Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, welcome everyone to the regularly scheduled council meeting of the city of Calistoga. It is 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15th. May we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Williams?

Present.

Vice Mayor Gift. Present. Council Member Lopez Ortega.

Present.

Council Member Cooper.

Present.

Council Member Eisenberg.

Present. We want to welcome all of you here and welcome also those who are joining us on the screens. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible,

The council did meet in closed session on two occasions since our last regular meeting on both August 28th and September 10th. The topic in both cases was the appointment of city manager and there is no reportable action yet from those meetings. The next item on our agenda is the oral communication on consent items or items not on the agenda. This time is set aside to receive comments from the public regarding matters on the consent calendar or matters of municipal concern not on the agenda. Pursuant to the Brown Act, the council cannot consider any issues or take action on any requests not on the agenda during this comment period. Speakers are encouraged to limit their comments to three minutes so that all speakers have an opportunity to address the city council. Is there anybody in the chambers here tonight who would like to address the council on a consent calendar item or on a

matter of municipal concern you're welcome to come forward please to the uh podium and address and use the microphone may i have some speaker cards also i'm sorry i am one of those oh excuse me yes all right mr allen you're here this person sure let's go ahead i am i'm one of the speaker cards all right um i'm here tonight to talk about the fairgrounds property and specifically about the process the city is using to decide the future of those 70 acres Among many other public engagement endeavors over the past two and a half years to advocate for a master planning process in November of 24 in front of the five of you I submitted 241 signatures from adult Calistoga residents about 6% of the entire adult population asking the city to engage in a planner and a planning process Nearly two years later. We still don't have that plan but we have something important your own commitment to a master plan and The City Council approved the 2026 Fairgrounds Advisory Committee Work Plan, which identifies master planning as the FAC's top priority. Over those past two years, I've heard, and over those past two years, I've heard every one of you publicly express support for a master planning process for the property. So why are the city's actions now so inconsistent with those words? At the August 27th FAC meeting, the committee was preparing to vote on whether to recommend moving forward with a master planning RFP. That vote was delayed with the cited reason being not enough input from the public. Yet just four days later, on September 4th, the city released an RFP for a Speedway contract without any FAC review or recommendation. Meanwhile, the master planning RFP, which addresses the council's approved top priority for the FAC is still waiting, and that is your own stated top priority for the FAC. I want to be very clear about my next statement. This isn't about whether Calistoga should ultimately have a racetrack, a golf course, an RV park, or something else. That's what the master plan will help us determine. The question is whether we should establish a vision for the entire 70 acres first or allow individual projects to establish that vision for us one RFP at a time. And I want to acknowledge that putting the master plan first isn't necessarily easy for the five of you. I know that. It may mean saying not yet to projects that some members of our community strongly support. It will frustrate some of us. It will require difficult decisions in the short term. But if we want this property to succeed in the next 10, 20, and 50 years, those are exactly the kinds of decisions responsible leadership requires. If we commit major portions of the property to individual uses before completing the comprehensive planning process, then the master plan isn't really determining what the property should become, thus rendering your public commitments toothless. You cannot have it both ways. If three-fifths of you do not believe the city needs a master plan, then please say that. But that's not what you've said, nor what you voted for. So I'm asking the council to do something very specific. stop all RFPs until this comprehensive master plan is completed. This doesn't mean we cannot conduct business out there, but we can't give away the farm before we know what it can yield. We have a once in a generation opportunity here. Please build the master plan, then evaluate individual proposals against that plan.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Allen. And we'll go to the speaker cards then.

Oh my gosh.

It's OK, Selena. Don't worry about it. How do I turn this off?

OK. Our next speaker card is Rick Jeffries.

Okay, welcome then. He's gonna follow me if I run over, okay? My comments are the result of friends asking for our assistance in the review of the RFP for the golf course. They were aware are more than 50 years of experience in the golf industry as PGA and golf course superintendent members including experience in coaching public and private golf course management acquisition design construction and operation of a 36 hole public golf course and driving range for more than 30 years and respectfully to the authors I believe the RFP should be withdrawn I have two comments about it the first the RFP appears to conflict with what Doug has already told you the first that the council and the fairgrounds committee have repeatedly stated first develop a master plan. I'll kind of skip the rest of that. Furthermore, the RFP appears to place substantial responsibility on the future leasee to address and improve conditions throughout the property at the direction of the city while requiring the leasee to bear the costs. Second, and more importantly, is the RFP's requirement concerning environmental disclosures. Please direct your attention, and I've passed out something. Did you pass out the form? Yeah. The highlighted section is page 22 of what you adopted for the 70-acre sales agreement. the continuation of the disclosure on page 23 wasn't available it wasn't in the copy but the quote that i've highlighted is because of the seller or napa county because of prior uses of the property it is potentially possible that petroleum products, compounds, pesticides, et cetera, and hazardous material have been released on or under the property and such past uses of the property may be affected by a buyer or subsequent owner. Given this disclosure, I found no documentation to indicate the city has commissioned a phase one ESA. My apologies if you have. That raises the significant concern about proceeding with an RFP that could result in development, construction, or discretionary activities without first establishing the property's environmental condition. and at a minimum, the city should obtain and make available the appropriate ESA. Also concerning related to this is the potential requirements of CEQA, if that makes sense. Recently, the California Supreme Court has addressed the requirement that government agencies evaluating whether an activity constitutes

Thank you for your remarks.

I'm Rick Jeffries. I'm the other part of this. I have three minutes. I yield to my wife.

No, no. You can't do that?

You can't yield.

But Mr. Jeffries, you can. I guess you can't. All right. Constitutes CEQA project should focus on whether the activity could in general result in or indirect environmental impact. CEQA defines project as involving discretionary government action. and may result in a direct or reasonably foresee indirect physical change in the environment. In light of the Napa County disclosure regarding the property's prior uses with regard to possibility of hazardous materials, environmental review process should be clarified by the city before the RFP goes out again, you should rescind it. For those reasons, we request to withdraw the RFP, develop a master plan, obtain an environmental site assessment, and complete any CEQA analysis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jeffries. No more speaker cards. Okay, no additional cards. Yes, sir.

