Recap of the May 20 Sebastopol City Council Meeting
Projected budget briefly in the black—then the council started adding up the cost of goals and other upcoming projects
Much of the May 20 Sebastopol City Council meeting (2 hours’ worth) was spent discussing the long list of goals and priorities the council developed in April and whether they should be sent to the budget committee who will decide whether those items should be added to next year’s budget. Besides this, the council waived fees for several local events and made some financial decisions based on the ongoing fire consolidation.
Mayor Stephen Zollman, Vice Mayor Jill McLewis, Councilmember Phill Carter, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, and Councilmember Sandra Maurer were present for the May 20 Sebastopol City Council meeting.
Proclamations
The council made a proclamation recognizing the 100-year anniversary of the Sebastopol Rotary Club.
Public Comment
For perhaps the first time in all my years of covering this council, there was no public comment for items not on the agenda.
Consent Calendar
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.
The council unanimously passed these two items:
Mandating short-term rental reporting. Councilmember Jill McLewis, who is on Cal Cities’ Legislative Committee, requested the approval of a letter of support for SB 346, which would require owners of short-term rentals to file reports listing the parcel number of each short-term rental and to include in the listing of their short-term rental any local license number or transient occupancy tax certification. Penalty for failure to report.
Weed abatement. Every year the city council approves a resolution declaring weeds (namely, high weeds) on private properties within the city a fire hazard and a public nuisance. The city publishes a list of properties it considers hazardous due to weeds. Property owners can appear at public hearing on June 17 to object to the proposed removal of weeds from their lots. If the weeds on these parcels are not removed by July 30, the city will remove them itself and bill the property owners for the cost.
Regular Agenda
Some goals to be referred to the Budget Committee
At their Goals and Priorities meeting on April 1 of this year, the city council developed a list several dozen goals for the coming year. These goals, which the council approved on April 15, are intended to guide the City’s priorities and funding choices through June 30, 2026.
City staff put together a spreadsheet of proposed action plans and associated budget estimates for the goals. Some of these could not be accounted for in the existing budget. The point of this item was for the council to decide which goals that were not yet budgeted should be referred to the budget committee so it could decide whether to incorporate them into next year’s budget.
Interim City Manager Mary Gourley said that the 2025-26 budget was projected to be $190,000 in the black. Councilmember Maurer confirmed that this was before any of the items below were incorporated into the budget.
Here were the votes (with thanks to Sandra Maurer’s council recap):
Restore Teen Memorial Labyrinth $3,000-$6,000: 3 Yes (Carter Hinton, Maurer), 2 No (Zollman, McLewis). McLewis characterized this as a pet project (of Councilmember Maurer’s) and said she had supported it in the past because it was supposed to be completely paid for by donations, so she was surprised to see it on the city budget. Maurer replied, “This is not simply a pet project. This is a Teen Memorial. It’s been there for probably 20 years. It was built to memorialize teens who have committed suicide. There are benches with their names out there. It was created as a public good, and at this time it has been taken apart and it’s no longer there…This is an attempt to fix this, restore the labyrinth and restore this public good.” She also said later that she intended to fundraise for this project, but was waiting for the council to signal their commitment to doing it before fundraising began.
Public art, updating city web site and land acknowledgements in honor of the Pomo: $3,000: 3 Yes (Carter, Zollman, Maurer), 2 No (Hinton, McLewis).
Holiday decorations and events (no dollar amount suggested): Yes 5-0.
Emergency antennas $2,700: Yes 5-0.
Reassess impact fees $50,000-$70,000: Yes 5-0.
Growing businesses together $3,000: Yes 5-0. This items refers to economic development.
The council decided to bring several other items on the spreadsheet back at mid-year or do them in-house by staff. A storm drain assessment costing $200,000 was one of the items moved to the midyear budget review. Some of the city’s storm drains are silted in, which is one of the reasons the post office annex near the Joe Rodota Trail floods in heavy rains. McLewis and Zollman voted to add this now, but the rest of the council voted to revisit it at midyear. The cost to actually fix the storm draining silting and root intrusion is $2 million.
Fire consolidation-related items
Budget amendment to pay off a Fire Truck $231K using Measure H Funds. Last year, the city financed the purchase of a fire engine and agreed to pay it off in three payments of $238,050.49. It has already made one payment. As a part of the consolidation with Gold Ridge, the city and Gold Ridge agreed to split the final two payments. The city’s portion will be covered by Measure H fire funds. This required a budget amendment. The city council approved this budget amendment 5-0.
Budget adjustment of $210K. The City used the fire station building as collateral for a loan for certain public improvement projects. Because ownership of the fire station will be transferred to the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District as part of the fire reorganization, that debt must be paid off early. The total pay-off amount is $315,493.63, of which $210,000 is an early pay-off amount. A budget amendment is necessary to cover the early pay-off. Approved 5-0.
Keeping her eye on the general fund, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, who is on the council’s budget committee, asked what the General Fund was looking like with these changes. Administrative Services Director Ana Kwong said it was looking like the city would end the year $350,000 in deficit.
Fee waivers for upcoming events
Three organizations asked for waivers for upcoming events, and the council approved these unanimously.
Request for waiver of fees for Kiwanis’ July 3rd Fireworks and Music Festival ($6,930): Approved 5-0.
Request for partial waiver of fees for Peacetown summer concert series in Ives Park ($1,550): Approved 5-0.
Request for reduction of fees for a new event called the Many Moons Festival in Ives Park: Approved 5-0 to reduce fees by $1,200.
2025-2026 Street Lighting Assessment Approved 5-0
In his report, the city engineer suggested that the Street Lighting Assessment for next year should be $35, a $3 increase from last year. The council unanimously approved a resolution of intention to levy this fee. There will be a public hearing on this assessment at the June 3 city council meeting.
You can watch a video of the May 20 Sebastopol City Council meeting here. The next Sebastopol City Council meeting is June 3, 6 pm, at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol, and on Zoom.