Santa Rosa, out there in the middle of everything. Over 90 miles of creeks run through Santa Rosa. Run off from streets, roofs, and parking lots, end up in our creeks through the storm drain system. To help protect creeks, keep your street gutters and roadside ditches clear of trash and other pollutants. For more information on the benefits of our creeks and tips on how to enjoy them, visit the Stormwater and Creeks webpage. Have you ever seen a flashing yellow arrow on a traffic light? I'm Rob Sprinkel, Traffic Engineer for the City of Santa Rosa here today to talk to you about a new type of traffic signal. Beginning in 2013, flashing yellow left turn signals will be installed in some of the intersections in Santa Rosa. Studies show that drivers better understand the need to yield to oncoming traffic with a new flashing yellow arrow signal. These new flashing yellow arrow signals give drivers more chances to make left turns, but more importantly, they stress the need to use caution when turning left. Some drivers may be confused when they see a flashing yellow arrow because they're not exactly sure what to do. Let's run through how these signals operate. The green arrow means you have the right of way to make left turn signals. All incoming traffic and pedestrians are stopped. The solid yellow arrow is a warning telling you the light is about to turn red. The red arrow means stop and wait. Now for the new part, a flashing yellow arrow. The flashing yellow arrow means you can make a left turn if there's a safe gap from oncoming traffic. Check for oncoming bicycles and pedestrians attempting to cross the intersection. Always yield to the pedestrians as they have the right of way. If you don't see a gap in traffic, don't take a chance. Just wait until the next green arrow appears. The City of Santa Rosa will be evaluating the speed technology at locations throughout the city. It will be up to all of us to make sure we use them safely. In recreation and parks, the days begin when the sun rises. Most of our work spaces don't have four walls or a desk, but there's a lot to be done to get this place up and running. It takes a big team to cover so much ground. Each space is unique, requiring its own special method of care and service, and it's of utmost importance to see that it happens each day because our workspace is your leisure space and it includes 950 acres of Santa Rosa. It's the parks, the trees, the fields, the trails, special gathering places, community spaces, and it belongs to everyone. We work for our community, striving to improve quality of life. We provide family experiences, friendly competitions, leisurely evenings, and places to bond with man's best friend. We create space for celebration, relaxation, and artistic expression. You can learn to serve a ball or learn to serve a meal. Take a walk on a path or walk the plank. We've got beautiful settings, space to show off our history. We have room to roam, to roll, or to run. We allow for the silly, the serious, the cool. We offer countless ways to work on your health. We keep our youth safe and teach them to keep others safe. We challenge people to want to challenge themselves. We foster creativity, guide athletes, hone passions. We allow for little minds to dream. And we'll keep doing what we do each day, because we know that for our community, parks make life better. Santa Rosa, out there in the middle of everything. Over 90 miles of creeks run through Santa Rosa. We run off from streets, roofs, and parking lots, end up in our creeks through the storm drain system. To help protect creeks, keep your street gutters and roadside ditches clear of trash and other pollutants. For more information on the benefits of our creeks and tips on how to enjoy them, visit the Stormwater and Creeks webpage. Have you ever seen a flashing yellow arrow on a traffic light? I'm Rob Sprinkel, traffic engineer for the city of Santa Rosa, here today to talk to you about a new type of traffic signal. Beginning in 2013, flashing yellow left turn signals will be installed in some of the intersections in Santa Rosa. Studies show that drivers better understand the need to yield to oncoming traffic with a new flashing yellow arrow signal. These new flashing yellow arrow signals give drivers more chances to make left turns, but more importantly, they stress the need to use caution when turning left. Some drivers may be confused when they see a flashing yellow arrow, because they're not exactly sure what to do. Let's run through how these signals operate. The green arrow means you have the right of way to make a left turn. All oncoming traffic and pedestrians are stopped. The solid yellow arrow is a warning telling you the light is about to turn red. The red arrow means stop and wait. Now for the new part, a flashing yellow arrow. The flashing yellow arrow means you can make a left turn if there's a safe gap from oncoming traffic. Check for oncoming bicycles and pedestrians attempting to cross the intersection. Always yield to the pedestrians as they have the right of way. If you don't see a gap in traffic, don't take a chance. Just wait until the next green arrow appears. The city of Santa Rosa will be evaluating this new technology at locations throughout the city. It will be up to all of us to make sure we use them safely. Santa Rosa, out there in the middle of everything. In recreation and parks, the days begin when the sun rises. Most of our workspaces don't have four walls or a desk, but there's a lot to be done to get this place up and running. It takes a big team to cover so much ground. Each space is unique, requiring its own special method of care and service. And it's of utmost importance to see that it happens each day because our workspace is your leisure space. And it includes 950 acres of Santa Rosa. It's the parks, the trees, the fields, the trails, special gathering places, community spaces, and it belongs to everyone. We work for our community, striving to improve quality of life. We provide family experiences, friendly competitions, leisurely evenings, and places to bond with man's best friend. We create space for celebration, relaxation, and artistic expression. You can learn to serve a ball or learn to serve a meal. Take a walk on a path or walk the plank. We've got beautiful settings, space to show off our history. We have room to roam, to roll, or to run. We allow for the silly, the serious, the cool. We offer countless ways to work on your health. We keep our youth safe and teach them to keep others safe. We challenge people to want to challenge themselves. We foster creativity, guide athletes, hone passions. We allow for little minds to dream. And we'll keep doing what we do each day because we know that for our community, parks make life better. Santa Rosa, out there in the middle of everything. Over 90 miles of creeks run through Santa Rosa. Run off from streets, roofs, and parking lots. End up in our creeks through the storm drain system. To help protect creeks, keep your street gutters and roadside ditches clear of trash and other pollutants. For more information on the benefits of our creeks and tips on how to enjoy them, visit the Stormwater and Creeks webpage. Have you ever seen a flashing yellow arrow on a traffic light? I'm Rob Sprinkel, traffic engineer for the City of Santa Rosa, here today to talk to you about a new type of traffic signal. Beginning in 2013, flashing yellow left turn signals will be installed in some of the intersections in Santa Rosa. Studies show that drivers better understand the need to yield to oncoming traffic with a new flashing yellow arrow signal. These new flashing yellow arrow signals give drivers more chances to make left turns. But more importantly, they stress the need to use caution when turning left. Some drivers may be confused when they see a flashing yellow arrow because they're not exactly sure what to do. Let's run through how these signals operate. The green arrow means you have the right of way to make a left turn. All oncoming traffic and pedestrians are stopped. The solid yellow arrow is a warning telling you the light is about to turn red. The red arrow means stop and wait. Now for the new part, a flashing yellow arrow. The flashing yellow arrow means you can make a left turn if there's a safe gap from oncoming traffic. Check for oncoming bicycles and pedestrians attempting to cross the intersection. Always yield to the pedestrians as they have the right of way. If you don't see a gap in traffic, don't take a chance. Just wait until the next green arrow appears. The city of Santa Rosa will be evaluating the sneak technology at locations throughout the city. It will be up to all of us to make sure we use them safely. Santa Rosa, out there in the middle of everything. Santa Rosa, out there in the middle of everything. In recreation and parks, the days begin when the sun rises. Most of our workspaces don't have four walls or a desk, but there's a lot to be done to get this place up and running. It takes a big team to cover so much ground. Each space is unique, requiring its own special method of care and service. And it's of utmost importance to see that it happens each day because our workspace is your leisure space. And it includes 950 acres of Santa Rosa. It's the parks, the trees, the fields, the trails, special gathering places, community spaces, and it belongs to everyone. We work for our community, striving to improve quality of life. We provide family experiences, friendly competitions, leisurely evenings, and places to bond with man's best friend. We create space for celebration, relaxation, and artistic expression. You can learn to serve a ball or learn to serve a meal. Take a walk on a path or walk the plank. We've got beautiful settings, space to show off our history. We have room to roam, to roll, or to run. We allow for the silly, the serious, the cool. We offer countless ways to work on your health. We keep our youth safe and teach them to keep others safe. We challenge people to want to challenge themselves. We foster creativity, guide athletes, hone passions. We allow for little minds to dream. And we'll keep doing what we do each day because we know that for our community, our state life better. Over 90 miles of creeks run through Santa Rosa. Run off from streets, roofs, and parking lots, end up in our creeks through the storm drain system. To help protect creeks, keep your street gutters and roadside ditches clear of trash and other pollutants. For more information on the benefits of our creeks and tips on how to enjoy them, visit the Stormwater and Creeks webpage. Have you ever seen a flashing yellow arrow on a traffic light? I'm Rob Sprinkel, traffic engineer for the city of Santa Rosa, here today to talk to you about a new type of traffic signal. Beginning in 2013, flashing yellow left turn signals will be installed in some of the intersections in Santa Rosa. Studies show that drivers better understand the need to yield to oncoming traffic with a new flashing yellow arrow signal. These new flashing yellow arrow signals give drivers more chances to make left turns, but more importantly, they stress the need to use caution when turning left. Some drivers may be confused when they see a flashing yellow because they're not exactly sure what to do. Let's run through how these signals operate. The green arrow means you have the right of way to make a left turn. All oncoming traffic and pedestrians are stopped. The solid yellow arrow is a warning telling you the light is about to turn red. The red arrow means stop and wait. Now for the new part, a flashing yellow arrow. The flashing yellow arrow means you can make a left turn if there's a safe gap from oncoming traffic. Good afternoon. Welcome to the study session for our meeting of February 24th. May I have the roll call please? Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council member Vice Mayor Corsi and absent. Thank you very much. Mr. McGlynn, would you like to announce the study session please? Yes, item 5.1, capital improvement program transportation project update, farmers lane extension, Hearn Avenue improvements, and Stony Point Road widening. Colleen Ferguson presenting. Thank you. Mayor Sawyer and members of the council, we're here for an update on three transportation projects. This started out as a response to a question raised about the status of the farmers lane extension project during our last CIP quarterly staff briefing. There's so much going on right now with the Hearn Avenue interchange and Stony Point Road widening that we wanted to update you on those two transportation projects as well. So we have three different presenters for this study session. On this slide, you can see the location of the three different projects that we're gonna be talking about. Stony Point Road widening on the left, Hearn Avenue interchange in the middle, and Farmers Lane extension on the right. And we will have time at the end of the presentation for questions, but if you have questions as we go, we would welcome those at any time. We're gonna start with Stony Point Road widening. As we go through the presentation, some of the slides will have an indicator at the bottom of the status of the project through the different stages. And here you can see scoping on the left in blue, environmental and preliminary design in green, right away in yellow, design in red and construction on the far right in white. So just so you understand when you see that at the bottom of some of the slides through the presentation. And we'll get going on the presentation, starting with Clayt, that's on Stony Point Road widening. Good afternoon, Mayor Soar and members of the council. Today I will provide you with a brief update of the Stony Point Road widening phase two reconstruction project as a PG&E construction has been underway over the past year to clear the way for the upcoming road work. I provided a similar update to this back in April of 2014 as the PG&E construction was beginning. Stony Point Road is an alternative route to Highway 101 for those traveling between the cities of Petaluma, Runner Park and Santa Rosa, approximately 25,000 cars per day travel discordor. In June of 2010, phase one of the widening was completed from Highway 12 to Sebastopol Road in a commercial area. Phase two will extend the widening all the way down to Herne Avenue. So just a little bit about the current conditions. Currently, Stony Point Road between Sebastopol Road and Herne Avenue primarily consists of pockets of disconnected development with large gaps in the connectivity of both pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The availability of crossings for pedestrians is limited. The distance between crosswalks can be as much as a quarter mile. During commute hours, the traffic can become quite congested and lead to some lengthy backups. And also over the duration, the pavement has become highly deteriorated. Currently, the PG&E electrical, AT&T and Comcast wires are located overhead. So just a little bit about what the roadway will consist of when it's complete. When complete, the project will add travel lanes in both directions. We'll add safety elements such as a new traffic signal at Lasini Avenue, two pedestrian crossing flashers at Roseland Creek and at a Mesa Way. The project will add planted median, left turn pockets and a planter strip between the roadway and the sidewalk. Prior to enjoying the smooth pavement, additional travel lanes, bike lanes, sidewalk and a removal of the majority of overhead wires, we must continue to endure the impacts of the ongoing construction. Now I'll briefly just go over the major construction operations that have occurred and are scheduled to occur. So PG&E began in February and completed in mid-April the process of removing a transmission gas line that ran through the corridor. The gas line was no longer needed as it's paralleled by a more recently constructed line. Additionally, PG&E