Good afternoon, folks. Welcome to our council meeting for the day. Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Schwedhelm. Here. Councilmember Sawyer. Here. Councilmember Rogers. Present. Councilmember Fleming. Here. Vice Mayor Alvarez. Present. Mayor Rogers. Here. Let the record show that all councilmembers are present. Excellent. Let's go on to our statements of abstention from councilmembers. Is there any one who has to abstain from any of the items on today's council agenda? Seeing none, we'll keep moving. We have a number of consent items before we get to our main business for the day. Madam City Manager, do you want to introduce the items? Good afternoon, Mayor Rogers and members of council. Consent item 3.1 is a resolution extension of proclamation of existing existence of local emergency relating to the threat of community health posed by COVID-19. Item 3.2 is a resolution, is an extension of proclamation of local homeless emergency. Item 3.2 is a resolution, making required monthly findings and authorizing the continued use of teleconferencing for public meetings of the City Council and all city boards, commissions and committees pursuant to Assembly Bill 361. Thank you. Thank you. And for folks tuning in, part of the reason we have a consent calendar even on today's agenda was because we had to, at the last minute, cancel our last council meeting and each of these three items actually need to be reauthorized monthly, so we wanted to make sure that we had that opportunity to do so. Council, let's go ahead and see if there are any questions on the consent calendar. All right, seeing none, let's go to public comment, see if there are any comments on items 3.1 through 3.3. Okay. Yep, make sure you get really close to that microphone so we can hear you. All righty then. Hi, my name is Wes Below. I'd like to preface by saying that everything I'm about to say right now is backed up by the CDC's latest figures. In addition to the state of emergency for COVID-19, there are a number of untold emergencies caused by the government's response and over-response to the COVID-19 situation. First up is a mental health crisis. Did you know that unintentional injuries, that is drug overdoses, suicide and liver disease from alcoholism are now the first, second, and sixth weasing causes of death for people ages 15 to 44. In addition, developmental crises in younger children are present. The unit for visually impaired people combined with the in the Institute of Technology found that children between three and five years old are only capable of recognizing facial expressions behind a mask just 40% of the time and that will greatly hinder the development of basic human emotions like empathy. But the logic for the past two years has been that none of this has mattered because we need to cut down on the strain on our health care and emergency care system. So let's look at the facts. Omnicron is a more transmissible variant of COVID-19. Sure, but it is less deadly and it is less likely to result in long-haul complications. While Omnicron cases are going up, hospitalization and death are not. And even then, natural immunity is confirmed to have a greater protection against COVID than vaccines alone. So if you're ever to catch COVID, which we eventually all will, this is the one to get. And this situation will actually better protect our community, who is 80% vaccinated from getting worse variants in the future. I know we've all heard the critique of business and economics in fearing with the public health, but we can't afford to throw our marketplaces and businesses under the bus here. And frankly, neither can any of you. Our tax dollars fund your paycheck and we are paying you to serve us in the needs of the Republic. The more COVID regulations there are, the more fear in your fellow council members push the less money that finds its way to your paycheck and towards public services. You really want to buy out that Sears building down the street for 30 million a year in mortgage payments?  Please vote no on this extension of the state of emergency for public health in relation to COVID-19 for your sake and for the sake of your constituents. Thank you much. Let's see if there are any other comments on the consent calendar. All right, seeing that I'll bring it back to council. Just for some information for folks in the public, one is that the city council does not make the health regulations. That's the health officer for the county of Sonoma. What the proclamation of emergency related to COVID-19 does is it allows our city manager to take action between council meetings without having to come to the council for approval as well as makes us eligible for reimbursement for FEMA. I'll also say we are not purchasing the Sears site. That is also the board of supervisors. But I hope you'll reach out to your supervisors as well. With that, I'll go to the vice mayor to see if there is a motion for the table. Thank you, mayor. I move items 3.1 through items 3.3 and wait for the reading of the text. Second. We have any additional discussion council? All right, seeing none, let's call the vote. Councilmember schwaitham. Aye. Councilmember Sawyer. Aye. Councilmember Rogers. Aye. Councilmember Fleming. Aye. Vice mayor Alvarez. Aye. Mayor Rogers. Aye. That motion passes with six ayes. Great. We'll move on to item 4. That's the approval of the interview and appointment procedures. Item 4.1, Madam City Attorney and Madam City Clerk, who wants to handle this portion? I will handle this portion, mayor. I've provided each council member with a list of all applicants and they're in alphabetical order and ballots for each round of voting. On your ballots, please print your selections of each round of voting as initiated. At the end of each round of voting, I'll collect your ballots and then read them into the record and tally the vote. I will then announce those applicants eliminated after each round of voting. Councilmembers will be asked to strike there through the names of eliminated applicants on the full list of all the applicants provided. As there are less than 10 applicants, City Council Policy 00023 states that each council member shall vote for three applicants in the first round and then those applicants receiving one vote or less shall be eliminated. Subsequent votes shall be taken with each council member voting for one less applicant than voted for in the previous round. Only applicants not eliminated will be voted on. The applicant who receives four or more votes in the final round of voting shall be appointed to fill the vacancy. Okay, council, do we have any questions on the procedures? Let's go ahead and go to public comment on item 4.1. See if anybody has comments on the procedures. I'm seeing nobody in the chamber and I'm not seeing any hands on our Zoom. So I'll go ahead and bring it back. I believe we need a motion to adopt or sign off on the procedures. I'll look to see if anybody has a motion. So moved. Second. All right, a motion from Councilmember Fleming and a second from Councilmember Sawyer. Let's go ahead and call the vote. Councilmember Schwedhelm. Aye. Councilmember Sawyer. Aye. Councilmember Rogers. Aye. Councilmember Fleming. Aye. Councilmember, sorry, Vice Mayor Alvarez. Aye. Mayor Rogers. Aye. That motion passes with six ayes. Okay. And then I would also like to just inform the applicants here when your name is called for your interview you will come down and sit at the staff table in the middle where there is a chair and microphone provided for you to be interviewed. All right. Thank you. So we will before we go on to item 5.1 it has been brought to my attention from both the city clerk and the city attorney that we have a very strict schedule in terms of timing. So we will begin our first interview at 4.15 and each of the interviews subsequently because it's dictated in the agenda we need to stick as close to that time as we can. So that means that there will be a 25-minute interview that includes an opportunity for the applicants to introduce themselves, questions from the council, and then a wrap-up moment. We will hear from all of the applicants and do the interviews before we take public comment and then we'll have an opportunity for the public to weigh in on what they heard, what their preference is, or if there's something that they'd like the council to consider. Ultimately we will end our day voting for who is going to take their seat here replacing councilmember Tibbets. Did I miss anything, Madam Clerk? Nope. That sounds about right. Okay. I have our time at 4.12. So our first applicant is David Alex Chance.  Thank you for being here. Testing. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. I'm ready to begin my opening statement, whatever. All right. If everybody on council is ready. So thank you. My name is Alex Chance. Excuse me. Buenos Notes. Good evening, councillors. I'm sorry, I forget the space. My name is Alex. I'm jittered and non-binary. I sort of prefer they, he pronouns. I'm a Green Party member and I'm homeless, currently living in Santa Rosa to be closer to my girlfriend. I've got an AA degree from Napa Valley College in humanities and philosophy and a pre-law degree from Sac State and philosophy with a concentration ethics all in politics. I'm running or applying for this position because I need a paycheck. I'm also passionate about politics and I'm well familiar with Rosenberg's rules of order, the Brown Act, municipal code, democratic procedures. I'm a former Selena School Board member, Napa Valley College Student Trustee, Vice Chair on Napa County's Gang and Youth Violence Commission, and I also served on Napa County's local advisory councils, a subcommittee, a community garden subcommittee where we identified municipal parcels that could be developed into, you know, community gardens and whatnot. I also, while I was going to community college, spent some time working with Napa Valley Dream Act Coalition. It's a group to fight for immigration justice for students. Concerning the City Council goal setting and it's kind of building off the goals I noticed that had been set by the previous council. I'm looking homelessness slash housing, fiscal stability and public safety reforms. Specifically I'm kind of thinking about this in terms of economic development and I'm kind of with like three pillars kind of holding them up. Banco municipal, ad lesion, de la policía y casas para todos. I'll start with kind of my thoughts on housing. I think it would behoove us to consider housing approaches that don't require building or rebuilding. One option is intimate domain, identifying existing structures that don't need to be built that could be caught in the intimate domain, then an eviction moratorium. So, you know, there's no way we could evict people. It seems like one pathway to get some of our unhoused residents towards permanent housing without having to build more. The other sort of component to this is municipal banking. It would basically allow the city to raise capital for public projects, such as housing without increasing taxes. This could be a way to get at the housing issue specifically like building, right? Then public safety reforms. Specifically, the idea I'm trying to pitch is defunding the police in order to fund a municipal peace dividend just makes sense. The city's largest portion of the city's budget is public safety, police, fire. By peace dividend, I have things like social services, quality of life, mental health, those kinds of things in mind. Then I guess just to kind of sum up regarding like committee time, there's at least three committees I kind of looked at that seemed interesting to me. I guess one, I'm interested, obviously I'd have to talk to people to see the feasibility, but I'm interested in seeing if it's worth reactivating the rent stabilization subcommittee. Otherwise, but the public safety subcommittee and the art and public places committee are of interest to me. I guess I'll just kind of end it there with my opening statements. Appreciate your time. I'll do my best to answer questions. All right. Thank you so much, Alex. The way it will work is council members will have a couple of minutes to ask what's on their mind. Anything specific about your application or anything that's going on at the city that is focused on our city work? I'll go ahead and start all the way to my right on this one and we'll change it up as we go through our interview process. But council member Sawyer, do you want to kick us off? Certainly thank you, Mayor. Mr. Johnson, if I wanted to fill the district 3 seat, are you considering a formal run this year for an additional two-year election to that seat? I'm glad you asked the question. I was going to address that during my closing remarks, but my plan is to not run for the seats. If I'm appointed, I view myself as being a caretaker for the council seat and just keeping it there or functional. I think I have the skill sets to do that, but I view myself as a caretaker until the next election when voters can pick the next representative. Thank you. And our city's charter is currently being reviewed by the charter review committee. The charter review committee's recommendations could be considered some of the most important decisions facing this council this year. Are you familiar with the committee's endeavor and responsibilities? I haven't researched the work of the committee in depth. Thank you. One more questions. Thank you, council member. Let's go on to council member Sveta. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for your application, Alex. On your application, you had mentioned that you're passionate about the municipal government. Could you expand on that a little bit more and what does that look like? Fair question, open question, broad question. Could you be more specific? I'm not trying to... I just have an interest in politics. It's weird because I guess a lot of people are like, why are you interested in this? Why are you doing this? I just kind of have an interest in politics. I've decided my background's experience governing in the past. When I look around, I'm also viewing this as a job opportunity, as applying for a job. And frankly, this seemed like one of the few job openings out there that I felt qualified for. And that's not really a great answer. I don't know. This is just kind of what I'm passionate about. It's kind of what I know to do. And I was looking at it. Okay, what do you see as... Thank you. If we were to appoint you, what do you see as being your biggest challenge if you were to become one of the seven of us up here? Again, good question. I'm not trying to be cute. I guess I hear challenge. I think opportunities. I mean, what would be the challenges? I'll just sort of... There's plenty I have to read and to learn and plenty of people to talk to. There's all kinds of things like that. I'll just sort of cite those as some challenges and just kind of make that my answer. Thank you. Great. Thanks. No more questions? All right. Council Member Fleming. Mr. Chance, I want to sincerely thank you for your interest in local government and in the city of Santa Rosa. My questions have been well answered by your responses so far, and I wish you well. Thank you. Thank you. And Council Member Rogers. Same. Thank you for your interest. Esmer. Thank you, Mayor. Sir, how are you today? What does word equity mean to you, sir? Okay, should we repeat the question again? What does word equity mean to you? Equity? I generally hear people use the term equity to mean something softer than like equality. The egalitarianism is a value that's very key and important to me. It involves getting people, at the table, you know, in key places to make decisions that like specifically making sure marginalized voices in the community are at the table, having a say in the decisions that are made that are impacting them. I answer it that way. Thank you. And how would you improve, increase equity amongst our citizens of Santa Rosa? Well, I'm younger, I'm gender non-binary, so there are those categories of representation that I could help with. Otherwise, I did mention in my opening remarks that the time I'd spent working with the Napa Valley Dream Act coalition, immigrants rights, that's a long-standing issue that I've been concerned about. Quite frankly, I think immigration rights is the big civil rights issue of my time under Obama, you know, getting more politically engaged, and so that's absolutely a key demographic of the community that I'm wanting to make sure isn't overlooked and is especially not being taken advantage of. I mean, obviously there's community leaders, city leaders out there, you know, way more powerful positions to ensure that kind of stuff than me, but that's just kind of what my head is at and what were my values when it comes to that question and those issues. Muchas gracias. Alex, you wrote your application. You wanted to fight for economic democracy for the lump in proletariat. How would you construct programs at the local level that achieve that goal? So I think thinking about it in terms of economic development is key. Generally, I think when we talk about economic development, we're generally thinking about businesses and business insurance, but economic development also has to do with individual's economic means. So things like housing, social services, I think my idea is on housing, finding existing structures where you could use an intimate domain, there is kind of consistent with that. The idea of trying to use some of the police budget to find like a municipal peace dividend, I guess I'd point to those sorts of things to kind of like answer your question. Like those just the closest I could get to like specific policies that get at that question. So one of the biggest items that we've worked on over the last six months or so and we'll continue to work on is the $37.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act that the city has access to as well as the PGD settlement money which is in upwards of $80 million. How could you utilize over $100 million if you were pieing the sky, clicking your fingers to achieve some of these goals that you're shooting for? I mean, I guess what I'll add I think using, so if we're going with this intimate domain thing I'm talking about like, so let's say hotels. The first step could be getting funding for funding hotel vouchers for the homeless who need them or I could polite apartment culprits as well. Get them housed, you know, once they're in those structures. Again, this is sort of like futuring, right? But like if we could like sort of create and work with tenant unions inside the hotels as well with with labor unions like those are the kinds of pressures we could work with to try to give like a minute domain and then like within eviction moratorium to do more permit housing. I also I do apologize. I think I kind of missed the first thought of your question but what did that answer? Did you could re-ask it? Yeah, just basically what programs would you like to fund to have that type of impact? And I guess I'll also ask sort of a follow-up. Have you looked at the city's budget? Do you have any idea how much we spend on homelessness on voucher programs, on rental assistance programs, so any of those types of programs that you've mentioned so far? I have looked over the city's budget. I do know that the funds for homelessness themselves I think was recently put under the city manager's department. So I think obviously like it's key that you know whatever like we want to do as a council is you know consistent with what the city manager would want to do since that's where you know some of those funds are yeah. Okay, that was my last question. So I'll go ahead and turn it back over to you. You've got a couple minutes for a closing statement. Anything that you'd like to highlight that you didn't in your opening or any questions that you were expecting that you want to provide an answer to? The floor is yours. I think you can thank you all again for your time and I appreciate staff for putting this meeting together. Things are kind of bearing with me and I'm a bit a little bit clumsy today but yeah the only thing I just I'll just kind of emphasize is if I am appointed I don't see myself running for the seat again. I really do want to be a caretaker if I get appointed to this position and I guess I should mention to you that if I don't get the appointment today I did see this process as you know potentially serving as like an opportunity to apply for additional jobs in the future so I even if I don't get the appointment and see it as a stepping stone but I really would like it and I think I have the skill sets and the passion to do a good job at it so thanks for your consideration. Thank you so much we really appreciate you coming in and taking the time and wanting to make a difference in your community. So as you heard we'll do all of our interviews we'll deliberate towards the end of the day and we'll make an appointment at that point. Thank you again. Great thank you. So council we have our next interview is at 4.45 so we'll take a brief recess don't go too far and we'll come back let's say at 4.42. Let's go ahead bring us on back and I see councilmember rogers is frantically making her way here with my diet coke which I appreciate madam city clerk can you please call the roll so we can reestablish the quorum yes thank you mayor councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember soyer here councilmember rogers here councilmember Fleming here vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers here let the record show that all councilmembers are present excellent our second interview is diana mcdonald diana you saw the process in the beginning just as a reminder to folks you have to get really close to that microphone for them to be able to hear and you'll have three minutes to kick it off with an introduction and take it away great thank you so much and I'll just remind the council that I am hearing impaired so if you don't mind speaking clearly into the microphone I'd really appreciate it thank you hello mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez and members of the council we were asked to answer three questions I'm prepared to attend the Tuesday council meetings and spend time to prepare for those meetings I'm available for goal setting meetings and I do not foresee any issues with subcommittee meetings either in 1941 during the great depression charles coverness packed up his family and drove from north dakota he purchased a small piece of farmland out on folton road and 80 years later my mother still lives there my name is diana mcdonald and charles was my great grandfather and I'm a fourth generation santa rosa resident after I decided to apply for this vacancy I read your 354 pages of budgets and 55 pages of fees and schedules and realized how hard this city council is working to create opportunities for families for young professionals and for our senior population my goal if appointed is to continue to support this work and bring my experience in government as a former elected official and as a legislative advocate to help as a vice president for the finances for our family owned and operated small business I understand the challenges of running a business in santa rosa I've worked with challenging school district budgets while I was a trustee for eight years and as a former president and ceo of the california state pta I know how to balance budgets and how to make tough decisions that create sustainability for the long term I'm currently the legislative advocate for the california state pta I monitor all the federal legislation and the california state budget so I'm aware of what's happening and at the state and federal level and I can leverage that knowledge to support our community as a child that was dyslexic a former single mom in this county starting a company during the last recession and maintaining it during this pandemic as somebody who is hearing impaired I am no stranger to challenges I use my personal experiences to inspire me to make things easier for our community and I would help keep a keen eye on ways we can promote access to all of our residents I've worked with several organizations that have had a focus on de and I and I've held to build a culture of respect trust and understanding across cultures we have our work cut out for us with important issues such as homelessness support for mental health creating affordable housing a massive shortage and childcare and preschool opportunities deficit spending floods fires the pandemic but I look forward to those challenges I've been advocating for children and families for 20 years and I've worked at the state and national legislature to move the needle for california's children my goal would be to apply those same skills for the betterment of santa rosa's residents ensuring that we are appropriating money to best support our diverse community with projects and programs will take someone that understands multi-year budgeting and planning as the decisions we make now will impact future generations I'd be proud to work alongside you to make an effective decision and to continue to support the work you've done and that we still need to do thank you thank you diana I'll start to my left this time councilmember rogers do you want to kick off questions wow um I was I was going to ask uh what is your passion like it seems all of us have something that we're passionate about um maybe a committee that we want to work on uh or a specific goal that we have so what would your what is your passion what's my passion it's hard to name just one thing I would say but you know I've been very passionate about supporting children and families it's the work that I've done creating equity and opportunities specifically for our children of color specifically for children who've been marginalized I am super super passionate about early child education I've worked really hard to make sure that transitional kindergarten has been implemented into our school system which it now will be um I have recently been put on the task force for Superintendent Thurman that focused on reading and ensuring that all of our third graders third graders are at reading level so a lot of my passion has been around education supporting families because I believe generational poverty and focusing on supporting the family is critical um for us as decision makers whether it be city council or school board trustee or the work that I've done in in pta thank you thank you councilmember Fleming thank you very much mrs mcdonald I am curious to know as an active business owner who has weathered some difficult times what ideas you might bring to our city council if appointed to further empower and strengthen our business community our small business community in particular sure so small businesses are challenged more than I think anyone right now even applying for a ppp loan if you don't have the staff to help you do it the staff to actually go through all the paperwork with you then it's can be overwhelming and impossible I know the city has done a lot of outreach and supporting businesses but I think we could probably do some more it's clarification I think when health orders come forward the most that we could do is outreach to our businesses to make sure that they know what's coming so that they can prepare but there is not enough workforce right now and our unemployment which is very good news is quite low but that also creates challenges when you need employees and I know that something that we've struggled with is ensuring that we are creating opportunities for children to be college and career ready to make sure that they can go into the workforce and into the trades as well would be something that I think we could work with and partner with our schools I'd say that where you guys are doing a tremendous job on outreach the communications on the website are you know incredible they're done in English and Spanish but I I would like to see us do maybe a bit more thank you I appreciate your answers thank you councilmember Spuddle thank you Mr. Mayor thank you for applying for and joining us with this process what's the most important thing for us to know about you in consideration for this position I'm sorry what is the most important thing for you what to know about you while we know about me for this position I would say to know that I'm extremely hard working and when I take something on I take it seriously I do my homework if there's something that I'm not aware of or that I need to learn more about I will reach out to others who are more proficient on that matter I'm a collaborator and I'd like to work together to find solutions that work for everyone or the best that we can you're never going to make everybody happy but I'd like to make the majority of everybody happy I find that I'm a team player I'd like to make sure that everyone feels supported and do so in a respectful way and I'm a good listener so even though I'm hard of hearing so that's ironic uh I am a good listener and so I I do my best to you know reach out to our community members and and I would just say that I'm very diligent and hard working in that way great thank you and then in your application it asked about the two issues facing the city and one of them that you mentioned was homelessness so from your perspective and what you know what are we doing right in the area of homelessness and what do we need some improvement on well I mean you've increased the budget tremendously to support homelessness so that should be commended first of all you've done a lot of work we've worked on the home key project and I think that you're doing so far a great job as far as you know expanding Sam Jones Hall and looking at a six street area to make sure that we have more opportunities uh being able to work at uh with the Saint Vincent de Paul commons to help refurbish those would be something that we could do to increase stability for homes and you know we have a ton of services that the city has as far as you know supporting our homelessness but there's systematic issues that go beyond the city there's um need for mental health support your work in the iResponse has been fantastic making sure that we're responding to people where they really need their needs met as far as substance abuse and programs that sometimes trigger some of these issues around homelessness mental health and substance abuse so I don't think that I could say you've done anything wrong I just say that it's going to have to continue to be something we focus on the governor has proposed money to help sustain and create and support homelessness issues and so I'm hoping that with my knowledge in the legislature and working with our partners over in Sacramento and as well as federal we can work on that together thanks thank you ask member Sawyer thank you Mary thank you miss mcdonnell for being here today really appreciate it and thank you for a very comprehensive application if I wanted to fill the district's seat three seat are you considering a formal run this year for an additional two-year election to that seat if I was appointed I would consider running thank you thank you um our city's charter is being reviewed by the charter review committee currently the charter reviews committee's recommendations could be considered some of the most important decisions that this council will face this year are you familiar with with the committee's endeavor and responsibilities I'm familiar with the charter committee I'm not familiar with what they're recommending I am familiar with the old 58 responses that was done 10 years ago and I know that they're up every 10 years so while I