City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council of Calistoga. It is August 4th and two minutes after 6 p.m. City Clerk, may we have a roll call, please?

Yes. Mayor Williams?

Present.

Vice Mayor Gift? Present. Council Member Lopez Ortega? Present. Council Member Cooper?

Present.

Council Member Eisenberg? Present.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So we want to welcome everyone who's here and also welcome everyone who's participating online tonight at this meeting. There's no closed session to report on. And the next item on the agenda is oral communication. And this time is set aside to receive comments from the public regarding matters on the consent calendar or matters of municipal concern not on the agenda. Pursuant to government code section 54954.3, the Brown Act, The council cannot consider any issues or take action on any requests not on the agenda during this comment period. Speakers are encouraged to limit their comments to three minutes so that all speakers have an opportunity to address the city council. Are there any speaker cards, city clerk? Yes, we have one for Larry Croman. Mr. Croman? Welcome, Mr. Crollman.

Larry Crollman for Calistoga Affordable Housing, and we have a video to help me keep within the three minutes.

Thank you.

Appreciate that. Okay, sure.

mayor, council members, and neighbors. Calistoga Affordable Housing's Rebuilding Calistoga program has provided free health and safety repairs for low-income seniors since 2009. From January through June, 2026, it helped 34 families remain safely at home. More than 750 volunteers have served the program over its history. Today, only a few volunteers remain available. Calistoga Affordable Housing now hires paid handymen to complete repairs when volunteer help is unavailable, allowing the work to continue. The program reports losing all of its normal funding during this period, while recording $2,500 in program income. Even under that pressure, Rebuilding Calistoga continued providing free health and safety repairs. Calistoga Affordable Housing operates a countywide senior lift program created in 2012. Its 17 lifts serve five Napa County communities. 15 are in service, one is in storage, and one needs extensive repairs. Eligible seniors lease a powered lift for $1 per year. From January through June, the program completed one new lift installation and five maintenance repairs. It spent $10,512 on purchase, installation, and maintenance. Calistoga Affordable Housing's four rental properties provide 58 affordable homes, 24 at Palisades Apartments, 18 at Saratoga Manor, and eight each at Lakewood and Turley Flats. Lakewood reports operating at a loss because of high maintenance and water costs. Turley Flats reports losses tied to its high interest mortgage and high water rates. Calistoga affordable housing is also developing a factory built accessory dwelling unit program for homeowners the planned homes will have two or three bedrooms and follow city of calistoga or napa county requirements, the program remains in development. Together, Calistoga Affordable Housing supports senior safety, mobility, affordable rental homes, and family-sized housing options. This report shares the local needs being addressed and the work completed from January through June. Thank you.

Okay, Mr. Croman, thank you for that presentation. Appreciate that. Is there anyone else who would like to address the public on a matter on the consent calendar or of other municipal concern? Yes, Mr. Krause, welcome.

Yes, my name is Gary Krause, 1909 Carly Avenue, or Carly Drive, I should say. I think everybody here probably pretty well knows me already. I have some concerns about the automatic aid contract that is on the consent calendar, and I am prepared to make comments now or later if it gets pulled off the agenda.

Yeah, your comments are appropriate now. I don't know if it's going to be pulled.

Okay. I've got to put on my glasses so I keep all this on time here. I became the fire chief of Calistoga in 1999. At that time, I was told that a new county contract was a high priority. The county contract goes back to pre-Proposition 13. Calistoga transferred a portion of our property tax to the county. In return, the county was to perform certain services. Not all of those services are included in the staff report as it is today. Plus, the county was then obligated to pay a fixed amount of money to the city for responding into the county area as we have done since this agreement. And I'm sorry, I don't remember what the date was. In about 2002, negotiations on a new contract broke down and for about a year, the county operated a fire station on Tubbs Lane. That didn't work out for the county and after about a year, the county resumed negotiations. During that time, the county was obligated to provide response and dispatch services due to the property tax transfer. Today, the county receives about $300,000 per year based on 1.5% of the property tax for structural fire protection and 0.35% for wildland response for a total of 1.85% of Calistoga's total assessed valuation. Today, You have a balanced budget this year with the assumption that $179,000 would be coming from the county for fire services. The council increased the number of paid firefighters by three. You estimated that the city budget was in the black by $30,000. I believe that comes from a newspaper article. The fire department budget is about 3.7 million bucks. The fire department responded to 1,236 incidents in the previous year, of which 29% or 358 were outside the city. My recommendation is to direct staff to continue negotiations with a date certain. to conclude or the city halt services and notify insurance industry, the insurance industry. The county is going to come up with a number of reasons why they can't start negotiations because they did that before. They say, gee whiz, our staff is out on fires all over the country. That's a good reason. And that the city do outreach to the county residents to let them know that we do support them and that we want to continue the service at reasonable cost.

and uh okay great that is and that is a three minutes but thank you for that information you're welcome yeah is there anyone else who would like to address the council Yes, sir. Good evening.

My name is Tom O'Neill. I live at 1323 Spring Street. By way of credential to my comments, I would want to tell you that I lived for some 40-plus years in the town of Tiburon, where I served for a dozen years on the Tiburon Fire District and also the Southern Marin EMT system, and I'd sorted a number of other community committees, et cetera. So I'm somewhat familiar with the operation of towns. I would also mention that my company and myself personally were the ones that did the analysis of the fairgrounds and the golf course that you all use to negotiate with the county of Napa. NOW, AS TO MY COMMENTS, A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO IN THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER WAS AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE LOW CRIME RATE IN OUR TOWN, CITING THAT IT'S, I DON'T KNOW IF IT WAS AN ALL-TIME LOW, BUT IT'S LOWER THAN IT'S BEEN IN A LONG TIME. I WANT TO GIVE A REAL RECOGNITION AND A GREAT AMOUNT OF APPRECIATION FOR THAT TO OUR, to our acting town manager and former police chief of many years, to our current police chief, and the force that we have, that we are fortunate to have in this town. Pardon me. I'd like to give a special attention to Sergeant Rudy Elvenes, I think is how he pronounces his name. I'm not sure, but it's close to that. To my observation, he is the definition of community policing. And our entire police force, from my observation, is doing a terrific job of being present in our town, being visible, and being, I would say, accessible. I seem to have more contact with Sergeant Rudy than others, but he is a person who we all see in town. He spends time around town on Lincoln Avenue, and I think doing the things that community policing is all about. So congratulations to you, to our services. You've done a great job. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. O'Neill. Is there anybody else here in the chambers tonight who would like to address the council? Ms. Yant?

I totally missed that the fire department was going to be on tonight, but I wanted to talk about 5.1, the money that we're going to give the chamber of commerce. I strongly believe that there should be an income and expense report that goes along with their, just a request for funds. 566,000 is a lot of money and it covers their payroll. Um, I think that's kind of an odd situation, so I think I would like to know more information on why we are giving that amount of money to the chamber, an income and expense. The fire department has to jump through, everybody else has to jump through hoops to get money, but it's kind of like, oh, here, they get the TBID money, and that's a lot of money that they get and they control. I don't know how many people are aware of TBID, but it's a lot, and changing gears, We need fire support no matter how we get it. I have lived outside of city limits. I've lived in city limits. And having Calistoga be the first one to show up has saved a life or a couple lives that I know of personally. It's whoever's first closest should be the ones to move. You can't wait for somebody past you down the road to respond way out there. And I haven't been able to read it, but it looks like there's some trade-offs that are happening, and maybe there needs to be more discussion, but I like the coverage. Thank you.

Thanks, Ms. Yant. Is there anybody, city clerk online? We'll check there.

Yes, we have one person.

Sure.

Dom, can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes, we hear you, Mr. Tallarico. You're welcome to start.

You have three minutes. Fantastic. Good evening, everybody. I just wanted to talk about water rates because it's been an issue on next door Calistoga. And I learned some things following that particular thread that made the situation even more critical for a lot of folks in town than I even thought. The water rates have always been an issue with me. I've talked about them before. I think it's time for the city council to really look at this particular issue. There's a lot of people that I think are finding it very difficult to pay the water rates that we do. I think there are some solutions. I think I've suggested a city council meeting making the fixed costs variable with usage. And I can talk about that later at some other meeting or offline. But I think there's a lot of people that are concerned. There was a petition that was being put together. Quite a few people were interested in that petition. there there was also some comments about uh wanting to submit letters to the city council for this meeting but somehow they didn't get posted i think there was just one public comment um i think the city council especially in an election year because people are going to pay more attention. They're going to remember this when it's hitting their pocketbooks. You need to do something quickly. I think it's time to get away from certain issues that they may have some validity. They are important to some people, but in the grand scheme of things, what people are paying that they think is outrageous is something you guys need to address um I noticed on this agenda for example there's some Green Committee items okay that's fine but if you talk to people and say are you and this is just an example are you more concerned about low carbon concrete or lower water rates I think we all know what the answers are going to be And the city council has, or actually the city has spent time dealing with issues that really aren't that important to people. The most recent one is the city manager and I guess other city resources spending time for a failed organization to try and keep it viable. According to the vice mayor, months were spent on this. Why? I mean, clearly nobody cared about that organization because they couldn't get any support. On the other hand, water rates are very important. So I hope that you guys put this on the agenda and deal with it as quickly as possible. Thank you very much. I appreciate the time to talk to you.

Thanks, Mr. Tallarico. And we'll check city clerk if there's anyone else online.

No more online.

Thank you for checking. Would anybody else like to address the council who's in the chambers tonight? Would anybody else like to address the council? Okay, then we're prepared to close. Anybody else? Okay, we'll close public comment then. Let's go on then next to city manager's report.

Thank you, Mayor, city council members. So a few items to talk about. I'm going to start out with some events, and one of them is occurring as we speak. It's the 10th annual National Night Out. it goes from 4 p.m to 7 p.m so unfortunately we're probably going to miss the ending of this event it's in pioneer park it's a free community event which features food family friendly activities and opportunity to meet your local law enforcement we have tabling from across the county that includes the sheriff's department the chp our city fire department has a table and a number of local organizations and non-profits so i thank them for participating in our national night out Moving on with other events, I'd like to move to the fairgrounds and share that the fairgrounds staff is excited to bring forward a new rodeo rental agreement with the vintage rodeo for city council consideration on August 25th. The rodeo is scheduled for October 9th through the 11th and is expected to be another successful community event at the Calistoga fairgrounds. On another issue, we have Donovan's Wellness has temporarily relocated to the Fairgrounds Pro Shop. This is a temporary arrangement while completing renovations at their permanent location. The staff is pleased to support local business during this transition. And then last but not least, the fairgrounds staff wanted to share that they recently hosted a two-day PG&E staff conference in the Tubbs building, featuring presentation meetings, employee training. The successful event demonstrates the continued demand for the fairgrounds as a regional venue for community, business, and organizational events. I have an item from Human Resources. It is their pleasure to introduce Annie Stimley, who has joined the City of Calistoga as our new Administrative Assistant for the Fairgrounds Director. Annie brings a strong background in communications, public relations, customer service, and community engagement. She's earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and an emphasis in public relations from the California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. Most recently, Annie served as the North Coast Regional Manager for Sunridge Nurseries, where she managed customer relationships throughout Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, and Solano counties. while representing the company at industry events and working closely with regional growers. She also served as the public relations and parent coordinator for the Santa Elena Cooperative Nursery School, managing communications, social media, fundraising events, and parent engagement. The Napa Valley native, Annie, is excited to serve her local community in this new role. Her experience in communications, event coordination, customer service, and relationship management will be a valuable asset to both the city and the fairgrounds. So we'd like to welcome Annie. She unfortunately was unable to make it this evening, but you'll find her in the Tubbs building where she has an office with Director Shelley. Sorry about that. Had a little mental lapse for a second. And then last but not least, I wanted to share from Public Works, as you know, the construction work on Lincoln Avenue has begun. It's the main water line replacement, which will replace 86 years old of old water main. The project is anticipated to reach substantial completion by mid-September. As you know, as we move through these constructions, things come up. And so even though we're saying mid-September, just please be patient as we work through this process. This is needed improvement for the city of Calistoga. And with that, I'd like to end and answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, City Manager. Council Members, any questions, comments for our City Manager on this report? None from me. Okay. Thank you for the report. And now we have a presentation. This is item 5.1 on our agenda. And this is a presentation by the Chamber of Commerce reporting on fiscal year 2526. And we have the CEO, Eric Reichert. And welcome, Mr. Reichert.

