Reports on Road Repair, the Unhoused and Trash Talk

Recap of the April 18 Sebastopol City Council meeting

All councilmembers were present for the April 18 Sebastopol City Council meeting, including Mayor Neysa Hinton, Vice Mayor Diana Rich, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, Councilmember Jill McLewis and Councilmember Stephen Zollman.

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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 contractor for the city of Sebastopol. 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.

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PROCLAMATIONS: There were proclamations recognizing the week of April 23-29 as National Library Week; April 30 to May 6 as Municipal Clerks Week; and April 26, as Administrative Professionals’ Day. In addition there was a proclamation honoring the Chamber of Commerce and exhorting people to go to the 77th Annual Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival and Parade, which happens on April 29 and 30 this year.

COMMITTEE/TASKFORCE APPOINTMENTS

The council appointed 14-year-old Analy student Ruby Seidner to the long-vacant position of youth representative on the Climate Action Committee.

At the tail end of the evening, the council voted unanimously to direct Councilmember Zollman to work with Sunny Galbraith to provide recommendations for appointments to the Integrated Waste Management Taskforce and to return those to the city council for discussion.

CONSENT CALENDAR

In addition to the approval of meeting minutes, the council unanimously approved the following items:

• extension of the proclamation proclaiming the existence of a Local Homeless Emergency, and

• a bid award for the Parquet Street sewer and water lines replacement project, including a slurry seal. The project was awarded to Piazza Construction, Inc.

Hot topic bounced from consent calendar: Supporting the right to civil disobedience

The next item on the agenda was one that had been pulled from the consent calendar: discussion of a resolution supporting activists facing prosecution for investigating factory farms and rescuing distressed animals therein.

This item was brought forward by councilmember Stephen Zollman.

Normally items that get bounced from the consent calendar are dealt with at the end of the meeting, but because there were several people in attendance who wanted to speak on this issue—including at least one of those facing prosecution—Mayor Hinton moved it to the front of the line.

The case in question involves four animal rights activists who are members of Direct Action Everywhere and who are slated to stand trial in a conspiracy and burglary case related to three protests at Petaluma-area poultry and duck farms in 2018 and 2019. They each face felony or misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and burglary plus misdemeanor counts of trespassing, unlawful assembly and theft.

This issue immediately became a bone of contention between the council’s two camps —the progressive council majority of Rich, Zollman and Maurer who think it’s within the council's purview to take a stand on big, hot-button political issues (even if they're not related to Sebastopol) versus Jill McLewis and her supporters (including former council candidate Oliver Dick), some of whom think the city should stick to its knitting, particularly given its looming million-dollar budget deficit.

After batting this ball back and forth for an hour with speakers for and against, the council agreed, at Councilmember Maurer's urging, to rework the resolution along the lines of the one passed by the city of Berkeley and bring it back at the next meeting on May 2.

Even doing so, they probably won't garner McLewis's vote or Mayor Hinton's. But then the council's progressive majority doesn't really need their votes since they can carry the day with three votes.

PRESENTATIONS

The Russian River Watershed Association of which Sebastopol is a member (to the tune of $38K a year) gave an annual report on its activities and plans for the coming year. The organization coordinates regional programs for clean water, habitat restoration and watershed enhancement. To see the full report on their activities, go here.

Horizon Shine Quarterly Report

Adrienne Lauby of SAVS gave the quarterly report on HorizonShine, the homeless RV Village at the north end of town.

“It's basically a good news story,” she said. “We have 23 people there now who would've otherwise been living on the streets of Sebastopol in their trailers or RVs. And they're now where they have bathrooms and food and showers and are able to live a pretty peaceful life.”

She said 16 of the 23 people have paid work—some full time, some part time.

The organization has hired a new executive director, which Lauby said has resulted in more stability and more enforcement of community rules. Lauby said they are making a big push for documentation.

“Right now, we're in a big push to get everybody documented, in terms of having a valid ID, having their trailer registered, their transportation vehicle registered, and then getting them involved in any kind of benefits that they're eligible for: food stamps and general assistance, and whatever help that the county has to offer. There's a lot of things that can help people who are homeless, but it's difficult for them to get through the bureaucracy. So that's part of what our case management is for,” Lauby said.

SAVS has also gotten a license to hire and run its own security team.

That was the good news. The bad news is four residents have been asked to leave because of incidents of violence. During questioning, Councilmember Zollman wanted to make sure that SAVS was connecting those folks with some kind of mental health support so that they weren't just pushing potentially violent people back out into the community. While SAVS does connect people who leave with the city's homeless outreach worker, there was general agreement that there was a dearth of mental health resources for the homeless.

See the full SAVS quarterly report here.

Report from the Committee on the Unhoused

Councilmember Rich presented the quarterly Report on the Unhoused, which contains reports on SAVS, Park Village, Elderberry Commons and the work of the city’s homeless outreach coordinator.

She didn't go over the findings in the report, but said, “The overview on all of this is that you can see there’s really multiple services that have been knitted together through partnerships with a variety of nonprofits with relatively minimal funding from the city—primarily to the outreach coordinator—but they all work together in order to provide services to our local unhoused.”

Rich noted that there was going to be a town hall on the changes at Elderberry Commons on May 1 at 6 pm on Zoom. You can register for the town hall here.

You can find the full Report on the Unhoused here.

REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA

Council waives permit fee for HorizonShine

Finally, finishing up the topic of the unhoused for the evening, the council voted unanimously to waive the fee for a use permit application by SAVS in the amount of $5,765.

Pavement Management Program Budget Operations Report

The council unanimously approved the receipt of the Pavement Management Program Budget, which the city is required to submit to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) by April 30.

This document is of interest primarily for its analysis of four different budget scenarios for road repair. Sebastopol has some of the worst roads in the Bay Area, with almost 30% of our roads considered to be in "very poor" condition.

Column 1, below, looks at a "pie-in-the-sky, money is no object" scenario of what it would take to bring almost all our roads into good condition.

Column 2 looks at what will happen to our roads under the current budget of $3.88 million over 5 years, or $776,000 per year.)

Column 3 looks at what will happen to our roads if we increase the funding to $5.13 million over 5 years, or $1,026,000 a year).

Column 4 looks at what will happen to our roads if we increase the funding to $7.13 million over 5 years, or $1,430,000 a year).

The Pavement Conditions Index (PCI) number in the far-left column provides a snapshot of the pavement health of a road. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 (where 100 means a perfect, newly paved road).

After reassuring themselves (several times) that they weren't committing themselves to any of the scenarios listed, the council voted unanimously to receive the report.

If you were hoping to learn which streets will get paved in the upcoming year, you will have to wait for the discussion of the Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget this summer.

Recology Sonoma Marin Garbage Franchise Agreement

The city is near the end of its 15-year contract with Recology. It now must decide whether to put out a request for proposals (RFP) for the trash hauling contract or ask Recology for a one-year extension, during which the city will negotiate a new contract with them for the next 15 years.

Though Jill McLewis and Neysa Hinton argued strenuously to put out an RFP, the council majority of Rich, Zollman and Maurer voted to ask Recology for a one-year extension at the current price, with the goal of negotiating a new 15-year contract.

Heads up, Sebastopudlians, the new contract will almost certainly contain increased rates for Recology customers. According to Recology representatives, the company has lost roughly $900,000 a year over the last five years on its $2.3 million contract with the city, and it is seeking a new deal that will remedy that situation. Ka-ching.

The next Sebastopol City Council Meeting is on May 2, at 6 pm.