City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Everyone, thank you for joining us for the Cloverville City Council meeting. It is 6:00. I'll call the meeting to order. This is exactly what I would expect the town of Happy Gilmore City Council to look like. So, I am so excited about tonight. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I didn't even need to. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let's hear it. Come on, Lions. There's orders. Order. Come on, Lions. There's orders. Finish. I love this. All right. Thank you everyone. Uh, roll call. Let the record reflect everyone is present. Any conflict of interest declarations tonight? None. Seeing none, any changes or deletions to the agenda? No changes, mayor.

Thank you. Move directly into public comments. Any person wishing to speak in person 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. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to make a public comment regarding an item that is not on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move right into our student liaison report. Hello, my name is Valyrian Ganiano and I am the student leansen. I'm going to start off with current events at Cloverdale High School. Fall sports are ending and winter sports are starting such as girls soccer, boys soccer, ba girls basketball, and boys basketball and basketball cheer. There's a Halloween rally coming up on October 31st with a costume contest and fun games. Academics after school tutoring offered Monday, Tuesdays, Thursdays at 3:20 to 5:20. Community service hours are due the end of December 7.5. Jefferson events Halloween Jefferson parade October 31st at 8:30 a.m. Community events for annual day the loss muertos event taking place on Saturday October 25th from 5 to 10 at the clover citrus fair. Also as a Halloween haunted house at clover doll citrus fair from October 27 to 30 through 31st from 5 to 9 p.m. for $7.

Thank you. Any questions? comments. Did you go to the volleyball game last night? Yes. Tell us about it. Day one for Yeah, that's all I can remember. [Music] It was probably the most intense and best volleyball game I've ever seen of girls play here in Cloverdale. They did a great job. Won 1513 in the fifth game and I think that puts them in first place. So, they were killer. So, thank you for your great report. Thank you. All right, we're going to move into D recognitions. D1, Cloverville citizen recognition program. Kevin, is this for you to explain?

Sure. Uh, at the request of the mayor, we established a citizen recognition program. Each council member will be able to um, it's not even nominate. They'll just basically decide who they want to be the recipient. And the first one came from Council Member Laskkey and it's John Turner. And I can see he's here tonight with all his crew. So, let's leave it there. Council member Lasi, would you like to take it from here?

Yeah. Thank you everybody for showing up tonight for John. Uh we appreciate your service. We appreciate everybody showing up to uh recognize John for his community service. Uh, I'd like to formally recognize along with the assembled community here tonight the selfless contributions John Turner has made to our community in the past uh minimum 41 years. Being a husband, father, grandfather, and a respectable community member. His direct involvement has seen 35 years of dedicated service to events that promote the mission statement of the Cloverdale Lions Club, which in part reads to empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace, and promote international understanding. Did I get that right?

They don't know. Along with that, he has volunteered uh concurrently another 30 years that he was directly involved in the Cloberdale Joe Partini Chargers poporner football program and at a bare minimum 25 years as our very own Santa Claus for the Lions Club toy run and countless volunteer hours as Santa for the tree lighting ceremony each December here at the plaza.

Pardon me, sir. That's Santa Claus's helper. Oh, thank you for the clarification. It uh it would be hard to fathom our community with without John giving freely of his time, his tireless hours volunteering, and I would say everybody that comes into contact with John would be hardpressed not to be affected by his inve by his infectious demeanor and his welcoming smile. John, on behalf of the citizens of Cloberdale and the city council, we once again thank you and we'd like to present you this certificate of recognition. Uh, and along with that, we we're going to take you out to dinner. [Applause] I want to be a part of my family. [Music]

Start over. Might want to turn it on. I'm sure you heard what I said. So anyway, I appreciate you guys and this community very much. Thank you, city council Mark, what's his name? You know, anyway, I appreciate it guys very much. Thank you. One thing before I leave this thing tonight, please say a prayer for Sue Dickens. Thank you. Hold on. It's not over yet, JT. Hold on a second.

JT, you have to stand there and take it for a minute. You have anything you want to repeat or say?

I want to thank you for serving your community and all the years you've spent um doing wonderful things with the Lions Club and serving all the youth of Cloverdale. Thank you uh JT for your work with youth sports and also being part of the heart of of the Lions Club. Service clubs are the heart of our community. JT, thanks man. And thanks to all the Lions Club here. You know what? I'm a newbie to Cloverdale. I've only been here about 8 years, but you know what? I met you the first year and uh it's been a ride ever since. So, thank you very much and I can't imagine Cloverdale without you around. So, uh, thank you very much and thanks to everybody that supports you, man. [Music] [Applause]

This is exactly why we created this award. This is what you see here is the spirit of Cloverdale and why we do the stuff we do. It's It's all about uh public service. It's about making sure the kids have what they need, you have fun with your friends, and you enjoy your life every day. Um, I got a lot of stories and I'm not going to go through them, but I will say I met this guy back right around no tell hotel time. So, those of you that have been there, you know what I'm talking about. You know the stories are going to stay in that place. You use the word respectable. You use that very loosely up here on this DAS, but it's absolutely a word that we can use for you. it. You are an amazing role model to so many people in this town and people uh could only wish they could be as good as you are for us. Um, growing up, you were always like a father figure growing up with your sons. We weren't the greatest kids around. We did things you didn't appreciate. Like a father, like a father, you hammered on us and we appreciate that. So, you were a father figure. You were a father and you've been a role model. And every single person in this room could tell you the same stories I am and more. and we can't thank you enough for being uh such a big influence on our city. And I hope to God it keeps going with you, Santa Claus, and everything else, brother. Thank you. We love you, man. [Applause]

J, you ain't done. [Music] You stand right here. Have a seat. We're all You're going to take it from up there. Oh, yeah. Okay. Everyone, everybody gets in this picture. This is family, boys. Can't get out. Oh, I need that.

Damn, brother. [Music] [Music] You got too many friends. John began 35 years ago.

Yeah. That was risky. [Music] Perfect. No one cares about the business. [Music]

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. [Music] See you later, JT.

Perfect. It's a feel good, dude. I like that. This is why I wanted this. Think about the feeling you can do with this Right. Right. Yeah. The perfect beginning to this. Yep. TT, you going home tonight? Todd, you going back home tonight? Yes. Drive safe. Oh, got his dad. They're all going to the bar right now. I guarantee it. I'm going to find out soon. I know you somebody is. Either you or Chief. All right. So, hi. That's just as expected. Yeah.

Like I'm in a band. All right. I'm sorry, guys. Moving on. E presentations. E1, the library commissioners report. The presenter is Commissioner Green.

Yeah. Turn that microphone on if you don't mind. Little red button. See on top? Oh, yeah. Right on the Yeah, there you go. There you go. I'll say it. Good to go. So, if they weren't here to learn about the library, I guess we'll make you go first next time.

That'd be good. Good evening, Mayor Lans. Council members, city staff, and you. I'm Brooke Green and I represent Cloverdale on the Sonoma County Library Commission. And I'm here with Nicole Bird, our library branch manager. Um, I just we're here to give you a brief update about what's been going on with Sonoma County Library and our branch. Happy Friends of the Library Week. Today's National Friends of the Library Week and we have a very active uh friends group in Cloverdale that contributes a lot. Um I want to give a little shout out to council member Marquez who is our your liaison to our library advisory board and he comes with lots of good ideas and appreciate your participation. Andre this is Nicole. Yeah.

Hi, I'm Nicole Bird and I'm the branch manager of the Coell Library. Thank you. [Music] So, uh, next slide, please, Mike.

So, in July of last year, the library conducted a communitywide survey, and it showed overwhelming support for the uh for the library countywide. things people liked most were the qualified librarians, the reading programs for children, homework help, career support, and the computer labs that that there are safe places for children after school and clean safe places for everyone. Um there about 800 people countywide participated in that. So, your Cloverdale library, um, we are open seven days a week. Um, library card holders have access, online access 247. Um, we don't have fines for overdue materials. We are an independent public agency and we are fully funded locally. Sonoma County Library. Next slide, please, Mike. Snow County Library is a government agency that's formed by a joint powers agreement. You are one of the nine cities. We are one of the nine cities that are partners in the JPA. Um so we have nine cities. We have 11 library commissioners. one for each of the members and then there is a commissioner for the county there who reports to the um to the whole county and one that is split between Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. We have nine library advisory boards and by the way if you know anybody who would be interested in serving on our library advisory board please have them see Nicole. Um we have 10 friends of the library groups and as I said at CL ours is very active and contributes a lot to uh programs and

materials also. Yeah. Um, we also have the measure Y oversight committee that oversees the the uh sales tax initiative and we also have library advocacy and support groups um including our nonprofit library foundation which is raising raising a lot of money for the library. slide, Mike. Snow County Library System has 16 physical locations um and one mobile van called the Biblio Bus. You may have seen the Biblio Bus in Cloverdale a few times at the plaza. Um we provide close to a million books, hundreds of digital resources, and access to an inter library lending system. Next, please. There's been a library in Cloverdale since 1894. We've been in our current location since 1979. In fiscal year 2425, we averaged about um 800 visitors per week with 686 checkouts per week and we hosted over 300 programs. Next, in addition to physical items, we have an abundance of electronic resources. With your library card, you can watch TV and movies. You can listen to music, learn a new language, fix your car, research your family tree, and much much more. One of our more popular resources is Libby um where we are c celebrating over 1 million checkouts. Next, some recent addition additions to the Cloverdale Library is our study pod

where users can um do independent study, meet with small groups, um do online online meetings such as with Zoom. And as you've noticed, we are a colorful bunch at the Cloverdale Library. We we couldn't just let it be a a plain glass window. We had to add a little bit of fun. Um we also introduced the Biblio box smart locker where um library users can access their holds 247 so you can pick up your your holds on your schedule and don't have to wait for the library to be open. It was very helpful during our recent closure that started our uh moder modernization project. So we're very excited about our patio project. Uh this is was funded in part by the Clare McGawan Trust. Um Mayor Lans remembers Miss McGawan. The the project created a welcoming and flexible outdoor space with a deck, seating, and play area. Project also upgraded the restrooms to meet current code and ADA standards and upgraded some branch furniture. We are still waiting for some custommade shade cloths and a little more furniture. Um Owen taught with Cloverdale Unified School District for 32 years and she served an additional 17 years as a reading tutor at Jefferson. Through her teaching and volunteer work, Miss McGawan helped three generations of Cloverdaleians learn to read. By supporting the library, her estate is keeping that level of reading alive in Cloverdale. We have the slide, please. So, this is a happy day. I got to use

the big scissors. Um, so this was the opening of the patio project last month. And, um, next to me is Mayor Lans. And on the other side of me, um, is Erikica Jabbo, who is the director of Sonoma County Library. And among this group are representatives of the McMillan family, the Zagoritus family, and um the Goodman family who were really Claire's family of friends. So, uh they've been they've been asking me for two and a half years now about the progress and it was so nice to have them there to celebrate that day with us. Next slide. Okay. Thanks. So, we are we all know that libraries are suffering throughout the United States and funding has been cut. We are so fortunate that we are mostly locally funded here. We get 60 to 65% from our local property tax and 35 to 40% through the local sales tax which taxpayers have just renewed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have lost some funding but at this point Sonoma County Library is in a position to cover it uh through the foundation and and other things. So we should feel I feel extremely grateful because we are funded locally. We have local control of our library system and our resources. So that uh we're open to questions if anybody has any questions for either of us.

Thank you Brooke and Nicole. Questions? Go ahead. Thank you ladies for that lovely presentation. I I actually learned a little bit. Of course growing up uh back in the day I now I I always say back in my day uh I was a Encyclopedia Bratannica kid. So that's where I got It's online now. Can access it through the library online.

See, more information right there. That's great. And I and I loved all your uh I was astounded about how many takeouts uh and visits you guys have here locally. That is that's awesome. So, hopefully you can uh we can get the word out and you can spread the word. Uh hopefully you're working with the schools with Glenn. Yep. That sounds great. Yeah, you guys are doing a great job. Thank you. Yeah, we had a class visit this week and we have two class visits next week. Awesome.