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me in to do this report. I know time is limited, so I will get through this deck relatively quickly. Let's go right to it. Let's talk about budget. I know that was a concern that somebody brought up earlier. We do get $566,000 from the city, which is substantial, and I agree with that, and it's money that we use and we are good stewards of, or we try to be. The payroll expenses on there include not just payroll, it's not just salaries, it also includes INSURANCE, IT ALSO INCLUDES JUST EVERYTHING, PAYROLL TAXES, EVERYTHING THAT COMES ALONG WITH HAVING A COMPANY ESSENTIALLY. SO THAT IS A BIG CHUNK. WE HAVE SEVEN PEOPLE ON STAFF. SO THAT IS WHERE THAT COMES FROM. MARKETING IS 47%. ALSO IT'S PAYROLL EXPENSES. THAT ALSO IS CONTRACT LABOR THAT WE USE FOR EVENTS WHEN WE NEED IT. MARKETING IS, I'M GOING TO TOUCH ON SOME OF THIS IN A LITTLE BIT. ONE THING I DID LEAVE OUT WAS OUR GOOGLE DISPLAY ADS AND SOME OF THE OTHER MARKETING THAT WE DO, THE ADVERTISING THAT WE DO. IT JUST WOULD HAVE TAKEN TOO MUCH TIME. BUT 47% OF THAT DOES GO DIRECTLY TOWARDS MARKETING THE CITY. AND THEN THE WELCOME CENTER OPERATIONS IS THE OTHER 13%. AND THAT GETS SHARED WITH THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. So some of the payroll expenses are shared with the chamber and some of the welcome center expenses are shared with the chamber. Marketing is all directly from that fund into direct marketing. And for the T-Bid, the chamber does not have control of the T-Bid and neither does the destination marketing. We apply for funds like anybody else does. So if we need money, we have Holly Hanson PR that does our PR for us. I go to the T-Bid and ask The hoteliers, I recuse myself, I ask the hoteliers and the city staff for that money and they either yay or nay me just like anybody else. So I think it's kind of a misconception a little bit around town that we have all this tourism improvement district money that the chamber has and we don't. It's not ours, we just, we apply for it like everybody else. I'm going to start with a social media overview. We had a very good year. You can see here our total audience has increased quite a bit over the last year to 72,382 people, which is great. That's at 8.3% growth. Got about 5,500 new followers. And on Instagram, we got 11.8. And Instagram, TikTok is where we want to be. So that's good news. The bad news was our engagement went down a little bit. And we believe that that's because AI is coming in. and taking some of that. So compared to the previous year, the engagement's down a little bit, but our engagement rate is still at 3.5%, which is relatively high for industry standards. Anything between one and three is pretty good. And total views, that's just how many views we've had. So eyes on our destination, 4.8 million total views. Top platform was Facebook, and that's still a lot. We're down about 1.2%. from the previous year, but still quite a bit of eyes on our destination. So what are engagements? How are they different from something else? So engagement is when somebody interacts with the thing. They like it. They comment on it. Instead of just clicking it, watching it, moving on, they interact with it. here's just some of our top performing posts uh busters did a great great post um the uh harvest table event always is um great when we get good photography on that people love to see that that long table um the town uh mud this is a mud bath post um i think some towns wear designer we wear mud to promote the spa health and wellness that we do here. And then always Calistoga Lighted Tractor Parade is always a winner. So that was when we announced the winners, that was one of our highest performing posts on Instagram. So just kind of ran the gamut from restaurants to events to mud. Yeah, it's great. We have a lot going for us with that. One of the main things that I'm, if you guys noticed this, the Visit Calistoga with the person on the bike and the Unwind Country, that's something that we did this year. We did a rebrand. It's been a long time coming. It hadn't been done since 2019. And the old logo, when I got here, it was the Shield logo with the geyser and wine, and it was just too much. So we went back to the old Circle logo, which I thought was a little boring. So we brought in a company called Cook & Judd to do the rebrand, to help us with the rebrand. And we came up with Unwind Country as our tagline, which we thought was great. Ties into wine country, unwinding. We liked it so much that we trademarked it. So that's ours. And if you go to unwindcountry.com, it'll take you to the Visit Calistoga website. THE PERSON ON THE BIKE LEANING BACK, WE CALL THAT PERSON THE UNWINDER. SO THEY JUST ARE CHILLING. SO THERE'S DIFFERENT ITERATIONS. THERE'S THE LOGO, NEW LOGO. KIND OF WHIMSICAL, JUST KIND OF LAID BACK, FUN. WE WANTED THIS TO JUST BE FUN. I KNOW I'VE HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH COUNCILMEMBER EISENBERG ABOUT SNARKINESS AND SARCASM AND BEING FUN. AND WE'RE SHOWING THAT MORE AND MORE ON OUR WEBSITE. IF YOU GO LOOK AT THE NEW WEBSITE THAT WE REDID, It's very fun and very tongue-in-cheek, and so is our social posts are getting that way as well. So it's been really fun to explore that side of our destination. This is the Unwinder here. We have them on different things. So they're chilling on the bike, that's kind of the main one. Then they're on a luggage rack. Last one, they're getting their hat blown off by the geyser, and we're gonna have other iterations of that as we go along. It's not a logo, it's just kind of a persona that goes with the Visit Calistoga wordmark. But it's been fun to ideate about that. And then I don't know if this is gonna play. Is it gonna play, do we know? There should have been a video there, no? Okay, well there was a really cool video there of the Unwinder coming through and it basically had them cruising in and it said unbothered, unpretentious, and then just unwind country. So it was a really nice little video we put together. I was hoping that it would work. We'll talk about public relations and media. So we do hire Holly Hansen to do our public relations and media. She also brings in a lot of influencers for us, good journalists. We had some really, really great articles this year. Here's a couple snapshots. We were in Travel and Leisure. Ku Fleishman came in and did a great article. And if you look in the middle and the bottom, that same article got picked up by MSN. So I'm really good there. We've been in vegetarian news for our plant base House of Better I believe was in their wine country media Sunsets magazine afar featured in visit, California, which is huge So in Condé Nast traveler NBC Bay Area, there's a woman there who loves Calistoga. She works for NBC and every year a She writes a big article about the tractor parade and posts it down at NBC. And we do see actually L.A. traffic kind of come up through through that time. Footfall and welcome center traffic. So those of you that don't know, we track our footfall through a computer program called Placer AI that monitors cell phone metadata. So it doesn't know it's a person. It just knows that it's a cell phone and has an algorithm that tracks whether they might have kids with them or not. So we know how many people are in town at any given time. So if concerts in the park, for example, last week, I think we had 1,300 people in the park. When we had Boys of Summer, it was 2,000 people in the So we can see, get that granular with what we see online. So it's pretty great. Here's some metrics. This is year to date. So we've had 1.9 million visits from 467,000 plus visitors. So year over year, we're flat. I think the whole valley, I think we're up 1%, down a little bit over two years ago, and then flat over three years ago. But you can see people come back. So year to date, that's... Visitor frequency is 4.09. So that's one person coming back to Lincoln Avenue at least four times. The average dwell time per person, how long they stay is about an hour and a half. So an hour and 33 minutes. So they're getting lunch, they're eating, they're going shopping, they're doing things in town. We do get a lot of visitors. So the FIFA soccer match brought a lot of people to town when that was here. That was really great. I worked the Welcome Center a few Saturdays ago when that was happening, and we had people from Brazil. We had people from France, Spain, and Germany in. Just in town and it was it was great just in one day one Saturday. So in the past year the Welcome Center staff has helped 16,589 unique visitors we track we do it every day. We have a counter in the Welcome Center that we track people and Just by striking up conversations and making them feel welcome. We find out where they're from why they're in town Have they been before so we try to track all that. We also track our referrals to businesses and when we give them out. So that's a 15% increase over 24-25. And moving into our Lincoln Avenue location from a couple years ago, I would say it's probably a 300% increase from that Washington Avenue or the Washington Street location that we used to have. So it's been great to be on Lincoln, really high visibility, really gets us in touch with visitors and sends them out to our businesses. And then our annual events. So last but not least, we have our annual events. So we got rid of Wellness Week. How am I doing on time? Mitch, doing good? Okay. Unwind Weekend was a new event for us this year. So we had been doing Wellness Weekend, just did not bring the people in that we thought it would. We tried and tried and came up with different ideas, didn't work. So we decided to just blow it up and do Unwind Weekend, which was... It was a bathrobe bar crawl, really, for this year. It was really, really, really fun. We were hoping for 75 to 100 people to show up. We had 313 register and over 250 attend. And we think that that's going to grow year over year. So if you want to see more pictures, I have tons of pictures of hot pink bathrobes, white bathrobes. At the end of the night, Susie's was just filled with people in bathrobes after the event. So it was a huge hit, and we're going to do it again next year, and we're going to introduce a pet gala, which we were going to do this past year but didn't work out. So look for more information on that. That'll be a real great weekend. Concerts in the Park, we're in it right now. It's been going great. We're averaging about 1,500 people per concert, which is really great. I know we've had some problem with Wednesday seats, and we're working on that. But the bands have been great. It's been a really good season, and people are really turning out. Even with the heat, it's been great. Harvest Table, that is coming up. We've got that in, oh boy, about five weeks, which is scary to think about. But this year we have nine restaurants, about 750 seats. It's going well. So that's another great event that brings people to town, celebrates our culinary scene, helps fill the hotels. It's such a great event. And then, of course, we have the Lighted Tractor Parade. That is, last year was the number four best holiday parade in the US, and by USA Today, which was great to see. We were at nine when I started, and then we made it to seven, and last year we were four. Also wanna give a shout out to Parks and Rec and the Brandon Center. We did a Merry and Bright Night with the city and the Brandon Center. That went off really well. Excited to partner with them again this year on that. And the city's been really, really fun to partner with on those events. And to Rachel with her help and And I'm excited about the rodeo, Shelly. So we're promoting that. I met with those guys last week. But the city has been really great to work with, and it's been a fun year for events. AND WITH THAT, THAT'S IT IN A NUTSHELL. I DO WANT TO SAY THAT OUR BOOKS ARE OPEN. THE DESTINATION MARKETING FUNDS THAT COME FROM THE CITY ARE OPEN. SO FEEL FREE IF ANYBODY WANTS TO COME IN AND TAKE A PEEK AT THEM, FEEL FREE. THEY'RE ALWAYS THERE SINCE THAT MONEY IS FROM THE TAXPAYERS. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRANSPARENT WITH THAT.

APPRECIATE YOU COMING. THANK YOU FOR THE REPORT. COUNCILMEMBERS, YES. QUESTIONS? YES.

COUNCILMEMBER REISENBERG. More comments than questions, if that's okay. I'm really pleased that you did take my suggestions on social media. And I think that's maybe one of the reasons for increased engagement. No, I really am impressed with the change in branding. I think that everyone in the Napa Valley can use wine branding. we have some advantages that we must stress if we want to continually get our fair share of the visitor dollars. And there is no question that the economy of Calistoga is completely dependent on visitor dollars. And so broadening the appeal, I think, is a very good idea. Some suggestions to continue the efforts that are to bring our overnight visitors into town and we've talked about that before but we need to support our local businesses in town and strongly encourage that our overnight visitors. are also partaking of our wonderful town. So I do recognize the need to continue to advertise. We are in a competitive tourist market and really we cannot let up and I appreciate the innovations that the chamber is doing. Thank you. Thank you.

