City Council
City Council
mar, 5 de mayo de 2026
Puntos de agenda
Registros de votación
Resumen del debate
Transcripción
RESUMEN DE REUNIÓNGenerado por IA
Concejo Municipal de Santa Rosa — 5 de mayo de 2026
Esta fue la primera jornada de una sesión ordinaria de dos días, dominada por una extensa sesión de estudio sobre el presupuesto propuesto para el Año Fiscal 2026–27. La sesión se extendió desde el mediodía hasta el inicio de la tarde-noche, y concluyó con proclamaciones, informes de rutina y comentarios del público sobre asuntos no incluidos en el orden del día.
Sesión de Estudio: Presupuesto de Operaciones y Mantenimiento del AF 2026–27 y Programa de Mejoras de Capital
Resumen general
La Administradora Municipal Marci Farrell y el Director de Finanzas Scott Wagner encabezaron una revisión detallada del presupuesto propuesto, que se extendió aproximadamente cuatro horas. La ciudad enfrenta un déficit estructural de $17.5 millones en el Fondo General — compuesto por una brecha operativa continua de $13.9 millones y $3.6 millones en financiamiento de subvenciones que vencen. El presupuesto total de la ciudad en todos los fondos es de aproximadamente $535 millones; el Fondo General por sí solo asciende a aproximadamente $230 millones.
Wagner explicó que los ingresos del Fondo General están creciendo a un ritmo del 4.5% interanual (impulsados por un crecimiento del impuesto predial del 5.5% y un modesto aumento del 1.5% en el impuesto sobre las ventas), mientras que los gastos crecen a un 6.6%, lo que significa que la brecha estructural persiste. La ciudad administra 128 fondos activos.
Estrategia multidimensional para reducir el déficit
En lugar de un recorte único y drástico, el personal propuso una combinación de medidas que en conjunto reducen el déficit proyectado a aproximadamente $7.6 millones, que se cubrirá con una extracción puntual de las reservas:
$3.8 millones en ahorros netos provenientes de una nueva estrategia de reducción de costos de pensiones (pago anticipado de la deuda con CalPERS, lo que genera ahorros de casi $38 millones durante la vigencia del programa y cerca de $30 millones en los próximos cinco años)
$4.9 millones en reducciones departamentales
$1 millón en ahorros derivados de la reestructuración del financiamiento de equipos contra incendios (arrendamiento en lugar de compra directa de vehículos mayores, sin impacto en los calendarios de reemplazo)
Mayor recuperación de costos en los departamentos, incluida una nueva tarifa por el uso de tarjeta de crédito para transacciones de gran monto
Eliminación o ajuste de puestos financiados con subvenciones cuyos fondos han expirado
Análisis específico de vacantes para evitar despidos activos en la medida de lo posible
Uso estratégico de $7.6 millones de las reservas para cubrir la brecha restante
La realidad del impuesto predial
Wagner y la Analista Financiera Veronica Curren dedicaron tiempo considerable a explicar por qué Santa Rosa recibe solo 11.7 centavos de cada dólar del impuesto predial — una de las participaciones más bajas en el Condado de Sonoma — legado de la Proposition 13, que fijó las tasas de 1978, cuando la ciudad tenía impuestos prediales bajos debido a su rápido crecimiento. Un desarrollo de $50 millones le genera a la ciudad apenas unos $60,000 anuales en impuesto predial. Esto hace que la ciudad dependa de manera inusual del impuesto sobre las ventas, que se ha mantenido estancado debido al comportamiento de los consumidores. El Concejal Alvarez planteó la posibilidad de que los supervisores del Condado de Sonoma reduzcan voluntariamente la participación del condado; el personal señaló que la Prop 13 en sí no puede modificarse a nivel del condado, aunque la disparidad justifica una conversación continua con los socios del condado.
Impacto en la dotación de personal
Tras todas las reducciones propuestas, el Fondo General contaría con 707 empleados — apenas dos más que el punto más bajo alcanzado durante la Gran Recesión. Antes de la recesión, el Fondo General tenía 885 empleados; la población de la ciudad ha crecido un 12% durante ese mismo período. El personal enfatizó que se trata de una situación de "hacer más con menos" que está llegando a sus límites estructurales. Se propone la eliminación de un total de 28 puestos de tiempo completo (FTE) en todos los fondos, de los cuales 22 contribuyen a los ahorros del Fondo General.
Aspectos destacados por departamento
*Concejo Municipal / Abogado / Administrador:* Sin reducciones significativas; la función SIRO (comunicaciones) se integra a la Oficina del Administrador Municipal (con la adición de 7 FTE por consolidación, no por nuevas contrataciones); la división de estacionamiento se transfiere de Finanzas a Planificación y Desarrollo Económico.
*Recreación:* Sólido crecimiento de inscripciones del 14%; tarifas aumentadas modestamente en enero de 2026; se elimina un puesto de coordinador de programa; aún requiere una contribución del Fondo General de aproximadamente $3.4 millones después de los ingresos.
*Planificación y Desarrollo Económico:* Incremento menor del 3.6%; el tiempo del personal se está redirigiendo hacia fondos de ingresos especiales.
*Obras Públicas / Tránsito:* Reducción de 3 puestos de topógrafo y un puesto de secretaria administrativa; aumento del gasto en asfalto mientras las cuadrillas de calles se concentran en el mantenimiento básico del pavimento.
*Servicios para Personas sin Hogar:* Presupuesto de aproximadamente $3.85 millones; se elimina un puesto vacante de técnico; reducción neta de aproximadamente $220,000 (5.4%).
*Control de Animales:* Aumento de costos de $450,000 este año (tras aproximadamente $800,000 el año pasado) debido a una fórmula basada en llamadas de servicio y animales albergados; el personal señaló que esto no es sostenible y está trabajando con socios del condado.
Departamento de Policía
No se proponen cambios en FTE para oficiales uniformados ni para personal civil. Se presentó un aumento de $1 millón en el presupuesto de horas extras como una corrección para alinear el presupuesto con el gasto real — no como nueva autorización de gasto. El Jefe John Cregan explicó que el departamento ha reducido las horas de tiempo extra en 9,600 durante cinco años, pero los requisitos mínimos de dotación de personal (entre 10 y 15 oficiales en todo momento en 42 millas cuadradas), los eventos impredecibles (12 homicidios el año pasado, 9 colisiones fatales, mayor actividad de protestas) y las lesiones (21 de los 175 oficiales uniformados actualmente no son desplegables) dificultan reducciones adicionales. El departamento está haciendo mayor uso del personal civil, rotando detectives temporalmente a patrullaje y realizando revisiones mensuales del tiempo extra.
El Jefe Cregan también habló sobre el programa de lectores de placas Flock, confirmando que desempeñó un papel clave en la resolución de los 12 homicidios del año pasado. Señaló que la ley estatal (SB 54, SB 34) prohíbe a la ciudad compartir datos con agencias federales de inmigración o de aplicación de la ley, y que se realizan auditorías mensuales para garantizar el cumplimiento.
Departamento de Bomberos
El departamento de bomberos propuso un aumento de $2.5 millones en el presupuesto de horas extras, también presentado como una regularización para ajustarse a los costos reales. El Jefe Scott Westrope explicó que el departamento debe cubrir 47 puestos de dotación diariamente, y que la eliminación de "puestos de relevo" en años recientes ha trasladado una mayor carga de cobertura a las horas extras.
El departamento está eliminando 19 puestos FTE por el vencimiento de dos subvenciones federales:
La subvención SAFER (aceptada en agosto de 2023, por un valor de $7.1 millones) financió a 12 bomberos que crearon dos escuadrones de paramédicos. Los fondos de la subvención se agotaron más rápido de lo anticipado, y la ciudad no puede absorber el costo continuo anual de aproximadamente $3 millones. Los 12 bomberos no serán despedidos — serán absorbidos en las vacantes existentes del Fondo General y de Measure H.
El programa de salud mental In Response (lanzado en enero de 2022) está siendo reducido debido al recorte a casi la mitad del financiamiento del condado mediante Measure O, que cae a $1.6 millones en el AF 26-27. Se eliminarán seis puestos de paramédico de rol único (3 de los cuales ya estaban vacantes). El Jefe Cregan señaló que se está finalizando un acuerdo de financiamiento de tres años con el condado que sostendrá un equipo reducido de In Response sin recurrir al Fondo General, utilizando especialistas en salud mental con licencia proporcionados por el condado, junto con personal de Bucklew Programs y Catholic Charities.
Las seis vacantes creadas por la reducción de SAFER serán cubiertas en Fire Station 9 mediante el traslado de personal a una nueva unidad de rescate pesado (un vehículo regional de rescate técnico para colapsos estructurales, rescates en zanjas e incidentes en altura), junto con un nuevo escuadrón financiado por Measure H. Se añadirá un puesto de capitán de bomberos de 40 horas a cargo de las operaciones especiales.
Perspectiva a cinco años
Sin medidas correctivas, el pronóstico a largo plazo mostraba déficits que alcanzarían entre $33 y $42 millones para el período AF 2029–31. Con las medidas presupuestarias propuestas, esas cifras mejoran significativamente — en particular gracias al efecto compuesto de los ahorros en pensiones. Sin embargo, persiste una brecha estructural que crecerá hasta $13.8 millones para el AF 2030-31, con un salto adicional cuando la medida de impuesto sobre las ventas de medio centavo de la ciudad (Measure Q) expire a mediados del AF 2030-31. El personal señaló que se proyecta que el fondo de reservas alcanzará el mínimo exigido por el concejo (aproximadamente $50 millones) para finales del AF 2028, y podría caer a $14 millones para el AF 2030-31, un nivel insostenible. Wagner fue explícito: "No podemos salir de esto con recortes. Tenemos que resolverlo por el lado de los ingresos."
Preguntas y debate del concejo
El Concejal MacDonald preguntó sobre la posibilidad de internalizar servicios contratados, la posible venta o arrendamiento de los estacionamientos municipales, y la fórmula de costos del control de animales. El Concejal Ben-Wellos preguntó sobre el desglose de los 28 FTE y el futuro de In Response. El Vicealcalde Okrepkie (participando de forma remota) preguntó sobre los niveles históricos de dotación de personal en policía y bomberos. El Alcalde Stapp destacó la importancia de la estrategia de pensiones para la trayectoria financiera de la ciudad y señaló las reorganizaciones departamentales como evidencia de una gestión creativa.
El Concejal MacDonald también instruyó al personal a explorar — en colaboración con funcionarios del condado — una participación más equitativa de los ingresos del condado para la ciudad, dada la desproporcionada población de Santa Rosa (aproximadamente 180,000 de los 450,000 residentes del condado) y la carga de servicios para personas sin hogar (~55% de las personas sin hogar del condado). Señaló específicamente la reducción del financiamiento de In Response como ejemplo del insuficiente aporte del condado a los servicios que la ciudad presta a toda la región.
Comentarios del público sobre la sesión de estudio
Jenny Holmes de Catholic Charities (operadora de Sam Jones Hall) agradeció a la ciudad el presupuesto detallado, señaló que los recortes al servicio de personas sin hogar del año pasado ya han trasladado costos a seguridad pública y obras públicas, y solicitó que no se realicen más reducciones a los servicios para personas sin hogar mientras la organización trabaja en la búsqueda de financiamiento alternativo.
AJ Trump, del directorio de Railroad Square, agradeció al departamento de desarrollo económico de la ciudad por herramientas como el análisis de Placer AI, y señaló la dependencia de la plaza en el conjunto de servicios de seguridad pública, atención a personas sin hogar y respuesta en salud mental.
*No se tomó ningún voto; esta fue una sesión de estudio para información y orientación.*
Proclamaciones
7.1 – Mes y Día de Ir al Trabajo en Bicicleta (mayo de 2026 / 14 de mayo): Leída por el Concejal Alvarez. Eric, de la Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, agradeció al concejo y destacó una noche de cine sobre bicicletas (14 de mayo) y la expo "Pedal Fest" (31 de mayo). El concejo señaló dos vacantes en el Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board.
7.2 – Mes Nacional de Concienciación sobre Incendios Forestales: Leída por el Concejal MacDonald. El Jefe de División de Bomberos / Mariscal de Incendios Paul Lowenthal señaló que el departamento realiza en promedio entre 300 y 400 inspecciones mensuales de espacios defensibles, y orientó a los residentes a srcity.org/wildfireready y srcity.org/readySR.
7.3 – Mes del Patrimonio Judío-Americano: Leída por el Concejal Fleming, quien añadió comentarios personales que vinculan su identidad judía con su activismo en temas de inmigración. Daniel Feldman, de la comunidad judía local, intervino, al igual que representantes del Jewish Community Relations Council y miembros de congregaciones, quienes destacaron la importancia de la afirmación pública de pertenencia en el clima actual.
Actualización del Plan de Empoderamiento Comunitario (Punto 8.1)
Presentada por la Oficial de Comunicaciones Misty Wood (en reemplazo de Orta). Entre los puntos destacados se incluyeron: el festival de Cinco de Mayo en Roseland (la misma noche), una estación energizante del Día de Ir al Trabajo en Bicicleta en Prince Gateway Park (14 de mayo), dos reuniones comunitarias de seguridad vial del SRPD (14 y 30 de mayo), la Feria de Recursos de South Park (16 de mayo), una búsqueda del tesoro del Día de los Niños en los Parques en Howard Park (16 de mayo), y la actualización de que la encuesta comunitaria "Let's Talk Santa Rosa" ha recibido aproximadamente 1,840 respuestas (disponible en srcity.org/talk).
Calendario de Consentimiento (Puntos 13.1–13.5)
Aprobado sin discusión.
Votación: 6–0 (Fleming no presente en el llamado de lista; Okrepkie de forma remota).
Actas Aprobadas
Actas del 24 de marzo, 20 de abril y 27 de abril de 2026 aprobadas sin discusión. Las actas del 21 de abril quedaron pospuestas hasta el 12 de mayo.
Informes del Alcalde y el Concejo
Ben-Wellos: La Sonoma County Homeless Coalition aprobó las asignaciones del AF 26-27 con reducciones de aproximadamente el 11%; se eliminaron dos proyectos. Expresó preocupación por los recortes federales que incrementan la situación de personas sin hogar.
MacDonald: Asistió a la cena de la Engineering Contractors Association; la ciudad recibió un Bridge Award por el proyecto de conectividad de Hearn Avenue. Se reunió con el nuevo presidente de Sonoma State, quien expresó interés en asociaciones para el desarrollo de trayectorias profesionales.
Rogers: Actualización de la Sonoma County Water Agency — los pozos de agua subterránea están casi terminados; se otorgó una subvención de $9 millones para el proyecto de Potter Valley/Russian River.
Alvarez: El evento del Día de la Tierra congregó a miles de personas en Courthouse Square; felicitó al equipo de Transporte/Obras Públicas.
Alcalde Stapp: La ciudad está ejecutando aproximadamente $125 millones en proyectos de capital este año (frente a aproximadamente $75 millones el año pasado), incluyendo dos puentes, dos estaciones de bomberos y una biblioteca. Encabezó un viaje de cabildeo a Washington D.C. junto al Vicealcalde para asegurar una subvención federal de tránsito de $9.9 millones (10 autobuses, otorgada en 2024 pero aún no desembolsada), una subvención de $500,000 para sitios contaminados (brownfield), y atención al no resuelto problema de la ladera de Cooper Drive/FEMA.
Comentarios del Público sobre Asuntos No Incluidos en el Orden del Día
Varios oradores de Generation Housing y de la Climate Action Night del Santa Rosa Junior College instaron al concejo a presentar SB 10 (vivienda de relleno urbano cerca del transporte público) y AB 1033 (que permite vender las ADU como condominios de acceso inicial) en la Sesión de Estrategia de Vivienda del 2 de junio. Los oradores incluyeron estudiantes, un instructor del colegio comunitario, un corredor de bienes raíces comerciales y miembros de la comunidad, todos citando la crisis de asequibilidad de la vivienda como una amenaza para las familias, los estudiantes y los negocios locales.
Puntos clave
El déficit de $17.5 millones de la ciudad se ha reducido a una brecha de $7.6 millones mediante recortes, reorganizaciones y una innovadora estrategia de refinanciamiento de pensiones — pero el desequilibrio estructural persiste y la ciudad reconoce que no puede alcanzar la sostenibilidad solo con recortes; se necesitan soluciones por el lado de los ingresos.
No se proponen despidos de bomberos ni de oficiales de policía, pero se eliminarán 28 puestos FTE en todos los fondos, reduciendo la dotación del Fondo General a apenas dos empleados por encima del mínimo de la Gran Recesión, a pesar de un crecimiento poblacional del 12% desde entonces.
El programa de salud mental In Response está siendo reducido debido a los recortes del condado al financiamiento de Measure O, aunque se está cerca de finalizar un acuerdo de tres años financiado por el condado que preservaría un equipo reducido.
La estrategia de refinanciamiento de pensiones — pago anticipado de la deuda con CalPERS mediante una estructura de financiamiento innovadora — proyecta ahorrar a la ciudad casi $38 millones durante la vigencia del programa y está atrayendo la atención de otras ciudades a nivel estatal.
Miembros de la comunidad instaron al concejo a adoptar los proyectos de ley estatales SB 10 y AB 1033 en la próxima sesión de vivienda de junio, con amplio apoyo entre estudiantes, educadores, personas mayores y propietarios de negocios.
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Qué ocurrió en esta reunión
REVIEW OF FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE BUDGET AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
# FY 2026-27 Operations and Maintenance Budget and Capital Improvement Program Summary
Finance Director Scott Wagner and City Manager Farrell presented Santa Rosa's $535 million FY 2026-27 budget, which faces a structural $17.5 million general fund deficit despite 4.5% revenue growth, driven by expenditures growing at 6.6% and uncontrollable costs like CalPERS retirement benefits. The proposed budget addresses the deficit through a multi-pronged approach including a $7.6 million one-time reserve draw, departmental reductions of 1-3%, pension strategy savings of $3.8 million, enhanced cost recovery, and staffing adjustments—reducing the deficit to approximately $7.6 million while maintaining 64.5% of general fund spending on public safety. Staff emphasized that 77% of the budget consists of salaries and benefits with no remaining discretionary spending, noting that eliminating entire departments would still leave a $2.1 million shortfall, illustrating the systemic nature of the structural deficit. Key revenue challenges identified include Prop 13 limitations that allow Santa Rosa to retain only 11.7% of property tax revenue (versus 20% for other agencies), resulting in a $20+ million annual structural disadvantage, while sales tax stagnation and declining permit revenue further constrain growth. The city faces a critical long-term sustainability challenge, with five-year forecasts projecting $13-22 million annual deficits and mandatory reserves dropping to critically low levels by 2030 if no additional actions are taken, requiring revenue-side solutions beyond service reductions.
Finance Director Scott Wagner and City Manager Farrell presented Santa Rosa's $535 million FY 2026-27 budget, which faces a structural $17.5 million general fund deficit despite 4.5% revenue growth, driven by expenditures growing at 6.6% and uncontrollable costs like CalPERS retirement benefits. The proposed budget addresses the deficit through a multi-pronged approach including a $7.6 million one-time reserve draw, departmental reductions of 1-3%, pension strategy savings of $3.8 million, enhanced cost recovery, and staffing adjustments—reducing the deficit to approximately $7.6 million while maintaining 64.5% of general fund spending on public safety. Staff emphasized that 77% of the budget consists of salaries and benefits with no remaining discretionary spending, noting that eliminating entire departments would still leave a $2.1 million shortfall, illustrating the systemic nature of the structural deficit. Key revenue challenges identified include Prop 13 limitations that allow Santa Rosa to retain only 11.7% of property tax revenue (versus 20% for other agencies), resulting in a $20+ million annual structural disadvantage, while sales tax stagnation and declining permit revenue further constrain growth. The city faces a critical long-term sustainability challenge, with five-year forecasts projecting $13-22 million annual deficits and mandatory reserves dropping to critically low levels by 2030 if no additional actions are taken, requiring revenue-side solutions beyond service reductions.
PROCLAMATION - BIKE TO WORK MONTH & DAY
# Summary: PROCLAMATION - BIKE TO WORK MONTH & DAY
Staff presented a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Bike to Work Month and May 14, 2026 as Bike to Work Day in Santa Rosa, highlighting the health, environmental, and economic benefits of bicycling and the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition's work since 2001 in promoting cycling for transportation and recreation. A Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition representative expressed appreciation for the city council's support and described upcoming events including energizer stations on Bike to Work Day, a bike movie night on May 14th, and Paddle Fest bike expo on May 31st. Public commenter Cal Weeks praised the proclamation as a signal that the city values safe, healthy, and sustainable transportation, and thanked council and staff for completing the protected bike lane on West College Avenue and funding the Fulton Road overpass project. The coalition representative also acknowledged receiving constituent backlash regarding bike infrastructure but thanked council members for standing firm on the city's active transportation goals.
Staff presented a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Bike to Work Month and May 14, 2026 as Bike to Work Day in Santa Rosa, highlighting the health, environmental, and economic benefits of bicycling and the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition's work since 2001 in promoting cycling for transportation and recreation. A Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition representative expressed appreciation for the city council's support and described upcoming events including energizer stations on Bike to Work Day, a bike movie night on May 14th, and Paddle Fest bike expo on May 31st. Public commenter Cal Weeks praised the proclamation as a signal that the city values safe, healthy, and sustainable transportation, and thanked council and staff for completing the protected bike lane on West College Avenue and funding the Fulton Road overpass project. The coalition representative also acknowledged receiving constituent backlash regarding bike infrastructure but thanked council members for standing firm on the city's active transportation goals.
PROCLAMATION - NATIONAL WILDFIRE AWARENESS MONTH
# Summary: National Wildfire Awareness Month Proclamation Discussion
Staff presented the National Wildfire Awareness Month proclamation, noting Santa Rosa's direct impact from the Tubbs, Kincaid, and Glass fires (2017-2020) and California's 8,110 fires in 2024 that burned over 1 million acres. Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal emphasized that wildfire preparedness is a year-round community effort involving defensible space creation, vegetation management, and home hardening, and highlighted the fire department's coordination with residents and council support through the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, PG&E settlement funds, and a grazing program. Council Member MacDonald praised Oakmont's wildfire readiness campaign and asked about homeowner resources, to which Lowenthal responded that the department partners with the county's Fire Safe Council and maintains successful Firewise communities like Oakmont, Sky Farm, and Altavista. The fire department provides two websites (srsantarosa.org/wildfifeready and srcity.org/readySR) for community resources and conducts 300-400 defensible space inspections monthly. Community members offered public comments praising the fire department's preparedness efforts.
Staff presented the National Wildfire Awareness Month proclamation, noting Santa Rosa's direct impact from the Tubbs, Kincaid, and Glass fires (2017-2020) and California's 8,110 fires in 2024 that burned over 1 million acres. Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal emphasized that wildfire preparedness is a year-round community effort involving defensible space creation, vegetation management, and home hardening, and highlighted the fire department's coordination with residents and council support through the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, PG&E settlement funds, and a grazing program. Council Member MacDonald praised Oakmont's wildfire readiness campaign and asked about homeowner resources, to which Lowenthal responded that the department partners with the county's Fire Safe Council and maintains successful Firewise communities like Oakmont, Sky Farm, and Altavista. The fire department provides two websites (srsantarosa.org/wildfifeready and srcity.org/readySR) for community resources and conducts 300-400 defensible space inspections monthly. Community members offered public comments praising the fire department's preparedness efforts.
PROCLAMATION - JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
# Jewish American Heritage Month Proclamation Summary
The Council unanimously proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month, recognizing Jewish Americans' significant contributions to Santa Rosa's civic, cultural, and economic life since the nation's earliest days. Councilmember Fleming read the proclamation and made personal remarks about how their Jewish identity has informed their advocacy for fair treatment of immigrants, while Daniel Feldman, representing the local Jewish community, highlighted notable Jewish American figures including astronaut Judith Resnick, baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax, and composer Irving Berlin to emphasize Jewish Americans' integral role in society. The proclamation acknowledged local Jewish institutions including Congregation Shomrei Torah and the Jewish Community Center of Sonoma County, and committed to efforts to confront anti-Semitism and support education about Jewish American diversity. Multiple community members, including representatives from the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, expressed gratitude for the City's recognition and highlighted community programs such as the Jewish Free Clinic and food pantry initiatives that serve all residents regardless of religion. The Council concluded by taking a commemorative photo with attendees.
The Council unanimously proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month, recognizing Jewish Americans' significant contributions to Santa Rosa's civic, cultural, and economic life since the nation's earliest days. Councilmember Fleming read the proclamation and made personal remarks about how their Jewish identity has informed their advocacy for fair treatment of immigrants, while Daniel Feldman, representing the local Jewish community, highlighted notable Jewish American figures including astronaut Judith Resnick, baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax, and composer Irving Berlin to emphasize Jewish Americans' integral role in society. The proclamation acknowledged local Jewish institutions including Congregation Shomrei Torah and the Jewish Community Center of Sonoma County, and committed to efforts to confront anti-Semitism and support education about Jewish American diversity. Multiple community members, including representatives from the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, expressed gratitude for the City's recognition and highlighted community programs such as the Jewish Free Clinic and food pantry initiatives that serve all residents regardless of religion. The Council concluded by taking a commemorative photo with attendees.
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PLAN UPDATE This is a standing item on the agenda. Council will take no action except for possible direction to staff. This item has no impact on current fiscal year budget.
# Community Empowerment Plan Update Summary
Misty Wood, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Officer, presented the Community Empowerment Plan update as a standing agenda item requiring no action. Wood announced upcoming community events including a Cinco de Mayo festival in Roseland on May 5th, a Bike to Work Day Energizer station on May 14th, and community traffic safety meetings hosted by the Santa Rosa Police Department on May 14th and May 30th. Staff also reported on recent community engagement efforts, including a joint meeting between the Santa Rosa Police Department, Violence Prevention partnership, Parks Department, code Enforcement, and Roseland residents to address neighborhood safety concerns, as well as the ongoing 'Let's Talk Santa Rosa' campaign, which has collected approximately 1,840 survey responses about service priorities through sr City Dot Org/talk and feedback City Dot org. A Council member inquired about the Let's Talk Santa Rosa update, and staff confirmed the campaign continues to gather public feedback on service priorities as the city develops its budget.
