Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Public Safety Subcommittee of the Santa Rosa City Council met on October 13, 2026, at 9:01 AM in City Hall Council Chamber. The meeting covered proposed new ordinances and amendments related to recreational vehicles (RVs), panhandling, vehicle sideshows, and open flames in parks, along with departmental updates from police and fire. The subcommittee recommended all four proposals move to the full City Council for adoption. The meeting adjourned at 10:12 AM.
Good morning. 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. Uh yeah, ustedes uh se unan al canal wouldn't silenciar el audio original para escuchar la muchas gracias. Estamos asusar. Thank you very much. Back to you. All right, thank you very much. Let's go ahead and call this meeting to order at nine. Sorry about that. All good. Let's call this meeting to order at 901 a.m. Uh, Madam Recording Secretary, can you take the role, please? Thank you, Councilmember McDonald. Here, Councilmember Fleming. Vice Mayor Krepki. Let the record reflect all subcommittee members are present. Thank you very much. Uh, we have no remote participation today. Um, no announcements, I believe, from staff. Um, so we'll move on to item four, approval of minutes. Do either of my colleagues have any uh edits or additions to the minutes. Seeing none, we will adopt those as submitted, and we'll move on to item five, public comment on non-agenda matters. This is the public's opportunity to take three minutes to speak on anything that is not agendized today. Is there if you would like to speak, please move to one of the podiums and you will have three minutes. I'm a mother of three young children and live in Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood here in Santa Rosa. Over the past couple of years, I've noticed what feels like a significant increase in aggressive, erratic, and threatening behavior in our neighborhood. I'm not talking about people simply experiencing homeless homelessness or panhandle handling. I'm talking about people screaming at strangers, acting aggressively and behaving so unpredictably that residents fear for their safety. I've witnessed enough of these encounters that I had begun to worry it was only a matter of time before my children and I were directly confronted. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. At 7 30 in the morning, I was walking to get coffee with my three-year-old son and my ten month old baby. When a woman came around the corner, approached us and demanded that we turn around. As I backed away, she began screaming at me horrific profanities at my children and I. She reached into my baby's stroller and threatened and attempted to take him. All I could do is scream for help. Thankfully, a man driving it in a truck witnessed the altercation, stopped and scared this woman away. My children's safety depended on a stranger happening to drive by at exactly the right moment. As we walked home, both my three-year-old son and I were crying, and he kept asking me, why wasn't that lady our friend? Why did that lady want to take our baby? Those are questions I should never have to answer to a three-year-old. When a police officer was processing collecting items to process DNA related to this, he told me these problems have become significantly worse in the JC neighborhood, and he recommended that residents carry a taser or pepper spray when walking through the neighborhood. When the police officer recommends a mother to carry a self-defense weapon at 7 30 in the morning to walk through her own neighborhood, something's seriously wrong. After sharing my experience on Facebook and next door, I began hearing from other mothers similar concerns. Mothers afraid to shop at their neighborhood grocery store. Mothers paying extra to have groceries delivered to avoid confrontations, and families avoiding certain streets during daylight hours. Residents are describing aggressive encounters, public drug use, indecent exposure, and unpredictable behavior.