Art in Public Places Committee (Through Sept 2021) - Regular Meeting

All right. Thank you, Steve. We are officially calling this meeting to order of the community advisory board for June 3rd. Steve, can you please explain how public comments will be heard today?

Thank you, Chair Rodriguez. Welcome, board members, panel members, and members of the public. Thank you for joining us today in person and via Zoom. This meeting is being recorded. As a reminder to all present, please set your cell phones so as not to disturb others. City of Santa Rosa is committed to provide a safe and inclusive environment free from disruption and will not tolerate hateful speech or actions. Everyone is expected to participate respectfully or if necessary, the meeting will end immediately. We've provided a hard copy of today's agenda. Please feel free to use one to follow along and they're on the table over there. After the agenda item has been presented, the vice chair will ask board members for their comments or questions. And then immediately following their discussion, the chair will open an item for public comment. If you are attending in person and wish to comment, you will be called on when the agenda item is open for public comment. At that point, please indicate that you would like to comment. And once you've been called upon, you will be asked if you wish to state your name for the record. Each public comment is limited to three minutes, and a courtesy timer will appear on the screen. And I ask you to give me just a few seconds if you're going to make a comment to put the timer up on the screen. It takes me just a second to transition to that. If you do not have a comment but would like to ask questions relevant to the jurisdiction of this board, there are forms located at the entrance of the conference room. Please complete the form and leave it with the clerk, me, after the meetings. Staff liaison will address your questions appropriately prior to the next scheduled meeting. Our meeting format is integrated to allow members of the public who are using Zoom to view and listen to the meeting. Any email comments that were received by the deadline will have been included and uploaded into the agenda prior to the start of today's meeting. Emails received are not read into the meeting.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. Do we have any CAM members who have notified you of remote participation under the just cause provision?

Madam Chair Rodriguez, we have no board members who have notified me for the necessity of remote participation. Thank you. We have a roll call. Roll call for attendance. Member Hemsey is absent. Member Mondale? Present. Member Knowles? Present. Member Dalton? Present. Member Diaz?

Here.

Madam Chair Paredes? Here. And Chair Rodriguez? Present. Let the record reflect that all members are present except for member Hamsi.

Great. Thank you. I do want to note there has been one change to the agenda. Item 7.10, where community improvement grant, has been continued to our July 22nd meeting. With that, we can move to item four, which will be public comment. Of items... All items four and states are disassembled. Any person can address matters not listed on the agenda, but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. Each speaker is allowed three minutes. So, clerk, if you could please proceed with the public comments.

Very good. We're now taking public comments on item four. You'll be permitted three minutes. I'll bring everyone live to make a public comment. Where would we get my timer up on the screen, please? Very good. And say your name for the record if you so choose. You'll have three minutes.

Thank you kindly. My name is Dwayne Dewitt. I'm from Roseland. I wanted to thank you folks because you helped out with a little day the other day called Child and the Wild. I've been coming here for decades pointing out that it's a really good thing to have nature for the children to get out and about. It was held at the lower lawn over at Heller Park. And No offense to anybody here, but my idea of nature is not bouncy houses and taco trucks and assorted low rider situations, though I love low riders. I grew up with that over in Rosen. We're good for it. But when you go child in the wild, let's see if we can get them some nature. Save them some green spaces that they can actually just be out and about doing what kids want to do. Find a mud puddle and play, whatever. It doesn't have to be so structured as all this situation here. With that in mind, over there in Roseland, we got this thing we call the neighborhood, right? We've been trying to work on getting a unpaved pathway on the south side of the creek in a nice, environmentally friendly mess. Something that you could be walking along and see the creek and enjoy it. And did you know there was actually a report done in the past called Creekscaping for Kids? And it was set up so that kids, the whole idea was to let them go down in the creeks and play. And the person that did the report was from UC Berkeley in a graduate program of planning and did it from Strawberry Creek over here at the Strawberry School. It sits on a shelf somewhere, but I think that's the kind of thing we need to have near every creek in this city. And I want to point out one other thing about stuff that's going on with you folks. We got seven districts in the city. I believe the way your community grants should go is you only get one grant per district per year. All right? We got tough times ahead of us. The guy in charge at the federal level doesn't like our city. We're a sanctuary, so we're going to hurt. So I want you to start tightening the belt now and look at it like, hey, one per district per year. And if you've already gotten one in the past, you shouldn't be coming back down here while other areas haven't gotten anything. My neighborhood of Roseland is what's known as a disadvantaged, underserved, and overburdened area. We haven't gotten squat most of the time because people don't know how to put it together, how to come in here and be a part of the way the system works. Nobody has explained it to them in a sense, and it shouldn't come from me because it would be a conflict of interest because I volunteer on the Board of Public Utilities. So I cannot in any way, shape, or form try to encourage people to get money from this organization or any other organization in the city. Why don't you guys hold a little, what do they call that, a community engagement over at Roseland School and tell people how they can actually participate in this program and get some ducats to make it better. Thank you kindly for your time. I'll be back for more adventures later in the day.

Thank you, Dwayne. Anyone else like to make a comment? Let me just put the comments. I agree. It appears we have no further public comments for item four.

Great. Thank you so much. We'll be moving on to item five, which is approval of the minutes. These are the draft minutes from April 15th. Are there any changes or suggestions from our board? Then we will approve as submitted.

Actually, I wasn't at the last meeting. So therefore, don't I have to abstain?

You don't have to.

Okay, sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you for your awareness on that. All right, the draft. Item six, which is our community improvement grant reports. Anything on item six on that? Nope. Okay, wonderful.

Public comment on draft minutes. Thank you very much. Public comment for item five, the approval of minutes. Would anyone like to make a public comment? Thank you. It appears you have no public comments for that.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that as well. All right, so we've moved to item 5. Approving the minutes as submitted, we do not have an item 6, which is the Canadian Proven Grant Recipient Reports. Moving us on to scheduled item number 7, which is the presentation of the naming and renaming policy. So is this Luke? Yes. Joy, it's wonderful. And I want to introduce.

Hi, my name is Luke Fazer. I work for the city manager's office as an analyst. I'm here to present to you a newly adopted policy for naming or renaming city assets and your role as board members in the process. So once my... PowerPoint is up. I'll be happy to walk you through everything. I'm going to read from my screen. It's not to ignore you and not make eye contact, but if I don't read, then I'm likely to miss some key information.

Thank you for your help, Steve.

So again, we're here to talk about the city asset naming and renaming process. So today's presentation focuses on the role of the community advisory board and how it affects the city naming and renaming application process. This is not necessarily a training on internal tracking tools or the administrative workflow, but rather to provide an overview of how applications will come before this board. What decisions you'll be asked to make, and how your recommendation will be moving forward to council. During this presentation, you'll have the opportunity to see the full application process from start to finish. In addition to the general workflow I'll present, I'll point out some areas where the ceremonial street naming requests have additional policy requirements not shown in the slides, but they follow the same general process. I'll just include some key differences there. Next slide, please. Just some background here calls the Council policy 00075 was adopted by City Council at the end of last year to provide guidance for how city owned assets may be renamed by Santa Rosa residents and business owners. These guidelines were established to promote equity and consistency on how proposed names are considered by the city. This includes an application packet, a petition if applicable. to ensure that those proposed names support city values and have the support of the community. For ceremonial street renamers, which would be the civil asset assigned to this board, they may only be initiated by a resident or owner of a property abutting the street for which it's being considered, a neighborhood or community group, or a current city council member. So a complete application packet must include the application prescribing the city street and the naming criteria to be considered. You can find that criteria inside the policy itself. Outstanding individuals or outstanding philanthropic organization, a significant event or a landmark. A map showing the proposed location of the entire street blocks. So not just half a block, but street to street within the intersection there. Letter sharing, a compelling reason to approve that name. applicants are also encouraged to include other supporting materials like letters from the community leaders, acknowledgements or awards, photos, et cetera. When one of these applications is initiated by a resident or a business owner, a petition with a thousand signatures, including 50% of the one which lived abutting the street and 50% of all property owners abutting that street also must sign that petition. Ceremonial street naming applications are unique in that candidates who've already been honored one street, whether it's a ceremonial or official, they may not be honored again. And ceremonial streets, So you can't have two pert avenues. Next slide, please. So this is just kind of an overview of the process here. I'll get in the weeds in a little bit here. Before an application reaches this board, it's reviewed by the city manager's office for our completeness and eligibility. So before it reaches you guys here, all the eligibility check marks should be checked off on. You are still required to review them to make sure they are eligible. But keep in mind, it's already been reviewed for that. And you can see that there at the first step intake. Once it's been completed, that process, then it's assigned by the city manager's office. And it... Sorry, I lost my place. This is my lead. Once assigned to a board, the application enters a structured review process that may include up to three board or commission meetings, a public outreach session conducted by staff, a city council study session, and a city council public hearing. Ceremonial streets also follow this general workflow. However, certain steps include additional triggers such as the protest thresholds and special council voting requirements, which I will go over. It's not applicable to this board necessarily, but it's good to know the overall workflow. I'm trying to share every nitty gritty that I can for transparency's sake. I don't... I don't think that you'll need to refer back to all of these, but I wanted to provide an overview. Next slide, please. What's the acronym BCC? Boards and Commissions. So this slide represents the roles the city staff take during this process. You'll see that the staff liaison is responsible for doing much of the preparation to get the proposed name in front of this board. That also includes the community engagement person, which, sorry, Ana. Next slide, please. So these next few slides will represent the typical path a submitted application will go through. So you can see here with that meandering path there that's color coded to the person responsible. So it would start in the city manager's office. And so as a ridiculous example, let's say the city manager's office received an application from a resident to rename B Street after an outstanding individual named Bilbo Baggins. This city manager office would review the application and see if it had required documents and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the policy. For ceremonial street naming, this includes that the proposal includes those entire street blocks starting and ending in those intersections that has a map and that Bilbo Baggins has not already received an honorary sign top or somewhere else in the city. Then the city manager would assign it to this board to review. Next slide. Next, the staff liaison would prepare and present a staff report and follow these procedures of a report item to this body. So at meeting number one, this board's role is to understand the city asset and its context, review and confirm the naming criteria established in the city policy, Here are the applicant's rationale for that proposed name. This meeting is not a decision about the final name or the recommendation to counsel. It's just a discussion that determines whether the proposal should advance to public outreach or not. So in our example with Bilbo Baggins, staff member would present the staff report and then the board members would be able to ask questions of that staff member. Then that resident would present the proposal to rename B Street to Bilbo Baggins Way. And they would emphasize how Bilbo faced adversity and selflessly defeated evil and that Bilbo traveled along B Street to reach Mordor, whatever the case was. And then the board would make a call for public comment. And the board would invite a motion to advance the application to the public outreach step. Next slide, please. So this is the public outreach step. You can see this is mostly done by the community engagement staff here. But outreach is designed to reach beyond standard meeting notices and intentionally engage a broad and diverse cross-section of the community. And it may result in alternative names or proposals either suggested by staff during their outreach or through additional applications from residents or business or property owners. For ceremonial street naming, which would be applicable to this board, you may also receive written protests from property owners or residents. And if 20% or more of all the lots abutting the street submit objections to that name, this triggers a higher threshold to be approved at council. Three quarters of the council has to approve the name at that point. That doesn't necessarily apply to you guys, but it's important to know that OBJECTION MAY OR, EXCUSE ME, A PROTEST MAY OCCUR. COMMUNITY STAFF WOULD DISTRIBUTE A SURVEY TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND THE BUSINESS THAT MAY BE INTACTED BY THE NAME, THE CHANGE OF THE NAME TO V STREET. THEY ALSO SET UP COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, GATHER FEEDBACK, WHATEVER THEY DECIDE. AND THEN COMMUNITY MEMBERS HAVE 60 DAYS AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE INITIAL SURVEY TO SUBMIT THEIR OWN APPLICATION FOR AN they can also advise them how to file the protest if that's the direction they would prefer to go. So for this example, let's say an affected business owner on B rightly thinks that this name change is preposterous, and he files a protest with signatures from 25% of business owners and residents abutting the B Street. So it would come to the city clerk's office, and then their rebuttal would be presenting at the next meeting. Next slide, please. So here, meeting number two follows generally the same structure as meeting number one, except it would include all of the public outreach comments, any protests, any research done on relevant names or history, and it would continue along that same meandering path. Your role at this meeting is to evaluate each option's alignment with policy, community support, and the long-term appropriateness and not just personal preference. This board should consider the full outreach results, assess whether there's a broad support for the name, and weigh the long-term impacts. This board should also consider the organized opposition if presented, including those protests. This board at this meeting may recommend additional outreach to be done, which would result in that meeting number three or request a narrowed list of names if there was a list that was presented by staff. Or you could choose not to recommend a name, in which case it would just go back to the city manager's office. So in our example, let's say, for whatever reason, you wanted to see what the council thought of Wilma Baggins Way, and you submit the full recommendation to city council approving that. And so we'll see what that will do next. We'll go to the next slide. After that board's recommendation, city council considers the board's recommendation during the study session, Next slide, please. Then city council conducts a public hearing where the board staff liaison writes and prepares a staff report, including all of the research, outreach, and considerations in the recommendations from this board, and then drafts a resolution as well. Board recommendations are important, advisory important, but the city council makes the final decision and they may accept or modify or reject the recommendations made by this board. if a valid protest threshold that that 20% is met, um, again, that three quarters vote of council members is required. Now for our example, council votes and you managed to manage really agree that Bilbo Baggins is a fictional character and there's no impact outside of the neighborhood. So they reject the applicant's proposal and B street remains as, as is. Um, however, for some reason, if, um, they did approve that name change, it would, um, automatically end 10 years after that resolution date. The council has the discretion to extend that date through another resolution or the applicant can submit another application the same way as this one is the original one. Next slide, please. SO TO CLOSE, IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT THE CITY ASSET AND NAMING AND RENAMING PROCESS HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO BE THOUGHTFUL, TRANSPARENT AND COMMUNITY DRIVEN. THIS BOARD'S ROLE IS NOT TO CHAMPION OR OPPOSE INDIVIDUAL PROPOSALS BUT TO APPLY THE POLICY CONSISTENTLY. EVALUATE WHETHER APPLICATIONS MEET THE ADOPTED CRITERIA AND ENSURE THAT THE COMMUNITY INPUT HAS BEEN MEANINGFULLY CONSIDERED. Your recommendations help maintain integrity in how the city assets are renamed and ensuring that names reflect our shared values and endure over time. The city asset naming and renaming page located on the city's website provides valuable resources for the public and members of this board to help them navigate this new process. It includes a link to the city policy 0075, a comprehensive guide going more in depth than I have today, although I've spoken quite a bit at length about the ins and outs. But if you want to dive more into the comprehensive guide, I recommend it. It also has an application packet, which includes suggestions and templates that members of the public can use to guide them through this process. So they're not just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping things stick. It's to help make this more standardized and improve the efficiency of this process. Next slide, please. So I want to thank you guys for your time today. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much and bore you with the ins and outs, but I did want to share everything fairly and make sure that there was a proper overview. So you're not surprised later if you happen to get one. So thank you again. I'm happy to take any questions. Wonderful. Thank you so very much.

