Good evening and welcome to the Nevada City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the five of the United States.

Of the United States of America.

Under God, indivisible with a liberty.

Thank you.

Laura, if you please call roll.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Councilmember Milberg is absent.

Mayor Pertem Farak.

Present.

Mayor O'Connor.

Present.

And Councilmember Eklund is on Zoom.

Councilmember Eklund, is there anyone in the room with you over the age of 18?

No, there's no one else in this room besides myself, actually.

Alright, thank you so much.

Thank you, Laura.

Alright, for there was no closed session this evening.

So our first item of business is a presentation from Marin Municipal Water District on the Atmospheric River Capture Project.

So I'd like to invite up Paul Sellier, Water Resources Director, and Lucy Croy, Water Resources Manager from Marin Municipal Water District to present the item.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor O'Connor, Council members and members of the public.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you this evening about the Atmospheric River Capture Project.

I'm joined this evening, as you noted, Mayor Connor, by a couple of important folks with uh our project team, and I'll start off with our uh Matt Sampson is uh here in the front row.

He is the president of the board of directors of the Marin Water District, and uh Lucy Croy sitting next to him is our Water Resources Manager, and it'll be Lucy's job to make sure this project goes to completion successfully.

And also joining us this evening, just in case we have any questions, um, is our design manager and project manager from Corolla Engineers.

So, with that, I'll get going.

Um, so our our catchy name, Atmospheric River Capture Project.

This is an important water supply project.

Um will you be advancing the slides?

Okay, how is it?

It doesn't seem a bit of a delay, so just okay.

So bear with me while I figure this out.

So our agenda this evening is could you put the microphone away if we see it now?

Is it stop echoing if I do that?

Yeah, it's a little sensitive.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um, so our our project background and overview will also discuss the regional benefits for this project and talk about the schedule and the planned outreach for this project.

So, in background, I think if we cast our mind back to 2021, all of us will remember uh the drought conditions that we were experiencing uh both locally and throughout the state, actually.

Um you can see noted here on the second bullet.

Um the local reservoirs that we all rely upon from uh those in Sonoma, Lake Sonoma, Mendocino, and indeed those in Marin County, including Stafford Reservoir and the Marin Water Reservoirs were severely depleted.

Um the state, in fact, was declared a state of emergency around water, and we were bailed out in a way by record rains that October 2021 when a hundred-year storm provided uh time for us to consider what options we may have around water supply.

So, with that time, um we took uh the opportunity to look at a range of options.

As we were in the middle of the emergency, we had one option open to us that that was uh a potential to bring water over to Marin County, and that was a pipeline across the Richmond San Rafael Bridge.

Um, and that meant, you know, working with Caltrans and a number of different agencies to try to make that happen.

It was a Herculean effort.

We were on track for some success before those rains came.

But knowing that the only choice in the middle of an emergency may not be the best choice, uh, we stepped back and engaged in sort of a planning process.

And you can see the NSAT here, which is a bit of an eye chart, but just an indicator that there were some 33 or so different alternatives that we looked at and considered.

Out of that selection, um, we came up with uh the atmospheric river capture project as the best project overall for us to pursue at this time.

And at this point, I'm gonna hand it over to Lucy Croy, a water resources manager, uh, to talk us through the project.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Um, as Paul mentioned, sorry, the atmospheric river capture project was the selected alternative coming out of the strategic water supply assessment that we performed in 2022, and this is largely due to it being driven by atmospheric rivers.

So the um the project um the project takes advantage of the intense storms that we get in California with these um large storms but have a lot of rainfall and runoff, and gives us a way to um to take advantage of those those storms and put that water into storage.

Um the project is designed to build about 13 miles of pipeline and and connects to the North Marine Aqueduct, which is shown on the map up here.

So the blue line from Katati tanks down is our existing infrastructure that we use connecting to the Russian River and Sonoma County Water Agency, and how we now currently um get water from the north, and so this project is actually shown in the purple line, it's 13 miles connecting from that aqueduct out to Nakasio Reservoir.

The additional water supply that we expect in the first phase of this project is between 3,800 to 4,800 acre feet per year.

You may ask what that means acre feet per year to us to marine water, that's about 15 to 20 percent of our annual demand.

So it is significant, and future phases of this project can yield up to 9600 acre feet.

So we do see the opportunity to expand in the future if needed, if there's regional need for additional resilience, okay.

Uh, this map shows the preliminary alignment of the project going from um the intersection of Highway 101 and San Marin, goes follows out San Marin Drive, takes a right turn after San Marin High School to um Novato Boulevard.

Um it goes past Stafford Lake, which we are intending to have a connection to Stafford Lake so that we can also um uh move water into Stafford Lake as needed as another resiliency effort.

Um, and then further out it takes a left at Point Ray's uh Petaluma Road so that we can discharge to Nicasio Reservoir.

Um, this is the preliminary alignment at this point, and so we'll be working closely with our design engineers, our environmental consultants to refine this and work with the local agencies to make sure that we take into account any kind of concerns about construction or noise as we move through the process.

This project also uh considers future expansion.

Um the current the current phase is designed for 15 MGD, um, which is about our winter demand to give it in more colloquial um terms.

So a future phase, as I mentioned, could uh double the capacity up to 30 MGD, and this would include expanding the system north of Novato, so the expansion at that point would be including another pipeline down from Katati tanks to Castania Pump Station, increasing the diameter along the North Marin Aqueduct, so that's along Highway 101, and that would allow us to get up to 30 MGD, all of which would be outside of uh the city of Nevada for a second phase.

Um, in addition to most important, not most important, for importantly, having the opportunity to expand this project in the future if resilience needs it, if if we see drier conditions continue.

This project in the short term does allow us to have resilience in the short term.

We know that droughts are not a matter of if but when, and so we see this project as an important next step for the region to capture winter water, atmospheric river water, and move it into storage that are closer to our constituents and um for use during dry periods.

Another advantage of this project is that it allows us to leverage existing infrastructure that we have in place.

So using the North Marine Aqueduct that we currently share with North Marin Water District and create more resiliency by putting in a pipeline that allows for connections to our local reservoirs, so to Stafford Lake and to also uh Nakasio Reservoir.

In the future, there's the potential to bank this water if we expand the system with a second phase.

This is a a schedule that we've put together, a very high level, but right now we're very in the very early stages of design and environmental review.

So in 2025, putting together the technical reports that we need to, the environmental review, starting outreach to customers and constituents, and then we expect that if all goes well that construction would proceed in early 2027.

We're moving at a rapid pace in order to stay ahead of the next drought, given the severe conditions that we saw in 2021, and knowing that really it's not a matter of if but when.

And then once construction's finalized in early 2029, have it up and running by uh early 2029.

One of the key components of this project is really connecting with our stakeholders with the community in Novato and then also the utilities around.

So as the project moves forward, we're planning to hold regular multi-agency meetings with North Marin Water District with City of Novato with your staff, bring updates to the council as needed, as well as the sanitation district.

We've already had preliminary meetings with all of them to get um to have meetings to understand if there's ways to collaborate on this project, if there's ways that we can use the the opening to um find ways that the project can benefit them as well.

Um, we also know that development of outreach materials to customers is important, so uh early information about the project, the impacts to traffic, um, and having the feedback from customers so that we can plan by the time we get to construction and make sure that we take that into account.

Um, with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Um, thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'll bring it to council for questions.

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

I'll start with the Mayor Pro Tem Farak.

Yeah, thank you so much for the presentation.

Um, as far as the project, what do you think is the biggest inconvenient for like residents are gonna experience?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that.

I said, um, what do you think the biggest inconvenience residents are gonna experience?

Will there be any as far as like construction or anything like that?

Um biggest inconvenient resident, just inconvenience to the community.

Oh, okay.

Construction impacts um for sure.

So I think um building a project of this size over 13 miles, it'll have impact.

Um, I think finding a way to have the least impact and so go the quickest, um, finding a way to uh sequence our construction so that we have the least impact to the um to the residents that are in the area and the businesses, so um finding a way as we move closer to construction to decrease um how much time we're out there, and then um all the jurisdictions we have regional housing numbers we have to meet, so a lot of newer residents, so population will likely go up.

Um, do you think this project will help meet those needs?

This project is driven primarily for drought to meet the demands that we see in the future during dry periods.

Um currently we we don't see a demand in, we don't see an increase in demand for marine water from um increases in regional housing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Jacobs.

Thank you.

Um so I did some research.

I saw an estimated cost of 167 million.

Is that correct?

That's our preliminary.

So that's your preliminary.

How long ago do you know was that determined?

That was about a year ago.

Oh, okay, so it's fairly recent.

Yeah.

Okay.

You're talking about two pumps on San Marin Drive, I believe.

Uh one at San Marin Drive, right?

By redwood.

In that area in that vicinity, we're still working on sighting.

And we haven't acquired any property yet, but that's where we're looking at options.

And then the second one would be further out.

So we need to sequence pumps in order to get the hydraulics all the way out to the out to the reservoir.

So the second one would be closer to Stafford Lake.

Okay, and those pumps are gonna be pumped will be below ground, I'm assuming, or there's gonna be a structure above ground?

Likely a structure above ground.

Okay.

Any idea of size?

Right now we're working through the hydraulics to figure out how best to size them, depending on the sequencing.

Okay.

Um and just out of curiosity, where does your aqueduct empty into now that goes all the way down one on one?

So the aqueduct it starts as it showed at Katati, and it is where all the contractors, Runner Park, Petaluma, we all pull off of it, including North Marin Water District, which serves Novato.

Um Ren Water pull off right at San Marin, and it empties down at Marin Water.

So in Southern Marin.

Okay.

So it goes into San Rafael or somewhere?

Yes.

Okay.

Um what percentage of water do you get from Sonoma?

Do you know?

Uh currently it's about 25% of our overall demand is served by Sonoma Water.

Um, you're talking about a 36-inch pipeline at this point.

Yes.

13 miles of it at this point.

Which, well, that's pretty firm.

Mostly it's a pretty straight shot.

So, yeah.

Um and 10 miles of it, I'll point out, I'm sure you know, is over brand new roadway from about dogbone park all the way to Nicasio Reservoir, almost all that is brand new asphalt.

It's probably a year or two old.

On the county or the that's county.

Okay.

But just pointing it out that's 10 miles of it, that's, you know, the bulk of it.

Um, and my last question was where are you gonna put the water?

Nicasio Reservoir, you've abandoned you in August, you guys abandoned your project to increase the capacity of it.

And during a atmospheric river, don't you think you're gonna pull a lot of water just from runoff into that?

So the capacity of this project is is 15 MGD for the first phase, and it's really designed as a drought project.

So we would be pulling water when Nakasi Reservoir would be lower.

So when there's capacity in Nicasio Reservoir to put water in there, um so it's a bit different than the project that you're describing.

Well, yeah, no, I know, but I mean I'm just I was just wondering where you're gonna store that water.

It sounds a bit uh counterintuitive to talk about atmospheric rivers and droughts, but what we find is that even in the driest of years, the Russian river is very productive.

Yeah, um, so even in the driest 2013-2021, there still are those big storms that come through, and that's what we are hoping to take advantage of with this project is capture a large amount of water in a short amount of time and move it into storage that is available in that in that instance.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Eckland.

Uh thank you very much.

Uh Mayor.

Um a couple of questions.

Um, so there's an existing pipeline, if I remember correctly, down San Marin Drive now.

So are you going to be replacing that with a larger one?

Are you going to be replacing uh putting another pipeline along San Marin Drive?

Uh that's a good question.

So the pipeline that runs along San Marin Drive currently is a distribution pipeline that is used by North Marin Water to distribute water to customers.

Um we did look at using that initially, and we found that it would have too much impact to customers.

Um so this would be a redundant, so a second pipeline that allows us to not impact customers when they're distributing water, but have a second transmission line in order to move the water to the reservoir.

So in a way it provides a second pipeline, a second redundant pipeline along the same route.

Right.

That's great.

And so then you're going to be tearing up the street, then obviously.

And is it the intent of the water district to repair the whole street, not just the particular area that's where the pipeline is being placed?

Because obviously, when you only repair the part of the roadway that you're placing the pipeline in, the integrity of the entire pipe street is adversely affected.

And so I was thinking, in order to do a community benefit project, then the water district might want to think about replacing that whole street.

Obviously, it's it's going to be a one-way, and San Marin is got that median in there.

So can you help me to understand what your plans are, or do you know yet?

We're at a very preliminary phase, but yes, we we plan to continue to work with the city and come back with updates on this project to meet the requirements needed in order to have the least impact to the city both in the short term and the long term.

So we really to continue to collaborate.

That's great.

I really encourage you to have some discussion about doing the whole street.

Does North Marine Water District still have a contract with municipal water district to share um uh to share water?

Um we do have a MOU in which we do have a collaborative relationship with North Marin, um, and that is a big part of this relationship moving forward, is continuing to find ways to benefit both agencies.

So it would benefit RIM municipal as well as North Rin Water District.

Yes.

