Recap of Dec. 19 Sebastopol City Council Meeting, Part 1
A short budget presentation and news about the EIFD
All councilmembers were present for the Dec. 19 council meeting, including Mayor Diana Rich, Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, and Councilmember Jill McLewis.
Proclamations
Mayor Diana Rich read a proclamation honoring Larry McLaughlin, who will be retiring as city manager after the end of the year. (He will continue as city attorney.)
Consent Calendar
(Note: The consent calendar consists of items that are routine in nature or don’t require additional discussion, often because they’ve been discussed extensively at a previous council meeting.)
In addition to approving the minutes from previous meetings, the city council unanimously approved the following items:
Receipt of local appointment list for city commissions, boards, and committees;
Receipt of code of conduct policy;
Approval of calendar year 2024 city council meeting dates;
Extension of proclamation proclaiming the existence of a local homeless emergency.
Presentations
Administrative Services Director Ana Kwong gave an update on the budget. Expenditures were lower than expected, which led Kwong to use the fateful words “trending favorably,” which is a strange thing to say about a budget this far in the red. This led Councilmember Sandra Maurer to suggest that perhaps things aren’t as dire as the council has been led to believe. Mayor Diana Rich pointed out that non-monthly expenses coming due in the future could easily turn this budget picture on its head.
The Budget Committee will be meeting every first Wednesday of each month, and the public is invited to attend to see their work in action.
Regular Agenda
Police Audit Update
At a special council meeting on June 17, 2021, the city’s consultant, attorney Jerry Threet, presented his report, Public Report on Independent Civilian Review of the Sebastopol Police Department. The report, ordered in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, offered 140 recommendations to improve the Sebastopol Police Department. At the council meeting this week, Chief Ron Nelson gave an update on his department’s progress in instituting those recommendations. He said 120 of the recommendations have already been fully incorporated, and 12 were still in the works. He then explained why he had decided not to follow the remaining eight recommendations. See our full story on his presentation here.
What the heck is an EIFD and why would we want one?
Diana Rich and Stephen Zollman gave the first report out on their work with the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) committee. Diana Rich reported that the committee had met several times with Supervisor Lynda Hopkins to explore the formation of such a district.
A West County EIFD could recapture some portion of the property taxes paid to the county for use within Sebastopol and West County.
Some members of the city council see this as a way of addressing Sebastopol’s financial plight as a very small city (approx. 7,500 people) that serves a surrounding rural area of some 50,000 people. The idea is to recapture some of the taxes paid by those 50,000 people (as well as property owners in Sebastopol) to help support the services and infrastructure that serve them.
Rich said the initial cost of creating an EIFD is $50,000—for administrative costs involved in determining the boundaries of the district. Hopkins offered county money to cover this initial cost. (Rich noted that Santa Rosa, which is creating its own EIFD, also paid out another $102,000 for the next step in the EIFD process. There was no discussion of where that money might come from for a west county EIFD.)
Rich also noted that, judging from Santa Rosa’s experience, setting up an EIFD is a multi-year process.
EIFDs recapture a percentage of future property tax increases; those increases are based, not on a rising tax rate, but on the increasing value of properties.
The EIFD committee report also looked at how much money such a district might bring in.
“Facilitated by Supervisor Hopkins, the County has provided initial projections for potential revenue from an EIFD. Two scenarios were considered: an EIFD for the City of Sebastopol only and an EIFD including all properties in West Sonoma County. Using a 30-year projection, assuming the County would commit 25% of its tax increments, the potential contribution from the County alone would be $82.7M. By contrast the potential contribution from the County if limited only to properties within the City limits would be $9.9M. These projections are based on a 2% annual increase in property value.”
The report goes on to talk about what kind of infrastructure such a district might support:
“Examples include roads, highways, streets/streetscapes, parking facilities, transit facilities, affordable housing, internet access services, childcare facilities, libraries, parks, open space, recreational facilities, improvements related to fighting climate change, “brownfield” restoration and other environmental mitigation, transit priority facilities, sewer, reclamation, and water facilities, solid waste facilities, flood control facilities, retention bases, and drainage channels.”
Hopkins said an EIFD might be a way for Sebastopol to meet its rather daunting list of infrastructure needs. “It feels like there's always such a long wish list,” she said, “and unless we come up with some kind of creative funding mechanism, it's pretty much impossible for any of us to budget this in.”
She also mentioned, holding out that $50,000, that she wanted to hear from the council that evening if they were interested in moving forward with an EIFD.
In the end, after much discussion, the council voted 4 to 1 to give the thumbs up. Councilmember McLewis was the sole dissenter. She said there too many unknowns for her to feel comfortable supporting an EIFD at this time.
See Part 2 of this City Council Recap here.
Thanks for this report. I’ve lived just west of Sebastopol for over 15 years in retirement.
The suggested weirdness of west county seems in part based upon the lowest common denominator of maintenance and civic pride. We’re just returning from 6 weeks in New Zealand and wonder how villages there can be so clean and neat compared to west county; houses in good repair, pruned village trees and admirable public toilets, for example. Attitudes seem less miserly with long term, unified values.
West county leadership needs funding but could use inspiration by contemplating why people would like to visit TWICE.