And I will say that this year, I asked Connie last week, she didn't quite have the numbers, but I think our TOT this year is going to surpass last year, closing it on 13 million. And that's a lot of the luxury properties really doing well this year, but it's everybody, and it's the efforts of bringing people to town, to your point. We have to really vie for those dollars. And our water and our well-being messaging is really working.

Thank you. Other council members? Okay, thank you. Yes, I would like to weigh in.

Yes, Vice Mayor. So in the effort, thank you, Eric, very much for your presentation. In the effort to address concerns from the public, I certainly understand where concerns lie with funding an organization so heavily compared to maybe other organizations. It's maybe $500,000 a year on a five year contract that we have committed to. But you guys also do provide us with a monthly DM marketing report. to the council every month of where everything goes correct. And I think as a council, we need to be really thoughtful about this considering that the TOT tax is generally over one third of our entire general fund budget. So just as a matter of public interest, thank you for your report, but that we think about that, so.

and when we were talking about getting the contract renewed um city manager and i looked at other what the other cities were getting proportionally and it seemed like it was a a fair amount for the amount of tot that we actually get compared to down valley cities which is a lot we get we we do a much better the other cities are not in as good shape as we are so it's it's definitely proportional and it's like i said we use it we try to be the best stewards of those funds as we possibly can

And I think by you guys giving us that report every month shows how good you are with those funds and that's where I kind of support that and knowing that it's supporting our bottom line of our fire department, our police department, all of that. So thank you.

And I think about that almost every penny that we spend.

Thank you, Eric.

Yeah, I think it's even as much as half, maybe a little bit over half last time I checked.

It weighs, but yeah, one third to half. Some of yours 56%, yeah.

Okay, other council members? Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council.

The next item is item number 5.2, which is a presentation from Napa Valley Transportation Authority. And you've come all the way up from Down Valley.

I love being up in Calistoga.

Appreciate your coming up here.

Absolutely. It's hard to follow that presentation from the chamber, but I will do my best. And I will, again, try to be pretty clear.

You don't have to say whether you took the bus or not.

You know, I got to get home to put my six-year-old son down to bed a little bit later, so I didn't take the bus. But thank you for coming. Thank you for coming up. Thank you. So my name is Patrick Band. I'm a senior planner with the Napa Valley Transportation Authority. We presented on the countywide active transportation to this council previously. I've got to give you a little feedback there. And so I will try to be brief. This item will be coming back at a later date for formal adoption of the plan. And we'll get going. Let's see if that works.

Could you clarify right up in the beginning when we refer to the active transportation plan? I will.

I don't know if it turned off.

Active has a particular connotation. Yes.

It refers to? So active transportation refers to walking, biking, riding a scooter, and other forms of non-vehicular and non-motorized travel in and around our local communities.

So the report and the discussion will center on non-motorized transportation?

Yes, it will. But as with many things, the non-motorized form of transportation significantly impacts all other modes that are using our local roadways as well.

Great and city clerk do you mind turning the timer so that I can see it as well a little bit rotating it there?

Okay so why did NVTA put together a county-wide transportation plan and what was our intent? So we put together an initial county-wide pedestrian plan in 2016 and in 2019 a county-wide bicycle plan which you know at this date are showing their age a little bit and so We initiated an update process about a year and a half, two years ago to ensure that the recommendations that we're making for all of our local communities in terms of investments in active transportation align with best practices. They're consistent with state and federal law and local and regional guidelines for those investments to ensure that cities like Calistoga continue to be effective in applying for grant funding to construct more walking and biking opportunities for residents. We also want to make sure we're identifying exactly where those investments have been made historically, mapping where our walking and biking opportunities are, and ensuring that we're engaging with the public. We don't want to, as a county-wide agency, create a plan that looks and feels like the city of Napa for Calistoga. That doesn't make sense. We want to make sure that it's locally relevant and context-specific. We kicked off this project in the fall of 2024 and took about two years to go through significant data collection, community engagement, recommendations development, feedback from city staff, and plan completion, which occurred earlier this year. In total, we had roughly 2,000 unique engagements with residents throughout the valley as part of this planned development process. We had a workshop in this room about a year and a half ago. We attended the Calistoga Farmer's Market. We did numerous presentations to your Active Transportation Committee and had over 30 partner events with nonprofits and other stakeholders throughout the community. in developing this plan and had numerous online engagement opportunities as well. In terms of the plan organization and the goals, why does an active transportation plan matter? What is this going to do for Calistoga? First and foremost, we're focusing on safety. We want to make sure that as people are choosing to get around our community without using a vehicle, whether it's on foot or by bike or a scooter, that they're being able to do so safely. that it is a plan that invests and makes recommendations for investments in an equitable and accessible manner, that it prioritizes sustainability and primarily maintenance as well. We want to make sure that the recommendations that we're making can be maintained, that we're not recommending facilities that a local community will then no longer be able to invest in down the road. The plan has individual chapters for each jurisdiction. So Calistoga has its own chapter within this plan, Chapter 11, and that'll be what's coming back to your council at a subsequent meeting for formal adoption. We also developed a number of policies that will be in this plan looking at what are the ways that we want to encourage active transportation use throughout our communities. So these policies address everything from bicycle parking to the use of curb space on our streets to encouragement programs, education, to make sure that our youth have both the knowledge and the opportunities to get out and walk and bike safely, as well as recommendations that then can be forwarded along to developers for future development. So when a developer's coming in and building a class one shared use pathway, or they have investments along a streetscape, what are the right elements to include that support active transportation modes in the long term. We also developed a pretty detailed treatment toolkit about an 80 page document that looks at how do we actually implement these kinds of treatments, whether it's a class two bike lane or how exactly do you position bike parking on a street or on a curb So that whether it's a public work staff or city council or members of the public can look at this document and have a kind of a quick resource for what the types of treatments for active transportation investments might look like, what might be appropriate for their street. We've heard already after this plan was adopted by the NVTA board, members of the public saying, hey, I want to have traffic calming, you know, slower cars on my street. What are some opportunities? What are some strategies that I could go to my local decision makers with to say, hey, these are some things that I'd like to discuss. So we feel this is a very valuable element of the plan as well. We did a pretty detailed needs assessment, looking at what has prior planning looked like in active transportation in Calistoga. We evaluated what we call our Vision Zero high injury network, that small share of our roadway where the significant majority of severe and fatal collisions occur, both within Calistoga and countywide, identifying those roads that have higher safety risks. looking at bicycle level of traffic stress, which I'll talk about in a little bit, and then also making sure that we're looking at origins and destinations. Where are people coming from in our community? Where do they want to go when they're walking or biking? I mentioned level of traffic stress. So we mapped and evaluated all the streets within Calistoga on a scale of one to four, one being those streets that are less comfortable and four being those that are the most comfortable. So I think of this, I mentioned earlier, I have a six-year-old son. Would I be comfortable with my six-year-old son riding a bike along with me on any street in Calistoga? probably not any street. And so by evaluating the level of traffic stress, we can identify what are opportunities to improve the level of comfort that I might feel riding with my son down, whether it's Lincoln or Silverado Trail, probably not, or other streets in our community. And I'll note roughly 20% of roadway miles in American Canyon, or sorry, that should say Calistoga, my apologies, scored a level of chronic stress of three or four and are considered high stress. We also evaluated an existing bicycle network, so I won't go over this slide in detail, but it is in your packet, to map out what does our existing bicycle pedestrian network look like from our 2019 plan, what investments have been made between then and today as we look towards future investments. And again, there's another typo. My significant apology is there. Oops. We also looked at project prioritization. We have, I believe, 70 projects included for Calistoga in this plan. And we wanted to identify, you know, what are some opportunities for this council or public works or planning staff to prioritize, you know, those limited public dollars and where they might go next. the farthest. So we created a kind of draft project prioritization list, obviously not binding, but just a recommendation based on the data that we collected in this plan. And that prioritization is based on five key criteria. Safety, so looking at our high injury network, where those collisions occur, looking at equity, ensuring that this is broadly distributed, addressing the community's needs, connectivity, plan consistency, and community support based on that public engagement that we had done.

We also looked at pedestrian network gap closures.

I think we've all experienced walking down the street in town and there's no sidewalk. And so we end up walking in the streets to get to wherever we're going. And so what we did as part of this plan effort was evaluate key destinations, whether that's schools or parks, and we effectively drew a 500 foot circle around those locations and said, where are there gaps in the pedestrian network within 500 feet of those key destinations and prioritize those for closure. And we come up with about three and a half miles of proposed class one shared use pathways and about 3.7 miles of proposed sidewalk gap closures within the city. So the full plan is available online, and the next slide will have a little QR code and a URL that you can review that plan. I also wanted to note from an environmental perspective, NVTA processed this through notice of exemption with a state, so there's no additional approvals that the council needs to take for this plan. And again, it will be coming back to you for adoption at a subsequent meeting. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

Great. Thank you for the presentation. Then council members, is there any questions or comments you'd like to offer?

Yes.

Yes, Council Member Eisenberg. I can't help but comment on active transportation.

We love it.

So first, just in general, we know that we do not have the resources to implement every part of the plan, but I completely appreciate the work showing, helping us find our priorities in order to expand our active transportation network. Okay. And just a comment that fits kind of to merge the last presentation with this one. First, a good active transportation network is very important to our residents. augments the small town ambience of Calistoga, that we are a walkable, bicycle city. In addition, an active transportation plan that is also a good attraction for our visitors, and it fits in with the relaxed theme. It allows for a low-tension visitor experience, and that is good for Calistoga. So any improvements we can make in active transportation absolutely benefits our residents and also benefits our bottom line with visitors. So thank you.

Thank you. Okay, thank you. Other council members? Thank you.

Thank you.

I just have a couple of questions. So when you refer to things like the gap closures or the gaps and or also the streets that have a certain level of stress, are you in communication with Public Works locally here to develop that information? So does your work, is it derived from Public Works information or is it gathered separately and then is it correlated or how do they relate?

Very good question. Yes. So the level of traffic stress data is based on a handful of key criteria. One is the traffic volume on local roadways. The second is speeds of vehicles. Those two pieces of information we collect from local public works or planning or other departments, depending on the jurisdiction. In this case, we worked closely with both planning and public works. And then the third is the existing facilities. Is there a bike lane? Is there a bike path? adjacent to the corridor, for example. And so those kind of data points go into that level of traffic stress analysis. So for example, Silverado Trail is a good example of a high stress corridor. You do have a bike lane on portions of Silverado Trail or Highway 29 similarly, but very high volumes, very high speeds, and relatively narrow facilities. So that gets a relatively high level of traffic stress, whereas Local neighborhood streets that may not have a dedicated bike lane but have low speeds and low volumes will generally get a much lower score, which is better in this case.

So there's lots of data there.

There's lots of data, and I think we have a couple hundred pages of appendices in the plan if somebody really wants to dig into all of that. But yes, this plan was developed in close consultation with city staff.

So with the data, and there are many goals there, so can you give an example or tell us how all of this work that NVTA has done, how that work will contribute to making a difference in the average Calistogon's life or quality of life here?

So I'll give two examples, just kind of anecdotally. So one is that pedestrian gap closure that you also referenced. We are very aware that we have a pretty high share of our local residents in Calistoga who like to walk to local destinations, whether that's to the farmer's market, whether it's to local schools. So let's pretend I'm talking about my six-year-old son because it's an easy example. If he happened to go to Calistoga Elementary School, And there's a gap in a pedestrian network, a gap in a sidewalk. He would have to walk in the street, presumably, instead of on a sidewalk. And that presents various potential risks with collisions with automobiles or trip and fall hazards, etc. So by identifying where those gap gap closure opportunities are and prioritizing those gap closures near those key destinations like schools and parks, we can improve safety. We can also improve the likelihood that somebody is going to be willing to walk or bike to those destinations. So going to Council Member Eisenberg's comments about quality of life, I think that's a key consideration. the other is on those higher speed corridors whether it's you know silver trail highway 29 or others just outside the city limits again this is a county-wide plan so if you are a recreational bicyclist like councilmember eisenberg is you may benefit from having improved bicycle facilities in the unincorporated area around calistoga so when visitors come here for example and they want to go on a bike tour that includes wine tasting they can do so a little bit more safely on silver trail or 29 that might be more likely to stay longer or partake in those activities. So just a couple of examples.

