This meeting of the Santa Rosa City Council included a detailed annual audit report from the Independent Police Auditor (OIR Group), the adoption of a new brand book, and a robust public discussion on a draft policy for naming and renaming city assets. The council also handled routine consent items, received updates on city operations, and heard from the public on a variety of local issues.
The council unanimously approved all five consent items, which included routine contract awards and funding agreements.
On Agenda Items:
Non-Agenda Matters: Speakers addressed diverse topics including a land acknowledgement and park renaming (Mary Ann Michaels), U.S. foreign policy (Elizabeth), noise and nuisance complaints against a local food park (Clifton Wilcox), a request for the city to avoid contractors working with ICE (Catherine Bertolini Dowdle), support for community collaboration on park renaming (Adina Flores), and a report on a racially motivated assault and perceived inadequate police follow-up (Ty and Anya, with support from Carolyn and Tyler).
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're on your cell phone or tablet, locate the three dots, tap them lightly and put a check mark on your preferred language. Qualquer member del public o del personal que desee escuchar in espanhol, se puede unir al canal in espanhol a click in el icono del globo terrachio que verán ustedes in la parte de abajo de su pantalla de Zoom. So they seen in un teléfono celular or in una tableta. In mudo para escuchar solamente la interpretación in Espanyol. Muchas gracias. Back to you. Welcome everyone. The time is 2 31 and we'll call this meeting order. Madam City Clerk. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Rogers. President. Councilmember OK. Here. Councilmember McDonald. Here. Councilmember Fleming is absent. Councilmember Ben Willows here. Vice Mayor Alvarez. Mayor Stopp. Here. Let the record reflect all council members are present with the exception of Councilmember Fleming and Vice Mayor Alvarez. Thank you very much. We'll move ahead to our closed session items. Items 3.2 and 3.3 both were conferences with legal counsel on existing litigation, have both been continued to the August 5th, 2025 regular meeting. We will proceed with item 3.1, which is our a conference with legal counsel on anticipated litigation, and item 3.4, our conference with real property negotiators. Are there any public are there any members of the public who wish to comment on either of these items? Seeing seeing none, did you wish to We have Tom? Oh Tom, my apologies, Tom. Good afternoon, uh members of council, uh, Mr. Mayor. Uh I'm Tom Robertson. I've been involved in Santa Rosa and in particular downtown for a long time, really going back to 1990. Uh our company has had a commitment here. Uh we did the restoration of the old uh Rosenberg Department Store building and uh brought Barnes and Noble to downtown a long time ago. It seems like a lifetime. In any case, uh, we're now joining with uh Rob Robinson, my partner, to build uh 425 Humble Apartments project, which is the 299 market rate uh mid-rise mixed use apartment building with a commercial space. Uh we're doing very, very well. Uh we have the funding lined up. We're waiting for the approval of the bank loan, which we've been told by both the banks representatives and the equity sponsor who's arranging it, that it is a very easy loan to approve. We expect that any day now, really, and our hope is that we'll be able to break ground uh either late this month or early next month. In any event, uh I really can't talk about this project without complimenting the staff from top to bottom in the city. It's really been a fantastic experience. We began eight months ago with nothing. Uh the project was approved from a design review standpoint in 90 days, which I don't know the city record, but it's way up there in terms of any approvals for a project of this size in California. Uh we of course are working in the downtown uh where you have your new stationary stationary uh upgrade plan.