Y a mí, good afternoon.

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Claudia, would you please restate this in Spanish?

Yes.

Councilmember O'Krepki.

Councilmember McDonald.

Thank you very much.

We'll move on to item three, our closed session items.

So Janice is shaking her head.

No.

Dwayne, did you have a comment?

Alright, Dwayne, you're up.

Hello, my name is Dwayne DeWitt.

I'm from Roseland.

I wanted to thank the city manager for all the activity during the time she's been here.

And I see that number 3.3 is talking about her uh temporary replacement as she goes elsewhere.

So, with that in mind, I wanted to make sure that as you also look at the Cornerstone Communities Lawsuit, you folks do some hard headed fiscal oversight and don't spend any extra money if possible.

As a matter of fact, that great deal that the city manager gave you on not raising her wages for the next year after this one, keep that in place, no matter who you're recruiting to come and be an interim.

Also, on the conference with Cornerstone communities for perhaps arbitration and settlement early.

Tom, look, you know, uh, we're not going to give you a lot of dough.

Basically, this has to be the kind of thing that gets settled through the law system in a way that the counties, excuse me, the city's taxpayers are favored, if you will.

Then back to the interim city manager situation.

Don't go on a big hunt again and spend lots of money like you've done years before, a number of times, and then get people that don't stay for the long haul.

Essentially, a lot of money spent, and we're still in the same boat we were a few years back, if you will.

So, here's an idea.

Do a reduction in force at the top, let some folks get golden parachutes, take off, get their retirement, do what they do, and hire from within with the younger workers, the ones that'll stay here for 10, 12, maybe even 15 years in that position.

Mr.

Blackman in the past was here for decades.

So it can be done that way, and it helps the city to have stability.

Please don't go back to any of the previous managers either, like we've done before.

That didn't help us.

It just cost extra money because they say, hey, we're worth more, we've been there.

Let's stop doing that.

Let's look at this like okay, we gotta save money because we're gonna have even more difficult financial times ahead of us.

In order to save money, let's look within our own department.

Keep the position filled as an interim.

Don't promote up to the top, keep it as an interim position until the time period that Ms.

Smith would have left with that wage freeze then ending.

At that point, do your hire of somebody from within.

You will have saved us hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That might not be a lot to you folks, but that the taxpayers that really is a lot of money, and it does matter.

So thank you for your time.

I'll be back at public comments later today.

Thanks, Duane.

Janice, did you change your mind?

No offense to you, bro.

Go for it, sorry.

I wasn't here right when you started.

Um thank you, uh Mayor.

Uh Janice Carmen here.

And I just want to say exactly what Dwayne is stating, is the right thing, and it's what I've been complaining about ever since you, Diana, had appointed uh Terry Saunders to our district to represent us in planning when he lives in district four, which is um Victoria's.

And the voting has been really difficult.

And uh I would like to be on the personnel board, and I told Dina yesterday.

And I went over there, I got a lot of papers copied.

There's some uh I feel aggressive hostility toward me.

Uh I had to pay almost eight dollars yesterday to get copies of papers from the secretary's office.

When I got home, the application was half leaf half filled out.

I've also researched the two people who are supposed to be running.

What we don't need is a lawyer with a suspended license, unless she can defend that.

And the other is a person who has an obituary on the website.

So Janice, you we have to stay on topic with remarks.

Okay, I think you should uh put this voting thing for the personnel board to another day when I have it on the back to the closed session topics, Janice.

Well, to fill out uh an application.

Anything else for way to the closed session, Janice?

But uh, but anyway, no, I'm just uh saying that Dwayne's saying the right thing.

We need people that are invested in Santa Rosa to be on boards, commissions, and on the city council.

Thank you, Janice.

Welcome back, everyone.

The time is four oh one, and we will call this meeting back into session.

Madam City Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Present.

Council Member O'Kepkey.

Councilmember McDonald.

Here.

Here.

Let the record reflect all council members are present with the exception of Vice Mayor Alvarez.

Thank you very much.

All right, we'll move on to item five, five point one, which is our personnel board interviews.

We have two candidates here.

Thank you again for submitting your resume.

We've all had a chance to review it.

I'll ask just a couple of very broad questions and then turn it over to my colleagues for any additional any additional thoughts.

Can you provide uh just a bit of background uh related to your interest in the personnel board?

Yes, and actually, the resume and application that was submitted was from last year, and since then um I have moved on to a position of the chief administrative officer with Bellevue Union School District.

Previously, I was the director of human resources, and so that's my interest for at least the last 15 years.

I have been on the human resources side of education in both large districts, uh Santa Rosa City Schools, here at Bellevue, and in Southern California.

And I just find that employee relationships and making sure that people know the expectations of what their work is and how in their role they serve either students andor the public is important, and being able to provide support for adults to do that and make good choices on behalf of the community and citizen is important to me.

Thank you very much.

And you've you've already answered my second question to some extent.

Um but could you again speak speak to your experience with personnel issues, with labor law, with management, the kinds of the kinds of topics that are are germane to the personnel board.

Absolutely.

Um it's interesting that you asked that question because right now I am engaged in several uh disciplinary issues, and so making sure that people are held accountable for their actions.

We are also at the table with both of our bargaining units, and so negotiations and making sure that uh appropriate compensation and support is also something that I'm actively involved in, and all aspects of both hiring, including onboarding training, et cetera, mandatory trainings for staff as well, and making sure that all risk management and compliance issues are addressed in the district are areas of um expertise and knowledge that I hold.

Thank you very much.

And with that, I'll look to my colleagues to see if they have any questions.

Looking both ways, all right.

We like to keep things succinct here in Center of City Council.

Thank you again for your application.

Thanks for coming out and asking and answering a few questions tonight.

Uh we'll we'll we'll let you go.

Absolutely, thank you.

Much obliged.

All right, Mr.

Corey, you're next up.

Thank you again.

Yeah, you you have the advantage of of seeing how this goes.

So you know the two questions that are coming your way.

Um take a moment and just explain your interest in this position.

So uh so my interest really comes from doing the LSR program recently, um, really diving deep into the government and politics day really got me interested in this, but then also working with the county of Sonoma for the past five years.

Um, kind of wanted to dive deeper into the war realm of government and politics, but then also um expand my knowledge of different boards and committees that I can join, and so actually, come a couple of the cohorts within LSR told me that the personnel board, um, over open government community um board as well, and the community advisory board might be something of my interest and something I should really look into.

So I figure why not throw my hat in the ring and uh gain some more experience, gain some knowledge, but then also give back to the community as well being a part of the board.

Excellent.

And just to be clear, this was the LSR government and politics day that the city manager and I participated in, inspiring inspiring your class to lean in.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

That's that's good politics.

Uh second second question.

Could you could you give a bit of background in your in terms or into your experience with with labor law, employment issues, management, et cetera?

Yes, so it's small experience, so more of um just dealing with conflicts within uh my own unit, uh, with team members as well, being able to dress address uh different issues they've had with um just uh procedures or policies as well, being able to come back and talk to the supervisor about how to help them manage me uh manage these procedures and how to get work done properly and efficiently as well, and then even making sure that the training they got from the lead worker was um precise and up to date and making sure that they would be able to complete their job to the fullest and be able to make sure that they dot all the I's and cross all the T's when it comes to uh different procedures that um work within our um our division.

