The Santa Rosa City Council convened on May 12, 2026, at 3:01 PM for a regular meeting that included closed session, multiple proclamations, public hearings, and action on key items including wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire map updates, a senior housing expansion, and compliance with new Brown Act amendments (SB 707). The meeting lasted until approximately 7:35 PM with a brief recess.
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. 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. Francisco, will you please restate this in Spanish? See, bienvenidos a todos para quienes deseen escuchar esta reunion in Espanyol através de Zoom. See you still in the telephone or tabletops puntos que dice more or mass you luego selection language interpretation. Thank you. The time is 3 01 and we'll call this meeting to order. Madam City Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Rogers. Councilmember McDonald. Here. Council Member Fleming. Councilmember Ben Wellos. Here. Councilmember Alvarez. Vice Mayor Krepki? Here. Mayor Stapp. Here. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Councilmembers Alvarez and Fleming. Thank you very much. We'll move on to our closed session items. We have two this evening. Item 3.1, our conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation, and item 3.2, our conference with a labor negotiator. We'll open it up to public comment. Duane, did you wish to comment on any of our closed session items tonight? Yes, sir. My name is Duane DeWitt. I'm from Roseland. I'd like to comment on item number two, 3.2. Thank you. I'll wait till the clock begins so we do everything official. All right. With that in mind, I'd like to stress that I'm supportive of the current city manager being here. And if she stays, that's a good thing. I know you won't base it upon my opinion, but I will talk about wages today. We are in a wartime period that probably is going to worsen for our nation. We're having economic difficulties that are increasing. Latest reports show that inflation in our area is up 3.8% at a minimum. This will continue to occur. I'm going to ask that you folks ask for a freeze on wages. That you basically also in the negotiations for the city manager state that you're going to keep one wage for at least two years. The main thing on all this is economic uncertainty faces us. So please don't base your decisions on what other cities are doing and this comparative wage race that goes on and creates millionaires out of bureaucrats within a few short years. This is not what the taxpayers need to be happening.