So following that presentation, I'll bring it back to the board. See if there are any questions.

I have a quick question. What does a council, a city council study session look like?

for this specific type of, oh, so they're given all, it's a closed door meeting and then they,

Do you mind if I jump in? Is that okay? So study sessions are typically held before the regular meeting starts in a public session. Staff presents information to council and sometimes will prevent various options for a particular issue and request feedback from the council on that particular issue. So no decisions are made. It's really a chance to have discussion and for staff to receive input. from city council or direction from city council.

Awesome.

That's generally what it looks like.

Thank you kindly. You're welcome. Thank you, Director Wood. You put it much better than I would.

Quick question. So how do we know, is it sort of random how one gets assigned to the community advisory board or will they all come to the community advisory board?

So there's several boards around the city, the design review board, arts review board, specific to their asset criteria. This board will only see the ceremonial street renaming. It's the only purpose of the ones that will be assigned here. But that is all done by the city manager themselves. They make the decision which board or commission it gets assigned to.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments before we open it up to public comment? We'll open it up to public comment.

We're now taking public comments on item 7.1. Anyone like to make a comment? Yes, sir.

Can you put those slides back up and go to the first one? The list was on the right side of the slide. And I'll just watch. I'm asking them for that slide again so I can do it and you can see what I'm bringing. All right, I'm participant number nine.

One more up.

One more. All right, Alan. My name is Dwayne. I'm from Roseland. I pay attention to this stuff because over in our disadvantaged underserved neighborhood, we've been trying to get two things named for years. And it's difficult because you've got to deal with some of the issues. One of the things that's really important, you get into this cultural and historical significance, right? You've got to understand that in a community like ours, Santa Rosa, which is a historically white-bred, racist town, okay? I grew up here. I know it all my life. And this place... has definitely not honored some of the people from various cultures and various ethnic backgrounds. The two parks that we're trying to get named, one's South Davis Park right now. It's only a park because they ran Highway 101 through our town and destroyed the houses over there on that side. And they gave the land to the city of Santa Rosa. And when they did that, they didn't think any of that stuff was historic there on that street. Earl Street specifically. Do you know Montgomery Village? Montgomery Drive? Montgomery High School? The reason why we have those? Because Billy Montgomery was killed in World War II on the USS Arizona. You probably didn't know that there was another man on the USS Arizona named George Mace who lived on Earl Street on the other side of the tracks, right? Over here. They didn't name anything after him. He was on the same boat, the Arizona, and he died also. So only the elitist east side of town got something going, and we didn't get anything over there. So we've been trying to get that park, South Davis, named after George Mabee, all right? His house is still there. The other park we're trying to get named, the city calls it Roseland Creek Park. We just went along with it because that's what the city said you got to do at the time. We would like it to be called Pomo Park and Preserve. We know from the past that Pomos lived near Roseland Creek before any of the white folks came in, before the McMins, the Duttons, any of the people on that west side over there. All that stuff came in and took land from the Pomo. Anyway, long-term symbolic value. If we're going to truly honor the Pomo, because sometimes you go to meetings now and they have the land affirmation. Let's all stand up and understand that, yes, this was once Pomo land. Well, great. Let's have Pomo Park and Preserve. Let's go for it, right? So while we've been trying to work on this, they came up with this idea. This is definitely a really large bureaucratic hurdle for a disadvantaged, underserved, and overburdened community. 1,000 signatures. 500 have to come within that narrow area right around there. That's really hard for folks to do. You'd be surprised. When they split the town by running 101 through it, They destroyed a lot of houses. They ended the cultural significance in a lot of ways. They made things really difficult. So I'll be back from what I hear though, not to this group. From what I heard, you guys won't be hearing it. So maybe you could pass it along because I know there's somebody in here that represents District 1 where I'm from. All right? And that person can say, hey, these folks are over there trying to get some good stuff. Pomo Park and Preserve, George Mabee Park. Think about Pearl Harbor. If it was good for the Montgomery folks, And, you know, they love it over there in Montgomery Village. We can make it really nice over there at Roseland, man. Maybe we could. Yeah, maybe. All right. I'm on time, right? It's not a very good time. Close.

Thank you. All right. Would anyone else like to make a public comment on this side of the news? Chair Rodriguez appears to have a note for the comments on the site.

Thank you very much. Then we'll close public comment. And there was no action on that. It's informational only. So thank you for that. We will move on. Thank you so much for your time and coming and presenting this evening.

Thank you very much.

And so with that, we will move on to item 7.2, which is a presentation of the Southeast Greenway. And I'll provide an update regarding the City of Byron property. Do we have Theo with us? Six seconds.

Hi, my name is Thea Hensel and I'm chair of the Southeast Greenway Campaign, as you can see here and here. How many of you have ever heard of the Southeast Greenway? How many of you know where it is? Okay, that's a start. So you can go to the next slide. We've been working on this for 19 years and first it was a freeway and then it was abandoned land and Caltrans bought property from 47 private individuals. None of it was taken with eminent domain. It was all purchased. And it took us that long to acquire the property. And when I say we, it was a combination of the city, Open Space District, Sonoma Land Trust, and this all-volunteer group. And we took possession of it, and escrow closed in October of 2024. And this sort of gives you an idea of that long, skinny strip that kind of looks like a snake that starts close to Farmer's Lane, closer to Montgomery High, and ends at a new entrance into Spring Lake Park, which is for cyclists and pedestrians only. No cars, because that's a rumor that's gone around. Next one. So we have a number of street crossings. which will be a challenge when we plan, but we've got some experts to begin working on that. And this just gives you an idea of the greenery that's in that neighborhood because so many people say, oh, the east side has so many parks, and it does. but they're not neighborhood parks. And the neighborhood greenery that you see there, a lot of it is school playgrounds, and those are locked after class, after school, and on the weekends. So in terms of the access for the people who live in that area, it's not as great as some people think if they don't have good transportation or just want to walk to a place instead of getting in their cars. Excellent. Okay, so this is a new bicycle path that is being adopted by the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board for the city. Some of these are existing pathways and others are planned ones. We feel like the two mile stretch of the Greenway is going to be an important connector. for people to get into Spring Lake Park. There is a city survey that's going to come out soon that is sponsored by the Active Transportation Department, and they got a grant from the federal government to talk about and study how they can connect the Prince Memorial Greenway to the Southeast Greenway, because that's going to be a really important way to get people from one side of town to the other. Okay, next. Yeah. So these are just some pictures that were taken obviously in the wintertime when it was nice and green instead of the way it looks right now. But mowing just started today, so that was a good thing. There's a lot of wildlife there and we've just put two wildlife cameras up and we're really excited at some of the pictures that we're getting there, which are pretty interesting. A lot of deer, mostly deer. So we've been talking to the community about this for all these years. And we started with small little house meetings and we've gone to bigger things. One big study we did in 2014 was conducted by the American Institute of Architects. We had over 300 people attending these sessions, just saying, what would you like to see done with this 29 acre park? And these are some of the ideas that have come out of it. We're really excited now because we have a master plan that's going to start this summer, which will actually take some of these broad ideas that people have had and turn them into an actual plan and reality. These are some of the things that we think are really important for this property. One, it is a heat island. There's a lot of asphalt and concrete in this area, so we would love to plant more trees. We think it's an opportunity to do recharge, and we know how Droughts and water is important. So there's an opportunity for that because there are three creeks on the land. And then we also feel like playgrounds should be nature-based. We don't want a lot of plastic. We want things that kids can really identify with nature. So these are just some of the things that we feel important. It was an oak savanna and an oak woodland, and we would love to restore it to that, plus plant natives.

Okay.

Okay, so these are just some of the ways that we have done community outreach through the years, we have a strong support with the bicycle and the running coalition. And every year they always turn out and see the importance of this to their constituencies, we have we had seven schools, now we only have five schools that are walking distance of the area. And we feel like this will be a destination for them to do service learning projects, outdoor ed, field days, all kinds of things that will be important, not only to classrooms, but to families as well. So in 2017 through 19, Before that, this property was not zoned. It was a blank because the state owned it and it was supposed to be a freeway. And so the city had a master plan done for it. And this is when it was zoned. So the three yellow and orange spaces blobs that you see on that map are for development. They are mixed use development, including housing. Caltrans owns that property, so it will be up to developers to negotiate with Caltrans. What we want to do in our master plan is make sure that there is some synergy between the housing there and the Greenway. Perhaps we can offer community gardens. We definitely see that it is a connector to them. Did you have a question?

Just really quick, where is Montgomery High School in this?

