City Council - Regular Meeting

Yep, yep. Okay. He is so excited to be here. Tricia, are we all good?

Yes. Yeah, we're good.

We're good? We're good.

I bet Robert's going to be happy tonight. Hello, hello, hello. Christine? We good? Here we go.

Good evening. I would like to welcome everybody to our August 5th City Council meeting. At this time, we're calling to order at 615, and I do apologize for the slight delay. With that, I'd love to have everyone, as you can, join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Before I ask for a roll call, I do want to say that I'm incredibly impressed with the number of people here tonight, and I hope you'll be staying to the bitter end.

No, okay, no problem.

So at this point, I would like to ask for a roll call, please.

Council Member Ferraro-Rivas?

Here.

Council Member Gurney? Here. Vice Mayor Liu? Here. Council Member Dean?

Here.

Mayor Willender? Here. Thank you.

And we did just come from a closed session and I'm going to defer to our attorney for comment.

Thank you Mayor Willender. There were two items considered in closed session this evening. The anticipated litigation, there was no reportable action. regarding the labor negotiation item the council did meet in closed session to provide direction to its negotiators regarding contract negotiations with a potential city manager so the next steps are going to involve an additional closed session or closed sessions to provide additional directions as necessary as contract negotiations are ongoing once those negotiations have been concluded a contract will be presented to the council in open session for approval, at which time the selected individual will be announced. And that concludes my report.

Thank you very much. Now, moving on, I am seeking approval of the agenda as written. Move to approve. Second. Second. I'll just take a roll. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? So, approved. At this time, we are going to be moving on to comments by the public on items that are not appearing on the agenda. And these are on items that we are not able as a council to comment or take any action on. We are going to be also inviting up to 10 people to give comment at this first go around and there will be a second opportunity for those that were not able to participate at the end to also share their public comment. YOU WILL EACH HAVE TWO MINUTES TO STATE YOUR THOUGHTS, AND IT'S OPTIONAL. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO STATE YOUR NAME, BUT THAT'S OPTIONAL. AND BEFORE WE WELCOME THE FIRST INDIVIDUAL, I'D LIKE TO ASK THE CLERK TO READ A COMMENT RECEIVED IN ORDER FOR THE RECORD, TO BE PUT ON THE RECORD, PLEASE.

This is from Lori Alderman. The subject is immediate denials of ADA accommodations, Zoom access for public meetings. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, I am writing to express my profound objection to the City's ongoing denial of interactive Zoom access as a necessary Americans with Disabilities accommodation. Today the City issued a response to my formal cease and desist letter claiming a need for 30 days to evaluate and address these critical ADA violations. While the city requests 30 days to process paperwork, public business continues without delay. By refusing to provide a live interactive remote option for tonight's meeting, the city effectively locks disabled residents out of real-time civic participation. Asking a resident with a disability to wait a month to exercise their fundamental right to interactively address their local government is not a reasonable timeline. It's an outright denial of equal access. An administrative delay does not pause the enforcement of federal rights federal civil rights laws I urge the city to immediately implement implement temporary live remote comment options for all public meetings while a permanent structural framework is finalized civic participation should never be contingent on a resident's physical mobility very good thank you and that particular read would not count as number one so we still have ten for this first go-around so please welcome

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and staff. My name is Ann Kalachitis. I live at Pueblo Serena. As we prepare for the August 19th study session on mobile home park policy, we know that there are many homeowners that the Council has not yet heard from. So to fill in that gap, we conducted a two-part homeowner survey in July. And here it is. It covered demographics, affordability, and residents' relations to their home. As a gerontologist specializing in senior residential settings, I'm well qualified to conduct this survey and report its findings. In just eight days, a remarkable 25% of homeowners from three parks responded. Clearly, they wanted to be heard. Tonight, I'm providing each of you a summary of a report entitled Many Voices, One Message. It's a simple six-page report with lots of pictures, so I hope you'll get a chance to take a look at it. Again and again, residents said their home is not movable and there is no affordable place for them to go. 78% lived on fixed income and 45% are age 75 and over. When asked what a park conversion would mean personally, they used unusually severe words to describe it. Devastating. Broke and broken. The end of life as they know it. Catastrophe. Disaster. Like pulling a rug beneath us physically, emotionally, and mentally. So our ask is simple. Please hear our voices and protect our homes by adopting the protections and implementing strategies in the Tri-Park proposal. And on a related note, many older residents cannot sit through hours of meetings waiting for two minutes of public comment on a complex policy matter. Please restore Zoom participation so more homeowners can take part. Until then, many are locked out. So I'll just give a few of these to the clerk and for you to, great. Thank you for the council and staff. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right. Good evening, City Council. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Good evening. My name is Jason Villagiani. I'm a resident here in Sonoma. I'm here today to bring awareness to the issue of weather modification, also known as geoengineering, which I'm sure some of you have heard of by now. This is something that affects all of us as it consists of the air we breathe. These programs consist of spraying aerosol pollutants into our skies without the public's consent. This includes heavy metals such as aluminum, barium, and more. If you haven't heard of this yet, let's start with these articles headlines that I've brought here today. Is it time to consider dimming the sun? That's from Harvard's solar geoengineering research program. Forbes article from Bill Gates aims to spray dust into the atmosphere to block the sun. CNBC, this is back in 2023, White House releases report on reflecting sunlight to cool the earth. And then CBS News in 2018, controversial spraying methods aimed to curb global warming. And last but not least, the former CIA director said, quote, A personal program that has gained my attention is one of stratospheric aerosol injections, which is a fancy term for the chemtrail word. You can no longer call something a conspiracy theory. I don't believe when Harvard, Bill Gates, the White House and a former CIA director are all calling for these programs. Currently, there are 30 states that have proposed bills to ban weather modification, and currently the EPA has announced they're investigating it as well. This is no longer controversial, and I'm grateful this issue is mainstream, but we can't depend on the state or the federal government to take care of this for us, which is why we should do our part locally to put safety measures in place. This is exactly why I would call on you to pass a resolution outlawing this practice locally. While this may be out of your jurisdiction, you can start the conversation. You can get attention on this issue. If enough local communities shine the light on this issue, I am confident we can stop the practice. Research from 1984 to 2008 from the California State Department of Health healthy drinking water data showed unusually high levels of heavy metals such as aluminum and barium were occurring in almost all drinking water supplies throughout the state. Prior to 1990, these heavy metals were not evident in many drinking water test results. From that same period of time, the California Air Resource Board statewide summary showed a steep increase in heavy metals in the air. The unusual increase in heavy metals in our local water supplies correlate strongly with the air quality test results. Why is that?

Jason, our time is up. Can you summarize in a real quick? Can I have like 20 seconds, sir? I'll take you 10.

10, okay. Okay, so just super quick. So studies increasingly show that heavy metals are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and dementias. It's a dose-dependent issue, and the more increase of heavy metal exposure can lead to Alzheimer's and dementia. These are valid and concerning questions, but I think common sense issues are to fight for clean air and water i thank you for your time and it's something definitely worth looking into i'd respectfully request the clerk to pass these out and last thing to leave you with if you are interested in learning more on this there's a documentary called climate trails streaming on amazon prime again that's called climate trails thank you so much appreciate you jason

good evening mayor and members of the city council my name is jack allen i'm in local residence and i'm speaking today to urge the council to cancel cinema's contract with flock safety and turn off these cameras there are three critical reasons for this first being that flock violates california law under california senate bill 34 law enforcement agencies are explicitly banned from sharing automated license plate reader data without a state and federal entities This was enough for a deputy chief of the city of Mountain View to cancel their contract with VLOC immediately. Sonoma should not be partnering with a vendor that puts our city at legal liability. Number two, it jeopardizes our sanctuary policies and fundamental rights. Sonoma County is home to a vibrant immigrant, agricultural, and working-class communities, and this mass location tracking by a private corporation creates a huge issue with digital information storage, and it's tracking law-abiding neighbors every time they drive into the grocery store, school, church, and is incompatible with our values. Number three, Flock is not known to be a trustworthy company. They have been known to lie about their surveillance features, their unpermitted data sharing, federal exploitation, sharing information for those traveling across state lines for medical procedures, as well as racial profiling. So why should we put so much trust into a private company who is not going to be held accountable? There are no external audits in them. And at $50,000 a year, is this the price that you are putting on our rights to privacy, as well as enabling an untrustworthy company with access to so much private data? To support Flock is to support private equity, selling off your neighbor's privacy and security. The city of Santa Cruz and Mountain View have canceled these, as well as the entire county of Santa Clara. And they have stopped their agreement with Flock. The City of Sonoma should follow their lead, terminate the contract, and terminate off the feeds. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jack.

Loretta Carr, 705 3rd Street West. I'm here to give an update on the traffic conditions at the temporary roundabout at 3rd Street West and Perkins. A traffic hazard reporting form has been submitted to the traffic engineering and safety team as part of the city's public works department. It was signed by 15 residents of Sonoma, 13 of which live at that direct area. It will be discussed at the committee's August 25th meeting. Prior to that, I will be submitting two short videos of the dangerous traffic conditions and violations resulting from the temporary roundabout to the safety team, and I will also send them to each of you. They show vehicles cutting across the intersection instead of going around, running the stop signs on Perkins Street because drivers see the signs with circular arrows and think they're supposed to proceed and not stop. Vehicles swerving over the crosswalk areas, endangering pedestrians, wheelchair users, and bicyclists. Not all vehicles slow down. So the roundabout is not being used as intended. The video has been taped, it's continuing to be taped from my dining room window right at the intersection. So one week, eight hours a day, there were approximately 70 violations between 10 and 20 a day. So please, I ask you to take the time to watch the videos when you receive them so you can see what is actually happening at that intersection. Don't just swallow generalization data from some consultant who has never spent time at the location or asked for input from those living or working in the area. The reason for the roundabout, Bicycle Boulevard, there are not enough bicyclists to warrant this. I've lived there 32 years. I see a handful every day. And also look at the age of this community, predominantly elderly. The number of young people has declined as reflected in the closure of three Sonoma Valley schools. Tourists, they come to Sonoma to eat and drink, not to ride a bicycle down Third Street West.

With respect to our two minutes, can you go ahead and maybe summarize with a couple closing sentences, please?

Yes. I contacted an attorney to ask about the city's liability if someone gets hurt. because of the roundabout he said that if an expert advises the city that it poses dangerous conditions and you go ahead with it the city can be held liable so who is the expert who are the experts in my opinion they are the city workers who know the streets and the traffic conditions i've spoken to them repeatedly about the roundabout they told me they did not think it was a safe idea because the street is too small Please look at the videos and I ask you to discontinue the installation of the roundabout.

Thank you, Loretta.

Good evening, all. My name's Mark Wilson. I'm on Joaquin Drive, and I'm here to just bring up the topic of the General's Daughter and Vallejo's Home. So the thing with this project, obviously, it's going to have a lot of traffic impact and things like that. But there's also another context to this project, and the fact is, we're losing the historic value of this property. Even if moving the home was allowed, you're taking away the size of the parcel that this impressive home deserves. There's a relationship between Vallejo's home and this home. Vallejo, when he sought to build his home after California became part of the United States, he made the declaration I need architecture that reflects the United States. He went to the trouble of sending to New England, had a kit home built, sailed all around the Cape, and established his home. Obviously, when it was time to build his daughter's home, he went with the same approach and respected the architecture of America. I understand the barn parcel. I may not be happy about that, but to have that developed as homes, I get it. But ramekins, there we start to get a little weird because we're taking away the potential of future jobs. And if they do the full plan, that means General's Daughter can never be a business again. There'll be no parking. So we definitely will lose all those jobs. So I think it's a very complex thing. A lot of people will talk about too much real estate, too much housing, and that's true. But there are also very many other factors that need to be considered. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark.

Hello, and thank you. My name is Deanna Glory, and like my neighbor, I'm actually from the General's Daughter. It is a historic building. Moving it is possibly going to cause damage to it. Putting it in a location where nobody can park and really use the facility is just not a good idea for one company to profit off of housing. There's plenty of other land in Sonoma for them to build on. For them to want to take this historic building for their own gain doesn't seem right to me. Also, the traffic impact will be horrendous. I mean, West Main Street's already like the second highway in the town. There's just more room in the city to build on and to want to take a historic property for personal gain is not something I think we should consider. I did email the proper authorities on this matter and to say I would like to be involved in helping preserve the General's daughter and not allow the development of 51 to 17 properties whatever it is I didn't come prepared with a lot of facts other I'm just kind of new to this general area and got this notice on my doorstep just yesterday so I know there's a lot to learn and understand about the situation which I'm going to do and hopefully I'll be talking to everybody in this room again soon thank you very much thank you

All right, do I see anybody else of interest at this point to speak on items not appearing on the agenda? Aha, I do see the seventh speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Kathleen McLean and I live on Church Street, right next to St. Francis Solano Church and school. Our house is right next to the playground. So from 8 to 9 every day during school, I'm a retired teacher so I love school, but there's cars. From 3 to 4 there's also, and then they have the daycare. So lots of cars on our street. So my feeling is if they do this, it's gonna be unbelievable. Sonoma Market is two blocks away, very crowded, lots of people going. We've got the Catholic school, the Catholic church on Sundays, and this will be a traffic thing that will be unbelievable going to the square. It just makes me very sad that in this town we can't have a lot that's just a field, that's things, you know, that they have to build houses everywhere. There's plenty of places I agree with what they said. So anyway, think about the people who live on Church Street and Spain Street, and moving that building is a tragedy. Thank you.

Thank you, Carol. I mean, Kathleen, excuse me. Okay. And I'm seeing no one else. And I'm going to close this public comment period of time and move on to meeting dedications. I believe we have two this evening. And I'd like to first start with Patricia.

Yes, thank you. I'd like to dedicate tonight's meeting to Steve Carrara. If you don't know Steve, often people aren't aware of him. He's a man of very few words, lots of action. He passed away over the last several weeks. He retired after a career spent managing databases and business systems for the aerospace industry. And he traded in his white collar and picked up garden gloves and learned on the job to garden at Sonoma Garden Park, one of the jewels of our city. He picked up his skills in planting, pruning, composting, irrigation, chickens, crop rotation, building, and building a small library of garden books that he referenced all along the way. And I just want to say, I'm taking some of this from a piece written by Tony Passantino, who worked with him. And it's a very long piece, so I'm just doing a few highlights, because he was a very special person loved by many people. And over his 15 years at the garden, he brought life back to the park. He nurtured the whole portion of the annexation of the park where the Grandmother Oak is. He became the person who knew where everything was. What needed to happen next, what was broken, what was growing, what was struggling, and what had to be done. So Steve was always moving, and so to talk with Steve usually meant to walk with Steve. And he was often at the garden and sometimes seven days a week. If you ever have been there, you may have seen him, even if he's a very quiet man, but he was always there. His fingerprints are every place that you look in that garden. They're in the soil, the barn, the orchard, the chicken coop, and the memories of everybody that walked and talked with him. So just wanted bring his memory here and also encourage you all to go to the Garden Park because it is a beautiful place to be and Steve is everywhere there, around every corner. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And Jack.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to dedicate tonight's meeting to Theresa Kappas. She was one of our residents, always in the capitol area, the low profile. Teresa Kappes was born on July 26, 1935, and passed away on July 13, 2026, just shy of her 91 birthday. She married the love of her life and Gerard Kappes. In 1954, until Gerard's passing in They were loving parents to one daughter, two granddaughters, and four great-granddaughters. Jared and Teresa loved and spent their life camping, dancing, and socialized with neighbors and friends. They consider Sonoma their hometown and loved living here. It's very plain and simple. And one of Teresa's interests was watching city council meeting. Never missed one. Sometimes I asked her, I said, could you please make some comments? She said, no, yeah, everything wrong is good. So I so much really appreciate it. I don't think our city council is kind of entertainment. Maybe, you know, much more than that. That is our local residents, citizens' participation for our government. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, sir. We're going to make note of those two dedications, so very good. AT THIS TIME, I'M GOING TO OPEN IT BACK UP TO MY FELLOW COUNCIL MEMBERS TO MAKE ANY COMMENTS AND REPORTS ON ACTIVITIES THAT THEY'VE BEEN INVOLVED IN SINCE OUR LAST MEETING. I'M GOING TO START TO MY FAR RIGHT, SANDRA.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. I'M JUST GOING TO REPORT ON LAFCO. I was there for, I don't know, three or four hours today, and the really big issue, and I brought this to your attention previously, is the formation of the Alexander Valley Water District. As many of you might be aware, the water issues in the northern part of the county are serious. Climate change has been part of it, and part of it is the what will be happening with the closure of dams up on the Eel River. So a group of property owners in the Alexander Valley put together a proposal to form a water district. At our previous meeting, that proposal was denied. on the basis that it was an owner's generated water district and not necessarily a voter-generated water district. And today they brought back a motion for reconsideration. I think that I could summarize it by saying there wasn't anyone on the dais being included that didn't want to see a water district formed in that area to manage the water, primarily agricultural area, wine growing area, obviously a very famous one. But the terms that they proposed needed some work. After a lot of debate, there was a sidebar with the attorneys representing LAFCO and representing the Water District, and I'm happy to report that they had come to some agreement over negotiations, so negotiations will take place with an ad hoc. They'll bring it back to us on September 2nd. and hopefully some of those details will be ironed out. But all of this will affect every water district in the county, and specifically the cities of Cloverdale and Healdsburg. So we did hear from the city of Cloverdale. We're waiting to hear from the city of Healdsburg. But it's a big deal for this county to make sure that we manage that water. And so I felt like at one time it was very... adversarial and I just commend the proponents for willing to come to the table and negotiate with us so hopefully next time I'll bring you a report about the finalization of the Alexander Valley Water District stay tuned thank you thank you

