I love that. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the City of Mow Valley City Council meeting. It is September 5, 2004. Welcome. Okay, so we have a full crew here today in that we've got three of the five members here on the City Council. That's 75% of the men on the council and 100% of the people that are eligible for cheap movie tickets on Tuesday night. So for the good of the order, I will note that Carolyn Joachim is missing and that Max Tre is missing, but everybody else is here. So action out of closed session, there was no closed session, there was no action, could I get a motion to approve the agenda order? So moved. Second. All in favor of the agenda order? Say aye. Aye. Okay, that motion carries 3-0. Okay, we're going to start with a presentation on a resolution to declare the week of September 21st to 27th, 2004 as United Against Hake Week. However, before we start with that, you can go on up. So, as mayor, I receive a lot of email. This is going to be surprising for you to know. And a lot of it's really great, but some of it is not great. And I got a very disturbing letter on Saturday, which I want to read to you. So on Wednesday, August 28, 2004, 6.30 PM, we were walking our dog on Miller Avenue before heading to San Francisco. Suddenly, we approached from the northeast corner of Miller Avenue and Millwood Street, a large 50-something white male dressed in gray clothing with very short hair approached us from Millwood Street. As the man came close, he yelled, get off the sidewalk you, expletive, expletive. Then he aggressively pushed against our dog and yelled, expletive, expletive again. And he turned onto Miller Avenue, he continued to shout of senators out of us. We were so shocked by this confrontation that we froze. This man was large, obviously angry, aggressive towards us. In the 31 years we've been together, this was the most concerning and scary homophobic encounter we have ever experienced. And in Mill Valley, Marin County, California, we live in Palm Springs and vacation places we know will be welcome. This is one of the reasons why we rented a home in Mill Valley to relax in a comfortable support of community and to just enjoy life, nature, cool weather, great food and of course time with each other and our dog without having concerns about encountering hostile people and the stress that goes along with living our life and fear experiencing verbal and physical hostility. The incident that I'm sharing with you may seem minor, but imagine how it felt to us. The man's aggressive tone, large stature, and hate-filled, profane verbal attacks ruined our evening. It's not easy to, quote, let go, unquote, distress after experiencing something like this. It was embarrassing as a couple to be reminded in such a sudden and unexpected and jarring way that people hate us. Hate us enough to verbally attack us with such violent tone and demeaning words. Ironically, this incident occurred in Mill Valley as it's preparing for its United Against Hate Week in September. As you prepare for the events that I saw on your website, please do not assume that Mill Valley is a bastion of acceptance amidst the politically and socially liberal climate. There's obviously work to be done to make people like me and my husband feel welcome and safe in Mill Valley. This is why we have an implicit bias. So that's the letter that was sent to me. This is obviously super disturbing. And there's a fine line, as I've often said, between free speech and hate speech. Free speech is there to inform us. It's there to make debate informed, to see both sides of the issue. Hate speech has got one purpose and one purpose only. It's to isolate people. It's to incite hatred. It's to divide us. And this town stands absolutely against any form of hate speech and we'll always stand to get hate speech. And if you are for hate speech, if you are here to divide us, we are against you. And there is nothing that we will not do as a city to ensure that people in this town feel safe and secure, they feel welcome, they feel loved. That is a core part of who we are as a city. So I wanted to read that letter to you because it came right as we were starting this. It's super unfortunate this happened. However, I know that we have a plan for what we're going to be doing during speech week. By the way, it's not just a week, it's a year. It's something that we do day in and day out in our city. And with that, I want to turn it over to Michelle and Tammy. Thank you. All right, here we go. Good evening, Mayor, City Council members and community members. I'm Tammy Hurnden, your DEI liaison. I'm here with Michelle Terrell, our community engagement liaison, to share with you some of the projects and activities we have planned for United Against Hate Week, beginning September 21st through September 27th. United Against Hate Week is a call for seven days of local civic action to stop the hate and implicit biases that are a dangerous threat to the safety and well-being of our communities. The United Against Hate Week movement started in 2017 with a poster campaign by Bay Area Cities in response to white supremacist rallies in Berkeley and San Francisco. Now seven years later, over 200 communities have joined this important cause standing united against hate. For the third consecutive year, the City of Milvalley is once again proud to align ourselves with Larkspur, Fairfax, Novato, San Rafael and many other local governments throughout the Bay Area. Our continued participation reflects our deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. By uniting against hate, we can foster respect, create communities, grounded in belonging, and support an environment where every person feels valued and empowered. This year, we're extending our efforts beyond United Against Hate Week. We'll be showcasing our commitment with the Mill Valley stance United Against Hate image as a new art installation welcoming residents and visitors as they enter Mill Valley. As you may remember, the art box, a utility box on communal alto, which is part of the art in public spaces program, was wrapped with Black Lives Matter artwork in July of 2020. After months of being defaced, the artwork was replaced with Mill Valley's supports racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The art box moved to the corner of Camino Alto in front of mixed and is now in two pieces. With the approval of the Arts Commission, we will re-wrap the art box with the Mill Valley Stans United Against Hate image and a community art piece by a local artist chosen in our upcoming call for art to be announced during United Against Hate Week. Additionally, we're proud to partner with the Mill Valley School District and Kitto. Art teacher Kim Tran and librarian Amy Kaufman have created a project called United by Love for six great students at Mill Valley Middle School. Students learned about the United Against Hate nationwide campaign and watched the film leaving a positive footprint. They also learned about the pyramid of hate which presents the concept of the tendency of hate to escalate when it goes unchecked. On this foundation, students began a United by Love project with artwork that spreads the powerful messages of love, happiness, and unity. The students artwork will be shown at our United Against Hate Reception on Wednesday, September 25th. And now we will hear from Michelle who can share more of the upcoming activities. Tammy and I were, excuse me. Tammy and I wanted to offer ways