City Council

Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council City Manager Mayor Neysa Hinton Larry McLaughlin Vice Mayor Diana Rich lmclaughlin@Cityofsebastopol.org Sandi Maurer Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC Jill McLewis Mary Gourley Stephen Zollman mgourley@Cityofsebastopol.org CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MINUTES FOR Meeting of December 20, 2022 As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of January 3, 2023 The City Council Regular meeting was held via teleconference pursuant to AB 361. Pursuant to AB 361 (2021), Teleconference Restrictions of the Brown Act Have Been Suspended, as Well as the Requirement to Provide a Physical Location for Members of the Public to Participate in the Meeting. The City of Sebastopol City Council meeting will not be physically open to the public and all City Councilmembers will be teleconferencing into the meeting via Zoom. COUNCIL PROTOCOLS FOR MEETING: • This meeting is being conducted utilizing virtual settings for teleconferencing and electronic means consistent with State of California Executive Orders regarding the COVID 19 pandemic and AB 361. • Live stream and zoom are being utilized for this meeting. • Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting by use of Zoom and Live Stream as noted on the City’s website and as noted on the agenda. • Members of the public wishing to speak to the City Council may do so during public comment or may comment on agenda items during the discussion of each item and must be logged into Zoom. Live Stream is a viewing only format. • 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, will be asked to adhere to protocols and /or will be removed from the meeting. Reminder please leave your microphones on mute until called upon and if you would like to provide your name during public comment you are welcome to do that but do not have to. Please note that minutes are not meant to be verbatim minutes and are meant to be the City’s record of Actions Taken (Approved Motion of Agenda Item(s)). 6:00 pm Convene City Council Regular Meeting (ZOOM VIRTUAL FORMAT) CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Hinton called the Regular meeting to order at 6:06 pm. ROLL CALL: Present: Mayor Neysa Hinton – By video teleconference Vice Mayor Diana Gardner Rich – By video teleconference Councilmember Sandra Maurer – By video teleconference Councilmember Jill McLewis – By video teleconference Councilmember Stephen Zollman – By video teleconference Absent: None Staff: City Manager/Attorney/City Attorney Larry McLaughlin Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Mary Gourley Administrative Services Director Ana Kwong Building Official Steve Brown Fire Chief Bill Braga GHD/City Engineer Mario Landeros/Toni Bertolero Planning Director Kari Svanstrom Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 1 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 Police Chief Ron Nelson Public Works Superintendent Dante Del Prete SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Mayor Hinton led the Salute to the Flag. • Certificate of Appreciation – Retirement of Fire Chief Bill Braga City Management and Council provided appreciation comments to Chief Braga. Mayor opened for public comment: Linda Berg commented as follows: • I join everyone else in thanking Chief Braga for his services. • I just like to say that I think he deserves a lot more than just a certificate of appreciation. • I think the City should be able to find some way to name something after him, or minimally a plaque. • I think the City Council are extraordinary people who have been in service for this community for a lot of years. Not to mention Sarah and Larry and Mary, and, of course, legendary Police Chief Jeff weaver. • All of these people deserve some kind of greater recognition in my opinion, and I would be pleased of the City Council could find some way of doing that. Reference Order Number: 2022-239 STATEMENTS OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Conflicts of interest may arise in situations where a public official deliberating towards a decision, has an actual or potential financial interest in the matter before the Council. In accordance with state law, an actual conflict of interest is one that would be to the private financial benefit of a public official, a relative or a business with which the Councilmember is associated. A potential conflict of interest is one that could be to the private financial benefit of a Councilmember, a relative or a business with which the Councilmember is associated. A Councilmember must publicly announce potential and actual conflicts of interest, and, in the case of actual conflict of interest, must refrain from participating in debate on the issue or from voting on the issue and must remove themselves from the dais. There were no stated conflicts of interest stated for this meeting by Councilmembers. CONSENT CALENDAR: The consent agenda consists of items that are routine in nature and do not require additional discussion by the City Council or have been reviewed by the City Council previously. These items may be approved by one motion without discussion unless a member of the City Council requests that the item be taken off the consent calendar. The Mayor will read the consent calendar items; ask if a Councilmember wishes to remove one or more items from the consent calendar; and then open public comment to the members of the public in attendance. At this time, a member of the public may speak for up to three minutes on the entire consent calendar and request at that time that an agenda item or items be removed for discussion. If an item or items are removed from the consent calendar, the item shall be placed at the end of the regular agenda items unless otherwise determined by the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tern. Councilmembers may comment on Consent Calendar items or ask for minor clarifications without the need for pulling the item for separate consideration. Items requiring deliberation should be pulled for separate consideration and shall be placed at the end of the regular agenda items unless otherwise determined by the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem. Mayor Hinton read the consent calendar. Mayor Hinton asked if any Councilmember wanted to remove a consent calendar item. There were no requests to remove a consent calendar item from any City Councilmember. Mayor Hinton opened for public comment on consent calendar items only. Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • We have a Planning Commission appointment at the end of this year • As far as I know, there's not been any request for applications. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 2 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • Will the seat go vacant into 2023. • Will proper posting be made. • Will the City make a concerted effort to make to ensure use of a series of channels, including social media • Similarly, I have the same concerns about the Design Review Board vacancies and public notice of recruiting a diverse pool of applicants. • Climate Action Committee has four seats are expiring at the end of the year, similarly, is the City going to conduct recruitment for a diverse pool of applicants. • Item four on the agenda seems like a great opportunity to revisit, more generally, the City's philosophy for charging development impact fees. • Multiple times of the past few years, I've discussed of all the projects that failed to accurately measure the true impact that these developments might encounter, and likely do not impose requirements for the safety or well-being of the community from the automobile centric business development on our urban core that would not require any sidewalks to be placed, to a major housing development with little to no improvements • Finally, we see with item six, a 19% increase to the cost of contracted projects. If I can ask, when was this and how was this increase approved. • Also, how does this agenda item suggests no financial impact, when it seems pretty clear that this is a $41,000.00 increase cost? • Finally to our new Councilmembers, this is an opportunity to discuss items that are definitely within the public interest. • Having these things get jammed into consent calendar's multiple times throughout the month, with no discussion for the public, no discussion from the Council, this is a stamp approval for things that really deserve more public discussion. Steve Pierce commented as follows: • I just want to welcome the new Councilmembers, and also, thank Chief Braga for all his years of service to our city. • I wanted to talk about the grant writer proposal. I am very excited about this. • I think it is a good opportunity for our small town to leverage the somewhat small resources that we have, and try to get some more resources. • I understand this is not something that the City has ever done before, and is a bit of an unknown quantity. • I really hope that it works out, and we can land some new resources for the City to use. Linda Berg thanked Kyle Falbo for his comments and legitimate observations and discussed the grant writer item. Mayor Hinton asked staff to respond to public comment. City staff discussed the process for City openings as well as the process followed for the Grant Writer recommendation. 