What else happened at the Sebastopol City Council recently?

City Council Recap for August 1 and August 8 council meetings

Discussion of the sales tax measure (which never came to be) dominated much of the August 1 and August 8 city council meetings, but there were a few other matters of note. (You can read our coverage of the failed sales tax measure here: the poll and the final decision.)

Other issues at the August 1 City Council

Four councilmembers were present for the August 1 Sebastopol City Council meeting, including Mayor Neysa Hinton, Vice Mayor Diana Rich, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, and Councilmember Stephen Zollman. Councilmember Jill McLewis was absent.

Consent Calendar items: In addition to the approval of minutes of previous meetings, the council unanimously approved an extension of the proclamation on the existence of a Local Homeless Emergency. They also accepted the Annual Performance Report on sewer system. They also acknowledged the receipt of a request for Voting Delegate and Alternates for the League of California Cities Annual Conference 2023. This was rather a moot point because, thanks to the city’s budget difficulties, the council members will not be attending this event this year, unless they want to pay for it with their own money. Councilmember Zollman requested that item four—a new job description for the Fire Chief—be moved onto the regular agenda for discussion.

Sebastopol World Friends gave a presentation about the recent student exchange to our city sister in Japan. Because of COVID, three and a half years have passed since the most recent cohort of Japanese students visited Sebastopol. This meant that the group of Sebastopol students due to visit their Japanese host families this year was significantly older than previous groups. They were high school students instead of middle schoolers. Several students were in attendance at the council meeting, and they all said they had great, life-changing experiences during their visit to Japan.

Purchase of a new fire engine. The city council approved the purchase of a new Pierce Enforcer Type 1 Fire Engine to replace the Fire Department’s existing 33-year-old fire engine. A $300,000 downpayment on the engine is included in this year’s budget. The council approved a lease purchase agreement of $938,744.82. By entering into the 3-year lease purchase agreement, the city is committing to pay approximately $238,000 annually for fiscal year 24-25, 25-26, 26-27. The total cost of the engine and lease agreement is $1,014,151.

Discussion of a job description for Fire Chief. Interim Fire Chief Jack Piccinini’s contract is expiring at the end of November, and the city will be seeking a permanent fire chief. Stephen Zollman had a list of questions and topics he wanted to make sure were included in the job description. In the end, the only thing that was added to the description was language around diversity. The council then approved the job description unanimously.

You can watch the August 1 city council meeting in full here.

At the special city council meeting on August 8

All councilmembers were present for the August 8 Sebastopol City Council meeting, including Mayor Neysa Hinton, Vice Mayor Diana Rich, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, Councilmember Jill McLewis and Councilmember Stephen Zollman.

This special meeting was called primarily for the purpose of getting the sales tax on the ballot in a timely manner—a plan that failed when councilmembers Jill McLewis and Sandra Maurer voted against it.

There were just two other issues discussed at this meeting:

Council approves a recruitment brochure for the post of city manager. City manager Larry McLaughlin will be retiring from his role as city manager at the end of December. (He may stay on as city attorney however.) The council approved an attractive brochure advertising the position of city manager.

Proclamation regarding the 30th Anniversary of Sebastopol and Chyhyryn’s Sister City Relationship. Added as a last-minute urgency item, this Sebastopol World Friends proclamation ruffled some feathers with its unabashed support of Ukraine in its battle against Russia. Councilmember Stephen Zollman threatened to vote against the proclamation unless the language was softened. He objected to the following passages (in italics):

• Whereas, youth exchanges were suspended in 2014 due to the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and remain so until the present day due to the unprovoked, unrestrained, and unconscionable military aggression from the Russian Federation; and,

• Whereas, following Ukraine’s assured victory, the City of Sebastopol and Sebastopol World Friends stand ready to assist Ukraine in its reconstruction and are eager to resume youth and adult exchanges

These were amended to read as follows

• Whereas, youth exchanges were suspended in 2014 due to the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine and remain so until the present day;

• Whereas, following Ukraine’s assured victory, the City of Sebastopol and Sebastopol World Friends are eager to resume youth and adult exchanges.

The council voted unanimously to support the reworded proclamation.

You can watch the August 8 city council meeting in full here.

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The council meeting for August 15 was cancelled. The next Sebastopol City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 6 pm at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol.