Good evening and welcome to the City of Nevada special meeting for Wednesday, December 3rd.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the five of the United States of America.

To the Republic for which it says indivisible to justice.

Thank you.

Laura, if you please call our take roll.

Councilmember Eklund.

Present.

Councilmember Jacobs.

Present.

Mayor Per Temperak.

Present and Mayor O'Connor.

Present.

Thank you.

There was no closed session before tonight's meeting, so we'll move on to approval of the final agenda.

I'll move approval of the final agenda.

All second.

Can I um make a suggestion that we um don't do reports from the city council and city manager since we have a meeting next Tuesday?

Any objection?

Excuse me.

What was it that you said?

Just remove reports from the city council and city manager since we have a meeting next Tuesday.

Um actually um I have something that I would like to announce.

Okay, um, so um maybe what they could do is put it at the end or something, but we can do it real quick when we get to reports.

Okay, yeah.

All right, so we have a motion and a second.

Or if you please take the bill, vote.

Councilmember Eklund.

Aye.

Councilmember Jacobs, aye.

Mayor Pertem Farat.

Aye, and Mayor O'Connor.

Hi.

Um that passes, thank you.

So moving on to reports from City Council and City Manager.

City Manager Cunningham, any report today?

No report, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eckland.

Uh can you give me a minute?

Do somebody else first?

Oh, sure.

Um yeah, councilmember Jacobs.

No, I have nothing to report today.

Okay.

Nothing to report.

And I don't have any report either.

Okay.

I have a lot about what I've been doing, but I'll I'll put that for the next meeting.

Um, but I did want to announce uh that um we are having a and I really encourage people from the community to attend this meeting.

It is the Plan Bay Area 2050 plus there is a um public meeting on uh uh December 4th, and it's at the best western at 215 Alameda Del Prado in uh Novato.

And um this is the plan that's going to be generated for the nine counties around the Bay Area that will determine the housing growth in each of the counties in each of the cities, and also the transportation improvements for the nine county Bay Area, and um it was great that they chose Novato.

I'm very proud.

Um I just hope that we do have some people coming, and um, uh really urge people to participate if you can, and that's gonna be before our next council meeting, I believe.

Perfect.

Thank you.

I'll hold everything else till then.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

That concludes the reports moving on to public comments.

This is public comment for items that are not listed on the agenda.

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

Any no requests to speak?

Okay, we'll close general public comment and move on to general business.

Uh so our first item of business is the city council vacancy and district five.

I'll call on City Clerk Laura McDowell to open the item.

Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and city council.

So again, this is the um procedure to fill the vacancy in district five.

Some brief background district five was formally represented by councilmember Mark Melbourne.

Um Councilmember Milberg unexpectedly passed away on October 13th.

Because of that, this in um which caused the seat to be vacant.

The city pursuant to government code has 60 days from the date of the vacancy to fill the seat.

Um, the member that fills the seat must be a registered voter at least 18 years old and live within the boundaries of district five.

So the city council discussed their options on October 28th, being either calling a special election or appointing a council member.

The decision needs to needed to be made by um December 11th.

The council ultimately decided to fill the seat by appointment, which is what we are doing tonight.

The application period opened on October 9th and closed on November 24th, and the city did extensive promotion, including sending a mailer to every household in District 5, publishing two ads in the Marin Independent Journal, issuing press releases, placing the um vacancy on the city's website, and sending notifications to all the email subscribers, posting on all the city social media accounts, sharing with community partners, including the Naval New Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Novato, Novato Unified School District in the media, and then including the vacancy in the city's newsletter.

We received four applications.

All have been confirmed by the county that they are eligible to serve, and all are present this evening to be interviewed.

And with that, I will turn it over to the council for any questions or to proceed with the interviews.

Thank you very much, Laura.

If anyone has any questions, please use the raise hand button.

Yes, I took the time to go back and look at the interviews that were conducted back in 2021 and 2023.

And so one of my concerns has been in the appointment process, is that someone that we appoint then gets an edge up if they decide to run for the position when it's up.

And in this case, the position will be up for November of 2026.

And so when we appoint, and then that person could run and say that, well, I serve on the city council, and it's like a re-election, which is a little bit easier.

So we're not actually selecting the person in some respects.

We are.

One of the things that I then I rewatched all the meetings, those two meetings, is that whatever we decide, I'm hoping that it would be unanimous amongst the four of us.

Um that's really why I'm starting out this discussion first, because if this person we don't want them to be just a, you know, but have the choice to run or not, um, even if they decided that they would only serve to 2026.

They still have that option.

Um, but can would you were the other council members just let me know whether they have share the same concerns I have?

Sure.

About the edge that that candidate would have.

Amongst others that are running?

Because the Hamilton is huge.

Yeah, it is.

And this is not the time of year for us to reach out to a lot of people.

I mean it's holidays.

And that's always a time when people are less engaged with civic affairs.

At least that's been my experience on the council.

I can I can certainly go first and then if you do want to weigh in as well.

My view on it hasn't changed since the last time we discussed it at our last meeting.

If we start folding in things that we perceive give people an advantage or a disadvantage, I think that's outside the scope of our responsibilities, to be honest.

So I personally have whether or not they choose to commit to running for re-election tonight or not, it isn't something I feel like I would want to ask.

Having gone through this myself two years ago, I can tell you if someone had asked me two years ago, my honest answer would have been I don't know, because I don't really know what I'm signing up for.

And that's a fair answer.

Right.

So I I honestly I I don't I think we have our eight questions.

If you'd like to exchange one of yours for that, that's absolutely within your rights.

But personally, it's not something I would consider to be an important distinction.

And regarding the unanimous vote, I mean I think that the problem with the unanimous, I would hope that we can reach a unanimous vote.

Let's start there.

Um but that also if we if we tie ourselves to it, that means three people might want to move in one direction and one person effectively has a veto.

And I'm not supportive of having one person being able to veto three other people.

So hopefully we can reach a unanimous conclusion because I think that that gets everyone off on a good foot.

Gotcha.

Um anyone want to go next?

Yeah, I I'd be concerned about that because by the time you get the onboarding done, someone gets into sync, they've only got about seven months of seven to eight months of really being on council and having an impact, and then you know it's over if you're not gonna go any further.

Um I don't know if anybody had thoughts of running, put their name in, decides they don't want to run after they go through the seven well ten months.

Uh I just don't I'd like to see somebody who goes in, jumps in, gets going, and if they want to run, they can run.

We had nobody run for Mark's position last year, and now we have four candidates who want to um like to get appointed.

So I think we've got a good group.

I think uh we should do it that way.

Um I understand your concern, um, but I am with my colleagues on this way.

Um I think, yeah, asking today if someone's gonna run, you don't know.

Like I I think I'm gonna run, but I, you know, so I think just that decision alone is hard to make.

Um I do feel that um the voting base, if they're not doing a good job and they're not seeing progress in this eight months, why would they re-elect someone?

Um so I think that's a consideration too.

So if they're not having an impact in District Five and overall Novato, um I think that individual will notice it as well as um the constituents in district five.

So that's just my opinion.

Thank you.

Were there any other questions before we begin the interviews?

Okay, um, so we'll start inviting them.

And just uh recap process with four people, we're taking them in alphabetical order by last name.

We all have questions in front of us.

Each council member will ask two questions, we're gonna take it in turns.

Um at the end of the interviews, there'll be an opportunity for public comment, will come to council for deliberation and a decision.

Okay.

All right.

Unless there's any other questions, our first applicant is Sean Gentry.

Welcome, Sean.

Thanks for being here today.

Hi, yes.

Good evening, Mayor Rick O'Connor and City Council members.

Happy to be here.

Yeah.

So we've got eight questions for you.

Uh we're gonna take it in turns.

We'll probably be jotting notes as we go, so if there's a pause in between, forgive us, we're not fast riders sometimes.

I understand that.

Um if you need any clarification or anything like that, please feel free to ask.

Um, before we get started with questions, do you have any questions about the process?

Um no, no questions about the process.

Fantastic.

So our first question this evening will be from Councilmember Eckland.

Thank you very much.

Sean, if you could explain how your experience in the private andor public sector will help the city council establish policies and programs to help the Nevado community.

Yeah, so I'll take that in both parts.

And as far as um the private sector, I'm an attorney.

I've worked uh in the Bay Area for about 15 years as council, represented lots of companies around the Bay Area, including here in Marin.

Uh, and I understand, sort of from a business standpoint, what drives them, what they're concerned about when it comes to city governments, and then similarly, what the city governments might be concerned about with respect to what those companies are doing and how they're operating within the boundaries of the city with regard to taxes and various different things and regulations.

So I do understand the connection between commerce and government from my private practice.

I've also handled a litigation, so I sort of understand where things can go sour.

Um, and I've even had litigation that involved uh a city government uh in the South Bay, so I've seen the inner workings a little bit of city government as well as far as that goes.

Um I'm also on the board of a nonprofit that does civic education.

I've been doing that for about 10 years, a little over 10 years.

Uh civic education is a something I'm very passionate about.

On the sort of in the public sector, I guess I have I have two school age children, six and two here in Novato.

And so, as far as public policy goes, education and programs for youth is something that I'm very passionate about that I was already very passionate about, but now extra so with a couple of kids who are gonna be going to school here in Novato in the public school system.

Um and so I've sort of seen how that's working for them.

Um, frankly, I think the school system here is great.

I mean, they've seen, I mean, my daughter's in uh first grade, so she's she's there.

My kids and my younger kid is in daycare still, but um I'm sort of seeing how that's operating as well.

I recognize you're not the school board here, but to the extent that policy may impact the education system here and the education programs and the extracurricular programs in Novato, those are also policy areas that I'd be interested in have seen firsthand, not just in Novato, but sort of throughout the Bay Area.

Thank you, Councilmember Jacobs.

Thank you.

Um, what's your vision for economic development in the city and how would you attract or support local businesses that had an interest in coming here?

I think we have a really thriving and interesting downtown area that I would hope would draw businesses.

We certainly frequent a lot of the different businesses down there.

Um I would like to see that continue to be marketed to new businesses that may want to come in.

One uh, you know, concern in the Bay Area is of course increasing prices, both for commercial and residential property leases, tenancies that drive out businesses.

So one thing I think would be very important sitting on the city council would be to be mindful of how tax policy and sort of economic growth may impact the smaller businesses we have in Novato.

I think Novato has uh obviously have some big chain businesses as well, off Rolland and the like, but a lot of the um the great economic uh sector we have in Novato are those small businesses, the little restaurants downtown, the hardware stores and the like, um, particularly partial to a dance studio in downtown Nevada that my daughter loves.

And so I think sitting on the city council, something that's very important, and my vision would be to try to keep costs down for businesses, both to keep the smaller ones that we have and encourage continued growth.

There's some interesting areas as well throughout Novato that I think could be subject to development.

Um, and so I'm thinking potentially residential as well, but I'm I'm in Hamilton, right?

And so there's some there's some land there that I understand was uh potentially gonna be built by Thompson builders.

It may have fallen through.

I'm I see a nod there, so I think you know what I'm talking about.

But there's there are areas like that.

Hamilton continues to be sort of a thriving and growing uh residential community.

Um, and perhaps, you know, there could be some commercial activity there as well around the Safeway complex.

Um, but to the extent there is uh extra space still available to develop there, uh housing is a hot commodity in the Bay Area, and it would be great to continue to expand opportunities for our local residents and and small families that want to move to Novato.

And so working with the Planning Commission and uh, you know, other stakeholders in those sort of development projects would be an important priority for me, not just because I live in that area and would like to see it developed, but also to give more people and companies opportunities to locate into Novato and become part of our community.

Um, I have one other note I would say on this topic, which is um, you know, I've had the opportunity to sit in city council meetings where we've talked about uh unhoused individuals living in Novato, and I know that's that's an issue that is um very important and current here in Novato.

Um I've I've heard all about camp compassion when that was uh here in Novato.

And that is another issue I think that I know you're all grappling with, I've seen you grappling with it over a couple of years here and is ongoing.

And I think from an economic standpoint, finding solution, you know, longer-term solutions for unhoused individuals would be um something important and a driver as well.

Thank you.

That flows nicely into my question.

Um, how will you address housing affordability and homelessness in our city?

You know what's interesting about especially the homelessness issue is that I think the individuals who themselves are in an unhoused situation often have the best ideas, and so I've heard some here at the city council meeting, including um small housing, you know, small houses or portable houses being a potentially viable option.

I think from the city council standpoint, the question is location and ensuring, you know, safe sit a safe situation for residents and where where you, the city council are able to um find places to locate those individuals that is also a place that they want to be located and not being forced sort of from place to place throughout our our city.

So I think from the homelessness standpoint, it's listening to constituents who have good suggestions about that, and then working with this the city um manager's office and the planning commission to find places either on Novato-owned property or around the city to develop or create safe space for those individuals to make a make a home for themselves.

I know we also have the homeward-bound um facility organization.

It's actually right behind my fence.

Uh so I they're right out my window, so I see I see what they're doing, and I know that's um a feather in the cap of Novato and the city council and and the city manager, and so those kinds of programs I think are important to look at uh if there are additional opportunities.

In that particular instance, I know that was part of the old military base.

Uh, in fact, I saw the warehouses get torn down where that's now located.

Um, and so I don't know what other land exists sort of in the Hamilton area.

Uh I know some of it's um owned by the school district, but there may be places that the city owns that you can collaborate with stakeholders in order to use either public property or private property if viable to, you know, build longer-term shelters and housing for homelessness.

Um, the affordability issue, you know, is a nationwide one, but especially in California, as an elder millennial, I've um grappled with this my whole life.

Uh, you know, rents going up and and housing prices continuing to go up.

Um, if there was a silver bullet, I think the governor would have found it by now.

But um I I think in general for local government, um, being mindful of property taxes and passing new property taxes that increase the monthly uh requirements, out-of-pocket expenses for uh new families and homeowners is something to always be mindful of.

I think also um trying to build near transit is very important.

So we have the smart train just down the road from where I am, which is wonderful.

Um, you know, my son loves the bus, so we ride the bus sometimes.

I the bus system I see all over the place.

So I think there is good transit here in Novato, but continuing to find places to do new developments or redevelop existing residential land to allow residents to move in and have access to that public transportation can be very important because the overall cost of living isn't just the mortgage or property taxes, it's how do you get to work and all of those things as well.

So you had one other thing to mention on affordability, and it's escaping me right now.

It'll come back to me.

I may jump back on it when I remember.

Thank you, Sean.

Um our community is a wide range of needs, and as a result, it's common for council members to receive questions regarding a diverse uh range of topics.

How would you respond to these questions and ensure each community member feels valued and heard?

Yeah, I think a unique skill of mine is compassion or empathy, something that I've brought to my career.

Um I work really well with clients.

I think clients are really um find find my ability to understand their issues and engage with them to be uh a skill of mine.

I've become a mediator in the last year, uh in large part because of this sort of um ability that I I feel that I have.

And so I think in Novato and Hamilton area in particular, we do have a diverse population, and I'm I'm aware of my demographic uh situation and socio-economic upbringing, and I'm aware what I don't know, and um I'm a good listener.

So something that I I am good at doing both in public and private life is engaging with individuals who don't necessarily share my backgrounds or views, hearing what concerns them, and as a lawyer, I then take on and become their advocate, right?

So I am the champion for whatever their causes, their issues are, and the same with my sort of sick civic education work.

I'm there to foster what is important to them.

And so, in a government or city council setting, that means being a civil servant and not uh, you know, having my own agenda necessarily for sitting on city council.

