City Council - Regular Meeting

16:34 – 19:49•KCKate Colin

Are we ready? All right. Fantastic. Welcome, everyone. Today is Monday, June 1st. This is the regular meeting at the San Rafael City Council. Request the city clerk to call the roll. Council Member Bushey. Present. Council Member Hill. Present. Vice Mayor Kurtz. Present. Council Member Yarenz Galati. Present. Mayor Cate. Present, thank you. Good evening everyone and welcome and thank you for joining us tonight whether you're here in the council chambers or watching online. We appreciate your participation and engagement in the community. We also appreciate those who came out to participate in

21:15 – 21:50•KCKate Colin

Thank you. We have two opportunities for open time for public expression. We have 10 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and then all the time that's needed at the very end of the meeting. A few folks have provided comment cards. I won't be able to get through all of these because it is 10 minutes worth, but we'll go ahead and get through the five of them that we can. Claire Taylor if you would like to provide comments and again this is any comment on topics not on tonight's agenda. If it's on an agenda item we prefer that you hold it until that item. Go ahead.

23:56•KCKate Colin

If you could wrap up so there's time for others to speak.

24:24•KCKate Colin

And after Susan their quarries science and then Reba Rebus.

28:54•KCKate Colin

And then after Reva will be Mark Fellows, and that will conclude then the open time at the beginning of the meeting. Go ahead.

33:00 – 33:28•KCKate Colin

Thank you. So as it's item that's not agendized, there's no direct answering to the questions, but do email and we will follow up. And I'm hoping you all stay because sea level rise is on our agenda this evening, and many of you are in a neighborhood that would be impacted. So hopefully you'll be able to stay for that. We will continue public expression to the end of the meeting. If you had something else you wanted to add, we will pick that up at the end. Now we'll move along to the city manager and council member reports. I'll turn to interim city manager Paul Navazio.

35:53•KCKate Colin

Thank you so much. I'll turn to my colleagues. Vice Mayor Kurtz, any report out?

Just have two items. We had the homeless subcommittee that Mayor Kate and I chaired and participated in the priority services setting committee with the county. We had reviewed that information here at the council and then it goes back to the full group for additional allocations for other different programs across the county. That's it. Thank you.

36:27 – 39:43•MBMaribeth Bushey

Thank you. Last week I attended the meeting of the Central Marin Sanitation Agency. It was a special meeting. The narrow topic was the budget, a slight budget adjustment, but the more important part was a closed session regarding some anticipated litigation. Well, I can't go into the details. We gave direction to our general counsel and we are hopeful for an amicable resolution of the matter. Next, on Tuesday, I was delighted to substitute for the mayor at the Transportation Authority of Marin. That meeting was very celebratory. The Crossing Guard of the Year was present, was honored, and we a

39:44•KCKate Colin

That's it. Thank you. Council Member Yorantz Gulati.

39:49 – 44:33•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you. And I will follow up, add to the meeting that we attended this morning. The new design firm is incorporating the mid-design phase parallel to the engagement with the community. So that phase is going to go until like fall. So we just want to make sure that the community is really involved with all the design that is going to happen for the building. So thank you for the other part of the update. Thank you so much. I attended on May 21st the MC Clean Energy Board meeting. I represent the City of San Rafael. It was highlighted some of the achievements in energy efficiency, afford

Thank you, Mayor Kate. Last Wednesday, May 27th, I represented the city at the Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers, which was held at Homeward Bound in Novato, where they are approaching functional zero for veterans experiencing homelessness, which is a very major achievement and the result of Housing First with wraparound services. So it was very gratifying to see that take place there. Also that evening was a panel discussion on supporting and serving our older adult communities. The one takeaway that I would want to mention to the community is that a grant was provided where t

45:51 – 49:17•KCKate Colin

Thank you, and I'll close by what I attended on behalf of the city of San Rafael. First is the San Rafael Sanitation District. We held our meeting, and if you attended the council meeting two weeks ago, we approved at that meeting the city-district separation agreement, and at the district meeting, that same separation agreement was approved. formalizes the separation of both the city and the district so that the district can continue its operational consolidation with CMSA, the Central Marin Sanitation Agency. In addition, I'm your representative on SMART, which is Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Tra

49:58 – 50:12•KCKate Colin

Thank you. And I'll clarify that comment was around Marin transit and not the city of San Rafael. So that is through the Marin transit, but you can reach out to council member Bushy and she can connect you with the general manager. Just wanted to clarify. Yep. Go ahead.

51:04•KCKate Colin

Any other comments on the reports? As always, you're welcome to say your name and what part of San Rafael, though not required.

51:40 – 52:25•KCKate Colin

So I recommend that you stay for the work plan portion of tonight's agenda because that will be talked about. This is great. You guys are going to be here all night with us. Okay. Any other comments on the reports? Not seeing any. I'm going to close with public comment and bring it back to the consent calendar. Any items to be pulled? Looking to my right. Okay, not seeing any. I will open up the public comment on this. The consent agenda has 2A through 2G. If you'd like to comment, we appreciate knowing which item you are commenting on. Open the public comment. I don't see anyone who wants a p

52:25•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

52:37 – 52:55•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 5-0. Thank you. We have a public hearing this evening, a couple of them, and the first is a zoning code amendment to add clarifying language and simplify existing zoning regulations. I see Margaret Cavanaugh Lynch joining us, welcome.

56:51•KCKate Colin

Thank you, and the staff report is very clear in terms of the underlying, what was added, what was deleted, so thank you for an excellent report. I'll see if there are any questions. Oh, Council Member Help, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Margaret, for that report and for the follow-up, Director Hinkle. Just as an overall taking a step back from this, would you testify that these are pretty standard updates that municipalities around the state of California typically do on a regular basis.

Thank you. When I was reading through some of them, because the definition seemed pretty self-evident to me, would you say that some of it was informed that by over the years, someone might come to the counter and say, hey, this is ambiguous? And someone would take a note and say, OK, we'll just pull this forward until the next time we do an update, is my speculation.

So maybe in a word, this is a clarification update, maybe.

59:11 – 59:49•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Any additional questions? Not seeing any additional questions, I'll open up the public comment. If you'd like to add your thoughts or have questions on this item, now is your opportunity. Not seeing anyone, I'll close a public comment and bring it back. I don't know if we have additional comments, but I'll just say thank you to the Planning Commission for all the work that they did. I was glad you mentioned that. They did the heavy lifting on this and they got in really deep in the nuts and bolts on it. So I just wanted to make sure that that was acknowledged. So unless there's addi

Introduce the ordinance way further reading and refer to it by title only.

59:59•KCKate Colin

Second moved and seconded roll call please.

1:00:09•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries five zero. The city clerk could read the title of the ordinance please.

1:00:49 – 1:01:00•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Thank you, Manager Cavanaugh-Lynch. We have another item. Maybe you're here for the next one. It's in the same theme. This is an amendment to the general plan safety and resilience element. I will turn it over to you.

1:04:17 – 1:04:37•KCKate Colin

Thank you. And I would just ask, so the spirit of the General Plan is the same, and this is just actually clarifying the exact wording so that spirit can manifest if we were, unfortunately, to have a natural disaster or something like that. So we're not changing the policy or approach. It's more clarifying in order to meet the state law.

1:05:15•KCKate Colin

Fantastic. Thank you. Any additional questions? Any questions over here? Council Member Hill, go ahead.

This is more for you to entertain a counterfactual, which is that if we were not to pass it, we would not be eligible for 6.25% funding on the other side of a catastrophe. We wouldn't be able to be entitled to that to apply for it.

1:05:47 – 1:06:13•KCKate Colin

Thank you. I don't see any additional questions. I'll open the public comment on this item. If you would like to comment, now is your opportunity. I don't see any public comment. I will close the public comment. And again, thank you. Even though, as you said, it's very straightforward text, these could have significant implications should we so need it. So unless there are other additional comments, I would entertain a motion on this item as well.

Move that we approve a resolution adopting an amendment to the safety and resilience element of the general plan 2040 to continue to meet the goals of assembly bill AB 2140 based on the findings included in the staff report and finding that this action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA under CEQA guidelines section 15378A and 15061B3.

1:06:37•KCKate Colin

And I'll second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please.

1:06:46 – 1:07:31•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 5-0. Thank you so much. We're moving on to other agenda items. And I'm going to start to speak more slowly, as this item is also being interpreted in Spanish. This is the Sea Level Rise Feasibility Study. We will be hearing and receiving a presentation. I see Kate Hagerman is joining us. And when we're ready, Madam City Clerk, are we good to? We are. Okay. Wait, get your mic going on, there we go.

