City Council - Regular Meeting

18:47 – 19:03•KCKate Colin

Good evening, everyone. Apologize, we're running a few minutes late. We had interviews prior to this meeting and it went a little bit over. So this is the regular meeting of the San Rafael City Council. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, and I'll request the city clerk to call the roll.

19:11 – 21:37•KCKate Colin

Mayor Kate? Present. So good evening, everyone, and welcome. Thank you for joining us tonight, whether you're listening online or you're here in the chambers. We appreciate your participation and engagement in our community. We always like to start our meeting by appreciating the staff and the hard work they do every single day on behalf of our community. Today, I want to do a quick highlight and appreciation for Jim Myers, who recently retired from the city of San Rafael. He worked for the city for 13 years. As our parking manager and trust me, we get a lot of emails about parking he leaves b

22:53 – 23:05•KCKate Colin

Thank you. We have at the beginning of our meeting open time for public expression. This is anything not on tonight's agenda. You're welcome but not required to state your name and what part of Centerfell you live in. Yeah, come on down.

24:21•KCKate Colin

Anyone else in the chambers like to provide public comment? Okay, I don't see anyone in the chambers. Anyone online?

24:35•KCKate Colin

Okay. We'll close the open time for public expression and turn to the city manager for his report.

26:51•KCKate Colin

Thank you. I'll turn to my colleagues for their reports. Vice Mayor, go ahead.

The only thing I have to report is after so many years focusing on emergency preparedness, I completed my CERT training. So, thank you.

27:05•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Council Member Llorens-Gulati.

27:07 – 29:51•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Thank you, Mayor. I attended the Canal Promise Neighborhood Steering Committee meeting with Mayor Cade and Assistant City Manager Angela Romín Piñones, and it's always great to attend those meetings hosted by at Canal Alliance. I also that the same day I attended the MCE Clean Energy Board of Directors meeting. This morning I attended the MCE Executive Committee meeting and then I'm going back again to August 22nd. At Bahia Vista, I had the pleasure to help plant, do a community tree planting, and there were so many different organizations involved, the city, the school district, the Rotary, S

29:55 – 31:39•MBMaribeth Bushey

Karen Grove- Along along with the mayor, I attended the 350 Mary dale subcommittee meeting we heard presentations from three different perspective providers of the developers for the low permanent low income housing, so this would be for after the on. the small housing units are removed and the build out eventually. All three applicants were very well qualified and we provided our comments to staff to give them a chance to tailor the presentation that they will bring to the entire council when we choose from among those applicants. City Council Chambers, Next, and also with the mayor, I attend

31:39 – 34:33•KCKate Colin

Yes Fantastic. I have three additional meetings to report out on along with councilmember Hill We attended the economic development and housing subcommittee meeting It is on its recorded and online if you would like to go and watch it We had a great presentation from the Marin Small Business Development Center we had an overview of commercial real estate trends and We had an update and overview of the city housing inspection program we had our quarterly development pipeline and again as a reminder to the Community, you can always look at the. Where what projects are coming in and the major con

36:31•KCKate Colin

And for members of the public, I will also note that that subcommittee meeting is recorded and on our website. So if you are interested in seeing that conversation, uh, you can definitely go and watch that online. Go ahead.

38:37 – 39:13•KCKate Colin

And also to clarify, so the subcommittee provides direction, but it actually doesn't provide a vote. So in addition to the public comment that we receive in the chambers, we also receive information in emails. And that is appropriate that, or it is accurate that staff will come back at a future meeting with their recommendation where it will be deliberated by the entire body. If you want to know when that meeting is, be sure to subscribe to the snapshot. because that is when, once a meeting is agendized, it will be announced through there as well. Go ahead, sir. I just wanted to clarify, becau

40:39•KCKate Colin

Any other comments before we move to the next agenda item?

42:49•KCKate Colin

Any other comments? Not seeing any in the chambers. Is there any online?

42:59 – 43:37•KCKate Colin

Thank you. We'll close the public comment and move on to the consent agenda. Are there any items to be held in the consent calendar? No. OK. I'll open public comment on the consent calendar. And I do want to note that after the vote, we will present the proclamation to Kara Connors. But we're going to go ahead and have public comment in the vote first. Any public comment on the consent agenda? I don't see any in the room. Any online? I see no hands raised. OK. So I'll go ahead and have a motion and a second, and then we'll read the proclamation.

