City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the Cloverdale City Council meeting. I will call the meeting to order at 6.01. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Thank you all let the record reflect the mayor is absent tonight due to a scheduled vacation and so I will be presiding over the meeting There is nothing to report out on the closed session that we had there was no action items taken any conflict of interest declarations from anyone on the council I Seeing none, are there any changes or deletions to the agenda?

Mr. Vice Mayor, F2 has an amended resolution from when the agenda was published. It was added today.

Okay.

And it's updated on the agenda?

It is. Correct. Thank you. Perfect timing. All right. We're going to move into B1 Proclamation for National Police Week.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Proclamation of the City Council of the City of Cloverdale recognizing May 10th through May 16th, 2026 is National Police Week. Whereas National Police Week is an annual observance honoring law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty and recognizing those who continue to serve their communities with courage and professionalism. And whereas Public Law 87-726, signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as National Police Week. And whereas law enforcement officers face significant risks while protecting the public and preserving the safety and quality of life within their communities. And whereas the members of the Cloverdale Police Department proudly served the community 24 hours a day through crime prevention, emergency response, traffic safety, school partnerships, and community engagement efforts. And whereas during 2025, the Cloverdale Police Department responded to more than 16,800 incidents and over 10,600 calls for service while continuing to provide professional and dedicated service despite staffing challenges. And whereas the City Council wishes to recognize and thank the sworn and professional staff of the Cloverdale Police Department for their continued dedication, sacrifice and commitment to public safety. Now therefore be it proclaimed that May 10th through 16th, 2026 is designated as National Police Week in Cloverdale and the City Council of the City of Cloverdale honors all peace officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty and commends our dedicated team of officers for their unwavering commitment to upholding the safety and security of our community. Dated May 27th, 2026, so ordered. Todd Lanz, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember. Tonight's recipient of the proclamation is Sergeant Beau Gastineau. Would you like to come down and say a few words?

Is it working? I'd just like to thank the city council for the recognition and thank you to the community for continued support.

Council member? Thank you, Officer Gastineau for your work and to the whole police department. Appreciate it.

Thank you for serving the community and thank you for always just being a wonderful person and communicating well with your community.

Yeah, Sergeant, thank you for your service. What you do and what you sign up for every single day is above and beyond what the living public sees here in Cloverdale. And for you and your team to show professionalism and pride in your work, 100% back to the Police Department, and we thank you for your service.

You guys have done nothing but be stellar, and we appreciate it as a community. The best thing that the community doesn't hear about is the bad stuff that goes on, and it's because these guys take care of it, and they take care of you at night. And so thank you for putting yourselves at risk, putting your family on the line, and sacrificing for all of us, and we really appreciate it. At this point, could we have a photo with you? Thank you. Chief, you want this? It might be your last photo. All right, we are going to move on to B2. It's the proclamation for Public Works Week.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Lantz. Proclamation of the City Council of the City of Cloverdale recognizing May 17th to May 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week. Whereas the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public's Work Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association with the theme, Rooted in Service. powered by community, whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services vital to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the city of Cloverdale. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector responsible for building, improving, and protecting transportation, water supply, water treatment, solid waste systems, public buildings, and other facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in the City of Cloverdale to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest in understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities and to acknowledge the hard work of the many public works employees providing important infrastructure and services to the City of Cloverdale and whereas the Cloverdale Public Works Department consists of the following divisions engineering, streets, parks, water, wastewater, and the Cloverdale Municipal Airport. And whereas public work staff maintain approximately 33 centerline miles of asphalt streets, including maintaining water, sewer, and stormwater piping throughout the city of Cloverdale. And whereas the engineering division is responsible for permitting throughout the city, including planning, permitting, and executing capital improvement projects. And now, therefore, it be proclaimed that May 17th through the 23rd of 2026 is designated as National Public Works Weeks in Cloverdale. And the City Council of the City of Cloverdale encourages all residents to recognize and thank the dedicated public works professionals who serve our community. Dated May 27th, 2026. So ordered Vice Mayor Todd Lance.

And tonight's recipient is Public Works Director Derek Montani, along with, for the first time ever, the entire Public Works crew under one roof tonight. So thank you guys all for being here, please.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, Council Members. I really didn't plan on being the recipient. These guys should be the recipient to this. They put in a lot of hardware. There's a lot of years and a lot of dedication. Thank you for taking a moment to recognize the vital contribution the Public Works Department does for the City of Cloverdale. Every day, the City of Cloverdale Public Works Team work behind the scenes, but their impact is very, prevalent throughout the city. Our crew is responsible for maintaining streets that connect homes, schools, parks, and businesses, and serves as the foundation for safe and accessible routes throughout our city. In addition to streets, our public works team is responsible for maintenance of critical public infrastructure, including municipal water systems, wastewater systems, and storm drain systems. that all the residents rely on. from striping crosswalks to repairing water mains and ensuring our ADA compliant sidewalks are accessible for all. This team does all these with diligence, pride and professionalism. And I'm very happy to have this team behind me. It's given me the ability to start getting some of these more major projects out the door and confidence that when they leave my department, I know that they're gonna get done and it's going to be stellar work. I was told there was somebody here, and speaking of diligence, pride, and professionalism, I just want to highlight an exemplary example of of this in Craig Johnson. With over 30 years of diligent, careful service to the City of Cloverdale, he has had a hand in every major event and maintained every square inch of this city. He's been a cornerstone of knowledge and experience and a model of work ethic for generations of Public Works team members to aspire to. Thank you, Craig.

35 years. Thank you. 35 years. It's crazy. At this time, before we say anything, if you guys don't mind, I would like to invite anyone from the public's crew to come up here, from the Public Works crew that would like to say anything. Craig, I know you like to. Hector, I know you won't give up a microphone. It's karaoke night.

holding us in for 35 years. No, you were here last year. You were here last year. And I've been to the Wolf House, so here we go. First of all, thank you everybody on council and city staff. I just want to say in my 35, come September it will be a full 35 years. From day one when I took this job, and I left a job that I had to take a $5 an hour cut because this job gave me insurance and sick leave. From day one, I put my heart and soul, that's who I am, to the community and the citizens that are my friends and my resident neighbors here. And the number one thing that I always felt that I gave was I cared. I cared for what the city did and did for the residents. And I'm going to tell you all now, this staff over here, when I leave, I can look back and I'll smile because there is a group of people over here that care now as much as I do. And that is something that when you have been in something for three decades, caring about everything that goes on in this city and the way people are taken care of here, and you can look over your shoulder and you say, look at all these young guys over here. I can say that because I'm 65. I'm just saying, they all care. They give 100% of themselves to this community. And they'll be doing that for their careers here too, because that's who they are. I just wanted to say that. that I've been fortunate to work with these guys, and they're outstanding workers, and they care. That's the biggest thing that I want people to understand. They care about what they do. So thank you very much. Thank you, Craig.

Thanks to the whole Public Works team. Just want to say, you know, since being on the council, you hear stories of something happened, there's an emergency, and then you hear the story of how you guys just stepped up and got it done. Any hours of the day, night, projects coming up with our open space, you guys are putting in the time and just making things just super for all of us. And, you know, I know there's a lot, a lot of pride that goes into it. So I really appreciate it.

I wanted to thank everybody on the team. And I know that you are up at all hours. You know, if there's a leak or something at 345 a.m., you're all there. So thank you so much. And you're all like a great help. Like if anything needs doing in the city, no matter what, you're all right there to help. So thank you so much for supporting your city.

Well, I'm sure we've all seen the Wizard of Oz and that saying, never mind the man behind the curtain. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is the Wizard of Oz right there. Everything they do happens behind the curtain. You don't see it. But firsthand for me is when the water main broke, Rene's like, who's working at 2 o'clock in the morning? It's like, don't they have an ordinance? But when you guys showed up, when the water main broke and you get called right out of bed, like you say, all hours of the day or the night, and you're up to the task. Yeah. Appreciate everything you do and hope you guys can continue the legacy of Craig. Appreciate your service. Thank you.

You guys make it very easy for a city and for a council because you're not just individuals. You're not just a team. You've become a family over the past couple of years. I've been here six years now on the council, and during that time it went from some turmoil to start when we got here. And you'd get 50% of you would stop by my house as individuals. to have a venting session. And now I don't see any of you at my house. It's because you don't have to. And that's the greatest thing. It's the greatest accomplishment for a council or for a city staff is to not have to worry about the turmoil and to know that that family is doing great and that we are all in good hands. So thank you guys very much for everything. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. I, you know, I want to express my gratitude for these guys. They just, whatever I ask them to do, they do. And there's no kickback, no pushback. They get it done. And Hector and all you guys just, and Craig, you're awesome. 35 years. Appreciate it. Looking forward to a little more time with you.

All right. Picture time. No one can say no. Everyone has to step up here. Let's go.

Thank you.

He's a short timer. All right, we are going to move into B3, the Cloverdale Citizen Recognition Program. This is a program that we started this past year. Every council member and city manager get to recognize one person of the citizens in Cloverdale or groups. And Kevin, city manager, it is your turn.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. This is our certificate of recognition, and I chose the Rotary Club. They've been in Cloverdale for 100 years. We have Kevin Gustaf here. He's the president. And just some of the things that they've done that I've noticed in town, which I know I'm not getting all of it, so I apologize for that, but the Rise for Hunger on April 25th, Kevin did an amazing job. There was more volunteers there than I think we needed. And it was just, it went off without a hitch. And I really appreciated all your work and walking around and talking to each group. You made it very fun. The shade structure at the dog park is also very much appreciated. and i know our super our park superintendent has already requested some more work for the community garden that i think the rotary club seems like they're up for i'll let you guys decide that but i appreciate everything you guys do so kevin if you want to come up and tell us about rotary and what you're up to and appreciate it well thank you very much

