City Council

of Davis Tuesday, JANUARY 30th 2024 captions standing by All right. Good evening. Everyone. I'm going to call the Davis city council meeting of JANUARY 30th 2024 to order mentioned that it is 6:41 and all of my colleagues are here. Um, we have a motive to move our agenda. I'll second. All right motion by council member Arnold the second by council member Neville. Any questions on the agenda all in favor, please say i i I post motion carries 5 0 thank you. Uh, I will now move on to item number 1 city manager Beach announcements. Welcome Mike. Thank you very much. Good evening Council a couple of announcements for you tonight. First and foremost is our 30th annual environmental recognition Awards, u are now open for nominations, uh through MARCH 20th, um for the annual Awards, there are 3 award categories business or group and nonprofit organization. Uh, plus there's an environmental Legacy award, uh, which is a little unique from the 3 General categories. Uh, so nominations as I said are open through MARCH 20th, uh, and uh, city of davis.Org news section is a link to the nomination, uh information in form awards are given into the 3 categories that I mentioned plus the environmental Legacy award that recognizes events and programs that have made a significant Environmental Quality Uh, we can we urge folks to consider nominating in these categories for those uh the in the community that are working to address the current environmental concern those that have established a record of achievements and or actions benefiting the environment and the quality of life in and around Davis and or those developing an Innovative environmental program. All right, and my second and last announcement for this evening is uh, what do you do? Uh video series is debuting on social City social media. Uh, the project is something we've been uh looking at trying to get launched for for some time Jenny tan our director of uh, Communications, uh in community engagement, uh is leading this effort with us and the video series will introduce, uh, city employees and their job roles. So the community it's really intended to be an educational a fun educational series to help uh, residents and businesses, here more about the Myriad City, uh services that the city provides, uh, Jenny Chan our director of community engagement, uh through these videos. We'll interview employees from all. All the various City departments, uh and uh plans to release generally about 2 videos a month on our social media. Uh, and the very first video is now posted and that's of me. Um, I will say so I get to be the first 1 to to get started and be the guinea pig. Um, so that's out and available now, and Jenny is also created an introductory, uh video to the series to help folks, you know, uh with a good uh, introduction and understanding of why we're doing it, uh, again just part of our Outreach in further engagement to try to further connect with our community around the services that we provide um and uh provide a little uh, more interpersonal uh, uh connection with the staff that provide those Services. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Bye uh item 1b City brief, uh city council brief and liaison reports any brief announcements or Leah on reports for my callers know I'll just mention um, you MAY have noticed or seen that they um, we had a kickoff for the Yolo High wheelers Davis's new professional baseball team that's partnered with the uc Davis. Uh, so they're opening day is MAY 21st, uh, Tuesday at uc Davis. So if you're around, uh, and want to check them out that is when the game will be um, and with that we'll move to item 1c city council indication that um to the consent calendar. Vice mayor, I would like just to comments. Okay, make note of that and when we get there, we'll um have you on 1 b? All right, uh with that we'll move to item number 2 public comment, uh any members of the public who would like to make General Public comments items that are not listed on the agenda or items that ae listed on the consent or if you're not able to stay for an item that on is on the agenda. Uh now is your time, uh reminder that the public comment is 2 minutes. And also please make sure that you lean close to the mic. We had a report from someone that's been difficult to hear uh at home sometimes so please make sure you speak into that mic. So everyone at home can hear uh, what you have to say and we will open up public comment to our first public commenter welcome. Thank you. My name is Greg Crawford speaking on my own behalf. The OCTOBER 12 2023 joint meeting of the bicycling transportation and Street safety commission and the uitrans advisory committee. It was recommended that 49 bus. Stop locations be upgraded with red curb or no parking zones. There has been no action on this issue since then and the council has not yet taken a bus stop improvements on its agenda for approval. Red curbing bus stops is absolutely essential for smooth and accessible operations of unit Trans Service when there is no red curb buses cannot serve the stop accessible fashion because there could be parked cars in the way. If there cannot be unobstructed access to the front door of the bus passengers will need to walk into the street off curbs or around Park cars to use the bus. It also means that bus drivers need to drop off passengers into the street while blocking traffic and creating a dangerous situation for all. Car side service means it is harder for people with disabilities children seniors and other vulnerable data sites to use public transit. These are the people who As a concerned resident and Transit user. I'm asking the council to bring this item to the discussion at a meeting in the near future. It is imperative that you consider approving these bus stop location upgrades which would eliminate accessibility barriers to unitrans. Thank you very much. Thank you, Greg. Hi, my name is Danielle wika I am from the external Affairs commission and Lobby Corps. Um just a lot of the concerns that um appear just brought up. Um, I'm here to recommend that the city work with the university to install public benches on the bus stops. Um that currently do not have public benches and or seating. This is a major issue for vsuals who live with the physical disability and addition to tat haptics aound the city are inequitable for the same individuals and in addition to that we further ask that the more of an effort be made in making sure that student voices are included and these conversations. Um, not only regards to infrastructure, but housing basic needs transferred to that stuff. These are just mere needs that cannot be filled or met without our input and voices. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. Uh, hello. My name is Isadora. I'm also uh, uh uc Davis student, and I'm also a commissioner with the external Affairs Commission of asucd, and I'm Al here to speak about the accessibility of unitrans bus stops and how those might be improved. Uh, there are several things that many of our the city are lacking including benches lighting and shading, uh, the bus stop right outside of my apartment has none of these things. It is just a sign on a post listing the dfferent buses that go there and I know this is the same for many bus stops throughout the city including ones on 5th Street, which srve a number of buses including unitrans and the 42 a and 42 b lines. Uh, I've had to stand In the Heat of these bs stops when coming home from uh, Amtrak before and with how hot it gets in Davis with no sade at these bus stops. This really be an issue and for benches. This is an accessibility issue. There are many of our students and residents in Davis cannot extend easily for extended periods of time. And so this MAY standing at these bus stops, especially with the standing at these bus stops, especially with delays that we experience often with unitrans and yolo bus can really bring harm to these people and lighting can help it to improve the safety of these bus stops and also all these things would help to show where the bus stops are. I've had experiences where I've spent a lot of time looking bus stops because again many of these bus stops are just assigned listing what buses there are and many of these signs can be behind trees or behind Vines and Google Maps and those sort of things aren't always accurate in showing were the bus stops are. So I've missed buses due to this issue of not being able to find the bus stops. So improving these bus stops would also the ease of access to these buses. So improving bus stops with things such as these can improve accessibility health safety and ease of use bus system in our city of Davis, and I hope you will consider this. Thank you. Thank you door. Hello, my name is uh, Tristan Meyer, and I'm also with the external Affairs cmmission, um while I agree with bus stops. Uh, I think that there are other problems that our city needs to address that are pretty urgent and the most urgent I would say is uh, the lighting around the city of Davis, especially on side streets that aren't in uh, downtown necessarily. Um, just recently I was biking uc Davis to um up near uh, cowl, I think I think it is and uh the north part of Davis. And some streets I could barely see in front of me even with the bike light and these streets often have leaves or lawn scrapings that are put out in the bike lane. So it makes it even more dangerous for bikers that are traversing this area and so for a a city that promotes biking so much and that promotes, um other use of Transportation other than cars like walking and biking I think uh, improving the lighting around the city as a whole would be extremely beneficial just sidewalk lights or street lights. Um, I think it would be a very useful and very cheap, uh solution to such a a huge problem in the city that concerns safety and uh ease of um, access of our Public Road system. Thank you. Tristan Hi, my name is Amina. I'm also a member of the external Affairs commission here a uc Davis, and I'm here to express my request for the installation of ventures I your unit trans. Um seating at these points would greatly enhance the comfort ad convenience for passengers. Um, most notably individuals with disabilities and those who MAY need to to wait for long periods of time on your bus stops, which definitely um happens a lot benches would not only contribute to the well-being of residents but also promote, uh, the use of public transportation by making it more accessible and comfortable, uh for individuals and I think that it could definitely have a great positive impact on public transit users. I'm also here to request that a greater effort be made include student voices and issues related to basic needs housing transportation and lighting. Thank you. Thank you honorable. Welcome, Welcome Alan Hurst to Davis Lorax. Thank you very much for everyone. I agree enter it. We emphasize the bus stops are important trees and shading are part of the bus stop in the old days. I would be able to show pictures of that, but you don't want pictures anymore. So, uh remind us shading the f and the f and bus stop the brand new bus stop. No shading not even s*** on the side of the bus stop. I also we we talked about no downtown tree plan. We had about cups start lighting trees in there with the light lights of our downtown. We need a tree plant to raise the trees have a cooling plant to the light poles and the trees work together, but there's no downtime plan. So the Public Works Engineers do whatever they they will and the tree plan the tree dartment does whatever it will there's no coordination. Um, and want to thank staff for basically upgrading their Brown act compliance by providing all the documents that are sent in as input to the council at the meetings as required by thank you for that upgrade this evening. And uh third there was a comment made at the Martin Luther King's day that Martin Luther King was all about. Peace. But that was the primary message of Martin Luther King. That's co-option Martin Luther King was about creating this quiet of their Community, Gloria, you know this Activist out in the street creating good trouble uncomfortableness in the leaders of our community show the contradictions make you uncomfortable make change happens Kngs letter from this Birmingham. Jail was to the religious leaders in this town who are were Pro Integrations. But were not moving not yet. They needed King to create people that were uncomfortable to make the leaders of the Town uncomfortable. Even the black community was uncomfortable with King's provocations. Was Peace not jamaat Luther message at all all and people who say that especially Civic leaders are bastardizing and corrupting the message of King for us and our generation. We need to think differently and be uncomfortable. These things are not the way they should be. Thank you for listening and thank you for your service. Thank you Alan. For more bus stops now ironically, my name is Alan Miller. I'm actually going to talk about just that no more bus stops, um, not none ever but the item bt there was it was it was about um Transit serving some of the outlying areas where there wasn't a bus, uh near of the less dense less populated parts of Davis and so the suggestion was made that uh, maybe we'll talk to unitrans and we'll make sure that we have buses on to those areas. This is the whole problem with Transit funding. They it's used to subsidize developments. Over in Sacramento. We spent 75 million to move the station 5 minutes walking distance further the passengers have to walk every day. And we got no Transit Improvement, And those were Transit dollars if you take a bus and you put it out in an area where no 1 is using it. Just so that developers can develop that land. Get credits. Well, that's using Transit dollars to subsidize development. Transit dllars should be used to move people now. They should be used efficiently. You don't want to be serving distant parts of Davis. That aren't going to have a lot of people on the bus. We have enough resource problems already with public transit. So please it right Transit serves people not developers. Thank you. Thank you Alan. Any in-person general public comment? Seeing Do we have any pre-recorded? Thank you. So. This is kan speaking on item 2 General Cobalt comment and speaking as an individual throughout the meeting. So here I want to talk a bit more about policing and privacy as has come up at a few recent meetings, especially around surveillance drones as well as the body and car camera item from last week's meeting. So I do think that privacy concerns for regular people are very important when it comes to addressing police surveillance, especially because the primary role of policing is to violence on people and they often use surveillance. To increase amount of violence that they will enact and to Target particular people for such violence. But