Good evening and welcome to the City of Novado Council meeting for Tuesday, September 9th.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible liberty, as us for all.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eklund.

Present.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Present.

Councilmember Milberg.

Present.

Mayor Tem Farak, present, and Mayor O'Connor.

Present.

Thank you.

That passes 5-0.

The city council did meet in closed session this evening.

There's nothing to report out at this time.

The council will hold another closed session upon adjournment of the open session this evening.

Moving on to approval of the final agenda.

Can I have a motion?

I would like to move the agenda with the change.

Um that I am here.

I don't need to be remote.

So I'd like to uh remove that item from the agenda.

So a motion to approve the removal G2.

Second by Council Member.

If you'd call the vote, please, Laura.

Councilmember Eklund.

Aye.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Aye.

Councilmember Milberg.

Aye.

Mayor Temperat.

Aye.

And Mayor O'Connor.

Hi.

Zero.

Next uh reports from City Council and City Manager, starting with the City Manager Cunningham.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't have any reports tonight.

Thanks.

Councilmember Milburg.

Thank you, Mayor.

First report was on Wednesday, the 27th, joined by three of my council member colleagues for the North Bay Children's Center ribbon cutting event.

It's been now titled the Al and Lisa Brayton campus.

It was also the official launch of their innovative learning lab.

And Eric Lucan spoke, Josh Friday spoke, Jennifer Newsom Siebel spoke.

She is now the first partner with Governor Newsom.

And it was joyous.

It was really a life-changing beginning for generations to come.

Extremely proud of what what's been built here in Novado.

And uh I'm I'm so excited because it is an intergenerational change.

And to watch the children's uh faces and to see the enthusiasm about learning how to uh garden and how to cook uh is extremely gratifying.

So that's that was on the uh 27th.

On the 28th, there was a leadership nevato alumni reception at Valley Memorial Park.

It was really well attended.

There was tons of fun.

Um I want to thank Kim Staley and her colleagues for putting passion and excellence into their leadership Novato program.

Also, went to a chamber of networking at Vinnie G's on Thursday, the fourth.

Um, a lot of energy in the room.

It's really kind of fun to watch to see the business buzz that's going on uh in the community.

Dale Klein and Christine Mendez are fantastic collaborators.

Thank you so much.

And then I attended the U.S.

Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team Sailor of the Quarter Award on Friday the 5th with Petty Officer First Class Jordan Emily Smith being awarded.

Um for those of you who haven't seen it, it's it's an amazing place right in in Hamilton at hangers one and two.

They have so much pride of uh team there, and they're led by commander Ryan Clark, and also the Navy League partnership is very strong there.

Um, and we've enjoyed that.

I also went to the Ember stop on the 6th of uh Saturday the 6th with Fire Safe Moran putting that on.

There was some incredibly unbelievably unbelievable boost with the tenants was great.

The Marin Wildfire Protection and our local police and fire attended, and um really want to have a shout-out to everybody who was there.

I tried to get Bill Tyler to participate in the uh dunk contest that was held, but he refused.

So maybe next year we can get him to do that.

Um, and then lastly, I attended the TAM uh executive committee for the administrative programs and planning, and um just a couple quick things.

There's finally, if you can believe it, finally, on October 3rd at 10 a.m.

at all and poly state park will be the ribbon cutting for the uh Novato Narrows finally being done.

So please attend that again.

It's on uh October 3rd at Olin Pali.

Um, they're also concerned about some of the reauthorization of the transportation bill.

Um there's been some uh, if you will, claw back from the governor on certain uh monies that that they were looking at a $750 dollar loan is being clawed back.

So things are are challenging right now, and I think um it's it's incumbent upon all of us to you know keep paying attention to what's going on and for me personally to offer what I can.

Uh there's also a the ride share month is in October, uh, as well.

There's a third annual cleanup, uh Clean Fleet Expo on October 8th, the Marin Civic Center.

Um the last thing I did want to mention I didn't mention uh prior was that did attend the uh hot amphitheater nights, and I want to thank Katie Gauntlet and her team, especially Stephanie, uh, for being amazing employee and doing everything with her staff to make those event nights uh historic.

So thank you so much.

Thanks for time.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Councilmember Jacobs.

Oh, thank you.

Um I feel like I followed around uh Councilmember Milberg.

Um but I'll hit on a few other things.

I toured the uh Ames Institute over in Richmond, and then we traveled over to their new building, which is the Birkenstock slash McGraw Hill building that they recently purchased, and we did a full tour of that to see what they're gonna be doing, and it's very exciting that that property is going to be outfitted for a museum in the future with a uh gift shop and a coffee shop or gift shop and a restaurant.

Um I too attended the leadership alumni and kickoff, uh North Bay Children's Center Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting also.

Um staff appreciation event.

I attended and we toured the facility.

I attended night out, which was right out here in the parking lot, which was a great event, and of course, Ember Stomp.

And I also attended last weekend the annual LEDA fundraiser in Mill Valley.

It's a wonderful organization, and they had a stellar crowd.

It was sold out, and uh they got a lot of money for their for their group, which was wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Eckland.

Uh thank you very much.

Um, first of all, as everyone could notice, I'm I've only got one functioning right arm.

Um, on August 2nd, I had the uh opportunity to fracture my left shoulder.

So that allowed me to spend some time in the hospital and some time recouping.

But um uh it's amazing, even though it was August was supposed to be a month off for us, um, there was still a lot of meetings that I was able to still attend thanks to the laws that allow us to do it virtually, which um, my mind's okay, it's just my body was a little bit affected.

Um so anyway, so we had several Bay Conservation Development Commission meetings, and I have to tell you the biggest uh meeting I've ever seen was the whole decision and and hearing about the Centerville Richmond Bridge.

Um, and that was one of the issues that we tackled at the uh Bay Conservation Development Commission, and uh the commission um thank goodness um uh did agree that um the lane for vehicles should be opened.

Um, and so that's really gonna help a lot of the people that are trying to work into Marin and Sonoma from getting from elsewhere.

Um we also had a bye conservation and development commission sea level-wise working group meeting.

Um we actually had two of them during the month of August, which was a lot of fun.

Um we also had another commission meeting where we talked about the um Hayward Marsh, but also too, we did approve the San Francisco Waterfront Special Area Plan, um, which uh really I think it's gonna bring a lot more tourism to San Francisco, you know, given that they already probably have a lot already.

Um and I did also attend the Highway 37 meeting, and and um uh that was on video or on Zoom, and also the San Francisco Estuary Partnership uh meeting.

So those are the ones that I've attended, and um it's actually been um uh an opportunity uh uh to spend a little bit more time with my mom while I'm healing, because I'm healing at her place uh because she does have caregivers and they can help me um make some food.

Uh my mom, if you don't know, uh turned 98 in January of this year, um and um so she's uh kicking the pants, I tell you.

She's telling me a lot of what I need to do better.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, like my colleagues, I attended the North Bay Children's Center Grant opening, and also um did the Ames tour, and it's really exciting what's gonna be there.

Um also had a lot of community meetings, including the AMG owner, North Marin Community Service CEO, and then met with the community action marin CEO.

Um so those were effective, and then also I'm gonna hold office hours on this Friday, 1 to 1:30 at Trailhead.

Um, community members want to stop by and talk to me.

I'm available.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I don't have a report out this evening, so that concludes the reports from City Council and City Manager.

We'll move on to public comment.

So this is general public comment for items that are not on the agenda or for items that are listed on the consent calendar.

This evening we'll have a one-minute and thirty-second time in that because the council has a larger amount of remaining items to discuss in the meeting and also on the following and closed session.

Our first speaker this evening is Nick M.

Welcome, Nick.

Hello, everybody.

I hope I'm not going to be too loud.

Um, my name is Nick, and I'm a City of Navado employee in Unit D.

And I really appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight.

I wanted to come here today to express the gratitude that I feel with that the most recent proposal unit D is offering, may be considered by the City Council.

Our bargaining team has worked hard to come up with creative solutions in our offers and to do so in good faith.

Contracts come in all different shapes and sizes.

We employees in unit D are the lowest paid and are only asking for what's fair, which is the median of what similar positions are paid in comparable agencies.

The financials are close, and this is how our unit wants the money used.

Investing in the community of Novato means to invest in us, the workers.