Excellent.

Thank you for that.

I will look to my colleagues.

Any questions from the dais?

No questions once again.

Again, we like to think, keep things succinct.

Thank thank you for coming out.

Thank you both.

Uh we've got your information, we've got your applications.

Uh these interviews have been helpful, and we'll be uh picking this up for discussion later, later this meeting.

Thank you.

With that, we will turn to item seven.

Uh a report from our city attorney, if any, on our closed sessions today.

Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

There's no reportable action taken in closed session.

Thank you.

We'll move on to item 8.1, our proclamation for Zero Waste Week.

Councilmember McDonald.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm having a bit of an issue with my technology, so I think I got it pulled up now.

Whereas the City of Santa Rosa has assumed a leadership role by setting zero waste as a goal and adopting a zero waste resolution and sets a goal of zero waste by 2030.

And whereas each year, Zero Waste Sonoma and Community Partners host a one-day zero waste symposium as a local opportunity for industry and the public to gain light, to gain insight on zero waste topics and trends, share ideas and network, and whereas since 2022, Zero Waste Sonoma has coordinated and promoted a week of events aimed at educating and empowering various sectors of the public to act towards zero waste, and whereas since 2022, Zero Waste Sonoma has collaborated with North Bay groups in Sonoma, Napa, and Marin, and volunteers to expand these event offerings, which have included clothing and produce swaps, recycling, compost and water treatment facility tours, repair and reuse fairs, litter cleanup, food waste reduction classes, environmental film screenings, and more.

And whereas the City of Santa Rosa, along with public, private, and nonprofit organizations and community groups will be hosting zero waste events throughout the week of October 11th through the 18th.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that our Mayor Mark Stapp, the mayor of City of Santa Rosa, on behalf of the entire city council in recognition of our community, do hereby proclaim October 11th through 18th, 2025 as Zero Waste Week.

And Leslie, do we have you back for the second for the second meeting in a row?

Oh, wait, we you weren't here for the last zero waste.

Our executive.

We're glad to have you here today.

Say say a few words.

Yes, thank you so much for um taking this opportunity to acknowledge Zero Waste Week.

This is the fourth year that we've done this, um, and it's grown every single year.

Um we've actually made it a permanent program at Zero Waste Sonoma and expanded into Marin and Napa counties.

So as council member McDonald covered, we we really do a big range of events to bring in community to educate um and inspire zero waste action, not just uh October 18 um you know this week, the 11th through the 18th, but throughout the year.

So we just want to say thank you to Santa Rosa for the support and um hope to continue this into many years to come.

Very supportive indeed.

Uh, and when we had Recology and Zero Waste here a couple of weeks ago, we we barrage them with detailed questions about various kinds of recycling and trash management.

Were any of those unanswered?

Did any of you have personal personal recycling and whatnot questions that you needed answered?

All right.

Not today.

Thank you.

Let's go to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to uh say some nice words about zero waste Sonoma?

Dwayne?

Yes, hello.

My name is Dwayne DeWitt.

I'm from Roseland, and I definitely want to say good things about this type of a program.

Zero waste is very helpful in more ways than one.

One of the things that could be fun is if you coordinated with the volunteers that do the creek cleanups and all the debris that we bring out of those different spots, it goes to the city.

The city doesn't necessarily separate it out, and I found that out the hard way when city workers were looking at me like I was odd because I was separating out the different stuff, the recyclable, the steel.

I mean, we get bike frames, we get all kinds of stuff.

City workers, their approach is everything goes into one dumpster, taken over to the city yard, and then that goes out.

And I'm hoping you folks will take the approach to zero waste, the approach of recycling any of the materials.

There's that old motto.

We use it in Rosalind a lot.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

And this would be a perfect opportunity for the zero waste stuff to really take hold with the city and our Roseland volunteers.

Then I see here later you're going to have an appointment of an alternate to the Zero Waste Sonoma Agency.

And I was curious if you could explain that a bit.

Is it just elected officials that get to be on that agency?

And if not, can volunteers be on there?

Because I'd love to volunteer with some zero waste action.

Thank you kindly for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

DeWitt.

Would any other members of the public like to speak?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment.

Uh and thank you again for coming.

We'll take a photo.

Come on, come on up.

We will move on to item 9.1, our community empowerment plan update.

Miss Horta.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council.

I'm Anna Orta, community engagement manager with the communications and intergovernmental office.

On October 9th, the violence prevention partnership held the 14th annual violence prevention seminar.

The sold-out event was highly successful with 225 attendees representing local schools, law enforcement, and community-based organizations.

This year themes standing together to support survivors, focus on how we can work together to better serve the survivors of violence in our community.

On October 17, in response to an urgent need for blood donations locally, the city will be hosting a blow drive event.

The Vitalan Blood Mobile will be stationed in the parking lot at Felney Community Park, 100 Stony Point Road from 10 a.m.

to 1 30 p.m.

All community members are invited and encouraged to participate and help save lives in our community.

On October 18th, the Santa Rosa Fire Department Violence Prevention Partnership and Zero will be attending the Sonoma County Museum Block Party and Resource Fair at the Sonoma County Museum, 425 7th Street from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

This special event honors the opening of their 29th annual Dia de los Muertos exhibition with an unforgettable afternoon of art, performances, low riders, and delicious food.

On October 22nd, join Vice Mayor Alvarez, Council Member Rogers, and Community Advisory Board members Diaz and Hemsa G for the District 1 and seven community meeting.

The meeting will be held at Roseland University Prep 1931 by Wana Drive number one at the big room from 6 30 to 8 p.m.

Please find details about District 1 and 7 community meeting at SRCT.org backslash civic alerts or email community engagement at srct.org.

On October 27, the Santa Rosa Fire Department and the Water Department will be attending the Santa Rosa City School Career Day at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds Hall of Flowers 1350 Bennett Valley Road from 9 in the morning to 12 30 p.m.

This event is an effort to expand career connected learning, also known as work-based learning.

Also on October 25th, the planning department, Santa Rosa Police Department and CERO will be attending the Vince Harper 16 South Park Summer Day and Night Festival at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, 1351 Maple Avenue from 2 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

The festival is designed to build knowledge and educate the public, bringing resources to the community and celebrating the South Park neighborhood.

On October 27th, the Santa Rosa Police Department will be hosting its trunk or treat celebration along with Violence Prevention Partnership, Santa Rosa Fire Department, and other community departments at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building 1351 Maple Avenue from 4 30 to 7 30 p.m.

This drive-thru event provides a safe space to trick or treat from the trunks of Santa Rosa Police Department Vehicles.

Finally, on October 28th, join Council Member Krepke and Community Advisory Board Member Freights for the district six community meeting.

The meeting will be held at the Epicenter 3215 Coffee Lane, Club Room 300 from 6 30 to 8 p.m.

For details about this district community meeting, please visit srct.org backslash civil alert or email community engagement as at srct.org.

And that concludes the community empowerment plan update for the month of October.

Thank you.

A packed report is always on a bringing it back to council for questions or comments.

Mr.

Krupke.

Yeah, thank you for so much for that.

Um and if anybody out there wasn't able to make it to any of my colleagues' uh forums, um, for whatever reason, you're welcome to mine, especially if you have kids, as there will be stuff for uh kids to do at mine because of its location.

