Yeah. I'm sorry. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for being here. It's December 5, 2024. This is the last meeting of the Milvaya City Council for the year of 2024. Thank you for coming here and enjoying it with us. Tonight's meeting is about new beginnings. It is about a retiring council member who's been with us for nine years and that's a new beginning because he will have a life after the council. As hard as that is to believe. This is about two council members who will be sworn in for their first four-year term. That's a new beginning. And with luck, they'll both be around for eight years. So that's an important thing for the city of Movelle. We will, at some point during the evening, this will be the big reveal. We will be electing a new mayor and vice mayor. We don't know who it's going to be. It's going to be. It's going to be very exciting. So I hope that you will stick around for it. Yeah, it'll be very exciting. Is anyone seen Conclave? So thank you for being here for it. If you don't stay for the entire evening, I want to just start by just saying, I hope that you have a terrific end of 2024. I wish you the happiest of holidays, and I wish you all the success in the world in 2025. So while tonight is a night of new beginnings, it's also sadly a night of ends. A few months ago, a Mill Valley resident of of renowned died. Her name was Betty Gurkey. Betty Gurk, sorry. And we are going to be adjourning this meeting in our honor this evening. And to say a few words about Betty and her life will be Max Paray and then we've got two speakers in the audience. So that's how we're going to begin tonight's evening. Max, would you like to take it away? Sure, and good evening, everyone. I met Betty Girk when I was eight years old. She was my neighbor, and our dogs, Bridget and Rosie, became best friends. So Betty and I started going on hikes. And over the next many decades, we went on hikes almost every day, even when I was in college. I come back and we could go walking. And Betty has been a person of incredible meaningful impact on Mill Valley and the broader marine community. She wrote many books about the local coast mewak people. I brought one today, Chief Marin. It's the seminal book about Chief Marin, whose name we have as our county name, Marin County. And Betty was a person of incredible empathy who gave back. She had the time and the commitment to serve on many boards, including the Milvalley Historical Society and many other boards across the county and across the country related to Cosmeewalk people, related to Native Americans. And she also was a teacher. She taught at College of Marin for many years anthropology. And she was an anthropologist and archeologist across the globe as well, doing digs and far reaches of the world. So tonight we're on our beddy, we miss beddy, and we have two people who are just gonna say some brief words, Epi Wasserman, followed by Eric McRis. Good evening. It's very moving to be here, especially to talk about our dear friend Betty. I'd like to recommend her oral history, which you can find in the Mill Valley Library Archives. It was taken by Deborah Schwartz, and it's just wonderful, full of information. And I decided to take some parts of it just to read to you. For Betty and anthropologist and archaeologist and musician who grew up in Evans, Stinnell, Illinois, Mill Valley was heaven, mountains, trees, wildlife, non-stop hiking opportunities. After she and her young family moved to Mill Valley, life was centered for a long time around her kids, Katie, John, and Robin, who asked me to speak tonight. One night a week, she would go to school and get her master's degree eventually at SF State. And the rest was children in music. She played the piano, the harpsichord, made up songs for her kids, and she wanted their home to be an open house. And after she began teaching at the College of Marin, it was an open house for her students, too. So many of Betty's students at Park School, Catherine Branson, where she taught in her 20s, and the College of Marin considered her the best teacher they ever had. The College was very supportive of her work. They gave her time off to work in India for a month The college was very supportive of her work. They gave her time off to work in India for a month and also to see the ice man of Austria, which was newly discovered in the Alps. Betty said this, and I think it is so true, it takes one enthusiastic person who is determined and will do anything for her students. The Chief Marin book, the one that informs us about the Coast Mewalk people, began because artifacts were being taken out of the ground, often at local elementary school projects, Willie Nilly encouraged by a very few mill-velli teachers, and unable to stop it from happening, Betty decided to write a book about archaeology in Marin County and explain to people why it's important to leave such things alone and contact an archaeologist so that a context can be established about the artifact. She realized that if she focused on one individual, Chief Morin, and made it about a person, people would be more likely to read the book and appreciate what the Indians of our area had contributed. So because of the careless activities at local schools that encouraged the stigging out of artifacts and separating them, Betty became fired by this desire to get the information out to people. The effort took 28 years. She worked with her students translating from Spanish the mission records, both in San Rafael and in San Francisco, at Mission Delores, and finally wrote wrote the book and it was published. And it's only one of her many gifts to us as Max said. Here are a couple of quotes from our Betty. Never lose sight of what is most important to you. If you are lucky, maybe you can make that what you do is work and get paid for it. But if you can't work at it for pay, you can do what you're most interested in on the weekends at night, in the afternoons, just as long as you keep what is most important to you in mind and pursue your dream." And another quote, don't miss out on any opportunity that may come up and don't set a trajectory that is definite. Realize that you can take detours here and there and some of them may turn out to be incredible and never take no for an answer. Thank you. Thank you, Abby. It's hard to follow up and hard not to cry. What are you all that? First, I want to thank the council for honoring Benny tonight and to thank you for your service to the community. And I know a lot of people here in the audience today are deep rooted in the community. And I know there are a lot of historical society members and board members. Thank you for your service too. That notion of service to the community is at the heart of how Betty lived, it seemed to me. And partly that was through her work with the Mill Valley Historical Society, where I got to know her on the board. And interestingly, as she had so many contributions, so many accomplishments, she was our only board member who was not subject to term limits. We voted her in as board member emeritus. And she said, I will keep coming to these meetings whether you want me to or not. And of course, we always wanted her to. And she did. She kept going. And she was one of only two people we've awarded a lifetime achievement award to. And it's because of her many contributions, some of which Abby mentioned and Max mentioned, her ability to organize and to teach and particularly to write books, I think, just a great way to remember her. And for example, in addition to the book for adults about Coast Mewok people, she wrote this book for children, about two Coast Mewok children, one of whom grew up to become chief Marin. And in addition to writing the book, Betty led our effort. As many of you know, third grade is when Marin County schoolchildren learn about local history. And with Betty's work not only writing the book, but organizing an effort, we donated a copy of this book to every third-grade teacher in the county. And that led a lot of the parents of kids to buy a book to. It was just one of the many quiet ways that Betty exerted her self on what she thought we ought to know. And beyond her accomplishments that you could list on a resume of which there were many, what I really admired about her is the quiet, gracious way she exerted her influence and her power on people. Used to joke with her that she was secretly in charge of Mill Valley. And she knew so many people in town. I'm not sure it was just a joke. And some of you on the council know exactly what I'm talking about. And it was the graciousness that she exerted when she did things like that, that almost seemed like a bygone era, a different culture, a different time. And I'm very happy we're honoring her tonight in part for that reason. And I'm just so happy to be part of our fan club. So thank you. Looks like no no once so say some words or would you like to come up and say some words about would you like to come up and make a remark about Betty? Please, please. Yeah. Another one of my powerful neighbors. Like Max, I was a neighbor of Betty. Mill Valley is made up of hundreds and hundreds of neighborhoods. And the things we value are the people that we get to know who live next, or across the ravine, which was the case with Betty and the Gurg family. I don't have a memory for a lot of the details, but I've kind of pieced together just a few of the details that connected our lives for more than 60 years. A phone call came sometime in 1961. We had just built our house, We'd moved in in 1960. The caller introduced herself as Betty Gurg. Seems she and her family were about to move into a house up Marlon Avenue from us, mostly a dirt road in those days. And we didn't have some kids, and she said, and didn't we have some kids? And we said, yeah, we've got three. And she said, we've got three. And she said, we've got three. And they're all from young kids on up to, maybe 11, 12, something like that. That was just the beginning of my realization that Betty was an initiator, making the call, finding us, connecting us, there was Betty, the initiator. No idea conceived by her as she had many, was unworthy of trying. Let's all camp together at the Hupa Valley Reservation show, so we did. And we had many adventures after that with our family. That was just the beginning. OK, that, yeah. I said that. The 60s and the 70s were busy decades for both families. Betty went back to school for a new degree. I went back to school for a new degree. The kids went to park school. They went on to Tim High. The kids went to Holland. We went to Greece. And they had a house fire. And then not to be outdone, we had a house fire. I mean, we're not going to let them get of us on that. And therein lies a story about neighbors. Betty invited the denizens. She would invite anybody to come and stay. She invited the denizens, all five of us, to spend the month of January while we waited for a house to become available up in another part of the town, for our year while we rebuilt the house. So we moved in. So there were six kids, of the town for our year while we rebuilt the house. So we moved in. So there were six kids, that time I think five to 15. I'm not sure how John, who went off every day to work at UCSF, returned to this chaos. We managed somehow. She cooked, I cooked, we did things together. The kids probably remember more than we want to remember of those of that month. But that once, forever, fixed in my understanding, my realization of Betty that she was generous to a fault. And that's what you have already mentioned. We've been the recipients of that generosity, so have many of you. We were not just recipients of that generosity, so have many of you. We were not just recipients of the generosity, but of her curiosity about us. I think Rosie and her dog walking with Max through elementary school and into high school, no doubt mentoring the budding politician that he knew he would become. So the decade continued, but he was a much better neighbor than I, but who could let, I'm sorry. I was involved in a micro-rishy in hers. She was busy teaching anthropology, exploring, leading digs, traveling, and so forth. Although we live separate lives, most of the time, when we did reconnect, it was as though there had never been a gap And I had a daily view of the Gurgh house which I still have from my kitchen window. There they are forever And somehow we grew old last February Betty sat down at our piano on my 95th birthday and and built it out happy birthday and some other songs she at that time was a few years younger So often include was just just Making the statement that's obvious to you by now that she Was diminutive Insized especially when she stood next to John but in all ways she was larger than life and in her native intellect, knowledge, wit, creativity, curiosity, tenacity, and above all, her generosity of spirit. Thanks very much for letting me say it so boring. So, boy. APPLAUSE Thank you all for your comments about Betty. And again again we'll be adjourning tonight's meeting in her honor. So we're going to start our meeting now. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda order please? So moved. I get a second. Second. All in favor say aye. Okay. We've got two presentations at the beginning of the meeting here. The first is a thank you for everybody that worked on Measure L. If you're in the audience and you had a part in Measure L, could you please stand up for a moment? That includes the staff members, the people that work. Thank you. Thank you. So we have, I think we have some certificates to hand out of appreciation. Yes. So Lynn Walsh will do that and Walsh is doing that. I'll just say a few words. So, Measure L was the most important thing on our Council Work Plan for 2024. It is the culmination of a four-year effort to organize ourselves and get this measure passed. It's without hyperbole to say that it'll probably be one of the most important things that the city has done and will do for the next 10 years. That's how important it will be. Of course, measure L is all about providing for public safety, making sure that we are hardened against fire and flood risk and all of the other things that can worsen our city. So it's incredibly important. We are incredibly grateful to the community for your support. This measure passed with an astounding 77%. There was no other measure on the ballot this year that was even close to that level of support. So, that's really a testament to this community understanding the issue and rallying behind it. So, thank you very much to the community for supporting this. There were a number, a large number of people that were involved in this and I'm not going to list out everybody, but it started with an infrastructure task force of 15 members in the community that spent four months going through it. It was followed by a measure L committee that actually worked on the campaign to get that measure passed. Jerry K. Hill is here, Jim Paranelo is here. They were the chairs for the infrastructure task force. They did a lot of work to get that passed. Then Jim Paranelo was again the chair, together with Kendra Pollock for the tax measure ballot initiative group. So thank you to you both for your leadership on those efforts. Those are incredibly important. I also want to thank former mayor John McColley and Betsy Cutler. You provided significant leadership on the committee to actually get the election passed with that 77%. You both really provided a great deal of expertise and we probably could not have done this without you. So thank you so much. There were a huge number of staff members involved in this thing and I could list all of their names but I really want to highlight Lynn Losh, because Lynn did an amazing amount of work organizing the task force through all of those meetings that we did in 2023 and into 2024. And then she shepherd this thing through in 2024 all the way up to election. It was amazing. You made life incredibly easy for us. You made it look very easy. I know it's not easy at all, but you have incredible skill in this area. You have incredible experience in this area. Honestly, we could not have done this without you. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Anybody on council was to add any remarks to that? Urban Carmel, ladies and gentlemen. Good job, urban. Spear ahead of the effort with good guidance from the former mayors in particular, and we appreciate that guidance. As I've said previously about the experience for me on the task force was learning how well our staff understands our city and how thoughtful they are about its residents, its needs, its challenges. And how skilled they are at navigating that across the board from Andrew, giving everybody a 24 hour lecture on infrastructure to Eric and his team, elucidating the finances of the city to the satisfaction of a very intelligent and skilled committee. It was just a great experience and I'm really grateful for the mayor's leadership on this and for Max's work as part of the Measurrell committee to help get this passed. So thank you all. I'll just keep it brief echoing my colleagues. An incredible effort as urban said one of the most impactful things we'll do in our time and council. The work is only beginning, right? The tax dollars will start flowing in in April, I understand. So we'll have a process, right? And we'll be looking at all of the infrastructure repairs and safety work we need to do over the coming decade and just so honored that the community place their trust in us, in the city and in our staff to carry out that work. So really appreciate all the trust and support that the community has put into this and for the incredible work that the committee, the task force and the campaign committee put into making this happen. I mean there's not too much to add to that. I just am so grateful for all the work that went behind this measure and making a success. I think it was an incredible amount of collaboration and cooperation, the amount of information that flowed to our community and educating why we were doing this and the importance of it. And I'm just really grateful to be part of the community as willing to make such a significant investment to our future. It's just incredibly important and it may be even more so. I think that we may be present in terms of having a local funding source come next year. So I'm just very grateful that we will continue to be able to provide for the safety of our community and keep it resilient. So thank you very much. I have excellent job. I would say 20 years ago we were talking about this being a staff member of the city and how can we fund future infrastructure items. And that's a fun part of being on the City Council. It becomes a point where it starts a line. And things happen, we have a great city manager, we have great staff, urban, the City Council. That's how things happen, which we finally recognize that we need to do something now. We looked at the charter city and the tax measure and the community supported us because we have such a great town. I think it was just a good timing, the whole thing. So thank you guys, Jim, and everyone else who helped out in the committee, and especially you, John, former mayor. So all your help, thank you. Great, thank you so much. So the next item on the agenda is to... Oh, yeah, sorry. You wanted to do a photo with everybody who is here in the audience who worked on it is that. OK, great. So if you were involved in it, come on up. We're going to grab a photo. Let's just fill everybody out. Yeah, that was good. That was good. Cool. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Come on. Thank you. Nobody gets a ride. Thank you. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. All right, everyone, excuse me. Thank you. Okay. Okay, now we're on to the next item. Okay, so as we end an incredibly productive year on the City Council, we wanted to provide the community with a review of the things that we had on our work plan and what we accomplished and how we're set up for the coming year. So Todd, when he's ready, there we go. I just saw that reserved it for Jim. Welcome. That's awesome right in the front. That's perfect All right, man. Go, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, we're waiting for you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor members of the council Talk to some on your city manager I want to make this quick because I know a lot of people aren't here for this necessarily when I started working on the end of the year report I was about 45 pages and so don't worry, I got it down into a few minutes. It's not gonna do it justice, but I'm just really proud of the team. And the team is what makes Mill Valley so special and what you're hearing tonight and what you're gonna continue to hear is who the team is. And the team is this council, the staff, our community and the former mayors. We do really special things in Mill Valley. It's what separates us from everyone else. And so when we talk about this end of the year report, keep that in mind of those four groups. This is us collectively, what makes us special and separates us from everyone else. The first thing I wanted to talk about are three things, and this is really my emphasis of this report. The first is the strategic pursuit of outside resources. We don't just rely on what we have available to us. We're always trying to be creative. We're always trying to be proactive. The second part is the 2024 work plan. How did we do? Well, there were 56 items on that work plan. It was one of the most robust work plans I've ever been part of in my 31 career years in public service. I'm really proud to share that. The other one is whatever our operational accomplishments and so when you think about the work plan, it's a small part of what our staff does. 90% of how we are set up as a city, it's the 90-ten rule, 90% of what we do, it's day-to-day. It's providing that service to the community and so you can have this greatest idea of how you want to go tackle something, but it's when someone calls you in the morning and they need help, you stop what you're doing and you help them. And sometimes it's one person, sometimes it's five different departments. And I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of the team. I don't know if this report will do it justice, but I just can't emphasize that enough. The first thing though, let's talk about the strategic pursuit of outside resources. This is a timing thing of how you get grants, donations, restricted funds. But think about Measure L, for an example. What are the resources available to us? So this is the proactive part of our city. What I want to emphasize here, when you look at between 2024 and 2025, these are grants donations or restricted funding that we received or are ready to spend in the year 2024 and 2025. So this is a snapshot for us. Okay, and so I broke it into a few areas. Streets and infrastructure are 5.3 million, flood control, 3 million, sea level rise, almost a million, and you can go down and see the line of our strategic areas of proactiveness. And here's a better snapshot here. So let's look at this. So this pie chart shows four areas total grants. So we've received $7.2 million in grants, or we're gonna spend that $7.2 million in grants over the two-year period. We received $2 million in restricted funding. A lot of the $2 million in restricted funding is what you heard about with Measure L. We started to build that $10 million plan, that $2 million in the gas tax. There are restricted funds that we worked hard. You know, that's a lot of work that some of the prior directors, council members, and Eric's team really fought for, you know, over the last 10 years. They've secured that $2 million in restricted funds for us. The other one is claims. It could be a landslide where we go and try to recover monies through OES or we go after someone for damage to property legally. And so this was a lot of work from our public works team. They've recouped $1.6 million for us to make improvements over this two year period. And the other one, it's really special. It's donations. $531,000 we received in donations across the board. And the other part of it is our community volunteers. So there's a lot of in-kind assistance here. And so you think about our fields, the beautification per grade, some of the workout, Litton Square, East Blight, the El Triangle, the donations for the benches and the million of wood from the fallen redwoods. The volunteers, the Eagle Scouts, I could go on and on. These are four specific examples, but I have a sheet, no lie, when I went through it. There are 47 examples of major partnership volunteer projects with our community. So thank you. The other one is the work plan. And so the work plan, again, we give quarterly updates. Everyone's heard about it. The work plan was broken up into these 12 categories. 56 items. These items aren't just like one in done types of things. These are one, two, three year projects that we're working on. And so some of these you'll see where they're completed, but they're ongoing to the next phase. And when you look at these, and you can see where the areas are the major one for us a couple ones that I want to point out fiscal Sustainability that was measure L We had to figure out this hundred million dollar spending plan for ten years and that passed and Very successful You look at affordable housing the one Hamilton project major Major development for us, you know the housing element was a major project for us And now we have to implement it this year and moving forward But when you look at the 56 projects we've completed was a major project for us and now we have to implement it this year and moving forward. But when you look at the 56 projects, we've completed 91% of those. So 51 of those have been completed and are ready for the next phase. 3% or 5% or 3 of them are ongoing and that really has to do with going through the Boyle Park Master Plan. It's the process, right? We've started the process, we have the consultant, now we're working through the community process over this next year, and two have not been initiated yet, and they're mainly for legislative and legal reasons. But just major kudos, the council members were attached to a lot of these and in all of our departments, all hands on deck, and again, just really proud of the team. Again, these are the highlights, fiscal sustainability, Measure L, bringing $4.2 million annually. Emergency disaster prep, these are two that we're really proud of. The first one's flood zone three, I call them my six council member. John McColley was a big one when I first came on as the city manager two years ago. This was one of the areas that he pointed out. We need to do something about this. We need to fight for this funding and we need to do it. So we partnered with John with our public works team and now we have $3 million. It's going to go towards over the next few years, six major flood control projects. The Google evacuation study again, that was another major area for John. We've presented that study's complete, we presented it to the community, and we're going to drill this next summer on it to look at the Hamilton area of evacuation and really try to do a major community evacuation and then continue our campaign of education to our community. Fortable housing project, again, our planning team, I just can't emphasize enough, they passed a housing element and moved the One Hamilton project. I'm still kind of astonished by their work. Just major accomplishments there, so kudos to the team and the council. Traffic infrastructure, you may have seen the rating on our pavement index. That goes largely to the MST tax. We have a 74 rating. It puts us third in the county. If you really pay attention to who we're being compared to, within the county, I would put us at number one. One is Ross and really it's you can't compare our miles of streets to that and the second one was was Larkspur and they did have done really major credos to them but they had to do a $35 million bond to do it one time advance to move their streets to where they are where we've developed a stream over a decade to continue to maintain it. And what you're gonna see is, just like this year, we went from 73 to 74. We're gonna go from 74 to 75 and continue to stay strong. So, kudos to the Public Works team with that. Business economic vitality. This goes to the council and our business planning department. Really proud of how we engage our community, how do we get people in Mill Valley and just really getting on the ground and meeting people and trying to find ways and best practices to develop our business and economic vitality within our city and also in Walsh, renewed our five year agreement with the Chamber of Commerce. And so a lot of good work there. Climate action is one that we've really never focused on. It wasn't on the work plan, but we've received a $1.2 million grant through the state to bring three projects through a 30% design, and then it go out in 2025 and 2026 to get funding for those projects. Sustainability has been a big one in beautification and Council member Joe Akam with the help of our own Michelle have really just engaged our volunteer groups and have done some really special things in our community. Two of those are at Litton Square and the East Blightdale Triangle so just really awesome work there. This is what separates us from all of all other communities it's our quality of life our Parks and Recreation Department, Arts Commission and our library. They're just absolutely outstanding. And so you'll see a lot of work moving forward, but it's the day-to-day of the services we provide, and I'll show you some statistics about that in a second. Diversity, equity, inclusion, this is a forever conversation and we brought in some bandwidth this year, Tammy's on board with our team to really help Lynn and our staff really lean into this and engage our community and our staff to be better and be leaders. The other part of it is bringing in training. Training's been a big shortcoming for our team. And so this year we brought on Kelsey to help us as our training manager to really rally our team and come up with a training program. And you kind of think about it like college. If you're in a specific department, you have your requirements, and then you have your general-ered classes. And you know, we have a program now moving forward across the board of just being well-trained and being leaders in the community. Community engagement I can't emphasize that enough with Michelle and the team in the council a lot of engagement neighborhood and community chats live well live well Mavali the arts together and community volunteers again just a lot of good work for a lot of the new staff members over the last few years. This has been really helpful to us to get to know our community. Know it's important to the neighborhoods and to provide that service. Town operations, it's not sexy, but it's important. Cyber security upgrades were a big one for the city. We've developed all the best practices and we're in good shape as a city. Work force planning. This was one of just recruitment or attention. Bring it in the right people and retaining our people. So, Seth and the team on the HR side have just done a really good job. Just an interesting statistic over the last year, 130 full-time employees, two of those employees left in the last 12 months to lateral to a similar position, two. And that's a good number. You know, if you look at most cities, they're seeing 15 and 20% turnover annually. And that's a lot of good work of the department heads and our HR team. Building division, again, these might be just numbers to you, but what I'll tell you, it puts us in the top third in the Bay Area. Permits issued 1,1272. Think about our staff for a second. 1,1272 permits were issued last year. Inspection's performed over 3,000. Total valuation of those permits, 98 million. from our from our business from our building division 3.9 million pretty significant if you look at the planning division side applicants submitted application submitted over the last year were 80 and 55 of those are approved $280,000 in fees were collected this is our public works operations team they don't get a lot of day to day credit, but there are directors of the first impressions. They're the first to respond. They help our community keep it beautiful and safe. A couple things that I'm proud of. I'm about zero accidents and injuries this year. So that's a good number right there. A lot of training. We've recruited, interviewed, and onboarded 11 new employees in the vacant positions and really built our team this year moving forward. They've contributed a lot of data and presentations to measure L. We've initiated a citizens request portal for direct citizen reports and maintenance issues. They reviewed over 7,500 work orders this year and cleaned 23 miles of sewer mans. Pretty remarkable. Police in Southern Marin Fire District, this is our public safety teams. I'll tell you being in public safety for 23 years. Those are the best two departments in the county. I'm really proud of them. They're thoughtful. They bring a humanistic approach to policing and our southern marine fire team as you can see are just really attacking the vegetation management and education of keeping us safe. If you think about on the police side, well how many officers do we have? Approximately 20. Well they respond to 19,000 calls for service a year. Think about that. Out of those 19,000 calls for service, there were 229 arrests. There are 700 of those where alarm responses, 111 were traffic accidents. And you can see the traffic citations of 1400 and parking citations of 3600. But my point is they interface with our community every day. Thousands of times a year. Do you know how many citizen complaints they received last year? Or complaints? Zero. Zero. I've never heard of that before. So I'm really proud of them. On the Southern R and Fire District side, this year we're going to work on it to you're first of really just building our relationships of who should we go to on both sides. They're learning us. We're learning them, but what I can tell you is they've been very thoughtful, very proactive, very engaging. The chief unfortunately couldn't be here boss for you, but he does send his regards in his best. It's his mom's birthday. And so he has to go celebrate her, and he's got his priorities straight. Almost done, but I wanted to touch on a couple other departments arts and recreation again Just remarkable, but a couple numbers over here in statistics behind me and you can read the board 10,000 plus community events A thousand over a thousand active adult events over 70,000 people have been through our community center this last year Aquatics and fitness 120,000 so. So those are our day to day. 61,000 on the fitness floor, 17,000 fitness classes. Remarkable. Just an outstanding job of service. And same thing on the library. You come to the library. We talked a lot about their pro-octiveness of getting grants to really engage and improve diversity in our programs and service. But same thing, we have over 11,000 registered borrowers, 889 total programs, 33,000 people, program have been through our library for programs. Programs for kids, 237 total attendance over 11,000. Total library visits for the last year, 211,000. Size of our collection, 120,000. We always call the library the crown jewel, rated the second best small library in the country. They're absolutely the best. I just can't. I can't emphasize it enough. So, Angie and her team are just absolutely outstanding. Kudos to them. A couple other things I just want to touch on on the pictures behind me. You'll see bottom, the bottom left. You'll see Grace Ledwith. She's our sustainability coordinator. We share her with Tibran. This is her. We're celebrating the beacon awards. We received three awards this year on the climate side. The first one was a platinum level award for 20% community greenhouse gas reductions. The Gold Level Award of 15,000 for greenhouse gas reductions and the Gold Level Award for 11% agency energy savings. And then we also receive the Gold Level Award and sustainability and best practices. And so she's been here for a year. You've heard her report outs. She's going to lead us into delivering our cap over the coming years, just an outstanding addition. The other one might not be sexy, but it's our sasim. It's our water treatment plan. It's a joint powers authority. But I want to give Mark Kraschev and his team some really amazing props. As you know in 2016 or you may not know, we needed to complete major renovations there to bring it to code. There were a lot of issues we had and we brought on the team. We, with the help of Eric and his team, we took out a $33 million bond and it was the fund in 19 capital projects. In this year, by the end, we'll have completed the 19th project. He did it within time. He did it safe and right. And he did it under budget. We have $51,000 remaining of that $33 million. So kudos to him. The other thing I'm just moving forward, what I want to tell you, we have three pending grant applications moving into this next year. We're not forward with what I want to tell you. We have three pending grant applications moving into this next year. We're not going to stop. One of them was from our planning team. Danielle Stoddy has submitted California Local Housing Trust Fund grant for $1.2 million. We have a California Transportation Commission Small Infrastructure Grant, totaling $1 million. And we're going after a charging and fueling infrastructure grant, which is approximately a million dollars. We have pending donations and volunteerism and some key categories that I just want to highlight for you. The first is a volleyball court, which the council did approve, but we're working on private donations. The Friends of the Park and Rec. Crew are considering donations. The city is considering adding money and we also have $177,000 grant to go towards that. It's an example of the four prongs of the community coming together to bring a project. We're looking at the Litton Square Platform Mosaic project from the beautification committee. We're looking at softball field improvements and the scope of work is being developed now. Rehabilitation of Old Mill, the plaza expansion. We're looking at planners and flowers for the expansion and the beautification improvements at the golf clubhouse. My last thing and I'll stop. I wanna give kudos to the vice mayor on this. Before I got here, we had a multi-hundred thousand dollar deficit at the golf course, pre-COVID. And as we worked through this, there was a lot of work to be done with our volunteers, our community and the council led by the vice mayor. Today, we broke even. This last year, we broke even and moving forward with our improvements and that we're bringing to the golf course with some food and drink. We anticipate to have $100,000 surplus the coming year. And so it's the vision and the work of, again, prongs of the community but having the vision and so thank you Mr. Vice-Mayer for that and with that I'm happy to stop and answer any questions. Thank you Todd. So when the City Council put together its work plan at the end of last year and work through it with the City Manager at our off site we told them that this is an incredibly ambitious plan that this is an incredibly ambitious plan, that this is a lot of things on here. It touches everything in our community. It touches housing, it touches safety, touches transportation, touches business vitality, climate action, literally touches everything that we do. And we said, if you can do 80% of this, it'll be an all-time year. Todd says he did 98%, he actually did more than that. Because in addition to all of the things that he talked about in this presentation, we also did a number of things that weren't on the work plan that were very significant. We skimmed over sea level rise. That's a very significant down payment that the city has started this year to address sea level rise for the very first time in our community. That's a major, major accomplishment and it's all due to the very, very hard work that our city manager does. Secondly, you might recall this winter, the city government spent a lot of time working with our school district over a particular site in our town. That resulted in a user agreement for friends field being finally agreed upon. That was a very, very significant effort. I don't even think you mentioned it in all of the, what were you talking about here? So there's been a lot of things that have been done. It has been an all-time higher, I think. And that is what you get when you bring somebody like Todd Q Sumano to your city. We knew that we were hiring an all-star when we hired Todd. We knew that he was capable of doing this kind of work for our city of really making significant improvements and really moving the needle. And two years in, he's already demonstrated that he can do that. The future for the city, my conclusion, having seen what you're capable of over the last 15 months is enormously bright. And I can't thank you enough for all the hard work. The city council sets the agenda, the city council is responsible for a policy, but we never forget that the really, really hard work, the day-to-day work, the things that really make a difference are all driven by staff and staff is in turn driven by the city manager. So I'd like to round of applause for Todd Kusin on the table. We have Kenny O'Wation back there. Any other comments from my colleagues? I can't improve upon that. I'm