Good afternoon. I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence translation of the meeting For those just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar It looks like a globe once you join the Spanish channel. We recommend you shut off the main audio So you only hear the Spanish translation Pablo. Will you please restate this in Spanish? Bienvenidos y para los que recién se unen a la reunión Interpretation en vivo al español está disponible y cualquier miembro del público personal que quieren o deseen escuchar en español podrán unirse al canal para unirse Welcome everyone to como un globo terráqueo una vez un al canal de español también se recomienda que Apague el audio primario para solo escuchar la interpretación al español muchas gracias Welcome everyone to our January 30th 2024 Santa Rosa City Council meeting. It is now 1232 and we will Begin our meeting seeing a corn madam city clerk. May you please call the roll. Thank you councilmember Rogers Councilmember o Krepke councilmember mcdonald here councilmember Fleming Councilmember alvarez Present vice mayor step here mayor rogers president let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of Councilmember Fleming and councilmember Chris Rogers. Thank you We will now proceed to item 3.1 conference with legal council anticipated litigation 3.2 conference with legal council anticipated litigation and 3.3 conference with labor negotiators madam city clerk Can you please facilitate public comment on these three items? Thank you mayor We are now taking public comments on the closed session items 3.1 3.2 and 3.3 If you are in council chamber would like to comment but have not provided public or a speaker card Please make your way to the podium. You will have three minutes mayor I see no one in chamber wishing to provide public comment Thank you. We will now recess to closed session Welcome back everyone to our January 30th 2024 Santa Rosa City Council meeting seeing a corn madam city clerk. May you please call the roll Thank you mayor councilmember rogers here Councilmember o Krepke here councilmember mcdonald here councilmember Fleming Councilmember alvarez Councilmember vice mayor step here and mayor rogers present let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmembers Alvarez and councilmember Fleming We will now proceed to items 4.1 and 4.2 which are our study sessions for the day madam city manager Good afternoon mayor members of council item 4.1 is a study session draft development related cost of service fee study Good afternoon mayor rogers vice mayor step and members of the council. I'm Gabe Osborne Director of planning and economic development as mentioned in the introduction the item before the council at this point in time is a cost of Services study associated with development fees and this study will ultimately inform future updates to our development fees Studies of this nature fairly large this fee study touches on all the fees within the department And due to the significant lift we acquired consultant services to assist with preparation of study and then the delivery of the information So joining me today is Cindy sconce from MGT consulting and she will be assisting with the presentation So before we dive into the particular the study I just wanted to give a brief description on the two different fee types that really affect development proposals the first is a Service fee that's the focus of the conversation today. It's also referred to as a user fee often or miscellaneous fees Those really go into the staff costs that are associated with delivering specific services out of the department In economic planning and economic development the core building functions and planning functions are included in this So we have planning review. We have permit processing. We have building an engineering plan review and inspection The vast majority of those hours for those services do come out of planning and economic development I believe it's also important to note that development services is handled city-wide There are quite a few departments and individuals in transportation and public works water fire and Parking that actually assist with development related services Those hours are incorporated in this study as well The other fee type that we see on the development side are what are referred to as impact fees Impact fees are getting a lot of conversation at the state level right now Impact fees are very different That is a one-time fee that a development pays for its proportionate fair share impact on public infrastructure So that fee is collected and it goes into programming parks streets other public infrastructure components To provide service to that development long-term a lot of conversations about waivers and deferrals at the state level Assembly bill number 602 addresses the nexus fee studies associated with impact fees and how those are prepared Very important to note these fees are not part of that So this is not covered under assembly bill number 602 We do a fee study to show the relationship between the fee and the service provided, but it's not part of that Just quickly the background on our service fees Service fees and you'll hear a lot of the conversation during the presentation today about cost recovery levels So typically what we start with is understanding how many staff hours that it takes to provide a service and the cost associated with that and that number determines a hundred percent cost recovery for that service Where the fees are set maybe at a hundred percent or they may be less and we'll talk a bit about what subsidies look like In 2004 the city council approved financial strategies that focus development related fees on a hundred percent cost recovery And the study you'll see today. We'll start with a hundred percent cost recovery across the board It's been some time since we did a massive overhaul of our fees. The most recent study was completed in 2013 with an adoption in 2014 we also did some minor adjustments in 2017 which addressed a handful of fees Also important to note at this point the current analysis is based on fiscal year 2022 and 2023 budgeted numbers and fees charged at the beginning of the study It typically takes six months to a year to prepare these studies and a lot of the information You'll see today is based on when that that exercise started Before we dive into the specifics of the study I think it's really important to discuss the relationship between revenue expenditures and permits in planning and economic development as I mentioned there are quite a few departments that support it the vast majority of the Hours and development services come out of planning and economic development the chart you see before you now Really shows our permit totals. Those are the vertical bars and it breaks it down between building engineering and planning Building is the vast majority of our permitting totals It shows the expenditures in red and the expenditures only focus on development services So they exclude any cost for economic development and code enforcement and then shows the relationship with our revenue and Typically anytime you look at development services over a 10-year period You'll see a general increase you'll see a plateau and then you'll see some form of a decrease and that's just how development cycles work We've seen some interesting anomalies in Santa Rosa during this time frame in 2015 and 16 We're still coming back from the recession of 2009 Developments moving forward at a slower pace. It really starts growing in future years and the staffing levels start to recovery So our expenditures start to increase 2017 we have the tubs fire these do not include tubs fire totals So these are just simple business outside of the fire recovery But that's still affected development in the area it slowed certain things and then it Increased when it brought more construction resources into the area and then of course in 1819 and 1920 we see the dip from COVID We see some growth from a big push to build affordable housing in 2021 and then as we get into 2022 and 2023 we're seeing a slight decline on the number of permits So what you see and this is really the reason we perform the study is we see a growth in expenditures and the peaks and the growth Can be from getting additional staff The reductions are usually a result of expenditures on the professional services side being less than the previous year But you see a general trend of growing upward that will flatten as permits slow But the revenue doesn't track with that as well And one of the challenges with that is that the length it takes to do a fee study and the fee is not keeping up with the Costs so that is the main reason as to why we're tackling this problem today When we look at this at a division by division We see some interesting trends on the building side We saw some of the highest permit totals that we've seen in the city's history in this time frame And we see a situation where we're seeing revenues jump above expenditures And that is always a bit of anomaly It is usually due to the fact that we have an extremely high volume of applications and then it settles over time So as we get into 2021 2023 we start to see the lines cross so once again the expenditures jump above the revenue But the gap is minor and I think it's important to note that anything in the department when it comes to development services That is not covered by fee becomes our general fund expenditure So that expands or contracts based on how those lines and the orientation of those lines to each other Looking at the engineering side. We see some different trends Engineering was fairly flat through 15 all the way into 20. We saw significant spikes in 2021 that's almost single-handedly the result of PG&E putting in more activity on Maintenance of their infrastructure and pulling permits associated with that So we saw some jumps that has come down a little bit it but it's still holding fairly high One of the challenges we see on the engineering side is when you look at the revenue There's defined spikes and pretty significant peaks up and down That's usually over the result of a few applications triggering a fairly high fee So generally the smaller high volume applications are not softening that out a bit So that's usually a challenge with not getting full-cost recovery on some of those application types that are high volume But once again on the engineering side as we get into 2023 We're seeing the expenditures hold high and we're seeing the revenue dip with some of the permit volumes Planning which is really our indicator permit. That's where applicants start as they're moving forward with the development process We see significant spikes in 1718 and that was cannabis related So we had the revenue jump above the expenditures. We see the COVID dip was fairly significant on the planning side And then we're seeing the drop in in 22 23 very similar to what we saw on the engineering side one of the interesting Pieces on the planning side is if you look at 18 19 We actually held to a similar permit total that we did in 17 and 18 yet the revenue dropped That is due to subsidies on certain permit types and having a high volume of those permit types Where the large volume is not keeping up with the actual staff hours So this is a really important foundational element because as we see in most of these charts The gap is increasing between the revenue and the expenditures So the fee study is really intended to write the ship get us closer to a hundred percent cost recovery and to put us Into a better model of cost recovery as revenue will just naturally decrease with permit volume decreasing because we're in the back end of that development cycle So with that I will hand the presentation over to Cindy and she'll talk about how the study was prepared Thank you game. I One of our objectives as we went into this fee study is really to make the fee structure easier for the consumer to follow We had a considerable number of fees When we went out to the stakeholders and we asked the questions about what was their biggest concern A lot of them said I can't figure out what my fee was So we did undertake some restructuring to make it simpler to navigate those fees to read those fees and understand those fees Then we defined what it cost the city to provide the various services. So that's where we look at the relationship between salaries benefits fully burdened hourly rates and What does it take to provide that service? Then we determined were there any areas where there should be a fee collected over the years You have different services that pop up such as EV charging stations that back when you did the study last Weren't in consideration. So we added in any of those fees that needed to be added in We then identified the service areas where the city might adjust the fees based off the full cost of services and other Economic policy considerations. That's where we look at is it a private benefit Should they be recovering a hundred percent of this cost or is it a safety issue and perhaps we need to set that at a lower rate So our methodology is very transparent very straightforward We really look at that relationship as I mentioned between salary and benefits We do include overhead in that and how long does it take? Typically take to provide that service and that becomes your cost if there are other elements such as material costs that need to be Included in that we do add that in as well The product of that again, it's very simple. You have your time that it takes times the fully burdened hourly rate This makes the clear nexus between the full cost of that service and what that fee would look like None of our recommendations would exceed or go outside of what proposition 26 guidelines state Which is you cannot make a profit on your fees This is the overall snapshot and I will use the the word snapshot For what we saw in the development fee area, so keep in mind what Gabe said about The different peaks and valleys with permits etc Often in development services you have projects that will cross over fiscal years So we do take an average of the volume And smooth out those revenues because we know certain projects may start in one area Maybe in planning and then next year you're going to see that cost hit building etc So we did take an average. You see it from 2021 through 2223 This does include some of those peaks So for instance in column a if we are looking at permit services The full cost to provide the permit services Cost the city a hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars To just provide those services based off the average volume over those years In comparison that same volume at your current fee only Captured forty four thousand so there was a difference You were only recovering 35 of what it's actually costing you to provide that service So the subsidy there of eighty three thousand dollars was being brought by the general fund So that is the way to look at this now with building We had a slight overage, but that is not due to fees being out of an alignment That's more so about the volume as Gabe mentioned prior. We had some peaks In the volume and surplus in some large projects This actually was a nationwide trend that we saw when doing fee studies that a lot of the building departments Uh had such high volumes that they were almost carrying a surplus And then we have seen since then the downturn As your slide suggested that we're starting to see a dip in that so In our analysis for building we've right sized any fees that may have needed to come down But there were also fees that needed to go up In planning The difference in planning is there is a tremendous amount of cross support that comes into those fees