So plenty of video games and claw machines to distract your children uh while you partake in the community government process.

Thank you for that.

Yeah, we can't highlight those or the district meetings enough.

Those have really been successful.

Um, and I'll highlight as well the violence prevention partnership seminar for last week that unfortunately, because several of us were out of town, um, some of us couldn't attend, but that was sold out, packed, second year in a row.

Um, really a great new tradition for the city.

So thank thank you, and thanks to our violence prevention partnership partnership team for organizing that.

Anything else from council?

All right, we're we're a quiet bunch today.

Um thank you very much.

We'll go to public comment and uh Mr.

DeWitt, do you have something for us?

Yes, sir.

I asked use the overhead projector, please.

Of course.

I've turned it on here.

You've got it there.

All right.

Thank you to Miss Horta for giving us that nice report, and two things came up that made me think important to remind you of one community engagement thing we do annually in Roseland.

The upcoming date of the 22nd of this month, where Mr.

Alvarez and Miss Rogers will be there for a town meeting.

We're hoping it'll be different than some past meetings where we listen to a lot from city staff.

And then there's just a little time to talk with the public.

We would really like to have it be the public gets to talk to the council members.

And then after they've heard what the public is interested in and wants to know about, they can answer the questions.

Having a meet and greet where you have to sit through a long presentation really gets people um a bit uninterested, if you will.

Anyway, on the overhead up there, you'll see Rosalind residents will be out on Saturday, the 25th, and we'll start at 10 in the morning, rain or shine, doing our make a difference day along the creek there and through the neighborhood.

Now, also I want to point out that in this article, which is in the Sonoma County Gazette right now.

We're thanking the City of Santa Rosa out in Roseland because you folks are working on Burbank Avenue where there may be a crosswalk coming across from what we call Pomo Park and Preserve over to Rosen Creek Elementary School.

And a pathway has already been put up in there.

You guys should go look at it.

It's raining today.

Tomorrow will be a good way to see how it handles the water and ride your bike on it, do your stuff.

And then also what's really a really good thing is the city has started to work on a stormwater sewer project down McMinn Avenue in the heart of Roseland.

And that's been something needed for decades.

And this is the only forum, the Sonoma County Gazette, that's pointing it out.

It's coming out.

You folks are behind it.

Good things are happening because the city council and city manager Smith have been paying to Rosalind, paying attention to Rosalind, excuse me, in a big way.

Wanted to keep that going forward also.

So caddo's to all of you, especially Miss Horta and the new hire, Miss Misty Harris.

You can get her out there, come to that meeting on the 22nd, and we'll start getting her engaged with us in Rosalind, where we have a motto, nothing but a good time by now.

Thank you, Duane.

Would any other members of the public like to speak?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment.

Anna, thank you very much.

Great stuff as always.

We'll move on to item 10.

Our city manager and city attorney reports.

Madam City Manager.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council.

So the city's economic development team is hosting the business expert express seminar on October the 20th.

It's an event that's tailored to entrepreneurs and small business owners who are in their first year of operation, are preparing to open soon.

It will provide connections to other seasoned professionals and local resources, and it's designed to help new business owners launch and grow their businesses.

So that is October the 20th.

For more information, you can go to srcity.org to register, and you need to click on the calendar link.

Also, there are a few spaces left for the popular Halloween at Howard Trick-or-treating event.

Um that is scheduled to take place on October the 25th.

And again, you can go to SRCity.org, click on the calendar for October the 25th, and all the details will be uh posted there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I have no report this evening.

Thank you.

We'll open it up to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to uh comment on either the city managers or the city attorney's reports?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment and go on to item eleven statements of abstention or recusal by council members.

Are there any statements of abstention or recusal this evening?

There are none.

We will move on to item 12.

Uh, mayors and council member council members' reports.

Any reports this evening?

From my colleagues, Miss McDonald.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just a couple things for me to report out on.

I want to report out on the successful um violence prevention program seminar that was last week that I had the pleasure of attending.

And I want to share a few highlights from that really successful event.

The violence prevention Partnership held its 14th annual violence prevention seminar on October 9th with 225 people attending.

The theme of this year was standing together to support survivors.

And our featured keynote speaker was Jesse Leon, and he was the author of the book, I'm not broken.

He shared his experiences of a survivor from human trafficking, sexual assault, gang participation, and drug addiction, and his pathway to healing from the trauma and how he turned his life around.

And during his mass and entering or earning his master's degree in public policy from Harvard University.

One of the things that Jesse shared with us was when people are broken.

He said even broken crayons can still color.

And it was just such an amazing story about survivor surviving the horrific things that he had to endure in his youth and how we as a community can support the community, young people in our community.

It featured also six breakout sessions and topics of human trafficking, victim-centered restorative justice, support and resources for victim of violence and future of funding for violence prevention efforts.

Santa Rosa PD also conducted two breakout sessions, one on fentanyl awareness and the other on gang awareness, and also gave a full climate update of what's happening in our community at our full session.

And so I just want to say thank you to SRPD as well for all their involvement.

The event was sponsored by Peter E.

Haas Junior Family Fund, Individual and Family Support Network, Sonoma County Probation Department, and the County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors.

In addition, the law enforcement chaplaincy and Sonoma County provided service support throughout the event, providing support to attendees who needed it.

And then I also had the pleasure of attending the Park a month event on Saturday.

It was at North Park, which is at Comstock School, which is where I went to middle school, which is why I went there.

And I want to say thank you to the Interact Club who came and it was a large group of kids that refurbished the entire dog park and um with the help of course of staff and and all the volunteers that showed up, and I think they had over 50 volunteers that weekend.

So thanks to the parks department for hosting that, as well as thanks to the violence prevention program team for all they did to support the youth in our community.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh brief report.

I just want to say I had the honor of being sworn in uh this past week as the president of the Cal Cities North Bay Division.

So I will be serving for a year, and I'm happy to do so.

Thank you.

And that is a great thing for the city.

Thank you for doing that, Natalie.

Um Mr.

O'Kropke.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Just a real quick report out on uh yesterday's economic development subcommittee meeting.

Um had a great conversation around um local preference, and um gave some feedback, which will hopefully hopefully uh instigate a uh further discussion at the council level.

We'll see how that goes.

And then also I wanted to touch on the great success of since we are ending summer, the great success of Live at Juilliard, which saw its most attendance ever, as well as the success of our newest uh effort, second Sundays, which is right after the um farmers market um on the second Sunday of the month, um kids' games, activities, stuff like that.

It was a real big hit, and then finally um upcoming uh starting next month, but you may have seen some of them already out there is the SR Public Art Walk.

Uh we got about nine installations going in down the downtown area from uh artists from all over local to uh Arizona and Minnesota, and um we got a sneak peek in our presentation of them, they're pretty cool looking.

Uh, and uh so be on the lookout for that.

There's a website coming out where you could follow that, and that'll be up for I believe the next uh two years uh on display.

So that's all.

Thank you.

And before we go back to Ms.

Fleming, one more one uh one more point from you, Miss Rogers.

Yes, I'm sorry, Mayor.

Um, I also want to say great job to SRPD for uh their faith in blue.

Um it was good to see so much community engagement.

It was bigger than it has been.

Um, I think we had 21 congregations with 35 services, so we were able to engage with a lot of people in the community, and it was great.

And thank you, Mayor, for all of your support.

And again, good job, SRPD.

Thank you, Ms.

Fleming.

Yeah, a couple of things.

A week ago Friday, I was part of the opening of the Navado Narrows.

I don't know if anybody's heard of this project.

It's like that that area on the 101 now, you know.

We opened a we open another lane.

Apparently it's been a big deal.

It's been a long time in coming.

And I just wanted to um let everybody know that it was a huge collaboration.

It was an honor to be a part of it.

But while we are excited about that, we ask for patience around the HOV lane change, and know that in the new year we're going to have in the spring, we're gonna have increased connectivity with Smart and the Larksburg Ferry, and that these transitions are going to ease, and even on the hyperlocal, uh the transition from making it easier to drive, but also easier to ride public transit is gonna get easier.

And on a hyper-local level here in Northern Santa Rosa, we will be breaking ground pretty soon here on the 101 bike pedestrian overcross.

And I hold great hope that eventually the Jennings um crossing uh from SMART will open, and we're gonna just have a slew of connectivity from really close in our neighborhoods all the way down through San Francisco.

So congratulations to everybody who worked on that project.

Thank you to staff for it and appreciate the public for your ongoing support to make that happen.

Wanted to thank Anna Orta, her staff, Misty Wood, as well as both chiefs for their support in my district meeting last um week in District 4.

It was well attended.

I was grateful for the opportunity to be supported in connecting with my constituents, which is always a good time.

And finally, um, it's with a heavy heart.

I want to note the passing of my colleague on the SMART board, Mark Milberg.

He was a good friend and a good colleague, and just uh an all-around mention, and he will be missed.

Thank you and condolences.

With that, we will go to public comment.

Are there any members of the public who wish to comment on any of the mayors or council members' reports?

Seeing none, we will close public comment and we we will move on to item 12.2.1, our board, commission, and committee appointments.

Uh, this is our opportunity to appoint one member to fill an at-large vacancy um to the personnel board uh with a term expiring December 31st, 2026.

Let's begin by calling for public comment.

Are there any members of the public who have thoughts on this item?

Thank you, Duane.

Any other members of the public wish to comment?

Seeing none, we will close public comment and I will bring it back to uh Ms.

Fleming for discussion or for a motion.

I'm grateful to both candidates for applying.

I think you both have merits.

Um I think that for me, I'm gonna nominate Stacy for the position as a result of your experience in in the industry heretofore.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second by Miss McDonald.

Any additional discussion?

Mr.

Krupke.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Yeah, I would uh um agree that the extensive history and this is is important.

However, Marcus, I would say um please take the advice and continue to apply for the various boards and commissions that we have.

Um your point of view is gonna be very important based on your your work with other municipalities as well as is in the public.

So um, you know, keep applying.

Uh there's always uh openings that pop up.

Thank you, Ms.

Rogers.

And there may be current openings on boards that we can uh help you to get involved with.

Ms.

Ben Willis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I will second that.

There are some openings, so please definitely apply.

And I'll concur as well.

Um, yeah, thank thank you for being here today.

This is a very technical position.

Um, and and I'll I'll cast my vote for Stacy for that reason as well.

But we've got we've got openings and we want you, we want you on board.

So thanks for thanks for throwing your hat in the ring.

Ms.

McDonald.

Yeah, I just also want to say thanks for throwing your hat in the ring.

I felt like everybody wanted to say it, but I'll be voting for Stacy as well this time.

But please stick around.

We need your energy and your expertise.

All right, and with that, we have a motion and a second.

I think we can call the vote.

Adam City Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Aye.

Councilmember O'Kropkey.

Aye.

Councilmember McDonald.

Aye.

Councilmember Fleming?

Aye.

Council Member Van Willows?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Alvarez is absent.

Mayor Stapp.

Yes.

The motion passes with six affirmative votes.

Thank you.

All right.

We are not done with our appointments yet.

We'll move on to item 12.3.1, the appointment of an alternate to a zero to the zero waste Sonoma Agency.

Historically, we've had a staff appointment as an alternate.

Uh someone on uh the city of Santa Rosa's staff who has a technical interest in the work that Zero Waste Sonoma does.

Um we would like to go back to or we would like to continue that tradition.

And so for that reason, I I would like to uh with with council's consent uh appoint Josh Karstenson to as the alternate for zero waste Sonoma.

So and thank you, Dwayne.

I'm gonna do that right now.

Uh we will have we can go for public comment.

Dwayne, would is there something you'd like to say?

From Rosalyn.

I'm a volunteer in a number of different things, and I'm currently volunteering with the city on the Board of Public Utilities.

That's not a staff position.

I'm not paid, but I think of it as like I'm part of the family now.

And so maybe we could look at me next time you get this opportunity for one of these situations and not just immediately give it to city staff.

That makes it feel like it's the old boy network.

We don't want that, even though I am an old boy, and I will admit that.

What we would like to see is that there'll be a new face, perhaps, in the zero waste.

We can do it with haste, but I don't know.

I'll still be around.

I don't ever want to be like Cactus Pete, so I just realized I rhymed a couple words.

My apologies.

That won't happen again.

All the best.

Thank you, Duane.

Are there any other members of the public who'd like to speak on this item?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment and I will bring it back to council for uh hopefully a motion in a second.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion by Mr.

O'Krepke and a second by Miss McDonald uh to appoint Josh Karstenson as the alternate to the Zero Waste Board.

Whenever you're ready, Madam City Clerk, we can take a vote.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers?

Aye.

Councilmember O'Krepki?

Aye.

Councilmember McDonald.

Aye.

Councilmember Fleming?

Yes.

Councilmember Ben Willows?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Alvarez is absent.

Mayor Stapp.

Yes.

The motion passes with six affirmative votes with Vice Mayor Alvarez absent.

Thank you.

We'll move on to item 13.1.

Our approval of minutes.

Are there any edits or amendments to the minutes?

Seeing none, we will adopt the minutes as submitted.

And we will move on to our consent items.

Madam City Clerk, whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Mayor.

Motion uh 14.1 is a motion, contract award.

Piner Creek Crossing Hawk.

High intensity activated crosswalk.

14.2 is a motion.

Approval of First Amendment to General Services Agreement Number F002803 with Green Tara Incorporated DBA clone digital print and copy.

14.3 is a motion.

First amendment to professional services agreement with Exella Incorporated for permitting an inspection software.

14.4 is a resolution.

Resolution of the Council of the City of Santa Rosa approving the third amendment to the professional services agreement number F002578 with DTA Public Finance Incorporated as amended to authorize the city manager or designee to make non-substant substantive changes to the amendment.

Red lines of this resolution have been provided to council, are available with the administrator at the top of the well and will be uploaded online tomorrow.

14.5 ordinance adoption second reading ordinance of the Council of the City of Santa Rosa amending section 1-08 of the Santa Rosa City Code and adding section one-09 of the San Rosa City Code.

Thank you.

Looking at council, are there any uh questions regarding these these uh consent items?

Seeing none, we'll go to public comment.

Mr.

DeWitt.

Regarding the Hawk Light system, that's a very good purchase, especially because it's not with city funds.

So I'd like to ask that you folks talk to the grant rider that went to get these funds from the state and have them do it for Burbank Avenue also.