Montgomery High is... All the way... okay and some of these colors that you see on there represent just ideas and they're kind of placeholders that blue blob happens to be an education one but it doesn't mean that that's where it's going to be now we're going to be talking very specifically in the next two years where everything goes where do the picnic tables go where do the park benches go all that kind of stuff later on um The green part that you see there is the 49 acres that is parkland. We were very lucky when we first started talking to Caltrans, they were talking about millions and millions of dollars, $12, $14 million. They were throwing out some really big numbers. In the final analysis, it was $1.8 million for 49 acres in the middle of a city. So we were very happy. And the Open Space District, thanks to them, they gave us a million dollars and that was the seed money that we needed to purchase the property. And now the city owns it, by the way. It is a city park. So this is a long government process that we were going through. We started in 2008 when everybody said this is going to be a freeway. It was not officially going to be a freeway in 2013. So it took a long time. And Caltrans said, we never see a piece of property that we don't like and want to keep for 100 years, just in case we want to build a road there. So that was sort of the mountain we had to climb, but we did it. So we're happy with that. This year, we're very excited because we are now in phase two. Phase one took over 18 years. We're hoping phase two will take 18 months. We have a very aggressive plan to initiate the master plan. And we're going to ask every single one of you when the time comes to push this out into your neighborhoods and get as many people there as you possibly can. We are going to really, we've got a big budget for community engagement and we feel like it's important for us to have every single stakeholder and constituency group in the city tell us what they want in this property, because it's not just, it's not a neighborhood park, it's a really big region. So, In the past, these were all our partners. Going forward, after acquisition, it narrowed down. So the city of Santa Rosa holds the property, and it is part of their portfolio, and our relationship is with them. The Sonoma Land Trust is... has an MOU with the city because they have raised the lion's share of the money along with some impact fees from the city that were helpful. None of this money comes out of the general fund. We've done a lot of philanthropic work and we are at $2.7 million for the master plan. And a lot of that money came from philanthropy, private endowments, and the 25 to... hundred dollar checks that the campaign raises itself every year. So we're pretty proud of that. The other people who will be involved in this is ag and open space and the water Sonoma water have, uh, easement rights on this property because they've got water, um, transfers in here and open space district will really help us solidify what's how, how this all happens. So, Those are our major long-term partners. Sonoma Land Trust will exit once the master plan is done. So that's probably another two to three years when that happens. So this just gives you an aerial view of it when you're on the land. It's really amazing when you look up at it and you see what the views are. We have a monthly walk. and we encourage all of you to come on it. It's usually the first or second Saturday of the month. And if you just go on our website, you can find out when it is. It's very informative and it really will give you an idea of how this might relate to your district and the other parts in the city. And so I encourage all of you to do that. One of the reasons why I am here is to inform you that at some point in time in the next two years, The consultants are going to make a presentation to you about this property and ask for your acknowledgement on it. But in the meantime, I'm asking you to just keep talking about this to your friends and neighbors and the people that you are representing in your district. Questions?

Great. Thank you so very much. Wonderful update. With that, I'll bring it to the board for any questions or comments. about the Greenway.

I just want to thank you and your group of volunteers for your perseverance. And that's a long time. And that just sounds like an amazing project. I think we need more of them. And I hope the spirit of what you all are doing can sort of filter out. And yeah, I think it's a beautiful project.

And it will become more beautiful the more people say what they want on it. So bring people to our events when we have them.

I had a couple of questions, but along with that, some comments. So I just attended the Casa de Roseland tour, and I was very happy to hear that it was Nature Place Playground and et cetera, et cetera. So I really liked that slide that that was mentioned. And then my question with that is that I You mentioned that you are adding trees. Are they native trees and plants that will be added?

So it was an oak woodland. The consultant, and that is not official yet. City Council hasn't approved the consultant. The city's in negotiation with a landscape company now. They have subs, and one of their subs is an arborist. He's going to do an inventory of all the trees that are on the property right now, and then there will be a decision about which ones are viable, which ones are could be a problem from a safety standpoint. We hope a lot of snags are kept because there are a lot of animals that like to habitat in those. But I think a lot of the tree planting will probably be native oaks that are native to that area because we would like to restore it back to what it was at the turn of the century as much as possible.

Definitely. I understand that completely because my dad has a bunch of eucalyptus trees that we are just like not in favor of. They leave a mess. Yeah. I mean, like the list goes on. But I was also going to ask along with that, how and why is I know it was brief mentioned briefly, but how and why is Lampas involved in this? Do they are they added to the deed? Like, how are they involved?

They were one of our original partners, but when it became a city park, all of those partners went away except The Water Agency and Open Space, because they do this over the whole, well, the county both, they have easements. And there are already two pipelines, and there's a whole water diversion project that you don't see on this property that has been there for years, since the 60s. And they want to put another pipeline on the property as well. So they have a real strong invested interest in the property. Land Pass may get involved with programming, but we're so far removed from that that we haven't entered into discussions with them. But they have been partners in the partnership for ever since the close of escrow.

I don't know if it's appropriate to ask, but if I could, if I may add a suggestion, just because this has happened in Roseland and Moreland, from my experience with, you know, talking to community members and people that actually live nearby, is that Land Pass tends to have community gardens, which is great, right? However, for Roseland and Moreland, they tend to ask like a $20, like, you know, to reserve their property. the person is part of the land. But what I'm noticing from talking to community members that are not in favor of this is that the lots are being I guess saved in a way for people that are just putting down money, but it's not actually prioritized for the community members. So say that somebody from Bennett Valley comes in and says, hey, I want that one. And then it's not maintained for some time. And then a community member that lives in West Avenue is like, hey, well, that one's empty. It hasn't been fixed up. Oh, well, sorry, somebody paid for this lot. So I don't know if that's good enough to, like, bring to your attention, if maybe in the future you guys can add that strict policy so therefore it's for the neighborhood that it's meant for, right?

Yeah.

And then just to add to that, I would really, really... This is so great. I really am in favor of this. Hopefully you guys can be a part of the career Adobe in the future as well, because I know that a lot of people and community members nearby that same area wants to see a preservation as well on that property alone.

Yeah, one of the men who's working on that is actually a friend of mine. So I'm up to date on what's going on with that. Perfect. Okay, thank you. And we have been working with the tribal people to see what is on the land right now and what they would like to see happen to it.

Perfect.

Perfect. Thank you so much. I'm glad you brought out that stuff about community gardens. That's really important. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any other comments?

Please. Hi, I'm Clay. I'm your District 2 CAP rep. I just wanted to know, because I was part of those early sessions about kind of brainstorming. What would be really advantageous for the community for this beautiful, beautiful land? And at that point, there was a lot of discussion about mixed housing and commercial space on the property, which actually seemed really quite exciting to me. But it was limited to a certain part of the park. Are there any discussions about that now?

So what happened was Caltrans only wanted to sell to one entity and not break it up. And originally, we had thought we would have the whole park land. But when pressure was exerted to have more housing in Santa Rosa, that's what happened with those orange blobs that you saw on the map, because we didn't want somebody just to throw housing right in the middle of the Greenway. And we thought if it was designed so it was put on the periphery of it, that it wouldn't be as invasive, but the housing could also be part of the Greenway. as an amenity to the people who live there. And so that's how that happened. The city was given the opportunity to buy those three lots. They did not have the money to do it. And so that's how come it's in the hands of Caltrans right now.

Okay, so it's still in the hands of Caltrans.

Yeah, and it will remain so. And, you know, legislatively, should our finances ever change, We tried to get the whole thing for a dollar from the state years ago, and of course that didn't work. But we've been told by people like MidPen and Burbank Housing that the only way affordable housing pencils out is if they can get the land very inexpensively or cheaply. So that's above my pay grade. No, but that's good to know.

Thanks for filling me in. Great. And then since my District 1 member added such a valuable idea, I might also add, I've been talking to people around the neighborhood, and because there's a predominance of youth, a skate park is actually quite high on the minds of some of the young people in that neighborhood. Just FYI.

Okay. There is one on the Caltrans lot next to the freeway. It's an impromptu by the paint store. Oh, there's an impromptu skateboard. It's kind of hidden. And there is a skate parking lot. Oh, cool. A little urban.

And actually some kids are putting mounds of dirt on the greenway making pump tracks for them.

I'm sure. I'm sure.

Any other questions or comments before we open it up? Thank you very much. Then with that, we'll open it up for public comment.

We're taking public comments on item 7.2.

You go to the first slide.

I don't know if I can throw in such a suggestion.

there. There we go. Let's synchronize our gloves. I got you. All right. Ready? I'm ready. Set, go. My name is Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from Roseland. Roseland's right over here. Check that out. We weren't part of the city until it got divided up. And for decades, actually for over 30 years, people out there have been talking about bikeways, greenways also. And you probably didn't know that we'd already put together an effort to get a path on the south side of Roseland Creek, which is right here, that creek right down there. Anyway, and we had often put together the idea of it should connect to the east side of town. It's so wonderful to hear of the efforts coming from the Southeast Greenway because we can model their success and we can get better at what we're doing over there in the west. So I bring this up because you know, you gotta have the eyes on the prize. You gotta protect the land. We've learned that over in Roseland, where 19 and a half acres have already been secured with taxpayers' money through the Ag and Open Space District and given over, deeded to the city of Santa Rosa. And lo and behold, poor Santa Rosa, they don't have enough to take care of it well. I'm the volunteer for the Roseland Creek neighborhood and also for the Roseland Creek. And I'm down there. And what do you think I spend my time on? Not just cutting the grass. It's actually moving people out. People go and they start living on things. Once they know it's a city park, they actually say to you, well, it's a city land. We can be out here. And they do stay. I mean, I'm telling you, for the long haul, I've been doing it now, volunteering, trying to move the homeless out for over a decade. So it's difficult and I just want you folks to all understand this is a beautiful thing. It's so good we're gonna have that. For years we kept saying, let's have the Southwest Greenway connect to the Southeast Greenway. Ms. Hensel got tired of me coming to those meetings. Anyway, long story short, what I'd like for you folks to do is definitely spread the word everywhere. Do all that good stuff you're doing on this. and support them in all ways, shapes, and form because she invited us all. We're the constituents that get to come and participate. I went to the early readings. I'd like to do good stuff too. We can learn from each other. We can help the kids on the west side be treated just as nice as these kids up here. It's going to be great all the way around. Everybody in the city is going to be singing Kumbaya. I'll be right out there right up front. Okay. on this side.

Chair Rodriguez appears to have no further public comment on this side.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your presentation and your time in the update. Wonderful information. Okay. And with that, we are moving on. And the presentation on our community improvement grants that's been presented update on the calendar year with all kinds of great information on the number of applications and projects funded, I will hand it off.

To them.

Good evening, Community Advisory Board. I'm the Orta Community Engagement Manager with the Communications and Intergovernmental Department. Thank you for being here this evening. And today, I'm going to be talking about UA Community Implement Grants, the report for the fiscal year 25-26. Next slide, please. So the Santa Rosa City Council, each at the beginning of fiscal year, allocates funds for the Community Building Grants. The Community Advisory Board reviews all eligible applications and selects the awardees. The goal of the grant is to support community buildings, improve neighborhoods, strengthen relationship among residents, and foster stronger and more connected community. Next slide, please. So in terms of the grant activity and funding overview for this fiscal year that we're still on, is we have received, we have 21 applications that have been received, 13 have been funded. I want to clarify that from May we received eight applications, so we still have eight proposals. The total funding that we had at the beginning of the fiscal year was $29,626. Oh, sorry, perdón. Sorry, sorry. The amount awarded so far is $29,626. Next slide, please. All right. This slide. needs update because several reasons. In terms of the balance, we have had three more grants that have been cashed this Monday. So the balance remaining for the current year is actually 14,352 with 30 cents. That's important to know. We have received a total of eight applications I can mention from May to June. And the total request is 20,000. However, we have just continued one of those applications to the July meeting. So the request is $17,500 for seven proposals. So if you make the math, 14,000 that we have, 17,000 that are being requested. So that does not have enough money to fund all of the grants if you can. The one good thing is that this is the first time that we will be using all of the funds since I started here in 2024. We've always had some balance that carry over to the next fiscal year. The average amount that you have granted so far per grant is about $2,000. So we ask the community in the applications when they submit applications to identify the community type that the application is serving. And that is a graph. The majority is for everyone. Says, you know, this is for everyone in the community. Then we have from the grants that have been awarded. This is the grant that we're having awarded so far. Four of them. have specified that are for underserved community, two for underserved children and youth, one for unhoused, and one for older adults from the grants that you have awarded so far. Next slide, please. These are the awarded grants by project type. And we have that for the gathering and community building, and education are equal from four. Then we have two that have been about resource sharing, two about social impacts like distributing food for unhoused people, and one for wellbeing. Next slide, please. In terms of the grants that have been awarded for this fiscal year, We have the 54% are for all of the districts they don't specify in the application. There is a specific test district that they are applying for. 23% are for district one, and then district two, four, and five, I have 3% each. Right, and this is a video I, we have received additional reports from 2024 that you haven't seen in the video from last year. So I combine those reports that you haven't seen with the sum of the one that we have received from 2025. Stephen, hopefully we can play with you.

We'll see how these are going to work.

The sound is music, right? Yes, it's music.

It's Wednesday Night Market. Is there a way to share this?

It's great.

Fantastic.

Next slide, and final. So the Community Empowerment Grant, in fact, it's meeting the goals that the grant has. Strengthen the community through collaboration, participation, and relationship building. Encourages local innovation by supporting projects in education, cultural, and social impact. promotes diverse participation while building leadership skills, organizational capacity, meaningful partnerships among community members, and inspire positive local change by improving shared spaces and supporting community-led solutions. With that, I can take questions.

Thank you for that update, Ana. Any questions? Any questions? I'll just, will the update be like at the end of every year? Is that at the end of every school year? Wonderful. I thought it was a wonderful summary. I want to hear what you're saying. Well, any, if there's no questions, I will open it. If you have any questions or comments, anything else we want to see or hear from them. All right. And with that, we'll

We're not taking comments on item 7.3.

