Flood Control and Water Conservation District - Regular Meeting

Whenever you're ready, we can get you started.

Thank you. And, yes, I'm officially running the meeting today, so I'm not jumping the gun. Sorry, everybody. All right, we're going to call the meeting to order, and can I have the roll call, please?

Director Alessio?

Here.

Director Cottrell? Here. Director DiNatale is excused. Director Doran?

Here.

Director Gift is excused. Director Manfred? Here. Director Moeller is also excused. Director Ramos is excused. Director Washington?

Here.

Director Koba?

Here.

Director Painter?

Here.

Chair Gallagher?

Here.

Thank you.

All right. If you're able, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic, and to the nation.

All right. Thank you. We do not have any presentations and commendations, but we do have one consent item. Do I have any public comment on the consent item? And seeing none, can I have a motion to approve 4A?

So moved approval by Alessio.

Second, Cottrell. All right. Thank you. Motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstentions? All right, great, thank you. Now is the time for public comment. This is for those who would like to address the board on any item that is not on today's agenda, but is on the board's jurisdiction. So anyone in the audience to make any comment, any phone, Okay, wonderful. All right, we have an administrative item. Mr. Thomaser, 7A discuss the proposed approach for the public review process for the increment three flood protection project design and consider recent feedback received through public participation.

So, good morning. Rick Thomas, our district manager, and I'm here with Andrew Butler, district engineer. So we wanted to agendize the topic of public review for the Increment 3 design of the flood wall. We call it Increment 3. It's the flood walls from Hatt to Imola. Based on the recent public comment in the last couple meetings and some letters received, we know there's a lot of interest in the community. And so we wanted to give the board an opportunity to discuss and provide feedback and direction on the process to staff. As concerns expressed to date have been largely related to the height of the flood wall, blocking views and access to the river, aesthetics of the wall, and some safety issues around the The proposed Napa river trail so that those are the main comments that we've been receiving. The design has moved forward to where it basically at 35% in the. The design process involves quite a lot of review by the Corps of Engineers and other parties that we have to go through. So it's a pretty significant design review process. But what we've done, based on the feedback we've gotten, is we've put a pause on the design, if you will, and we want to take the time it needs to get these issues right. And we know there's an offer for... hosting a venue and a process to have like a local community focused meeting. And we're willing to accommodate that. We'd like to accommodate that. And again, like the board's thoughts on that. We are looking, since the comments started coming in, we've started to look at alternatives to mitigate the wall height. And there are several things we're actually looking at and evaluating the feasibility of those things. And what we'd like to do, we had planned to have a public meeting probably sometime in September. What we'd like to do is be able to complete some of that work so that we can speak knowledgeably about certain possibilities like removable flood walls or glass panels in the wall. things like that, or walls that actually deploy with the water rising, walls that actually pop up. So we are looking at those alternatives. We've got our design team looking at them, where they've been used before, particularly if they've been used in a federal project like this. um and so we're ready to take the time to get this right and um and with that i you know i'd like to ask the board to give us any feedback or questions comments um and i think today what we were just looking for is just again that opportunity to get your your feedback but also if there's a particular board members that would like to stay involved in this process maybe attend these meetings as um determined by the board, like as, as the representatives of the board, then we would make sure we keep coordinating with those individuals.

Okay, great. All right. I think we're going to go ahead and take public comment first, and then we'll bring it back to the board to have a discussion.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Maureen Tripp, and I'm here with the Abajo Riverside Drive Neighborhood Coalition, which includes residents, Tannery Bend business owners, and members of the Napa Valley Yacht Club. At the last few Flood Control Board meetings, we had asked for two things. One was a stakeholder meeting to specifically discuss the 35% draft. Of the increment 3, as soon as staff was ready to prepare it as soon as staff was prepared to share it. And secondly, to ask this board to carefully consider the consequences of the proposed height of the flood wall, which in some segments looks like it would be a 5 foot tall wall that would permanently block our river view. I was really pleased to get a call from Rick last week to tell me that he was pursuing both of these two things. And a stakeholder meeting looks like it could be planned in coordination with Friends of the Napa River. In my view, we stand on their shoulders. for everything that happens at the Napa River, and also a coordinated effort with Supervisor Gallagher and City Council Member Narvaez. We appreciate these efforts because there is some real work ahead. The flood wall is essential and we need to get it right, but we need to do right by residents and future generations. You have our commitment that we will be engaged collaboratively and continuously, but this is going to take a great deal of coordination between the county, the federal project, and the City of Napa. In doing some research, I found some plans that were done by the City of Napa back in 2015. It includes a beautiful plan for a greenway which is in front of the Sea Scouts area. Riverside Drive is really unusual. There's some plans to look at a one-way coming in and a one-way going out. But the Greenway, the park space, it's really beautiful, and we hadn't seen anything like that before. So I just ask for your coordination. I don't know what parts and parcels the county owns, but it's going to be complicated.

