Regular City Council Meeting - December 5, 2023
View Agenda - Watch Entire Meeting
The land that Eureka rests on is known in the Wiyot language as Jaroujiji. Past actions by local, State and Federal governments removed the Wiyot and other indigenous peoples from the land and threatened to destroy their cultural practices. The City of Eureka acknowledge the Wiyot community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. This acknowledgement demonstrates the City’s commitment to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.
Roll Call
Mayor Bergel presiding; Councilmember Castellano, Councilmember Moulton, Councilmember Fernandez, Councilmember Bauer, and Councilmember Contreras-DeLoach present in chambers.
Announced that item H.1. Ceasefire Resolution was pulled from the agenda, and will not be discussed or acted upon.
Alice Birney First Grade Artwork
Principal Kristin Sobilo and teacher Kathy Warren with students Lindsay, Eduardo, Eva and Tevan. Mayor Bergel presented pins, thanked students for sharing artwork.
Presented by Program Coordinator Merrell and Homeless Services Coordinator Wood
Community Access Project for Eureka (CAPE) is a program within the Economic Development Department of the City. CAPE's mission is to provide access to quality of life programs and opportunities for all members of our community regardless of their living situation or income. CAPE has quality of life programs for youth and adults, employment programs, and the UPLIFT Eureka program, which directly supports community members experiencing homelessness.
CAPE has a variety of holiday programs for community members who are low-income or underprivileged. CAPE partners with local agencies and shelters to help lighten burden or stress that the holidays can bring.
One program is the Halloween Costume Drive. CAPE calls on community members to donate new costumes or funds to purchase new costumes for children who might not otherwise be able to dress up for Halloween. Children are matched with costumes in CAPE's inventory. If CAPE does not have what a child requests, advertises for specific costume donations that the community has provided. 54 children received Halloween costumes this year.
Partner with Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation to provide holiday food baskets to families and individuals in the Housing Assistance Program. Baskets are delivered before Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Baskets include holiday goodies such as turkey or ham, stuffing mix, canned goods, and cake mix. CAPE expects to deliver a total of 60 baskets to program participants.
Winter Holiday Gift Program for low-income families and underprivileged youth, to help ease burden of particularly stressful time due to financial burden of holiday celebrations. Program benefits children who reside at the Eureka Rescue Mission Women's Shelter, the Serenity Inn, and children served by the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation, and Arcata House Partnership. City of Eureka staff are invited to "adopt" participating children buying gifts that they need and want. Expect to serve 35 children this year. Program is supported by grant award from PG&E's "Better Together Giving Program," which made the Winter Holiday Celebration possible. Winter Holiday Gift Program will culminate with this party at the Wharfinger, with pizza, pie, photos with Santa, holiday crafts and short films, and gift opening.
Shop with a Cop event serves children who benefits from positive interactions with law enforcement and first responders. Children served by the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation, Big Brother Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club, Wild Souls Ranch, and City of Rio Dell are invited to participate every December. Children have breakfast at the Wharfinger, and are buddied up with a volunteer from local first responder agencies, including Eureka Police Department, Humboldt Bay Fire, and the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.
Participants then take an exciting ride to Target in emergency vehicles, with the sirens on, and each child is given $100 to go on a shopping spree with their buddy. Upon returning to the Wharfinger, participants and their buddy enjoy playing with their new toys, fostering a positive connection.
If community members are interested in supporting the CAPE holiday programs, donations of new Halloween costumes can be made to CAPE each October, and each December, winter coats and children's toy donations are collected for the Winter Gift Program. Call Coordinator Sierra Wood at 707-672-2253 for more information.
Mayor’s Reports
Mayor Bergel was able to attend parties for the Historical Society, as well as the Clarke Museum. The Museum has a quilt on display, depicting the Six Rivers tree that was at the White House. The Historical Society had a lot of great photos. Attended some ribbon cuttings, at Schlueter's Fine Art Gallery and Good Relations in their new locations on Second Street. Encourages everybody to shop locally this year. Was able to serve meals at St. Vincent de Paul for Thanksgiving, and ran the Turkey Trot. Also went on a ride-along with Eureka Police Department, and encouraged all Councilmembers to also do so, to really get to see the depth and the weight of the work that they do.
