What else happened at the Sebastopol City Council meeting?

City to hire new fire engineer and continue Zoom city council meetings

All members of the city council were present for the April 16 council meeting, including Mayor Diana Rich, Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, Councilmember Jill McLewis, and Councilmember Neysa Hinton.

There were two hot-button issues on the April 16 council agenda: a decision about whether to merge the city’s fire department with Gold Ridge Fire Protection District and the proposed cancelation of interactive Zoom coverage of city council meetings.

There were no proclamations or public hearings, and one item (the Gaza ceasefire resolution) was removed from the agenda before the meeting. (See our story on its removal here.)

Public Comment for Items not on the Agenda

Some very angry Gaza ceasefire supporters, furious that the ceasefire resolution had been pulled for fear that it wouldn’t pass, lit into the council and Sebastopol itself. Sebastopol resident Lena Rothman began, “Peacetown USA—how apropos to the superficiality that I have found in Sebastopol. I hope the Peace Wall will be removed. Sebastopol doesn't deserve it.”

Susan Lamont, whose name is inscribed on Sebastopol’s Living Peace Wall, said, “I am aware that the ceasefire resolution has been pulled in response to the majority of the city council being cowards. I thank Councilmember Zollman [the sponsor of the resolution] for his work.” She then named all of the other people listed on the Peacewall who have asked for a ceasefire in Gaza. “You no longer qualify as a Peacetown and bring shame to that designation,” she continued. “Genocide City might be more apt. I will ask Michael Gillotti to dismantle the Peace Wall and seek its installation in Cotati. Sebastopol is unworthy of it.”

More pro-ceasefire speakers spoke during the public comment period at the end of the meeting, also condemning the city council for its inaction.

Consent Calendar

In addition to approving the minutes of earlier meetings, the council unanimously approved the following items on the consent calendar:

• The city agreed to give a letter of support to Sonoma County Transit for its application to the Federal Transit Administration seeking Low-No Grant funding for seven 40-feet all-electric transit coaches. The new coaches would operate on Sonoma County Transit’s intercity routes, which provide service to Sebastopol.

• The city approved a resolution appointing NBS as the engineer of work that will prepare the annual Engineer’s Report, describing the potential changes to the City of Sebastopol’s Fiscal Year 2024-25 Lighting Assessment District.

Regular Agenda

Fire Ad Hoc Committee Report recommends merger with Gold Ridge

The first item on the agenda was the release of the Fire Ad Hoc Committee Report and a vote on the committee’s recommendation that the city approve the merger of the Sebastopol Fire Department into the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District. This merger would involve the extension of the Gold Ridge parcel tax to all Sebastopol landowners. (The parcel tax for a single family home is $265.) The Sebastopol Fire Station on Bodega Avenue would continue as the city’s main fire station, but it would be managed by Gold Ridge Fire Protection District instead of the city of Sebastopol. The city council unanimously approved a series of next steps. This is just the beginning of the process. Merging the two organizations could take one to two years, and either party could withdraw at any time if there is disagreement over the terms of the merger. (See our in-depth story on this item here.)

The hiring of a second fire engineer

The second recommendation of the Fire Ad Hoc Committee was the hiring of a second fire engineer. The position, which was supposed to be filled last year, is budgeted at $138,000 a year, and given that this fiscal year is almost over, filling the position would require about $31,000 out of this year’s budget.

The request was introduced by councilmembers Neysa Hinton and Jill McLewis, members of the Fire Ad Hoc Committee. Hinton noted that this position was already in the budget for this year and requested that the council authorize city staff to initiate recruitment and hire a second fire engineer position as soon as possible.

“We need this sooner rather than later,” McLewis added.

City Manager Don Schwartz said that the city has applied to the county for bridge funding for this position until Measure H Fire Tax funds begin flowing later this year. The city won’t know whether the county will approve this funding until after May 1, or possibly later.

Councilmember Zollman wondered, given the city’s financial constraints, why this hadn’t gone through the budget committee (of which he is a member), and inquired of Interim Fire Chief Todd Derum whether the position could be offered on a limited term basis. Mayor Rich also supported this idea.

McLewis asked Derum whether this would make it harder to attract qualified candidates. Derum said there was already so much interest in the position—from inside and outside his department—that he didn’t think listing it as a “limited term position” would have much effect.

Nonetheless, McLewis’s statement that “Public safety should be a primary consideration” won the day, and the motion to approve the recruitment and hire of a full-time (not term limited) fire engineer passed on a 4 to 1 vote (Zollman dissenting).

“I don’t want this to seem like I’m anti-safety—hopefully we can all agree that we’re pro-safety—but I do have concerns about how the finances are ultimately going to shake out,” Zollman said.

Another proposal to end Zoom access to council meetings in favor of in-person-only meetings

Alarmed by the presence of Neo-Nazi commenters during public comment at the last few council meetings, Mayor Rich once again proposed suspending Zoom access to council meetings in favor of in-person only meetings.

“The recent Zoom bombings are particularly disturbing and disruptive,” she said. “My concern is that it has had such a disruptive impact on our meetings that it’s resulted in many people feeling uncomfortable about being here to share their opinions; and in fact a number of them have decided that they will not be here at all (even in person). So the question we have tonight is what do we do about that?”

Mayor Rich’s proposal had three options: 1) Continue the use of Zoom as is; 2) Cease the use of Zoom for city council meetings permanently; or 3) Suspend the use of Zoom for city council meetings for a limited period of time, maybe 6 months, to let things cool off. (Rich made the exact same proposal a few months ago after a Zoom bombing in December 2023.)

As before, during public comment, speakers were unanimous in supporting the continued use of Zoom, because of the increased public engagement and access it offers, especially for those (the elderly, the disabled, people with small children) who can’t come in person. (Some speakers had questions about the use and possible restrictions on Zoom, which are answered in the FAQ from Mayor Rich below.)

Councilmembers McLewis and Maurer and Vice Mayor Zollman supported the continued use of Zoom for the same reasons the public did, while Neysa Hinton shifted her position to support Mayor Rich.

“I want to change my mind tonight,” Hinton said. “I just have to say I don't think it’s fair for our poor city clerk having to be like on the trigger and taking this and it’s ugly. And then our mayor has to follow these rules because there’s liability for the city. We could be sued.”

Hinton said she felt “there’s a lot of options to submit comments” and that, additionally, many of the people who now use Zoom to participate in council meetings used to come in person and could do so again.

But Rich and Hinton were obviously in the minority. The city council voted 3 to 2 (Rich and Hinton dissenting) to continue providing Zoom access with commenting for city council meetings.

You can watch the full April 16 city council meeting here. There is a special meeting of the Sebastopol City Council on water and sewer rates on Tuesday, April 23, 6 pm at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol. The next regularly scheduled city council meeting is May 7, 6 pm, at the same address.

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Commenting FAQs

Mayor Rich and city staff did a deep dive recently into laws around public commenting. Here is an FAQ from Mayor Rich on some of the things they learned.

Question: Does the mayor have the ability to set a time limit for each speaker?

Answer: Yes, the mayor has the authority to set time limits for speakers. Currently our policy is two minutes per speaker, but the mayor can adjust that for specific items. That is most likely to be the case if there are many speakers on a topic and/or limited time to cover all items on the evening’s agenda. 

Question: Must comments pertain to subjects within the jurisdiction of the city council? Stated another way, if the subject is not on today’s council agenda, is it eligible to be placed on a future agenda? (Or, can I take your valuable meeting time to share a recipe, travelogue, family photos, or you-name-it?)

Answer: Comments on items that are on the agenda must address the subject matter of the agenda item. There is also a period at the beginning of the meeting and at the end for “comments on items that are not on the agenda.” There is no limitation on the content of those items. A total of 10 speakers are allowed for the “comments on items that are not on the agenda” period at the beginning of the meeting, and a total of 10 are allowed for the similar period at the end of the meeting. 

Question: During public comment, can priority be given to residents, business owners or others with significant ties to the city?  Then others may comment as time permits.

Answer: The council cannot limit or prioritize speakers based on their ties to Sebastopol. The council cannot require speakers to state their names, addresses, neighborhoods, residences, business associations, or provide any other identifying information. 

Question: Has the council considered requiring that video be turned on as a condition of offering public comment via Zoom? 

Answer: We cannot require speakers to turn on video. Even if we could, we would not. We have disabled video to eliminate the appalling images and videos that were our initial Zoom bombing challenge. 

Question: Has the council disabled the unmute button on zoom, to eliminate spontaneous interruptions? 

Answer: Yes. We no longer allow speakers to unmute themselves, which has eliminated the spontaneous disruptive expletives that were disruptive in the past.