Community Advisory Board

637 First Street City of Santa Rosa Santa Rosa, CA 95404 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final Wednesday, June 7, 2017 5:30 PM SPECIAL MEETING 5:30 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL Present:12 - Chair Cherie Barnett, Vice Chair Lacinda Moore, Board Member Linda Adrain, Board Member Veronica Cruz, Board Member Victoria Fleming, Board Member Jazmin Gudino Mendoza, Board Member Vincent Harper, Board Member Jennielynn Holmes, Board Member Tanya Narath, Board Member Xavier Nazario , Board Member Cecile Querubin and Board Member Calum Weeks Excused: 1 - Board Member Tiffani Montgomery 2. OATH OF OFFICE Member Cruz was sworn in as an official member of the Community Advisory Board. 3. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS Chair Barnett welcomed all in attendance and provided an overview of the retreat. Caluha Barnes, Director of Community Engagement also welcomed all in attendance and provided a brief introduction to the proposed strategic planning initiative. Annette Townley, City of Santa Rosa Organizational Development and Training Manager, led the CAB through an opening exercise, asking members the following questions (staff did not participate): 1. What do you love about Santa Rosa today? Member Holmes - born and raised here. On the cusp of big city with small town feel. Love the creativitiy and prospective future we have. I like our involvement in the next step. Member Weeks - Likes our ability to weather the storm. The overall spirit. So much character. Member Fleming - Has been here for ten years . Great place to live and work if things are stable. Don’t have to fight for the parking and the things if I were in Oakland and Berkeley. Expensive but worth it. Things aren’t broken here. There’s always something around the corner. Member Nazario - Has been here for five years. Ways to get involved. Convenience. Can City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 ride my bike. Active lifestyle weather wine and food.The west end farmers market. Backyard bbqs and parties. Member Cruz - We have city and country close together. Without the headaches. Progressive attitude. Willing to listen, less closed minded. Member Querubin - Has been here for five years. Came here originally for a Master's program at Sonoma State. Used to be a New Yorker. Wanted to live in a city even if it’s smaller. Likes the outdoors. Hiking and creek. Can walk around. Lives downtown on purpose. Doability of creating what we want here. People are really committed in that way. Member Harper - I like people. I like the diversity. You can find the diversity. Fascinated by how people think. Member Adrain - The people. Moved from LA and its day and night. Friendly and helpful. Committed to causes. The people are what makes Santa Rosa the best. Member Narath - Has lived on the west side of Santa Rosa since 1992. Changed in positive ways. Much more community involvement. Very inspiring. People have a passion to make neighborhoods better. Reunification of Courthouse Square is very cool. So close to natural spaces. Wild open areas and the value placed on them. Member Gudino - Community input at special city council meetings. Standing room only. I love that people feel compelled to come and welcome to come speak infront of the council. Participation. Likes Southwest Community Park. Grew up there and it’s a great park in Santa Rosa. Likes Bayer Farm - there are 200 families using it. Hard to farm in apartments or rentals. Energized to create. Member Moore - I like busing and biking. Love our new bus system. Like the clipper system. I love the museums and how they are separated. I like the train is coming and the bike paths. Chair Barnett - I like the new Courthouse Square and so many other things. Too many to list. 2. What do you remember fondly about Santa Rosa? Chair Barnett - I grew up poor. Howarth park was my Disneyland. It was affordable - you could pack a lunch and go. It is a great location for families. Howarth Park is a crowning achievement to our resiliency. Member Moore - I just love the buses. It’s how I explored santa rosa. How I was independent. Member Gudino - My fondest memory was building the playground at Roseland Elementary School. Member Narath - My favorite memory was working bike to work day booths. City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 Member Adrain - I love hoow friendly Santa Rosa is. When I moved here there was a car honking at me, and it was just a neighbor saying hello. That never happened in LA. Member Harper - I remember enjoying coming to Santa Rosa to come to the downtown mall and two night clubs when I was in college. Member Querubin - Moved here 5 years ago. Moved into a friends house, and she used to throw jams at her house. Was the redwood activism group. Member Cruz - Raising my kids here. You know everybody. Member Nazario - My fondest memory is related to Live at Julliard Park, and being able to watch my daughter play with other kids. Member Fleming - I used to be able to walk into Russian river brewery. I also remember Henrietta the Chicken at Santa Rosa Health Center. Goats at agilent. Living in a city with nature. Member Weeks - My favorite memory so far has been the fire ops training held by the Fire Department. Member Holmes- I used to hang out on the railroad tracks. My fiirst date with my husband was here. Creation of the Palms Inn for veteran housing. Watching everyone involved work to make the project succeed and failure wasn’t an option. 3. What do you dream for Santa Rosa in the future? Member Holmes - I dream that Santa Rosa will reach its full potential. Fully engaged community. We own it together. Those that are marginalized are part of the project. Member Weeks - Petri-dish for cultural development. Focus on vertical development in the downtown. Four or five buildings of ten stories or more with inclusionary housing. Member Fleming - Economic growth. SRJC is a leading source of energy. The star of Northern California. Member Nazario - Education. Schools less segregated. All access in all schools without having to chose to go somewhere for something. Member Cruz - Roseland is annexed and involved. Wrap arms around that neighborhood. Hopefully a city council member from that area. Member Querubin - I dream big. I would love to have a city with a light rail alternative transportation. Easier travel. Bring more people downtown. Love to food shop without a car. Go to events using transit. Would like to feel like I'm connected to the airports. Member Harper - Equity. People who are marginalized and can't afford to live here are appreciated for their culture and history. City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 Member Adrain - This should be THE city in the north bay for everything. Member Narath - Walk down the street in Santa Rosa and have the streets full of walking people. Better transportation. More comfortable and able to leave cars. Member Gudino - Project in Spain where 9 block area is car free zone. Positive effect on city. Member Moore - Mention the mission and vision and values of the City. Leading the north bay. Member Moore's dream is about transit, alternative transit. Inclusiveness. Chair Barnett - More festivals and excuses to celebrate. Any excuse to throw a party. You made a conscious choice to be here. It’s cheaper other places. Lets make it worth it to live here. Use the Square. Some will happen organically. 4. If the CAB could do only one thing, what would that one thing be? 1. Chair Barnett - Expand the CAB grant program to a major program. Repeated by Member Moore. 2. Member Gudino - Fund long lasting projects like Roseland playground 3. Member Narath - CAB catalyst for every neighborhood to have an association. 4. Member Adrain - Town hall meetings to connect city and citizens 5. Member Harper - Authentic City engagement with the CAB facilitating 6. Member Querubin - Having people talk about tough issues with innovative ideas to fix them. 7. Member Cruz - This board being a catalyst for inclusiveness. Join the neighborhoods. 8. Member Nazario - More effective outreach. Having more community members than staff and CAB at meetings. 9. Member Fleming - Listen to residents and being the bridge. But put a check next to vinces. 10. Member Weeks - Major driver of policy. More community based. Didn’t run for elected office not getting paid just here to make things better. 11. Member Holmes - go to community engagement arm for the citizens. They can come to us to talk. Other way too. City can come to us to enhance engagement. 4. AGENDA REVIEW Annette Townley reviewed the agenda for the remainder of the retreat. 5. CAB ORIENTATION City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 Chair Barnett stepped away at 6:41PM and Vice Chair Moore took control of the meeting. The City Attorney's Office presented information about the Brown Act and Rosenburg's Rules of Order to the CAB. Danielle Ronshausen, Community Engagement Coordinator, provided a brief CAB orientation to CAB Members. 6. NEIGHBORHOOD INCUBATOR PILOT PROJECT Santa Rosa Together Members Helga Lemke, Lee Dibble and Renee Riggs presented their proposed neighborhood incubator pilot program to the CAB for consideration in future work. It is Santa Rosa Together's dream that every citizen is engaged. The group asked City Council for $60,000 to form and formalize neighborhood associations. This goal fits in line with the City goal of more engaged citizens and the Open Government Task Force recommendations. Santa Rosa Together Members mentioned that about $10,000 of the money could be used for staff administrative costs. CAB would have oversight of the grant program, including size of the program, the application, and the funding cycle. Instead of an annual application, Santa Rosa Together is proposing that applications be accepted on a monthly basis. Several CAB Members asked what the difference was between what they are proposing and the Community Improvement Grants (CIGs). Ms. Lemke stated that the CIGs are for improvements and do not increase involvement or participation in government. Their proposed grants would be designed for that. Chair Barnett returned and took control of the meeting at 7:31PM. Public comment: Lee Dibble mentioned to the CAB that this program could be a part of CAB's work plan and have a monthly grants given out as applications come in. 7. ACTION ITEM: STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR THE COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD Caluha Barnes, Director of Community Engagement, proposed a strategic planning initiative for CAB to consider. Ms Barnes mentioned the Violence Prevention Partnership as a model, which has a mission, vision, and values, and a plan for the next five years. The CAB has great potential and is one of the few groups in the Charter. Across the City, there is not an answer to what the CAB should be doing and there are many interpretations to what it should be doing. Ms. Barnes says the proposal is to consider rather than continuing doing things the way they have been done, spend the next few months with a consultant and make a plan with a mission, vision, and values for the CAB. There would be a community engagement component, where