So for example, if Public Works identifies a gap and that there's interest in closing that gap, is NVTA a conduit for sources of funds as well? So if Public Works says to NVTA, Do you have a way of helping us close this gap? Does NVTA actually have means that might be otherwise unavailable to Calistoga?

So NVTA does occasionally, and we have several grant programs that the city's taken advantage of. I believe later on your agenda this evening is a contract for the Oak Street Bridge design. That is funded in part with Transportation Development Act Article III funds, which do go through the Napa Valley Transportation Authority. Additionally, most regional, state, or federal fund sources require that a project be in an adopted plan in order to be eligible for funding. So by adopting this new plan, you will effectively ensure that you are eligible for those types of funding sources for the projects in the plan or the programs that are outlined in the plan moving forward. Great, thank you.

Other questions, comments? Okay, thank you for coming up. Thank you very much. Let's go to the consent calendar. There are, looks like, nine items on the consent calendar. I have to recuse myself on item 6.8, which refers to the Oak Street pedestrian bridge. Are there any others that anybody would like to pull? I'm going to ask to pull 6.9 as well. So I'll entertain a motion. Yes, entertain a motion to adopt the consent calendar with the exception of 6.9 and understanding that I, the mayor, am recusing myself on 6.8.

I would also like to make a motion to pull 6.4.

OK. So let's pull 6.4, vice mayor's request. 6.9 at the mayor's request. OK. Let's rephrase that motion. Let's see. I'll move to adopt the consent calendar with the exception of six point four and six point nine Understanding that I'm recusing myself on six point eight second. Thank you. And may we have a roll call please on that?

Mayor Williams Aye. Vice Mayor Gift? Aye. Council Member Lopez-Ortega?

Aye.

Council Member Cooper?

Aye.

Council Member Eisenberg? Aye. Thank you. Let's go to 6.4. Let's see. 6.4, the subject here is accepting the Cannabis Tax Fund Grant Program. And let's see, this is presented by Police Chief McCaffrey. Chief McCaffrey is over at the Pioneer Park, I believe. City Manager, do you think you are able to take this, or Council Member, or Vice Mayor?

I think we can have a discussion. I don't think it's too broad. I really support every effort for impaired driving enforcement. I think that's really important to our community. And I also always appreciate our staff's efforts in pursuing outside grant funding. It's really not about accepting the grant dollars. It's with creating a motorcycle patrol program that may Carry ongoing costs for training our maintenance equipment storage and eventual replacement And so I just had a few questions I guess is that is the purchase of the electric motorcycle a requirement? and required in the component of the grant or does it have Flexibility to modify as we go forward. So I guess that's my question.

Yeah, good question and

And maybe we could table this for to the end of the meeting. That's fine, because it's National Night Out, and we can table that.

Why don't we? Yes, city manager?

So I just texted him, because I believe he is a National Night Out. Because I'm not positive on the response to that question. My understanding is that it's probably not. I mean, there's items that you could ask for the grant, and that's one of the items. And I think he does have an answer to your question as far as storage and cost fees.

But if we were to accept the grant, it's not a requirement that we would have to purchase this motorized vehicle, which is a vehicle that we've never had in our police force before, at least in my life here.

Why don't we put, let's delay this vote on 6.4 until later in the meeting. Council members, are you okay with that? Just postponing it to a little bit later. And then Chief McCaffrey, I just saw him over there at the park and so.

I don't want to disturb that. It's such a fun night.

He's scheduled to finish, I think, at 7 o'clock. So let's put this one off, delay it for a few moments. And let's see. And I asked to pull 6.9. And 6.9 has the subject of the Navajo County Fire Department automatic aid agreement. And there were some questions raised. And Fire Chief, I think you were here when the public comment.

Yes, sir, I was.

Okay, great. Welcome, are you okay? Oh, yeah. All right. I haven't seen you on crutches yet, but there you are, okay. You're smiling, so I guess I'm gonna say you're okay. Thank you. Yes. All right, so there were some public comments offered, and can you tell us about this agreement that is proposed before us here. And perhaps address some of those public comments.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. So first of all, we have to look at how we've been operating for years and years. As Chief Krause had mentioned, we were in a contract agreement with Napa County Fire Department to provide fire services to the surrounding county area. That agreement has been in place longstanding and has gone through a number of different changes over the years. Originally, it was a fixed amount and dispatch services were included in the agreement, things like that. Over the years, it has changed. Dispatch services were taken out of the agreement a number of years ago. I believe it was 2014. 15, 2018, somewhere around there. And we had changed to, instead of a fixed amount, we were billing the county an amount per call for our responses into the county. That agreement went on for a number of years. As you all are aware, the amount that we were able to bill, we ended up reducing that amount about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago, because the county was very concerned with that amount and we ended up falling in line with the amounts that we billed to the state when we go out of county. And so that was that reduction in those fees. As this response contract continued on and discussions with the county, we ended up looking more at a model that is consistent throughout California as well as throughout the nation now, providing automatic aid as opposed to a contract response agreement, which is an exchange of services. We're going to respond into into the county areas and provide response there and County Fire will also respond into the city now much more than they have ever in the past and provide us with many more services and since the response numbers do not equal out they're also going to provide us with a number of other services through this agreement at no cost to the city. So we will be looking at, we will continue to respond as we have for years and years. The same response zones apply to us as far as responding into the county. So all of those people that are immediately surrounding Calistoga that consider themselves Calistoga residents, that come into Calistoga and spend their money here locally because they do live locally, we are still servicing those customers, for lack of a better word. We are doing it for a number of different reasons, but most importantly, we are the closest resource. In an emergency, the closest resource is who you want responding. What we are getting in return for that now, instead of billing on a per call agreement, what this agreement results in is we receive a number of services from Napa County Fire Department in exchange for our responses. We're gonna be receiving, we now have or will have a county battalion chief that will be responding to our calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any calls that need that operational command assistance. So that provides us that incident control, incident command ability 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. In the past up until a month ago if we had a structure fire here in Calistoga What pops up on the computer aided dispatch in the dispatch center was a single engine being dispatched? Calistoga engine 19 now we always have two engines on duty. So our second engine would always respond but it wasn't on the computer aided dispatch. Any additional resources that we needed for that fire, we would have to request. That results in great delays. From the time we are dispatched, until we are able to get on the road, you're looking at a minute and a half to two minutes to get dressed, get all your gear on, get in the fire engine and get on the road. We're not able to request other resources until we are in the fire engine and on the road where that radio is. So now you've got a two minute delay before we're even asking for more resources. And then the dispatch center would have to process those requests and then dispatch those units out. And then they again also have that minute and a half, two minute delay before they can get on the road. So you're looking at a five minute delay before additional resources are on the road. With this new agreement, we're going to end up with what is considered a true full first alarm response on any structure fire and on a number of other calls. And the dispatch matrix is included in the report. A little hard to figure out, but I'd be happy to go over it with you. But it lists all the different resources we will get on different types of calls. Structure fire being one of the more well known is why I'm covering it. But so we'd end up with actually getting five fully staffed fire engines immediately onto the road. A truck company immediately dispatched instead of the delay with us asking for them. Two volunteer fire engines also being dispatched. So those volunteers have to come in from home, staff the engine and respond. So they're a little slower to get on the road. A water tender the battalion chief breathing support all of that is now Instantaneous and automatically dispatched with this agreement So that's you know operationally we are much more prepared for any type of incident that goes on whether it's a Structure fire whether it's a hazardous materials incident. We don't have any hazardous materials experts on our staff. Napa County has a hazardous materials response team. If we have a hazardous materials incident here in town, In the past, it was, again, a single engine being dispatched, Calistoga Engine 19. Now when there's a hazardous materials incident, which can be very, very serious, we are getting a full first alarm response, plus we're getting a HAZMAT specialist immediately on the road to come up here and help us manage it. They can help us identify it, get all the appropriate resources en route, and the appropriate regulatory resources notified. We get the technical rescue team now, and we'll have full access to that. So our response capability is greatly enhanced through this automatic aid agreement. Moving further with training. You have all heard me say that we need a training ground. We don't really have one. We contract with Napa County Fire Department to use their training grounds on an annual basis. We pay very little for it. We pay, I think it's 500 a year. It's a great resource, but we can't get down there. It's down in in between Rutherford and Yonville on Silverado Trail And we would have to take our units out of service to get down there to use the training grounds and leave the town uncovered Not not not something we want to do we can't leave the town uncovered with this agreement We are actually working into Napa County fires training plan So every month we will be sending units down to the training ground, and they will not just be training with themselves, they'll be training with Napa County Fire Units, which are the units that they will be going to calls with, that will be coming here on our calls. So they get familiarity with them, they get to train with them. Everybody understands how everybody else operates. Very beneficial. Not only will we have that, we will also have other Napa County resources to cover the town while we are down there. So we do have those resources which are severely lacking in this town. We don't have a place we can go train. We don't have a tower. We don't have a building that we can go and throw ladders against because we're worried about damaging buildings. We can't do that in the public. This is a place where we can do that, we can do it safely, and we can do it with everybody else, greatly enhancing the services of the department. So we are getting a lot of services in exchange with this agreement. One key thing that we really have to look at, Napa County Fire Department has already canceled the response contract into the county. They are perfectly happy providing those services by themselves, even though it means a delay to those people if we are not able to help them out. And then we would also not receive all of these services that are in this agreement.

So on balance, do you feel that the value of what Calisoga is giving up is at least no more than the value of what we're benefiting from, the services we're getting from the county?

I do believe that the services are an equivalent benefit to the city. If we were to hire battalion chiefs, we would have to hire three of them. If we were to try to continuously utilize the training grounds, for one, we would be just by ourselves, And we wouldn't have the benefits of operating with all of the other first responders that we will be working with on an incident. But then we would also have to pay all of the overtime to bring in our staff to cover the station. And then we have difficulties with, we're such a small department, we don't have the depth and staff to be able to do that on a regular basis. So yeah, there's a number of benefits that really help out.

And has this proposed agreement already been presented to the County of Napa, to the supervisors?

It will go to the Board of Supervisors later this month. They are well aware of it. It has been through their legal, through the Napa County Fire Administrator, as well as Napa County Fire Chief, all of that.

Thank you. I have no other questions. Council Members?

Yes.

Yes, Vice Mayor.

So I guess my one major question is, like, how does this compare to any former agreement or contract that we've had with them?

It's significantly different. The contract that we had in the past, we provided services for a fee. And that was it. 100%. We had nothing other than that fee coming from the county. We did not get any services from them whatsoever.

So for further clarification, we... PAID FOR THEM TO SUPPORT US OR WE WERE BEING REIMBURSED FOR OUR SERVICE INTO THE COUNTY?

WE WERE BEING REIMBURSED FOR OUR SERVICES INTO THE COUNTY. WHEN THEY WERE COMING HERE, IT WAS ON MUTUAL AID. WE WOULD BE REQUESTING THEM MUTUAL AID AND THEY WOULD COME HERE WITHOUT CHARGING US, BEING THE GOOD NEIGHBOR, WHICH IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING BACK FOR THEM, WHICH THIS DOES ACCOMPLISH.

But really quickly, also, aren't they cutting those county services from us so we're no longer getting that funding from the county?

So the funding that was brought up from the county is the structural fire tax. That was something that was put into place in 1958, I believe. Is that the year? Somewhere around there. It's been there since the 1950s. We really never, there were no agreements for any services. There's nothing that we could find that laid out what services would be provided for that, and we were not getting any services under that. So they're two completely separate things. That tax, existed in other jurisdictions in the county up until Proposition 13. And then that tax went away from the other jurisdictions, the other municipal jurisdictions. Calistoga is the only municipality where that tax remained. So those are two completely separate items. You will be seeing the structural fire tax coming back to you, is it later this month?

When I bring it back and I was gonna and I appreciate the clarification. I just have a couple more questions. That's okay. Sorry. Sorry much So I'm just curious about the training because we saw the whole list of What is offered under this fee that we would be paying for this fire support? And of course we are all about public safety. That's absolutely not a question for our community, but I For you guys to access the training, that's something that has been brought up in the past, but is that training now available now that you guys are moving to the full-time staff that you had been requesting? Because prior, it was really hard with the part-time staff.

So first, I want to back up. We are not paying anything for this. This does not cost, there's no cost tied into this. The 170, I believe it's $176,000 that had been in the budget for last year is not in this fiscal year's budget, I believe. So it's not something that was in the budget as far as revenues. So we do have that. As far as the training, no, the, The training that we are getting out of this is invaluable. To be able to operate with the other resources that we will be responding with, to be able to train with them is huge. And we are getting that at no cost. We are getting fully rolled into all of their training, their classes, using the training grounds on a monthly basis, multiple times each month. So we will be using it twice per month, every month. With them and integrated into their training plans, as well as they're going to take our training plans into it, our training officers are working together on that to come up with a training plan for everybody. So it fits us if it's the county of benefits, you know everybody in the county both as far as agency level, all the way down to the citizens.

Okay, and then just one last question, like if after we implement this, the council determines that this agreement is not providing the expected like operational value, is there a contract associated with it or is there an expiration date that we can pull out of this?

Yeah, so this contract is, I believe it's 30 or 31. I didn't see that in the report. So there is a time frame on this contract, and it is... The term is through June 20, 2031. 30-day notice, I think. It's not the 30-day notice. We can cancel it with the notice, and there is an expiration of June 30, 2031, so it's a five-year agreement. It will be...

It's a five-year agreement, but I thought it was a 30-day notice cancellation.

So... Sorry, I'm drawing a blank on that part because it had been so long since we went through all that and we were working on the operational.

I guess if we're not paying anything for this.

No, we're not.

We're not paying anything for it.

And the operational plans, which is how we respond to incidents with the wording in the contract, we can modify those operational plans at any time. All I have to do is sit down with the chiefs at Napa County Fire Department and go over those changes.

It was my understanding you guys may be coming back to us on the 25th with the property tax, which is a separate issue. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

As far as the 25th, I can't guarantee that. It's not an item that I am bringing forward, but yes. Thank you.

So, yeah, so I can address that mayor, okay. Yeah.

Yes So big city manager so this automatic mutual agreement There's there's no cost or fees for the city of Calistoga to participate in this and it is a five-year agreement It does have a termination the 30-day both parties can agree to cancel the agreement as long as they give 30 days notice. I do want to address comments made by the former council member and former Calistoga Fire Chief Krause, because he brought up the non-structural and structural fire tax. So there are two taxes. One is a non-structural tax, which every city or municipality in the county pays. It tends to be for the wildfire-type prevention that we pay into the county. There is a second one. It is a primary fire protection services or a structural tax that the city of Calistoga residents have been paying, and that's what Council Member Krause was speaking about, that that tax back prior to around Prop 13 was going to the county. Tuesday, or July 28, the supervisors had a meeting and approved changing the tax code and reinstating those tax monies back to the city of Calistoga. So I'm waiting for the resolution for that. And then we will be bringing that forward to you for you to accept that change. And it is my understanding that, at least for this coming fiscal year, That change will come immediately into effect. And for this fiscal year, we're probably looking at about $500,000 and $511,000 that the city will receive for fire protection services that will supplement the current fire budget. So they are separate. These two items just came together because of the cancellation of the county fire budget. the county fire protection services contract.

Okay, thank you. Any other council comment? Okay, I'll make a motion. Then the item before us is a resolution which, if we approve it, would execute an automatic aid agreement between the Kalamazoo Fire Department and Napa County Fire Department. I'll make a motion to adopt that resolution. Second. Second. Thank you, Councilman Eisenberg. Is that right? Yes. Thank you.

May we have a roll call, please, City Clerk, on this motion?

Yes. Mayor Williams? Aye. Vice Mayor Gift? Aye. Council Member Lopez Ortega? Aye. Council Member Cooper?

Aye.

Council Member Eisenberg?

Aye. Thank you, Council. Thank you, everybody, for participating. Fire Chief and members of the public, appreciate that. We're going to a public hearing, which is item 7.1. The subject of this is a first reading of an ordinance of the city of Calistoga which would amend the municipal code chapter 19.01 regarding trees and regarding the authority responsible for implementation and enforcement of the chapter. So this is presented to us by Assistant Planner Lauren Clark. Welcome Ms. Clark.

Good evening, Council Members. As you said, the item before you is an introduction and first reading of an ordinance amending chapter 19.01, which is the Calistoga Municipal Code containing the city's tree protection regulations. Chapter 19.01 was adopted in 1991 and assigns responsibility for administering and enforcing the ordinance to the Director of Public Works. The proposed amendment would transfer the responsibility to the planning and building director. The city's public works department currently processes approximately 31 permits per fiscal year. The permits are frequently connected to development applications. CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL, ENVIRONMENTAL MITIGATION MEASURES WHICH ARE ALL ADMINISTERED BY THE PLANNING AND BUILDING DEPARTMENT. PLANNING AND BUILDING STAFF ARE THEREFORE ALREADY INVOLVED IN REVIEWING THESE PERMITS AND COORDINATING WITH PUBLIC WORKS. TRANSFERRING THIS RESPONSIBILITY WOULD CONSOLIDATE THOSE PERMITS FUNCTIONS WITH THE DEPARTMENT, IMPROVE CONSISTENCY AND MONITORING PROJECT REQUIREMENTS AND REDUCE DUPLICATIVE COORDINATION IT WOULD ALSO ALLOW TREE PERMITS TO BE INCORPORATED INTO THE CURRENT WORKFLOW WITH PLANNING AND BUILDING DEPARTMENTS, EXISTING PERMITTING SERVICE, CITIZEN SERVE, AND IMPROVE PERMIT TRACKING AND RECORD KEEPING. THE AMENDMENT WOULD NOT ELIMINATE COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC WORKS, THOUGH. PUBLIC WORKS WOULD CONTINUE TO PROVIDE REVIEW WHEN NEEDED, PARTICULARLY FOR TREES ON PUBLIC PROPERTY WITHIN PUBLIC RIDAWAY OR WHEN CIVIL ENGINEERING EXPERTISE IS REQUIRED. This is an administrative change only. It does not modify the city's true protection standards, permit criteria, replacement requirements, enforcement provisions, or the appeal process. Both department directors have reviewed and support this transfer. No additional staffing is anticipated. Tree permits and inspections enforcement costs are recovered through existing permit fees. And the mitigation deposits would continue to be required when applicable. The amendment is exempt from CEQA under the common sense exemption. And staff recommend that the city council introduce the ordinance and waive any further reading. And I'll take any questions.

Thank you. So just to summarize, this chancellor's authority for implementing the code regarding trees from the public works department to the planning department.

That's correct.

And presumably it's for the sake of efficiencies and so on. And both department heads are in agreement about that. Yes. And they're both present. And there's no change to the law itself, to the ordinance. Council members, questions? Yes.

Would it make both of your jobs easier? Yes. Great.

This is a public hearing. Would any member of the public like to comment on this? Public hearing is open. Public comment is open. Mr. Croman? Welcome.

not directly on this particular part, but regarding the trees and the items, the people in the senior parks, this is a huge problem because they come under different statutes and they basically have no say in what happens with the trees. They don't own them, but they're required to take care of them and that's a huge financial burden. I spend a lot of my time trying to resolve those issues with the seniors in the park and the park owners. I'd just like to request that this type of an issue on trees be reviewed by the city to see if they can provide some relief to the seniors.

Thank you, Mr. Krohman. Any other public comment? Members of the public here in the chamber or would anybody online like to comment? City Clerk, anybody online? Nobody online, okay. And public comment still open on this item? Okay, let's close public comment, bring it back to council. Anybody like to make a motion on this?

I'll make a motion.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. A motion to adopt the, a motion to introduce the first reading of this ordinance and let's see, and we're waiving the second reading of the ordinance of the City of Calistoga Municipal Code 19.01 to change authority responsible from the Public Works Department to the Planning Department. And that is the motion. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Who would like to make a second?

I second.

Thank you. Council Member, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes. Thank you. And Ms. Clark, thank you for bringing that to our attention. Item 8.1. The subject for this item is a recommendation from the Calistoga Green Committee to amend chapter 8.16, 8.17, and 19.12 of the Calistoga Municipal Code. And Ms. Clark, could you introduce us to this, please?

Yes, I'm going to go ahead and introduce the next three items, if you don't mind, because they're all being presented by the Green Committee.

That's fine. We'll just deal with 8.1 at this moment.

OK. So the Green Committee Chair, Antoinette Maillard, will present a recommendation, as you said, to the Food, Wear, and Waste Reduction Ordinance and the Carry Out Bag Amendments. And before I turn it over to her, I'd like to clarify that these proposals were prepared by the Green Committee and have not yet been independently verified or analyzed by city staff or the city attorney. Staff has not evaluated the financial, operational, legal, or environmental implications of the proposals. So just a heads up there. And with that, I turn the presentation over to our Green Committee chair.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Clark, and welcome, Ms. Maillard, Chair of the Green Committee.

Thank you all for the opportunity. This is really a bit of pretty simple housekeeping for updating municipal code. As you know, the city of Calistoga adopted what we call the Calistoga Foodware and Waste Reduction Ordinance back in 19, sorry, 2022 or three. It's been a while and I would like to add that this particular ordinance has been highly recognized and lauded throughout the county everybody Really is somewhat envious of it. So And I and I am confident that it had a great influence on what's going on with the our cap So the ordinance was necessarily built in large degree around the rules and capabilities and requirements of Upper Valley disposal. During the years since implementation, Upper Valley has updated some of its technologies and has more clearly defined some others. As a result, our municipal code needs to evolve a bit to match the evolution at Upper Valley. In fact, I would urge that every couple of years the city check in with Upper Valley to see what new technologies or advances have occurred in the interim. After considerable research, including coordinating with Upper Valley staff, the Green Committee is recommending amendments to several municipal code chapters, most of which serve to clarify what products are now considered compostable and or recyclable. It's important to update the code both to reduce confusion but also to reduce the contamination within the city's waste stream. Some of the areas covered are such things as clarifying that PLA and other plastics that are labeled 100% compostable in commercial facility are actually not compostable here or in fact in almost any other commercial facility. Next, that is a vendor issue, that labeling. Next, clarifying that lined or coated takeout clamshell containers are not compostable or recyclable, while takeout lined or sprayed with the plastic coating interior of takeout cups have recently become recyclable. So these are all new and modest changes. In addition, Upper Valley has expanded the definition of what plastics are recyclable. At this point, prior to now, they have said that recycle codes one and two were all that they were assuring us were recyclable. They've now added recycle code five. And in addition, they are including almost all rigid plastic, so we'd like to update the code to acknowledge those changes. In addition to these technical changes, we've learned that recyclable and compostable materials frequently end up in the landfill solely because of having been bagged incorrectly. At the urging of Upper Valley, we recommend amendments to require that, or they recommend and we support requiring that organic waste compost bin receptacles be either unlined, or if they are aligned, that it be with BPI-certified compostable liner bags. I have noticed around the city, on city property, that that, in some cases, is already being done. With regard to recyclables, Upper Valley informs us that the content of any recycle bin that is lined, whether with plastic or with a compostable bag, ends up going to landfill. This is true for residential and commercial bins as well as those on city property. Upper Valley System will not empty those bags in the recycle bins. So recycling bin content, if lined, goes straight into landfill, even though the content may be recyclable. So the proposed amendment would thus ban the use of bag liners for any recycle bins. The final amendment does not directly relate to Upper Valley at all. Rather, it relates to our well-established city requirement that carry out bags provided at checkout must be paper, not plastic, and that customers be charged 25 cents per bag. The point of the charge, which is well established, is of course to encourage customers to remember to bring their own reusable bags when shopping. What we've observed is that customers often don't even realize that they are paying for a store-provided bag and are thus not as thoughtful about bringing their own bags as they might be. So the Green Committee came up with a number of ideas on how to address this, and when we consulted with Cal Mart, they came up, and I give them full credit, with the idea of posting a brightly colored eight and a half by 11 sign at each checkout station, simply stating the amount of the carryout bag charge. I'm sure you've seen it at Cal Mart. And thanks to Cal Mart, who has voluntarily, on their own, implemented this practice over a year ago, we feel pretty confident about making this modest idea a requirement for all local merchants. So as I say, there's nothing terribly innovative or spectacular about this. Most of it, it is just about housekeeping to keep current with our municipal code.

