Recap of the Sebastopol City Council meeting for Oct. 4

In which the council hears about Climate Action Committee priorities, has several discussions regarding HorizonShine - the homeless RV village - and gets an update on all city services

Note of Conflict of Interest: The author of this piece is the Relaunch Sebastopol contractor for the city of Sebastopol, which includes a mandate to increase tourism, support local business and increase civic engagement.

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All council members were present at the October 4 Sebastopol City Council meeting, including Mayor Patrick Slayter, Vice Mayor Neysa Hinton, Councilmember Una Glass, Councilmember Sarah Gurney and Councilmember Diana Rich.

A discussion of the SAVs RV village took center stage at the October 4 council meeting, but there were the usual preliminaries.  

Proclamations 

• October 9-15 was deemed Fire Prevention Week.

• October 16-22 was proclaimed “Freedom from Workplace Bullies” week.

• The month of October was named Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Public comment: Royelynn Wootten asked when Smart water meters would be installed. (Answer: no sooner than January.) Flynn Street resident Erica Piorkowski said the parking on her street is frequently taken up by Barlow visitors, skate park users and, for the last several weeks, homeless campers. She asked that the parking ordinance forbidding on-street parking of RVs be enforced on her street and inquired how to make her street a “resident only” parking area. (Answers: The police chief said he’d look into the homeless parking on Flynn Street, and City Manager Larry McLaughlin said she could ask the city council to take up the question of resident-only parking.) Joan Churchill, the new Sebastopol Area Senior Center director, introduced herself to the council, as did Niki Hoffman, the secretary of the Sebastopol Little League.

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.)

After approving the minutes of the last meeting, the council also approved the following:

• Approval of the extension of Ad Hoc Committee for Fire Department Funding & Staffing until Dec. 31, 2022.

• Receipt of notice of multiple vacancies upcoming on the Design Review Board, the Planning Commission and the Climate Action Committee, with current terms ending at the end of this year.

Regular Agenda

Presentation on Climate Action Committee priorities

Kenna Lee gave a presentation on the Climate Action Committees newest priorities. These include doing a survey on barriers to electrification, creating a green building tour (including buildings that were designed that way and others that were retrofitted), and focusing on “community energy,” which is the local production, storage, control and distribution of energy. She said they are currently working on a 12-month work plan for the committee.

SAVs (HorizonShine) Quarterly Report

This portion of the evening began with a quarterly report from SAVs director Adrienne Lauby about HorizonShine, the homeless RV village across from the Lucky’s shopping center.

She began her report by noting that the lawsuit against the City of Sebastopol by a group of neighbors who wanted to shut down HorizonShine was heard by the California Court of Appeals on August 18, 2022. The court upheld the decision of the Sonoma County Superior Court which ruled in favor of the City of Sebastopol. There has been no follow-up appeal by the neighbor group.  

Highlights of this report included the news that HorizonShine had lost its village manager and that a board member, Cynthia Poten, had temporarily stepped up to take her place. That, plus medical problems on the staff and among the residents, have made for a rocky few months.

According to the report, Horizon Shine Village currently holds 19 RVs and 25 villagers who formerly lived on Morris Street in Sebastopol.

According to the report, “The villagers range in age from 30 to the mid-60s with the majority in their 50s. Sixteen are men; ten are women. Three are black, indigenous and people of color; the rest are white. The majority of our residents became homeless 2-3 years ago; of the rest, six have been homeless for 3-5 years; five for 5-8 years; one became homeless less than a year ago. The majority have been in and out of homelessness four or more times. Sixty-one percent have no source of income, and another 19% have incomes below $500 a month.”

Of the 25 residents, seven are employed – three are employed by HorizonShine, while four are employed elsewhere.

One resident has been ejected after writing threatening emails to the staff.

A survey of the residents found most were satisfied with conditions there.

Council supports St. Vincent de Paul’s efforts to turn HorizonShine property into a fully built-out affordable housing complex

The council voted unanimously for a resolution of support for St. Vincent de Paul’s application for an $850,000 loan at 2.3% to the Sonoma County Community Development Commission to begin the process of turning what is currently HorizonShine into a brick-and-mortar affordable housing complex for very low-income residents. The proposal envisions 16-30 units of affordable housing on the site.  The council amended the resolution of support so that it could be used for future grant proposals as well.

Council supports West County Community Services’ plan to replace dilapidated trailers with tiny homes

The council voted unanimously for a resolution of support for West County Community Services’ application for $160,000 to the Sonoma County Community Development Commission for a grant to replace two dilapidated trailers at Park Village with tiny homes.

The city council renews its commitment to homeless housing in its receipt of the final report and recommended actions from the former Ad Hoc Committee for the Unhoused

The council voted unanimously to approve the following: “That the City Council is directing the city manager to identify a staff lead to oversee the issues related to the unhoused and to interface with the service providers and others as needed; that the city council appointed as council liaison Councilmember Rich to service providers for the unhoused, including but not limited to SAVS, HorizonShine, West County Community Services, and that the liaison report to the city council quarterly and work with the staff lead to place items on the city council agenda as needed. There is no creation of an ad hoc RV village property search committee and we are continuing support of HorizonShine.”

Annual Service Report looking good

Want to really understand what’s going on in Sebastopol at an operational level? Then take a look at the Annual Service Report, a report on all city services, including fire, police, water, sewer, etc.

Read the full report here.

The high points are these:

• The fire department fielded 1,269 calls for service, and over 60% of those calls continue to be medical. In an attempt to find more volunteers, they have dropped the age of admission from 21 to 18 and widened the area from which they can draw volunteers.

• The police department handled 11,137 incidents in 2021, which averages about 30 per day; 666 were categorized as emergency calls. Officers made 65 felony arrests (16 were property crimes, 10 were crimes against persons; 24 were drug crimes, 15 were warrant/probation violation/parole  violation/felony evading), 244 misdemeanor arrests, and 31 arrests for people driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs in 2021.

• The city's water and sewer capacity is continually monitored and has enough capacity to provide for current development projects and proposed projects. Overall, there was a small decrease in the overall water production from 2020, but Jay said that is to be expected with current drought conditions.

• Engineering Dept: The city was awarded a federal aid grant from the Quick Strike program to install new ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps along Hwy. 116 in the spring of 2023.

In parklet news, the plan to acquire a section of Depot Street moves forward

In the final few minutes of the meeting, City Manager Larry McLaughlin announced that the city had made contact with Caltrans and introduced the idea of the city acquiring the section of Depot Street that is located in front of Screaming Mimi’s Ice Cream and Create It!. He said Caltrans seemed amenable to this idea so the plan is moving forward, though the parameters of the deal still need to be fleshed out.

In other parklet news, McLaughlin said that the city has moved forward with its application to Caltrans to secure the area where the South Main parklet is located (in front of Sunshine Café and Retrograde). This entails “renting” that space from Caltrans for roughly $6,000 a year.  

You can watch the whole meeting here.