Good evening, my name is David Ross. This represents approximately 150 pages of documentation. It's a consultant's report. It's the Napa County Grand Jury's report. And it is also the Napa County Fair State of the Fairgrounds. A gentleman who's much smarter than we collectively are in this room, named Albert Einstein, is credited with saying, if you do the same thing over and over and over again, and expect a different result. You're either stupid or insane. I'm reading from page six, Knapp County Fair State of the Fairgrounds Review Assets. Annual fair operating revenues have increased significantly since 2010, reaching a high of approximately $392,000 in 2012. However, Annual fare operating expenditures have also increased significantly during the same six-year period, reaching a high of $457,000 in 2015. Also in 2015, the annual fare generated a net operating loss of over $20,000. The annual fare historically has operated at a loss, but it seemed as having a very high social and community benefit. I think the document speaks for itself. We didn't sell the race track out this weekend. I go to the, I'm part of the volunteer group that does the food bank every two weeks. First thing we have to do is make sure there aren't any rats that have once again broken in and eaten through the plastic containers and damaged the food. Can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. As Doug pointed out, you promised to make changes. You promised a master plan. I'd like to see it. Number two, from the corner of Fairway and the Silverado Trail, and this is directed at you, a mile, there's not one garbage can. Not one recycle can. Not one composting can. Yet that's the speedway for two of the three, actually all three of the most expensive resorts in the city of Calistoga. People ride their bikes, they walk by, and there's no place, and I walk it every day. I get my 10,000 steps, and you can count the amount of litter. So I think that should be addressed. And in my remaining 23 seconds, I would like to ask that the acting city manager resign immediately and open the door for some new insights, some new blood, and a new way of looking at the city. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Ross. Are there any other, let's see, no other speaker cards? Let's see.

We have one person online, if there's nobody else.

Okay, yes, let's go online, sure.

Lisa, can you hear us?

Here I am. Can you hear me?

Yes. We can hear you, Ms. Rudd.

Ruddell, actually, I didn't get to finish writing my full last name. So here I am. I just thought the last three people or four, I didn't keep count, were so right on with what they said. It's just amazing. And I think a lot of people I've spoken to feel the same way. And I even want to put in the mix, you're buying a modular building and you want to adopt another structure expenditure for this modular unit to house some of your employees in the back of City Hall when you already spent almost $400,000 on it. You want another $100,000, $123,000 for infrastructure. And I'd like to know, did you get three bids for that one job? And that will be taking away 10 parking spots the back there I just don't think that's a really good idea to put that modular extension of employee offices behind and then you're already going forward full speed ahead on that and the fairgrounds is is getting neglected and also the fairgrounds committee advisory committee wants to hire a consultant You'll have enough people in this town that know what to do, and I hope we can start to listen to each other. Really, really listen to each other, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Rudd. Is there anybody else here in the chambers tonight who would like to address the council at this public comment time? Yes, Ms. Yant.

Thank you, Mayor Williams and council. I am not a golfer, but I have enjoyed those fairgrounds since I was a very young child. I have seen changes at the fairgrounds. And for those of you who may not be aware of it, when it was originally purchased in October of 1935, they did not buy or purchase the entire 70 acres to make a master plan on how things should proceed. If you look at the map of the fairgrounds, you'll see there are many different parcel numbers included on it, because it was bought piece by piece by piece, and as they bought it, they built it. The golf course originally was built in the early 50s by volunteers, I don't know who designed it, but later it was designed by a very prominent golf architect, if there is such a, I don't know the proper name. And it is very important to our community, to the seniors, to people who have retired here, that the golf course be brought back. I can remember where the RV park currently is, where the stock barns for the 4-H'ers to leave their stock for the arena was right there as well. I remember watching calves be born. when I was young because that's where that was. There was a huge stable because there used to be horse racing in this park. That's what the track was built for, not racing, not cars, but horses. And then it started sharing it in about 37 or 38. So the track was the first thing built. in 36. They established their board in January. They built the track by May and had horse races. And they had about three or four horse races that year. So this thing has been built by piece by piece by piece. They didn't do anything master. And I understand the need or want for a master plan. But right now, we have something that is workable, is doable. I'm not saying it can't change in the future. But I think golf is important to our senior population that we seem to be ignoring. And it is not just the seniors. It is a multi-generational sport that grandparents can enjoy with their grandkids or great-grandkids. I think the fairgrounds just should move forward. And if you want to spend money on a consultant, Why do that when you can put it back into the fairgrounds budget? Just leave it in the budget. Let's just move forward with what the plan was. You bought it under historical significance. I think it should stay that way. And I have a very good history on the fairgrounds. I'm rambling because I'm scrambling trying to think of things. And people that have moved here, I don't know how long anybody else has been here, but I've spent almost a lifetime in Napa Valley since I was 18 months old. I've seen a lot of changes throughout the valley. SO I JUST THINK THE FAIRGROUND SHOULD MOVE FORWARD. AND THERE'S RACING HAS BEEN HERE. IT'S A HUGE SPORT. YOU LOOKED AT DOWNTOWN ON LABOR DAY WEEKEND. YOU CAN SEE HOW MUCH IT IMPACTED DOWNTOWN. EVERY STORE I TALKED TO SAID THEY HAD GOOD NUMBERS OVER THE WEEKEND. I WAS AT THE HARVEST TABLE. NOBODY WAS WANDERING THE STREETS INTO THE STORES. BUT WE PUT UP WITH BOTH. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, MS. YAND. YES, MS. POGGI. YES. YES, WELCOME.