Thank you, Ms. Maillard. And the council appreciates all the work that the Green Committee, you and the members of the Green Committee do a lot of research. I know it goes into your committee meetings and it emerges finally with us at the council. And it's more than we could undertake ourselves. So we do appreciate, I'm sure, the work that your committee does. Thank you. I have a couple of questions, but other council members?

Yes, I had just a couple of comments. I sit on the Up Valley Waste Management Committee, of course, and it's very important It's constantly evolving through state laws and assembly bills. And one of the most difficult jobs they have is outreach and education. And something new pops up just about every single meeting. So I think it's important to go ahead and align ourselves with the evolution too. So I completely agree with that.

I know the mayor remembers because he sent me an email about it not long ago when I brought that exact topic up to council. We need to focus more on outreach and education for the general public about these things, not just this, but a lot of other things that are on the green agenda. I think most people want to do the right thing, but we need to have a way of helping them do it.

Yeah, I must say I resisted the quarter cost for the bags, but it's working because now I'm carrying my regular bags.

You were the guy we were aiming for, so that's good to know. Thank you. Any other questions?

Other council members?

Yes. I just want to make a general comment about these three items and the Green Committee. I've been sitting as the council representative to the Green Committee, and I can absolutely attest to the hard work they do. Actually, I sit there and wonder, these people are volunteering to do incredible amounts of research And I just want to compliment the Green Committee for their hard work. And thank you.

And thank you for the great support that you give us.

I do have a couple of questions, and either to you, Ms. Maillard, or to staff. When we have definitions such as currently recyclable includes most rigid plastic items, It seems vague.

I couldn't agree more, but that's all we could get.

And so do we care that it's vague or it's the best we can do at this point, I guess?

That's all they would give us. That as the whole first section of things that I read to you are their new definitions.

And then when there's reference to the liners being compostable, Are these enforceable, or who will enforce this kind of thing, or are we even expecting that there'll be any enforcement about that, or are there penalties involved if somebody's not using something that's compostable to contain the recyclable materials?

The compostable issue is mostly gonna be an issue for commercial and city properties. because people at home, if they're bothering to compost, are either just tossing it in the bin or they're putting it in the little compostable bags and keeping a pouch in their kitchen and doing it that way. I don't think the compost one is a big deal. The city will have to adjust their liners for the green bin. The bigger problem is going to be the recycle bins because Upper Valley has made it pretty clear to us that they will not empty And they don't care what kind of bag it is. They're not going to empty it. If it's a paper bag, that's not a problem because they can put that as a recyclable item. But if it's a compostable bag or a plastic bag, it's going in the landfill. So, again, in the residential, I don't think it's a problem. Commercial, it may be. The city, it's definitely going to be.

So in the case of commercial, there's not a penalty except that the recyclables are not being disposed of the way we would otherwise want them to be?

Well, I don't know that. I really don't know that. I don't know whether most restaurants, if they're collecting things, recyclables in a bin in its house and it's plastic, they can certainly take that plastic bag and dump it into the blue bin that's picked up by Upper Valley. And that's about education and somewhat of, in the early stages, certainly probably enforcement. The city properties are going to be a bigger challenge.

And I appreciate and agree with the intent of all of this. And I do have a question, finally, on the clause in here that designated businesses may not rebate or otherwise reimburse a customer for the charge required for an allowable carryout bag. Is that something that the city can do? Rule on can the city make an ordinance saying, you know That a business and a customer can't come to an agreement themselves About that kind of about a transaction that it seems like that's actually already in the code.

Okay For people who are getting aid of some kind, you know food support from one State or county Ordinance or law they, in the pre-existing code, they already can get an exemption.

So the amounts are small, but I guess I'm concerned about government ruling about how two independent parties can decide to transact business or not.

Well, all they have to do is bring it back.

Yeah. Okay. I'm fine with this. Let's see. Is there public comment? Let's open for public comment on this. Is there anybody online, city clerk? No one online. Okay, would anybody here in the chambers like to comment on this? Ms. Yant, please come to the microphone if you'd like to.

I've always wondered where the 25 cents goes.

Okay, and Vice Mayor has a comment there.

I know that they used to donate, when it was 10 cents, they charged 10 cents a bag, it went to Boys and Girls Club.

Okay.

And now they go to the family centers.

Yes, Ms. Maillard. Cal Mart is, of course, the primary merchant that is affected by this. And they do donate there.

They donate it, yeah. Any other public comment? Okay, let's close public comment. We'll bring it back to council, and I'll entertain a motion to, yes, Councilman Isenberg, before we make a motion.

This perhaps is a staff question. What are the mechanics OF OUR THREE BIN TRASH RECYCLABLE COMPOSTABLE CONTAINERS, WHAT ARE THE MECHANICS OF EMPTYING THE RECYCLABLES? HOW DOES IT HAPPEN? IS THERE A REMOVABLE METAL CONTAINER THAT GETS DUMPED INTO A LARGER CONTAINER THAT'S GOING TO GO TO RECYCLABLES? I MEAN, WITHOUT THE USE OF BAGS, I'M JUST WONDERING HOW IT HAPPENS.

I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN SPEAK TO THAT BECAUSE IT WOULD BE EACH INDIVIDUAL COMPANY OR BUSINESS.

I'M JUST REFERRING TO THE CITY OWNED CONTAINERS.

CITY OWNED. I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN ANSWER THAT EITHER.

THIS MIGHT BE PUBLIC WORKS.

BUT WHAT THE GENERAL IDEA OF THIS IS THAT OF THE GREEN COMMITTEE BRINGING THIS BEFORE YOU IS THAT IT WILL BE REVIEWED BY STAFF. AND THESE KIND OF QUESTIONS CAN BE ANSWERED ONCE IT'S BEFORE YOU. RIGHT NOW IT'S JUST A DRAFT FROM THE COMMITTEE. SO IT WILL BE REVIEWED BY STAFF, REVIEWED BY THE CITY ATTORNEY. A LOT OF THESE QUESTIONS CAN BE ANSWERED AT THAT TIME. YES.

OK, thank you. Yes, I do understand that this would be a recommendation to send to staff to actually draft an ordinance. Thank you.

OK, I just want to clarify, are we were are we directing staff to to make these amendments uh... which i would be comfortable with until we do have uh... fiscal impact studies uh... so i i would say i'm comfortable with recommending that we explore this and come back to us with uh... potential cost staff legal resources that we need more information about that just to be sure i believe that is the process signature this particular one

just talks about drafting amendments as indicated here. So, Councilman Cooper, are you okay with that? Yes.

Okay.

Do you like to make a motion that we adopt, that we direct staff to adopt the amendments as indicated here?

To adopt, to completely adopt the amendments without... Well, to see, to draft amendments...

We're asked to direct staff to draft amendments to these various chapters using the draft ordinance included in attachment one. Yeah, so we're talking about changes, are we not? Yeah.

Yeah, and the council can direct staff to come before council again with financial analysis on what this would cost, you know, staff time and all that. Or they could direct staff now to implement the green committee's draft and go through city attorney review, go through staff review, and then bring it before council as a draft ordinance.

I'll make a motion to adopt as is.

So that motion would be, Vice Mayor, let's state it out. Do you want me to read the motion? Well, let's see. So to be explicit.

It's the motion that's in our agenda.

Part of the problem, there's interpretation of what that exactly means.

So let's see. The recommendation says, I think we're all in agreement here. We just have to do this right. Let's see. So the Green Committee recommends the City Council direct staff to draft amendments on these chapters using the draft ordinance. And shall we ask the staff to bring it back to us for final approval? Yes, absolutely. Let's do that. Yes. All right. So then Vice Mayor is moving that we direct staff to draft the amendments, and Council is asking that they come back to us for final approval. Second. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, it passes. Thank you, Council. Thank you, Ms. Maillard, and thank you, Ms. Clark. Let's continue on 8.2. And this one is, we're asked to consider a recommendation from the Green Committee to establish exterior lighting standards.

This will take a similar process where the Green Committee Chair will be presenting and you're welcome to make the same type of recommendation. The two options remain.

Okay, thank you. Ms. Maillard.

I'd like to introduce briefly this item is what is commonly known as dark sky regulation or dark sky standards. The purpose of which is to establish standards for exterior lighting that minimize environmental harm. This topic appears in the Green Committee's approved work plan, but perhaps more important, it also appears in various forms many times, I mean literally dozens of times in the city's general plan. My Green Committee colleague Jeremy Grove and I have gathered for your consideration both scientific research on the topic and examples of dark sky legislation successfully implemented in other cities and counties. The general tenets of responsible outdoor lighting are not terribly complicated. Responsible lighting has to have a clear purpose, it is targeted, That is, it falls only where it's needed. It is no brighter than is necessary. It is controlled. That is, it's used only as needed. And it's warm-colored, limiting the amount of blue-violet light, which is known to cause the greatest negative impact. The reasons responsible dark sky standards are an environmental priority are a bit more complicated. Excessive artificial lighting adversely impacts the well-being of humans, wildlife, nocturnal ecosystems, including even vegetation in countless and often really very surprising ways. We're all aware that irresponsible lighting endangers migrating birds, for example. And maybe you know that it prevents those adorable little sea turtle hatchlings from finding their way to the ocean. But it also interferes with the natural prey-predator relationships among animals, even insects and invertebrates. It alters breeding patterns in animals of all sorts. There are some very interesting examples of that if you're interested. It can also reduce human visual performance and safety. And not insignificantly, it's a pretty common cause for conflict among neighbors. Examples of communities with dark sky policies include Palo Alto, Cupertino, Portola Valley, and a number of others. We can also provide for the council and staff international dark sky association information along with supporting data from Audubon, United Nations, National Science Foundation, and the Illuminating Engineering Society. As with most of the things that we bring before you, this effort requires, again, educating and commitment on part of the city to set an example and to assure proper permitting when it's appropriate, as well as to respond to blatant violations. I'd like to close by noting that this is a rare instance in which more than one individual council members have, over the years, specifically brought to my attention their own negative experience with excessive light at night. And we hope that what we present will satisfy those inquiries.

Thank you, Ms. Bayard. So in summary, we're asked to consider directing staff to evaluate exterior lighting standards and then to return to council with a recommended ordinance. Is there any public comment on this item? We'll check both online and in the community center.

none online.

Thank you. Okay, let's close public comment. Council members, I have no questions or comments on this except to move forward with it.

I just have one question. So if we implement this, if we make this change, it will affect properties that they already have like bright lights in their front, you know, their homes. So I'm a little concerned about that because, you know, financial issues, you know, that people have to change all the lighting outside. That will be a burden for It can be a burden for members of the community.