The well-oiled machine that keeps the community running.

That's what we're here for after all.

Please consider the proposal set forth by Unit D.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Nick.

Our next speaker is Robbie Palison.

Welcome, Robbie.

Thank you.

I was just uh invited by some people to come here today and just speak about the encampment at Hamilton that is uh, just give a little bit of context to people who have been expressing uh a little bit of uh fear about people living.

So obviously people living outside is a difficult situation.

Everybody would like to have housing.

But um after the closure of Camp Compassion, not a lot of options, and so when uh when our people moved over to Hamilton, we went through a disability interactive process with the city.

Um we've been working on working with the city, finding solutions to mitigate impacts to the larger community, and I just um I want people to understand that um, you know, just everybody here today because I know there's people here to speak against the camp that people are doing the best we can with limited resources, and um we you know we will always welcome creative solutions.

We have a barbecue every Sunday, four o'clock.

You're all welcome to come to that, it's open to the public.

Uh cook a good brisket.

You guys can have some of that.

That's it.

Thank you, Robbie.

Our next speaker is Jennifer Mallow.

Good evening, welcome, Jennifer.

Um, I've been reading on next door and seeing a lot of people that are complaining about the Hamilton encampment as whole.

I've seen the pictures that have been posted.

And I just wanted to clarify that there's been no increase at the skate park to our residents.

They remain at seven people from Camp Comp compassion that are still waiting for housing and signed up for services.

There's no increase, the RV picture is completely false.

That was somebody just driving through the parking lot.

So when you see these pictures, I'm asking that you please take into consideration that that's one person's perspective.

And maybe there was an RV looking for directions at the skate park.

That doesn't mean that they're living there.

You know, so the information that's being presented to you isn't always in true light.

And these people deserve your protection and your empathy and support.

I'm imploring you guys to come up with solutions instead of continuing to criminalize our people that are outside.

They're just as much your constituents as we are.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Our next speaker is Jason Service.

Good evening, good evening, everyone.

I just want to let you know that hey, we're we're trying the best we can right now.

You know, when we had to leave uh Leonor Park, we did so willingly.

We didn't have any issues with that.

Um, we're kind of in a rock in a hard spot, we're looking for safe harbor.

Um, we need to be close to uh we have people that are in wheelchairs.

Um, we need to be close to like basic human rights, you know, like a porta potty or drinking fountain.

Um, we are having trouble, like we can't really go into the marsh because those are that's pre-existing camp that has state uh encampment resolution funds that caps the amount of people at a camp, and so you know, um, plus we have people with mobility issues, so it's really tough for us to go there.

Um there's just not really a lot of options for us right now, but we're trying to work with the city with the police.

Um, we have, you know, we're open to any solutions.

I know those Mike McGuire funds, they're still available through the county, and so um, you know, I would I would like you know to explore some options there, but I I just want to reiterate that everybody at our camp is uh enrolled in coordinated entry, they are um some of them have casework.

We're you know, they're doing all they can to get housing, um, as well as most of the people in the uh the Hamilton Marsh as well.

Um, there's funding there specifically for that, and that almost all of them have caseworkers, so like we all know what's going on with the federal landscape right now.

Funding is uh short or getting cut.

Um, you know, when there's nowhere legal for anywhere to go, people to go, it really makes things tough.

But you know, our camp was basically a housing program, and those people were in there for that purpose, and so I'm sorry.

I'm just hoping this city will work with us to try to find something and willing to meet any time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Heidi.

Welcome, Heidi.

Thank you.

Um, I was raised in Marin and I raised my family here in Nevado, have lived here for 25 years, and I hear both from SCIU members and from members of the community.

We want equity and we want fairness.

I think it sends a terrible message to sign a contract with the police unions and not with SEIU for the people that really support our community.

I'm here tonight to also talk about the encampment.

This council criminalized being homeless in Novato, and people on the council like Councilman Milberg is saying he's running on a platform for supervisor for solutions for homelessness.

So that doesn't really match up.

So show show me your integrity.

You are the city, so do something to help these people.

Councilperson Eckland said she wanted 100% housing from Camp Compassion.

Folks moved on their own.

We rented a U-Hall.

People moved before they were evicted, and the city isn't doing anything to help them.

They need to be helped.

Let's get to that 100%.

We want to see your empathy, your compassion, and your integrity that were probably all reasons that you ran for public service.

So we have different ideas, and you'll hear ideas tonight from people.

Everyone wants safety.

Everyone wants to be treated with dignity and respect.

The members of SEIU want to be treated with dignity and respect and paid fairly.

Unhoused people want to be treated like people.

So let's do that.

Let's start housing people.

Because even if you hear tonight from people that they don't feel safe in their community with unhoused people living there, if we house them, everyone's needs will be met.

So you shut down the housing and homeless committee and didn't let them present their tiny homes plan.

Let's get this going.

Let's house people.

Let's have dignity and respect for your city workers, unhoused people, and everyone in Novato.

It will make all of our lives better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Heidi.

Our next speaker is Perry Sue.

Welcome, Perry.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm a recreation supervisor, city employee for 27 years and member of Unit D.

I appreciate the chance to speak tonight.

After six months of labor negotiations, Unity continues to work in good faith towards a fair contract, representative of the median of comparable public agencies.

During this time, many employees have separated, some consider whether they can stay, while many others find themselves looking elsewhere for employment.

It is unfortunate to see that employees face these struggles.

It makes me wonder if there isn't more that could be done.

The city itself has actually identified the challenges with recruitment and retention, making adjustments to labor contracts, adjusting equity for open positions, and then doing what they can to retain employees.

Well, it seems clear that the challenge of recruitment and retention has increased in recent years.

The city council also has an opportunity unique to this time and relevant to labor negotiations.

You have the chance to build on a foundation of pride, effort, and confidence in the city of Nevado and its employees.

The same employees that have demonstrated over years and through the Measure M campaign last year, that they place a high value on their work and commitment to Novato.

I hope that you will make the strongest consideration to invest in what is possible for the future of Novato.

One that values dedication and commitment and one that maintains a strong relationship with its workforce and community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Perry.

Our next speaker is Brian Skinner.

Welcome, Brian.

I'm here to speak about the Hamilton homeless situation again.

Two weeks ago.

Can you speak into the microphone, please?

Two weeks ago, we showed how bad it is.

It's a direct result of the city's actions in other parts of Novato, and it's getting worse with each week.

So there's real urgency here.

My involvement dates to July.

I returned from a trip and found a new burn area in the marsh that's about 20 yards by 30 yards.

And since then I've really learned how powerless some of you feel.

Um very political, you know.

I'm on your side, I agree with you, but I'm only one vote on the council.

Or the legal gray area about enforcing a no camping ordinance.

This isn't a law on the books from 1914 that everyone knows you just ignored.

This is an ordinance passed by four out of five of you nine months ago.

It priority prioritizes cases of safety or environmental risks, both of which apply to Hamilton.

Why pass it if you intend to ignore it?

Um I was told that while no camping ordinance would be enforced, no new encampments would be taken seriously.

Yet one shows up by the skate park.

Maybe that's okay because they move from somewhere else in Novato.

Or I report one that's at the base of Ammo Hill over a half mile away from other tents and from bathrooms.

Nothing is done.

Uh more concerning is many other laws are broken and ignored, and what the police tell the people who report these crimes.

You can't do anything because it's a city issue.

Even someone was told this about indecent exposure and solicitation of a minor.

So real crimes.

But I want to end on some thoughts of compassion.

Three weeks ago, one of the homeless in Hamilton died.

It's not compassionate to allow this to happen.

We all want great long-term solutions and support for them.

Homewards like programs like homeward bound.

The city is sabotaging these programs by allowing these encampments.

One pastor, uh city official went on of the marsh.

An individual was recognized as someone who had failed out of homeward bound just a few months ago.

It'd simply move to the encampment.

I'm sorry, Brian, I'm afraid you're at time.

So to conclude, it hurts programs like homeward bound that this is allowed to happen right nearby.

Other places will see this and say we're not allowing homeward bound or other programs like that in my community.

Look what happened in Hamilton Novato.

Thank you, Brad.

Our next speaker is Jana Blunt.

Welcome, Jonathan.

Okay.

He was tall.

Okay.

So hi there, my name's Jana.

