[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] All right, the city clerk has given me the nod. We are ready to start. Thank you, everyone.
[0:17] And welcome to our August 4th regular meeting of the NAPA City Council, a column meeting to order. Could we have roll call, please?
[0:25] Council members, painter. Here. There is. Here.
[0:29] Narvayez. Here. Mayor Sajjli. Here. And for the record, Vice Mayor Dina Tulley is absent this afternoon.
[0:36] Thank you very much. If you are able, can you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance?
[0:46] Thank you very much.
[0:49] Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
[0:51] Thank you very much.
[0:53] Thank you very much.
[0:55] Thank you very much.
[0:57] Thank you very much.
[1:06] I may hopefully everybody's got the word out so far, but the five way intersection item has been moved to our September
[1:13] 15th city council meeting to ensure all council members will be present at that meeting.
[1:19] There will be no evening session today that I was scheduled for this afternoon.
[1:24] And staff has been getting the word out and will continue to do so.
[1:29] Are there any changes to agenda or supplemental reports?
[1:32] There are no changes to the agenda mayor. We do have supplemental reports for items seven A and seven B.
[1:38] We have PowerPoint presentations.
[1:40] Thank you.
[1:42] I don't for special presentations.
[1:45] I will proclaim August 2nd through the 8th, 2026 as Napa Farmers Market Week.
[1:51] So council members, yes.
[1:54] Be the month.
[1:55] Council members, if you have your proclamations.
[1:57] City of Napa Proclamation, Napa Farmers Market Week, August 2 through the 8th, 2026.
[2:05] Whereas 36 California farmers and 69 food makers provide thousands of city of Napa residents with access to nutritious locally and regionally cultivated foods through the Napa Farmers Market.
[2:20] Whereas the Napa Farmers Market serves as a significant outlet for 139 small to medium farmers food and artists and makers including
[2:29] 58 Napa base farmers and businesses to serve the goods directly to customers in our community and provide many local businesses startups with their first retail presence.
[2:39] And.
[2:40] Whereas since 2020, the customer count has increased 180 percent welcoming over 871,000 customers including over 688,000 visits by Napa locals in the past six years.
[2:54] We're demonstrating the value and economic benefit for the whole community of having the Napa farmers market located in the heart of downtown Napa and.
[3:03] Whereas since 2012, the Napa farmers markets food assistance programs have increased equitable access to local food by providing over 687,000 dollars in food access dollars, which created over 1.3 million servings of locally grown fruits and vegetables for thousands of Napa neighbors with low income and.
[3:22] The city of Napa recognizes the importance of the Napa farmers market as a nonprofit organization.
[3:28] The stimulates local business development and job creation builds community connections through direct to consumer relationships assist and encourages the next generation of farmers and small business entrepreneurs.
[3:41] Expansed community awareness of agriculture diversity and sustainable and regenerative land management practices.
[3:48] And helps to ensure that all Napa residents have access to fresh and nutrients locally produced food.
[3:55] Now, therefore, be it resolved that I got scheduling mayor the city of Napa along with the Napa city council to hear by proclaim the week of August 2nd through the 826 as Napa farmers market week in the city of Napa in conjunction with the observance of national farmers market week.
[4:13] We call upon all Napa residents to stand together with the Napa farmers market in their mission of supporting local farmers and small businesses and providing an inclusive place where the entire community can purchase farm fresh sustainable grown produce specialty foods and artisan goods directly from the source.
[4:37] The fourth, 2026, 2026. Thank you. Congratulations.
[4:42] I think we have a carame here to accept our.
[4:52] Now, have you come up for a photo.
[4:54] Okay. I have brought treats that match my outfit, but really they are the star of the show. I brought some certified organic strawberries from Rodriguez farms.
[5:04] So I hope to share and everybody come up and grab some of them and enjoy so.
[5:09] Thank you city council and staff. I'm Carame willage executive director of Napa farmers market.
[5:14] While proclinations are always a fun way to celebrate.
[5:17] I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the city of Napa's support of the Napa farmers market, especially over the last six years.
[5:24] I want to give special acknowledgements to the people working for the city that have been essential to our market operations and shared visions of a permanent home.
[5:33] Shannon Knackford, Katrina Gregory, everyone that answers the phone at Napa police dispatch on emergency line.
[5:41] We don't like to call them, but sometimes we do.
[5:44] Brendan Hurley, Jennifer Owen, Neil Harrison, Tony Valdez, and Molly Radigan. Thank you all. They're really doing doing great work with us.
[5:53] This year, the Napa farmers market is celebrating 40 years of farmers, food, and friends.
[5:58] However, our origin story is a little more mysterious than we first imagined.
[6:03] The seed of the Napa farmers market was actually planted in 1983 when then council member Brad Wagon Connect posted in the Napa Valley Register.
[6:13] Group meeting to form Napa farmers market at the home of Ruth Von Ullitz, Interested Persons Invited.
[6:22] Well, as we all know, growth always takes longer in Napa. So a few years of spicy headlines in the Register, including bitter farmers market conflict flares between three rival organizers.
[6:38] All farmers market applications being denied by the city council as they pondered over permits.
[6:44] Thankfully, you don't do that to us. A rogue farmers market popping up inside American Legion Hall.
[6:50] And finally, the first official California certified farmers market started at the Napa Valley Expo on Tuesday mornings in 1988.
[6:58] So here we are, 40 plus 40-ish years later, and thanks to the people who fought for the Napa farmers market, look how far we've come.
[7:06] As part of our mission, we believe that fresh sustainable locally grown food is for everyone, which is why we dedicate ourselves to increasing equitable access to farm fresh fruits and veggies.
[7:17] You know, I want to reiterate those numbers that since returning to downtown Napa, our customer counts have grown 180%.
[7:25] And from the past six years, we've welcomed over 871,000 people to downtown Napa, including over 688,000 visits by our city and county neighbors.
[7:37] And starting in 2012, just with 500 dollars, we've matched over 475,000 dollars in our Cal Fresh Market Match Program, which increases equitable access to our neighbors that have low income.
[7:49] We have many other food access programs and exciting data points, so invite you to explore our 2025 Impact Report at NapaFarmersMarket.org.
[7:58] And one last thing before I wrap up today, I am thrilled to announce a new regional initiative, the farmers markets of Napa Valley, made possible through grant funding from the US Department of Agriculture's Farmers Market Promotion Program.
[8:12] This joint marketing campaign unites for the first time, the six California certified farmers markets in Napa County under a shared platform designed to strengthen local agriculture, support small family farms, and connect our residents and visitors with fresh locally grown food.
[8:28] Check us out at farmersmarketsofnv.org. It's a one stop shop where to help you find all the farmers markets across Napa Valley, and you can continue to celebrate farmers markets all year long. Thank you very much.
[8:41] Well done, Caramay. Caramay. Caramay is there anyone with you would like to have a photograph, we can come up behind the diasonical project.
[8:51] Yes, I have Caroline Wygart, who is our board secretary and Christina Hunt, who is a new friend and constituent customer.
[8:59] Very good. Come right up behind. We'll get you to pick you up on the stage.
[9:09] We just wanted to know what happens while I am here.
[9:13] A lot of secret buttons come right in the middle.
[9:17] Right there, right there in the middle.
[9:25] I guess we'll do it this way.
[9:33] Thank you.
[9:37] Thank you. Thank you.
[9:39] Be sure to share this robbery.
[9:59] Okay, I don't five public comment on non agenda items during the public comment portion of the meeting.
[10:05] I've been invited to address the council on any item within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council.
[10:11] That is not on the agenda. Please focus your comments on either past actions taken by the council or proposed future action to be taken by the council.
[10:19] 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.
[10:29] Also, for public comment, I want to ask the city attorney to explain our new feature on how to participate in public comment.
[10:37] Or the city clerk will. I'll take I'll take it from Chris.
[10:41] For each section of the agenda for those who are participating via zoom for each section of the agenda when public comment is called members of the public who wish to speak on the item.
[10:51] Should use zoom raise your hand button to indicate that you would like to speak for those members of the public who have joined.
[10:57] Via teleconference from their phone, you can push star nine to indicate that you wish to speak when the item of interest comes up.
[11:03] We will be calling on each speaker and allowing them to turn on their microphone to comment when prompted to speak.
[11:09] You may be asked to unmute yourself.
[11:11] If you're on the phone press star six to unmute your phone.
[11:15] Time is limited to three minutes as indicated on the timer that we'll show on the screen.
[11:21] And we will be calling on members of the public participating in person first followed by our remote participants.
[11:27] And beginning with our in person speakers, I do have at least three folks who would wish to speak.
[11:35] Yvonne Baganski, Councilman Barrage in Sahaja Takar.
[11:41] Very good. So in person, come on up.