for community members to demonstrate their own commitment to creating an environment where hate has no place. Starting next week, we will have stickers and posters available for residents and businesses who want to show their support. These will be free to pick up at the Mill Valley Community Center, City Hall and the library. Postures are also available for download from the City website right now, making it easy for everyone to participate. We brought some posters and stickers this evening, available at the BAT desk, so feel free to take some of those on your way out. We encourage folks to display them in their homes and their businesses. The program I might be most excited about is our video campaign. Over the past couple of years, I've observed that some Bay Area communities offered short videos of their local political leaders sharing why they stand against hate. While that was very meaningful, we wanted to take an even broader approach in Mill Valley and include more voices. Our goal was to try to truly reflect the many faces that make up our city. So this summer, with the help of a college film major who was home for summer break, we set out to record 12 diverse community members, volunteers, city employees, and local community leaders, including our own mayor. Each person shared a 30 to 60 second personal story, explaining why they stand against hate and issuing a call to action. Our hope is that with this approach, we will highlight personal experiences and inspire others to reflect on their own role and responsibility in building a loving and more inclusive mill valley. In addition to those 12 short videos, we created a three-minute film that highlights these community members and offers a united message. We think of the film as a collective call to action for unity and inclusivity and will show it to you very shortly. The film will be screened at a reception on Wednesday, September 25, beginning at 5.30 at the community center. Attendees will also view another short film called Crisis of Hate. After the two films, which will take all of 10 minutes, we will have a panel of the film participants sharing their thoughts about how hate manifests here in Mill Valley and how individuals in the community can stand against it. Art work from the middle school students will be present and there will be light refreshments. So we invite council members, community members, neighbors to join us. With that, we invite you to watch this short video, which reflects some of the voices of Mill Valley. I hope it inspires each of you to take part in this important week of action. I also encourage you to take a look at the city's website, where you can find more information about our planned activities, and a link to all the 12 personal statements. And don't forget to pick up your stickers and posters. Thank you. I stand against hate because I've experienced and witnessed hate in more ways than I can name in this segment. It's a daily occurrence. I stand united against hate because hate will only drive us backwards. We know people are experiencing racism, dehumanizing discrimination and hatred simply for being themselves. So it's so much easier to love one another than to hate one another. Love, compassion and acceptance will outshine any brokenness that our world may carry. HBites exist only to incite violence. It can be born of fear or learned by example. So when people find themselves in a place of hatred or hating others, that person needs more love. That person needs to understand that they are love and that they have the gift to love also. When I think about the opportunity that we have here and the beauty that we have here in Mill Valley, it also comes with responsibility. There is no better time to stand against hate than right now. I stand against hate because I believe we, as a society, can do better. We have to do better. The United Against Hate Movement is about more than just rejecting hate. It's about recognizing and directly addressing harmful behaviors. Standing United Against Hate is essential because it upholds what I feel to be a universal truth that every single person deserves to be treated with dignity and that we are all better united than we are divided. We are blessed to be a part of such a beautiful community. There is no place for hating our lives. I encourage you to learn something new about a group or culture. You might just surprise yourself. Take a stand today by reaching out to someone different from yourself, listening to their story and sharing your own. Support initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion in your community. Together we can create a more inclusive and compassionate world. So let's stand united against hate so that the little girls growing up here who look like me can truly feel welcomed and accepted. So is it back to me? That is it. Thank you so much for that. I'm going to read the resolution and then members of the council are welcome to make some comments. Okay, so this is the resolution of the City Council of the City of Mill Valley to declare the week of September 21 to 27. 2024 is united against hate week in the City of Mill Valley. Section one, the City of Mill Valley embraces diversity, equity, inclusion, welcoming and belonging as fundamental values. The city of Mill Valley is committed to fostering a welcoming environment where every individual regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, citizenship, political view, or any other identity feels a profound sense of belonging. The city of Mill Valley stands united with communities nationwide in combating divisive rhetoric and all forms of bigotry, including but not limited to racism, xenophobia, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of religious intolerance, along with all other manifestations of hate. The city of Mell Valley acknowledges the deep-seated historical, legal, political factors that have perpetuated the marginalization of black, indigenous, and people of color and reaffirms its steadfast commitment to addressing these systemic injustices through ongoing tangible efforts towards equity, inclusion, and justice. Troubled by the escalating incidents of hate crimes on a global, national, and local scale, and deeply greed by acts of intolerance and bigotry within Marin County and our own community, the City of Mowali stands resolute and united against hate in all its forms. The City of Mowali underscores the critical importance of actively denouncing hatred and committing to the continuous work of cultivating an inclusive, welcoming environment that fosters a deep and enduring sense of belonging among all community members. The City of Mill Valley joins communities in spreading the message of United Against Hate Week. We reject hate in any form and believe that building a safer and more equitable world starts by working together. The City of Mill Valley in partnership with other government agencies and community-based organizations proclaims the week of September 21 through 27, 2024, is united against hate week, emphasizing that education, compassion and collaboration are essential to appreciating and embracing a vibrant diversity in our community. The City of Mill Valley applauds the proactive steps taken by local agencies, community-based organizations, and engaged community members during the United Against Hate Week, fostering awareness, education, and providing resources to respond effectively to acts of hatred. The Mill Valley City Council declares its commitment to stand united against hate and support the against hate week activities helping to empower community bridge building and strengthening our communities to combat hate during every week of the year but with special attention during the week of September 21 through 27, 2024. The City Council finds and determines that all of the above recitals are true and correct. The resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption. Passed and adopted at regular City Council meeting of the City of Mils Valley on the 5th of September 2004. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries 3-0. Okay, Council members. I try to make a comment about what you've heard tonight My only comment is that I don't want people to think that since 2022 we decided that hates not appropriate for our community So you know even when I was in law enforcement in 1975 in the high school school resource officer You know hate is part of our culture unfortunately, and I think Mill Valley has seen a lot of improvements, but yes, we have some things from the past. But things that happened in 2021, 22, the law enforcement of variety issues. I'm glad it's brought back to our attention because it's good for us to think about it and how can we get support each other. So I do support it as a council member and recognize that it's nothing new. It's been part of our life and I apologize for what happened back in the 30s and you know 40s after the war and stuff obviously but I think something that we all have to look at every single day and a resolution of video has nice but it really takes us individually to walk the street and make sure like that mental health issue that Urban just talked about, who I knew that guy is, you know, he has some issues with himself and he yells at me too. So, okay, that's all I have to say. Thank you, Urban for. Thank you, I appreciate that. I just want to thank Tammy and Michelle for that beautiful, lyrical video, very well done. And I was very troubled to hear the email that the mayor received. Whether the perpetrator is a habitual troubled person or not, to have that happen to our guests is very troubling. Some of the incidents in our schools in the last year or so have been extremely troubling and are fueled in part by how easy it is for a smartphone equipped child to pass things along whether they understand them or not. So I hope that this week and every week, we can reinforce this level of understanding that's necessary starting at a very young age now to diminish the impact of hate and divisiveness in our community. So thank you for doing what you're doing. Yeah, thank you so much. That was really well done and I appreciate everything you guys are doing. Action is like that I described in the letter and which we experienced last year with anti-Semitism and swastikers that we had in our community both on homes as well as in the school. This is the worst of us. And our efforts over the next couple of weeks, over the next year, over all future time, needs to reach everybody so that this becomes an antiquated thing of the past, like red lining and water fountains for certain people and not for other people. That's our goal and we won't rest until we're done. So thank you so much for what you're doing. Okay, with that, we will move on to the consent calendar. There are a number of items on the consent calendar. Would any member of council like to pull any one of those? Okay, seeing that, would any member of the public like to pull an item from consent? Danielle Staudi, you're looking at me like I want to pull an item from consent. Danielle Staudi, you're looking at me like, I want a poll, an item from consent, okay. Any person online, okay. I just make one comment about the consent calendar. I just wouldn't do just this. It's also a birthday. I think it's in your birthday today, Daisy. So today it's Daisy Allen's birthday. She's one of our senior planners. She took the lead on the multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan. That's the document that I think is like 700 pages. There's a lot of work that went in countywide, but she was the lead on the Mill Valley side and coordinated with our cohorts with police, southern marine fire and planning. And I just want to thank you, Daisy and the team for all your support and work on that. That was a big heavy lift. Thank you. Thank you. Happy birthday. Yeah, happy birthday and thanks for spending with us tonight. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Consent calendar passes with a vote of three zero. Okay. Now we come to public open time. Are the members of the public here in the audience tonight that would like to speak during items that are not on the agenda? I see Daniel Stoutty once again making a move. Okay. Okay. She is eager to speak tonight. Okay. Any members online? Okay. So we're going to close public open time. And now we're going to move on to Council announcements and liaison reports starting with the former mayor. I have no announcements or liaison reports report. Okay I have just a few because I always have something going on. Yeah I know you always were sharing with my colleagues. So number one, on Monday at 5.30 we have a community chat. It's me and Todd. We are talking specifically about our infrastructure plan, which is now been formalized into measure L, which is on the November ballot. It's an open house to discuss that, to ask any questions that you want about what we're trying to do with this money, with our initiative, what we're trying to do with infrastructure over the next 10 years. And I welcome every member of the community come here and ask whatever questions that they like. And when we've done that, and everyone is satisfied, we'll just open it up to any topic that people want to speak about. So that's happening on Monday. It'll be right here. It's at 5.30. On Tuesday, on a completely different note. There is once again Stargazing at Hockey Park, which I went to last time, which is amazing. So members of the community, in fact, not just Mill Valley, but every community comes out with their own telescopes. And these are amazing telescopes. So it's really fun to go watch it. So you go to Hockey Park and there'll be 50 telescopes. And you just walk up to a telescope. You speak with a person's telescope it is, it's really excellent. So it's Hockey Park, Tuesday at 7pm. A couple of other things just historically. So on August 24th, we had a Sycamore chat, Todd was there and Caroline Joachim was there, members of the Sycamore community were there. We had a neighborhood chat on the street, which was a lot of fun. We got a lot of questions I think primarily about like flooding and also traffic, specifically traffic calming. So that was that discussion that we had. So those issues were paramount for that group. On August 26th, on a Monday, we had a wrap-up meeting with the Baffa Steering Committee. So we called, we had appointed a steering committee, we had one meeting-up meeting with the Baffa Steering Committee. So recall that we had appointed a steering committee. We had one meeting and then Baffa, if you haven't heard, got pulled from the November ballot. So Baffa recall is the Bay Area Housing Financing Authority and they were going to launch a $20 billion nine-county affordable housing bond. And that got pulled. It was pulling badly, essentially. It was not pulling well at all. And they are concerned about Proposition 5, which is the proposition to lower the voting threshold from 2, 3rd to 55% also