>>> good evening everyone and welcome
to the
regular session of the martinez city
council.
wednesday december 17th at
7:02 p.m. Please join me for the pledge of
allegiance.
>>> I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the united states of
america and to the republic for which it
stands one nation under god
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all.
>>> I appreciate councilmember
young took off his santa hat. Clerk,
please call the
roll.
>> mayor brianne zorn. >>
present.
>> vice maryland satinder
malhi will
be on here shortly, attending virtually.
next we have councilmember jay howard.
>>
present.
>> councilmember greg young.
>> present. >>
councilmember debbie mckillop.
>>
present.
>> welcome everyone. It
is nice to have a full house at a
council meeting. Some of you have
seen very
empty rooms. Thank you for coming
out before the
holidays for this important meeting
tonight. We will start
with presentations. Our first presentation
this
evening will be from the
chamber of commerce.
erin come on up.
>> good evening everyone and thank
you for being with us
tonight. I want to thank the mayor
and city council
for having us out this evening. I
want to thank
the chamber staff, here for support
as well
as the board chair. So, we are here
to
talk about
florence italian restaurant.
elsa and her husband opened the
restaurant and chose martinez four
years ago
to bring their great food here and
to be a part of
our wonderful downtown business community.
every time that
I step into the restaurant I
am always struck by how
happy elsa is to see every customer
that comes
in and the pride elsa and her husband
have
in the restaurant is very clear and
it is really
special. We greatly appreciate everything
you do as
part of your work and part of being
in our community. With that being
said, I
would like to thank you and say that
it is
an honor to name you the chamber of
commerce business of the month for the month of
december.
I also have something to read that was brought
to
us by senator grayson's office. His
representative
wasn't able to attend. They have a
certificate for you.
a certificate of recognition
presented to florence italian restaurant for
the business of the month
2025. I want to join with others in
recognizing florence italian restaurant
as the martinez business
of the month. Your dedication to
excellence and valued contributions
enrich
the quality and strength of our
community. On behalf of the people
of
the 9th senate district,
congratulations from senator tim grayson.
I am
going to pass the mic over to
kayla with the assembly members office.
>>
thank you very much. As
aaron said we are also here to
present you with a certificate of
recognition from
the assembly member. I am proud to
recognize florence italian restaurant
as
business of the month for december
2025. By celebrating his
fourth anniversary this establishment
distinguished itself through commitment
to
quality, hospitality and community
engagement.
floor sense a valued gathering
place for residents and visitors
alike.
the dedication, positive contributions
to the
vitality of the local economy and
character
of downtown martinez. Congratulations on the well
deserved recognition.
>> elsa
is going to say a few words.
>> hi. I'm nervous.
sorry. Okay. Thank you
all for your support. I am very proud
of myself and my husband and
my family.
thank you.
thank you so much
elsa.
>> that was the
cutest speech ever. I suspected you were
not going to say
anything. I wanted to make sure I
gave you
a special shoutout. Elsa's daughter
melissa is
in fifth grade, the same age as my
son.
it is so much fun to support the businesses
that
are run by folks that live in the
community. Like so many businesses
downtown they
have a lovely park for
outdoor seating. Every single parade,
all of
my friends and all of their
children are at their park s
every parade and elsa is a
wonderful hostess every time we
attend her restaurant.
>> our next presentation is the 2025 annual tree program update.
is that
you, joe?
>> he is
going to present this since he has
been a key and
instrumental part of our tree program
this year
coordinating with pg&e on their
right tree,
right place program.
leading the
charge to get our first phase of the
150 street planning done. We have
150 trees in.
complete
with irrigation.
>> thank you, joe. We will jump in to our
presentation here in a second.
for those of you that don't have
a copy you can look at the monitors.
that will suffice. So, beginning this
is the
annual tree program update that I
am about to give.
this is an update about the tree progress here
in martinez.
I want to remind that this
is tree city usa here in martinez.
we have a lot of
landmarks and
locations. This is not just a flak
and an award.
this is a recognition we receive as
our
commitment to trees
grows.
we are expecting 2025
to be received
early next year. Beginning off
the tree city usa program has a few
conditions. We fulfill them and meet
them here in martinez as
follows. By maintaining a tree board
or department is
what is required. We fulfill it by
the franchise and public infrastructure
and subcommittee.
they met late last month, the end of
november providing their final report
to
council by today.
having a community tree ordinance
is required as well.
we fulfilled that by the
2023 update to our municipal code
recognizing trees and puts forth rules
and regulations.
spending at
least $2
per capita on
urban forestry.
that puts us a little bit under
75,000.
celebrating arbor day. I am happy
to say this
year's
2025 arbor day went offoff
a hitch at hidden valley park. There
are pictures
in the presentation to show you what
happened out there.
we had
16 tree removals for fallen trees that
had
to be removed in the parks and
open space. 11 were removed
by our own city staff, and 5 were
removed
by contractors. Tree plantings have
skyrocketed
in martinez this year. For
arbor day we planted 11 trees at
hidden valley park. Working
with pg&e right tree right place
program, we planted 34 trees
at hidden
valley park. Please give a shoutout
to our
partners. We had local student volunteers
help us
with that. Thank you to the students
of martinez.
finally, majority
of plantings
of 2025 street trees. You will see
our fine trees in the
street medians
right now.
having them put in at the right
time helps
our trees establish well and get
off to a
good start.
the budget
allocated for the work is almost
$193,000.
well over the $75,000 we were shooting
for.
we are happy to devote the funds
and the revoerss to the environment.
to recap what we
have done, planning
to do additional work coming up in
phase
2 early next year. Then additionally
we had council help and student help
at arbor
day at hidden valley park. You can
see the pictures up there for people
that helped us put
in new trees at the park.
we continuously partner with
pg&e to complete some of the
same activities we completed this
year.
the street tree median project where
we successfully planted
150 trees.
great math on somebody's part.
somebody put the numbers together
and we were successful
and on top with that project. We were
happy
to do so. Recommendations going in
to 2026 is
to continue our successful partnership
with
p fwrvegs
e.
that is an extraordinary
partnership we have.
phase
2 projects, the beautifications of
those medians and potentially expanding
to
other medians that
are
updates are going to be
sent your
way.
then also we want to revisit
the planting trees and removing certain
trees from the downtown area. I am
happy to say we are in the planning
phase with the current contractor
for that. We have plans for the next
arbor day, april 18th, 2026 at pine
meadow
park. We are hoping to work with
pg&e to plant
additional trees
in that area.
if there are any questions, I
am happy to answer any questions that
you have about trees
in martinez or the projects that we
have.
>> thanks, appreciate the presentation.
any questions or
comments.
>> just
a comment.
I
want to thank you
for your enthusiasm.
our crews spent 574
hours working on tree projects. Some of
that you
were alluding to in
your thing was
taking down old trees,
dead pines. They call those
widowmakers, right.
>> just a few quick comments. Thank you
for all of the work this past year.
I
am excited for the phase 2 of the
street
tree projects. Phase one was 150 trees
to get
us going and phase two will be finishing
out
the remainder of the medians
throughout towns. That will be really
exciting.
I wanted to
make a quick shoutout. There is an
organization, 100,000 trees. Their
lead
would love to partner more. He has partnered
with us
in the past.
I would love to see that as
well.
>>
absolutely.
I think
that is it. We are now moving in
to public comment. Many of you have
been here before.
public comment is limited to three
minutes per speaker for items that
are not on
the
agenda.
I received
a handful of public comment speaker
cards. I will
call on
them first.
first
up is noel birch.
>>
yes, please.
>> hello.
good evening. I thought that I would
just
come by.
discuss the
martinez library. I am the manager
at the martinez
library. I am happy to be here tonight
and share during public comment a
little bit about what
is going on at your library
and what is
going on.
please hold.
>> that
was you.
>> how do I do that. >> that was a great trick.
>> that it
was your ai.
>> we had that problem
before, but never
like that.
good evening mayor and members of
the
martinez city council. My
name is noel birch.
I am the manager at the martinez library
and I am happy to
be here with a big audience to share
during
public comment a little what is going
on at the library
and what is coming up.
in october we hosted a
program where community members came
together to learn
how to sew on buttons,
fix tears.
people
were sitting together. Helping each
other and feeling
empowered to fix something they already
owned.
we offered a do it yourself
wrapping paper program. 30
participants designing their own wrapping
paper using
repurposed materials. It was
createful, joyful, sustainable and
lovely
to watch people come together, slow
down and make something
with their hands during a busy season.
younger visitors, end of november
the puppet art theater company presented
hansel
and
get grettle.
we continue to offer story time.
a consistent welcoming space for families
to
gather. Looking ahead we have
special programs. Saturday we
are hosting a winter
solstice
celebration. A I
time for reflection,
rest, recesting. --
resetting. New year's eve we
are welcoming brian scott magical
show
for kids and family. Tuesday,
january 13th we are bringing back
a
popular program from last year, clutter-
free
in 2026.
how to let
go and get organized.
I wanted to take a moment to say the
library
is so much more than
books.
we
do our best
to
meet people where they are in life.
the holidays can
be joyful and magical but they can
be
complicated and overwhelming and
lonely too.
whether you
are looking for a warm
place to sit. Just wanting
to feel a little less alone, you are
always welcome here. Thank you for
listening. Thank
you for supporting
the library.
I hope to see everyone at the library soon.
>> I am always impressed when you
get exactly three minutes. I have
two
additional speaker cards, walter
and ian. You wrote down
the marina plan. I am going to call
you
when we get to the item later. Is
there anyone else wanting to speak
on something not on the
later agenda right now? Todd, come right up.
>>
good evening. I am todd
lee from the campbell theater. I have
taken this time
to point out --can you hear me now?
