City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome folks to uh Cloverdale City Council meetings. Uh we're going to call the meeting to order at uh 6:00 pm. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag 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.

Thank you all. All right, do a quick roll call. I see all council members are present. Do we have any conflict of interest declarations? Seeing none. Yes. Oh, yeah. I think three of us do at least. Oh, yeah. We do for uh LNL District

on the LNL District, which is item um where we at here, excuse me. Let me get up to item H1. We will have uh the vice mayor and council member Marquez live in zone two. They will be recusing themselves for the reading of that. And I live in zone three, three, and I will be recusing myself for the reading of that proclamation. And the vice mayor will take over from that. Um, all right. Any agenda review changes or deletions? Yes, mayor. Item E1 will be moved to April 22nd due to ER Eric Poland's illness.

Okay. Thank you. Right. Let's move into B. Public comments. Any person wishing to speak on an item not listed on the agenda may do so at this time. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the city council is not allowed to consider issues or take action on any item not listed on the agenda. Three minutes will be allotted to each speaker. Also, uh let's go ahead and keep that at 3 minutes. I see we've got a lot of people. We want to be respectful everybody and let them have their time to speak also. So, let's open public comment. Do we have anybody from the public wishing to comment? Okay.

I'm here today to ask could you please state your name for the record? Please turn the mic on and state your name for the record. Angela Cordova. Thank you.

I'm here today to ask several serious questions that deserve clear public answers. First, I want to address the 100 AI project where the city funding for this Esmeralda project is coming from when the AI road project still hasn't been completed. What accounts are you using? What priorities are being set? and why has AI road not been finished before new projects are moving forward, not to mention bombarders in tow. Second, I'm requesting transparency regarding the selection process for the realer used in the city's most recent property purchase. What criteria were were used? Who else was considered? And why was Eric Terrari selected? Related to that, why was Ron Pavevela giving you tours at the Boys and Girls Club? each one of you council members and I believe city manager when he was not the realer at the time and why was there an expectation of him being compensated? What official role if any did Pavvela have in that transaction? These circumstances raise reasonable questions about the nature of the relationships between the city Pavvela and Terrari. I'm asking the city to clearly explain how decisions were made and whether all actions complied with city policy and state law. As you know, it's not acceptable for community members who speak critically about Esmeralda or C city leadership to be subjected to imit intimidation, harassment, bullying or personal attacks. Public participation is a protected right. Disagreement should never be met with retaliation. As you know, I prevailed in the schoolboard fiasco. Don't repeat that because that looks like where we're headed. I am especially concerned about Eric Terrari using records obtained through the former school trustee Preston Addison to

personally attack or discredit only because I spoke up against Esmeralda. Terrar's actions are not only illegal, but they'll lead to criminal charges. Harassment itself is a crime. Looks like the city has uh co-signed him on that. Using sealed records for malicious purpose violates the intent of expungement laws. He is setting me up for filing charges for stalking, harassment, and defamation crimes. Weaponizing these records for harassment crosses a clear legal line to which I'll be filing a police report with Cloverdale PD. It's not prop. If it's not properly handled, I'll go to the sheriff's department and then the district attorney's office. Unfortunately, Eric's behavior is a bad reflection for Devon and Esmeralda coming to our city with their rainbows and unicorn fantasy world trying to smoke screen us all. What's the backdoor promise to Terrari to for to be Esmeralda's listing realer after the development? Why would Eric be so hellbent on attacking community members who do not agree with their narrative, your narrative, or his own narrative? These records were accessed and used improperly. That's a serious matter that will be addressed. Eric Terraria has no business, influence, involvement, anything with the city business other than being what? A consultant, a consultant, can we wrap it up over your three? Rotary, the local business owners, members of the chamber, the list goes on. They can barely tolerate him. I want to say this clearly. Transparency, accountability, and respect for the public, they're not optional. If there are no backroom deals, no promises of future listings, and no conflicts of interest, then the city and Esmeralda should have no issue answering these

questions fully on the record. And I'm asking for the facts and the documentation and accountability, not your narratives, not your distractions or your silence that you're used to. Angela, you need to wrap it up. We need to give everybody 3 minutes, please. That's fine. See, there's one difference between Eric and I. I don't give a [ __ ] okay? And I'm not going to tolerate it. So, the city needs to be held accountable for their poor decision.

Thank you for your time, Angela. And if we're going to start using those, let's have respect for the people in the crowd. Thank you very much for your comments. Any other comments? Okay, I'm seeing none. Oh, Jennifer Sullivan, I want to reiterate, we have three minutes. We have a lot of people and we need people to give people a chance and let's be respectful of people. Please, no profanity. Hello. Uh Jubel Jubel was kind enough to uh to give me his time. Is it okay if I go a little bit over this one time?

No, we have three minutes per person. If Jubel wants to speak, he can have his three minutes also. Can I have somebody read then the rest of my statement? Yes, you can. Thank you.

Can you re can you restart the clock? Okay. Uh, my name is Jennifer Sullivan. I I live in Cloverdale. From what I can find, Cloverdale has not required a fresh project level environmental impact report for a housing or senior living proposal since the 2009 AVR EIR. That was 17 years ago. That was the last time that that was also the last time that Clearale comprehensively updated its general plan. A city's general plan serves as a long-term constitution or blueprint for the physical development, guiding decisions on land use, housing, infrastructure, and environmental quality. It sets a vision for the community's future, aligning growth with public values, and legal requirements to ensure sustainable and organized development. So, what does this mean, and how does the city and council, how have they approved all of these new developments? Since 2009, Clardale appears to have approved developments largely through peacemeal tools rather than EIRS. The shortcut tools have been mitigated negative declarations, initial studies, agenda, zoning changes, design review, subdivision maps, and phased entitlements. The city has relied on an aging 2009 planning framework while approving newer projects under narrower review paths. When a city handles growth this way for all these years, the risk is not just one project. The risk is that each project looks manageable in its own file. While combined burden on roads, emergency access, water, drainage, wastewater, and public services become easier to miss or understate. SQA's own framework is explicit that an EIR is required when the cumulative impacts may be significant and a

project's contribution is cumulatively considerable. What becomes harmful is the accumulation. Handled this way, growth does not just change Cloverdale on paper. It slowly erodess the quality of life residents already have and are trying to protect. Peace meal approvals do not protect Cloverdale's quality of life. They put it at risk. then force residents to live with the consequences. Residents experience these consequences not as one dramatic event, but as worsening traffic, infrastructure strain, higher service pressure, harder evacuation planning, tighter water margins, and the slow erosion of daily quality of life. This is how cumulative effects work and is exactly the kind of issue that SQA's cumulative impact provisions are meant to bring to surface. Environmental review is not some radical new idea. President Nixon signed in into federal law NEPA in 1970 creating the environmental impact statement process and Governor Reagan signed California's version SQA the same year. Maryanne, would you read for me?

Would you since they won't let me? Thank you, Jennifer, for wrapping up at three minutes. Yeah. If you can also state your name for the record.

I'm gonna start the timer now unless you feel like being nice. Brighgam here. I'm going to read this. Where's the microphone? But it is not mine. Who's got the mic up there? Where's the real thing? She's help. Would you like me to start the timer over? I know. He's right here. Here you go. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Environmental review. That's You already said that. I did you.

But a thorough EIR does not just regulate a project. It gives a city and the public information it may not otherwise have, especially about cumulative impacts, traffic, evacuation, infrastructure, water demand, and how one project interacts with others. It forces the city to look at the whole system, not just one proposal at a time. Esmeralda is now being advanced through an addendum approach tied to a 209 EIR prepared for a very different project that should concern everyone. Cloverdale is being asked to absorb two major south end developments without the level of environmental review the public would reasonably expect for cumulative impacts of this scale. These impacts are real. Think our roads are bad now? think Esmeralda will pay for all the city's wos. Esmeralda by itself is significant. It is the largest development in Cloverdale's history. Combined with Bombgardner, it becomes something much larger. And this is happening even though the city has already identified weaknesses on the south end in its own infrastructure assessment. I also cannot ignore the deeper history here. I still do not understand how the city decided in 2004 that a still contaminated former wood treatment site was appropriate for residential land use in the first place. That decision deserves scrutiny, not blind reliance. At minimum, the public deserves a transparent explanation of how a site with that history becomes the foundation for Esmeralda. As a geography major at UC Berkeley, she took a course in ringland man

range land management. It was in this class that she learned about a concept known as carrying capacity. The idea that wise ranchers know the land can only sustain so much. And that capacity changes with conditions. In wet years, more grass grows. In dry years, it does not. Smart ranchers do not stock their land based on best case year. They plan for the bad year. the lean year, the uncertain year because of if they do not, overg grazing happens and damages the land itself. Cloverdale should be thinking the same way. Our community has a carrying capacity too, especially when it comes to water, infrastructure, evacuation, and cumulative growth. If rainfall fluctuates, water supply fluctuates. If conditions are uncertain, responsible planning means leaving room for that uncertainty, not approving major development based on optimistic assumptions. If ranchers know better than to overstock cattle on their land in uncertain conditions, Cloverdale should know better than to overcommit its future based on outdated general plan and use of an EIR from 2009 in 2026 for Esmeralda and continue with peace meal approvals. The benefit of a real EIR is clarity and public involvement that addendments that addendums do not guarantee.

This is the last sentence. Please step back, look at the whole, could you wrap it up? You're at your last sentence. One sentence and require the level of review this scale of change demands, which means require Esmeralda to do a new environmental impact report. Thank you, Jennifer. All right. Do we have Okay. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Marian, for your comments. Do we have any other public comments? Remember, keep them to three minutes. That's not my comment.

Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you, Jennifer, for your comment with assistance. Good evening, council. I just walked in to the meeting, so I apologize. I did not get to hear that full comment, but I believe that's Miss Jennifer and Miss Maryanne, if I'm not wrong. Could you state your name for the record, please?

Yes. My name is Adena Flores, and I believe that was Miss Jennifer and Miss Maryanne, and I've had the pleasure of speaking with them both. And the reason I drove an hour here today is because your community members have come to me quite often because they're upset to see a small tight-knit place that they grew up in and that and that they love change in front of their eyes. And so they're scared to say anything because they think they'll face retaliation with their businesses and what have you. So they're asking me to be their voice. And so I saw Miss Jennifer bring forward critical information regarding the Esmeralda project online and she was attacked by one of your councilmen and I didn't think that was appropriate. So your community expresses legitimate concerns that echo my own and I think we need to pause before we look at environmental data. We need to look at the money. So I've sent you all articles that I wrote. So I just find it interesting that the developer behind this project, Mr. Michael Yarnney, was working as the adviser to Gavin Newsome's office while Mr. Steve Kawa was the chief of staff in Newsome's office. So these gentlemen go way back with development deals. So I'm seeing a lot of outsiders with money that are politically connected coming in to a community to create change, not because they care about the constituents that are currently here, but because it's going to benefit them. financially and that's all that anything is about. And the reason I drive out here is because you're the only community that seems to genuinely care and you guys are diverse politically and you make it work and I think that's absolutely beautiful. At least you used to, but now it seems that things are changing. So I do think a new environmental report needs to be produced. I think that external audits

need to be done because your legal team has not been giving accurate advice. There are many issues. There are many conflicts. I barely got started investigating this city and already it's been pure turmoil as you can see on the community page. So, please take the voices of your constituents seriously. This is their home. They love it here. And I don't like to see them be disrespected. I don't like to see you guys as colleagues disrespect each other. It's just not appropriate. So, God bless you. But please look out for the best interests of the people who live here.

Thank you, Adena. Thank you for your comments, Adena. I appreciate it. Any other public comment? Yes, sir. My name is Sergio Sales and I'm going to ask the question that probably everybody here wants to know. Who up on the stage is getting their pockets lined? Nothing.

Because there is no way that Esmeralda should ever be invited in here getting 8 million houses. people came up here to retire and have access to Lake Sonoma and we're getting told, "Oh, this is, you know, it we're getting people from upstate New York." Well, this is not upstate New York. Again, I'm going to say that that the only reason that you would wouldn't want to cover or CA as we like to call it and have a EI uh EIR is because somebody's getting lined. Some some money's coming somewhere, but it's not from Cloverdale. It's it's coming from somebody who wants to come into our nice little town and say, "Oh, this Cloverdale is awesome, but let's put this big ass uh development where it doesn't belong." And nobody's saying you guys aren't going, "Yeah, you're right. It doesn't belong here. We can't even get a Safeway or to get our roads that you've jacked our our water rates up for. I have yet to see a road or an infrastructure done and yet you're inviting somebody else to the table. I'm okay with like that the thing build a bigger table, but make sure you're you're taking care of the people in your family first and the city of Cloverdale is your guys's family.

Thank you, Sergio. Any other public comment?

Hi, my name's uh Paul Gary. I live um at 2800 River Road, directly across from uh the proposed development of Esmeralda. And I got a multiple concerns. Um, first of all, the environmental impact that we're talking about tonight in Esmeralda's own world, they can't wait to start sculpting the land. I mean, if you were here at the last meeting, I'm sure you all remember those exact words from the that the the development group. Um that's massive in an environmentally sensitive technically dirty site. I mean to start sculpting the land moving thousands and thousands of yards of soil and exposing all those contaminants in think they this needs to be studied. It's complete negligence by the city of Cloverdale town council if you just wave this. Okay. Um second, um we have a concerns. You quickly passed the water rights for Esmeralda. I went to a long meeting uh just last week uh with the Alexander Valley Water District. How come the other side of the river is in complete water crisis according to them and your side of the river is a magic aquifer according to your hydraologist? Absolutely. You have the you have the greatest state water rights he's ever seen

to draw. He you got Excuse me, sir. Could could we hold the applause and let the gentleman talk please and hold your comments? Let's have a let's go.

