City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call a meeting to order of the Sonoma City Council. If you'll be so kind, if you have any phones or devices that might be not on silent, put them on silent. Okay. And we will start by, please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ready to begin.

Thank you very much. And can we get a roll call, please?

Council Member Gurney?

Here.

Council Member Farrar-Rivas? Here. Council Member Dean?

Here.

Vice Mayor Low? Here. And we can let the record show that Mayor Willenter is absent.

Yes. Mayor Willenter is doing something Much more fun, I'm sure. There was no closed session. I would ask that council members take a look at the agenda. And if you have any changes or any comments, please let me know. If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

Move to approve. I second.

It's been moved and seconded. We'll take a voice vote on this. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you very much. At this point, we are going to open this to comments from the public. Please remember these are for items that are not on the agenda, and there is a timer, and we ask you to please be mindful of that, and we take 10 comments, and if there are more than 10 people, then we do a second round at the end of the meeting, which should not be a long meeting, but how many people are here to make comments? Let's just give a hand, oh, you're all good. Okay, please, thank you very much.

Hello, is that coming through? Cool. Good evening folks and city council members. My name is Jack Allen and I am back here tonight to implore the council to cancel their contract with Flock Safety. Just today it's been reported that the entire state of Florida has canceled their agreement due to privacy concerns, which honestly to me was a surprise. DeSantis has stated that he is concerned that they do not want to have a digital AI surveillance state where everything we're doing is being tracked at all times. Where is the data going? They claim that the company is not misusing it, but no one's watching that. That is a direct quote, just for reference. It's also notable that recently Garrett Langley, the CEO of Flock, has come out stating that we as Americans do not deserve our own privacy, which makes me think of that Benjamin Franklin quote, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. I've got a petition with over 230 signatures from local residents who oppose the installation of these cameras and the ongoing contract with Flock Safety, which I will share with you after this meeting. I'm calling on the City Council to cancel the contract with Flock or at least put this item on a future agenda. Flock cameras are un-American and do not reflect our collective rights and values. It is time to get the Flock out of Sonoma. Thank you very much.

Hello, I'm a concerned Sonoma Valley resident. My name is Jonas Ducro and I'm also here to urge the city council to please cancel our contract with Flock and any other ALPR companies. I implore you to divest from this hardware and software services for the good of all Sonoma Valley citizens and neighbors. Flock is a company working to record the comings and goings of every single person in the country. We have a private company recording our every movements, regardless of if we are suspected of a crime or not, and storing it in a database that can be accessed by any police department without a warrant. In everyday life, we refer to this as stalking. Because of this violation of our right to privacy, police officers across the country are able to stalk ex-partners or other people they are obsessed with. Do you know how many cases like these are open across the country? I have it right here. Cambridge Analytica found over a dozen documented cases across the country that confirmed this scenario is not a hypothetical. It is a reoccurring pattern enabled by infrastructure that was designed for crime fighting but deployed without the safeguards the power of that scale demands. I have many links and resources to share backing up the dangers of this surveillance technology. Due to my two minutes, I provided them in writing to the county clerk. In addition to the terror that Flock and other ALPR companies are inflicting on your constituents, they aren't even effective at what they are advertising themselves to be. Following a plethora of complaints by citizens, the Roseville Police Department in Sacramento did an analysis of their Flock cameras and found that these cameras failed 71% of the time at identifying license plate numbers. If your refrigerator worked only 29% of the time, would you still be using it? I would not, and I would do what my grandma taught me and return it right away to Costco for a full refund. So I'm asking you, why are we wasting $50,000 of taxpayer money annually on a product that objectively does not work and only instills fear in your constituents and neighbors? Again, my request is that this council please cancel the contract with Flock and any other ALPR companies. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Thank you. Sure.

Hello. My name is Jules Abate. I'm a concerned Sonoma Valley resident, and I am here to request that the Sonoma City Council cancel the city contract with Flock and any other ALPR companies. I ask that you divest from these hardware and software services for the good of all Sonoma Valley citizens and neighbors. We have numerous links, oh, Jonas already said that. I provided links or resources to the city clerk. One example is the Johnson County Texas Sheriff's Office was able to access more than 83,000 Flock cameras nationwide in order to track a woman who had left the state to self-administer an abortion of a non-viable fetus. The police lied and said that they were searching for a missing person. However, court documents reveal that they were seeking to prosecute her for an abortion. Flock and other automated license plate reader companies are being used by police departments to skirt our Fourth Amendment rights in that it is essentially a digital stop and frisk. with no need for probable cause. Law enforcement agencies have unfettered access to this data. The example of Johnson County could very well happen here. We must be proactive to protect everyone in Sonoma. The ACLU reports that FLOC data is being used by ICE to help carry out the Trump administration's abusive removal program. FLOC will tell you that they do not share data with federal agencies. and that they do not have a contract with DHS and ICE. But the truth, according to the ACLU, is that local police departments are doing these searches on behalf of ICE, effectively giving ICE access to their entire database of innocent civilians. Again, I request that this council cancel the contract with Flock and any other ALDR companies. Thank you for your consideration. Thanks.

DO WE HAVE ANY OTHER SPEAKERS THIS EVENING? SEEING NONE, I WILL CLOSE THE PUBLIC COMMENT PORTION OF THE MEETING. YOU'RE WELCOME TO STAY. YOU'RE WELCOME TO LEAVE AS YOU WISH. NO REQUIREMENTS TO STAY. THANK YOU. DO WE HAVE ANY MEETING DEDICATIONS THIS EVENING?

I HAVE THE GENERAL ONE.

A GENERAL ONE? YES. OKAY. PLEASE.

BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO DEDICATE OUR MEETING to the people in the Napoleon during the past and the flood. In Sonoma here, we have the Napoleon community, hundreds of people in the hospitality. The families and the friends over there, we send our best wishes. Thank you.

Thank you. And we will make that dedication to the nepalese community in sonoma and around the world who are suffering from these terrible events any other dedications okay if not we'll go to council members reports and comments i'll start with john because i think you have something to add to this as well

I'm pleased to say that the Nepalese community have gotten together in Sonoma and they're fairly tight-knit normally but this disaster has brought them together again and they are planning a fundraiser on Tuesday, September 22nd. I don't have a time established yet, but the fundraiser will be at the Vets Hall, and the idea is to bring people together, serve them food, and hopefully garner donations that they can then route back to Nepal to help the community recover. So that's that. On August 27th, I attended the North Bay Division of the League of California Cities. And this meeting was primarily focused on the federal legislation, HR1, referred to as the Big Beautiful Bill. And specifically, they had four counties present presenting their strategies in the North Bay. in response to this bill. And essentially, the bill eliminates a lot of funding that's going to result in probably a number of people falling out of the insurance realm, and so the counties are hiring people to work with the populations to ensure that they stay enrolled because now they'll have to enroll twice a year versus once a year and the speculation is that that they're making it more difficult so people will drop out of the system and and so what happens if if they're successful in that strategy is that our emergency rooms will then become primary care facilities and the impact of that on everybody could be devastating. So I'm pleased to say that Sonoma County is on top of this and they are And the biggest hurdle here is that nobody knows what's really going to happen and what the outcomes are going to be. So they're preparing, which is the good news. And, of course, we have relationships with the county, with our homeless population, and the Hispanic community. And so we have an interest as well as the county, but it's kind of a trickle-down effect. I THOUGHT IT WAS AN ENLIGHTENING MEETING AND I THINK WE ALL HAVE REASON TO PAUSE AND BE SOMEWHAT CONCERNED. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU FOR GOING TO THAT. I PLANNED TO GO AND I COULDN'T MAKE IT. THAT WAS GOOD.

