Good afternoon. Let's call to order the meeting of the Santa Rosa City Council for January 29th, and I'm city clerk Could you take the roll? Let the record show that all council members are present Thank you Proclamations and it's with some trepidation and a little bit of an anticipation Mr. Vice Mayor Rogers will read the proclamation and someone from the chamber coming Excuse me, Mr. Mayor We have not reported out as my back Keep you all in anticipation for what vice mayor is going to read I'll report out on closed session and the council did meet on items 2.1 and 2.2 and Gave direction to staff on each of those items. Thank you. So I'm sorry. Who is receiving the proclamation? Oh, there you are. Thank you Mr. Vice Mayor, I appreciate that mr. Mail Mr. Mayor, I always appreciate an opportunity for us to have resolutions that Strike it what ails this community? I Think that it's the yeast that we're going to get better So whereas craft beer is highlighted and celebrated in the month of February in Santa Rosa and whereas the Santa Rosa Metro Chambers visit Santa Rosa team has created a marketing campaign to inform and promote our craft beer scene to locals and visitors and Whereas this campaign is compatible with the city's out there Santa Rosa destination marketing campaign Which also highlights our local breweries and whereas Fred brewery encompasses the release of plenty the younger awareness of Sonoma County brews at SF beer week and the third year of the Santa Rosa beer passport Whereas the Santa Rosa beer passport participation has grown each year with the excitement of Experiencing Sonoma County's finest craft beer and the anticipation of receiving a beer medal and whereas Santa Rosa has been Bed dubbed where wine country meets beer city and whereas the city of Santa Rosa Supports the craft beer industry and all that it brings to our destination now Therefore be it resolved that Tom's wet how mayor of the city of Santa Rosa on behalf of the entire city council Encourage participation by all craft beer enthusiasts to enjoy the month-long festivities and do hereby proclaim February as February I am Kim from Santa Rosa, and I just wanted to thank you for acknowledging craft beer in Santa Rosa We have worked with the brewers in Santa Rosa to create this great Passport in for February, and this is one of the medals this year will be the medal for 19 And Tyler from Third Street has a medal from 17, so thank you for acknowledging February Thank you. Thank you so much Mr. McGlynn items 7.1 items 7.1 Sonoma County tourism updates Ryasa de la Rosa economic development manager presenting Good afternoon mayor Schwetholm members of the council before I introduce you to Claudio Vecchio the new president CEO Sonoma County tourism and Todd O'Leary the vice president of marketing communications with Sonoma County tourism I want to give you just a quick background Sonoma the Sonoma County tourism business improvement area was established in 2010. It's a 2% assessment Lodging establishments that have a gross annual rent receipts of over $350,000 this 2% is Different than our Santa Rosa tourism business improvement area, which is a 3% just that's kept locally the 2% for the county goes to support Sonoma County tourism programs and is collected from unincorporated County as well as all of the Incorporated cities in the county with the exception of Sonoma and Healdsburg and so this is an annual report update from Sonoma County tourism Thank you, Ryasa My name is Claudia Vecchio and I have the distinct honor of getting to serve as the president and CEO of Sonoma County tourism Before we get into our and I know our time is very short today and I'll respect that Before we get into our presentation I just wanted to lay a framework for those of you who may be somewhat unfamiliar with Sonoma County tourism and that is that we are The designated sales and marketing destination what we call in the industry destination marketing organization for Sonoma County so in that role our our main objective is to drive overnight visitation to Sonoma County and Really through a vision that is to enhance and and amplify the local and business economic impact of tourism through these efforts and so it's Sonoma County tourism has definitely morphed over the years as our need the needs of this county have morphed and we will continue to do that in That we know that there is a there's always a need to market Tourism and tourism drives extraordinary impact and an economic value for the for the county of Sonoma But also it's time for us to really take in long view of tourism and take a look at how we not only market But manage tourism throughout Sonoma County So we are very much looking at a variety of different objectives within the sustainability area We know there are some issues of over tourism We also know there are some issues with Vacation rentals and other kinds of things that we need to look at we need to spearhead We need to be part of that conversation So that we are the ones making that decision and that decision is not made on our behalf by those Who may not have the long view in mind? So I just wanted to kind of lay that framework as we talk a little bit about what we've been doing in the past year that I wouldn't I would we would love to have the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about Sonoma County tourism in a broader sense and provide that annual Update to you. I'm gonna try there. We are But right now we're just gonna talk about three specific programs So one of them has to do with with post-fire activities and in this case You know with it's been over a year since the fires occurred and certainly during that initial time period Sonoma County tourism along with our partners that visit Santa Rosa and and entities throughout the county worked very much in collaboration to execute a Very typical crisis management kind of a plan there needs to be a processing crisis management and The county did that very well I was not here when the fires occurred, but certainly watching it across the mountain in Nevada But but I can attest that what this county did to manage that crisis was right on so we continue to be very much aware of the perception of the messaging that happens as a throughout the domestic and frankly international media as we talk about Sonoma County and Let me tell you that that perception is still there and you probably all hear this As the fires the campfire and other fires happen throughout California that continues to be a hit to Sonoma County And we work very closely with visit California to make sure that that overall intent to visit California Still remains robust and that we can then at our level entice people to come to Sonoma County and then the entities the different communities and others can entice to those areas so a lot of words on this this slide, but just to tell you that we Worked through a crisis management plan along with our partners and got us to the point where The the crisis pieces over now the management piece is in place and we continue to very closely monitor media Monitor our meeting planners monitor every every entity that's out there talking about Sonoma County So the key takeaway on this one really is that that the perceptions continue to be a challenge We are working to develop new markets enhance many relations and other key partnerships that help counteract this Furthermore the kind of net net is that we are here to mitigate surprises If in fact fall is going to become fire season and this is our new normal We need to be sure we're prepared for that that we have promotions that we have messages that we have a County-wide effort in the can if you will so that we can mobilize immediately if those things start to happen So I'm going to turn the time over Todd O'Leary who is our new VP of marketing is going to talk a little bit about oh, I missed it our brand and Something I think is very exciting and will offer tremendous opportunities for the county as a whole Thank You Claudia Pleased to talk about the our life opens up brand Which we are just in the process of launching right now with an extensive media buy in new and existing markets for Sonoma County Tourism It is developed and distilled out of a number of stakeholder pieces of research that involved not only visitors and our key constituents that make up the tourism community But also a lot of locals and some of you were invited to be a part of this process as well And so we certainly appreciate your your roles in helping us really define the brand Those words that you see in the bullet points connecting fiercely independent progressive real unpretentious and generous I think we all can agree our very important pieces of the brand that we as residents get to enjoy every day And these are some of the words that we're using to speak to our our tourism audiences because they also Really resonate we think very nicely with them We're certainly known as a wine destination But it by no means wine does not tell the entire story that of all of the tourism offerings that we have to Serve up here in Sonoma County So we use wine as kind of an intro But then we broaden the story and talk about all of the other great things beer The redwoods the coast Other types of experiences that are to be had here in the destination Brand promise kind of what the sort of as Claudia mentioned the net net of all of that We connect people to the land through unpretentious Unpretentious down to earth experiences those are the things that again we when we travel Everybody travels a little bit differently in the reasons that kind of propel you to take a trip But we find that a lot of people Travel because they're trying to connect with that Destination and with the people that they're traveling with and we think that you're able to do that very nicely here in Sonoma County as I mentioned we have a significant media buy now underway. It just launched January 7th Reaching new in existing markets, especially leveraging the new flight service out of the Santa Rosa Airport Which we see as really critical of course to our growth So there's a key takeaway that really for the first time Sonoma County's developed a brand a Tourism-based brand that's comprised of feedback from visitors and residents This life opens up the way a sommelier describes wine opening up so to do this life open up in Sonoma County not only Sort of intellectually but naturally and experientially as well So we happy again to share more information about that quickly as Sonoma County tourism and Santa Rosa have a tremendous partnership Obviously, you have a wonderful team at Visit Santa Rosa And under the Chamber of Commerce and they are working incredibly hard on on the behalf of Santa Rosa And we love to watch what they're doing and love to watch their innovation and the things in the events and the other kinds of activities that they have and they Involved with every year, so just a kind of a brief overview of the way we've worked with Santa Rosa 1,000 more than a thousand articles and blog posts on our Sonoma County tourism website We've worked with 650 Santa Rosa businesses that have free listings on the website Certainly the website continues to be our chief driver of information 3400 booked room nights. We have a pretty robust meeting planner group and I have some year-over-year statistics Leads generated and in FY 17 Definitely is a thousand one rooms already into 2018. We have 3,300 rooms So the team is working on your behalf and trying to be very Partnership-driven and relevant in what we're doing together. The key takeaway really in this is we're stronger together Everyone throughout throughout Sonoma County. We are stronger together finally There's a lot of talk about Sonoma County tourism using transient occupancy tax I just want to make sure that there is a good understanding that tourism is the contributor Not just a recipient so the things that we do every single day drives that tax into the county and helps then Fund a number of different social and other kinds of programs We are proud of that contribution and everything we do is there to generate return on investment so I know that one over five minutes, but it's tough to Distill that all into a little bit, but certainly happy to answer questions if that's appropriate or Anything else you might have for us Great, thank you for that presentation counsel any questions Miss comes Thank you, and thank you for this report It would be helpful to also receive Percent of occupancy information since we're driving heads in beds If we're already at a very high percentage of heads in beds, I'm interested in understanding You know what the what's the phrase like marginal benefit of Is Just to make sure I understand that can you tell me how many other cities in the county participate in this program? Actual municipalities are there eight right so all municipalities Participate with the exception of the city of Healdsburg in the city of Sonoma Yeah, so so we sort of say there are 10 municipalities in Sonoma County and then all the unincorporated areas So those are the only two exclusions at this point. Okay. Thank you, and I Notice that you have not included cannabis tourism in your list of sort of beer and just wondered if you had a comment about that Or if that was a future plan that's something we're very definitely determining and looking at and really identifying how we Promote that within the realms of the legalities and so it's we are we're working on it We're also working with those in that industry to help build Experiences that people can visitors can plan on and be you know There's a tour that it's available every day or it's available at a reliable time. So We're definitely looking at it. We want to maximize those opportunities as we can are any of the dollars used to Improve infrastructure to support or create positive experiences rather than advertising We have a tour a tour and travel group and their part of their mission is to help our our industry develop Experiences so part of and I can get to you what I think that Into that but but it is critically important that we not only Market market and sell so that we help our industry create those kinds of experiences and the and the infrastructure and all of those other things That is really when we start this destination management plan that we're working to identify Contractor to help us with that those kinds of issues will come up as part of that You know whether it be infrastructure whether it be roads whether it be Walkways along coastlines or other kinds of things that we can really determine help create a sustainable Landscape for Sonoma County, that's part of that plan so we can us certainly share with you bet me add, you know wireless Access hot spots, etc. Exactly the infrastructure concept. Yeah, but you are thank you right on on that. Thank you very much. Thanks Any additional questions from council mr. Vice mayor? Thank You mr. Mayor So the funding from the city comes from the 2% that's on top of the lodging establishments that bring in 350,000 or more Do you know how much that is year and in year in and year out in 2017? The total city contribution was around 1.2 million dollars for that 2% And to be clear we're on track. It looks like We only have three quarters with the data for 2018 and we have we're about three fourths of the way to that 1.2 million we're not sure yet. We won't know to the end of January what the fourth quarter Funds will be Revenue will be could you report back to the council? Just I'd like to kind of see Yeah, we we know the other the other obvious benefits of it We've talked a lot about those but just from an X's and O's standpoint what we think it brought in versus what we're actually contributing I Can work with them to? To answer that question. Yeah, great. Thank you Okay, we've number of speaker cards here, so let's start with Brad Calkins