have the golf maintenance equipment and repair at about two hundred forty one thousand dollars and traditionally the city is not budgeted for these which has led to all sorts of issues with our fleet equipment we have out there now at the golf course there's been no replacement funds established and no dedicated ability for getting repair so we're pulling money from different locations to try to accommodate these we really want to move forward with a structured process like we had it all of our other agents all of our other departments here similar with the fire trucks i know that we didn't have this with our fire trucks as well so we really want to make sure that the equipment is getting replaced and that we have the funding to do that when we have to wait to ask council for funding for some way or another or fine funding from somewhere else it creates all sorts of problems as you can imagine the golf course so if you are totaling that on a piece of paper that's about three hundred seventy seven thousand dollars in total what we do is we take the revenue that we're earning that was not calculated also from the cell tower and subtract that and we have about three hundred seventeen thousand dollars so thanks for bearing with me on the math i just wanted to make sure i got all of that out of there so what that leaves is it is a remainder and we're looking as part of this approval process to include three hundred forty five thousand dollars of funds transferring from the vinnett valley golf course capital fund to the operating fund at approximately three hundred forty five fifty one and two hundred twenty five thousand dollars from the general fund to the vinnett valley golf reserve fund so that will bring the balance to zero and our projected expenditures for the budget to zero i just want to emphasize it's an extremely tight budget this first year there's a lot of there's a lot of risk involved starting any sort of new contract up and we're very excited to get started with touchstone but we also want to make sure that we're secure in our budget situation and so i just i just want to extra emphasize that that is a zero balance there's no remainder we're hoping to have a much higher projection of revenue coming in especially as we reopen the restaurant which has been closed for years so we're looking forward to that next slide please so i want to talk about capital projects here a little bit when we do move forward with our high priority capital projects that the national golf course foundation specified in february 15 it is we expect that revenues will also increase which is really exciting until then all of touchstone's projections and the city's projections are based on very minor capital project improvements in year one we're talking about you know revising the sand traps a little bit thinning trees minor improvements to the restaurant and vent facilities these are really minor projects that we really just need to do to make sure it's an inviting space and a safe space for people to come back in and use the facilities touchstone is also committed $50,000 of their own funds towards the front entry landscaping area for an immediate positive impact and there's no obligation to the city whatsoever for that so that's really exciting if any of you have been to the front of the golf course there it needs some definite attention and during the national golf course presentation in february of this year the high priority capital projects were identified and ranked and preliminary evaluate and preliminarily evaluated national golf foundation recommended a two-phased approach towards looking at our capital projects and that includes first conducting a full site master plan and then second undertaking those improvements immediately and closing the golf course in order to do so national golf course foundation estimated that the high priority needs at the golf course are approximately 6.8 million which of course includes the irrigation system and the water supply system it's a it's a huge component those of you that have been out to the golf course understand it's it's it's a real urgent need over the next couple years to make sure we take care of that going forward next slide please a national golf foundation also presented strategies for how do we fund all of these capital projects that we need to do they offered three strategies to look at and some sort of combination there they looked at a general fund investment or bonding for the capital improvements to occur as soon as possible they also put on the table using net gains from the vendeval golf course revenue that are saved over the years to use to fund capital needs as we can do that these strategies are predicated on the city implementing these high priority capital needs as soon as possible while also implementing an increase to the golf fee structure which we recognize needs some attention next slide please in working with touchstone so far they have mentioned they have the capabilities to manage capital projects and they've mentioned cost saving alternatives that national that the national golf foundation alternatives to the national golf foundation recommendations I should say for completing golf course for completely closing the golf course so we could potentially look at an option where only we're only closing a portion of the golf course so that golf can still happen so we really want to explore that with touchstone with national golf foundation we want to look at all these alternatives so we'll be evaluating the national golf financial options as well as touchstones current and future recommendations and we will evaluate what we can do with our financing options to move that forward and also we'll be evaluating the golf fee structure and we'll be returning to council prior to the niggier budget cycle in a study session to discuss all those options tonight though we are focusing solely mostly on the operating of the golf course and we'll return to discuss the capital projects as well as the fees and I recognize that the fees would not only fund capital projects but they could also fund the revenue going forward but we do need the time necessary to do a deep dive into those fee structures as compared to the other golf courses and so in order to count we wouldn't want to raise fees and not have any anything different at the golf course necessarily we want to look at what our options are and come back to you so we will thoroughly evaluate all of those financial strategies the options for funding these and we will return in a study session prior to niggier budget cycle to discuss those in depth next slide please so pending council's approval to negotiate a final agreement with touchstone a draft operations schedule shows a kickoff meeting with the city within a few days of the fully executed agreement the touchstone transition plan will be implemented with in a couple weeks and touchstone will implement their transition checklist which has over 100 action items and deadlines to ensure a smooth transition from our current operator to the touchstone operators we anticipate that there will be three days or less of golf on the golf course following June 30 of 2022 and that the restaurant will be open by mid-July I know that touchstone is very excited to have zero days of golf but we do need to make sure we have a buffer in there in case we need a few days to get something set up so once touchstone has a fully executed agreement a final schedule will be produced and the city will share this information on the city's website with key dates for golf and restaurant services and we keep that updated and monitored so if they as we update the golf website you could at least come to the city's website to get information temporarily until that July 1st deadline next slide please so if we look at following the recommendations from National Golf Foundation to bring on a professional single operator management company this is really the best the city's best method for achieving its goals for golf continuity revenue generation sufficient to cover operational expenses and it also includes those options for long-range capital improvements that we'll bring back in addition touchstone is committed to engaging with the golfing community and to provide an inclusive golf experience and have the staff to help diversify the golfing experience at Venetballi Golf Course I know that they are interested in meeting the community members and understanding how they can better support and generate interest for the sport of golf for everyone next slide please so with that it's recommended by the transportation and public works department that counsel by resolution approve and authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with touchstone golf LLC to manage the Venetballi Golf Course enterprise in accordance with the business terms set forth in the staff report and the resolution and to authorize increased appropriations in the Venetballi Golf Course fund in the amount of three hundred forty five thousand dollars to fund the transition plan capital costs from the agreement with the source of the funds from the Venetballi Golf Course capital fund and three authorized increased appropriations in the Venetballi Golf Course operations fund in the amount of three hundred fifty one thousand two hundred twenty five for the creation of sufficient projected reserves with the source of the funds from the general fund and four authorized the chief financial officer to appropriate all operator fees and operating and maintenance expenditures from the Venetballi Golf revenue to touchstone golf LLC as described in the agreement and five approved and authorized the city manager to negotiate and execute assumption from the current golf course operator to the master lease agreement for golf carts with Yamaha Motor Finance Corporation USA for the remainder for the master lease agreement term through October twenty twenty two next slide please and so I am here to answer questions we also have members from four members from touchstone if they can be promoted to help answer questions that might arise thank you all right thank you so much director before we get our questions from council members I just wanted to thank you I wanted to thank Jason I want to thank everybody who has worked so hard on this to say that there was a fair amount of skepticism from the public about the ability of the city to pull this off on the timeline that we were presenting would be an incredible understatement I think there was a sense that the city was trying to kill the golf the golf course by having the timelines drag out far beyond when the existing operator would be able to operate and I know that you've been said staff in your resolve to make this happen and now staff has done a good job and now it's on the council you have it here with an opportunity for us to have continuity of services and we'll get to questions and deliberations but I wanted to thank you and thank the assistant city manager not just for the heat that you took getting us to this point but for continuing day after day to keep plowing away to make this a possibility so thank you to both of you and into your teams I'll start with one simple question and it's because it's perhaps the thing that I hear the most from the public outside of just the desire to keep the golf course and it's it's emblematic of our community as a whole but concern for the existing staff and concern that we could lose folks who have a wealth of knowledge and who know the golfing community and have supported Santa Rosa and I'm going to put you a little bit on the spot Mr Mr. Luffman and and our city attorney's team but have there been discussions about continuity of staff certainly and mayor rogers and vice mayor alvarez and city council and city staff members we appreciate the opportunity to speak with all of you here this evening I'm joined by Steve harker who is touchstone golf CEO ashley van dissel who is touchstone golf's vice president of sales and marketing and also james birchall who is our vice president of operations in northern california I'll hopefully have an opportunity to share a little bit about touchstone golf later on in greater detail but I want to get right to your question mayor rogers and very much so our goal is to retain as many of the existing staff members at the golf course that are interested in working with us at bennett valley continuing to work with us to that end we're planning our first providing your approval of our agreement this evening we're planning our first meeting with the current staff members next tuesday that i'll be leading and it will be an orientation about touchstone golf and a little bit about who we are and our expectations for ourselves as responsible employers in the community and a brief overview of what our expectations are for touchstone golf staff members at our courses but yes in summary you're looking forward to meeting the existing staff members and getting to know them and providing for a smooth transition for them all right i appreciate that and uh yeah i wanted to jump right into it but i would be interested in allowing you to introduce yourselves a little bit talk a little bit about touchstone what's in the community know about about you and about the proposal and then i'll come to council members for additional questions certainly thank you very much well i um took a minute there and introduced my colleagues who are joining on the call today and a little bit about who we are we are a medium-sized golf course management company based here in northern california we work with 41 golf courses around the country although primarily in the state of california included in that is 10 golf courses in northern california although this will be our first that we're operating in the north bay area um our specialty is working with municipalities such as yourselves and uh i really have to say and and gen thank you for that gracious lead in it was humbling for me and for all of us to hear about the positive experiences that our clients uh at the municipalities that we work with have uh about working with us and the impact that we've been able to have at the facilities that we've been entrusted to operate i think if i was to say and every single golf course is is different of course but if i were to say one overview mindset that we bring to all of our assignments particularly our municipal assignments it is operating the golf course in such a way that it is viewed as a community asset for the golfers and the non-golfers in the community and we do that in a variety of different ways that that will um can get into further but really it is having the santa rosa residents knowing and understanding and valuing bennett valley as a community asset thank you so much for that i appreciate it in council let's go ahead start with questions uh for folks who are on the zoom or in person we'll do questions from council members turn it over to public comment and then bring it back for deliberation and a decision uh so i will see if there are any questions from council members to begin start with council member rogers first question um and a question i heard in the community is what is what is the difference between a lease and um management company certainly so there's a two main ways that municipalities go about operating their golf courses you mentioned the lease arrangement and management company arrangement we are involved with both types of arrangements at various facilities i would say over the last 15 years management arrangements are more common and the biggest difference between those two is a lessy pays a city a certain amount of rent and realizes the benefit of the upside of the financial performance of the golf course to its largest extent um in doing so they relinquish some large amount of control over the golf course because there is the