Interpreter Charles or interpreter Pablo. Are you able to interpret for us on the English Channel? Interpreter Pablo or interpreter Charles. Are you able to hear me? Yes, I can hear you. This is interpreter Pablo Thank you I'm gonna go ahead and read for this Spanish participants for those of you just joined in the meeting live translation in Spanish is Available and members wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish Channel to do so click on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar It looks like a globe once you join the Spanish Channel We recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation Rousque reciens se une a la reunión Interpretation en vivo al español está disponible y los miembros que deseen escuchar en español pueden unirse al canal para unirse Agaclit en el icono de interpretación en la barra de herramientas de zoom Que ahora parece un globo terrarium una vez en un al canal de español se recomienda que apague el audio primario para que sólo escuche la interpretación en español Thank you All right, madam city clerk. Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and call our meeting to order Could you please call the role of the city council council member tibets? Here council member schwethelm here council member Sawyer council member alvarez vice mayor rogers Mayor rogers here let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council member alvarez council member Fleming and council member Sawyer Okay, thank you so much Madam deputy city clerk if you could also promote me on zooms that I can see folks We are in a hybrid format today, we are both in our council chambers with council members as well as live via zoom See a couple of additional planning commissioners who are raising their hands as well as council member alvarez There'll be multiple opportunities for public engagement today Both be either here in the chamber or through our pre-recorded voicemail comments or our live zoom comments Madam city clerk. Can you walk folks through with how they would be able to participate in today's meeting? Thank you 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 from those participating in the chamber Then move on to members of the public participation via zoom The host and zoom will be lowering all hands until public comment is open for the agenda 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 the specific agenda item If you are calling in to listen to the meeting audibly you can dial star 9 to raise your hand If you wish to provide a public comment and are attending the meeting in person Please sign up to speak with an eye with 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 covet 19 Julie will ask your name what item you wish to speak on and for a one sentence summary for your statement for the record The mayor will then call on those in person who have signed it to speak on the item Once all live comments 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 and read or played during the meeting Additionally, there are two public comment periods on today's agenda to speak on non agenda matters under item 17 and 8 13 and 17 This is the 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 needing Interpretation services those using interpreter support will be afforded additional time for your public comment as required by the brown act We asked that 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 es in the middle and the word spanish underneath You can then rejoin the spanish channel at the conclusion of your comment to continuing listening in spanish. Thank you Thank you, madame city clerk We'll move on to item two announcement of closed session items Council did meet earlier today in a special city council meeting to hear two items in closed session I'll turn to our city attorney and see if she has any further information to add Yes, um the council met in closed session in the special meeting this morning. I understand that there was a report out earlier Um, I will repeat the report out Now for members of the public that were not present council did meet on two items. Um, the first concerned Existing litigation concerning cpu cpu c Proceedings regarding the Jennings crossing And gave direction to litigation our litigators And then the council met on item 2.2. Again, this was in the special session Regarding labor negotiations and gave direction to a labor negotiator. Thank you Thank you madame city attorney So we'll move on to our first study session of the day You might notice some additional zoom boxes up there in the in the corners here We do have a joint study session here with our planning commission Madam clerk, do we need to call the role of the planning commission to establish their quorum? Yes, we should call the um Role of the planning commission if the council would just give me one moment. I will um bring that up Okay, thank you for your patience Chair whole commissioner holton commissioner Here commissioner dugan here commissioner carter vice chair peterson And chair weeks here So let the record show that all commissioners are here with the exception of commissioner holton All right, mr. City manager. Do you want to introduce the item? Mayor and members of the city council item 3.1 this afternoon is our 2050 general plan vision statements Amy lile our supervising planner will be the staff presenter today on this item Good afternoon. Thank you so much. Um, nice to see you mayor rogers chair weeks members of the council and the planning commission My name is Amy lile and it's my pleasure to serve as the supervising planner for our advanced planning team And today we will also have a couple other presenters We will have andy gussison our senior planner and project manager for our general plan update And then also betrice garyl auna who is our equity and public health planner Her position is funded by our Kaiser permanente grant, which we'll talk about a little bit later as well And then also present our two representatives from our consultant team We have dan amson from mig and charlie nox from place works So we'll go ahead and get started. We do have a brief presentation today And this item really includes an overview of our general plan visioning process We're going to report out on what's occurred thus far What we've heard what worked what didn't and where we're going next I also just wanted to acknowledge that we do have a few cac members on the call today As well as present in council chambers And also just wanted to acknowledge an extreme thank you to the council and those planning commission members That helped us post various zoom meetings throughout the community And helped us gain more engagement through this process Next slide, please So the general plan process This includes more than just the physical components of our community And it really gives us the opportunity to rethink What's what's working and where we want to go? So the general plan provides a basis for all of our land use and planning decisions in our local jurisdiction And it really serves as an inspiration To communicate where we've been and what qualities we want to maintain And then how we want to evolve in the future. So for this item, we really want you to put on A new mindset and really forward thinking thinking about what we want our community to look like in 2050. Next slide, please So our general plan process is known as Santa Rosa Forward and it's really an opportunity for all members of our community We for this particular general plan update. We've been blessed to have the funding necessary to do And go beyond what we've traditionally done And for this we are focused on doing neighborhood engagement. We really do want to hear from everyone in the community We also have a focus of working with our vulnerable populations And infusing tools to combat a lot of those Unprecedented emergencies. That's the new word unprecedented that we've been experiencing. So we have a more resilient future in front of us Next slide, please So this is a graphic that shows the overview of the schedule for our general plan process And dina or Stephanie, you can just hit the mouse one more time. I think it'll highlight where we're at In this process So we are still somewhat at the beginning. So this is really a check-in and a review point And we will be rolling through the rest of the process concluding an early 2023 So it includes a full environmental impact report which will kick off in 2022 And this general plan is considered comprehensive. So it's not updating one or two different elements It's updating the whole entire general plan It does include an update to our housing element It also includes an update to our climate action plan We are also working on policy related to environmental justice to respond to community and also our new state legislation And also an update to our safety element And thanks to a grant from Kaiser Permanente. We were able to hire Beatrice To help us infuse health policy And then also collaborating with the latino service providers We have that additional focus on engagement with our vulnerable communities And really making sure that we have an equity lens in all of the aspects of our general plan So with that, I will pass it off to Andy to continue in with our presentation Thank you. Amy and next slide, please So I want to review with you quickly some important resources and some initial work that we did last winter One important resource I want the council and commissioners to be aware of is our project website It's a great place for getting up to date on our schedule getting access to documents and information And also for the public to know that that's a place they can go to And submit comments throughout the entire program And actually get access to surveys. Next slide The project team got busy in February or I should say even earlier last fall And wrote an existing conditions report. This is An encyclopedic document of many issues or a comprehensive set of issues That help describe where we are as a city. It really does perform a baseline that describes the Events the circumstances we find ourselves in today And this is a great document if you have a particular topic that you wish to Do a deep dive into you can learn about mobility or our infrastructure About community health and also Here see here what the key issues are That face us Next slide Next slide. Yeah, there we go The briefing book is an executive summary of the of the of the background report It's really meant to be accessible And it's really a great way to get a quick survey or scan of the issues facing the city And it's been published in both English and Spanish. Both of these documents are available on the website Next slide One of the things we did initially to reach out to the public was to issue a survey And we asked a number of questions But one of the most interesting ones was to ask our residents where they define the center of their neighborhood We were very pleased with our response. We had over 1300 Surveys completed and we learned some interesting things from from that response. Next slide. First We saw that we did a great job of getting city-wide Participation in this survey you can see on that map a scatter diagram showing where people identified their neighborhoods So you can see we really captured The full footprint of the city We also learned from the survey respondents a number of things how people define their neighborhoods It's not just the center of where they live But it's also a place where they shop where they get services Where they self identify as a neighborhood some place that is significant or representative of where they live Next slide And we also learned from many of the respondents who gave us information about their Some demographic data That we really do need to continue to work to Reach families who are not primary english speakers And we know that's something we will be working on throughout the product throughout the general plan project But we also see that we did a good job of reaching a broad spectrum of age groups in the in the city You can see on the upper right there that we do need to make more of an effort to get to the youth And we have some focus targeted outreach activities for that population group Next slide the general plan cannot be written by a technical team or consultants and Planning staff alone. We rely on our colleagues here in the city Who are technical experts in subject matters that are relevant and central to the general plan our technical advisory committee? Has representatives from all of our departments in the city and also they provide us connection with Their sub regional our neighbor our partners in in neighboring jurisdictions and in the region They are going to be engaged throughout the project to make sure we get The general plan right There's a lot about the general plan that involves technical materials That is important that is correctly Characterized and that we are being strategic in our Formulation of policies as we go forward next slide We also formed a technical advisory committee as many of you council members are aware. We've reached out to you to Help and encourage appointments to seven members of the 25 members cac They have become Really incredibly important part of our public outreach. You're very helpful during this initial outreach space They are not only our First line of feedback from the public But they're also our vanguard to reach out into the community As liaisons to get the word out about the general plan next slide so What's important to remember too is we're working From a plan a toolkit that we developed and presented to the council last fall in 2020 The community involvement strategy where we outlined Not just tools but principles that will guide how we reach out to the community throughout the general plan Project and we want to ensure that as we move forward through each of these steps We look at are we really providing, you know, authentic and equitable outreach? Are we getting people to the table? Are we being inclusive? Are we are we deploying the right technology? We were challenged by covid Having to shift from what is traditionally Face-to-face workshops and now having to go Into a virtual mode and I think with the support of our consultant team and and The encouragement we've had from council members and commissioners who participated in our workshops We've done a good job using technology and zoom to reach out to the community So we will continue to work with community groups organizations City boards and commissions. We will deploy workshops and surveys So that we get the kind of engagement that we need in order for this general plan to Reflect all the voices in our community So i'm going to conclude my presentation at this point and hand it off to Beatrice. Thank you Thanks Andy Good afternoon everyone in relationship to what and it was mentioned and if I can see the next slide please We want to talk about the community vision workshops that we have district-wide in the city. So We have 10 different workshops one per district and seven of them were english workshops and We had three additional ones for the districts that have more than 60 of the population who speak spanish So these were districts one five and seven Talking about the spanish speaking meetings one of the things that we want to communicate to us that it was challenging and more challenging to reach out to to Spanish speaking communities for different reasons first of all Internet access but also The demographics of of this population who are mostly essential workers for the city of santa rosa So basically during the pandemic time. It was very hard to to reach out to them and to find it a time that was Comfortable for them to be able to attend