Madam City Clerk, are we all set in the chambers? Yes, I believe we are. Okay. Let's go ahead and call the roll then and start our city council meeting for today. Okay. Council Member Tibbets? Here. Council Member Schwedhelm? Here. Council Member Sawyer? Here. Council Member Fleming? Here. Council Member Alvarez? Present. Vice Mayor Rogers? Present. Mayor Rogers? Here. Let the record show that all council members are present. Great. Thank you so much, Madam City Clerk. A little bit of housekeeping for folks. Today is a hybrid city council meeting. You'll notice that council members are both in person in the chambers, as well as online via Zoom. There will be multiple ways for the public to participate in each of our items tonight with public comment. They can both be either in the chamber and speak directly to council members or can hit the raise hand feature on Zoom as well. Madam City Clerk, can you walk through for folks how they might be able to participate via public comment? Yes. After each agenda item is presented, the mayor will ask for council comments and then open it up for public comment. The mayor will first take public comment for those participating in person in the chamber and then move on to members of the public participating via Zoom. The host and Zoom will be lowering all hands until public comment is open for the agenda item. If you wish to speak, if you wish to provide a public comment and are attending the meeting in person, please sign up to speak on an item with the administrator, Julie, at the top of the room. This process is in lieu of speaker cards in order to reduce touch points due to COVID-19. Julie will ask your name, what item you wish to speak on and for a one sentence summary of your statement for the record. The mayor will then call on those in person who have signed up to speak on an item. Once the mayor has called for public comment, he will announce for the public to raise their hand if they wish to speak on a specific agenda item. If you are calling in to listen to the meeting audibly, you can dial star nine to raise your hand. Once all live public comment, Zoom and in person have been heard, the meeting host will play voicemail public comments. If you provide a live public comment on an agenda item, but also submitted an email, e-comment or recorded a voice message public comment, your email, e-comment or voice message public comment will not be duplicated, read or played during the meeting. Additionally, there are two public comment periods on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters under items 13 and 17. This is a time when any person may address the council on matters not listed on this agenda, but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council. Throughout today's agenda, when the mayor calls for public comment an interpreter will be prepared to assist anyone in needing interpretation services. Those using interpreter support will be afforded additional time for your public comment as required by the Brown Act. We ask those listening on the Spanish channel but wishing to make a public comment to turn off the interpretation channel entirely at the time you hear your name called so you can join the main channel to make your public comment heard and translated into English. This icon may now look like a circle with an E S in the middle and the word Spanish underneath. You can then rejoin the Spanish channel at the conclusion of your comment to continue listening to the meeting in Spanish. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madam Clerk. We did have a special council meeting earlier today that was only a closed session items. We did do a report out of that at the end of that meeting. So we'll go ahead and go on to our first study session item 3.1, Mr. City Manager. Mayor Rogers and members of the city council, our first study session item of the afternoon is regarding our charter review process and Sue Gallagher, our city attorney, will be presenting the charter review materials and leading this discussion. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. As we're here today again to talk about the City Charter Review and on June 8th, the council held its initial study session to consider charter review. The charter review, as you'll recall, allows for review every 10 years. And on June 8th, the council very enthusiastically directed staff to move forward with a renewed charter review this fall. The council gave us substantial direction regarding the composition of the charter review committee, the timing and the scope of review. Gave us some ideas for topics as well. Among the recommendations, the council suggested an additional study session to begin our community outreach really in earnest. The council expressed its strong interest in hearing from a broad spectrum of the community. And this study session is intended to begin that process. It is, though, just the beginning. And as we'll talk about later, the staff has developed a site on the city's website for the charter review and has begun getting the word out that this process is beginning. So let's begin. Next slide. We've talked about the nature of the City Charter in our study session on June 8th. So the next few slides will probably be familiar to some of you. We're still early in the process, though. So for the benefit of those who may not have heard the June meeting, we're gonna offer a little bit of background. The California Constitution, Article 11, sections three and five allow cities to adopt their own charters. And Santa Rosa has done so. It is a charter city. The city charter was adopted early in the city's history. I've actually found some conflicting dates as to when the first charter was adopted. But certainly by 1922, the charter was in place and it was adopted pursuant to the California Constitution's provisions for home rule. The charter is, in essence, the city's constitution. Next slide. The adoption of the city charter gives the city maximum control over its own governance and operations. With the charter in place, the city is free to regulate with respect to municipal affairs. That provision with respect to municipal affairs limiting our powers to that area is embedded in the constitutional provisions for home rule. With respect to municipal affairs, the city's charters, ordinances and resolutions will govern over state law. We'll supersede state law. Next slide. The home rule provision, though, doesn't give the city absolute authority over everything within its jurisdiction. With respect to matters of statewide concern, state law will continue to govern. The line between what's a municipal affair versus what's a matter of statewide concern is not a bright line and is ever evolving. The courts are the ultimate arbiters of what might be deemed a municipal fair and that's governable by the city versus what is a matter of statewide concern that is governed by state law. And I'll just give a quick example to give people a sense of what that means. Historically, local cities had very wide discretion to regulate how and where and when housing was built. But as statewide housing crisis emerged and has grown, what was once a local matter has become a matter of statewide concern and the state now imposes substantial regulations, substantial restrictions on the city's ability to regulate development of housing. Again, that housing ends up being shared responsibility between the local agency and the state. Next slide. And I will say there are a lot of other examples too where things used to be locally governed and have now become matters of statewide concern. So as I just stated, the charter is in essence the city's constitution, so it's really a high level governing document. The fact that the city has adopted the charter gives us the ability and the authority to regulate in all areas of municipal affairs. But the regulations do not need to be in the charter itself, and indeed charters rarely delve into great detail. There are exceptions, but in general, it stays to a pretty high level. In general, the details of the city governance and operation and regulations are set forth in the ordinances and resolutions that are adopted by the council. And I'll point out that this really gives the city a lot more flexibility. Any changes to the charter itself require voter approval, whereas if you wanna be able to react and address emergent issues, ordinances and resolutions give you far more flexibility to do that. Next slide. Absent, if we did not have a city charter, we would be a general law city and governed by the general laws of the state. And I should point out that it sounds like there's a huge distinction between charter cities and general law cities, but we should keep in mind that state law itself in many areas gives significant discretion to the local agencies. So the gap between charter cities and general law cities really is not as great as it might appear. Just wanted to make that note, we're obviously a charter city and we're not moving off of that. And just a note of curiosity, as I was looking through materials of the most current numbers that I found that of California's 481 cities, 121 are charter cities, all the rest are governed by general laws of the state. Next slide. Before we delve into the charter review process itself, I think it's helpful to have kind of a quick grounding in what is in our existing city charter. This existing city charter is our jumping off point. That's where we'll go from here to whatever amendments might come out of this process. The staff report outlines the existing charter in some detail. So I'll try to go through the next four slides pretty quickly. One of the most important provisions of the city charter is section 51. It's towards the back, but it really is key. That is a provision by which we set out that we do intend to allow the city to exercise all of its potential authority under the California constitution home rule provisions. So it authorizes the council to adopt ordinances in relation to municipal affairs. It states that those ordinances will control over the general laws of the state. And then it also allows the general state law to fill in the gaps while retaining maximum city control. So what that provision says is city council, you can adopt ordinances and resolutions with respect to municipal affairs. If the city's regulations are silent on an issue, state law will be referred to will fill in those gaps. Again, still retaining the ability to regulate in the future should we so desire. Next slide. And this is just some of the key elements of the city charter in the staff reported also outlines where these different elements can be found. First is the establishment of the city. It's the name, the boundaries and the powers of the city. The composition of the city council, the charter creates a seven member city council. That was a change back in 2002. It previously been five members. Each member serves a four year term and receives minimal compensation. Terms of the meetings and procedures of the city council provides for council meetings on Tuesdays, requires that the council meet at least twice a month. Does require the affirmative vote of four members to pass any ordinance or resolution. And it provides procedures for filling a council vacancy. We did have to use those a few years ago with council member combs departure. The city charter also provides for the selection of the mayor and the vice mayor by vote of the council itself. And it sets forth the roles and responsibilities of both the mayor and the vice mayor. Next slide. The charter sets for the very basic ordinance procedures, including procedures for emergency ordinances. It contains provisions to bolster city and neighborhood participation in city government and encourages diversity in boards and commissions. The charter defines the roles, gives a long list of various city officers, including the city manager, city attorney, the fire chief, the police chief, and many others. The charter provides for a strong city manager role with the city manager to control city administration and operations. And indeed precludes interference from individual council members. The charter with respect to labor and employment allows the council to establish personnel rules and regulations and in a provision added in the 2012 charter amendments. The charter also provides for binding arbitration for public safety employee disputes. Next slide. The charter establishes the city's fiscal year, June, July 1 to June 30th. It outlines the basic budget process and it requires an annual independent financial audit. The charter establishes the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Public Utilities and it authorizes the setting of water and sewer rates and fees. Does also set the timing and procedures for municipal elections. It expressly authorizes recalls, initiatives, and referendums. It confirms that the city's records are subject to the public records, to the State Public Records Act. We comply with that, obviously. Next slide. The charter establishes just a very basic framework for procurement and contracting, including emergency contracting and also including, again, as of 2012, a design bill that we can use the design bill to process. The charter also establishes basic ethical standards for employees, including no gratuities, no conflicts of interest, and personal liability for payment of any illegal claims. And as of 2002, the charter also contains provisions for campaign finance reform. Next slide. So with that background, we've talked about kind of the legal basis for the city charter and we've talked about what our current city charter provides. And now we'll get into what the process is for charter review. As we've discussed before, city charter section 12 provides for review of the city charter every 10 years. And the last charter review began in 2011 and resulted in proposed revisions placed on the November 2012 ballot. And as I mentioned, on June 8th at the study session, the council did direct that the new charter review begin this fall. Next slide. And the charter review is very, quite open-ended. The charter review committee can consider any revisions, additions, or deletions from the existing city charter. So a wide, wide view. And any proposed changes to the charter, though, are subject to voter approval. Just as the charter itself was enacted by a voter approval, any changes to the charter are subject to voter approval. The charter review will be led, this is pursuant to section 12 of the charter itself. The review process will be led by a charter review committee that's appointed by the council and then pursuant to the directions provided by the council of the June 8th study session, the committee will be comprised of 21 city residents. Each council member will appoint three committee members. And the council really emphasized that they'll be looking for a diversity of age, race, ethnicity, background, interest, gender, really looking for a very diverse committee to carry this effort forward. Next slide. The expectation is that the charter review committee will begin its work in September. Part of that depends on how quickly folks are appointed and are available, but that is the target to begin the work in September. The committee will research and draft recommended amendments to the city charter. We would expect that will include researching what other cities have done in the state, looking at best practices, looking at new initiatives that might be coming out of the community itself, and then drafting and redrafting till the committee has what it would like to propose. In the recent past, in the last couple of charter reviews, the committees have worked from anywhere between five months to nine months to evaluate and develop proposals. And as I've mentioned before, the extent of the work will depend on the number and nature of the proposals. Next slide. And before I go to this next slide, I