The Monterey City Council held a regular meeting on March 18, 2025, starting at approximately 10:06 PM (after a closed session earlier in the evening). The meeting included approval of the consent calendar (with three items pulled for separate discussion), public comments on non-agenda items, and major discussions on a rental registry ordinance and the draft 2023-2031 Housing Element. The council approved the rental registry with amendments and voted to authorize funding for iHelp homeless services. The housing element was reviewed in a joint session with the Planning Commission, but no final vote was taken; the item was tabled along with other agenda items due to the late hour and disruptive public comments.
Good afternoon and welcome to this council meeting on September 19th. Um, we'll go ahead and start with calling the meeting to order and pass to Clement time for a roll call and um announcements for how the public can participate in public comment. Councilmember Barber, present councilmember Garcia. Here. Councilmember Hoffa. Here. Councilmember Smith. Present. Mayor Williamson. Here. And for the safe attendance of our public meetings, wearing a mask is recommended and encouraged. Please keep your phones and devices in the chamber muted to prevent audio interference with our meeting. And there are two ways to participate remotely in today's meeting. You may join us using the Zoom app on your computer or mobile device. And you can also call in to the Zoom meeting. To join the meeting on Zoom on your computer, smartphone, or telephone, use the link or phone number on the agenda at iSearch Monterey.org. An up-to-date version of Zoom software must be used. To call in by telephone, dial toll-free 833 568 8864, then enter meeting ID 16072 9333 pound. And if prompted to enter a participant ID, press pound. Detailed instructions on using and updating Zoom are available at Monterey.org/slash public meetings. To make a public comment using the Zoom app, you can virtually raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. If you dialed in by phone, raise your hand by dialing star nine and then unmute yourself when called upon by dialing star six. You must do both. Public commenters will be muted until it is their turn to speak and will be called on in the order of their hands raised. Please stay within the time limit that's established for today's meeting, and a countdown timer will be shown on the screen. If you're connected live on Zoom, the timer is accurate with no delay. Today's meeting is also streamed live on the city's YouTube account at YouTube.com/slash city of Monterey with about 10 seconds delay and on Comcast Channel 25 with up to 90 seconds delay. And as always, we look forward to receiving your public comments. Thank you, Clementine. And with that, we will go to public comment for items that are not on today's agenda. So for non-agendized items, we'll open the floor for each person that wishes to speak for three minutes. Hi. Gene Rash, Monterey Vista. I just want to clarify. I don't want to pull number four from the consent calendar. So I'm just making a general statement about it that's applying to the ordinance for procedures for board and commissions and committees. I've said it before. It's very important that it not be just one person that interviews the candidates. And it's very important that it not be just one person, even our beloved mayor who sends a nomination up to council. And I've said this before, and I know you've all thought about it. And I think you probably agree, but every time we talk about it, it gets very burdensome. How do you stretch even farther? How do we organize this? And I have an idea that probably could be very improved upon. And if we had a link on the website where where all the committees are listed and where the public gets information about the vacancies, if there could be a link that um someone keeps up, I'm sorry, Clementine. Um might have to be you that says Jean. I apologize. I should I have to stop you because you are commenting on something that's on the agenda. So what we'll do is we'll go ahead and pull it so that you can finish your comments. Okay.