we also have to recognize that police agencies. Don't really prioritize privacy for regular people which is why for instance. Day was police requested surveillance drone. So when they privacy as an argument with body and car cameras, that's often primarily because they are prioritizing the secrecy of their own officers. That is the main thing that they care about in that instance and that is another reason why police should not be involved much if at all in determining policies and procedures around the of different types of equipment, especially body and car cameras, which are at least in principle supposedly meant to keep police accountable as a proposed to being used to surveil the general public but the surveillance tey are fine with keeping themselves accountable. They are not. All right. Now it's the only uh pre-recorded public comment. So that will close public comment and move on to Right ask for a clarification room in public comments that sure so um, there was this uh question about the red curbing for the unit transfer buses and this as far as that like coming before council is that not something that's already happening because I know I've gotten some um messaging from uh residents who have gotten notice about the happening and um, and so it it seems to me like tat is something that's already in the works. Uh, yeah, There's there's 2 different aspects to rad curbing around bus stops. First of all, the btsss did recently have discussions, uh, and that the staff regarding areas that were being proposed for uh, 2 different things 1 is refreshing existing red curved areas, and the other is adding new red curved areas, uh around or near exist, uh bus stops. It's a help provide greater in clearance and easier access for buses to be able to pull over so there were a series of recommendations at various locations around town. Uh and 2 things happened 1 is that uh, the red curbs, uh have to be designated by ordinance of the city. You can't we can't just go out and paint red curbs wherever we want. Um without first coming to you and taking the legislative action to make it uh, permissible, uh and enforceable and that's the ky to it being enforceable is that it's done via ordinance. Um, the next steps so since the btsc had their discussion and made their recommendations staff is now on the process of or there's 2 aspects of it 1 is repainting existing red curve does not require an ordinance. That's a maintenance, uh action that those things are being pursued, uh by our staff the bulk of the discussion was around new red pink curved areas, and so staff is in the process now of doing notifications to surrounding property owners in anticipation of a public hearing item that would come to council likely in early MARCH with an ordinance to make those red curb areas permissible and then we would install the red curve. So that's the sequencing of events that that transpires to to do that so it it there's a lot more to it than going out with a a roller and some red paints in in other words. Thank you. Like as you said I it seemed to me like that was in the works. And so I just didn't understand that process. Right. You. So now we'll move on to agenda item number 3. Sorry checking the read before. Um, I will turn to uh, vice mayor vittala who had a comment on 1, um, sorry 3b. Thanks mayor Chapman. Uh, I just wanted to highlight, uh consent Item b, which is around the public art donation in remembrance of getting abun. Um, I first just want to highlight the resolution itself, which accepts a donation of this new public artwork into the collection. It's public places collection, um and authorizes the city manager to execute a contract for uh to pay uh for the creation of this artwork. Um, I'm really proud of all of this for having come together and and made this happen. And in particular, uh, I I want to thank Navin Abu who's sitting over there? Hope you don't mind calling you out. Um and her husband Maji for working on this with our city staff. Particularly Rachel and Carrie Dyer who worked as a team for for a long time. I see that back there. Thank you very much for all the hard work and it has been hard work, uh, and the design that the cabinet and selected is very very beautiful. And I think it's fair to say, it's Unique in the city's Heart collection. So, um, I to say that um. Difficult circumstances of which? All this is occurring. Um, but I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping us to create a place of remembrance and reflection and I think Solace and comfort for generations to come who know the careem is I'm a free spirit that he is and what he represents it. know how. Deep your your grief is and we'll continue to be but I also know how deep Compassion for the community and and this way and and 100 other ways. So thank you so much to City staff and to Marine and and much do for working on this for so long, and I'm I'm very very excited and happy to have this as as part of the Davis landscape and sigma Park b. Um, all right with that I will uh entertain a motion, uh to approve the consent calendar so moved. All right. We have a a motion by vice mayor by the second by council parta any further, uh comments on consent questions. All right, Um, we could go all in favor, please say I I post I'm saying motion carries 50 Thank you. And uh we will now move on to item number 4 a public hearing annexation of wastewater treatment plant properties Northeast of the Mace Boulevard curve, uh General plan Amendment and please zoning and it looks like we have our full array of planning staff here. So I'll turn it over to um to Mike and the team thank you. Yeah. Myor Chapman you have this evening. We have uh, Thomas wikner who's uh associate planner with her our team, uh here to do provide a brief overview of the item. That's before you tonight. And then any me any number of our team members are here and available to answer your questions. City council MAY have of course. Uh, I will note that. This is Thomas's debut with the city council. So we welcome him with open arms and um, you know, we uh, look forward to many more to come uh in your career here. So Thomas take it away. Thank you very council members, uh Thomas mcnaron associate planner. Very nice to be here as I excited. It's my first time so pleasure to be here tonight. Uh, I will be presenting on the matter of the general plan amendments, um, pres Zone and annexation of the wastewater treatment plants. The wastewater treatment plant is located northwest of town. Um it sits on about 420 Acres of Yolo County Land. It's the city's wstewater treatment plant 7 small holding ponds and a 224 over acre overflow area. Currently the land use uh designation in the county is public quasi public ad you can see on the left side of the map. Uh, there is the land use designations. The right side of the map is the proposed, uh zoning. Well. Tonight we are recommending that the city council approve of the general plan Amendment resolution and the ordinance to change the land use and Zoning to public semi-public. And as well authorized City staff to initiate the annexation of the site. Uh, there is a similar, um action that was taken, uh that is similar to the project proposed tonight. Um, the former landfill site was within County land with uh City improvements on it. You can see that on the left image the uh rectangle is the former landfill site. Um, that is uh a similar, uh action to what we are proposing tonight. The reason