Misty Wood, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Officer, presented the Community Empowerment Plan update as a standing agenda item requiring no action. Wood announced upcoming community events including a Cinco de Mayo festival in Roseland on May 5th, a Bike to Work Day Energizer station on May 14th, and community traffic safety meetings hosted by the Santa Rosa Police Department on May 14th and May 30th. Staff also reported on recent community engagement efforts, including a joint meeting between the Santa Rosa Police Department, Violence Prevention partnership, Parks Department, code Enforcement, and Roseland residents to address neighborhood safety concerns, as well as the ongoing 'Let's Talk Santa Rosa' campaign, which has collected approximately 1,840 survey responses about service priorities through sr City Dot Org/talk and feedback City Dot org. A Council member inquired about the Let's Talk Santa Rosa update, and staff confirmed the campaign continues to gather public feedback on service priorities as the city develops its budget.
Puntos de agenda (20)
Procedural (9)
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Residents can watch the meeting on YouTube or submit public comments in person or by email by 5 p.m. the Monday before the meeting.
12.1ProceduralMarch 24, 2026, Regular Meeting Minutes.
The council will review and approve the official minutes from the March 24, 2026 regular meeting.
12.2ProceduralApril 20, 2026, Special Meeting Minutes.
The council will review and approve the official minutes from the April 20, 2026 special meeting.
12.3ProceduralApril 21, 2026, Regular Meeting Minutes. (THIS ITEM IS CONTINUED TO THE MAY 12, 2026, REGULAR MEETING)
The council will review and approve the official minutes from the April 21, 2026 regular meeting, though this vote has been postponed to the May 12, 2026 meeting.
12.4ProceduralApril 27, 2026, Special Meeting Minutes.
The council will review and approve the official minutes from the April 27, 2026 special meeting.
21.1ProceduralUPCOMING MEETINGS LIST
This is a procedural item listing upcoming city council meetings.
General Business
4.1General BusinessREVIEW OF FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE BUDGET AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
The city council will review and discuss the next fiscal year's (2026-27) budget for operations and maintenance as well as planned capital improvement projects.
Qué ocurrió
# FY 2026-27 Operations and Maintenance Budget and Capital Improvement Program SummaryFinance Director Scott Wagner and City Manager Farrell presented Santa Rosa's $535 million FY 2026-27 budget, which faces a structural $17.5 million general fund deficit despite 4.5% revenue growth, driven by expenditures growing at 6.6% and uncontrollable costs like CalPERS retirement benefits. The proposed budget addresses the deficit through a multi-pronged approach including a $7.6 million one-time reserve draw, departmental reductions of 1-3%, pension strategy savings of $3.8 million, enhanced cost recovery, and staffing adjustments—reducing the deficit to approximately $7.6 million while maintaining 64.5% of general fund spending on public safety. Staff emphasized that 77% of the budget consists of salaries and benefits with no remaining discretionary spending, noting that eliminating entire departments would still leave a $2.1 million shortfall, illustrating the systemic nature of the structural deficit. Key revenue challenges identified include Prop 13 limitations that allow Santa Rosa to retain only 11.7% of property tax revenue (versus 20% for other agencies), resulting in a $20+ million annual structural disadvantage, while sales tax stagnation and declining permit revenue further constrain growth. The city faces a critical long-term sustainability challenge, with five-year forecasts projecting $13-22 million annual deficits and mandatory reserves dropping to critically low levels by 2030 if no additional actions are taken, requiring revenue-side solutions beyond service reductions.
7.1General BusinessPROCLAMATION - BIKE TO WORK MONTH & DAY
The council will issue a proclamation recognizing Bike to Work Month and Day in Santa Rosa.
Qué ocurrió
# Summary: PROCLAMATION - BIKE TO WORK MONTH & DAYStaff presented a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Bike to Work Month and May 14, 2026 as Bike to Work Day in Santa Rosa, highlighting the health, environmental, and economic benefits of bicycling and the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition's work since 2001 in promoting cycling for transportation and recreation. A Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition representative expressed appreciation for the city council's support and described upcoming events including energizer stations on Bike to Work Day, a bike movie night on May 14th, and Paddle Fest bike expo on May 31st. Public commenter Cal Weeks praised the proclamation as a signal that the city values safe, healthy, and sustainable transportation, and thanked council and staff for completing the protected bike lane on West College Avenue and funding the Fulton Road overpass project. The coalition representative also acknowledged receiving constituent backlash regarding bike infrastructure but thanked council members for standing firm on the city's active transportation goals.
7.2General BusinessPROCLAMATION - NATIONAL WILDFIRE AWARENESS MONTH
The council will issue a proclamation recognizing National Wildfire Awareness Month.
Qué ocurrió
# Summary: National Wildfire Awareness Month Proclamation DiscussionStaff presented the National Wildfire Awareness Month proclamation, noting Santa Rosa's direct impact from the Tubbs, Kincaid, and Glass fires (2017-2020) and California's 8,110 fires in 2024 that burned over 1 million acres. Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal emphasized that wildfire preparedness is a year-round community effort involving defensible space creation, vegetation management, and home hardening, and highlighted the fire department's coordination with residents and council support through the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, PG&E settlement funds, and a grazing program. Council Member MacDonald praised Oakmont's wildfire readiness campaign and asked about homeowner resources, to which Lowenthal responded that the department partners with the county's Fire Safe Council and maintains successful Firewise communities like Oakmont, Sky Farm, and Altavista. The fire department provides two websites (srsantarosa.org/wildfifeready and srcity.org/readySR) for community resources and conducts 300-400 defensible space inspections monthly. Community members offered public comments praising the fire department's preparedness efforts.
7.3General BusinessPROCLAMATION - JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
The council will issue a proclamation recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month.
Qué ocurrió
# Jewish American Heritage Month Proclamation SummaryThe Council unanimously proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month, recognizing Jewish Americans' significant contributions to Santa Rosa's civic, cultural, and economic life since the nation's earliest days. Councilmember Fleming read the proclamation and made personal remarks about how their Jewish identity has informed their advocacy for fair treatment of immigrants, while Daniel Feldman, representing the local Jewish community, highlighted notable Jewish American figures including astronaut Judith Resnick, baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax, and composer Irving Berlin to emphasize Jewish Americans' integral role in society. The proclamation acknowledged local Jewish institutions including Congregation Shomrei Torah and the Jewish Community Center of Sonoma County, and committed to efforts to confront anti-Semitism and support education about Jewish American diversity. Multiple community members, including representatives from the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, expressed gratitude for the City's recognition and highlighted community programs such as the Jewish Free Clinic and food pantry initiatives that serve all residents regardless of religion. The Council concluded by taking a commemorative photo with attendees.
8.1General BusinessCOMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PLAN UPDATE This is a standing item on the agenda. Council will take no action except for possible direction to staff. This item has no impact on current fiscal year budget.
Staff will provide a regular update on the Community Empowerment Plan, and the council may offer direction but will take no formal action; this does not affect the current year's budget.
Qué ocurrió
# Community Empowerment Plan Update SummaryMisty Wood, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Officer, presented the Community Empowerment Plan update as a standing agenda item requiring no action. Wood announced upcoming community events including a Cinco de Mayo festival in Roseland on May 5th, a Bike to Work Day Energizer station on May 14th, and community traffic safety meetings hosted by the Santa Rosa Police Department on May 14th and May 30th. Staff also reported on recent community engagement efforts, including a joint meeting between the Santa Rosa Police Department, Violence Prevention partnership, Parks Department, code Enforcement, and Roseland residents to address neighborhood safety concerns, as well as the ongoing 'Let's Talk Santa Rosa' campaign, which has collected approximately 1,840 survey responses about service priorities through sr City Dot Org/talk and feedback City Dot org. A Council member inquired about the Let's Talk Santa Rosa update, and staff confirmed the campaign continues to gather public feedback on service priorities as the city develops its budget.
11.1General BusinessMAYOR'S/COUNCIL MEMBERS' SUBCOMMITTEE AND LIAISON REPORTS (AND POSSIBLE COUNCIL DIRECTION TO BOARD REPRESENTATIVE ON PENDING ISSUES, IF NEEDED) 11.1.1 Council Subcommittee Reports 11.1.2 Sonoma County Transportation and Climate Authorities (SCTCA) 11.1.3 Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) - Water Advisory Committee 11.1.4 Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)
Council members will report back on their work with various subcommittees and regional agencies including the Sonoma County Transportation and Climate Authorities, Water Agency, and Bay Area Governments association.
Qué ocurrió
Council members provided reports on their subcommittee and liaison activities. Councilmember Los reported on the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition's approval of fiscal year 26-27 homeless service allocations with approximately 11% reductions and elimination of 2 projects below the $30,000 threshold. Staff will present recommendations for COC renewal funding at the May 27th meeting. Los expressed concern that federal government cuts could result in more people ending up on the streets, noting the personal impacts she's hearing from constituents working multiple jobs. Councilmember Donald reported that the City of Santa Rosa received a bridge award for work on Hearn Avenue connectivity and thanked staff and partners for their collaboration. Donald also mentioned meeting the new Sonoma State president to discuss potential partnerships on student pathways and career technical education. Councilmember Rogers reported on a walk and talk meeting where a resolution was passed honoring Brenda Aldermen for 45 years of Russian River Watershed advocacy, and noted Sonoma Water's operational updates on groundwater well improvements and a $9 million grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.Consent Calendar
13.1Consent CalendarMOTION - APPROVAL OF COOPERATIVE PURCHASE - FIRE
The council will vote to approve a cooperative purchasing agreement for the Fire Department.
Qué ocurrió
Staff began the public safety review with the police department budget presentation. The proposed budget maintains police response and service delivery with minor overall reductions of $51,000 achieved through vehicle efficiency improvements and better use of technology. The police department budget reflects increases in some cost areas and overall salary increases while maintaining service levels.13.2Consent CalendarMOTION - APPROVAL OF COOPERATIVE PURCHASE - FIRE
The council will vote to approve another cooperative purchasing agreement for the Fire Department.
13.3Consent CalendarMOTION - APPROVAL OF PURCHASE ORDER WITH IPS GROUP, INC. TO PAY SINGLE SPACE AND MULTI SPACE COMMUNICATION FEES, CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION FEES, AND TEXT 2 PAY
The council will vote to approve a contract with IPS Group, Inc. to handle parking payment fees, credit card processing, and text-to-pay services.
13.4Consent CalendarMOTION - APPROVAL OF PURCHASE ORDER WITH PASSPORT LABS, INC. TO PROVIDE DIGITAL BILLING, TRANSACTION, AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR THE PAYMENT OF PARKING
The council will vote to approve a contract with Passport Labs, Inc. to provide digital billing and payment management services for the city's parking system.
13.5Consent CalendarRESOLUTION - FUNDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF SANTA ROSA AND COUNTY OF SONOMA FOR OPERATIONS AT SAMUEL L. JONES HALL HOMELESS SHELTER RECOMMENDATION: The Housing and Community Services Department recommends that the Council, by resolution: 1) approve Modification Number One of Agreement 2025-5042-A01 Between the City of Santa Rosa and the County of Sonoma for Operational Funding at the Samuel L. Jones Hall Homeless Shelter (Funding Agreement) in the amount of $255,000 annually for a combined total amount of $510,000; and 2) authorize the Director of Housing and Community
The council will vote to approve an additional $255,000 annual funding agreement (for a combined total of $510,000) between the city and Sonoma County to operate the Samuel L. Jones Hall homeless shelter.
Qué ocurrió
Staff presented a funding agreement between the City of Santa Rosa and County of Sonoma for operations at the in-response program, which will provide county-funded mental health clinicians at a cost of 2.7 million dollars annually to the city. Council members raised questions about whether the county clinicians would be able to bill for their services, with Chief Westrope explaining they are working toward medical billing certification but facing uncertainty due to the Governor's proposed budget potentially eliminating or reducing medical billing funds. A council member emphasized the importance of ensuring Santa Rosa receives its appropriate share of medical billable dollars in a multi-city partnership and requested updates on the billing situation as it develops.Votos adicionales registrados en actas
Approve consent calendar items 13.1 through 13.5
aye 5 · absent 2
Alvarezaye
Ben Willowsaye
Flemingabsent
MacDonaldaye
Okrepkieabsent
Rogersaye
Stappaye
Transcripción literal disponible
158 segmentos de transcripción indexados
For those just joining the meeting. Live interpretation in Spanish is available and members of the public, our staff wishing to listen in. Spanish can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the soon toolbar, it looks like a glow. If you are on your cell phone or tablet locate the 3 dots, tap them lightly and put a check mark on your preferred language. Clint Dunn to activate and begin the interpretation when she joined the Spanish Channel. We recommend you shut off the main audio. So you only hear the Spanish interpretation. Claudia, will you please restate this in Spanish? Yes. Can you hear me? Okay. Hello. Yes, we can. Thank and thank you. Studies we many of us just to be Santa protest tune in spend. Don't want to start the spoon. The unit to nominate a with >> But I thought okay, yes, but so has his coach least putting on weight. But some at Kentucky checking spying on most of planet. Parting figure this thing. Yeah. Want look at iq and quite the same impact. But that's with a it will kick in they summon 8 in the heat, they spying on to something in those 2 sexist. So nice put him in face Similac o coming up was put it in a county settles today. Spor within U.S. Canadian got a boost him
in pick. The Senate's balance. Adults. Heal issue to or my English was spying. Top It And the heat in the is playing out as promised pick up, if cut them in men in 2 of to him that pick on that. He gun, but I could with an ace coach Cooley put my soon in media might get a sandwich is going to social to the Thank you very much. Back to you. >> Welcome everyone. The time is 12, 0, 5. And we'll call this meeting thank you all for coming out. I will point out there are there are plenty of open seats start here in the front. For those of you want to move closer. That's at your discretion. MADAM City Clerk, would you please call the roll? >> Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Rogers, PRESIDENT Councilmember MacDonald here, Councilmember Fleming. Councilmember Ben, most here, Councilmember Alvarez, PRESIDENT Vice Mayor Okrepkie. >> Mayor step here. Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of Councilmember Fleming. >> Thank you. And I believe MISTER Okrepkie would it would like to explain why he's remote today. >> I'm remote because this is scheduled do. I have to do a It's a good question. Do we have to their statement needs to be known the red is no. >> There's not a statement that needs to be read. There's addenda posted at the location where Councilmember Okrepkie is appearing. >> Perfect. So for those of you on Maui, is Jeff? Yes, all right. You got your chance participate over there. We'll
move on then to its er Our main show for the Day. Our study session. Thank you thank you again Thank you again for coming out turn it over to our city manager for for an introduction and the knee interaction. The item. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor step and honorable councilmembers today. We will have a review of the fiscal year 2026. 27 operations and maintenance budget and capital improvement program. Budget. The Finance Department today will recommend that the council hold a study session intended to provide city council with the opportunity to receive information and ask questions related to the city's overall financial stability and the proposed fiscal year 26, 27 operations and maintenance budget and the Capital Improvement program. Budget. The item is intended for councils information and no action is required and has no impact on the current fiscal year budget. Another introduce the item. I just wanted to make a few brief remarks. As you know today, I'm pleased to present to you. The city manager's proposed budget for the city of Santa Rosa for the fiscal year 26, 27, which begins on JULY. 21st 2026. While the discussion that will have will be over the next 2 days. It represents a monthslong effort to address a book of business for this Municipal Corporation, which is what city is that all funds basis. General fund and all enterprises combined is a 575 million dollar operation across all city departments. All city operations programs
and functions. And so let me set the table. The presentation today will be a more streamlined presentation focusing on the major changes and recommendations for the budget. And we've had in the past department accomplishments and descriptions will be contained in our in our very luminous budget book will be available to counsel and also to the public before the JUNE 16th, potential adoption. But for the next 2 days will be focusing purely on budget recommendations. Major additions and deletions to help your decision making and to have a more focused conversation so that you can provide staff direction on the budget that you would like for us to present to you in JUNE. As mentioned in previous study sessions, including an APRIL. 26 conversation. Main challenge that we're facing is a 17, a half million dollar project, a deficit in the general fund. Today's presentation will continue to your strategy to address the shortfall. As we've discussed. But the budget also does reflect prior tough decisions and cost-cutting measures they've been adopted by this council in the past. As you know, the budget is a representation of our priorities and our commitment to our residents and businesses of maintaining high-quality public services and the quality of life that our community enjoys. It's our intention that this budget is a reflection of our commitment to many of our essential programs, including public safety, despite having a deficit. To that end, the budget that will be presented to today dedicates a 64.5%, almost two-thirds of his general fund spending to public safety. It also reduces
the table of organization to become more efficient and operating expenses. It realized the budget back to its general fund course staffing levels. That's the elimination or reduction of county and state grants but also enhances cost recovery and employs a multi-pronged approach to reduce the deficit. And lastly, I just wanted to thank the City Council for your leadership, a leading up to this point, as you know, a budget process is iterative and there's a foundation that was built previous to my arrival and this budget be presented to. So thank you for making very tough decisions last year that helped to reduce the deficit that we would be facing for this next coming fiscal year. So thank you for your leadership and making those tough decisions. Also want to thank the executive team of the city whose work with me closely over the past several months to bring together a budget proposal to you that we think the Chiefs, many of our goals, I want to thank our employee associations. They've been great partners since I've been here. We've had many conversations between labor and management, some of their concerns and some of our challenges and working through those together. It's been a very transparent process. And I'm hoping that, you know, they have received live information along the way about the recommendations and why we'll be making specific recommendations today in different areas. And then, but most of all, I want to thank our finance director and our budget manager. And Scott Wagner, Veronica, Current me
just fantastic. Individuals. So incredibly responsible and dedicated has spent countless hours working on this, working with the departments. They have an incredible team, my and I believe Trish have also worked on this budget from an analyst and point fair leads. And so this is really the culmination of their health efforts as well. They're a stellar team. I can see that having worked in many different cities. And so with that, want to turn it over to Scott Wagner finance director. Thank you. City manager Farrell, I want echo points just brought up. I manager. But there was one missing. Thank you that I'll point out and I would like to thank Senator Farrell for her work over the past. >> Really since day one of this mature process and I will share that her dedication her commitment to collaboration and communication has been truly inspiring over the past 6 months. So express that nothing's hear that let us to today in our proposed budget. So with that, as Lauren mentioned briefly, this is a slight change in formatting of this meeting and what we hopes today's present meeting that is efficient, thorough and detailed of our city's budgets. This is going to be a slight change in that we're not going to have department has come down to present each department myself and Veronica will be running through that. I've got big thing of hot tea right here in some water. So I'm gonna do my best to power through memorizing a 500 million dollar budget is
tough. I have my phone or friends here in the office as we get as we get stumped. But I'm also going to take a little bit extra look at my notes here as we go through them. So with that said, we've got a lot of sides and we will jump right in. So for the order of today, we're going to be primarily focused on general fund departments and general fund operating that we're going to do a quick overview of the city as a whole. We're going to talk about the budgets individually by department and also break down what the changes are. What are the big movers and expenditures to give everyone an idea of what really has changed within departments and especially any staffing changes that have been proposed. Where we are on the timeline is right over there MAY 5th in 6. This is our standard budget study sessions that last 2 days will be coming back tomorrow morning to finish our presentation around Cip and water enterprise funds primarily. But today will really cap the city manager's proposed budget and recommendations for changes. The next step in our budget process. Will we submitting a draft of our budget book at the city manager's office to to the public on JUNE. 2nd, ultimately leading us to a JUNE 16th 2026. Adoption of the fiscal year, 26, 27 budget beginning on JULY. 1st. Our process this year began with what we call as a base budget development instructions went out the department's to have a what we call status quo budget and what that means is for
them to not increase service or decrease service or increase employees or decrease employees but to budget out what would be required to maintain the level of services and employees by the departments. As of this was done, we had an initial look at where our deficit was, which landed at 17 and a half million dollars. Included within the 17 and half million dollars is many uncontrollable cross that the city incurs such as increases to Calpers retirement benefit. Our costs, professional services contracts that glove that will be discussing at length as we review each department's budget. The city manager's budget review began right away in JANUARY will be talking about our strategies and proposed reductions along with the analysis that was done to develop our proposed tragedy that we're bringing forward today. But ultimately the framework of what we were talking about with the base budget was presented to council on APRIL. 21st. As part of that step in the city manager's guidance, the department's was for departments to develop a one percent and 3% reduction list. This was target around one quarter of the overall deficit of 17 and a half million dollars threw an additional multi pronged approach developed by the city manager and Finance Department. We are talking deficit through multiple other ways. We programming in a onetime use, a strategic amount of our reserves of 7.6 million dollars. That is to match the
proposed deficit within the general fund. We're looking to adjust grant funded positions where the grant funding as either expired or decreased. And we'll be talking about that more in a moment. We have a focus see on the vacancies of the city and really narrowing down. Where do we currently have empty positions? This is to help mitigate service impacts to the community, but also to mitigate impacts store employees that MAY be currently held within a position. We've been able to be successful in using innovative financing approaches that we talked about on the APRIL 21st with a pension cost savings program. Council gave the go-ahead to continue pursuing. We intend to bring that forward to council in JUNE for adoption. Additionally, we looked at the city's fleet, which is a very large expense for us. And we are feel comfortable bringing 41 million dollar improvement towards our funding to how we fund a large major apparatus purchases. And ultimately we had a targeted costs. Recovery improvements across many of the area's. What you'll see throughout different departments is really a look at how can we maximize the amount of recovery that we can get against restricted funds outside of the general fund. So our first table with with a lot of numbers on it and what you'll see is that overall our city proposed budget is 535 million dollars. What's important to me within that numbers that we are a full service city. We offer many services to the public, whether that's a waste water treatment plant that entire region uses. Police fire
within our general fund. Public works Housing authority. We do many, many things here at the city, which is exciting for us. We'll talk about in a moment. The big changes over here from a revenue perspective. But their biggest fund is our general fund for the majority of our most known services live. Whether that's police fire public works for planning and economic development and what you'll see is we have a 4 and a half percent growth rate or 9.6 million worth of additional revenue for the next coming year. When we juxtapose that against expenditures, we're seeing a 6.6% increase in expenditures. So we still have this snowball going downhill that we've been discussing as a city and we still maintain a structural deficit. Now, these numbers that will be presenting today are much improved from the ones we presented on APRIL. 21st. And they're very, very improved from where we started this conversation 2 years ago. Overall, one note I would bring up as well. It is a little shout out to our accounting department, but we've narrowed down all the funds of the city into these major categories. But we have 128 active funds that the city that are restricted for different purposes. It is massive undertaking to ensure that that's done properly. And we're very proud of the job we do in finance to do so. Our salute of expenditures by fund again, the general fund being the major funding, the city of
our operating fund. Additionally, we have an enterprise fund and as we all knows, Santa Rosa not only provides water and wastewater services for the city of Santa Rosa, but we have our wastewater treatment plant that are some regional partners use as well with a very large water enterprise here at the city. So now we'll move on to a focus for the general fund. And this first slide shows what we'll be talking about over the next couple days as a multi-year multi-pronged strategy and that strategic use of reserves. I will point out at the very bottom being 7.6% or 7.6 million dollars. We'll breaking down the differences in our revenues and transfers and expenditures and detail later. But this is to show how we approached our to your strategy to address our current year fiscal year, 26, 27 and also that have not fully solved a deficit. Even our total for this year is 0. And with that, I'll pass it over to Veronica to help us go over. Revenue changes. Thank you, Scott. So as Scott mentioned, we are now focusing in on our general fund. Revenue source is these are all of our resources to run our general fund operations. >> Our top 2 bullet points are going to cover. Well, these bullet points are going to be covering what we'll see in the next few slides with the tap to focus on our main resources coming into the general fund, which our property tax and sales tax property tax this year. First, 26 27. We are projecting a 5 and a half percent growth which is
consistent with our 3, 5 year averages of what we see in this category sales tax. On the other hand, we are only projecting a one and a half percent growth per recent performance which adds about 1.1 million dollars to our general fund for next year. >> ut is utility users tax. This hasn't many different inroads and we're seeing increases in gas and electric. However, this is being offset by decreases and telephone and cable. So there's kind of 2 factors happening here. But overall, we're projecting an increase of $700,000. Our other taxes category is a big category. It contains a lot of different items containing real property transfer tax. Cannabis industry tax dot. You'll see a large increase on the next slide. And that is mostly due to our business tax. Thanks to the ballot measure that went through last year. Permit costs are trending at lower cost per permit. We're starting to see a slight downturn in this area. So we're projecting a decrease of $400,000 in that category. Recreation revenues. On the other hand, are maintaining very strong growth. We're seeing over a 14% growth in enrollment as well council approved. Increase is back in JANUARY. Projecting over $800,000 worth of growth in this? Alright, next year. And then finally were able to determine a revenue offset of $350,000 to fund our ems fire captain. That was formerly funded by and response. So this table just recaps everything we
talked about on the previous slide. You can see property tax growing at 5 and a half percent on the top line followed by sales tax. I touched on the main items. Anything else missed our vehicle. License fees shows a 7.2% growth. This typically grows with property tax. But we determine last year's budget was a little low. So that accounts for some of the year over year swings. The bottom line, intergovernmental interest and other that contains that growth for the ems fire captain, which contributes to some larger growth. But overall, our revenue as cfo Wagner mentioned a couple slides back is growing at 4 and a half percent year-over-year. And our general fund. And this pie chart is just a visual of what we saw in the previous table. Sales tax and property tax make up 51% of our general fund resources. So these are definitely the 2 categories that we pay close attention to. In a word about these 2 categories. This picture, the top part, the dollar bill. This is a visual depiction of our property tax here in Santa Rosa. So for every dollar spent on property tax within city limits, the city of Santa Rosa gets that red box. 11.7%. That's so much comes back to our city. 3 major of it goes to Sonoma County, Sonoma County schools, other cetera. So the dime on the bottom represents our sales tax. The sales tax and Santa Rosa is 10%. That's that's tax rate. So for every dollar spent here within city limits, you spend a dime and sales tax. Santa Rosa actually receives 1.7, $0.5 of that time. 2.2 $0.5 goes to Sonoma County and the state receives 6.10, cents.