Cross support coming in from the building department from fire Transportation etc because they all look at those plans So we wanted to see exactly what it is costing the city to provide those services Same with engineer as Gabe mentioned prior Often you have large projects that come in and take Several years to complete so you often see that that transition in the engineering revenues as well Uh again, we right sized fire In technology, we did look at your current technology fees And uh based off of how they were currently structured you were capturing cost of $55,000 The difference there is really just paying your permit Costs for your permitting system on there. You guys went to Bluebeam to where you are having plans come in Electronically so there was a big shift in technology costs as well And then the advanced planning fee as well There are a lot of new elements that have to be analyzed By the city due to new state mandates So we right sized And are suggesting an increase in that advanced planning surcharge as well overall the analysis States that there's about a 23 percent discrepancy between what it's costing the city to provide services And what your current revenues were bringing in Thank you, Cindy And as part of this process we did quite a bit of stakeholder engagement We launched a survey with 16 questions that were associated with structuring Problems with the existing fees How we would want to apply the fees as far as the timing goes That was launched in august of 2022 and then again in october of 2022 It was the presented in both english and spanish and we received 301 responses We also held held stakeholder meetings at the north coast builders exchange That was done in may of 2023 in november of 2023 We held meetings with the north coast builders exchange board members and then we had a general meeting in january of 2024 This study today obviously as i mentioned there's there's quite a few fees that are being adjusted So we'll do our best to provide a summary of those changes And what we see typically across the board when we do a fee study after 10 years Especially a previous fee study that had subsidies built into it And we'll talk a little more about that in future slides is we see an overall general increase in the fees Now our fees based on our current methodology do go through incremental increases annually A certain number of those fees based on consumer price index, but we've seen increases above and beyond that number As Cindy mentioned when we look at the true cost of providing development services And we factor in all the staff time and all the departments associated with that We're seeing more cross support hours come in which increases those costs Since we did the fee study in 2013 There have been quite a few additional requirements at the state and federal level For what we have to look at as part of the review process and that's an important point That by nature just increases the scope of our review and increases the staff time associated with that technology requirements There were big changes through coven we we shifted to virtual permitting There's a heavy reliance on technology for just about everything we do which increases costs associated with that And then also when we look at advanced planning our advanced planning team is a general funded team But the support services specifically the consultant services that go into general plan updates Specific plans in some situations overhauls of our zoning code are funded by consultants And the advanced planning fee has attempted to recover some of that cost So when we look at all the effort there and all the additional work that team's doing it increases the advanced planning fee I think it's also important to note that certain fees here are reducing And the reduction is really a result of some consolidation that we've done on the engineering side that created efficiencies and reduced staff hours We have reduced review authority and some of our planning applications We're a planning application that went to the planning commission may go to the zoning administrator that reduces the fee The technology improvements although they have added additional costs on the technology side They have it created efficiencies on the staffing side So we've seen some reductions where the staffing hours did decrease based on on the assistance of technology And then the department has really had a commitment on the streamlining improving of processes And although our hours have increased we look at efficient ways to do that And I think that is reflected in some of the reductions you'll see And I think an important point and this is one of the points that came through in our interactions with the north coast builders exchange Was that when you look at an average hour that goes into an application You want to make sure the application is being processed in an efficient manner We don't want to do a fee study on a bad process So really what this is it's an average based on everything we need to do to do a correct job based on our state and federal requirements But also do it in an efficient manner. So we did incorporate that as part of this review So the next few slides will step through project examples So we'll show what it looks like under our current fee schedule And then if we do move to 100 cost recovery the first example is a large residential subdivision These are typically the um individual lot subdivisions very large project 100 lots are greater So you typically have a hundred or more building permits So what we see in there is the current fee on the building side. You saw a slight increase of 20 on the building fees That's really due to the introduction of additional cost removing some subsidies and incorporating more cross support hours A very small reduction on the planning side, but you can see in this particular case That is offset by the efficiencies on the engineering side So under our proposed fee schedule if we move to 100 cost recovery this type of project will Witten will experience a reduction in overall fee package Looking at large multifamily projects. This is your typical infill project of 100 units or greater We we've seen a significant increase on the building side And this is just an area where we regionally have been extremely low with the fee And we'll have a separate slide that talks about where we fall now with 100 cost recovery But that's a significant jump just to catch up to really an average price of what agencies are charging for that development type On the planning side, this is one where we've allowed the cross support hours to come in and capture everything from the other departments Once again, the subsidies are going away and then on the engineering side you see it offset slightly But that project will have an increased fee under 100 cost recovery Standalone accessory dwelling units very popular on the building side We see a slight reduction on the engineering side And this is when I discuss the engineering slide some of the higher volume encroachment permits are areas where we're not Recovering cost we see an increase there. I think it's important to note that Most accessory dwelling units don't have an engineering component. So this really references or reflects more of a worst-case scenario And then looking at a commercial tenant improvement of 5 000 square feet We see a reduction on the building side on the planning side We see an increase on the engineering side. We see an increase but once again That type of tenant improvement may not trigger those other planning and engineering requirements. So this would represent a worst-case scenario on that fee So I will hand it back to Cindy and we did a more regional comparison survey with other jurisdictions and she will describe that process Great. As you mentioned, we did do a peer comparison survey A few things to keep in mind whenever doing a peer comparison survey is that often fee structures are very different from Jurisdiction to jurisdiction We don't know what their cost recovery policy may have been to set those fees They may have been set low as well based off of their council's directives It is also important to note that most of these jurisdictions if not all of them are either Have completed their own fee study updates since the time of our comparison survey They're either in the middle of it or they are just starting it So most of these if not all of them we anticipate a change in their fee schedules as well Here's a comparison that we did on that advanced planning fee. So, uh, there are a variety of ways that you can charge for this service Currently the city of santa rosa charges eight separate flat fees. That's very uncommon Across the board. That's not typically what we see out there Uh, we did the comparison most of these agencies as you can see charge some kind of percentage Whether that's on building permits or based off of building valuations That's a more common methodology What we are starting to see is uh, that fee be applied to both building and planning fees Not just building fees Uh, I do need to make a correction. This 16 percent For the new structure is actually if you were just to apply it to the building permit and building plan reviews It does not include the planning fees If we were to do that that percentage would drop it would spread it to a larger base So, how do you compare it to your neighbors? So we have two samples on here. We have a single family Home 2000 square feet Your current fee For that would be 4,845 dollars with the new analysis that fee actually drops to 4,684 dollars You can see, uh, again, these were all done Prior to some of the new fee schedules coming out I know a city of san raffle has updated their fee schedule as well as sonoma county since the time of this this study But the average cost if you were going purely off of an average would be 6,300 dollars, but the medium is 5,215 dollars. So even with uh, right sizing and dropping that fee You are still below the median or average for single family custom homes On the flip side, we have multi-family homes, which you guys have notoriously undercharged for So in tracking time, we were able to do a very good solid analysis It's actually costing you 54,166 dollars compared to your current fee of 29,086 dollars If you look across the board the median for this project would be 56,823 dollars So that puts us right in alignment with the full cost And if you were just purely going off of an average that would jump up to about 65,000 Now again, keep in mind whenever doing a comparison study, uh, it's never apples to apples We try to accommodate whatever we think is included in their fee And so we we always say we never know what their seller and benefits for their staffing is like What their cost recovery policy was but these are the published results from that study The next few slides are going to focus on cost recovery strategy And this will bring us to the end of the presentation and really the focus for today As I mentioned, we have a study that's presenting 100% cost recovery And what our intention is is to really better understand where the council wants the fees to fall So as far as next steps, we'll take the information that we received today And we'll modify the fees and that fee will come back as an adoption We're targeting march We may extend that out based on the comments received in the level of work needed to incorporate those comments But that's really the next step in this process So to give you a background on subsidies when we look at 2013 in that study, it was a bit of a different time Development was still trying to recover from 2009 There was a desire to really encourage and spur development And based on that there was a desire to do across the board subsidies on the fees So what we ended up with with our current fee schedule is most building fees were set at 75% of that full cost recovery And then there were annual increases that were designed to achieve up to 90% over three years So there was an overall 10% reduction after you got through the three years The most planning fees there were there was more of a heavy heavy subsidy there They were set at 50% with the annual increases designed to achieve 75 and then that was worked in over five years Certain public benefit fees such as those related to landmark alterations Which that permit actually protects some of the historic characteristics of private structures in san aroza Residential fences where you may have a high permit avoidance if the fee gets too high And then appeal processes and I think it's important to note what the appeal process is their community appeals So those would be a neighbor appealing a project Those have historically always been subsidized and and those public benefit fees I've seen subsidies from 30 to 50 in some of those fees So as we move forward and hopefully this slide helps to guide the conversation There are a few areas where subsidies really do make sense from a public benefit standpoint When we look at a general permit avoidance, which can happen when a fee gets too high We try to avoid that and we specifically try to avoid that on health life safety permits So trade permits associated with the replacement of a hot water heater Electrical those core services that are needed to safely occupy a home Those historically have been subsidized And we can work in a package that continues that for the safety of the residents in this structure increasing public participation appeal fees They they have been heavily subsidized as I mentioned oftentimes to the tune of 30 for those community appeals Maintaining historical characteristics. That's really tackling the landmark alteration process There are not many of those applications and a subsidy there likely would increase participation in that program And then we have pedestrian safety. So this is really just the replacement of public sidewalk That actually has a very distinct benefit to the public Traveling through that area And then we have requests for reasonable accommodations. So these are ADA accommodations for fair housing What this would typically look at is an if an individual needed to install a ramp to access their building And that ramp was violating some code section. There's a variance process for that So those are very low volume But provide a very significant benefit to that individual occupying that home So those are the main items that those bullet points that we really Would recommend at this point the council look at they have historically been there and then there is that that public side of it The more challenging which can create pretty significant impacts to the program moving forward Are any sort of development activities that are incentivized by fee subsidy? And that's typically what we've seen before and some of the challenges We have with the fee schedule now and the significant jumps that we're seeing are due to those subsidies So we would recommend The first five bullet points. I'm happy to discuss the impacts of the last one if the council wants to go that direction We can incorporate that into the program I think it's also important to note that typically with fees We would likely be looking at regular increases based on cpi that helps offset some of those ongoing costs Fee schedule of this nature as I mentioned is a bit of a heavy heavy lift And generally in that five to seven to ten year range is when jurisdictions do those So this helps keep up a little bit So with that being the case, I would like to mention there are Quite a few representatives in the audience from planning and academic development in the various departments of sport development services And we're happy to answer any questions the council has All right, thank you for that presentation