating revenue so the vehicle is really not being displaced out of the parking district to where it doesn't pay now it's very hard to make that finding when we don't have a restriction on the number of parking spaces that can be allocated to a parklet because you could run into a situation where there is saturation and there's too many parklets in the area and then we're pushing outside of that surplus so to address that issue we are proposing to delegate authority to the parking manager to set a cap on the number of meter parking spaces in the downtown and railroad square areas that initial cap is proposed to be set at 50 meter spaces between the two areas that 50 meter spaces is a well above and beyond the current demand that we've been seeing for permanent parklets and it's also very close to the total number of spaces that we allocated to our temporary program and at the height of that program we were utilizing 50 spaces so we think that 50 will not only meet the current demand for permanent parklets but also the future demand and it also allows us to move forward with no fee for the parking on the parklets because there isn't necessarily that nexus because we're taking advantage of the surplus parking. Next slide please. So once we get through site suitability we're actually getting into design and there's a few components to that which traffic safety being the most important. The detail that's provided on this slide was provided by the National Association of City Transportation Officials. It gives a general idea of how a parklet lays out. That organization also has provided some protection measures for parklets. Those have been incorporated by other local jurisdictions and they've also expanded on those as have we. So what we're requiring to protect from a traffic safety standpoint is we're requiring wheel stops on both sides of the parklet and as you can see from the detail parklets typically have parking on both ends and the wheel stop prevents the vehicle from striking the parklet as it maneuvers in and out of the parking stall. We are also requiring soft hit posts and those are number two on the detail so those are posts at the corners. They make the parklet more visible especially at night because they have reflective material on them so the vehicles approaching can see the corner. We're also controlling the depth of the parklet so the parklet is pushed away from the edge of the parking stall to create more of a buffer from vehicle traffic running parallel and in some situations we may see where the end of the parklet is not protected by a parking stall and this can be a situation where the parklet is located fairly close to an intersection and is occupying the last parking stall adjacent to the intersection. In that particular case when an edge is exposed to oncoming vehicle traffic we are requiring a water barricade on that edge as an additional measure. And then I think the most important is to limit the exposure to the high number of vehicles traveling at a high speed and that's why we're only allowing parklets when the speed limit is 20 miles per hour with the specific 5,000 vehicles per day allowance. Next slide please. As parklets are installing a structure in the public right-of-way they do have to meet building code requirements. All portions of the structure shall meet live loads and win loads what that means is obviously you have people occupying the parklet they are leaning against railings they are sitting on chairs so structurally the parklet has to make sure it meets those loads. As you expand vertically on the parklet it is more susceptible to wind so there has to be a structural analysis from a code compliance standpoint to make sure it works. All portions of the platform in the seating area shall meet ADA requirements and I think this is an important point. A parklet is a very unique seating area in the public right-of-way and being that it has to meet all associated ADA requirements and some of the more specific items with this is not an all-inclusive list but it includes slip resistant surface materials it ensures that wheelchair users can access the parklet it also ensures that the parklet has the correct percentage of accessible seating and one of the big reasons why there's always a platform is because the platform can control the slope which is a particular item from an ADA standpoint. We are also with the structure attempting to reduce vertical and overhead elements roofing is strongly discouraged it can be allowed at the discretion of the chief building official the reason it is discouraged is because of the wind issue it becomes more of a risk to the general use of the right-of-way and generally there's more support structures and anchoring that happens at the base to make it work and of course the next bullet point is we want to reduce anchoring because that potentially impacts the roadway. The final item on the building side or occupancy load calculations those really look at the number of occupants that a business has private part fire sprinklers or the number of restrooms we don't anticipate that to occur based on the small square footage but that can actually happen and they actually have to go through the calculation as part of the smell. Next slide please. So in addition to building design there are general aesthetic requirements and these are always a bit challenging because from a processing standpoint we're trying to make parklets very ministerial mainly to support a very streamlined process and those are very much check the box sort of items when we say ministerial application so we're really encouraging every effort to beautify and create visual character in the street so we're looking modular and movable outdoor dining because we're not required or excuse me because