[11:47] Hi. Thank you. Good afternoon mayor. And see council members.
[11:51] My name is Yvonne Baganski and I live at 3205 Mont Clare Avenue in Napa.
[11:57] And that's a very relevant address because I want to talk about something that's happening in my neighborhood that I'd like to bring to your attention.
[12:05] If you remember three years ago or two years ago, I came before you asking for some assistance with the salmon spawning signs and Salvador Creek.
[12:13] And at that time, the city was unable to do anything, but there was some movement.
[12:18] And we were able to raise $8,000 and put two very large educational signs at Salvador Creek over by the Garfield Bridge, working with I care in Chris Malin.
[12:29] And then we also did six signs over at Village High School.
[12:33] So we were able to accomplish this. And the city did come in and help by installing the signs.
[12:38] And I really want to thank David Udahl. He was wonderful in playing the signs in.
[12:43] And they decorated it very nicely around the signs.
[12:46] Now, I'm here for a second reason. And that is in my neighborhood.
[12:51] We have a lot of urban deer. And in my neighborhood, I don't know if you saw the article that was written in the register in May.
[13:00] But those do are having lots of babies. And the areas that they're having babies at is the area boarded by South School,
[13:09] Trancus and Lincoln Avenue and all the homes in between. And they're having the babies and people's backyards.
[13:16] And so we have a small urban deer herd population. That's existed since 2017.
[13:23] When I was doing the article, what I noticed was that many people have put up their own signs to warn people about the deer.
[13:32] You've seen them probably on big ranch road when you make a left.
[13:35] And you'll see these huge homemade signs.
[13:37] I interviewed and spoke to everybody who had made the signs.
[13:40] I talked to people who talked about the slaughter of the funds.
[13:43] How many times they have come out and found dead animals.
[13:47] The response of the public works department, the response of animal control.
[13:51] And there was a lot of anger and frustration around the baby deer and the doves and what goes on here every year.
[13:59] Well, just today when I was coming here, I was walking down La Homa.
[14:02] And there were five deer walking, three fawns and two doves.
[14:07] They stay over in one of the women's backyards.
[14:11] I've also talked to people where the deer are living and they're living in the long grass.
[14:15] And that's where they head out during the day.
[14:17] Now, the reason I'm bringing this to your attention is that we do have an urban deer population.
[14:21] We have wildlife living here.
[14:23] I would like to work with the city and putting some deer crossing signs up, specifically along La Homa and beard road.
[14:30] That seems to be with a large number of deer crossing and it makes everybody very, very nervous.
[14:36] I have already alerted the public works department of the city.
[14:39] I've been talking with staff.
[14:41] I've also been talking with UC Davis.
[14:43] They track road kill information throughout the state.
[14:46] Napa County has nothing in their system because no one here is reporting to the road kill system.
[14:52] Anyway, I just want to alert the city council staff and all of you about this.
[14:56] I'm hopefully we'll have some signs for next year, but we are going to...
[15:00] Continue working on this. Thank you.
[15:10] Good afternoon, Council. My name is George Barrage. I'm a former city councilman in the people's
[15:15] Republic of Katati. I've asked the clerk for an extra time for an ADA accommodation. I have
[15:23] business interests here in Napa. I pay taxes here in Napa. This is my third oral presentation before you,
[15:31] regarding my appeal of a bogus parking ticket downtown. I reached out to you via email and video for help. I
[15:46] got no response. When I was on the Katati city council, I returned every phone call, every email,
[15:55] promptly and professionally. It's my duty. I also turned down my city paycheck because in 2009,
[16:02] our town was flat broke. I held office hours on Monday nights. I had a billboard outside for people to
[16:09] come in who had grievances and then we had grievances. When Council members don't get back to me,
[16:15] I find it very disappointing. Napa's parking citation appeal process is a joke. It's ridiculous.
[16:28] Now, this should concern you. I'm here to give you another chance to fix this broken appeal process.
[16:38] Mr. Potter City Manager Potter was nice enough to return my phone call and said Mr. Barrage,
[16:44] you know, since you filed an appeal before the Superior Court. It's really not proper for me to speak to this
[16:49] right now. I understand sir, but he's willing to talk to me afterwards. But here's the key point about this.
[16:55] I thought about afterwards, Mr. Potter, is that there is no pending litigation. I'm defending myself
[17:03] against you. In Superior Court, as my last venue. There is still time to settle.
