Thank you very much and welcome everyone to our May 5th City Council meeting.
The afternoon regular session will begin. Could we have a roll call please?
Council members, painter, hear, Leros, hear, Narvayas, hear, Vice Mayor Dina Tolley, hear, mayor essentially.
Here. And if you're able, will you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag.
Should you clerk, are there any changes to the agenda or supplemental reports?
There are no changes to the agenda mayor. We do have supplemental reports for item 4b. We have an email received from our reentrip.
For item 4c, there is a slightly updated proclamation with edits from staff, which is what you will be reading and what is in front of you this afternoon.
And then for item 5, we have an email received from Brad Wagon Connect.
Thank you very much. We have three presentations this afternoon, items 4a through 4c on your agenda.
And our first presentation is recognizing National Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Peace Police Week.
So council, if you have your proclamations.
City of Napa Proclamation, National Peace Officers Memorial Day may 15th, 2026, and National Police Memorial Week may 11th through 16th, 2026.
Whereas National Peace Officers Memorial Day was created to recognize the bravery and sacrifice of law enforcement officers who have lost their lives while serving their communities.
The observance traces its origins to efforts by the fraternal order of police and other law enforcement organizations in the mid 20th century who sought a national day of commemoration and
We're asked since the first recorded death 1786. There are more than 24,500 law enforcement officers in the United States have made the ultimate sacrifice and being killed in a line of duty.
And the names of these dedicated public servants are engraved on the walls of the National Law enforcement officers memorial in Washington DC and
Whereas there are more than 800,000 law enforcement officers serving in communities across the United States, including the dedicated members of the Napa Police Department and
Whereas May 15th is designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day in honor of all fallen officers and their families and US flag should be flown at half staff.
Now therefore be it resolved that I Scott Sedley mayor of the city of Napa along with the Napa City Council though here by proclaim May 15th, 2026 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 11th through 16th, 2026 as National Police Memorial Week in the city of Napa and thank the service of law enforcement officers and our community and in communities across the nation.
May 15th, 2026 we have our police chief of Abior Rodriguez with us tonight to accept the proclamation and we also have many of our fine men and women in blue joining us too. So thank you for all your new and welcome chief.
Mr. Mayor and council want to personally thank City Council to take for taking the time to recognize National Police Officer Memorial Week.
This acknowledgement is greatly appreciated by the men and women of our department as it honors not only the work that they do at each day, but also the memory of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and the line of duty.
We're thankful for your support and the partnership we share with this community. Thank you.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Kyle Abtrich on the president for the Napa Police Officer Association and on behalf of the Napa Police Officer Association and I'm honored to accept this proclamation.
We are deeply grateful for the council's recognition of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and for the continued support of our community.
The National Police Memorial Week serves as a solemn reminder of the courage, dedication and service that define our profession.
We will carry forward their legacy with integrity and commitment every day.
Thank you.
Chief, if you come up, both of you come up.
We'll get a picture of it up here.
Take center stage.
We'll observe.
All thanks.
Thank you.
Next up, item 4B, we have historic preservation month.
So, the council, if you have your proclamation ready?
City of Napa Proclamation, historic preservation month, May 2026.
Whereas, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 established a national framework for recognizing and protecting the places that tell the story of our nation.
And, whereas, since 1973, preservation month has served as an opportunity to highlight the continuing value of historic places as drivers of community identity, economic vitality, and quality of life.
And, whereas, downtown Napa serves at the historic and cultural heart of the city, where preserved buildings adapted spaces and longstanding businesses contribute to a vibrant, walkable and economically dynamic environment.
And.
Whereas, the city's architectural heritage reflects a legacy of craftsmanship and vision, including the work of notable figures in architecture, design and engineering.
And whereas, historic preservation in Napa recognizes the diverse communities, cultural traditions and local enterprises that have helped that have shaped the city, ensuring that an inclusive history is acknowledged and sustained.
And.
Whereas, Napa County landmarks founded in 1974 advances this work by promoting the stewardship and adaptive reuse of significant places, supporting economic resilience and fostering meaningful connections between people and the built environment.
Now, therefore, be it resolved that I Scott Sedgley mayor the city of Napa along with an absolute council to hear by proclaim May 26 as historic preservation month.
And encourage all residents, businesses and visitors to engage with the support and places that the stories that continue to shape Napa's past present and future, particularly within its historic downtown core.
We have with us today Christina Madrid.
So.
Christina is she is the French Christina French excuse me, she's from Napa County landmarks and organization that I dearly love and done great work.
So she's the executive director at canny landmarks.
Good afternoon, everyone on I am Christine Madrid French, a lot of countries in there.
I'm a executive director of Napa County landmarks, but on behalf of landmarks, thank you for this proclamation and your continued partnership in recognizing Napa's legacy businesses and historic places.
Preservation helps maintain the cultural continuity of Napa are historic buildings and longstanding local businesses connect generations of residents to the life and identity of this city.
They also contribute enormously to the vitality and economic strength of downtown Napa.
We are committed to the long term stewardship of these places and to supporting a downtown that can and city of Napa that continues to feel authentic rooted in distinctly Napa.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We want you to come up.
Thanks for a better picture.
Thank you.
All right.
How should I start this next presentation?
I guess I'll just dive right into it.
I'll just go to a four sea on our agenda.
National drinking water week may third do the night twenty twenty six council sit in Napa Proclamation National drinking water week made three may third to May night twenty twenty six.
Whereas waters are most valuable natural resource drinking water plays a vital role in daily life serving an essential purpose for health.
Hydration hygiene needs for a quality of life are residents enjoying.
Whereas the hard work performed by the entire water sector.
Whether designing capital projects operating a treatment plant to ensure the safety and quality of drinking water are being a member of a pipeline crew maintaining the infrastructure.
Communities rely on water professionals to transport high quality drinking water from its source to consumers taps and.
Whereas at the annual California Nevada American water works association water conference of the west in April.
The city of Napa enter drinking water treated at the Barwick Jamison treatment plan into a blind water taste test competing with water per vears across California Nevada and.
Whereas as a true testament to the standard of care taken by the utilities department water professionals and FSC of the water treatment process the city of Napa one third place amongst 15 entrance for the best tasting water and.
As the city of Napa also filled with a team of three water operators gave ice buto.
Making black and ship and David Gil at the A that we W A conference completed and top ops a jeopardy style competition testing depth of knowledge and the drinking water field.
The team of three who want third place overall and.
Whereas the professionalism and knowledge of the city of Napa's drinking water professionals exhibited.
Not only during the drinking water week, but all 52 weeks of the year here by recognized and celebrated.
Now, therefore, be resolved that I got said to the mayor the city of Napa along with the city council do here by recognized and celebrate.
National drinking water week from May 1st May 3rd to the night twenty twenty six and we call upon the residents of the city of Napa and neighboring communities to help protect our source waters from pollution.
Practice water conservation and be stewards of the water infrastructure for our current and future generations.
They did May 5th twenty twenty six.
I want to look for that great work everybody.
Thank we we have we have guests here with us to make some presentations to our director.
So I think we have John Parsons, Jackie Parsons and Jeff Terentino.
So please.
Thank you council members.
My name is Jeff Terentino.
I'm the current chair of the awards committee for the California Environmental Section debate.
So first we want to award the best tasting water third place plaque to the team here.
We have it right here if anybody wants a sample.
So receiving is Eric Busz and Bob Janowski, Aaron's our water quality manager.
Bob is our T five and water treatment manager.
They oversee the daily operations twenty four seven of these treatment plants and how that water flows throughout the network.
It is no small feat with our system and the starting water that we start with.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Who's got some more?
One more.
Thank you bearing council members.
My name is John Parsons.
I'm the chair of the California Environmental Section top office challenge committee.
And we're here to award the fluffologists led year in your out by gave us burrow.
For the third place.
We want to.
Honestly thank the city of Napa support.
For letting these guys come and compete year in and year out there always.
One or two questions away from bring in the title home and represent in the section at the National Championships in June every year.
So I'd like to thank.
You folks and all the staff that support them led by gave us team.
Thank you.
And I'm going to add to that.
We say it's jeopardy style.
The questions get progressively harder.
Other teams are given time to study.
Our guys do not.
This is just their base knowledge that they know every day and they use.
And we have been there made it to the big stage.
And it is truly with the size of Napa on the number of operating.
Members, we have. It has truly been David versus Goliath, and we have gone up against the likes of Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power, East Bay Mud, Contra Costa Water District, much bigger agencies and our folks
have held their own day and day out. So, great day.
Great job, thank you.
Hey, Joy, can you come on up behind the desk? We'll get a picture if you want to just circle
about around, and we'll do one of our presenters too, or welcome to come up?
Yeah.
Good job, thank you.
Good job.
I like how it depends on you.
I know.
Are you ready?
I'm just going home.
Are you ready?
All right.
We're all in.
We're the hard question.
Yeah.
Good day.
Thank you.
All right, hold on, I can't.
I can't hold on.
But in the audience want to take a picture.
All right, here we go.
And we're good.
All right.
Thank you.
I'll be there.
All right.
Lots to be proud of.
Utilities, our police officers, our community nonprofits that need so much good work for the right reasons.
Thank you, City Clerk.
All right.
We're now at item 500 agenda public comment on non agenda items during the public comment portion of the meeting.
The public is invited to address the council on any item within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council.
Please focus your comments comments on either past actions taken by the council or proposed future actions to be taken by the council.
However, if the subject of the public comment is not on the agenda state law strictly limits the council's ability to respond at this meeting.
City Clerk, have you received speaker cards.
I have mayor.
I have a total of 12 cards all start by reading the first five names.
Sean a Terry Craig easily.
Brian Tench.
Michelle McMaster and Lee Nordland.
Thank you.
I have three minutes and the buzzer will sound at 30 seconds for you to wrap up your comments.
Perfect.
And you can give us your name if you wish.
We'd love to know it so.
I'm Sean a Terry.
I'm representing the Napa Yacht Club homeowners association and I might save a lot of time and trouble.
A lot of my residents are here with me and people from the meadows of upon arrival are intent was to comment on emails that you've already received.
We've received regarding changes on South Jefferson and removal of our turn line.
I was informed once I got here that the turn line is no longer going to be removed.
So thank you all very very much for hearing us.
And thank you to my community and the meadows for turning out to support this safety issue.
I did give you each a packet of some very detailed research.
I have a few other things we are concerned about and I really look forward to working with all of you to help us all achieve a really lovely place to live and play and it's part of the Napa Valley.
So thank you very much for hearing us.
Thank you.
Good afternoon Mr. Mayor and the City Council.
My name is Craig Easley.
I'm a homeowner in the Napa Yacht Club neighbor of Shana's.
I just found out the good news as well when I heard about the proposed action to change the configuration of that street following the recent repaving.
And thank you very much for that too.
So Jefferson was in dire need of repaving and it now looks amazing.
I'm very encouraged to see that the process works that by gathering feedback from the local residents of the community.
Sometimes the right things can happen and I thank you all.
Thank you.
It's honorable Mayor and City Council members.
My name is Mayan Infeld and I am a resident of the Napa Yacht Club.
And I want to thank you all for repaving South Jefferson.
We have been waiting for a long time and this has been done and I am so very grateful.
But I decided I needed to come here about the parking outside the Yacht Club.
And I felt that I needed to come here because what I'm going to tell you is so unbelievable that I got to tell you I to I so that you know that this is the truth.
I was taking my walk one evening during the weekend and the music was so loud and I was wondering which of my neighbors has gone rogue to play music like that.