do wanna mention that as the work, as the number or complexity of the proposals increases, not only will it take more time and effort on the part of the committee, but it also will require substantial resources on the part of city staff. The committee recommendations, the committee will put together its recommendations and present those recommendations to the city council whenever they are ready. The deadline will be by early summer, late spring, early summers will be the target that we're looking at. And then if approved by council, those proposed revisions to the charter will be placed on the November 2022 ballot for voter consideration. The final date for placing items on the November ballot is in early August. So we'll keep those dates in mind, obviously. And then if approved by the voters, the revisions will be incorporated into the charter. Next slide. At the June 8th study session, various members of the council identified eight different topics for discussion. I did re-listen to that discussion and these were the ones that I heard. First is a direct, and this is not an order of priority, this is in a really chronological order of how they were presented. So direct the possible topics, having a directly elected at-large mayor, this would entail redesigning our seven districts. It would require, so we would have six council members elected by district and then we would have one at-large mayor, one mayor elected at-large. Second was ranked choice voting. That is where voters are able to rank their choices, identify their first, their second, third, so forth choice. And then there is a calculation that goes into who prevails under that ranked choice voting. The next topic was independent police auditor and or police citizen oversight commission. Discussions were made of the current counties, Ilaro, independent, I'm not gonna say the words right, but there it's an independent citizen oversight commission. So something may be similar. Next topic was for council compensation. As I mentioned, our current charter ties compensation to that that's allowed under for general law cities and that compensation is very low as I know the council is aware. Next slide. So the proposal is to consider a more substantial compensation for council to allow greater access to become a council member. Right now it's difficult to hold a full-time job and meet all the obligations of being a council member. Additional topics for discussion that were mentioned that were not given a lot of detail. Climate change, are there things that we could put into our charter that could help us to address climate change or reflect our commitment to addressing climate change? Same with diversity, equity, inclusion, are there provisions that might be appropriate for our charter with respect to diversity, equity, inclusion? Taxation, there were several discussions about various aspects of taxation. And then I was mentioned the potential for charter provision regarding the regulation of rental properties. And if I've missed any, please, when we get to discussion part, we can certainly add to the list. Next slide. The council also after identifying, well actually sometimes before identifying its own ideas for charter review, the council really emphasized its desire to hear input from the broader community, hear input from residents of their own districts, but to hear input and ideas and suggestions from the broad community citywide as well. The council also was clear that it wants to hear from those who work most closely with the charter and that would include our city employees, our unions, our department heads, our various officials, really to hear from the city government community as well. Next slide. And I know I, at the June 8th meeting, I did give a little bit of background on the most recent charter reviews. I'm just gonna go over that quickly again for those who may not have participated in the June 8th study session. In the 2012 charter review, that's the most recent that we have, the charter review process began in late spring, early summer of 2011. The charter review committee was formally created by the council resolution on August 2nd, 2011, and the committee likewise as we're doing this year, 21 members, each council member appointing three committee members. The council also on the August 2nd resolution appointed Mike Seneff as the chair. He in fact had been the chair previously in the 2002 charter review as well. Next slide. And the council's resolution identified eight possible issues for the committee to discuss. I think it's just a coincidence that from the June 8th meeting, we came out with eight suggestions as well. Committee appointments were really made very quickly and the committee began its work in September, met twice monthly for about nine months, and it really was a tremendous amount of work both by the committee members and by city staff. Next slide. At the end of the process, the committee came forward with four ballot measures. Those were presented to the voters in the November 2012 election and three of the four measures passed. The one that did not pass was to convert from at-large elections to district council member elections, but the other three, binding arbitration for police and fire employee disputes passed, the addition of the design bill procurement provisions passed, and then a miscellaneous charter reorganization update and clarifications that one also passed as well. Next slide. The 2002 charter review, 20 years ago, all was very similar. It also comprised of 21 members, three appointed with each council member, appointing three members, and that committee worked for approximately five months and they came forward with three ballot measures and those ballot measures were presented to the voters in the 2002 election and two of the three passed. The general charter amendments that was incorporating miscellaneous changes that passed, a provision for increased council compensation failed, and then a provision for campaign finance reform that passed and that is now in the charter itself. Next slide. So what are our next steps? We are gonna be continuing the community outreach. As I mentioned, we are working with community engagement with our public information and governmental affairs officer with the city clerk and with our equity officer with a whole range of folks from our city community. To get the word out, we have a website up. We'll be filling that in as we go forward but that is up and running. We are doing, we have flyers, we have announcements, we are going out to meetings to announce that this process is going on and we will really be encouraging folks to apply for membership on the charter review committee if they are interested. We will be coming back on August 17th, so just in a couple weeks, two weeks, with the formal resolution that will create the charter review committee that will give the directions and that will identify what topics that council would like the committee to consider. Once that resolution is adopted, the council members are free to begin their appointment of committee members, of their three committee members. And we are hoping that by mid-September we can have our first committee meeting. There will be some training that we'll need to go through and we'll need to start getting on any proposals that the committee wants to continue to investigate. Again, it can be very time consuming. So those are our next steps. Next slide. So here today, I know the primary reason was to give the community another opportunity to speak as to the charter review process as well as topics for the charter review committee to consider. We have a couple of items of direction that we would like to have. And the first being the method for selecting the chair of the charter review committee. And you have a couple of options. For some boards and commissions and committees currently, the mayor appoints the chair. You could use that method. You could have people apply to be the chair of the committee and have it be a decision of the council as a whole. Or you could have the charter review committee itself choose its chair. And there may be other options that I have not considered, but those would be three of the more common methods of selecting a chair. Would also like to hear from the council if you have any standards that you would like the committee to use and staff to use in prioritizing the proposals. We currently have eight proposals on the table for topics for consideration. We may end up with many more. You yourselves may have additional topics that you've thought of in the meantime, and we may have additional topics from the community. At some point it becomes not feasible for us to address all of them. Are there standards? Are there criteria by which you would like us to evaluate what moves for us being staff? Or that the charter review committee would use for prioritization of proposals. And then finally, any additional guidance that council has regarding the charter review process or the topics for consideration. And next slide, I think that's it. Sorry. Yes, applications for membership of the charter review committee. Again, we're really trying to get word out and thank you to Adrienne Mertens and her team and to Magali Teyes and her team in particular in getting word out to the community. The applications may be filed online or may be filed in person in the office of the city clerk. I've provided both the link and the office address on this slide. This is the general, the link is to the general city charter review site. The application is not quite up, but we are hoping to have that up by the end of the week. It's actually on my desk for review right now. So I appreciate the work that the city clerk has put into preparing that. So that will be up by the end of the week for applications for committee membership. And of course, also hard copies will be available in the office of the city clerk, which is here at city hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue, room 10. And it can be filed in person there as well. So, and with that next slide, I believe is questions. Yes, happy to answer any questions or hear any comments. Right, thank you so much, Madam city attorney. I'm going to start with my two colleagues that are in the chambers. Madam vice mayor or council member Swedhelm, do either of you have questions? Council member Swedhelm. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have some questions regarding the existing city chart because that'll inform what things potentially for the next one. So in section 10, the current language talks about a task force, which for citizen and neighborhood participation. I'm guessing that's what led to the formation of the current cab boundaries. Correct. And so if we were to want to adjust those boundaries since when this was passed, we didn't have districts. For instance, if we wanted to change it for each council member points one from his or her district and one at large, would that require a charter amendment or is that something procedurally we could do with the existing language? You could do that with the existing language. You can do that by resolution. Great. Then section 28 regarding the budget. I know previous councils have discussed it. It's been a couple of years, but if we wanted to go to a two year budget cycle instead of a one year budget cycle, would that be a charter amendment? Yes. Okay. And then this was more a question of, I'm not sure why it's in here. Section 29 talks about Santa Rosa City School districts. What's the applicability of that being in our city charter? Yes, that struck me as odd as well. We don't have jurisdiction over the Santa Rosa City School districts that may be, I did not research it, but it may be a hangover from back in the, in the very early days. So if we wanted to remove that, would that also have to be a charter amendment then? Yes. Okay. And then with the, I think you had mentioned it one, Council Member Combs had her situation. I know there was some conversation dispute. Would the exiting council person be able to vote on his or her replacement? Yes. Is that again within policies and procedures that we could adopt? Or is that, should that language also be in any charter amendment? Section 31E, I think is the subsection that would make reference to replacing vacancies. Is there some language that council can adopt any procedures? Right, yes. Yes, you could do that by resolution or by ordinance, I'm sorry. Our current provisions do not allow the departing council member to participate in the appointment of their successor. So yes, you could make that change by ordinance. If you wanted that to be set in stone, as it were, set in stone at least for a few years until you put it back in front of the voters. Stones erode as well. You could put it into the charter, but it would not need to be in the charter. Okay, and then I know one of the potential suggestions from my colleagues was about council compensation. And again, I know in 2002 Measure M failed. I could not find the language for Measure M. So if you don't have it handy, could that be forwarded to us? Just because I think it might be helpful to see this is what was attempted in 2002 unsuccessfully. And I don't know if it's a specific dollar amount or exactly what that language was, so. I'll get that language. I only have the summary, I only have the ballot summary at this point, but I'll get that language. That's all I could find also, so thank you. And then during any past charter revisions, was there any polling done to see what the interest of the voters was prior to putting it on a ballot? Not that I know of, but I'll also ask the city manager, he was here during at least one of, no, no polling. Okay, and I'm assuming there is no set aside budget for charter review or did we do that during our budget? We did put a charter review budget in place. I'll have to ask the city clerk, a budget for charter review. Is that in the city clerk's budget or am I getting it confused with the redistricting? I think you're getting it confused with redistricting. So no, we do not have any budget. And I will note that at least in, I believe it was in 2002, but it may have even been in 1994, there was a budget that was set aside for charter review to cover a number of different costs, but including if there are elements where we might wanna bring a consultant in to help. So that would require, yeah, it is not in our current budget. Going into our budget, we were assuming that we would be using, trying to work within our existing resources. Part of this then feeds into what will be another discussion for a later date is the council priorities. So working within our existing budget is what we were planning to do. And I just bring that one up just, as we're talking about prioritizations, that might be an interesting way. Let's see what the voters think is ultimately they're gonna make the decision. And if there's no interest on something that is on the list, do we really wanna spend time on that? So those are all the questions I have for now. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. May, if I may just follow up on that, I did wanna note, I think you probably noticed in both 2002 and in 2012, there was a kind of a comprehensive cleanup ballot measure as well. And I would expect that we will want to do that again this year. I know currently, for example, currently our charter still talks about at large, council member elections. And we will be looking to change that to match our current practice. And there are other elements as well and a few of the elements that you mentioned, for example, deleting the reference to school districts could fall in that category as well. Thank you, Madam City Attorney. Vice Mayor, any questions? I don't have any questions at this time, Mayor. Great, thank you. I'll look to Zoom then, council member Fleming. Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple of questions and just wanna also state that I really appreciated council member Schwedhelm's questions. I think that he's spot on a lot of it. In addition to some of that cleanup language that was mentioned, would we also then be able to clean up some of the boards and commission language around quorums and appointments and attendance requirements so that our boards can function for our community? Specifically, I know that with the Community Advisory Board there's supposed to be, if it's fully appointed, it has 14 members, but it requires a quorum, I think of eight, which is sometimes difficult to achieve. And I know that other boards like Cultural Heritage Board have really struggled to get enough members because so many people have to recuse. I'm interested to see if we can find out ways to make these boards function and not hold up people and their processes. Is this the appropriate place to address that? Yes, we may wanna put additional language into the provision for boards and commissions. We may though wanna word it in a way that the specifics for different committees and boards and commissions could be adopted by ordinance or by resolution. Another concern that I have, it's a question concern here, which is I'm worried that if let's say the voters decide that they wanna go to an at-large mayor and six council members, but the charter language reflects the current situation of seven council members and an appointed mayor, that the charter would then, we'd be stuck for 10 years with language like that council members appoint this way and the mayor does this way. So I wanna to make sure that it's worded in a specific way that doesn't put as like, it reduces the amount of dissonance between what the voters may or may not choose and how the document that we will all be living with for the next 10 years is written and reads. So the question in there is, do you see a way to write this such that it would accommodate for either eventuality specifically around the reapportioning of districts of the voters and what a directly elected mayor? The language would be crafted to, if we wanna at-large mayor, if we wanna put that before the voters, we would craft the language to identify the six, identify that there are going to be six council districts, an at-large mayor and we would be providing that the districts would be adopted by ordinance of the council would most likely be the way we would do it and we would set a date as to when that would go into effect. If this was adopted, if that was proposed by the committee, approved by the council and put on the ballot and approved by the voters, that would go into effect after the November 2012 election and we would then be looking to get those new districts aligned in time for the 2024 election. So you would still be operating under the seven district members from 2022 to 2024? Right, my concern and perhaps it's trivial, but this is such an important document that I'd like to have it cleaned up that we wouldn't be stuck with language in the charter that would say that each of the seven city council members appoints two members to the community advisory board when we wouldn't actually in the event the voters wanna directly appointed elected mayor would not have seven council districts. It perhaps is a minor thing, but I think that we ought to consider how the document will read based on the outcome. Yes, and thank you, I wasn't thinking of that detail, but yes, we would then, as part of that amendment, there would be amendments to any other section that referenced seven council members. So we would want that change to be consistent through the resolution and maybe we would be putting in language even so that if there are resolutions out there that weren't caught that it would still be reflected and that the charter would govern. Okay, and then my last one is really small, which is that should we be prepared to appoint members to this committee on August 14th or what day should we plan to take action? No, you don't need to do it right on that date. We would encourage you to appoint, there won't formally be, the committee will not be formed formally until after the council votes on August 17th. At that point, the committee does exist once the council member of council votes on that. I'm sorry. And then at that point, you're free to appoint people. We would ask that you appoint people in late August or early September so that we might be able to coordinate a meeting sometime in mid-September or late September to begin the process. Okay, excellent. Thank you. Thanks. Any other questions from council members? All right, council member Schwedhelm, just to answer your question a little bit, measure M in 2002 would have raised council pay to $1,500 a month for council members and 2250 for the mayor and it failed roughly 4060. With that, I'm going to turn it over to our city clerk to handle public comment. One moment, mayor. Those of you in council chamber, if you wish to make a public comment, please go to the podium. The first public comment will be from Mr. Dwayne DeWitt. My name is Dwayne DeWitt, I'm from Roseland. Having been a student of the last three charter review committees over 30 years, one of the things that's imperative to look at is the fact that there's been a disadvantage towards working class people. Historically, the folks from neighborhoods such as Roseland and the west side, which is known as the Wright School District, have not been represented in these charter review committees which are essentially supposed to be set up so that you have the residents and the voters of a community overseeing self-rule and it's not supposed to be a type of vehicle for politics to essentially play it the way they want it. Now, I don't know if you've ever heard of the idea of citizens priorities coming first, but it was mentioned earlier, and I think that's a really good idea to have embodied in this activity. There's another term that's been used for about 40 years, a world-renowned sociologist put it together while I was looking at California cities and pointed out that planning is politics and a charter review in a sense is planning for how a community will handle itself in the next 10 years and it's a political situation. So I really do hope that you folks would let the citizens pick the priorities, pick them themselves and let the committee members choose their chair. Perhaps they'll come up with topics such as term limits which has been mentioned in the past. The thing that's really important is that you also look at the fact over the years, a number of boards and commissions have been set up that local residents don't think may be doing anything positive. An example was just mentioned earlier under its new name, but 25 years ago a community action team was set up and ostensibly it was put together because there was an under-representation of diversity and low-income people were being shut out the way the system was set up. So a community action team was put together and that was supposed to empower citizens, but it really hasn't done that. What you have now is a community advisory board that's a political situation, political appointees doing what the politicians want essentially and it needs to be the other way around. So hopefully this charter review will look at whether or not boards and commissions need to be reviewed, maybe not kept. Go forward. Thank you for your time. All right, the next public comment will be from Deborah. Deborah, I've enabled your speaking permissions. Please unmute your mic and begin your comment. Thank you. I'm just gonna suggest that you look very carefully at the idea of electing a mayor at large. You'll learn from your compadres in the north who just went through having to deal with an elected mayor that became quite controversial. So one of the things you might wanna consider if you decide to go in that direction is a removal process. Maybe you even wanna removal process in general for three council members. We've had other city council members in Sonoma County recently that have had criminal charges against them and things like that. So it's really sad that we need to consider these things, but I think we do need a process for removing people that have demonstrated that they're not fit to serve. And rather than it being an arduous process, it probably should be a pretty straightforward and clear process that the public supports and understands. So that would be one thing I would ask you to add to the work of the committee. Thank you. Mayor, there doesn't appear to be anyone else in Zoom for their hands raised for public comment on the charter. Are you okay if I move forward to the voice message public comments? Yep, please do. Speaking on agenda item 3.1, I'm a member of Santa Rosa Together. Santa Rosa Together is working to transform our city government so that instead of doing things for us, government understands the importance of supporting and partnering with residents and their organizations. So we are all doing the work of the city. The city charter review process is a once in a decade opportunity to renew our civic democracy. The goal should be to develop and adopt charter amendments that create more democratic policies and the government we need to support this renewed democracy. Santa Rosa Together is advocating for a broad citywide process utilizing local public neighborhood venues such as libraries, schools, and firehouses to allow residents to convene with their fellows. There would be at least two charter revision initiative sessions held in different locations per council district with Spanish translation provided. The process should make it easy for everyone to participate. The outreach for these sessions should be where all people will see it. Without good and comprehensive outreach, our community will not participate and the input will not be inclusive. Results of the local discussions should be reported for all to access via a dedicated location on the city's webpage. There should be an open comment section on this page. The 21 person charter review committee should be provided with public email addresses much like the planning commissioners to be available to take input. All their meetings are public. While public comment may be limited, there should be no limit on written commentary submitted by critical deadlines. Thank you. Mayor, that concludes voice message public comments on 3.1. Great, thank you so much, Dina. Madam city attorney, can you reframe for us what input you need from council members? Sure. We'd like direction on how you would like the method by which you would like to appoint the chair of the charter review committee. Second, we would like direction on criteria for prioritizing proposals. And then third is if you have other direction, thank you. Any additional guidance regarding either the process or additional elements that you would like, additional topics you'd like us to consider and bring to the charter review committee. All right, thank you. I'll start with council members on Zoom and I'll start with council member Alvarez. Yes, thank you, mayor. I'm interested in the ring about what we can do for the outreach aspect of this, if we can actually give support to our community, such as Mustafa or Mrs. Teyes. And what can we do to help them be effective in their outreach efforts to involve the community? I love the idea that we've heard from one of the pollers to have multiple meetings in our respective districts with the Spanish speaking element as well. Thank you. And council member, did you have any feedback on the other items? Well, not at this time, mayor. Okay, council member Fleming. Thank you, mayor. As for the selection of the chair of the review committee, I'd propose that the council make a, make a motion and select as a body. Alternatively, I'm open to having the mayor propose and the council adopt the mayor's proposal. Either of those seem acceptable to me. As far as the standards of prioritization for the proposal, once the committee is formed, and again, I'm making, this is my first time doing it and I'm making comments without having heard any recommendations from other council members. So just going to start a conversation here. The first thing that pops to mind would be that the committee propose prioritization to the council and the council modify and adopt the prioritization and in therein, the committee should feel free to add because I assume we're going to point, people are very familiar with this document and people may catch problems that we don't necessarily catch. Hopefully we have a great amount of subject matter experts involved in this. And then I have a number of things that I didn't get in the last round when we heard this in June that I wanted to add, which is specifically the issue around the quorums with the boards and commissions and how those are appointed. I have great concern that it's taken us away from getting business done for residents. And I think that if people don't show up to boards and commissions or if council members more specifically don't appoint people that for a specific amount of time that the mayor ought to be able to appoint. And if the mayor doesn't appoint in that specific amount of time then the city manager ought to be able to appoint because it's really burdensome to people who want to do projects on their homes in our historic districts or developers when we can't make quorums. And then the quorum requirements I think should be reflective of a simple majority in most situations if not all.  But if it's all right with the mayor if I hear something else that another council member says I'd love to be able to come back to it since I'm out here on my own this time. Sure, council member Tibbets. Great start, Victoria. You really prime the pump for me. I agree that I'm kind of ambivalent about whether the mayor appoints the chair. I guess I'll leave it to the mayor to weigh in on that one. But I think it does make sense too to have the council ratify that decision or take a look at the other qualified applicants who may have applied. And I'm going, I can't see the recommendation. I mean, so I'm going to go off memory here. I agree that the standards for prioritization I like leaving it to the committee. I think that we spend half hour discussing this and it's not going to be as exhaustive as what a committee of people looking at this for hours could come up with. But I do want those recommendations presented to council and ratified by the council because we may want to make additions as well. I'm going to say something that's probably going to go over like a lead balloon about council member pay but given the results that you expanded upon Chris when you were addressing Tom's question, I'm pretty dubious that we're going to get the voters to approve council member pay again this year. I mean, I think that was a pretty significant spread on measure N, although it has been years ago if not decades ago now. I don't believe that the tenor of the city has greatly changed. I think there's a misnomer that people want to get away from quote career politicians and get towards local citizens running for office and running their town. And even though I'd like to think of us as the latter and not the former, there just seems to be this general misperception or misunderstanding that when you pay all of a sudden your politicians, you lose that kind of part-time legislature appeal to local politics and governance. So that's my prediction as to where it goes. I'm not against doing it. I think put the questions to the voters. Let's see if community groups want to advocate for it. I know I've spoken with a lot of diverse community groups who believe that it is a good thing that there's a lot of logic to it. But I also think that we should have a conversation as a council and council member Fleming has brought this up before, but have a discussion about, okay, at what point can we implement the base amount the charter will allow us with those year over year cost of living adjustments because it's got to start sometime somewhere. And I feel very strongly about that. And I'm willing to commit to doing that, four years from now so that none of us could theoretically be self-dealing that people would have to run for another term or incoming members would be the beneficiaries of it, but we do need to establish pay somehow. And I'd like to pursue both avenues. I think I answered all your questions too. If I didn't, please let me know. Thank you. Council Member Sawyer. Council Member Sawyer, you're muted. What a surprise. Can you hear me now? There we go. Okay, so since Council Member Tibbets just mentioned council pay, I'll just, it's the only one of these items that I will weigh in immediately. And I think that for me, what it comes down to is our loss of talent. And I don't believe that council members, and I don't think I'm alone. I'm sure that all the council members would agree with me that when you run for office, one shouldn't have to give up their quality of life to serve. And that one way or another, we need to mitigate that to some degree. And I don't know what that degree is. I don't know what clearly the community has had a problem with renumeration of the council members. And I think it's the, we have a job to do, and that is to educate the community about the reality of service, the reality of time, the time commitment, and the just in general, what it takes to serve a city of approaching 200,000 people. And I, so we need, we have the job before us is to educate the community and allow them to understand the need to renumerate their council members to a higher degree than they currently are. Far gone are the days when council members were either business owners or retired, or the, well, that's it, retired, or business owners that can dictate their own time and give themselves permission to serve. And I think that we need to go, we need to broaden ourselves and as a community to take advantage of those people with talents that we can not currently take advantage of. So I'm all for putting that again on the docket. I just want it, I just think that needs to be followed by the high level of communication and education. And other than that, council member Schwedhelm and Fleming gave perfect comments. I am, I agree with everything that was mentioned. Council member Fleming mentioned the challenges we have with our boards and commissions, probably more, not as much with design review and well, potentially with design review because of the need to recuse. I don't think the planning commission generally lately has had a problem with the quorum, but I think we do need to have a conversation about how to deal with that because I am, I too am concerned about projects moving forward, whether they be small or large and they need to have, they need to have an expectation of expedience when it comes to the council or our boards and commissions giving them their rights to move forward. So other than that, and when it comes to the chair, council member Fleming offered, I think two great possibilities and that would be the council coming up with a recommendation. And if we found ourselves at a jam that the mayor could appoint based on his or, well, in this case, his recommendation, the chair of that committee. I went through the last charter review and what we discovered was there was a lack, a decided lack, an obvious lack of diversity. And I think that council members will need to be very clear about their responsibility and being very intentional about the need to have a diverse 21-member committee. And so as not to have the criticism that we received 10 years ago and that we chose people that we had, that we had relationships with and that we knew and that we know it goes beyond that. We need to go beyond our comfort level when it comes to those recommendations for our committee members. When we all have a broad group of people that we can choose from, and I think we need to expand our vision when it comes to making sure that we have a highly diverse but also dedicated and informed group of individuals, because there's no way to suggest that this is a small obligation. It is a lot of work and the selection of the chair is an important part of leading that group of 21 people to a product that we will all be proud of. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Svettel. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I answered the questions method for selecting the chair. I think it should be the mayor recommends to the entire council. And the reason behind that is if each of us are submitting three names, my hope is that each of us will understand the strengths and areas for improvement of whomever we are nominating or appointing. And I'm sure we've all been in meetings where the facilitator chair doesn't do that great of a job, especially at this large of a group, kind of like herding cats, where you also see some people who've got the experience of facilitating a group discussion. And so I strongly recommend that the mayor make the appointment, but the vote comes to the entire council. So we definitely have a voice there. We would also be, again, there for the mayor to ask us any questions about who has those facilitation skills. So I think that's for that one. And the standards for prioritization of the priorities. For me, and I've used this model with other groups, I would want them to use a model where they look at what are the potential items that have potentially high impact and easy to implement versus if we do this, it'll have a low impact and very difficult to implement. I would think it'd be great to spend the time on the things that the committee thinks will have a high impact in the easier to implement. And I just use an example that this council has talked about today regarding quorums, probably be a relatively easy thing to do, but that would have a high impact. So easy to implement, high impact. That would be something that I would think it's a model that the committee could use to prioritize. And then any additional guidance, I just want to reaffirm my interest in getting the staff feedback and suggestions to this group because they're the body that are tasked with trying to implement the policies and procedures that the seven electives have come up with. Sometimes that's easier than other times. So I definitely want to hear what staff has to say for this next process. Thanks. Thank you, council member. We'll go to the vice mayor. So as far as the chair is concerned, I think that the mayor, like Tom said, should be able to bring someone to us. And we vote as a council how the mayor gets that person that he brings to us is up to him, but it could be going to the committee and asking them to nominate a few people that they think that they can work with. I would like to say that I don't agree with the mayor having the opportunity to appoint or the city manager having the opportunity to appoint without a council member's input. Because I am today proudly going to assign my last board appointee and it took a long time, but I think I really found the right person for the board and we're all the way in August. So it did take me quite a bit of time, but I was very diligent and I looked at people that I thought could really do the job and show up. And then it's that Sue helped me out. Prioritization, I think that the committee can do the prioritization and report back to us and then we can have input and they can add if they feel like things need to be added. And then other than the compensation, someone that works multiple jobs and continues to serve and take meetings with everyone that requests in the community, both in-person and via Zoom and attends multiple committee meetings and everything else. And it's taking vacation time right now in order to be present at this meeting. I definitely think compensation would be a good thing. That concludes my comments. All right, thank you, council member. I'll give everybody one more bite at the apple in a second. I was going to agree with both the vice mayor and council member Schwedhelm. Most of our appointments that we do are mayor suggests and council affirms. And so I think that that'd be an appropriate and streamlined way for us to do this, particularly if staff wants us to have the committee up and running in September. So that'd be my suggestion there. I agree with most of my colleagues that we should lead this up to the charter review committee to prioritize the issues. Though I do think we have a good grasp of many of the issues that we should be putting before them. The only one that I'll add to the list, Sue is procurement policies. I know that there's changes that are coming at the county level that I think that the city should be doing in tandem with them to maximize the impact that we can have in our community through our procurement. And we can talk more about that as well. I did also want to drill in on the council pay. I think the council member Tibbets is probably right on the politics. But I think that we oftentimes suffer from not being honest with the public about the cost of doing a city's business, whether it's public works projects where we hear from people all the time about, well, why are you spending so much on a project? And the answer is, because that's how much it actually costs to build. That's how much it costs to lay down asphalt. I think that even if it's just as an educational opportunity to make sure that the public understands how much time is put in what it would take to have a more diverse council and to make opportunities for folks, I think that it'd be well worthwhile. And even just from an educational standpoint, I can tell you from some of the emails I get people don't know how much council members make. I regularly get emails that accuse us of making $150,000 a year, which is just not even close to what the compensation allows. So I think that it would be good for the community to have that conversation and basically say, do you value the work that people put in or not? And leave it at that. Outside of that, I think I answered all your questions, Sue. Looking forward to us getting this rolling. And I see a couple of hands have popped up. So I'll go council member Alvarez and council member Fleming as well. Thank you, Mayor. Sue, I remember there was a certain limit to what we could actually increase the council pay. Is that correct? If it were to pass by the voter? I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear the question. My question was, was there a stipulation or cap on the increase that we could receive if it should pass? There is not a cap on the compensation if there is a charter amendment under the current charter, there is a cap. It's tied to state law that governs general law cities and it allows only, it sets salaries by city population and then allows only if I recall, it's either a 5% increase per year. Maybe it's even a 10%. I don't recall offhand, but if the voters approve a charter amendment, there is no cap as to what the charter amendment can provide. Mayor, thank you for that. Well, the truth of the matter is that what we get paid as council members is not sufficient for a person to survive in Sonoma County. That is the truth of the matter. And I would love to see an increase in diversity in those people that serve, whether it's a stay at home dad or single paying mom. You know, this is the type of representation that I wish was moving forward. And so I definitely would like to see the support for such. One thing that we did touch on was what to do if one of us falter in our duties as council persons, if we do something that is unbecoming, notice in the marketing that was made of our local city, I would hate to see that happen to Santa Rosa. And I'm wondering if you can, if you know what the current model to deal with such a situation is. Currently, we would not have any mechanism to, you're talking about removing a council member for misconduct. We do currently do not have any mechanism to do that. The most that the council can do is to censure one of its members, but cannot remove. We are going to be having a presentation. I don't remember the date now where we will be talking about harassment in general, but I understand that a portion of that presentation will talk about different options. And we can certainly look at what options there might be if we address it through a charter amendment that may the mechanism of the charter may give us a little more flexibility. Very well, thank you. Thanks. Council member Fleming. Thank you. I seem to remember that on to council member Albert and his question that it's $40 a year that we can add council compensation and or a 5%, which would be 5%, but it's not compounding. So we could add $40 this year and $40 next year and so on. And just for perspective had we started doing that in 2002 when the voters said no, we would now be making a little bit over $1,500 a month, which is what the council had asked for. So it does add up over time. It certainly still wouldn't be enough for a living wage, but it would really make a difference in our lives for many of us. The couple of things that I left off before was that I think that with council compensation, we need to look at a recommendation. I don't know if this would necessarily fall in the charter, but for staffing for council members, nothing crazy, but something to help us with constituent services and policy analysis. And the other thing that I think we need to do, this is really the council member tidbits and others points around the political appetite, the appetite amongst people is that I think we need to set aside money for polling and money to make this charter review really effective since it is a 10-year document. I would prefer to go into this, really knowing what the political appetite is for the various things that we may be proposing to our voters and make adjustments so that we can meet their needs and set them up to say yes in a way that feels consistent with what it is they want to see in their city. And that's all I got for now. And just as a point of clarification, so I think last time we talked about this, you mentioned that the 5% increase per year, still every time a new council member came in or every time a new council member started a new term that they'd be back to that baseline that's already established in charter. So you could only get the 5% starting at 800 a year, four years in a row, and then you'd go back to that 800 and start all over again, is that correct? I don't recall that limitation, but I'll look back at it and can have an answer for you when we return on the 17th. I also, if I may, Mr. Mayor, because council member Fleming mentioned money for polling, we did just hear from our chief financial officer that there is $100,000, sorry, $100,000 for a charter review in the city budget. We're not quite sure where that is falling, but we will track that down and we'll have at least that resource as we move forward. Great, thank you. Are there any other comments from council members? Okay, vice mayor. I was just gonna ask for clarification. There was a comment about having an elected mayor and if something happens, then we're kinda stuck, not really being able to move, but isn't that the same thing if we have an elected council member, if something happens or if there's a controversy or something comes up, they're still in elected position. They have to step down, so it would be the same course of action, or am I wrong? I'm sorry, I was getting a note at that time, but in terms of the same procedure for filling a vacancy? Because both positions would be elected. The mayor would be elected and the council person is elected. So it doesn't really matter what position it is. We hope it never comes to Santa Rosa, but be it mayor or council member, we would still have to go through the same procedure in order to... Correct, the difference is, yes, you're exactly right that both the mayor and under our current scenario, both the mayor and the council members, obviously, are all elected. They cannot be removed by fellow council members. They can only be removed by their own district electors, but the position of mayor and the position of vice mayor are elected and serve at the will of the other council members. So the difference is that the council could potentially remove you, remove a mayor from the mayorship, that individual would still be on the council, but they would no longer be mayor, similar for the vice mayor. So that's the difference. Whereas if you have an at-large mayor, the only way to take that person out of the mayorship would be a recall by the city-wide voters. Thank you for that clarification. Council Member Sawyer. Thank you, Mayor. And this is probably for our city clerk. Could you clarify for us if there are five items on the ballot for charter, recommend for charter piece or the votes? Do we pay per item or is it all under the charter when it comes to the ballot? It's my understanding that each measure that you put on the ballot has a cost. So if you have five measures, there is a cost. Whether they fall under the city charter, there may be one cost to that, but as I understand it, each measure that the council puts on will have a cost attached to it. Okay, thank you for that. Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say, yes, that is, that is my understanding as well. There isn't a cost per ballot measure. And we will. Thank you, I think, go ahead. I was just gonna say, as we move into working with the charter review committee, we will have those costs, we'll bring those forward. That would be part of the evaluation also as, both for the charter review committee to consider, but then the council to consider when the proposals come to it, presumably next spring or early summer, what the cost is for each of those measures. I appreciate that because this goes back to the polling question, because if we're looking to consider on one of the measures, a pie in the sky, something that we have seen to be potentially a pie in the sky measure, that we might wanna do polling around that. And so the question is, is the polling more expensive than the measure, than putting the measure on the ballot? So I look forward to hearing more about that as we move through this process. It will help to inform us as to how many and what we decide to place on the ballot based on costs and the assumptions around each one of those measures being successful. So I look forward to hearing more information about that. Thank you. Okay, Madam City Attorney and Madam City Clerk, did you both receive the direction that you need? I did, Mr. Mayor. Yes, thank you, Mayor. Great, we'll move on to our next item then, our next study session. Go ahead, Mr. City Manager, if you'd like to introduce it. Mayor Rogers and members of the City Council, item 3.2 is our second study session for the afternoon. The item before the council is the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan. And our Assistant City Manager, Jason Knutt, will be giving the staff presentation. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, hi. I am Cameron McDonald. I'm Facilities Planning Coordinator with Transportation and Public Works Department and I'll be presenting study session on the city's ADA self-evaluation and transition plan. I'm here with Jason Knutt, Assistant City Manager and unfortunately, Dominique Lonkey, the Risk Manager and ADA Coordinator cannot be here today due to a family matter. Next slide, please. The Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA has to 1990. It is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It contains five areas, but today we are focused on Title II for public entities. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires local public entities to complete a self-evaluation of their facilities, programs, activities and services to determine barriers to persons with disabilities, to develop an ADA complaint procedure, to designate a person who is responsible for overseeing compliance, which is the ADA coordinator, Dominique Lonkey, for the city of San Rosa, and develop a transition plan to identify structural modifications necessary for compliance. All together, this is the self-evaluation and transition plan. Plus, I wanna mention that anyone at any time can go to srcity.org, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the accessibility link and that takes them to these resources and much more on accessibility or an alternate format, anyone can follow the ADA coordinator and receive these resources in alternate format. Next slide, thank you. The city has re-followed these requirements by completing a self-evaluation and transition plan in 1993. That plan was updated in 2006 and amended in 2012. The self-evaluation and transition plan incorporated the elements discussed on the previous slide. Next slide, please. So for the self-evaluation portion, what exactly are we evaluating? We're looking at programs, services and activities such as police, fire, city bus, building permits, recreation programs, website services and sidewalks. We're also looking at city facilities. These are the city public buildings like fire stations, city hall and community centers. Looking at park city-owned parking lots and garages and city parks. We're looking at policies, practices and procedures. A lot of this is training staff on policies around service animals, communications like TTY machines that are for the deaf and hard of hearing and how to use those machines and how to contract for sign language interpreters when one is requested. These are just a few examples. The self-evaluation covers much, much more because we offer a lot of programs and services in Santa Rosa. Next slide, please. The transition plan is a prioritization of the barriers found during self-evaluation and the steps necessary to achieve program accessibility. The transition plan is highly focused on the physical barriers found at city facilities. So we would go on site and do a site survey to identify physical barriers. After the site survey is completed, then those barriers will be created report that include those barriers that were found during the site survey. And if during the site survey it was obvious, the solutions are very obvious, then we would make notes on the conceptual solutions. We would provide some toss estimates, although these are very rough estimates until the items can be looked into further. Identify the priority level of the barrier removal and for complex large sites, we may include a map to locate the barriers in the future. Next slide. So we've discussed there's a lot that is covered under ADU Title II and our self-evaluation and transition plan. And I'd like to provide some context onto how all of this is funded. Compliance for most program services, activities, policies, practices and procedures are funded through the department operations funding. And for example, if somebody is going to a recreation class and they request a sign language interpreter, then contracting for that services would be through the department operations. Sidewalks and curb ramps are mostly gas tax and capital facilities fees funded. Non-general fund facilities such as water department facilities and parking for example, are funded through the department operations and capital project funding. And parks and general fund facilities, we come to council once a year to request 1.2 million annual capital project funding request that covers the parks and general fund facilities. Due to the COVID-19 emergency response, the general funds were not invested in fiscal year 2021. However, the funds were reinvested for the 21-22 fiscal year. For the remainder of the presentation, I'll be focusing on this annual 1.2 million funding for parks and general fund facilities. Next slide please. There is a staff stakeholder group that meets annually just prior to the start of the budget season. Stakeholders are from park planning, capital projects, engineering, recreation for community centers and facilities maintenance, risk management, including the ADA coordinator. These staff stakeholders meet annually and we discussed the current budget for our ADA projects and the project status of the projects in progress for these general fund parks and facilities projects. And we identify new projects if the annual 1.2 million is appropriated in the new fiscal year. Next slide please. In selection of new projects, this stakeholder group refers to the self-evaluation and transition plan because it tells us by having established criteria for prioritizing facilities for barrier removal. The criteria for selecting a facility to consider is by looking at the quantity and frequency of public use, the uniqueness of the facility, the age or condition of the facility, the geographical distribution of services or programs within the facility and the critical nature of the programs offered at the facility. Sometimes for these larger facilities, there may be multiple barriers. And if so, we would place the highest priority on parking and access from site arrival points to the programs and services. Next slide please. Sometimes the question comes up, when will we be completed? And the truth is that working on our transition plan is expected to be ongoing needs because there is an estimated over 25 million additional needs for general fund parks and facilities to meet the minimum regulatory compliance. There are systematic regulatory changes to the ADA and California building code, often in response to fast moving world and changing technologies. For example, recently after added to the about California building code was electrical charging stations and making those accessible. And unfortunately, accessibility features can be subject to vandalism and that results in items being placed back on the transition plan. Sometimes it's deferred maintenance, including lifting and cracking from tree roots or center rows is also known for clay soils which causes concrete to shift and causes also cracking and lifting and items being placed back on the transition plan. Because of all these things, regular updates to the transition plan are expected which requires the need for consultant services to do the site survey and a new report. Next slide please. So we've completed many projects large and small over the years to remove barriers using the annual funding. And I'd like to share results from a few that were larger projects that were awarded for construction contract at city council in recent years starting here with Howard Park. And you can see the before photo and the upper left hand side shows a picnic area next to the carousel Howard Park. This location was selected to construct an accessible ramp that would connect the lower amusement area with the upper amusement area to improve accessibility to the train carousel and pony rides. And on the lower right-hand side you see the after photo showing that that ramp was constructed in the summer of 2020. Next slide please. Also showing a project at Galvin Park on the upper left-hand side. The before photo at Galvin Park shows the access to the tennis courts. The asphalt path has cracks and looks in it. And the after photo on the right-hand side shows the pathways being replaced with concrete and ramps accessing the tennis courts. Next slide please. This project is City Hall sidewalks. The before photo is taking it in front of City Hall Annex at 90 Santa Rosa Avenue. The sidewalks are lifted and cracked and you can see that they've been repaired with an asphalt patch which is considered a temporary fix. This serves as the accessible route to the building and therefore was selected as a project. The after photo shows the replaced sidewalk and also shows that the sidewalk has been shifted towards the street. This allowed for a larger planting bed for the magnolia trees and hopefully will prevent further damage to the sidewalk. Next slide. Happy to answer any questions that you may have. Great, thank you so much. Councilor, are there any questions? Council Member Sawyer. Thank you Mayor. I think that the presentation is very informative and the presentation speaks for itself regarding barrier removal. It's pretty impressive. My question has to do with one of the park assets which is near and dear to my heart and that is Luther Burbank Home and Garden. And in the priority, and if you look at the slide number eight, it speaks to priorities and the various criteria for prioritization. And I'm wondering how a national historic and state historic landmark falls into the prioritization of the projects. And I'm speaking specifically of the brick walkways at the garden. And I know that city staff and recreation in parts is very dedicated to the site. And I'm just curious as to how that particular site falls into the prioritization conversation based on the brick work which is failing. Luther Burbank Home and Gardens is one that we've been looking at recently. So it's a project that will come up hopefully very soon. And there have been a lot of discussions around the brick work and the historic site. So I don't have the results of those yet, certainly something we're gonna be sensitive to when we look forward to that. Excellent, I appreciate the attention there. Thank you very much. Council Member Fleming. My question was answered, thank you. Okay, Vice Mayor or Council Member Spudhelm, do either of you have a question? Okay, Madam City Clerk, if you'd please handle public comment. Mayor, there is no one here in Council Chamber wishing to speak live on the item and will you receive no voice message or public comments written or, or we received one written public comment and one voice message or no voice message, public comments. Perfect, thank you. And that written comment is attached to the agenda packet as a late addition for Council Members. I see nobody on Zoom, so go ahead and bring it back. Is there any additional feedback that you need for Council on this item? Mayor, thank you very much. I just wanted to, I think Cameron and I just wanted to make sure that we were following the practices that Council was interested in seeing us follow in response to addressing ADA issues. The reason we brought this forward right now was in response to questions that came up during the fiscal year 2021 budget cycle where we had to make some very difficult funding adjustments as you recall as we were looking to balance and Council specifically requested that we return with this presentation to provide you with updated information about what that program looks like and how we determine which projects get funded. So I'm very appreciative of Cameron, all Cameron's hard work. She really is the lifeblood of the ADA improvement program here in addition to the hardworking crews that are doing a lot of the work. And so if you have any additional feedback, we'd certainly love to hear it. Otherwise, Cameron and team will continue to plow forward as they have been in a phenomenal way for this community. Okay, thank you so much, Mr. Assistant City Manager. Council, is there any additional input? All right, I'm not seeing any. Thank you so much. Now Council, our next item doesn't start until four o'clock. So we'll go ahead and recess the meeting until that time. Madam Vice Mayor, I'm gonna turn it over to you. Seeing a quorum, I would like to call the meeting to order. Madam City Clerk, may you please call the roll. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Tibbetts. Here. Council Member Schwedhelm. Here. Council Member Sawyer. Here. Council Member Fleming. Here. Council Member Alvarez. Present. Vice Mayor Rogers. Present. Mayor Rogers. And I believe Mayor Rogers will not be with us for the rest of the meeting. Is that correct, Vice Mayor? That is correct. Thank you. So let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Mayor Rogers who will not be attending the rest of the meeting. Item number five, reports on study and closed sessions. City Manager, Madam City Attorney, any reports? No report this afternoon, Vice Mayor. No, in terms of item five, we did hold two study sessions earlier, study session on charter review, and the second study session on ADA compliance. You were all present for that. We held no closed sessions during this regular meeting. We did hold closed sessions in the special meeting and we ported those out at the end of the special meeting. Thank you. Perfect, item number six, there are no proclamations and presentations at this time. Item number seven, City Manager, will you introduce the staff briefings? Vice Mayor Rogers and members of the council, our first staff briefing of the afternoon is on the COVID-19 response update and I will be giving that update. The first one is regarding our indoor masking order. Yesterday, the Sonoma County Health Officer, along with seven other Bay Area health officials, issued a health order requiring the use of face coverings indoors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Starting today, the health order requires all individuals, whether they are vaccinated or not, to wear a well-fitting mask indoors in public settings, venues, gatherings or workplaces, such as offices, retail stores, restaurants, bars, theaters, family entertainment centers, conference centers, schools, daycares, and state and local government offices serving the public. It should be noted that masks remain an important tool, but they are not a substitute for being vaccinated. Health officials continue to urge individuals 12 and over to get vaccinated immediately. Some information on the COVID-19 Delta variant spread and hospitalizations in Sonoma County. The new masking order is directly in response to the rapid spread of the Delta variant in Sonoma County. Those that are vaccinated and are strongly protected against illness, hospitalization and death, but the Delta variant is proving to be much more transmissible than previous forms of the virus, making it necessary to provide a further layer of protection from spread through the use of masks while keeping the economy open. The spread of the Delta variant has led to an increased number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients, as well as an increased number of positive cases in the county. Per the county health officials, half of the ICU beds in the county are currently filled by COVID-19 patients. And as of August 2nd, all COVID-19 patients in the ICUs throughout the county were unvaccinated. Now an update on Sonoma County COVID-19 vaccinations. The Sonoma County COVID vaccine supply is plentiful and currently available to everyone 12 years and older, regardless of their insurance or citizenship status. There are many opportunities in Sonoma County to receive a vaccination, including pop-up clinics and events. For example, residents can receive a free vaccine at one of two opportunities planned this Saturday, August 7th in Santa Rosa. The first is at a place to play at 2375 West 3rd Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The second is at the Roseland Community Center at 779 Sebastopol Road from 10 to 3 p.m. We encourage all unvaccinated members of the Sonoma County community to go to one of those sites and get vaccinated. Thank you. Our second staff briefing this afternoon, item 7.2 is on our Community Empowerment Plan Update and Magali Tellis has joined us and she will be presenting this update. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor Rogers, members of the council. My name is Bayez, Director of Community Engagement. Thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on the Community Empowerment Plan. I'd like to start off with our resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis. Our team has been working on a draft for one of the recommendations from the Community Empowerment Plan Report and it's in the process of being reviewed by some of our other staff. Once the draft has been completed and gone through staff review, the Community Engagement will start to go out and take it out toward listening session, our original listening session groups for review and feedback to make sure that we captured the items that were important to community. In terms of our Multicultural Roots project, we're partnering with the Sonoma County Museum to incorporate video interviews into the project and we're working with our CAB to incorporate the storytelling piece into next year's NeighborFest program and we're quote, quote, taking the show on the road. In terms of the Mary Lou, which is the SRPD lowrider patrol car, the hydraulics are in the process of being installed. This part of the work is gonna take about two to three weeks to complete. Then it's going to go into a body shop for paint. FTA productions and our Community Engagement staff have been busy gathering footage and interviews for the documentary that we are putting together and we'll have available for review soon. Staff has continued to work with the Sonoma County Lowrider Council on receiving donations for the build of the lowrider patrol car, donations in parts and also in labor. There's still a lot of excitement around this project. Citizens guidebook and Civic 101 videos. Our final content is being reviewed by the city attorney and then we'll be reviewed by our public information officer team. And after the internal review, Community Engagement staff will hold a series of community focus groups to review and provide input on the content as well as a graphic design. And video scripts are being completed and also going to city attorney and city clerk and PIO team to review. And that is the end of my report. Thank you. Our third report this afternoon is on our public art program update. Tara Thompson, our Arts and Culture Coordinator will be giving the update on this program. Hello. Hello, Vice Mayor Rogers and members of the council. Tara Thompson, Arts and Culture Coordinator with the Planning and Economic Development Department. I'm here today to provide a brief update on the public art program and to share the program's new strategic plan. Next slide. A little bit of background about the public art program. The program was housed in the recreation and parks department until 2018 when a reorganization took place and relocated the program into the Economic Development Division of the Planning and Economic Development Department. The program is managed by myself and supported by part-time contractors and or temporary project managers as our budget allows. Next slide. The public art policy, Council Policy 42 was adopted by council back in 1996 and at the time it established methods for the selection and funding of public art and the formation of the Art in Public Places Committee. Various amendments over the years have updated the policy the latest in 2019. And the policy really outlines the main functions of the public art program, the committee's composition, appointment and duties, the project development and approval process for public art projects. It establishes the public art fund sources and eligible expenditures, the process for accepting gifts and loans and the processes for relocating or deaccessioning items in our public art collection. Next slide. The public art fund is a dedicated fund for the purpose of supporting public art and cultural programming consistent with the public art policy. The funding sources are a 1% allocation of capital improvement projects that are general funded, a 1% allocation of park development fees which may only be spent on public art in parks and private development in lieu fees which constitute 1% of construction costs for commercial projects with valuations of $500,000 and above. Eligible expenditures include public art projects, cultural programming, including administrative costs, the maintenance and conservation of the public art collection and fees for consultants. And pictured here is one of our newer pieces installed in Coffee Neighborhood Park. Next slide. Recent projects include a focus on engaging artists in response and recovery to the various disasters and crises we have experienced here. So for the Tubbs Fire Recovery, we launched two rounds of fire response which provided small grants to artists to create work in response to the fire. The Sonoma County residents reflect on the 2017 wildfires was a community exhibit in one of our community centers where members of the Sonoma County community were invited to submit one piece of art regardless of their age or ability. And then the Coffee Park Public Art Project which was shown on the previous slide. In terms of response to the pandemic, we have been working very closely with the Out There Santa Rosa program to launch insideoutthere.com which provided a link, digital link, an online link to artists, makers, restaurants, businesses during the pandemic lockdown period. We also partnered with the Downtown Action Organization, the Chamber of Commerce, Creative Sonoma, and others on Open and Out which is actually still going on this summer. And we also incorporated some crisis response planning as a part of our strategic planning kickoff. Next slide, please. Our current projects right now are really focused on two large public art projects and then some additional types of programming that have been kind of new for the program. So for our larger projects, I'm sure you're aware of the Imagine Art in Port House Square project which is a new sculpture being planned for the North End of Port House Square. We're in the process of gathering community input right now for the variety of words and phrases that will be included onto the artwork itself. The Fifth Street Parking Garage project is also in the works. We have three finalist designs which are available to view on our website and you can take a survey to let us know what you think. So for our newer programs, because of the pandemic and because we were not able to hold live at Juilliard two years in a row, we reallocated those funds to musician relief grants which supported a little over 70 musicians here in Santa Rosa who were not able to perform during the last year and a half because of the pandemic. We have been integrating the Out There Santa Rosa program with the public art program and that continues right now and we'll be launching some new things later this year so stay tuned for that. We've also formed three different task forces of the Art and Public Places Committee to address goals that have been identified in the strategic plan such as diversity, equity and inclusion, community engagement and project development. Next slide please. Public art and private development as I mentioned before is one of the revenue sources for the public art fund but it's also a program that we run. There's an ordinance adopted in 2016 that provides procedures and standards for the integration of public art into commercial development throughout the city. The allocation is a 1% of construction costs for those commercial projects. The developer can either place artwork on site or contribute to the city's public art fund by paying an in-loop fee. So pictured here are a few examples of the types of art that have been installed by private development. Next slide please. The ongoing programs that are also a part of the public art program include the public art collection and the art walks that are available for the public to enjoy as well as any tours that we may give. The ongoing conservation and maintenance of the public art collection, rotating exhibits including the national arts program, street performer permits and the live at Juilliard concert series. Next slide. Some of the plans that adopted plans which are related to the public art program include the art and culture element which is a part of the general plan 2035. We are also working on the general plan update with the planning team to incorporate arts and culture throughout as well. The Santa Rosa public art master plan was adopted by council in 2015 and the public art strategic plan which I'll talk about in just a second was adopted by the Art and Public Bases Committee in 2021 earlier this year. Next slide. So as I mentioned, we are excited to share some of the new direction that we'll be heading in in the coming three years with this new strategic plan. In early 2020, the public art program engaged third plateau for strategic planning services. The final adopted plan is included as an attachment on today's meeting agenda and I would encourage those looking for more detail to review the complete plan. So this slide outlines the general process in which the plan was developed including a learning phase, an ideation phase and a design phase. Next slide. The plan establishes a new vision and mission for the public art program. So our vision is an empowered, thriving and inclusive Santa Rosa community connected through the power of art. Our mission statement is champion artistic expression and amplify community voices through a diverse array of public art experiences. Next slide. This is the theory of change which was included in the plan. Again, you can review it in more detail. I know this slide is quite small but it is in the attached plan. Next slide. Here are the strategic plan goals that were identified through the planning process. Number one, diverse voices are represented included and celebrated within the programming process outreach and infrastructure of the program. Two, neighborhoods are infused with art and community leaders across the city champion arts programming. Three, public art is funded and maintained as a core component of place making and economic development. Four, the public art program and the art and public places committee are rightfully seen as positive and familiar and as key assets in and for the community. And five, the public art program is more nimble, better resourced and better equipped to deliver on its mission and fulfill its vision for Santa Rosa. Next slide. For each of these five goals, the plan includes two strategies and then under each strategy are several tactics. So the next several slides summarize the strategies for each goal and I won't read through them all today, but I just wanted to give you a sense that there's a lot of steps in the works to address the goals identified in the plan. Next slide. Again, each goal has two strategies that really talk about our steps that need to be taken to implement them. Next slide. And next slide. To evaluate progress throughout and beyond the implementation of the plan, the following key performance indicators will be tracked projects from a wider variety of art mediums, broader and deeper engagement with and support of artists from diverse backgrounds, increase in the number of neighborhoods with public art, deepen partnerships between the public art program and the business community, better maintained public art, greater responsiveness to artists and community needs and greater awareness of and support for the public art program. Next slide. Here are the expenditure implications from the public art fund for implementing the three-year plan broken down by fiscal year as well as by the following four categories, community engagement and input, governance and administration, programming and projects and PR and marketing. So these are net amounts, so over and above our current budget and our current programming levels in order to implement the recommendations in the plan. And again, this is being funded by the public art fund. Next slide. As I just stated, as we just started the fiscal year 22, this slide summarizes what we will be implementing over the next year, again, broken down by those same four categories. So this slide really reflects the focus that the public art program will have over the next year and beyond. But this is what we're tackling this year. And with that, the next slide, please. Thank you for your time today and I'm happy to answer any questions. It's like we don't have any questions, Mayor, so... Councilman Tibbets, did you have a question? Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. This is, first of all, thank you Tara. And I have a question for you and or the city manager, but what was your total budget in the previous fiscal year? Last year, our budget was around 282,000. If I'm remembering correctly. Okay, so the, that's interesting. That would be lower than I would have guessed given the commercial development. I guess we haven't been having a lot in town. Mr. City Manager, I don't expect you to know off the top of your head, but I would think we had a pretty substantial amount. I would be happy to bring back any information about the actual private development in loopies that are coming in that, but just as a caveat, it does not equal one-to-one to our expenditures or our budget for the next year. Sometimes funds are pooled in the public art fund so that we can save them for larger projects in the future. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for is what's the, I guess the total number over the last three years, let's say, so we can get kind of a pre-COVID look and a post-COVID look at how much revenue the in-loop fees are bringing in. So that aggregate number is what I'm looking for. So if you could provide that in a separate email, that would be awesome. Or same with you, Mr. City Manager, but that information would be most helpful. I would be happy to, thank you. Councilman Sawyer. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to applaud you, Tara. The RFPs and the community involvement, selection, creation, installation and maintenance of our public art is no small task. And it's a very important part of our community. And I know I speak for the entire council when I applaud your work. To some, it may sound simple, not on this council, but in the community, it may seem simple, but it is a major endeavor. And I thank you for you and your team's work in providing our community with one of the most important elements that a community can provide. And that is public art. It affects, I hope, everyone in different ways, but all positive in one way or another. So thank you for your work. Thank you for this update. And of all the best in your future endeavors with the acquisition of artwork in our community. Because it is very, very important, as I mentioned, and no small task. So I applaud you as does, I'm sure the entire council. Yes, we do. Councilman Alvarez. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just wanted to echo my colleague's statements. Now that Rosalind has become part of the city, hopefully you can see even more artwork in Rosalind. And I'm wondering, is there anything that you have planned or might have planned for Rosalind? I'm glad you asked. Yes, so the, one more layer down in our strategic plan that I didn't go into that level of detail today in the interest of time. It is called out that our focus over the next three years should really be infusing parts of the city that have not traditionally been the object of attention for public art funds and for our public art collection to really receive that attention. And so as Rosalind is a new addition to the city, newer addition to the city, that is definitely on our list to make sure that we are addressing that. We also will be undertaking a public art audit by accounting for and taking inventory of all of the art, whether it was city commissioned or not, throughout the entire city. So we can identify art deserts where art is lacking so we can infuse our focus there. I'm very happy to hear, thank you. Tara, it'd be really nice to see that report once it is complete about where the art is around the city. Do we have any additional questions? If not, I will hand it back over to the city manager. Thank you, Vice Mayor Rogers. Our fourth and final staff briefing of the day is on our stormwater and creeks program. Staff will update the council on work undertaken by the stormwater and creeks team in the 2020-21 fiscal year, as well as current programs. Claire Myers, our stormwater and creeks manager, will be presenting the update. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and members of the council. I am pleased to be here today to provide you an update on the work that the stormwater and creeks team has been doing this last year. Next slide. I think we all know we are very fortunate to be living in Santa Rosa. There are over 100 miles of creek in our city as shown on our creek map here. No matter where you are, you are close to a creek. Next slide. As a refresher, we are a team of 11 in the water department, although we serve and work with virtually all other departments in the city. And we also find positions in police and public works. Our mission is making Santa Rosa a better place by enhancing creek health through restoration and community involvement, providing biological engineering services and managing stormwater runoff to preserve and restore water quality and minimize flooding. Next slide. We are funded primarily by the stormwater assessment fund. This fund was created by council in 1996 as a long-term funding source to support creek health, water quality improvements and drainage improvements. The assessment is an annual charge placed on each parcel within city limits. In fact, I will be back later this afternoon to speak with you about that. And then we also receive some funding from the general fund and CIP projects and grants. Next slide. We, to give you an update on this last year, despite the hurdles of COVID, we have ensured that the city has maintained compliance with a number of regulatory permits, including but not limited to construction general permit and the industrial general permits. These address stormwater just charges from construction projects and industrial sites, respectively. And then primarily we have continued to oversee the NQTS Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit or the MS4, the storm brain permit. This permit regulates stormwater runoff from and into our city's infrastructure systems. So as you can see in these photos, discharges of stormwater and non-stormwater from an MS4, particularly in an urbanized area like Santa Rosa, have a high potential to convey pollutants directly into receiving waters. So our team directly oversaw numerous programs to achieve compliance with the MS4, which I will go over with on the next few slides. Next slide. So public outreach and education, we have worked hard this last year to get the message out to the public. It's been a challenging year. We couldn't do many of the typical strategies that we like, like tabling at community events or coordinating city-led cleanups. But we adapted. And last September, as you recall, we took our, we hosted a virtual Creek Week for the first time with online activities. And we encouraged folks to get out and do family-led neighborhood cleanups. We've continued to partner with schools to educate students and to work with the public, shifting our outreach to online platforms. In 2020, we still managed to host 236 Creek presentations and activities, including 200 with school and youth groups and engage with over 6,500 residents in educational and stewardship activities. So we've maintained websites and our social media presence. We've had a particularly large push the last couple of years with our streets to creeks campaign, ours to protect. That's the logo in the top center. Really just educating the public that stormwater drains directly to the creeks and providing info and BMPs to residences and businesses on how to keep our waterways clean. That online campaign last year saw almost 13 million online impressions and engagement with over 16,000 individuals. So we were really pleased with that. Next slide. We continue to assess water quality within our creeks and our storm drain outfalls and then direct program resources to reducing any identified pollutants. Our work includes measuring stream temperatures, doing bacterial and chemical analyses, visual flow monitoring, special studies as dictated by the permit. This last year we completed, for example, a multi-year investigation looking into all the different potential sediment sources and enter the storm drain and what we can do to prevent them. And then we also measure other water quality parameters as required by the permit. Next slide. Best management practices are BMPs. Our team supports BMP development, inspection and compliance in a number of ways. For construction, we support review and inspection of stormwater BMPs for construction sites throughout the city. You can see waddles in the photo on the left that are preventing sediment from reaching the storm drains. Low-impact development or LID is something that you're probably hearing more and more about. These are the small-scale landscape features that clean stormwater and allow for infiltration. You see them demonstrated at City Hall. This last year we updated the cities and the regions LID design manual. We inspected established LID features to make sure they're in compliance, provided technical expertise for projects. And lately we've been spending some time looking at LID features for the city's own projects, the city CIP projects. For example, the city will be installing LID features for along Fulton Road as a requirement for the Fulton Road widening project. It's required by the MS4 permit. The city is working through how to fund the maintenance of the LID features once they are installed. For Fulton Road, the city's public works department will need to maintain these LID features at an estimated cost of about $25,000 per year, which would be funded out of the public works department. So as we see more and more LID in the city, particular for CIP projects, we're seeing a need for additional and alternative funding mechanisms for maintenance and monitoring of those features. Next slide. In 2020, we responded to 85 spill discharges and so far in 2021 to about 45. Each incident typically requires a staff investigation, education, cleanup, enforcement and follow-up. These photos are some of our more recent spills. You can see the photo on the left was from power washing in downtown Santa Rosa. The top right is some drainage from some dumpsters and the bottom right, that aqua blue is a polyurethane spill from a private construction site. Next slide. We have continued to be a one-stop shop for biological and engineering support for most of the city's departments. Our staff prepare environmental documents, project permits, mitigation plans. We do biological surveys and sampling and assist with monitoring during and after construction. We also assist other efforts in the city to support drainage and prevent flooding. This year we worked with FEMA on two flood map updates, one for Todd Creek and one for the Laguna de Santa Rosa and are starting work on a storm drain master plan, which will evaluate the state of all of the storm drains infrastructure in the city to help prioritize future projects. Next slide. This last year we have unfortunately again been busy on the fire front for the glass fire that day after the fire we were out in the field to find and review storm drain infrastructure damage. The top right photo is a burned storm drain we discovered in Skyhawk. We coordinated with other city departments and the public to keep toxins and debris out of our storm drains and out of our creeks and also to minimize erosion. So we assisted with design and placement of BMPs on city properties and infrastructure and we also promoted BMPs on private property. We were able to develop a program to provide free waddles for homeowners, which you can see in the bottom photo there. Next slide. So on a lighter note, some of our more gratifying work we've done this year is on our restoration projects. We've worked on several restoration projects this year. Streamside is one of them. It's a Creek Bay project in Santa Rosa Creek to remove invasive species and restore native habitat. We just began Colgan Creek phase two. This is part of an extensive stream restoration project designed to improve flood capacity, improve habitat for fish and wildlife, and to improve public access along the creeks. You can see the full phases one, two, three laid out on the map at the bottom. Phase one was completed in 2014. That's a before and after picture, a during and after picture at the top there. And phase two is currently under construction. So we're very excited about that. Next slide. And then finally, for 19 years, the Creek Stewardship Program partnership of Sonoma Water and the city of Santa Rosa has helped the public understand the benefits of healthy creeks with shelter in place and other COVID related mandates. Again, we had to adapt. As I said before, we took school programs and Creek Week online in lieu of community volunteer events. We helped households and groups organize their own small scale cleanup events. Our team increased the number of cleanups we were doing. That's us in the Tyvek suits down there. And we worked with supervised adult crews and youth corps. Some of the statistics I posted for 2020, we were still able to remove over 1,100 cubic yards of trash in 2020 and commensurate numbers so far this year in 2021. So as a result, our creeks are actually looking pretty good. Next slide. So I just wanted to say thank you for letting me speak today about what our team has been up to this last year. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I'd like to bring it back to the council to ask questions on items 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4 if you have any. Councilman Sawyer. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm not a question, just a comment. I just wanna thank you for everything you're doing and protecting 100 miles of creeks. That's a lot of creeks. And I know that you have a very dedicated team and they work very, very hard. And that's a lot of work. And I just, I think we forget sometimes as we move through Santa Rosa and we cross the bridges, the impact that our creeks have not only to our quality of life, but to the education of our children in environmental issues, et cetera. I just thank you for all of your, for your very, very hard work in maintaining the quality of our creeks. Their Vial Santa Rosa has more than its share. And we're lucky to have them and we're lucky to have you helping us protect them. Thank you very much. Thank you. It looks like John beat me to that comment, Claire, but echo what John said. Seeing no additional comments, questions. We are now taking public comment on item 7. Madam Host, do we have any public comment? We have no live public comments from council chamber. And let's see. And I see no hands being raised via Zoom for public comment on staff briefings. Additionally, we've received no voice message or written public comments on staff briefings. Thank you, Madam Host. Council, any additional questions or comments? Seeing none, moving on to item 8, city manager, city attorney reports. I have two quick items. Vice Mayor Rogers and members of the council. First, I wanted to let the council know that we're going to be extending our target date for return to work for our employees to September 20th. Given the increase in positive COVID testing that we've seen countywide, we feel it's wise to extend that deadline and continue to work remotely where necessary until we see a change in those trends. The second thing I'd like to share with the council is just to congratulate one of our key staff members, Bill Rose, our supervising planner, announced that he has accepted a job in the private sector. And I just wanted to thank Bill for his contributions to the city. He has been a voice of wisdom in the planning process for years and years, one of calm and reason and deeply appreciated within the city organization and a real asset. And I'm sure he will be a wonderful value to his new employer. We wish you well, Bill. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Madam City Attorney, do you have a report? I do not have any report, but I would like to echo the city manager's comments about Mr. Rose. He will be sorely missed. He has been a tremendous asset, as I said earlier, really. One of the best of the best, we'll miss him and wish him all great things in his new endeavor. Thanks. Now calling for public comment on item eight. Madam host, is there any public comment? If you wish to make a public comment on item eight, please raise your hand via Zoom. I do not see any public comments here in Council chamber, nor do I see any in Zoom. Additionally, we do not have any written public comments or voice message public comments. Thank you so much. Council, do you have any comments on item eight? Seeing none, we'll move on to item nine. Council, any statements of abstention moving on? We'll move to item 10. Mayor and Council members' reports. Are there any reports for us this evening? Councilman Schwaitham. Thank you, Vice Mayor Rogers. First, I do want to start off by echoing the city manager, city attorney's compliments towards Bill Rose. For all the years I've known him, you as a staff member, now as an elected, he's been nothing but superb in everything that he does. Someone that we've really come to rely on. And I know he is a big believer of sharing his knowledge with others. So I'm sure he has set the table for those that are gonna be following in his huge footsteps to follow. So thank you, Bill. Very much appreciate your service to the city, San Rosa. I also want to report out on yesterday the Water Advisory Committee met. We had a lengthy meeting and I've got several items I want to share with Council. We received an update on water supply conditions. Sonoma Water staff stated that last week, Lake Mendocino storage fell below the minimum threshold set by Sonoma Water and the State Water Resources Control Board for August 1st. This means that emergency regulations will kick in and water curtailment notices will be sent to water right holders in the Upper Russian River. Not our area, but the Upper Russian River, limiting usage to human health and safety only. Losses in the Upper River continue to be much higher than anticipated and Sonoma Water is now projecting. Lake Mendocino will fall to 20,000 acre feet by September 1st and 12,000 acre feet by October 1st, which is very, very concerning. Some good news, Lake Sonoma Storage is tracking as anticipated based on reduced releases from the reservoir and efforts by the contractors, including Santa Rosa to conserve water. As of last week, diversions from the Russian River were down by 24% compared to this time in 2020. We also received an update from the Sonoma Marin saving water partnership summer drought outreach campaign update, that sounds like an excrement for an acronym. The WAC received an update from Sonoma Water staff regarding the multimedia outreach campaign and activities of the Sonoma Marin saving water partnership building upon the success of the previous event in June. The partnership will be hosting another drought drop-by event on August 21st with locations throughout Menesino, Sonoma and Marin counties, including Nagasawa Park and Cunningtown Mall in Santa Rosa. Again, that's August 21st, more information to follow. Now, technical details, the methodology for allocation of water to contractors during a shortage. The allocation of water during shortage conditions is outlined in our agreement for water supply with Sonoma Water. Per the agreement, the Sonoma Water Board adopted an allocation methodology in 2006. On April 5th, the Water Advisory Committee unanimously approved a temporary alternative allocation of water for July through October that established an equal reduction in deliveries for all contractors. The contractors are close to completing an updated allocation methodology to replace the 2006 version that accounts for investments in water conservation in local supplies. The updated methodology has scheduled come before the Water Advisory Committee for consideration on September 13th.  Sonoma Water has three groundwater wells in the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Basin that provide supplemental water supply. They have been inactive since 2016 due to needed upgrades to comply with updated drinking water regulations. Sonoma Water is working to update their wells to meet the new state disinfection requirements and is planning to seek state drought emergency funding to assist with costs for updating the wells as well as to add recharge capabilities for groundwater banking and recovery. Just on that last item, it's already been out in the community that the plan for the county was to use some of the water from this basin to share with other parts of the county that are not so fortunate and are obviously experiencing the same drought we are. One of the key things on this, though, they're the recharge capabilities. So it eventually will come out of this well. The plan is in better times. When we do have more water, we'll recharge it back into the aquifier. So we'll be providing more information as we follow. And just in closing, I do just wanna throw kudos to Jennifer Burke and the entire Santa Rosa Water staff that assist both me and the vice mayor and our meetings related to water. They are superb and I feel so supported. So thank you. Thank you, Councilman Schwedhelm. So I would like to take this opportunity to appoint Cynthia Rich to our board of community services. And I am honored to appoint her and both excited as I know the board of community services current board will also be excited to welcome her on. So thank you, Cynthia Rich. Now calling for public comment on item 10. Madam host. Vice Mayor Rogers, briefly Council Member Tibbets had his hand raised for perhaps a report out. Oh, I didn't see it. Sorry, Council Member Tibbets. No problem, Vice Mayor. I was late to the game, but I wanted to piggyback off of what Tom said about Bill. I don't know if he's listening, but I will sorely miss Bill. I think the best way to describe him, somebody once told me when I was trying to help them with a permit issue is, you know, Bill's the guy you go to get solutions and get things moving. And so Bill, I thank you deeply for that level of commitment to the city and the success of its residents who are investing here. And I hope too that our staff can find a replacement that is half as good, proactive and solution oriented as you have been. Thanks, Vice Mayor. No problem. Madam host, can we now call for a public comment on item 10? Thank you. If you wish to make a public comment on item 10, Council Member reports, please raise your hand via Zoom. Seeing no public comments live in Council Chamber, I'll move to the Zoom platform. The first public comment will be from Gregory Fearon. Gregory, I've enabled your speaking permissions. Please unmute your mic and proceed with your comment. Thank you, Vice Mayor Rogers and members of the Council. I, no one actually commented on ABag, but I wanted to raise an issue before you that may help out if we can pull it off. Like other local entities subject to the housing dictates of ABag, your Council is trying to find ways to comply with its mandates. But before you take ABag's requirements as absolute law, I'd like you to review an argument I'm gonna make about it being a violation of the rights of your residents to equal protection under the US Constitution's 14th Amendment, section one. I'm gonna read you a description of how the state housing and community development and ABag determined Santa Rosa's housing inventory. Quote, the regional housing needs allocation, which you know as RENA, process only considers the needs of the population in households who are housed in regular housing market. And excludes the population living in group quarters, which are non-household dwellings such as jails, nursing homes, dorms, military barracks. And I'm gonna add almost everything that lately has been built for homeless. All of the funding that comes from the state, all of the funding that you've been coming up with is not included in the RENA. That's right off the ABag website with more and more of the actions by you to respond to the housing needs of your residents by authorizing and supporting irregular housing, home key, permanent supportive housing, shelter, safe parking. You're being forced to weekly choose between the housing needs of those preferred by ABag and the housing needs of all of the rest of your citizens. ABag's allocation formula forces you to prefer one class of citizens over another, those living in housing inside the formula and those who are not. The exclusion of the irregular housing inventory sites in Santa Rosa and the ABag compliance calculation violates the equal protection rights detailed in section one of the 14th amendment to a significant number of your citizens who you swore to serve. I'd like you to challenge the constitutionality of the ABag RENA allocations on that basis before the August 30th deadline for their acceptance of comments. Thank you. There I see no additional hands being raised in Zoom and we did not receive any voice message for written public comments on council member reports. Thank you so much. Moving on to item 11, approval of the minutes. We have one set of minutes for June 8th, 2021, which was a regular meeting. Are there any changes by the council? Seeing none, these minutes will be approved submitted. Now on to item 12, consent items. City manager, take it away. Vice mayor Rogers and members of the city council, we have a number of items on the consent calendar this evening, five in total, beginning with item 12.1, a resolution approving the Santa Rosa tourism business improvement area fiscal year 2020 annual report and fiscal year 2021, 2022 work plan. Item 12.2, also a resolution regarding the first amendment to the professional services agreement, number F001963 with preservation arts, LC. Item 12.3, a resolution authorizing the submittal of an application to the state of California department of housing and community developments, infill infrastructure grant program for an amount not to exceed $30 million for a qualified infill area. Item 12.4, a resolution authorizing a small enterprise agreement, number F001808 with Esri for GIS software. And finally, item 12.5, an ordinance adoption and ordinance of the council of the city of Santa Rosa amending title nine of the Santa Rosa city code by adding chapter nine dash 30, zero waste food wear ordinance. Council, are there any questions regarding the consent calendar? Yes, councilman Sawyer. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm just curious about 12.2, the contract with preservation arts. And just give me, if we could get a explanation as to why the increase and the importance of that increase. So if I could call on Tara Thompson or arts and culture coordinator to address that question. City manager, I don't see Tara on the line on Zoom any further. I will be promoting Claire Hartman to hopefully be able to field the question in Tara's absence. Yes, good afternoon. Would you mind repeating the question council member? Sure, Claire. I'm just curious about the increase to the professional service agreement with preservation arts and why it's important, what this increase is about. I'm not questioning the validity of it. I'm just curious as to what the increase is about. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have that information, but I can certainly follow up with the council, with the specifics. And that's fine. I'm not looking to be against it. I'm just looking, I was just looking for really curiosity as to what additional work they would be performing and why the increase. So, and quite frankly, as we increase the number of artwork pieces in our city, that kind of work is probably going to increase anyway. So when you do get that on, more than happy to take the answer offline. Thank you. Any additional questions from council? Seeing none, I would like to open it up for public comment. Madam host. Thank you, vice mayor. If you'd like to make a public comment on item 12 for the consent calendar, please raise your hand via zoom. If you'd like to make a public comment in council chamber, please walk up to the podium. Seeing no public comment live in council chamber, I'll move to zoom. The first public comment will be from William. William, I've enabled your speaking permissions. Please unmute and proceed with your comment. Hi, are you able to hear me? Yes. I apologize. This is my first time attending. I just realized how to get onto the zoom to be able to be interactive. And so I was wondering if is it possible to talk about a conversation that happened previous or is that off limits? Unfortunately, we are, depending on where we're at on the agenda, we had offered an opportunity to make public comment at the time that agenda item was called and cannot proceed with additional public comment on that item. There is an opportunity under item 13 and item 17 for public comment on non-agenda items that you can speak on. Okay, so I can circle back on that question later on. If it is related to a previously heard discussion on the agenda, no. Dang, I'm just curious about how much of the pollutants that were causing and found in the creeks were due to the homeless population and if that's being tracked or not. I believe that question would have to be submitted to the water department. You can email Claire Myers who presented on our creeks and storm manager and she should be able to respond to that via email and happily so. Just find it interesting we're so focused on things that aren't that prevalent as opposed to things that are everyday in our face. Sorry, we're gonna have to ask you to avoid them. Sir, this is inappropriate comment right now. So Madam Hoth, can we go to comment space on this item? Thank you, Mayor. Seeing no additional comment via Zoom and there is no live public comment via council chamber that concludes public comment on item 12. Thank you so much. I would like to move items 12.1 through 12.5 and waive for the reading of the text. Second. Second. Madam City Clerk, let me take a vote. Yes, thank you Vice Mayor. Council Member Tibbetts. Aye. Council Member Schwedhelm. Aye. Council Member Sawyer. Aye. Council Member Fleming. Yes. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. Vice Mayor Rogers. Aye. That motion passes with five ayes with Council Member Rogers absent. Seeing as though it is not five o'clock and we cannot move on through the agenda yet, I would like to take a five minute break and be back at five o' three. Thank you. Sorry, City Clerk. Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll? It has Council Member Tibbetts. Here. Council Member Schwedhelm. Here. Council Member Sawyer. Here. Council Member Fleming. Here. Council Member Alvarez. Vice Mayor Rogers. Present. Council Member Alvarez, have you joined us? Okay, let the record show that all Council Members are present with the exception of Council Member Rogers and Council Member Alvarez. Thank you so much. City Manager, can you please introduce Item 15.1 and we will make our way back to public comments. Vice Mayor Rogers and members of the City Council, Item 15.1 is a public hearing. The matter before the City Council is the Casa Roseland Design Review Appeal. This is an appeal of the Zoning Administrator Action on the design review for the Casa Roseland Project located at 665 and 883 Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa, California, file number DR21-001. Christina Tumians, our senior planner, will be presenting the staff report on this item. Prior to the presentation, may I ask if any of the Council Members have any ex parte disclosures? Seeing none. Christina, we can proceed, thank you. Thank you City Manager and Council Members. This is a appeal of minor design review for a project known as Casa