passing. So they're putting all their eggs basically behind Proposition 5 at this point. So whether the steering committee continues or not is an open question, it really depends on whether this is coming back in 2026. I actually advise them to keep it going. It's a good group. We've got the right people in the room. We've had some very intelligent discussions about this thing. If they are at all considering doing this thing in two years time, they need to plan ahead. Because as I said after the first meeting it was clear that they had not had enough time to really plan out how this was going to work So it's a good idea to continue with that so so that happened on the 26th and then on the 28th Just to let everybody know I got contacted by neighbors That live at Pickleweed That's one of our three affordable housing developments Having questions about their facility and how it's managed and so forth And so I had a meeting with them First in their Apartments and then Todd and I met with bridge and I just wanted to inform the community that we had that discussion I've since rounded back up with bridge and with the apartments to try to resolve some of the issues that were there So nothing big nothing that can't be resolved but just letting everybody know that that took place Okay, that's all I've got. City Manager, we got some good news. I think to report to the community. I think you do. I am putting you on the spot. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I'm on the council. Just a couple quick updates and then kind of scheduling items that will be coming before you in the immediate future. The first though is we continue to track through public works, the PG&E project. As you know, they're out of the downtown now moving towards the lumber yard down Miller. We've been working with PG&E and hope to have a more refined schedule that we can share with the community on what to expect as they go down Miller over the next two months. And so that is a priority of staff and we will report that out soon. I also wanted to share that staff is going to meet with the council candidates. So the mayor is going to join us. We're going to have a meet and greet with the council candidates on Monday morning at 10 and basically put faces to the names, helps them with any information they may need and introduce them to the team. So that will happen on Monday. I also want to give some props and thanks to Grace led with. She is our sustainability coordinator. And she did, she's done a number of things, but just in the last 24 hours, her name has come up twice. As a leader in this county, and on behalf of Milvalli and Tiburon, and I'm just really just want to share with the council, just the great work she's doing. And for you to know that you took a big step forward when you approved that new position that historically we've never had here or in the county. It's been really successful. The first is with her hard work we are about to receive potentially three awards. There are beacon awards from the Institute of Local Government and we we are, it looks like we're gonna receive three awards for agency energy savings, sustainability, best practices, and community greenhouse gas reductions. And that's really all the work of her hard work and Danielle study too, helping her through the process. The other one is, I was in a zero waste Marin executive board meeting this morning and the executive director. You can imagine a JPAs when you're're it's the first of your kind moving law and trying to you know SB 1383 and really trying to bring in good best practices and leadership and helping and taking the time to help the county not just our jurisdictions and I know the mayor and the council always talks about it regional regional regional we will be regional leaders and so Grace's name came up again with the executive directors. We talked about some big picture things. And she's just been instrumental in helping the zero waste Marin team move forward with policy. And they also mentioned OffCuff again without me mentioning it Danielle Stade. Again, Danielle Stade is is a well-known in the marine community on the planning side, but the Marine County staff specifically named you and Grace is just thanking you for your leadership and what you guys are bringing to the table. So thank you and please keep that up. It brought me to something else when I started and we were talking to the mayor this morning. I take staff for granted because of the mayor this morning. I take staff for granted because of the expectation that I have of all of us. I all equated on a Dallas Cowboy fan but all equated to all of us since we're in the Bay Area. It's like a Jerry Rice touchdown. I expected. It's not a surprise. And we've received a lot of awards lately. And we've also just a process with the help of the council and staff of walking the community through the sales tax measure and really what our needs are. So much work and history went into that. And when I step back and think about, okay, well, how do I tell that story? I'm gonna try to tell that story at an upcoming council meeting. One, just talking about and celebrating our staff individually in their own areas of really the awards and what they bring to this community and what our community gets with them because I think they're taken for granted a lot of times because I think we all expect it and rightfully so. But when you think about, you know, think about it from the terms of the sales tax measure of what we're looking at, it starts with public safety. So when you think about public safety, it's usually three prongs. It's police, it's fire, and it's public works. What I'll tell you is public works is there's an A&B there and you're also missing planning and building, right? And so when you think about what do we have in in Mill Valley, what we have Southern and fire district and when we annexed with them we did it for a couple reasons. We did it to sustain our fire services for the long term but to improve, not maintain, but improve service delivery. And our leadership amongst our chief, our fire chief is unparalleled. He was the, recently he was the Cal chiefs representative for fire. And again, I just, I just love it, but Southern Run Fire District was recognized by the International Association of Fire Chiefs for being one of the top 15 fire service leaders across America and internationally. That's huge and that says a lot. Our fire, our police chief, when you think about policing, it's the humanistic approach to policing, being reactive, being a leader. He was the, a recent president of the police chiefs association. He was a leader on e-bikes. He's the leader on looking at statistics and how can we do things better. He's the leader coming from the county of Marin, coming to a smaller agency, taking the county perspective and the city perspective and everything he knows is in his 30 plus years of experience and delivering that to our staff, our team across the board and the community it shows. It's really remarkable. And those two departments right there have received so many accolades we could talk for the next hour about them, but I wanna share that and put it in a document for you all to see moving forward. The other one is on the public safety side, it's public works. Engineering, they've been at the key at the forefront of our sales tax measure. They protect us on the infrastructure. They're the ones that when we're trying to find, you know, when you think about traffic, engineering