I
was here last night to do the park
and
rec commissions presentation that
we have to show what is going
on. I only came here to point out
I
want the public to watch the archive
of that.
we are four months into our lease
of two years and one
of the programs that is ending is
a childrens
program, the one I am holding up.
run
by pleasant hill park and rec
and rotary club. Unfortunately the lady
who ran it will be moving to paris
in september. She
is leaving. Jim, the police chief
until 1998 for pleasant hill has
aged out. He has
relinquished that. The
program ended on sunday. It
is a near and dear thing to me.
I worked with these kids. Most of
the
kids we brought them back from
college classes. One
of the people that came
up went before everybody and she
started there when she was 8
years old.
the theater program taught her how
to do
public
speaking. She is going to
be a
corporate attorney.
learning how to speak in front of
an
audience meant so much.
all of the money they brought in and
we brought in for
the kids program and music mafia,
all of which we
do not see.
they take it out to the programs and
give it to
their charities.
I
wanted for people to go back and watch
that from the
archive. It is not just
stage play and comedy. It is a lot
that the community
does, and we bring things in from
outside. That is
all that I had to say.
thank you.
any
other
comments in council chambers
this evening? Joseph, come
on up. I want to come here and I
am super grateful about
all of the trees and everything. Hopefully
we
can continue to put trees in martinez,
because we
have bigger problems. I only
have 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
I came up here to
add vocate for the homeless. I
am not here to promote myself. Because
of
weather pattern, things are getting
worse. It is
getting colder when it should be warm
in california. We are
not going to get in to that today.
today I want
to
advocate for living space here for
the
homeless. Nothing is getting better.
I
see them going one place and another
and coming back. I
wanted to add vocate for some type
of center
where they can live at nighttime and
where they
can go and have
a place.
people are living out
on the streets. If you walk down the
street, they try to do a
good job. It is
not working. There is
feces on the ground and things that
we need to
take care of.
sometimes they
can't take care of themselves. Possibly
one of
the areas.
we have a lot of empty spaces
in martinez, but can it be for the
homeless.
you know, that is all I can think
of here today,
advocating for people that cannot
advocate
for themselves. Maybe
we can get the people aa center
where they can
live. I am always calling the center
and all I am hearing are
there are no more beds.
a lot of the homeless have livedlived
here martinez
before. If you were to sit down and
listen to their
stories, a lot of them have even lost
homes here in the city of martinez.
so they
deserve a second chance. They deserve somewhere to live.
>> any
last comments? Anyone in the
virtual audience that would like to provide
public comment tonight?
>> good evening mayor zorn
andand councilmembers. This
is jeanette kennedy.
I am calling just
to thank you all so much. Last week
you voted to make a donation for
the holiday season,
and that was very much appreciated.
it is $1,000.
that will go towards hot and
nutritious meals for those in martinez
who may go
without. And that
actually equates to
588 meals at $1.
70, our average. I wanted to let you
know you
are doing wonderful things for many
community members
who may go without a hot nutritious
meal. I
want to call in and thank you very much
for that donation.
>> thanks jeanette.
next we
have steve. I will ask you to unmute.
>> can you hear me?
>> yes. >> hello city council, mayor
and everyone. I am a town
resident in martinez. I wanted to
talk about
parks here. Hidden
lakes, from what I see is saturated.
and I think that
we need to have soccer field.
I am a soccer player myself.
you all remember a few months ago
there was a little boy who made a
request, the only one the city council --
about the need for more soccer fields.
hidden lakes fills up really quick
on
the weekends. Parking is difficult
at
times. I
am hoping the city
council can think of building another
structure similar
to hidden
lakes where the kids can enjoy
time playing sports they love and
just to
get them out of trouble. That is one
issue I had.
another one, just wanted to
send a shoutout to
the police department.
we have very professional
police officers. I had interaction
with them. I
wanted to say they are very patient.
they listen. They are very quick to
respond to calls.
that is something that I wanted
to put out there. Just encourage
our chief of police for the job he
is doing and the training they are
receiving.
I can only hope for better than that.
it is really good. Thank you.
all right. Councilmember molly,
I see your face. Welcome to
the meeting. Thank you vice mayor
malhi.
jay reminded me.
where are you calling in from? I think
it
is interesting?
>> abu dhabi, the capital city of
the united arab emirates.
>> the connection
is
great. Thank you. Excellent. Thank
you for joining us. Thank you everyone for
the comments. Let's move forward
with the consent calendar, items 3
through 8. Does council want to pull
any items?
no. I wanted to pull item
--there are a lot of people in the
room. I
just have a couple of comments.
I will provide them to the city manager
after the
fact. I will open
up the consent calendar to the
public for items
3 through 8.
how about the
virtual audience.
in that case I will bring it
back to council. Just a really quick
comment that
I wanted to highlight the item number
8,
the temporary license agreement. We
will
be seeing folks from contra
costa county.
you should be seeing people in a
shuttle going back and forth to the
hospital. I think there will
be a lot of people doing that and
people
start noticing once that
goes live.
>> anyone like to
make a
motion?
>> make a motion to bring items 8
to 3 on the consent calendar.
>>
second.
>> vice malhi.
>> aye. >> councilmember jay howard.
>>
yes.
>> councilmember greg young.
>>
yes.
>> councilmember debbie mckillop.
>> aye. >>
motion passes, all ayes.
>> thank
you so much.
we have two general business items
this evening.
a
adopt
a resolution.
in a form approved by
the city attorney. City manager would
like to
start us off.
>> yes.
thank you, maryland.
--mayor.
>> back in july we were before
the
city council and the public with tucker
sadler
to receive a presentation and then
ultimately direction
from the city council
to pursue an exclusive negotiating
agreement with tucker sadler.
what we learned in the
subsequent months is that it takes a
while
to negotiate an exclusive negotiations
agreement. We
worked diligent
ly ly to
reach tonight's
culmination.
this will mind an agreement between
the parties.
I wanted
to acknowledge the project team that
worked on this.
it has been a collaborative
effort. The assistant city
manager. Community of economic
development director, planning director,
pio, my awesome assistant eve
in the back.
we have the city
attorney and
assistant city attorney. Matt
is sitting across from me over here.
behind me we have greg and diane
from tucker sadler. You will hear
from them in a little
bit. With that I am happy to turn
it over to
lauren, our assistant city manager
and
she will get our presentation kicked off.
>> good evening, members of the
council and public.
this
was an important initiative the council
took on. We like to
make sure that
all
decisions align with our plan. I wanted
to call it out. There were
five goals.
one of those is a vibrant
and sustainable waterfront
and marina.
the strategies
include prioritizing revenue, engaging
the community about the fiscal reality
of
the marina.
assessing the economic performance
and addressing where
next a
vate partnership.
why this
matters? Even before we cemented
the vision in our strategic
plan, this has been a long-standing
priority
for many,
many decades.
frequent flooding in the area. All
of
this has caused safety issues. For
most of us
that have been out there this is very
obvious
to everyone. We know that
routine dredging needs to occur, however
the marina enterprise fund cannot
shoulder this cost
because it does not bring in enough
revenue.
we can't rely on the
city general fund dollar for on
going dredging. The path can no longer
be
a band-aid approach, and rather a
full
replacement is really needed. Most
critically even in
the current state to maintain the
status
quo, doing what we are doing
today, it would requires
ongoing subsidies from thethe
fund. I will get in to the finances
in a second. Prior to us meeting
tucker sadler we found ourselves at
a fork in
the road. We knew that we have to do
something different.
so, harding financial challenges,
the marina enterprise fund, for a long
time now
the costs at the marina have been
more than what is being
brought in.
there is a lack of federal
and state funding. Folks that have
been following us might recall we
did put a
lot of
effort
into going after a substantial epa
grant.
once we had the changes hands
at the federal level, that quickly
dried
up. Federal and state grants unreliable
and a lot of the time one-
time funding.
since fiscal year 21-22, the
city provided over $2 million
in loans from the general fund to
support
the marina. We
are projecting
$650,000 a year.
those who
have followed
the budget are aware in order
to balance the budget we had to cut
$3 million out
of the city budget. There has been
a significant
impact. The more that we do continue
to provide
the subsidy, unfortunately what it
is going
to result in the future is
impacting significantly core services.
that is always a
dangerous place to be. But we tried
very hard
to preserve being able to maintain
all of the core services.
>> I will
start off with
some background.
back in middle to summer 2024,
it marked a
turning point.
that was an
effort that was
needed to happen. It formally identified
the
need for public/private partnership
to reinvest in our
marina. Our long-standing partner
ended
their 20-year relationship
with the city.
it provided a challenge as we
had to quickly learn how to run
a marina and how we did not want to
based on the size of
our organization.
it created the opportunity to search
for
a new marina operator and look at
what opportunities
that we have with the development
partner because
we have this document that was really
the talking point.
the city really set out and we
were able to find a partner. They
are great at being
able to help us in the interim, but we
really
needed to find a longer term solution
that needed
to be explored. I am going to provide
background on the trust land use plan
and why
it is
important.
senate bill, it
tied land transfer to the city subject
to public trust obligation requiring
the city
to prepare a trust land use plan and
anyone
that has tied trusted land needs to
prepare these documents to
outline how the organization envisions
the marina
being used to be in alignment with
the public trust land requirements.
it is our commitment to
the state of
california.
the lands must
serve all of the
marina.
there are a lot
of visitor serving uses and other
related
amenities.
this
really shaped what is feasible and
enforces the need for a careful
structured partnership
that aligns with public trust
requirements and that
private residential and non-trust
house suggest
prohibited under state
law.
as part
of our
introduction, after the
departure, we were
actively pursuring
to try to find something to be consistent
with a trust
land use plan.
many declined to take over or to
rebuild. You know, the
limited stand alone revenue that we
take in.
safe harbor marina, who is
a very well-known marina expressed
interest
and came out with
due diligence
and realized having any long-term
success at the
marina would need an integrated land
side development
in it and it couldn't just be marina
operations. They were not land
side development. However they worked
in partnership
with other developers on other projects,
and that is
when they introduced to us tucker
sadler, a partner
they worked on with in a couple of
areas and wanted
us to have a conversation with them
as
a potential development partner. Because
they
have experience with complex waterfront
type projects. When
you think of a water
front project, there are so many
regulatory agencies and you have to have
that experience. It is
in the city's best interest to make
sure that we
are doing so with the partners that
have the strength.
tucker sadler came up and they evaluated
the marina and
expressed interest
and presented the initial concept
to
the
theory in july.
that is kind of where we are at.
these have occurred over the past
four months. I will turn that over to lauren.
>> so we have been busy in partnership
with
tucker sadler. We have had
early and ongoing engagement
with stakeholders for several months
now. These groups
include, but they are not limited
to at this time
scouts here in the audience, yacht
club,
eagle marine, contra costa county,
federal
and state elected
ed representatives.
chamber of commerce.
contra costa building trades
unite here.
many local sports leagues
and organizations. I know they are
following along with
the conversation too.
just to keep them
engaged and informed on
the process. Tucker sadler has
gotten to know these stakeholders
and reached
out to have conversations about the
project. Through the experience, and
tucker sadler engaging with all of
the stakeholders. It is
really helped gain
an understanding of martinez's
history and community.
we learned some fun facts about
joe dimaggio.
he spent a
lot of time engaging with businesses
and residents. That is a lot of the
stuff
people don't see. We have been working with him
to
engage to get
to know the community.
in addition, the city council and
members of staff went down to san
diego.
this was reported out by the
city manager in november. We went
down to
visit some of tucker sadler's projects
that
are comparable to what he is proposing
here. We got a
good understand ing of
tucker sadler explaining things how
they took things
start to finish and dealt with the
regulatory agencies
down there at the
waterfront.
members
of staff and the city council met
with tucker
sadler. Again, we
shared everything from
the
junior tow what we would like
to see in
the future.
staff conducted a
reference check.
we
called the government agency
s what we heard overall is
that tucker sadler brings a strong
design vision, creative
problem solving and
collaborative approach.
also we
have had as thethe manager mentioned,
four months
of negotiations.
we have had numerous
closed
sessions with the
developer, staff. We have been working
through the terms of the
negotiating agreement.
we feel like the
exclusive negotiating agreement is ready
for council consideration and adoption.
>> what is an ena? An
exclusive negotiating agreement to
negotiate for
a potential project. Commit to each
other
to negotiate only with each other
for the
site and for the potential project.
the goal and the outcome of the
ena is to affirm we are each
others potential partners and not
approval
of a project.
that would come later. The framework
has
a clear timeline and set
of requirements and states plainly
it
is not right for either party, either
party can end the negotiations but
the
developer is on the hook to pay for
the
cost if negotiations
terminate.
it has a 24-
month negotiating period.
we anticipate it
as the process finalizes towards
the proposed site plan and the details
of the project.
this is not aa anything will come
but it
is a promise to
negotiate.
the city will only consider
a fully financed
project.
the marina needs significant
upgrades and a new
sea wall. It
is not fully fleshed out because they
have not completed the public out
reach, and design, engineering, civil
and marine
engineering processes that will come.
but what it
does have is a
prelim inary
process description.
the land side, creating revenue
to cover and finance the infrastructure
and recreational aspects includes
community and open space uses, community
and
restaurants, hotels and event spaces
and parking and access
improvements. It also calls for the
waterside,
the marina side to include the significant
marina updates
and physical plan improvements,
seawall and breakwater and
non-motorized
access as well. Along with the potential
for ferry service if
we can work that out. Planning for
the marinas the
sea scouts, yacht
club and other users. That would be
tucker sadler and our selected marina
development
partner. The
ena
creates the frame work.
beyond what the minimums
are. Beyond
the
bare minimum.
it requires tucker sadler to
pay all of the costs.
engineering, financial, environmental
and
other key project studies
as we go.
it is an agreement to work
towards a potential
product.
next steps after
tonight we will proceed to the next phase.
we will
have a busy 2026
ahead of us. We will
kickoff a broader, larger process
as
stated.
we will also
start formal project planning and
environmental review.
we
will be negotiating a development
agreement for the
project.
a full
review will occur
key
waterfront issues that most folks
are
well aware of, including sea level
rise, traffic,
how to get into and out of the area
and biological resources. For tonight's
purpose
and for tonight's action there is
no
environmental impact for approving the ena.
regarding public out
reach, and we have said it many
times. We are committed to
robust public
out reach.
we already had a
lot on the calendar. Every pit stop
that we
make to celebrate the city's 150th
is an opportunity that
we see to engage the public on the
project.
we will provide periodic
updates on key aspects of
the project via social
media, website and e-newsletters.
as-needed we will make sure that the public
is
informed on the various processes that are
occurring and the milestones. We will
also
engage the parks
recreation, marina and art commission.
that
is what we refer to as
prmac
c and the planning commission. That
will be in the early to the late spring
and
presentations will be made to civic and
community groups and in fact myself
and a lot of the
members of the project team have been
in
touch scheduling those
presentations. So we already have
a lot on
the calendar for early
next year.
before I turn it over to
tucker sadler, I want to cover the
fiscal impact. There is significant
fiscal
impact to the future of the project.
first of all
for here and now,
tucker sadler
will --this is written into the ena
as the assistant city attorney
mentioned. A full feasibility analysis
will occur.
there is a lot to be learned
on the potential for revenue to the
city and
also
costs for the project.
potential benefits include eliminating
the
general fund subsidy. The $650,000
I spoke about earlier would no
longer be born on the city and full
marina reinstruction funded by the
developer. Future fund revenues.
that is always something we
are at
a point to find.
transit occupancy tax, and that comes
from people staying in hotels, interest
tax and
lease payments. There are a lot of brand-
new revenue
streams that would be created from a
project down the line. Overall,
the project supports long-term
economic vitality in martinez and
including in
the downtown there are a lot of opportunities for
cross collaboration and
cross pollination
from people visiting both and
shopping, dining and spending time
in both areas.
I will turn it
over to our
tucker sadler team.
again, for working as hard as you have to
get
to this
night tonight.
thank you for the community members
out
here showing up up support or not
in
support of what we are doing. I want
to thank
you for being here. It is important
that
all of us are working together. This
will be
a part of the martinez community.
we want it to be
something we are all proud of. I want
to
thank you all. I want to wish everybody
a happy
holiday season.
I want to start with a couple of slides.
I wanted to start with the
reason why
martinez
. If you think of
joe dimaggio, the marina is home plate.
it
is right there
catching all
of pitches being thrown at it.
it is easy for this to be the
hub where we can get a new transit
center in here and get the ferry to
come back. We had
a ferry in this location. Now it is
time to bring it back. It
is time to bring that back and
to make this be a new
transit hub for
martinez. It is
important to note that we are
nestled betweenbetween nature preserves
and the
ball fields, the
bochi ball,
the sports complex, and the direct
tie to downtown.
it is not supposed to be stand
alone. It is supposed to be
something bringing the community together
and
supports each other and supports downtown
and supports the ball field and
the events around
here and event
s that are now going to be
a generator of taxes
and money and for the community to allow
us to continue
to improve.
this is the conceptual plan that we
came up with.
we have
been working with safe
harbor.
to create a place
that everyone wants to come and to
be a part
of. That is what we were focusing
on.
we will be working with safe
harbor to analyze everything that
needs
to be done.
coming up with
a phasing
plan. The goal with what we
are tryingtrying to do is that we
are creating a board walk, an environment
along
the waterfront that is vibrant and
has
uses that people can interact with
and that tie
the
bike paths and nature
preserves and the park. You go on a
boardwalk through a development and
back the other side
and back into the nature preserve.
we want to be a
partner in that
aspect. We want to be a partner with
those uses that are already out there.
the sea
scouts need a new home. They need
a
place that they can
continue to develop and become the
number one place
in the u.s.
we want to house international
and national activities out here and
I think thisthis
a perfect opportunity to
do that.
we want to think of things
in terms
of entertainment.
have the
mayor's dress out here for the state
of the
city address at the waterfront. We
also
want to look at an
opportunity to host different
things out here that bring
people here.
one of the goals is to bring people
to the water
and give them
a reason to come out here
and experience martinez. When they come
to the water, they
are going to come downtown. The more
we can get
them toolinger and stay, the more
the charm of
the community is going
to come forward.
we are excited about
the opportunity. We are
excited about tonight.
we look
forward to the
next step.
and then into the plan that
is something the community has bought
in on and has given us insight on
and
becomes something we are all very proud of.
quick aerial shot
from the water. Over the ball fields.
the
preserve. The
park.
how we are going to improve and
build off it. Congratulations on your
successful redo of the fishing
pier.
wonderful job. You guys deserve
it.
fantastic.
what a great job was done on that
fishing pier. You should be proud of
that.
that is something we want to use
to propel us forward into
the future.
>> I will just recognize
our recommendation before we turn
it over
for questions and discussion. The
recommendation is to
adopt a resolution authorizing the
mayor to
enter into an exclusive negotiating
agreement between
the city and tucker sadler architects
in a form approved by the city attorney
for revitalization of the martinez
waterfront
and marina. Back over to you, mayor.
>> thank you for the presentation.
all of the information was helpful
and I felt like it brought everybody
up to
speed who had not been attending all
of
the meetings like we have.
we will start with questions from
the council.
then we are going to open it up
to public comment.
I will bring it back to council
for their comments. Any larger
conversations we can keep would be
great.
that way we have an opportunity to
hear from everybody in
the public. I will
not be reducing public comment down
from three minutes so
you don't have to cut your prepared speeches
if you
have any. Council, any questions for
staff or tucker sadler they would like
to kick us off with?
vice mayor malhi, any questions before opening
it up to
public comment?
>> yes.
I would be happy to defer to members
of the probable
and preserve my questions and comments
for after.
