And this would require selling the current city hall and library. Are there restrictions? Is there a market? What is the value of those properties? Timing of such a sale, viz. O'Reilly. Advice: keep the cart behind the horse.
There might be a better solution, which is that the Senior Center moves to the O'Reilly and becomes the master tenant and organizes a capital campaign with the County. The Senior Center is its own nonprofit and can fund raise. It serves the majority of West County as their maps show. There is no reason why the City would become the administrative of such a massive complex which would involve a lot of accounting and due diligence. The City simply does not have the administrative resources and has not proven itself to be a great manager of physical assets. The Senior Center, on the other hand, is doing great economically, can fund raise and can partner with the County. I believe the Sebastopol Senior Center is the only facility of its kind in District 5. Maybe Supervisor Hopkins could direct funds toward it since the Senior Center's Data shows it is heavily used by West County residents. If the Senior Center moved, the library could move its administrative offices into the current Senior Center, freeing up floor space for more patron use. I'm not sure if it would be economically viable for the City to sell the library parking lot to a developer. I'm also not sure that developers are wanting to build right now. The City just had to give back 50% of TOT to get The Barlow Hotel off the ground because of financing.
I'm just wanting to add one observation - if the City commits to the Commons here, then this whole complex will in effect by "anchored" by these uses. I can see a great range of tenants that might want to locate in this Commons complex that will be anchored by the library, City Hall, and the Senior Center. This is a very different scenario than trying to lease an entirely vacant O'Reilly office complex. Given also the proximity to the West County trail, as well as the new Canopy development, I think a Commons project here will hit the ground running.
This is spot on. Thank you. It will be a draw for all kinds of local and regional entities. We already have interest from pre-school, co-working space, and independent professionals. However, most prospective tenants need details such as specific available spaces, lease rates, CAM fees, etc. With a 9/15 Council vote to authorize further exploration, we can then provide that kind of information with sufficient detail to get preliminary commitments from prospective tenants. And, part of the plan is an extended escrow period to gather committed interest. If the world changes dramatically during that period (as we know it can happen), then the City can release itself of an obligation to move forward.
Thanks for publishing this letter. All good considerations and a thoughtful way to move forward. One additional question: can the city afford this in light of the fact that it diverted $5.5 million from the water and sewer accounts? As someone who has been paying more than one water and sewer bill in Sebastopol for more than a decade, I look forward to receiving back those funds that were illegally spent on items other than water and sewer. Not against "the Commons", just calling for common sense, just as was reported here. Lastly, I recommend the city hire a forensic accountant or use some serious AI tools to see if there has been any embezzlement, beyond the improper charging for water and sewer. Unfortunately, my faith in the above board operation of our city is not growing!
Absolutely the right question. Can the City afford it? But also, can the City afford not to? Come hear the presentation. Spoiler: one of the takeaways is that, over ten years, it is actually more expensive to do nothing with our existing aging properties than it would be to purchase and operate a Commons at the Gravenstein Hwy N campus. Only through the Commons creation do we open new streams of income and tax revenue for the City from outside sources.
Excellent question! I suggest you propose this to the Council at their meeting. It seems that if this is viable, the other stakeholders should be able to do it without the City taking on more physical assets to manage and maintain. There is a huge backlog of infrastructure that is under the City's purview that needs to be addressed. Like the $20 million needed for roads. The City should complete necessary infrastructure work and repaying the Enterprise Funds before embarking on a massive capital project that will likely require intensive management and oversight. We need to get the Pleasant Hill Loop fixed so that we have water for 50% of the city if there is a breach in the line.
My suggestion is that the Senior Center move to the O'Reilly and see if the County will help get them started. The Senior Center has heavy usage by residents throughout West County. The Senior Center is a nonprofit that has its own fund raising capabilities. In fact, I think they are having a cool fund raiser coming up. The Senior Center can do a capital campaign and also partner with the County. Currently, the Senior Center rents from the City for $1 per year. I fully support the development of the O'Reilly. Maybe the Senior Center can spearhead the move and organize new tenants. It seems that the City cannot take on more administrative overhead at this point until it fulfills its Grand Jury obligations and fixes the roads. I would love it if the Senior Center got things going at the O'Reilly. Maybe they can be the master tenant on the lease and then manage all the other nonprofits and for-profits that sign on? I'm not sure about the library. Maybe they could move their administrative offices into the current Senior Center location and free up some of the floor space in the current library. That might add an additional 800 square feet at no cost.
Great letter! I wonder if the city council will take it to heart. Are they willing to listen to a CPA? Have they gotten a CPA to review and work with them regarding the water and sewer money, like the Grand Jury said they should do? We shall see.............