[17:13] City Attorney knows this. Today I filed a huge PRA request request with the city,
[17:19] which will cost the city thousands of dollars. Didn't want to do it.
[17:24] Now, I can withdraw my PRA request and gladly so. I have a right to confront my accusers,
[17:35] which I have not been able to do through your process. I have a right to do process.
[17:40] I have a right to discovery. In my opinion, the process is severely flawed. It appears that Napa is
[17:51] an extortion racket intentionally or negligently, you are. It's designed to make it almost impossible
[18:00] to get justice. I've spent a lot of money bringing this before you, rather than the right to check for
[18:07] that citation. I say let's fix this. Let's join hands as adults and professionals and let's fix it.
[18:17] You can take all the credit. You can put the feather in your cap. I don't care.
[18:25] Let me be the last victim of this silly appeal process that's rigged.
[18:31] Let's forego Superior Court, City Attorney's time, my time, public embarrassment.
[18:38] I'm at your disposal in an off-road good faith. Thank you folks.
[18:47] There was City Clerk at another name. Will I speak your card?
[18:51] Yep. Sahed.
[19:00] Good afternoon Mayor Sedgley and members of the council. My name is Sahed. I'm a 14-year-old
[19:05] rising ninth grader living in Fairfield. I'm a member of the Fairfield Youth Commission
[19:09] and the founder of the National Association of Youth Commission. This non-profit organization
[19:14] works to establish youth commissions in cities where they're not already present.
[19:19] Push for legislation beneficial to use, increase youth access to government, and provide a
[19:23] space for youth commissions across the nation to collaborate. I was speaking to you this afternoon
[19:28] on a proposal that I've seen work firsthand and it's one of the best things that a city could do for its young
[19:32] people. I'm as a new degree at Youth Commission in Napa. For some context, a youth commission is a
[19:38] group of young people, typically aged 14 to 25, who worked to advise the city council and mayor
[19:42] on topics relating to the youth. This can range from small issues of that effect a few young people
[19:47] to city-wide youth issues. Youth commissions are created with the purpose of bridging the gap between
[19:52] the youth of the city and that city's government. Simply put, youth know youth issues best and they
[19:57] know how to tackle them. As of right now, Napa has many programs to support youth in the city,
[20:02] such as the Sheriff activities leak, dare and legacy Napa Valley. But what Napa needs is standalone
[20:08] localised body that can tackle youth issues as a part of city-carbonate. A youth commission will
[20:12] be different from just another program in that this isn't the city giving to the youth is also the youth
[20:16] giving to the city. All the city needs to do is give them a chance. Cities with youth commissions
[20:21] often see real chains and new laws. For example, the Fairfield Youth Commission is actively working
[20:26] to implement its tobacco retail license, which ties into the issues smoking in our schools. And these are
[20:31] the types of opportunities that Napa's youth need. And it's wouldn't even be difficult to implement.
[20:37] All that is needed is a resolution that would establish the commission. And there would be minimal
[20:41] cost of the city. There would be no need to hire any new individuals, as the only adults involved with
[20:45] the commission would be an adult advisor. And there would be very little administrative costs since
[20:50] the only real cost would be holding a monthly or bi-monthly meeting. For the more through the National
[20:54] Association of Youth Commissions, I would be happy to offer the city free research on how things like
[20:59] exact costs, appointments, and scope will work to play out. I would like to respectfully request
[21:04] the city council to direct staff to report back on potential routes the city could take in
[21:07] starting a commission. I'd be happy to serve as a resource for the city during this process.
[21:12] If any member of the council is interested, please contact me at 707-344-9999. I would be happy to meet
[21:19] the members of the council and help out with this process. Thank you.
[21:33] Good afternoon, Jim Hinton, 45 Spring Street, Napa.
[21:38] So I'm not going to go on and on, but today is another example where we're not here at 630
[21:46] to serve the people on city council day. It's great you're here at 330, but we better if you
[21:53] were here at 630, when more members of the community are available to come down to these meetings,
[21:59] whether you think it's important or not, and attend them. People want to come, not a lot, but there's a
[22:04] couple out there. And if you're going to cancel a meeting, you need to cancel the daytime meeting,
[22:10] not the nighttime meeting. Number two, when are we going to reopen city hall outside?
[22:20] Since the pandemic, the doors out here have basically been locked. You have to call to get service.