When Paul Harris founded Rotary International over a century ago, he envisioned a global network of neighbors, friends, and problem solvers united together to create a lasting change. Today, that vision spans to 1.4 million members belonging to over 1,500 clubs, eradicating polio, providing clean water, and promoting peace across continents. But the true magic of Rotary isn't just found in the massive worldwide projects. It is found right here, in the heartbeat of the communities like ours. This coming June 2nd, 2026, Cloverdale's very own Rotary Club officially turns 100 years old. For a century, this small but mighty club, currently powered by just 24 dedicated members, has poured its heart out into this town. But let's be honest, we could never have done it alone. Tonight, on behalf of our club and Rotary International, we want to say a massive and a heartfelt thank you to the city of Cloverdale and to the people of Cloverdale. Your unwavering support is woven into every fabric regarding this community. When you look around Cloverdale, you see a century of shared history. You see it in the Boy Scout hut in City Park, the everyday sites of city benches, garbage receptacles, town clock, shade structures, a little library, a transformation of a neglected piece of land into Kleiser Park. our regular street cleanups that keep Cloverdale shining, the bright futures of our local youth supported through academic scholarships, the Washington School Computer Lab, third grade dictionary program, bike safety days, kids scoop distribution, and the powerful, strong Cloverdale High School Interact Club. All of the many fundraising efforts through monthly bingo nights, past Cinco de Mayo spring barbecues, Texas Hold'em tournaments, polenta feeds, lip sync competitions, and the list continues to go on. Even as recent as this year, our efforts are working with Simple Jester and Rise Against Hunger to bring our community even closer to helping the issues of food insecurities, and of course, continue the community bonding. We also see your incredible support every year for the ASTI Tour Divine, which is now proudly celebrating its 18th year. Because of the continued ridership, community volunteers, and the single event helps fuel both our local initiatives and our vital international work. As president, I've had the opportunity to travel and participate in the Festival of Friendship in 2007, and then once again in 2026. I have traveled to different states in Mexico to continue the international projects. Our club, our District 5130, and the Mexican District of 4140 will work together on food banks, a drug rehab center for men, and a water purification program for Indigenous people. This Rotary Club of Cloverdale might be turning 100 years old, but locally and internationally, we've only just begun. To our city leaders, local businesses, and residents of Cloverdale, thank you for partnering with our many members for the last 100 years. Thank you for believing in the service above self, the Rotary motto. Here it is to a century of incredible memories and to fulfilling the future ahead. We are always looking for the community members to join. Come on down any Thursday at noon at La Tequila and feel the energy and be part of it. And for that, thank you, Cloverdale.

I'd like to thank you, Kevin. Thank you to the Rotarians and all the Interact Club members. Really want to speak to the Rise Against Hunger event that road reorganized. And, uh, as a, as a Kwanian, I've spoke to some of our original members and, you know, we're celebrating our 25 year anniversary here in Cloverdale and they can't speak to a time that all the biggest three clubs came together and work together. And that's not an easy thing to do is I think it was, it was people gladly signed up to help out that day, but, um, it certainly wasn't an easy thing to, uh, to make that happen and, uh, bringing not just, uh, uh, You know, the three big service clubs together, but the whole city was a huge, huge accomplishment itself. I really look back at that day as a very positive thing. Also, the ASCII Tour Divine is one of our great regional events. And I say regional, you know, it supports Cloverdale, but it's an opportunity to get together with a lot of the cyclists from... The whole Bay Area that come up for such a wonderful event, the best rest stops of any bike ride out there, period, with some of the most beautiful scenery. So thank you for all the events that you put together. Thank you.

I want to thank Kevin and the entire club for all the work that you do in Cloverdale. The shade at the dog park has been really wonderful and really important. It makes people be able to utilize the dog park on days that they normally couldn't. And I want to thank you for supporting other groups like you do. Like I know that you've helped the Senior Center do fundraisers. And I also wanted to thank you for all the work that you do in Mexico, too. It sounds very worthwhile. So thank you.

I guess what's left to be said is what don't you do? It's like you do everything and like you say, you're just only beginning. So we look forward to see the amazing work that Rotary can do here in town. Thank you so much.

Yeah, I had a list of things I wanted to say that you guys supported so that everyone would know, but Kevin beat me to it. So that was amazing. You went way beyond the list that I had. So it's crazy to know how many things that you guys touch and the thousands of people that you affect every year in Cloverdale. The four-way test that you guys have should be something that every nonprofit should be using. And we are so thankful that we have your group and the volunteers that you guys have are amazing. And so thank you guys for everything you do for Cloverdale. Photo time? Gina, yes, you're in.

Come on, Bob. Joan, get down here. Joan, Joan, Bob. You're gonna skip.

All right, now we will move into our student liaison report. Tonight we have Valeria Anguiano in your last meeting.

Hello, good afternoon. My name is Valeria Anguiano, and I'm starting off with academic planning and student pathways. There are only nine school days left until finals. Congrats to JV Baseball and Varsity Softball for winning their leagues. Cloverdell High School events, Monday, June 6th through Thursday, minimum days at 1230. Thursday, May 28th, Grad Walk, Jefferson and Washington, 1 p.m. Thursday, May 28th, Senior Awards Night, West Gym, 6 p.m. Thursday, June 4th, last day of school, and Friday, June 5th, graduation day, which will be at 6 p.m. Family and community engagement. Receive one-one support and consolation with a mental health provider about your child's behavior or mental health. Services are free of charge in English and Spanish. School climate and student life. There will be an art show of AP artist works on Thursday, May 28th from four to six in the Makerspace conference room before senior awards. Graduation day breakfast hosted by Lions Club for all the seniors, 6 p.m. graduation ceremony. Thank you, have a good afternoon.

All right, thank you, council member. Student liaison, thank you very much for your term and congratulations on completing your service. Thank you.

Thank you for being the liaison and is this your last year of school? No, I'm junior. Oh, okay, great. Thank you.

So what I used to ask my kids when they're in high school to forecast, where do you see yourself in five years?

In five years, I see myself in college and then maybe on to med school for cardiology.

All right, good job.

Thank you for your time this year. We appreciate it.

Hope to see you back.

Thank you for all the hard work you've actually put in. You've actually been very dedicated. You're very well spoken and articulate here, and it's great thing to see and we're so thankful for everything that you have done so we appreciate you and hope to god you come back next year thank you thank you All right, we're gonna move into D, 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 are typically allotted to each speaker. If anyone in the audience would like to make a public comment on any items not on the agenda. Please come forward. And if you don't mind, can you push the button on the microphone? Just push it one time. Yep, yep. And I'll turn the light green. There you go. And state your name for me, please.

Hi, Sally Pringle.

Thank you.

I'm a Cloverdale resident, and the thing that I would like to talk to you about today is the star thistle and scotch broom and French broom invasive species. More importantly, the star thistle is a huge concern. I see it in a lot of places, and it, if we wait this long, it's like, it's going to see it, it's already starting to go to seed right now. So and it's also a lot harder to remove when the soils dry, like in June. There's so many seeds on it already. So if the city is going to get control on that, you could set up some star thistle removal events where people volunteer and bring their shovels or something. But it needs to be dug up. And if you burn it, it spreads more. It's horrible. It has a very deep taproot. I sent you some information on that. But it's taking a lot of water. It takes a lot of water. The tap roots go way down. So if you want to have well water down there where all the star thistle is right near the wells, it be in your best interest to get rid of it. It's all over around the schools, the elementary school in Washington, middle school, I've seen it over the years. There's also some near the high school ball field on Jefferson, but up Cherry Creek Road. And there should probably be, I don't know if there is, but some sort of attacks on the contractors and the heavy equipment operators, because that's really, what's who's bringing it in. They're spreading it all over the place. It's up over all the vineyards. It's you can see where all the heavy equipment has been is where the start this it gets stuck in the tires. It gets everybody can spread it through their tires and it gets stuck in your shoes. But the point is to get it removed before it goes to seed. And it's the same thing with the Scotch broom and the French broom. It's all up Cherry Creek Road by the nursing home. And I know, like, I see it, and I was at a vineyard last year, and it's heartbreaking to see it up at Lake Sonoma. It kills horses. And you'll be able to read the information on it. But for the open space, it has to be controlled in the open space areas, or you're just defeating the whole purpose of having an open space. So please. try to figure out ways to get that stuff out of here. I mean, people need to be down there. It shouldn't be all the way up to public works. I mean, the community should be involved with keeping that stuff out because if you educate the community, then they're gonna know about it.

Thank you, Sally. Is there anyone else like to make public comments?

Good evening, I'm Rob Kozlowski. I'd like to actually echo Sally's comments. I moved here because we lost our home in Santa Rosa due to wildfires. And one of the things we used to do, we were a firewise community where we lived. And in the months of March, April, May, every couple of weeks, we would go out and dig out the different forms of broom because besides what she mentioned it's also an incredible explosive accelerant so it's a fire danger so I would encourage our vegetation management teams to take a look at the areas that she identified. But one thing, something else I'd like to just touch on briefly is on this particular thing I want to touch on is probably in the vocal minority, but I believe I might be in the silent majority, so hear me out. Call it the busybody economy. That's what... Barton Swain wrote earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal, and I found it interesting. Yes, the busybody economy. Busybodies and activists detest progress, especially growth and prosperity in the form of development, and one of many examples of these faux calamities. Today, data centers serve their calamity alarmism at the national level. But on the local scene, the anti-development crowd seems to seek to scuttle the Esmeralda development. Like all large-scale building projects, a few local feathers are ruffled, and their anti-development purpose requires explanation. So consequently, this leads itself to some conspiratorial Facebook and Instagram postings. But I would say there's no conspiracy here. There's no calamity. What there is is the opportunity, the development opportunity that Esmeralda affords our community. It's time to embrace development in the form of accountable development, responsible growth, and homes for young families to enjoy and thrive within the small town life that Cloverdale offers. I support Esmeralda. It's not an impending calamity. Thank you.

Thank you, Rob.

I'd like to know where you get the bigger signs as well. They got some nice signs.

Is there anyone else in the audience like to make a public comment on an item not on the agenda? Please come forward.

Hi, I'm Paul Peary. I'm not a Cloverdale City resident. I live right across the river from the proposed Esmeralda project. I wanted to comment on... last week's environmental workshop that Esmeralda did online. And it just wasn't anything that I thought it was going to be a deep dive type of thing. Let's really talk about the serious issues there. But it really ended up just being Michael Yarn's show, who spent the whole time with the predisposition questions that he had already have answered and he offered no new information. And it ended up with just check the FAQ portion of our website and all the answers were there for the environmental concerns of their project. And that's just not really acceptable for where we're going with this. So they got their checkbox completed now on the environmental presentations. And it just seems to me that it's one more step to their approvals on the easiest city council that they've ever experienced in their development years, which actually he said. And so I'm just totally getting concerned about how close this is getting to you guys voting and not thoroughly going into what was a superfund site. And they're going to move millions of tons of earth. And all the things that come with that with the environmental CEQA Demands like dust control, moving toxic earth and trying to contain it on a site like this. The amount of water it would take for dust control and environmental thing and their attitude is We're just going to address it when we get there. And that's just unacceptable on a site that's really known as a Superfund cleanup site with contaminants on it. And what developer in their right mind would go in open-ended not knowing how much money it's going to take to develop this site with contaminants on it? The other part is the hotel being placed right on top of the hotspot and known hotspot declared hotspot. And we're going to create jobs for the community right on top of the hotspot and then just come back. years down the line and wonder why everyone on the planet is getting sick. I'm sure you've heard of Hunter's Point and developers got their way on another Superfund site and now there's lots of sick people living in that community. So I just would hope to God that's not going to happen here and we look forward to you guys protecting us, the citizens, against somebody who wants the money, and wants to develop. Thank you, sir. We've got lots more, sir.

Next two weeks.

Is there anyone else like to make a public comment? Please come forward.

Good evening. My name is Jill Lowry. I'm the CEO of Individual and Family Support Network serving Sonoma County. We offer housing, mental health services, financial literacy, etc. The other side of what I do is disaster preparedness, advocating for much improved evacuation routes and disaster shelters in vulnerable spaces. I'm going to leave some of my cards here. I'm also looking at spent half a day looking for rentals. So I'm moving into your area. So you'll hear more from me about these topics. But I just wanted to introduce myself. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. Welcome to Cloverdale. Anyone else like to make a public comment? I'm not on the agenda. Please come forward.

All right.

John Lambert, Cloverdale. I'd like to give this gift of a podium light to the city. Here's the box for it. This is a temporary thing, I think. I spoke with Mike, and you're going to be doing some improvements on the podium, but I thought it'd be nice if people can see what they're reading a little bit better. It's rechargeable with USB-C, and it lasts a long time. You can change colors, do all kinds of neat stuff to it. Thank you, council. Thank you, city staff. Thank you, Chief Parker and all the police officers that keep the community safe. I am not here tonight to... dress up as Elvis or to quote any statistics to anybody, I am by no means an expert on the Esmeralda project. I do support it and I think it would be great for the city. I'm in no way affiliated with them. I'm not compensated by them. I'm not doing this because I feel like I'm going to be compensated in the future. I know there's been a lot of people asking those questions. I would hope that myself and anybody else that would like to apply for a job out there when they do finish the project, if you're qualified for a job out there, then I think that would be great. And I think that, uh, eventually if they do have events out there and I'm still around, I would love to apply for a position doing sound lights and entertainment and things like that. I think that would be a fun thing to do. Um, Hey Siri. Hey Siri.

Hey Siri.

Hey, Siri. Well, Siri's not going to do what I want her to do tonight. I was going to do a thing where I was going to set a timer for 30 seconds, and I was going to solve this Rubik's cube blindfolded, believe it or not. And as much as I practiced, I couldn't do it. And I actually have the solution in this book right here that tells me exactly how to solve this puzzle. I didn't get past the first couple of pages. What I'd like to say is that complex problems sometimes have difficult solutions. And to solve them, you have to take the blindfold off. You have to open your eyes to information, to possibility, to a lot of other things other than people just saying something can't be done. I think anything can be done as long as people try and as long as people keep conversating about the possibilities of what could happen with this project and future projects in Cloverdale. This won't be the last. I'd like to invite people to a Facebook group page called Hello Esmeraldo. And for all of you that were saying there's not enough information out there regarding the project or that you want to dive deeper, there'll be a lot of stuff on there that anybody can post. This is not a yes site. It's not a no site. It's just a place for the people of Cloverdale to come and check stuff out, read stuff, post stuff. Comment if you want to. Stay anonymous if you want to. I'll be posting a lot of things, drone videos of the site. I think people are probably interested in what it actually looks like. I'm going to post some drone video of what it looks like out there so people can get a better idea of how beautiful it is and its proximity to the airport and the river and some other things. So I'd just like to invite people to that page and keep up the great work, Council. Thank you for the light, John. Happy 100 Rotary. and enjoy the light. And the Rubik's Cube, it's going to be out there on the front counter. Somebody please take this thing away from me.

Is there anyone else in the audience like to make a public comment regarding an item that is not on the open session agenda? Seeing no one, we will move forward. into presentations. E1, the Public Works Department Projects. Public Works Director Derek Montani, thank you for being here.

Okay, I think Mike has a little slideshow that I put together. So, Vice Mayor, Council Members, I present at both of the subcommittees we have, and that really only covers four of you. And at most of the subcommittees, I get the reoccurring questions for updates on the hot topic projects or larger CIP projects that we've been working on for quite a while. So I put this short presentation together just to kind of give everyone an overview of the status of some of these major projects that I get asked about a lot. All right, you can go to the next slide, Mike. All right, so one of the major topics that the public board or I guess the infrastructure subcommittee brings up a lot is the backup generator at the water plant. The water plant's currently running off of a rental backup generator that's 120% capacity available. So we're in line with what is required by the water board. But we ordered a backup generator. We signed it in November 13, 2024. It's been to multiple different countries. It had to get assembled. We had to have a special enclosure. We also had to have it sent to another facility for a permanent load bank to be mounted on it because we wanted it in a single unit when it showed up. And so finally, that has shipped from Brazil as a single unit. It was shipped on May 14, 2026. and we're hoping to see it soon. And I have bids out for the installation, the concrete work and the recycling of the old generator. Currently we've finished this, but the industrial drive main failure was a large water main across the Colorado Boulevard into industrial drive. It was situated underneath a PG&E transmission line, gas main. and also underneath a high voltage lug box that was subterranean. So we were unable to fix the section because it had multiple breaks. So ultimately, we had to excavate and move the pipe and go around the PG&E amenities because we were unable to slide a pipe back underneath. They would not allow us to do that. That project is now complete, and you see the emergency declaration that I have performed on the consent calendar. One of these major studies that we have to do every couple of years, it's mandated, is the water master plan update. We're in the final review stages. And we have public notices going out on the 18th through the 1st, and you guys will see that come back to you on June 10th for your ratification. um the i'm sorry that should that should say uh urban water management plan i'm sorry about that the second one would be water master plan and that we should be completing that in march 2027 it's quite a bit of a larger document and uh the the urban water management plan is um due first the water treatment plant solar project that was part of the ami project that we did for a multi-year project including meters and we did a 70 kilowatt system at the water treatment plant and it's fully functioning and running now and we're hoping to get numbers to adjust the budget. I know Rob's excited to see the budget adjustment for those. Next slide. the cherry creek tank um it's been called the south crest tank multiple times we're we're continuing with the project and the naming of the cherry creek tank project that's the two tank solution we're gonna put two 250 gallon tanks in and i've done a little overlay onto a picture or a satellite photo we do have 30 drawings we're finalizing the preliminary design That way we can move on to the next stage, which is the submittal of the 60% drawings. We're hoping to see that in August, 90% in October, and then final sign drawings in mid-November. And we'd like to start construction on this project in May, 2027. It could be a multi-year project. It all depends on the status of the retaining wall that we're gonna need to build in order to fit the two tanks. So I know that's a really hot topic, but we are steaming forward with that project. Next slide. So wastewater, we don't have a ton of capital improvement projects currently going on. We're getting into the beginning of the next budget cycle in July, but we have silk lining that started in May. That's kind of a more of an annual maintenance, but it's a significant cost. And then we have, I put the industrial drive main failure because we did get into situations where we had some storm drain and we had some repairs that needed to be some existing laterals that came out of that industrial drive. So that was also part of that project. One of the more larger projects we finished was the wastewater treatment solar project, 600 kilowatts. So we should see a significant offset. And I'm going to do a one-year budget review in June of 2027, but I will be bringing back sooner than that some some some of the updated offsets we just need to get a couple of months before we can really see uh how much of the offset is going to be so we can project it out but you'll see in june 27 you'll for sure see me back here for a mid-year budget adjustment uh budget update for that stuff and then the water master plan also where we um We have incorporated some of the elements of the cycle water feasibility study kind of directed us in that new water master plan for leaving future easements and PUEs, even though we're not following through with the tertiary treatment plant, we still want to make sure that we represent the areas that we need in our future master plans. Next slide. So with the addition of Measure DD, we're starting to get some streets projects going on. One of the major streets projects we have is the first street overlay. That's gonna be the first Measure DD fully funded project at 93,222. That's gonna start June 1st. We noticed everyone on May 19th, we're hoping a week to 10 days for full completion. And then many more to come. We did the first street sidewalk gap closure. That's obviously the gap closure of the sidewalks from first street all the way to the new development underneath the freeway. That consists of partial pavement. everyone's going to get a new new new driveway apron things like that so we got amazingly we received six good bids they're all really tight and close we did the bid openings today i'm going to review them and then we'll issue a bid award i'm hoping you'll see that on the june 10th meeting so that that's also moving forward We're moving forward with the Franklin section overlay between West 1st and 2nd. We should have the bid docs done soon, and you'll see that going out to bid. We'll do the public noticing soon. The Clark Avenue. we've saved enough sb1 money and the water and sewer funds to complete this project so we have a couple of little additional storm water amenities but the the we should still should meet the timeline we should be finished in june 2027 that's From South Street to Blair, that's a full reconstruct on Clark. Asphalt, sidewalks, pavement, water, sewer, storm, everything. So that's going to be a large project and it's going to be good for that neighborhood. Next slide. So we have two ongoing Go Sonoma projects. The larger of the two is the traffic calming projects. And that's going to be a, we're going to have some additional Measure DD money go into that, but that'll get us a grind and repave between Railroad Avenue and Franklin. We're going to do striping the project timeline June 26th to October 27th. We're hoping to see it advance faster than that, but we had to do a project change with the SCTCA and it all hinges on what board meeting we can get that onto. The sidewalk completion project is completing a section of sidewalk from Shady Lane to Muscat Creek. We've completed all the CEQA documentation from that. We've got engineering proposals. We just are going to choose our engineering proposal and we should still be on timeline for October 2027 for completion for that. Cloverdale Boulevard striping. So this, when you see these striping plans come out, you're going to see obviously a gap in the sections of striping that we're going to do. That gap is going to be that traffic calming project. So When we bid out the striping project, which is the plans are 100% done, we're gonna be using major DD funds and general funds because the council has chosen to commit significant funds to striping for a line item. And the sections will be Franklin Street, to the south end of town and then Railroad Avenue to the north end of town. So that section between Railroad Avenue and Franklin will not show up on this bid striping plan because it's gonna be covered in the traffic calming project for the Go Sonoma funded project. So just wanna make sure everyone is clear on that. Okay, next slide. Just some general public works. I could fill up page after page after page of studies, reports, documentations, just stuff we have to grind on all the time. Some of the bigger things are cross-connection control plan. We're in the 90% draft. This took quite a while to get because we had to get a staff member to be certified in two different certifications in order just to draft this, which consisted of over 80 hours of school time. And so now that we have this, we're back online to finish this cross-connection control plan because we have to have it in by the state by the end of the year. The RRA and the ERP are two things we do every five years. It says water next to it because it has to do with water cybersecurity, electricity, and infrastructure security. So it's not... It's not emergency response plan for providing water. It's emergency response plan for providing cybersecurity for water operations. So we're online. We have the RRA almost finished. It gets put in June 30th. The ERP gets done on the 31st of December. So those are pretty data-dense documents. They take a long time to draft. The solar project, this is ongoing stuff. You know, we have to continue with vegetation management. It's not. It is, you know, additional work to our staff to have that solar there. We have continued with fencing and automatic gate. And then the city is going to perform some additional striping. And then Measure DD, what we're drafting right now, you'll see probably in a couple meetings once we get some of these DD projects going down the road. You're going to see we're going to adopt a kind of, well, we have the streets list, but we're going to adopt the... a means of reporting, right? So it's gonna be the quarterly report and then the annual report you guys are gonna get. So you'll see that it'll be kind of a template in the document. And then that'll also reference the created Measure DD streets list that the council is gonna provide. I think that's it. I just ramble on if you have any questions.