Yeah, I was on vacation, so I know. It doesn't happen very often. So I have nothing to report except that I learned a lot going to the Oregon coast the support that they do for small businesses is really, really exciting. They had a fabulous roundabout in Sisters, which I took many pictures of, which is very gorgeous. Anyway, I sent them to our chair of our Culture and Fine Arts Commission so that she would see those in her role in our roundabout down at the The beginning of the valley.

Well, going on vacation is, you do learn a lot of things. I mean, it was going on vacation where I saw the blinking stop signs that now appear on Fifth Street West. So, you know, there's a lot of times you go visit other places and you learn things. So we appreciate you always being on the job, even when you're having fun.

I did look at the Eugene City Council agenda while I was there, just for fun. You know, that's what you do when you're on vacation.

Well, thank you very much. Mr. Ding.

Yes, I was attending the two meetings during the past two weeks. The first one, that is August 20th, Thursday, I went to Zero Waste Sonoma. And we have the two major topics during the meeting. Number one, we review and grant usage and from the U.S. and the D.A., Department of Agriculture. Totally amount to $298,500 during the past year with the focus on composting and food recovery, education, and some way enforcement. So the minor focuses are on these grants have been distributed evenly because we are small and forgotten here. But I'm so glad I saw that our Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund involved this program and applying for some of the fees and some of the grants to serve our Sonoma Valley. So we will keep watching. And yes, that is the number one. Number two, and the review, and also this is a study section for SB54. And that one is regarding the so-called plastic pollution prevention and the packaging a producer and a packaging responsibility. So this is going to be historically the shift and the recycle for this kind of packaging and the cost from the local government, from the county and the city to the food producers. So that is a big change and hopefully in this way out on the financial burden from the state from the state and from the county will be the last. And the garbage and the collection and the feed will be reduced as well because big manufacturers will take over. So that is the two major things. And another thing is, in the last year, our agency purchased an office in the building. And then this month, we were on the move to have our own meeting in the new building. That is on the airport in the boulevard and across the street in the concourse in the boulevard. It's a new design and hopefully it will work well and decent, you know, received in the meeting. And that is the first meeting. that's a longer drive though isn't it yes yeah but it's the good is and we can gather flexible than the parking because right now during the past years and we are not using and the center roads are the city in the chamber Very confusing in a park. But right now we find a new office.

You can take the smart train also. Oh, yes.

Preview of coming attractions. But I want to get up early morning. Oh, yeah. 6.30.

Well, you can drive to Petaluma and catch the train.

Yeah, I will try. I will try this coming week and the journey, the smart journey.

We'll talk about more.

Yes. And also, I have another meeting that is on Friday, the next day, on August 21st. And we have the two topics. Number one, that is the legislating update for goat and sheep grazing and the wage parity and why the fine and mitigation. The reason why we raise this sort of question is because gate and the sheep and the herders, they work on site, and the ranchers, it's not only eight hours sometimes required them to live on the site. So these kind of wages, we cannot simply treat it as eight hours, right? But if we treated them to live there 24 hours, the salary will be 240 per year. So a lot of the ranchers cannot no longer afford. And if this kind of company get rid of their business and in this way when increase the risk of the wildfire. So now our job is to try to get a balance and fairness for the workers working for the ranchers. And also we try to protect ranch owners. and then to keep the name of the business. Basically, we support and try to keep the balance, cannot enforce. This is number one. Number two, we had the, also it's varying the controversy, and proposal of buying a governor because he wanted to make a reform for the utility responsibility. You know, for example, if the wildfire caused the damage in our own city as the water system infrastructure, and the PG&E, they said, we just want to make the reimburse for depreciated value. they cannot pay in the full cost to make a replacement. Sounds like they are reasonable technically, but however, what is the gap? The difference in the full replacement cost and the depreciation vary. AND THEY WANT TO, YOU KNOW, SHIFT THIS KIND OF RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR LOCAL, TO OUR CITY. THAT IS WE DON'T AGREE. SO THE COMMITTEE, WE WORK TOGETHER AND OPPOSE THIS AND JOIN OTHER SMALL CITIES IN CALIFORNIA. AND ALSO CAL CITY LEAGUE ALSO HAVE VERY CLEAR THEY OPPOSED. WE VOTE AND ALSO WE SEND IT OUT IN A VERY CLEAR POSITION.

AND THAT BILL DIED, BY THE WAY. OH, OKAY. THAT'S GREAT. IT'S SOMETHING LIKE THAT IS GOING TO COME BACK IN THE NEXT SESSION, MAYBE EVEN IN THE FALL. BUT, YEAH, THERE WAS A LOT OF DISAGREEMENT ON THAT BILL.

THANK YOU.

THAT'S INTERESTING ABOUT THE WILDLIFE AND THE And the the job that they do in keeping You know the weeds down if you will and and there's there's an interesting article. I know we're going to talk about fire district Stuff, but there's an interesting article today regarding the deer population and on Santa Catalina Island and that are And how it's causing a fire hazard because the they're not eating the right plants, you know, basically. Anyway, it's very controversial and they're proposing to eliminate all the deer on the island anyway. But it's interesting you bring that up because You know, there is a relationship between ranching and, you know, wildlife and what goes on in these areas. So anyway, interesting. So my meeting today was at LAFCO, and we basically, it was just an administrative work. We are still trying to put together an ad hoc committee to look at the Alexander Valley Water District proposal THIS IS SOMETHING THAT THEY ARE ASKING FOR RECONSIDERATION. THEY'VE ALREADY BEEN TURNED DOWN BY THE COMMITTEE BECAUSE OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE WATER DISTRICT, NOT BECAUSE OF THE NEED FOR THE WATER DISTRICT. SO WE'RE SORT OF PUTTING OUR HEADS TOGETHER, PUTTING AN AD HOC COMMITTEE, AND HOPEFULLY WE'LL COME UP WITH SOMETHING THAT CAN GO FORWARD. SO THAT'S THEY HAVE NOT MET. We did not entertain that at all, but I will let you know that at the next meeting, we will be interviewing people to apply for the position of the executive director for LAFCO. Current executive director, Mark Bramfitt, is retiring. Mark lives in the Valley, and he's been involved here, and we wish him well, and I'll have news as to who will be replacing him. The other thing I want to share with you is that we are going to take a bus and train trip next week. We are, okay? And I'm looking out at all y'all, and you look like you really want to do this, I can tell. So I have gotten lots of people texting me and so forth, but we are not on the smart train. That's a 101 thingamajig. But there is a bus that leaves from the plaza that will take you to Petaluma where you can get on the smart train. And the idea is if we can just kind of put that out there, find out right now it's a morning route to go from the plaza to Petaluma. Maybe that isn't the best time. Maybe we need more times in the afternoon. But let's get people interested in it. Because once you get to 101, then you can go up to the airport. You can go down to the ferry building. And what you are avoiding, Highway 37, 101 in the morning commute and in the afternoon commute and in the meantime you're having a lovely ride um you know with wi-fi and put your bike on there and you know Smart is doing great every month the ridership just increases and increases but we want to make sure that people in Sonoma Valley understand that this is for us too we just don't have right now we don't have the rails coming this way but when we get everybody very excited about it then maybe in the future we can connect some of those rails because there's rails all all over sonoma you own there's something across the street called depot park right we i mean there's streets in sonoma called railroad avenue and i don't even need to tell you we already have train town so what we need to do is make sure that people understand that this rail service is for everyone and it'll be really fun next week i think we've got a good group and Hopefully we'll promote it and people will start seeing that that's a better alternative Than you know driving 37 getting in traffic and so forth and you know the trip even if you didn't take the bus to Petaluma the drive to Petaluma is relatively shorter than You know driving all the way down to Larkspur all the way up to Healdsburg or whatever. So please join us and And we'll have promotions about that during the week.