>>
okay. I will say a few things. I wanted
to highlight a few items that were
brought
up by staff that I wanted to make
suresure
everybody heard.
can you share
the figure while we are
talking.
to
make everyone sure of what we are
talking about.
the trust land use process. We
were talking about a bigger area.
the figure that you see
in the staff report and up on the
screen here in a
couple of minutes.
not that one?
not that one. It
is in the staff report. In the ena
or
the staff report.
to me it was
a big deal
and
kat is able to share that we will
come back
to it. I wanted to thank staff for
compiling the information about what
is and is not allowed
on state
lands.
I know I have received questions from
the
public wanting to clarify those items.
thank you. Thank you so much. This
figure here that
is being shared as a reminder, the
blue outline
was part of our trust land use plan
including all
of the area that the city has control
over,
but the pink line represents what
we are talking about
tonight. Anything that gets discussed
as part of
the ena tonight or anything leading
up to
a potential development agreement
is only referring to the space
within the
pink line.
ena
is the negotiating agreement. The
developing agreement where we talk
about what is go to happen
as part of the
development comes next.
everyone said it in the presentation.
I
wanted to just
highlight that. If there are any comments
from the public, which I know there
are at least
a handful. We will start with the
speaker
comments. Once I have gone through the
speaker cards if
there is anybody else raise your hand.
like
I mentioned, I will not be cutting
comments down from the three minutes.
if you don't need to use up
the three minutes, make your comments
brief and give
your time to the next person in line.
with that,
as promised, walter would you like to kick us off?
>> hi everyone.
my name is walt er er with
the sea scouts.
I want to make what we do a
bit more known. I am
14 years old.
I joined
five years ago when I was 10 years
old. It
has given me so much over the years.
thanks to the program
I have so many great friends and I
have
met countless wonderful people I never
would have
met without the program. I have a
goal for my
future career that I am
passionate about. Sea scouting is a
truly amazing thing. The sea scout
ship
albatross has been in the martinez
arena for
93 years and has grown thousands of
kids
into capable sailors overs it life.
the program as a whole is unfortunately
not as well known
as it should be and many people haven't heard
of it.
we would not be
here without the help and support
of a lot of great
organizations in martinez.
it has gotten kids
interested in boats, tugs, the
navy, and many more parts of
the maritime industry and teaching
leadership
and life skills. Thank you everyone.
>> next, ian.
>> my name is ian. I am
here to offer my support for the
new marina plan.
the
marina and waterfront has been a memorable
place for
our
family.
my son has been a sea
scout for five years and now is
a bowsman for
the albatross, an important youth
program for the community for years.
the program is pivotal
in the young man that he is becoming.
it has given him opportunities to
learn skills,
see places and meet people I could
never imagined when I was his
age. He has an idea where
he wants to go when he
grows up.
the sea scout program turns kids into
capable, disciplined young
adults ready for the challenges life
and any career will
throw at them.
their annual sea fare in
march brings over 100 scouts
from all over california and even
hawaii.
if we
were to lose the base or have it
shrunk, that would
remove an environment event
from
the season and end a 40-year tradition in martinez.
thanks.
>> next, leon marshall.
>> I will be brief. My name is leon
marshall. I am a representative from
the ibw local 302.
I would like to thank the city of
martinez for including provision
5f allowing plas in the
ena. Secondly, as a
lifelong citizen of the count issy I
am excited
about the possibility of a project
creating jobs for the
locals.
lastly, we are looking
forward to partnering with the city
and tucker sadler
to get the project
underway.
thank
you and happy holidays.
>> this is
want
most supportive public
comment. Mike hammock. Clapping before he comes up.
>> good evening and happy
holidays toto everyone. I am
basically here to say thank you to
those that participated in the
tour on november 13th down at the
sea scout base.
it
gave us the opportunity to
walk through and show you what it
gives
to the youth and what they give in
return.
thank you.
young lady, you are inspiring.
walter walked away and said she knows
what
she is talking about. Thank you, sir.
I took the time to talk to the
muellers.
on behalf of the sea scouts, we thank you for your support.
happy holidays.
>> john manner.
I am the program director for the
stockton sea
scouts.
we are up to 36
kids now. One thing I don't have
is a base.
prior to my time in stockton, I was
the chief mate
in martinez.
now I am fighting to save the base.
whether you decide to get in with
the negotiations or
not, as I see it right now we are
on some bad foundations for us
moving forward. Whether that time
is now to
better understand and get verbiage
and some
type of proof of where we are going, that
would be great.
whether that is later on after
you guys have made the choice to enter
that agreement,
we understand that
too. Right
now, you know, this
is the member of martinez.
I am kind of running stockton, but
it looks like
we are losinglosing something right now.
look to you if
you believe in what we are doing for
the
youth.
actually, the maritime industry is
growing as far as mariners needed.
that is more truthful than
ever. My own sponsor will pay
first-year tuition to any
kid in my program wanting to go to
the maritime academy. I would like
a city and developer
to match what my sponsor is willing
to bring
to the table. Thank
you.
>> sam lovelace.
>> hi. I
wanted to start this evening
with gratitude.
I wanted to thank you for your
time and partnership and thank you
if for showing
up and having
interest in our ogram and
what we do.
for those in the
room that are a sea scout
or are affected by
sea scouts.
this is a wonderful group of
kids. I am really
proud of the kids and who they are.
you know, we are
here to showcase how important that
we are
and how important that we are to the
community. You
know, we are a community. A lot of
the
people here tonight came from other
areas of sea
scouting. They are not just
in martinez.
they are a big bay
community and global community as
well. Thank you to all of
the kids and the adult volunteers
for being here
tonight. I know you
would rather be home doing your homework,
but they are
here showing up and showing you how
much
we care about what we do here. You
will hear from
a lot of us tonight. We are, you know,
we are equally excited about this
marina revitalization plan, but we
are
scared about what it means. Change
is not
always a bad
thing.
we are here to support a plan and
we want to be supported
as well.
thank you for being here and listening
to us and
thank you for my kids who make it all
worth it. Thank you.
>> I don't
see any other sea scout names. I want
it to
be clear that the sea scouts are called
out by name in
the
ena.
there are so
many comments. Before you
do public comment, check how the ena
is worded.
>> I
do serve as commissioner on the arts
commission. My kids enjoyed youth
sports at
facilities adjacent
to the project area
called out. Particularly the
waterfront soccer fields. This is
not just an improvement but opportunity
to transform the waterfront to reflect
the pride
and the potential of martinez. It
will
create a vibrant space where residents
and visitors can explore, relax
and connect over great food and drink.
the benefits go beyond
recreation. It will attract youth
sports
tournaments bringing teams and families
from across
the region.
now
they have a reason to stay, dine and
explore
our great city.
just go down to the waterfront. There
are
great options
down here.
it
is an investment in community
vitality and the city. I
encourage the council
and mayor to adopt the
ena.
kirsten
olson.
sonia.
>>
hello. I
am
with unite
local 2.
housekeepers to bartenders,
cooks, front
desk agents.
we are newer to martinez. I really
appreciate all of the conversations
that I have had with people.
you know, this is a project that could
bring a lot of
hospitality
jobs to martinez. They can be part
of
a thriving
local
economy. We support you
heading to the
next step and seeing
how this project continues to take
shape.
thank you.
>> that is the end of my
speaker cards. By show of hands who
else would like to speak? We are going
to go
left to right and we are going to
start with
you. With the vest. Yeah.
>> my name
is chris, a senior
organizer with the local
carpenters union representing roughly
4,000
members. I would like to thank and
recognize greg and diane with tucker
sadler
for their leadership and foresight
with the martinez waterfront project.
their
willingness to think of
blue collar men andand
reflects a strong commitment to fair
labor and
show what is possible when developers
and organized labor
work together. I wanted
to voice our
strong support. This project is an
investment in martinez.
good,
local, middle class jobs. These
are workers completing projects safely
and on
time. Our members take pride in
building spaces that last for
generations.
I urge
you to support the ena. Thank
you guys.
>>
good evening mayor, council.
sheet metals local 104. I am on the
executive board for the contra costa
construction
and trades council and central labor
council.
I wanted to
thank the council and
tucker sadler
for recognizing the importance of
skilled labor.
you hear skilled
labor a lot.
70,000 registered apprentices in the
state of california are
in the building and construction trades.
90%
of those 70,000 are
union apprentices.
thank you and we support this ena.
>>
good evening mayor and councilmembers.
I am assistant business
manager representing over
1,300 electrical workers here in contra
costa county.
we definitely love being here. I will
keep it short.
thank you for the every time
you put in and we are looking forward
to making this the best project that
it can be.
>> there was one
other raised hand. Anyone else?
come on up.
>>
joe summers. We
represent 89 unions and 85,000
working families.
I wanted to recognize
the project for what
it is
you know, it needs to be
done right. What I have seen and the
discussion council has
had and my interactions
with council. There is a commitment
to make sure
that this is revitalizing and a
community
partnership and there are
good jobs.
we
have
a middle
class that
continues to thrive and
see where this city needs to be and
how it can be a huge opportunity if
we do it
right. Thank you so much.
>> my name is kevin bacon and I am
a resident here in martinez. Sports
man club
board director, and a member of
the martinez yacht club both located
in the marina park. I am proud to
say I
am the winner of the
martinez cup.
if you didn't know the martinez is
the birthplace
of the martini. The
iconic drink of winston
churchill and
007. This is
a city of martinez
harbor bond.
the value is
$500.
it is quite a
big investment.
the
public had faith in
major improvements, I
did also.
this is the best location in
the county. The
only marina and commercial enterprise
in
the county.
it definitely is going to be a popular
destination.
>>
thank you.
>> all right. Yeah. All the
way
in the back.
sea
scouts, you're awesome.
