City Council - Regular Meeting

are Peggy Flynn, city manager. Brian Cochran, assistant city manager, Linda Lee, deputy city manager, Charles Akai, son of Kai. And the um the units being discussed are ASME units 1 and 2, PPMA units 4, 9 and 11, PAP unit 6, IAFF unit 7, and PPSMMA unit 10. And that's under government code section 54957.6. Thanks.

Thank you very much. And um u since there's two items, we'll first uh tackle the anticipated litigation discussion and then move on to the labor discussion second. And uh this time I'd like to invite Vice Mayor Darly to discuss his status here. I'll be well I'll be uh I'll be recusing myself from this item uh for reasons that I don't know or understand. it was given to us at the last second and not really properly agendaized by the Brown Act in a timely manner and so I will be recusing myself from this. Okay. Um so noted in the in the record and um

Mr. Mayor I'll note a couple additional things if I may. Um uh Council Member Darly's recusal is in accordance with the recusal requirements in the uh Brown Act. Um, and those are um in section 18, I'm sorry, in the in the in the in the political reform act FPPC regulations under section 18707A4. Um, the item tonight is properly agendaized in accordance with government code sections 54956.9 um, subdivision D, paragraph 4. Thank you.

Thank you. And now we are closed and journed to our closed session. Thank you. We did not. Okay,

this meeting is brought back into order. And are we uh live again? And yes,

good. And um we have one more task at hand which is to open public comment on the closed session and it's at this time we ask people who might wish to speak who are in the audience to bring a card forward to the clerk and uh for the record and the camera there is no one in the room from the public. No one in the room has been in the No one in the public has been in the room and um so with that we have opened and now closed public uh comment on the closed session item and with that we are again adjourned. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

How are you? is too hot. Yeah.

So, it's just going to sit in one of the offices.

Mr. Mayor, are we ready to begin? We are. Okay. And we're recording from earlier, so you're good to go.

Okay. That's perfect then. Thank you and good evening. Uh, welcome everyone. Um, this is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Paluma City Council and Paluma Community Development Successor Agency for Monday, May 4th, 2026. And uh, I see a lot of faces. Uh, if you want to provide public comment tonight, we have public comment cards that are just outside the doorway there. And if you fill them out and bring them to our clerk here in the front of the room, we'll um be able to get you in on public comment during the evening. Uh we also have concurrent uh translation tonight. Uh we have a QR code in the back of the room or if you pick up the agenda QR code on the URL on the agenda and u you can follow along in um in multiple languages. So, uh, with that, I'd like our clerk to have the roll call for the evening, please.

Barnacle, present. Ker Thompson here. D Carly here. Now, here. Quint, here. Shribs here. McDonald here. And we do have a quorum. Great. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America to the stands nation for all.

And also a moment of silence please. So uh at this point we look at the agenda as printed and I look up and down the das to see if anybody wants to change anything on the agenda from council and uh not seeing anyone raise their hand. We're adopting the agenda as it's written and as you can follow along with the um we had a closed session prior to this. We started at five. I'd like to uh turn this over to our attorney to provide a report out from that closed section activity.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I would like to report in accordance with uh government code section 54957.1 which is part of the Brown Act that we have received direction from the city council and that direction includes um authorization to initiate an action if that's warranted. Um and the action defendants and other particulars shall once formally commence be disclosed to anyone upon inquiry unless doing that would jeopardize the city's ability to effectuate service of process on one or more unserved parties. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. You know, um one of my favorite parts of our meetings, we get we have several proclamations where we get to uh credit good work in the community. And uh tonight, our first proclamation uh is for Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And I'd like to invite uh Dr. Chinlang Woo of the Historic Chinatown Park Committee and other members uh as you wish to have up with us. And uh allow me to read. Uh whereas belonging is built not given. And in Paluma, it has been shaped over generations and continues to be built each day by those who live, work, and contribute here, including immigrants, migrants, refugees, and others who have been displaced and all who call this community home. And whereas Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities have long been an integral part of Pedaluma's history, contributing to the development of its railroads, agriculture, river economy, and local businesses. And whereas these contributions, despite these contributions, the histories and experiences of AANHPI communities have not always been fully recognized and at times have been marked by exclusion, displacement, and erasure. Whereas the city of Paluma has taken steps to more fully recognize these histories, including the first proclamation of AANHPI heritage month in 2024. and renaming of the center park as historic Chinatown Park in 2025. And whereas the city of Paluma affirms that belonging is built over time through the contributions, resilience, and stories of all who call this place home. And at a time when national conversations may question who belongs, Paluma chooses to recognize a fuller

history and uphold the values of inclusion and shared community. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Kevin McDonald, Mayor of Pedaluma, along with all the members of the Paluma City Council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the city of Paluma. And we reaffirm Paluma's commitment to honoring the contributions and presence of AA and HPI communities, past, present, and future. The city of Paluma commits to ongoing efforts to educate the public about the histories, contributions, and experiences of uh of these communities, recognizing that this work must be continual in order to foster understanding, inclusion, and a shared sense of belonging. And as we recognize AANHPI Heritage Month, we reaffirm that belonging in Paluma is something we continue to build together. So, thank you. Thank you uh Mayor Madon and members of the city council. And I am receiving the proclamation on behalf of the historic Chinatown committee whose members are here with us. Um, Ling, Lina, Ling, Hosino, Dennis, John, Liby, Lock, Ann, Dan, Yen, Zahed Kader, and Felix Taj, and Hen Jang. On behalf of the Pedaluma Historic Chinatown Committee, we would like to take this occasion to first thank the city for your care and intention in

lifting up the contribution of Chinese people in Paluma and second to underscore the importance of continuing that recognition across the many diverse and nappy community in our city. It matters that the city recognize that belonging and inclusivity is something shaped over generation through labor, through memory, through struggle and through care. And it matters that Paluma is willing to name both the contribution and the history of exclusion that Napi community have faced here. The recognition of historical Chinatown Park and a continued commitment to toing fuller history are not just symbolic acts. They are part of a larger responsibility to ensure that the past is not erased and that the future is more just. As we gather here today, we also acknowledge that the tension between belonging and exclusion continues to generate fear, anguish, and uncertainty among members of our community. Across the country, we are seeing a national climate that continue to target immigrants at every level of society. From day labeler to college professors, from undocumented workers to international scholar, we are seeing policies, rhetoric and enforcement practices that create fear, instability and isolation in community that are essential to the fabric of this country. Just recently we have seen troubling news invi involving a Chinese researcher Dan Haong at the University of Michigan whose deaths follow reported questioned by federal authority reflecting a broader climate of scrutiny on international scholars from China. At

the same time, Southeast Asian community, many of whom can as refugees fleeing war and genocides, are facing disproportionate immigration enforcement with individuals three to four times more likely to be deported for all conviction than other groups. Indeed, across fields and backgrounds, immigrant community are being asked to live under ongoing uncertainty and surveillance. And here in North Bay, we are not separate from that reality. We know that immigrant community in Sonoma County and across the region continue to face rates, housing insecurity and barrier to safety and healthcare. We know that day labelers, farm workers, service workers and student alike are navigating system that too often render them vulnerable. And we also know that Nabi community past and present have faced exclusion, displacement and eraser even as they help build the very foundation of places like Pedaluma. So this moment, this proclamation is more than a celebration. It must also be about responsibility because our power had never been individual. It had always been collective and it lives in the workers who organized for dignity. It lives in the student and scholar who support one another. It lives in community that refuse to be divided by fear. And it lives in cities like Paluma when we chose to stand publicly for inclusion for history and for st shared belonging. If belonging is something we build together, then we must also defend it together.

That means continuing to tell the truth about our history. It means standing with immigrant community when they are targeted and it means recognizing the well-being of our part of community is tied to the well-being of all of us. A commitment to know. So here we accept this proclamation with gratitude but also with a commitment. A commitment to continue building together. A commitment to remain vigilant together. And a communement to ensure belonging are not conditional but collective and enduring. Thank you.

Thank you. Can we get a picture from this? What is Am I being selfish?

Um, thank you. And I should note at this time that uh for all our proclamations, I'm sure public has comments they'd like to share and add. And during our general public comment period, uh the thing about cards I mentioned earlier, uh it's a uh it's chance for the public to comment on any of the proclamations or presentations that we have this evening. Our next proclamation is for bike month and I'd like to invite Aris Weaver, the executive director of Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition to the podium to accept the proclamation. which reads uh whereas the bicycle is a healthy convenient financial financially and environmentally sound form of transportation and an excellent tool for recreation and enjoyment of Pedaluma's scenic beauty local attractions and friendly neighborhoods. And whereas creating a bicycle friendly community has been shown to improve residents health, well-being, and quality of life. uh growing Pedaluma's economy, attracting tourism dollars and local business spending, and reducing pollution, congestion, and wear and tear on the streets and roads. And whereas transportation is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Paluma, accounting for roughly 2thirds of our city's activity- based greenhouse gas emissions. And Paluma is committed to carbon neutrality by 2030. And whereas the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, the Sonoma County Safe Routes to School, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and jurisdictions throughout the Bay Area will be promoting bicycling during the month of May 2026. And whereas throughout the month of May, the residents of Paluma and its visitors can experience the joys of cycling through free educational program, team bike challenges, bike to school day on May 6th, bike to wherever day on May 14th, organized by these groups. And now

therefore, be it resolved that I, Kevin McDonald, Mayor Pedaluma, along with the members of the Paluma City Council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as bike month and urge all residents who are able and interested to discover the joy of bicycling. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members, for your uh the proclamation and celebration and participation in bike month. Um uh want to tell you a little bit about some of the things that we have happening uh during this month. The there will be on bike to work day or bike to wherever day on May 14th. There will be not one, not two, but three Energizer stations within the city of Paluma where cyclists on their way to work or school or wherever can stop and get swag and snacks and all of that. Uh, one of them at the Paluma North Smart Station that the city is hosting. Uh, one at the downtown Smart Station that is being hosted by Safe Streets Pedaluma. And for the first time ever, a Pedaluma Valley Hospital is hosting one as well. Oh, and I neglected to name the gentlemen who are up here with me, although you all probably know them already. They're both on my board of directors, Nathan Spindle involved with S Streets Paluma and um Aaron Prrenis who owns uh Paluma Motorhe a bike shop here in town and are on um on our board of directors. Some of the other uh things that we have happening throughout the month that we'd like to invite people to. On uh May 20th, we're doing a bike shorts, a uh program of three documentary about bicycling, uh biking without age, kitical mass, and in the dirt, which takes which uh is filmed out on a Navajo reservation about mountain biking. And then to wrap up the whole month on May 31st, we're having Pedal Fest, a big bike festival, and that will be in Runner Park. Um, one of the things that I've always really appreciated about Pedaluma is that as as an entity, you have uh been not been afraid to boldly go where others in the county haven't

gone yet. You're the first jurisdiction to have class 4 protected bike lanes, for example. um your bike and ped committee. Don't tell any of the other cities that I said this, but yours is the best. Um so we very much appreciate um all that you've been doing to make cycling safer and u a happier experience in Paluma and you know that you can count on us to continue to still come and go about the places and the things that could still be improved. I know that every time we have a um a shift in uh some new bicycle infrastructure that's been done somewhere uh that there's you know all the interwebs are all a flutter with folks who hate bike lanes and hate cyclists and and uh carry on all about bad bikes where the roads are for cars and I don't know how many people know that actually the first organization to advocate for public paved roads was the League of American Cyclists. Bicyclists were the ones to get roads going. Um, so I think I will end with that and we get another photo with all my my my guys here.

Thank you very much. Thanks. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next uh proclamation is National Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Police Week. And I'd like to invite our police chief Brian Miller to the podium to accept the proclamation. and France, don't be bashful. So whereas the Congress and the President of the United States have designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 10th through May 16th as National Police Week in recognition of law enforcement officers nationwide who have sacrificed their lives or been disabled in the performance of their duties while protecting our communities and safeguarding our democracy. And whereas it is important that all members of our community know and understand the duties, responsibilities, hazards, and sacrifices of those dedicating their lives to the law enforcement profession and to keeping our communities safe. Whereas the members of the Pedal Police Department and law enforcement throughout the state and nation risk their lives on a daily basis to maintain peace and protect the life and property in our communities. And whereas the members of the Pedaluma Police Department provide vital public service, safeguarding the rights and freedoms of all community members in this city. And it's important to always remember Pedaluma police officers Julius Bloom in 1898, Bert Johnson 1925, Russell Rasmmanson in 1927 and Villo Aola in 1998 who gave selflessly gave their lives while serving and protecting this community. Whereas in the United States, 103 police peace officers were killed in the line of duty in 1925 or 20 2025 and 31 so far

in 2026. And in California, 12 peace officers were killed in the line of duty in 2025 and one so far in 2026. Whereas the city of Paluma also recognizes the following Pedaluma Police annual award recipients. Detective Alyssa Hansen as police officer of the year. Officer Carlos Ramirez as the uh Willow Ahala most inspirational employee of the year and Sergeant Ryan Grievy McGrevy as supervisor of the year. public safety dispatcher at Briana Barlo as dispatcher of the year and senior management analyst Ingred Reninger as employee of the year and volunteer Jackie Goldblat as volunteer of the year. And whereas the city of Paluma further recognizes Detective Alyssa Hansen for her outstanding service and dedication to the community, having been selected as the Pedaluma Police Department Peace Officer of the Year, which led to her nomination and ultimate selection as Sonoma County Police Peace Officer of the Year, an award reflecting the highest standard of professionalism, integrity, and commitment to public safety. And whereas with heavy hearts, the members of the Paluma Police Department fondly cherish the memory of former Pedaluma Police Reserve Officer Tim Abuara and former uh Pedaluma Police crime scene investigator Leadonna Thompson, both of whom we lost within the past year. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Kevin McDonald, mayor of Paluma, along with the members of the Paluma City Council, do formally designate May 15, 2026 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 10 to 16, 2026 as National Police Week. Thank you for his service all.

Thank you, mayor. And just briefly to follow up on that, um I want to thank and take a moment to for you uh for recognizing our team, for recognizing those who made the ultimate sacrifice before us and both our sworn officers and professional staff who are doing the work every day. Um as you can see, we have a really dedicated group of people who show up prepared, stay focused, and take pride in what they do. Um, and whatever it is, responding to calls for service, conducting thorough investigations, managing critical communications, or supporting operations behind the scene, every role in our department matters, and every contribution help keeps this community safe. Uh, our work's demanding. It requires sound judgment. The utmost professionalism and consistency, often in situations uh that are unpredictable and at times incredibly difficult and demanding. Um, what I see from my team every day is steady commitment to doing their job, our job, the right way with integrity, accountability, and respect for the community we serve. And we continue to maintain a high level of service while keeping Pedaluma one of the safest communities in our region. And that's truly a direct reflection of the people in the department and the effort that they put in every single day and every single shift. And so we appreciate the continued support from the council, from our community. um it truly matters and we don't take that for granted and we carry that with us through our shifts every day into the community. So, thank you. You know, it's um it's not every day we get to move to this next part, which is a presentation, Sonoma County Officer of the Year, which is presented by the SC ECA, and it's for Alyssa Alli Hansen. And I'd like to invite our uh supervisor David Rabbit and also Ray Carlson of the the district

officer of the Northern California District Exchange Club to the podium to lead us through this uh present the honor.

Yeah. Well, thank you, Mayor. I'm Ray Carlson, as you can probably figure out when the group's here. Anyway, proud member of the Exchange Club and honored to be here tonight to present this recognition to your officer. The Exchange Club of San Rosa has been in existence since 1941. That's 85 years and our focus is youth Americanism, community, and prevention of child abuse. This one fits right in with the officer being recognized tonight. Besides those main programs, we are now honoring veterans in the Reach across America program at the Franklin Memorial Park in Franklin up in Santa Rosa. This year it'll be on December 19th. I invite you to come up and see that. Last year we put 35 Reese out to honor veterans and then in turn donated money back to veterans groups. This is the 78th year of honoring a Snowman County peace officer. This lady stands with some very outstanding officers. One of them stood through a gunfight, not a gunfight, excuse me, a standoff with a gun. And then also we've also now been able to since we changed this format instead of a big dinner and open to the public even though public's here tonight this these officers are okay to be in the public but in the last few years we honored undercover drug officer and a gang task force member out of the city Santa Rosa. So, with that, I'd like to turn it over to Chief Miller. And by the way, he was

an officer honored by the County of Sonoma Peace Officers and Exchange Club honored him in 2013. Brian, would you come up and explain why this young ladies get honored? Thank you, Ray, and thank you for the exchange club for the opportunity to uh recognize Detective Hansen. Um, it's really an honor to speak about Ally and uh her selection for officer of the county. As we mentioned earlier in the earlier proclamation, we had previously recognized her as our peace officer of the year. And part of that process is she's nominated amongst her peer group within the county for for this additional recognition. and we're just really really proud that she was selected. Um, since joining our department in 2019, Alli's established herself as a trusted and highly capable investigator handling what are some of our most serious and complex cases uh that we see. These are including sexual assaults, crimes against children, elder abuse, um violent physical assaults against other persons in our community, firearm offenses, and increasingly more and more complicated and complex multi-jurisdictional organized retail theft cases that um span across multiple counties in the region. Uh these cases frequently involve vulnerable victims. Uh the cases that our investigations team are not simple. They often have delayed reporting, significant evidentiary challenges, but Alli's approached each of these cases with the utmost patience, professionalism, and a clear focus. Um, in particular, one of the cases that stood out to us this year and resonated with the exchange club was a serious serious investigation involving multiple juvenile victims from our community. And the strength of that investigation has resulted in charges

from our district attorney's office that carry the potential um weight of a of a 50-year prison sentence, which just really tells you how serious and how egregious this offender was in victimizing someone. And our most sensitive um community members are members of our youth. Um, and that's um, you know, really the the strength of that investigation's a reflection of what Ally gives, um, both to the case, to the victims that that demand and require justice. Um, and her quality of her work just really shown throughout this last year and throughout her career up to this point as well. Um, but at the same token that this recognition reflects more than just one single case. It represents sustained excellence, sound judgment, and a deep commitment to service. Her work protects the members of the community, supports victims during some of their most difficult moments, and ensures those responsible for serious crimes are held accountable. Um, as I mentioned, we're incredibly proud of her. I'm grateful to both Rey and the entire exchange club that's here, Supervisor Rabbit, um, for recognizing Ally, as well as our council for recognizing her um, in our earlier proclamation. And so, um, please join me in thanking her and congratulating her. And I also want to introduce Supervisor Rabbit to say a few words as well. Supervisor, uh, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, great to see you. It's a pleasure to be with you tonight to commend and honor our Pedaluma police officer, Detective, uh, Hansen, as the Exchange Club officer of the year. And again, a quick thank you to Rey uh and the Exchange Club for their tradition of recognizing and honoring our first responders in this way. Again, uh as the chief said, Detective Hansen has moved quickly within the organization because she consistently demonstrates a high level of performance, teamwork, and her

commitment to service. She is a true professional. She has been tasked with some heinous cases, crimes against children, sexual assault cases involving juveniles and her work has aided in successful prosecutions. And uh I am u this year we have five functional groups at the county that we all split. I am the justice partners uh function group. We actually had a conversation uh regarding um some of this uh work and uh the congratulations. It's my long way of saying uh Carlo Rodriguez, our DA, says thank you very much and congratulations. Uh your work really matters. It makes a difference to the entire community. Uh it keeps us safe. Um and uh we very much appreciate that. Thank you again uh for your service and congratulations on this achievement. Let's see. Hey, come on up for yours. She represents David. Assemblyman David Conley.

Hello everyone. My name is Yennia. Hello. Hello.

Uh I work for Assembly Member Damon Connelly. So on behalf of his his office, we would love to present Detective Hansen with a resolution from the state. um a fellow SSU alum, I also studied criminology and criminal justice studies. So, it's it's like the perfect major to have for a career such as the one you have. And I also, not to tie the ties, but I saw your bio. I worked at the family justice center as well with uh Georgina here in the audience and um through legal aid. and we were just working below the district attorney's office and there have been really at least in my year and a half working there really tough experiences where we were in their interview room and um oftentimes detectives such as detective Hansen would be one of those first people we call whether that's for safety or whether that's so they can get a statement um but the professionalism and again the the ability to work quickly and in a way that is sensitive to the needs of the survivors is a very hard thing to do. So you deserve all the recognition and warn congratulations.

Yeah.

Hop in the photo. I gota We're not quite done yet. I'm sorry. Got She's got a few more things to hold up. So, uh, so this from U Senator Maguire, he has a recognition certificate for you here to for your work for the 78th peace officer of the year in honory. So, there's yours. Thank you.

There. Hold. I'm going to switch to chief. Along with this award goes something that the police department gets to hang in their office. Perpetual trophy here that we've got with blacks. And I already announced that Chief Miller was in 2013. I wanted 2017, a Michael Paige, detective uh Patrick Gerky in 2018, Steven Cummings in 2019 shows a little bit about your department, what's been going on, and now you're back on the board again. So maybe you'll be here again next year with another honore. So hold this proudly in your office someplace.

Thank you, sir. Yeah. So thank you. Now Michael Swiss our president will be up to present the club's pot plaque to her to uh congratulate you for your exceptional service. Thank you.

Okay, now picture your time. I'm going to send it unless you got something else. And and uh since you clearly can tell that we love giving out awards and we love hardware, I have one last thing because and I think it's fitting to end from the pedalum centric piece. But uh you'll see on detectives uh Hansen's uniform already some accommodation metal ribbons on her displayed on on her on her front of her uniform, but we're adding one more. So, uh, every officer that gets the officer of the year for us receives a distinguished service, uh, ribbon, but additionally for officer of the county, they receive a secondary ribbon that's designated with the year to always remind them of the year that they received this recognition. So, congratulations, Ally.

All you want to say something to the group? Sure.

Thank you, Ray. Um, thank you, city council. I'll make this uh short and sweet, but it's been a long year, a lot of hard work. Um I wouldn't have been able to do it without first and foremost my family and then everyone behind me. Um we say this every time, but we're truly a team and we can't do any of this alone. So them back there is the real reason for all this. So thank you and a big thank you to our our uh police department and those who honor them. Thank you. We also tonight uh our next presentation is uh regarding our um delivery of the fiscal year 27 proposed budget. Um some might look at a book that big and see a lot of numbers, but when you're sitting on this side of it, you recognize that those numbers are policy and they're super important. And to help us with uh understanding it, we have our assistant finance director, Corey Garbolio. Thank you, Mayor McDonald, and members of the city council. I'm happy to be here this evening to deliver the 2627 proposed budget. Both the electronic and hard copy versions um have been made available to you for your review. This delivery of the proposed budget meets the timing directed by our city charter, which states that the tenative budget shall be submitted to um council by the first Monday in May. We have also made the proposed budget available to the community on the city website at city of pedaluma.org/citybudgets. org/citybudgets. Um, we've been working on this draft budget since late October and have created a balanced and comprehensive operating and capital improvement program budget document for your review. The city's budget is a reflection of our values and includes significant

investment in our community. U, we are fortunate to have Measure U resources to support this investment and we appreciate the community support as we continue leveraging um, resources to maximize communal benefits. We will be back um next Monday, May 11th, for the budget workshop and we'll go over the budget um in detail at that time. We will then return on May 18th with the first reading um and adoption of the budget ordinance. The second and final reading of the budget ordinance will come to council on June 15th. So, please feel free to reach out um if you have any questions. We can answer them before or we can answer them next Monday. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much. And our um uh final presentation for the evening um it's a little deeper. Uh we have an overview of SB77. Uh that is uh updates to the Brown Act. This is our open meeting laws. Very important here. To help us uh with this, we have both our city clerk Caitlyn Corley and our assistant city attorney Dylan Brady to help. Kaitlin.