began in June. The relocation of overhead transmission lines to outside of the road widening improvements. As part of the relocation, PG&E installed 21 new poles with heights of approximately 100 feet. The overhead transmission lines, which are the higher voltage lines, will be the only overhead utilities remaining at the completion of the project. So kind of a unique feature of the project. In order to accommodate the city road widening, a home was required to be relocated. Relocation was a more cost-effective alternative than purchasing the home. The house relocation was completed in mid-July. The overhead to underground conversion construction also began in June of 2014 and is anticipated to be completed at the end of next month. Based on the council established underground district, the utility companies are completely funding the under grounding of their facilities. The city road widening and reconstruction is scheduled to begin in June and complete in May of 2017. At the project completion, Stony Point Road will consist of four lanes, two in each direction, medium, left turn pockets, bike lanes, planter strips, and sidewalk. It will be a new street similar in configuration to Fulton Road between Occidental and Third Street. So just a little bit on the funding. The city construction contract is estimated at $12.5 million with a total project cost at $16.8 million. The project's remaining $2.2 million of needed funding is being requested in the next year's budgets. The project does include some sewer and water components, but the majority of the project cost is the road widening. Currently to date, approximately $15.2 million have been spent on environmental requirements, right-of-way acquisition, and the phase one construction. Upon completion, construction of the total project, phase one and phase two, is estimated to have invested approximately $32 million in Southwest Santa Rosa. So expect Stony Point Road back in late April for award of the construction contract and the construction management contract. I'd like to pass it on to Dave Monague for some Hearn Avenue. Good afternoon, I'm Dave Monague. I'm here to give you an update on the Hearn Avenue interchange project. Gonna start out, I've got about five slides. I thought I'd start out with the need, the purpose, the scope, the status, and then the funding. As you can see, we have the status bar on the bottom of this slide and hard to see on the left side of that. The scoping document is complete and that's this document right here. We are now about halfway through the environmental and preliminary design of the project. The scoping document is the first step in the Caltrans process, so we've completed that. Okay, so the need, oh, back one, sorry. The need for the project, it's unable to accommodate existing and future traffic flows. The pedestrian and bicycle access is restricted. The ADA is non-standard. Vertical clearance is non-standard. That's the vertical clearance between 101 and the overpass. And the accident rate for similar ramps in the state, it's higher than the state average. So the purpose of the project is to improve local traffic circulation, regional circulation and operations, multimodal access, connectivity, and operations, and also overall safety of the facility. This is a slide that is similar to the first slide that was up. This shows the three phases of the Hearn project, Hearn Avenue widening, Santa Rosa Avenue widening, and the Hearn Avenue interchange are all interrelated and all part of one big project. And you can see the relationship between Farmers Lane and Yolanda Avenue projects, which the Farmers Lane will be covered by Steve Dittmer after I'm done. So then the current status of the project, we've completed phases one and two, and we are part way as we talked in the first slide with the project initiation document complete and into the environmental phase. So currently underway is the approval, project approval and environmental document which is on track to be completed by March of 2016, which will be followed by a right of way acquisition, final design and specifications. So sort of going back up to the part that's underway, the aerial photograph there shows the existing configuration of Hearn. I know you can't see that, I'm sorry, but there's the scoping that was done with the project initiation document, looked at alternatives, one being no project at all, the other being rebuild the bridge at its current location, and the third being a realignment to Yolanda. Our goal is to have the project show ready by 2019. Mr. Mayor. Would you rather that we wait for questions at the end or ask them as we go? I was just waiting. I think you should ask now. I just think you, I just like a little bit of clarification with respect to what you just said, the three different options that were considered has one been selected. This is my freeway exit, so I have a particular interest in how quickly this goes. The scoping is to look at viable alternatives with a team of experts and once it's narrowed down to three specifics, but there is a continuing process in the environmental and in the public meeting process where there's opportunity for input, and we're continuing to discuss the intersections for there's a lot of different lane configurations and how to terminate at each side. There's gonna be quite a bit more work on that. Just the bottom line is there will be no decision on an alternative until the environmental is completed. Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear. Only because I know that realigning it with Yolanda would be a fairly large undertaking, so I wanted to make sure we were gonna have that chance. Thanks. We're targeting mid-April for our first public meeting, so you will receive notification of that invitation. So now, talk about funding.  Phase three, we've spent about $2 million or we've encumbered about $2 million to complete the environmental process. And then depending on the alternative selected, the construction estimates range from $13 to $22 million right now. We have some measure M funding, development fees, and we'll be completing a NEPA process in the environmental so we can compete for federal dollars. That's the end of my presentation on her. Turn it over to Steve Dittmer. Hold on one second, Mr. Dittmer. Council has questions on the first two projects. Let's go ahead and ask them now because the extension may take a little more time. Julie. Thank you very much for this information. You mentioned that it is above the state average for safety or below the state average for safety. And I'm wondering if in comparison with our other exit ramps as opposed to with a state average, is it one of our more dangerous exit ramps? Is it one of our least safe exit ramps? I don't know that. I can get back to you. They're Caltrans exit ramps, not a city ramp. Not ours. They're Caltrans exit ramp safety. Thank you for helping me make that clear. I appreciate that we're going forward with this one. But if we have another one that is more impacted in some way, it would be nice to know that. I think this is our worst one. The vertical clearance is non-standard, which is one of the Also a big factor. Yes. OK. Is that a factor in the accident rate? Not for the ramp. No, it doesn't affect the ramp. OK. So if we can know if it is, I guess I'm trying to find out how we plan which ones we work on and in what sequence. And it would make sense to me that safety was a high priority. Councilmember Combs, we can get back to you with that safety information for the different intersections of Highway 101 in Santa Rosa. OK, because we would certainly like Caltrans to help us make them safer. Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Combs. Ms. Carlson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to go back up to the Stony Point Road project. And I'm just looking at the funding breakdown. And I understand and appreciate that we always build in contingencies. I just want to raise that policy as an issue I'd like the council to address. I just would like us to have a global conversation about the manner in which we respond to change orders from contractors. And I think it merits a discussion of how frequently it happens, which contractors are better or worse. Because I think that that will have an impact or it should have an impact on how we award projects. Colleen looks confused. Particularly if we have a low bidder who is regularly coming back for increases and that we're ending up paying the contingency. So if I'm understanding the concern, you are concerned about folks that may be in a chronic situation as regards change orders. Yeah, I'd like to know who they are. And I think it's important. If it happens to who they are. This is moving towards an announcement I had hoped to make later in the presentation about the new Transportation and Public Works Director when we get to my point. And obviously there are a series of charges that the new Transportation and Public Works Director will have to look at, including processes from top to bottom. But this is duly noted. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, that's it. You bet. Thank you, Mr. Waisaki. Thank you, Mr. Marin. Thank you for the presentation. Just to follow up on my colleague's concerns there, wouldn't construction management be concerned with change orders in terms of the project, whether there were two men? I mean, isn't that the function of the construction manager, which we see the $1.9 million? Yes. And that's to an outside party? For these projects, we would anticipate using an outside party, yes. Why can't we do those in house? They're very large projects. And it would divert too much of our staff to one project, and we couldn't get other projects done. And so having that focus from having a consultant do the construction management and inspection has been helpful for these large projects. So it's a question of staff capacity. Is that what I? Yes. OK. Thank you, Mr. Waisaki. Any other questions before we move to Farmers Land Extension? OK, thank you. Let's move on. Thank you. The approved project consists of a four lane arterial street carrying regional and local traffic with two travel lanes in each direction, with the exception of from Kiwana Springs Road to Petaluma Hill Road, where the roadway would consist of two eastbound lanes and one westbound lane. The new roadway would include bike lanes, a sidewalk, transit facilities, and planner strips for the entire length. And at this point, the environmental impact report is complete. The current project is a scaled down version, which will have one travel lane in each direction, with bike lanes, a planner strip, and sidewalk on the west side. The intersections and the bridge will be constructed to full width improvements. This slide shows the alignment of the Farmers Lane Extension. It extends from Bennett Valley Road to the north, skirting the existing residential areas, Sonoma Academy, and then Taylor Mountain Regional Park. There's access points from Yolanda, Aston, Bennett Valley Road, and Kiwana Springs.  And it'll also alleviate congestion on the Highway 101, Highway 12 interchange. At this point, plans are essentially complete. We have one more parcel yet to acquire. The environmental permits will initiate work on those once we're closer to construction because they have a shelf life and they expire after a few years. Our construction date is subject to funding availability. We need $37 million to fund construction of the project. And so we're exploring outside opportunities to obtain that funding. And that concludes our update on these three major transportation projects. And we'd be happy to answer any additional questions that Council may have. Thank you, Ms. Ferguson. And just one comment on Student Point Road widening is out to bid this week, so we're excited about that when going through the bidding process and towards construction. Student Point Roadway. Before you move to the Council on these questions, I have an umbrella question, if you will, on the Farmers Lane Extension Project. I think when we first started talking about this, I didn't need to wear glasses. And now I'm looking at the plans with glasses. And it speaks to a period of time where we move from a need. And then years later, I personally have started to want to hear about that need. To what is the reality of our growth patterns, our traffic patterns, does it still dictate the expenditure in a project of this size? And if so, does it rise to the level of importance that we want to continue at the current rate to develop this particular project? So I'm curious, how long we hold on to a project and still deem it valid, as opposed to questioning over a period of time whether conditions have changed, whether the need has changed, and whether we might want to put our resources toward other projects, or whether this one still is valid and pertinent and necessary to enhance the quality of life of Santa Rosa. So I'm curious, I know it's a very broad question, but it begs the question because it's been so long since this was first introduced as a concept and today. So I'm curious. So Mr. Mayor, I'm going to field this question. As I said earlier, we have just hired a new director of transportation and public works. And one of the charges the director will be to have under their first instruction is to start to review the entire catalog of our program and start to ask some of the very questions that you have just raised. Outstanding. I appreciate that. That's very valuable. Mr. Oliveris, you had a question. Thank you. I did. Related to the Farmers Lane extension, noticing a close proximity to Taylor Mountain Regional Park, I would just, the question was the impact of that. Because I know looking at the yellow line going across there, it goes across the actual property. So just. Yes, it does go through Taylor Mountain Regional Park. And we have coordinated closely with County Regional Park so that their layouts for the park include the road going through the park and the road would provide access to a parking area for the park. OK, so that would involve a new parking area. Because it looks like it goes through the parking area, the existing parking area now, correct? That's my question. So there's some reconfiguration of the park to accommodate parking. I believe the parking area that people have used was built as a temporary facility, anticipating the park development plan, and then a future longer term parking area. OK. And then secondly, it looks to me like these three projects are interconnected as far as the southern part of the city with the widening of Stony Point Road, as far as relieving congestion, the improvements on Herne, the overpass, and of course the extension of Farmers Lane over to the rest of it over at Bennett Valley. They're all important transportation projects for the Southwest partisan, or is that? Thank you. Mr. Schwedhelm, did you have a question? OK. Ms. Colms. Thank you. Following up with the two previous questions of my colleagues, again, looking at the route, I had probably misunderstood that we would be cooking up with Kawana instead of Yolanda. And just wondered if anyone had looked at that and why the decision was made to go Yolanda instead of Kawana for the end of the Farmers Lane extension. So the alternative selected by council went down, does go down to Yolanda. There is the possibility to phase the project and bring it in on an interim basis to Kawana Springs Road. But that would require considering reopening the environmental process. Any other questions, council, before I move to public comment? Mr. Weisaki. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, Steve, for this presentation. And maybe this is to the city manager the question. When we do the analysis, when our new public works director does the analysis, can we have the level of service on Ashton Way because it was stated that this project is going to help with the diversion of traffic? I don't know how badly that road is operating because I would think that's the road you're talking about through southeast. So I don't know how well that operates or doesn't operate. And then I'd also like to know, or I think it'd be valuable, Highway 101, the improved flow, because the impact on the interchange with 12, has that been improved with the metering? And some of the other recent improvements. The community spent a lot of money on that. And this project has been on the books for 10 to 15 years prior to the expenditure of those funds that resulted in those improvements. So as the mayor said, is it still even a valid concern? Because I look at this first slide of the three projects, and it doesn't even look like the homes that it's not current with all the homes that have been filled in on the Farmers Land extension. I mean, we have a council member that lives there now, and I don't think her street's on there. So that tells me it's dated. And then if, lastly, on the specifics of the Yolanda plug-in, if that's where it ends, I was told by a property owner years ago that there's some right-of-way issues on Yolanda between Petaluma Hill and Santa Rosa Avenue, if that's a fact or not. I don't know, but that's what they said. And if that's the case, I would think that would drive the cost up. We do have Yolanda Avenue widening in the capital improvement program as a project to work on in the future. And we really haven't started to work on that project yet. Thank you. So is that there because this project is scheduled to terminate there? Is that one of the reasons why? And pending outcome of the current interchange alignment. Sure. So that's part of the cost, too, then, when we look at this. I would think. You don't just build a road to nowhere.  I would like that to be part of the analysis of this particular project. Ms. Costa? Just if I may, I, in one of our previous SCTA meetings, raised the issue of the 12 and the 101 interchange. I drive it almost every day, and the metering has significantly contributed to congestion on the 12. And I can't believe there haven't been more devastating accidents because people are bombing along on the 12, and up they come with people slowly coming through the curve off the 101. So I asked our SCTA staff to relay that concern to Caltrans to improve or increase noticing. Warning, there's a merge ahead. People are going to be slowing, get into the left lane if you don't need to get onto the 12. But I don't know that they've gone out there to do it. So it's definitely a concern, and I see it a lot. And forgive me, I had thought Aston was a county road. Is that a city road? Question. I'm not sure if the entire alignment that we show there is all in the city. There may be portions of it in the county. A substantial portion of it is in the city. OK. Thank you. When Council Member Morisaki asked the question, it occurred to me. And just because I'm nitpicking on slide 20, the one we're looking at, well, on slide 19, the project is described as running from Bennett Valley to Petaluma Hill. But the yellow connects to the 12. You're right. That slide is not correct. And the yellow line should have ended at Bennett Valley Road. Okey-dokey. Thank you. Good. Thank you. And thanks for your comments on Highway 12. It is a surprise that we haven't had more trouble there. Council, any more questions before we move on to our regular meeting? Thank you all very much for your presentation. Appreciate it. Take about a five-minute break for re-adjustment. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Kanini. Yes, we have two cards for this staff. Please stay in place. I apologize for that omission. Followed by Anne Seaton. You're ready, Mr. Kanini? OK. Mayor, Council, a couple of points. I heard that alternatives will be considered after the environmental document is completed. Did I hear that correct? Because that's not the way I learned it. The environmental document is required to consider alternatives. And if elected official of this city has an alternative in mind, that certainly should be studied in great detail. Second, change orders. If you're getting a lot of change orders, it probably ain't the contractor. It's probably whosoever preparing PS&E, plan specifications, and estimates. This construction manager is only going to be as good as the PS&E he is provided with. Is this construction manager coming on board during the design, preliminary, initial, final? Because if you hand the construction manager an incomplete PS&E, you're going to have change orders. The problem, my dear friends, lies here, not there. And we just had an excellent example, the yellow line. We already have an error. And we haven't even precluded this proceedings. And you do have a terrible record of putting out PS&E. And even when changes neccesis brought to this council's attention, as I have over the years, you've ignored them. So I think if you want to look at precluding change orders, I think you all need to get a mirror. Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you, Anne Selie. Oh, I like the sign. I don't know how long it's been there. Please speak four to six inches from the microphone. Mayor and Council, Mayor, sorry. Thank you so much for bringing up the necessity, the logical nature of the farmer's lane extension. We have had this project on the books for so many years that it feels stale to me. It also represents a very violent breakthrough of a lovely hillside from farmer's lane going north onto where the extension is being built. It's going to be a terrible break in the lovely hillside there. This is in the intersection that I go through several times a day. And I just cringe when I think of cutting away that mountain for a roadbed that is maybe not necessary anymore, considering possibly changed conditions. I know money has been accumulated from developers of the properties that were built south of Bennett Valley Road. So we'd have to reconsider what do we do with that money. But if enough of you determined that you don't think this is a necessary project, I'm going to cheer. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Sealy. Dwayne DeWitt. Thank you, sir. Sure. Unlike myself, I'm usually warmed up right raw. All right. OK. Dwayne DeWitt from Roseland. Actually, a former member of the Project Area Committee for Southwest Santa Rosa Redevelopment, which entailed the Stony Point Road project, the widening. Our group was ended after four years when there were discussions ongoing about this. A number of people in the area would still like to know more about this. So I'd like for you folks, now that this study session is complete, to please make as much information available to the public as possible.  And someone from the city perhaps come to the March 5th meeting on the Roseland Village redevelopment up on Sebastopol Road. Specifically, because these transportation projects actually drive what happens to Roseland. They've effectively boxed Roseland in. Stony Point Road to the west. And Sebastopol Road Highway 12 to the north. So that we're the redheaded stepchild, if you will, for Santa Rosa. You guys could change all that now, though. You get the chance to be those loving parents that come forward and say, yes, we want to help the Roseland folks even better by sharing the information that we have. There's no signs out there to tell you anything. There's nobody that really ever has had a community meeting in over a decade as to what is going on about that Sebastopol, excuse me, Stony Point Road redevelopment. And the real, I guess you'd say, heartbreaker of all this is we had a community group that was informed by the city when things were going on. They stopped sending us notices.  And now we're going to get a Popeyes, Louisiana chicken, as the entrance to Roseland on the west side. Now I don't know about you, but that just should not be the definition of a whole community of Roseland. The first thing you see coming in from the west on Sebastopol Road, you no longer have the great plans that we thought for the entrance from the west into Santa Rosa. Instead you have these little strip malls that the city put in, excuse me, you didn't put them in. Developers put them in with the approval of Santa Rosa city planners. So on the corners, you've got this situation that is almost, I guess you'd say, disrespectful to Roseland. And I don't think you guys wanted that, but this is what we're getting because we don't get the information we need until you happen to find out that there's a study session. Nobody sent out any knowledge that I know of to people about, hey, come down here and find out what's happening in your front yard. Except maybe to that guy with the big orange, reddish house, I'm sure he knew, but not the rest of us. And that's sad. You folks could be the ones to really lead us into the promised land. And I know we'll get there with you. So thank you so very much for your time. And I appreciate it. Thanks, Mr. DeWitt. You know, I do want to mention one thing. We have had, the council has had a fair amount of communication about the meeting in Roseland. And I would ask Wall, if you are intending on going to that event, to that public meeting, that you let the city clerk know in case we need to post that as a special meeting of the council. It is a community meeting, so I'm not sure. Ms. Valard, could that create a necessity as opposed to a special meeting? We could certainly post it. If it's a community meeting, we don't need to post an agenda, but the council should not confer amongst themselves regarding the subject matter at the community meeting. But you can certainly attend and listen without a special meeting notice. Great, thank you very much. Ms. Ferguson, could you comment, please, on the EIR process for the Herne Avenue Overpass? That's in response to Mr. Cunini's comments. Yes, thank you. The scoping process selected the alternatives to be considered in the environmental review at the conclusion of the environmental review, one of the options can be selected in consideration of the full knowledge of the environmental impacts of the different alternatives. All the alternatives would be considered. All the alternatives that were identified in the scoping process. Yes, OK, thank you very much. Well, I don't have any more cards on this item. We'll bring us to the close of our study session. And we'll take a five minute break to allow the change over to our standard four o'clock session. Thank you. It's a space to show off our history. We have room to roam, to roll, or to run. We allow for the silly, the serious, the cool. We offer countless ways to work on your health. We keep our youth safe and teach them to keep others safe. We challenge people to want to challenge themselves. We foster creativity, guide athletes, own passions. We allow for little minds to dream. And we'll keep doing what we do each day because we know that for our community, farce made life better. Over 90 miles of creeks run through Santa Rosa. Run off from streets, roofs, and parking lots, end up in our creeks through the storm drain system. To help protect creeks, keep your street gutters and roadside ditches clear of trash and other pollutants. For more information on the benefits of our creeks and tips on how to enjoy them, visit the Stormwater and Creeks web page. Have you ever seen a flashing yellow arrow on a traffic light? I'm Rob Sprinkel, traffic engineer for the city of Santa Rosa, here today to talk to you about a new type of traffic signal. Beginning in 2013, flashing yellow left-hand signals will be installed in some of the intersections in Santa Rosa. Studies show that drivers better understand the need to yield to oncoming traffic with a new flashing yellow arrow signal. These new flashing yellow arrow signals give drivers more chances to make left turns. But more importantly, they stress the need to use caution when turning left. Some drivers may be confused when they see a flashing yellow arrow because they're not exactly sure what to do. Let's run through how these signals operate. The green arrow means you have the right of way to make a left turn. All incoming traffic and pedestrians are stopped. The solid yellow arrow is a warning telling you the light is about to turn red. The red arrow means stop and wait. Now for the new part, a flashing yellow arrow. The flashing yellow arrow means you can make a left turn if there's a safe gap from oncoming traffic. Check for oncoming bicycles and pedestrians attempting to cross the intersection. Always yield to the pedestrians as they have the right of way. If you don't see a gap in traffic, don't take a chance. Just wait until the next green arrow appears. The city of Santa Rosa will be evaluating this new technology at locations throughout the city. It will be up to all of us to make sure we use them safely. Santa Rosa. In recreation and parks, the days begin when the sun rises. Most of our workspaces don't have four walls or a desk, but there's a lot to be done to get this place up and running. It takes a big team to cover so much ground. Each space is unique, requiring its own special method of care and service. And it's of utmost importance to see that it happens each day because our workspace is your leisure space. And it includes 950 acres of Santa Rosa. It's the parks, the trees, the fields, the trails, special gathering places, community spaces, and it belongs to everyone. We work for our community. Striving to improve quality of life. We provide family experiences, friendly competitions, leisurely evenings, and places to bond with man's best friend. We create space for celebration, relaxation, and artistic expression. You can learn to serve a ball or learn to serve a meal. Take a walk on a path or walk the plank. We've got beautiful settings, space to show off our history. We have room to roam, to roll, or to run. We allow for the silly, the serious, the cool. We offer countless ways to work on your health. We keep our youth safe and teach them to keep others safe. We challenge people to want to challenge themselves. We foster creativity, guide athletes, hone passions. We allow for little minds to dream. And we'll keep doing what we do each day because we know that for our community, our stay life better. Over 90 miles of creeks run through Santa Rosa. Run off from streets, roofs, and parking lots, end up in our creeks through the storm drain system. To help protect creeks, keep your street gutters and roadside ditches clear of trash and other pollutants. For more information on the benefits of our creeks and tips on how to enjoy them, visit the Stormwater and Creek's web page. Have you ever seen a flashing yellow arrow on a traffic light? I'm Rob Sprinkel, traffic engineer for the city of Santa Rosa, here today to talk to you about a new type of traffic signal. Beginning in 2013, flashing yellow left turn signals will be installed in some of the intersections in Santa Rosa. Studies show that drivers better understand the need to yield to oncoming traffic with a new flashing yellow arrow signal. These new flashing yellow arrow signals give drivers more chances to make left turns. But more importantly, they stress the need to use caution when turning left. Some drivers may be confused when they see a flashing yellow arrow because they're not exactly sure what to do. Let's run through how these signals operate. The green arrow means you have the right of way to make a left turn. All incoming traffic and pedestrians are stopped. The solid yellow arrow is a warning telling you the light is about to turn red. The red arrow means stop and wait. Now for the new part, a flashing yellow arrow. The flashing yellow arrow means you can make a left turn if there's a safe gap from oncoming traffic. Check for oncoming bicycles and pedestrians attempting to cross the intersection. Always yield to the pedestrians as they have the right of way. If you don't see a gap in traffic, don't take a chance. Just wait until the next green arrow appears. The city of Santa Rosa will be evaluating this new technology at locations throughout the city. It will be up to all of us to make sure we use them safely. OK, council. Good afternoon and welcome to the February 24th meeting of the Santa Rosa City Council. We have a report on our study sessions and closed sessions. Mr. McGlynn's report on our study session. Study session was regarding three major traffic projects. We have staff notes. And as we go through our process, we will incorporate those notes from the study session moving forward. Great, thank you very much. Ms. Fowler? With respect to closed sessions, the council met in closed session regarding the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency with just a joint powers agency of which the city is a member regarding appending litigation against that JPA. And there is no action to report. The council also conferred with legal council regarding anticipated litigation. And on a 6-0 vote with Vice Mayor Corsi being absent, the council authorized the filing of a quiet title action involving the Oakmont Treatment Plant property against the potential error successors or assigns of the original grantees. Thank you very much. We'll move into our proclamations and presentations. Our first and only proclamations this evening is to the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation. 