Okay. You have the greatest water rights that he's kind of seen where first off of the the draw of the great Russian River aquifer. But why does gravity and on our side of the river the other side which is just a stones throw away all of a sudden in a crisis mode with what could possibly happen up at Pillsbury and what is gravity now tilting towards your wells and everybody on farming on our side of the river because we're county in your city are we we don't we have no concerns I mean this this water commission Did anyone from your council show up to this form here of they're trying to form a new water valley district? And it was it it was scary. I mean, I walked out of there and went, "Oh my god, is my well going to run dry? I only have 150 ft deep well going." And if you guys just draw like we got no rights uh you know on the other side of the river. Well, what happens to the aquifer if it just if we start going dry on our side because you got 6,000 more

res. Okay. Um thank you. Shoot. I had one more important thing. But thank you. Yeah. I can I can tell you why you development. Excuse me. I can tell you why you would have had your time if we're not clapping or we're not disrupting the meeting. But it's something to that seriously thought about. We need we have to let everybody have their public comment. Okay. No, that's that's not how it works. No. J, do we have any other public comment?

Hi everybody. I'm Don Gibble and I came with Adena because I think she's amazing and I think Cloverdale is an amazing city. Where is diversity up there? We have one woman council member. I cannot believe that we're in 2026. We have a Hispanic person, but she's a student liaison. She's probably really shy. She probably doesn't say anything when she's up there. And when you get older, I want you to run for council, whatever it is. But um this man, I mean, I know the policies. I go to Santa Rosa's meetings all the time. That's where we have like 500 people wanting to speak. We don't have that here. Mayor Brian Wheeler that you are. That man should be able to say what he wants. And I have 200

I have two minutes and 33 seconds. I would love to. And I'm dyslexic, by the way, and autistic. I'm sorry, but he should be able to speak, Brian. And you look like an amazing person. I don't know who you are, but I will take up a couple seconds of your time. And the reason being is if we don't put some ground rules and give people three minutes, these meetings will continue on and we'll get off. But we're not in Santa Rosa. How many and this is my meeting. Yeah, we're not for Thank you. This older man said and he has a great t-shirt. We're not time. Why can't I'm I'm not done with my three minutes. Right. Go ahead. I can just stare at you for no two more minutes. Right. I called the meeting and I set the parameters at three minutes and that's what we're going to stick to. But I'm not done with my three minutes.

You're not. And I'm giving you extra time because I just interrupted you. Go ahead. Okay. So, I have 2 minutes and 17 seconds. I think he should be able to take the rest of my time. No. Why? Because this is your different public comment. But I don't live here. He does. And he has a lot to say. Okay. So, I could just stare at you for 2 minutes and 15 seconds is I don't know. Sure. If you'd like to. Let's do Sounds good. You look very uncomfortable up there. I think I'm not uncomfortable up here. You look very uncomfortable. Good. And I think the man is right. You're the one that's probably lying pockets. Brian touched the nerve, didn't he? No. He had 217. Thank you. Let's go. 217.

Brian, you're the one that's getting your What did you say? Lion's pocket. I bet you're the one that's getting it. I can't prove it. Look how uncomfortable you are. You're very uncomfortable up there. I know what it's just like Santa Rosa. You guys take turns being the mayor or whatever, but you're a horrible person. Thank you for your comment. Yeah, you're not there yet. You're fine. Nobody else wants next public comment, please.

Hi, my name's Greg Hamilton. I'm a resident of Cloverdale, and I'd just like to say I'm I'm I'm really not impressed with you guys. Perfect. Thank you. Shame on you. Yeah, shame on you. We should all be allowed to speak. There's no issue of time. There's hardly anybody here really. And you won't allow him to speak. Shame on you. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Michelle Winterbottom, I have a question. Um, on the written comments, you say public written communication sent to council on items not on the agenda will be listed. Are people allowed to talk during that time or are they just written comments will become part of the record. When they send in when they send in written comments, they become part of the record. So the public can't speak on those. No, the people that have written this is for this is for public comment. We have written comments that came in public comment. You can you can speak on the written comments during the public comment period. So you could speak on it now if you'd like during the the verbal public comment,

but you would have more time because you're on the agenda as a written comment. They get added onto the agenda whenever they get submitted, not 72 hours ahead of time when the agenda is posted. We need new lawyers. If city lawyers, if they're not on the agenda, if they're not going to be spoken about, are there written reports on these written notices that for the public to read? Do you have them in the agenda packet? Yes, we do. You do? Yes.

And where are those? Because I couldn't find them online. They are if you go to Cloverdale Agenda Center, all of the written comments are on there prior to the two that re we received after 3:00 and they didn't get put on there, but they will be put on there as part of the public record and those are from Miss Frank. So, if I write an item and I want to speak at city council about the item that I write about, where would it be on the agenda? It would be under written comments. If you write it and send it to the city, it will be under written comments. And that's part of the record. We do not read those. So you can

That's what I'm asking. Why is the public not able to to talk about the written items? I mean, request for written legal factual basis or sequence. You can speak on verbal public comment. Someone can speak on the written comment during a verbal public comment. Gotcha. Say that again. You can speak on written comments during public comment period. That's what I'm asking. Why do you have it separated? You're giving them three minutes to talk about an item that they've submitted to you that they have questions on. Yeah.

No. No. Yep. Calling a point of city for 20 years to the people that wrote in comments. I'm calling it point of order here. I'm going to ask our attorney to clarify what the rules are. Um just so we don't have this back and forth and we can give act requires time to speak. Items to be discussed be posted as part of the agenda 72 hours ahead of time. Correct.

We add as a courtesy so the public knows all of the comments that have been submitted. We post those onto the agenda, but some of these have been submitted today. They they were not out for the public to to know about 72 hours ahead of time. So why do you have them on the agenda this time? So that the public is aware of the emails that were sent to the council. Anyone can speak on any topic they want that including those written comments during B1 verbal comments. So, anyone who sees something of interest to them during those written comments can speak on B1 under verbal comments about that which interests them.

Michelle, does that clarify things or you have time? You have It doesn't make sense to me. But if if I can if I can communicate to you can't change an agenda within 72 hours of holding that meeting. So, you're lying to us. Any other public comments?

Good evening, council. My name is Jude Gibson. This is kind of heated.

Question for you. Have you ever watched the council meetings after the fact that are posted on YouTube? I generally only watch the last 10 minutes. The rest of the information I get from the community, but the last 10 minutes are pretty spiffy. So, I wanted to remind everyone of the code of ethics for the city council. In the preamble, it says to use their public office to serve the community, not for personal benefit. 9.2 Point two, act in the public interest. Recognizing that the stewardship of the public interest is their primary responsibility, council members and commissioners shall serve the common good of the people of Cloverdale rather than any private or personal interests and shall strive to treat all individuals, claims, and matters with fairness and equality. uh conduct of members to practice civility and decorum in discussions and debate. Free debate does not justify public officials to make belligerent, personal, impertinent, slanderous, threatening, abusive or disparaging comments and to make an effort for the public to feel welcome as a part of the democratic process. No signs of partiality, prejudice or disrespect should be evident in the apartment of the individual members towards the individual participating in a public forum. The way that you have treated these two council members in the last 10 minutes of the last four or so meetings that I've watched is egregious. Read your code of conduct.

Thank you for your comments. Hello everybody. Regina Berry. My father has been a veterinarian here in town for my whole life.

And uh as a long-term resident, I'm just I'm barely learning about this Esmeralda stuff. I'm really curious about why we're not voting as a community on whether or not we are going to expand this community. And I'd like to understand the addendum situation. You've given them an addendum to go ahead um and you're waving the need for a new environmental impact report. Is that can anyone no talk to me about that? Alex, would you

there's a presentation on the next agenda item and we'll discuss that process at at that time. Okay. So, that is going to be addressed. Do we get to talk to you again after that? Okay. Okay. Um cuz I' I've always been worried about the taxing on the aquafer. Um my mother's home is across the river so she as as this gentleman is is county. So and I I hate to not hear what he has to say because you know everybody on the other side of the river should have a voice. Um

we are all part of the same community even though they don't get to vote on our city council things. Um it's uh it's just really upsetting that um that there would be any sort of a shortcut for a developer and not including the community members in the decisions um because it's it's going to be a really huge change. I didn't even know about the Berber complex. I'm just finding this out. So obviously I don't get out enough. Um I will be able to speak again later.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other public comments? Okay, I'm seeing none. Oh, go ahead. Thank you. Hi, my name is Brian Den and I just want to be on record that I would like to have a new environmental impact report done and that I'm not for the addendum. I also am here with Regina and I believe the people across the river should have a vote as well. Um, even though they don't, this is going to affect everybody. It's going to affect our future. It's going to affect my son's future. Yeah.

I just believe that we should take a better look at it and not move forward so fast to try to make money. Rather, look at the impact. Look at how it's going to affect everybody. Look at what it's going to change our community into. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your comments.

Public comment. All right. Do we have one? You willing to come down, make a public comment? Yes. So,

hi, my name is Jennifer Ley and I just moved to Cloverdale, but I grew up on the Russian River and I've been in with the community for a very long time. Um my question is so what are the implications if we were to roll out this project for hospitals um infrastructure education schools all of that like has that been thought through and if we are to build something like this I'm not saying we are planning to build this but don't mark my words but if something like this were to be built How does the wildlife move to the trajectory of needing to have all this other infrastructure? That's my curiosity. And again, I'm a new person in the community again. Um, but I'm I'm just I have a curious mind. So, I wonder if you can talk to that. We cannot bring it up under the desire plan. See if we can

and maybe it's for further discussion, but I'm curious about the implications of our bring that item. Yeah, you can you can bring your questions up again if you'd like to under the item when uh the city attorney gives his thing and then we can answer some questions. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to use my voice. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? Oh, here we go. You guys are pretty careful what I have to say. Yeah.

Hi, my name is Tasha Hart and I'm a resident of Cloverdale. Um, I just want to remind you, I was thinking about this gentleman here, that city council members are paid or paid by the constituents. We pay taxes and we we pay you guys and we vote for you to be here. And so cutting people off due to time constraints seems unreasonable to me, especially considering what a hot topic this is. And you know, we're the ones who elect you. Your role is to listen to everyone. If people are willing to give up their time so others can speak, that should be allowed. We see this happen in Congress and Senate hearings for constituents. So, so why not here? Is it because the viewpoints being shared don't align with yours

or because outside interests are influencing these decisions? Um, Esmeralda should be put on the ballot. we should be able to vote for that. Solano County just did a similar project um and they put it on the ballot. So why aren't we doing that? And mayor, yes, the way you treated this gentleman was like so unacceptable. You know, when I dress up as a frigid [ __ ] I try not to look so constipated. So please let him speak.

Thank you. Who's I didn't Who's talking? Any other public comment?

Okay, I'm seeing none. We're going to go ahead and close public comment. We do have we're going to move into uh item B2 which is written comments. Like mentioned before, written comments are on the agenda. They're on Cloverdale's agenda center. They are part of the record. Let's move into C. Student liaison report. Please proceed.

Hi, I'm Lisa Cardinz and I go to the Cloverdale High School for Cloverdale. We have juniors have started the CAS date testing this week. Progress progress reports will be out in two weeks. Scholarships are available in Google Classroom for seniors to apply for. Prom is happening this Saturday from 7 to 11 at the Village Santa Clair. And yearbooks are still on sale for $70. Varsity baseball has an away game this Friday against Lower Lake at 400 p.m. and JV has a home game against Lower Lake at 400 p.m. Both varsity and JV softball have a home game against Fort Bragg at 400 p.m. Tennis has a home match tomorrow against Middletown at 400 p.m. and track has a home meet Wednesday, April 15th. For the Jefferson TK through kindergarten enrollment for new students are now open. TK classes were visited by a classroom safari. They were able to see and learn about wild animals. First grade students visited the Charles Schultz Museum. Kindergarten classes visited the local fire department and the local police department gave them presentations at school. For the Washington Middle School, the library hosted its annual book fair this week before spring the week before spring break. And this year's eighth grade class is raising money for promotion with a Blackstone raffle.

Thank you so much. What a great job. like to bring it to council. Do we have any comments from council? Thank you, Bisa. I want to thank you and I want to tell you you're getting better every time that you hear. Thank you. Speaking of the whole Yeah, you're uh Bruce. Yeah, you're you're maturing over there. It's It's wonderful to see. Thank you. Good job. Yeah, thank you very much. They are you like council member Laski said you're maturing you're getting louder more confidence really appreciate it and I think the whole community enjoys it. Thank you so much.

