Santa Rosa City Council Regular Meeting - April 1, 2025
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Santa Rosa City Council Regular Meeting - April 1, 2025
The Santa Rosa City Council met on April 1, 2025, at 2:30 PM for a closed session (evaluation of City Manager and labor negotiations) and reconvened at 4:12 PM for the regular session. Council Member Natalie Rogers was absent. The meeting included staff briefings, consent calendar, public hearings on water/wastewater rate increases and renaming an advisory board, and acceptance of the annual General Plan report. Key actions included approving a five-year rate increase schedule, responding to written objections under AB 2257, and renaming the Board of Community Services to the Recreation and Parks Board.
Consent Calendar
- Resolution 2025-042: Approved the 2025 update to the Santa Rosa CityBus Title VI Program.
- Resolution 2025-043: Authorized receipt of a $250,000 State and Local Cybersecurity Grant.
- Resolution 2025-044: Accepted $39,317 in Urban Areas Security Initiative Grant funds.
- Resolution 2025-045: Ratified and extended blanket purchase orders for records management services with Corodata Records Management, Inc. (total not to exceed $278,000).
- Resolution 2025-046: Approved a second amendment to blanket purchase order with Superior Supplies for cement concrete (total $150,000).
- Resolution 2025-047: Approved a second amendment to blanket purchase order with Cream’s Towing, Inc. for abandoned vehicle abatement (total $295,000).
- Resolution 2025-048: Extended the proclamation of local homeless emergency.
- Ordinance 2025-006 (Second Reading): Adopted fire hazard severity zones as recommended by CalFire.
All consent items were approved by a 6-0 vote (Council Member Rogers absent).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Duane De Witt (Roseland resident, individual, not as a Board of Public Utilities member) spoke on multiple items: supported the CIP update, requested clarification on water rate impact tables (monthly vs annual), expressed concerns about the AB 2257 process (lack of public access to written objections), opposed the rate increases, praised the City Manager’s salary freeze, and invited council to the Roseland Earth Day event.
- No other public comments were made on non-agenda matters.
Discussion Items
- Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Status Update: Director Dan Hennessey reported that over $100 million in projects are expected to be bid in the next 12–15 months across water, wastewater, transportation, and parks. Key projects include the bicycle/pedestrian overcrossing (awaiting approvals from Caltrans and PG&E), Bennett Valley Golf Course irrigation pond, and the Hearn Community Hub. Council discussed funding strategies and project prioritization.
- Community Empowerment Plan Update: Community Engagement Manager Ana Horta highlighted upcoming events including a virtual town hall with the Mayor and Vice Mayor, Women in Public Safety Day, and the Street to Creek cleanup. The Neighbor to Neighbor program with new AmeriCorps members was introduced.
- Sonoma County Mayors’ and Councilmembers’ Association Appointments: Council approved four appointments: Jeff Okrepkie and Sandra Lowe to the Measure H Oversight Committee; Susan Harvey and Janice Cader Thompson to the North Bay Division LOCC Executive Board; John Shribbs and Karen Nau to the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District Citizens Advisory Committee; and authorized the Mayor to vote on late nominations. All passed 6-0.
- Approval of Minutes: February 25, 2025 and March 4, 2025 regular meeting minutes were approved (Council Members Okrepkie and MacDonald abstained from the February 25 minutes).
Key Outcomes
- AB 2257 Response (Item 15.1): Adopted Resolution 2025-049 responding to 10 written objections to proposed water and wastewater rates, finding no basis for amendments, and proceeding to the Proposition 218 protest hearing. Vote: 6-0.
- Water and Wastewater Rate Increases (Item 16.1): After a public hearing and verification that only 163 valid written protests were received (0.26% of 58,470 parcels, far below the 29,236 majority threshold), the Council adopted Resolution 2025-050 approving five-year rate increases: water rates 6% (FY25/26–27/28) then 7% (FY28/29–29/30), wastewater rates 5% annually, plus a wholesale rate pass-through provision. The ordinance amending Title 14 to allow water rates to be set by resolution was introduced. Both resolutions passed 6-0.