1:24:12 – 1:25:20•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Kate, and I appreciate all the work that you have done and your expertise and your working with the community. And so tonight is kind of, not kind of, it is just a top line, as you said, to percolate. I'm sure you didn't mean that as a joke, but it still made me laugh. So really for the council, any top line? Questions, we will have a more in-depth conversation. I don't know if there is any approval tonight. We're just considering approving or receiving this presentation. But also for the community to understand just all that's involved and what is facing us in the years to come. So

1:25:21 – 1:25:44•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

So thank you so much, Kate. And I don't know, we are so lucky to have you here. And I don't know if people know, but she comes from Miami and has so much experience around flooding. So I feel very, very blessed to have you working with us. Can you tell me how many community meetings have you hosted where you were presenting this information?

1:26:03•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

So thank you so much, and I don't have any other questions.

Great. Thank you. Thank you for the update. My questions are really around, I know you've talked a lot about what the impact is within San Rafael, but I was wondering if you could also share a little bit about have the other Marin jurisdictions signed on. Is there some collaboration coming from Marin wildfire? We knew that there wasn't any traction until everyone was working together. to get some traction. And if there's gonna be a problem in the canal, it affects the entire county. And so I wanna make sure that as we're, so there is a question there around the jurisdictions, but it's not just

1:27:39•KCKate Colin

And I would just add, so BayWave, that Council Member Irenz Galati reported out on, that's been meeting, I mean, I was the original member of that for almost eight years, ten years. So that foundation is there.

No, I recognize that, and we hear about it, but when it gets presented, sometimes it's very easy for the other jurisdictions to then say, well, it becomes more of a San Rafael issue to solve, and want to make sure that everyone's all tied into it. as we go forward. And so when you talk about, is this type of report being done in Sausalito, in Corte Madera, down along the coast, basically?

And as you mentioned, every initiative has a very long time span. And our short actions, do we have, are we looking at some very, very immediate how to address, so even if we have flooding that's going directly into people's homes, do we have plans to address that? Because we're gonna have probably some more, more of those type of situations happening before we have longer term solutions.

And if those short-term needs are being addressed regionally as well as, or is the short-term need being looked at as a city, for the city to address?

Thank you Kate for the presentation. It's very prominent in the staff report that there is no agency or entity responsible for managing coastal flood risks. I know that a lot is being done to create that coordination. You mentioned that the county is wanting to take a lead role, but how essential is it to have a lead agency in this? Is that something that you would regard as a next step or can we continue forward without having a lead agency?

Thank you, and thank you for that. I thought it was a very informed response to that, because it's not clear. I appreciate the analogies to other regions in the world that actually have dedicated agencies, so I feel like there's a hint in there that that's something we would pursue. I think just to, this is another question that I'll get to, which is with the sheer number of stakeholders involved here, not the least of which, of course, are the residents and businesses that occupy, canal and the shoreline of San Rafael, there are so many intersecting points where grants could be pursued and sh

1:34:46•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Bushy, any questions?

1:34:51 – 1:35:08•MBMaribeth Bushey

Just a couple. Of all the stakeholders that you talked about, I haven't heard you mention the property owners. Do you have a formal listserv of them to communicate with them? Because they have a particular set of interests.

1:36:18 – 1:36:49•MBMaribeth Bushey

And so you're focusing your attention on the broader protection of the entire community, particularly the transit component of it. The numbers that you're putting up there are very large. How realistic do you think it is that a billion dollars or two will be available in a timely way? Because TikTok, we've only got 25 years before it's basically too late.

1:38:30 – 1:39:16•KCKate Colin

Thank you. And I have one other question that was prompted by what my colleagues have asked. I know Corte Madera has had an issue. They're low lying out by the town center. And I've, through BayWave, attended many presentations. And one of the issues that came up, in spite of the 150 meetings, homeowners, one of the solutions out there, anyway, is a levy that's bigger and higher. And so I'm curious if we're able to learn from Corte Madera, other jurisdictions, if that ends up being one of the tools in our toolbox. We do have a history here in San Rafael of having applied for a grant and having

1:40:16 – 1:40:52•KCKate Colin

Well, your example is sobering because those dollars are competitive. And if one community like San Rafael were to say no, then that money is going to go to another community. To Vice Mayor's point, it's going to go to Corte Madera. So, okay. Now you can see why we've split this into two meetings. I will go ahead and open up the public comment. If you have anything that you'd like to share on this feasibility study, we are interested in what you have to say. And come on down. And you're welcome, but not required to say your name and what part of San Rafael.

1:41:34•KCKate Colin

Thank you. What I'll do is we'll make a list of all the questions and comments and then staff will answer. Thank you so much. Anyone else?

1:43:39•KCKate Colin

Thank you for your comments, anyone else.

1:52:30•KCKate Colin

Thank you. We'll go ahead from the interpreter.

1:59:04 – 1:59:57•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Any other comments on this item? Not seeing any this evening. We do look forward to more comments. Oh, I'm sorry. Welcome here. Pull down the microphone. There you go. Awesome. Thank you. We'll have the interpreter.

2:00:28•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Thank you to our interpreter. Let's see if there's anyone else who would like to comment.

2:01:08 – 2:01:55•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, I was going too quick before. I don't see anyone else, so I will close the public comment. We'll keep our interpreter on until the agenda item has been completed. So there was lots of fantastic input, and I know you saw community members with whom you've been working, but there were some specific questions in there. The one we just heard about financing mechanisms in terms of property value, so maybe that's something the incubator will speak to, but if you could talk about that. What can be done now? Are there emergency plans? Sandbags and Nixle? And then h

2:04:50 – 2:05:08•KCKate Colin

So what also people, what can they do now? If you were to say what can folks who are hearing about this, what can they do now? And then how are we going to continue to convene these broader groups if they haven't gone to one of the other 150 meetings? And as you said, going to be many, many hundred more. But how do you bring people in?

2:06:18•KCKate Colin

Fantastic. I'll turn to my colleagues for short comments, being that we're going to have an extensive conversation in August. Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

Great. Thank you to CATE, Canal Alliance, the community to come out and speak on this topic. It's super important. San Rafael absolutely needs to be a strong advocate, but I'd say right now we also need to be a strong advocate for a lead agency and for regional coordination. If we even tripled our budget, it would not be enough. So and that means not doing anything else in the city to just address sea level rise. So I don't think as a city, I think we need to be very clear what we can do and what we can't do and where we can make the most impact and influence. And I think talking again about i

2:08:32 – 2:12:24•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for presenting the report. Again, Kate and Corey, I mean, you're amazing. I'm always amazed with the level of work that you do, but also the partners that you have engaged with. I mean, we have UC Berkeley working with us right now. The county, we have funders. It's very frustrating to know that we do have sea level rise in our community, and I want to fix it like tomorrow, like yesterday, and just understanding that, to me, based on the presentation, there is no one perfect solution. So I think we all agree on the issue is how we are going to approach it. And

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Kate, for giving us clear messaging around this and even some nuanced messaging as well. I know I thank you for entertaining and indulging my questions around really, I think, strategic questions around how do we get to an outcome faster. It occurs to me that as I look out at the audience and folks who showed up from Green Build Alliance, from Canal Alliance, from Voces del Canal, from local businesses and even just community members who want to be heard, those voices are heard. I am eager to make certain that we find our way forward, whether it has to do with esta

2:14:24 – 2:16:35•MBMaribeth Bushey

I have two comments. One is lighthearted but on a short-term basis and the other is longer term. I'll start with the more fun one. The public safety element of King Tides is obvious. It's scheduled. You know right now, Christmas Eve, that that's when it's going to happen. Wouldn't it be great? Sandbags from Santa. But that's an example of practical right now things that we can do that has an educational component because we know when this is going to happen. This is not a surprise. So that's my lighthearted idea, but it's just an example of the type of thinking that our residents and our busin

2:16:36 – 2:20:12•KCKate Colin

Thank you, and I'll just add my comments. So again, thank you to the community that came out tonight, who came out other nights, who have been talking about this issue for over a decade. Kate, as always, for your leadership, and Corey as well. And this is not just a San Rafael issue. I hope what people take away from this is San Rafael is having these conversations because we want to be a part of the broader solution. And we cannot do this alone. That's just simply not possible. So working with our counterparts in Marin County, they've recently hired, as Council Member Micah reported out in he

2:20:13•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

I would love to, thank you. I make a motion to receive a presentation on the city's sea level rise feasibility study.

2:20:31 – 2:20:46•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 5-0. And again, thank you to our interpreters who were here this evening. Before we turn to our last two agenda items, we will take a break because I think the next ones are also meeting. So we will recess for 10 minutes. Thank you.

2:31:55 – 2:32:14•KCKate Colin

Okay, welcome back everyone. Thank you for that short recess. It's a lot of sitting when we have a big agenda packet. So the next item on this evening's agenda is the Brown Act updates and teleconferencing provisions. And I'll turn it to our city clerk.