and thank everyone that is here to support you in answering the questions Looking at council to see if there are any questions and we'll start off with councilmember rogers Thank you so much mayor. Thank you for the presentation One of the questions that I have is really what the philosophy from the city is as it pertains to the fees Do we see this as core city services? Or do we see this as an investment in future potential revenue opportunity? That's an excellent question. And I think it's both I think depending on the fee type when we look at core essential services And we look at some of the functions engineering does That's ensuring that infrastructure is built correctly that the city can maintain In a reasonable fashion moving forward So as we increase the staff time associated with that if the cost recovery is not there Sometimes what happens is the staffing reduces to track with the cost recovery So by putting it 100 it allows us to get the right resources in the right place Also by putting it at 100 it allows us to provide the level of transparency and predictability that the development community wants to see in the process Much of the feedback that we received it isn't necessarily about the fee. It's about the timeline So it's consistency and process And I think the more that we can provide that and prop the the department up So it it's less of an ebb and a flow based on what we know is going to happen with just the nature of permitting And we know what's going to happen with the nature of revenue If we can hold a stronger line with those services It puts us in a better position to provide that predictability And then you're getting the benefits of economic development through the commercial side You're getting the benefits of increasing housing stock So I think it's it's very holistic. It covers both of those elements Yeah, no, I appreciate that and in particular You knew exactly where I was going with this is oftentimes we have these projects where the upfront fees to get them Across the finish line can be a barrier But we know that we're going to have increased revenue whether it's from housing projects or from economic development And how do we factor that into our cost recovery models? and what's being proposed here in this This presentation Yeah, and I think that's an excellent point and it really gets into as far as building housing units And what impact long term does that housing unit have to the city, especially when it becomes an infill conversation Um, I think that that's that's a bit of a challenging discussion. It's not part of this study I think it's an important point to incorporate into the longer range plan This really looks at the development of those services and how it provides that But what is really the return on the investment of setting that fee at 100% on the back end when we're producing those housing units? um In some of these situations a prime example is infill has less of an impact on infrastructure It's not building it. There's less that the city encouraged cost wise from that But it still impacts infrastructure in a different way and that's what makes that calculation So challenging to figure out is how do you track those impacts to better understand? Have you fully offset those costs from a cost recovery standpoint long term? But it's I think it's an excellent point I think understanding where we want to sit with the fees helps us have that conversation long term And I think shifting to more of 100 cost recovery model Which a lot of jurisdictions are doing right now, especially with sort of the downturn of the permitting It's not steep, but it is occurring across the board Helps at least solidify that element and you can start working calculations based on that Yeah, and I appreciate that. I'm just also very mindful that While we do see a downturn and we anticipate a downturn What we also are hearing from developers is that the access to capital is really expensive It's so increasing fees at the same time that we see that increase We're likely to get very little right. We've got a lot that's under construction right now But we know that that'll dry up So I want to make sure that we're mindful of that layering impact of what the economy is doing right now Versus the policies that the city is pushing Can you go to slide 21st second because I just had a question about it Is that a typo in runner park single family? Number, I mean, it's more than double anybody near it And if not, do you have any insight into what the policy discussion was around that to Have single family homes that much more expensive on their fees while multifamily that much less expensive So that's not a typo. That's actually what they were significantly higher than most Interestingly enough is ronald park is going out for a free study as we speak So they are looking to go in and reevaluate their fees But currently that is what they are charging for the single family home of a 2000 square feet Okay, and I also appreciate Deliliating between single family multifamily and commercial development Do we have any categories that we're continuing to look at that might fall within it? I'll give you a great example affordable child care Falls I think within our commercial development side and how we assess this but I think if you polled council members Most of us would be really willing to eat the costs for lower fees to get more affordable child care in our community Obviously, we can't get so hyper focused on a number of things that we lose or create more complexity for developers But things that have been a habitual priority for the council Is there room in this discussion for us to talk about? Adjusting our fees to meet those needs Grocery stores affordable child care and things of that nature Absolutely, and I think when we get into more development specific subsidies We can incorporate that into the review process that is fairly easy to identify through the submittal process And then it becomes the level of reduction that we would want to see from a hundred percent to support that So is it 75 50 25? But that's that's exactly the conversation We would love to have today and that helps us really guide what that fee schedule and those subsidies look like moving forward Great, and then my last question for you really is around Is there also room in the conversation to talk about deferral of fees until occupancy? because I have heard from a number of folks that They're sold during that load for so long that the fees themselves get easier to pay back once they have Revenue being generated from the development. Obviously, that's a risk to the city that the development actually gets built and gets occupied But that could be a way for us to straddle this fence as well to continue projects moving forward Once again an excellent point. I think sometimes in that conversation about deferrals the two fee types bleed together We do have a deferral program for impact fees. Most of those are allowed to go to occupancy One of the challenges with a deferral on the service fees is that you can go over multiple years with the payments So the services are rendered in one fiscal year If we don't collect that fee which could be collected two or three fiscal years later based on the development or longer In some situations of the the economy slows It makes it a little bit of a challenge from budgetary process to match that revenue up with the expenditures So what i'm seeing from most jurisdictions is the deferrals are happening heavily on the impact fees But not on the service fees And I think it's important to note that the service fees in many situations because time is so critical And I think most of the developers understand that We have third party options where they're actually doubling the fee under our current fee schedule just to get expedited permit processing Because hitting the specific market is more important than the fee But that is something that we can look at as part of the process if that's the council's desire And if for many of these I know we've used outside assistance when we see A deluge of projects that come in But with the opposite we're still staffing Our department even if projects aren't coming in right so even if it is looking at it as a Three four five year model that we can take that median cost and spread it over the course of five years instead Maybe we would hit those peaks of those valleys in a way that makes it so that deferral of those fees Until occupancy makes sense Thank you councilmember mcdonald Thank you mayor. I appreciate that I just had a couple questions around the impact fees and how that actually and maybe maybe councilmember rogers already hit Hit this one is around affordable housing So the concern with with affordable housing is are we are we our fee so high that we're making it impossible for folks to Actually build affordable housing in the city of santa rosa and how would this fee structure impact that? Excellent question. So once again the difference between the service and the impact fees are just a difference with the overall fee But they're really two separate programs But same general concept and I think much of the discussion with affordable housing It really just gets to be the total dollars to make it happen So when we get into a subsidy discussion about that specific type on the affordable housing side Very similar to any development type. We can entertain what a subsidy would look like Uh, affordable can be a little challenging to develop a subsidy program for because it takes different shapes and sizes A project can move forward Uh, through the planning arena with affordable units and then pull those off and not build them as part of the the Um, building permit side. So how do we account for that as part of the process? Um, but we can definitely look at that where we are prepared to analyze the affordable housing piece and to better understand What a subsidy program would look like on this fee? I think it's important to note that anything we don't collect and we will bring this forward As we go through adoption as we develop these subsidy programs We'll have that impact on our general fund expenditure and we need to clearly identify it We can't legally use one fee to cover the others. So the subsidies will have to come from the general fund But we can look at an affordable housing program as part of that It getting guidance on what we think that would look like If we would want to apply that to all application types if we know a certain percentage we would want to look at Would be very helpful as part of that analysis So I appreciate not going in the hole on our services That's important to know where we're at as far as where we're out on our budget and what we're taking out of general fund So I appreciate those slides that were included in this So I just also want to be mindful of if we raise fees how's that going to impact what we're doing with our Overall goal of increasing housing in the city of santa rosa so While um, I think councilmember rogers made an excellent point in the end Those are going to create more money for us So I just want to be mindful of that that we're not increasing our fees so high Even though we're coming out of general budget Our general funds that it ends up actually costing us in housing because people are just not going to want to develop here In the city, so I think you pretty much answered my questions And and I appreciate the ones from councilmember rogers as well. So thank you councilmember olcrapki Yeah, thank you so much. Um A lot of information a lot of good information is one of those things be careful what you wish for Um, you know, what are our fees really really look like and then you get an answer and it's like, oh Well, maybe that's not what we wanted to see in the first place But it is it is important to see what kind of burden it is putting on our our city staff and what that's costing us I agree with councilmember rogers comment about the development specific Opportunities that exist especially around child care. That is a dire need in this community. But my question is Is there some way that we could I mean if fees do if Sorry service fees go up. Is there a way that we could try to offset that in other ways? And since you open the door the ab 602 could there be and I know there's a discussion Coming later at a later point But could there be something along the lines of just doing the um proportional Impact fees on a year-to-year basis to help try to reduce those and offset any Any cost that increased due to the service fees Yeah, great point And I think when you look at the overall fee burden that a project incurs it's really everything So it's the factor of looking at efficiencies as I mentioned the transparency the time aspect of it Which has a value to it so if we increase fees to gain time that has a benefit to the development community But the relationship between impact fees as the developer sees it that really is a total fee burden So if there's flexibility given in other areas to offset where you're looking for full cost recovery That's a possibility And I think as we're teeing up the discussion about impact fees Hopefully this can help inform that if we're looking at leaning towards that to look at what maybe other options are To go through that Anything under sp602 does require a full nexus study to evaluate that And that would look at the impacts purely at you what the development has on the projects But then there's creative ways to look at how that fee is actually put into the works to to figure out How that works with the service fees and affects the overall package. So there is the opportunity for that Okay, and not to get too far into the weeds but Would would going to the proportional Per square foot instead of per door Have to be involved in that nexus study or could we do that as a standalone item to help the overall cost be reduced for these projects Um, well typically what you can do with the impact fees It still is a nexus study as you're really determining the impacts. You're just doing a lesser version of that Um in most situations in the city's history It's been a more comprehensive look at impact fees and you typically look at our impact fees. We have capital facilities We have parks. Um, it looks at that more holistically But without knowing that we don't have the technical experts here for the impact fee study But typically I have seen smaller versions of studies done to tackle a particular issue It's just how cost-effective it is to do that. Um, if if the bigger need is to do the overall study at under sp602 Thank you so much Vice mayor stop your questions were answered Okay, perfect Madam city clerk, can you please facilitate public comment? Thank you, mayor We are now taking public comment on item 4.1 if you are in the chamber I would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public speaker will be callum Good afternoon, mayor roger's council members and staff callum makes policy director of generation housing I have to say I am loving the direction of this conversation and several of the comments that were shared today So we're looking forward to expanding on that, but I might surprise you And and actually offer our our support for the cost recovery measures and what's being recommended here today by staff We are in entire support. I mean at the end of the day Human capital is the greatest asset of any organization And making sure the departments that execute our pro housing policies are fully resources of utmost importance So, uh, yeah, uh, we would like to offer our strongest support and really thank you guys for bringing this forward and look forward to expanding on that conversation and uh, I think Late march so with that. Thank you so