The Monterey City Council met on March 4, 2025, beginning at 3:57 PM PST in an afternoon session and reconvening for an evening session after closed session. All five council members were present. The agenda included proclamations for American Red Cross Month and Women's History Month, a public hearing on zoning changes for bicycle rentals, a first reading of a camping ordinance, and discussion and approval of council priorities.
Recording in progress. Welcome to our council meeting for Tuesday, March 4th, 2025. I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and I'll ask Clementine to do roll call and make announcements to the public, please. Councilmember Barber. Present. Councilmember Garcia. Here. Councilmember Rash here. Councilmember Smith. Here. And Mayor Williamson. Here. And information on participating in this meeting and providing public comment, including remotely by Zoom or telephone, is available on the agenda, which is online at Monterey.gov/slash agendas. Remote commenters, you will be muted until it is your turn to speak, and a timer will be shown on the screen. If you're connected on Zoom, the timer is accurate with no delay. In-person attendees must keep your phones and devices muted to prevent audio interference with our meeting. And thank you for participating in your city government. Thank you, Clementine. And with that, we'll go ahead and start with our presentations. Item number one is to recognize March 2025 as the American Red Cross Month. We have a proclamation here. I'll go ahead and read it aloud. Whereas March is American Red Cross Month, a special time to celebrate the humanitarian spirit of Monterey County and reaffirm their commitment to help ensure no fate no one faces a crisis alone in Monterey County across the United States and around the world. Their dedication touches millions of lives each year as they carry out the organization's 140-year mission of preventing and alleviating suffering. And whereas caring for one another is at the heart of our community and exemplified by the people of Monterey, whose simple acts of kindness through the Red Cross provide help and hope in people's most difficult moments, continuing the life-saving legacy of Clara Barton, who founded the organization more than 140 years ago to prevent and alleviate human suffering. And whereas Central Coast chapter volunteers, 133 in the county, give hope to the most vulnerable in their darkest hours. Last year in Monterey County, volunteers helped 64 households affected by 30 homes, home fires by addressing their urgent needs like food and lodging, as well as providing recovery support. In addition, they installed 655 smoke alarms, collected 1,939 blood donations, provided first aid and CPR training to 1,830 residents, and assisted 153 families of our armed forces. And whereas the Central Coast chapter support volunteerism and generous donations are critical to our community's resilience. We hereby recognize this month of March in honor of all those who fulfill Clara Barton's noble words. You must never think of anything except the need and how it to be and how to be how to meet it. And ask everyone to join in this commitment. Now therefore be resolved that I, Tyler Williamson, mayor of the city of Monterey, on behalf of the city council and citizens hereby proclaim the month of March 2025 as the American Red Cross month. I encourage all Americans to support this organization and its noble humanitarian mission. So why don't we give it up for members of the Red Cross and all the work that they do? And I'll just add a quick note too that um I recall hearing about during the fires in LA that um some of the folks that were involved in Red Cross were activated and helped support um that response as well. So we're tremendously um thankful. And I know that we have a member of Red Cross here today, so I will pass the mic to you, sir, and feel free to share your remarks. Thank you very much. And I'll keep it very, very short. I timed it out. So uh hello, my name is Dan Ripke. Uh I'm a board member for the American Red Cross. I'm honored to accept this proclamation, uh, recognizing March as the American Red Cross uh month. Our mission depends on the dedication of volunteers, donors, and community partners who help us respond to disasters, collect life-saving blood, and support local military families. Every eight minutes, uh, Red Cross volunteers provide relief as disasters continue to grow in both frequency and intensity. At the start of 2025 has been especially challenging. The devastating fires in Los Angeles require the deployment of hundreds of Red Cross responders to provide shelter, food, and care for displaced families and individuals. We've also been actively responding to the flooding in Kentucky and supporting the ongoing recovery efforts in North Carolina following last September's hurricane Helene. These large-scale disasters are in addition to the tens of thousands of home and apartment fires that we respond to nationwide each year.