43:37 – 43:50•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yeah. So I'll move to the consent agenda also recognizing the Hispanic Heritage Month that is going to start on September 15. Thank you. I'll second.

43:59 – 45:42•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 4-0. And as I just mentioned, I am going to read the proclamation. I shortened it a little bit because we have the pleasure of having Cara Connors here with the Suicide Prevention Network to say a few comments after I read the proclamation. Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Whereas September is recognized nationally as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time when mental health professionals, prevention organizations, survivors, allies, and communities unite to change the narrative about suicide in our community by promoting hope, fostering open dialogue, destigmat

51:50 – 52:08•KCKate Colin

It is the County of Marin Office of Emergency Management City Council Brief. We'll go ahead and have the presentation, then we'll have questions from the council, and then we'll have public comments, and then council comments. But there's no action item, so I just want to clarify how it's going to happen.

1:10:44•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Director Torrance. That was a great presentation. And I know we've all been thinking about it. So you are very timely by being here. I'll see if there's additional questions. Vice Mayor, questions.

Thank you for the update. One thing, I'm not sure if you intentionally left it off, but you may have, but I'm going to out it, is the tours. that you provide have been hugely helpful. I think I'm going on my fourth tour, and I learn something new every single time. And maybe you could share a little bit about that opportunity. And then my second question is around my broken record item, which is, as you know, we have an increasing number of community members 60 and over, and older adults have unique needs. And I know this is a conversation you and I have had a couple of times around, what is t

1:13:51•KCKate Colin

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Yaranj Gulati.

1:13:55 – 1:14:12•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you so much for the presentation, I have a couple of questions. what's the process when you send an alarm because sometimes one of the complaints is that well they send it too late so i'm curious to see what it takes for you to decide Okay, this is really like an emergency.

1:15:41 – 1:16:02•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Okay, great. Thank you so much. And what happens, I remember a while ago we had an emergency where our cell towers went down and the power. What do you do in that case? Are your messages going through or what will be the action in that case?

1:17:35 – 1:18:02•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

okay great thank you so much a couple of other things um you mentioned sandbox available so something that we are talking about um one of my districts includes the canal and some people don't have cars so how can we have those available in the places where they live so they don't because you have to drive to go get it but you cannot get out of the area so that's one i guess comment and then i'm curious to see if you're working also with businesses

1:20:49 – 1:22:14•MBMaribeth Bushey

Thank you Councilmember Bush Thank you so much for the great presentation. I represent district 3 here in San Rafael which includes point San Pedro Road so one of the issues that is most clear in my constituent's mind has been the flooding from the king tide. And I'm wondering, my question is about your plan for training people about the nature of the ebb and flow of the tides. Because it's confusing. For example, you just said that the king tide is on Thanksgiving. you know two times on that twin that 24-hour period there will be a high tide and there will be flooding six hours later there wi

1:23:35 – 1:24:27•MBMaribeth Bushey

And so I want to make sure you understood my message. It's about the tides, not meteorology, the fact that the flooding will happen at a predictable time at that day and that other times at that day there will be no flooding. So, for example, your signs that you put up that say flooded and then there's no water on the road is very confusing to people. So I hope that you can incorporate in your training for people and your warning materials surrounding that particular type of flooding, that timing matters. And particularly when it's the holidays, it's like get your guests here, have them coming

1:25:08 – 1:25:55•KCKate Colin

Thank you. I don't have any additional questions for you, but I do have it for city staff and I don't know if it's for Quinn or for the city manager, because I would love to have links to this information somewhere on our website. I know it might be on the fire department page, but to even have it in our main part of it, both how you sign up the sandbag map. I think that's amazing. It came up at a previous conversation that we had here to have it readily available through our main website. So I don't know. especially as people start to think about it. We like to think that people are thinking

1:27:51 – 1:28:08•KCKate Colin

Thank you. No, that's Additional great information. So thank you so much I'd like to open up this item to public comment if any members of the public would like to ask questions or have comments Now is your opportunity? I'm looking in the room I don't see anyone in the council chambers. Anyone online like to comment on this item?