I also support the City getting a forensic accountant to review the past Water and Sewer budgets to make sure the Enterprise Funds were refunded when the City transferred the amounts identified in the "Adopted Budgets" out of the Enterprise Funds to the General Funds versus the "Actual Budgets". I personally have never seen a rebate to the Enterprise Funds. Last year Ratepayers were charged for a City Manager even though the position was vacant for a year. I still don't see that money being returned to the Enterprise Funds.
Yes, it's time to get some professional (CPA and otherwise) review of the Committee's research and recommendation. Encourage the City Council to authorize further investigation at the 9/15 meeting.
Also, I recall the director of Sonoma County Library saying that she did not consider O'Reilly a suitable location for the library, at a recent meeting in Sebastopol I listened in on via Zoom.
Because not enough space and multi-storied, that's what the library director said at the meeting. She asked Sebastopol folks not to make plans for a new library, to let library administration do that. Just saying cuz I think the library would be an anchor tenant in the City's view, but maybe not in the library's view.
It might be good for City of Sebastopol to check in with the Sonoma County Library director again before the meeting? Things might have changed in the last few months. But it seems important to understand the library's position clearly.
Thank you for letting readers know about the next Open House. It's a big project, and it is in no way a done deal. The Committee has done extensive behind-the-scenes research and planning. We are now in a public outreach and consultation phase...something that will only intensify IF the Council green lights further investigation at their 9/15 meeting.
Appointed by the City for this very purpose, the Commons Committee has taken project definition and development work as far as nine 9 volunteer professionals can go in a year. We all believe in the community benefit of a multi-functional, multi-generational civic campus. With that assumption, then it's entirely appropriate to focus on the various options' financial viability, as Glenn has done for the O'Reilly option in his letter. We have thoughts about some of his points, and need a show of good faith City commitment to answer some of his questions. All of his letter's points do need to be addressed prior to the City's final go ahead on either a new construction or a building acquisition option to create a Commons.
To that end: At the 9/15 City Council meeting, we are asking the City to take the next steps to validate our preliminary work, and to direct development of an actionable implementation plan. Once those steps have been taken, the project would then come back before the Council for an authorization to proceed.
At the Open House we will again review various costs and benefits for leaving things the way they are vs. creating a Commons somewhere in Sebastopol. Come if you can!
And this would require selling the current city hall and library. Are there restrictions? Is there a market? What is the value of those properties? Timing of such a sale, viz. O'Reilly. Advice: keep the cart behind the horse.
There might be a better solution, which is that the Senior Center moves to the O'Reilly and becomes the master tenant and organizes a capital campaign with the County. The Senior Center is its own nonprofit and can fund raise. It serves the majority of West County as their maps show. There is no reason why the City would become the administrative of such a massive complex which would involve a lot of accounting and due diligence. The City simply does not have the administrative resources and has not proven itself to be a great manager of physical assets. The Senior Center, on the other hand, is doing great economically, can fund raise and can partner with the County. I believe the Sebastopol Senior Center is the only facility of its kind in District 5. Maybe Supervisor Hopkins could direct funds toward it since the Senior Center's Data shows it is heavily used by West County residents. If the Senior Center moved, the library could move its administrative offices into the current Senior Center, freeing up floor space for more patron use. I'm not sure if it would be economically viable for the City to sell the library parking lot to a developer. I'm also not sure that developers are wanting to build right now. The City just had to give back 50% of TOT to get The Barlow Hotel off the ground because of financing.
Thanks Glenn for your valuable suggestions.
I'm just wanting to add one observation - if the City commits to the Commons here, then this whole complex will in effect by "anchored" by these uses. I can see a great range of tenants that might want to locate in this Commons complex that will be anchored by the library, City Hall, and the Senior Center. This is a very different scenario than trying to lease an entirely vacant O'Reilly office complex. Given also the proximity to the West County trail, as well as the new Canopy development, I think a Commons project here will hit the ground running.
This is spot on. Thank you. It will be a draw for all kinds of local and regional entities. We already have interest from pre-school, co-working space, and independent professionals. However, most prospective tenants need details such as specific available spaces, lease rates, CAM fees, etc. With a 9/15 Council vote to authorize further exploration, we can then provide that kind of information with sufficient detail to get preliminary commitments from prospective tenants. And, part of the plan is an extended escrow period to gather committed interest. If the world changes dramatically during that period (as we know it can happen), then the City can release itself of an obligation to move forward.