Laurie Pochian. I was toying with talking or not talking, and I think following everybody's comments, I feel compelled. I actually reviewed the RFP in great detail for the golf course and I would agree with the Jeffries that it should be rescinded and I can offline go into detail where there are discrepancies and things that don't make sense. But I also wrote a letter to the editor and since I have you all here, I might share that with you because it challenges one of the assumptions in the RFP. So bear with me. What if Calistoga's golf course could pay its own way? The city has issued an RFP and that RFP appears to start from the assumption that the golf course itself won't generate enough revenue and asks operators to find other uses to make the property financially sustainable. That's the assumption I challenge. What if the problem isn't the golf course? What if it's the way we think about golf? Calistoga has an opportunity to create something that is not simply a municipal golf course, but interesting golf. Not easier, not gimmicky, more memorable golf. Golf with character, a beautiful setting, a course that is generally fun to play, for beginners, families, and experienced golfers alike, a course with a story and a sense of place you can't replicate elsewhere. And it should serve the community too, a youth and beginner golf hub, introducing more people to the game and giving local golfers of all ages a place to learn, play, and improve. Done right, it can be great golf that remains accessible and affordable to the people who live here. And what if it could also become a golf experience that people want to seek out, memorable enough that people will come here to play it? Yes, we can have both. Visitors don't just play around, they stay, they eat, they shop, they explore, they bring friends. That's how interesting golf creates economic activity beyond the course. The Tucker building could complement that experience. It's talked a lot about in the RFP with food, drinks, events, other uniquely Calistoga uses. But those uses shouldn't be the economic crutch for the golf course. Make the golf course itself the economic engine. So before we hand this opportunity to an operator, let's ask the question, not how do we make a nine-hole golf course here work, but rather how do we create nine holes of golf that people can't wait to play? Let's explore what we could have right here in Calistoga. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Hello. I'm Tom Poggi. I'm Lori's husband. And like a good husband, I totally agree with her. But one thing I had a question when I read through the RFP is who wrote the RFP and who put all that in there? Because we had attended earlier meetings and we were hearing that there'd be talk about a vision and what did people have in mind. And when you read through it, there is no area at all discussing what's their plan, their vision, any of that. So I was just curious, who wrote it? And it really conflicts a lot of different things in it. I mean, you ask somebody to do a lease for 10 to 25 years, but then the city has a right to terminate kind of at any time at their convenience. So it makes no sense. It just seems to be destined to back to being a municipal course of subpar. no pun intended so anyway we're hoping that maybe you Analyze this and have a real vision and get the right people to really evoke what this thing could be because right now That that RFP makes no sense and it cross references things that make absolutely no sense You're asking them to be a food vendor a parking person and all these other things and the purpose I thought of having the consultant was to mirror and find the right Overlap for all of this and we have none of that going on So just wanted to make those comments and can you answer questions of who wrote it?

No, we can't really respond, but thank you for the comments. Are there any other public comment tonight from the chambers here? This is the time for public comment.

Mayor, we do have a hand raised, but someone who already gave a public comment once, so I don't think they can do it a second time.

You mean it's online?

Yeah, but she already spoke once, so I don't think.

Yeah, there's only one comment per person, yeah.

Thank you.

Okay, so I sort of think there's somebody else who wants public comment, but nobody else coming forward? Okay, then we'll close oral communication and public comment, and we'll proceed to city manager's report.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, City Council. I have a few items to report on. I wanted to start out first with some new employees we have. This is from our Human Resources Department. We're pleased to welcome Jason Dedrick to the City of Calistoga as our new maintenance technician, too. HE'LL BE PRIMARILY WORKING ON THE FAIRGROUNDS BUT HE'LL BE PART OF THE PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEES. JASON BRINGS SEVERAL YEARS OF HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE IN EQUIPMENT OPERATION, MAINTENANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT. HIS BACKGROUND INCLUDES WORKING WITH HEAVY EQUIPMENT GRADING AND DRAINAGE PROJECTS, UTILITIES, IRRIGATION SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR. Jason is personable and he looks forward to bringing his experience to the city as well as learning more about our operations and being part of our team. Unfortunately, Jason wasn't able to be here this evening, but I wanted to share a little bit about him. The second one I'd like to speak to is a new police department employee. He's the newest police officer. His name is Adrian Cortez. Adrian graduated from the police academy on August 28th. It was a six month academy. He began his orientation on August 31st and is currently in training. He'll be on a three month field training program before he becomes a solo officer. Adrian began his career here in Calistoga in 2024 as the community service officer here with the police department. His family has long been a resident of Calistoga. He's a graduate from Calistoga High School and we're lucky to have a community member be part of our Calistoga Police Department team. So I just wanted to introduce them. He also, because he's in training, wasn't able to make it here this evening. A couple events I would like to share. So we have Coastal Cleanup Day, which is this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. It's going to begin and check-in will be in a Tedeschi Field. It will be coordinated with our Public Works Department, Rotary, and a number of community members. And so please feel free to come out and join us. The City of Calistoga Public Works will bring tools, gloves, bags, and everything needed to help do the coastal cleanup. And that's this Saturday. I'd also like to talk about the Vintage Revival Rodeo. It has unfortunately requested that its September event that was going to be held this month be postponed until October. I'm sorry. That was scheduled for October to be postponed until April and May, between April 30th and May 2nd of next year. After careful consideration, the rodeo's management determined that additional planning time needed to be held in order to deliver a quality event. Staff had concerns regarding the availability and conditions of the on-site parking during the time when we typically sustain potential weather such as rain. Belt Buckle Productions is exploring off-site parking and options as a contingency. So it's unfortunate they won't be here in October, but we're looking on planning for them to be in April or May, and more information will be put out for that. I'd like to share that we had the Vermeule Classic race weekend that was successful. It attracted approximately 10,000 visitors to the area of Calistoga. Over the Labor Day weekend, approximately 3,500 fans attended on Saturday and about 3,000 fans attended on Sunday. We went and talked to Calistoga businesses who all reported noticeable increase in customer traffic and sales. So it was a very successful event all the way around. I'd like to share from Public Works that the Lincoln Avenue water main should be wrapping up the first week of October by October 3rd, but the work is going to continue on Washington from on 2nd Street to Girard Street with new valving and new servicing. After the water main is done on Lincoln Avenue, Caltrans is going to be doing an overlay intersection pavement, an overlay pavement project on Washington and Lincoln Avenue. This was something that was scheduled long before we started the Lincoln Avenue water main, but it'll happen right after we finish that work. It's going to require two to three nights of work, and we'll continue up to the county line, and it's simply just an overlay, so it should be pretty quick going through there. I wanted to share that on Cedar Street adjacent to Pioneer Park that there are several elm trees that need to be removed. They're diseased and they're becoming hazards. And so there's gonna be a tree removal work on Elm Street, at the Elm Street house next to Pioneer Park. This is gonna require the Cedar Street Road to be closed between Spring and Lincoln for about a week. It'll only be closed during the day and it'll be open during the evening hours. but it's going to cause some traffic disruption on Cedar Street. And we'll be putting out more information as that is about to occur. For those of you living along Grand Street, there's some traffic impacts as there is a street project, a 48-inch drain installation is occurring over the next few weeks on Grand Street between Maggie and Centennial. And so they'll have a flagger out there, there'll be some traffic delays and some detours, but this is gonna be an extremely important project for us in replacing a 48-inch drain system in that area. And then last but not least, I'd like to share that we are wrapping up our meter work. which will be done in the next two, three weeks. Once that is completed, we'll be able to move forward with the monthly billing cycle. The finance department is putting that together. When that occurs, you'll notice, the water users will notice on their billing statement some instructions and some links on how to access your water billing and your water usage online in real time. We'll also put that information on the website to make sure our customers have that information. And again, it's just, it'll be a really good feature as far as customers getting their billing on a monthly basis, as well as being able to look at their actual water usage in real time. And that's gonna be extremely important for detecting leaks and things of that nature. So we're looking forward to moving along with that project. Otherwise, that's it for my report.