1:28:12•KCKate Colin

Thank you. I'll close the public comment and turn to the council for some brief comments. And we'd ask questions. Vice Mayor, go ahead. Do you have any comments on this item?

No, just thank you. It's great to see the evolution where the organization's going in the relationship with San Rafael. And thank you to Quinn and the whole team. There's been a lot more work in terms of A community training and speaking from my other role in quarter madera and I know this is happening, also in San Rafael is that. That importance of neighbor helping neighbor and letting your if you are familiar of a high tide letting people know what this means. And because there's only so many people around. And so the more neighbors can help each other, I think that's also helpful in the mes

1:29:14•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Council Member Urens-Giletti.

1:29:16 – 1:30:04•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, I wanted to also echo the sentiment and thank you so much for everything. It is wonderful to see the collaboration between the city and the county and it's so necessary. And as we are looking at our sea level rise and everything else that's already happening in our community, sometimes you don't even have to have like a niño to be or like a king tide to be an emergency. So I look forward to continue the work and there's more than, I mean, a sandbag, It's great, but it goes so far. So what can we do when there are certain places that the water gets into the houses and people get displaced?

1:30:06 – 1:30:20•MBMaribeth Bushey

Great to see the team working together and I love your theme of connecting with members in the Community it resonates and aligns beautifully with the presentation we had at suicide prevention awareness month, so thank you.

1:30:20 – 1:31:26•KCKate Colin

yeah and i'll just add my gratitude, thank you for coming down here Thank you Alex Thank you director torrance for sharing this with the Community we talked a lot about flooding, but we also know we have fires and we have earthquakes here. And so being prepared is really the best defense. And it just, I'm heartened by the collaboration that is happening and the leadership that is showing at the county level. You have more resources and capacity in the smaller cities and towns. So having that leadership that we can then dovetail into and connect with really force multiplies everything that we'r

1:54:30•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Thank you both for an excellent presentation.

just at the very top of it you can go very very deep so we'll see if any of the council members would like you to go deeper on any of their questions uh vice mayor any questions uh questions definitely not deep um thank you for being the experts in the room around this and thank you for council member lawrence galati for for really digging deep into the work that's needed here um there has been a huge amount of success which is fantastic and we talked a little bit about this last year of now we're getting down to like the hardest part um we got all that low hanging fruit that's great so i hate

And I just want to confirm, the 40% decrease, that's a self-inflicted, right? We imposed that. Or because that was our- That is a state goal as well. It's a state goal as well. And so do we know if there's any implications from the state at this point for not reaching it?

And we just qualify i'm talking about like financial or whatever we know that there's where there's implications socially everything else environmentally by not doing it it's, it is the right thing to do. My other question is around, and this is if you had $1 and that $1 going to make the difference, we have a lot of projects and programs and bringing it very locally to San Rafael. And where is that $1 going to go to really make the difference?

So, yeah. Okay. I mean, I think so, I'll save more of my comments, but it's in terms of thinking about specifically what we as decision makers around this in strategy, how do we make the best use of our funds? And that's something that you don't have to have an answer to tonight. We all need to figure that out. But we only have that $1.

1:59:32•KCKate Colin

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Bushey, do you have any questions?

1:59:37 – 2:00:12•MBMaribeth Bushey

Yes, I have a question. But first, and it's about what's in the report and then what's not in the report. I'm delighted to see the description of Central Marin Sanitation Agency that we're meeting our load completely and exporting renewable biogas generated electricity to the grid. Glad to see that. What I didn't see, though, was any discussion of MCE. and the recent civil grand jury report. Did you consider any of the information in that report?

2:01:33 – 2:01:46•MBMaribeth Bushey

So in other words, you did not read the Civil Grand Jury report that talked about renewable energy credits that were being used to create the appearance of renewable energy.

2:02:54•MBMaribeth Bushey

Yes, tell us if your electricity includes any racks.

2:05:25•MBMaribeth Bushey

So it's a different type of piece of paper.

