Good morning and welcome to our city council meeting for the day madam city clerk. Could you please call the roll? Yes, thank you mayor councilmember tidbits Councilmember schwethelm here councilmember Sawyer councilmember Fleming councilmember alvarez Vice mayor Rogers present mayor Rogers I councilmember tidbits Have you joined us councilmember Sawyer? Have you joined us? Councilmember Fleming have you joined us? I have joined you. Oh, thank you councilmember Sawyer Okay, let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember Fleming and councilmember tidbits Thank you, Stephanie. We have three items on the agenda for closed session today We are going to pull item 2.1 So we'll have items 2.2 and 2.3 And then if we need to we'll have a break before our 230 study session If you're interested in providing public comment on items 2.2 or items 2.3 Go ahead and hit the raise hand feature on your zoom and i'm going to kick it over to our deputy city clerk to facilitate Thank you, mayor. If you're participating by telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand Mayor there are no hands being raised In zoom and there is no one in the council chamber wishing to make a public comment on item 2 additionally, there were no Waste message public comments on the item All right, we will recess into closed session then Hi, Charles and Pablo. Thank you for joining us today to provide interpretation services Is there a preference of who goes into the Spanish channel first today? No preference Okay, since you spoke up first Charles, I'll put you over to the Spanish channel And then I will keep Pablo on the main channel to Do the instructional portion then move him over along with you. Thank you Charles, can I get a mic check from the Spanish channel, please? This is child Thank you For those just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members wishing to listen to In Spanish can join the Spanish channel To do so Click on the interpretation icon in your zoom toolbar. It looks like a globe Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation Papa, can you please restate that in Spanish? Muy bien para los recién Según en la reunión Interpretación en vivo al español está disponible y los miembros que desean escuchar en español Puede unirse al canal para unirse puede hacer click en el icono de interpretación en la barra de herramientas de zoom Que parece un globo terráqueo Una vez que según al canal de español también se recomienda que apague el audio primario para que solo escuche la interpretación Al español Thank you Pablo For tonight You're muted Recuiting all right madame clerk could you please call the roll? Yes, thank you mayor councilmember tibets Councilmember schwedhelm here Councilmember Sawyer here Councilmember Fleming here councilmember alvarez Vice mayor rogers as it Mayor roger and I am here. Sorry about that. Thank you councilmember alvarez Councilmember tibets. Have you joined us? Okay, let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember tibets Thank you. Mr. City manager. Let's go on to item 3.1 Mayor rogers and members of the city council item 3.1 is a study session this afternoon The matter before the council is a discussion on fiscal strategies and policies for the general fund Alan Alton our acting chief financial officer will be presenting the staff report on this item Thank you. Mayor rogers and members of the council. Good afternoon One of the finance department's goals and commitments to the council is to establish policies That will provide fiscal stability to the city, especially the general fund This presentation will provide an overview of approaches we can take to proactively address future financial impacts Finance department staff will continue to work collaboratively with the long term Financial planning and audit subcommittee and city departments develop these policies and procedures moving forward Next slide, please So over the next several slides I'll walk through a variety of fiscal planning strategies. We are considering Uh first, though, I'll provide some context by going over our fiscal year in budget results and the status of the general fund reserves at june 30th 2021 Then I'll discuss the concept of risk-based reserves their benefits and methodology for establishing them and finally I'll walk through different types of reserves we could consider establishing And uh end with some next steps Next slide, please so another commitment of the finance department There's a finance department that's made is to provide regular reporting to the long term financial policy and audit Subcommittee and the council and we want to make this reporting as clear as we can There are a lot of data points to consider when presenting budget performance But ultimately we want to present the revenues and expenditures that support the ongoing general fund operation By focusing on these returning revenues and expenditures We get a clearer picture of what is needed to sustain our operations Grants corresponding grant expenditures investment earnings one-time settlement funds and projects are filtered out of these reports as they are not part of recurring operation They're still part of our find of our financial statements but in terms of of looking at what we can use to to sustain operations We've come up with this view which also will tie to our financial statement So what we see on this slide is the result of estimating revenues lower Due to the pandemic and holding expenditure budgets flat and keeping in place the hiring freeze for fiscal year 2020-21 Compared to actual revenue being much stronger than anticipated and expenditures being held artificially lower So we adopted our budget with a deficit of about 15.7 million dollars Our actual results because revenues were higher and expenditures were lower Resulted in a surplus of about 8.9 million dollars Sales tax was the biggest driver of revenues being approximately 11 million dollars over our estimates And the vacant positions accounted for about five million dollars or actually over five million dollars in salary and benefit savings So when you combine the two that's how we move from a significant deficit to an operating surplus or a one-time surplus actually Next slide please So what this brings us to is the status of our reserves at the end of fiscal year 2021 So our unaudited reserve for contingencies are at 122 28 million dollars The city council has a policy mandated reserve requirement uh from 15 to 70 70 percent of operating budgeted expenditures in the general fund so 17 percent of that is about 30 30.4 million dollars We've also wanted to highlight the commitments that the council has made although at the time of fiscal year in they weren't appropriated yet But we knew that they were in the pipeline to be appropriated So those were the rose one library at 10 million dollars the tubs fire recovery at 20 million dollars the Money for the renewal enterprise district at 10 million dollars And then we knew that there were uh, or there are about seven million dollars Of the 95 million dollars of PG&E fund that remained uncommitted The total of all that was 47 million dollars And then the council also committed fiscal stability fund In the amount of 40 million dollars And this actually allows us to begin the process that we'll talk about in the future slide So when you move all of those commitments and policy requirements aside We were over our Commitments and and policy by 5.4 million dollars So if you look at it in the way that that at the end of the day We've we've committed to everything we take all of that out of the equation. There's Still 5.4 million dollars left to the good Next slide please So risk-based reserves In 2013, uh, the governor or the government finance officers association or gfo a Dedicated study of colorado spring Specifically related to their use of risk-based reserves Um, what these reserves do is is or what? They do and what we are proposing to do is to analyze risk to the general fund operating budget Those could be pension costs the revenue light volatility Large capital replacement costs deferred maintenance Any of those types of things And then you assign funds for specific use So when you assign funds in the general fund They are They exist as committed Not to be accounted for in your general operating unassigned contingencies or What we would want to do and what? the government accounting standards Board would want us to do is to develop policies Uh around those funds to basically tie them to that specific use And for nothing else Um We could use on an annual basis A portion of You're in general fund surplus the fund needs reserves So like I said in the in the slide before if you are looking at 5.4 million dollars of Uncommitted funds at the end of the year a portion of that could go into these reserves And we could create replacement budget To fund reserves where appropriate and i'll get that to that in that In a few slides so basically if you've got say a lease expenditure And you have say the five-year lease You budget for the lease payment of those five years you just continue to budget that same amount Going forward and it becomes a Like a replacement Next slide please So the finance department began looking at this concept back in 2017 actually 2016 and 17 And uh, we we went several times to the long term Policy and audit said committee presented some uh Ways we could go about it, but then we were paused that work after the fires During that time we had reserves that were over our council policy And we this we thought that that would be a good opportunity to mitigate some of these costs that we saw That would impact general fund going forward But once the fires hit We drained a a significant amount of our reserves and that kind of you know, we that Plus we shifted our our work to the recovery process Um, we we paused that that work, but now we're at a point where we can we can move forward with it again um Historically large-scale expenses We are paid for with operating reserves There are some instances where we did anticipate these items Uh a few years in advance and we try to accumulate the funds through the budget process But we didn't have a real formal mechanism A few exceptions were the pc replacement program that we established several years ago and lease purchases for fire apparatus So with the lease purchases Uh, we would set up a replacement budget equal to the lease payments After the leases were paid off. I mentioned that earlier The pc replacement program this was established After we had a just a long-term practice of Waiting until the very last minute to replace pc it was not An optional way to go about that And we finally got to the point where we Established a replacement fund. We modeled it after the equipment replacement fund that we used for vehicles and um and bit the bullet one year All of the the budgets we we had an additional cost But over time this has become just a normal part of our budgeting And we're able to have a routine Cycling of pc's Wednesday meet their Their service time as in The next slide So what are the benefits to these types of? of Funds if you will reserves It allows the city to plan practically for upcoming financial impact Um It adds transparency for putting aside funds to pay for general fund operational and one-time risk So in other words, we're making a commitment to these Uh, um, they're out in front. They're not buried in a budget somewhere Uh, and we know that we're putting money in on an on a routine basis or at least a somewhat routine But it distributes the reserves Fairly avoiding reactionary methods to reserve spending It it will be Uh, a benefit to the city's overall credit rating They would absolutely the rating firms would absolutely want to see us Um Doing whatever we can proactively plan for major Costs especially known costs up in the in the future and We could outline major potential risks to the city Next slide please So the the methodology for doing that and and some of this we are we're still working out We But what we could use we have The benefit of fiscal stability funds to initiate these reserves Back in 2017 when we looked at it part of the the heartburn There was in in in developing The funding strategy is that we didn't have a lot of money to initiate Whatever reserves we were going to do So now we have an initial Uh amount that we could put away and then develop an annual Funding basis for them to add on top of that So we would we would establish a formula for allocating un-spent appropriations to reserves Based on the greatest need Uh, we would work with departments to identify specific risks Uh, we would assess the likelihood that the Of those risks occurring and what the impact would be We would use the the knowledge of those specific risks as well as their likelihood impact To determine what annual reserve requirements would be needed We would not do a one-size-fits-all all approach And then we would Identify the funding that would be needed annually to maintain the reserves One of the things that we would absolutely do is allow flexibility by By not assigning all surplus funds to these risk-based reserves We would want to hold some money in our unassigned operating reserves that would allow flexibility to the council should some Um, unforeseen either project or event or whatever comes forward and To allow the council to react to that Next slide please So a sample funding scenario based off of this and I this is obviously very rudimentary, but So we would look at a year in surplus. Let's say it was a million dollars We we could identify three Buckets if you will To put those funds into with the fourth one if we were to just take Quarter percent the fourth one would go into unassigned reserves. So That would be basically the way this would work obviously what we may want to do is Is have some Funding scenarios be higher than others. So maybe more money goes toward pension stabilization Or capital replacement. This will all be as part of the risk analysis that will Need to go through with the departments Also, as I mentioned earlier, there was the gfo a case study They also have items that spreadsheets and and and templates that will allow us to go through That evaluation process We would also work with Our partners Let's say that we did establish a section 115 trust as we are Looking at doing we would want to work with whoever the fund manager was For that trust to try to determine what the right amounts go in on the annual basis would be. So we would try to do this as as non-arbitrary as possible to really Be able to establish an amount go in there that would meet our needs going forward Next slide So as I mentioned Before there's there's a process what we would want to do and identifying the risks Are a part of that You know, I mentioned pension costs and deferred maintenance and capital replacement These are things that that just off the top of the line seems to be the things that we Are of the most impact to us at the And the most known impact to us Revenue volatility is something that we Are are trying to come up with a way of being Of Managing the fact that we have A lot of our or the bulk of our general fund revenue coming from two sources One being sale tax and property tax And the reality of it is that sales tax Provides us the largest amount of revenue coming in it's also The most by incremental increase or whatever, but it can Provide us with also the most volatility and so if there's a way that we can offset that it's something that we would look at Um And again, like I said, we would analyze the likelihood of each risk occurring and what the impacts are For example, maybe better Revenue forecasting helps us offset the volatility of our revenues coming in on on an annual basis or adjusting to that So, uh, we would Create an annual funding plan and so that is based off