Thanks for publishing this letter. All good considerations and a thoughtful way to move forward. One additional question: can the city afford this in light of the fact that it diverted $5.5 million from the water and sewer accounts? As someone who has been paying more than one water and sewer bill in Sebastopol for more than a decade, I look forward to receiving back those funds that were illegally spent on items other than water and sewer. Not against "the Commons", just calling for common sense, just as was reported here. Lastly, I recommend the city hire a forensic accountant or use some serious AI tools to see if there has been any embezzlement, beyond the improper charging for water and sewer. Unfortunately, my faith in the above board operation of our city is not growing!
Absolutely the right question. Can the City afford it? But also, can the City afford not to? Come hear the presentation. Spoiler: one of the takeaways is that, over ten years, it is actually more expensive to do nothing with our existing aging properties than it would be to purchase and operate a Commons at the Gravenstein Hwy N campus. Only through the Commons creation do we open new streams of income and tax revenue for the City from outside sources.
Excellent question! I suggest you propose this to the Council at their meeting. It seems that if this is viable, the other stakeholders should be able to do it without the City taking on more physical assets to manage and maintain. There is a huge backlog of infrastructure that is under the City's purview that needs to be addressed. Like the $20 million needed for roads. The City should complete necessary infrastructure work and repaying the Enterprise Funds before embarking on a massive capital project that will likely require intensive management and oversight. We need to get the Pleasant Hill Loop fixed so that we have water for 50% of the city if there is a breach in the line.
My suggestion is that the Senior Center move to the O'Reilly and see if the County will help get them started. The Senior Center has heavy usage by residents throughout West County. The Senior Center is a nonprofit that has its own fund raising capabilities. In fact, I think they are having a cool fund raiser coming up. The Senior Center can do a capital campaign and also partner with the County. Currently, the Senior Center rents from the City for $1 per year. I fully support the development of the O'Reilly. Maybe the Senior Center can spearhead the move and organize new tenants. It seems that the City cannot take on more administrative overhead at this point until it fulfills its Grand Jury obligations and fixes the roads. I would love it if the Senior Center got things going at the O'Reilly. Maybe they can be the master tenant on the lease and then manage all the other nonprofits and for-profits that sign on? I'm not sure about the library. Maybe they could move their administrative offices into the current Senior Center location and free up some of the floor space in the current library. That might add an additional 800 square feet at no cost.
Great letter! I wonder if the city council will take it to heart. Are they willing to listen to a CPA? Have they gotten a CPA to review and work with them regarding the water and sewer money, like the Grand Jury said they should do? We shall see.............
I also support the City getting a forensic accountant to review the past Water and Sewer budgets to make sure the Enterprise Funds were refunded when the City transferred the amounts identified in the "Adopted Budgets" out of the Enterprise Funds to the General Funds versus the "Actual Budgets". I personally have never seen a rebate to the Enterprise Funds. Last year Ratepayers were charged for a City Manager even though the position was vacant for a year. I still don't see that money being returned to the Enterprise Funds.
Yes, it's time to get some professional (CPA and otherwise) review of the Committee's research and recommendation. Encourage the City Council to authorize further investigation at the 9/15 meeting.
Also, I recall the director of Sonoma County Library saying that she did not consider O'Reilly a suitable location for the library, at a recent meeting in Sebastopol I listened in on via Zoom.
Because not enough space and multi-storied, that's what the library director said at the meeting. She asked Sebastopol folks not to make plans for a new library, to let library administration do that. Just saying cuz I think the library would be an anchor tenant in the City's view, but maybe not in the library's view.
It might be good for City of Sebastopol to check in with the Sonoma County Library director again before the meeting? Things might have changed in the last few months. But it seems important to understand the library's position clearly.
There are 5 people on the Committee representing various Library interests
Thank you for letting readers know about the next Open House. It's a big project, and it is in no way a done deal. The Committee has done extensive behind-the-scenes research and planning. We are now in a public outreach and consultation phase...something that will only intensify IF the Council green lights further investigation at their 9/15 meeting.
Appointed by the City for this very purpose, the Commons Committee has taken project definition and development work as far as nine 9 volunteer professionals can go in a year. We all believe in the community benefit of a multi-functional, multi-generational civic campus. With that assumption, then it's entirely appropriate to focus on the various options' financial viability, as Glenn has done for the O'Reilly option in his letter. We have thoughts about some of his points, and need a show of good faith City commitment to answer some of his questions. All of his letter's points do need to be addressed prior to the City's final go ahead on either a new construction or a building acquisition option to create a Commons.
To that end: At the 9/15 City Council meeting, we are asking the City to take the next steps to validate our preliminary work, and to direct development of an actionable implementation plan. Once those steps have been taken, the project would then come back before the Council for an authorization to proceed.
At the Open House we will again review various costs and benefits for leaving things the way they are vs. creating a Commons somewhere in Sebastopol. Come if you can!