We appreciate your help.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks, Maureen.

Hello, my name is Greg Carter. I'm also down in the Abajo neighborhood, and Maureen pretty much just said everything. But I would also like to add, it would be nice if there was a city representative at some of these public meetings, because obviously the city's been involved quite a bit. They've figured out how there could be a 15-foot fire lane, one-way street, removal of... planting strips along Riverside Drive. So somebody there knows what's going on. It would be good to have that person as well. And with the advancements in all the technologies with these river walls over the last over a quarter of a century since this plan was initiated. It does sound like there's some really very interesting options that the neighborhood is already discussing among ourselves. So thank you.

Thanks, Craig. Okay, great. We're going to go ahead as I guess, do we have phone calls or any? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and bring it back 1st. I will say that I did talk to council member and totally on board. So the 2 of us are happy to help coordinate be there. Do whatever we can since for the reps for that area. I agree. Of course, we need staff, but staff from the city would be great. That's a really good comment. And of course, we should have somebody there. So, I'm going to just open up for discussion. I do think it's a great idea. I'm wholeheartedly in support. But let's see where everybody is. So just like raise your hand because the lights are not like we're not in that situation. Supervisor.

Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I appreciate hearing from the public again today. Thanks for the engagement and the ideating that's happening in the neighborhoods. I think that's important. And to staff for, you know, saying, let's take a moment. Let's make sure people are not only understanding what our options are, but partners in exploring. And yeah, thank you to Supervisor Gallagher for District Member Gallagher and Council Member Narvaez for stepping up and I'd like to support that. So, and follow your lead there. Thank you.

Thanks. Member Painter.

Hey, you know, as you know, I'm representing the city of Napa. Both Mayor Sedgley and Councilmember Dinatelli couldn't be here, but many of you know I sat on this board for four years, so familiar with how the process works. Supervisor Gallagher and I also are advisory on the Riverline project. These projects all weave together, right? Whether it's the city potential parks projects or what we're looking at, Riverline and the very critical importance of this blood control project. So I think for, you know, what I will do is certainly, um, commit to bringing that message back to the city, city participation, I think is, um, you know, uh, you know, I'm going to commit to today. Certainly council member Narvaez already has, um, I would be, I'm going to continue working with the river line. I think this coordination. I mean, when you say standing on shoulders, I think. You know, we have great examples of how this community coordination needs to work on river projects. So that's really good news. When you look at this effort going back 2530 years. What I would say in terms of the community meeting, you know, just making sure that you have really good visuals and graphics and maps there so people can actually see and feel, maybe not touch what it is we're talking about, because I would agree over the 30 years, the technology has really changed and improved dramatically. So what would have been. possibly a mechanical option 25 years ago that we would have said, you know, we can't do that because it's relying too much on sort of what the human interaction needs to be in flood control has changed really significantly. And there are some great examples, both nationally and internationally, when you look at flood control projects. So I know we can do this. I think at the 35% design level, it's absolutely the right time to engage. And I really look forward to participating to the extent that I can in the community meetings and any efforts. So thank you for holding the special meeting and bringing this forward.

Thank you. Member Alessio.