I'd like to add a few notes on this slide because it's very important and we'll start with property tax. >> So the city receives at 11.7% that for Annika broke down. But a critical understanding of how property tax works in the state of California. Is that agencies have all different numbers for that 11.7% is very low. We're a team, much less property tax and other agencies to, for example, there is an agency within Sonoma County that keeps 20% of their property taxes. That difference. Let's see if we were collecting 20% of our property taxes would be over 20 million dollars worth of annual funding. 2 questions I always get off of that is why. And the why is the same answer to most wise in the state of California's Prop 13? And before Prop 13? Agencies set their own property tax. And so what happened was agencies like ours that in the 70's had very explosive growth in revenue, had very low property taxes. Because that was their financial reality back. Then. And it got locked in. And the second question I get is, well, how do we change that? That is I don't know the answer to that one. And that's diplomatic way of saying that it's hard to impossible to do. Prof 13 is still very, very popular polls at the exact same levels that it did when it passed. That is frustrating for us an agency, though, the reality and the disparity that creates within our revenue collection. What that means is that we are more dependent on sales tax than the average
agency is. Veronica mentioned out of $0.10 or a dollar worth sales taxable sales and see Santa Rosa. We keep 1.7 5%. The majority of sales tax goes to the state along with Sonoma County through Sonoma County's specific sales tax measures which are 8. One more note on property tax. And I always like to bring up and this came up recently is that we love growth in the city of Santa Rosa, myself as a finance person. Very much recognizes that growth is absolutely critical to your financial sustainability. Where that sometimes where the rubber hits the road, those with big projects and so use an example if we had a 50 million dollar project come on line at the city. It will often get asked him, you know what that's going mean. So much more money for the city through property taxes. The reality is a 50 million Dollar project of the city of Santa Rosa is going to bring in around $60,000 a year worth of additional property taxes. And that comes from that breakdown above. So there's of reality with our revenue that is outside of decision-making. It's outside of anything. It is. It is structural and that is part of our challenge that we're in today is that sales tax has been so stagnant based on behaviors of consumers and how we're all stressed personally that that we're we're up against that reality. So this slide breaks down our transfers into the general fund transfers in are also resources that are used for the general funds operations, but they're different from
revenue because this is not revenue earned within our general fund. Their earned and other funds are recognized and other funds and then transferred to the General Fund for our use. >> The top line is our year to date. It's been our typical highest point of transfers in which comes from our special revenue funds. And this is mostly from our gas tax funds. We have an allocation that we are allowed to use for administrative purposes. So our special revenue funds transfer and 2 and a half million dollars. And 26 27. Our pension funds is the new item that we're seeing this year. And this is related to our new pension strategy that was brought to council back on APRIL. 21st. And we're seeing a 5.6 million dollar transfer in from a pension fund that will be used to help offset our pension costs. And 26 27. >> Moving on to expenditures for stock cover. Some major highlights major increases that we're seeing across departments. This is the last year of our 3 year you with our labor unions. We see a 4.9 million dollar increase across our departments associated with the contractually agreed on compensation increases for that contract. You additional ec when we get to the police and fire departments that we need adjustment within our budget to match actuals around over time to what is budgeted. Briefly and we'll talk about this more much more later in both. The Chiefs will join give an overview of this item, but I will really stress that this is to match what's actually happening in our budget versus providing what I would describe as additional funding. These are the realities that we're seeing in
our budget. And it's critical for us as an ornery organization, given the amount of reductions that we made that we've made to make sure that all of our line items at the city are as accurate as possible. And this is an adjustment that we're proposing to make to correct it. We a fix to increase in our health insurance retirement benefits. Of 1.3 million dollars within our professional services. We see contractual increases of around a million dollars. Given that most contracts we have with the city just meant for inflation each year for the services that we require outside assistance for. This is an election year budget. So we'll see a bump and $550,000 for election costs. One additional outliers that we're $450,000 increase from our animal control and shelter contract. This is a night in the city manager's office and the Finance Department going forward are very focused on and will be collaborating with our county leaders to help try to addressed these increases, which frankly we've been seeing now for a 5 or six-year period, which is unsustainable. Major, decreases will be going through at length in a moment. But 4.9 million dollars worth of departmental reductions is ultimately what is being proposed to move forward. 3.8 million dollars with net savings from our pension strategy. 1 million dollars savings from our fire apparatus, least savings property insurance decreased. This is a blip on the radar. Last year was a little high because we knew to shore up the reserve this year, really. And it bounces back down. This is a return normal is what I would say from the prior
year's bump. Overall after the reductions to staffing. We see a 5.3 million dollar increase for expenditures overall. Like I mentioned earlier, a 6.6% growth within our expenditures versus that 4 and a half percent revenue line. As I mentioned, other major movers in here, which which we'll talk about in the department's more at length a little bit later. We always show chart. And I always mention that we are an organization that provides our services people at the end of the day, 76% of our overall budget is made up of salaries and benefits. Now we're taking a look at our expenditures, broken down on a function level. What you'll see is that overall administration increased 1.5% administration include city Council city, Attorney Finance Department h r I'm probably forgetting one of top my head, but but it's it's all of us administrative folks in. But as we go through, the administrative departments will break that down. Our non departmental is roughly flat. This includes the increase in increase of expenses for our for our pension stabilization strategy, along with decreases in our general fund overhead that goes out to departments making it mostly flat. The rest of these departments will be talking through at length a little bit later. Overall, the city is our city manager mentioned earlier is roughly 65%. Public safety. This is how that shakes out amongst the general fund by department. General fund transfers out. So each year we talk about transfers in
transfers out when you think of transfers. And it's kind of just like revenue transfers out, kind of just like expenditures, the governmental accounting standards MAY cause account for them a little bit differently in column a transfer out. The major changes for the transfer out this year. As you'll note that we've maintained the half a million dollars worth of additional funding for Bennett Valley, Golf Course. That has not changed our cip funds. We have 2 major cip funding is from our General fund an annual basis. That is 1.2 million dollars worth of what we call the ad. A settlement is for the city to fund ada projects throughout the city. I frankly will describe that is not optional. We we need to do that per our settlement. And then there's an additional $650,000 worth of funding from the county that flows into the general fund and goes out to cip as part of the Roseland annexation agreement. Of know is that this will be the last year of receiving that funding. The funding is already been appropriated as part of the cip projects that Director Hennessy has been bringing forward for pavement, rehabilitation and maintenance within Roseland. Overall, the rest of out remain steady year to year, including homeless services. Through What we call piece out are we used to call it but the additional quarter cent Tdt that the city has for public safety and prevention. As part of that calculation, we need to ensure that the general fund is properly funding our public safety departments at the level of
one that sells tax was adopted. We are still doing so. This is our way of showing that we're not out below our funding level little for these departments. So we will shift gears and start moving on to our multi-year budget strategy. As I do in these moments. I think it's very critical to talk about the actions that have been taken because our recent history helps inform us of what the sudden for acquired next from the city and where next steps are. As part of the last year. It's been a focus of the finance department and the city manager's office to have proper in an expanded budget engagement. This is included monthly meetings with our labor groups with a labor groups drove the agenda of those meetings, including those meetings was a complete review of the city's investment portfolio where the city's independent outside audit are keen to actually break down our investment portfolio line by line and how that tied back to our audited. Financials, our investment adviser was there as well to talk about how the city's investment portfolio works. We talked about Calpers pension expenses and how it's a strain on the city and ultimately what we ended up proposing to do to fix it, to help alleviate some of the problems were fixed. Cip funding. We talked about how the city's robust cip the program. It's mostly from restricted sources that we can leverage to into the general fund to alleviate our structural problems. We went through all the assumptions of the city's
long-range finance financial forecast in the assumptions that we make on our revenue growth expenditure of Veronica myself frequently talk about we need try to be aggressive or conservative within our projections. We try to be accurate. We can never be 100% accurate. But the assumptions that we put in there are the best with the information we have and frankly never reflect a recession. Additionally, we formed a budget city manager, Budget working group with community members that we've been meeting with monthly including a couple weeks ago. This has been a great way for us to hear back directly from members of the community to understand what the prior with their priorities are and help share information with our challenges. We spent over 12 hours with the Lt fpa Finance Subcommittee reviewing Budget line by line by department. This was one of the more rewarding activities that I've been part of here at the city and just being able to sit back and frankly, listen to our departments, explain what they do. How do they develop their budget and all of the programs that happened from them? Eventually it got to the point where I started to, we started describing all the programs they do is as Cheesecake Factory menu. There's so much that they do that we had to color coded against all the mandated things they're required to do either through the federal government, state, government, local government, 6 cetera, to boil down to what's left over. Frankly, there isn't anything left over. That's a fluff. This point. Our budget, they're really never was fluff
from my opinion since the Great Recession. But it was powerful to show our budget subcommittee house really large budgets boil down into very, very small discretionary spending. This next slide shows a summary of of the reduction is on an ongoing basis that have been made over the last couple years. We started at this time last year with a 19.3 million dollar deficit that are eventually got reduced down to 8.4 million. Like any time there's mature reductions. 80's spread amongst departments, but not even Lee. This has given council in the city manager's office an opportunity over the past year to adjust the departments that felt the impact of services for says other ones. This is how that has been up until today. When this budget reduction period began for us. It was 4 years ago, but really started 2 and a half to 3 years ago. We said to ourselves, this is probably gonna take us for 5 years. And i really see everything that's happened prior to this adoption is phase one. And what happened in phase one. That was 15.2 million dollars worth of ongoing reductions. There was 54 employees removed from our general fund positions removed there's 10.2 million dollars worth of one-time funding that was reallocated away from projects to shore up reserves. We dish Ali. Had voters approved tax measures. Ian Ff to affect or transient occupancy tax in business licenses bring up that we had no mid-year reduction as part of this last year. This has led us to where this process started for the current year in that really
started for us with scenario analysis. When we looked at our 17 and a half million dollars to us, it was separated into 2 buckets. It was a 13.9 million dollar ongoing deficit within our operations. And it was 3.6 million dollars worth of grant funding that has gone away either through elimination through a federal c for grant or one time car. One time grant through county measure o funds that have been reduced. And we're going to talk about those grants and much more linked the moment. The city's proposed budget will need to balance maintaining core services versus a broad changes. The first counsel regarding our budget reduction strategy multiple years ago. The way we describe it as we needed to be mindful of not doing too much too fast. We knew that this would be a multi-year effort to try to dig our way out of this structural deficit. The flip side of that conversation could be well instead of doing this and dragging it out over multi-year multiple years make one fell swoop in, fix our budget. To that. I would just say that we need to be mindful of the services. We provide for the community. And we also need to be mindful of how quickly we can change the organization. Large structural change takes time for our for our departments to be able to effectively implement. We believe that we are accomplishing those goals. It's often challenging given the size of our budget,
whether that's 500 million dollars within total city funds are 230 million dollars with the general fund. These numbers can get a little lost because they're very big. So what the next flu s# # # , few slides do is the attempt to try to give the skill of our budget problem. None of the scenarios that I'll be talking few over the next few sides are proposed. They're really to help everyone understand the size of the issue we are dealing with and why we are bringing forward the strategy that we are bringing forward today. But he's 17 and a half million dollar deficit spread amongst all of our departments. We would expect to have to reduce roughly 90 employees from our general fund. We have some slides later on in the presentation that really illustrate how challenging that would be from a historic perspective to be able to accomplish that level of production. This analysis is fairly simple that assumes that the only thing we would reduce his employees. That's not how we would do it. But as we mentioned earlier, 77% of our overall expenses, our employees. And so is this number very far off. It's not. That's the reality of the structure of our budget. We were to just exclude public safety from from from these reductions, which is a comment that that we we we often can receive. We only reach 7 million dollars worth of reductions. The next slide shows that. So if we were to spread, that seems 17 and a half million dollars and not impact our public safety departments, we would actually have to reduce an additional
19 employees. So we'll love from 90 employees to run 109 employees that we have to reduce. So the other departments feel that impact more. I mentioned this on the 21st but put its. I think so illustrative. And the public works is on tap there with 48 employees, Director Hennessy. It's a great breakdown of the reality of public works is that he has 250 employees within this department, but only 85 of them are truly general fund. This would be reducing public works by more than half. The next couple of slides again are for illustration and there to give. Needed context. 4. How we could just cut entire programs, our entire departments. And do we still solve our deficit issue that way? So within the first one, what we did is we started with a 17 and a half million dollar deficit. The city is very proud and we are very proud of our robust recreation programs. It's very popular within the community and provide great service and many dynamic ways. And so if we just got rid of all of recreation after we factor out the revenue it brings in 3 point less than the number we're going to be talking about later for department. But they bring in revenue. We would really only squeeze about 3.8 million dollars out of that action. We would lose. 32 employees. But also profoundly we would lose. Temporary employees. 4. 452 temporary employees the temporary employees make a big impact as well. That's a that's a profound job creation and training program that we
run here in the city that I think often doesn't get the recognition of the impact. It has. So it's not just 32 employees. It's it's that large amount of temporary employees we have as well. Comment we will get is well, you just stop spending money on homeless services. We have a 3.4 million dollars service budget. That includes running Sam Jones Hall, the critical homeless shelter for for us here in Santa Rosa. Frankly, I believe we legally couldn't do but that's up for debate. Maybe not. And it's not up for debate. We could not do that. 4 additional in place. We have a robust cip program. So what if we reduce all the general fund funding for cip? That's that 1.2 million dollars worth of ada funds which we factor out. The Rosen maintenance. And for those of us map people, you're still 9.1 million dollar short. Fundamentally at the city. We have an operating issue within our structural deficit. This next slide is to do the same. But looking at it from an administrative focus. So 17 and a half million dollar deficit. I'll be the first first one to go. So if we if we get rid of the finance Department, this is the classic. The messenger is the problem. Let's start there. We can do that will put a big pile of money in courthouse square and no more finance Department will save 606 and a half million dollars will lose. 32.6 million thirty-two point 6 employees. Again, these department totals are less than the totals you'll
see later because the finance Department actually is a revenue generator for the general fund because from a cause, not just the budget manager of the General Fund. She's the budget manager of the Water Fund. She's the budget manager of cip fund. All those other outside funding sources help pay ultimately for our salaries. So you don't get all the savings. They're making cuts that you might think. Same idea for hr department. Sorry, hr 3.4 million dollars and 13 employees. We'll go down the list. Number city attorney's office. I number city manager's office door. We did not council up here. We're still 2.1 million dollars short. Again. Coming back to my prior comment. We fundamentally our structural deficit is not as an operating impact. So those are solutions and strategies that we are not proposing. What we are proposing is what will describe as a multi pronged, a solution approach. And that started with what strategies are we going to consider? First, we want to start with making sure that the positions we're looking at. Had we want to look at the vacant positions first. Ultimately a vacant position isn't providing service at that moment to the community. It's less visible in the moment are impact to the moment of services. It's also less impact to our employees, which is ultimately good. Major apparatus lease leasing. I want to bring up couple points here on this one because it's in 4 important. The strategy that we're bringing forward to lower our amounts by million dollars will still deliver every fire engine on order,
which is 8 to 9. It will not impact future. Impacts one. In other words, the next time we need to go by when there's funding still within our budget for that. We are not making the replacement schedule go longer. So we're not kicking the can. It's not saying, well, we want to replace and 10 years as for president, 20, we don't do any of that. What it does is a slit dress is the core issue of where this problem started in that we maintain funding for fire apparatus going forward for when they need to be replaced. That is an issue that this council solved by enacting a replacement program in fire. That program is still in place. So this is just fixing our payments to match them towards when using the equipment. This is just sound finance. The pension or the use of reserves. Again, as we mentioned, 7.6 million dollars reserves is a fancy way for governments. Peak of savings account. And that I don't want to freeze over that cause. Some folks. The it's just more complicated than it is. It's just our savings account and our core. Just like within your own personal budget. If every single month you're going into a savings account, that's a problem. Does our problem that the city is each year over the last few years, we're going into our savings account. Our pension saving strategy. We discussed at length on APRIL. 21st. We're very proud we've been surprised that at the level of notoriety this is received very happy about it. This is just moving something along better that we're excited is going to see the city. A lot of a lot of money over the long term. Almost 38 million dollars. It's not just a
savings this year is to the life of the program. It means that we're going to pay off our debt with Calpers earlier, which our employee should appreciate as well. This is just checks all the boxes finance. We looked at flex programming for expiring grants which will be talking about more during our public safety portion of the presentation. Ultimately, we have 2 departments where we're doing a consolidation work to align our departments. But there core missions and what they're trying to do. Some use of technology as we move forward. And as a city always has, if we find a technological solution is something that we haven't had before. We want to take advantage of it specifically in the department plans to and as a great example this year. The alignment of budget to actual spending. As we mentioned, it's critical for us given a budget that's been pared ensure that our budgeting is as accurate as possible. The specific area that we're addressing this year's with public safety over time. Enhanced costs recoveries. So you'll see within the department budgets that outside funding sources, whether they be special revenues, we're passing along some expenses to some specific areas. We've really tried to narrow those down. The city's been doing this for a couple years now of enhancing our revenues either through planning fees or coming back with recreation fee improvements. But we're continuing to do so and continuing to drill down on additional areas where we can improve this. I mention Credit card, convenience fees. Mention this now and that this
is not One size fits all to all transactions that the city. But whats becoming common most areas is that if you're transacting for large transactions, many times you'll see a convenience fee. If you want to use a credit card, we are proposing to do the same thing here at the city for specific fees associated with the city. This is already in effect with our water department. When you pay your bill each month. But the water department, what we are not proposing to do is start charging a credit card convenience fee for showing up for laps. One. So recreation, small recreation amounts are not on here. Recreation is not on here. We're not going to charge any credit card convenience fee when someone in search their credit card at a parking meter downtown. But will we will be doing is cleaning fees where those are large amounts that come with large could be in fees. We are looking to pass those along to the folks that are paying of. If they choose to pay with credit card. Now, of course, it's one those large items. Paying with a check means you will not have to do that. We looked how the general fund is supporting some minor capital support items. And we're actually shifting that it's not going away necessarily is how describe it. And then instead of having an ongoing every single year, small budget budget item for minor capital projects within downtown or within the city. We're going to move towards paying for it within the larger cip program. So it's a shift. So what we've been able
to develop is just under 10 million dollars worth of what will call solutions. That includes enhanced Munster revenue and includes our pension strategy and includes productions across the city. Will be shifting gears, moving into department budget. Highlights going forward. What I want to do is provide a bigler top level overview of some of the major things that you'll see going forward as we start getting into our departments. Let's go included. 2 consolidations one being that the Sero department will be becoming part of the city manager's office to city manager in Syria Department who work so closely together to align those 2 tasks. The additional one will be a transfer of the parking division from finance to planning and economic development to align the program and maximize efficiencies. I would describe this. Blatter won a couple different ways. This is a recognition from the finance department that the finance department, especially over the past 4 years and going into the future is to remain focused on the our core mission, which is the fiscal sustainability of the city. But more importantly is that there does alignment with parking and planning. Of how our because I think of parking as a downtown function. And I think of so much of the work that our planning department does as a downtown focus that there's alignment there. But what's exciting to is the economic development, climate as well. I like to think I'm really creative. But frankly, our economic development, folks, there more creative than not that I I'm a little better financed than they are. So it's even. But I'm excited. Really excited to see what comes out of this. And even just in the first few meetings
they've been. Really fascinating to see that different approach. I've often talked about what amazing value our parking fund is and the way that they've been able to express this through the amazing opportunity for folks to develop within our downtown and utilize our party and how that equals dollars they've been able to so effectively do that. So really looking forward to alignment. So this staffing modifications you'll see is the elimination of 18 funded positions through grants. That's them are in response, safer. Grant. Imposing moving 12 fte firefighters from those expired grants into vacant positions within our general fund and measure h. That will mean that not be laying off any of those 12 firefighters will be able to retain one fire captain through increasing our ems contract recovery fee. So the one fire captain that's associated with these programs we've been able to increase our costs recovery to make it net 0 against the general fund. Additionally, what we're proposing, eliminating 3 vacant single role, paramedics within the in response program and 3 field single role. Paramedics from in response Grant program has that kind funded as funding has gone away. This leaves us overall with 10 ft e's proposed to eliminated across the remaining various departments within the General Fund and City. We're going to all along 3 classifications.
What that really means changing the titles to reflect where they are. Currently really fitting in. At the end of the day, we are net 28 fte positions eliminated. This is across all funds. Not just the general fund. And with that lead, Veronica Kick off our department review of City Council. Thank you, Scott. For the first look at our department Budget City Council's budget. >> does show one major variation. And as our cfo mentioned, a few slides back. We have an election year coming up in NOVEMBER. So we have a $600,000 budgeted for both professional services and print services related to that election or the ballot measures coming up in NOVEMBER. The administration line item has stayed pretty flat. We're seeing a slight reduction due to benefit elections chosen with council members. But other than that, no significant changes. Next slide. Please. In our city attorney's office, we also have no significant changes despite the many efforts to reduce our budget and that this many strategies that our cfo talked about. Our city attorney's office has remained intact. Staffing is constant. The only slight increases here that we see at 0.8% is related to contractual salary increases and it costs. And our city manager's office does see some major variations due to the department consolidation of moving Siro into cmo as was mentioned in previous slides. So are city manager's office is growing by 7 Ft ease. That's just bringing the 2 departments together. And our General administration line items.