is part of that, right? It's just not enforcement. It's just not education. It's the threes. It's also engineering. But engineering is also from our risk of fires, our risk of traffic mitigation, our risk of earthquakes, our risk of flooding, our risk of hillside landslides. That's all on them and they just do an outstanding job. But public works operations, one of the most unharbled parts of that public safety team, they're there day to day. They're the directors of first impressions with the community, no matter how small the issue, it's someone, it's the biggest issue in that person's life in that moment. Our team does a really good job, they're really thoughtful. I'm just watching and problem solving a day to day basis. I've just really grown to appreciate our team. And so that's from the Parks delivery, the streets delivery, the sanitary side of it. I put our SAS in team right in there. We take that for advantage, advantage of that. We just expect our toilets to flush and go to the right place and for everything to work. They've done a really remarkable job and with the board over the last decade of really setting us up for the future. The other one though that we don't always mention on public safety, it's building and planning. And so we say when you think about planning You're always thinking streamlining how can we go faster and that's important like where we keep just Sitting down and finding ways to to be better and more efficient and how can we help people through the process and we've made a lot of great New additions this year in our processes, but their job really, we don't make all the codes. That's state. So planning and building make sure that it's safe, the contractors are doing the projects the right way. We're representing the residents, those business owners that are trying to come to our community. They have one of the most difficult jobs in government of problem solving issues. It is really complicated. And I just have just such an appreciation for our team And again, I do you guys are here right now. I just really thank you and again. It's that humanistic approach that they bring It's not ego. It's not that the government's always right. We always try to find a way And I think my effort moving forward on this on this part is I think a lot of us when someone gets frustrated and doesn't understand they'll come to me, maybe the director, to the council and we're going to make a real push this year, kind of that matrix that's on the front page of our website. Hey, if you have a problem, here's where you go. And you don't have to go through three levels of bureaucracy. You can get right to the person. If you're frustrated with them, you go to the next and kind of putting faces to the names and really make an effort to do that and that's on me. But from the public safety side, I can't think of a better team to represent a community. I grew up and live in Petaluma. I wish I was in Mill Valley with this team. They're just outstanding. And it's one reason why I wanted to come here. I'm so glad I came here after two years of just evaluating my situation. This is the best team that I've ever worked with. I kind of want to end on my core team because they're the last team that I ever give kudos to. Because I just expect so much from them and they give it to me, they give me everything they have. A lot of them are here tonight and they don't need to be. They have nothing on the agenda. They're just here to read the room, see it, and go, hey Todd, did you catch that last night? You know, I think you need to focus over here. I think there's a better way to say that. I think, you know, and it's nothing but love and support, and it's just a great team. And so it's the admin services. We emerged finance, but what we did is we merged finance with our admin team, our human resources team, our training team. We have the community engagement lead, we have the diversity movement. We have our city clerk with me, our city attorney with the council. And I really look at it as the city clerk, the council, the city manager, and the city attorney. The four of us are really at our level. We're setting you up for policy. We're setting you up for good decisions. It's just been a really amazing experience for me. And I say this because I'm coming to my two year of value, I've been here two years and I'm thinking, okay, well, what am I doing good? What's not going well? And I've always talked to this council and the community and staff about its moments in time when you go back in history especially Mill Valley those moments in time were greatness hit and really amazing things happen in our community. I'm just going to tell you this is one of those moments and I just and we in time is not on our we got to take advantage of this so our team is in place the councils in place let's go attack it for this community. And so that's a long way of saying, I wanna at the next meeting, it's not about, not even accomplishments, it's just, it's the story. I wanna tell it in a really succinct way, better than I am now, but I'm just really proud of my team, I can't help it. But I want the community to know about how many awards and really what they've done with no one asking them to do it. So the thing is, what are you going to do when no one's looking? I was walking down the street downtown up on Miller and there was a bag. There was someone dropped a bag with some food on the side of the road. And public works, truck drives up, stops, gets out, picks it up, drives off. You know, early in the morning, we're not busy yet. No one else is really looking. It's just the right thing, that's what you do. You take pride in what's going on. So, anyway, I'm just proud of my team. I hope I didn't leave anyone off, but across the board, I think we're attacking it, and I do want to tell that story to the community. And just last, I've seen a lot of comparisons between Mill Valley and our cohorts in Nevada. You know, I like on the sales tax measure, and that's not a competition. We're in a different situation because of our leadership over the decades. And the importance of like, why the council talks about now, let's make it better than we found it and let's set up future leaders for success. We are just in as our city in a different situation than our cohorts. But what we are doing right is just the process of doing it the mill valley way, being leaders coming to an analysis but willing to change and pivot based on new information. And I think this council too, I've worked for 42 council members in my career and I've never seen a council like this where you can actually, like you're supposed to, articulate your thoughts at the dius work together and even change your mind, like really problem solve in real time. That's not usual, that's not normal. And so I think it's, but it's, for staff, we really appreciate that. And so I just, again, great team, I'm really excited, a lot of exciting things are going forward, and I'll just end it here, we're human, we make mistakes all the time, and we've made a lot of them. And I think the important thing is we try not to make the same mistake twice and three times. And sometimes you have to own those mistakes and share with the community what you're going to do to make it better. And so it hasn't completely been in our control, you know, but we're not going to pass the buck. But we know on these projects they impact a lot of people and so there are some best practices that we've learned for