3:00:17 – 3:00:43•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Madam State Clerk. And I was struck by many things, but especially the unfunded mandate, which means that in addition to all the other things that you do, you and your team do every single day, this was in addition as well as the digital services team. So I just want to underscore that for state legislators. Good intentions, but I appreciate the additional work that you all have done. So we'll start with questions. Yeah, Vice Mayor, go ahead.

Two questions. First one, has there been any thought or recommendation around for those who are providing public comment online, will we be asking them to show, be visually present and control the naming?

Okay, great. And then on the, I had communicated a little bit on this question around other jurisdictions, is there standardization? Because we do know that there are people who comment on across the county in multiple meetings and our policy's gonna be different across the board. And then also more closely related for San Rafael City Schools, is there an opportunity to provide the same, so San Rafael is at least aligned with San Rafael?

3:02:58 – 3:03:19•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for the presentation. Just one quick question. For the multi-languages, it says that people can request it, but there is like a provision where it says that if we feel it's going to be like, that the community are going to be interested, then we could just have interpreter. How do we define that?

3:03:53•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Okay, great. And I assume that we have several partners, not just canal Alliance? Yeah. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Bushy, any questions?

3:04:02 – 3:04:18•MBMaribeth Bushey

One quick nuts and bolts question. How is this going to unfold for us in a month? So what are we going to see when the mayor calls for offsite comments? What's going to happen?

3:05:12•MBMaribeth Bushey

So what are we going to see on the screen?

3:05:25 – 3:05:54•KCKate Colin

Actually, I want to follow up on that question because we now have open time for public expression in the beginning of the meeting for 10 minutes, and then we have it at the end because it enables us to get to our business agenda. So what would that look like? I mean, my sense is, and again, if that's open to the council weighing in, is that we would take some in the room, some online, and then have the rest towards the end because we're trying to make sure that we get to our agenda.

3:06:47•KCKate Colin

Sorry, I jumped in because I was building on that. So Councilmember Hill.

3:06:49•MBMaribeth Bushey

That's a complication. Maybe we should just have one at the end.

3:06:55•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Mayor. Let's go ahead and hear Councilmember Hill's question.

So, yeah, this is getting into the details because I was trying to imagine this. I also, you pointed out that there's a bulletin board that will need to be physically outside City Hall. So I'm imagining that we're going to go... procure a cork board with pins. I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.

Just as a practical matter, some of our agenda packets are 500 pages or more. So is it just one piece of paper?

Thank you for clarifying. I was imagining someone trying to push a pin through 500 pages. Thank you. Thank you for that. I was noticing in the staff report it indicates that the mayor has discretion to be able to potentially limit number of minutes per speaker given the size of the room, but also further down in the same paragraph, it says that the mayor can also has the discretion to be able to set a time certain as well. I just wanted to see, is that a departure from current policy or is that consistent with current policy?

Thank you. My next question is, and this goes into the space of disruptive behavior. Is there any mechanism that we're allowed, because once that disruptive behavior is recorded, then is it mandated to be published for the duration that it was captured?

Well, I think where I was going is when I was reading my... very probably poor reading of SB 707 is that it keeps using the term audio visual two-way. So in my mind, do we have to afford visual video? We do not need to afford that.

3:14:34 – 3:15:35•KCKate Colin

Okay, I think my questions have been answered. I did, based on what City Attorney was just talking about, the protected hate speech. And unfortunately, we did get a flavor of that during COVID, and I have to say it was not folks in the chamber. So I do think of those a little differently. and I'm hoping to have as a statement that once the protected hate speech has finished, their hate, that I have a written, something that I say, because what's confusing is people who are, and I can remember literally every single incident, because it was terrible, One happening when we were commemorating our

3:15:45 – 3:16:22•KCKate Colin

And it can just be short, and hopefully I'll never, ever have to say that. And then going to the Zoom bombing, and again, it only happened a handful of times, but you're right. You talked about gobsmacked. It was more than that. It was horrific. It was the underbelly of humanity in our ears and in our community. So I think you mentioned we don't have to warn, like, cut them off. Like, can the state attorney have to cut them off? Because some of those were right on the line, and we could see where it was going. And sure enough, it ended up being incredibly disruptive, threatening racial speech

3:18:14 – 3:18:52•KCKate Colin

So on that, in terms of time limit, so much people are calling it again. It's awful that we're having this conversation, but it's better to be prepared. And we have many people who are saying protected hate speech In that moment, can I make the decision that we go to a one-minute public comment when we're going partway through, and that would apply to both people in the room and people online? So two parts to that. One is, does public comment length have to be the same for online and in person? And number two, could we switch partway through a meeting if it's, for some reason, we're the focus