And so being able to go out in the community, listen to those diverse views, both politically and socioeconomically, uh religiously, racially, whatever it might be, and then be able to internalize that and become champions for those viewpoints, especially if that viewpoint seems to be held by a large percentage of the constituents.

Uh, you know, then of course it is something that the community as a whole would be passionate about, and we should be passionate about it and champion that cause champion those causes here in the city council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eklund.

Okay.

Five from the fifth question.

We're number five.

Right.

Okay, so that's right.

What is the one thing you would like to change in the city, and what is one thing you would like to eliminate?

And this is City Hall, not just the city of Novato, but say that again.

City Hall.

With what is the one thing about the city that could be the city of Novato too?

Was one thing that you would like to change, and one thing you'd like to eliminate.

I wish I had known this question in advance so I could come up with or think through all of the things of interest.

Um, I do have one.

So the my number one thing I would love to change about Novato is the theater in Hamilton Base.

Uh right there by the Montessori School by Splitz.

Right.

So my wife is a musical theater director or choreographer.

She works at Throckmorton in Mill Valley, a number of other places in this in San Francisco.

We have long eyed that theater in the three years we've lived here and wondered what might come of it someday.

In fact, I think you and I have talked about this, Councilmember Eklund, and I know it's a very expensive undertaking probably to do anything with that theater, but that would be my answer.

The one thing I would change is to revitalize that theater, uh, create, and in particular, if that theater was running, I'd love to see a nonprofit operate in that space that would provide, in particular, youth theater, basically six to end of high school.

There's some great programs uh in Marin and the city that provide services like that.

I think having one in Nevada would be excellent.

There's a good one up in um Cinnabar and up in Petaluma, and I think that um, you know, even Cachia and Co.

could move into that space uh to some degree or or perform in that space.

Um that being said, I am aware we have the very gorgeous Novato high school theater that a lot of uh performances are get to move into.

So there's a couple of good options here, but I'd I'd love to see the inside of that theater too.

Um, something I would eliminate, um, that's a tougher question.

You know, and I'm gonna, I guess I'm gonna say something that may feel a little like pandering, but I think if we could eliminate some of the you know the homelessness uh throughout the city to the extent that's desirable to those constituents to have more permanent housing, I think that's um sort of an obvious answer is finding permanent places to the extent they want permanent places to reside in the city, understanding the economic barriers that may exist for them finding permanent housing currently.

Thank you very much.

How much time can you really realistically commit to council duties and what's your understanding of the time requirements involved?

I admittedly only have a vague understanding of the time requirements that you all put put into this position.

Um, but I do I do have time to put in.

I work at home, I work here in Novato.

My office is technically located in Sacramento.

I go in a couple times a month.

Um, you know, evenings and weekends, uh, I certainly would have time to spend with you all here to work on issues uh applicable to the city council and the city of Novato.

Um working here at my home office in Novato puts me in close proximity.

I'm about, well, I live down in Hamilton, so I'm only about 10 minutes away.

Um I can certainly come in.

I don't know if you meet all meet during the daytime or not, or if you're all at your day jobs, but I certainly can meet during the day as needed for uh certain events or or whatnot.

My um my partners are pretty flexible in my law firm as far as that goes, as long as I get my client work done.

Um certainly weekends I've got available.

I do have two young kids, so you know, being realistic, I am at dance, you know, theater camp theater practice, whatever, dropping kids off at ballet.

My two-year-old assuredly is gonna start soccer soon.

So I'll have those little little barriers.

But I'm not worried about my ability to devote to this.

This is so civics, representation, representative government, this kind of thing is my passion in life.

I've been doing it since high school.

I was in a civics program competitive program, my senior of high school, we did very well at the state competition.

I've been volunteering ever since law school with that program, and then was one of the early members of this nonprofit.

So this is how I like to spend my time.

Like I this would be um what I would want to do outside of my day job uh and you know, parenting obligations.

Okay, thank you.

All right, next question.

Um, what is your long-term vision for the city and how will you measure success?

Yeah, I mean, I think for me, the number one vision I have is continuing to grow and excel in our K-12 programs.

I think the number two priority for me would probably be continuing to grow affordable housing in the city of Novato and find places to develop without necessarily losing the charm that we have here.

The downtown area is very charming.

A lot of the neighborhoods in in Novato are very charming.

We do have, of course, a lot of new development in Novato as well, especially down in Hamilton where I live.

Um, and I think across the state, increasing housing and in particular affordable housing is the number one issue facing Californians.

Um we're seeing a little of an a little bit of an exodus from California in the last few years, in large part because of that issue.

Um, and I think you know, especially the younger generations are struggling to find places to purchase, to find places to plant roots.

I know for me it took a long time to really be able to save up to afford a permanent house.

I mean, this is the first home I've ever owned.

We've been renters until I was in my late 30s, uh, and the younger generations are gonna continue to have those struggles.

And so being able to continue to invite families into Novato, I think is incredibly important.

Um, and of course, there are other demographic groups that need affordable housing as well, including the elderly, for example.

And I know we have some good senior living centers here, but in general, having places that members of uh California can come and call Nevada home would be a high priority.

Um.

And so I think to the extent we remain successful both in the education and creating more housing is one measure of success.

I know that Novato has struggled a little bit with the budget in the last few years.

I attended the budget meeting you had last, or I forget when it was earlier this year, and it looked like you've gotten things back on track in a lot of ways.

So that's that's great, but I think as far as measuring success for the city of Novato, it's keeping keeping that going, keeping the fiscal responsibility of the City of Novato in good shape, because I know it assuredly stressed all of you out when that was not necessarily the case in past years, and making sure that you have the budget to look at those development projects and ensure that the education system is getting the funding that it needs.

Thank you, Sean.

And then yeah, for your final question, as a city with many competing demands for limited resources.

How would you approach weighing these computing requests, including collecting and incorporating feedback received from the public and city staff into your recommendations?

Give me a moment to think about this one if you don't mind.

Yeah, I think when it comes to city government and representative democracy, understanding what may be most important to the residents of that area often is the driver for determining where resources should go when there are these competing requests.

I think for me, transit and education, as I mentioned, are two important priorities as far as budgeting goes for the city.

Continuing to look at development projects when there's funds available and the ability to generate revenue through those developments, uh, I think very important considerations going forward as well in order to boost those limited resources.

One thing I think that's interesting about Novato is that the individuals who come to these meetings or provide the feedback that you would all be hearing aren't necessarily always the majority.

Um I think in particular with Hamilton or District 5, there is a large Hispanic population that I haven't seen here at these meetings, or I don't see necessarily engaging with the city government, but live in our community, go to the school with my daughter, and have an interest in how Novato is developing in a way that may not always be heard.

And so I think what's important for for individuals working in the city council or city government is to be able to seek out those interests, seek out those requests, and determine how to help those populations in a way they may not come to the government to ask or suggest.

And so, I'm thinking in particular about Hamilton K-12 school, of course, because that's you know where I am, but I think um, you know, there is some gang activity in that area.

Um there's been a shooting in my neighborhood, and so recognizing that those issues exist and being able to fund res funnel resources, uh, and not just for law enforcement, but in ways that allowed those the communities to thrive and maybe uh make it less desirable to have those kids joining gangs would be one sort of goal uh or way to spend resources.

You know, something that I'm aware of and very mindful of just when it comes to government, is how uh resources tend to be when when there are you know community issues tend to be funneled toward law enforcement or things of that nature, when in reality more you get more bank for your buck, there's more success in funneling them toward outreach programs, uh places like homeward bound, different things.

And I'm not trying to focus on the gang members in society, but in general, you know, funneling resources to lower socio and economic groups, groups that don't come to these city council meetings and figuring out what can help them uh be best represented in our community are always I think we should serve as city council people.

Sean, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

You're welcome to take a seat in the audience if you'd like to stick around for a while.

We really appreciate you taking time out of your day and for applying for this position.