instance if you have one or two or three projects on the hillside whether there are or someone else's we should notice not just those neighborhoods impacted but the whole area because they're all impacted and there's a lot of best practices that we can do to just help the neighborhood a little bit better you know it's still complicated it's still difficult but we do want to tell that story and we do know we need to be better especially when we're bringing an extensive infrastructure program to this city. We better learn from that and we better communicate what our plan is going to be moving forward. So anyway, I just want to thank the Council and staff and the community. I'm proud to be in Mill Valley and again, I just saw a couple, there's a couple of websites they evaluate communities and they evaluate communities based on safety, public safety, livability, education, restaurants, diversity, housing, communication and our city is always in the top 50 in the nation and those. And there's a reason why. The couple areas that need improvement for us is diversity and that's a lot of the work that these two ladies right here we brought them in of like hey, bring us along. Let this is a forever conversation. Let's take that next step forward and the other one is housing and this council has taken such a leadership role in this county on that one. And I just want to point out that the two areas that we need from the outside looking in that we need improvement on, I think it's at the top of our list and our work plan moving forward. So I think we're hitting our marks moving moving forward. So thank you. Yeah, that was incredibly well said. I don't know how you follow that up except that. Noveli is, I think in the conversation among the best cities in the country, not just Northern California, but among the best cities in the country. And it's because we have an amazing staff. We have an amazing staff. You guys do all of the hard work. City Council members sometimes take credit for, hey, when I was in office, we did X, Y, and Z. And that is really just a bunch of BS. You know, we're here and we do our job, but the hard work gets done at the staff level. You guys do the hard work. You guys are the ones that make it happen. So we're just incredibly grateful for your leadership, Todd, and for all of the work that gets done at staff level because that's what makes us a great city. That's what makes us a great city. And I just like to say one thing, can I? Yes, and let me just end by saying, this is a city of strivers. And we always try to do better. And it's in our community. It's with the residents, it's with the people that come to council. They're always trying to do better. But it's with the staff and staff. sometimes they don't even live in Moveli, but you guys are strivers. You guys want to do better and better and better, and that's what makes this awesome. Former Mayor with all of your experience please. Yeah, I just want to say that as I wind down to my last two months in the City Council after being here nine years, more importantly working for the City Moveli for 34 years as a police department, I always considered the city as part of our family. And I knew as a council member, the one thing that we did as council to really make it work is appoint the right city managers to broadcast how we want to see our city run. And I just want to say Todd, you just gave yourself a good evaluation. Because, you know, I hear from staff, I hear from you know public works, I see what you see and this is the direction that everyone in Mobile loves and we I just want to say that I want to thank you there's only two people we hire as a city council that's our city attorney right there and our city manager and we just handle policy so you're doing the job that we insist you do, and you're doing great job about it. So thank you very much. I know when I step down in December, this city is gonna be in very good hands for my future, my grand-doters and grandkids and my son are just moving over to my daughter. We got six generations here in town, so yeah. So thank you, Todd. All good? All good? Okay, good. Thank you so much for that. Yeah, so we're going to be talking about all the good things that have happened recently. We got some other good stuff that you'd even mentioned tonight. There's so much good stuff. We don't even... Can't even fit it in, right? So, but I think it's important to tell that story because people need to know what their city is up to and the good things that are going on. And that was not a story that we were telling four and a half years ago. We never talked about the good things that were happening in our city, so I'm glad we're doing that. Okay, so now we are on to, I believe Daniel Stadi, who's been waiting very patiently, is going to step up here. We are going to do a resolution or consider resolution authorized in the submittal of local housing trust fund matching grant applications the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The presentation is the other one does. Okay. Good evening. Tonight I am here to request that City Council adopt a resolution to consider and direct staff to provide an application. This is an application to the Housing and Community Development Department for the State of California, HCD. They have a series of different grant opportunities. This one is related to housing specifically for those jurisdictions and regions that have local housing trust funds, which we do. So I ran across this grant and I'm looking for Council direction and support to apply for the grant. They're matching funds. The idea would be half of a, we have about a million dollars in the trust fund that's unencumbered. We'd use half of that money, half a million dollars for one Hamilton. Assuming we have some fees that we need not fees, but funding we need to pay for one Hamilton and associated with plan checks and things like that. So it doubles the money. It also provides more points, I believe, if there's matching funds associated with additional rounds of funding that will be sought after in the future through EH housing and low income tax credits. So half a million would be matched so that would be a million dollars that would be in the stack for for one Hamilton, and then the idea would be to have the other half million go for other affordable housing projects. Those are not defined yet. The idea is we would probably, if we received the funding, we would issue a RFP or a letter of funding availability, and we would invite entities or even the City of Mill Valley to apply, or provide a project that we would be interested in using the funds, and then allocate the funding based on the requirements of the grant. Most of the money needs to be out. Most of the, if it were a affordable housing project, most of it would have to be low income based on the grant stipulations. So there are some requirements that would be part of that RFQ, RFP process and required. Crimements would basically be low income housing that would be required as part of providing the loan. So with that, I am here to take any questions and hopefully get a resolution of support. I have no questions and I support the resolution. I don't have any questions. Members of the public, let her hear in the audience. Anybody cared to ask a question? Seeing none. Any questions, members of the public? You'll let her hear in the audience. Anybody cared to ask a question? Seeing none. Any questions online? Okay. Commentary. Mr. Mayor. Or vice