July 16, I was attending Zero Waste to Sonoma monthly meeting. We had just only one agenda for discussion and I made a decision. We would like to hire a risk manager for the new facilities in the Windsor because Zero Waste to Sonoma purchased that property and we wanted to and build up another hazard, household hazard and the waste and the treatment. Right now everything is moving on very smoothly. We need a professional risk analysis for this very specific job. So basically we agree staff to find, to release request for proposal. So it will take a couple of months, we can gather the feedback and hopefully we can have at least ten candidates. And then later we will interview and then we made a decision. And then the next day, that is July 17, I was attending Sonoma County Mayors and City Council Association Legislative Committee in the meeting. We review, update, and many bills and current status. First one is AB 1383, if we remember this one, and then when we had budget to the meeting, city council, and we find out and we will have a projected deficit in the future. One of the reason is an increase of retirement and because in the AB 1383 where increase in the public employees retirement benefits and I suggest on the staff write a letter to the Senator office and then we did and also the office and receive it, take it very serious. I would like to say thank you for the timely response and then right now the bill is under the amendment process. Hopefully it will be reviewed by Senator and Labor Committee again. And according to our analysis, and the calendar city, League of Cacao Cities, were opposed to a visitor bill. So during visitor meeting, we make the vote, and we agree to oppose the visitor bill. So the island and the city of Sonoma are already ahead of other cities. So we are on the top of everything. I'm so proud of the small city in a very active role during this new law process. Also, we reviewed another bill that is AB 2134, that is city council members absence without permission. That is up to 12 weeks for parental leave. So we would like to also suggest make an amendment and expand it to parental leave and also for those disease and the cancer and city council member because one of our member in the committee, she was in the diagnostics and had cancer. She couldn't work for several months and she got in the challenges and request her to resign step aside. So we try to protect her as a special case and also good for all the city council as well. Also, we vote to support AB 2296. That is a planning and zoning housing element RHNA's location, this information should be released 60 days earlier. And another bill is AB 1821, that the California Public Records Act agency sponsored the time, because usually we are taking the 14 days. then right now is in the 30 days we try to, you know, prove this. That is a simplified of mine reviewing during this meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. Patricia?

Yeah, this is actually, I have a report on a meeting I'm going to tomorrow. Isn't that interesting? Like I can look into the future. But I just thought that this was important because there's two, there's one event that's happening this Saturday that I read in the staff report But these are actually two free workshops, and one is upcoming. They're both trade-related workshops that are free, and they're at the Sonoma Clean Power Customer Center. And the first one is one training designed for construction professionals looking to produce wildfire risk in homes and communities. And, you know, I won't go into what people are going to learn, but it's all about, you know, fire-wise housing and approaches you can take. And people that attend that will receive a wildfire defense certificate. And that is Saturday, August 8th at 9.30 to 12.30. And then they have another similar one that's happening that is in regards to Bay Area Air District Zero Emission Appliance Rule Workshop. And this is really for decarbonization of buildings to move towards zero-emission appliance rule and looking at how to transition to that, how it would impact residential water heater replacement beginning in 2027. So for contractors to learn about that. And so that's best for people that are plumbers, HVAC contractors, general contractors, trade professionals preparing and to transition to zero-emission water heating. And so I know that the thousands of people, minus the one person who is no longer with us that are out there listening, I want to make sure that they're aware that these things are happening, especially the Saturday one. The other one is Wednesday, September 16. But go on the site. There's a lot of opportunities like that. Anybody you know that are professionals in those areas IT'S GOOD TO MAKE THEM AWARE OF THIS AND IT'S EASY TO FIND ON THE SNOWMACHINE POWER SITE. THANK YOU.

VERY GOOD. THANK YOU. I'VE BEEN VERY BUSY WITH A NUMBER OF RIBBON CUTTINGS BUT I'M ANXIOUS TO GET TO A PRESENTATION SOON SO I'M GOING TO CUT IT SHORT. I'VE GOT FOUR ITEMS TO REPORT ON. ONE IS WE HAVE THE HARVEST BELL RINGING BACK ON THE 21ST OF JULY WHICH MEANS THAT GRAPE HARVEST THIS YEAR IS EARLY AND THAT IT'S SOMETHING WE SHOULD BE CELEBRATING AND BE VERY PROUD THAT IT'S PART OF OUR COMMUNITY AND HERITAGE. A COUPLE OF OTHER ITEMS. I'M SURE YOU MAY HAVE SEEN IT, BUT ON THE 24TH OF JULY, WE HAD THE 5K, AND THE NEXT DAY, THE HALF MARATHON. A LOT OF PEOPLE, A LOT OF RUNNERS, AND IT WAS JUST EXCITING TO SEE THAT WE'VE HOSTED IT, AND IT WAS INCREDIBLY WELL ORGANIZED. AND AGAIN, AS MAYOR, VERY PROUD TO HAVE THAT activity here. Prior to that, we got some relatively inexpensive advertisement because Channel 2 selected Sonoma's Zip Trips presentation and a couple of restaurants and a couple of other businesses got some special air time and hopefully we'll get good results from that advertisement. And the last one is that Channel 2 must like us because they came back and wanted to talk about the city party that's taking place on Thursday. So you're all invited, and it's quite a fun happening. So I will let that go with those four items, and now I'm going to turn to our interim city manager for any updates.

Mr. Mayor, I just want to make sure that Councilmember Kearney had a chance to report out. He did. He did. Okay. all right i didn't ignore him it was very fast so we just wanted to make sure you had your time to speak i wouldn't ignore him um so good evening mayor council members and community members i have a few announcements tonight speaking of the weather and emergency preparedness i just wanted to thank the firefighters and first responders whose efforts helped to bring those incidents last week under control quickly we are having warmer weather and elevated fire concerns expected later this week though no watches or warnings are currently in effect in our area residents are encouraged to know their evacuation zone understand weather alerts prepare for outages and keep a go bag ready there's a ton of really great information on the about emergency preparedness on the city's summer ready sonoma series website I also wanted to mention tomorrow night's celebration, one of Sonoma's favorite summer traditions, which will start in the plaza, both the Sonoma City Party and Art Walk at the plaza. It's free, begins at 5 o'clock with food and beverage, and then live music beginning at 6 p.m. We're encouraging residents to bike, walk, carpool, or use transit. And there'll be a free bicycle valet provided by Operation Bicycle near City Hall. We're also encouraging attendees to bring a reusable cup to support the event's sustainability efforts, and as a gentle reminder, pets should be left at home unless they're trained service animals, and also a reminder that tents, canopies, barbecues, candles, and household furniture are prohibited and reserved seating as well. Just a note that the City Council candidate filing period for Districts 1, 3, and 5 closes this Friday, August the 7th, so eligible residents interested in serving on the Council should contact the City Clerk and schedule an appointment before the nomination period ends if you're interested. We're also excited about a new bus route, 40X Transit Service, that begins this coming Monday, August the 10th, which provides weekly commuter connections between Sonoma Plaza and Petaluma Smart Station with schedules coordinated for both morning and evening train service. I also want to mention a rebate program that the city is launching. It's a $200 high-efficiency clothes washer rebate program for eligible resident water customers. The rebate supports water conservation and applies to qualifying purchases made while funding is available. A flyer for the program will be coming to water customers in their August bills, and more information can also be found on the city's website. also want to mention that we have a recruitment going we're now accepting applications for a new part-time recreation coordinator the position will support recreation programming special events community partnerships volunteer initiatives and public engagement as the parks and rec department continues to expand its programs and services and applications are accepted through august 28th lastly another new event in the plaza movies in the park series is coming We're still working out the details of this specific time and the movie title, but wanted to announce that we have three movie nights in the park. Plaza coming up one on August 28th, one on September 18th, and one on October the 16th. That's all I have this evening.

Very good. Thank you. And then to your right, our city attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. Like you, I'd like to get to our presentation, so I have no report this evening.