exhausted. But kids, when your dad is at home and his phone burps and he's got to walk and talk for a little bit, know that he's really, really appreciated for what he's doing. And thank you for sharing with us. Yeah, just thank you Todd and thank you to all the department heads and staff who made this year resounding success. And also thank you to Urban for starting the conversations here. I think the community conversations was incredibly impactful and is in part why we achieved what we achieved with Measure L. And thank you to Caroline as well for the neighborhood chats. I thought those were also incredibly important and a big huge part of our successes this year. One thing I do want to add is one aspect of city manager that does not get enough credit is what he does day in and day out and you wouldn't necessarily know unless you're involved in city part of the staff or if you're in the room when he gets a phone call. And that's just putting out fires. And he's incredibly responsive to emails, even though when I ask a question, I'm saying, please, just wait until Monday to answer it. He'll respond within minutes. So I just don't think you get enough credit for it, and we should be singing your praises for that, because you help make this city continue along its way without too many landmines that we step into. So I'm just a very appreciative of you and your leadership. I'm appreciative of being a part of this council and his leadership and also incredibly appreciative of the staff because this is a great group of people that are working to make Movella a better place day in and day out and I see it. So thank you. Okay. Great. We are going to move on to the consent calendar. There are five items. Does any member of council wish to pull a item from consent? Seeing none. Does any member of the public wish to pull a item from consent? Seeing none, anybody online wish to pull? Okay, can I get a motion to move to consent calendar? So moved. Second. I'll in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries, five zero. Now it's time, now we've come to public open time. So members of the public that wish to speak on any item which is not on the agenda. Anybody here in the audience who wish to do so? Yes. Okay, good. Come on up. Anybody else? So we have one person? Come on up. Give me a couple minutes to speak. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Members of the council, Mayor Carmel. My name is Gia Godwin and I've lived in Mill Valley for 15 years. I currently work at Tam High and for the past 10 years I've been renting an apartment at 170 Miller Avenue the Elwood building just down the street and like you I love it here and I consider Mill Valley my home. I am grateful that the city has been working to increase the long-term viability of living here for those of us who also work here. I am a career educator and neighbors in my building include a critical care nurse, a grocery manager and a city employee. I found out from several neighbors that our landlord email and I was informed by the neighbor that this email said that there will be a five to six week disruption beginning next Monday with this structural construction, dust, debris, extensive noise, utility cutoffs, and long-term parking displacement. All of this just as the holiday season is beginning without proper or considerate notice. and we are looking at the public health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and health care and no valley taxpayers and we are alarmed by several immediate prospects. Number one, we don't know if our homes will be habitable during this process. And this ordinance unlike the retrofit ordinances in other California cities does not address the issue of habitability and temporary relocation for tenants. Some of the programs that you cite on your website actually do have those provisions. Number two, we don't know where to park our cars for the duration of the project, given that the PG&E project is ongoing on Miller right in front of our building. I mean, there's literally no place to park. And number three, we're also concerned that our rents may be jacked up on duly due to the cost of the retrofit jeopardizing our ability to even remain here in Mill Valley. At this stage, I'm here to ask you what safeguards can you put in place like right now for tenants not just at our building, but for the other projects that will go forward under this ordinance. And I'm here to ask for the following sensible action items. Number one, if you could delay construction until after the holiday season, I mean everyone's bringing in Christmas trees, everything else, and we're kind of panicked right now, when we got this email. Number two, to require from the landlord and property manager, proper notice to tenants and to building neighbors, so that we can make arrangements to deal with the substantial disruption of daily life that this will entail. And also number three, we're asked that the city of Mill Valley identifies temporary parking for displace tenants ideally along Miller Avenue. It's no longer fire season so there's more parking available like the employee parking. And last, I would ask that the city of Mill Valley provides us some assurance or financial contingencies so that our rents will not be substantially Increased and we can stay where we want to be right here in Mill Valley Thank you so much for your public comment. This is not a discussion item for tonight But Patrick Kelly are planning director building directors in the audience you should connect with him He is the person that's responsible for- And I also have a copy. Yeah, and he is the man to give it to. Thank you so much for coming and speaking this evening. Thank you. Yeah, and have a happy holiday. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to speak in public open time? Seeing none, anybody online? None. Okay, close public open time. City staff announcements starting with the former mayor. I have nothing to report. I won't be around next week. Okay. I just have a quick report. I am definitely making it short. Legislative committee met last week. We talked about the activity happening in Sacramento. You might have seen and heard about it on this past Monday, the formation of a special legal defense fund. It's going to be similar to the one that the state formed in 2016. Right now, the top priorities for the upcoming legislative session are housing, homeless and affordability for all and making the state more livable, preparing for the new year and being ready to pivot. So I will have more of a report in January when we get more information from our representatives. I'll just briefly say if there's any folks in the audience are listening, who are from the Eucalyptus Noals or Hockey Park neighborhood. I've been very engaged talking to PG&E and our city staff around the substation situation in the last few weeks. The city manager, Todd and I have some ideas for how to improve communication and coordination going forward. So just encourage anyone in the neighborhood to reach out to either of us and we'd be happy to clear you in and hear any suggestions you have. Thanks. Yeah, and I have nothing either. You see, manager, you've already given us except the report is anything else you'd like to add or? Just I wanted to point out we've had a lot of traffic on East Blightdale at Camino Alto. I was stuck in that both ways the last three days and we haven't confirmed it for sure, but we think it was a cause from the power outages with PG&A and it reset it. But the team did go out there and have reset it as of today this afternoon. And so it should be improved moving forward and we'll be monitoring it. Awesome, thank you. Great. Next item on the agenda is resolution to clear the results of the November 5th, 2024 election related to measure L and law should share to give us a presentation. Are you ready? Yes. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight you have before you a consideration of a resolution declaring the results of the November 5th, 2024 election in the City of Moe Valley related to measure L, the City Sales Tax Measure. So on June 17th, 2024 the city council approved an ordinance to place a 1% transaction and use tax or otherwise known as the sales tax on the November 20th, 24 ballot for voter consideration. And this week our city clerk received the certification of certificate of election which certifies the canvas of the results of the votes cast at the election and affirmed that measure L had indeed passed with 77.33 of mill valley voters approving of the measure. And the City Council is now required to adopt the resolution confirming the election results, which will enable the implementation of the new tax starting April 1st and not and April Fools joke 2025 So that's and in my report. I'm happy to take any questions and also a fun fact 77.33 is the exact same number that the MST passed back the first time okay identical numbers So it's that same 23% Who are those people? Okay any questions? Nope. No problem. Any... Nope. Members of the public that wish to comment on the item. Seeing none, any people online, wish to comment? Okay, so, can I get a motion or any deliberative comments? Okay. Can I get a motion for resolution city council to plan the results of the general municipal election regarding measure L to help held on November 5th, 2024? So moved. Fall in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes, five zero. Onto next item which is also related to measure L. Thank you Mr. Mayor. As you're aware on June 17th, 2024, the City Council approved the ordinance, placing the 1% transaction use tax measure on the 2024 ballot, which recently passed. Now that you have declared the results of the election, you have before you the consideration of two resolutions. And I'm going to speak about an organization that we're making agreements with. It's the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. I'm going to refer to it as the CDTFA, just so you know. The first resolution authorizes the city manager to execute two agreements with the CDTFA for the administration and collection of the city's local transaction and use tax. The first agreement is the agreement for preparation and it outlines the CDTFA's role in preparing to administer the city's transaction and use tax or we call it the sales tax. The second agreement is the agreement for state administration and it details the CDTFA's responsibility for the ongoing administration collection and distribution of the city's tax revenue. The second resolution before you tonight allows city officials and a contracted third party to examine the confidential sales tax records held by the CDTFA to support government functions such as budget planning and economic development. And that's the end of my report. I'm happy to take any questions. Any questions from council? Any public comments on this item? From the public? Seeing none, any comment line? Okay, any deliberative comments from the council? Can I get a motion to approve the resolution that's stated by the deputy director? Go ahead, go ahead. Can I get a motion? Go ahead. Go ahead. Can I get a motion? Go ahead. Go ahead. Make a motion. So moved. Second. All those. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Okay. Well, we are now onto the next item of the agenda, which is perhaps while some of you are here. So it is with a very heavy heart that our good friend and colleague for many years, Jim Wickham, retires. Like I said, at the beginning, it's a new beginning. And we wish them all the best. What we're going to do is we are going to start by reading a very lengthy proclamation. Can we have AI summarize it from a very lengthy, like the existence, give me the highlight to enormous detail about Jim's life and his legacy. Then I'll ask members of the public. I know that there are at least one person on line that wants to speak, but I'm sure there are members of the public here that are going to wish to speak on Jim's contributions to the community over literally decades. So with that, it's super long. I mean, tell you, this is a, this is what happens when you spend this many years in city government as Jim has. This is what happens when you spend this many years in city government as Jim has. This is decades. Okay, a proclamation of the city council of the city of Mill Valley honoring Jim Wickham for his distinguished service to Mill Valley. Whereas as a forced generation Mill Valley resident, Jim has upheld a proud family legacy of public service, following in the footsteps of his father, George E. Wickham, who served on the Mill Valley City Council from 1964 to 1970, and served as mayor from 1971 to 1972. And whereas Jim's professional career exemplified public service, beginning with 37 years in law enforcement with the Mill Valley Police Department culminating in his retirement as police captain in December 2010 and continuing his police chief of Nevada City and public safety specialists for the beloved Pacific gas and electric company Public comments are always welcome on that point Max he's coming, Max. Whereas Jim was an original All-Star volunteer, spending many hours dedicated to serving mill values various youth sports organizations. Jim was a staple on the Boyle Park Ball Field in Snack Shack with his beloved wife Suzie and their five children. Jim routinely gave his time in energy, not just to youth programming, but to civic initiatives and organizations, including the upcoming Milvalley 125th celebration. And, whereas Jim Wickham was elected to the Milvalley City Council in November 2015, serving with dedication and distinction until December 2024. And whereas Jim, during his tenure on the Millbody City Council, served as mayor in 2019 and 2020 and 2022 to 23, providing exemplary leadership, fostering collaboration and guiding Millvalue through transformative initiatives. And whereas his mayoral term in 2019 and 2020 saw