of either to initially the fiscal stability fund We would look at budget surplus if that exists at the end of each year And if there are ways that we can Just maintain existing Lease or debt service payments that allow us to kind of create that budget appropriation from there that that would fund a replacement model We would do that And we would establish all of those things into council policy. We would have them reviewed by the the long-term finance policy and audit subcommittee first Get their concurrence and then move forward to have policy adopted by council in the near future so next slide So some of the the types of funds that we could go and some of the risks that we're seeing right now Pension it seems to be at the top of the list of that We know that we are going to have an unfunded liability Cost that will accumulate Over the next 14 years an amount that's About a hundred and ten million dollars over what we currently pay So I believe our our baseline about is about a thirty million dollar annual payment We expect that to go up over the years to To an amount totaling about a hundred and ten million While there's we have the potential of issuing pension obligation bonds to address that It's not going to address our full UAL which is about four hundred million dollars. So what we would do is is We would need to target where That spike and then actually use a Like the section 115 trust and pair that with a pension obligation bond if it makes sense to do it or we would simply Disestablish the trust and and use use that Like we currently do to make Annual discretionary or Advanced discretionary payments to CalPERS the benefit of of such a trust and we talked about this before Would be that it would have more local control We would be able to manage the growth of that And still be able to make our payments to CalPERS as we go through We would want to as I mentioned earlier work with the trust manager To establish what type of annual funding amount that we would we would meet Next slide please Capital replacement. So while we have an input and equipment and replacement fund there are certain large Capital items that are not included in that and specifically fire apparatus so But on top of that we also know that that there are Other types of needs that don't fall within a a replacement fund That we will need to try to we will need to replace once they Expire their useful life Such as body warm cameras or tasers or anything like that So we looked at what it would cost if we took all of the and I believe there's about 26 Uh fire apparatus in the city And if you look at what their their basic Replacement costs would be we think that we would need an annual charge of about three million dollars fully enroll all of these apparatus in the in a replacement fund We have already started accumulating some funds we have in the past Leased fire engines or fire apparatus and we've maintained That budgeted line item to be able to accumulate funds for future apparatus, but but it is not enough to be able to cover the cost and unfortunately They they tend to go out more than one at a time Uh, we have actually it may be on this agenda or on the 14th. We have A lease Payment option for two fires engines that that need to be replaced They need to be replaced actually pretty quickly since we've been Notified that the costs are going to go up for that So we we know that we can Or we've cost it out at least that About seven years into a 2.15 percent so At the end of that seven years This would be another debt service payment that we would just continue and move into that We need to try to figure out exactly how we would If we would keep this just an operating budget Or move that money into the reserves and and fund it as a Along with additional funds as a replacement fund within the general fund reserves We would also model after pc replacement fund I kind of mentioned where we went with that before but that is the type of thing They could go toward these other items like body warrant cameras or tasers or anything else within the city where We need to make large-scale purchases and then need to try to We know that over a period of time we will have to Replace those we could try to model after whatever Existing fund the mechanism that we have in place Next slide please Infrastructure is another need That we know that we have in the city In may 2019 at budget budget study session We included an infrastructure report card presentation And in it it shows that the current Condition generally scores better than the state and natural natural or national averages But There are deficits to be able to maintain Our infrastructure and what we end up doing is is Deferring that maintenance until we have the funds or until It seems like we can't wait any longer. And then we tap into the general funds to be able to Dress something on a reactionary basis as opposed to a pre a proactive basis So on the next slide we have what that report card looks like So just to go right through this quickly and I'm sure assistant manager the city manager Jason that is on that can speak to these things directly, but Uh, we have Our drinking water The uh, we're still doing a comprehensive Condition assessment on drinking water and wastewater and regional water reuse But right now we're looking at an annual Capital maintenance efficiency over a ten-year term of $13 million, $11 million, $14 million respectively Uh, our transit our buzzard patient program is not fully funded So that would be another area that we would need to look at just like the fire apparatus Uh, our roadways Uh, our we're deficient in in funding those Um Bridges as well Parts of recreation looking at Doing a condition assessment We do not have current landscape services There are dams We we've talked about telecom and and They're broadband and cellular services and how deficient we are there Then of course we have our building facility and Based on a 2018 condition assessment or ranking about a fee there um, and we're Uh, it should probably put in about three and a half million dollars annually for that Next slide, please And then unfortunately what we've noticed over the past four or five years Is that we are susceptible to extreme events um, and again, this is another uh situation where what we do is uh, We extend a lot of of money. We uh, We segregate those costs to the to the best we're able to Um, and then we rely on FEMA um To replace the general fund reserves operating reserves that we drew down That's a very timely or uh, not timely process Usually takes years for the reimbursement Case in point. We are still waiting on uh reimbursements For the non-congregate sheltering at the sandman hotel The costs are approximately three to four million dollars We are still working with FEMA to get Any of that back we've yet to receive anything um We began that process in march of 2020 And we are still unfunded so Those are things that we would uh, we know are are going to come up and we should Probably work on on dealing with that in the future So what are our next steps on the next slide? Uh, we have where we're going so we're we What we're hoping for out of this study session is is really to provide us uh, uh, You know acknowledgement that we're going in the right direction Uh, we're going to continue to work with our departments and the long-term financial Planning and auto subcommittee to develop the assessment of risk the funding methodology for the reserves in the policy language We work very closely with the subcommittee on these we have in the past and we've started that back up again um, obviously the full council We would return to the full council for approval of whatever policies we come up with and methodologies But we We would like direction That we are going in the right in the right spot that If there are any particular reserves that we should Be looking at especially anything other than what I Highlighted in this that would be good to know Um, but basically this is an overview of of where we are and what you can expect um I think in terms of a timeline and while this may be aggressive What we are looking at is I I would like to have these in place By july 1 so along with our fiscal year 2022 23 budget moving forward to have those in place And with that i'm available for any question. Thank you so much alan counsel questions Vice mayor So have we looked at? Possibly reinstating any of the positions that have been placed on hold in order of I don't want to say importance because I feel like they're all important Um, but I know that we had did like a short term Um on some of them for like the planner Um, but I just I do know that there are some positions that maybe we want might want to look at Right. We we currently vice mayor. Thank you for that question. We currently have Do not have a hiring freeze in place. We are hiring positions as To fill vacancies as as quickly as we can Perfect. Thank you Any other questions Councilmember Fleming Yeah, so, um, can you frame what what specific feedback you're looking at? I know this is question typically a question for the mayor But it'll help me with my follow-up questions if I have any what what if any feedback are you looking for today? I think uh, the best feedback would be that we're headed in the right direction that, uh, if there are particular, uh Reserves that we should be looking at that would be helpful Um, uh to In our in our process moving forward like I said, I kind of lined out a rather aggressive Uh, um timeline to not only do risk assessments, but also develop the policies Uh, have those reviewed and then back to the council And to do that while we are going through the budget process Is daunting and I'm sure the budget folks that are listening right now are not too happy with me, but um, I think that it's important to Maintain our momentum going forward to get these in place um so Where we can minimize Uh, the guesswork in terms of what reserves the council would see as as were they moving forward for these types of things Uh, that would be helpful Noting also that we can make changes as we go along part of what we want to do is be nimble And whatever direction we're going Okay, that's helpful. I don't have any specific questions at this time except to so what uh, well, maybe I have one question Which is At what point does the council? The council priorities I see here on slide um 10 that You end up with council policy as your last bubble, but it doesn't Necessarily say anywhere and perhaps I missed it About how you're going to take into consideration count council goals in this process In determining there's some things, you know, like we get to slide 14 where we have a listing of things, you know, based on their status of disrepair or disinvestment But there's there's nothing here that lets us know Where these things fit into the the council priorities that have been stated Well part of that is going to be working with The subcommittee as as we move forward to make sure that we are keeping council goals In mind and we and we usually have that in fact for our mind as we are moving forward So I I don't know that that's the best answer to that but but we do have council priorities and goals in mind as we go through we do know that they're That we have an upcoming Goal setting session. I think in February or March That will help inform that we absolutely do not want to get out in front of Of the council and whatever priorities they have Um, typically we work well with the finance subcommittee to Make sure that we are meeting all of the needs that overall the council will want Okay, I'm wondering if you would consider working directly with Sakura Shields in this process to loop her in I think that she's become very effective at identifying how our council priorities Intersect with our financial policy And then on slide 12 the replacement Fund Is this something that is just going forward unless we say no today? Or is this a part of something that will come back to us? Comes back so Slide 12 these So well the the the example that I have of Two fire engines that is on the council agenda moving forward But in terms of the annual charge for that Or or developing a fully functional capital replacement Fund for those things that are not in our are existing Equipment replacement fund is It's not I think it's important to do but It is Again This is just a study session and just a very preliminary view of this It's something that we would Want to assess and be able to have as a potential reserve going forward But So there that answers my question. I do appreciate it Alan Thank you for your work Mayor if I could add I think there's a whole series of Processes as well as policy decisions that the council will have before them to fully implement this Today was to provide that overview share with you the thoughts and Some of the ideas that have been generated with the long-range financial policy committee subcommittee But you have your annual goal setting session where you establish your priorities You have the annual budget process where staff then looks at those priorities the council has established and recommends funding levels and programs In staffing in order to achieve them And then you review that annually when the budget is presented in a series of public hearings That allow the public to have input into that process And ultimately the council has the ability to shape those funding programs Around their priorities What we're talking about today is at the end of a fiscal year Is if there are Is a surplus situation How do we plan in advance and try to allocate some of those additional resources that may come in To provide additional stability so that we can be prepared for Natural disasters or crises that may occur so that we Can be prepared for the purchase of large pieces of equipment Like fire engines were an example so that we don't have as much up and down From year to year in our budget Frankly the the goal is to regularly produce a surplus in the general fund that then gives The city council The options and the flexibility to address many of the issues that we struggle with today You notice the the infrastructure slide up there that had a grades and then numbers That's for maintenance of existing infrastructure We haven't even talked about today the need for You know a new community center or a new fire Stations or replacement of city hall All of these are things that we would like to be able to address in the future but One of the keys is establishing these kinds of Stability measures so that you do have the ability to address those Unanticipated ups and downs or anticipated ups and downs for that matter And then regularly produce surplus funds with your general fund To begin to address the other issues that you have and the other needs And allen if I can ask a question about that slide slide 14 It's a particularly interesting one to me and I want to make sure that i'm Understanding what it says properly So for the bus replacement program it shows the 750 thousand dollars Is that over 10 years that it's underfunded meeting 75 thousand dollars a year underfunded? I I believe so, but if but if jason nut is on the line and wants to Lay in on that I'd appreciate it especially if i'm off, but that's how I would read it and mayor Mayor and council members jason nut assistant city manager The the items that you see here those are annual numbers based off of a 10-year amortization And so the 750 thousand is a per year estimate based on the need for transit To be able to replace its fleet in an appropriate way right now their current funding Allows them to replace about 75 of their equipment, which means the additional 25 goes Unfunded and that compounds over the course of time and so That's why that particular number was there That's really helpful. Thank you jason Allen how many of these buckets if that's the way