to a meeting. So that was the reason that we organized some weekend Workshops and we were very successful reaching out to this to this population but we wanted to just Take into account that it was more challenging and that we heard different necessities that the spanish speaking population has specifically talking about being rent burdened and very different concerns that that other areas of the city and we want to mention this because There are other immediate concerns not necessarily related to the general plan that should be addressed in in these groups and we want to We just wanted to to give the relevance to this topic before going to to what we heard from the general population in the city in terms of This is this is not here. I don't know if we can go to the next slide, please We besides the 10 different community vision workshops We had additionally 16 community organization workshops. These means that we met with different CAC members who helped us Connect with different organizations and we reach out to other different organizations besides those to Get a bit deeper And more equitable vision of the city From the community and what we can say from this is that this this Information was really useful. We got more than 160 participants in the in the district workshops and we got more than 200 participants in the additional meetings that we that we had so this is not to say that we pretend to have a larger number or or A higher number of people participated But just to say that we were very mindful to keep growing this With this number of of participants and to gather Comments from each of of these meetings if we can go to the next slide, please Yeah, besides these community workshops that we had We also created a Second community survey besides the one that Andy presented Which had the vision statements on on it And what we did was to prepare this this survey that mirror the contents of the workshops and the meetings So people who could not attend our workshops were provided an additional opportunity for Sharing their voice and providing their input on the vision statements that we can go to the next slide, please And this was a question that we had in in very different Meetings, so how are the community comments being used? First of all, we want to say that we have more than 3000 comments received during this process Of engagement To be accurate. I want to say that we have more than 4,662 Comments and this comments would be classified will be are being organized and classified into five Broad categories that we're showing on the right on the on the slide. First of all We are using it for including it into the vision statement second, we're Defining the assets of the city of cenarosa third. We're defining the opportunities and challenges and We are also identifying engagement methods that people prefer and last but not least we are creating another category for other comments and questions so we can Uh guide the comments that are not the directly related to the general plan update to the staff in the city that can respond to these questions and Classify what people need to know about the city. So if we can go to the next slide, please Just to show you what the vision statement process has been We want to tell you that the this aspirational statements are coming from the community Meets and desires and as my colleague and the good steps and mentioned We had a community a number one a community survey number one Then we went through the technical advisory committee meeting and then we had a community advisory Meeting and then we went to the workshops both district and community Focused and we had a second survey happening at this time And finally we're coming today to the planning commission and the city council to present what we heard from the community If we can go to the next slide, please Just to um be clear about the vision statement. It is organized around specific key topics and The initial statements were based on the ideas of of the community but also the the community advisory committee and the city staff And these statements were refined and confirmed by the community in the events that happened during May in June Throughout our workshops meetings and surveys And this is just a sample of the words that we heard during the the workshops if we can go to the next slide, please And um for you to approve in this meeting We have the general plan community vision and you have it in the staff report but basically we want to um Say that the our our general plan community vision is uh center rosé is a place with the following characteristics healthy just sustainable shelter connected educated cultural resilient successful safe prepared inclusive and equitable these 13 um statements are defined on the staff report and we didn't want to take more of your time and We we just um are mentioning them. We can please go to the next slide and we wanted um your approval and uh, I will um, I will pass it on to Amy Lyle so she can guide you through the next steps of of our process. Thank you Thank you so much. Beatrice. So the vision statements that are provided to you in the staff report encompass the collective expression of what we heard over the last few months from our community And so we're going to continue to refine these based on your input today and other comments received today as well So these will be used in the next phase in reviewing different land use and circulation alternatives And so that is the next point when we will come back to you We will be doing another round of community and um engagement and events and activities around the different alternatives and how those those visions can be expressed in a land use framework And hopefully we'll be able to do that in a more hybrid environment and not just virtual at that time Next slide, please So for today We are looking for your input and review of those vision statements And we do anticipate hearing more from the community We are continuing to meet with different community groups As soon we had quite a few last week and we even have one yesterday And so we will continue to refine and learn and we look forward to hearing your questions and comments. Thank you so much All right. Thank you so much and thank you for your work on this I'm going to turn it over first to the chair of the planning commission miss weeks If you want to go ahead and do questions from the from the commission Thank you, uh, mayor rogers um and also Excuse me. I'd also like to thank my fellow commissioners for being here on a tuesday rather than the thursday and As we know the general plan is vital to Our long-term vision for the future and so i'm excited to have this opportunity to meet with the council to Give input as onto the vision statements So, um, i'm going to go last So we'll go ahead and i'll reach out to my fellow commissioners We'll do alphabetically as we do. Um, so commissioner carter Any comments Yes, thank you chair weeks and and thanks I'd like to add my thanks to the staff that's put this together and our consultants and especially the community advisory group who have a pretty daunting task to assemble Community input into a legible plan. I really appreciate their efforts in that arena, um Some high-level questions. I just want to make sure the way i'm reading this There's no ranking to the vision statements. Uh, the slide showed them in a circular arrangement So i'm assuming they're all all equally important And I think the characteristics are a pretty good summary of the things that make uh, santa rosa special but I just wanted to Verify that we're not talking about a ranked an order of vision statement um I think I'll withhold questions or comments on the specific language of the Specific statements to later in the process um Another kind of high-level Uh question I had was where do we see the input from the technical advisory committee? I think it's really important to understand The challenges facing the people that have to operate the city on a day-to-day basis and some sort of summary from that group's input While not more important than the neighborhood input certainly would be welcomed and then Finally, I would like to see as we move forward. I appreciated the way we took a neighborhood focus on collecting input and I think it's really important that we continue a neighborhood focus as the plan moves forward so that um We can have identities of our specific neighborhoods in town and people can Relate to those and and perhaps provide even greater community involvement as we focus on neighborhoods and districts within the city So those are my comments for now. Thank you for the opportunity and the good work to this point Thank you commissioner carter commissioner dug in Hi, thank you. Um, I echo um commissioner carters. Thanks to the staff and Just how much work you've created and so such little time already that all the um Background documents. It's a really an impressive product. Um, I don't have any specific questions I think commissioner carter hit the The questions on the nail the the nail on the head there with um wanting to know if they're ranked And I'll save specific comments for the statements and later in the process Thank you commissioner crepeki Uh, yeah, I don't have any questions at this time. Oh, okay Uh, vice chair peterson Uh, so I I also don't have a specific Questions is now the the appropriate time to just kind of uh Throw out some some specific comments and general comments Uh, let me ask uh, mayor rogers. How do you want to handle that in planning commission meetings? We usually do Um more specific comments later on in the item. So how would you like us to handle that? Yeah, let's Let's stick to questions right now and have a chance to hear from the public before we make the general comments And then we'll come back and make those statements later Thank you Great, then the no questions. I'll save it for later Okay, I do have a couple of specific questions. Um And in it has to do with the section under state That's referenced safe. It says streets are safe And my assumption is that means infrastructure Uh, so that was one question And also I wondered um If it was a little daunting for the public to see this many Categories of the vision and if some could be combined. Um, and that's it for my specific comments I have more general comments later on Thank you, and I'll turn it back over to uh, mayor rogers Thank you so much madam chair council members. Do you have any additional questions for staff? Let's go ahead vice mayor Um, so my question was I heard that we need to try to engage non-english speaking, um, but I also saw on slide 10 that um african-american and native Uh people that identified as african-american and native had a very low percentage of attendance So I guess my question would be Were those um comparable to our actual Demographics for the city of santa rosa and why weren't those identified as Uh people that we need to get more outreach to Does that make sense? And i'm looking for staff Hi, um So with regard to our outreach, um, I think probably I like via trees to to comment on that But I'll say before she does that Really our outreach In this first round was was really testing our capacity and identifying our needs to Refine our methods of outreach Um Beyond just using traditional email social media And and word of mouth So I'll hand it over to Beatrice Thank you, Andy. Um, vice mayor roger's in relationship to the different ethnicities and racial minorities of the city We have been doing uh additional outreach We did not mention specifically because as annie mentioned we have to require Demographics for the meetings and it's a little bit more complicated to request this information ahead of time Because um, we have to sacrifice the requirement of information Um, if we want people to participate because sometimes they don't want to fill in Additional documents, but we have definitely reached out to the black community to the native american communities And some of the asian groups, uh, we definitely have to do more work in relationship to this But um as uh, amy and andy, uh, we're mentioning in the timeline We're still at the beginning so we know this and we will definitely be reporting on our next On our next presentation. What has been the advance with these groups? Okay, I just wanted to know if it was comparable to Our actual demographics in the city about how many people Showed up. I think that that was missing for me. Um, and I probably should have started with this But thank you guys so much for your hard work. I really enjoyed meeting you guys on uh The sessions that I was able to attend. So thank you else member alvarez Thank you, mayor I definitely don't discount the the fact that we are exiting cobin As well as that this is the first time that we can have a go at it My question to you and probably at three specifically is what did you see work for For the outreach especially specifically in the Hispanic community and where did you see that we can definitely improve as we move forward? Thanks for the question mayor City council member alvarez I think for the spanish-speaking population There are many challenges as I mentioned But I think what worked for us was to reach out to specifically groups that are already organized and This was very successful. We we reached out to different groups in in roseland specifically and other areas of the city We joined efforts of vaccination fairs and events And we when we're looking forward to in-person meetings because we believe that a lot of the community outreach would be More accessible for people if we do it in person. Unfortunately till now the city has not been able to Do community events, but we believe that just reaching out directly to communities and Taking away the language barriers and also Reaching people where they are so using grocery stores vaccine vaccination centers and places where people shop as places where to contact the Hispanic community if And and yeah, we will keep trying to do this work as soon as the city let us Be present in in this community events or doing our own outreach And I definitely understand that the the obstacles and I'd love to hear that that you are approaching Where the people are such as grocery stores or where they make their purchases and spend their money I find that to be the most effective place and I hope that you will further explore those options. Thank you Councilmember Schwedl. Thank you. Mr. Mayor on the same lines First of all, thank you for this report. Um, and I might have heard or read it What is the strategy for actually getting some of the youth voice into this? Uh, specifically, you know, it looks like we don't have any voice yet from the youth What's the strategy the atreus respond to that? Um, she's been working closely with Latino service providers Thanks, Andy. Um, I've been working as as Andy mentioned with latino service providers who have been our voices both in english and spanish to communicate with the youth We also want to recognize the work of the two cac members that we have who are who are Students still and we also want to say that we have two future activities going on with our consulting team Which would be jose engagement engagement and uh, two of them would be related to art So we don't want to spoil the the Proposals that just let you know that uh during this This summer we're starting the youth engagement activities that are related to photo voice messages that we will request from from youth and we're finalizing this this Two opportunities for not only youth but kids to be part of this of this Of this participation process for the general plan update because we also want uh kids to be part of of this outreach since they're going to be the ones uh