Right there at Roseland Creek Elementary School, it's now becoming one of the most dangerous places.

The people on that street don't pay attention to the 25 mile per hour speed limit.

You've got an elementary school and a middle school there.

It's really very dangerous.

We don't want to happen like with uh Patrick Jerome Scott back in the late 90s, who was killed out on Bellevue Avenue because we didn't heed the need for having safety measures near the schools.

If you could put one of these grant applications into the state for a hawk lighting system along Burbank Avenue at Roseland Creek Elementary School, and at the other side, where there's the it's called Rosalind Accelerated Middle School, have it at both sides of that long school stretch, would be a great safety measure for us.

Thank you for your time on that.

Thank you, Duane.

Would any other members of the public like to speak on this item?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment, and I'll turn it over to Mr.

Krebke for a motion.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

If I could ask just one question, if I could bother Director Hennessy, um I believe we uh to address the public comment.

I believe we have in our pipeline a number of hot crossings going in.

Um I can't remember what that number is.

If you could give me a ballpark.

Thanks for the question, council member.

Um the active transportation plan that you all saw and approved in the summer has uh more than 100 crossings in it, varying between Hawks and RRFBs.

There are uh, I don't know, maybe 20 that are currently funded, and we're gonna just kind of do them rolling annually.

So different levels of control between the Hawk, which stops vehicles and the RFBs, which are flashers and are for more narrow roads like Mr.

DeWitt mentioned uh typically, uh, but we continue to assess um based on state ordinance and state law what we're allowed to um produce on different roads, but uh I would anticipate over the next several years there will be dozens annually.

Thank you very much.

Uh with that I will move items 14.1 through 14.5.

Second, we have a motion and we have a second by Miss Rogers.

Whenever you're ready, madam city clerk.

Councilmember Rogers, aye.

Councilmember O'Krepke.

Aye.

Councilmember McDonald.

Aye.

Councilmember Fleming?

Yes.

Council Member Banwillos?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Alvarez is absent.

Mayor Stapp?

Yes.

The motion passes with six affirmative votes with Vice Mayor Alvarez absent.

Thank you.

All right.

I'm looking at the time, and it's been a roller coaster ride of a meeting so far, and we have 16 minutes before we can move on to our next item.

So we will take a break for 16 minutes and return precisely at five o'clock.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.

Welcome back everyone.

The time is five o'clock and we will reconvene into open session.

Councilmember McDonald.

All right, and we're gonna launch right into our public to comment on non-agenda matters that are not listed on the agenda.

Uh Mr.

DeWitt, I see you're there, and I hope we have the overhead already warmed up.

Could you leave a little closer to the mic, Dwayne?

Sorry.

Is it or is it not?

Is it working?

At the top of the middle, you'll see it's about the EIR for the wastewater project back in 1997.

And at that time we were talking about water issues because the city of Santa Rosa had a southwest area specific plan put together.

That specific plan, which we called the swap, was about annexing all that land out there to the southwest.

It took a number of years to have it happen.

The reason I put this up there now is because it's completed and a lot more buildings coming in, a lot more sewer type issues are gonna come forward.

So I'm hoping you'll always pay attention to these topics by looking back to the stuff from the past, and this EIR is very helpful for that type of stuff.

The article below it, I make the mention about the stormwater project that's coming in on McMinn Avenue, and that is a problem that the folks on Hughes Avenue and McMinn have faced for all those 30 years as development has been coming in more out there.

What folks didn't realize from the city, those folks, there was a former riparian corridor there that was then built over, and nature didn't realize and that kept the water flowing the way it always had.

So the people on Hughes Avenue get flooded backyards when big rains come.

I've had to put some pumps in.

Luckily, the city now has come forward and will put forward that storm water.

Uh it's fresh, it's new construction, and that's going to help in a big way.

What we're hoping is that as you folks see more development come in out there, you look at also something known as the sustainable groundwater.

There's an agency in the county now for it.

Every time you develop more over the aquifer's land that was where it was permeable, and you put in the development with impermeable surfaces, it creates less of that sustainable groundwater.

Over there in Roseland, we really need it.

People still use it for their irrigation of their gardens and the good stuff like that.

And then at the last minute, I think I have if you'll put the clock back up so I'm correct and never go over time.

I wanted to make sure that you knew about the public knowing what I said earlier today in closed session.

Definitely hard-headed fiscal oversight on money.

You're gonna be broke for a couple of years.

The manager's leaving, but she left a great deal there for the next year if you follow up on it without having to raise the wages for the new hiree you'll bring in.

And I think you should just use interim staff for that entire year, then after hire somebody new.

Thank you kindly.

Thanks, Duane.

Ms.

Flores.

Uh, likewise.

Good evening, council.

I wanted to congratulate City Manager Smith on her new journey as she takes the position as city manager with the city of Sacramento.

That is a huge achievement, and I can't wait to see all that she accomplishes.

So I did bring her some flowers, and I'd like to uh wish her the best of success on that endeavor.

And I also, while I'm here, wanted to address the elephant in the room that I was a bit frustrated about by receiving public records.

It was brought to my attention through a public records request that there was a memorandum which required your city manager and city attorney to basically get approval from HR to take time off.

And my mom was the former finance director for the city of Runner Park, and that is absurd.

I've talked to other counsels who think that's absolutely absurd as well.

And so I know that Mayor Natalie, your former mayor Natalie Rogers was mayor at that time.

I don't believe in any way that that decision was hers alone or at all.

If I were to put money on it, I'd probably say councilwoman Victoria Fleming.

So it just showed me that you don't respect your staff, and I found that highly highly inappropriate.

Aside from that, I had a great time getting to see Santa Rosa police out in the community over the weekends.

I got to see Chief Cragen and many of your officers as they went around to different faith-based communities for the Faith in Blue event.

And that's really impactful for me.

I do follow Christ.

And so being involved with the churches, I think is a great way to build bridges in the community, especially since many people who have formerly had substance issues or been incarcerated, end up finding themselves in the church, and their relationships with officers may have not been the best.

And I think it's a good avenue for them to establish uh better connections.

So I thank you guys for your time.

God bless you.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Adina.

Janice, are you looking to speak?

Yes.

All right, you're up.

Okay, thank you.

Janice Carmen.

Um I spoke earlier and uh the other meeting, and I just want to uh bring it back full circle about the boards and the commissions, and that who on your board chooses whoever it is for whichever commission or board it is.

It's somebody from your district.

And you say you can't find anybody.

I've heard this before.

This is ridiculous.

The public doesn't even know the commissions or the boards are open, as a matter of fact, most of it.

And when we do find out, we end up with what I got yesterday, which was a half-filled-out application, and uh I I actually wanted to apply.

They didn't know if I could apply yesterday, and whatever.

It's it's all right, but also the person that you chose, I believe that she didn't fully uh fill out uh how long she'd been here, and that's another comment I want to make that uh f following uh Dwayne DeWitt.

Uh we want people who are uh from here as much as we can get them from here, and people who understand what we do here and how we think here, and we want to bring people in, we want to bring business in, but we don't want people to just come for a brief time and then move on up the cycle and go somewhere else and get another job.

And this was brought home to me by an ambassador whom I met in my wanderings, and he said, you know what, it kind of bothers me.

Some of these people look like they come in, they show up for two years and they're gone.

And we don't want that.

