City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. It's Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026. It's 631 p.m. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Larkspur City Council. We will call this meeting to order. And Madam Clerk, can we get a roll call, please?

Council Member Kandel.

I'm here.

Council Member Margulies. Here. Council Member Way. Here. Vice Mayor Paulson.

Here.

Mayor Andre.

Here. If you're able, please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wonderful. All right, so this is public open time, which is where members of the public can come and address the city council on any items that are not on the agenda. If you would like to make a public comment, please approach the podium and please state your name. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Debbie Horowitz and I live at 218 Marksburg Plaza Drive. And I was at the commission, the planning commission meeting on August 11th. regarding the new tennis club. And I would like... I know that it... It was finalized by the Climate Planning Commission, but it's been appealed. As you probably know, it's all been appealed. And the meeting, I was told from people upstairs that the time and place will be coming out next week. But if you don't mind, I would like to speak a few moments about that. Is that okay before that comes up?

Yes, go ahead.

Because normally, can you not hear me? Oh, can you hear me now? Okay. Well, I've lived here in Larkspur, this wonderful little town, since 1982. And I've never asked any of you guys for anything. But I was really happy it wasn't going to be a low-income development at the racquet club to find out it was going to be a tennis club. So I was really happy about that. But then to find out after looking, examining the plans and the architect that... I am going to be affected probably more than anyone in the whole packed room because most of those people are upset that it's going to be expensive, new club and not indoor this or that. But I live directly right across the street from where he's planning to put an employee parking lot. Now, it's the very background. court where there's the last owner planted about eight beautiful redwood trees and there's other tree there's 14 beautiful trees back there and it backs to the um this uh the creek the creek runoff which overflows it's where he has the back parking lot right now for 11 spots against the wall but this would be moved up on the steep curve there's a steep curve right there that The town always put signs out for that it's flooding that street. That's a dangerous curve, okay, where he wants to move it up just for a few spots, mind you, like seven, eight spots, when he could easily... Right now, there's almost 100 spots in the front, and he's just doing like 70 spots. He could easily add a few more spots instead of destroying that pretty little area in the back. It directly faces me. And there's another owner right back there that owns another little parcel. And there's a beautiful eucalyptus tree and some gum trees that aren't on his property. And he told me, the owner told me at that meeting last month that it's dangerous. I mean, it's a fire hazard, eucalyptus. But I called Kent Julin of Arbor Science. He is what the city of Larkspur uses for an authority project. on trees. And he looked at them, all of them. And he told me, this tree is not a fire hazard. It's clear. There's nothing on the bottom. And he said, all those trees are healthy. And he's your authority. He's your authority. So before this meeting comes up later this month, the packed room, most of those people are upset about the club not being what they want. I'm going to be a few from you to here where he wants this parking lot for just a few spots. Now, that's my beautiful environment.

Okay, great. Thank you so much for your public comment. Appreciate you coming. Thank you. Anybody else like to make a public comment? Please come to the podium.