to call it fall within an enterprise district of on this one, I think Was definitely that the top three Are probably under the the water enterprise funds Um transit has funding sources for Their areas I think it's uh Looking at it. I would say From roadways below You're you're you're getting out of the enterprise fund areas There are some other funding sources that come in to kind of help Offset the general fund cost When you get down to building facilities, you're definitely looking at it being Majority general fund So that's that's kind of My high-level take on that I think also with the broadband And and that you're probably looking at General fund where we can't find any other State or federal source for All right, just in terms of uh feedback For me the the ones like park and recreation that are five million dollars a year underfunded from the general fund are of greater importance for this discussion around Stabilization funds Some of the other services that are on there that come from enterprise funds My expectation would be that we are charging the cost that it actually takes to deliver the service And not putting that burden on the general fund which funds other things as well Yeah, I think the purpose of this card was or this this slide Uh was to give an overall assessment of our infrastructure Going forward I'll definitely Uh include uh potential funding sources for that that's oversight on my part Oh, great. Thank you Council if there are no other questions, let's go ahead go to public comment for our study session If you are interested in providing a comment go ahead to either approach the podium Or hit the raise hand feature on zoom I see no hands and I see nobody moving towards the podium Do we have any voicemail public comments? We did not mayor. All right. I'll bring it back to council for any last thoughts Council member schwedem Thank you, mr. Mayor and thank you Ellen for the presentation I'd really appreciate a lot of the conversations and comments that are made in the subcommittee meeting are incorporated into this presentation So my feedback on the presentation is I think you are or we are on the right track. I really appreciate this And for me some comments or suggestions within those, you know Even just starting at the four buckets of 25 percent. I kind of like that Strategy I would be interested in hearing because I'm a fan of the 115 trust and you had some comments about working with the trust manager I'd be really interested to hear what those thoughts would be from that person in other words if He or she says the first Million dollars, you know, it takes a million bucks. That's that's a key figure I'd be a proponent of then whatever surplus we have the first million goes towards The 115 trust then the whatever's left over gets divvied up, you know 25 25 25 25 But I'd be interested in hearing What that trust manager if we go in that direction what they would say And then regarding the infrastructure, I think that is a key investment in for me Because these are big ticket items for me a priority is Reinvesting in our roads get that PCI up to Quite frankly 65 because I think it's for the last seven years. I've been hearing said about a 61 Because for me if we don't give a little bit more Direction because frankly, let's say 25,000, which is a large sum of money But if we're talking about repaving roads, it's going to get you a foot and a half So again, I'd be like that's a priority for me And I think I'd like to see a little bit more Discussion about how we're prioritizing that big category of infrastructure But I think we're definitely on the right track and I appreciate this conversation coming forward Council member Fleming Yeah, so my comments are very similar to the mayor's in that I would like to see the Particularly the the water the enterprise funds the water department Not burdened the general fund with their expenditures since they do have alternative means of getting revenues In transit I would like to see them also Is Not rely on the general fund, but I do understand that There are more challenges in transit. So if we can move those four items off of this Off of this slide that that would be great But at least the top three. Thank you That's mayor Um, so I think that we are on the right track. I am really happy to see Our our goals of having a replacement fund for our fire engines And I am hoping or I have been hoping that we would have that replacement fund even without Having a surplus because I believe that it is needed And also the the parks and recs to maintain and also improve We acquire a lot of land and people give us land but With that we don't have the funds to Improve develop and maintain the land that we are are provided So we're not very good stewards of the land that we are provided always So I'm hoping that this will help out in that arena. Thank you Councilmember Sawyer Thank you, mayor I my my comments Align very closely with council members schwech home The the 115 trust is really important as as a an alternative to to Stressing over What to do with certain funds at the end at the end of our kind of you you go days and days and days of Being of wondering how to deal with with with funding and Our you know limited resources and I think that the 115 trust is a good place to place Those funds During a budget during budget hearings because it is it is a a complicated concept as to what to do with Those funds which we are not necessarily at times In agreement with so I think that fund the 115 trust is really a great Bucket in which to place those funds not only for in in in the current Environment but in the future And the infrastructure needs which could totally Be a part of those one well 115 trust is about not not about infrastructure but Dealing with infrastructure is one of the main goals of our constituency I don't believe there is a single council member As far as I know I could guess this that has not been Conf you know contacted about roads and infrastructure so wherever we can be Reasonable and thoughtful Where we can place funds in infrastructure I don't believe that there would be many Individuals in our constituent in our various constituencies That would complain about that So I am very much in in in favor of of that bucket And if one has to place funds into buckets That would be a one that I would be majorly supportive of there are so many needs Across the board With our with our council It is very difficult To decide where we are Where we have the priorities But infrastructure is one of those that if you don't dedicate funds and you don't Kind of Realize the reality that that they will This kind of If if you don't if you don't if you don't take the the reality of of our infrastructure And realize that it's going to diminish over time Then we are fooling ourselves, and I think that we it's very very important and it and it is council council priorities Year after year after year And we understand the the importance But we tend not to fund them And I I think that we need to Take a really good look at where we spend some of our fiscal Realities and Deal with infrastructure. So I am I'm in every district In there there is simply no um in my opinion, there is simply No, um Issue or or or concept that is more important than infrastructure other than social Social programs So they are they are they are combined and they are they're not sexy But we need to we need to look at our infrastructure and and Make a dedicated effort to spend those certain funds In that environment All right. Thanks council member. Uh, I'll echo the comments on most of my colleagues To me these funds on these buckets should be based on costs that we know that will escalate as time goes on Uh, and in particular as there's inattention from the council Whether because we run into disasters that prevent us from being able to put dollars into it Or because the council has other priorities at the time being and need to return back to them Uh, we know that our pension costs are escalating. We know that the longer we allow our roads to to a road the more Expensive they are to fix We know that if we don't keep up with our capital capital replacement Schedule for our vehicles. They become more expensive to replace And so for me, this really is a prioritization around that That's absent any given year's goal or any two-year cycle for a goal setting But really looking at the next 20 and 30 years Without knowing what the priorities of the council are going to be but knowing what the costs are going to be For things that we rely on So for me the 115 trust that is a huge one. Uh, that is The health and well-being of our employees long term Especially once they've retired and making sure that we're able to meet that that need and meet that commitment that we've made to them It's the capital replacement Fund for particularly for our fire vehicles, which we know are specialty vehicles and are expensive And it is our deferred infrastructure including our roads That i'd put as the top three for me There are federal and state funds that I know help to supplement each of these categories from time to time Less so for things like pensions We saw that with the build back better plan and with arpa that Quite frankly half of congress is not interested in providing for public employees Or allowing funds to go towards pensions or employee costs of that nature And so I think that we need to make sure that we're prioritizing it at the local level Because there are sometimes things for vehicle replacement. There are sometimes things for roads With that i'll see if there's any additional comments from my colleagues All right, alan so next steps you'll be bringing More of this to the long-term finance committee to talk about specifics and risks Great All right council we have about 29 minutes until four o'clock We'll go ahead and take a recess and we'll be back at that time Madam city clerk, I think councilmember fleming has called us back into order. Could you please call the roll? Thank you councilmember tibbet Councilmember schwethelm here councilmember soyer here councilmember fleming here councilmember alvarez president Vice mayor rogers president Mayor rogers let the record show that all councilmembers are present So we'll start our four o'clock meeting here. We have a very brief report out from our closed session madam city attorney Thank you. Mr. Mayor the city met in closed session item 2.1 Was withdrawn not considered But the council did hear items 2.2 and 2.3 on item 2.2 Which concerns anticipated litigation? The national prescription opioid litigation council gave direction to The litigation team For entry into a settlement agreement in that matter and that Direction will come back For final action next week on council's agenda On item 2.3 was a conference with the real property negotiation team Regarding properties three properties on hern avenue seven nine seventy six nine eighty and one thousand four hern avenue The council gave direction to the negotiation team and no final action was taken. Thank you All right, let's go ahead and see if there's any public comment for the report out from closed session I'm seeing no one Approach the podium. I see no hands on zoom So we'll go ahead and keep moving through our agenda We have no proclamations this evening, but we do have a couple of staff briefings. Mr. City manager Mayor rogers and members of the council item 7.1 is our covet 19 update As of this week sonoma county in sonoma county 74 percent of the eligible population age five and older are fully vaccinated And 26 percent of the children age five to 11 Are partially vaccinated County health is also reporting that covet 19 case rates are going down Testing data currently shows 1059 active cases And a total of 414 just since the start of the pandemic Locally the new variant of concern omicron Has not yet been detected and delta remains the prominent variant for now Health officials are closely monitoring the new Omicron, excuse me variant And are still learning about how it spreads and infects individuals As well as how it responds to vaccines It is not yet known if this new variant causes more severe covet 19 illness than other variants or how it might impact response to treatment New variants will continue to evolve if there are large proportions of unvaccinated people Public health officials remind the public that vaccines continue to be the best way Through the pandemic by safely protecting protecting against severe illness from covet 19 and its variants Vaccine clinic information is available at socoemergency.org forward slash vaccine And lastly the transportation and security administration TSA announced last week that it will extend The federal mask requirement for all transportation networks including public transportation Through march 18th of 2022 That concludes our covet 19 update for today Item 7.2 is our community empowerment plan update And I'd like to welcome macaulay tell us our deputy director of community engagement who will share this update with the council Good afternoon, mayor rogers vice mayor rogers I got a phase here with a quick update on our community empowerment plan In terms of the mary lou lowrider The artwork has begun on the car. This includes the pinstriping and the mural and we just wanted to recognize and thank One of our local lowrider community members paul marquez for his contribution the pinstriping and also Gustavo Mendoza for his contributions for the mural Once complete the car will go back to the body shop and we'd like to thank a business owner mani aguilar because they will complete the Final clear coat and the new stereo system will be installed this weekend by the heat those car clubs. So thank you to them And as a reminder the stereo equipment was donated by enterprise rented cars And we anticipate the car build will be completed by the end of january to early february The sonoma county lord council has been meeting with our staff to plan the reveal event And and they'd like for you all to mark your calendars for saturday march 26 from 4 to 8 p.m The event will include indigenous dancers music other special performances And food from local food Vendors as well as a resource fair component where the lowrider council invites city departments and programs to disseminate information and connect with community at the event We will be viewing the documentary with the car reveal at the end and then a quick update on the Report out on side shows on the side show listening sessions and the community survey Our staff conducted for listening sessions three were in spanish Between october and november on side shows with community members from various Sederals and neighborhoods the office of community engagement would like to thank the council members and city staff who joined us in person and online For these sessions In addition to the listening sessions staff conducted a community survey on side shows and we received 608 responses from community members We're working on a report that details community feedback including major themes from both listening sessions and the survey And the report will include recommendations for the council to consider And we hope to have that report completed by the end of this month and a presentation to council By january 25. Um, thank you and that is the end of my report Thank you. Magali. Let's go ahead and go and see if there are any questions from council on either of these items Council member tidbits.  