All right let's move into item D recognitions. We're going to do proclamation week of the young child. Council member Marquez. a proclamation of the city council of the city of Cloverdale recognizing April 11th through 16th, 2026 as week of the young child in Cloverdale. Whereas the child care planning council of Sonoma County in partnership with the National Association for Education of Young Children and local organizations promotes and plans for quality child care and development through collaboration and community leadership. And whereas these organizations work together to strengthen early care and education opportunities that support the development and learning of young children, including those in Cloverdale. And whereas highquality early care and education supports school readiness, helps address developmental delays, and contributes to a positive long-term outcome for children. And whereas young children benefit from access to developmentally appropriate, affordable, and available early care and education settings. And whereas the city of Cloverdale is working toward expanding recreation and enrichment opportunities to better support young children and families in the community. And whereas a strong early childhood workforce that reflects diverse linguistic, cultural, and community backgrounds helps meet the needs of all children and families. And whereas early childhood educators, caregivers, and staff across Cloverdale's early learning programs and schools demonstrate a daily commitment to care, education, and development of young children, and deserve recogn recognition and appreciation. And now therefore, it be proclaimed that April 11th through 17, 2026 is designated as Week of the Young Child in Cloverdale.

And the city council recognizes the vital role of early childhood educators, families, and community partners in supporting the healthy development and future success of Cloverdale's youth. Dated April 8th. So ordered. Brian Wheeler, mayor of Cloverdale. Thank you, Council Member Martz. Nice job. Say, tonight we have uh recipients are going to be Ashley Dwey, Maline Kobe, first grade teachers at Jefferson Elementary. Would you guys like to come down, get a picture with us? Come down. Uh thank you. We're not that prepared, but

we represent all of Jefferson. Um both of us are proud teachers. I teach kinder first. She teaches first. Uh both of us support a lot of the committees at our school and we love our job and we really appreciate you seeing what we've done. Awesome. Thank you. Any comments from the council? Well, thank you much for investing all the extra time that you do as teachers. Uh you know, youth are a future here and we really appreciate your work. Yeah. Thank you.

I'd like to thank you. Thank you guys for your Yeah. your your dedication to service. Uh the the whatever you instill in the kids today will be there for long term tomorrow. I know you will uh do a good job on that. Thank you so much. Yeah. I want to say kind of the same thing except I've I've been on the school board for 8 years. Spent a lot of time with you guys and I know the hard work and dedication and the hours that you put in after and before school. And that's where the difference has really made is the true love that you guys have for your students and the learning process. And I'm thank you. I thank you guys for what you do.

Thank you guys very much. I have uh quite a few teachers in my family lineage and I know the amount of work and the effect that they have on children at a young age and uh as they grow. So thank you very much. It is a dedicated You have to be dedicated to be a teacher. So thank you. Greatly appreciate it. Can we get a picture with you guys? Of

course. All right. Thank you. Appreciate Try to

social media. Did your mom did your mom? All right.

All right. Item D2. Let's do a proclamation for National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. We do have recipients. Tammy Lemley, Cloverdale Dispatcher, Council Member Laskkey. A proclamation of the city council of the city of Cloverdale recognizing April 12th through the 18th, 2026 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Whereas National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week observed annually during the second week of April honors public safety telecommunicators as the first point of contact and vital link between the public and emergency services. And whereas Cloverdale residents rely on timely and reliable access to emergency and non-emergency services and our public safety telecommunicators provide critical communication coordination between callers and responders and support for both emergency and non-emergency needs. And whereas dispatchers support Cloverdale's police personnel and coordinate with regional fire and emergency services providers by managing response efforts, monitoring radio activity, and helping ensure the safety of those in the field while also serving at the police department front counter, assisting the public and performing critical records and administrative functions. And whereas the public safety telecommunicators serving Cloverdale play a vital role in protecting lives, property, and the overall safety and continuity of services in the community and consistently demonstrate professionalism, composure, and compassion in handling a wide range of calls throughout the year. And whereas from April 1st, 2025 to April 1st, 2026, Cloverdale's public safety telecommunicators

handled 17,353 phone calls, including 1627 emergency 911 calls and 15,726 business line calls, averaging approximately 1,435 calls per month, including about 1,300 business line calls and 135 incident uh emergency 911 uh calls per month, excuse me. And during that same period, dispatchers handled 17,917 incidents, including 10,940 calls for service, averaging approximately 910 per month and 6,977 officer initiated incidents, averaging approximately 580 per month for a total average of about 1,400. 90 incidents per month here. That's just here in the city of Cloverdale. Now, therefore, be proclaimed that April 12th through the 18th, 2026 is designated as National Public Safety Telecommunicate Week in Cloverdale. and the city council of the city of Cloverdale commends our dedicated team of dispatchers. Tanya Galloway, Tammy Lemley, Michael Newuhall, Carolyn Peterson, Lorie Smith, and dispatch supervisor Caitlyn Jensen, as well as records manager Darlene Stratton for their unwavering commitment to upholding the safety and security of our community. Dated April 8th, 2026. So ordered. Brian Wheeler, mayor.

Uh, thank you, Tammy, and all the other dispatchers. I just can't imagine, you know, all the trauma that you deal with as the first first responder um to hear about any call that's coming in. So, I really do um commend you and all the other dispatchers for all the hard work you do. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank you all the dispatchers for being there continually for the city of Cloverdale.

Chief, yeah, Chief and I had to talk about this, but uh I appreciate all you guys' service for what you do for the community. Uh how you guys handle the calls, how the calls come in. I I think it would uh inundate the public to know how the system works and how how uh service providers show up at your front door when you are in need. So, I appreciate your continuity. Thank you for your service.

I don't think anyone really understands the job of a dispatcher, including the law enforcement or first responders that are involved. um knowing how this works. It's it's crazy seeing the first person to take the call to deal with the the threat, the the fear, the injury, whatever the case may be. They have to decipher what it is. Remain calm when someone else is having a lifethreatening injury, a life-threatening event, and you guys have to calm them down and try to figure out ways to get people there to help them in a very timely manner. And then the worst part is at the end of every call, they're the last ones to know what happened. So you have somebody that was in a critically injured in a car accident, somebody that was shot, somebody screaming that something that their husbands are killing them or something's going on. They're the only ones that don't know how that call ended. So the emotional roller coaster, the the adrenaline dumps that go on, it it's it hurts their lives. It hurts their emotions, hurts them mentally and physically. The people never even think about, including the cops that go out there and deal with it. And so the relationship that you guys have with the public is paramount. The relationship that you have with your co-workers is amazing. And they would not be able to do their calls if it wasn't for you guys. And the community would not be who they are if you guys weren't there to control and keep them calm in their uh emergency times. So I can't thank you enough. I can't thank every dispatcher or anybody that gets on that other phone and side of the phone and answers it and says 911. How do I help you? You guys are amazing. So, thank you.

There you go.

Likewise. Um I have a lot of experience uh dealing with dispatchers using them using them myself and they are a calm voice when things get heated. Um and and like the vice mayor and and most of the council's been saying, we really appreciate what you guys do. Um things can get crazy. some of the stuff you hear is not what somebody wants to hear, but when you do, you remain calm. You get somebody there and uh we can get help on the way. You're you're a critical part of what makes Cloverdale happen, you know, when it comes to that. You've heard those numbers. Those are big numbers just for a little town of Cloverdale. So, you know, Cloverdale dispatchers, obviously, I'm partial to those guys. But, you know what? I think all the dispatchers in every department and everything around, they make they make the world go round. They get people where they need to be and they keep us all safe. So, thank you all very much.

Mayor, if I may, Chief, go ahead.

Um, so dispatch, I could not do a dispatcher's job. I just it's, you know, I couldn't do it. If you could, I'll give you just one of the calls for service that comes to mind if you want to think about the perspective of the dispatcher and Person's sitting in their car, says, "I want to take my life." Dispatcher's talking to them on the phone. Officer walks up. Dispatcher hears a bang. What that does, now they don't know if the officer shot or, you know, the person took his own life. Um, but what that does to the person on the other line, you know, you and I will probably never know that. Um, it's a difficult job. Um, I I again, I couldn't do their job. Um they're one minute they're answering a phone to help somebody with how do I get a hold of the you know we get some strange questions. Um the next minute you know they can be dealing with somebody at the counter. Hey I found a wallet you're turning they're turning in a wallet. Uh the next minute they could be having an officer respond to a domestic violence incident where they're yelling on the other line. Uh just to kind of give you a perspective, you went through all the stats. Um so the dispatchers answered 98.7% of their 911 calls within 15 seconds, exceeding the California standard of 90 90%. Notably during several months throughout the year, uh the team achieved 100% answered within 15 seconds, which is an outstanding, you know, when you call 911, uh we're going to pick up and we're going to get somebody there. Um to talk about Tammy Lemling right next to me, this is her 31st year as a dispatcher. Wow. Awesome. for the city. That's for the for the city of Cloverdale. Um which is, you know, she I think she's the longest

tened employee here. Um so she she takes on a few roles um on her own. Um she does the the to the the Special Olympics torch front. She coordinates that with the the the county and the police department. She does the National Night National Night Out riff competition. you know about that because I came in first last year. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha.

Uh and she helped out. She was uh Martha Martha May who for the Grinch event. Um and then um she participates in, you know, all of our events that we do throughout the year. She's also the the the president of the union. Um so I'm proud of our team that we've assembled. I'm proud of Tammy. Um, you know, I just can't say enough to really appreciate you. Um, and thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much, Chief. And thank you, Tammy. She She's photo shy, so I was trying to figure out She's She's not She's on the phone all the time. Where Where are you speaking? 31 years. Yeah. Well, come on. We got to have a photo.

Come on. Let's do it. You can bring them all down. Yeah, bring them all down. Get everybody down here. Come on. Thank you. You're welcome. Squeeze in a little bit.

One, two, three.

One more. Just hand. Yeah. Yeah. We have fun with this. We don't have time.

All right, we're all set. All right, let's move into uh E presentations. E1 is going to be moved. Uh that was Cloverdale Healthc Care District Ambulance. Our presenter is not feeling well, so we'll be doing that at the uh which 22nd council meeting. So we'll move into E2 processing proposed Esmeralda project by the city attorney.

Mike, can you bring the presentation up? Good evening, uh mayor, council members. Uh this is a followup from I think at the last meeting the council requested a future agenda item on the processing of the Esmeralda project. We're going to talk today um high level overview of how that processing works and what approvals are going to be coming to the city council for review including the environmental review process. We're not the presentation doesn't get into any of the details of the project. Um that of course will come during the the public hearing. There will be a full opportunity for the the council at that time. But this is just to provide a a overview.

Excuse me, Alex. Hey Mike, can you get it up on Okay, gotcha. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. So, while Mike's getting that ready, you council's well aware of of where the project site is. It's about 267 acres north of the the airport in between roughly uh highway 101 and the

Yeah, this is the first slide. So, we're still we're still on this slide. Mike, you can go to the next slide. Um, between Highway 101 and the Russian River. Um, as the council, you know, there's an existing approved project on the site that is entitled and subject to an existing development agreement. Um the existing project is allows for a hotel, a spa, a private golf course, um 100,000 square feet, um or a little bit more of commercial uses, and then 235 up to 235 low density units. Um generally single family homes, but not everything. So the proposed project that the current applicant has come forward with would would have significant changes to to the content of the project um about 168 uh acres would be uh set aside for open space or or recreational uses, ball fields, that sort of thing. Um a hotel. And just to note, these are the the the approximate figures still they they may be adjusted slightly and they're the maximum. So the approvals that they are seeking put maximum caps on things um we'll talk about in a minute. There will be phased approvals in the future that will set the specific numbers and they may end up being lower than than these amounts but these are the maximums. So a a 200 room hotel that includes an event space to accommodate you know weddings and things like that. um 200 um uh uh multi-family senior living units reserved for for seniors. Um 400 market rate units and that split between roughly half 50/50 between um detached and

attached units. So think you know traditional single family home and then attached units are um you know a town home would be a good example of an attached unit about 22,000 square ft of retail. Um and about 17,000 and a half square ft of office working spaces. Um, part of the open space includes a great lawn where there would be a um eventually at some point in the future. The proposal is for an amphitheater there. Um, that's not an approval for that's not being sought at this time, but that is part of their long-term approval. And then there would be the great lawn, you know, a gathering space as well. So right now the entitlements being sought for these uh there's a number of entitlements being sought for this project. Um for many projects that have come before the council in the past um the you know the project already complied with the existing zoning and so project really didn't need any discretionary approval from the city. It complied with the um adopted uh zoning. The city couldn't say, you know, yes or no to the project. It were just really coming for design review. This project is is different. It needs changes is requesting changes to um underlying uh the city's underlying development regulations in some cases. So, there is a proposed update to a small general plan amendment. Um an updated specific plan. There's an existing specific plan that reflects the original project. Um existing approved projects so it would be updated to reflect these projects. Some similar zoning code updates to reflect uh you know uses that might not be allowed on the site now but that would be allowed

in the future. Um objective design standards for the project so that there are clear standards for what the project is allowed. um a amended and restated development agreement. There is a existing development agreement for the project but this would be um uh amended and restated to reflect the the new project and and new um deal some new deal points. Um a master tenative map. So, uh, when LA land is subdivision, excuse me, when land is subdivided, there's a a map and usually what happens is first is there's a tenative map and that might have conditions associated with like building a road for example. Um, the final map is recorded and the land becomes subdivided once all of those conditions are met. Um the master tenant map for this project would divide the property into some large parcels, large areas. So for example, there might be one parcel where a bunch of single family homes will be the the master map being sought now would not subdivide that parcel at this time for the single family homes. And then they're also seeking authorization um from the city to participate in CMFA, which is the California Municipal Finance Authority. That's a statewide JPA, their bold program, which is the bond opportunities for land development. Um, and that that's not a bond that the city would issue or or any cost to the city, but it's a through that JPA um financing that they can access in order to um pay for improvements that are required for the project by the city. Um, next slide please, Mike. Thank you. So, those are the approvals that are being sought now. Um after those approvals, if