Adjust it a little bit. Good evening. My name is Paul DaSilva. I'm representing the Marin Biodiversity Synthesis Group and the California Global Biodiversity Alliance. I've come to wish you all a most happy California Biodiversity Day. This year, it coincides with the Labor Day holiday, and that is why I'm here a little early. Because the United States is the only country in the world not to have signed the International Convention on Biodiversity, there is somewhat of an information vacuum here regarding global biodiversity efforts. Fortunately, California stepped up to fill the gap. Our state is now an official observer to the convention, as are many institutions, agencies, and organizations within it. The California Global Biodiversity Alliance, CalGBA, helps coordinate communication between the international community and California. It has sent delegations to the last two conferences of parties, or COPs, and is planning to send a delegation to the next one, COP17, to be held in Yerevan, Armenia, in October. I will be a member of this delegation. The good news from the rest of the world is that there is a global consensus on how to solve our most pressing problems. It is that we must take a holistic approach, much as people realized during the 1960s and 1970s but have somehow forgotten more recently. The Global Biodiversity Framework, or GBF, is one example. It has 23 targets that cover topics such as food and agriculture, human health, parks and protected areas, housing and cities, rights of indigenous and historically marginalized communities, and gender equality. At COP17, a major focus will be the implementation of this framework. Also, although national delegations will undoubtedly dominate the big news coverage, There will also be a series of events focused on what are called subnational governments, one of which I'm happy to be addressing now. In fact, target number 14 of the GBF deals specifically with integration and coordination of all levels of government. We of the California delegation will be taking to the COP and to the rest of the world news of the good work happening in our state. Those of us from Marin will make sure our local efforts are not left out. To this end, we have prepared the BRIN Biodiversity 2016 report, which I'm happy to make available to all of the council members electronically in order to save resources. I have brought one hard copy, which I can ceremoniously distribute tonight, present tonight. For Larkspur, it is significant that this report is dedicated to the memory of Laura Lovett, who work constantly to advance the cause of local biodiversity. It is fitting that the cover of the report has a picture of the garden she planted and maintained in the front of the Lark Theater. This image of Larkspur will now be our face to the rest of the world. Thank you very much for all you do. Have a happy California Biodiversity Day, and thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening.

Great. Thank you, Paul, for your public comment. If you would like to leave the report with our clerk, that would be wonderful. She will distribute it to council. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the chamber who would like to make a public comment?

I see none. Anyone online?

I'm looking for any raise hands from our Zoom audience member, and there is no public comment.

Thank you. All right. We will close public comment. Moving on. Presentations, of which there are none. And we will move on to the approval of the consent calendar. Is there any member of council who would like to pull an item off consent for discussion?

No? All right. Can I get a motion to move the consent calendar? I'll make a motion to move the consent calendar.

Second.

Great. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstain? Right. The consent calendar passes. And now we move to number five, city manager's oral report.

Madam Mayor, Council Members, just a few things. First, I would like to thank the Public Works staff for the help they gave to the Chamber so that the wine stroll would go off without a hitch. And I also want to acknowledge the work that the Executive Director, Marty Murphy, did. She spoke quite a bit with me and with Chief Norton to come up with a safety strategy that I think really improved the event, made it a more comfortable event for everyone involved. And my understanding, it was incident-free. So that's great. And my understanding is it was the biggest one yet. So it was very well attended. The two other things I wanted to highlight for the council first is that we put this out in some of our recent newsletters. But I also want to highlight it here. The Resilient Neighborhoods Group, we're hosting at the Larkspur Library for a forum, a lunch forum. on september 17th it'll be at noon and people are encouraged to sign up lunch will be provided and it's to learn about the eight steps to reduce climate pollution and create a more sustainable future that you can take for your own home it's making your home more sustainable so there's information about this on our website encourage people to take a look and sign up And then lastly, it's been a longer time coming than we thought it would be, but at the end of this week, we'll be issuing the RFQ to get started on the building that you've authorized us to pursue for recreation in Piper Park. Took us a little longer because, as you heard at your last meeting, we've been learning a lot more about Piper Park and what's underneath the ground. And we had to make sure we cleared some hurdles before we issued the RFQ, but we're there now. And I know the council's also very interested in the complimentary project that we are working our way through with PG&E, which is to increase our EV charging options at Piper Park. So all that's in motion, and this is a big step. This document should be published by Friday, and we'll be open for about a month and hope we get some interested bidders. With that, I turn it back to you.

Great. Thank you for the report. Anybody have any questions? I have one question. Thanks, Dan, for the report. Will it be posted on our website? If I want to read the RFQ, where will I find it?

Through our website, through the Public Works site, you can go in. You're going to have to subscribe for an eBid account because we use a service called eBids, and all contractors use that. It's a way for us to communicate with them and follow all the public codes regarding communications on public bid process, so. But you can go in that way and look at it.

But I don't have to have an EIN number or anything like that? Okay.