we're not recommending a more formal design review process we're actually requiring the parklet to meet the design of the building which the assumption is as most situations the design of the building goes through a design review process so by matching that you're essentially bringing in that design review element all exposed support structure shall be covered with visually pleasing products so we don't want to see any bare wood materials cannot create glare illuminate an offsite area that's potentially just creating impacts to the right of way so metallic materials may be problematic. Next slide please. So one of the items to support a ministerial application and more of a checklist are including items that we will not permit and this is a bit of a comprehensive list from what some other agencies have done some of our experience with our temporary parklets what we're not proposing to include in the installation are pop-up tents those can be problematic for a variety of different reasons outdoor carpeting or fake lawn products any form of lattice either wood or plastic any pallets which likely will not hold up from a structural standpoint based on the current requirements anyway no plastic tables or chairs no plastic or vinyl fences trellises or furniture no picket fencing or chain lint fencing and no hinged middle pet enclosures so all those are included in the policy next slide please so the amenities that not only are we allowing but we're also encouraging our bike parking that may be included as part of the parklet or may be installed directly outside of the parklet we're encouraging native drop tolerant plannings in planners incorporated into the parklet instead of doing overhead roofing structures we're allowing some level of vertical with overhead umbrellas and canvas covers to provide side coverage we're also allowing warm tone which is generally a yellow light string lights or lanterns which we're encouraging those to be solar powered powered and battery powered candles our fire department is also allowing propane heaters but that must be consistent with fire department requirements so there's a separate permitting requirement for that it controls separation from overhead elements and it also deals with the storage of propane and then obviously trash and recycling and compost bins are also encouraged next slide please so when we get into the fees this is one of the areas where we put a significant amount of effort over the last three months and as i described in a previous slide we were able to move forward without proposing a parking fee public and private parklets do deviate a bit on the total fee package both are susceptible to the general permitting fees those include processing plan review inspection fees associated with the encroachment permit there's also a fee that covers the hard cost of the noticing the other fee that comes into the mix when it's a private parklet is potentially the water and wastewater demand fees all businesses basically go through a calculation when they start up to determine the anticipated sewer and water use and when those businesses expand that calculation is revisited and this is an expansion of the business because it's a privately controlled area very similar to an internal additional square footage add to the building so the water department goes through a calculation and if that calculation shows that the usage on the overall site will increase which is an important point it looks at the overall parcel then the applicant is susceptible to paying a one-time demand fee that demand fee is actually a benefit to the property owner because it basically goes into the pool of available capacity that the parcel has and it's not always due there's a variety of different reasons oftentimes there can be credits where more intense uses have left the building and when as the restaurant comes in even though it expands it's able to leverage credits that exist on the parcel but it definitely is a calculation that we go through and it is a possibility that private parklets will have to pay it next slide please so looking at the two-year fee program so for a proposed parklet and this will see a deviation here really based on a public and a private parklet they all have to pay the encroachment permit fee and that's estimated to be about $720 based on the current fee structure obviously as that changes in the future then this fee changes with it we're also adding the public information services fee which is essentially covering our noticing and the water and sewer demand fee this is a bit of an estimate based on an increase in 2000 gallons of additional demand as I mentioned in the previous slide it only applies to private parklets and it may not apply if the parcel has available fee credits and then as we see in our second year that's a very small renewal fee for just the encroachment permit which covers our cost review that the overall fee package we're proposing is one of the smallest that I've seen for permanent parklets so as I mentioned we're really trying to encourage the deployment of these parklets and we're trying to give the applicant the ability to invest more in the design and create the beautification element in the right of way next slide please so I think it's always important to talk about how we touch public processes both with the manual creation that we've gone through as well as how we administer this policy so through the application review obviously we require permission from the adjacent property owner so they have a voice in the installation that parklet especially when it extends into their frontage we also run this through a 15-day public review period that will involve notices sent to tenants and owners within 600 feet of the radius anytime we do that we obviously