And as I walk closer I found out it was a food truck that was parked outside the entry of the Napa Yacht Club.
And this goes this concerns code enforcement.
I'm sure people have a right to make a living but who needs a food truck outside is just a wall and and the food truck.
And it's not just about orders is about garbage and noise.
So I hope that code enforcement would be more vigilant.
Food truck has got its place but not outside the Napa Yacht Club.
So I hope you pay attention to that.
But again, thank you for paving the road.
It's it's like day and night. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello mayor and council and the representative of the city and the guests today.
I'm Michelle McMaster and I live on Willow Avenue in Napa and I've been there 36 years now.
It is a stone throw away from the fairgrounds.
For years I've battled with bottle rock about the noise you talk about music.
It rattles my windows and it continues to do that.
That's not why I'm here today.
I'm here hoping that the departments who have the power to block our neighborhood streets from concertgoers.
Take action this year.
I've been battling this for years now.
Two years ago a fire truck went to go down our street again Willow Avenue.
Could not pass because of the parking.
And so Willow, Alta, Plaza, Raymond.
You cannot even park on both sides of the street which it's designed and go down the middle of it.
But during bottle rock they do it.
They ignore the signs of bottle rock puts out and I am respectfully.
I want to say demand because I'm tired of requesting it from all the conversations I've had in the past.
That our streets be put closed off with barriers.
If a fire truck cannot get down a street that is putting our whole neighborhood at risk.
And I hope that that is taken into consideration and act upon this year.
And I respect all that you do to keep our city safe.
And thank you for allowing me to speak today.
Thank you.
Thank you Michelle.
Mr. Mayor and council members.
Thank you very much for letting us talk today.
My name is Brian Tensh.
I represent the 350 residents of the Meadows of Napa Valley.
I'm the immediate past president.
President couldn't be here today.
I just want to support Shawna and the yacht club in there.
Concerns regarding parking and the striping of South Jefferson.
And I think they've moved them and made so far great.
And thank you for paving.
So that's all I have to say.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
I'm Lee Nordland and I sent you an email earlier today.
But I'm so grateful.
I had to come here in person to say thank you.
So it's a good day for you.
Another thank you.
This has to do with the letter that the whole council sent to the Board of Supervisors.
Regarding the search for an alternative flight path.
And I know that took some courage.
I understand that by city bylaws the letter that came from you mayor.
Essentially was a spoke with the whole council.
So to take the extraordinary move to have the whole council sign a letter on that.
It was really impactful.
And it's an extraordinary threat and you made an extraordinary.
It took some courage.
Thank you very much for that.
These low flying jets.
They affect so many people now.
It started out on the east side of Napa.
You know east of the Silverado Trail and up by Big Marance Road.
But now that more pilots are getting experienced, they're understanding how to take shortcuts.
And they're coming over Brown's Valley.
Old Sonoma Road.
Downtown Napa.
I'm sure you've all heard that.
So it's affecting a lot of people.
I really appreciate you're getting behind us and speaking out for the citizens of Napa.
The other thing that I thought was really great in your letter was that you, again,
suggested that the city of Napa would be happy to provide a representative of for the city
for the people affected on the noise working group.
And that's really important.
Every community in the United States that's had success in getting the FAA to move the flight route
has had every level of government behind it as well as the impacted community.
So your move is really, really appreciated.
It's going to be a long haul, but you're doing it right.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
The next five cards.
Excuse me.
You had your three minutes.
I would be, it's a different matter.
I will be brief.
I won't be a pest.
But what I've got to say is very complimentary.
And I want to support my friend, lead Notland about the noise.
So thank you very much.
It took great courage and we appreciate it.
Thank you.
Okay.
Next.
Next five speakers.
Gil.
I think it's Gil Brun.
Gayle Bray.
Dorothy Salman and Zander.
I'm a resident of the Naviocla.
And I have some concerns about the parking.
The additional parking that's been suggested on the east side of Jefferson.
There's a lot of individuals in both our community and other communities there that walk dogs along that route.
And when you're exiting our facility, you have to pull.
You have to stop further back than usual to allow people and their dogs to go by.
So that creates an obstruction for the line of sight both to the south and to the north.
And so like on other intersections along Jefferson, if we allow parking to come close to that exit, then that obstructs the view of the drivers and both directions.
And so they can't see any oncoming traffic.
So I just wanted to raise that issue with you.
And voice my concern that we can be creating a hazard at that junction.
I haven't seen or read anything about the demand for parking in that area.
So without a high demand for parking, why would we create an obstruction and increase the hazard at an intersection.
Thank you.
Hello.
Thank you Mr. Mayor, council members and city clerk for hearing me today.
My name is Zander and I'm a resident of Napa's District 3, a member of the North Bay Rapid Response Network,
and a member of North Bay Community Service Organizing CSO.
I want to ask the council to enact and enforce true sanctuary city policies, including but not limited to prohibiting the use of all city property for use by immigration authorities,
prohibiting the collaboration between our own local law enforcement and ice and ending up the handovers from our jail for of people who have been charged but not yet convicted of a crime.
Doing all this will help reinstate trust both in our city officials and our local law enforcement officers.
Help our community members go to work, go shopping, and be able to engage with police when they need without fear of being kidnapped by ice.
Some may say that ice is only going after criminals, but I remind you that this is a nation built upon laws where everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a jury of their peers.
And handing people over just for being detained violates not just their civil rights, but also the very ethos of our country.
I'm sure you've all heard.
Ordered the poem, first they came, which ends with, then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak
out for I was not a Jew, and then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak
for me. These are not just poetic hyperbole. They were written by a member of the Nazi party,
who only realized his mistake when he himself was arrested and sent to a concentration camp
for speaking out when his church was seized by the Nazis. Once again, I would really like to
just continually ask you guys to actually enact the sanctuary city policies because this is not just
words being put on paper, but real action that we can take to help our own community members
feel welcome safe and respected within our community. Thank you.