I am just me. I like to think
I represent the little person, nothing
to 13
that like to come down and fly the
kites at
the marina. People say kites.
they are for kids. That is not true.
fbi am going back
to colombia for a
kite festival.
kites are
international.
the city across
the pay last july asked me to
be their headline for their first-
ever
kite festival, 10:00 in
the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon.
I had made a lot of
kites. The
advertisement came down to a free
event and get a free
kite and meet the kite man of martinez.
there
was over 1,000 kites in
the sky. You look up saying there are
a
thousand smiles. Please
don't forget the little people at
the
marina. Please. Thank
you madam mayor.
>> thank you.
kayla. Come on up.
>> the assembly
member strongly supports
the proposed exclusive negotiation
agreement between the city of
martinez and tucker sadler for the
revitalization of the martinez waterfront
and marina.
for decades the community shared a
vision of a
safe and vibrant waterfront
reflecting martinez's identity and
serves the public
interest and is articulated in the
city's
strategic plan and the waterfront
marina trust use plan, and tonight's
action is an
important step towards responsibly
advancing it.
the assembly member recognizes
the serious challenges facing the
marina today.
the infrastructure exceeded the useful
life
and years of deferred
maintenance making the current situation
financially and
operationally unsustainable. Continuing
the status
quo places strain on the city's general
fund and diverts resources from
essential services. Tucker sadler
has
a proven track record of working with
the community
to develop topnotch waterfronts that
all can be
proud of and has been impressed with
the out reach
and engagement with the office this
early in the process.
the assembly member supports the safeguards
in the agreement and has full confidence
in
tucker sadler as a solid negotiating
partner.
if successful the project could create
a wonderful new access and recreation
amenities for residents. Attract visitors
and businesses to a marquee destination
and eliminate the ongoing subsidy
and
shift infrastructure costs away from
the city and generate new revenues.
for
all of
these reasons
the assembly member urges the council
to move this process forward. Thank
you
for your commitment and to the future of martinez.
thank you.
>> similar to kite man, I am
representing me and my kids. I am
also
here to share that I do believe and
hope that
tucker sadler will incorporate
our needs. I used to live in
washington, d.c. That was where the
waterfront
they developed there. Of course before
it was
developed all of the locals were worried
and concerned.
I remember when we would go with the
kids. There
was so much open and free space. There
were stairs
for kids to run up and down.
there was a gazebo
area. There was so much I was surprised.
because in this day and age we are
used
to businesses being in our face.
this is about economic development.
the
businesses will thrive.
free family fun and
multigenerational. We can go on hikes,
but kids
in strollers or grandparents visiting
can't. I remember
in washington, d.c. , there were so
many
multigenerational families walking
around. They were there just to walk
around the water.
I believe it because I have seen
their development make more of a
community than being more of
a
development. Another quick thing.
just growing up in san diego as
well. I have been fortunate to lived
in many places, but I love martinez
the
most. We used to go to see port village.
it became a regular part of the routine.
we
went to see it and walked around.
other
people can come and spend money, but
we
can come and not spend money here.
I will come back to you at the end.
>> my name is
mike higgins, a lifelong resident
of martinez.
I am protective of our town. I know
we need
a shot in the arm in the marina.
looking at the initial renderings,
it is too much for
our town to scale. It needs to be
scaled down.
we have one way in and out of the
marina.
I am sure all of you have been stuck
when there is
a train. Then you are going to
impact families coming from all
over the state.
they are
not always the
brightest people.
they wanted to
have graffiti on the outside.
looking at the additional
renderings. It may belong in
fremont but they didn't take into
consideration
the historic value of
the house. It does not fit in our
town. The amphitheater, we already
have one.
what are we doing
with that.
I would like to see a skate parkpark
expansion. It
is outdated and not conducive to learning.
I would like to see it being a part of the fold.
thank you.
>> hello. My name is jesse.
I am a sea scout. I want to address
you as a
citizen and not a sea scout. Back
in
2018 the
nimitz group --
they promised to bring in residents
and
visitors to the city. That hasn't
happened. They are
citing
the costs of the
development was greater than
it was worth.
do not prioritize a big
hotelhotel
revenue. Thank you.
>> I
wanted to say what sea scouts
means to me.
>> it has been
a
gateway. I found a program that challenged
me, trusted
me and helped me to grow in ways I
couldn't imagine.
it taught me more than navigation
and
safety. It taught me responsibility, and
I learned that
others rely on me and that
preparation matters and confidence
comes with experience. Each challenge
pushed
me to step up. Over time I
became capable, focused and more
self assured.
the community made the
difference. The
fellow sea scouts believed in me and
held me
to a higher
standard. I found encouragement and
things that were
difficult
and pride
in accomplishing myself. More than
that it helped
me to shape my values, work ethics
and
sense of
responsibility.
it helped me to shape the person that I
am today.
thank you.
>> hello. This comment is related
to the various recreational spaces
being considered in the presentation.
my name is alex
johnson. I am a parent of two young
children
who play soccer here. Many of our
fields available are in poor
condition and some are unsafe. I witnessed
games that were cancelled and
children injured due to field conditions
caused by
lack of maintenance.
we
want to take that same pride in our
fields
and here in the
city of martinez.
our children serve a safe and
quality place to play
and grow.
I strongly support
this meaningful investment. I
want to ensure the ongoing maintenance
and
upkeep is
included.
thank you for
your time
and consideration.
>>
first off, I want to
thank everyone. One thing that I
know is that
the downtown marina area, it means
a
lot to us.
I encourage everybody to
come to the city
council meetings if you
are interested in the marina. We have
an amazing shifting culture. It is
a turning
point for the city right now. But
what I
wanted to encourage everybody is to
consider the wildlife, right. Like
a lot of us
go out to the marina
literally just to watch these beautiful
animals
do their thing.
it is important that we preserve it.
I am
for financial gain, yet I am more for
the people of
martinez and what they want
and value.
I have seen people come
and I have seen people go. But
the marina space means a lot.
people go there just to get a breath
of fresh
air, to think and just sit by the
water and touch the sand, right. I
am for
development down there. It needs to
be developed.
I am sure each and every one of
us tripped off of a pothole and almost broke
our ankles. We need
newness down there.
not ignoring the
people of
martinez.
my question is
how
are the hotels doing
now?
55 seconds.
I got more. So
the amphitheater. I know we have an
amphitheater.
my mom rants and raves, the wind is
too
crazy. This and that. We
had an active amphitheater. We have
not taken advantage
of it. By putting a bigger amphitheater,
how
are we going to draw the people in
if we
can't even draw in small bands and what
not and use the amphitheater that
we
have. We do have things down there.
yes, it
is broken, but we need to
consider how we can generate income
in the process while
they are developing around the people
of the city
of martinez. I am looking forward
to
hear what the actual people of the
city of martinez.
it is up to you guys to shape the
waterfront, especially generational
individuals.
tony, I value everything that I do.
I know, negative five seconds.
city scouts, they deserve this.
the sea scouts,
the boy scouts and
girl scouts. They change lives.
anyone else
want to make a comment? No. We will go back to tim.
>> good evening. I am the
executive director of
the
contra costa
trade council.
we are happy to see
the labor
provisions.
I love the comments
that we heard. One
thing that we appreciate is the
robust and thethe engagement that
is going
to take place.
I know the council, staff,
the developer and the community
will be having.
you know, also
providing revenue to provide
to parks and other
services. I wanted to urge the council
to to start with
the ena so the discussions with begin
and
all of the viewpoints can be heard,
and we look
forward getting to work on the project
once it moves forward.
thank you very much.
>> all right. We have covered everyone who
told me they wanted to speak. Anyone
else,
last call for council chambers? All right.
we
will go to the virtual
audience.
I don't have any
hands.
vice mayor malhi, would you
like to start?
>> yes, and thank you very
much madam mayor
and staff.
a couple of things or questions that
I had. Then just
a general comment.
in the staff report, and I think this
is
worth
reiterating here.
it is my understanding that no no
city funds will be used as part of
the next
phase. I wanted to confirm that
with
staff. The developer
is going to be responsible for fronting
the
cost along with staff time and
other related
costs.
is that
correct?
>> yes.
that is correct.
in
the lead up to
tonight's meeting, I
have heard concern
s
s about a perception.
that it is
essentially a no bid contract with
a single
developer. Why hasn't the city engaged
other perspective
developers.
I know it was
. It
is my understanding that there was
a call that was put out.
folks were invited.
conversations were held.
there
was no interest other
than the one
expressedexpressed by
tucker sadler. Can
staff speak to
that and what
other partners.
>> I can touch on
that briefly. When we
were proceeding with conversations
we developed a
list of the marina operators and with
the
understanding of knowing that our
infrastructure was
30 years past the life cycle. We
also wanted to learn more from them
as to what the next
steps would
be.
part of
the conversations were helping us
through the phase.
many of them said that
is great.
if you want to do development, we
can
have conversations.
all the
conversations led to not available
at this time.
that is not
something we have the funding to move
forward with.
when we
move forward with
safe harbor and
they recommended a conversation with
tucker sadler.
many of them were about ways that
we
can move forward that does not put
the citycity risk
nascarly.
for when you
do competitive bids or as
you meet with multiple
developers. That satisfies that requirement.
>> purchasing policy 300.
you are correct.
the process that
was used in the spirit and
the procedures set
forth in this policy.
>> this is all
new to
us and me as well. It is waterside
development. As we learn more about
waterside
and the complexity and trust lands and
what is required, there are so
many regulatory agencies involved
as part of the process. We will
be going through a lotlot
updating the plan, going
through state
lands
there are
a lot of
different heavies
to manage.
we need to bring
in partners that understand how
to navigate that.
the council and staff really believed
that the partner is
one that will help us with
the process.
that
is the part that has gotten others
in
trouble for
it.
like everyone has mentioned
tonight. This is phase one. We
will start to bring forward the information
for us to determine the viability
moving forward the next 18 to 24
months. I hope that answers your questions.