25th anniversary in Dr. Smith will be the recipient. And I believe Council Member Carlstrom has this proclamation. Yes, I do. Good afternoon, Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith is the vice president of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation Board. I'm very happy to read a proclamation from the city of Santa Rosa. Whereas the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation has been working to restore, enhance, and conserve the complex and sensitive ecosystem that is the Laguna de Santa Rosa for 25 years. And whereas the Laguna Foundation and City of Santa Rosa have worked in partnership on multiple projects, including riparian restoration, Laguna Keepers Volunteer Corps, a native plant propagation nursery, long-term wildlife studies, rare plant monitoring, and raising awareness of the importance of water and the watershed through education. And whereas the results of these collaborative efforts have been mutually beneficial to both organizations, the environment, and our community, now therefore be it resolved that John Sawyer, mayor of the city of Santa Rosa on behalf of the entire city council, acknowledges the continuation of mutually beneficial work between the city of Santa Rosa and the Laguna Foundation and congratulates the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation on its 25-year anniversary. Thank you. Thank you. If I may be allowed just a few short comments, we have had a fabulous partnership with the city of Santa Rosa. And rather than complaining about a single thing, I want to help you be proud of what you've achieved through the Laguna Foundation. You know, we're 22 miles long. We're not that spot by the Occidental Road Bridge. And we go all the way from Katadi, from Windsor, moving towards the channel, from Pepperwood, up in the hills, and from Oakmont. People throwing bad things down the sewers in Oakmont are affecting the water quality of the Laguna that flows into the sea. So we're a big event in the Santa Rosa and Sonoma County plan or environment. Our first 25 years, we took care of things going into the Laguna that shouldn't be there, chemicals, debris, and the like. And we built a cracker jack restoration and education program. The next 25 years, we want to expand our partnership with you. Through us, you link to the Coastal Commission. Through us, you link to Open Space District. To us, you have international friends that you may not be aware of. The Laguna Foundation and the Laguna de Santa Rosa is a Ramsar site of international importance. And a few years back, we were asked to join with thousands of global members. Not too many thousands. It's not that big of a membership. Because we are, some of my colleagues like to say, we're a gas station or roadside rest for thousands and thousands of bird and butterfly species that fly from Argentina and other parts of our south to the Arctic back and forth every year. We are also a rare site where endangered species and one-of-a-kind species are grown. And they think we're hot stuff. And we think you're hot stuff for our support. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next, we have an introduction of Ms. Sonoma County. I'm Tony Giraldi and Ms. Sonoma County. If you please come forward and brighten our day. Good afternoon, Mayor Sorter. Members of the City Council. My name is Tony Giraldi. I'm the general operations manager of Sonoma County Airport Express, which happens to be the primary sponsor of the Ms. Sonoma County Scholarship Program. I'm also the secretary of this extraordinary program for young ladies here in Sonoma County. I'd like to personally invite all the members of the City Council to our 2015 pageant, where we will select our 69th Ms. Sonoma County. It's Saturday, March 7th. We're from the Saturday, 7 p.m. at the Spreckles Performing Arts Center in Runner Park. We, besides our Ms. Sonoma County, we'll also be selecting our Ms. Sonoma County Outstanding Teen, which is another division under the Miss California Umbrella, excuse me. Couple of factoids about the Ms. Sonoma County Scholarship Program. Again, this is our 69th Ms. Sonoma County that we'll be selecting. We have the longest running program in the Miss California Organization. The, our title holders, they make appearances all over Sonoma County, as well as representing our community in June every year at the Miss California pageant in Fresno. June and Fresno, lots of fun. So rather being in Sonoma County but we're there for the important cause. It's been quite some time since we've had a state title holder it's been since 1981. So we're kind of on a drive spell, we've got some great ladies who are gonna be competing a week from Saturday. But more importantly, it would be great to have a Miss California or Miss California's Outstanding Teen come from Sonoma County. But we look for a title holder who will truly connect with the community. Go out, make appearances, shine on appearances and really represent the residents of Sonoma County. We've, we're on a great run. We've had awesome title holders the last few years, even before our Miss Sonoma County who we'll be introducing to you momentarily. She's made over a hundred appearances. I believe she'll be finishing over 110 appearances by next, next Saturday, week from Saturday. Last year's Miss Sonoma County, she made 105 appearances. So we're, we keep the girls very busy. As elected officials, again, we'd love to have you at the pageant. You'll be introduced, you'll have an opportunity to wave, be recognized from the stage. And great news, we're very excited. It's been eight years since we've had Miss California attend our pageant. And Miss California, who is a resident of San Diego, will be here for three days starting week from Friday. She'll be spending time here in Sonoma County Friday and Saturday and also Sunday. She'll be at the pageant. And so we're extremely honored to have her. So at this time I'd like to introduce our 2014 Miss Sonoma County Scholar Palacios. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. Hello, Council and Mayor. Before I get started, I'd like to thank former Mayor Scott Bartley because he was one of my judges who chose me as Miss Sonoma County. So over the, over my reign, I've gotten to meet most of you, but it's nice to see all of you in one place. So I'm just going to tell you a little bit about myself and about the program that I'm representing. I was born and raised in Sonoma County and for the past 12 years, I've been residing in Healdsburg through, because I was born and raised in Sonoma County, I've had an appreciation for Sonoma County for most of my life. But this program has absolutely lifted and enhanced my appreciation for the county so much more than I ever thought possible. I work at Fierce Cheer right in Santa Rosa. It's an elite cheer gym where I'd coach Tumbling and I also work at Shed in Healdsburg. So I have two jobs plus I do this, but I consider this my full-time job really because it's what I spend most of my time with and what I exert most of my energy with. Things that I do as Miss Sonoma County, I got to represent our lovely county at the Miss California program in Fresno, as Tony said, lovely Fresno. It was an amazing experience. I got to meet ladies from all over the county, future engineers, future teachers, future just overall professionals. It was an amazing experience being surrounded by so many wonderful women and it's truly, truly inspiring, excuse me. Some of my other jobs is Miss Sonoma County. I get to attend parades. I was in the Rose Parade in Santa Rosa and I get to wave and say hi to all of the constituents of Sonoma County. Thank you. Thanks, Erin. I also got to attend the Sonoma County Fair and I was there almost every day of the week, probably about every other day, which is a lot of fair time, but I really enjoyed it. The one stipulation I have about the fair is the food because Tony Geraldi is always like, I have to take pictures of you eating all this fair food and people cannot live. A body cannot be sustained on a bacon covered cinnamon rolls and fried alligator for three weeks, so it was a lot of fun. At the fair, I got to sing the national anthem and participate in different events like judging talent shows and things of that sort. Other parts of my job is attending community gatherings such as Chamber of Commerce events or city councils. This is my second to last city council that I'll be visiting. My last one is Cloverdale tomorrow, so I will have made appearances at all nine city councils in our county. I've also done some ribbon cuttings for the City of Santa Rosa through the Chamber of Commerce, which was a lot of fun, but one of the biggest parts of my job is volunteerism. The Miss America Organization, one of their four points of the crown is service, so they really have, they really consider volunteering and service as a huge part of the organization. So over my year of service, I have raised money for children's miracle network, Salvation Army, KRCB, and the local Raven Theater in Healdsburg through Dancing with the Stars. I actually volunteered with several members of the council for Salvation Army for the bell ringing, yeah, that was fun. And then a big, big part of my job is what I consider being a role model for young women. A lot of young ladies will come up to me running, smiling, and say, are you a real princess? And I say, well, kind of, but the difference is that I earned my crown through volunteering and through being a good student, so I try to have them embrace those traits as well. So this has been one of the best years of my life. Definitely, I consider it one of the best decisions of my life. Right up there with going to college, I've grown so much from this program. It's ridiculous. My confidence is much higher than it used to be, and I'm just more comfortable with myself as a person. I've also gained a family, not only through the people that volunteer through the Sonoma County program, through the Miss Sonoma County program, but also I've gained a little sister, Katherine Liang, who is our outstanding teen. She's like the little sister I never had. I love her so much. And then all of the sisters that I consider I have made through the Miss America Organization, all the other representatives throughout the state of California. It really is a sisterhood, and I am so honored to be a part of it. So I have used my scholarship to go to Sonoma State University where I am a student, I'm a senior there this year, so I'll be graduating shortly. My major is liberal studies, and I plan on becoming an elementary school teacher. Yeah, so thank you for this opportunity. Whenever possible, I'd love to take a photo with all of you, and then I will be singing for you shortly. And Scott, I thank you very much for your representing us so well during your reign. It's been a pleasure having here. And Council, if we could have a photograph. I forgot one important item. I've got some thank yous. Besides our former Mayor Scott Bartley, who was a judge last year, Council Member Erin Carlstrom, she's also served as judge two years ago, as well as working with our this year's contestants in a mock judging session, and helping them with their interview skills. And Mayor Sawyer, thank you very much for your service as a judge a week from this Saturday at our pageant. Very much appreciating the time of your busy schedule to be one of our local judges, so thank you. Thank you. Council, photo op down here to the left, and finally a bit of entertainment. Yeah, so this is called Crazy by Adele. Found myself today singing out loud your name. You said I'm crazy. If I am I'm crazy. Sometimes sitting in the dark, wishing you were here too. But it's you who makes me lose.  Tell me to run and I race if you want me to step by freeze and if you only gonna leave. Just hold me closer, baby. Thank you. Great way to start. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, if I can just put a plug in for the council members who haven't maybe gone to the pageant. These women are so talented.  And these women, the interviews, they're so smart. They're talented, they're engaged. I highly encourage you to go. Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Okay, council, we have no staff briefings like approval of the minutes for February 3rd. We did get a notice from our city clerk. You'll notice that in front of you that council member Schwedhelm's name was misspelled. It's hard enough to pronounce, but misspelling, I just, it's actually pretty easy, but it can fool a lot of people. But that correction has been made. So are there any of the corrections one would like to bring our attention to? Seeing none, they will stand as written. Thank you very much. Council, mayors and council members reports. Statements of abstention, any abstention reports or do you need to let us know about this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on. Subcommittee reports, subcommittee reports, council, Ms. Carlstrom. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It wasn't actually a formal meeting, but in my role as one of our Water Advisory Committee representatives, I had the opportunity to take a tour with the Sonoma County Water Agency of several of our restoration and conservation projects along Dry Creek. This was last Friday, I think. And in addition to obviously the sites being beautiful pieces of property and excellent demonstration of ecologically sensitive and forward-thinking restoration works, it was a great demonstration of the Water Agency's partnership with private landowners because obviously much of the Dry Creek runs through people's private property. And so these projects are being implemented and completed as a result of the requirements set out in the biological opinion, which I know I am familiar with. I don't know that all the council members are. And I've suggested that it come to us in a study session just so that we can all come from the same place of understanding because it is very much informing a lot of the decision making that is going on at the Water Agency. Obviously it's a decision handed down to us from the federal government, basically saying here's what you will do as far as the Dry Creek goes. It's obviously often in what's the word I'm seeking, in conflict with water flows mandated by the Army Corps of Engineers. So there's a lot of interplay going on there. I wanna bring to the council's attention something to just be aware of, which is that we have until 2018 to have six of the 14 miles of the creek done at which point. And along the way, obviously the agency will be evaluating the effectiveness of the remediation projects. And if they are not effective or have not been as effective as we need them to be or as the biological opinion mandates that they be, we may be facing a situation of revisiting the conversation about the pipeline bypass. So just something to bear in mind. The Water Agency is fairly confident in their choice of contractors, their choice of projects, their ability to check in on the projects along the way so that we don't get to that 2018 point and have to change it up really quickly, but just something to be aware of. And also I wanna point out that we are getting a fairly high level of federal money to support these projects, but it was a great reminder of why we're a part of the Water Agency. Great, thank you very much. Could you remind us again on the timeline for the mitigation effort? Yes, we have until 2018 to have six of the 14 miles of Dry Creek completed. Now they are not supposed to be contiguous, so it's in combination. Well, I think, you know, I'm hoping that the mitigation efforts are successful. And I think at the end of the day, even if they deem them unsuccessful as far as releasing water from the dam, clearly Dry Creek will be a better environment at the end of the day or in many, many days, years. So thank you. Yes, Ms. Combs. I have a council member's report. That's okay. Yes, thank you. I had the good fortune of meeting with our staff and Senator Mike McGuire at the Jennings Crossing site and wanna compliment our staff on the fine job that they did presenting information to the senator and to his staff. Some additional folks came, staff for Shirley Zane's office and MTC rep, Jake McKenzie also attended. It was a very informal meeting just to sort of get a look at and feel for what that crossing is doing. While we stood there, a number of people carried their bikes across the tracks or walked across. And I wanted to make sure that we thank the senator for taking the time to meet with us. He is going to be a good ally, I think as we move forward on a number of items. But again, the staff did a remarkably good job in sort of managing what was going to be an informal impromptu meeting and handling it very effectively. Also, I think like many of us here, I attended the Loci and Luncheon, which had the counties, I'll be clear the counties, Citizens and Local Law Enforcement Task Force present 20 of their 21 draft recommendations. And I feel the need to honor the work of that body chaired by Caroline Banuelos with sub-chairs Judy Rice, Sylvia Lemus, Eric Conan-Chover and Vice Chair Robert Edmonds. It was a good introduction, I understand that may be coming back to us in the future as part of the, they will be making a presentation to us with some things we might want to learn from their experiences. Also attended a migrant workers meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Mendocino. The other night it was an interesting discussion of the need for migration throughout our nation and how migration is driven economically, much to learn there. And because of our new council goal interests in child care, met with the Sonoma County Office of Education and Four Seas representatives on child care recently, and wanted to just say that they have a lot of interesting suggestions to bring forward to us. And I'm looking forward to working with them as we move forward with that objective. And had the good fortune to go to an artist's opening at the Spinster Sisters, where I passed around our Arts Master Plan for review and encouraged some comments during that meeting. We have such a wonderful arts environment in our community. It's always a pleasure to get to attend those meetings. And thank you very much. That was sort of a busy couple weeks. Thank you very much. Council, any other subcommittee or liaison reports? I do have one. I did attend the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency meeting to give you the highlights. We did move, voted to move forward with construction of a much needed additional holding pond to further contain runoff generated by the composting operations. There were also the waste agency voted to place an initial $750,000 from our organics reserve into an escrow account to indemnify county actions related to the agency's composting operations. This escrow account is to be funded up to $5 million through a wood waste and yard debris tipping fee adjustment, which will result in a small increase to our rate payers, ultimately. We asked agency staff to provide more analysis for the board's consideration regarding the amount of that increase. We also voted to approve the draft third amendment of the JPA, Joint Powers Authority Agreement. This amendment provides language, which would extend the JPA for another 25 years without changing any other existing language in that document. The extension of the JPA has not been voted on as yet and will not without extensive analysis and center was a city council action providing direction to me or my alternate council member, Waizaki, when the draft is finished, it will be scheduled for discussion before this body. So get any other reports, council? If not, we will move on. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Oliveris. Thank you, Mayor. You want to report out on the Redwood Empire Chinese Association's annual dinner last Sunday. They were here a couple weeks ago with their dragon, wonderful event, very, very well attended, sold out event as always. Also, and I know you were there to recognize the long history of Henry Trioni here in our community who passed away several weeks ago. We were at his memorial service at the Wells Fargo Center. Perhaps you could adjourn tonight's meeting in his honor and memory. Great idea. And with that, I would also like to do the same for an old salt, if you will, an old sergeant from the police department who recently passed away, Bud Winkler, people who are from the police department remember him as this pretty neat old school guy who was a great teacher, a great human being who passed away this past week in his services this Saturday. So it asks that you also adjourn tonight's meeting in the honor and memory of Bud Winkler. Thank you. Excellent idea. Real quick, and then we're done. Sure. Just like to announce that I have a new cab appointee at large, Chris Rogers. Thank you for continuing to serve. He happens to be in attendance here. Thank you, Chris. Real briefly, attended the Business Operation Committee of Sonoma Clean Power, an impressive group of folks that have volunteered led by our former BPU chair, Dick Dowd, and chair Briskie who's a very informative meeting. And then had the pleasure of attending Anacapella Woman's Choir from Santa Rosa High School, Maria Creole High School, and Montgomery High School hosted by Anley High School last Friday night. And if you missed it too bad, because it was very, very good. And rare chance to do a civic involvement while watching my daughter sing. So thank you much. Thank you very much, Ms. Carlson. Just a quick, interesting thing I got to do yesterday morning. Several months ago I was invited by the State Department to be a speaker in their speakers bureau, due in part to my position here on our council. And yesterday morning at around six in the morning, I went to the junior college where they established a live teleconference feed with the US Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. And I got to speak for about two hours with young political leaders in Africa, talking about our shared experiences and shared concerns. And they ask questions on everything from what we're doing to address homelessness and affordable housing, to how are we engaging the next generation of young people and how are we dealing with poverty. And it was a very, very cool experience to be talking with people 11 hours ahead of us who are in extraordinarily different circumstances and yet they are concerned and engaged on very similar issues as we are here right in Santa Rosa. Outstanding. And how did the technology function? Oh, big kudos to the junior college's media lab. They did a great job. And I don't know if they're downstairs in the media down here. One of the gentlemen actually through C Media is also there at the junior college. So it was a nice tag right there. Outstanding. Well, that's gotta be pretty exciting. And the world's getting very small. And that's, in that way, that's a good thing. Thank you very much. Oh, right. So we have an election to the, or appointments to the personnel board and board of building regulation appeals. How do we wanna handle this, Ms. Clerk? So since there were an equal number of candidates for the personnel board as there are vacancies, actually I believe there were two candidates and three vacancies, council could simply move to appoint those two individuals if the council so desires. So moved. Second. Thank you and your votes, council. And I have six eyes with Vice Mayor Corsi absent. And I will not be announcing his absence again this evening. So just know that he will not be back this evening. Thank you very much. And for the record, can we just identify the two individuals? Yes, I'm sorry. We have five total of two for the, oh, right, thank you very much for talking. So for the personnel board, Alex Maloney and Karen Furukawa, for the Board of Public Regulation Appeals, we have David Carpenter, Greg Hurd, and wait a minute. That's that, no, we had three and it wasn't Mark. It was, there was, there was a- Doug. Dana Warke, thank you. Thank you very much. Was the motion for only one of those two? The motion was just on the personnel board, so that someone would like to make a motion. I'd like to move for the- I apologize. For the Board of Building Regulations. Second.  And I have six eyes to appoint Dana Warke and Greg Hurd and David Carpenter. Great, thank you. Okay, at this time in the council, any announcements to various boards, commissions, or committees they would like to make this evening? I have one announcement I'd like to reappoint Tanya Narath to the cab and also a pointer as chair. And that is, that's all I had for this evening. And so 10.4, 10.4.1. How do we, this is, this is a little bit, this is within our new process in discussing items, future items on the agenda. Perhaps Mr. Schwedhelm, if you'd kind of introduce this item to us and give us a chance to discuss it. Thank you, Mayor Sorry. And again, I would like to get some confirmation that we're doing this the right way. This was the first one from the city manager and city attorney. So the whole concept is to present the item to staff. This is the concept that I'm suggesting. And then in a later date, staff will come back saying this is the amount of time, energy and effort and resources needed to. I think this is a presentation to your, to the body. The, we need some clarity on what the assignment is. You would then direct staff, the majority of council, if you so desire would direct staff to do that. At that point, we will assess the workload involved if we believe that it requires some kind of rearrangement of our current task order. We'll come back with that. Otherwise, we'll just simply move forward with a disclosure of when it's coming back to council. But I think what we're looking for is understanding that there is a majority that wants the task taken up by staff and that it's, we have a clear understanding of what that task is. All right, thank you. So the concept on this idea is, it's about public safety. And to me, there's been a disconnect involving replica firearms. Whereas in order to purchase a replica firearm, you have to be 18. In other words, someone under the age of 18 could not walk into a business that sells replica firearms and purchase it. It has to be an adult. But yet there's no prohibition for someone under the age of 18 to possess that out in public. So I'm just suggesting, and I have an interest to make those compatible with each other. In other words, if you need to be 18 to purchase it, you need it, if you're gonna be in possession of that same exact replica firearm in public, you need to be in the company of a parent or a responsible adult. And I think my interest here is not a big enforcement issue. My thought is more along the lines of our smoking ordinance or our vulnerable user ordinance, where it's a public education. And I just think there's a gap or a loophole in what the law is. And again, I've had some brief conversations with the city attorney. I don't know if that you can't, you have to be 18 to purchase it, if that's a business decision, or if that's a legal thing. And so I would be asking staff for some clarity about is there existing law for this in Santa Rosa? I think that would be an important item to take up. Additionally, as we're probably all aware, the state legislature has looked at this and not the specific prospect of this topic and they have some legislation that'll I think become effective in 2016, but it does not address this gap or a loophole. And that's the concept about what I want to present to council. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So let's entertain a motion and then we can have some discussion. I'll need a motion first. So I would make a motion that we direct staff to further explore and develop a city ordinance related to the possession of replica firearms in public by juveniles. Second. And I have a second. And now discussion council, Ms. Cope. The one key that I've already talked to council member Schwethelm would be whether or not this would be precluded by preempted by state or federal law since there already are regulations and one which was passed last year, which Senator Noreen Evans co-sponsored, but that would be one of the critical issues we look at. Okay. The council desires to go forward. So what we're looking for without getting into an in depth discussion about the item because this is about whether to place it on the agenda is your considerations around placing it on the agenda for future discussion. I would like the council to make to hold that. We've already put it on the agenda. That's what this item is. So it would be whether you have an interest in directing staff to research whether you can adopt an ordinance. And if you have an interest in adopting such an ordinance if it were legally permissible. Okay. So this ensuing conversation now is about what is the limitation of our conversation next? Whether you wish to move forward with a proposal that council member Schwethelm has put forth. Okay. Thank you very much. Council, Mr. Oliver. Thank you, Mayor. This is I think a very important topic or discussion for us to explore because I would have an interest in, it's not just a matter of looking for an ordinance that would ensure that we have a parent or responsible adult with a minor in public in possession of these type of firearms, but also I would have an interest in what is occurring as far as education at point of sale are our merchants that are selling these replica firearms providing adequate information related to the safety and dangers associated with having something like this in public, for example. So, and I don't know what transpires now. What is the transaction right now when a parent is there if that's the case with a minor purchasing what one of these replicas, what kind of safety information is provided? Should there be a requirement that our retailers provide some sort of general safety information? And I don't know what that would look like. We would have to explore how we develop it, what we provide to have some consistency with that. But again, I think the interest is in the interest of safety but I think it would go beyond just having that piece of it but also the education piece and the education community wide about the importance of this. Thank you. Are there comments council, Ms. Combs? Thank you, Mayor. I would like to remind folks