mayor, sorry. Mr. Feature of Mayor. This is perfect timing coming on the heels of Todd's eloquent description of how excellent our staff is. To take the time, first off, to stumble on this little gem potentially, and then to take the time in the midst of all the other things that you and your team are doing to make a run at this is really gratifying. And I'm very, very pleased that this opportunity is in front of us. And if our benevolent overlords from HCD are listening tonight, I hope that they will understand the sincerity that this city of Mill Valley has towards pursuing affordable and inclusive housing in our town. And this grant would go a long way towards facilitating not only the One Hamilton Project, which is in front of us and is extremely important, but potentially seeding other opportunities in our town, whether for the city or for local nonprofits or for others. So I want to thank you for making this effort and I'm fully supportive. Any other comments, Mr. former mayor? I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. I'm not sure if you can do that. It isn't fun more things through grants. Like why we have to basically talk, right, while we at DSS fees. And the answer to that question is, we aggressively pursue grants. And this is an example of a, exactly pursuing a grant. So thank you very much for doing that. Also, this is an example of, and this works very similar in transportation, right? So the reason why we have the transportation authority to levied taxes is that we then become a self-help county and when you're a self-health county you are eligible for grants, right? And we've essentially made ourselves a self-help city, right, by the impact fee that we basically do for affordable housing and that opens us up, apparently, for granting for grant recipients. So that's excellent work and I agree with the Vice Mayor, there's a lot of projects that we could use us on when Hamilton being one of them But there are no shortage of other projects that we could use us on so I'm in favor so City Attorney Since you've traveled all the way here. Would you like to formulate a Resolution for us I can just read it I scroll away from my agenda. Give me a second. It's a resolution of the City Council of the City of Novali, authorised the City to apply for a received act as trustee for and contribute a local match from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to participate in the local housing trust fund grant program administered by the State Department of Housing and Community Development. Can I get a motion to approve? I make a motion to approve. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. I motion carries 3-0. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're still a part two? Yes, I have. Well. Okay. I think well. Before you introduce, I might have something on consent. Again, this is Ominubi to this grant. So I might have a consent item for the next Council item. Should I need some additional authorization on something, just giving you the heads up. Okay. So last item on the agenda for this evening is introduction and first reading of three ordinances to amend Title 20 zoning of the Mill Valley Municipal Code to update regulations and clarify definitions related to employee housing density bonus homelessness that's identified in the general plan, housing element programs, 624 and 31. Mm-hmm. Great. Okay, so tonight our three ordinances are related to the implementation of the housing element. Planning commission did have a hearing on the proposed ordinances and provided feedback and recommended that City Council adopt the ordinances. So I won't go into details here. I'll just start with the exhibits, which are the draft ordinances. So the first exhibit has to do with employee housing. This is directly related to Housing Element Program 6, which directs staff to establish regulations to facilitate and allow non-traditional housing. One thing, we do not have agricultural workers in town, but agricultural workers are typically isolated and not treated fairly in terms of housing. And we have indicated that we would include the definition of employee housing based on state law. It's very complicated, a bit confusing. It does direct the information to state law and it is really related to agricultural uses or agricultural employee housing. And I honestly don't think we will see that happen here in town, but it does provide the opportunity for inclusion of such housing. The second is exhibit B and this is an ordinance related to homeless assistance. So in program 31 of the housing element, we indicated that we would update our regulations based on state law. That includes modifying the regulations for emergency shelters. And we needed to update the definition of emergency shelters and add a definition for a low barrier navigation centers, which are similar to a emergency shelter, but they provide services as part of the housing as well. And those low barrier navigation centers are like emergency shelters allowed in commercial and multifamily areas. Then lastly, exhibit C has to do with density bonus. Density need bonus is similar to accessory dwelling unit state law. It continues to evolve and change. So we are basically making a change in our ordinance that directs the language rather than providing tables and information. We direct the information based on the state statute that will allow us to not have to update ordinances, but it is still important that we communicate the information effectively. So with that, there's some information that I believe attachments to your staff report that will be updated on our website. And this information will be easier to update as needed based on state law versus having it in the code. So it includes a supplemental density bonus application which staff can help an applicant go through but it will make it easier for both the applicant and staff to understand what they are applying for in terms of density bonus and what they're requesting. And then secondly, we have an informational handout which provides an overview of incentives that are available to those owners of properties on commercial or multifamily parcels. So the next steps are scheduling these three ordinances for second reading and updating the website to include the handouts and then continue on with additional housing implementation for 2024, which includes working on some, I think, regional approaches relate to having discussions with the multifamily property owners. And that starts with, and you'll see on our website we've talked about and have had some information on rooted in Marin. So it's about anti displacement and getting thoughts and opinions on housing discrimination or requiring to move when it's not voluntary in nature. So we're gathering information that will then lead to a workshop. As part of those workshops, I think that's a great opportunity. I think with the work that Mary Carminell has been doing, with just Bafa, having groups of people get together, collaborate, it opens up doors of information and channels of information that help us start to communicate. The next step would really be to think about having a registry, so we understand what types of multifamily housing is out there. Number of units are number of bedrooms. The cost, the types of actual facilities that we have, like a mill valley, the very small less than 15 units for each of the parcel. So really understanding the housing stock, not just a mill valley, but in Marine County as a whole. So