followed by Dwayne do it Brad Calkins the executive director of visit Santa Rosa and I would love to have visit Santa Rosa take all the credit for the tourism success here in Santa Rosa But that's simply not the case just like all of you have to work with the county of Sonoma and different agencies The same can be said for visit Santa Rosa whether you call it an alliance a collaboration a union or a partnership The truth is we would not be nearly successful if it were not for the partnership and the results of Sonoma County tourism The Sonoma County tourism sales efforts they can reach international markets that we don't have the capacity or the budget for This is important because the international traveler stays longer and spends more in addition Sonoma County tourism has a strong group sales effort This is important because many of the groups that fellow our larger hotels in banquet space like the Hyatt and the flamingo Come during the off season the shoulder season in the weekdays sort of what you mentioned about capacity Those when those groups are integral to Santa Rosa because they also help the partner referrals They fill up the restaurants attractions in the city of Santa Rosa on times other than just the weekends Also important is how Sonoma County tourism helps visit Santa Rosa compete is what is becoming a very crowded marketplace Not only are we competing with wine areas like Napa and Paso Robles We're competing with upcoming destinations like Temecula wine country and alternate wine destinations in the Bay Area alone like visit Tri Valley We also compete for the vacation dollar and business dollar with locations like Lake Tahoe Monterrey Palm Springs and now even conquered has developed their BIA based on the success of cities like ours Through SC team marketing efforts. They help us reach beyond what visit Santa Rosa can do For example, many of you Google where you're going on vacation in Sonoma County tourism Helps by bringing in the writers the influencers to get the stories mentioned about Santa Rosa hotels restaurants attractions museums arts and entertainment value and this way Santa Rosa comes to the top of mind Not just in Sonoma County because of their efforts and we're competing against other cities in the county But also in the Bay Area and around the world So in conclusion visit Santa Rosa as you know and I've reported out has been very successful in bringing our own groups media Attention events and visitors to Santa Rosa. We've increased TOT by double digits every year since the inception in 2011 through 2016 along with the sales tax that comes with it But our efforts and the resulting revenues would not have been the same without our partnership with Sonoma County tourism and The additional reach that Sonoma County tourism brings to Santa Rosa. Thank you Thank you, Brad. Do I do it followed by Jennifer Richards? Thank you. Do I do it from Rosalind I'm quite inspired by this if you will it reminds me of miss Daniel O'Leary She was so good with bringing forward the numbers and the facts on various activities that were being undertaken I hope you can do that with this in this item It says the community engagements an important part not just of bringing Tourists here to spend their money, but also to perhaps help with the improvement of our community in the future One of the things that I think is really important is the marketing She has mentioned Community engagement with the city's marketing and their employees How about reaching even deeper because the city has Marketing and outreach employees in a number of departments also And if you came up with a strategy that utilized your open government task force type guidelines and Made this a bit of a collaborative effort where the business people who are seeking to bring in Larger revenues to our county and the city I hope can then find ways in which to share it as we all have to deal with the burden of increased tourism I'm really hopeful. You'll find ways to build more hotels There's one going up on highway 101 between Santa Rosa Avenue and Baker, I think it is coming to the north here That was kind of given a bit of a fast track I wish you'd do that more for a number of more hotels And let's get this place to where we've got lots of spots for as the council woman said heads in beds That's really a good term Especially during this feb brew wary as we celebrated the wine country meeting beer city Also bring the weed folks in you got the cannabis thing going now back when I was young they had songs about that Mixing it all up now. You could set it up to have lots of places for people to sleep when they've caught too much of a buzz They can stay here and spend money with the Restaurant tours and the hotel ears instead of the police department busting them for a DUI So this would be wonderful if we could work this together in a proactive Fourth-right manner good community engagement across cities marketing and tourism which also included I heard him say sustainability now will that be also ecological sustainability and not just Economic sustainability. Let's find a way to get a win-win out of all of this. They're bringing in this money I hope you guys could get even more coming in a larger share to help house those who want to come to Sonoma County For overnight destination or those who will stay for even longer. Thank you very much for your time Thanks, Doreen Jennifer Richards followed by Sonya Barwick Good afternoon. I'm Jennifer Richards, and I'm currently the vice president of sales at Sonoma County tourism But prior to my joining the team back in June I was the former general manager of the Hyatt Regency here in Santa Rosa And so I just wanted to share some of my thoughts as my time at the Hyatt from previous years here The partnership that we had with Sonoma County tourism when I was at the Hyatt was really immeasurable as far as the amount Of outreach that we received it was At the Hyatt as with most hotels budgets can be a little bit restricted as far as how much we have to spend to get Out there and promote our group space and the opportunity to put the information out there to meeting planners and travel writers and Advertising programs and our partnership with Sonoma County tourism when I was there was immeasurable We did as much as we could with the partnership and it allowed us to be out in the local area a little bit more But also on a national level attending trade shows fam opportunities client events And it was my time with the organization there at the Hyatt and also as a board member that really made me value the Efforts of the organization as a whole and so after 25 years of hotel hospitality background I decided to make the move over to Sonoma County tourism to help this Destination and to help really the community take that message and continue to bring it forward with the understanding of what it's like to be on The hotel side and the struggles that the hotel has so in my current role I support the group side and it's our sole responsibility to make sure that we're driving that group business here and that we are out Soliciting RFPs that we're out talking to meeting planners and that we're getting the exposure for the county and for Santa Rosa And it's something that I'm quite proud to do and it's something that I think my background in all my years of hospitality really helps So we appreciate everything that we have and and we appreciate the opportunity to help support Sonoma County And Brad and Santa Rosa Thank you. Thank you Sony barwick followed by Kathleen Finnegan Hello, I'm Sonya Bick barwick one of the owners of Paradise Ridge winery here in Santa Rosa And I'm here to speak out in support of Sonoma County tourism and all they do for small family tourism businesses in Santa Rosa and Warning raised in Santa Rosa. I and being in the tourism industry longer than I want to say I feel like Sonoma County Tourism has done so much for our business Prefire and especially postfire one of the first phone calls I made during the fire was to Sonoma County tourism To find out what I should be messaging for all my other tourism businesses that we wanted to help and I think that the guiding For safe given our business and what they continue to do to improve Tourism for not just Sonoma County, but Santa Rosa is vital to our economy to small businesses like mine And I just wanted to come and say that I really appreciate what they're doing And I hope everybody else does as well Thank you Kathleen Finnegan followed by Peter Chernoff Thank You mr. Mayor and good afternoon everyone I appreciate this report very much and I have a slightly different perspective to give you It says perceptions about fire related impacts do Sonoma County continue to be a challenge Yes, they do and when it comes to homeless issues the challenge is greater than ever So how about turning around perceptions by cutting out continuing persecution broken promises and new plans that won't come to fruition For years to come in favor of immediate action to benefit the 2,000 homeless Beings who live on our streets the homeless crisis continues unabated Mitigate surprises says the report Why don't we avoid a happy outbreak just waiting to happen by providing safe havens with portable toilets Washing stations trash collection security in service and defining brand Some of the items are listed progressive Nice lip service, but so far some government entities such as the CDC are clinging to the same old moldy thinking that doesn't work generous How can we be expected to be thought of generous when we continue persecuting people living on the streets? By confiscating their blankets refusing to allow them a place to sleep on public land We are systematically violating the human rights of citizens of this county Santa Cruz has stopped such activity because it's now against the law. Why haven't we? Firstly independent Yet to be proven we need to start thinking outside the box to help homeless immediately For example, Santa Cruz again is taking a one million dollar advance on heap funds to come to quote alleviate human suffering that can't wait until the conclusion of the RFP process So Sonoma County Santa Rosa I strongly suggest that if we want to attract more tourism we damn well better start by taking much better care of our homeless Thank you. Thank you Kathleen Peter chair now followed by Adrian lobby Well, it's a beautiful day. I am Peter. I'm here speaking truth the power free of all fear And I'm good to see some students here. I'm going to rivet their attention so that they're fully awake And I was listening to these people talking about tourism and sustainability. Well, there seems to be a conflict of interest You got money You got alcohol and restaurants serving dead animal flesh all day long That's the main thing with this sustainability with the tourism But over here we got Luther Burbank the wizard of plants and you got the peanuts gang for 55 years that were vegans You know like Jesus Gandhi Einstein says or Shavas Dolores who are at the credit Scott King? So We got the homeless issue. You see all these people here on behalf of the homeless. Do you view your students paying attention? Put that pencil down pay attention Because the bottom line is happiness is the truth. That's one of my favorite songs I'm not even a music. I but happiness is the truth I'm happy when there's something truthful being said or happening and when the students find out how much power they have and The truth of their power that would make me happy when people find out that a real boycott in a strike is The power that they have and it's truthful that would also make me happy because I've told people before That this student that this council here would have a lot more power if they were Disconnected from their bankers and the higher politicians of corruption, you know I mean things work a certain way and people don't know how that works, you know And the trusting innocence of most people cannot fathom the treachery and the treasonous Behavior behave betrayal of those who rule DC our military and media So the students I Got an article here It's called bad-ass American teachers and the students you want to you want to solve the homeless problem You simply boycott school Just boycott school and find out how much these rich winery people get together with them Super fast to put these people that are homeless into something. That's pretty reasonable It will happen that fast and all you represent so far is 85 dollars a day to the system of corruption That's maintaining all this insanity, but you can turn this whole game around It's a beautiful thing and then you got the fact that we got all these temples churches and mosques And every one of their books has a fella in there by the name of Yeshua. We know him as Jesus He was a vegan. He was a vegan when he said as you do under the lease to me You do unto me that was about the animals and you students I want you to skip class right away and go down to the courthouse and listen to the court with a Dxc group they're that vegan group that caused all this trouble. They were all arrested and They're in court, so I'm going to finish by saying this for students from the bad-ass teachers Students now set before you all truly a spiritual chore. Thank you Peter for who has Nobody ever makes a brand that it doesn't get mocked and I'd like to be the first with this one life opens up I'm holding a tombstone here for David a bugby. He was found at College Avenue in 2004 One of the many homeless people who die on our streets every year life did not open up for David bugby and Life is not opening up for the homeless people of Sonoma County and of Santa Rosa What is the Tourism Bureau doing about this? What are the businesses doing about this? We don't know exactly because they're not totally talking to me but the sense is that mostly what they're doing is complaining and Saying these homeless people are cutting into our business. These homeless people are making downtown less Attractive these homeless people need to be kicked out of our brand-new square Because they're wearing they're getting a carrying a pack or they're sleeping for a few minutes on a bench and We have heard incredible stories in the last few weeks during that rainstorm a homeless woman who was kicked and Told to move on in the rain and kicked out of underside of a bench where she was getting some partial protection I mean physically kicked out So I would like to make a proposal to you we and one way I have to agree with the presentation. We're all in this together So I would like to suggest that the tourism bureau take a hundred thousand dollars of their millions and Do a project to deal with homelessness To get people into some kind of shelter so they don't actually have to sleep down in the downtown square in the middle of the Day so they can have a good night's sleep as I had last night in my beautiful bed in my beautiful apartment I would like to suggest that we take on the homeless emergency as an emergency for all of us and As usual homeless action would love to work with anyone who would help us out. Thank you. Thank you You're in Deborah Tavares followed by George the wedding Thank you very much Deborah Tavares with Stop the crime net I'm here about the tourism because I recently went to Cuba and It was a very fascinating experience in traveling to Cuba Because like Sonoma County Cuba is experiencing a massive water Inefficiency and now with PG&E having announced that they will shut down the eel River Potter hydroelectric facility That they have owned since 1930 which is the uphill water supply to Mendocino County in the southern area to the Russian River serving over 7,000 acres of vineyards and farmlands and to over 600,000 water Customers such as everyone likely in this room and with PG&E which is Rothschild by the way So I hope everyone that's here will look that up type