for this action tonight the annexation of the wastewater treatment plants, uh properties is because in late 2021, uh, the city was told by the county assessor. Aout tax implications of the property. Currently the about $15,000 annually in property taxes and if the property property is were to be annexed the city could save about 5 times, uh that on property taxes annually. The city has worked collaboratively with the county uh on this effort so that any property extra property taxes would be on hold while City pursued the next station. Additionally a part of sb 1383, um changed how jurisdictions can count Solid Waste which is a product a byproduct of the wastewater treatment plant process as the voting materials. As it sits Yolo County is processing the solid wste produced by the city of Davis, um, which is skewing their diversion number. Annexation would allow for the city to claim responsibility of its own solid waste and benefit the county. As part of the annexation process as a whole tonight. We are um recommending that the city council adopts the rezone and general plan amendments, uh, which was recommended by the Planning Commission as well as approve of the intent to Annex. Additionally, um, once the staff is authorized to begin the annexation process, uh, Staff will establish a a tax exchange agreement with the county as well prepare the required materials for a yolo lapco application. So overall staff recommends that the city council determine that the general plan amendments and pre-owned associated with the um, wstewater treatment plants properties are exempt from Squaw that the city council approve of the resolution of the general plan amendments approved of the or adopt rather the uh, zoning ordinance as well the approve the attached resolution authorizing the uh intents to Annex. I'm available. Uh, if anyone has any questions as well as the rest of staff. Thank you Thomas and welcome to uh to the city of Davis staff team. We appreciate you being here. Um In general and also here this evening. Thank you. Uh, so bfore we open the public hearing, is there ae there any clarifying questions from my colleagues on this? No, all right with that we will open the public hearing and welcome any uh public commenters. I don't know. Why the race how how long the race plan is for them. But can I ask the uncomfortable question? Why wasn't this done years and years ago? I hope someone in counseling and questions. Thank you very much. Alan. Good evening, uh mayor council members. Um, it's probably you know math is not my best subject, but I'm hoping can go back to the slide where the taxes were. Like, I got a little just lost in the explanation there. Yeah, so it's it you mentioned 15,000 annually, but then we could save 5 times that I just got a little lost in how that works. So if you could explain a little bit more, thank you. Dylan. Do hve any other uh, in-person public comments? Have any pre-recorded? With that we will close the public hearing. Let me bring it back to my colleagues on the dice. I must look like I had a question. Thank you for that presentation. And I I was able to actually be at Planning Commission when you presented this as well and um, I'm going to defer to Mayor Chapman as if you wants to uh have any of those questions that were posed answered but um, in terms of the waste diversion issue. This is all tied to legislation that basically makes cities and counties they do this Baseline asessment of how much waste they dispose of then over time They have to meet certain diversion goals. They have to divert certain percentages of waste by certain points in time and up until just a couple of years ago. Yolo County was able to claim waste we were generating and they can't do that anymore. So that's a part of why we're doing this land swap. Is that right? That's what we're doing here. Yeah, so thank you. Yeah, that's that's accurate part of it is time to sp 1383 compliance as you're noting uh, which is the diversions and uh responsibility of those diversions is faulty. In this case, there's Mutual benefit, uh to the county that's also tied to the t the tax savings, uh in this case, uh, I can give a little bit more background in terms of the why pursuing this and why now, uh, the so the uh, the treatment plant with changes in in state law around, uh taxation of Municipal facilities. Um, when the city did the investment 800 million plus investment in the treatment plan to upgrade it for state requirements to be tertiary treatment plan, um that triggers, um, a basically a uh, a point in time where the county would do do a reassessment of the property because the value had increased substantially tens of millions of dollars in property value increase because of the upgrades to the plan so that triggers in the counties eyes typically are reassessment. At the that we were doing the upgrade, that's when the conversations with the county began about annexation potential because what that meant was that our current tax annual tax bill of about 15,000, uh would potentially increase 5 times, uh, upon reappraisal and reassessment. Uh, and so since that time the county has been working with us to determine what is that value look like and then what's the cost benefit to uh, the the city and the county to the property taxes, but also with its 1383 compliance now, so that's significantly changes the equation where there's now Mutual benefit to the county also to say City you please Annex this um, and the savings you get in property tax are going there's also going to be a savings to the county on the 1383 compliance side. So now there's a mutual interest and mutual benefit of annexation where that didn't necessarily exist before So that's a brief explanation. Um t to why this wow, um and so forth. So the 5 timeslot, Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Donna any other questions for Seth? I'll entertain a motion. I'll to approve the forward staff recommendations. It. All right. Thank you. Have a by vice mayor vitamins second by council member Neville any further conversations questions. All right, seeing none. Um all in favor, please say I I opposed motion carries 50. Thank you Seth. We are now on to item number 5 consider recommendations related to commissions. Um, and we will turn over to I do want to switch here and then we'll um take you over to staff. You need a couple of minutes to pull up the slide presentation to know that we had a queued up on the the desktop. So just give us just a few minutes think of course. So I'm going to provide an overview for you, um, uh on behalf of the council sub community on commissions. So that's comprised of uh, mayor Chapman and vice mayor, but um, I want to just start with a an introduction just a reminder that the council appointed the subcommittee last year. And direction for the subcommittee was to look at the city's 14 adv commission Scopes and structures. And time thoughtfully considering Council needs uh now and into the future and uh looking at how each commission plays a role in council's decision-making. So there was a lot of iterest by the sbcommittee as they got into this process about aligning the work of the commission's with the needs of the city council. So that ultimately the council is able to have the full breadth and depth of information necessary for you to make decisions on any number of policy issues across the council And just as the city organization involves, uh to reflect different times and