who would leave in the city for 2015 Right and that was kind of my point that's really going to be affecting them more so than maybe some of us But are we partnering with any of the school districts in the city? Not yet. Uh, we were leaving the schools alone While they're reorganized and went back to to classes. So now after The the restart of classes. That's that's our next step to to start a community youth engagement plan Great. Thank you. I'd really encourage that just our experience with the rebuilding of coffee community park Working with the local school getting the feedback from the students who we used in that park was invaluable to the ultimate design of the park So thank you I see no other questions from council members. Let's go ahead go to public comment on this item I'll start in the chambers and I don't see anybody who's jumping up to speak mostly because we're all alone in the chambers So we'll go to our zoom live public comments We'll start with woody followed by gregory Uh, can you hear me? Yes, we can All right. I'm assuming is yeah only one woody here. So woody hastings Here today, uh Representing myself, uh, you know as a sonoma county resident also with the coalition Opposing new gas stations. I think it's great that I heard it earlier stated that you're Looking at all these policies through an equity lens Something I didn't hear really I don't think I heard at all is anything about the climate crisis and a climate lens and I I know that City of santa rosa has adopted a climate emergency resolution that commits the city to looking at its power through a climate crisis lens And so I would want to see or hope to see Some discussion some inclusion really in all of the key Key areas that that were mentioned in that context slide of the sort of the topic areas Um, that really climate be infused as as equity would be infused throughout all of the All of the issue areas that you're looking at I mean The news is just coming in, you know day after day of epic unprecedented anomalous wildfire and heat episodes and floods Unprecedented anomalous floods and the climate scientists are telling telling us that these episodes are not just rare Not just unusual. They are off the charts by by many orders of magnitude of what should be experienced in our uh, you know in our modern 10 000 roughly 10 000 year old, uh, you know current, uh, holocene climate and we are in a period of of unprecedented unprecedented peril and it is incumbent upon all governmental entities from the federal international federal state and really down to the local level to address this issue meaningfully to to begin to you know do something about the coalition opposing new gas station says You know stop pouring fuel on the climate crisis fire And stop permitting new gas stations for example, and I know that there's action being taken on the part of the city To pursue that and that's good We're happy about that, but I'd like to see more More focus on the climate crisis in this conversation. Thank you Thank you, woody. We'll go to Gregory followed by jenny Thank you mayor and members of the council and planning commission. My name is Gregory Farron I um I want to listen to my wife who tells me that this is just visioning And it isn't uh details Because it looks you know pretty but there's no content here And the content that is here seems to be driven by the technical advisory committee I want to point out. I want to answer commissioner carter's question about where the technical advisory committee is It's in the briefing book and in the existing conditions If you read the entirety of this not the visions because while pretty and like I say lacking content I want them to go to you know real goals and objectives and Measurable outcomes so we can really figure out if we're getting to anywhere like where we want to go But if you back up and you know take the five mile, you know above view This is really just a place kind of a holding panna validated collection of budget requests and policy alternatives are um actions that The staff has wanted and put into uh the briefing book and the existing conditions You've got hundreds of pages in this that are nothing more than what i've seen and heard at city council meetings For years about what it is the staff wants Uh and while that's very important to listen to It's about 90 of this package you're reviewing The other you know five percent is these hearings and people wanting aspirational You know idealized Views of the city and that's what should be driving this and the city is not land and Circulation which is what you're hearing Land and circulation is an old style general plan update that says all we have to do is figure out Where to build housing and how to straighten out roads? this at the aspiration of this general plan and this state of california's Direction to general plans is to get into people to have social interactions that strengthen neighborhoods that build cities that are vibrant because of the people in it finding real value in being in it and seeing their aspirations brought to bear and it's not Where a house ought to be or a building ought to be or what are a street ought to be Fixed we can get to those and that's not the aspirational aspect of a real general plan I want this to get into strengthening neighborhoods. I want this to be able to deal with the social interactions The way in which people live Beyond what street they live on and what house they live in Thank you very much Thank you. Gregory. We'll go to jenny followed by david Hello, everyone. Thank you. Mayor rogers Chair weeks and members of the city council and planning commission It's nice to see those of you. I know But haven't seen in a long time and to meet the many new representatives of our city Thank you for your service and thank you to the staff for all the work you've done on this important document I'm a longtime resident of santa rosa newly retired from the american lung association after 24 years And now serving as president of the sonoma county bicycle coalition I applaud the city for the broad and inclusive approach being taken to develop the plan I would urge you to include more ambitious And specific language to ensure the city's achieves its ambitious mobility climate health and equity goals and I do Really support what both woody and greg have have said that yes, this this is a vision document But we need a vision and a plan to get to the reality The american lung association and the broader health community recognize that climate change is a public health emergency And a public health crisis Transportation is our number one source of climate emissions The quickest way we can quickly reduce emissions and improve community health and connectivity to our neighborhoods Is to make it easier and safer for people to ride a bicycle With its geography and climate santa rosa should be One of the most bike friendly cities in the country and yet as you know the majority of people Don't ride a bicycle because they do not feel safe doing so Santa rosa desperately needs a network of safe Protected bicycle corridors connecting all parts of our city and our neighborhoods The urgency of the climate challenge requires us to be bold and radical in our street designs To promote cycling and roadways that work for all ages and abilities Our next general plan can and should have measurable goals for meeting Its bold vision for bicycle and active transportation And the city council also has a key opportunity to set the direction for this bold direction And to direct staff to be bold as well climate science requires Nothing less so i've made some suggested language changes for the vision statement that i have submitted and Happy to send i'd send it to most of you. I will send it to the ones who don't have it yet And I uh, of course welcome your ideas to make it bolder. Thank you so much for your time Thank you, jenny. We'll go to david followed by kevin Looks like we lost david All right david if you get a chance Oh Can you unmute? Okay Yeah Yeah, um picking up on jenny's statement I um have been involved with the southeast greenway campaign and I couldn't agree more in terms of really creating Bicycle spaces that connect the community and I think that's a The greenway would really serve us a lot of people that The whole city in a sense because It's a kind of a key Route in terms of connecting the city and connecting it Even the county on farther Also The comment that was made earlier about art and supporting getting Kids young adults Take on things. I think there's a lot in an art that could be done Say with the greenway and looking at things that could be done on that and that's close to schools Something like I think it's 15 schools are within a half mile or something. So I think those kind of things should be supported in terms of the community Mapping of what you can consider your community Living Off a lupa You know, I think of of all the things here you have the golf course you you have The wonderful parks You have the shopping You know kind of like Montgomery village and all the stuff on summer field and I would just Mention that I think that The golf course it's that's a really important Asset as is the park that surrounds it. There's what probably five or six different uses in that And I'd hate to see the golf courses has been proposed or at least studied is What are you going to do with the golf course? And this my understanding is the golf course has actually been quite profitable Over a number of years it's perhaps the dining part Bar restaurant that hasn't been so profitable But I think that's an That's an important part of the side of town and You know, if you look at that park That it's in so many different uses you got soccer you got baseball fishing tennis you know, so you got a multi Sports complex and I think that's important to keep As well as I would imagine that the Golf course is All right. Thank you so much. David. We'll go to kevin followed by eras Hi friends Hi kevin kevin anderson here representing myself, but also A future for humanity santa rosa. I moved to santa rosa in two in January so very excited and working in the santa rosa general area for the last five years with high school youth On climate and environmental projects I'm not going to go too deep into the climate environmental connections I think woody greg and jenny already laid a great groundwork for that My main point is the youth voice which has already been brought up a couple places I do want to say To to amy Beatrice and andy. You guys are doing a wonderful job Getting out there. I've seen you a couple different meetings now And so well done in these unprecedented times you're doing a spectacular job I would definitely though it's someone that has worked in the santa rosa city schools and all over the county With high school youth would like to see more and when I when I say this what I mean and this might go for everyone here Simpler to understand language. What is land use? Why does it matter to the youth future to our future? That includes future housing, of course, which is a huge concern if you're if you're anyone right now But certainly our youth Neighborhood connectivity. Why is that important to not only climate but also social Also, what will what will these places provide for fun for coming together increasing social interaction? And then how are neighborhoods currently connected? We all know they're connected by Automobile traffic and that needs to change for lots of reasons first and foremost It does not provide enough space for youth to interact for all of us to interact Also in terms of santa rosa, I'd like to say this pedal luma is getting a lot of press lately Their climate action committee is doing some some serious work big band gas stations And frankly, I think that's great, but I think santa rosa if we're actually looking at things has better bones We we need to to be proactive and use those better bones So I'm talking about we have a pretty comprehensive network of creek paths But they are they are disconnected ultimately and don't go to schools don't connect to each other don't connect neighborhoods frankly well enough Our public art in the city is pretty fantastic Tara Thompson has done a wonderful job over the years, but still an opportunity there Also distinct neighborhoods in world world-class parks But unless we connect the why this matters to 2050 and paint a positive future for what it could look like Starting with just the fact that that life will be better for everyone if people can get out of the automobiles and onto bikes onto public transit And of course walking about So I would love Any way I can plug in I've offered my support many times And I I'd love to to be able to ameliorate your efforts I think the youth voice ultimately should drive this should be the most important voice here. And so that also includes BIPOC communities as well. Thank you for your time Thank you so much for your comments. Kevin. We'll go on to eris Hi, thanks. I'm eris weaver. I'm the executive director at the Sonoma county bicycle coalition I spent some day at a memorial service praying vibrant artistic productive Santa Rosa resident Who was killed while he was riding his bike by a driver? I have spent hours holding the hands of the bereaved In Sonoma county courtrooms during the trial Of the drivers who have killed their loved ones I would like to address the issue the line item in the vision about safety Said streets are safe. How do we define that? uh public safety services Yes, we want our public safety services to be caring and thoughtful and all of those things but Those are After the fact picking up the pieces after things have already happened. I have been serving on the county's vision zero advisory committee and for those of you who don't know what vision zero means Our our culture our country our society Assumes that traffic fatalities are a given our part of our commitment to being able to get around as fast as we want to In cars and the design of our communities reflect that the idea of vision zero is that instead we say no traffic fatalities Are preventable and we instead make a commitment to zero fatalities two european cities have achieved an entire year with zero cyclist and pedestrian facility Fatalities we have an average in Sonoma county of about four bicycle fatalities a year And i'm sorry. I don't know the number for pedestrians because I don't traffic as much as I do cyclists So I would like to see stronger language defining safety In our general plan that we are making a that the city makes a commitment to vision zero to a vision of Zero traffic fatalities and then backs that up with action on the streets. Thank you Thank you Okay, thank you so much eris That's the last hand that I see for public comment. So I'll go ahead and bring it back to the group Amy Andy or Beatrice I'll ask a couple of the questions that I heard from from public comment first. I'll start with Eris's comment How do we reflect in our vision statement the city's vision zero goals? all uh All of respond by saying we're really shifting the focus away of And looking at more comprehensively the idea of mobility throughout the city How we connect our neighborhoods not only in terms of efficiencies of moving people and goods about but also the qualitative and safety experience within the city so It is my view one of the biggest assets that the city has is it's is it's public right away It's the biggest public public domain we have and a greatest opportunity to not only influence The character and the and the look of the city, but also how we experience it in terms of safety as cyclists pedestrians for all age groups for people with mobility impairment and who are not able to drive so The policies of the general plan will certainly Be built on community input and the findings we make during the process of public review on on this issue and I'm pretty confident that we will be addressing implementation programs like vision zero Okay, then there was a sort of a broad question that I think strikes at the heart of this At what point will the community start to see more ambitious or more specific language? around Some of these elements whether and I'll touch on the the climate lens or vision zero Or equity focus at what point will we see more specifics that are more outcome oriented than the aspirational? yeah, so We are going into the second phase where we're building alternatives and that's really where we'll start to see on the ground Expressions of not just these aspirational ideas, but actual land use circulation questions about Safety as we were just talking about that's where we'll be able to really look at places and have these detailed discussions and comments The I will Invite my colleagues to to add more, but it's really this next stage After this very general discussion where we roll up our sleeves and hopefully in a face-to-face format With the community start pointing at maps and having the tough balancing questions and I invite my colleagues to to add to that Yeah, I'd love to help respond to some of the comments related to climate action So we are updating the climate action plan as part of this effort And there will be more touch points related to climate action than some of the other areas of policy So right now we are poised to be releasing a vulnerability assessment. That's just been prepared And we are also working on a new greenhouse gas emissions inventory We are working closely with rcpa on the climate mobilization strategy And we will be coming to the climate action subcommittee in august august 11th To provide a broader update related to climate action specifically And we will continue to come to that committee to give updates on the progress of that Climate action piece, but I will say we really did hear a lot from the community on climate action But it was infused in various other ways. So we have jumped into conversations about adaptation specific mitigations So we did hear a lot about bike and ped And just better options for mobility looking at the connection between where people live and work and and trying to Bring those closer together and then of course just resiliency in general as far as the hazards and some of the It just natural disasters that we've been experiencing So you'll see it infused throughout the general plan process But we are fortunate enough to have the funding and the consultant team and the regional collaboration to do that climate action piece So um it there will be touch points at the climate action subcommittee that I would invite people to join To really get in depth with those But I I will say just in general we are at the somewhat at the beginning of the general plan process So we really haven't had the opportunity to get into those policy discussions about how a lot of these Vision statements would be implemented in policy. So I identify with gregory's comments that this is kind of a A squishy phase. It's somewhat nebulous to be thinking about these broad vision statements and words But the next phase is when the fund really starts when we start to really look at how These things get implemented on the ground in different scenarios And then what kind of policies do we attach to those scenarios? And and also just to reply back to some of the planning commissioners comments the vision statements are not ranked So these are just um equal expressions of words that We have put together based on the community's comments I appreciate that I think that myself and a number of My colleagues will be looking as we go through this process to see how The city's mission vision values and goals are reflected in the document as well Whether it's community engagement or climate action or vision zero or are pushed for for greater equitability throughout our community And so I appreciate that there'll be multiple touch points on that Madam Chair do you want to take it away for comments from the planning commission? Sure Let's start with commissioner carter Okay, I'll I'll go through where I had specific comments on the division statements I you know, even though they're Not ranked. I think ordering of the list is important and It seems to be ordered appropriately at this time. Um, these are the things that We're hearing comments about uh equity and inclusion, which is under Um, the just one and I think climate change there could be more said and sustainable about The effects of climate change. I thought the language to mitigate drought seemed a little specific. Maybe We're talking about mitigating Environmental hazards, uh, such as climate change We also I would like to see something in the sustainable statement that that mentions Habitat accessible green space for everyone is actually quite important But we need to remember green space also supports other natural systems and organisms So something in there I think under the sheltered Vision A word about innovation needs to be included. I think we need to expand our Our understanding of what's appropriate Shelter in our cities and and keep the widest options open Um Under the educated vision, I think education Um requires access to good information and uh, I'd like to see that uh, we recognize that our an educated community is an informed community Um, and then in the cultural vision, uh, I found it curious that live music is mentioned as separate from arts And other lively arts, maybe actors and dancers fill left out with that being included But uh, those are my comments on the specific vision statements. Thank you Thank you commissioner carter commissioner duggin Hi, thanks. Um, first I want to just say how impressed I am with the quality of the public comments I thought all the comments made from the public were Uh spot on and I don't want to repeat everything that they said but um I'm fully in support with what they said about vision zero and climate action and greenhouse gas reduction So just in general, I'd like to see more comments about active transportation and safe Bike and pedestrian infrastructure I want to point out that that could be under sustainable healthy equitable and connected Um, I know one thing that that happens at the planning commission. We see a lot about Projects that have affordable housing components and because of the nature of our city lots of times they're at the edge of town And if you live at the edge of town You probably have to have a car And one thing that's very expensive to support is a car and if you can Have good infrastructure where people maybe only have to have one car per household because they can bike and walk To their daily needs and to school and such then that helps people save money So that could be under the equitable component Um, let's see and also I think um that could Having safe infrastructure and more people biking and walking creates a more connected community because there are more people on the streets and uh More opportunities to run into your neighbors and stop and chat I know that's happened in my life because I live downtown and bike and walk everywhere Uh Yeah, let's see if I missed anything else But I do think because this this document is you know for 2050, which is You know, not that far off that it's a ways off but we have to be more forward thinking and more um Not pushing people but kind of guiding people into the future And I think we really do have to read and start greenhouse gases massively And get people out of their cars unless they absolutely have to drive somewhere So um anything we can do around that I think would be greatly appreciated And uh, I'll stop right there. Thank you Thank you commissioners dug in Commissioner Krepke Yeah, I don't think there's much more I could add to what my fellow commissioners have already said In terms of the points the one thing that was Troubling to me a slightly was that two of the points are around inclusive and equitable and we have Without a hard number on it looks like about five percent participation from uh, hispanic and latinx community 2% from 18 to 24 And zero percent from 17 and under. Um, so I'm not a demographer, but I can tell you that less than 10 percent. Uh, hispanic and latinx is not reflective of our city Um, and uh, if we're doing this for 2050, we really need people under the age of 24 to have a say in what's going on Um, so other than that, um I don't have any real further comments based upon what my fellow commissioners have said already Thank you. Vice chair Peterson Thank you. Yeah, I think I think we've heard some great comments from the public. Um Great comments from the the council and the commissioners Uh, you so let me let me add my voice to the chorus of people advocating for Really a bold forward-looking Uh, you know, this is a vision statement. This is aspirational. So let's set the bar really high. Let's say You know specifically under you know, say sustainability Let's not minimize greenhouse gases. Let's eliminate like let's find a way that we can really you know Change the the city for the better and try and undo 70 years of car centric development. I know it's a huge task, but I think for santa rosa, you know the fires the the other challenges that the city has faced um is has Exposed a lot of the issues that Come with car centric development come with the the community we live in and I think that this is a great city I think it's got a lot of potential and I think You know bold Tangible goals are something that this vision statement could really benefit from I know, you know We'll kind of see how that shakes out in the process. But you know, I think commissioner dug in commissioner crepti Have hit on some key stuff in terms of specifics That are that are really great along with a lot of the the public comment So again, just adding my voice to the chorus, you know aim big. I think is the short version Thank you by sharp peterson as usual the commissioners have said it all but I am going to add just a couple things and That is um, I would like the uh sections on resiliency and and resilient and prepared to be expanded somewhat or even um Combined and then with more um Meet to it, um And then um also under educated You talk about uh, you know strength and families there are a lot of people who aren't in any kind of a family structure and so I think that that Maybe should be reflected And I already talked about the that streets Or that safe, um that the streets are safe Probably implies infrastructure, but somehow put the infrastructure in there And I really like the idea under sustainability Of eliminating the word minimum and just eliminate Um, I do think as commissioner dug and said this is in the future And so we have to look at what the future is going to bring us and um As uh commissioner peterson said, you know be more aspirational But I do want to make a couple other comments and that is I went to a number of the community meetings in my living room and They were great and I really appreciate all the hard work that staff did putting those together. Um, I know it can't have been easy during in this zoom environment and it was um Really interesting to see in different parts of the community what were important to people And so I really appreciate you doing that and I hope you do some more And thank you to staff And I'll turn it back to uh, mayor rogers unless there's any other comments from my fellow commissioners All right, well, thank you so much to the planning commission for your comments on this I'll go to council members first on zoom to see if we have any additional feedback I'll start with councilmember alvarez Thank you, mayor For me what I heard a lot from my community, especially in district one was a need for more safety It was one of the top priorities and and maybe that these can can uh Be be an agreement with that and another topic that was really brought up and a great concern Is the amount of hardship that the renters are having in acquiring living spaces when we look at uh Our someone from our community who might not have all the means for portable documents to acquire living space and they're paying Beyond the three thousand dollar per month fees while of those of us who are fortunate to own our own houses Our mortgage payments could be between one thousand two thousand and maybe even higher depending on the size of the structure But it's definitely adding to the sense that the poor are staying poor while those with means are definitely able to save Money, so I really wanted to share that concern that was that to me really affects the community in respect to home ownership to Uh adding to the piggy bank for for those for those uh cloudy days. Thank you Thank you councilmember any other comments from our zoom council members All right seeing them. I'll come to the dais Councilmember swedhelm Thank you, mr. Mayor So I really do appreciate the vision statements and the challenges we've heard others people say it is aspirational Because i'm kind of like who's going to be doing what by when and that's not what this purpose is But one thing that I would like to maybe be added on slide 20 We have santa rosa's a place with the following characteristics and then we have all this great data All those different categories. I know council before when I think the mayor mentioned the mission vision values If we can incorporate saying you know san rosa is the leader in the north bay and we define that by the following characteristics Some other aspirational thing. I know the police department vision statement Was we want san rosa to be a safe place to live work and play something aspirational You know in that statement and then the content is what all these other vision statements are which I think are golden I think it's great. So I would just If we could work in that type of a statement in that initial comment, I think it would be great. Thanks councilmember soyer Thank you, mayor I apologize for not speaking up while you were mentioning the the zoom, but I was I was making a couple of notes You know, I first I want to thank staff and the community for a real comprehensive list of issues For the perfect title center was a forward And it'll be interesting to know in 20 years when we when there is another update to to to this to the general plan and how these updates have have Evolved over the years. Many of them have the same themes and sometimes they're there are new ones I think if you don't have a safety a safe community, you have nothing And how the council and how our various boards and commissions deal with safety in our community will be very interesting over the over the next number of years but safety is a Whether it be derived from the from our police department or from our fire department or any of the other safety our other safety departments Not not the least of which is centers of water. I mean the challenges the center was a water over the next three years will be be really Interesting is not a really good word, but it will be Fascinating to watch how they deal with our community You know, one of the one of the themes that I that I did not I saw once on slide 19 When though they're all of the words that were brought up and put into a grouping And the word beautiful was was there in small print And I think that that a community Along the safety it needs to be attractive The aesthetic of a community is very very important at least to me and I don't think it's lost on on both The council and our various boards and commissions But an attractive community is really really important If if it's not an attractive community people are not going to come and live here and if they're not living here They're not demanding some of the those very important elements that that Have come up this this afternoon I'm not the least of which is climate action. So I think that that someplace In not such small print in in In in not kind of a lost comment is Even though perhaps beautiful is not the word that I would necessarily choose Lacking another word Beauty is an important element in any community whether you're surrounded by it or you created yourself and through art or whatever whatever and Commissioner, uh crepti mentioned Are I believe was I believe it was him in mission art the the individual that mentioned art art is it is elemental to to the the to the the progress of a community and And so I would I would Impress on us the importance of of a beautiful environment Um, it touches on almost every single one of the elements that was that it was brought in that in that circle of So I just would like to highlight that Most all of the if not all of the other elements have been highlighted by one of our By by the council or or the the planning commissioner and I appreciate their comments They are all smack on and um, so I'll I'll leave it there. Thank you Thank you councilmember I don't need to repeat the comments that I've heard from most of our colleagues in the planning commission But I did want to punctuate one that was made by the vice chair and the chair And go even just a little bit further This is a vision statement for what santa rosa is going to look like in 2050 And given that we have a goal as a community of being carbon neutral by 2030 If we miss that goal by 20 years then our plans were not aspirational enough And I feel fairly confident that we can put in our plan that by 2050 We will be carbon neutral that we will have reduced our reliance on greenhouse gas emissions and have done our part To be able to address climate change. So that is the one area Where I would really emphasize is going further and being bolder I think that all of the other things that we've talked about from Equitability to safety All of those things are captured in some of these different components well enough and we can flush those out with the details But that's the one that really does stick with me as well as we're not minimizing greenhouse gas emissions We need to not have any by that point And that would be my one piece of feedback for staff Is there any other additional feedback that that staff needs on this item? No, I think that's great. We really appreciate all of your all of your comments and review Great. Thank you so much. And then with that, I will excuse the planning commission Thank you all so much for joining us here today I know it's not your typical time or your typical day But we appreciate the feedback and we'll keep working with you hand-in-hand on this as we move forward Mr. City Manager item 3.2 Mayor Rogers and members of the city council item 3.2 this afternoon Is a study session item on the potential financing of the city's unfunded actuarial liability With issuance of pension obligation bonds Jan Mzik our chief financial officer will be presenting the staff report this afternoon. Good afternoon, Mayor Rogers and council members You know, it might be helpful for me to start with just a couple of anecdotes about pensions And more specifically The city's unfunded liability and really around why we're we're having the conversation today So a couple of weeks ago Right after the start of the fiscal new year One of the accounts payable staff came in And she's bringing me a really sizable invoice to to to authorize A payment for 53 million dollars And I think she was expecting 20 questions She says, you know what this is and I said, yes, I do she goes. It's a really big amount Part of that was for the unfunded liability part of it is our normal costifers And if we prepay it once a year At the beginning of the fiscal year we get a 3% discount and so I you know sort of shared that with her and she was relieved I signed it and she went on Today I took a look looking we were looking inward looking outward Um at the forward calendar for the bond issuance calendar that is So there's a slated forward calendar For four billion In pension bonds That's just between july 2021 And probably just beyond The new year A couple of really biggies Santa Ana 626 million Almost a billion dollars for the city of anaheim And for a 1.4 billion dollars city of san josei those are all Finansings that are way long enough Um so that they make the forward calendar And a remainder of about 15 cities Make up the issuance So the question is you know What is it? Why is it this is such a big issue today? And sort of what are the underlying dynamics many of this this will get into in the presentation But one it's really difficult to make a You know a jolt in unfunded liabilities without debt issuance bond issuance pob issuance specifically We've got low interest rates High cost debt The unfunded liability until last week Was at 7% debt interest rate, which is what we're paying on it that rate was just Lower to 6.8 and it's expected frankly to go just a little bit further And so I think the idea is I wouldn't I would never say that pension bonds are the solution They're part of the solution solution But there are other aspects that really need careful consideration And so what I'd like to do today is introduce, you know, I think your understanding to how liabilities work And what that means and you know, what sort of Bigger picture should we be talking about and putting together with regard to the city's unfunded liability? So with that if we can Go to slide three, please So what I would suggest is a really very high level takeaway. It's going to be difficult For and you shouldn't have to understand it at the level which I do But there are some important points to be taken away, you know, what are the factors influencing the city's increasing costs? number two You know, what are the alternatives for addressing the unfunded liability? And three, what's the way forward from here? And so with that, let's go to slide four, please So these terms are familiar to me, but they're unfamiliar to most people You know lay persons that is And I may use them I'll try to be thoughtful when I use them because they're not, you know, going to be the typical phrase you might lose but let me introduce you to them because I you know, you'll hear them um The actuarial report so every two years helpers does a report All of the information with which we're working today is based on the 2019 report so it lags And you'll see here It was last done at the end of the year in 2019 We are required All governments are required to now disclose its funded status of its pensions In the notes to our financial statements Regarding the pension plan I remember from the very brief overview that was provided in a recent meeting In response to council member Tibbetts's question about a 10 million dollar investment. I use the word basis So bases are made up of gains and losses Benefit enhancements changes and assumptions And overall actuarial performance You know things like death late retirement early retirement disability and termination Each base has a fixed dollar payment schedule Such as a loan payment with terms that range from five to 20 years The discount rate which is also the borrowing rate But also the hurdle rate for investment returns It was 7 percent when I prepared this report It's now down to 6.8 percent and it's likely it's going to go just a little bit lower You'll also see in addition to this it serves as the interest rate to calculate the city's UAL payments That's the high cost of debt that we're talking about Funded status means it's really the unfunded liability Less the net value of our assets and that gives us the unfunded Percentage of our funded status So in addition to our unfunded liability payment think of the unfunded liability payment by the way as a past due amount But we also have a current amount due those are normal costs for people who are currently on our payroll And those payments are made as a percentage of payroll as opposed to fixed dollar payments Such as the unfunded actuarial liability And finally UAL we all used to use The abbreviation UAL And which is meant to say Unfunded actuarial Assumed liability because it's changing and it's dynamic Um, I just say UAL frequently. I will say unfunded actuarial liability And we talked about that just a minute ago So that is the estimated future benefits And the market value of assets and the difference in those amounts Represents the unfunded amount or the past due amount for benefits earned By current employees as well as people who are already retired next slide please So defining the problem, um are The costs associated with our unfunded liability Are and they're increasing and you'll see a diagram with regard to that Are crowding out the city's ability to fund other basic And necessary services and improvements So in addition so in the pat this current this fiscal year beginning um I was going to say Last year beginning last year Um our payments step up step up for about another 12 years consistently And just that increasing amount Is 110 million dollars The first such an increase of three and a half million was paid to calpers and the payment we met the 53 Uh million dollar payment. I mentioned that was the first of the step up in payments Next slide please So here are the typical expenses. Um the calp we have with calpers The normal cost rate. That's our employee rate. That's what we're paying for those who are currently employed Um the actuarial report that's exactly what it looks like Most of the time and um, I know it's and and we get it. It's done every two years And then the discount rate, um, which has recently been reduced Um from seven percent Um down to six point eight percent And just in case you're thinking that may be really good um Calpers has really been reluctant it matters and it matters because What's likely to happen and depending upon results is that, you know, it may have The reverse effect on our balance sheet, which is an increased ual Liability next slide, please So here is a history of calpers performance since 2011 So remember we're earning or wanting to earn above seven percent But that's also the cost at which we're borrowing To pay for the unfunded liability So anytime it's above the seven percent level. We have gains If it's below the seven percent level We have losses And you can see sort of the overall performance from about 2011 through 2020 Last year, I believe calpers has Did have losses. We haven't seen it yet and um, or it hasn't showed up in the overall calc as yet This year and partly why we're seeing the reduction in the ual Cost or borrowing cost is because calpers is expected to return Actually, they announced a return of 21.8 percent. So it sort of softens the blow next slide, please This is exactly what bases look like Each of these represents alone The city for the city of santa rosa You can take a look at it. I put it here just for um illustrative purposes So you'll see miss All together we have 63 loans um miscellaneous fire And police all of these are individual loans gains and losses alike um that for which we will make a payment The unfunded liability payment to calpers next slide, please This is called layer cake I didn't prepare it, but I used it From one of our consultants and What this is it looks like in picture form The black line really represents The amortization or the payment schedule To calpers but all of these are made up of gains and losses for a total of 60 Three different loans to calpers Next slide, please So we're really now beginning to get into the math of How this is all calculated or 65 loans. Sorry in total Normal costs which we talk about 20.7 million. Those are employees who are here The unfunded liability made up of retirees the past due portion of our loans 30 30 million dollars is sort of the baseline So here's the accrued liability combined It's 1 but 1.3 billion Our market value of assets is 946 million That gives us an unfunded liability amount of almost 400 million or 398 0.5 million to be exact All of this is financed at a rate Going forward of 6.8 percent So it's expensive yet Next slide, please This is what it looks like I've highlighted The escalating payments that go through 20 36 before They sort of get back to the level at which it was in our base year Just that increasing amount That i've circled on this slide Represents an additional 110 million dollars That the city I actually think of it as avoidable costs if we do something about it But right now they're there It will be an additional 110 million Above the baseline Of about 30 million over the next Yeah through 2035 Next slide please So I've tried to break it up a little bit Um the challenge to be solved the steady increases above the baseline Um, which we I mentioned earlier will really provide Of they are a financial challenge It's difficult now and has been I think for some time Given the lower cost of payments So just the notion of adding another 110 million With an interest cost additional interest cost all of this is financed At a rate to be going forward at about 6.8 percent And here is what the payment schedule or the amortization as we call it that Accompanies are unfunded liability for police fire and miscellaneous So in the right hand column I actually take the difference Or the actual increase above the amount and you can see how I get to the 110 million dollar Um 0.8 million That's at the bottom of the slide Next before we're going to we're about to go on to another section So this particular section has largely focused on the unfunded liability And I know this is a lot to take in and it's really challenging for those of us who don't talk about it every day um And so I just want to pause and ask If anyone it's important to me that I don't lose you But any questions regarding the unfunded liability portion of this Yeah, I'll look for hands from council members and I'll start with councilmember Sawyer Thank you mayor and thanks jan It is very complicated. I agree with you What I'd like to jump back to and where I felt I really got lost Um, I was on slide eight when you were just talking about the 65 loans Um, could you elaborate a bit on the nature of these loans? Because I think of a loan I think in a in a certain way and the clearly this is not Not the same way I look at loans and it's certainly not in these amounts So could you explain to me what these 65 loans are? So Every year We will okay, so you have gains and losses Last year you had a loss this year you'll have big gains So each of that So we have three plans every year two additional bases Her plan Or is added So the next time I see an amortization or let me say a payment schedule From calpers there will be six additional bases here So they actually they don't take it all it's like gains and losses. They all get amortized They all get built in to the plan specific to the city of santa rosa So if if if if next year for well last year Let's just say calpers return four percent That's a three three percent loss Below where they expect it to return have returns Before you go on let's do this let's go up to 2003 Very the very first Loan and the very first numbers you have there. Tell me what happened in 2003 Okay, you had a gain. Well, there was an assumption change So remember when I introduced the language Or sort of the nomenclature of what calpers uses You know, we can have gains and losses You can have assumption changes just a simple assumption change Depending on any number of factors, but that afforded a gain of 1.8 million If I'm looking at miscellaneous plan