And I'm also happy to give you a copy of that.

That sounds good. Thanks.

Great. Okay. I will open it up for council member reports. Does anyone have any reports that they'd like to give?

I just want to remind everybody that we have organized, or actually the Larkspur Community Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, and the League of Women Voters, have organized two candidate forums for the upcoming election. And the first one is September 9th at 5.30 at the Lark Theater. They're free. Please come. They do ask that there's only 180 seats at the Lark Theater, that people should register that they're coming. And a chamber has put out an Eventbrite event. link so that you can just put your name down, but just come anyway. We'll find a spot. And then October 1st, it's at the Drake Community Room, if everybody knows where that is, off of Sir Francis Drake. And that is October 1st at 530. So it's a great opportunity to talk to the candidates who are running and to ask your questions at the forum. And I'm really happy that the League of Women Voters is has agreed to participate and help with really making this a smooth process for us. Thank you.

Anyone else have any reports?

So I just wanted to say in addition to Paul's Biodiversity Month, it's also apparently Disaster Preparedness Month. So I wanted to make two small announcements. First is a thank you to the city and I think Shannon may be a city manager for the website. I went on there today and there are no less than five very informative pages. One on flooding and king tides, disaster preparedness, Measure G, creeks and watershed, and Larkspur official maps portal. So I'm happy that the community has that information. I don't know how many visitors we have, but it's there and can be put in newsletters. But the second announcement is, you know, I'm starting my tenure as the MCCMC president. And the first talk is on disaster preparedness. And we decided to try to make a roundtable panel discussion. So we'll have Mark Brown from MWPA, where Catherine serves, and Steve Torrance from the County on Emergency of some emergency preparedness and also, you know, some people to talk about Daniel Swain is a professor at UCLA. He's often spoken, you know, just to set the frame for, you know, the intersection between climate and adaptation and resilience and all that. So, and, and we really have the double threats. Now we seem to get the fires in the summer and the rains and they're connected, especially how they affect us because of the erosion and, and, you know, and the greening and all that it's, it's connected. So, um, I personally want to invite my fellow council members to all attend. It's going to be at the College of Marin on Wednesday, September 30th. And it looks like we're trying to get Senator McGuire and Damon to speak a little bit about legislation. We really want to have a more dynamic. you know, information-rich meeting. There will be surprises. It's our first kickoff meeting. And just as a little, you know, taste, I was on an hour-and-a-half, two-hour meeting today with the county, and a lot of that was Steve Torrance. Been working that. And just a couple of stats, which I found very interesting. What the county has done so far is 6,000 culvert inspections and 350 cleared. They have 11 deployable pumps. And so I already reached out to Riviera Circle because they're talking about, you know, they're worried about the king tides. 32 more sandbag sites. They're going to have six community town hall meetings tomorrow. and two tabletop exercises in November. So I think all of you, and especially running, you'll be talking to constituents. There's so much questioning about the super El Nino. And it's a threat that we have. It's first of all that we have sea level rise, and then we have the king tide, and then we have the El Nino weather. So it could be worse than January 4th. But a fourth threat to that is both king tides occur on the holidays, one on Thanksgiving and one on Christmas. So when staff is gone, when people are not in their house. So I think we really, it could be a nothing burger, but I think we really need to do this for the future, if not for 2026. So council members, I hope to see you at College of Marin and everyone out there. It would be lovely. And I'm again, thanks for staff. There's just so much going on. And I think we need to make sure we're not duplicative and that we're really staying focused on what we can do. So thank you.

Great. Thank you. Anybody else have a report? No. Scott? Okay. Just a couple of things for me. One, Tuesday, September 22nd is the kickoff meeting for the City Hall Citizens Advisory Committee at 3 p.m. here in the City Council Chambers. We welcome. any member of the public to come and participate in the process as we embark on our journey to figuring out, you know, what's the best pathway for us to renovate this building. And then on the following day, Wednesday, September 23rd at 2 p.m., the King Mountain Open Space Ribbon Cutting. is going to be happening. And I think we're going to be meeting at College of Marin, and there will be shuttle buses that will be taking people, I think, to the Citroën fire road. But anyways, I think more details to come. The county is coordinating the ribbon cutting, but that is happening on Wednesday, September 23rd.