Thank you very much. Okay, this is the item that we've all been waiting for, and that is the presentation to a very special group that has brought recognition to the small town of Sonoma. About a year and a half ago, I had the privilege of having a similar celebration to a group that played football and brought a lot of recognition and pride to our town. And I'm happy to say that we're diversifying our sports and bringing the celebration of a very successful baseball team. I'm afraid last time I took some time to write some definitive notes down, so I sounded much more intelligent. I confess I did not this time, other than to recognize that you were the North Coast Section Division V champion, the first time there's been a high school baseball champion since guided by Sean Boyson, is it? as well as a former Sonoma, Mr. Clay Dunkel. And it sounds like you had a little rough beginning of the season, but somehow when it really counted, you came up and I believe it was called clinical pitching and timely batting that led to the a very memorable championship. And I want to flush out, there were three names that were also floated to the top, and that is a Mr. Colin Buckley was named Vine Valley Athletic League's most valuable player. So if he's here, congratulations. Followed by someone that did play football, I know Caden Waldrop, who was first team all league. So again, congratulations on that. And last but not least, Max Truxler, who earned second team All-League honors. So just to share perspective, we are losing population in high schools. We're becoming smaller and smaller, and yet, for a small town to muster up another championship season makes, I'll speak for all of us, this council very proud. So I would love at this time to present A CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION. IT IS SUITABLE FOR FRAMING. IN FACT, IT'S ALREADY BEEN FRAMED. AND IF I COULD READ IT, IT SAYS THE SONOMA VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL DRAGONS BASEBALL TEAM DAY, AUGUST 5TH, 2026. I, RON WELLANDER, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF SONOMA, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM AUGUST 5TH, 2026 AS SONOMA VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL DRAGONS BASEBALL TEAM DAY. Your many contributions to our community are recognized and greatly appreciated. So I would like to call up, it could be one of the coaches or a very talkative player, if you'd like to speak briefly, please come forward.

So thank you, excuse me, I haven't talked in an hour. Thank you all for the recognition of our baseball team. Obviously, the kids won this. And so each and every single one of them contributed something extremely special to this, whether it was by physical means, emotional means, being a team. From the beginning of the season, I think some people thought I was kind of crazy, but I talked to the parents in the first parent meeting, and I said, we're winning a championship, and if we don't, that's fine, we fall short, but the expectation every year is to win. The kids bought in, the expectation was to win, and I don't think they realized along the way, that along the way of winning, that now they have skills for the rest of their lives, being on a stage, performing, competing, doing it to the best of their abilities and succeeding, they'll carry it with them forever. So I'm very proud of the way they grew. I know you mentioned we had a rough start to the season. I will say that At the beginning of the season, we weren't a team, not as much as we were at the end of the season. And I think every single person on our team would agree with that. And they also now can see that when we pulled together for a common goal, we're not worried about ourselves, but the common. collective of the team that at the end, it still feels almost twice as good as doing something on your own individually. For the rest of their lives, they get to be in a group chat with each other called champs. They're going to be 42 years old, still on Snapchat, talking to each other. And you guys, I don't know if you know it now, but you guys have a bond that you are literally going to carry forever, like literally forever. And once the rings come in, we're going to get to do this again. And then in five years, we get to hang out again. And then in 15 years, we're going to hang out again. And that's what we do. And that's what winners do. So always stay with each other. The beautiful, handsome gentleman standing right behind me was my baby stork this year. I got the job at Arnold, or Arnold, I got the job as the coach. I'm working at Arnold in the winter trying to get it ready. Coach Fagan was there with us. Fred Fagan was our hitting coach. He was drafted in 1966 by the San Francisco Giants by the same scout that scouted Willie Mays. Fred was the starting catcher in the 1965 City Championship game for San Francisco. The starting pitcher was Tony Mangentine. So Tony was a college pitching coach for 20 years, retired, found himself on a bicycle going through Arnold Field. We all say that Arnold is the, we're moths to the flame. Arnold is our flame. Those lights just attract people. So while I'm standing here and I have all of your attention, I think we need to make sure that we prioritize making sure that Arnold stays Arnold for another 100 years, because it is so important to our youth But having Tony show up and see Fred for the first time in 50 years solidified our coaching staff. And then Clay Dunkel and I have been coaching. Clay, raise your hand please. Clay's been coaching with me now for a few years. Funny thing is, is former NCS champion, former NCS champion, I don't know what league champion. Fred's won more things than I know. So we all bought into the same idea, too, and we taught it to the kids. So I don't want to ramble, but I just want to say how proud of you guys I am that when you're a baseball player, it's okay to wear your hat inside. And thank you all for your recognition today.

Before you vacate, can the team come forward with the coaches and just circle around here so we can document this special day?

All right, here we go. You ready? Looking at a camera. One, two, three. Couple more. Good.

So we're just going to take a minute for them to quietly exit. all right I'm very happy to see that we have some hardcore City Council fans so thank you for sticking around beyond the presentation So we're going to continue on to item number seven, calendar. And these are items that are considered routine. And there'll be no separate discussion on any of the items. They'll be all voted upon in one fell swoop, unless someone wishes to pull it either from the council or staff. So at this point in time, would anybody like to pull any of the listed consent items off? No, I don't have them. OK. I'm going to be the outlier. I'd like to pull 7.3. And with that, do we need to get some public input or comment regarding the consent calendar? And then we can go ahead, and with the exception of polling 7.3, we can go ahead and have a motion for the balance. So could I have a motion?

I move the consent calendar with the exception of 7.3.

Second. Mayor Welder, we did have one written public comment to be read into the letter.

Thank you. I am so sorry that I saw that. So before we proceed, please go with the comment.

This is on public consent calendar item 7.6, the professional services agreement for multi-jurisdictional code enforcement with Will Dan Engineering. This is from Lori Alderman. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, I strongly support the approval of item 7.6, awarding the Code Enforcement Services contract to Wildan Engineering. This transition, born out of the regional multi-jurisdictional request for proposals covering the cities of Cotati, Sonoma, Windsor, and Cloverdale, marks a critical and necessary departure from the city's previous code enforcement structures. including the City of Sonoma, where the iniquitous code enforcement scheme was formed in the first place. For too long, code enforcement under the former contractor, Robert A. Smith, contract implementation to guarantee that equity, standardization, and accountability guide every enforcement action move forward.

Thank you very much. And I guess that is considered a public comment, so would staff like to respond to any parts of that comment expressed? OKAY, SEEING NONE, THEN WE'VE HAD A MOTION AND A SECOND, SO MAY I HAVE A ROLL CALL, PLEASE?

SORRY. SORRY. I'M ON THE RIGHT PAGE HERE. COUNCILMEMBER FERRARO RIVERS?

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER GUERRERO? YES. VICE MAYOR LOWE? YES. COUNCILMEMBER DEAN? YES. MAYOR WELLENDER? YES. THANK YOU. THE MOTION CARRIES UNANIMOUSLY.

Okay, now 7.3, brief presentation please.

All right. Jennifer Gates, Community Development Director. Good evening, Mayor and Council. The item before you is to adopt a resolution for the City of Sonoma to accept the Plaza Park Historic Landscape Survey and finding that action exempt from any further CEQA review. On December 17th of 2025, City Council approved the agreement with Architectural Resources Group to complete the Historic Landscape Survey. Plaza Park the draft document was provided to the community and presented to our historic preservation Commission on July 14th of 2026 and at that meeting the preservation Commission did recommend that the City Council accept the document with no changes So what is a historic landscape survey? So what it does is actually identifies and documents all the historic elements of our plaza. So as we know, the park itself is what we're focusing on. So it's going to include the built environment as well as our landscape environment. so it's identifying those elements that contribute to that historic park so as we know our plaza park is part of our national historic landmark district that was identified in the 60s and then the national register district was expanded in the 90s so Our plaza dates from 1830s to today, but we have a period of significance only through the 1940s. This is that period in which those elements are representing that historic timeframe. So if you read the document and it is meaty, there's a lot of great history pieces and it talks about who did what, and it's really a good representation of the community's participation in the park and how it's changed over time. So those are the key elements of it. It also says what's the integrity of that plaza and of those elements. So some things have gone in later and those don't contribute to the historic resource. So those can change very quickly and easily. But it's going to help inform our decision making moving forward for what we're going to look to preserve and maintain and or replant. So in some cases, there's elements that we would look to replant as that plant dies. The other aspect of it is that as projects are coming forward, we're going to use that document to tell us, is this historic? Does this contribute to our plaza or does it not? And so as you see projects coming forward, we'll be using that as a reference guide for these projects.

Great. Thank you. Anybody have questions for staff on this? Just for clarity, in terms of if a project comes forward, what is the process that that project will be going through for consideration on whether or not it's applicable or it's not applicable?