Thank you.
Greetings. Thank you, council, mayor, and staff. My name's Gilbrae. I'm a resident of Napiercliffe.
First off, thank you for the paving on South Jefferson, is heavenly.
Second, thank you for the new news of the left-hand turn line still being there.
However, we do still have issues there, and two members before have spoken about them. One,
the parking that is proposed for South on either side of the entrance will obstruct the line of
site, and we have cars coming from across. We have cars coming from HM Parkway, and we have cars coming
from the south end. I sincerely ask that you revisit and look at that parking on either side of the
entrance to Napiercliffe. Second, I am questioning and proposing could there be a permit system
for overnight parking there? We have lived through literally the sex drugs and rock and roll of the
COVID session when we had unhoused people down there and there were a lot of issues. So when you hear us
speak up about concerns about parking, it is from history, and we unfortunately have lived through that,
we do not want to live through that again. So I wonder, could we have overnight parking permits?
Other municipalities have that, and they could be cost free, but it would also bring code and
forcement down there more frequently. Finally, the noise. I am used at the food truck with outside
the Napiercliffe. I literally can hear the base reverberating in my house. We need more support down there.
I just asked for your support on that. We have had loud music, we have had unhoused, we have had
parties, really, really, really. Can you please be happy enforcement found there? Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, everybody. My name is Dorothy Salmon. I live at 10 Lighthouse Court in Napiercliffe. I've been here for
a million years. I think all of you are wonderful and I too want to thank you for paving Jefferson,
it's fabulous. And thank you for listening to us about the left-turn line. We met with Bernie.
Did a great job. And obviously you're hearing about our other issues with parking on Jefferson.
And so thank you for taking a look at that, a very close look at that. And for dealing with
all the other issues, we know that code enforcement is busy, but we definitely you've heard all the stories.
And thank you again for making sure that the city of Napier is represented at the county level for the airport
and the flight pattern. As a former flight attendant in my days, it was a stewardess.
That's a tough one. So thank you very much. Thank you for doing a great job. All of you.
I do have three additional cards. Rich Tippitt, Dalton Peercy, Jim Hitten, and I know there was
one additional member of the audience who did want. Well, one has come speak after.
All right. No particular order. Come right up.
Good afternoon, Council. Mr. Mayor, I want to continue with all of this congratulatory
facility that we have in the air today and congratulate you on all the things that you've done downtown
to make this a better community for us. Being walking this in downtown, it's great.
But I do want to encourage you to do more with you. It's time. It's been sitting there for
over a decade at this point. There are levers that you can pull their things that you can do to make
this project happen. Something happened there that in my opinion, living close to downtown,
that is one of the key properties that could fundamentally change how we look at our downtown or
walkability or urban infrastructure if we can get something back there that is walkable, that is a grocery
store that the community can use. So I would encourage you to start looking at what you can do.
I know that there's litigation going there, but there are levers that you can pull to make a project
happen there and to redevelop that site. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Jim Hitten, 45 Spring Street.
This is a good turnout for an afternoon city council session. In my time, I've been to many of these
meetings in the afternoon where they're very lightly attended compared to the evening sessions. And
one month ago, I was here. It was a 630 meeting. There were several speakers asking for sanctuary
city policies and to repeal your contract with the cameras. I asked them afterwards. I said,
well, you did a good job. And even the register wrote an article about it, so that shows you the impact
they made. I said, how many meetings have you come to? They said, this is our first meeting. We have jobs.
We can't come at 330. We can only come when there's a 630 meeting. And I've said this for years,
and I'm going to say it again. If you're going to cancel a meeting, cancel the afternoon meeting,
make yourself available to the working class people in our district and have your meetings at 630,
where more people can come down here and share their opinion about our policies. You know, the world doesn't
revolve around you all. You know, going to happy hour and all that and having your margaritas today,
I know that's what we all want to do. But you ran to serve us. You need to make yourself
available to the working class people and always have a 630 meeting every other Tuesday. Thank you.
My name is Dalton J. Percy and I represent local music culture. I am a local music artist.
And I have played music in this community for over 35 years. I've started when I was 19
at Old Sullivan's. And I can say this, I really do understand and hear the individuals in East
Napa about the sound. But yet, you know, one of the things I've always said to planning,
I've always said to the city, because music art is important. Music art is a human element.
Music art is medicine for the human soul. Once the music starts, it stops.
So, if we have a concert going and they're supposed to stop at 10 o'clock, they need to stop.
If they don't stop, then they need to get a penalty. And then they'll stop next time.
So, I was the one that discovered that Calestoga Fairgrounds and Napa Fairgrounds was state property.
And it to jurisdiction of the municipal codes for both cities did not apply to those properties.
But I can't say this. For almost 15 years, music was stopped at the town and country
Fairgrounds. And when it converted to state property, it was 10 years after that,
that there was no major concerts during the Fair, or no major concerts that were promoted at the Fairgrounds.
So, the city, I feel, I feel, complied to help quite a bit to deal with the sound.
I know Battle Rock is tough for three days, but in a music business we talk about the second income.
The second income that comes from Battle Rock from visitors coming here to Napa for Battle Rock
is what's paving our streets. It's what's making our schools turning our school up there
into a recreation place, providing additional money for the city of Napa.
When I went to Calestoga, third GPI was 7.3, after my first season of doing music for the Calestoga chamber,
it was at 14.8 at the end of the season from the second income.
So, I feel for the people in East Napa. I hear you. It's three days too much to ask for.
And as a local music artist, you need me to come and do something in block stop and bring it up.
I wish it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
City clerk, is that it? I have no additional card. There was one gentleman who wanted to speak.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. It's council members. My name is Harry Skolatsky. I'm a resident at the Napa Yacht Club.