1. Approval of Minutes of December 6, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes (Responsible Department: City Administration) City Council Action: Approved Minutes of December 6, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Minute Order Number: 2022-240 2. Approval of Local Appointments List (Maddy Act Government Code Sections § 54970- 54975) This is a current list (As of December 31, 2022) of City Commission/Board/Committees: Planning Commission, Design Review, Public Arts and Climate Action Committee (Responsible Department: City Administration) Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 3 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Action: Approved Local Appointments List (Maddy Act Government Code Sections § 54970- 54975) This is a current list (As of December 31, 2022) of City Commission/Board/Committees: Planning Commission, Design Review, Public Arts and Climate Action Committee Minute Order Number: 2022-241 3. Approval of Award of Contract to California Consulting for City Wide Comprehensive Grant Writing Services in An Amount Not to Exceed $60,000. This item is to approve based on interview panel recommendations California Consulting to research and apply for grant opportunities, assist with post award grant management, analyze existing unfunded projects to determine the best strategies for funding, and serve as a as a liaison between the City of Sebastopol and County/State/and Federal agencies (Responsible Department: City Administration/City Departments) City Council Action: Approval of Award of Contract to California Consulting for City Wide Comprehensive Grant Writing Services in An Amount Not to Exceed $60,000. This item is to approve based on interview panel recommendations California Consulting to research and apply for grant opportunities, assist with post award grant management, analyze existing unfunded projects to determine the best strategies for funding, and serve as a as a liaison between the City of Sebastopol and County/State/and Federal agencies Minute Order Number: 2022-242 Resolution Number: 6496-2022 4. Approval of the Annual AB 1600 Report. California Government Code sets forth a number of requirements that local governments must follow if they are to collect fees from developers to offset the cost of the construction of public facilities related to development projects. An “AB 1600 Report” (also referred to as a “nexus” study) regarding the jurisdiction’s use of the Developer Fees that have been collected, and expended, must be prepared and approved within 180 days after the end of the fiscal year, i.e., by December 31, 2022 (Administrative Services Director/Engineering) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 2022-243 5. Approval of Utility Collection Policy/Procedures. In an effort to provide City staff the tools to manage the billing of utility services of its citizen accounts accurately, promptly, effectively and in the best practice manner, this policy will help guide staff how to handle events that may arise from billings. (Responsible Department: Administrative Services) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 2022-244 Resolution Number: 6497-2022 6. Approval of Notice of Completion for the First Street Water Main Replacement Project #0818-20.09 (City Engineer) City Council Action: Minute Order Number: 2022-245 MOTION: Vice Mayor Rich moved and Councilmember Zollman seconded the motion to approve Consent Calendar Item(s) Number(s) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Mayor Hinton called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Maurer, McLewis, Zollman, Vice Mayor Rich and Mayor Hinton Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 4 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 Mayor Hinton moved item number 8 earlier on the agenda and stated items 7 and 9 would be conducted after item number 8. REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION): 8. Climate Action Committee Quarterly Update and Climate Action Committee Workplan Review and Approval by Council (Responsible Department: Planning/Climate Action Committee – Kenna Lee) Planning Director Svanstrom presented the agenda item and introduced Kenna Lee. Kenna Lee and Josho, Climate Action Committee, provided a presentation to the City Council. Mayor Hinton opened for questions of staff/presenter. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • As I was going through the appendix, I did not see any cost and estimates anywhere. • Am I missing them? Or are they not written down? The presenters commented as follows: • They're not written down at this point. • That would be our next step. you not committed to funding these projects tonight, your saying yes, these make sense to work on. • The next step for the committee would be to actually have each of their working groups flush out and scope up with assistance and staff what this means in terms of what the essential staff resources are, funding, or potential costs, and what those are, so that we could look at it, not this year's budget, but maybe the next upcoming budget cycle. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I think we want something more official, especially as we have three new Councilmembers, we are in the middle of a budget year where we don't have anything funded except for what we just funded, which was a grant writer position, which isn't exclusive for Climate Action, but was requested heavily to be used for funding some of these other items. • The Council might have questions, but I wanted to make that tie to the new Councilmembers that some of these items, the thought was how we would fund them is by getting grants. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • Thank you for the presentation. You are a great group, really doing amazing work. • As we can all see, going into a deep dive. • My question is the request for action tonight, this is a follow-up on Mayor Hinton's question. • Are we being asked to approve these as priorities for the Climate Action Committee subject to later decision consideration and decision making regarding the funding obligations? • In other words, we can say, yes, we approve these as goals identified by the Climate Action Committee, but we have not yet approved any funding allocations. Is that correct? The presenters commented as follows: • That is correct. • This is 10% of those potential actions. • These are the 10 climate actions that the committee felt are big priorities, and have the biggest bang to Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 5 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 the buck, reach the most people, et cetera. • But, yes, that does not mean they will get funded. • For instance, the stormwater master fund the city is working on. • I know Engineering is working on ways we could potentially fund that, because that is not in the budget, even though they are looking at that as a need for the city. • We are not suggesting approving this tonight. • It is simply, yes, we think you're on the right track with these priorities. • One of the things why we wanted to do this was, if there are items on here that the Council feels aren't appropriate places for city staff, and the Climate Action Committee to be pursuing, that we would drop those down or off the list. • Because we know when you adopted the climate action framework, all of the actions were possibilities caught, not necessarily that you adopted those. Vice Mayor Rich commented of these priorities, which appear to overlap into various City departments, have they been reviewed, or input obtained from other city departments? The presenters commented as follows: • When people were still here, we actually met with their development review team, which includes the department heads responsible for Building, Public Works, Engineer. • That is to make sure that if they had input on any of these, that they were aware that this is the direction that we were going. • One of these things have actually moved up, because Engineering said yes, they're working on that. • Our understanding of we are asking for with the work plan is that if you guys approve these priorities, and we run out and find a ton of funding for them that you're not going to come back and say, wait, where were you working on that? • So, it is not that we have any assumption that this City is going to produce any money to fund any individual one of these workplan items, but, it is just to know that the Council is, not definitively, but at least starting on the same page of saying yes, we think these are things that are worth you guys putting your time in two, because the amount of time and work that these committee members to in their working groups to research these items is not small. • So, we don't want you ask them to waste their time. Mayor Hinton opened for public comment: Climate Action Committee Quarterly Update and Climate Action Committee Workplan Review and Approval by Council Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • Tonight, I will not speak too much on the financing side of things, which seems to be the topic of conversation here. • I do think it is unfortunate that, as much of the Climate Action Committee has done so far, the really has not been any financial backing happening thus far. • Really, my hope is that this Council will really put some behind that. • But in particular, on December 15th, the CPUC ended the time excess accommodation for solar panels powered by around 75% for new solar customers starting in April, 2023. • This decision can likely reduce in folks going solar moving forward. • This, coupled with the decision to allow current participants to be like a seed into that old rate will mean that economically disadvantaged rate payers that able to yet afford solar will continue to subsidize this cost to ping out existing solar users receiving four times the benefit of any future solar users. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 6 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • Couple this with the fact that most low and moderate income families that might want to benefit from solar most likely no longer be able to afford the drastic change of the financing of installing solar in the future point this will further separate the haves from the have-nots. • My question to the City and its Climate Action Committee, who last met exactly one night before this decision was made, was this item discussed at the last meeting? Or, amongst the City? • Was there a concerted effort to provide our communities voice to the decision, either through lobbying, letter writing, or the writing of public comment at the decision? Linda Berg commented as follows: • We need to have somebody who's looking critically instead of those were on the City Council currently. • There is not any independence. • The thing about electricity, and getting dependent on select stuff is those two words do not go together. • Because, the electric vehicles and everything else can be wiped out in less than a minute. • With one electromagnetic pulse from solar flares. It happened before. It will happen again. • It doesn't have to be by solar flares now, but the new thing of course is cyber warfare, with all the satellites, all 7000 of them at least, and then also, on the ground, other people can take control of your vehicle, your banking • Makes me very nervous we start talking about low-cost -no cost, because it is a way some of you voted for the wireless water meters, which failed to take into consideration the healthcare costs, which will amount to millions of dollars in cancer and everything else. • It makes me unhappy to watch you walk right off the cliff City Council Comments/Discussion and/or Deliberations: Councilmember Maurer commented as follows: • I wanted to thank the Climate Action Committee for their clear, and upbeat presentation. • Just regarding the small comments regarding public education, I was wondering if the committee would consider having a little wisdom corner on the City's e-mail that goes out periodically, maybe every other week, it comes out to the public. • For example, a climate solutions corner, or a zero waste, or even a wellness corner where you can get one very simple solution for something. • For example, how to reduce your junk mail. • Baby steps that people can do that is easy for the public to do, and how that on a regular basis. • Just something that would be valuable to me, and to some people. Councilmember Zollman commented as follows: • I too wanted to thank the committee very much for all of their hard work in the past, and their ongoing hard work. • Also, the thought of including metrics that can hopefully be uploaded to the city site to show where we are, and all of our ongoing work for the public at large. Councilmember McLewis commented as follows: • In thinking about staff and costs, I just wanted to ensure that department heads are kept in the loop and on board with these types of things as it progresses, and you learn more. • But also, just be mindful. I am curious in hoping that everyone will be mindful of how much staff time this requires as far as, you know, I continue to hear over time about the staffing issues that we have, so I just want to make sure that that is kept in mind. • Then ultimately, I'm glad you all asked about the cost for this, because I was the first thing I started to Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 7 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 wonder, is, you know, what are the costs associated with this • As long as we are not approving anything like that, I am good. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • A couple of things I wanted to say is, first of all, this is coming up is a quarterly report. • I think that we set it up that way when we originally launched into the Climate Action Committee. • But, it is the most frequent committee I think we have in the city that reports to City Council. • While I appreciative the report, your reports are happy, and amazing PowerPoint presentations, which are way better than I can do, I would like to just say that I don't feel like it has to be on a quarterly basis. • I think you can come back to Council when you have something to report, what you do tonight, so, thank you very much. • But, I just wanted to bring that up. I don't think we need a quarterly report, more so when you are just ready to bring things to Council • And, with that said, I feel ayou're on the right track with the appendix, and I appreciate that we have gone down from 10% from the original 150th. • But, for me, it is really hard to approve a priority listing when I can't see costs attached, or possible grants going, you know, going after it. • Because, the priorities for me can really change in the one, two, three lineup if something is something we can do with our existing staff, or we got a grant for it, or we are working with another agency. • For example, Sonoma Clean Power on an education project. • They may be doing some of the printing for us, versus something that is going to hit our budget, and I have no idea how it will hit our budget. • So, that is where I am weighing in tonight. I would like to see costs associated so we can prioritize based on both things. Both the item, and the cost. Josho commented as follows: • I will just say, we've been at this for two years now. • So, we were familiar, at this point, with shortage of staffing time, and shortage of funding. • This is something that we have regularly in our process. We take that as a given. • So, we understand that we are vetting these things as we go. • Seeing which ones are going to require more staff time, and therefore, be less practical, or acquire more funding, and therefore, accept some funding ourselves, with the work plan that we put out his freshly formed. • You might think of it as a concept plan, like we whittled it down until we think it is a good idea to pursue these priorities of our own volition. • Our next step is to flush them out a bit more. • As we see that some may require more funding or staff time, that will juggle the list of priorities within the workplan of itself. We are used to finding that at this point. • So, just to say, yes, that is something we are sensitive to, that is something we are working with, but we are not expecting the Council to carry any of these things for us. • We are saying, we think these are good things. • Will move them as far forward as we can ourselves, and then, we'll try to make them accessible for the city in some fashion, depending on interactions with the other key players. • So, we have a set of process documents we developed as well at this point, including the project developments process. • It goes from concept to vetting and working groups, to bringing to the whole committee for approval to talking to department heads who may be included in that sort of work. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 8 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • So, these are not law things that we are bringing to you all, nor are we looking for a blank check to carry through our work. • Part of our job is to do the analysis, and do the concept development so we can hand them off in a way that will be feasible. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • Would it be acceptable if we were to approve the workplace without the listings of a one through 10 priority? • More as a 10 items? We don't know the one, two, three The presenters commented as follows: • It would be misleading to say that these things are in order of priority from one to 10. • This is just a short list of things that we think we should work on, and the actual prioritization of it will fill up a little bit over the course of the seasons. • So, what we are looking for is either, from the Council, if the Council think there are certain things on that list that are not important, we are open to hearing about it. • If the Council thinks that there are things that are not on that list that are not important that you might want us to look at, you're also into hearing that. • At this point, this is a navigational document. • We are saying these are the things that we are looking at in the seasons ahead, and we are looking for just a general approval of that direction. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • Thank you for that explanation. • Thank you, Mayor Hinton, for the comment and concern. • Having attended the Climate Action Committee meetings as the appointee, I have to say, I've been very impressed with the depth and thoroughness of their investigation, and with their practical and realistic approach to goals. • I see this as an opportunity for the City Council to improve a universe of options. • I understand it really appreciate the idea of not putting a number of prioritization next to those items, but either just to say to them, unless there something specific on that list that we don't like, yes, please, investigate these options, coordinate with staff, which they have established their very effective at doing, let's recognize that the planning director carries heavily involved, and please come back to us with any funding requests , understanding of the answer may be zero, or it may be more. • But, without knowing what those funding requests are, we cannot say at the moment that we will rubberstamp any dollar amount. • But, I have heard them confirm exactly that in this meeting. So, I would be in support of that, especially in light of your concerns in response, Mayor Hinton. MOTION: Vice Mayor Rich moved and Councilmember Maurer seconded the motion to approve Climate Action Committee Workplan Review but that items one through ten are not listed in order of priority. Discussion: Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I would like to make one more comment for our member of the public. • I was also dismayed to read, as I'm a person that is not able to afford solar on my house, that the new Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 9 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 solar regulation and rules that I read in the press that looks like I have something with her hand up, but our presenter tonight can maybe address that. • But, I would love to know if there is anything that the committee could do or advocate to help change that. The presenters commented as follows: • I appreciate you bringing that forward, because, as I mentioned during the presentation, equity is a huge piece for looking at all of these issues. • Worktop solar has had all sorts of equity issues, and there is all sorts of smart people in California working on this. • One of the things that you might have remembered from past presentations that is not on the workplan, but is definitely a bubbling theme that we are watching closely, and trying to figure out the right time to bring forward, there is some real tory pieces on the verge of shifting that would make it more possible to bring communities into being rather than paying for their own individual solar power, just share or buy into a community solar project that might have solar panels and battery backup. • So, what he might be able to speak more intelligently to this than I can, but I want to ensure both the Council and public that this is, although we were not able to go with effective change, and participating on the state level efforts are not always where our committee decides to put our efforts, sometimes we focus more locally, and when we are trying to put our time, like this workplan, but addressing the equity piece about access to solar is a huge thing that we are holding tightly to, and watching all developments, and looking for opportunities to pull that into our planning. Mayor Hinton called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Maurer, McLewis, Zollman, Vice Mayor Rich and Mayor Hinton Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Approved Climate Action Committee Workplan Review with items one through ten listed are not listed in that order of priority. Minute Order Number: 2022-247 INFORMATIONAL ITEMS/PRESENTATIONS: (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.) 7. Informational Discussion on Roles /Duties of Committees for 2023 Appointment of Members to Staff Committee Appointments/Assignments and City Council Committee Appointment/Assignments / Discussion and Consideration of City Council Roles as Council Liaison (Responsible Department: City Administration). This item is informational only to discuss and clarify committees to the newly elected Councilmembers. Action on Committee Appointments is Tentatively Scheduled for the January 3, 2023 City Council Meeting City Staff presented the agenda item recommending the City Council receive the report. Mayor Hinton opened for questions of staff/presenter. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 10 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I know that these committees have not been set up to actually list of the time commitment and days of the week. • Having been a new Councilmember six years ago, a member the committees that I signed up for, or got assigned. • I had no idea what the commitments were for the days of the week. • Is there a way, and I'm certainly able to help in the committees that I have sat on, to try to put together for incoming Councilmembers • This might lead into the next agenda item, what the time commitments and the typical schedule are for some of these committees • Because, some of the committees meet in the morning, so meet in the afternoon, so meet on a regular schedule generally. • Usually a certain Tuesday or Friday of the month. • I'm wondering if we can put that together so that Councilmembers can also try to find committees that suit their schedules. • We cannot talk about it, if anybody has any questions, but I think that might be a good step. City staff commented as follows: • In the agenda item for those committees that I do know of, there are the times and days that they do meet. • I don't know the length of the meetings, not having served on those, so, that might be a question, if you or the Vice Mayor know about that, but I did try to print as many meetings as I know of at the time that they meet, how often they meet. • So, if it is not listed, we will try to get that information. • I will work with the agency to see if I can get that information, it will provided for this item. Councilmember McLewis commented as follows: • Just looking at these, and what you were talking about, with the time commitments, I just wanted to ask as well, you know, what happens if someone is not able to attend some of these meetings? • Are some of these more of a mandatory versus just obtaining some type of report from what is happened there? • I'm just thinking about the fact that I work all day, and I'm sure others do as well. • I'm just trying to figure out if we do end up on some committees, where do we have leeway with that • I just had concerns about becoming so overwhelmed with committees that we just don't actually have time to concentrate on our duties within just helping to run the City, and make decisions that way. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • Discussed her experience with committees. They are all different. Many of them lend us expertise • For example, SCTA with Sarah Gurney was the representative • She gets a heads up on roadwork grants that are coming out, and that helps our City apply for things. • Also, the Watershed Association that I have worked on, I am a member of that specifically in connection with other cities. That helps the technical working group that works with our city on storm drain compliance, and certain things. • So, some of these committees, we really need to or want to be a part of. Most of the committees, I will say. • So, that is why we try to share the load, and that is why we generally are able to have an alternate. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 11 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • So, when you're not able to attend, you calling your alternate, hopefully, with a little bit of notice if you can. • If we need to miss a meeting, we do, but a lot of times, the alternate can step in, so we can stay abreast of what is going on. Vice Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • My understanding, I think what Councilmember McLewis is asking is, of all of these assignments, which ones should we be considering as a City Council required? • Are there any of them that we could, as a Council, remove and elect to not fill? • My quick answer to that, and correct me on this, if I looking at this list that has A, B, C, D, and E for the categories, is that A, B, and C, but my understanding is the categories A, B, and C are appointments that we, as a City, really have to make one way or another, that the group, which is our Council liaison positions, we, as a City Council, has substantially way to decide whether or not we want to appoint liaisons, and that group e is really the Council created committees. • There are a few in there that really have to, and no one will argue with that, like the budget committee, the agenda setting committee, but, nonetheless, those groups and E are committees that we, as a City Council, creates. • I see A, B, and C we need to be out there with her presentation. • D, we want to decide who wants to do, and E, similarly, does that City staff commented as follows: • Your accurate. The A, B and C are really critical agencies that we should be a part of. • As policy, they do have grants, and they do have opportunities for the cities to get funding. • We really should have advocates on their, because they are County and Regional. • I concur with you, Vice Mayor Rich, that that is what those committees are. • Just to repeat that this is an informational item only. There is no action being taken on the specific item. Councilmember Maurer commented I just want to confirm that the fire committee is closing, and then, I wanted to know what the status on the relaunch committee is. City staff commented as follows: • That will be a discussion that will be coming back when the committee assignments are discussed • We will probably dissolve it at that point, because the whole report will be coming forward to the entire City Council in public. • But, that is not in action tonight. • That will be a conversation that the City Council will have when they come back. • The relaunch committee currently, they have a contract through June of 2023. • So, the committee is expected to me through that through 2023. Councilmember McLewis commented as follows: • With the local nonprofits, such as a Community Center, and Senior Center, et cetera, is it expected to attend all of the board meetings? • Or to simply to be a liaison, and obtain reports from the boards, and report back somehow in that manner quarterly, versus attending every board meeting? • I just want to be clear on what is expected of that. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 12 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • My impression is that it is up to the liaison of how they handle it. • But, when we go to committee reports, which are always at the end of the meeting, that will be the time that you either submit in writing a small committee report for all of the Council, or, verbal, that you could just say I missed the meeting this month, but I called a board member, and this is what is up. • I think that's, you know, we have a lot of meetings, and obviously, we try to make the big ones, especially with the liaison. • That is how I handle my liaison appointment. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • The liaison role, as the Mayor said, depending on the Councilmember, and the entity that the liaison is serving, I will tell you that I know many liaisons who were just available. • Patrick Slater, as a Councilmember, made himself available to the groups for whom he was liaison. • They contacted him if he had questions. He reached out to them. • Is very casual and as needed. • Sarah Gurney attended regularly, without exception. Her liaison appointment, she went to all other meetings. For instance, the library board. • As Mayor Hinton said, it is up to the liaison. • The second point I wanted to make is I just want to make sure, Mayor Hinton, that in terms of the City Council created committees, the City Councilmembers understand the difference between the ad hoc and standing committees. • The reason I bring that up, Mayor Hinton, is because the standing committees have a greater obligation and that those meetings are noticed, and they are open to the public. • That creates a formality and regularity that isn't the case with the ad hoc committees. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • If any Councilmember has questions about the difference, go ahead and let us know. • But, basically, standing committees are ongoing, and ad hoc committees are for duration of time, and tend to be short-term. • Liaisons tend to be, as Vice Mayor Rich said, are associated with those organizations. • They know who their Councilmembers are, and it is up to the Councilmembers to work out with them what works for the organization. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • Just answer the question that I think Councilmember McLewis was broaching in terms of obligations, they do have formal meetings. • So, on the one hand, that might suggest that the obligations are greater in terms of time commitment. • I just wanted to share that, in my experience, although those meetings are ones that have to attend every month, therefore, that obligation is set. • Those organizations, very professional staff, the staff does all the minutes, all of the agendas, all of the work. • There is very little in between time that is committed that is really, really focused on the meetings themselves, and advocating as a representative of the city unless you decide in those groups to pursue subcommittees, which is on anyway required. Councilmember McLewis commented based on these committees, knowing that we have three new Councilmembers, one is that, is there some committees that meet we might want to know that it requires a lot more experience or background than what we might have yet? Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 13 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 City Manager/Attorney McLaughlin commented as follows: • Staff does not have direct experience on some of these committees, which are attended by Councilmembers. • So, it would only be a staff perception, not a perception of a Councilmember actually attending the meeting. • But, for example, SCTA, that is an organization that does require a lot of understanding of matters. • It would take a while to really get up to speed. Once you're on that committee, you're pretty much at an advantage, because you learned the ropes, and what it's all about. • With Sonoma Clean Power and Zero Waste, I personally attended, because, for a period of time, staff members were board members there as well. • That is one that you need to get up to speed on pretty quickly. • Many of the rest of these, I trying to see once to talk about. • I'm assuming the certain people would probably, with experience, would continue on some of these committees. • If there is a change in Councilmembers, some new Councilmembers might have some issues with the Russian river watershed and then GSA, as these are technical. I have sat on some of these committees • Staff was of great assistance to the Councilmembers when you attend these meetings. • There is always a new Councilmembers. There been elections all over the county, so, every one of these bodies will have new Councilmembers staffed somewhere. • I think 100% of the time, they will be of assistance to new Councilmembers to help you get up to speed. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • I will give my list of the most time-consuming down to the least. • Sonoma County Transportation Authority requires that the same person be on the Regional Climate Protection Agency. • So, you're talking about two meetings rather than one. • I believe the SCTA is the most time-consuming of all of these obligations. • As Larry (City Manager) indicated, the appointment that probably benefits greatest from someone with experience and knowledge of the topic. • The ones that I am on are the mosquito vector control districts, and Zero Waste Sonoma. • I will tell you that, as very professional, I stepped in two years ago, and they were very helpful. • You did not need a lot of time to get up to speed on those two. • But, the obligation is about an hour a month for each of those. • The Sonoma Clean Power I think is the second most demanding after SCTA in terms of the knowledge. • The time it takes to accumulate appropriate knowledge. But, I don't know if there is much time other than the actual meetings. • The GSA board and Russian River Watershed Association Board, we were told it would be more information on those. • We were told that there are some that are Mayor appointed. • The legislative committee, I think it's just an hour a month. It does not seem like it takes a lot of substantial time. But, knowledge seems important. • The liaison roles, again, those you can do is you want to. There is a lot of flexibility. • The remaining appointments committees, City Council committees, the agenda review is the Mayor and Vice Mayor. • The budget committee is a standing committee. There is regular obligations. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 14 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • The fire committee is an ad hoc, and I think it is scheduled to end at the end of this year. • The homeless services organizations liaison is mute for the moment, and that is a very flexible put in as much time as you want to sort of role. • Design guidelines committees I believe, Patrick Slayter was assigned, and, Mayor Hinton, with the Continuum of Care, we need to know, and the rest of the City Councilmembers need to know whether those individuals could continue to serve and those thoughts. • Relaunch is ad hoc. • Stuffing assessment study is ad hoc, and Climate Action Committee as we know is continuing onward. • Whoever is appointed to that is the zero waste appointee. • That is just my overview. I hope that is helpful, and not too much information. • I would like to know, Mayor Hinton, whether Una Glass can continue on the Continuum of Care if the Council selects to do that, and whether Patrick Slater could continue on the Design Review Board’s guidelines committee if the City Council elects that. Mayor Hinton commented that the City Manager will need to clarify Una Glass’ position but does not think that Patrick Slayter could continue. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I've been the alternate, but Patrick has been the GSA Santa Rosa plain representative. • I do believe that is an afternoon meeting, and it is one day a month. I don't have my full list, but I believe it is on a Tuesday afternoon. • I can't quite recall the Russian River Watershed Association. I'm currently sitting vice chair, however, I've been on that for six years, and it is a quarterly commitment. So, it is a lesser commitment, unless you move into the vice chair or chair positions. • The legislative committee is a one hour commitment. That committee sits on a Friday morning once a month. It is really for somebody who wants to follow the state legislature with bills. That is pretty much what the entire meeting is about. Mayor Hinton opened for public comment: Informational item: Council Committee Assignments Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • So, regularly, the City Council, over the last three years, will go deep, deep into the night, where the point where, very regularly, any of these sort of subcommittee reports would just be abandoned. • They would not be presented at the meeting because we reach the 10:30 time mark. • There is a solution to this, but, it takes commitment among the City Council, and those who are attending these meetings, and obvious, the subcommittees. • That is to produce a written report, and submit the written report regularly along with the minutes for the City Council. • This will ensure to the public that they are informed, and that there is transparency and account ability for the Councilmembers that are attending these meetings, and allow for greater participation, greater informants of the public of what is happening, with contributions to these boards. • So, I would highly, highly encourage that to be a default, is producing a written report. • It doesn't have to be long, just your notes. I am sure that you're taking multiple notes at these meetings. • You will be excellent in these roles, you are present our City well. • Let us know that. Show is that in a written report that he regularly produce. • Because, there are many, especially outside of A, B and C rhat we never really got any reporting out. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 15 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • It is unfortunate, because there is a lot of important stuff that could have been brought forward that we never saw. Linda Berg commented as follows: • I would just like to remind Kyle that in a couple of years, we'll have elections with two more seats available on the City Council. So, thank you, Kyle. • We need more oversight, as we said before. • The thing about Diana representing Sebastopol on Vector control explains a lot • There is no mention of this ongoing epidemic of Lyme disease is only gotten worse. • I'm still getting calls. Got a call today from somebody whose life has been devastated by getting infected by tick-borne diseases. • So, there is a whole bunch of radio bits about West Nile and mosquitoes. • So, the thing is, we are just ignoring the tick-borne diseases for millions of millions of dollars from with people that are living out there in the bushes. • Our own laguna is just full of them. • Nobody here in this Council was there when I collected 406, and pass them around the City Council a few years ago. • There is this real need for signage, and more public information about tick-borne diseases Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • There is a question that did not get answered, I think. • It was regarding assignments that are either you, Mayor Hinton, or I have at the moment for this year. • I just want to say to all the City Councilmembers, and also to you, Mayor Hinton, everyone, but specifically the new City Councilmembers, if any of you are interested only get to that point in any of the appointments that I currently now hold, I would be happy to entertain the possibility of stepping aside so that one of you, as new electives, could step in and start to build your expertise, and make those connections in the county. • I have no appointments right now that I actually have to retain. • There are a couple that I would argue for expertise, but I'll be more prepared when that discussion comes to advocate on my own behalf, but also be open to anyone else is advocating, especially if you are new, and you have the motivation and excitement and passion to want one of these appointments that I happen to now hold. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I'll just say that Vice Mayor Rich and I think agree on this point. • While I've sat on some committees, and some I've grown attached to, and others I'm ready, frankly, to step aside and let somebody new take a shot at them City Council Action: None Taken. Informational Item Only Reference Order Number: 2022-246 PUBLIC HEARING(s): NONE REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION) Continued: 9. Discussion and Consideration of Recommendation for Process of Appointments for City Council and City Staff Committee Assignments. The item will be to discuss a proposal from Mayor Hinton on appointment of Councilmembers to Committee Assignments (Requestor: Mayor Hinton) Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 16 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 Mayor Hinton presented the agenda item. Mayor Hinton opened for questions of staff/presenter. Councilmember Zollman commented as follows: • Thank you for your proposal. • The question I have, at the bottom of the page, it says committee or committees. • So if you wanted to put your top one, I guess you would put number one, your top committee. • Did you still want us to rank all the rest of the committee's within that category starting with three, four, five, six, or how many other committees were in that category? • Did you want us to rank it like that? Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • As we discussed earlier when the City Manager brought up that some may require a little more experience. • With all the different categories, you might not feel that strongly about any of them. • But I would like you to rank them in the proposal so that if you didn't get your number one, hopefully, you can get your number two. • Because they will have to be some shuffling. • It is a new way to do it instead of how it's been done in the past, which is just this list, and then we all raise our hands, and frankly, it's deferred to the member that sat on the committee, sometimes for more than 10 years. • I'm just kind of trying to come up with what seems like a more transparent and fair and equitable and gives you a chance to look at your own schedule and see what you feel like you could commit to an open it up with some forethought before we get into the whole process. Councilmember McLewis commented as follows: • I guess I was wondering what precipitated this. Was it not working in the past? • I observed yearly the assignments last year. • What brought this forth as far as, it's not just change for change. • You have added some concern about how it is gone in the past? • Is that a correct assumption? Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I will speak frankly. As you can see, I think the most of the Sonoma County cities do it that way. • There is a precedent in that respect. • As a new Councilmember myself six years ago, I only had the option of only open committees that the other two Councilmembers that I and another new colleague had. • The other, more veteran Councilmembers continued with their committees. It was kind of the protocol. • I understand institutional memory, and there is an argument for someone that sits on a committee for eight, 10, 12 years, they move through the vice chair and the chair. That can be valuable to our city. • I also think that in a fairness situation, I think everybody brings new ideas, and I like to place people where they are interested and excited about. • Not just about attending a meeting but a combination of things. • That is why I am bringing forth the proposal. Just trying something fresh. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 17 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 Councilmember McLewis commented if we did go with this, this would be voted, unless we decided to change it next year, basically? Is that how this works? Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I think generally, so, anytime a Councilmember can request an agenda item. • I would think we would go to this process. • Endless somebody requested an agenda item to change it, or we could vote in for one year, and we would have to agenda is it in advance of next year. • There ae a couple of ways we could do it. • We could vote it in or we could vote it in for one year as a test, and then we have to bring it forth next fall to make sure we like it. Councilmember McLewis commented as follows: • I was just thinking, I hear what you are saying about the long-term and people sitting on committees forever. • But just by the general nature with new Councilmembers, I think some of that is negated at this point. • I'm not a big fan of change for change, but I hear you at the same time. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • I am wondering, my question is really about how you would want all of us to complete the ranking sheets. • So, I noticed they are separated out into A, B, C, D and E categories or types of committees. • It appears from the forms that what you are hoping is that in for category A, that each one of us will make a number one and number two choice, and similarly do the same in each of the other seats. • Is that is how you are wanting us to do it? Rank it by sheet? Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I think the thought was to rank it by sheet, but certainly, you could write a note on it. • I ranked something in A but C is really important to me. • Also, we have alternates in many of these, especially the more important ones. • While there might be some appointed, there will be an alternate appointment, and that alternate a lot of times moves in, in subsequent years. • That's what I'm thinking. It's a new process. • We are trying to figure out how to do it the right way. We will probably learn a few things. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • The idea here is to at least collect some information in advance on people's interests. • The answer to the question that I think Councilmember Zollman presented would be that you would like us to each, in fact, if there are five options on list A, to identify one, two, three, four, five. • With that make the collection of the information were complete for you? Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • Even if you feel like you could commit to one in A, maybe you could commit to be an alternate. • Right yourself and for what you think you can commit to what you have interest. • Maybe you don't feel completely ready for one of the larger committees first year, but maybe an alternate position. • Because even though you are a nonvoting member for our new colleagues, an alternate can still attend and be up to speed as often as you want to or can, or you can just dip in when a member is missing. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 18 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • It is kind of one of those things that you can do as much is you want. • If your interest lies there, you can recommend and ask to be an alternate. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • These forms as I read the staff report would provide you with some information. • You could, then, individually reach out to all the City Councilmembers to have further discussions, respecting, of course, the Brown Act, so we don't get to hear what the others want. • You would collect additional information verbally that would be useful to you to bring information back. • I just want to make sure, in terms of decision-making, your proposal is that that information, you go through, you sort out what you can. You try to make it equal, appropriate, all those pieces. • Then we all get the results of your efforts. • That we, as a group, get to discuss it, advocate, make a final decision is a full City Council with majority vote. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • Yes, the same way a subcommittee would generally work. • Due to the Brown Act rules, you would not be able to talk to individuals. • Yes, it would come back before the full Council to go through this whole process, ask questions. Even if that question is, why didn't I get it? • Then deliberate, public comment, and make final decisions. • Just trying to do some of the work ahead of time. Mayor Hinton opened for public comment: Proposal for Council Committee Assignments. Linda Berg commented as follows: • I recall several years ago, I thought that some of these appointments, for instance, vector control, I thought that some of these were open to members of the public who had a certain expertise in the area and had an interest. • Could you clarify that please? • Whether there are some of these seats that are open to the public? Mayor Hinton asked staff to respond to public comments. City staff commented that the Vector Control appointment could be a member of the public but the Council has selected an elected to attend. City Council Comments/Discussion and/or Deliberations: Councilmember Maurer commented as follows: • I wanted to thank you, Mayor Hinton, for bringing this proposal to the Council for consideration. • I recognize and respect that it takes time to prepare these agenda items. • The proposal to change the way the committees are chosen. • It makes sense in light of the 2020 Council discussion on the selection committees. • I watched the video, and it was very contentious, and there appeared to be a lot of hurt feelings. • But I'm told that historically, normally, the selection of committees is not that contentious and can be fairly easy. • In my opening remarks is a new Councilmember, I said I would aim to be transparent, authentic, and accountable, and I need to honor that, even though I'm uncomfortable taking on a contrary position on one of our first issues. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 19 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • That my concerns with this proposal are that there is a loss of transparency, a loss of the public transparency decision-making process, a loss of the opportunity for new Councilmembers to practice the give and take to practice sharing, and a loss for the public to witness that one person says one thing, another person says another, and it is a sharing in e-learning. • We are learning about each other, and the public is getting to know us two. • I don't feel there is any real guarantee that this proposal will streamline the decision-making process. • In 2020, it took a little over two hours to choose the committees. • This new process will likely take a lot longer to write up our interests for the Mayor to decide him for the discussion and the vote. • Also, if the Mayor is going to be talking with Councilmembers individually, that could run into Brown Act issues. • To me, it seems like the selection of committees and that discussion that happens, the interaction with each other, is somewhat of an initiation for a new Councilmember. • These are my initial thoughts. • I will remain open to hearing what everyone else has to say. • I'm also noticing that there isn't a lot of public comment on this change. • That's interesting to me, that people don't have strong opinions about it. • Thank you for listening. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • That's a really interesting comment from Councilmember Maurer, and I appreciate hearing her perspective. • It's really interesting having gone through the 2020 process where I felt, in fact, that what I was suffering from as a new City Councilmember was a complete lack of transparency regarding the process and the ultimate results. • Now, the outcome was, I ended up with a lot of obligations, so I don't know why I was so concerned at the time, but I was. • But for me, just to share what I would see as an advantage to this. • This is an upper entity for everyone, and even from my perspective, to have an equal chance of submitting their requests. • My understanding is that then, Mayor, subject to the Brown Act and expected and required by all of us to follow the Brown Act, would then make what I see as recommendations that would then be shared back with the City Council for all of us at that point to discuss and go through the process that Councilmember Maurer has just described. • I see it as an intermediate step. • I'm wondering, the transparency piece I see is that maybe the public not having access to the process from what you have explained, Mayor Hinton, and transparency is a huge thing for me • The piece I see not having access to is information about for each position, who else expressed interest in those positions? • If we had that information that was then ultimately shared, with that help the transparency issue? • I'm just putting it out there. • Is there a way to make sure that the information that you, Mayor Hinton, collect, that the public isn't privy to in terms of the collection, is that exposed to the full City Council and then the public? Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • The public has full access to the forms that are submitted as part of the agenda item coming back. • So that way, it's full transparency. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 20 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • If somebody didn't ask for something or advocate for their experience or their interest, then they are not just saying, I want that. • They are actually advocating and giving them back up for it. • So those forms do come back as part of the agenda item in my proposal with full transparency. Councilmember Zollman commented as follows: • That is what I was going to say in my original proposal, all of our forms what actually be public, part of the record. • All of the citizens could see why we requested what committee and based upon what experience. Councilmember McLewis commented as follows: • I want to say, what would be most important to me is just that we are able to advocate for or against, once the results came back. • If for some reason all five of us wanted one particular, and you ended up getting her fifth choice or whatever it is. • At that doesn't really work for your schedule, or are there some type of conflict, having that ability to advocate for yourself is super important to me. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I will just follow-up some of the comments that have been made on the proposal. • I would say, my personal experience in six years has been more than uncomfortable. • I have frequently not gotten assigned to committees in six years that I have had interest in. • Just because I am Mayor this year, I will assure you that I would like to see this not just happen this year, but in years moving forward with the Mayor as we know, always has rotated, at least in my memory. • While my job in this proposal to place names this year, it would not be my job next year or subsequent years. • I'm just looking at a more fearless issue and a way to kind of study the issue instead of to get on these meetings • I can only speak from my six years of experience. I frequently become an alternate to committees I have been interested in but haven't had an opportunity to serve on many of the communities I have wanted to serve on. • I personally willing to let somebody else have a chance on the committees I have served on. • I am interested in serving on the committees just as a rule of thumb. • I would like to start the process so that in future years, when maybe I'm not serving on this Council, that this is a more fair and equitable process, and that's the proposal I believe I have submitted tonight. Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • As an additional comment for my personal experience, one of the pieces I believe is beneficial about this proposed process is that all of us, when we have come to the meeting to discuss and decide which appointments are best for each of us and as a group, we will come into the meeting with full information about the interests of the other City Councilmembers. That's different. • When I went to that meeting in 2020, I had no idea what other City Councilmembers would be interested in, and we went sequentially through each item, and I didn't know what others might advocate for, so I was uncertain about which one I should prioritize. • So, I think this gives us an opportunity to experience with gathering more information with the complete understanding and acceptance that the decision ultimately will be made by all of us, all five of us, after we all advocate. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 21 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • And let me tell you, I will feel personally completely comfortable if despite forms I have submitted in the midst of that discussion I go, hold on a minute, I really think I would be right for X position. • I will advocate for that, and everyone in here should be willing to advocate and share the information they want. • But at least we have something in advanced of that discussion. MOTION: Mayor Hinton moved and Councilmember Zollman seconded the motion to approve recommendation for process of appointments for City Council and City Staff Committee Assignments for Calendar Year 2023. Discussion: Vice Mayor Rich commented as follows: • My question would be, if you don't mind, directed to Councilmember Maurer to ask whether there is any additional suggestions for transparency that would make her more comfortable. • I understand we are at the vote process, but I also understand the process is important. • So, if you wouldn't mind allowing that, I would appreciate it. Councilmember Maurer commented as follows: • Yes. If the motion is for a one-year period, I would be comfortable going with that. • But limiting it to just one year. Mayor Hinton called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote. VOTE: Ayes: Councilmembers Maurer, McLewis, Zollman, Vice Mayor Rich and Mayor Hinton Noes: None Absent: None Abstain: None City Council Action: Approved recommendation for process of appointments for City Council and City Staff Committee Assignments for Calendar Year 2023. Minute Order Number: 2022-24 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 for Meeting of: Page 22 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • I would like to speak on the issue to the public comment until late in the evening what it would be less, that members of the public would be in attendance and less likely that members of the public will be informed of the assignments -- items being -- prior to the decision to make this a late in the evening, there was a policy in place that was never enforced, although it should've been, have a comment be limited to a specific amount of time at the beginning of the meeting and then follow what, public comment would close and reopen at the end of the meeting. • That was not enforced as a result, we would have long, extended periods of time of public comment that would slow down the rest of the meeting, taking a flight into the evening, really to appoint where there was not going to be any additional public comment on that. • I would ask this Council to reconsider and go back to public comment at the beginning where there would be an increased attendance and holding to that time limit being restricted to a certain amount of time. Linda Berg commented as follows: • As usual, I am in complete agreement with Kyle. • We went from a lot of people commenting on various issues to appear in the two of us. • I also think the public comment needs to be moved back. • I wonder why there are a couple of items not on the agenda. • Health and safety is a priority. • I'm wondering why the water meters, wondering what the status of that is, if anybody can answer that. • And also, why that has not been re-agendized. • Instead of this stupid idea that's costing millions of dollars to kill ourselves, radiation coming up sidewalks. • Chinese-made wireless water meters so that they can be monitored by the Chinese. • The other issue is, the PG& e extortion. • cancer-causing smart readers throughout the entire city. • In needs to be put back on the agenda. • There again, Chinese-made devices not in our best interest or are health. Mayor Hinton commented as follows: • I just want to address the speaker. • This is the first time we have moved public comment specifically for items not on the agenda to the end of the meeting. • We have gotten a lot of community feedback about our agenda items that are noticed and assigned, that they happen sooner in the evening, and so, what we are finding is that the public comment for items not on the agenda was pushing back agenda items into the late-night, that sometimes we want getting too. • Trying this for now. • Again, only for items not on the agenda for items that are on the agenda will have public comments throughout the meeting, as typical. • This is the first night we are trying this. • We had a light agenda. • Anyway, we will continue to try this and see how that goes. Mayor Hinton asked City Manager McLaughlin to respond to the public comment on water meters. City Manager McLaughlin commented as follows: • It is status quo to my knowledge. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 23 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • We have only installed the same water meters as we reported last time which were basically some test meters to make sure they are operational. • Other meters have been turned on in terms of any electronics. • I believe that is still the case. • Caveat being, as you point out, Mayor, we have no one from public works on the meeting tonight. • I believe that to be the case. CITY COUNCIL/CITY STAFF REPORTS/COMMUNICATIONS/ANNOUNCEMENTS/FUTURE MEETINGS: 8. City Manager-Attorney/City Clerk Reports: (This will be either verbal or written reports provided at or prior to the meeting): City Manager/City Attorney McLaughlin commented as follows: • One note for the Council, that the city staff will be in reduced operations starting this Thursday and going through next week. • Explanation for the number of days off for city staff is two fold. • One, employee negotiations. • Employees gave up a number of other holidays so they could get additional holidays during the holiday season when, generally speaking, workload is quite. • Subsidies are actually closed -- some cities are actually closed during the holidays. • We are not close. • We are still in full operation. • A number of department heads will be off. • Thursday is a holiday. Monday is an additional holiday. • The following Thursday is an additional holiday. • The day after New Year's is also an official holiday. • They would be reduced operations during those times. 9. 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) (This will be either verbal or written reports provided at the meeting) Vice Mayor Rich reported as follows: • Very briefly, since the last City Council meeting, I have attended the agenda review committee meeting. • It was my first time. Very interesting. • I highly recommend anyone who is interested to get an eye into the process. • I also have been active in my role to homeless support groups in town, specifically working with local nonprofits, the City Manager and assistant City Manager, and a number of individuals in the community to put together a warming center at the community center that ran from December 14th to the 18th. • Then for the Marin mosquito vector control district, I attended that meeting on December 14th, and it was really a wrap up meeting where updated policies were discussed and plans for replacing a financial -- finance director were laid out for the quarter. • Those are the only meetings that I have attended since the last City Council meeting. Mayor Hinton reported as follows: • I'll go ahead and report, I did attend the agenda review with Vice Mayor Rich. Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 24 of 25  Agenda Item Number: 2 • The legislative board meeting was canceled in December. • Ag and Open Space board meeting was canceled due to illness. • I also represent another board appointed by supervisor Hopkins, and that meeting was canceled due to the latest health advisories that are associated with the county. • So, lots of meetings being canceled due to illness and COVID ramp-up for the holidays. • That's my ad for getting your vaccination and wearing your mask. • Didn't have too many meetings. • It is a quiet time of the year. 10. Council Communications Received (Information/Meetings/Correspondence Received from the General Public to Councilmembers) There were none. 11. Future City Meeting Dates/Events (Informational Only): (See City Web Site for Up-to-Date Meeting Dates/Times) CLOSED SESSION: NONE ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL MEETING December 20, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting will be adjourned to the Regular City Council Meeting to be held January 3, 2023 at 6:00 pm. Mayor Hinton adjourned the December 20, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting at 8:43 p.m. to the next regular City Council Meeting to be held January 3, 2023 at 6:00 pm. Zoom Virtual Meeting Format. Respectfully Submitted, Mary Gourley Assistant City Manager/Attorney/City Clerk Agenda Item Number: 2 City Council Meeting Packet for Meeting of: Page 25 of 25