work with the adjacent community to address any concerns that are brought forward as we develop this manual it was a bit of a unique situation that we did have a very targeted audience we did our best to create a universal policy that can apply throughout the city but we had a real desire within the downtown area in the railroad square districts to implement permanent parklets so we worked very closely with those districts we held multiple meetings with business owners to talk through some of the concepts that we were looking at it's of course correct when needed in addition to that we also conducted some very direct interaction with the temporary permit holders to see what their interests were and moving forward with a permanent parkway next slide please so we're moving to the conclusion here you know obviously I mentioned in the the early stages of presentation that we do have a temporary outdoor seating program so our goal obviously because that was temporary that was put in strictly for COVID relief to throw a lifeline to businesses is we really want to stand that down as we bring forward the permanent policy so the temporary program was very simple I'm a hundred percent COVID relief it was all private use very minimal requirements in that particular case we actually allowed it under the city code chapter 13 which allows for an encroachment permit to occur so that was all done through that code allowance simply due to the need that we needed to get it up and running fairly quickly to support the needs of the community now if we move forward with the adoption of the permanent policy today what our proposal is is to cease any issuance of temporary permits because we'll have the permanent program in place that any applicant wishing to move forward can go through the permanent program and then we also want to remove the temporary seating by September 12th and of this year and that date is fairly strategic so for those applicants that have no desire to move forward with the permanent program we still wanted to give them an opportunity to have some level of outdoor seating through the summer so September 12th actually gets it through Labor Day and also gets a weekend after Labor Day and what we found is that most parklets are removed on the weekend because of the resources that can come in to support that another option if an applicant does want to actually move forward with the permanent program by completing the application and formally submitting a complete application prior to the date we will allow the attempt seating to remain while the permit goes through the review process and just a notice for the public obviously when we get into revoking permits and sunsetting policies that exist we do our best to get voluntary compliance we do our best to notice and we do our best to support the city can remove seating out of the right of way and that seating can be removed with permit holders expense we do our best to not let it get to that point but that is usually our last effort to address these issues if we run into a non-compliant situation next slide please so before we hit the the final side I did discuss some of the components that are involved in our recommendations today one specifically is we do want to potentially authorize the director of the planning and economic development department to execute future updates to the program manual and that would be very specific to the following areas fee references obviously those are changed through other processes as fees are adopted and modified we want to want the flexibility to update those numbers in the policy just to keep it clear and keep it up to date same holds true with local state and federal code references those are adopted and this will be incorporated in the policy through this means to keep that fresh and then we do control internally often permitting procedures and application processes and those can change for a variety of different reasons with digital submittals coming into the mix so requesting the flexibility to be able to make those changes next slide please and that brings us to the end so I'd like to complete the presentation by simply restating the recommendations I apologize we do have a slight typo in the first the first is to adopt the parklet program manual outlining requirements to expand a business's outdoor operating space on a public street and assign existing service fees to applications initiated under the program second recommendation is to authorize the director of planning and economic development to approve future changes to the parklet program manual when references to local state and federal code requirements adopted fees or applications middle processes require updating and the third is to authorize the parking manager to determine the total number of mirrored parking spaces within the downtown station area that may be utilized for permanent parklet program and with that both rice and I and a variety of different staff and different departments are available to answer any questions the council may have I thank you so much Gabe there's always a very thorough and and very good presentation I want to thank all of the staff that have worked on this and have worked on compromises to try to move this program forward council do you have questions for staff council member Fleming yeah I have one question about the five hundred five thousand trips and 25 miles will that impact any of our existing uses in terms of the the parklets that are currently going on with will they have to dismantle that that is an excellent question the area that we're further analyzing is on mendicino we see different traffic patterns as we move up from mendicino pretty much from college to fourth the highest trip counts are from college to seventh and that's