Um we're here tonight to thank you, your council members to finally get our bargaining update onto your calendar.

We're really grateful for that.

We know it's gonna be a late night for each of you, so we really it really does mean a lot to us.

Um, you know, for a few weeks now, the conversation at our bargaining table is no longer about affordability or cost, which is really refreshing.

It's just about our preferred appropriation of the funds.

Our membership wishes to prioritize external agency equity now that we can finally accomplish that for the first time in recorded history here.

It's very exciting.

It means different colas, but greater equity adjustments.

The individual amounts and the application are different, but the actual total cost difference between our packages is now negligible.

You'll see that tonight.

We don't need to go to impasse or mediation, we don't need to quibble over the budget.

The hard work has been done, and we need you to sign off on this.

After getting confirmation of the costing from your own bargaining team, both of our bargaining teams need you to approve this proposal.

There's never been a time at any SCIU chapter where the contract that we ratify is the same as the other units.

Sometimes it's a little worse, sometimes it's a little better, but it's always different.

What we need versus what the police need are a little different.

We aren't them, they aren't us.

They've got perks that we don't get, we've got some perks that they don't want.

It's just the way it goes.

Every unit's different, has different individuals and different needs.

That's where we're at, though.

We have an actual deal.

We can be done.

If you tentatively agree on this, um, if we can do so at our next bargaining session, we can get it voted on by our members and ratified by you at circus seniors' convenience.

So the most important thing is to not let any concerns about your other unit's framework get in the way of this deal.

This is simply the appropriation that our members want and need to get the best recruitment and retention for unit D jobs.

Unit D will be able to stop fighting for their livelihoods and get back to work, which is what we all want most.

I have eight copies of this.

Your bargaining team can confirm that this costing is correct because it came from them.

It's just a breakdown of the costs for both of the packages.

You'll see that they are essentially the same cost.

It's just applied just a little bit differently.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Our next speaker is David Tillotson.

Welcome, David.

Hi.

Um, well, I guess I don't want to talk about the marsh.

No, I work all day.

I don't have a visual here because the person I live with passed away.

Yeah.

You know, uh I couldn't afford to keep it, so I ended up homeless.

I don't like uh some the practices that now we're boundaries, we don't get along.

I have a little PTFTSD with them.

So I try to camp.

I know it is not the best situation.

It's better than League and Park, I guess, though, for everybody else.

Except for the residents from out there, but I'm not there all the time.

And it's really success.

If it was to come down this because it's people that actually are trying to not be homeless.

I don't want to be homeless.

59 years old.

But I just have to be that way.

I'm trying to get out of it the best I can do.

Yeah.

But no, I can't, I gotta worry about all this.

Understood.

I'm gonna go to work, try to go to work tomorrow, and wonder if I come back, all my stuff's gonna be gone.

But what's gonna happen?

It was helping me.

This town didn't need to be like I was born on the Air Force base.

I've been here all the time.

Yeah, well, 59 years.

I don't remember the town being like uh they wouldn't let people be out in a harm's way that by 20 years now.

It's really disappointing.

Thank you, David.

And then our next speaker is Joan.

Welcome, Joe.

Good evening, council.

First of all, I'd like to say that uh we are concerned about the encampments and what the city's doing about them.

But uh and we are not without compassion.

We care for everyone, whether they're housed or unhoused, um, and are quite concerned.

This is not a place by the skate park and in this wetlands area.

It's not a place where people should be living.

So I'm here to ask the council to communicate what steps they are taking to close down the encampments in Hamilton and safely relocate those living there.

At the last meeting, several of us shared a wide range of health and safety concerns impacting both housed and unhoused residents.

We've heard nothing.

Other cities all over California are taking action to address the same challenges, and yet in Novato things are getting worse, not better.

We see fires glowing, and I guess their fires or their lanterns at night, and the encampment seems to be growing.

I'm not going out counting people, but all I see is more and more temps.

There may be the same people with more temps.

I don't know.

But we need you to take action, and we need you to get the police to enforce the rules that are in place, and so that everyone can have a better future and a better situation.

As I say, we're not without compassion, but this is not a place for people to be living.

And it's up to you.

Only you can take action and do something about this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes in-person public comments.

We'll take remote public comment.

Laura, if you'd like to make a comment, please use the raise hand button on Zoom.

Laura, if is there anyone looking to speak?

There are no raised hands on Zoom.

Thank you.

Okay, that will conclude public comment.

We'll move on to the consent calendar.

I'll move the uh consent calendar.

Second.

Laura, if you please call the vote.

Councilmember Eklund.

Aye.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Hi.

Councilmember Milberg.

Mayor Pier Temp Ferrat.

Aye.

And Mayor O'Connor.

Hi.

Passes 5-0.

Thank you.

Our next item of business is J1.

Receive a presentation and consider adopting a resolution accepting the Novato Chamber of Commerce.

Annual Tourism Report Committee report for fiscal year 2425 and tourism budget for 2526.

And welcome to Kate McCoy, our principal management analyst to introduce the item.

Welcome, Kate.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Kate McCoy.

I'm the new principal management analyst with the city manager's office here.

And tonight you'll be hearing and receiving a presentation through the tourism committee report for uh uh 24 to 25, as well as the fiscal or the budget for 25-26.

Um we will be having uh Christina uh Mendez with the Novato Chamber presenting tonight on behalf of the Tourism Committee.

Um but before I begin, just for a little bit of context, um, you know, I wanted to acknowledge that the city and the chamber have been working together since 1987, um, and then they renewed the contract uh with the tourism committee uh for tourism-related items in 2022.

Um through and through this new agreement, we are supporting the visitor center, the kiosk program, and other broader tourism strategies.

Um, but this is also a point where uh we're also starting a renewed chapter of this collaboration in just the last three months.

The city has brought on new staff, myself included, and formed a restructured economic development team.

And this new alignment is helping to better connect tourism efforts with our larger economic development goals and community engagement strategies.

Um we recognize how important tourism is to Novato's economy and not just for visitors but for our local workforce and business sectors.

When we strengthen tourism, we strengthen the city as a whole.

And with that, I will hand it over.

Oh, okay, okay.

So we also have um Garrett uh Girlou, who is the chair of the tourism committee, and he will be presenting tonight.

Oh, yes, and the um clicker is up there.

Good afternoon.

Sorry if I just got here in time coming from Auburn, uh a little late, but thank you.

Um again, my name is Garrett Garillo.

I'm chair of the tourism committee, also the uh the owner of the local Best Western Novato Oaks Inn.

Uh, been part of the community for many years, many, many years.

Um, so we'll get started here.

Um, so as I'm sure you're all aware, um, the city has contracted uh with the chamber to divide visitor services to visitor promoting services to uh to the city.

Um the chamber turned around and formed a tourism committee, and I'm the chair of that committee, as I mentioned.

Uh the committee is comprised of local hotel owners and managers, as well as visitors serving professionals, all volunteers, which allows us to spend our money really very efficiently.

Now, quickly sort of go through our marketing activities for the most uh recent fiscal year.

First of all, we have our in-person visitor service at the chamber that we're providing for many years.

Uh we have some highway signage, some signage at the chamber itself, and get really thousands of inquiries every year.

Um, it's nice to sort of leverage that chamber building use for other purposes.

It doesn't cost the chamber much of any or cost the visitor committee much of anything to have that service.

We have an outdoor kiosk at the back of the chamber offices.

Hopefully, you've seen that, um, as I'll talk about later.

We actually spent a lot of money refurbishing it, uh, which allows uh really 24-hour day, 365 days a week access.

Over the years, they've becoming increasingly digital.

Uh in fact, probably about 80 percent of our efforts are now really digital marketing, and we'll review some of those here now.

Um here's a few of the um ad campaigns we ran in the current year.

Um, then folks campaigns, activity folks campaigns, seasonal campaigns.

Um we work principally with kiosk um locally in town, they have offices just down the street here.

Um they do a great job for us.

Uh they live in the community that know the community, uh they're compassionate about the community.

Um, and frankly, they give us a real good deal as well, sort of a home discount.

So, we think we really stretch our dollars very well with them.

We promote citywide events, of course, um, through no uh through visit of auto.com.

Um, and it's it's really frankly a great resource, not only for for outside visitors, but really locals as well.

