Recap of the Sebastopol City Council meeting of March 4
Council scraps press protocols and revises press policy, changes how some items are added to the agenda, considers the creation of public oversight committees, and more
At the March 4 Sebastopol City Council meeting, the council hired a new police chief and voted down a proposed set of press protocols, but they also heard quarterly reports on the city’s General and Enterprise Funds, created a new way for council members to add items to the agenda, and directed staff to investigate the process of setting up oversight committees for Measure U and the city’s water and sewer system. Here’s the recap.
Mayor Stephen Zollman, Councilmember Phill Carter, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, and Councilmember Sandra Maurer were present for the March 4 Sebastopol City Council meeting. Vice Mayor Jill McLewis was absent.
Proclamations
The evening began with four proclamations.
The city presented former Sebastopol Library Branch Manager Mathew Rose with a proclamation in recognition of his 12 years of exemplary service at the library. Rose, who was fired in a controversial move by the Sonoma County Library administration in 2024, was honored by the city with a long list of whereas-es, beginning with:
Whereas, Mathew Rose’s professional yet friendly demeanor fostered trust and confidence in library patrons, volunteers and staff, and
Whereas, through his dedication and expertise, Mathew Rose developed the Sebastopol library into a thriving community hub in challenging times.
Rose was on hand to receive the proclamation in person and received a standing ovation from the 70 or so people in attendance that evening. See the full proclamation here.
In addition, March 2025 was proclaimed as Women’s History Month and American Red Cross Month. There was also a proclamation in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the relationship between Sebastopol World Friends and Sebastopol’s Sister City Takeo City, Japan.
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.
On the Consent Calendar, the council unanimously approved the following:
An amendment to the master agreement with engineering consultant firm GHD for the preparation of the City’s Water Master Plan Update for an amount not-to-exceed $97,358. The project is within the approved budget of $120,000 from Water Capital Fund. In public comment, Kyle Falbo asked why we were still using GHD when the city now had its own engineering manager. Engineering Manager Mark Rincon-Ibarra said he was overseeing the project, but the task of actually creating the Water Master Plan was a 1,000-hour project.
A change of the title of Public Works Superintendent to Public Works Director.
An amendment to the 4Leaf contract for planning services to expedite the Barlow Hotel Development Agreement process. The original agreement was not to exceed $20,520. This amendment bumps that up to $41,688. All funding will be provided by the developer so there is no cost to the City.
Approval of a bid for Well 7 filter media replacement and CO2 skid retrofit. The total cost for this is $102,198, which exceeds the planned and budgeted amount of $94,250 in the 2024/25 Water Enterprise Fund. However, according to the staff report, the overage can be absorbed within the current approved budget.
Regular Agenda
Council votes down proposed press practices
More than 70 people showed up for the Sebastopol City Council meeting on Tuesday night, many in response to our article on the city’s proposed press protocols, which sought to limit who reporters could talk to, how they should reach out, and which sorts of questions would (and would not) get a quick response.
The council received over 80 emails opposing the press protocols.
Because of the large number of people interested in this item, Mayor Zollman moved it to the front of the regular agenda.
Twenty people spoke during public comment, including yours truly; as well as Chris Fusco, the executive editor of the Press Democrat; Thomas Peele, a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter from the Association of Professional Journalists; and many, many Sebastopol citizens who value transparent government and a free press. Of the 20 public comments that night, 19 opposed the proposed press protocols, and one supported them, arguing that “Media policies are common sense and standard practice.”
In response to public comment, the avalanche of letters, and a full house at the council meeting, all four councilmembers present, including Mayor Zollman, voted to scrap the proposed press protocols and edit the original press policy. Councilmember Maurer introduced the motion, arguing “I think the city should, at all times, strive to be transparent and accessible. We should not attempt to control or limit the press in any way. We’re lucky to have the hyper-local reporting of the Sebastopol Times and the Press Democrat.”
According to Assistant City Manager Mary Gourley, the only remaining mention of the press in the city council protocols is, “Nothing under the Mayor’s duties shall limit any individual Council Member’s ability to interact with members of the public or media.”
Again, thanks to the many Sebastopol Times readers who wrote to the council or came to speak in defense of a free press.
Second quarter financial update for Enterprise Funds: Water and Sewer
Administrative Services director Ana Kwong gave a brief update on the enterprise funds. According to the staff report:
“Based on the best available information as of December 31, 2024, the city's water fund has billed 49% of budgeted revenue for the full fiscal year. Expenses are at 49% of full fiscal year. Wastewater has billed 43% of budgeted revenue of full year. Expenses are 44% of full year. These results are in line with what we would expect.”