can't tell you specifics on them I kind of see our charter um being sort of like a bylaw for a nonprofit it's how we run the city is what we're governed by so I could see that being very critical to understand and have a deep knowledge of each of those areas specifically ones that might be being changed enough for consideration thank you and is there something that was not asked in the application that you would like us to know about you I felt it was a pretty comprehensive application it took me several hours to fill it out so um I can't imagine anything you haven't asked me other than um I'm going to be a proud grandma in the spring so that was in my application but other than that I think you have done a fine job and being able to get our background and our knowledge and expertise thank you thank you mr vice mayor thank you mayor if you are to be appointed and form the seventh member of the city council how can we as a council further support our youth to overcome the challenges that they are facing during the covid pandemic okay just so I'm sure I heard you um how would the council support me during the pandemic you as one as as a part of the council together you as a council member how how can we as a united group empower our youth during the covid challenges being presented the unprecedented challenges being presented to our youth school mental health issues okay just so I'm sure I understand the question I apologize um just so I know you're we're wanting to know how the council could support me in the role of a council member you as part of the council together so certainly there's a ton of challenges with covid right we um I think having the hybrid meetings and making sure that we continue to offer that not just to me but to public members would be critical as we could be exposed by our family members as well as community members having access would be great making sure things are given to us in closed caption would help me personally as far as being hearing impaired I think that would be something to make sure that we're offering that on our on our meetings but I think that right now this team works really well together and I don't see in fighting I see support that is being done I think there's a big focus right now on roseland because that's an area that hasn't had focus and I want to continue that work I think that there's a lot we could do to support businesses as far as you know giving them information and making sure we're doing two-way communication to hear back from them I think it would be good to sit down with our business community as well as our school business officials to make sure that we are getting two-way information on what's happening with them and I think if you're looking at issues that continuously plague either women or communities of color we have to just be willing to listen as far as something I might need would be anything that I'm not familiar with as far as you know if it's around sewers or water or to be able to be more proficient in those decisions and then being able to reach out to community members or a member that's on those committees to get more information hope that answers your question I understood you correctly apologize if not no you did and and and if I could expand on the question are our youth our youth how how can we empower them specifically I'm sorry am I about empowerment is specifically empowering our youth to face the challenges that COVID has presented them I'm sorry empowering our youth empowering our youth is that what you're saying I'm so sorry I'm so sorry vice mayor um yes I mean right now in schools we have an entire system around the local control accountability cards and and one of the things that we do is school climate and outreaching to our student voices and I think that's critical whether you're in city government or in school government the more that we could reach out to those student voices they come up with really incredible ideas on how to fix things solutions right and and I always say my kids are millennials and if they want to find a way that's quicker and easier to do something we ask them because they know technology and they know how to implement things and uh so sometimes that old way of doing things we have to be able to listen to the new generation and those young powerful voices and empowering them to have a seat at the table as well thank you and I completely understand the challenges that that we even as adults face due to the mask that we wear and the challenges that even we face and it's only unimaginable the challenges that our children are facing so I do appreciate the answer thank you thank you so district three uh is mostly if not entirely in the wildland urban interface there have been homes that have been lost there and there's obviously a lot of work that needs to be done on fire recovery and resiliency would you have advocated for homes to be rebuilt and if not how would you handle development in the wildland urban interface well I I believe in inville housing and looking at our urban growth boundaries to make sure that when we are doing affordable housing and we are looking at redevelopment that we're sticking to those guidelines and then making sure that we are making uh doing environmental impacts and that we have all that data before it comes before city council on any decisions we make as far as housing and improvements as far as the fire rebuilds I can tell you as a victim of the 2019 fires uh it is a real issue we had over a hundred thousand dollars worth of damage done to our own personal home in 2019 so making sure that um we are thoughtful with fire mitigation making sure that we're doing our part um not only as homeowners but that we're looking at personal forests and supporting um our community members that have those to make sure that we're uh doing our part to keep the creeks cleaned out um as well as um anything else that would need to be cut down I mean I see the city out in my backyard well not my personal backyard but outside weed eating and keeping weeds down um as far as rebuild goes it's hard to tell somebody when they've owned their own property in their own home that they can't rebuild there so I I would have to have that information and data in front of me um I think that would be a tough decision as far as a policymaker goes to tell somebody what they can and can't do with their own personal property councilor are there any other questions all right I'm going to turn it back over to you for your closing sure thank you as I stated earlier I am diligent and hard-working and will be committed to reading your agendas supporting documents meeting with staff and being prepared for our weekly meetings and other committee meetings I'm here to listen to you and to our community so I can learn from you and our community and that we can make the best decisions for our community members our mission is to provide high quality public services and cultivate a vibrant resilient and livable city our current goals support that mission and my goal is to help implement the mission and our vision for the Santa Rosa to be a vibrant safe affordable place to live a leader in the north bay Santa Rosa is ranked the 10th happiest place to live in the U.S. despite all of our challenges and that is to all of your credit my goal is to help make us number one I'm committed to our city and our community and I thank you for the opportunity to be here and apply for this vacancy on city council thank you all right thank you so much diana thank you we are about five minutes ahead in councils we'll take just a quick five don't go far and we'll come back for our third applicant uh james devour excuse me councilmember schwethelm the gavel has swung madame city clerk can you please call the roll thank you mayor councilmember schwethelm councilmember soyer here councilmember rogers president councilmember fleming here vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers here that the record showed that all council members are present and I would be a little bit remiss if I didn't refer to him as grandpa schwethelm so a big congratulations to the the new grandpa at the at the dais thank you we have our third applicant in front of us thank you so much james you have the same amount of time everybody else did you'll have the three minutes for your opening statement questions from council members and then we'll give you a chance to wrap up as well but with that I'll just turn it over to you get really close to that microphone and make sure the green light is on okay can you hear me great thank you very much first I'd like to just thank each of you for given serious consideration to my application for this for this position I recognize that I'm a little bit of a unorthodox candidate in some ways and I do appreciate that the importance of this job and the importance of the appointment so so thank you and I thought what I would do in this brief time is just give a snapshot of what I believe you would get if you picked me bullet points and um let me let me give it a shot the first bullet point is that you would get a professional level of commitment to doing this job you know that's you know if I was appointed I would come in prepared on time and ready ready to work and ready to engage so you you would get that for sure uh second thing is you would get a lot of collegiality and I would say that any success I've had in my life in uh practicing medicine or in my leadership roles it's been based on relationships and that's what I enjoy about work I enjoy meeting people and working with people and that's a really sincere thing for me to say it's fundamental to how I like to to work and I like to have fun with my colleagues doing the work so you would get that for sure third I would call it um I'd call it a a public servant mindset that I am truly not in this for any personal gain or recognition I've had some of that and and I'm good with that um I'm not coming in with any political ideology or or partisan I don't have a single issues that I'm you know promoting I truly am in this to do what I can for the city of Santa Rosa uh next bullet point is leadership I really do feel like my leadership skill set and my experience is still worth something I retired in July from a very big job leading 500 doctors in northern california region and I feel like honestly I'm not ready to just walk off or wander off into the sunset I feel like I still have something to give and I think the leadership experience I have would serve me in this position and lastly you know just the the lifetime of taking care of patients in primary care and the you know sort of the front lines of care being with patients and families and knowing what they go through I don't want to over exaggerate this but this is um experience that it will inform it informs everything I do and I certainly would bring that to this position on city council if I were given the opportunity so I think I'll just stop right there I in answer to the three questions I would not be available for two Tuesday meetings between now and the end of the year I'm going to be off the grid and everything else I'm good for the planning sessions and any other committee work I'm fully available thank you all right thank you so much I'll start to my right House members lawyer thank you mayor and thank you dr. DeVore for your complete application you've heard these questions before and I put other applicants and I will ask you the same question if appointed to fill the district three seat are you considering a formal rem this year for an additional two-year election to that seat I truly don't know and I not only do I not know but I don't know if I you know if it would help me to say yes or to help me to say no I just don't know I definitely would consider it of course and if I feel like I can be effective in this role and if I'm enjoying the the process which you know I probably would but but I think you know I would know in three or four months probably after you know starting on this adventure so sorry I just can't say for sure thank you and our city's charter is being is currently being reviewed by the charter review committee the charter review committee's recommendations could be considered some of the most important decisions facing this council this year are you familiar with this committee's endeavors and responsibilities yeah I I I am familiar with it I understand that we're in this charter review process and the charter review committee is deep at work on this and I am aware that there's four or five really important issues I think that if I had to prioritize which one is maybe the most potentially controversial maybe the one that the public would be most interested in would be the issue about a direct directly elected mayor issue and it really fascinates me that that that issue is before the we'll be before the city council because it it is a little bit perplexing to me on multiple different levels but yes I'm aware of it and I'm aware that there are going to be pros and cons to you know making that making that consideration but my question is why are we considering that now why are we considering going to a directly elected mayor when it seems like the current system is working pretty well I feel like when we went to the district election we made some real progress in terms of the potential for a diverse city council and the potential for including the mayor position in my my concern and I may be wrong I'm open to hearing feedback but my concern is if we directly elected the mayor we might be going backwards on that potentially having a having a diverse city government so anyway I would have to thoughtfully consider the pros and cons and hear the recommendations of the charter review committee before I would be prepared to to vote on that I really don't know how I would would vote if I had to today thank you that's members well thank you Mr. thank you dr. DeVore for applying and participating in this process with us in your application when it talked about two issues facing the city you talked about emergency preparedness and I think your words were we san rosa must be well prepared for whatever the next emergency or disaster may hit us how do you think we're doing and what what do we need to be doing now to be prepared for what may be coming this year next year in the future hey I actually went back and and sort of reviewed where we stand with that and I was pretty impressed there was a lot of detail available to the public on how to get emergency messages and so forth so I really feel like in that way I feel like we are well prepared but I have to say you know thinking about district three and specifically the oakmark community I knocked on some doors out there when I was in this nomination process and I'm going to tell you every single one hundred percent of them wanted to tell you about the evacuation story that was it and they you know they all had harrowing experiences with evacuation and that's what they care about so yeah we may be really well prepared but they're they're concerned about the next fire and particularly the evacuation issue so to me that would be something that I would really want to pay attention to if I got this position I would want to spend some time out there and make sure I understand where we stand with that particular issue the evacuation issue with channel drive and so forth but overall I don't think I don't have any complaints about the overall preparation for emergencies and disasters thank you and then you probably heard earlier today we had an item about the COVID and the public health order given your experience how do you see your experience interacting with the roles and responsibility that the city council has as it pertains to public health orders so I'm venturing to guess you know a heck of a lot more than the six of us sitting up here yeah I mean that's a really great question I went when COVID hit it started in Seattle at Providence Hospital in Seattle that was ground zero for COVID and I was in this regional leadership position at the time and it was extremely stressful and I think that that you remember back then there was all the drama around PPE and what to do and then testing came online and there was procedural questions about how aggressive should we be and in all of that and all of that is still playing out today two years later and so yes I feel like I have expertise and I feel like I could really participate with you know with City of Santa Rosa but part of the part of the thing I think we need to do is tamp down some of the drama and some of the polarization and because you know the science behind all of these mandates and regulations is not super solid so yes I feel like I could be a subject matter expert on the city council but I would be very reluctant to start you know throwing around my ideas and you know contrary to the public health officers or the state mandates or whatever I would want to be pretty careful with how I position myself there great thank you council member Fleming thank you Dr. Davor for your time and and being interested in coming to serve at the City of Santa Rosa I have a couple of questions for you one is what how do you see or what how would you define your philosophy or approach to governance and if you don't have one yet how would you develop an approach and what sources might you use I'm sorry I didn't I didn't hear you actually can you say that again sure I'm talking about like a philosophy of governance or an approach to how you would take on the work how what lens you might look at this work through well I could take that so many different directions are you talking about sort of principles that I have in my life that I would bring to it it's intended to be an open ended question to let you express how you view the work that you might take on there's there's really no wrong answer I'm just curious no I think my work is informed by being a practicing physician and and I think that when you think about when you think about the whole DEI thing what I realize are that the values in the DEI movement are exactly the same values that I that are foundational and fundamental to me to me personally and to the way I've practiced and they're labeled slightly differently but like the value of dignity respecting the dignity of every individual that's a pretty fundamental value for me personally and one that I've you know that I hold you know deeply and you know the value of justice the value of standing with the vulnerable and the underserved again these are these are in the DEI but they're they're slightly different you know nomenclature yeah that's really helpful thank you so to that to that and then oftentimes you know nearly all the time our council votes together and the most difficult times we have and we still I think are pretty collegial is over land use and oftentimes it's the issue of property rights versus the issue of of more marginalized communities and it's not so straightforward because sometimes mixed in there you have marginalized individuals with property rights mixed in with more more well-resourced property owners how might you approach a difficult land use decision like that well again I think you're right I think it's so many times with the work that you do is as leaders in the community so many times there's competing values and that happens all the time actually you know on one hand you have the values the homelessness things another example on one hand you have the you know the value or the the value that respects the individuals right to decide for themselves what to do that sometimes will butt up against the value that the city you know is it has to represent the you know the entire community and the same thing with land rights if you talk about like the short-term rental issue like if you have you know a rental in your neighborhood and that it becomes a party house on weekends you know the owner of that house theoretically has the right to rent that house out but yet the neighbors have the right to not have that you know degrade the quality of their neighborhood and those are those values that butt up one against one another so I mean clearly it has to be hopefully there would be room in the middle somewhere but each of those issues is going to have to be a discernment process in some cases a legal process so you know you brought up the short-term rental one so how would you approach that one if it was in my neighborhood we would not be able to allow it at all I don't know you know it it's a perfect example of two values that butt up against one another let me ask the question a different way and give you an opportunity to tell share a time when you had to balance those two types of competing interests in your professional life I think it happens all the time in back to a medical example you have somebody who is impaired maybe somebody who has a cognitive disorder who doesn't want to go to a nursing home and some people think that that the grandpa needs to be in a nursing home grandpa thinks he's fine to continue to live by himself that happens all the time and so you know which value you know which value do you go with do you go with the grandpa has the right even if it's dangerous to live a home alone even if you know he sets the kitchen on fire or is it that he doesn't really have that capacity therefore he shouldn't have the right to make that decision for himself that plays out I think as you know in the medical world over and over again yeah thank you so much for taking the time and the care you put into your application sure else member Rogers hi um thank you for taking the time to be here today and to apply and for your interest um my question is being being in the position that you were formally in um and in the medical field we know that there are a lot of inequities within the medical field um from my perspective there are a lot of inequities within the medical field so can you please provide a situation um where you feel like you um stood up um where there was um in a situation where there was an inequity where you had to stand up where maybe it wasn't the most favorable thing um that you had to do but to stand up for something that you believed in for something that you felt was right yeah I think I would just speak to the we to speak a little bit about just mental health for a second maybe as a way to help answer that but the mental the mental health crisis that we face is because there's simply not enough services for the for the pent up need there's a gigantic gap there and so you have and if you want to shine a spotlight on where there's disparity between the haves and the have nots that's it that that is because if you have means if you have insurance if you have money if you have the ability to pay you're going to be able to access all the mental health care you need no problem but in the underserved community people who can't afford it they they they are they're not going to get mental health services and many of them it's not even on the radar they're not even thinking about it because it's just not an option so I think you know I think when you look at a disparity like that it it really shines a spotlight on an opportunity now I could give you many examples you know throughout my medical career of where patients simply don't have access to the care they need it's super frustrating and sometimes you know you have to pick up the phone and try to lean hard on let's say a doctor to take the patient with without payment something like that but those those stories you know play out over and over and over again in the medical world just simply because some patients don't have access to the care or they don't have the ability to pay for the care mr vice mayor thank you mayor doctor's good to have you here today thank you can you speak to us about your medical experience and how those experiences have prepared you to lead our city forward well again it gets back to the values and you know when I when I started working for st. joseph health which is about 13 years ago those values were explicit and they were basically the mission and the values of the sisters of st. joseph you know and when I joined I was really not aware of what you know faith-based health care looked like and certainly not a catholic system but the values are explicit they are there to serve the underserved and so you know that's why san rosa memorial hospital exists to serve the underserved that's why the medical group that's why the medical group exists all the clinics all the specialists the icu the e are all of it exists for the purposes of serving the underserved you know so st. joseph health is I think the sisters of st. joseph have really established that as fundamental so for me personally you know you know I've got a you know if I'm not on board with that I'm in the wrong business I'm in the wrong profession and I'm working for the wrong company because they are deadly serious about you know about you know the level of commitment that they asked for in my job as a physician leader was not only to practice those values but to lead those values because every physician we hired had to be on board with that there's over five there's nearly 500 doctors now in the system in northern california that that all of them have to be on board with that take care of the patients no matter what no matter who they are what they look like or you know how they came before you so I could talk more about this but uh I think it all starts with with your values and and you know where you when what you believe people deserve and if I may follow up you say the word underserved underserved I'm sorry as a public official creating policy how can you help the underserved well again there's there's gaps and you know it's not that hard to to find the gaps you know the gaps the disparity gaps another example of that that I just thought of was that that portrait sonoma that data you look at that data and it's very easy to see disparities and one example was there's a disparity between a neighborhood in san rosa I think an affluent neighborhood and another neighborhood that's something like 12 or 13 years longevity less longevity life expectancy in one neighborhood versus another one that's a massive disparity and it's an opportunity and I don't know the reason for it but I think that that you know that would that's a way for us an opportunity for us to do a deep dive into it understand it and then action plan that so uh I forgot what your question was but but you know I do think that I do think that we have opportunities everywhere with finding disparities like that and then doing something about them you were along the question lines in regards to policy making and addressing the underserved thank you sir thank you all right thank you doctor I get the last last question or two here I wanted to pull on a thread that council member fleming asked about and that's the contradiction that you oftentimes find between your goals and your priorities and the council had one within the last couple of months we had the water demand offset fee that came forward and it was potentially a um contradiction between the council's desire to build housing and how we address the drought so my question is how would you approach those types of contradictions and in that sort of a circumstance do you think san rosa should continue to build when we are in a severe drought and if and if yes how would you address it if not why not so it's a great it's another great example of uh conflicting values because you know because the the affordable housing crisis is one of the top priorities in our city it's one of the biggest problems it has to be addressed aggressively and it can't be something that's just put to the side you know we are at risk of becoming an elite city that is only affordable by the most affluent that's not the that's not the vision of a city that i have this city has to be you know it has to be for working class it has to be for all income levels and and so we can't ignore the responsibility to address affordable housing and but i but i but i know it's being addressed and i i think the idea of bringing it downtown and higher density and bringing it around where there's public transport and where there's retail i think that's directionally the right way but in the red initiative you know all of that work is i think to be applauded for sure but you don't want to solve the housing crisis by degrading the community in a way that makes it less livable and and it takes away the reasons that we love living here so those can't be uh they can't be exclusive you have to do both and if you build right if you build smart you should be able to build address the housing need but not give up what's special and and by the way i was a little bit you know i consider myself an environmentalist i've not been labeled as environmentalist but i i feel very dedicated in in and to the you know to the responsibility we have to preserve our natural environment and i'll just one second but you know i run up in anadel a lot i was up there this morning and anadel is a incredible resource it's miraculous it's pristine beautiful and it's in the middle of our city and and every time i'm up there i think of henry trioni that's what i think of you know that guy one guy had the vision to preserve that space you know otherwise they would be housing today and so i i think we all need to be visionary in terms of trying to solve this problem i don't necessarily uh feel like it's easy it's definitely not but you we have to do both we have to do both so if i can push a little bit further so water is a finite resource we only have so much to be able to utilize each year would you say no new development if there isn't water to offset it would you say potentially a fee to develop water projects how would you because from a functional perspective you have to either you can't create more water when there's none that's coming from the sky uh with our given resources so how would you approach an issue where the two sides are pitted against one another it's a really tough question obviously obviously we shouldn't be building and growing if we have no if we don't have water what i don't know is i don't know how critical our water supply is i think we need to plan on the worst i think we need to plan on the idea that the drought that we're experiencing now is maybe the new normal so yeah so so if it means that we're going to run out of water if we continue going the way we're going then we shouldn't continue going the way we're going but i but honestly mr. mayor this is an area where i would engage deeply with experts and really try to dig in and understand this you know i don't really feel like i'm prepared now to side up on one side or the other just don't feel like i have the knowledge base no i can absolutely appreciate that i i more wanted to see what your thought process was on how you would get there so i appreciate that the answer to me didn't matter it was how would you think about the issues in the in the future so i appreciate that all right thank you so with that we'll go ahead go you've got a couple minutes here to do a closing statement is there anything that you'd like the council to know about you anything that you missed from the the questions or expected to be asked or wanted to highlight we're all ears thank you now i would just close by saying that that i hope it's pretty clear that if you selected me i hope it's pretty clear that you know what you would get and what you would not get and i'm trying to be really transparent about it you know that i'm not any you know i'm not an insider i don't have direct experience with city government i don't have that but i do have the i have a work ethic and the desire you know to surf i have i feel like i would bring a lot of collegiality i feel like it would be you guys would probably have fun working with me and i definitely would have fun working with you i think you know i really would enjoy that aspect of this work solving problems together i feel like my leadership is still worth something i'm only six months out of retirement i feel like it still would really serve me well and help me be effective and again just the lifetime experience i had and as a family doctor i feel like i have the the values and the experience to you put that to use in city government as well so i i appreciate your time i appreciate your consideration i do recognize that you guys have to make a tough decision here tonight and i appreciate your consideration thank you so much dr. govore we appreciate your interest in the in the position and everything that you do in the community and your interest in making santa rosa a better place so thank you for taking the time with us here today thank you i think we can go ahead and roll into our next interview that'd be melanie come on up how's it going it's going well good evening so you've seen a couple of these interviews so far we'll go ahead and just start off with an opportunity for you to talk a little bit about your background while you're interested in the position and anything that you think that the council should know about you before we get into some of the back and forth q and a okay thank you mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez esteemed members of the council and city staff first off thank you for your commitment to the city following this council i have observed that despite difficult issues you always come together and find consensus this is a value i too share i'd like to introduce myself my name is melanie nakuzy i grew up in santa rosa and am the oldest of seven children at 17 i left the area to attend stanford university where i graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering product design which basically means that i am a professional problem solver while at stanford i served as manager of the lgbt co-op which is the largest co-op on campus there i learned to handle interpersonal issues between residents and to balance a budget after stanford i worked as an engineer at a silicon valley startup in 2014 i left the bay area in pursuit of a lifelong dream i hiked over 2000 miles from mexico to canada along the pacific crest trail i spent five months living out of a tent um and i'm familiar with the hardships of that lifestyle after my hike i took on an applied engineering management role at mammoth mountain ski area i had many co-workers who lived in vans due to a lack of affordable housing additionally i saw firsthand how climate change and drought threatened california's water supply and its fire safety i moved back to santa rosa in 2020 to start a family of my own uh my son and husband are here today joining me my son is a fourth generation santa rosen five of my siblings still live here my grandparents walley and ellie lowery and my mother stefanie nakuzi all served on boards with the city my father is an immigrant and i have seen the discrimination he faces due to his skin color and accent and the fact that he grew up in a different culture i have spent time living abroad myself i am bilingual and bicultural furthermore my parents are both physicians and have helped to keep me well informed on covid-19 related issues i am pretend uh i am prepared to attend all council subcommittee and goal setting meetings uh i am versed on the city's tier one top priorities i have time for this opportunity before i re-enter the engineering world and in me the council has an opportunity to honor the voters and appoint someone who closely matches jack tidbits we are both 31 years old and young parents jack and i were actually classmates at montgomery high school and our two pages apart from each other in the yearbook actually uh and council member tidbits was elected to bring a fresh perspective to this council and i believe i can pick up where he left off all right well thank you so much um i will start to my left with council member rogers with questions hi thank you for being here today and applying so uh looking at the similarities between you and jack i'm going to ask you a question to kind of point out the obvious i guess how um you said that you i heard you say you're going to re-enter the the engineering world right yes so um all right you're going to re-enter the engineering world and um in and beyond council are you planning to run for the permanent seat uh no i will not run in november for the permanent seat uh because i do want to go down my uh go back into a i guess uh my trained career and uh yeah it's it's something i want to go back into but i kind of have this opportunity now to give back to the community hence uh and this this uh appointment arose and i thought i was encouraged to apply i should say and it's something i got excited about uh because of the process you guys use to come to decisions it's very much up my alley uh in terms of uh idea generating and uh consensus um to to make decisions okay thank you hello mr kuzi thank you so much for your interest in in local government and um i think it's wonderful that we're getting more and more people with young children and different types of backgrounds interested in serving i think uh council member rogers was pointing out that it is a lot to raise a child and a lot to be on the council but nonetheless some of us manage it and and it is a sacrifice at any rate i'd like to focus on what your philosophy of governance is how you would approach difficult issues and have a little bit of a back and forth yeah and thank you for that question uh well i guess my philosophy in any kind of decision making is uh is the important of consensus when you have different parties with different needs uh it's something i'm a natural at i think as the oldest of seven i dealt with a lot of conflict resolution within my own family um when i was house manager at the lgbt co-op uh we had i'm going to give you an example um of how i dealt with a conflict uh we had an international member say i know what a woman is and a woman can have children and he was overheard by one of our transgender members and um this uh arose to my attention and it was something i knew i would have to confront um and given my experience with uh international and people i've lived abroad myself i knew that they sometimes have trouble understanding these issues so i mitigated some house meetings where i brought together the various parties um led some open discussions uh and in the end the the situation did resolve when when people could see each other's point of views um another example uh was when i was working at mammoth when i first started there and i was promoted the uh one of my co-workers he held some resentment that i had been promoted over him and he let me know very verbally that he didn't want me babysitting him um and uh i knew i had to confront that situation before snowballed and uh so one evening i pulled him aside and i let him know that i valued his knowledge and his years of experience and i think when he that's what he was looking for was that i did appreciate that um and from then on we worked really well together uh for my remaining years there so i do see how important it is to have compromise when you have different points of view um and it's something that council does really well and uh something that got me excited about the opportunity yeah um and you know we do do it and we do and there are a lot of opportunities to do it um but sometimes there is a zero-sum game unfortunately um like i was talking about before with the previous applicant around when there's limited resources around land use for example and so um one example is uh that we've been dealing with is the idea of short-term rentals so um people renting out their homes and we have certain places in the community where we have a lot of these on a block and neighborhoods are being eroded but and and people are unable to enjoy you know community life the way they'd like and then on the other hand you have uh the property rights of the the owners of those of those parcels so how would you balance something like that and that's not even you know one touching on where we're dealing with really vulnerable people in general how would you approach something like that yes that is a very important issue and um one that has i know been in front of the council recently uh uh it is something i've seen myself uh in my experiences uh my family owns a condo in san Diego and that building has rules about uh no short-term rentals and um then we would go to the beaches where it's all short-term rentals and it's a very different atmosphere there a lot of partying going on uh i think it is important to hear everyone's sides i i get that the idea the owners want to be able to do what they you know it's their home they can do what they want um but i also get the side of the neighbors who want to maintain a certain uh atmosphere in their neighborhood um and i think it's important to have all voices represented at the table uh there are ways i think to mitigate the concerns the neighbors things like owner occupant requirements um and it's something that maybe a subcommittee could be appointed for that could look further into it and it's something i'd be happy to take charge on uh with my product design experience i am very good at leading brainstorming sessions that is a key tenant in product design um so it's something that i think needs to be explored further excellent thank you and i and i can't help but point out that if appointed you'd be the youngest of seven so as opposed to the oldest anyway thank you for your interest how's the member sweater thank you mr. mayor thank you again for applying for this and participating in this process so i saw in your application about the issues affecting the city you talked about affordable housing which is pretty consistent since i've been on council it's been one of our priorities what are we doing well in this area and what area is doing you to improve on yeah um it is a very important issue and um one that's across california an important issue really uh well uh i think the council is doing a good job it's it's a tricky one uh uh i myself have lived in many cities like i've said i've lived in berkeley uh my sister lives in new york um these are cities where they've had to deal with the same thing density and affordable housing um versus maintaining the characters of the neighborhood uh i think one elegant solution that i've seen um that balances these various needs is to maintain the existing structures but uh to allow more density there either by adding flats or creating a duplex out of a single family dwelling um and i know this is something california the state has been dealing with as well they know they passed the home act last year uh to ease that process i think right now the the process of uh increasing density is expensive timely and a difficult process and if anything the city could do to uh to make it more smoother and streamlined uh is is important um but balancing that against turning into um you know a place to be taken over by outside investors um looking to develop and the city it's important to keep the neighbors and the characters and the neighbors uh the neighborhoods to preserve that um so i think it's another issue where you have multiple voices and it's important to have all voices at the table um and i think looking to other cities for examples of how they've dealt with the issue could be um a valuable way to go okay and then earlier during your response to one of the questions you talk about consensus and i'm not sure if you call yourself an expert but you have a lot of experience in that tell me how consensus in those experiences would apply to being one of seven on a council environment uh yeah it's it's a good question it's one of those things where open dialogue is very important and understanding each person's point of view um like i said my background is in product design and um through product design a lot of it is about going out and observing your user group and understanding how they see the world walking in their shoes and when you really understand people you can go ahead and design for them um so with that in mind i try to uh when i approach any any contentious issue uh see each point of view um be keep an open mind um and and move forward together um then that way thank you ask member soyer thank you mayor and thank you melanie for being here this afternoon i have great fun memories of working with ellie and walley our city's charter is currently being reviewed by the charter the charter review committee and the charter review committee's recommendations could be considered some of the most important decisions facing this council this year are you familiar with the with the committee's endeavor and responsibilities the short answer is yes i understand what the city charter is and that is reviewed every 10 years um and uh like one of my the previous applicants mentioned i know that the uh elected mayor is a big issue coming up um and i guess there i would have to hear what their recommendations are before i could commit to ye or nay on that um are you familiar with the with so of the issues that you're that you are hearing that they're dealing with do you have a sense of what you consider to the most important issues that they're currently considering on the review committee in addition to the directly elected mayor being that could be one yeah i mean give me a second um i would have to review it further before i really could give a good answer to that question yeah thanks melanie mr vice mayor thank you mayor thank you for being here today thank you having had the opportunity to learn of our parents struggle as immigrants what do you consider to be the largest obstacle that we have as citizens naturally or or or born citizens and how can we improve the experiences of the immigrant community moving forward thank you vice mayor for that question it is a very important one um i know it's one of the top priorities for this council to have um good representation of the diverse population of santa rosa um i lived abroad in my dad's home country which is lebanon i lived abroad for a year and in lebanon it they actually 30 percent of the population there are refugees it has the highest number of refugees per capita of any place in the world um and so in that kind of environment where you have so many different religions and cultures and beliefs representation is very important and compromise as well uh lebanon has been through civil war and in fighting and it really went nowhere and actually caused economic destruction so um with that in mind um it is important i think to make sure you have all voices at the table um it is something i think i can offer to the council as a daughter of an immigrant um to just have more equal representation um i can also represent mothers of young children i know there are other mothers on the council but you saw my child he's less than a year old um it's i think it's important to have all voices at the table um to help make sure people feel valued and heard thank you very much all right so first and foremost i have to tell you i'm resisting the urge to ask you questions about jack in high school even though i think all of us have many uh are you familiar with how the city discharges its wastewater um i am not i guess go if you have not yeah we have a an innovative approach where we pipe our wastewater and inject it into the geysers to create clean energy you heard some of the contradiction uh questions about competing policies uh we obviously have the drought that wastewater could potentially be used differently should we break the lease with the the geysers but at the detriment of our green energy production how would you approach that sort of a short-term impact versus long-term impact uh trade-off yeah that's that is a good question um water being a very limited resource it's one of those issues where yeah you have two strong sides short term versus long term it's important to think about uh both sides of the story uh like okay with the uh using the water reusing the water that side um we need the water the population's getting bigger the drought is becoming maybe the new normal um those are all good reasons to consider using that water but then the clean energy side is i want santa rosa to be a nice place to live for my son as he grows up um and we do need to go more clean because renewable energy um is important in combating another uh limited resource which is uh uh non-renewable sources of energy um it's an issue that i think a subcommittee could be formed for uh to it to uh weigh both sides of the issue um any solution would have to really find a balance a balance between the two needs and maybe it's something um that it doesn't have to be all or none on that maybe some wastewater could be used um and turned into fresh water and some could still go to the geyser rather than dealing with absolutes but find a middle ground between the two the two sides okay and keeping with the climate change theme because we haven't asked too many questions about that from from applicants yet uh two-thirds of the state's housing was created before you had any type of energy standards should taxpayer dollars go towards fixing those homes or should a mandate be made to make those homes come up to higher standards yeah that's that's a tricky one um it hits people in their pocketbooks um i mean in an ideal situation yes it would be paid for by the government but i understand that that's a limited resource on the government side i think you can't just i mean you'd have to get rid of something in order to pay for that program um and i can't think of anything to to get rid of um it's something that i think has to be uh phased in over time that as improvements get put into buildings that that would be the opportunity um to upgrade to uh um to a more sustainable uh design um again it's something i think that has to be phased in over time um and i know it's something that santa rosa isn't dealing with uniquely it's something that we could look at uh other cities and see how they're approaching the issue um so not easy uh not an easy yay or nay uh there's a gray area in between all right i appreciate that are there any other questions from council okay i'm going to go ahead say go do your uh your closing and uh just again a huge thank you for for sitting here and letting us grill you a little bit thank you guys thank you for the opportunity i come to you today today as a candidate who offers diversity uh both in my blood and in my life experiences i am a strong believer in resolving conflict through consensus i can rand out the council by representing parents of young children and by bringing the wealth of knowledge i've built living around the country and the world i would like to end with a poem i wrote for you all i have lived many places and for what it's worth i can say santa rosa is the most beautiful on earth i have seen how war and infighting only lead to demise so i believe in the power of compromise before i return to work this is an opportunity to join the council and give back to the community you can honor the voters with this decision by replacing jack tidbits with one of equal vision santa rosa is a leader that is no mystery together we can make this the best year in history thank you thank you so much i appreciate your time council we're going to take a quick break we'll come back in five minutes for our next applicant madam city clerk can we please call the roll and establish the quorum thank you council member schwedhelm here council member soyer here council member rogers president council member fleming here vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers here at the record show that all council members are present okay we'll move on to our next applicant that's christopher miller christopher come on down welcome in and thank you so much for for joining us tonight as you've seen from others uh make sure you keep the microphone really close to your face and make sure the green dot is on it you'll have three minutes to introduce yourself and talk about anything in your experience that you think is relevant relevant or that the the council might consider and then you've seen a little bit we'll do ping pong asking questions from council members as we try to make our determination so with that go ahead take it away well good evening and thank you for inviting me to participate in this process uh unlike some people here i was not born here but i have a cousin in taxes who likes to say i got here as soon as i could uh i came in 1977 to join a local law firm and have been a part of the community ever since my wife was a teacher at slater and montgomery and joshua retired in 2005 we raised five children all went to santa rosa city schools here and uh we love santa rosa i didn't take on this application lightly i sort of value my time i'm only semi-retired but when i take on a job or take on a task i take it on wholeheartedly and i do it with all of my energy everything that i can do so i had to give this a long thought i first saw the the notice that jack tibet said had resigned and uh just sort of mentioned it in passing because of friends like you know maybe that's something i should do in the response i got from friends and neighbors was so overwhelming telling me that i should do it that i decided to to put my application in and and now here i am what i would like you to know about me is that i don't undertake anything lightly i spent a lifetime as first a trial lawyer for 20 years and then as a corporate general counsel lawyer presently i work mostly with startups and you can imagine the kind of problems that call it to be resolved when you're working with a startup company especially these days in the tech fields and with all the attendant problems that covet has brought so basically my whole life has been about conflict resolution i've been a mediator a very successful one and what i've learned in mediation is that you never form an opinion you never make a recommendation until you've satisfied yourself that you understand the issues and that you've heard and understood the positions of the parties that you're trying to help and that's a skill that i would bring to the council uh with regard to my time availability i certainly have the time i can attend the 24th and 25th sessions and i would make the council schedules a priority ahead of anything ahead of anything else should i be appointed i don't have a present intention to run for the open seat in november that could change if i really like what i'm doing i join you as a colleague but i don't have a present intention but that said it would not be my intention and i certainly would not be a placeholder i would be an active hardworking member of the council and give it all of the attention it deserves and all the work that needs and i'm happy to answer any of your questions all right thank you so much christopher did you go by chris or christopher uh you know the only person that calls me christopher is my wife and she's mad at me so please call me chris i get that one we'll start all the way over on the right with council member soyer thank you mayor and thank you chris for being here this evening happy to be here our city's charter is being reviewed currently by the charter review committee the charter review committee's recommendations could be considered some of the most important decisions facing this council this year are you familiar with the committee's endeavor and responsibilities i'm familiar with the charter provision that requires that the charter be reviewed over 10 years i'm familiar with the 21 people i think they're on the committee i know several of the names and i know what they're charged with doing it's much like a mini constitutional convention where you revisit and and try to see what things are working with things aren't and how governance could be done better are you familiar with the various issues that they're that they are deliberating on currently i'm sorry what are you familiar with the with the issues that they're deliberating not specifically i know the general category is that they're charged with the deliberation on okay thank you very much council member swedham thank you mr mayor and thank you chris for participating in this and i totally resonate with tom or thomas i'm with you on that one so i appreciate it chris um so i saw in your application you talked about maintaining the vitality of downtown as a key priority so from your observation of what this council has done downtown and previous councils what have we gotten right and what areas do need more focus in our downtown area for its vitality well i do think that the decision to reunite courthouse square was great uh when i first came actually when i first came to center was it not to live but first encountered santa rosa the old courthouse was still in the middle of the square and uh to have the and then when the when the courthouse was removed and they went santa rose avenue minnesina went through the traffic basically bypassed a lot of the downtown so i thought it was it was a very good thing to do and i'm very happy that was done in fact i would like to see uh more done when thinking about the proposal to make a more pedestrian friendly way from the downtown to railroad square for the same reason because i hate to see the town bifurcated and what i've seen over the years is really an interesting phenomena that if you go a block off four street either direction the downtown almost disappears all the vitalities on four street and it always has been and i i'd like to see some innovative solutions to try to draw that and some of the ideas for high density housing uh the new hotel that's come in all of those things are really great for revitalizing the downtown so i think those are that i think and i think a lot of the merchants have complained about the parking situations where uh the meters back on heels where we have uh three-hour parking and that's it and it's you don't pay a meter uh i think there are some issues in parking that could be addressed i'm not sure what the answer is but i think that's an issue that i think a lot of the merchants downtown are concerned with and i also noticed in your application you mentioned uh you volunteered some time out of the palms so um i'm interested in your thoughts about could since the palms is not within the jurisdiction of the city san rosa could that be replicated here in the city and how would we go about doing that well i think it could because uh i got involved because my wife is a member of congregation bethame and they their social action committee is actually a group that does that work working with catholic charities to serve to to cook and serve meals there during covid we haven't been serving the meals we've just been cooking and preparing them delivering them because they didn't want us to actually interact and and serve the meals but it's a very simple solution it involves volunteers and there are plenty of those it involves addressing small discrete groups and it involves just a lot of care and compassion toward the people that need those services so i think it's very easily replicated just about anywhere you want to do it do you have suggestions as to where we would do it in san rosa you know it occurred to me when i saw that the gold coin motel was sold and there was going to be some development there that that would be an ideal location for something like that one of the things that makes the palms easy to do is that there are already residents there they have uh i believe an a a counseling group there that's part of the the situation and a management that controls who comes in and who who doesn't so to the extent you could have that sort of a discrete situation i think that would help i'm not sure where that would work in san rosa but i'm sure with some diligence it could be found thank you else member fleming mr miller or chris um since nobody here is angry at you thank you so much for coming in today my question for you is similar to ones that i've asked previous applicants which is what is your approach or your philosophy of governance i'm sorry i didn't hear how did you how would you approach intellectually philosophically how would you approach this job if appointed oh well that's a good question i would i would approach that the same way to everything else the most important thing in any kind of situation is to be aware and listen to what people are telling you to not form opinions until you've done as much as you can and as much diligence that you can put into the situation to understand the facts and collegiality is is just the watchword that's what it has to be that because you can't ever accomplish anything if you do or say something you get somebody's back up and creates a hostile situation between you so my approach has always been one of listening that's always the first step if i don't understand something i ask questions until i do if there's nobody that is available to answer my questions in my immediate surroundings i go find someone who knows and ask that question and find out but it's information gathering is collegiality and it's being open to listen to different points of view and would you approach a difficult land use question and i'll give you an example that came in front of the council in the last year we had to decide whether or not we wanted to extend eviction moratorium protections are you familiar with what eviction moratorium this is not a trick question i'll just tell you it if you don't if you don't know do you know what that means i'm having a really hard time hearing i also we're hearing aids and oh okay let me speak up a little bit is this better excellent so eviction moratorium we were we're asked whether or not we were going to extend an eviction moratorium are you familiar with what that means yes okay excellent so in this situation you have people who are fairly vulnerable but you also have on one side low income people in many cases but not all cases people who are just trying to make it through in most cases but not all cases people who are well-intentioned in most cases but not all cases and then on the other side you have individuals the property rights of landowners and their needs to pay their bills pay their mortgages and in general they have more more resources but in not in all cases so it's not black or white but at the end of the day we have to make a decision that that prioritizes one group or another and we do our best to increase the pot and not have it be a zero some game but sometimes it is so i'm wondering uh listening is great collegiality is great we we really see that in you and and we work really hard for that but when it's not always possible to just balance things out how might you approach a situation like that well i think you have to i don't think approaching any problem is different from the way you approach any other problem that just happens to be a particularly emotionally charged problem and a particularly difficult problem to deal with but i i couldn't sit here today and make a recommendation to you because i don't know enough about what is available what tax funds could be available to assist landlords or to assist tenants whether it would make sense to to put a time limit on how long the eviction moratorium would last in order to find help people find alternative housing there are just so many factors that go into a decision like that