3:20:22 – 3:20:42•KCKate Colin

Thank you for answering those questions. I will open up the public comment on this item if you have any thoughts or questions that you would like to share with the Council now is your opportunity and you're welcome but not required to say your name and what part of San Rafael resident of San Rafael I'll have you know what I don't have a bag over my head and my face hidden this evening and I believe that every person that

3:22:36 – 3:23:01•KCKate Colin

I don't see any other comments in the room. One of the last times I'll say that. I'll bring it back to the council, but I was struck by something, by what our community member just said. What about AI-generated comments. I mean, we act like, I mean, it doesn't happen, but you literally could have AI, AI. We could have 50 AI-generated comments. So does 707 talk about that?

3:23:10 – 3:23:25•KCKate Colin

Okay. Well, we're obviously a little bit ahead of that, because that's coming. It's coming. And you could have 50 AI-generated two-minute things that there's no one there, and we wouldn't be able to figure it out. But... We will meet that when it happens. Let me turn to my colleagues for any.

3:24:34•KCKate Colin

Okay, thank you. So any short comments on this item before we move on? Vice Mayor, go ahead.

Sure, no, thank you for doing this work around this whole legislation piece. It came after so many bad situations that have happened. On the other side, it really expands that meaningful civic engagement. I mean, I know so many people who've wanted to participate and can't, whether it's older adults or caregivers, people with disability, transportation. The list goes on and on. So the reality is I think it's fantastic that we're opening it up again, and I'm super nervous again, around that. And if anyone has had the opportunity to read the Marin IJ voice piece by Trustee Jenny Holden from the

Thank you, Mayor Cade, for my brief comment, which thank you for making sure that we're compliant with SB 707. I look forward to having more people participate in this space and exercise their First Amendment rights. Thank you.

3:26:06•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Any comments, Council Member Bushy?

3:26:10•MBMaribeth Bushey

Excellent work, as always, Byers City Clerk, and I share the Vice Mayor's hope for good comments.

3:26:19 – 3:26:42•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you so much for getting us all covered. And I also tend to agree about having the camera on, but I also had experience on the school board where we saw more than we had to. So I understand that. And my hope is that we will have community members actually commenting. So we'll see. Thank you.

3:26:43 – 3:27:06•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Madam City Clerk. As I said at the outset, this is an unfunded mandate and enormously ironic that we are going to do this in order to have increased community participation, yet the state legislators don't have a similar meeting requirement. Just putting that out there. So I'm glad that we are continuing to lead at the local level. So with that, I would entertain a motion on this item, please.

We'll make a motion. Let's see, where are we at? Adopt a resolution authorizing hybrid city council meetings effective July 1st, 2026 in adopting a technology disruption policy, multilingual agendas and participation policy, and disruptive behavior in public meetings policy to implement SB 707 Durazo.

3:27:41 – 3:28:12•KCKate Colin

I'll second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please. Councilmember Bushey. Aye. Councilmember Hill. Aye. Vice Mayor Kurtz. Aye. Councilmember Yudan-Scolati. Aye. Mayor Kate. Aye. That motion carries 5-0. Thank you so much. The last item on our agenda this evening is the City Council Three-Year Strategic Plan Implementation Update and Performance Metrics. Changing of the guard. Welcome, Director Mooney. Welcome, Assistant City Manager Stefanski.

3:56:36 – 3:56:59•KCKate Colin

Thank you, Paul. And thank you, Sean. Thank you, John. So impressive. And I wasn't sure if your presentation was going to be as comprehensive as the staff reports. I just want to let folks know the staff report is quite thick and goes very, very deep. So thank you for keeping it pretty top line. Doesn't mean that there might not be questions that go a little bit deeper. So we'll start with questions. Vice Mayor, any questions?

Yeah, thank you. I mean, as you know, I'm the data geek around a lot of this stuff and Asana and everything else. It is such a transition from where we were years ago to where we are now. It's fantastic. And I know it's a huge change because I've managed project teams that have struggled. to wanna get to this point, so thank you for doing this. I have a question around the classification of on hold. You have on hold and then not started, and I don't know if they're being classified the same, and then, so there's that part, and then how did this status of on hold come to be?

Okay. I'll go back and look at the ones that are on hold, because that was a little bit of a question, like how are they... being determined to be on hold, but I don't want to go into the details on that. And then the other question is exactly what you were talking about, the performance metrics. What percentage are automated metrics and how much are manual?

So right now we're not seeing 2026 on many of the metrics.

