City Council

City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MINUTES FOR Meeting of June 1, 2021 As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of June 15, 2021. The public is advised that pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.5 all writings submitted to the City Council are public records and will be made available for review. Please note that minutes are not verbatim minutes and are meant to be the City’s record of a summary of actions that took place at the meeting. City Council video recording are kept for a period of one year from date of meeting. The public is advised that pursuant to Government Code section 54957.5 all writings submitted to the City Council are public records and will be made available for review. Notice: All resolutions and ordinances introduced and/or adopted under this agenda are waived of all reading of entire resolution(s) and ordinance(s). The Sebastopol City Council welcomes you to its meetings that are generally scheduled for the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. Your interest and participation are encouraged and appreciated. SIMULTANEOUS MEETING COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE (Government Code § 54952.3): Members of the City Council receive no additional compensation as a result of convening a joint meeting of the City Council and Successor Agency to the Former Community Development Agency. SB 751 Legislative bodies of local agencies must publicly report: (1) any action taken and (2) the vote or abstention on each action taken by each member present for the action at a meeting. ****GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE ORDER N-29-20**** **RE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19** CITY COUNCL MEETINGS WILL BE CONDUCTED PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE ORDERS WHICH SUSPENDS CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS OF THE RALPH M. BROWN ACT. This meeting complies with the Sonoma County Health Officer’s COVID-19 Order to Shelter in Place issued on March 17, 2020, and pursuant to California Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-29-20 issued on March 17, 2020. Government Code Section 54953. (a) All meetings of the legislative body of a local agency shall be open and public, and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. (b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the legislative body of a local agency may use teleconferencing for the benefit of the public and the legislative body of a local agency in connection with any meeting or proceeding authorized by law. The teleconferenced meeting or proceeding shall comply with all requirements of this chapter and all otherwise applicable provisions of law relating to a specific type of meeting or proceeding. Page 1 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 (2) Teleconferencing, as authorized by this section, may be used for all purposes in connection with any meeting within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body. All votes taken during a teleconferenced meeting shall be by rollcall. CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19) ADVISORY To protect our constituents, City officials and City staff, the City requests all members of the public to follow the California Department of Health Services’ guidance and the County of Sonoma’s Public Health Officer Order for the Control of COVID-19 restricting group events and gatherings and maintaining social distancing. Consistent with Executive Order N-29-20, in-person participation by the public will not be permitted and no physical location from which the public may observe the meeting will be available. Remote public participation information is available on the City website. NOTICE: All Resolutions and Ordinances introduced and/or adopted under this agenda are waived of all reading of entire resolution(s) and ordinance(s). The Sebastopol City Council welcomes you remotely to its meetings that are generally scheduled for the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. Your interest and participation are encouraged and appreciated. SIMULTANEOUS MEETING COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE (Government Code § 54952.3): Members of the City Council receive no additional compensation as a result of convening a joint meeting of the City Council and Successor Agency to the Former Community Development Agency. SB 751 Legislative bodies of local agencies must publicly report: (1) any action taken and (2) the vote or abstention on each action taken by each member present for the action at a meeting. City Council Regular Meetings are available in real time and archived on Livestream. Important Notice The City of Sebastopol shows both live broadcasts and Video Archive of City Council Meetings over the Internet. Your attendance at this public meeting may result in the recording and broadcast of your image and/or voice. Here is the link: http://bit.ly/sebcctv There are times that the meetings may not be live streamed due to technical issues; if that is the case, the meeting will be video-taped and uploaded as soon as possible to the City Web Site. Anyone using abusive, vulgar, offensive, threatening, or harassing language, personal attacks of any kind or offensive terms that target specific individuals or groups will be muted and removed from the meeting. 6:00 pm Convene Regular City Council Meeting (ZOOM VIRTUAL FORMAT) CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Glass called the regular meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. ROLL CALL: Present: Mayor Una Glass – By video teleconference Vice Mayor Sarah Glade Gurney – By video teleconference Councilmember Neysa Hinton – By video teleconference Councilmember Diana Rich – By video teleconference Councilmember Patrick Slayter – By video teleconference Absent: None Staff: City Manager/City Attorney Larry McLaughlin Page 2 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Mary Gourley Administrative Services Director Ana Kwong Fire Chief Bill Braga Planning Director Kari Svanstrom Police Chief Kevin Kilgore SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Mayor Glass led the salute to the flag. PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS: The following were presented: • Proclamation – Proclaiming the First Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the City of Sebastopol • Proclamation – Proclaiming June 2021 as LGBTQ+ PRIDE MONTH Mayor Glass provided the following comments: • These past five years have been hard for all of us. • We've had floods, we've had PSPS with our power turned off, we've had fires, we've had evacuations, we've had a crazy election, we've had a pandemic and from that pandemic, we felt fear, and isolation, and have also suffered from not only illness, but also economic disaster. • We all, especially our city staff, have been working beyond capacity with limited resources. • I, and we all, need to empathize with each other and understand the work that everyone is doing. • The limited time, the limited resources, and the huge stress that