Thank you, Mayor Connor.

So our next applicant is Sandeep Karka.

Welcome, Sandy.

Hello, good evening.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

Thanks for taking the time to apply for the vacant position in District 5.

We have eight questions for you this evening.

We're going to take turns asking.

There might be some pauses in between questions as we take notes.

If you need any clarification, please feel free to stop us and ask us.

And before we get started, did you have any questions about the process we can answer for you?

No, I don't think so.

But I do want to say uh thank you all for uh having me here today.

It's uh it's a pleasure and uh hopefully I my mind doesn't go blank.

Thank you.

Our first question will be from Councilmember Eckland.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, Cindy, uh, explain how your experience in the private andor public sector will help the city council establish policies and programs to help the Novato community.

Sure, thank you.

Um so um, as you probably know in my application, um I've been doing public sector work for pretty much all of my career.

Um I've spent almost, gosh, over 35 years, close to 40 years doing the kind of work that I currently do uh initially in the private sector, uh, with a two uh very well respected uh consulting engineering firms and then um uh little um um assignment with another public agency in the East Bay, and then currently, of course, uh with the Navarda Sanitary District where I've been for you know over 20 years, um uh most recently, or the last 12 years or so as the general manager chief engineer for the district.

And uh I think um obviously over that period I've had um a lot of uh experience in doing you know public agency work, work working for Novato community.

Obviously, we've lived in uh Novato here now for that period of time, almost 22 years.

Um so you know, I kinda go back to what I currently do uh with the district, uh which is another independent public agency here in town.

As I said, I've been general manager, chief engineer there for about 12 years now, and I think I can bring that knowledge and experience that I've gained over that time into this role.

Um I think that experience that I have, it's it's a deep experience, it's a deep knowledge of the Novato community.

I have a pretty good understanding of how this community works, having been there.

Uh my daughter went to school here in Novato.

Um, so when you put it all together, um I think I have the kind of knowledge, the experience, and just the background with the community to be able to step into this role and you know at the ground running, so to speak.

Thank you.

What's your vision for economic development in the city and how would you attract or support local businesses?

Um, sure, thank you for that question.

Um, so um, you know, economic development, uh, especially at this time is uh um it's it's not um it's not an easy um area out there.

Um I for a period of time I lived in Walnut Creek and also lived uh in in the Berkeley area.

And if I had to have a vision of what um economic development would look like, it would be something along the lines of what you know those two communities have been able to achieve over a period of time in a healthy, vibrant downtowns, um, healthy local businesses.

And in terms of how you attract or support businesses, you you know, infrastructure isn't is important.

Um businesses like to have the predictability of knowing that they have good facilities to fall back on, that they have, you know good, good.

And when I say infrastructure, I don't mean just um you know the hard infrastructure, the roads, the the pipes, the water lines, all that stuff.

Also mean the um infrastructure that goes along with um systems that we have in place, you know, how welcoming the um the the community is to local to businesses.

I meant to say businesses in general.

So and also in terms of the processes that we have in place for things such as entitlements that businesses would receive to actually get up and get going and thrive in that community.

So that's that's how we're thank you.

The next question, how will you address housing affordability and homelessness in our city?

Okay, this is obviously a really big uh topic, and I'll try to be brief on that.

Um, you know, housing both the you know, the sort of uh in terms of this question as well as you know, overall, they're sort of um facets of the same sort of issue, I guess.

And um, I think they're going to be around for a while.

I mean, both of these issues, um whether it's housing affordability or homelessness in our area, they're going to be around for a while.

Uh, in terms of homelessness, I I think it has to be a collaborative effort effort.

Um, the um city, I don't think uh, you know, as an agency um is going to be able to handle it all by itself.

So if I were to deal with it, um I would be looking for relationships, really, building up relationships uh with other agencies, you know, working with the county, working with nonprofits that operate in this area.

Um I have to say I've been fortunate enough that in my current position that I had to deal with, you know, the issue of homelessness only peripherally.

Um, you know, most of our sites are not really attractive sites for you know camping or anything.

So we've been fortunate in that uh respect.

Uh, but again, you know, it's it's a huge issue.

Um, and I think working collaboratively, uh, you know, to mom, it's it's something that I've seen coming for a while.

I've been doing work in the public area.

I did a bunch of work up in cinema when uh the Sonoma Center was housing people in these kind of situations, and just seeing the evolution um of funding in that space driving the homeless uh homelessness issue is been a little disheartening.

But anyway, that aside, um I think collaboration is the way to go um briefly.

And then in terms of housing affordability, you know, it's it's a question of how you get people, you know, attract people into the community.

You have good again, you have good infrastructure, whether it's physical or it's uh the not so physical infrastructure, and then you know, having good open spaces or having good parks, having good systems in place that attract this this kind of systems that attract people into the community, and then being able to incentivize it to, you know, whether it's economic development, generating the kind of jobs that attract the kind of people that can afford, you know, living in this area, or um, you know, I may be going out on the limb here, but uh we also you know could be looking into the possibility of funding for some of these um kind of uh opportunities.

So anyway, that's enough said there I guess.

Thank you.

Our community has a wide range of needs, and as a result, it is common for council members to receive questions regarding a diverse range of topics.

How would you respond to these questions and ensure each community member feels valued and heard?

Well, this is something I deal with at uh deal with, you know, almost on a continuous basis as part of my job.

I think um every voice deserves to be heard.

People have a point.

Sometimes it may be kind of hard to get to the point, but um people have a point.

It's important to be respectful, it's important to understand what people are saying, and then above all, you've got to be able to do your best to help them however you can.

You may not be able to help people, but where I work currently, our goal is to provide the best service that we can at the best possible price.

But that aside, you know, I mean, if you know, your garbage didn't get picked up today.

You know, we got a call, you know, we have to understand what happened there.

But aside from that, it's basically we make sure that person's garbage gets picked up that same day or the next day, regardless of what the problem is.

So it's basically, I think a matter of listening to the person and being responsive in a way that is helpful to that person.

So that's really the basic.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eckland.

What is the one thing you would like to change in the city?

And what is one thing you would like to eliminate?

Okay.

Well, um that sounds like such an easy question, but um, you know, I like I like this community a lot.

I like the city a lot.

Um, and uh I'm gonna tell you that um maybe I'm being Pollyanish, but I don't think there's I'm not coming up with anything that I'd like to eliminate in this city at this point.

Um, you know, when we talk about the city, when we talk about city services, um it's uh always been a little bit of a you know challenge over the years with the city and our community in general to be able to um you know meet our financial needs, if you will, but I like where we are right now in terms of you know, with the passing of Measure M and the path to fiscal sustainability that we're on.

I don't think you know we can afford to relax yet on on those kind of issues.

Uh but if anything, I would like us to continue down that path.

Thank you.

How much time can you realistically commit to council duties and what's your understanding of the time requirements involved?

Okay, I think this is kind of reflective of one of the questions that was actually in the application.

And I I have to say that, you know, I didn't um I was very mindful of and I answered that as well.

And uh the um space that I'm in right now, I think I have a pretty good understanding how you know how agencies work, and uh not to be rash or rude or anything about it, but I seriously wouldn't have considered being in the spot right now if I didn't realistically feel that I could meet the commitments.

I understand there are commitments, I see what you guys do, I see what my electors do, I see what I have to do, I know what I have to do, and just given that um I personally don't have any issues there.

Um I don't know if that's um satisfactory answer, but that is the answer I have for you guys.

Thank you.

What is your long-term vision for the city and how will you measure success?

Um, so again, a very good question.

Thank you for that.

Um so again, I'll I'll go back to you know, about the early 1990s when in my salad days, so to speak, I was uh uh in the East Bay cities that I talked about earlier, Walnut Creek and uh parts of Berkeley, the Fourth Street Corridor.

But I'll kind of limit myself to what I experienced in Walnut Creek at the time.