Held the fourth Community Town Hall on Substance Use Disorder. A video of the Town Hall is available to view. Shared that it was an incredible, respectful dialogue about something that's very difficult. Plan to continue having Town Halls in the new year, and encourage input from the community, to hear what members of the community would like to talk about.
Due to the number of speakers, after the initial public comment time allotment was met, comment was continued to the end of the meeting to allow for all who wish to speak to Council to do so. All of the comments are summarized together here.
First Public Comment Period - Second Public Comment Period
33 people shared comments with City Council. 15 people spoke asked Council to adopt the previously presented resolution calling for ceasefire in Palestine. Three people spoke against the adoption of a ceasefire resolution. 8 people asked for Council to place the housing initiative on the March ballot. Three commenters spoke against those attacking leadership, and called for peace, sought dialogue. One commenter asked for a survey. [Note: Members of the public may submit public records requests online, or at the front desk of City Hall during regular business hours.] One commenter shared that they don't like the traffic calming measure of street bulb-outs. One commenter asked about accessory dwelling unit financing, was advised to reach out to the Finance Director.
Item F.2 requested to be pulled from the Consent Calendar for discussion
Highland Park Renovation Project Award
City Manager Slattery shared that this project is near and dear to his heart. Since began working for the City, this park has been on his radar. This area has the highest percentage of K-12 children in the area, and because of funding issues over the many decades, it has lots of deferred maintenance. Have had issues over the years securing funding for revitalization of this park due to the proximity to Fort Humboldt, which is considered a park, which means that area is not considered park deficient. Worked hard to get naming rights funding, small non-competitive funding, as well as an allocation from the Facilities fund which have more recently been able to fund and have budgeting for.
This project went out to bid in early November, closed on November 28th, and asking that Council award the bid. The project will include a complete resurfacing of the tennis courts, which are the only full four sets of tennis courts that are allowed for public play in all of Humboldt County. Included in the resurfacing will be re-striping for the tennis courts and also eight pickleball courts. Will also be resurfacing and repaving all of the trails that go through the park, including an ADA-accessible trail from Highland up to the new restroom and concession stand. The existing restroom and concession stand will be replaced by a brand new one, that will be fully ADA compliant, and make it so there can be a restroom for people there in the park.
Staff is recommending awarding this to Hooven and Company.
Public Comment
Commenter asked if the contractor was local.
Mayor Bergel was able to confirm that it is a local contractor.
Motion to Council
Council moved to award staff recommendation, motion passed unanimously
Motion to Council
Consent Calendar passed unanimously.
Eddy Alexander Marketing Report - Watch
Eddy Alexander presentation by Eddy Alexander President Jennifer Eddy
Eddy Alexander (EA) has been working with the City for about four and a half years, in that time the marketing team has been able to lay the groundwork and then build up the marketing strategy for the City, called Visit Eureka. The last six months has been particularly rewarding for the team, able to work on initiatives to engage in the community.
When EA was first hired by the City, there were three goals laid out in the RFP [Request for Proposal]: City-centric branding to help the City develop a distinct city-based brand that stands out in the region, tourism marketing, to increase visitation and spending at restaurants, lodging and entertainment withing City limits, and quality of life promotion, to the local residents and community members.
In the first year EA started with a listening tour, conducted a survey and lots of interviews and focus groups with different community leaders and the public to get a sense of how the community wanted to be positioned in the world, and how they wanted to present the City to visitors and tourists. That initiative took about a year, and resulted in the new City branding.
Second initiative was tourism and marketing, and has been underway for about three and a half years. Is continuing to provide metrics, finding that visitors are increasing their length of stay.
