Santa Rosa City Council Regular Meeting - December 10, 2024
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Santa Rosa City Council Regular Meeting - December 10, 2024
The Santa Rosa City Council met on December 10, 2024, at 2:00 PM for a closed session, followed by a study session at 3:30 PM and a regular session at 4:00 PM. The meeting included a study session on capital improvement program prioritization, a staff briefing on a homeless prevention pilot program, a public hearing on a property default, and reports on public safety tax and transit planning. The council took several actions, including approving consent items, accepting an annual report, and extending a development deadline for negotiation.
Consent Calendar
- Item 13.1: Approved a Sixth Amendment to Professional Services Agreement with Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Grattan & Mitchell P.C. for legal representation in the amount of $550,000 (total contract not to exceed $100,000)—adopted (Resolution RES-2024-186).
- Item 13.2: Approved a Memorandum of Understanding and Single Role Paramedic Side Letter for Unit 2 Firefighting (IAFF Local 1401), effective July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027—adopted (Resolution RES-2024-187).
- Item 13.3: Approved the Assignment and Assumption of Professional Services Agreement and First Amendment with U.S. Bancorp Asset Management, Inc. (dba PFM Asset Management) for investment advisory services, extending the term to October 1, 2029 and increasing compensation by $1,720,000 for a total not-to-exceed amount of $3,220,000—adopted (Resolutions RES-2024-188 and RES-2024-189).
- Item 13.4: The purchase of a RapidView IBAK Sewer Inspection vehicle ($420,342.17) was continued to the December 17, 2024 regular meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Item 4.1 (Study Session): Chris Guenther (Bikeable Santa Rosa) expressed strong support for the proposed capital improvement prioritization approach, emphasizing a “fix-it-first” strategy and the benefits of designing streets for all users.
- Item 13.2 (Consent): Steve DelPorto spoke in support of the firefighter MOU, thanking staff for negotiations. Duane De Witt spoke in support of both the MOU and the sewer inspection vehicle purchase, highlighting the importance of paramedic and EMT wages and the need for infrastructure inspection in Roseland.
- Item 15.1 (PSAP Report): Duane De Witt advocated for increased funding for violence prevention programs and questioned the $2.1 million purchase of the Roseland Library building for a police substation; he also noted the need for proportional parking at the Southeast Greenway.
- Item 14 (Non-Agenda): Duane De Witt discussed parking ratios for the Southeast Greenway compared to Roseland Creek Park, urging equity. Connie Aust opposed a proposed Quick Quack Car Wash near her residential community due to noise, traffic, and visual impacts.
- Item 16.1 (Public Hearing): Duane De Witt supported staff’s recommendation to repurchase the 410 B Street property from Cornerstone Properties, arguing against further extensions and urging the city to seek a developer with a viable plan.
Discussion Items
- Study Session (4.1) – Capital Improvement Program Prioritization Update: Director Dan Hennessey presented a revised approach to prioritize existing infrastructure maintenance over new road-widening projects, proposing a programmatic five-year funding plan, increased flexibility, and a new mobility and infrastructure subcommittee. Council members expressed support for the reprioritization, accountability measures, and the idea of a subcommittee, with interest in regular updates.
- Staff Briefing (8.1) – Prevention Pilot Program Update: Sasha Brown presented the Keep People Housed Sonoma (KPH) program, a countywide homeless prevention pilot funded by public-private partnerships ($3.9 million total, including $1.3 million from the city). The program aims to prevent 350–400 households from becoming homeless over two years by providing rapid financial assistance and stabilization services. Launch is scheduled for December 16, 2024. Council members praised the program.
- Report (15.1) – FY 2023-24 Public Safety and Prevention Tax (PSAP) Annual Report: Fire, Police, and Violence Prevention Partnership (VPP) staff presented the annual report. Key highlights: 6% sales tax increase to $4.6 million; expenditures of $6.5 million (including $2.1 million for the Roseland Library purchase); fire department staffing supported 10 engine companies; police department 17 positions contributed to a 54% reduction in shootings and 75% reduction in homicides year-to-date; VPP programs served 5,197 individuals through Choice Grants and launched a Clean Slate tattoo removal program. Council accepted the report unanimously.
- Public Hearing (16.1) – Cornerstone Properties Default at 410 B Street: The city sold the property in 2021 with development milestones. Cornerstone failed to meet deadlines despite two extensions totaling 2.5 years. City staff recommended repurchasing the property for $1,340,000. After public comment, council debated options. Councilmember Okrepkie proposed a 120-day extension to allow staff to negotiate an amended agreement with tighter timelines and proof of financing. The motion passed 6-0, directing staff to negotiate a revised scope, number of units, proforma, and construction timeline.