He's a slight increase again for contractual increases with salaries and it costs, but no other major changes, no other major reductions or anything of that nature here. >> The veronicas twice. I stole my thunder on the finance department with our parking. But but that's the major change. There's one other item on here. That's a little complex. There's a $500,000 increase in our business tax contract. That is mostly offset with increased revenue. This is some accounting correction to be to be want. >> And that we were we were. >> Accounting for the fees associated with our business tax question against our revenue. And this is really Oscar acting accounting basis to make sure we're properly showing the amount of expense we have with our vendor to administer business taxes. The city a few years ago, eliminating our revenue division and that moved us towards an outside vendor. Concept which again, the reason why we have high cost in that area overall, our high costs in that area, though, is still less than what our revenue division was. One that was here as a city. Parking. We already talked about that and moved it. And overall we see contractual increases. Will this will go through all the slides and we don't need to keep saying each time. But are contractually agreed upon increases for salaries and it costs up each year. The next slide shows our recreation department last year we adopted the change to break out recreation and parks
between Hcs and public works. Unfortunately, when we do these changes, it takes a couple years for our slides to flush out. So as big big changes, whether it's capital improvement in Urbana Valley, Golf course or any of those areas is really just showing that those changes coming through. Bring up couple of items to know on on recreation. I have an interest So the recreation department transferred 37.5, 5 fte. He's from parks, rec and parks to recreation. Current proposed budget eliminates one point o fte of a program lead within the general fund that we anticipate being bacon. Includes the elimination of to make an fte is within our piece out fund or violence prevention its special tax along with not going to say to and increases in salaries and every time to But yeah, those are the big changes for hs recreation. The thank The ag says the community outreach specialist position has been vacant. Not the city for for quite a while. So we don't anticipate the actual operating impact from that removal. As we look at overall recreations. But in some areas that we do see movement that I'll point out is. Chemicals continue to go up pace higher than inflation for our pools, that that was sizable increase for us. A good increase that I liked is with now the launching of the splash pad over and family that will come with some increased costs. Frankly, we expect to increase revenue from that that great facility over there to help more than so our planning and economic development fund,
you'll see that the general fund over overall net increase of 3.6% so is the increases to our salaries and savings has been helped health offset by the downgrading of a senior planner to an under fold city planner. Reductions in services. Supplies are increasing time. A special revenue funds. So there's been a shift in focus of staff away where they were currently working. They're going to be some additional support going out to some of our special revenue funds to increase some of the cars. But overall, even negligible increase of arpad carpet department to the general fund by 3.6%. So major changes within transit and public works. What you'll notice that materials engineering has the largest largest increase of $109,000 along with general if it administration of only 5.2 million, one item that we saw a large increase for in last year is asphalt. This is because our fortunately our streets, crews have been able to focus more in the last year and delivering pothole maintenance, cetera, to the city. Those are great things. So we will continue to buy them as much asphalt as they need to keep them busy. This again was a shift of focus on areas that that team was working on in 2 their core services street maintenance. Facilities includes an increase within security doors, plumbing, hvac, important know a trans in public works overall budget is that they house a lot of uncontrollable chaos. They pay for the utilities of the
entire city. They pay for a lot of fuel costs for their for their employees. We really look at their department's budget serve extremely lean. Again, it's because the majority of that 37 million dollars number a lot of is just uncontrollable. So net changes from the department includes a reduction of a one they can administrative secretary. We are reducing the surveyors by 3 employees, a reduction of that $100,000 and minor capital support that we mentioned earlier, any 1.3 million dollar increase fuel services. Again, like I mentioned, spending a lot more on asphalt and we used to. That's a that's a positive. Non departmental. Not apartment is a bit of a catch all within the city for things that don't neatly fit into our programs. A couple things I bring up here is it includes the city's debt service funds that we really only have one general fund debt issuance of the city that is for courthouse square. That's at the bottom. That's the $730,000 that's remaining flat. The citywide general fund insurance. We're seeing a decrease corresponding with that. Decrease eye ensures that I talked about a moment ago given our earthquake in property insurance, the general fund administrative cost discredit isn't offset against the debit or positives that costs the departments. The show had their share of general fund administration or that the police fire public works. As Frank mentioned earlier, we see 1.8 million
dollar increase because what we've done is we've included the increase of our pension strategy here. So what was she showed earlier was a round of 5.3 million dollar transfer into the general fund. We're that is to offset the 1.8 million dollar increase here with a non departmental. Our overall savings in the current year from our pension strategy is 3.8 million dollars. The $450,000 Animal Control and Shelter contract. I mentioned earlier as well as our General Fund administration costs have decreased by 1.5 million dollars that went out hard apartments this year showing that variance with that electronica run us through the services. >> Our homeless services budget for fiscal year 26. 27 is about 3.8, 5 million. We are proposing to reduce one vacant housing and community services technician and the homeless Services fund. This is funded by general fund dollars to results in a net savings to the general fund. Of this budget. 1.1 million of it is funded by real property transfer tax per Council policy and about one about 2 million dollars comes from the general fund on top of that just regular general fund dollars. Not for any policy. There are other funding sources within this fund that come from other agencies and private party contributions, et cetera. But overall, we're seeing a decrease of about 220,000 or 5.4%. And we will
pause here for any questions from council on General Fund and operational departments before week moving to the next section. >> Thank you, MR. Wagner Ms Connor. Looking to council for questions. MR. Donald. >> Thank you for that presentation. And for stopping at slide 50 something so I can get through some of my questions for you. So I appreciate that. Just start sort of at the beginning, I've gone a couple slide by slides. On slide number 6. Could you tell me on the outside contracts that we have in this city? Have we done any type of our peas are looking at what we could bring back in house because you're seeing those increases in contracts year over year over year. And I think you showed one of them was like increase of $500,000 in finance because we have an outside source for doing that revenue. Was it one person that we reduced that used to do that or have we looked at some of these that are increasing? Quite frankly and in a massive amount. Thank you for your question. >> We do an analysis with with every contract on a cost basis to understand. The impacts any potential increases. At the end of the day, every outside contract at the city over our threshold goes through an rfp process. It goes through some competitive bid process for every contract. So we know that structurally we are being competitive within our marketplace. Tear to your second question. Yes, it is challenging when you reduce an entire department, you
ultimately and they're going to experience greater outside service costs, that that's just the reality of that situation. Part of the $500,000 and net 0 because we need we we're offsetting that with more revenue. So there's that in actual Delta around $200,000. We more than doubled our our recovery from those those those revenues. So we would expect it to go up accordingly. To the back half of questions of your question, which is important, though, up 2.1, though, our revenue, the division of the city at one time was over 20 people. So it was a large function that one away and they a lot of different things outside of what the specific contract was. As we move continue to be important for us to do an analysis on whether or not it's less expensive for in-house job or not of House job. Very much reflects that, though, is when we talk about staffing later in the presentation, is that our staff are ultimately this moment doing more with less. And analysis of break, even for bringing new employees on that we've been doing over the past couple years. None of them have merited and had a delta of a positive return for the city at the moment, which is deeply challenging given given our overall staffing levels. >> Perhaps a finance one pork example because there was some revenue. But just looking at the increased increased costs of outside contractors. We know that that's kind of a high cost me. Look at doing and house. I think that's just
something that we should be mindful lead. I know that that's not something we can turn on a dime either, which is apparently less than what we get. But I thought that was something to know. I know I I talk about it. I think every single year budget. But the importance of looking at how we can bring back staff and there's a lot to it, I think is more around building our Future leaders in the city by having enough staff in different levels. And I think that that's kind of critical. And I look at the building a business. >> So on site 13, we talked about recreation and you talked about I think it another site in. I just want to be clear what we charge in services. We still result in about a 3.4 million Dollar General Fund contribution. And when we looked at raising our fees last year where we at on market rate on those recreation fees and can the market tolerate another increase so we can try to get more to a flat budget rec. >> Yes. >> So while while Megan well, director passenger joins us. The current numbers that are being that are currently with within our system are based off of actuals. We actually anticipate. Things probably going a little bit better than what they are right now. So it's we should see additional recovery. But Megan consider tractor passenger can speak of it more probably. >> Good afternoon. I'm Megan passenger, director of housing and Community Services. Thank you for your question. As you'll remember in JANUARY, actually, sorry in OCTOBER, we
came forward with increases to recreation fees. There were implemented JANUARY one across the board. They were relatively modest, although some did increase a fair percentage like 25% in some areas. But when you have a dollar increase on a relatively low fee that does make it a large percentage increase. We are trying to keep our fees in line with the marketplace. So we're looking at other jurisdictions in Sonoma County to make sure that we're not pricing out our customers out of the services. But where we can increase those fees. We are doing so and we will continue to evaluate them going forward. Additionally, as we noted back in OCTOBER, we do have a scholarship funds. We want to make sure that we're not pricing the community of the programs and services. We offer. >> All right. Thank you. Thanks for your explanation on that. Moving to slide 19, you brought up animal control. If I if memory serves last year, I thought we had about $800,000 increase from animal control. And now this year, another half of a million dollar one who sets that rate and gives is it? I'm expecting it's attributed to raises that are going to those departments and minutes pass off onto us. Pga, give me a little bit more history on that and what you're seeing it time over time. >> Thank you. Councilmember MacDonald, Jason, that assistant city manager, our Animal Service contract, is based on the calls for service
within the jurisdiction over the course of the last couple of years, we've seen a steady increase. The number of service, a service requests being provided the number of animals being sheltered cared for and never recovered. And cost to our organization annual specifically based on that formula. So as the number of calls, the number of service them or of animals increases. So it increases the cost the jurisdiction. So that's what's resulting in the $450,000 Delta this year. >> Thank you for that explanation. Going back to property. I think that's on site 16 and you brought it up and I think this is pretty critical for not just me to understand, but the rest of the community of how that breakdown goes. So you broke it down really well. I appreciate the visual. At what point triggers us to get a higher rate. Are we locked in permanently to that? And it would take legislation and Amendment to proposition 13 that would have to go out to voters in the state. I believe to repeal what it currently is because in 1978, I would suggest that the county probably needed more money because most of Santa Rosa was county that's where not when I lived here in Centre is that, you know, I still do. But as a child, we were in the county. But in the city of Santa Rosa. And now it feels like so much of that has been annexed and shift in the cost of what we get has never been adjusted. So when do we get our fair share? >> I would. I would describe the challenge exactly how you did >> the first part of your question how does that change?
That's a little above the level of expertise that I could give it the moment on how to change Prop 13. Being a little diplomatic, but is a reality in a stark reality of our of our circumstance. To the point you additionally brought up. This was very different. I wasn't born yet. But it was a very different city in 1978 when we just look at the growth of the city. When you when you have that level of growth of what was happening in the late 70's and early 70's in the city of Santa Rosa, there was no need for them to have a very high property tax level. And you had, you know, this is the way the world use the word. I mean, used to live in a state with a different property tax concept rate. You look at different communities what's the property tax rate there, right? So there was an advantageous aspect to keeping your property tax low. The unfortunate thing is one property nap and it locked us into that concept forever. So even though the city changed our allocation did not change and it will not change unless there is a grander fix how this works. I think. Part of this concept, though, and why I want to shed a light on it is that it should be a critical understanding point for us Local jurisdiction and have meaningful discourse with our partners within the county. That's a way to start that on slide. 25. Because it does feel that way. When I look like one of the sites we talked about was and the reduction in money that's coming in from that. But when I look at $0.22 versus $0.11 or whatever. There contribution is. I mean,
that's just a question that came up. What do we currently from the county to backfill our general fund 2 said Ron number, if you have that the top your head. >> we can provide that have and we can provide with specific what the county's specific tax measures, what the city's direct funding from those is that that's a number we can provide. Let us let us do that. Math But but I also add from direct funding, you know, General general Fund 8 outside of the annexation agreement for Roseland. Can't think of one. It's helpful to know. Thank you. On site. 25. It shows that we backfill the parking fine. >> Which is an enterprise fund. And I think we we do that with a couple of our different enterprise funds, that a very small level. But know we've done it through the golf course and now parking ban is part of the strategy of moving parking over to head to reduce what we contribute from general fund into the Enterprise Fund. Thank you for your question. >> The what >> this table shows is the transfer. >> Out. >> To the parking from from the General Fund. That is specifically to pay for parking enforcement. All of the parking enforcement revenue goes to the General fund and this is the accounting on how the general fund pays for the cost of parking enforcement. I will say that there is not a direct subsidy to the parking fund from the General Fund. What has happened in recent years
is that the the enforcement revenue has not been high enough to offset the cost for the past couple of years. So I would say that there's been an indirect subsidy. We've developed a strategy within the parking fund to address this over the next year and how we can be more efficient. But what I would say is that the move from the parking fund from the Finance Department to planning and economic development is not purely financial transaction, meaning that there is no proposed reductions of parking staff. There is no proposed reduction of staffing within either finance or pad to make this happen. The parking fund with the increases in rate revenue that they've been able to bring forward. We anticipate the parking fund remaining solid financially. Thank you. And I know that was recently brought to So I appreciate that. >> On we talked about Jones, Holland. What we contribute to that. Can you tell me how many cities or jurisdictions we know that run their own homeless services place like a sand dunes. All are those no really owned jurisdiction. Are those privately owned? Typically? Thank you again for your questions. So part of it will need to get back to with a much more. >> Detailed geographic answer. But with in Sonoma County, Sam joins Hall is the largest shelter. We have 213 beds, the second largest shelter is located in Petaluma. And that is the Mary Isaac Center that
is owned by cots. So with in Santa Rosa, the city of Santa Rosa owns the sentence, a homeless shelter and we contract with Catholic Charities for its operation. >> where are the only jurisdiction that actually owns operates? I want do get back to to confirm that. All right. Thank you so much. I think that would be something I'd be interested in seeing with like parking garages. You hear about San Francisco or other jurisdictions. They don't run there on parking garages are usually on by an outside source. So I'm not sure if that's ever been looked at from a budget perspective. >> it thank you for that question regarding parking that the challenge with our garages moving a concept like that forward is that? They were with the parking district fun downtown. That doesn't preclude them from being sold is But yeah, it also fits into the larger construct of how downtown is getting developed. On slide. 41, you have the elimination of the vacant positions at about a half of the million dollar. >> Savings for us. But when I looked at how many positions you're eliminating without the with the vacant fte that number? Can you tell me how that number? And sold out? It would seem that it would be much higher with that money that we're just not going to fill. Thank you for your question. One item there that shows eliminate vacant positions that is not be. >> Total savings of eliminating 22 general fund positions. Some of that is contained and the line item
that says flexing staffing levels consistent with grant funding. That line item indicates the cost savings of are expiring safer grant and are expiring in response funding and eliminating the vacant positions that will result from us moving those grant funded positions into other existing vacancies. Thank you. That really helps. I knew the grant funding, but I was like, well, where's that money? >> It seems like it should be more to me. Let's see. I already asked that question a different way. When thank you for being patient with me. Onsite. 52, we talk about what we pay for the and I think this has been brought up past years. Santa was a tour minute tourism in bia fund. So. This year we paid them $721,000. And now I thought that our budget last year was at a half a million dollars. Why was there increase last year? And then how come that's going back flat or how do we maintain that or, in fact, is there any plans to look at what we currently pay for that? >> The funding level in fiscal year. 25 26 did include some one time appropriations of fund reserves. $500,000 is the standard amount of revenue we expect to bring in during the year. So we appropriate the subsequent expenditures also, which is why we see the decrease year-over-year. And thank you for the clinch question. Councilmember Gabe Osburn, director of planning and economic development. >> To just be awful, what Veronica said ultimately of the dollar amounts received to the city that come out of the business improvement area. There is a total dollar amount
and that is allocated to waits is retained a certain amount within the planning and economic development department. And then that is programmed for essentially supporting staff as well as programs. So there's physical infrastructure studies. It supports those costs. There is also a certain amount of that total bia that comes and that goes out through a contract to the Metro Chamber, which I know has been discussed through budget hearings in the past. We are currently working closely with the Metro Chamber on the use of those funds to better understand how they support tourism in the area. We're looking at master planning process is to efficiently use those funds. So currently there is quite a bit of effort to ensure that those are actually having a return on the investment because those fun should be going into tourism. They should be returning to ot and more funds back in through increasing hotel stays. So there's quite a bit of effort this year and that will continue in the future to use those in the most efficient way possible. That focuses on the return on investment. >> Thank you. That's very helpful to hear. And I'm glad we're doing a cost-benefit analysis of what we're putting out versus what we're getting back in on our on our revenues. So thank you for doing that focusing on that. I know it has been a conversation last few years. I think with that that's all my questions leading up to that site. Thank you, Donald other questions as Ben Willows. Thank you, Mayor, thank you so much for the presentation. So far it's been lightning as usual. I first of all, I really want and give you all a shout out
for the General Fund Solutions. >> I don't remember those last And I really think that those are, you know, it's it's one thing to talk about cuts and jobs. But it's wonderful to look at possible ways to bring in new revenue stream. So I really, really appreciate that. So thank you for that. And if I could, just I just f one question around that h really quickly, I was really curious at the bottom where it says the use of technology. 21,000, what what does that look like? If you know? >> I believe that one is a cost savings in our police department. There was a professional services contract that our police department was able to shift their technology uses to be able to eliminate that expense that contract. We would not need to use anymore. >> Okay. Okay. Great. It was this hoping it wasn't iso. You know, wind, some are not that I'm I use it every day, but just wanted to make sure it was not that just that. So thank you for that. >> Let's see the other question I had was about the 28 Ft. Ease. Broke it down. I can't member which slide it 45? There is this kind of a break down the 10 vacant positions are. Is that the breakdown there? And then I think you mentioned that the is it the other, the remainder positions are not general fund positions? Is that? How that works? >> So in total and fiscal year 26, 27, we're going to be proposed to eliminate 28 positions. 2 of them are non general fund. 2 of them are from our piece up fund. 26 of them are in the general fund.
However, of those 26 4 of them have no general fund impact. So we are not putting them as a reduction for budget savings. 3 are the cip surveyor positions that we mentioned. Those are going to buy our cip programs. One of them lives in the general fund but is funded by our how our Housing Authority, not our homeless services. That one does result general fund savings. So they're really 22 positions as we count backwards that are contributing towards general fund savings. And that consists of the total of the positions were eliminating from are expiring grants as well as vacant positions that we've identified that can be eliminated. And we do have a pretty comprehensive staffing summary coming up in future slide swell. Thank you. Thank you for that. Appreciate And then I just had one last question. >> I have more for the rest of remainder of of your presentation. But I was curious. So just following up on Councilmember MacDonald's question about animal control maybe that's you. Assistant manager. I was curious because you mention some of the services that they provide. Does that also include? The tickets that folks were getting out and oil park that we were getting lots of complaints about. >> I just wonder could use services had increased. And we got a lot of complaints, as you remember as you MAY recall about. >> In their opinion, how overzealous the officers were. So I just wondered if that was
included in this number. >> Thank you. Councilmember Ben Willows High that increased cost to the city does and does not include the actual service star ticketed products. There is a component that Animal Services collects the request of the city, which is the standard fee schedule that the city adopts on a regular basis. In fact, I think they'll be coming back in and the next couple of months to look for the city too reaffirm certain fees that are part of that schedule. But that is not Knesset. But that's not specifically part of the charge that comes to the city that relates to to statistical numbers of contacts, animals in the shelter, animals. They pick up on the street. That MAY be injured or deceased. And that's the service that they're providing. All right. Thank you. Kind of questions. Rogers. >> So know that we have wonderful x working on the budget. So thank you very much, Director ask you to come back because I know you answer the question, but it didn't answer the question that Diana had that Councilmember MacDonald Pass and I'm trying to. The question was why was, you know, it's going back to the 500,000 women. Look at center of the Tour is in the eye. A fun. I bring this up every time we do budget. I was trying not to bring it at this time because I bring it up every single time. The answer you provided is what I've been asking for for multiple years. So I know we've been working on that. My question is.
>> The >> 221,000 is almost have. >> Of what we contractually are supposed to give to them. So why this past year? >> Was it almost have I know we're working towards, but why was it? Why was that the increased? I didn't get it. If you said it. >> So the total dollar amount of sr tbi is typically higher than what you see in the department budget. So what happens is those dollars come in through the finance team? Those dollars really split off between the planning and economic development department and the Metro chamber. And that is typically to the tune of 30% to the planning and economic development department. 70% of the Metro chamber. So what as we budget that expenditure moving forward, there's a few different pieces with us or tbi. It's been fairly consistent, but there has been times and which the total dollar amount has dropped. And that has been covid and the Tubbs fire outside of that. It's been fairly consistent. So what we really try to manage because we are charging out our staff time to that for tourism related efforts and that can increase or decrease year to year based on how we're deploying the staff based on the fund balance. So I think the important point that as you see adjustments, you're really seeing adjustments to the 30%, the 70% that goes to the chamber is through annual reporting processes of Sr 2 bia. It's really the visit Santa Rosa Initiative, the welcome center. Those are so it's sort of those components where that
70% is programmed once again, that 70% can be inconsistent because the revenue is slightly inconsistent year to year. So I think it's really important to note that we are programming the 30 to 30 predominantly goes to supporting staff time by doing that. We're removing some of the reliance of the economic development team on the general fund. So it offsets that expenditure. But we also hold back some of that money essentially as a reserve in years where can come down lower so we can support the staff time or it can go into program initiatives. So there's that dollar amount as well. So hopefully that answers the question. I think the important point is the total tbi, a bucket is much bigger than what the council normally sees in this effort because it is simply focusing on that 30% amount that goes to the planning and economic development department. MR. Alvarez, thank you, Mayor. We talked about problems 13. We're not going to go in great detail, but I want to create a scenario where live hitter. Shake your head. >> If some of our past mayors have been elected to the supervision all seats that they now hold and good graces of their hearts. We're willing to entertained conversation. There's nothing that precludes. Them lowering the amount that Sonoma County collects. In Proposition 13. Is I want to not as a thank you. >> Councilmember all all at a
little bit more than an audit. While. >> county administration can't change Prop 13. I think it's important for us to include this aspect into that conversation around overall county and how the county deliver services to the city of Santa Rosa. Their east Berry partner and what we are to provide for our community and partnership often comes back to who has a share of revenue from my experience, building partnerships. Think this is a critical data point for that conversation going forward. Is that hope? >> It really does. And you just brought up great. Conversations. Peace. When we talk about being partners in the shared goal of providing services to our community and we look at the population of center is being run 180. And whatever the population of some of the county's is, which is about. 400 and something, I'm not mistaken. 40, 50. I want to the map because I can do the math that quick. But nonetheless, though, if looking at 450,000 computer 180,000, to the breakdowns match that population of the 20 30% to 11%. And I through that with the math, but a simple not the head or shaking the head with suffice. Answer is no. All right. Thank you, sir. My second question. And large the parking fees and going back to the slide pay 16, if you can break down in the same fashion that you do the property taxes, who do we share the parking fee revenue with?
Sorry, councilmember can use to your question again is a sign 16. >> Slide. 6 team got it. And I really appreciate how you were able to break down the shared. >> Revenue of property taxes. And I want to if you could do the same for parking revenue. So for parking the parking fee revenue live solely within the city's parking fund. >> So so all of the fees associated buying a ticket or a garage or are buying of party's base in our garage door. Quarters you MAY put in a parking meter. All of that goes directly back to the parking fund, not the General fund. The only catch to that is our parking enforcement or parking violation. Revenue goes to the General fund and it often pays for the parking enforcement officers to write that take it and do we contract with they want to do that? No, not currently perfect. Thank you, sir. The questions from Council. MR. Rogers. >> Councilmember Alvarez, maybe think about this. >> So when we have any Bennett that is on the streets and you have to block off the street who is paying? Who are we paying and where does that? Money go in? Any point where we over. >> Taking a quick look for my parking manager, but I can I can answer this one. So whenever we dedicate parking
spaces to another years. Typically that revenue is going to come back to the parking fund. So, for example, if they have to pay to read bag a parking meter, which is how we describe like, okay, no parking here today that revenue for the red bag for that person pays gonna come back to the parking fund, not the General Fund. Now that is not to say that every time there is a city event, isn't that parking meters are read back. They're frequently not but that core of your question is will who gets the revenue from a red bag? It's the parking fund. >> Not necessarily a like run. If we do a been receiving feedback that the fees are. Crazy. Where does that money go? Who's a company that's doing it? >> So Dana, see Transportation public works. Director that is negotiated between us and the event organizer. Sometimes we take on that burden. Sometimes we do not have to pass a Deanne and I there we are paying overtime and we will transfer the invoice for those costs. Back to the event organizer or we will direct them to hire a private firm that meets our standards. >> So it is says between us and a private it. >> For yeah, we have all sorts of scenarios where will handle all of it will provide some material, some resources, but that event organizers going to pay us to do it or we directed them to contract privately. >> And how do we determine? I know you just said, but how do we really determine like is there a chart for staffers?