Uh, do you have a question? We'll go to council member soyer Thanks, mayor. Just a very brief thanks to magali It's very difficult to deal with these these issues Um that affect the entire community. I just wanted to thank her as i'm sure that the entire council does for her um For for her willingness to deal with this these various, um Difficult challenges and so it's just Nearly a many uh, thanks to her. Um, it's it's it's not it's not easy. Thank you Appreciate that council member and I want to thank my team because they're incredible. So thank you You bet All right, let's go to public comment on the covet 19 update Let's see if there's anybody in the chambers who's here to speak about covet 19 See if there's any hands on zoom And do we have any voicemail public comments? We did not mayor. Okay, we'll go ahead and bring it back Thank you so much director. Thank you. Mr. City manager. We'll keep moving through our agenda Let's go to item eight. That's the city manager and city attorney reports Let's start with you tonight. Ms. Madam city attorney. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. I have no report for this evening. Thank you. All right I also have no report this evening mayor Okay, we'll keep moving Council are there any statements of abstention? On tonight's agenda Start with councilmember soyer and then i'll come to tidbits after Thank you, mayor. I will be leaving early around 7 o'clock this evening other other than that I have nothing else to report All right Thank you, mayor. I've got to Staying from item 12.9. That's just my general ongoing obligation relating to the declaration of homeless emergency And then also 14.1 safe parking contract for catholic charities My organization leases a building to catholic charities at this time. So Um, I will have to recuse and and mayor if it's all right I did have my hand raised for COVID-19 update. Could I ask a quick question about that? Yeah, go ahead Thank you. Mr. Colon. I I hope I'm not putting you on the spot this question I don't know if you have an answer or not But you I noticed that there was a change in the update today and that was that we're now counting People from the age of 5 to 12 In in kind of the the overall population and we're at 74 Do you know what the original I think it was? Shoot 12 and up who was eligible for vaccines. What percentage there at? It definitely was a higher percentage Councilmember Tibbets. I believe it was in About the 78 percent range If I recall correctly Okay, um, well, thank you very much appreciate it any other Uh recusals for tonight's meeting So I have councilmember Tibbets down for item 14.1 and item 12.9 The that will go on to mayors and councilmember reports Looking to see if we have Any reports tonight Start with the vice mayor we have mayor we have a speaker on this on Statements of abstention. Oh my apologies You're here to speak on the statements of abstention on tonight's agenda I live near the sam jones homeless shelter Um, I just want to reinforce effectively what's Gone before me now is that jack Tibbets needs to be abstaining from Any and all uh items having anything whatsoever to do with the homeless issue because He's looking at it as a money-making opportunity. So Anything having to do with homeless presents a conflict for him Thank you, sir and councilmember Tibbets did announce he was abstaining from a couple of those items Go ahead vice mayor Um, really quick report on saturday. We were able to um have a food fund drive Actually complete the the fun Part of the drive and have a food drive. We partner with Redwood empire food bank I am very grateful for everyone that came out and uh supported our vision Would like to thank Carolina and ali from the santa rosa metro chamber A leaders and liaison group who have been assigned to me Um and asked me what it is that I wanted to do this holiday season and took something that was Just an idea and helped me to to make it into something that we could actually You know say that we we gave back to to the community and it was not um It we did not have a lot of time I'm actually to plan because of COVID and not knowing if we were going to have Be able to actually have the the food drive. So Thank you To them. Thank you to all the staff that participated Thank you to our City manager to our city attorney Just everyone for all their participation For the council members that came out for those that didn't but uh also participated I know i'm forgetting someone but um and thank you to the community members Even those that aren't community members that Participated there was such a need we have people coming out actually asking for food when we were Gathering food. So when you have people coming asking for food when you're gathering food you absolutely know that there is a need We were able to gather Um 1500 pounds of food and over um 10 000 dollars in in cash and um For that I am grateful um for everyone that participated Um, so district district three was able to bring in a hundred dollars Um and district two uh was able to bring in 250 dollars Uh district five was able to bring in 400 dollars and district four was able to bring in uh 1470 Um district one was able to bring in 1900 dollars Uh district six was able to bring in uh 33 hundred dollars Um and district seven was able to bring in 31 Um almost 32 hundred dollars So I am very grateful if we're looking at uh the pie in the face jack look up With that beautiful face of yours because it will get a pie in it soon enough And thank you very much for your participation and we look forward to uh posting that pie video soon. Thank you Thank you vice mayor Any other report outs for tonight's council meeting council member flooding Yes, I have a report out um about some A big amount of work that's going to be done really shortly. I'm just going to read something from The illustrious carol quant the chair of our board of community services So you may have seen or heard some preliminary site work that's currently taking place in the county of sinoma indigent cemetery This is adjacent to the rural cemetery, but it's owned by the county Located directly behind the rural cemetery The long row of eucalyptus trees is being cut down with removal of the tree scheduled to commence Monday December 13th The trees are beautiful and fragrant and so much a part of this special place They are also a highly flammable and non native species Under their canopy grow many types of oaks and other native trees awaiting their time in the sun The rural cemetery volunteers who care take this special place have marked most of these native trees to guarantee their survival It will be exciting to see them rise up and feel what will surely be a startling void The next couple of months will be busy and loud at up at the cemeteries and frankly surrounding areas And challenging 110 plus eucalypti With heights estimated at upwards of 180 feet will be reduced to wood chips and trucked out through a town and country parking lot We appreciate Supervisor Corsi and the board of supervisors for funding this removal of this eucalyptus grove and removing this threat And we appreciate all the workers who will be making this happy I mean making this happen can if you want to know more information you can check out the rural cemetery facebook page for updates as the project moves forward and You know my my gratitude goes out to the county as well as my my appointee the chair of board of community services for this update It um, and if you have any questions, please direct them to the county of sonoma Thank you councilmember any other updates? It's been a busy week and not only do we have boards such as sonoma clean power and the consolidated oversight board for redevelopment agencies Wrapping up their their final work, but also Some other notables like smart and my one thing of note really from the last week from all of those meetings is Just a general welcome to the new general manager for smart Who just took over with his first meeting this last wednesday? He's very excited to be here. He came from uh, utah transit And we are very excited for the next the next stage for smart as we continue to build out that system That will go ahead and see if there's any public comment on the council members reports See no hands and I see no one rise. Do we have any voicemails? We do not mayor All right, let's go to our next item. That's item 10.2. It's the election of the vice mayor Council how we'll do this is we'll see if there are nominations We'll get them all out on the table and then once a nomination has a second We will then go down the line and have council members vote For which individual that has been nominated and seconded that they'd like to serve as vice mayor So i'll open it up and see if there are any initial nominations Madam vice mayor Um, I would like to make I would like to nominate uh councilman alvarez for vice mayor Okay, are there any seconds to that motion? I'll second it Motion from vice mayor rogers and a second from council member schwethelm Are there any additional nominations for the position of vice mayor for 2022? hearing none, uh, I will ask for a vote of acclamation from the council a unanimous acclamation without any objection from council members I hear no objection. Congratulations councilmember alvarez Looking forward to having you in the vice mayor role, uh from this meeting on forward I appreciate it. Thank you very much Do you like to say anything? Oh, if I can get it out Um first of all Opportunity It's an honor and I want to thank my mom and dad This will give me the opportunity to my colleagues Who have made themselves available to To guide to educate to lend their experiences To really help me become the best public service that I could possibly be To san rosa It's an honor to serve you at this capacity. Thank you Thank you, mr. Vice mayor. Let's go ahead and open it up and see if there's any public comments on 10.2 I see nobody moving towards the podium Go for it, sir. I just wanted to say that it's very nice to see a latino person in as vice mayor And I think that this would be a really great step to move in terms of cultural understanding because This is a primarily latino community or at least in roseland and It's just great to see that we're moving in a direction where cultures can really work together and understand each other And I just hope that this starts a trend of more diversity in politics All right. Thank you so much Is there anybody else who'd like to speak? Okay, do we have any voicemail public comments? We do not mayor All right, then we'll go ahead and bring it back. Congratulations vice mayor We have no minutes which means you'll get some immediate action here in a second Oh, excuse me. I just skipped over 10.2.1 Oh, you have a comment go ahead vice mayor as an outgoing vice mayor I just want to say thank you for allowing me to serve on my first year on council it was uh Frightening I guess you could say because I had never been on council but I Could not have asked for a better group of individuals To serve with and a better group of staff to serve with and to learn from And I could not Look to pass the torch to a better person Who I look forward to growing growing with so vice mayor alvarez I am Very excited to see where these adventures Take you. I am very proud of you. I am very proud of the community that you represent And I am thankful that we are able to serve together. So thank you for accepting The nomination and congratulations councilmember Fleming Congratulations to council vice mayor alvarez and I think we all get one of those and then and then no more right You gotta put a quarter in the jar And then I wanted to say a special thank you to councilmember rogers We're doing a fantastic job. I can't imagine how difficult it is to do it your first year And just total gratitude for your service Thank you All right. Thank you both Mr. City manager, let's go on to the consent calendar Mayor rogers and members of the city council. We have nine items on the consent calendar this afternoon beginning with item 12.1 A resolution approving a waiver of competitive bid Blanket purchase order 160811 an amendment to the IPS group incorporated for single space parking meter services and supplies Item 12.2 also a resolution approving general services agreement f 002387 An award for uniform mats and linen delivery services to mission linen supply Item 12.3 a resolution Approving a summary vacation of right-of-way for a portion of an easement located at 1108 Trombetta street, santa rosa, california item 12.4 a resolution Approving an amendment to the city classification and salary plan to add six full-time equivalent limited term Firefighters and one full-time equivalent fire captain positions In the fire department to staff the in-response team 12.5 a resolution Approving the adoption of a memorandum of understanding with unit 8 transit represented by SEIU local 1021 effective july 1 2021 through june 30th 2024 Item 12.6 a resolution approving an extension of a proclamation of existence of a local emergency relating to the threat to community health posed by COVID-19 Item 12.7 a resolution Making the required monthly findings and authorizing the continued use of teleconferencing for public meetings of the city council and all the city's boards commissions and committees pursuant to assembly bill 361 item 12.8 an ordinance adoption and ordinance of the city council of the city of santa rosa amending section 1404 dash 015 of the santa rosa city code revising language applicable to the water shortage rate and revising the excess use penalty structure And finally item 12.9 a resolution Proving an extension of the proclamation Of local homeless emergency Thank you. Mr. City manager. Are there any questions on the consent calendar? Seeing no hands. Let's go to public comment. Let's see if there's any comments on the consent calendar tonight Seeing none. Do we have any voicemail public comments? We do not mayor. All right Vice mayor alvarez. Would you like to put a motion on the table, please? I would thank you mayor. I would like to move items 12.1 through 12.8 Wave further reading of the text with council member tidbits abstaining from 12.9 Okay, thank you We have The motion from the vice mayor a second from council member tidbits for 12.1 through 12.8 Are there any comments? Let's go with a voice vote, please Council member tidbits Aye Council member schwedhelm. Aye Council member soyer. Aye Council member fleming. Yes Vice mayor alvarez Aye Council member rogers. Aye mayor rogers. Aye that motion passes with seven seven eyes I would also like to move item 12.9 And wait for the reading of the text Second motion from the vice mayor and a second from council member rogers Let's go ahead and call the vote I'm sorry. Can you repeat the second council member rogers? Yes. Okay. Thank you Council member schwedhelm. Aye Council member soyer Aye Council member fleming Yes Council member rogers Aye Vice mayor alvarez Aye Mayor rogers. Aye That motion passes with six eyes with council member tidbits abstaining Perfect. So we have quite a few guests in the chamber So I just want to make sure I let everybody know sort of what to expect over the next half hour or so We have public comment for non-agenda items is always time certain for as close to five o'clock as we can get it That's so that we can maximize participation amongst the public So it's 4 30 right now We'll move on to the next item for business which is item 14.1 And then I suspect that by the time we finish that we'll be right around that five o'clock mark And we'll come back and we'll do public comment for non-agenda items typically When we do our first non-agenda items Discussion we limit it to 12 speakers If there's no objection from the council You're all clearly from the same group in the same school And I don't want to split you up if that works So if you give us just a couple of minutes to do this next item on 14.1 and bear with us We'll take everybody who's here for that moment uh for our public comment at as soon as we can Work for you all Cool. All right, mr. City manager. Let's go on to 14.1 Mayor rogers and members of the council item 14.1 is our first report item of the afternoon The matter before the council is the selection