- Report (15.2) – Marin Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service Plan (MASCOTS) Update: Matthew Wilcox (City Bus), Kathleen Sullivan (Marin Transit), and Rachel Ede (Deputy Director) presented initial findings from the MASCOTS effort, which analyzes transit service along the Highway 101 corridor. Key findings: SMART train has captured a larger share of regional travel; there is duplication between Golden Gate Transit and SMART; the plan will recommend service adjustments to improve connectivity and efficiency. The report was informational; no action taken.
Key Outcomes
- Study Session: Received and filed; staff received direction to proceed with the proposed prioritization framework and explore a subcommittee.
- Staff Briefing: Received and filed.
- Consent Items 13.1–13.3: Adopted unanimously (6-0).
- Board Appointment (11.2.1): Scott Conrad appointed to the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito Vector Control District Board of Trustees for a two-year term ending December 31, 2026 (vote 4-0-1-1, with Councilmember MacDonald recused and Councilmember Fleming absent).
- Minutes (12.1): Approved as submitted.
- PSAP Report (15.1): Accepted by motion (6-0).
- Public Hearing (16.1): Motion to extend deadlines by 120 days and direct staff to negotiate an amendment with Cornerstone Properties passed 6-0. The extension allows time for negotiation; if no agreement is reached, staff will return for further action.
- MASCOTS Report (15.2): Received and filed.
- Written Communications (17.1, 17.2): Received and filed.
- Meeting Adjourned: at 7:03 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence translation of the meeting. For those just joining the meeting, live interpretation in Spanish is available, and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the Zoom toolbar. It looks like a globe. Welcome back, everyone, to our December 10th, 2024, Santa Rosa City Council meeting. It is now 3:30, and we will be starting our meeting. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember O'Krepki. Councilmember McDonald. Here. Councilmember Fleming. Your Councilmember Alvarez. Present. Vice Mayor Stepp. Your Mayor Rogers. President. Thank you. Moving on to item four point one, our study session for today, Madam City Manager. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, members of council. Item four point one is TPW Capital Improvement Program Prioritization Udate. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council members, Dan Hennessy, Director of Transportation Public Works, back following up from our August 20th discussion about how to prioritize TPW public works projects. They're also very difficult to deliver and honestly, they're just very difficult to wrestle with the priorities that the six of you put forward last time. So you can see in some years as little as $18.5 million, and other years almost $26 million. Makes it very difficult to think about this on an annual cycle. Also, I want to share that that bottom row where I've I've called them past promises. We've spent more than 44 million dollars in the last five years on just three projects. Those being the Hearn US 101 interchange, the Fulton Road widening, and the bicycle and pedestrian overcrossing. Again, all valid, valuable projects, but more than 40% of our CIP budget on those three things while we have any number of smaller scale sidewalk crossing pavement maintenance needs that just really hamstring our ability to make those changes. Thinking about how to reorganize that, if we sum those same categories over the past five years and look at a forward thinking budget for the next five, what does it look like if all of a sudden we're not hamstrung by those past promises and the roadway widening projects? Um what are we able to do by not committing ourselves to those types of things? And essentially everything else can see an increase in funding as a result of that. So based on those the buckets that you see up there of different project types, um, we're just through not being distracted by those projects that are not alignment with our goals and really focused on the deliverability of this scale of projects. Um we're able to deliver the types of projects that respond to the goals and that the community is continuously asking us for. Um the other thing that this does is it instead of doing this annually is that we start looking at this programmatically over a five year period such that this can become more predictable over time, and we're not allocating funds to projects before they actually need them. We can fund planning, design, permitting construction separately and sequentially as appropriate so that money doesn't sit. One of the things that in kind of reconstructing this moving forward that occurred to me is that in January each year we begin submitting our budget allocation for the following year, and then that gets approved by council in June and becomes available to us on July 1st. No new money becomes available to us until the following July 1st. So there's a period of almost 18 months where a new issue comes up and we don't have any resource available to us to respond to those issues. So some of the things that your constituents bring up to you that you bring up to me, my some of the times my default answer is that's great, we'll add it to the list. I can't do anything about it right now. And that's the honest answer, and it's a bad answer. And I think this this will provide us more flexibility to respond to those kinds of problems and have an honest conversation about whether or not it's worth doing, not just default to we don't have the resources, but we can talk about it uh on its merits instead. Um through this reorganization, you'll also note that the contingency category is removed from our budget. And what this really means is that essentially every category and every program manager here would be responsible for their own contingency. So your plan, the um staff member who's responsible for the bridge category is responsible for bridge programming. Same with sidewalks and intersection improvements, such that they're not reliant on each other. There will obviously be overlaps between these funding categories for certain projects, and I hope that encourages collaboration between our teams. It will almost certainly need to to make funding happen for some projects.
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