Well, I can say that these kinds of standards are at some point going to be universal. They're being adopted by more and more communities. There is no need for all night long bright lights outside of homes. Lighting, if someone wants, I mean, the idea is things can be on timers. If they are capped so that the light shines downward, their lighting might not even be a problem as concerns the ordinance. Upward facing lights, excessively bright lights, these are causing harm. I think that the standards that we've offered in the examples that we've put together accommodate most of those kinds of questions.

Yes. Yes, Ms. Clark.

I can add that the standards, if they were to become ordinance, wouldn't be applied unless the person is changing that lighting or another building permit is coming in with that lighting proposed. It wouldn't be, because we wouldn't be able to enforce that without, it would just be noncompliant.

So but to councilmember Lopez or take us question supposing somebody has You know existing presently a very bright light that would be contrary to the guidelines here And I presume it would be a complaint driven kind of thing but conceivably could a neighbor complain and Then it would fall into code enforcement even if the light had been there for five years or many years and

That is the norm in these kinds of things, yes. And Calistoga does tend to be complaint-driven. If there's something that is really blatant, as we've all seen, a super bright light that's just shining up in the sky and it's not accomplishing anything positive, I would hope that the city would step in and do something about that. But if it's something that's shining into somebody else's bedroom window, then it becomes a complaint-driven thing.

So theoretically this could be a financial burden. It applies to everybody, not just new construction.

Right.

Any, let's see, public comment is closed. Any other council questions? Yes, Councilman Eisenberg.

This is going to address. I was asking if there's still a chance for a public comment on this matter.

We're still here with the council. One second, please. Yes, Councilman Eisenberg.

There is such a thing as retrofits. I mean, in terms of I put a little cover over a light I have, and it directed the light downward. It was not expensive. I did it myself. But I do have one question. Is there going to be an exception during the month of December for holiday lights?

Yes. Exemptions for sporting events. exemptions for the parade yeah I don't that I think is built into it yes okay thank you so those exceptions would be written into the ordinance presumably or simply understood well we haven't composed an ordinance but the ones that we have seen and the ones that we've offered as EXAMPLES DO HAVE EXCEPTIONS.

THANK YOU. LET'S OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT. REALLY OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT. THERE ARE THREE MINUTES.

THANK YOU, MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL. I'M STU WEINCHEL, LABORS OF LOVE WELLNESS AND GRATEFUL AND HUMBLE TO HAVE RECEIVED THE GRANT THIS EVENING. Just on this matter, my business is transformational wellness retreats. And literally yesterday, I had a conversation with my son who's an award-winning nature photographer. And we do weekend retreats for families, fathers and kids, moms and dads and kids. And astrophotography is an actual profit center for wellness retreats. And each retreat, I would encourage the city council and the Chamber of Commerce and what's it called now? Not Visit Calistoga, but... Thank you. Unwind Calistoga. There could be considerable positive economic impacts to becoming a dark sky community, similar to Sedona, Arizona, Joshua Tree. And that would be an immediate boon to my business because we could probably sell four weekend retreats, and each one's worth six figures to this economy.

Thank you. So in short, you're endorsing the principle here?

Mm-hmm.

first time indeed I am but I believe this isn't a resolution this is just to study it so I would encourage that this study move forward and emphasize the economic thank you public comment is still open then yes Mr. Croman

I'm assuming that things like the senior parks who have a huge problem when it comes to lighting and we have no control over what that is. But in the parks, there's a problem of not having enough light at night because a lot of us walk on the streets and parks. And so I'm just hoping that what your discussions are, you keep the senior parks in mind that their lighting situations may be different.

Thank you, and Planning Department is here and they're taking note of these kinds of comments. Thank you for that.

Mary C. Freddie, NA 106 IV. I'd also like to add that it's lighting related. I think the city needs to look into better lighting, especially down Grant Street. I myself have been to many meetings held at the Tucker Building, there at the fairgrounds, and I'll tell you it's very difficult to see people walking and bicyclists and people with dogs WITH AND WITHOUT HEADLAMPS, ET CETERA, AND I THINK THAT THE CITY SHOULD CONSIDER A LOT MORE STREET LIGHTS. IT WOULD BE VERY ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE WE ARE A VERY TOURIST ORIENTED LOCATION AND LOCALS WALK EVERYWHERE, NOT JUST DOWN GRANT, YOU KNOW, ALL OVER THE STREETS. I KNOW IT'S EXPENSIVE, BUT TAKE IT INTO CONSIDERATION. THANK YOU.

OKAY. THANK YOU.

I support that and the time zone to allow Christmas lights if we're just talking about lighting now.

Holiday lights.

I'll make a motion on moving forward.

Okay, well we saw that public comment is still open. Let's see if there's any other public comment either online.

Not online.

Not online or anybody else in the community center? Okay, let's close public comment and bring it back to council. Last remarks here? Yes.

Yeah, last remark. It's not really prohibiting lighting. It's the quality of the lighting. And already our city, when we put in new lighting, like you can see at Lokey Park, it is compliant in that the lighting is shielded so it doesn't go up into the sky. It goes down. where people are parked, or not parked, I mean where people walk. People don't park. Well, sometimes. But it's just having a quality of lightning that can illuminate for people, but doesn't disturb bird populations, and that it's of the proper color for the least amount of impact to the environment.

Thank you. Other council members? Okay, then I will entertain a motion to direct staff to evaluate the standards as indicated here and return to the City Council with a draft ordinance and policy language for consideration. I'll make that motion.

All second.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? It passes. Thank you, Green Committee, again, for your work on Dark Sky. And let's go to item 8.3.

Can I make a motion for a short recess?

Certainly. Let's accommodate that. Certainly, Vice Mayor. Let's do a five-minute recess, certainly.

Thank you.

OK.

I know we're right at the end.

Okay, let's reconvene here. We'll continue our city council meeting. We're gonna proceed to item 8.3. The subject of this item is also from the Kalisoga Green Committee. It's a recommendation to establish low carbon concrete standards. And Ms. Clark.

Yes, I'd like to introduce Bobby Casey, a member of the Green Committee who has worked on this project and has done extensive research on this. It also hasn't been reviewed by city staff, but it has been routed to the Public Works Department. So they have seen it. So they may come up if they have questions. OK, thank you.

All righty, thank you. And Miss Casey, welcome.

How's my audio, good? Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Bobbi Casey, I'm a member of the Calistoga Green Committee. The Napa County Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, RCAP, calls for substantial greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 and 2045. Low carbon concrete standards already adopted by a growing number of communities offer a practical and proven way to help meet those goals. Concrete is essential to our buildings, streets, sidewalks, and public infrastructure, but cement, a key ingredient in traditional concrete, is responsible for approximately 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Producing one ton of cement can generate nearly one ton of carbon dioxide. The good news is that lower carbon concrete alternatives are now available. Concrete can be produced and installed using familiar methods while reducing emissions through more efficient mix designs, lower cement content, supplementary materials such as slag or fly ash, and carbon mineralization technologies. Our city can set clear goals for reducing emissions without requiring any particular product, supplier, or method. This gives contractors flexibility to choose the solution that works best for each project as long as it meets the city standards. Calistoga would not be charting new territory here. Marin County and the cities of Dublin and Santa Monica, among others, have already adopted low carbon concrete requirements. Their approaches offer useful models that Calistoga can adapt to local conditions. Supply is also growing. Northern California suppliers now offer multiple low-carbon concrete options, including two suppliers in nearby Santa Rosa. Available case studies also show that meaningful reductions can often be achieved with little or no added cost, especially when projects allow flexibility in how standards are met. Thank you for your time.

Great. Thank you. And just to summarize then, the Green Committee is asking the council to direct staff to evaluate low concrete options.

I'm looking to my chair. Yes? Any further?

Well, I think one key thing is that there are numerous communities that have already done this. So we have lots of examples upon which to draw. The cement element in concrete is the guilty party, and there may be some little bit of cement remaining, but there are viable alternatives at equal cost at this point. So we'd like to have staff analyze, perhaps, first of all, the research that Bobby has done, but also the other ordinances that are already in effect and working.

Great, so the action requested of us at the council is to direct staff to look into this?

Well, yes, and come up with an ordinance that meets the standards.

Great, is there any public comment? Let's open public comment here in the community center or online.

We do have a comment online.

Okay.

Dom, can you hear us?

Yes, hello, this is Dominic Tallarico again. I'm amazed at how much time has been spent on all three of these issues, but I can't say that I'm surprised. It seems to me the amount of time spent at the city council meeting on these three issues plus the staff time now that's going to be devoted to them, plus another city council meeting to review what the city staff has come up with, and probably additional meetings. If that amount of time was devoted to looking at the water rate situation, it would probably be solved. But I do have to thank the Green Committee for something. to get so much time on these issues that I doubt anybody in the city of Calistoga really cares about, with the one exception being that lady who did point out how lighting is important for safety, especially on Grant Street, and I can see other parts of Calistoga with that. Anyway, I have to thank the Green Committee because maybe what the city council should consider seriously is establishing a water rate advisory committee. Pick a group of people five seems to be the popular number, to look into water rates and do this kind of research and present it to you, the city council. I think you'd find it very helpful, and I think citizens, residents in Calistoga would be very appreciative.

Thank you very much. Okay, thank you, Mr. Tallarico. Is there any other public comment online? No other comments. Okay, and then in the community center. Okay, let's close public comment. Ms. Casey, thank you for presenting that to us. Thank you, Ms. Maillard again and Ms. Clark. Back to the council.

I would just like to say that thank you. Thank you, Miss Casey, very much for your presentation. I think this is good information for us to have going forward. I don't know that we're ready for a draft ordinance, but that's just where my thoughts are on it. But I'll leave it to my other counsel. maybe just more information or options for what is available out there for us to vote on, I think would be the next best move, but.

Okay, other council members, yes.

Well, I would actually be curious about hearing from Director Rayner about what the possibilities are and what the next steps would be in checking out the feasibility of this for some future ordinance.

Thank you, Council Member Eisenberg. So, yeah, we did a little initial research and Shamrock does locally down in St. Helena, they do provide the The low carbon concrete and it is Marin County has a standard for it. We follow the Santa Rosa standards for city of Santa Rosa. They do not have a standard written written in that for low carbon concrete at this point. But, you know, the costs seem comparable to standard mixed concrete. But I would be, you know, honestly, like for sidewalks, things like that, I wouldn't have a problem with low carbon concrete. I think it's a good use for the product. But, you know, some of the maybe like deep foundation structural things like that, that We may not be able to get the compression strength that you would normally get for larger structures. We probably would not want to use it in those kind of situations. But I think if we were to do something like this, we're going to have to put in a separate ordinance on low-carbon concrete and kind of define where... where we think it can be utilized and where it may use more discretion whether or not it's utilized.

So are you comfortable doing further investigation on the feasibility of using it in various circumstances?

Yes. Other council members?

I just have one more question. And so it would be your department that would be putting together that ordinance for us or the feasibility study, I assume?

Yes, we would be probably providing the majority of support on that.

Great, thank you.

Other council members? Yes.

Yeah. I mean, all these three requests by the Green Committee, I feel like they are great requests. But again, I'm a little worried about the financial burden that is going to cause into the community and also into our city staff expenses, city attorney expenses. So, I mean, it's great to have all of this and it's, you know, long-term is an investment into the benefit of the community long-term. But I just need to express that, you know, as the comment from Mr. Telerico there, that he says that we're using a lot of city staff time. We are spending money in all of this while we can, you know, focus a little more in water issues. But all of this is important, you know, I know against that, but I need to express my concern so we can be all in the same, you know,

I agree. That's a legitimate concern Mr. Tallarico raises and I appreciate that you're raising it as well. You know, I mean, I am supportive of this, but I guess it's a good reminder for us to keep in mind what we're asking of staff.