2:07:28•KCKate Colin

Any other questions? Nope. Okay. Council member, you're on Scalati.

2:07:34 – 2:08:03•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Thank you so much for the presentation and for answering all the questions. I actually have one for Christina about the, do you keep in mind the population, the change in population, thinking about population growth where maybe you have suddenly family with little kids and now the kids are bigger and they all have a car. So I'm just curious to see if that's something that you keep in mind as population grows in San Rafael.

2:10:06 – 2:10:49•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yeah, no, that's super helpful. I was just thinking, in addition to that, just how our neighborhoods are transforming as people age and new families come in. Anyway, well, that's very helpful. And I know the other question is around carbon sequestration. And I know, Corey, you are really working on carbon sequestration. Let's see what we can do. A lot of the carbon sequestration happens through farming. And we are not in farmland, although I want to say I have a little farm in my house. But I wonder, like, adding trees, you know, what things, what type of impact will that have besides, like, f

2:11:56 – 2:12:19•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Great. Well, those are all my, oh, I have one more question. In the Air District Rules 9 to 4 and 9 to 6, is that the name of the rule, or is that the time that you're not supposed to use? Those are the name of the rules. Okay, because I know with MC, they always say, don't use your energy between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., so I was thinking, hmm. So anyway, thank you.

2:12:20•KCKate Colin

Thank you. I don't have any additional questions because ones I had have already been asked. So I will open up the public comment on this item. If you'd like to comment, now would be your opportunity to do so.

2:14:50 – 2:15:09•KCKate Colin

We now mute in the chambers to reflect the folks that are calling in. So thank you for sending in your letter, and really thank you for all the work that Sustainable San Rafael does. Yeah, thank you. Anyone else in the chambers? I don't see anyone in the chambers. Anyone online like to comment on this item?

2:17:24 – 2:17:43•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Bill. And actually, you can't put links into chats, but Corey is here and he knows all about it. And I think having the CCAP would be an excellent place to talk about that as well. So thank you. Thank you, Bill. Anyone else online? Thank you. I'll close the public comment and bring it back to the council for additional comments. Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

Great update. Yes I'm going to go back again to my one dollar analogy or or challenge similar to other areas that I'm working in the conversation. There's so much we could do, and if we try to do everything, we do nothing. And so I'm really trying, because of our dollars are so limited, and this is really expensive work, it's how do we get all those partners that are working on this to align on what that one thing is. Everyone has one dollar. can it all go to the right the one thing and and you as the experts have to figure out what that is because we could do everything and then we say we do

2:18:54 – 2:19:17•MBMaribeth Bushey

I agree with the Vice Mayor. We need your input on where to spend that next dollar. Where can we get the most climate change improvement for that dollar on behalf of our constituents? We embarked on this process many years ago. Was it 2005? Is that when we started this?

2:19:25•MBMaribeth Bushey

So we've been at this two decades. But we need that level of, you know, how to prioritize and how to make the biggest difference with the next move that we make. So thank you.

2:19:35•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Councilmember Uranj Gulati, and thank you for leading the CCAP.

2:19:39 – 2:23:08•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, well, my pleasure, especially serving with people like Corey bit of a man and and also with Kerry is a is the one thing that gives me hope about this whole climate change is how much talent, we have within our stuff and also in our Community Thank you so much for always been at all the meetings and really providing scientific data, which is always really great to see. um i when i when i think about this the number one is transportation and i think a lot of times what does that mean for our city and and to me i still i live in bretthart and i still i'm not comfortable getting on my bike an

2:23:09 – 2:25:03•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Christine for being here and providing the science and there's a little bit of art with that projection so we appreciate that. As you've got it as year after year, and of course corey and your team has been fantastic. I will say, as the Chair of tam transportation authority of marin I really appreciate the shout out that you gave to tam. Our countywide transportation plan, it does have sustainability embedded in it, let's put it that way. And these are multi-layered solutions that we have. And a lot of what was brought up is things that TAM can support, not just San Rafael, but all

2:25:04 – 2:25:19•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

I would love to. I move to accept the greenhouse gas emissions inventory and greenhouse gas reduction strategy annual report for 2024.