I'm also an attorney, but I'm not representing the Yacht Club, I'm representing my
sensibility about this change and the safety of the traffic adjacent to the Napa Yacht Club.
It makes no sense to me, if you will, that once a safety feature has been in place,
that it be removed, what has changed to make that happen? To me, the argument clearly is,
if it was safe, then it should still be safe. Now, therefore, I would ask you to consider
that factor among all others, not making any changes that were in place, and continue to be
a safety factor, both the residents of Napa Yacht Club and Napa Yacht Club. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else?
Sorry, just one other little thing. Thank you for giving us a chance to share our ideas with you.
And thank you for the good news. I'm a resident of Napa Yacht Club, Mark Teefer, and
very thankful for the repaying and the turn-lain and all that good stuff. Just a couple of
suggestions for the parking. Maybe could it possibly be that the parking spaces are not coming right
up to the entrance? I mean, the problem we have with Cabot, that little street that runs parallel to I'm
Mola behind the shopping center, is that the park space is coming right up to the entrance of it.
As soon as you come out of Cabot, the only way you can pull on to Jefferson is to pull blindly into traffic.
You can't see around those cars. So if you just say, we are going to have a car in the first space.
Something like that. So you give a little more, a little more vision, just a suggestion. Second one.
I ride my bike along Jefferson, Cabot, over the bridge to the Napa Trail, like five days a week.
And I hope that in the midst of this, we'll have some space designated for bikes on the sides,
because, as it is, to cut across Jefferson, to get in a bike lane, and then come back across
Jefferson, to get in a bike lane, to get the Cabot, it's hazardous both ways. It'd be nice to have
something on either side. I know that's more space, but the alternative is writing on the sidewalk,
which of course, nobody wants it. So just a couple of ideas. Thank you for all you're doing.
Thank you for the paving, for the turn, all that good stuff. Just a couple of ideas. Thank you.
All right. Well, thank you for all the thank yous on the paving, but really, thank
thank yourselves and thank the community for supporting our initiative to help us with the funding on
that piece too. And it does make a huge difference. But this council setting our focus areas include
traffic and traffic safety. And in our traffic engineers, our public works people, they're very
skilled at what they do using different successful models in certain areas. So that's the always the intent
of any project that public work takes on during repaving and striping and at safe transportation for all
modes. That's bicycles, that's pedestrians, that's vehicles too. So keep that in mind. That's how we work here.
And thank you public works and everybody in the team that that find solutions to move things along.
Balorock, the speaker on the Balorock parking issue, I would maybe if we have your contact,
the the fire department can show you the
The plan, we don't know what the specific street closures and traffic circulation for me though, but apparently you've had this concern in the past. So I would, it's okay. I'm just responding back. And so work with our department heads on proposals and you can, you can email that to them. You should hand on you probably have that. That's all I can say there. The parking plan is, they work it out, long time advance, to try to make it work. And I know it might not work in every situation.
And the last comment I'll make it on the sanctuary city. The city clerk, I'm trying to think of the meeting where our police chief did a really good job addressing our internal policies and practices.
It was the April 7 meeting.
Thank you so much. So if you, if you'd like to review the April 7 meeting, it's on it's archive. It's at cityanapad.org.
Go to minutes and agendas. You can click on it and watch what's the video of our police chief's response.
To this very valid concern, but we believe, we believe at this point in time, we're responding to it very responsibly and very, with, you know, the interest of all of residents at the top of the mark.
So please review that meeting if you need it any update on what efforts we have are doing on sanctuary city status.
Just to clarify, Mayor, that was his comments were provided right at the end of the public comment.
Item on the agenda.
Okay.
It wasn't an actual action item. It was if the conclusion of public comment.
Right.
Thank you. Thank you all.
We are now going to move to our consent calendar. You're all welcome to stay if the follow the rest of the city business if you'd like.
Or if you choose to hit that happy hour, you can do that.
Thank you.
Item six on the agenda are consent calendar consent calendar items are considered routine and maybe approved by a single vote of the council.
However, members of the public in the city council may request that consent item be pulled for discussion.
There are six consent items identified on the agenda item six A through six F.
I have not received a request to pull a consent item clerk have you.
I have not.
Council anybody in the audience.
Seeing no request to pull any item off the consent calendar. I will entertain a motion to move the consent calendar.
I'll make a motion to approve six A through six F motion.
Vice Mayor, Dean the Tally, seconded by council member Navaya.
As all in favour.
Any opposed.
Thank you.
And our next item item seven on our agenda is a consent hearing.
So the consent hearing similar to consent calendar can move a single motion of the council.
Less it's requested to be pulled.
So there is one item for our consent hearing calendar for the meeting this afternoon.
The second item seven A which is the city manager's office staffing plan update.
And that is there is a request from the public.
Is there a request from the council to pull item seven A?
I have no no request mayor.
No, because any public influence on the consent hearing.
I'll make a motion to approve item seven A.
I'm the consent hearing.
Bring you the suspension by council member Pater.
Second. Second by council member Leros. All in favor.
Single file by saying, aye aye aye.
Aye. Any names.
Very well.
When moving right along, we now are at a public hearing.
So public hearing on vacancy, recruitment and retention efforts and compliance with the assembly bill.
So we will start by a report from staff, and then we will open it up to the public, and then we will close, that's the public hearing, we'll close public hearing deliberate and take action.
Thank you Mr. Mayor, Council, MJ Tweros, interim HR manager, and thought there was a lot of AB 2561 fans, but that's okay.
I will proceed. So in accordance with Assembly Bill 2561, this is the city's annual report on vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts.
Since our last presentation a year ago, I'm happy to say that we have made progress in the vacancy numbers and continue to push that number down.
However, we are still in very fluid job market with lots of movement.
So let's get into the background.
What is AB 2561? This is a new law established last year in 2025 to address the issue of job vacancies in local government.