much Mayor i'm seeing no one else approach the podium for public comment Thank you. And again, thank you for being here for the presentation and thank everyone else for being here To help answer our questions Madam city manager Just want to ask staff if we have enough direction to move forward Yes, just one quick question if there's any discussion. So, um, Jessica jones our deputy director of planning just reminded me that we do actually subsidize daycare As part of the planning side. So I think we can look at based on what i'm hearing extending that out to other application types And please feel free to correct me if the direction that i'm providing now is not not the council's desire We will also look at affordable housing incentives and what that would look like As we move forward with adoption since it's not at study session. We will be bringing foreign forward a formal fee study So we'll look at a reasonable that does not impact services And an easy to implement program around affordable housing. We can bring that forward as part of this process And to councilmember crepe peace peace will work as we have a further discussion about impact fees. We can work that in Um, I you know, the actual percentages are very difficult to pick So what we will do is we will like as I mentioned settle those percentages on where it works operationally But i'll also recognize that council's desire to see some sort of subsidy To encourage that development and look at the return investment on that So please correct me if any of that was not highlighted correctly No, I I appreciate that I I did want to also Echo councilmember crepe peace comments around the per square foot instead of per unit Which I think is a really important conversation for us to have I'd be Without getting two in the weeds today in this discussion I'd be interested in Our goal setting having sort of that conversation about as we set priorities for the city How does that realign? What our cost recovery looks like That way even if it means coming up with a policy this year that year over year might change what is Able to access that reduction because the council's priorities might shift that we have some discussion around what that could look like So yes daycares right now is considered but perhaps in the future the council is really interested in Making this up carbon reduction projects that perhaps we look at the staff time for it as as a net benefit, right? But we can discuss that in our goal setting in our priority setting Thank you. Is there Councilmember fluey Thank you mayor Most of my comments and questions have already been answered I'll just make sure for the sake of you getting direction that I'll iterate reiterate some things that are not necessarily for today, but can be for future Which is um The per square foot is good. Look forward hearing ab 602 uh specifically in Along with child care I think that grocery where there's food deserts is a high priority for for many constituents I know in the downtown we we are very committed to our downtown, but yet we don't have a grocery here So really anything we can do to get one is a big step in the right direction And then piggybacking on that with downtown I'd like to continue to see an emphasis on Multifamily and affordable housing in the downtown as we look at proposals for fee reductions or realignments I'd like them to be in line with whatever goal setting Returns we get in the next cover next week next Tuesday So it's not for today, but it's a wait and see and then modify based on I expect that to a certain degree We'll keep many of our goals as they are in place But I'd like the fee structures to be reflective of the values and goals that we sent forward as a council Thank you Councilmember O'Cropkey Yeah, and just real quick. I know there's that last bullet point Just to make sure that you have the enough direction. I'm I'm good with the cpi increase increase on an annual basis Well, the cpi increase will that Take into account like how we're in negotiations So how much we're paying our employees Will change It typically doesn't the cpi More traditionally over the last few years has set at 3% So as we look at this fee update, it will determine a hard cost for the service And then it literally is just a cpi increase of 3% or whatever it is annual on that total dollar amount How do how do you account for salaries and benefits It's typically part of the fee study. Uh, so when we look at the total hours We look at that fully burden rate of the staffing costs associated with that And then that is really just multiplied to determine the total fee So as we do fee studies and it's one of the reasons why it's important to do them a bit more frequent Is that it captures any of those changes in staffing costs? Thank you. I was just wondering how we were going to capture Some of the changes that we anticipate All right, are there any additional Comments Seeing none again. Thank you very much All right, mayor. We'll move to item 4.2 violence prevention partnership implementation plan Good afternoon, madam mayor Members of the council and daniel gardenio program manager for the san eros of violence prevention partnership And i'm here today to talk to you about our annual implementation plan So as most of you are aware The partnership went through a strategic planning process last year From january to june And as part of the strategic planning process included research into other communities with similar programming Reviewing of other community engagement plans that the city has previously gone through Holding one-on-one interviews of former program managers and staff And also talking to our partners throughout the state through the california cities violence prevention network As well as a very extensive Workshop series of workshops with our policy and our operational teams We also held one large community meeting on june 27th of last year to gather feedback from the community And there was also an opportunity for the community to provide feedback on the draft plan Through the city's digital engagement platform The policy team approved our strategic plan on july 19th of last year and we presented to all of you On october 10th of last year And just as a quick review We did update our mission vision and guiding principles Which i won't review in full detail because we already went through this But not a whole lot changed here for the partnership We will continue to work together collaboratively as a community to align our resources and mobilize together To prevent and reduce violence among our youth in supporting our families Through the strategic planning process we identified five five strategic focus areas which includes intervention Prevention communications outreach and education investment and collaboration and many of these help Move along violence prevention using a public health approach And i'll get into more specific detail as to what Our plans are and what we're currently building and currently working on with each of these strategic focus areas in the following slides So this year The bulk of our work is really focusing around building out our intervention strategies This includes our street outreach and crisis response work Which we have not had for at least five years here in santa rosa So the first Program that we are working on developing and launching is a safe campus intervention program Now this program comes Out of a program from san jose Which some of you heard about at our violence prevention awareness seminar last year When we had their staff come and Explain it in detail to our partners And what this is is a crisis response and communication protocol that's aimed at preventing and deescalating Incidents of violence on and around school campuses It also includes Our street outreach workers to go out as it mentions around school campuses out into our hot spot areas such as belby ranch park The transit mall san rosa plaza to engage youth where they are currently at And Engage them around our services and what we have to offer Um, the program includes trained intervention workers many of them with their own lived experience with the gang lifestyle Who are mobilized by schools at the first sign of conflict to engage mentor in case manage at risk and getting involved youth Um, these positions will also provide much needed after school support to our youth with one-on-one case management and wraparound services Um, and we are also putting together what are called boys council and girls circle groups as well As well as opportunities to engage in pro social activities outside of school This also includes support for these youth their their family members as well and in wrapping those services around the family So that they can better support their youth at home We will work closely with each district school administrators counselors restorative specialists at 14 middle schools and high schools throughout san rosa for this program And just as a side note, we are visiting san osean a few weeks to see this program and action and learn from their staff how How to best make this work for us The challenges that they have and how they've overcome them Oh, and in addition to forgot to mention We're also working on building out a female intervention team as part of this work too so that We can help target the unique needs of girls and young women who are at risk or gang involved themselves The second component of this intervention strategy is to develop and launch a crisis response in hospital based intervention program Again modeled after what san ose has currently implemented as well as other communities including oakland And the city of bakersfield The goal of this program is to reach victims of violence within 48 hours of admission to the hospital to provide critical services That break the cycle of violence including the likelihood of retaliation and ongoing community violence This program also uses intervention specialists Such as the safe school camp a safe campus intervention program Who also have lived experience Which work closely with victims of violence and their families linking them to services and resources including relocation assistance mental health services legal assistance and so on The partnership will also provide support to neighborhoods impacted by violence by bringing resources directly to them via our community wellness pop ups Another program that we are working on currently Is relaunching our clean slate tattoo removal program? And i'm very excited to announce that we will have this up and running within the next few months Our team has worked very Deligently researching several different options to make this happen including The cost of purchasing and maintaining our own machine And running the program ourselves with the team of volunteer physicians Or working directly with several local clinics who already offer this Service we've identified two clinics here in santa rosa that are willing to work with us at a reduced cost And so now we're just in the negotiation phases with them and again should have this up and running sometime this spring And finally We are working on re-establishing relationships With several agencies that are focused on workforce development programming This includes circuit riders conservation north core of the north bay the lime foundations next gen trade academy and we were in conversations with social advocates for youth before they made some announcements as to the possibility of closing their doors so We're hoping that they can continue those services And we will incorporate the workforce development component into our next cycle of choice funding For prevention We are revising the choice grant program to align with our new strategic plan This includes ensuring that we are filling in the gaps for services that our team cannot provide Our cycle 12 requests for qualifications should be released sometime in april of this year And the other piece under prevention that we are currently working on is the development of a teen council model Or youth advisory board focused on community safety Um currently our staff has uh researched Other previous teen council models that the city has adopted and implemented and other programs across the state We've also interviewed several youth groups and former teen council members to receive feedback On which model works best for them We've developed an outline of two potential program models for the city to consider But at this particular time We just don't have the staff to to run or implement the a team full teen council model at the scale that it should be implemented So in lieu of that we're hoping to recruit at least one to two youth representatives for our policy team for the partnership at this time And then when we have more staff we can turn and look at bringing back that teen council model Um Communications outreach and education So we have several activities under here for your this first year and on into the next Including bringing back our annual violence prevention awareness seminar, which we held in november of last year And are currently planning for the next one, which is scheduled to be held on october 10th of this year We're also working on Increasing our presence out in the community through social media and other communication channels So we've developed a social media schedule Which includes staff highlights partner spotlights and upcoming and completed community meetings and events And we're working with zero to highlight upcoming meetings events and program spotlights through our city connections and other city communications channels One of the the biggest pieces of our Communications outreach and education strategy are our community wellness pop-ups So we have developed An ongoing wellness pop-up series to connect with our community members and our neighborhoods impacted by violence We hosted three last year in the belview ranch Corby and apple valley neighborhoods and we have one coming up tomorrow This one will be held at san rosa high school at 6 30 p.m It will not only include the wellness fair component with about two dozen of our community partners providing information And resources to participants, but we will also have a panel of presenters to talk about warning signs a gang involvement for youth Kind of the climate around gang involvement right now here in san rosa as well as parents write some responsibilities in the unique Issues that girls who are involved with gangs face including human trafficking. So again, that is 6 30 tomorrow evening at san rosa high school Excuse me finally We want to make sure that we're identifying our partners needs as well and ensuring that they have the training and resources that they need To be able to provide the services continue providing services for our youth and their families And so we're working with both our policy and operational teams to create A training schedule for For our partners and so far we've had requests for de-escalation training mandated reporter training and gang 101 training We've also been very successful under our collaboration strategic area this year We've had quite a few accomplishments here and that includes merging our multidisciplinary assessment and referral team or m dart Which was a separate meeting from our operational team Back in with our operational team And so that particular team was having monthly meetings Where they would discuss specific cases in our referral program with a very small number of our community partners It was really our choice funded agencies in some of our schools Merging it back into the operational team allows for a broader discussion among all of our partners so that we can better able serve our Youth and their families who are Who we're working with through