Yeah, we'll start. Go ahead.

Thank you for the presentation, Derek. I just had a question about the striping on the boulevard, specifically between Franklin and Railroad, specifically in front of the firehouse. There's been some mention that the striping there needs some work. I was kind of wondering if that area was left out.

So the striping from Railroad Avenue to Franklin, that's in the Go Sonoma project. Okay. Because it's funded differently than the city-funded striping project. Okay. And that most likely will get done before the rest of the city project gets done. But we have a traffic, we call that the traffic calming project because we're reorienting all the lanes. We're putting additional pedestrian amenities, bike amenities, things like that in that section. It's because they're two different projects. You have the railroad avenue to the north end of town, Franklin to the south end of town, and that centerpiece is its own project.

Thanks for explaining that. Do we have an estimated date of completion for that part of the project? No. Okay.

The May 27, I think, was the original timeline. We're still on that timeline.

Roughly in 2027, would be fair. Thank you. And then the question about the Cherry Creek tank with the retaining wall, I was just kind of concerned if all the studies are already done, if there's possibly any complications that could be encountered during that. Maybe some excavation of that? That could possibly cause any delay?

No, there's no additional studies, soil studies or anything we need to do on top of whatever we already have contracted out. Okay. So they have the wall pretty much designed. It's a pinned back design wall. So they're pretty confident that I guess the... The only nuance to that would be how far subterranean we can go underneath the county road section in that area. And our relationship with the county is very good. So I don't think that's going to be an issue.

So yeah, no estimated delays on that. And the final question I have, and I might've missed this, excuse me if I did, but is there a completion date on the first street sidewalk gap closure or estimated?

No, because the bid opening was today. And so I'll go through every bid packet tomorrow, and we're hoping next week we'll notify the bidder, and then you'll see the contract through council on the 10th, I hope. And then after that, then we'll see. It's a matter of their subs have to get bonding, how long that's going to take. It shouldn't be a long process, though.

Yeah, but it's coming to the council at the next meeting. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the presentation and the update. Thank you.

So, Derek, I've got questions for the water plant backup generator. Did you say it was going out to bid for the installation, or was that price already included in the original assessment and RFP?

The price was to purchase, install, and construct the housing that it's in, because we got the motor and the genset, right? Peterson had to get it at two different spots. And then the housing that we want to work with exterior fuel is not their standard housing. They want a bottom tank. So we got a gen set, a separate housing built, and then the additional load bank mounted, the frame fabricated, mounted and installed. That's part of the initial price. And then the install is going to be separate.

Is the generator coming with a belly tank? No. Is it going to be piped, hard piped?

Yeah, we have an existing tank And it's hard piped in.

Okay, so the generator that's there, is that going to be retired in place, or are we scrapping that? No, we're scrapping it.

That's part of the price. They have to build that in. I told them once they pick it up off the ground, it's theirs. We don't want anything to do with it because it's a blown-up generator. And then we went through all the air quality management district. Yep. We got a signed letter from the Northern California Air Quality Control Board okaying the design, the layout, and the generator that we selected.

All right. Thank you. Derek thank you for making these projects happen I know it's not always an easy road and I know that we're not always nice to you so I but we've been doing this for almost almost six years for these to come to fruition so it's it's hard for us it's hard for your community to know that you're pumping money into something waiting for it to happen but to hear these are finally happening is great um going to go through these as we see the striping plan is awesome i love the traffic calming that is a great thing that we need uh for you guys that don't quite know where it is it's where it goes two lanes really fast now you have the racetrack and drag strip and it goes back to one right right just past the uh such as fair and the middle school it's all that area through there through then all the way by the firehouse where everybody's still doing 55 miles an hour to try to get in line. So I'm excited to see how this is going to turn out. I've seen the drawings, and it's going to be amazing. Thank you for handling the water leak. That was a very difficult one, and you guys did a great job on that. Rigi did a great job with you guys, and to have the public works staff and them working together was phenomenal. Urban water management plan, I'm looking forward to seeing that, you know, come to us because...

It's in public draft. I have it on the website right now. It's been running in the Press Democrat also.

Perfect. If you get a chance, could you email it to the council? Yep. We've seen the county one and there's a lot of questions there and I can't wait to see ours. Tanks, thank you for pushing those through and making that happen. I know that it's not always what the engineer wants, but it's what this council decided and we're excited to move that project along and get it done. Solar, same thing. Nice to know that it's up and running after all this time. It took a while and it took some different leadership in here and I'm happy that we have the people that we do in place. I'm looking forward to Franklin and First Street, getting those done. Let people start driving on their tax money. It's a great thing for us. Those are some terrible spots. I can't wait for our council to make our list of streets and really hammer down and give people back what they trusted us with Measure DD to believe in us and trust us with their money to make this happen. And we need to make it happen as fast as possible. So thank you for getting these things done. I know Go Sonoma is not always the easiest. I'm on that board and it's very difficult. The money's years out. And so I know you've been working on that diligently and thank you. That is the only comments I have so far. So I appreciate everything you're doing.

I will, there is one item on the consent calendar, the SB1 list that we do each year. And so we've put two sections of Jefferson on their home, section one and section two per the PTAB report. And I know that Jefferson sections show up on the council members lists. Our thinking behind that is we're anticipating quite a bit of design and surveying and a lot of soft costs on those sections. And we'd rather not tie up measure DD money that can be, that can go to groundbreaking instantly and we can pay for pavement to get done right now. We'd rather not tie up that DD money with prolonged, you know, development costs, engineering costs. So we put it on that SB1 list. So, and we're anticipating two, about 200 and... A little over $200,000 in this SB1 allocation for 26-27. So we're going to use that to get these soft costs done. That way we can continue to make ground with DD money. And then when those soft costs are done by next year, we should be able to just start breaking ground with DD funds. So that was our thinking behind that.

That's great because that's a bang for your buck and that's what our community wants to see. Yeah. If you don't mind, I'm going to open it up to the public real quick. Any comments from anyone in the audience like to come forward, please? Please step up to the mic, Sally.

Thank you. So it would be really cool if all if everybody in public works and all of you would walk the city from one end of Cloverdale Boulevard to the next. to protect the children who are walking on that road, because I have done it. And across from the fire department near Los Pinos Market, there's issues, blind spots, because cars are parked too close to the corner. And it's dangerous for anybody, any pedestrians to be crossing on those two streets that are in between Los Pinos and that corner. But it's right across the street from the fire department. Those are serious issues. There's another one across the street from Ace Hardware when you're on the west side. of Cloverdale Boulevard, there's an intersection there just on the other side of those newer apartments. And the cars parked so close to the corner, that like if somebody's going south on Cloverdale Boulevard, and there's a pedestrian trying to cross there, you can't be seen. So I don't know if people have been hit in those areas, but it's bound to happen. I would pull those parking the on the Cloverdale Boulevard back so people that are actually trying to cross don't get hit.

Thank you, Sally. And Sally, we do work on that quite a bit with all the red curbs and stuff for state law. We've been working on that a lot. I know our public works heard you, and they will look into those areas specifically.

Thanks, because I have to school my grandchildren. Down there.

You get a little bit more time, Sally, if you have one more comment.

If you're going down towards the dog park.

Sally, can you direct it to us instead of... What was that?

Okay, if you're going down towards the dog park on Citrus... Is that Citrus Fair where the Citrus Fair exit is off the freeway? So... If you stay on the south end of the sidewalk, it's safe. But once you get down to the corner by Oste, and if any kids or if any person at all is going to try to cross over towards the dog park, those people coming around that corner from Oste Road are hauling butt, and there's a huge berm there, and they can't see you. And the sidewalk is set back this way. So it's super dangerous. Someone's going to get killed right there.

Thank you, Sally. Rob, did you have a question or comment?

Vice Mayor, while Rob's coming to the podium, I just wanted to note, he also submitted a written public comment that was published today for this item. This is a late correspondent.

Okay. Yeah, Rob Kozlowski back. I also wanted to echo the recognition you did for Craig Johnson. I think that was great. And the whole water team, because their hard work paid off. I recall we had a loss of pressure a little while ago due to a fire hydrant nearest being run over by a car. And I think in less than two hours, they had the water pressure back. So that was... Kudos to them on that. Also, thanks to Derek for being proactive with the EPA and PFAS in monitoring the water supply, especially going forward, because that's becoming an issue with a lot of the environmentalists. One thing I do want to highlight is that it's good to see the projects moving along, but with $10 million in the water enterprise and wastewater enterprise projects, departments, I'm gonna advocate and argue that there's no need for a water rate increase for the next fiscal year starting, which used to start July 1st of each year. In fact, I would argue that a zero increase in water rates and a 10% decrease in wastewater rates makes sense. Furthermore, I think any future ongoing increases should be tied to the city's two-year budget cycle, not this separate and I would call oppressive five-year cycle. The last five years saw a 76% rate increase. Over the five years, 76% rate increase. And if we didn't protest five years ago, that 76% would have been 119%. So if people happen to look at their old water bills, if they look at them, they'll see that our water rates have almost doubled since 2021. I think, oh yeah, and I'd also like to thank the finance director, Ms. Holmes. She re-ran the budget numbers for 0% rate increases for the next two fiscal years. She sent that to me this morning and it shows that we still have a healthy budget reserve of 11% and 20% for the Water Enterprise Department and Wastewater Enterprise Department. And I would argue that 11% and 20% are more than enough to forestall a rate increase in water and allow a 10% decrease in wastewater. spending as we outlined in the citizens counter proposal. So I look forward to the water rate infrastructure meetings, hopefully next month. I'd like to participate in those. I think a number of other residents would. And I thank you for seriously considering, especially with people on fixed income, stop the water rate increases, especially the double digit. And at one point they wanted, your predecessors wanted a triple digit. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Rob. Anyone else? Hold on. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No. She wants to know if Asty Road is part of this and that is not. Yeah. There's nothing on Asty Road tonight. Is there Kevin that I don't remember? I'm trying to go through real quick.

We are working on an update though. We've, it's not on the agenda, so I don't want to talk too much, but is it related to infrastructure?

There's nothing on the agenda tonight about Astley Road. Okay. Is it going to fit under this item, Angela? I will.

Oh, it's up here. I'm used to it being out there. All right. So, assy roads not developed, as you know. It's my understanding from what Kevin proposed to me, it's going to be a $3 million cost estimate for that development for all of the bike lanes, the traffic control, paving, sidewalks. This is a concern. I sent an email again, no response per usual. The city has a clear pattern of allowing developers to railroad Cloverdale. You continue to approve developments only to work out details later. Once they're approved, you lose all control. You lose all the negotiating power. You're still using 2011 rates is my understanding. And I asked Kevin specifically some questions regarding the state housing rules that don't prohibit ad 1600 still no response from you. Um, It's fair fees for the developer in the city. So I don't know if the budget that he has is going to include any of this. I don't know where this is coming from, this $3 million. I hope you guys don't plan on passing that off to us as the taxpayers because nobody agreed to that. Not one person except the people who voted for those apartments. I asked you specifically to identify the existing deficiency, no response. Identify the project added burden, no response. Calculate the project's fair share, again, no response. Require the developer to build and pay that fair share, crickets. Identify the unfunded remainder, nothing. Disclose whether that remainder will be paid by impact fees, grants, rate payers, general fund, future developers, not funded at all. No answer. Decide whether the occupancy or approval is safe before the improvement was complete. You did partially answer that. So again, my concern is ASTI is a disaster. I mean, the... Officers can tell you that people go 90 miles an hour all day down there. We have semis parking where you can't even get out of the driveway and just hope to God you don't get blindsided and T-boned and killed. You have people spinning donuts all night long. You have zero traffic control out there. And putting up a little police sign that says how fast you're going is crap. That's a waste of time. That does nothing. nothing at all so your priority instead of just painting some bike lanes here and there figure out that because you approved those apartments long time ago but but you never figured this part out so so city council approves these apartments and goes for it but then you stick us with three million dollars in so-called development that's not fair so you better get your priority state straight and figure it out and learn thank you angela emails

So I think I was the only person on the council when that was approved. Angela, I want you to hear this. This is one of those state projects that we didn't have any control over. And I know you've heard me say that I was threatened to be sued by the governor and Rob Bonta at one point. This is one of those projects. When it came to us, we talked about this and that was why I was threatened to be sued is because we said there's no sidewalks, there's no crosswalks, there's no lighting. We knew. This is what was going to happen, unfortunately. And as a public works project, as we're listing this under right now, we knew that it was going to be a huge hit to our general fund, and Derek has been working very hard to find ways to fund it. It is an absolute tragedy that it is going to be put on you guys or someone that's going to be hurt because of something the state imposes upon us. So we feel you, we hear you, and we are working as hard as we can to try to make it right. There's things that we can't control through the state, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let someone get hurt out there. The chief is doing everything that he can, and your council's doing everything as well. And so please be patient with our city manager and public works as we try to find the answers, because we can't slow down the state projects or they will sue us, and you see that happening in other cities at this point. Go on Google, you'll get to read it. There's lots of them right now. They're on a rampage with that and pulling state funding because of these projects. Anyone else in the audience that would like to have a public comment? Please.

Hi, my name is Tasha Hart and I live at North Main Street, the corner of North Main Street and East 2nd. And so I'm going to write a letter in know to to the city council but i also wanted to state my letter here um so dear city council and traffic safety department i'm requesting a stop sign and a marked crosswalk at the intersection of north main street and east second street traffic in this area is often fast and heavy making it difficult and unsafe for pedestrians to cross. Residents have experienced several close calls and additional traffic control measures are needed to improve safety. Please consider conducting a traffic safety review and installing a stop sign, a marked crosswalk, and any other appropriate traffic call me measures. Thank you for your time and consideration. I would appreciate any updates regarding this request. It's also, you know, we have a lot of people parking there during, um, Friday night live. And I know that's like a short season, but still it's with Dahlia and Sage and their employees as well. They park all along my house in, in that area. Um, I think it's really pertinent to really consider to have a crosswalk in that street. And a lot of kids, people walk their dogs, a lot of kids going back and forth. I do see as our city grows and more and more people are coming to visit, especially during the summer months, that we would need something like that there. So thank you for your consideration.

Quick clarification, Natasha. You have stop signs east to west, but not north to south, correct?

Yes.

Perfect. Yes.

So we need it, yes, going in the other direction.

Thank you. On Main Street.

On Main Street, yes. Yes.

Thank you.

Uh-huh.

It's 2nd, East 2nd, Main, instead of the corner lot there. I'll bring that up under future agenda items. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the dais. Council Member Marquez. Council Member?

Council Member?

All right. Derek, thank you so much for everything. Really appreciate the very thorough presentation and working hard to get these done. All right, we'll move into F, 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 an item be removed and considered separately. Are there any items that the public has seen that they want to pull? Seeing none, council. Vice Mayor, I'd like to pull item F1. F1, okay. Any others? Seeing none, with that, do we have a motion for F2 and three?

I'd like to make a motion to move F2 and F3 forward.

Second. All right. We have a first and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes 4-0 with one absence. F1, please. Do you want me to read it or do you want to read it?

You know, I guess I can just put this question out. I just wanted a little clarification on the agenda report for the extra spending that was there. It looks like, you know, the amount more than doubled. You know, I was just having some questions because the agenda report just wasn't specific on... exactly what the reasoning was for that or if it was possibly foreseen um you know it's just getting into a definitely a large amount of money that's um you know not going directly into you know building so

Yeah, I can hopefully shed some light on that. In the interest of moving the project forward quickly, we signed the contract for $42,800 with the architect. That was within my signing authority. We knew at the time that there was going to be additional work engineering HVAC mechanical electrical and title 24 and you know did come back a little bit more than we thought so once it gets to 84,000 it exceeds my spending authority also it should be noted I don't know if it's noted in the report that this is paid through the grant the CDBG grant and And we'll talk a little bit more about the scouts cabin on one of the future items, but it is being paid for. And we did seek out a couple of bids from different architects and this one was lower. We just didn't know the second piece to it because there's no plans, there's nothing for the building, it's really old. So it did come back more than we thought. but it is grant funded. Hector's been working on this for months. So I think if that answers your question, great. If you have more, please let me know.

I guess some of my concern is, you know, it's an easy way for, you know, contractors kind of make these change orders and, you know, something is not diligent in that initial proposal. It leaves room for contractors to kind of know that there's this back end that they can, you know, add this money on and and uh you know it's just kind of when i when i see the price double in that it's it's a little concerning and um not having specifics in the agenda report kind of leaves me with some questions there's there should where do we put as the um i did add as a lot of attachments that i thought would be helpful um i don't dare do you have something yeah i can say with

Choosing to go with that architectural design, we really, with the CDC and the CDBG money that's funding this, it's really looked at as an ADA project. So we really wanted ADA and the architectural design to drive the project. So we needed to get into that ADA or the architectural design contract first and show the CDC so we could start drafting that money. Because I do the quarterly reimbursement reports for that. And so they like to see every quarter us draft off that money, but they really want to see the design going to the ADA that the money was granted for. So that initial ADA design and architectural design really had to come first. I think that if working with them for a while, if we showed them mechanical construction design, stuff like that, that didn't address the ADA, they really wouldn't be looking at the reimbursals very well. So I think that that was the initial reason we really wanted to just get the ADA, the architect done, kind of knowing that all the other mechanical, electrical, all those engineering costs are still to come.

Hopefully that helps a little bit. I love the project and I want to see the Scout Kevin come into use. If this is the route that we're going, I guess one of those things when some of the approvals come and they don't have some of these anticipated fees, then it sort of I think leaves a little more room for some scrutiny when a proposal comes forward as far as what the budget could possibly be. But It sounds like, you know, you guys have been pretty diligent in checking with a couple of architects and, you know, good to see this move forward.

So with that, I would like to make a... Before you move to the motion, let me make sure that whether council members have any comments. Anyone in the public would like to make a comment about this? I know Kevin's been working on this and there was... Every architect in our area has been contacted by him for this one, trying to get a lower price.

because I know because I pushed so yeah I didn't like the number myself and it was I think it was at 77 to 90 was the range that we were seeing and I was adamant that we could do better and he tried and so that's a little sticker shock for me yes the buildings mostly there and it's like okay you know can we create a slope and you know call that good enough but yeah you know this is what we need to do so with that I would like to make a motion to approve item f1

I'd like to second that motion.

Perfect. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Passes 4-0 with one absence. Thank you. We'll move into G, the public hearings. G1, 2026 presentation of the status of vacancies in the city of Cloverdale.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. This item fulfills the city's annual AB2561 vacancy reporting requirement that needs to occur prior to a budget adoption. The city is currently in a strong position. We only have one vacancy of the 47 positions. It's an overall vacancy rate of 4%, and that's the assistant city manager job, which is currently being recruited for. All represented bargaining groups are staffed with zero vacancies. The So yeah, again, the city manager, assistant city manager. And I think this AB2561 really came about is for unions to have an opportunity to speak about vacancies that were being deliberately maybe not fulfilled in other cities. We don't have that problem, but this is something that we need to do. So we recommend that you receive and file the report. And this, again, needs to occur prior to the budget adoption.