Over last year and half have been focusing on quality of life activities. EA has partnered with different groups that put on events in the community to shine a spotlight on what is positive and successful here in the community, what makes this place to special.
EA does an annual analysis of cell phone data in the region. EA can view aggregate geo-location data to see where visitors are coming from, to understand the demographics that are bringing them here, understand what they do when they're here, and use that information to target the limited marketing budget effectively.
EA is reporting on information from 2022, as is available about a year after the fact. Beginning to see a spread in visitors by age, believe partly due to the Redwood Skywalk, and also due to an increase of all ages and family friendly assets. The trends are consistent over time, but starting to see some leveling. Starting to see an increase in share of visitors with no high school education, and a dip in share of visitors with bachelor or higher degrees. May be attributed to the nationwide trend of fewer people seeking higher degrees or collage. Continuing to see steady numbers when looking at breakdowns of visitors by household income. Eureka has been a place that welcomes a variety of visitors. On average, the household demographics tend to be lower than the national average, which may make tourism more susceptible to dips in the economy. EA also reviews visitor by ethnic affiliation, and has seen a very small shift of an increase in the share of Hispanic visitors and decrease in the share of white visitors. Overall the trends have been consistent in the past four years. Trip duration has increased from an average of 2.25 days in 2019 to 2.96 days in 2022, which is a dramatic increase, and does have an impact in the community.
The feeder markets from the West Coast have stayed consistent over the past four year with an increase in visitors from the Oregon and Washington, but have seen a dramatic decrease in visitors from the East Coast. Some of the East Coast traffic may actually have been European traffic making their way through East Coast ports of entry. Expect to see an increase in visitors from Europe as international markets pick up. Do see a lot of consistency in the visitation by city, as most of the visitors are driving from the same places, have an established reputation. Are seeing an increase in airline traffic, which does mean starting to diversify, and bringing in higher income travelers. Use data from who is traveling from what zip codes to determine where to make ad purchases, now starting to purchase in zip codes adjacent to the top feeder zip codes.
The hotel industry is seeing an increase in revenue, mostly driven by higher average daily rates. Occupancy has gone down over time, has not yet fully recovered since the pandemic.
National study that asked what impediments to travel are had the most reported reasons being finance-related, which would have an impact when a greater number of visitors are lower income.
All of this information is used to place ads and make decisions about what kind of content to develop, and use to decide what to invest in to have the most economic benefit for the resources. Have been running digital ads in the feeder markets, and running different ads to see which are more effective. Have been running ads promoting events in addition to ads talking about the outdoor recreation, history and architecture, and arts and culture. For first time this past quarter, some of the events ads performed better than the larger awareness ads that were running. Working with local photographers over that past year to get photos of the local community events.
Getting about 400,000 impressions monthly, and about 23,000 clicks to the Visit Eureka website. Continuing to drive average cost per click down, to manage the costs.
Some of the community events that EA has promoted this year include Humboldt Marble Weekend, Hearts by the Sea, 4th of July, Forest Moon Festival, Kinetic Sculpture race, Street Art Festival, Kite Festival, Cannifest, Cruiz'n Eureka, Redwood Coast Music Festival, The Craftsman Veteran's Day event, and Waitress: The Musical red carpet event at Broadway Theater.
Have new brochures for distribution highlighting different aspects of the area: Cultural Arts District, Music & Festivals, Historic Architecture, History, Family Activities, Outdoor Adventures, Cannabis Experience, and Dog-Friendly. Will be distributed to the Eureka Visitor's Center and other locations in the area.
Have been updating the Visit Eureka webpage. There is a visual refresh, but the biggest update is on the back end, and correlates to what the Visitor's Center staff can do on the ground. Can create an itinerary on the website, create an itinerary in person at the Visitor's Center. Pulling information from the Google business listing, to allow for more access for businesses. New website will have more areas for search engine optimization. More features for seasonal customization. Information request forms updated. Streamlined footer with faster access to contact information and location details.