in Roger Kimmel K-i-m-m-e-l He's been on the board of PG&E and his Rothschild's LLC CEO Anyway looking at what PG&E has designed as a water shortage falls in place with your concerns is tourism because as we were traveling in Cuba and we were looking at the inability for them to service the The tourism that's starting to unfold for them. They have two problems. No hotels and no water and What water they have of course unlike here is highly contaminated, but not so much Because certainly they are Reusing their wastewater treated water as we have over on the Laguna The difference is of course, they're not using their wastewater treatment like we are here to frack the geysers Up on the hill, which I only recently found out about I didn't know the Other operations behind the use of poop and urine and pharmaceutical water being used to frack the geysers for PG&E's use of electricity and I also didn't know that PG&E was affiliated with Soleran Solaren you need to look that up. This is massively going to affect tourism If you look in and type up PG&E and Soleran Solaren you will find that they are affiliated with a new methodology of delivering Electricity to us that is why PG&E is in the bankruptcy that they are in because they're going over to a new business model And again, you can type that in for yourselves I will also pass out to you what I downloaded from the PG&E website This is massively going to affect tourism because as people around the world start to see What you're hatching here in Sonoma County with working with a company as nefarious and doing business with PG&E It's a worthy thing. Thank you George Varty and followed by Breonna Paul Ha. Yeah, let's gonna go ahead and be Georgie Bairty I just I hope you guys are having fun. I Hope I hope that this is fun for you Because I'm gonna be here all night now Tourism is about people that are just passing through Right, and I don't know if you noticed, but I am not just passing through Right, I'm from here Okay, I built this place. I work for a living All right, and what I do is important. I care for your children right people like me Right people that are from here people that built this place we deserve to live here and we're not Going anywhere Understand that All right, if you want this little game to be your life That's fine with me because I'm not playing around and that's what I don't think you understand At a certain point. It is not a game. All right. Politics is not a game. You treat it that way But it's not that way Tourism is about people that are just passing through we need to start thinking about people that are here. All right, we matter Okay, we built this place. We're gonna keep building it and we're not going anywhere. We want what's ours All right now one thing I've got right here is the consolidated annual financial report of the county of Sonoma for the year 2017 it is much like this little dog and pony show that you're doing a joke For a lot of very important reasons Right, it's not funny, but it's a joke This can't go on This is you I mean the word sustainable right like you throw that around I think we all know that this can't go on It's time to grow up All right now I'm gonna be here all night Okay, I've looked at this agenda items. We're gonna talk about these things Right, you won't have other people come up here and chitter chatter about it. That's fine But but this is not a joke. All right the numbers do not add up and They need to okay, because what's in your pocket belongs in our pocket. All right, this is not gonna keep going on It won't okay. You want to do this every single time? That's fine. I'll be here till closing All right enjoy Thank you, Brianna Paula Paca it's Americanized Polish Hi, I used to work in tourism when I was really young I used to want to be a flight attendant and then I worked in hotels for a long time I'm curious how much of your occupancy rates are actually homeless people Struggling trying to get clean for one day trying to get away from the police for one day I'm curious how much of your occupancy rates are also Workers Trying to rebuild after the fire, that's a lot of your occupancy And What's happening right now in our county is that we're in a state of unrest and we have a whole bunch of people who can't find homes and Can't find cheap hotels because we only have those so many and and We have so many people living in tents right now and What you need to do is legalize it and give them land to live in tents so that you stop taking away their Their survival gear people hike the Pacific Coast Trail Pacific Crest Trail all year people hike all year and backpacks intense and they're fine And it's legal and the only reason you don't want to do it here is because you want these people to pay rent and There it just isn't there isn't a homes to pay rent on because not you guys but former city councils and yourselves have Made it so difficult for the permitting process and made it so difficult to build here has to be such-and-such and You just need to bite that bullet and face the fact that We have these people you can't sweep them under the rug anymore and you can't Murder them like is happening when you take away people's survival gear you're murdering them when you take away their ability to Be stable you take away their ability to access medical care you take away their ability to get to appointments You take away their ability to work. So if you could just keep doing this to people and saying we don't have the land We can't do this because of Safety purposes or whatever excuses their excuses that you're making You're killing people Straight up every day somebody's gonna die someday Because you took their stuff away and gave them a ticket that they have to deal with that's another stressor It's another stressor that they were already dealing with mental issues that made them Unable to keep themselves safe which made them lose more stuff which made them more homeless which made anything they were given mute and It's a it is a game.  Thank you. I'll bring it back to council any questions or comments Thank you so much for the presentation Mr.. Sidney manager items 7.2 Item 7.2 fire recovery and rebuild update tonight. We're going to have a presentation from rebuilding our community and Or is the acronym is rock and that's going to be presented by Jenny Lynn Holmes and Adam peacock and they're making their way down Thank the council for the opportunity to talk about the efforts of rebuilding our community Sonoma County My name is Adam peacock. I am co-chair and My other co-chair Jenny Lynn Holmes. I think is pretty well known to the council Um rock Sonoma County is the first long-term recovery group in Sonoma County history And we are currently one of nine long-term recovery groups operating in counties across the state of, California Quickly, I'd like just to share our mission statement rock Sonoma County is a collaborative network that addresses the long-term recovery needs related to the disaster of the 2017 Sonoma County fires So Rock Sonoma County is our local long-term recovery group which are formed out of the National Voad which is voluntary organizations active in disaster They occur whenever a disaster occurs in the community They're particularly focused on the feeling the unmet needs of individuals and households affected by the disaster And in particular when we say long-term we mean long-term we're looking at doing this work for at least the next five years It really looks at how we can streamline services for people who were affected by the disaster in particular our most vulnerable and Terms of bringing together faith-based organizations and nonprofits to reduce the duplications of services In particular, we also get to work in close coordination with FEMA We actually have a FEMA and Cal OES Representative that is assigned to us to help us with navigating their processes and keeping us up to date And we also worked with FEMA to create a master list of individuals who are impacted by the disaster So that individuals who were trying to seek services weren't going to multiple places to try to get updates on where Their cases might have been As I mentioned earlier the target population is anyone who is primarily or secondarily affected by the 2017 wildfires But we are prioritizing those who are vulnerable and underserved in particular people who are falling through the safety net In the easiest way to explain is you know FEMA has a very certain box by which they can help people and we know that many people in our Community that lost their homes or were you know economically impacted by this disaster Don't necessarily fit in the FEMA box So the long-term recovery group is really set up to meet their needs and although we're linked into the larger community Recovery efforts around building more housing rebuilding so on so forth. We really focused on individual by individual Understanding their needs and actually trending data that helps us kind of push forward a narrative around What are the unmet needs in our community and we're getting down to each individual person to compile that information? When we look at our sequence of delivery We have roughly 30 partner organizations to help make up rebuilding our community Sonoma County and all of those Voluntary organizations were active during the fires and right after the fires helping meet the needs of fire survivors As we began to shift to the long-term recovery People began to look at how their recovery process was going to happen and in many cases Insurance may have been a way of helping get needed resources People applied for government programs but in in many cases the data would say most cases people did not have enough resources to Make up for all that was lost And so Roxana McCownie is there kind of here at the end of the era once people have Received all that they can get from insurance or government programs that we are available to help with their ongoing recovery from the fires So we have five major areas of Committee work the first is disaster case management, which Adam will go a little bit more into it further in the presentation That is chaired by Karen Shimizu who works at Catholic Charities We have a resources committee, which is chaired by Jennifer O'Donnell of United Way And she is particularly looking at donations management volunteer recruitment kind of bringing together those resources that we can then pass along to people Who were affected by the disaster we have our housing committee, which is chaired by our mayor Currently and in a little bit of some transition. There's a lot of really exciting work there that will again. We'll talk about a little bit later We have a communications committee chaired by Heather Irwin of Sonoma family meals and then our community engagement committee Which is chaired by Karen demeris of the community foundation and in particular that is looking at Advocacy as well as our unmet needs table where we administer funds Like say a little bit more about our disaster case management because that's really Where the rubber meets the road in terms of our ability to help individual fire survivors Currently there's four agencies participating in our disaster case management and Catholic Charities community action partnership Jewish family and children's services and sushi each of them have contributed a lot of their own Organizational funds to help with this but we were able to secure a grant Catholic Charities was across four counties with FEMA of Over two million dollars to help with the work of disaster case management In Sonoma County, we currently have nine disaster case managers and three disaster case management supervisors They're working with individuals to find out Just their situation what the nature of their losses were and what the potential of their recovery plan looks like and In that initial Assessment with them we try to understand what you know the scope of their need especially as Jenny Lynn mentioned Looking to help in those who are the most vulnerable I'm 65% of our cases are set at level three and four out of levels one to four all level four's Had a total destruction of their residents during the fires and the vast majority of level threes as well the the whole focus of this process of disaster case management is to put together a robust support network that Not only helps address the financial needs, but looks at the other needs that a fire survivor may have so we do a lot of work with mental emotional spiritual support as well as other relational resources and Kind of the wraparound services model as well where we're not just referring them out to a number of different resources But we're bringing those resources to them in a coordinated way So the unmet needs table is a little nuanced one is that as I mentioned earlier We're starting to get some really great trended data around what the true unmet need is where where are people still suffering and in need of advocacy support and resources But in we also have this unmet needs table where we actually convene a group of funders To assist with the unmet needs that are being funneled up by the case managers So when a disaster case managers working with an individual they're trying to connect them to all of their Eligible, you know state and federal resources then all of their eligible Local resources and after that if they're still in need then it comes to the table where we have flexible funds that allow us to Actually fulfill the need of the of the person in particularly looking at volunteer-based rebuilds in partnership with Hope City so How the Howard organization is resourced as Adam mentioned there we there was a 2.7 million dollar grant for disaster case management It's being administered through Catholic Charities, but funded by multiple partners across four counties, and it's a multi-year grant What's great about this opportunity is that because all of our disaster case management is being funded by FEMA Every dollar we raise at Roxana County goes directly to a fire Survivor allowing them to get a direct resource met with that dollar We also have been raising philanthropic Money to fund the unmet needs and right now we have just surpassed 1.7 million that has been brought together for people affected by the Disaster we have the in-kind donations that we have received and then most importantly we were able to actually open a rock resource center It's a one-stop shop for individuals affected by the disaster so they can come in and get an intake They can see a you know support for individual they can you kind of all the resources they might need in one location It's hosted by community action partnership and funded by tipping point I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the things we've accomplished As I mentioned earlier, there's roughly 30 organizations who are partner organizations for Roxana County We've been able to complete over 1300 triage assessments. These are the initial interviews with fire survivors Many who are our community's most vulnerable fire survivors and out of that we've been able to have over 4,200 individual participant contacts Currently we have over 1200 cases that are open and of note with that is that the majority of those cases are People who actually did not register with FEMA at the local assistance center We've already been able to Close 204 cases which we're you know very grateful for and There is the opportunity for additional FEMA funding as we continue to close cases We are thrilled about the opening of the rock resource center. We've had over 400 fire survivors walk in To that rock resource center to find out more about our efforts and to receive services. So That's that's wonderful. It's also a wonderful place For convening fire recovery efforts. We've been able to hold over a hundred and seventy partner meetings there Not just for partner agencies, but also for groups like the block captains groups that come together to talk about their fire recovery I'd like to just also recognize that this is the information that really helped the city's consulting team Hagerty Really developed the unmet need assessment that the city put forward and as instrumental in getting more attention paid on the state and the federal level To the unmet need Which has resulted in some legislation legislation recently and we continue to work on bringing more Resources back to the community. So I'd like to thank the the folks at rock on that for that. Thank you. Thank you This next one I'm just thrilled about we've been able to help over 200 fire-impacted families find new housing We've got a long ways to go, but we're thrilled for each and every family that returns home We estimate that there will be over a hundred households who qualify for volunteer built homes. These are homes where They'll be able to afford rebuilding because a group of volunteers will come and help Through their work cover the labor costs Something that didn't make the slide that I'm excited to say tonight is that red the red cross Has committed to over a million dollars in additional funds to come to our long-term recovery work here in Sonoma County Including 500,000 towards volunteer rebuilds. So we're thrilled about that in addition to that There will be additional funds for mental health services for outreach to the Spanish-speaking community And additional funds for our Rocker Resource Center. So we're thrilled With the support that we're receiving from the Red Cross for our continued efforts and you're the first to hear that We literally got the call as we were walking up into this presentation. So we're very excited about that So in terms of next steps and then we were happy to answer any questions First is we're working on increasing the staffing and resources at the Rock Resource Center Which you can see our address up there if you need if there is someone you know that's in need Please feel free to send them to us the County of Sonoma isn't particularly interested in actually stationing some of their staff there And they have a bigger dream of a larger one-stop shop not just for people who were affected by the disaster So we're partnering with them on that. We're continuing our fundraising for the unmet needs fund Knowing that we still have a lot to do in terms of the volunteer rebuilds in partnership with Hope City We're very grateful about the City of Santa Rosa allocating 24 housing vouchers that we've been working with our Housing committee that is chaired by the mayor To actually allow people to get paired with the housing voucher But also paired with the housing navigation team that allows them to get the support they need and the incentives They need for the landlords to actually find the housing. We have 20 of the 24 vouchers out on the on the streets looking actively looking for housing and the last one is the volunteer based rebuilding of homes with Hope City and Another piece that didn't quite make the slides But we're very much trying to keep our pulse on the April 12th date when the direct housing assistance will be ending and We are very much in close contact with the individuals who are living Currently on the FEMA housing assistance and trying to create plans for them as that housing assistance is planned to end At the beginning of April so those are some of the things we're currently working on and and on that front as you'll recollect both the County administrator myself have submitted a letter to the state. The state is working on that We are planning a Now that the federal government is back open We are planning a trip next week to Re-emphasize the need to extend that benefit package as part of that as part of that trip to DC. Yeah Thank you again for the opportunity to share about our efforts. Great. Thanks for the presentation Questions from council mr. Tibbets Thank you, mr. Mayor one thing that is really great about this is the information as the city manager said our ability to kind of Use your efforts as a resource to help the city with its needs vis-a-vis FEMA and obtaining funding I think it would be appropriate and I look to the council to see if you can come in on a more regular basis either quarterly or bi-annually To kind of provide us with these updates about the ongoing recovery Especially as it impacts the individual level the people who are coming through your doors. I'd sure like to know about that Mr.. Vice mayor Thank you, mr. Mayor. I really appreciate it and obviously have had a chance to hear a little bit more About this in our build rebuild committee and you all are doing some pretty incredible work and a lot of it Just two quick questions one because the primary grant is coming from FEMA our folks who are Undocumented who are our neighbors are they able to still receive services? through this program Yes, absolutely. So the FEMA grants a little bit more broad than the FEMA They're the assistance. They directly administer so it allows us to deal with people who are primarily and secondarily affected and it doesn't necessarily Link to a documented Individual but we also are as Adam mentioned the individual organizations doing disaster case management have put forward their own funds So that there's more flexibility and we're very much working with the families that have had some Trauma around the issue of documentation and if they don't feel comfortable then we don't use those funds to help advance their case Appreciate that. Thank you, and then You talk a lot in here about households being rebuilt with volunteer efforts I think there's a lot of folks out there who don't know how to build a house, but know how to swing a hammer How would they get involved to be able to volunteer for these efforts? Yeah, if they would like to go to our Website there's a place where you can click to volunteer and we're very excited about the community being able to participate together In building homes. Great. Thank you. Miss Jones Thank you, and thank you very much for doing this. I know you've been talking about long term a long time And I really appreciate it Can you let me know is it I understand that you're still accepting volunteers? Is it still possible to get on the list for services? Absolutely, we are still is we're still doing people that are still coming in And it's it's very you know people sometimes the narrative in the communities that most people have you know recovered And that's definitely not what we're seeing and I'm sure you all have heard the same thing But we're still having people where the first stop they've come in from the year and a half that the disaster happened So they can come into our rock resource center. So do they have to come into the 141 stony circle address? We encourage them to come there But no they could go to any of the four organizations who participate in our disaster case management And so they could go to the rock resource center or catheterities cap Jewish family and children services or sushi Is there a phone number or do they have to appear in person? We because of the nature of the information that we need to go over together We do not do the triage interviews over the phone and that's just for confidentiality purposes. That's that's fine I just wanted to Be clear about what folks should do If they wanted to thank you sign up Thank you again councillor Fleming Through the mayor. Thank you Following up with councilwoman combs is question if since people are unable for confidentiality reasons, which is great That you're protecting their confidentiality. What are the hours that people could present themselves to any of these four locations? So the rock resource center is open from 8 30 to 4 30 And so that would be one of the primary places that they could come In regards to the other four organizations I would encourage them maybe to go to the web if they can and to check out the hours for the the specific organizations, but we do set External appointments outside of those hours will do evening appointments if we need to as well as we've done some weekend Visits as well the triage and assessment can sometimes take multiple visits based on the information and how ready someone might be So we are we try to be very flexible once they get to an they get assigned to an individual case manager Right, and of course some of our undocumented families are more vulnerable Especially if they might have lost a home as well as a job Is there a phone number that you would mind sharing at this moment sometimes phone is more accessible for people than than internet? Yes And it should be let me see. I'll get a force right here So the phone number is 707 5 3 5 3 3 4 9 Thank you And then what what is your greatest need in terms of volunteers at this point? It sounds like you're doing a lot of work Yeah, so we have several options for volunteers one is to help at the rock resource center We have people who are there to help greet and host We also have those if they're willing to go through the background check who can actually be trained to help with the intake Interviews and we have a need for more people to help in in that regard because there are still quite a few people coming in For the first time and then we are excited, especially as we get deeper into the spring to be able to To host those who want to volunteer to help with the volunteer builds So those are our three of the the most needed areas we have for volunteer help. Thank you Go ahead. Let's go. I just want to follow up So there is a phone number and it is 5 3 5 3 3 4 9 Yes, that's correct. I heard that and the 830 to 430 hours at the stony circle 141 stony circle sweet 204 the 830 to 430 hours are Monday through Friday. Yes, that's correct. Thank you Thank you, you mentioned Jalen 20 issue vouchers my understanding has one actually been housed so far This week one of the vouchers was officially placed in terms of the person finding housing and getting a lease executed So we feel like we've been able to also pilot being able to shorten the length of time that Voucher is issued and a person's actually able to get into the home paired with the Navigation and location resources that we've been able to create So if there's any landlords out there that would want to participate in this program What would you suggest they do if there are any people who would like to their landlords or property managers Would like to work with us they can contact me my cell phone number is on this sheet And we are always looking for landlords that want to be paired with someone who is trying to recover in our community Also, we have landlord incentives that we can put on the table for them if that Helps them to want to work with our individuals primarily the people we're working with we're not necessarily people who are homeowners It's more renters that now need new rental resources in our community, which as we know are scarce Great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments and Mr. City Manager, I saw nodding heads here for regular reports from rock So you'll schedule those as appropriate. Yeah, we'll consult with the team and figure out what's the best the best avenue for that Yes, great. Thank you so much for the presentation all the work you're doing. Thank you. Thank you Oh I'm sorry. Yeah, if you can thank you Dwayne if you guys want to stick around just for a second case Questions, we do have a couple cards first one Dwayne DeWitt followed by Peter Chernoff Hello, sir. My name is Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from Roseland, but for a long time. I've been an advocate for journey's end I want to thank these nice folks that have been working with rebuilding our community I was hoping they could perhaps give us some insight Into how much money has already been brought in and been spent once the fires had occurred Millions upon millions of dollars were raised and apparently have been spent and yet we still have these problems with housing the people 40 mobile homes at journey's end are still there and People who had been living in them are still struggling one of them is a veteran of the Korean War He's still up in Sacramento. I'm hoping he could come home. I Have a concern because when we try to do these types of things We may not find the most economical and efficient manner in which to do them I talked with another veteran that I know and he pointed out to me that in the Midwest the American Manufactured Home Association Puts together three-bedroom three-bath homes brand new that are available between 30 to $50,000 a piece They can be shipped by rail and by truck and can be put up in just a day So here we're in a situation where we're struggling Always trying to raise more money and always trying to find ways to build stick-built homes again, and they're very expensive Just the other day Supervisor zane celebrated having some 250 square foot Stick-built homes put together for veterans and it was two million dollars for 14 of them that comes to $142,000 and eight hundred and fifty seven Per unit that's a build cost of five hundred and seventy one dollars per square foot That's not really efficient. They had a lot of volunteers worked on that also So I'm hoping that maybe these real but rebuilding our community folks would look into ways to house people as soon as possible Those 20 vouchers that they've spoken of Let them be a model if you will a template to help get people in to a place to live as soon as possible is economically as possible and efficiently as possible the Petroleum industry does this type of building for their work camps throughout America They get them up in a couple of days. They house thousands of workers and it works So we're building our community. It's a great idea. It's a good thing. I hope they have a really good time doing it I also want them to look into Alternative building techniques such as pre-manufactured modular homes. Thank you for your time. Thank you Dwayne Peter followed by Deborah Always like Dwayne stuff. Of course, I think teepees would be good, but I think it's time for us to be beautiful And for us to be beautiful is to be spiritually dutiful The king of kings never lies never dies Suffers neither fools nor alibis Under Peter he put forth the keys and three days before the fires in 2017 They were in fact commanded from the kingdom of heaven through me for all to see for denying the prophecy And these fires are also described in Genesis 19 24 The prophecy I've shared for 30 years regarding Leonard Peltier who represents the 500 year plus indigenous resistance And are we not all? Got connections Indigenous indigenous through all of us somewhere indeed. We do his bloodlines via the lost tribe is city of David That's how like II the Native American Holocaust genocide murder count be the highest of all But the greatest racist holocaust ever maintained still to this moment By virtue of religious deceptions and religious deceivers who undermine true-hearted believers be in fact the 14 million beautiful Sentience the animals who are slaughterhouse murdered every day And the industries of the blood flow being the slaughterhouse in oil support every bankers war Foreign and domestic keeping us from being majestic Keeping us subserviently loyal to this corruption Lest we arise and take offer to skies for the a pack and the national Zionists They're not Jewish they're they're factually satanic servants and by virtue of deception most Christians walk Opposite of Yeshua and so therefore they operate satanically by their own rules not mine I am here the brother with the keys and the 40-day economic strike puts the world to its knees These fires were commanded and there will be earthquakes and there will be Plagues in the ocean Until all needs to the earth be remanded so be commanded those whose hearts are true no school No labor no oil or slaughterhouse. That's what