City Council

Agenda Item Number 2 City Council City Manager Mayor Patrick Slayter Larry McLaughlin Vice Mayor Neysa Hinton lmclaughlin@Cityofsebastopol.org Una Glass Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC Sarah Gurney Mary Gourley Diana Rich mgourley@Cityofsebastopol.org CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING 9:00 am– INTERVIEWS – RELAUNCH SEBASTOPOL MEETING OF JANUARY 19, 2022 As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of February 1, 2022 The City Council Regular meeting was held via teleconference pursuant to AB 361. Please note that minutes are not meant to be verbatim minutes and are meant to be the City’s record of a summary of actions that took place at the meeting. Topic: City Council Special Meeting - January 19, 2022 Time: Jan 19, 2022 09:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87648766898?pwd=NmpCeis2Y0s5RWNWUDEySGRadW85QT09 Meeting ID: 876 4876 6898 Passcode: 784425 One tap mobile +16699006833,,87648766898#,,,,*784425# US (San Jose) +12532158782,,87648766898#,,,,*784425# US (Tacoma) Dial by your location +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 876 4876 6898 Passcode: 784425 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcea3TBXEC 9:00 am Convene City Council Special Meeting - Meeting Start Time (ZOOM VIRTUAL FORMAT) CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Slayter called the regular meeting to order at 9:05 am. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Patrick Slayter – By video teleconference Vice Mayor Neysa Hinton – By video teleconference Councilmember Una Glass – By video teleconference Councilmember Sarah Gurney - By video teleconference Councilmember Diana Gardner Rich - By video teleconference Absent: None Staff: City Manager/City Attorney Larry McLaughlin Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Mary Gourley Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 1 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Mayor Slayter led the salute to the flag. City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented a Councilmember wishes to make a motion to reconsider an item from last night. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I would like to make a motion to start off the meeting here to reconsider item 11 from last night – the Sebastopol Walks item • I would like to ask for a reconsideration and a second on that to discuss it further. • I felt like I was not prepared at 11:00 at night to really discuss that item. • Based on the information from our city attorney this morning, know that I am within the rules to be able to make a motion to reconsider that item. • I move to reconsider the Walks Item from last night and I'm hoping for a second. City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin clarified it was item number 9 and commented as follows: • I did advise Vice Mayor Hinton that she is timely. • The City rule, which the city clerk can read, is that a Councilmember can make a motion to reconsider an item the next calendar day. • This is a Council meeting the next calendar day. • Therefore, she is timely with her motion to reconsider an item requires a second. • It also requires an affirmative vote. • That is just on the question of whether to reconsider the item. • It requires a second and an affirmative vote. That affirmative vote is a majority vote. • If it gets majority vote, it's not given precedence so it could be heard at the end of this meeting. • The rule says that Councilmembers can make a showing that there is new information; you could potentially ask Vice Mayor Hinton to explain that prior to the vote. Councilmember Gurney discussed a request for the showing and commented I don't know why we are spending more time on this and requested the new information. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • In review of the minutes of previous meetings where we approved the Sebastopol Walks, it's been brought for the by other Councilmembers that Council should be offered a chance to lead the Walks, and that was verbally agreed to in previous Council meetings and noted in minutes. • I didn't have a chance to look back on that last night. • This Walk schedule was completely set with no openings and no opportunity for additional Councilmembers, which would include myself or Councilmember Una Glass to have an opportunity to be asked to participate. • Based on that information, which I have now reviewed, I think that's new information and would qualify to at least have a discussion about it. Mayor Slayter asked for additional questions. There were none. Mayor Slayter opened for public comment. There was no public comment. City Council Discussion and/or Deliberations: Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 2 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 The Council discussed that if this item were approved to have the agenda item discussed at the end of the meeting. MOTION: Vice Mayor Hinton moved and Councilmember Rich seconded the motion to reconsider Item Number 9 from the City Council Meeting of Jan 18, 2022. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Glass, Gurney, Rich, Vice Mayor Hinton and Mayor Slayter Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Approved motion to reconsider Item Number 9 Sebastopol Walks Sponsorship from the City Council Meeting of Jan 18, 2022. Minute Order Number: 2022- STATEMENTS OF CONFLICT OF INTERESTS: Councilmember Glass commented as follows: • I wanted to disclose to my colleagues that I have a relationship with three of the applicants through the center for the arts. • Mr. Music, otherwise known as Jim, is a vendor for the festival Center for the Arts. • Laura Hager is a vendor for the Center for the Arts and Marlene Martell is on the Board of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. • I will vote on everybody's presentation and not the fact that somebody is one person in my multi-person board. • It's not really a conflict of interest, but that's important information. • I thought it was prudent to disclose particularly because of the relationships with the center for the arts that are ongoing. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • I don't think this is a formal conflict, but given what Councilmember Glass mentioned, I should officially remind everyone that I was the Executive Director of the Community Center, but it was a long time ago, and I, like everyone else, have pre-existing contact with Jim Corbett in the context of that role that I played. • I'm open to whatever is the best result for the city. That won't change my opinion. AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 1: 1. Interviews for Relaunch Sebastopol. This item is to conduct interviews with proposals received for the Relaunch Sebastopol Contract. (Responsible Department: City Administration) The City Council conducted the following interviews. 9:00 am Deborah Burnes Relaunch Proposal 10:00 am Peacetown Team Project Relaunch Proposal 11:00 am Townie Media Relaunch Proposal Mayor Slayter opened for public comment. There was no public comment. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 3 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 Mayor Slayter closed Agenda Item Number 1 and moved to Agenda Item Number 2. AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 2: 2. Discussion and Consideration of Award of Contract for Relaunch Sebastopol. (Responsible Department: City Administration) City Administration presented the agenda item recommending the City Council consider and approve Award of Contract for Relaunch Sebastopol Contract with a not to exceed amount of $86,000. Mayor Slayter asked for questions of presenter/staff. There were none. Mayor Slayter opened for public comment. There was no public comment. City Council Discussion and/or Deliberations: Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • I'm wondering what input staff might provide on these proposals. • There may be some implementation, distinctions, some legalities that distinguish one from another. • Can we please ask for any information staff would feel was helpful to our decision-making. City staff commented as follows: • Staff did do a preliminary round of interviews and there were a number of questions we noted as we went through the proposals as a panel. • Questions that we felt resolve individually with whichever applicant was chosen. Questions of use of Website. Owner of the materials. • The question of who directs which activities and which are brought back to the Council. • I think the Council should discuss the last aspect of it, specifically with whatever proposal you do expect what will be the Council's role. • We really don't have anything to present in terms of issues specifically any applicant. • I will say on the interviews all three of them actually all have their own distinct characteristics. • We did have an interview panel that didn't have a chance to meet afterwards because we anticipated second interviews but those are now before the Council. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • What we're hearing is there's no particular factor that we might be unaware of from the application. • Nothing that would disqualify any of these three applicants. Staff stated not that staff was aware of. Mayor Slayter commented as follows: • I thank each one of the extremely community-minded folks who provided a proposal, groups and individuals alike. • I realize the amount of time that went into each of these proposal responses. • It's one position and three proposals, two applicants will most likely not be selected. • The ideas contained are all fantastic. • Each of the proposals have great ideas and they're all very different, very different strengths from each of these. • I will go through my thoughts on each one of what we have. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 4 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • Deborah Burnes: I think what we have is an individual, a single person with deep, deep knowledge in marketing and understands our community in a way that as doing business on main street for decades successfully and growing that business I think there's a lot of knowledge that is being offered to us as a City. The energy, and the ideas, I think, are really great. • Peace Town team. Quite compelling and interesting ideas, the ability to leverage relationships for the benefit of the city is I think very real. I really appreciate them. • Townie Media: the experience and professional brought and was evident in the proposal as well as the presentation, I think was quite profound and easily noticed. I don't think anybody who watched that interview would think anything other than that. • Those are my initial thoughts on this. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I appreciate the thoroughness of all these proposals. • I truly believe this is a lot better process for us as a City than the last time we went out with money to spend for a vitality program. This is very detailed. • The applicants all have a budget and RFP and appreciate sharing the proposals with the specs we developed. • Deborah Burnes: She's a long-time merchant on our Main street, understands the downtown, big part of what we want to build however her proposal for me wasn't detailed enough. • I work on the budget subcommittee and I like to see numbers • Peacetown Group: I love the group coming together from different Walks of Sebastopol life and event was very event-oriented which will bring people to our City and I think people involved will bring different strengths. I like the fact they stated in their proposal for me they would be feet on the street. • That's just the people, I think I know them to be. • So that's something that's been of value to me in this position. • On the other hand, I always have been impressed with Laura. The writing ability. The professionalism. The logos. You are really a branding company. I love the logos you have on that slide about who are we. • I have no interest in tying to the Townsy App and I think we need to set ourselves up as an individual. • I'm very familiar with the SDA organization -- I do have questions about whether we can use that SDA Website. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • This is going to be another tough decision. • Three amazing group that's have put in applications and put a lot of time into them in each case. • I look at three of them. I agree they're all very different one from another, vision, passion, consistently throughout. • I was impressed with Deborah's presentation but I think we have the opportunity for with these other two groups to leverage existing contacts and existing infrastructure in a way that she eventually would get there but her project just isn't at that point. Especially in comparison to these other two. • When I look at the proposal from Peace Town what we see there Is an interesting, I think, combination of a lot of different skills. I know that bringing together the four different people is part of it that Mayor Slayter has already talked about. • Relationships that are already can collaborative and by bringing those people together are demonstrating their collaborative nature. • We rock what I've been calling the contrariness of our community and had this warmth and presence and commitment to collaborative work and evidence in the resume that she could do that. That really appealed to me. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 5 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • However the professionalism of Laura and Colleen that Townie Application really appeals to me more. • For this reason I think we don't have time to indulge ourselves in putting a group together and letting them find their way. • I think we really need to hit this issue, hit it hard, and notch it up. Become whom they are suggesting we can become in a unified really visually attractive way on Website, social media, on paper, and actually around our community. • I really like that they emphasize the sense of place. That works for our locals. That works for our visitors. • They have a strong sense of aesthetics that came across. • It wasn't cut and paste from four different personalities or one personality. • I think they were hands away the best. Councilmember Glass commented as follows: • I just also have to appreciate the incredible amount of work that was put into this by everybody who participated. • I've written a lot of proposals like this in my life and I know it just takes so much work to put it together. • I did really appreciate Deborah's depth of actually understanding not just local marketing but really national marketing of her product from Sebastopol and her understanding of downtown. • I appreciated her proposal. • Not just Peace Town but the whole group proposal. The Downtown Association, we're missing out one of those groups. That group has a particularly local flavor and is very, very deep roots into the events and the Chamber of Commerce and school district, that group has very deep roots in our community and I think they had some good ideas and it was fairly event-driven as was said previously. • Townie Media, I thought their proposal gave us the opportunity to finally pull together things that we have been working on for the past 15 to 20 years, which are the Chamber's tag line, the Downtown Association's concepts. • A lot of things that we have been working on for years and moving us to the next step, which is building collateral, building messaging, and getting it out there like really soon instead of just going back through the process again of overprocessing what it is we want to say, because we've spent so much time already thinking about what we want to say and there's a lot of data about that, and they're polling that information and then proposing to do a final pass on all that information, pull it all together and come up with some suggested messaging for our city. • I think their strength is their ability to take that messaging and put it in a format where we can make it local but also make it national and bigger of thing that they're doing, which is getting ourselves attention nationally as well as locally while also leveraging us as a community and bringing us together. • I felt that their skill set in terms of marketing, graphics, and messaging was extremely professional. • So this is the kind of decision that in a small community like ours makes you want to chew off your fingernails and hide under your desk because I really like everybody that is participating in this process, and so it's a very hard decision. • I feel that the Townie proposal is the most professional and can really give us bang for our buck in the long run as a City. Mayor Slayter commented as follows: • My final thinking on this is informed by my colleagues, and I thank Councilmember Gurney for the distilled ideas that I was not able to in my own thought process of hit the ground running and which one of these proposals feels like the organization that could do that with the biggest bang for our buck. • This is not a generous budget figure, and so I think for those reasons I, too, and leaning towards Townie Media. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 6 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • They're both great proposals, and I can see Townie Media doing the branding and then we build on that, and I love the events, bringing people to our town with the street on the feet from the Peace Town group. We call them Peace Town group. • Can't we double our budget? I just can't say how happy I am with this process versus the previous process, and whatever decision we come with today, I want this to be a building because, I love both these proposals. • I can see where this is going, and I want to go with my colleagues, but as Councilmember Glass just said, I'm going to crawl under my desk afterwards. • This is so hard to feel like I'm running for office again. You hate that. • I just want to be authentic about it. It's a super tough decision. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • Echoing those sentiments. • We are a group, all of us, just as everyone who applied is passionate and committed to this community, we are too. • I will be respecting the majority vote here. • I do think that both of those two applicants, they're all fabulous, but both of the two that we're now discussing are fabulous applicants who would give us great benefits. • So thank you, regardless of the outcome, to everything that you do. • I know all of you will keep doing more for our community. Councilmember Gurney commented as follows: • I think we have to look at this from a more comfortable point of view, and it's not really a natural one to assume right now when we're the decision makers, and that is to look at what people are applying for and who the people are. • All of these people are wonderful resources, and all the people these people know and all the skills everyone has are wonderful resources. • So my expectation of whomever is chosen is that they reach out to the other candidates and ask for their help and ask for that connection, even though would feel like competitors now. • Everyone's talking about collaborating, so I'm hoping that we are not going to lose whoever is not selected this morning • I'd also echo that sentiment. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • So Townie Media had a proposal and in response to questions expressed interest in participating in a discussion about adding events or modifying their plan. • Is that something that we will have a formal opportunity to engage in? • What is the next step after contract signing? City staff commented as follows: • Discussed formation of a committee, that the committee be primarily responsible for meeting prep monthly with the chosen consultant with staff carrying out and directing the work with the interaction with the consultant during the month and with perhaps quarterly reporting back to the full City Council. • That is the outline how we see this. Believe the Council definitely wants to remain involved. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 7 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • The committee process would work well for more in-depth involvement and then during the intervening months, staff would direct the actual work with the consultant on the actual work that progresses during that month. MOTION: Councilmember Glass moved and Councilmember Gurney seconded the motion to approve Award of Contract for Relaunch Sebastopol Contract with a not to exceed amount of $86,000 to: Townie Media Mayor Slayter called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Glass, Gurney, Rich, Vice Mayor Hinton and Mayor Slayter Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Approved award of contract to Townie Media Minute Order Number: 2022- Reconsideration of Item Number 9 from the City Council Meeting of January 18, 2022. REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION): 9. Discussion of Approval of City Sponsorship For Sebastopol Walks for Calendar Year 2022 (Requestor: Councilmember Gurney) City staff stated the Council should consider the item exactly as it did last night, call the item, and then discuss and potentially vote. Councilmember Gurney commented as follows: • Since it's my item, it was a request for sponsorship and letter of commendation for Kathy Oetinger. • Are we thinking of not sponsoring the Walk program or not paying Kathy? • I'm not sure which part of the agenda item is being talked about now. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • This has nothing to do with thanking Kathy for her service on this project. In fact, I've been a big supporter of this project so i guess I'll just jump in here. • I asked for reconsideration because I reviewed the minutes of when we approved the last previous Walks from both January 15th of 2019 and January 21st of 2020. • In those minutes, it was brought u by various Councilmembers at the time that certain people were asked to lead Walks. • I was lucky enough to lead three of them myself. Other Councilmembers were not asked to lead Walks. • The process, especially since certain Councilmembers are highlighted in a sponsorship that the City sponsors seems to not necessarily be the best process as we consider ourselves very inclusive, and we talk about being kind. • In the minutes of January 15th, 2019, it was even commented by Councilmember Gurney at the time that we do not want to make the activity look political in nature. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 8 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • With that comment on reconsideration, it feels a little political to me as I was not reached out to and one of my colleagues, I can't speak for her, but I know she's never led a Walk as long as I've been an elected official in the last five years. • So it does feel a little political in nature. • We're putting our city of Sebastopol logo on it and we're underwriting insurance for it • I love the Walk program but I want to reconsider and go on the record of I'm not as excited about the process that the organization goes through to select certain Councilmembers to be invited to come up with a Walk theme while others are excluded. • That's why I asked for reconsideration today. It's not necessarily about not approving the Walk. That's why I voted for it last night. • It is about transparency and getting this message out to an organization that's done Walks with us for 14 years about process. • That's my feeling today and that's why I asked for Council to discuss and reconsider it. • It was late at 11:00 last night, so it was hard to really think this one through, but we had Council meeting today so I wanted to bring that up. Mayor Slayter commented what I'm hearing, and I may have this incorrect, is a clarification of process and to understand or maybe formalize the way that Walk leaders are selected? Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I just would like an explanation, I guess, if we're going to prove it of how Walk leaders are selected, because if you just look at the last five years, I've looked at how Walk leaders are selected. • Some Councilmembers have led two Walks in the same year while other Councilmembers weren't invited to even lead one. • Going with the spirit of the discussion we had on January 15th, 2019, that says we don't want this activity to look political in nature, I just have to be up front about it. • It feels a little political. • I think that's uncomfortable for me to put the City logo on something that feels that way. Councilmember Glass commented as follows: • I haven't really looked or anything, but I don't think anybody reached out to me about a Walk. It could be I missed the e-mail. • I think perhaps in order to make it equitable, perhaps what we need to do, it might help with this situation if we set it up so from now on the Walks always offer a walk for meet your Councilmember so that we have five slots allocated for that because it seems like that would make everybody feel like they're included. • I do know Kathy Oetinger very well and I think I probably would have called her up and said I want to participate, but I didn't, because I got a lot of stuff going on. • I do think we should be making it feel like everybody gets a slot. • Perhaps we could ask that in the future, that next year, because this year is I guess already put together, that next year we have Walk with your Councilmember slots and tell the program organizers that that's what we have and ensure that they do that outreach. Councilmember Gurney commented as follows: • I appreciate you bringing this up again. It was hasty last night. • It's we were looking at a ten-minute time frame for this and then a Public Arts Committee appointment pushing us beyond, and we didn’t want to meet on any more items last night after 10:30. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 9 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • I just want to give a little history. There is no organization behind this. • It's funky, informal group which started with me and Richard Nichols, the author of the book. • We wrote Kathy in because she is the book's graphic designer. We wrote Geoffrey Skinner into being a planner because he was a known cyclist and known Walker and known advocate. • So for years that group said at the end of October, November, hey, do you want to do this another year? • Well, let's put it together. • Over the years we've reached out to different people we know. This was all done outside of the Council for a number of years. It wasn't intended to be political. • I appreciate that quote from me because that is exactly true. • I just being a polite person, asked would Councilmembers like to do this, and i think that's maybe how Patrick Slayter got included. • I think Neysa Hinton, you were responsive to that so you took a Walk. • I will speak for myself, not being a member of not for the whole planning group because the whole group isn't even a group anymore, it was never intended to be a meet your Councilmember activity. • It was intended to be for the purpose of exercise and health, for the secondary purpose of learning that you can Walk from here to there around town and see interesting things like alleyways, fruit you can pick from a tree on the sidewalk, or, whatever that particular leader wanted to put together. • Geoffrey Skinner life changed where he went on to other projects. • I think from my point of view, tagging sponsorship onto invite every Councilmember and have them take potentially five of the ten Walks is absolutely the opposite of the purpose of this activity. • What we wanted to do was bring our people out, bring them out without their car keys. • We ended up with it being such a fun event that people invited their friends to come for the Walk weekend. We ended up attracting international visitors. At one point, I think our garden Walk had, like, ninety-four people. It was a whole parade through neighborhoods and through back yards. • I want to reassure you that it's much more casual than your perceptions. • Last year we didn't do anything because of COVID. • This year when I rustled everybody by e-mail, there was nobody who wanted to coordinate all the Walks. • I usually was the person who called the meeting together, Kathy worked the calendar, we put people in, we moved people around, we changed it up, and we came up with just a general outline for the year at a glance. • This year, I intentionally asked somebody else to do that because I think it's really important to create people who receive that legacy and carry it on. • I'm sorry Simon is not here because maybe these daylight hours would have been easier than 11:30 at night last night for him to speak up. Simon also found a friend who would replace Kathy as the graphics person because Kathy said she was done. Richard, who does the e-mail blasts, kind of said grumpily, okay, I'll continue. • We really have just patched together a team proposing to keep this idea going. • It's so thin that when I suggested to Simon that we change the name of my Walk because in thinking about it i had a little different concept, he said no, please, I don't want to ask Gary to do more. He's a volunteer. I'm already stretching him. • So we have to make a decision here. • If we want this to be a City-driven Walk, then maybe the Council needs to create a Walks committee and take that on ourselves, or we just can let volunteers do it, and suggest that they invite Councilmembers or don't invite Councilmembers. • I think to condition sponsorship on Councilmembers having to meet the person Walk is contrary to whole purpose. • It's good to talk about, and I think we can find a way. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 10 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • We did last night, actually, to find a way to include Vice Mayor Hinton. • That mistake was made on me and I was irritated by it. I apologize for making that mistake to you, Vice Mayor to make you feel that you felt not included. • I can also assure you there is no intention by anybody, any of us Councilmembers who have Walks, to have excluded anybody or hurt any feelings. • I think we can address this in the way that was suggested last night if that's still acceptable. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • I'm completely convinced this wasn't political, it's not a political effort. It's just a Walks effort. • I was privy to all of the could someone please accept Walk duties. • However, we now have a Walks program that includes three of our City Councilmembers. • I want to inform you, Vice Mayor Hinton, of one of the ways that it's not really political can be validated, and it was pretty informal, even though that flyer looks fabulous. • You'll notice City Councilmember doesn't even appear after my name. • That's the nature of this volunteer effort. • However, we do now have a flyer that includes three and does not include the other two. • I'm just wondering whether we now have an opportunity in terms of this year of making the July 30 Walk that has my name on it at the moment a Walk that has three names on it, which would be myself, Vice Mayor Hinton and Councilmember Glass. • Then, you know, we have all of us getting some interest and opportunity, and instead of it looking like it's three, it's all of us. That would be my suggestion. • Whoever wants to lead it would just meet at the plaza and whatever hatches after that is whatever happens after that. That would be my thought in this moment. • Then in terms of the future, I would be hesitant to put a requirement in there. • I would suggest either that all city Councilmembers be included in the invitation list, which would be easy for volunteers, or that we add city Councilmembers somewhere in there as a tag line know. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I just wanted to address some of the comments. • I can appreciate that the Walk started 14 years ago with a lot of volunteers pulling it together. • That's a lot of times how things start. That's great. • But perception is reality, and it's 14 years later, and the city sponsors this. We underwrite it. • It's not no longer a group of volunteers that just get together for fun. • We sponsor other things, too, and we ask for certain things when we sponsor things. • I'm just going to throw out, the apple fair. Either we're all invited or we're not. We're underwriting the sponsorship. • I really have to just kind of hold why I really thought this was important to ask for reconsideration. • I've never asked for an item to be reconsidered. I really want to put that out there. • We have a former colleague, whether we agreed with him or not, who was never invited, for four years he sat on the Council. • I just have to stand with that doesn't feel very inclusive if we're sponsoring with our logo. • I think we need to Walk our talk and do what we say. • I appreciate Diana Rich. I love your collaboration. I appreciate you inviting me to join your Walk. • Councilmember Gurney said she couldn't even change the name of her Walk so I would not want to ask a volunteer to do more work either. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 11 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • I think the idea of creating your Walk with a theme, obviously, you ran your campaign with Patrick Slayter and you're going do the Walk with him, it makes sense to me. • I did a housing Walk the first time, and then I did two focused on eat at local restaurants, and, in fact, the last one, which I had to do it on zoom, I paid $500 of my own money to make sure that I had a video person that helped me do that Walk. • We all have our themes. I would have done a Walk, had I been invited again, with restaurants, and I would look forward to volunteering to do that Walk again next year. • This today is not really about disrupting a Walk schedule and volunteers that are already sacked. • I'm asking for reconsideration to talk about the process moving forward so that we have a more inclusive process, especially if the City is going to put our insurance and logo on it that involves all Councilmembers having an opportunity to be invited to participate. • That's just my final comments. Mayor Slayter commented as follows: • What I'm hearing is that the Vice Mayor has stated that reconsidering the item to change the vote from last night and that the action that we took last night for the City to sponsor the item as presented last night is still okay. • However, you would like a clearer policy on what this is, if it is a city sponsored function. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • Stated that is correct. • I think you have to go through the process of the vote as a reconsideration. • I really wanted to get on the record today, again, because this is not the first time I've had this concern, and I think we need to review city sponsored events and how we deal with them as a Council. Councilmember Glass commented as follows: • I just wanted to say thank you, Councilmember Rich, for the offer to participate in your Walk. • I'd be happy to go as well. • I do think that when the city is sponsoring an event that this kind of casualness, we are prone to having something that just kind of breaks down around • Clicks or who's friends with who or whatever, and that's not how a city event should be. • Hopefully next year we will be more inclusive about inviting everybody on the Council Councilmember Gurney commented as follows: • Discussed City sponsorship of the Gravenstein Apple Fair • Discussed Sebastopol Walks: I hope everybody understands every Councilmember is invited, staff is invited, anybody in town is invited, if you're driving by, please stop and join the Walk as it passes you on the sidewalk. That's really important. • My only concern is that if we burden such a volunteer effort with these kinds of half-hour conversations, there may be no volunteer who wants to do this next year. When you make it difficult, it may be a challenge. • So if any Councilmember wants to contact Simon, please go ahead. Offer your services. He's the guy leading all of this. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • I think I heard a yes to join me by Councilmember Glass. • My proposal in terms of this year is that Councilmember Glass and Vice Mayor Hinton coordinate. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 12 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 • I will reach out to Simon Lowings today and find out how much time we would have to make any modifications to that flyer. There's no reason any of us should be left out. • Unless there's some objection against that, that would be my proposal to deal with offline after this meeting regarding this year. • Simon may say no way, in which case we'll have to deal with it, but let's see if we can do that. Councilmember Gurney commented as follows: • I don't think Simon is going to say no to more volunteers. That would be rather counterproductive. • The issue is that the year at a glance is just a draft that we presented. • It's likely to evolve every month, and there's a block in there for the particular Walk information. • That may be a little different from the original name of the Walk. Some were TBD. • I think Simon will probably work with Gary to do the changes all at once for that month's flyer and any future changes could be put in that if he's actually going to run the column of the future Walks. Mayor Slayter opened for public comment. There was no public comment. MOTION: Mayor Slayter moved and Councilmember Rich seconded the motion to Approve Continued City Sponsorship of the Sebastopol Walks Program 2022, Assist with Publicity for all 2022 events as requested, and Commend Kathy Oetinger for her Contributions to the Sebastopol Walks Program. Mayor Slayter called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Glass, Gurney, Rich, Vice Mayor Hinton and Mayor Slayter Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Approved Continued City Sponsorship of the Sebastopol Walks Program 2022, Assist with Publicity for all 2022 events as requested, and Commend Kathy Oetinger for her Contributions to the Sebastopol Walks Program. Minute Order Number: 2022- PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA Speakers are allowed to speak for a maximum of three minutes so that all speakers have an opportunity to address the City Council. Power point or visual presentations for public comment shall not be permitted unless approved by the Agenda Review Committee two weeks prior to the requested meeting date. Speakers may not "yield" a portion of their allotted time to others. The Mayor has the authority to limit or extend the time allowed for speakers dependent on the number of speakers in attendance. The Mayor can poll the members of the public for an indication of the number of people wishing to speak, then call on individuals to speak. It is the goal of the Council to conclude the public comments portion of the agenda within 20 minutes. If the public comment period exceeds twenty minutes, the presiding officer, typically the Mayor, reserves the right to reduce the time per speaker or carry over public comments to after all business items are completed. The City Clerk will monitor the time for public comments and inform the speakers when the time limitation has been reached. The Mayor could survey the members of the public, as appropriate, to move agenda items up or back to address the members of the public items of concern. Public participation is encouraged on all public agenda items. Council and staff will treat participants and each other with courtesy. Derogatory or sarcastic comments are inappropriate. The public will likewise be encouraged by the Mayor to maintain meeting decorum. In Council meetings when citizens are agitated, the Mayor may call a short recess to calm the situation. If a member of the public is unable to attend the Council meeting, written communications may be sent to the City Clerk by e-mail or by regular mail. Communications received after distribution of the agenda packet will be made available to the Council at/or as soon after the meeting. Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 13 of 14  Agenda Item Number 2 There was no public comment. ADJOURNMENT OF SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING • January 19th Special City Council Meeting will be adjourned to the January 26th Special City Council Meeting (City Council Retreat) 9:00 am (ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING FORMAT) • January 26th Special City Council Meeting will be adjourned to the Regular City Council Meeting of February 1, 2022 6:00 pm (ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING FORMAT) Mayor Slayter adjourned the City Council meeting at 1:00 pm the Special City Council Meeting – Retreat – to be held January 26, 2022 at 9:00 am (ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING FORMAT). Respectfully Submitted: Mary C. Gourley Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC Agenda Item Number 2 City Council Meeting Packet of February 1, 2022 Page 14 of 14