of a program operator and approval of an operating agreement for a safe parking pilot program Kelly kaikendall and marita wallace from the city manager's office will be giving the staff report On this item Thank you city manager. Good afternoon Mayor rogers and Welcome vice mayor alvarez Kelly kaikendall. I'm the city's homeless services manager In the city manager's office and i'll be co-presenting this afternoon with marita wallace She's a program specialist in homeless services and also with the city manager's office want to acknowledge marita um as being a Very integral part of the team that has worked on pulling this pilot program together and part of Bringing it forward to this afternoon. So we'll be covering the safe parking pilot program Sorry, I just realized my camera was off There we go um Including uh making a recommendation on a program operator and then seeking your direction to execute execute an operating agreement With that i'm going to turn it over to marita and she's going to cover the next several slides. Thank you Kelly thank you for the introduction. Good afternoon. Mayor rogers and members of the council I'll begin with an overview of tonight's presentation. Next slide, please This slide covers the purpose of tonight's report, which will include council's direction from the june 22nd study session The purpose of the safe parking pilot program as it applies to vehicular homelessness in santa rosa The program design the request for proposal the proposals as they were received and reviewed by the evaluation committee The operating agreement budget and funding and we'll wrap up the discussing next steps next slide, please Staff were given the direction to pursue a one-year pilot program for a 24 seven operated safe parking pilot program With wraparound services targeted at housing participants The 24 seven model allows for more engagement and meaningful case management opportunity needs that would have otherwise been limited overnight program This lesson was substantiated by the operation of the finley program Including how finley demonstrated higher usability amongst individuals that had previously reviewed services The selected model would include wraparound services to align with the housing first strategy This would include intensive services of specialized housing staff in case management to help individuals transition from living in their vehicles to housing Up to 50 spaces were selected for the program so as to maximize our economy of scale 55 stony point road or the utility field office otherwise referred to as the ufo Was chosen as the program site due to its capacity and location within a portion of the city own parking lot Staff were directed to issue an RFP to seek the program operator next slide, please The purpose of the safe parking pilot program is to address immediate shelter needs again This is a lesson where finley provided a lot of tangible evidence Additionally, this program is intended to reduce the impact to the community Such as for the businesses and neighborhoods that surround in canvass And again, this program is designed to connect individuals with services in the pathway to housing next slide, please Between july and september staff were focused on developing the RFP beginning with an internal work group to discuss program logistics As well as submitting input for the design layout and scope of services Each of these will be discussed in more detail in the upcoming slides The RFP was issued on september 10th on planet bids While a dedicated webpage for safe parking was created on the city's website Then included FAQs and the proposed site plan The RFP was due on october 8th and the city received two proposals I'll also add that during this time staff reached out to our chat partners to learn more from their experiences Several of those points of view were incorporated into the RFP Next slide, please Here i'll discuss the program design The program design within the RFP includes lessons learned through the operation of the finley program The next few slides will cover the content of the RFP drafted by staff Later on in the presentation kelly will be reporting out on the specifics from our applicants proposals The operator is responsible for the oversight of the program in coordination of services The program will be staffed 24 seven with program staff on site 7am to 7pm With a third party security agency on site with an opportunity to scale back through the duration of the program Staff have proposed a combination of vehicles and RVs This could be adjusted by the operator as long as they meet city specifications outlined in the RFP Permit or fencing would delineate the footprint of the program within the lot and give participants additional privacy Sanitary facilities including showers would be provided with the required maintenance component Additionally referees containers meals and case management would be provided And i'll go into more detail in the upcoming slides regarding the case management component Next slide, please We know that this isn't the best visual but it gives a general idea of the site plan This layout was allowed for 43 vehicles with a recommended breakdown Of which was 13 RVs and 30 vehicles Adjustments could be proposed as long as it did not exceed the overall occupancy and combined with city specifications For instance, if fewer RVs were identified this would augment the number served given that RVs take up multiple spaces and vice versa In the lower right hand quadrant You see that there's the staff tent shower trailer and trash receptacles built into into the design Next slide, please For the RFP scope the target population and prioritization Would include individual adults experiencing vehicular homelessness identified through the homeless outreach services team or host And referred to the homeless encampment assistance program otherwise known as HEAP The operate operator would be responsible for coordinating with the host and heat teams to enroll identified individuals for the program Site and program management would include and what we required of the operator to provide coordination An oversight of the 24 seven day-to-day operations This could include but is not limited to the laundry services, mobile showers, sanitary facilities and meals Additionally, the operator would provide that case management and housing support In the RFP we asked for the experience the operator had in providing case management Specifically, we asked about triaging caseload numbers case notes and case management roles such as housing navigation and housing locators positions so those more specialized roles As well as their application of certain methodology including trauma informed care and form reduction For general service requirements and expectations. This included COVID-19 protocols The grievance procedure and a good neighbor policy Requirements as well as coordination with the city to keep staff informed of progress and activities For reporting requirements, the operator will submit comprehensive monthly reports I think that it's important to know that this TV It's a little from our other programs that gather data on a quarterly schedule Because this is a pilot we want to gather those monthly touch points to be informed of any trends that may arise in keeping with the data informed objective Next slide, please The city received two proposals in response to the RFP from Sonoma Applied Village Services Otherwise referred to as saves and Calcitarities The city convened an evaluation committee to review both proposals The committee was comprised of city staff members from the city manager's office Fire department transportation and public works the water department a staff member from the Sonoma county community development commission And the vice mayor Rogers over the next two slides We will provide a summary of each of those proposals and I'll hand this over to Kelly. Thank you Thanks, marita Before I jump into the proposals received and the evaluation committee scoring I do just want to acknowledge the work group that came together to Put together the program design And the scope Marita and I are here presenting before you this afternoon But there's a whole team within the city of santa rosa that makes our homeless services programs happen So just want to acknowledge staff from fire Water I see transportation public works recreation and police. Thank you With that, I'll move into the next slide. Please slide 10 So again, I'll cover the proposals and then go over the evaluation committee scoring So the first proposal here is saves or Sonoma applied village services They have direct experience Providing the services outlined in the rfp They hold a contract currently with the county for outreach services They also operated a safe parking program in a private site For approximately two years providing 20 spots safe parking spots overnight In terms of their proposal the proposal outlined a village model that included both Program in site management staff as well as case management staff The village model really embraces Resident empowerment Including involving them in operating services Including involving them in operations and governance via a village council That proposal also included per the rfp 24 7 security And reevaluating the need for that security on a monthly basis There were some site plan adjustments from those outlined in the rfp, which marita shared that that's allowed However, you know the site plan adjustments in their proposal could Result and reduced overall capacity so the ability to serve fewer individuals There were also some adjustments proposed for storage to include shipping containers Portable toilets and hand washing stations throughout the site rather than in one location And two resident pods For basic services just to touch on that what we're looking for there is obviously to provide shelter But also meals Laundry access to showers portable toilets and hand washing stations So there's their proposal did include those those components One thing I do want to highlight a positive aspect of their proposal is just The volunteer coordination throughout their program design And that includes even delivering meals as well as a volunteer mentor program And for case management, they have an integrated resident team It's a team based approach to delivering case management that includes the resident And case management staff as well as bringing in county partners As needed Next slide please The second proposal that I'll outline is from catheterities They also have direct experience per the rfp They operated a county overnight safe parking program for about three years That provided up to 100 spots One location was at the county a county site and then the other were scattered throughout the county at church locations That program concluded in 2018 due to funding constraints They have also operated for the city of santa rosa for the past five years the homeless outreach services team And more recently the safe social distancing program at the feeling community center during the pandemic Their their proposal includes both the sort of program and site Management staffing as well as case management Their case management includes position positions, excuse me for navigation location and stabilization About 24 7 security as well and a plan to reevaluate that Following the first three months that the program is up and running Their site plan and their proposal aligned with the site plan in the rfp And that is included with the agenda packet and basic services already went through that in the previous slide I would say a positive There are positives in both of the proposals, but a positive for catheterities is the ability to Provide on-site medical services and then for both proposals I forgot to mention with saves a coordinated entry is part of their program Design and delivery. So individuals coming into the program if they are already enrolled in coordinated entry They would be enrolled once they come into the program Next slide please I'll cover the budgets that were submitted with the proposals here in the slide council direction Was for a safe parking program with wraparound services. We did however is part of the rfp ask for budgets without And with wraparound services just so we'd have an idea of what that cost is You'll see here catheteries without wraparound services is approximately 1.1 million with wraparound services just under 1.3 And the approximate cost for providing those wraparound services is 186 000 I will mention that they aren't leveraging staff from existing programs To help with the wraparound services. So that cost is not accounted for here. That's a cost savings To to the program to to the overall budget For saves their proposal contemplated receiving an award of a hundred thousand dollars in esg or emergency solution grant funding Through the continuum of care. So you have two Two costs here. So without wraparound services with the esg. It's about eight hundred and eighty eight hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars and with wraparound services 1.1 So the total cost for the wraparound services being right about two hundred and thirty eight thousand and that last Column their row is just without the esg and that's an increase of approximately a hundred thousand dollars Next slide please For criteria and scoring. Um, this is the criteria that came directly out of the rfp And it's what we use the evaluation committee used to rank the proposals There were seven key areas. Um, two of them were based on experience Would one for wraparound services or case management's Data and reporting and two for budget and then lastly other in other category And you'll see here in the slide Catholic charity's average score was 82.9 and saves was 64.3. So based on the scoring Arrived out by the evaluation committee. We are recommending Catholic charities as the operator This afternoon next slide please The next couple slides I will cover the operating agreement. Um, that's part of your packet this afternoon The term is january 2022 to december 2022. So that's one year Contract is just under 1.3 million. That is for operation of the site and provision of the wraparound services per request One set scope of services the agreement includes a pretty detailed scope of services which aligns With the rfp and marita went into detail about that Goals and sorry did we jump forward? Okay, I got it. Sorry There it includes goals and outcomes and I will go into that in the next slide and then staff and case management's reporting requirements As well as an option for a second year subject to contractor performance and funding Next slide Actually, sorry go back to that slide My apologies. I got turned around on my slides here So just a couple other things I wanted to touch on in terms of terms of the scope of services as I mentioned It will include the basic services. It will also include the wraparound Do you want to mention It does include an option to extend it for a second year but highlight that is subject to contractor performance And we have identified all of the funding for the program I want to highlight that this afternoon before Coming to this Meeting the county board of supervisors approved $500,000 For this program for two years for case management wraparound services. So that's very exciting The city's proposal was the highest ranking of the proposals that the county received And our request was fully funded. So we were very excited marita and I to hear that this afternoon before presenting to you And we're always looking for good news on the home services front because we don't always Get good news. So I wanted to share that with the council The operating agreement and the program design does include both program staff and case management staff as I mentioned That includes a housing navigator Locator