Uh hello. Good evening. Um, so Dylan and I are going to cover SB707, um, which and give some, uh, more information about what those changes are going to be. So, I'll start it off. So, California's Senate Bill 707 is a law that was signed uh, in on October 3rd, and it updates the Ralph M. Brown Act to include new public meeting and teleconferencing requirements. The law really aims to modernize transparency by establishing remote participation rules and expanding language and digital access requirements for local government meetings. Um so SB77 makes several changes to the Brown Act, but the most significant and visible change for council and for the public is that eligible bodies must provide both call-in options and two-way remote platform for public participation. So that's the return of Zoom comments. Um eligible bodies include city councils and county boards with jurisdictions of over 30,000. So that means that these new rules will apply to city council meetings. Um but they will not uh apply to subsidi subsidiary bodies like the CCBs. Um the good news for us is of course that this is not our first rodeo. We have provided the opportunity for remote public comments via Zoom during the pandemic. Uh we did unfortunately have to um stop that practice uh due to some Zoom bombings which included some hate speech but we feel confident that we'll be able to bring the practice back successfully. Uh last year as you know council adopted a decorum policy uh which all participants virtual or in person are required to abide by. So that will help us make sure that it's a smooth process to return to these zoom comments. Uh and the return will be uh at our regular meeting in July. So July 6, 2026 will be our first uh meeting with remote comments. In addition to the return of the remote

comments, SB77 requires cities to ensure that their public meetings page complies with new requirements focused on accessibility and requires cities to make efforts to reach out to the media as well as other groups that do not traditionally participate in public meetings. So we'll be working with our community partners to connect with a broad spectrum of the public. We have already been making inroads in this issue with the appointment of our two monilingual Spanish speakers on the recreation, music, and parks commission. So, that's really expanded our outreach into the Spanish speaking community here in town. Um, SB77 also has some translation and interpretation requirements for cities with 20% or more of a population that speaks a different language and also speaks English less than very well according to the census. and pedalum actually does not fall into that category, but we of course are already providing translation services at our council meetings through Wordley, which is great. Um, we're also required to provide a space for translated agendas, provide reasonable assistance and accommodations for interpretations and translations, which we are happy to do. So, uh, now I'll pass it over to Dylan to cover cover some additional changes, including our technology dist disruption policy.

Thank you, Kaylin. uh other changes to the Brown Act because of SB77, it modified and made it easier for eligible bodies to uh participate remotely. Uh typically under the Brown Act, I call it the traditional teleconferencing rules. Uh eligible body members need to uh make their location available for the public. they need to post at their location where they're going to be participate remotely and that that location needs to be agendaized as well. So that was relaxed during the COVID and it's been relaxed even more with SB77. Uh some of those changes that were in COVID they were relaxed because they had either just causes or emergencies that was an exemption that allowed you to participate remotely without having to agendaize or open your location to the public. Uh this has SP77 amended this by uh consolidating just causes and emergencies. Now they're just causes and they've added another just cause for uh physical emergencies of either the body member or their uh immediate family. other changes to remote. It codified in attorney general opinion here that was a couple years ago to allow for reasonable accommodation. If you can't physically make it to the meetings because of a disability, the city will do this accommodation process sufficiently to try to see if an accommodation is you participating remotely. Uh to participate remotely though through the accommodation, you need to have your camera on as well as audio unless the disability prevents you from doing so. You also need to say who's in the room with you above the age of 18. And then the other kind of relaxed teleconference rule is during COVID you might remember that every 45 days city council had to make a motion whether or not to continue the hybrid meetings to participate

remotely or sorry not hybrid meetings whether to participate remotely. Uh it needed to be only if there was a state of emergency that's been relaxed to now also allow local emergencies as well. So, a little bit of more flexibility for council members to participate remotely. Other changes, it removed the social media exception sunset. Uh, so this was a law, I think it was in 2020, AB192 that said that uh eligible or CCB members, body members could uh participate or on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. uh just that now it says that other body members of that body can't like or comment on that post when it's about city business. So that was set to sunset uh in January 1st. That has now been extended permanently. So that's good. Um and then it codified uh with going back to hybrid now that it says that if you are being disruptive during your remote participation for the public, you can be asked to be removed if you're causing disruptions. And then the other big change that we're talking tonight about is the adoption of the remote technology policy. And Kaitlin, I think we can go to the next slide. So this is a requirement by July 1st. Every eligible body and those are cities that are more than 30,000 needs to adopt this policy that discusses the process for recessing and reconvening if the Zoom goes down and the public's not able to participate. So we are here tonight. It's on the consent item. I believe it's item number eight to adopt the remote technology disruption policy. And I think Caitlyn, we can go to the next slide, please. That's a little tough to see. Uh, but essentially what the policy says is if once we learn about the Zoom going down and the public's not able to

participate remotely, then we will recess, uh, our IT staff will have an hour to make a good faith effort to try to get the Zoom back on. Uh, and it kind of talks to the policy on that lower uh, bubble about what a good faith effort is. Uh, I don't speak it. I don't know if it's switching the thing on or off, doing the Arthur Fonzerelli, hit the juke box with your elbow. Uh, but they'll work for an hour to try to get it back up. And if it gets up before the hour, then the meeting can part uh continue. If they aren't able to get fix the Zoom within an hour, then the meeting will go back to city council. City council will decide and make a vote about whether to continue the meeting and whether the IT staff made a good faith effort. Um, and what's kind of unique to our policy that no other technology disruption policy currently adopted has is that it also obligates our staff to put a email blast out to the public as well as post on our website. Hey, Zooms down if you want to participate. Make sure that you come here in person. We're trying our best to get it back. So, that is something that's unique to Pedaluma. It's not a requirement, but it just shows that Paluma we're special and transparent. Um so then after city council votes to either cancel the meeting or continue the meeting or to continue it uh I guess continue it to a later date or continue it the meeting uh that day if the it is not able to get it fixed then the meeting will uh presume or resume without the zoom uh link participation. So, that's number eight. And next slide, please, Kaylin. And we're here to answer any questions. And since this is on the consent item for uh we thought we could answer any questions you may have about the policy right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate you keeping apprised of us surprised of all the state law changes. It's hard to keep up. Um but this was an important one for public access to our meetings on Zoom. uh you made a good point that um the consent calendar item is just strictly about that one-hour policy and the all the rest of the ramifications are in your presentation. So um you I am anxious to see if our council has any questions. Uh council member Shribs um basically two uh you mentioned there is a a one hour so the the tech group has one hour to kind of fix things. So um so are we adding so that means a a tech person will be here at all meetings from that point forward to uh try to uh help us on that. So we kind of codified what our current practice is and we have tech here making sure that the meeting is running smoothly beforehand. They're here a little bit at the uh just to make sure the first couple minutes and then they're on standby. And I should say that this is a muscle that we really haven't flexed. I know during hybrid, I think Zoom only went down one time and it wasn't anything that was a problem here remotely. It was on Zoom nationally. So, the plan would be that uh IT staff who live pretty close would be on standby and then when they get in the building, the hour the clock would start from then.

Okay, good. Just there it goes. And then uh in in person folks fill out a little blue form uh with their name and uh and what they're going to be talking about basically. Will that also be a requirement for those folks on coming in on Zoom? And are there requirements for them to actually be visible physically before they're allowed in? Yeah. So, I don't know, Kaitlin, I can take the first stab or if you want to. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. So, the Brown Act doesn't require you to actually put your name down. You can be anonymous if you want. And I think our current policy would be to continue that practice with uh not being visible on Zoom. I think that would be probably right for people to abuse that. Um that's the current practice I think.

So I think we don't we have a policy that u they need to be like the citizens of the town or have business here to um to in order to come up and and present or or speak. Is there any requirements that during regular policy uh and is there anything required of the zoom or can anybody from all over the world come in and start zooming on us? Anybody all over the world can participate remotely or come in here if they you know have a something to say about the item. Okay. I just want to be clear on on expectations on that. Thank you. Yep.

Thank you. Yeah, I I I think the phrase we were looking for was um council's subject matter jurisdiction and and I think we'll still have to be monitoring real carefully um w with um keeping people on focus with things we can help with. And um I think that will probably require a little more assistance from the clerk's office. Um do you have a plan for how you're going to gate keep all this? I'm We're gonna work it out. We're gonna appreciate a little bit of patience as we as we make the transition, but we're gonna find a way to do it.

Okay. Good. Any other questions? Good. All right. Well, thank you very much. Great presentation. I hope you're staying around because it is possible that someone in general public comment will have that question for you. Um that does move us to general public comment. And during general public comment, the public's invited to make comments on items of public interest that are within the city's subject matter jurisdiction and that are not listed on the current agenda. Public comments are limited up to 3 minutes per person, but depending on the number of people that we have in the room, time will be allocated in equal shares totaling no more than 20 minutes. If we have more than 20 people wishing to speak, the additional comments will be heard after the last business item on the agenda. So, I'd like to turn this over to the clerk and ask if we've received general public comment by email and then deleted into our message.

Yes, we have received 16 general public comments. Those are posted on the website. And at this time, I will start a 30 second clock. During these 30 seconds, members of the public should bring their speaker cards to my desk if they have not already done so. And speaker cards received after this time may not be accommodated. We have uh 10 comment cards submitted. So each commenter will be allowed two minutes. The clerk sets the clock for that. And our u first speaker is Brett Spelain and to be followed by Harlon Osbborne. Hello, my name is Brett Spelain and I am here on behalf of coach Rick Chris from Pedaluma High School. unfortunately is under the weather, but asked that I read a uh letter that he wrote regarding changing the name of the East Washington baseball field. Good evening, mayor and members of the council. Due to influenza, I'm apologize for not being able to address you in person. My name is Ricky Christ, and I am reaching out to you not only as a high school coach, but as someone whose life in sports was shaped in part by a man many of us know simply as JJ. I first met John JJ Jackson as an eight-year-old kid stepping onto a field with more energy than skill and a love for the game that was just beginning to take root. JJ was there, not in uniform, but just as present as any player or coach. He had a way of making young athletes feel seen like what we were doing mattered. As an August Courier paper boy, I got a great pleasure out of reading the box scores and articles. As young athletes, we felt

like many celebrities seeing our names in the paper. Through his decades with the Pedalumus Ar Courier, starting in 1970, JJ did more than report scores. He told the stories of our community. He celebrated effort, character, and growth. He made Friday night lights, weekend tournaments, and small victories feel big because to him they were. As I grew from an eight-year-old athlete into a coach, I came to understand even more clearly what JJ gave to this community. He was unwavering advocate for youth sports. He believed deeply in the value of participation, teamwork, and belonging. He showed up again and again for our local high schools and community teams, not because he had to, but because he genuinely cared. Fields like East Washington baseball fields are more than just places where games are played. They are where confidence is built, friendships are formed, and life lessons are learned. JJ understood that. He honored those moments with his words. And in doing so, he helped shape generations of athletes. Dedicating the East Washington baseball field in his name is not just about recognizing.

Thank you. The two minutes,

and and we hope uh you've submitted that uh into the record uh as a letter in and will be printed into our um agenda with notes. So it'll be thoroughly covered. Uh Harlon Osborne should be followed by Frank Wright. I had about three minutes set, so I'm going to have to uh eliminate some of this what I'm saying. Um good evening, Mayor McDonald, council members, friends, and neighbors. My name is Harlon Osborne. I'm here to show my support behind the proposal to rename the PedalMa Community Playing Fields uh to the Johnny Jackson Sports Complex or whatever name that you decide on. As you're aware, JJ, as we knew him, was the sports editor for the Argus Courier for decades. He was my friend and my coworker for 20 years until his passing in 2023. He was soft-spoken, kind, gentle, and remarkably patient. But he gave a loud voice to our young athletes and their accomplishments. Winning seasons, losing seasons, or rebuilding, they were all treated equally. He followed family's growth as younger siblings, boys and girls came along year after year. If uh Rick Christrist would have been here tonight, we would have he might have spoke about numerous family members of uh that his family followed. JJ was an extraordinary person, a keen wit and a brilliant, tireless writer who literally defined sports and the longlasting benefit of sportsmanship. If he was with us tonight, we may not even be aware he was here. He'd probably

be sitting in the back just quietly taking notes. It's such a simple gesture yet so meaningful to the past and present the past and future generations of our local athletes. Please pass this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Frank Wright to be followed by Alina Hashino.

Good evening. Thank you for listening. Uh I'm going to be piling on because a lot of what I have to say has been covered by Rick's nice letter that Mr. Splain uh just read to us. But uh I go back as many of you do if I I first came to Pum in 1970, started coaching right away and one of the first people I met was JJ because he covered our sports even back then. He covered football, basketball, baseball, little league, softball, whatever was being played. He was there. As Harlon mentioned, he was a very good writer, very detailed writer. Always had the kids first. And if if if he lived in this area as long as I have, you have to know who he is. And your kids have to know who he is. And I'm sure they picked up the papers and found their names and pictures in it very, very often. He's a terrific man. Became a very good friend of mine. Miss him dearly. Uh it was mentioned he he died and it be almost three years ago that he died. Shortly after he died uh some old coaches like myself got together say how can we honor JJ what can we do? Well we can't really name a field after him or court after him because he was every exciting it was he uh he covered them all. So this the opportunity has has arisen the fields that have been constructed out there on East Washington Street. They need a name. They need a dedication. Perfect. I can't think of anybody in town that knows JJ would object to that being done. And I guess what we're here to do is seek your support and help us with the process to get that done.

Thank you. Thank you. Um Lena Hashino to be followed by Lisa Shun Johnson Foster.

Good evening. My name is Lena Lin Hosino with the Pedaluma Historic Chinatown Park Committee. I've been working to uncover and interpret the history of Chinese people who helped build this city. A rewarding work that brought people together and created a sense of community that didn't exist before. I thanked you before in 19 2025 and a little later than that. But I want to thank you again for uh for recognizing early Chinese people's contribution with the plaque and renaming of center park uh to Paluma Historic Chinatown Park. It's been profoundly healing for us. It affirms that we AAHPI people belong even as the national narrative often tells us otherwise. But one thing continues to haunt me. These people, these Chinese people were everywhere in the historical record. Yet very little of their own voices remain. Their lives were written about um in newspapers, often in a breathless, hateful rhetoric and fear-mongering way, but not their perspectives, their dreams, or their humanity. And almost no stories of neighbors showing up for them. Thankfully, some things have changed today. More people, include I know many in this room are standing up for their neighbors under attack and pushing back against hateful government policies that are tearing communities apart. But still, there's a profound absence of voice, especially of those who do not speak English. Today, many NAPI community members are living in fear, withdrawn, staying up quiet, avoiding public spaces. And we've seen this before, but oh shoot, I'm running out of time. I wanted to what I really wanted to say was that we're

planning an exhibit based on that. And I probably should have just started with that, but please come. We're going to do a Let me just finish this real quick. Um we're doing a exhibit called um uh belongings what we bring and what we leave behind and it's a community storytelling an exhibit where people share meaningful belongings and the stories they carry and the names to carry this space for voices to yeah in the records two minutes is harsh very hard yes our next speaker is uh Lisa Shung Johnson Foster to be followed by Darren from Rakazen.

Hi there. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Lisa Shung Johnson Foster and I'm here to represent leadership from the AAPI Coalition North Bay. Um we have been a part of things that you may have heard of in the county like the Many Moons Festival last October in Sebastaple. This May in honor of AAPI Heritage Month, we're doing our first gala bless you. um in Santa Rosa called the Lanterns and Vines Gala featuring all AAPI venters and chefs from our local area. What I want to say is thank you so much for recognizing AAPI Heritage Month, but I encourage you as a city to do more than just recognize it with a proclamation, but how do we highlight AAPI owned businesses? How do we help represent the people that may be feeling a little too insecure to be out in the public? How can we help highlight these stories? So maybe with a partnership with AAPIC, we can help you identify those folks and see how that how we can collaborate and make them shine. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Karen Rakinson to be followed by Libby Lock.

Thank you, Mayor Council. Something I want to bring up is something that's been gnawing at me for a while. I'm on planning commission sit on other CCBs and this is Microsoft teams and thinking about teams and you know different aspects related to communication compliance especially during public hearings or matters where there's evidence in a record things need to be discussed at the hearing whether those teams communications are purely transitory whether they are subject to some kind of P requests or discovery uh because it's been brought to my attention that sometimes members of CCBs are in the team's chat with staff during the meeting. Um, you know, I totally understand if it's kind of administrative. Hey, we're going to move to this item next, X, Y, and Z. But I just want us to be really thoughtful and careful about our guidance around what is disclosed in those teams chats, what kind of information, and make sure basically that there's not something backstage going on and determining either the flow of the meeting outcomes on a policy direction or a project discussion that aren't happening right up front at the hearing. Uh, and maybe there needs to be a policy developed around Teams chats. Maybe if there's something that reaches a threshold beyond like a hey, we're running late type message sent to the group, maybe that has to go through email or another channel so that it is on the record. Um, so I just wanted to elevate that. Again, it's been something that's burning in my brain for a while. Um, you know, staff can either speak to it here or just send me an email followup just to make sure we understand what that process is. Thank you.

Thank you, Libby Lock to be followed by uh Phyllis Stani. Hello, my name is Libby Lockach. Last year, I stood here encouraging the city to approve historic Chinatown Park. Today, I wanted to share some of the positive and uplifting things that happened since then. First, I've seen many tears shed at our events and in our meetings can countless thank yous. The act of recognizing history and humanizing forgotten people is very powerful. Since last May, our committee has accomplished a great deal together. In November, we held the plaque unveiling for Paluma Historic Chinatown Park in collaboration with three other organizations and had more than 300 attendees. In February, we partnered with Sonoma Mountain Zen Center for a Lunar New Year incense offering ceremony. It was deeply moving. In March, we collaborated with four organizations and led the Paluma Mother's Club Lunar New Year celebration geared towards families with children aged 0 to 5. This month, we will host two artists who are grantees from the 1882 Foundation as they begin developing a public art project collecting local history with national visibility. Lastly, three third grade teachers have let us know that they have incorporated Paladaluma's Chinese American history into their Padaluma history curriculum. Our work has gone beyond remembrance and I want to thank you for your continued support.

Thank you. And Phyllis Ton Tanji to um Tina Rice. Hi, my name is Phyllis Taji and I am a member of the Sonoma County JACCL which stands for JapaneseAmerican Citizens League. The Sonoma County Chapter is part of the National JCL Network which is the oldest and largest Asian-American Civil Rights Organization in the nation. National JCL was started in 1929 and the Sonoma County Chapter was founded in 1934. Originally fighting for Japanese American civil rights, it's evolved, the mission has evolved to advocate for social justice and civil rights for all groups facing discrimination and injustice. And over the decades, the organizations have seen a lot of changes um uh in this nation. And today I'd like to thank you for recognizing the AAHPI Heritage Month and behalf of all who have always uh have not always been heard. I appreciate the city's efforts to become more inclusive and welcoming. Thank you.

Thank you. Tina Rice should be followed by Shantel Rogers. Hi, my name is Tina Rice and I'm a third grade teacher here in Pedaluma at Meadow Elementary. I'm one of the few educators in this community who brings rich cultures, languages, and stories that strengthen our community. As an educator, this is deeply relevant to me in honoring our Asian ancestors. I see every day how powerful it is when students feel seen and valued for who they are. So, I encourage our city to continue to proudly highlight and honor our Asian-Americans, our Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islander through our heritage month because we uplift our students. When we uplift our students, we are also uplifting our whole entire community. So, thank you.

Thank you, uh, Chantel Rogers. Good evening. Um, in an effort to better understand the pickle that Pedaluma finds itself in with regards to its transit budget, I listened to the ST SCTCA meeting on April 13th after our city council transit budget discussion. It turns out that the Sonoma Transit Authority has not agreed with Pedaluma's effort to not pay for contributo funding of bus lines servicing Pedaluma. The group of directors was ready to vote to approve the coordinated claim necessary to fund the various transits authorities involved when our director asked that the vote be postponed until the next month since Pedaluma does not want to pay this $260,000. Several of the other participants including Supervisor Rabbit expressed concern as to why Pedaluma would present this issue so late in the process since this budget has been discussed for months. The meeting was postponed to May by default since the motion to postpone was not passed since the deadline the MT MTC deadline for the next fiscal year is May 1st. Pedaluma's actions delayed entities being paid their transportation funds until a coordinated claim can be passed. Santa Rosa said they would have to borrow from their city's precarious general fund and repay the fund with interest. I'm trying to understand how a transit budget process that started last December and has involved countless hours and expense could be predicated on the assumption assumption that we could just reig on paying a contribution which our transit director told us we have been paying without fail for decades. We are short on funds so we find a legal loophole to allow us to back out of an agreement we would be expected to pay. Did we imagine that the Sonoma County Transit was not counting on that quarter million dollars to trans balance their own budget and would just let us slide?

And what kind of partner do we look like if we just one day decide to say, "Sorry, we're not going to pay." The next SCTCA meeting is in a week and presumably the city is working on a solution. If we have to pay this expense, I guess it's back to the drawing board for the transit budget. I find this truly baffling.

Thank you very much. And that was our last speaker under general public comment. And that brings it back up to the council for the council's comments. I'd like to start um with council member Shribs. Um thank you. Uh attended several meetings, but uh um many of not uh anything new, but uh a few things. Um, I did for Earth Week, which was just last week. Um, I did have a company come out, uh, Sienna, uh, one of our tech companies that are fairly new here in town, and they offered to come out and help and clean up the river and, uh, and work on Shelenburgger Park, make it look nicer. So, they spent the whole afternoon, paid employees, spending time with us out there helping out. So, that was really nice to have them there. Then, um, there was over at the Hall of the Above, which is a 100redyear anniversary for that building. Uh a couple other members from the council were there for uh for that 100red-y year anniversary. A really great party and celebration. Uh let's use that facility more if we can. Um yesterday was the future fest over at the community center. Um hundreds of people which showed up and participated and um and came to learn more things. We had uh presentations in English and Spanish throughout and um I myself gave a presentation on microars but I talked to all the presenters here at all the tables and the most impressive was the students a whole room full of students with showing off their environmental literacy and the projects they're doing in school. So it was really nice to see them doing that especially since a retired teacher myself. Um uh one of the webinars I attended was uh from a Stanford doctor working on uh microplastics. She's a pediatrician and uh taking a leading role there and uh doing some recent research papers that she was talking about and it just turns out microplastics are even worse and more pervasive than we thought earlier. Uh it's in found in almost every single body body fluid everywhere including our brains and um it's it's and they've

actually started to correlate it with some health issues uh directly. So there's some correlations already been found. So plastics need to be dealt with. Um and if maybe we want to do more in that area down for us. Um then another little project I'm working on is donut economics. I'm working with a nonprofit for looking at a database and indicators here for for pedalum in the county. So uh anybody like to talk to me about that I'm willing to talk to them. And then another uh recently just talking to Damon Connley, one of our congressmen. And right now at the state level there is legislation happening at least three bills going through the system all about electric bike rules and laws and regulations. So something to pay attention to. Um again um I'll be working on this maybe with a little bit of the bike community here. And so come talk to me if you're interested in doing more work in that area. So that's my report for today.