Walnut Creek at the time was just you know, sort of getting going on the next iteration uh as a city or the next level of rejuvenation or what have you.

Um and you know, my vision for Novato would be is to have I I don't want us to be Walnut Creek North, but that experience definitely influenced my thinking in terms of what I would like to see as a community as a as a city, you know, uh a nice, you know, uh a friendly downtown.

Not that we're unfriendly here, but um a well developed, well walkable, business oriented, you know, uh traffic um for traffic oriented sort of you know, just a very livable community.

It's I mean, Navarro has, you know, a lot of potential to be, you know, to get to get to the next level.

And again, you know, I don't mean to harp on it, but the passing of Measure M was very uh heartening in terms of you know opening up the possibilities to get us to that next level.

Thank you, Sandeep.

As a city with many competing demands for limiting re limited resources.

How would you approach weighing these competing requests, including collecting and incorporating feedback received from the public and city staff into your recommendations?

Um sure.

And you know, uh competing demands and limited resources.

I think that's the, you know, that's the ongoing story with the city of Nevada or your any other public agency.

And shoot, I, you know, I had to go back to Measure M again, you know, but that the passing of that was I think a very important um sort of milestone to the city.

But again, as I said before, we can't afford to relax.

Um, there's a couple of aspects to, you know, how you work with limited resources.

We have, you know, the city has a strategic plan, we work towards that.

This the city has uh a budget process, we have a budget that we work to.

Um, so one of the aspects that I would you know be mindful of is to work to that budget, to manage that budget and and control costs on that side.

On the other side, you know, would be to where you go find the resources, and when I talk about resources, I'm talking about the primary resource, which is funding and money, obviously.

And uh this is something that where I currently work, we've I think we've been pretty good about um and what I would really love to see is uh the city go out and compete for more resources uh out there.

Uh there's uh very many avenues um that are available um just in my space uh in terms of infrastructure.

Uh we recently uh received a grant for two and a half million dollars for an alternative energy project uh from the state um for uh battery project to um to power our treatment plant essentially um and then you know in my work and ramblings around Sacramento and Washington, I've become aware of things like that that parallel the water sector like TIFIR, for instance, which is the transportation infrastructure funding and investment act money.

I Novato, where I stand, um, would be very competitive in pursuing those kinds of uh funding resources.

So I don't want if I were to be in your spot, I would not want us to be limited to just dealing with the kind of resources that are currently available to us.

I would I would encourage us to really go out and seek more of those resources just to you know think outside that box of being limited by by resources.

Um so that's kind of my little spiel on that.

Thank you very much, Sandeep.

We really appreciate you taking the time to come and talk to us this evening.

Okay, you're welcome to take a seat in the audience if you'd like to stick around and stay with us.

Okay, thank you.

And I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to be here with you today.

Thank you, Sandeep.

So I've received a quest for a brief recess.

We'll reconvene at 7 o'clock.

Perfect.

Thank you.

We're going to reconvene.

Sorry.

No, you're fine.

Okay.

We're going to resume our vacancy interviews.

Our next applicant this evening is Josh Smith.

Welcome, Josh.

Thanks for taking the time to join us this evening.

We really appreciate you taking time out of your day to be here and for filling out the application and for raising your hands to step up for the Hamilton neighborhood.

And we've got eight questions to ask you this evening, or just take turns, write notes as we go.

And before we get started, did you have any questions about the process?

No, I don't think so.

Thank you very much.

All right, fantastic.

Council Member Eckland.

Yes.

So, Josh, if you could explain how your experience in the private andor public sector will help the city council establish policies and programs to help the Nevada community.

Certainly.

I have a significant background in a number of areas of the law that would be directly useful to the development of the city.

So for example, in the past, I've done a work in commercial real estate development.

In that transaction world, I used a large number of public private financing mechanisms, including conduit improvement bonds through the California statewide community development authority.

I've worked on transactions involving low income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, tax increment financing.

I've worked with on bill financing.

I've worked on projects to finance stormwater mitigation and seismic retrofits.

My work has been primarily in the realm of complex financial transactions and project management in those financial transactions.

And that type of diligence, the cross functional work that I've done when you have to bring together not only two sides of a transaction, but also different teams within a transaction, getting your accounting team to work with your finance team to work with your treasury team to work with your customer service team.

The job of a transaction attorney is to take incredibly complicated structures and systems, take a bunch of different disparate people, put them all in a room, give them the same goal, and put their agreement on a piece of paper.

And if you do your job well, then in theory, you should understand how those transactions work just as well as every single member of the deal team.

And I think that's the kind of skill set that I would bring to the city.

I would absolutely dig into each and every single issue that comes before the council.

I quite frankly will do the homework.

I enjoy reading, I like studying.

I'm passionate about issues, and all of those things that help me be successful in my professional life would absolutely be directly transferable to the way that I would approach my work on the council.

Thank you.

Josh, what's your vision for the economic development of the city and how would you attract or support local businesses?

Yeah, I think that for a city to be not only sustainable but also to thrive really requires three things.

The first thing is that it requires a city to have a budget that can afford to finance the programs that the community wants.

And however that is done, it absolutely has to be done in a sustainable manner, in a way that can survive good economic cycles and bad economic cycles, can account for how the economy in the city is going to change over time, and I think that long-term strategic vision has to be important.

I think that that also requires thinking about three different elements.

I think it requires thinking about housing.

Where do the people in our town live?

Where can they afford to live?

Where do they have opportunities to live?

Where can we create opportunities for people to live?

I think the second one is employment.

What opportunities do we have for people to work in our town, to have businesses come to our town?

That includes both small mom and pop retail and dining, but also companies like Ultragenics and the other great biotech companies that we have here in Marin, construction companies, law firms.

The second part of Novato being an economically viable city is it also needs to have businesses.

And the third is thinking about long-term commitments that we can make to our city that make our city economically viable for the future.

The decisions that we make today in the council are not only going to affect the economic health and vitality of our city a month from now, six months from now, but we're also going to be making decisions that are going to have profound consequences on the next five, ten, twenty years of our city.

And the investments that we make in economic development today, if done smartly, will absolutely pay dividends for us in the future by giving us the city that we want to live in terms of not only housing, employment, but also retail and restaurants.

Thank you.

All right, next question.

How will you address housing affordability and homelessness in our city?

Yeah, I think that on the issue of homelessness, I think, in my experience, both in Hamilton and in California generally, homelessness is often the symptom and not the cause of a lot of problems that we have.

And so I think it's important that we tie homelessness and housing together in this question because I think that they are oftentimes related.

I do think on the issue of uh homelessness, I do think that uh the key room and the shelter that we have in Hamilton is absolutely an example of the kind of thing where the community has really decided to make a welcoming place for our neighbors in our community.

And I want to be known as the community where there is a place for everyone.

Absolutely everyone is welcome in Novato.

And it is the job of the city to facilitate the market to do what it can to make that happen.

We need to absolutely make sure that we have opportunities and options for places to live.

I think that one of the biggest concerns that we have right now with RHNA and the state housing mandate is that we find aggressive options, good options, where we can identify new housing.

I think that the construction that's being done, for example, at Fireman's Fund is an example of an adaptive reuse.

I've lived in Nevada since I was a kid.

My mom worked at Fireman's Fund in the 80s and 90s is absolutely a uh opportunity that the city has to make something of that.

And I think that we should be leaning into housing, not away from it.

I do think that that needs to be done sustainably.

I think that there needs to be thought given to where housing goes and that housing is available for everybody at every point of the economic spectrum.

But my number one point is I want Novato to be a welcoming city where anybody who wants to come live here has the opportunity to do so.

And whatever the city can do to facilitate that and make that happen is a welcoming place I would support.

Thank you.

Josh, our community has a wide range of needs, and as a result, it's common for council members to receive questions regarding a diverse range of topics.

How would you respond to these questions and ensure that each community member feels valued and heard?