and stabilization In terms of goals and outcomes there We're anticipating that we'll be serving 115 individuals And the goal is that 25 of those that exit the program program will exit to housing And we're currently developing a housing strategy to Achieve that benchmark to the best of our ability We had already touched on reporting requirements. So we'll have monthly reporting requirements Given that this is a pilot program and regular check-ins with catheteries Already talked about security The staffing model will be 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. And then security will be on site during the evenings and 24 7 For the first three months of the program There will also be a dedicated phone number for the site And well, I don't have that ready this evening, but we will have it ready for both the staff and public Before the program goes live next slide So for sources and uses As part of the city's current budget fiscal year 21 22 council allocated $315,000 for this program Last week during the study session on one-time landings council did Allocate two million dollars in one-time landings. That's the ARPA funding for this program. So As I said, we've identified all funding sources that totals 2.3 million Um for uses year one Just under 1.3 million and that is the the amount that's included in the contract this afternoon Year two the balance of funding will be Applied out to the program There's a there's a gap here in year two. I will be able to fill that with The $500,000 Received from the county and will be discussing internally You know, how will we using that $500,000 for this program? Clearly, it has to be used for wraparound services, but just learned this afternoon that we're going to be getting it So further discussion and planning on the use of those funds and how they'll fit into the budget for the program Next slide, please That with that I'm going to turn it over to marita. She's going to discuss next steps and cover the recommendation and then We will wrap up the presentation. Thank you Thank you, county In terms of next steps staff are looking for council direction for the selection of the program operator Subject to council direction staff will proceed with the execution of the contract Um, we have responded to the county's notebook the request to $500,000 and Kelly just shared their exciting news with you So I'll move on to staff are recommending a phased approach What this will look like is starting in january the operator will have the opportunity to concentrate their resources On hiring and site setup I'll add that this timeline is contingent on catholic charities hiring staff As we all know that uh, this is challenging for most employers right now across the board Catholic charities has an alternative plan to use existing staff if hiring becomes a high barrier February would be used um To open the site and have a view live and open for intakes Additionally, the communications team is drafting a press release to go out tomorrow as part of our outreach strategy And prior to the program opening. They'll be a virtual community meeting Next slide please That leads us to the recommendation It's the recommendation by the city manager's office that the council by resolution select catholic charities The docs of santa rosa as the operator of the state parking pilot program Approve an operating agreement for state parking pilot program with catholic charities and the amount of 1 million 299 and 800 and 26 000 for the initial period of january 1st 2022 to december 31st 2022 With an option to extend for the period of january 1st 2023 to december 31st 2023 Next slide please And lastly to authorize the chief financial officer to appropriate two million from the american rescue plan act One time money is for the program for a two-year period That concludes our presentation and we can take your questions at this time. Thank you All right. Thank you so much council. Let's start with questions councilmember rogers Thank you, mayor So a few quick questions Um, how many staff are needed to open the site? Do we know silence So i'm not sure they heard you Oh, how many staff are needed to open the site? Looking for either kelly or marita ice mayor You got your hand up I do but I believe uh councilmember rogers Was asking a question. Oh, yeah, I was just waiting to see if you were going to tell us we're having technical difficulties Kelly and marita. Can you two hear us? Yes, I can hear you And I think the I think councilmember rogers was directing this question at you How many staff are needed to open the site? Oh, the um, you're asking about staffing ratios. Um, let me look at my notes real quick Just a second here. It's um so for The total staffing in contemplate six full-time employees um And some of that some of that is existing staff um So But the entirety is six six FTEs So you're asking specifically about new staff required to for hiring second question go for it That would be my second question how many new staff Are they going to hire well my apologies for the technical difficulties if I didn't hear you earlier um I'm just looking through my packet right now. So give me just a minute on that. Sorry No problem I made sure to note the total but I forgot to note how many new staff It's okay a lot of information Yeah, there was a lot to go through sure So it is it is six additional staff um For the the program that they need to hire um 2.5 of those are going to be for case management And they will be um Using Um an existing locator position the housing locator position from another program And I know that as they're Ramping up And doing their hiring that they will be using some existing staff To ramp up the program as they're hiring and training the new staff So we're we're in december When is the site opening So the plan is uh subject to your direction in an approval this afternoon That we would execute the contracts. Um this month Next month in january. Oh, and I know catheterities is prepared to Start a release their their recruitments for the new positions Very soon following council approval Uh, so january, we're going to be getting the site ready Putting up the fencing and you know portable toilets and You know all of the site logistics. Um, and then The the goal is to have a soft launch in february Um, not bringing everybody in at once but doing a phased, uh, opening And again contingent on Catholic charities being able to To staff up within that timeframe We have we have talked with them about that Okay See it's a concern. Um, and uh sam jones um Which happens to be uh one of our Uh of interest so, um, how many residents Exit into housing do we happen to know like the success rate? And how many residents actually exit sam jones into housing versus how many are, um In that re-evolving uh Stay there for a long periods of time or Leave when and then they exit and then they have to come back and then they exit and then come back So we've provided some flexibility throughout the pandemic. Um, and recently we again stated the six month A cap on stays um to try and encourage people to work with their case managers on their housing plan But as we'll know, um locating housing In this county and the city is very challenging. So our housing, um Exits from sam jones hall are typically around 15 percent um and That is something that I would like to Improve upon I would like to see um, you know, uh Higher Exits to housing from our shelter I do know that we are serving some of the most vulnerable Uh residents in the county our shelters low barrier And they can be the hardest people to house. So You know, if family shelter for example family support center, it's much higher. It's much easier to house families um that exit rate is closer to 35 to 40 percent in terms of Families leaving the shelter that go to housing and system why for you know housing exits from shelter to housings typically 15 to 20 percent I know those gillicose has seen 30 to 40 percent of exits to housing and we're hoping to do the same here But we recognize that we have to have a pretty solid housing strategy in place to do that and we are working on that Yeah, I think I was asking about sam jones specifically because that is managed by catholic charities if if i'm correct, right? You're correct. Um if one of one of the um family housing That you were speaking of are those also managed by catholic charities? Yeah, the family support center is operated by catholic charities. Okay. And so what uh specifically that shelter would would um would be their success or their exit into housing rate It's easier. Frankly, it's easier to house families than it is to house Chronically homeless single adults and that's that's the bottom line Yeah, but we're thinking my well. I don't know what we're thinking my thought process would be that um we're not going to have uh families per se or we'll have more single or coupled individuals um at this site that we're Speaking of than uh families Um, but may surprise me. I don't know. Um, and then uh with the leveraging of staff from existing services How many residents are we thinking will be per? I call them case managers. I'm not sure what they're gonna call them How many staff or how many residents per staff member? I'm going to defer to marita on this one because I know that she's this is an area that she Um dug into while we were doing the research Thank you. Kelly So for the intensive case management that we're anticipating that this site will need We're looking for about 15 At a most 20 participants per case manager and that's an order to provide Intensive case management that's needed so that housing support component that we're looking for to stay housing aligned with um with being housing focused um, and is the city uh the city meaning us I guess going to require a certain number of contact hours per resident um From catholic charities, are we just gonna say we want case? Management would probably be a good question So that's something that we're developing with catholic charities within their scope What that case management looks like on a day to day? I know that they do have regular check-ins with case managers and that's part Of the benchmark for the program is meeting those check-ins with your case manager to stay compliant within the program All right, and my last question mayor. Sorry Um, if if we're looking at 15 to 20 people per case manager What would be their caseload now if they are? Leveraging staff from existing services. I'm assuming that they already have A caseload. So what are they going from? to now adding on additional Residents from an additional site I can start So that's a really good question I know it depends on who they're leveraging staff from whether it's from host or from sam jones hall For sam jones hall, um, i'll turn it over to kelly for that But it does depend on if there'll be members from host or case managers such as navigation Specialists from sam jones hall specifically I just want to add to that they're hiring new staff. So While they are leveraging some existing resources from existing programs They're hiring new staff for this program so that there's enough capacity for the case managers to focus On this program. I hope the answer is your question um Yes and no because they're hiring 2.5 staff right They're hiring 2.5 case managers and six FT's totals so There's program and site management staff that are part of the six but 2.5 are part of the six To be able to provide the case management support for that site So are we to assume that the 2.5? Staff that they're the new staff that they're hiring Are going to provide the 25 percent success rate into housing that we are expecting That's the intent And in addition to the case management staff we're working on a housing strategy To try and achieve that placement ratio so in In addition to the case management support we have to make sure that there are places for people to go to So we're we're looking at you know A strategy to make sure that we have that capacity to actually house people So through the host program right now We have the housing first fund that has housing assistance and flexible funding to help people Financial resources to get people into housing We're also looking at emergency housing vouchers And the possibility of master these things so that's all part of so above and beyond the case management We're also looking at resources and capacity to to to put people into housing And I lied. Um, I think I said it before About the giving a man a fish and teaching them how to fish also what? What are the services that will be provided once someone is Housed and have we outlined that to try to keep people into housing so they do not Become unhoused again or have we not outlined or? Allocated any services towards that because that seems to be a problem in our community also Retention is an issue and thank you for the question so There there is in the the case management positions for this program There's a housing stabilization case manager that's available to participants once their house To try and help them maintain their housing And keep them connected with resources to do so Is that the 2.5 part of the 2.5? It's part of the 2.5. Yes All right. A lot's going into that 2.5. Okay. Thank you so much for answering my questions You're welcome. Thank you Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor In regards to the staff and the security could you elaborate a little on what that would look like for the site? So for staff The plan is to have them there 7 a.m. To 7 p.m And then security would be on the site 24 7 for the first three months and then after the first three months of the program We evaluate reevaluate the need for continuing security on a 24 7 basis security is very costly So we're looking at pairing it back So long as that's the right approach to take with this program three months into the program And so there will be 24 7 Um, you know supervision of the site by staff and security Is it possible to create a hybrid program where some of the residents serve as staff? I'm sorry security. Has that been a possibility in the past? So I refer back to the Finley safe social distancing program, which was our first endeavor in a managed camp And we use private security For that program Again, it was very costly and so I think there's an interest there was an interest from the council I know there's also been an interest from the community that we provide the private security but I think it's important that we we do reevaluate that and Consider the need for it moving forward But in my experience with security services in our programs those have been provided by a third party vendor and not by residents themselves I can imagine the liability that goes along with that. Thank you. Any other questions council member Fleming Yes, thank you miss kike and all and staff for All of your work on this I wanted to go to slide 13 and ask some questions about scoring methodology Um, when you evaluated wraparound services What were some of the elements that that you were looking for? Give me just one minute on that. Thank you Sure thing So for I just was pulling out one of our scoring sheets that provides a really detailed breakdown for each of these categories. So for wraparound services, we looked at Whether, you know in the proposal it was clear that the operator had a clear understanding Of the wraparound services If case management Roles and responsibilities were defined Um, there was a component just to look at Case notes, um, we also looked in the proposal for for vehicle compliance In terms of helping um, participants bring their vehicles into compliance referrals, um, so inventory of community resources Behavioral mental health benefits financial literacy, etc Um, also linkage to mental health and drug treatment job training and appointments And a capacity to triage