Thank you very much. Council member Quint.

Uh thank you. I I just want to take a moment and briefly acknowledge an incident that was brought forward uh this past week. A uh a public display of a Nazi symbol in a local business was reported. Uh it wasn't the business that that had the display. It was a person in the business. And I think it's important that we as a city are clear about where we stand on matters like this. So I just want to say it plainly. I have no tolerance for Nazism, racism, or the symbols associated with those things. I deplore what they represent, which is hate, violence, the dehumanization of entire groups of people. The public displays of those symbols are not harmless. They send a message, whether intended or not, about who belongs and who doesn't. And that runs counter to the kind of community that we are trying to build here in Paluma. This isn't about regulating speech. It's about using our voice, my voice as an elected public official to say clearly that Nazism or anything that represents it or resembles it has no place. Thank you.

Thank you. Um I I have to lift that up a little bit. They um I appreciate you standing out on it. That complaint came to all of us and um there's a certain sense of futility. How do I change other people? How do I what can I do? I mean the public or for a council member. But the thing you can do is you can stand up and be counted and that's what you did. And and and I mean we put a poster up on the wall against hate but your voice is still the most powerful thing we have. So thank you. Um council member now Well, that's a hard one to follow, um, Council Member Quinn, but thank you. Um, and I agree, the mayor, you did it very well, too. Um, my, uh, report at the April public safety meeting, committee members received, reviewed, and discussed the 2025 independent police auditors, the IPA, annual report, which covers a period from January 2025 to December 2025. The city council will have an opportunity to hear the report at a future meeting. The 2025 IPA annual report highlighting the pedal police department led by our police chief and staff is 100% proactive and focused on law enforcement's best practices. We are pleased to share that calls for service and arrest in the city are down and the IPA specifically commended officers and supervisors for their performance in high stress situations. As we heard in the proclamations today, at the last week's Homeless Coalition COC board meeting, committee members heard and discuss budget reductions forecasted for the next five years, fiscal shortfalls, and reduced services at the state, county, and civil city levels will affect local service providers. To better understand the priorities, a survey was created to ask providers what

services are most important and what could be streamlined to save money. On a lighter note, I had the pleasure of attending several community events, including an Earth Day celebration at the fairgrounds, Northern California Engineering Contractors Association, public officials appreciation night, future fest at the community center, the Centennial Birthday Bash at the Hall of the Above. And I want to remind everybody to put on their calendar June 18th to the 21st to go to the fair. It's my favorite four days of the year. And there'll be lots of local food, beverages, um, animal shows and crafts. And the premium books will be out soon and local vendors and lots of music. So stay tuned. And the premium book, if you don't know, is how you put your jar of jam in or your animal into the fair. Okay. Finally, I want to wish my mom, Edmarie Peterson, Pedaluma's bee whisperer, and this week's chicken saver because a chicken showed up at the post office with no label. And all the other Pedaluma moms, a happy Mother's Day. And on the public comment, hello Mr. Wright. I think I got a D plus in your class. I was probably too busy looking at those athletes in front of me. And um JJ Community Sports Complex has a very good ring to it, but I think it needs to go through the parks department and the parks and rec committee before it comes back to us for naming. And tell Ricky Chris we missed him. And to the Asian community speakers, thank you very much. And to Ms. Right. Rice. Um, who is my uh one of my grandson's third grade teachers. Every day when I pick him up, he gives me a whole

cliff notes of what you explained in class and he really listens to you and I shared with him some um things that I had that I wasn't using on the Asian culture. So, thank you very much for being a great educator and coming to us and educating us. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Barnacle.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I'll start. Uh, we had a planning commission meeting last Tuesday where we reviewed the draft general plan and general plan ER. Thank you for attending in the audience, Mr. Mayor. Um, there was a good discussion. In the end, we passed a resolution recommending that uh both documents move on to council um for consideration of the draft general plan and general plan EIR. um and that neither would need to be remitted to the planning commission. So, there's two more stops. Both stops are right here um at the city council meeting for um for our review and approval uh for our uh final general plan. Um thank you to all of the public speakers who've come tonight. Um I'll just say uh I went to JJ's wake and it was amazing all the images and the scrapbooks and everything. He truly documented our community and told the story of so many young kids and um I think it's the right thing to do to um find a way to commemorate him. Uh I think the community field, you know, when Bob called me was like, "Yeah, I guess he could be at any field, you know, like we could really rename every field in Pedaluma and every gym uh in Pedaluma and every tennis court and um track field and everything uh after him because he he was literally everywhere um with his notebook. um silently taking notes and then just um making people feel seen. And um I think the the comments about really celebrating teamwork and character um really ring true to me and um I'd love to see something uh more formal commemorating his uh his contributions to our city. Um to all of our speakers from the AsianAmerican community tonight, thank you so much for continuing the work. Um, you know, last year was a um an important milestone, but um what all the work you've done since is is amazing. Um

and I look forward to continue to supporting a more inclusive and belonging city. Um so, thank you for um really championing that and um you've got my support. Thank you, Council Member Kada Thompson.

Okay. Um, I too want to thank the API community for coming out and I appreciate it and I appreciate all the other comments from our council members and I just want to respond to the SCTCA which is the Sonoma County Transit Climate Action Committee um budget. Um the issue is is that there was no contract between the cities for these dollars that are going back and forth for bus transit and Santa Rosa decided to pull out and Pedaluma is the only one that is paying into that fund. And so what was decided that we would work with the city, we plan on um funding this this year and then the next year we're going to go ahead and have a conversation of how to make it more equitable and it's really about equity. um why is the city of Paluma paying this money and no other city is and yet these buses are serving Katad and other area and Roner Park and we're actually paying for that. So it just needs to be a little bit more equitable. So it was a good thing to pull um and have that discussion. Um as far as Frank um your comments, I really appreciate that. I actually um contacted the person. We had a conversation. and I'm going to reach back in a few weeks and I'm going to contact the business and see if they can have a policy that um you know Nazi paraphernelia or shirts are not going to be worn and I don't think they quite have an understanding and so we'll be having that discussion. and I'd love you to participate with me in that. And uh John, council member Shrib's hearing about the microlastics. We're discussing that with the water agencies because um there are plumes that are happening with these microlastics and yet they're not next to fields. They're not they're in rural areas. So we're not really sure where these are all coming from these plumes. And it seems to be um happening more and more. As an example, there's

one area that has seven wells and three of them all of a sudden saw the um saw some microplastics in them and now the plume is just gone and now it's well three, well four and there's total of seven wells and and they're not sure where it's at because this is all rural area. It's not next to um airports. it's not next to areas that you would expect um to see these types of changes and so it is a real concern for our water system. Um and then yesterday I went downtown to the Palumans of yestery year and it was great. There's um a couple that um does this um tour of Paluma and they use little viewfinders. So you know you're those old viewfinders and you're clicking through and seeing and they're talking about areas and then you're getting to see the past. But what was interesting is what they really kind of focused on is that Paluma actually at one time had four hotels in our downtown. And so hotels were not odd to downtown Paluma and one of them actually was a 100 unit hotel. And so it was interesting to see actually where they were were in downtown originally. Um and then um an update for SMART and I do have a meeting on Wednesday. Um, up to date there's 133,860 total writers representing a 30% increase from 2025. And so, you know, SMART is moving along and they're doing a great job and measure B is on the ballot and I hope people support that so we can continue funding smart um for the future. Um, and I also want to briefly highlight the growing federal attention on issues affecting our region, including activities tied to Brook Rollins, um, who's with the Trump administration and the proposed impacts to Point Ray's National Seashore and the Ill River diversion. At our recent water meeting

um advisory meeting, we discussed reports from the Press Democrat about the Southern California group attempting to purchase the century old Penney Dam tied to the Potter Valley project. Water is not just infrastructure. It's our future. We must ensure controls stay with local and regional agencies, not outside cities that don't represent our community. We do not want our water being controlled by a Riverside group down in Los Angeles. And so, um, we really feel confident that the federal government will support us and we will continue moving forward with the two, um, basin solution. Um, and also I was recently in Sacramento at a League of California Cities where we were discussing up and cominging legislation, you know, that affects cities like ours and, you know, we review bills and then we have um speakers speak on issues that are happening in all cities and they're all very similar. Um, I was also in Sacramento last week speaking in opposition to the SB 2250 and it failed and that was to increase fees at mobile home parks and those fees are usually passed on to the to the residents. And so I think it's bad for the owners and for the residents. And so it was really great that um that failed and they've asked them to go back to the drawing board with the HCD, the housing community development to really find those funds um instead of just, you know, they have not raised funds for 30 years. And so that's why we're they're in the situation they are and they're trying to um basically go after mobile home parks residents which are a lot in low income and they're also retired. And so that was a busy week.

Does sound like a busy week. And uh do want to thank you for your uh time you put in on our regional bodies, the Sonoma Water and and the Snowman County Transportation um and give you that kind of expertise to bring back to share with all of us. Um Vice Mayor Darly,

good evening everyone and community and thank you for sticking it out so late. It's been a long night so far, but um no is on reports from me this evening. I do have two events I want to talk about. One's been mentioned a couple times already and that's the 100th anniversary of the Hall of the Above or the old BFA building. Uh the new owners there are really trying to um bring people in and and make that building a bigger part of the community. And so I think what they're doing is very great and they had a lot of um really neat history exhibits of Paluma set up in there to to help um you know celebrate that birthday. And then as well uh the Harold Mahoney scholarship awards were given out the other week. Uh that was to some of the um some of the uh students from Penaluma High, Kasa Grande, and St. Vincent who have all excelled in in their studies and will be going on to universities. And so I had the privilege of giving a couple of them scholarships and getting to present them. And that was really great. The mayor was there as well. And um that's my report for this evening.

Thank you. I think it's really notable that that's been going on for 67 years and so you know it's really good how our community supports our students. Um I had a variety of things most of which have been mentioned. U I guess we haven't mentioned the pedaluma urban chats bud citizen budget review. So uh not only we get an official view of the budget here but there's citizens trying to dive in and and analyze what's going on uh with the city's budget and I guarantee them it's a full-time job trying out how how a corporation that big runs. Um let's see. And the uh I was also able to sit in on the blue zone steering committee and uh they're coming to u a conclusion of their uh three-year uh pilot effort in Paluma and they're figuring out what's next and so if you were interested in what Blue Zones is doing, they're doing a lot of good in the community engaged now. Um also went to the memorial for Paul Heavenidge, one of the great volunteers from Paluma, library commissioner and literacy works founder. That's it. I I didn't really know that part. I knew he's a friend of the one of the friends of the river, but uh literacy works is an important group. Also attended the AaW presentation called 10% less, a guide to reducing waste. Uh I appreciate uh them in our community pushing that same climate message that we're all trying to uplift. Um and um with council member now, I attend the uh homeless electeds meeting. Um it's not that we're homeless, but you know, we help with um uh getting that out into the community. But most of the news we're getting is bad news. And most of the our major concern is on the medical front. Um over 10,000 people in Paluma are at risk of losing their medical by end of this fiscal year. And that means so many different uh benefits that they're talking about. But the impact will hit the county particularly hard because it's mandated that the

county provide certain basic levels. So when they have to backfill those federal funds, it comes out of their general fund. It comes out of many of the things they do and share with us. So it's very impactful. Um and um uh I was able to um attend ribbon cutting for the health to go kiosk at the library there. Uh the county has a program up and standing in collaboration with the libraries for a variety of important health products uh that are available for free to folks who want to avail themselves of that. And uh so if you're at the library um uh check that kiosk it's just outside the main doors. Um and um and I wanted um to appreciate um our our groups of speakers tonight, Asian, Asian-American, Native Hawaiian. Um but I I hope um that we haven't hit a plateau. I was so great to glad to hear that we're considering another uh exhibit. The exhibit that was at the museum a year and a half ago that was fabulous and reached a great uh audience because of your volunteer efforts. And I know you put in so much work. Um um and tying that racism question with the um ball park endorsement. JJ was a huge fan of soccer and through the 90s. Uh I had a great relationship with him as the youth soccer league coordinator for town and and they would print anything in the Argus. They encouraged every because JJ loved kids so much. He wanted every kid to have seen their name in the paper. And the tie-in is at World Cup this year, which is here in America, games down at Levi Stadium and things. The campaign is no racism. That's a global problem that this global organization FIFA is making bold banner

level things. I mean, every uniform with tag, no racism, things that maybe we haven't done in America yet. and um need to take a model from a global perspective. Um but I totally support uh uh respect for JJ. Um that park out there was 30 years in the making and I'll fill in the narrative for you uh at a later date. But um I appreciate everybody coming with their good ideas and the good work of council and I want to pass it to the city manager.

Thank you, mayor, um council and community. I'd like to start off by saying that staff would be honored uh to start the process of naming uh the East Washington Ball Fields and get that process started and Drew Halter will be in touch with you. So, thank you very much for your advocacy. Um we are also still accepting applications until Thursday, May 21st at uh 5:00 p.m. for our committees and commissions. And you can pick up an application either at the clerk's office or on our website. And while I'm mentioning the clerk, I would just like to celebrate our city clerk's team uh for municipal clerk's week. They forewent a proclamation because we had so many tonight, but you know, you are appreciated every day. You keep us um you are often the public face and you do it um with such uh efficiency and professionalism and accessibility and we really appreciate you. Uh, also the Lucasy turf is now complete. Yay. Um, and it'll be uh open tomorrow. I think the first users will be on the field. And please look forward to um our ribbon cutting ceremony soon. And that concludes my comments for tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. And now we move into our business side of things. And it's a opportunity to rise and stretch. Um, the consent calendar is next on our Yes. So, uh, as we begin the consent calendar, I'd like to look up down the dis and see if anyone of the council members wishes to independently address any of the items on the consent calendar tonight. Council member Shribs.

Yeah. Item five, the LEDs. I'd like to pull for some discussion um and maybe some more uh decision- making on

Thank you. So, we'll separate item five from the rest. And um then I'd like to open the consent calendar to questions. Uh um we'll do this just for the one through eight uh excluding five and then come back uh as we touch on five. Any council questions 1 through eight? Uh okay. And so, uh let's open public comment. Um 1 through eight excluding five. We did not receive any ahead of the meeting, but I do have two cards for item number three and number eight. And if anyone else would like to submit a comment on the consent calendar, now would be the time to bring your card up.

We have uh two cards tonight. We have uh Darren Racusen to be followed by Chantel Rogers 1 to 8 excluding five. Thank you, Mayor and Council. And I'm on item number three. Uh and actually I see that the budget was attached in the hours leading up to the meeting and actually may have answered a question about street maintenance which looks like this deferred maintenance. I believe the contract was for 890,000 being finished off after change orders. Does seem to be in line with the budgeted street maintenance that I'm seeing for future fiscal years in the budget, which is great. The question that it really sparked in me though was uh and the budget may have offered some insight into this as well. Uh just the status of our October 2024 5-year paving plan. You know, I was looking back and I was like, I remember the paving plan. I we ran uh articles in the Argus about it and this was going to be the PCI upgrade and we were going to really start to get after that 100 million in deferred maintenance and put measure U to work and you know the the website for it uh I couldn't find anymore I don't know like Howard Street we had a couple meetings on peback and on planning about Howard Street and drainage and all the connectivity issues with Howard Street and I hadn't seen that come forward yet. Uh, and then looking at the budget, it looks like our PCI has actually gone down back to 49, our pavement condition index. I don't know if that's uh poor or what the exact standard is, but it's out of 100. So, I just wanted to know, you know, and maybe contextualize this decision or at least plant the seed to get you guys thinking about what is the 5-year paving plan project, you know, how are we hitting these goals? We've talked before about capital improvements and where we set aside monies in the budget. I mean, it's nice to see money getting spent in this kind of maintenance, but we receive monies set aside in the budget for things like a

five-year paving plan. Are they getting spent? Why or why not? Um, and how are we going to kind of keep pushing these items forward? So, it's not always just slurry preventative maintenance stuff, but are we really moving the needle on some of these items? So, this consent calendar item triggered all of that. And like I said, I think with the budget, it contextualizes itself a little bit better. But uh just want to get everyone thinking about that. Thanks. Thank you, Chantel Rogers.

Hi. Um I wanted to talk about item eight, which is the um disruption policy for the um remote access. Um and I just wanted to reference something here in the um staff report. It says the mandatory hybrid meetings requirements in section I won't name the numbers apply to the city council as an eligible legislative body. They do not by themselves require the city's advisory boards, commissions or committees to offer hybrid public participation. But of course we could, right? Once we're set up for Zoom participation in these chambers, any meeting that happens here would be just as easy to have available for public participation. Um, actually the STCCTA meeting that I referenced earlier had that um they had one participant, she was in a wheelchair and could not make it down to that meeting but wanted to give her um input. It's a matter of uh hitting the raised hand icon and pushing a button. No extra work, no nothing. Um you know, we often hear about the city's commitment to robust community engagement and this would be the absolute easiest thing we could do to increase um the community's opportunity to um have their say with uh different different meetings. Maybe not all of them, but certainly important ones like the planning commission. Um it kind of feels like that the you know the state forced our hand like you've got to do this and we figured out a way to do the absolute minimum necessary to be in compliance. And I I I think it would be great if we took the opportunity to um to expand participation in any way that um might be possible. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um that was our last speaker. So that closes uh public comment. Uh does council have any comment on the items? I did want to add one. Um on item three, the uh slurry seal and and etc. Uh that contract is is is helps our paving um efforts and um and slurry is the lightest improvement one can make in paving improvement and then there's micro seals and next level kind of midlevel thing and then there's the big heavy duty paving we talked about elsewhere. Um this contract included the mid-level work as well. So it wasn't just slurry. I don't want should feel bad that we didn't get good PCI raising work done in that contract, but I noticed that we added change orders like small things that we could do because we had a contractor on and when we don't have to do full design of a project and can add it as a change order. I'd like to encourage staff to add more change order work into each of these contracts and get more done that uh because I think u we're all trying to achieve more in the way of uh pavement as in every other aspect of city work. But um I want to commend staff for having added those change orders and encourage them to do whatever creative tricks there are to get us further down the road. Um and uh council member Shribs

just on item eight I just want to thank the speaker uh talking about uh maybe expanding uh access through zoom. I am a leazison to the climate change uh commission u for the actions and I know our meetings have not been well attended physically um lately but if we can maybe I know it's going to be extra work and extra expenses uh because someone has to be available to actually run the technology on now that so that we have to look at that but I'd uh suggest maybe the committees have that discussion see if they want to move in that direction and if how that might actually happen but I would support at least for for the one I I le layers on with.

Yeah. Okay. I think I think all all of us would would support that uh concept. I think it's really good to put one toe in the water and find out how it's going to work with maybe two clerks having to sit in for a minute and think, you know, let's grow our way into better and better. Okay. Uh with that, I'm looking for a motion. I'll make the motion. And that's for items 1 through eight, accepting five. And so have a motion by Kater Thompson and a second by Barnacle. And a roll call vote, please. Barnacle, I. Kater Thompson, yes. Darly, yes. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Shribes, yes. McDonald, yes. Motion carries unanimously.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, just on on the public comment, if we have hot topics, hot hot hot issues coming up, like I don't know, a zoning code update item or something that's big, it might be worth just bringing that to a subordinate body on an ad hoc basic basis. Um, just so that we open it up. But, um, I'll definitely leave it to staff to to determine that. Okay. Um, uh, Council Member Kater Thompson,

I guess I'm just going to make a comment also on that. When we have the budget hearings, I would like to see what the budget's going to be because it's not just it's a city clerk and now we have to have a second person here. So, it's multiple people that you have to bring into these meetings and it's a really high cost and so I would like to know what during the budget so we can discuss. Point taken. Thank you. Uh, council member Shiv, do you you want to lead the conversation on five?

Um, yes. So, on five um um I think there was a lot of information that was delivered in in our um agenda. Um and I did ask a whole series of questions um based on that and I received a lot of information back uh which I want to thank staff for putting that much effort in. But I think it's worth a discussion since it is affecting a large number of our citizens and a fair amount amount of money is involved here. So, uh being that our citizens are directly impacted for these landscape assessment districts, we had a good um effort, in fact, the staff um sort of like I I kind of pushed this item u over several years, like 30 years now. And so there was a large attempt to modify the fees that would be required for landscape assessment districts which a lot of folks don't even know what is or they take care of but basically um most of it is some of it is most of it is city owned but some HOA type ownership of the landscape area immediately and in the community and those communities pay a small fee on an annual basis to support LDS and um the fees are not have not kept up because over 30 years the fees have not changed that much. So, the prices have uh need to go up to uh to cover some of those maintenances and unfortunately it requires a 50% vote to change those fees and we attempted to do that uh to make things appropriate, make things right. Um and there has been some difficulties in getting enough of the uh to to increase the the fees adequately. And so um we may have to backfill with city funding uh to the tune of something like uh over half million dollars a year or at least a one-time deal and then maybe more later on and how the systems may changing. So I think it's important to understand uh what happened uh what the policy is going to be so that at

least our citizenry is aware um because we have over 50 now and there's an average of maybe about 30 to 40 households for each one of those. So, it's affecting a lot of of folks. So, I just like to have that at least opened up publicly more transparent as what we did, what we're trying to do, and what is what we're going to do next. I think I got really good answers, but I'd like to get those answers in a little bit more public now rather than just in um answer to my questions. So, I just have the team sort of like tell us a little bit of the story behind it and um where we're going and and what's going to happen next. And um as I invite staff up, the um the questions you mentioned, the answers you mentioned are all posted on online under this item for uh public u clarity and information. So I appreciate staff getting through all those. And you brought us two actions tonight. Could you talk about what the actions are in this item and and then that'll lead to what concerns we have about above and beyond. Thank you, mayor and council members. My name is Delena Bradford, senior management analyst for public works. Um, over the last year, our team has put a considerable amount of staff time into trying to solve the LED problem. As you mentioned, it's a 30-year problem. So, to come up with solutions in a year is an unreasonable time frame, but our team definitely took our best swing at the 10 districts that we thought were in the worst financial position this past year. And what we found is this is a really complicated topic even for our community members that care a lot about it. There is a legal statute in 1972 that sets the basis for the expectations of landscape assessment districts. And then we have Proposition 218 which came online in 1996 which further complicates that and leads to the 50% which is actually 50% plus one that a district needs in order to get their assessments raised. So from the city's perspective, we have uh a

handful of districts that have inflators, annual inflators. The majority of those are 2%. So everybody here knows 2% inflation is not keeping up with the cost. Um an even smaller handful of our districts which came online mostly post 2010 have uh consumer price index CPI as their inflator. Um, so last year we were able to take advantage of a 2.7% increase. This next upcoming year for fiscal year 27 will be 2.5%. So again, still very minimal when it comes to trying to keep up with the cost. So when you reflect those cost differences over the past three decades, there are considerable deficits that built up in each of these districts. When we went out to our 10 priority districts, it was a pretty high hurdle to get people from the 21 to $100 that they're paying a year to over maybe $400 of what it would take to pay off that deficit before they would ever actually realize any service improvements in their district. So, with that recognition and an understanding that there are some fundamental issues with how the program was being um run, we have decided to do a one-time general fund contribution that will pay off of those deficits and then that makes it to where the assessment threshold can come way down because we're not paying off deficits from 30 years. We're kind of starting at a flatline for fiscal year 27. So with that, it also means service level adjustments in all of the districts that were not able to afford their bills currently. So as those costs have come up, the city has been backfilling and paying those costs. So this is to clear that slate. And then moving forward, districts will only receive the services that they can afford. So some of those um assessments we are going to see come considerably lower than what um community members have been experiencing and that service level will reflect that. In other areas, we did find that we were not at the maximum of assessments. We were able to

go up to the um maximum annual assessment and we do have some room for better services in those districts. So, all of the time and effort and energy that went into better understanding the districts gives us a clean path forward so that we know for district by district exactly what needs to happen to make sure that the districts stay balanced into the future.