lessy involved and the lessy pays rent and the lessy is making all the decisions as it relates to the business a management arrangement which is what we are contemplating and discussing here for bennett valley is much more common in this day and age and in that arrangement we is the management company report to the city and we take that responsibility very seriously but the city ultimately makes the final decision on anything that happens at the golf course we make recommendations based on our experience and city staff and city council ultimately improves those recommendations thanks mark and i'll just i'll just add um council member rogers that the national golf foundation also uh echoed a lot of what mark was saying and and is recommending the management contract for our company uh because we are on a very restricted timeline to have continuity of golf and looking for a lease of lessy is a very long and protracted process and it could take us time and and also we do lose the ability to have that type of control in the situation and involvement the way that we as the city agency wants to be involved so we can ensure high quality golf going forward so i'll just add that to that so thank you thank you um and in addition to that so um when you're a management company what is your um what is your interest in the golf course doing well i know when you are are leasing your interest in trying new things and wanting the golf course to be profitable and doing um as well as it can and can do is is very high um right because you get the profits from it doing that but when you are just managing um it seems like your investment or your your interest in in that happening could i'm not saying will but could potentially be be less so um how can we be guaranteed that your enthusiasm today will continue to be your enthusiasm um further down um in our our friendship it's a very appropriate question and um i think there's there's two main answers for that the the first answer if we want to talk about the dollars and cents point of view on it it is building in level of incentive management fee in order to align the interests of the city of santa rosa and touchstone golf so that would that would be the the first answer but the the second answer is is really the most important answer to us and that is um as a management company the most important thing that we have is our reputation is a management company and i think the reason we have been able to grow from having one golf course in 2006 2006 to the company that we are today is because of the strong references that jen mentioned earlier about the job that we do operating those golf courses and so that is our principal motivator to be doing a great job for the clients that entrust us with their golf course and then hopefully two years from now three years from now if somebody calls any of you or somebody calls jen she can provide just as glowing of a reference for touchstone golf um just two more things um one would be uh i am very very uh very very interested in community engagement um and having people on the golf course that would not normally uh be able or would be interested in going to a golf course um that don't even know about golf um so that is something that i think is very important um and that is something that i hope that we uh strive to do we have basketball camps we have football camps we have soccer camps um and i hope we have someday have golf in all different kind of camps and have kids that come from all over our community to partake in um something that they might end up enjoying and we may be able to watch them on television one day and they look different from all the other golfers that we see um because that could be amazing and they come from santa rosa california i think that that would be great um in addition to saying that um city manager um 351 thousand dollars if this is approved today how do we know we don't know we don't know anything actually but um what is the likelihood that there no additional monies will be asked for in the future councilmember rogers uh so there you had two questions there um let me go ahead and respond to the second question and then i'll ask mr luffman to respond to the first which is their community outreach on the second question when it comes to um the request for general fund dollars uh this is based off a pro forma that uh is is looking at historical revenue uh and their management fees associated with this um it's our intention as miss santos mentioned that we'll be coming back to council prior to the mid-year budget with with updated revenue dollars in an effort to hopefully confirm that in fact uh not only was the 351 more than adequate um but that no additional general fund dollars will be needed moving forward with that said that's part of the reason we're coming back uh mid-year is to basically justify the revenue and expenditure dollars that we're seeing um this will be our first opportunity to work with a management company such as touchstone uh and you know we're we're going to go off of their great experience their knowledge base we have a high level of confidence in the information um but they haven't worked benet valley uh and we haven't had them at benet valley so the mid-year is going to be a very important time for us to reconcile the information and thank you for that question council member rogers i wanted assistant city manager nut to answer since he had been so involved in the process but i do understand your concern i know one of the things that we've talked about is we want this to be a true enterprise fund so this is something that we will talk about long term with the management company and we will bring it back to you and we will continue to look at revenues because this is not something that the general fund can continue to maintain and lastly mayor if i may um i i just want to say that and i've said it before we have definitely a gym the the benet valley golf course is is beautiful and i am not one for to to sew into something that i believe only benefits a small number of people but i think that it can benefit more people and i think that if we think out of the box and we keep the the gym that we have and we find a way to keep it and utilize it more that we can make it even more you know um worth the community's time and effort to have it and so i do want to thank everyone that has been working on that from my peers and everyone that has been on the the committee um because it was something that i did not see at first um but after going out there and seeing all the work that has been put into um saving the benet valley golf course i know why people um want to save it and why it is so important so thank you councilmember if i could ask mr luffman to respond i think they do have an engagement program that you might be interested in hearing about uh from from their experience we do and uh i've been doing a lot of talking here this this evening i i uh like to invite my colleague steve harker touched on golf's ceo he can talk about our vision and also our experience with engagement at some of our other golf courses yeah it's a it's uh it's an honor to be able to uh share with you some of the programs we're running at our other golf courses that we hope to be running with the city of san rosa but i do want to say that we really want to spend time with you spend time with staff spend spend time with our golfers and the non-golfers and understand uh from you um really who are the who are the folks that we need to get out there and who are the organizations that we can partner with to make the golf course much more diverse and inviting and accessible to everybody in the community a couple of things that we've done uh recently we've started junior golf camps a new golf course that we took over december 17th tilden park i was up there today kids everywhere 225 youth signed up for that program and uh it's going fantastic we um we've been taking golf to the high schools we'll take over an athletic field we'll bring some low-flight golf balls that are very safe and we'll run a pe class for every single hour on the hour for the entire school so the entire high school gets exposed to golf and then during that session we introduce them to our junior golf programs at the golf course we also have a program in oakland uh that we're involved with ace kids which actually picks the kids up uh from uh high schools and junior high schools and brings them to the golf course we'll be looking at that as an option and uh last week we met with a group in santa rosa of voices that helps uh underserved youth and we talked to them about a combination of a golf program along with a job training program and they're very excited about that we're working on uh transportation to bring their youth out to the golf course so we can provide some golf instruction but also share with them the different opportunities there are to learn a job or a trade that they can use uh later on as they become active adults um and then we're also uh we'll adopt and be using the pga's get golf ready program looking at expanding programs for women looking at expanding uh senior programs we've done senior clinics for senior centers if santa rosa has a senior center uh busing the seniors out to the course for lunch and to talk about golf and an opportunity to hit a golf ball so we uh we embrace your vision we want everyone in the city santa rosa to know that this is their golf course and uh in addition to that we're also going to be running a number of non-golf events for people that aren't interested in golf just so they can uh they can dine at the restaurant or partake in another type of activity uh could be a 4k run could be uh breakfast with santa could be could be anything so uh we're excited again to be involved and humbled by the opportunity uh to come in and work with you all on on the programming and building the business plan that's right for the city of santa rosa other questions from council council member mcdonald yes thank you and thank you for your great presentation today um can i i just have some clarifying questions and and then i have some statements but uh is touchstone out of berkeley or out of delaware on the resolution i saw that it was out of berkeley but under the contract it says that your business is actually out of state out of delaware yeah well yeah it's just it's just for the corporate document purposes it's just easier to set up your company when we started with one golf course i i uh was advised that that would be the simplest way to do it but yes i live in berkeley i'm a resident of berkeley and this is our home base mark lives in san jose james lives in santa rosa and ashley's in colorado of all places but she's out here all the time and she's a californian she's from southern california thank you and then for clarification on the actual golf course fees which i i think was somewhat what natalie was um asking about is who sets the golf course fees um currently i do know that benet valley is lower than most of the other local golf courses and that could definitely play a part in the revenue that the city receives so who would be setting the golf course fees so um all of you would we will uh as a part of our budget process each year make our recommendations and those recommendations will be based on the overall golf experience that golfers are receiving at benet valley when compared to the local competition as well as what the local competitions rates are so we'll make those recommendations but ultimately all of uh all of you would approve them okay thank you and then councilmember if i could chime in i just want to say that that is part of the difference between the contract that we've had in place where we're working collaboratively with the operator the operator actually institutes uh part of that fee um in this particular case the city owns the fee and that would be part of our annual fee approval process thank you for that clarification so um mayor rogers is it appropriate for me to make some statements and they may actually be questions that you can answer as well right now would you like to move forward on something let's stick to questions if you have questions from your statements go ahead and ask them otherwise let's get all of the other questions answered from the council members and listen to public comments before we do statements so just so i'm clear as far as the proposal it looks like the first year you're proposing a deficit of 234 682 dollars and that the reason that the budget would be balanced is because we're pulling from reserves to backfill that am i clear on that specific amount that's correct we have two options we have an option for funding from within the existing enterprise fund a portion of that and then the remainder to help offset the need for additional reserves we're asking from a general fund so those two sources and as far as any repairs that need to be done on the course is that coming out of general fund or was that something that's already in the enterprise fund that will be covering that there are might there are accommodations in the existing budget for minor repairs if there's anything major we'll have to look at what options we had at that point but we'll be coming back mid-year to talk about those major capital improvements before the major budget cycle but there is the ability for some minor improvements right now we have some might you know we need a sign for the restaurant we need a few minor updates we need some trees trimmed and we have a budget for that and as for any of the rfps that were submitted could you share with me perhaps the top three groups that were considered um and any of the details around that and then in addition to that were any of the other proposals willing to take on some of the repairs needed at the golf course sure and i i believe i can share um those because we're having this discussion right now uh but i'll check in with the city attorney's office i have if i have any restrictions council member mcdonnell can you clarify your question please yes i asked if they could share the top three rfps that were considered by the subcommittee jen please feel moved forward with answering the question you should be fine thank you okay thanks we have um of course uh touchstone was that in the top three of course and then we had um course co and we also had uh trune was in the top three and i i need to search uh through the information i have to see if i can find that there was any any uh bit about construction similar to touchstone i don't have that answer right this moment but those were the top three that were uh moved forward to the interview process and then how many rfps did we receive in total five we received five total proposals i think that does it for questions right now for me i just have some comments that i can save go to council member schwedhelm thank you mr mayor thank you for the presentation and i think jason you test based on a little bit um regarding the pro forma but i guess my question would be for mark um and again this is not a criticism of our of our previous golf operator but i frequently had heard from some staff that um the deal that we had with previous contract really benefited the operator versus the city a mark are you aware of what that contract was and do you have any thoughts about how this will benefit the city in a greater extent than what previously had been in place because again i'm looking if we've learned from what our experience has been in the past moving forward for it is this a more sustainable model in your professional opinion uh certainly i i am not familiar with the details of the existing arrangement enough to to comment on it as it relates to the arrangement moving forward with us i think there's a few reasons why it is sustainable for the city um moving forward first this the city retains control of the golf