And um obviously their sh uh their clients um would have to be um partly paying the cost, correct?

The cost of this project is uh primarily being funded through Marin Water.

Marin water or North Marin Water District?

Marin Water.

Through Marin Water District through Marin Municipal Water District.

So it's primarily being financed by them.

Yes.

Okay, um and last question uh do you know roughly what the increased amount might be for the North Marin Water District uh ratepayers?

At this time we don't expect any increase for North Marin Water District.

Okay, so no increase of cost.

Great.

Um thank you very much, and thanks very much for presenting the information and can we get a copy of the slides?

Yes, absolutely.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And then I just had one additional question.

Um the San Marin uh phase of the work.

How long would you anticipate that construction taking?

So from 101 all the way down to Nevada Boulevard.

At this point, we're at very preliminary stage.

We're gonna start field work to do um surveying, but we we are not in the phase yet where we know too many details about construction.

We will be coming back with updates and we will work collaboratively.

So thank you.

Look forward to that.

Thanks for taking the time to join us, and we really appreciate the presentation.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh the next item on our agenda is a bully prevention month proclamation.

I'd like to invite the city council to join me at the front of the room, and I'd also like to invite up Pamela Look, the multicultural advisory commission chair to accept the proclamation.

Thanks.

So, those are the two.

Okay.

Just you, that's okay.

Well, thank you very much, but we're recognizing bully bully prevention month in October 2025.

So where is October is National Bully Prevention Month, the goal of which is to encourage communities to work together to stop bullying and cyberbullying, both online and on social media by increasing awareness of the prevalence and impact of bullying people.

Sorry, bullying on people of all ages, and whereas bullying can take many forms, including physical, verbal, nonverbal, and digital cyber burlying.

And it's devastating effects, including an immediate and lifelong impact on resiliency, mental and physical health.

And whereas bullying rates have declined to 19%, yet vulnerable populations continue to face disproportionate impacts, with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, LGBTQ plus students experiencing bullying at nearly twice the rate of their peers, and black indigenous people of color, students also experiencing elevated rates according to the centers for disease control and prevention.

And whereas bullying directly affects a student's ability to learn, as students who are bullied find it difficult to concentrate, show a decline in grades, and lose self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth.

And whereas bullying prevention education is critical for both students and adults, youth can be especially effective in bullying interlying intervention by being taught to stand up to bullying by up becoming upstanders.

And research shows that when peers actively intervene, bullying stops in more than 50% of those instances, demonstrating the power of positive peer influence.

And whereas silence as a bystander is no longer an acceptable response to bullying, adult students, youth, and educators must not look away from or ignore when they see bullying as acknowledging and dressing it in into in its immediacy works best towards resolution.

And whereas we commend the bully prevention work that is occurring in Novato and across the county and on your commission through public and private organizations and collaborations, including Marin County District Office, District Attorney's Office, Marin County Board of Supervisors, North Warren Community Services, Marin County of Education, including NUSD, Marin Chair of City of Novato, and the Novato Police Department to create awareness about all forms of bullying and share educational information and resources with the community about how to positively respond.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Novato on behalf of the citizens proclaims October 2025 as bullying prevention month in Novato and calls on the entire community to support and continue efforts as schools, families, youth, adults, and the private sector and governmental agencies to reduce, prevent, and resolve bullying of all kinds so that every individual, including our youth, feel safe, valued, and supported to be empowered to shine a light on becoming upstanders against bullying.

Thank you very much for all of your work in this area.

And would you like to say a few words?

Yeah, please.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

I appreciate it.

I did want to say one thing briefly.

I do think, you know, we think about bullying.

We think about educators and youth and young adults, and that is a community that is doing receiving a lot of bullying and doing a lot of the work in that area.

But I would also say this to you.

A lot of what your children see and hear comes directly from the adults in their lives.

So I'll leave you with this question.

Um, what do your children hear you say when you see somebody with a body like mine walking or seated at a restaurant?

What do your children hear you say when you hear people speaking Spanish in the grocery store?

What do your children hear you say when you see two men walking down Great Avenue holding hands?

They're listening.

So be sure you know what you're saying and what they're receiving at home in addition to in school.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on.

Uh moving on for approval of the final agenda.

I'll move.

Thanks.

And Laura, if you'd call the vote, please.

Councilmember Eklund.

Aye.

Councilmember Jacobs.

All right.

Councilmember Milberg is absent.

Mayor Tim Farak.

Aye.

And Mayor O'Connor.

Hi.

Thank you.

Passes 5-0 or 4-0.

Moving on to reports from the City Council and City Manager.

We'll start with City Manager Cunningham.

Thank you, Mayor.

No reports tonight.

Thank you very much.

And Councilmember Eklund.

Thank you very much.

First of all, I wanted to let the council know that I did participate in the Marin County Council of Mayors legislative committee meeting on Monday.

And there's just a couple of things I wanted to highlight from my written reports that I provided to MCCMC.

First of all, as people have probably heard, BCDC made the decision after a very long hearing that Caltrans revised permit for the Center for Richmond Bridge would allow a permanent lower deck third travel lane.

And that the bicycle and pedestrian access will be on the upper deck.

And that would happen on Thursday afternoon through Sunday, which enables Caltrans to then use the third lane Monday through Thursday for breakdown.

And that's a very controversial issue.

Just wanted to make sure that that the council did know that that a decision had been made.

Relative to ABAG, I highly encourage the council to read the a portion of the report that talks about an eviction study that the ABAC Housing Committee and the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority engaged in.

And it's very interesting to see how many eviction lawsuits are actually occurring throughout the Bay Area and what impact that's having on a lot of folks that do rent.

And also on the report is a huge discussion about the priority conservation areas, and I will be asking the city manager to put this on the agenda because there is going to be additional funds available for some additional PCA nominations in the Bay Area.

And would note that jurisdictions are encouraged and eligible to submit grant proposals.

And it also includes a long trail segments as well.

So I will be working with the city manager on that one.

And lastly, I took all the regional shoreline adaptation plan training sessions.

And we're ready, I'm ready along hopefully with all the council members to embark on a on a plan for uh Novato.

Um so that's it for now, and thank you very much for allowing me to um give my updates.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Thank you.

On the 11th, I attended Rock the Block right down here on Grand Avenue, and it was a wonderful evening.

On the 18th, I went to the MCE board meeting.

We reviewed the budget and the upcoming CEO review.

On the 19th, I attended the North Bryn Water District Open House of the Administration of their new administration building grounds and their new laboratory, and they had a dedication ceremony for the unveiling of their new plaque for the building, and they provided guided tours for us.

It was wonderful.

I worked at and attended the Gilead House Saddle Up Fundraiser.

It was a wonderful time here in Nevada with the horsemen's uh Gilead House started in 1997 and provides temporary housing, mental health services, and life skill counseling for mothers and children.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mayor for Temp Farrak.

Yeah, thank you.

I have a short update.

Um I also attended the Gilead uh fundraising event.

It was phenomenal, and I do want to give a special shout out to uh my colleague, Councilmember Jacobs.

He did a lot of work and showed up a day before and got everything ready.

So his heart was really in it and appreciated a lot.

That's it.

Thank you.

Uh just a quick couple of quick updates.

Along with uh councilmember Jacobs and Councilmember Milberg.

I also had the opportunity to attend North Ray and Water District's Open House and City Manager Cunningham's there and some staff.

And want to thank them for taking the op taking the time to walk walk us around, give us a tour.

There's a lot of people there.

It was great to see the engagement.

I also had the opportunity to visit Linwood Elementary School, so I just wanted to thank Mrs.

Moganenham and the third grade classes at Linwood.

I got to spend about an hour with them.

That's some really tough questions.

I have to get back to them.

They're a tough crowd.

And then finally, it's uh soccer coaching season again, so I just wanted to give a shout out to the fighting Irish girls.

They had two games last weekend against Miller Creek.

They were tough games in a lot of heat, despite a lot of good effort.

They came home with two losses, but I'm sure they'll have better results ahead.

And so with that, that concludes Councilmember comments.

Moving on to public comment.

This is for uh public comment for items that are not on the agenda or for items that are listed on the consent calendar.

Unfortunately, we have a very full agenda this evening, so there's a one minute and thirty second time limit for open public comment this evening.

And if you'd like to fill out, sorry, if you wish to speak, please fill out a yellow card and hand it to the city clerk Laura.

Our first speaker this evening is Berna Holland.

Good evening.

Thanks so much for the good evening.

Yeah, thank you for your shirts.

Thanks for coming.

I was in Yosemite with my grandchildren.

So, really, really briefly.

So, I just as a public defender have just been a first row uh perceiver of there's just the trauma that people on the streets experience, and I think that there's there's some efforts to maybe move or relocate people out at Hamilton.

I just am encourage you to kind of have compassion for them.

It's my information and belief that they're doing what they can to get housed, and so you know, just give them some time, give them some space if you would.

And and in very briefly, um, I don't know if any of you are aware of the Bethany Project over at the Church of the Nazarene every Thursday.

Come on by at two o'clock, showers, a food bank, uh, place to do their laundry.

It's just great, it'll give you a sense of the kind of community they have out there.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Tom Jordan.

Welcome, Tom.

Thank you, uh, council members.

My name is Tom Jordan, and my family lives in Novato.

My remarks uh this evening are regarding the Novato Police Department.

I want to take a moment to publicly thank the Novato Police Department for their ongoing commitment to pedestrian safety, especially their recent efforts to enforce right-of-way laws at high-risk crosswalks.

Studies, including a 2020 report from the Governor's Highway Safety Association, show that proactive enforcement of pedestrian right-of-way laws is a key factor in reducing accidents and saving lives.

These kinds of efforts not only improve immediate safety, but also help shift long-term driver behavior in a positive direction.

I recently witnessed one of the department's pedestrian safety operations.

And its organization, efficiency and effectiveness, left a strong impression on me.

As the parent of a young daughter, I spent a lot of time walking around town with her.

Knowing that Novato PD is actively protecting pedestrians, especially in areas that are known to be dangerous, is incredibly heartening.

It makes our community feel safer and sends a clear message to repeat violators while helping build a culture of respect and equity among all that share the road.

So again, thank you to the department and to the city for prioritizing this kind of community focused policing.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Tom.

Our next speaker is Carrie Ford.

And following on from Kerry will be Heidi Merchant.

Welcome, Carrie.

Hi, hopefully I can read this fast enough because I wasn't aware of the time constraint.

Um, have you ever considered how you would feel if hurtful comments or complaints about the men and women from Camp Compassion or those helping provide meals and showers being directed to you or your loved ones?

I bet the possibility of finding yourself in those circumstances has never crossed your mind.

It's not supposed to happen to you or your family members, right?

Those things only happen to other people.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to the unhoused: those who urge compassion and those small interest groups who demand crackdowns and removals of encampments.

I'm asking our city council to act with compassion for our most vulnerable citizens in need.

Everyone who lives outside, unhoused, deserves a safe place to sleep with access to a bathroom and water, which are just two of life's barest necessities.

These unhoused men and women are human beings and should be treated with dignity.

They should not be vilified by their community.

I chose to offer compassion and action, and I have joined other members of my church, the Presbyterian Church of Novado, in preparing and serving meals at Camp Compassion.

These dinners provide healthy meals and hydration and strengthen a sense of belonging to a larger group.

Food brings communities together.

Studies have shown that sharing a meal is like a multivitamin for your mental health.

It's packed with mood-boosting, stress-boosting benefits or stress reducing.

Humans are social creatures, and sharing a meal satisfies our craving for connection in many profound ways.

If the point of society isn't to care for each other and help make things better for people, then what is the point?

SB 634 makes clear in California that extending a helping hand, offering food, water, legal services, or medical services to our most vulnerable neighbors is not a crime.

Rather, it's the right thing to do.

I'm sorry, Carrie.

I'm afraid you're at time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Heidi Merchant, followed by Jason Saras.

Welcome, Heidi.

Good evening, thank you.

Um what she said.

And also looking through our strategic plan for the city.

The mission talks about supporting quality of life for everyone within our community.

And I want to remind all of us that includes folks who are unhoused.

I grew up here in Marin.

We raised our family in Novato, and we're part of many residents who are supporting and care about the well-being of our unhoused neighbors.

We supported Camp Compassion at Lee Garner Park when they were our neighbors, and we still support them now.

We believe that everyone is worthy of dignity and respect and compassion and a safe place to live.

Also, many of our friends and even our children may not be able to live here, or are one paycheck, one medical emergency, one flood, or other natural disaster away from being homeless.

Please treat as another speaker said, the camp compassion members and other unhoused people in our community.

How you would want your unhoused loved ones to be treated.

Many of us see people who are unhoused in their full humanity, and there are some people who do not.

You had a proclamation on bullying tonight.

I want to raise to your attention that many people are bullying unhoused people, they're using derogatory remarks to refer to them, and assuming that just by them being there, people are unsafe.

That's not true.

So please keep the compassion you had in the beginning, like Pat Eklund said, we want a legacy of housing everyone from that camp.