everyone is under. • In a poem by Mary Oliver, titled "of the empire," she talks about the dominant heart of our time. • This particular, peculiar, difficult time we're in and she talks of it as being small and hard and full of meanness. • This is not the heart I want for me or for our community. • I want to thank our staff and my colleagues and our community for the work that everyone does and for their commitment to our community. • Despite the adverse circumstances that we have all been through over the past year and a half, or actually five years when you look back on all those disasters we have survived from, I want to affirm that even when I disagree with someone, we all have similar values, we all are extremely committed to our community and do very, very worthwhile work and want the same kind of great outcomes for our community. • I want to thank all of my colleagues, our city staff, and the members of our community for the incredible work that they do. Mayor Glass read protocols for the meeting. PUBLIC COMMENT (for items not on the agenda). Jeanne Hennessy commented as follows: • First of all, this almost seems kind of trivial after hearing the proclamations, but I'm going to say it anyway. • I sent an e-mail, this is about Woodmark apartments. • I don't want you to go a week without hearing about them. • I sent an e-mail on May 20th, and I'm just going to read it. Page 3 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • As the properties on Bodega Avenue come closer to development, I thought about all I would miss seeing: Wildlife, an orchard with delicious yellow apples. • Mourning the loss of all the trees being cut down got me thinking about my own African sumac tree that borders the Eastern boundary and hangs a bit over the fence separating our properties. • It was just a bush when I moved here in '92. • That tree has provided me with many years of privacy, shade, and beauty with its unique shape. • I also speak for the birds and squirrels who use the tree. • Today I went on the TPC Website, and looked at the updated document, tree preservation report, dated June 4th, 2020. • I saw the report included trees off site on the Northern property line. • However, I didn't see any trees included on the Eastern property line where I live, with my African sumac. • I understand the developer will construct a retainer wall some feet away from my property line fence, but I'm concerned. • Will my tree have root damage and die due to the retaining wall? • I wish to request a visit from our city arborist to assess my tree and have a look-see at the other trees bordering the Eastern property line that were left off the report. Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • It's in relation to the goal setting meeting that happened, I believe it was the last couple of weeks. • During that meeting, there was a response to, I think it was staffing needs for downtown beautification. • Dante stated that he's authorized overtime for power washing the sidewalks of downtown every two weeks. • Then he made comment about it not being needed in the rainy season. • I find this in direct contrast to what this council has approved regarding a drought concern that we have for the city. • I would love to hear some sort of a response why we're authorizing overtime to power wash downtown, when we're actively promoting the conservation of water. City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented as follows: • Our public works superintendent is not at the meeting tonight. • He's on vacation. • I wanted to comment that the reason we typically have to pay overtime for power washing is that it often needs to be done at a time when the public is not utilizing the areas that are being power washed. • Our public works superintendent can provide a more lengthy explanation of that. • But that's typically the case. • It needs to take place at a time when the property is not in use. Planning Director Svanstrom commented as follows: • So we do have a city arborist who will be doing a site visit when the formal application is received. • He's done a little bit of work, but currently, the Woodmark application status is that we're in the middle of consultation, which needs to be completed prior to the application being submitted. • Once it's submitted and we have any updates or changes to the plan, that's usually when we have the city arborist do site visits. Page 4 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • He's already aware of property lines, but we'll make sure he looks at the ones from the East side of the property. STATEMENTS OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST BY MAYOR/CITY COUNCILMEMBERS FOR ITEMS ON THE AGENDA: There were none. CONSENT CALENDAR: Mayor Glass read the consent calendar. Mayor Glass questioned if any Councilmember(s) wanted to remove any item(s) from the consent calendar. City staff requested to make corrections to Agenda Item Number 1 as requested by Kyle Falbo as noted below: • Impact fees for single family homes at or above the median will rise from $32,000 to $45,000. • With a near doubling of fees, along with the introduction of other fees, multifamily homes will increase to nearly $34,000. • What I think deserves comparison is how shockingly little that commercial, office, industrial, and hotel are contributing. • Single family homes paying over 10 times the amount that nonresidential units are is confusing. • With regard to our nonresidential units are we going far enough? • How does our proposed fee schedules for specifically non-residential units compare to other municipalities? • A nonresidential comparison is missing. • Commercial units are paying just over 1/3 of the amount of a single family unit with similarly low ratios for the other nonresidential categories. • It would be easy to claim that the traffic we see is because of the intersection of two highways, but to ignore the impact of the nonresidential units such as our abnormally large number of grocery stores. • As well as out of county tourism, nonresidential units that historically have paid one-tenth the cost of the residential units. • Perhaps with such increases we may finally see a balanced budget. Perhaps road maintenance will bring us out of this era where over 1/3 of Sebastopol’s roads are rated as very poor. I encourage the council to consider the impact of our nonresidential units with more scrutiny. The Council discussed the edits and staff stated it was for clarification and that the edits were matched against the video of the meeting. Mayor Glass opened for public comment on the consent calendar. Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • Not to belabor the point much, but because the minutes on the calendar include the goal setting meeting in which Dante made the comment in which he's authorizing the time to power wash the downtown area. • It is not my direct concern by making this public comment about the overtime. • Yes, I am concerned about the budget and about the city's ability to manage overtime. • But the concern is that we are power washing downtown during a drought. • Specifically about power washing during a drought. • When the guidance given by the city on its documents and the Website is that we should be using brooms instead of water. Page 5 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • I just wanted to address that. • It's not about the overtime. • I appreciate the city manager for responding in that way. • But really it's about power washing during a drought. Mayor Glass called for a motion. MOTION: Vice Mayor Gurney moved and Councilmember Hinton seconded the motion to approve Consent Calendar Item(s) Number(s) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 with Item Number 1 amended. Mayor Glass called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Hinton, Rich, Slayter, Vice Mayor Gurney and Mayor Glass Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None 1. Approval of Minutes of the City Council Regular Meeting of May 4, 2021 (Responsible Department: City Administration) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 2. Approval of Minutes of the City Council Regular Meeting of May 18, 2021(Responsible Department: City Administration) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 3. Approval of Minutes of the City Council Special Meeting of May 19, 2021(Responsible Department: City Administration) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 4. Approval of Amendment to Composition of City of Sebastopol Zero Waste Committee; Approval of Youth Application and Direction to Staff to Recruit for Openings (Responsible Department: Zero Waste Committee Representatives) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 5. Approval and Receipt of Vacancy on the Public Arts Committee Due to Resignation of Warren Arnold – Category 1 (Responsible Department: Planning/City Administration) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 6. Consideration of Adoption of Resolution Authorizing the Submittal of the FY 2021-22 Community Development Block Grant Application for the City Hall ADA Upgrades Project to the Sonoma County Community Development Commission (Engineering/GHD) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: Resolution Number: 6351-2021 Mayor Glass commented as follows: • We would be moving on to a public hearing for what was originally scheduled, a public hearing regarding our budget. Our city budget, and additionally item number seven and eight were also a public hearing for our CIP, capital improvement program budget. Page 6 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • Both items have been continued to the 15th of the month. • I also neglected to notify everybody that if you want to participate in the budget meetings, please come to our meeting on June 15th. • We will also that same week be having on June 17th, a special meeting that will be a presentation of the police audit and a discussion by staff, a discussion by our council regarding that audit and • an opportunity for public comment regarding that presentation of our law enforcement audit. • I would invite everybody who is here as well as the public in general who views this video after the fact to please do come to our budget meeting and to our special meeting regarding our law enforcement meeting. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS/PRESENTATION: (Please Note: Although informational/presentations items are routinely informational in nature, some informational items may contain request for actions such as support, direction to staff, follow up, or receipt of item based on the presentation/information provided.) NONE PUBLIC HEARING(s): 7. Public Hearing – To conduct a Public Hearing on Fiscal Year 2021-2022 City of Sebastopol Budget (Administrative Services Director) THIS ITEM HAS BEEN CONTINUED TO THE JUNE 15, 2021 CITY COUNCIL MEETING, 6:00 PM, VIRTUAL MEETING FORMAT. City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 8. Public Hearing – To conduct a Public Hearing on Capital Improvement Program Budget for FY 2021-2022 GHD/Public Works) THIS ITEM HAS BEEN CONTINUED TO THE JUNE 15, 2021 CITY COUNCIL MEETING, 6:00 PM, VIRTUAL MEETING FORMAT. City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 9. Public Hearing to Levy and Collect Annual Assessments for FY 2021-2022 for the City of Sebastopol’s Lighting Special Assessment District; Resolution Approving the Engineer’s Report and Confirming the assessment Diagram and annual assessments and authorize levying of annual assessments for FY 2021-2022 for the City of Sebastopol Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District (Finance Director) Administrative Services Director Kwong presented the agenda item recommending the City Council Conduct a Public Hearing to Levy and Collect Annual Assessments for FY 2021-2022 for the City of Sebastopol’s Lighting Special Assessment District; Resolution Approving the Engineer’s Report and Confirming the assessment Diagram and annual assessments and authorize levying of annual assessments for FY 2021-2022 for the City of Sebastopol Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District. Mayor Glass opened for questions. There were none. Mayor Glass opened the public hearing. Hearing no comments, Mayor Glass closed the public hearing. Council Deliberations: Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • I see that we're reducing the assessment, that's hard to object to that. Page 7 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • Can someone just give me a thumbnail sketch of why it's been reduced by $6 and are we losing something in the city in terms of what is being maintained with that reduction and assessment? Director Kwong commented as follows: • It's not to my knowledge that we are losing anything. • It's just that we don't have any projects in the pipeline for any of those assessment areas. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • When we increase assessment, when you try to increase fund balances to work on a project, since we don't have any projects that I'm aware of, the expenditure, which is paying for PG&E and staff that maintain those assessment districts, those are the costs. Director Kwong commented that came to $25, even. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • That's basically the core, the base cost unless we're doing projects. • At the moment, we don't have any upcoming projects. Director Kwong stated that is correct. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • Just to clarify to the community this is another one of those things where an assessment and fees cannot be above our costs, otherwise it turns into a tax. • If we charge more than our actual costs, then we're actually taxing people. • We annually have our various revenue sources audited, and they tell us if our income is matching up with what our expenses are. • That's why we adjust things also - is that correct Director Kwong stated that is essentially correct. City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented you can reduce an assessment, but you would have to go through another approval process to increase it. Councilmember Slayter commented as follows: • Just one other comment, piece of information for everybody to know. • The changeover to the L.E.D. street lights, it is saving us electricity, but we're paying off the investment for the next three years or two years • At that point, that's when we'll see a rather significant drop in the annual cost that is needed to run the street lights, because they're using so much less energy. • One piece of information that always seemed to come up with a former colleague, why don't we have L.E.D. street lights? • Now we do, and we'll be reaping the benefits once they're paid for. MOTION: Councilmember Slayter moved and Vice Mayor Gurney seconded the motion to approve Resolution to Levy and Collect Annual Assessments for FY 2021-2022 for the City of Sebastopol’s Lighting Special Assessment District; Resolution Approving the Engineer’s Report and Confirming the assessment Diagram Page 8 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 and annual assessments and authorize levying of annual assessments for FY 2021-2022 for the City of Sebastopol Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Hinton, Rich, Slayter, Vice Mayor Gurney and Mayor Glass Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Minute Order Number: Resolution Number: 6352-2021 10. Public Hearing on Abatement of Weeds (Fire Chief) Fire Chief Braga presented the agenda item recommending the City Council conduct a public hearing on the abatement of weeds and adopt the resolution. Mayor Glass opened for questions. Councilmember Rich commented as follow: • I'm curious about what is going on here in terms of who does the work, chief Braga. • With these properties, give us a sense of what ultimately happens. • Does the city end up having to go on site to abate the weeds, or do the property owners generally step up and take care of the weeds themselves? Chief Braga commented as follows: • After ten years of managing this program for the city, I have not had to, one time, use this ordinance that we have and basically force my way on to someone else's private property to abate their weeds. • I think pretty much everybody gets it. • They understand, especially with the early fire seasons that we're seeing year after year. • Not one time have we had to step on to private property and abate someone's weeds. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • I recall seeing this pretty much the same properly list last time around • Are all properties that would come within the scope of the ordinance on the list, or are some not on the list because they've abated their weed problem? Chief Braga commented as follows: • Yes on the second part. • When I first go out and start my inspections in April, I do have a master list. • I think the homeowners and property owners are doing their due diligence earlier and earlier every year. • The exhibit "a" list, are those properties that had not as of yet abated their weeds. They received a letter. • But the properties that had been on the exhibit "a" list over the years, they go out and take care of it early. Page 9 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • The reason I raise this is because it looks like we have some people who regularly, property owners, regularly wait for this letter and this second stage in order to do their weed abatement and given our limited city resources, I'm wondering whether doing this every year is really the best approach. • I live on first street, I'm identifying someone here who is on my street, but I also see other addresses. • I'm just concerned that we're taking very limited, valuable staff time and every year having to go through a second stage with the same property owners, taking our time and your time and others in order to get them to do what they should have done like all the other property owners at an earlier stage. • It's on observation and a concern, but ultimately we want to get the weeds abated so we don't have fire problems. Vice Mayor Gurney commented in a situation where you did have to go on somebody's property and abate the weeds, would the city be able to recover the cost of your work? Chief Braga commented as follows: • The city actually, whatever the fee would be from the, let's say, the weed removal company, if they just went in with weed whackers or they actually had to go in with a tractor and a disc for some of the larger properties, we would receive that bill from that scene. • We would in turn add an administrative fee on top of the invoice from the weed abatement company. • Then invoice or bill the property owner for actual cost plus administrative fees. Vice Mayor Gurney commented as follows: • So if they don't do the work because you've told them twice already, how do we know they're going to pay you? • Is it charged against their water bill? • Is there some way to ensure that collection? Chief Braga commented as follows: • I think that's a valid question. • I haven't been up against that one yet. • But I would talk with the city manager and our administrative services director to see if we could do it in another way like water bill, sewer City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented as follows: • Not that we do this, because we haven't had to. • But it can become a lien on their property. Councilmember Rich commented just a quick question so we know and the public knows what is the deadline for these people to get their weeds taken care of? Chief Braga commented as follows: • The deadline was actually yesterday. • I'm happy to report that exhibit "a" for round one is complete. Page 10 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 Mayor Glass opened the public hearing. Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • Bees can't survive without access to pollen or nectar-rich blooms but weeds often attract bees. • I completely appreciate the weed abatement program. • I also appreciate the flexibility that our community has and has given to residents regarding their weed abatement. • But I think for those that are interested in saving the bees, I think researching the varieties of weeds that are beneficial to bees and doing patchwork weed abatement to allow the bees access to the weeds throughout your weed abatement process. Hearing no further comments, Mayor Glass closed the public hearing. Council Deliberations: There was no further discussion. MOTION: Vice Mayor Gurney moved and Councilmember Hinton seconded the motion to approve Resolution for Abatement of Weeds. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Hinton, Rich, Slayter, Vice Mayor Gurney and Mayor Glass Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Minute Order Number: Resolution Number: 6353-2021 REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION): 11. Approval of Letter of Support for AB 965, Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure (Requestor: Climate Action Committee/Responsible Department: Planning) Planning Director Svanstrom presented the agenda item recommending the City Council approve the letter of support for AB 965, Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure. Woody Hastings, Climate Action Committee, was in attendance and provided information as follows: • There has been a lot of, there's existing laws that require new construction to include charging infrastructure but the vast majority of what is out there is existing building stock. • So this bill will address, will have these two agencies develop standards for multifamily dwellings and nonresidential buildings. • It's one of the toughest nuts to crack in the EV world. • If you own your own home, you can install a charging station and depending on where you live, it can be very low cost and easy to do. • But you have your own garage, and the 210 outlet. • But if you're in an apartment, and you are relegated to having to charge up in the field and publicly available charging station. Page 11 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • So this bill, which, by the way, has sailed through the assembly now, it sailed through bipartisan, and all the votes it came to • Part of the reason for that is Member Levine introduced a bill in the 2019 session, and the governor vetoed it and said the agencies can handle it themselves. • The agencies turned around and said, we need direction from the legislature to do it and you have a bill, the agencies said, look, you need do this. So it's kind of a no-brainer that point. • If it's good for the city, you get the support in, just to continue to bolster it and make sure it does don't sideways. • It makes all kinds of sense for Sebastopol with its interest in mission to do its part to addressing the climate crisis to -- the support for this bill. • It will likely go to the transportation committee in the Senate side. • So we can copy it to the Assembly Member, to the transportation, and the housing committee. Mayor Glass opened for questions. There were none. Mayor Glass opened for public comment. There was none. Council Deliberations: Vice Mayor Gurney commented I wanted to acknowledge the work of the climate action committee and appreciate their coming forward with this, recommending to the council. MOTION: Vice Mayor Gurney moved and Councilmember Rich seconded the motion to approve the letter of support for AB 965, Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure as updated. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Hinton, Rich, Slayter, Vice Mayor Gurney and Mayor Glass Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 12. Consideration and Direction to Mayor or his/her Designated Representative for Voting for Various Boards and Committee Vacancies at the June 2021 City Selection Committee and Sonoma County Mayors and Councilmembers Association Meeting (City Administration) Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Gourley presented the agenda item recommending the City Council Direction to Mayor or his/her Designated Representative for Voting for Various Boards and Committee Vacancies at the June 2021 City Selection Committee and Sonoma County Mayors and Councilmembers Association Meeting. Mayor Glass opened for questions. The Council and staff discussed the Mayors and Councilmembers By Laws and then discussed appointments below. City Selection Committee Appointments: Page 12 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • City Selection Chair – To fill Mayor Jason Turner’s term (expires January 2022) o Mayor of Cloverdale • Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District – (Appointment made by the Board of Supervisors) One position, to fill expired term (January 2021) of Gina Belforte, Rohnert Park. (Two-year term) o Letter of Interest Received from Gerald Giudice (Rohnert Park) • Local Agency Formation Commission – One Alternate Position, to fill term (May 2022) of Mark Landman, Cotati (Mr. Landman has been made a full member therefore his Alternate Position has become open.) (Two-year term) o Letter of Interest Received from Patrick Slayter (Sebastopol) • Measure O Oversight Committee - Two positions, to fill two newly created Committee positions (Three-year terms) o Letter of Interest Received from Ben Ford (Cotati) o Letter of Interest Received from Kevin McDonnell (Petaluma) o Letter of Interest Received from Sydney Smith (Santa Rosa City Schools) • Remote Access Network (RAN) Board – Replace Tom Schwedhelm if position changes as Mayor (there is no specific term, but it must be filled by a Mayor.) • Sonoma County Oversight Board Committee, one position (Alternate), to fill a vacated term of David Cook Sonoma. (Unspecified term.) Board of Directors Appointments: North Bay Division, League of California Cities, one position (primary/alternate), currently being filled by alternate John Sawyer (February 2021) (Santa Rosa), due to resignation of Rachel Hundley, Sonoma. Term expires two years from appointment. Councilmember Sawyer (current alternate) could be officially designated the primary and an alternate would need to be designated, depending on letters of interest received. For letters of interest submitted, please indicate if you are interested in serving as a primary, alternate or either. • Letter of Interest Received by John Sawyer (Santa Rosa) for the primary position. Mayor Glass opened for public comment. There was none. Council Deliberations: There was no further discussion. MOTION: Councilmember Rich moved and Councilmember Hinton Provided Direction to the Mayor or Voting Representative for Voting at the City Selection Committee Meeting and the Mayors and Councilmembers Board of Directors Meeting of June 10, 2021. It is also recommended that if late nominations are received or if the City Selection Committee recommends an alternate to the newly created position, that the City Council authorize the Mayor or Designated Voting Representative the authority to vote on these late nominations or recommendations at the City Selection Meeting. The recommendations are listed below: City Selection Committee Appointments: Page 13 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • City Selection Chair – To fill Mayor Jason Turner’s term (expires January 2022) o Mayor of Cloverdale It was recommended that if Cloverdale’s newly elected Mayor did not want the appointment, that the Mayor or designated alternate vote for the next City per the by Laws which would be Cotati as Chair. • Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District – (Appointment made by the Board of Supervisors) One position, to fill expired term (January 2021) of Gina Belforte, Rohnert Park. (Two-year term) o Gerald Giudice (Rohnert Park) • Local Agency Formation Commission – One Alternate Position, to fill term (May 2022) of Mark Landman, Cotati (Mr. Landman has been made a full member therefore his Alternate Position has become open.) (Two-year term) o Patrick Slayter (Sebastopol) • Measure O Oversight Committee - Two positions, to fill two newly created Committee positions (Three-year terms) o Ben Ford (Cotati) o Kevin McDonnell (Petaluma) • Remote Access Network (RAN) Board – Replace Tom Schwedhelm if position changes as Mayor (there is no specific term, but it must be filled by a Mayor.) • Sonoma County Oversight Board Committee, one position (Alternate), to fill a vacated term of David Cook Sonoma. (Unspecified term.) Board of Directors Appointments: North Bay Division, League of California Cities, one position (primary/alternate), currently being filled by alternate John Sawyer (February 2021) (Santa Rosa), due to resignation of Rachel Hundley, Sonoma. Term expires two years from appointment. Councilmember Sawyer (current alternate) could be officially designated the primary and an alternate would need to be designated, depending on letters of interest received. For letters of interest submitted, please indicate if you are interested in serving as a primary, alternate or either. • John Sawyer (Santa Rosa) for the primary position. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Hinton, Rich, Slayter, Vice Mayor Gurney and Mayor Glass Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Minute Order Number: CITY COUNCIL REPORTS: 13. City Manager-Attorney/City Clerk Reports: City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin reported out the following: • I thought this might be an opportunity to talk a little bit about the crosswalk at depot street, which you may have seen the subject of a letter we received this afternoon from I believe Jennifer Nichols who related what she doctored to be a very dangerous situation over there. Page 14 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • Since it's a little complicated, I thought the city staff's in the process of preparing an answer to that letter a replay, but I thought I would take a minute if you're okay with that, to review some of the history at that particular crosswalk and the issues, because it is rather complicated. • It's going to be a little difficult for us to convey that, in a reply, and if it's all right with the council, I want to take three or four minutes on that. • Staff has long recognized the crosswalk is a particular problem, especially due to the popularity of a certain ice cream establishment that gets a lot of business, and people do park on the other side, and walk across using that crosswalk. • The issue with the crosswalk basically is the -- it's an uncontrolled crosswalk, pedestrians step into it at the worst possible time, in terms of vehicle traffic. • Traffic going Northbound is just entering the intersection and a large group of pedestrians will stop in the crosswalk and strand the vehicles in the middle of the intersection. • So we have recognized it's an issue. • The particular crosswalk is owned and controlled by Caltrans. • That is something we have to emphasize to people about that. • The city is not the decision maker regarding that crosswalk, but we have discussed it with Caltrans. • It's normally discussed in connection with some other issue relating to crosswalks in the near vicinity, which would impact the cross work at depot. • So we seldom had a conversation, just on that particular crosswalk. • The reason we haven't, is because if you just block off the crosswalk without making any other kind of accommodation, they will just ignore that you blocked off the crosswalk and they will proceed to cross any way. • Thus losing the cross paving, things like that, that would provide additional protection. • So you really can't close off that crosswalk without making some other accommodation. • Council may remember we were this serious discussions with Caltrans about them providing a mid-block crosswalk in the near vicinity to the depot street crosswalk but it kind of fell through when Caltrans, in addition to that, requested that the city council approve a closing or blocking off of the McKinley street crosswalk to the plaza, so the council was unwilling to do that, and therefore, the discussions about the mid-block crosswalk had been tabled for now with Caltrans. • So presently, there is on the table, no particular solution to the depot street crosswalk. • But we recognize it's an issue that needs to be dealt with. • The problem in summation is that have to provide some other accommodation or the problem will probably get worse, not corrected. • So you can't really summarize that too well in a reply letter. • I may ask miss Nichols to give me a call to talk about it personally. • But I want council to be aware of what the situation is with that. • If anyone has questions, I will be happy to answer it. Mayor Glass commented does Caltrans pay for traffic lights and signalization that is in their right of way, or do we have to pay for that? City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented generally speaking, they pay for it and we maintain it. Mayor Glass commented just a random idea out there, what if there were -- the light that we currently have, what if there were an additional light where the crosswalk is, so that -- and it was synchronized with the light that is allowing traffic to flow through. Page 15 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented as follows: • That is an excellent idea, if I do say so myself, that is one that we have already broached with Caltrans. • Caltrans is about saving dollars. Vice Mayor Gurney commented as follows: • I think there's another problem there. • The limited space for a stack back if someone's in the crosswalk? • You can only go from depot street to Sebastopol avenue, which is the problem about blocking the intersections as the car stops. • We appreciate you reaching out to her, Larry. City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented as follows: • Will reach out to Ms. Nichols • I want to know that we recognize this is an issue for a long period of time, and also you have to recognize who controls the crosswalk. • Staff will be -- staff discussed the number of e-mails this afternoon, so I will continue that effort. • We will reply to that letter. • The other issue, the thing I want to report on, is staff continues to monitor and discuss reopening of our various city offices, especially city hall. • As you may know from reading the paper, that is a challengeable subject. • Right now, it appears we will get note guidance from Cal OSHA until July, and in May, in the regular city manager meetings, and the cities that made up a plan, already, have been finding they have to revisit their plan and revise it. • We don't have a plan to revise. • We continue to discuss that, and we are aware of the need to open City Hall at the first possible time to do so. • We will probably do it in a hybrid, which many cities are discussing. • And cities have made determinations about that and gone back and reversed it. • Some cities that have reopened have determined they are going to close. • We don't want to be in a position to do it prematurity. • I want council to know it's important for me to do that. • But -- we are continuing to monitor that and discuss it. • So council, have any questions about that, I will take your comments. • Also, I didn't mention anything about councilmembers. • Talking about staff reopening. Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Gourley reported out as follows: • Just a reminder, for the mayor and vice mayor, general review committee tomorrow. • I sent out an e-mail about all the openings we have. • There are seven committee openings that we have. • They're on the Website. • I have sent out an updated e-mail to the distribution list. • The planning commissioner vacancy was extended from Thursday, the 27th, and extended two weeks to June 10th. Page 16 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • If you want to volunteer one of the committees there are multiple openings right now. 14. City Council Reports/Committee/Sub-Committee Meeting Reports: (Reports by Mayor/City Councilmembers Regarding Various Agency Meetings/Committee Meetings/Sub-Committee Meeting /Conferences Attended and Possible Direction to its Representatives (If Needed) on Pending issues before such Boards) Councilmember Slayter commented as follows: • This isn't a committee report as a former committee report, this is back at the depot street conversation. • As a former member of a former committee about Caltrans and talking with them on all manner of city things this situation at depot street, I sincerely doubt that any reasonable or even possibly feasible solution to that has already crossed somebody's sketch pad. • We talked about that at that committee at great length a great number of times. • So there is no super easy, super great fix. • I'm appreciative that staff is going to address that. • Maybe it's a good time to have analysis and a better of how we landed where we are, ready to go. • So I appreciate staff doing that. • The fire and emergency plan committee – the one that Councilmember Rich and I are on - we need to finish discussing it, and there is general agreement, we need to send a letter as from the committee that is asking PG&E to consider opening a resource center in PSPS events, and this would be as if it were one of us, but it's two of us, and it's work in the per view of that, so due to the need to get the letter out of that, we didn't put it in the agenda, we felt it's an appropriate way to do it. • If anyone has thoughts, let us know in the report. • The other thing that I would like to report on, is the design standards committee, myself, a member of the planning commission, and two members of the design review board, and planning director, and we are overly licensed. • We have four licensed architect and one engineer on the committee, and we are talking act updating design standards they so they are objective, not subjective in certain ways so that will help us have say in things that sort of slipped past us with SB 35. • We had one meeting, our second meeting is scheduled. • We had a homework assignment to do reading and the likelihood we will need a consultant is great and the planning director secured us a grant. • We talked about that in city council, so we have a grant from the state to help us with the funding for the potential consultant • Any questions, and I will get them answered. Councilmember Hinton reported out as follows: • I did have a legislative board meeting, there really wasn't too much in that, except that I guess a lot of things are going to be some of the bills are going to be eliminated. • I will have a better report I think next month on that. • For everyone to just know, my alternate, Councilmember Rich has asked to approve that, and I got approval that she can attend at as a nonvoting member any time. • Russian River Water Shed - we had a student video presentation on the 26th and there were three winning videos. Page 17 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • They all won money, which is always great when students have to do a school project and they actually win money. They were very excited about that. • Those final videos will be fine-tuned, I understand, and then we can connect a link to promote water education. • The theme this year was that what's the difference between what happens to water that you're using in your house, and what goes down the storm drains. • That is basically the gist of it, and then we also had a full Russian River Water Shed meeting, and the subjects were the drought. • They have a lot of materials to promote water conservation that we could add to the Website, and I'm happy to pass it on. • Also during the meeting, I found that we have our technical person, Joe Gaffney, as my alternate on the Russian River Water Shed but most of the other councils have an alternate and a technical board member. • If anyone's interested in serves as the alternate elected official reach out to me. I think we can do an agenda item and add that position. • You can clearly see the other alternates if you go to the water shed Website. Councilmember Rich reported as follows: • My meetings in this period of time, since the last meeting, included zero waste Sonoma, a monthly meeting, and a working meeting, focused on SB 1383, which I'm having dreams and nightmares about and the climate action committee meeting. • I'm going to leave the climate committee report out to Councilmember Gurney and then also, I'm going to share just my experience with them because I had them come to my house and do an assessment, so that is interesting. • Zero waste, a lot of it is just about 1383 and preparing, gearing up, but very briefly, the zero waste Sonoma, is a motor oil recycling contract, we have sites in Sebastopol and I want to remind everyone, for the motor oil, the sites are O'Reilley Auto, and Redwood Marketplace and Pete's Auto on highway 12. • There is an effort to do Spanish outreach and we don't really have any contact here in Sebastopol for Spanish outreach, Spanish language outreach. • So if anyone is aware of students, there are organizations that Sonoma could partner with. • Let me know, a big contract, a recyclist contract allow monitoring of activities. • One thing that was interesting, zero waste Sonoma just got a $300,000 grant from Cal Recycle and they're going to use it to help expand redwood empire food bank’s ability for capacity for handling the edible foods redirection. • There is also, by the way, we all know, or should know that Sebastopol was the first jurisdiction to set up the refillable water stations to take advantage of that, zero waste Sonoma grant. • There might be an opportunity to do something more with that money. • It's really about beverage recycling. • Again, if there are any city projects that can be considered beverage recycling projects, let me know. • Renewable Sonoma has a big item most of you are aware of. • The negotiations for compost in county have fallen apart. • That's not going to happen. We will be outsourcing all of the compost. Which is too bad. We have to buy it back. • The working group is going in details and how it's going to be implemented. • There is draft MOU that will be finalized. Page 18 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • I will report that a draft of an ordnance has been sidelined. • I think for the city staff to understand too, there is not going to be a draft ordnance. • Just an ordinance that is a resource that jurisdictions will use. • There is a June 6 emergency exercise going on in town, which is pretty cool. • That is driven by our neighbors just to the West