Yeah, I think the first thing is putting in context the really tragic reason of why this vacancy is open with Council Member Milbrook's passing.

I think among his really admirable qualities was his visibility in the district in Hamilton.

And I think that's the first part of it is visibility.

I think that being visible in the community, I own a home in Hamilton, I work from home full-time in Hamilton, my daughter goes, we raise our daughter in Hamilton.

Uh accessibility and visibility is the first part of it.

I think that your constituents need to at least know who you are, know what you look like.

If they see you in a grocery store, I say this now, uh, I would like for my neighbors to know what I look like.

So that if I'm in the grocery store and they see me and they think, hey, this issue hasn't, I can't get anybody's attention on this.

They're able to say, hey, what can we do about it?

Um I oftentimes think of uh people have this really negative reputation sometimes where they'll hear a story like, oh, well, I got that permit approved because I called my friend and he's on the city council, or my neighbor's in the planning commission, so I know what to do.

I actually think that what we need to do is make government that responsive for everybody.

I really want anybody in District 5 to say, hey, I'm having an issue.

I'm sorry, I don't know who I can call, I don't know which person I can talk to, I don't know what meeting I need to go to.

I would like to be the person that they say, if I don't know anything else, at least I know that Josh is on the city council, this is usually where he's at.

Here's his email, here's his office hours.

Let me go find him.

I may or may not be able to solve every issue, but at least I can say, I've heard your question, I'll figure out who you need to talk to.

You don't need to do that.

You have somebody at City Hall who can help you figure out what you need to do.

Uh, and that's the kind of representation I'd like to bring to every single person in the district.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eckland.

Um, let's see.

Um what is the one thing you would like to change in the city?

And what is one thing you would like to eliminate?

Yeah, um I suppose I can't be too pie in the sky and say the seven-cent property tax share.

Um, but beyond that, I do think what I would like to say is I think that it's important that we focus on civic engagement.

I think that Novato is an incredible city with incredible people who live and work here, and I think that what might be helpful for the city is quite frankly a civic drive, for lack of a better word.

I think that we should get together with the people who are really interested in figuring out what the city needs to do.

And I think more than any one particular issue, I think there needs to be community support for a change in the approach.

We only have so much tax revenue, we only have so much spending we can cut to raise a budget.

I think we need to be incredibly creative and brave about how we launch new programs.

Does the community want to see a new community center?

Let's figure out the grants that need to be obtained to get that.

I think that that is a thing where business leaders and parents and families and employees and employers can come together, decide this is the time for a new revolution for the city of Novato, bring together a sense of civic engagement and pride, and find ways, find resources that allow us to launch the kind of programs and services that our city wants without having to cut programs to get it.

Thank you.

And I'm sorry, the other the second half of your question is what would I like to see uh getting rid of?

I would like to see a world in which we have uh what I'd like to get rid of is I'd like to get rid of people who are feeling like they can't be engaged in the process.

I feel like sometimes people feel like they can't be engaged in the process, whether that's the perception that they don't have anything to contribute, they're too busy, the council is too inaccessible, the issues are too complex.

I would love to get rid of the idea that there is not a role for everybody to play in how the city runs itself, funds itself, and decides what it wants.

Um the one thing I think I would change is the idea that there's no role for citizens to play in government.

Thank you.

Uh Josh, how much time can you really realistically commit to council duties and what's your understanding of the time requirements involved?

Yeah, I would uh I would joke that sort of the amount of time you have to fill with a two and a half year old will expand to the amounts of activities they can do, but I am incredibly fortunate.

Um I work from home in Hamilton.

Um I have flexibility in my schedule.

I think for those of you who have had the unfortunate uh distinction of having to deal with the kinds of attorneys who are up till two or three in the morning billing hours, that's a certain kind of law practice, not my particular kind of law practice.

Um, I think that I have the ability to support the work of the council.

I am incredibly fortunate to be blessed with a wife who does an amazing job helping take care of our daughter.

Um, but I also think that the most important thing is that most residents are not available Monday through Friday, nine to five for their issues.

Um, my goal and really the theme of what I would take is meeting people on a representative space where they are.

And quite frankly, they're not going to be in an office hour at 11:30 on a Tuesday morning.

They're going to be at Pizza on Saturday morning.

They're going to be at the tree lighting ceremony, they're going to be at all of the places where people are.

And so, in addition to the work of the actual council, which is obviously the both closed sessions and open sessions, uh, the number of other commissions and uh appointments that can be made depending on whether you sit on the number of regional boards.

Uh I don't doubt that it's a serious commitment of time, but I am also the kind of person who is organized, diligent, I'm good at schedules, and uh I have no concerns that I'd be able to make this work.

All right, what is your long-term vision for the city, and how will you measure success?

Yeah, I think that for me a long-term vision for the city would mean three things.

The first is replacing a structural deficit with a sustainable surplus, or at least a sustainable budget.

And for me, what that would mean is uh for any budget projection, whether that's three, five, or ten years, that under a conservative set of economic scenarios, reserves don't get depleted in any year below zero.

For me, that's the definition of a sustainable budget, a budget in which the budget can be sustained through negative economic cycles.

The next step is focusing on uh bringing new businesses uh and employers to the city, and that's easy enough to measure in the sense that I'm out in the district, right?

I know that they're putting in a new yoga studio in Hamilton Marketplace, right?

I know that there's a new poppy bank going in at uh at Vintage Oaks.

These are the things that can be measured by being in the community, by being a part of it.

Uh, and then the third one is making long-term strategic decisions for what the future holds.

I think that we need to be making uh decisions now about what the future of our city is gonna look like, particularly around things like climate change.

I do have a number of concerns about uh flooding in the Hamilton area, um, and I think that we need to be making both financial and policy decisions now that will protect us for what that looks like in the future.

And that will sometimes involve trade-offs now.

But I do think that my long-term vision for the city would have to include uh making definitive commitments and not just for ourselves and for our own future property values, but uh I have a two and a half-year-old daughter, and I want her to grow up in this community, and I want her to grow up in a community that looks something like the environment we live in today.

I want her to be able to have clean air and water and parks, and so any long-term vision of the city always has to be grounded in long term really does mean long term.

And I think that we don't do ourselves a service by taking shortcuts now, uh taking shortcuts in the long term rather than give us immediate benefit now.

Thank you.

Josh, as a city with many competing demands for limited resources, how would you approach weighing these competing requests, including collecting and incorporating feedback received from the public and city staff into your recommendations?

Yeah, I think um back to uh what I said earlier about erasing a structural deficit and replacing it with a cyclical balanced budget.

I think that's the first thing.

I think that we need to be honest with ourselves about what revenue we have.

We have the revenue that we have, absolute new revenue.

And given that revenue and given reasonable expectations for where it's going to be in one, three and five years, we need to get together to think about what services we can afford.

I think one of the things that we need to do is to be honest with ourselves about what we can afford, decide the things that are really important, and fund them.

One thing that I think is important is uh I would rather fund one measure fully than two half measures in a way that don't doesn't accomplish anything.

I think when it comes to uh things like salaries and wages, which are obviously such a large part of the city's budget.

I think we need to determine the services that we want to offer as a city, determine the staff that's needed to support those services, and pay those workers commensurate with fair market salaries.

I don't think we do ourselves any service by increasing FTEs at a slightly below market rate.

I don't think we do ourselves uh a service by uh thinking that pension benefits aren't going to increase.

I think that we have a city, we have services that we want to run, we have people that need to provide those services, and it's our responsibility to make sure that they are fairly and appropriately compensated.

Beyond that, I think we really need to have a talk about what are the programs that we need to operate to run a city.

Things like public health and safety are never uh appropriate to be compromised.

Beyond that, I also think we need to talk about uh new programs and new things that we want to run, finding sources of funding that are sustainable.

Uh what I don't want to do is I don't want to launch an exciting new child care center and then close it in three years because the funding dries up.