We're close to 100%.

Let's get to 100%.

Let's do that for the rest of the folks who are there because, and I said this last time too.

Regardless of whether you believe in dignity and full humanity for everyone, or you don't want unhoused people living near you.

If we house them, all of our needs are met.

Thank you.

Thank you, Heidi.

Our next speaker is Jason Serris, followed by Michael Williams.

Welcome, Jason.

Good evening, uh Mayor and uh council members.

Uh I want to emphasize that many Novato residents truly want to help our unhoused neighbors.

We saw this over five years at Camp Compassion in Lee Gurner Park, where residents brought food, clothing, supplies, and most importantly, compassion.

As someone who lived there, I can tell you it meant everything to feel acknowledged and respected.

That spirit continues today.

Local organizations, churches, and community members still provide meals and sit with unhoused residents, uh listening to their stories and treating them with dignity.

People living outside are not out to harm to cause harm.

They simply need a safe place while they work on their housing.

Camp compassion residents are doing their part, complying with requirements, gathering documents, and working towards their housing goals.

What they knew now is time and patience.

Earlier this year, Councilmember Eklin and the Count uh County both affirmed the importance of getting every member successfully housed.

Together, we have the chance to make this a success story, not just for Novato, but as a model of compassion and action.

Our urge I urge you to allow camp compassion to remain in place while housing solutions are finalized.

Thank you.

I'm always open for a phone call.

Please give me a call anytime you want to talk.

Thank you, Jason.

Our next speaker is Michael Williams, followed by Deborah Butler.

Michael Williams.

No, okay.

And Deborah Butler.

Welcome, Deborah.

Hi, thank you.

Thank you, council members and mayor.

Um, first time speaking in front of the city, so um please bear with me.

Um I just actually started helping uh Jason and Jennifer with uh camp compassion and just went ahead with a friend and just said we're gonna make dinner every uh the middle uh Wednesday of every month.

So I'm gonna read from you.

Um my friend is Maria Messina, and um I'm not gonna have time to read the whole thing, but I would like to give everybody a picture that you probably already know about.

But these people, you know, to us, sometimes they seem like they're just a smelly, drug addicted, unmotivated, lazy population.

And in the short period of time that I've been with this group, that is just not true.

What we mostly see is not that.

We see the woman who lost her job and health benefits and can't afford rent or even a bus ticket to a place where rent is more affordable.

We see the young pregnant woman with nowhere to go, the elderly couple who was priced out of the rental market, the old guy who teared up when he read the note from Maria's granddaughter, a note of grant of encouragement, not because she's a pulse riser winner, she's just a young lady who saw something and wanted to write a kind note.

We see the success stories of people who lived our lives, their lives but were forced to live.

I'm sorry.

We see the success stories of people who lived our lives until they were forced to live theirs, then graduated back into society and now give back by helping others follow the same path.

We understand the concerns of residents who live near the homeless encampment and are very strict about ensuring that the camp dwellers adhere to the rules laid down by the county.

Since we started providing pot lake dinners, others have volunteered to do the same on alternate nights because compassionate Marin wants to help, and in many cases have fostered friendship within our camp.

We live in Marin, a county which has been using the housing first philosophy that HUD has recommended cities and counties employ.

Housing first is a philosophy that gets folks into a home first and then offers wraparound services to give them help and support that they need.

Morin County has over 94% retention rate of keeping folks housed, making Marin's retention average well above the average, the national average of the 40 people.

I'm afraid you're on time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is.

Okay, I'll circle back to them.

Thanks for letting me know.

Our next speaker is uh it looks like Michael Robert.

Thanks, Laura.

Michael Laura's got a handheld microphone for your convenience.

Hi there.

Uh hi, my name is Michael.

And uh I came here uh straight situation.

Right, I did it.

Uh, yeah, right.

And I ended up being with uh, the uh the camp compassion, uh, offering me a place to stay.

I've been there two and a half yeah.

And if it wasn't for these people helping me and keeping me safe and looking after my best interest, I don't know where I'd be right now.

And uh, and uh because of these people, I have a place to stay uh and water made through everybody that's right.

And uh that's wonderful.

I appreciate everything everybody does for us.

So keep uh the the people do what they do and get these people housed, and uh we'll do the best we can do our part, you know.

So that's all I got to say.

Thank you very much, Michael.

Appreciate it.

Our next speaker is David Tillotson, followed by Bambi Kleis.

Is David Tillitson here?

Okay, moving on to Bambi Kleis.

Welcome back.

Welcome Bambi.

Hi, good evening, council.

Uh good evening, Mayor.

Thank you for the opportunity to continue discussion on this, excuse me, to continue dialogue on this very important issue, our outdoor community neighbors.

I want to point out to you the importance of dialogue, because it does truly begin here.

Personally, I do not feel that it is the council's responsibility to house anybody.

However, I believe it is their responsibility to remind the city residents to show compassion and understanding of what may have gotten the people there in the first place.

For instance, a pandemic, and for the council to lead by example, of course.

We gotta walk the talk, right?

To the council member that allegedly asked for statements and information to be gathered on the residents of Hamilton Marsh.

I say shame on you.

You'll not be receiving my vote.

But to all other council members that claim to care about the city, I've said this before and I'll say it again.

How can you know what your community needs sitting behind a desk pushing papers?

You make decisions with people's life people's lives without considering any ramifications, but again, how would you know any of the ramifications sitting behind a desk?

I encourage you to please take me up on my offer.

Come from out behind the desk, come take a walk with me, come have dinner with us, come see the people that you're making the decisions for their lives and the ones that you have made criminals.

Growing up, do you remember what happened when someone in our neighborhood had a crisis?

Bill lost his job, Mrs.

Phillips became a widow.

Do you remember what the community did?

The community joined forces.

The community mowed Mrs.

Phillips lawns since Mr.

Phillips wasn't there anymore.

They showed up at Bill's house with warm meals and warm smiles.

We did not exile, we helped to support them.

That's what our communities have been built on.

And if we're proud of our communities, then we should continue the actions that built them.

Thank you, Council, for your consideration and your compassion.

Thank you, Bambi.

Our next speaker is Robbie Pallison.

Welcome, Robbie.

I just want to say that, you know, I've I understand that the city council is having impasse with 1021.

And I think about how expensive it is to criminalize homelessness.

You know, it's really expensive.

Um, it seems like a good opportunity, you know, because it 1021 just wants equity.

They want to be treated fairly.

People in Hamilton Marsh want to be treated fairly.

Um there's cost savings to be had in finding alternative solutions rather than constant the constant war on the poor, we're constantly shuffling people to and for not making any solution, not making anybody happy.

Because people are getting upset about Hamilton, you know.

That's we knew that was gonna happen when Camp Compassion got closed down, you know, didn't solve any solutions, it just moved on, and that's all you can ever do.

So let's, you know, 1021 in the room.

I think working with them, working with us, find solutions.

I think that's that's the uh that's that's what I'm hoping for, Sean.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robbie.

And then our next speaker is Michael Williams.

Welcome Michael good evening city council uh my name is Michael Williams and um I'm I have been homeless before um I am now housed and I'd like to say that you know if anything I probably am you know um what what the people at the marsh could be um I've been housed now for about 10 years and and you know I had a hard time getting to that point because of a lot of different things and I know there's a lot of you know there's a lot of people that make um you know make to say that things are happening out at the marsh and but the people out of the marsh are really just trying to trying to be there until they can get to somewhere else and it's hard to live in in out of a home and on the streets and in a tent it really is it's difficult.

And so I just I just want to you know say that I mean when I lived here in Novato and I lived here for 10 years um it was a community based place and we all the community jumped in to help with everything that we could and I believe that Novato still is like that and uh and so I just I just you know I just hope that you guys will really realize that you know these people are just trying to live and that's just always about thank you.

Thank you very much Mike that concludes in person public comment uh we'll go to public comment on Zoom if you'd like to speak please use the raise hand feature the Lord with any request to speak.

There are no raised hands on Zoom.

Thank you all right we'll close public comment and move on to the consent calendar move the consent calendar.

I'll second thanks and Laura if you'd call the vote.

Councilmember Eckland aye council member Jacobs aye council member Milberg is absent mayor Pertem Farak aye and Mayor O'Connor hi motion passes for 40 thank you.

All right up here the next item on our agenda is a conduct a public hearing and consider adopting a resolution approving an addendum to the City of Novato General Plan 2035 certified environmental impact report and a resolution adopting the City of Novato Climate Action Plan 2030 and amending the environmental stewardship chapter and repealing appendix E of the City of Novato General Plan 2035 and I'd like to invite Bill Rose Assistant City Manager to open the item and that will open the public hearing thank you Mr.

Mayor and members of the council it's a pleasure to be here tonight and present to you the draft climate action plan 2030 tonight marks the culmination of several years of hard work our sustainability team has worked in close collaboration with a number of internal city staff across a variety of different departments in addition this has been a collaborative effort with a robust outreach um plan working with community business and public agency partners cap 2030 is uh in direct response to the city's 2023 and 2025 strategic plan work plan item number seven it also aligns with Senate Bill 20 Senate Bill 32 which mandates a statewide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels the council should note that as of 2023 our emissions inventory shows that we're already at 22 percent below those 1990 levels so we're well on our way this plan furthers the work that was uh started with the climate change action plan adopted in 2009 it also is in support of general plan 2035 for tonight's presentation uh Gretchen is going to go through some of the how and why that uh got us here tonight and then we're gonna turn it over to Christine O'Rourke who is our consultant that drafted uh the document that you have before you tonight.

And then we'll bring it back to Gretchen, who will uh finish off with a little bit of discussion about our outreach efforts.

So with that, Gretchen.

Thank you, Bill.

Good evening, Mayor O'Connor and uh council members um members of the public and city colleagues.

I'm thrilled to be here this evening uh to bring this item to you um Christina Rourke's gonna be joining us via Zoom.

She's currently in Vermont with her mom, but you'll be able to hear her.

She'll be giving the presentation.

So just a little bit of background on the question.

Great.

Okay.

Just uh want to give a quick overview of the California climate policies and targets.

For nearly two decades, California has taken bold steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting increasingly stringent legislation.

In 2005, then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-3-05, which set long-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

The next year, Assembly Bill 32, more commonly known as the Global Warming Solutions Act was adopted and established the goal of returning emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and reducing them to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

In 2016, Senate Bill 32 established a midterm target of reducing emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

More recently, Assembly Bill 1279 adopted in 2002 commits California to reducing emissions 85% below 1990 levels and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.

Novato has long recognized the critical leadership role that local governments play in reducing emissions and has taken a proactive approach to addressing climate change at the local level.

As Bill mentioned in 2009, the city adopted a climate change action plan.

In 2016, the 2020 greenhouse emissions reduction goal was met.

In 2017, the city established the sustainability coordinator position.

I'm fortunate to have gotten that job.

In 2022, the Sustainability Commission was established, and in 2023, as Bill mentioned, the strategic plan was adopted directing staff to update the CAP.

Just want to give a quick overview of the Climate Action Plan 2030 process.

So we started in the summer of 2023.

We engaged Christine O'Rourke from our work and associates to support the update of the plan.

The two-year process included an extensive public outreach process, and the result is the document that you have before you this evening.

The draft Climate Action Plan 2030, which we refer to as CAP 2030, has been developed as a standalone document rather than being integrated throughout our general plan.

And because the CAP was integrated into the general plan in 2035, adoption of CAP 2030 will require amendments to the general plan.

And as a standalone document, 2030 can be updated from here on out without triggering a general plan amendment.

CAP 2030 is a five-year strategic roadmap that aligns Novato with state and regional goals while giving us the flexibility to monitor our monitor our progress and adjust strategies along the way.

CAP 2030 also reflects Nevada's long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship and its leadership in sustainability.

CAP 2030 builds off the Marin Climate and Energy Partnerships CAP template, which was not only cost-effective, but will also help facilitate more cross-county program and policy implementation.

If fully implemented, CAP 2030 will reduce Nevada's local greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, consistent with the statewide target.

The document focuses on the most impactful measures to reduce emissions based on achievable and measurable results and evidence of effectiveness.

And now I'm going to invite Christine to provide a little bit more detail about the draft plan for your consideration this evening.

Thank you, Gretchen, and good evening, Mayor O'Connor and members, members of the council.

Thanks for having me here tonight.

So the CAP 2030 conforms to the industry-wide standards for climate action plans.

It also is consistent with guidelines that are developed by CEQA for a qualified greenhouse gas reduction strategy, as well as guidelines that have been issued by the Bay Area Air District for climate action plans.

So these five things are required for a one of those compliant climate action plans.

One, it has to quantify greenhouse gas emissions that are under the city's jurisdiction.

Next, we forecast those emissions under a business as usual scenario.

That means without the benefit of actions to reduce emissions.

Next, we set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, and that should be one that is consistent with the statewide target.

The fourth thing is we account for state and regional measures to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.

We perform what we call a gap analysis, and then we identify the local actions that are needed in order to further reduce those emissions to meet that established target.