So in the document itself towards the back is the list of what those and it's a map as well, where it identifies those specific elements and says if it's contributing to the resource or not. And so that's what we're going to look for to say, all right, what are you changing? And then or what are we looking to do? And do we need to replant that area, keep its design overall? and if we aren't intending to do that then we're going to have a process by which we determine if it impacts the overall integrity of the park itself so something small doesn't typically impact the whole park and its history but if let's say we scraped the whole plaza we would have a pros a process to analyze what that meant and we could still scrape the whole plaza and start over again if we wanted to. We would just have a sequel process to follow.

Okay, very good. Well, if there are no more questions, I guess I must ask for a motion on this one item. I move approval.

I second.

Very good.

Mayor, could you ask for public comment?

Oh, I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'LL HOLD THOSE MOTIONS IN OBEY. PUBLIC COMMENT AT THIS POINT ON ITEM 7.3, THE HISTORIC LANDSCAPE SURVEY. SEEING NONE, WE'VE GOT A MOTION. WE HAVE A SECOND. THE ONLY COMMENT I WANT TO SAY IS THIS IS SOMETHING I'M VERY APPRECIATIVE OF BECAUSE NOW WE HAVE A ROADMAP BY WHICH SAYS THAT WHEN PROJECTS, LEGITIMATE PROJECTS MAY COME FORWARD THAT ARE WARRANTED, THAT THERE IS A DEFINED PROCESS THAT WE CAN GO THROUGH AND THAT ULTIMATELY OUR GOAL WAS TO MAINTAIN and sustain this incredible 8 1⁄2-acre plaza that we should be so proud of. So anyway, thank you, thank you, and now for a vote.

Councilmember Farrar-Rivas? Yes. Councilmember Gurney? Yes. Vice Mayor Lowe? Yes. Councilmember Dean?

Yes.

Mayor Wellender?

Yes.

Thank you. The motion carries unanimously.

All right. Now we're moving on to the public hearing on 8.1, to introduce an ordinance amending certain sections of chapter 12.08, the tree ordinance. And I will not belabor more description. I will defer to our community development director.

all right thank you again so before you tonight is the recommendation for the modifications to the existing tree section of our municipal code so that's section 12.08.35 that section currently requires a replacement of a one-to-one ratio in a 15 gallon box size for each six inches of tree diameter And this is only pertaining to development projects. This is in the entire section of the code. So when a project comes forward for just a tree removal, this section does not apply. This section also talks about a current in lieu fee of $100, which you just adopted a new in lieu fee of $700. So our proposed modifications is two different things. One is to allow the application of an in lieu fee for all tree replacements, not just when a development project is proposed. as well as to remove the identification of that specific amount of the in lieu fee because this is going to change from time to time and so having a dollar amount would then require us to update the ordinance every time we change that dollar amount So those are the only two changes that are being recommended in the ordinance. I know that there's been discussion at Planning Commission and public comment received from members of the Prose Commission in regards to other changes they would like to see in the tree ordinance. as a whole and that is something that we have talked about dave and i have talked about and when we met with three commissions two years ago we had identified a lot of those items to be brought forward in the future so as of right now the intent is just to update this ordinance to reflect the fee that you just adopted so that we can be applying it to all tree removals So with that, staff's recommendation is to introduce an ordinance that's amending after 12.8 of our municipal code and finding that ordinance exempt from CEQA.

Can you flash back one, please? just for clarity on the bottom line it says removes identification of an actual amount so we're not adopting the 700 but we are basically saying there needs to be an in lieu fee and that fee will be determined it's so what that says is that it's determined by resolution you already set that in June you said the $700 was a 700 mm-hmm okay and you had said this will preclude having to continue to make updates

So because it says $100 right now, let's say we changed $100 to $700 because that's what you just adopted in June, and then next year you said it's $800, that means that I would have to change the ordinance again to reflect that number. So we typically don't want to put dollar amounts in ordinances because amounts change.

Sure. And my last question before I open it up to my fellow council members is what – How did the $700, how was it derived?

Sure. So it was derived from the actual cost to plant a tree. So the cost of the tree and to plant that tree.

And that size is not 15 gallon. It's 24 inch box. Oh, it's 15 gallon.

Because that's what our ordinance calls for.

Oh, okay.

So that's one of the items that Planning Commission and the pros do want to talk about in the near future. But right now, this is what I have before you. And we have other things to talk about later.

I will try to stay focused. Any other questions or comments?

yeah I still need clarification so if it's not so we're it says removes identification that's but we actually are identifying so that's where I'm so we're removing we adopted the seven hundred dollars in the ordinance itself it no longer identifies a dollar amount Okay, good. That's what I thought this meant, but okay. And so then the question is, so what, how do you determine the dollar amount?

The dollar amount is always determined by resolution adopted by the city council.

And we're going to do that later? You already did that in June. With the 700? Yes.

Councilmember, it was the fee study.

Yeah, I remember that. I understand. It's just this link is a little confusing because it's saying it's not going to identify it, but we are actually identifying it. Is that? Right. Okay. Right.

It's not identified in the municipal code. It's identified in the fee schedule.

Okay, great. Thank you. We've taken it out of that, so we don't have to update that all the time. Okay, great. Perfect. Thank you. I just needed that extra clarification.

My question is, you mentioned that on the ordinance, you are not indicating any specific number. That is, are you not going to put a new language periodically when make an adjustment based on inflation or these kind of?

No, the way that this is written is that it would be a fee that you guys would adopt by resolution. That is not the type, it's an in lieu fee, so it's not our standard fee that we raise by inflation. I think that's right what we did with that one. I'd have to look, double check. But typically, impact fees or in lieu fees are identified individually.

Okay. Thank you.

It would be nice if it just automatically was raised by inflation, even though that could be just because so that you don't always have to be bringing it back. Right.

But I will double check how we wrote it in the resolution. Okay. Great. Thank you.

Okay. And at this point, I'm going to open it to the public for comment regarding this item. I am seeing anxiousness, but no legitimate movement. So I'll bring it back to the dais. I move approval. Second. Further discussion? Roll call, please.

Council Member Farrar-Rivas? Yes. Council Member Gurney?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Low? Yes. Council Member Dean?

Yes.

Mayor Wellender?

Yes.

Thank you. The motion carries unanimously.

All right, next on the agenda is item 8.2, public hearing to introduce an ordinance repealing and replacing Sonoma Municipal Code chapter 1951 public art program and adding chapter 3.45 public art fund to the Sonoma Municipal Code. BEFORE WE HAVE STAFF PRESENT THIS ITEM, I WOULD LIKE TO PROPOSE TO THE COUNCIL THAT WE CONTINUE THIS PUBLIC HEARING TO THE SECOND MEETING IN SEPTEMBER SO THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE CAN BE TAKEN TO THE CULTURAL AND FINE ARTS COMMISSION FOR ITS INPUT BEFORE BEING BROUGHT BACK TO THE COUNCIL. If the Council is comfortable with that, I would like to ask for a motion to continue this public hearing to the regular City Council meeting of September 16th and direct staff to take the proposed public art ordinance to the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission for its input and recommendations. So before I ask for a motion on that, I would like to turn and open up for public comment on 8.2.

Do I have two minutes? Sure. OK. Good evening, council members. 43 years ago, our city created the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission. 22 years ago, the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission adopted the city's public arts ordinance, which was well-intentioned but ill-conceived 22 years ago. And consequently, the result Our three mile by three square mile city has no city contributed public art in several decades. None on bikeways, none in entryways, none in parks, murals, cultural and historical assistance has been very difficult. Despite this, we have a vibrant and incredibly creative city. And it's a little embarrassing to think about that we haven't contributed, that the public has done it all. So Sonoma is now decades behind other towns around us as well as, of course, many in the country. Even though I'm an artist, I really believe in digging into research and data and looking at numbers. And these sheets are just a few of the many numbers and information that is about cities and how they function. when they're public art ordinance. This is just part of the information that the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission worked on over the last two and a half years on this public art ordinance. We've done the work. the citizens I'm speaking as a citizen the citizens care. We have a lot of citizens here that are very concerned very concerned not here here but with us in spirit. And I am very excited to have a win win for our city where every aspect our city the economy the the safety and belonging the the beautiful environment is improved by public art so I think there's much discussion to be had and we love a win-win and we're looking for a sweet spot thank you thank you very much yes please

Hello, my name is Deb Emerson. I'm a Sonoma resident for the past 11 years on Bacalli. And for the past eight years, I served on the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission under Connie, the chair. And I just want to support your idea of taking this to the cultural and fine arts commission so that they can appropriately make recommendations on this very important measure before you before a vote is taken so thanks for your consideration of that i know that they will provide very valuable input and it's really important to our city to be able to continue the good work that they're doing thank you thank you anyone else

Seeing no movement, I'll bring it back to the Council for discussion and possible action. Please.