We want people who are in it for the long haul, and it's going to be the people that have the children, the people who have uh further educational uh needs and stewards of the environment, uh, people who understand building and uh can understand that it's not just uh tree cutting, it's tree cutting and marrying that with the thoughts of what kind of environment are we gonna have when we get finished.

There are all kinds of cities all over the entire country that have been ruined by just building on every parcel, and we don't need to do that.

We can be very selective about what we do.

We have people that are very interested here, and now we even have Korea.

Now Korea is very interesting, especially since pensions was mentioned in the same sentence with that, and on that I'll leave that.

But uh anyway, we we need to be careful, and we need to be stewards of the environment as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Janice.

Are there any other any other members of the public who'd like to speak?

Seeing none, we will close public comment on.

Ms.

Rogers.

Um, I just had a comment.

So I also wanted to point out um since Adina brought that up, that the city manager Smith was also sworn as sworn in as vice president of the Cal City uh managers Group, and we'll be representing all city managers throughout the state.

So that's another accomplishment that she made.

So that's a good addenda.

Congratulations.

Thank you for mentioning that.

Thank you for that work.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Rogers.

Alright, so we we have closed public comment on non-agenda matters, and we will go to our main show for the evening, our public hearing related to fee adjustments for recreation and parks related programs and services.

Jeff and Jackie, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Stepp.

Council members, good evening.

So yes, I'm Jeff Tibbetts, Deputy Director of the Recreation Division, and with me Jackie Hammond, our ASO, and we are here this evening to present to you recommendation of amending the recreation fee schedule.

With that, Jackie will get us started.

Hi, good evening.

So City Code established in 1995 that City Council set park user fees by resolution.

Periodically over the last 30 years, City Council has made both comprehensive and minor adjustments to this schedule.

To clarify, the fees that are in front of you are our park user fees, which include entry fees, administrative fees, and facility rental fees.

The authority to set our other fees, such as program fees and activity fees, special event fees, are actually have historically been granted to the director of recreation and parks.

As you know, we have restructured our department and we are asking that authority be granted now to the director of housing and community services.

The reason that we delegate that authority to the director is to allow us to align our program fees on a seasonal basis based on the actual cost of supplies, staffing, and contract instructors and such.

A little bit of history about our revenue.

On this slide, you'll see a graph of our budgeted and actual revenues for the last 15 years.

As you can see from 2010 to 2017, we averaged about 3.5 million annually, closely matching our predictions.

In 2017, you'll see a pretty significant decline in our revenue.

This is the effect on our community from the Tubbs fire, and that included using one of our recreation centers as an emergency shelter.

We started to recover from the Tubbs fire when unfortunately we were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2021, when the COVID pandemic restrictions were lifted, we have seen a strong rebound with our revenue, and we are now nearing our pre-pandemic revenue levels.

Just a note our current cost recovery rates are about 48% of our direct program costs and 40% of the total division costs.

To put this in context, the national average for cost recovery in parks and recreation, according to the National Recreation and Parks Association, is approximately 24 to 34%.

I'm going to turn it back over to Jeff to talk to you about the changes that we are proposing.

Thank you.

So here we've kind of broken down the fees that are part of the fee schedule by each program area.

The first area being our community center rentals.

And so when we're talking about that area, this is everything from just a small business meeting at the Finley Community Center to private events like weddings or even large community events that take place in our community center.

So to give this area some context, staff are issuing approximately 450 contracts each year.

These contracts cover over 1,200 separate uses of the facility because a lot of contracts have multiple dates to them.

And it represents over 5,000 hours of use in our community centers.

And again, that's just for outside rentals.

That does not include any of the programming that we're putting on in our community centers as well.

In addition to our community centers, we have a clubhouse in Doyle Park and Franklin Park.

That's an additional approximately 65 contracts per year, covering over 1,800 sessions and over 3,700 hours of use.

So with that said, between the two you're talking about around 9,000 hours of rental use.

When we're looking at increasing revenue, it stands that our hourly rate for rentals is obviously an important area for us to focus on.

So what we did, you'll see the proposal, we're projecting that it's about a 14% revenue growth in this area.

And really what we did in this area is some more cleanup.

So we had, believe it or not, I should have counted and given you the number, but we had rates for every single room.

And within every single room, we then had six rates for each room.

And this was because of resident non-resident status, and then whether it was a nonprofit, a private, or a commercial rental.

So in kind of consolidating all this to one fee, and then also consolidating all those rooms.

So instead of listing every room we have in our facilities, categorizing those as our small rooms, medium rooms, large rooms, and then our premier room, which is essentially the large auditorium that we have at the Finley Community Center.

Three things that we're gonna get out of this, I think all three equally important.

Number one is it's gonna be more transparent for our customers.

Looking at a list of, again, it's probably well over 100 fees in the existing one and breaking that down to four fees is much more understandable.

And then if you're a nonprofit and you get a discount or you're not a resident and there's an added fee, it's it's much easier and much more transparent to the customer.

The second thing is it's gonna be much more efficient for our staff.

And as we look at raising revenue, cutting costs, those things, we know efficiencies for staff is gonna be incredibly important.

Um, you know, as a manager, you make these things and you think you're doing something that's gonna help your team, but when you hear it from your team, we have a staff member who's now in a different role but has worked in our facility rentals for over a decade, literally issued thousands of permits.

She saw the fee schedule, and her immediate reaction was, oh my gosh, why didn't we do this before?

It would have been so much easier when I was doing all those permits.

So we feel really good that we're on the right track there.

And then the last thing I think is gonna be really important as we continue to look for financial sustainability within the recreation division is this is really gonna clean up our registration software and the data that we're inputting.

Having all these rooms with all these different fees makes it incredibly challenging.

Uh, Jackie did a tremendous job pulling all this information for me to have this data for to share with you, but it's very difficult and time consuming to do so.

As we make this shift, it's gonna make the data much more accessible to us, which means as we continue down this process, we're gonna be able to spend more time analyzing that data and proposing strategic ways to make uh recreation more cost recovery instead of spending so much time just trying to figure out what the data is.

Uh with that said, so then moving on to our park permit area, very similar to our community center permitting, but it's out in our parks.

And as our community centers range, so do park permits from very simple picnic reservations that's just a family or a small gathering at a picnic site.

They come, they use it, they leave to very large community events, and using our special use permits for the parks, such as the Father's Day Car Show, where we're bringing several cars into a park, thousands of participants, vendors, trash plans, all those different things.

So some are very simple, some are very complex.

Um again, giving some context to that area.

Picnic reservations, we issue about a thousand contracts a year for picnic reservations, and then for park special use permits, approximately 500 contracts a year.

Uh that again covers 1,500 separate events and over 10,000 hours of use in our parks, just through that one program area.

Uh, similar to what we did with the community centers, just kind of consolidating how we're doing those fees and simplifying some things, and uh was really some slight increases in those areas, but because it's so many hours and so many permits, we're anticipating a 20% revenue growth in that area as well.

Moving on to our sports fees and field rentals.

Uh, in this area, we're projecting around a 10% revenue growth.

Um, the number of contracts in this area doesn't sound like much because it's about 77 contracts, but that's because of the their a contract covers a lot with these youth organizations and and sports organizations that use the field.

So of those 77 contracts, uh it's over 5,500 separate uses of our fields, and it's over 25,000 hours on our fields.