Thank you, Nicole. Thank you, Brooke. It's been a pleasure working with you. Um, the question I have really is, is there any challenges that we could help with or also communication? Is there anything that we can do to help communicate to the community some of the uh valuable things that the library provides? I think just getting the word out um you know attending our events and just you know promoting it to your uh constituents, friends and family um that we are there and just pop on in, come visit us and libraries are for everyone. So please encourage people to come and ask questions. The staff is so helpful. Um and there's there's just so much available. I I had a friend come visit with me and she hadn't been at the library in 20 years and somehow she was embarrassed about that and we just spent an hour. We checked out a laptop which is something you can do. We got her showed her how to reserve books. We showed her how to use reserve books on Libby. We showed her how to use Canopy. We went through the whole process. She didn't know any of this was available. The biblio box people don't know. And they don't know that if they can't get to the library during open hours, which by the way are amazing and seven days a week,

they can have books sent to the to the locker and pick them up anytime. Um, we haven't even really scratched the surface. There's so much available through the library. So, thank you guys. And feel free to contact Nicole or me with questions anytime. If I don't know the answer, I'll find it out for you. Thank you, Brooke. Nicole, thank you very much. It's a pretty heavy lift to keep that thing rolling seven days a week. So, we really appreciate it. I know the community does. My I have one question for you. You guys still checking out obviously you said laptops. Are you checking out those hot spots too still? Yeah. Are you have do you have a hard time keeping those in or um they're all out? Are they? I mean

when people return, you know, if one come in, it's a fast very fast turnaround. So, um, yeah, they are very popular, um, and very needed service in our community. Okay. I was I was just wondering now the next question is I know we're locally funded and all that. If if uh somebody had a hot spot and wanted to donate it, would that be something you guys would entertain? To be honest, I'm not sure. It's all dealt um at our um headquarters with IT department. Okay. I'm sure if it was if it was given that we could send it to them and they could configure it. I I don't not really certain about how that works, but I can find out if you have someone specifically.

I will stop and talk to you about it, Nicole. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Is there anyone in the audience like to make any public comments regarding Seeing none. Brooke and Nicole, thank you so much. It's been uh great to see the difference and the changes that you guys have made and I really appreciate it and thanks for letting me be a part of Miss McGawan's opening. So, thank you.

Moving into the consent calendar. All items under the consent calendar will be considered together by one action of the city council unless any council member or member of the public request an item be removed and considered separately. Is there any items that anyone would like to pull? Seeing none. Is there any items that anyone in the audience would like to pull? Seeing none, do I hear a motion? Motion to approve. I second that motion. A motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed?

Passes 5-0. Thank you guys. Been a G public hearings. G1 consider introduction and first reading by title only of an ordinance amending title 18 of the Cloverdale Municipal Code to establish objective design and development standards. Thanks, mayor. Um, yeah, this is a zoning code amendment. I think we were before the council um a while back just mentioning all the different changes that have state have occurred in state law requiring us to make changes to our code. Uh this is one of those. Um it really is to remove any ob kind of objective I mean to add objective design standards and and remove any things like you know fit in with the neighborhood character things like that. So it's very clearcut on what a developer will have to do to conform to what we're trying to achieve in our in in the look of the town. So, we have uh Four Leaf is our consultant and we did bring this to planning commission on October 7th and they uh adopted a resolution recommending the council adopt this. So, I'll just turn it over to Luke at this point and take it away, Luke.

Great. Thank you very much, city manager Thompson. Uh good evening, Mayor Lans and Council and members of the Cloverdale community. Uh as Kevin mentioned, my name's Luke Lindbush, supervising planner with Forleaf. Um, I've had the pleasure of serving the city of Cloverdale in a number of different planning projects over the last four years. Uh, starting with preparation of the city's housing element, followed by some code amendments to implement the housing element. Uh, and this is really just the next extension of that. Uh, so for our brief presentation today, we'll really just provide some background on the objective design and development standards, identify the portions of the municipal code where the proposed changes will would go into effect, uh, and then go into some of the design elements themselves. Uh, so next slide, please. uh and then we can just go two slides in actually more then uh what are the objective design and development standards? So this is from the portion of statute really just defining exactly that uh that uh design standards that the city develops for residential development projects uh can't provide subjective judgment uh as city manager Thompson mentioned such as fitting in with community character. uh there has to be a reference to a uniform benchmark uh and it has to be made known uh to the public to the development applicant uh and to the public official that's responsible for processing that development application. On the next slide uh really just to provide an example of the difference between subjective and objective design uh development standards. Uh objective very clearly measurable maximum front setback of 10 ft. uh it's very hard to have any daylight or different interpretations uh between you know what what that really means. Se subjective though would be that uh front setback is consistent with the existing community character. Uh we already went through in the last round of code amen uh code amendments uh of striking some of the subjective language that existed in the residential design standards uh intended for single family development and this is really developing that standalone set of standards. Uh moving into the next slide providing some context on state laws. Uh so the objective design and development

standards were established by Senate Bill 330 uh in 2019 which amended a major piece of statute uh the housing accountability act. Uh but it applies broadly to development projects um that are brought forward under streamlining mechanisms. Uh streamlining measures to allow housing to be approved uh are really brought forward every year. There's more all the time. Uh so this is just a list of a couple of them. uh SP35 uh familiar with I'm sure um SP330 uh itself is a way that developers can bring forward a preliminary development application for a number of housing types. Uh and then there's some others listed here as well but really uh moving into the next slide. Uh wanted this to apply as broadly as possible. Um because most development projects can really be brought forward under any number of streamlining measures. We wanted to make sure that we could develop a set of standards uh that could be applied to both streamlined and discretionary projects uh ones that were very straightforward uh and easy to use for both development applicants and for city staff. Uh there's a number of different approaches uh to implementing objective design and development standards as required under state law. Uh sometimes you see development standards uh that are 300 400 pages really account for a number of different architectural styles. Uh and really we wanted something that was more straightforward uh that would uh reduce the cost and time burden on uh development applicants on city staff and being able to process these applications. Uh also to harmonize the standards uh to apply to multif family and mixeduse projects as generally as possible. Um in addition uh provide certainty for developers in the city. Uh we wanted to make sure that uh this can be communicated well in some of the supplemental materials. Uh we also have a glossery of architectural terms that are used throughout the objective design and development standards as a resource for development applicants uh along with a checklist uh that development uh applicants can use when they're submitting their project applications. Uh and finally uh in