The events pages pull from Facebook Events and Google Events, with human review to spend time managing risk rather than finding content. Partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to help businesses take full advantage. Google Places populate in a similar way, auto-populate from the listings with pins and photos. Visitors can create an itinerary with a map and email to themselves or print out in person at the Visitor's Center, and create off-the-shelf itineraries.
In the past six months, the Redwood Skywalk was voted the Best Aerial Adventure by USA Today readers, has gotten extra media attention and more traffic at the website and gate. Zoo and Skywalk received recognition at the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) conference this year, alongside the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the San Diego Zoo.
Since February of 2023, have had 64 media placements and approximately 25.1 million views. This included 6 Visit California partnership placements. Have hosted 3 influencer visits.
Have rolled out a new seasonal newsletter. Launched in the fall, aim to be a preview for the season to come, and publish quarterly.
EA staff hosting Visit Eureka booth at Visit California showcase, was a very successful event for media outreach. Opportunity to share Eureka's story.
In addition to the AZA awards, the Eureka Promotional Video won awards from Vega Digital Award and two from Summit International Creative Award.
Submitted application to make the Visitor's Center an official Visit California Welcome Center. Becoming a Visit California Welcome Center means support and promotion from Visit California. Expect to hear back by the new year.
Council Questions & Comments
Councilmember Castellano noted that the changes in visitors in the last four years, and that the numbers seemed to be relatively constant over the last four years. Answer: There's been an increase in the tax revenue because of the increase in the rate of what people are paying for overnight visitation, and those four years are more like two years due to how the pandemic hit. In the first year EA was building the brand locally, and then started to advertise as the pandemic was beginning, and in the last year and a half starting to see an increase, then the economic downturn is affecting tourism across the country. All of those factors together level everything out, but also know that the levers that want to move are moving, people are staying longer.
Councilmember Castellano asked if there are trends seeing at the national level that seeing in Eureka. Answer: Seeing that travelers are becoming more sophisticated in how they search and plan their vacations, and very excited for the new aspects on the website. A lot of states used their ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for tourism funding, which makes the market more expensive than it was pre-pandemic. Eureka is well differentiated, and getting very good value for the ad placement, getting about half of the cost of the industry average per click through to website. Also some algorithm changes that makes it more complicated to place the ads.
Public comment for this item
A commenter shared strong feelings about the historic treatment of Black, Indigenous, and people of color and was skeptical about the use of advertising featuring marginalized people if there was not also support to the businesses and communities of color.
Council Questions & Comments
Councilmember Moulton thanked EA President Eddy for the presentation.
EA President Eddy asked to make a comment in response to the public comment, said that EA believes that tourism is really to support the local community, and the economic impact of it is to crate funds that then can be used to put towards services. It really should be an investment for the community. It can be feel cold as an economic exercise, but that economic exercise is really about the services. Hopes that over time EA has demonstrated and will demonstrate that this is really about supporting the community and the community's goals.
Councilmember Fernandez asked if EA has reached out to any local community groups representing people of color. Answer: Have done several times for various events and various levels of engagement back, will continue to do so. We want to hear those voices and we want to be participating. Said that if there are any suggestions from Council about other ways EA can be thinking about these things, are very open to that. There were businesses promoted specifically through an initiative with Black Humboldt, and through new website, also working with Cal Poly [Humboldt] and some of their diversity outreach groups to identify other groups that EA has not connected with yet. Hoping to do that, and a lot of the work that EA has done in the past couple of years is laying the foundation, now that these tools are in place, EA is in a position where they can start to engage the community more. There will always be more work to be done, but EA is aware of that as a goal and are working towards it, and want feedback if there are other things that EA needs to do that they aren't doing, or do faster, or prioritizing in a different way.
Councilmember Castellano commented that there is a Cultural Arts District working group that has been working for the last six months on governance for the Cultural Arts District, making specific requirements for cultural participation in the governance. These are people from the community, from different cultural organizations that are working together to really guide the cultural opportunities and the funding that will be distributed for different events and activities in the upcoming years related to cultural markers and monuments as well as events and and celebrations in the Cultural Arts District. It is not finalized yet, but there will be more opportunities for participation in that in the upcoming months.