Next slide, please.

So this chart is looking first at the actual greenhouse gas emissions that goes back to 2005, and that's the blue line.

So by the year 2022, which is the baseline that we used for this climate action plan, emissions were 18% below the 1990 level.

The CAP 2030 establishes a target that is 40% below the 1990 level by the year 2030, and that's what the emissions reductions are calculated on.

And then it also puts the city on the trajectory to meet the longer-term statewide goal, which is for zero net emissions by the year 2045.

Next slide.

And this is another way of looking at the long-term emissions or our trend in emissions.

So here we are estimating emissions for 1990, and we estimate that it's 15% below the level that was in 2005.

We don't have the data that we need in order to actually do that inventory for 2005, but we use the statewide guidance to estimate it at 15% below the 2005 level.

And you can see here that emissions peaked in 2007, and then they started to steadily go down.

The emissions actually in 2016 is when the city met the 2020 target, which was to reduce emissions 15% below the 2020 level by that year by 2020.

And emissions have been trending down since that time.

Next slide, please.

And then this is a look at where emissions are coming from.

So when we do these emissions inventories, we are looking at emissions that are generated from the activities that occur within the Novato boundary.

This is not a cons what we call a consumption-based inventory.

So with the inventories that we use, almost two-thirds of emissions are coming from the transportation sector, and most of those emissions are coming from passenger vehicles.

Then the next largest sector is comes from the use of natural gas in commercial and residential buildings, and that's over one quarter of emissions come from there.

So you'll see that the these are really where the opportunities are to reduce emissions.

This is where we need to reduce emissions, and you'll see that that this is where most of the emissions are coming from these two sectors.

The other sectors, while very important, um, contribute a much smaller slice of this pie.

Next slide, please.

So the um, I think it was the third component of our uh CAP is to quantify the state and regional greenhouse gas reduction measures.

And these are coming from a variety of different statewide agencies.

Four of them are coming from regulations that have been adopted by the California Air Resources Board, and these are affecting light and heavy duty vehicles, buses, as well as small off-road engines.

Another really important one is what's called the Zero Emission Appliance Standard that's been issued by the Bay Area Air District.

And that means that it's regulating the sale and installation of hot water heaters and space heaters that use natural gas, and those are going to be phased out beginning in 2027.

So that actually will have a big impact.

All together, these state and regional measures contribute about 45% of the reductions that we've calculated in the climate action plan.

Next slide.

Please.

Thank you.

So the remaining 55% are coming from these focus areas.

The first one is mobility and land use.

And in this section, in each of these sections, we have measures and then we have specific actions to implement the measures.

So mobility and land use measures are related to accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles, also increasing the use of public transportation and active transportation, as well as limiting emissions from land use, so encouraging transit-oriented development.

In the buildings and energy focus area, the measures are related to electrification of buildings, to conserving and promoting energy efficiency, and also improving and expanding the use of renewable energy in the materials and waste sector.

We're looking at ways to reduce waste at the source, to increase recycling and composting and eliminating organic waste from the landfill because that's where the emissions are generated and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

In the natural and urban environment, these measures are related to sequestering carbon in our natural environment, primarily through trees.

There are also measures here that are related to reducing outdoor water use, as well as reducing emissions from landscape equipment.

And then in the community engagement focus area, there's actually no specific emissions that are related to this, but it is a critical area that underpins all of the other focus areas that come before that in order to engage the community, get the word out is very important that the community does its share to reduce and all the community members reduce their own carbon footprints.

And then finally the implementation and monitoring focus area.

And here is where the city is committing to developing an implementation plan for the CAP to prioritizing actions to continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of the climate action plan through the use of greenhouse gas emissions inventories, and then to revise the CAP as necessary in the future.

Next slide.

So all of those local emissions total about 46,000 metric tons.

Again, these are representing about 55% of all the emission reductions that were calculating for the CAP.

Again, most of these emissions reductions are going to come from the mobility and land use, and the 75%, but that was responsible for almost two-thirds of the emissions.

And then significant amounts are also coming from buildings and energy and materials and waste.

And then I believe the next slide is for Gretchen.

Yes.

Great.

Thank you, Christine.

So I'm gonna talk a little bit about the public outreach that was done around CAP 2030.

There's a wide range of public outreach activities that were carried out to ensure that meaningful engagement with the community, our partners, and key stakeholders was implemented.

This included public workshops, meetings with community and agency representatives, sustainability commission discussions, surveys, and information booths, and all of these provided multiple opportunities for input and feedback throughout the development of CAP 2030.

So at the start of the process in the fall of 2023, staff hosted four topic-specific workshops during sustainability commission meetings to review and gather input on a draft set of climate actions, which were based on the Marin Climate and Climate and Energy Partnerships CAP template that I mentioned earlier.

Using this template as our starting point helped both to contain costs as well as ensuring consistency across the county when appropriate.

Participants in the public workshops included community members as well as a wide variety of public agencies and nonprofit partners, including staff from Marin County, Marin County Bicycle Coalition, MCE Nevado Fire District, Nevado Sanitary District, Nevada Unified School District, North Marine Community Services, and Resilient Neighborhoods.

Additionally, in March of 2024, the city partnered with North Marin Community Services to host a Spanish language workshop at their facility on Navado Boulevard.

Across all five workshops, we had a total of 94 participants.

Staff also conducted extensive outreach to the broader community businesses and public agencies.

A dedicated web page was created early in the process on the city's website, and regular updates were shared through city newsletters and on social media.

The Novato Chamber of Commerce featured an article about the CAP in their weekly e-blast.

That's the image on my left.

And then the staff presented to the Downtown Novado Business Association who sent out a follow-up email to their full membership with details on how to provide feedback in that image on the right is what they sent out to their members.

Staff also hosted two farmers market information booths where nearly 300 people engaged with staff and volunteers to take a sustainability quiz or complete a climate action community survey.

Native American tribes were also invited to consult with staff, and there were no consultations requested.

In addition to this outreach, we met with the Marin Builders Association staff, and we had one-on-one consultations with key public agencies, including Golden Gate Transit, Marin Transit, North Marin Water District, Nevada Sanitary District, and the Transportation Authority of Marin.

And before I speak to this slide, I noticed a boo-boo.

I'm very sorry.

But this chart, this chart shows a snapshot of data points gathered from the community surveys that staff conducted to provide an opportunity for additional public outreach and input.

From January 28th to February 23rd, 2025 is a two-week period.

An open Novato survey was administered and received 159 responses.

73% of those that responded stated they were extremely concerned about the impacts of climate change on themselves and their families.

Also, 37% expressed uncertainty on how to begin taking action and indicated a need for additional information and support.

Top concerns expressed in the Open Novato survey included climate impacts on future generations, our natural environment and public health.

At the July and September farmers market booths, we administered a very brief six question survey and collected a total of 46 responses.

Of those responses, 92% considered themselves somewhat or very knowledgeable about climate change, and 77% reported being extremely concerned about its impacts.

All participants indicated that they were either very or somewhat motivated to take action, although almost 60% noted that they were unsure where to start and would benefit from further support and resources.

Overall public engagement through the CAP 2030 process was positive and constructive.

Participants expressed concern about climate impacts and as well as interests in local solutions with a willingness to contribute to Novato's sustainability efforts.

I'm pleased to say that staff encountered minimal opposition, indicating strong and um alignment between community aspirations and the goals of CAP 2030.

The draft, the draft CAP was presented to both the Sustainability Commission and the Planning Commission, advisory and regulatory bodies of the council, respectively.

The Sustainability Commission played an active role throughout the development process by participating in workshops, hosting a study session in February 2024, and contributing to multiple revisions of proposed actions at four meetings held throughout last year.

The draft 2030 was present draft cap 2030 was presented to the commission in October 2024, and the commission voted to recommend adoption by the council.

Because the CAP 2030 is now a standalone document, it requires the general plan amendment, and so staff presented to the planning commission at a public hearing on May 12, 2025.

The commission adopted resolutions recommending council approve an addendum to the general plan environmental impact report and adoption of CAP 2030 associated amendments.

So in terms of next steps, uh should the council decide to adopt 20 um CAP 2030 this evening.

Staff will pivot uh to complete an interdepartmental implementation plan to 2030, which will bring the plan to life.

Staff intends to also develop annual sustainability division work plans and in and intends to return to council within 12 to 18 months to provide an update on CAP 2030 implementation and progress.

So the request before you this evening is to adopt a resolution approving an addendum to the City of Novato General Plan 2035 certified environmental impact report.

As the addendum to the general plan finds no significant environmental impacts or increase in severity of previously identified significant impacts, the previously certified environmental impact report is adequate.

And adopt a resolution adopting the City of Novato Climate Action Plan 2030 and amend the environmental stewardship chapter while repealing appendix E of the City of Novato General Plan.

A copy of the JAT of the draft CAP 2030 and text amendments to the General Plan Environmental Stewardship Chapter were included in the agenda packet for this meeting.

That concludes our presentation.

Well, first off, thank you for the presentation.

That was that was tremendous, and thank you to everybody that participated in putting this together.

It's just a huge undertaking.

We'll bring it to council for questions.

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

I'll start with council member Jacobs.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

There's quite a bit in there.

Um I've got some questions.

Um they talk about a ban in on the sale and installation of gas heaters and water heaters regionally.

What read where's that region?

How's that region structure?

What is that region encompass?

So that ban is a uh Bay Area Air District rule that was adopted, I believe, a couple years ago.

Perhaps Christine can correct me if I'm wrong.

And it's a phased approach to um to prohibit the sale and installation of uh appliances that produce um nitrous oxide.

And so every uh county in the Bay Area will be subject to that rule.

Okay.

Um in reference to that, is there going to be any state or federal well federal forget state financial help for residents?

And I'm not talking about low income residents.

Yeah, I'm talking about the average homeowner or the senior who's in a house and looking at, for instance, I did some research, of course.

Um buy a new gas water heater, and right now a typical gas water heater costs you anywhere from 2300 to 3500 installed.

And when we get to the electric heat pump systems, you're looking at between 4,000 to 10 or 15,000.

Not to mention you've got an upgrade to a home.

If you have 100 amp service, which most of uh most of Novato is 100 amp service in the homes built prior to the 90s, um.

You could be looking at 30, 40,000 or more to upgrade your service to your house and then be able to have an electric water heater and also uh house heater, same situation.

You're looking at uh four four times the cost.

I'm just wondering: is there any programs for the average resident homeowner to be able to finance or or get help with that?

Yeah, there are a significant number of of programs in the state of California.

Uh there are also programs funded through PGE and um and MCE.

I believe the MCE ones are mostly limited to lower income households.

I am I imagine as this ramps up that more incentives will become available.

Uh the other thing to note about these uh particularly the heat pump hot water heaters is that they're super super efficient, and so you save a lot of energy costs by switching to this this type of appliance.

Um I will say that there is a considerable amount of consternation about this rule and its effect, particularly on lower income uh residences, and so it really remains to be seen what happens over the next year.

We're definitely keeping our eye on what you know carb decides at their meetings.

It's there's been a lot of discussion, but this will impact uh the entire Bay Area.

So, Christina, I don't know if you want to add anything.

Sorry to put that on the spot.

Yeah, I I would also say that the California Air Resources Board is developing a similar rule.

They were looking actually at the year 2030 to start implementation of this, uh, but they are considering moving that up to be consistent with what the Bay Area is doing.

So this could um be affecting the entire state of California, which means that there probably will be more incentives.

I think the other thing to keep in mind is that yeah, the idea here is that the cost of installing a the one of these um high high efficiency hot water heaters and and heating systems will come down over time, especially if that's is the only option that's available.

I mean, we see that with all kinds of new technology as the price does come down.

So, but the air district is certainly keeping abreast of this, and the rule may change if it's just too cost prohibitive for uh and not just low income, but I think everybody it is very high right now, okay.

And then on to electric vehicles.

I mean, I have one on order that won't be here for a year, but I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna charge it because I'm not prepared to spend 20 to 30,000 dollars to upgrade the power into my house by the time I have a 60 amp circuit for that.

I have 100 amp service, 60 amp circuit for that.

If I change a uh water heater, I've got to put in a larger circuit for that.

House heater, larger circuit for that, get rid of my gas stove at some point, larger circuit for that, and get get rid of a gas dryer.

I mean, you know, you're and years ago, 100 amp was standard, then we still went to 200, and then everybody kind of calmed it down when we were going to LED lights and you know, more efficient computers and everything else.

And now we're getting to a point where we're gonna have to pump up the service to the houses to be able to handle this.

I mean, through there's three homes in my neighborhood.

They couldn't hire a regular electrician or licensed electrician to put in their charging stations because they're they're putting in a 60 amp uh charging station that's drawing 45 to 55 amps when it's charging their Tesla.

And their guy told them don't run anything else in the house when you're charging your car.

How do you you can't live like that?

I'm just very I think we're getting, I'm my concern is we're getting ahead of you know, we're going too far, too fast.