course um so that is that is the number one and so the the best interests of the city residents and the city itself are put into play through our management of the golf course and second i would say it is i would point to what our track record is for operating a golf course in such a manner that between course conditions between community programming between bringing new golfers to the game of of golf all of that um is important at every single golf course and our proposal considers doing just that at bennett valley great thank you right and if i if i might add it's just two different ways of looking at the at the same thing our current operator retains a great deal of the revenue right now so as we move forward with touchdown we'll be receiving all of the revenue and have a lot more flexibility than we do right now so it's it's i think in my opinion it's a much better way of operating for us we have a lot more flexibility for attending to the needs of bennett valley golf course the other questions from council members mr vice mayor thank you mayor i'll begin with asking a question about the contract uh or or life of contract what at what point is it no longer feasible to enter into a contract such as a month to month i do see that we have a five-year with the one-on-one extension i might need some clarification on that counts vice governor as i'm sorry no no problem i'm asking that at what point is it longer profitable for for the management company to enter into a contract with with an agency i imagine such as a month to month would not be feasible because of the startup costs as well as the the administrative fees that go into setting up even though something simple as an account so i'm wondering if if if there's a time period where where the management company wouldn't longer be interested in entering a contract with an agency vice mayor if i could chime in first let me just say that national golf foundation came in and provided a presentation in the preliminary discussion with staff it was identified by them that a three-year contract is generally a minimal in order to select a management firm and and with the startup costs with the the need to be able to hire staff to retain staff and to provide certainty for that particular organization that that was the that was the minimal need we did talk about whether there was a shorter term that we could enter into and and to to be frank their their fear was that we would get less interest from the management company that are management companies that are out there and so that that would be the response that i would provide based on the feedback that we received from our consultant and that does make sense again i do i'm a cognizant of the fees that are involved with any any management company that enters any type of agency that you would hope for a long-standing relationship opposed to a short one in regards to we spoke about leases i want to go a little bit further into subleasing uh is there is there a strategy where we're subleasing is practiced such as fighting an operator for for the restaurant that's not in-house in in the past marker steve would you be interested in talking about your particular operation and the restaurant component of that certainly um as it relates to subleasing the restaurant um we are open to anything that's in the best interests of the city and particularly is that would relate to getting to know local operators in the community that's part of our desire to get to know many many folks that operate businesses in the community i think the most important thing for us with operating the food and beverage operation at bennett valley is that it is closely integrated with the golf operation so as such that they benefit each other both golfers coming to the restaurant and restaurant goers coming to the golf course and planning and organizing and being able to implement uh events that are geared toward non-golfers all of that is what we do to great success at the facilities that we operate elsewhere in california where we operate the food and beverage operation as well as the golf operation that said we're open to any conversations um in the best interests of the city i do appreciate that especially seeing that the food truck did fizzle out but nonetheless you you have some type of interest how many properties do you manage and and or how many golf courses do you have in your portfolio we operate 41 golf courses right now 10 of them are in northern california and 20 of them are in california perfect others 41 have you subleased any uh of them in regards to the food or the restaurant if those are components of the other 41 there is is one golf course where we have a food and beverage partner operating um that facility it is mainly a result of the size and scope of the catering operation that we thought that that was a beneficial relationship at that course um at every other golf course we work with we operate the food and beverage thank you and for staff uh how long before we revisit uh the the golf course in the future if we are successful in picking an operator today so i'll just uh we'll first of all be coming back uh during the study session or before the mid-year budget review in a study session to look at those long-range capital needs we have at the golf course is i think that together with what you're hearing today is the big long-term picture for the golf course so you'll have an opportunity at that point but if we are successful today uh the contract expires in three years so we can look at that in three years and look at different options if we want to consider some other different option at that point or we can renew for additional two years if things are going the way we anticipated i think we always have outs but we that's that's what's in the contract right now thank you can't pull any other questions all right let's go to public comment on this item if you are interested in providing comment or asking questions go ahead hit the raise hand feature on your zoom and sandy i'm going to turn it over to you to handle thank you um we have a person approaching the podium and go ahead and state your name for the record if you so choose hi i'm richard carlyle i'm uh the president of safe benet valley golf course group we have about 4 000 people that strong that is in our group and uh we we feel very fortunate in being able to work with the city and staff on this process um i want to thank mayor rogers for forming the benet valley golf course ad hoc committee because that allowed us to have a platform to work with the city staff the city council and eventually national golf foundation to craft this rfp rfp is a very complicated process and it weeds out the people who shouldn't be making an application in the first place and we're very pleased to see that touch touchstone golf has come to the top and is the highest rated uh we we feel that they're somewhat local and being out of berkeley and having a lot of golf courses in california they have a great reputation and an excellent references people that are saying to us this group knows how to manage a golf course so we're very pleased with that and so we would encourage the council to approve this contract tonight with touchstone and move on to the next phase of this which is a transition phase along with integrating the food and beverage with the golf course that's a big item and is really needed out there and um so i i just want to say one other thing save benet valley golf course is here to stay in the long run we're a non-profit 501c3 we want to be around to help the city and touchstone with a lot of the fundraising events community outreach we think we can go a long ways in in helping particularly the community outreach and events and charity events and integrating some of the uh collaboration that's necessary with the galvin park events so we want to be here to help in the long run thank you and dwayne duit is approaching the podium go ahead please hello my name is dwayne duit i'm from roseland which if you remember from the portrait of sonoma county 2021 update is at the lowest and most disadvantaged community in sonoma county while benet valley is number one the most advantaged i actually worked in benet valley before this golf course was put together at the safeway i'm very familiar with benet valley and i can appreciate all that's been said today except i think this course should be privatized it benefits benet valley residents those houses that are near have become uh some of the most expensive in our community and from the numbers that were just tossed out it appears that less than two percent of santa rosa residents are members of this benet valley organization that's now a non-profit one of the things that was emblematic of the whole if you will in the past is the number of members of this course i remember a previous discussion said only 118 members it would be best to stop giving any any general fund money to this project let this carry its own weight it's 150 acres housing along there could help more of santa rosen's than what this project will do i'm a member of the sonoma county housing advocacy group and what surprises me is that all through this entire life of this golf course the people in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of santa rosa have been told there's not enough money to do the things that need to be done and yet they've always found a way to make sure there's money for the benet valley golf course based on what's been said tonight be looking at 696 thousand dollars off the top this first year you know you can actually hire a supervised adult crew to trim trees for $1,200 a day i bet that's not going to happen at the golf course it could happen in roseland a few folks would use that money from the general fund to help us and that previous issue earlier about growth management on page 18 when it mentioned the city is going to go up to 237 population in 13 years 65,000 more people coming in it also pointed out over 30 years he'd only been able to provide 1,870 affordable units supporting with the housing impact fees it's an average of 62 houses per year i think you should be looking at helping with housing out on that 150 acres and let the golfers pay their own way privatize it benet valley folks can buy it it helps them the rest of the community can go forward with housing thank you mayor we have two raised hands mr cox are you able to see the timer mr cox are you able to see the timer let's come back to mr cox let's move on to gregarry mr farron go ahead please thank you mayor rogers and members of the council my name is gregarry farron i'm a member of the board of directors of the center of the benet valley golf club but i'm not speaking for them i'm speaking as the guy who represented them for lots of years before your council every time you had the choice of what fees to charge on this course every year you would try to as one member said to me reach that sweet spot where the fees were just high enough to avoid people not playing you you did compare yourself to other courses and which is wrong because there are apples and oranges in courses about how they structure fees but you didn't hear that you heard let's try to keep an enterprise out of this have it pay for itself now the flaw in that was the golf course is like a loved grandmother with cancer the cancer on this golf course was the decision originally to build it with such high costs that the bonds that it took to be able to repay every year came off the top every time i'd ask for some kind of break on junior fees on keeping the prices low on paying for the courses upkeep every time those decisions were asked for by the operator or by the club or by anybody else but the answer was nope we got to pay the bondholders all right so now that it's come down to the roost you still got bondholders you still got bond fees and these fools are telling you that they can raise the rates and be management associates and help you as the responsible parties avoid the bondholders and the costs of the of the course you're on the hook for it leases encourage them to be able to pay within the system management doesn't they have no responsibility for the problems you're going to encounter this is not the end of your general fund this is just uh stop along the way you've been paying out of general fund for years making excuses to try to get to an enterprise this is a failed financial arrangement that was started by the previous council long ago that agreed to ten million dollars worth of not asked for overly expensive hard to run facilities not the course the facilities uh weight you haven't seen anything yet in costs you're going to have to burden while these guys sit around collecting their fees annette arnold please thank you thank you my name is annette arnold i live in the south park neighborhood and i think that the golf course is a really nice for the rich people who can afford it but it really is not going to benefit a lot of the people in this community who really need some basic resources not something that is extracurricular like a golf course i think when there's not enough money to do an after school program that got closed in our neighborhood or to fund the senior center that got closed in our neighborhood this isn't our same district but there's money to fund a golf course that is ridiculous i think the priorities are for helping out rich white people and not really the majority of people in this community who cannot afford these resources for themselves and i have nothing against the program that wants to operate it i just think it's a lot of money it's a lot of resources it's a lot of land that could be put to much better use by people who really need it versus those who can probably afford it on their own that's all i have to say thank you um mayor i see nobody else rising in the chamber no additional raised hands and no public comment voicemail public comment on this item okay i'll go ahead and bring it back to council uh councilmember schwedhelm have you put a motion on the table for a discussion and then we'll do any additional questions or comments from council members thank you mr mayor um i'm making motion to approve staff's five recommendations as it appears in the report for item 14.1 second sounded like that was a second from councilmember soyer yes thank you mayor okay let's go ahead councilmember soyer as the chair of the ad hoc i'll let you start with your comments all right thank you i appreciate that i do want to think our our committee that came together quite some time ago um vice mayor and um also um mr tidbits um at the time um it was a fair amount of work and um commitment and um i really want to thank vice mayor alvarez for for his help in moving this project forward um and i also want to thank councilmember fleming for um recognizing the value of recommending uh if in the rfp review committee um touchstone um it is clear in listening to their their um comments today and their presentation that they are highly qualified not only to run a golf course that has less challenges but also be able to run a golf course that has challenges like like ours and has had challenges for for for quite some time so i am very um pleased that they are that they would be assuming that they are selected by the council tonight that they are would be at the at the helm not in front of the of the council in the city but with us i think that's really important this is a bold move uh and there it is and there of course as mentioned um already that there are risks involved and anytime that there is a bold investment done by the city that there are risks but i believe that there are a number of issues that have been long long standing that need to be rectified and i believe that this company is not only capable but dedicated to the improvement of this of our this very important asset for the city um the city wide regional region wide um it just there i i can't think of uh a a better way to to enhance and um improve um both those those standing challenges that that golf course has faced over the years and also to be able to um present a plan to be to truly create an enterprise for the city centrosa so i wholeheartedly endorse the the moving forward with this contract and look forward to a very profitable future for centrosa um for the centrosa golf course and just um i don't i don't see a downside but people need to be patient and they need to be supportive and at the end of the day i i believe that everyone at the day it's would be pleased um to see the results of their action tonight assuming they move forward thank you councilmember we'll go to councilmembers with them thank did you have a question councilmember flamie no i thought i would pipe in um since i was on the rfp committee but i'm nothing urgent i'll have the next councilmember flamie i'm sorry mr. mary do you want me to make comments or go ahead councilmember spudhelm i'll come to councilmember flamie after great thank you um i really do appreciate the um the presentation and i'm really pleased with test stone and what they will be bringing to the table i mentioned earlier with um you know what we've gone through in the past and for me you know jason when you mentioned pro forma this is a business and sustainability and i think staff has put together a sustainable plan and the whole benefit for the community i know when we first i think more i won't say first but in february of 21 we first talked about this in different options you know i continue to hear members of the community and um this council talked about what a gem and a jewel it is the crown jewel of centrosa and that is going to take some investment because it is an asset of the city of centrosa in the part that i really liked hearing from touchstone is what they are planning on doing what they've done elsewhere regards to the outreach because i have personally seen those different groups out there golf courses throughout the north bay whether it be um high school players which is always encouraging to see out there but the multi-generational and we heard that from many members of the community where um a grandfather can play with his or her daughter or son in three generations all playing the same sport together and there's not many other opportunities for that type of engagement it's a social thing and even during um covid as we're starting to come out of covid it was pretty much the only thing a lot of people can do right and i don't think it's just a blip in the radar that yeah if we saw more golf rounds go up during covid i think i think it's sustainable it's just a wonderful active sport there and you know one of the other things that as we're having this conversation you know centrosa one of our visions is leaders of the north bay i think this is actually setting that mark so i'm really looking forward to seeing what we can do and the improvements to the golf course moving forward i really appreciate the efforts of a this company being recommended because again is i think during gen say during a report i haven't heard a negative conversation i've asked a lot of people in fact i've even talked to the current operator what do you think about them highly recommend them because again if if we're going to move this needle and make it profitable and sustainable these are the folks that are going to help us get there so i really appreciate it thank you thank you councilmember councilmember phlemon thank you mayor i had the unique experience of sitting um as the council member on the rfp committee and i'm a non-golf or i i do come from an enthusiastic golf family who thought it was quite amusing that i was in this position and you know i've read the five rfps and we interviewed the three finalists and you know it was really clear to me that touch tone would bring to san aroza what it is that we're looking for and specifically their answers and we heard it again today around engagement around equity and around community building really stood out and so you know after talking with the golfers in my life um i learned that i i definitely made the the right recommendation and um you know as somebody who's not um ever been a golf player i do look forward to to learning to play and i i think that this is going to really turn things around for us and that it's going to make this um an asset that attracts people from across san aroza and if it is not i'm prepared to to hold them accountable and i think that they're prepared to be held accountable and so i am um enthusiastic to learn how to play and i'm sure i will annoy many people when i'm out there and i just want to thank all of the participants all of the staff and all of the um respondents to the rfp um you know what beyond just touch to own for participating in this process um as well as the community members who came out and volunteer at their time it was uh definitely a learning experience for me thank you council member let's uh jump to the other end of the day as to go to councilmember rogers um i pretty much said my comments with the exception that i was very impressed with the community engagement part and i cannot wait to see it in action and uh within our community um if this goes through so um i'm really happy um i i do know that there are other ways that we can be spending our our general fund dollars i'm very aware that um there are different parts of santa rosa um that historically have not been equitable we can say are have not been equitable but we cannot right that wrong by spending all of our money in one part of santa rosa um and so as a council member i think that i it is my duty to to look at that but to also know that we have to look at all of santa rosa and although i represent district seven i have to i have to be one seventh of a vote for the entire city and the vinnett valley golf course like i said is a beautiful gym and i would hate for us to lose um that beautiful open space um because because we have it and so if this is an opportunity for us to preserve it and to look at another way um to preserve it then i'm i'm all in i don't know how many how many different ways we can look at preserving it so i hope this this way works i'm i'm just going to say that um but i i definitely look forward to our success in our in our partnership thank you we'll go to council member mcdonnell thank you mayor so i want to first say thank you to the vinnett valley save our vinnett valley golf course folks in that large group that works so hard to bring it to the attention to the council um of what a gym we have in our community and that we needed to step in and do something to make it a more profitable organization out there um i have a few dissenting comments from my fellow council members and it has nothing to do with i'm sure the phenomenal business at touchstone runs but i do have concerns that we're going from an out of town business um and some of it is i ask this question on almost every single item are there any local businesses that can do this work do we have a business out of sonoma county that can come and do this work for us so that we can have and assure that there's more local jobs being created and that we aren't bringing folks from out of town to do work in our county if possible um so i would like it if we could maybe consider a couple of different things and the original rfp process my understanding was that the restaurant was supposed to be separated out as an opportunity for us to potentially work with somebody who has different types of restaurant experience because it's also a huge investment of an invent place that we have in santa rosa so my concern is that by going with um this particular group is do they have a background in working that restaurant business and the event space as well as making sure that it's a profitable organization for sonoma county and santa rosa specific so so that's one of my concerns um corisco is actually a local company that runs a couple of golf courses locally they run oakmont who just went through the same process santa rosa did and chose them as well as roner park and so uh my concern would be that the full council didn't see all the rfps to see the comparison and i know that's the purpose of having a committee but i would like to see if we could perhaps pull the restaurant part of the contract out um if that's an option or to send back the contract to city manager and ask her to take a look at maybe the top two or three rfps my concern is that we will have interrupted um play which is not my desire uh my hope would be that by allowing our city manager to make the decision we would not have interrupted play and actually may be able to maintain the golf course um and to keep that very healthy because i do realize that when golf courses are neglected on maintenance that it can go downhill quite quickly so that would be my recommendation is my concern that um we are are being brought a contract that may not be in the best fiscal in um decision for the city of santa rosa and we are up against a very tight timeline and so i don't mean any disrespect for the process that's been done but i do feel that it's a little bit tight for us and i hate to potentially approve a contract that may be um problematic in the future or to see similar results based on us making a decision quickly um so i would like to amend the motion if i may at this time to move to have the city manager have a look at the top two groups and give her authority to negotiate and execute a successful contract to avoid interruption of services and for the contract to be brought for ratification only to the council and in addition i would like to have the option for the restaurant portion of the contract to be removed from the contract to seek a more preferred operator with experience in the restaurant businesses and events so there is a substitute motion on the table is there a second for that motion i would i would actually support the motion but i would ask our city manager if that is something that she would be interested in taking on if that's a proper question to ask um to councilmember mcdonnell i believe i already have authorization to negotiate the contract based off the recommendations that we have in front of us but legally i don't believe i'm authorized to pull out the second part of your motion which is to pull out the restaurant portion if i am hearing my council correct for clarification was that because the rfp went out with the two items to be connected that is correct vice mayor alvarez are you still seconding the motion or did that motion die i will second the motion out of interest to give the people senator the best that we can but from what i'm hearing the legal council is saying that you cannot separate one from the next so councilmember mcdonnell that if you could re-clarify your motion based on that information from the city manager we'll see if there's still a second and then according to our rules for operating that motion would supersede and we'd go to a vote once we're done with comments on the motion on the substitute motion if that motion failed then we'd have the original motion so i would move to have the city manager look at the top two or three groups to give her authority to negotiate and execute a successful contract to avoid interruption of services and for the contract to be bought back for council for ratification only and i will remove the last part of my motion and i will second okay and mr vice mayor it's your turn for comments absolutely i think i've just proven that i'm willing to go or and do whatever it's needed in order to give the people senators the best representation that we can uh measure twice cut once i know it's painful to even hear that we're procrastinating on an issue that's so important as such as a fire line that that separates and and and provide safety for the residents of san rosa it is truly a gem i truly believe that being that i represent district one which will love to see more low-income housing anywhere it can be placed in other places other than district one i know that i'm definitely definitely going against the grain but as my father taught me in order to make money you need the best money and that does point me in the direction that we need to do whatever we can in order to come out with the best program that we possibly can and that's why i want to see us go beyond the yes beyond the no and see if maybe we could be innovative in creating a program that we did not devise originally and i am part of the the the subcommittee that voted to present this today i believe truly that if we got rid of a middleman such as uh uh what we had before it provided a greater level of of profitability to the city of san rosa and that we at san rosa and we at city council have more control over what happens at the benavali golf course and i think we're demonstrating that before you now thank you all right thank you mr vice mayor um i wanted to start off by thanking pretty much the only person who hasn't been thanked so far and that's our current operator bob uh who has done a wonderful job and has known this golfing community very well and i know he's probably watching this to make sure that he's leaving things in in good hands and i know uh he did reach out i had a chance to read an email from him earlier earlier today on this as well um i want to thank our our staff for working with the diligence that they have and i understand the uh thought process of uh evaluating it and evaluating it and making sure that we're getting the best that we can and i get that particularly given that we have a track record of uh having a a contract that we're now being told wasn't the optimal one i get the hesitancy from council uh we've got to make the best decisions that we can make to meet the expectations and the desires of our community and and i'm going to respect the process that got us here tonight which included a ton of community collaboration it included council members becoming specialists and understanding the needs of the golf course it included an rfp process that was clear and concise for the folks who are responding and it involved uh experts including a council member reviewing the ins and outs of each of those proposals in detail and making the best recommendation that they can for santa rosa so that we have continuity of operations so that we can continue to to grow golf in our community that that asset is available not just to benet valley but to people throughout the community i don't live in benet valley but i play benet valley i don't live in ridgeway but i swim at the ridgeway pool we have community assets that are scattered around our community for a reason uh and we are making investments in every single district and in every single area since rosin's been uh a part of this city for still under four years or right around four years this council has put 20 million dollars aside for a what will be a gem for the entire community in rosin but not just for rosin that will include a pool and in other amenities hopefully once the the community decides what they want we need diverse opportunities for folks to have recreation throughout our community and i'm really grateful to staff for finding a path forward that will have continuity of services so i won't be supporting the substitute motion but i will be supporting the original staff recommendation and the original motion with that i'll go ahead and see if there is any additional discussion on the substitute motion before we take a vote on that saying none uh madame city clerk if you could call the vote on the substitute motion thank you ma'am councilmember schwedhelm no councilmember soyer no councilmember rogers no councilmember mcdonald aye councilmember fleming no vice mayor alvarez aye mayor