Thank you, but I bet there's other people who'd like to say something. On all the items under 7, or just 7.3 first? Just 7.3. Okay, wait. I want to speak on 7. Let me just double check. 7.10. Okay.

7.10 is continued.

7.10 is continued.

For the next meeting.

Well, nothing but a good time. I get to leave you folks. Thank you so much for having me this evening.

Nice to see you. Good pleasure.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, Duane. Then with that, we will move to item 7.4. And again, just to clarify, 7.10 has been continued toward July meetings. What day will that be now? July 22nd. I apologize, but that was at the beginning when we had started the agenda and everything that was announced.

Everybody can walk in the Roseville neighborhood this summer. It's beautiful. We can guide you. Thank you, Dwayne.

My pleasure. So I will follow, you know, if we all caught mapping the math. For the community improvement grants based on Anna's report. We don't have enough to fund everything fully. So we do have, I do anticipate some discussions and amongst the series of grants. So just keep that in mind. We'll try and keep maybe a loose tally as we go down the list of each individual items that we'll discuss and vote on. So with that,

What was the number that you said we distributed evenly? Yes, the total.

So you're short by 3,147. Yeah. 70 cents. Yeah, but what's the, how many are there today? There are seven.

So that would leave us like. So very, very low amount for the rest of this year.

It would be over. Each grant is requesting $2,500. $3,147.70.

Do you want to say that?

Yes, well, if we round down, it'd be $2,049 per grant would get us, everyone could be funded equally. And there'd be some change left over.

And according to the average that I calculated for the grants that you have awarded, it's about much as that, which is around $2,000. Yes.

So you said you've been a very conservative board just for this reason, actually.

Yes.

So with that, I will move us into the first community improvement grant application, which is 7.4. Is the program submitted by Rosas Collective?

Would you like me to? Okay, so the first grant that you have on the agenda is The Programa Cosecha, Programa Cosecha Grand Appetition Submitted by Raíces Collective is requesting $2,500 to fund an after-school social-emotional wellness and restorative art workshops and mural program in Santa Rosa City Schools. Their program engages students in creative art making, social-emotional learning, and restorative practice, fostering belonging, resilience, and cultural connection. They are seeking your support to make this program a success, ensuring that students have access to high-quality materials, food, safety, creative spaces, and meaningful experiences that nurture their growth and leadership in culturally relevant ways. Recommendation. It is recommended by the Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Department that the Community Advisory Board by motion determine the dispersion of this Community Improvement Grant for the June-July 2026 program.

Okay, so I have, let me go to our price. Yes, sir.

Yes.

Okay. What, what district is this in? And more generally, are there any grants today that we're going to be voting on that are in district three or six? Because those were the two districts that were not. I knew last year and to Dwayne's point.

Yeah, go ahead.

I mean, just it'd be nice to throw them some funds if there are.

Mark in the applications and we don't have control of the.

Of course, who applies? Yeah, I totally get that. So the first page, there it is.

District everywhere. Yes. Okay.

Which means.

They take the students on all disciplines.

Gotcha. OK. So they're going to .

Is that Dwayne in District 1?

Dwayne is in District 1. Yeah. His district has been. Yeah. Any other questions?

I mean, just, yeah, well, I do have a specific question. I mean, it's just probably the same thing everybody saw, but they have $100 per hour for their workshops. I know we've gone through this before. There is like kind of a baseline that we use for hourly wage. Do you have any further detail on this? Is it like when they say teaching artists wages, are we talking about multiple teachers at the same time that would be included in that $100 per hour? Or is it literally $100 per teaching artist per hour?

I don't know that. Yeah, I do think that's.

You know how to speak?

We'll get to public comment. But that's good. Thank you for.

So historically, I just know of this group from Rises Collective, and I know this personally because Santa Rosa City Schools and Rosen School District, when they apply to do memorials on their school campuses, they have asked for funds for that project. So it wasn't very detailed on what this was gonna be for. It didn't even say what campus is gonna be taking place. It just wasn't detailed enough for me to be okay with approving the whole amount. So yes, am I for students? Yes, am I for art and... And public places, but it didn't even mention anything about arts and public places it just talks about Santa Rosa city schools and it didn't provide any other additional information so. that was just a little concerning to me. And as for, I also questioned the $100, the $100 that my fellow CAF member was just referring to. Just mathematically, it just doesn't make any sense to me. And since we are limited with certain amount of funds, yeah, I'm just not in agreement with the full amount.

Yeah, I'm also... unsure. It looks like there might be public art that comes out of this. Has this been discussed with the art in public places?

They're proposing to do it in the schools. Okay. Which then is not city property.

Yeah, but isn't it supposed to be like that they're supposed to provide a letter from Santa Rosa City Schools saying like it's Okay, because like I said, from my understanding, when they asked for a grant through the Rosen School District, we gave them funds. So I just want to know, are they getting funds from Santa Rosa City Schools? Is there a matching grant? Because I don't see anything in other. So it just isn't very detailed to me.

So they said the funding sources that $20,000. $2,500, that is the matching they're doing. And the matching is the wages as well. So they're using the wages as the matching fund, $100 an hour. And also in the application, the applicants are responsible for following the process of applying for... If they need any authorization, if they need any permits, they're responsible for following up with that and doing that due diligence. And the board has discretion to say that these funds can be only received after you have that authorization from Cerro City Schools.

I understand that. However, like for the wet, for example, for like the West Avenue project, we had letters attached. I don't see any letters attached from Santa Rosa City Schools. It doesn't even describe what campus is going to be on. It's just not very detailed. It just kind of seems a little blank. And then when I went on to the QR codes, it just shows me the programs and murals and whatnot, but things that they've done in the past. So my understanding is that it goes through art and art and. public places first, and then it comes to us for just to review the art. I would like to see like what they're going to paint, like what design. I want to see like things like that before we just go ahead and give them the full amount, because as mentioned, it's not very detailed.

For the West Avenue project, you're correct. They were that you are allocated the money and then it was contingent on them getting the approval from art and public. So it also don't depend like if the mural is gonna be at the school painted on a wall or something. Sometimes people don't do that. They have like movable structures that are not a permanent part of the, and in that case, they don't need approval, but are in public spaces. Yeah, it doesn't mention that either. So in this, yeah. this is something that you have the discretion to ask from the applicant. Perfect.

Thank you. I'm in agreement. I think that There is not enough information here, and I'm not even necessarily concerned what the art is going to be. I am not an artist, and I trust this group to make that decision. And I understand it might be difficult to say, hey, this is exactly what we're going to paint, because that's probably what they're letting the kids do. But a better idea of where it's going to be, who's going to be involved, Like, this says that they're going to host 8 to 10 workshops, which doesn't seem to really make sense with the teaching artist wages, which would come out to 15 workshops if we divide $2,500 by the $100 an hour. So to me, I think that we need some more information on this.

Barry, any questions or comments?

No, I mean, it doesn't seem like there is sort of like a time sensitivity to this one as much. Maybe we could factor it into when blind. Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, I'm also looking similar comments. When is this happening? Where is it taking place? So I agree with some of those.

And just as a reminder, like funds roll over, correct? And people can, you know, redo their application and specify all the information. So if we decide to move it to next vote, it's not like a no, it's just a TBD.

Yeah. There's no other comment. We can open it up for public comments. There's anything else on the board on this particular one?

I agree. I have no public comment. Do you want to speak to that? Sorry. I'm sorry.

I don't know.

No, it's good. It's fine. I'm taking public comments on item 7.4.

Would you like to make a public comment? No. I'll just speak on my part about what I'm here for. I'm going to stay in my lane.

Anyone else want to make a public comment on 7.4? We have no public comments on this item.

Wonderful, I'll bring it back to the board.

Well, I just, you had mentioned that you had an understanding of the $100 per hour for the artists. Do you have any detail on that that you're able to provide us at this time? I would like to. Or would like to, sorry.

Nice job. Okay, so I worked with Rice's collective And I did a lot of them, a lot of different things. I know how that works. But I agree that the details on documenting what the hourly wages are for, how much the pain is, how much the things are, that what we do. And I can tell you way more than that because I was a part of a lot of murals all throughout of Santa Rosa. That's all I want to say. But I agree exactly with what a member of DS said, what you guys all said, revisit all of that, and then you'll understand more. And I just want to speak on what I did, but I'll just speak on my part later. It's like how we all like know each other and for the community. But yeah, I totally agree.

All right. Thank you very much for that. Thank you for the follow-up. So then public comment is closed.

Can I just ask for a clarifying question, Anna, if you could tell them if we decide to bring it back. Can we see if they have any matching grants with Santa Rosa City Schools? Can we ask them? Because it says Santa Rosa City Schools, and like I mentioned, I'm pretty sure Santa Rosa City Schools... provides funds for projects. So I would just like to know if they are or if they're not. And if they are, to add it to other when it comes to matching grants because it doesn't list it here. Thank you.

Wonderful discussion. Is there a motion from the board? Based on all of your wonderful comments, formulating something.

I'll move to deny the application. Can we add a, is it, are we able to ask for more information? Yeah. Assuming that Anna will ask for more information, I move to deny the application. Can we post on a vote?

Well, let's see. All right. So there's a motion on the floor to deny the application if there is second. Or is there another motion?

For lack of a motion, whether you say yes or no.

I would just like to kind of clarify. It sounds like everyone supports the mission and we just want more information. And so at this time, we're not comfortable granting it, but we would like to... make it clear that we're interested in getting a little more information and we can be specific about what that is, but I don't want to turn people away.

Is it enough for us to give an explanation of the denial and invite them to apply again?

So do I have a second for Member Mondale's motion? Second from Mr. Knowles. Member Knowles. Is that a second? Is that a second? You're seconding?

Yeah.

Yes. Okay.

All right. So let me understand this correctly. The motion has been made to deny this until further information is provided?

Until they can reapply with more information. Yes.

Okay. Okay. So we will start with our member who is Member Mundo. All right. And then we'll second Member Ewells. Oh, yes. And then, uh, yes. Oh, no.

Yes. To deny. Yes. Sorry.

Um, and then remember the ends. Yes. And then vice chair. Hi. Yes. Yes. That motion passes to.

Uh, uh, with, uh,

Six ayes with member Hensley absent.

Thank you very much for the thoughtful discussion on that. We're moving forward to item 7.5, the community improvement grant for the Skyhawk neighborhood.

Just a quick update. So now we have six grants and if you divide the balance 14,352.3 by six is 2,392 with five cents. All right, so the Skyhawk Neighborhood Grant application submitted by Skyhawk United is requesting $2,500 to fund an event that promotes community, culture, and fun. Neighbors gather and meet one another, enjoy an afternoon of food, entertainment, art, and culture, and share resources on common needs and interests, such as fire safety, creek maintenance, and school safety. Their goals are A, build community through offering an afternoon of music, food, vendors, And awards from diverse. Awards from diverse. Roaming cultures represented in their neighborhood. B, open an annual event that helps build community bonds among neighbors where they can meet, connect, and build ties. Recommendation, it is recommended by the communications and multi-governmental communications department of the community advisory board by motion to determine the dispersion of these community roaming grants.

Thank you very much. And with that, I will open it up for discussion.

Thank you. Just a little, I wanted to check in because I remember my colleague right here just mentioned that and I do want to take that to consideration that I guess we'd be equitable towards different districts that haven't applied for grants for this physical year. Uh, has Skyhawk neighborhood, have they received a grant this year? Okay. They haven't. And then, um, my secondary question to that is when I was looking at the costs, uh, for 200 people, um, I understand that $800 for food, but $300 for tablecloths, napkins, and plates that just kind of seem a little high to me. Um, just because I, I know this personally because I posted picnics and whatnot. So I could tell you this much for 200 people, it does not cost that much for tablecloths, napkins and plates. So I just wanted a little bit more detail on that because I didn't see anything on here. Also, um, what event is this for? Cause I know that they have quite a few events. Is it like for their, um, movie night is it for uh yeah yeah no and i understand that says uh neighborhood night but um yeah i just wanted to know um when is this taking place because it also didn't um mention it on here so i don't know if you have that information uh when they so they it

This group came, they submitted an application last year, I believe in October, and they said that the event was going to be held in August. So Cal decided at the moment that they should come back closer to the time of the event.

I just, yeah, and then... So this is for their August event, just to clarify. I assume that's the case.

Yeah, I just have one question because I didn't see the exact time frame in the application.

And it would be nice if they told us when so then we could be able to attend as well. That's it, sorry. No, that's good.

I'll look to my left for any other comments or questions on the Skyhawk. I was just curious what their other funding source was. That was just something I kind of took note of. So I know it could be within volunteer hours, which is fine.

Yeah, it didn't state that either.

I mean, my only comment would just be they have to provide receipts for everything that they do. And so while maybe that number does seem a little high for these three things that they have listed here, like, I don't know, everything's crazy expensive these days.

Like $300 is like not that much when it comes down to 200 people.

I mean... So I have no problem with that number specifically or what they're asking. And if we do determine that it wasn't, you know, they didn't spend that amount of money, we can go back later and, you know, figure it out. So everything looks above board and good to me. And, you know, I appreciate them coming back and being patient on this. So I'm in support.

Yeah.

I'm in support too. I'm also very encouraged that they started 501 C three and they're so organized and they want to pick that whole region together. Yeah. And it's great.

Any other comments or questions from the board? Can we open it up to public comment?

We're not taking public comments on item 7.5. We would like to make a public comment on this item. Okay. Chair Nunez, we have a couple of comments for the Senate.

Thank you very much. Then I'll bring you back to the board. Is there any final comments or someone that would like to make a motion?

I have a final comment and then I could go ahead and motion. Yeah, just to be clear, can we make sure that they provide the receipts? And then what do you go about if it doesn't meet the... the actual amount. How do we go about that?

I let them know, and we have had several applicants that have returned money. Okay, perfect. Okay.

All right, well then I'll move to approve the... I have a comment.

Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm not encouraged by approving the whole grant amount.

Okay.

I'd like more in the 1750 range that pays for the food, drink, tablecloths, and the park reservation. All the marketing has been done online. Performance, you know, there's some other matching funds and they have.

Would you like to bring that in the form of a motion?

I would love to.

I mean, this is, I think we're also hitting up a little bit against like the challenge of doing these individually and not knowing what, There's one tactic we could take. It's just the remaining funds that we have and dividing those between the remaining grants, which would put it, what's the current? $2,339.

$2,392. $2,392.

And then there's seven today. I just want to offer that up as something to just to be mindful of instead of like starting to hack away at, you know, like, I don't, I do appreciate that. At the same time, I, you know, I'm assuming they spent more time with this than I have. And, you know, so I don't feel comfortable telling people what they do and don't need if we do have more or less the funds. Yeah. could we retroactively come back and like, if we awarded 1750 now, we kind of like, you know, no, it's finalized. Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah, that's a good question.

Maybe you could make a motion.

Well, there's a motion on the table.

I haven't started yet.

Nobody's done one.

I'll make a motion.

Okay.

I'd like to motion approving the full $2,500. District 3 did not receive any grant money last year. This is a District 3 request. So in that vein, I think they deserve the full amount, $2,500. I would like to second that motion.

Okay. All right.

We'll take a roll call vote on this motion. The motion is to fund the Skyhawk neighborhood grant application for a full amount of $2,500, correct? Correct. And we will start with our mover, who is Vice Chair Freitas. Aye. Our second member, Delvin. Aye. And then member, Commando. Aye. Member Knowles.

Yes. You are going to be $23.92.

Member Diaz? Yes. And Chair Rodriguez? Yes. Let the record reflect that that motion passes with six ayes, with Member Hamzy absent.

And just make sure to get the reasons, please. Yes, they have to submit the reasons.

Perfect.

Thank you very much. I do appreciate it. Taking them one by one does allow for a robust discussion. And with that, we move to the next one, which is item 7.6, community improvement grant for minor beats.

The minor beats grant application submitted by Play It Forward Music Foundation requests 2,500 to support youth open mic sessions for young people ages 5 to 17. These sessions aim to provide Santa Rosa youth with welcoming stage to express themselves and share their creativity through music. Live performances foster meaningful connections within a community and create a sense of vibrancy to share artistic experiences. Youth open mic sessions offer young people the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. It is essential to building confidence and self-expression. Additionally, practicing music cultivates focus, strength, time management skills, and supports overall well-being. When youth feel supported, empowered, and engaged in their community, the positive impact extends to the entire community. Recommendation, it is recommended by the Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Department that the Community Advisory Board, by motion, determine the dispersion of this community improvement plan.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. And with that, I'll open it up and bring it to the board to see if there are any questions or comments about this application. The cost estimate is not making sense to me.

So the volunteer hours is 22, I'm sorry, $100 each session.

And

It says it's for two sessions, but it's saying the requested amount, $800, but then it says matching funds, $400. And then when I calculated everything, it sums up to $900 with the keyboard, or I'm sorry, with the Yeah, I don't know. The math's just not mathing.

So there are two columns. The requested funds are on the left, and then the right is matching. So they are matching the $700, and then they're matching the contract services as well for $400. So that's a good question. And then we have keyboard $400 and then the vein. So you're saying that they are duplicating this amount?

No, no, no. I am not making that claim. It's just, it's not, I'm just trying to understand.

Also, it's not two sessions, it's four. It's two per session. So they're offering two volunteers per session, two MCs per session.

Okay, I didn't see that.

Thanks for clarifying that. No problem, no problem.

Okay, yeah, it was just a clarifying question.

Well, I'll just speak on behalf of the organization, not that I'm part of it, but I'm familiar with it. And the gentleman who runs the Lost Church is really quite an extraordinary community member and has been very dedicated to bringing local, bringing and keeping local music here in Sonoma County. And, uh, He has always been dedicated with their board to providing not only performance music, but now to reaching out to youth to have the same kind of access to local performance space and also opportunities to perform like they're offering here. I think the organization is great. And they've relocated to the Unitarian Church on Mendocino. And I think that... This is a really worthy grant to consider.

I think Simply Strings also performs there, right?

Yeah. I'm confused about the math as well.

For eight volunteers, even if it's two a session, 8 times 22, 14 is $177.12.

And they're saying that it's $708.48.

So I think you have to double the volunteers. You have to do, oh, two per session, you're right.

Yeah, I just saw that.

They're four-hour sessions. Am I wrong, or is that the, that's the next one? Four hours, three hours, how long was I?

Yeah, they're 4.5-hour open mics.

So, okay, there are So if you do, if it's What paragraph is that in?

Sorry.

No, no, it's the last one, right, right near the, it's, it's actually in the letter by the minister of conversation.

It's, yeah, 16 times 23.414 and then double that, yeah, two of those sessions. My only comment would be in wanting to be equitable and just calling out $100 a session on the first grant. I'm still looking at this MC2 sessions and maybe I'm just also doing what everyone else just did on the last one. But to me, shouldn't it be $400? For the... For the MC2 session. So if we do, because if it's two MCs, that's $100, that's $50 per MC per hour. And I'm just like 22.14 is approximately the number. And I just, just to be fair to everyone, I don't want to tell one person they over-calculated their... Estimate of time. And I don't want to say MC is more valuable than the artist teacher. So my only thing would be cut the 800 in half. Then it's 25 instead of 22, 14. Then I feel like we're giving everyone the same volunteer number.

But this says each session. This doesn't say per hour. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah. How long is a session? 4.5 hours. That's going to be a four-hour open mic. Okay. That makes sense.

Well, no, what I'm saying is this is saying that it's $100 each session, not $100 per hour each session.

No, it's two MCs. I have to start wrapping this. Two MCs per session times $100 each per session. So it's literally $200 each session. So it's $800, because there's four sessions. OK, but they're saying that it's $1,200.

I like this. That's true, isn't it? Because they're requesting $800, and they're saying that they're to match $400. Yeah, well said.

Yeah, then in the last paragraph, they're calling a small stipend for the host MC, $200 per event. I don't know where that other $400 is going, good sir.

Yeah, I don't know.

The math, the math is not math.

I think they still have enough funds to, matching funds to cover.

We could approve the grant and modify its form.

2838, matching funds, 2838, 48, is there matching? My math is right.

So each session is four hours, I believe. I think that's what I got from reading this.

I think you're right. Do we want to go back with clarifications on the budget or on the event?

We could. I think that's fair because also there's no timeline on this. And this also, they've relocated. So I think that their residency there is beginning and it's fine because of this.

perhaps that budget needs to be flushed out a little bit more just to make sure that there's one yeah that's a complete application great i'll make you i'll make sure that we're going to go to public sorry public comments if we're okay with comments i'll open it up any other questions or comments for anna let's go okay i'm going to open it up for public comment

We're gonna take public comments on item 7.6. Would anyone like to make a comment? Chair Rodriguez it appears we have no public comments for this item.

Thank you very much. I'll bring it back to the board and see if anybody has a motion on item 7.6.

Oh, I'd be happy to make a motion, no problem at all. I would like to make a motion to deny this grant with the request to revisit the budget. Does that sound sensible?

I didn't assume for the purposes of denials that we will give the applicants a reason and an offer to a re-apply. So you can just deny, we'll take care of the- Okay, thank you.

Thank you for making this good. Yeah. Okay, so motion to deny the grant.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

So we are taking a roll call to deny this application, correct? Correct. Okay, we will start with our mover. There's member Dunham. Oh, yeah.

Sorry.

I'm second. Member Mondale? Aye. And then Member Knowles? Aye. Member Diaz?

Yes.

Vice Chair Freitas? Aye. And Chair Rodriguez? Yes. That motion to deny passed by six ayes with Member Hensley absent.

Or show up and answer questions.

Yeah, we're going to need that. That's right.

Can I ask a joke? Since we're waiting for Member Knowles to come back.

Yes, you can. How do you, like, what's the invitation? Obviously, you tell people, like, hey, this is when we're going to be voting on it, but Is there, can we tell people like, hey, there might be some clarification that is needed?

No, she's really good about it.

Yeah, when they submit the application, I let them know that it has been received, that it meets the minimum criteria, that has to be, you know, reviewed by CAP, and that it's happening at this time, and CAP. and have questions about it that is helpful to attend.

It's in their best interest to show up.

She does a really good job.

If you start denying everybody, then people will just finally show up.

All right.

We are moving on to item 7.7, which is the motion for the community improvement grants for the Sonoma County Volunteer Fair. Anytime you want to be honest, I would probably recuse myself, but if you want to tee it up.

Correct. I'm also going to leave the room out of caution because I am part of the board of this organization. Even though I don't have to vote or anything, I'm going to leave. And I also want to clarify that Director Wood did the criteria. She analyzed them. make sure the grant criteria are not. Thank you for the transparency.

Similarly, I'm also on the board for L'Océan. So again, out of an abundance of cautious, even though I'm not Any money off of this grant? I just want to be clear conscious. So, Vice Chair Freitas, the floor is yours. Thank you for your transparency.

Nice job.

Good job, team.

Should I read? Do you want me to read the intro?

I can go ahead and do that. I'll go ahead and present. Thank you, Vice Chair. We are now on item 7.7, which is the Sonoma County Volunteer Fair. The Sonoma County Volunteer Fair co-hosted by Los Cien and the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership is requesting $2,500 to host a volunteer fair. The fair was a community-wide, I'm sorry, the fair was a county-wide community event designed to strengthen civic engagement, nonprofit capacity, and inclusive volunteerism in Santa Rosa and across Sonoma County. Held on March 31st and aligned with Global Volunteer Month, the event honored the legacy of collective action while creating accessible pathways for residents to serve their communities. And the recommendation this evening is that the Community Advisory Board, by motion, determine the dispersion of this community improvement grant for the June and July 2026 period.

Thank you. Wonderful.

Excuse me.

Board members, are there any questions for staff? Yes, I remember Diaz.

I love the organization, personally love Ms. Diaz, but didn't we just approve a grant through them for something similar just this physical year?

I don't believe so. So just a little bit of background on this one, if I may. This was on the agenda for the March meeting. And then we had some unforeseen circumstances with our CAB members and we did not have a quorum. We're very glad you're here and you're all okay. Thank you. And we had, so there was no quorum and there was no ability to take action on the item. On our end, it was inadvertently omitted on the April agenda. And so that's why we're bringing it to today. So I don't know if it's, I want to provide that background as we get into it. I'm going to go ahead and check. Yeah, I feel like it was last.

It was just recently too. It was very recently.

I don't think so. So not in this fiscal year? I don't remember there being anything for low CNM this fiscal year.

Let me do a quick check. It's on our website. You guys can continue to give me just a moment. I'm happy to look it up for you.

I just wanted to make sure.

Great. Provided that we haven't granted something. Are we just talking to staff or can we talk to each other?

Are there board members? Are there any other questions? Or... Other staff is not doing research right now.

If you have questions, you could do public comment and then come back and do a discussion.