those are approvals are obtained, um they they may have to obtain approvals from federal, state or or county regulatory agencies like the um water border. If uh projects um change, they may need various permits for things they're doing if it involves sanitary sewer, you know, from from the the regional water quality control board or that sort of thing. the smart uh tracks run through the project and so there may be uh smart approvals necessary for any crossing that would happen there. Um so those are all later those are you know outside the city's authority those are in the authority of those federal state or county agencies. Um and then they'll come be seeking as the project develops in in phases you know specific tenative maps. So I mentioned there be one large tenative map now that maybe identifies one large parcel that's going to be single family homes. They'll come back later for the map to actually subdivide that into you know whatever it might be 30 single family lots or something like that. Um and then also proposed buildings. uh those would go through a development review process to make sure that they're consistent with the specific plan and the objective design standards. Um and then of course like any project building permit uh and grading permit reviews that happen at at a staff level. So um there's SQUA is the state California environmental quality act and it requires public agencies to determine if um its discretionary actions will have a significant effect on the environment. So sometimes the city has

no discretion over a project. It it has to approve it. Um and so there's no discretionary action. It might be at a staff level decision and so that doesn't get sequel review. But these decisions to change the general plan to adopt a development agreement those are discretionary. Um and so it requires SQA review and SQA rev SQA requires a public agency to determine if it's discretionary approval will have a sign significant effect on the environment. Um so significant effects sometimes can be mitigated. So they identify that there's an issue but um uh you create a mitigation measure. So a lot of times you'll see dust during construction could be a significant impact but the mitigation measure is to have uh you know watering of the site to make sure it doesn't become dusty or something like that. That's a something you see in some projects. It's not necessary for this project. That's just a one uh random example. Um some projects are exempt from SQA uh depending on their size or their things. This project is not um and if a project has a significant unavoidable effects, an EI is required. Um and then a that can't be mitigated. an EI is required and the approving body also has to adopt what's known as a statement of overriding consideration saying even though these effects have been identified we still want to approve the the project for and you list the reasons for why the project approval is being sought. Um next slide please Mike. So under there is an existing for the existing approved project there was a EIR that was certified approved and certified and then um two addendums for for changes to the project that would

occur. Um, a local agency under SQA regulations is required to approve shall prepare required to approve uh prepare, excuse me, an addendum where EIR has previously been prepared for a project unless there have been certain um thresholds are met. So if there's been changes to the project that will result in new significant impacts that weren't previously identified or increase the severity of uh previously identified significant impacts uh effects that would make it so you can't do a addendum. uh changes to circumstances facing the project um and the surrounding um environment uh that will result in new significant impacts or substantial increase. Um those are again something that would preclude a uh addendum. Uh and then new information of substantial importance which was not known and could not have been known um at the time uh shows new significant effects um that there are new significant effects there are more severe effects or maybe there's a feasible mitigation measure that we previously said in the EI wasn't feasible or some other new mitigation measure. So, um, if those are found to be true, then we can't, uh, prepare, uh, an ER, can't adopt an ER. If these aren't found to be true, then the city has an obligation to prepare the addendum. Uh, and next slide, please, Mike. Um, so the consultant selected by the city, uh, First Carbon, is preparing an addendum for this project. I I'm sure the council is uh familiar with first carbon. They've been used by the city on

previous projects. Um I think our circulation element just a few um like maybe that was a year ago at this point. Um and then they also rely on technical experts to um prepare appendices. So that rough draft is submitted to city staff from the consultant and city staff, the planning team, the city attorney's office review it. Um provide feedback revisions for that process. Um it's currently a quite lengthy document. Um the addendum itself is hundreds of pages and then there's significant um appendices. And then once the addendum is finalized, it's presented to the planning commission and the city council for review and approval as part of the project. The city council is the decision maker. So, it's the city council's um uh obligation to look at the document to the addendum to uh read the addendum to read comments that members of the public have submitted any other documents the public has submitted and then use its you know take that whole record before it and then use its independent um judgment to ex determine have the standards for an addendum been met or not and and base it decision ision on that. So that will be coming to the city council to make that decision. And if the council determines no, these standards can't be met, you know, the direction will be from the council. We can't make these standards, supplemental EIR um should be prepared. Um the next slide, please Mike. So just this is the rough um planning approval timeline. This is just the formal the formal steps to give the the council um a

um general idea of when it is. So there will be a date where notice of a planning commission hearing is published. Um and I'm calling that day zero. And no earlier than that date all of the documents will be available on the city's website. All what I'll say are final draft documents um for the city's consideration. So of all the entitlements we referenced earlier um as well as the um environmental documents in in appendices um then that that notice at a minimum is 20 days before the planning commission hearing. The planning commission isn't the decision maker. They just make a recommendation. Um so they make a recommendation to the city council about whether to approve the project, deny the project, make changes to the project. Um at least 14 days after that, but it could be longer. Um the city council will have a public hearing on the process. Um and notice of that will be published at least 10 days in advance of that hearing. uh and the council at that one will have the opportunity to consider the entitlements being sought in the environmental review and either approve them or not. That's within the the council's discretion. Um that environmental review has to be approved in order to approve the project. So, if the council decides these findings can't be made and we want a um you know a subsequent excuse me a supplemental EIR that the rest of the project won't be can't be approved at that time. Um and then you may remember from the earlier slide some of the approvals are resolutions some of them are ordinances. Um the ones that are ordinances require a second reading

before the city council. So that would happen at a subsequent meeting at least 14 days after the first one two weeks and when final approval um would be happen. So this is the rough project timeline of the the very just the highle formal steps um involved in the approval process. So Mike I believe that's the last slide. Um so happy to take of course any questions from the the council.

Council any questions? want to thank you uh city attorney Mog for putting the presentation together. Thank you everyone in the public for coming out today. Um certainly one of the questions I have about the zoning of the um the parcel there can that be reassessed by the council if Yeah. So the zoning um you mean the zoning that's there existing or there proposed changes to the zoning? the existing zoning.

Um the council can change zoning. There is a approved for the approved project. They already have their entitlements for the existing project. So a change to zoning now wouldn't impact the existing project. Um until those expire, I I don't have off the top of my head when those expire, but until then that project even if you change the zoning could continue.

Okay. And regarding the process, uh, one of the questions that, uh, our public had today was about a a public vote. Uh, is in what time of this process, uh, can the public, if they chose to, um, file for a a referendum, petition to referendum. Referendums are are petitions are circulated for referendum after there's been an action. So there until a council approves something um there's nothing to referendum um and so it would be after that.

Okay. And um just want to make sure that that's communicated to to the public. I think it's a key part of uh this whole process that uh people know what their rights are regarding what they're requesting. Comments. Um I wanted to let the public make public comments before I make a comment. Okay, you're good. Okay. Okay. Do we have any public comment on this?

Daniel, can you hold a second? I need to get that timer one second. Can you go to the second to last slide? Oh, unfortunately, I have I have to have the time. So, the council, you know, your time, but uh um I can bring it back up after. I can bring it up and I'll do the timer for you. Okay. I I I won't take three minutes. I promise.

Um I guess I have two questions. And the first would be um with regards to what council member Marquez asked about. Would an option also be that the city council decide to put the matter on the ballot for a vote by the people? That's my first question. And then my second question is just in in general with regards to the process. My understanding is is that this this will come first to the planning commission of which I'm a member and thereafter will make a recommendation to the city and the recommendation could either be to approve to deny or to make changes. And so my second question is is one of the options that the planning commission had would have would be to recommend a change to require a full environmental impact report. Thank you. to Mayor. Do you want me to respond as we go or Yeah. Um the city council could decide um to submit something to the vote. We need the the final documents to to submit, but that's what the council wants that could be submitted um as a ballot measure to the the voters. I mean in the planning commission. Yes, they can include whatever you know they want in the uh recommendation they've made.

Perfect. Thank you.

Uh good evening council. My name is Adena Flores and I'm looking for a legal point of clarification because it is election season and I have been looking at campaign contributions and it does concern me regarding the very large donations from local real estate developer Bill Gallagher to Vice Mayor Lans because even the appearance of a conflict of interest requires recusal under the provisions of the Fair Political Practices Commission And I have no idea if Mr. Gallagher has interest in the resoning because Mr. Lans also serves on the airport commission through the county that is having special meetings about the Esmeralda project and reszoning. So this is a massive development project and there are terrific financial interests and conflicts everywhere. So I would like an external audit of that that is outside of maybe the city's parameter, but to have an independent maybe a forensic auditor because there's been a tremendous lack of transparency. And there was already another deal regarding campaign donors that appeared to be a conflict because regarding the car wash building that could not sell for a long period of time. Uh the transaction with court Amalong that took place uh back in July. I forget what year exactly, but it was given to Lawrence Amatururo, who then gave Vice Mayor Lance a campaign donation of $3,500 or so within that same day or the following day after the lean was removed and $50,000 in code enforcement fees were waved on that property. So, it looks like these business dealings are being driven by financial means. It's not personal ever when I bring these things forward, but there's a reason I

do not support Supervisor James Gore. Uh we've been debating for 6 years very publicly as people in this room have witnessed before. And so if you're going to step in that role as a supervisor, I expect transparency. I expect truth for this community and genuine compassion. But right now, the disrespect that I've seen, I don't want to watch your guys' meetings. They're super boring. And like your constituents said, I look at the last 10 minutes and your lovely colleagues over here on the far right have been treated horrifically. So I'm not going to call out specific names. I said what I had to say. It's all over the internet. You can subscribe to my publication and read it for yourself. But I feel that the people here are being lied to. That is very obvious. I think you have a brilliant young you have a young student council woman here who is going to hear from a few meetings that she's being lied to cuz guess what? I'm a former government employee. I I was the assistant to the superintendent of schools. Okay? I got fired from the largest district in Sonoma County cuz my board was stealing nonprofit dollars. So I will always tell the truth. I care about this community. Please listen to them. But now you need to have a separate town hall aside from the public hearing. let them speak as long as they would like be there all night. They're paying for, you know, taxpayer dollars. Hear what they have to say because this deal is going to destroy this community. God bless you guys.

Thank you, Ada.

Miss Sullivan Y. Oh, there. Okay.

Hi, thank you.

Um, I just have a few statements and then two questions. Um, so they're going to tell you over and over, oh, it's a thousand pages. It doesn't matter how many pages it is. Don't fall for that because there is a difference between an environmental impact report and an addendum. That is crucial number. So this is this statement is going to continue. Okay. So it sounds to me like the city is putting the responsibility that is actually the city's responsibility as lead agency but it's putting this responsibility on the city council or at least it's saying something along the lines of oh it's the city council that decides. My understanding is that as the lead agency, the city's responsible for saying they get this submission, this application, they they say, "hm, let me review this." And they say, "Is this is this can we do an addendum or can we do an EIR?" And if any of those things that are triggered, which is what he mentioned on one of the slides, those three things that he mentioned, if any of those are triggered, then an EIR needs to be done. Now, it doesn't I don't know if you guys have done this yet, and this is what my questions are about, but clearly you're already on the addendum path, and this is not a minor adjustment. So, like the addendums are for minor adjustments. This is Esmeralda is the largest development in Cloverdale's history. This is not minor. And it's it's the the the entitlement package that that that they had up there is just massive what they're asking for. and and they're asking for it really quick. So, these are my questions. My questions are, what substantial evidence is the city relying on to conclude that no substantial project changes, change circumstances, or new information of substantial important requiring major revisions to the prior EER under SQA guidelines section 15162. My reading of this is that all of those triggers are triggered and that an EIR should be

being done right now. You shouldn't even be playing the game with Esmeralda teasing them with this addendum idea. Um, so who on behalf of the city, that's my other question. who on behalf of the city has independently reviewed and analyzed the draft SQA addendum and supporting technical studies consistent with the lead agency's duty to exercise its own independent judgment under public resources code section 210 821C and where will that independent city review and judgment be reflected in the public record and made available to the public? I would love to see um what was actually looked at and how you guys came to the conclusion that an addendum was the way to go. And I want people to understand like I think one of the most important differences between an addendum and uh public an EIR is the public's ability to comment. An EIR requires that the city will respond and answer every single question. The addendum is kind of like this format like where we can say what we want to say but they don't have to respond and EIR will mandate that. An addendum doesn't. Okay, that's it.

Thank you. Alex, would you like to respond?

So the correct the city is the lead agency. The city acts through its governing body which is the city council. So the city council is responsible for the addendum will be prepared. It's a document you will read it and you will see in that document do I believe that these findings have been made and necessary and you as a council will exercise your independent judgment as the governing agency for the lead agency the city and make that determination. So it's not a staff determination go the council will make that ultimate decision and if the council reviews it and feels we can't make this determination after reviewing this we want a uh supplemental e then that'll be the direction of the council you would be adopting a resolution laying out your your findings one way or another. Okay. Thank you, Alex. Any other questions?