Mayor Bergel shared appreciation for the work that EA is doing, has noticed a change in the last four years.
Councilmember Fernandez asked for an update on the participatory budget process. Response: Consensus reached.
To follow up with Councilmember Fernandez's request for an update on the participatory budgeting process, that will be coming to council in the second December meeting, to discuss the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 audit, and the budget, and a portion of that will relate to the participatory budgeting.
City Manager Slattery announced that Eureka Police Chief Jarvis will be retiring at the beginning of January. City Manager Slattery expressed his gratitude for what Chief Jarvis has done for the community. Came to the community during rough times, and his knowledge and experience helped get through the rough times. City Manager Slattery intends on recommending the appointment of Assistant Chief Stephens as the new Chief. Assistant Chief Stephens is dedicated and well thought of in the community, and look forward to working with him going forward.
Community Services was able to secure a grant, brought it before council a couple of months ago, for Grace Marton Memorial Park, which is a park that is funded through an estate. The grant is to build a playground at Sacco Amphitheater, adjacent to Halvorsen Park. The grant was leveraged with an application for a grant from Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, in the amount of $620,000. The City was informed yesterday that have been awarded that grant. This will allow for the park to happen, as well as the complete repaving of the trail through Halvorsen Park, and the addition of small community gardens, small bulb-out gardens along that trail, which was one of the wishes of Grace Marton. Her husband would sit down at Halvorsen Park and eat lunch, and always wanted to have some sort of garden aspect.
Presented by Economic Development Program Manager Asbury and Finance Director Lane Millar
Starting in 2019, the City adopted the Housing Element. In the Housing Element there are five different strategies for the creation of housing in Eureka. The second strategy is to encourage Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
In addition to the Housing Element, the Economic Development Commission voted and added the creation of an ADU Financing Program to the Economic Development Strategic Plan, the plan that guides that commission and what the Economic Development Division works on.
In the Council's own Strategic Visioning process, the Council also identified the creation of an ADU Financing framework and initiating three projects as a 1 year target goal.
This meeting will discuss the framework and financing, as this is slowly being pieced together. More items will come before Council for voting as program and framework is built.
In Eureka there are 6,000 single family residential units, and all are zoned for accessory dwelling units. This is an opportunity to add a significant amount of housing to Eureka that won't drastically change the character of Eureka.
While promoting this since 2019, consistently hear two constraints from people who are interested in building ADUs: the first is that they feel overwhelmed by the process. It's a big deal for a homeowner to build an ADU if they aren't used to doing construction; it's daunting. The second is that homeowners are unable to get financing for the construction of an ADU.
The point of the Eureka Builds It! program is to help with the process; to help hold people's hand through the process and make them feel comfortable, and to do everything we can to help them through the process, and also to help with the construction financing portion.
Objectives of the program are the increase the number of ADUs build in Eureka by 25% within two years. In 2022 there were permits for 23 ADUs, would like to increase that by 6 units. Provide financial incentives for homeowners to build ADUs. Simplify the permitting process for ADU construction. Provide a current list of active design and construction professionals. To be eligible, applicant must be the property owner, must be in City limits, property must have sufficient space for an ADU, and must comply with local zoning laws.
Eureka Builds It will be a team effort between Planning and Building Departments as part of Development Services, the Finance Department, and the Economic Development Division. The Economic Development Division will act like the glue between the departments, similar to how the Cannabis and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) programs work, where Economic Development holds people's hands through processes while they are moving between different departments.
The process for the applicant would begin with a review of the site and financial capacity, then to design and permitting, then to construction, then to permanent financing.
Phase 1 - Site Analysis & Financial Capacity - the Development Services staff will provide the applicant with every potential ADU development for their specific site, and the Finance department will complete a mortgage pre-approval to help determine financial capacity. Considerations for this include an option to use outside sources for pre-approvals, and needing a separate track for individuals with little or no financial capacity who are willing to provide subsidized housing options.