Date and time.

Date and time. I knew you were going to ask that. It is Tuesday at 7 o'clock on the plaza. A.M. 7 A.M. I suggest you go somewhere and get a nice cup of coffee. Maybe from Sam's or Ohm or one of the places around the plaza. And then we'll get on the bus and then we'll get on the train. If you want to just do the bus thing and come back, that's okay too. But Tuesday, 7 a.m. See you there. Okay, great. I think that's it from us. Okay, great. Moving on. City Manager comments.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council Members and community members. A couple of updates for you on street maintenance. The rain this week, very unusual rain, kind of threw off our slurry seal project schedule, so It'll be starting up on Tuesday the 8th, and staff and the contractor are working on specific details in a revised schedule that'll be up on the website as soon as it's finalized. I also wanted to draw your attention to an upcoming meeting about Highway 12 safety. Supervisor Rebecca Hermosillo's office and the Springs and North Sonoma Valley Municipal Advisory Councils are hosting a joint community meeting with Caltrans on Wednesday, September 9th. at 6.30 p.m. at the East Sonoma County Service Center, located at 19080 Lomita Avenue. Caltrans will provide an update on planned improvements along the corridor, including pedestrian and bicycle safety, crossings, speeds, and roadway maintenance. You can also view the meeting over Zoom, which is at the county's website, sonomacounty.gov, springs-max. I don't know, just Google Sonoma County meeting. I wanted to give an update on the Third Street West Bike Boulevard project following last week's Traffic Safety Committee meeting. The committee, just to summarize, the committee generally supports the goal of slowing traffic and improving bicycle and pedestrian safety, but did not support making the temporary traffic circle at Third and Perkins a permanent installation. The pilot did reduce speeds about five miles an hour, but it also identified concerns with driver confusion, large vehicle movements, pedestrian interactions, and neighborhood impacts. Based on that experience, the committee supported removing the traffic circle and pursuing other traffic calming measures, including speed humps and four-way stops. Staff support implementing those alternatives and are working to revise the design with our traffic engineer and also coordinate with Sonoma County Transportation and Climate Authorities to determine whether the changes would require a project amendment or not. Once that final design is complete, we'll communicate that with the community as well as bring it back to the Traffic Safety Committee for an informational item and also provide an anticipated construction schedule and ongoing communications and updates to the community on the rest of that project. Okay, some upcoming fun events. Tomorrow, September the 3rd, Sonoma Art Walk returns from five to seven, participating businesses and cultural organizations around the plaza. On Sunday, the 6th, Snowma Splash will offer its free community day of the season. Community members are invited to swim and relax. Assigned waiver is required, but free admission does not include classes, lessons, master's workout, or aqua park activities. Next week on the 8th, after, of course, the field trip from the bus to the smart train, is the final night of the Tuesday night market. So come and enjoy that. And then an important event and dedication on this Friday, September 11th, next week, the Sonoma Valley Fire District will dedicate its new 9-11 memorial at 11 a.m. at Station 1, centered around the piece, the artwork is a steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center. The memorial creates a permanent place for our community to honor those who lost their lives and the first responders who answered the call on September 11th, 2001. The community is invited to attend the dedication ceremony. The City Council unanimously approved the project last year and it was fully funded by the Sonoma Volunteer Firefighters Association. We also have in our new Movies Under the Stars series one upcoming on Friday the 18th. That will be Back to the Future. And last, thank you for everyone who came out for the first of the series, which was last Friday evening. It was a great success, really fun. Also, the Vintage Festival is coming up. The 129th Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival returns the last weekend of September with a full weekend of events on the plaza. Obviously, you can purchase tickets for any of those on their website. On Friday, the 25th, the Heritage Dinner will be served by Girl and the Fig. One grand family-style table in the Horseshoe in front of City Hall. This year, we'll celebrate the 200th anniversary of wine-growing, harvesting, and winemaking in Sonoma Valley. Then on Saturday, September 26th, there's a 5K fun run and a new Vintage Vines one-mile race that begins at 8 a.m. on the plaza. You can get a $5 off race registration. The discount code is 2026SonomaNewsletter. And then after that, the daytime festival goes from 10 to 5, featuring the blessing of the grapes, grape stomp live music, food and wine, a vintage car show, and artisan vendors and activities for kids as well. Lots of stuff coming up.

LOTS OF FUN. THANK YOU SO MUCH. CITY ATTORNEY, COMMENTS?

NO COMMENTS THIS EVENING.

THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. MOVING ON TO PRESENTATIONS. WE HAVE A PROCLAMATION DECLARING SEPTEMBER 13 THROUGH 20 AS CARNEGIE LIBRARY WEEK. IS THERE SOMEONE HERE TO RECEIVE THIS PRESENTATION? WELL, I SHALL READ IT. May I? Yes, please.

Good evening, Vice Mayor Lowe, council members. Excuse me while I get my notes out.

Yes, thank you.

My name is Mike Menefee. I'm honored and privileged. to be sitting as the vice president of the sonoma league for historic preservation uh... unfortunately the league's executive director robert demler who are all familiar with is unable to attend this evening's presentation but in his absence and on his behalf I would like to say that the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation requested the recognition of the Carnegie Library at this particular time as our fellow Sonoma nonprofit, the Sonoma Valley Woman's Club, is celebrating its 125th anniversary on September 21st, 2026. Because the Women's Club was instrumental in raising the necessary funds to participate in the Andrew Carnegie Foundation's local library program, the Sonoma League is recognizing their role in establishing the Carnegie Library in Sonoma, as well as the City of Sonoma and their preservation efforts to the library, which has served the community since 1913. on sunday evening september thirteenth during carnegie library week the sonoma league for historic preservation will present a pbs documentary at the sebastiani theater titled free for all the public library chronicling the history of america's free public libraries a presentation of a commemorative plaque to the city of sonoma for their preservation of the carnegie library building will occur on september sixteenth I believe right before the council meeting, at the Mason Ave House, and a Women's Club-produced history video will be screened on September 20th, again at the Sebastiani Theater. The Sonoma League for Historic Preservation thanks the City of Sonoma for this recognition of one of Sonoma's iconic historical structures. Thank you.

MS. Thank you, Mr. Menefee. And we do have this proclamation, and I will read from it, but thank you for highlighting impetus behind this it's very interesting so this is a proclamation declaring September 13th through 20th as Carnegie Library week in the city of Sonoma whereas the Sonoma Valley Women's Club was founded on September 21st 1901 and it was instrumental in raising the funds necessary to have the library built in Sonoma under a nationwide program of managed by the andrew carnegie foundation and whereas the carnegie library building was erected on the historic sonoma plaza with construction beginning in 1911 the building was dedicated in 1913 and then continued as sonoma's library until 1978 whereas the sonoma valley women's club is celebrating the 125th anniversary on september 21st now is the time to recognize the Carnegie Library, which resulted from the unique and valuable contribution that the Sonoma Valley Women's Club members made in securing this library for the Sonoma community. And whereas the importance of the Carnegie Library is being recognized by the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation by a special movie on September 13th and by the Sonoma Valley Women's Club by a special video on September 20th, and whereas the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation is honoring the continuing preservation of the Carnegie Library by the City of Sonoma with the presentation on September 16th of a bronze plaque to be installed at the library entrance. Whereas we wish to commend the staff of the City of Sonoma for maintaining the historic fiber of the Sonoma Carnegie Library to the present day with its constant use over the years. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the mayor the city council do hereby declare the week beginning september 13th as carnegie library week congratulations we have two of these i don't know what we want to do give them both do they get them both one is for the women's club and one is for the

One, two, three. Thank you.

I mean, 1978, that was the library. Wow.

yeah there's probably someone out there that has a book right now that has not returned next we have a presentation by the Sonoma Valley Fire District and I believe Trevor are you in charge of this why don't you come forward and present good evening vice mayor Lowe council members city staff and the community my name is Trevor Smith I'm the fire marshal with Sonoma Valley Fire District

And we're talking about something we've been talking about for a number of years, but it's zone zero. There's a slide presentation, so next slide. And I assume you guys can follow along. How did it come to be back in 2017? the state legislature and the governor wanted this rule to be made because we're losing so many homes and properties in fire loss. And they made a deadline, 2023. Well, that came and went, never happened. And then the board strengthened that with the legislature and said, no, you still got to do it. Never happened again. 2025, the governor said, this is an emergency action item. We have to do it. That deadline came and passed again, but where we are today is on August 19th, the Board of Forestry put forth the regulations, sent them to the Office of Administrative Law to become an effective regulation. As of this moment, where I stand here today, this is not a requirement, but it is coming, and it's coming very quickly. We anticipate mid-September, following a rule-making period. What the public and the council should know is this was not something the Sonoma Valley Fire District authored and it's nothing that the City of Sonoma authored. This came from the state and the Board of Forestry and we're just bound to help assist in enforcing that. I will say that the Fire District over the last six years even further has been talking to our Public and our customers about this about the effects of maintaining defensible space and what a buffer zone around your home can do Because we've seen the loss of fire secondary to embers It's not necessarily always a wall of fire that burns up to your home that causes it to catch on fire It's often embers that blow through the wind that land in what we call a receptive fuel bank, but dry material, and then light on fire, which subsequently can ignite your house in the absence of firefighters, because we're at the border of the fire trying to stop it. So that's why it's important. So like I said, the board adopted it. They did an emergency notice. They plan to submit it to the Office of Administrative Law, and it's effective only after that approval. I'll go to that slide and then let you look at it for a second. It's not enforceable till the state approval process is complete. And like I said, I believe that to be mid-September. However, many deadlines have come and gone already, so I don't want to make any assumptions as to what's exactly going to happen. What I will say is it's a phased-in approach, and we'll talk about that in a moment. But I think the most important thing to know is who does this affect? It affects anyone in what's called the state responsibility area. That's number one. The city of Sonoma is not in the state responsibility area. But the majority of our valley in general, anytime you get into any level of slope is in the state responsibility area. So that would be anything east of Arnold Drive, excuse me, west of Arnold Drive, and anything east of Highway 12. That's just a rough boundary. But there's maps online where people can... understand where they are and those are on our website as well as the City of Sonoma's website. Where it does apply within the city limits is within the very high fire hazard severity zone. So if you're outside of that, the red area on the map, it doesn't apply. Now that's the law. I will tell you that insurance companies have been enforcing this for a period of time. And some people in this room may have experienced this. And if you haven't, you may in the future. I'm going to knock on wood for everyone, including myself, that they don't anytime soon, but they're Opinion of the regulation is much more stringent than this new regulation is going to be The original intent behind this was nothing within your home of five feet and we'll talk here in a moment that that's not where it ended up and It ended up less restrictive than that, but the insurance companies can pretty much say or do what they want. We will insure you if A, B, and C. That's not a fire department mandate. That's not something necessarily we support. We're supporting the regulation as adopted. So within the SRA and then within the city limits in areas within the very high fire hazard severity zone. Originally it was five feet from the house and the image on the slide there is confusing. What it is, it's one feet away from the wall up to and including the eave or the drip line where the rain would come down if you didn't have a gutter. That's the non-combustible zone. You can't have anything in there that can burn, whether that be wood chips or bushes or plants or irrigated grass or potted plants, nothing. One foot away from the wall or up to including where your eave is. So if your eave extends three feet from your wall, draw a straight imaginary line down, there's nothing that can burn there. There's a second caveat that even if your eave is right up against the house and you're now only the one foot rule, Anytime there's a door, a window, or a vent, it's a two foot from that. And then if you have a combustible deck attached to your house, it's five feet from that. So there's a lot of caveats. And it's hard to explain verbally. It's even hard to date to explain in a picture because we haven't had a lot of time to produce really readily digestible material. That is forthcoming. I would suggest if you have any questions, one, always reach out to us at the fire department, but take the opportunity to visit our website as well as the city's website, which probably will link a lot of our information. If you type in Zone Zero in Sonoma Valley, you will find it. There's videos, there's text explanations, there's diagrams, there's links to the Board of Forestry's information. So more easily digestible information will be out soon. So in regards to the very high fire hazard severity zones, that's the map of the city of Sonoma outlined in the black dotted line as the border of the city limits. The areas in red, essentially up to the highway, down to the plaza, and a little bit of areas outside of that have to comply with this. has to comply with these regulations so that's inclusive of the plaza it's inclusive of everything to the north of highway 12 and other portions of the neighborhoods we don't have a parcel count for you tonight we're trying to work with the gis department to obtain that but these are the properties that will be affected by this So what does zone zero require? There's a little bar graph at the top which kind of re-explains in a different pictograph what I've been talking about. But the blue line is the wall of the building. And the vegetation-free zone is set either at one foot or up to and including the eave or the drip line. So that's where you can't have anything. No combustible mulch, bark, dead leaves, firewood, new combustible fences. So we ask or they ask that you don't build a new fence that's within that area. Existing fences can remain for now. And we'll talk about that in a future slide. And then up to the five feet, you have this limited combustible zone. So you can still have some things. You can have grass. You can have non-woody plants. You can have like succulents, tulips, things that don't have a woody stem. That's with or without maintenance. So some plants aren't very woody, but they really dry out and become woody. That's not allowed. However, if you put it in a pot, and that pot is made of a non-combustible material, and it's outside of the non-combustible zone, which is one foot and or to the drip line, and you separate those by one and a half times the height of the plant, I know we're getting very technical, you can still have things. The point of all this is we're not asking people to take away their curb appeal. We're asking people... to learn how to modify it to create a safer community to maintain and protect your property and protect the community at a whole. Trees. People were really worried about trees. You can still have your trees. If they're close to the house, you just have to trim the live branches under your eave. The tree itself is fine, but no live branches that push up under the eaves. They still have to be pruned up six feet off the ground or one-third the height of the tree. And if it's a mature tree, the branches have to be five feet away from the roof. So no branches under the eave, and just prune them up five feet away from the roof. And then existing law has always said 10 feet away from a chimney or stovepipe, just so the heat of those things doesn't dry the tree out. That's not new, that's an existing requirement. Let's see. So when does this all start? On the effective date immediately you have to keep your roof and gutters clean. That's already state law That's not a change. You can't have any firewood within zone zero. That's already a state law that doesn't change You can't have any dead or dying tree branches that area that's already a state law. So that's not changing branches 10 feet from chimneys again already a state law and So really, on the effective date, the only thing that you're going to have to do for an existing property owner is make sure there's no live branches under your eave. Trim those up in line with your eave and you now comply. That's immediately. Now, if you're going to build a new home, you do have to comply. So if you're starting the permit process after the date that this becomes effective, that new home will have to comply. And we've been telling people that have been building new homes over the last three years this is coming because there is a date three years from now where some more regulations come into play and five years from now where additional regulations come into play. So we didn't want new property owners to have expended all this money beautifying their home in a way that was inappropriate. So we've been passing this message along, but moving forward when this becomes approved by the Office of Administrative Law, we'll have to mandate it and inspect it. So the next trigger point is three years. And that's when you have to remove the plants and stuff from these buffers, depending on how your home is designed. You have to clear anything beneath decks and stairs and remove ladder fuels. Both those things are already a rule. And you have to meet the applicable roof and wall branch clearance. I said on the effective date, just push it away from the eave. But after three years, that's when we start getting it off the roof by five feet. Then in what's three to five years, that's the final phase. Now we as a fire district and in conjunction with the city of Sonoma can set that. We can bump it up early to three years. If I ask for a show of hands, I don't know that we're going to get one, but we can have this conversation at a later date. It's of my opinion. that we will extend it as far as we can for the people of our community to five years. But we want to educate people. We want you to know about the risks and we want you to know there's value in making these changes, but we don't want to, I don't want to pick right now the most stringent timeline. so after five years if that holds true um you have to meet all the standards including replacing your fence and gate within five feet of your house so taking out a small section and replacing it with a non-combustible gate and we'll talk a little bit more about how my office is going to implement that and what our opinion is moving forward The State Board of Forestry in the state of California makes a lot of statements about it's up to locals to decide. It's not. We can decide to make it more stringent, just like most state laws, if we modify it, but making it less stringent is not something that we have the, we're not afforded that opportunity. But when you watch their videos and read their press release, it's almost like we get to call all the shots, but I want to explain that we don't necessarily. So step one, we want to inform and educate the community. That's what we're doing here. We're going to put out information as it becomes available. We're updating our website regularly. We are going to do our best to give the information to the community that's easily digestible, not like tonight where I probably sounded very confusing. one foot drip line with a non-combustible two feet windows. I want it to be clear. We need to be able to get that message across very cleanly to people. And I appreciate the phased approach because it allows us time to do that. And I promise to you that we will be doing that to get the information to people. We wanna emphasize practical actions that homeowners can do now, and we wanna come at this with an education standpoint. What I can tell you, sadly, is the insurance companies know this is a requirement, and it's one more bullet, I hate to use that analogy, but it's one more point for them to use in their ability to insure or not insure people. We're gonna then work to prepare to implement it and how that's gonna happen. We're going to build inspection guidance for our staff and coordinate with city staff and our district on messaging as it moves forward. We're not jumping into this. We're not coming out full steam ahead. There are places in our community where this is super important. There are places in our community where it's valuable, where it can provide safety. Please don't get me wrong. I think it's very important. And moving forward, I'd like to see the change. But it doesn't have to happen tomorrow. And I think it's going to take us educating the public on the importance of it and why. And I like the three and five year phase timeline because of that. Item three talks about we can make it more strict. And the bottom line at this time, the Sonoma Valley Fire District does not intend to make the restrictions tighter. That's my current opinion as well as our fire chief's current opinion. Tonight's an informational update only for you. And like I said, it's not gone through the process, but it's coming soon. My assumption is that by the next council meeting, this will be a requirement for new construction and some of the minor changes need to start happening. The key message, and I'll read it directly, To the communities, the first five feet around a structure matter. Our message to residents is simple. Start with the easy risk reduction steps now, and we will provide clear guidance as the state finalizes the effective rule and compliance dates. So that's our intention. And if you have any questions or comments, I'm sad that Mr. Wellender is not here tonight because I know he would have plenty of questions for me.

He is the Lorax. He speaks for the trees. Yes. Yes. I LIKE THE TREES, TOO. YEAH, SO IF YOU DON'T MIND, I'M GOING TO SEE IF THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE COUNCIL.

WE'LL START WITH MS. FERRARIBA. WE ALL LOVE THE TREES. AND I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU VERY MUCH. AS YOU WERE EXPLAINING THAT, I COULD VISUALIZE EVERYTHING AROUND MY HOUSE, AND IT WAS ACTUALLY QUITE CLEAR. what you were saying. Although this is the second time, I've read it twice and heard from you a third time. But the question I have is looking at the map, the fire hazard map, if we could get that back up. Because I think we were all, when we got the map this year, how often do they update the maps? Is it annually or every?

They just did it, I want to say it was two years ago. Yeah. It came before the council. Yeah. It came before the council more as an informational item. It wasn't something that we had any effect on. We had no role in the process. It was done by the state of California. The one prior to that was done in 2007. It doesn't happen very often. Yeah.

And so probably looked very different in 2007.

There was no color on the map in 2007. Right.

And so, you know.

Back then they said, you can do it. We'll let you do it. And we opted not to do it. We opted not to add additional restrictions within our community. And I want to preface that with saying that it's not that we don't believe it's important. We do. But we also don't want to be the bullies. I mean, we want people to know why it's important. We want people to understand why it's important. But we didn't feel that we needed to adopt laws in our community to get that compliance. We think and we still believe that. that if we can educate the community to make change, that's where we're going to get change that really matters. So you're right, in 2007 and prior iterations of the map, our community didn't have any of that.

You know, so I think when all of us first saw this map throughout the community, people were like, you know, wow. So and understanding when I look at this map, I'm I am in one of the non-wildland districts, but close to a moderate district, but understand that this map is a snapshot and could change over time and probably not in the direction that I would want it to go. It's probably going to get redder. versus the other way around. So I mean, that's just kind of one of the points I want to make. So for me, when I look at this and I understand, I appreciate people not wanting to be the bullies. I appreciate the education. Because I do think it is important for people to move. can fly quite a long way and get into the house, right? And that's what causes houses often to burn down. So it could be a block, an ember from a block away that gets you.

Yeah, it could be from miles away. When the state went through this process of determining what was the different hazard zones, we'll just say red for now, It wasn't just a simple swipe of a pen. It was a very scientific, detailed analysis of historical fuel types, weather, topography, historical fire events, lots of computer modeling and science that wasn't available at the prior iteration of the map. There's validity behind it. 2017 in Glen Ellen, the members in this room from the fire department could attest to this, but we lost houses in areas the fire already came through. And And often we're at the line of the fire trying to mitigate that wall of fire, or we're ahead of the fire like we were in 2017 trying to evacuate people and get them to safety ahead of the fire. When a fire comes through a neighborhood, we put a bunch of stuff out and we do the best we can, but that little spot next to someone's house, and this happened in multiple homes, catches a little spark, an ember, it just starts burning, and then we'd get a call on the radio or see a column of smoke back in an area that shouldn't have been on fire. This will stop that, will reduce it. I don't want to say anything will stop anything because I can't say that. But if the area a foot around the house at minimum or more is clear, the number of incidents where a fire is started by an ember, whether it's a smoldering ember after a fire had passed through and or, to your point, an ember that blows ahead. And it could be seven miles ahead of the fire. Yeah. When we talk about embers, we often think about sitting around a campfire and a little spark. The embers we see look like paper airplanes or larger flying through the air. When they land, they have a little more oomph to them. They hold a little more heat than a standard little spark we see out of a campfire.