I think it's important to find sustained budget funding that runs uh above cyclical deficits, and I think that the structural elements will oftentimes uh help resolve some of the individual policy choices.

But at the end of the day, life, health, and safety are the most important things.

And then beyond that, we come together as a community and we decide what are the services that we want.

And we have realistic, tough conversations about the services we want, the services we can afford, and if there's a service that we want and we don't think it's in the budget, then let's ask the community if they feel like supporting it.

Does the community support raising funds to do this program?

If they do, then I will gladly support that.

I think at the end of the day, though, um it requires tough, honest conversations, and I think that that's something that I'm more than willing to do.

Josh, thank you very much.

We really appreciate you taking the time to be here.

Uh please feel free to take a seat in the audience.

And then our final interview is Bradley Wright.

Thank you.

Good evening, Bradley.

Thanks for taking the time to apply for the vacancy and come and meet with us this afternoon or this evening, rather.

We really appreciate it.

We're going to ask you eight questions this evening.

You're going to be able to hear me if this thing's dipped a little bit.

So far, so good.

I'll let you know if we lose you though, okay?

All right.

Uh we're gonna take eight questions.

I'm sorry, ask you eight questions, we're gonna take turns asking them.

There might be pauses in between.

That's that's completely normal.

Uh before we get started, did you have any questions around the process?

No.

Okay, fantastic.

Council member Eckland, if you'd like to start us off.

Okay, great.

Um, do you like Bradley or Brad?

Brad is fine.

Okay, great.

Uh Brad, if you could explain how your experience in the public and private sector will help the city council establish policies and programs to help the Nevado community.

Well, to be honest with you, my public uh experience has been limited just to serving on the EDAC committee here.

So uh I have served in various committees on uh the associated general contractors, the the uh National Association of Surety Bond producers.

Uh I served as on a pastoral council for three years, and uh I guess I'm probably not as well versed on procedures as I am in working with people and and finding solutions, so um hopefully that's something that I can I can bring to the city, and I have a genuine care of uh of this community.

I've lived here since the 50s, and uh I have no agenda other than just wanting to help.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Brad, uh, what's your vision of the economic development for the city and how would you attract or support local businesses?

My position with the I act as commissioner.

Um I'm one of the I guess there's seven of us that it fluctuates.

I've been on there for about a year.

Um, and I guess I gotta be careful how I say this, but I would like to, I would like to be of more help on that committee, if not here.

Um I think that there's a lot that can be done.

There's a lot of things the city have got has gonna have to address going forward.

And um I think that uh I hope I'm answering your question, but uh yeah, I do think that it was it it would be of value to uh to bring in an economic viewpoint.

So thank you.

How will you address housing affordability and homelessness in our city?

You know, they say statistically the number one reason there's homelessness in this country is because there's not enough housing, and housing in Marin County especially is is very sensitive because it's unaffordable.

I think the average price is 1.2, 1.3 million dollars.

Uh and it's just very difficult for a young family to get started on something like that.

The key is to do more housing development.

Um, I'm not talking about something that's not well thought out of or um in planning, but it just seems that there's a lot of plans, there's a lot of ideas.

I mean, they're still tearing down the fire and fund building with the idea of putting in what 1,300 homes out there.

Um but as I understand, we're still with nine permit process that they have to go through in order for that to get going, and it's been years.

And um, I think the same can be said in a lot around here.

We have the room and we have the people to fill those houses.

We just have to somehow uh eliminate some of the some of the bureaucracy that goes along with it.

Now I think the city's gone a long way in loosening up a lot of their permit requirements.

I think that's an excellent first stop, first step, but we have to have families looking to Novato as a good place to live.

And the homeless situation uh it's not, it's a very complicated situation.

But statistically, the number one driving force is still a lack of housing, affordable housing.

So, thank you.

Brad, our community has a wide range of needs, and as a result, it is common for council members to receive questions regarding a diverse range of topics.

How would you respond to these questions and ensure that each community member feels valued and heard?

You know, I'm sorry.

Oh, sure, I'll repeat the question.

No problem.

So our community has a wide range of needs, and as a result, it is common for council members to receive questions regarding a diverse range of topics.

Diversity did you a diverse range of topics.

How would you respond to these questions and ensure that each community member feels valued and heard?

Well, first of all, you gotta listen.

But yeah, you gotta listen.

And listening means more than just waiting for your turn to talk.

It means really take it in and consider what's being said, and then respectfully answer, even if you disagree.

I mean, nobody's gonna agree on a hundred percent of the things 100% of the time.

But if you take the time, listen, you're thoughtful about it, and you give them an answer that's not patronizing, but rather direct and um and honest.

Uh I think that will go a long way.

And I think that uh it would certainly give confidence to the community when they're when they're treated in that respect.

Thank you.

Councilman Brackland.

Thank you.

Um so Brad, what is the one thing and what is the one thing you would like to change in the city of Novato?

And what is one thing you would like to eliminate?

You know, Novato's a great city.

Yeah, it is, you know.

Um it's hard to think about things that you would change.

I think probably, again, going back to the housing question, is it's to make things a little easier for people to find a place to live, and and a nice place, an affordable place to live.

I think that's endemic of California, frankly, but our concern is the city of Novato, and the other thing I would like to change is we got about a little over 47% commercial office space vacancy rate.

Um, that's that's not acceptable.

That's that's difficult to I'd like to find a way um to encourage businesses to come back here.

Now I understand that a lot of it's COVID, and you walk around Union Square in San Francisco, you can see it, it's boarded up down there.

It's sad, because that's one of the international marketplaces there is, but our concern is Novato, and what can we do to entice businesses to come up here?

Um what would I what would I eliminate?

Um I don't want to give a I don't want to give a patronizing answer.

And it's something that deserves a lot more thought than that.

So I apologize.

No, no, no.

That's fine.

Um not being I'm not being evasive, I just I don't want to answer it.

That's just direct.

Okay, thank you very much for being honest.

Thank you, Brad.

Uh, how much time can you realistically commit to council duties and what's your understanding of the time requirements involved?

How much time do I have to commit to it?

I am retired, and um, so my time is yours, and whether whether it's on the council or whether you're just looking for a big guy to go out and stand out in front of somebody, I'd be happy to do it.

Um I have I have uh I'm you know, I served one year on the on the Marin civil grand jury, and that we were told that was 10 hours a week, and it was more like 20 to 30 hours a week.

So, um, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Um so uh my expectation is I'd have to say I'm ready to do 20 to 30 hours a week.

Great, thank you.

What is your long-term vision for the city and how will you measure success?

How much is my long-term vision for what is your long-term vision for the city, and how will you measure success?

Well, I think first of all, I it it's it's a great place to do business, and I go back to the vacancy right here in the commercial space, I would like to see that filled, and I would like to see the people that go work in those offices live here.

Um, I think that having, and and not only the people in those offices, but I would like to see 70% of the Marin workforce comes from outside of Marin.

I mean, that's police, that's fire, that's school teachers.

I mean, that thing in San Quentin has been sitting there for three or four years.

That's ridiculous.

My vision is that we can get things done.

Get people to come here to work, get people to come here to live and enjoy being part of this community.

Um that to me is my long-term vision.

Thank you.

So, Brad, as a city, we have many competing demands for limited resources.

How would you approach weighing these?

Sorry, I'm gonna restart.

As a city, we have many competing demands for limited resources.

How would you approach weighing these competing requests, including including collecting and incorporating feedback received from the public and city staff into your recommendations?

Well, limited resources, I'm assuming you mean uh real estate, places to build, um, certainly anything like uh oil and gas or anything like that.

Uh I think um there can't be a all or nothing.

There has to be some kind of there has to be some kind of balance.

There has to be some kind of respect amongst each other.

I think so many times it's my way or the highway, and that's it it that clearly doesn't work.

