Nope, not today.

All right, good morning, everyone.

The time is precisely eight o'clock, and we'll call this special meeting to order.

Madam City Clerk, if you would if you'd please call the roll.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Councilmember McDonald here.

Councilmember Fleming.

Councilmember Ben Wells?

Here.

Councilmember Alvarez.

Vice Mayor Kropke.

Here.

Mayor Stopp.

Here.

Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Councilmembers Alvarez, Fleming, and Rogers.

Thank you very much.

All right.

This brings us to our main show for the uh well, the entire day.

Um, our closed session item, item three point one pertaining to public employment.

Uh in specific are uh city manager interviews.

And I see that we have two members of the public, two uh venerable members of the public here today.

Uh Dwayne, would you like to start?

And then we'll go to Janice.

Yes, thank you.

My name is Dwayne DeWitt, I'm from Roseland.

I wanted to make sure that as you go through your deliberations, you let the interviewees know that one of the most important things here in our town is the open government task force recommendations from over a decade ago.

They should familiarize themselves with all of those recommendations before they are chosen to be an employee of Santa Rosa.

The assistant city attorney, Ashley Crocker there knows what I'm speaking about.

She attended those meetings back in the day, and we know that those recommendations were all meant to be helpful to our city and our taxpayers.

One is you should make some sort of agreements where the length of service that this new employee is going to give to the city is specified before they can get a pension.

One would hope they'd have to be here at least ten years.

Sometimes you guys might make it less, eight, five.

But we need to have some continuity, some employees that stay here with us in this position of leadership for the long haul.

We've already been through too much turmoil.

And they need to know the four extra seasons in California.

Drought, earthquake, fire, flood.

We'll all be dealing with that perhaps in this near future.

Last but not least, as you look at these workers, I would hope that if it's a city employee that's currently here, it's someone who's much younger and is not high up on the pension list already.

Maybe it's time to give them the good golden parachute.

Let them leave with a nice package, and then somebody who's only been here maybe 10, 15 years, can be here for another 10, 15 years to help our city have some balance, stability, and the continuity within the staff.

So I'll leave you with this one last thing.

Please do not give them a fat pay package right at the beginning.

The taxpayers are getting a bit tired of making millionaires out of administrators and bureaucrats who only stick around for a few years.

And having been at the finance meeting uh last night, we are very um pinched for uh future um revenue.

And uh you know, we we need someone who can negotiate uh with you and that the city uh yourselves who represent the people that you uh represent us as getting the best that you can for the money that you have to pay or that we have to pay.

And um I I think that Lori is a tested person.

Uh I think that she has uh real presence and she's up for making the big decisions uh when they come to her.

But I also am hoping that there's a copacetic uh relationship between the people yourselves and uh you being our communicators uh between the people and Lori, that you embrace her and that you support her uh toward the big uh decisions, but also that you cannot just for any moment forget the state of Santa Rosa that we're in right now and the things that are at stake and that we uh need to maintain uh you know the basic services uh as well.

And I'd like to um say that I think she has uh character and I think she's up for the big questions and I I think a lot of Lori, and I'm glad that she found us and we found her.

And I think that uh leadership is something you are called for or called to, and she's been called to our city, and I think we are fortunate.

And I want to leave you with a legal uh descriptive word.

Uh it's called gravitas.

And I learned this word from a New York uh Supreme Court judge.

Siri uh it's gravitas, uh G-R-A-V-I-T-A-S.

And I wanted to look it up just to be sure I don't make any errors.

It's seriousness or solemnity in demeanor or treatment, seriousness in bearing or manner and dignity, substance and weight.

And I think Lori has gravitas.

Thank you.

Thank you, Janice.

Indeed, gravitas should be on the on the sacred seal of Santa Rosa.

I I like that idea.

Uh seeing no other members of the public here, we will close public comment and we will uh uh recess into closed session.

Thank you, everyone.

All right, welcome back, everyone.

The time is four seventeen, and we will reconvene in open session.

Madam City Clerk, could you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Present.

Councilmember McDonald.

Councilmember Fleming.

Councilmember Ben Wellows.

Here.

Councilmember Alvarez.

Councilmember O'Crep or Vice Mayor O'Krupke.

Here.

Let the record show that all council members are present, with the exception of Council Members Alvarez, Fleming, and McDonald.

And with that, we are adjourned.