2:25:20•KCKate Colin

CHRISTIE WOODARD- Moved and seconded. Roll call, please.

2:25:27 – 2:25:49•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 4-0. Thank you so much. Our next agenda item this evening is the fiscal year 2025-26 Unaudited Results and Budget Amendments. There are several action items on here, but we'll probably just have one staff report. And I see Sean Plate approaching, so welcome. We'll give you a moment to set up.

2:40:35 – 2:40:47•KCKate Colin

Thanks. Okay. Hold on a second. Let's see if there are any questions. Vice Mayor, do you have any questions? Okay, I see Council Member Rishi's excited to ask a question. Okay, go ahead.

2:40:47 – 2:41:15•MBMaribeth Bushey

Just to put this all in context, it says unencumbered carryover, but they really are encumbered in that they belong to something, and we're just moving them from one year's budget to the next, right? Just to be clear. So it's not the unencumbered that's making a big pile of money that we get to spend again. Okay, so with that understanding, And I haven't gone back and looked at the past budgets, but this number just seems larger than it usually is. Is that fair?

2:42:36•KCKate Colin

No, it's a good question. Can I come back? Yeah, of course. Go ahead.

Of course. She was so excited. Just in terms of looking future focus to this year in terms of recreation, are we anticipating, because we know that we provide a lot of services within recreation to make it very palatable for our community to be able to use the services, but it's also a highly intensive personnel because it requires are we anticipating so right now that 545 came from general fund so are we projecting now again using this trend that for next year this year we're also anticipating to have some deficit that will need to pull from general so the short answer is we're hoping not

2:44:15 – 2:44:33•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

I have a really quick one. Yeah, go ahead. In the fire department, I know that you were working on the overtime and you have a new strategy. Is that now in place or have you seen, is this still part of the increase, overtime?

2:45:46 – 2:45:59•KCKate Colin

Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you. I'll open up the public comment on this item. Anyone in the chambers like to comment, now is your opportunity. see anyone racing down to comment. Is there anyone online that would like to comment on this item?

2:46:02 – 2:46:13•KCKate Colin

Okay, thank you. I will close the public comment and bring it back to council members for additional comments and then accept a motion. There's several motions on this one. Vice Mayor, any additional comments on this item?

No, just a final comment that unencumbered is such a finance geek term. No offense. But I think to Council Member Bush's comment, it's funding carried forward on approved and ongoing work that we've already done i mean and that's just normal course and and i think you know the the headline of 16.5 million is rolling over is not the story right that's that's really not that it's really that we're doing the work i mean it has to move over to this year because we're in a new year And that work is is happening, so I appreciate seeing it it's important to me have visibility to the areas. they're al

2:47:31•KCKate Colin

Thank you, council member. Yeah, you're in school.

2:47:34 – 2:48:11•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, I agree with Vice Mayor Kurtz, and I would just have very quickly that these are like the, it's all financials and numbers, but there are like stories after every number. And I know that rec department is doing such a good job with all the offerings that we have for our community. and really appreciate therefore with fire overtimes and all the strategies that you have in place not just because we are going to save money but also because it's the right thing to do for the health of the people working you know in that department so thank you so much this is a lot of work i appreciate it tha

2:48:13 – 2:49:07•KCKate Colin

Yes, and I'll just add my gratitude as we continue to have these granular updates, which are really important. I think back to where we were five or ten years ago, and this is important to keep us informed, to keep the community informed. Finance terms notwithstanding, but the underlying approaches and policies that ultimately get tied to it, and we appreciate especially the conversation around recreation fund and how that sound the general fund and if there were to be any additional conversations that counts would have it at the policy level and we would figure it out from the budget level at

Adopt the resolution authorizing amendments to the fiscal year 25-26 budget for the purpose of confirming unauthorized appropriations and transfers.

2:49:24•KCKate Colin

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please.

2:49:37 – 2:49:57•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Council Member Riker, go ahead. And I move to adopt the resolution authorizing amendments to the fiscal year 2026-27 budget to reflect carryover of unencumbered fiscal year 2025-26 appropriations for specific purposes totaling $16,477,797. Second.

2:50:07•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 4-0. Thank you all for an excellent meeting. It is adjourned.