The Santa Rosa City Council met on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, at 4:02 PM in the Council Chamber, adjourning at 7:06 PM. The meeting included proclamations, presentations, a staff briefing on ambulance contract compliance, reports, public hearings, a consent agenda, and reports on extending the youth transit fare-free program and approving a school resource officer (SRO) agreement. All council members were present except Council Member Victoria Fleming, who joined later (at 4:53 PM).
Item 8.1 – EOA-1 Ground Ambulance Contract Compliance Fire Chief Scott Westrope, Sonoma County Fire District Chief Bush, and Medic Ambulance President/COO James Pierson presented compliance data for the ground ambulance contract covering Exclusive Operating Area 1. They reported that approximately 80% of service calls occur within Santa Rosa city limits. Compliance for the Santa Rosa core zone reached 98.45% (June) and 98.84% (other months). Oakmont zone compliance was 91%. The system operates with a peak of 21 ambulances (15 ALS, 6 BLS). They highlighted a fully staffed workforce (no travel medics), pathway programs with SRJC, and enhanced equipment (autoloader gurneys, bariatric ambulance, mobile command center). Council Member Okrepkie requested more digestible compliance data; staff agreed to provide simplified reports.
Item 15.1 – Extension of Santa Rosa CityBus Unlimited Rides for Youth (UR Free) Program Rachel Ede, Deputy Director – CityBus, presented. Since its launch in July 2021, youth ridership increased 125%, reaching 450,000 rides in the current fiscal year. 78% of surveyed households reduced car trips. The program is currently funded through June 2025; the proposal extends it through June 30, 2030, using an estimated $220,000/year from GoSonoma sales tax funds and $300,000/year from Low Carbon Transit Operations Program funds. Council members praised the program and discussed managing youth behavior on buses (cameras, school partnerships, potential future Clipper card shift).
Item 15.2 – School Resource Officer (SRO) Agreement Police Chief John Cregan and Sergeant Matt Crosby presented. The SRO program was paused in 2020. After a 32-member ad hoc committee (30-2 vote to continue with modifications) and a 13-member working group, a new SRO MOU was reached between the City and Santa Rosa City Schools. The MOU defines roles, requires enhanced training (implicit bias, restorative justice, adolescent development), and establishes quarterly public reporting of arrest data. Cost is estimated at $2.1 million first year and $1.7 million annually. Funding has not been secured; staff will pursue state and federal grants. Council members expressed support but concern over funding given the city’s budget constraints. The three-by-three committee (Council Members Rogers, Okrepkie, MacDonald and school board members) worked on the MOU for 15 months.
Item 11.2.1 – Sonoma County Mayors’ and Council Members’ Association (MCA) Priorities Council identified three key issues to present at the MCA Board of Directors special meeting on May 22, 2025: (1) Homeless services funding and transparency with Measure O funds; (2) Service level and cost of the current ambulance contract countywide; (3) Coordination of emergency services and disaster training alignment across agencies and the county.
All consent items were approved as follows:
Good afternoon. I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence interpretation 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. 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. Click done to activate and begin the interpretation. Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish interpretation. Isidra, will you please uh sorry, Claudia, will you please restate this in Spanish? Yes. Thank you very much. Back to Hello everyone. For those of you who did not get enough city council discussion last week, we are back. The time is 402. We'll call this this meeting to order. Madam City Clerk. Councilmember Rogers. Councilmember O'Krepki. Here. Councilmember McDonald. Here. Councilmember Fleming. Councilmember Ben Wells. Here. Vice Mayor Alvarez. Mayor Stepp. Here. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Councilmember Fleming. Thank you. And we get to jump right ahead to uh item number seven, our proclamations and presentations for the week. Thank you, Mayor. It's my pleasure to read this proclamation tonight. Whereas public works are integral to the daily lives of our citizen, and whereas public works professionals maintain the infrastructure, facilities, and services that are critical to the sustainability, resilience, and health of our community, enhancing the well-being of Santa Rosa's residents by managing 516 mile roadway network, 1,085 acres of park and open space, 73 acres of roadway landscaping, 108 city-owned buildings, 320 miles of storm drain, 1200 miles of water and sewer pipes, and the wastewater treatment plant. And whereas these vital services would not be possible without the dedication and hard work of public works professionals, engineers, operators, technicians, and across all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for maintaining improving designing and safeguarding our community's infrastructure, transportation system, water and sewer networks, parks, public buildings, and other essential services. And whereas public works personnel work daily under challenging condition conditions to ensure the safety of all people while performing the critical tasks of maintaining and enhancing our infrastructure. And whereas it is essential for the citizens, leaders and future generations of Santa Rosa to understand and appreciate the importance of public works and the role these programs play in our community. And whereas 2025 marks the 65th anniversary of National Public Works Week. Now, therefore, be it resolved. Mark Stapp, the mayor of the City of Santa Rosa, on behalf of the entire city council, do hereby proclaim May 18th through 24th, 2025 as National Public Works Week. Glad to see so many of our team here. Dan, are you are you are you kicking it off? Yeah, I'm gonna just uh say a few words uh to accept the proclamation um before our recipients come down. Um thank you very much, Councilmember McDonald and Council for this recognition. Um public works is uh the backbone of our community. It does a lot of the stuff that goes without any glory. Um and it's many departments working together for parks, water, transportation public works, um, and a number of others too who contribute to service mentality um that helps our community keep running. Um, from this our street conditions and stormwater storm drains to our engineering teams and parks maintenance and parks planning staff. Um a lot goes into this that goes unseen. Um to have a week like this where we're able to recognize our teams, uh the camaraderie across the departments and the services that they provide to the citizens is really appreciated. So we thank you for that. Uh I also want to note that um, you know, there are a lot of discussions recently and and particularly last week's council meeting about different services and um the stuff that these teams do uh is not only important to the city, but it costs money to do.