It also said that you had a change in asset assets Of you know 28,000 and change And then there was a method change for instance in 2004 And so all of these bases are made up Of a variety of activity Gains and losses And any number of other changes that would impact your liability status And these changes are brought on by Calpers themselves Well, let me I'm I'm going to just go back and read what it's made up of gains and losses benefit enhancements change in assumptions Actuary change in actuarial performance death late early retirement disability Termination all of those get reflected in our calpers calculations So this is in part what makes it so complicated and so different than what nor what what the average joe is going to be looking at when trying to to understand What we're dealing with When trying to to Make sense of these numbers Yes, and so when I started out the presentation today You know what because I mean some of it is just you know, I mean it's really in the weeds But what I wanted to to lay the foundation of It's really a simple foundation This is expensive debt 6.8 percent 7 percent It's expensive debt And we're now you're going to see you know, we're going to talk about that But this section I wanted to focus on just What the underlying Issues are when we think about calpers And I think the word to think about this particular section is it's dynamic It is currently changing. You'll hear me talk about risks if even we do a financing And there's no certainty to any of this What we can take are calculated risks, which we'll talk about But there are so many things that impact what that All that said It's expensive debt. That's the takeaway Understand those sort of some of the underlying issues And why they're constantly dynamic So at the end of the day that the takeaway is and and this and this does speak to me Expensive debt. So I have that those two words are Very meeting and I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, council members. What oh Thank you, mr. Mayor Jan you had mentioned that the discount rate it had been seven percent. It's just been dropped to 6.8 percent Which to me sounded like a good thing But then you also kind of you made comments that it may not in the long one be a good thing. Could you further explain that? So remember The assume that the actuarial rate or the hurdle rate as I is what I usually call it You're expected to earn above that rate Let's just use seven percent as a number because it's easier But you're you're what we're hoping for Is to have Earnings performance above seven percent The reality is that as you saw from the graph that looked at calpers returns It's been really difficult since 2008 For calpers to consistently make That performance or that hurdle rate And you may be underperforming quite a bit So, you know On your investment gains, you know, if you're gaining below Something less than that seven percent So it's both your borrowing rate, but also your investment sort of peg And you know either one of those things Ultimately have an impact on the unfunded liability So when it goes down to 6.8 percent implied in that assumption Is you may likely earn less If it goes down to six and a half percent The assumption is you're likely going to earn less And therefore if you earn less you don't have as many or the potential for as The significant gains As if you were in a higher Rate environment earning rate environment And that's what potentially causes the increase In the unfunded liability amount That you may See depending on overall performance Reflected in our financial statements So jen if if I can because I've I've spent a lot of time talking with constituents about this If I can offer what I think is a simple explanation you can tell me if it's accurate or not So the pension fund comes largely we pay for it with three primary sources return on investment Employees that pay into it and the amount that the city pays into it So if you lower the amount you're getting from investments And if you have a fixed cost on your contracts with your employees Who picks up the tab is that third attribute which is us? Is that a fair way to say it jan? um I personally wouldn't characterize it that way. I think there are parts of it that yeah I I I you know I just sort of keep it at if I earn above seven if I earn above the hurdle rate That's great. If I earn below it. That's not a good thing And if you lower it because the expectation Or the actuarial expectation is you're going to earn less going forward A greater liability potential So okay, mayor senior manager. I could I hope I'm not going to add to the complexity or confusion of this I there's probably enough of it for everybody at this point, but I think the other Item of information that's contained on this chart is the term It's listed in the middle column in between gain and loss and the numbers and what happened in Around 2008 You'll remember there was a significant downturn in market performance And so you'll see some sizable losses listed there At that time perz adopted what they called a smoothing program And essentially what they did was they lengthened the term Of those bases or loans to help cities adjust over time to the losses in their portfolios Otherwise if they were still doing them over a four or five year term You would have seen the payments required of employers Jump up Even more significantly than they have Conversely If it was you know followed by three years of gains Significantly they would have lowered the cost significantly. So what what you have here is a package of bases or loans That have been put together over multiple years for differing terms to help smooth the impact to employers And it's complex as jan said it Essentially, I think the mayor's description of the three factors that go into determining You know What uh your pension costs are is correct its employee contributions Its employer contributions And it's what your investments earn or lose in the marketplace All right, we'll go on to councilmember tibbetz Thank you, mayor Jan i'm gonna try to take a stab at my own form of understanding this So forgive me if i'm wildly off-dice and feel free to tell me if I am It could we go back to the slide of the graph that showed the returns vis-a-vis the seven percent mark? Let me see if I can find the slide to read it That's like you can't I can still close the question without it Okay, so my question is In 2012 there was a one tenth of a percent return Does that mean that our ual went up by 6.9 percent? Meaning we owed more money Well, you would have had significant losses Driving up the unfunded portion So it's not a commensurate amount where it's for example, we were 6.9 percent below the seven percent target We didn't and therefore end up owing. Let's say our our pension obligations was just to make an easy number 100 million dollars at the time so that means our our ual or our total debt didn't go up by another 6.9 million I I would assume not so again I don't know what those losses were in terms of actual dollars um and again The bases or the payment schedules are made up of a variety of elements Not okay Investment gains or losses are a significant component But not the only components Okay I mean, I think you can say look 21 Look, here's here's what I will say this year where we're expected to return Or CalPERS returned 21.8 percent You are going to see a significant benefit You'll see when the valuation is done Huge gains That was part of the calculus of CalPERS decision to lower the unfunded rate um The city manager talked about some of the smoothing elements Right, so let me just say this back in 2008 I sat in a meeting with standard and PORS then CalPERS Standard of PORS said back then you need to be it's We believe the real rate ought to be six and a half percent Now however many years ago that was No one could do that it would send cities counties everyone into a tailspin And so they adopted the whole smoothing element But you know, there's a benefit that comes with that and in that it makes your payment structure easier The challenge with that is you're seeing the result In that pyramid That we talked about Which makes it really challenging now to sort of make those step up and make those payments So, I mean, I guess as I understood PERS it's it's a giant investment account and these returns are what the market is It's typically reflective of the market Yeah, I think everybody returned over the past year roughly 20 percent And you know CalPERS return 20 now granted they have, you know all sorts of investments Um, I you know, it's certainly not just stock market. It's real estate. It's made up their portfolio They have portfolios made up of all sorts of investments So when the investments don't provide a healthy return Our liability Goes up And so what we've effectively got and this is my punchline what I'm What I with the way I'm seeing is it's like we've got this giant debt on a variable rate I know it's not one loan with a variable rate, but the concept that The rate is constantly changing and the amount we owe or don't oh goes up and down based on market performance Gains and losses are changing based on returns Yes constant it's dynamic So and I don't want to get too ahead of the presentation, but are you effectively just proposing that we secure fixed fixed interest bond debt to to shrink this to reduce the Lack of predictability around what we owe I think I'm suggesting that we take time To come up of which bonds again, I talked about scale at the beginning Um You know the question was asked you asked a question which I thought was a great question What would 10 million dollars get us? You know that was an a session passed which we talked about it You know 10 million on a 400 million dollar liability Helps it's a drop in the bucket and it's it should form part of a strategy but I'm saying there are Yeah, I you know POB's are part of the answer Just because of scale and just because of where the absolute level of rights are today makes sense But I do think Well, it's worth having A bigger conversation about what that looks like Well, well, I if the reason why I'm asking is because I I'm trying to couch this in a way I understand and I think the way that the general public understand We all understand I think Finance in terms of a home loan and you've got two kinds you got the variable in the fix And what san rosa has is a variable loan essentially And if I understood the materials correctly and I'll stop talking so you can continue on with your presentation But you want to basically take away some of the right 6.8 percent is The rate at which the loan is amortized What the word I would use is It's fully dependent upon performance Yeah You're just trying to Are you just trying to fix it at a lower rate by doing POV's? That would be the conclusion of one of the options Okay, thank you appreciate it All right, jen if I can get you to go to slide 11 Sure So my it's it's really a fundamental question Is the baseline which you you put at 30 million? Is the baseline the amount owed multiplied by The discount rate from cow purse I don't think so, okay, so you've got that 400 million How do you come up with the baseline and then can you explain in kind of simple terms why that baseline continues to grow for a while? Okay, this is the amortization given to us by cow purse Okay, so it's already stated What it will be So again, we talk about gains and losses and sort of the smoothing elements that went on for a few years But what that results in is you have this additional amount here So this is you know, it could have been it is loans pass. Remember, this is a pass due amount um, and so it's amortized or At a rate of seven percent So when I we talk about the 110 million dollar this this is a fixed schedule Given to us by cow purse As to here is what your payments will be For some period of time known okay So where does the 30 million baseline calculation come from that you refer to throughout Cow purse, okay, so cow purse. So cow purse just says that's what it is, but doesn't tell us how they get the 30 million So what I'm trying to figure out is how does cow purse set the baseline Based on How much we owe based on their discount rate Because I understand that this is the pass due which means future performance of the market isn't impacting This this is based on what we owe. So how do we get the baseline from cow purse? What's the formula? So Did the city manager say Maybe I can take a stab at this So in a One of the slides she showed she talked about the 65 bases or loans that we have In this chart really represents a compilation Of those loans and the terms And the annual payments So you're taking a particular year like 2024 You're going through all 65 of those and saying These are the public safety related ones. These the fire related ones. These are the miscellaneous employee Related ones that have payments due in that year And that added together Gets that 30 to 40 million dollar number in payments. That really helps. So I guess my question is do each of those years Have a different percentage that's due That that is fixed to that year Or is there a macro percentage that's due of the total liability? Okay, so um on slide 12 the next slide um Here are the payments Over where it says it in the total column Those are the payments s over the next um Yeah 25 years So I I don't think that was your question though so, but yeah, so I'm looking at the If we're we're spending way too much time on this we can move on But I'll try one more stab at it. So you have each of the different amortizations for what was passed to do at this point As you look into the future as we look into 22 23 24 Is the amount that's due for miscellaneous fire and safety Based on a an aggregate percentage of what's due Or you have to go back and look at 2008. What was the percentage then 2009? What was the percentage then et cetera et cetera and add them together? So one of those charts had a term in the column And so you'd have to look at the term if it was four years You'd only be looking at a four-year impact. It was a 20 year impact. It'd be 20 years of impact The other variable that we have is that As jan has mentioned PERS looks at the performance of their investments and compares them to Their projected rate of turn or that discount rate that she talked about of 7% And at one time it was even higher than that They they were much more optimistic about what they were going to earn from their investments And they have been gradually reducing that down And I believe their target is you know in that six and a half percent range to get it down that far The problem is every time they reduce that It raises the the cost to employers participating in the plan. So they've been doing that very gradually So each one of those bases or loans also has a You know a discount rate or an interest rate associated with them. So Inside each one of those summary numbers by year are you know a aggregation of loans Payments per year at differing interest rates. Okay, so you just answered my question I appreciate that it is the aggregate of each of the individual bases as discount rates for the time of that That that amortization Not the discount rate applied to the whole pool. That's helpful. This last question that we can move on is much more simple As of before the the market crash in 2008 santa rosa was over 100 funded, correct? I I don't know the answer to that question um The number that I have in my head was 100 I seemed to remember it was 104 funded prior to the market crash But maybe allen or somebody else can find that number while we finish the presentation I just wanted to underscore how much of this was at the whims of the market And now we can move on jen Allen