Thank you. Okay, thank you, city manager. Council members, questions, comments of city manager? None from me. Okay, thank you then. We'll go to the next item on our agenda, which is we have the pleasure of making a proclamation in honor of Constitution Week. Vice Mayor, would you start off with the first paragraph there? Sure. And then, Councilman Cooper, would you take the second one? And then we'll go around, Councilman Eisenberg, Councilmember Lopez-Ortega, and I'll wrap it up. And this is a... proclamation in honor of Constitution Week. Vice Mayor.

Whereas September 17th, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, a document that embodies the principles of limited government, liberty, and the rule of law, and...

Whereas, it is fitting and proper to recognize this magnificent document and its enduring importance and to encourage citizens to reflect upon and reaffirm the ideals of the framers of the Constitution by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us and...

Whereas, Public Law 915 provides for the annual designation of September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week and the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution has promoted Constitution Week since 1955 to educate citizens and preserve appreciation for our nation's founding principles for future generations and

Whereas the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is committed to historic preservation, education, and patriotism. The Caymus chapter will be offering support to the Calistoga Community Library and will bring the Reds Across America program to Calistoga. to honor and remember those who serve our nation.

Now therefore, be it resolved that the Calistoga City Council hereby proclaims September 17th through 23rd, 2026, as American Constitution Week in Calistoga, and urges all citizens to study and uphold the Constitution and the freedom it protects, remembering that rights once lost may never be regained. Signed and sealed this 15th day of September 2026. And we have tonight representatives of the Daughters of the Revolution. and Ms. Carly Ramos is here tonight, and I'm happy to bring this proclamation to you.

Great. May I say? you have a few words for us okay uh good evening mayor members of the city council and fellow neighbors on behalf of the cayman's chapter daughters of the american revolution i want to express our heartfelt gratitude of the city of calistoga for bestowing the official constitution day proclamation today today september 15th 2026. a deeply meaningful honor and a tradition revived for the first time in the city in 35 years. As we commemorate America 250 this year, this recognition not only celebrates our constitutional heritage and civic principles, but it also highlights Calisoga's unwavering commitment to local history and community unity. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, for your leadership, for your partnership, and for standing with us today to honor the foundation of our very republic.

Thank you.

We're going to train. How's that sound? Okay. All right.

Here we go.

Okay. Thank you so much. And then we'll get our members up. We have our board members. All right. Is that okay? Sure.

All right. The more in the photo the better.

So cute.

and the Daughters of the American Revolution have presented a proclamation to me, and so I'll read it on behalf of all of us here. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in grateful appreciation to the city of Calistoga, for honoring Constitution Week this week during our nation's Historic America 250 milestone in recognition of an enduring partnership and mutual dedication to constitutional heritage, civic education, and local leadership. And it's presented to us, to the city of Calistoga, by the Caymus Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and signed by Carly Ramos. And thank you for this proclamation. Much appreciated. We have our consent calendar. We have a number of items on the consent calendar. 6.3 has been withdrawn at the request of staff, so we're going to omit that one from consideration. And otherwise, we have items 6.1 through 6.7. I'll entertain a motion to adopt unless there's any, if anyone wants to pull any.

I would like to make a motion to pull item 6.6 and item 6.7, please.

Vice Mayor, we're pulling 6.6 and 6.7. Councilman Eisenberg? I was agreeing with 6.7, so it's already been taken care of. All right. Then let's see. Let's have a motion, please, on... adopting 6.2, 6.4, and 6.5, 6.3 being omitted at staff request. I'll make that motion to adopt 6.2, 6.4, and 6.5.

I'll second.

Thank you. Motion by myself and second by Vice Mayor. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Passes. Thank you. Let's go to item 6.6. The subject of this is the consideration of awarding a contract for a modular office utility infrastructure and site preparation work. And it's presented by, let's see, Deputy City Manager, but Vice Mayor.