Be cautious about what we're asking. and why we getting ourselves into it because we cannot be spending our resources without thinking about all the other issues in the community.

Am I allowed to respond to the question?

Ms. Casey, yes.

Yeah, I hear your concern, council member, thank you. So what I wanna say is that the cost for the low carbon concrete is neutral to the cost of the regular cement and concrete. Number two, with many of these implementations, including sidewalks, these things last for 30 years, so making this implementation now has a 30-year benefit, whereas waiting just means that we're going to continue to be building in that traditional way with greater greenhouse gas emissions. And then third, I'll just say, eventually there will be some guidance coming from our region around the RCAP, and this would meet that criteria, which they already have low carbon standards built into their recommendations. So much like some of the other things that we're bringing, We're an early adopter. However, eventually we're going to probably need to be adopting these. And so the research that the Green Committee is doing is hopefully also benefiting and saving staff some time.

Thank you. I think it might be important in the future to maybe bring these requests one at a time to give staff enough time and energy to tackle them separately. And then once we have resolution, understanding, recommendations, bring the next one on, I think if we drop three in a row, that's a little taxing on staff time.

And I just want to build on Council Member Cooper's point. While these are really important items and also sitting on the CAC with Council Member Eisenberg, I've been on there for the last six years, and when these things come to our community, there's not necessarily a definitive timeline in which we have to adopt them. There are checklists that our staff is doing. So just to put this on the plate for them to eat one day down the future, I think it's a good move. And Ms. Casey's not wrong by saying this definitely meets the R cap and something we will have to adopt in the future. So I support it for those reasons.

And I concur. Staff will have this direction, assuming we approve this one. But it doesn't mean that they will drop everything that they're working on now. They'll get to it when they can get to it. And it is important, I think, to try to be as sensitive as possible to these environmental questions, but also to understand that there are also other issues that the staff is working with. So they will work on them as they can. I'll entertain a motion on this.

I'll make a motion.

Thank you. A second? Second. There's a motion by Vice Mayor and a second by Councilmember Eisenberg. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It passes. Thank you again Green Committee for bringing this to our attention. Thank you members of the public for your comments. I do appreciate that.

And mayor, I'm just, I'm actually going to make a motion to move item 6.4 from the consent calendar to an actual agenda item because it would be creating a new vehicle department for our police force. And I think that's a broader conversation for future.

There is that motion, which 6.4 is the item that we had deferred until the end of the meeting. Let's see, is there a second on that?

I'll second that.

All right. Let's take a, let's see. Do we need public comment on that? I don't think we do. This is internal to us. Point of information.

Yes. Does the chief ever come online? Yes. And if you want more time, that's fine. I just wanted to.

Yep, I'm happy to ask the chief questions. Thank you so much for coming from National Night Out, and I know you're busy day, Chief, to answer my really small questions.

Do you want to withdraw the motion, then?

I will continue my motion, but with further discussion.

All right, so let's go to 6.4, then, to formally open up this item. 6.4, the chief is here, and it's on our agenda. And so once again, this is a proposal to accept the cannabis tax fund grant program, which would entail an electric motorcycle. And so we'll go to public comment. But first, we have council members' comments. And Chief McCaffrey, can you hear us?

Can you unmute, Matt? I need to do it for him.

Mayor, can you hear me now?

Yes, we can hear you now. Okay, you can hear us, and you're online, Chief? Okay. There we go. I'm sorry. Okay. All righty, and we have Vice Mayor Gift. Yes, Vice Mayor.

Yep, so thank you for coming online. I just want to reiterate that I really support the impaired driving enforcement and I appreciate staff pursuing these outside grant funding options, but my curiosity is that does I don't see any clarification whether we can accept the grant without purchasing the electric motorcycle, if that's a required component of this grant. Or do we have flexibility to modify the grant budget based on accepting those funds? Because essentially adding an electric motorcycle would be adding a new vehicle type to the city police force.

So the grant is as we applied for, they tentatively agreed the next step with us coming back with a council agreeing and adopting it. So if we're not willing to accept it as it is, we would have to reapply for the grant. And I don't know what the never done that before. I'm not sure that's even a possibility.

Okay, I guess my next question is then do we have plans for where the motorcycle would be stored, the maintenance of the motorcycle, and would it require special training for a new officer because from a fiscal perspective, and that's kind of why I wanted to table it for us to maybe have a better presentation because we're making a big decision, even though it's electric motorcycle, but to have really essentially a new police vehicle in our fleet.

So good questions. And that is one of the beauties of an electric motorcycle versus a internal combustion engine motorcycle is where and how it can be stored. So no gasoline, no oil allows you to store it in places and you couldn't store a gas motorcycle. So the maintenance on these things is minimal. So, I would just say, from that standpoint, it's a much lighter load than buying a regular motorcycle from both the maintenance as well as storage. Most departments allow officers who are driving a regular gas-powered motorcycle to take those home for just that reason, for storage purposes. That wouldn't be necessary here. I think we're going to get another ConnexBox, and that's probably where it's going to live. As far as training, if you look at Schedule A, which I think is parts of page 12 and 13 of your documents there, besides the motorcycle, it includes all the equipment as well as the training through a post-certified course. So it is an all-encompassing equipment as well as training.

And any future maintenance on the motorcycle would be taken over by the city. I'm assuming.

Correct, but again, you know, and. Just from my past experience, as well as talking to other agencies that have electric motorcycles, very, very low maintenance, unless it's involved in the collision or something like that. But that is 1 of the beauties of these motorcycles comparatively. minimal, minimal maintenance required compared to a gas powered motorcycle.

And I guess my last very important question is would we be able to implement these DUI checkpoints without this grant in our city because that is an important piece of this and I know we've accepted this grant for the last three years. Would we be able to do that as a force or would there be any other grants that we could apply for without this vehicle?

Well, again, the inclusion of the vehicle was our inclusion. That wasn't something that the grant offered. We included it as something we wanted, and we weren't just looking at it from a DUI enforcement standpoint. We're looking at it from a traffic enforcement standpoint also. It wouldn't just be used at DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols. It would be a collateral assignment, similar to the bike patrol, where an officer would be chosen, but it's not their full-time job. It's something they do on saturation patrols, DUI checkpoints, and then occasionally on a traffic enforcement idea. So as far as being able to do DUI checkpoints without this grant, I'd say probably not. That would be, from a budget standpoint, not something we would be able to pay for.

So in other words, this grant is very necessary for the police department, right?

If we're going to do DUI checkpoints, if we're going to do saturation patrols, yes. Frankly, it's not going to happen or will happen on a much rarer occasion because of the costs associated with it.

Well, I think at this point is... Those DUI checkpoints I think are very important to conduct them in the community. So I will say that I support to.

Okay, any other clarifying questions? Yes.

Could you define a saturation patrol?

Basically just means an officer will come in on an overtime basis and focus primarily on DUIs as well as specific vehicle code sections. So example, we decide that people talking on cell phones has been a causal factor for vehicle accidents. We'd have them focus on that. So it's really they're not going to answer calls for service. They'll assist on emergency situations, but they're going to focus primarily on vehicle code enforcement.

Okay, any other clarifying questions before we go to public comment? Okay, that's open for public comment. Would anybody in the chambers here like to address the council on this topic or anybody online?

No one online.

Let's close public comment then bring it back to Council.

So due to clear lack of support. I will remove my motion to have this table to a future meeting. But I do hold a publicly hold reservation with adding a new vehicle to our department without having long term plans, but I do absolutely support. having impaired driving enforcement. And I think that's a really important part of our future as a city. So I will remove my motion for tabling there.

All right, shall we understand that to be a motion to accept the grant? I'm not making that motion.

I will move to accept the grant.

I'll second. We have a motion by Councilman Eisenberg and a second by Councilmember Cooper. Let's take a roll call on this, please.

Sorry. Mayor Williams? Aye. Vice Mayor Gift?

Abstain.

Council Member Lopez-Ortega?

Aye.

Council Member Cooper?

Aye.

Council Member Eisenberg?

Aye. Okay, thank you. It passes 4-0 with Vice Mayor Gift abstaining. And thank you, Chief, for coming back and helping us on that. Yes, thank you. We are on council reports. Item number nine here. Council members, Councilman Eisenberg, do you like to start off?

Sure. The Climate Action Committee did not meet this past month, and we're going to have a big old meeting for August. In NVTA, there were just two things that came up that I would like to share. One is that the Garnet Creek bridge replacement is now on the schedule, and it should be completed sometime in 2033. So just don't hold your breath. But no, some useful piece of information also that came up at NVTA is if you can avoid the Karkinas Bridge from August 21st to August 24th, you should. They're doing a bridge deck rehabilitation, and they expect horrible traffic.

Thank you. Councilman Eisenberg for that bright prospect down there. Councilmember Lopez Ortega.

I had just to request if we can bring back the presentation from Park and Regressions that it was postponed in our last meeting and also I would like to see the report regarding activities with the fairgrounds. We are already over two years that we have the fairgrounds and we need to see a clear report on how we're doing financially with the events and all the money that we are investing in the fairgrounds. So it will be very beneficial for the community to see all those numbers. And also, I want to ask City Clerk if in the next agenda we can do the Latino Heritage Month How you call that? I lost the work.

Proclamation.

Proclamation for the Latino Heritage Month and also a weekend, also Saturday for the flag to put in the community board. So those two things. That's it.

Thank you. Mm-hm.

Thank you.

Councilman Cooper? Nothing to report. Okay, Vice Mayor Giff?

Well, to build on Iris's point, I would also really like to see a report of like a cost benefit analysis on the fairgrounds of what we spent thus far versus the complete intake of all of our events so we know where we're at. And so we can really analyze, we are having meetings with third party vendors for the golf course. I think that's a great thing. There's been talks of having a third party vendor to come in and look at the RV park. So I think that we need to really review that or this needs to be brought to the fairgrounds advisory committee to kind of do the first round before it comes to us. But to see those numbers would be very beneficial. Also, I just want to mention to the community, some of those that were part of it have already left, but I was really saddened to hear about the closure of Hearts and Hands. As we all know, a preschool is much more than a building. It is where children really begin. I really want to thank the board and staff of Hearts and Hands for their patience and countless hours they poured in to Calistoga's youngest residents over many, many years. We know you worked very, very hard to keep your doors open and we appreciate all of your efforts on behalf of the youth of our beloved community. I really also want to express my deep gratitude for our city staff, especially City Manager Celaya for exploring every possible alternative and working diligently for many hours alongside the preschool, our county supervisors, board of education, and many others to do what you could to keep it open. So thank you very much. And to the families, I know this transition is really difficult and my heart is with you as we navigate what comes next, but I just want to thank you all for all your efforts and it's a loss for the whole community, but thank you. And that's all I have.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. My only report is attendance at the Fairground Advisory Committee meeting and I have a number of items to summarize here. The Fairgrounds Director reported on many rentals that she is working on and listed in particular rodeos and races coming up at Labor Day. Also, there was discussion about developing the request for proposals for golf with the general understanding that golf, that the RFPs will entail perhaps more than golf. And one of the advisory committee members talked more about different parts of the RFP to encourage proposals that were as broad and useful as possible. Let's see, and then there's reference to, let's see, Public Works Director was good enough to attend that meeting and Director Raynor reported on water and sewer repairs there which are needed and extensive. There are leaks there that are of unknown origin and so Public Works is working to arrest those leaks and correct them also to install meters on various buildings so that the different users can be charged appropriately for the buildings presently the fairgrounds has a single meter on the entire property and so the work is planned to repair the Water and sewer pipes and to put meters on all in the interests of improving efficiency eventually, so work is underway and There still is Community interest there. There were a number of people there at the meetings to public participation is still ongoing there And I have nothing else to report. Thank you members of the public for staying with us Thank you members of the public who are online and council members appreciate your being here. Good night, everybody