I think that would be sort of my question around if at what point we're just putting a metric in and it's not really telling us the story we need to, is that something we can pull off and not track? Because there's a lot of data in there and I'm not sure we're using all the data. And if it is delayed on time or we don't have an API on it or maybe that's an opportunity to simplify.

And if you ask 10 people, you'll get 20 answers. Right. So, I mean, it's really, because everyone, you know, has different thoughts on it. But I would, I'd use the sort of how easy it is to capture the data. Yeah. So that's where I'm at right now. Thanks.

4:02:41•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Councilmember Bushey, do you have any questions on this?

4:02:45 – 4:03:13•MBMaribeth Bushey

A couple of big ones. This is great. You're doing a fantastic job of building this. And I know it's hard when you're building because you don't know what's going to be the useful stuff. But what's your sort of strategic goal of when you think you'll have enough of a data set and metrics that you can get useful insights and conclusions from it?

4:04:47 – 4:05:12•MBMaribeth Bushey

So some of the teams already are getting insights and conclusions, and this is being super useful for them. Okay, now let's talk about the public. I was struck by tonight as members of the public showed up bringing up topics that are in the strategic plan. What's your plan to get them connected to the inquiring mind?

4:06:04•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Hill?

Thank you Mayor Kate. Thank you Director for this very comprehensive report as well as Assistant City Manager and the City Manager for your comments. It's actually on the City Manager's comments around the challenges of This nontrivial motion of taking strategy, budget, work plan, and tying it all together is the opposite of trivial. It's significant. And in many ways, although a lot of organizations attempt to do it regularly, I actually think that in large part many of them fail. So I am encouraged to see, even if it's through A lot of will and hard work to make it happen. But I'm curious, b

Thank you for that. I tell myself stories. So one story that I tell myself is that it's more like a conceptual math problem, which is we have staff that are doing daily operations and also doing project-based work, and then we're asking them to engage with Asana and other mechanisms to report on it. It feels like it's adding more. I mean, how has staff responded? And you mentioned change management. term to call that, but I would imagine that it's not like dark matter. It is something we can see. It does impact our staff.

4:13:55 – 4:14:43•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you so much for the report, and the dashboard is so helpful, and I think how I can use it is when I get questions from some of my constituents, just like, hey, go visit here, and it gives you a great perspective. A couple of thoughts that I have is in the dashboard, sometimes you see the percentage, sometimes you see the number, and I just wonder, I'm just wondering how easy it would be to have both, where sometimes you see the number but then it's the percentage, or like for instance, you were mentioning the number of bilingual staff members, and I wonder, okay, is that, what is th

4:15:26 – 4:15:43•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, no, and I can tell that you keep improving, so that's amazing. With the Asana project, is there something that you've been working on this year, or is it going to be like... I imagine every time you have a new project, you just have to enter everything.

4:16:41•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

It sounds amazing. I have used Asana before and it's a great piece of software. So I'm very happy you guys are using it. When you have like the projects for 2026, 2027, are they like Q1, Q2, Q3? Yeah. Okay.

4:18:42 – 4:19:11•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yeah, that makes sense. And is it possible when we are talking about housing, and I don't know if we have this data or not, I saw the vacancy rates for commercial, and I thought that was very useful, especially when people say, oh, my God, downtown is empty. It's like, oh, well, look at the data. So that's great. So I was thinking about the vacancy rate for residential, for rentals. And I don't know if...

4:19:51 – 4:20:42•KCKate Colin

Thank you, I have a couple questions. I know we've talked a lot about the tool and the process, but I actually have some input on the work plan itself. So, and again, more to consider, because I know we're not approving the work plan, per se. We did the goals and objectives, and we did the budget. So I'll just whip through these in order. So the first one, and you actually did mention it, that under the economics and neighborhood, the whole tree ordinance, I'm curious how staff would link that under G, equity, the climate justice lens, Because to have a tree ordinance, it's more than just look

4:21:02 – 4:21:57•KCKate Colin

So, however, that gets just cross-referenced. And it's probably not for all of them, but that one's, to me, a pretty obvious one, because it has come up over and over. On the same vein, this is under mobility and infrastructure. So this is under our, which I fully support, traffic safety vision zero. And through TAM and through other communities, they've been introducing more of the smart traffic signals, which I know Director Miller is working on. And we also have another item that's traffic signal upgrades. So in Miovision. So again, that's another one. If we're talking about Vision Zero as