uh issues so to can and should the cities advisory commissions. So uh with the as a as a commit the subcommittee got into it, u with the general Plan update on the New Horizon the subcommittee believes that uh prudent and helpful way to structure advisory commissions for the council is around the general plan. Um, represents the community's vision for the future. So specifically tasking certain commissions with community community engagement and information gathering to bring back to the council. As a means of incorporating into the visioning process was kind of a key part of a key focus of uh of the thinking in the conversations. To um provide the recommendations that you did they collected uh information and and um they looked at existing authorizing resolutions and those authorizing resolutions are what provide te uh, the roles and responsibilities and Council of directive to each of the advisory commission. So they is essentially exists because of those authorizing resolutions. Um, they had meetings with chairs of the different commissions, uh with 1 exceptionalists. Um, they had meetings and some staff liaison, although I want to be clear. This is not a uh process about um, what staff is looking for what staff wants? They looked at Council needs and thought about you know, what is important to the 5 of you up on the day of senior decision making process. And they considered some different changes in policy we plans that we have et. Um what came out of uh, a lot of the thinking and a lot of their discussions, were a couple of things 1 there was a significant interest in commissions and wanting to uh engage in meaningful and purposeful work. That the council and helps the community. There was a uh from the chairs with they heard, um, not to a t but it was a recurring theme of a lack of understanding of what council wants commissions to do so looking for some clarity in roles, um and obligations they heard um, not to a t but it was a recurring theme of a lack of understanding of what council wants commissions to do so looking for some clarity in roles, um and obligations from um for the commissions from what what the council is expecting or anticipating. And that finally there was an interest in having greater interaction with u and greater representation with the public. So I'm going to start with uh, a couple of commissions that there's not a couple of commissions that there's not any recommend any recommended changes or alterations too, uh, just to um move those aside so we can focus on the the other uh, the other recommendations tonight. So 4 commissions open space and habitat Recreation and Parks plice accountability and senior citizens where the subcommittees not recommending any specific changes. And what I'd like to do first is explain what the changes uh for the record both the changes that the security is recommending or those are and then that will um Carry into explaining how they would propose to align those with the the general Plan update and really kind of working in that sphere. U you can se on the chart. Uh, there's several recommendations to um, combined commissions and refine their Scopes, um with the idea of um, in some cases, we're finding uh, refining definitions and other cases, uh, looking to broaden the scope. Um, bt all of the most I guess I should say with the idea of tying this to the general plan. So changing um, or creating a circulation and active Mobility commission. That would be combining the transportation and Street safety commission with a unit trains advisory committee. Um, the committee is not technically a commission because it's a has a different kind o a makeup than a regular commissions. Um creating a climate and environmental Justice Commission that would combine the natural resource entry commissions. That's something that would be loking or an entity that would be looking specifically at our fairly newly adopted cap, uh climate action and adaptation plan. At creating an equity and culture commission that would combine human relations and civil guards, um in to some degree, uh, you know, our our Civic arts program, um over the past several yars has really focused more on uh, trying to provide a greater diversity of voices a greater diversity of messages, um, many of which have of a social justice spent than uh, 5 to if I can say just art so it's art with me, which is very appropriate for art that's in the public sphere and and art that is funded by public donors. Creating Creating a fiscal commission that would combine both finance and budget and Utilities Commission. The finance and budget commission looks a lot and spends a lot of time on our general fund our Utilities Commission spends time on our Enterprise funds if you're specifically at utility rates. Uh, their their purposes are not currently the same, but they both are looking at fiscal impacts and fiscal issues both for the city and for um in in the case of the Utilities Commission and the repairs, uh, there's an initial re or recommendation to consider and eventually merge the historic resources management commission responsibilities into the Planning Commission. And then finally there is an interest in uh, looking at the Social Services Commission and we focusing it, uh to be primarily housing. Um, that is a lot of what that commission um has been focused on its what is the commission is charged with currently in the city code. Um, there is an interest as well and this wll come in a minute with the later recommendation. Um, perhaps transferring some of those duties that are more. Social service related, um behavioral health related, uh into a new forms, um a proposed Community Health commission. I just mentioned, uh, the uh other recommendation is a new those new commission or at least considering some sort of uh creation o a body that wuld look at Community Health this came with um, with the interest of of looking at mental health and a concern about mental health issues in the community particularly in the vulnerable populations. So with those of the recommendations in hand, this is this chart that you see now is how the subcommittee would propose to attach particular commissions with the elements of the general plan. Um, there are 6 elements listed. There are a total of 8 elements that a general plan had would normally have uh, we could have more. Um, these are for the most part required with a slight caveat with the environmental justice is required in certain cases, Um, not necessarily all cases. Um, I can't quite imagine a scenario in Davis where we wouldn't have the money to Justice as a something we'd be looking at so we concluded to be here. Um, but each of these commissions would be the lead Commission on looking at Community engagement and information collecting for that particular General plan element or another way of saying eement will be a chapter in the general plan. Being able to return that information to the so that the council can incorporate it into the overall General plan Vision process. So the final steps or the recommendations that are before the the um full council tonight or to consider the subcommittee's recommendations and have a discussion about that. This is the first time that subcommittee has been able to come back and present to the full Council. So that's why you have conceptual recommendations in front of you. Then considering the recommendations for the creation, um or the uh, Redefinition I guess of the commissions that we talked about previously for circulation and active Mobility fiscal cimate environmental justice and equity and culture. Considering the historic Resource Management commission emerging that into the Planning Commission. Asking the subcommittee. Sorry asking the commissions to take lead roles in those General plan elements. And tasking the subcommittee to return uh Supreme staff to return with um implementation documents. I mentioned the authorizing resolutions we would need to revise those to update if Council were agreeable to any or all of these uh recommendations, and then also, um talking about the the step of a Community Health commission or some other body that looks at it. Um, Community mental health issues and needs uh, I think I will stop there and turn it back over to turn it over to the sub community members so that they can um provide any further explanation around things even more so Thank you. Kelly. Appreciate that overview. Um, do you want to jump in sure? Thank you Kelly for frgiveness, uh an overview. I it was you stated at the beginning, but I just want to reiterate that really when Josh and I were asked by Council to take a at the function of commissions. Uh, our Focus was What's working? What could be improved and how can commissions best served responsibility of being an advisor advisory bodies to city council? But on top of that what we came to realize is we talked to chairs as we talked to staff. Um, we have conversations amongst ourselves and we realized really I think the priority is to make sure are playing a central role how the central responsibility uh going forward in the general Plan update process which serves really as the city's vision for the next 15 years. So that was really it became kind of our Central motivation is how do we Empower and strengthen commissions to make sure that they're at the Forefront of this leadership role in gathering community. Input which really is at the heart of what a general plan is. It's a community's vision for the future. So, uh, I just sort of want to frame discussion by saying that in the months ahead, um their scope for Council subcommittee to sort of take a look at the specific authorizing resolutions of every commission and take a look at the remit, um other issues, but really what we want to do is can we figure out a way to elevate commissions to a leadership role wth policy-making as far as visioning around the general plan and what the community and when I say community I don't mean just commission members but really the broader Community, uh would like to see Davis's future for the next 1520 years of Davis's future. Uh, I I do want to make 1 slightly Utilities Commission that I think is important. Uh, there's folks on the Utilities Commission, who are particularly focused on let's say, um more of the climate side of things. And so I think what we're looking to do is um, give folks a little bit of a opportunity to to gauge look internally on their own interests and see whether kind of the rate rate payer and fiscal side is more during trace or whatever, uh, the climate and environmental justice side is more where they think they can best contribute to the community. So there's obviously room for um, uh Council to have discussion on how these ideas sound. I I think that uh, Josh maybe you'll you'll speak more to the to the idea of speaking to the county about the Community Health commission and those types of issues, but I think around the core recommendations that you see here in number 2 again to reiterate that we want to commissions in a very strong position to be leaders the community engagement process around the general Plan update. Yeah, thank you. Vice mayor Bid And thank you. Um again saff for your work on this and um, you know, as you can see if you read in the staff report, we've been at this for uh, almost a year now, it's been you know, februari 7th will be a year and that this subcommittee was created it. Um, and I just want to reiterate the work that has been done. Um, and we have gone um around many different scenarios and proposals to to some of the work that we put forward with internally and with staff, um and in conversations with um with chairs around what you know, what we think we want to see move forward. So, you know, this has been a extremely thorough process around what we um think is probably the most efficient um way to move forward as we have a host of General plan. So, um, thank you to um, my colleague, uh, vice mayor vital for your work on this. Um, and I am excited to hear my have to say and that's 1 of the pieces was kind of this, you know, really wanting to get this before but not just my colleagues but the public uh for their input as well and I do think that um, you know, What we have come up with here is is is a some you know, is that solution to what we hard? Um, we we heard um from a myriad of people, um around what's working. What's not working and I think that when you step back and look at some of the um, some of the recommendations that are here, um, and we can dive into this. Um, you know, when we get to the other part conversations around how we address some of those concerns. So, uh the piece around the Community Health commission, we really wanted to bring forward, um, just this idea and hoping that our Council and our colleagues would um, you know, look at that recommendation under number 5, um, and let you know encourage us to continue that work to talk with the county. There's definitely an overlap in scope of work when it comes to to Mental Health Services in our community and I think that um, if te subcommittee, um, you know is tasked with having starting those and working with Dana and our um Department o Social Services and housing and just having a a focus group of people, uh doing a deep dive on that and it MAY come back that there doesn't need to be a commission for that right? There MAY be another type of work group or something that we can we can come up with, um that can address some of those concerns and some of those issues. So, um, I do want to reiterate I think if you think Kelly you said it in in your report that that every commissioner who was on a commission no matter what moves forward tonight is staying is has the option to stay if it's being Consolidated or not, uh, there's no be being asked to um step down because the numbers are too big. Um, all all members that are currently serving, um would b would if it's Consolidated would move to that new commission. We didn't have the option. So, um, were there any just clarifying questions before we move to public comment? Are we good to move public comment? All right, great. Thank you. All right. So with that we will open uh public comment. I've written extensively about this and to reduce my comments to 2 minutes. It's inquired No, 1 talked to me. I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on te tree commission. I was not talked to um, I don't understand. This is a totalizing Aggie. It's all about the general plan. We'll the operations of a city occur every year a repetitively and do turn over the commissions over this once every 20. Your thing doesn't seem to be willing. There's a lot of knowledge built into the structures. Not that there should be changes. Um, I know there's good intentions here. Um, we should look at that conversions. We have a lot of them some of them maybe we commissioned but I don't understand meaningful and purposeful work. Ago staff brought for the