Um again, this is another one of those areas that is a very big aspect of the programming that we do.

Again, all that data is just what we're permitting out.

That's none of the programming that we're doing out in the parks as well as the recreation division.

And so uh one of the fees that we wanted to call out here because I wanted to kind of clarify what that fee is and exactly what we're raising for you is our increase to youth league per player fee.

Um, that's increasing it from $7 to $10.

As you can see up there, the last increase we had in this area was 2015.

And again, what I want to really specify here is this is a per player per season fee.

Um, so yes, there are some large organizations out there that are going to say, oh my gosh, if they have a thousand participants, they're gonna say my permit went up three thousand dollars, and that's true, but again, it's for the whole season.

If they were to pass a hundred percent of that fee on to their participants, that means their registration for the whole season would only have to go up three dollars for the participant.

So a league of very reasonable soccer league might be charging two hundred dollars for the season.

If they charge two hundred and three dollars, they would cover that full cost by just passing three dollars on to the participant.

So I just wanted to kind of give that some context of this is not an hourly fee or a daily fee, it's it's the fee for the whole season.

And last on this slide, um, I wanted to call out because we had non-resident and resident as kind of a status that was throughout our our current fee schedule, but not on our proposed, is I wanted to make sure it was seen that we still have a non-resident fee structure there.

Uh it's just instead of identifying it to every room or every permit or all those uses, we've simplified it.

That is a $10 uh if it's an hourly rate, it's a $10 add-on.

So any permit, $10 an hour added for a non-resident.

And then if it's a daily permit, it's a $10% with a minimum fee of $25.

So that means for some of our uh picnic reservations that might be $60, 10% would only be $6.

It's again that's a permit that's for the whole day.

So they would be charged the $25, so a non-resident would pay $85 for the picnic instead of $60.

But then our larger events where the permit fee might be $2,000 because it's for an event with $1,500 people, in that case they would be charged the 10% for the day.

So the $2,000 permit for the day would become a $2,200 permit for the day.

Next slide, please.

All right, moving on to Howarth Park.

Uh we have proposed to increase fees there on K-Land in our boat rentals.

Uh the our projection is that that'll raise revenue growth for Howarth Park operations by 19%.

Uh, this is increasing our K-LAN ticket by one dollar.

Uh we sell approximately $75,000 K-LAN tickets per year.

Uh, this number fluctuates a lot based off of weather.

You may recall this last spring, we had a very bad uh breakdown of the train.

Uh thank you to our our maintenance team for doing a great job getting it back on the tracks, but it was down for a very extended period of time.

Um so those things will fluctuate it, but uh generally around 75,000 tickets.

Uh, you may recall that we did come last year with an increase uh to that fee, and um at that time kind of pointed out the fact that prior to 2005 we had not raised that fee since 2008 and increase of staffing, those staffing alone uh Howarth Park operations were in that time were costing us a hundred thousand dollars more a year.

So when we brought that fee last year, we brought it as this is a step that we're taking.

So it's not um you know too much of a surprise that we're coming two years in a row with that increase.

What we found raising from three dollars to four dollars or two dollars to three dollars this last year, is we had a very good year at Howarth Park, it did not, we did not price out.

Um, and so we feel confident in our ability to raise that fee again back to back years, and again, it doesn't look great when it's back to back, but in the context of we're now raising it twice since 2008 gives it a little more context.

As well as in the boat rentals, uh raising of fees there range from $3 to $8 depending on the boat.

It makes boats either $15 for the hour or $20 for the hour.

And the main uh evaluation we did of this is looking at Spring Lake, which is obviously a walk away from Lake Ralphine and Howarth Park, and making our fees comparable to what is being charged at Spring Lake.

For the aquatics section, we're proposing uh revenue growth of 21% in that area, and giving some context to what is taking place at our pools.

Uh our public swim was over 21,000 drop-in public swims.

For lap swim, it's a little more complicated to pull that data.

We have about 8,000 drop-ins, but we also have monthly memberships, and we have over, we uh sold 600 about 625 of those monthly passes.

Um, so obviously a monthly pass could translate to as much as 30 drop-ins per month.

Um so it's hard to give that same figure, but uh just between those two about 30,000 drop-ins, um, and then memberships, which you can see there, where we're um proposing to increase that fee from $20 for an individual to $50 for an individual.

Uh we sold just under a thousand memberships this year.

Um so you do the the quick math there.

If we increase that by $30, that is quickly a $30,000 increase in revenue for aquatics.

What I want to point out is part of the reason we were more aggressive there is a membership is not required to attend the pool.

Our membership program there offers benefits with reduced cost, and so it's really intended for our regular users.

When we evaluate it, it's a dollar decrease on a swim.

So for the vast majority of those thousand, we don't think we're gonna sell too many less memberships because of this raise.

Because for the majority of regular users, it's still gonna be well worth it for them to purchase the membership and get those discounts on a yearly basis.

Uh, there may be some members that do the math for them and determine uh it doesn't work out for me.

That's fine.

They don't buy the membership, but they still come to the pool and participate as a drop-in participant.

Uh and again to point out there, uh, with that dollar increase on lapswim and public swim.

Again, this is our first increase in that area since 2017.

And then for our senior center, a similar approach uh in terms of the membership.

So again, membership at the senior center.

Also, you do not have to be a member to participate, it just provides some benefits with discounts.

So individuals will be able to choose whether or not it's still worth it for them with the increase of the individual membership going up from $24 to $50 and the couple membership going up from $40 to $80.

If they do not participate enough that that discount isn't worth it, they can choose not to purchase the membership and still participate in everything they part participated in prior, or if they do the math and it's worth it, then they can continue to receive the benefits of of purchasing the membership.

We sold about 400 individual memberships for the senior center and 75 couple.

So again, when you see the the increases times the number of people, uh this is a way that we can not raise fees on everything and not limit access because again, membership isn't required for access.

Um, so a way for us to increase revenue in an area without pricing out of a street strategic way to not price out our our members or our participants.

That I'll pass back to Jackie for an overview of the impact.

So uh we are proposing the new fee schedule take effect January 1st, 2026.

Um this will allow us to know you notify our user groups, permit holders, and to publish the new fees in our spring summer activity guide.

We project this fee schedule combined with our activity fees and program fees will increase revenue about 4% in this fiscal year and then 14% in our next fiscal year.

Um this will improve our cost recovery to 54% of direct program costs and 45% of total division costs.

Um finally, um, one of our values and priorities as a department uh is it ensuring accessibility to our programs?

Um we have a well-funded need-based subsidy program, and it will be available to ensure access.

Additionally, um, we as we implement these fees, or if we move forward with implementing these fees, we'll be monitoring our participation and accessibility and come back with adjustments if necessary.

So finally, um it is recommended by the housing and community services department that the council by resolution approve fees for various facilities and delegate authority to the Director of Housing and Community Services to set the necessary fees for seasonal programs, activities, excursions, special events, and athletic league based on the city's actual cost for those activities.

And if you guys have any questions or comments, we're happy to take those.

Thank you both for a very clear presentation.

Let's bring it back to council for questions.

Ms.

McDonald.

Thank you for the presentation and thank you, Mayor.

I have a quick question on the program costs where you're talking about 54 54% of it would cover program cost and 45% of total division costs.