I mean, I've converted everything, all my power tools, my gardening tools, my lawn mower, weeder, blower, everything I have is electric now.

So I've I've eliminated all my gas stuff.

But I mean we're just not there grid-wise.

Personally, opinion.

I'd like to respond.

Please.

That um, you know, the the climate action plan itself is um is as much as it's as it's an action plan, it is also very aspirational.

It um has a lot of words like consider, explore, encourage.

Um there's very few uh hard and fast things that we must do as a city.

The um the air district rule around hot water heaters, there's not a lot we can do.

I mean, we you can see in the calculations that we're claiming some greenhouse gas emissions reductions when that comes into effect.

Should the air district change the rule, um, you know, we would need to review that, but I think vis-a-vis the climate action plan, there's things that are out of our control.

Um, yeah, but I definitely hear you on the electrification front for sure.

Okay, thank you.

Sure.

Thank you, Councilmember Eckland.

Um thank you very much.

Uh first of all, uh Gretchen, I want to thank you very much for your leadership in this.

And Bill, thank you very much for um helping uh Rachel in and getting this uh together.

I do have some questions and I do have some comments which I'll reserve uh before the uh council um uh starts talking about this.

Um obviously I've been engaged in this um when I first started on the council in 19 well uh long time ago and um was the one that actually initiated putting climate change on the agenda and taking taking a leadership role in the county.

Um but anyway, so uh Rachel, you you talked about um some of the stuff that uh Novato Sanitary District is doing uh relative to collection for e-waste and hazardous waste and um stuff like that.

And um, so I was wondering have you identified specifically what the city can do to help the Novato Sanitary District to increase the recycling, not only curbside, but also for the special waste.

Yeah, I think one of the um beautiful things that came out of this process of developing the CAP is that we really were able to strengthen our relationships with our key partner public agencies, and uh I'm really excited, and and I know that uh Casey Pauldino is looking forward to partnering more with us.

Casey Pauldino is the new environmental manager at the Novato Sanitary District, and we're talking about ways that that the city and the sanitary district can partner together more to increase awareness around the programs that are available through the sanitary district while making sure that we're clear that um this is not a city program.

I know that's been part of the challenge.

Uh but I'm really looking forward to working more with them to get the word out about some of their excellent programs, particularly around hazardous waste and e-waste.

Yeah, I highly encourage that, especially now that Dee is no longer working with the sanitary district.

She's gonna be sorely missed.

And I happened to use their facilities a little while ago, um, and it was not well used, which was a little surprising to me.

Um I also um in looking at the um uh the report, um, I didn't see any cost estimates uh to achieve uh some of those um goals.

Um have you been able to uh figure out um what we think it might cost the city to help implant some of these um items that are in the report?

Not only for primarily for us, the city and the other public agencies, working with the public um and also within the city itself, because the city I would imagine would also be uh subject to the water heaters and all that other kind of stuff, too.

Um so I didn't see any cost estimates.

Can you help me to understand uh when that's going to be brought forward?

Yes, so uh an important uh an important note to make is that the vast majority of what is in the climate action plan will actually be implemented implemented by the community.

And so the cost because that is where the vast majority of the emissions come from.

So we've done municipal inventories and we also do community-wide inventories and municipal inventories are about one percent.

So really the all of the work pretty much needs to happen out in the community, and so it really is about the the city and its partners making it easy for people to own an electric vehicle or ride a bike in a protected bike lane or a multi-use path or promoting uh the recycling of compost in partnership with the sanitary district.

So as part of the implementation plan, we will be looking at cost estimates for the various actions.

Um, you know, my sense we as I mentioned, we used the template for from the Marin Climate and Energy Partnership, and so we did some initial estimates based on what have been done in other communities, and you know, my sense is that it's about prioritizing the funding to places where we can where it can also achieve a climate action goal.

So thinking about the capital improvement program, uh there's almost always a line item for pedestrian and bike improvements, and so using you know, allocating some of that funding to achieve a climate goal uh would be what we'd be looking at.

But we would be wanting to come back to council with uh with the um with priorities if there were budget needs uh required.

Well, I I think that if the city doesn't make some improvements themselves, then I think that's gonna look pretty bad to the public, in my opinion.

Um, if we're gonna like rely strictly on the community to help reach these goals, I I think that the city needs to look at it because, like the asphalt that we use, um we might need to use a different type in asphalt or a different type of method of application in the roadways to help reduce some of the emissions.

So I I think that um uh we we really need to take a look at that, and um I would not um not really like the idea of us putting a hundred percent of everything expecting the community to do it without the city doing our fair share.

Yeah, that's my can I just um I just want to uh give an example of a project that um I was fortunate to be involved in with the city around heat pump hot water heaters, and there was a program funded through PGE with a kicker from MCE, and it was actually I think it was worth about $70,000.

We ended up getting eight uh gas hot water heaters in city facilities replaced with heat pump hot water heaters.

I think that's a really good example of kind of what's out there, what we're not, what we need to be, you know, in making a commitment around taking climate action, whether it's for municipal buildings or community wide, uh we're we are opening ourselves up for those partnerships and those opportunities.

Now that's good to hear, and I think it's always uh good too for us to issue a press release or something like that.

Hey, we just reduce so much greenhouse gas emissions by changing these from uh gas heaters to electric or something like that.

Um, and so uh in uh the current budget, uh do we have, and maybe this question is really for Amy, have we set aside um money in order to help start implementing some of these measures that are in this action plan today?

Not at this point, no.

Um, if the council does adopt this plan, then we would come back with some of those options for you.

But until it's an adopted plan, then you know we wouldn't be working on any of these items.

That would be great because frankly, having uh Gretchen come back and be able to come back in 12 to 18 months with an update is not satisfactory to me at all.

Um I think that we we should be getting updates um every six months because if we're trying to achieve uh some of these goals in 2030, I mean that's less than five years from now.

Um, and so um I don't want to waste a whole year just sitting around waiting for an update.

So um I I will be um working with you, Amy, to try to get this agendized a little bit sooner.

Um and the last question I have is um can we get a copy of the corrected slides?

Of course.

Thank you.

And good job, Gretchen and Bill.

Just really uh love your presentation.

Uh love what you've come up with.

Um I'm just really anxious to start implementing it.

You can probably tell.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Mayor for Temperac.

Yeah, thank you so much, Gretchen and Christine for your hard work on this, and also Amy and Bill, they set aside time so I could uh ask some questions regarding this, and then also um wanted to say thank you so much to the sustainability uh commission.

I see a few members in the audience, and I know they worked really hard on this.

So the federal landscape is shifting a lot, and there's policies coming down.

Do you and I know you mentioned it a little bit on page 12 in the plan, but do you see that impacting anything because there's this large shift at the federal level?

Probably I would I would think so.

I um the tax credits for electric vehicles expire at the end of September, the um 30% tax credits for um home electrification and solar projects expire at the end of the year.

So yes, there will be an impact, and we are not the only jurisdiction, we're not the only city looking at this.

There are many cities that are further ahead that have figured this out that we're learning from.

There are I I believe that the state will will step up to some degree.

I also think just on a personal note, I was able to pick up a used electric vehicle.

Um, there's a lot more used electric vehicles coming on the market.

I do charge at home with a drip drip-drip um charger.

So I think it can, you know, you can uh make advances even without the the federal uh the federal money, but it it is a it is a shame.

And I think there's opportunities where we can kind of encompass the plan and look at our state leaders and be like, hey, this is something we need.

So I think it gives an area opportunity there.

Um this is kind of a random question, but it was just so the new carpool lanes, um, they change the time.

So like five to ten and then three to seven.

Um do you know if there's any data that showed that, like, oh, there would be a reduction in you know, greenhouse gas emissions because people are carpooling more.

Was there any um I guess data based on that decision?

Unfortunately, I can't answer that question, but I'd be happy to get back to you.

I know it's uh I know it's a hot button issue in our community.

I was just curious, um, because it might, you know, encourage people to uh use it.

And obviously, um, and then another question um as far as the demo at firemen's Fund, do you know if they're recycling any of that stuff?

I know there's kind of a um opportunity today to encourage them to recycle the material.

Yeah, they they did have to submit a um waste management plan that included um compliance with all of the city's requirements around recycling.

And my understanding is is that they have multiple sorted piles out there sitting and waiting for completion so that they can take appropriate actions.

Fantastic.

And I I really see this kind of as like a vertical within just Novato in general.

So it kind of crosses everything, and you have the city of the community, and that's this really I think touches everything, and it's gonna be like a group effort.

Um obviously the education component is where I think we can really fill in to educate our residents.

Um I'm really excited about this, and yeah, I think I would like an update sooner than 12 months.

Um but how can the you know council support your effort and like progress and planning?

Um, well, I think that the work that we've done over the last two years and getting to this point has created a really solid foundation for uh for this work going forward.

We talked about what the next kind of six to eight months might look like at a recent sustainability commission meeting and there's kind of general agreement that that really this period needs to be foundational, getting our community up to speed with where we're headed and what the goals are and make it really clear what role they can play.

Also, really emphasizing low-cost uh high impact solutions.

Um, and so I think you know, over the next six to eight months, we're um you know, I'm happy to come back sooner.

Um we'll have to see how that goes.

But I think it really is about building the foundation for the work for the next five years.

I'll just add a couple words to that.

Certainly on the 12 to 18 months, that was a target, but we can pivot as needed for sure.

Uh, but just to answer your question, I think outreach education will go a long way.

I know there is fear with climate action plans.

That's typically been the case for some time because uh, you know, as Gretchen was saying, you think that it's a regulatory document and it is largely aspirational and it requires partnership with by a number of people, and so I think that as to your question, what can the council do?

I think just assist staff in that outreach and education effort.

That will be a centerpiece to what we do here as we enter into the implementation phase.

Thank you.

And then just a quick plug too.

I like the um bottle refilling stations.

I would love that.

I think people would like it too.

Yeah, well, that's actually a really good, really quickly.

Um, there's state funding that we just have to request, it's about $13,000 a year, and it comes from the five cents you pay on your bottle and can when you buy it, goes in a fund and we ask for it back and they give it to us.

And that was funding that we just recently used to install a water refill station at Hamilton Pool.

Um, and I don't know if the Hoke Park one has gone in yet, but there's gonna be one there.

So it's coming.

Yeah, almost, yeah.

So that's the kind of thing that you know, in partnership with our internal team, but also with state funders.

There's a lot we can do without, you know, without the city needing to invest a huge amount of money.

Thank you.

Um, thank you again for all of your hard work on this.

I just had a couple of questions.

Your d your draft references a lot of really good general benefits to the community, but I didn't see any explicitly um nothing explicitly addressing SB 535 or AB 1550.

And I was just wondering if you could just speak to how those requirements were folded into the plan, please.

Christine, is that something you are able to speak to?

I am I have to be honest, right?

Yeah, could you refresh our memory about specifically what those are?

Yeah, it's state legislature that requires prioritizing disadvantaged communities investment unless you're making investments in this kind of infrastructure.

I think it's 20 and 25% in the two different pieces.

Yeah.

Just off the top of my head, my understanding is that we unfortunately don't qualify for a lot of programs where there is a either a priority community that's been identified or a census track that's been identified, but we can certainly look into it further for you.

Okay.

Yeah, I think the requirements are tied to our expenditures as opposed to the way around.

But yeah, that would be great to get that information, please.

And then the draft focused very heavily on mitigation, greenhouse gases reduction in particular.

I didn't notice too much around adaptation strategies, things like cool roofs, resilience hubs, items like that.

Was that an intentional choice?

Or can you tell me how that'd be folded into this plan?

Yeah, it's a very intentional choice.

So you will be receiving a safety element update.

A safety element is an element of the general plan.

The new requirement for safety elements is that they include community resilience and climate adaptation.

And I'm not sure where that process is in terms of uh bringing that to council, but it's close.

And so you know, at some point we have talked about whether these two plans would become one plan for the city, a climate adaptation mitigation and a action and adaptation plan.

Um currently they're they're gonna be separate, but uh you you should be seeing that shortly that we put a small paragraph in the climate action plan that references the safety element.

Perfect chance for question.

Thank you.

I just wanted to add that um you did hear the initial steps of that at your last meeting.

Right, thank you.

And then um you you have really good quantitative measurements, particularly around um greenhouse gases.

I was wondering once this gets implemented, once the plan's adopted, um, have you ideas or thoughts around how we're gonna maybe add a more detailed monitoring or reporting structure around other elements that are included in the plan?

Yeah, definitely.

So I think uh in February I brought you the sustainability dashboard.

The intent of the dashboard is that that will be an opportunity to update some key metrics more regularly than happens with the greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

So one of the holdups with the emissions inventory is that it takes a while to get the data from particularly PGE around um energy and gas use.

And so an example of a metric that we can get pretty immediately is electric vehicle registrations in Novato.

That information is available on um on a state website.

We can get information about electric vehicle charging stations installed.

Uh MCE can provide us with information about how many deep green customers they have.

