Remarks by Kate Colin
212 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 8 of 9
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.
Thank you. Thank you to our interpreter. Let's see if there's anyone else who would like to comment.
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…
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?
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.
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…
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.
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.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
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.
Sorry, I jumped in because I was building on that. So Councilmember Hill.
Thank you, Mayor. Let's go ahead and hear Councilmember Hill's question.
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…
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…
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…
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
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?
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.
Okay, thank you. So any short comments on this item before we move on? Vice Mayor, go ahead.
Thank you. Any comments, Council Member Bushy?
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
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.
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?
Thank you. Councilmember Bushey, do you have any questions on this?
Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Hill?