Did what side of the bed like? How do we determine? >> I plead with staff to determine if there's as available. What are other resources are and just depends on how much of a pain I want to be on that day in terms of direction to staff. >> do. I sent him a check we do have what we call rates for every single employee in the city. So that's something that we know how much our folks will put out for a bill Any anyone outside the city to provide ancillary service. >> And also I wasn't quite sure how to explain that, too. The public when they come to me like, oh, well, this this person did that outside company and then it's the staff this doing that. And so the money goes back into your budget, whether or not is outside or you. >> Gallant met that. There's some inconsistency in how we deliver that. But yes, that gets paid back to us. If we provide the services and invoice outside. Organizers. Perfect. Thank you. MR. Alvarez move that. >> It. >> The scene that you came down here to save money mail. And I want to pick your brain. I understand that right now when it comes to annexation Roselyn, we're no longer seeing the funds for pavement improvement. And my question to you later was going to be through email actually, was going to be what other sources are you seeing come down the pike? They you want look into socially general question for you. But another have year >> are. >> The maintenance funds are essentially and then all transportation followers, capital improvements are basically funded through
development, impact fees, gas taxes and the local and regional measures. Most it predominantly the coast and a measure kicked off this year. Those have been stable over the last few years, increasingly stable and I mean stable as and flat, not risk corresponding with inflation. So I think the last 3 budgets we've had have been within a million dollars of each other, which is good in terms of. Planning for the future. I side of that. We are they get everybody's got a grant application available to us for funding and frankly trying to align our our needs with those different programs. You'll hear more tomorrow. When we talk about capital improvement projects that this will be the I think the 3rd cap improvement budget that I brought to you. And in that time I have brought to new projects and 3 years right the last 3 years have been about finishing stuff that has been on the books forever. We're going to do that this year. And so next year is really going to be about what's next and how to kick things off. And then, you know, get back to the principles of those capital improvement discussions that we had last summer. And in the last winter when we were kind of reorient ourselves. Yeah, they haven't really been a lot of decisions to be made other than finish that's been planned for 3, 5.10, years. >> And with that said, thank you from living making grade in the community because of that. I hear about how much Rosen is improving and beautiful we are looking. So thank you and your team for
making that happen. Thank you. The questions, MR. Donald. >> Can go back to the investment you are saying we made I think a 50 million dollar investment was at towards infrastructure, annexation and then we were getting about a $60,000 return. I think you I don't even remember what side it was meant after MR. Hennessy came down and talking about some of that. I'd just like a little more clarification on that. Please. >> Yeah, no think thank you for asking a clarifying question on that one. And it was it was the slide. It was the property tax lied. And what I was trying to do and fumbling my way through it was was talking about. If there was a 50 million dollar, let's call it a. But I don't know a warehouse. A 50 million dollar warehouse appeared out of the ground in the city of Santa Rosa. Now there's 50 million dollars more of assessed value in the city of Santa Rosa. How much does the city of Santa Rosa going to get annually from that 50 million dollar warehouse on a property tax base is it's a little less than $60,000 a year. And the reason why bring this example up is because free what has happened, especially recently we've had a lot of great projects here in the city of Santa Rosa. I think each one of them we'll get cited to me on. Well, the deficit is solved because of this building just got built and you are going to have so much property taxes. You will know what to deal with to do with it. And just that's not the math. The math doesn't work that way because again, we
only keep 11.7%. Of one percent assessed value. >> That's very, very helpful. And I think it does still go back to the conversation about annexation and bringing more in so that we know when we're investing in making sure there's proper housing for everyone which has other impacts on our economic our economy. But it's also important to know where we're at as far as what's going versus what's coming back and for general time. So thank you for that explanation. Appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions counsel? But no one question. The bravery of our finance team or a car council. According to my notes, we have >> issued a direct broadside against Prop 13. We've taken on the dogs off leash. City Council relations. My hope is that we have pickleball waiting for some the slides to come and perhaps beekeeping. So thank you. Thank you for those very, very transparent discussions. I mean, a much simpler question just because I think it's I think it's helpful for the public and for any press Democrat reporters who might be might be watching. Went went through our budget very clearly. It the limited areas where we have discretion to caught that came through quite clearly. As you know, we often get questions about why can't we caught in on personnel areas? Could you provide some some examples of what couple on personnel costs in terms of heat electricity, et cetera, and why why? It's very difficult to find significant
savings. There. Yes, thank for that question. A great example is our police department. And when we came to the finance subcommittee, we did exactly that. They have. >> Probably the largest professional services budget. The city. But there ultimately the services that we provide is a police department are very dependent happens through vehicles that happens through fuel. Those are very expensive things. So you take that amount off the top. They also involved in consortiums with throughout other agencies to provide additional policing services. You take another 2 million dollars off the top for that. So they're very large. 7 million dollar professional services budget. By the time we whittle that down, I think we got to around $15,000, which is, again, very strained amount versus all of the things that they need to do as a department. The reality of our organization is we're 77% salaries and benefits. And when we look at the remaining 23%, we as a government Rindge forced to do many. Mandy did activities my budget and finance. I need to pay a very large amount for an outside auditor to come in and audit the city's financial statements. There's no way for what, first of we should definitely Second of all, we do have a choice and 3rd of all, that's an expensive service to do. We can't cut that is the finance department and that example is really through all of our departments and the way we talked about it at the Finance subcommittee was chunk budgeting is really happening at the city. You start with the larger number
of professional services. You take away the top 4 to 5 things department does. There's nothing left. There's very little left for the training that's needed for our employees to ensure we have a well trained city. Thank you for that. All right. Switching topics now they've become much desired media presence. >> Could you talk a little bit about the pension, the patient's saving strategy and why other cities are coming to us asking for information about that. 16 years. Senior departments praises of it here. I mean, the press Democrat did to some extent, but that's not the only that's not the only organization paying attention right now. >> Hi, thank you, We are very proud as a city to have received the feedback that we've gotten regarding our pension strategy. Quarter that Prince and strategies one it. It does not impact the benefits of our employees. Our retiree's for what they burned. Frankly, it's going to pay off our debt with Calpers quicker. What we've been able to do and move forward was innovative in the way of really pairing 2 different concepts together to make it work where that hasn't worked in the past. And really we're taking advantage of a specific moment to make that happen later on. In today's presentation, we're going to show the impact of that change not just within the current year, but how it plays out in our 5 year forecast because part of the key of our shahji was to not just impact this year, but the life of this program over the next 15 years and impact, especially our next We will save close to 30 million dollars over the
next 5 years. While I'm the last person that wants recognition and lights from these, we're happy to have folks reach out to us to talk about this program because we're proud of it. And what I would say is we as a city or are proud to bring something forward to get recognition in the right way. This is good news. The city of Santa Rosa. And it's been awesome to see good news. Make the news. It's it's a fantastic and you should We're grateful for the creativity that you showed along with city manager Farrell and along the the firm that helped us put together that strategy. >> It's making as anybody who's watched this part of the presentation. It's making a huge difference in our our ability to come up with a glide path over the next few years to to gradually bring ourselves into line. I'm not going to ask any other questions right now. I know we've got quite good good slides to calm some of that. Some of the highlights are will save. My comments are all say my questions for the Toronto later. I will just I did. I did want to highlight the the department reorganization. Now, this has been a consistent theme in recent years. We obviously did or depart. We a year and is Asian with parks and rec last year. Now we're talking Siro. Now we're talking and what they did with the parking was bi blame for a moment. This is it is important for the public to see this to realize that we are being as creative as it's possible for us to be really looking at the way that we're conducting our organizations, first staffing or organization. And so I'm glad you highlighted, though, those
points because testifies to the kinds thinking that the city thinking and planning that the city is going through. So without are hold the remainder of my questions, seeing none from that from council. Let's take a and seeing also that we've been at this for about 2 hours. Let's take a five-minute break recess for 5 minutes and come back. We get 10 actually will come back 2 o'clock. Thank you. Welcome back, everyone. I see folks making their way back to the dance. >> I hear every in the back. The traditional sounds of a budget hearing. All right. That I missed is 3. Let's reconvene. MADAM City Clerk. >> Thank you. Mayor Councilmember Rogers, PRESIDENT Councilmember MacDonald here, Councilmember Fleming. Councilmember Ben Willows Air Councilmember Alvarez, PRESIDENT Vice Mayor Okrepkie. Mayor, stop here. Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of Vice Mayor Okrepkie and Councilmember Fleming. >> Thank you very much. All right. We'll continue with budget discussion, MR. Wagner and the floor is yours. Thank you, Mayor. We'll begin our public safety review with the police department. So what you'll see from the police department? Is the proposed budget maintains police response and delivery with minor reductions overall $51,000 for a vehicle efficiency in the use of technologies. What we see across the police department is much of what we've talked about here today. Some increases and it costs and overall increase in salaries
due to the contractually agreed upon compensation adjustments. Additionally, though, as mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, there is a 1 million dollar increase in the budgeted amount for police overtime. Chief Koreans going to discuss that analysis and some efforts that have been underway for the police department to mitigate overtime costs. As I mentioned earlier, what we see in the police department and fire department is a disconnect and a MISS Alignment of Actuals versus budget. And what we would you propose to do here today is to correct There's an $123,000 increase of opioid settlement funds for police afraid. Police wellness program. The city is part of the very large class action lawsuit against opioid manufacturers was results in annual funding for programs like this one, which you we are programming in the police wellness fund. Overall, there are no changes to fte within the police department. That includes our sworn police officers and our civilian administrative staff. When we look at the police budget by fund, it is not only the general fund that provides funding but also our piece out fund. That is our quarter cent transition transaction used tax of 5.3 million dollars, which again remains flott as well. Vacancies have resulted in the piece out fund having available fund balance. What we're doing right now is keeping the ft East flat within our piece out fun for the next year. But frankly, we are keeping a close eye on that with our stagnant sales tax growth. And are increases in uncontrollable costs. We are making sure that we don't
cut staff at the moment, but the next year without enhancements and revenue overall as the city, I would anticipate us needing to revisit our piece out fun to make some changes. Overall police by program we see an increase in administration. This is tied to that scene variance we saw in non departmental for our general fund overhead. Field services saw $420,000 increase from our it Department tomorrow. Brian taking our chief information officer will be here to talk about all the changes within our it department. We see a $580,000 increase in overtime from our investigations unit. And projects is the $170,000 for the long this program. Also an increase from crime mitigation funds going to this area to fund a onetime projects. Police does receive numerous types of different outside funding sources, including crime mitigation funds that they program in this way consistently. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Chief Korean to talk about over time within the police department. Of John Cregan, our chief of police. And I want to overview there's 2 primary factors that >> contribute to how we're using are over time and our ongoing work to reduce that over time. One is our minimum staffing standards. We have 8 different patrol teams spread throughout the weekdays and weekend to different hours. And we really had use historic data to be able to look at what are the minimum staffing guidelines on that work with our labor groups and have an agreement that's existed for years with the city of Santa Rosa. With that for a set of all throughout the day when our day shift starts in the morning, there's 10 police
officers working with us a lot when you're spread out over 42 square miles of our city, it peaks over the noon into the afternoon and evening hours at a minimum of 15 officers and then goes down throughout the early morning hours all the way down the 7 officers that that's a 7 officers working for the entire city of Santa Rosa. But that's what our establish minimum staffing guidelines are. So we work to continually fill those. And we see that with officers being called the way to court heard all these other able to do that, but that certainly that controls what we're doing and with into the day always have to have those officers that are available to girls. Emergency calls respond to the 9-1-1 emergencies and be there. Another one that makes it very difficult for us things. Actually, as you saw some of the overtime increased with our investigations team is the unpredictable over time with it. And the reality most homicides are occurring on Monday morning at 8 in the morning when the detectives are working. The reality is there Friday night at 2 in the morning. So we're calling and detectives were calling in field in evidence, technicians calling and supervisors and other support to be able to work through those investigations, whether it be the 12 homicides that we had here in the city of Santa Rosa last year. We also see it with our particular homicides and with also collision with 9 fatal collisions in the city of Santa Rosa last year. All those take a complex investigation with a lot of resources. But we're really proud of the work that we're able to do here for the city of Santa Rosa. And last year you saw through the incredible
work of our investigators all 12 homicide incidents resulted in arrests and that brings closure to the family of those victims with that. And but it comes at a cost for us to be able to do those things with it. To another thing that we've seen with some of the changes at the federal level, as we've seen many more protests here in the city of Santa Rosa with it too. And for us, we've been very blessed that we haven't seen violent protests in our community, but we have a duty to be able to make sure that those are safe protest for everyone involved of using their First Amendment rights to be here and speaking their boys loudly with the 2. But we see significant impacts to traffic. We've seen counter protesters. We seeing threats across the state across the country and we need to make sure that we have the staff prepared that if we were to have vehicles driving through a crowd or GOD forbid an active shooter at one of these incidents with that, that we have the resources to respond. But what we've seen a significant overtime that's resulted from some of those incidents as well. So those are some of the things that really keeping in mind of minimum staffing levels within what we're doing. With it with the unpredictable over time, some of the things that we're doing and we're working to see how long this can be sustainable is actually rotating to detectives a week that leave their detective assignments and don't work in investigations but work patrol. And that's to fill some of our vacancies to patrol and a drive down some of that over time. There's a cause and effect, though. Now there's not a detective who investigating those cases. There are already see a significant amount of case load on those with the 2 were
holding some vacancies and some of our investigation seemed to or does not feeling those. So we can put the priority on patrol where the overtime is coming from with it too. Well, we've also do generated where we have a monthly review with my whole entire command, SEPTEMBER lieutenants or captains or so we're dissecting the overtime that we're spending. We're looking at what are some of the controllable costs, water ways that we can be able to change that with that we're utilizing civilian staff when weekend her coming out of weatherbee community engagement events. We have a great team of filled in evidence, technicians, a community service officer in each one of those things as the next next slide is going to show is that we're seeing a consistent trend about what we're doing is working that we're seeing some reduction with it and the overtime with that. And I took over as cheap 4 years ago this month with it, too. And 2022, when you see year after year that we're seeing a reduction in the overtime hours with that, the first year just over 3600 hours of overtime reduced followed by the next year with an impressive 3700 hours with that this year, we're training the end up almost even we're going to be about 286 hours the year before in the 21. 22, we were down 1900 hours. So looking at a 5 year snapshot. The police department had route has reduced our overtime hours by 9600 hours. I'm proud of the work that didn't come easy. That came with not feeling beats sometimes that came with operational concerns with it too. But at the end of the day, even with all the work that we're doing, we're not be able to stay within the overtime budget. That had been a lot of 2 working very
closely with the city manager with our cfo team to build an overtime budget that reflects the needs of our community and our department. So we can focus on the core operations to make sure that we're able to put the resources and the homicides, the fatal collisions to the 9-1-1. Calls and make sure that our community is able to know that when you call 9-1-1, a police officer is going to be there and we're not seeing big gap holes in the coverage throughout our city. And this is going to allow us now to be able to stay within the budget that we have with it and make sure that we're delivering the best service to our community. So I will just or right or what your what your preferences first questions with the with the Public Safety Department store run through the hole or the public safety daiquiri want to pause John. >> Iowa, where our preference would be continue our public safety deck and then take part of 2 questions at the end. If that's okay with them perfect. Thank you. Thank you. And then. So next, I want to start give an overview of our in response, mental health support team give some history in some context. >> Towards the proposed changes that bringing forward today to the program. But the in response program was launched in the JANUARY of 2022. The program includes 6 fte single role. Paramedics. That is the only area that classification within the city, 3 of which currently are filled, 3 of which are vacant additionally includes a one fire captain currently filled. I mentioned earlier that the seas going to die, increase, its ems revenue for that fire. Captain. Contract additionally are entered into with 2 nonprofit agencies to maintain this team through Bucklew
programs in Catholic Charities. Expenses for those contracts within the fire of the police department's budget. The people live within the fire department's budget. This is an example of a program that has both the police and fire aspect to it. They're they're frankly, there's not a lot of programs at the city that I can even think of that heavy interdepartmental combined this way. The program extended to of 24 7 coverage model to address mental health crisis is across our city with a license. Mental health professional. The city that when the city launched this program in JANUARY. 22, we did not have a dedicated mental health response team within the city at that time or ever had before. Future measure o funds will be greatly reduced as part of the conversations with the county from cut in half. So basically what that will be remaining with 1.6 million dollars with funding in. 26 27 and only 1.5 in 27. 28. So we how funding reduced? As I mentioned earlier, this program was begun with one time federal monies through arpa. Our poll was of the federal stimulus package from PRESIDENT Biden post or during the covid crisis. We at that time dedicated almost 4 million dollars to the launch of this program with one time funds at that time, it was recognize how challenging this was going to be going forward because when we launch a program with one time moneys, eventually the one-time moneys go away. At that time, we discuss how we're gonna need to find additional revenue sources or find additional funding to
maintain the program. After the arpa funds ran out the county which is the county sales tax measure for mental health response was used to fund the program from Duke from JULY of 2022. 2 today which where we've received over 5 around 5.1 million dollars worth of funding. Going forward. Anticipate that reduction. I mentioned a moment ago of 1.5 million dollar cut to the program from the previously provided measure o funding. Therefore, as we would describe it is ultimately programs like this is what we describe as a flex program. You flex up when you have funding and unfortunately you need to flex down when that funding is either decreased or eliminated. We have an ability to flex the program down so that we're able to maintain a mental health response unit within the city, which again, historically we did not have before, but to be able to maintain that team, it will require the reduction of the fire of the of the single role paramedic within those rules. So overall, 6 employees being reduced from the program. With move on to the fire department. Thank you. Chief Korean. So within the fire department, this these changes especially to in response and to see for will impact our numbers, as you see are going forward. Again, as I mentioned, flex program, flex programming. We describe a federal c for grant as a flex programming issue as well. The court for the Santa Rosa Fire Department's budget is that we will be maintaining the core
and ongoing general fund fire response and service delivery. That is to start early been provided by the city. We see contractual increases within our salaries and benefits in association with our agreed use. We see an increase of 2.5 million dollars for fire over time with chief which chief pressure will talk about in detail in a moment. We also see a 1 million dollar increase decrease from the fire vehicle apparatus, major apparatus change that we've talked about earlier. At the end of the day, what proposing is a 19 fte reduction to the fire department through those one-time funding and elimination of crammed funded positions, which is 66 in response positions that we just spoke about a moment ago. One fake Fte, which is a community outreach specialist and the Fte safer Grant positions. I mentioned in the first part of our presentation at the 12 impacted employees all have landing spots through either the General Fund vacancies are vacancies within Measure h we will not be issuing layoffs to any of those 12 firefighters. So this is a breakdown of those changes by fund. What you'll see is that the peace at measure within fire has an increase. Unlike police like the police Department or peace app is focused on personnel. The fire department's peace at measures, more focused on capital replacement. So we're not seeing the structural issue at the moment within the fire department's p South Fund that we're seeing within the police department. You'll
$462,000 increase in our measure. Each county wide fire prevention measure the chief and I will. We'll break down some changes with measure a chair in a moment. Want to provide some additional context on the safer grant. So in AUGUST of 2023 Council approved the Safer Grant accepting 7.1 million dollars worth of federal funding to hire 12 firefighter. To use that would create 2 paramedics squads. I will note that this is not the first time that the city had a safer program and safer programs of their challenges. They have multiple challenges. One of which being is that that I will cover that in the next slide. But the core of where we are as a city right now with the safer program is that it is a requirement of the program that we cannot lay off the employees that were hired to the safer grant we've been able to accomplish that to the vacancies that we have available. We've secured outside funding for the fire. Captain DMs for for that and were ultimately of all possible over to chief pressure up to talk about additionally, those impacts. Thank you, Scott. Good afternoon Council Scoutmaster Fire Chief City of Santa Rosa. So. >> And it's got talked about. We brought this to council in AUGUST of 23 n at its core. We knew safer had some issues going into the application process. Some of the issues are there's costs that are allowable under safer when you apply for safer the resources
the you deploy become part of your minimum daily staffing, which we'll talk a lot more about later. But when they become part of your minimum daily staffing, you have to staff those resources. You can just not fill those seats. And so things like over time are not covered under safer. And so that becomes a general fund obligation. Things like the equipment, things like that. Ppe, you know, all the other ancillary things that come along with those those funding opportunities are not covered. So essentially there's a period of performance that goes along with the grant. But what we found is we went through those funds faster than the period of The fire department was looking at the period performance finance was looking at how far how fast we're moving through those funds. So at the end of the day, we were going to have this conversation some point of what we're going to do with these positions. It was general fund is going to have to pick up tab on the Earth on the squads, which we knew in AUGUST. 23 was not going to happen. We looked at alternative funding sources. We could not find an alternative funding source of that 3 million dollars of ongoing revenue. We're we're gonna have to absorb employees by attrition. So we were going to have this conversation has just been moved up till now. What we're recommending is based on the fact that we have these vacancies available through the elimination of the safer Grant is absorbing 6 of the season to the General Fund. We have those vacancies that we've intentionally left
vacant them looking at this and moving 6 of ftse into the measure h vacancies, which we'll talk about an upcoming slide. So what the result is is there is no layoffs coming to the firefighter rank. We're just moving those vacancies moving those people around from safer into either. The general Measure h and weren't written net negative lost on people. Think that on Great job on this one. So talking about measure age you all heard a lot about this year, all you know, during the campaign getting it on Valley getting it passed. And then last year in talking about last fiscal year, what council approved was 20 ft ease for Measure h that included the addition of the personnel that we needed to staff engine 9, which went into service personnel necessary for battalion too. And the 2 vegetation management Specter's in the debt service for Fire Station 9. All of that's been implemented where we also intentionally did last fiscal year. The fiscal year that we're in right now was we left 6 vacant, have to ease. But they were approved by council has 6 fake and firefighter ftc's. Because it was such a big change in what we are going through and we are implementing the squad's. We had a lot going on. We said, hey, let's kind of let this sales tax work, its work itself out. Let's see what the revenue is. Let's see what the expenditures are and give us time to settle in with all of this. And then we're going to figure out what to do with these 6 bacon season. That's where we're at now. And so what what we're recommending
is going into this upcoming fiscal year is to fill those vacancies with the positions being eliminated from say France reference in the previous slides will be filling those positions. What we're going to show you in the next slide is what we're recommending were just sort of giving you a preview of what we're looking at. This is sort of operational in the sense that this is what the command staff of the fire department has planned. This could certainly change and this could flex this could this could be considered a pilot and some regard. But what we're looking at is showing you sort of what we anticipate happening with the future implementation of these positions and how we see it rolling out as a courtesy view because of all the work that you did with Measure h in. So. I sort of gave our command staff of the fire department sort impossible task. And I said, hey, listen, we have 6 firefighters that were going to fill. We need the most effective and efficient deployment model possible considering the budget considering the cute current and future needs of the community in the organization considering any potential future annexations our strategic plans and deployment analysis are iso rating, you know, to input and the value of the rescue program for county and regional regional organizations. And so, you know, our command staff got in the room and figure it out. And this is what they came back with And I give them all the credit because I have not touched us. So on the left side of the screen, you'll see when we currently have to ploy which is engine 9 currently
working at of station one. We have a second battalion chief and we have a bridge station management Specter's. This is to keep Mayor staff happy is the goats for says another red vehicle. The situation management inspectors. On the right side is what we see deploying in the future out of fire station 9. And that is moving those employees for mention 9 onto the heavy rescue that we currently possess. It's not our vehicle. It's an operational area vehicle. This was something that was in the original measure h implementation plan that was supposed to be on the side. But there is a minute. There is a Kenny wide regional heavy rescue plan that we're going to be the lead. We want to be the leaders of putting this. You know, service is very important. So this technical rescue vehicle has the ability to handle technical rescue capabilities such as if there is a structural collapse or if there is a trench collapse or a high-rise or I'm sorry, high angle rescue. That's what this specialty vehicle can do. So be staffing the heavy rescue. And then with those 6 vacant positions being filled, we have put them back on to a new squad. And so we would only be net losing one squad losing the safer squad. We would reinstitute a squad add of Measure h. They would work independently of each other. So we'd have a force multiplier working at a station 9 so both could out all in all risk incidents. Then together, they would respond to medium and high-risk events such as vehicle accident, structure, fires, technical rescues that are spawned together is what we call a lie. Task be a 5 person resource deploying to these, you know, high high risk, low frequency events. So it's something we've never had
before. That is definitely enhancement to service that we would see in the community. And then we would not change tele 2 of the vegetation management Specter's. The only addition that we're seeing to this is because of the change that we're looking at here because of the reduction that we've seen in staffing over the years, particularly in our command staff as well. We've taking the risk on is adding fte fire captain on a 40 our position today oversee special operations oversee the implementation of the technical rescue program. So that's what we see right now is working out is the implementation plan in station 9 just to make sure that everybody understands we will still have a fire engine with pumping capabilities. So if we see a red flag of and we're an event that we feel that we need to cross staff or get on to a fire engine will still have that puppy capability at a station 9. And want to touch briefly on our overtime history in our over time. It's a little bit different than the police department. And so just some quick history we've covered this before in and i just want to sort of really nail this down. So by policy, the fire department has minimum daily staffing and you'll hear me use that term a lot. But what it means is we have to have 47 right now. We have to 47 seats filled every day and there are 47 writing positions that we have to have filled our battalion chief's fire engines, ladder trucks and squads. Obviously, that number's going to change with how we're going to change things around with the elimination of safer. And the addition of the major issue for the change in the measure
h resources. But we have a certain number of fake certain number of seats. We have to feel if somebody is on vacation or somebody is sick or somebody is injured. We can't just leave that seat vacant. We have to fill it. So that is filled with over time. It's unlike if you know, if I call in sick or if I get hurt and my desk is empty, it doesn't matter. It's just it's not filled. We have to fill the seats. One of the things we'll talk about a little bit later as we had relief positions. And what just want explain what relief positions are. Essentially, if we have 47 writing positions that we have filled, we carried 49 personnel on the roster for a while. So those 2 extra people that were carried on the roster would fill those holes instead of overtime positions. But those are eliminated. We lost for those mid-year fiscal year. 24 25 in the other 2. And the 25 26 budget. Next slide. Please. So this is really the context of what our problem is. What this graph shows is the light green line shows are budgeted overtime, which you can see has remained flat or budgeted non-contract overtime has remained flat or actual actual expenditures have changed been higher than our budget over the course of time. But we talk about non-contract overtime. Just to be clear, we have to or timelines non-contract overtime is non reimbursable over time. So this is vacation sick. Industrially Friedman leave. It's your typical overtime contract over time is time that his overtime, this reimbursed by the state or federal government for strike teams and things like that are deployments, there are reimbursed. So this is the day to day over time that's created. So we did, you talk
about what we've looked at as far as over time goes really with this analysis shows. And I give credit to my team and particularly our admin analysts are Roberts for this and the finance team is what we've seen is we've had an increase in fte count, particularly in 24 with the safer positions. And we've had an increase in costs, you know, our salaries of just by the nature of having employees are our salaries have gone up. But we have not seen a commensurate increase in our overtime budget. So by the nature of doing business, we've seen an increase in contract salaries, but we have not seen an increase in contract the contract of our over time line going up. So it's nothing that's anybody done work. It has done wrong. But what I've been talking to cfo and city managers office about is there is a there's a policy issue in there. That's not a council policy, but there's a policy issue in negotiating. We need to look at how we cost things out to make sure that we're that raising all of our costs commensurate to what the cost of contract really is. So and I just want to double down on what MR. Wagner said earlier, this is not creating additional opportunity. This is not creating additional ability turn. This is a true up. This is just making sure that our budgets and actual is are aligned and this needs to be an ongoing process. So that's all this is this is not somebody making more money. This is just making our line items, correct? Town. Thank. Thank you, chief all double down on the point that the chief just made so >> the light green line is a
critical data point here in that you can just see it doesn't increase each year at all. It just has remained flat. And from abutting perspective, beginners, MISS Alignment. Sure that's growing each year from that that that is what we're dressing. We're not providing additional funding. We were trying to correct something. And Chiefs point that is something that the city needs to correct ongoing basis holding a budget flat does not stop savings that it needs to come with action. And this is a corrective action. And then on the last slide here, just to make sure that we're not saying we just need more money. These are the things that we have done over the course of time to. >> To try to solve this issue. One of the things is we talked about the relief positions in the problem. We ran into the with the relief positions is. First. We weren't allowed to fill them for a long time. We had them on position control. We weren't allowed to fill them once we were allowed to fill them. We couldn't keep them filled. We look back and historically we had one or 2 of them filled for a little bit of time, but it would just trickle up into our normal roster. So we just couldn't keep the positions filled and then they were eliminated. And we've worked with risk management over the course of the years to really reduce our injury rates in the reduce the time off that our employees have when they're hurt. We've worked with risk management. Our workers comp adjusters or workers comp provider and occupational health provider increase the speed of return for those employees who can. And we work with human resources. One of the issues we had and it was just one of those things that nobody really identified until we who is taking, you know. 4, 5, 6 months to get somebody hired.