Thank you. Um huge amount of work that you've done. I want to want to thank you for all this effort. U I think you in the notes uh over close to 2,000 hours of effort has gone into this already of staff time to bring this up. And we're also backfilling in to the tune of $750,000. And yet even with all that effort um some of the districts are not going to come up to where they need to be to really be properly maintained. So, my concern um is to make sure that those folks who are recognize I'd like to just get it advertised out there. Hey guys, um your landscaping um maintenance is not going to be as good as you you want or what you really should have and that it doesn't take but $100 more per person to building it up to to get it to up to where it needs to be. And your house values will decline more than $100 a year if you don't do this. So, I want it advertised out there that for a very small fee, the city is also paying for the actual management of this whole system, which doesn't get reimbursed at all, just the actual work that's done by the contractor. So, I want the word sent out. Um, hopefully the media picks this up and lets the districts know, especially the ones that tend in the most severe situations. Guys, come on. come up with your $100 on average increase and let's make better and then the whole city improves and your house improves, your home values improves, your neighborhood improves and we want more communities. So, how important your landscape around you is so important. Why not put in the $100 or whatever it is because it's a very small fee to get this all work done. So, I just wanted more advertised out there and maybe wake a few folks up that, hey, come on, let's get some petitions out there. Make it happen, please. Can I just be said?

Yeah, I just wanted to add we actually are working to shift our uh community engagement strategy for the next round. We anticipated engaging 10 districts each year until we'd made it through the worst of the um districts. But with this deficit payoff, what we are actually putting out is going to be a petition for any district that's ready to go through the Prop 218 process. So now as a city, we've learned it. They understand what's required. And what we learned through our process of engaging these 10 districts is that when you have an engaged spokesperson, Suzanne Young and Willow Glenn, Jack Rhodess, and Southgate, when you have somebody that really cares and is passionate within the district, that is when we have the most successful conversations with our districts. So, we will be putting out a petition online probably in time for our July 6th uh presentation on LEDs, which we'll be coming back with. That petition will be a lii will be live online and any district that gets 25% of their district to sign on saying that they're ready to go through a prop 218, the city will be ready and willing to help them through that process. Okay. Thank you for your presentation and and discussion and so I'll just leave it to the council where they're going to do uh because we're about to spend uh like a threequarters of a million dollars to as a catchup fee. So, I thought I'd make sure that is announced that we're doing that uh taking pulling out a general fund other things to make this happen and that um and and then we're going to be doing a slightly different process forward to to do a little bit better job of getting the participation we need. So, I'll leave it up to council to u to move this. Thank you. Um and u seeing no further questions, I'd like to open open it to public comment on the item. Will you help us through that? Madam clerk,

we did not receive any comments ahead of the meeting on this and I have not received any cards, but if anyone would like to make a comment on this item, now is the moment to bring your card to my desk. Thank you. And not seeing anyone rising and running, um we'll close public comment on the item and bring it back to council for a motion. I'll go ahead and move uh item five. I'll second. So, we have a motion by Shrebs and a second by now. May we have a roll call vote, please? Barnacle, I. Kater Thompson, yes. D Carly, yes. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Shri, yes. McDonald, yes.

Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. And that takes us to our item nine, which is our housing element um report progress report for the year, the calendar 2025. And I'd like to introduce uh Andrew Triple, our planning manager, and Brian O, director of community development to uh walk us through the policy and numbers parts.

Are we going to be good to go or do we need five? Thanks. Okay. Great. That's always the most awkward part of the presentation. Good evening, mayor, council members. Um this evening's uh presentation is the uh 2025 housing element annual progress report. This is the progress report for the calendar year January 1 through uh December 31. And so we'll be covering uh what the annual progress report is and what it does. Uh Pedaluma's arena requirement six cycle housing element. Then we'll look at 2025 housing production activity. uh housing action plan progress then some of the market context and state legislation as well as recommendations and next steps. Um I would like to mention here at the beginning of the presentation that um the city was allowed to submit the uh annual housing report or annual progress report to HCD for review and uh so we did submit it for review. HCD did provide some comments and otherwise uh they are willing to accept the annual progress report based upon this

evening's discussion and council's vote on the resolution. So the legal requirement uh is that every uh city and county submit an annual progress report. Uh this is submitted both to the office of land use and climate innovation as well as HCD. And what gets reported then is the um number of housing applications submitted. Then we drill down into uh specific activity with regard to unit entitlements uh and then building permits that are issued and final. Uh we're required to report on the housing action plan status um to achieving full implementation. And then um we also provide data on how many projects have used state uh streamlining provisions as well as ADU and JADU production. And then the report does have a section for grant program funding status. Uh but the city of Paluma at present does not have any uh grant um funded programs that are reporting to that section. So then the sixth cycle uh requires that um the city of Paluma produce 1,910 units. Uh that's required from the the 8-year period ranging from 2023 through 2031. And then we see how that's broken out in terms of um affordability. So extremely low to very low is required to produce 499 units or about 26%. Low income which is 50 to 80% of average median income produces about is required to produce about 15% then moderate at 80 to 120% AMI uh production should be at about 16% or more and then um above moderate income uh production should be about 42% of the total units required.

So uh to date then uh the city has issued 652 permits uh for production of housing units and that totals about 34.1% of our reena requirement. For comparison, we're about 37% through the RENA cycle. Uh so we are trending in the right direction. Uh down below we can see um the permits that have been issued to date. Um the city is making very good progress in its extremely low very low uh income category, excuse me, as well as its low income categories. It is uh it is slightly behind on it's a moderate income category and then behind on its market rate um category as we look at that. So this is a brief glance at the uh 2025 median household income schedule. Uh down the lefth hand column we have the household sizes ranging from 1 to eight persons and then um across the top ranging from extremely low to the median income of 100% uh to moderate income of 120%. And so this is uh what we use then well are the qualifying factors or the qualifying thresholds, excuse me, for what we refer to as incomerestricted households or dwelling units. And um what what we often times recognize is when we're looking at the median and moderate income households um that these are our you know uh professionals who are working in our schools in our healthcare industry and so forth. So, um I think it's it's always important to recognize that even though that moderate is 80 to 120% of median income, um who is being targeted for for uh those types of households.

And so, housing production activity in 2025, we had 333 units that were entitled. That means that they went through the planning review process and uh received their planning entitlements to then enter into uh building permit review and uh ultimately construction phase. We we issued 230 building permits and this is the um sort of the the threshold or the criterion that that uh HCD uses for to evaluate RENA compliance. So, it does recognize that a project does need to get to building permit issuance. However, it doesn't hold the city responsible for ensuring that that project then uh complete construction and lead to a certificate of occupancy. Of course, that's the goal, but our how we're measured in terms of RENA achievement or fulfillment is based upon building permits issued. And then finally in 2025 we issued 99 certificates of occupancy and that would include um the full range of housing production from single family dwellings to uh the missing middle um types of two to four units. Then of course our larger multifamily projects as well as ADUs and jadus. Uh currently we are able to count ADUs towards our arena production uh numbers. So then a quick look here at uh what comprised the planning approvals or the entitled projects. Sig Commons at 180 units was approved as a mixed uh income project. Gallagher Senior Living uh was approved at 85 units and that is a um residential care facility for the elderly. State law does allow us to count um those those types of facilities towards our arena numbers. Um, also embedded in the Gallagher Senior Living

Project is uh typically the understanding that as as um residents move into those 85 units that they would be opening uh usually a single family detached dwelling unit that would go back onto the market or would provide housing for another family. Then Cherry Street subdivision was an 1123 project. So that benefited from some state streamlining. uh that was a nine lot subdivision. Uh those uh lots then when they're sold would go straight to building permit um as opposed to having to go through a spar review process. And then Creekwood Condominiums, which is a the 59 unit uh mixed income project out on Kasa Grande Road was also approved in building permit by progress uh um by income category. Then we can see some of where performance has been um and compared across the range of the years that we are looking at for the Reena cycle. And so we see that there's been a lot more production um prior to 2025 in the above moderate categories. Um but then uh 2025 we saw more production in our extremely very low and low income categories uh in comparison to past years. So some of the housing projects that are under construction, we have uh the Meridian at Paluma North Station which is providing 31 affordable housing units including 33 supportive housing units. So those housing units especially those supportive are are tracking to the extremely low um income category with the 31 affordable uh likely tracking to the low income category. Then we have the uh what was what was approved as riverscape and now is being referred to

as the drift town homes. That's another component of the riverfront project um that is being constructed. I believe that's 44 uh town homes. And then Rava Lane Apartments is um quite well underway on 32 units uh over on Rava Lane. Um that would be for lowincome households. Then uh housing projects and building permit review. Of course, the Gallagher Senior Living Morela project uh for 85 units as I mentioned. Uh they have demoed and cleared that site and um are in the final stages of their building permit review. And then the Riverview Apartments, 264 units at the end of Kasa Grande Road near the Rocky Dog Park, um is is uh back in movement again, very active and well underway in its building permit review as well. And then again, those projects that are approved, um, Sig Commons, Jerry Suites, Haststack Pacifica, which remains an active project in part to, um, state laws that provided an automatic extension for um, approved housing development projects, and then Spirit Living, which has kept their entitlements active. So then we shift over to accessory dwelling unit where the city has been doing exceptionally well in exceeding its um uh reena goal of 16 units per year. We can see that in 2025 we issued 31 building permits for ADUs. Um we we issued certificates of occupancy for 33 and that gives us an average of uh 27 ADU permits issued per year. So doing quite well there. uh and 63% of the ADUs have been constructed. Um the ADUs we are still this year we're

able to spread those across our arena requirements. So um for again for 2025 we are allocating them across all four income categories and uh allowing us to contribute to reena attainment um especially in some of those harder to achieve categories. So the housing action plan then we reported to uh HCD that overall we're about 76% complete. Uh when we look at at um the the goals where we're uh slightly behind goals 1 through three as it compared to goals four through six. That's largely because goals 1 through three a lot of those uh actions are related to the zoning code update um as part of the general plan implementation. And so we will be taking action on that here uh in 2026. And in some cases I think like goal even two even um goal two we would achieve if I'm not mistaken 100% um implementation on goal two. So, um I think given that we're, you know, 34% of or 37% of the way through our arena cycle, but 76% of the way through our um action plan, um understanding that a large chunk of that is zoning code updates, uh we're tracking very well there. In terms of the the market and legislative context, um the 2025 ULI emerging trends report, which is is a nationally um respected report, has indicated that home prices are up and continue to rise since the pandemic. So continuing to struggle in that regard even though um housing production activities are up in some in some areas of the country. Of course, mortgage rates remain high which limits um activity. uh there does continue to be the chronic under supply even though we

are seeing uh some jurisdictions and some regions um really moving forward. I think Austin is a great example of that. They've been able to do quite a lot of housing production um and then the capital markets continue to slowly recover. What I think is affecting us locally is this combination of um you know the the fact that our our rents are slightly lower than the Bay Area rents and yet our construction costs continue to be elevated and consistent with the Bay Area and so that makes it a bit more challenging for these projects to pencil here in Paluma. And then uh some of the priorities that we've been working on and continue to work on will be the um implementing zoning ordinance housing element amendments. I think I would add to that as well uh the land use element implementation uh following adoption of the um general plan update. Also infill missing middle housing creating opportunities to streamline that and uh remove regulatory barriers. I think in in a mention to my previous comments about construction costs, the challenge is while at this point in time we're able to remove regulatory barriers, create streamlining opportunities, we we're still not yet exploring. Well, we've started exploring, we're we're brainstorming around how to work on those those financial uh issues that these projects are facing to see if there's opportunities to to support them as it relates to cost uh and streamlining planning review. Of course, that's a major theme in the zoning code update. Otherwise, we continue to work across the other areas. We have a focus developer dialogues on those projects that are so important to the city. U certainly Oyster Cove is one of those. Uh we're having conversations uh elsewhere throughout the city. Um continuing to fully support uh developers who are interested in building in Paluma.

And so the recommendation this evening is to receive the uh 2025 housing element annual progress report except the presentation uh which does include um the report itself as well as an attachment five uh that Caitlyn published earlier the uh this afternoon uh which was an ARAD memo of some changes that we made to the staff report. Some of those numbers got a little bit sideways and we apologize for that. um and then approve the resolution accepting the 2025 annual report. And uh finally, that would authorize us then to submit the resolution and to uh let HCD know that the report is final. And then I suspect there's going to want to be some conversation around policy going forward. And so I've went ahead and re repeated this slide um to give us some some uh data and some talking points around uh a policy movement in 2026. and uh both uh director O and I are available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Great presentation. That's one of my favorite of the year, the housing element coming through. Um seeing what we're doing about our housing crisis. I'd like to start the questions off of Council Member Shribs. Um first just on the um the ADUs. Um, so that's going like gang busters it looks like and I've talked to mayors from other cities now and a lot of cities are are moved in that direction uh even throughout the entire US. So that's number higher like before wasn't it just like five to seven ADUs at most per year and now we're up to 27.

Sure. Well that would have been prior to the state actions to uh facilitate ADU production. We have seen in the last couple of years u quite a significant um increase in activity ADU production that may or may not have been related to your video and your blog post but um you know correlation or causation, right?

But I I would add though that the state the state concluded that that ADU production is one of their best strategies to to making headway into the housing crisis. And so uh that's been um quite a topic of conversation certainly over the past year and a half at housing conferences. Um the state have essentially sort of left SB9 behind. They weren't seeing much movement there. Uh but they have done everything that they can do to accelerate ADU production.

Good. Another topic as I'm talking to um in in these meetings with uh other cities um it's the missing middle and some of the housing folks are talking about the missing middle um the mixed use that it's that four to to 10 units that right there like the graph you have are moderate 80 to 120% is only 11.5%. Another graph showed that lack of uh production there in that middle because at the high end market rate that those are selling because folks can afford it moving from house to house. Um and at the bottom end you have the affordabilities and there's a lot of subsidies happening and that making that work but the missing middle is where where we're everybody is struggling. So um and I said there's and it's the financing institute is is uh not there for it because the um the folks we what those are for is going to be the young folks coming in uh the young professionals our sons and daughters that want to stay here and so um can you discuss a little bit about um some of that financing structure and where we need to go and can we involve more of our local banks because that's what I'm hearing is that um some of the local smaller banks really need to step up and how we might be able to engage them in helping in this because it's the financial structure of the mortgages and the loans uh for both the developer and for the homeowners is missing because there's not a good structure for that. So can you talk about how we can help promote that?

Um I'll ask Director O to respond to that question. Before I do though, it just occurred to me in your comments, council member, that what we're seeing on on these um percentages here to the far right is we are seeing the effect of the the state subsidies of lower income housing, right? As well as the the relative strength of the market. And so then oftentimes the state wasn't subsidizing moderate income household uh that production. They were subsidizing low and extremely low. And then of course the market is solving for itself. So we do see that gap then in moderate income household production.

Council member, I couldn't have said it better myself. Um I will reference Andrew if you go back to the policy what's to come slide. So there was a slide that Andrew walked through that talked about the um what's what's ahead, right? So, how do we uh 2025 priorities and staff recommendations? We want to ensure that we're streamlining. So, um you know, how do we drive the cost down uh for developers time and money? Um and so part of what we're going to focus on what we're calling the zoning code reform is going to prioritize just that. And I would say we're taking a multi-prong approach. Um, and we're going to look at all of these strategies to help um, bridge that gap and fill that missing middle. Um, I had I had one question. It's u I mean I appreciate the policy work and I think we're moving all the policy in the right direction but I worry that it's parties beyond our uh our control that really drive what happens in housing. Um I think the data show that we're at 98 99 um certificates occupancy this year and um and that data confusion had has me continued confused. I think there were 27 um ADUs in that whole 98.

Correct. That's correct.

And um and if um and if Riverplace was 35 and River um downtown River was six more units of affordable affordable that only leave 57 that are at market and 27 of them are ADUs which I think we've distributed now to different um income levels. Meaning that of the 98 houses that we occup we opened up this year that we finished this year that were finished this year by contractors um that um maybe 40% or 35% are at market and more like 60% is at the affordable level from you know like we said from from outside money from the the the Fed money coming in or ADUs coming in. So, one takeaway is we're not building any housing. And so, it's hard to extrapolate where the good and bad is when the volume is just so low. And this year's number of houses at 100 is only a third of last year's occupancies from last year and and less than that from the year prior to that. So, I mean, we're seeing the trend get worse despite us doing all the making all the right plays. So, um is that is that um is there an address of that or um I see the things that are in entitlements? I see the things that are in permits. Permits means a bit of confidence. I like that. But how do we get from permit to occupancy? You know, we're on a downward trajectory. We got to change that. I I think that's the the question of the hour. Yeah,

that's where we need to drill down and and um understand more and and really uh I think turn over ideas and and really look for we've we've like you said, Mayor, we've gotten through the some of the easier regulatory stuff we can do and but the challenge still exists.

I and I look at comparable cities that are somewhat comparable. Santa Rosa uh had a a moment of a lot of um production in the downtown area and that was really good. I'm not familiar with the this year's effort um in in last year's I think it's somewhat a few years when they were really heyday uh and I see Kat kind of the other end of city sizes in Soma were in between those two metrics Kat was grown on a percentage basis like tremendously. Um, but recently I've noticed that some things that were at building permit have actually pulled in their horns because of economic u uh trends. Not their economics, but economic trends. Cost cost of materials no longer fits the the project cost. Um, how do we feel about us versus anybody else? I mean, you know, uh, well, I do think that, uh, Santa Rosa had quite a lot of entitled projects in the pipeline and and we did see those come to fruition in the the last several years. There's there's still a fair amount of activity going on. I don't think I think in the entitlement area, not so much. construction maybe has backed off and I think we could attribute that to just high high interest rates and uh construction costs. I do um I do think that a lot of projects had sort of paused to see what the tariffs were doing especially related to steel and to um gypson board. So, uh, maybe now that that's starting to seems like that's starting to to, uh, settle out, um, that might help some of those projects. two two cities that we've been looking at are Santa Rosa and San Jose because they have developed um multifamily

incentive programs where if you in in the case of San Jose they made um development impact fee reductions available to 1,500 units of already approved product projects and they do attribute that development fee incentive program um to moving two two of three projects to production. So, it's interesting that they they really targeted already approved projects and then limited the number of units that they were willing to provide incentives to that that could have been a a budget decision, right? Um, it also could have been that uh they they wanted to to respond to some projects that were catalytic in nature uh that had already been approved, but they didn't want to um really open it wide up to forthcoming projects. Santa Rosa, on the other hand, took a different approach. Santa Rosa has uh I believe they're in their second round of either um new or renewed high what they refer to as their highdensity multifamily housing incentives. and uh their projects can benefit from development impact fee reductions but uh there's no criteria. There might be a geographic location criteria but there's no requirement that they be already approved. So we are seeing jurisdictions um really I think center in on development impact fees as being significant contributor to cost and um probably those jurisdictions have done everything that they can do to reduce the regulatory burden and to streamline and so they're now moving into uh what they can do to financially incentivize projects.

Do either of those uh programs have income based uh requirements? you know, you just I would assume so, right? You think they're for affordable units. Market rate.

Um, well, it could be both. So, in in the case of Santa Rosa, I know when I worked in Santa Rosa, we had one project that received them that was geographic based because they were really looking to incentivize downtown development. And if I'm not mistaken, the projects only had to comply with their inclusionary housing ordinance, I believe, was the case. San Jose I'm not familiar with. I I would assume that there's some component of affordable housing in those projects. Whether it's uh to comply with inclusionary housing or to exceed it, I'm not sure.

That's a great distinction. I'm not sure that we uh focused on that. Um if it's all affordable, we wave fees in pedalum. Oh, that's correct. So, I mean, if it's if it's 100% affordable, impact fees aren't a uh an issue. But if you have an inclusionary component, which you know a market rate would have that 15% put on them, um there's still impact fees there that uh you know perhaps are um burdensome. But as I see um our entitled projects not proceed, Oyster Code not proceed and and hastack not proceed, uh Creek Wood, Creek Wood,

Creek Wood, um you know, and that was condos, which we were kind of excited about. And Oyster Code, um and and Oyster Cove, um you know, if even the entitled ones don't move, what are the odds that any uh creative and new gets brought to the table? So I am still worried that while in policy we're on strong ground the market is not being kind to pedaluma right now. And um question council member shrimp we're still in questions. Yeah.

Um yeah some of the um larger cities and even some regional I think even the Bay Area is is looking at a um a fund a housing and entrepreneurial type fund uh which gets created. Um, so how many millions of dollars could put in a bucket and then that's actually used to incentivize and use as rotational to get that especially the mixed middle housing rolling. So um is there any uh are we looking at maybe even a Sonoma County level or North Bay area regional funding source where the cities all get together um and then create an entrepreneurial um enterprise fund for develop for for specifically the mixing middle which is what we're really missing. Can we thought thought thought about that? Can we do that?

I think that's a great idea. There's a lot of council member um I think and I'll just reference back to the slide of what's to come. Um we're going to need to take a multi-prong approach. Um, I think a lot of the zoning code reform work not just is going to help u future projects, but I do think it will generate more interest uh with the city of Paluma. Um, so I do think it'll start to open up those um projects that are stuck seemingly. Um, and I'll just focus just for 30 seconds on the bottom right hand slide. um focused developer dialogues. Each of those projects that the mayor referenced, they all have different um I'd say challenges or um issues. And so we um for most of them, actually all of them, we've opened up a line of communication to really understand what those challenges are. How do we bridge that gap? Um and so as part of the zoning code work, I believe in phase two um that um would come sometime towards the end of the year or a bulk of it towards the end of the year. Um we'll really focus on those incentives. So whether it's at the city level, uh the county level, um you know, we continue to hear about BAFA at the regional level. Um, I think there's mutual interest uh both at the city level up all the way up to the state level to really get a hold of missing middle. It's the opportunity. Uh, it's what our general plan is really built on um to look for those sites. Um, and so I would I'm optimistic um of the work plan

that we have. Um, Andrew will be leading much of that um as we look ahead. Um, so I think there's more to come and a lot of positive work that's ahead of us.

