Change was in the air at the Dec. 20 Sebastopol City Council meeting
Change was in the air at the Dec. 20 Sebastopol City Council meeting
Council approves the Climate Action Work Plan and changes how councilmembers are assigned to committees (the latter was actually more interesting than it sounds)
The Sebastopol City Council had a relatively short agenda for its Dec. 20 council meeting, and change was in the air.
The most immediate change was Mayor Neysa Hinton’s decision to move public comment for items not on the agenda to the end of the meeting. We’ll see how this goes—serious issues do sometimes bubble up in public comment, but it’s also the place where those lightly tethered to reality like to make their case for the conspiracy du jour. (It should be noted that frequent commenters objected to this change.)
Note of Conflict of Interest: In addition to being the co-publisher of the Sebastopol Times, the author of this piece is also a part-time, temporary contractor for the city of Sebastopol, working as the coordinator for Relaunch Sebastopol, which is mentioned in this article. The news reported in this article, and any opinions reflected therein, are not dictated by or reflective of the opinions of the city council or staff of the city of Sebastopol.
Proclamation: Farewell, Bill Braga
Hinton read a proclamation and certificate of appreciation for retiring Fire Chief Bill Braga, thanking him for his almost 40 years with the city. Paeans rolled in from all corners, mentioning his steady and calm presence through fire, flood and mass evacuations.
“You’ve been a warm-hearted, constant, reassuring presence for all of us here in Sebastopol,” Councilmember Diana Rich said. “That guy that everyone felt they could just walk up to and share with whatever their issue or concern might be. And I appreciate – from all of us and from a leadership perspective – all of the heart and soul that you’ve put into it.”
Consent Calendar
The evening began with a unanimous approval of the consent calendar, which included approval of appointments to city commissions, boards and committees; the award of a grant-writing contract; a report on the use of developer fees; a process for utility billings; and a notice of completion for the First Street Water Main Replacement Project.
Council watcher Kyle Falbo warned new council members to beware of rubber-stamping things on the consent calendar that deserve more public discussion.
Regular Agenda
Report from the Climate Action Committee
After some mild agenda shuffling, the juicy part of the meeting started with a report from the city’s Climate Action Committee by committee leads Kenna Lee and Josho Somine.
The theme of the presentation was “Joy,” not something usually associated with climate discussions, but as Lee said, "We are not here to preach doom and gloom; we are here to preach possibility."
Lee introduced the committee’s draft work plan, following up on the Climate Action Framework that was adopted in July. The work plan seeks to turn the framework’s policy suggestions into actions. The group had winnowed and condensed the initial 150 actions suggested in the framework’s appendix down to 10:
Residential electrification and energy efficiency programs: The committee is developing a community electrification survey and a Green Buildings Tour, so people can see firsthand how their neighbors are greening their homes. The committee would also like to see more information about the importance and the how-to’s of electrification on the city’s website.
Climate engagement series: The committee is planning a series of monthly gatherings on various climate action topics as a way to engage the larger community. The first of these is scheduled for Jan. 26, 6-7:30 pm, at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center. (There will be a raffle and free pizza.)
Active transportation (i.e., biking and walking): The committee wants to encourage the creation of protected bike lanes and shared use paths, as a part of the Sebastopol Bike & Pedestrian Master Plan update. They also hope to improve bike parking around town and mentioned creating a community survey on active transportation.
Daytime EV Charging: The committee is urging people to charge their electric vehicles during the day, when solar energy is plentiful. (Traditionally, people charge their vehicles at night.) Daytime charging could be accomplished by increasing the number of workplace charging stations, among other solutions.
Revitalize the Community Garden: the committee would like to restore the community garden behind the skate park, using regenerative farming methods, to help sequester carbon and increase food resilience.
Zero Waste Strategy: Increase public education regarding what items go in what bin and encourage composting through programs like compost giveaways.
Electric Appliances and Fixtures: Lee mentioned the need for workforce development programs so that more contractors understand how to install and service these appliances. She also suggested dropping permitting fees for installing electric appliances.
The need to increase the committee’s social media presence: The committee needs a social media person to get the word out about the work of the committee and what people can do to help fight climate change.
Stormwater Runoff: Somine introduced the idea of doing a green audit and plan of the city stormwater system, noting this would be a multi-agency, multi-year effort.