We have that now down to about 6 weeks. Thanks, Thanks to director and her team. So we've shorten the time it takes to get people hired in it with this is a It's my fault that we actually the 2019 staffing study this. Some of you are here for and this was a staffing study to look to at a lot of different ways. We could staff the fire department and one of the things that looked at particularly was the Ft versus over time. Part of it and what it showed at the time was we need to hire 23 additional firefighters on top of our current roster to make the overtime problem, minimize or go away completely. So that's sort of the risk benefit to do it takes on top of the current 161 employees that we have right now. We'd have to hire 23 more and take on the pension liability. All those things make the overtime problem. Go away. It also looked at 3 alternative staffing models. They were modeled very much like you would see in the police department and all of those models show that with the way that the fire department works, they were all much more expensive at their base core than what we currently have. So the model that we currently have actually is the least expensive way to do business. So the last thing is we've come down to we've ran through all the series, ran through all these little fixes and now we're at the point we need to right size the the budget to match the actual what we've worked through with the city manager's office and the finance team is recommending adding 2.5 million dollars to the fire department overtime
budget in order to meet the minimum daily Staffing needs of the fire department. >> chief and so I will move on to our recap and reductions and then we'll move on to questions. >> But I'm gonna provide a a barely. Well, none of this has been briefed today. Try to be of a recap all that we've covered here over the past almost 3 hours. >> So overall that where we started with a 17 and a half million dollar deficit, if no action was to be taken, we've we've gotten down to a 7.6 million dollar proposed deficit for the next coming fiscal year. That will be offsetting with the one-time use of reserves. Additional department reductions or increased revenues will be needed to be explored over the next 12 months to close this remaining gap expenditure grows continues to outpace outpace revenues. The city's the city still remains any structural deficit. I will add that that we are very proud of of today's proposed budget and debate, the ability that we've had to mitigate impact to our organization and to the community. But the reality of our still situation is still stark and sobering going forward. When we look at this on numbers be says this is where we started this conversation on APRIL, 21st of our long-range financial forecast and a 5 year basis that reached 33 million dollars by 29, 42 million dollars by the year after that. And we wanted to show is the impact that the proposed budget would make on these numbers? Well, you'll notice here is that there are very
much improved. Still at the end of the day, a 13 or 22 million dollar deficit is not sustainable for the city, but we've made significant improvement that we summarize here. What you'll notice is that. We're starting to really see the fruit in these numbers, especially of the pension policy because as we talked about when we reviewed that it wasn't just the 3.8 million dollars this year. It grew to 7 million dollars worth of savings. And 28 29. So our our savings and our reductions really create a snowball effect in the opposite direction to make our situation better of note, you'll see that the fiscal year 30 31 jumps from 13.8 million to 22.4 million. And that's a function of our current measure. Q half-cent sales tax measure falling off halfway in between that year. So we have not factored in that half a year worth of sales tax adjustment into there. We're looking at this current deficit is a 13.8 million dollar ongoing structural deficit. But what's critical for that understanding is that? We would not consider this budget to be a fully pardon that budget against the services and infrastructure that the community expects and you should receive. We still have a significant funding issues around infrastructure, which the budget does not propose to fix or overall the sustainability of our staffing model. Here we are at historic all-time lows. For posterity. We've included a wrist list of all reduction is I just did a quick inventory of I think
everything on your we've covered in detail as part of our specific department information. The one that I did not mention as part of Siro and city manager was a lying, the position title of the current chief communications and Internet home rental relations officer to the communications and intergovernmental manager position that changes was classified as one of those classification or alignment issues. That means the current field position at the city. But the rest of these we we all talked about during the previous sites. That leads us to our reserves. Spend down versus these proposed actions. We present this information with each budget presentation. This is a way for us showing how are reserves gets spent down or savings account gets spent down. The last time we showed this slide on APRIL 21st, what it showed is that our upcoming budget adoption year, was going to be below are mandated reserves amount if no actions were taken. What we see here now is what we've shown over the past 3 years and what we're trying to accomplish is ensuring that on a 2 year basis, our projections do not fall below our main council mandated reserve number. And what you'll see is that by the end of fiscal year 2028, we would expect to be right about where our council mandated reserve number is. I think that's a 50 million dollars probably where we end up by the end of fiscal year 2028. To remind us all of why that's so important
is that our reserves are the city's savings account. The function of that is to maintain continuity versus macroeconomic crisis is that arise? Or a In other words, a recession or, you know, impacts like the 2017 wildfires. We know that through, for example, the Great Recession or through the 2017 wildfire that we need to maintain a certain of these funds in this area. But what's also again, good for us to know is that by the end of fiscal year 30, we would be down to 14 million dollars of the reserve, which is something that we can't move forward. That's far, far, far too below are mandated to serve amount. I want to provide an overview of the staffing summary and all these changes. Councilmember Ben was mentioned earlier of it's hard to follow slide by side. So we wanted to include just an overall summary, which which I'm not going to read through, mention some of the larger things that we've talked about already. I mentioned a moment ago, the change in Ciro of changing that title for the The for the Com's officer. City manager or the city planner. Any project manager we are proposing as missions to our budget. Those come with one of those is a clean up in one of those is vacant. So overall, we have 3 total additions to our general fund that again to these are just moving from one pot into another. It's a net 0. This is where we break down the reductions. This includes just general fund. And so we have 29 overall general fund or
reductions. 3 additions on the law side. So net impact of the general fund of 26. This includes the firefighter positions within Measure h that we are moving to bacon positions which within the general fund and excuse me, the decrease of firefighters is associated with are safer. Grant. They're moving to measure h vacant positions and general fund vacant positions. The reduction of the single row paramedics that are associated with our in response program and the rest of these. We walk you through in detail with our departments reviews. This shows our reorganizations at the bottom. Again, we're still a year behind on our rec and parks sheens along with our parking that we're seeing this year and Ciro changes. But overall, this isn't it increased effort as we've been talking about gain efficiencies at the city, not just through reductions or increase consolidating some of our operations into more efficient, efficient and productive ways. So overall, a net general fund increase of 26. These are the positions outside of the general fund and how we are impacting as well. Again, we mentioned administrative secretary, any community outreach specialist through Art Vpp program in Measure or Peace app. This is due to the fact that the program can no longer handle those costs associated with these positions. This is where right-sizing the dpp program in peace out to what its revenue is. So overall, total general fund and non general fund position changes. 28
reduction. This slide is a very important site and with this shows is how only our general fund I know we've talked about many funds here today, but strictly the general fund staffing levels have changed over time. There's only 2 groups of employees that we did not include in here, one being city council. So the ft easa City Council are not included in this number. It's also not included in those numbers. Housing agency employees because they're really not funded by the general fund. This gives us a way to do an apples to apples comparison of how staffing has changed over time prior to the Great Recession. The General fund had 885 employees. That changed with the Great Recession in the Great Recession is the second largest economic crisis in the history of America. At point in 2010, 2011, the General Fund reached 705 employees. Where we are after the protest proposed reductions that we review today would place the general fund at 700 and 7 employees. So 2 employees more than the bottom of the Great Recession. We have a very large budget here at the city of Saint Rose and we have many complex functions within our general fund. And oftentimes there's too much focus on saving money on pens or saving money on travel or saving. It can get very confusing. But the fact of the matter is that we overall from before the Great Recession have had a 20% decrease. And our fte is from the general fund. While the same time our population has increased 12% over that same
period of time. It is in on denial of mathematical fact that our employees within the general fund are doing more with loss. And unfortunately, sometimes they're not doing. Everything that the community deserves and has a right to see This is just the stark reality of our staffing mix at the city. With that, I will. I will add. >> As a as a as a member of city staff, I will say I am. >> Deeply proud every day to be a member of the staff. To face the challenges that we do here. And certainly that our staff, he says, and providing those community services or something that we're all. >> Very, very proud of. But our reality in our numbers, it is this. And with that, we welcome any questions that we've gone over as of the second part of this presentation. >> Thank you both. Again, this is an impressive presentation turning to council for questions. MR. Donald want to kick us off. >> Thank you for the presentation. I just have a couple of questions and >> maybe conversations around direction around the budget slight. 77 chief, do you mind telling me by policy where that policy comes from for minimum staffing levels for fire? If that is like a recommendation that we follow from the state or how that works. >> So the minimum daily staffing. And the reason I put my policy, it's in our standard operating is standing operating policy. So it's our Lex pull policy. So. That's developed management and labor together and agreed upon and then West signed by both entities. So it's agreed upon
in policy. It's not in any other document. >> Not council policy. Then it's it's that internal policy in the fire department. Correct? Great. That's really helpful. Thank you for letting me know. Was all the questions I had for fire cfo Wagner. You talked a lot about the pension benefit and I know I wasn't there for the APRIL 21st, but we met after that. And I think it's a brilliant strategy, too. Reducing our contributions to Calpers and appreciate the work. And I didn't get to commend you and your team and of course, city manager Farrell on all the work that's gone into that. My question really was around the benefits that we see and the fallout and what we actually are going to have in that year. I think it was 2047 if going back to those original slides. And the reason I want to bring it up under this is because I know that's coming forward to us. And I want to say that it was about a 32 million dollar like fall off that we're going to have at that time. And I think what's important and what we've learned on her budgeting is what can we put in place as we bring those changes forward to make sure that we don't ever leave future councils in the position that we've been in with an unfunded liability. And so as we re not forward, looking for some feedback from finance, but also maybe some suggestions around. Do we put a portion of that 30 million dollars in policy now to say we're going to put that towards ongoing Cal sort of like the 15 trust that put
that towards that liability. Putting perhaps 2 million into infrastructure. And one of the things that I've seen that we don't have in the city and still don't have even in this budget is a deferred maintenance budget for our facilities. And that's yet another massive unfunded liability that we don't have it. I'm looking at it and you it could be unfunded or it's just a straight liability on our buildings. So I'm wondering if there's any interest there's a recommendation as we're looking at forecasting for the budget and how we could actually put that in place now for the safety of the future of city of Santa Rose and buy 2047. I really hope I'm not on council. Don't think I will be a might even be dead by then. But I want to make sure that there's some things put in place now when we're doing these good strategies. So can you give me some feedback on that? Look, we could possibly do as we look forward. Appreciate the questions thank so much for it. >> I'll give characterization. But these these are the points of economic cycles where meaningful changes happen for the future. Frankly, this council has had to become financial experts on how the city of Santa Rosa runs. So this council is in a unique position to help future councils understand the pitfalls that can happen structurally from a deficit right? What I would like to do is bring those bring that forward as a future consideration for the city's reserve policy. I would like to do that. That will happen
prior to JUNE of U.S. Adopting this pension change. But I would like to have that conversation with council and if at a future date because the actual power of the pension policy being proposed is exactly what you just said. Is that yes, we reap such a large benefit today. But the true benefit is going to happen around 2041. Where we've never had an opportunity address some of our structural funding issues at the city that now future councils will be able to address. I don't plan on being here in 2041. Is either I would hope to be promoted as a strictly community member at that point, I will come share my opinions at that time. But yes, this gives them a chance. And this council is the one doing edits. It's giving them a chance to make those better. We do not properly fund infrastructure in the city within that streets, whether that's the city facilities that are public uses and enjoys. We have more than just pensions to address. And I hope that this is part of a longer shortage, even just the next 16 years, 15 years. Thank you. >> And then I think one of my final comments would be we talked a little bit about the fair share a little bit a lot. We're going to address fixing Proposition 13. So I'd like to direct you to do that. But really, I want to make sure that we're having those open conversation with our partners at the county on contributions towards things like our homeless services looking in response that that program is going away because of their lack of funding or what they contribute under measure or is proposed really make sure that
there's a very clear picture about what we get on the dollar. Appreciate all of the work that went into this presentation. I think it's critical not just for council, but actually the community because we hear this over and over. So but I'd like to go back and see if there's any way that they can have a better understanding, perhaps on Marin of how difficult it is for the city. Currently, even a public safety. When we look at how much were contributing to the whole county about, you know, the percentage of people that live in the county, but even our homeless services, I think we get about 80% of the homeless and unhoused folks that need support. So I don't think we get 80% of the money that goes into the county just under that measure. Alonso. I appreciate again for the very transparent and open budget analysis today. And I appreciate all the work that your entire team has done and look forward a balanced budget in future. >> Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember MacDonald. For the point of public record, I will say that I have not proposing changing Prop 13 and I'm not cutting pension side of the city get. Thank you so much. Thank thank you for those clarifications. Let's go to Vice Mayor Okrepkie where we've his hand out. >> Yeah, quick question. We win over staffing levels, but I was wondering if we could carve out. >> Public safety because it is such a large portion of that. I how do our staffing levels now for police and fire compared to historical norms? >> Thank you for your question. Will be happy to
bring that back tomorrow. And I but generally speaking, the police Department chief chief, I? I think is want to feel right away. Yeah, been waiting for this information. Chief Chief Scott, this memorized for >> Thank you very much. And yeah, I talk about this number quite often in community and it's remarkable to see the change that we've seen as the city of Santa Rosa has grown and public safety staffing has not some of the main numbers that I look at in 1999. We had 183 sworn police officers compared to 175 today. 74 civilians in 1999, which is exactly the same that we saw today. But one remarkable thing is the population was 136,000. Then our police department peaked in 2006 with our staffing with it and we had 190 sore and 15 more sworn officers and we do today we had 91 civilians. So that was 17 more civilians that we had. So today we had our population has increased by another 25,000 from 2006, we have 30 to last less staff members of the Santa Rosa Police Department. So when cfo Wagner talked about doing more than last, absolutely, they're doing more than last as we see this job has gotten more and more complex with addition of body worn cameras and cameras and so much other technology. But 32 32 last staff members at our population has gone up by at least 25,000 since the 2006 0 it's significant. >> Thank you. Chief Cregan invited by my math correctly that the changes his 1999 would have about 35% increase in city population but flat flat levels in terms of place.
Yes, absolutely. All right. Thank Thank Chief Westrope that you want chime in on this one. Thanks for the question. Vice mayor. I don't have the specific numbers of employees, but from from a contextual standpoint. >> I you know, and breaking the fire department up and sort of the 3 funds that were funded by. >> The the General Fund employees. >> Have not changed from our record since 1982. So the funding is not increased. As far as the employee count because since 1982. Where we've seen the increase is peace And so we saw an increase in employee count Peace app in 2006 2007. And then again with with Measure e with say for the 2 safer grants and 13 14 and then the safer grant now and we've absorbed those employees by attrition. So we haven't losses employees. But those have been where we've made the increases. One thing I will note is that, you know, that's in suppression operations. Prevention bureau has not recovered from the Great Recession. And that's one area that we really there's still about half the staffing. They were prior to the Great Recession. And our admin team has about the same. They're about half of the size. They were so so. If we're looking at numbers, you know, I think we need to look at the different funds. And I also think we need to look at the department is entirety. So we can certainly bring those numbers back to you. But I'm just trying to give you sort of a contractual answer from the point of resources deployed on the road. Thank you. Chief Westrope Vice >> yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to step on your. >> There are no snowfall that has your follow-up. >> That wasn't always the confirmations to the chief
westrope. So basically what you're saying and the general point obligation towards staffing. Has not changed sense at the have not changed since I was toddler. But it has increased significantly financially. >> So absolutely it's increased financially, but the obligation has not changed. From our record from what we can find a records. Obviously in 1982, there's 9, you know, we can't go back in Chuck Files. They were, you know, copies and things like that. But as far as building new infrastructure and adding equipment, we can find any record of that. Now. Thank you. MISS Rogers. >> If recollection is correct, I was one when that changed. So I did have a question. Between you and chief. It bounces back and forth. But the first one, go with his own slide. 87. It talks about the reduction of 3 vehicles and the reason why I had a question regarding that and I'm not question mean, y you guys are doing it. It's for my own educational purposes. Was there a story about something happening and there was not vehicles. >> For people to go out at one point in how is that or how will that impact? >> Even as having an extra vehicle, if there is a vehicle down or how many do we use versus how many we have do we have spares? What is that look like? So the police department has a wide array of vehicles from are marked patrol vehicles are motorcycles. >> Our detective vehicles, which are unmarked vehicles with it, too. I you're talking about before the union has brought up concerns before
with our marked patrol vehicles about having the availability of those really what that's route it is. And some of the long-term maintenance issue. Sometimes we have officers getting involved in collisions and there's a vehicle off line. Sometimes there's especially we saw through the covid air, which a lot of these complaints were coming up during that time with long delays for getting parts in with our fleet team. We've seen some incredible Our eternal flee team here at the city of Santa Rosa. So I think we've seen some streamline within the speeding up the process of getting vehicles fixed. I'm not going to it's always perfect with all of our cars with that. But we work really closely. We have a we have one of our lieutenant says dedicate is our feet liaison and works with the team and were able to identify 2 underutilized patrol vehicles and one unmarked vehicle with that, that we're able to take off line and that will be about a 30,000 dollar, your savings that we put for, like a vehicle replacement funding for maintenance on those vehicles. So work closely with the city manager's office and felt like with my team that will be able to sustain our mission by losing those 3 vehicles with that and be able to assist with some general fund reduction. >> And since you're already there, question I had was about relief staff. I understand from my understanding of what you said, it does did not work well for fire. >> But what about >> pd? Because how often do you have vacation sticker injured? >> So all the time with the 2. So we have our goal is to keep 85 officers that are spreading
patrol throughout the all the different teams right now. We only of 76 and patrol with that. So we're we're seeing sometimes and I brought up at a recent community meeting is right now. We're just through the course of our work. We see more injuries that we have and officer that got her collarbone broken fighting with a suspect trying to take into custody. Broken elbow is broken wrist, broken hands with that from a variety of different incidents they're involved But that results out of our 175 sworn officers. 21 of them are not deployable right now. Due to injuries are either a modified work doing work like an office capacity with the 2. Are there off getting medical care with a 2? We have another 7 officers that are in the academy that are going to be graduating over the course of next year with it, too. Then we have 3 vacant positions. So when you look at that and we have for her out a leaf or family having babies, but it comes up with 21 out an injury for fmla leave 7 in the Academy 3 vacancies. So out 175 officers, 35 of those positions are not deployable. So that is what impact some of these things. When we look at the minimum staffing, when we see some of the over time with that, just like the fire chief talked about Chief Westrope. We're working really closely with our great risk team about how we can mitigate some of the risk and the injuries. Our wellness coordinator that we're using, opioid funds has really been trying 0 in on some of the causes of the injuries, how we can reduce that. But the end of the day, this is just a job where you're faced with a lot of adversity in the field and you're going to continue to see injuries and it's going to continue to impact our staffing.
>> Yeah, I ask for multiple reasons. But one of my main reasons for asking as I understand, people always want pick up. Over time right? There's always something to pick up over time for. But I do worry about the mental health of our our staff when they're out there, they have respond. They have to make decisions very quickly. And so I just don't want that to be an impact on the services our community or be very detrimental to any of our community. Members are visitors that we have within our city in. So to me, there is a balance we just have to find that balance and it can't be at the expense of our staff. And so that is why I asked about that. And so that's something that's very important to me that we find that that ballots >> in addition to that. >> this >> in response, keep a record of services we provide for non Santa Rosa residents. And the reason why ask is because we're >> king within the e d emergency Department. I have heard multiple times when you see patient for people to say, oh, I was told that if I just came into the city limits. >> And I can get. Services. So do we keep track of? Residency of the people? We are providing services. We break it down aggregate data that I receive talking about the zip code where we actually met the person. >> With that, I'll have to talk to Iran response program manager to determine if actually breaking down the
residents they leave and it's difficult because we have a lot that better at school here in Santa Rosa to shopping going to mental health crisis. I have an adult Ali heard stories where in is the pride of Sonoma County with a mental health response. I've heard work closely with the nominee Board of other community members feeling like, hey, my my community doesn't have this and it's driven to the Santa Rosa. I mom told me that one time that I drove the Santa Rosa Plaza. So my son could be able to get some of the services with that. I don't think it's an overwhelming amount, but we certainly do see it. But that's something the same as with our police and medical and fire services that we're responding to calls from community members from all over Sonoma County regularly that are just happened to be visiting here within our community. >> then lastly, I just wanted to thank all of the departments that today. Being on City Council is not the easiest job. I know we get paid the most out of every one, but it is not the easiest job. But you guys definitely are like our pride. Enjoy Wright. Working with the staff saying how you guys think out of the box order to address a lot of the issues that we have in the customer service that you provide to our community members do not trying to not allow some of the situations where into impact the services that we provide. So thank you for that. And lastly, I am looking for ways that we can make the job easier for our
staff. So if equates to technology or updating the system because these are one-time costs versus ongoing costs. And I think that that is worth that investment for me to help the staff get the job with less because that is what we're always asking is for them to the job done with less. So that will conclude my comments. Thank you, Thank you. MR. Home runs. Thank you, mayor. >> The chief of this question is for you, sir. To these conversations is mainly about personnel. But also want to talk to you about the tools that help. Make are pretty successful. One of those tools is flock. And I've been getting a lot of response and a lot of questions regarding the program. I would to ask you if you've noticed a increase or decrease in crime since the flood program has been implemented our program. >> It's a great question. And it's certainly been very relevant of community topics right now and really been working to kinda educator community and what the flock is and some of the rules and regulations we have here with our city and to the state of California. And if I was actually meeting with a group of our detectives this recently and saying my this is 27 years for me. I've been a police officer, the automated license plate readers has been one of the more revolutionary things of that time being able to respond in real time. The crime to be able to pinpoint what it suspects suspects are fleeing the scenes of violent crime. And I think it's been truly one of the more transformer Wolf actions that we've had technology with. This technology, though, comes
great responsibility is as me is chief and our department to make sure that we're using it morally ethically within our city guidelines and within the expectations of our community. And that's why really proud of the work that we have and about the rules that we have of making sure that our data is only help for 30 days that are officers can only access that data, only access it. What I they're investigating a criminal offense. We put any other criminal case. Number incident number, we're doing monthly audits of our administration to make sure that we're following those guidelines with that. We're making sure that it's only being used for law enforcement legitimate needs with that. So other vehicles MAY be captured every day when I drive home, my vehicle gets captured multiple times on flock cameras, but I'm not going to be committing any crime. So I'm not worried about being my personal vehicles. My family's vehicles being used in their what I am thrilled that as chief and is a community member to see how much of a key part of played are 12 homicides that last year that we've had reported kidnappings with that that last year with 262 sexual assault reported the city of Santa Rosa, 262. It plays a key role. There is when we don't have much limiting information. So I want to do is continue to build trust with our community. Show them authentic Lee. That word that measures we're taking to make sure that we stay within the confines of our city policy, the law and the expectations of our community. >> You definitely answered a lot of my follow-up questions. One of them being has assisted in the 12 homicides that were in the season was a the answer is yes, it has the question as as it approve response times.