4:23:15 – 4:23:41•KCKate Colin

Yeah, no, I couldn't agree with you more. And when we're talking about specifically on the Vision Zero, as you said, the cumulative impact of it all and how do we continue. Again, I just want to make sure that we're linking them both for all of us, for the community, so when something comes before us, let's say a mild vision contract came before us, that it's all tied together. And I know it would be when the staff presented,

4:24:12 – 4:27:47•KCKate Colin

Yeah, and again, I also want to provide this input because I know the directors are still here, having a long day. And so they can also see from the work plan what has been really speaking out, which I have noticed. The next one is on the quality of life, so there's a whole section on the police advisory accountability. meetings and talking about very specifically it said how do we increase public participation in that and again a suggestion not necessarily an answer now is there a way to rotate those meetings maybe beyond City Hall and to have them be at the Alboro Center or have them in B St

4:33:42•KCKate Colin

It doesn't work that way, but I can assure you if you have it written, you can email it to the city clerk and we will all see what you wrote.

4:36:15 – 4:36:37•KCKate Colin

Any other comments on this item? Not seeing any other public comment. I'll close the public comment. There was a question specifically, there was great input, why there should be more Marydale project included in either accomplishments or looking ahead. But there's been work that has been done and it wasn't reflected.

4:37:14 – 4:37:42•KCKate Colin

It does. I think the concern was, or what was being inferred is that by not mentioning it, somehow the city council isn't proud of the fact that this is adhering to the policies and the goals and objectives, that there was a not transparent action taking place. That's what I heard. I don't know what was said, but I want to make sure that we're very transparent and that we're capturing, because we know this project is important to many people in our community for different reasons, but important.

4:38:22•KCKate Colin

Fantastic. Thank you so much. I will return to the council for any additional comments. Recognizing the late hour, Vice Mayor.

We didn't really talk I didn't really talk about very specific as you went into some details on specific items but I would like to overall say and request for the directors to call out older adults and if there's an opportunity to segment so some of the items I could see being specifically addressing a segment for older adults because we know 40% of Marin is gonna buy 2040 will be over the age of 60. And I think that we're, just as we talked about sea level rise tonight, we need to now, within a lot of our objectives and strategies, looking at a specific segment of older adults I think would b

Thank you, Mayor Kate. Thank you, Director Mooney. Thank you, Assistant City Manager Stefanski. Thank you, City Manager Navazio, and also who's not here listed is Data Engineer Peng. And then all staff that contributed to this. I remember a year ago when we were contemplating this whole process, it was already, I think it felt more theoretical back then. And I recall from the DIA's offering that I would hope staff could dream big and still tell us what's possible. And that if we had to reorganize that there would be grace and I hope people experience that. That we are proud to stand before the

4:41:50•KCKate Colin

Thank you. Council Member Durant-Scolatti.

4:41:52 – 4:43:42•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I wanted to thank you again for the report, but also for the year. I mean, the highlights that you have for all of you, everybody, honestly, all the staff members, you have accomplished so much in just one year. So I think we should all be super proud. I am very proud of all the work that you've been implementing. And I'm excited about the new year. I'm eager to see what's going to be like, okay, what do we do, Q1, Q2, you know, into all those to get even more great things done. And, you know, I have sometimes questions about, like, specific projects, like, did you actua

4:43:45•MBMaribeth Bushey

Fantastic. Step forward. You're doing a great job. Keep up the good work.

4:43:52 – 4:45:28•KCKate Colin

I'll just say San Rafael really is leading here. I think the city manager alluded to that. We're trying to do something different to both align our goals and objectives to our budget. So impressive work being done by an impressive team, an impressive group of people. I love seeing we didn't really talk about it, but the C-Click fix, number of potholes fixed, and number of response time. We all know that is like the number one email. So the fact that we can... direct people there. And looking ahead, I'm a little sad that the Gateway, very sad, the Gateway beautification is on hold until fall. B

4:45:29 – 4:45:43•MGMaika Llorens Gulati

I'll make a motion to receive the report on the implementation of the City Council's three-year strategic plan through the development and tracking of annual work plans and performance metrics and provide feedback on the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 work plan. Second.

4:45:55 – 4:46:08•KCKate Colin

Aye. That motion carries 5-0. Thank you so much. As I said at the beginning of the meeting, we have open time for public expression. This was anything that was not on tonight's agenda. If you have anything you'd like to share with the council that was not on the agenda, here's your opportunity.

4:47:42•KCKate Colin

Any other comments this evening? Not seen any. Thank you everyone for a great meeting. This meeting is adjourned.