So there's a lot of information that can be pop can be used to populate the dashboard, and that's what I see as the opportunity to really um educate our community and um and there may be a little bit of FOMO, like I, you know, so many people in Nevada have electric cars, I don't.

Um so I think I think that's probably the tool that we can use to uh to provide more up-to-date information about emissions reductions.

Thanks.

And then just one last question.

Um you had a tremendous amount of community engagement throughout the development of this plan.

You guys did a tremendous amount of work, great outreach, engaged with a lot of different groups.

One thing I noticed when I was looking at some of the other plans in other California cities, that they seem some of them highlighted ongoing community engagement structures, so not just how we got to this point in the plan, but going beyond that.

Things for like sustainability commissions is one obvious example, but youth councils as well, other elements like that.

Umce you see this plan being developed.

How do you how do you imagine you're going to fold in community engagement to help achieve some of your goals?

Well, I think one of the, as I mentioned before, I think partnerships are going to be incredibly important to us.

The sanitary district, Recology, uh, the school district.

There's, I think you're gonna hear from Sustainable Marine Schools probably tonight.

Those types of groups are actually doing the work in the community, and we need to be partnering with them to amplify their message and and uh and use those vehicles to get the word out.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Okay, uh so we're gonna move on to public comment.

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

Uh with some people requesting to speak.

Our first speaker is Erin Ashley.

Oh, there's a three-minute time limit, sorry.

Welcome, Erin.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you so much, Gretchen, for your presentation and for the council members' questions.

My name is Erin Ashley.

I'm a mother educator and proud resident of Novato, and after tonight, an even prouder resident.

As a child, I used to go walk on the beach with my mom, and I she'd pick up these nasty uh candy wrappers and cigarette butts, and at the time I thought it was pretty gross, but she was a consistent model for me of how to make the world a better place than when we entered it.

As a parent now, I often wonder the type of world our children will inherit.

And you know, more recently than not, our air has been thick with smoke.

And I remember a day not too long ago where the air was so thick, there was this apocalyptic orange in the sky, and the sun did not come up.

And you probably all remember that.

Um, I wonder if our children will enjoy a future with clean air to breathe, with water to drink, and most importantly, a community that takes care of one another.

I wonder if we'll leave these same problems to our children because we're too afraid or too slow to act.

I'm here tonight because this climate action plan is one of the most important and collaborative actions we can take for the future of our community.

It's more about reducing emissions, and I think that idea of partnership really sticks out to me.

We can't just be alone.

We need to work with one another.

It's gonna help us together have safer transportation, healthier communities, better sidewalks and bike lanes, less waste, more open space, and making sure that everyone, no matter their income, has access to healthier, more sustainable life.

This climate action plan makes me very proud to live in this community.

I'm inspired by your leadership and collaboration, and I urge you to uh adopt this plan.

We need more good news like this, and let's show our children and each other that we can be stewards of our environment and community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Erin.

Our next speaker is Pablo Pastar.

Welcome, Pablo.

Ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, thank you for entertaining the climate action plan today.

Um I am proud to serve as the chairperson for the Sustainability Commission, but I'm here today as a private citizen and father of four.

I've worked with corporations for almost 25 years on climate action, and continue that work today.

Back in November of 2020, the city declared a climate emergency.

Since then, sea levels have risen over half an inch.

Temperatures globally have risen by a quarter degree Celsius.

We've witnessed the horrific destruction of Lahaina.

We've seen the hurricane related flooding in the North Carolina area that destroyed large parts of Asheville.

And a new study estimates that the true death toll of the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year is actually above 400.

What can our small town do about such a huge global issue?

We can act local, set an example, and lead.

I encourage you to adopt the climate action plan and consider climate in all of your decisions that you make here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Pablo.

And our next speaker is Stella Pastor.

Hi, Stella.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Stella, and I'm 13 years old.

I came here tonight because I care about the climate action plan, and I think you should vote yes on it.

I'm growing up in Novato, and the choices you make today will shape what kind of future I get to have.

I want to live in a community with clean air, safe water, and a stable climate.

Passing this plan is one important step to protect my generation and the ones after me.

So I encourage you to vote yes on the climate action plan.

By doing so, you're voting yes on my future and the future of our city.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Stella.

Great job.

Our next speaker is Erica Durwood.

Welcome, Erica.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for your time, Council and Mayor.

Hello, I'm Erica Derwood.

I'm a program manager with Sustainable Burns Schools.

We work in all of the public elementary schools in Navado, and we are incredibly proud of this fact.

It's really meaningful work.

We support climate action in the schools and in the school communities in a bunch of different aspects.

As local government leaders, we are counting on you to protect the health and the well-being of our community now and for future generations.

Protecting our communities should be approached in a number of different aspects that were identified by Gretchen in the presentation earlier.

As climate change touches on so many aspects of our lives, it includes educating the community on ways that they can protect our environment and prevent climate change.

It also includes making sure that the infrastructure is in place to support alternatives to gas-powered cars, since that's where most of our pollution comes from.

This also includes infrastructure like EV charging stations, multi-use paths, protected bike lanes, and creating streets that are safe for all users, not just cars.

Every community needs to do its part to make sure that we are doing everything we can do to reduce the amount of carbon being put into our atmosphere.

Novato needs to make it easier for people to live more sustainably by encouraging more solar power, more energy efficient homes, and supporting cleaner transportation modes.

We owe this to future generations.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Erica.

Our next speaker is Bob Brown.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

First, I want to congratulate Gretchen and Christina Rourke and Abstentia, the city staff, the sustainability commission, the planning commission, and all the members of the public who contributed to bringing this plan to you this evening for adoption.

The challenge before us to meet the goals and the plan and the state targets are really daunting.

And I'd like to again show this chart that Gretchen showed in her presentation because it really tells the story.

So the orange line is where we've been 20 years of working on climate, and it's been laudable.

We've reduced emissions by 150,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year.

Most of that has been state actions and utilities, greening our power supply.

But the green line shows where we need to go to meet our goals and the state targets.

And getting to net zero emissions in 20 years.

So we've been working 20 years, 150,000 metric tons.

We need to get to reduce another 250,000 metric tons in 20 years.

So that is a huge transition in 20 years.

Cleaning up our power supply and getting to essentially 100% zero emission vehicles.

So I have to ask, are we really up for this challenge?

And if achieving zero emissions in the next 20 years isn't realistic in your minds, or if the council isn't really committed to making this a major priority for the city, then I suggest you not adopt the CAP.

Because simply adopting it, saying mission accomplished, putting it on the shelf and continuing with business as usual would really sort of be a hypocrisy for the community.

So my hope is that in adopting this plan, it will really spur the council and the city administration to make climate mitigation a major city priority.

The council adopted a climate action emergency resolution in 2020, and honestly, there hasn't been a great deal of action or reorientation of city policies since then.

Other Marine jurisdictions have moved ahead, adopting more stringent building codes for energy conservation and EV charging requirements in multifamily housing, and Novato hasn't really even considered these options at your level.

In the meantime, we've approved hundreds of new multifamily units that will be burning natural gas and won't have much in the way of EV charging facilities.

So, Mayor Pro Tem Farrak asks, what can Novato do?

Well, if we look around, five Marin jurisdictions are moving rapidly to be the state deadline to adopt rich building codes to address major residential remodels.

Eight of the 12 Marine jurisdictions have adopted the building electrification roadmap, and eight more have adopted the EV acceleration strategy.

Um and our council hasn't even heard presentations on these really important plans.

So if you want to see a jurisdiction that has really doubled down on climate policy and action, just look at Petaluma just north of us.

Um their council and Peggy Flynn's administration are really a shiny example that Novato can emulate.

But I hope that the council will demonstrate a real sense of urgency and organizational priority on implementing the plan.

So thank you very much.

And I guess one other thing I'd say about cost.

The costs are significant.

Really, I understand that.

The cost of not doing it are even greater.

Having to respond to wildfires, the loss of homes, having to deal with sea level rise and homes and our infrastructure.

Those costs will far exceed the cost of actually making the changes we need to in the near term.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bob.

Our next speaker is Silka Valentine.

Welcome.

Hi.

I need my classes.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members and attendees.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Silka Valentine.

I'm a resident of Navato, and in the steering committee of 350 Marin, a local grassroot climate activist group.

I'm excited that the Navato draft climate action plan 2030 is finally up for vote.

I attended most of the sustainability commission meetings.

Kudos to the commissioners.

It was wonderful to participate in the meetings, workshops, listen to the NS MCEP staff presentation and see it finally, this paper come together.

This gives me hope that when we work together, make a plan, and have the will to follow sue, we still have a chance to make a swift transition to clean energy, consumption and protect future generation and other species from unbearable climate disasters.

We let the Gini out of the box.

It is our responsibility to put it back in.

Let's adopt the Novato Climate Action Plan, which provides a comprehensive guideline for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

So it's significant potential and numerous financial benefits.

See energy supply by PGE is becoming increasingly expensive.

And 64% of our Novato's greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, mainly from this use of passenger vehicles.

Wouldn't it be great if most of the Navatu's home had solar panels on their roofs?

Patios or balconies allowing sun to provide us with free sustainable energy at home or for transportation.

Let's go for it.

Thanks for all your care.

And City Council member Jacob, I want to point to actually a very exciting little company.

We have in Hamilton.

And little equipment lights and all kinds of affordable stuff and even generators, electric generators for emergency situations.

So just check it out.

It's local.

Thank you very much, Silky.

Our next speaker is Cheryl Timoney.

Welcome, Cheryl.

Hi, good evening.

I'm shaking not from nerves, but because it's so chilly in here.

Good evening to the mayor and council members.

My name's Cheryl Timmy.

I'm also on the Sustainability Commission, but I wanted to come to you tonight as a very proud resident of Novato, and also the mom of three kids, ages 12, 9, and 6.

And I actually think my little Josephine might be watching.

So hi Jojo.

So like many parents, I think a lot about my kids and their future, and I worry about how climate uh change will impact their quality of life.

And I know from tonight and from always that I'm I'm not alone in this.

In the survey that Gretchen mentioned earlier, there's three quarters of Novato residents that say they're extremely concerned about the impact of climate change on their families.

And not only that, but um I think it was about a third of those who said uh they don't know where to begin with climate action.

So that tells me they're looking to us to provide support, guidance, and leadership when it comes to climate change.

That's why I'm here tonight to ask you to adopt the climate action plan.

At a time when our national leadership has undermined progress towards a sustainable future and continues to create uncertainty, our local leadership becomes even more critical.

And from major conservation efforts to being one of the first cities in Marin to adopt a climate action plan, Novato has a proud history of leadership in this space.

Our new plan builds on this legacy, maybe it gains this legacy.

It offers practical benefits for residents like lower energy costs and better public health.

It also aims to strengthen Novato's economic vitality by supporting the future workforce and innovation, ensuring our community thrives.

Most importantly, adopting this plan sends a clear message to the next generation.

Novato chose to lead with courage, care, and a vision for a stronger, healthier, and more prosperous future.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much, Cheryl.

Our next speaker is Nicole Time.

Oh.

Hi, hi Nicole.

Hi, thank you, Mayor and council members.

I was out there because it's freezing in here.

And so I would say if we do pass the climate action plan, maybe that should be number one on the agenda.

How do we turn this up or down?

Yes.

Um, so I I just want to say thank you to Gretchen.

This has been a long journey.

I've been on the Sustainability Commission for three years now, and we've been working on this together for a long time.

And my fellow commissioners and all the staff members who've worked on this.

This is a long time coming, and there's a lot of work behind this, and thank you so much for considering it.

I just wanted to speak tonight to say, you know, once we have this plan in place, we have a lot of work to do.

There are over a hundred measures, and that's not just that's with the community and with the city.

So for every one measure for the community, there's one measure for the city to do.

So there's a lot of work.

But we've talked about how we might manage this in the future, and the idea is that I think Gretchen kind of hinted at it tonight that we would do something that's a little bit more thematic.

And um, so she mentioned low cost and high impact for like the first things that we would do, especially with our budget and with the way that the federal government is going.

So there's I think, you know, all the folks who have come before me have said, you know, how much work there is to do, but how much our community needs this guidance.

And there's several things that it helps, not just community members in terms of what actions they can take, but it also provides nonprofit organizations and city agencies themselves and our districts with uh document that they can go to funders with and say, hey, we need to implement this, and we're getting behind here.

So if you can provide us funding, we can you know address these five things in the plan.

And that is a really valuable um way for us as a city to bring money into our community that might not otherwise be able to be brought here.

And that is kind of the point of, I think a lot of this is to give ourselves guidance, but also to bring the resources that we're gonna need, not just the people, but also the money to do this work.

So I really thank you so much for bringing this up today and for hearing all of us, and I look forward to helping implement.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much, Nicole.

Our next speaker is Claudia Craig.

Welcome, Claudia.

Hello, thank you all for being here and for listening in.

My name is Claudia Craig, and I'm a climate action fellow with the Sustainable Marin Schools, a nonprofit organization that values sustainability, equity, and resilience, and is working to make a real impact in Nevada's schools through zero waste initiatives, campus screening, environmental education, and more.