So I guess I have a question. If we bring it, because I think it's a good idea that we postpone it and then we take it to the Culture and Finance Commission. But then will we not also, the Planning Commission potentially then want to discuss it again? And does it make sense for there to be a meeting, you know, a working meeting or ad hoc group from both commissions to discuss this, versus it going, you know, versus playing pickleball with it, which could happen.

Yeah, maybe we have an adjoint in the meeting and the two commission.

So if I could comment on that. I've given considerable thought to this. Both commissions have been given different charges, and they're both looking at projects that are brought before them through different lenses. And I don't think that I personally am looking for necessarily a consensus. What I'm looking for is for their recommendation based upon what we've commissioned them to do. One is to look at the development of our community and in terms of housing, et cetera. The other one is looking at our cultural and fine arts program and what would this ordinance do for them and what recommendations might they bring to the council regarding that. And then I think our charge is to listen to both sides of the recommendation and then take it to our broader lens and say, okay, based on what we heard and what we believe is in the best interest of the city we want to move forward with either a blend leaning one way or the other but I don't think a joint meeting would necessarily not to say that there'd be hostility but I'm not sure that we would get from it what I think is important that is a focused perspective based upon the Commission's overall task So that's my two cents, but absolutely open for discussion.

well i found nickel here so um it seems to me that we as a council took this item and directed staff to bring back an ordinance and staff did that what we're talking about now it sounds like is postponing this and you know with all due respect mayor i believe i've heard you complain about how these things get drawn out for long periods of time and nothing ever happens. And I'm actually fine with this ordinance and am ready to proceed with the ordinance as proposed. And can we come back and modify it down the road, I suppose? If I understood what some of the issues were, if there is a development that experiences a hardship, they can request a waiver of these fees if that was detrimental. And we can consider that at that time. But with regards to the public art component, I think that we've had this conversation, and we should move forward. Very good. Thank you.

I think I'll support you, Mr. Mayor, on your request. I think there has been a lot of chatter out there, and I think it would be helpful for both commissions to just take a look at it. It'll come back here, and you can make a motion to approve it as is. I don't think moving it to the 16th is going to delay progress, the progress that should have taken place for how many years, Ms. Schleiling? I don't know, but long. And I think in courtesy to them, let's let them take a look at it. It's fine bringing it back. There's probably consensus to approve it, but let's let them have a look at it. I don't have a problem with waiting until the 16th.

Thank you. I agree to take more time to prepare this audience. And also, according to my opinion, art, it is not only beautify the city and also educate community, educate the young generation. And to review our history and celebrate diversity and the group of people and where too often forgotten, we can take this opportunity, including all kinds of the people. From these kind of artwork, you can see what kind of impact, what kind of contribution you made to this town. Thank you.

Any thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's fine if, you know, everybody seems to be in agreement. I'm perfectly happy to extend it. I just was trying to recommend that by the time between it coming back, maybe there's a way for folks to kind of talk together and come back and say this is, you know, like based on. what we understand about the housing needs and the cost of housing and what we understand about what we want to do to really create a cultural example in Sonoma. We're getting competition from Healdsburg, I will tell you that. They've got a great project going on. you know, and want to be the capital of culture in the county. And I think that we should make sure that we're the capital of culture. So, you know, that's our baseball game. We want to win that championship.

Absolutely. They start out slow, but we know how to pick it up.

Right. So that's my only thing. But if we, you know, I mean, I'm fine. Nobody else seems to, you know, I mean, that would create another kind of element that would have to go forward and be scheduled. But I think if people are happy with waiting until YOU KNOW, JUST EXTENDING THE 16TH AND LETTING THE SEPTEMBER 16TH, I THINK IT IS, AND LETTING THE CULTURE AND ARTS COMMISSION REVIEW IT AGAIN AND COME BACK WITH A RECOMMENDATION. I'M FINE WITH THAT.

OKAY. THANK YOU. I JUST WANT TO MAKE ONE OTHER, COUPLE OTHER COMMENTS. I THINK IT'S, I THINK WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO ASK STAFF TO DO IS I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THEM COME BACK WITH SOME SOME STATISTICS OR SOME NUMBERS THAT BASICALLY SAYS WE HAVE THESE KINDS OF PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE BASED UPON THE WAY THAT THE ORDINANCE PROPOSED, DRAFT ORDINANCE IS WRITTEN. THIS IS THE KIND OF MONIES WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO GENERATE OR THE ART FUND MAY RECEIVE BASED UPON WHAT WE ANTICIPATE, RECOGNIZING THAT WE DON'T KNOW THE EXACT NUMBERS, BUT IT IS STRUCTURED BETWEEN THE SIZE OF MULTIFAMILY, THE EXEMPTIONS THAT ARE THERE, AND I THINK PART OF MY FRUSTRATION IS THAT it was crafted years ago and we have basically done nothing we haven't added a red cent nor have we as the ordinances have been written that the city is supposed to make their allocation of a quarter percent of one percent of their general fund each and every year which if we were doing it for 26 27 and our general fund budget is about 30 million dollars that would end up being a 75 000 contribution by the council to the art fund. And to the best of my knowledge, based upon looking at the numbers month after month after month and not moving, I don't think we've done anything. And then the way it was originally written, that the in lieu was for public projects. I can't think of one public project that was actually executed that actually put in money on the art fund, including the Chase Street Bridge, which was $3.2 million, and it was 89% funded by either the state or the feds, but we made 11%. But we still didn't get anything put to the Art Fund. So I'm pleased with the ability to defer it. I would challenge, I would like the staff to look at different scenarios based upon what the planning is thinking is the best percentages and whether we're talking about a project that's worth $250,000 or $1 million. But my other challenge or would like clarity on is that the value of a project is based upon an evaluation. AND I KNOW HISTORICALLY THAT THE EVALUATIONS THAT WE'VE DONE IN THE PAST THROUGH THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT ARE INCREDIBLY LOW. AND THAT'S GREAT WHEN YOU'RE PULLING YOUR PERMIT AND YOU HAVE TO GET YOUR PERMIT IS BASED UPON THE EVALUATION. BUT IF WE'RE BASING THE EVALUATION LOW AND THEN WE'VE KICKED UP THE TRIGGER POINT TO ONE MILLION, AND THAT'S, AGAIN, I THINK EITHER WE NEED TO BE SERIOUS ABOUT TRYING TO EVOLVE SONOMA INTO A CULTURAL ARTS CENTER. or let's move on because historically we have fallen incredibly short. So I appreciate the deferment. I think that's great. Who knows where we'll come, but I think there's a spirit out there that says that we can do better.

Just one last comment quickly. So, I mean, just to recognize that we have wonderful artistic and cultural events that happen here. So we haven't failed in that way. You know, we, right? You know, it's just, you know.

Are there any artists in the audience that you were thinking about?

I think there's many, and that, you know, just to recognize that there's many. I mean, we're kind of talking more, you know, a lot of it about more visual art and, you know, so you can feel like you're in the midst of art. The other thing I want to say is if... in the as people are looking at this and how they're doing this and I'm saying this about the Planning Commission culture and fine arts because I see the chair of the Planning Commission here is if there is a residential consideration and if somehow affordable housing is not required to have art and are eliminated or exempt, there needs to be some way for those facilities to have art without having to pay for it when you're developing the property. Because that's where I become concerned. You want to have, if we're going to have art in our residential areas, which is wonderful for everybody that lives there and goes through there, and we want housing to happen, and we want it to dispensal, But we don't want it to, we don't want affordable housing projects to be left out of there being art there. So that's just, that's just, that was, that's one of the comments I just want to make sure that people are clear on. From me. Okay. I don't know what others care about.

We've had comments up here at the dais. Do, can I have a, could I have a motion if one is so set?

So I move to table this to a time certain September 16th.

Is there a second?

I second.

Further discussion? Roll call, please.

Council Member Farrar-Rivas? Yes. Council Member Gurney? Yes. Vice Mayor Low? Yes. Council Member Dean?

Yes.

Mayor Wellender? Yes. Thank you. The motion carries unanimously.

Thank you. Housekeeping check.

Are we OK? OK. OK. All right.

So we're now moving on to the regular calendar, and we're going to begin with we are going to 9.1, have consideration of a resolution authorizing the Field of Dreams organization to enter into a multi-year agreement. And I'll let our parks and rec director take it from here and tell us more.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, Dave Janz, Parks and Recreation Director. As you mentioned, we're here to discuss a potential multi-year agreement between Field of Dreams and the Transcendence Theatre Company. So I've had the opportunity to come before you as a council twice in the last calendar year, once to give an update on the upcoming and now current 2026 season, and then to give an update on some of the site enhancements. So we'll start off with a little bit of background information about the series as a whole, talk about some of those improvements that are made, but primarily focus on the potential future of Transcendence Theatre being here performing in Sonoma. So as you well know, the Transcendence Theatre Company has made Sonoma its home since the summer of 2024. The first two seasons took place at the Field of Dreams on the footprint of Fazio Field, which I'll have a similar map that you've seen before in just a moment. At the end of the 2025 season, so about a year ago, City Council authorized the current season, 2026 season, to take place. During that time, we discussed the impacts to the community, primarily around the sound impacts So immediately after that meeting, Transcendence Theater, the Field of Dreams team and city staff collaboratively started looking at alternative locations and based on the community feedback as well as direction from the council, ultimately relocated the stage to the footprint of Peterson Field. which as a quick reminder, just to get ourselves oriented, 2025 location is the red box, yellow box is 2026 location where the stage is currently located. Just a quick reminder, and this is every opportunity we have to thank our community members who came together to make this happen. A lot of work over several months went into that, and a big thank you to our community partners, Transcendence and Field of Dreams, who made this project happen and on time so that the season could get underway in 2026. We're nearing the end of the existing season. There's still one final run of shows, which is about to get underway in short order, but all accounts, the new location has fit the theater production as well as Field of Dreams quite well. This is ultimately the layout that we landed on. And again, if anyone needs a refresher, I welcome them to walk on outside or attend a show. So some continued background. Some brief numbers again. We're not through the season yet, so part of what we do each year is we sit down with Transcendence and Field of Dreams and do a complete season debrief. But it's expected that by the end of the season, approximately 18,000 patrons, volunteers, and staff will have attended Transcendence shows this season. Based on the success of the last three seasons, Transcendence and Field of Dreams approached city staff with an interest to enter into a multi-year agreement. And so what we're looking at is providing approval for this agreement to move forward, which would authorize this type of use in the summers of 2027, 28, and 29. The reason that we're bringing it forward this evening is that based on the terms of the lease that the city has with the Field of Dreams organization, Any use outside of the specified use, which was primarily around athletics and youth sports, requires city council approval. So the reason that a multi-year agreement would be beneficial for all parties, it's kind of a three-pronged approach. From a transcendence perspective, it would give them the ability to secure... rights to future shows and so in their business they're looking a year even further out to secure those those show rights increases the opportunity to go fundraise to gain sponsorship to start ticket sales and also enhance production planning we know that we've had different locations and each year the production has increased in in value and the what's being produced to the community so this will allow them to plan out more than one year at a time from a Field of Dreams perspective, would allow for increased coordination with field scheduling. So in addition to transcendence, as you all know, there's lots of youth sports, adult sports that happen on that field. So it would allow for an understanding of when it would be utilized for the theater company and when it could be utilized for community use. So better long-range scheduling also would allow for long-range planning and maintenance. This can come both from how the field is utilized, but also the assurance of the piece of revenue that Transcendence provides to Field of Dreams, which I'll cover in a moment. Knowing that revenue will be coming in for the next three years will allow them to future plan for maintenance and project planning. From a city administrative standpoint, allows the team to focus and work collaboratively with both Field of Dreams and Transcendence on annual logistics rather than focusing on the agreement each and every year. Also provides our community with awareness, understanding, and an expectation for the coming years. And I think the one point that is not on this slide that I'd like to mention and kind of part of our last discussion, it also strengthens the city's commitment to providing arts and cultural initiatives and community gathering opportunities. So looking at the framework, I do want to reiterate the agreement that we're discussing is an agreement between Field of Dreams and Transcendence Theater. So it's not an agreement with the city. But again, the city requires approval for Field of Dreams to authorize that temporary seasonal use each year. And so what we're looking at is a three-year term. The reason we're looking at three years, that gives enough assurance for both parties to plan accordingly, but we also recognize that we are in still a fairly new space and adjustments may need to be made over the years, so provides enough assurance for the next few years, but enough for us to remain nimble and make modifications as those arise in the coming years. The specific dates, site plans, and operation details, we don't have those yet. We don't know exactly the the specific dates and the layout of what will take place in, let's say, 2029. But what this agreement would allow is that the Transcendence Theater Company would still submit their annual special event application to the city. That would allow us to go over all of the details when it comes to parking, traffic, stage layout, still allows the fire department, building department, to review and inspect on an annual basis, have those collaborative discussions leading into the season, just wouldn't require formal council authorization each and every year. And so that review by the Special Events Committee would continue each year. And again, this allows us to continue to make modifications both for the success of the performances and also keeping communication and make modifications where necessary to benefit the community. Looking ahead, though, we understand that we want to provide the community with an understanding of what that impact may look like, and so in talking to both parties, the general footprint schedule and anticipated impact is anticipated to remain very similar to what we saw during this year. And so as a quick reminder, this is the overall schedule of what we looked at in 2026. So you look at move-in begins usually early to mid-May, and then there's three sets of performance series. This year there's 26 total performances with rehearsals that comes out to 42 days approximately of amplified sound. As you recall, we made an adjustment to the schedule that we have one weekend performance in July and that adjustment was made so that we can accommodate Field of Dreams turning back into a youth sports complex in time for the soccer season and then overall condensing the span of the series. So it's anticipated that the schedule will look very similar in the coming years. Looking at the overall financial impact, as I mentioned before, the numbers in 2025 were around 16,000 patrons. This year they're expecting about 18,000 patrons. The hope is that those individuals are coming into town to enjoy the show, also frequenting our restaurants, spending time in town. In addition to those economic benefits that happen with Visitors Coming, Transcendence also provides direct funding to the Field of Dreams organization, which goes directly towards supporting youth sports and towards maintenance of the facility If that that percentage stays in alignment, which sounds like both parties are generally in agreement on those terms We're looking at about forty to sixty thousand dollars annually going directly to the field of dreams organization and the facility itself Consistent with what counsel the actions that you've taken in the past our recommendation is that We do waive the special event application and building permit application that's what has happened for the last three seasons and Transcendence would still be responsible for additional permit uses directly with Field of Dreams and then also for use of public space. A good example of that is utilization of the public parking lot out here. So that process is part of that special event application and review. And with that, we have a recommended council action for you. I know we do have representatives from both Transcendence and Field of Dreams in the audience, but we are looking for city council to consider and authorize the Field of Dreams organization to enter into a multi-year agreement with Transcendence Theater Company for temporary seasonal use of the Field of Dreams facility during the 27 through 29 summer seasons. Again, subject to annual review through the city's special events committee, parks permit process, and other city requirements. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and may call upon my partners.

Do we have any questions for staff? I have just one, and I know it may – is it possible to either contact the Chamber or somehow quantify the financial gain to the city from these great performances?

That's a great question. We can absolutely reach out to the chamber, and I know Transcendence does track numbers, and so while I don't have specific monetary figures, just one level of detail that was not in the slides. Again, this is 25 data because we haven't captured 26, but for example, of the 16,000 Patrons, we mentioned 8,500 of those were unique attendees, so essentially you're looking at people attending multiple shows. 5,600 of those came from outside of the city, and 2,500 of those 8,500 came from outside of the county. Again, how that relates to actual dollars amounts, we can certainly look into that.

Great, thank you. Any other questions?

Please. I have a simple question. How much the city can receive it?

Yeah, it's a great question. So looking at the model based on those permit fees of what we've addressed in the past and then putting that into our calculator based on the fee schedule that you just adopted, we're looking to the tune of somewhere between $9,000 and $9,500 annually in permit fees that would come to the city directly.

Does the local nonprofit exemption apply for this discount?

does. So that is that does calculate in the nonprofit discount on that front.

Thank you. Okay, no other questions. Then would either of the two parties wish to come forward and make any comments?

Hi, I'm Joe Diggins. I'm on the Field to Dream board. I just want to say that this would help us a lot with our planning and our budgeting to have the secured partnership with Transcendence over the three years. They're great partners to work with, and it's also we're able to then subsidize the the sports teams that rent out the field space with the money that we have for them so it all goes to helping the community we're able to do some projects that we want to do like fix a lot of sprinklers and fix the fields a lot and without the transcendence theater we wouldn't be able to do that and the prices were going up and up and up every year because they're all those costs are fixed and we have to have to fix those and uh transcendence has been a wonderful partner we really hope this resolution passes and appreciate your support thank you

Would any of the artists like to come forward?

Thanks for calling me an artist. Yeah, I just think this is so amazing. First off, thank you. Thank you to the council. Thank you, Dave, right here. Thank you for putting together this. Christine, everybody on staff have worked so hard. I think we can't underestimate how hard everybody has worked to make what's happened this summer happen. I go out on that field and you see a big regional theater space and then you see youth athletes practicing right next door and you're like, where is this happening? anywhere. This is so incredible and I think we should be very proud of it. Yes, we are asking you to please vote for a multi-year agreement that we can then proceed with the Field of Dreams. I also want to give a big thank you to the Field of Dreams. They are just such an incredible partner and I'm very excited to continue the partnership hopefully. for many, many years. Having a multi-year agreement gives us the opportunity really for the first time to be able to plan for not just one season, to plan for years to come, which is we can act like a real regional theater by doing that. It also gives us an opportunity to dream more boldly I think we have a lot more that we are dreaming about. And it gives us the opportunity to build an artistic home here in the city of Sonoma that is going to inspire generations. So I'll say that again. Build an artistic home here in the city of Sonoma that we can all be proud of that is going to continue to inspire generations to come. I think that's what I want to leave us with, and I ask you all to please vote yes on this.

Thank you. Now I'd like to open it up to the public if anyone from the public wishes to come forward.

My husband and I rode our bikes from our home to the transcendence along the bike path. It was magical. We saw a radio recall. And then we floated home on our bikes. I mean, it was just one of those like magical moments that small towns like this that embrace the arts give you. And as a former visual and performing arts teacher, I was exhilarated by the students that I saw. So it's cool that we have the athletes and we have the youth arts and how wonderful it is for our children and the future of the arts and sports in this community. working collaboratively that's what it's about give and take negotiating that's the win-win that that really makes this community special thank you anyone else will close the public portion of this and bring it back to the dice for comments and possible motion well obviously I mean I'm tremendously in favor of this and

I can't wait to wear my new ABBA T-shirt that I got at the ABBA Museum a few weeks ago. I'm so excited. It's like, where am I going to wear this T-shirt?

I know.

But, you know, Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies as well. And there's a great line, of course, and that is, if you build it, they will come. And you've done that. and you've united the two big loves of my life, which is, of course, sports and arts. And not necessarily that order on any given day, but this is just, I can't imagine anything better than this. So I wish it was for, you know, more than three years. So keep doing it. It's wonderful. I love it. Thank you.

I just would like to concur with Councilwoman Lowe. I don't have to repeat everything, but, you know, certainly it does create very wonderful experiences that we all, you know, I mean, everybody in the community feels it, so it's wonderful. I'm completely in support of this.

Yeah, I will fully support, and also at this time, we can take chance also, and thank you for your formal colleagues and stealing, stabbing, you know. At that time, you know, he knocked the door and then sent in a fly one by one. And he's artist, but, you know, very awkward salesperson and impress the people. So not easy. If you got a chance, you know, also say thank you to him. Thank you.

Well, I'll just say when you first rolled into Sonoma, things were a little iffy at best. And I just want to congratulate the Field of Dreams, Transcendence, and the city, and the staff. You guys have made this all work, and that's how you define community, so well done.

John just spoke for me, so I don't have to add to that. That's a very heartfelt sentiment. So with that, would I like to entertain a motion? So moved.

We all moved. All moved. We're all moving.

Do I have a second?

I'll second it.

I'll take a third and a fourth. Any discussion? No. Roll call.

Council Member Farrar-Rivas?

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Lowe? Yes. Council Member Dean? Yes. Mayor Wellender?

With great enthusiasm, yes.

Thank you, the motion carries unanimously.

But Ron, Mayor Wellender has to dance in one of the shows. Pigs will fly before that happens.

All right, now we're wrapping things up. We're now down to 9.2. Discussion and consideration and possible introduction of an ordinance amending the Sonoma Municipal Code Council members salaries to increase and with that I welcome our city clerk to present nine point two Thank You mayor and council good evening at your meeting on July 15th council reviewed an informational report about council compensation and After discussing whether council salaries should be increased

A majority of the council members expressed interest in raising the monthly council stipend from $300 to $950. On whether increasing council pay would make it easier for more people to serve in a public office, help cover the costs of being a council member and strengthen local government. Council members also discussed concerns about the cost to the city's budget and whether there is enough evidence to show the increase would achieve those goals. Some of the reasons that were discussed for support were making it easier, more accessible for younger individuals, parents, lower income residents, and others with significant financial responsibilities so that they were able to serve on the council. It also was discussed that it would encourage more people to run for the city council by offering this higher compensation. Also would help offset out-of-pocket expenses that council members do incur, such as gas and travel. Mills, attending regional meetings, community vet costs. And also to bring the City of Sonoma's council compensation more in line with our neighboring cities. Some of the reasons against included that there's not any clear evidence that this higher pay would actually lead to more people running for office or increase this participation. There was questions about whether the proposed increase would be large enough to influence someone's decision. And the added cost to the general fund when the city is continuing to face financial uncertainty was also another reason. The city council asked staff to provide information on the effects of increasing the council compensation under the new legislation SB 329. At this time, there's no available data, and that's for several reasons. First, SB 329 was not based on extensive research when the legislature put the bill in place. It was mainly relied on reasonable policy arguments rather than any statewide study showing the effects of a higher council pay. Second, the law does not require cities to collect any or report information about its impacts. So while it increased the maximum amount cities may pay their council members and requires two public meetings before approving such an increase, It didn't require any reporting on whether they did increase it, how much they increased, whether the number of, the makeup of candidates changed, whether it changed the council diversity, or whether recruiting or retraining elected officials improved. Because this information's not collected, there's no statewide data available to measure the law's impact at this time. Third, the law's optional, so though it did, not automatically increase council salaries. So any general law city can decide whether to adopt its own ordinance to increase this. And so as a result, again, there's no single statewide change that researchers can point to a before and after time that says this time it was this level and afterwards it's this level. Finally, the law is just too new, still too new. One of the goals was to make public service more accessible. And since the law only took effect on January 1, there's only been a small number of elections that have actually taken place. So again, there's really no data that we can draw a logical conclusion and meaningful conclusions from. Staff also just did some of the things that we, the research that we did. We contacted other California cities through our local listservs that reach out to the cities across the state through the League California Cities. We also contacted our local neighboring jurisdictions to see whether they had had any local experience with this changing their data, and the answer across the board was basically the same, that it's just too soon. There's no additional data at this time for that. We also went back, I also, and it's not on the slide, but I also went back and reviewed all of the bill analysis when this was put in place, and it just reiterated again that this was more based on policy thought than any original legislation or facts of data. We're talking about financial impact. Currently, the council salary is a total of $3,600 per year for each council member, which is a total amount annually of $18,000 for the five-member city council. If the ordinance was approved, the additional annual cost of the city's general fund would be $39,000, bringing the total annual compensation to $57,000. For fiscal year 26-27, which we're currently in, the general fund impact would be an additional $19,500 because the increase would not take effect until January 1 of 2027. So the action before the council this evening is the introduction of an ordinance amending the Sonoma Municipal Code, increasing city council compensation to $950 per month to be effective January 1, 2027. And tonight's presentation serves as the first of the two public meetings required by the legislation to make this increase. And with that, staff recommends my very brief presentation. And the city manager, the city attorney, and myself are all available to answer any questions that council may have.

Very good. Does council have any questions for staff? No, no, no. I'd like to open up then to the public to come forward with any comments. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the dais and for further discussion, possible motion.

So I'm going to, I'm happy to make a motion. I just want to emphasize that whatever is budgeted doesn't mean that's what we actually are going to spend. I mean, as I pointed out in my testimony earlier on this item, for three years I didn't take any compensation and donated it, in fact, to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And that was close to $10,000. I also don't put in for mileage. I don't put in for meals. I put in, you know, we go to conferences. The city pays for the conference registration but typically I only submit for half of my housing and I pick up the other half and sometimes I don't you know I don't I pay for my own dinner. And you know, I don't I'm not unique. I know my colleagues do very similar things So this is not a mandate this is an opportunity for people if you know because all of these things that I just mentioned cost money and I do this as my this is my contribution to the city is like some people You know volunteer at the ecology Center like the gentleman that we heard today, some people you know our mentors, and this is what I do this is, this is how I give back to my city. But I also know there are costs involved and a lot of times you know it makes it hard for some other you know some people to do it and sometimes it's just it's just plain old fairness, you know you just got to be paid for your work, so I have no problem with this it doesn't mean. You know I'm gonna take it or but it's there if people need it and I think that's fair and And it's about time we get on par with with the other cities as well.

So Those are my comments happy to make motion if you need any more comments before a motion And I'm seeing none so I'll take you up on your offer I move to introduce this ordinance I second for the discussion Seeing none, Madam Clerk?

Council Member Farrar-Rivas?

Yes.

Council Member Gurney?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Low? Yes. Council Member Dean?

Yes.

Mayor Wellender?

No.

Thank you. The motion carries 4-1. Very good.

And I do believe we're wrapping up close. I don't see any need for a second public comment. So what we've all been looking forward to, we're adjourned.