I actually have an answer to her question, if I may. So I'm looking at our 2026 Community Improvement Grant Awards, and I'm not seeing Lucien on there. And then looking back at 2025, I am also not seeing Lucien. So we... put everything on the website by calendar year, even though obviously it works in the fiscal year.

Okay. I just want to make sure I just, I feel like I remember seeing it, but maybe you're right. It was for like the March. Yeah. Maybe it's that. Actually, I do have one.

Are there any other questions? Yes. A question. Um,

With the marketing, have we had, because usually with things like this, we usually have bids that are attached to the application, but I didn't see none. So how do they know that marketing is going to be $2,000?

That was the information that they provided. And so I think what we've seen is that different applicants provide a variety of detail in their application. So we let them know what they need to submit, but inevitably there are questions by cab.

And again, that would be verified post.

Correct. So condition of all of the community improvement grants is that everybody's required to submit receipts after the fact to demonstrate that the money was used for the intended purpose and everything matches up. And as Ana Orta mentioned earlier, if there is any discrepancy there, then folks have been required to return funds.

Okay. Yeah.

But it is also CAP's discretion, obviously, how you want to spend.

Yeah, I just want to know where the $2,000 comes from. Like, is it their regular person that always gives them the same quote? Like, yeah, I just wanted to know that additional information.

Everything that they have submitted is in the packet.

Okay.

Even without that, they got them. Okay. We took that away. Yeah.

I will bring to the CAB's attention based on your question, Ms. Diaz, that they talk about their outreach plan in number three. So they talk about using their subscribers list, including community volunteer network subscriber list, wine country radio, and local media, including the Cresta McKenna Prensa.

Okay, so just a clarifying question. So they'll provide, when we approve the grant, they'll provide all the receipts that come with the marketing, with the agencies listed. That's the requirement.

And there's no requirement that they submit bids with the applications. I mean, it would be helpful and above and beyond, but it's not a requirement.

So it might change by the time. I mean, it gets a little. Are there any other questions for staff? All right. I would like to refer to public comment protocol.

I'm taking public comments on item 7.7. Would anyone like to make a public comment on this item? Vice Chair Faraday, it appears we have no public comments. Wonderful.

I just want to point out too that we now can fully fund the remaining improvement grant. So if we do want to make a motion for a full, we have the funds to fully fund everyone. Okay, sorry. Would any CAV members like the motion to approve the Sonoma County Volunteer Fair co-hosted by Locien at the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership?

I'll bring the motion.

I'll second.

Okay. Second. So Member Knowles, you're making a motion to fund it fully, correct? Yes. And Member Diaz, you're second? Yes. Correct. I'll take a vote to vote on this motion to fully fund the Sonoma County Volunteer Fair. And we'll start with our mover, who's Member Knowles. Our second is Member Diaz. Yes. And then Member Mondale. Yes. And Member Delvey. Yes. And Vice Chair Freitas. Yes. We're going to reflect with that pass with five ayes, with Chair Rodriguez abstaining from this vote, and Member Hamsey absent.

Again, just a slip of note to provide the... documentation.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So the standard, the standard process is when we submit that given the letter that they copy the word, the compliance confirmation is already on the website as well, but on this very good about. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome.

To bring the chair back in. Yes. We'll allow it.

Well, thank you for that. I appreciate you stepping in. Seamless.

Moving on, moving forward to item 7.8, which is the Community Improvement Grant for the Community Listening Project. Ana.

The Community Listening Project grant application submitted by Listening for Change requests 2,500 to host two four-hour workshops focused on developing listening skills and training participants in conducting oral stories, histories. This program is designated to engage a wide range of community members as communities become increasingly diverse. It is essential to foster an inclusive and respectful environment for all. Facilitating conversations and interviews across different backgrounds help bridge divides and address misunderstandings related to socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, generation, sexual or inclusion, and religion. These workshops aim to strengthen connections by encouraging participants to actively listen to and learn from one another's experiences. Recommendation is recommended by the Communication and Intergovernmental Relations Department and the Community Advisory Board by motion to determine the dispersion of these community improvement grants.

Thank you very much. Back to our board for any questions or comments about the grant application. I just took note, the timing wasn't until fall of 2026. And then the second phase of it wasn't until basically spring of 2027. Okay.

I mean, no, no, for sure. I just started trying to remember a lot of them today. So there are. I would just say because we have the funds available at this time, I would not look to postpone anything because you just never know what the future is going to hold. And, you know, if the cause is right.

I also agree with that, but just to be fair towards other applicants, can we let them know, hey, just to be equitable for everybody since you're applying for this year and next year, just FYI, we need space to allow other organizations and community groups to also be eligible for grants. So can we let them know that? if they applied for this and it's two listening sessions for this year and next year, that just to be equitable towards everybody, they can't apply for another grant that's related to this?

So currently there is no requirement. It says it's at the discretion of the board, depending on how many applications and funds that you have available. And that if you have applied, during that year or even the year before, that board might choose to give the funds to someone.

Can we let them know that? I just didn't word it carefully. There you go. But I really like how detailed it was. It gave a really good explanation of the cost, the event itself, and additional information like the letter as well. I really like that. That's it.

I'm having the same issues that I was having with the grant that we recently denied with the math and the requesting funds that are also being matched and it's not, I'm not sure how it's coming out as it is. and maybe I what specifically so like the workshop teachers it's two workshop teachers are $350 for one workshop and there are four workshops so $1,400 which is what they're requesting but then they're also saying that $800 is being matched for that you're right But how long is a workshop?

Well, I think it listed it.

It says it's a four-hour workshop, but this says it's $350 for one workshop.

Yeah, I think maybe there's misunderstanding that... our funds are meant to match the funds they have in equal measure, not like their funds are meant to add extra value to our funds. Do you understand that, how I just said that?

So it's not necessarily dollar for dollar.

It's like, okay, yeah, $350 is great, but then we'll pay them more because we'll get $350, but let's also give them $100 or $200 more that we can pay. I think that's just like maybe they're misunderstanding how to ask this, how to propose this grant.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's just a misunderstanding, but in the interest of fairness, given that we denied the other application for basically the same thing. Well, it's two four-hour workshops, not four.

Yeah, but it's two workshops, and then they're four hours each.

Oh, it's two workshops?

Yeah, two workshops, four hours each.

Right. So it's $700 per workshop. That's $1,400. So then that works. Right, but then they're saying that they've also got...

They're really saying that it's $2,200. Because they're saying that they've matched $800 for that. That's really funny.

It doesn't have to be a dollar per dollar match on the line item. Right.

My understanding is that it's the total matching funds that at least met the requested amount.

Right, the total amount. Right.

Yeah, so we're not reading it as $800 plus $1,400 is how much the workshops are going to cost, right? We're reading it as the workshops are going to be $350 per workshop. There's two workshops, $700.

Well, actually, I guess I do read that $800 as reflecting that $800, so that the workshops are actually more than $750 or more than $700. But there's an addition, yeah, it does make it seem like $800 is... sort of like in addition to, again, I think it's probably a clarification thing. Maybe they're pricing the workshops for the grant amount they're requesting and they're actually, whatever that math would be, $2,100 per workshop. I don't know. I think to Duane's earlier point, these things are straightforward and have been streamlined and also like, you know, it's, it's not totally intuitive. And I really do struggle with kind of like, I don't know. I know we've been in the practice of sort of trying to, I mean, I think transparency is obviously should be practiced. And same time I'm like, Oh, I don't know. Like what's the balance between that and discouraging people who obviously put a lot of time into an application and going back and doing even more like, you know, this is everyone's money. Like, um, Unless we think it rises to the occasion, I guess ultimately too, the safety net is they do have to provide that documentation of how these funds are used. I would be comfortable with that process working itself out.

I want to be transparent, but I want to be fair. We did just deny another

place until october and november so i mean they would have time to resubmit this application any of the comments before we open up for public comments sorry what was it now i'm losing these what was the reason we for the previous denial because the math didn't add up like the matching math

I think it's because they're overestimating the hourly rate that people were being paid. And we have a specific number that we've been using for them to match volunteer hours. And so we're saying, hey, these two need to align. So I think maybe in the application, it could be... I mean, again, I haven't gone through the application myself, so it's hard for me. But maybe we could say, hey, this is the number that we use for all hourly... wages, and your math needs to add up to this, is that?

I don't think it's necessarily that, because they can have, like, I think that's just a volunteer hour. I think if they're going to pay a professional, it doesn't need to match $22.14 an hour, but it's more, like, it needs to add up, I think. You need to be able to determine how you're actually spending the money.

Okay. And with that, I'll open it up to public comment. And I'll take public comment on item 7.8. What do the members like to make public comment? Chair Rodriguez, it appears we have no public comments for this item.

Thank you very much. I'll bring it back to the board to see if there's a motion.

I move to deny the application.

Second. I'll second that.

Second the motion. Who's our second? All right, we're now taking a roll call vote on this motion to deny the application for the Community Listening Project. And we'll start with our mover, newest member, Rhonda.

Aye.

And our second chair, Rodriguez. And then member Knowles. No. No. And member Dalton. Aye. And member Diaz.

Yes.

And Vice Chair Crades? No. Okay. Well, I would like to reflect that that motion to deny passed by four ayes with two nos, and Member Hempsey being absent.

For the record, I'm still, I myself am now a little confused about how this should be reflected. So maybe at some later point we need to get clear on that because, again, I think the effort to have financial integrity is sound for itself for that, and yet I'm like, I thought my math was sort of decent and now I'm sort of really questioning like, well, what, I don't know if this isn't equivalent to the, what we just denied an application for, or is that, that felt like misappropriate, like, well, I mean something to a level that we hadn't like sort of agreed on it earlier, whereas this feels like it's more of a, um, I don't know, like they're misattributing a line. Again, maybe the hope, yeah, maybe the hope is that they clarify some line items, but I do think it's just a little confusing.

If I may, the next meeting I can bring forward, I'm thinking perhaps having a form for the whole application with very specific, like how much you're charging per hour, how many hours, And they have to put numbers underneath those things. So it's very clear to the board. I can work on that and bring it to you for review from the next meeting.

I would even suggest just starting the next fiscal year, maybe staff could just work on it at a staff level. I don't know if we need to approve. significant changes to the application?

It's mostly how the information is presented. So it's easier to see that information and it can be added as well. That is how the rich that the applicant come to the meeting.

I would definitely say staff could work on that since it's just changing a form and not changing the content.

I also agree with that. But I think you guys do a wonderful job. I think maybe it just needs to be more clarifying through the applicants. So then they provide that extra detail. Because to me, I just want to be cautious of the community grant funds that we receive. So it's equitable for all. But when there's lack of information or no clarity, then As a CAB member, I just feel that that's our responsibility to ask questions. And then we're not completely saying, no, we're against it. We're just saying, hey, come back. And we're happy to, if we get the clarifying answers to these questions, no problem.

And I think the intention, if I may, is to amend the application so that people have some more specificity in what they're supposed to be submitting. Yes. So I think... The hope is that that will help resolve some of these issues, in addition to encouraging applicants to attend meetings to be available, that we'll get a little bit more consistent information, more in-depth information that CAP is looking for.

Because the questions you might have, we only review for the applications to make sure they meet the minimal criteria. But then the board has other questions of that, and the board ultimately makes the decision. So we can make those changes. Thank you.

All right. We're chugging along, you guys. Hang in there. I appreciate the discussion. We are moving on to item 7.9, which is a community improvement grant determination for Project True Cannabis Education Campaign.

All right. The Northern California Center for Well-Being is requesting $2,500 for Project True Cannabis Education Campaign serving middle and high school students in Ralston District and Central City Schools, primary, bilingual, bicultural, and low-income youth. The program will raise awareness of youth cannabis use and the risk of cannabis DUI and DUID, helping teens make informed decisions It would also build leadership and peer mentorship through a youth-led approach, creating an engaging environment that empowers teens to advocate for healthy safety choices in their communities. Recommendation, it is recommended by the Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Department that the Community Advisory Board, by motion, determine the dispersion of these communities. Okay.

Great, thank you very much. And with that, I'll bring it back to the board for discussions and questions.

I'm familiar with this organization. I like this organization. I think they do really good work, really dynamic work. They're very good at engaging community members at different levels, whether it's their community health workers or like this proposal, illustrates students in high school, like peer-to-peer. And I think that a grant to this project would be beneficial for the community.

Yeah, I will definitely agree. As a parent of high schoolers and teenagers, this I think would be really important versus them just sort of experimenting, but having that peer-to-peer experience. education. Um, I could see value in that.