Here's some of the other local events that we promote.

So our efforts are really highlighted typically, the one of two areas.

Typically we'll focus on downtown and sort of the act the everything to do downtown and also sort of the natural beauty of Novato.

And here's sort of an example of that.

Really, the way we met one of the ways we measure our success is really hotel referrals.

You know, our principal charge is to drive overnight hotel accommodations.

Um we measure that success by how many people we drive to hotel websites.

Now, unfortunately, because most of the hotels locally are branded, we don't have information on exactly how many stays that converts to, but as you can see here, we drove almost 50,000 clicks to hotel websites, really directly attributed to our marketing activities.

New to the past fiscal year was sort of advertising we did within the Sonoma County Airport, um 106,000 travelers uh over that period in January, just really only a brief period in January where the ads displayed around 13,000 times.

We felt that was really great exposure for for Novato.

Also, really began last year, but really um continued this year with the Craft Craft Beer Campaign.

Um we put more energy into the campaign this past fiscal year.

Um, we spent a lot of time advertising, uh, really local hotels brought up promote it, um, have a flyer that you can see at local craft breweries, um, and it's really been very successful with a lot of interest um on social media.

Influencer campaign.

Um this was interesting, very interesting to me because we had never got involved with this, and it certainly uh kiosk encouraged us to take a look at this.

And just really recently, just in June of this past year, we selected three different influencers from I believe a panel of six.

Um, all of GIF and target markets, um, each of the hotels or many of the hotels agreed to offer free accommodations to the influencers.

They came out here either as a couple or as a family and blogged about Novato, and it was really fantastic to see really how much traction that gained in in the local community with Instagram followers increasing by 64%, and also a dramatic growth in TikTok, our TikTok audience, which was new to us as well this past year.

Here's a few different influencer campaigns.

Influencer campaigns.

Umdates, we um as I said earlier, you know, really most of our attention is on digital uh advertising, but we still do have some print media.

We find it we don't go through it nearly as quickly as we did in the past, and it can be problematic because it gets dated.

But nevertheless, it is a component we need to continue to look at.

At some point, we'll probably move away from this, but it's still an infected media.

As I mentioned earlier, we spent a fair amount of money updating the outdoor kiosk.

Hopefully, you've had a chance to take a look at it, but it really looks terrific.

And example, social media growth.

As I mentioned earlier, we we got into TikTok most recently this year, and um largely thanks to the influencer campaigns.

We've we've seen some tremendous growth there.

Um, grown substantially this year.

That's what we're up to.

So in summary, here you can see I mentioned the hotel referral earlier, 47,000.

Uh we had 59,000 unique visitors to our website.

Um, ad clicks from Papercliff Advertising, almost 9,000.

I mentioned the social media followers, and then about what 338 downloads from brochures at Visit Novato.

For a total of 145,000 engagements over this past fiscal year.

Future marketing plans.

Continuing to focus uh our advertising dollars on driving traffic through the reservation page and on hotels.

Uh, that's going to continue to be our focus.

We'll continue to provide the in-person visitor services at the chamber.

And of course the outdoor kiosk, which has been recently remodeled.

We did some short-form videos this past year for the first time, and they're really very successful.

And we're finding that more and more that's what's needed in our social media social media advertising.

And so we recently contracted with a firm that did some work here at the Art and Wine Festival, and they gave us a great deal on some so some short form um videos in the current year, which would be fantastic to use on our ads.

Social media campaigns again, you know, it insert in TikTok, which we're emphasizing more this year this fiscal year than we had in the past.

We've we've seen that the good some good returns there, and so we'll continue to do that.

And as I mentioned, the influencer campaign, we're definitely going to be pursuing that again this past year.

We haven't made any selections this year, but something we're definitely going to do with at least three different influencers again, and perhaps a repeat of one of them.

And let's see, we have here um, yeah, just just continued social media advertising here.

And and you know, we found that time and time again, it seems that sort of the romantic themed ads seem to get the most traction, and we'll continue to pursue those.

And then finally here, this is actually something that was brought up by a um a leadership class a couple years ago, uh, needing really more diversity and inclusion in our advertising.

So we did make a number of changes uh that you'll see if you go to the visit model site, and that'll continue to be uh an emphasis going forward.

And group bookings, um, we're finding more and more, it's taken a while post COVID, but um we're putting more emphasis on group bookings, um, especially in wedding groups, local wedding groups, and that is it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Uh, bring it back to council for any comments or questions.

Please use the raise hand button.

Uh, Mayor Pro Tem Farek.

Yeah, thank you so much for the um presentation.

Just um one question I had.

Um, we have a new economic development manager.

Have you engaged with her at all?

And um, are you gonna be strategizing together to enhance tourism?

Yeah, good question.

We have not, although Christina mentioned that, yeah.

I think it's something forthcoming.

Yeah, good evening, council.

Yes, um, so I am currently sit on edac and have met with um Katie.

Katie Sherping, and then um we are planning on having the tourism committee actually give this same presentation to edac and get um any kind of um feedback from them.

So it's in the works.

Okay, and then another question.

Sorry, um, I know we the council voted in um we're a pet inclusive city and we're identifying businesses and stuff like that, and I think um is there any ideas about like traveling with your pet and that sort of thing as far as like social media and stuff?

Yeah, I mean it's a good question.

We we haven't pursued that to date, but it's certainly something we could look into.

Um, some hotels take pets, others don't.

Um, and so we usually try to focus on activities that relate to all properties, uh, but it's certainly something we could look at going forward.

Yeah, the uh Humane Society established overlink rate program, um, they have their own website and stuff, and that might be an area opportunity, and definitely um I think it would grow a different dynamic effort.

Different segments.

Sure.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Council Member Milberg.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I noted it.

You were talking about uh trying to start to go to more trade shows this coming year, and I just was curious if you have any of those targeted, which trade shows you're thinking of.

Yeah, that's been difficult.

It's, you know, again, post-COVID, they they haven't come back yet.

We we actually tried a virtual trade show a couple years ago, and it was a complete disaster.

Um there is we may be going to an influencer trade show.

Um, and that is something we're looking to partner perhaps with the MCB on.

Um still in the works, yet we're largely sort of writing their coattails.

They haven't made a decision on that yet.

And if it does happen, it would probably be after the first of the year.

And is it possible that we can actually maybe even host one?

You can host one in Nevada?

Well, the trade shows I'm speaking about are large trade shows, things one of them is called IPW, where you know thousands of uh you know, tour operators all gather in one area.

So um the ones we're typically focused on are trade shows hosted in large cities.

Um I don't think we're in a position that host that type of trade.

Not a large one, but I'm thinking maybe even something smaller and in focus, perhaps.

I'll leave it up to you guys to think about that.

Yeah, I would sort of, you know, we've um in the past we've called those sort of fam tours, uh, where we'll invite you know travel agent things out to Novato and take them out to the cheese factory and in in two around Novado.

Something like that is um certainly a possibility, yes.

Okay.

Um, also, just because my own personal interest, is there any tie-in potentially with the all trails?

Um, the appelltrails app?

Yeah, because I think it's a great app, and I just was wondering if that's time.

That's a great thought.

I mean, because as I mentioned earlier, you know, we emphasize Novato in nature, and it would make a lot of sense to to tie that into the website.

I don't know, is that a paid subscription?

I'm not sure how that works.

I thought about it.

Well, they have a free one and then they have a small paid and then they have a larger paid.

Yeah, and they might have something that they would be willing to do with us.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Yeah, especially maybe in a as a beer.

Yeah, but we do have uh in the microphone, please.

I'm so sorry.

My mom always tells me I'm loud, so I figure everyone can hear me.

Um we do have a QR code for visitors who do come to the office, so that when they do come, a very common question that we get all the time is like, where are the hiking trails?

Which one's the best one?

And I'm like, just throw, you know, they're everywhere.

So we actually do use all trails almost you know weekly at the chamber office.

We have a QR code that people can download the app and use the free version or get the paid subscription.

It'd be nice to have that in reverse, have somewhere for you to be able to advertise on all trails potentially for people to do that.

Definitely something to look into.

Thank you so much.

And then um, any coordination with the residents in.

Um, I know that there was a you know, the overall TOT revenue was flat year over years, what I understand, with the residents in opening in December.