Phase 2 - Design and Permitting - this phase will work with Development Services and Engineering. Staff believes that the biggest part of the risk is in the construction process, and that the best way to go about this is to have a list of design professionals and contractors that staff has confidence in being able to perform the work. Staff would like to develop a formal Request for Qualifications Process to produce a pre-approved list of design professions. The process will come before Council. Professionals would submit their qualifications, they would be vetted according to the process, and at the end would like to have a list of architects, engineers, and contractors that staff has confidence in, and can give a list to applicants of who the City recommend using for this process. Phase 2 will be giving the list to applicant and helping them through the permitting process.
Phase 3 - Construction - Finance will do a second financial review prior to construction. This can run along with the bid process to find a contractor. Once construction begins Building staff will provide periodic inspections as the payouts are made. This phase ends when the Certificate of Occupancy is issued.
Phase 4 - Permanent Financing - Once construction is complete and the applicant has identified, staff will begin the refinancing process. Base on the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) income limits, the applicant may be eligible for low rate subsidies or principal forgiveness. Two considerations for this; the staff time will need to be added to the financing package. Believes that this will be minimal, but do need to consider the staff time that will be going into this program. The Finance Department will be identifying multiple financing sources, levels of subsidies, and options for applicants.
The Eureka Builds It! program has two functions, the technical assistance and the financing portion. The goal is to create development opportunities, through attached ADUs, detached ADUs, attached above a garage ADUs, and garage conversion ADUs. Eureka Builds It! wasnts to give everyone, no matter the income, the opportunity to potentially build one of these units. Believe that are able to find funding opportunities for every level of income that would see associated with RHNA [Regional Housing Needs Allocation] numbers.
The financing objectives are to provide these development opportunities to individuals who cannot obtain traditional financing, for people who can't get a line of credit or second mortgage from a bank. Will use a handful of different subsidies to find ways to make sure that whatever rent they charge matches their costs. The idea of the subsidies is to both allow someone who might not have the opportunity to build an ADU to have the ability to extend their property, or add value to their property. The subsidies should also result in more affordable housing options in the City of Eureka. Another objective is to maximize the amount of outside monies to put into this program, to minimize the risk the City would take as the entity that would carry the note through the construction period.
The City has some funding sources and is exploring some outside sources as well. The City is in the process of setting up the Housing Trust Fund. Every trust fund needs a program, and staff is hopeful that Eureka Builds It! will be the first program that the fund would provide monies to. The City was awarded PLHA [Permanent Local Housing Allocation] funds from the State, roughly half a million dollars. The City currently has about $600,000 in CDBG [Community Development Block Grant] monies, and can apply to CDBG to see if those funds can be utilized for Eureka Builds It. Will be looking at HOME and CalHome programs. In the future, might consider using some local funds if monies become available. With these combined funds, believe can easily get to $1 to $3 million dollars by the end of the next fiscal year. That will be an amount substantial enough to get the first few projects through the pipeline, but also getting to the 25% increase goal.
Financing tools available to the City are low interest rates, principal forgiveness, and a combinations of the two.
The next steps for this program are to bring the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process to Council, and the Finance Department will identify multiple financing sources, levels of subsidies, and options for applicants. As the program is pieced together, will be coming to Council for those to be approved.
Other jurisdictions in the area and around the state are excited to see what Eureka does with this program, and this program could be used as a guide for implementing in other areas. The more that the project is discussed, the more that can be put out there and help other jurisdictions with housing. Other cities locally have access to the same pots of money, and are looking to Eureka to see how this program is developed.
Council Questions & Comments
Councilmember Castellano commented that they are very excited about this program, and shared that this program was one of the strategies that was developed in the City Council Strategic Visioning, partially because both at the state level and and the local level, ADUs have been identified as one of the capacities through which we can grow our housing stock, and accessible way of accomplishing infill development that almost anyone can do in their yard. One of the big obstacles has been funding those ADUs. Councilmember Castellano is appreciative of the work going in to solve that issue, and is really proud that the City is willing to step up and is looking at how to provide that initial layer of funding. A lot of times banks won't loan on ADU construction, and that becomes the obstacle to actually implementing the idea and getting more opportunities for housing in the community.