over the five thousand but we didn't see any parklets in that corridor fifth to seventh was slightly over five thousand and we did see parklets in that corridor and then fourth the fifth was under the traffic counts are actually from 2019 and we are going through the process now of doing additional traffic counts to accurately capture what those traffic patterns are obviously we had the change with courthouse square we had issues with covid affecting really traffic patterns so we're fairly certain fifth to seventh will be under it and we'll be working with those applicants directly to iron out those details if we start seeing permanent requests in that corridor but that is the only area that we've identified that would not be eligible the rest of the parklets would be eligible based on those restrictions and Gabe do you want to speak a little bit about brew as well absolutely yes brew is a fairly unique situation and we do have that referenced in the manual that is not parking that's essentially taking additional right of way space that's not programmed for a specific use because it's in the middle of the two travel lanes so our manual does allow for that it is very much a unique situation so in that particular case we're going to do our best to apply all of our requirements to that but it won't always fit because of those situations are fairly unique and they can be very unique from a traffic standpoint as you can see from brew obviously more water barricades out there more temporary redirection of traffic so we will be working very closely with them and we have from the start and the policy does allow for it it just will be a fairly unique case by case determination on what the ultimate requirements under that permit will be okay thank you and going back to my question about the existing parklets that which was specifically identified on Mendocino between 5th and 7th would it be possible for the traffic engineer or the city manager or there does a need to make exceptions for existing uses that come close to the the parameters but that are not within it and or what and then an adjacent question is what if in the future existing uses end up with higher traffic or higher trips I don't imagine we would increase the speeds but that perhaps the the amount of trips begins to exceed 5000 in a particular area in spite of our traffic calming measures around the downtown and those are all excellent points I think from a policy standpoint to address the question about an existing permit so basically as we review the permit those requirements really lock in so if patterns change within that year we don't revisit it but we are creating a a permitting process where we actually revisit this on an annual basis and one of the reasons for that is because conditions can dramatically change so when we deal with the 5000 trips it you know what point does it become more of a safety issue with the parklet and at what point are there more stringent traffic control measures that we implement so as we currently sit that is not an area where we added a discretion that is an area where we can add discretion and we have that in other areas in the policy especially with the 15 foot separation where basically that bounces back to the traffic engineer to make a determination that if you're essentially 5001 that that's close enough to 5000 so it isn't into the policy now but that would be consistent with some other allowances we have in there and that can be specifically focused on existing parklets that were approved under different circumstances so what you're saying just to be super clear is that the traffic engineer has a bit of discretion around the amount of trips and then I suppose since it's coming back to us it'll be a great opportunity to look at traffic calming and then the other thing that I noticed about the parklets is that they are inherently traffic calming in and of themselves and so I imagine that that when there are collisions there are much lower speeds because the roads are significantly lower I know there was a parklet collision on 5th street between Mendocino and D I want to say but I don't think anybody was injured necessarily I think it was the the I'm gonna butcher the name it was something pig it was it's a great restaurant anyway I don't know if it's still there the what pig the naked pig that's right anyway so you know there are risks associated with it but I one of the things that I really like about these is that they do slow down traffic and they make the area more accessible and I'd like to hear that the traffic engineer does have some discretion Gabe if I if I may Mayor Gabe I don't know if anyone from traffic engineering is on if they are they can talk about the Mendocino Avenue corridor study that's currently underway in the downtown if they're not on I'll just simply mention council member that that we actually are actively looking at alternatives for Mendocino Avenue between 4th and 10th and that may feed directly into the work that that Gabe and Rice have done to try to understand what that corridor may look like in the future that may enhance the ability for future parklets so I think some of that work is in the process of of happening that's really exciting I'll contact you separately to learn more about that I know the businesses and and the bike pad people will be excited to hear about that as well and we do have Rob sprinkle available and Rob would you like to provide more detail on I think Jason really nailed it on head I was I was ready to jump in but yeah we did we have had a public meeting and got a lot of great input there's actually a survey online right now where we've gotten over 600 different comments regarding what to do with Mendocino Avenue and how to help accommodate all different modes of