Can I ask one question? Do does the city not have the responsibility of Can we get a mic for you, Jennifer, please? Yes.

Thank you. Um, does the city not have responsibility as a lead agency? I mean, like that that that experts and people in this field would review it themselves. It's it's interesting that you're sending it to the city council to make this decision when none of these folks, no offense, but like they're not environmental experts. I mean, like that's supposed to be done within the city from what I understand, and then you guys you guys make the decision of what to send to them.

The the city council is the decision maker. So they get right in order the reg relevant regulations say no subsequent EIR shall be prepared unless the lead agency uh uh determines on the basis of substantial evidence in light of the whole record that one or more of those findings exist. So the whole record is prepared. This addendum document is prepared and then it goes to the council. The addendum document is prepared by experts. Um, you know, there's the the first carbon is the primary lead, but there's technical appendices for all experts and and traffic, you know, engineers and wildlife folks and all so on and so forth. And that goes to the council. So, the council reviews and makes its independent judgment based on all of the whole record. So, anything that the public is maybe commenting on as well as uh this document, the city council takes all that into consideration and makes its decision.

Okay. Thank you. Alex, can I ask a question? Yeah, let's wait till we Let's finish these up. Yes, sir. Go ahead. We'll bring it.

Okay. I'm Paul Perry again. You're starting to get to know me. And please don't take my picture and put me on front of a Press Democrat. Um, I'm a structural engineer. I've been a structural engineer since I've been 20. I'm near 68. Picked Cloverdale to retire to. I've been in responsible charge of construction projects my whole life. I've been engineer of record near 10,000, maybe more projects all over the state of California. And I I need the public to understand that the scale of this project, the 10-year projected construction period, it's massive. It is, it is going to be so environmentally impactive to us and the construction all up and down the corridor. The amount of people that are going to come, the trucks, it's just it's huge. So someday it will end. Uh and uh but I'm just thinking that I'm well adversed with project peerre um um third party uh planchchecking agencies that are outsourced. Um and and knowing that the planning commission ends up with pretty much the final say of what really happens in in these projects. And I'm worried that the city of Cloverdale, their building department, their planning department, they're not capable of handling this scale of construction. uh you know, little residential houses here or there, but this is really, really big. So, I'm like to hear what the council says. They're are they going to build a whole new

vault to handle all the plans and drawings and computer make an AI center for this project? I mean, what's it going to take for this small town of Cloverdale to handle this kind of construction? So, and and and the approval processes that it takes. Okay. So, I want to just flip. Let's just say it all goes on and everything's going to happen. One big factor that I've noticed is as of January 2024 25, sorry. Um, the new building code CBC 25 requires since January that every single residence, every single condo, every town home, they all need a two kilowatt solar panel array to amend the electricity demand for this type of scale demand. So you take 600 development homes, maybe a till 2 kowatt system. It it's it's really 8 to 10 panels per house. So, you're going to this is this is 5 6,000 solar panels that are going to required by title 24 in the state of California to approve this project. Nowhere in the development plans, they got the hillside homes with their little uh pictures of of the Italian villas. Well, is this going to turn into the glass crystal palace in New York City? comes to Cloverdale because of this solar panel way. They didn't dedicate anywhere on the site to have 6,000 solar panels. I mean, that's what's going to be required. So, I'm just putting the bug in your guys plan going, "What is Esmeralda going to do with this?" And the impact that the community is going to have with that type of solar panel array, the other side of the

river, the glare, the scene, it's like, well, we're the other side of it. We're the county. We're not in the city. We don't count. We got that. But it it's impactful and it's environmentally impactful. The development and no one's as Merl has no plans. Never on is their site plan do they say, "Well, we need solar." Well, it's mandated by law that we have this type of development. It's huge. Thank you, Gary. I appreciate your expertise. Right. Regina. Okay. Regina Berry again. Um

I do love the term entitlements. Could you tell me when the last environmental impact report was done on that site? What year? 2008. I believe it was 2008. 2008. And then and then two addendums since then. Well, just the environment itself, our climate has changed a lot since then. What used to be on that site?

Can you tell me what was on the site in the past? I'm not prepared to say all of those details tonight. There Oh, you don't want to talk about the potential toxins? No, the agenda was agendaized to talk about just asking if if you were willing to tell us what used to be on that site. Yeah, there's So, there's a town hall with the videos online that goes into pretty from the developer detailed information, but you don't want to speak to that at this moment. I don't have it in front of me.

If I can interrupt for a second, I just want to let you know, um, this is information that we do want to get to you. So, uh, one of the things I did work out with Devon that she's going to do a groundwater and soil contamination workshop. So, this will be on Zoom. Uh, you know, just trying to get these questions answered. So, you know, I do hear you. Uh, that would be a good opportunity to ask the, uh, the developers. Of course, you know, they weren't the land owners or the people who maybe made the mess. So, you know, they're coming from their perspective. But, uh, um, I'm just going to let you know there is an opportunity coming up. Okay. And I've got to say effectively early May to all of you that will be making decisions.

2008's a long time ago, please don't even consider an addendum. It's absurd. It's absurd. Please just get a new environmental impact report. Well, and I want to reiterate what Council Member Marquez says. I've been in contact with Devon also on on this workshop and it's going to have a lot of information. It's going to be similar to the town hall. She is trying to answer as many questions. So, please, we will have a link to it and we will get it out. It'll be on our public page and people log on to it. So, I've got more to say and I'm losing time.

All of those shop spaces in this complex are going to hurt our small local businesses. We have empty spaces already in town. Why would we want to make a huge pull away from our town and put more shop spaces, golf course, any sort of landscaping, more water? We don't have enough water for us probably and we already have two complexes going in. Please just get the environmental impact report done. I want to know if I'm ever going to be able to garden in 15 years because of this. It's going to be horrible for everyone if we get rationed just because we overbuild.

We can't suck the aquafer dry, right? It's got to last. We all have kids. We care about our environment. Yeah, Regina for city council. Regina, just really quick, I want to say thank you for that. And those are all questions that we have as well and we want to answer when we have have the ability to. This is not the time we haven't been able to yet because things haven't been submitted to the council to be able to uh talk about yet. So, we all have a lot of those same concerns and look forward to that. Yay. Thank you. Go ahead. Are we done? Yeah.

My name is Maryanne Bighgam. Hi. How's it going? So, um, all of the years that I sat up there in the DAS, my main job was to listen to and protect the citizens of Cloverdale. How are you, the council and the city manager and the city attorney, how are you protecting our community?

If in the future we have contamination issues, the city will be responsible. A primary example of a municipality facing legal action years after allowing residential development on contaminated land is the case of the agricultural street landfill in New Orleans. Perfect example. I've got a list of examples of just what we're handling today here in this town. Okay. The development. In the 1970s and 80s, the city of New Orleans and its housing authority developed residential communities, specifically the Golden Plaza Press Park neighborhoods along with a school on a 95 smaller 95 acres that was formerly the Agriculture Street landfill. The mistake they made. The site was a landfill that operated from 1909 until 1950 and legally illegally thereafter. Despite the city's knowledge that of its previous use, municipal authorities permitted residential construction and the land was not properly remediated for residential zoning. The lawsuit years later in 1994, I mean years later. In 1994, the EPA declared it a super fun site after discovering high levels of arsenic, lead, and other hazardous material. residents reported high cancer rates and chronic illnesses. In 2022, a state district judge ruled that 5,000 residents were entitled to $75 million from the city of New Orleans. Now, there's more. The city was found liable because of what? They failed to disclose. failed to inform the homeowners that their homes were built on a toxic dump with many

marketing the homes to residents. Failure to act. The contamination was known to local officials long before the EPA designated a superun site. Just construction preceded and residents lived there for decades. And I I'd have to say if I was contacted in a lawsuit, I would have to admit that I was well aware of the contamination on that property. Every single person up here is well aware that it's contaminated. It's still contaminated. For God's sakes, don't be so naive as to take that park land. That's where a whole bunch of the [ __ ] got dumped. That was bad. So, absolutely don't be so naive as to accept that park because they're just trying to dump a part of the contamination on the city. So, don't be stupid here. Okay. So, we failed to disclose, failed to act. Other examples, Philadelphia, 1995, 1981, um, Wheatfield, New York, 2017, a lawsuit was filed. Same thing. Soil contamination was discovered. I got about 30 of these examples. And I'm not going to bore you with them. The only way you can protect and serve the way you're supposed to is if you demand an EIR. Don't just ask for one, demand it. That's the only way we're going to know. I mean, this is not something you ask. I mean, it's so obvious to everybody here, and myself included, that we are so past the point of needing an ERRI.

It's ridiculous to even think about not doing it. Now, I'm going to just say very carefully and very quickly that um I don't want to end up in 15 or 20 years having a whole bunch of 5-year-olds that have played on the ground growing spare eyeballs or something and then suing the city for $150 million. All we can fix this. It's so simple. Just get the frigin EIR. What is the matter? Bring it to council.

Do you guys have Is there any more comments out there before I bring it to council? Okay. Go ahead. I have a question for attorney Alex Smog. Um, you keep saying it's up to the council about, you know, if we end up asking for a new EIR. Well, um, I'd like to know who decided in the first place that we were going to use one from 2008. Well, that's like existing one on the project. So, you do when you do an addendum, it would be based off of what was previously approved. Um and so

and so that is what will come to the council and the council will make a decision just like when you've approved addendums in the past for other projects or mitigated NEDX. Those are all decisions that came to the council. The the city didn't the staff never certified the document. It comes to the council for your review uh and decision on what's approved or not. Gotcha. Well, my question is who decided that that that we'd use something from 2008 rather than a new

So, a decision to not do an addendum needs to be based on substantial evidence. And so, that evidence needs to be prepared. Documents need to be prepared using studies and experts and reviewing the old addendum and seeing those mitigations. Are they still accurate? Are they not accurate? um you can't just decide if you just you know say we think there's been a lot of change if there's been a lot of change we want to we want to do that the decision needs to be based on substantial evidence and so the process develops that substantial evidence for the council to then make their decision and say we read this report and there have been changes on the project site there have been uh new impacts that weren't studied the the circumstanc stances have have changed in the surrounding area. Um, but there needs to be a basis in the record for that decision. And so that's what the addendum does. The draft document does. You then review it and you say, "We've seen in here that there's changes or there's there's not." Um, and then the council makes its decisions.

No, go ahead. I do want to just address the community that uh you know, we hear you. I hear you. Um there's been some comments made by Vice Mayor calling a community member uh untruthful and a click baiter and I do want to speak out against that. I think it's inappropriate. I think it's a violation of our code of ethics in our governance manual. Um, so just want to mention that, you know, it's it's not okay to just invalidate community members for speaking on valid points and making valid points about this. So I do want to call that out. Uh, and uh, pardon.

Oh, you continue. Okay. Um, so question to the uh, city attorney. I think uh you know the question everyone's kind of bringing up is about the EIR and there will be a time that the council when it comes to the council that that will be the council's time to make that determination. So um it's something that you know people are requesting now but if if everyone can just understand what the process is that there is a time that that will be looked at and when we have all the information just so um everyone's on the same page and when you can kind of bring your concerns together bring your concerns to us. Uh especially cuz we're learning a lot. There's certain information that we have from the developers certain information we're getting from city staff but there's a lot of information that we're getting from the public and I think that's very very much needed here. So, uh, just want to make sure that I validate all the information that you guys are bringing, especially the women of this community, and I really want to give a shout out to y'all. Thank you,

Council Member Masi.

Yeah, Jennifer, thank you for doing your in-depth research. We are listening. Just I just want to note that that it's not falling on death rules. We are all listening and we appreciate everything you guys do because this is our community and I know it's a tough process and I know a lot of people think that we aren't listening but there is a process and that's why we're here explaining it that there's a lot that we haven't been able to do or take any action on actually anything basically other than checkboxing to get them to the point that they can submit paperwork. So right now all the all the stuff that we've argued about and things going on, there's nothing in front of us to talk about. We don't have anything of proof yet. So until they submit it, we don't have anything to say we want this. And that's why in in my opinion, it's taken almost too long for them because it's it's causing uproar and there's no reason for it yet until the paperwork is submitted so that we can actually see it and then come back and say this is what we think should happen. So I apologize if there's any uh miscommunications. Um, I try not to answer too much on social media because all it does is turn into this little, uh, rumor mill and hey maker show out here where people want to talk stuff. So, um, what I'm going to do is just Excuse me. Excuse me. It's my turn. So, when false information is given, sometimes we have to slow it down a little bit and that's just the way it goes. Uh, I try not to, but that is what that was and I will continue to do that for when it's necessary. Um, we will see that in our one of our next items that that uh comment was made about. But Jennifer, we thank you for everything that you do. You and I have had conversations. You know where a lot of my thoughts are on this and I can't wait to bring them when it's time.

