On April 15, 2025, the Santa Rosa City Council held a regular meeting starting at 1:00 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting included a study session on General Fund budget reductions, interviews for the Design Review and Preservation Board, proclamations, staff briefings, a public hearing, consent items, and other reports. Council members present: Mayor Mark Stapp, Council Members Caroline Bañuelos, Victoria Fleming, Dianna MacDonald, Jeff Okrepkie, and Natalie Rogers. Vice Mayor Eddie Alvarez was absent. Council Member Rogers briefly left the dais from 1:31 PM to 3:12 PM. The meeting was adjourned at 7:28 PM.
The Council approved the consent agenda (14.1 through 14.13) by a 5-0 vote (Alvarez and Okrepkie absent) with the following notable items:
On Budget Reductions (Item 4.1):
On USL Interest (Item 9.3):
On Non-Agenda Matters (Item 15):
On Other Items: No public comments were made on proclamations, staff briefings, the public hearing, or consent items.
General Fund Budget Reductions FY 2025-26 (Item 4.1) The study session presented a $19.9 million deficit for FY 2025-26, growing to $31.6 million by FY 2029-30. CFO Alan Alton, Budget Manager Veronica Conner, and Deputy Director Scott Wagner outlined a structural deficit driven by slowed sales tax growth (reduced budget by over $5 million), rising CalPERS pension costs, and expiration of ARPA funds. Proposed reductions totaling $13.1 million included:
Interviews for Design Review and Preservation Board (Item 5.1) Council interviewed seven applicants for seven vacancies on the new combined board. Appointments were made later in the meeting (see Key Outcomes).
Proclamations (Items 8.1, 8.2)
Staff Briefings
Public Hearing – FY 2025/2026 Action Plan (Item 17.1) The Council opened and closed the public hearing with no public comment. By a 5-0 vote (Alvarez and Okrepkie absent), they adopted Resolution RES-2025-052 authorizing submittal of the Action Plan to HUD, approving estimated allocations of $2,292,537 in CDBG, $702,853 in HOME, and $520,140 in HOPWA funds.
City Manager’s/City Attorney’s Reports (Item 10)
Council Member Reports & Appointments (Items 12 and 12.2) Council members reported on various community events and liaisons. Mayor Stapp appointed Clay Dalton to the Community Advisory Board.
Report Item – Regional Water Reuse System Budget (Item 16.1) Deputy Director Nick Harvey presented the preliminary FY 2025/26 budget: $53,419,287 for operations and maintenance, $12,000,000 for capital improvements, and $18,299,256 for debt service. The Council adopted Resolution RES-2025-063 by a 5-0 vote, authorizing allocation notifications to user agencies.
Join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon and the zoom toolbar. It looks like a globe. If you're on your cell phone or tablet, locate the three dots, tap them lightly, and put a check mark on your preferred language. Click done to activate and begin the interpretation. Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so only you hear the Spanish interpretation. Interpreter, will you please restate this in Spanish? Yes. Thank you very much. Back to you. There we go. Welcome everyone. The time is one o'clock and we'll call this meeting to order. Madam City Clerk. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Rogers, present. Councilmember O'Krepke. Councilmember McDonald. Here. Councilmember Fleming. Here. Councilmember Ben Wellos? Here. Vice Mayor Alvarez. Mayor Stepp. Here. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Vice Mayor Alvarez. Thank you very much. We'll begin with item 4.1, our study session on the budget reduction. Finance Director Alton. All right, while staff is making their way to the podium. Just want to say good evening to Mayor and Council members. So today's budget study session marks the next step in our journey to address the challenges of necessary budget reductions. The process before us began with directives to departments to meet targeted reductions while balancing essential services. During the first round, uh which we made adjustments to, I believe, uh early January, some departments proposed significant budget reductions, such as TPW. Afterwards, the departments that departments were asked again to initially focus on cutting additional, make additional reductions who did not meet their targeted reductions in round one. So how this process went is departments that initially focused on cutting staff from the lowest level of the city and cutting basic services had their budget proposals adjusted by the city manager. Those who did not achieve targeted reductions at the 8% were asked to revisit and identify additional cost savings measures that we will discuss today. So oftentimes our public safety departments are heavily penalized because it is what it is. Public safety professionals tend to be heavily weighed out in our our budget scenarios just like any other municipality. So what we don't want to do and what I don't want to do in this disbudget um discussion is make certain we're not playing one against one against the other. So just like all of our departments are public safety professionals are just um as important in this discussion as the other departments. But as we continue to navigate um these challenges, um, this actually gives us an opportunity to reimagine how we do our budget practices. Um we want to move away from what we continue to say is our baseline budgeting exercises to a more strategic approach. So our baseline program should be the norm, and that should focus on high level of customer service and how we're managing our how we're improving efficiency throughout the city. We want to adjust our revenue approaches for uncertain revenues because as we've seen, a two to three percent in the shift in sales taxes, make a great uh give us an undue burden on the organization. Uh it could be as little as one percent sales tax shift um that we receive that can cause an undue burden on the organization. So we want to make certain that we shift away from assuming predictability to making certain that we're managing for the uncertain. And also we want to shift away from the immediate immediacy of the budget cycle. We are on a one-year budget cycle, uh and I know we're making changes to improve that, but start focus on focusing on long-term thinking and how we're thinking five to ten years out. Uh so as we continue today's discussion, myself and the team, we're committed to offering full transparency.