addition to comply with state law uh this is under housing element program 233 uh which we had started to implement through the prior code changes uh as I noted um striking some of that subjective language that existed within the code uh in addition to zoning for a variety of housing types which we brought forward about a year ago. Uh so this is uh really the last uh subprogram under that program to zone for a variety of housing types uh and support streamlining in the city of Cloverdale. Moving into the next slide. Uh going into some of the community engagement and outreach that we did for this project. Uh it was really largely focused on stakeholder outreach uh to architects uh development uh development professionals, real estate agents, uh members of the building profession uh across a bright broad uh number of trades. Uh and largely it was that was where most of the interest was because this is a pretty technical document. Uh however, we made sure to make it available to the public as well. uh it was published for public review draft early in the summer uh and so uh was publicized through the city newsletter uh in a number of different forums to make sure that the community was aware that this was happening as well. Uh I'll also just uh note some of the key responses that we received primarily from stakeholders. Uh we're really uh desire for the standards to be as clear as possible. Um that really is underscored by our approach to have something that is as straightforward as possible. really focusing on architectural integrity and public health and safety uh and other issue issues that matter in terms of development applications for the city of Cleverdale. Uh for there to be flexible standards uh that it's not so prescriptive that it creates additional cost on development projects uh or that you know you're needing to hire more professionals as you're trying to get uh your project uh developed underway um just to be able to interpret uh the standards. We wanted to make it something that's uh very easy for you know mom and pop developers all the way to larger developers um to be able to use and have it just really be an accessible document uh and for it to be consistent. Uh this was uh you know

there was an desire amongst uh survey respondents for it to be consistent with state standards uh but also uh to be relatively consistent with the development types that come forward in Cloverdale, the type of projects um that we can anticipate will come forward in Cloverdale and also that they'll be roughly consistent with the architectural styles of the region uh and other standards um that have been developed throughout uh the North Bay and the North Coast. So we looked at other standards uh that have been developed in neighboring communities as well. Uh so with that moving into the next slide just getting into some of the proposed changes themselves. Uh and with the next slide going into the municipal code text amendments. Uh so the new section 181080 is the objective design and development standards themselves. Um there's also some cleanup uh to a couple of other sections of the municipal code uh including defense ordinance uh and residential design standards 181050. Uh just to clarify the difference between objective design and development standards and the residential design standards. Uh that existing residential design standard section really is focused on single family. It's a pretty short section of the code. Uh and once again the objective design and development standards would be more geared toward multif family and mixeduse projects. So with that moving into the next slide, uh I will pass it off to my colleague uh Eli Areola who has been the project lead uh for the project since the beginning uh and he'll go into some of the design elements uh proposed in the objective design and development standards.

Thank you Luke. Um jumping in to some of the design elements covered uh within the odds themselves. um beginning with site design. Site design standards uh regulate the um building placement on sites as well as site access and circulation uh for both vehicles and pedestrians on site. Um these standards also regulate the um parking design and required screening for said parking. Next slide please. Building design standards uh set forth the required architectural features uh for proposed projects and these standards also um regulate building material and material differentiation um to ensure that proposed projects are of quality design and generate visual intrigue. Next slide please. Outdoor common space standards um set forth a list of potential amenities for developers to choose from and proposed projects are required to include either one or two of the potential amenities uh depending on whether or not the project is located adjacent to a public park. Next slide, please. Lighting standards are included to ensure the safety and security of residents during the nighttime use of amenities on site as well as to prevent light pollution and light trespass onto adjacent properties. Utility standards regulate the placement of mechanical equipment, refuge containers, and other accessory elements in order to maximize sight efficiency and limit visual impacts for both residents and the public. Event standards, as mentioned previously, are included in the amendments to section 180930. And these standards are applicable to projects subject to the odds as well as

new or replacement fences in fire hazard severity zones uh with the goal of increasing fire hardening throughout the city. With that, it is recommended that the city council adopt an ordinance amending title 18 of the Cloverdale Municipal Code to establish the objective design and development standards. Thank you all for your time. Luke and I are available for questions. Great. Thank you both. Awesome. Run through for questions. Council member,

um, one of the questions I had about some of the standards, building standards. One of the issues that we're having in Cloverdale, I think, with some of the houses that are about 25 years old is all the trims rotting. You know, the the materials that were used were not the greatest for exterior and, you know, the the methods that were used where the cuts were never primed. Um, it's costing I would say over our cities, like millions of dollars in cost over the whole city. Would something like that be able to be amended? So, the objective design and development standards do apply to new projects. Um, so it wouldn't uh to my knowledge be subject to rehabilitation projects.

I mean that that's for the for the new projects coming in that um specifics as far as materials being um listed in there. If we had a chance to put something like that in there. Yeah, absolutely. I think there there is there are some standards within there that regulate um trim. There's some prohibited materials including uh T911 uh different sort of cheaper materials generally great standards. Nope, I'm good. All right. Any questions in front of the public? All right. Well, that was easy. Thank you guys for a good presentation. Really appreciate it. This just first reading, correct? Correct.

Thank you. You it it'll be on the consent calendar for the second reading next meeting. Painless. Thank you. Okay, we'll move into H1. Mayor, we still need a vote on that to introduce it. Okay, that's that's what I was getting. I wasn't sure if we needed on that one. Okay, so then with that one, let me pull it back up here. Sorry, guys. Now I got out of line.

Introduced by title only and wave full reading of an ordinance of the city of Cloverdale and title and an ordinance an ordinance of the city of Cloverdale amending title 18 of the Cloverdale Municipal Code to add section 18.10.08 080 objective design standards. Amend section 18.09.030 fences, walls, and hedges. And amend section 18.1050 residential design standards. Perfect. Thank you. Do we have a second? Y. I'll second that. All right. With that, all in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Perfect. Passes 5-0. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you, Alex. And thank you guys for your presentation. Thank you. All right. Now, we'll move on to H1. Consideration of naming the City Hall Chamber of Commerce alley in recognition of former council member Gus Walter. Mike, you want to handle it or

Yeah. [Music] I got the hot open this agenda real quick. Sorry, we're actually dealing with some technical issues on the side over here. So, Council Member Laskkey brought up for new business. Can you turn down the mic a bit? I can't. It's already not even pointing at me. Thank you. Um, Council Member Laskkey requested a new business item for consideration of naming the City Hall Chamber of Commerce alleyway. Um, recognizing former council member Gus Walter. And tonight, we just wanted you to be able to have that opportunity to discuss it and provide direction to staff um potentially with a naming convention. Um, it currently does not have any designation as far as a name. So, it's a nameless alley. And just if you want to provide direction to staff, we can move forward and um bring something forward to council in the future.

Thank you, Mike. Alaska, you want to go first on this? Uh, sure. So, I was just looking for uh giving a name to that walkway uh between like you say the chamber of commerce and the city building that is basically nameless right now. And in in appreciation for Gus's tireless service to the city, I would just uh recommend Gus Walter Alley and then some kind of a placard u be either placed on the city hall side or right because we don't own the chamber building, right? It would be the city hall side. Uh and that would be uh that'd be okay.

Morgan's turn. Well, I think um we're putting the horse before the cart. I think somebody should call Gus up and ask him if he would like his name put on this alley. And um my preference would be because we're going to have some new streets with some of the new developments of putting Guess's name on the actual street.

Okay. Um sort of the way I think about this uh this, you know, with all due respect, this might go against uh the thoughts of my fellow council members. Um, you know, I think if we are going to name a street, I think it's a good idea to sort of put it out to the community. Um, you know, put the names in the hat and and see what the community would like to uh name their their streets. Um, and I guess this kind of hits me as a a situation that is a priority. Um, I think we have um already in place the the citizen recognition program. Uh so this comes as an issue of priorities as our work on the council um when we do have other work to do uh such as recreational opportunities for the youth, housing for young adults, funding a new police station, solutions to fix our roads, transportation for seniors, balancing our city budget, and providing services for those who cannot provide services for themselves. Um, so I would really think that I think this is not a priority that we should be focused on.

Right. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, thank you very much. But here's how I'm thinking of this thing is we have Cloverdale down there. We're really putting a lot of time into making this downtown better. Uh we've worked hard to uh try to get some of the the closed buildings taken care of and the council is putting a lot of work, staff is putting a lot of work into that. But on the other end of that, we have some blank spots in town. That one has been blank since I've been here. It's a just a mere walkway and it's got after Friday Night Live, you can walk by, there's some trash in it. I think we need to it's part of the cleanup and the whole big picture of cleaning up downtown. Um, and I think yeah, there is priorities. There's absolute bigger priorities than this, but this is an easy one right here. This can take literally a couple days to do. So, Gus put in he was one of the the second longest serving council member in Sonoma County next to a gentleman that's down in Windsor right now and still serving. So, um I think we all know how much work goes into this and for doing 24 years on the council, going to all the meetings and actually seeing what Gus has done to Cloverdale and all the good things he's done to Cloverdale and on top of that being a mentor to new council members. Um I absolutely think this is something we should do. Uh obviously put it on the side of city city hall. We own that building and it's nothing huge. It's something to do. It kind of goes with the same theme of our our downtown commemorative bench. We can get a plaque done in a couple days. Boom. It's done. It's up. This is moved on and we're we're on to the bigger priorities. So, I'm in favor of doing this. I'd like to see it cleaned up. Uh and and it makes downtown, for lack of better terms, a little more charming down here. And that's the whole goal we're all going after is to draw people to Cloverdale, have them stop, look around. They're looking at Nah's from the chamber. They're looking at her board right now. It's another thing to see. Keep them in

town. Let them file up and down the boulevard. So, yeah, I'm 100% on board with this. Mayor, really quick. Oh, you still have comments on your

um so little history on that. I only go back about almost 50 years. That used to be where the ambulance and the fire trucks would come flying out into Highway 101 was through that alley back in the day. It wasn't always a walkway. It was actual used street quite a bit and uh it's a lot safer now the way we have designed because pulling out of the middle of the 101 right there when the 101 went through was pretty dangerous. Um it's also part of city property. It's not an actual street so we can kind of do whatever we want. And I think that the fact that Gus has I thought it was 26 years, but right around there a lot of years representing Cloverdale and serving even uh as his family had issues through his son's passing, through his wife's illnesses, everything that went on, he was always in these seats and looking out for the the community. Um, I love the idea of a of a full street, but at the same time, it's also city hall and city city area was his. And that's and I I kind of think it's more fitting uh for someone like Gus because Gus would hate to to know that we were doing this. I I I leaned over to Council Member Morgan Stern and said, "Did you ask Gus about this?" And she said, "No, he doesn't know." And I said, "That's probably the best thing because he would say, please don't do this. Don't ever recognize me for anything. That's the type of person he is. Um, I would absolutely support it. It is a cheap win. We can order a plaque in about 30 minutes through Mike and it's done. It's it's a very simple thing in my opinion. It would be cool to to honor somebody like that that put in so much time and dedication to our city to make it what it is. You look at the CPAC, you look at the plaza, you look at so many things that are here because of when Gus was on the council and the hard work that he put in. I I I just I think it's a great idea and uh I like the idea of the street, but I think that this is more fitting for the style that he would

actually we'd probably have to negotiate with him to get it to this point, but I think that'd be a little bit more fitting being on city property. So, that's that's where I would be. I'm going to open it up to the public. See if anyone in the audience would like to make a public comment about this. Please step up to the microphone. I'd love it. you don't mind, please state your name for the record. It's on. It's green. I see it.

Uh, hi. My name's Kelly Spagnola. Um, I would love to see the alleyway have something that attributes to history of Cloverdale. I mean, I like the idea of a street sign getting our opportunity to be creative with that, but that's a fair point. If he was more downtown, part of the council, it does make sense to have something here for him. Okay. Thank you, Kelly. All right, with that, I'll bring it back up to the council and we'll go through and see what anyone's want to continue saying anything or any further comments from anyone.

Well, I'll just I'll just uh I I agree with council member Marquez. There's a lot uh pertaining to city business and I also agree with the mayor. It's an easy win. Doing city's business uh was Gus's passion as we saw like I say 24 to 26 years. Uh that that's that's no small feat. And what council member Wheeler said, uh, a mentor, uh, when I decided to run for city council, the first person I spoke with was Gus out at the car show sitting by his vehicle and I conversed with him that day and I've got uh great insight and following uh from Gus on that day and I was like, "Okay, I'm in." So, and then also like you say, Todd, uh when he when he basically resigned and and or retired from the council, he didn't want any accolades whatsoever. So, I I think this is a small gesture uh from the city just to acknowledge that yes, sir, you served with valor and honor. So,

I just think out of respect to guest that somebody should call him and talk to him first. To that note, I did put in the agenda report that um staff is willing to contact him depending on council's decision tonight before we can move forward, but I'm willing to reach out.

Um do want to thank Gus. You know, I did talk to him at the car show as well. Um I I got a couple pieces of good advice. Um, you know, um, I would say I do have spoke to the veterans of our town and they have a tremendous amount of respect for his service and I do want to acknowledge that. Um, so I would just say that I think uh, you know, just naming an alley, you know, it'd be a good idea to contact Gus as well as maybe, you know, the other concern is about sort of setting a precedence that um, you know, if we put this out to the community, you know, put Gus's name out there, uh, if the community has some other names, then kind of, you know, the community feels involved, uh, you know, the other thought is about setting a precedence that, um, if we kind of just go ahead and name it, uh, you know, in the future, you know, another council might kind of want to do the same thing and this could kind of stir into uh taking up a bit more staff time than than we may want to. So, um thank you.

Thank you. All right, I'm going to go to the student liaison. I see a lot of head shaking and things going on. I want to hear what you have to say. Want to Mike? Can you help with the mic? I agree with recognizing him since he served for the community. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Um, sounds like we have a little bit of direction. What What do you think, Kevin? Do you need us to need me to kind of give you an idea of what it sounds like and see if council agrees? I mean, do you want me to reach out to Gus first or Okay. So, then

I'd say reach out if he is adamant about this, maybe we come back to us with it. If he's okay with it, we can just if he hangs up or do you want to come back? hangs up with the on you. Come back to us. Otherwise, let's figure out what type I don't know what type of uh plaque or fake roadside. I don't I don't think that would look nice. I think something something professional that will last. Yeah. That's what kind of what it sounds like from the council. The bench the the bench program, we do have those plaques. They're kind of small, but you know, that might be fitting since he has a bench for his son out in the plaza. The same style would might be cool.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you guys and thank you for everyone's input on this. Okay, moving on to council member reports. Council member Laskkey, I have none. Most of my meetings were cancelceled. I did do I I did attend a mixer at the uh in Santa Rosa with other elected members being uh congratulated for their public service at Bellatto. I think it's Bellator Winery, I think it was in Santa Rosa.

BTO. Yeah, BTO Winery in Santa Rosa. So, uh, I got to meet other elected representatives, uh, in that arena. Uh, talk to other people about their what they're doing in the community. Smart train, I got to talk to Eddie on Smart Train and got a little more insight on that. So, uh, yeah, it was it was a good night for that to, uh, you know, rub elbows with like kinds, but, uh, that that's all I have to report. Thank you, council member. I attended the Esmeralda Resort presentation, which was really good and interesting um, recently at the Veterans Hall. Great. Thank you, council member.

Yes. So, go next. Um October 7th through 10th uh I was at the League of California C's annual conference uh where I did attend our council meeting by Zoom. Uh thanks for everyone's patience. Uh there I was able to meet with the Redwood Empire uh and North Bay Division for their lunchons. Attended the Latino Caucus business meeting. Attended presentations on how to build trust in local government. centralizing communication to boost community engagement, building connections and sharing solutions for small cities, creating pathways for future leaders. Uh those are all very very beneficial as well as the expo. Uh learning about some uh different things as far as uh grant funding and um street repair. Uh as the voting delegate for Cloverdale, the report is that there was no actionable items to vote on. Um, also was able to meet council member Mark Milberg, uh, the city of Neato who sadly passed away. Uh, so my condolences to his family and the city of Nevada. Um, Thursday, October 16th, uh, we had the Zero Waste Sonoma meeting. Uh, the board authorized the purchase of 195 Concourse Boulevard in Santa Rosa. That's for the future office space of the zero waste staff. Um update on the Cloverdale Career Fair. Uh we now have established a a date which will be Tuesday, April 28th uh from noon to 5:00 at Cloverdale High School gym. Uh definitely want to give a shout out to Riley Dale, Forest Harper, and Savannah Hempill uh for their work. U also reporting on the Graange Hall. We had our second meeting uh yesterday, Tuesday, October 21st. Uh this was um really kind of

establishing that the Heaven's Closet Thrift Store uh we approved their move in to the uh to the Graange and uh following up on the uh funding from the county of $75 to fix the roof. That sounds like it's going to go through. Um we're still in talks about what the uh food pantry wants to do. uh there is some small details around you know where to store the dumpster at the graange that uh some you know the other location did suit that better. So uh that will get worked out. I'll have some reports on that in the future. And um also just want to give my condolences to the Ferour family uh on the passing of Craig Ferber and Alan Ferber. Uh Alan Ferber was uh very very nice to me and uh my wife and I when we moved here and attended a lot of the Quantis events and uh was just a fun guy to chat with. So um heartfelt condolences go out to the family.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Wow, you guys are good. So, what I did was I attended coffee with the mayor and uh stepped in for Mayor Lans on that one, but it was it was actually a really good one. There was about uh I'd say close to 50 people there and it was kind of a combination with Esmeralda, too. So, uh Devin and I kind of tag team that one and we did leave uh we did answer a lot of questions and I think everybody was a lot happier at the end of that. We did that one. And then also, um, I actually do have a meeting tomorrow. They've been cancelled non-stop, but I actually get to attend a regional board meeting tomorrow, so I'm kind of excited about that future report later.

Thank you. All right. Uh, last week there was pretty busy. I got to attend the Naughty Nook uh, ribbon cutting here in town. It's a craft store that just opened up. I did that with Council Member Laskkey, so that was good to see more businesses coming to town. I got to attend the North Bay Honor Flight. It's the Heroes Homecoming. Uh if you don't know about it, what it is is it's a flight where they pick 22 different veterans to fly with a guest back to Washington DC and tour all of the different memorials and things like that. Um, there was guys from World War II all the way until the most recent wars involved in the 22. And to hear their stories about what they saw, but what they felt and all of this was amazing. I mean, the the the fact that some of these people, you know, they worked hard for us, they fought for us to have the freedoms that we have. and to have them tell me that since the Vietnam they haven't felt like they were part of our country or or welcomed here and to have them come back from that saying I finally feel like I'm home. Uh it was it's it's it's it's touching to, you know, have hundreds of people lined up like they should have back then to support them for what they did for us. Having it now and to see the difference in in the veterans is just amazing. It's It's probably the the best uh best project I've ever been part of and I will recommend it to everyone. And the next one I want I told them I was a little bit ashamed by our airport. They said they wanted it to be a lot smaller than the first one because it was too crowded at the first one for the veterans and they wanted to make sure that it was smaller and didn't disrupt their airport. And so I was a little bit uh disturbed by that because that's what

people felt back in the 70s when they came back. And it it it was almost disgusting to me to think that we these veterans are coming back and and they're not allowed to have the same amount of people that they they deserve there to represent them. So next time when it's out, I'm going to make sure everyone here knows about it. The reason that they do 22 veterans on that flight is because 22 veterans commit suicide every day. And that's the number that we need to work on. And so that's what they're trying to fix and that's what we all as Americans need to try to help with is to stop the veteran suicide of 22 veterans per day. Uh I attended the uh Esmer Esmeralda town hall. Council member Morgan Stone and I sat together. It was great whether you talked to me or not. And we had uh an enlightening meeting with that town hall, I'd say, because uh there was a lot of different questions that I hadn't heard from anyone at any of the town halls that they held. And so it was good to see perspectives coming from uh different farmers, different vineyards, different everybody in the area along with uh a lot of the community. But overall, it was uh I'd say well received. See the next one. Okay, so city manager and I met with the performing arts center last week. I won't dig into too many details because it's not completely solidified yet, but it is um performing arts center was having a tough time uh with their overhead and they were afraid that that they were going to have to close their doors without some support. And so they came to the city and the city uh welcomed them with open arms and we came together with them and arts alliance and the chamber of commerce. We came to a solution to basically create a venue out of the performing arts center to take

the overhead and stress off of their nonprofit for having to pay the bills here and now they can just focus on holding their plays here in the building and and renting it like anyone else. And what was great is the arts alliance wanted to jump in and they want to use this building for different things like winter series concerts, movie nights, different performances, whatever they want to do as well. The chamber of com chamber of commerce loved that idea and they want to manage it. And so as a team effort, we are all going to come together, make sure that the arts thrive in Cloverdale the way that they should and have been and and uh make sure that everybody has a positive experience when it comes to this versus just the stress and everyday monotonous hard hard digging to try to stay alive here to keep your your place going on. They just finished one this weekend. They have two more lined up for the year and then after that uh we're at that point the city will probably be taking over the building. Also attended the Arts Alliance fundraiser this past weekend that had a masquerade fundraiser. They did an amazing job, raised a ton of money, and it's nice to see the community support because that's what brings you your Friday Night Lives, your uh sculpture trail and everything else that we do here in town is done through the Arts Alliance. At a meeting this week with Senator Maguire, it was very uh positive for us, I'd say. Uh it was a few council members and a few mayors. And uh some of the positives to come out of it is our homeless has seen between between a 20 and 24% decrease in our county. Uh they are right now focusing on the mental health portion and have a a bunch of money they're going to start pumping into the state to create mental health facilities whether they are um open door or locked facilities depending

on the needs of the person to try to create uh stabilization for the people that need it the most before they get into the housing so that they can actually uh succeed. Um, I can say that one. He has three $3 million coming to us for the smart train. It is for the planning on the smart train. Uh, he said he is focusing heavily on getting the smart train to Cloverdale. He goes, I know it's at Hillsburg now. He goes, but that means that I have to keep going and I promised you I would. So, he uh delegated uh $3 million to come to all the planning and has already started it. So, if you think it's not going to happen, I it's it is. I was the naysayer. It looks like it's happening. So, I'm excited about that. Um he they're helping with 70 that just opened 70 affordable units in Roner Park for veterans. He was part of that along with the Roner Park City Council. So, that was great to see. He has two announcements that I can't give it, but October 29th and then in the month of November, there's two big announcements that are going to come from Senator Magcguire, one for Cloverdale directly and one for our state. But will definitely be helping uh Sonoma County a lot. Um look forward to seeing some nice big numbers and big positive things coming from from our senator. And I'm was excited about both of those and I'm sorry I can't tell you what they are. The last thing, there's a bunch of money that the state is dumping into uh vegetation management for wildfires. And he gave us a direct line and said, "You call this person if you don't have your your grants filled out and you're not on the list to get the money. Here's the number. We're going to help you get it. We want it here in Sonoma County." So, I talked to our chief. Chief said, "We're in, but we're in the in the 50 percentile." And so we're going to work together with the senator to get us into that top percentile to get us hopefully

some grant money for vegetation management. Today, last but not least, today I attended the FIO signing. Um, what that is is a forecast informed reservoir operations. What that means is our lakes are controlled through the Army Corps of Engineer, Lake Mesino, Lake Sonoma, and they have a book that's about 70 years old that tells you on X date you have to release X amount of water out of the lake to prepare for the the winter storms that will be coming. Those storms don't always come because of climate change and different things that go on in our area. Sometimes you have more drought than you have rain and other times you have more rain than you have drought. And so to prepare for that the way they were doing it, you're just guessing. You're following a book and it it's not always accurate. And so when you do that, you lose a lot of water that you could be saving. This new style, what it does is it tracks every single storm coming in and it forecasts what they see in the very near future. They have they have planes and satellites and everything else that that watches all the storms coming in. And they said they can calculate down to the inch of how much water is running off of the hills into those certain lakes and certain areas. So they know what's coming and they can release them just the exact amount of water that they need to release to control the water that is left inside the lake so that we can keep our storage actually 20% higher than what it is now because they would keep it 20% low to try to control these flooding issues. And so now because of the the forecasting they don't have to let that 20% out. they can keep that and just keep us at a steady maximum in the lakes, which means that we can keep uh up to 22,000 houses worth of water extra in the lake if we have the storms, if we have the water. And what that means is they're not releasing into the river. But in the long run, it's a great thing because they're using science to predict

what's going on and it actually works. I was excited to do that. It was full of electeds and a lot of good information and uh and I see a lot of good things coming for our area. It's only for Lake Mesino right now, but they're focusing on Lake Sonoma next. So, I'm excited about that. Questions from anyone on anything that anyone has said. All right, seeing none. Sorry that was so longwinded. I never do that. Looks like uh we have one letter of support. Any questions on that? Okay. Any other support or opposition letters that we need to know about, Kevin?

No, there's not. Thank you. City manager report.

Yeah, just real quick, I have a couple things. Uh tomorrow night, we have Vice Mayor Wheeler, Council Member Laskkey, Marquez, and Morgan Stern um going to the Windsor uh mayors and council's dinner. So, coordinate that. Uh the next meeting is November 12th. We've got a lot of things on the agenda. It's going to be a longer one. We are planning to cancel November 26th and 24th like we do every year because it's the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Um Mike wanted me to let you know that we're going to change the date of the newsletter release to be not in conflict with the agendas. So it will be um be the week that the agenda doesn't go out. Correct, Mike? Perfect. Yeah,

months that have five weeks kind of throws off our every other week kind of thing. So, it's um problematic when we're trying when we have other deadlines. So, day after council meetings, we'll we'll start to push them out instead. Last thing, again, I mentioned last time, we're going to have the Halloween out at the plaza. We've got a lot of decorations. Council member Marquez will be DJing. And if you guys want to come down, we have a bunch of candy to give out. And I think the chamber's going to be right alongside us. So trying to make a little party in the plaza for the kids. We're going to close the street because last year there was just so many kids. We're just going to close it from 1st to 3rd. And uh yeah, so if anyone wants to come out and thank you, Marjorie, for bringing some candy in. Appreciate that.

What time is that? Are you going to close it? 4 to uh we're going to close the street around 2:30 or 3. The event is from 4 to 6. So that's kind of the plan right now. The chamber's been big on helping us, so it's kind of their thing. We're assisting them. Great. Thank you. Nothing. All right. Council direction for future agenda items. Anyone got one? Go ahead.

Uh this was uh in preparation for the uh subcommittee assignments. Uh just wanted to have a discussion uh preceding that. whether to maybe keep them or uh ditch them. Uh we just have a conversation maybe listing the pros and cons uh before that before we make that decision. Um so that would maybe be at possibly the November or December meeting. Okay. Um Kevin, when do we do the assignments? The December meeting. Okay. And that's when you pass out the packets.

That's when we pass out the Yeah. your preference scoring sheets. Um, but we could have that conversation in advance of that. I mean, the only my only hesitation is November 12th is a like a lot of items. So, why don't we do it at the same meeting and then if we don't need to choose to go that direction, it's I mean because I don't think anyone's really too against what you're asking right now. So, you got a smile on our faces. Uh, but it's something we can discuss. I think it'd be great. We won't discuss right now, but just to have the discussion before we uh, you know, go to the next step. Maybe let's put it on the agenda before the the other agenda item on December and if we don't need it. Is that fair for everyone? Does anyone have against this at all? No. Seeing. Awesome.

Cool. Great. Great. Anything else? That's it. I got one thing I just wanted to get for and we can run this on the December 10th meeting. I know that 22nd one is or the 12th one is loaded up, but uh just do a quick water update on some of the water projects we've got going on since we you know um we've had the subcommittee counseledled a couple times and and I think this is how we can swing it is just do a quick update on you know on the Cherry Creek tanks on the SCADA on you know the wells everything that's going on right now. We've got a lot of big projects going on. I'd like to know the status on those and and what's going on with those to to push them along if we need to.

Gotcha. I think that's great. Anyone else on anyone else? Seeing none.

Okay. Uh sorry. Sorry. I wanted to add one more thing I forgot my list and that was just to recognize Alan Ferber, you know, and the Ferber family for everything. I know uh council member Marquez already did it, but you know, he was a his family was very influential in our city for decades. Uh we wouldn't be where we are with our growth if it wasn't for them with the housing developments, the plaza, everything they did, all the businesses that you see. Uh that was them believing in Cloverdale and Allen was in our meetings up until his passing. So uh really appreciate their love and commitment to Cloverdale and they will be missed.

We can squeeze that on November if you want. I mean it probably won't take that long. If you want to do do that November or December, I don't think December has any proclamations or recognitions. And if you wanted that citizen recognition program, we did save November December as an opportunity for staff to provide recognition to members of the public if we want to. If staff is interested in doing that one, I'll let you guys decide. Okay. So, we would just need a member that somebody that you would want to recognize or if it's in respect to,

we can talk about it. Okay. But I just I personally just wanted to recognize him right now and Okay. Anything else? Seeing none, thank you everyone. Meeting adjourned 7:13. So they