Apologize to her. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. And uh you know, I don't know how many times we can say this and and Alex, one of the questions I had for you was at what point in this process can council start asking questions cuz and and let me let me I'll get let you get to that. Um everybody that comes up here and has a question, like I said, I'm going to I'm just going to echo this. We live in this community, too. This is my community. I moved to Cloverdale cuz it's a small town. I come from a small town. I know exactly how people want it and how they like it. And that's how I like it. That's why I'm here. That's why I ran for council to keep it that way. Just like uh previous council member Brigham said, you know what I mean? We want this town the way it is. We want it to be successful and we want to nitpick the living daylights out of this thing. When we receive it, we haven't received this. We're hearing everybody. So by sitting up here and basha say council's doing nothing and and you know what? You're right. You're not right on that. We are, believe me, we're chomping at the bit to ask questions. I have a list of questions I'm devising daily, whether it's from so I don't have social media, but I I see it on social media. I get screenshots of social media from anybody, emails. Believe me, we are putting that down and there's going to be a lot of questions out there. Please take advantage of the workshop that's coming out from Devon. She's going to explain more. Uh we have it we have we don't know when until we have the proof in front of us and we can sit and analyze it and talk as a group and as a council making the biggest decision in Cloverdale. We get it. So please bear with us. We have the questions too. Alex, at what point can council start actually asking questions? So council can ask questions. Um, basically once there's an application, I mean, you could ask questions now, but part of the delays I heard someone mention about, you know, the project is these draft documents. If the applicant

makes a change to where a building is proposed to be located, that that triggers having to rego back and update some of the the draft documents. And so that's what's causing delays. Once that's all um finalized to present something to the council, council can ask questions um and provide feedback. The decision for council will come at a notice public hearing. Um so there council decision won't happen until that hearing, but questions could happen um earlier once those those things are finalized, you know. I think

Yeah. So just to clarify folks, I mean there is going to be a hearing for this. It's going to be a public hearing. Will it be a long night? Absolutely. Cuz you know what? There's not going to be a a threeminute thing. I want to hear what everybody has to say on this project cuz I'm as concerned about it as everybody sitting in this room. So bear with us. Please show up to these hearings and ask your questions or we're probably going to echo them. You know what I mean? So thank you. Just please have patience with the process. It's all I'm asking. And this Michelle, she had her hand up for a while. I did not see it. I I just have a question.

Could you get a microphone, please, or come down? Michelle Winterbottom. Holy. Um, I just have a question on the public hearings and I want to make sure that the public hearing notices are mailed to all the residents within Cloverdale and that goes for the town hall meetings as well because they need to be. Michelle, the town hall is going to be online. It's going to be a Zoom meeting and there there will be a link to it.

All right. The time the town hall cannot have it on Zoom because everyone in town does not have Zoom. Okay, we can. So, you need to have it open to the public and on Zoom it is not open to the public. Point taken. And the same with the public hearings. Okay. And the notices need to be sent to each resident. Thank you. All right.

Yeah. So, we um public hearing notices under law are sent 300 ft within the property site. Um when it's over a certain number of house um uh residents, it gets sent published in the newspaper instead. Um the city of course advertises through its social media channels as well when a public hearing is going to be um occurring and we'll certainly do that um for for this meeting as well for whenever that is scheduled for both the planning commission and the um city council here. Thank you.

So you aren't going to do that? You aren't going to do any mailing. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. that will be put on our social on social media of the time and date for it. And that's BS. Okay. Good evening. I'm Shirley Davis. I think there's a very simple way of doing this. Can't you put a little announcement in your water bill? That's paper. Everybody has that. Okay. Yes. Kevin Kevin, is that something the city can accommodate? Yeah, we can look into that. Okay.

It has a long lead time. Reason you can't mail it to everybody in town. I did it all the time. It takes no time at all. Thank you. All right. Any other comments from the council? Seeing none, not you.

I guess it, you know, it comes down to communication. This is an issue about communication. I think we can definitely do a better job at communication. Um, you know, the Cloverdale Connect is one of the things that uh uh was decided to limit uh this year. I think that's a travesty for communication to our community. Uh people do read the Cloverdale Connect and that's one way to get out to a lot of the folks that don't have uh internet. Um so certainly I think uh you know sending a letter about this uh uh hearing can be considered. I mean it was a a letter in the water bill right that came with that uh Yep. sort of that's what we're talking water bill. So I think that can be done. Yep.

And would would that be something attorney that we'd recommend in a future agenda item? Yes. So this is just not a action item, but if that's something the council wants, I'd recommend a future agenda item so the council can decide. And uh also we can request to have that published in the Cloverdale Connect or kind of use any means that we have as a future agenda item. You could request discussion of noticing. Thank you. There you go. All right. Any other comments from the public from council?

Okay. Seeing none, let's move on to the consent calendar. All items under the consent calendar will be considered together by one action of the city council unless any council member or member of the public requests that an item be removed and considered separately. Do we have anybody that wants to pull any items? I'd like to uh pull item F1 and item F2. Okay. F1 and F2. Okay. And anybody from the public? I see. Yes. Would you like to pull an item? Yes. Okay. I'd like F5 pulled. Dana Star. Yeah.

Dana Star. Star spelled with two Rs. Star. All righty. Make a motion for F3 and F4. I have a second. Second. Okay. Okay. Let's move on to F F1. One second. For the record, we had Who was a motion in the secondary? That was vice mayor and then second was council member Laski. Okay. Did you want to we do a vote for those? Yeah, let's do a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion passes for item F3 and F4.

Okay. Let's pull F1. Discuss F1. Consider a resolution approving an amended contract with Forleaf amending uh fiscal year 2526 budget to authorize funds for planning service associated with the Esmeralda project in the amount of 137 353 and authorizing the city manager to execute amended contract. Kevin, would you like to speak to this please?

Yes, please mayor. Um this item is a contract between the city and fourleaf planning services uh in a total amount of 137. Um this we have hired for leaf to do a lot of the review of the asmeralda project as the community uh has been discussing obviously all night. Um it's important that the city have a contract with forleaf directly so that they report to us and they don't feel any pressure from the developer to make certain findings or to amend things towards the in the developer's favor and they report to us directly. Um, if it wasn't clear in the staff report, I apologize for that. But this is paid through a deposit fund, which as Moralda does pay us. So, the purpose of this is really so that the contract is between us and the consultant directly. The money the the money that is used to pay it is paid through our deposit fund through Esmeralda as is all the attorney time the engineers and everyone else is working on the city's behalf reviewing the Esmeralda project.

Any questions from the public? Seeing none. Hold on. I I I I see a lot of head shaking and I just want to make sure everyone understands what he just said. I that's what it looks like, right? All right. So, this is on here. It looks like we're paying $137 for Esmeralda. 137.

137,000. I apologize. 137,000. I apologize. We're not paying that, but we want to have the contract with the people that are looking into this instead of the developers so that we can control it and know that they're not working for that developer. They reimburse us for every penny that goes into this, but we have to have the contract first and then they reimburse us. That's how this has worked. We have a reimbursement fee or fund, but it's not this high. So, we have to do this is how it works. We have to have the contract ourselves. Esmeralda reimbures us for every single thing that this city does or puts into their project right now. Whether it's attorney time, city manager time, planner time, engineer time, anything that goes on, we're reimbursed for it. Okay? So, it's costing us zero. It is costing you zero.

We also has to go this way so that we know they're working for us and not working for them. We also have a reimbursement agreement with them that's out of Yes. Look it up everybody. Let's see if we trust them. What about the two that aren't producing enough? That's not what we do right now. No, that's not the item we're talking about. Yeah. Dana wants Dana. Go ahead, Dana Star. Thank you for clarifying the billing process on that because that wasn't clear when I read the agenda.

I apologize for that. It will be more clear next time. Um my question to you is do you pay these fees as you go by using city funds and then when do they reimburse you or are they h how's the timing worked as far as the funding goes or do they only reimburse you if they are approved in you know like what's what's the process? I'm an accountant. So regard they provide a a deposit account that we use to pay the invoices for all the various consultants. Our AP keeps tabs on that and you you've already received the deposit.

Yes. And as that drains down or lowers, we request additional funding.

Okay. Um because I did have questions on the math that they provided about the phase one and asking um as far as the four leaf goes. Uh they said phase 1 they're estimating 29922 but then they showed invoices of 284. I'm going why is that? Because it says phase 1's complete as of January 26th of 26 and it makes no sense to me. And then I read in there that 10,000 of it was already approved. And I'm going, well then shouldn't this revision they're asking for only be for 125,000 because they've already gotten the approval for the first 10 rather than asking for the 137 on top of the 10 that apparently was approved already. So I'm just looking at the math going it doesn't make sense from an accountant perspective. Yeah, I'm looking at it that we we had a contract 410 which we used and this is in addition to that.

No, they say that the 10 is included in that. Okay. and they show the billings from September through January using up the first takes the first three months or so, three and a half months to use up the $10,000 and that's included in their calculation every single invoice which again I say the 10,000 was already approved and it looks like a a duplicate of trying to collect more money. And you're telling me it's not really that the city's going to be out anything because they're going to cover it anyway, but still it's it's the it's not clear from an accounting perspective.

Yeah, we'll we'll we'll have our our finance managers here and we'll look into that and report back. Okay. Thank you. Yep.

Susie, did you get that is an amended? Okay. say that. Okay. On F1, anything any other comment from council or outside or from public? I have a question. Okay. Okay. So, um, Esmeralda pays into account. So, there's already all the money in that account to pay for this. No, not yet. No.

So, so we're going to pay the city's going to pay it. And then when are we going to get reimbursed? We haven't spent any of the money requested in this scope of work. As for leaf invoices us, we will draw down on what we have and then as get as it gets lower, we'll request additional funds. Is this isn't a one-time thing? This is going to be invoices that are sub submitted over period of time. So my question is um shouldn't they put money in the fund so we can draw from that so that we're not waiting to get reimbursed from them? They do. They do put money in the fund,

but my question was, do is there enough money in that fund right now to cover this? And you're saying no,

there's not, but there will be as we start to invoice and as that balance drops down, we request additional funding and get re and get get it reimished. And for the council's hopefully peace of mind, our reimbursement agreement with them says if you when we request additional funds, if you don't provide it, we'll stop work. And so we won't be, you know, going 137,000 hoping we get reimbursed. You know, if the fund goes down to $5,000 and we ask them for more money and they don't give it, we'll stop work on the on the project. Um, and just again for the council's peace of mind, there's language in our agreement that says the reimbursement payments under this agreement shall in no way influence the actions of the city. Um, that it's not an entitlement. They they can't based on these payments. It's not a promise that their uh project will be approved or anything like that. So, if the council decides to terminate, you know, to vote no or do anything, they can't ask for their money back, right? That this is money that is to cover their cost. It it's equivalent to um if someone applies for a conditional use permit in the city. We have a fee for that and they pay that fee and that covers all of the city's costs, the city's estimated costs. This is such a unique project. We don't have an established fee for big projects. Instead, people submit deposits um because the costs aren't as known. We can't estimate the same we can with a normal project. We might know, okay, we know a CUP for a is, you know, takes about this much staff time, this much whatever time and engineering time, and so the fee should be $1,500. we we don't have that ability to estimate that here and so we have the deposit account

instead to make sure that the city's costs are fully covered. Just one last question. Uh, have we or is there the potential that we are spending any of our general fund money to cover something that will likely get reimbursed? When the when it gets drawn down, we request additional money. Now, I can't say 100% that we haven't Well, maybe Susie can.

Oh, yeah. I was going to say we have not spent any general fund money. Um, now not to say that there couldn't be an oversight or that there couldn't be like a timing where something comes in on June 30th and it's a big bill and there's not enough funds, but then we would request the funds right away. Okay. Thank you, Susie. I appreciate that. And that's just one thing I hope that we can avoid is uh keeping our general fund clean. Absolutely. Thank you. That's our practice. Again, as Susie said, occasionally that could happen, but thank you for your clarification.

All right, no other questions. I'm seeing from the public from council. Do I have a motion to approve? Oh, Jennifer Sullivan, I'm sorry. So, if I read the invoices correct, it was at the end of um 2025, they owed the city 32,000 or something like that. Have they paid us that amount of money? And why such a large amount? If you're just going to do it in increments anyways, why don't we kind of match those increments? If that makes sense. I'm not sure. I we are billing lots of different consultants to this fund. So, we need to have a sufficient amount. Alex's time, the city attorney's time, the development review engineers time. Um, and so we need to make sure there's sufficient funds in there. I'm not sure if that's what you're asking, but we

Well, I mean, like, so my question is like, why not just have them give us like $150,000

or like bill in increments? Like if you spend, I don't know, $30,000 one month, um I don't know, maybe have the have this the council approve $30,000 instead of this big chunk all at once. We we've asked for what we thought we would be forecasting as you know AP bills and it's been covering but we we keep a close eye on what the balance is and we request additional funding when it starts getting low. I don't know if that's answering your question but that's our practice. Are they are they whole? Have they paid us? They

Yeah, they have. They've paid everything. Okay. One question, Kevin. The turnaround on Esmeralda. If we say the city requests funds, what's our turnaround? What's our timeline on actually receiving it from Esmerald? Is it I would have to ask Shannon, but I they've been very responsive. They've always sent the money. I don't know if they maybe Susie knows the answer to the turnaround time. We bill at the end of each month and the bills are due in 10 days. So, and they they're making it and it's getting there. Yeah. And typically we'll send them an email saying, "Hey, you know, it's getting low."

And I think it I'm I'm going off of memory, but I think they um they usually send $50,000 chunks at a time. Okay. So, that's that's what we try we try to make sure that there's at least 20,000 in their um deposit account at all times. So, Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions from the public or council? Seeing none. All right. I need a motion for approval of fun. Okay. Go ahead. Would you like to motion? I'll move to approve. Okay. I have a second. Second. I second that motion.

All right. Mike, did you get that? Vice Mayor and Council Member Morgan Stern. Motion passes. Let's move on to next. I still got to vote it. Let's do a vote. Yeah. Sorry. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose say nay. Motion passes 5-0. Okay. Move on to F2. Consider a budge amendment for the establishment of a community garden. Bring it to the docket.

Do you want me to um Well, I did pull the item so you know I can just give a little background about why I pulled it. uh did have a discussion with uh city manager Thompson today and it sounds like things with the community garden are going to be off to a great start. Uh it looks like uh the group of uh residents will be sort of organizing over the next few weeks hopefully. Uh happy to help out with that. And um you know I think maybe this might not be on track for this summer. I think that's kind of a um sort of big ask that like you know the seeds are not in the ground yet. So, it's like uh you know, if I'm at my garden at home, I'm got to buy starter plants at this point. So, um I think uh my concern was just uh that the process moves along to have that community committee formed and then that committee kind of can come up with uh some of the plans on how they want to see the garden. So, you know, the community garden really is by the community. So, um I was happy to have our discussion today and see how things are are moving along. Um, so that's why I would I would be in favor of uh the amendment uh knowing that it's going to move along that process.

Any other questions from the council? I have a question. Go ahead. Um, I was just curious because it seems like um the city staff is kind of coming up with ideas for this garden. Are people going to have to pay for their garden plot or how's that going to work out?

That's definitely one of the questions that we're going to be looking at. We're going to be putting together a management plan. We do know in Windsor there is a nominal fee that can help offset some of the water costs. Maybe we have a program that people can qualify not to pay under certain circumstances. But that's one of the things that Councilar Marquez has been kind of discussing we need to get organized with the people side of it. Um I know Superintendent Galvan is is anxious to get going. um it's already April 8th, so we want to not inhibit him to start working on that, but we also want to on the on the separate track work with the folks who are going to be involved with this, come up with all the ideas, bring that back to council, will we charge um just all the ins and outs of the details and in a written document and have you review that and approve it. And we we have a great example in Windsor and they've gone they've had a gu established garden for several years. So we can um model some of the stuff off of them and you know customize it to what we need.

And their their pricing at the Windsor Garden is um $10 per four square feet. So if you have like a 4x4 that would be $40. 4x8 would be $80. Uh they do offer people discounts, but they found out that doing it for free wasn't always the best option. People don't put maybe enough care. So they do uh a discounted rate at at 20% of what the cost would be. So you you know um you know you're paying $8 for a 4x4 thing. So that at least you get a little buy in. So

and also with this uh Hector on this we're I I notice on the scope on here you you've got purchase of some of the boxes already for the garden when we set it up. if you want to come down and speak to that.

Uh Mr. Mayor. Yeah. So that's uh the numbers that you see there are just quotes. Okay. Um I got a quote for lumber. We we would uh if everything goes uh through we would be building the boxes. Got uh in house by us by city staff uh public works uh staff. Uh that was just the price of uh lumber. Gotcha. Uh lumber is very very expensive.

I think and and I I appreciate it. I know that the city staff's really putting their heart and soul into this one. We're also going to have somebody come in and and we'll cover the dirt work and and get it to where it needs to be also in house. But I just wanted people to know that the city is putting effort into this uh and there's going to be planter boxes down there and this has the potential of following the model kind of like Windsor and communication getting people together. It has a potential to be very successful down there. My mo one big worry I saw in there was split rail fence. I don't know if split rail fence is going to do it. We're going to have to get probably with uh I can talk to some of the community around there and see what they want to say. I don't want to make it look like a compound, but I think we do need to have some more a security and b there's a lot of creatures that go through there. So, I don't want people to put a lot of effort into a garden and all a sudden come down to harvest and there's nothing but the deer are really fat. You know what I mean? So, let's uh yeah, let's really kick around that that fence a little more.

Mr. Mayor, the other thing we were hoping to is maybe get some donations so that you know, maybe someone would want to donate the shed or so that's just to get Hector going and we're still going to be seeking um donations.

All right, any other questions? Questions from the public? Yes. Hello there. Um, my name is Sonia Williams and I'm just curious to know, I know that you had started talking about this meeting or so ago and you had sent out a questionnaire for people to just give their input on how to develop it and I wonder how did you or who did you send that to because I was interested in it and I didn't see it show up anywhere. So, I was just curious about how that process works. Sure. Thank you. Yeah. Um council requested us to do a survey to the community. It was a short one, only a couple weeks. Um we presented it at the last meeting. We posted the link. It was a survey monkey link. Um we posted it on both of our social medias, Instagram and Facebook. We posted it on the front page of our website. We posted it in the kiosks at um I believe we had one here, but we definitely had one in front of city hall. Um we also posted it at this parks. Hector's crew posted it at the various kiosks at the entrance of both of our at um various parks. I'm not sure exactly which ones, but I know Ferber for sure, City Park for sure, um that have kiosks and we posted it in front of the large kiosk that the Chamber of Commerce has access to in front of city hall as well. So that one um so basically two were at city hall.

Okay. Right. But if you have any if anybody in the in the public has ideas of how we can disperse information like that, as our public information officer, I'm very interested to hear because I want to get as many folks involved as possible with those surveys. Yeah. Um I just want to say in general with the internet, everything feels a bit far-flung and uh with the old newspaper, you could just see it right in front of you and so that's definitely something worth figuring out. Thank you. Thank you. All right. No other public comment. Wait, can I ask? Yes. How do we find out more about that? Is there stuff on the website city website about the garden? So, well, so the the garden survey closed. It was a short-term

not about the survey, about the garden in general and getting involved. How does

Yeah. So, the at the last meeting, council gave direction to staff to come back with a budget amendment and a a a map of sorts. Um, so that's what you can see in this in the staff report to come back at a further date, a date uncertain with a with a management plan. Um, the management plan will consist of how we're going to operate it, you know, different groups that we worked with and how cuz we want this to be something that's successful for years to come. Um, to do that takes time. So, we'll definitely be putting out information on how we'll interact with those groups that provided information in the survey. Um, and anybody that's interested, you can always, uh, reach city clerk at ci.loverdale.ca. us. Um, got your information to city manager, but anybody else who's interested either online, watching later, or in the public now. Um, we're very interested in having folks volunteer or help out. Um, just need to get your information. And and to clarify, the city clerk, you are the central hub for volunteers and uh committee members or we establish that

as as our as the public information officer. I'm definitely the liazison between getting information and as the city clerk information from the public to the council and staff. So I'm definitely the intake on that as far as who will be monitoring this program for years to come. It's not something that the city clerk would typically do.

That that would probably be the case. that's going to be that's going to be addressed in the management program as far as how council and staff wants our recommendation and how staff wants that to look how council wants that to look going forward. Um, but in the interim, yes, any members of the public that want to provide information regarding the public regarding the garden, you can definitely contact me and I'll get you to the right person or get you added to the list of folks when we go to build this management plan if you want to be a part of it. Also, real quick, I don't want to sell out park superintendent, but he is uh all over town. Uh Hector's very knowledgeable about this and he is everywhere in town. I see him 10 times a day. If you see him, he would be more than happy probably to sit and talk to you, explain about where the garden is one, and probably the progress that we're making on it. So, uh feel free to do that and and also email any one of the council members. We will answer you. Thank you very much. Okay. Any other comments from public? Seeing none, do we have a motion for F2? Like to move F2.

I second that motion. Fortunately, we do need to have it read by title only since it was pulled off the consent count. I would like to move to adopt a resolution entitled a resolution of the city council of the city of Cloverdale approving a budget amendment to the fiscal year 2526 budget in the amount of $25,000 for the creation of a community garden at Ferber Park and authorizing the city manager to execute related purchases. Perfect. I second that. Thank you. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Okay. Motion passes 5-0. Okay. Let's move into Oh,

Dana Star F5. That's what I'm moving into. F5. So, let's move on to item F5. Miss Star.

Thank you. You're welcome. F5 is draft minutes for March 25th. Uh, under section B, the public comments, um, I see missing information. Um, first item is Rob Kaslowski. It says he spoke dot dot dot if that could be completed before approval. Um, we actually addressed that u that was brought to my attention earlier today and we've already addressed that. Yeah, cuz I haven't checked. No worries. Yeah, the the wrong set of minutes were uh put up on the initial um publication. Okay. Okay. But that section was and so Annabelle is also completed then with her dot dot dot

and then the third item um is what I spoke and on that um two things. One is spelling my last name is two Rs um just for future information and it was spelled with one R. But the point I want to make is that I specifically said I was making two points of um conversation and the first one is documented in the minutes. The second one was ignored and the second one is that I brought up the governance manual and uh section 8.7 and there's no I'd like to have that reference included in that I had two points before approval for those minutes. So I can add that council. You can you can still um approve it by amendment by amending the text knowing that I will uh note those changes.

Can we define the language at this time? So we do take action minutes. So we will state um as of right now it says Dana Star. I will update it to include both ours spoke regarding concerns for the potential Esmeralda development and similarly to other ones will be spoke regarding concerns for the governance manual section 8.7 dress code 8.7 y thank you Dana that's what I I was saying to council you don't have to wait till the next meeting if you don't like we can you know make a motion to approve the minutes as amended and I'll make those amendments I move to approve Approve the item as amended. F5.

Hold on. I want to open it to the public real quick. Is there any public comment on that item? Okay. Seeing none. Thank you. Continue with the motion. I'd like to move F5 as amended. I second that. All in favor say I. I. All opposed say nay. Motion passes 5-0. And Brian, before we move on, sorry, mayor, before you move on, um for any of the members of the public, I do want to um I didn't announce it tonight, but there are little green cards up there if the public comment cards. If you are ever concerned about how I spell your name, because I am purely guessing based on what I hear, please fill one of those out and I'll make sure to spell it correctly for the

Perfect. All right, let's move into uh H new business. Consider the following resolutions. Um, these resolutions will need to be read, but this one also has myself and Vice Mayor and Council Member Marquez. Uh, Marquez and Vice Mayor zone two. They will have to recuse themselves while we do this. And I will recuse myself from zone three. So, we can move into one zone one on this one, which is Mr. Mayor, we have a the presenter Oh, from uh Coastland Engineering. Oh, go ahead. Brief presentation. How about it?

Cool. Uh my name is Jenny Melman and uh I'm with DCCM. We've been doing this for several years. We used to be Coastline Engineering.

Um but this is a presentation about the city's landscaping and lighting assessment district. Um, and that provides funding for the city maintenance of landscaping and lighting improvements that were constructed for the benefit of private development, but they're on um in the city's uh public rightway. Um, so there are now seven zones. Each zone is managed independently in terms of expenditures and assessments. Um every year we state law requires that the city conduct certain annual proceedings in order to levy assessments in the upcoming fiscal year. Um these regulations require that an annual engineers report be prepared and certain proceedings are undertaken over three council meetings. Uh the first council meeting occurred on January 28th um this year when the city council appointed DCCM as the engineer work. At the second meeting, that's tonight. Um the council receives the preliminary annual engineers report. Um typically adopts resolutions of intent to levy and collect assessments and sets the date for the public hearing. Um at the third meeting, the council conducts a public hearing and then adopts resolutions authorizing the levying of the assessments. And this meeting is proposed for June 10th. Um, so I was going to summarize um this year's proposed changes to the annual um or to the to LAD. Um, and I'll just point out this table. Um, the total proposed budget for the entire assessment district this year is 312,284. This is a 6% increase from uh last year's budget. Um looking at the individual zones, uh budgets decreased for zones 1, 2, and three. Budgets increased for zones four, five, six, and seven. But you'll see how small the actual annual budgets are. So these

increases amount to the amount like $500, $700. They're not um big increases. Um assessments um are proposed to increase for zones 2 and seven. Uh the assessments are proposed to decrease for zones 1, three, four, five, and six. And the specific amounts are shown in that table under assessments. Um just reviewing the sources of budget revenue. For the most part, all these zones are self-funded. Um there is a general fund that is used in zone 2, which is Vintage Meadows. That general fund contribution pays for the general benefit of the public using the uh vintage meadows park. Um and uh in terms of reserve, the city uh reserves the city has a policy to maintain a minimum reserve fund balance of 25% of operating expenses. This year we show that all the zones are um meeting that target of 25%. Um and the last thing um every zone has a maximum annual assessment that limits the amount that can be assessed. Um every year to account for inflation there's an increase in that maximum annual assessment that um is basically uh corresponds with the consumer price index. This year will the past annual year was 3%. So we are increasing all the maximal sets assessments by 3%. So basically that's it. Um I'm happy to answer any questions about our proposed um budgets. Otherwise there are three resolutions before you um separated into groups to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Thank you. Thanks. All right. Any questions from council? Anybody from public? Okay, seeing none, do I have a motion for the first resolution for zones, 14,5,6, and seven. Read by title only. I'll make a motion for the resolution by title only resolution of the city council of city cloverdale intent to levy and collect annual assessments preliminarily approve the annual engineers report for fiscal year 2627 for the city of cloverdale landscaping and lighting assessment district and setting the time and date of the public hearing for zones 145 6 and 7 pursuant to the landscape and lighting act of 1972. Second.

Okay. Motion made by Vice Mayor Lance, seconded by council member Marquez. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion passes 5-0. Zone two. We have two recusals of this. Just one second. I need to note the time. So hold on. Okay. 34. And just to note for the record, Vice Mayor Lans and and Council Member Marquez have recused themselves because they live with live in that in zone two. Yes. Thank you, Alex. Okay. Do I have a motion by title?

I'll make a motion uh the a resolution of city council of the city of Cloverdale with intent to levy and collect annual assessments. Preliminarily approved the annual engineers report for fiscal year 2026 through 2027 for the city of Cloverdale landscaping and lighting assessment district setting the time and date of the public hearing for zone 2 pursuant to the landscaping and lighting act of 1972. I second that motion. All right, a vote. Thank you, mayor. Motion was made by council member Laskkey, seconded by council member Morgan Stern. All in favor say I. Motion. All oppose say nay. With Vice Mayor Lans and Council Member Marquez recusing themselves. Perfect.

Motion passes three to zero. Two recusals. Come on back, boys.

All right, I'm out. All right, let the record reflect. Mayor Wheeler has left the dis as he h is a resident of zone 3. Do we have any public comments or comments from the dis? Seeing none, seeing none, do we have anyone to read a resolution? I'll make a motion for the resolution of the city council of the city of Cloverdale intend to levy and collect annual assessments preliminary approve the annual engineers report for fiscal year 2026 through 2027 for the city of Cloverdale landscaping lighting assessment district and setting the time and date of the public hearing for zone 3 pursuant to the landscaping and lighting act of 1972.

We have a second. Second. Thank you vice mayor. Motion made by council member Laskkey. Seconded by council member Marquez. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion passes. Go ahead. Sorry. Motion pass. I know you're motion passes 40 with with Mayor Wheeler abstaining.

And it's a 8:37 time stamp. Mayor Wheeler coming back. Thank you. council. Okay, let's move into oh item H2. Consider adoption of a resolution amending the city personnel system to update the classification specification for the assistant city manager position.

Thanks, mayor. Um I'm requesting that we amend the job description for the assistant city manager and then get authorization to start recruitment. Um the big change really is the community development director position or uh title has been removed. My thought here is after about a year and a half of just kind of assessing what we need and I think that this job description is very general. So I want someone who can really work on a lot of different things and and um just be able to um do project management and just all kinds of different things. So, I felt I felt like it would be better to just make it an assistant city manager position. Uh the salary is the same as what it currently is in the in the salary schedule. So, um it does also include planning, but it's also includes a lot of other things. I just think like if we can get a real good generalist who's um can do a lot of different things, it'd be super helpful. We're very lean in staff right now and things are really uh there's a lot more projects coming down especially with DD and I think we just need someone who can really help out in a lot of different areas.

Cool. Comments from the council. I support it and uh do appreciate your um recommendation here to our city manager to um include the the uh uh skills that you have listed. Thanks. Nothing. Council member Laskkey. Nope. Vice Mayor, thank you for all your hard work for the past year and a half and figuring out what you truly needed with a lean budget. It's hard to uh just hire three or four assistants and just throw money at the wall. So, you've done a phenomenal job keeping us afloat and finding out what this would uh benefit the city the most. So, I appreciate this.

Thank you. Uh Kevin, this you have you've um you've kept us rolling. it was a transition in uh when the previous city manager left, you took the reigns and and ran with it. So, uh that was all part of the negotiations there of, hey, you're going to let us know when uh you need some help in there. You've uh jumped up and said that and I think it's going to be a great transition. So, yeah, I support it 100%. Thank you. Okay. Do I have a motion? Uh I'll make a motion for res Oh, sorry. Resolution by title only. adopt a resolution titled a resolution of the city council of the city of Cloverdale updating classification specification for the position of assistant city manager. I second.

Thank you. That motion was made by Vice Mayor Land, seconded by council member Laski. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose say nay. Perfect. Motion passes 5-0. All righty. Thank you. and okay item I council member reports

thank you mayor uh council member report I did uh mentioned earlier about the groundwater and soil contamination workshop uh that'll be hosted by the Esmeralda land uh company uh that will be tentively happening in early May so uh we'll share some information out to the community and just wanted to create an opportunity where folks can bring their concerns and have a discussion about that with the developers, proposed developers. Um, Wednesday, April 1st, I did attend the uh LAFCO hearing, which is the local agency formation commission. Uh, the hearing was for a proposal for the formation of the Alexander Valley Water District. Um, and I can report that no action was taken, although direction was given by the commissioners on what they hope to see in place for the next for next month's continued proposal. Uh, this morning, earlier today, actually this afternoon, uh, I did attend the ECO group. It's the, uh, equity community organization. This is, uh, uh, sponsored by the healthcare foundation hosted at La Familia Sana. Um this is a group of uh bilingual and monilingual uh seniors and residents of Cloverdale that are organizing to um really try to identify the needs of uh the Latino community uh and and share them with the city council. So they're working on putting together a proposal. they'd like to come to the council and propose uh uh and uh present, excuse me, um you know, what what the group is doing and hopefully the city can uh work with them and uh create some uh communication, two-way communication with uh Spanish speaking community here in Cloverdale. Uh some of the needs that they identified today were medical services, transportation, uh learning English, uh and then also, you know, inclusion into the community. So I think those are

all very important and I hope that our council does support them. Thank you. On March 26th, I attended an agon and open space meeting in Santa Rosa. We had a wonderful presentation about forest management. We also had a discussion about possible future acquisitions. On March 30th, um the wonderful Hector Galvin, our public works and parks superintendent, took me on a tour of Soda Springs open space, and it was lovely, and uh the scenery was gorgeous, and it was very memorable.

On Thursday, April 2nd at 9:00 a.m., I attended the Snow McLean Power Board of Directors meeting. We went over our fiscal budget for next year. And if uh any member of the public is a great payer of Sonoma Clean Power, I highly encourage you to go to their website to look at ways to lower your uh electricity bill. Also, we missed Eric Poland tonight uh talking about the ambulance. He was ill. Uh that kind of ties into uh uh telecommunicators uh week uh cuz I I did uh talk to Jason Jenkins who is the fire chief of of Cloverdale and tying in all of the 911 services and how the ambulance services are provided to the citizens of Cloverdale. So I encourage the members of the public to come out and listen to Eric's presentation on

22nd on the 22nd of April. nothing to report.

I also uh my meeting was cancelled. The uh northern northern Sonoma County Air Board was cancelled. Uh we did not have a quorum. We'll have one coming up next month. Also attended the board of directors meeting legislative for Sonoma County Mayor Council Member Association. Uh looking to see which bills Cal cities are going to be following. the uh legislation, our legislators went on uh break, so the all the verbiage is not there. We're going to have another meeting and we're going to see which ones we fully support on that. Also, we have coffee with the mayor tomorrow. Myself and uh city manager will be there. And uh then we have the Sonoma County Mayor Council Members Association dinner in Hilsburg tomorrow. Uh and then also uh the state of the city will be on uh Friday at I believe 11 a.m. here right at the CPAC. So

there you go. That was my report. Sorry. The newsletter's coming out tomorrow and thank you. Mike is really a big uh instrumental in getting that newsletter out. So I appreciate all his help on that. Nothing to report. Real quick to the mayor. Yeah. Does everyone here subscribe to our newsletter? It's almost weekly for all the information of everything going on in Cloverville. should go on the uh website and subscribe for it. Okay. Yes, you can email our city clerk. He will sign you up for it with your email so that you get it every week or whenever it's posted. But that's how you get your a good way to get your information around here.

Can I ask a question? Make a comment as she comes up here. Just to note, the park survey was also in the newsletter. It is on me. Yeah. I just um I meant to add I meant to add earlier that I don't uh use Facebook or any of those other uh social media things and I don't get a water bill because I'm in an apartment building. So when you are reaching out to residents, I'd like to like um maybe I guess I just have to pay attention when I'm walking downtown because it appears that might be the only way I'm going to get access. uh you know and like see hard copy of things that are coming up.

I I recommend signing up. Do do you have an email for the uh newsletter? I don't have a computer. I use the library, but I can do that. Thank you. And Dana, do you um read the Cloverdale Connect? Yes, I do get the So, you do get information. So, it only comes out once a month and some things happen really quick. So, I don't want to miss Okay. And we we do have a a bulletin board where we do post analog um you know the agenda comes out legally. Is there uh any way that that space could be used to

the newsletter is also posted there once yeah once once we post it and we distribute it digitally it's printed and posted in the kiosk the the one in front of city hall. Thank you reports by the city hall. Thank you. Sorry you have a comment. Go ahead. Um, I think we could get better um, readership for our newsletter if we could post it on social media every time it comes out. Good. All right. No attorney report. All right. Thank you, Alex. Okay. Do we have uh, council direction on any future agenda items?

Okay. Um, we decided at our last budget meeting that we were getting rid of our code enforcement um, person, but we're still going to do code enforcement inhouse. And in the meantime, I've walk around town almost daily or nightly. And I've seen electrical wires going across the sidewalk where people could trip on them. Um, we just did a ordinance about um, RVs and I've seen RVs parked on the street with cones on either side. I've seen all kinds of code um enforcement issues and I was hoping we could have a discussion at the next um city council meeting on how we want to move forward and find a good balance with code enforcement, you know, how to get things done inhouse um regardless of the fact that we don't have a code enforcement person. Perfect.

Council support on that. I'd support that. Perfect. There it is. Let's put that on the next our future agenda. Well, I was going to ask Kevin, u do I know that the next meeting is pretty heavy. Do you is that enough? It is and I do have some things that I can share with you regarding code enforcement. Um the next meeting there's a lot of items. So, it would be up to you if you want to do that. There's a lot of items. Uh I would say or would you be good with putting it on the following one where there's not such a heavy agenda? Um sure. Okay. Can you put it on the following? The first one in May is a little light, so it might be better.

There you go. Any future agenda? I I apologize, but what was the item from earlier that we wanted to talk about? You had brought it up for future agenda item. Future agenda item. Um, so I would like to request a future agenda item to review the city's real property acquisition policies. uh and to include an independent legal review of the recent property purchase involving Ron Pavevela and Eric Terrari with the focus on conflict of interest compliance and disclosure practices. I can read it again. Yeah. Okay. You support is is a item on here or is that something that

legal? Yeah. Well, that's it's a future agenda item if you want to discuss whether to hire it sounds like from that an outside legal advisor to review that. Um, this isn't a decision on whether or not to do that. It's just whether to put it on the agenda. It doesn't need to be on the next agenda, but yeah, I support that. So, and you we've got three. So, would you can that be on the the same agenda? your third D2 and three. Okay, sure. Yeah.

And just for the record, this is a discussion of the plaza purchase um and whether there need the council that wants to have an outside review of that to analyze it for yeah focus on conflict of interest, compliance, and disclosure practices. Are we to Well, that's just I think we should kind of limit that scope a little bit to try to figure out because that's we all voted on that and we all spoke about it in close session. So, what I'm not quite understanding what the practices that we're looking at.

Um, this was a a legal review of the recent property purchase involving Ron Pavevela and Eric Terrari with a focus on conflict of interest, compliance, and disclosure practices. I understand you've read that three times now, but what I'm saying is what does that mean? Because we we did it as a close session. We did it as in open session.

There was a lot of uh circumstances around who the uh real estate agent that the city chose that wasn't in the closed session. And so uh we'd like to know um and I think the this is a request from the public on how that choice was made. So, so is the request just to have a report from the city manager about how that person was selected? Um, I think it would be uh prudent to have an in independent legal review of the recent property purchase involving Ron Pavevel and Eric Terraria with a focus on conflict of interest, compliance, and disclosure practice.

I'm just trying to figure out here one thing is is if we did vote on that in close session, what's our legality of bringing that out? So it the it could be talked about in front that you know the contract for purchase came to the city council that had the person who we were hiring as part of that contract listed. Um so that's something that could talk about. We're no longer negotiating any property sales. Um it's just not clear to me, you know, is the question how that person was um selected. That that's correct because because that wasn't a choice that I was given in any session if I could say that and it just was it just happened and I did inquire about it previously and just never got an answer. So it's about transparency.

Okay. So it sounds like the agenda item is for a report about how this individual was selected by Yeah. A report of an independent legal review. Okay. I would have to have a discuss. I mean I think you will have the report then and you can then yeah what the the you can have the report and then the council can decide if it wants more information or needs further review. Right. So to start the process we would have the report on this not next meeting but the next one the following one after that bring it up for your future agenda item. Council will decide if we want to proceed further.

That that sounds good. That would be a further action if if the council wants to take further action. I I'm I'm I'm in support of that. So So you're asking for the first agenda is just get the report. Then you want to uh consider outside legal advice to see how it was accompanied. Um yeah, to maybe uh double check the conflict of interest uh policies there. Um I think I I personally feel there was a conflict of interest. So, uh, so we're we're getting into discussion of items now. So, I would hold that for then and let's put it on the future agenda item following not not next meeting the one following that. I forget what the date is. Apologize for that.

May 13th. Let's have a May 13th discussion and see how we want to proceed from there for future agenda. We good with that? That sounds good. Thank you. All right. Any other future agenda items from anyone? Seeing none. All right. Let's move to M. We're going to adjourn the meeting tonight at 8:54 p.m. Mike, for the record, did you get that? 8:54.