our referral program We've also restructured our policy team meeting agendas to allow for community climate updates Partner presentations and monitoring our strategic planning efforts that began in september of last year and it's going quite well Currently and working on re-establishing the policy team steering committee with our chair Working with her to identify Committee members to get that going again We're also wanting to put together a community advisory team of the policy team We haven't started this yet, but that is on our plate for this year and this will include youth and youth members and parents as well and We're looking at exploring and developing additional partnerships with those currently not at the table and this includes The county health department the county health human services department our local hospitals and other sonoma county cities And finally under our investment arm. We're going to continue to look for outside funding opportunities for our programming We did apply for two grants last year as some of you may know and we did not get those those Grants, so we're going to continue to look for other funding opportunities Including state and federal grants One federal grant is coming up the stop school Violence program through the bureau of justice assistance, which is what we are looking at for this year And then the state has several grant opportunities including cal vip and cal oes funding coming out next year And finally Each year we will conduct an evaluation and report out of our community to the community of the result of the choice current choice cycle We just finished the year one evaluation in the fall of last year and presented it to the policy team our public safety subcommittee and also to our measure Well, it's not measure o sub our citizen oversight committee anymore, but that that citizen oversight committee as well And that report is available on the partnerships website So now challenges to implementation Staffing is our number one challenge to implementing these strategies in particular our intervention strategies Our current staffing includes one limited term wraparound coordinator One limited term street outreach specialists with oversight from myself as the program manager Our ideal staffing for both the school program the crisis response hospital based intervention program and the tattoo removal programs Would be two additional full-time community outreach specialists This would allow our specialists to carry a caseload of 10 to 15 youth at a time As well as provide after school support and pro-social opportunities And a wraparound coordinator would continue to refer youth and families to outside services And I will say best practices from other successful violence prevention programs that we've spoken to Puts the maximum caseload at about eight to ten per youth youth per intervention worker Right now we're nearing 60 youth and their family is being referred to us through our referral program Which puts our current two intervention specialist specialist caseloads at Excuse me 30 youth each Other challenges that we are facing right now including limited funds for operational costs And large wait lists across Sonoma county for services Anyone with that I thank you and turn over to you for questions Thank you for that presentation And thank you for your staff that are here to support us with this Are there any questions council member olcrapki? Thank you very much Great presentation The implementation for year one is great. I'm more interested after that Because if I recall correctly This year is the last year of this current cycle for choice grants. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct So my question to you is Not specifically pointed in an easy answer, but Going into years three two three and four of this plan with Goal setting and our budget cycle coming since we go on a july to july basis. We have to go past just year one Um Do you what as subject matter experts and I address this to you and anybody on your team all the way up down the board What do you think is the best use of our funds now that we have 20 years of the formerly measure oh h public safety tax And uh That we have access to From what I have seen from the research that we've done from other communities implementing these types of programs Having a street outreach team that's focused on Both our school campuses and off-school campuses Which is what our safe campus intervention program will focus on hospital-based intervention and tattoo removal I think those three areas right there and with the inclusion of workforce development programming Whether that be through internal services Um Or through another um through an agency the contracted agency as well as diversion programs and reentry programs for youth who are um Either have had contact with the criminal justice system or who have been incarcerated And are currently coming out of juvenile hall back into the community Those are the areas that um have been most successful for other communities Um, and I'll I'll just point out San San Jose again um They've been implementing these programs for at least 20 plus years Um over the last five years they've averaged about two gang related homicides per year Last year they had zero We had five here in santa rosa So what they're doing is definitely working. Um, and like I said, they've been running it for multiple years Um, so I think having those Five areas we'll we'll definitely see some success Um, if I recall correctly, we saw a presentation on that at the violence prevention awareness seminar last fall. Is that correct? That's correct. All right, so Um, I'll be more direct then um Would it be better to put our Funds after year one but for the implementation of the strategic plan more towards staffing and the things that you pointed out Then back into the choice grant program I would love to say yes I believe the ordinance though does state that we have to put some of those funds back out through the choice grant program Some or all Some okay. Thank you. I think it says up to 35 percent That's number flimmy. Thank you This is a very specific question. So please don't take it as a criticism of the whole thing It's just um, something really particular And I noticed which is the the city of santa rosa when we passed our most recent charter Affirmed that we want to treat gender equality And you call out a boys council which sounds very leadership oriented in a girls circle Which sounds very kumbaya and supportive as particular interventions I'm just wondering if you can clarify Is there an evidence-based reason For for treating these two groups separately that we could really stand stand behind with our charter They're both part of an evidence evidence-based program under What's called the one circle foundation their evidence-based they're They're basically both the same ones for boys ones for girls I don't know why they call it boys council and girls circle. Can we call them both councils? Sure. Great. Thank you Council member mcdottle Thank you for your presentation I just want to say thank you so much to staff not only for the five year strategic plan But actually breaking it down for our partners to see what we want to Actually achieving your one and then moving forward I think that that's going to be really helpful As we look at budget and we actually prioritize what we want to do For the youth in our community for their protection So, um, I know council member ocrepe. He kind of danced around where should we appropriate funds I'd actually like you to tell us how much would it be to fund The two programs that you mentioned in here that would be modeled after san jose As we go into you know goal setting and those types of things for the city of san rosa I think it's important for us to actually have the numbers behind that So around the safe campus intervention program and then the crisis response team For those two specific ones if we left services the way that they are and just wanted to add these What would that cost us? So, um, when I mentioned when I say intervention specialists, that's actually a community outreach specialist That's the job classification that we have here at the city That position with benefits is around a hundred hundred and thirty thousand dollars per year So if we're looking at serving right now We have 60 youth in our referral system that we could potentially work with and mentor Through these different programs, right? And I mentioned we only have the two I would say We would probably need two to three more to to really make those programs effective. So we're looking at about Just under four hundred thousand dollars more per year Just so I'm I'm waiting to this for this to catch up. So it's about four hundred thousand dollars Would that be for both both programs Daniel or just one? I think we could do both programs And then how much do our choice grant? How much is that part of the budget as far as that goes? How much do we actually give out in the grant program? Currently the cycle is seven hundred and fifty thousand per year about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars Okay, and I think that's really all of my questions other than I just appreciate the Presentation and focusing on the couple things that we've actually found a research base to support youth and and really modeling it after a city From san jose that we know that we're doing things at work. And so I thank you so much and thanks to your team They're small but mighty and and we recognize that. Thank you councilman braveras Thank you, mayor First and foremost, thank you for really Getting down to the nitty-gritty of really providing or Producing a system Which can be respected by those who are looking to lead that life one of the my experiences Was seeing people come to the school And we look at this individual who was given this This motivational speech About how they avoided gang life how they avoided street life But the one thing we told or could see is that they were scared of the dark They were scared of the streets So it's almost so much that they avoided it. They simply couldn't hack it And I look in in the crowd and I see an individual that I recognize from my youth Who could hack it who did do it and I'm wondering if it's not too unorthodox Where I could ask him a few questions if that's okay with staff if that's fine with me How's everybody doing? My brother welcome. How you doing doing well by yourself. Thank you for having I'm doing good You know what one of the stories that I can I remember about you and I Growing up in santa rosa is our process with always crossing and we're always somewhere in our life So today we're sitting in a completely different atmosphere only And doing great things for the community, which I do really do appreciate And I have two simple questions for you. Okay What's working now that you've become part of the city of santa rosa work with Danielle and her leadership What what's working for you? What do you see is is making a difference? First of all our team is really budding like We all have personal experiences that we went through That made us face and look at our community and be like, okay, what can we do to help? One thing that I'm really passionate about is my role that educating parents Um, I've done a couple getting education uh, elac meetings uh parent council uh parent club meetings and then tomorrow we have our Game training that we're going to do for uh district wide for the city santa rosa at santa rosa high school so, um Just having to live that lifestyle and then come out of it. I lost my brother to gang violence Um, I don't want any family that ever have to go through that So that's my passion is to make sure that people can learn from my mistakes And and I bring that to the kids. I just came from santa rosa middle and Working with some kids that are having some issues over there and and and you know, I'm in the trenches and we need more boots on the ground I'll also add to that. We've since we've relaunched These programs or or this effort to to build out these programs We've had quite a few community members come forward who identify as former gang members wanting to help Wanting to give back to the communities that they've hurt and we've met with some of them Um, and they're ready to go. They're ready to go talk to kids about their experiences. They're ready to go Talk to parents about what to look out for We met one one person last week who is now working for cal fire Um, so he's turned his life around. He's got this incredible opportunity You know through this new job that that he has And he just wants to be able to tell his story and hopes to To turn some of those kids in the other direction and I think that's also working too I think one of the loudest messages that's lost is The pride that we have for our city of san rosa Sometimes we just don't know how to show it in a constructive manner And i'm glad that we as city san rosa are able to produce a venue where we could be constructive instead of destructive And I guess my last question to you brother is what are you most proud of? Well, I'm most most proud of being able to be a mentor to these kids. Um, Showing them that you can come out of that system that was made, you know, a lot of people say, oh, we're You know these kids are brainwashing to thinking that they can you know that that the system is their enemy or that the law enforcement is their enemy Um, I have some really good friends in law enforcement now where that i've given me a chance to to To prove myself back to the community and they've embraced me and And this really changed my whole outlook on law enforcement and what you guys do up here. Um, I think I think We're uneducated when we come from that lifestyle and and being able to Get some People to mentor us and embrace us and and bring us in Allows us to be you know to get back and do the same for for the youth that are going to come after us Thank you brother. How are you? Thank you. Rogelio Roman. Thank you Any additional questions from council members? All right seeing none. I do have a a couple Just to get a little bit of clarity for myself uh, so When you say you're working in the schools, are you working with uh, so i'm thinking about ones that are in my district Right school district Bellevue or is your time primarily spent only in santa rosa, and then we also have charter Charter schools Our time is primarily being spent in middle schools and high schools at this particular time given our limited staffing resources Mostly in middle schools is are the calls that are coming in then that we're responding to We've been at santa rosa middle slater We've also been at santa rosa high school lc allen And rosen accelerated middle school as well primarily this year however You know if we had a full team We might be able to start responding We have had some requests coming in from some of our elementary schools for the fifth and sixth grade level Because they are seeing gang activity at that level as well so I'm not an expert on school districts by any means but most of the schools that you have Stated are except with the exception of one Our santa rosa city schools So santa rosa city schools in the rosen school district Are the two that we're currently working with Okay, because they're the ones here in santa rosa that have the middle schools and the high schools and How much time percentage wise Would you say is going to the our safe campus intervention? Well, uh, rohellio uh to up until monday was my only staff person So he was spending quite a bit of his time probably i would say about 40 to 50 percent of his time responding To requests from schools to come out help mediate and deescalate tensions on campus We now