Yes, it has. And are we protecting information? Yes, we are. Legally as police chief, what are you legally bound and forced to share or with who are you forcing share the information with regards to other agencies or departments? >> We're not forced to share with anyone. So what we are legally prohibited, sure there's 2 key laws. One is Senate Bill. 54. We've talked a lot about that. It's strictly prohibits sharing any immigration information with a cause that comes up a lot in the community about what the world that we live in today. Could federal resources be accessing our flock data? Are we sharing? Absolutely not. Not only by our city policy, by the department policy and by state law with Senate Bill. 54, there's another more put couple state law and that Senate Bill 34 and Senate Bill 34 particularly talks about that under no circumstances. Can we share any flock data with any federal resources include the fbi, atf, dea, month security, a nice with it. So we're prohibited from sharing for many of those agencies with that. And then we do audits to make sure that there were there would be no way for them to access. But if we were to see an officer somehow share with that, we've never seen at an audit and I go in regularly and talk to our team briefings about this is an incredibly valuable tool for our operations for the city of Santa Rosa and talk to them about the responsibility of making sure we use properly within the law within our policy. And I'm proud that we haven't seen any instances where our data has, whether it be through flock, mistakes or through our officers. Actions
were our data has been MR. Propery Utley shared and we >> Years we're proud. And I have to tell you that I am proud that in the 9 years since annexation of rolled into the city of Santa Rosa, I've heard from the community and the experts that I've had have been positive in regards to the interaction with police Department of the city of Santa not to say anything about the outside to see such as sheriffs, but nonetheless, feedback that received it's definitely more I compare. But I will say that srpd is definitely being appreciated by the community it serves. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Ben >> Thank you, I'm glad their chief. I just have a quick question for you. I'm just wondering and thinking in response with decrease and funding. I'm just wondering what how you see the future of in response. Not just this year, even in the next couple years. >> And we've had a lot of thought. I want to say chief westrope of the fire department have been incredible partners from day one and are a big part of the success of our team. We've been having a lot of conversations about the impacts with it. At the end of the day, what we're going to be able to do is is realign with some of the tough staffing and financial decisions that we have to make. But we're going to be focused on the core mission and the court mission as it sat in the slide, his mental health first and homeless is number 2 with that. And one thing that to focus on as much frustration as there is with the county. We are finalizing a three-year agreement that we
would have 3 years funding for in response with a guarantee of it not coming from general fund dollars. We'd be able to sustain it at this new budget. And we're going to certainly feel the impacts of losing our fire partners. But we're gonna be able to focus on those things. And that's that's the small bright on this is that we're still, though, have for 3 years. We can continue responding to mental health crisis is with our community and continuing working with our fire here in the community. >> I'm glad to hear that. I didn't know that the 3 year. >> And that's one thing see Wagner, which is bringing up 2. We've already started that slow transition since fall of last Our former city manager Smith saw that this was a possibility with her work with the county with that and we froze that because the hiring of the singer, Old medic because we're trying to reduce actual layoffs to the minimal as possible. So since last year we've been transitioning and have some of the teams that have been operating without medic now. And that's with our partnership with Bucklew programs and with Catholic Charities. So now we'll have the new model that's being proposed for consideration is a licensed mental health clinician funded by the county and then Bucklew programs. Also does our system navigation program management and then Catholic Charities with our homeless outreach specialist. Another thing for the county, as much as I definitely been a loud critic in the community about getting measure o funds to understand that the county is giving a licensed mental health commission in kind. So it's a
cost 1.1 million dollars a year for the 6 clinicians. That doesn't count the training or the supervision of those clinicians. So that's adding another contribution from the county is more realistically, the 2.7 million dollars a year that they'll be providing the keep this program. And like I said, we're in the final stages, ending up on some of the decisions made here today by counsel that direction about finalizing a three-year agreement with them. >> I didn't know that. Thank I appreciate that. And one quick question about fire. Really it's just a clarification for the 2.5 million for overtime. I completely understand, you know, that overtime is just part of the situation, but it's just wondering because I think you talked earlier about. Before you had really folks and then you lost those positions. And so now you rely on people, existing employees to fill that all the overtime. So will that 2.5 million go toward that? That model, so to speak. >> Yeah, is going to go towards the overtime on that. The relief position model and numbers been calculated by finance taken to into account the loss of the safer positions. So if moving those 12 positions and recalculating what they believe the overtime costs will be. So its rely on the overtime model, not the relief position model. Great. That's all needed. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Other questions, MISTER Rogers. Sorry, follow-up. Other Chiefs sorry and so my question is, are I don't know, maybe chief
Westrope, could it into this county providing the mental health clinicians. >> Are they able to bill for their services? >> We are going to be that response is going to be the first team as medic had medical billable certified. So we're just finishing that process. Now meeting Chief Westrope and I've met repeatedly with behavioral health director, Nolan Sullivan. The goal is from the county is to transition off of measure o funding to be able to get medical billable. There's a lot of unknowns right now as if you're with the Governor Newsom's proposed budget is to eliminate that or greatly reduce the medical billing. So that's the proposed budget, though, that just when we're getting certified, that we're not getting those medical bill, a bull dollars that hasn't been decided yet. So we're still looking parallel tracks of the three-year agreement of using the measure o funds is where we have and then work toward getting medical billable and seeing what funds we can get. Once we finish the certification. But there's just a lot of unknown and uncertainty about the medical dollars coming in. >> Okay, please keep us posted on that because then that means that, yes, they will be giving us a mental health clinician, but they'll also be receiving the revenue because we wouldn't be receiving the revenues. So it would be a flat. >> The agreement is that the way Director Sullivan described it is like basically putting it in an escrow account for each team. So I'm working closely with the Chiefs from Cotati Rohnert Park Sonoma State and Petaluma for their with it too. And
we're all talking about that. And my point is that in response is going to a much higher call volumes. I want to make sure that I'm getting my appropriate amount of medical billable dollars. So that's his agreement right now is that funds received from in response would go in a special account set aside for and response in the same with safer with a 2. Now, as we've seen many times with the county that could change with that. But that's the proposal at this time is that we would see those dollars set aside. But huge uncertainty is are weaving and receive any dollars for medical billable. So these are all projections for years to come. Certainly nothing coming today. >> Thank you. Quick follow-up on that Chief Cregan. Can we pan down for a second? There's been lots of discussion about. Partnership with the county specifically in areas of of homeless and mental health services. This has been an area's everybody in the room knows of robust conversation as they say over the past couple of years. Nolan Sullivan and his team there. They've been good partners. Could you talk at a high level about the kinds of conversations that we're having with the county in combination with other cities who are in our same position about the long-term thinking. You've given some very concrete examples. And in response funding a multi-year in response funding contract being one example. But this is a very live issue across the county, not just for us and they dig. The conversations have been pretty pretty extensive behind the scenes. Would you mind just glossing over that? >> They haven't. We've come together as the Chiefs of police. Chief Westrope has joined us to is the only fire representative on these teams with that with our city managers, from across the county, from those cities with it quite honestly had some
pretty spirited conversations with that in some frustration with seeped out toward the county of being better partners with that. The county does articulate that they're playing for the crisis. Stabilization unit here. The Puff Center, which is called is site health facility out there by low skill cause, which is a long-term facility. Still the mobile support team with that. So a lot of other resources that are available for Santa Rosa residents that are being attributed to with it, too. But I think it's something that we as a city, as you heard a theme today that there's room that we have to work with our county that we're contributing the lion share from the county comes from the city of Santa Rosa toward with it and get our a proportionate money back to serve our community here and ways that are greater than basic services. He would crisis stabilization unit, a puff center. Some of those things with it, too, that we could be doing more to enhance the mental health services that were being provided and in response has been incredible enhancement with that, too. But another thing that as we focus this year with the significant cuts with our Santa Rosa school districts that I've met with their team repeatedly expect additional in response calls to the end to the school campuses next year. We continue to see this last year in 2025. Want to just under 6,000 calls with our in response team with a 2. And I expect those calls a clip 7,000 when we see these additional school calls this year. But that's why it's really important to me to find a path to secure that funding, not coming from general fund and finding a way that we can have a sustainable team that's really having a significant
impact on our community. >> Thank you very much. Actually with with respect to proportional funding, I think the status actually Santa Rosa has about 55% of the homeless in the county. Jenny Lin, I'm looking 55%. Okay. To give everyone just make sure everyone's clear on on the proportion. 40% of the chief Cregan I should have stopped before you got up. I got one more srp specific question. But anyway, thank thank you for having all of those conversations. There's been a lot of people involved, including our city manager there happening at this. You see. So thank you. Thank you. It's been lows, more and more to come there. But just to underline how significant conversations of an you. So you give me the perfect segue with the schools to in order to underline the point about how the budget issues that other organizations in the county are having and how they affect our budget. Could you give a rough cost estimate for how our responses to Santa Rosa City schools issues over the course of the last year? How much that translates to in dollar terms. I know we've got rough estimate that in my mind was somewhere in the 6650,000 range. >> But what I can say is the numbers of in 2025, it was just just over 1800 calls for service that we had in our schools. So you can break that down by what's the hourly rate of an officer, but a significant with I don't have that exact number of I just know. The calls were believe it was 18. 85 that we responded to in color and calendar year 2025, but it's significant. And we talk about some of the staffing levels across the city of Santa Rosa. It really diverts resources with aren't available to respond to some of the other
areas with that to end as we see the combination, middle schools, high schools with the 2, it adds to the complexity, the number of students that are going to be on the school campuses with it, too. And our Santa Rosa School district has been incredible partner to work with us. I think we've seen improvements over the course of the last years with that, too. But really anticipating an increased need for this next school year. That's coming up in going to work with our team to work with the school district to make sure that we're able to respond to those calls as promptly as possible. Thank you for that response. And again, there's that there's that the moral >> aspect of that in terms of the impact on the lives of the students and the parents. But then for us, there's also just a plain budget impact with what's going on in the school district has an impact on what we're spending here in terms of public safety. And that's important for the public think about. All right. One joint question for Srpd and for the fire department just so I'm clear the overtime costs going forward and we see over time cost Acosta budget to actuals. We're expecting them to be in closer alignment is we get that clearly. The actions being propose a addressing her from my own. Alignment issue with our actual us to overtime budget. Perfect. Thank you. And that's a lot of work. But thank you. Thank you for can make that change. All right, MR. Westrope just one question for you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Chief Cregan. Chief. You did a nice job talking about the the new sra that the new squad that is being formed with it with the 6 staff members. And if it's with its, we don't have a precedent for it. In in the fire department. When when do
we think we'll know whether or not this this new squad is a success or whether this is having the impact that we anticipate. So excuse me is it's not so much. The squad is the concept of having the heavy rescue in the squad responded together. >> It'll probably take it, you know, solid year of data collection and training. It's going to take us a while to roll the concept out and tested. You know, there's there's going to be a broad aspect of. The implementation of it here in the city and the implementation of the program throughout the entire county. One of the great benefits of starting this program and making regional is a really opens up funding mechanisms for us throughout the state. So one she regionalized something it really opens up funding mechanisms because it's not just the local jurisdiction asking for dollars. It's it's the region asking asking for us. So it'll probably take a year to really play it out. And to see where we're headed with it. But I think it's going to be very successful. It's not something that we've had now, if we had a major incident right now, we'd be waiting for resources coming from either San Francisco or Oakland. So and I for, you know, Napa County, Mendocino County, Orange County. So it really put a resource that is not available right in the heart of the North Bank. Thank you for that. And thank you for walking us through in detail earlier how you act that operations change. It really does underline again how the city is being created with
resources. So thank you for And my final question. Back to you, MR. Wagner. >> So when we look at that at at chart that showed the changes in our mandatory require mandatory minimum reserves over the course of the next six-plus years. That I see if I recall correctly last year with the cuts that we that we made here at council, we gave ourselves another year of guide path Guide Woodland Path. Excuse me. Reading it correctly that with the changes that we're making this year potentially giving ourselves another year of guy glide path above the mandatory minimums. But then importantly, for those 2 years that follow are not debate. We're not we're not dipping in to end a true deficit. Where is and the situation that we're in right now without changes. We really run entirely app where we run through our reserves entirely and in few years. So we are we are significantly extending a glide path here. Is that accurate? It is. I agree with your characterization Marin in. >> What the numbers show there is that we've been able to maintain the amount of budgetary reduction work that was started right. We're not falling further behind, but at the end of the I would characterize exactly how you did. We're creating an additional year glide path, which is what happened last year when we looked at last year, it was that two-year concept of our reserve, right? The two-year concept of our savings account. We're not just adopting budget within
the current year that will withstand that her adopting it on a 2 year basis to do that. This is going to be part it, though. The two-year conversation that's going to move forward tomorrow. And how does that concept and glide path of the year play out against what's going to be required of us as an organization to actually become fiscally sustainable so that we're don't have this consistent one year glide path. This one year glide path that we've been doing, frankly, we're going to run like that. We are the these fixes that we've come up with this year. They've been innovative. They've they've looked at mitigating impact. We've been successful. Tree now is frankly Beruff we are at an absolute core level that is unsustainable. That's going to be part of our conversation tomorrow. Can't we can't cut our way out of this. We have to solve it on the revenue side. Thank you for that. Any other questions from council? All right. I think we have a little bit more in terms of the presentation of incorrectly the mayor. This is I would was just for a a good, good stopping point. It at this point today we have are additional session tomorrow. So with and Mary, please move forward perfectly. Well, let's let's open up to public comment right now. >> Are there any members of the public that wish to comment on our study session today? Genuine. Welcome, as always. Please go ahead. >> Good afternoon. Mayor staff members of the council. My name is Jenny and I have the opportunity to work to Catholic Charities. I first want to thank you for your service and obviously difficult decisions you're facing. I recognize the challenges and just appreciate
all of the care and thought that has been given to balancing the needs of the community and maintaining center as as the beautiful place that it is. As you saw on a much earlier homeless services Department received the largest percentage reduction in last year's budget process. And we know that has resulted in impacts to services, increased visibility and community concerns. We have been working to minimize those impacts by doing proactive, engaging with downtown businesses alongside Chief Korean and other city departments with monthly downtown are recessions and been working closely to see how we conditionally help with economic development efforts. However, the challenge continues that reducing services does not mean that homelessness goes away many cases it shifts the cost to other systems such as public safety. Emergency services and public works often at a higher overall expense. I be very clear cafeterias not asking reverse any of the reductions. We understand the fiscal constraints of the city and we remain deeply committed to helping with the long-term financial sustainability. We are working diligently to identify and secure alternative funding sources. But, you know, as you know, it can be challenging in this current climate. But I want to assure you, we are not standing still. We are adapting and doing everything possible to preserve and increased critical services. I want to appreciate the amazingly hard work put into this year's budget plan presented today. And in the line with that, we respectfully ask that given the magnitude of last year's budget impact, there are no additional reductions to homeless services while we
continue to explore options on how we can increase funding and restore critical services to our community. I want to also reiterate that we are very committed to being a collaborative partner. Are committed to working together and as a lifelong Santa Rosa and I commit my time personally and professionally as do all that we can to help as well. Thank you. >> ms Holmes, thank you and thank you for it. Thanks to Catholic Charities for all the work that they do. Is it a j? Please go ahead. >> My name's a j. Trump at it and I represent a property owner in downtown. I'm also on Railroad Square's board of directors and serve as chair on the business Development Committee. I wanted to demonstrate how our district has benefited from engagement with the city's economic development department. I've been able to use some of the city's Placer ai marketing analytics data. And with this data, I can communicate perspective merchants that railroad squares visitor. Median income is on par with Montgomery Village. I can also tell merchants hotels and property owners and prospective business is how much foot traffic they can expect and where those visitors are coming from. I can also say that the most visited restaurant and bar in Railroad Square isn't far behind. Downtown Petaluma us most visited restaurant. City in a comic development has given new tool for my outrage. >> And a goal and our goal of increasing sales tax revenue. >> I also wanted to communicate how much her merchants owners and hotels, appreciate the visibility and increased communication with public safety. Railroad Square
has one quarter of our city's hotel rooms, having public safety visible and responsive in our district increases merchant and visitor confidence. Emergence frequently cite the benefit of and response. We do have a concentration of unhoused population. Some with behavioral health challenges. I don't say that to sound negative. It's simply a fact. We we are also a concentration of tourism dining and we are a shop Dine State district. We need a public safety, homeless services and mental health response team and supportive services like Safe streets and parking division. All reiterate that economic development and public safety umbrella of services are interdependent in the city center and Railroad Square. We've seen a reduced vacancies and renewed enthusiasm. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, MR. You caught our attention with some of those data points. Thank you for I thank you for coming to share today. And for all the work in Railroad Square. >> Are there other members of the public wish to comment? Alright, we'll close public comment and bring it back to council for any any final thoughts or direction. I think what we have from sensing the mood correctly is a lot of thanks. We started off by talking about how long this conversation has been going on. How many, how many years finance and our city manager teams both now and when when ms Smith was here, how long how long this work has been going on? It's approaching 4 years now. If I'm not mistaken. Working towards this goal and getting us to where we are right now, it's pretty clear plan over the over the next couple of years. And I responsible glide path for the
city. So thank you for putting together a presentation. Very difficult presentation that was extremely clear. This is helpful for us and on at that council and for the public. And it is a getting a good lead into the and have tomorrow where we talk again about something and some of the cost savings that were looking for. But also some of the some of the strategies that we want to put the place on the on the revenue side over the next couple of years. So with that, we will and this part and well and the study session and we we will recess for about 25 minutes until we come back at 4 o'clock. Thank you. Welcome back, everyone. The time is 403. We will reconvene in open session. MADAM City Clerk. >> Thank you. Mayor Councilmember Rogers. Councilmember MacDonald here, Councilmember Fleming Councilmember Ben Willows councilmember over as PRESIDENT Vice Mayor Okrepkie. Mayor step Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of Vice Mayor Okrepkie and Councilmember Rogers. >> Thank you very much. All right. We're going to the fund portion of our evening, which is our 3 proclamations. It seems like some of you are not here for the 4 hours of budget study session at the rest of us have Jess just sat through. But welcome nonetheless. Let's move on to item 7.1. Our proclamation on bike to work month MR. Alvarez. Thank you, >> Please excuse me as Got used to wearing glasses. Please bear with City Center
is a proclamation whereas the bicycles, a healthy competing financially environmentally, some form of transportation and excellent tool for recreation and enjoyment. Santa Rosa, scenic beauty, local attractions and friendly neighborhoods. And whereas Santa Rosa Street and trails attract bicyclists each year providing economic health transportation tourism and benefits. And whereas creating a bicycle friendly community has been shown to improve citizens. Health, well-being and quality of life. Growing the calming attracting tourism, improving safety, supporting student learning and reducing pollution congestion and wear and tear on our streets and roads. And whereas since 2001 Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition has been promoting by Sullivan for Transportation and Recreation through education, encouragement and advocacy. And whereas the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, the League of American Bicyclists and Metropolitan Transportation Commission and jurisdictions throughout out the Bay area will be promoting bicycling during the month of MAY 2026. And whereas through the month of MAY, the residents of Santa Rosa and its visitors can experience the joy of bicycling through free educational programs, challenges an event organized by these groups. Now, therefore, MAY be resolved. They're our mayor, Mark Step mayor, the senator city Santa Rosa on behalf of this entire city council and recognition of our community to hereby proclaim MAY 2026. As bike to work Month and MAY 14th 2026. Has to work day in Santa Rosa
and urge all residents to participate and the special observance. Thank you. Thank you, MR. Alvarez and this. We already have a few words before we do a photo on. >> I'll try to keep that to a your The mayor and council members, thank you so much your proclamation year. >> Celebration. Your participation. Everything that you do to help make cycling here in Santa Rosa in Sonoma County and a better thing. Boy, this will last year. He's had a lot of big wins. A lot of being projects coming in the city. And that makes us all so happy. And I'm very happy that there are ways in which we have moved from sometimes being adversaries to being more partners and making all of a better place because any any social change requires multiple components. We talk about 5 yeas among them, you know, encouragement an education, which is it in our wheelhouse and engineering enforcement, which isn't yours and all of us working together can make this. Make this a better place. We've I want to share with you just to it. >> couple of little things that we have coming coming up during the month. One of the other ones I want to mention is I know that you must get these kind of phone calls from your constituents cause. I know I get them in email in on this social media is every time we start making progress, we get all of the we call it a bike lasher. Backlash of folks who are unhappy with the improvements. I'm sure you get least as much as I do. And I appreciate your standing firm for what goals city has sent to move forward towards active transportation. We have on the 14th and bike to work day. We have energizer stations within the city places where people can stop and get some snacks
and swag on their way into work. 2 other big new event. So we're doing this year. We're doing a bike a movie night on the 14th. That'll be in 3 Alto, 3 different documentaries about cycling it for different ages, different parts of the world, the different communities. And then on the 31st to wrap up the month, we're having a big bike expo that we're calling paddle fest. So lot of fun. Coming up, bike to work. Like Sonoma Dot org slash btw for bike to work will gay to all of the list of all things that we have coming down the pike. Thank you very much. Eric. Thank you so much. And thank you for everything that the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition does. A new venue push to council in the city along for many years now. So thank you for that. >> Before we go to public comment, our city clerk just reminded me that we've got multiple vacancies on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board. So for those of you who are interested in engaging or and friends who are committed to bicycle pedestrian issues, the cpis has openings on the on the on the board. MADAM City clerk, is it too? 2 out? 2, 2, vacancies with that? Let's go to public comment. I think we have MR. Cao weeks here. Is that true? Even wearing his bicycle t-shirt? >> You know, I got to wrap it. >> Good evening, mayor and City Council. Thank you for raising this proclamation. Support a bike to and it really sends a signal that the city of Santa Rosa Value safe, healthy. >> And sustainable ways for people to get around. At the other Chips really does
matter. Not just for individuals, but for the entire community. When we make biking is safe. Coach Oys through a connected network. Of protected bike lanes. We improve public health. We reduce congestion and emissions and in charge. Transportation system works for people of all ages and abilities. And these principles really align closely with with what the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition's mission is really trying to realize. And this community. I really also like to thank council and staff of the completion protected bike lane West College Avenue. I personally benefit from that and I love it. Having lived on the west side of the city for many years. I have, I think been in Jason's years a few time about Fulton Road and also West College and making it safer. And so it's really nice to see that come to fruition. And I also really like to thank the city because I wasn't able to do this previous I was able unfortunately get the alien overpass. Groundbreaking. But thank you so much for moving forward with, you know, funding that project. I know we had a massive hole and, you know, we can't control everything in the world, but you all sticking by that project after all these years of really talking about this and finally realizing it really means a lot. And I for one thrilled and I can't wait to see it completed. And and just again, thank you so much for all the work deal. We really appreciate it. >> Cal, thank you very much. Are there any other members of
the public would like to speak? Seeing none? We'll close public comment was to a photo here is you want to come come on down front. I mean, what? Cal join us too. All right. Thank you again, Airson cow. All On to item 7.2, our proclamation for national Wildfire Awareness Month. Lots friendly and familiar pain point. Our faces here today, Donald approximation. >> Thank you, mayor. And thank you for the opportunity to read this. Whereas between 2017 2020, the city of Santa Rosa was threatened directly impacted by the tabs ninds Kincaid in Glass fires. And whereas the Tubbs fire was one of the most destructive wildfires and the state history. And whereas according to the National Interagency Fire Center, Humans Cause an average of 68% of the fires per year in the United States. And whereas in 2024. 8,110 fires burned 1 million 77,711 acres across California. And whereas Sanders as wildfire ready Prevention campaign community Wildfire protection plan, vegetation Management ordinance and grazing are working to reduce the threat of wire wildfires locally and whereas wildfire preparedness is a year-round, it is your around and takes all of us to safeguards. Our lands, our communities and our livelihoods by reducing hazardous fuels, creating defensible space, implementing
home hardening and taking personal responsibility for actions in advance of the 2026 fire season locally in the city of Santa Rosa. Now, therefore, MAY it be resolved? That marks tap mayor of the city of Santa Rosa on behalf of the entire city council and recognition of our community do hereby proclaim MAY to be National Wildfire Awareness Month. Encourage everyone to take an active role in preparing for national wildfire awareness Month. Thank you, MR. Donald, do I see we have fire marshal pylons all here to to say a few words. >> Yeah. Thank you, mayor stab a councilmember MacDonald members, the council, Paul Lowenthal division, chief fire marshal with the fire department. Appreciate the population. Obviously this month is important not only us but our community with what we've experienced here since 2017. There's a lot of effort that goes on not just during this month, the really year-round for members of our fire prevention team out there working directly with our community on either helping with defensible space, working on vegetation management probably got programs helping to implement the pile burning ordinance. A lot of efforts that not only being we're done by our staff and members of the community, but really ultimately where we appreciate has the support that we've had from council, whether it's adopting the community. Wildfire protection plan allocating money from pg Settlement Implementar grazing program. A lot of efforts that really truly are helping to mitigate the risks making Santa Rosa or wildfire ready and safer community to live in. So with obviously, you know, I can talk a lot, but
you've had a long day appreciate all the support and the efforts that are ongoing in our community and look forward to what we hope is another safe and healthy fire season here locally in the city of Santa Rosa. >> Paul, thank you very much. And we've taken every opportunity to sing the praises of our fire department in recent weeks, including today Biden will bring up the council any any thoughts? Other than just gratitude, please. MacDonald. >> I want also thank the communities. And I know Oakmont in particular has quite wild fire readiness campaign going on out there. Many people been a certified on how to make sure that they go out and help members of the community specifically in Oak Lawn because they've been hit twice by wildfires with how to harden their homes. I just want to do a shout out to them. And I know that the fire department and maybe you could talk about this, Paul, any community has interest learning about how they can do better harden their homes are or where they can access those those resources. Could you maybe share that with us? >> Yeah. Thank you for the question in the comments are department very closely with our state's number, which is the county's fire Safe Council. We support them through allowing them office space to thrive in our community, but really work closely with the members that are here from our fire prevention team. And you're Con is a great example of a firewise community and we really seen those communities blossom throughout Santa Rosa, based on our experience based on lessons learned and based on what they've seen from the successes and the Oakmont area. You look at Sky Farm,
you look at some and found Altavista area. We've got a lot of communities are coming together. There obviously gotten a lot stronger and then have the support from members of our team that are funded Measure h which is implemented a couple of our inspectors as well as just the overall support of our community. We do have 2 websites that we typically point people to. One is as our city dot org, slash wildfire ready and the other one is sr city dot org. Slash ready, Sr. Those 2 websites are the landing pages for our community and have become very popular pages, especially around this time of the year where the community obtain those resources and also essentially in some cases book an appointment with our staff to come out and meet with them one-on-one in the field. In addition to a lot of the proactive work that we're doing, we're physically getting into the community and averaging anywhere from about 300 to 400 contacts a month right now with actual defensible space inspections with our staff. Thank you. >> All right. Let's open it up to public comment. Members of the public here that would like shower our fire department with thanks and praise. We know they're out there. We'll close public comment. Call come down and let's do it. Let's do a quick photo. Or is perhaps it's easier with this many if we staged there system, city manager, not can we borrow your your seat for a moment? Sorry about that. All right. Thanks again to our fire department. We are going to hold on item 7007.3 for the moment. We're waiting for a
few more folks to arrive. >> Let's move on to item 8.1. Our community Empowerment Plan update. Is MISS Wood? Filling in for Ms Horta? Misty, thank you. In advance. >> You're very welcome. Thank you for that made famous misty, what I'm the communications and intergovernmental relations officer and as mayor kindly put it out, filling out for on sort while she is out of the office. So we're in the spring sprint right now. We have a lot going on today is Cinco de Mayo. I think as everybody knows. So there's a fantastic Cinco de Mayo festival happening right now until 9 o'clock at night over in Roseland. At 6.50, Sebastopol Road. This is a family-friendly event and we invite everybody to attend who's available after this meeting. On MAY 14th. We know that it is bike to wear every day as we just heard from the proclamation and from Paris. Weaver, we invite everybody who is participating in by to every day to join us at our Energizer station along the Prince Memorial Greenway at Prince Gateway Park. That will be MAY 14th from 06:30am, to 09:30am. And the Energizer station will have sweet treats and bike swag and a chance to refill your water bottle while you're on your way to wherever you're biking. That day. On MAY 14th and MAY 30th the Santa Rosa Police Department is hosting its second and community traffic safety meetings. The MAY 14th meeting will be held at Santa Rosa Bible church located at 4, 5, 7, 5, Badger Road from 5.30, to 07:00pm. The MAY 30th meeting will take place at the city of Santa Rosa utility Fields, operations building finally called the Ufl Building at 35 Stony Point Road from 10:30am. To noon. And these meetings are
designed to provide committee members with an opportunity to share their traffic related safety concerns with police staff that could include speeding roadway safety neighborhood traffic patterns, anything along those lines. So we invite anybody who is interested in that issue or has concerns to please attend one of those meetings. On MAY 16th. We have the South Park Resource Fair and several city departments will be attending not hosted by the South Park Coalition at Martin Luther King Junior Park. And that is from 11:00am to 01:00pm on the 16th. This fair will bring together more than 30 community partners to share resources with our community members. And a really fun afternoon with games and music and food. And it's really a good community building event. This event is free and it's open to everybody. On Saturday. MAY 16th. The city invites families to celebrate kids to park state with a special scavenger hunt at how Earth Park. This is 11:00am to 02:00pm. Participants can pick up a self-guided scavenger hunt instructions near the Howard Park snack bar. And help explore the park to uncover clues, activities and treats and Italy. At the end, there is a secret prize. So this scavenger hunt is is I designed for children ages 6 to 12, although younger participants certainly can join in on that with a little help from their older friends or family members. And then finally, just an update along the lines of community empowerment, the Santa Rosa Police Department, Violence Prevention partnership, Parks, Department, code Enforcement and the communication team recently met with Roseland