I support this climate action plan and want to emphasize transforming its vision into a reality.

We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the future generations, and we owe it to this planet that we all share.

I'm actually from Asheville, North Carolina, and want to thank the person from earlier for mentioning my community, which was devastated by an unprecedented hurricane just last year.

So I also want to echo that any costs of collaborating on this now are few compared to the costs of not acting.

So let's act now for the climate.

We're all in this together.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Claudia.

And our next speaker is Annalise Bash.

Welcome, Annalise.

Thank you so much.

Um good evening, and again, thank you for for hearing on this issue.

Um I'll be brief because all the commenters tonight have already made such wonderful remarks, and because I too am chilly.

Um we heard tonight about a plan to increase drought resilience in the local water supply.

We heard tonight from the community from on behalf of um the unhoused residents of Novato.

These residents who are incredibly vulnerable to extreme weather events, including extreme heat and storms.

Both of these issues relate directly to impacts from climate change, and I would argue that almost all of the issues that this council and that your city work on also relate to climate change impacts.

Adopting the climate action plan benefits all of those issues and demonstrates that this council and this community are committed to working on the drivers of climate change, not just those inevitable impacts.

So I urge this council to adopt that climate action plan.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

That concludes in-person public comment on the sign and we'll go to public comment on Zoom if you'd like to speak, please use the raise hand feature.

Laura, anyone looking to speak?

There are no raised hands on the Zoom.

Okay, we'll bring the close public comment and bring it back to council for a motion in a second.

Yeah, I'd like to move to pass the resolution approving an addendum to the City of Novato's General Plan 2035 certified EIR.

And the resolution adopting the City of Novato Climate Action Plan 2030 and amending the environmental stewardship chapter and repealing appendix E of the City of Novato General Plan 2035.

And I'll second the motion.

Yes.

Yes, please go ahead, Councilmember.

You want me to go first?

Please, okay, great.

First of all, I want to take us back a few years.

And Bob Brown probably remembers all of this too.

The City of Novato has been a sustainable sustainability leader for many years, and we were one of the first cities in Marin to actually adopt a climate change action plan, which we did in 2009.

And we set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15%, at least 15% by 2020.

Well, we reach that goal four years early.

We actually reach that goal in 2016.

So I have great confidence that the City of Novato is going to take this plan seriously.

But as some have said, we have a lot to lose if we don't.

And that's why I am not comfortable with waiting 12 to 18 months to get an update.

I don't want to wait until we start working on next year's budget in May or June of next year.

I want us as a council, we need to provide this leadership.

We need to have a discussion now.

We know some of the things that we need to start working on.

And I know with Gretchen's help and Bill's, they're going to be able to highlight that the real important things from the top that need to be funded.

So we can start working in January, if not sooner, on getting some of this done.

And so that's one of the things that I think that we need to do, and I will be working with the city manager to see if we can make that happen.

If not, then I'll bring it to the council for a discussion.

Constant um uh emphasis on um the fact that um the city needs to provide this leadership um not only for us but for all of the residents um in Novato.

And I will be looking um to really work closer with the sustainability committee to help identify what those high priority things are.

Um really would like to see uh that committee have that discussion early on and sort of get that um direction so that uh the council can start providing direction um to staff.

Um so with that, a big shout out for Rachel and Bill.

Great job and sustainability committee, and um I know that this council is up for the challenge and look forward to working with the council to achieve as many of these goals as we can and as fast as we can.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted to say uh three things.

One, um, the city council does have the opportunity to fold in action items from the um from the climate action plan into the strategic plan, which you'll be talking about in December.

So there's an opportunity to bring in some high level kinds of um actions there.

Secondly, as we were having this conversation here tonight, our CRAAP communications team has sent out the safety element for public review, and there is a survey there.

So if people are interested in providing input on the general plan safety element, um you should see an email in your inboxes, and please go ahead and take that online survey, which closes October nineteenth.

And third, I would just like to thank Gretchen and Christine.

Um I know it's been a long journey for you in getting this amazing plan put together through a lot of supervisory transitions and management transitions and all of those things.

So thank you very much.

I just wanted to acknowledge that as well.

Thank you very much.

Okay, Laura, we have a motion and a second, if you please call the vote.

Council Member Eckland.

Hi.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Hi.

Councilmember Milburg is absent.

Mayor Pertem Farak.

Hi, and Mayor O'Connor.

Hi, motion passes four zero.

Um, thank you very much once again to everybody that worked on this.

It's been very much appreciated, and we look forward to your continued engagement and health.

Okay.

We're gonna take a 10 minute recess and council will reconvene at 825.

All We're going to reconvene.

Okay.

So our next item of business is to receive the community development department's service improvements phase three, September 2025 report regarding actions taken written in response to the Building Division Organization Assessment Report prepared by Baker Tilly U.S.

in March 2024.

I'll call in Claire Hartman to present the item.

Welcome, Claire.

Thank you very much.

So yes, this is the phase three report out of our customer service improvement plan.

Okay.

And so just to bring us back to why we have a customer service improvement plan and why I've been reporting out every six months.

It was in March of 2024 where I first presented the building division assessment that was done by Baker Tilly.

And what we found was there was similar themes, re-emerging or continuing, that were found back in 2020 when the Marine Builders did a similar assessment.

And so what I took stock of and the council directed accordingly was what are some of the common themes of you know the issues around customer service for our department.

And these themes were an interest in increasing our in-house staff capacity and expertise so that more consistency and quality control could be accomplished without sending it out to consultants for for literally everything.

When I first came on a couple almost, I guess almost a couple of years ago, uh most everything was routed out to outside consultants.

Now we still do that, however, we've dramatically increased the number of staff members, but also the expertise of those staff members.

We've been more strategic about it.

Other themes that seem to repeat themselves is just more interagency coordination.

So as many people know, City of Navado, we have public works and building and planning in-house, but we have to work with our outside agencies as though they are part of the same agency because they are to this to the customer.

So the service needs to be seamless.

So working across different agencies, including sanitation, water and fire, and then meeting our customers where they are.

We have a diverse array of customers.

We'll talk about that tonight, of the changes that we've made to really reach all the different kinds of customers that we work with.

Offering checklists and guide sheets so people can help themselves and not always have to call and ask a question.

Having a culture that embraces permit streamlining, because permit streamlining frankly saves everybody time.

So staff enjoy being more efficient and more strategic and smart about how we process permits, and of course, customers like the certainty and the time and cost savings.

So these are some of the things that came out of those themes.

So you see a lot of the same themes here coming in.

This is essentially what I use as the compass for our department and moving things forward.

Really rethinking what we do and putting the lens of this customer service approach on them to see is this a match?

Is this moving our ideals forward?

So some of the same similar things, strategic staffing, mission-driven interdepartmental processes, and really thinking of what's important to our customers is very often time, cost, I have three primary goals that we worked on and achieved.

Again, continuing on our strategic staffing path.

I'll talk a little bit about that.

Uh promoting what we've already come up with.

What we uh discovered is we really needed to get the word out.

So we're trying to come up with other ways to promote the services that we have introduced to get more people connected with those opportunities.

And then by far the most time-intensive focus in this last six months has been understanding and configuring from scratch our new permit software system.

And so we'll talk about what where we're at with that and what we'll what we can look to look forward to with that.

So in terms of staffing, I want to spend just a few minutes on this slide because honestly, we wouldn't be as successful as we have been in the last 18 months without these 25 people that staff this department, they have been very resilient.

So as you can see in these color-coded uh chart here, about half the staff in the department are new.

So, new meaning since I've been here, so in less than two years, we've added 13 new individuals to a 25 member department.

That's substantial.

And the reason why that's so substantial is it's infusing such new fresh talent into the City of Novato's department while at the same time matching up with some really great and talented veteran staff members, and it has created this collaborative, creative, fresh energy for the department.

It has been a massive change for for Novato is this energy that's created with this staff.

We've added five, we had one, and that has been also very notable.

Again, you know, I can't walk by the counter or somebody's desk.

I hear Spanish being spoken to our customers very commonly.

So I knew that was something a need that needed to be met as well.

The other thing we've invested in is training.

So while we are recruiting and being very selective about who we hire, and we've hired so well, onboarding them properly, making sure that they know what they're here for, and then also really kind of calling them, you know, what are their special talents and being flexible and being strategic about that, and then investing in training, and I appreciate council's investment in our staff training.

So we have four vacancies left to fill, which we used to have so many, um, and so we have four.

Actually, we're really down to three.

So, first the three that we are still vacant on is plan check engineer, uh the senior building inspector, which I have not been successful getting applicants for, but I won't give up.

We're still looking for those individuals.

They have to be the right people to fit in our department.

Um we had a retirement for the development permit center supervisor, so we will put a recruitment out for that shortly, but we're focused on launching this uh software right now, and then I am so pleased to announce that we had a very competitive, very competitive with really great candidates for our chief building official recruitment, and we have made an offer and it has been accepted.

So we're looking at the end of October for our new chief building official.

We will have some transition support through that process because it's been some time, and I want to give a lot of credit to Mark Setterlin, who's been with the city for over two years, helping us through this process and has been a great partner getting us here to today, and he'll help transition to the new chief building official.

So now I want to talk about the promotional videos that uh Miguel Perez, our new management analyst, which was an added position to our department as a service improvement, and this is what you get.

You get somebody that can help me promote what we do, collect information and make it tangible to our customers in our community.

Um created a couple of promotional videos.

One is targeted specifically for homeowners because homeowners have a lot of questions.

They don't know where to start.

It's often the first and only time they get involved with us.

And they might hire someone, but oftentimes they want to ask their own questions.

So we've created a video, and I would love to show it to you tonight.

The other one, and that is just this week, has been launched on our main website, so nevado.org.

You can scroll down at the bottom of the web page our videos, and uh we've now put out our homeowner uh video.

The second one is for small business um owners, and we get a lot of questions again.

They're focused on their business, but maybe they want to expand or do a remodel.

Um they have a lot of questions, and yes, they might go and hire eventually somebody, but oftentimes they have um a lot of initial questions that we can save them a lot of time and money if they ask.

And so this uh we have set up a video um for that audience to to really again attract their interest in coming in and uh getting informed before they spend a lot of money to go down the path.

So I'd love to switch and uh show you this video for the homeowners, hello.

Welcome to the City of Novato's Permit Center located at 922 Macon Avenue.

If you are considering a home project, planning an addition, or at the beginning stages of an ADU accessory dwelling unit, the City of Novato is here to support you.

At the Novato Permit Center, our goal is to make the permitting process easier to understand and more accessible for you.

We know that every home project is different, and we want to help you get the answers and approvals you need to move forward with confidence.

The City of Novato recently updated our ADU requirements to better align with state law.

If you're considering adding an accessory dwelling unit to your property, now is a great time to explore your options.

If you're unsure where to begin, permit connections is a great starting point.

This free drop-in service is offered on the first and third Thursday of every month from 9 a.m.

to 11 a.m.

at the Permit Center.

You'll have the chance to talk with staff from fire, water, sanitation districts, as well as our city departments, all in one room.

We've recently partnered with ADU Marin.

This free resource allows you to browse sample floor plans, explore helpful tools, and get expert advice to help guide your project.

Visit our city website at nevato.org/slash planning for more information.

For smaller home repair projects, our City of Novato Permit Center is now offering express permits, a faster, convenient online way to handle the most common types of home improvements.

Projects such as water heater replacements, HVAC changeouts, rebroofing, and electrical panel upgrades can now be processed through this online system.

Your licensed contractor submits the application online.

And in most cases, your permit is issued within 24 hours.

We've also made it easier to access property information as well, right here in the Novato Permit Center.

There's a self-service kiosk where you can look up property records, check permit history, and print details on the spot.

If you prefer to plan ahead, you can even schedule a time to use the kiosk through our convenient online appointment system at nevato.org forward slash building.

Whether you're planning a remodel, building an ADU, or just making improvements around the house, the City of Novato is here to support you every step of the way.

So visit our website, give us a call, or pay us a visit at the City of Novato Permit Center.

We look forward to helping you with your next project.

We got a thumbs up.

You want to see it again?

No.

It's that good.

You want to see it again?

Okay.

That's great.

Fantastic.

Love George.

There we go.

Okay.

Thank you for indulging me in playing that video.

I'm so proud of the team, and I love both videos.

We've uh employed many of our different staff members, and the whole idea there is I wanted everybody to get involved that could get involved that might actually be the person that that person, the homeowner speaks to, or for the small business video, might connect with on that level.

So for that one, for the small business one, when it does come out and it should come out next week, we even we also included Katie Skerping, our new economic development manager because you know we're trying to coordinate and partner with with that section of the city, and again, it should be seamless to our customers who meet us.

So we talked about permit connections the last couple of uh times, but this is definitely one that we've gotten a lot better about promoting and uh is getting busy and busier um on these Thursdays, and people ask and they wait and they save up for these.

So it's been very popular as it's gone on.

I want to talk a little bit about uh our residential express permits.