have a new staff member who joined us on monday wan floris Who's also up there with rohellio? um Unfortunately, i've been out I was out when he first started so we'll put together a plan for him But in addition to the schools, we're going to be looking at also the hot spots The transit mall has seen an extensive amount of violence Santa rosa plaza as well We've also been out to belvey ranch park several times Just to engage with youth that were that We're there during school hours. Just talk to them why they weren't in school As well as other hot spot areas that will work with our community to identify it be at all appropriate and or beneficial to maybe Help some of the schools by training their staff To do some of the work that You do or I'm I mean, you can come back if you want. I'm not sure exactly what you do, but that's a great question. We do offer This is probably not answering your direct question. We'll get to that in a minute We do offer professional development for our partners and that includes the schools and their staff through our violence prevention awareness seminar as well as Other opportunities if they come up. So training them like on gang 101 information, right? Letting them know like what are the current gang trends we're seeing What are some of the warning signs that they need to look out for our school staff? And what resources are available in the community to help our young people and divert That sort of behavior Specifically for this particular program I am not aware in our research that we did and looking at san jose's program Of their training staff to directly do this type of work. I can ask them when we go visit them next month But it's maybe something we could look into is like a train the trainer sort of thing Yeah, well just a question. Yeah, it might be Good though if we can train not maybe to do everything that you do I know your job is invaluable and very great. So right we can't but just so that if smaller things come up or Smaller issues come up that they would have the training to deal Yeah to deal with those the one benefit of having someone like rahelio or juan is they have that lived experience, right? And so they can actually they they know what these kids are going through They can get down to that level and really have that heart to heart with them and build that trusting relationship their credible messengers whereas A teacher might be a trusted individual that a student can go to but if they don't have that lived experience Someone going through this might not take them as seriously as they would with rahelio or juan Makes sense. Yeah, um, and then uh, not a question, but I I really would like the youth advisory Because I think that it would be great Um to get the perspective of our youth. I think that they know what's going on now I think that they know where they want to go in the future as far as we're concerned as a community So, um, I think it's important to put it Uh in the forefront to make sure that this happens um Because we want to get them involved not just when something negative is going on but to keep them involved um Positive planning and moving forward so Any additional questions seeing none madam city clerk may please facilitate public comment Thank you, mayor We are now taking public comment on item 4.2 if you are in the council chamber I would like to comment, but I have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public comment will be from dwayne Wayne de wid on such an important item. You'd think there'd be more than two minutes Looking back 50 years ago. We had gangs here in our area And they had deadly gang fights I don't know if you've heard of the hell's angels and the misfits And the troubles we've had here in santa rosa for a long time Back at that time the school districts They actually employed people at the high school level at least and they did outreach and tried to Keep young people away from that type of activity It may be more attractive now because of the whole social media situation And you can live stream what activity you're doing And basically there's a lot of things going on that are different But I definitely believe the community advisory committee should have not just youth But also folks who aren't your um If you'll excuse the expression, but it's a street term Go along to get along folks Folks that are just going to be yes people for the leaders of your situation You actually need to get some folks on there that um have dealt with The difficulties of trying to raise 12 to 15 and 16 year olds who are headstrong and are willing to submit to peer pressure That's what actually drives a lot of this and i'm sure these young men here will be able to tell you that So it's a good thing you're doing this But you need to broaden the perspective because the hell's angels Have a clubhouse right down the street here off of santa rosa avenue. All right with a big sign Okay, so they're so mainstream now That they can do that even though their leader is in state prison for murder Their local leader here. So keep some of this stuff in mind There's a lot more to this than just the way the The school situation is going It's really important that you involve more people and for community engagement actually give more time and have more involvement. Thank you Mayor emcee no one else approached the podiums for public comment Okay, thank you very much for that presentation Being as though it is 402 we will continue With our regular Meeting we'll go on to item six, which is report on study and closed session Really closed session because we just had the study session So madame city attorney Thank you madame mayor council members. Uh, yes, we had two closed session I'm sorry three closed session items earlier listed on the agenda As items 3.1 3.2 and 3.3 two items of anticipated litigation And one item conference with labor negotiators. There is no reportable action from any of the closed session items And then we did have two study sessions that just occurred Item 4.1 and 4.2. That is the end of my report Thank you madame city clerk. Can you please facilitate public comment on that item? We are now taking public comment on item 6 If you would like to make a comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mayor emcee no one approached the podium for public comment All right madame city manager. Do you have a report for us today? I do So with the upcoming predicted rain and gusty winds, we're going to partner with catholic charities to open up a temporary drop-in center The drop-in center is going to be open from wednesday From 7 p.m. To 7 a.m. Until friday february the second It's going to be located at the homeless services center at catholic charities keratal center Which is in downtown santa rosa at 301 6th street? Again, that's going to be open from wednesday 7 p.m. To 7 a.m. Until friday february the second Also sonoma city bus petaluma transit santa rosa Excuse me sonoma county transit are going to partner with the NAACP uh to encourage public encourage the public for a free Fair ride on february the fourth And this is an observance of the transit equity day And this commemorates the life and the legacy of rosa parks and other transit trail blazers who pursued equity and transportation uh Registration for recreation and parks summer spring activity guide are underway So sign-ups began this morning um And registration will open on thursday so registration began this morning for camp wantong and Registration will open tomorrow february the fourth february the first at 7 a.m. For our other programs So if you need additional information For the neighborhood service, excuse me the neighborhood services summer black party Guide is now available on s r city dot org slash neighborhood services And this is one of our free neighborhood services after school programs And it provides sports and other recreation program activities for some underserved youth and families So that was actually a lot so i'll make certain that i send that to you in writing so you can send out to your constituents Thank you city manager smith madam city attorney any additional reports I have no report this evening. Thank you the madam city clerk. Can you please facilitate public comment? Thank you We are now taking public comment on item nine If you are in the council chamber would like to Provide a comment but have not put in a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You'll have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Okay, i'm seeing no one approach the podium for public comment on item nine Thank you. We'll on item 10 statements of abstention by city council members Any statements of abstention? Great. We'll on item 11 mayors and council member reports Any reports this evening? Start with council member o'crupkey Thank you very much vice mayor on uh The 10th i met with reps from the acou to hear their concerns about the new use of surveillance technology And the possibility of putting together an internal policy on the use of that technology going forward On the 15th up for mlk mlk day of service marlith king day of service I spent a few hours with uh volunteers in city water staff out at piner creek clearing out garbage Next time i know i should probably bring some waiters Because just going down the side is not enough On the 23rd we had the public safety subcommittee. We discussed the sedama county fire district ambulance contract as well as the Soon-to-be temporary rosin substation and the future permanent rosin substation We also had a presentation on the gang crimes team So if there's anybody out there that's worried about gang crimes in our area like the hell's angels They could contact sergeant travis mank. He'd be happy to talk to you about it um On January 25th, uh, it's headed the economic development, excuse me economic development board economic perspective um And then this weekend had a couple of uh, a couple of cool things. I did a ride along With srpd on friday for about eight hours got to see some new techniques and technology in use and then did a 12 hour ride along with station 10 For the fire department I was taught a new dice game that I don't think is real I think they were making up rules as they went just to embarrass me because it makes absolutely no sense um, and then on the 8th I was happy to go to see the ribbon cutting for the new uh, mirf or materials recovery facility by recology Along with some of my colleagues That's it Thank you councilmember mcdonald Thank you vice mayor So I have a couple different reports here one of them is on zero waste And I just want to say thank you again to renae gundy for Representing me at the meeting and then also giving me excellent notes to report out um The consent calendar was approved and there was an agreement to implement waste management tracking software with grain halo systems Um, the software will be used by the building department that will help the city to better track and report construction debris Reuse and recycle efforts that require that are as required by cow green and sp 1383 Requirements, um, they had a draft of the fiscal year for 24 25 that was approved And there will be a budget vote in in february or march and then in addition to that there was a really good presentation by zero waste staff About working with the conservation corpse north bay to help us with our food recovery efforts and then since august 2023 They've rescued almost 150 the 150 thousand pounds of excess edible food And then they hire from disadvantaged populations to provide them with the necessary training to recover edible food in the community And then some of these individuals have gotten to do better jobs and even work with hhw So I thought that was interesting and needed to report that out We heard from our violence prevention program earlier and We met on january 17th and just wanted to reiterate that we will be reinstituting the Tattoo removal program and that we found somebody locally that we're going to be working with And that we also want to say thank you to the city of san osa The team is going to be going down to meet with them about their two programs that we mentioned in the earlier presentation And so we want to thank them for their time and their generosity of sharing how that program works We also had a presentation from juvenile probation to hear about the services and the intervention programs that they provide specifically To youths that are in the system as well as to their family for reentry The long-term finance committee met Last week as well and we reviewed the 2024 quarterly budget and we reviewed the second quarter And I attended my first official meeting for the governance Transparency and labor relations policy committee for the league of cities and we reviewed several policies during that call Along with my colleagues. I attended the mlk park cleanup day and just want to say thank you to The church that we worked with they had over 200 volunteers at that event And we had about 10 staff members that dedicated their day to cleaning up that park So I was happy to go and participate and really just see what was happening at mlk park I too attended the ribbon cutting for recology and and the last thing I want to just talk about is I participated in the point in time count That was last week And I just want to say thank you to all the volunteers who came For that thank you to the host team that took me around with them and kept track of the data that was on the phone And to veterans the veterans affair team that I was able to partner with that morning So thank you for the opportunity to see what's going on in our city firsthand With our unhoused community That's it Thank you councilmember donald any reports from this end of the day us councilmember rogers Yeah, my colleagues have covered a lot of it and so I really appreciate it But I did want to give a special shout out to our team for mlk at mlk park We not only got to watch the vice mayor with a wheelbarrow full of Of wood chips going up a hill over and over and over again But I also got to see by calling to my right. Mr. Alvarez get out the power tools and go to work on The the park's sign which is now looking beautiful So I want to thank james castro and everybody on the team for organizing that for all the community members who came out Many hands made light work Agreed councilmember alvarez anything ditto Thank you. Um, all right. I'll chime in before turning it back over to the mayor On the 17th. Well, actually councilmember donald just went through this. We had the violence prevention partnership Um, I don't know if we still have the team in here, but I didn't want to thank the team for the report And add my thanks to the rest of the councils. It's it's a pleasure to be serving with daniel and that whole group Um, just such a high priority for the city right now On the 18th, there was a board meeting for sent for the santa rosa plain ground water sustainability agency Where we had the the kind of fund assignment of creating a new or approving a new budget Or reviewing a new budget for the 5.3 million dollars in grant funds. We've brought in from the state To assist to assist with a variety of ground water projects for the region And then in addition we approved contracts for some other grant funded projects that include ground water monitoring aquifer storage and recovery and then water use efficiency On the 29th, this was mentioned already But several of us had the had the chance to attend the opening for the recology the brand new recology recycling center Among the the fun facts pertaining to that that recovery center is that it takes in 400 tons of material a day Of which 85 percent is recycled So it's just it's it's top of class for that kind of recycling