Okay.

All right. So that is it for council members' reports and comments. And so we'll move on to number eight business items, the city of Larkspur's response to the 2026 grand jury report entitled MCE Marin Clean Energy, a series of missteps highlight need for governance changes. Do you want to give a staff report, city manager or?

This is the only grand jury report you were asked to respond to this year. And at a prior meeting, the council authorized the mayor to work on a more expansive response than we typically would prepare for you. And so that's what you have in front of you this evening. I'm going to defer to the mayor to speak to the response.

Great. Thank you. So I hope all of you had time to read the draft response. What I did was I tried to keep it focused. We are required to respond to two of the findings and two of the recommendations, which we have agreed with both of the findings and both of the recommendations. And we say that we have already implemented both of the recommendations in the civil grand jury report. In addition to that, I drafted a letter, a cover letter that goes with our response, just putting a little more context in terms of, you know, City of Larkspur's position on MCE, trying to remind members of the public about that Larkspur was one of the initial, or one of the very early participants in MCE, in the Joint Powers Authority when it was created. I think we joined the, I think six months after it was created. Many of our residents knew Charles, Supervisor Charles McClashen, who was the supervisor who started the first CCA here in California, which was MCE. And so many of our residents really believe in clean energy, and we also believe in local community choice, meaning that residents should have their choice of utility provider. And so I think MCE provides a very valuable resource to our residents. And so as we were embarking on this journey, it was not to – we wanted – reforms at MCE to make it stronger. It was not to tear it down. And so I think the point of all of these reforms was to make sure that it was well positioned for the long term and that there was strong oversight and that, you know, there... There are changes constantly that are happening in the energy space. Everybody is getting cleaner. Our energy is, thankfully, the California grid is getting cleaner and more renewable. But that also means that the CCAs face stiffer competition with PG&E, SoCal Ed, and the other CCAs as well. And so it just means that our operations need to be much more cost efficient. We need to just... better um and that way we can deliver you know a higher quality or more renewable energy at competitive rates and the way to do that is to make sure that we contain our energy costs um and we're able to pass those savings um onto our customers so in total the marine grand jury report i think did a very great public service in sort of providing a roadmap of, you know, what are some of the changes and what are some of the areas of opportunities for improvement. And I do hope that the MCE board will adopt and embrace, you know, many of the changes that it recommends. And the MCE board did discuss their response to the grand jury report at our last board meeting, which happened about two weeks ago. And we did, we did accept or agree with all of the findings in whole or in part, but we did accept the findings and many of the recommendations, although some of the recommendations, you know, we, the board said that they needed further analysis. And so that was a way of... Some of the recommendations had very specific time deadlines that were associated with implementation and just given... all of the changes that are going on currently at MCE, the board felt that some of the timing and some of the milestones weren't achievable. But, you know, we are going to do our best. I mean, right now we are, the MCE board has approved a governance assessment. So that is undergoing, that is underway. And also the board has convened an interim meeting I'm sorry, a CEO search committee to find the next permanent CEO. But we are also discussing whether or not we need an interim CEO and how we might fill that position as well. So a lot of things are happening at the same time. And at the same time, we have to make sure that the agency continues to operate and deliver on its mission to our customers. So it's been an interesting process, but I do think that we are making headway and we are making progress. And so that I think is the good news for our customers. And hopefully we will get to a point where we were able to give our customers a modest rate cut earlier this year in April. But I am hoping that we will be able to get to a point also where we can achieve more savings on the energy side so that we can give steeper rate cuts to our customers starting in fiscal 2027. So with that, I'll just open it up for any questions or comments.