rogers no that motion fails with um five four nos and two yeses by count vice mayor alvarez and i'm sorry five nos and two yeses by councilmember mcdonald and vice mayor alvarez okay and so we now have the original motion from councilmember schwedhelm and seconded by councilmember soyer is there any additional discussion before we go to a vote mayor rogers i have one more um potential amendment to the motion not to be a dead horse but i feel pretty strongly about this so i'm going to offer one more amendment if i may absolutely thank you on page five of 223 of the contract i'd like to amend this section of the terms of agreement to 18 months with the option to extend the contract to three years upon successful report to the council the operation of the facilities as well as a restaurant from touchstone see if there's a second from another councilmember second okay uh madame city manager and team is there any input on that substitute motion or amendment to the i'm going to take it as a substitute motion because otherwise uh i don't think we'll it would be discussed to the same level councilmember mcdonald for clarification can you repeat your motion sure i move that we amend the contract on page five of 223 for this section to read move the agreement to 18 months with the option to extend to three years upon successful report to the council and pardon me successful report to council and successful operation of the restaurant and all other facilities so in in essence turning this into an 18 month contract with the ability to extend with the ability to then come back to council with a report on data on how the golf course is doing and then to be able to extend it to the full three years from that term on uh can i have a question can i ask a question mayor or absolutely uh can we have it to where they they bring us a report and we if the report is unsatisfactory we have the option to to amend the contract because the other way makes it sound like the contract is over and i don't we're just starting this relationship and i want to start it off on a on a on a good note like so it's all in wording for me and i and i want this to be a a good beneficial relationship for everyone so i want to start it off so like i i do want reports to know how the golf course is doing obviously um so maybe 18 months we get a report we know how how it's doing they come back to us but we do have the the option of um of not continuing like some clause in there that if they're not remember how i was asking like what is your investment but some clause in there that we do have the option of not continuing with the to council member rogers if i understand you clearly what you're recommending is a policy decision which we could move forward forward with and i believe we could make it part of the terms of the agreement yes we would have to enter back into negotiation with uh with touchstone to determine if that's consistent with the the agreement that they proposed to us if that's part of their proposal and so we would have that discussion with them but but we do have the opportunity to make a recommendation to alter the terms of the agreement and that would just be part of the negotiation because 18 months is not a very long time um it's not long at all and um i don't think that we're really going to uh see what it is that we want to see although we do we will be able to see numbers and we will start to see a trend so i i understand that we want them to report back to us but i don't want them to report back to us thinking that oh they might not um depending on who's sitting up here like we might not want the contract to continue that that's not the the desire the desire is that we're doing great bennett valley golf course is doing great and no one else is asking for any more money out of the general fund that is the desire um so if i could just respond to that i i think one we're proposing coming back at the six month mark in an effort to try to revise and re uh look at the actual numbers the expenditures the revenue to try to validate the pro forma or to make adjustments in that as we need um but uh it's our intention on an annual basis at minimum to come back to council as part of the budget process to provide a detailed update if you remember our budget process right now relating to the golf enterprise is fairly minimal um the intent here is we have a much more dramatic and detailed information because it's it's it's our revenue it's our expenditure uh that we're having yield with it it's not the operator's revenue and expenditure or we just have a single line item so as council you'll be able to review the performance of that particular of the operator every year uh and if what you're requesting is that we do that evaluation with council more frequently we're happy to do that there's a policy decision you can ask that to come back and provide you updates and i will also mention uh council members that the intention is to keep the ad hoc uh going to be able to make sure that there happens a level of oversight as well let's go to council member fleming yes mayor may i um through you ask a question of council member mcdonald to further understand um her perspective i'll just go ahead and do it so council member mcdonald um i would like to better understand where you're coming from so having sat on the rfp um committee this was not the most local but it is a local group and one of the things that stood out about them and set them apart from some of the other respondents was their ability to manage really premier municipal um golf courses in a way that that was unique and so um i'm trying to understand what the root of the concern is is it that you have an affinity for the other golf course that you mentioned or is it about good governance or is it about a particular worry that we're not getting the best value or that there's can you perhaps explain a little bit so we might meet a resolution that meets your concerns thank you for the question if i may mayor respond to that um so i don't know how to golf at all i guess the responses when people ask me do you golf the the response is supposed to be not yet but i have no intention of ever golfing because i am terrible at it so i um my intent is truly around ensuring that whatever contract we go into it is the most profitable for that specific enterprise because of some of the neglect that's been done to our gem and so by doing making sure that we are in the most profitable um contract i feel that not only does our community win but our our asset wins because we're able to go back and reinvest in the course and so my concern about using um an out of the area um uh operator is that they don't have the same investment as sometimes people who live locally um or or have worked with our community locally many people who golf at bennett valley also go to oakmont and also go to our other courses and so the intent was just to make sure that we are selecting them the um the most profitable uh contract for the city of santa rosa and there's no other uh intent behind it other than that and i don't want to in any way dismiss the great work that touchstone does around our state and i don't um believe that they would even do a poor job i just want to ensure as a fiscal steward of this um of this group that we are insuring that we're going to make the most money so that we can invest that money back into the course thank you and i really appreciate that response i think that it is absolutely our job to always be investing the public's money in a way that yields the best returns and provides the most public good i do think that um that for me i won't be supporting the substitute motion that would have them come back for a reuphid 18 months i don't think it's long enough i would certainly support um the already planned for response uh or update in six months and then annual responses and um i would just note that one of the pieces of this that was um alluring was that the the gm of the restaurant was a local and so i hope that that might allay some concerns but i do share in general your your desire to keep things hyper local but i think what this will do it will help us to uh be be a leader in the north bay in a way that that i'm not sure we could achieve otherwise all right so there is another substitute motion on the table uh motion from councilmember mcdonald with a second from councilmember rogers mr vice mayor go ahead yes i appreciate that mayor uh i'll ask it in form of a question are there performance clauses within the contract that assures that they're performing to a certain level and that would therefore alleviate some of the concerns when it comes to their performance at the benna valley golf course so i i will let me start and then jen can chime in there is a clause within the within the agreement that allows them to see an incentive for performance obviously if no performance exists then there's no incentive and they just get their management fee we have the opportunity as it's part of our normal contracts to be able to um establish a termination methodology should we find that the operation in the agreement is no longer working for us uh and that's true of any agreement that we would we would enter into with any operator and so uh yes there is an incentive for touchstone to be successful i think you heard that from touchstone themselves uh and i think from the city's perspective uh we expect and anticipate that we're going to be monitoring uh that work we don't want to see this golf course fail anymore than we think touchstone wants to see it fail and so we'll be working with them hand in hand in an effort to make every possible adjustment we can if it if there isn't a product there then we'll look at what our other remedies and options are moving forward thank you and with that said i wouldn't be able to support the 18th month contract for the reasons of actually the question that i posed earlier today with a three-year minimum so that we also hope that touchstone can also succeed in their venture in san rosa thank you right madam city clerk if you could please call the vote on the substitute motion thank you mayor councilmember schwetham no councilmember soyer no councilmember rogers as dated by council member mcdonald no councilmember mcdonald aye councilmember fleming vice mayor alvarez nay mayor rogers no that motion fails with only one aye by councilmember mcdonald and six noes by the remaining council members okay so we are back to our original motion which was the staff recommendation is there any other substitute motions discussions questions councilmember mcdonald no there's no more for me okay let's go and call the vote on the motion then okay so just a point of clarity that was seconded by councilmember soyer correct correct thank you councilmember schwetham aye councilmember soyer aye councilmember rogers aye councilmember mcdonald no councilmember fleming yes vice mayor alvarez aye and if i may i love the way that we can actually take something and tear it apart if it means it's good if it's for the good of of san rosa so i with that thank you and mayor rogers hi that motion passes with seven eyes with councilmember mcdonald voting no okay all right well to the touchstone team we look forward to our partnership and get moving and i know that the public is is really anxious and excited to get to know you as well and we'll be checking in as you as you heard so thank you thank you very thank you we we look forward to it we're just thrilled to be involved with san rosa and the community and can't wait to get started right the council we're going to take a 30 minute dinner break so we'll come back at 735 and we'll come back with item 15.1 before we make our way through the rest of our items eddie do you want to swing the gavel for me yeah you'll have to hear it mayor do you all in a half hour like they at the gym all right council i'm noticing a quorum so let's go ahead and call the roll to re-establish and get going okay councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember soyer councilmember rogers councilmember mcdonald here councilmember fleming vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers here okay and councilmember fleming probably will be joining us shortly so let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember fleming and councilmember soyer great thank you madam city manager let's move to item 15.1 item 15.1 is the public hearing authorizing submission of the fiscal year 2022 2023 action plan and approval of grant agreements for public services fair housing and housing opportunities for persons with aids i would like to introduce program specialist julie garen thank you good evening mayor rogers and council members my name is julie garen and i'm a program specialist with the housing and community services department the public hearing tonight is for the submission of the fiscal year 2022 2023 action plan to the u.s. department of housing and urban development and approval of funding recommendations next slide please hud requires a submission of the action plan to receive community development block grant home investment partnership act and housing for persons with aids grants council actions requested tonight include the offer authorization of submission of the plan to hud and approval of funding recommendations next slide please hud requires submission of the action plan to receive these funds the purpose of the action plan is to define how federal funds will be spent and identify housing and community development needs goals and priorities the action plan template is provided by hud and is based off the 2020 through 2024 consolidated plan next slide please action plan goals first priority goals are to increase supply of affordable rental housing for low-income households provide housing assistance support for low-income households of hiv aids preserve existing affordable housing stock and provide housing and services to special needs populations action plan second priority goals if there is additional funding include to increase access to home ownership and provide funding for public facilities improvements and promote economic development so as you can see from the table below fiscal year 2022 2023 estimated allocations the grant allocations from hud for each funding source are in the first column and then program income and total available funds follow in the second and third columns so for fiscal year 22 23 the total available funds include $1,579,132 in cdbg funds $845,012 in home funds and $481,043 in hop-off funds and I would just note that program income comes from loan repayment from the prior use of funds next slide please so staff held a public meeting on February 4th 2022 and conducted public outreach through the COC listserv and traditional and social media announcements the draft annual action plan was available for review and public comment from March 11th through April 11th 2022 and then again after receiving updated guidance and a waiver from HUD an updated draft action plan was available for an additional review and comment period from May 3rd through June 3rd of 2022 next slide please public comments received to date are included in the draft annual action plan and additionally any comments received that tonight's public hearing will be included prior to submission to HUD for annual funding 85% of cdbg funds are used for housing and administration and up to 15% of cdbg funds are used for public services on November 12th the city released a request for proposals for the provision of homeless services funding recommendations for cdbg funded public services are as follows the living room is being recommended for $38,870 the homeless service center is being recommended for $102,000 and the family services center is being recommended for $96,000 fair housing fair housing is a federally mandated program that must be responsive to the