Thank you. And I think the staff are preparing this. I know this is something as a council we previously had voted on. I just wanted to bring it back to us to let the public know when it came up in discussions this evening that this is not something I support to put a modular behind City Hall. And I really want to explain why I'm continuing to struggle with supporting this tonight. We were previously presented with several options. One of them was to put office facilities in the office space at the Tubbs building. That was one of our original options and obviously I was outvoted on that but my concern continues to be it's not whether this is like the best contractor or whatnot or you know, this is the right place, but it's not the right place. And now we're asked to spend another $107,000 on this work for this project as a whole, which essentially is a temporary fix. We already, or the council previously approved $358,000 for a modular building. It's already gone up. We are now being asked to spend $635,000 and at some point I think we have to step back and ask whether spending potentially more than $600,000 for a modular office is the best use of city resources for a temporary space when we have alternative spaces in the city that can be used and that were laid out for us for our planning department. I'm also concerned that more than $409,000 of this project is being funded through the development impact fees. Before committing additional funds, I would like a much clearer explanation of what impact fees are being used and the nexus supporting this expenditure and what other projects those funds could otherwise support. And again, this isn't about whether our planning and building staff deserve a better and more appropriate workspace because they obviously do. It's really about that fiscal responsibility to our city, and I just don't want us to continue approving individual pieces of a project simply because we've already approved a piece of it before. I think the council has a responsibility to look at the cumulative investment and ask whether we should make the same decision today, knowing the full cost, and what the decision of building it tomorrow will be and what those additional costs would be. And so for that reason, I would like to pull the item and pause the project and really consider and relook at what it would be to put the planning department in the Tubbs building as was initially presented to us.

Okay, thank you, Vice Mayor. Other council members? DO YOU WANT TO PULL THIS ONE, COUNCILMAN EISBERG AS WELL?

NO, I JUST THOUGHT I WOULD MAKE A QUICK COMMENT. ACTUALLY, I DO SUPPORT THE LOCATION OF THE MODULAR. I THINK IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR OUR CITY STAFF TO BE IN AS CLOSE PROXIMITY AS THEY CAN BE FOR COLLABORATION AND INTERDEPARTMENTAL WORKINGS. my piece of advice with this project going forward that it's in an area central in this to town it's really important that it be done properly in an aesthetically pleasing manner that fits in with the the rest of the city hall. I know that you can't make huge changes in the modular, but I hope that through window treatments, planters, that it could be made to work well with the rest of the city. I do disagree with the idea of temporary. It is temporary, but temporary in terms of a new modular is 30, 30 years plus. Well, and that's, it's hard to say where we'll be in 30 years, but it's temporary, but not really temporary. Thank you.

Thank you. Other council members?

I would have to agree with Council Member Eisenberg. I think it's important for the continuity of staff to have a location down here. The fairgrounds is great for its purposes, but at the same time, who's to say that the expenses of building out the fairgrounds building, the Tucker building, wouldn't be much more than this. And I know we've kind of... Or tubs. Or tubs. It was the tubs. Yeah. I just, you know, with input from staff, input from department heads, you know, it just seems important to keep the teams here together. And, you know, I don't see it as being temporary. Pretty much everything can be temporary. Building a new building can be temporary. So, you know, I think we've come this far, and I would support the modular...

Yes.

Yes, and I think we already discussed all the pros and cons in our previous conversation and that's why, that's the reason that staff is bringing to us, you know, to these points for consideration of us to adopt. this project. So as everybody says, one of the main issues is to have this office close to the community where people can come and not to have, you know, looking around where they are located. I think it's the perfect place right now, so I will agree to continue with this.

And I will just close by really quickly saying, Mayor, clearly I'm outvoted, and that's okay, but I just would like to close by saying we were presented with several options, and in the beginning it seemed that staff initially was okay with some sort of transformation, At the tubs building for me. I do feel like 30 years is kind of a temporary fix and we're losing parking spots for city staff that they're now going to have to park at the police department or park wherever so we're losing that we also had previously purchased a Modular for parks and rec and we had issues with that. So just overall concerns and the increase of costs I I I FEEL THAT WE WERE RESENTED WITH A MORE COST EFFECTIVE OPTION WITH REVAMPING THE TUBS BUILDING DESPITE YES PEOPLE MAY BE HAVING TO WALK A LITTLE FURTHER AND OF COURSE I WANT CONTINUITY OF STAFF AND THAT CONNECTION BUT THAT IS REALLY MY POSITION AND IT AND I RESPECT MY CO-COUNSEL AND AND YOUR POSITIONS BUT I KNOW THIS HAS BEEN SOMETHING THAT'S BROUGHT UP BY THE COMMUNITY AND THAT'S WHERE I STAND SO THANK YOU AND LET'S SEE THIS IS A PUBLIC UM

Public hearing, public meeting, is there any public comment on this? We can open public comment to this topic. Anything online, city clerk?

Nothing online.

OK, and no public comment. Yes, Ms. Yant, OK.

I would like, thank you, Mayor. I would like to thank all of you that are in favor of not having it in the Tubbs building. I've spent a lot of times at the fairgrounds. I have been in that building when there's been a major event there, like when the fairs were there, outside of those. I've been a Napa County Fair Association member for over 40 years. So I have spent a lot of time at those fairgrounds. And during major events, that office is full of people. I don't know how you could put another person or another entity in that office with what's already in there, because it can be very busy and very full if we do ever have another fair. That Tebbs building has been used for so many different things. It was classrooms. It was a basketball court when the gym burnt down. It was a classroom when they were REBUILDING ONE OF THE SCHOOLS. THERE'S BEEN ROLLER SKATING IN THERE. THERE'S BEEN A WESTERN COUNTRY SHOW FROM THERE. THAT BUILDING IS AN EVENT BUILDING. I'VE BEEN TO MEMORIALS IN THERE WHERE IT WAS PACKED. THE TUBS BUILDING WAS PACKED. SO IT IS AN EVENT BUILDING. IT SHOULD NOT BE USED AS OFFICES. SO I COMMEND YOU THAT ARE AGREEING WITH KEEPING AN OFFICE DOWN HERE WHERE IT'S CENTRALLY LOCATED FOR EVERYBODY THAT WANTS TO BE A PART OF IT. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, MS. YENT. ANY OTHER PUBLIC COMMENT? We do have one online. All right. Yes, Ms. Rudd, can you hear us?

Yes, Mayor Don, it's Rudel, Lisa Rudel. The time I put my name in to sign in, it just quickly took only a few letters of my last name, but it's Rudel.

Yes, Mr. Dell. Okay. And I recognize your voice. Okay. We only see, we only see Lisa Rudd, but Mr. Dell, please continue.

I just wanted to say. And ask a question, which we can't do, but. whose office needs to move? Is it just the planning department? How viable do they need to see each other every day? A lot of comments by the council members here seem to think that's really important. Well, I think what's really important is to stop spending our money That's what's really important. And it's ridiculous. You've got now, you know, you're getting close to a million dollars for this modular unit. I've been in the office at the Tufts building. Nobody says take the Tufts building away. It's an office that's bigger than my house. You walk into it. It must be. 800 square feet. There's a huge conference room with a huge table in there that could be taken out. It's not necessary. I think it seats 20. There's a kitchenette. There's storage. There's two offices. There's a bathroom. I don't think any of that is used correctly today. It's just one person, your director, and maybe an assistant and the field person who helps her. But I really... I don't think it makes any sense. And mind you, have you guys put in the equation that you're going to need a ramp for wheelchairs to go to this modular building? Do you know how much a ramp costs? And, you know, have you have you looked to see if you if you have the space for the ramp based on my eyeballing that equation? particular site you don't and for every step up you need about 10 feet of ramp that's kind of the general rule your planning department can tell you better but this is a crazy crazy idea thanks for listening and thank you mr dell

Any other public comment, let's see, from anyone here or anybody else online?

No one else online.

Okay, let's close public comment. And City Manager, I presume that any structure that goes in will have to conform to the prevailing code.

Yes, it will need to be ADA compliant, which would include any kind of disabled ramp.

Yep. Thank you. Then for public comments, I agree that this is the location that I prefer as well. I like the proximity to the rest of the staff at City Hall, and I agree that the staff is presently tight, crowded. However, Vice Mayor, I do appreciate the points you're making and your sensitivity to the cost. You know, I appreciate that and it's something that it behooves us to continue to be aware of as we go ahead. So, let's take a roll call. Let's see, I'll make a motion here that we adopt the resolution awarding the contract as indicated.

I second.

Thank you. A motion by myself, a second by Councilmember Lopez Ortega. May we have a roll call, please?

Mayor Williams?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Gift?

No.

Council Member Lopez Ortega?

Aye.

Council Member Cooper? Aye. Council Member Eisenberg?

Aye. Thank you. It passes Vice Mayor in dissent. Let's go to item 6.7. And this has for its subject an amendment to managed services agreement with SDI Presence LLC to continue virtual chief information officer services. This is a mouthful just to read, let alone understand. City Manager, are you familiar with this one? Can you?

I am, but we should have Deputy City.

Can you simplify this for us and then we'll go to just introduce us to it and then Vice Mayor will kick it off after that.

So currently, we have a virtual chief information officer. And there's an agreement that goes with that. It's about 380. is for $308,880. It's for about a two-year contract, a little bit more than that. What we're doing is combining this expired contract with an existing contract with SDI. SDI is our information technologies contractor. They provide our services throughout the city. The virtual chief information officers were brought on board when we had Marin IT. It was to do project management. At that time, as you recall, we had a number of large projects coming through, and we still continue to have them with our financial ERP system, our website, and those kinds of things. And we needed assistance because we didn't have the technical skill sets within our staff to manage these projects and to ensure that we were guiding our IT contractor. So he was brought on board. Subsequently, Marin IT contract expired, and we put out for an RFP for additional contractors, and we got SDI. is the is the operation component of our chief information officer and so they were on two separate contracts the current contract with uh with sdi expires in june 20 june of 2028 and so we're combining we are renewing our chief information officer and combining it with the existing contract we do have uh City Manager who drafted this staff report that should be online so if you have any detailed questions about the contract or the services or the scope she's more than able to answer those questions.

Thank you City Manager. Vice Mayor.

Yes so I have very serious concerns about increasing a contract for IT to 308 by $308,000 from 615 to $924,000 for a 21 month period. That's $14,000 a month we're spending on IT. I feel like that's a very significant and I feel like there is some duplication and value and what we're already spending and should we actually consider bringing in our own IT person because we are using somebody to recommend a service that we already hired as an outside provider. So I have big concerns. This is a million dollars a year. we might lose a million dollars a year on the license plate fees. And this is a huge increase in our contract. I really have very serious questions about this contract. I understand there is a 30-day out, so we're not tied in, and that's great. But more important questions, like how many hours of service does that additional $308,000 provide to us do we have somebody dedicated to our city because historically our police department lost like phone and operating services for almost a weekend that I was informed by your city manager what measurable deliver deliverables are required and how can we assess that and go forward because this is a huge budget. And I think that we should not overlook this on just a consent calendar item. So those are my two cents on this.

Thank you. Other council members?

Yes. Well, this makes a second time after this afternoon that Vice Mayor Gift said whatever I was going to say. I am concerned about the contract. I'm concerned about the need, especially I like the way that she mentioned is it would we be better off having a dedicated person at under $300,000 a year. I'm also have the same concern about THE RESULTS THAT WE'VE HAD, WHICH HAS BEEN UNEVEN. IT HAS NOT BEEN SEAMLESS. AND FOR THIS PRICE, I THINK IT SHOULD BE SEAMLESS. I DO UNDERSTAND ALSO THAT THERE IS AN OPT OUT CLAUSE. AND IF WE DO PASS THIS, My message to city staff is we need to be ever vigilant to see if we are getting our money's worth. I'm a firm believer in strong IT services. I think it's essential in today's world that Calistoga be up to date, be effective, be able to serve our community absolutely as best best as possible with our IT services but it is suspicious or rather it's an important question. Are we getting true value for this? So as I said if we do pass it I would want absolute vigilance to make sure that we are getting everything we should be and if we're not let's initiate the opt out clause and start over with another system or perhaps even a dedicated employee.

Okay, thank you. Other council members?

Can we get our deputy city manager to explain a little bit to us why she considered that this item is absolutely necessary?

Rachel, can you hear us?

I CAN HEAR YOU. CAN YOU GUYS HEAR ME?

YES. YES. THE QUESTION FROM COUNCIL MEMBER LOPEZ ORTEGA IS WHAT ABOUT THE NECESSITY? WHAT'S THE NECESSITY OF THIS? AND MY FOLLOW-UP QUESTION IS WHAT HAPPENS IF THIS IS NOT PASSED TONIGHT?

Yeah, so thank you for the questions, and I totally appreciate the concern and the cognizance on the price and all of that. I do think this is sort of an essential service for our city. We have the dedicated managed service provider through SDI, and then we've also had our virtual CIO over the past three years, and that person or that individual who we do have a dedicated person from that company, They've played a real pivotal role in bringing forward a lot of the IT projects that we have done over the last three years. And we do still have a number of projects to get done. Some of those include taking our systems to cloud-based as opposed to servers, and that could ultimately save the city money in the future. And then there's some things with the police department that will be completed over this span of this contract. And then I think at that point, once we get through a lot of these projects, we may be able to scale this back a bit. My concern with bringing on a staff person is that I think for the level of expertise, knowledge, and service that we're getting, we would probably be looking at a department head level individual, and that could be anywhere from $250 to $290 a year all in with benefits. So I think that would ultimately end up costing the city more money. And additionally, you know, once you have that staff person, you're sort of locked in with that person. And as the projects get lesser and we may not have the need for the CIO, we would still have that staff person. So I think that that could potentially be a disservice to the city.

Thank you, Deputy City Manager.

Mayor, I would like to add that we hear your concerns loud and clear, and I will share with you that I've had those same conversations with our deputy city manager. It's unfortunate that we're at a point now where that contract's expiring. But we should be reviewing the services, not just of our SDI IT provider, but also this VCIO position. And we should do that with all our contracts. We should be looking at it. I will say that the termination clause, or the out clause, is 14 days. So it's a pretty tight turnaround time. I've been very direct and frank with the successes and not successes and some failures that have occurred as far as some of our projects and things like that delays that have happened. So we hear you loud and clear. And one of the things that we'll be doing is looking at as our deputy city managers shared moving forward and looking at our projects. What is the real need for the city? And being that the termination clause is rather short, as two weeks, we can be pretty nimble as far as reacting. So if we had run into a critical financial assistance issue with the city, that we could actually look at this and see how could we cut back. And it would be an easy way to look at our finances. But in the moment, I have to agree with Deputy City Manager that we do have some projects in the mix. And he is a valuable resource for us at this time.

Okay. So I'm unexcited about this because I feel like I'm not really understanding it altogether. And I would be okay with continuing it. If council wants to pass it, I'm not going to object.

But if our contract's about to expire and we need an IT person and we have a 14-day clause, I... You feel okay about it? I feel okay about it for right now, only just right now, because with AI and with everything and all of the security with the police department, we do need to have an IT person. But maybe for a future revisit for somebody in-house that can actually guide us from the inside, because I think that's really what we need. And while yes, it may be like a director level position, If we're spending almost a million dollars over 21 months, we could easily have somebody inside guiding us on all those securities on the outside. And that is, I think, the bigger question we need to be asking, especially with everything with AI. I don't want to leave us in a lurch, but I am concerned about this price tag and everything they're coming to us with right now, and not our own internal person guiding us.

CAN YOU BRING US A REPORT IN SAY THREE MONTHS OR SIX MONTHS IN APPROPRIATE TIME AND LET US KNOW THE PROGRESS, LET US KNOW IF THIS IS WORKING OUT, IF THERE ARE OPPORTUNITIES FOR CUTTING BACK ON THE SERVICES. YOU HEAR THE RESERVATIONS ABOUT THE COSTS. I SHARE THOSE RESERVATIONS.

Yeah, me too. Or like an analysis of like bringing our own internal IT person to like manage an outside and then if they, like what their capabilities would do to be managing a lot of this, like.

Yeah, we can certainly do that. You know, one is looking at cost benefit analysis as far as what, you know, a full-time person, full-time person compared to what we have now but I will echo what the deputy city manager had mentioned that that cost could be significantly higher but we can come back to you with that I would look to the deputy city manager because the SDI reports to them and reports to her to see what a good time would be is it three months four months or six months to be able to come back and give you an adequate

report and we would have a better sense of where our projects are at the moment and what it looks like in the future if it's tailoring off because if it's tailoring off then you know we're going to want to relook at the level of services that we are contracting or we're willing to take on and i had a question for deputy city manager step as well i'm just curious it would the alternatives be comparable in cost i assume this went out to an rfp at some point um so if we abandoned this uh vendor and went back to RFP, would this be a similar cost? We expect this kind of service to cost this pretty much universally, is the question. Because there is a need for sure, it's just a matter of.

Rachel, did you hear that question? I did.

Are you guys able to hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great. Yeah, so we did go out to RFP originally for this item. And yeah, the cost is similar kind of across the board. So this, you know, when we did the RFP for the managed service provider, SDI actually came in lower than a lot of the other companies that did respond to the RFP. So I think we are getting a good value as far as this service goes and the companies that provide it. and then also just as far as a timeline i think a great time to to bring back an item um like vice mayor gift was saying is at the time of the budget because then we're looking at kind of you know expenses and revenues for the next year and a few years after that so i think that would be an excellent time if that works for the council and that puts us at you know about february ish march

yeah that makes that sounds good to me um deputy city manager i was thinking of a three-month time frame but the budget initial budget work will be around march april so that is fine and then you can at the time you can bring the council you know preliminary report on how this is working out if there are opportunities for I DO APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENTS ON HIRING SOMEONE FULL TIME BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, THAT BECOMES A COST WHICH IS HARD TO MAKE GO AWAY. SO, YOU KNOW, I'D HAVE TO BE REAL CONVINCED OR A COUNSEL WOULD HAVE TO BE REAL CONVINCED THAT THAT MADE SENSE. BUT AT ANY RATE, IT'S NOT A MISTAKE TO LOOK AT THAT OPTION. And in the meantime, council, are we okay with passing this in the meantime? Absolutely.