>>
yes, thank you so much. I
really appreciate that very thorough
response, and
I hope that will belay some of
the concerns that I have heard out
there by
some in our community, although perhaps
not all.
I think that is very helpful in terms
of providing
that context. This didn't just
materialize out of thin air. That
there was
in fact a really robust sort
of engagement with multiple perspective
partners, and I appreciate you providing
some
insight in terms the
tenor of the earlier conversations.
thank
you very much for that. Speaking of
studies, I mean
that I think one of the things that I
am going to
be looking very
closely at is the economic
feasibility study that will come out of the
process. I
think that it is very important to
be
able to have concrete data
that can speak to the financial viability
of
some of the commercial aspects that
are proposed here before
us. And I know that will come about
as part of the
ena period.
I will be
looking closely about
the viability
of an overcrossing,
if you will.
we have this
proposal.
that is going to be
something that will be really key
for me.
I appreciate
the comments that were expressed by
the
sea scouts.
rest assured that, you know, we
hear the
comments
expressed tonight. I neil confident
that we can
reach a
mutual ly
satisfactory
agreement. We recognize
how crucial the
program is.
the wonderful opportunities that
it provides to the youth in the
community. I wanted to shoutout the
labor
provisions. That is something very
important to me and
making sure that we have
pla in place as well as our
hospitality workers
as well. I do feel
like there is an opportunity
to bring much needed
development to the part front. And
also the fact that, you know, this
has got
the potential to bring a lot of really
great
union jobs into our community.
I definitely appreciate that. That
said,
I think it is important this is
not the be all
end all.
we have committed to that. We are
going to
stick to that. We
want to hear from
the community. I definitely appreciated
the
mayor's comment at the outset of
tonight's meeting.
helping to frame
the
discussion.
some of the conversations that
I have had.
I think that there
is a perception there that
the marina,
their understanding of the marina
is very
different than proposed
in what is before us here tonight.
we are
talking about an area that is
adjacent to the waterfront and it
does not
impact the part that is there by the
east
bay regional park
district for instance.
I think that is very important
for us to emphasize here.
those are the questions and the comments
that I had.
my vote
tonight will be to move
forward with the adoption of the
ena.
>> I have one question I would
love for tucker sadler to speak to.
I appreciated the comment about things
he heard the community
speak to. One comment
we have heard is the development
pulling people from
the downtown. Can you speak
about how the
downtown and any development
might workwork together.
>>
the uses at the
waterfront are not the same as the
uses that are downtown. They
are complementary. Will there be restaurants
down there?
sure there will. There are restaurants in
downtown as well.
but when you look at
aa restaurant, you can't design
a restaurant to house everyone that
will
be down at the
waterfront. They are
logically going to go to downtown.
they will
frequent the restaurants in downtown
as well. That is
how we play off of each other. If
the restaurants in downtown is full
because there is a festival downtown,
they
are going to the waterfront and
frequent those restaurants.
the things make this be
synergistic between the waterfront
and downtown. We are going to
be looking at trying to provide a
shuttle that
will take you from
downtown to the waterfront
and vice versa.
having a festival that
celebrates both. You are going back
and forth. We are
here to
complement downtown.
>> hello everybody. This is for real.
everyone should be excited, because I
am.
I loved to hear
everyone's concerns.
this
is scary. This is a new
journey. We haven't been on
this journey before.
I want
to tell everyone we are in this together.
we
have heard a lot from the public tonight.
there are
going to be a ton more public
output or public comment opportunities.
we
are going to seek all of the
concerns.
we don't even know all
of the questions that this has. I
am going to vote for this
ena.
we need the help of the community.
we want to know what it is you are
concerned about and
what you want in there and what things
we have
not considered. Tucker sadler is here
with their vision.
there are
key elements in the division that
are important to make
sure the project is
successful.
you need to have drivers to pull
in some revenue and balance out
the amount of improvements that are
going
on down there. Think about
the amount of money that is coming
in to the
community to develop the asset. Probably
close to
a billion dollars. That is a lot of
infrastructure
and money coming into the community
and coming in to
martinez. There is a lot that we can
do
shaping the amount of funding and
the support that we are going to
get. As
satinder shared earlier, we are not
spending
any of
the community ey on this project.
martinez is
not funding it. It is funded by a
public/private partnership, and the
expense
of this is not going to be something
martinez will need to
worry about going bankrupt or losing the
general fund.
this is not funded through martinez.
been that. That
is a huge opportunity for
our community to
be the beneficiary of something like
this.
I want to stress that this is something together.
we don't have
all of the answers. There have been
concerns from the public and from
myself about
traffic and traffic circulation. We
know that we
have a train track down there. We
know we need
to get people over the train tracks
safely
to be able to attend events or,
you know,
boat parades in the future. Other
waurpt activities.
that is one of the biggest concerns
that I have about the project, making
sure we
get people across the tracks safely.
moving
people, and also for public safety,
and making sure we get
the fire department, the police department
there, you know, those
types of things. We need to really look
at that.
I know a lot of people have heard about
this over the years. That
is something that we need to work
on. That is something
that I think is one
of the biggest challenges to the project.
the other thing I have heard,
the possibility of having hotels down
there.
maybe that wasn't something
in the trust
land use
approved activities.
we can see we are
abided by the rules and the laws.
it is all on the
up and up. The benefit of having those
amenities down there is that we have
people coming in from all
over that enjoy
the recreation. We have the refinery
nearby. We have people across the
count and he country
that work on the projects. We have
a lot of
labor that needs to have a place to
stay so they can
do the work. There
is a lot to --there is
a lot of support for that amenity.
I am in full support of that, but
within
the proper framework and size that is appropriate for
our community.
I am sure I will have more to
say. I want to thank everyone for
being here tonight
and thank the city
staff, city attorneys, tuckered
tucker sadler. Wanting to bring something
to
improve ourour community.
that marina has been down
there since 1962.
it is time to be the beautiful
marina it once was. I think
our community deserves that. I
want to have a
ferry here too.
>> I
wanted to thank everybody for being
here. I am
very excited about this. This is
unbelievable. You know, we are so
concerned. What
are we going to do
with the marina.
I want to thank greg and diane for
showing up in
the right moment
for us. We have
taught about this being a union job
from day one.
standing up, having a
union language there.
I do want to read something for the
sea scouts to make sure that they
understand that they
are very important in
this process.
they have been from the
get-go. Didn't
they come down and tour. I know they
are
very excited about the sea scouts
as we
are. Right in the staff report, really
quick, I wanted to propose
a waterside description. The bullet points are
clear.
the staff did a great job
on this.
right at the
very top of the page,
club
and community facilities.
you guys are so important to
the city. I was
younger and I would drive by the sea
scout base.
what is a sea scout. You invited me
to one of your gatherings and I came
down there
and fell in love with you guys and
the things
you do for the
people involved.
I saw what this program does
for the youth. They jumped
on the chance. They
asked if they can drive the
bar pilot boat.
they jumped in.
he turns around. The
kids were asking can he spin
a donut. He
says hang on. I want
you to know how vibrant.
I am appreciative that you brought
everybody. It is
very exciting. You know, I
would like the staff, much like the
vice mayor was talking about, I would like
to hear you reaffirm what you talked
about in
your staff report, right. That the status
quo at
the marina is financially
unsustainable.
>> yes, it is.
each year it is eating more and more
into our
general fund and our ability to
sustain basic core
services.
to
do nothing could cost us as much as
$20 million. I
am sorry, but it is in bad
shape. The first time that our building
inspector goes into the bait shop what
happens? It
is condemned, right. Now it is in
three dumpsters, you know, on the
way
to the dump.
they are night and shining
armors.
I can't wait to do
it with a union
outfit. I want everyone to
be involved.
some is something they
were talking about from day one as
well, the need
for public
outreach, right. They want
to know what we want and what it looks
like and what everybody has to say.
I am telling you
what I saw in san diego was oh, my
god. It is so beautiful. If you ever have
been to san
diego, you know what their
marinas look like.
I had a hard
time believing our marina could be
as
amazing as san diego and long beach
and
places like that.
I started
to believe and get excited. I
think you know what is going to happen
up here.
we are so excited about the program.
I can't wait to
see all of the hard work that we need
to
do over the next 24
months.
I will
be voting to approve. Thank you.
>> I echo
all of the
comments made by previous councilmembers.
I
was at
a leadership thing
I came out
as a 7. A 7 is
an enthusiastic visionary. So
this project right
here
is feeding that
enthusiastic visionary. This is and
it will be
transformational. We have
talked about some of the comments
or the complaints
that we hear.
what
I have heard is that it would be nice
to have more
options in martinez.
we have been
losing
revenue to pleasant
hill and
concord and walnut creek
for years because we don't and haven't
had
a lot of
options. Families
and folks coming in to the community
want
to stay here.
all the other cities,
you know what they don't have?
a marina.
this is
a wonderful opportunity.
if you are in sales, we get
it figured out and it creates a stickiness
for our
residents.
they don't have to go all of the
other
places. For
folks going up to napa and get off
of
the highway.
maybe there will be so much going
on they will forget to go to napa.
we have local wineries. This ain't
difficult for me.
I can see
the vision. I appreciate
greg and
diane for being the ones
that are going to hopefully help
us realize the vision. I appreciate
staff and
all their due diligence and everybody in
this process has
been responsive.
nobody
is entering into this in a
vacuum. Nobody is entering into this
in a vacuum with blinders on. As my
fellow councilmembers have mentioned.
in
the proposed agreement it is a
sea scouts facility. In the
proposed agreement there is discussion
about an
alternative access because we know
for this to
work people need
to comfortably get
in and out of. We are
not entering into this blindly. But
I can see
it. We can all see it. That is why
there is excitement here. Because
this
is the first
time --the first time
that this thing can
and will happen.
let me also
remind you all that we have
a fiduciary and a fiscal
responsibility of managing
a city.
right now we are pumping a
half million dollars,
lending, to something that is not beneficial
to you all.
if
we don't do anything wewe
not being
fiscally responsible. It
could be good city financial matters and
be stewards,
be stewards of the
city.
lived up here long enough.
saw all of the opposition to pleasant
hill when they did not
have a downtown.
I remember when old
walnut creek was afraid of what was
going on on the other side
of mount diablo. What did that do?
created
foot traffic. This is
about creating foot traffic. It will
have a ripple effect to downtown.
if we create foot
traffic it will have a ripple effect
up to highway
4. The folks going down to the waterfront
to a homewoods suite, now they are
going to
stop at
the lucky's and shop and spend money
before going down to the
waterfront.
we find out where is the
local grocery
store.
this is real economics, not
about financial profit
but preventing us from saying the
city is
in bankruptcy.
we are excited
but we are pumped. Reminder,
this is still the beginning stages,
a due
diligence process.
the messages, still in the process
and
the other most important message is
that we will
continue to have community engagement.
we
want to hear from all of you as we
continue to go through this process.
thank you all
for being here.
if you
ain't excited I will keep doing what I
need to do
and sell and talk and engage with
you so that you will
be excited. Thank you all for being
here and participating
with us this evening.
>> I will clap for that.
>> I hate having to be the
person to speak after greg.
I did have
a couple of comments that I wanted
to make. Thank you
for making the comment about the bait
shop
and having a code enforcement issue.
we had members of the public mention
the amphitheater. The reason it is
not being used
is that it has similar issues to the
bait
shop. Nobody wants to rent it and
the
city can't because of health and
safety issues.
we
don't have an
amphitheater.
what I wanted to speak about is our
trip to view some of the tucker sadler
properties.
so, a while ago, you know,
as all of the staff said, all of the
council
had an opportunity to have
meetings with staff several times over
the past couple
of months. And when this project first
came
forward, it was very important to
me that we made
a public and transparent
process. There was a lot
of comments about just like the general
ascetic of the project.
I heard what people said. It
concerned me. I had
mentioned to staff. I asked the question
of all of the
council who is the most hesitant on
the project.
everyone in the meeting got quiet.
is it me.
am I the most hesitant.
I am like okay. When I am on board,
we are good
to go. So, when we all went down to our
california league of city conference
in
october. We go once a year. We
realized how close we were to tucker
sadler projects
and said can we see some of these
things. I wanted
to understand what the projects look
like.
a conceptual design people disagree
with is not
the same thing as seeing something
on the ground. We
got to see several different
properties. I was very impressed by all of
the properties.
it
really made it
clear
that the group is able to implement
projects that are right sized for
the landscape they are in. One of
the sites we went to was an
rv park. I am sure you are
picturing something. Throw that out.
it was an amazing space with
a meeting area and pool and space
for events. It had small little sort
of temporary looking cabin spaces,
and a
lot of places for people to come and
to camp in the
rvs. It was right along
a tidal marsh. Tucker sadler
has experience with engaging tidal
marsh space with
a development. Tucker sadler has experience
making
a building that the aesthetic were
so beautiful
you could pick the whole thing up
and plop
it in the marina. Yeah. Everyone
in martinez would love this. We
had an opportunity to visit a restaurant
that was built out
over the water. I am like martinez
needs this.
a hotel that it was down in one of
the boutique hotels that was
in downtown san diego.
gas lamp
district. It absolutely was the kind
of thing that I think
people in martinez would like. And
then lastly,
I was actually really enjoyed visiting
the amphitheater they had had
participated in building.
he spoke to
the nerdy components that he thought
through for martinez.
they get it, and I think they are
the right partners
to move forward with. They are interested
in investing in martinez, and I absolutely
think they are
the right partners to move forward on the
project. I want everyone to know that
we have
been doing our due diligence up until
this point.
when you are in negotiations, you
can't have
public meetings, but with this signing
this
ena or it is me. I get to sign it.
with you approving me to sign the
ena we can move forward on public
meetings
and can now provide feedback on
the conceptual vision that we all
got back
in july and can start working through
the process,
and we can start taking the next stage
and
sending it out to the resource agencies
to improve environmental
feedback on.
with that I
don't have any other questions, I
only look to my
colleagues for
final comments or if you
are interested in making a motion
I
invite you to do so.
>> I would like
to make a motion
to adopt a resolution authorizing
the mayor
to enter into an exclusive
negotiating agreement between the
city and tucker
sadler architects in a form approved
by the
city attorney for the revitalization
of the
martinez waterfront and marina.
>>
I will second
that gladly.
>>
roll call vote please.
>> mayor zorn.
>>
aye.
>> vice
mayor satinder malhi.
>> aye. >> councilmember jay
howard.
>> aye. >> councilmember greg young.
>> aye. >> councilmember debbie mckillop.
>> aye. >> motion passes.
all ayes.
>> thank you everyone for participating
this evening. Our meeting is not over.
if you
are go to leave, I will give everyone a
minute
if you are not interested in staying
for our salary schedule discussion.
we are going to take a five
minute break and will regroup at 9:40.
>>> all right. Can everyone
take their seats. Only one more item
and
everyone can wrap up for the evening.
all right. There are two of us.
I just need debbie and jay and we can get going.
can I start if
they are in the room? I think
they are here. All right. We are going
to go
ahead and get going. All right.
not listening. I don't have a gavel.
I am going to go ahead and get
started. General business item
number 10,
adopt a
resolution approving a salary schedule
for
2025-26
effective january 1, 2026. Mike will
you
be leading this item?
>> before I
turn it over to lauren, the item is
all encompassing
of all of the different labor agreements
and
salary adjustments done. The
mpoa agreement was ratified
unanimously by the council. Lauren
will go through
an overview of the item
and will do required read outs
of compensation for executive staff
including myself and the chief
of police. I can turn it over to lauren
and
she will walk us through
the item.
>> thank you. This
will be brief.
just
as mike mentioned, required by law
I need to do
a read
out. I am going to go through
this and note a correction that we
needed to make on
the salary schedule tonight
with your recommendation.
a recommendation to adopt a
resolution approving a publicly
available salary schedule for fiscal
year 25-
26 effective january 1, 26. The action
is required to encower compliance
with the public
employee's retirement law. The public
employees
pension reform act of 2013 and title
ii of the california code of regulations.
state regulations require the city
council to formally adopt a salary
schedule that
is publicly
available and clearly identifies all
employee classifications, pay ranges,
time bases and
effective dates. The
attached consolidated salary schedule
reflects
compensation actions previously approved by
the city council.
prior
council actions include on june 25th
the
city council approved
resolution 25080 approving the
25-26 operating budget authorizing
a
2. 5 wage increase for employees covered
by
the management compensation plan,
and as mike
mentioned earlier, the city manager,
and
the police chief based on their
contracts.
anything applies to the
mcp applies to their contract.
under government code section
549c3, prior to taking final
action on any executive compensation,
the
council is required to report a summary
of
the proposed adjustments. The following
executive
positions will see an increase in
their salaries if
approved by
council. I will list them
out one by one. Assistant city
manager. Current maximum
21,51.76. New
maximum,
$21,578.06. Chief of
police, current maximum
$22,514.57.
new maximum
$23,077.43.
I am sorry. A
small type here.
city engineer, current maximum,
$21,051.76.
new maximum,
$21,578.06.
city manager, current maximum
$22,964.86.
new maximum
23,598.
economic
development
director. Director of public works.
current maximum,
$21,051.76.
new maximum
$21,578. 06, and then finally finance
director.
current maximum
$21,051. 76,
new maximum $21,578.06.
additionally in the approved salary
schedule on
july 30, 2025 the city council
approved 1475 setting
councilmembers monthly compensation
at $832.
that is reflected in the salary schedule.
on december 17, 2025 the city
council approved a successor between
the city of martinez
and the martinez police officers
association authorizing a
5. 54% salary
equity adjustment effective january
21st,
2026. All of the financial terms and
conditions were previously approved
by the city council through separate
actions. I
wanted to take note of the corrections.
we have
corrected, and I have a couple of
copies here. We corrected and updated
the salary schedule to include the
city manager and chief of
police which was an accidental omission
in what
was published.
>> can you say that
one more time.
everything that you said, we were
following along and
matched. Can you clarify the chief
of police and city
manager. What was the difference between
what was published and
what was read?
>> what was published,
the city
manager and the police chief,
their salaries, 2. 5%
cola wasn't
included on the document. It is our
omission. We caught it before the
meeting.
hr updated the salary schedule. Pending
your approval it will be included in the salary schedule.
>> can I
just clarify a few things? Greg leaned
over to clarify. I wanted to make
sure that we
are actually saying this into the
microphone. So,
the way that the attachment, the salary
schedule
currently reads. It has steps 1, 2,
3,
4, 5. All of the management team that
you
head does not have a step 2, 3, 4.
it
sort of reads that the raise is going
from step
1, current, to step 5. That is your
raise. That is not
what is happening. There is
not currently a current step 5,
and a new step 5. So, in case the
public
is listening and is confused as to
what they
are seeing. It
is what percentage increase?
>>
2. 5%, and then again, just based
on
what I read off isis we
are required
to
speak to the maximum and the new
maximum. Whether that is where they
are at or not in the salary
range. That is what we are required
to do by law.
>> so, step
1 is the least experienced in the
job tight and he will
step 5 is the most experienced.
at a certain point you are going to
get a promotion
to the step 55 and can't ever earn
anymore money. At the time the cola
applies, if the person reached the
step 5 level,
for those of us who are not in city
government
as our day jobs. If you are promoted
to that amount you can't make any
more
money.