residents too discuss ongoing concerns of as part of their neighborhood engagement and education efforts focused on the recent community violence really try to help empower our community members and make them aware of the resources that we have available for them. So they received information about local programs. You thinking prevention services, graffiti related support and ways to report concerns and really get involved everybody can have a safer neighborhood and that includes this month committee empowerment available for any questions. Council man. >> Misty, thank you so much. Looking to council for questions. Just one for me to die Let's talk center's update. >> you did not. But I anticipated you might you that. You're welcome. We are still doing our let's talk Santa Rosa. Can't community engagement campaign. So this is a survey and outreach campaign to solicit feedback from our committee members about what their service priorities are. As the council continues to have conversations about budget we just heard about, you know, kind of what we're facing this year. And we're gonna be hearing about your 2 tomorrow. So really important that we hear from the public about what those service priorities are for them because we are in the business, of course, of providing services so far we've collected approximately 1840 responses and those can be submitted online at sr City Dot Org. Slash talk. You can also e-mail us at feedback City Dot org. If you'd like a presentation to your community group, business group, H.O.A., et cetera, we're happy to get
out there and the more folks we engage with the better this better this effort will be. Thank you for asking. >> Thank you for highlighting that and thank you for plugging tomorrow's budget discussion. If by chance you missed the for hours today, you have the chance to come back for several hours of more discussion tomorrow morning. We will look for you there and you have a chance to make public comment and weigh in on the priorities of the city. Let's open up to public comment when any members of the public like to comment on the community empowerment plan. Seeing none. We'll close public comment. Misty, thank you very much. You're welcome. And we will move on to our city manager and city attorneys reports MADAM City manager anymore. Open tournament that I forget something. Now Misty will holding this writing there. Double duty. All right. This would back to you. Double duty tonight. Thank you, Mayor. >> We have a few items to report out tonight on MAY 20th. We invite everybody to attend. The Santa Rosa City Works Festival. This is a free family-friendly event held in collaboration with our Wednesday night Market downtown. The festival will take place along 4th street between Mendocino and d streets from 5 to 08:30pm. And this is a really hands-on event and a chance for all participants of all ages to really understand about the essential works that keep Santa Rosa running. They can climb aboard big equipment, which is always very popular with a younger crowd for sure, participate in an infrastructure scavenger hunt, win prizes and meet some of the dedicated folks who work here at the city. More information on that is
available at sr City Dot org. Slash your city works. We do have an opportunity for folks to activate one of Santa Rosa's historic properties are deter crown born round barn and is being marketed right now to being leased out. This is located at 800. I'm sorry, 8.19, Donahue Street. This was built 18. 91. It's a really stunning 8,000 square-foot historic facility and it really offers a special opportunity for creative community-focused uses. We are seeking proposals right now that honor that building's history. And while bringing new energy and community benefit to the downtown Santa Rosa and Railroad Square area. There is an optional site. Walk through tomorrow. MAY 6 from 11:00am to 01:00pm and proposals are due by JUNE 22nd. So folks who are interested in submitting a proposal can learn more at sr City Dot org slashed a Turk. Our s p. On the recreation front. We're looking for committee members to help mentor some young folks as part of our junior Giants baseball program. This program is a free noncompetitive covid baseball program for underserved views from age 5 to 18. And it really is more than just baseball. This is about teamwork and confidence and respect and life skills that children can carry with them throughout their life. So we need folks to step up. Hopefully to volunteer as coaches, assistant coaches and team parents for this 8 week program that kicks off mid next month. If you're
interested or you know, somebody who might be interested, please direct them to sr City Dot org. Slash junior Giants. I referenced the Santa Rosa Wednesday night market that starts up again. This Wednesday. I'm sorry. Next. Wednesday MAY 13 from 05:00pm to 09:00pm at Courthouse Square. This is also a free and family-friendly event in as well attended and well loved with local music. I'm sorry, local food, live music, small businesses and activities for children. It's a great way to come out and build community and meet your neighbors and have a good time as well. So again, that starts at MAY 13th and it runs every single Wednesday. And then last, but certainly not least we are approaching our 25th annual senior expo on JULY. 11th at the family center in the person, senior wing. And right now we're looking for vendors. So we're looking for any any community group, our business that offers services activities or products for older adults, you can connect with your customers and and really help them understand what sort of services or activities you can provide. It's a great way to connect with our senior community. Exhibitors can sign up by MAY, 8th for early-bird pricing with a final deadline of JUNE. 12th. So if you are interested, you can go to sr City Dot Org. Slash senior expo to learn more. And this concludes the city manager's report out this evening. I'm available for any questions you MAY have. Thank you both. Any any It's been Willis. >> I thank you, Mayor >> the state just a quick question about the
>> rfp for deter cause got a lot of calls from the west and folks because I I didn't And so. >> What I'm wondering so are looking for someone to item and if you are you know, >> interim city manager, my my answer this better. Just want to know that. Are we looking for a long term? Leasing partner is. >> and >> what and I guess the concerns that they're raising are, you know. What will that look like? Because, you know, it's just it's surrounded and this is not free. You worry about that. It's surrounded by folks. You know, residents, you know all that. So they're just really concerned about how that's how that's going to developed. So. Thank you for that and put I'll get back with our staff and determine what we think is a good time period for a proposal. >> I think the effort there was tipped to activate the space and generate some revenue need. Some community needs. But we'll take a look and make sure that we have specific policies in place and whatever contract is approved for good neighbor, a friendly neighbor, policy and strategy so that it's not a major disruption. Thank you. Any other questions. Moving on then to our city attorney Autumn. >> Good evening, mayor. There is no report from the city attorney's office tonight. >> Thank you. We'll open up the public comment. Would any members of the public like to comment on either the city manager or city attorneys reports? Seeing none? We'll close public comment and will go on to item 10 statements of abstention or accused of what council council members and many tension are accusing
evening. Seeing none on the item. 11 mayor and Councilmembers reports. We've got 30 minutes to kill folks. So have at it. Let's hear about what you've been up to MISS. Been way Los. >> Oh, my goodness. We're not going to take that long. Have a report from the last a Sonoma County homeless coalition let's see the board approved for fiscal year. 26, 27 homeless service services allocations with approximately 11% reductions down from 15% previously reported by staff and elimination of 2 projects that fell below the $30,000 threshold that cots, kids first family, shelter and Le Bas landing. We and that means the city will be reaching out to Catholic charities to better understand the impacts to Samuel Jones. And the city funded programs. A kera drop-in center and the Family Center. And at the next meeting which is coming up on MAY 27th, the staff will present recommendations for the coc renewal funding approximately 4 million in federal funding for permanent supportive housing and coordinated entry as well as h m I s so there's a lot going on there. And I just want to add to that that amend many members of the coalition are very concerned about the impacts that are going to be coming down from the federal government and how it's going to affect homeless services. So they'll be probably reporting out on more of that in the next couple of months. But really what we're worried about as more people, I can end up on the streets as a result of all the cuts. So Jenny Lynn Holmes was speaking
earlier about cuts and cuts that we make, I think that's something that we have to be aware of because I see it already effecting people personally. And in terms of trying to make ends meet right now. And so many people are working 2 jobs, 3 jobs. And so I just want to not to be the bearer of bad news, but just that things are not looking well, and I'm I know we want to be positive, but you know, I have to be real about this. Cause it hear it every month. So there's that on a better note, though, I do want to talk about single them out for a Yes. Today is Cinco de Mayo. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Everyone. >> As you know, it's not officially Mexican Independence but there's a lot of reasons. And there's a lot of history for why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo over Sebastopol Road. And so please know that you're all invited. Please come out. It's for everyone. There's music. Lots of good food, all kinds of food and and information. The city of Saint Rose is out there as well as the county are for our fire. Folks are out there. It's just a lot of fun. And it's just one day out of the year that we want to celebrate all cultures. So I hope that you all if you have time, oh, and by the way, there's not a lot of parking, but there is ada parking at exchange Bank and Rosie. That rally is taking folks from the mall over by the old Sears building to the festival. So if you I worried about driving there, anything like that. It's very safe. The rosy that rally is part of the city. So I encourage you. I usually
right try to write it at least once just to see how everything's going see the if the drivers feeling good about how things are going. So so I think that's all I have. Thank you, MR. Donald. Thank you, mayor. Just a couple of quick updates. I attended the ec a dinner, which is the engineering and contracts under this past weekend. >> Just want to say thank you to them for hosting the elected nights. But really congratulations to I guess this so narcissistic to ourselves. The city Santa but we received the bridge award for all of the work. >> And I just want to do a shout out to all the staff that did the work on the Hearn Avenue. Have that connectivity from west to east and what that stand for the community and thank them for acknowledging the amount of time and work and really with the partners that we worked with, collaboration between all of our partnerships on that project, it was really great to see. And so congratulation and assistant city manager not had a lot to do with that project. And I want to say thank you to him and and and director Hennessy for all their work and and the rest of the staff and Number one else that was there that evening to receive that award. Just congratulations to the whole team. And I also want to do a shout-out. I met the new Sonoma State PRESIDENT I was at event hosted exchange rate this week and it was exciting to hear what he wanted to do to partner with the city the
jc to make sure that students have a pathway to get through for university if they choose. But also some of the conversations that he had around career technical education and pathways, particularly certifications in the city of Santa Rosa and how we might be able to partner better. So I look forward. 02:00am hearing about those conversations and anything we can do is our great resource of having Sonoma State here in Sonoma County. >> Ben Wilson, I appreciate the some state shout out and thank. Thank you very much. MISTER Rogers. >> Thank you, a 4th of whack intact, meaning the walk and talk met the wec pass a resolution honoring Brenda. Aldermen, the founder of the Russian River Watershed Protection Committee who will be retiring after 45 years of advocacy for the Russian River watershed Sonoma Water staff provided an operational update on the number of cip projects in particular. They nearly nearly complete with the improvements to their 3 groundwater wells, which will will be a benefit during drought or system disruptions and will also allow for recharging. The aquifer. And staff provided updates on the continued Potter Valley in the proposed new Bill Russian River facility, which is great news grant agreement with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are 9 million dollars was also a roar awarded, which is better news. That concludes my report. Mayor, thank you, MR. Rogers, MR. Alvarez. >> I would say was, but we actually met with the new
PRESIDENT Of the Ssu over on top of a change. Back to mentioned that. Thought, I think Donald mentioned mentioned on sorry, guys. We're not there, but I wish you would have been. And with that being said, I want to them all as you can tell from the cold time of great, we can finally I appreciate the assistance I try to merit ride. On all throw in a few items from from my Earth Day on on APRIL. 26 was another of the success that we've become a nice tradition from that for the city. We had a few 1000 people show up. We packed the square. >> Thank you to all the city staff who participated made event possible MR. Donald mentioned the Engineering Contractors Association and the Bridge Award. Yes, our our Transportation Public works team is knocking it out of the park right now. For those of you who missed the budget discussion with some of the rain clouds that are present with that discussion the top the the numbers and talking points to take away to your friends and neighbors are that last year the city of Santa Rosa put out about 75 million in capital projects this year. Report about out about 125 million in capital projects. These projects include 2 bridges, 2 fire stations, a library. Paving all over the place. If you live in, oh, come on. Your roads are going to pay this year. If you live over on in the Southeast Santa Rosa, there's me a lot of paving happening. So take those talking points away, especially when you're when your friends, neighbors bring up to the articles that are gonna be published in the press Democrat regarding the city's continuing budget challenges we are. We are building and it's good. And then finally, last week I was
back in dc along with the vice mayor. We had a whirlwind day of meetings. It was 30 morning till 6 o'clock straight with the with the primary areas of focus being. We have a 9.9 million dollar grant from the Department of Transportation that was actually awarded to us back in 2024 but has not yet been paid. And so we are doing a lot of live lobbying to make sure we get that that 9.9 million dollars in grant funding because that buys U.S. 10 buses and we need those buses. So that was a big area of conversation. We also have applied for a brownfield mitigation, Grant of $500,000 on top of the $800,000 that we currently have have been given in the past. That's funded. Amazing work across the city. And then finally we had we did have conversations regarding unfortunately, perennial Cooper Drive hillside issue with which many of you are familiar. But we were in the heirs of our federal representatives, letting them know that fema has not yet been responsive and then we needed a response and it is very much on the radar screen. And so thank you to all for your for your patients on that issue. The city, the city wants that that resolved as much as all the residents who are affected as well as obviously congregation show right so. That concludes our mayor and Councilmembers reports would any member of the public like to comment on those rip on those reports? Seeing none. We'll close down item. We will go on to the approval of minutes. We have 3 sets of minutes. Our MARCH 24th APRIL 20th APRIL 27th of 2020 2026. Those minutes. Any
edits requested by council. Seeing Let's see any public comment on those minutes. Seeing none. We'll close public We can adopt those minutes as submitted. We will be one more item before we go back to our highlight for this portion of evening item 7.3, our final proclamation. Let's to our consent to first we have I will call items 13.1 through 13.5. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or wish to pull any of those items? Seeing none. Let's go to public comment. Would any members of the public like to comment on our consent calendar? Seeing none. We'll close public comment and I'll bring it back. Bring it back to MR. Alvarez for a motion. >> They are. My cream is blocked at the bottom, but I believe 13.1 through 13.5 and a mistaken, correct. I will move those items as recommended by staff. >> Second we have a motion and a second by MISS Rogers. MADAM City clerk, you can call a vote whenever you're whenever you're ready. >> Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Rogers, I Councilmember Macdonald, I councilmember Fleming. Councilmember Ben Willows. Yes, councilmember over vice mayor Crappie Mayor step yes. Let the record show this passes. The 6 affirmative votes. >> Thank you very much. And with that, we will go back to item 7.3 for which we've all been anxiously waiting. MISS Fleming, would you please read the proclamation? >> Certainly. Thank you all for coming today. Whereas Jewish Americans have been an important part of the American story and have greatly contributed to all areas of American life and culture since our nation's earliest days. And whereas on 4/20/2006, the federal government first proclaimed
MAY as Jewish American Heritage Month stating as a nation of immigrants, the United States is better and stronger because Jewish people from all over the world have chosen to make to become American citizens. And whereas Jewish Americans connect their Jewish identity in many ways, including culturally ethnically religiously and through Jewish ethics and values, creating a community that is racially socially politically and economically diverse. And whereas we recognized Jewish American commitment to civic engagement and that Santa Rosa has been enriched by local Jewish institutions, including congregation, chime a Torah congregation. Me, Joe's of Wine Garden Chabad Jewish to a center, the Jewish Community Center of Sonoma County and the Jewish Community, Free clinic and therefore we resolve them Marks. Tap mayor of the city of Santa Rosa on behalf of entire council in recognition of our community does hereby proclaim the month as Jewish American Heritage Month in appreciation of the achievements and contributions made by members of our Jewish American community and resolve to continue efforts to confront Anti-Semitism and hate impacting the Jewish community, support education, about the diversity of our Jewish American community. And in a great Jewish American culture into year-round programs and activities and ceremonies. Thank you, Ms Fleming and thank you all for coming out tonight. I think we're going to Jane News columnist Daniel Feldman. Is that correct? >> Thank you all for your patients. By the way, on pushing that out a little bit. We really appreciate it to get
a few more people here. >> Mayor, stop a city council members. Thank you for this recognition and for the opportunity for us to be here today in places like Santa Rosa, where Jewish identity thrives but is not always visible. This type of recognition is even more important. Jewish American History Month isn't only about looking back. It's also about honoring today's dues Americans who are like each of you committed to our civic communities and to the ideals of our country. It's about recognizing that the Jewish part of Jewish American is not a side note, but rather integral part of our lives. Just as it is for Santa Rosa's, many other culturally diverse communities. And it's opportunity for everyone to learn that Jews are unique people with a 3,000 year history. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of Jewish American History Month, though, is that is a focused opportunity to inspire our children and ourselves with stories of famous Jewish Americans who have exemplified so many areas of America. These are Americans such as astronaut Judith Resnick, who was selected to train with the first nasa astronaut class that even allowed women and minorities. She was the first Jewish American woman in space during the first voyage of the space Shuttle Discovery in 1983, Judith Resnick was also one of 7 astronauts who was killed when the space shuttle challenger exploded in 1986. And then they're Sandy Colfax, perhaps not a favorite in the
San Francisco area. Understand he nonetheless was a baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, despite not being religiously observant Kaufax chose to sit out the first game of the 1965 World Series because it coincided with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. He showed Americans that honoring his full identity even at great cost was the right thing to do, making it easier for the rest of us to do so after him. Well, speaking of sports, I do want to note that GOD Bless America, which is still commonly heard it. Many professionals, Hardin events was written by Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin during his World War. One Army service. And one more person, Emma Lazarus, who is best known for her poem. The New Colossus descended from the pioneering group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who settled in what is now Manhattan in the Mid 16, 100's. If you didn't recognize the title of that poem, you're likely not alone, but I'm sure you will recognize these words. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe feet free as they are inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. These people are reminders that the Jewish Americans have law, the Jewish Americans have long been part of the civic cultural and economic life of communities like ours, not apart from it, but woven into it. Declaring MAY is Jewish American Heritage Month in Santa Rosa tells our community that ucs and that we belong here. And in a time of extraordinary polarization that too often leans into Anti-Semitism, knowing that we belong here and that you will stand by our side means the
world. >> Daniel, thank you for that. And thank you for helping organize Good news. We've got 11 minutes before we can go on to our next item. And so for queen as funding. >> Yeah. I'd like to make a comment. I read the resolution as written, but I just wanted to make a personal comment. Absolutely. Thank thank you as well as all of the various folks who came out today. Just wanted to say that, you know, in the past few months, the stance that I've taken around immigration, ice has been informed a lot by my Jewish identity. It's not something that they speak about a lot publicly. But it's really personal to me that immigrants are treated fairly and given a place a safe place to be you the first generation American following the terrible events of World War 2 and my family. >> Was without nation until they got to the United States. In 1960, I was born to a person who didn't have a citizenship to any nation. >> Because of their experience of being a descendant of a Jewish person. And so >> the issues that I see here today in the United parallel what I believe happened. >> During the Holocaust in terms of fascism in the crackdown. And I just want to say that part of the reason felt strong and speaking out is because of my Jewish community and because of all of the support that you all have shown Timmy and to each other and to our immigrants here. And I just want to thank you and encourage you to keep doing what you do. >> Thank thank you, Fleming. All right. We're going we're
going to throw it up in the public comment. And as I was saying, we actually can't go on to our next item for another 10 minutes so. For those of you who want your name inscribed in perpetuity. And in that the register of the city of Santa Rosa now and now is your chance to make a regarding Jewish American Heritage Month Iran hold us all the way down from Healdsburg. Are you making your way to the podium? >> Indeed, floor is yours. >> Mayor Stapp and honored members of the city Council. I am a resident of Healdsburg, but I work organization whose territory cover Santa Rosa. And I'm a proud member of congregation shown right here in Santa Rosa. So I deeply grateful for wreckage for your recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month. And thank you, Victoria funding for it for your very astute words and I represent the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, the largest collective voice of the community here. This is so important to us with today's climate. So I just wanted to really express my gratitude. My thanks to seeing us and making sure that that. We know that we know publicly that we're safe here and that we're integrated and are in a real part of this community because we are so proud to be members of the Sonoma County community in the Santa Rosa community. There are so many Jewish Americans that Daniel did not mention. And I just wanted to mention that there are websites there is a Jewish American Heritage Month probably dot org. I believe it's actually that website and jc rc dot Org has resources,
especially educational resources that highlight meant the many, many accomplishments of famous Jewish Americans. So with thank you very much. >> Randi, thank you very much. Again, we've got we've got 8 minutes, folks now now is your chance. If you want make public comment. >> Eric, are you making your way around? Susan, take your time. Good afternoon. Queen in closely to that mic season, that doesn't become not only there we go again. Thank you. Mayor staff, a member of council. I too am a member. I am resident of some of Santa Rosa. And I'd like to just share about 2 programs that have been ongoing in Iowa City for probably more than 30 years now. The Jewish Free Clinic. Serves. >> All members of our community regardless race or religion, people who are who do not have health insurance and the Jewish free clinic is staffed by volunteer doctors. Therapist, acupuncture, us wonderful people. Fact, the building that the Jewish he could make houses was donated by a resident of Santa Rosa. John Bath store for who had a business. Creating press that 6 for people in foreign countries affected by war illness injury and the other program is that a tour which I of which I'm a member, has partnered with Christ Church
United Methodist. We were renters at Christchurch for 35 years before we had our own home. And the elections Pantry, which was founded on their property, which includes the Harvest for the Hungry Garden. Right now. I believe they are serving over 200 people. Families a week with food, food that comes from the garden. I was a volunteer for license pantry for many years and on the weekly pickup of food, we would go to our local supermarket 7 in the morning and for example, get what thank you, think thank you for thank you for your words season. I all right. We do want to do a photo here shortly. >> But before we before we do, the photo are is there anybody else who's here today, which is to make public comment on this item? Going once going twice? Thank you again for coming Given the number of people I rate raise your hand if you came out tonight for that for this proclamation, non-Jewish reckon Heritage Month. That's what I thought. What do we want to consolidate here in the center will be the photograph. You could if you can make your way towards those seats will take the photo right there. Thank you, everyone. Thank thanks again to everyone for coming out tonight. Thank you. Thank you very Good job you've got almost to our 5 o'clock moment. We have 45 seconds to To take care of. Before officially calling our public comment item. I think I think I can mention I think this is
I I looked at of our city attorney. I think I can. I can I can say I can note for the public that there will be only one public comment not and on the and renters. And I do that before the 5 o'clock hour. And it will be 2 minutes able to just 8 stipulate that as well. One of the information can I share in the next 15 seconds that there will be they'll give us clean Segway. >> You're doing such a great job. Mayor, Thank you for this next 10 seconds. I know it. >> And now it's only 5. Thank you very much. That was that was the back and forth. I needed. All right, folks, the time is precisely 5 o'clock. And without a second to spare, we're going to go to our public our first and only public comment on non agenda matters. So if you are here, if you remember the public that wants to make comment on any item is not listed on the agenda, this will be your only chance tonight because it is in fact, our last item of the evening. So let's throw it open 2 minutes to any members of the public that wish to make comment on any items not listed on the agenda. One moment we're going to wait. Think we're we MAY have one who Sonia. Sonia. Welcome. Welcome back. Know this is this will be a good comment. What's new in the world of housing? Sonia >> okay. Sorry, I are waiting for its star, but I am as targeting untimely here it is right it right at 5, right at
5. Good for you. So good evening, mayor staff. Great to see you. Councilmembers and staff. My name is Sonya Big Barak and I grew up here in Santa Rosa and I'm currently a member of the Generation housing teen. And tonight I'm here to or to support our healthy housing for Healthy Communities Initiative, which includes sb 10 Ab 10. 33. Tonight you're receiving a banner from the Santa Rosa Junior College is climate action night. We're generation housing help to mentor a group of students who shared information on sb 10. The banner features messages from our community calling for more affordable housing in clear, direct and urgent voices. These voices reflect a shared understanding that housing climate and community are deeply connected. The people as rows are ready for real housing on action on Housing and sb 10, a Navy 10. 33 are 2 practical steps forward. Sb 10 makes it easy to build small infill housing near transportation be 10. 33 allows 80 used to be sold as entry level homes. This gives seniors the option to downsize while staying in their homes in their community adopting these 2 bills will also help reduce sprawl, lower emissions and expand access to more attainable housing. So today I'm here to ask you to listen community and bring forward both 8 sb 10 Ab 10. 33 at your JUNE second housing Strategy Session. We need every tool in
the tool shed to move housing forward. Thank you for your leadership. Kerala, Abby and 7. >> Sonia, thank you. And thanks for the work that Janet is doing. Abigail, did you want to speak next? >> Thank you, City Council. Thank you, mayor. My name is Abigail Sober. I and co-chair of Climate Action Night Event for Students work on presenting legislation or issues that would allow the ksat City County or state to address our climate crisis. And housing is one of those issues that overlaps on all fronts. We need more housing. We need it desperately as an instructor. The jc, I find it very painful to see how many my students are. So housing, poor and housing insecure and their ability to get an education is often threatened by their ability to find housing that they can afford. It's just it's it's just if there's the saying you eat your seed corn, you don't have something to plan the next year. If we don't deal with our housing crisis, we are destroying our young people's opportunities, their education and and their futures. And so these bills that were already passed the state legislature but need to be adopted by the city council would allow us to have better housing here in Santa Rosa at a more affordable rate for a larger and more diverse. Group of people such as students, elderly, et cetera. I can't really see why the city of Santa Rosa wouldn't do this.
It feels like such a net positive for our economy, for our community, for our students, for for everything. And there's just I I'm puzzled by. Well, we wouldn't. So I'd like to say that this and the 30 we delivered just down there as climate action 31 different members of the community who live in Santa Rosa sign for their support for the adopting these bills here in the city of Santa Rosa, thank you very much. Abigail, thank you as well. And thank you for that. Banner will fight will find a spot any other members of the public wish to make comment this evening. >> go ahead. If I could. My name is Bob can delay Santa Rosa resident. >> and fairly recent graduate of a 35 year career and city planning. About the hardest thing to get was small housing units not too hard to get big land consumers. The Giants single-family detached, but to get to kind of housing that so much of the community needs was really difficult. And that's why I support a generation ages. Most recent initiative Ab 10, 33 would allow for sale to use. This provides an opportunity for the first time homeowner. It's an opportunity for the senior who would like downsize but wants to continue to own property. It has the great advantage of. Not consuming a lot of space. That doesn't require the conversion of raw land. Second, I would urge you to consider sb 10, which which would help to promote infill
development downtown Rosa to me is striking with a variety of housing types. You next to each other. That's what provides the charm. That's what provides the opportunity sb will make possible make it possible to do more of that. So concludes Jen, I would urge you to director staff to begin work to develop ordinances be 10. 33 and sb 10. It will promote housing and help to protect environment. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Are there other members of the public would like to make comment? >> $0.17. >> You >> have to. You have give 2 minutes, >> The floor is yours. Hello. My name is Hannah Thing. I did not come with something prepared, but I am confident to say that I think we do need high-density housing specifically next to transit. >> When I was at the surge ac at Climate Action Night, I spoke to so many families that had to move away. An hour to 2 hours away because they couldn't afford housing with their families. Here. >> And >> it made me realize why we might have some elementary schools and middle school shutting down because people can't afford to have families in an area where we want to cherish our youth >> even simple things like I really wish I didn't have to drive my car >> I really hate driving. I
consistently and faced with like death situations. I feel like every single time I get into my car and if I was able to get onto the train or get on to more buses to get to my work without having to walk an hour to get there after getting on the bus and the train. I would use it consistently every single day. I love being able to get on the train every single day. I love getting on the bus, but it's always. Inconvenient. And I only drive my car are for convenience. And if I was able to. Live close to transit and high-density housing. Or if I was able to just have transit near me. I know I would use it more. I've never had a bad experience with transit. I don't know anyone who has in this area. So I don't understand why we're not able to >> have it more convenient for us >> thank you very much. Any other public comment, MR. Shorts. Hi, Mayor members of council. My name is Paul Sports. Commercial real estate broker here in Santa Rosa. I'm actually here on behalf of a generation housing. And I'd like to just take a moment to share a couple of thoughts from a commercial real estate perspective regarding housing and the impact it has on attracting and retaining businesses in Santa Rosa in particular. I want to cite an example that I'm just dealt with within the last 2 months where from those looking to move to Santa Rosa. And hire
30 new employees here from our own community were challenged in are still challenged with finding employees that can afford to live here and be based on the salary compensation that the business is able to provide find housing comes down to housing most of the time. And so. That's just one example of where I'm helping client come into the market try and match them with the right comments from housing and services and support and they're having a tough time making that all that that package come together in general. I just like to endorse the whole notion of The legislation that's under consideration or will be by yourselves and other jurisdictions in the in the county regarding maybe 10 as be 10. 33 and so on, which I think will help provide variety of housing strata for the community that we all know we need. I think we all agree we need just a question of how we provided. So here just make reminder, have a reminder that these are things that we all deal with, whether were students or were business owners are the or where employers it's affecting everyone, the ability or inability to provide affordable housing. And so I appreciate your consideration. When you undertake your goals and planning over the next few days. Thanks in weeks. Thank you very much. Thank you, Paul. Other members of the public wish to speak. Please go ahead and getting name is money see almost a student with >> this group and so there's a college. Also a parent of 2
young adults who have not been able to move out of the house and who are still living with me due to the fact that they cannot afford find something that they could not find something they could afford. >> And almost all renter and I just want >> After taking like this really eye-opening to see that into connections between environment and housing and what he will take and how it impact this will especially looking to the future for our young adults or children. And to classmates point I guess the opportunities that we have before price to do better for our future generations. I know that this tough times. There's a lot of things going on. But I do think that you in your position as U.S. Leaders, elected officials, you do have the chance make an impact. And represent them to be the voice. For those who come to you, too, do better. And then to actually I mean, followed the lead of what color, what as we done and actually like do more too, represent your constituents. And if and when it comes to housing, it's a matter of eye. Urgent to do something about it. For those of us who are here and then also for those of us for those for that. That new generations who are also need be cared for and to be kept mind. So leaders, Follow, follow lead of what California done and just do what you need to do here locally. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Are there any other members of the public would like to