impactful projects such as long-term fire vegetation, the three-foot rule, Jim. Management planning alongside essential general plan and housing element initiatives. And whereas during his 2022 to 23 mayoral term, Jim oversaw numerous critical projects, including the $12 million east Blightdale project and a downtown paving project ensuring Milvalley's infrastructure met the needs of his residents. And whereas Jim revived the beloved Memorial Day Carnival after a long hiatus and approved the professional service agreement with the Milvalley Chamber of Commerce to launch the Milvalley Music Festival. And whereas Jim led the council's effort that brought Todd Kusomano to Milvalley as the new city manager in 2022, should we get another round of applause for that? Providing the right balance of continuity and innovative leadership for the city's future. And whereas Jim addressed community growth and dynamics, often challenging state housing laws, advanced the draft housing element for council consideration. Supported the successful RBRA program to ease anchorouts in Richardson Bay and approved measures such as the objective design and development standards toolkit and the seasonal outdoor business use public right-of-way ordinance. And whereas Jim's leadership extended to public safety and sustainability, including the funding of bridge and culvert repairs, adoption of the foodware ordinance, work on electric mobility devices and establishing an interagency agreement to share a sustainability coordinator with Tibron. And whereas Jim led Milvalley's effort for its first United Against Hate Week, declared in June 2023 as LGBTQIA plus pride month and authorized the display of the Pride Fag on city property reflecting his commitment to fostering inclusivity. And whereas Jim has always been a strong supporter and advocate for city staff. His unique experience as both Mill Valley employee and two-term mayor and city council gave him a knowledgeable and holistic approach to decision-making and employee relations. And whereas Jim's love for Mill Valley is evident in his passion for outdoor activities such as cycling, running, hiking, as well as this deep commitment to his family and his community. Now therefore, be it proclaimed on this 5th day of December 2024 that the City Council of the City Mill Valley recognizes the extraordinary contribution of Jim Wickham for his dedication to safety, community vitality, collaboration, volunteerism for his four thinking spirit. Jim and the Wickham's are truly an exemplary, multi-generational family in Mill Valley, committing themselves in service to the greater good for the community. Jim has contributed greatly to ensuring our town's future success with each action taken and each story shared. His impact and legacy will continue for many years to come and speak. Why don't we start with the members of the public? We want to start online first with and then anybody else here and I'm sure there are a number of you'd like to come up and say some kind words about Jim here comes former mayor McCulley anybody else feel free to stand up but we're going to start with Brad. Well good evening that thank you Mr. Mayor. Well my name is thank you Mr. Mayor, my name is Brad Gross. I'm the executive director for the RBRA. I apologize for no camera but I am traveling in my signals week at best. And I want to thank you all for giving me just a couple of minutes of your valuable time. As you all know, since Councilmember Wickham decided not to run again for a council seat, his role as an RBRA Board member expires with his term. And I wanted to take this time to quickly recognize and celebrate some of the Councilmember Wickham's accomplishments with RBRA. It will be as long as the declaration I just heard. But Councilmember Wickham served on the RBRA board for nine years including a time as chairman making him the longest tenured member on our current board. Councilmember Wickham helped RBRA through some of the most contentious times over the last nine years. With his help and direction during his time on the board The RBRA recorded so many noticeable achievements. Those efforts include securing $3 million state grant funds alongside Senator McGuire to launch an innovative temporary housing support program. The initiative allows voters previously living on the water to move into safe and secure housing on land. Since the program was launched, 19 individuals living on the water have housed. The RBR-A4 also approved a vessel buyback program, which offers eligible participants money based on their vote if they turn their vessels into the RBR-A for proper disposal. And many of the enrollees in the housing voucher program have also participated in the bus of buyback initiative, allowing them to have additional funds as they navigate back on land. As a result of those various actions, the RBRA has seen that the number of illegal boats anchored in Richardson Bay dropped from more than 200 several years ago to less than 20 today. Additionally, the RBRA board oversaw the implementation of the new eelgrass protection zone. This is an area of water off limits to anchoring that will help restore and protect a critical ecological component of the bay. One of the greatest accomplishments during his tenure has been the replanting of over six acres of eelgrass and irrigation bay on our way to the ultimate 15 acres restoration. And finally, Councilman Wickham also sat on the RBRE board when this body approved a landmark agreement with the BCDC stipulating that all of vessels and floating homes will be removed from the anchorage by October of 2026, except for those abiding by the 72 hour I'm restrictions. We are incredibly grateful for the service of council member Wefton. He's been an invaluable member of the RVRE board, and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. Applause. Former Mayor McColley. Good evening everybody. Hello Jim. Okay. So let's see where should I start. Let's start with how I first met Jim. Okay. It's back in the late 1980s, non-non-affirter generation, forter generation, MoValley resident. And we were involved with something. We don't really recall what it was, but Jim was always doing things in the community and my wife and I were involved in something. I do recall it was early in the morning. I had just had my coffee. I had just gotten dressed. And Cindy was in the same condition. And we were in our living room. And I have a dog. I've always had dogs but my dog at that time her name was Debits. I'm a CPA and she was an asset and an expense. Okay, so and Debits, Debits always a really good kind of guard dog generally, right? But she was so shocked by what happened she didn't even bark and what happened was Jim in uniform burst through the door. Not just tapping on the door, not knocking on the door. And I was like, he burst through the door and suddenly appeared in front of us and goes, hi, let's talk about something. And I thought, man, this guy is kind of a different character. And I realized pretty soon thereafter that is pretty much a good understanding of what Jim is all about. So early on I got involved in the Carnival and the soccer club and all these kind of things that Jim was doing a small subset of his many many activities but just one quick story I do remember this is back in the days when we had the quonset hut for the community center was built and Jim was working with the carnival, and somehow got roped into doing some of the money stuff. And we were in the quantity of counting cash. This was before the days of cards and the leg, and we had a lot of cash, right? And Sunday night rules around, and Jim said, all right, let's go and meet the carnivores, and I didn't really know any carniv guys at that point in my life. So we walk around to the back of the building with a brown paper bag full of money and go meet these Carnegie fellows. Some had teeth even. And I'm thinking, okay, I'm glad Jim is a healthy kind of a gentleman and I know even an off-duty police officer is carrying some heat. So we got through that process, but I thought this is a different kind of a guy. And what I thought was interesting is that most often, I've got to meet a lot of police officers when I was on council, and most often police officers choose not to live in the town that they serve, because it's a little inconvenient when you give somebody a ticket, and then you see them in Safeways the next day. But Jim and his love of life, Susie decided to raise their family in our town in LaValle with his five children and were always so much luckier for it. I did my thing and I looked through all nine years of the agendas and brought back a lot of memories of different levels and I really focused on the two years of Jim's mirror but since there have been so many where as is already I'll probably just kind of skip through all of that part. And then what I would indicate though, that there were some really trying times there during our term. First, of course, Jim was literally the Maryland COVID hit. I remember I was up in Tahoe and you were having a lot of very difficult conversations in the very early days of COVID, but Jim showed his leadership and got us started on that. And then two months later, of course, George Floyd was murdered by the Milwaukee Police Department. And we had to deal with the appropriate public response to that and manage through all those activities. All of it on Zoom, it was so hard on Zoom. But in the end, we actually came up with 40 specific actionable items through that whole process with Jim's help. Anyway, lots of things that occurred, I had a longer list, but I'll skip most of that. I would also like indicate that he was involved in the hiring of Todd Kusimano. So one more round of applause on that. Okay, all right. But after these meetings, Jim and I would often go to the Duse, the 2AM club, and we would do what we would call a debrief. Usually involve a couple of martinis, and we'd be thinking through the night, and it was more like a session of the view when we were talking about kind of what had happened over the course of that night. And this happened many, many, many times. We'd be in the building, and this person, Jim's a fourth generation, a mobile resident, and knows many, many people there. And often, somebody I've never met comes up and is very regarious, very friendly. God, really great to see you, blah, blah, blah, slapping on the back and then off the person goes. And right after they left, Jim would say to me, and he said this to me many times, oh, I arrested that guy. Okay. So I would close with, that's what Jim's about. Even those he has arrested love him. And that's what he has brought into the city of Mo Valley over his many years of service. So it was an honor to serve with you over that time. And we all do love you, Jim. OK. APPLAUSE Hey, everybody. Jim Wellty, Moval, and Chamber. I'll keep this brief, because that was not. I've submitted a letter to honor Jim's service over the many, many years. Our town has benefited greatly from your hard work and your creative solutions. It also goes without saying that your institutional memory and knowledge is forever vital to this town, so I will continue to blow up your phone as needed. I brought my dog, he wants to come and sit. Creative guest? No, he's not, he's, he's just a loner. His name is Prince. My name's Naima Dean. I live in Mill Valley. I've lived here for a very long time. And reflecting back, I would not normally see myself standing here making comments in favor of Jim Wickham. When I was in high school, we'd see Jim Wickham and we'd say, run! Oh man, get out of here quick or whatever. Former Mayor McColley just mentioned, following the death of the tragic death of George Floyd and many others like him. And the commentary that followed that in our community, it was a time to take action. And I happen to be part of the DEI task force that came up with some guidelines for the city to follow and look at. And in that effort or following that effort, I had plenty of opportunities to engage with Jim Wickham on a went-to-one basis, whether it was walking along the bike path or sharing a beer at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival. And I came to appreciate a different side that I would never have been able to witness had I not had a moment to just stop and talk to somebody that I wouldn't normally talk to. And so that lesson here I share with all of you and with amongst our community that it's really important to talk to each other and get to know people because you might like them or respect them or appreciate them a little more than you may have at first judged. So thank you for your years of service. And I don't know. There's not very many people that can make that claim of being here for many, many generations, but I get myself a pat on the back for being here since 68. So. Come on up, Matt. Come on up. Good evening, Mayor Carmel, City Council members. I'm Matt Matthews, and I just wanted to say a few words to Jim. He was running for City Council when my wife and I had started to have our planning meetings for the lumber yard. And Jim was walking the neighborhoods and I solicited him over to the property and dragged him through what our vision was. And Jim was very receptive and has always been great to being in the fourth generation or more in town. Those of us who lived here, carpet baggers would say, you always did this with respect. And we kind of invaded your town. And it was good. What's that? Well, great. Well, anyway, I wish you'd, you know, I'll be seeing you around town and we'd just, Jan and I wanted to thank you. And I see Dennis Fisco here. He's the same thing. He really helped us with a lot of vision for the lumber yard and we really appreciated it. Okay, good. Applause. Who's this guy? Yes. Mr. Mayor, honorable council and reposter with the Department of Public Works. I didn't really know the order