Thank you. And thank you, Rick, for bringing this back. I appreciate staff really listening to the public and to this board. That's the Napa way, right? We have good experience here in collaboration, stakeholder collaboration. And so that is where the bar is set and has been set because of the flood project before that nobody imagined could possibly possible until this community worked with, you know, city, county flood control and push back for a higher standard. And we benefit from that tremendously, both in quality of life and economic impact. And that's what I see are the The impacts are consequences here. It's quality of life for the people that live in that neighborhood and economic impact, both for that neighborhood and for the city of Napa. So I think that we really do need to look at every possibility, be innovative, work with possibly even our congressman office. We may need some more federal funding. to help offset additional costs as what he did for the flood project in the main flood project in Napa. I also want to thank Gallagher and Narvaez and I would offer having Director Painter with her experience and also with her city role to also be on this ad hoc, if that's what we're going to call it, an ad hoc committee. You can have two people from the city. I'm volunteering you or recommending volunteering you, but I do think, Director Painter, you have a lot to offer on this project and input and engagement. with staff and the public. So I would recommend that. I'm excited to see what we can land on to both keep this community safe and have the best possible project. On the comments regarding having good visuals, that's really important. But I also want to say I want to see visuals from the ground up. Like, what will it look like? for somebody who's in their home, for somebody, an average height person who's walking down the street. Sometimes we, in past, I've received visuals and they're not really to perspective and you don't understand the difference between like, how's that going to impact people in terms of the height of the wall and the visuality. So I'm going to be looking for that. And I think that's it. I think there's a good work ahead. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else on the board that wants to speak.

Yeah, yeah, I just want to say it's been amazing to see the community come out and express their concerns. So eloquently and consistently and I think it's really helping the process. So, yeah, so good on everybody for participating. And I think this is how it's supposed to work. And, you know. I, I remain concerned about the actual flood risk, but I'm excited to hear that. There's quite a few other possible options, but besides just a static 5 foot or whatever it is high wall. Um, so thanks for looking into that and reassuring us all that there's other possibilities and, uh, to whatever extent I can be helpful on this process. I'm happy to serve. Um, yeah, but, uh, but I'll, you know, we can't, yeah, we have to watch for, um, for, uh, not having too many people from the board all at once and all that. So yeah, however this works out, but I'm happy to participate if, if other people, uh, think that's a good idea.

Okay, great. Thank you. So do you think you have what you need? I want to ask counsel, do you think we need an official ad hoc or do you think we can just kind of manage? We'll obviously have to figure out our own Brown Act issues in our own jurisdictions, but then just not going over a certain number of actual members here.

I just I think it depends on the direction of the board. If you if people want to rotate in and out as the project progresses, it just it would be nice to have a formal ad hoc. But I want to encourage participation from everyone without clearly without violating the Brown Act.

Yeah. OK. Well, obviously, people can have conversations with, you know, the neighborhood group runs the river, you know, offer up. ideas or offer up their own expertise, I would imagine. Not so much, you know, necessarily being in a meeting with everyone else, but just on their own conversations.

Chair Gallagher, if I can chime in. I think ad hoc would really be helpful for staff. and for the community. It allows consistency. And for, you know, I've just seen it work really well. I think it would work really well to have an official ad hoc, you know. And so I would be advocating for that, both for the public to know who they're going to, who they're meeting with, and for staff. And I would hope that the ad hoc would stay as the ad hoc as long as they possibly can until this project is done.

Okay. I mean, I think that, yeah, that does make sense. I think then we'll probably have something on the agenda to always report back on whatever might be happening with the community meetings. This may be the one big one or maybe a few of them or who knows where it'll go. And then, of course, we'll have public meetings with the community and discuss all of this and then everybody will be here.

Yes, Rick. I appreciate your comments, Dr. Alessio. That would be very helpful for us because I wanted to add that we do have the Friends of the Napa River also review team. And I actually sit on the Riverline Advisory Committee as well. So there are these integrated, you know, but separate committees. efforts, and I think it would be helpful for staff because some of the people in these various teams are across the board, right? So I think identifying for this specific design some key people who are going to be involved with the community would be helpful because we, I know the staff side of things, we also have A lot of people in the Corps of Engineers, the whole design also has to be reviewed by this safety and reliability panel, which is a whole separate group of professionals that we've hired because it's a requirement of the funding. So it's a big process. And to stay on target, just reminding people we have a contract with the federal government to complete this project. The flood protection elements are a federal responsibility, so we're designing them and building them, but they are the Corps' responsibility. So we are, you know, we've always been the local sponsor, but these are our priorities. paid 100% by federal funds. So they have a big role in this. It's important to remember that. And another thing to remember, even though everything that's been... I don't want to discount all the good things that have been said this morning, but... The project is not in a feasibility analysis stage. It's in construction. So from the federal funding point of view, the government gave us this money to finish the Napa project. And this is the very last element that the federal government intends to build here. and they and just to remind the board as well the the funding they gave us is fixed so that we signed an agreement that any additional funds beyond the 48.3 million dollars that they've given us is is on us so just we got to keep that in mind as well so there's there's time constraints there's um There's funding constraints, but all is good. We, you know, Andrew's going to, has his design team taking a look at these alternatives. We should have, an important part of that is understanding the cost of those alternatives so that can be brought to the table as well when we're talking about them. Yeah.