meetings that the commissions were running too long. We wind up put a 2-hour limit on it. So I can't square that Circle. How can the meeting to be too long a year ago, and now there's lack of they don't know what to do the bright night thing maybe read that I hope you did. Please tell me if you have because that doesn't look like that because they said that basically there's a at the staff is not telling the commissions what to do what needs to be done. So the res so the m problem maybe is what the staff directing of the commission is. Not the commissions don't know what to do. Um, I just just just the general plan. We talked about the tree commission. It's 3 times submitted divisions to the ordinance and every time it was filibustered. Lack of meaningful work for the tree commissions or we're going to get rid of it. The problem I think that it's somewhere else. This doesn't make any sense to me. I'm sorry. Just you didn't get input. Commission has different issues, but you have a 1 size fits all and consolidation with reducing rather than another commission is going to the public work sector by 60% as if that's less important. I just don't understand. This doesn't please we need a task force. We need to take this back. Good intentions, but this is not accomplishing what we need to do. Thank you. Thank you Alan. Um, I forgot 3 so I'll have to go quickly. Um, and if you know my reading, um, my name is John Rudder. I've been on the tree commission for the last 3 going on 4 years now and I currently serve as the chair. Um, I understand the administrative logic behind your proposal. However, the purpose of the commission's in the past has always been uh Community focused, um dealing with a wide range of issues and not just a a plug in play, uh in in into the uh, General plan. I think that sort of bothers me the most here. Yeah. We're planning about 20 years down the road, but we don't have to keep this change in communication. 20 years to be able to accomplish that Um, I think having the uh, a general plan set Cedric approach is uh is is is shorted, although it MAY be the year or 2 for that process is going on. Uh, also, uh looking at the notes. Uh, it's not all all it's not all about the cap. These these commissions the natural resources on ourselves. We we deal with so many issues. There's 35,000 of the constituents out. There have the street trees of how we don't have the opportunity to come and give support. Um, I think it was a the tree commission and the natural resource commissions are very are very technically, uh, Focused groups. Um, I think to uh, it would be especially we too thin to uh to to to to to to combine them. There's just not not that much time in the year to do whatever you all have to do. Um, we we just approved the uh, Urban Forest management plan. We're already We're already high on that and that's very good. And we appreciate all the work. Um, but that's only the first step. I want to wait to a more comprehensive program. That's that's currently underway. Uh, just give me 5 more seconds. Um, we are at a at a with the with the tree commission. Um, we um, there's a lot of things going on a lot of new stuff and maybe people who can continue to discuss this with the with the with the community, uh, we have worked very, uh, Natural Resources Commission on the solar and tree parking lot issue. Uh, we do have some things in common, but I believe the 2 groups really look at thank you. John charges fundamentally differently. Thank you. My name is shamani. I'm the legislative director for local Affairs at the accd. We think and appreciate the staff for the work on vaccines and subcommittees and we'd like to point out a concern in regards to the proposed climate and environmental Justice Commission. Um environmental refers environmentalism refers broadly to the protection of wildlife in the preservation of nature. Um and under state law environmental justice means the fair treatment of people of all Races cultures and incomes respect to the development adopting implementation and enforcement of environment. Environmental laws regulations and policy should this recommendation be accepted by the council and the tree and Natural Resources Commission merge is important that the new climate and environmental Justice Commission includes both environmentalism and environmental justice in its title purpose projects and activities in addition how exactly will the tree and Natural Resource Commission be merged. We urge the council to clarify that the of these 2 commissions will work to ensure both environmental and environmentalism rather than continuing as they are under the climate and environmental Justice Commission. Thank you. Thank you Shamar. Good evening Council. I'm Patrick Huber here speaking as a private citizen but uh long serving member of the open space and habitat commission current chair. So I have seen the inside so that while. Um first and foremost I wanted to say thank you to Mayor and vice mayor and staff for all the work that you put in on. This is obviously, uh along uh, thoughtful, uh process that took a lot of time and energy. Um, so thank you for doing that. Um with the the general plan, uh coming about that's such an overarching document. I think it makes a ton of sense to organize what we're doing here in the commissions around that um, and I understand that there are you know, some uh concerns that maybe some commissions are disappearing. Um, I would urge Council to take uh, the the next year or 2. It's kind of an experiment to see if this works and maybe revisit it as the the general plan process kind of wins to a halt and see if that was an effective process and uh, whether or not we need to go back to uh, pre-existing, uh, commission structure. Um, and 1 other thing so the um, the Matrix that we put together with the commissions and uh, the um, General plan elements is great. I think it might be helpful spent times but um add into that Matrix the cities, uh, sustainability goals and see where those aligned uh to see where the commissions are hitting, uh, both the uh, the general plan elements and the sustainability goals and really, um, try to tie all of those processes together into 1, uh, you know more coherent process. You. Thank you Patrick. Why you sicko is merging with street. So confusing commissions combined in a plan. So amusing regulation and Mobility in 1 pot but the name sove it's like it's been forgot fiscal and budget mixed with utilities and a brand new commission causing such an is equity and culture mashed up for show. What does it mean? No, 1 seems to know each has their own special and unique missions. Please don't eliminate my favorite missions names getting longer but meaning so vague. Is this a path forward or just a wild craze climate Injustice in 1 big merge, but where's the clarity? It's like durge environmental in trees now in 1 fold, but are they still heard in this new mold historic and planning a mismatch. It seems to different emissions now in their dreams preserving our past clashes with change in this jumbled mess. Will anything remain eats has their own special and unique missions. Please don't eliminate. My favorite commissions names getting longer but meaning so vague. Is this a path forward or just a wild just a path forward or just a wild crazy commissions now lost in the den in the name of efficiency. Where do we begin with functions all modeled and name so obtuse will this new order be a wn or a ruse? So here's to the critics who raised their voices high in the face of this plan. They won't just comply for clarity's sake and for Missions that matter let's these mergers before it all. Alan. Good evening city council. I'm calling Walsh. I'm the vice chair of the tree commission. Um, you know, we only have 2 minutes I could spend 2 minutes blasting you for the process. I could spend 2 minutes lamenting that neither the liaison or the alternate have bothered to come to the tree Commission in the last year, which is a value statement frankly about trees in our city. Uh, but I want to focus on positive things about the tree commission, But first, let me say this that there's no reason that there can't be multiple commissions feeding into different parts. Uh, General plan There can be multiple avenues for public iput. In fact multiple avenues for public input. We MAY bring more more public input. So if I work here selfishly I would be saying this is fantastic my role as a commissioner is expanding. My purview is expanding. But want to focus on the urban Force. And I'm frankly disappointed at the value statement of deleting the tree Commission. We have mengs Uh, we have robust conversation. We hve significant accomplishments since Ive been working on with with the commission. Um, we looked at the Des commit, uh development twice. We had special meetings to get this done. Subcommittees, uh, we made strong reasonable proposals that were adopted by the developer. We significantly contributed to the urban Forest management plan, uh, you know, it was a major undertaking it took long long time. It took a and implementing it wll take a long time to do we we work towards updating chapter 37. We're just getting started on doing more. We worked on solar panels and parking lots. We worked a on uh, look the park, but let me just say this so deleting the tree commission is a value statement. It says we care less about Colin. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening all I'm Turin. I'm the executive director of tree Davis. I'm speaking on behalf of our board and staff. Um, we just found out about this on Saturday morning. Um, and so we're reactive to that. - Um, The Proposal is um a way to issue and we feel that it would be a disservice to the over 50 years o the service from 333 commissioner members to make this decision so quickly to make such a decision with so little time to react from stakeholders like ourselves and so many folks that have committed their time is is disappointing, um and extensive healthy and rsilient. Urban Forest is more important now than ever due to climate change stressors, like excessive heat and drought at the same time Forest proactive planning and management is needed now to trans Transition the urban Forest to the Future 1 which which will be sustainable in the next 50 years. Merging these 2 committees together, um will expand the scope of include all kinds of open space. Uh Wildlife soil Health that has to management um and climate adaptation. This MAY be beneficial by providing opportunities for a more holistic and integrative planting approaches, but it also MAY be detrimental if it elutes the commission's focus. There are important questions that still need to be answered before making this change. What are the principles of this new commission? How would the the new tree removal committee interact with the city how would be appointed into it? These are just questions. Were able to consider most recently as always tree Davis stands in service to the city, but we're disappointed. We were not Loop in earlier to this change We request the final vote on this topic be deferred so that we MAY provide input on the effective ways to use the local expertise that is part of tree Davis and the tree commission. We appreciate the benefits of streamlining Cty governance and ringing in demands on City staff, but given the Urgent proposed to Urban forest in the long-term adverse consequences of inaction is important to ensure that the focus of urban forestry isn't watered down with this change, but we maintain remain open to discussion if there is governance structure that will accelerate tree Davis's, excuse me. Davis's transition to a more resilient Urban Forest. To Uh mayor vice mayor and council members. Um, my name is Dylan, uh beginning my third non-consecutive term as chair of the Davis police accountability commission, though, of course speaking, uh this evening as an individual. Uh, I I find myself grateful that uh, there were no changes accountability commission structure. Um, and I want to you know Express as previous speakers have my gratitude for the committee and staff for working on this for uh, as the mayor said for, you know, close to a year now. Um, I think you know, I've heard people's concerns about, you know, commission members sort of not feeling like they have enough direction from uh, Council, uh commission members feeling like they don't have enough of an understanding of the policy development process within the city. Um, you know, there was the uh as well aware. There was the, you know suggestions and concerns from commission members, um when this um, and I I uh, While I appreciate like I said the the work that was done here. I I feel like the concerns that were originally expressed like a year plus ago. Um that began this process weren't in in my view, you know as best as they could have been addressed in these proposals. Um, I as a member o the police accountability commission could imagine, you know, someone who was looking to use government resources more efficiently suggesting combining the fire department and the police department because they're both, you know concerned with Public Safety. Um, I think that there would be a lot of folks as you're considering how that idea would work would be concerned about is that department going to be as effective as those 2 separate departments were I think there's a lot of focuses, um and priorities that we could possibly lose uh, and combining some of these commissions and I hope that as we previous speakers have said we'll give this simple this decision more time and more Outreach in the community. Thank you. Dylan. Good evening. Well, John Johnston, uh Natural Resources Commission for 8 years, I uac, uh, uh member for 7 years, I think past chair of both. There are many reasons to reform uh, the commissions but I don't think the general plan is 1 and I would advise against relying over really really much on it at this point the idea that commissions will spearhead public Outreach needs a reality check. A good public outreach program in a general is not a trivial task and the role of commissions is not clear simply running the elements through the associated conditions isn't going to cut it. Instead of organizing commissions around a job that MAY or MAY not do I would recommend organizing them to address long-term and recurring needs passed the general plan. Regarding commission Scopes. We formed commissions to focus on important topics to represent important constituency as are to engage Community expertise and when you commissions, you potentially lose 1 or all 3 of these. 2 quick examples nrc has been interested in environmental justice because it's an important topic, but if I want expertise on discrimination and Equity issues, i would return to human relations not in our state. Another second example merging uac and btss would increase their workload and delete the commission'