Thank you, Kevin. Comments, questions? Seeing none, any questions or comments from the public? Do we need to document times on this, Alex? Okay, perfect, thank you. Kevin, thank you for this. Moving on to H, new business. H1, receiving report on selection and use of broker to purchase of 110 North Cloverdale Boulevard and 124 East First Street and provide direction to staff.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. At the April 8th meeting, this item was requested for a future agenda item. There is a detailed report in the agenda about how we hired Mr. Terreri, the dates, the times, and all of the details of it. I'm not going to go into all of those things right now. I think the main thing I want to convey to the council was the sense of urgency. We were working with Mr. Terreri with a different purchaser who approached us about potentially splitting the lot or coming to some agreement where we could expand the plaza, they could use the lot for their uses. That deal fell apart, and we continued on with Mr. Terreri after that. There was two other groups looking at the property at the time, and the direction that I received from the council was really to move as fast as possible to get this lot. It was described as a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, and we didn't want it to go to somebody else. It's very important to the city for the plaza expansion, and so that's what I did. And so that's kind of the end of the report, unless there's more questions. I know Alex is here too, to answer any questions.

Thank you. Yeah, just looking at this whole situation, I think some of it does kind of fall into a perceived conflict of interest. I think that's just something that we should always take into consideration. Certainly with having the brokers be in the same real estate office does present some of those perceived conflict of interest issues when we have a property assessment done and that our first offer, our second offer get turned down, you know, it's in, you know, we all know the urgency that there was with this situation puts us in a predicament that there definitely could be a perceived conflict of interest. And so really bringing this whole thing forward, just kind of really want to take a look at, you know, do we have a policy in place? Is there some way that Maybe this would be something to take a look at, but do other cities have a policy in place for purchasing small properties, I would say? This isn't a large, large purchase that most cities would consider a large purchase. I think it's on the smaller side. One of the items that I saw in the agenda report is mentioned the city manager decided to hire a broker to assist with the transaction, says the city does not have experience purchasing property from private parties. And just looking for some clarification on specifically what is meant by the city.

I don't know if the city has purchased property in the last 10 years other than this. That's what's meant by that. We purchased through the Sonoma Open Space District some property with, they really took the lead and we were just their partners. But that's what was meant by that, is that it's not, you know, the city is leanly staffed and there's just not, you know, folks with experience doing that.

And so that's kind of, it's speaking to the staff that in other cities would handle that transaction?

No, it was just, I think, you know, I represent other clients too. Some cities hire it. you know, just do it internally. It really depends on each transaction, you know, whether you think you might need it because there might be other offers, whether you're buying versus selling. It just depends.

I think, yeah, that's really my concern here is that maybe we look to see if there's a policy that maybe this is in a job description for a city manager or assistant city manager. Is that something that typically could be in there or, you know, that would be something that could have saved the city? There certainly is a cost to that, right? That's the broker fee.

Yes, there's a cost to it, definitely. It's very common, just like when you buy a house, you usually use a real estate agent. I certainly, if the council wants to adopt a policy on it, that's certainly something you could do. And I don't know what exactly I have in mind. I think it's better to set parameters. It's not usually really within the city manager's job. It comes up so infrequently that is it really something you want to put in in that job description.

And, you know, so what other cities have like a how is that handled is my question in other cities where, you know, they don't use a broker for a small purchase like this.

So like, I do work in the city of Modesto, it's a very large city, sometimes we just handle it in house, we go the buyer And they're interested and you sell it. And that would be the city attorney would go to the buyer? Who would go to the buyer? It depends on the situation. Every situation is different. How is it typically done in Modesto? Every situation is different. So some situations staff might approach. Which staff? Every situation is different. So you can't give me an example of any situation? Utilities department is looking to it. Someone from the utilities department might handle it. If parks is looking to purchase it, someone from parks is doing it. If it's related to a road, someone from engineering might be willing to do it.

What would be something similar to our situation? And if that were to come up, like Modesto wanted to purchase a property adjacent to their plaza, who in Modesto would typically handle that?

it might come from uh they have a city manager's office that's staffed by about eight people so they might have one of those eight people handle it okay so that's uh answers my question i appreciate it um

So I think some of the listed advantages of going with a broker for this sale that I see listed in the agenda report, I didn't see actually come to fruition, such as two offers being refused, needing to go $150,000 over the original offer that was based on an appraisal. And also the fact that today the two businesses that are on that property do not have an extended lease agreement as they requested. So I think, you know, having somebody listed here is having the knowledge of the tenants there has not aided the tenants so far. And that's my concern, you know. So if there's something that we can look at as far as strengthening a policy around this kind of thing, you know, I would definitely be open to that, you know, to kind of limit what can be seen as a perceived conflict of interest or maybe some of these things that we perceive as benefits didn't come to fruition. So it's like, you know, that's my concern. I wanna make sure that the tenants there are protected.

I have a question and I don't know, you know, this could just be an online rumor or not, but I have a concern that using these realtors or our realtor, that the buildings weren't checked out enough first when we bought them. Like there's a rumor online that we can't move people into the offices there because they're not earthquake proof. I don't know if that's true or not. And I was just wondering, and also my other thought is, I really think, you know, like when we have a mayor's dinner, we try to, you know, do it in a local place and keep our tax money in Cloverdale. So I think it would be great if we maybe made a policy that if we're going to use a realtor, it's somebody that lives within city limits.

To answer the first part, we did have the buildings inspected by a professional inspector and got a written report on that. We also had our team inspect the buildings who do have knowledge of buildings. So we were satisfied that the buildings were checked out. And in terms of a policy, if that's the direction, I'd be happy to do that. And I think it could be a good idea. We can have something in writing so that we don't have to, this won't occur again.

So just because I'm a little confused here, so does that mean that the buildings are earthquake-proof and that we can move people into the offices over at the trading post?

We can, but we're currently seeking bids from an architect to get a floor plan so that we can remodel. That will all come before council. I've been having trouble finding an architect who's interested in it. It needs to be a certain kind of architect that does commercial. I did do a walkthrough with one, and we had a meeting with the building department afterwards to clarify some questions on what would be required for the plans. And when I get all that wrapped up, it'll be before council. Earthquake retrofit was never part of the discussion.

Okay, so that was just an online rumor then. Okay, well, thank you for your answers.

Yeah, I would say moving forward, like we have an approved contractors list, maybe we should get an approved list for realtors and just have that at the ready. And then on top of that, there should be a threshold for the... percentage that the broker makes and that should be, you know, fully transparent with the public. So whoever we decide to pick as a council after we establish an approved list based on the sale of a property, the percentage is put forth so the public understands whose role is what in the transaction and what the compensation is. Understood.

Alex, you were looking, did you want to respond at all?

No, I was looking, I mean, the staff report from the time did say what the commission was going to be when it came to the city council for the city council approval. The commission was listed in the staff report.

This was done at the council's direction, and I think it was handled about as well as it could have been. If we didn't act the way that we did in the timeframe that we did, those businesses wouldn't be there probably right now because the people that wanted it wanted to put up housing and different things there. There was two different groups. Another one wanted something different, but they also wanted to partner with us as well. And it was very convoluted. Mr. Terreri had worked with us with a partner that wanted to partner with the city. I won't mention their names, but they wanted to put in a store in the trading post and then have us have part of the lot. And that was the original plan. When that fell through on their part, we heard there was two other people wanting to put in offers. And so if we wanted to be able to expand our plaza and plan for the future of Cloverdale, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Mr. Terreri already had the relationship with the sellers. And so it was council direction to use him. I personally think that a city manager is paid as the highest person in your city. to make sure that they make the decisions like this. It is their job. We don't always have to turn to an attorney or to an RFP process that will actually draw this out and make it to where we don't get to purchase the building. It was purchased for $400,000 less than ASCII, and we had actually planned to go higher as a council than what we purchased it for. I won't talk about amounts because that amount was done in closed session, but we got it for less than what council had approved to go to in closed session. So if there was any type of conspiracy or anything going on behind, there was numbers that one realtor would have known that the city would have gone to, and they probably would have pushed the limits. Whether we agree on who he was or anything along those lines, it was handled at the way the direction of the council wanted it to be. The city manager did the job like he is supposed to. And now we have access to a plaza and buildings that will save the city money over time as we can put city staff into those buildings versus renting other people's buildings in the city. And long-term, you now can grow your plaza and your downtown with your growth of your city. So that's my part of it. I will open it up to the public. Anyone in the public want to make a comment on this? Please come forward.

Vice Mayor Welch works her way down here. I just wanted to note, we also added a public written comment from Mr. Koslowski earlier today. It's in your packet.

So you just said that this was at the direction of the city, but the email I got from the city manager said it was his decision. So that just contradicted all of that. I talked to other cities and they use their attorney. So you spinning circles and can't answer a direct question is kind of funny. But you're a city attorney and you couldn't even handle this? That's not under the scope of your area of law? That's concerning if you're our city attorney, honestly. And then you go around and say we're broke. But then you commissioned $33,000. Why couldn't that have been used for something else that we may have needed? And to Mr. Lasky's point, we should establish a pre-approved list of local realtors. This realtor is out of Healdsburg. Not only was he the purchasing realtor, they're the selling office too. So again, you don't know what they were talking about behind closed doors, and you say they don't know what you're talking about here, but I beg to differ. I think there was private discussions amongst yourselves with the realtor. And it doesn't matter because you used an outside realtor and there was no other realtors given the opportunity. And your excuse to me was he did all the research. That's any realtor's job. That's their diligence, due diligence to research any property. that they're involved in. It doesn't matter. That's their job. So those are all bogus excuses. They deep dive any facts and history of a parcel. I was told there might be a gas tank underground. Was that looked into? And then when the realtor was asked, he says, oh, I'm not sure. Well, then that's not a deep dive. That's our money, once again. I still don't understand why the city attorney never wrote it up or even got involved. That's just, that's your job. Every other city does it. They don't have a whole stack of realtors just sitting there waiting to buy a property. That's just no excuse for that at all. And go back to the conflict of interest. He was a member of the chamber. He was actually on the board. The city funds the chamber and he would guess he was he was part of the chamber. Don't shake your head No, and so that's a direct conflict too because our city tax dollars fund them. I know it's uncomfortable. I get it But you know, you're our city manager do better do a lot better get a new city attorney I've been telling you that for years Any other comments from the public

Vice Mayor Lentz, I didn't want to correct what I had just stated. It was actually Mr. Terreri who left a written public comment that's in your packet, not Mr. Kozlowski.