Does that mean that we only recover from our fees 54% of what the city pays out to run the programs?

And when you say direct or division costs, is that we cover about 45% of staffing.

Can you explain that?

Yeah, so I'll I'll I'll explain how I calculated that.

So 54% cost, I included like the recreation supervisor, you know, cell phone costs, all of those costs that are attributed to that specific uh program area.

When I'm talking about the division costs in the greater, I'm talking about, you know, IT costs, you know, water costs, some of those things are incorporated.

So we we almost always when you take out um, you know, the deputy director and the supervisor and all that, we try to cover 100% of our direct direct costs, but there is more costs associated with that.

So that's kind of how I delineated those.

Um, and I can come back with more specifics if you're interested, but that is generally what I mean by that.

That's really helpful.

And I think what I'm trying to see is um giving direction that you can re increase fees as needed based on the program costs or direct costs is where are we at when we're budgeting to see are we actually flat on offering these programs to the community?

Are we taking a loss so that we know how to budget or you know where we're at?

And I think it just when we're in budget crunches, we always want to know how the budgeting works on this.

So I appreciate those statistics, and you can get back to me, but um, but that that's really helpful to know.

And then I just had one more question about how people actually go about renting spaces to us.

If you could give us some context of where do they go to get these, is it parks and recs?

Is there a um specific like QR code that we have that's posted at all of our sites that people can scan to rent things, or what do we do so that if they wanted to rent those?

Yeah, so that team is all housed out of the Finley Community Center.

Um for any recreation programming, people could go to Santa Rosa Rec dot com to get more information.

Uh but if they wanted to reach out directly to staff that would be at the Finley Community Center, uh business hours are eight to six Monday through Friday.

I think that's helpful, and maybe what I really want to say is do you think we could do some more marketing around having QR codes or something posted at some of our like biggest sites that we have?

If Howarth Park or you probably have the statistics on what's the most rented, so that people could scan that and say, oh, this is how I rent a picnic area, or this is how I do it just for the ease of the user.

Is there a way for us to promote that or have that in place might be helpful to the community?

Because I don't know necessarily that I would know to go back and actually go online if that's a way to actually promote what you're what you're doing.

Yeah, we could definitely look into those.

We work closely with the CERO team and production of activity guide, social media, all the different things.

So that's definitely an avenue that we could continue to explore.

And I believe we do have a few A-frame signs at some of our locations that do have a QR code that brings you to the rental information.

So I think we have begun that process, but we can be a little more aggressive with it for sure.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms.

Ben Willows.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, see, I just wanted to say, first, thank you for the presentation.

Um I really appreciate the simplifying of fees and all of that organization.

I think that's great.

And the rental fees and all of those things I think are very reasonable.

Um the only thing I was a little bit concerned about, and I understand it's voluntary, is the um membership fee for seniors.

That seemed like um it had gone up quite a bit.

And even for couples, I was just like, whoa, um uh just thinking about the seniors that I know, and and I'm just wondering, um, do you think that by raising it this much, and it's put to me as a just a everyday consumer, this is a lot of money.

Um, uh whether you are uh doing single or as a couple, and just to say generally, when I see couple fees, usually there's some kind of a break there because there's two of them, and I don't see that, I just see it doubled.

So I'm just wondering, I guess in the long run, number one, if it's voluntary, do you think you're going to get as many memberships, you know, based on on because most seniors are especially the seniors that I'm thinking of the ones that go to Finley Center specifically, um are on fixed income.

So I'm just so I'm just kind of concerned about that, whether or not we're gonna end up losing money rather than making money.

So anyway just to get just to um if you maybe talk a little bit about your um thinking process on on that fee.

Yeah.

So first just to clarify we did there is a break um for a senior center membership it's fifty dollars for a couple it's eighty dollars yeah um so and thank you for uh council member Benuelos for bringing that up because there is a point that I wanted to mention in in the senior uh section that I skipped past and it's not just with seniors it was with all this programming I know Jackie mentioned um you know a needs based subsidy program we have our scholarship program we've as we've been going through this process we've been discussing that a lot as well uh we have had some generous donations come through the senior center and so we are working on a proposal that'll allow us to um build out kind of a a different way to approach some of the scholarship programming with the senior centers.

One of those things that we're looking at doing is possibly making that membership available scholarship assistance for the membership as well as well as other programming so it's an area where we really feel because of some of the the donations we've received that we have uh and that are some ongoing um that we have some sustainability in developing that scholarship program further and then using that as a pilot to hopefully expand across the entire division so we know we're gonna have to make tough decisions that raise prices and obviously when you raise prices the concern is equity and accessibility and um so we're kind of on two paths at the same time hoping that we meet the middle where we can be more fiscally responsible for the city but also continue our mission of making sure that we're serving people who do not have access to programs.

That sounds good.

Thank you.

Thank you any other questions from council let's open it up to public comment would any members of the public like to uh comment on this item I see that DeWayne submitted his name is Mr.

DeWitt still in council chambers he is not and seeing no no other members of the public wishing to speak we'll close public comment and bring it back for uh a motion any final comments from excuse me mr mayor this is a public hearing so we actually need to open up public hearing and then thank you thank you for that clarification yes so we first of all we we need to open the public hearing um would any members of the public wish to uh wish to participate in this public hearing seeing none we will then close the public hearing thank you uh and we'll bring it back to council for um any final comments or a motion uh actually one just one comment from me before we uh go into the motion uh miss Benuelos I just wanted to say thank you again for this presentation um and to put it in context which both of you nicely laid out um and which has been um discussed both here in in in other meetings and at long term finance the alternative to raising these rates to doing what we're doing right now is to potentially cut some of these programs so it is important for the for the public to keep that in mind that not only are are many of these these fees overdue to be raised simply because we haven't we haven't done it for so many years in the face of increasing prices but given the city's current budget context as we were doing last spring we were having the conversation about which of these programs we could keep by raising the fees like we're doing here in this responsible way which we should have been doing probably a little bit earlier we uh that's gonna protect these programs for all the people who like to use them including me I have to say the aquatics fee fee raises hit very close to home Jeff as you as you know nevertheless I will be I will be supportive uh but I do want the I do want the community to be to be um clear that the reason we're doing this is to protect these programs because they are so important for our community uh and we will hopefully be doing this more regularly in the future so again we can protect the viability of these programs going forward.

Um, and again you you uh you highlighted the needs based uh assistance that is gonna be there.

I'm glad to hear it's expanding uh because we obviously have people who need need access to these services, and the city is doing a nice job in making sure that that's available.

So I just wanted to to highlight that.

And uh with that, I'll turn it over to Miss Ben Wellows for a motion.

Thank you.

All right um resolution of the council of the city of Santa Rosa establishing new and revised fees within the city's fee schedule for recreation and parks related programs and services, and wave for the reading of the text.

All right, we have a motion and a second by Miss Fleming.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Aye.

Councilmember O'Kropkey.

Councilmember McDonald.

Aye.

Council Member Fleming?

Yes.

Council Member Ben Willows?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Alvarez is absent.

Mayor Stapp.

Yes.

The motion passes with six affirmative votes with Mayor Alvarez absent.

Thank you.

We will move on to item nineteen, which is our last public comment on non-agenda matters.

Are there any members of the public here who wish to comment?

Seeing none, we are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.