a little bit of the history of this and I, because it has come before us previously. On January 28th, we heard, on January 28th, I brought forward a request that this council support the legislation of Senator Kevin DeLeon and Senator Noreen Evans and Senator Louise Walk regarding imitation firearm safety and worked with them leading up to the successful passing of the imitation firearm safety act known as Senate Bill 199. And I have a copy of the letter which is a matter of public record signed by Mr. Bartley, our previous mayor, supporting the concept that we make it clear what a replica firearm looks like. It is often referred to as a toy should look like a toy legislation. And our council adopted that previously so we've already spent council time on that. I have included for each of you in your blue packet a copy of the Senate Bill 199, chapter 915 which makes clear that existing law already prohibits a person from furnishing a BB device to a minor without the permission of the minor's parent or guardian and prohibits sale of the device to a minor. So we already have some regulation with regard to you can't furnish it without the parent's permission, you can't sell it directly to a minor and the new law specifies coloration requirements. Basically it has to be like bright orange, bright yellow in order to prevent the confusion for police officers. Following Andy's death, there was a lot of conversation about children playing with guns in our community and playing with toys in our community. So I have some concern that what we're talking about is in some ways blaming a victim. Many of us as children played cops and robbers, played infields, played with replicas. So it really concerns me when we have a law on the books that clearly puts the manufacturer's coloration of the weapon of the toy in effect that we change it to make it clearly look like a toy. It's not clear to me that we need to go forward with this. I would like to suggest that if by chance we do go forward with this, that we include in it the changes that we've made in our police training so that we are informed about what changes we've made in our police training up to this time. So I don't think that we, it concerns me that on the Thursday prior to the Tuesday Council meeting where this came up, we had just gone through goal setting and that this was not included in our goal setting discussion. And we had many items which we had that were of critical importance to our community that we could not get enough votes to move forward. And now we have an item that came up the Tuesday following that that we had not discussed previously. And we are talking about redirecting staff time from critical need in our community for housing, homelessness, other programs that we have already on our plate in order to have a conversation about this. So I would oppose moving this forward. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Carlstrom. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I hadn't planned on speaking at length on this item. However, a number of issues have arisen. I think that at the root of my comments is the thought that we obviously continue to need to have a robust conversation about the role of weapons, the interactions between police and the public in our community. I think I echo Council Member Combs' sentiments to that extent. However, I will never sit behind this dais and vote against something that furthers that conversation. So I appreciate Council Member Schwedhelm for bringing this item forward. I think that we are attempting to tackle a large, a very large issue that cannot be distilled into one piece. And we're doing so in a logical way. Sure, the guns have to be bright orange or bright yellow when they're sold now. That doesn't mean they might not be modified later. And Council Member Oliveris' point about education at all levels, I firmly stand behind that. I have a small son, I'm sure at some point he will come home with some form of replica firearm that I had no control over him possessing. And I would like him to have the support of our community in educating him on the role and what that means that he is wielding a toy. So I think that this issue merits further discussion and that's what Council Member Schwedhelm is asking us to do. So that's where I stand. Thank you. Mr. Weisaki. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As one who was pretty outspoken when the tragedy happened, this is more than just a passing interest. Indeed, it should be of interest to all of us. But I don't, I failed to see, I have a couple of problems here with it. I failed to see how a local effort in just our city can supersede the statewide effort on the bill we just talked about. It should be a statewide, it should be a regional effort. We've talked about in gang prevention, it's a solution for all of us. The city of Santa Rosa, just to mandate further restrictions on imitation weapons, I don't think that solves our problem if it's not a regional basis. And that sign that one of our citizens is holding up there, children are not the criminals. Something tells me this is putting the focus there. And I'm not saying that's not your intent, Mr. Schwedhelm, but I just, to me, that's not where it should be. That's what just comes right out at me. I don't know how much staff time will be required. I do have a problem with the process coming so quickly after our goal setting. We voted on where our staff should go and then now we're yanking their chain three or four days later. That was the whole point of goal setting. And to all of a sudden now to redirect, I don't know how we expect staff to be efficient and to respond. And I don't really hear a concrete proposal, I just hear thoughts. And so I don't know how they decipher that either. And absolutely I want us less violent, absolutely I want us to de-escalate between public safety, law enforcement and the public. I think we all do. But I don't see the specifics of this proposal. I need to hear more, that's what I'm saying right now. Thank you, Mr. Weisaki. I want to move to public comment at this point before we- Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, we did have a lot of discussions at goal setting that's very important, but a goal setting is not the end of talking about priorities. There's a lot of things that we have done over the years that we've institutionalized. This falls under public safety. Public safety is something that we are committed to providing to our community. So it's not something that we would have an argument over. We should not have an argument over. During goal setting, that's to say that public safety will be one of our goals. It's always a goal. It's one of those things that I think we've talked about being institutionalized, that the safety of our community is important. So it doesn't warrant a lot of discussion during goal setting. But there are times when incidents or new ideas may come along that may warrant some further discussion. And I think it's also important to look at this as a way of, really it's about saving lives. We have an opportunity. It's not just about issues related to our interaction with the public as far as public safety, meaning police officers. Also citizens, citizens need to know, because there is a possibility for something bad happening with an interaction with a minor juvenile in possession of a replica firearm with a private citizen who doesn't know coming across your property perhaps and engaging somebody. So it's not just a police juvenile or citizen issue. It's a community issue that we need to look at. And yeah, maybe this is where it starts. We have an opportunity here to start something that maybe will catch fire statewide, say this is important enough for other communities or the state to take action on it. I don't believe that we should just sit and expect that somebody else is going to take this on. But I think if we talk about it, people will listen, say this is important. Maybe we do need to enact some further or tighten up some of our state laws to make this better. Maybe it would go national. That would be great too. But I think it's us taking that leadership role as a community to say we are going to protect our children or our youth. And if we can take an opportunity here to do that with minimal impact to us, then we should. Can I make a... Just Mr. White's talking a brief comment and then I'll move to you. What are the actual specifics of the proposal again? I was going to follow Mayor Soros lead and get the public comment rather than if I could just wait till the end and I'll be as specific as staff needs to be able to give the feedback to us. The public needs to comment on your comments. I'm looking towards the mayor yet. So let me hear from you with his combs and then I'll give me a chance to think about whether I'm going to further our conversation right here from the public. I was going to request that we change the... I'm asking the person who's made the motion. Council member, if you would consider expanding the conversation so that we had a discussion about both police procedures and safety of children as a more general or larger topic rather than this small specific one area of children playing with toys.  But I think we may have a larger issue about police and children and safety together. So I'm asking if you would modify your motion. Thank you, Ms. Combs. So perhaps before we go into public comment, so the public knows exactly what we're talking about. Mr. Schwedheim, if you just again for the council and the public clarify your motion. So to clarify it, again, it's just the disconnect. It's my understanding, have to be 18 to purchase a replica firearm. There's nothing on the books because reading the law that comes in effect in 2016, I did not see that explicit saying that a person under 18 cannot be in possession in public of a replica firearm. What my interest would be is that it just seems like a disconnect. If you're gonna be in public with a replica firearm, you should be in the company of a responsible adult or a parent. Because if you look around the country where have tragic incidents occurred, those circumstances haven't been there. And again, for me, it's not about enforcement. It's about education. And as I looked at that, because I did talk with the senator's office when this legislation was proposed, but it was clear to me, and it might reference to council members, Wasaki's question about state versus local. It was clear they were just looking for an endorsement and not input. In other words, they had already made the decision and I totally understand at the state level certain things, you see what can pass. They were not asking for any input from a local level about what do you think about this legislation. I asked some of our lobbyists through Cal Chiefs. They said, bring it up. But that ship is very clear to me. They just want an endorsement, not input. So I think there is still that gap even with the law that will be taking effect in 2016. And for me, the reason that comes up with this forum, we decided as a group how we're gonna start making the priorities. For me, this is not a goal level issue and that's what I'll be anxious to hear from staff is that if I don't think this is hugely time consuming like some of the, as we call during council building, uber topics of solving homelessness, affordable housing downtown, those are uber topics. This, in my opinion, did not fall into that. During the council goal setting, we established a procedure to bring this forward. I'm enacting it, following the process that this group agreed to. And so that's what I'm interested in hearing if others are supportive to be able to have the work done by staff so that what would that ordinance look like. And just to be clear to the public, all you're voting on is whether staff should bring this forward. You're not committing that you would, in fact, if we're able to, that's one of the big questions.  And again, for me, I mean, no understand, this is a panacea for all ills associated with this, but it is something proactively that the city of Santa Rosa could take a leadership position on and that's why I'm bringing it forward. Great, thank you. So I'm gonna move to public comment now. I have a few cards on this item. Marni Roth, followed by Gail Simmons. Or maybe, sorry. Simmons. Marni Roth and I, my husband and I have raised six children, four sons and two daughters in this county. We've been lived here for over 30 years. So today we're gonna talk about guns. I guess you all wanna talk about guns. And we wish to isolate the toy gun issue from the larger issue. The capitalist who manufacture toy guns. Who buys toy guns? Who pushes kids to buy toy guns? And what do the words toy gun mean? Why have toy guns at all?    You know, you're all nuts, really. I just wanna say that. But you know, more than being nuts, you're hypocrites because you sit in the park on a sunny day and show real guns. I repeat, real guns to kids and we hold them and they stroke them and they pretend to shoot them and you know, kinda like they do with toy guns but then you tell all these innocent little folks how serious it is to own a gun. So after all the fun, they must never ever want a gun and if they do want a gun, go ahead, purchase a replica so they can almost feel like it's the real deal but keep in mind they might get the gun down buy a scared cop who mistook the gun for a real gun. You wanna put this ordinance in place so you can vindicate people like Eric Galhouse who gunned down a little boy named Andy Lopez and you don't wanna take any responsibility whatsoever in this whole scenario. You only want parents and kids to take the hit figuratively and literally for being so foolish to own a toy gun. I think you are trying to really hard especially those of you on this council who are ex-cops to ignore the need for civilian police oversight and to diminish it to take the heat off, so to speak of the real problem poorly trained cops. You know very well that there's been a task force in place for over a year and there have been many of the public trying to find a path to real civilian police oversight because we have such a problem in our county in our country with our out of control cops. Okay and I just wanna one more thing is that you're trying to deflect from the real problem by this ridiculous ordinance and let's prosecute kids and their parents. You know let's not and a real interest in safety, Mr. Schwindlhelm, real interest in safety would be the likes of getting people like Eric Gellhaus off our streets. He was the expert, he was the expert, okay? He was the guy that was supposed to know the difference between the real deal and not, okay? And he trained other cops. I mean where are we to go with that? Thank you. Gail Simmons. My name is Gail Simons. I'm sorry, thank you. That's okay, I'm a long time resident of Santa Rosa and I wanna say Tom and I'm Gail, Tom and Ernesto, I don't believe for a minute that you're interested in the safety of our children. I have seen what the police department does in the way of education of children around guns lately in the last few years in this community. I think that this is a ruse and is a ploy. I'm not gonna talk about the possible political implications of this. It is a red herring to take focus off of what is the real problem or a real problem in the last 15 years, nearly 70 people have died in police custody or been shot by police and he didn't kill anyone. I would like to propose another thought. If you have so much time that you wanna direct your staff away from the homeless issues and affordable housing issues that are so important. We have 4,000 people on the streets every day. If you wanna take away staff time from that, then propose an ordinance for a fine for the merchants in this community that continue to sell these replicas to our children. No one talks about that responsibility. So I don't believe you, I believe that you're good people but I think you better think about your motivations because it's kind of transparent what you're doing. Thank you everyone for listening. Susan, last the audience please. The next speaker's. Excuse me, I would respectfully request that if you agree with the previous speaker please raise your hands. They cannot hear me announce the next speaker if you're applauding and this is a council meeting not a theater. So I appreciate your willingness to show your support but I would appreciate if you would not applaud. Thank you very much. Susan Lamont and Susan is followed by Ellen Zabrowski. Sure, no problem, you can help me with that. I'm Susan Lamont, I'm representing the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County and obviously we're an organization that doesn't really support and encourage children playing with guns, we'd rather guns didn't exist but I want to quote Walt Whitman. A boy went out one day and all he beheld he became.  Look at the children, tiny children touching guns at Martin Luther King Junior Park in 2011 something that was approved of by both Mr. Schwedhelm and Mr. Oliveris, they've had no problem with it and as a matter of fact, Mr. Schwedhelm who at the time was chief of police when asked about how young children should be to handle weapons said he wasn't an expert and he would leave the decision up to the adult in charge if they were feeling that it's an appropriate age, sure and here, here is Sonoma County Airport in 2014 that's an eight year old boy pretending to shoot a machine gun under the proving eye of adults. This comes up obviously because of Andy Lopez. Andy Lopez had the misfortune to be a child in a culture that glorifies guns, war and violence. Temps children with aisles of war toys and screens filled with gore and allows young children to play with real assault weapons in Martin Luther King Junior Park or at the Sonoma County Airport and when Andy picked up on all the messages sent his way the county used that to justify killing him and if they hadn't killed him under your ordinance they could have criminalized him instead.  This is absurd. If you cared about safety on our streets you would join peace and justice organizations and work for that. Instead whenever we are out on the street with guns believe in what you say you believe in it is hypocrisy and totally, totally callous. Thank you. Ellen Zabrowski and Ellen is followed by Teleneggy. If this proposal had been brought by a different council member it might only seem misguided. To have it brought by the former chief of police it's very disturbing. There isn't a person in this room who doesn't know that this isn't about Andy Lopez. And about trying to turn the victim into the criminal and future victims into criminals including possibly council member Carlstrom's child. During this past year and a half since Andy's death I and others have watched the impunity with which the sheriff's deputies harassed the Moorland and Roseland neighborhoods. I hoped that the Santa Rosa police department would distance itself from this conduct. I hoped SRPD would want to show us that it had a greater sensitivity and partnership with the community. I even heard words to this effect in this chamber.  The only purpose of a law that criminalizes people for holding toys is to further separate the community from its law-enforcing agencies. In fact, it might even appear to the public that this topic is being raised for the very purpose of running down the clock on side issues in order to evade the big ones. I strongly urge the council to reject and to waste no further time on this diversion. If Mr. Schwendhelm's intent is not to further alienate the people from the police then I encourage him to drop this bogus topic and to throw himself into the genuine issues facing our city. It's my hope that the entire council is ready to roll up their sleeves and tackle the big problems. And I can suggest three places to start. One, initiate a Santa Rosa community law enforcement oversight board with real powers that can actually improve relations between the community and the police. Two, take meaningful steps to address the housing crisis. And three, pursue the efforts begun last year by council members Coombs and Weisaki to seriously reform Measure O, thus providing adequate funds for the projects that are most important to the people of Santa Rosa. Thank you. Attila Negi and Attila is followed by Magic. Okay, well, there are still five council people here. My name's Attila Negi. I live in Santa Rosa. And what I see is a disconnect between, I guess, the administration of this city and the people of the city. And that includes also the staff of the city, the police, in that people who have a higher salary, you can afford childcare. You don't have to have possibly two people working. And so the children are well taken care of in that sense, they're giving rules, maybe, you're concerned about children being accompanied by adults. But that's not the case for a lot of people. I would say probably a majority of Santa Rosa, that's a guess, but I know a lot of people who are working two jobs. The kids go home after school and they play out in the street and they play with what, but we model for them. We model, what do we model for them? You know, adults model guns, violence, they see it on TV, it's everywhere. So, and I really appreciate what the state has done. And that's important, that's important law. Color the guns. First of all, I mean, I played with guns when I was a kid, but I learned because, well, I won't get into how I learned, but it's what kids do, unfortunately, because it's modeled for them. I would say, you know, don't pick on the families, don't pick on the kids, go to the manufacturers, as well as the retailers that sell them. And I don't think this was well thought out.  But think it through. And I would say, don't right now, right now don't use staff's time because as everybody else pointed out, there's a lot of big issues. And I'm glad that you're all talking about public safety because that's important, but how you approach it is important too. I don't agree with what you're doing right now. If you're magic, followed by Richard Canini. Hello, my name is Magic. I would be remiss as a woman if I didn't point out, Mayor, that you had originally called on Julie Combs and then you didn't let her speak first and then turn to Ernesto, so that didn't feel right or feminist to me. When Andy Lopez died, I wrote a poem and the first stanza is a child walked in daylight with promise in his heart, holding the symbol of power in his hands. Because why not? Why shouldn't he have power too? We have a culture that indoctrinates our children into the belief that violence equals power and the guns symbolize that power. They are sold video war games. They become addicted. We glorify war as a path to heroism and the simplistic idea that we are the good guys and whoever interferes with corporate exploitation of other countries is the enemy. That our young go off to war believing this propaganda and come back so damaged both physically and psychologically that 22 vets are committing suicide a day is a tragedy beyond words. Our businesses sell massive amounts of toy guns and war games. In fact, when I was on 4th Street a few years back, a young man had just purchased a bracelet with spikes on it from the mall. He walked out and a policeman said, you're under arrest for a weapon. I said, what are you doing? He just bought that at the mall. Is this fair to sell, to promote, to propagandize our youth and then to criminalize them for buying what we tell them to buy? Once again, this is thinly disguised attempt at demonizing Andy Lopez and his parents who are suffering a tragedy beyond words. While the killer is still on her streets without even rehabilitation or any form of restorative justice in which he could also be healed by apologizing without legal recrimination to the parents in a separate restorative place to apologize for killing their child. I am also, you know, feel it's very disingenuous that you brought this forward as the other council members said when you could have done it during the goal setting it must have been a political move to think it would work better now. I don't think that's a proper procedure to be used. And we do not need this ordinance or even any further discussion in this manner. Yes, the community needs discussion and a police oversight review board to make real the solutions to this problem. Thank you. Thank you. And for the benefit of the public here today, I am limited by the turning of my neck and at the right time to see who might be making suggestion to speak versus not amount about, excuse me, it's not about just being disrespectful. And if I make an error in calling it is not out of disrespect. It is merely a human error. And I apologize for that in advance. Mr. Canini. Mr. Mayor, you certainly are a human and you certainly are respectful, although we don't disagree. I mean, we do disagree politically. So yes, he's all right. What we're talking about here, and I think it's made clear by other people, what we're talking about right here is protecting our children from the police. That's the issue. And I think it is good if you go forward with this that we do review the police training, the police protocols. I've watched training film for police and basically what they teach the police is to fire. That's what they teach. And I'm told, and this could be get some clarification here. I'm told that the officers are taught to eliminate the threat, meaning to kill. They are told to empty their weapon into the body of the target, in this case, a child. Empty the weapon. When the target is down, the child, handcuff that person. Do not repeat. Do not render first aid. Do not allow anyone else to render first aid, except for when the EMTs and the paramedics are allowed on the scene and allowed by the police officer to render first aid. That's my understanding of what they're taught. It's my understanding of what they do and we've seen it reported in the press. Therefore, given that, I would ask that you're writing ordinances, I got one for you, that you require the Santa Rosa Police Department to treat persons within this city as prisoners of war. They're to be treated as POWs so that this would invoke Genève. For your English speakers, that's Geneva. The Geneva Conventions require our armed forces in a combat zone dealing with POWs to render first aid. It's international law, a violation of that makes them war criminals. Our troops in Afghanistan are told do not fire unless fired upon. When you're fired upon, you may fire. If you perceive a threat, you must get authorization from COC before firing. He's coming at you with a weapon, you're not authorized to fire. You must get on the horn, call COC, and for you draft dodgers, that's Combat Operations Center. And the member Schwenhelm, you spoke before this council. You mentioned officer safety a dozen times at one meeting. You never once mentioned public safety. Thank you. Ramon Cairo, and Mr. Cairo is followed by Bill, who's luck? May I request that we not make, that we ask the public to not make direct personal comments, negative personal comments toward any particular council members. I think we can make the points without making direct personal comments. If you don't mind if I request that, thank you. Thank you Ms. Combs. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you guys today. If I may, I would just like to point out two things. I guess I'll start like this. Mrs. Carlstrom, thank you so much for starting your preamble with the term logic. That's a very good starting point because I feel that any measures that are voted upon or acted upon should be essentially rooted in common sense and logic, first and foremost. With that being said, I would have to agree with a lot of the public speakers when they use terms like ruse or one that I really like, blame shifting. If we utilize the term public safety, which I'm sure I'm positive is a term that you utilize, and we switch it around a little bit and remove public safety and instead put in criminal liability, then it is very clear that what you're attempting to do is you're trying to pass measures that in essence would allow individuals kind of like you that wore a badge and had a gun from indiscriminately continuing to kill people in our society, but at this point in time, here in Sonoma, Santa Rosa, the city of Santa Rosa, there would be no criminal liability to assume that justice would be served. This city and this county has seen very clearly how the individuals that have been put in power have no problem, qualms or compunctions with pretty much chucking the constitution to the trash and just doing what they feel like doing willy-nilly, I think is a term you guys use. The reason why I phrase it that way, it's because it's very clear that the public here who got to hear every story that Eric Galehouse could come up with, the public here was able to hear every story that Joe Ravich could possibly conjure up, but I think we all know very well that nobody was here to hear the side of Andy Lopez because Andy Lopez is dead. And the number one fear that I have is that by passing a measure such as yours, in essence what we're doing is we are providing law enforcement with all the tools necessary to indiscriminately kill with impunity and let them get away with it. I love that sign where they're saying children are not the criminals, because I wanna clearly say that probably when you became the chief of police, it's when we really started noticing that it was our children who are being criminalized at every joint adventure, whether it was, hey, that little 12 year old kid is wearing the wrong color at the wrong school, he's a gang member, let's start labeling him right there. That all happened when you were the chief of police. So if we take a look at your track record, it is very clear that everything that you have done has been in the service of law enforcement. Unfortunately, now you're in a position where you need to serve the public. And it is very clear and evident that this measure would not be in the interest of the public. It would merely be in the interest of law enforcement. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Bill Haluzak. Bill is followed by Kevin Conway. Bill Haluzak, San Jose, California, Rosendaria, near Moorland and those other areas in the Southwest. When I was a child, the only guns I had to my disposal or rather to my use were ones that I would made up of sticks, broom handles, rubber bands, and clothespins. I didn't have any fancy colored AR-47, STIN, whatever rifles that they're putting out now that the manufacturers make look like. What you see on these video games is what I could fabricate. My parents didn't glorify guns. In fact, they deglorified guns. Guns were something that law enforcement used, that people that were providing safety to our country used, not just everybody indiscriminately carrying them. So I think that a lot could go, you could go a long ways to deglorifying guns and they'd be trying to get away from these computer generated games that show that that's what you do. The other thing I did when our boys were young is we took them to a fire range, the 30-30, got them out there with the rifle, fired it. They didn't like the noise. They didn't like the recoil. They didn't like anything about it. It was totally demystified. It was something they used to kill something or put something down. It wasn't glorious at all. I don't see anybody suggesting that they put this in the curriculum of kids so that they understand what a weapon is, what it can do, and what it sounds like. Also, I think that the county should take a stance on not bringing toy guns or replicant guns into the community that aren't so far out of appearance that they don't even resemble a gun. They look like something you see in a cartoon where there's no way you could paint it to make it look like one. If they have to have it, they make it look like something that isn't even real. But it says it's a gun, but it doesn't look like anything. They are 15 or whatever. If they really need to have them, let's do that. Call it a gun, but make it so that you can't even resemble a gun or look like that. So nobody thinks that, uh-oh, there's a kid with a gun. I gotta put him down because he's a perceived threat. So those are my basic topics. De-glorify the gun. Give kids an exposure to what it really is or what it sounds like and what it can do. And let's see. Well, I guess that's about it. I can't speak any more eloquently than anybody else in this crowd. Beautiful. I mean, they said everything I wanted to say and I just hope I can highlight a few of the comments that I have about it. So I'd stamp it in and making it something that it isn't the right way to go. Let's let these kids find out or understand what a gun really is, what it sounds like, what it should look like, what it's for and not have it glorified. Thank you very much. Thank you. Kevin Conway, Kevin, followed by Tara Friedman. Good evening, Mayor Sawyer, council members. Thank you for this opportunity. I just wanna start by saying I think this kind of a measure is very ill-conceived and I don't assign motive to anybody, but let me put myself in the shoes, first of all, of a 13-year-old kid. I know how I was a 13. I don't know how your son's gonna be, Ms. Carlson, but I can just say if my uncle came home and said, here, Kevin, you got a yellow gun to play with. I'd say, thank you.  