CAB Members go out into the community and gather input on what community members think you should be doing. We will also engage staff and Council members to get their input on what they think the CAB should be doing. Then we will compile this feedback with the consultant City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 and develop a strategic plan that will show what we plan to do over the next three to five years. The reporting out would be we are going to work on ourselves and this group to make us stonger. Member Moore made a motion to have CAB create a strategic plan and form a mission, vision, and values. Seconded by Member Harper. Discussion: Member Adrain is concerned this will be a whole different thing and not what the CAB is currently working on. Is this going to change everything? She would like to grow and have people know about the CAB. Member Nazario - States that he loves the idea of a strategic plan but doesn't have good experiences with consultants. Support without that. Member Fleming - How long is the process? How long was the process for the Partnership? How much did it cost? What is the value in this process? Serena Lienau, Staff - Six months. We like to have a consultant come in for staff relief and who can act as a neutral party. There is a huge data gathering process. We did focus groups, but the CAB can use their town hall meetings for engagement. We also had the consultant research into best practices and help with gathering community input. Subcommittees and focus groups. The idea is you are fully engaged in the process. City has a fairly boilerplate language for the RFP. The cost of the strategic planning process for the Partnership was about $35,000, but it was much more involved than this process will be. The City must get a minimum of three bids. Ms.Ronshausen - Will draft the request and form a subcommittee to review the Statement of Work. Ms. Barnes - Very few organizations would say no to a strategic planning process. What it does is it focuses a groups efforts and there is something tangible to take away from it. Member Weeks - Stated that he wishes that as the process moves fowward, he would personally like a role in vetting the candidates for the consulting position. He recognizes that the Office of Community Engagement has staffing issues, and bringing a consultant in would help a lot, but that seems like a lot of money. Ms. Barnes - Thinking about $25,000 for this process. Member Holmes - States that neutrality would be valuable, and knows the Partnership has a much more complicated process. Ms. Barnes - CAB Members all give a lot of their own time and she would like their time to count. Chair Barnett - CAB's largest fund is the Community Improvement Grant Program and it is historically not been as great as it could be. Last year at this time, the CAB went City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 through a great work plan session and thought to do it all. Then the CAB got bogged down in the nuts and bolts of the process. There was a realization that the CAB is good at breadth, but not at depth. We need to step back and refine and define. The CAB should be a model of boards can do, not slip and slide around 20 issues and have council and citizens ask what do you do. Member Harper - After taking part in all three of the Partnership's strategic planning efforts, it gives us focus, focus we do not and never have had. It is worth it. Member Cruz - How long does strategic planning take? Ms. Lienau - Strategic planning takes about three to four months. Member Nazario - More supportive after hearing the process. Worried about consultants just saying what we want to hear, which gives them more work. Also concerned about citizens perspective of just more money spent on consulting. Public Comment: None Vote - 12 yes, 0 no's. The motion passes. A motion was made by Vice Chair Moore, seconded by Member Harper, to approve the proposed strategic planning initative and to take on no other work until the plan is completed and approved. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes 12 - Chair Barnett Vice Chair Moore Board Member Adrain Board Member Cruz Board Member Fleming Board Member Gudino Mendoza Board Member Harper Board Member Holmes Board Member Narath Board Member Nazario Board Member Querubin Board Member Weeks Excused 1 - Board Member Montgomery 8. REVIEW CAB 2016-17 WORK PLAN This item has been tabled until the June 28, 2017 meeting. 9. PUBLIC COMMENT None 10. CLOSING Ms. Ronshausen reviewed the agenda for the upcoming June 28th CAB meeting: City of Santa Rosa Special Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 8 Community Advisory Board Special Meeting Minutes - Final June 7, 2017 1. Review of 2016/17 CAB Work Plan 2. Progressive Parking Policies Presentation 3. Update on Town Halls 4. Update on Community Improvement Grant Program ADJOURNMENT Chair Barnett adjourned the meeting at 8:27PM. The City of Santa Rosa does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the admissions or access to, or treatment of or employment in, its programs or activities. Disability-related aids or services, including printed information in alternate formats, to enable persons with disabilities to participate in public meetings are available by calling (707) 543-4696 one week prior to the meeting. TDD (707) 543-3063 Any writings or documents provided to a majority of this meeting body prior to this meeting regarding any item on this agenda are available for public review in the City Clerk's Office, Room 10, City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Ave, during normal business hours.