And I responded, I didn't say every high school, but, um, definitely felt that I would encourage, uh, since the Rosen school district is mentioned, do I have to, um, recuse myself? Um, I mean, it has, it hasn't came to us, but, um, just for caution reasons. Okay. What, what is your, uh, cause it mentions Rosen school district and I serve as a trustee for the district.

Mentions as in... Sorry, I'm not really seeing it.

On 7.9? Yeah, it says partnership. I mean, I've never heard of this organization. I think it's great, but it does mention Rosen School District. So I don't know if I would have to recuse myself because it does mention the school district that I serve.

I mean... I think it's unlikely that you have a financial interest that would be disqualifying. But if you feel like you have a bias that would be disqualifying, you are always, you know, you're always welcome to say and leave the room if you want to. I doubt there's a financial interest. Yeah, I don't.

I mean, yeah. As long as it's okay with you guys. I mean, I don't think I gain anything from this. This is the first time I hear of it. No, but thank you for being aware.

so i mean i'm glad to hear that you're familiar with the organization i will be honest that like when i hear drug awareness it's not maybe on me to get into the pedagogy of program but there is you know i remember There's a history of drug education in schools that we look back on and it's not positive and in fact soaked a lot of fear and participated in larger socioeconomic politics that targeted largely low-income, marginalized neighborhoods. So I don't suggest that's happening here, but I also want to just highlight that I that is a serious topic and I certainly appreciate like that should be handled with a lot of integrity. And I guess I'm just sort of telegraphing that I don't, I guess it's meaningful to me that you seem to be familiar with what they do because I, yeah, I'm definitely a bit.

I volunteered with them before, which I don't think is recusatory because I didn't work on this program.

And they just have like more practical question about like just like what they're asking for and sort of campaign kit goggles and card and how we can very like financially focused this meeting, and so I am curious like. It seems okay like that is that I think they're either criteria of like.

Mimicking the front goggles and then the weights on you so you can't move around so you feel like...

It's like a system.

I got cheaper weights too.

And then it all goes on TikToks and platforms. I share a similar concern that maybe this tangentially strengthens communities, but... I don't know if this is a program that, in my mind, meets the criteria that we are looking for to make changes in the community and to put forward projects about collaboration and participation and relationship building.

Do you want to say if there is a public comment or someone here can speak?

Yeah.

I mean, I just, to your point, like, I totally understand what you're saying, but I think if one kid is directly affected, that's going to affect the entire community. And so while it might not be something that is going to directly touch the entire community, like the ripples of something bad happening. I mean, I know it's just silly, but I'm just, you know, I'm a dad of young kids and like, if one, if like, if this, if this program helps one kid, think it's 100% worth it and could be detrimental to the community when something terrible happens if you're like dang we could have probably prevented that and I know it's kind of a fear based like having kid response but is your issue that it's not the impact I'm not that it's a utilitarian thing it's like well this will only affect this many people because my

My point was more like, I just, to me, it's more of a blind spot on the map in terms of like, what are they actually promoting in terms of like the philosophy of these things? And because I just, I would just say like, you know, anti-drug campaigns are not as simple as, yeah, they're great, we should support them. I mean, they're complicated. And so, and that's where I would, you know, I appreciate that. you know your your personal experience and that's meaningful to me um but just to be clear i'm like that's that is a sort of more fraught pedagogy and and i would hope that i'd love to know a little bit more about what the message kids are learning other than just like don't smoke weed and it's a new it's more i guess it's just more nuanced than that and um So that's kind of what I was getting at. But I'm not saying that's disqualifying. I'm just raising that.

With the financials and everything, can I ask about the goggles and the cart that's described here in the cost estimate? Does anybody know? Because it didn't really make sense to me in the actual... Yeah, I don't know.

I guess it's more like to be more specific. It's like that. Like for 2005. Yeah, I assume we'd see receipts for what, like that kit, like that sounds to me like it includes other elements, like other things, which I guess we don't need to know of. And, but I don't know. I mean, Well, it's more than $4,500, $5,500 for the kit. Yeah. Right. There's been, we've been, we've been like denying grants because there's not enough information. Which again, I'm not like, I'm not trying to, I'm not the austerity guy. Like I'm, I'm just, we're going to be consistent.

But they only have one cost, which is supplies. They're not looking for volunteer hours. They're not looking for paper plates. We just need a kit. We're going to do all the work.

We know about the Friday Night Live mini grant. Is that associated with the California Highway Patrol? Yeah.

That's not a City of Santa Rosa grant. I mean, just the fact that the Highway Patrol is involved in this, is it really in the purview of this board that we approve a grant for this project, as great as it may be. I really, other than what's in the application, I don't know. But just is this something that is within our purview to grant community funds for?

I mean, I think it's great that there is awareness towards DUIs, because people just assume DUIs is alcohol related. But there's also cannabis related. which is a newer law that's put in place. However, when I was looking at the timeline information, it does say that the campaign book begins in early fall and that the project would be completed for March, 2027. So there is time. I mean, yeah, there is time that goes with it. And I try to look up their campaign online and I can't find anything about it. So because I just wanted to look at additional information to see if my questions could be answered online, but I didn't really see anything.

So I'm particular campaign.

Yes. So I looked online. I see something from the state. But when I click on the link, it doesn't say anything about like Sonoma County or anything like that. I mean, like I said, I think it's great. A lot of kids don't know that DUI is just a good alcohol. It's like cannabis as well. And yeah, I just would like that additional information.

But I mean, are we going to be determining whether we approve or disapprove based on whether we agree on the tactics that they're specifically using? Are we going to vote on the mission or like the overarching goal? You know what I mean? Because I feel like it's going to get down into the minutiae. We're like, hey, we need you to break down exactly what your message is, who's delivering it. While that's good to know, it feels like it becomes too much of a... personal bias on what how we expect that to be delivered as opposed to like what is the mission that you're going at and it's going to take many different messages being delivered to these kids by many different people to to get it across um but yeah but if we can't yeah i agree we're getting out like a sort of

philosophical question of like, what is community and what, what, who is this for? And how do we define that? And I agree. I'm not saying that I should be doing that, but also that is kind of our mission. And so I think to some extent, these conversations are super valid. And also I will say like the presence of the police department, like in a, in a school that is a political decision. And that is, that is to me, that rises to the occasion of some sort of scrutiny. And I,

Are these mandatory programs?

Yeah, sure. It's not mandatory. We give them money.

All right. Any other comments or questions before we open it up for public comment?

I think just that they have a long-term partnership with the County of Sonoma Health Services Department. that is a more appropriate place for this.

Thank you for that. Then we'll open it up to public comment.

I'll take a public comment on item 7.9. Yes. Okay. Do you state your name for the record if you so choose?

Tina Rogers. Tina Rogers. As far as work and education, and based on Santa Rosa City Schools and the City of Santa Rosa that we now have a lot of schools that our students are transferring to Pioneer or to Montgomery, and they're going to, you know, seventh grade, they're starting there, and they're going to school with older children, older students, even though that there is that... an element that, like, they're separate. Like, they have different buildings and stuff like that. I think that's really good prevention. Also, we must remember that marijuana, cannabis, is more of a gateway drug. We have to remember that kind of stuff. So that, like, leads to other things. Like, I remember Diaz was saying that The DUI that is definitely not just like alcohol related is definitely any type of substance abuse. And then a lot of things, it's pure. So, you know, hey, it's cool to do this. It's cool to do that. What are my friends doing? Or what is like, what are the music videos I'm doing? You know what I'm saying? So I just want to say, like, just be mindful. I'm sort of a community member and working in education and work with students and stuff like that. And yeah, and growing up in Sonoma County and where we're from, and we've been Prop 415 since 1996, a lot of stuff. So we just want to like move forward as we're going to like 2027, 2028, 2020, you know, 30, you know, just be mindful. We're all way older than all these little young babies that are coming up. So that's all I got to say. Sorry.

And just to clarify. We also make public comments. We have no further public comments for this item.

Thank you very much. Member Knowles.

Yeah, I have a young kid. I don't want her, you know, smoking weed when she's 13. I think that that's... You have a child?

Again, we don't have to belabor, but to me it's more like...

like what you know it's it's the message of not doing drugs can get completed with a lot of other cultural and political baggage and i think exactly that how that message is being delivered is very fragile and very and needs i guess i i'm just just i i feel less comfortable sort of like without being more aware of what that message is sort of like weighing in one way or the other. So, so maybe I will just not participate in this boat is kind of where I'm leading, but that's, that's just, I'm just clarifying that. I think we all agree. It's like, this sort of awareness is good. And I hope that that would be supplementary to what kids are receiving at home. And I get some kids don't have those opportunities at home in some cases. So things like this certainly can be good. I just think it's a little more complicated than that. And yeah, I won't, I won't.

Thank you for the thoughtful conversation. With that, I will bring it back to the board to see if there's a motion on the floor.

Motion to fund the grant if it's full request amount. I'll second that. You're second.

Okay, we'll now take a vote to fund in full the $2,500 for the Northern California Center for Well-Being. the project crew campus education campaign. And we'll start with our mover, who's Member Dalton. Aye. Our second, who's Vice Chair Freedens. Aye. Member Mondale. No. Member Nolte. Can I abstain? I'll abstain. Are you abstaining from the vote? Sorry, what?

Member Nolte.

Can you say you're abstaining? I'm abstaining. All right, and then Member Diaz?

I wanted, I thought it was appropriate to abstain because it included the school district that I represent, so I will be abstaining.

And then Chair Rodriguez? Yes. Okay, I believe that that motion is going to fail because we have three ayes, one no, Two abstaining and one member absent. Correct. Okay.

You guys are on fire today.

We just move on.

Yep.

That's what happens. So is it denied? Denied. Fails for lack of ability. Yeah.

All right. So we are moving on. Item 7.10 has been continued till July. We are moving on to item 7.11. Hi. This is Jean Pruitt-Brett for the Duterte Brown Barn Native Pollinator Water Rise Demonstration Garden.

Oh, yes. So, there was a neighborhood association is requesting $2,500 to create a native family. water-wise demonstration garden in the local park. Currently the area is weed infested and minimally maintained. This project will beautify the space, bring residents and business together through stands and participation, and provide an educational resource showcase and sustainable landscaping practices for our region. I want to... Just in mind the community advisory board that grants that if you were to approve this grant, they will still have to submit their proposal to the transportation and public works, the parks for them. to approve, so it will be contingent on their approval. Recommendation, it is recommended by the communications and intergovernmental relations department that the community advisory board by motion determine the dispersion of this community improvement grant.

Great, thank you very much, Juana. It sounds like a wonderful project. I mean, to Turk Brown-Barnes, a beloved icon, a landmark in the city. So with that, I'll open it up for comments and questions.

Yes. Yeah, it's my turn to appease myself. Speak with honor. I know you're applicants, and I've actually encouraged, as some of you know, I'm involved in these plant projects around town. We've been trying to get more things like this going on. There's certainly no financial connection to any of it, but in terms of, I don't know, the optics of it, I certainly... I'm in favor of projects like these, so I just don't want to give the impression that, I don't know, I'm influencing the vote. So, yeah, I think we decided it would be best if I just step out for this one.

Thank you so much for your transparency. Don't go back to me anymore.

Did you say no?

Yeah. Wait, like to what? Oh, wait, what did you say?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Because I think it was a majority.

Never a dull moment. Sorry, I didn't hear what you said. All right. Then with that, I'll open it up to comments and questions.

Love it.

No questions. All right. Slam dunk. Oh, I had a question, which is just sort of the timeframe of it. Again, I wasn't super clear from the application. And I guess maybe that's to your point, Ana. It's contingent on the transportation permit. Okay. So maybe that does answer my question.

Yes, so they will not receive the funds until we receive approval from TPW, Transportation and Public Works. Okay.

So it's professional.

Okay.

Thank you for that. Any comments or questions before we go to public comment?

Public comment, please. We're taking public comments on item 7.11.

You're here to represent this. I'm Tress McKinney. This is Robin North, who would be signing the pardon. And I'm a volunteer in the West End neighborhood. And we adopted the park last year. And we've already started working on clearing the area in preparation for sheep mulching it in July and then doing planting in the fall. Oh. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you very much.

Sheila from the Western Puppet Association sent me.

looking so far and looks like we're off to a great start so thank you yes any other public comments no I'm happy to motion though thank you very much Steve now with that I'll bring it back to the board for a motion uh I'll move to approve the Community Improvement Grants Determination, DTurk, Round Bar Native Pollinator, Water... We're not on that one. Oh, here we are. Sorry, I apologize. I know I don't have my glasses on. I was like, I'm with it. Waterwise Determination Garden. I'm happy to second that. Okay. Okay.