different degrees of urgency and a benchmark for For, uh, sorry stumbling a bit here Length of program length and and and program exits and I'll have marina jump in here too If she wants to add anything to some of the things we looked at and determining the wraparound services I'll also include that in wraparound services. We did include, um, that individual individualized action plans would be a component of that Between the case manager and the participant of the program And then another big Metric within safe parking will be about getting document ready In terms of for housing meeting that driver's license and Um To be document ready to have that driver's license as well as for certificates in order to apply to market rate housing Okay, um, thank you. Can you tell me what um, what the other category includes? Yes So other was pretty broad But some of the things we looked at were completeness and quality of the proposal Quality of reference materials alignment with council goals Um, and any other factors the evaluation committee, um, do you need to be Relevant? Okay, thank you Caltech any other questions Thank you, mr. Mayor Gail and maria. Thank you for the presentation. I have a couple. Um In the weeds or operational questions So will the clients that Utilize are the safe parking location be via only invitation or referrals from the host team? Yes, we want, um, those referrals to come in via host and heap Yes, okay, and so How will the program deal with folks that just drop in they just show up We have capacity, but is it would they not be accepted until they've been Vetted through the heap or the host team Yes, and we're we won't be doing any Intakes on site that needs to be done off-site. Um That's most likely going to happen in one of our encampments Okay, and then what about a curfew? There will be a curfew. Um, and we're working through those details Subject to approving Catholic Charities is the operator tonight But I know, you know, we had one at the Finley safe social distancing program And we'll have one here as well and we'll have that information We're going to be having a community meeting, um on january 12th informational community meeting and we'll have Information about that, you know, what the curfew will do Okay, and so for me this next question is because I'm not sure the city's ever operated the safe parking But someone drives up. What if they're obviously under the influence? What would how would staff handle that? So we're trying to make this as low barrier as possible and keep it safe for both the participants and the operator as well as, you know minimizing impacts to the the city facilities that work out of the parking lot as well as the surrounding neighborhood. So That said, um, it is a low barrier model. And so individuals can be um under the influence But they cannot be a threat to themselves or others They have to follow the program rules in order to be part of the program now that They can't use drugs or alcohol on the site. I do want to clarify that but We'll work with them. So long as they're um, they're following the rules and it's safe for themselves and others And I appreciate that and what's the reason I pose a question for the safe parking Someone comes off a city street and it's clear to the person they didn't take that they're under the influence So crime has just been committed. I get it's low barrier, but I think it's something that I think we should understand How are we going to respond to that? What is the expectation? I'm not sure, you know, I don't need an answer now I would just like clarification make sure that the city attorney's office is engaged the police department because it is a little bit Different than someone walking up to sam jones hall low barrier behavior based I get that But driving a vehicle under the influence to me is a little bit different situation So I'd be interested in making sure that we're all on the same page as to how we will deal with if that were to happen And then I know the parking lot shows 50 parking spaces. Is there a capacity for the number of people that could be Or a number of clients that could be in the safe parking at any one time Right because 50 vehicles might be more than 50 individuals So our focus has been on trying to reach that 50 spots that council requested And I think it's really going to depend on the mix of vehicles and RVs that are in there We might not reach that benchmark of 50 depending on how large how many large vehicles we have in there So, you know, with up to 50 spots, we could have You know, potentially 60 to 70 individuals there, but we're going to be watching that we want to keep it to a manageable size And still try and achieve that the 50 spots that council requested and our guests allowed There will be again, we're working through the the the program rules Or we will be working through the program rules of catheteries And so guests will be allowed But there will be a policy around that To be determined those details will be flushing out. Great. Thank you. I really appreciate this I'm just one of those. Let's try to anticipate what potentially could goes Could occur so that we're all on the same page with that and then you you'd mentioned the security issue and I totally Appreciate that. Let's go three months. See how it goes The concern I have is do we have funding if the need is identified to continue past three months? Is that somewhere embedded in this? We there's a buffer in the budget to, you know, contemplate and we contemplate that Um, and we we have a contingency as well In the in the event we could I don't think we could keep we could not keep the security 24 7 for the full first 12 months of the program. Um, so We'd have to evaluate that but there is some buffer in there to Um allow it past the the first three months, but scaling it back someone Okay, and then regarding the performance metrics Um, so are the only three metrics that we're looking at the three that are identifying the scope of services the Participants who engage with supportive services 20% will be diverted to other housing and 25% will go into permanent housing. Are those the only three metrics that we are Monitoring to look back on was this a successful program? I'm the focus is on housing. I mean, I'll highlight that that's what we really want to know We want to know how many people went to housing Um, again, want to reiterate we're working on a housing strategy so we can try and achieve that benchmark I do think 25% is ambitious, but we're going to we're going to go big and try and make it um looking at the the um the contract and the scope of services. I already mentioned the 115 Will be served We have some benchmarks for Case management in terms of 100 coming in will engage into some level of case management services We do want the contractor to provide a percentage of those that are document ready for housing That's going to be be a big focus of people coming into the program because we know many Are not ready and we want to get them document ready for housing I want to know the percentage that have accessed public benefit programs and then the percent that have Entered into an individualized housing plan beyond The 25% of exits to permanent housing We are all also asking for Catholic charities to provide data on exits to temporary housing even though that's not a goal of the program We do want to know if people aren't going to housing. Where are they going and then? Those that are exiting to the street or an unknown destination Great, thank you And I guess if I could just put a plug in for Consistency throughout the county because I know some other jurisdictions. It's been in the newspaper. Spastball is dealing with this issue You had mentioned some other Challenges when you're dealing with certain more vulnerable populations how much more difficult it is to housing you would also mention The oakmont Location and I think it'd be great to understand here's who the clients each program is trying to serve And here's the data points that show how many people are getting housed because I think the community as a whole don't understand the difference But you know, how would one get into this festival in? Whereas we've just heard tonight this folks can get into this program through the host team and the heat team And just so we're very consistent with it because I have heard different numbers being thrown out there from the committee From the community saying one program is more successful than another But there's a lot more information that you've shared with us tonight So I would just ask if it hasn't already been done So anyone who's got some type of program and let's just use the city's spastball What metrics are they using for their safe parking location? So for community members, we can kind of be consistent with what metrics we're looking at to be successful So thanks for that and then um, mr. Said manager, I have one question for you Just regarding the process and the amount of information that was in this presentation Because we go through these rfps and selection processes all the time And I just you know some that came to my mind is when we did the sacramental lobbyists very little information We had the ori group a little bit information and now this is much more information than we ever had And not only for me, but for other members of the community the expectation of future selection process Where is it going to go from a staff perspective? What information is going to be coming to council in the future? So to some extent we try to look case by case and determine the Level of detail that's needed by the council to make a well-informed decision And understand the criteria that we've used for the selection process And so there's an aspect of judgment in that We do have all of the documents available for any member of the public that's interested in seeing those And they can request access to those and review the proposals themselves and You know see the scoring sheets and all the rest of the stuff that goes into the selection process If council has An idea when we come to a study session and outline Kind of our approach and if they want detailed information and they identify that at the time that would be helpful to us as well I appreciate that. I'll have an offline conversation with you about some of those suggestions, but thank you for that Those are all the questions I have All right council, let's go ahead go to public comment on this item If you're interested in speaking go ahead and either approach the podium or hit the raise hand feature on your zoom Uh, this is on at a 14.1 So i'll start with michael here in the chambers and then i'll go to elizabeth michael hillbar The low barrier means that alcohol and drug use is condoned I'm really disgusted by this The amount of money that being waste on this you could go ahead and buy the universe rosalind university prep property with the amount of money you're wasting on this $1.3 million for a parking lot that you own so the rent's going to be zero That's just a stupid amount of money It's like flushing people's taxes always down the toilet I'll say the catholic charities is unfit To operate anything like this My observation with regards to what Goes on around sam jones is the main thing is the nearby liquor store owners getting rich off that place We got to think about you know this low barrier and condoning alcohol and drugs and stuff is not working And throwing money away like this is not going to work either And the whole basic idea is that you know people are going to come and go to this place every evening I mean if i'm a methamphetamine user Living in a broken down motor home I'm not going to want to drive to this place every evening and back I'm just going to say you know My battery is dead leave me alone. I'm just stay here on the street So it's a waste of money and it's not going to work Thank you, michael. We'll go to elizabeth followed by Naomi Good evening. My name is elizabeth shekwan and i'm a pediatric nurse practitioner Currently working as the chief quality officer for santa rosa community health First of all, I just want to say thank you for considering the safe parking program and the comprehensive services I think it'll make a big difference One of our two largest clinic sites is located at lambardi court and has provided primary care to low income families for over 25 years For the past 18 months there has remained an encampment of people who live in their vehicles directly in front of the health center Over 200 patients a day come to that site for care Many with their families including infants children frail elderly and those with chronic disease and disabilities We have reports from our patients regarding the challenges of having to navigate getting through the encampment to access their care their health care services We heard from two farm workers who attempted to come to the clinic to get their covet vaccine As they started walking From the corner where they were dropped off toward the clinic. They were verbally harassed by people in the encampment Fearful of the situation. They turned back and never got their shots With drug deals in public view now commonplace in front of our health center families with children Have reported reticence to come in for care We've had several staff be harassed when coming or leaving work and one person physically assaulted Another staff person came to work early in the morning was confronted by screaming naked man in the parking lot We've had to reduce our hours of service and no longer have evening hours available for our patients Our patients who are already stressed by the pandemic by housing and food insecurity and health challenges Are severely impacted as they witness the situation and have to experience fear when trying to get a vital service Our staff feel helpless when their voices have gone unheard and sadly We've lost staff because of this This has especially been difficult with covid when working conditions are complicated by wearing masks and face shields all day Finding a safe place outside to take a mask break or eat is not always easy With human feces urine and drug paraphernalia strewn about on the property I want again, thank you for considering the safe parking program and I really urge your approval And I also ask that you further consider a no overnight parking ordinance around health care facilities To protect the vulnerable and the safety of essential health care staff. Thank you Thank you, elizabeth. We'll go to Naomi Thank you very much council members and i'm Naomi fuchs. I'm the ceo at santa rosa community house So i'm going to just build a little bit on elizabeth's message and just acknowledge that we totally understand the complexity and difficulty of addressing the needs of people who are homeless as well as the legal and regulatory limitations that you're under Furthermore, we have tremendous compassion and respect for the challenges that homeless People are facing and our mission is to care for all people regardless of ability to pay And we provide medical mental and dental services for people experiencing homelessness nonetheless With these 200 patients a day over half of whom walk or take the bus to get care We feel that this incredible program that i'm hopeful that you will approve for safe parking doesn't go quite far enough 50 parking places will be used up really quickly and Our patients have no other choice. It's not like they can go to a different store or go to another place They have no choice but to walk down this street littered with drugs and paraphernalia feces, etc So i am urging you to establish a policy that prioritizes the safety of staff and patients at health care facilities And issue no overnight parking ordinance In the areas that staff and patients have to walk each day Our staff have dedicated their lives to caring for the