The um I I love the BAFA idea. Um, area fund for housing. I forget what the acronym actually stands for, but um um um that would be Bay Area. States talked about it, locals talk about, but um um that funding source aside, um is there potential for the red, which we've been talking about, or the EIFDs to to uh assist in putting any of these folks over the finish line?

So, we're having some very preliminary discussions. So, I'd say yes, we want to look at every opportunity, whether um it's a financing tool, it's some sort of incentive. Um at the end of the day, these are the highest probability sites of actually getting people through the doors. And so, that's where we're going to focus our attention this year. Council member Barnacle.

Yeah. Um, so San Jose zero market rate multif family housing starts in 2024 and they had over a thousand in 2025. Um, they did that by reducing fees including inclusionary zoning. Inclusionary zoning is a pretty significant subsidy for affordable units, especially on small projects. And right now we apply to pretty small projects. Um, I asked a developer or someone that represents developers to go out and find me some some numbers on that and he gave uh he said a 50 unit project with 1300 square foot workforce housing um and 15% inclusion area comes out to about $1.9 million subsidy for the affordable units from the non-affordable units because they have to make that pencil. When you look at projects like Creekwood being abandoned and um I don't know what the remediation was on the likes of Oyster Cove. I don't know how much that was going to cost, but I think it was a million or a couple million dollars. Like um I just think we have to look at our inclusionary zoning. Um, I also think we need to kind of flip the script a little bit on looking at this of like how many new units are coming online at low in lower incomes because um what you look at when you look at cities who have um focused on supply side policies for housing um it's the overall rents in the city that come down, right? It's the affordability of the rest of the housing stock, not just like the new housing stock that we're getting. And so like the stories about Austin are not like it's not just how many homes they built, it's like what happened to the rest of the units. And um you know, it's kind of like I've been telling people like

during COVID there was a shortage of components and so we saw fewer new vehicles and that drove up the cost of used vehicles for a short period, right? Um, and like we've got the same thing in housing where there's a shortage of new housing and we've driven up the cost of existing homes. Um, but we've just let the supply chain completely linger for over two decades now without trying to fix it. And so, um, I really think we need to look at uh, fees. Um, and I think we need to like frame that in the in the context of lost revenues because the project like Haststack has been entitled since like 2020 or 2019, 2018, something like that. And um, like the total property tax value from that project site is like $13,000 a year. We see like 11% of that or 15% of that that makes its way to the city and there's zero sales taxes generated from it. Like I think if we got zero dollars in impact fees from that project, um we would have easily made our our money back and instead of looking at one-time impact fees, we'd be looking at operating revenues. And those are what we really care about when we think about our general fund. Um uh so I really think that it would be helpful for us to take a strong look at our impact fees and relaxing those. I think we should look at um our inclusionary zoning and really relaxing that. Maybe we only apply inclusionary zoning to projects that are over 100 units or over 150 units, something like that, to where the per unit subsidy or something is far less um reducing from 15 to 10% something. But um you know like uh I'm in a in a a fellowship right now

from the abundance network and um literally the things that they're saying to focus on are streamlining which it sounds like we're doing um and fee reductions and um that's the thing that everybody here is too like feels like we're just too afraid to touch it but um we're just losing good projects and um it just is embarrassing to less than 100 certificates of occupancy when we're in a housing crisis. Um, I don't think we're we're acting like it. Thank you. I Yeah, I think we're jumping into uh our comments and uh wrap up. We should go to public comment before we do that. And so I'd like to invite the clerk to tell us if we had any emails prior.

We did not have any emails uh ahead of the meeting on this item. Um but now would be the moment if anyone would like to submit a card. I don't have any cards for item number nine. Not seeing anyone rising and uh coming forward. Uh we have opened public comment and it is now closed. And that brings it back to the council for um any uh last comments and I think we are are we doing a resolution of acceptance here? Uh yes, a resolution of acceptance. That's correct is the motion.

Um comments please. um in talking to recent um first-time home buyers who weren't able to find uh single family homes to purchase in Paluma and went to Nevada and Runner Park. And one of the problems we have in Paluma is we only have infill. We don't have big parcels to build big subdivisions. So, we're looking at smaller units which are going to cost more. that there's the condo situation and some of these first-time home buyers would like to start with a condo and then work their way up into a larger single family home. But some of them are our educators though one gentleman was the plumber working on my two bathrooms. So he was really excited to tell me he was our first-time home buyer but he couldn't find anything in Paluma. One was my niece who is a teacher and they did give her incentives for being a first-time home buyer and being a teacher. And then the my the plumber was telling me there was some creative financing I didn't really follow because I was busy cleaning up. Um, but they they did something with his loan because he took I don't know how he'd worked, but anyway, he was very happy with his loan and the percentage he got and um there was it was an incentive to be a first-time home buyer and he says it's going to be a struggle. is a new business owner. But then we also have new business owners who are coming to Pedaluma who are looking to purchase single family homes and we we have these entitlements. So where do we go from here? And that's kind of my question. Well, I think you your comments highlighted one um important point and that's that it's not just about having the unit, it's about the type of unit

that's available, right?

So, is it single family detached? Is it attached product? Is it a forplex condo? You know, uh what have you. And and I do think that the up here in the North Bay, um the market's been delivering a lot of multifamily for rent. Um but that doesn't really support those people who are ready to purchase a home, but they're not able to find that type of home that they want. Other than that, you know, single family detached on a 6,000 foot lot and maybe they're not ready for that. So, I do think we need to diversify the types of products that we have or that that we're encouraging and facilitating. And that will happen this summer through the zoning code updates. We'll be able to uh focus on some of that missing middle housing expand uh support for uh an array of housing products. Also when we look at Gallagher senior living project, Spirit Living and such where we are creating those opportunities for people to age in place at least within the community age in place perhaps not in their own homes but to be able to to um move into some of these uh care facilities and be able to open up some of those single family detached. that doesn't solve sort of the diversification of the housing type question, but it it does help create um a bit more supply in the marketplace.

Sure.

Yeah. I think um and I think I would support that uh inclusionary housing conversation during fees. Um I know particularly if we did it so that we we focused on downtown uh and said, you know, well, we can negotiate the inclusion in the downtown area. so that we're not putting the poorest on the perimeters and you know we have an equity conversation to make there. Um but you know for me it comes down to we graduate 900 seniors a year from our high schools and in 10 years maybe they couple up and that's 450 I mean forgetting about births and deaths and everything else but just ballparking them 450 couples in 10 years from our high schools and we build 100 houses per year. I mean, we're it's no wonder that the price driver cost our rent to be high, caused our our housing cost to be high. Um, looking for a motion to support the resolution to accept the housing element.

I can make that motion to accept the housing element. Please, we have motion by now. I'll second it. Second by Quint. Roll call vote, please. Barnacle. I. Ker Thompson? Yes. D Carly? Yes. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Shribs, yes. McDonald, yes. Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you. Thank you, staff. Great presentation, great work on the policy effort. Um, we move we're moving to item 10, which is a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with David Baker Architects funded through grant funds um received from the community development block grant mitigation um planning and public service program and it's award to prepare the pedaluma fairgrounds plan and to help us with this we have Ella uh Stuve Stevie Stevie

it is senior planner and Brian O, our director of community development. And um Ellen, I believe this is your first presentation to to council. So congratulations. Welcome to a very friendly bunch.

All right. I'm terrible at multitasking. So I'm going to get my presentation here and then um I will introduce myself. All right. Have to switch. Okay. Thank you. Working through the kings here. my first time. Um, good evening, mayor and city council. I'm Ellis Stevie. I will not uh be offended if anyone mispronounces my name. Uh, I'm a senior planner with community development. So, I'm very excited to be here tonight to discuss the fairgrounds. Uh, so tonight we're here to recommend approval of the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with David Baker Architects to prepare the Pedaluma Fairgrounds plan. So tonight I will summarize some key background including the funding source for this project. Uh we'll walk through the RFP process and outcome and then I'll talk about the proposal of the selected team David Baker Architects. Uh we'll cover the financial impact of the project and then wrap up with staff's recommendation. Um okay. So the the pedaling of fairgrounds plan is the term that I'll use to refer to the several deliverables that I'll explain in a few slides. Um the fairgrounds plan is the most recent step in a long process at the fairgrounds. Um so I won't provide a comprehensive history tonight. Many of you have been here for for much of it um or all of it but I will hit the highlights related to this planning

process. Um so in 2022 the city initiated a process with healthy democracy to facilitate a community advisory panel um that was lottery selected. That panel deliberated at length on the future of the fairgrounds and they established guiding principles for the site. So some of these guiding principles addressed the process that people wanted to see telling us that the future of the site should be based on community input. They also guide us to create and maintain authentic partnerships across stakeholders and community groups. The guiding principles also talk about the outcomes that are desired, affirming a commitment to agriculture, um calling to preserve and enhance key elements of the site and honoring the site's legacy. So, the guiding principles specifically call for emergency response resources on the site. They also push us to maximize this key asset as a unique opportunity to meet the community's needs and desires. Um the healthy democracy panelists also part participated in a design cheret to see how that vision might play out on the site. For that sharet, which was essentially a design exercise to try to map visions onto paper, um there were five different groups with each group had panelists, uh panel members, architects, and moderators. So the five groups focused on three different visions and you can see the outcomes here. Um so this was an essential step in starting to think about how we can allocate space on the fairgrounds to meet its full community potential. Um but as you can see we still have five different drawings here and we don't have any information about the feasibility of what's sketched out. Um which is why we aren't done with the planning process yet. So, back to our timeline here. In October of 2022, city council had a meeting that mapped out next steps. Um, so at that meeting, um, they, meaning including many of you, directed the city to assume control of the site following

the expiration of a lease with the DAA. Uh, continuation of the annual fair on the fairgrounds property and site analysis and master planning to determine additional sustainable and compatible uses. Um in that same meeting, council also adopted the resolution establishing those guiding principles from the healthy democracy process. Then in 2024, council voted to approve an application for a grant through the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Um and fortunately, we won that grant. Um so in January of last year, Pedaluma was awarded a grant of just over $1.19 million. Um so this is intended for planning of the entire fairground site including but not limited to the community resilience center. Um so the city released a widely circulated request for proposals um to create these grant deliverables in December of last year. We received 10 complete highquality proposals and honestly we were really blown away with the quality and um interest and passion that they showed. Um so after reviewing all of the proposals, the selection committee invited six teams to interview. Um after the interviews and a lot more deliberation, we selected David Baker Architects or DBA and their team of subconultants. Uh we felt that their team could best accomplish the goals, objectives, um and intent of the Pedaluma Fairgrounds plan process. Um so now I I want to talk a little more about the RFP itself. Um so it opened with key background including some basic assumptions. So the two main assumptions we wanted to make sure were really clear from the start. Um the first one is the fairgrounds campus will continue to host the fair and other community events. And the second was it will also establish itself as a community resilience center um which both continues its role as a critical regional evacuation site and

formalizes its role as a center for yearround services to the pedaluma community. So then um the RFP clarified three primary deliverables which are consistent with what we are required to deliver under the grant. So those are first the comprehensive master plan for the fairgrounds campus. So this guides the adaptive reuse of the fairgrounds into a dynamic multi-purpose campus that serves the community while also housing a community resilience center. So the master plan will include an affirmed and updated vision, a site analysis, a site plan that describes what goes where, proposed program and activities, and then phasing operations and an economic and funding strategy. So then second uh is a conceptual plan for a community resilience center on the fairgrounds campus. So, this creates a conceptual design for either a single facility or maybe multiple uh separate facilities potentially in existing buildings. Um, we don't know yet what would make the most sense. So, that's part of the process is figuring that out. Um, but then the whole all of the area would total up to approximately 10,000 square feet to serve as that community resilience center. So those three deliverables are what I'm referring to as the pedaluma fairgrounds plan because it does include the master plan, the CRC conceptual plan and that um oh I forgot to say the third one is the proposed infrastructure layout for the fairgrounds campus. So this establishes the necessary utilities, transportation systems and other essential services for future development and implementation. So to support the development of these components and to ensure that the that they are implementation ready, the pedaluma fairgrounds plan will also include these two really key tasks. Um so the first is community engagement. Um

this ensures that the future of the fairgrounds is guided by stakeholders and community members through effective engagement and then the second is special studies of the project site. So this provides critical background information on existing conditions for what we know is a pretty complex site. Um it also includes key analyses to position the city for implementation. Um and to understand implications of the proposed design. So for example, we will we know we'll want a traffic study to evaluate the design in the eventual master plan. Um, and that traffic study will help us understand mobility implications and it'll also address things like parking strategy and identifying any needed off-site improvements. Um, so as I mentioned earlier, the selection committee felt that DBA delivered the strongest team and approach to accomplish this scope of work. Um, DBA is a nationally recognized leader in sustainable human- centered urban design. They have a proven track record of creating livable mixeduse communities. Um they're based in the Bay Area with offices in San Francisco and Oakland and they have decades of experience implementing pragmatic people centered approaches to resilience. So through their proposal and their interview, DBA demonstrated deep experience in successful delivery of complex projects as well as a shared passion for this site. Um the team led by DBA unites this deep local experience with worldclass expertise. So it includes uh Sherwood design engineers who will contribute resilient sightspecific infrastructure solutions. Uh CMG landscape architecture adds visionary public realm design. Civic makers and plantol co-lead engagement with plan to place bringing continuity from their work on the general plan update. and then civic makers bringing e expertise in navigating complex um public challenges.

Um then we have fair and pierce brings insights into connectivity for the site and bay area economics grounds the plan in market feasibility and funding strategies. DBA's proposal includes a community and stakeholderdriven engagement process. So that process is designed to be inclusive, flexible, and meaningful. Um, it builds on the work that's already been done by healthy democracy and and other planning projects. Um, so DBA's approach of integrated collaboration effectively incorporates that public input that we're going to work really hard to get into the design process and decision-making in a really authentic reflection of that guiding principle that this should be guided by public input. Um, additionally, civic makers and plan to place will ensure grassroots engagement that prioritizes hardto-reach um, groups and offers multiple ways for people to communicate uh, for the community to engage at each phase. Um, so city staff will be returning to city council at key milestones throughout the process, including receiving council direction on the um, draft fairgrounds master plan. Um, so here's just a a very summarized version of the schedule. the more detailed and attractive one from DBA is in uh your attachments. Um but this just kind of illustrates where we're headed. So we're hoping to dive right in. Um even having a light touch flyer or some kind of um some simple way to engage at the fair itself with the very apt uh theme of past, present, and future. It seems too good to pass up on that opportunity. Um so there'll be a big early push on all the different tasks. You can see the bars across the whole, you know, top to bottom once we start. Um, and so then the infrastructure and special studies will kind of pause after that ex uh initial existing uh conditions push while we work out the details of the master plan and the CRC facility. So once we confirm the

direction that we're headed on those pieces, we'll be um back in full steam ahead on all all parts back into the infrastructure and the speal studies um to make sure we get a finalized plan that is ready to be implemented. Um DBA schedule has us wrapping up just before the holidays in 2027 with some grant final grant reporting extending into 2028. So that leaves us in really good shape um leaving us plenty of time to meet our grant deadlines. Um the financial impact of this contract award will be reimbursed by the grant award of $1.19 million. So that will include the contract total of up to um a little over 885,000 as well as being able to reimburse ourselves for over $300,000 in staff time. So based on the RFP issued, the strong proposals that we received, and extensive deliberation to determine the best team to deliver this project, um staff are happy to recommend approval of the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with David Baker Architects to prepare the Pedaluma Fairgrounds plan. Um so we invited DBA here tonight to give a short presentation. So, I want to hand it over to them to introduce themselves and I will pull up their presentation while they do that.

Thank you, Ella. Well, good evening, Mayor McDonald, Vice Mayor, City Manager, and council members. My name is Chelsea Johnson. I'm a principal at David Baker Architects, and I'm so excited to introduce our firm today and tell you how deeply honored we are to be working on this site. We know that this site is incredibly important to the city and to all of you and the community and we take it very seriously. Um we're deeply honored. So, thank you. Uh we've titled our approach and vision design for resilience and cultural continuity because we believe and know through research that communities fare better in times of disaster when they have strong social ties and in tight-knit communities. And we just think how lovely and inspiring it is that this site already functions that way um through the multiplicity of uses, events, um cultural heritage on site that is just so inspiring to us. Um so our approach really is about building upon what's there and celebrating the amazing community resource that it is. We our goal is to honor that legacy as well and create a plan that does a few things. Increases community activation on a daily basis by adding a multiplicity of uses to the site. So honoring what's there, but also layering and adding uses that the community wants to see and making a project plan that pencils economically. We also see an opportunity of knitting the fair grounds into the fabric of Paluma is is currently as as you all are aware a very large site in the middle of the city grid and there's a lot of connectivity issues and ability to

connect to the active transportation plan the city grid in a more porous and um active way. So we can advance to the next slide and I can let you know a little bit about our team. Um, so these are these friendly faces that you see on the screen are who we proposed to for the team at David Baker Architects. Um, Daniel Simons will be the principal in charge. I will be the master plan lead. Brett Jones here today will be the community resilience lead for the resilience center. Amelia Mueller will be the project manager. She's also the project manager of the Pedimemer River Park hopper site that we've been studying. Um so she has deep knowledge about pedaluma as well. Uh Sarah is our um an amazing urban designer and data specialist. Um so in addition to being an incredible designer, she's has incredible data skills. So she can help us synthesize complex information on the site. And we have an in-house graphic designer Isabelle. And to tell you a little bit about D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D DBA, we can advance and we can advance to the next slide too. Um, David Baker Architects, we do we have 65 people in our office. We have offices in San Francisco, Oakland, Birmingham, and Los Angeles. And we are we're a 65 person firm, which is medium to large, but we really operate at like a small studio or almost like a family. Our people are really important to us. We are um BC Corp certified and just certified and that really instills a sense of commitment to our people. Um we have very strong um people first policies in

our office and it all comes down to people stay for a really long time and we have incredibly high tenure and all that institutional knowledge is baked into the staff that works on our projects with a shared sense of mission and purpose for our community based work. Um our people are our greatest asset at DBA. And next slide. Um, this is a window into our office spaces. We have a fabrication shop at our Oakland office. We have our um, mothership office in San Francisco. We also have an outpost in Birmingham, Alabama. That's pretty wonderful. Um, and again, we we have multiple offices, which make us sound like a corporate office, but we're inherently not not that. We're we're this like very tight-knit um creative studio that operates in these quirky adaptive for use spaces. And and so we have a bunch of modes and areas that we work in. And to capture this, we call ourselves an integrated studio designing across multiple scales. And so we do architecture. We can flip through these sides kind of quickly. We do architecture, urban design, hospitality, civic architecture such as at the Pedalum River Park, transformative reuse and adaptive reuse. Um our DBA lab arm is a exploratory arm of our practice where we do a number of things. Um many of these projects are pro bono or um short activation projects. The image on the screen is an affordable housing activation project.

Before the building was constructed, we did um an event space where musicians happenings can happen, uh music events, uh food events can occur. and our DBI workshop where we do have in-house fabrication. So I like to think of this as we're working across scales and this project is at the urban design scale master master planning scale but we can leverage this these different ways of thinking about the building scale and the adaptive reuse aspect of the site and the scale of these like smaller more intimate community spaces. Our um project, the Pedaluma River Park, is one where we've collaborated with, as you know, CMG and Sherwood, and we're bringing that um cohesive team and that amazing creative energy uh and site specificity and all the knowledge that's been gleaned about Paluma to the fairground site. So I think that's a really amazing point where we can leverage the team of the Palmer River Park on the fairground site which is so close just a stones throw away. Here are just a few images of the Palmer River Park. We're we're designing the civic architecture. So bathrooms, shade structures, and a band shelf for the amphitheater. And here's a here's a plan view of the current plan. We are also working on some early studies on the hopper site as well. Just some early feasibility studies. Um so we uh in our interview uh we were asked this question what will make this project successful?

And what will to us what success looks like is that um we have a plan and everyone is behind that plan. The city government, the people of Paluma, the operators on site are united and excited about the plan and that it's also grounded in feasibility. Um that it's a plan that has a roadmap to fruition. Um, we are also we understand that this is a incredibly complex site and we have we're approaching this project with a lot of optimism that on the outset it might seem that across the community there's different wants and different needs and it might be contentious and what when we come into a project like that we have a lot of optimism that everything might be possible that if we are approach it with a creative vision where a multiplicity of uses can occur and overlap. Um, our goal is to make the most of what the community wants and what the city wants feasible on site and happen. Um, and we what we also bring to the project is like an ability to synthesize highly complex information in very clear ways through diagrams or through visualization of data. And so we think that this that's also a special skill we bring to facilitate uh decision-m clarity and a really clear vision in the midst of complexity as we work through the process. Um so I just want to close by saying again just how thankful and deeply honored we are to be working on this project with all of you. We take this very seriously and we we know we need to nail it and create a plan that everyone is 100% behind. So, um we are just so

excited to be working here with all of you. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate the team uh effort to get the presentations up. Uh council questions. Council member Shrebs. Um just the uh first question is uh just the RFP process and how we came to be at this point. Um so uh I've I've heard talks from from the Baker group before and a phenomenal group does phenomenal work elsewhere and everything coming in. I have a suspicion maybe a little bit more expensive than the other folks. So, was it a little bit more expensive or a lot more expensive some of the other folks in this RFP process in decision-m and since we're now picking someone that may be higher priced but better for us to do this, can we use the same process in other decision-making RFPs, not just take the lowest bid?

Um, so we Brian and I consulted on this as we wrote the RFP. We kind of gave a target for people um and all there were 10 proposals and I believe all of them were within a very small range. Um one might have been 50,000 less but um so DVA was not they were they were comparable to all of them. Um, and actually one thing that we liked about their team is that that that some other teams didn't have some teams were very stacked at the top like it was all principal level. Um, and there was kind of any of that kind of grunt work uh was was very expensive and and DVA's model we felt was more efficient because they um, you know, have a lot of efficiency with their integrated structure. So, um, while they're very high quality, it was not any more than the other proposals.

Good. And, and I like that we're combining with the river park the situation also. Now, which brings me to the difference between the two sites. The river park has a lot of open space with a empty pallet. Basically, the fairgrounds is not a very open space. Uh, has got lots of structures on it and we're demanding and expecting a huge amount of stuff to be added in. So, I get a little concerned about all the stuff we're wanting to add in and make happen there. And I'm going to the actual square foot only 55 acres. Okay, you're going to put all this in 55 acres really and then try to keep what what's there also? And so I get a little concerned on that. So um what it really comes down to is specifically um well there's a whole general thing. There's space for the fair, space for the a and farmers market, space for have a park situation, space for folks to show up uh in case of an emergency. So, how much space does that really require all of that? How much compatibility of overlap we can get? Um, but I'm really concerned about the community re uh um resource center resiliency center at only 10,000 square feet. I'm thinking 100,000 square feet is needed to do the functionality that it's expected of a resiliency center. So, I'm really scared that we're limiting the capacity and functionality of this thing at 10,000 square feet. That's not much for the expectation it's going to hold. Just the equipment we're asking it to hold will be 10,000 square feet, let alone the actual activity space. So, how do we come up with 10,000 square feet and why is it not 100,000 200,000 square feet?