So, what limited resources we use should be should be done so wisely and with a a lot of thought as to how can the community base do do well with how we're gonna allocate them uh and be honest about it.

And um, how I would communicate that, um again, straightforward, just say this is the way it is, and uh we're welcome anybody's contribution, but at the end we're gonna we're gonna decide things based on what serves Navato the best.

Thank you very much for taking the time to come and talk to us and for applying for this vacancy.

If you'd like to have a seat of the rest of the audience.

And uh, I'm gonna take one of these waters.

Yeah, please do.

And we'll begin our deliberations in a moment.

It says I got three three minutes left.

Is that thank you, Brad?

Okay, so bringing it back to council.

So I reviewed past appointment meetings, and traditionally the mayor's gone first, so I'll kick us off today.

Um first off, I want to thank everybody.

We're incredibly lucky to have so many qualified and engaged community members.

It's it's when we when we set this out and open this up, we don't know what we're gonna get back, and just to see so many qualified engaged people is really it's really heartening.

Um I would hope that even if um obviously we can only appoint one person.

If you're unsuccessful tonight, I would really encourage each of you to stay engaged and look at the different commissions and boards we have out there because there's no shortage of opportunities for terrific people like you.

Um coming into this, uh my own priorities were as I was thinking about it's a this is a short term, it's an 11-month term.

So to me, it was important that the successful applicant is in a position to hit the ground running.

Um having experience either professionally or through a commission of board, I felt was very helpful.

Having a demonstrated track record of engagement in our community was a big piece for me.

Building networks takes time and having strong community relationships.

It's just a key component to success in this role.

And then the final thing that I was thinking about coming into this is over the next few months.

Our city has a number of critical issues coming up over the sorry, coming up over the next few months.

We have to develop a strategic plan.

We have to kind of think about which will shape our city for the years to come.

Homelessness is a key concern across the city, which each of you spoke very eloquently about, economic development, addressing high high density, new high density housing laws, just cause laws, and just there's a variety of other legislative policy and infrastructure actions which are coming up.

So I was thinking about the partner that could step into this role and best support us.

It was really important to me that they would have the ability to have a relatively short ramp-up period and be able to get started and contribute pretty quickly.

As I was reviewing everyone's resume, and again, everyone just did a terrific job and is incredibly experienced.

But one candidate stood out to me through this process, and that's Sandeep Kharkal.

I feel like his professional experience here in Nevada, 20 plus years in the public sector, it gives him a huge competitive advantage, frankly.

Substantial engagement in our community through the chamber, Rotary, all the other groups that he mentioned in his application as well.

Along with the service on regional and statewide boards.

Community has a strong relationship with them already, which I think is an advantage.

And actually, we've many people reached out to express the support for him both here tonight and by email and public comment ahead of tonight's meeting.

With that, I'll open it up for any other council member that wishes to comment.

Yeah, thank you so much.

All of you for applying, I'm really really impressed.

You got four outstanding candidates.

All you are extremely strong.

Um, when I look at, you know, someone who I want to work with.

I want someone who's collaborative.

Um, Novato's budget has been a top priority.

So someone who can jump in, know the budget, understand that um has been for me being in Novato leadership and or a commission is really really important.

We've all been either taken leadership and or have been on a commission, and what that does is really build a foundation and you get to understand all the facets of the city.

Also, we received a lot of public comment, and one candidate did reach out and meet with me and wanted um to talk, and to me that's really meaningful and shows um that they're willing to go above and beyond, and again, meet me where I am.

I have two little kids.

Um, so I agree with um Mayor O'Connor.

I think CN Deep will come in and be able to contribute and represent his constituents in a really positive manner right off the bat.

Again, you all are absolutely amazing, and I was just so impressed.

And um, you know, we're really lucky you all care so much about Novato, and we're willing to fill out, but that that's just um how I feel, and just looking at um the qualifications.

Thanks.

Councilmember Jake?

Oh okay, go ahead.

Thank you, Councilmember Jacobs.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, like my associates here, I was very impressed we had four candidates.

So I was thrilled to death to hear that.

Um I went over these applications in in detail.

I actually did a spreadsheet on them and made quite a few notes.

Um, but it and I brought this up at another time.

It's uh 11 months.

Uh there's the onboarding time, and it to me it leaves you about nine or ten, nine eight to nine months really of working at it, which I'm concerned about somebody jumping in and getting going on it, and I agree that I think CN Deep would be the best.

He's uh been very involved in the city, been very involved in um number of things.

His education, his background, his experience, and I think he would be the best candidate.

Thank you.

Councilmember Eckland.

Thank you very much.

My two candidates that I like other council members did a spreadsheet.

And so in my feelings are I think Bradley Wright, having served on the economic or serving on the economic development would be a good candidate, and he's lived in Devado for 21 years, and he's lived in Marin 63 years.

So it really shows a commitment to Navado and Marin.

The second one that I was really impressed with was Sean Gentry.

And what I loved about his interview was that he had the enthusiasm, the energy level, and he's a smart guy, obviously being an attorney in employment law, I think, and a graduate of UC San Diego, and his bachelor's in the University of California law degree.

Being on an HOA board, I serve on Point Marin Homeowner Association too.

And I tell you, we have 340 homes.

And having single family homes be part of an HOA.

There's a lot of issues that we're dealing with.

So I was impressed with actually all four candidates, but those are the two after really studying their applications.

And I thought would would be due to candidates that we should consider.

Obviously, I'm in the minority.

Thank you.

So at this point, we're going to go to public comment.

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

At this time, I have one request to speak.

It's Susan Bernick.

Welcome, Susan.

Well, this is a change being on this side of the dais.

A welcome change.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members.

And I have to also say tonight, for incredible applicants, having done this job for five years, it's an enormous commitment of time, and it's incredible that people have stepped forward.

I have been acquainted with Sandeep starting with my time on the Planning Commission back in, I started on that back in 2013, 14.

And uh, you know, would meet with him on various issues, as I did as a council member.

And um I have always been so impressed with his thoughtfulness.

Um we would have conversations where he truly listened.

You know, he had his concern, and we we worked together.

Having seen that and having been in your role, I know that how important that is.

Quite frankly, when I heard that he was interested in filling this vacancy, I was incredibly excited.

Um, and in looking at his application and learning more about him on paper, his background is just well suited to step into the role, Tim, as you said, to just be up and running right away.

It's a short-term commitment, could turn into a long-term um, you know, might be like me and decide after a few years you don't want to do it.

But um, I think you have critical, I know what's coming up.

You have a lot of critical issues ahead of you to have somebody who's up to speed, who understands a lot of the ins and outs because there is a lot.

Um, it would really be a benefit to the to the council to have someone, and so um tonight I just um I'm just here to endorse Sandeep and encourage the council to appoint him to fill the vacancy in district five.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Susan.

I don't have any other requests to speak, Laura.

Okay.

That concludes public comment.

I'll bring it back to council for either further discussion or a motion.

I'll make the motion to appoint Sandeep Carkell to the council for the district five seat.

I will second that.

Okay, any additional discussion or conversation?

Uh yes, um, I will support the mission.

Uh the motion because I think that it's really important uh for us to be united.

Um I too wanted to thank all the applicants, and um I encourage everybody to still stay engaged, uh, very much so, and um don't hesitate to uh call me if you have any questions or issues or send me an email, either way.

Um but I have worked with Sandeep.

Um I know that we will all work together well, and uh I will be supporting the motion.

I want to say thank you.

Laura, if you please call the vote.

Councilmember Eklund, aye.

Councilmember Jacobs, aye, Mayor Pertem Farak.

Aye, and Mayor O'Connor.

Hi, motion passes 4-0.

Congratulations, Sandeep, and thank you to everyone who and thank you again to everyone who applied.

We really do appreciate it.

Uh moving on to adjournment, our next regular council meeting will be held on December 9th, 245.

Does council have anyone they'd like to injourn a memory of?

Okay, we're adjourned.

Thank you.