The bill mandates that public agencies conduct a public hearing to present the status of vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts during a public hearing before the agency's governing body prior to the adoption of next fiscal years budget.
So we're here today.
The bill also requires that you identify any necessary changes to policy procedures and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process.
We'll make a note that there are additional obligations that apply if the vacancy rate exceeds 20% for any specific bargaining unit, and I can say that we have not met that criteria so there is no additional obligations required.
Regarding the workforce information last June, Council adopted the fiscal budget for fiscal year 2526 and 2627, which included the staffing plan of 530 full-time positions.
This past March City Council recently adopted changes to the current staffing plan as part of the mid-year and now that full-time number is 531.
Our workforce provides a variety of municipal services to community, including through our 11 departments, seeing here, including police, fire, Parks and Rec, and a few others.
So regarding the numbers in fiscal year 2526 as of July 1st, 25, the vacancy rate was 11.3%.
This was a bit higher than before, and that's because we did add 10 new positions across various departments and that led to the increase in the vacancy rate.
Six months later, that rate went down at 8.4, so you can see there's significant movement in the right direction.
Now part of this assembly bill also requires that we allow the participation of the bargaining units if they want to present and we did offer an opportunity to our six representative bargaining units.
We did not hear their requests to present, but I did want to provide some background about each of the six units and some of the represented classifications from each of those units.
So we have the NAPA City Employees Association NCA Administrative Manager on Professional Employees, AMP, the NAPA City Fire Services Association NCA, the NAPA Chief Fire Officers NCAFO, NAPA Police Officer Association NPOA and Police Management Unit PMU.
So now we're going to go into the bargaining unit vacancy rates.
Similar to the last slide citywide, we're going to start with July 1st, 2025, and you can see there the numbers reach specific unit, and then six months later as of December 1st, 2025.
Three of those units are at 0% vacancy rate, NPOA went down from 10.6 to 5.3, and we want to continue working collaboratively across our bargaining units and with all our departments to help continue that positive trend.
So where are we today, as of right now, our vacancy rates are a little bit lower, so that's also good news.
NCA is at 9.3, AMP is at 8.2, the three that we mentioned that we're at 0% remain there, NCAFO and PMU and POA is at 4%.
So citywide, we're at 7.9% vacancy rate.
Okay, now to talk about our recruitment metrics, over the last two fiscal years, we have had in the three quarters in this fiscal year, we've run 62 recruitment that have led to seven positions being filled, and currently we have 42 vacancies and active recruitment, we have 11.
So we'll note that sometimes we do run recruitment that fill multiple positions, so that's why we get the higher number of positions filled positions filled through the number of recruitment completed.
I will also note that in the last since last April, due to the retirement of our police chief, we did run the police department all ranks from chief captain lieutenant and sergeant as well, so we didn't want to make that note.
And now on to our part-time recruitment metrics, this is also an important part of our workforce staffing model, specifically related to extra help or seasonal positions.
Many of these roles may fall within the Parks and Recreation Services Department, but also a few of our other departments, this is an important part of the limited duration workforce.
You can tell that you can see that we ran 25 recruitment that were requested, 25 were completed, that led to 71 positions being filled, and we have an upcoming recruitment number of six for the part-time extra help.
Now with respect to hiring obstacles, we've reviewed our applicable policies, procedures and recruitment activities and identified three hiring obstacles, including the job market and the competitive nature regarding specialized positions, including police officer, firefighter, paramedic, professional engineers and various jobs in public sector finance and utilities.
Additionally, the housing affordability and long commutes may be a barrier for some candidates and make it harder to compete with fully remote jobs.
And lastly, pepper and the CalPERS retirement formula make it a lot easier for job mobility for individuals that are already pepper members.
So, I can't share that other agencies are also experiencing these same sort of obstacles and certain challenges with specific hard to fill positions in those candidate pools, as we're all competing for the same type of candidates.
On the flip side, hiring solutions wise, we do want to focus on a few different levers here, one of which is attracting the future workforce, so we've rolled out the first city intern program, as well as the Fire Explorer program and the police cadet program.
I'll have a little bit more information on the first intern and the police cadet program in subsequent slides, but we feel like it's important that we help attract future candidates to the city of Napa.
Then we're going to talk about the growing of our current or strengthening of our current workforce through career development and citywide, as well as regional training.
They'll be additional slides on that, but now we do have additional staff on the HR team that's able to roll out additional training programs for our team members.
Additionally, we have flexible work schedules when it's operationally deemed feasible that includes hybrid remote options to assist with meeting those expectations and remain competitive in the job market.
And Perse, Petpref formulas can also sometimes work in our advantage, because we're all since 2013 in that same retirement formula.
So, those are some of the solutions that we identified, and of course we're always open and welcoming new innovative ideas to implement.
One of the things that always works is going out and meeting potential candidates and being there in person, and we've partnered with various departments, but I will say the HR team and the police department have been working very, very well hand in hand on over 30 recruitment efforts and counting.
And I think that has been shown in the metrics that have helped decrease that vacancy rate, and what's been helpful is sending officers to police academies across various Northern California cities and encouraging attendees to apply for that police training position as well.
There's going to be even more events, including one today, where we do have staff attending the launch of your future.
Expo at American Canyon High School, and then we'll be at Napa High School later this month. So again, we're trying to meet the candidates where they're at and introduce them to various opportunities for the city of Napa and partner with HR to be at those events.
I think these speak better than some of the words as far as some of the faces of our staff members meeting those candidates attending events and also partnering with the operational departments.
While HR might be able to answer some of the application questions or what it's like to work for local government.
I think people really want to meet the people that are doing those jobs and that's been instrumental in helping us drive some of these vacancy numbers down and encouraging candidates that, you know, coming to dispatcher, coming to police officer and sort of help to mystify some of those positions.
One other vehicle that we're using to help clarify or inform potential candidates is the informational videos and these have really helped paint a picture of a day in the life of either a police officer or a dispatcher or some of our utilities roles and really putting a more interactive view on the job posting.