Council member, good question. Um the initial stab at specking the center was really driven by the larger community resiliency center grant uh process that's through the California strategic growth council. Uh we knew that that grant had a construction or an implementation cap of a $10 million uh building budget basically. So, in submitting our initial application for that back in, I want to say 2024, uh, we knew that we needed to have a realistic size of facility that could be funded with the construction dollars that were available to us under that grant. However, what I will say is that 10,000 foot figure is really just what we're thinking about with um whether it's a new building or renovations of existing buildings, etc., while also acknowledging that the site may be uh the ideal place for that because there are all of the ancillary uses and facilities around it. So, it's not to say that the resiliency center itself is limited or restricted to 10,000 square ft, but we have kind of had that strategic growth council grant in mind in specking out what that building will be. Uh obviously as we've seen the uh animal evacuations and some of the other uses that we've had during emergencies on the facility, there will uh inevitably be other buildings and other structures and other areas of the fairgrounds that will get used in those types of larger evacuations.

Good. It's just a matter of how to pack that all in, especially a cooperative space where it's multi multi-use space throughout. Um, and that also, um, of course we're going to have to deal with the race. The largest single feature of course is the raceway. Uh, that is there. So, how to divide that all in there. But that that'll that's all for you to figure out, but I'll leave it to other questions for the other council members.

Council member Quint. Uh, thank you. Um, really excited about this. Congratulations. Uh, I, uh, I thought I might be the first person to introduce scope creep, but uh, you beat me to it, John. Um so when I think so so I just want to plant one seed um with a community resilience center uh you know I think of it as you know being a hybrid facility you know part uh emergency operations hub uh part community center um part social services anchor that kind of activity uh you know one of the things that our community I I think is desperately in need UB is a new senior center. And so as we think about that, it would be I think phenomenal to try to incorporate something like that um into this kind of area. So I'll leave it at that. I know there's going to be tons of opportunity to uh uh to to offer more input, but I at least wanted to plant that seed. Thank you,

Council Member. Now,

hi. You'll learn I'm the biggest fair grounds cheerleader there is. I have lots of history at starting as a a young 4er um at the fairgrounds and one thing I didn't know about the fairgrounds. So I called our friends at rebuilding together and asked the um executive director to take me on a little tour of what they have been doing with the fairgrounds. And they have mobile showers. They have classrooms. They have a wardrobe, a room just for our unhoused population to find um clothing to go to an interview or just wear at a job. And they're actually contracting with the city to do numerous jobs and tasks in our community as well as on the fairgrounds. So the the planters look amazing. The um grounds look great. Um I'm kind of partial to the preschool there uh since my daughter opened and um has been very successful there. And the um Speedway is a big attraction to our families and then the future there and the Playland. I know a lot of families use that too. But I just wanted to really emphasize that what rebuilding together and how they're using the live oak classrooms is actually going to our what we want to do for our resilience center because this is our unhoused population and um we want to help them and in talking to them they're very proud to do community tasks and helping around the fairgrounds. So I'm looking forward to it and you'll hear a lot about me. Bye.

Any questions about the uh um contract we're discussing today? Council member K. Well, I'll just um comment. I I would like to see a senior center at the fairground. Not a question, but we'll get back in here. I don't have any question. So, I'll ask to go to u go to public. You have a question. Great. Okay. Vice Mayor,

thank you for your presentation. Um I do we have any initial numbers as to what the resiliency center may cost? We have uh so you'll notice coun vice mayor in our uh council Q&A uh I think back in 22 we did a building assessment um we could somewhat extrapolate you know a rough cost but we're nowhere near um identifying hard costs etc. I think what's going to be really critical is this initial engagement with the community. Um, you know, how do we define that space? Is it 10K? Is it more? Um, and then we can go from there to to start looking at cost and feasibility, but that's going to be part of this holistic plan that gets delivered.

Okay. And is this likely a building we'll have to bond for?

At this point, again, we have existing buildings that have been assessed. Uh we really want to have that, you know, genuine conversation with our community on what the needs are for a resiliency center. Um what our assistant city manager, um Cochran had identified is there are funding opportunities. Um there's one that's about to open this year. We expect it to continue. There's climate bonds. There's lots of um external funds that we can leverage. Um and so once we get to that financing and feasibility component um we'll have a robust discussion.

Thank you. And for the for the master plan, you know, making sure that everybody's included in in the discussion, how how will the team seek out key constituents and and get engagement from them and you know to what level um will that happen? So Chelsea, I can I'll start this off. Um I think the beauty of the proposal um not just the uh carryover and consistency with the general plan engagement that we've had with the community. Um we're really going to be leveraging our partners. Um again I'll just take the moniker about the fair this year past present and future all that's critical and so ensuring that we have a diverse um set of stakeholders from the a community uh to our city residents um is only going to make this successful. Um, and so I believe one of our deliverables is an outreach plan and we'll we'll get into a lot more detail um once that plan is developed.

I'll just add that um DBA's presentation in their interview had a much deeper dive into that. Um I I did ask we had to we wanted we knew it was a full agenda tonight, so we didn't go into all of that, but um the the two consultant teams who they've hired had a lot of really great examples of how um they've kind of designed these bespoke uh activities to reach different kinds of groups that are generally hard to hard to reach. They're very creative and um ready to jump into that to make sure we hear everyone's voice. Okay. No, thank you. And with that understanding, are we sure three workshops is going to be enough to cover this?

I believe so. Um, and I think, um, again, we're going to have some milestones and touch points. If there's something that, um, would require us to, you know, pivot, retool, um, we can come back and report back at that time. But I do think it's enough. All right. Thank you. Um, thank you. I I um I appreciate that. I mean, you guys came up with a lot of good goodwill from past experiences in Pedaluma and current experiences in Pedaluma. I did note that Heelsburg just uh completed up their uh I want to guess it's 15,000 square feet um open pavilion and uh the Foley uh family um facility and uh they mentioned while they had a million something in the in the property they were at 7 million for an open pavilion with you know grounds around it but if we're talking about a facility that'll give you an order of magnitude what the costs are on uh what we're talking about. Um but my question is is like broadly speaking this is visioning and we have no identified funding for any of the improvements at this time. Um will that be a constraint in your visualizations to folks? How do you explain well if we get a grant we get to do a thing but if you have to pay if we got to pass a tax well that means a different how do you ground the economic reality with the vision reality

oh I think that's an incredible point mayor um that is something we're very much have our eye on the so we have ideas for the themes of the three engagement meetings the first one um hearing about the previous process and reaffirming what we heard in the healthy democracy process us and giving us um fodder and more information for an initial discovery phase. After the discovery phase, as a part of the discovery phase, we're going to be doing initial economic modeling on all the possible uses on site to understand where the levers are economically for what can and can't pencil. so that when we go to the community in public workshop number two, we're able to have a conversation about clear tradeoffs or how things work together with an economic lens because that's so important. We don't want to promise the community something that we can't deliver economically. Um, but we also want to craft those conversations very carefully and um, transparently and thoughtfully. Um yes, thank you very much for that. Um um I think we have had a recent great experience with our skate park and the public participation in that it was more focused. Um and you know so it was easier to achieve but the meetings occurred at in rapid secession and I think a lesson we have from a lot of public meetings is long durations. our staff is doing research or consultants are doing research deteriorates from the the public's confidence and um and the public's remembrance of what was actually transpired in a given meeting. How do you how quickly I'm looking at the schedule say how can you compress this

schedule? How how can we not lose the public over this period? Yeah. You know, we I've I've worked on projects where we talked about doing that and that was what we set out to do and then we got there and it was was too compressed. I do I think we that's definitely a cons a concern here and especially as we yeah we want to keep this momentum. We want to go right into implementation. Um so we're being we were have been really careful to wrap that a really thorough um economic feasibility study into this so that it is there's not like a you know the day after we adopt it we know okay here's what we need to go do now not like okay where do we start you know so that's we've designed the plan to be that way but as a result it will take some time and it is you know I think that the trade-off conversation we have to give that room um and you know we you have the kind of the the let's say we had the three workshops and there will be some waiting time between them but that's because these guys are going to be doing a lot of work on these all of these complex moving pieces and making sure that the conversation we're bringing to the public is just right and um you know speaking to what people care about and um getting all the information we need to set a direction. So I think um you know I'm I'm thinking a lot about this project on what is the communication in between that. Um so we'll we'll be working with the communications department and um you know I think we want to host our own website and be able to offer um an online version of the the workshops and so I think that can be a place where people learn to come to to understand so we can start we can provide updates of say okay here's what we heard you know two months ago in the workshop this is

what you reported back I think we can um work out an effective communications plan to bring people along with us so it's not just they have like didn't wait what happened after that workshop last June you know so that they there's a a kind of understanding about the process for the people who are coming along for the ride

yeah I think that lack of communication is is is a classic problem and and outreach in between event is the success key um so um I'm looking at the schedule and it's a you know year and a halfish from from now um on target and then the funding game starts and and uh things like that. So I I would it be fair to say that our existing tenants will probably have opportunity for the next three years without I mean so I would say that's fair um as even just not accurate necessarily but close to fair.

Absolutely. Yeah. So we uh it was mentioned in the council Q&A as well. Um there's two one-year extensions. we've started that process to engage with the existing tenants um who will be every bit as important of a group of stakeholders as part of this um and so again early engagement um and I just to answer the question you had mayor about how do we move this along in a timely way um we need to maximize those those opportunities as the vice mayor identified we need to make sure that everyone is at the table Um, and the communication is clear and consistent and I'm confident. I don't know if we can truncate any any spot. Um, but I'm confident that through this um process that we've identified um we'll have a really good plan to move forward on.

Looking forward to it. Council member now.

Um, thank you. And I'll stay on the question. Um, one of my questions was answered in the Q&A about the existing buildings that have been condemned or redtagged or and last year there was an incident where we need to rebuild trust with the a community because the first day of fair week a build a show ring and building were being demolished as the 4ers were coming in. We do not want surprises ever again like that. There was no communication. I was getting calls. The council was all getting calls. We didn't have it. So, my question is, how are we going to know what buildings are the first to be um either leveled or restructured so they can be in use? Because there's two main livestock which were used during the evacuations. So, those are the two main questions. When are we going to know? I think um we need to defer that to a conversation about fair activities. Um I think not pertinent maybe to the award of contract tonight and we can ask that as questions the CM to bring to us as a what is proposed in the budget. I mean we can't do a demolition without a budget and we're seeing the budget next week.

Well, this was an emergency demolition but it won't be involved with any sort of architecture or visioning. Okay. But just to lay it out there following your comment, we want communication.

Correct. Council member Shibs. Um just as a a question um have you looked at already or have you already done something like this which is take this um race way that we have which pretty old structure that may be falling apart and actually preserving it transforming it and completely changing it and make that the resiliency center by putting all the building structure in and under this the seating and around the edges and make all Have you ever done anything like that of of transforming a large sort of like antiquated structure but preserving it and moving it into something like a resiliency center for multi-use. Have you ever done that before?

Um we have certainly done a lot of adaptive reuse. Um making making a stadium into a building is not something we've done before per se. Um but I think that the underlying ideas of what you're pointing to are really interesting. how to how to take these artifacts and pieces of history and make them give them a new life and give them a new vision. And so I think we will be looking very creatively about how to examine all the existing structures and think about how the new uses we'll be adding to the site work with those. Okay. Just just planting an idea. Council member Quinn, I'd like to make a motion to go to public comment. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Uh, I think we agree on that motion and we're going to go to public comment. We didn't receive any comments ahead of time, but I do have two cards. If there's I see another card coming through. If there's anyone else at the moment, our first speaker will be Chantel Rogers. Our first speaker will be Chantel Rogers. I'm actually seating my time mayor. Thank you. Who are we seating to? All right, our speaker is Darren Racken.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm going to start with two more immediate concerns and then go into kind of an arc that I think underlies a structural concern of mine with the process. Uh first and foremost uh tonight you guys are asked to approve the contract the professional services agreement with David Baker Architects in attachment two which is the example professional services agreement. You are missing appendix A which is the scope of services. So you guys have the boilerplate contract and then it goes right into B1 which is insurance requirements. So, I want to make sure we're really clear on what the scope of services is. And maybe you guys have seen appendix A and it's just the version the public got is missing it. But that is arguably the most important part of a professional services contract is what the scope services are.

Testing testing Oh, sorry. Is that me or is that

the testing? Oh, there we go. There we go. We figured it out. Um, so, so yes, having appendix A, actual scope of services in the contract, I think is key. I don't know if that changes the deliberations tonight. Next is the fact that this is a CRC grant and we are kind of shoehorning the master plan into that. It's great taking advantage of an opportunity of grant monies to get our fairgrounds master plan done, but it makes me think of is that sufficient for the totality of the task? You know, right now David Baker Architects and their five or six subs are splitting about 800 850k. City staff is spending the other 300 to 350. Is that going to be enough? Again, without the clear scope of scope of services, you just that question doesn't really get a clear answer. So, those are my two most immediate concerns. And then I'm going to share kind of an arc of a little bit of how we got here and something I'm concerned about which is I'll just state up front sometimes these long-term master planning projects. I fear that there is already a consensus vision from what I consider our city's steering committee which is council select members of staff select engaged community members who already know what they want the outcome to be. Uh this is something someone told me previously that look we know what the policy outcomes are. It's just how we get there. And when we have a public process like this, you never want that to be the undertone that hey, we know where we're going. This is all box checking. So, I'll just share some some sequence of events that underly that concern and then maybe you guys can assuage me and tell me this is not the case. Uh, first of all, when I I'll leave out the contentious kind of original meeting where the city took ownership, but pretty soon after that, the planning commission was asked to review a fairgrounds overlay that would legalize uh normal or non-conforming uses that currently exist on the fairgrounds. We had to create a fairgrounds overlay. Uh during that meeting, it became pretty clear that other fairgrounds overlays in other cities are pretty prescriptive about what can or cannot go there. In that meeting, I advocated to say, can we

put a clause in here that says no housing? Like that seemed to be a consensus from healthy democracy. You know, the original uh bond labeled it as a park. Can we say no housing? And that was said, no, we don't want to cut off possibilities. We don't want to limit ourselves. Okay. Clearly, I was worried that we were going in that direction. Um around that time, we kept hearing about deferred maintenance on the site. uh that you know this site oh my god there's so many problems we didn't know about even now as a special revenue fund we are projected to spend more than we make at the fairgrounds kind of underlying this narrative of like we didn't know what we were getting into there's so much deferred maintenance what are we going to do last year in meeting to organize the pedaluma future fest I was involved in some pretty early meetings and I was told by a city staff member that I asked why don't we do it at the fairgrounds and I was told well we don't love programming events there we don't really know how yet' So, it was kind of like a okay, are we getting the most out of this site? What what is the plan? This year in March, we heard a goals and priorities meeting where Brian Cochran, for the first time since I've been paying attention in the past 5 years, mentioned surplus lands and how the city needs to think about what are our surplus lands, what are those lands that we can enter onto the market that may be underutilized. Uh right now we are looking at before you a master plan process that will be managed really by an internationally recognized I would say housing developer. They wrote nine ways to build housing for people. I'd say it's kind of their focus. In their proposal it says infill between the library and swim center could heal the East Washington frontage reinforcing a cohesive civic edge that could include community resilience center and possibly housing, retail and hotel. Uh and then in the proposed budget that we just got shared today, uh the community the community development department section of the budget indicates the following goals and priorities spaces and places that inspire. Advance coordinated planning and reinvestment in key areas including

Pedaluman North Station, the fairgrounds and downtown to activate underutilized sites and support mixeduse vitality. Uh further in their section it says the department will continue advancing our major area plans including the pedaluma northstation specific plan and fairgrounds master plan to guide reinvestment infrastructure planning and community serving development. Housing element implementation will remain a core focus through ongoing regulatory alignment support for housing production across income levels. Those are all bundled in the same paragraph. So again I'm seeing a narrative where the fairgrounds will be developed. We are putting mixeduse housing. where we are putting mixeduse development andor housing on the site. I believe this has been a policy direction for some time in seeing some of these tea leaves come together over the past few years and this built into a larger call. Something I mentioned at planning commission this past week being forthright about the vision. If there is a city steering committee vision, especially if we go into a community meeting, expressly state what your vision is. Hey, we are actually looking at mixeduse development andor housing development. What say you community? I think not only does it build trust but it gives the community a framework with which to make their decisions. If we go in nebulous and say we could do anything you guys tell us and then at the end of it we come back and say well hey we did the community engagement but actually what do you know they decided to not discount what the direction we were going in. So that is now a box check for community engagement and we will do our original policy direction. Right? That is something I want to prevent. I think again this is kind of about trust building. This is about good faith community workshopping and engagement. I was at the Mystic Theater seeing David Baker Architect's presentation a couple years ago. They're phenomenal. Uh and I don't think this has anything to do with them per se, but it's a process thing, especially around the fairgrounds. Like I said, the meeting where it was originally transferred. I think this feeling was rampant in the crowd during that

meeting. So, let's be forthright and clear. Thank you.

Thank you, Rebecca Carpenter. Good evening. All I want to say is hallelujah. We're finally moving on with this. We've been waiting. So I'm really really happy to see you've chosen a great group to do this work and also just here to remind you that uh healthy democracy um you know we put out the ideas that the community had and apart from you know keeping the fair and we want to have evacuation center uh remember the animals that's important um but we want to see a park-like environment we want to get rid of the chain fence stuff. Uh we want to see a yearround farmers market and more than anything remember it's an agricultural place where we live and we want an area where the kids, the youth, young adults can go and learn about agriculture and learn agricultural skills and that sort of thing. So, thank you all and I'm really excited to see this move along. Thanks.

Thank you very much. Uh that closes public comment for the evening. Bringing it back up to council. Any uh comments before we take a motion, Council Barnacle.

Yeah. Um so I'm super excited about this. Thank you for submitting your proposals. Thank you to staff for um a thorough review. Um to the to Darren's public comment, um our guiding principles don't mention housing a single time. None of us have mentioned it a single time. to say that is um is uh I think you're unraveling a whole mess of things that don't actually add up. Um the overlay was put in place to facilitate the third bullet in our guiding principles which was to provide institutional stability during the transition period for the existing uses. It wasn't there to prohibit new uses. It was there to allow the existing uses. So, um I just think it's important that um if we're going to be talking about building trust with the community to actually like um focus on what's actually being said. Um up here, many of us have talked about our vision for this space as an active community space. Um centering agriculture, which is firmly embedded in multiple of the guiding principles, education. Um these are the things that absolutely define our community and what we want to see there. Um and I'm firmly uh believe that they will be there. Um I just think we have to also have good faith. Part of engaging in a process like this is having good faith and giving um and uh creating the space for the process um and not coming in with um preconceived notions and um and whatnot. Um, in terms of my feedback on the process itself, um, I'm really excited about economic viability and implementation and what day one looks like after we adopt a plan. Um, uh, the trade-off conversation. I think we absolutely need to create space for that. Um, I also think we need to look at other city assets um, and planning processes that are going to be wrapping up probably

around it through this process. So, the North Pedaluma smart station, um I think the airport, the marina, some of these like unique sort of assets that are kind of underutilized right now, but um kind of fit into the overall resilience landscape of our city is is worth looking at. um the corpyard, the smart stations um and just sort of like in your sort of studies of pedaluma kind of looking at the city specific city assets and lands um because I think there's the opportunity for those things to sort of tie into the overall sort of like civic usage of within our city too. So please um look at that. Uh and with that I'm really excited to move this item and to kick off this process. Um, so, uh, I'll move that.

We have a we have a motion by Barnacle and a second by Kater Thompson and a comment by Vice Mayor.

Yeah. Well, first off, I um I wish we'd really stopped making motions before comments or questions or anything are finished. I don't know why things have to get rushed that way, but um, you know, to speak to Excuse me one sec. I pull this up. So to to to speak to preconceived notions on what may or may not be happening there, I mean, I think I think a lot of what the public feared um was going to happen to the fairgrounds has been happening. Um those those concerns have come to fruition, you know, and and I think it's I think it's completely legitimate that the public wants to, you know, not see housing there and and have the city say that we won't do that. Um, you know, there were concerns too about um, you know, hotels ending up there or, you know, people did talk about a um, police and fire complex as we're getting now and then even concerns about a new city hall over there. And so, you know, I would like to ask another question about how can we how can we bake into this that something like that isn't going to happen, that we're not going to see um that we're not going to see housing on the fairground site because neither Healthy Democracy nor the community, nobody wanted to see that there. How can we as a city ensure that something like that is not going to happen on the site? city.

Um, yeah, I'm not sure if staff wants to take that on, but um I think uh I could take a crack at it. Oh,

okay. Um, brave man. So, Vice Mayor, I hear you. Um, I'll echo I won't echo uh what Council Member Barnacle stated. I I think what's really clear is there's a clear connection between this planning process um and the objectives and the guiding principles that will ultimately guide this um and so based on that connection based on all the discussions that we've had to date about what the community whether it was through the healthy democracy process what city council had has advocated before. Um I think the priority is going to continue to be a resiliency center. It's going to be a place uh a civic space. We haven't identified nor once said anything about um specific uses beyond that. And so it's going to be really important throughout this process to stay engaged to commun to communicate to engage with our community. Um, so it's transparent. I will just make one note about the overlay itself. Um, yes, that essentially codified um and carried over uses that have been historically there. Uh, but that was really the only way to ensure things like a playland, play dog play to exist um, uh, you know, without the overlay itself. And so housing itself isn't a uh permitted use um for the fairgrounds. Um and so I just offer that as some additional assurance.

Okay. Yeah. Um yeah. Well, I mean like like Brian said, you know, as Mike gone, you know, we we are the council, so I I don't know why the council at the time didn't make that didn't bake that into things. Um, so that's why I think the fear is still out there that it could happen and I'm coming down here next. Well, we want we can discuss it if he wants to. I don't mind.

Well, let's let's bring it over here to Council Member Quinn. Well, I I just want to ask a kind of a procedural question around this topic of of housing in the fairgrounds for um I mean, would it would it require the city to sell property there to develop it? I mean, would that kind of be the Sorry, what do you mean what would Could you frame that a little tighter? like in like in terms of this idea of of building housing on the fairgrounds, wouldn't that require us to sell the property to a developer? Well, it would require a whole bunch of things. Um,

so I guess my whole point is wouldn't that be something that would come to council to It would be council prerogative entirely. Yeah. All right. All right. So, that gives you confidence that And can I just make, you know, for some of you that weren't here, when we did the housing element, we specifically um we we cut out the fairgrounds as a potential housing element site because we specifically did not want to um we heard what the community had said about housing on the site and we did not want to put that into play. So, and um any other different questions questions you want to Well, I was gonna let Brian go on if you wanted to. Well, I I don't want to have an interplay on it. I mean, I think you've made your uh statement here. We've got a motion here. We want to get last people.

Well, it's just to have discussion and that's what we do, right? Um I I fear it's not discussion, it's um a pointed return to the same positions rather than a sort of negotiation or understanding. U each of us should lay out our thoughts on the matter and then be complete on our thoughts on the matter then we move it. Okay. Well, I'm happy to try to understand if you must.