Um, but I'm just curious given that you know they are is there in regards to specifically to hotel referrals.

Is there any coordination that you're doing with them, or is it all kind of individually done from their perspective?

Do you know?

Yeah, in terms of referrals, the reality is I mean, the the residents in is a Marriott brand, and then we have the local courtyard marriage.

So the referrals that are happening locally are really happening between those two hotels.

Okay.

Um we've certainly engaged with the um the general manager and the sales manager at the residence, but they've had a lot of turnover recently.

Um so we have although we connected with them early on, we've sort of lost touch of them.

Actually, there is one individual who's sort of from corporate office that we've communicated with, but you know, when our most recent efforts are that hey, let us get our feet you know under us here, and then we'd be happy to sort of participate with you guys.

Okay, and and lastly, I'm just kind of curious.

Um, I know since my tenure on the council, the philosophy's always been beds and heads, and and to really push to have that hotel referral.

But I guess I'm just gonna throw something out to you, not to say that I'm you know 100% tied to the concept, but I believe there's more day trips going to go on, especially with the smart train uh, you know, we're getting a lot over over a million people traveling this year and 1.3 million projected for next year.

So I guess I'm curious, short of beds and heads, where they're gonna come and want to spend money, especially if the rancho goes to fruition and other things that we're trying to build here.

Um, is there a way to have, I mean, I know that's your primary metric, but is there a way to have a submetric that you can kind of talk about?

Non-beds and heads, but people are still coming and generating residents.

Yeah, no, definitely.

And we do that, you know, we we talk a lot about this at the committee level.

You know, we need to maintain our sort of our heads and beds focus, but at the same time, we recognize that you know what what helps get heads in beds is an attractive downtown and getting people into downtown.

And so we have done um a number of things, you know, our sponsorship of Bart and Wine, of um Nostalgia Days, um, and just sort of other things.

Um, you know, more recently, tree lighting stuff, that's something.

Yeah, so I I guess you know, we're we're sort of um approved uh a sponsorship of tree lighting downtown, which is not exactly heads and beds, but it helps to sort of you know make Novato downtown Novato attractive and helps drive visitors to Novato.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you, Councilmember Jacobs.

Thank you.

Um thank you for your presentation.

Um so this is something I've asked for a number of years, and and it's been shot down, not by you.

Um I went on AI and Google and searched gateway to the wine country, and it came up and it said, uh, you're visiting the visiting Novato is a gateway to Napa Sonoma regions of the San Francisco Bay.

And then it goes on to say um a little bit about Petaluma.

And it says specific gateways to the wine country, Novato.

This city is Marin County in Marin County, provides access to both Napa and Sonoma counties, and is known for its affordability and access to coastal and country landscapes.

And every time I've brought this up in the past, gate, we are the gateway to the wine country.

We're 45 minutes to Napa, 40 minutes to Sonoma, 40 minutes to uh north of Santa Rosa, uh Healdsburg, Mendocino, and the coast, and it's never been used by tourism, chamber, downtown business, anybody.

Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that.

So um we recently fairly recently redefined the rub site, and and one of the things we we need to recognize at a committee was you know, Novato by itself is not a destination, and we benefit from our proximity to the wine country and San Francisco.

And so one of the things we did on our most recent redesign is we have a map right on the homepage.

You know, here's Novato right in the middle, and look, San Francisco here, everything you want to see is all around us.

Um, and well, we didn't necessarily emphasize gateway to the wine country, it was definitely proximity to you know, world-class destination, winery, San Francisco, which is coming back, and sort of sort of we're in the center of it all.

So, yeah, yeah, I think you're right on.

Yeah, although I think we've also emphasized San Francisco as is another destination.

But um, yeah, it's something I we I've talked about and something I think we all recognize as a committee.

Yeah, because when we were in New York, we stayed, we didn't stay in New York City.

We stayed just out of New York City.

We paid a quarter of the price for a hotel.

Yeah, we took the commuter train in, which was 30 minutes, cost me $8.

You you couldn't do any better.

Exactly.

It's an affordable alternative, for sure.

Yep.

Um and your report also says brochures are distributed to seven welcome centers and two major uh Northern California airports, Charles M.

Schultz, what other airport?

It had been San Jose.

It's it's some frankly we've discontinued now.

Okay, so that's something we've we've we've moved away from in favor of digital advertising.

Digital.

Yeah.

And you also say seven different welcome centers.

Is that still happening?

That's we've moved away from that as well.

Okay, okay, because that's in the report.

Um you talked about trade shows, we got that.

Also, whenever we're getting ready to go on a vacation, we go on YouTube and we look at videos.

And actually, I prefer the videos from the locations, not from influencers, because I'm getting, you know, everybody's got a different opinion.

And I want uh uh how can I say it?

I want a more stringent opinion from the city or the area.

Um have you thought about doing YouTube?

Honestly, no.

I, you know, um I think what was new to us this year was really TikTok.

Um, and then you mentioned it and I mentioned earlier the the the short-term videos, which are which are stage videos, but um that was really our first move away from stills.

Um we haven't gone to YouTube.

Frankly, I don't know enough about how that works from a tourism promotion side.

Um, but I'm but I tell them it's a good question.

Something we should take back to to kiosk and and see you know what we might be able to work out there.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for the report and for all of your hard work on this.

Um I also want to commend you guys for keeping your budget flat year over year, that's um undertaking, given the current climate.

I only had one question that's kind of open-ended.

Um you guys spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about this, it's your business.

When you look to council, when you think about Nevada, what's one thing we could do differently or better or change that you think would really boost tourism in Novato?

Well, um, I I think what what helps drive Nevado's helps drive hotels as well.

Um, and that is although it's not what it used to be, you really commercial traffic from companies like Biomarin.

I know they're headquartered in San Rafael now, but um really a healthy commercial segment really goes a long ways to to help hotels, and um that's I think that I'd say beyond anything else.

I mean, I go back to 2000 when we had those hospitals buildings filled with largely dot coms, and they were terrific for business.

You know, fireman's bond was terrific for business.

You know, and and unfortunately, a lot of that commercial you know, business has gone away, and and it's it's really hurt hotels.

And so I I think that commercial activity um would be you know the thing that we would be pushing most for.

Thank you.

Uh did you have another question?

Yeah, sorry, I just had another one.

Um with aims coming in.

Um I think that's gonna be a big tourist attraction.

Um how are you gonna partner with them and work with them as far as we haven't talked about it yet?

Yeah, but you're right.

It's something we will pursue for sure.

Thanks.

Oh sure, please.

Thank you.

Um I was just curious because I looked at uh the presentation and specifically on the breweries.

You know, I know there's been a lot of changes this last couple months.

So how do you do your updates?

Because I obviously somebody's looking at any value or uh, they're no longer here.

I mean, do you do you keep it up regularly or how do you do that?

That's the problem with the print.

Is because it seems like as soon as you print it, it's dated.

Um and you know, we we try to minimize that.

And sometimes we just say, well, we we need something.

Yes, it's gonna be dated.

We you know, we give something to breweries, they'll put it in their window, they'll put it on their board, and we do our best to update it, but in reality, we don't update it more frequently than annually.

Um just because we just we just don't have the resources to do that.

But um that's what we'll typically do.

We'll we'll look to an annual republication.

Um, if something looks okay after a year, then you know maybe we'll leave it alone.

But um that seems to be never the case.

I don't know if it's if it's possible to just put an asterisk in subject to change, but I think you know, not to say that beer drinkers are more upset than anybody else that has that situation, but I you know, just in good customer service, I'm just wondering if there's a way to do that.

Yeah.

Thank you though very much.

Thank you.

That concludes council questions, so we'll go to public comment.

If you'd like to speak, please fill out a yellow card and hand it to the city clerk.

Laura, do we have any requests to speak?

Okay, and then we'll go to Zoom for public.

No raised hands on Zoom.

No raised hands on Zoom either.

Okay, thank you.

We'll bring it back to Council for any additional discussion or a motion.

Okay, I'll make a motion to receive the presentation consider and to adopt a resolution accepting the Novato Chamber of Commerce, annual tourism committee report for fiscal year 2425, and the tourism budget for fiscal year 2526.

I'll second.

Thank you.

Laura, if you please call the vote.

Councilmember Eklund.

Aye.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Aye.

Councilmember Milberg?

