Sebastopol City Council Recap, Part 2

News about the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) and city salaries

---

All councilmembers were present for the Sept. 3 council meeting, including Mayor Diana Rich, Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, and Councilmember Jill McLewis.

---

The EIFD process chugs forward

The latter half of the Sept. 3 city council meeting was given over to a discussion of a revenue strategy known as the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District. The city council has a EIFD Ad Hoc, which includes Mayor Diana Rich and Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman, but this evening’s presentation was carried out by the city and county’s EIFD consultants, Joseph Dieguez and Felicia Williams of Kosmont Companies. Kosmont has been hired to do a EIFD feasibility evaluation, which is being funded by $50,000 from the county, procured by Supervisor Lynda Hopkins.

An EIFD is a special kind of financing district that captures a percentage of the increase in property taxes that result from rising property values and uses it to fund infrastructure improvements. It does not raise property taxes.

The city and county both commit to using part of their tax increment to fund projects like these: water/sewer/storm drains; flood protection; roadways/parking/transit; parks/open space/recreation; childcare; libraries; brownfield remediation; affordable housing; broadband access; wildfire prevention; and small business and nonprofit facilities.

Williams laid out EIFD fundamentals like so:

“They are very long-lasting districts,” Williams said. “It’s about 45 years from the first bond issuance that is made. It is governed by public financing authority, which is composed of the elected officials from the contributing tax entities…And unlike old redevelopment agencies, which use tax increment financing, the boundaries or the areas don't have to be contiguous. Finally, you can fund anything with a useful life of more than 15 years and of community-wide significance. Another important point is the infrastructure that you fund does not necessarily have to be within the boundaries of the EIFD. As long as it has a tangential relationship and is of community-wide significance, then the incremental tax revenues can be used for those projects.”

After consulting with the city and the county, the EIFD consultants came up with a list of possible projects for Sebastopol’s EIFD to fund. One of their goals at this meeting was to see if the council had anything to add or subtract from this list. The consultants suggested making a very broad list because if a project isn’t on the final list (which won’t be drafted for several months), it can never be paid for out of EIFD funds.

Councilmembers requested that the consultants add the following items to this list: affordable housing, the fire house, a municipal utility, and reimagining downtown.

The consultants had hoped to get some direction regarding the boundaries of the EIFD, but the council was pressed for time, due to the long list of items on their agenda that evening, so further discussion of the EIFD’s boundaries will have to wait.

There were some intriguing hints about the boundaries of the EIFD, however. The consultants advised that the council choose areas with the greatest potential for development over the next 45 years. This did not include neighborhoods with single family homes. Rather, according to their Power Point presentation, they suggested that the EIFD should “Focus on primary City / County corridors with economic development opportunity sites (Gravenstein Hwy., Healdsburg Ave., Bodega Ave., Sebastopol Ave. within the city).”

Councilmember Jill McLewis, who has been skeptical about the EIFD all along, asked for some concrete examples of where those developable parcels might be.

“Where are the areas we think there may be this redevelopment?” she asked. “Based on the history of Sebastopol—and Sebastopol Tomorrow and everyone saying that they’re going to fight development, it just seems very contradictory for the city of Sebastopol. I understand that it works well many places. But as I sit here listening to this, I’m very skeptical.”

Assistant City Planner John Jay pointed out the Redwood Marketplace as a place with potential for redevelopment, as well as an empty lot on the south end of town near Big O Tires and the large lot that hosts Tacqueria El Favorito.

Mayor Rich suggested the possibility of including areas outside of Sebastopol’s city’s limits but within its urban growth boundary.

Public commenters were skeptical. Robert, noting that Sebastopol would have to commit a percentage of its own property tax increase to the EIFD, warned “Be careful what you’re giving away.” Kate Haug said, “Before this goes any further, I would highly recommend that the Ad Hoc walk the city of Sebastopol and identify lots that they think would meet development requirements as revenue generators on the scale that would justify this plan. In my knowledge of the city, there are very few sites.”

City hiring

The city council quickly dispensed with the next item, regarding the salary schedule for the newly created positions of Public Works Director/City Engineer, Engineer I and Engineer II. This was unanimously approved.

The council also unanimously approved the job description and increased salary range for the Police Chief position. The current Police Chief, Ron Nelson, has indicated that he plans to retire in October, and the city is starting the search for a new police chief. Deborah Muchmore, the city’s HR consultant, did a comp study of police chief pay and found that Sebastopol had the lowest police chief pay in Sonoma County.

The council unanimously approved a motion that included the following pieces:

• approving the proposed revised police chief classification and job description;

• recommending the total salary and benefits of $289,523, for an increase of $46,023 to the FY 2024-2025 budget;

• authorize recruitment to begin immediately;

• direct staff to return with the budget amendment and salary schedule at the next city council meeting;

• include language that includes ‘progressive, modern methods of policing’ in the recruitment brochure—though not in the job description per se;

• and agendize for the budget committee an overview of salary parities and what that means for the overall salary schedule. 

  ---