impediments to fair housing fair housing advocates in northern california is being recommended for $45,000 for the fiscal year 2022-23 from real property transfer tax which is part of the general fund next slide please hapua the city has received the hapua allocation of 481,043 dollars three percent of that allocation is used by city for administration um face to face the city of san rosa's hapua service provider is being recommended for $466,612 for the fiscal year 2022-23 so the recommendation has four parts the first part is to authorize the submission of the fiscal year to the 2022-2023 action plan to HUD the second is to approve the fiscal year 2022-2023 grant agreements for public services fair housing and hapua and the third is to authorize the director of housing and community services to execute the grant agreements and the fourth is to authorize the city manager to execute the federal funding agreements with HUD and any additional documents required to implement action plan let's see if there are any questions to start all right i'm not seeing any so i'll go ahead and open the public hearing and let's see if there's any public comment um i see nobody rising in the chamber and no raised hands and we have no voicemail public comment on this item all right we'll bring it back council member phleming this is your item thank you mayor i'm bearing a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa authorizing submission of the fiscal year 2022-23 action plan and approving grant agreements for public services fair housing and housing opportunities for persons with AIDS and way further reading of the text second the motion from council member phleming and it sounded like a second from council member mcdonald see if there's any additional comment from the council i'm not seeing any so madame city clerk if you could please call the vote council member schwedhelm hi council member soyer council member rogers hi council member mcdonald hi council member phleming hi vice mayor alvarez mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with council member soyer absent right thank you so much team let's move on to item 14.2 item 14.2 is a report operating agreement for the samuel jones hall homeless shelter and homeless services grant agreements for fiscal year 2022 and 2023 housing and community services manager kikendall will deliver the report thank you city manager good afternoon mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez the members of the council the item before you this afternoon seeks approval of an operating agreement for the samuel l jones hall homeless shelter and homeless services grant agreements for fiscal year 2022-23 i am kelly kikendall a manager in the housing and community services department here with me this afternoon or evening i also have sasha cohen she's a program specialist that joined our team about two months ago and we're very happy to have her and we'll be presenting together this evening next slide please this slide provides an overview of the the presentation i'll provide some background on the request for proposals uh council direction from february and then the subject of this evening's council item which is the fiscal year 2022-23 uh agreements next slide please so in november of 2021 the city issued a request for proposals for the provision of homeless services and seeking an operator for sam jones hall for the upcoming fiscal year that was issued in november and proposals were due december uh 2021 an evaluation committee was convened in january of this year and based on the recommendation of the evaluation committee staff came forward in february with recommendations on the operator and providers next slide please so based on the rfp process the recommendations of the evaluation committee and staff recommendation on february 22 council approved catholic charities to continue as the operator of sam jones hall this was a competitive process we received three proposals and out of the rfp process catholic charities was selected as the operator for homeless services this was uh non-competitive we received proposals from existing providers and that includes catholic charities homeless outreach services team the homeless service center and family support center as well as ywca sinema county their safe health shelter program and this is an emergency shelter for victims or survivors of domestic violence council also directed staff to prepare agreements for these programs um and return for your consideration that's what we're doing this evening and i'll provide more information about the five-year term in the upcoming slides next slide please uh julie garon program specialist in our department just presented on um the public services program and recommendations for uh that program uh and you just approved contracts for the homeless service center family support center and the living room um she she went into detail about that i will say that uh those three programs do receive uh community development block grant um hsc and fsc also receive an augment from the general fund um we will be funding our homeless services this year with uh the american rescue plan act funding arpa um so long as those programs meet the funding source requirements just to provide you with a little additional context these three contracts were considered under the public services program per HUD requirements there's also a community action partnership of sinema county their hc family fund program they applied to the public services program however due to limited resources under that program they're being considered under this item and they'll be funded with general fund and or arrest or and or arpa funding as i mentioned will be funding our homeless services programs this year with arpa unless they receive a different funding source um we have the provision in there to allow for general fund resources in the event that a program or service is not eligible for arpa funding however working however we're working closely with finance and our consultant to share ensure compliance with with arpa with that i'm going to turn the next couple slides over to sasha thank you next slide please thank you so these next two slides are an overview of the operating agreement and grant agreement that we're seeking your approval on this afternoon i won't be reading out the goals and outcomes but the information is here on the slides for you to review so the first program here is catholic charities the host program it's the homeless outreach services team they're a street outreach team that's focused on engaging individuals residing in encampments and getting them into services shelter and housing the budget is one million thirty five thousand and four hundred and fifty dollars the next program is catholic charities for sam jones hall that's the emergency shelter for single adults it provides up to two hundred and thirteen beds basic services plus housing focused case management the total budget is two million hundred twenty thousand and seven hundred and forty two dollars um please note that the budget did increase by sixty six thousand dollars and that was for the annex portable toilets those do need to be in place until a permanent bathroom facility can be built and then the budget also so you know does include funding from the county and community foundation as well as city resources and then just so you know the total here at the bottom the three million two hundred and seventy four one hundred ninety two dollars that's actually going to be the total of slide six and seven that we're seeking approval for today next slide please so here we have program for ywca sonoma county safe health shelter that's our emergency shelter for homeless victims of domestic violence the budget for that is fifty thousand dollars and that's for five emergency beds plus supportive services and then we have community action partnerships sonoma county's hca family fund that's um financial assistance with security deposits rent and mortgage the funding for that is provided by a private donor we fund sixty thousand dollars and that is for the program administration kelly did you want to talk about the ywca budget yes briefly before we move on to the next slide though the ywca did request seventy five thousand dollars for this year and based on feedback that we received from the budget team we did try to keep our budgets as flat as possible so we've kept it at fifty thousand i do believe that there is a representative of the ywca available to speak during public comment if they have held on this late into the meeting thank you next slide please so the contracts included on this slide are just to give an overview of the other programs that are part of homeless services they were included and approved as item 15.1 of today's agenda so this is catholic charities homeless service center that's our drop-in center that provides basic services such as showers laundry telephone mail referrals and shelter intake the budget is two hundred and thirty six thousand dollars then there's catholic charities family support center that's the emergency shelter for families it provides up to a hundred and thirty eight beds and basic services plus housing focused case management that budget is one hundred ninety six thousand dollars and then there's the living room they provide case management counseling to transitional housing and meals for women experiencing homelessness that budget is thirty thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars next slide please sasha real quick sandy sorry can you go back to the there was just one thing i wanted to highlight on this slide is for the homeless service center the budget has increased by thirty five thousand thirty four thousand dollars this year and that's for the warming center should the city decide to activate it those funds are intended for that purpose only thank you next slide thank you and i also do want to advise that we did meet with the providers this year and so the scopes of the services and the outcomes may have some minor changes so in summary we've provided the agreements with catholic charities for sam jones hall and host community action partnership sonoma county for the hc family fund and ywca sonoma county for the safe house shelter these are for the fiscal year twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three and continuing for up to five years to fiscal year twenty six twenty seven on a conditional basis that subject to contractor performance and funding availability and they give the housing community services director the authority to execute the amendments to agreements subject to these parameters and this is contingent upon the approval of the budget on june twenty first next slide please so it is recommended by the housing and community services department that the council by two resolutions approved the following first an agreement for the operation in use of the samuel l jones hall homeless shelter housing focused program with catholic charities the dsc's of santa rosa and the amount of two million hundred and twenty eight thousand seven hundred forty two dollars for the initial period july first twenty twenty two to june thirtieth twenty twenty three which is year one and continuing for up to five years total so fiscal year twenty two twenty three to fiscal year twenty six twenty seven and that's on a conditional basis subject to contractor performance and funding availability and next slide please the second is the grant agreements for the provision of homeless services with catholic charities the dsc's of santa rosa for the homeless outreach services team in the amount of one million thirty five thousand four hundred and fifty dollars ywca sonoma county's safe house shelter program in the amount of fifty thousand dollars in community action partnership of sonoma county for the hca family fund in the amount of sixty thousand dollars for the initial period july first twenty twenty two to june thirtieth twenty twenty three which is year one and continuing for up to five years total fiscal year twenty two twenty three to fiscal year twenty six twenty seven again on a conditional basis subject to contractor performance and funding availability and this concludes our presentation and we are available to answer any questions okay thank you so much council who has questions to start councilmember rogers thank you i had questions about the process of um one being able to go to sam jones hall um what is the process of being able to go to sam jones hall and um yeah what is the process to be placed at the shelter is that your question councilmember rogers yes so our system of care is switched from using coordinated entry for shelter placement for using it only now for housing and so in order to access a shelter at sam jones hall an individual would have to reach out to catholic charities to to access that um and we do have uh i don't have it up in front of me there's a new flyer that was released with the change of coordinate entry and access for individuals seeking shelter throughout the county and at sam jones hall and so i can share that information um with the full council and it's also available on our website um and so uh one would reach out to catholic charities and is that during certain hours or it's typically during business hours so i i just find it hard to conceptualize because emergency shelter um is people tend some people will need emergency shelter not during uh business hours so what happens in in those cases for after hours response i'm not aware of a resource right now we do have some um some beds that has died for uh first responders um after hours and they would reach out direct directly to the shelter operator to catholic charities but outside of that you know the response right now or the availability after hours is pretty limited throughout the county okay and what what team or what who do they reach out to in catholic charities so they have to contact catholic charities and i think sasha is working on pulling up the information as i'm trying to answer these questions so thank you yeah so it to get into sam jones hall applications can be made by calling the homeless service center um the phone number is available on the county's website for them and applications are accepted monday through friday from nine a.m to four thirty p.m and what about after hours i don't believe there's any information about after hours on the flyer and again that is a need throughout the county i'm asking because people are brought to our er's or um brought for emergency services um by our first responders and um they're not being provided access to our shelter so if you call the shelter the shelter has beds and we're paying for a service and catholic charities cannot be um contacted in in my personal first hand experience and so i want to know how that uh it hopefully is changing um with this different coordination of of care or is it changing or because it's it's really difficult when you have someone that goes to the er for something or the police can't contact catholic charities to get someone into a bed so they drop them off at an er that's not proper care because they have nowhere else to to take them and and that's the normal in our community so i want to know how this is being remedied if we're paying for a service the service needs to occur and providers shouldn't say oh well we never can get ahold of them that's not okay i i called from 10 p.m until 3 a.m in the morning and i would call the shelter and the shelter said you have beds but you have to call this number we have beds but you have to call this number we cannot accept someone you have to call this number you have to call this number so and i and i brought this concern up multiple times but we cannot keep having people stay in our emergency psychiatric system or our emergency medical system if we have services within our community that we are paying for with tax payers dollars that are clogging up other areas of care if because providers are not providing the service and i i just i i would like a resolution i want an answer and i don't want to just keep kicking the can down the road because it's not acceptable care so the councilmember rogers i don't i don't want to speak for catholic charities but i mean i think we're in a situation we don't have a perfect system it's almost like we have in response as well and we're trying to make that 24 seven i think this is something that we can have a conversation with our providers about um i believe kelly did speak to this is a concern that we have throughout the county i think it's something that we can have a conversation with with our partners as we you know continue to build out our shelters i don't have the exact answer for you right now because i don't know the operating capacity but i think it's something that we can look into and get back back to you with councilmember do you have more i will i will be quiet for now but uh yeah i'm sure i do because i've been saying this this is not the first time that i've said this and i still don't have an answer and all right we don't have the capacity in other areas but yeah i'll wait for an answer but i don't i don't really care to have an answer i want to see results not an answer councilmember fleming thank you i want to just um echo what councilmember rogers is saying that this is a persistent experience that we have in the emergency rooms we both work in emergency psychiatric services where often the access to the shelter is the thing that's putting it the um a person unnecessarily in emergency services but i think would be a reasonable resolution would be to work with catholic charities to get a phone number that could not just be provided to what we think of as traditional first responders like police and fire but also to the emergency rooms into the county psychiatric unit and i think that if we could have that done within the next week or two so that we can all have access to that intake number that would be just a simple and seamless resolution to this issue i don't mean to speak on your behalf councilmember rogers i just think that that would be a tangible and simple solution i would love to agree with you but when i have police call for me because i think that that would be the resolution and they say that they cannot contact anyone um that they have the same problem then i know that the problem is not a title the problem is the process of actually getting a hold of someone so when i actually say you guys drop someone off here they are medically cleared we're done with them they don't need to be in a medical facility or whatever the case may be and so now they need to be discharged but we don't have anywhere to discharge them so now they're in a medical facility and they cannot be moved can you come pick them up well we can't get a hold of anyone at catholic charities either but we will keep calling and they can't get a hold of anyone that's a problem and well what number are you dialing and we're going back and forth well we're everyone's dialing the same number and no one can get a hold of them so it is a little frustrating because it's that it is a system that isn't working but when we have a part that we're paying for that should be working and there are beds available it's not that we don't have beds we're paying for something that we should the community should be receiving so that is the problem it's not that we don't have the capacity we have the capacity it's there but the service that we are paying for is not being provided that's my problem right council any other questions Mayor Rogers may I speak yep thank you so on the contract under the agreement on page two of 44 it says so scope of service is a shelter the shelter shall be open 24 hours per day seven days a week 365 days per year in addition to that bullet could we then add any number shall be provided for us to contact the shelter to obtain services so that we can actually put it in writing in the contract that a number is then provided for that 24-hour care council member mcdonnell I think we can add that to the contract thank you mayor may I add yep good council member Fleming may I add to that that that number will be staffed as well 24 hours a day by somebody who has the capacity to accept people into the shelter thank you an amendment to the amendment we'll consider that a friendly one well we don't have any motion on the table yet so we'll bring that back do we need to have a motion Mayor Rogers for us to add that contract or can we just direct it now it's not the appropriate time for us to make a motion yet we're going to finish our questions and go to council member sweathound and then do public comment but we'll include that when we discuss them and thank you thank you Mayor Rogers I guess my question would be adding I totally get the need in if our goal is to have 24-7 access where people can enter it if we have capacity of the shelter there's got to be a cost for that because I'm guessing the people that answer the phone are different than the intake people just being part of the conversations with coordinated entry as to why that system was not working because there was not enough funding from HUD so that you could do both the housing and emergency shelter intake same thing with one of my colleagues mentioned want to release someone from the hospital well we have a nightingale program that also has capacity issues so again all the stuff sounds great but there's a cost attached to it and at this point where we have dollar figures here that if our desired goal was to have 24-7 opportunity for intake with a number but actually people where you could take them in I would like to know what are those additional costs going to be if I may Mayor Rogers yeah please so thank you for this input and we will look into this and come up with a solution I know that councilmember mcdonald has presented one today one of the issues that we'll have to navigate is the conditional use permit does not require us does not allow us to do intakes at the shelter they're done out outside of the shelter off site again you know something we can navigate but I do want to raise it tonight and the intent of that condition of the permit dates back to opening the shelter and trying to prevent you know people showing up at the shelter potentially impacting the neighborhood to get services the other issue is I'd have to talk with catheteries about and costs associated with having a phone number excuse me staff for 24-7 access to the shelter to councilmember schwinhouse thank you any other questions council councilmember rogers um is it not is there not already a um a phone that is connected to catholic charities um did that change when we change the coordinated entry so intakes for the shelter are done via the homeless service center and so that is operational during business hours and so I don't have a phone number available for you this evening I can look into that and and get back to you so my question initially was how um do we have beds available outside of the business hours and you said that for uh I think I want to say you said for first responders do those there are go ahead do those individuals not have to go through an intake process that I I don't know councilmember um rogers I'm not entirely familiar with the after hours process and so I can look into that and get back to you you're asking some excellent questions this evening and I'm sorry I just don't have the information available for you right now so and by by any means I'm not saying let's open up the intake process for 24-7 that is not what I'm saying what I am saying is that there are circumstances in which people are within our community that require intake into our shelter um like if someone was in a situation where they're being battered we don't say come back at 9 a.m you need to stay where you're at in the situation you're in until 9 a.m please come back to the woman's shelter or the shelter where we will help you and your children until 9 a.m please stay in and where you're at so there are situations where people need emergency shelter that is what I'm saying in the hospital in our emergency psychiatric facilities including uh our police uh fit under that criteria and so if the police dropped someone off somewhere I think that fits under that that that criteria um and so that's what I'm saying what is what is that process um and how do we do that I don't think that that would be an additional cost if it is already there just how do we access that is what I'm saying because I was just told it's already there we're just not being able to access it so thank you so council member what I'm hearing and I'll let staff tell me if I'm wrong is that it's not the uh necessarily a capacity issue with the shelter it's that the use permit for the shelter as it currently exists prevents intake from being at the shelter so if there's going to be intake off-site there could potentially be a staffing cost to have an additional person at a place that didn't otherwise wasn't open uh so what I'd suggest is we let staff talk with the provider and come back to us with any type of fix that we can come up with to try to work around that that barrier uh council member Fleming go ahead yeah I think that what might help me with this piece of under a reconciling council member Schwedhelm's concern about the funding to make sure that these services are more accessible to our you know most vulnerable folks is understanding what the current mechanism is for first responders and if it is or isn't working for them and then you know not reinventing the wheel but going from there and making sure that system does work and then figuring out how that we can tap into that instead of setting up or standing up a whole new service sir rogers may I ask a question since the contract specifically says the shelters shall be open 24 hours per day seven days per week 365 a year would we not just need to get clarification on how to access the shelter that seems to me to be the missing piece of the contract is the access the accessibility of the shelters that we have it's not that they don't have a bed it's not that we have a problem in the intake process we have a problem with access after hours so I think if we had that clarification brought back to us we could move even forward with this contract to not interrupt services for the folks that need it the most right now but that is a necessary component and so I would feel more comfortable adding it to the contract so that it's very clear what our expectations are for the shelter and that we were it would be able to the community would be able to access somebody on-site or off-site because a phone can actually go to somebody's home in an emergency situation if there's a 1-800 number and it's routed through to somebody who could potentially be on call that night i'm looking to kelly or the city manager councilmember mcdonnell so I believe what we need is clarification on what is meant by 24 seven and if it's 24 seven then where's the intake process who can actually do the intake what is the process for first responders um I think that's that's all I have if there's other questions that I'm missing and and perhaps the contact information yeah the contact of the telephone number yes my concern is that it shows in the contract that we have access to the shelter as councilmember rogers has stated what's not clear is how we access it and that's probably because it's not delineated in a contract for anyone to be able to go back to and say this is what's expected so we believe we're paying for a service and then if that service is not accessible to community members that really are in need of it that is where the frustration I think is lying to many of our first responders including those families that perhaps councilmember rogers has been working with so that would be my solution to this clear problem that we seem to have and I think that Catholic charities who'd be able to give us that information if we went back to them we can bring you back that clarification thanks my rogers I just want to point out and I understand we need to clarify the accessibility issue raised this evening 24 7 operation is different than 24 7 um access to the shelter there are currently five beds that are set aside for um for first responders or for public safety and so I hear the feedback and appreciate it about how do we access those beds particularly after hours um but there there's a limited uh limited amount of beds that are available I did clarify with Catholic charities the intake process so somebody could come in in the evening after hours and then the intake could be done the following day so just wanted to provide that additional information thank you any other questions council yes so why isn't the phone being answered for people to access those beds so councilmember I think that I think that you have gotten an unsatisfactory answer and I get that but I think staff what I'm hearing from staff is that they need to be able to take this back they're not going to have a good answer for us tonight well she just got some really good answers right now on the fly and I just thought that would have been one of the questions about the the phone and what phone that is and what is that process and who answers that phone but okay and Kelly can you get back to us with that answer in this moment no but I can get back to you after the meeting yes okay any other questions council all right let's go to public comment on this item then okay don't see anybody rising in the council chamber and I have Madeleine O'Connell go ahead please hi everybody I hope you can hear me yes we can I don't see my clock but I'll try to keep it short thanks Kelly and Sasha yes the YWCA hung in there I was there in person and then I did have to get home as my children are headed to bed soon I just am very grateful for the opportunity to speak on behalf of YWCA Sonoma County's singular vital and only domestic violence service provider we do have the only one and only shelter for families fleeing violence inside their own homes to flee violence in your home immediately creates homelessness in your life we started back in 1975 we the very first thing we did was start a crisis hotline and that number for everyone listening in the 707 area code is five four six one two three four we answer that call 24 seven my staff of advocates are on an on-call system which includes overnight shifts it's not inexpensive but it's vital to support families enduring a situation where they need immediate triage it might be three in the morning and it might be three in the afternoon but we're here to answer that line I want to tell you a little bit about the shelter that you support and I recall very distinctly being in your chambers back in 2018 for our original contract our home is a 4500 square foot Victorian from the turn of the century eight bedrooms two kitchens we've remodeled every single window has been replaced new roof new flooring new HVAC so it's got air and heat on all three floors we're asking for an increase in our contract which we have not increased from our original amount back in 2018-19 of $50,000 we're asking for an increase of 25,000 and the numbers just add up inflation and the cost of living increases for our staff has been quite an expense over the past year that's increased by 35 percent and there's been a 20 percent increase in employer costs related to staff benefits we are solid in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County we're not going anywhere we've been here since 1975 and we're here to support families trouble is it costs money to do that and I'm hopeful that you will see fit to increase the budgeted amount from 50 to 75,000 call me back anytime I'd love to be part of your study sessions on how to respond to our most vulnerable citizens whenever they need us and you can learn more about us at ywcasc.org thank you so very much for your time and attention to my comments mayor I have no additional hands raised and no voicemail public comment on this item great thank you and Madeline just a huge thank you from all of us for all the work that you and your team do we know it's not easy work but it's important work and you've been a really great partner for the city I just want to say thank you for that councilmember sweat helm can you please put a motion on the table sure I've got two resolutions start with the first one move a resolution of the council of the city of Santa Rosa proving an agreement between the city of Santa Rosa and Catholic Charities of the diocese of Santa Rosa for the operation of the Samuel L. Jones homeless shelter housing focused program for fiscal year 2022-2023 year one in the amount of two million one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred forty two dollars and continuing for up to five years total fiscal year 2022-23 to fiscal year 2026-27 on a conditional basis and authorizing the chief financial officer to pay all proper claims and costs and waive further in the text now councilmember do you want to articulate again let's go to councilmember mcdonald I think you were the one that was word smithing a little bit what additional bullet point you were hoping to have added let me get back to the contract my Roger Rogers I apologize for that well while you do that let me make sure I have a second on the motion oh second okay there you go if I may if I may through the city manager I thought I heard the motion is only covering the first resolution did you intend to do it one at a time or correct okay thank you so would you like me to amend the motion to add that language to the bullet in the contract or would you like me to just direct staff to ask that that be added I think if I think you ask to make a friendly amendment if that so suits you and we'll see if Tom is amenable to it sorry I'm trying to read the text below so I'm sure that I heard you you wanted me to go ahead and make an amendment to the contract under bullet C to add the language to add it well councilmember Fleming had additional language that she added on to my suggestion so would you like us to combine our suggestions I apologize if I'm not hearing you correctly no it's all good I'll say if somebody would like to make a friendly amendment I'll entertain that now okay we'll see if councilmember Schwedhelm is okay with that amendment and for my part councilmember McDonald I had asked for something that came with associated costs that were unknown to me so I will allow you to put forth your friendly amendment as you see fit and then we'll get on her thank you so under on page 2044 under section agreement bullet C where it says shelter shall be open 24 hours per day seven days per week 365 days per year add the additional language of any number shall be provided to access the shelter I'll say good okay and councilmember Schwedhelm are you okay with the friendly amendments I guess I would just need clarification what do you mean by access the shelter so if someone answers the phone because I'm hearing what the issue is people want to have to be able to actually enter and stay there which again I think has some additional costs so what is your definition of access well I guess my clarification on this is if the shelter is saying they're open 24 seven in 365 days a year there's clearly people there what seems to be the barrier is no one to call to get into the shelter so you can be at home and take a call but someone will need to meet that person that's in need to allow them entry into the shelter if it's a temporary bed of the five days by beds or whatever we do have but it seems to me the first barrier is we can't access a person to get to the shelters the second barrier perhaps is we have no one on staff to bring them into the shelter we just don't know that right now based on tonight so but because it says we have access to a shelter 24 seven it would seem to me that a phone number should be provided of how to get to that shelter like I guess where I'm struggling because I heard staff say basically this is consistent with our temporary occupancy or our operating permit so if we were to make some changes here we may be in violation of our own use permit did I hear that correctly I do I think what we have I think we can provide a phone number because it's my understanding that we can do intake correct Kelly shake your head yes or no or there is access to beds the intake process would have to take place the next morning so what we need to do is provide a phone number for someone whether it's first responders or the hospital we need to provide a phone number so someone can call so they can have access to the shelter correct the intake part seemed to me that could be delayed it's the access to a bed that's necessary and imminent under those circumstances that would be my concern of not adding that we are requiring a phone number is provided so that our first responders can get a hold of you it sounds to me we're just talking about logistics that there needs to be a number for individuals to call to make certain that there are beds available if first responders or if there's a release from the hospital they can call this number and I will clarify with Catholic charities to make certain that we're not adding anything that would increase the contract right my concerns so they call they talk to someone yeah we have bed space okay we need that right now that's what I heard from some of the colleagues and that is going to add some additional costs is what I'm hearing and might be in violation of our conditional use permit of doing taking care of that person who needs an emergency shelter bed I don't think we have the 24 7 ability to do that based on our conditional use permit that I heard staff say there's access to the bed but the intake process would take place the next morning I guess that's what I'm questioning would that be a violation of a conditional use permit if that if a person who needs an emergency shelter bed outside the normal hours being violation of conditional use permit I do not believe so Kelly can you clarify that so go against the conditional use permit I will say that our declaration of shelter crisis which provides us greater flexibility for public property so city owned property that we do have some flexibility to make adjustments to the conditional use permit not formally not going through a formal condition use permit process but we have made adjustments to that over the past several years to for example increase our occupancy in response to the demand for shelter beds in our community so bring it back I think we're all on the same page I'd love if we got a bed let's get him in there but are there some unintended consequence of this decision because we don't have the operator here to say this is why this process ended up the way it is now and doing this live when we don't have all the data I totally get we're all familiar with the situations where someone needs emergency shelter we have no way of getting it this contract is you know if we need to modify it can that specific aspect of it once we get more feedback from the operator come back without delay of the contract versus making a decision now without having feedback from the operators to why the system is set up the way it is right now because it does sound like an easy solution so again I'm not opposed to what we're trying to do but if there's going to be a problem because the same issue whether it be the crisis response center nightingale this is not the only place where this occurs so look at the system as a whole I'm not comfortable making a change on the fly with that a little bit more data about are there some unintended consequences of what we're all trying to do so how about this idea you approve the contract with the change that the council member recommended conditional on one no increased cost and two that's consistent with the conditional use permit so I'm all for that so moved I think somebody has to second that if I so move it well actually if it's a front amendment I will accept that as long as the clerk has got the language that our assistant city attorney just shared yeah mr. Burke if you could repeat that please sure so the motion would be to approve the contract with the amendment that was made about inserting the phone number conditioned on two things one that there's no increased cost in the contract and two that the change is not inconsistent with the conditional use permit that's what I meant okay so we have a motion and we have a second is there any additional discussion on that point I hate to believe yeah I hate to belabor it mayor but the last piece about consistent with the conditional use permit given that we're under a and also consistent with the state of emergency so that staff and catholic charities has some flexibility because if we go all the way back to the original conditional use permit and don't take all those other subsequent factors into consideration it may limit some of the things that staffing catholic charities might be able to do to improve access but I heard is the language that mr. Burke suggested but then also saying and also consistent with the conditional use permit and or the emergency declaration okay that's what I wanted to make sure is in there that I'm I'm I'm clarifying and making sure that I heard you correctly and mr. Burke would that be acceptable yes all right let's check with councilmember sweat helm absolutely that makes sense okay and the second councilmember mcdonald do you want me to second that again I made the motion no I'm making I make sure you're good with that I'm happy with that amendment thank you okay any other discussion all right madame city court can you please call the vote thank you mayor councilmember sweat helm hi councilmember soyer councilmember rogers hi councilmember mcdonald hi councilmember fleming yes vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember soyer absent okay and councilmember sweat helm your second motion thank you mr. mayor I would move a resolution of the council of the city santa rosa approving the following one grant agreements for the provision of homeless services with catholic charities of the diocese of santa rosa homeless outreach services team in the amount of one million thirty five thousand four hundred fifty dollars ywca sinoma county safe house shelter program in the amount of fifty thousand dollars in community action partnership of sinoma county hca family fund in the amount of sixty thousand dollars for fiscal year 2022 2023 year one and continuing for up to five years total fiscal year 2022 23 to fiscal year 2026 27 on a conditional basis and to authorizing the chief financial officer to pay all proper claims and costs and wait for the reading of the text I'd like to second okay I had a motion from councilmember sweat helm and a second from councilmember rogers any discussion very make a friendly oh I apologize yeah go ahead councilmember rogers um can we can I make an amendment to a friendly amendment to see if we can provide them with the additional 25 000 that's the motion from the amendment from councilmember rogers uh councilmember sweat helm do you accept the from the amendment I would ask the impacts from the city manager because I know we have mid-year budget and where I'm hesitant very again once again where the cause is heck I'd rather increase their contract by a hundred thousand but I don't know what other impacts I would have could it potentially be a discussion at or mid-year budget update where we get a big picture of all of our funding needs and ask and what they are versus doing it right now in isolation on this item yeah councilmember sweat helm thank you for that question this is a cost we talked about bringing back mid-year I know mid-year didn't take place till almost February of this past year but we're hoping to bring back the mid-year budget around September October so if you know you don't mind waiting until the mid-year budget I think it's probably a cost we could bring back or an excuse me a recommendation we could bring back to you then and so that would be my preference because again I think let's increase it and I don't think not funding it tonight would have any operational costs on the safe house and again I would like to look at it with all the other funding challenges that were being faced so I wouldn't accept it on this motion right at this point okay would you like to make a substitute motion then councilmember rogers um yes let's do that mayor so walk me through this one how do we I think you're I think your substitute yeah I think your substitute motion would be essentially the the staff recommendation with the change of the added 25 000 yes I would like to make a substitute motion with the staff recommending recommendation um with the additional 25 000 is there a second for that motion for clarification would that 25 000 be brought back at mid-year budget review are you asking for that to be brought in tonight so that it's added to this budget for clarification on your motion now and then that would be it councilmember Fleming yes I um hearing no second I have a slightly different motion that might be more acceptable which is is it possible to bring that back when we adopt our budget this month so that we can look at it holistically and make changes as we last minute small tweaks that are usually you know the size are even a little larger at that point I would need to defer that question to my cfo because we are bringing back some other recommendations do I have the cfo on the line I think Alan needs to be promoted but I do see him on there didn't he just get a promotion don't get me started with bad jokes councilmember so I think the question to you mr Alton and congratulations on both promotions is would it be possible to have the 25 000 increase brought to us as a line item on the budget that will be hearing later this month so during the budget period you could or during the adoption you could request that I would say this that additional amount would then take our balance budget and put it out of balance by by that amount so that that's the decision that you would weigh at that time but of course it could be added to the request added option by how much would it put our budget out of balance right right now we're we're literally balanced so it'd be 25 000 over okay I will hold off on my substitute motion and and suggest that we wait till the mid-year review okay so the motion was made by councilmember rogers to do a substitute motion with the added 25 000 is there a second for that motion okay seeing none we'll revert back to the original motion which was the staff recommendation is there any additional discussion on that motion madam city clerk if you could please call the vote councilmember schwedhelm hi councilmember rogers hi councilmember mcdonald hi councilmember fleming yes vice mayor alvarez hi mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember soyer absent let's go to item 14.3 i mean mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez my name is again here bringing you the measure of violence prevention partnerships choice cycle 11 grant program funding recommendations so before i jump into this presentation i want to extend my deepest gratitude to our violence prevention partnership staff member madeline brown who's been absolutely instrumental in the success of this launch launching this has been a huge lift because i'm new and we have a lot of staff who are new and we could not have gotten this far without her help and dedication so i just i had to sa