Evening. I'm Dana Starr. I have previously worked as controller for a commercial real estate company. And I know when I read the sequence of events, I felt concerned myself. One is that a realtor approached the city and must have had some kind of information from somebody to indicate that the city would be interested in that. So there were obviously some kind of conversations going on. And then I got concerned when I learned further down the staging of dates that the seller's agent was from the same company. And I'm going, well, conflict of interest, because the person who's selling it wants to get the highest price to get the best commission, and then the buyer's agent is supposed to be trying to get the lowest price to save Citi on its commission. So I don't know... who talked to who and in what sequence, but it just read that there was something else going on. And then also the fact that there was an initial appraisal on the property, which the amount wasn't disclosed, what that was and who that was that Did that work? You know, why then go to a whole other agency? Why was there a problem with the first one or was it not realistic? How are we deciding who we're using for our specialists when it comes to the kind of transaction that isn't one of our normal ones? um all of these red flags came up for me and so i understand i hear what you're saying that time was of the essence um i would just like to see as has been mentioned by several of you that there is some kind of plan put in place for these kinds of situations where you have listings and you can work and have that kind of lined up in different specialties, including a realtor, including appraiser, other things. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the dais. Any further comments?

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to reiterate that this situation, why this is on the agenda now is really to look at our policy and strengthen our policy around procurement of any vendor, really. But specifically, our use of a real estate broker for such a small purchase, what I would consider small in light of what most cities would say is an average property purchase. I would like to confirm that you know it wasn't a council decision to select the specific realtor that was a choice that was made from my understanding what's written here by the city manager it never came to the council it just appeared on the agenda when this was also explained as an urgent situation. You know, I did see it as also an urgent situation. I think it was also really outlined that way in the agenda item summary, where it does say if the property is sold to a third party, it could be decades before it is available on the market. Again, really just kind of strengthens that urgency. support the purchase of the plaza I think it was the right move I may go ahead and say that I think a maybe our whole council did you know we saw what the the future may bring as far as establishing some open space in in our downtown so there was an importance to that it's just the way that this went about certainly leaves doubt that there wasn't a conflict of interest. And whether confirmed or perceived, that affects our trust as a city. It affects our city staff. And that leads to more public requests. And those cost money. And it takes time. And that takes away from other city business. So it's important that we look at this as a policy issue, put something in place to make sure that we can move forward and prevent these kind of things from occurring in the first place. So I would say one of the other questions I had was about the first appraisal amount, if I can ask that.

What it was? Yes. I don't recall. That was exactly what it was, but that was the basis of the first offer, which was rejected. And as you know, council authorized a different amount to be

And that was a request that I did make to our city manager was to ask for a second appraisal. You know, I truly do believe that the importance of that property might have been undervalued a little bit. You know, I think it's right in the center of our town. But, you know, when you have a couple offers being rejected within the same real estate office, it certainly does... place some doubt that there was no conflict of interest. So I would say what I'm going to throw at our council today is, you know, I don't think any of us might have the answer to a policy today, but if that's something that we could look at and bring back to the council, I would be in support of that.

I agree that we really need to have a tight policy. That way it doesn't look like there's any conflict of interest in the future. And I think for some reason this real estate purchase seems a little bit chaotic. And hopefully we can make some guidelines. So in the future, it's more transparent. And that way, you know, we'll be proud of it. And we won't be getting questions because it will, we will go along with our guidelines.

Yeah, I'd just like to reiterate, have an approved list and have some direction moving forward.

So it sounds like we have three that would like to have some direction to, in the future, make an approved list of realtors and a process to get onto that list.

And I'd like to add local realtors that are within the city limits of COVID.

And that's something that you guys can work, or we can all work on for policy with.

Mr. Vice Mayor, may I suggest something based on what I'm hearing? I understand the desire for approved lists, We do it so infrequently that it seems like work to constantly update and maintain the list for no reason. But what about a policy that just requires the approval of the council for hiring of any broker or real estate agent? Then it would come to the council in public and the council could decide, was this a good process you used to select this person? Was it from a local person? Was it all of that? And, you know, because maybe there's a transaction where time isn't an issue and you want a longer process or maybe, you know, there's in that way, it's coming to you in public to review rather than sort of maintaining a list that main vice mayor, if I may add a comment.

Yeah, I think that's a good point is that, you know, some of these sales come by so infrequently that, you know, maybe have an approved list, but maybe we'd have a some parameters you know that that we do use a local real estate agent that we do try to first first of all you know make the purchase in-house if we can so some of those you know again you know I would like to do some research look at some policies that other cities have and if there's like maybe a threshold of of price that might be you know if if it's under that amount you know we do it in-house and so you know because especially if if you know any broker for a low

you

let's say a lower price point on a purchase has the assistance of a city manager, they have the assistance of our city attorney to aid in that purchase, you know, that percentage can also be negotiated as well. So I would say those are just some ideas, but I would like to take some time and do some research, and I would definitely come back with some line items or things that could be in a proposed policy for adoption in the future. Thank you.

I would just like in the future, hopefully to make things more transparent to everybody on the council and to the public, because I think some of us at some points, maybe like two or three people knew what was going on, but maybe not the whole council with this deal. So it's important to include all of us and the public.

Yeah, maybe we take it to subcommittee and just start there and then bring it to council. That way it's not... We can have a basis of understanding if we start at the subcommittee level. That's what I would suggest.

Are you talking about with realtor-involved projects like land purchases and things that we're talking about? Or are you talking about the policy itself?

It doesn't have to be, you know, since it's so infrequent, just set the parameters for the what ifs of the future.

So here's where I would be careful. And, you know, I'm obviously in a minority here and that's okay, is sometimes these things are, you know, have to be done quickly. And this was done at a direction during closed session for the city manager. And we gave him direction to do what he did. And so there's things that we can't say exactly how it went down because it was in closed session in confidence. However, he was given by your council, our council, the parameters, and he stayed within those. And so I think that we need to be careful because if we hamstring us too much with this, then in the future, if we have another one of these pop up and has to be done within months, it's still tough to do it going the full policy way. And so sometimes when these ones like this one was, which was weeks, it's very difficult because as soon as that thing hits the market, that would be gone and we would have never have anything that we could do in the future again. So I just caution us to be careful on making sure that we don't tie ourselves down to where we can't act when we need to act as a council. even when it's not us.

Well 100% and that's why maybe the city attorneys can his role can expand in that regard.

Maybe and it sounds like with the three of you that you're saying that maybe the city attorney comes up with some ideas and when he's ready he comes back to the city manager and us and presents them of ways that we can handle this better in the future. Is that something that you

Yes, we can absolutely do that, present you some options. Maybe talk about some different options that other people do.

That's the direction of a council. For speedy and for normal process as well. Does that sound like a hidden direction?

You know, I like the idea of, you know, declaring a speedy process. Sometimes that is the case, you know, that there's a situation that you need to act fast on. So if we had even in that policy, you know, you know, this is a priority or, you know, I don't know how you determine that, but that certainly would be a good thing, I think, to identify both those situations, again, to not tie us down, but also, you know, some of those reasonings that something is urgent can always be used as a reason to create something that might be later perceived as a conflict of interest. So, you know, again, I think it would take a little research, and I'd be happy to do some research. I'm sure there's plenty of other cities that have great policies in place that we can look at, borrow from, and I'll be happy to share that with our city attorney.

I want to make one more point. I think in any real estate purchase, we need to be very transparent and follow the Brown Act, because I know with the ex-community garden, that to me was like the fishiest thing that, you know, like we're going to go after a grant, it went off the market, and then it went back on the market, but The owner of the property, Chris Fanini, was supposed to be told by the city manager that we were interested in it, and we would try to get a grant, and then all of a sudden it turned into, oh, well, he didn't want to sell it to a garden. Well, nobody was trying to put a garden there. So that whole thing was really fishy, and from now on, we need to be very transparent and follow the Brown Act. So that's my comment.

Any other comments? Thank you. All right, we have good direction. We'll move on to H2. Consider a funding agreement and office lease agreement with the County of Sonoma for renovation of the Scout's Cabin located at 450 West 2nd Street.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. This item would approve a partnership with Sonoma County and us for the renovation of the Scouts cabin. And now I want to know if we call this.

Sorry to interrupt. Did we miss public comment, Sally Evans? No, we did it first.

There was a lot of other stuff going on. That was the opportunity.

We did not miss it. We did public comment.

Because I was in preview of this, but I want to comment about that.

Sally, public comment has been closed. We already asked everyone, and we've moved on to the next item.

We've been talking about a bunch of other stuff. Correct. So, I mean,

we finished our comments is all based upon the same agenda item I know you want to talk about the garden but that was not part of this thank you thanks for clarification finish

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. So this resolution would enter the city into an agreement with Sonoma County to help fund the renovation of the Scouts cabin. I think it's cabin, not hut. I'm gonna go with cabin from now on. So if anyone has any ideas. So the cabin was built in the 40s and really not a lot has happened to it since then. And so this agreement would help us pay for renovating it. What it really is, is it's an advanced payment of rent, 30 years of rent. And in exchange for that, we would build a county district four office within the scouts cabin. So we already have a floor plan. We described kind of what we were talking about in the previous item. There would be a floor plan that includes a... district 4 office for the supervisor and so this agreement would be they would provide three hundred and thirty three thousand dollars and that would be a 30-year lease advance payment and with the option of two additional five-year extensions so if you divide three hundred thirty three thousand by 40 years it's about seven hundred dollars a month you want to look at it that way We do have some obligations with this particular agreement. We're going to maintain the building, obviously. We provide janitor services and some things like that. Let's see here. yeah two years extension so that's it I mean we're happy to bring this money forward we're very fortunate that this is occurring it is on the county's board of supervisors next agenda which came out today I did notice that was on there so they are looking for us to adopt a resolution so that they can confirm with the board of supervisors that we're on board with this I know Alex did a lot of review of the agreement so if you have any specific questions about it it is one of our key funding for the scouts cabin. And so we're fortunate to have this. And so with that, I would recommend that we adopt the resolution entering into this agreement with Sonoma County.

Thank you, Kevin. Council member? Council member? Council member? I want to thank James Gore for making this happen. We had some good meetings regarding not the scout's cabin, but places for Cloverdale to use, whether it was for offices, whether it was for different people's rentals, whatever we could do, ways that we could make the community center style buildings better. The scouse cabin was near and dear to his heart and near and dear to mine as well. And so I'm thankful to the county and to Supervisor Gore for finding the funding to make this happen. And the funding stream for it is wonderful. And I'm just, I don't know what to say other than thank you. Anyone in the audience like to make a public comment? Seeing none, this is 70 years in the making and I'm excited to get it done. Do we have anyone that wants to read a resolution?

I'd like to make a motion to adopt a resolution titled Resolution of the City Council of the City of Cloverdale Approving Funding Agreement and Office Lease Agreement with Sonoma County for $333,000 toward renovation of the Scout's Cabin located at 450 West 2nd Street. Second that.

We have our first and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Passes 4-0 with one absent. And thank you everyone for making that happen. Let's move into I, council member reports. Council member Marquez.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Lantz. My council member report. For the session Thursday, May 14th, I attended the Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission board meeting as a member of the public. I did make a public comment as a public individual and requested a presentation from the Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission to the City Council of Cloverdale. This was received positively by Commission Chair Dr. Janet Pauley. Tuesday, May 19th, had a meeting with Irma Cuevas of the Sonoma County Ag and Open Space. She's the Community Relations and Engagement Coordinator. We met with Superintendent Hector Galvan and we talked about some ideas for Ag and Open Space to really coordinate with residents of Cloverdale, specifically Spanish and bilingual residents. And there is resources that they can offer. One of the ideas was a Spanish language hike hosted by Ag and Open Space that would take place potentially Saturday, July 25th. This would be maybe about 25 residents. If there's more than that, it could be two groups. But it would start with a gathering at City Park and then venture up into our open space and ag. And that really is just great to see us use our space that way. And that would also be potential. with this program that there could be some other programs that would connect residents with day trips sponsored by Open Space NAG out to coastal parks. So thank you Irma for making that happen. Tuesday, May 19th, met with one of the owners of the proposed development site for Esmeralda, also the former Masonite site, discussed the property's history back to 2001, so that was interesting. Tuesday, May 19th, I attended the library advisory board as the liaison. Some of the programs that the library's got coming up because it's summertime is there's a summer reading program that's for kids and adults. And, you know, that's a little bit of a competition that folks can see who can read some books and earn some points. They will be getting their summer lunch program that's daily for all children ages 0 to 18. And their summer programming is updated on the library calendar online at sonomalibrary.org. Thursday, May 21st, attended the Zero Waste Sonoma Board Meeting. Nothing too exciting to report. They did have their work program progress report, which is very well put together. I have that here. I would recommend anyone wanting to learn about stuff that they have and how to properly dispose of it, check out ZeroWasteSonoma.gov. Thursday, May 21st, attended the Esmeralda Environmental Workshop that is archived on their new YouTube page. Friday, May 22nd, So this is just an announcement that I would like to make. On Friday, May 22nd, FERC, which is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, released their notice of scoping meetings and requests for comments on proposed surrender, decommissioning, and non-project use of project lands. This means you can file your comments electronically using the e-comment feature, which is located on the Commission's website, www.FERC.gov, under the link FERC online. Those comments will be due Friday, July 24, 2026, under project number 77-33-2. and there is two in-person scoping meetings this is where you can go deliver public comment in person and the dates on those are the evening meeting will be at Tuesday June 23rd 6 30 to 8 30 at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center and the daytime scoping meeting will be Wednesday June 24th at 10am to 12pm. Also at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center. So anybody interested on making a public comment regarding the proposed decommissioning of the Potter Valley project can do so in those ways. Thank you.

May 18th, I chaired the Homeless Ad Hoc Committee. I helped to create the agenda. We had Margaret Sluck from Reach for Home at the meeting, and she talked about Cloverdale possibly going after an encampment grant, and she is prepared to come do a presentation for us to tell us more about that. at a city council meeting. And tomorrow, because I'm on the board of the Russian River Watershed Association, we're having a board meeting in Santa Rosa, and we're also going on a field trip to the Pepperwood Preserve.

Nothing to report on at this time.

Memorial Day, I was able to attend the memorial service at our cemetery with our Sons of American Legion. It was probably the best turnout I've seen. There's easily 100 people there. A lot of veterans and a lot of support from our public safety. So thank you to Cloverdale and all involved. Sunday at noon, front of City Hall, we'll be raising the pride flag. So anyone that wants to be part of it, please come down and join the celebration. On June 6th, Saturday at 10 a.m., we will be doing the grand opening for the Soda Springs Open Space Area. There's miles and miles of hiking and walking trails that our public work staff, it's getting late, has been working very diligently on and making sure it's perfect for everyone. There's beautiful maps, there's beautiful trails. I've been out there when I wasn't supposed to be and I can't wait for everyone to enjoy it. And last thing, June 7th at 10 a.m. I apologize, let me pull this one up because I just received this flyer. June 7th, 10 a.m., there's a senior resource fair. It's in Windsor at the Horta Gym from 10 to 2. But with our high senior population, I recommend everyone go there because anything that is offered through the county for a service for our seniors, they will be having it there. All the groups are hosting, all the NGOs, everyone. And so... Please pass on that information because with our high population, it's the place to get the information on how to get you all the help that you need. And that's all I have. Seeing nothing else, we'll move into any legislative reports? Nothing? No. Thank you. And city manager report?

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. At the last meeting on May 13th, I introduced the 211 presentation. I indicated that staff had a meeting with 211. I neglected to say that Council Marquez was there, and it was Council Marquez, Chief Parker, and myself who met with 211 to discuss all their great programs. So we really appreciate 211, and I appreciate Council Marquez initiating this and bringing it forward. And I know that they want to work with the police as well to really make sure that all the services are known. So just wanted to clarify that. Turn it over to Mike for a second. He wanted to give us a quick update on the governance manual administrative changes that he wanted to talk about the public comment procedures.

Yeah, so for transparency to both the public and the council, I just wanted to briefly explain the informational memo that's part of your packet. It's regarding as Kevin mentioned, sorry, city manager Thompson mentioned the written public comment procedures for council and planning commission. The governance manual already authorizes administrative procedural updates. So staff is implementing this clarification administratively without requesting council action tonight. The goal is to create a more objective, transparent and consistent process by clearly distinguishing formal written public comment from general correspondence and removing the need for staff to interpret a sender's intent. administratively amended language is attached to this agenda and the governance manual is available online at cloverdale.net city council additionally we will be implementing a deadline to submit public comments to ensure they are captured on the published agenda likely being the day before the meeting I can read the exact language at council's discretion but again it is available online it's in your packet just informational purposes did you have a comment I

Very much support that. You know, sometimes people are sending emails and inviting us something, and that just becomes a written comment, and it definitely can cloudy up the space, but I support that, yes.

I support it, but I'm hoping we can, like, maybe make more than one guideline. And especially, like, if possible, maybe say something like, you know, please get your public comments in by noon on Tuesday so we're not updating them at the last minute. Because when they get updated at the last minute, we're getting ready to come here. And we're, you know, people are calling us on the phone, this and that. We don't have time at the last minute necessarily to read last minute comments.

Trust me, I don't have time at the last minute to publish them either.

Yeah. So, so if it's problematic, like Tuesday by noon, you know, where the public comments make it on there with plenty of time for us to read them, that would be appreciated.

A hundred percent. Good. I guess the question, one more quick question about that. Appreciate it. Would that be something that could be an instruction on the agenda?

It already is. There's a, there's a section, but I'll update it to include that portion. Yeah. Just to ensure. I want to ensure it will be updated on the website. It will be updated on their agenda. I just want to be very transparent with the public so that they understand how to get public comment onto the agenda versus general correspondence is just going to council. Because as you know, you get a significant number of emails from a variety of folks and entities. So I want to be able to not have discretion of what gets on there, what doesn't. I want it to either, as the language identifies, you have to... submit it to public comments, or specifically indicate this is a public comment for an item. That's it.

Thank you. City attorney?

Nothing? All right. Just to finish up, tomorrow for half a day, key staff will be participating in EOC training, kind of led by Chief Parker at the firehouse. It's a county-wide training, and the newsletter will be coming out tomorrow. Thank you.

Council direction on any future agenda items? Thank you, Vice Mayor. I would like to propose a presentation for the City Council to receive updates from the Mendocino County Inland and Water Power Commission presented by Commission Chair Dr. Janet Pauley. And this would be in succession after our other presentations from Sonoma Water and IRPA. So Sonoma Water first and then IWPC? Yeah, following IRPA, I think, you know, IWPC and... There was a mention of the Rush River property owners. I think that would be like the fourth in this possible series. I will not ask for that now. They are kind of in the middle of dealing with their whole LAFCO thing right now. Yeah. The request would just be for the presentation to receive updates from Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission. after the Sonoma water. Yeah, following. So my requested order would be Sonoma water first. You know, I think they're already on our calendar. And then it would be IRPA following them. And then I think having IWPC following that, I think would be a good order. Council Member.

Yeah, I'd support that as well. So great. No, no, sorry. So maybe Kevin, you know, start looking at our schedules because I know that, you know, the summer gets tight and we're probably going to have some tight meetings as well because they get busy or non-existent at the same time because it will take to have time off around the 4th of July and things. So sure, do what you can do. Thank you. Thank you. Any other future agenda items? Seeing what? You want my stop sign?

You had mentioned the stop sign.

Okay, so that my stop sign. I don't know if this is something that we should just put it on this one because it seems like a pretty easy direction versus holding a subcommittee just for this item.

So maybe it's something if you guys supported my thought if it can streamline this if we're all supportive of it. I think I'm in favor that I mean, I think even right now just giving

The direction to bring this back to council for this item, I would might give direction to give something that can put on a consent calendar Right? Yeah, I mean, it's pretty stop and go, right? I would recommend that the stop sign in North Main and East 2nd be brought back to us as a future agenda item under consent calendar so that it can be a stop sign.

The stop sign previously mentioned in public comment at North 2nd and Main, right? Yeah. Okay, I just want to make sure.

Do we need to have stop sign placements like this on our agenda or can public works director and city manager make that decision? I know we've done it.

We have in the past made that decision. Just, you know, I think sometimes we ask the engineer, but I don't think at this point this is such a minor thing we wouldn't need to do that. So I think we could probably go ahead and do it. Are we, are we, I'm looking at my attorney to make sure we're doing this correctly.

No, yes, that's fine. It's been the past practice that they went through the subcommittee. It used to go to subcommittee and then to us.

And so it's like I'm trying to cut out the two steps that if we don't have to with all the heads nodding that we could really, even if it's something that we put on consent calendar instead.

There is a noticing process we have to go through for that time.

Then let's put it on consent calendar or have you bring it back to this full council, however we want.

My comment on that would just be to allow the public an opportunity if they wanted to be for it or against it. That would be during the noticing period allows the public to do that.

Yeah, because we have run into situations where residents in the immediate area

know have other concerns or placements or things like that or or additions too so so let's just let's just bring it back that way he can do the proper noticing and everything along those lines so that would be on consent it'll be how the city manager thinks but i think that we could probably put it on consent uh uh for time constraints okay and then at that point we can sounds good any anything else awesome great thank you guys for an amazing meeting meeting adjourned 8 24.