center. It's it's open and running in santa rosa right now And then finally it's a little bit early But there are some lunar new year celebrations starting and so I wanted to thank the redwood empire chinese association Sonoma county museums and a few other local groups who have been hosting celebrations on the weekends that several of us have had the chance to attend They've been great community gathering points and the celebrations are going to go on at least for another month until the official official date of the lunar new year So again, thanks to the to reka and the and the museums and the other groups who participated And that's it for me mayor Council member flaming. Yes. Thank you. I got inspired listening to all these great detailed accounts of your past couple of weeks I have remembered that I wanted to communicate to the council and to the listening public that last wednesday the metropolitan transportation commission met and uniformly authorized are supported senator weiner's Plan to work on enabling legislation with the state legislature in order to get the Authority that would then allow us to put a bond on the ballot in 2026 for transit for All our port subset of the nine barrier county region. So it's very new There's not a lot of of detail to fill it out yet or I would be sharing that with you But I will continue to be bringing you updates about that as well as the housing bond As more information is forthcoming Thank you any additional No, no one else inspired all right so 14th and 15th, I was able to participate in two mlk day celebrations One was at montgomery high school Which was really cool. Uh, they sang they danced and Myself and vice mayor were able to Read a proclamation On behalf of the city And then it was also nice to see councilmember mcdonnell actually do work On mlk day of service. So the wheelbarrow that Take a picture because that was probably the last time you're going to see that But Oh, she did the sign too So that was great. She did two jobs Following that I went over to dc to the us conference of mayors, which was very fruitful. Um, I received A lot of great information Idea some of which we've already started implementing Here in the city because I could not wait to get back I was making phone calls while I was there back here like we need to do this and and so it's just really great to Hear what other cities are doing to see how we can Implement some of those and then also share what what we are doing Here because we're doing a lot of great things here and we have an awesome team So it was nice to be able to brag a little bit About what we're doing when it comes to our police department and in response and some of the things that we're doing fire So and all the other teams um The sonoma county homeless coalition did meet uh, and so there are a couple of updates That meeting was on the 24th the 2024 homeless point-in-time count was um on friday, I believe And the results will be available this summer And then also the There were two people that were named Jenny Lynn homes And uniglass Jenny Lynn homes will be the new chair and uniglass will be the vice chair For for that coalition and then lastly yester Sunday I was able to go to a mural unveiling which was at dutch floor park And that mural was painted by a s r j c student And a longtime community member here his name is vj If you get a chance to go see that mural it is wonderful. It encompasses everything That santa rosa stands for as far as unity and togetherness and everyone having a sense of Belonging and it's just great has some landmarks on there. So dutch floor park if you're able to go visit that And that will be all for me madam city clerk may please facilitate public comment Thank you mayor We are now taking public comment on item 11.1 if you are in the chamber would like to provide comment But have not yet submitted a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mr. DeWitt, please go ahead. Yes. Thank you. My name is dewayne deWitt. I'm from roseland I noticed that you just said that for comments on these items It's just two minutes But the agenda that we pick up here at the top in print says you will have three minutes For these types of topics So i'm curious why there's been a change up One of the things I wanted to do was thank the mayor that she's been able to go to so many things as well as all of you Council members going to so many of these activities It's a good thing to see One of the people in the community that I know who Pays attention but can't come down here He mentioned to me said, you know, they gave themselves a raise without going to the public to do that They just said, okay. We're going to give ourselves more pay And then they hold less meetings And he was quite concerned and I said no, I know that these people are actually doing more things behind the scenes And what this elderly gentleman told me a member of the greatest generation as they used to call it He said, well, they need to do more out where we can all see it Less behind the scenes and more so that we know they're there doing what they do I know you do it. I've interacted with you at various times, especially on earth day last year Mr. Alvarez and may rogers natalie rogers Came over to roseland and spent two hours with us That was the first time in 22 years that any elected official had come over there and spent time with us on something like that So I appreciate all your reports and I think you need to keep the three-minute time limit. Thank you Thank you. May I see no one else approaching the podium for public comment on this item? Thank you moving on to item 11.2 Where I will make an appointment So I would like to make Or we're changing things around but I would like to make an appointment of a council member Fleming to the zero waste Sonoma and also have her alternate be Renee Gundy, but I believe I need approval from the council You need a motion. Is that what you said? Yes So moved Second I have a motion made by council member rogers and a second from council member mcdonnell madam city clerk If I may interrupt madam mayor, we do need to take public comment before you go ahead and take a vote Oh, is there anyone that would like to make public comment on this item Seeing no public comment madam city clerk. May we please take a vote? Thank you mayor council member rogers I council member o'crepe Hi council member mcdonald. Hi council member fleming. Hi council member alvarez. Hi vice mayor step Hi mayor rogers. I let the record show that passes with seven affirmative votes All right, moving on to item 12, which is approval of minutes We have one set of minutes january 9th 2024 council. Are there any corrections to the minutes? Seeing no corrections to the minutes madam city clerk. Can you please facilitate public comment on item 12? We are now taking public comments on item 12 the minutes from the january 9th meeting If you are in the chamber would like to provide comment But I have not yet submitted at your speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mayor mc no one approached the podium And the minutes will be adopted as presented. Thank you Moving on to item 13, which is our consent items madam city clerk. Can you please read the consent items? Thank you, mayor item 13.1 resolution approval of a lease agreement between skecos properties llc and the city of santa rosa for a temporary police substation Item 13.2 Resolution approval and issuance of a purchase order for one West mark 3 axle potable water tank truck utilizing the pricing from the sourceable cooperative agreement number 060920 dash cer with a certified stainless steel incorporated dba westmark Item 13.3 resolution approval of a professional services agreement with berk williams and sorenson llp for legal representation and amendment to the fiscal year 2023 dash 24 adopted budget within general fund and 13.4 Ordnance adoption second reading ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa to increase the mayor's monthly salary from $2200 to $2200 retroactive to december 14th 2022 to comply with the city charter and correct a clerical error in ordinance o rd dash 2022 dash 018 Thank you bringing it back to council. Are there any questions for the consent items? Seeing no questions Madam city clerk, can you please facilitate public comment? Certainly we are now taking public comments on the consent calendar If you are in the chamber would like to provide comment but have not yet provided your speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period We will start with dwayne Hello, my name is dwayne. Do you with i'm from roseland? Item 13.1 is a very good piece of news for roseland folks It's very important to have a high profile Substation right where it can be seen on sabastopol road I'm also hoping that they'll leave it there. This is an excellent spot geographically It's in the basic middle of north roseland It's better than the spot down on dutton avenue the idea though is It's important to speak with the community About how this police station can be a community asset also It's been said by some folks that the youth in our community are hesitant to interact with the police And that many see the police as difficult Some santa rosa unified school district Board of trustees members actually seem to think that the police are Problematic for youth and I beg to differ I actually believe that the police can be helpful in our community and that the police Having a presence on sabastopol road is going to make things better in the long run One of the things that could be really good We've had a couple of sessions where the police chief has come out to roseland university prep Their high school in south roseland and had a couple of forums But they've been carefully orchestrated a concerted type of situation We need to have a more open town hall type of situation Where the police chief comes and he talks with the community members perhaps at roseland school And lets people come in and bring their concerns in And have a discussion with the police about what the community is desiring to see Occur and come forward It doesn't have to be a situation that's seen adversarial I actually welcome the police in my neighborhood and I want them to put more Police on the beat especially on herne avenue, which has become a raceway a speedway We'd like to get that speed limit sign off a humboldt street over on our street. It's not working on humboldt anymore There's a truck parked in front of it for months. Thank you, mr. Jewett that concludes your time Mayor I see no one else approaching the podium for public comment on consent Thank you Any additional comments from council members seeing none vice mayor. Can you please make a motion? Thank you, mayor. I'd like to make a motion that we approve consent items 13.1 Through 13.4 and wait for the reading of the text second Motion made by vice mayor step and seconded by council member alvarez Madam city clerk. Can you please call the vote? Thank you, mayor councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember okrepke. Hi councilmember mcdonnell. Hi councilmember flippin Hi councilmember alvarez. Hi vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers Hi, let the record show that passes the seven affirmative votes Thank you And due to the time we will not do our first public comment on non-agenda matters until after five o'clock So we will go on to item 15 point one Madam city manager Madam mayor if I may real quick I've just been informed that due to the fact that this item mentions Um Tax implications for fire survivors as well as regulations revolving around businesses that may be impacted by tax fire policy that i'm going to need to Recuse myself from this item Thank you item 15.1 a report 2024 federal legislative platform Good afternoon mayor vice mayor and city council. I'm lawn peterson director communications in enigma relations Um, i'm joined by scott alonso government relations officer with the city as well as john o'Donnell and karyakas Pagonas um with mmo partners and we'll be out lighting the city's 2024 federal Legislative platform also sharing progress that we made in 2023 Thanks scott So in coordination with mmo scott and i met with multiple depart all the departments Excuse me as well as some council members to hear your priorities and policies I'm on funding And so just wanted to highlight this federal platform guide staff and our council on our legislative and advocacy advocacy effort excuse me to advance the city's interest It also allows us to respond quickly On the city's priorities and so with that i'm going to turn this over to john o'Donnell with mmo partners to highlight Some stats for 2023 Excuse me. Thank you lawn. You're welcome Mayor roger's vice mayor staff and members of the council I think you've had experience with us with mmo partners now for Six years almost six years. I think it will be in april So i'm going to not go through the details of the firm's background But we have a significant experience working with local governments in the southwest and in the west over 40 years And i want to commend The mayor and vice mayor council the city manager and the city staff for the excellent support work that they provide To our efforts here in washington dc And mayor roger's mentioned a few moments ago in her report About her visit with the u.s. At the u.s. Conference of mayors in washington two weeks ago Where she did have an opportunity to speak with uh secretary buddha judge about The grant that you have Well, she couldn't talk directly about it She talked effectively about what the city's trying to do with its bike bed project And so i i just want to recognize the fine work that youth folks have done and and a great contribution that your staff Has made to back up the work that we do in washington And so i will turn to The highlights that lawn mentioned a few minutes ago in terms of the federal program in f y well in calendar year f y 23 And if you look at the chart you'll see that In competitive discretionary funding About 77 of the federal dollars that have come to the city in 23 are discretionary dollars The federal funding that the city receives is divided between formula grants and discretionary and so about 23 of your funding that you've gotten from the federal government in 2023 is through formula And you can see on the chart there the programs that Have provided a significant amount of the funding to to the city If you move to the next slide You continue to see What has been excuse me john Can i can i stop you sorry? Yes, okay uh councilmember mcdonnell I apologize for the interruption But just do an abundance of caution because i have an open claim due to fire damage on my house I will have to recuse myself from this portion of the presentation as well So i'm gonna have to leave the dais. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that john When she moves i'll let you know Okay She took the long way john Just a moment. Sorry Now she's walking really slow Hey, thank you john Okay, so on this next slide you'll see uh, we continue To highlight The discretionary funding in the water and energy resilience area and in relation to that second item that's listed there the two million dollars over two million dollars That's a reimbursement. I believe from a fema that the city is seeking But you were extremely successful Your fire department in a competitive grant where you got receives over seven million dollars Then homeless outreach Over a hundred thousand dollars Then pence grants pending um As you well know from reports that um, you've received from us the f y 23 Or i'm sorry f y 24 appropriations process is not finished here in washington But you do have With the help of congressman thompson An eight hundred and ninety eight thousand dollar earmark for violence prevention An hmgp Grant that is under environmental review with fema At the regional office and they're working with the city And then a 4.4 million dollar um grant That is with would be with the core of engineers And what uh, carriacus has been doing and i've watched him labor Intensively on this one working with the san francisco division of the core to make sure that it is included in their f y by 24 work program and then of course the bike ped over crossing For 19 million dollars, which I mentioned earlier the mayor Talked with secretary buddha judge about and i know that Mr. Bagonis Is arranging for Another conversation for the city to have with The assistant secretary of transportation about what the city is trying to do in terms of Mobility And reducing greenhouse gases and this project relates to that But as I said before that's not something you you cannot really lobby the assistant secretary on this, but you can talk in in Grand scale about things the city is trying to do and the and the message gets delivered they know what grant is pending over there um, and then finally there's a technical technical assistance project that Is under the thriving communities program And I understand that the department is asked for additional information Related to that request so that seems like it's moving in a positive direction For the city's benefit um I do not have any more to report on that if there are questions. I'm sure mr. Pagonis Would like to entertain those and I thank you for the time to make this presentation But I want to say again how much we appreciate the city's engagement I've done this work in washington for 40 years And I must say that the level of activity that Santa rosa has here and spends Time there working on their federal program is significant. You're effective and we appreciate it Thanks, john. Um, next slide, please Maybe the next slide there we go So as john mentioned, uh, you know the the highlights from 2023 or I think we've talked about this many times It's certainly a team effort as john described the work that you know the first of all the city council giving us The policy directions and the work that you all have done To come back to dc. I think over we've had over 50 meetings last year both virtual and in person city staff under City manager smith's direction has certainly provided a lot of valuable insight and information that helps us deliver messages to to the hill and with federal agencies and then Obviously your your delegation has been instrumental in moving the ball forward and advocating on your behalf so Really excited that we're we're moving forward and looking at 2024 Uh priorities. I think this is uh, I think our fourth iteration of the federal platform, which was started Post fire recovery and uh every year. I think under Lawn's leadership and and you know scott's work this this program just becomes I think a little bit more Uh crystallized and and really fine tuned so very excited to present this to you tonight under the first section We have wildfire prevention hazard mitigation resiliency and recovery A few of these items are are new, but I think most of these are carryovers From last year. We're still in the you know 118th congress and so many of these are our items We're still working on But there are some some new items in here as well under wildfire mitigation We continue to support federal legislation and funding that provides resources to mitigate against disasters and certainly Support recovery and rebuilding efforts There are are several programs that do that, but the BRIC program and the hMGP program Both under FEMA are certainly Areas that the city has advocated for funding And certainly pursuing opportunities when when possible Supporting legislation like the cdbg Disaster recovery program is certainly a program that the city has benefited from you know securing over 40 million or so dollars from cdbg dr to build new housing It's a program that congress is trying to authorize and codify and it's it's something that the city has weighed in On and and it continues to be a priority as reflected in this presentation And then last on the slide is iPaws integrated public alert warning system certainly an integral part of your communications with the community and You know being able to communicate when when needed A next slide please surface transportation Obviously a major focus You know from this administrative the biden administration and congress over the past two years With funding that was included in the infrastructure investment jobs act and also in the inflation reduction act Certainly a lot of activity around infrastructure. I know the city has been laser focused on securing as much funding As possible under under infrastructure and surface transportation as john mentioned the bike pet over crossing project is Continues to be a priority As indicated on this slide, you know support for bike and pedestrian infrastructure vision zero programs and also Obviously transit is certainly on the top of the list as john pointed out The city santa rosa bus was able to secure 10 million In competitive funding last year for its transition to zero emission fleet Or electric electrification of its fleet of your fleet system So that was a significant You know victory in in terms of funding It continues to be a priority and we certainly expect additional opportunities this year and next year under the ii ga for additional transit funding also looking at Active transportation and complete street implementation and safe route to schools Next slide please water and energy resiliency The the city continues to support Funding and regulatory efforts that invest in water and wastewater infrastructure storm water infrastructure The inflation reduction act and ii ga significantly increased the amount of funding made available For the state revolving loan fund, which is a fund out of epa that provides funding to the states to improve wastewater and water infrastructure The water resources development act is a core of engineers Authorization program the city did secure with the help of the delegation and specifically congressman thompson's efforts 19.4 million for water and wastewater infrastructure and as john alluded to Is something that we're currently pursuing funding for the lano trunk line project in addition enacting mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as i mentioned the inflation reduction act certainly increases funding made available for those types of activities and it's something the city is actively pursuing We're certainly engaged and monitoring discussions on the hill and with epa on pfos regulations, which you know could have a significant impact on infrastructure needs and costs at the city And then also advocating and supporting what where possible efforts on the potter valley project Next slide please Climate change and sustainability, uh, there's a little bit of crossover here, but uh, certainly looking to continue following and and supporting the energy efficiency and conservation block grant program, which provides funding directly to to cities santa rosa received 210,000 from the formula program, which is funded through The ii ga that that that application is in progress at the moment and Due to the department of energy by the end of april In addition, um, you know funding to convert the city's entire vehicle fleet to zero emissions Uh, the inflation reduction act, uh, and ii ga both increased funding And we're watching and waiting for guidance to come out That would provide opportunities to secure federal funding to do that Uh Next slide please Housing homelessness and economic development Uh, again, as john mentioned earlier, the city did receive and does receive funding for cdbg program home We recently notified the city that the santa rosa Continuum of care was awarded four point six million dollars For homeless assistance funding. That's about a three hundred thousand dollar increase over last year's amount Um again also extending supporting and extending housing tax credits For affordable housing investments, uh, the city weighed in last year With the delegation in support of the housing affordable housing credit improvement act that That piece of legislation at least in the extension of the low-income housing tax credit was included in the house tax package that was just marked up A couple weeks ago The mayor met with congressman thompson right before his his markup hearing to talk about The tax credits that are included in the house bill and Extending the city's support for the bill Which did pass The committee bipartisan basis on a vote of 40 to 3 were expecting the house to to move on that bill Sometime this week it could be pushed into next week Also support for parks Um, increasing funding for the outdoor recreation and leg legacy partnership program It's a national park service program. That's competitively administered For specifically for improvements to urban parks Next slide, please On public safety Continue to advocate for funding That supports funding for assistance firefighters grants program and safer Which is the the firefighter hiring program as john mentioned earlier the city secured over seven million dollars for Safer and hiring new firefighters The cops program is on here for continued support Advocating for violence and gun violence prevention programs We we anticipate that the bureau of justice assistance After the f y 24 process is complete will release their grant notices and funding programs and uh city is is looking at Taking advantage of of some of those opportunities to bolster community Violence prevention programs and we're certainly uh, going to be meeting with the bureau Next month or in march, I should say To advocate on on those programs Next slide, please public health and education and continue to to monitor the American rescue plan act The city's allocation has has already been set There is a deadline coming up at the end of the year Where you know program funds have to be encumbered And then spent by the end of of december 2026 so those those deadlines are coming But we're certainly looking at opportunities to to weigh in if there is additional flexibility to be had and then Last on this slide is support for early childhood education child care workforce development programs For youth and funding for teachers and educators I think And i'll turn it back over to lawn and to scott Absolutely. Thank you. Carrie. I just appreciate that So with that the communications and intergovernmental relations office recommends that the council by resolution adopt the city's 2024 federal legislative platform And that concludes our presentation and scott mmo and myself are available for questions Thank you for that presentation So I am going to go to council to see if there are any questions, but before I do that I just want to say Uh between our team who works really hard here And john and kiriakis you guys in dc I think we have a wonderful team And you guys have pushed Push the mark for us So I want to continue to do that and i'm very happy that we get to work with you I know you work with other cities But when i'm working with you I feel like we are the only city that you work with So thank you very much for everything that you do for the city of santa rosa and with that councilmember rogers Thank you, mayor And I wanted to echo those sentiments and say congratulations to your team. I know All of the good work that you've delivered for santa rosa was noticed and now we're excited to have you as a partner on the cinema county transportation authority side In regional climate protection authority as well. So obviously they'll serve great purposes for our whole region Really my question is around What level of preparation do you need from our city when you go after funding? So specifically for things like the regional community safety training center Do you need a feasibility study or are those the kinds of things that we can say to you? Hey, there might be these opportunities out there Can you bring us resources so that we can try to get those dollars to do that planning process?  Well, I'll take it. Yeah, I'll take a crack at answering it. Thank you councilman rogers for the questions and and mayor rogers We certainly appreciate your comments and your your partnership and doing this work and very much appreciated the council support for our contract and Certainly looking forward to working with the city And and regional partners as well I think it really depends on on the project councilman I think, you know the city has done an excellent job in terms of identifying projects early on And then working with us and the delegation trying to trying to match those opportunities with with federal programs sometimes You know, it does require You know going through the authorization process like the the word a bill Where there isn't necessarily a specific program that's, you know, lined up with the project needs And then we have to go and try to either tweak a federal Program through authorizing legislation which was done, you know during recovery and also as I said during word a But, you know, typically, you know, I there are planning dollars now available because of the ii j a and i r a So there is significant planning money. So if you don't have a project that's ready to build There there are there are ample opportunities to secure planning dollars. And in fact, I think in our recent discussions with dot When mayor rogers was in town, I think one of the messages we heard was if there are Planning needs, please please Come and apply because I think they're undersubscribed In that in that category, but but yeah, no, I think if you you have a project that's that is ready to build that certainly puts you In a in a competitive space when it comes to, you know These opportunities like with the bike pet over crossing project That is certainly, you know positioned as a as a build And that's because of the great work that the city's done over the years to to get that project ready to go I appreciate that and I I know the the team will push further on this As they work with you, but I think some of those feasibility studies Really hard to get grants for them, but it's nice to have a source of funding to be able to move projects forward Again, just thank you both for all of the work that you're doing on behalf of santa rosa Thank you ice me I'll just echo my thanks as well Both to mmo and also to the the local team just great work all around. Thank you Any additional Questions from council members saying none madame city clerk. Can you please facilitate public comment? Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 15.1 If you are in the chamber and would like to comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first speaker will be dwayne Dwayne de wid. I'm from roseland. I thank you for the report Thriving communities is something that you could be using funding for in roseland our disadvantaged underserved area Having this organization in washington dc Interact with the united states environmental protection agency could also help us to get brownfields funds Which we've been trying to get the city to go after for decades That program started in 1995 So one of the things that came about through the american rescue plan act is extra money came forward We thought that perhaps it would help the people on the west side of san rosa get Basic curbs gutters and sidewalks on so many streets that are still Basically second world type streets instead of here in an urban area. We didn't get that yet So I really believe that one of the things that could happen with this Funding for an organization in washington dc to help us get funding for her