>> he received a
chief's commonidation for his response
to
a major wild lands
fire back
in --
>> an
incredible cap stone to the year.
we are certainly finishing on
a high note. There is so much to do
next year. But so much enthusiasm
and excitement
on the staff side to be able to
work with the
council
and with our partners on what could
be a
transformational project for martinez.
beyond that, so many
other cool things are going on.
the strategic plan. We are really
excited to work on that with the council and
implement.
the parks master plan. Just so many
other things that are going
to be in the works as we celebrate
the 150th anniversary of martinez.
thank you very much to the
staff for all of their hard work.
the people
here are really
dedicated and qualified. They love
martinez.
you
know, they are definitely earning
their pay which
they ratified. They like to be here.
you
know, we are able to retain a large
number of
the people. That is great. I also wanted
to thank
the council for their leadership and
their
partnership. It takes a team to make
the
village as great as it can be. Thanks
again to you
guys as well. We look forward to next year.
that is all that I have.
>> all right.
let's see. Appointments to commissions
and agencies. We do have one item
on that.
we were made
aware a few meeting or two ago
that due to some of the new folks
that came in
and existing people and appointments
to
advisory bodies that we were inconsistent.
I coordinated
with everyone. We rearranged a handful
to make it more e
equitable. Jay howard will
now be on the economic
development subcommittee.
outside agencies, the only changes
were
to revise the number two
or alternate for innovate 680.
jay will be the alternate. For league
of
cities, satinder will be
my alternate. Those were the only
changes made
and hopefully that will make it more
equitable going in
to 2026.
>> tom, any public comments on
this item?
he said he is very
happy with the recommendation. In
the
virtual audience?
I have
no hands.
>> back to council for a
motion, please.
>>
I would like to make a motion to pass
the resolution approving
the revised appointments of the city councilmembers.
>> second.
>> roll
call vote please.
>> mayor zorn. >> yes.
>> vice mayor malhi. >> aye. >>
councilmember howard.
>> yes. >> councilmember
young.
>>
yes.
>> councilmember mckillop. >>
aye.
>> motion passes, all
ayes. Next up subcommittee and outside
agency reports. Anyone attend any
outside committees they would like
to report out on
this evening?
I don't have
any updates myself.
>> I will be the vice
chair beginning in 2026.
>>
that
is great. Let's move on to council
comments. Debbie. Do you want
to go first?
>>
so, tonight super exciting. We
had an opportunity to votevote on
something
that is the most transformational
project that
martinez has seen in over 60 years
and clearly the
biggest project I have been a part
of in my career.
as a councilmember I am really excited
about the opportunity for the future
that the
project brings to martinez and the
greater community. I am super excited
to see how
it will all work out. It will take
a few years but
we are going to get there. I wanted
to let everyone
know about an opportunity
to
volunteer on friday to stuff
stockings. There is an event you can
go to her office in
concord at 6:00 to 8:00
on december 19th, a friday to
stuff stockings for children. So
that will be given out the following
day. It is
a great, fun event. I have been doing
it
with my children for many years. They have
all of the
things you need.
this is something they really cherish.
it is really important for children
to have something for
the holidays. That brings me to speaking
about
the holidays.
I wanted to express my sadness
and sorrows for the tragedy that
happened in australian.
these things happen
too often, too many times. My heart goes
out
to all of the families affected in
the shooting
and all of the other
shootings. In a time
we should be celebrating families
and
friends, not everyone
--
merry
christmas, happy chanukkah, happy new year to everyone.
>> I echo
councilmember mckillop's initial comment
tonight.
transformational.
just so happy
and proud. I have been on council
a
year to be associated with all of
my
fellow councilmember
s as well
as
the staff. This was huge. You could
feel the excitement up here on
the deus. I am even more excited
about what is now to come in 2026.
it will be a
lot of work. It will be a heavy lift
for all
of us, but we have got something here.
I appreciate
everyone's leadership.
>> great
job last weekend.
I hate that I wasn't there. We were
down
in southern california. La salle
played in the state championship against
santa margarita. They were
unsuccessful. We
lost. Had
the banquet tonight but I hate that I wasn't here
with
all of you.
yeah. The last piece,
just with the things that have happened
this
week, it just is a
reminder of
just so much
negative
stuff happening.
we have to keep the faith and
do the work we do and make impact
where we can.
lastly, I will be at the event on
saturday, the
actual toy drive. I have been asked
to
be santa.
I will have on
a santa suit and be handing out the
toys. I
would --I can't believe
we are eight days away
from christmas.
take rest and down time. Spend time with
family and
loved ones.
we will do it all again in
2026.
>>
I wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas.
I wanted to
remind everyone bella's spa grand
opening is
5:30 for the ribbon cutting
at 512 center avenue.
>> thank you.
>> that is it.
thank you.
>> >>> thank you very much.
I wanted to wish everyone a happy
holidays
here from the other side
of the world.
>> what time is it there?
>> we are 12 hours
ahead, pacific time. Nine
minutes past
10:00 a.m.
>> I just wanted to
touchtouch something that sentiments
that were
expressed by
councilmember mckillop.
this should be a joyful
time of the year but for some it is
not because
of the
continued epidemic of gun violence
that has plagued communities near
and far.
our friends in
the jewish community are reeling from
a tragic event which may have taken
place in sydney
impacting communities jewish and
non-jewish.
I think it is important we
reject hatred in all of its forms and
anti-semitism.
I wanted to
give a
shoutout. Loving life during
this
holiday season.
I also want to express my thanks for
all of the
hard work
that our excellent city staffstaff
in to get us through another year
and more importantly to get us through
the
first phase
of the effort down at
the waterfront.
what we have done is a
significant milestone. It wouldn't have
been possible but
for their effort.
mike, lauren, jill, the entire
team, thank you.
we very much appreciate all of the
efforts that you have undertaken to
get
us to this
point. We understand there is a lot
more work ahead in
2026 and continuing to
work together as a team, you know,
we will continue
to move our
community forward. I am really excited
to be
able to hit 2026 with the
ground running. I look forward to
seeing
you all in the new year. Thank
you all very much.
>> I have a couple
of comments.
I had two requests.
I wanted a show of nods. We have
been talking about emerging issues
as a
check-in point as part of the
strategic plan.
I really would like us to roll
that out sooner than what we will be
able
to do.
would
you
be menable to an
emerging section that would allow to
us bring
up issues that might be important
for staff to
work on that is maybe a little bit --
has more gravitas than our comments
and updates? I wanted us to have something
where we could track the important
topics. Does
everyone feel comfortable with me
working with staff to get
that moving?
>> yes. >> yeah.
>> yes.
>> that is a
protocol where we have risk and issues
and
stuff on
the rorise horizon.
>> I am very
supportive of that.
are
you envisioning that to be like a
future agenda item?
>> sort of along
those lines.
>> I think that would be great.
thank you.
>> lauren, did you want
to speak to it
at all?
>> when we adopted the
strategic plan in september, we talked
about how we have
a
great focused plan but issues might
pop up.
we didn't want to veer from the strategic
plan,
but we wanted to acknowledge issues
come up and
they emerge.
I wanted to root it
in that.
whether we talk about
them today
or tomorrow.
>> I did not
want it to get lost
in the ad
hoc
subcommittee. I will work with staff
and if we
need to come back to vote on something we can
absolutely do that.
the other comment
I wanted to
make is that
I am interested we send an
item to the divers
ity and cultural commission. I would
like
the council to task them with one
of the many things they will be
doing in the
upcoming year. Evaluate and discuss
which
types of cultural events and holidays
the city could be able to wish our public.
we always sort of steered
away from specific religious holidays.
I would love for them to talk
about that.
you can nod and give direction
to staff to deliver
that message.
>> oench council comfortable
with that message
and comfortable with me working with
staff to get it on
an upcoming agenda from the commission?
anyone have questions? Everyone good?
great. In that
case I would like to work probably
with lauren and
eve. I know they are the point of
contacts for
that commission to get that on the
upcoming agenda.
thank you. Thank you to my colleagues for
some of the
words about some of the things that have
been happening in
our world today.
I will double down on positivity
and community in my comments. I want
to thank everyone
for coming out to the boat parade
on friday. We had
an amazing number of people turning
out, hundreds
and hundreds more than we expected.
the
junior high band raised money by getting
donations for
hot chocolate and raised over $650
that will help them do some of their performances
later
in the year.
we know
people loved the fishing pier. I
thought that it was such a great kickoff
to the
discussion. We are doing the
right thing.
it was great. We will incorporate
traffic control. We will find out
hundreds of people want
to come to this. Probably
food trucks. This was a
great first run.
the best announcement, and I think
that I texted
jill that evening. There is a
new kayak launchlaunch has been installed
at
the boat launch.
rave reviews. Every person was like
this
is amazing. It is really exciting.
we have been talking
about this for a long time and we
finally
got something
installed. Thank you for that.
>>
I will add
I got a similar comment from jamie.
you
can't believe they were using it.
that was so great
to hear.
>> awesome. >> yeah.
again, happy han cow to all
--chanukkah to all of the people that
celebrate.
the enorah lighting
party, and brooks and craft will be
having a
party afterwards and merry christmas
to all of those that celebrate
christmas. I want to give a shoutout
to my day
job co-workers. I work for
an environmental engineering company.
there are six employees
who live here in martinez.
we raised body $1500 for
the bay area crisis nursery. I went
out and bought
all of the presents with a couple
of my co-
workers and we will be delivering
those tomorrow to
our five-person family. Shoutout to
everyone in martinez that
participated in that. Happy holidays
to everyone
as we go in to the new year. I wanted
to remind everyone that because of
the way that our
meetings are normally scheduled we
will not be having
a meeting on the first wednesday in
january. It is too close
to the holidays. Our only meeting
in
january will be on january 21st. At
this point we are getting an entire
month off.
if anyone asks make them know we
will not be meeting in early january.
all right. Thank you
for listening to all of my comments.
I would
like to close the meeting
in honor of
sergeant vasilio.
this meeting is adjourned. Happy holidays.
>> recording stopped.