of operations of how staff was interacting with the public's alma here on behalf of the Department of Public Works to congratulate and thank Jim for all his years of service and help. In particular, the city worked through a lot of difficult issues with Jim's help. The passage comes to mind and Miller out of the difficulty of going from two lanes to one lane. You came up with some good solutions for that. Your help with the Design Advisory Committee in downtown. And Jim has a bunch of sayings that he usually makes around town. One of them is reflective of this award. I'd often text, call Jim, for some of his history and perspective on Mill Valley and just get a real check-in. And I really appreciate his insights and his levity and so forth. But one of the things he did as a walker, as a hiker, as a biker, as a jogger around town, he would see something wrong and he would say something, which is a saying that former Mayor McColley has as well. But Jim always, you know, politely called, asked if we could take a look at this and help it, and you always refer and you do it publicly as well as the Broken Window Theory. If you see a Broken Window, you can't just ignore it because folks will think that we don't care. I take that to heart. I believe in that theory so does the rest of your department of public works. And for your retirement we're giving you a broken window. Thank you. That's great. Other members of the public wishing to speak. Okay. Seeing none, council members. Oh, sorry. We've got, so Stephanie Molten-Peter's regrettably could not be here. She got tied up in a meeting. However, we have literally the next best thing, which is Steven Burke. In personate age, Stephanie Molten-Peter's. You won't need to tell the difference. Yeah, that's right. Thank you. So, Stephanie's trapped at a BCDC meeting. Oh, God. Holding back sea level rise with one hand while writing this letter of appreciation with the other. Dear Jim, on behalf of the County of Marin, I am honored to commend you for your years of dedicated service to Mulvalley and your extraordinary commitment to public service. As you conclude, your tenure on the Mulvalley City Council, your remarkable legacy of leadership and community engagement stands as a testament to your devotion to your hometown. Your career has been defined by service at every level. From your 37 years with the Mulvalley Police Department, retiring as Captain in 2010. To your 10 years police chief in Nevada City and your work as a public safety specialist with PG&E, you've exemplified dedication and professionalism. Your deep understanding of public safety and community well-being has enriched every role you've held. On the City Council, which you joined in 2015, your collaborative spirit and steadfast focus on mill valley's priorities have made a lasting impact. As mayor in 2019 and 2020 and again in 2022 and 2023, you led with wisdom and empathy, fostering cooperation among council, staff and residents to address the city's challenges and opportunities. Your efforts to enhance mill valley's infrastructure, support local businesses, and preserve the natural beauty and vibrant culture of this community have helped shape the city into a thriving, family-friendly place that future generations will continue to cherish. Beyond your professional accomplishments, your lifelong volunteerism speaks volumes about your character. From leading organizations such as the Move Alley Emergency Preparedness Commission, Move Alley Soccer Club and Tam High School Boosters to your involvement with the Move Alley Fall Arts Festival, Rotary and Lions Club, your tireless dedication has touched countless lives. As a fourth- Mill Valley resident, your commitment to your hometown is woven into your very being. You and Susie have raised a wonderful family here, and it's evident how deeply you care for this community. Your passion for Mill Valley is parks, schools, and natural beauty has inspired so many of us. Thank you for your outstanding contribution to Mill Valley, and for the legacy of leadership and service you leave behind. It has been a privilege to work alongside you as a colleague and to witness the positive impact you've made on our shared community. With deepest gratitude and warmest wishes, Stephanie Moltenbeer. That's cool. Thank you. Okay. Council comments on Jim. Carolyn, would you like to start making a few comments about Jim? If you have any. Make it short. I know. It's only two single space types. Just out of respect for Jim and I know your wishes at this hour. I did cut it down. There was a lot that I could say, but I'm going to keep it short. But I've had the pleasure of sitting next to you for 15 months. And from the heart, I will say there are two big lessons that you've taught me. And one is that face to face. It's just important to be out in the community and talking to people and just sitting down and having a conversation, even if that conversation is a hard one to have. And the second part is that even though our role up here, it is very serious and we all take it very seriously. We should not take ourselves as serious when we do this work because there is a joy in serving this community. So let me just make this quick and that's only a reflection of you, I have a lot to say, but thank you, Jim, for dedicating decades, many decades, of your life to making Mill Valley a better place. Your commitment to our community has been remarkable. Your perspective, shaped by generational experience, and genuine concern for Mill Valley, along with your institutional knowledge, has been invaluable in helping us understand our past to better shape our future. You've led our town forward through several transformative projects and you've made our town a measurably better through your dedication, wisdom and care for all things, Mill Valley. Thank you for your extraordinary service to Mill Valley and as a small token of our appreciation, Council would like to give you something. I'm going to hit it in. And as a book, we just want to know, we hope that it serves you well as you blaze new trails. So thank you very much for everything that you've done for us. Well thank you guys, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Epic Hikes of the World. I love hiking. Perfect. I'll also keep a brief for Jim's case. Jim, we met in 2008, as you might recall, we were tasked with planning a fun run for the Centennial celebration of Tamhai, and we were the entire subcommittee to put on this race. And it was so fun to work with you and to get to know you. I was a high school student, you were with the MVPD and I never thought we would then get to serve together on the City Council many years ahead. And when you get on the council, the tone is kind of set by the mayor of the time and my mayor was you. So, kind of my introduction to the city council was via your leadership as mayor. And when I came on, I had all sorts of ideas I still do. And you were so understanding and respectful of my contributions to the council. And we ended up making quite a few things happen in that year that I wasn't sure we're going to be successful in that year. Things like the foodware ordinance, supporting the Earth Day event and really just appreciate your dedication to our community. And you know, I'm a third generation Mill Valley and I've always respected and appreciated your contributions as a fourth generation of all. So looking forward to what you do next and one of these days urban and I will get you out on the Dipsy Trail. Okay. Yeah. On the run. Thank you Max. One man so many photo opportunities. Where did you find the time Jim? The two things that I will always keep in mind are your breadth and depth of knowledge and the context within which you make your decisions and advise us on the right decision for Mill Valley. And it's not nearly as tiresome as we make it seem sometimes. We really appreciate what you bring. The second is you make it look pretty easy. When you look at the list of accomplishments that have been noted tonight, and the contributions, none of those were simple or short term commitments. When you commit, you commit fully, and you get stuff done and you have fun doing it. And that's a great example, I think, for all of us, as we continue this journey. So it's been great to get to know you. I didn't really know you before coming on council. You never arrested me and I'm grateful for that. And I just want to thank you. And I hope you will stay in touch with us and continue to point out things that we can do better. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Stephen. So, Jim and I have been on the City Council together almost five years. And we sat next to each other for a good number of those years. When I ran, I got to know two of the other people that were eventually elected to the City Council and I already knew John. So I knew everybody on the City Council when I was sworn in. I did not know Jim Wickham at all. We had never spoken. You never reached out to me when you were mayor to say hey, you want to run for City Council. I just, I knew nothing about you. And our term on City Council started in the fireplace or at least minded, sorry. And we were on Zoom for the first, I don't know, 15 months, something like that and there were a lot of incredibly intense discussions that took place during that period of time. Very productive discussions but very intense discussions. I think we'll never see anything like that again. I listened to what you had to say with great interest. And I discovered as we went through meeting after meeting that I gravitated more and more to the things that you were talking about because they just had great insight into what city council's about and what Mill Valley is about. I learned so much about the city, its history, the context of things, how you make decisions within that context, how important that context is for the process that the city council goes through. It's just been an incredibly valuable experience for me. You are going to be enormously missed on this Council. You are irreplaceable. The things that you know, the perspective that you bring, nobody will come along again. I don't think until Scott Wickham comes to the City Council, if he's in the audience. That will be able to replicate what you've been able to contribute. In addition, as noted by my colleagues, you're just a great person. You and I have had a lot of fun together. When I was your vice mayor, we spent a lot of time together talking, having vodka, martinis, debating things. And it's just been a pleasure to be with you on council. You know, you're always grateful when you make a good friend that you take with you. And I have that from you now. And I'm really grateful for that. The part in the proclamation we talked about, your stories I think is the most important part because you bring a lot of stories to the city council and that means a lot anyway so thank you so much for your appreciate well since I got my name into your resolution I gotta tell that story so it says everything about you so you know I've known you for over 30 years professionally and a voice appreciated you from afar in our relationship. I was a happy town manager. I was sitting there in Cordo, Madero. We had accomplished a lot, 28 years of service. I was happy. I was set. And you invited me to lunch. And I was OK. And I'm thinking it's PG&E. What do PG&E do now? So we go, we go have lunch and you started to tell me the story about staff in Mill Valley in the community. Okay, yeah, Mill Valley is amazing, amazing place. We always, you know, from afar, always appreciated Mill Valley, but you're passion in the trust that I have in you. You know, just to put myself out there knowing that nothing is handed to you when you apply for this position. And that was quite the process that we went through. But I was all in. I was so excited after that lunch to go, I want to be part of it. I want to be part of Mill Valley. I'm going to put myself out there. And those of us that are city managers, when you apply somewhere else, you're putting yourself out there. It's a huge risk, right? And I did it and it worked out for the better. And this last two years has been an amazing two years for me professionally. I've loved to work for you. It's been really fun. You know, you're all about photo ops. You're about those, you know, you're about the lights and so you're going to have some amazing lights this year. You're about having fun. But you're also about holding us accountable and taking care of business when it's time to take care of business. And I think we've done that. And your love for the staff, you've always supported the staff. You always ask about the staff every time we talk. It's just been really fun. And now the prankster in this guy. So when I found out I was lucky enough to get hired with Mill Valley, we have a big parade in Corden, Medare,,, Largsburg. So there's, you know, 5,000 people out at Town Park. All my council members, all my staff, and people are still trying to figure out, figuring out that I'm about to go over to Mill Valley. He shows up on his e-bike and his spandex shorts and a sweatshirt. He takes a sweatshirt off in the middle of town park. I think three of my council members are around me at the time and he's got all of his mill valley gear on. And he's like, it's too bad for you guys, right? And he started like just mocking. And so having fun just teasing him and it was the most awkward situation. But it tells you the story about him, like what did we do. So with that I just say I really appreciate you. I love you. Thank you for your trust in me. It's been really fun working for you. And we wanted to give you a couple of chachkis, a couple of things. And so behind you you have a number of proclamations. We won't cover those right now. You have some gifts from staff, but you have three things that you really need moving forward. The first one is you need your former mayor shirt. So can we present the former mayor shirt? Oh. This John McColley have one or Dennis Fisco? Or former mayor shirt? Oh, that's kind of cool. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, former mayor shirt. It's a great idea. The former mayor gets a former mayor shirt like it was. It's a great idea. The former mayor gets a former mayor shirt. Now, I'm not sure how you're you and John fighting for that six and seven bench spot at the council. You guys are going to have to fight over that. The second one is you're a two time former mayor. So all former mayors get gavils. Well, you have two. And so we made a plaque for you. Kelsey and Lisa. My dad was married twice, he only got one dad. And the third thing is doing a proclamation and telling the stories just doesn't always do enough. So we want something, you know, we thought about it and we came up with the shadow box concept. And this is your history here in the city of Mill Valley. So we wanted to provide. Oh, man. Look at that. I like that. Yeah. So. It's Captain, EPC, cast member, vice mayor, mayor. Awesome. And now, Kyle, then we let me get rid of you. So congratulations. Thank you for everything. Thank you. Okay, Jim. It's time for you to talk about yourself. Quick, really quick. No, take me from the wisdom. Yeah, I know some wisdom. First of all, why am I wearing a texito? Because when I first came on the City Council, I wore a suit and tie all the time. And John McCollough's on the council. And there's three ladies. And he finally started calling me, because Jim, are you going to wear a suit and tie every single time? He goes, yeah, he goes, oh God, I got to put my suit and tie on too. So we were pretty good at suit and tie guys and that idea because respect for the council and my father, back in the days, everyone wore a suit and tie. So we maintained that until, of course, Stephen came along and that kind of bloomed out the window because he started showing up in shorts and flip flops and but I always try to maintain a high level of respect for this position. But as I go into this, I do want to say, being on the City Council is part of the family I had being a, you know, fourth generation of MoValley, but also working for the City of MoValley 37 years. And I knew staff really well, I loved the city. I met many of you out there as a young person growing up with my kids and so as I got in the city council I kind of had that continuation to where I wanted to have fun you know you got to take it serious but you got to have a good time doing what you want to do so I do want to thank you know John McColley Jessica Jackson who at the time got elected and was on the council of one or two years before me and she was like my daughter, she was like 34, 35. And of course Stephanie Molten-Peter as well as staff, she was awesome as a council member and I love coming before her and I was able to work with her, Sasha. Sasha was Sasha. Trisha Olsa, and then of course, then Urban came on and Urban, you rounded it pretty good. We had a great time together when I was married. And even now, and we had dinner at his house. It was just been a lot of fun. Max, I do recall you in high school and you were president of the student body. And you won't become a politician. Good luck with that. Steven, like you said, I never knew who. I go, who is the Steven Brook guy, but you know, you got on the council and it's been a pleasure to have you being on the council. And the same thing with Carolyn, it was so nice knowing you, meeting you and your husband and it's just been a lot of fun. And I'm really, really excited about Catherine Jones coming and taking my spot because I met her a few times. You know, there were people saying, hey, why don't you run again? I go, now we have a two-term kind of limit. But I really want to make sure whoever took my spot would be great for this town. And I'm so happy to have her on board with the four of you going forward. Our city managers, Jim McCann, and then we had Alan and the course Todd. And it's kind of funny how Alan and Todd are both former police chiefs or police department employees and Here I was a cop so the city was being run by a bunch of cops and We're doing pretty good there our city attorney Greg's the Voniewicz was someone who I knew as a young Administrator in the city and he was a fantastic city attorney. He retired and entered Kimmelpontas from the same office and you've been fantastic for the city. And the city manager and the city attorney are the two people. The city council does hire for our community. So I wanted to say thank you for that. And of course the incredible staff of the city mill valley. You know, they're the ones that really do all the work for us in this town. And I think there's a lot of times if I see the guys in public works or the grounds keepers, I would stop and just talk to them. Because I think it's important for them to recognize that whether I'm a resident in Mill Valley or on a city council, I appreciate what you do because sometimes people think it's a lesser it's a lesser, you know, lifestyle being a blue collar or worker, cutting the grass and stuff. But that's that broken window theory of this, this town, the Kinsharp. Some of the things were the nine years, you know, I think it was mentioned here. Miller Avenue was a big push. And if you were around here earlier, we had this thing called the Miller Avenue precise plan that blew up on previous councils. It was a disaster and we came up with this new process and finally got funded and we got it completed as a community. East Spidedale was a big lift too for us, downtown. We re-envisioned the downtown area, the council did a great job. We were temporarily in the bus season, school bus period. Remember back in the 2016 traffic was a big issue. We funded school buses, you know, for a couple of years, and then Max helped out with that and it kind of died. Sort of like the middle school on the friends field. After 30 years of dreaming and talking about, we, you know, and know, until one Hamilton is something that was talked about with staff for many, many decades, you like that joke. It's that part of the sense of humor. I just have to say that. Okay. Yeah, I know. I just can't help it. But, you know, the workforce housing, so I was so proud You know John and I were really close and that when he was in a council to mayor That's when this council like I was mentioning earlier took it on like we need to do something about photo housing and that was the The ideal location for that many units so I'm just really proud of it I'm just a little some opt opposition toward it But it's something I'm 110% behind because we need that in Mill Valley. And I think at the end of the day it's going to be a huge asset for our community. We are, you know, one of the big things the City Council does as a group, all of us, and then John was involved with this, is that financially we're very, very strong. And I think this council over the years, I'm talking to the decades, has really held staff accountable, has held the community accountable. Our finance department, Eric, I know is going to retire pretty soon, but Eric's in. He's here Saturday and Sunday on his days off, just making sure that everything is the teas across dots are dotted stuff. And I'm just really proud that our community is as strong financially. I mean, we dealt with OPEB, we dealt with retirement, we dealt with a lot of things that could strap a lot of cities. And John and I, when it's mirror, vice mirror or whenever we did a ten-year plan together on looking at our finances, potential pitfalls. And that's the kind of stuff this council does to make us be a better community and be able to do things. We survived that pandemic and like Irving said, I had never anticipated a pandemic to take on his own life. And public open time became a two hour event that basically was hell, but we'll continue with that. We talked about DEI and I appreciate the comments and I think we learned a lot in the community doing that time period and I think we're moving forward in the right direction. We have some issues when I was mirroring 2019, you mentioned the fire issue. That's something that we were supporting the fire department on and I never forget that meeting when this place was packed. In the news media, they were out in the lawn and it was almost a riot scene. And like Dennis Fiskot told me, I guess we agreed to disagree and I go, yeah, you're right. But at the end of the day, at that meeting, the city council did the right thing. And we decided to pull back and make it a voluntary three foot clearance instead of a mandatory, because we just knew the city residents weren't ready for it. And the same thing happened to train when Urban was going to take over as mayor. And I was finishing my last two weeks. If it can be a controversy, we're're locomotive number nine should be located and we had thought maybe it's front of city hall temporarily would have been a good spot but that didn't work out either and we said okay we're pulling the plug on that and so this council is very open to community input and we will make the right decision toward the end of the day you know the plaza expansion was huge I think after the pandemic, the barbecue tables, we've all seen this. And that's something where we work with the city managers that just do it, just do it, just do it. The outdoor seating closed down, a little avenue. Some city managers, they're afraid was the public. If you point on it, council-wise they just do it, we'll take the heat if there's any heat with it. And it turned out to be a great thing. The depot was a disaster for a while. Paul, a recall of he recalled this for like 18 months. There was a cyclical offense around the depot and there was this big discussion about where our public restroom was going. And you know, 10 years earlier we had tried to put public restrooms downtown and there was, there wasn't enough money They wanted to put them somewhere else and so that was something finally we came to an agreement We finished the depot and now that has become a great place for Mill Valley and Matt and Jan who Matt who just spoke here Recall when the vision of the Lumberyard was sold and that initially they're looking about putting townhouses there instead of the lumber yard and that and Jan came with this vision that they had and I saw the plants, I go, oh my God, this thing is beautiful. This is what no valley needs. And even though the residents nearby were kind of up in the arms about having this new retail palace down there, I just saw that as this is a focal point for this community that today I go by there and it's just as busy as the plaza And I think everyone loves the the limer yard and what is done for our community So then finally on the e-bikes, you know, we all saw the e-bike issue with teenagers going fast And I will comment right now my two grandkids are here. Sienna is, you know, raise your hand, Sienna. She's 14 years old and she goes to Tab High School and cadence right next to her little brother. But when I became police chief in 2014 in Nevada City, people asked, you know, what's Sienna gonna do because that was a grand retiree babysitting my grandkids, now she's 14. And I am proud of the fact that we did fly the pride flag. Two years ago in June, I think we also, part of the move all the way, it's just the arts, the music and all this stuff that really makes our town and inclusive to everyone. And we've done a lot of good stuff and probably one of the biggest things. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to go into the city council. I'm not going to be done by nine every night and I think that you're a city council I had pulled a council member just go yeah, let's do that. I go yeah, let's get out of here early We want to go home and so So that's why it's fun being on the council because we can make these small changes and you know You hopefully the residents of Mill Valley when you go downtown you drive around even though you're pissy about the traffic bottom bottom line is you can go anywhere in the world and come back here and go you know what we live in a pretty damn nice place Mill Valley and I really appreciate the support from our community and the love from my wife you know as you know midway through this whole thing my wife wife was 59 years old. We were together 40 years. She passed away breast cancer. So, that was right in the middle of the whole thing. And she met her when she was 19 years old. I was a 22 year old police officer. So I want to thank the council. I want to thank Todd and his staff, especially in the community for what's going on. And when you see Amy and I and Amy raise your hands. She's my great little partner. She's right there. Doesn't like him, Faris. But you know we're having a great time. I'm looking forward to 2025. Looking forward to the 125th anniversary mill valley and thank you everyone for what you've done and I'm looking forward to disoring of Kat and our new mayor and viceer and seeing her been sitting over here toward me. So thank you guys very much. Okay. Follow up. Follow up. Yeah. Amy, come on. Amy, come up here. Whoever. Yeah. Hey. Where really do you think that's something to do with it? What? Yeah, I'm gonna add zero. Oh, two. Hey guys, my own. Yeah. No one. Where really? I'm real at it. Zero. Oh, two. Big guys, my own. Oh, my daughter's here. Oh, my daughter's here. Oh, my daughter's here. Thank you. How's that? How's that? How's that? Oh, you're doing a good job. You're doing to get your family around you. You're going to get a lot better. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Yeah. I'm going to say I can be like, man. Yeah, I would like to be like, man. Yeah, I would like to be like, man. All right, smile. Smile. Smile. Camera. One thing about me? Actually, one thing. One on. This. One thing about me? Okay, so now. All right, great. So Jim, you're going to sit back down. You're not quite 100% done yet. Yeah. Okay. Risa. I think you're up, right? We're going to do the election results. Consider resolution, approving and declaring the results of November 5th election, a staff report by Risa, and then we'll take action. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm here to present the election results for the 2024 General Municipal Election for the City of Mill Valley, where we officially elected three new council members, one new one, two, returning, two, the City Council. The results are in the staff report as well as the tallied results and we are here tonight to adopt a resolution confirming those results. Okay, any questions from Council? With those handcameras? Yes. Indeed. Any comments from the public? Any comments online? No. Okay. Good. Can I, uh, any, uh, any other deliberation, deliberative comments by the council? Can I get a motion to approve the resolution that's stated by the city clerk? So moved. Second. On favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries 5-0. Very good. So now we've got a little bit of a dance that we need to do. So Jim, thank you very much. Oh, okay. You've officially taken your last action. Okay, the first thing that we're going to do, I'll just tell you everybody what we're doing. Scram buddy, we are going to, we're going to do the oath of office for the newly elected council members, and then we'll sit down and with our newest council member and then we're going to elect a new mayor and a new vice mayor. Okay so Catherine Jones have you arrived? She is. Okay great. And I'm going ask Caroline please come down. Community. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Urban Carmel. I, Urban Carmel. Caroline Jawacke. I, Caroline Jawacke. I, Catherine Jones. Thank you. Do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And I think it's all an image for an domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance or true faith and allegiance. To the Constitution of the United States. To the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely and without any mental reservation Or purpose or evasion. Or purpose or evasion. And then I will faithfully discharge. And then I will faithfully discharge. The duties upon which I am about to enter. The duties upon which I am about to enter. About to enter. Very good. Thank you so much. You've all now officially been sworn in. All right. Okay. So it's customary for the newly elected council members to say a few words if they wish. We can start. I'm sorry I told catch you did not need to prepare any remarks. You don't have to prepare anything. Folkavia. If you wish right so you don't have to make a speech but you can just say you know thank you happy to my family. It'll only be 20 minutes I'll be brief. I'm so excited to join the city council I'm so sorry that I won't be able to serve with you, Jim. And I'm so happy to see my family in the audience tonight. And I look forward to working with the City Council and staff for a great years ahead. Thank you. I too will make this brief. First of all, I want to welcome you, Kat, to Council. I'm excited that you ran and that you're sitting next to me. It's very exciting. And thank you to the community. Thank you for voting. Thank you for your participation. And I'm super excited to have a full four-year term ahead And I really look forward to working with all of our council members city staff and Todd Kusomano To continue the good work. So thank you very much I will also keep this very brief So I'm excited to for the first time in my life, be sworn in actually in person. So I got sworn in over Zoom both times, first for the City Council and then for the Transportation Authority. So that was first for me after five years in the City Government. So that was great. Welcome, new council members. It's great to have you here. I'm glad the existing council members are still with us. I'm gonna make just a few comments just about my time as mayor since the next item is going to be to elect a new mayor and a vice mayor and I just wanna round out my year. It has honestly been one of the highlights of my life to be the mayor of Mill Valley. It's an enormous privilege. It's an enormous honor I feel. This is a great city and to serve as the mayor is just a great honor. It's something that I will always remember. I will always cherish. I've literally enjoyed every moment of it. It starts with the city council. You guys are a great city council, honestly. It's, you make it very easy to be the mayor and your professionalism and your productivity, I think really shown through. That's why we were able to accomplish as many things as we were able to accomplish. It's because of view. And I know from my discussions with my colleagues around the county that most councils are not harmonious. They are not, therefore, working in harmony with each other and being productive. And we're very, very fortunate that we have a very strong tradition in the city of councils working productively with each other. And I'm just incredibly grateful for that. Secondly, to the community who have elected me twice, who have allowed me to be mayor, who have put up with me as being the mayor, I'm just incredibly grateful for this opportunity. It's just, again, it's a real privilege to be here and thank you. And I remember that every single day when I get up and we start working on the city's business. Thirdly to city staff because I said before the hard work is done by the city staff and that's the truth. The city council are the ones that speak a lot in public but the city staff are the ones that actually get things done and without them it would never it would never take place and we have incredibly great city stuff in this town. We're just very, very lucky. And then finally to Todd Kusumano, who is, as I always say, the best than I can say and you are a gift to any council member, you're a gift to any mayor. You make us all look really good but you are just an incredible individual. You have incredible skill, you are incredibly competent but you're also just probably one of the nicest people I think I've ever met in my life. And I am super excited to be here to spend more time working together with you. In between 2019 and 2022, that short period of time, the City of Mill Valley retired five council members. We went through three different city managers. We went through an incredibly difficult period with COVID and with the aftermath of George Floyd. It was an incredibly unsettling period of time and it felt like that. And that's the environment in which I started on the city council We are in a completely different situation today We now can say with the high degree of certainty who the next five mayors of no value will be we have not been able to say that for a long time We know who our city manager is going to be during that period time. I think with a high degree of certainty That's a fantastic thing. Measure L, as we've talked about, is an incredible accomplishment that is now behind us. It is now something that makes us stronger. In some, we are set to really crush it. We have the team in place, we have the funding in place, we know what we're doing, we have a plan in place, and it's up to us to deliver. This is the time. You get those periods of time, a few times in your life when everything aligns, and that's right now. We have an incredible opportunity to really make some things great happen for the city and I'm excited to be here. We are going to do great work in the years ahead and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks so much. Okay, well we come to one of the many highlights of tonight's discussion. So we're really lucky in Mill Valley. We have a systematic way of rotating the mayorship and it's done without drama. And that is also a unique thing to Mill Valley. It doesn't work like that in other cities. And unfortunately you have situations where council members gang up on council members They don't like and that's not a situation that we have in mil valley so That's really important because that means that we're all here to support each other and all here to work with each other so With that said I Would like to nominate Stephen Burke as the next mayor of mil Valley Can I get a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Congratulations, Stephen. You are the mayor of Mill Valley. I'd like to nominate Max Prey as the next vice mayor of Mill Valley. Can I second that? All in favor say aye. Motion carries five. I'd like to nominate Max Prey as the next vice mayor of Mill Valley. Can I second that? All in favor say aye. Motion carries 5-0. Congratulations. And without we're going to switch seats and Stephen is going to take the leadership. A second. We have a gift for the new mayor. There you go. Is it a double-box now? All right. Thank you very much. As my first official act, I want to return to item number 12 on the new business agenda, which is to extend sincere and grateful congratulations to Urban Carmel for his services mayor in the past year, but more importantly for his now almost decade of service to Mill Valley first on the planning commission. The role of City Council really is to look ahead for our town and nobody demonstrates that in my experience better than urban. He's always looking ahead, he's looking around corners, he's looking for the right people to do the right thing, and he's just extraordinarily effective at that. And so this is a mighty set of dipsy shoes to fill, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. And I just want to thank you and I want to invite my colleagues to make any comments they may wish to make. Max? Just heartfelt appreciation to Urban Yerr's mayor as has been noted was action-packed and incredibly impactful for generations to come. And such a pleasure to work with you on the Measure L campaign. And on so many other things, you level rise in other accomplishments this year. So congratulations and look forward in a few years to another mayoral term. Urban, congratulations. It was quite a year and quite a year for our city. And I just wanted to thank you for your leadership. You really are a driving force and I want to echo what Stephen has said and what Max has said as well. And thank you for encouraging me to run and be a part of this. It is a privilege and it's an honor to be sitting up here. And I just want to also recognize all the former mayors here. You know, we stand on your shoulders in what we do and you've made this possible and you've continued that tradition. And what I want to say the most, what I appreciate this year is that you knew the right things to pay attention to. And you set us up for success. And so I'm glad that you have another four years and I'm looking forward to working with you on moving Mill Valley forward in a positive manner. So thank you very much for your work. And then one suggestion I did have is if we do a time capsule, I would love to add a page out of Urban's Di. A day in the life of a mayor, because he just did so much for a town and you knew exactly what to emphasize and I really appreciate it. So congratulations on a great year. Applause. One thing I learned before I had even decided to run for City Council is that urban Carmel is everywhere. I would see him on his bike almost everywhere I went, possibly daily in Mill Valley. And the other thing is that I really appreciate and have already learned so much from is his confident vision for the future for Mill Valley and the way he can bring along everyone towards that vision. And he can get a room to agree on a position because he is so, and he has all the data to back that up and he can tell you that you are capable and that you should run for city council and that person can end up here. So I just really appreciate and have already learned so much from you, Urban, and I'm so excited to sit next to you for the next year. Future years. I can't say enough how much I've learned from you, how much I've appreciated the last two years with you. When you're sitting in a room and you listen to me talk or you're engaging so many and you realize just how much better and smarter they are than you. That's urban for me and I've just appreciated you so much. I've learned a lot. You're my life preserver and you know our days would start you know at 6.37 a.m. and our text would start going back and forth preparing for the day and thinking about hey what are we going to do today? What are we going to problem solve? He would always say what do you need for me? You know and I would have I have to coach basketball that night and he's like hey I got it. I have that engagement for you. I'm going to handle it. And you did so much. I mean, it's such the most underappreciated position being the mayor. You loved it. You did it with just, you know, you just did it with such an energy. The staff, you support us. You hold us accountable, but you like you're there. the city and then you want to help. And so I've just, again, I've just enjoyed it a lot. I can't do it just as telling you how much you've meant to me over the last year, but you saved me from a lot of mistakes. You saved me from, you know, hitting those landmines, those unforced errors that we talked about by just talking it out, slow down. What are we doing? Let's think about this and just problem solving with me side by side. So I just really appreciated it. Good job. And hey, we got you a couple things. You have your former mayor. You also have your former mayor, Polo, so enjoy that. You have your first of many gavils, hopefully, and congratulations. Thanks. Thanks. Applause. Thanks. Any council requests or ideas for discussion? Hearing none. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Second. Second. We are adjourned for 2024. We will see you in 2025. I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. Thank you.