Councilmember Moulton asked about the step mentioned on identifying a tenant, and asked if someone could build an ADU and pay it off themselves. Answer: Director Millar answered that in some cases, if they are relying on rental income to pay the mortgage, they would have to identify a tenant. If they just want to build an ADU and are afraid to go through the process on their own, they are more than welcome. Staff believes that one of the best strategies about this program is that, it's not easy to build something like an ADU. It takes a lot of time and knowledge. The City departments, between Building, Planning, and Engineering, do have the skill set to help people not only find the right design, but also make sure that the unit is built to code, City engineers can help with utilities. The City staff does have the skill set to help make sure that the unit is build successfully, and if the City is going to use monies to pay the contractors, the City needs to make sure that it's done correctly, so that can ensure permanent financing at the end of this. It is available to anyone who wants to build an ADU. Program Manager Asbury also clarified that the tenant requirements will depend on what financing is used, for instance if the project is subsidized with a specific pot of money that requires the owner rents to a low-income family for 10 years and is a deed restriction, then that will need to be monitored, and the City will be involved in the tenant part. There will also be market-rate rents. Staff has met with a local lender that believe can partner with; after the construction happens the loan will then be rolled over to that lender, the City will be repaid, and can start the process again. It will depend a lot on the funds that are used for the specific project.
Councilmember Fernandez asked if there were restrictions in the program about using ADUs built through the program as short-term rentals. Answer: Any use of the subsidies will require a contract, like with any mortgage lender. The City does have experience in this regard, through the operation of the City's first time home-buyer program and rehab loans. These are not given out without the protection of that agreement. If someone is not following the rules, do have options to address that situation. In no way is the City encouraging these units to be used as short-term or vacation rentals. City Manager Slattery also shared that he is pretty sure that ADUs are not allowed to be used as short-term rentals. City Attorney Luna confirmed that new ADUs are not to be used as short-term rentals, at least not legally.
Councilmember Fernandez asked about rental limit amounts, and how to hold the mortgage holder to the limits set forth in any rent restrictions. Answer: Director Millar said that there's a monitoring process. The mortgage holder would have to provide receipts showing who their renter is, how they qualified for that rental unit. There will be an annual check-in to verify that they are abiding by the rules of that specific program.
Councilmember Bauer commented that is exciting, as it achieves one of the large goals that came out of Strategic Visioning. Is hopeful that this is successful and could be able to expand to something greater, this is exactly the kind of thing that can help advance the housing needs, and addresses a lot of the stumbling blocks that prevents people from doing this.
Council Reports/City Related Travel Reports - Watch
Councilmember Castellano reiterated Mayor Bergel's appreciation for all of the public comment, and stated the following:
[I want to] express the grief I feel. In some ways I accept people's, the anger I've heard and experienced tonight. In many ways, those of us on City Council are your closest symbols or expressions of the power that many of us feel lack of access to, in terms of being able to make real change in relationship to the injustices of the world, and how they echo in our communities. I made a decision in relationship to my own space I occupy in proximity or lack of proximity to the global power systems to focus on my own community here, because this is where I have the greatest access to change, and to embodying the world I want to experience. I want to respect that many people here who made comments tonight, whether in anger at me, or us, or one another, I consider people who, whether I've worked with you yet or will work with you in the future, to embody the community we want to see. Do I think we've figured that out? Clearly not, and I think that's what we're here to do, to exercise the ways that we want to see the world, and it's a struggle. And it should be, because we have great histories of injustices experienced by many people to reckon with, and we do so in ways that are immediate, and personal, and as learners, and I see myself here as a learner. I just want to say that I took this position, and I take positions not to say that I've figured it all out, or I'm somehow above everyone, and I don't take decisions we make here lightly, and I don't take the not deciding of things lightly, and I don't shy away from your anger. We feel it, I appreciate that underneath anger is passion and care. I also want to lift up and honor those things. It hasn't been brought up tonight, but I have great concern for the the environmental consequences of war, there's a lot of thinking and writing on those, and I do think that's something that should be lifted up more. With that being said, I welcome continued conversation. I just want to recognize also, as someone who works 50-60 hours a week some weeks, that I have not always been present to the degree for those conversations that I would like, and so I recognize that I can work harder, and we all can, to create spaces for those.