Sure. I'll just I'll make my position clear. Maybe we can all make our position clear. I don't think there should be housing on the fairgrounds. I support density elsewhere in the fairgrounds because I think that the fairgrounds and I think the river park are these critical public spaces that are going to create an amazing quality of life for our community into the future. Um, in terms of vision, I want to see density around our train station. I want to see density um on the old Palmroy site. I want to I promote density on these places so that places like the fairgrounds don't get the pressure to have housing on them and so that our community as we grow and as we um increasingly don't use our automobiles to to get around, we have amazing public spaces that maintain an out an exceptional quality of life into the future. Um, and I support the guiding principles that I supported when we uh took ownership of it. Um, and we didn't include no housing on the site at that time because they were guiding principles for what we want to see, not what we don't want to see. Um, so in terms of being clear about what where I stand, I encourage everybody else to go ahead and do that tonight so that we can get the tinfoil hats off of our heads and start focusing on the vision of what could be and not scared about what might be because that's what this process is about.

Council member Kater Thompson, and I agree with that. I mean, it is a 55 acre site, but it is also next to a shopping center. I mean, so it's next to a lot of it's a swim center, um, a library. I mean, so there's So I just want to see how this process comes out, but I also want to see what the economics is because if we're just going to throw things out that isn't that we're not going to be able to afford or that isn't financially feasible and isn't going to give us a return, we need to look at that. We just can't have like a dream that this is exactly what we want, but we need to look at the surrounding areas also. Yeah. So quality support that we're looking to bring in with this consulting conversation council member now.

Yes. And we had the opportunity to expand on the Kennallorth Park, our parks directors, the front row because that was a journey of the parks when I was on it. And that will inbrace the community into seeing what the rest of the fairgrounds has. And then the a compon component with maybe a Sarah Kundi a center with a farmers market. Um the cow palace north as I've always dubbed it for a venue. There's a lot of opportunities and housing is not one of them. So, thank you, Council Member Quinn.

I I'll be crystal clear. I am not in favor of any housing on the fair grounds. I want it to be a community center, a park, a you know, a fairgrounds, a an agriculture forward place for our community. Thank you. I mean, everybody's weighing. Anyone weigh in, John?

Um, well, just maybe the two things. Um I would support what Helvin Barnacle said pretty much house density housing elsewhere but that site all community effort. Um and if I could transition to another idea I just want to go back to what is going to be the number one roadblock to success on anything. The number one roadblock is going to be how much land does the raceway take up? What are we going to do with that land? Are we going to keep the raceway? Are we going to transform it transform it into something arena of some sort where it's multifunctional with raceway with bike riding with music with a resiliency center? So multiaceted do that or are we going to just level it and start fresh with fresh land base so that is the number one problem roadblock that we're going to face in developing anything on that site any resiliency center whatever. So I I said we need to tackle that first and come up with a decision for that particular spot because that's like 10 to 20 acres of the site. Um and we need to deal with that as the issue number one issue uh first and if we can't deal with that then then no whatever we do is going to end up on a bookshelf. So uh I want to make sure that that's that I'm pretty clear that that has to be decided first. Thanks.

Thank you. The problem with going last is that all the good ideas are already on the table. Um, I was going to mention that as we had the public speaker up here with the conspiracy ideas. Um, you know, I mean, we're missing the big thing in the picture here, which is the raceway and the resolution of that and how hard it is to get the public sentiment on that because you mean everybody wants the green space, everyone wants this and stuff. Nobody wants housing. These are the easy things, but the speedway, you know, I don't know, 50/50, who wants, who doesn't want. getting to the bottom of that is be the biggest challenge for staff and and the consultant team in their public outreach. The idea of housing housing in in 2008 when the city was ready to go broke the city mentioned housing, right? It seemed like a viable idea to keep the lights on at the city. But since that time, everything has evolved. People have evolved all their thinking. But if you have a negative perception of a process or if you have a distrust of government, you don't put aside the change, you retain that thought of what was and it's no longer what is. And so what is as a vision is the healthy democracy process. And I really appreciated Rebecca Carpenter, one of the members of that team, being here tonight, sticking it out till, you know, late and um and saying that. But I think everyone in the room knows the guiding principle is the outcome of healthy democracy. It has fuzziness in it but it had a firehouse safety center in it. It had resilience uh center as a um a popular topic. Um we haven't brought up the farmers market yet which was also a popular thing which is also multi-use structure like the like we were mentioning the Foley Center or other centers you know you have multiple uses for things. Uh the deferred maintenance, that's not a conspiracy. That's asset, not liability. The fact

that the city took it over meant that gain is occurring, public access is occurring to safe facilities. The city is making it open and good. So, we're hitting on all the targets that we wanted with the fairground decision and we're moving to the next stage of it here. So, we want everybody to get on board and if uh Commissioner Rakisen has uh concerns or has friends who have concerns and wants to share confidence, I'm sure any of us would meet with your friends who might have these concerns so they can get the confidence of knowing that their council is moving in this direction, the direction healthy democracy indicated. Um you know, um the other ideas of surplus land, this isn't surplus land. This is prime beneficial community land. It when we talk about surplus land, there are pieces the city owns here and there. Not many, but pieces and that could be housing. There could be other good things. This is earmarked for such community benefit that we need to tell the world. You need to help us tell the world. You're on the city planning commission. You know what's going on. Let's get out and get this message out there. Um, I appreciated um uh what uh Council Member Barnacle led off with um about all the efforts we're making to do all the good things in town for housing. Why why it's centered near the train stations and why we're doing another study up at the Corona station and you know tonight we talked about how it's impossible to actually achieve the housing that we're facilitating the heck out of. It isn't going to happen at the fairground and that's just not a thing. So the message is we need to look into the camera and say, you know, all these things you're worried about aren't the things to think about. The raceway, that's the big item to worry about and have the public conversation about and get on board with good can occur in our town.

So with that, does any anybody have a new position or an adds back in? Yeah. No. Well, I just want to thank my colleagues because I think we did come to a consensus on something and an understanding. You know, everybody said it in kind of one way or another. um leaves one to say something about housing if you want to, but

um I'm I I I kind of went off there. Uh I'm done. Council member Thompson. But you know I will say though that with the uh with the resiliency center I am I am happy to see that because during you know during the fires especially I was involved in that seeing what um what uh incredible benefit the fairgrounds was for its location and the buildings that it has and and what you know it was able to provide you know in its state for animals and everybody else. Um that that was incredible. Um, I would I would hope that we're able to fund the resiliency center in a way that doesn't put us in in, you know, any sort of long-term um, debt. Um, you know, the 4th DA, I think it was known at the time, I'll remind everybody, they had about4 to$50 million um that they had access to where they could have built one. Um, so I'm I'm hoping that in in the long run we are able to do something that uh doesn't add a huge amount of interest to taxpayers.

Council member Ker Thompson,

it's always good to have the money in hand instead of what's promised. Um I just want to um for the architects up in Davis where they have their farmers market, they've just renovated um you know their park there and you know you can really see something like that as an area because it's community but there's so much more to it that they just did this last year and it reminds me of something that could actually be at this fairgrounds and how it kind of integrates almost like with the pool area. I mean, it just really integrates and it it's just a great design that um please check that out and I encourage the council to go up to Davis and look at it because of what they've done, what wasn't there and what is there now. It's really nice.

So, with that, we have a motion and a second. I'd like a roll call vote, please. Arnacle, yes, but no housing. Ker Thompson, yes. D Carly, yes. Now, yes. to support the fair. Quint, yes. Shribs, yes. McDonald, yes. Motion carries unanimously. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for the fabulous presentation. Thank you for coming up to town tonight and uh we look forward to um the public outreach.

Think I was going to ask the fastrack. moves us on to moves us on to resolution authorizing the award of contracts for as needed on call professional planning services to augment staffing and resources to the city of Pedaluma by three firms. Metropolitan Planning Group, FourLE, and Urban Planning Partners. And to help us with this, oh, Brian, oh, back up to the hot seat. Director of community development and also uh Jonathan Leong, our senior management analyst. Thank you, Mayor. Oh, it's working. Okay. Well, I appreciate the time. Um, we have come to council a few times to discuss the there's a little flag. Um, and so what's before you as mayor mentioned is a resolution um to authorize uh contracts to move forward. Uh, but really taking a step back, this is um an evolution of how uh Pedaluma has developed. Um, and so I'll spend a little bit of time talking about the history, uh, talking about the future. Um, but I did want to just pause here just for a moment. Um, 2008, 2009, um, that is, uh, feels like a lifetime away. Um but in many ways um we as a city um have continued to recover uh from um from where we were then to where we are now. Um and really up to this point I would uh classify

our planning services as uh providing stability um in a time that um there wasn't and there was a lot of uncertainty both um out you know in the external world uh but also locally and so we have been very fortunate to have that consistency and that stability uh through a contract services. As many of the council and community know uh we in ' 08 uh as a city abolished our planning department and so literally the um city classifications uh were completely eliminated off the ledger. Um Mgroup uh Metropolitan Planning Group uh was the winning bid at the time. Um and they have to this date provided uh consistent service both to the customers, both to council, um as well as um to the rule rules and regulations um that our city is built on and develops off of. Um and so I'll just spend a few more seconds just talking about said evolution. Uh the last time I was before you, we talked through a um a a budget um discussion and so historically 09 to 22 um 100% consultant services uh with a annual budget $2.65 million uh roughly a million of that uh which has been consistent um up to this point um has been attributed to cost recovery. So that means when development applications come uh it's 100% paid by the applicant. Um in 2019

there was a set of uh council goals and priorities uh about reconstituting the community development department. And so in 22, the city embarked on this process, created my position, uh, but really wanted to rebuild um, and consolidate our development services. And so we went from a planning department, a housing department, a uh code enforcement was in our um uh police department, um a building department and and thoughtfully um which is very um common in other cities uh went through the process um and the effort to rebuild a community development department. And so planning division has been uh or planning staff or planning function has been a division u which I've been fortunate enough to uh oversee uh three plus years now going on um and so director was created senior planner Ella um was a really great hire last year and those are the two positions that were brought in house um as well as the creation of the onetop permit center. And so that was really um uh only able to be done by by rebuilding, reconstituting the department and putting the different pieces together. Um and so presently it's roughly a $2.8 million uh budget uh to provide planning services about a million of that in cost recovery. Um there was we had provided some information it's on our website about the apples to apples comparison. So how do we go from a outsourced 100% consultant services to a fully in-house

um planning division. Um and so a lot of those numbers still hold true. Um so we had uh provided information in 23 um that roughly it was about $600,000 more to do a one for one bringing it inhouse. Um and so for the last few years we've had this hybrid workforce model. Um we have uh planning staff. Um we've been bringing positions in house. Um and much of or fully all of the 100% cost recovery um that is reliant on development activity um has uh historically been uh through uh contract planning services. Um what's before you this evening um is for a proposal to consider um a u another evolution to that. Um so for fiscal year 27 um the contract for um metropolitan planning group is set to expire at the end of July. And so we have as staff been working on a model um to develop a what I'm calling a core in-house planning division um which will be managed uh daytoday um and operations managed by a planning manager that we are um getting ready to recruit uh for as a city position as well as an associate planner um to really round out again what I'm calling are proposing as a core in-house uh planning division. Um those costs um taking that into effect uh with the um hybrid hybrid workforce the core

in-house planning staff um is uh budgeted to be $2.26 million again offset what we anticipate a million dollars in cost recovery. Um, one thing I will mention, uh, in order to make that work, and I think this has been a theme, um, throughout the evening, um, around being mindful of budget, um, this does propose to reutilize existing or repurpose existing staffing. And so I would anticipate staffing levels to be reduced um, with some of the consolidation. Um, and doing the numbers, it's about 15% um, of a cost savings from our historic um, 100% consulting service model. And so what's before um, mostly for me and and our staff uh, within community development um, we need to continue to rebuild that core group. um in-house planning manager, associate planner, uh consolidate the permit counter. So right now it functions as a planning counter. Um so when an individual comes to the counter, there's a planning counter and there's a building counter. Um and so um in order to make this happen, we would be consolidating the permit counter as well as the administrative support that um is being currently provided by department staff. Um as part of this proposal, we would uh propose to retain um the existing special projects that are well underway, many of them um with the existing project managers. Um and so specifically the general plan, the

zoning code reform that we touched on in a prior item uh to continue forward with existing um with the new contract um with Metropolitan Planning Group. Uh and then um it's it's something that is gaining a lot more traction uh not just here at the county um but really throughout the state is building a bench of uh planning firms. And so um the proposal here would be to um develop three contracts on call as needed uh to support development activity as um the activity um materializes. Um and then also with an eye on flexibility to continue to evaluate service del delivery and need based on budget. And so this is um it's it's sort of a higher level um set of goals uh for the work plan. Um it's one thing to bring additional staff on. We need to train. We need to um build up that muscle memory. Uh, one example is staffing our um, CCBs planning commission being the primary um, goal to continue to streamline permit and customer service delivery and to get all the amazing work um, that is before us that we're working on. General plan, zoning code reform, the two specific plans that we have grant funding for. uh and then seeing the fairgrounds uh vision and planning come

to fruition. Um and one of the primary uh top priorities um for not just planning division but the department and the city as a whole really is to advance the housing pipeline. How do we make sure that those that are in the pipeline um that we've worked so hard to get to this point has the community buy in, has the council buy in, how do we actually get the um certificates of occupancy um issued and and uh new people, new families uh through the door. This is a screenshot of the staff report. um gives you a highle summary of the breakdown I just explained. So special projects 300,000 one time to complete the existing work general plan zoning code um development review as needed for um all three firms. Again, as projects materialize, as applications are anticipated, we'll go to the bench um and identify staffing and resources uh to meet the need at the time. Um we also have the current pipeline of projects that are under review. Um, and so that will continue to be 100% cost recovery would continue to um be managed by the staff that have um that are currently seeing it to fruition. Um, and then that last bucket, $30,000, is to provide specialty um subject matter expertise to the city. Um and the three primary buckets that um we have historically um needed uh whether it's changes at the state level whether it's just a specialty that um or a priority that

Pedaluma has over other cities is around SQA environmental review historic preservation and public art and so there is a set aside um an annual set aside there to the tune of 30,000. And there was a question in the um council Q&A. So we wanted to expand a little bit on uh what the details would be. How do we actually implement this? What is this going to look dayto day? Um and so the big change is the in-house planning manager. the day-to-day management operations um will continue to be the responsibility um of the manager um and so um I think that will continue to uh create consistency um and clarity and continuity um through this transition. um the planning manager. So, Andrew Triple, our existing, our current manager. Um he is the staff leaison and also we have staff that support um our three CCBs, planning commission, our historic cultural preservation committee and our public art committee. Uh the planning manager would continue to report to the director of community development. Um and just wanted to touch uh briefly on um how this looks for the the you know the day-to-day business operations. Um that is our permit center um would continue to operate with existing staff. there's going to be um some training opportunities. Uh um but I'm confident just with the staff that we have that we will um ensure will continue to provide high quality service um to the community

um through our permit center functions. And so the consolidation there I mentioned um as well as a future in-house planner to provide somewhat back of the house um support and expertise um and application intake would also continue to be um process through the permit center. And then a final note on decision making. Um I thought this was important just to identify. I've been looking at some of the the public comment um whether it's project specific or just planning in general. And just wanted to reiterate that staff review um provide the intake. They review the applications. they make the recommendations but ultimately um those recommendations um are sent to the decision makers and so depending our zoning code um identifies uh three layers and so there's an administrative approval which is at the director level um and then the next sort of level up would be the planning commission which is appointed by city council um and for the big decisions general plan amendments ETA um that'll continue um to be in city council's um purview. Um and so nothing uh with this transition um would change that. Um, and you know, again, this is, um, I'm confident that with this shift, um, we'll be able to continue to provide and, um, deliver our core services, um, land use, permitting, um, even just the what seems to be a,

um, innocuous question about ADUs, um, over the counter actually turn into someone building an ADU. And so that's something that is not lost on me. Um it's something that's going to be critical um in the success of this transition. Um and I feel like what we're proposing um strikes a really strong balance of that. And with that, Mayor, I turn it back to you.

Thank you very much. Um, you know, obviously something we've been working at for a while to try and build back the internal muscle. I appreciate you bringing that to us tonight. Any questions? Council member Shribs. Um, first just a slide of showing the functionality um just before the last slide. Bring that back up. Um, that looks like one person. What's the second person going to do? Unless that's two people that are doing that. So, I wasn't clear on that. Let me pull that back up. So, is this one person or two people?

So, the in-house planning manager is one person, although it does feel like sometimes it's multiple people just with the um herculean effort that Andrew does. Um and so that's um great question. So, that's one person. The permit center currently is staffed by um whether it's either an assistant or an associate planner. Um and then we have a permit technician. Um and so we have to a total of two permit techs uh who rotate in and out supporting building. And so um that's another that's an existing staff person. So if you're referencing that second,

right? So you said you're going to be adding two people. If this is one, where's what's the second person that we're adding going to do? So this is if this is being done by current staff. So I'm not sure what the second person is doing yet.

Yeah. Great. Thank you for the clarification. And so what happens now um whether it's a um over-the-counter permit um or something that we could do we can turn around within a week. Um there are I I think about a a fence permit as a good example. Um and so the the fence regulations are within our zoning code. Um we currently have planning staff that um there's a subset of the applications um that are reviewed um and so this position would not only cover that uh but all the building permits that come through um there is a um uh there is a planning function um before a per a building permit gets approved and so this person is going to be supporting u seeing building permits to fruition as well as um planning applications such as fence permits.

Good. And these functions are currently being done by the M group. Correct. Personnel. Okay. Just want to be clear on that.

Okay. So, as we go through all that, that's what the two people would actually do in this process here. um and with the general plan wrapping up with all of its documents ahead of it and and everything. Um and that's getting pretty completed, but we still have a couple big things coming uh such as all the zoning, all the municipal codes, and then the city charter. So, three big processes. Will that work be done inhouse with with the folks that we're hiring and yourself, or are we going to have to take those things and still do those with um the M group and the other adviserss uh consultants? So it really depends on the scale and scope. Um so I'll tackle this um in bits and pieces. And so um Ella who was just here, not only will she be project managing uh the fairgrounds plan um the intent, the vision to creating that position was to be um uh for lack of a better word, a keeper of our general plan. And so her focus um will continue to be on our long range efforts. Um depending on where council direction um lands year in and year out through the goals and priorities process uh as proposed. It gives us the flexibility to maximize our existing staff, our soontobe hired staff um as well as uh pulling from a bench of our consultants.

Right. I'm just making sure that we have the skills inhouse now with the new hires for zoning and municipal codes or do we have to are those skills going to have to still be hired consulting? So, um, one of the special projects that is being proposed, we our zoning code updates underway. And so, um, yes, we have a, um, consultant that will help project manage that one-time project. Um, but all planners, whether it's contract planning or city staff, um, should be well verssed in our codes and regulations. And so there's going to be a baseline fundamental foundation um uh you know, you learn it in planning school, you learn it on the um on the job. Um and so we'll have that covered um with both staff as well as our contract planners,

right? And the two new positions, of course, we'll have to open enrollment on that and open invitation to join in. Um um how does the have we had discussions with the M group with especially the personnel that have been working with us for years and years? Are they interested in those positions coming into staff or we're going to hire someone new and then continue to work the M groupoup and they they may drift off to other help other cities. So are we working out with the transition and of the actual personnel? There is 100% a warm handoff just with existing staff and this is why um staff had identified this as the um key opportunity for us to um bring this back. Again, the contract is set to expire at the end of July. Um and so ensuring that a warm handoff with existing staff um is in place. Um, I fully anticipate uh being able to hire an in-house planning manager um ahead of the expiration of the contract. So, again, there's going to be um continuity, a warm handoff. Um and we will not deviate from what we traditionally do with our city hiring and it'll just go through the hiring process and we'll get the best and brightest.

Okay. I just want to clear because um uh we have received multiple um because the M group and the other consultants multiple skill levels, multiple knowledges and everything and bringing within the planning that the folks that we do hire are going to be doing a little bit more than just just planning and zoning and things that some of those services that we have received some of that extra knowledge may have to also be brought in. So maybe broaden the skills expectations maybe of the folks we're going to be hiring to help fill some of those gaps that may be there. Yes, I am fully confident Paluma is a place um time and time again whether it's around planning, whether it's around just city governance. Um people are excited. Um and so um yes, we need to go through a hiring and recruiting process. Um but I um I have no doubt that we'll um we'll be able to bring people on that um in

you're doing all this under less budget. So I'll pass it on now. Thank you. Any other questions? Council member D Carly. And what's what's the term of the these contracts? How many years?

Uh five years. And how did we choose five years? So we have flexibility there. Um part of what went into my thinking on that um and so we have contracts three to five years. Um I think that's a good amount of time. This isn't something that um when I think about the technical expertise um learning the pedaluma codes etc. um that is a um that's not something that just happens overnight. And so having that consistency, that continuity um is one of the primary driving factors of identifying a five-year proposal.

Okay. And then um what were some of the basic terms of Mroup's existing contract? Could you elaborate on that please? Like as far how long was that contract? what what were they guaranteed each year? So, the contract that's set to expire um was a five-year contract uh with three one-year extensions. And so, the Are you asking about the scope of service?

I I guess this Well, the scope or like I mean in this one it's to me at $330,000 a year plus, you know, whatever else work they take on. I mean, what what did that look like in the existing contract? Got it. So, so this is shifting back to um a contract that was built to provide a planning a full service planning department. Um and so there's four buckets. the cost recovery which you just identified. um special projects um and so if a project um or you know there's something at the state level that requires staff resources a council priority I think about cannabis regulation um there was a bucket of projects there um all of that would be identified through the um budgeting process um and then the day-to-day operations uh there was two buckets so one um what we called the base level service and so that's providing um counter service to someone coming to the counter asking about an ADU etc. um returning phone phone calls, you know, all the questions that the public may have. Um was a limit cap limited um what we called the base level service. Um and then a fourth bucket which is uh supporting the building division. And so what the council member um had mentioned about um asking about what the associate planner um position would be doing um that function uh helped support and get building permits out the door um um as well as fence permits etc.

Right. And I realized too we're you know as we bring things back in house that reduces the scope of their work. um you know so like how um see if I can frame it another way you know how how much are we going to be saving from the existing contract to the new one you know if if $330,000 of their work is what they're going to be getting going forward plus anything else how does that compare to the existing

So the big shift I'm going to pull that back Um, I'll go back to the it's a 15% cost savings to ensure that um we're able to provide service delivery, customer service delivery. Um, our anticipated uh levels of development activity at a million dollars, 100% cost recovery. Um all of that with the staff level reduction in mind um will get us a 15% um annual reduction. Okay. Thank you.

Questions? Good. Let's go to public comment, please.