So these would be placed on the actual job posting that someone wants to apply for, they can actually watch the video in addition to reading about the requirements of the role and we've heard anecdotally very positive feedback on this approach with the job posts.
With respect to employee turnover, we did want to note here that this has also remained steady and we are lower than the 10% this shows that there was not as many departures as we had or that this was a healthy number when it comes to the turnover rate.
In fact, it's less than 1% per quarter. If you look at the July of September in 2025, that was particularly due to some retirements in that quarter, but overall it's still a healthy turnover compared to other agencies in our region.
Now to some more positive news, new hires over the last since last May we've had 51 new hires across various departments.
So you'll see here a few photos of folks from city managers office, the police department, some of our parks and recreation, new hires and this helps also illustrate the work that's been done that translates from the job fairs or however people are introduced to the city to actually becoming new employees for the city of Napa.
In addition, as far as the employee development, we are proud to announce 42 of those promotions happened as well during the same timeframe. As you can see here, some of our folks from the fire department, the police department, the housing division, the public works department.
So again, we wanted to encourage that careers grow here, tag land that you might see around town is only for the new hires, but also for the folks that are within our agency.
With respect to some of our retention efforts, we did want to provide a quick update on our employee engagement survey.
So we did complete that in October of last year that came out to a 69% completion rate, which is on par with some of the previous years and we use this feedback to design the internal programs and revised systems in response to that employee feedback.
It's a very valuable tool and allows us to continuously improve our organization.
We will note that moving forward, we will be going to every other year so that we can avoid survey fatigue on the employee engagement survey.
Now with respect to retention efforts, there are a couple of initiatives we did want to highlight, including the employee wellness fair that happened in September of last year.
And we were able to host that at the last fluidist community center and it was very well received.
We had, as you can see, pet therapy from loving animals, providing smiles.
I was definitely one of the more popular booths and we also offered flushes throughout the event and other vendors were there as well to help educate the employees about the benefit offerings provided through the city.
Then we want to highlight the wellness challenges that have been instrumental in helping folks not only have some healthy competition, but have some fun with the colleagues and enjoy some some prizes as well for the winning teams.
We've had a participation rate of over 80 for the last couple walking challenges, including walked over, start track and currently which started yesterday, bloom.
So again, these are wellness challenges that are brought to you by the new fit which is an employee organization, the NAP employee wellness and fitness committee.
And they're sponsored by Kaiser so they help put on these events and we're very thankful for other efforts.
One other area of training is to help folks that are either wanting to learn more about the pension or calpers and those benefits as well as those that are planning for retirement.
So we do have staff that is providing this educational training session.
It was provided three times this calendar year and it was well attended with anywhere from 20 to 30 folks at each session and again we're able to offer that in house and try to increase those retention efforts.
As far as workforce development opportunities, this is an area where we have definitely increased not only the number of opportunities, but the death and specialization regarding these training programs.
So there's been over 50 employees that participated in regional academies since May last year.
In terms of the leadership pipeline development, there were 27 employees that completed those academies and seven currently in that leadership academy.
25 supervisors and managers completed a workplace investigations training and we've had nine employees and four teams go through targeted coaching and development.
With respect to other training opportunities that the city is able to provide to our employees.
We've had two teams go through conflict resolution training with a collaborative effort between the department HR and labor groups.
The practice has also been rolled out and that's four different tiers of employees to improve consistency and collaboration citywide.
We've also worked on succession planning and the identification of leadership readiness as well as strengthening our new higher development and our care training opportunities to help the workplace effectiveness from day one.
So ongoing progress in highlights we did want to come back to the city of Napa's new or the police departments new cadet program that's currently underway and we're hoping to bring on the number of cadets.
It's six that we have that we're trying to get to sorry five cadets on board soon and there's the qualifications and the requirements are on the website so we please.
We asked folks to please check that out. In addition to that we do have our summer intern program as well, which is currently live and we're looking to have five sorry six interns and those opportunities are within the community resources and development department some in the parks and recreation department and some in the public works department as well.
And with respect to other areas of progress we're currently in negotiations with two bargaining units NTA and NTFA.
We're going to begin labor negotiations with NPOA soon as well as the management unit and then the goal is to finalize those units within that or to finalize labor agreements with all those labor units.
So the recommended action is to conduct a public hearing and receive a presentation regarding the city's workforce vacancies recruitment and retention efforts.
So with that.
I did want to add one more shameless plug and that's a huge thank you to the HR team.
We're a team of nine staff members supporting over 500 employees so we're a small yet mighty team but I did want to take a moment to say thank you to them for all the amazing work energy and positivity that they bring to the city.
So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you MJ and I agree with you 100% bringing on 51 new employees.
That's a lot of work.
Thank you everybody in HR and thank you.
At this time, though, I must unless there's clarifying questions I'll go ahead and open the public hearing.
So I'm certain as MJ said earlier there has to be some AB 2561 fans here.
I want to bring up something.
I have no comment cards on that anybody in the public want to speak on.
Let's speak on this public hearing on AB 2561.
If not, I'll accept the motion to close public hearing.
So I'm going to move councilmember bias.
So I'm going to make councilmember pay in there.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye any opposed.
So thank you for that.
Now we'll bring it back to council for any comments.
Questions deliberation and action.
Thank you.
I'm JJ just want to help please sign with all the effort that you and your team has done and everybody involved.
Then making sure that this is a great place for employees to work.
I mean, the wellness, the culture, just get in the surveys.
Looks like it's just a really well thought out.
And it's something that we've worked on for many, many years before.
I was on in here and going through the vacancy going through that pandemic.
Really seeing how important it is to continue to create the culture.
So important.
So thank you for continuing to do the work and, you know, to your team.
As far as the cadet program.
What's the target range for that?