outside city limits, and they are doing an exercise in the city of Sebastopol and supporting that effort. • It will be interesting to see how it goes, Linda Hopkins will be observing and our own Sam Wallace will be observing. Vice Mayor Gurney reported out as follows: • I want to mention the community center is involved in a personnel action. • I was looking for a confirmation that decisions have been made and offering accepted. • Also, they received a grant, I believe, for $5,000. • Another successful application for additional money, there is one problem. • There is still a problem of the fan in the kitchen, the exhaust fan, needs to be finished so they can function fully for events. • I have been hassling Joe Gaffney and we really need that done. • This is something that is lingering now for months, if not two years, and the community center wants to gear up and be ready when we can start with big events, and that is a big source of revenue for them. • Reported on the climate action committee meeting. • First of all, I want to you note that as our volunteers, they are really reaching out to the cities, other citizen committees, all regional bodies like the RCPA to assist them in research, they are thinking and their discussions in order to pull their work product together for quickly and thoroughly with more expertise, I believe. • We had a report from Kari about the status of gas stations in town. • There is an interest in Chevron doing remodeling out there, and really amounts to remodeling the building, not adding pumps, if that's the right word, and hopefully improving the access to meadow lark field, where people park there rather than the Laguna Trail. • There was a conversation about smart meters and the community's interest in having or not having smart meters and the history behind that, the city's position about smart meters, and that interest, I would just say, is lingering. • It didn't get enthusiastic to go forward from the council, and I'm in the sure that it's resolved completely. I anticipate there will be more discussion in the future about smart meters. • The group will be supportive of the application for a civic smart fellow. • Kari will help draft that with the chair, one of the co-chairs, facilitators of the climate action group. • I also announced one of the openings that’s for the RCPA's climate action advisory council. That a citizen position from here. Steve Pearce has capably handled that. We have two reps, one now and I think Steve will continue at least until the July meeting, if we don't have anybody. • There's no interest so far so I ask all of you to encourage people to look into that because climate action is a great interest. Mayor Glass reported out as follows: • So, Councilmember Hinton already revealed we met a couple times and had lots to do there in the budget committee. • The housing subcommittee met with staff and with Tim Miller last week. Page 19 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • And basically urged staff and WCCS to draft a contract and nail down all the details in response to all the various initiatives they have, all they are talking about regarding, addressing homelessness issues and actually housing and resource issues for the unhoused and people at risk for that, in our city. • So staff is going forth and discussing that with West County Community Services. • But I believe what Councilmember Slayter and I urged is that time is of the essence. • We need to respond to the very generous outpouring of volunteer resources and support that Councilmember Rich has worked on garnering and we need to make sure we respond to and have an overall response in management for getting those resources to the people that need them. • So we have that meeting, and then I -- Councilmember Rich had asked me if I would like to meet with a group of advocates she had been meeting with this weekend on Saturday. • So I met with them, and they were going to be doing an inventory of the needs on Morris street. • They had their forms. • They had their clipboards. • They were ready to roll. • They very were proactive in works to find what the needs are of the people that are on Morris street right now. • Because they -- Sabs Saves, it's a group spearheaded by Adrian Lobby. • They have money they can spend and they have to spend independent by June 15th. • And some of that money can be used to bring some of the people on Morris street into compliance so the police chief will feel happier and more relaxed since people will get their vehicles registered and some of the maintenance issues that are sitting out there are problematic. • So they are going out there, and they are going forth looking to identify the problems they could help to mitigate with some of the funding that they had. • I also received communication and then spoke on Saturday with somebody from the -- from another one of the churches that was interested in providing safe parking. • I did bring them up to date on how we're moving forward, what the city's doing so they're in the loop. • So all in all, I had a very cordial and productive meetings with that group, the advocates' group who are given up their personal time to help us as a city. • Provide the services and help the people that are out there on Morris street. • So that said, I think that kind of wraps it up for the list of things that I have been working on in the past week or so. • Or week and a half. 15. Council Communications Received. Vice Mayor Gurney commented as follows: • I think we all may have received the letter with photos from the bicycle coalition that demonstrated that the Arby's are parking in the bicycle lane. • That seemed problematic to me while we are doing our best to approach the problem, and our chief respondent, I think it doesn't make sense that we are asking a bicycle as a vehicle to move in a dangerous lane to go around a car that is not parked appropriately. • So I'm going to be talking to the chief about that, and hopefully with arris as well. • I want to bring up there is additional correspondence that the lanes are not marked. Page 20 of 21 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2021 • So we need to fix that. • I'm sure that staff is going to figure this out and we will work on getting it solved. • Everything turns out to be a budget item now too. • That is why I'm mentioning, if we have to restripe. 16. Future City Meeting Dates/Events (Informational Only): (See Agenda and City Web site for Up-to- Date Meeting Dates/Times) CLOSED SESSION ITEMS: NONE ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Meeting will be adjourned to the City Council Regular Scheduled City Council Meeting which will be held June 15, 2021 at 6:00 pm - (VIRTUAL ZOOM PLATFORM) ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Mayor Glass adjourned the meeting at 7:55 pm. Meeting was adjourned to the City Council Regular Scheduled City Council Meeting which will be held June 15, 2021 at 6:00 pm (VIRTUAL ZOOM PLATFORM). Respectfully Submitted: Mary C. Gourley Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC Page 21 of 21