isn't here Um, maybe somebody from the budget office if they're here or we're you know, I yeah, I don't I don't I don't know the answer to that Yeah, okay Let's continue with the presentation. Okay All right going on to the next section Uh next slide, please Next slide. Thank you so Clearly pension bonds come with risks But they're financing approaches and they're budgeting approaches Um, and some of this is going to get a little bit squirrely just in terms of understanding But here's here's a simple one. I think That I think about so If we're having a discussion about for instance It's Taking 10 million dollars Um, and this is not intended to put anybody on the spot It's just one that I've mentioned Before and so it comes to mind. So if I have A fire station for example to finance And let's just say it's 30 million dollars whatever the number is 10 million. It doesn't matter what the number is I can do that tax exempt and I use the terms highest and best uses of dollars And it's not to say one decision better than the other it is to say Where might I be better served financially? And so if I can borrow tax exempt in today's market tax exempt rates taxable rates are very compressed Pension obligation bonds Have to be issued at taxable rates. We can talk about why that is later But I might say to myself when when sort of those spreads were much wider um pre 2008 You know, it was a much easier, you know easier thought You know, you finance capital because you can borrow it tax exempt And you don't have those sorts of risks going forward Pension bonds which are borrowed at taxable rates meaning higher, you know, that's where corporate securities Borrow, you know pension bonds are priced what we say is a spread off those securities So it's more expensive to do it that way and it's riskier to do it that way So if I had 20 million dollars I was going to take and put towards a fire station Maybe I would opt to go finance it and get rid of my higher cost debt for example 7% and so that's, you know, how we think about Budgeting approaches, how do we, you know, so to make that all work Assumes that there's, you know, fairly sizable cap capital program and you know might think about alternate strategies Um council member tidbits brought up the use of reserves or one-time monies. Are we better off, you know Pfm, you know, you know, whatever monies are invested there um, for example If we have an extra 10 million dollars Um of funds sitting there might you might we be better off, you know financing Um more costly debt or one-time monies PG&E dollars as an example, you know, where do we sort of get, you know That leverage reduced um from pension bonds Um on the financing approach side, um the answer today, I think is pension obligation bonds Um tax exempt exchange was what I just talked about That's how we think about it. If you have something in the capital program that you say this, you know I'm better off financing this and paying, you know, and putting money into CalPERS You know, that's, you know, what a tax exempt change might get you depends on a sizable capital program a leveraged Refunding means that we have current refunding opportunities to sort of accelerate savings We don't have that opportunity those opportunities right now And so, you know, we couldn't really execute on that right now But there, you know budgeting approaches. Let me answer. I don't have the slide with me But the 10 million dollar answer as just an alternative to how we think about pension bonds is that depending on where we are on what we're wanting to do and financing And or a financial solution Isn't necessarily a budget solution. They're not of equal proportions And so if we looked at a shorter amortization, I think you'll see this actually in a slide So I probably shouldn't talk much about it here But those are sorts of the questions we ought to be asking to come up with a bigger strategy rather than just settling on one thing But again pension bonds have scale. And so that is the go-to solution Next slide, please So When I think of the real CalPERS problem, I think I pointed this out on a previous slide before Is how do we get rid of that triangle? How do we make it level? How do we not have that increasing 110 million dollars that we're paying? You know out over the next 13 14 years We would have to refinance it You know just given sort of where that is that's what we would have to do One of the solutions we did look at is what would it get us If we were to take 10 million dollars right in here, but it's it's such a big number That it didn't go very far I think it made a lot of sense financially It wouldn't have gotten us to perhaps the budgetary response that we did Again a comprehensive solution probably serves us best And with that we'll go on to the next slide This says four. It's actually three Sort of I took this in three parts so the strategies for pension bonds Would be from the front end certainly through the escalating component of This chart You know what gets us through? I think it's 20 34 35 You know, how do we get enough money to be able to sort of levelize is the word we use This payment structure So you don't have increasing costs A tax exempt exchange might be something we look at in conjunction as those opportunities present themselves Again, that's where you think about Financing something on a tax exempt basis if you were using cash to pay for that structure fire station I go back to maybe you Make an investment in calpers you or we can do it into a trust But that's what we mean by a tax exempt exchange reserves one-time monies to answer the question Of what was the result of that analysis Our most expensive debt because we're carrying it the longest Again at seven percent or six point eight percent That's the most costly part of our debt So it would make sense to take that out And I as I read as I recall just Looking at that, you know, it probably got us a 23 million dollar financial benefit very little on a budgetary basis On the front end where we looked at using the 10 million It got us better budgetary benefit Because it would literally take out take away some of these Payment schedules in here same as on the back end they go away But it got us little but or more budgetary benefit But less financial benefit. It was about 13 million versus 23 million financial benefit We're better served if we're going to use monies to to take out the longer and I think there was one Big amortization back there that we looked at in the 20 million plus range in the middle Expensive, but there's a lot of debt there. You need scale to do that So it had no budgetary benefit lots of financial benefit there Next slide, please Next slide Okay, we're now we're going to talk about how pension obligation bonds really work Um, these are taxable obligations that we issue um It meant a lot more When rates were higher and less compression between taxable and tax exempt rates Um, and I'll just give you some uh points of context Um, the the city would issue bonds below the CalPERS discount rate. There was a transaction done I don't remember who the california issuer was Done last week at about 2.6 percent For purposes of all the math we're doing on pobs. We're using a borrowing rate of three and a half percent Um, just to be safe The goal is to reduce the CalPERS contributions And keep in mind, um, this is a hard one for people to understand We sort of never really know where we stand with CalPERS until It's it's all done sort of at the end of it. Um, in which, you know Probably is beyond our our time in sort of thinking about this but I I put this chart in here Just as a picture I took from somewhere the reason the bonds are taxable So We issue governments in the united states I think it's the only one in the world that gets to do this issue a tax exempt rates and people who invest in them Don't pay, you know federal income taxes and so You if you borrow tax exempt, you're not allowed to invest those monies as out of spread They're owed to the federal government And so if you're interested if we're issuing bonds That it implies we're going to invest it out of spread arbitrage is a word we use Spread is the other word we use to the benefit of making money Then the bonds must be issued on a taxable basis. That's why pobs are issued on a taxable basis Next slide, please um Issued at a lower rate if we're assuming three and a half. That's just the rate. I'll stick with for talking purposes here Although that's high Below the you know the opportunity is to earn upside between What we've issued the data and where we expect to earn And so we replace the higher cost unfunded liability. We've got to deposit all monies into cal Into calpers But it does produce both cash flow as well as budgetary savings And we're replacing much higher cost debt So the way the savings are calculated Is between the two streams of cash flows The debt service on the new bonds And the unfunded liability creates savings budgetary savings Next slide, please I think I started talking about the forward calendar looking at four billion in issuance um, we talked about the dynamics of that interest rates are low um We've got high cost debt. That's the takeaway it provides savings relief cash flow savings and budgetary savings um In making new investments into the fund It results in a higher funding status. That is a good thing For all bargaining units and it reduces the reliance on the city contributions Going forward next slide, please This is just a graph of how it works. We're required to deposit all the pob proceeds into the pension fund um, we make the payment to bondholders and um You know probably still obviously if we're not taking out the entire liability Which I wouldn't propose that we do we will still be making Payments to CalPERS albeit reduced payments to CalPERS next slide, please So this is an approximate timeline. Um, I know there has been conversation around the potential um Or or what validation means and the potential for challenge um, what we would propose to do I don't have a timeline. I'm just using this If we were to do this if there were a decision to do this and I'm not asking for that decision today um We would probably just draft the bond documents upfront You would approve them. We would file the validation right away Um to save time We're concerned about inflation and interest rates growing up So we'd want to capture Rates at the low end of the market And at that point we would propose to just work on the bond financing And we would have to return to the city council for a variety of authorizations Yeah, it would be looking about a six month Timeline assuming no challenge. Um to closing the transaction Next slide, please so I would suggest that we think of the ual portion only Um depositing pob proceeds into calpers It doesn't bring the ual to zero. So I should point that out, but we're not I wouldn't propose to finance Uh the entire liability because that increases risks Um, you know taking a leap into the market all at one time in the same interest rate environment And from a credit perspective the primary concern is around implementation Of a comprehensive plan They want to see we have skin in the game They'd like to see perhaps the setup of a trust Perhaps a one-time investment But you know, um, they see all sorts of pobs, but those things do serve For better rating considerations Next slide, please We've talked about some of the benefits, but just to reiterate Um immediate reduction in our unfunded liability payment, um to calpers Cash flow and budgetary savings literally cash out the door and we save it on a budgetary basis not Consequential Um from a market timing perspective the lower rate environment in which we issue Is really better able to protect us Um to any volatility At calpers which we'll have that's just a given And then the time value of money with increased investment in the fund, you know, we accelerate Are the compounding effect of earnings next slide, please There are risks POB's have come a long way and I'll just go right to that next slide Um, they're enumerated largely in the presentation Okay, they're here You can go ahead and just I I didn't know this was doing this just Right And you can do the other side as well because I'll speak to both of them. Thank you You know, we learned a lot from the first generation of pension obligation bonds Um, we sort of call these pobs to 2.0 and by the way, I neglected to mention That the city actually has pension bonds outstanding. Um, not a lot You know, they're non-callable. So they're not able to be refinanced. Um, that's one of the big issues But um in any event, uh, what people have learned is that fixed rates work best So yes while CalPERS may go up and down It's really tough to manage variable rate and variable rate requires we have letters of credit And that is a complication in and of itself. So having to You know renegotiate ever so many years letters of credit and they're expensive so I think we dealt with a Debt burden issue that used to be an issue conversion of a soft liability to a hard liability We're required to post it on our balance sheet Essentially, it is a hard liability and it is reflected on the balance sheet Bonds used to be sold non-callable and that's because taxable bonds in the corporate market are pretty much non-callable instruments I think for purposes related to governmental entities Largely now they're all sold with a 10-year call. So you'll have an opportunity to refinance Should rates go lower at some point? Um We're not allowed to extend out payments beyond the UAL We're required to use it for that purpose. So you're not sort of extending or taking on additional risk Pension bonds are well, let me say this what Standard and pours is credit neutral on povs Moody's and Fitch take a stronger stance about it. So what if issuers done they just go to see standard and pours But ratings obviously are you know How we address the overall plan I think will matter I think it's a good thing to do financially, but it'll also matter on a credit basis um We talked about why we shouldn't do 400 million all at one time, you know We may choose to do it in different rate environments. So there's nothing certain about rates going up. They may certainly go lower You know if we did I don't know I'm going to pick a number a couple hundred million here Maybe you do 50 million another time in a lower cost market But dollar cost averaging into the market is a better solution next next slide, please I think we sort of covered these um, but just to restate them issuing less That I think mayor rogers commented or asked about was the city overfunded overfunding is a risk And that's a reason we wouldn't do the whole thing Because if you have extraordinary gains You're gonna have overfunding And what most people learned during the 2008 crisis was you issued all these bonds You now have overfunding and oh by the way now we're having all these losses So that in and of itself is a risk. We mitigate it by not doing 100 of the bonds um issuing multiple tranches meaning over time To dollar cost average into the market Low interest rates they matter you're we're trying to earn the difference between what we borrow and what we pay to The amount paid to car coppers um How do we mitigate that other risk is look the bigger spread we have meaning the lower rate we issue at the better our benefit will be And then avoid adding complexity, uh, which variable interest rates people did mark interest rate swaps on top of it They work in certain environments probably not the best one here And be ready to issue when the time is right So if we were to prepare to issue bonds and rates went higher My depending on what that spread looked like you might hear us advise Let's