Metrics. The committee would like to make the city’s greenhouse gas inventory records more public so that people can see at a glance how Sebastopol is doing in terms of fighting climate change.
Lee also had two overarching comments, including the committee’s commitment to equity-based solutions and the need for a paid climate action coordinator to help channel and leverage the efforts of the committee’s hardworking volunteers.
Both Hinton and Councilmember Jill McLewis expressed some reservations about approving such a list with no price tags attached.
“For me, it's really hard to approve a priority listing when I can't see costs attached,” Hinton said, “because the priorities for me can really change if it’s something we can do with our existing staff or we got a grant for it or we're working with another agency … versus something that is going to hit our budget and I have no idea how it’s going to hit our budget. I'd like to see costs presented so we can prioritize based on both things: both the item and the cost.”
In the end though, the council voted unanimously to endorse the work plan’s ten-points, with the proviso that these were simply items for further study with no prioritization and no guaranteed funding.
Understanding committees
City council members sit on a bewildering number of boards and committees. There was an informational presentation on these committees by City Clerk Mary Gourley, accompanied by a 36-page staff report.
Some of the committees are standing city committees, like the Budget Committee or the Climate Action Committee. Others are temporary ad hoc city committees like Relaunch Sebastopol and the Fire Department Funding and Staffing committees. Other committee positions involve being the Sebastopol representative to regional organizations or agencies like Sonoma Clean Power or Sonoma County Transportation Authority. Still others involve being the liaison to local nonprofits, such as the Senior Center or the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center.
New members had plenty of questions, like how could they tell which committees were the most important or the most time-consuming and did they actually have to attend every meeting. (In answer to the last question, Councilmember Rich explained that if you were a representative to a regional board – yes, you had to attend every one of their board meetings – but that liaisons to non-profit boards had more leeway with regard to their level of involvement.)
There are more than 30 such committee positions to be divided among the five city council members.
Revamping the system of assigning committees
This presentation was followed by a proposal by Mayor Hinton to change the way council members are assigned to committees.
In the past, choosing committee positions happened at a single council meeting in December or January and, by tradition, long-serving members often held onto their committees/board assignments, sometimes for a decade or more. New councilmembers got the leftovers. The council as a whole then voted to approve each committee position.
Instead of this process, Hinton suggested that council members submit their list of prioritized committee requests to the mayor—and this year, that’s Hinton— listing their interests and qualifications for each committee. The mayor would then tentatively assign them to committees. At the next council meeting there would be a public discussion (and possibly some horse-trading) of the committee assignments. Then, as is currently done, council as a whole would vote to approve each committee position.
“Most of the other cities in the county do it this way so there’s a precedent,” Hinton said of the plan.
Both Hinton and Rich, the veterans on the council, offered to put their committee positions up for grabs.
“Everybody brings new ideas,” Hinton said, “and I’d like to place people where they’re interested and excited about and not just attending a meeting where they got what was left.”
“Just trying something fresh,” she added.
Councilmember Sandra Maurer immediately expressed reservations about Hinton’s proposal.
“I'm uncomfortable taking a contrary position on one of our first issues, but my concerns with this proposal are that there's a loss of transparency - a loss of the public, transparent, decision-making process; a loss of the opportunity for new council members to practice the give and the take, to practice sharing; and a loss to the public to witness that one person says one thing and another person says another. It’s a sharing and a learning, and we're learning about each other and the public is getting to know us too.”
Additionally, she said there was no guarantee that Hinton’s plan would streamline the decision-making process. “In 2020 it took a little over two hours to choose the committees, and this new process will likely take a lot longer,” she said.
“To me it seems like the selection of committees—the discussion that happens, the interaction with each other—is somewhat of an initiation for new council members.”
In the ensuing discussion, Rich pointed out that Hinton’s proposal didn’t actually replace the public discussion so much as add another layer to the process. Councilmember Stephen Zollman said he would be comfortable with the change if the council members’ prioritized lists were part of the public record, and Councilmember Jill McLewis said she’d go along as long as councilmembers retained the right to advocate for themselves (and thus possibly change the assignments).
In the end, Maurer agreed (after being assured it was just a one-year experiment), and the council voted unanimously to approve the new process.
In practical terms, because of scheduling and noticing requirements, the earliest that the council could vote on committee assignments would be at the Jan. 17 council meeting.
You can watch the Dec. 20 council meeting in full here.
The next city council meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 6 pm.