I'll make a couple of comments. I, you know, I serve as the alternate and I was on MCE before Stephanie and Kevin Haroff before me. And I guess I first wanted to start off by thanking Stephanie. I mean, I think all of us here and many in the community know that she is. There were other members there. And, you know, I had a nice long conversation with, you know, one of the members yesterday. And it seemed that generally in the last year or two, there was growing concern about how this organization had morphed. into something so large and so unwieldy. And the notion of really starting to practice oversight was a growing consensus. But I have to say, Stephanie, you really, the combination of your financial skillset and your political courage, I think was really admirable. I was witness to a lot of this. And I think it's an example in a time where people, a lot of us are in this business to see if we can restore trust in government. you know, to actually, you know, create that kind of transparency and accountability. And I think you did a phenomenal job. So I really want to thank you for that. And, you know, my second comment is on my perception of what's happening at MCE. So, you know, Stephanie already touched on a couple of them. I think four things really stand out. Like, you know, we were in the before state, we're in the after state. What, you know, besides this report, which is a diagnosis, what medicines are we taking? How's the patient getting better? And I think the finance committee is a big part of that. And Sally Wilkinson, who's another a pretty remarkable person is on that, and John Corbett, I think, from Contra Costa. So there's really the sense that people will be looking at the numbers, and that's something that we need here. That's something that we need at all levels of the county and at agencies that deal with almost a billion dollars. I think the governance part is moving from what I see. Supervisor Sackett is one of the people, and I think Stephanie, you as well. And I think this is really the open question and part of what the grand jury questions meant to me. Like, are we really, you know, are we doing our job as a board? And, you know, do people attend? Are people properly trained? Or do they have the skills? And I think that governance is, you know, there are no, you know, fingers to point when you have the you know success of such growth but then you don't manage how it's governed so so number two is governance finance committee the grand jury itself that was a big win and i think the public is to be thanked for that there's so many smart people in our community and You know, we all know from public comment how sometimes it feels like gadflies and, you know, a noise, but we really benefit from the, you know, investment of time and of the expertise people bring. You know, we're a very lucky county in that we have so many people and I think it paid in dividends here. And then I think the leadership search itself, that's really the key, you know, who comes in next. And, you know, I would say I've worked on, you know, maybe almost eight or so boards right now. And you can just tell the ones that have the positive and healthy leaders, good things happen. And I think that's hopefully in the future for MCE. And then my only other thing is kind of a philosophical point, which is for us five up here, I think we've had many discussions, and this is a trade-off we all live with. You know, Catherine, to me, you're the really good voice to say, you know, Gabe, stop being an armchair engineer. trust staff you know our staff is you know we're here to kind of look at the big pictures and check off but then there comes a time where you have to question and I think we had that same message coming at the board people were saying trust you know trust staff they know more and there comes a point where you have to follow your instincts and risk you know wasting people's time and looking stupid and and I think again that's where I credit your political courage you know we fortunately get along here. And I look at the cities around us, be it Ross or Corte Madera or Fairfax. I mean, there's been a lot of feuding and difficulties. We're a pretty harmonious council. But I think as long as we can balance that, you know, we really respect our staff. We work with them. But there comes a time where you have to ask questions and, you know, not be embarrassed by the fact that you don't know everything, but you're just trying to do your job and increase transparency. So Overall, again, thank you, and I'm really happy to see this happen.

Thank you, Gabe, for your kind words. Any questions or comments? Yeah.

I would like to take a second and jump on the Mayor Andre bandwagon. I just wanted to express that You have been doing a phenomenal job of looking into things, finding problems, and fixing problems. I mean, that's why we're here. And I watched you with Calcha. And I watched you with this. And I am just honored to be on the board with you. So I just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work and all the time going through the details and the financials that you spend in order to figure out these problems and say it needs to be fixed and do what it needs to do to fix it. Thank you. I just want to say I appreciate it. I recognize and appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you. I will say that, you know, it's in the beginning, it was very challenging. And there, you know, it was it was difficult. And for a very long period of time, it was very difficult because you feel very lonely in what you're doing. you know, in what you're saying. But I will say that I spent a lot of time working with my colleagues behind the scenes. And so that's not, that doesn't get reported into the Marin IJ, but, you know, on a board and a council like ours, but also on a board with 38 members as MCE is, you know, you have to be able to bring people along with you. I mean, that's your job to be effective. And so I spent a lot of time. And thankfully, I think, you know, there are a lot of extremely talented and dedicated public servants here in Marin. And so those conversations, they started in Marin, and I think those conversations were easy. But then I also spent a lot of time also reaching out to people in Contra Costa, in Solano County, I would drive over there and have lunch and coffee with people. I mean, so this is, the fact that we're here today and that the board has reached that point, I think is a credit to all the board members and it wouldn't have happened if we had not been able to just build a coalition and to build working relationships with people. And so that's part of the challenge is that this is a very large agency. It spans four counties. And some of these people you wouldn't see other than at MCE meetings. And so You know, we really had to make efforts to reach out to people and really try and just build working relationships with people. And thankfully, there are a lot of really talented, like I said, dedicated people. I mean, in Napa, in Solano County, in Contra Costa that I've had the privilege of. of meeting and working with. So I think we are on the right track and there's a lot more work to be done, no doubt, but I think we are on the right track. And I also commend the members of the Marin civil grand jury for their very detailed and exceptional report. Cause it's clear that they actually spent a lot of time going through extensive public records and spent a lot of time interviewing stakeholders and writing the report. So thank you. Any specific comments on or changes that people want on the report? Okay.

I only have a typo.

Okay.

No, I think the report is excellent. I just think on page two, your signature should say Mayor City of Larkspur, which it does in the rest of the document. So That's just a letter. Yeah. Yes. I just think it looks better and it's more consistent with the rest of the documents.

Okay.

But other than that, fantastic work. So it's been a lot of effort by you, and I really appreciate how well you've represented us and the consumer, because that's really the point, is to try to figure out how government provides the best resources and opportunities for people within this energy sphere to have competition. But your acknowledgement that attendance is a key variable with a 38-member board And people not showing and then not having the material in enough time to really have a robust conversation, I think is an essential issue that you point out here as far as oversight for making sure that our representatives from each of our cities, and I know we attend, but I'm sure there are opportunities to make sure that attendance is more robust. So I appreciated that.

But that was it. That was my last comment. Thank you for reading that. Yes, you're right. We will fix that. Yeah. Perfect. Any other comments? Okay. Well, I'll open it up to public comment if there are any public comment here in the chamber. Yes, please approach the podium. Oh, please. Yeah. If you can speak into the microphone so we can all hear you. Thank you.

What's going on with the low-income housing element and the Lucky site?

So we can't answer that question right now because we're on this agenda item. Oh. But we can address that in, you know, or actually, you know what? I can send you an email afterwards.

Okay.

But we are discussing this particular agenda item right now. Oh, okay. Great. Thank you. Anyone else in the chamber have public comment? Okay. Okay.

I would just echo what has been said. Thank you so much. I've been following the story. And from the very beginning, I think MCE represented a very important step forward for us locally and for California, probably nationally. And then this little hiccup that we've had has taken a lot of time and energy. And thank you so much for giving us an example of how local government can constantly improve itself.

Thank you. Thank you, Paul. All right. Any comments online?

I'm looking for any raised hands from our Zoom audience members. And there's no public comment.

Okay, great. Thank you. So we'll close public comment and we'll bring it back to council if there are no more changes. Can we get a motion?

I'll move item 8.1, which is the City of Larkspur's response. To the 2026 grand jury report entitled MCE Marin Clean Energy, a series of missteps, highlights, and needs for governance changes.

And I will gladly second that.

All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay, great. So motion passes and we are adjourning. So we will adjourn to our next meeting on Wednesday, September 16th, 2026. We hope to see you there. And thank you for joining us tonight.