Okay, great. Thank you. Um, yeah.

Thank you. Um, so I, I appreciate, uh, director Alessio's point about the ad hoc, and I think that's a good idea. Um, uh, council member Narvaez is not a part of the, this body. So I would ask, and I would, I would also love to ask if director painter and, uh, director manfred would be willing to serve on that as well as director gallagher and my question for our council is can we set that up as a three three person ad hoc and then they can invite council member narvaez as a special ongoing guest yes we can okay So and I think three keeps us well under Brown Act concerns with a buffer, but at least identifies that group to to your point, Director Alessio, about who's reporting in and out. So, OK, with the with the nods of those I've. Suggest.

Yeah, I think that's great. And I also was actually going to ask the question should should the city actually appoint whoever they want to the ad hoc. Since I mean, we can do that with the members here, but maybe the city will need to appoint or will want to appoint Bernie as the ad hoc member.

Correct. And he probably would want to accept.

Yes. Yes. So I'm just saying, you know, maybe it may be a little step further than inviting him as a guest is that they, you know, we could ask that they try to get that on the city agenda to appoint a ad hoc member.

I'm happy to go back and speak with our city attorney. You know, I'm. It's a process issue, you know, as to whether or not a non-member of the flood board could be a part of a flood board ad hoc committee or simply as, as director Cottrell said, invited, you know, we'll, we'll figure that out. You know, I don't know that we need to, you know, I mean, the other thing I want to quite honestly, and I'm, I'm honored and happy to do this. I'm here to, as as an alternate for Mayor Sedgley and Director Dina Talley. So, you know, if for some reason they really push to be on the ad hoc, you know, maybe yes, maybe no. I think they would defer.

I think they're happy that you're here.

Yeah, I would be happy to do it. I just want to give them an opportunity to know about it. But it seems to me and maybe our council here can advise as to whether or not this is something that has to go through a formal process with the city. But I don't see the city point on flood control board member as a part of a flood control ad hoc. It would seem to me.

Yeah. Yeah. I think the city can, you know, figure out what they need to do.

And we're... Like an advisory member as opposed to... Yeah, ad hoc member. Correct.

Okay. So then you would like us to take a vote. Keep going. Supervisor, member, whatever we call. Member Cottrell, would you like to make a motion?

Yes, I will move that we create an ad hoc to address the. The issues of public concern about the river wall plan, and be part of the team that interacts with staff and the community on it with appointments of director Gallagher and director man free with other members as the city of Napa.

directs. Can we just go ahead and include Director Peter?

Yeah, sure. Happy to do that.

Yeah.

And then we can always modify as needed. I'll second that.

Okay. If that's clear to Council and staff.

Okay. Great. We have a motion by Cottrell, second by Alessio. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstentions? All right. Great. Can't wait to get to work. I know we're, we've started already bubble. We get to keep going. All right. Thank you so much. And thank you to everyone who, who commented and for all the feedback, this has been a good process. Okay. We're going to, we have no public hearings, district manager and engineers reports and announcements.

The only thing I did want to bring up is we will have an August 18th meeting. So two weeks from now, we do plan to, we have some items that we will need that meeting. So just for your planning, that's our regular meeting for August.

Okay, great. Thank you. Are there any directors who have any reports or announcements? All right. Great. Any future agenda items that anyone would like to see? Okay. We're going to move to closed session. Thank you, everyone.

regarding existing litigation of this one item concerns the same property.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Almost.

All right. Thank you. We are back from closed session. And, Council, do you have a report out?

Our Council met in closed session pursuant to Agenda Item 12A and pursuant to the Government Code. There is nothing to report at this time.

All right. Thank you. We are concluded. So we will adjourn to the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District regular meeting Tuesday, August 18th, 2026 at 9 a.m. Thank you.

Thank you.