that i'd really need a lot more information to answer that question cogently i appreciate your responses thank you for identifying all those factors thanks councilmember rogers hi and thank you for being here um so my question um is around dei uh and more specifically around um equity and and things being equitable and we know that um things are not always equitable but you having a background or uh being in law we know that things are not always equitable so can you give me a situation in which um you felt like you were working on something or you observed um a situation that you felt was not equitable and what did you do or what didn't you do and why well a really quick short answer that is we raise five children so you're always dealing with what's equitable on that kind of a situation because there's always somebody claiming it's not fair but on a a broader level you know i've had this discussion many times i used to teach many years ago of course in philosophy and law at sonoma state and there's always a disconnect because people equate equity with justice and they're not the same justice is the application of the law that results in an adjust result under the law equity doesn't always mean you got a just result conversely getting a just result doesn't mean you've done equity equity i think really falls more into the realm of fairness and so you have to see whether or not what you have done or what you are proposing to do is as fair to the parties that you can make it be and i think that's the best way i can answer that question quick follow-up question um and it probably is it not a trick question but i need to ask anyway um so uh a a guy's on trial but um and he sits on trial but because he cannot afford a doctor he can afford a doctor to come testify for him to to testify for his his mental illness right is that i'm sorry i didn't get the first part of your question uh there's a gentleman that's i'm giving you an example i just want to know which which one this is for you there's a gentleman that's on trial but he cannot afford a doctor to come testify um to state whether or not he has the mental illness um does that have to do with um and so he he loses the trial because he can't get the doctor to come he can't afford the doctor to come testify so is that have to do with justice or equity i think it's a combination of both actually because ideally the law would provide that if you were an indigent defendant and i i've not done that kind of law so i'm assuming that in many cases just as a person is entitled to a public defender if he can't afford a lawyer that the public defender's office also has people they can call on as experts who are compensated by the public defender's office everyone no matter what their status should be entitled to all the means to achieve a fair trial and if in that instance that you set forth if having a fair trial a major component of that is the question of a person's mental status then fairness requires that the state who is putting on trial afford him the ability to make that determination okay thank you for their your answer and just so you know they're they're not so but thank you for your answer vice mayor thank you mayor sir thank you for being here tonight in the 45 years as a san rosa resident uh actually since you came to work to san rosa what has your been your experience in regards to the underserved have you been able to identify such a group and if so how can you as a policymaker or as a city council member help represent that group well i think we all know those of us who have been around the city for a while know that the character and nature of the city has changed quite a bit in last 45 years because it was a much smaller city then we had a much less much less of a population of the underserved underserved as the city has grown as the population has increased as the cost of living has arisen as the cost of housing has risen the there's a corresponding increase in the unserved and underserved so and there have been a corresponding increase in the outreach programs that have been established to take care of those i think that again i don't have the knowledge base to give you definitive answer but i would think that getting more citizen involvement to form more outreach services bringing in more organizations like catholic charities and the others that that do this work and encouraging and help to perhaps even subsidize it would help just having some community outreach workers to go out and and find out what really is the problem that is causing these people to be held back whether it's economic whether it's health issues whether it's a loss of a job whether that loss of a job is temporary or permanent there are so many factors that there's no one cure it has to be incremental is there a method where you might use to define what is an under underserved population and which is not underserved i'm sorry what what do you have a method to determine what group is underserved and which one isn't and if so how would you make that determination well again i think even the term underserved is is pretty all inclusive so i i don't think there is any one size fits all i think you need to determine how people are underserved or not served and address specific needs with specific solutions and i know that's a very vague answer but unless you have a specific community that we're talking about or a specific group of people it's hard to say what solution would best apply to them thank you sir so recently the city council raised our reserve policy from 15 percent of general fund to 17 percent of general fund how would you go about deciding if that's adequate what resources would you have sought to see and are there any other types of budget parameters or budget conditions that you'd be looking for coming in as a council member to determine the fiscal health of the city so just to clarify when you say reserve policy are you talking about an insurance reserve against liability or for some other reason it's uh call it a uh an overrun uh a contingency fund contingency fund i think what i you know my mind when i hear somebody who has a reserve i think about a reserve against litigation costs and expenses is that a part of it as well oh yeah the city attorney does a pretty good job of keeping us out of trouble but yes sometimes we have to ask her for money to defend ourselves well again i hate to dance around and be vague about this but it's kind of a hard question answer unless i know what the actual specific issues are that might draw down upon that reserve uh clearly if you've made a determination to increase the reserve i'm assuming that the council as it generally does it is due diligence to determine what factors it could cause it to to counts who draw down on that reserve and made the appropriate decision so i think it's something you just have to to look at on an ongoing basis one of the things that is going to be the biggest long-term impact of whoever gets appointed to this position is going to be the budget in june uh how will you approach that given that you have not gone through an election to hear from the community that you represent about what their priorities are i didn't hear the last part of your question uh uh given that you are up for an appointment not an election you haven't gone through an elective process where you've talked with the community you'll represent about what their priorities are or how they would like to see the budget crafted how will you pull in that input in time for our budget discussions later this year oh well i would act as though i were running i would talk to people in the community i would hold coffee sessions i would reach out by email i would go to the oakmont community center i would talk to my neighbors i would talk to all of the people live in the district to see what's important to them because that's what my job would be and on a related note uh there's a time equals money as we know uh particularly when it comes to housing development how will you balance the need for community input on projects versus getting projects off the ground faster well i think in a way it would be a process that would be almost like you conduct the meetings here where you have a specific time for public comment so for any proposed project there would be a period of time where there would be public comment that would be encouraged uh people i would go to the people in district district 3 to see what their issues were but let them know that at some point that comment is closed and the decision has to be made because as you well know i'm sure you can't let these things drag on forever some some decision has to be made and you do your best to gather all the information you can from the public because that's who we serve but at some point all of that information has to be put together and a decision made so i think just a time limit on that would be a good idea okay thank you so much any other questions from council all right i'll give it right back to you if you want to do a closing anything that we missed anything that you wanted to highlight the floor is yours well there's not there's not really anything important other than to say that i appreciate the opportunity to to talk with you all today to have an opportunity to join you on the council and work for the benefit of the city if you did choose me to join you as a member of the council i can assure you that i would give you my all i can assure you that i would do all the due diligence necessary to make a proper decision i can assure you assure you that i think as my friend jim said you'd have a good time with me and i'd love to do it all right thank you so much all right council let's move into our final applicant of the night uh it's michael stanford michael if you want to come on down and take the center seat all right and it's all yours thank you council i come from a low-income household i moved to rinkin valley where i fell in love with this community and this city for the past 10 years i've worked for snowman county regional parks where i get to put into practice my education and natural resource management and commitment to community service service is what i do it's what my adult life has been i've been involved in my union since day one i've been a voice for the per diem employees i've worked to negotiate two contracts and sustainable colas i have also worked on equity projects such as paid parental leave at the county to ensure that those who live here can raise a family here i'm also involved in lions lions club that is where i serve as club president and in church as well where i am involved in helping to feed 65 families as well as managing the budget as the chair of the finance committee i also co-founded the sonoma county tenants union to help educate our tenants here in sonoma county and in san terosa income inequality and climate hardening are two topics that most address this city and this community i'm a firm believer in participatory democracy i believe in civic engagement is the key to saving democracy especially in these dark times i'm a team player and consensus builder and leader that's how i like to get to it's to govern in my community in my committees and how i like to live my life as well i had the time to serve on tuesdays to attend council meetings i also had the time to attend goal setting session on the 24th and 25th of this month i had the time to serve on subcommittees and i look forward to serving on those as well i would like to thank you all our city manager and city attorney for this opportunity thank you thank you so much michael i'll start to my left with councilmember rogers hi michael thank you for being here this evening um i'm gonna stay with the same track that i've asked other applicants and um it's about the dei um and you having a background uh with parks specifically um i have a passion with parks um probably because everyone can can utilize parks um can you give me an example of um equity where you felt like maybe you had to to stand up um for something or where equity was not things were not equitable um within um maybe a department or a situation um and you had to stand up or you maybe wanted to stand up but you couldn't and and why um that was great question so part of what i do and why i got involved in the union is because i want to be and have been the voice of our per diem employees at the county extra help who have been uh overly used and used outside of the civil service rules so i have uh that's why i got involved first with students council and then became a chapter officer and a negotiating team member i then helped to get measure impasse the parks for all campaign so that we could provide funding for moving extra help into permanent positions and that resulted in uh in the 2019 2020 budget an increase of about 24 new positions 12 for operations where extra help have been used the most so to me that is an equity issue because we are the lowest paid workers and we deserve to be able to live in the community that we serve and provide for uh the taxpayers and do you have children i do not okay um i believe i heard you say that you help to um advocate for the parental paid leave that is correct okay um so why was that important for you to to advocate for that and is it are you hoping to have children one day is that zero what was your motive behind advocating for that so though i don't have children i do hope to one day have children but in the meantime it's important that the friends and co-workers that i know and those in our community who do have children and would like to have children with their partner how the opportunity to do so and part and it's and paid parental leave allows them to be able to bond with their children and that's very important in the child's development and so i am a very empathetic and compassionate person so as i listened to my co-workers who really wanted this and i worked the fight hard for it and we were able to do that to get eight eight weeks of paid parental leave with an additional four weeks that could be used using uh vacation savings planned for a couple weeks worth and then additional leave such as vacation thank you so much council member flaming thank you mayor um and welcome mr sanford it's great to see you today i'm gonna ask you a few questions if my colleagues will allow the the first one is the one that i've asked most of the can the applicants around um that your philosophy of governance and how you manage situations where there's not often extra resources and you do have to pick between competing interest often um you know land landowners versus tenants and how you would manage the how you would manage the concerns actually of landlords since you're very involved in the tenants union um you know when you get in these seats it becomes very difficult to just see things from from one way so how might you manage your advocacy for tenants while also looking out for landlords who have to pay their mortgages as well no great question so part of the outreach that we've done is listening sessions with community members as well as know your rights clinics where landlords and tenants can come and learn about the law and their rights and what and duties and responsibilities so i believe that that is a fair approach to this to the the issue at hand and listening is very important to be able to come to realization and i know that that is a very difficult question and i believe that you have also mentioned with regards to passing the eviction moratorium and it is important especially in a pandemic that we do not increase our homelessness which has already been as as rampant as it has in the past although we are working towards that we do not need to be able to increase that and so i would have voted to increase uh or extend the eviction moratorium and looked at ways to mitigate uh like a rental assistance