Yeah. Well, thank you. And I guess the point, the question is, like, that this is changing when I look at this. I'm a little too close to the red no matter what, right? It's like, so it's best to follow these as soon as you can. And for people, I guess my biggest concern is, and I don't know if there's been thought about this, is it's kind of just the same issue that we're facing in the cost of transition to electrification. is the cost to people that may not be able to afford to get a new fence. That's kind of why it's good for us to be thinking about this as soon as possible, is what are the financial support can be given as people need to go through this transition, because not everybody's going to be able to afford to do things like a fence. A fence can be very expensive to replace.

Yeah, that's correct. The city manager, head of this meeting, and other city staff reached out to me to find out if there was any grants available or if anyone was offering any assistance. To date, we have not seen anything come out, but we're in hopes that something will happen locally or regionally in regards to grants to provide assistance. I will say that Insurance companies are offering discounts to people that harden their home and or meet these standards. Those discounts are not going to cover the cost of the work that's going to be done. I think the biggest pushback is we've beautified our yards and our curb appeal for years a certain way and we're asking you now to take years of hard work and establish plantings and move them or remove them. I had the opportunity with my wife to build a new home recently about seven years ago and I convinced her we're not putting anything next to the house. I knew it was coming And she hemmed and hawed, and I've probably told this story before to the council, but after we moved the plants five feet away and they're now developed and grown, when you drive up our driveway or you're out on the street looking at our home, you can't appreciate that five foot gap. And now when we're in our home looking out of our windows, we're now appreciating those plants that were tucked up under the window. We never saw them. So the birds and the wildlife that are enjoying that, we're now enjoying. And from the curb, it doesn't do anything. But our home is safer for it. So it takes a minute. It's going to cost a little bit of money. But I hope moving forward, we as a community can see the change is beneficial.

Thank you.

Yes. Yeah. Thank you for your presentation. Very educational and informative. I have minor personal experience you just mentioned. In the last week, I received a notice from insurance company. I want to cancel my policy. And the director reason, they send other people come to my house and look at, and then the trees hit my roof. They said, sorry. We cannot keep this policy with you. I already noticed this issue for a while because the trees from my neighbors and apartment HOA, they just ignore it. So in this way, I have to take care by myself. Regardless, you will take care because of the tree. And overall, in a minor area, it's a minor responsibility. So it reminds me, out in the city, how we can work with the major insurance company and see if all this kind of information should have been very updated out in the local residents could get and the fear and favorable, you know, the rates. Because I know some of the insurance company, they made some little reasons and they, you know, increase the rates or reject to give you the policy. So that is communication with the insurance company is important. Another thing is, Patricia already mentioned, and there's some out in the low income and the senior, families living in the vicinity area, their incomes are fixed. They couldn't even find a way to have additional money to become compliant, although they wish. So the grants and the city support, community support, very, very important. Do you have any information or this kind of the Source and you are not working on that or copy on the state.

I Can't speak for the state level I can speak for the local level at the county I had a meeting today with the fire prevention officers group. It's Representatives from all the county fire departments in the fire prevention bureau including fire safe Sonoma where we talked about just these things we and the county is going to be looking at grant opportunities and We have a lot of contacts with non-governmental organizations in our community that may be able to offer assistance in the future to residents who need it. I can't make any guarantees, but these are things we're looking at and exploring. I will speak to your statement on insurance, Mr. Ding. It's super challenging. I will tell you that the state knows it's a problem, they're working on it. The most recent legislation was called the Safer from Wildfires Act and it's intended to help people obtain and retain insurance. One of the many things property owners can do is live in a community that is certified by the Board of Forestry as a fire risk reduction community. The city of Sonoma in totality is within our fire district, and we have that recognition as a fire risk reduction community. So having that, and this information is all on our website, Having that and presenting that to a potential or current insurance company is by law supposed to help. Another thing our agency is doing is we just implemented a vegetation management defensible space certificate of compliance program. where members in our community, now you have to comply with all the rules, but if you comply with all the rules and we come out and do an assessment, we can provide you a certificate of inspection that says you meet A, B, C, D, and E, and that certificate will be good for 90 days, and you can use that in your hunt or in your conversations with insurance companies. So we offer that service free of charge. We're not charging our typical inspection fee if we go out and do that because this is important to us and it's for our firefighter safety and our resident safety, but we want to do anything we can to help lower costs and be less of a burden to our community. So to your point, I will continue to work with my contacts both at the local level and up at the state level as well as

our non-profits to see what we can do to help our community thank you each other really really helpful and encouraging thank you thank you

Well, I think you kind of answered what I was going to suggest here, but my only comment, and Chief, thank you very much for the presentation, very informative, is that I would think it would be helpful if you maintain a list of model properties that people could take a look at so that they have something to compare it to and better understand what the regulations require. Even was thinking of a demonstration home, but it sounds like you have it. So if you open it to the public, I think that'd be wonderful.

I would be willing to. There's a lot of good references out there. There's something called the IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Standard, which is more stringent than these rules. It is also something that insurance companies have to look at. Their standard and information is on our website as well as photographs and images. The fire station at 632nd Street West recently had all of its landscape redone to be an example to the community of what that looks like. And moving forward in three to five years, City Hall will also be an example as it's in the very high fire hazard severity zone.

Absolutely. Thank you for your questions. And this is really such an important report. Is there anything in here that says you can't build in these areas?

In this regulation, no. But in the California building standards, which is inclusive of the building code, electrical code, fire code, as well as the newest code, the wildland urban interface code or WUI code, there's a number of regulations that say where you can and can't build. And a lot of those are new in relation to property line setbacks, ridgetops, strategic Ridges and other geographical features. So there are regulations to that but this specific zone zero doesn't address that it simply addresses how we plant around a structure, okay, and Those regulations that you just spoke of are there any?

Any of those kind of ridges or whatever within the city limits of Sonoma?

There's no strategic ridge lines within the city limits. None that have been identified. No Thank you

Well, thank you very much. I'm sure we'll learn more about this. And I know Mr. Ding brought up the legislation that was trying to get out. It didn't happen. And obviously, there's issues with insurance. They're sending drones to look at these things. You don't even need a guy to come by and look. I mean, they're going to get you. So it's important. that you don't lose your insurance and end up in the fair plan and all of that. So thank you very much. Any last comments or questions?

One quick last comment. We are redoing the landscaping around the Carnegie Library right now. So it's a perfect spot on the plaza. And I realize that might already be planned, but hopefully it's planned in line to be. They could also serve as a demonstration plant. Don't tell Brian I said that.

No, I can chime in quickly on that front. I think it's an excellent point, and we actually just had a meeting with the Garden Club on Friday, and we wanted to make sure that this code was being met and they're up to standards, and so right in line, absolutely.

Excellent. Very timely with the honoring of the Carnegie Library. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you to your team as well.

Thank you.

So, moving on, we are at the consent calendar. Consent calendar items are routine and can be acted upon in a single motion. Before we entertain a motion, are there any public comments on the consent calendar? I'M JUST DOING PUBLIC COMMENTS, RIGHT? OKAY. NO PUBLIC COMMENTS. NOW I'LL BRING IT BACK TO THE COUNCIL. ARE THERE ANY POLL OR ANY QUESTIONS? MR. DING, YOU SEEM LIKE YOU HAVE SOMETHING. NO? YOU DON'T. OKAY. ANYONE ELSE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR POLL? IF NOT, I'LL ENTERTAIN A MOTION.

MOVE TO APPROVE.

SECOND. BEEN MOVED AND SECONDED. LET'S GET A ROLL CALL ON THIS, PLEASE.

Councilmember Gurney?

Yes.

Councilmember Ferraribas? Yes. Councilmember Dean?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Low? Aye. Thank you. The motion carries 4-0 with one councilmember absent.

Thank you very much. And we've got some ad hoc committees and things and exciting things in that consent calendar. We don't have any public hearings. We're moving on to the regular calendar. And we're starting with the appointment to the Planning Commission. AND THERE ARE FIVE APPLICATIONS. I THINK THERE'S A COUPLE PEOPLE HERE IN THE ROOM WHO MADE APPLICATIONS, AND I CERTAINLY WOULD WELCOME YOU TO COME FORWARD AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE COUNCIL, AND THEN WE WILL DELIBERATE. SO IF THAT'S OKAY WITH THE COUNCIL, WE'LL PROCEED IN THAT MANNER. Just step forward and let us say hi. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Elena Nayer. Nice to meet you all, council members and Vice Mayor Lowe. I just want to say a couple of words, introduce myself to all of you. Sorry, hopefully you can hear me. I am a Sonoma resident. Obviously, I am raising my two year old daughter here. I live just down the bike path. uh on the other side of fifth street west and i'm very confident i would be a great um a great addition to the planning commission as an alternate member i have a background in urban planning and i currently work as a land use attorney i deal with planning and zoning and CEQA issues on a daily basis. Very familiar with inner workings of local government and feel very strongly that I want to be a part of this community on a broader level and really serve the community with my knowledge. I also previously worked for the state of California. I have a background in public agency law, so I have a good foundation for, again, the inner workings. of government, and I'm really invested in this community. I really want to see Sonoma succeed and grow in the way, within the confines of the general plan and all of the other local laws that apply, and I am just, I really care about the future for the sake of my daughter, and that's why I feel like I would be a good contributing member, so that's all. Thank you very much. Thank you for applying.

Nice to meet all of you. Nice to meet you as well.

Hello, Helen. My name is Saul Groatman, and I'm applying for the alternate member position on the Planning Commission. I bring an educational and a business background to the Commission. I've been here 32 years. I've seen successful and unsuccessful planning throughout my time here, and I think I'd bring a common-sense approach to the Commission. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else? Hi, I'm Renata Virk. So first of all, such an honor to actually be a part of this application as an alternate for the Planning Commission with incredible people who are also providing service to our city of Sonoma. I have lived in Sonoma for 22 years and I raised both of my children here. I have been in media in this town for 22 years and part of my job has been on radio as well as interviewing for my magazines, locals in town, business owners, obviously people who've been on city council as well as just regular Sonomans. The one thing I do recognize is what our town needs and understanding that in part that there is a piece of history that's really really important for people to hold on to in Sonoma as well as bringing in opportunity for children to be going to school here and people to be working here and for our town to be thriving so that I'm very passionate about I am passionate about community and I do believe I hope that there's a position for everybody because I think it's just so important. So thank you.

Thank you, thank you all. There's one other, is Diana here by any chance? No, okay. So before we go forward on this, I just want to sort of set the stage. I thank you Renata for your comment of something for everyone. We actually have THREE POSITIONS AVAILABLE. ONE IS THE ALTERNATE TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION, BUT THERE ARE ALSO I HAVE A DIRECT APPOINTMENT TO THE HISTORICAL PRESERVATION COMMISSION, WHICH AT THE MOMENT WE'RE HAVING WE HAVE TWO VACANCIES AND WE HAVE TO MAKE QUORUM, AND THAT'S AN IMPORTANT BODY THAT MAKES you know, recommendations also that involve planning. And obviously, this is a historic town. We heard, you know, you all know that. So I'm hoping that the people who may not get the alternate position would be willing to serve on the Historic Preservation Commission. And in that way, there are three people here. There are actually three openings. And all of those are important. The other thing is, should another position become available on the Planning Commission and you're already serving on the Historic Preservation Commission, I believe it feels to me at least like a lateral move or something that would be, you'd sort of be the pipeline for that, having served on a commission. So I don't know. Obviously, you don't have to do this. It's a lot to ask to serve in any role. And it takes a lot. It takes a lot of time, and there's a lot of knowledge. So I hope that, you know, should you not be chosen, obviously one person's going to be chosen, so someone's going to be heartbroken about this, that you will consider those other appointments because they also are essential, especially right now. historic preservation is very essential, especially the properties. You all know what is coming down the pipe. So having your voices there would be really important. So with that overview – Can I add a comment to that? Yes, please.

We also do have two openings on the Climate Action Commission. And so, but those openings are for people that live within the city of Sonoma. So I wasn't sure. So I just wanted to, yeah, so good. I just wanted to make sure that they're all, even though they're going for the alternate, yes.

And I mentioned the other one because it has to do with, it's more in the same, you know, bucket with housing and building. And I brought this up because of some of the experience of some of the people that are

wanting to be on the Planning Commission.

So thank you. But that's a very good point. I mean, you know, that's a very good point. I mean, there should be, hopefully, hopefully we can have all you guys part of the team. All right. So with that, I'm going to just open it up and to see if anybody has a motion or has a suggestion going forward.

Vice Mayor Lowe, just to make sure it's clear for the audience, in case there was public comment, this would also be if you were inviting general public comment, not just the applicants.

Thank you for that. Is there anyone who's not applying who would like to speak on this item? Thank you.

I would like to share the sentiment, Vice Mayor Lowe, that you shared, that we have three excellent candidates in the room tonight. All three have deep roots here, have contributed a lot to the community, and I wish I was standing up here making your jobs easier in this moment, but we have three excellent candidates, and I do hope we find opportunities for all three of them to get involved.

Do you have anything to add?

I have the one thing to add.

We get all the public. All right. Mr. Ding, you have a comment.

I do have a direct appointment opportunity for Traffic Safety Committee as well. Right now it's open.

So the other one thing, just one quick comment. There is an applicant that is not here tonight that is looking to to be on the Climate Action Commission. And since I was away on vacation, I haven't had a chance to meet with that person. So that's one of the things, just so people know that anybody that's interested in that, that's one of the things I would want to do first.

Great. well let's our subject tonight is the Planning Commission but because I introduced the other Commission of interest which is historic preservation because they are somewhat linked we're gonna focus on that and if if that falls by the wayside we can certainly move on and and have other discussions but at this point I'd like to see if anybody has a suggestion or has a motion And I think I speak for all of us when I say this is an incredible pool of candidates. We don't deserve you all. You're just amazing. And I hope that we're going to get everybody something to stay involved. Because people, I mean, I was with Rebecca Hermosillo, our supervisor today, who told me, she said, I can't believe you got four of the most amazing applicants. I mean, people are making comments about these applications. That's why I wanted you to speak and to take this very seriously because this is an important commission, but your contributions are amazing. Okay, so enough of that. Let's see, anyone have anything? John, you look like you have a suggestion, no?

Well, yeah, I forgot to turn it off, but as long as you ask me to talk. Yeah, so this is hard because I would say that I agree with Julian that the three people here in the room have definitely all are qualified and would play a great role and have the history in Sonoma and, you know, I believe from knowing some of them, but also from their applications, that they're coming in with the right mindset that we are looking for to be able to meet the balance of what we need to meet in Sonoma. But my sense is, should we ask if any of these three here tonight would like to be appointed to another... Make it easy for us. Make it easy for us. No, okay.

I won't do that then. We have to do the hard work. That's why they pay us the big bucks.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, the big bucks. So I'm going to move to appoint Renata Virk to the planning commission.

Okay. So there's a motion to appoint Renata Virk. And do you want to speak to your motion?

Yeah. So I think one of the things I know most of the members of the planning commission and I think that it's, that having, although I believe that there's other people in the audience here tonight too that also have that experience of really knowing the community, but I do think that that's kind of what has moved me is her understanding of, really speaking to a lot of people in sonoma and and being open i think to continually speaking to a lot of people in sonoma because i think on our roles council members and on commissions is when you're here you're not bringing you're not here with what you want for yourself you're here understanding what the needs of the community are and so that's what has come across for me for renata so or MS. VIRK, SO. ALL RIGHT.

IS THERE A SECOND TO THAT?

I SECOND.

OKAY. MR. DING SECONDS. ANY DISCUSSION? I WANT TO SAY A COUPLE THINGS ABOUT IT. WHEN I HAD MY FIRST APPOINTMENT TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION, A LOT OF PEOPLE CALLED ME AND TOLD ME I HAD TO MEET RENATA VIRK. AND I MET WITH HER. We filled out the forms and I wanted to appoint her to the Planning Commission as my direct appointment. At the time, Renata was carrying a Canadian passport and was in the process of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, but wasn't. And our policies in the city of Sonoma were that you had to be a qualified elector of the district, which meant you had to be a registered voter, which meant you had to be an American citizen. And she was not. So two things happened. One, obviously I couldn't appoint her. And two, my hair was on fire, and I felt like I had to change the law that we had in Sonoma, which we did. And we made it so that... You have to be you know fit if you're a direct appointment you have to live in the city limits But there was none of this you have because a lot of people like Renata were in the process of Becoming a citizen and there were a lot of people out there that are giving a lot to the community that I mean My grandmother never became a US citizen. I mean I saw her green card the day she died so I So Renato was my first appointment that I never got to appoint. So I will support that motion. And that being said, I want Saul and Elena to be on the Historic Preservation Commission and hope that that will work. But we first have to get through this business. But I had to mention that because it was like, THIS HAS COME FULL CIRCLE FOR ME. AND THERE WERE, I MEAN, A LOT OF WHEN I WAS ELECTED, PEOPLE CAME OUT OF THE WOODWORK, YOU GOT TO MEET SO-AND-SO, YOU GOT TO MEET SO-AND-SO. BUT THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE THAT TOLD ME THAT RENATA SHOULD BE MY APPOINTMENT TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION, AND I WAS LITERALLY HEARTBROKEN WHEN I FOUND THAT OUT. SO I WILL SUPPORT THIS. All right. So let's take a roll call vote.

Council Member Gurney?

Yes.

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

Aye.

Mayor Low or Vice Mayor Low? Aye. Thank you. The motion carries. Congratulations.

And now I would like to appoint Saul Groatman to the Historic Preservation Commission as my direct appointment, if he would be so kind as to do that. I'd love to do so. You don't have to... I just popped the question. You certainly can think about it. Yes. Thank you for considering it.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that very much. And I also have an open appointment to the Historic Preservation Commission. So if that's something... that you would be interested, because there's another applicant that said they were interested, but they're not here tonight, and it does make a difference that you are here tonight. So is that something that you would take into consideration? I would have to consider it. I'd love to look into it a bit more. Yeah, and also look at the Climate Action Commission as well, too.

Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you all for coming here and for your application, and we're going to do great things. Thank you so much. Moving on to the highlight of tonight, which is, let me open my, if I can find my, my agenda disappeared. I'm borrowing Mr. Ding's agenda. Oh. Well, this is a very important one. I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Ruderman to introduce 9.2. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Lowe, members of the City Council. For the record, David Ruderman, your City Attorney. This evening before the Council is a discussion, consideration, and possible action to adopt a resolution. authorizing the mayor to execute an employment agreement with Christine Alilovich as the city manager. So as you all know, at the previous council meeting, we announced that the city council had selected Christine Alilovich to be Sonoma's next city manager. So this evening, we ask that you make that official by appointing her as such and approving the employment agreement. Under the Brown Act, we do need to provide a brief summary of the material terms of that employment agreement Much of it is in the staff report, but I'll just highlight an effective date of today. It's a three-year contract with a base salary of $290,000 per year, as well as $12,250 in deferred compensation. There will be a vehicle allowance of $500 a month in lieu of mileage reimbursement and standard leaves under Vacation Sick Administrative Act. and bereavement. It also waives the requirement under the Sonoma Municipal Code that the city manager live within 10 road miles given her long residency in a nearby city. It's also worth mentioning that with the approval of this agreement, Ms. Alilovich's interim contract will expire by the terms of that agreement. So it only existed until the appointment of the permanent city manager. So with that, our recommendation would be to approve the resolution and appoint Ms. Alilovich to be the city manager and authorize the mayor to sign the employment agreement. Happy to answer any questions.

Any questions, Mr. Ruderman? Seeing none, any public comment on this item? Okay, seeing none, bringing it back to the council for discussion or possible motion. Yes, Mr. Ding.

Yeah, I just, in a minor thing, I just point out a typo. That is the effective day should be September 2, 2026, instead of 2027. That is page 75. Page 75. All right. Mm-hmm.

JACK DING, THE EAGLE EYE OF THE CITY COUNCIL. YOU CAN TRUST HIM WITH YOUR TAXES. THIS MAN DOES THE EMPLOYEE.

THANK YOU. YES. ARE YOU REFERRING TO THIS? YES, THAT'S IN THE STAFF REPORT, BUT IN THE ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION. AND RESOLUTION IS CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED AS 2026. WE WILL NOT HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER YEAR.

BUT GOOD CATCH. EXCELLENT. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Any other further comments or questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve.

It's been moved.

Second.

And seconded. We'll have a roll call, please.

Council Member Gurney?

Yes, yes, yes.

Council Member Farrar-Rivas? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Council Member Ding?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Vice Mayor Lau? Yes. Thank you. The motion carries 4-0 with one council member absent.

Congratulations. THIS IS A REAL GREAT HONOR FOR ALL OF US AND OBVIOUSLY HIT THE GROUND RUNNING AND YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP RUNNING. SO CONGRATULATIONS. WELCOME.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, VICE MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS AND TO MAYOR WILLENDER WHO IS NOT HERE. I SPOKE AT THE LAST MEETING BUT I JUST FEEL COMPELLED TO SAY HOW GRATEFUL I AM TO CONTINUE TO SERVE HERE IN SINEMA AND REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO THE FUTURE. SO THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.