- Board of Community Services Renaming (Item 16.2): Introduced an ordinance to rename the Board of Community Services to the Recreation and Parks Board, reduce membership from 8 to 7, align term lengths with council members, and update powers and duties. Introduced 6-0. Adopted Resolution 2025-051 amending Council Policy 000-06 to reflect the new name (5-1, Council Member MacDonald opposed).
- 2024 General Plan Annual Review (Item 15.2): Accepted the 2024 General Plan, Inclusionary Housing, and Growth Management Annual Review Report. Vote: 6-0. The report covered housing production (297 building permits issued in 2024, including affordable projects), economic development, transportation improvements, and greenhouse gas reduction efforts.
- City Manager Compensation: During the closed session report, it was announced that City Manager Maraskeshia Smith requested a freeze on her salary and cost-of-living adjustments for two years. Council directed staff to bring a future agenda item to consider the request.
Upcoming Meetings
The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 15, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
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. If you are on your cell phone or tablet, locate the three dots, tap them lightly and put a check mark on your preferred language. Thank you for your patience, everyone. We'll reconvene after public after uh uh closed session. Madam City Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Rogers is absent. Councilmember O'Krepki. Councilmember McDonald. Here. Councilmember Fleming. Councilmember Ben Wellows. Here. Vice Mayor Alvarez. Present. Mayor Stepp? Here. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Councilmember Rogers. Thank you. We'll move on to item six and do a report out on closed session. During closed session, the City Council adopted a motion with six affirmative votes, and with Councilmember Rogers absent, we had one council member absent. We will disclose the following information from closed session. Thank you. Thank you again. Um, I think the last time I was here was maybe in December for the last update when we were talking about priorities and we um maybe went over a few projects in particular about how those would be affected by that prioritization process. Um this afternoon's update is about uh really trying to shorten May's budget study session so that that can be explicitly about budget, and tonight I can answer questions about the status of any projects. Um tonight I've got um a review of parks and their um ongoing capital improvement program, uh water and transportation public works, and then a few specific city facilities that will be of interest to folks at the end. Um specific to parks, um there's a little over 56 million dollars in current capital improvement funds for parks capital planning. Um more than 30 million dollars of that is for projects that are currently in design with the vast majority of that um anticipated to be delivered next fiscal year. Um you can see here on this table. Um essentially those first five projects are all for delivery, um, and then the MLK neighborhood park renovation is for environmental review and clearance of that. Um so we expect to deliver all five of those projects uh beginning this coming fiscal year. Um I can specifically say that the South Davis and Kawana Springs um projects there are remain um or need one additional approval, and then we'll put those out to bid. Um, similar for the Howarth and Galvin Park um projects, we're we're um very close to putting that out to bid. Um I've also included the Bennett Valley Gulf Course Irrigation Pond on this slide. Um that just went through uh 75% design review and again is on track to be bid uh later this summer. I know that's of interest to everybody, and we'll we'll talk about that again a little bit later in more detail. Um one other project I wanted to highlight on this slide is the Rosemon Creek Park. Um while the park design is ongoing, um, we will be um building a path and a crossing to Roseland Creek Elementary School this coming summer. Um, and we intend to have that open before school starts next year. So I know that's a key connection through that. If you've been by that park, you see the go trails of people walking through it, um, but providing that connection to the school and uh and uh um proper uh formal crossing uh I think will be of great benefit to that uh area and particularly to students at that school. Um there's another uh nearly 22 million dollars for projects that are in planning and design. Um that bottom table. We are looking for ways to um kind of rearrange the money based on the timing of specific projects and see if anything can be advanced more quickly. Um there's a certain amount of that money that is Measure M money um and looking for those 11 projects at the bottom there to see if um if any of those are solely funding constrained or if there are design and permitting questions that relate to those, but essentially we've done an audit of every dollar that um the parks department has available to it to deliver capital projects and you see all of those dollars on this on these two slides here and the tables um and so this provide an opportunity for review and suggestions for a budget study session or any questions back to me or to park staff uh about where those dollars are are headed um in the future and with anticipated delivery dates for each of those projects too. Director Hinnersy, before you go on, I want to draw your attention um to the ML Keen Junior neighborhood park. Um you'll notice on the sheet it says two million dollars remaining. What I have asked staff to do um most of the planning came from the community.
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