Oops. We did not receive any comments ahead of the meeting. Uh but we do have several cards. If anyone else would like to submit a card, now's the moment. Our first speaker is Darren Rakazen to be followed by Heather Krat. Thank you, Mayor and Council. You know, one thing that I didn't see explicitly talked about in here, maybe it's answered by a warm handoff, is the idea of preventing brain drain and what investment we have to make to offload what our years of knowledge really a lived body of knowledge that can be hard to transfer. Um, it's not always easy as downloading it on into like a planning chatbot language model, right? If it only it could be so easy. So, it would be great to just hear more detail of what that process looks like as we migrate. And it sounds like the plan really matches what I think the policy intent was signaled years ago, which was look, we have to keep on the current staff to engage with projects they've already been working on, both special projects and applicants and developments. We'll bring in adjunctive support and then gradually move to this hybrid in-house model leaning a little more on the in-house. So I think the biggest piece of that for me that it's like and maybe it's not at this meeting I would love to hear more about is just how do we make sure the knowledge of our zoning code the application you know all the guiding principles that we use even internal kind of administrative process how that's transmitted to new staff and it's like a library we have in the city so that we lose this contractor or any contractors if they move on that we don't lose that information. And then a

really quick comment about just appealing to our higher natures, making sure that even if people say things where we're it might be contentious, you might disagree. We do you did pass a code of decorum here on council. Just want to remind us to not resort to name calling. I mean, if someone speaks from lived experience or is reading documents in the record, we don't want to devolve into name. We want to have behavior becoming of our our station, council members, mayor, whatever the case may be, planning commissioners included. Um, so I just want to make that statement given the, you know, the meeting tonight. So, thank you. Uh, Heather Krat and you have time seated from Heather, uh, Moren Gotch. Thank you.

All right. Well, good evening. My name is Heather Krat and I would like to encourage the entire city council to reject this resolution outright. It accomplishes nothing positive. Um I'm not sure why we sat through that whole presentation about bringing um planning back in house. It has nothing to do with the resolution you're approving. The resolution is pretty straightforward. I don't think we needed to see all that. It has been three years since the Sonoma County Grand Jury released their report on the outsourcing to the Mgroup and in that time we still don't have a costbenefit analysis to justify any outsourcing. So we are at 17 years of the Mgroup having unchecked power and control over our entire planning department. Um, in the last city council election of the seven candidates who run who ran, all of them agreed that bringing the planning department back in house was important. It was a critical campaign issue. It was important to our community and all seven candidates agreed. And of the three that who were elected, Alex Darly, Brian Barnacle, Frank Quint, you are three that agreed. And I I believe Alex kept his word. Brian and Frank, you seem to have uh done a 180 since then. And that's so incredibly disappointing because I'm not the only one very concerned about the amroup issue here. Um it's not too late. You can prove me wrong tonight. I'd be so grateful if you would. Um sorry, this whole thing just really upsets me. Okay. Um in the staff report, it says that this item was publicly noticed in the April 20th agenda. And that agenda item says, and I quote, "Contract award-planning services RFP," unquote. End quote. What does that even mean? I mean, it's intentionally vague and and if it was if you wanted to um properly public notice

this, it should have read city to grant MG groupoup new 5-year contract. Um the and the RFP, the whole point of the RFP was that the grand jury um pointed out that nobody ever had a chance to compete with the Mroup. So there was no, you know, we we didn't we didn't have a costbenefit analysis. We didn't know if it would be cheaper. We didn't know if we could get better whatever. They have turned this into basically we we sent out an RFP and and and they they boiled it down to Amroup is still number one and they will be in control and then we got these two other vendors um that are going to be on the sidelines that you know just in case we need them. So they're in limbo and they'll probably never be used. This it's it's again it accomplishes nothing. Um, and the whole RFP, um, the whole RFP process, it it opened on November 20th, ended on January 14th. Three major holidays following that period. So, you're clearly going to limit the number and quality of responses you're going to get. Um, but you did receive six responses. You narrowed it down to three somehow, and but instead of choosing that one, you want to hire the three. and more outsourcing is not what we asked for. We want to bring our planning department back in house. Um, in the resolution, it clearly states that the M group is proposed to serve as the city's primary consultant end quote and that the other two will quote will provide supplemental services as needed. Um, so again, the Mroup is still in control, two vendors in in limbo. We've gained nothing. And then back into the staff report. Um, I understand you hired one senior planner in the last year. Fantastic. But in that report, it says, "But quote," due to vacancies and sustained workload

demands, work conditions, work continues to be um accomplished with contract staff. What vacancies? There are no job openings. The only one I'm aware of is the one for the senior planner, which you already hired. So, if there's a vacancy, post a job ad. So, the fact that we're here today and you're presenting like, "Hey, in the future we're going to bring the planning department back in house. We've been talking about this for years. The public has been demanding it for years. The the candidates ran on it. So, you know, the the direct cost of outsourcing is one thing, but the indirect cost um I think is the biggest issue. and that is that the M group has proven repeatedly that they're going to prioritize projects based on whatever benefits their bottom line best. So when the EKN wanted to build a six-story hotel, the Mgroup bent over backwards to violate the zoning code for them. When a restaurant wants to take over an existing space, um they got to wait one or they got to wait they are waiting two or three years for a simple permit because they're just not a priority to the M group. And then if you're a mobile vendor like myself who just needs a place to park, I don't need any development. I'm totally useless. And so the MG groupoup um just they they since 2021 banned every food truck in Paluma city limits on their own without approval. And that's the problem with the Mr. saving money. It's about restoring the equality um so that every business owner has a chance to succeed in Paluma. And if you if you grant the five-year contract, you're rewarding them for for basically refusing to do their job, and they have not earned it. So, I beg you, please reject this

resolution. Demand that the uh city manager and Brian O do their jobs. Bring the planning department in. Get on it now. What are we waiting for? Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Heather Hines. Good evening, um, mayor, vice mayor, council. Um, I just wanted to take a moment, um, as a hard act to follow, um, but I I've been here since 2010. I, um, came soon after MGroup's um, contract. Heather Hines, principal and vice president of MGroup. Um I came on in 2010. I've served a number of roles with the city um over the last 16 years. Um I am incredibly proud of my team, our team. I'm incredibly proud of the work they do every single day. I think that the amount of work that is done is actually you you don't realize how much work is done under that base level contract. Um the number of building permits, the number of flat fee permits, the number of phone calls and uh online virtual visits and all the stuff that happens. So I I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to say how proud I am of the team that has been in this assignment and serving the community and serving all of you. Um so I wanted to say that I wanted to also we have worked side by side with this community and the leadership. There has been a lot of change in leadership. There has been a lot of change in budget. There has been a lot of change in priorities and MGroup has remained flexible pivoted. We do not work on our own. We work under the

direction of the city under the direction of the city council under the priorities of the city council and implementing the regulations that the city council adopts. So there is no um working without oversight. There is no making decisions uh behind closed doors. It is implementing the regulations that this jurisdiction puts forward. Um finally, I just want to acknowledge this is a big change. It's a big change um to our contract with the city, but we remain dedicated and committed to working with Pedaluma in this transition. This is not a surprise. We've known that the city was moving back into a hybrid in-house. We're here to help. We're here to do as much of a handoff as we can and we'll remain available um to help in any way we can to stand by Brian, to stand by Peggy, to stand by all of you. So, I just wanted to make sure I said that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Our last speaker is John Hania. Good evening. First of all, I do echo a lot of what Heather Krat have said. Second, on the last item, Brian Barnacle said mentioned about trust and how the community have the trust. I ask you, what's the definition of trust? When you s when you give a very song and dance and during the election and you make promises that you can't keep. Yeah, I'm looking straight at you, Brian and Frank. Where's your promises? How do you expect people to trust you when during election you make yourself look like a hero, but you turn to be nothing but a zero? Keep your word. Where I grew up, a man's word, it means everything. So when you say one thing in your left side of your mouth, then you go say something in your right side of your mouth. What kind of a person are you? You said you the community that you're going to bring it in house. What's the timeline now? You're going to give him another 5 years. I have nothing against the M group. I want to make that very clear. Okay. But what I have a problem with it what goes on in this DAS that we're going to come up with an election soon and you're going to hear a lot of song and dance and Kevin if you remember what I said about the peacock down at Garberino dance around the female until they get what they want. And that's you. That's you guys. During an election you speak

very eloquently. You make all kinds of promises but you cannot come true. Oh, now I'm in house. Now I'm sitting up there. I can say whatever I want. So can you please tell the community what is your timeline for the inhouse? Be a man. Keep your promise. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Melissa Abberrombie. Good evening everybody, council, staff, city manager. Um I'm speaking to you tonight as a citizen, as an MGroup staffer. Um for over 16 years I've served the city and for the last two and a half years I've had the pleasure of working for MGroup in support of the city. A lot of times it's a really wonderful job like most of the time and I'm working with the smartest people I know. They are constantly evolving and working to make this a better workable town. And I would hate for the final notes or public comments to say anything different. I'd like us all to operate from a place of gratitude for the things we've accomplished together. I want to thank Heather Hines for being the type of leader that I wanted to come and work for. When I first served with her on planning commission as a planning commissioner and everything consolidated and everything shut down here, it was terrifying and it was a time of restructuring and being a team. What I hope for Pedaluma is that Paluma becomes more of a team. I really hope the outcome of this is that people lift each other up and look towards a future that is planned and purposeful. I want to thank Andrew Triple. I want to thank thank Olivia Irvin for being here tonight. I want to say all the thanks that doesn't get said because as a citizen of Paluma, I have seen people go above and beyond work 50our 60-hour weeks, cut down base level services to make it affordable for the city. And as a citizen, my question is how many jobs are being replaced by two people? Because there's a lot of us who do things that nobody ever sees. There's things that are just extra that make this town livable and special and I hate for that to not be something that's

considered in this process. I love this town and every person that serves here and I'm going to miss you all and I just think it's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. That closes public comment. Um back to council. Closing comments here. Yes. Uh, Council Member Schz.

Okay. Uh, thank you. Um, and this is like what I was referring to earlier when I was kind of asking the question. Um, so now we'll have four people in planning doing mostly um, a lot of permitting and planning work and and and doing these things. And Mr. Group has has lots of people with lots of different skills doing everything they do. And we're shifting what used to be 2.6 or 2.8 million, which was 100% to the M group. And now we'll have four people in city hall doing uh most of the work because now the contract to the M group is only 300,000 maybe 330,000 which is less about 10%. Not even 10% of of the 2.8 million right so oh sorry yeah that's about uh 10%. So um so 90% of the work that they've been doing for us at the 2.6 6 million will the four people inhouse be able to do all the work that has been done by the M group at this point um in and to make sure that yeah it's been it's equal money exchange for the actual work that needs to get done. um or we're going to get end up trapped in saying, "Oh, um we're going to have to spend a whole lot more money in the consultants because the four people we we will have just can't do all the jobs that that have been done by the prior from from historically." So, I just thought I'd just raise that question up and see if you can come up and explain how how this is going to work.

It's a good question. It's the question that I'm confronted with. um when I started this position um when I started um going through this process u but I just I want to clarify council member um it's there um the 2 point I so short answer um it's four positions um that would make up the core services which I would argue fulfilling the objective of building a in-house core planning division. Um but much of that so the million dollars um of it uh is 100% cost recovery. So that would continue uh through development application review um through the three contracts um and so it's not going down to 10%.

Right. So look at the 330 that's designated. So really what you're saying is uh in-house will only be $1.26 million cost for the four people and the rest of the money will be used for um basically the consulting groups. Yes, but the 1.26 also makes up existing staff. And so again, we're part of this is um going through this process um but then also understanding that um the costs right have to be in consideration. So whether it's uh reduction in staff, reduction in contract services, either way um we're getting to this outcome of a reduction,

right? I I see like the plan is to get done 2.26 26 compared to what used to be 2.8 and 2.65. So the million dollars there that in the 100% cost recovery. So the 330 is sort of like that's like going to be the minimum contract, but the expectation is it might go up to a million dollars with the amount of work that's getting done. Uh overloading the four people that are inhouse. All that extra work. We still have some flex money to to get the extra consulting that we need. And that's like

700. contract is written in a way going back to the answer I provided uh to vice mayor um there's a bucket that we call cost recovery and so that's every application that comes in a development application whether it's um a project downtown whether it's um I think about Oyster Cove EKN etc um those are projects that are 100% paid by an applicant and so that will continue um so you are correct we don't have the staff capacity to take all that on. Um and so this is what the proposal balances. How do we build a core service um inhouse but then also retain the flexibility um that a contract services uh would allow us to do.

Yeah. So I just want to repeat again that what I'm saying is true that what this ends up meaning is that 1.26 26 million is is designated for our four people and staff and that's all our four people and staff need for their budget to run, not the 2 million. You can say that. Yes. Okay, good. Thank you. That's why I was just clarifying.

Any other thoughts before we wrap it up? Kind of going go across the line here. Um yeah, I'm um in favor of of moving forward with this uh resolution and um I think I want to thank the M group for all the work they have done all the all the years and I and I really wish can't we just hire you in but we'll see. Uh go on down. Thank you Frank.

Yeah, thank you. Um you know I too want to just extend my gratitude to the folks from the MG groupoup. I um you know had you know being fairly new to this uh in my experience everything that I've uh you know sort of encountered has been uh just a a tremendous amount of professionalism and I think uh your support to the city has brought great value uh and um so I'm I'm uh happy to support this. Thank you, council member. Um, now

well, I won't get so passionate about this as I did about the uh fairgrounds, but anyway, the um last time 2008, I was my last year in the council. We were finishing up the general plan, we had lots of complaints from the community regarding our in-house planning department. Um, the next year there was a new council and they eliminated the in-house planning department and now we're finishing up our general plan. We're finishing up a lot of things in the um city and we don't have an in-house but we have this M group and there hasn't been as many complaints from the community as there was when there was an in-house. I just want to say that because I don't think people remember that history, but um I'm willing to the resolution calls for five years with options for one-year extensions. Can we do three years with a two-year extension?

I think the resolution actually says up to five years, does it not? So there's initial term of up to five years with options for one-year extension subject to annual budget

appropriations. So I'm I'm just throwing it out there. I hate to lose the M group as we transition as we finish the general plan, our coding, the fairgrounds, the zoning, etc. So, I believe um and city attorney, correct me if I'm wrong, council um could provide that direction. Um I also wouldn't want to make that unilaterally without conferring with um our three contract service providers um to see if any shift in um terms um changes anything. So, that makes sense.

That would be my thought. That makes sense. I I was just putting it out there. I don't know how the other council members Yeah, let's go. As drafted, the resolution provides the flexibility that you can, you know, discern just in that language and if the council has specific direction, they can give it. But I think that will be helpful for staff to to implement those contracts with the service providers and and also to manage them going forward. Right. Okay. Thank you. Good,

Vice Mayor. So, um, you know, to me that this last year we've been talking about bringing services back in house and I'm glad to see that we are doing that. Um, I also don't want to see it take, you know, forever. Um, you know, in the staff report it says five years with uh two one um two one-year extensions. And to me, that that seems like an excessive amount of time. I think the M group's a fine group of people. Um, you know, but, um, I I think if we're really serious about bringing things back in house, um, you know, as Councilwoman now talked about, I think it needs to be a shorter term. And, you know, for me, I want to be more aggressive about it and say that, you know, be a one-year contract. You know, I don't know how the rest of the council feels about that, but I mean, we we talk about bringing it back in house and

and we've got some positions in there already. you know, we need we need more. But, um, I mean, that that's what I would want to see to support this. I don't want to support a long contract as this is as this is right here. Council member Kater Thompson,

I'm actually good with the way the contract is written. There's enough flexibility in there. Um, but I think that if we want to have a reality check there, we're going to have budget issues. And every city uses contract planners. You can call any city throughout the entire state. Every city uses contract planners. So, this is not unusual um to go back completely in house. I don't think that's ever going to happen because I think we're going to need contractors, contract planners for specific projects. So, we're not going to hire somebody for a specific project and then let them go within a year if a project is done completed. I um I think this gives us flexibility. Um and I'm fine with the direction we're going, but I just want to reiterate every city has contract planners. Not one city doesn't. Um, some cities are all contract planners like we were at one time, but it's because of the budget and and Karen and council member now is correct. I mean, people weren't happy with the planning department at the time. It was kind of a rubber stamp and it depended on who you knew and it really was not transparent. Um, so and with that I just want to Olivia Urban, you've been fantastic. Always appreciated you every time you got up and did your thing here. You were very professional. Um Melissa, known you for a long time and watched you on the planning commission and you are just a great citizen uh for this community and you have done an incredible job and I just want to thank

you. Um Andrew, you are probably the best planner I've ever worked with. Um, and people tell me that also and I just so proud to uh have been able to work with you and learn from you. Um, Heather, you have done a fantastic job and you have all the institutional knowledge because there isn't that much inst institutional knowledge left and I just really appreciate all the work that you've done. Um, and everybody that I talked to has just praised for you throughout the general plan process and all the other processes. And when people don't realize, people don't realize how much work you do. It's not just coming to meetings and speaking. It's all this prep work, but it's all the other things that nobody has a clue of what our city staff does. And our we have great staff. And so I just want to thank all of you and um and planning on seeing you and continuing um the good work together and I'll support the resolution as is.

Thank you, Councilman Barnacle.

Yeah. Can you pull up the slides for me? Sorry. um the slide that shows how how the payments are working, the types of projects that one. Let's go there first. I'm going to look at a couple of slides, the the screenshot from the staff report. Um so, we're looking at a a $330,000 contract. um a $300,000 contract to complete work that's already going and the rest of it is um pretty much on cost recovery areas at as needed. Our general plan consultants, we have like what like eight consultants on the team. Six. Six. Um we just approved a contract with David Baker Architects with like six consultants on the team. There's a lot of expertise that goes into planning and we couldn't possibly have it all in house. Um we're going to have contract planners. um if you if you said um tried to recruit someone and say that in this economy 100% of your job is going to be paid on cost recovery, I don't think we'd have a great applicant pool. Um, and we'd uh we'd be really at risk of laying people off. And um I think it's uh it would be really foolish of us to think that we could have a fully in-house uh planning department um for economic reasons and financial reasons, but also for expertise reasons. Um so I uh I definitely support the direction we're going. Um next, can you go to the last slide in the in the deck? So, um, I like this slide. Um, in 2019, I came to city council meetings and yelled at Heather. Um, and I yelled at the council. Um, and I was upset and I ran for office, but it was the decision makers I was upset again, uh,

upset with. Um and um when you get up here um to the point of uh having integrity um it's important that you uh you stand up for what's right. And when people are scapegoating um the people who are doing the work um to let that continue is um the ultimate sign of cowardice. And um the M group has been uh extremely professional in my experience. Um Andrew is one of the like like biggest workh horses in terms of knowing planning stuff and really thinking deeply about it. Um that I've ever worked with. Um and everybody is is that I've worked with at the Mroup almost without exception is um is just great. Um but I think it's really important that for people up here on the dis that we um keep the arrows f focused at us because we're the decision makers. Um Heather Crack came in here and spoke and um we're the ones who denied our project. Um, and it's important that uh we don't let our planners and the new planners that are going to come in here be scapegoed by the community for doing their job. And um I think that's what comes with this position up here is um making sure that people understand this relationship and um that they don't uh get to spiral and and blame people for um things that are not true. Um so with that, I definitely support the proposal. Um I'm looking forward to having it in house and I thank the M group and all the staff for all the hard work over the

years. Thank you. Where are you motion? We're going to do public comment. Oh, we're done. I'm gonna I got a little more here. Uh, Council Member Barnacle, uh, on the three or fiveyear side of things. You're on the five-year side. I'm fine with five.

Yeah. Um, and and I'm going to weigh in and then come back to you. Um, you know, I I have concerns about where where we're headed. I mean, we want to be in house and everything. I mean, think we've made that motion. I think council member Barnacle uh made it clear how the balance of uh having in-house and uh consultant expertise uh is critical and um and I hope so because uh part of my day job is providing that kind of my pay is providing that kind of u expertise to many cities um you know uh we're city engineer for cities several cities where you know without consulting uh small cities and even middlesized cities like us just can cannot operate. Um but I am worried that the 500 plus thousand means a reduction in service. Um and that's that's concerning like council member Shribs indicated. Um more so than that I am concerned about the loss of um experience and expertise that that comes with this dramatic change like moving around to a lot more junior of a staff. Um to me there's sort of a farewell a sort of a retirement um moment here. Um you know I want to thank all the staff who has helped the council achieve so much of its goals over the years through many challenging projects. Um I did three years on the planning commission and um I always knew that everything I needed was in a planning report to to make the solid findings that we needed to make. was there was never a doubt that we had the best expertise in the room and I um and I think we'll feel some growing pain but um it's a farewell um a little bit I'd want to appreciate Andrew for your your work Olivia for your work um and and and Heather and Melissa and I mean um and the fun things too like what

Melissa brought to the party for all the art that we've done you know it's be hard to replicate in in um around and um and I'm good with the five year um side of things and I I can't thank you enough and oddly um a quaint quote from um Jane Austin comes to mind and um and that is um where wherever you are known you will always be respected and and I always thought that was like the best quote from from uh that and uh with that word back to uh council member Shribs. Um yeah, just for clarity on the motion because I think looking at the last chart, um it wasn't $300,000 30 every year. It's $300,000 one time with $30,000 each year. So that's only $30,000 is like less than one like 1% of prior contracts, right? So I want to be clear, we're not going for 330 every single year. It's 300 one one year and then it's 30,000 a year after that. Is that correct? uh somewhat. So it's two buckets. So $30,000 a year annually to I said that twice. 30,000 to provide support subject matter expertise um through the duration of the contract. The 300k is one time to complete existing work that we ident that we talk through zoning code etc. Um and then any future special projects um we'll have a bench of specialist professional planners. Um so as new projects um not just development applications but new special projects whether it's a council project etc. Um if it's not something we can do in house

this gives us the flexibility to pull from our bench. So actually it's just 330,000 year one. Year two through five it's $30,000 and then but we have flexibility with the $1 million to to the float as needed to to get what we need done. So yes, but the $1 million you're referencing is for development applications. So there may be an opportunity if there's a project that comes, you know, something we want to implement as part of the general plan. Let's say it's um flood plane management plan and we don't have the capacity to do it in a certain year. This bench preserves our ability to expand and contract as needed.

Right. Right. So, so we're saying a 5-year contract the the minimum is going to be 420,000 something like that total over a 5year period and above and beyond is as needed. So that that's what we're really talking about. That's what it says in the chart. Yeah. I just want to make sure we're clear on that. It's not $330,000 every year for five years straight. That's not what we're talking about. Right. And the three to fiveyear thing. Are you I'm st polling here. You in the five year. Um yeah, if at the $30,000 I'm good with the five years um on it. Um for sure. I'm fine with that because that's a that's 1% of what was and we still need that access to that expertise. Okay. Okay.

Um thank you very much. And so I sort so I think I did a straw poll there. Are you are you comfortable with the motion as is? Okay. So, I was promised to come back over here for the motion. I'll make the motion. Okay. So, we have a motion and we're looking for a second. Second. We have a motion by Kater Thompson, a second by Barnacle. Uh, roll call vote, please. Barnacle. I. Kater Thompson. Yes. To Carly. No. Now, yes. Quint, yes. Trips, yes. McDonald. Yes. Motion carries with council member Darly voting no.

Thank you very much. That concludes our business of the evening. This meeting is adjourned.