lays down the saber no mortgages No rents all spirit warriors off the fence Unto all true heart servants. I ask I task I command I pray accept the embrace of bide This here and now given command that opens the doors to the promised land the 48 shut down of the entire economy That's what fulfills the given prophecy that opens the doors to the promised land Shaday Shaday Adonai Shaday as now given it is done. I say it you hear it is so amen Oh Thank you very much, and I appreciate the hard work that rock is doing. Thank you I would ask though a couple of things What are the grants that you're taking which of course is borrowed money? What is that collateralized against if anything? Also, I too have been up to what's left of the town of Paradise several times We have many friends up there that are survivors or not survivors also And we've also been to Nevada City, and we've looked at climate action plans across the country And I would recommend that rock do the same thing with looking at the climate action plans as well as the city Why do I say that those plans discuss the kinds of power outages that will become epidemic as they claim? We will experience higher temperatures and now we're seeing the effects of power outages In fact, it was just claimed today that Pacific Gas and Electric is the first company to succumb to climate change Now when you look at Pacific Gas and Electric's affiliation with Solerun, and I hope that everybody writes this down now PG&E and Solerun Sol ar en Understand what is in front of all of you that are involved with rock and finding placement for people Because PG&E and Solerun, and you'll see it on the website of Solerun They are involved in spaced based weapons system for weather control and a new form of Electricity being beamed from space and using lasers to beam it back to earth And you can't make this up. I'm going to hand you a copy of The printout from the Pacific Gas and Electric website So you can see for yourself What Pacific Gas and Electric says about Solerun? I also will be handing you some information from a Representative a congressman by the name of Tom Emmer and this is dated January 2nd And he is responding to one of his constituents about the use of spaced based weapons and solar dimming and That this will be a way to reduce climate change The weather is being tampered with worldwide and I have traveled to Russia South America Cuba all over the United States to see for ourselves if in fact there are borders in This globalized reality and there are no borders These plans are borderless Just like the concern of 5g frequencies. Thank you. Thank you, Deborah Daniel and Adam one question did come up for me regarding journeys in and I know Adam You've done a lot of work at it the folks that are still at the fairgrounds. Can you just update us with what rocks involvement are with those two efforts? Yeah, I can talk a little bit journeys in and then Adam. You could talk a lot. He's been very involved with the Fairgrounds FEMA village so journeys and we have almost everybody enrolled in working with a disaster case manager Su chi has been a very important part of that outreach effort They were very much involved in the early days with people who were who lost their dwellings there as well as continued Ongoing advocacy and case management and they are part of the rocks in Oma County We are working with those individuals not again not just the ones who lost their homes But also the ones are not allowed to go back into their home So we have a lot more flexibility to deal with them Many of the people actually that have been approved for the housing choice vouchers have come out of journey's end as well So they're definitely some of the most vulnerable in our existing caseload And so they've definitely risen to the top as areas or people that we need to really focus in on with our resources Yeah, I'm happy to say that we're we are seeing Residents who were at the journey's end of finding new places to stay We are also as genuine said working to advocate for them. So she has been Especially good at working with those who were there at journey's end We've been going every week just to sit down. We go door-to-door Just to sit down and talk to hear what's going on what the needs are and to make sure that we understand What's being communicated to the fire survivors there, especially as they interact with FEMA and so you know, we feel like You know as people are struggling we're understanding their struggles they understand that they are being listened to and We've been as a city manager McGlynn Mentioned we've been able to to interact both with the city and with the county about efforts to see an extension granted by FEMA For the direct housing assistance great. Thank you so much for your presentation the work you've been doing. Thank you I mean city manager city attorney reports I'm gonna I just want to briefly Give a couple of things that the spring-summer activity guide was mailed to Santa Rosa households last week This is from the Recreation and Parks Department and is now available at public gathering spaces throughout the city Registration begins January 31st The coffee park master plan the third neighborhood workshop and rebuilding Coffee neighborhood park was held on Saturday at Finley Community Center the coffee park neighbors from 27 households Attended the meeting and provided feedback to the designers on the draft master plan Additional neighborhood input is being collected via the city's website and the draft master plan will be presented to the board of community services next month Also on Martin Luther King day the Santa Rosa's recreation and parks department hosted a park cleanup In honor of Martin Luther King 80 volunteers helped clean the playground pick up trash pull weeds trim bushes and spread mulch The press Democrat featured an article on this project and was also featured in the California parks and recreation societies monthly newsletter We've also had some technical issues with the taping Of the meeting though. Well, let me let me rephrase that their live broadcast of the meeting the meetings have been taped They are available and the live broadcast issue has been fixed. So thank you very much You're not going to try to announce the part that was fixed Adam city attorney I have nothing to report this afternoon. Thank you. I'm nine statements of abstention by council members Seeing none Item 10 mayor council members reports. I Have one report on item 10.1 point eight before you to the general ones and just that that's the groundwater sustainability agency That the Santa Rosa Santa Rosa Plain groundwater sustainability agency is hosting a community meeting tomorrow Wednesday, January 30th at 6 o'clock at Finley Center to discuss the work today and on the fee study I really encourage everyone to attend that because that will be affecting everyone within the Santa Rosa Plain base And which does include the vast majority of the city of Santa Rosa Are there any other items specifically? Council member I want to let you all know that yesterday the center is a police department welcomed in five new sworn officers and two technicians as well as promoted a Great person and celebrated a 20-year volunteer veteran person who Finished their work at the police department volunteered for 20 years and is leaving that volunteer post to go volunteer for the Coast Guard So it was a it was a great time to be had Miss Combs. Thank you. I Just want to remind folks that The CASA process the committee to house the Bay Area process has continued to move forward Last update I had seven of the ten items had legislation that directly corresponded to the Ten items that are in the CASA compact and that I have distributed previously and placed up in the office That we share the CASA compact materials and the letter That I wrote as chair of the Housing Committee Regarding some of the concerns and modifications to CASA that we hope would go forward. I hope you all will have a look at that It's getting It's hotting up. I guess The other thing I wanted to do briefly is and I'll keep this one short Hopefully, we'll be able to talk about it more the next time or the time after I'd like to make a motion to request a report item be agendized To establish a community wildfire protection plan As a placeholder, I'll say by April but I appreciate that that's very short turnaround time And I also appreciate that we will be having some council goal-setting conversations So I'm just looking for making sure that we have this conversation We have a motion a second. Thank you get that on the future agenda. Thank you I can go into more detail later or in private with the folks who need to know. Thanks Mr. Vice Mayor Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just one really quick update As the council knows I was appointed last year to the consolidated oversight board for the redevelopment agencies We where I was subsequently elected as the chair We had our first meeting of the year last Friday where we went through the rops process that previously each individual city council and Jurisdiction would go through in our own successor agency. We went through it for every single one in the county And that process is now done approved and sent off to the Department of Finance including Santa Rosa's rops for the 2018-2019 fiscal year Thank you, I did want to report on a couple events since our last meeting When I attended the women's March on January 19th in downtown Santa Rosa another great use of the square Great crowd in spite of the weather and appreciate comments made by a council member Fleming with their To the audience there very active engaged there Also, I attended on the 23rd the Rotary Public Safety Award ceremony. I'd like to pass on my congratulations to Santa Rosa police officer Andrew Castro Fire catch fire captain Reesey and Sonoma County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant house for their Recognition the performance over the course of the year and then on Friday January 25th along with I know we had police involvement and housing community services was the point in time count which is going to be a crucial Figure and for me. It's actually I think it's a community event where we've had over 180 volunteers But it's gonna be data that we'll be able to use and give us feedback about some of our homeless efforts So I appreciate everyone that participated in that I Do have some cards? Mr.. Aberty the only comments that I heard was on from council was on item 10.1.4 So I'd ask you to limit your comments to the that item only In other words, you filled out about five different cards There was no reports on several of these items. So if you'd like to make some comments during the non-agendized items So I'm asking you for comments on item 10.1.4 the association of Bay Area governments Councilmember combs made some comments regarding that item Would you please step up to the mic at times about to start because there was some question as to their relationship between being a public There was some question for Sonoma Clean Power as to their being public They're being private what their relationship or how their status as a public or private organization would affect a lawsuit The city of Santa Rosa's and with PG&E. I don't know if you all discussed that in closed session the comments about what happened in closed session We're very vague, but it it strikes me that that's something that is Essential to our understanding of how power is provided, especially now that it seems like PG&E is going bankrupt You know, I encourage you to clarify that very much. It strikes me your comments are on You're not a car for the Association of Barrier a government councilmember combs made some comments Please continue on this item. I'll go ahead and get you on associate Association of area governments. We don't want to talk about whether or not we can drink our water apparently, but So association of area government's joint powers authority now You know the There's another joint powers authority called the Sonoma County Public Safety Consortium that is currently under investigation By the FBPC for conflicts of interest now I went to the registrar of voters the other day because the registrar of voters which is also the clerk recorder and assessor rights combination of duties She's also charged with Enforcing the political reform act now I inquired as to what that means Enforcing the political reform act right because it's primarily means that you all have to submit documents In which you outline, you know you economic interests. We're going to vote on rent control. Are you a landlord? You know Who is paying you what? That's a very good question right now But enforcing it what does that mean if all that means on her end is that she checks whether or not you've turned these forms in Not whether or not once these forms are turned in are you conflicted, right? Writing down a conflict of interest doesn't make it. Okay Right conflicts of interest checks and balances, you know in the United States We have a government that's founded on checks and balances the opposite of a check and balances the conflict of interest So when they happen, that's that's as traumatic to Democracy functioning as it could possibly be now I inquired as to who Checks to see if joint powers authorities like the Association of Bay Area governments here, which is its own entity Who inquires who enforces whether or not they've handed in They are form 700s their political format filings and the answer is nobody The answer is nobody even Bothers to check Whether or not joint powers authorities even file conflict of interest and that's a big problem Because I've never even seen a comprehensive list of how many joint powers authorities the city of Santa Rosa by extension Sonoma County's involved in it is an astronomical amount. I can assure you Joint powers authorities start Bob up more and more of themselves. It's too much. We need you Next time approval minutes January 8th look to counsel any Corrections sounds like we'll accept those as submitted mr. McGlynn consent items Item twelve point one resolution approval approved purchase order number one five eight two four six dash 2019 international cab and chassis with mounted sewer rotter and With Peterson truck incorporated item 12.2 resolution first amendment to general services agreement with environmental logistics incorporated Counsel any questions? We have one card on item 12.2 mr. Uberti Yeah, you know I I looked through these things these they look boring You know a lot of them I think they're kind of designed to look boring, but this one here It's a very easy one to recognize right now Recommendation it's recommended by the finance department that the council by resolution improves the first amendment to the general services agreement number blah For the collection transport treatment proper disposal yada yada yada management services with environmental logistics in Capewood, California increasing compensation by $200,000 For a total amount not to exceed 297 thousand dollars So the original amount of the contract less than a hundred thousand right and we're just gonna go ahead and bump that up by $200,000 We're gonna more than triple it That that doesn't sound right It doesn't sound right at all. I think probably maybe it sounded right around ninety thousand ninety seven thousand dollars the first time And then in the sneaky little it's it's a consulates twelve point two Everybody stopped paying attention.  Everybody doesn't want to care anymore, right? And now Presto change. Oh, here's another two hundred thousand dollars And it's recommended by the finance the finance department. I think we should probably talk about what recommended means Right because the recommendation is something you can say no to Right now, I'm a member of the public apparently the only one with something to say about this Right and you're supposed to represent the public You're supposed to do what the public wants you to do Well, guess what? I'm the public and I'm here telling you to knock this off This is not all right. You don't just get the hand out two hundred thousand dollars that you took from us and Give it to these people for no good reason. Why are you gonna triple their amount of money?  You can't just triple the amount of money Hand it out to some private company. They don't tell us what to do your democratic representatives. All right, you represent what we want Right, you listen to us. That's how this works. We don't listen to you All right, so enough's enough.   All right enough Deborah comments on item 12.1. Thank you very much again Deborah Tavares with stopthecrime.net I think it's really important for everyone here, and I'm gonna talk about this truck issue But as a corporation as a city that's incorporated you follow agendas It's a like a corporate franchise network like a McDonald's McDonald's are in every city every council every Board of supervisors every agency in this country is a franchise network and They all serve the same menu and I don't think people realize that you don't work for us You work through a globalized menu that is being served to you and then being served to us under the Illusion that you represent us and it's obvious now with the amount of people that are becoming aware That things are just upside down that you don't serve us and you don't so I'm not here so much in any Measure that you're gonna listen to this solar and and PG&E connection or the water Situation, but I'm gonna mention this truck situation right now that has me very very concerned In the World Bank documents. I am taught I'm reading about how sewer trucks, and I'm assuming that this is a sewer truck I Know you can't answer me, so I will assume that it is some type of a truck for sewer dispatch and I'm Understanding through the World Bank documents that we're going to be given a blend of sewer urine poop water in our uphill river and stream flows that's going to blend in our reservoirs because they're claiming We're running out of water and now we need to treat and serve up Sewer urine and pharmaceuticals in our drinking water supply now This may sound crazy to many of you listening to this, but this is a standard way in which many countries throughout the world Are getting their water and also many other communities in our country, so I'm really worried about what this truck means What's this truck going to do so when I leave this mic right now? Will you please tell me? What is the purpose of this truck? What is it going to do and why do we need to pay? $400,000 to this company for a truck And I would appreciate an answer if you're willing as a corporation to give me an answer, but I I'm not hopeful that you will I mean I think you won't So again, I think it's just really important. You're hearing a lot of frustration up here now behind the mic by many people We've been burned out. We've been robbed. We are being Taxed increasingly by Ernst and young who you've brought on who is a corporation out of London That you signed an agreement to that's looking at new revenue resources to tax. Thank you Derek Peter 12.1 Peter so focus on 12.1, please You know 12.1. Yeah, I I did look at that. I mean $400,000 for a Vehicle which doesn't explain exactly what it's going to do and Even though it may seem that the two last speakers were a little off point. I don't think it's true. I I think Deborah Tavares is one of the smartest people and best researchers I've met in the two dozen years And what she speaks about is accurate on the earthly plane and the legal ecstasy lawful sense But the reality is everybody here is a spiritual being first and foremost and so for anyone to point fingers at the city council They're wrong even if they're right, but it's see it's not the city council. That's the problem. I mean it's been given a long time ago I don't know who that was guy. I never knew who Pogo was but he said the problem is us. We're the enemy they're supposed to be our servants and they can't serve us because The corruption that controls them is being supported by the likes of you that are doing all the complaining By the virtue of the fact that you pay taxes to an IRS and a Fed that are patently treasonous Corrupt and all awful and that's been verified a thousand different ways And you maintain the blood industry, which is that of the the oil industry and we've had electric cars here for well over 120 years and so you maintain the insanity at the blood industry of the earth which is oil that keeps us from being royal and At the same time the greatest holocaust of all time is going on right now to the tune of 14 million Beautiful sentient animals a day whose lives are just as important If not more than anybody in this room because you were given command to take care of them and love them And most of you simply don't and there's a big difference between vampires and vegans Vampires can't see the light which means they can't see the truth look around There's plenty of proof and vegans include those like the ones that they talk about in the religions The one who I would say is my father. I'm the son of the son of the one. His name was Yeshua Jesus He was a vegetariano and the people that followed him Like Gandhi Einstein says or Chavez the type the peanuts gang and so many thousands of others were all vegans Because they would not harm anyone so those who are complaining about them up there There are servants You're the ones. We are the ones causing the problem. We have the power to set this down We're the most powerful people in the world in the most powerful state in the world Which is the most powerful meeting in the world at this moment And we have the power to withhold our consent Financially from this insane system that you're here complaining about. Thank you, Peter Mr. Rice mayor you've got this item Absolutely, and just as a quick reminder for the public whether it's a consent item or a report item all of the staff Documents are public record and are available So for example item 12.2 feel free if you'd like to check out the staff report which lists the need for the additional $200,000 and where that comes from with that I will move items 12.1 and 12.2 of the consent calendar and wait for the reading of the text I'll second it and we need a truck that will clear the sewer system from tree roots We have a motion in a second your vote, please In that passes unanimously.  This meeting right here right now is the most powerful one in the planet Only together with the freedom strike of the economy will be standing on granite black rock white rock emerald fire Stuck in the mirror voice frozen in time released to be clear freeze frame all the crime. I am Peter I am this I am a spirit singing a Rise arise free of all compromise So the promise we may now be bringing you've been given the keys step up to the plate put the world to its knees Fulfill your true fate only you only we be the spark to the fires flame in Almighty's name cease avoiding the entrance step into the light the animals The mother earth the children Jamal McDonald and Peltier down 39 years 47 years 43 years all innocent Release them They've been waiting in fear Finish the fight We have the power and the authority to pull the rug out from under this elitist control This being the 40-day prophetic strike attaining the promised lands goal For the true goddess temple resides in the kingdom of heaven which resides in each of your hearts Spark to flame fire spark to fire fire to flame the 40-day economic freeze frame Overcomes corruption's game our hearts be burning our Hearts be yearning Truly churning Release now the power That the world has long sought the heist It is within us all the mother of all boycotts be the true call Release ye the true power of Christ It is with us Here and now the most beautiful We are here to be spiritually dutiful The authority is mine to say as I do the authority is yours to make it come true Amen, amen a whole Thank you Peter Dwayne to wait followed by Steve Bertelbaugh. Thank you, sir. My name is Dwayne. Do you with I'm from Roseland? I wanted to Ask you to think about something nice that happened the other day on Friday. There was a count of folks that might be without shelter They had a story in the press Democrat on Saturday I hope you saw it it had some nice pictures because the woman they had been talking with was guiding them through An area we in Roseland called the Roseland Neighborhood she was crossing Roseland Creek actually and It was really a nice Scene to some folks who are in that area Because they know the beauty of that Roseland Neighborhood and they understand that some of the unsheltered Go there and try to get respite from the harshness of the weather And it just made me think it's really important that you folks link in that picture to the address It's 1370 Burbank Avenue, which the city now owns They bought the land six months ago And the land next to it's been paid for by the taxpayers also over a period of nine years 19 and a half acres of land has been preserved in Roseland. It's the last nature left over there really But what's really nice is there's four homes owned by the taxpayers Four houses that I've come and spoken with you in the past to see if we might be able to use them to house homeless veterans There's actually a program for housing homeless veterans where they get a voucher a section eight like you spoke of earlier called a HUD VASH voucher and And Those vouchers have helped the palms in down the street to stay financially afloat That money in a project based vouchers. It's called does good things Right now the four houses that the city hasn't taken ownership of are empty And they're not being used If you use them to house veterans you could bring in income At least a thousand maybe a thousand and a hundred dollars per Veteran, there's three three bedroom houses and one one bedroom cottage That's ten veterans that could be helped and you could be bringing in money That would help you during your budgetary difficulties, which are arriving now You already have budgetary difficulties so how about bringing in some money and helping members of the community and You may say well, I'm being Specific too much by saying just veterans Well, those veterans vouchers are guaranteed and those veterans have served our country And they're the kind of people that would help to care take that land and save you even more money than from having Vandalism and other problems. Thank you Thank you, Dwayne Steve Bertelman followed by Lake Cowell Thank You Mayor Schwedholmen members Steve Bertelbow with the Sierra Club Earlier this week I sent each of you an email Suggesting that this coming Monday You make arrangements to ride the bus to at least one of your meetings and that you repeat that At least once every month So that you can become better acquainted with the bus schedules and the quality of service that people have I Hope that each of you has had a chance in the meantime to get out your schedule and see how that would work for you I've made the same request of several other people and they've Actually found some ways to do it It's a departure from your usual habits perhaps. I know that usually for me It's much more convenient for me to just hop in my car and go somewhere Then it is to act to plan ahead and get on that bus Get on my computer and work while I'm traveling and then not have to look for a parking place but The reason that we're asking for this is that about half of the people in this country don't have good access to public transportation and In this county and even in this city We have some areas that are transit deserts or that have routes that are very very inconvenient So that people have to ride all the way around the circuit either going or coming to their destination We can make changes to that over time if we focus on it and if you who are really the Policy makers for this transit system are really acquainted with the way the system works So if you haven't already got out your schedule, please do so Please make your best effort to ride a bus next Monday and once a month thereafter. Thank you. Thanks Steve Lake Cowell followed by Steve Pierce Hello, my name is Lake Cowell and I am with disability services and legal center And I'm here today with Steve to talk about transit equity day, which is December 4th And we're just trying to encourage everyone to take the bus We're kind of doing a little thing online and we're encouraging everyone to take a photo and get on the bus and I personally had not taken the bus until about eight months ago when I had to Have my vehicle repaired and there are no backup vehicles to rent for wheelchair access So it was an actually very good experience. I've been quite intimidated to take the bus But once on the bus, I actually met the loveliest woman and we ended up sitting with each other the rest of the week So again, I would just love to encourage everyone here in recognition of transit equity day and Rosa Parks birthday December 4th try riding the bus Thank you. Thank you Steve Pierce followed by Elizabeth Nealon Hello, I'd like to start with a quote from author Jonathan Franzen Global warming is the issue of our time perhaps the biggest issue in all of human history Every one of us is now in the position of Native Americans when the Europeans arrived with guns and smallpox Our world is poised to be transformed vastly Unpredictably and mostly for the worst I'm here to encourage you to look at switching your power sources over to Sonoma clean powers evergreen program We've already had the city of Sonoma do it the city of Hildsburg is looking at and the county is now looking at Switching and my hope is that the city of Sebastopol will soon be doing the same There are some other reasons that the big reason for supporting evergreen right now is that Sonoma clean power Over the next few months has been kind of taking it on the chin financially because the increased exit fees from PG&E So this is a direct way that you can put in your support for Sonoma clean power Another reason is that that they've had programs for Solar that has been supplying the evergreen with their electricity and those programs Have are now they're now looking at shifting those funds because they don't have enough evergreen support locally So as these cities come on board and I encourage all individuals out there to also look at switching to evergreen We can get those solar projects back online Sonoma County is the 13th largest solar employer in the whole country And if we want to continue that we need to support local renewable renewable power. Thank you. Thank you Elizabeth kneeling followed by debba Hey there, I'm elizabeth kneeling Um, I was born three days after my parents moved here from Canada. My mother was a socialist Who freely informed her children that Americans are barbarians Charlie Manson and Ted Bundy Dramatized this reality as I was a young woman and experienced The knowledge of their murders But our government Well, let's just say About a thousand people of color were murdered by our police in America last year according to Berkeley radio And I'd like to question how many democratically elected presidents in the world have been undermined and murdered by our government I believe we are corporate savages or I'm not I'm not a corporate savage yet But seeking asylum in Canada is really quite close to my heart If I didn't have four sons that live here and my dear sister Penelope And my homeless son especially in Berkeley, I don't want to just blast out of here But I want to tell you that Canada is a better country and on that note I'll just sing a little verse of what comes to my heart First you destroy them That's what the missiles are for Level their countries Till they can't take anymore Then ha will ha ha ha rebuild it With contracts and big box galore Multinationals get the money That's who profits from war Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars Last year for the Pentagon Three hundred and fifty billion dollars For weapon dealers like Charles Manson Ted Bundy That's the kind of character these people have They don't care about people and believe me I like Peter's speeches I am a spiritual being I think anybody that's met me will figure that out before too long You know I grew up in the 4h club of Pennsylvania where we pledged our heads to clear thinking Our hearts to greater loyalty Our hands to larger service and our health to better living. Thank you for listening Thank you Deborah followed by Thomas Ells Yes, thank you very much. Deborah Tavares with stopthecrime.net I'm looking at some articles where in the midwest they're going to be 60 degrees below zero And I'm thinking about the homelessness here and happy that we're not so cold But in many ways we are colder Because we're not housing the homeless When I think about outsiders coming for tourism here in Sonoma county And I think about all the homeless people that are trying to survive under the bushes and under bridges and being scurried off It's heartbreaking It's heartbreaking I've had many conversations with family members about Why they're concerned about continuing to be here in Sonoma county But I can only tell you that are Reviewing other places throughout the world and throughout the united states sadly Again, as I say we're all under the same policies. You're under the same policies and homelessness is an agenda It's an agenda or it wouldn't be an agenda So with that I handed to you A congressman's letter dated january 2nd of 2019 And it talks about the admission of Scientist in the advancement of solar dimming Worldwide solar dimming That's why when you look at PG&E's contractual arrangement with Soleron S-O-L-A-R-E-N And you find out the pacific gas and the electric is saying that the ground-based solar System that we've rolled out is not going to be efficient Because of the night skies and the cloud Hays overhead that is called aerosol spraying That is a global dimming Program that has been going on for decades For example Over cuba in the 70s not only did the united states embargo cuba From goods and other aspects, but also from weather and it was called operation Blue nile or nile blue as they called it Look up operation nile blue and you'll find that they withheld precipitation From cuba so that castro would not be able to harvest the sugar Plantation to continue his government at the same time The cia and our government was using operation papai Everyone here can write that down and look it up This is real in vietnam and they were causing the rain out of the ho Chi Minh supply lines PG&E is behind these programs They could have chosen rain during the fires But they chose not to PG&E is in documents dated back to the 50s Involved with cloud seeding here in california and elsewhere You can look those down. Thank you Thomas Ellis followed by kathryn jurick Thank you. Well, I don't uh, I'm gonna hold this but it's not what i'm gonna be speaking about So we just found out on friday that the PG&E was going to abandon the potter valley power plant And uh, this is really important. There's a lot of water that goes through comes to here and then The continues on and so I would and I was hoping to address it during the Council reports, but it doesn't matter. It's fine to to do it here. Uh, is that you direct or got snowman county water agency and the city water department And snow McLean power to work on that It's very important that we acquire that power plant and get the water through that you get the power Essentially free some cost to maintaining that but it's worthwhile and somehow not to PG&E but But it's very worthwhile certainly for the water and it helps maintain and pay for the for the actual water and then There's a lot of extra water that has been uh Defined if you will Uh in lake bendicino is 44 well a lot a lot of water For the operation so the operation of me Um, the operation of lake bendicino will allow for more water to pass through but we have to have a place to store it So we need to create more storage offline down here off the russian river It's going to come through the russian river and then down and we need to create more offline storage there and also we can create and use lake sonoma for Uh pump storage hydro. So you pump it up and then you create energy. Um, so you can take Uh clean energy To pump it up and it's the most efficient battery that there is and then there's no real waste from that if it's a You know, for instance a dam it's Just that's kind of a concrete and earth filled dam So you've just got earth and concrete is the remainder the residue after You have a dam There's no other like lithium or any other stuff like that. That's a waste product that comes out and it's and it's a bit yet It's extremely efficient Over 95 percent actual return on the energy that you pump up to get back and uh, so You could have a lower reservoir there at lakes and online public. So it can work with clean power Sonoma clean power They need to get into that and they can help us out with the water. Thank you very much Thank you, thomas Catherine jurrick followed by mr. Kinney Is katherin here? Thank you I Just want to give a an update on what i've been doing this month Kind of my report I've been doing a lot of triage Which means i've been going around behind cleanups and sweeps and finding people without shoes and without blankets And delivering them after my child goes to bed at night My wife stays home and works on the jigsaw puzzle and I drive around and find people who don't have anything at all left And I give away blankets and I get these blankets by putting out on facebook. Hey People need need to be warm.  Why don't they just leave people alone? Why don't they just give them a place to go and organize it so it's sanitary and it's clean and and it has garbage service These are our people Most of the people who live here. These are people with disabilities.   I just heard about people may be a little more important than a sewer truck a lot more important in fact and You know, it's hard for me to be out in the community and hear people saying well Well, why don't they do something and then people who live on the streets say Well, where do we go and I don't have an answer for either one of them? I'm in the middle. I'm in the middle doing triage If anybody needs a blanket I have some in my car People I don't even know contact people and say Hey Or people I know will be talking to someone else and and that person will say something they'll say Oh, I have some stuff. Can you take can you get this to them and blankets socks and shoes? I just been giving those out left and right at night when everybody's asleep or supposed to be Anyway that blanket on the front cover of the newspaper that guy was lying under That was a wool blanket from guatemal that one of my friends gave me to give away. Thank you. Mr. Canini Mr. Mayor and co-conspirators. I mean co-counsel members Don't miss the bus get on the bus It's a lot of good reasons to having a good public transportation system one of which it lowers the cost of living A city bus pass from adult is $50 a month The average cost for a car is $500 a month You can save $450 a month if you take the bus And some people want to have a car and they have a car so they don't think they should take the bus If you do the arithmetic Your operational cost of that car Exceeds $50 a month Even owning the car paying all the capital cost You can still take the bus and save money And like the gentleman said, you just walk right on sit right down stand up if you want Do pull-ups on the bars get your exercise in And you don't have to park the bus.   They had warming tents They put people in warming tents fed them and housed them people who are a few minutes ago were trying to kill them But that was fair because the marines were trying to kill them too You don't even have the same regard for the citizens here as the marines had for the prisoners of war There are three times the number of empty residents in this country than homeless What kind of country has three times the number of empty residents of homeless? That kind of country is a capitalist country A capitalist system Fortunately the young people are learning about capitalism They're learning about the the socialist bernie sanders And they're moving in that direction Now when you use the word socialism that means a lot of different things To a lot of different people The socialism we're talking about is like norway Where their prisons are in better condition than many of our black colleges There was a program on that That's the kind of socialism We're trying to move towards that's what bernie sanders is all about To the barricades Thank you Thank you All right on the report items just for uh anyone in the chamber now the council has been out this since Two o'clock so we will be taking a 15 minute dinner break after we'll see how Quickly we can get through these different report items But we will be taking a break before we have a public hearing on budget priorities Mr. McGlynn 14.1 Yep 14.1 report adoption Of revised schedule of parking user fees adding discount transit commuter parking permit fee Kevin Buchanan and kim nadeau presenting. Oh, it's just kim this evening Good evening mayor and council members This item recommends approval of a discounted parking permit for at garage 12 For regular users of public transportation Garage 12 is located adjacent to the transit mall and behind the rock c theater The city currently offers Permit a non-reserved permit at garage 12 for 62 a month We also offer a 50 discount for low wage employees Permit at that garage as well This resolution proposes a similar discount permit for commuters who regularly use public transportation The permit would be offered at 31 dollars a month Like the low wage employee permit it would be offered at garage 12 To qualify for the permit parkers will provide a clipper card activity report that shows at least 25 dollars a month in transit use Or they can show a bus pass from city bus or sinoma county transit We're proposing to make 50 permits available for this discounted permit We have over 200 permits available in the garage now, so we have plenty of capacity to support that You're aware of our park smart shuttle, which was the circulator shuttle that was running downtown It's still running today. It's funded by the parking program, but it will be ending on march 1st So this discounted commuter permit is intended to help replace the loss of that circulator by providing a connection from the transit mall to The bus or excuse me the the train platform at Railroad square, so this just shows a map. It's a pretty straight shot the buses There are two existing city bus routes that run from the transit mall to the smart platform. They run every 15 minutes So the benefit of this Discounted permit will be to provide an incentive to use public transportation by offering a discount for long-term parking at a facility that is Right next door to the transit mall And to get more people to use public transportation, which can reduce vehicle miles traveled and reduce greenhouse gas emissions It's recommended by the finance department that the council by resolution adopt the revised schedule of parking user fees Adding a discounted monthly transit commuter parking permit fee effective february 1st 2019 and i'm happy to answer any questions Thank you kim council questions mr. Vice mayor Thanks, mr. Mayor just tangentially related We had the changes that we made as the pilot project at one point will we see a report back on how that worked For parking and parking fees around the garages during the holidays. Oh, okay. I'm sorry I wasn't tracking We i i'm looking at providing An update to council on the overall progressive parking strategies the holiday program is Kind of separate. I could provide a written summary if you're interested in that It will be months before we have any Sales tax data to show what the impact was for businesses downtown But I do have the numbers regarding what the cost was to the parking program We'll we'll caucus and and because I think again to miss the doze point It's a complete picture. We want to present we want to present the The impact on the parking garages, but also what what projected happened in terms of returns on that and what strategies we can move forward So we will we'll put together a package probably bring it first to the downtown subcommittee And then move it to the full council for a report out Great. Thank you because I'd be interested obviously in seeing the data Also the lessons learned and then this seems to play right into that. So thank you Council any other questions I've one card on this item natalie balfour Good evening. My name is natalie balfour. I'm here representing the owners of the roxy theater And I will try to keep it quick as it's been a long evening. Um We Are just asking that no decision be made tonight until we can Just at least be involved in the discussion on this as you know As kim stated this parking garage is right behind the roxy theater and we currently have Parking agreement with the city regarding the parking available there And it was a statement made in the report that no current parker People parking there would be negatively affected and I just would hope um and ask that we can be involved In the discussion to really analyze that we have spent over A few million dollars recently Installing the new luxury seats, which are hopefully going to be increasing parking demand So we really appreciate it if you could just hold off on this and involve us in the in the discussions. Thank you Thank you Know the cards any other questions Council Mr. Tibbets you also have this item. I guess um, yes, I'd like to follow up on that question How that impacts I guess would they be considered our tenant occupier of the space So we do have an agreement with the owners of the roxy theater and that agreement specifically has a claw with regard to how Many permits we can sell so if we were to Offer these permits. We are not going beyond the number of permits that were allowed to offer per the terms of the agreement councilmember flowey Yes, um Excuse me if I missed it, but how much will this cost the city? Well, I don't think that it wouldn't cost the general fund anything any impacts would be to the parking fund My assumption is that these would be new permit new new users of the garage And so while we would be offering them at a discount it would still be additional revenue to the parking fund It wouldn't I don't see this as being a negative impact to the parking fund Do you have a sense of how much additional revenue it might be? Well at 31 dollars a month Let's see. I'm not great at math on my feet It's hard for me to know how many people are going to jump on this and want to buy these permits But you know, maybe maybe a few thousand dollars. I'm not thinking it's going to be a windfall. All right. Thank you Miss comes you have a question If we have the spaces available because we aren't selling as many Then the roxy does in fact have a An Effect because they may be using spaces that we could be Selling for this purpose So i'm trying to sort out When will you come back? And let us know how successful or not successful the program is is there a Is there a follow-up point with this? What's the Is this a pilot or is this are we enacting this? Is this is ongoing? That's a good question hadn't thought of it in terms of it being a pilot But we can certainly come back to you at at any point in time. We could report back in a year I would think you'd want to look at it in any probably a year's time For a comparisons point we we established the low wage employee permits similar very similar program About a year a little over a year ago, and we now have 32 permits sold So we haven't seen a huge leap in in utilization Of the garages or sales of permits from a program like this That's over all the garages and this is only one garage is that the low wage permit is offered in two garages our two most Underutilized garages the seven street garage and this same garage behind the rock c theater At this point in time there there is ample capacity for the garage Garage 12 adjacent to the transit mall in the rock c theater to support a lot more vehicles I think I would like If the person making the motion is willing for us to hear back in a year How it's going if it's influenced the rock c in appropriately If you hear from them that there's a problem that you come back maybe sooner, but at least with any or we should hear back Mr. Tibbetts, it's your item For the sake of discussion I will move a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa adopting a revised schedule of parking user fees Adding a discount commuter parking permit rate effective february 1st 2019 and wait for the reader second And mr. R. Did you have a comment to make? Yeah, just as uh because there was a question about the math if uh all 50 permits At a 31 reduction per month. That's $1,550 per month For the for the program so for the public I think that that is a good investment if it means that we end up giving people an opportunity to park in our downtown that are typically using Their their public transit already. So i'm happy to support this move forward Mr. Tibbetts, you have another comment. Thank you, mr. Mayor Ms. Nado, I you know one thing so I moved the motion But I am a little bit reluctant to to vote for it if we haven't spoken to the tenant And they sent a representative here tonight Is there some kind of a timeline or or deadline that you're facing that requires implementation tonight? Because i'm thinking it might be just a prudent thing for us to reach out to them Figure out if there is indeed anything that we haven't thought of that they are Um leery of and then bring it back in the consent calendar next week So so we can follow up with the tenant and if and if there is an issue Outstanding will will inform the council even in with the action I think the deadline council member Is the fact we're making the transition in leaving the other other program And so this was staff's attempt to create an opportunity where there was capacity to address the fact that we're going to be leaving The smart shuttle component So you'll get commitment from us to go and visit with With with the roxy if there's something that's insurmountable Will the city manager will will address it But i'll i'll i'll have kim visit with the roxy show them that this is within the contract capacity and the capacities And if we remain in for the issue They know my number So so we'll we'll figure it out I would hate to have a stranded without an option to start addressing An issue as we abandon the other program and and so i'll just say two more things In the future, you know, it's probably just a good idea for us to reach out to all tenants that we have When we're making some kind of a change that could potentially impact them But I do want to also applaud you. I think this is a really great program And i'm i know that i've asked questions relating to affordability in the past So thank you for doing this and I hope it's a good program Okay, we have a motion in second your votes, please And that passes unanimously. Thank you kim Mr. City Manager item 14.2 So item 14.2 report fiscal year 2018 19 budget reduction strategy before I turn it over to chuck. I do have a couple words to to To say on this item As a council considers tonight's item, I just want to remind you that this past october Staff presented a seven million dollar budget reduction exercise half of the 14 million dollar structural deficit The city is facing this demonstrated the voters that the city was serious and committed To controlling costs and addressing its structural issues Then in november the voters approved a measure o to protect vital services This afforded us time to deal with the remaining seven million dollar structural issue that the city faces Remember that is just a five-year license to actually Make further considerations of what we need to do to adjust the budget In addition, santa rosa not only in this process, but in our upcoming budget process must develop a strategy to replenish its depleted reserves Address our aging infrastructure aging and failing infrastructure Assist in the recovery Which means fill the gaps we know will happen when our partners can't fill it legally Or we find out as we've had conversations before that the cost returns On fighting that particular issue won't rise to that level and that was one of the promises in the measure that we would actually Spend some of that money repairing the community And lastly start a program to actively pay down our pension liabilities, which many cities around the state have adopted That is an aggressive strategy Those are some of the things we're going to be visiting not not with the long-term finance committee, but also long term So as as chuck picks this up. This was a conversation. I just wanted to remind everyone happened prior to the vote We asked at that time if there was any substantial issues with the approach Because that approach is mr. McBride will outlay lay out is working as the council had outlined in the prior summer to not impact Active positions within the budget and actually figure out in the goal setting that's coming up in the next couple weeks How we manage our workload with our existing staffing levels because We cannot afford to continue to hire our way out of issues and accept additional Additional long-term liabilities associated with those issues So with that rosy portrait, I will now turn it over to mr. McBride to do the presentation And before you start mr. McBride first Thank you for setting the context here and I would ask just because I know all of us on council been briefed by Mr. McBride in the assistant city manager if we hold all of our questions till after the presentation So go ahead mr. McBride Thank you, mayor Good evening. We're here tonight to address our structural deficit As the city manager Spoke about and we're asking council at the end of this to adopt a resolution that will allow us to make some cuts to our budget to kind of right size us and And that will bring us until the year the end of the year and we can talk about the on On the next fiscal year budget So just a timeline to tonight on august 16th We went to the long-term finance policy and audit subcommittee and we talked to them about The budget deficit that we have Our focus was primarily on purrs and the and the budgetary stress that they're causing to the city And then we laid out this this plan that you'll see tonight For cutting the budget on october 2nd. We had a council workshop and You're going to see exactly the same plans. We showed you that night with some very minor tweaks November 18th We went back to our subcommittee and we spoke to them about our methodology That we used to to make our budget reductions as the reductions that we didn't accept and that brings us to tonight So you've seen this picture before This is this is a snapshot At the at the beginning of this fiscal year of what our deficit looks like and and you can see that our expenditures are exceeding our revenues By a wide margin In the first year in fiscal year 18 19 It's $15 million. So that's kind of where we began as a starting point And you can see that that that that deficit widens over time, which is which is a bad trend line That's what we're trying to fix so Taking this half step meant that we we wanted to close that $15 million gap initially And the way that we did that was we we put a quarter cent sales tax on the ballot That brings in approximately $9 million to the general fund per year And then we asked the departments throughout the city to offer us $7 million in general fund reductions And that's what we'll talk about tonight As we kind of bore down into Into looking at what's causing our deficit. We focused on the expense side. There's really Minor discretion that we have over general fund revenues coming into the city And as we look at the picture of our general fund expenses for 18 19 You can see what pops out there is that personnel is 134.5 million dollars of the budget 76 of it You can imagine that having gone through their session most of those maintenance and operation costs that 20 percent of the budget has already been cut down to Minimal levels the transfer section that you see there of 7.8 million dollars It's just things like debt service transfers that mean we make for courthouse square out of the general fund So as we broke into that broke it down into that biggest piece of our general fund budget Which is personnel we took a look at it how the different components line up So the bottom blue bars there is salaries and those are those are going up However, they did not seem like they are going up at a at a rate that's alarming The top two bars that gray bar is health insurance that goes up by about six percent a year Which is the same history that most agencies see And then the top bar is just incidental costs like like vision and dental that orange bar there In the middle is what concerns us and that's per's and that is going up markedly And as we kind of break into that this is this is a look at cow per's just in the general fund So this does not include enterprise funds like water But it's it's comprised of two components and one is the normal cost Which is just the cost of another service year for our employees And all the actuarial assumptions rates of return all hold constant The unfunded liability there is what you hear talked about a lot and that's you can see that that's going up It's almost doubling from 2019-2025 in a pretty short period and again. We're not unique That's something that all agencies in california that are part of calpers are dealing with Actually agencies that are outside of calpers sometimes are dealing with bigger numbers than these but that's the annual payment So the unfunded liability if we were to pay it off today And remove it from our balance sheet that'd be about a $340 million payoff, but this is what we pay on that annually and you can see that's going up We don't anticipate that's going to stop going up anytime In the foreseeable future. So this is a long term problem We went to goal setting in july and we got some input from the council that That gave us some principles as we were putting together our cuts for this For this mid-year solution We avoided affecting filled fts so in this in this plan I'm going to show you that we cut 49.25 fts in the city. There's only one of those It's filled at this time. That's deputy city manager position We looked at potential outsourcing options. That's probably a more long long-range look that really wasn't looked at too much in this interim step Deferred capital maintenance. That's something that we are undertaking And then we wanted to maintain a focus on tier one priorities that will be reported out on at the february 20 person 20 second goal setting So now i'm going to go directly into the departments again this you've seen this uh at the october meeting So i'm just going to reiterate this we'll start with the city attorney So the city attorney just looking at the way the slides are laid out laid out You have the general fund budget of 3.5 million dollars. That's 2.1 of the overall city budget So city attorneys are relatively small operation. You have their proposed reduction of 237 500 And you have the overall fd count of 16.9. So that'll be the same for each of these slides So you can see that most of the savings that was offered by the city attorney was in personnel savings. They reduced one vacant assistant city attorney And that was provided for cannabis has not been filled. So they so they vacated that position And then those non-personnel costs were just kind of incidental costs that went mostly along with that position So that gave them their reduction of 237 500 City manager, this is where we do have the one filled position. That's the deputy city manager position Right now city manager is is working on a on an alternative staffing plan organizational plan for that So if you look at the resolutions that's provided all of the vacant positions in there We ask you to eliminate those immediately. The deputy city manager position is kept in place until june 30 So until the end of the fiscal year The other reduction in the city manager Um Was a senior admin assistant For a total reduction of $366,000 in personnel costs for the general fund Finance my department. We eliminated four vacancies So I got rid of a vacant revenue manager position We're right now looking at our alternative reporting structures organizational structures So that we can do without that position in the long term We also got rid of an accountant position senior admin assistants And a payroll supervisor So that's how we got to our almost half million dollars in savings for the finance department Fire department eliminated 6.75 fds for savings of $950,000 the 0.75 Was was admin person. They have 4.75 Fds that support their admin functions So those functions will be spread off to asos another admin personnel within the fire department The other reductions there were six fire fighters. Those are vacant right now They're um, they're used to balance uh over time They're used for over staffing for upcoming positions with their firefighters Firefields they can get away with those in the interim right now as we try to cut our budget immediately But in the long term we realize that eventually there's a there's a plan to open additional fire stations They're additional needs so at some point Those firefighters will likely be added back and that's where conversations are going to continue Just today the county started a conversation about The fire protection services And one of the items for consideration is again another I hate to say it's sales tax measure, but a sales tax measure that would ultimately Bring resource to the city to help us start to address The exact issue you're talking about but those are where we're going to need to have Conversations not just with ourselves, but with our other governmental agencies of how we join together to realize revenue that we desperately need To increase our capacity and a capacity as was noted earlier tonight I think the council really wants to take on about making sure that our community is is protected housing community services Relatively small department offered up about a hundred thousand dollars in savings Through fte reductions. So there was one fte that was a community outreach specialist. It was funded Half by measure o funds that is vacant. So it was eliminated And then there's a senior admin assistant in code enforcement that was eliminated at 0.5 fte for that Human resources Cut three hundred and thirty four thousand dollars They cut personnel costs by one by reducing one fte That was the employee services manager that's been vacant. I think now for almost a year And then there were non personnel's costs were associated with the wellness program for miscellaneous personnel This this is not the the wellness program for safety personnel So that was a reduction of a hundred fifty thousand dollars for a total three hundred thirty four thousand Information technology was able to garner savings of seven hundred thirty eight thousand dollars. They reduced two fte's Those were it tax for three hundred one thousand dollars and then non personnel costs of by four hundred thirty seven thousand dollars And that was by