Remarks by Julie McMillan
146 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 6
Oh, sorry. Yeah. Are there any other questions, Bill? Do you have a question?
Okay. Let's have a comment. Anyone in the chambers wishing to make public comment?
Thank you. Is there anybody else in the chamber who wishes to speak? Anybody online, Zach? Oh, Laura.
Anyone else in the chamber? Anybody online?
Okay, so now we will bring it back for discussion and to provide guidance to the staff and Gensler about shared services between the paramedics and fire. Who wants to go first?
so I agree that we need to explore combined facilities per the CAC plan that seems basic you know I I see this letter from the CAC saying that the station 20 was 5.5 Million this is a far cry from the 14 million Mary mcgrath firehouse cost estimate We have no idea what it's gonna cost to build a fire station in Ross. We have no idea what it's gonna cost to have the space for a fire station in Ross. So I think it's very disingenuous to be throwing numbers around like 5.5 million. We have no idea. And we also don't, what our goal is here is to have space. for a fire station, the optionality of…
City Council Chambers, Rich seminary went over that with us and Sir Francis Drake is not in the floodplain, and so we have a big question as to whether or not we need to raise those three bays out of the floodplain. City Council Chambers, So that the emergency vehicles can go directly out onto Sir Francis Drake and not be underwater or do we want to have our. City Council Chambers, Emergency Services people running around putting up floodgates and moving equipment, instead of helping people so that's something that is not an apples to apples comparison, in my opinion, with station 20 and this…
So, yeah, I agree. I think we need to have a closed session to discuss strategy about this issue. We don't want to be in bad faith with the paramedic authority right so let's have a closed session and and and and discuss it okay so can we move on thank you item 13 town council to discuss and consider either moving to appoint a qualified individual to fill council member Kirscher's remaining term or provide direction on the process for filling the town council vacancy that will become effective September 11, tomorrow, 2026.
I would say that there was a similar process in 2016 when Carla Small resigned and she was still on the council and the council appointed Rupert Russell on the consent calendar and she participated in that vote. Any other questions? Public comment? Does anyone like to make public comment? Yes.
Anyone else in the chamber which need to make public comment? Anyone online, Zach?
OK, so we'll bring it back for a discussion of how to proceed. One more. Oh, excuse me, Laura. Go ahead. Sorry, Julie.
City Council Chambers, I agree with the comments just made from molly I think there's no person more eminently qualified than Jeff as the town treasurer and also as the architect behind the compromise that was reached by the CAC. City Council Chambers, The staff report is very clear that it says, if the Council is prepared to make the appointment at its September 10 2026 meeting. it may move by motion to make the appointment and have any such appointment effective September 11, 2026. There is urgency in getting someone on the council immediately. Otherwise, I'm very concerned that we will be…
We can discuss it. Yeah. Go ahead, Terri.
City Council Chambers, And I agree that having having applications is transparent and open, but the the staff report and the government code allow us to appoint someone tonight.
Mayor Mrakas, We we are, I mean I hate to say this, but I kind of feel like we are in a crisis, right now, and we've been in a crisis per probably a year, and I am not confident that if we drag this out. and have applications and interviews, I am not confident that we will have a majority of the council approving someone for an appointment. And so I think there's real urgency to do this tonight when there's five of us who can decide. I think that's paramount. And kicking the can down the road and having an application process and having Jeff bubble up to the top You two are going to say, oh,…
I did want to just reiterate that this same issue happened in 2016 when Carla Small resigned, the council appointed Rupert Russell without an application process. And that's what they did. And nobody ran around saying the council was not transparent.
I don't think you would be voting against him. I think you'd just be voting against the process. But Terry.
OK, so what we're going to do is have an appointment process. That's what we're talking about. Krista? Can we make sure that we do it by September 23 in the special meeting?
a certain amount of time for the the applicant to make a statement something like that would that suit the council I think the timing can depend on how many applications we receive if we only receive one we wouldn't even need to have a meeting if we receive five we might need to start at 3 30. So can we set the time when we know how many applications we receive oh
Do we need any one second do we need a motion on this, it says make either move to a point or provide direction yeah you actually don't need a motion, though, but this is this is the direction is that it, you know okay if we don't need a motion, then I withdraw my most one one other thing we need to be sure to ask each applicant. The same questions so maybe Elizabeth you and I can come up with questions. Great. All right. OK. That is the end of the administrative agenda. No, number 14, no action items. Any council correspondence? Future council items. Does anyone have anything?
City Council Chambers, And we received an email from Michael rosenbaum today about the expenses incurred by the town to address the initiative and the total cost was 482,197 dollars, I would like to propose an agenda item to discuss whether the town has any ability to try to recover those costs.
Matt, no, it's not. Yes, it is. It's not really recourse for fees the town stop I want to explore whether we have any ability to recover those costs those costs are about the same as half of redoing the ross common they're significant costs and I think we owe it to our citizens and our taxpayers they were your citizens yeah they're a small minority of ours I don't think they're a small minority okay well it's on it's going to be on the a future agenda okay good for you
OK, great. Thank you. OK. Councilmember participation at the communication table at the Ross Post Office on October 8. Any volunteers?
Thank you both. All right. And then last, number 15, meeting evaluation.
Yeah. And I, you know, I read the start of the meeting was reading the great proclamation about Bill and all this wonderful work. And now here we are. Ending on this note so I'm I'm very sorry that we're ending this way bill I really regret it we are adjourned