Hi.

Thank you.

Okay.

We're going to take a five-minute recess.

We'll resume at 7 10.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we're going to reconvene.

Our next item of business is to receive a presentation regarding conceptual policies for the general plan safety element update and provide direction to staff to inform the preparation of specific policies and programs to be subsequently considered by the planning commission and city council.

I'd like to introduce Brett Walker, our senior planner to open the item.

Okay, Brett.

Thank you.

So good evening, Mayor and Council members.

So tonight the community development department has a presentation regarding the city's update to its general plan safety element to add policies and programs regarding climate change and climate adaptation and resiliency, and also to identify residential developments that have less than two evacuation routes.

We all hear regularly about sea level rise and wildfire, and those are two topics that are frequently in the news and on people's minds.

And both of those topics and a number of other topics are included in this update.

They are a planning, design, and environmental review environmental consulting firm to assist with the update.

Speaking uh tonight, we do have Jacqueline Prozmann Rohr with Placeworks, and she is here to make a presentation regarding the work completed to date with a focus on the conceptual policies that have been drafted to date.

So if council members have any immediate questions for me or staff, I can take those.

But otherwise, I would like to invite Jacqueline to make a presentation.

Thank you.

You're ready.

Thank you, Brett.

And good evening, City Council members.

So this presentation will provide an overview of the safety element update process and components, provide uh a summary of community outreach held to date and what we've heard from both the community and stakeholders, and then go over potential adaptation resilience policies for inclusion in the safety element.

Some of the slides in this presentation are fairly text heavy, but the presentation will briefly mention each step in the safety element update process, and then there'll be an opportunity for questions and comments, as Brett said.

So my name is Jacqueline Prossman Roar with Placeworks.

I'm the project manager on the consultant team.

I believe Tammy Seal is also joining us virtually.

She is the principal in charge on the consultant on the consultant team.

And now for an overview of the safety element.

So to start off with, what is a safety element?

It is one of the mandatory elements of a general plan focusing on natural and human caused hazards within and surrounding Navado.

The goal of this element is to protect the city and help increase resilience to natural disasters for residents, businesses, infrastructure, and the environment.

These hazards include flooding, wildfire, emergency evacuations, and hazards that may worsen due to climate change, such as sea level rise, extreme heat, and drought.

The safety element, which is part of the city that works section of the general plan, is just one part of Navado's overall safety or approach to protecting the community against hazards, and it integrates with several other city documents to do this.

The safety element itself is a high level broad document that discusses the city's comprehensive public safety and climate adaptation approach.

The climate action plan is a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience throughout the city.

There's also the local hazard mitigation plan, which is a more detailed short-term action plan, and the emergency operations plan, which is the city's internal plan for emergency response and recovery.

So the safety element will integrate information from these plans and tighten to them as appropriate to help create a cohesive safety approach.

Other benefits of updating the safety element include ensuring consistency with other general plan elements and city plans, incorporating the Marin County local hazard mitigation plan into the safety element, complying with government code requirements, and improving eligibility for grant funding to implement resiliency and hazard mitigation projects.

So since the previous update to the general plan, several new laws related to the safety element have come into effect.

There's a focus on climate adaptation and resilience through Senate Bill 379, requiring safety elements to prepare a climate change vulnerability assessment and develop a comprehensive set of goals policies and implementation actions to build resilience in the community.

AB 2140 allows for the incorporation of the local hazard mitigation plan, which makes the city potentially eligible for increased disaster relief funds.

Senate Bill 99 requires the identification of evacuation-constrained residential areas throughout the city, which are those neighborhoods and parcels that have less than two ingress and egress routes.

And this update also includes the integration of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority's AB 747 study and builds off of the evacuation and wildfire policies and actions that are already in the general plan.

So now for a quick overview of the climate change vulnerability assessment.

So this assessment is the main analysis conducted as part of the safety element update.

It evaluates how people and key community assets such as buildings, infrastructure, and economic systems may be affected by climate change hazards and also the degree to which they're vulnerable.

This study follows the four-step process outlined in the California Adaptation Planning Guide, including one identifying exposure to hazards.

Two, analyzing sensitivity of population and community assets, and the potential impacts of the hazards.

Three, evaluating adaptive capacity, which is the ability of populations or community assets to prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazards using existing resources, and then compiling that together to assess overall vulnerability vulnerability.

These are the climate change hazards included in the vulnerability assessment, more frequent and extreme heat events, more frequent and intense regional wildfires, increases in the frequency of drought conditions, increase increases in shoreline flooding and groundwater emergence due to sea level rise, more intense rainfall and severe weather events leading to landslide events, and the vulnerability assessment evaluated how 10 different climate change hazards may affect 58 different population groups and community assets throughout Nevado.

The VA identified several priority vulnerabilities, and these are the people, buildings, infrastructure, economic drivers, ecosystems, and key services who should be considered as the city's priorities in adaptation and resilience planning.

Identifying a population or community asset as a priority vulnerability reflects the severity of the climate change impacts and level of harm, while also considering factors such as the size of a population, the role the asset plays in maintaining community wellbeing, and the potential for the population or asset to be impacted by compounding or cascading effects of interacting hazards.

So on this slide for population vulnerabilities, the priorities include low resource households due to limited financial resources to repair and recover from hazards, low resource people of color due to historic housing patterns concentrated in hazard prone areas and potential language barriers, people with high outdoor exposure, such as outdoor workers and unhoused individuals, and older adults who may have mobility and health challenges that worsen during hazard events.

For infrastructure and services, the vulnerability assessment identified emergency services as a priority due to multiple fire stations located in flood zones and the potential for communication outages, transportation infrastructure throughout the city vulnerable to flooding, water and wastewater systems due to the risk of inundation from sea level rise by 2030, energy and communication infrastructure due to transmission lines in fire hazard zones, and homes and residential structures due to mobile home communities at high risk of extreme heat, flooding, and severe weather, and then hillside neighborhoods at risk of wildfire and landslides.

For economic drivers, the vulnerability assessment identifies healthcare facilities, major employers, and parks and recreation as priorities.

The Nevado Community Hospital is vulnerable to shoreline flooding by mid-century.

Major employers such as biotechnology companies and the Nevado Unified School District are vulnerable to power outages, transportation disruptions, and extreme heat in general.

And then 14 of the city's parks are in fire hazard zones, which can be damaged by wildfire and smoke.

For ecosystems and natural resources, the Hamilton wetlands and marshlands were indicated as priority vulnerabilities due to permanent inundation from sea level rise and the risk of drought reducing freshwater inflows.

Riparian corridors were also identified due to vulnerability to extreme flooding and drought cycles, and the potential for contamination and increased sedimentation during flooding events.

So the next section of the presentation provides a summary of community outreach completed to date for the project.

Outreach has been conducted throughout the safety element update process, with the first phase focused on collecting input on climate vulnerabilities and safety priorities, and the second phase focused on feedback on the policy concepts.

From December to March, we held six service provider meetings, and then once the vulnerability assessment report was posted on the city's website, a community-wide survey was opened between May and June.

And during the same period, a community workshop was held at City Hall.

The safety element had a separate project website, which has been updated regularly with project deliverables and community outreach summaries.

And then most recently, we've presented the Sustainability Commission and the Planning Commission to provide an overview of the project and get their feedback on the policy concepts.

So the service provider meetings covered five distinct topic areas, and participants included public agencies, special districts, and organizations providing services to the community.

In total, we spoke with representatives from 16 different service providers.

During these meetings, we learned the most vulnerable populations are aging adults, persons with chronic illnesses and disabilities, the Latinx and immigrant communities, unhoused individuals, and pregnant persons and families with young children.

We also learned that there are several critical needs or barriers, including communication gaps, infrastructure vulnerabilities, resource coordination needs, and the need for essential services.

For the community workshop and community survey, we had 14 people attend the in-person workshop and 78 people respond to the survey.

The workshop asked the same questions as the community survey to reach a wider audience.

When asked what impacts of climate hazards community members experience the most, we heard poor air quality, power outages and increased insurance costs from wildfire, disruptions to daily activities from and health concerns from extreme heat, loss of power for medical devices from public safety power shutoff events.

