The Santa Rosa City Council met on October 10, 2023, convening in closed session at 3:00 PM and reconvening in open session at 4:00 PM. The meeting included a proclamation recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month, staff briefings on the Down Payment Assistance Loan Program, Violence Prevention Partnership Strategic Plan, and Community Empowerment Plan updates, along with a consent agenda of seven resolutions. The meeting adjourned at 5:42 PM.
Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation. Pablo, will you please restate this in Spanish? Seeing a quorum, Madam City Clerk, may you please call the roll. Councilmember Rogers. Councilmember O'Krepki. Councilmember Fleming. Councilmember Alvarez. Mayor, no one's approaching the podium for public comment, and we receive no written public comment. Thank you. We will now recess into closed session. Hello and welcome to our October 10th, 2023, Santa Rosa City Council meeting. It is now four PM, and we will be starting our meeting. Seeing a quorum, Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll? Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Stapp. Here. Councilmember Rogers. Councilmember O'Krepke. Here. Councilmember Alvarez. Present. Vice Mayor McDonald? Here. Mayor Rogers. Present. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Councilmember Rogers. Thank you. We have no study sessions today, so we're gonna move right into our uh reports on study and closed sessions. Madam City Attorney. Thank you, Mayor Rogers. Uh council did meet in closed session this afternoon on the matter of Constance Brown v City of Santa Rosa. The case involves a trip and fall incident on a sidewalk near Creekside Park by a vote of seven to zero. Council approves settlement of the Brown litigation following mediation in amount of one hundred thousand dollars and also authorize the city attorney to sign the settlement agreement uh authored by author or authored by both parties. Thank you. Thank you, Madam City Clerk. May you please facilitate public comment. Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item five. If you are in the chamber, please make your way to the podium to provide public comment. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. See no one approaching the podium, Mayor. That concludes public comment. Thank you. Moving on to a much anticipated uh part in our agenda. We have one proclamation uh for today, and I have the privilege of reading that proclamation. Whereas the City of Santa Rosa recognizes that domestic violence affects one in four families in our local community, and that nearly seventy-five percent of Americans know someone who has been abused. The crime of domestic violence violates an individual's privacy, dignity, and security based on the systematic use of emotional, physical, sexual, psychological, and economic control or abuse. And we're asked established in 1975, YWCA Sonoma County is our community's singular and vital resource for local residents experiencing violence in the place. YWCA's counseling support services offer trauma informed individual and support group therapy for victims of trauma and domestic violence, including the students at YWCA's therapeutic preschool serving one of our most vulnerable populations, children ages three through five years old. And whereas only an informed community effort will end the cycle of violence for local families, members of our community are engaged to participate in YWCA's scheduled events and programs to raise much needed funding to support their vision for every family in Sonoma County to live healthy, productive lives and be safe in their own homes.