transportation on the segment between college and 4th Street so that's going to be incorporated into our slurry project which is coming up next summer so we're really excited to get the feedback from the public and to move forward with a design to help accommodate all those there all right thank you Rob any other questions all right let's get a public comment on this item mayor I don't see anybody going to the podium I see no raised hands and we have no voicemail public comment on this item all right I'm going to go ahead and bring it back then and councilmember mcdonald I believe it's your motion yes thank you mayor I moved the resolution of the council the city of Santa Rosa adopt the parklet program manual and assigning existing service fees to applications initiated under the program authorizing the director of planning and economic development to prove future changes to the parklet program manual to address code updates fee adoptions and changes to permitting process and authorizing the parking manager to determine the total number of metered parking spaces within the downtown station area that may be utilized by the permanent parklet program and waive for the reading of the resolution second so motion from councilmember mcdonald and a second and councilmember clemming there any additional comments from council mayor let's go councilmember rogers and then clemming thank you mayor I just wanted to thank staff for all the hard work it is very thought out and thorough very comprehensive and I think all the comments that I received from a lot of the the neighbors that had concerns about parklets that were next to them that you really address those issues and did it very thoroughly and did it in a way where it is creating community not division and so I just wanted to thank you for doing that and doing it in writing so thank you very much for your hard work on this and councilmember clemming yes thank you mayor I just I wanted to add that these these parklet programs they can seem really simple when you just want to throw something up but the devil is in the details and it's always you know interesting on the outside to watch the cities that tried to permanent make these permanent a year ago or 18 months ago and how how difficult it was so I just want to applaud our staff for going through all these finer points the fact the fact that I haven't been delused by emails from my constituents and business owners in the downtown is a real testament to your outreach and your wisdom on these topics and that that we had no comments tonight just baffled me I thought we were going to be here till midnight so really well done thank you cast member mcdonald thank you mayor in addition I received some emails just requesting that we approve this item from different members of the community that weren't business owners but found that it was really important to have opportunities to sit outside and I think we know that the pandemic is not over yet and many people do want to still eat outside and so I appreciate the aesthetic part of what we're doing in the parklet program as well so that there's some consistency and there's some some recommendations for design so that we do have that aesthetically pleasing downtown area I think that that's critical when we look at building and what we want to have and see specifically around the lighting so that it's inviting it also creates an opportunity for people to feel safe when they're down at our restaurants in the evening time when there's outdoor lighting like that so thank you again for the great presentation tonight and I echo what all of my colleagues have said about the importance of having this continue thanks mr vice mayor thank you sir very quickly I just want to applaud all the efforts that were uh that were made to make this happen uh government didn't dictate how a business should be ran and said it witnessed it supported and it assured that that our downtown commerce and merchants thrived during the pandemic so thank you on behalf of all the merchants of downtown let's go ahead and call the vote councilmember schwedhelm hi councilmember rogers hi councilmember mcdonald hi councilmember fleming hi vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember soyer being absent okay thank you so much gave and rise and everybody to move on to item 14.5 report item 14.5 is city code charter 18-52 flood damage protection amendments chief building official jesse oswald will present the report thank you well good evening mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez and council um glad to be with you tonight always a tough act to follow uh going behind gave and race uh i always seem to be stuck behind these these rock stars so tonight uh we bring before the council uh the first uh a look at uh the the flood damage protection ordinance with the city of san aroza uh next slide please so the this flood damage protection ordinance uh is really the operational physical element of the national flood insurance uh program which is operated under fema and a little extra information on that is this program affords homeowners in flood prone areas uh typically lower rates for flood insurance than say your your commercial type carriers so it's a beneficial program for the for those property owners in in flood potential prone areas uh so the the ordinance sets forth the requirements for construction and development within designated flood flood prone areas next slide please so what started this uh revisit to our ordinance our ordinance uh is is fairly um it's not long it's not overly complicated and it historically has been uh very compliant so the first thing that brings us here is fema recently uh completed a flood insurance study and a flood insurance rate map for areas within sonoma county that were primarily outside the city of san aroza limits focused the the study was focused in the todd creek and its tributary areas in very few uh if i recall right maybe two or or maybe more but not very many more parcels actually within the city limits were affected uh here we have a statement from the director of floodplain management with fema rachel sears that indicated these maps didn't have any significant changes that made flood flood hazard data any any more uh instrumental in in the local application uh that the flood insurance study in the in the firm maps will become effective july 19th 2022 uh necessitating necessitating the changes uh the adoption of the changes to our local ordinance to maintain participation in this national flood insurance program next slide please so as i indicated um we were fortunate and i believe uh have remained vigilant over the years in our ordinance and in maintaining compliance with the federal requirements and other state requirements to essentially match those ordinances uh the the idea is that we we literally are told by the federal agency that we we must be consistent with their laws regulations and ordinance to maintain compliance and maintain enrollment uh in the program so some of the highlighted changes uh that were uh brought forth to affect our ordinance some additional definitions including the definition of recreational vehicle which is we're seeing more common use of those for some types of housing so they wanted to identify those and how those are dealt with in flood prone areas uh proceed procedural clarifications on how we apply uh requirements to development in flood prone areas and the additional of one technical requirement that is is fairly new is the establishment for what's uh normally called a free board it means essentially that uh the lowest floor of any new development say a house uh meaning say it's a one-story home that floor needs to now be one foot above what's called base flood elevation next slide please and i apologize for the blurriness of these pictures i'm not sure uh the transition from the the snip to the slide this shows uh the original requirement trying to indicate the the somewhat blue-green area of where a flood level could be anticipated to rise to in that level it really shows that it could rise to about the floor level of of a home and that was the old requirement that we simply have that floor level at or above that level that's identified in the flood flood maps uh next slide please so the newest requirement again apologies for the blurriness tries to indicate showing that lowest floor now if we were to build a home in a flood prone area in the established uh base flood elevation was x the lowest floor of the home would have to now be one foot above that that's an extra element of safety when uh designing structures homes primarily but other structures and how we would want those to be constructed to be reusable so to speak in the event of a flood next slide please so bringing this to the the short uh and end of the the presentation uh it's recommended by the planning and economic development department that the city council by resolution number one introduce an ordinance adopting amended city code chapter 18-52 flood damage protection to comply with regulatory requirements that our ordinance coincide with 44 code of federal regulation 60.3 and adopt a resolution setting a public hearing on july 12 2022 for adoption of the ordinance and i also have waiting in the wings uh claire meyers stormwater and creeks manager and flannery banks assistant engineer with stormwater and creeks for any technical questions that may be posed more on the flood study side as opposed to the ordinance itself all right thank you so much jesse let's see is there any questions from council members not seeing any so let's go to public comment i see nobody rising in the council chamber no hands raised in zoom and i have no voicemail public comment on this item okay council members let them can you introduce uh uh suggestion the motion a suggestion first of all i want to say jesse awesome presentation don't sell yourself short nice job so i would like to introduce an ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa adopting amendments to city code chapter 18-52 and waive further into the text second in any additional conversation all right let's call the vote council member schwedhelm hi council member rogers hi council member mcdonald hi council member phleming hi vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with council member soyer being absent and then i'd like to introduce a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa setting a time in place for a public hearing for the proposed adoption of amendments to santa rosa city code chapter 18-52 flood damage protection in waive further into the text second so motion from council member schwedhelm with a second from council member rogers let's call the vote council member schwedhelm hi council member rogers hi council member mcdonald hi council member phleming hi vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with council member soyer being absent all right thank you council so we have uh one written communication for tonight it's the notice of final map for belview ranch phase seven let's go and open it up and see if there's any public comment mayor there i see nobody rising to the podium i know hands raised and i have no voicemail public comment on this item all right let's also then take public comment for non-agenda items for our second time for the night and again i see nobody rising to the podium no hands raised and i have no voicemail public comment on item 17 okay well thank you everybody we'll go ahead and adjourn tonight's meeting see you all back at home soon