wait. That's what's meant, you know and be prepared, you know when the market improves next slide, please These are and that concludes the presentation. There are pob risks Enumerated in the appendix The timeline in the appendix. They're all there And i'm happy to take questions at this point All right. Thank you so much jan. Let's start by Having you give us just before we go to additional questions from council members and questions from the public What type of feedback are you looking for from the study session today? um, I think the feedback that I would be looking for is I'd like I'd like to suggest that we take a look at this And I'd like to take the time to come back with a comprehensive approach I think we talked about what some of those approaches might be I don't know that we will have a comprehensive answer to all of those things when we come back I I it's likely going to include pension ops um, it may include What I call sort of a tax exchange or the opportunity to look at it It may include You know a decision in some amount to buy down Some of the debt And I think that we're going to have to look at it more closely with not a lot of cash on hand Um, not much, you know a limited opportunity, but let's do that. Let's come back with a recommended strategy If you're interested of what a financing might look like What those savings might look like what other components might we add and how do we plan to address the risks? And you know speak specifically to them at that time Is why we don't just cut benefits So setting aside the promises have been made to employees. Can you talk about the legal landscape? around pensions that have been promised So there's two different landscapes out there in the pension world one for our current Employees who are members of the pension system And one for retirees Um retirees are guaranteed their benefits. You cannot go retroactively and impact those agreements that were implemented over the life of their employment and so Set aside the retirees california rule california law The other set of landscape involves current employees and you Also cannot go retroactively with current employees in other words If I worked for 15 years for the city And had a contract that said I got these employment Related retirement benefits and I made my employee contributions and the city made their employer contributions I'm entitled to get those benefits What you can do is negotiate On what the benefits will be in the future and so We have had that a couple of different times in the city of santa rosa the pension formulas and programs have changed several times Both up and down for current employees and That is the case going forward. You have to negotiate because we have collective bargaining here in the city but That's that's the basic pension landscape that I would describe in response to your question And the most recent one was pepra the public employees pension reform act in sacramento back in 2012 that created that secondary tier for new employees, right? That's correct. Right. Are there any questions from council? I think Council members are still getting their head around everything. So we'll go to public comment and then we'll come back for for statements from council members in direction Again, I see nobody in the chambers. So we'll go to live public comment via zoom I don't see any hands. Did we have any pre-recorded voicemails? We have no pre-recorded voicemails Okay, then I'll go ahead and bring it back. Who'd like to start by giving some direction to staff? All right council member tibbetz Thank you mayor Jan, I really appreciate you doing this. I know that I asked the question a few months ago when we were having this discussion about one-time monies And I guess I'll just make the comment for any members of the public listening and even for that matter representatives of some of our bargaining units Because I know that the public and employees and just the community at large has a really significant interest in the use of this one-time money And and their first thought might be is why are you taking this money to? Uh pay down your faulty debt or your faulty obligations or bad decisions that city hall made 20 30 years ago While I can't argue that the those were probably some bad decisions. They are what they are. They're locked up in contract Um, but the amount of money you mentioned that 53 million dollar check Um, I mean last time I checked our budget was just over 350 million That's a huge chunk of money That could otherwise be going to services And so if we make these minimum payments essentially, uh, we're constantly going to be writing those checks And yet we have this one-time money which in my mind The question that I wanted to answer it and you've answered it really well in spades Is how can we use this now? To return money to the public On an ongoing basis from here to for And I and I think that that is actually probably the most judicious form Of our money We've talked about things like our parks are underfunded. Well every year as we just went through in our budget process this year We pulled some money. I think it was out of reserves or no excuse me out of the one time Uh to fund certain things in our parks But we have these discussions every year and they're a large part due to these This huge expense that we have looming over our heads and it's constantly changing. It's unpredictable Um, and I really really appreciate the work that you've done and you're going to continue to do I hope On uh coming up with ways that we can return some of this cash to the public every year in the form of filled potholes better wages Better maintained parks. I really believe that's what we're discussing here today So in that in that vein, I um, absolutely Support all the three options you laid out the pension obligation bonds mixed with tax exempt exchanges And use of the one time money And I guess, uh, you know, since we what we don't have today is sort of a a mix of of these assets What I'm going to ask for is that You may be come back with a couple of scenarios and say if we do 10 million in pgne one time money This much in pension obligation bonds and this much in tax exempt exchanges Here's what we believe we can add to the cash flow of the city budget on an annual basis and and give us a few of those options Um with different amounts in each pool because I'm sure that between now and when you come back Uh, you know our ability to borrow our ability to use one time money may have changed somewhat or we may get more community priorities between now and then for the one time money from pgne Um, and we have to be flexible. It may not be 10 million. It may be 20. It may be five Who knows the point is is some sort of a comprehensive mix from you would be much appreciated in my opinion And thank you very much for this presentation Thank you councilmember councilmember soyer Thank you mayor. Well, you know This is very complex and I appreciate the presentation because it attempts to try to get me to understand um Our various options What I would be Looking for in a in another presentation would be a firm recommendation based on on your Financial knowledge and that of your team Um, it's hard for me to know You know, there are risks you mentioned risks. There are always risks when dealing with with um These kinds of instruments And other instruments as well But what what I'm not what I I guess what I'm not feeling is a is a is a firm recommendation and um The the use of our one-time dollars. I've always felt would be well used In an investment environment Something that pays off in the long run And it sounds like That could be right up our alley with with some of the recommendations or some of the The information that you've provided us today So I'd be hard pressed to know where to go After the presentation But I guess I think what I'm looking for next would be a A pretty firm recommendation Yes, thank you, mr. Mayor. Yeah, thank you Jan for the presentation. I think On slide 15. You have the one bullet point develop a long-term comprehensive plan with multiple solutions He also talked about a comprehensive approach. That's what I'm really looking for Come back with some recommendations almost like what some of my colleagues have said because it's very clear to me There's no magic solution because if there were other cities would be doing it And so I do like the diversified approach because I think that is very much more strategic And less risk involved with that. So I'd be looking forward to that information coming back with some specific financial recommendations. Thanks Thank you councilmember vice mayor Um, I'd like to thank you uh for bringing that report to us today. Um, I would also like to see you come back I would make a request that if it's hard for council members to follow that I won't use the term that I normally use but bring it down to a level to where The General public will be able to follow whether we're Looking at how that would look in a regular health. I mean just bring it all the way down where we're not learning your terms You're bringing it down to terms that the general public Would use would be my only request. Thank you Thank you vice mayor, and I'm going to echo those comments as well For me when I look at this what we're really talking about is providing a level of predictability for our community and it's been just Wildly unpredictable in the market What we're going to owe year over year and it makes it hard to have long-term strategic plans in place What I appreciate the most about this is the way that you can have the fixed cost that we can rely on At its peak going from 44 million that's owed to down to about 28 million was the discussion in our Long-term finance committee. I know that everybody in this community can find Needs that that 16 million dollars could go towards that are That are desperately needed throughout our community. So I'm going to be very supportive of this And you're bringing this forward Long-term, I think we have promises that we've made to employees that we need to keep and this allows us to do that While while also not crowding out additional services. So anything we can do to be flexible I also appreciate the conversation around particularly for fire stations for other fixed infrastructure Finding different ways to finance them as well We have our facilities conditioned index where we this council has talked about the long-term Liabilities that we have that not just within our pension system But within our assets as well And if there's a way for us to mirror this conversation with that Conversation and find flexible financing tools to make the investments we need to keep those assets I think that the council is going to be very interested in that as well With that I just want to thank you. I know it is a really complex topic I know that you do have a lot of questions coming at you from council members that You've handled it very well and I appreciate the the approach that you're bringing to the office Are there any additional questions or comments from council members? All right. Thank you so much jen Thank you We are done with our study sessions Our next item is at four o'clock. So council will take a brief recess. We'll be back at four For those just joining the meeting live translation in spanish is available And members wishing to listen in spanish can join the spanish channel To do so click on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar It looks like a globe once you join the spanish channel We recommend you shut off the main audios So you only hear the spanish translation i'm going to promote uh Our interpreter to translate for us Pablo are you able to translate for us? All right, madam city clerk. It's four o'clock. We'll go ahead and call our meeting back into the session. Could you please take the role? Yes, thank you councilmember tibbetz here councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember soyer here councilmember alvarez vice mayor rogers president mayor rogers here Councilmember alvarez. Have you joined us? Okay, let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmembers alvarez and phleming All right. Thank you so much. We have no proclamations tonight. So we'll start with staff briefings. Go ahead mr. City manager Mayor and members of the council My portion of the staff briefings this evening are in our covet 19 response update And i'd like to just share some points with the public and the council um First is regarding masks. Uh masks are recommended for indoor activities for everyone regardless of vaccination status As you may have noticed daily cases are rising Covid cases have doubled in the past months and continue to rise Sonoma county has joined the counties of alameda contra costa marin san francisco San mateo and santa clara and the city of berkeley in the recommendation The recommendation comes is the delta variant spreads throughout the state The delta variant is now the most common variant in the u.s. And is also the most contagious Masks and distancing are the cheapest most effective way to curb the spread Young adults experiencing are experiencing the highest rates of growth in covid cases The unvaccinated remain the most susceptible to the infection and hospitalization The highest rates of hospitalization over 90 percent And icu visits are unvaccinated people county health officials urge people to get vaccinated And some notes regarding our homeless shelter at the sam jones hall Shelter intakes remain paused after the shelter staff became aware of covid cases at the shelter on july 2nd Last week the county of sonoma opened an alternative care site at the best western dry creek in and hillsburg And most of the covid positive individuals from samuel jones hall have been transferred to this location The alternate care site has capacity for 60 residents Six individuals remain in an isolation area established at sam jones hall In the shelter annex area and these individuals will be completing their isolation period soon sammy jones hall data as of july 20th The total number of shelter residents exposed are 153 number of positive cases 90 With six new positive cases from the last round of testing conducted on july 15th Of those the number of confirmed fully vaccinated positive cases 32 And Next date that we'll be testing will be tomorrow on july 21st of this year In sonoma county the number of cases of july 19th we have 926 active cases 327 deaths To date from the pandemic And you if you want uh information on getting a test, uh, which we encourage anybody who feels they've been exposed or Are experiencing symptoms to do Go to sonoma s o c o emergency dot com Forward slash test For testing information or just go to the county website and you can be directed there Uh information on vaccines as of july 18th we have 299 106 individuals fully vaccinated 32 677 partially vaccinated And a total of 613 803 vaccines administered overall And there is uh enough vaccine supply For all eligible californians to be vaccinated And once again we encourage all Individuals who are eligible to receive their vaccines And go to the snow sonoma county emergency dot org Um forward slash vaccine site soco emergency dot org Vaccine to get information on where to receive those Thank you so much. Mr. City manager. Do we have any questions from council? Okay Let's go on to our next update Our second update to our staff briefing is the glass fire recovery and paul loanthal our fire marshal will be giving this update Good evening. Mayor rogers vice mayor rogers and members of the council paul loanthals is in fire marshal with the fire department On behalf of the glass fire recovery task forces We reconvene both the watershed and debris task forces To determine where