program okay thank you um and then my other question is a little bit different because a question about demographics um in that um the district that you live in is i believe it's our oldest district and not by the districts are all the same age of course but it is the district that has the largest percentage of senior citizens it's also the most female district and i'm wondering how you might relate to and involve these constituencies yeah so i um um would like to go on a listening tour and i have a personal goal that if i were to be appointed that i would try and knock on every door in the district within the first three months kind of going back to the previous question about my my political philosophy and and i mentioned it in my introductions i'm a firm believer in participatory democracy and civic engagement and so doing this by knocking on doors introducing myself listening to the stories that people have to tell i can educate myself on how i can better represent my fellow neighbors and constituents thank you for your thoughtful responses that's member schwetl thank you mr erin thank you michael for participating in this process with us in your application you talked about the uh big issue about climate change and you talked about the city and the county and property owners need to work on climate hardening what are we doing well in this area and what do you mean by climate hardening and what do we need to do better yeah uh thank you so after the the the glass fire hit i had the um it was really impactful to me because my friend's family uh liz and andy adams they lost their house um their dream home on los alamos road it was in the newspaper you probably you may have seen it to have seen that property that i had explored all throughout my childhood and teenage years and such fond memories of completely reduced terrible was very emotional for me so with the it's important that we focus on our vegetation management and having firsthand knowledge of how to actually do that i think that that with that the skills that i learned in the vegetation management that i've done with regional parks that i can bring to the council i also believe that with the uh the american recovery plan act funds that and the pgne settlement funds as well as additional funds from the federal government that we are as a council and you all have done a great job on this are moving us in the right direction to be able to protect our vulnerable uh homes and communities especially district three which has been hit by two massive fire storms so i believe that we are on the right track but that work also needs to be on an equitable way at the workers who do the work or hired locally pay the living wage and can eventually work towards retiring in this community that they serve and so when you talk about climate hardening the big question is who's going to pay for it what are your thoughts on that again as i mentioned the american recovery plan act funds the pgne settlement funds and available mitigation funds coming from the federal government i believe that countywide we received about 57 million dollars from the state and the federal government to go towards wildfire program or wildfire reduction programs such as fuel reduction which would be the large part of vegetation management so i know this council has had plenty of public hearings about the use of those funds both pgne and the arpa are you are you supportive of the efforts that the city has been doing or do you think we should be spending it some other direction i i'm very supportive of what the city has done and so i look forward to work with with you all if i were to be appointed to see that through as well as using my connections that i've learned i've made at the county as well so that we can cooperatively work together as the county and the city as well as our state partners and our private landowners as well because this is going to take all of us together working together to be able to protect our community from from future disasters and hopefully we won't have another one but yeah great thank you council member soyer thank you mayor and thank you for being here this evening michael appreciate it i'll ask you the same question i've asked the other applicants and our city's charter is being reviewed by our charter review committee as we speak the charter review committee's recommendations could be considered some of the most important decisions facing this council this year are you familiar with the committee's endeavor and responsibilities i am somewhat familiar with it students responsibilities but in a more general sense once the recommendations of the committee are received by the council in no particular order what do you feel are the most important potential changes in the charter which might come before the voters this year one thing that i foresee would be a full-time paid council i think it's important that the fifth largest city in santa rosa it prepares itself for for eventually hitting the 200 000 population mark we know that berkeley has already made this transition and we are much larger than them having a full-time council will allow us to will continue to allow our our civic engagement with our constituents but then also open up for more equitable candidates for public office including the youth of our communities such as myself and those younger than me thank you for that i'm curious given the financial condition of the city and the potential costs of a of seven individuals receiving considerable amounts of money for a full-time job what programs or what departments might you consider reducing to help pay for those the the council's pay well first i would like to listen to our constituents and find out what they feel works best for them and is a for a salary then obviously we would have to bring it to the voters ultimately for their final approval so once we get an idea of what a paid council would look like then we'd have to make the hard decision of where do we find that money and then that will be part of the presentation and goal to the voters and have them ultimately decide thank you mr vice mayor thank you mayor michael could have you here sir what social issue are you most passionate about and and i do have two follow-up questions i would say at this point in time is addressing the equity issue in our communities we know that the life expectancy of our latinx population of our pacific islander and african-american communities are far below our white communities here in san rosa we also know that the average income is lower as well and so we need to work towards addressing these issues and part of what i want to like to do is to work with our our targeted investment in infrastructure so that we can work towards a greener cleaner environment that puts more focus on those who have been hit hardest by the climate crisis that we have now face ourselves into and for city projects as well as future buildings to have a local higher ordinance so that those who work to construct the future of our city that they live here and they earn their income here and they spend their their money here and we receive those tax revenue back to us as well as an apprenticeship program and to coordinate with our local high schools one thing that i would like to do if appointed would be to continue reaching out to our local school districts like san rosa city schools rican valley and bennett valley school districts and since we have some overlap and well obviously in our jurisdictions but and then one thing that i would like to do is build that the community center it's important and i know this for myself when i grew up along the river of the holidayl club that was the community hangout and so i know the importance of having a place that you can go and hang out with friends see family and have a great time and also learn more about about yourself in that process too yeah considering the word equity as it is your most the issue that you're most passionate about what would you say is the argument that critics make to support their position what do i think is the argument that critics make that somehow there's not enough to go around and i disagree with that it's not a pie we're not asking for more slice the pie we're asking for an equals slice very well and my last question and i understand both sides of that that that coin especially when i hear the argument so with that in mind what sacrifices would you be willing to make to strike a balance and move the issue forward or in this case move equity or equitable solutions forward if any would sacrifice i would personally make yes in regards to your efforts to move equity equity forward in in conversation in movements with and amongst and against the critics well i would like to sit down with them and listen to to them and i think that there might be some something that lost is lost in translation and show them around have them meet the people who they may not have engaged with in the past and have have them come together and discuss the issue one thing that i i like to think about is that on this issue is everybody and nobody out let's all come together talk about the issues and seek that common ground together and again that's the consensus model to me and so i would give my time and my energy and my drive and my passion to serve and achieve the goal of equity now when i asked the question originally about what social issue you're most passionate about i did not know you that your answer would be equity so it's hard to say that i'd be willing even for myself make sacrifices in regards to my position in regards to equity but are there any sacrifices of your goal that you'd be willing to make in order to achieve more equity if not total equity very good question ire and it's a difficult one because i have trouble with it as well especially as a policymaker i guess my question ultimately is would you be willing to settle for less if you couldn't get all something is better than none and that's what i've learned in negotiations you know i put forward many proposals that never got approved but as written but certainly through conversations and back and forth we were able to seek something that both parties could live with and i i think that would be something that i would bring to this council that's perfect thank you sir i appreciate your answers thank you so much for answering the the questions thoughtfully so far i have two first one of the substantial conversations we've been having at the council level is about our long-term pension obligations and in fact we've discussed pension obligation bonds what is your thought process around pobs and long-term sustainability strategies for the city yes so have you looked at the budget the unfunded liability is quite sizable i believe it's it's expected to be close to 200 million dollars over the next decade or so and currently in the 21-22 budget it's about 13.1 million dollars of city funds going towards the unfunded liability so i i've been thinking about this obviously the unfunded liability is is revenue that we're not able to invest in our community and is and so it needs to be addressed i would look at a bond measure to do that or or another revenue stream as well i think it's important that we begin working on the unfunded liability as it will also be able to affect our ability to get additional bonds approved with lower interest rates most of our bonds currently on the books are in the double a to double a minus range and so i have a on my time on council i would work with you all so that we can be able to formulate a way to be able to move that into a solid double a or into a triple a status which will set us up for a better fiscal stance in the future should we have to increase bonds okay and then on the question of homelessness how and when should the council in the city engage our homeless encampments i'd like that again communicating with our homeless residents and talking with them housing to me is a human right and i and i don't think that the best way is to continually move people around from campment to encampment it it's stressful it's stressful enough to be an unsheltered individual i think that's how we should engage with our unsheltered individuals is to remember that they are human beings with dignity and we need to treat them as such i have worked on the Joe Dota trail my district for regional parks encompasses Joe Dota trail and so i have talked with and worked with uh are on sheltered individuals that have found themselves there as well as working with my rangers to be able to develop personal but yet professional interactions and mutual respect so to dig in just a little bit for folks who are service resistant should they be allowed to stay where they're at i believe so yes but continuing to engage with them and working with them because i do believe that eventually we will be able to get them into services great thank you council are there any other questions for michael if you want to do your closing i'm driven by my faith to do good works i have a 10-year record of public service and a team player who leads by consensus i will run for election if appointed so far it's about this process i have been endorsed by Jackie Elward mayor of run a park ever floor as santa rosa city school board marty bennett labor activist and co-founder of north bay jobs with justice carla rodriguez deputy district attorney sonny galbraith educator and environmentalist mya cosla biologists environmentalist and emet hopkins environmentalist i have also have been endorsed by my friends and neighbors who live in rink and valley my friend molly who lives in the middle of the district my mom's boyfriend who lives in oakmott i even who's a small businessman who does gardening who had to make a tough decision to spend 200 dollars to fix one of his leaf blowers that he needs so that he can continue to make money and jeremiah who went out on his own last year to create a small business and now has five employees i also have the endorsement of my friend and neighbor jenaya or jenay excuse me her daughter is jenaya who's a single mom of color who hasn't worked since the beginning of the pandemic her number one priority is child care so i'd like to thank you all for appropriate in 2.9 million dollars for child cares during this pandemic for the arpa funds and on behalf of all of them and myself i want to say thank you for all the work that you all have done our city manager is done and our city attorney is done thank you all right thank you so much michael we really appreciate the interest and for coming here and answering questions for us we uh have finished our interviews so i want to thank everybody who's still here we will now go to public comment on the interviews and so we'll take it in two different stages we'll have both the live public comment in the chamber which i'll go to first and then we'll do public comment for folks on zoom so if you're interested in providing comment in the chamber you've got the podium up at the top make sure that you speak clearly into the microphone identify yourself for the record then you'll have three minutes to comment specifically on these interviews if you are interested in providing comment on zoom go ahead and hit the raise hand feature and we will start to queue folks up can i start and i will also say uh while i appreciate there are a number of candidates here uh candidates do not get to speak in public comment because they were interviewed and go ahead and take it away yes can i start hi okay thank you very much uh thank you uh mayor rogers and vice mayor alvarez city council and staff and i also want to thank the kind words from councilman soyer earlier about my family uh i am stefanie nicozzi i am the mother of melanie i'm speaking on behalf of our family uh we do support melanie for the city council position and we wanted to make that clear the family