Now I wanna put myself in the shoes of a peace officer where knowing if this ordinance were to go forward, knowing that it's not legal for a person under 18 without a parent to have this real-looking weapon, my hair-trigger finger's gonna be ramped up because I'm gonna say the community knows this isn't legal, that must be a real gun. And I think their fear level is gonna be ramped up and the opportunity for them to make a horrible mistake is ramped up as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Conway. Tara Friedman and Ms. Friedman is followed by, I believe it's, well, Ms. Repetra, I'll try that. I wanna address the issue of public safety, which I've heard you all talk about tonight. And I wanna say that public safety is about one other issue that you haven't brought up, which is training law enforcement in this community on how to use the weapons, on how to detect a threat, on how to respond to children or adults who they deem a threat, in a way that is not going to escalate the situation. I would say if we wanna deal with public safety, let's start there. Why are we looking at toy guns and what color they are? Let's just start with who's got the real guns and where the problems are coming from. If you wanna move, we also could start with moving away the mass quantity of deadly weapons from the hands of law enforcement. We're getting more and more deadly weapons in your hands. What do you do when you have deadly weapons in your hands and you're trained to use them? Really easy to just pick it up and use it when you think you need it without thinking clearly. These are pretty obvious solutions to the problems that we have. And I don't know why we're getting these other suggestions. And one word that kept coming up to me, I thought that kept coming to me was about barbarism, the definition of barbarism. One of the things that was said earlier is that when law enforcement shoot a person down and they're injured, they are not allowed to provide any first aid. They're not allowed to let anyone else provide first aid. That is barbaric by any standards. I just can't believe you all could sit here and just know that that's true and that that is all right. You would never let that happen to a loved one of yours. You would realize that you don't block treatment of any injured person. I don't care if they just robbed somebody. Where's the humanity here? And I have to just say that I remember when the chief was here at the table a few years ago after the 2011 park display of weapons at the Martin Luther King event. I'm sorry, Martin Luther King Park. You did say that the reason they were there, and the children were there encouraged to pick them up was an educational purpose. I remember clearly that was your term and I would just urge you to educate with nonviolent alternatives as opposed to violent alternatives. It's not ever gonna get us where we wanna go.  Not bringing out your weapons inventory or to bring a really much wiser thing to do. Thank you all. Thank you. Linda Picton. Good evening. I haven't been here in a while. The reality is that I live in unincorporated Sonoma County. I don't live in the city of Santa Rosa. But I came tonight to talk, well, I'll talk about the public comment issue. But you know what I think is that there's tremendous public confusion on the adult level about the role of firearms under our constitution. It seems like the Second Amendment takes priority over everything else. The right to carry and the concealed weapon issue and all that. A while ago I did a research project on the role of women in law enforcement and the military. And I actually did it at Sawyer's News looking through all the magazines and the gun magazines and NIA, whatever. NIA, whatever, and they blatantly said that they would sell weapons to either side to law enforcement and to the criminals. They didn't care. And at that time, I don't remember, I wish I had kept a copy of it, but actually I didn't buy it. But there was a drive to get more women. There was a woman who was elected to be the president of the NRA. And what I've noticed over time is that they're actually pink guns. I went to a local gun shop not long ago to check out this issue and they actually have rifles, small rifles, diminutive rifles, and they're painted pink so that women will be more encouraged to shoot. So that, to me, is really distressing. And I've seen programs by G. Gordon Liddy and they're campus-wide, nationwide, forums and recruitment operations, whatever, to encourage more people to carry guns. And that, to me, makes no sense. And I'll just close by saying we just finished the Oscars. And I don't remember what year it was. I wasn't really prepared for this to speak tonight, but it wasn't that long ago. And one of the main phrases for the Oscars was the boys of Hollywood really loved their guns. And they had whole segments about the role of guns, rifles, pistols, whatever, the cowboy genre, and whatever, and how that has really influenced our culture. And I just, as everyone has been talking about public safety, it's different carrying a cap gun and an AK-47. Thank you. Thank you, Linda. It's good to have you back. I will bring this back to the council now and I do have a question about process for the city manager and what we discussed during council goal setting and how this unfolds. So in our discussion about cost involved in doing an analysis on a particular item, could you, so if we were to move forward with this item, what is the next step? Well, the next step would be for the staff and I to get together and review the request as we understand it, understand whether that was something that could easily fold within existing work, our existing work detail, where this was gonna require substantial effort beyond what we're already capable of supporting. And at that point, if it were to require additional work, we would bring that back to council with a proposal of what we would be necessarily moving down to move up to address this pressing need. I think these were set up with the idea of keeping the council on task, but at the same time understanding that there may be immediate issues that you would want to address moving forward. So in this case, we would look at the item as we understand it. If we feel like it can exist within our existing workload, we will then bring, we will schedule a date and we'll notify the council of the date that that item will be coming back to council. If we feel like that this is gonna be in a substantial investment of time and resources that's gonna divert us from other activities that we're currently managing, we will then bring that back. I will schedule a council meeting to tell you what we're proposing. So it's open and honest and transparent, what we're proposing to move down in the priority to address this particular need. So a little bit will depend on sort of the scope of the project as it fits within our existing means. Thank you very much. Council, final comments? Go question, Mr. Wojcicki? I do have another question as I understand this proposal. The possession of a replica firearm, there must be an adult present or a parent present. What is being proposed here? So for me, that would be part of the recommendation because I've seen both, I'm familiar with, the first one that comes to my mind is if someone's been arrested for drunk driving, get cited out, that person can be released to a responsible adult or a parent. So again, that would be something I'd look for a staff recommendation. So we're not deciding on that, you're just gonna let staff, I'm just curious. So an adult or a parent can be with a minor with a replica and they're okay under this proposal. So now they have to be a juvenile because minor goes up to 21. So when you have a, there's all kind of parenting situations. So again, that's what I would look for if there's other similar ordinances, the intent is having a responsible adult there, a responsible adult or parent. A responsible adult with the children playing with the guns. Exactly my point. Mayor, if I could make one? Sure, and then? I would like to entertain Council Member Combs's suggestion, I'm not sure what that would add to it, but if we want to do add additional information to get additional information that would help support that type of an ordinance, I'd be supportive of that. Thank you. Mr. Oliver? No, I guess it's gonna come back. I'm because we use worse replica toy. There's a lot of differences with, you know, little squirt guns and stuff. You don't need an adult to buy that. I mean, so it's really, I know that staff would come back and clarify some of this terminology that we're using so that it's consistent. I think it's important that we use some common language so that we can better apply this if we move down that route. Thank you. So, any final comments? Ms. Coates? Just as a reminder, we already have a law coming into effect that asks for the device to be white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink, bright purple, either singly or in combination with other colors in any pattern and constructed in a transparent or translucent material to permit unmistakable observation of the device's complete contents. So that I think we're trying to solve a problem that we will not have after 116, which is that folks can't recognize what the toy is. So it concerns me that kids who have, one of the concepts that was brought up was kids in some neighborhoods don't have access to the adult supervision kids in other neighborhoods have. I think it's 11 or 12 kids can be home alone legally. So we have a gap in time between parental availability of parental supervision for kids in certain areas. I appreciate that you have offered an expansion. I'm not clear what the expansion was, perhaps instead of bringing this forward. It was your expansion. No, he clarified my expansion in a way that made me uncertain. So let me, I'd rather not be interrupted by you, Ms. Carlstrom, thank you. If we brought this forward as part of the county law enforcement task force recommendations, which it is not one of them, but if we were adding it to that, I mean, are we talking about? I think that the county will be making a presentation requesting your input into their process. That's what we've been directing the county. So I'm not sure this fits in directly with that conversation in the way that you're phrasing it. I think they have a presentation that they're bringing to each municipality, and that presentation is under a specific guidance to seek input on their presentation from the councils as where they were directed by the board of supervisors to do. So my suggestion had been that instead of talking about this item, we talk about a larger discussion of how children and police public safety members can be safer as a bigger combination. Is that what you were agreeing to? I heard you say include police training with this issue. Yes. And focus on what training would officers receive and what type of police training is there related to this topic. And that was the scope of it to me. I think that does partner well with what my intent was. If I could just also respond with the state law that comes effect in 2016, one that's still quite a ways away, and two there's still, whether it's thousands or millions of replica firearms out there. And I don't believe once this law becomes into effect that everyone's gonna throw them away and dispose of them. So to me again, that concern is still out there. Would it be retroactive if a person has purchased one prior to the date when the color changes with this law? If we passed an ordinance, would it apply to those that had not been modified? So does it solve the problem? It would depend on how you define that in the ordinance. So in terms of process, what I would envision assuming as the city manager said it was something that staff could do within their existing capacity, we would bring it back as a study session to answer some of those questions that the key one being whether it's preempted by the existing state or federal law. And then you would talk about what the limitations might be on your authority if you were inclined to move forward. There is a definition in the state law for, I would just respond to Council Member Ollivaris's concern, they're in the state law. And my understanding is that the industry is very quick figuring out ways around definitions once they're put in so that a replica gets made that gets around whatever definition we put forward. When there was a six millimeter, they made an eight millimeter version. When it was six and eight, they make something else. So my understanding is that even with the definitions, it gets very difficult to have them stay stationary and keep up with what the manufacturers are doing. We really have a problem with the manufacturer of these. But anyway, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Combs. Well, from my final comment side, I think that for me, this is about reducing chances of tragedy in the future. We have been as a community nationally for the last decades. And when I was a kid and Bill Haluzik mentioned what it was like to play with guns or imitation guns, pieces of wood, whatever it might be, was far earlier kids weren't killing kids and our society has changed and in some ways very tragically. And I see this as an opportunity, perhaps some people would consider it folly. I think that painting guns pink and then if someone could paint them black again, could be considered folly. Bill's idea of making guns, not look at all like guns. I thought of that myself and I realized I don't know if the kids would use them if they don't look like something on television or something in some movie. So it's a little bit like struggling in the dark and not knowing exactly what direction to go in. But perhaps it's small steps like this that might be communities might realize that have not had a tragedy like ours that might prevent something in the future. And if the city manager is able to come forward with a recommendation for a time allotment that is reasonable and not onerous and the council agrees to go forward with that, then I would support that. So I'll be voting to support it coming back to us as an item on our agenda this evening. So we have a motion and a second on the table. Could we discuss comments? If it comes back to us, can we ensu