Um when I came last in March, we had literally just soft launched it.

Um so I'd like to to say how well it's been received, and uh it's been well received by staff, obviously, and um tremendously by our customers.

These are our very classic minor permits, the like for like um changeouts, HVACs, water heaters, and uh things like that.

Um so we're running about 95 of these a month that are getting issued, and these are what we call um express permits, so same-day permits.

So you do have to be a registered and licensed uh register with us and then a licensed uh uh professional, but it's quick and easy to do that.

Um, we'll recognize you, and then it's basically we trust that they are licensed and professionals, so they can um apply for their permit online, they can go do the work, and then the first and last time that we see them is to to do the final inspection.

So it's been really successful.

Um we decided to do that and not wait for main star because we wanted to do something in the interim, um, so that it was set up in track it, which our current system, it will migrate nicely into main star.

The other thing that we've uh been able to experience in more recent months, has just become has been because of our um the ability to have uh in-house talent like we have in Laurel Vasquez and uh our interim permit center supervisor Jesse Oswald, uh they have been able to dedicate more of their time to doing some simple plan reviews, and so what that has um what that has resulted in is really a soft launch of what we're calling quick permits.

So these do need plan review, but instead of putting them into plan check and sending them out into a queue, they're able to use their own expertise and certifications to do the plan review at the counter and turn these around within five business days.

And they're averaging, they got up to um 90 of these this last month.

So they started at 40, I think they went to uh 60 or 70, and now they were able to do 90.

This month might be a little challenging because we are launching MainStar, but um the ability to have in-house expertise gets you that, gets you so that you don't have to send things out to Plan Check, you can act on them in-house.

It's been tremendous, tremendously re uh well received by our customers.

So now let's talk about the big investment that the city um put together.

And again, big commitment by the council to invest in technology.

This will be a game changer for us.

So similar to investing in staff and making sure we have the right people to serve our customers.

Investing in the right technology is going to be well worth it.

It's been a big Herculine effort here.

To prepare for this, we've spent months, days, hours, just uh it's been quite a bit of a lift, and 201, not just a small team, but honestly, most all of my team have been buried in this for some time.

Last week we we did an all hands training on what the software will include and how it will work.

We included our agency partners.

So as of last week, we had 50 city, and this is not just community development.

So we've included our partners in the city, we have finance, we have public work, so we're all involved with this because this is a software that will cover a lot of our city functions.

And we're just getting started with it, so we've kind of built the foundation.

There'll be a lot more potential to add on as we get more comfortable with it.

And we had about 20 training sessions across five days last week.

And our agency partners, sanitation, water, fire, they all participated as well.

So, in order to launch something as robust as this new permit software that we created from scratch, we do need a what we call a go dart period.

So we have go live on October 1st, and we have a go Dart period.

It starts actually tomorrow at four.

So we've been vetting out information about this.

What that means is applications that are turned in before that cutoff, they will get migrated.

So part of our go dart period is to allow this migration of all this past information and current permits into the new system, and then to set up for new applications through a new public portal.

And so that's part of the reason why we have to go Dart.

We do have allowances for inspections, so people can still get inspections.

Um they just need to call our inspection general phone line, and we will work around the fact that we are in between softwares during this week.

Any information you want to track, like what's what what what is uh this all about?

Uh, what's the timeline?

How do I access information during this time period?

You can go to novato.org/slash permits, and we're keeping a running log FAQs and directions.

So, what will this new software that the council and the community have invested in?

It's gonna allow you to submit and track permit applications.

So, again, lots of self-help instead of calling, hey, what's the status of my permit?

Guess what?

You're gonna be able to register, and this is an intuitive people cloud-based program.

You can you can answer a lot of your questions on your own from the comfort of your home.

Um, you can upload documents, uh, we can you can schedule inspections and then view the results.

It will all be online.

Uh again, uh submitting code enforcement uh requests, you can pay online, you can do uh we can do reporting, we'll have an ability to do better dashboarding about performance.

Um then lots of um we've updated almost all of our communications, and this is again not just community development, but across the organization that's using this tool.

So we've updated, we've we've created automatic notifications.

So if your permit is about to expire, you'll probably get a notice um to remind you things like that, or what's the next step.

So I don't have a demo of the public portal.

We're still everything's live and in motion, but um we have played with it and it's quite intuitive.

Staff's very excited about this tool.

There's still quite a bit of work to do before we launch, and and uh practically speaking, we will still be working on it when we launch so full disclosure there will be processing delays there always is I've lived through two of these transitions myself and you can you can plan plan plan and prep as much as you can and really you you gotta run with it with real applications to work out all the kinks so the first 30 days are can be rough please be patient with us because it is much better on the other side of this and it's well worth it so but be patient.

The public portal you'll be able to access information by just keywords so if you know part of your address or parcel number you can it's also map based there's a flight here.

It's also map-based so again all the different ways that you might have information about something and you want to query something lastly I just uh want to give a highlight we we continued the satisfaction survey um for customers and we we pass this out as often as we have touch points with customers we are able to um this I'll start with the graphic on the right which you cannot see so I'm gonna talk through it real quick here but just in terms of uh I think there was a question last time I was here about you know are you mostly getting residents that are residents that are filling out the survey or are you getting to contractors?

20% are we're broadening it so we took that as a challenge like let's get to as many different types of customers as we can because we really do want to know comprehensively how are we doing so 20% have been from contractors 38% from residents 21% from property owners we get three percent from design professionals 12% from business owners 3% from realtors so really quite the collection of customers and I think that's really important that we're able to have that many touch points into the community.

The other diagram here on the left is uh easier to read because you see lots of this uh teal color what this is showing you is that and this is comprehensive consistently we have rated in the excellent category for uh the overall quality of service um so yeah 93% it's been in the 90% since we started but we've but we've definitely increased the number of uh folks that have filled out the survey I think we're uh at like a hundred and a hundred and thirty five uh survey uh responses and we'll just continue to get that information out because one of the the best things about uh the survey is the real time component so when we first started the survey and you looked at the answer of was it a recent interaction within a week or was it within the last six months we got a lot of inform we got a lot of survey respondents for past issues people had a lot to say about how they felt about their experience and so it's interesting at this point we're starting to get more real-time customer feedback which I think is also really valuable and then we're able to update our website with the information and feedback or their checklist or give them a call back and find out what what went you know sideways to to their perspective.

Again this is just more of showing that lots of very satisfied customers we get a lot of custom comments a lot of our I think I was noting to the staff today like just in the last six months you know 12 different so half of our staff got very specific commendations from our our survey respondents.

It just shows it's not just a couple of people doing a great job.

My whole team is doing a great job, 201.

You know, it's really I'm so proud of them.

The other thing that we've learned through here is like, so what's where's the tension point still?

The tension point is everyone's waiting for our software launch and for it to function great, and it will, um, and we are on track to do it.

Um, the other tension point I would say, and this is this little uh gold area that you see kind of peeking out there on the top one, is review times.

So as we get better at in-house expertise and we increase our opportunities for that, we'll see that decrease for the more major um projects that do rely on plan check and a coordination with outside agencies.

I would say that's our next phase.

So first we've set up the foundation, we've set up the emission and the alignment, and then what we'll start working on is the the bigger projects, the bigger permits.

So that um concludes my presentation on where we're at with service improvements.

Happy to take questions.

Thank you very much, Claire.

I'll bring it back to council for questions.

Uh Councilmember Jacobs.

Thank you for your presentation.

I know you've been working on this for a while, and we've talked about it a number of times.

Um, couple questions.

Does your department encourage the homeowners to have their contractor pull permits?

Or, I mean, for let's say medium-sized projects.

Yeah, I would say, you know, if if you're starting to get into like a uh remodel that's remodel.

Yeah, yeah.

I think uh hiring a professional is often often uh something that we would recommend.

Okay, but you don't you'll get take a permit from a homeowner for a major kitchen remodel.

Well, I think it depends on what you're touching.

Um, but yes, I think we'll work with the homeowner as much as much as we can.

I mean, again, having someone like Lauro on staff to go out and and explain where the threshold would be, and he'll be honest about like what will trigger a professional, but he'll work with the homeowner as long as he can.

Okay.

Well, no, I mean if a homeowner has a set of plans drawn up that are good, and they're gonna hire a contractor, but they want to pull the permit themselves.

Do you encourage them to get the contractor to pull it?

Or do you you'll just process it and give them the permit and then they'll deal with the contractor.

And my my per my purpose of the question is years ago, Novato encouraged homeowners to pull their own permits.

Which I don't think is a great idea.

I think it's better if a contractor pulls it because it lays a lot more responsibility on them.

And I know the city will check permits or excuse me, licenses, insurance, and all that.

Whereas a lot of times a homeowner doesn't, they'll take somebody's word for it.

And I've seen them getting touchy situations that way.

Yeah, like I said, we'll we'll work with them.

Sometimes it is case by case to see what is going to be best for the project, but yeah, there's a lot of times where you know, whether they're willing or not, it's just the we do need somebody professional on the job, being responsible.

And then um, the express permits, it sounds wonderful.

Um contractors are already vetted and in the system, but a homeowner cannot pull a permit that way, correct?

That's correct.

Okay, good.

Quick permits in five days, that's great.

That's really wonderful.

And I'll tell you, I've gotten a couple phone calls from people who have gone in and called me and said I walked out with a permit.

I can't believe it.

They've been very impressed.

Um, I have had two people call me up and said they got notices recently about expired permits they had, and they thought they remember having the inspector out approving their permit, and then now they're getting a notice about it.

And they're both gonna call and set up an appointment to find out what happened.

Um, and unfortunately, one of them does not have his copy of his signed permit.

Um, I think I can explain what was going on with those things.

Cell phone service?

Yeah, because I think we sent out like sixteen hundred of those letters, so you only got two phone calls.

I got a few more.

So we had the idea that as we're transitioning from track it to mainstar, we should have we ought to clean up our records.

Um, and so we did a calling of our records, and we realized that we had many, these 1,600 that were unfinished.

They were from years past and they just weren't closed off or final.

So we sent out the notification letter to let the owner know because we didn't we can't just close them out without um reconciling them.

Um and so those are really more we've treated them more like courtesy letters.

So we again we'll work with the property owner and whether they have their paperwork or not.

We'll send an inspector out to close the case.

Um because really, you know, having a completed building permit is an asset to a property owner.

Having an income uncompleted or unresolved building permit is a disaster for a property owner.

So it's this mutual interest of let's solve this riddle and close your case.

And most of those cases are easy to to solve.

And sometimes we can do them without doing another inspection, and other times we'll send somebody out.

So staff's been doing that in the last couple weeks.

No, we're breathing life back into them for the purpose of closing them out for them.

Yeah.

Good.

So they don't have to bring it up together.

We're trying to make it easy on everybody and really just meet the intent that maybe there was one last step that didn't get, you know, and honestly, maybe it didn't get recorded in some cases.

Uh so maybe that's on us.

And so, you know, it's hard to tell, and so we give everybody benefit of the doubt, but we will do an inspection just to make sure.

Okay, one last question.

Project documents that the people can submit online.

Do they have to be in a PDF format or can they be uh scanned picture, or what do they have to be?

Uh well, I don't have the requirements here, but yeah, we will have it'll say um when you get to that part of the and a lot of this is drop-downs with instructions um on there, look what the requirements are, and even down to how you name them.

Oh, good, okay.

I mean, we're trying to be efficient.

One of the ways that we learned in our first tranche was complete applications make for a speedy plan review process.

Same thing with this.

So, as close to what we want up front is gonna make record keeping a lot easier, and so really just guiding the applicant or the person filling it filling out the form to how we want the information to come in, so use of drop-downs so we get it exactly right, or where it's a free form guidance for how to name a document.

Okay, great, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Eckland.

Um, thank you very much.

Great presentation.

It's really exciting to see the improvements that are happening.

Um, question though, for some who are not technologically advanced, um you will still help homeowners um with the old method of applying for a permit and everything if they don't do it electronically, because we have a lot of seniors, especially in Navado, that may not be um technology oriented and uh may want to do it themselves or with their family.

Yeah, um well, everything will be paperless.

We don't take in paper, but we will help uh any applicants, and we do we as we do now, so people can come in or they can talk with us and we can help them complete the form.

We do have a kiosk in our lobby, and um we'll make sure that's available for people if they want to come in, we can help them fill out the form.

But uh we are moving to paperless um and we'll help them, we'll help them along with that.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh not seeing any other questions, we'll go to public comment.

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

Um not seeing any requests to speak, we'll go to online public comment.

Laura is there with their hand raised?

No hands raised on Zero.

Thank you.

I'll bring it back to council.

There's no action needed this evening.

I'll just uh echo my colleagues, Commissar.

Thank you very much for all of your hard work.

It's tremendously appreciated.

We're very excited to see the progress you and your team have made and look forward to seeing the continued improvements.

Okay.

Moving on to adjournment, our next regular council meeting will be held on October 14th, 2025.

Does anyone have someone that'd like to enjoy