As a part of a three-year schedule of rate increases, there will be another water and sewer rate increase in July. Water will increase by 4% and sewer by 11%. According to Kwong, accounting for this increase will involve a change in July of how people are billed. Normally, water and sewer bills cover two months. In July, those bills will only cover the month of July.
In public comment, questioners were scathing.
Kyle Falbo reminded everyone that 2,042 rate payers had been overcharged during the first billing increase and wondered if this was going to happen again. (Editors note: The city apologized for the initial error and adjusted those ratepayers’ next bills to make up for the overcharge.) Falbo said, “We should be able to bill accurately.” He suggested that if it was a technological problem, “there are 13 Sonoma State IT employees that have all just received layoff notices…and if you can connect with them, I'm sure they would be happy to provide quality services to you if they have an opportunity.”
Oliver Dick also wondered if the single month charge in July was due to a technology problem within the city. Kate Haug had a long list of interesting questions for the council regarding the water system, and Robert gave a great summation of how we got to where we are today with the water and sewer system. You can listen to these remarks at the 2-hour mark on the video.
Second quarter financial update for the General Fund
Kwong then introduced the second quarter financial update for the General Fund. According to the staff report, “The Adopted FY24-25 budget initially included a deficit of $698,000. Based on results available through December 31, 2024, we project a year-end deficit of $575,000, which is $149,000 less than the adopted budget.”
According to the staff report:
The primary reasons for these changes include a $149,000 decrease in revenue from:
Adding $375,000 in estimated revenue from Measure U for April-June collections.
A reduction of $524,000 in revenue, including $260,000 in licenses and permit revenue, reallocating a planned $238,000 transfer of funds from Measure H for a payment on a fire engine (that payment will occur from the Measure H account, pending Council approval); and other changes in revenue netting a decrease of $26,000.
Changes in expenses totaling $271,000 which include:
We have salary savings of $350,000 from vacant positions. However, there has been an increase of $261,000 in contracts to cover for these vacancies and other needs. Other changes increased expenditures by $56,000.
Shifting the cost for the $238,000 lease payment for the fire engine to Measure H.
Council approves contracts for the new police chief and a new auditor
The confirmation of Sebastopol’s new police chief was covered in our article on Wednesday.
The council also approved a three-year contract with Chavan & Associates, LLP, for auditing services. This required a budget adjustment of $4,000. The city’s previous auditor, Badawi and Associates, had informed the city that they were basically doubling their fees. Councilmember Sandra Maurer gave a shout out to Kwong for finding a new, more affordable alternative.
RFP for new IT services
The council voted 3 to 1 to put out an RFP for new IT services for the city. Marin IT has been serving as the City's IT consultant since 2017. Their contract is up at the end of June. Councilmember Neysa Hinton said she had been requesting that this item be added to the agenda for more than a year.
Noting that the contract with Marin IT had been renewed yearly, without going out for an RFP as required by city policy, Hinton said, “This is just a request to follow our own policy, to go out for competitive bid process for our IT services.”
When the council learned that Ana Kwong, who has limited IT experience, would be writing the RFP, they quickly decided it would be wise to call in a IT consultant to assess the city’s IT needs and write the RFP. And in this case, the city’s generally consultant-phobic commenters all agreed. Councilmember Mauer was the only dissenting voice, noting that city staff had expressed great satisfaction with the work of Marin IT.
The city will investigate setting up public oversight committees for Measure U and Utility Rates
This proposal, which had been suggested by numerous public commenters in the past, was brought forward by Councilmember Phil Carter.
“I brought this up because it’s common throughout the state to have an oversight committee,” he said, noting that San Mateo and Sonoma, as well as the County of Sonoma, have oversight committees for various things. “In an effort to provide more transparency, particularly for our Measure U which was just passed, and for our enterprise funds, so that we can manage the improvements to our water [and sewer] services.”
Hinton initially objected, noting that for Measure U, the council had, at Councilmember McLewis’s insistence, already set up priorities around how to spend the money.
“Are you aware of those?” she asked Councilmember Carter. “And because I feel like we do have some checks and balances in place.”
Carter replied, “What I’m contending is that those aren’t checks and balances. Those are guidelines about which buckets we should put things into. But do they make it into those buckets and can just general citizens take part in observing these to make sure that they are going into those buckets or where they’re going?”
“This is really a quite common practice,” he continued, noting that, “Usually these groups are observers. They make a report, and they can also make recommendations, but not really much beyond that.”
Mayor Zollman confirmed that this proposal wasn’t to immediately set up these committees but just to direct staff to investigate the options, which will be brought back to the council at a later date.
The idea of oversight committees was universally popular among those in public comment.