Just at least I think the ideal is there a target.
Age, aged target for that?
Yes.
Just I know.
Just yeah, I mean, and just wondering what the outreach is like and and the I know it's certainly new.
So I'm hoping that we're getting some good feedback and wondering what that group looks like.
Yes or so that group is the the cadet program to be focused on 18 to 24 year old college students.
That's going to be the main focus.
They had they're going to have to maintain a full load while they're in school with a certain GPA average.
That didn't pay me that initially like MJ had mentioned we would like to bring on at least some warning area about five of them.
There is a process that we're they're going to go through which it doesn't include an all interview and essay.
Unlimited background because they are going to be in our building and then they will be exposed to various projects and duties within the building and exposure.
Well, too much force that.
plus you. Thank you. And as far as the intern and far explored program, the explore program
I've had it for a couple of years, right? I don't think that's new. I just want to
skin up there on that. Maybe I'm wrong, but you'll clarify that for me. Thank you, good afternoon.
We have had a far explored program for many years. It's very active and we range usually
between 15 and 18 on average number of explorers that we've had. It's been a very successful
program for us over the years. A number of our full-time employees came up through the fire
explore program. So we're watching closely, the good work that the police department
student with their cadet program and we have ideas to bring that back in the future. As you
may recall, we had a reserve firefighter program historically that we lost during the COVID
era and so we're looking at a different way of bringing that back as a successful recruitment tool.
Right. Thank you. You know, there's different creative ways to bring people on board to get
really great. And the intern program is that I mean, I'm guessing that's a different target. Is that to
really bring in people to roll into some of these jobs or is it more student-based? Correct. There's
there's an academic title that it's going to be programmatic and not we want to have a cohort of interns
that are joining the city together. I will make a note though that the applications close on Saturday
May 9th. So please go to our city of Napa Jobs page and get your applications in if you're interested.
There are six intern. That's the goal of six interns. So. Great. Thank you.
The last thing I end up on is I was a bike fast and I saw several boots from the city in
Napa. So there's employees out there in the Saturday represent the city in Napa and I just want to
say thank for for that. I mean from police to public products to other departments. So I just
turn to work hours, but doing community engagement, I think that's incredible. It says a lot about their commitment.
So I just want to thank them for being out there and and following why our priorities, which is
to me engagement. So just thank you.
Girls, we're a parent. Yeah, I'll be brief, but this is day of thank you. So I'll start with my
thank you. MJ done a great job. This is this is a really solid report. Obviously, you know, we're
still kind of looking at coming out of this really difficult time. We have with COVID and we looked at the
vacancy rates and many of us remember that. So seeing these numbers on currency vacancy rates,
just says a lot about not just your hard work, but the stability of folks who want to work here
and stay here. I absolutely agree that getting out to play and meeting people where they are is really how we
want to try to engage with folks as well as the programs that have already been described. So I'm not going to
add too much to that. Except to also say I think it's smart for you to do the survey every two years. I think
that you know, I just want to reiterate that that survey fatigue is probably a real thing
and a year goes pretty quickly. So I'm very supportive of that shift as well and appreciate all of your
efforts. Thank you. Thank you.
Nice, Mayor Dina Talley. Thank you so much for the report.
The members tell the story and congratulations to the HR department for all your hard work. I will say I do also like seeing how the outreach covers our community outreach focus area. I love that list. I especially love the outreach to the local high schools and colleges. I think that's awesome and it's always great to show students and other paths. So thank you for that.
Yeah, and word of mouth. I mean, I'm just talking to associates and networking and friends. I can't imagine anybody wanting to work anywhere else. I don't know why we can't figure that out.
Compliance requirement for the assembly bill 2561. So there is no formal resolution or units. It's just the fact that we hold the public hearing and report out.
So if there's no further comments on that, we thank HR. We thank MJ and onward. Thank you very much.
All right, we're getting there in any before we go into close session. Are there any comments by council members or the city manager?
Look at the city manager first. Nothing there. We come back and the score boards lighting up will go to council members.
I just wanted to say that council member painter and I a couple weeks ago attended the Cal City City Leaders Summit in Sacramento.
And we lobbied our assembly member. Majority leader Cecilia Aguar Curry and our senator Christopher Cobaldon about various city issues mostly homelessness and housing funding.
We also attended some informative sessions on tackling misinformation as a city. Every city is going through that building family friendly cities ice enforcement and AI use in local government. It was very informative and a good experience for both of us.
Thank you for representing us. Mall with.
Help from our painter fall up. Well, we obviously came with the same comments because I brought takeaways. Cal Cities has made a really good try.
So anybody who's interested in legislatively what Cal Cities is advocating for.
You know, we can make this information available. I was particularly impressed with our ability to share with both the assembly woman Cecilia Aguar Curry and senator Cobaldon.
Our really good news locally in terms of our.
Actually decrease in number of homeless people experiencing homelessness in our community and the why behind that.
You know, obviously we're sad to see the north.
The shelter closing, but they heard it. They heard it loud and clear that this was a success story and that.
And how we did it. So it was a great opportunity to do that.
Anybody's interested come see me.
Thank you. I just want to say how please I am with a progress with.
The.
The wrecking park center project and we had a consent item. I don't want to pull it. I just want to just say to parks and wrecking our executive team to just think I'm just very happy for that progress to move forward.
That's just another step towards, you know, making that reality and something that.
Me person in the internet to me have asked for that. So I'm just watching closely. It feels like almost, you know, every few meetings we see an update of that progress.
And I'm just exciting looking forward to seeing more thanks.
Thank you.
Well, I think we're at the point where I will ask the city attorney to provide the required announcement for close session.
Yes, thank you.
Council is going to meet in close session regarding the labor negotiations with NCEA and NCFA and then also regarding the city attorney position.
Thank you very much.
We will now adjourn to close session. There is no evening session following.
So thank you so much.
During the close session.