we can work together to make sure that we are housing those that are in need. Continuing to work on restrictive covenants, this communication plan, which goes to some of the things we're talking about in an open house, then with the multifamily housing groups and owners to really further on information and resources to those that own and operate multifamily housing and rental properties. So with that, that was an aside, I apologize. That's not really part of the ordinance, but just in case you wanna know. That's what's next. Okay, questions from... Yes, John? No questions. Okay, members of the public, anybody? Not seeing any online? None, okay, comments from anybody here? Make a motion. I just wanna make one comment comment which is just to riff on your comment about like you know the collaboration across the county. This is really quite interesting. So in this second Bafa meeting that we had we started talking a little bit about like the different housing programs that we have going on. And so I started mentioning or explaining to them what we were doing with soft story because our part of Bafa was preservation, right? Do you know that no other town? You probably know this, but this is for everybody else. No other town is doing a soft story ordinance. Nobody has even got this on their list. I had to explain what it was. What a soft story was. What the soft story ordinance is. Why you're doing it? It's preservation. that housing stock which is affordable because it's old, right? And if you lose it, you're losing a good portion of your affordable housing. It was like blank faces around the room. I mean, this is literally every single town is being represented here. We are the only town which is in two messages. One, thank you for doing all this because we've been ahead on this. So thank you both for all of this. Secondly, to your point about the importance of collaboration and kind of working across the county, there's a lot we can teach others, a lot that we can probably learn from others hopefully, but a lot of opportunities to collaborate. And this is just one example of that. So yeah, thanks. Next one. Motion by former mayor. Second. Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. We didn't formulate the resolution is that okay Because this is an ordinance we do it did you go through okay very quick formal introduction where we are introducing it We're waving first reading The ordinance of the city council of the city of Mill Valley amending title 20 zoning of the Mill Valley municipal code to incorporate Text amendments identified in housing program six of the Mill Valley General Plan housing element and adding a definition of employee housing and now you can quickly just revote on that and we'll be done. Can we get motion? Will you approve the ordinance? Second. On favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries received. Okay. Good. I don't know. That's just one of them. Oh. Yeah, I guess it's through it. So, really. Yeah. Sorry. Keep going, city attorney. Can we do all three? Can we just do all three? We definitely can. So I'll do the next two together since we did that first one. So the second ordinance introduced wave first reading in ordinance of the City Council of the City of Moe Valley also amending title 20 to incorporate text amendments identified in housing program 31 of the Moe Valley housing element to update the definition of emergency shelter, add low barrier navigation centers to the zoning code definitions and allow them as a permitted use in commercial and multi-family zoning districts. So that's number one. And then we are also introducing and waving for full reading of an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mill Valley amending title 20 zoning to update chapter 20.81 on density bonus. Thank you, Daniel. Okay, I'll make a motion to design one for 31. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries 3-0. Do we do that right? Is there anything else? Are we all good? See you, Attorney? Yes, we are. Daniel, we all set to go. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you. Okay. Better, better. Okay. This is always the popular item. Council request and idea for discussion. Anybody, why do we even have this on here? I mean, I did forget to mention something earlier. Yeah, be it the concerts on the plaza. Oh, yeah. Thank you for saying that. That's right. This weekend. Yeah. I would want to mention that. I just want to note one thing and we'll do this again. Now that people are back and settling in, it is emergency preparedness season. And Michelle and the team have updated parts of our EPC section of our website. We have also in the process of launching a campaign about just take one car. And I would encourage anyone interested in surviving a disaster to go to the city website and go to my particular favorite page. Click on the emergency preparedness button on the homepage and then go to evacuation tips and tools which will equip you with everything you need to know to safely evacuate in a timely fashion. Thank you. Great. And on that, Bomchell, can we get a motion to adjourn? Motion? Second. All in favor, aye. Okay. Thank you. But before we go any place, oh. Wait, there's more. Okay. Okay. Oh wait there's more okay okay so hey so we hadn't actually leave here but so welcome everybody this is the Mill Valley Public Financing Authority Board of Directors meeting oh we do that yeah for September 5th 2024 call to order for the good of the order I'm gonna note that two council members Prey and Joacim are missing. So public open time related to items not on the agenda, seeing anybody, set the Allingham as shaking his head, does want to speak, Danielle, do you want to come up and speak? Nope, no, Danielle is done speaking. Anybody online? Okay, nobody online, so we're gonna close public open time. There's a consent calendar item here which is the consideration of the August 7th, 2023 board minutes. Can I get a motion to- sorry anybody wish to pull that item? No. Okay, any members of the public wish to pull that item? No. Okay. Now would somebody like to make a motion to approve the consent calendar? I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. I will second that motion. Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, the consent calendar passes, 3-0. Now we've got two things. One is to receive report on the financial activities for fiscal year 2022-23. And we're receiving a report or are we just acknowledging that we've received the report? I make a recommendation that we received the report. Okay, so we're receiving the report for 2022-23 on the financial activities for that year. And secondly, we're receiving the financial activities for the fiscal year 2023-24. So two different years we're receiving the report on both of those. That's all that we need to do. And with that, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn. We have to approve those. I'd says receive reports. Okay, we'll see you then. Okay, let's go move. Let's go move. Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Okay, and with that, Bob Shell, we are actually going to adjourn for the evening. We will be back here on September 16th, which is only 10 days away. We're going to have really good news. And then just for everybody's notification, right? So we've got two meetings since September, two meetings in October, two meetings in December, one meeting in November, and one meeting in December. Right. So. Yeah, well placed. All right. thank you.