I just have one more question.

And then we'll revisit it in the springtime.

I totally support that. Just one more question of clarity for the public and myself.

Vice Mayor.

How long have we been in the contract with the previous provider? And so how many years have we been in a contract with an IT provider and And do we know those numbers throughout the years? And that really makes me consider if we are going to consider a full-time employee in the future. Do you know that, Rachel? And if not, it's totally OK. I don't expect you to know that, and you can give it to me offline.

So I don't have the figures off the top of my head, but we've been with SDI for the VCIO services since September of 23. And then we started with the managed service provider side of it in October. Shoot, April of 2025.

And then just one more follow-up question. Do you see this service needing to go away outside of this 21-month period of their contract, or do you see it as something that we will need to continue?

I think we would, you know, so just to be clear that we do need to look at it as two different services, the CIO and the managed service provider. I don't see the managed service provider kind of ever going away unless we wanted to bring on multiple IT people because that service is more of the day-to-day, you know, on-site, working with multiple departments throughout the day. So I think that could be a challenge to make that go away completely. And then the CIO, I think with the projects that we have coming up, I do think we will need the term of this contract. And then at that point, we might be able to phase it out a bit because we do have a couple of projects or a few bigger projects left to get through. And then just one point of clarity, the 924 figure, that is for the entire contract duration. It's not per year.

Yeah, it's for that period. Sorry, Mayor, just one more question, if I may. No, certainly. Thank you. It seems like some of the service are duplicative between both of those companies. And so do you have a breakdown on what services each of them will provide? And if there's any relief on one side or the other of the lowering of the contract price? Because it seems like when you look at those contracts, they are both offering some of the same services.

Yeah, you know, I think the way to look at the CIO, it provides more of the higher level kind of, you know, they're really involved in the budgeting process. They're really involved in the projects and, you know, sourcing different softwares and hardware and that kind of thing. Whereas the managed services, those are kind of the day to day responding to issues that come up and that arise. And, and I will say, you know, we've had a lot of kind of, like the transition from one managed service provider to the next, there was a lot of things that needed to get kind of cleaned up. So there was there was a lot of work that needed to get kind of front loaded. And I do think now we're at a point where it's it's really evening out. And I think we'll see that even more so moving forward. So I hope that kind of answered the question. That was great.

Thank you, director. Sorry.

No problem. Any other further discussion? Council members? Vice Mayor, will you do us the honor of making a motion then?

I will make a motion with the understanding that we have a 14-day clause if things aren't working out. Absolutely. I will for now.

All right. I'll second with the same reservation.

All right. We have a motion by Vice Mayor, a second by Councilman Eisenberg. Let's take a roll call, please, City Clerk.

Mayor Williams. Aye. Vice Mayor Gift.

Aye.

Council Member Ortega.

Aye.

Council Member Cooper.

Aye.

Council Member Eisenberg.

Aye. Thank you, staff. Thank you, deputy city manager and city manager and everyone involved in this discussion and council members. We are at council reports. Who would like to begin the council reports?

I think left to right is good.

Nothing to report this. All right.

Um, so I would, I don't have a lot to report, but I really would like to echo the sentiments of members of the community that were here before us tonight and have continued to kind of pound that drum in the community that we did approve a work plan for the Fairgrounds Advisory Committee for a master plan. And really looking at when you look back at what we heard tonight of what those finances were and to look at it from that 10,000 foot level and not piecemeal it, I think that we should kind of take a little bit of a step back and ensure that the Fairgrounds Advisory Committee is going forward with a master plan and maybe coming to us and asking for support from an outside committee. And similar to what we did when we had the Housing Advisory Committee work on the housing element of the general plan, they had a consultant that came in and did that, because they were experts. And if we are really trying to be financially viable with this project, it's not anything to change it, it's not anything to rip anything out, but to really look at it and to be financially viable. I think that we do need to kind of focus on a master plan, and that master plan can be anything from keeping all the buildings there. Obviously, the racetrack is like a great entity that's there. We had a great time last weekend, but we are kind of piecemealing it, and I feel throwing money in. So I would encourage us to support the Fairgrounds Advisory Committee on pushing forward with a master plan, which is part of their work plan. And so those are my two cents on that. And then I had one more item. I also kind of agree for the time being with not having a master plan to hold off on the RFP for the golf course because we also haven't been able to extend the lease on the property with the county. So those are my two cents at the end of the evening.

Okay, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Kevin Eisenberg actually. I don't have any additional things to report. And rare.

I just have one suggestion. I've been on the council for about 13 years. And during those years, we used to have once in a while employee recognition for their years of employment or best employer of the month and, you know. What I really want to do is kind of recognize all the hard work that the city employees do because they are the ones that really do the work, you know, the heavy lifting. So I think it's important that we can go back and have, you know, the directors and city managers to put this together, you know, and recognize so we can recognize them here in the meetings. I think it will help with the moral for the employees to stay working for Calistoga and, you know, recognize basically them.

so can i support that as a motion that we have to vote on to do an employee of the month because i think that'd be awesome my suggestion is that you want a future agenda item future agenda item and as a future agenda item i would concur with that idea so i love it and let's do it that way

So do we have support for an agenda item there? It sounds like we do. Let's see. Okay, so you'll bring that?

I can, but I would like to share that. So the city, so we do have an employee recognition committee. It is the one that puts together some of our events. Like we have a fall event coming up. We have a... a Christmas event, a winter event as well as a summer event. So I can have them, you can agendize this and we can have them maybe do a presentation and get some feedback as far as how we do it. I know that our HR manager coordinates this process and they do, we probably could do a better job. She does highlights of employees and we probably do it internal with the city and probably an oversight as far as sharing that information to you so you get to know your employees a little bit more because it's personal information about what employees do and the things that they've accomplished and that kind of stuff.

Okay, that's acceptable, council members? All right, city manager, thank you. And from me tonight, I have no additional report to make. So thank you, everybody. Thank you, people online. Thank you, members of the public for staying with us tonight. Meeting adjourned.