During council comment, Councilmember Maurer said, “So for me, one of my goals is to improve public trust in the government, and that’s really important to me. I think, in terms of the budget, in terms of Measure U, in terms of the enterprise funds, I always think the oversight committee is a really good idea.”
Councilmember Hinton suggested that staff prepare something that the council could examine and discuss at their Goals and Priorities Meeting on April 1, and the council gave four thumbs up to that.
Council approves a new way for councilmembers to get items on the agenda
Both Councilmembers Hinton and Maurer have been outspoken in recent months about the trouble they’ve had getting some of their items through the Agenda Review Committee and onto the agenda.
The Agenda Review committee consists of Mayor Zollman, Vice Mayor Jill McLewis, and the City Manager, City Attorney, and Assistant City Manager/City Clerk. Traditionally councilmembers submit their requests to the Agenda Review Committee, and the committee tries to fit them into the agendas for upcoming council meetings.
On Tuesday night, Councilmember Hinton proposed a workaround to this system that would allow councilmembers to place an agenda item on a regularly scheduled council meeting with an affirmative vote of two councilmembers. This change would be an amendment to the city council protocols.
Hinton said, “I talked to the city attorney and he said that many councils have a spot on their agendas on a regular basis where any council member can bring up something that they’d like to get on agenda, and with the addition of one additional council member [vote], it will be placed on either the next agenda or as soon as possible.”
As someone who sits on the Agenda Review Committee, Mayor Zollman said that, “We definitely try our best to just push forward everything that we get.” He noted that they work with city staff to make sure that time-sensitive items get priority and fit other requests around that.
Councilmember Maurer noted that her request for $5,000 to restore the city labyrinth has been languishing for more than a year.
On the other hand, Maurer also had questions about how the staff report on these items would be prepared, and Assistant City Manager Mary Gourley echoed these concerns.
Hinton replied, “Mary and I discussed this, and that would be—it would refer the proposal to the city manager for a brief evaluation of the resources required to prepare an agenda item—so it would be brought at the first opportunity, instead of languishing a year.”
After further discussion, Councilmember Carter made the first motion to approve the following, which was stated by Mary Gourley:
“The motion would be to approve the amendment to Council Protocols to include in a regular scheduled city council meeting’s agenda an item to allow council members to place an agenda item at the next regular scheduled council meeting or as soon thereafter with an affirmative vote of two council members, based upon input from the city manager on time needed, or something like that.”
Hinton seconded that and the council voted 4 to 1 (the one being McLewis’s absence, not a “no” vote) to approve this amendment to the council protocols.
The council asks staff to create a flag policy
Every June, the city of Sebastopol flies the LGBTQ+ Pride flag during the month of June. Mayor Zollman proposed that the staff prepare a flag policy.
According to the staff report, “City flag policies dictate which flags are flown on city property, and how they are displayed. Historically, the City displays the United States Flag, the State of California Flag, and the City of Sebastopol Flag at City Hall and other City facilities in accordance with Federal and State law. Cities have discretion to decide whether to fly non-governmental flags, and if so, which one(s). However, the City of Sebastopol does not have a formal policy regarding the display of such flags or the display of commemorative flags.”
During discussion, Councilmember Maurer asked why there was a need for a flag policy, when there hadn’t been one before. “Is there a problem keeping the flag policy informal, like it is? What’s the problem that we’re trying to fix?”
City Attorney Alex Mog replied, “So the problem is we need to make sure that the council is authorizing each flag to be flown, and that the flags are there as a representation of the council’s political speech. Otherwise we run the risk of someone claiming that it’s a public forum that anyone has the right to fly the flag at. So we could do that on an ad hoc basis every year, for every time we want them to fly a flag, adopting a proclamation. That is an option or the policy sort of does it all at once, and that way each year we don’t have to authorize the flag to be flown for Pride Month or other things like that.”
Councilmember Hinton cautioned that, based on her experience with what’s allowed on downtown banners, the question of what flags should be flown was bound to be controversial and provoke a lot of discussion.
The staff report brought up an interesting issue: “The display of commemorative flags on City-owned facilities can raise First Amendment Free Speech issues, depending on whether the flag is treated as government speech or private speech on public property. If a flagpole was deemed to be a “limited public forum” under the First Amendment, the City could not pick and choose what commemorative flags to fly, except on a content-neutral basis. However, under the government speech doctrine, the City may advance its own speech without requiring viewpoint neutrality when the government itself is the speaker, so long as the City does not show religious preference or encourage a certain vote in an election. A proposed policy would be structured to ensure that any commemorative flags flown at City Facilities would be considered City speech.”
The council gave four thumbs up to let the staff prepare such a policy to be presented to the full council at a later date.
You can watch a video of the March 4 Sebastopol City Council meeting here. The next Sebastopol City Council meeting is March 18 at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol.