What else happened at the Sebastopol City Council Meeting?

Council discussed how to allocate the sales tax, council priorities for the next few months, and more

---

All councilmembers were present for the Sept. 17 council meeting, including Mayor Diana Rich, Vice Mayor Stephen Zollman, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, Councilmember Sandra Maurer, and Councilmember Jill McLewis.

---

Public comment and council discussion of the resolution to oppose Measure J, the anti-factory farming measure, took up much of the Sept. 17 city council meeting. (See our coverage of that here.) There were also other issues on the agenda. Here’s the play by play…

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.)

In addition to approving the minutes of a previous city council meeting, the city council approved the following on a unanimous vote:

• A resolution for continuation of participation in Sonoma County Abandoned Vehicle Abatement Program.

• The salary schedule for a revised job description for Police Chief as approved at the Sept. 3, city council meeting (Salary and Benefits: $289,523). They also approved a budget amendment of $46,023 to cover this item.

• Award of a contract to Earthtone Construction for the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center flood damage fire code repairs, not to exceed $68,140.

Regular Agenda

Prioritizing spending of Measure U funds

How to allocate the Measure U half-cent sales tax (should it pass in November) topped the regular agenda on Tuesday. Measure U reads as follows:

Sebastopol Public Safety, Roads, City Services Measure: To maintain Sebastopol’s City services such as 911 emergency medical/police/fire response, wildfire/emergency preparedness, maintenance of streets/roads, parks/trails, library, youth and senior services, retaining/attracting local businesses; and for general government use, shall the measure establishing a ½-cent sales tax generating approximately $1,520,000 annually, terminating after 12 years, requiring audits, public spending disclosure, all funds used locally, be adopted?

The measure mentioned so many items that the council had to prioritize how the money would actually be spent. (Councilmember Jill McLewis made this a requirement for her support of the measure.)

City Manager Don Schwartz started off the discussion with a brief PowerPoint presentation. He suggested that the city…

1. Dedicate one-third to high-priority infrastructure, including roads, streets, drainage and parks.

2. Retain existing staff in police and provide sufficient funding for fire reorganization.

3. Adding staff: Note as a need and consider after study and during budget

4. Reserve 24-25 revenue until full-year situation becomes more clear.

Council members liked the first two items—and the last. Only Zollman was on board to add city staff; Maurer in particular spoke against this.

The council began to dicker about the percentages. Councilmember McLewis made it clear that if infrastructure didn’t get the lion’s share of the money, she would come out against the measure. Hinton suggested a one-third split: one third to infrastructure; one third to public safety; one-third (if there was any left over) to everything else listed in the measure. McLewis asked for 40% for infrastructure, and in the end, she won out.

The council unanimously passed the following motion:

• That 40% of the revenue shall be allocated for maintaining and repairing city road, streets, drainage and parks.

• Sufficient revenue shall be allocated for maintaining public safety, including retaining existing Police Department staffing levels and providing sufficient funding for fire services, after reorganization of such services with the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District.

• If there’s sufficient revenue allocated for items number one and two above, the remaining revenues will be allocated to maintain possible services such as 911, emergency medical, police, fire response, wildfire emergency preparedness, maintenance of street, roads, parks, trails, library, youth and Senior Services, retain and attract local businesses, and for general government use.

• Reserve 2024-25 revenue until full-year situation becomes more clear.

The duplication of wording in item three is meant to give them flexibility, in line with the ballot measure, on spending any remaining Measure U funds.

City Council Protocols and Handbook

The city council previously appointed an ad hoc committee to review Sebastopol’s city council protocols and create a handbook for councilmembers. That committee (which consists of Mayor Rich and Vice Mayor Zollman) laid out their task list, timeline and budget ($8,500).

The timeline for the next few months is as follows:

• On Oct. 1, policies to be presented to the city council will include the selection of mayor, selection of vice mayor, role of mayor, role of vice mayor, seating of city councilmembers based upon selections of mayor and vice mayor, required trainings (Brown Act; ethics; work place violence; sexual harassment)

• On Oct. 15, policies to be presented to the city council will include the placement of items on an agenda, agenda management and format of council agendas.

• On Nov. 5, policies to be presented to the city council will include city council standing committee formation, make up, duties, responsibilities, selection of chair and vice chair; city council ad hoc committee formation and duties; role of city council liaisons; and finally, city council committee, staff committee and council liaison assignments process and selection.

Mayor Diana Rich said the handbook should be ready by June 2025.

The council unanimously approved this item.

Extension of contract with Gold Ridge Fire Protection District

The council unanimously approved the extension of the contract with Gold Ridge Fire Protection District to provide a fire chief and other services to the Sebastopol Fire Department as consolidation of the two fire services moves forward.

City Council Priorities

The council will be having its first facilitated goal-setting meeting in February. In the meantime, staff presented a long and rather daunting list of priorities that included 12 revenue generation efforts (including the sales tax increase) and nine other issues that the council is required by legal or contractual obligations to attend to.

Revenue enhancements included the Measure U sales tax measure; renegotiate Library lease; pursue grants; consider consolidating the Planning Commission and Design Review Board to streamline processing of development applications; consider reallocation of planning/community development staff time to revenue-generating activities; pursue Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD); process application/development agreement for the Barlow Hotel.

The staff report noted that there are also several revenue-generating ideas planned for next year. These include: Update user fee schedules to better cover costs; review development fees (for water, sewer, parks, traffic, drainage); consider a trench cut ordinance to better recover costs of work affecting the streets; review the formula business ordinance outside of downtown; create an economic development strategy

The legally/contractually mandated priorities include:

• Affordable rental housing monitoring

• Employee negotiations

• Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD)

• Fleet assessment

• Fire reorganization/consolidation and related matters.

• Housing Element implementation

• Public education/outreach for sales tax ballot Measure U.

• Solid waste hauler procurement;

• Sustainable Transportation Grant

The council approved these priorities and added sprucing up and decorating the town for the winter holidays to support local merchants.

Fleet assessment contract

City Manager Don Schwartz asked the council to approve a fleet management contract with the firm Baker Tilly.

“I believe one of the reasons that you hired me for this position was to help improve the city's finances and fiscal practices,” he said. “And to me, this agenda item is representative of that. It’s part of the foundation of strong financial practices to know what you ought to be putting aside for managing major assets like your fleet, and what you should have in the bank already to replace the fleet as it’s going to need to be replaced.”

The council was unpersuaded. Councilmember Maurer suggested this item be delayed. After some discussion, Vice Mayor Zollman made a motion to approve the fleet management contact, but there was no second, so that item died on the vine. 

The council hit the witching hour—10:30 pm—at which point Mayor Rich polled the council to see if everyone was willing to continue. If even one council member declines to do so, the meeting is ended. In this case, Councilmember Maurer gave the thumbs down. The final item for the evening—the choice of Baker Tilly as the facilitator for February Priority Setting Meeting—was pushed to the next meeting.

You can watch the full video of the Sept. 17 council meeting here. The next city council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 1, 6 pm at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol. The agenda for the Oct. 1 meeting will be posted on Thursday, Sept. 26.