When asked about priority vulnerabilities, community members stated persons with chronic illnesses and disabilities, older adults and low-income households for populations, energy systems, major transit routes, and emergency services for critical infrastructure, and agriculture, outdoor recreation and health care for economic drivers.

When asked about a vision for a resilient Navado, community members said a socially connected, environmentally conscious and strategically prepared city.

So we held a study session with the Sustainability Commission on July 17th.

From that meeting, we heard strong support for backup energy and communication systems during power outages, support for limiting development in fire and flood-prone areas, concerns about fire stations and water facilities in hazard areas, a request for stronger policies focused on low-income and other vulnerable populations, a desire for clear distinction between a city action versus coordinating with regional agencies, and interest in policies related to managed retreat.

The study session with planning commission was held on August 11th, and at that meeting, we heard concerns about the long-term financial funding mechanisms to implement the safety element, interest in better understanding where vulnerable populations are in hazard zones, concern about coordination with special districts, and an interest in highlighting the role of the emergency operations center, and then interest in more detailed landslide mapping using countywide geologic stability data as well as evacuation constraint criteria.

So based on new state laws, the findings of the vulnerability assessment, and the outreach activities conducted, we've prepared the following broad policy concepts for your review and feedback.

The policy concepts are broken into seven main topics or goals in the safety element.

Two of the topics are in the current safety element, and five of the topics are new in response to Senate Bill 379.

Several of the policy topics would involve coordinating with agencies owning infrastructure or providing services to Novato, such as the Sanitary District, Nevado Fire Protection District, and North Marin Water District.

We've added those agencies or departments in parentheses after the policy topics.

So the first policy topic is drought.

These policy concepts include water efficient landscaping and water conservation, maintaining adequate water supplies and emergency response protocols during droughts, and public education around water conservation.

Next is extreme heat.

These policy concepts include passive cooling and new development, encouraging shade structures and tree plantings, backup generators at community cooling centers, integrating extreme heat into emergency response plans, including plans for outdoor workers, increasing the urban tree canopy, and ensuring grid reliability during heat waves.

Another new policy topic is emergency preparedness and response.

These concepts include coordination of evacuation plans and emergency notifications with regional agencies, adequate response times for emergency services, improving secondary evacuation routes for development, evacuation plans for those without a vehicle, and maintaining mutual aid agreements with regional agencies.

Flooded inundation hazards is an existing topic, and we've updated that we've updated as part of this project.

Policy concepts include nature-based flood protection, developing sea level rise adaptation projects for transportation infrastructure, monitoring groundwater emergence, developing a sea level rise managed retreat strategy, maintaining the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project as a natural flood barrier, limiting new critical facilities in sea level rise and emergent groundwater areas, and requiring flood resistant construction for development in low-lying areas.

Fire hazards is also an existing topic that we've updated.

Policy concepts include vegetation management plans, adequate emergency vehicle access and water supply, managing public lands to minimize wildfire risk, fire resistant landscaping, and public education on fire code requirements and defensible space.

Next is human health hazards, another new topic.

These policy concepts include monitoring and reporting and reporting new pest diseases, outdoor worker safety and training, and helping vulnerable populations connect with health care providers.

The last topic, also a new topic, severe weather.

These concepts include tree trimming programs, coordination for public safety power shutoff events, designing new development to withstand high winds, backup power systems at critical facilities, improving stormwater infrastructure and rapid debris removal during and after severe weather events.

So I'll quickly go over next steps.

We've provided a QR code and a link to the website on this slide, which includes outreach summaries from the community workshop and the community survey.

Our team will also move forward with preparing the draft safety element based on feedback received tonight, which will be out for public review in mid-September to mid-October.

The public review period will also include a community survey to receive feedback on the safety element itself.

And lastly, public hearings for the safety element are tentatively scheduled for November and December.

So with that, that concludes my presentation.

I'll turn it over back over to Brett for any questions.

Thank you very much.

I'll bring it back to council.

If you have any questions, please use the raise hand button.

And Councilmember Milberg.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for this.

This is really well done.

I really appreciate everything you put into it.

I guess I'm curious on slide 18.

There was a mention about the managed retreat component of what we're doing here.

And I'm trying to wrap my arms around that.

I'm curious as to where would be an example in your estimation of where this is happening in the city.

Or where the potential would be for this to happen in the city.

So this particular policy concept would be in areas subject to sea level rise, so the western, sorry, the eastern portion of the city along the bayfront.

There is either currently flooding in a FEMA flood hazard zone, or based on the vulnerability assessment, the projections show sea level rise would occur in 2050 or 2100.

Thank you.

And then on slide 26, on the flood and uh inundation hazards, I'm just curious because you know, near and dear to my heart and is protecting and maintaining the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project as a natural flood barrier and habitat preservation area.

I'm curious if there's a defined percentage of the total cost the city contributes to that, or is it is it not defined if you have the answer?

I yeah, I'm not aware of that as far as what that would be.

Um we'd have to look into that, I think.

Okay.

Yeah, I'd appreciate it if we can't just to understand that.

Okay.

And then we see and we have public comment on this item, and this is somebody that has uh also sent an uh email representing the um Pacheco Val Firewise Committee.

Uh Kay White is her name, and I do not believe she was able to attend tonight, but I had forwarded this, and and I know uh our city manager forwarded it on, and there was a couple points that uh um Mrs.

White was asking about that I wasn't aware how I would respond one way or the other.

So I just wanted to ask, do you know if her comments were incorporated into this uh report?

So um Miss White did participate in the community workshop that we held held here in the city council chambers back in July.

June.

Um and then she also did provide follow-up written comments to uh to me that I've also forwarded onto placeworks.

Um, so yeah, we're definitely uh we've been in contact and had some conversations with Ms.

White regarding um the fire safe um projects that she's working on there in um the Pacheco Val and um and we are taking her comments under consideration when drafting these uh policies and programs.

Okay, I appreciate it.

I kind of clarified that with her today because I was a little bit curious knowing that this had already been sent to you and that I was under the impression that it was already going to be um attended to.

So I guess maybe her point is that maybe it's not it's not that it's buried, but it's maybe a little bit further beyond where she thought was going to be more highlighted.

So her comment really was um it gives so little attention to high risk evacuation points and really the wildland urban interface communities.

And you know, I went to a fireways community member uh uh meeting with them, and the fire department was there uh and just the you know one road ingress and egress is really still a major concern.

And then she also highlighted um, you know, even though they're working with the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority and all the great fire side marines and everything else that's going on, it just felt like more perhaps on the traffic choke points for the WMPA vulnerability assessment we're in, it would be helpful to have those traffic choke points displayed as maps and the safety element by consideration for us as council members.

So I wasn't sure where the we're used to there.

I'm not here to tell you exactly what I think you should do, but I also want to make a point that uh when she saw um that the uh there was also a question around Pacheco Val, especially having PGE natural gas and electrical transmission lines in the high fire severity zones with potential landslides.

So, you know, we obviously have so much to cover, and I'm not asking for special accommodation, but um I'm really impressed not only with their firewise committee, but with Los Robles and Marin Valley Mobile Country Club, and I'm sure other areas I'm just not aware of.

So, um, being that this is a work study session, I guess I'm just gonna ask if you can still commit to furthering discussion with her as we continue this process.

Is that something you'd be able and willing to do?

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

You know, I think I think one um one idea, you know, this is a general plan level document, a program level document.

So I think the idea of identifying specific projects, that would probably be a future task down the road, given that this is the general plan program level.

And we anticipate that they will have policies and programs that will give uh direction to city staff and council on how to move forward in the future to address a lot of these, not only fire and evacuation, but I think we've got 10 different hazards that we're talking about.

But yeah, we've certainly have engaged with Ms.

White previously, and yeah, certainly open to continuing that conversation.

The last thing I'll just say is there's expanded fire season with the heat and the and the you know drought changes.

I think that was another point she was making.

But again, I just want to leave you with saying how much I appreciate the efforts here and your work, and I'm looking forward to the next step of this.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eklund.

Um thank you very much.

Uh first of all, thank you for all of your hard work on this project.

Um, and um I uh wanted to ask some questions and make some comments as well and some suggested changes.

Uh, first of all, I was kind of surprised that there wasn't any discussion here about the regional shoreline adaptation plan and that whole effort that the Bay Conservation Development Commission is leading, which is really gonna help us to identify um a lot of areas that are vulnerable to sea level rise that need to start now, planning for how those homes, structures, businesses, offices can be protected.