I'm fully funding the application from the West End Neighborhood Association. And we will start with our mover, who is Member Diaz. Yes. Our second, who is Chair Rodriguez.

Yes.

And then Member Mondale. Aye. And Member Dalton. Aye. And Vice Chair Frades. Aye. Aye. Let the record reflect that that passes with five eyes, with Member Knowles abstaining or refusing himself, and Member Hamsey absent.

Thank you for coming. Sorry we didn't have any questions for you.

That was the easiest one of the whole night, and you guys are here right now.

Tell people that's what happens if you show up, there's no question. That's the way it comes.

That's why you carry an umbrella or something. I think the market's done. It's like the finals.

It really is. Oh no, you haven't seen it. We're in the home stretch of this.

What else do you need? I asked Chad, it was like, it's not going to work.

Chad G. All right, we're bringing it in.

Let's hold it together, everyone. We are in the homestretch. I'm waiting for members to come back, but in that meantime, can we go ahead and start with 7.12? We've still a quorum in the room. Item 7.12, which is the motion, the community improvement grant extension to the Wellness and Cultural Arts Workshop.

So on October 30, 2024, the Community Advice Report approved a grant for $2,500 for the Wellness and Cultural Arts Workshop proposed by POC Collective. The project aimed at hosting a two-day workshop offering three inclusive social and emotional engagement and wellness activities for the Santa Rosa community. Due to unforeseen challenges, with contractor availability by collective requested a six-month extension, which was approved by CAV in November 2025. The extension period concluded in May 2026. The grantee is now requesting an additional extension through June 2026 to align the project completion with the Sonoma County acceleration scheduled for June 13th, 2026 at MLK to their part. Recommendation, the communications and environmental relations department recommends that the community advisory board by motion determine whether to approve the additional extension for the wellness and cultural arts workshop ratification for BIPOC.

Thank you very much. So this is an item that's familiar to us as it comes back to us basically a third time for what is looking like a 10-day extension. I'll open it up for comments and questions.

Just all that didn't have the attachment on it. It's just the request for an extension, not previously approved request for extension.

I mean, I'm definitely of the thought. It's been 19 months. We're sleeping a bunch. You know, two years, it is an event that is 10 days out. So I don't know if we can put it, can we create a deadline like everything needs to be in by the end of the fiscal year then? You know, so that way, which is basically three weeks to close out a grant. That's kind of where I'm at on this, because I don't want it to extend into next fiscal year.

Are you asking for receipts and documentation?

Yeah, I mean, that's where I'm at on this extension.

Totally in accord with that.

I mean, I think if we only grant it for the month, then we're within the fiscal year. So yeah, I mean, we have a date.

It's within 30 days. The funds haven't been distributed? The funds have been distributed. So they're already out? Yes. So it's just by implementing the grant? Any questions?

I think we have someone here that might want to speak on that. Yes. Okay, thank you.

I want to say thank you so much, chairs and city attorney. Thank you, Anna, Missy, all you guys. So I would like to invite you all to the Sonoma County 50th Annual Juneteenth Community Celebration. This is a community celebration and it has all cultures and all races. So we're starting at nine o'clock That's starting our first wellness event. It's going to be our wellness walk. It's going to start at Julliard Park. And then we're walking. And you're welcome to attend and bring your own instruments. And we're going to Martin Luther King Jr. Park. We're also escorted by the Santa Rosa Twins. uh, uh, chief of police. Um, he's been coming like, uh, every year. And then we also have different events that are, um, consisting with like the wellness apart, um, and the arts. So we have like art projects going on. We have dancing, we have a lot of things. And it's also, it's not just for, um, Not only for children, for the youth, but also like aging adults. So it's like this originally was supposed to be like a two day workshop. I don't want to go there, but it's like going to be from 10 to six. I only brought a few of these flyers here so that you guys can all take a look. And also some of the community members do the parking that's over there now. So we have a park and ride area.

Oh, thank you.

Of course. And so, yeah, just kind of like move those around if we need more. So we have a park and a ride, a shuttle that's going to be picking up people at Santa Rosa Mall. If you don't want to park. over in the area or you don't want to walk or bike um we'll take you down there it's going to be like i said from 10 to 6 o'clock it is free there are vendors we have a lot of different wellness vendors and i would say we probably have like 46 different type of vendors they're not just like you know things that are for sale like food from all cultures um but it's like the the fire department will be there we have people take a bus it's usually there we have like a Like all kinds of different things. We have people that are from Kaiser, nurses, doctors, different people that are out there. We also have another wellness event. We have a soccer that's going on and we have a community youth basketball tournaments that are going on and things like that. Um, and this is like, it is Santa Rosa, but like I said, it's geared for all of Sonoma County. So we do get a lot of people, um, the engagement and a lot of the promotion and, um, is like, actually we have like stuff, like one of the billboards on one-on-one is promoting that. So the press Democrat, um, KBBF, KSRO, a lot of things, some of, uh, some of our major sponsors, we don't have everybody on there, but we will have, um, a thing that has listed like community advisory board, and then we'll also be promoting that. And throughout the day, I've mentioned you guys' names, Seth, but it's like the Petery Haas, um as a sponsor the county of sonoma is a sponsor ag and um ag and space is a sponsor some other um some other people yesterday we in the community received the gold proclamation from the county of sonoma the supervisors um yeah yesterday afternoon um so it's a big deal and um we have our you know just different people and you know some of them are community leaders like um people that are in city council, different people. So we have a lot of people that are coming, a lot of volunteers. Yes, ma'am.

How much is this, so from the original application to this event, it seems to have morphed, if you will. Can you just kind of highlight like what, The core from the original Community Improvement Grant is?

It's a $2,500. But it was a wellness event. It is. Yes. So the wellness event, there's multiple wellness events that are going on throughout that day from 10 to 6. And so that's the very first one starts with the wellness walk. That's going to be at 9 a.m. starting at Juilliard Park. And that's going to be that a mile and a half, two mile walk there. And then we have other wellness events that are going on. So this originally started because we were... When we originally created this, asked for some funding for this, it was going to be held during Native American month. And we were going to do a wellness thing at the disability center. And that was going to be like, you know, we were going to be doing things with the shells and different type of things. So we're still doing that, but it's like in multiple sessions. So instead of it being like a two-day workshop, it's going to be like 10 to 6 and a whole bunch of different things going on for wellness. And then that will all be detailed and then all completed by the end of the fiscal year, which is like three weeks out. So yeah, you end all the pictures, all the stuff like that. And then Ana, I will be in touch with you to make sure that we are like in compliance with everything that's supposed to be like with the receipts and matching funds and all that kind of stuff. So I really, really, truly appreciate everyone allowing the extension, even though it's been so long. But I think this one is really gonna be the big one that will reach the most people we're looking for for the city of Santa Rosa.

Thank you. Thank you for being here, too.

Yes, I think it is really good to see you all. So if it's OK, if I can leave. Well, hold on. We're going to do motions. Oh, I'm sorry. See, I told you I don't know how it works. Don't.

Oh, any other public comments for the same? No public comments for the same.

Thank you very much. I'll bring it back to the board for any comments, questions, or a motion from the floor or from the board.

A motion to approve the extension request.

Do you want to be more specific on the deadline of the extension request?

So the end of the fiscal year.

I will second that motion. Thank you. And we'll take them.

So we're now going to take a vote to extend by until the end of this month. June 30th. June 30th. The request to extend from the BIPOC collective. And we'll start with our mover, Vice Chair Freitas. Yes. And our second, Chair Rodriguez. Yes. And then Member Mondale. Aye. Member Knowles. Yes. Member Dalton. Aye. And Member Deans.

Yes.

Let the record reflect that passes with six ayes, with Member Hamsey being absent.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, for sure. And also, um, and I'm, I'm encouraging you all to attend your families. It's a really, really fun, cool, cool event. And there's lots of things and there's lots of wellness, um, And we're just, you know, it's a positive experience. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. You guys are still here.

We've got a couple more things.

Item eight, which is any cap announcements or issues of concern.

Is that right? Okay. Issue 8. Or item 8. Any issues of concern?

Dude, I'm sorry. Well, no, no, no. It's not a big deal. This is where we get to talk about the stuff that we've been hearing from our community. Just one really quick thing. I don't want to open up a can of worms, but the like. OK, and I don't even know the flock, the new flock. I don't know if it's new or not, but I've just been hearing about it from the just from people in the neighborhoods. Just like, yeah, yeah. The flock cameras and maybe it was just something that I wasn't aware of before. And like, I've just been hearing more of lately, but there's just concern that we're turning into a dystopic community. Future where we're being watched 24 seven and all this information is being shared with the wrong people and I just wanted to throw it out there because I've been hearing about it in the community and people are concerned. And from my perspective, rightfully so. And I know that it's always under the guise of like safety protection this and I'm sure that's always. part of it but what are the other parts that we don't we don't know about it's a flock surveillance like camera system and again i know i'm speaking i don't know that much about it and so i need to but i've just talked to several people recently who were like what the f is going on like this is crazy why are we why is the city of santa rosa allowing this like i thought we were supposed to be on the side of the people for for back of a lack of better term so Yeah, thanks.

I think Member Knowles.

I've also heard these concerns. And the good news is there is a civil liberties task force that meets on Monday nights from 6 to 7.30. And as people who've attended that, they're specifically meeting about the issue of flat cameras in our community as an apparatus of surveillance technology that destroy civil liberties amongst other things so i think it's a valid super valid concern i think we should be talking about it more and i've also heard a lot of people i know who are like you know not just concerned about it but are absurd attending these meetings so again it's called the civil liberties task force i think it's i think it's under the north bay organizing project yeah i don't know if they're every monday but i know or maybe monthly meetings but six to seven thirty and i think you've looked that up they do

Good information. Good feedback.

You can also ask the police department if CAP would like to have a presentation so you can have more information about that. Great.

Thank you very much.

The man spreading propaganda is what I'm hearing.

On the heels of that.

Chief Cregan will have a lot to say.

I'm sure he has a lot to say and I'm sure there are some Very quickly, I know that the San Jose Police Department is engaging in a traffic collaboration, and they're starting to have public-facing talk-ins, you know, kind of community workshops. I sent an email to their email, because they have a dedicated email box for this traffic. It was like radio silence. So I sent an email. Maybe they just put it, I don't know if you talk to people over there in the communications department. Thank you for that. Even auto-respond would be good with maybe like, oh, here's the upcoming... workshops, but I wrote a pretty nice email about the red light runner that just hit me. And it was like, radio silence.

Would the appropriate, I guess, board or council, would it be like council to address this to?

It's the city council who approves contracts with FLOC as an organization.

When was this approved?

Oh, I don't have that.

Oh, a couple of years ago. It was a couple of years ago. And I know they've had Chief Cregan has submitted, you know, presented information to the city council about the automatic license plate readers.

I think that's a great idea to bring Chief Finn to explain all that.

Well, obviously things have transitioned in the last couple of years. There's now tools that are available to these companies that weren't available before where it's changing what they're actually collecting. And I don't know. It's worrisome for sure. It's incredibly invasive. Yeah. Facial recognition and just like... And I don't want to say, I know I'm sorry about it.

I will say, like, we can certainly ask for somebody to come and prevent provide information to us. And then the, you know, as, as member Diaz points out, it's the council who makes those decisions. So if your community members are concerned, that's where they should be advocating. We should ask for council members or council council people.

I was going to plug the upcoming Merit Awards from the city. So if you know of some wonderful volunteers, this is a great time to have them recognized through the city. I don't know which board it is. Is it Parks and Rec?

It's a lovely event.

Wonderful stories. So if you have a volunteer or a nominee, I highly encourage you to make a nomination for the Merit Awards. If not, attend. My goodness.

Are they only open for volunteers or is this people who are these people who might make the city better by their actions. In other words, for those.

yeah okay. I would say in district five they're still concerned about crazy enough not having sidewalks in a lot of places where. college even. near finley. down Ridley which connects to an elementary school on Jennings so like there's just a lot of people walking around there but I mean that's multiple places in District 5 and especially with college I mean college is undergone some changes recently, and there's concern about how fast people are driving, down college especially. So I know that we had a presentation maybe this past year from the active transportation department, so I don't know if there is any substantive updates that they could provide, but if they have updates, that would be great.

I don't have any public comment. Do we need public comment on cap announcements?

We're taking public comments on item eight. We have no public comments for this item.

Great, thank you. We'll move down to item number 10. Oh, number nine, staff updates.