most vulnerable community members through fires floods and pandemic No matter what we need to protect them and the people seeking care It's unclear why or how kaiser was able to get a no overnight parking established around their facility on challenger way And santa rosa community health has been unable to get that approved over after over a year of asking It seems grossly unfair All health care providers should have the same opportunity for a safe environment for their staff and patients. Thank you Thank you We have a number of hands on zoom Let's go to hannah followed by alastair Hi everyone. Can you hear me? Yes, we can Excellent. Thank you so much for taking my comments. Um, i'm a family physician and a co-medical director of the larvin bardi campus of santa rosa community health um I really want to thank you for your time in considering the safe parking parking ordinance and i'm certainly in support However, echo the comments of naomi and elizabeth that vane campment has really reached crisis proportions on our street And so fortunately, there are so many unhoused folks living on the street outside our clinic that really is an urgent safety issue Um, I personally have been verbally harassed after work Our staff feel unsafe coming to and from clinic Our patients can't safely enter our building or get to the bus stop outside the clinic and there's human Uh waste and drug paraphernalia routinely on the sidewalk um, I've had patients trying to recover from opioid use disorder only to be routinely triggered by um The drug dealing on the street um And young families with children who are unable to come to their vaccine appointments Among countless other stories. Um, so I urge you to pass the safe parking ordinance But to pair it with a no overnight parking sign for critical access to services such as health care clinics Um and to protect access to health care and to protect the safety of essential health care staff. Thank you Thank you. Hannah. We'll go to alastair followed by parker. Hello. Okay. Yes. We can I was wondering has Is it has there been a uh, like an overnight parking camp in senoza before or was this the first of its kind here? In senoza So we we have had them. I will tell you we can't get into a back and forth during your comment But if you have a couple of questions, I can ask them to follow up after Uh, okay um We'll just choose about that. Um, and yeah, I think I'll Also, wait, where would it be located around by the way? I can go ahead and have staff answer questions at the end if you want to get them all out. Oh, yeah, got it Go ahead. Thank you That's it Okay Yeah, we'll go on to parker Um, my this is a mic check. Are we on is this just audio or is this also video? Uh, we can hear you via your audio Okay, thank you so much. So my name's parker duncan and I'm a 10-year resident of santa rosa But I'm also a family physician as well and I work at lombardi clinic I've been working there for over eight years and I'm our clinician lead of the clinic So I work with with dr. Watson and you heard our ceo and our chief information officer testify So, uh, I share this the same request in the same point And I won't belabor that except to really emphasize a couple things one is This is the number one source of distress For both our patients and our staff and that is such a powerful comment In the midst of our biggest global pandemic that any of us have ever seen right people have adapted to covid And this is what's putting them over the top. So our our patients are just terrified And our staff are just completely Unexcited about coming to work and we have a number of staff taking mental health days taking prolonged time off And every time I talk to them individually, this is a huge factor The other piece I want to put into perspective, there's if any of you are not familiar with with this This the geography the street, but this is a dead end street So the only way to get to our clinic is to walk down the street and as of this morning, there were 13 vehicles parked On both sides of that street some are big vans. Some are, you know trucks or pickups So you've got already a quarter of your planned safe housing program right there in our street that you could come get to be an easy recruitment strategy But they're the only way in is getting past that and so it's really a choke point That's very unsafe and then I realize I want to add the third point is This is very much as well. I mean, I understand I used to work in San Francisco as a homeless advocate So I we all working at our health center understand both sides. However from the lens of health equity and particularly Ethnicity right we have poor predominantly poor Latino people Who are not able to access their health services? And this could be so easily fixed by a little bit of funds put in to create this ordinance put up some Some no parking overnight street signs and then with just a minimum of surveillance folks could be out of there and This could be done. Well, and we won't be infringing Upon the safety of staff and hundreds of patients 200 patients a day. We see 15,000 patients a year So this is I will guarantee you there's no other area in this city probably not county probably not state That has this unique setup and can adjust the position of an encampment And a health services center. Thank you so much Thank you parker It's the last hand that I see on zoom. I do see that a card was put in for uh, virginia May or she will require some translation services Okay, so virginia will have you speak and then we have our translator who will repeat what you said after Thank you so much Muy buenas tardes Gracias por hacer algo por la gente sin hogar por homeless people realmente pienso que es una vergüenza que la gente sin hogar Nadia haga algo por ellos los programas que se crean simplemente no están funcionando Aquí en santa rosa realmente el gente la gente sin hogar está creciendo por todas partes Si manejas alrededor de santa rosa ves que hay mucha gente Que está sin hogar y es verdaderamente una vergüenza porque yo estoy viendo que están construyendo casas por todo alrededor de santa rosa Y existen estas gentes y bueno la llamo gente verdad es gente sin hogar gente sin esperanza gente sin trabajo gente sin dinero Cuando hay dinero aquí en santa rosa porque no hacen programas para ayudar a la gente En otros países es mínimo mínimo la gente que está sin hogar Gente que la recogen y la apoyan le dan ayuda psicológica que es lo que necesitan estas personas Acaso no tenemos amor Yo veo a la gente que está Sufriendo en las calles que tienen frío O sea quisiera darles una covija comida Es desesperante ver a esta gente en las calles Por qué no hacen algo Hagan algo por ellos Da vergüenza ver a la gente afuera Y más ahorita que hace frío gente que está muriendo que no tiene hogar Por favor hagan algo pero no solamente creen Safe parking for them Something useful for them Thank you Please Thank you Thank you. Can you please restate Speakers comment Of course. Good evening. Thank you for doing something for The homeless community. However, this is an embarrassment No one does anything for the homeless community. I mean the programs that are being developed aren't working The homeless community is growing in santa rosa all over santa rosa. You can see it And it really is an embarrassment There are people that have no work No hope No money So why not make programs to actually help them Other countries in other places of the world. There are very few in this minimal amount of homeless population You know, they pick them up. They help them You know, so why not do a little more? You know, these are people out in the streets that are cold Um, and it it's really an embarrassment and it makes me sad I want to give them a little bit of hope and give them a blanket or do something for them Um, it really is an embarrassment and I think you should do do more do more for the homeless community Um, do make a program that's actually going to work Not just safe parking Do something useful. Thank you Okay, thank you. So that's our live public comment Deputy city clerk, do we have any voicemails? We do not mayor All right, I'll bring it back to the full council council members. What help can you put a motion on the table? Absolutely, mr. Mayor I would move a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa approving catholic charities of the diocese of santa rosa As the operator of the safe parking pilot program in approving execution of an operating agreement For safe parking pilot program with catholic charities in the amount of 1,299,826 dollars For the initial period of january 1 2022 to december 31 2022, which is year one With an option to extend for the period january 1 2023 to december 31 2023 a k a year two And authorizing the chief financial officer to appropriate 2 million dollars From the american rescue plant act one time monies for the program for a two-year period january 1 2022 to december 31 2023 and waive further reading of the text I'll go ahead and second We have a motion from council member sweat helm and a second from the vice mayor Is there any discussion from council members? You want to speak? Go ahead council member I just want to say that I I do realize that we we need a safe parking program, but I also realized that We need more We need more operators for Programs that we Have within our community If we have only a few operators that are providing services it limits The quality I believe My opinion it limits the the quality Of the services and also it limits People's Right to choose where they want to receive services. So if you do not Like or care for a particular Um Operator then you just won't receive services. So you prefer to stay on the street And I don't agree with that and I think that in our community We have operators or an operator that tends to monopolize our Homeless Services and I think that there are some that choose not to participate in services And that satans me because I think that Everyone should be provided the opportunity to engage in services so With that being said I agree with the safe parking, but I will not be Um voting yes on this because I think that we need to um Really diversify? Uh The operators that we have within our community and give people the right to to choose Um, and just because they are unhoused. I don't think that they should only be able to get services from Uh A very large Operator because they have The best written proposal I just think that we need to diversify our Diversify our services think more out of the box and know that Things that we have been doing is not working. Otherwise, we would already Have this in the bag and know what we're doing and we don't and We can see that it's not working what we have been doing and we need to do something different. So Until we do something different. I don't really think that I can support it. So All right, vice mayor Thank you, mayor. Before I make my comment, I do have two questions. I mean, which is gracias a calde y antes de ser mi Sorry You're good brother my question is When can we revise this program again? Will it also be in three months? Or must it be the full year? so I didn't you said something about revise and so I didn't catch Also revisit revisit my Revisit my revise to just see the update of the program. How often are we going to get updates of how the program is coming along? so The contract before you this afternoon requires catheterities to submit monthly reports So we can see how the progress is going and we will be having regular check-ins with them, especially since this is a pilot program and um, I can you know Council's request, um, you know provide updates on the program's progress as well very well and in regards to to And i'm just going to put it out there in in the in the future and equing what what council member roger just stated The grassroots efforts that we have so many in our community. I definitely hope that catheterities looks towards them to really help them Complete the outreach that I know that they're very good at because I have been on lombardi court Feeding these individual sandwiches and seeing what their needs are and I and I really hope that we can use them as a as the asset that I Know that they are to be um In regards to my comment the truth is we could always do more The truth is that I know that we're bound by a lot of different things of why we can't do everything that we wish we could do My question would be what are what incentive? of And also a comment one sense of our reassuring that people are going to participate in the program I know that a while back we we we we visited we visited a a no parking Ordinance that we did not move forward with Is that is that a possibility on the table moving forward just to assure that people take advantage of the program? So and I'll look to the city manager to jump in on where we're at with the parking ordinance because I know that is Something we're considering But we want the first step here is getting safe parking Up and running seeing how many people we get to come in I anticipate that we're going to be oversubscribed I could be surprised and then and that not be the case that I think we need to gauge our Capacity within the program as part of moving forward with with the parking ordinance And to the comment of of doing more for the community Again, I do agree with that statement and I hope that the community will see that we are doing something And then we're moving in the in the correct direction. I believe which is offering the service I know that that some might disagree with the idea that we have such low barriers But my feeling is that in order to help people we have to bring them in Before they actually are even helped sometimes and that includes those that are are dependent on drugs If we simply do not offer them something, how do we expect them to come in and know that there's Services that are available to them. So that is why I hope that community understands why we place the low barrier on such a program Thank you. Kelly Mayor and council, there are Discussions taking place between the county And the other city jurisdictions over the development of a potential overnight parking ordinance and camping ordinance We want to make sure that that's coordinated with the availability of our and overnight parking facilities So that if we do choose to pass an ordinance that there is a place with capacity for vehicles to go The other concern that we're addressing is if one jurisdiction implements a overnight parking ban and an adjacent jurisdiction does not it's highly likely that there'll be a migration of Vehicles from one jurisdiction to the other so We want to observe and see what participation is like in the 24 hour over parking night parking location And if it is not at capacity That will tell us that we may Have a reason to consider Moving more quickly with an overnight parking ordinance Thank you, mr. City manager any additional comments All right, madame city clerk. Could you please call the vote? Yes. Thank you, mayor councilmember schwethelm. Hi councilmember soyer councilmember flimming councilmember rogers Vice mayor alvarez I Mayor rogers I that motion passes with Four eyes with councilmember rogers voting no councilmember soyer absent and councilmember tibet's abstaining All right. Thank you council We'll move on to our public comment for non-agenda items My apologies folks that one obviously went a little bit A little bit longer than we expected So we'll go ahead and take the public comments for folks. Uh, we've got virginia followed by ricarda Excuse me. I think virginia was for the last oh you're for both go for it Can I ask the interpreter not currently translating on the spanish channel to raise your hand so I can bring you over to assist with public comment? Thank you star this concilio vengo a pedirles en representación de