And I didn't really see um a lot of mention in the whole uh presentation and in the staff report um that really looked at it.

I I did download and um previewed the uh vulnerability assessment summary and thought that that was a really a good document, but um to me uh sea level rise um is more immediate than a lot of people may realize.

And when we developed the Hamilton Restoration Um project and that whole marsh there, that was intended and designed to help buffer some of the impacts of that sea level rise would have to the built environment.

And so um I'm kind of curious um uh about um those two efforts, and I know Brett, if you could address that a little bit, then I have some specifics I would like to talk about.

Yeah, yes, so uh with SB 272, that was adopted prior to the start of our process for updating the safety element, but the timing with BCDC adopting the guidelines that really drives what the those plans would look like that was still um in process when we started this process.

Um separately, city staff has been conversing with county staff and some of the other jurisdictions, uh cities within Marine County, and we've been having some preliminary conversations with them about the potential to possibly do a regional collaboration instead of having 10 or 11 different uh sub-regional shoreline adaptation plans, and those conversations are still ongoing.

Um I think this safety element update, it will have a lot of the base data that can help inform when we do get to the point when we are working on the sub-region sub-regional shoreline adaptation plan.

Um it was a little bit of a timing issue with trying to get this project forward and completed, and um, and then I think the next step is going into the SB 72 process.

Um that does have a timeline, not that we'd want to wait this long, but 2034 for the adoption of those plans.

But yeah, there's certainly those conversations going on right now.

That's great.

Um I was kind of struck um in the first paragraph under background that um evacuation um uh hazard areas that have less than two evacuation routes was mentioned twice in the first in the first paragraph.

And um I can understand that that is important and we need to focus in that, but I think on page 26 of the slide uh presentation, what's missing here?

Uh you talk.

Actually, I think we not only need to do that, but also to identify and develop options for existing housing and the built environment that are going to be confronted with sea level rise.

And I've been using Vahia sort of as a as an example because that is on the water, and you know, sea level rise of you know a couple of feet are going to have a tremendous impact on the existing environment.

But yet I didn't see anything here.

And this is a safe there's part of a safety element, to me, should have you know it's it's we're not just looking for retreat strategy here, but we're looking for some solid options so that the uh residential community as well as the built environment, the buildings, offices and stuff like that, can start really focusing on what they can do in order to slow down or uh address um sea level rise, which is gonna affect a lot more people in Novato than we um probably have an idea now.

Um, but uh kind of curious about how how we because to me that should be an integral part of this plan, but I don't see it in here at all.

Yeah, yeah.

I think uh we talked a little bit before about uh managed retreat, and I think the opposite of managed retreat you might call hardening, where you're maybe raising levies or building new infrastructure in those areas where there is a lot of expensive uh property values, homes, businesses, the hospital, um wastewater treatment plant where you've got this in uh very necessary and integrated infrastructure that does need to be um that you can't retreat from.

Right.

Um so I think that is a big part of what the program policies and programs that will come out of that will be really looking at where the areas that we can potentially do a managed retreat, maybe some of those areas that are currently used um in around Highway 37, currently used for agricultural purposes.

I think some of it's owned by the sanitary district or the water district, those might be areas that would be appropriate to uh create more wetland areas that can act as um sort of absorption for the storm surge and that sort of thing.

But are you right?

There are the other areas where we do have a lot of um monetary investment that we probably wouldn't be able to just allow to retreat from.

Yeah, and I really think that that needs to be in here.

I don't see it.

So um, and if it is in here, maybe next time just try to emphasize um some of those areas where there's gonna be a need for some structural changes.

Um maybe the houses are gonna have to be elevated.

Um maybe the the buildings are gonna have to be elevated.

Uh I this to me um uh it's uh it's a little bit more um significant, I think, than when you say a managed retreat.

It's just um uh we we may not have that choice in some areas.

So I had um some other comments too on page uh nine.

It says it says that how people and the community assets may be affected by climate change.

Um again, uh I I I think of impacts associated with this.

It's um not only how people but uh and community assets but you know the built environment and um you know the things that we value um and not only how they're gonna be affected by climate change, but especially sea level rise, but um what what can we do in order to help uh mitigate that that work and getting um closer to community or community members to actually um get them engaged and planning now for things that will take a while to get done, if at all.

I mean elevating the house, I I don't have a clue um uh if that's even possible, uh, but I would imagine it would be.

Um so I had some other um on page uh 12.

What what seems to be missing on the priority of the vulnerability and struct infrastructure and services um is um homes and businesses that are are close to sea level rise.

Um to me that that would be a really uh high priority for us to start identifying.

Um we talk about home and residential structures, but it's a mobile home communities, um, and hillside neighborhoods for risk of fire wildfire.

Well, there's a lot of other buildings that are close to sea level rise that um or other residential and business structures that um need to be included in there too.

It's just um just wanted to make sure that that was um focused in on.

So um those are some of the um issues um that I just wanted to highlight that I thought were sort of buried, um, but otherwise I think this is a uh a great um plan that's gonna be comprehensive for sure.

Um and I hope that we can think outside the box of what alternatives we have to addressing some of these issues, and um I think the the regional shoreline adaptation plan and what BCDC is trying to do um I I think um will help jurisdictions to identify where are those vulnerable spots and then hopefully working with the people that um own those units or houses or uh whatever and and who care about those areas, what can we do to help mitigate the impact or um or or just have maybe deal with it by buying out the houses?

I I don't know.

So it should be an interesting um effort, but want to thank you very much for all of your hard work.

Thank you for the comments.

Sure.

Thank you, Mayor for Temprock.

Yeah, just uh a quick comment here.

Um so in the community outreach, um, one of the most vulnerable populations identified was pregnant persons and families with young children.

Um so I think a focus more on young families would be helpful in here because I see like older adults and those different things, but I think um Novato has a big population as far as families, and when you have younger kids, it's harder to evacuate and do things like that.

It takes a little bit longer.

So that's something I kind of just think an overall concept that's kind of missing in that things.

Thanks.

Um, no other comments at this time, so we'll go to public comment.

Um, if you'd like to speak, please fill out a yellow card and add it to the city clerk.

So not having any requests to speak, Laura.

Is anyone on Zoom looking to comment?

Uh there's no online raised hands.

Okay, great.

Uh that concludes public comment.

I'll bring it back to council.

There's no action needed from council this evening.

So, uh did you get everything you needed this evening, or is there any additional guidance or feedback you'd appreciate?

No, I think we got everything we needed.

Uh, just wanted to also mention uh the city is currently consulting with the federated Indians of Great Rancheria.

That's particul pursuant to Senate Bill 18.

And any time you're doing a general plan amendment, there's a invitation to consultation, and uh Grayton did request consultation, and uh so we've had one uh Steve and I, we've had one meeting with them.

We've gotten them some additional information, and so it's likely that the draft document that comes before the Planning Commission, ultimately the city council at a future date will have some um references, possibly a policy or program or a combination of the two specific to tribal cultural resources.

That'll be the outcome of the consultation process.

And outside of that, yeah, the next step will be uh putting some working on the draft document, getting that out for public comment out on the web, and then coming uh scheduling a hearing with the planning commission, and then ultimately be it would come back to the city council for adoption.

Thank you.

Looking forward to seeing it.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Um that concludes our meeting.

The next regular council meeting will be held on September 23rd, 2025.

Uh, does council have anyone that'd like to adjourn a memory of this evening?

Uh yes, I do.

Um I would like to um uh ask that the council uh close this meeting in memory of John Burton, who um really did a lot for the whole San Francisco Bay Area, California.

He recently passed away at the age of 92 years old.

Um he really shaped a California politics and policy over 60 years of involvement on all types of topics, whether it's foster care, auto emissions, guns, water, uh foster care, you name it.

Um he was very well respected, and um he really worked hard all the way up to the end, and just really want to um give a shout out um for his tremendous achievements throughout his political career, and I think um statement that he made um is worth repeating, and I'm gonna quote um him quote: I think governments there to help the people who can't help themselves, and there's a lot of people that can't help themselves.

So with that, I'd like to ask that we adjourn in memory of John Burton.

Thank you.

We will adjourn in memory of John Burton this evening.

Thank you.