Councilmember Castellano also reported attending the CalCities League Leaders conference, discussed the legislative priorities for the year for CalCities, which is the organization the works on behalf of all cities at the state level, and proud to say that is the first time that CalCities has adopted climate change as a legislative priority, other legislative priories adopted are housing and homelessness, resources and funding for cities, and public safety including preventative measures related to public safety. Said it is always an honor to represent the City and represent the people of the community, and an honor to be here as people express their differences.
Councilmember Moulton had no travel to report.
Councilmember Fernandez stated the following:
Going off of what was just said moments ago, my understanding at least, for the pulling of the ceasefire resolution dealt with a lack or delay in our outreach to additional community groups. As there is a lack of understanding and education, there is an inherent divisiveness at least rife in this issue. I am not an expert in any way on the relationships between, well, anywhere in the middle east for that matter, and so I see this, and I agree that this is a local issue, as it affects the safety of our community members, particularly those of Arab or Jewish decent, those that are Muslim. If I say simply "liberate Palestine" or "never again," these actions alone are performative. I condemn the deplorable actions of Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu, but going to what one of our speakers had said earlier, I welcome what is asked, to hold space for dialogue to bring our community together, together, and that's what I had intended with this original resolution.
Councilmember Bauer stated the following:
I'll start with, I also was at the CalCities meeting where I represent the, I'm on the Board of Directors for the 482 cities in the state. We had, I'll say this to what Councilmember Castellano talked about, you know where we're really focused on protecting local revenue because there's a big deficit looming, and it could mean challenges for our little city. We fought hard to include climate change in our four priorities for 2024, our legislative priorities, and homelessness was, every year, we're all dealing with it and that's the one thing I feel like ties into what's transpired tonight, what I recognize at that meeting, when you talk to the 47 council members that are there, whether it's Alameda, Oakland, Woodlake, a little tiny town or a big town, we all have the exact same issues. That's what those four priorities come about from, but it also comes about from, I actually had discussions about resolutions with other council members, and the consensus with them was is this space here, city council chambers, the proper venue and we had a really interesting discussion about that. Most of them, well, all of them, didn't feel like it was, our business is the workings of the city, dealing with homelessness, dealing with our antiquated sewer system, making our space livable, and helping people have the basic necessities. That's what the consensus was, and I believe that. I struggle with hearing individuals, my colleagues being called out because it's not fair, I don't believe this is the venue. I've called my Congressman, I've called the President's phone, I've done everything I can at the federal level to to try to see some change, because I'm antiwar, flat out. I just feel like from the hundred-something emails that I received, it is a divisive issue, and is this the forum for it? I don't think so. I think it's trying to make our city the best place, the safest place for our citizens. I appreciate what everyone's said on both sides, but we have, we're challenged every day with just trying to run a city. We're practically volunteers, and the attacks are unfair, they really are, to my colleagues, to all of us, that we're somehow uncaring. Nobody knows our background, I walked the streets of San Francisco with 100,000 people to protest the Iraqi wars, so you know, I just want people to be civil, and to understand that we may differ on what we think what is the appropriate space to be anti-war, but let's not attack others, let's try to understand that we're all human, and we're doing the best we can, and we're trying to figure it out, but I appreciate working with everyone up here, and I always will, and I hope that we can be more civil.
Thank you for your contribution!
Help us reach out to more people in the community
Share this with family and friends