[22:28] And I'm lucky that it's easy to get a hold of Tiffany. She's great to communicate with and call you
[22:33] right back and all that. And Mr. Potter is always accessible for me. Very easy. He takes care of me.
[22:41] But like we heard from one of the speakers a moment ago, he can't get a hold of anybody. It's close to him.
[22:47] And people don't seem to want to call him back as much as they do me. And you serve the public.
[22:55] You need to reopen your doors and welcome us in. You know, we want to feel welcome in when we go
[23:02] into places, not close to the public. We've got to call. So please consider just reopening
[23:10] the community, making us feel welcome here instead of the way it's set up. And then in closing, I just want
[23:17] to recognize that council member Beth Painter yesterday, did a wonderful job, chairing Lafco,
[23:27] and a very important topic that's been going on 10 years regarding Skyline Park and the housing
[23:34] that they're trying to shove down our throats and Beth did a great job, chairing it. It meeting went
[23:42] excellent. The five people voted unanimously. We don't need to give you sewer service. And that's going to
[23:52] halt the project more and hopefully stop it for good because housing like that belongs
[24:00] in town next to the services next to the Wal-Mart's and the schools in the hospital. And the other
[24:07] thing I mentioned is that we are underrepresented on Lafco. Lafco has always an upvalid person gets
[24:16] to vote on the city council where we the largest city have to rotate with American Canyon every
[24:22] two years. That's not fair. We should be the ones with the whole time seat. We're half of the county.
[24:28] The other two should be rotating. And the other supervisors were both upvalid and downvalid.
[24:35] We need more nap of people. Anyone else in the audience? General public comment?
[24:46] Yes, Mr. Mayor. The last speaker covered a lot of the minutioe was going to bring up the
[24:57] meeting should be held in the evening. Some more people can attend. I would like to say I'm very happy
[25:04] with your agenda because you say on your agenda that you don't have to fill out a speaker guard. You
[25:10] would not believe how many cities I go to and speak out where they don't realize that. Also,
[25:18] any item on the agenda can be spoken to, including the pledge of allegiance. It's listed. I'm not
[25:24] actually an expert at the Brown Act, but I've had a lot of experience with it. As Mr. Barrett
[25:31] came up here, he was a former councilman. I'm also a former councilman. What bothers me the most is when
[25:39] we have councilpeople that don't realize that they are supposed to be providing oversight, not of the
[25:47] city, but of the staff to make sure that things are being done properly. In Mr. Barrett's case,
[25:56] I haven't viewed the actual situation yet. I'm going to do that today. Where he was tagged for something
[26:04] it wasn't properly marked. He tried to appeal it. Your people are just there to collect money.
[26:11] That's the wrong way to do it. They should have sent somebody out there with him to verify it. If he is in
[26:16] the wrong, then that's fine. But if he's not in the wrong, he needs to have a fair hearing. I've seen very many of
[26:24] these processes with these, as he puts it, extortion and rackets. I mean, city, not city, but
[26:34] code enforcement violations are number one problematic area. On its face a lot of times, those things
[26:42] are a violation of the 14th Amendment that you single person out because it's done by neighbor complaints.
[26:52] Well, the neighbor may complain against you, but he's not going to complain about the other guy
[26:56] down the street that he likes. So, on his face, that's wrong. But we have councils that just
[27:03] look into things. They'll just accept what staff says and go from there. I think that you can do more
[27:09] than that. You need to either meet with Mr. Barrett or go out to the area and see that things are marked
[27:17] and then tell them, no, you're wrong, if he's wrong. Not doing that. I had personal experience.
[27:23] I tried to approach a councilman. Two councilman, actually, in my city, and they refuse to come out.
[27:31] They said, oh, well, you have a litigation going, well, if you want to stop the litigation,
[27:35] you come out and see it for yourself. Not to take staff's word. Anyway, I'm getting a little redundant,
[27:39] so I'm going to end it there. Thank you very much.
[27:41] Anyone else in the audience under general public comment before we go to raise hands?
[27:52] Okay. Looks like we're heading over to Zoom now, Mayor. We do have one hand raised, Laurie. You have been given
[28:00] permission to speak, so you should be able to start your comment. Hi. First, I would like to thank the young
[28:08] man that came to talk about the youth council. One of my best experiences growing up was being
[28:16] on the Katati Youth Council, and it did make a bit different back then, and it also taught us such
[28:23] leadership skills and how things go through the city that some of us became city leaders later on in
[28:33] citizen leaders. I was seventh grade representative, so I urge you to do that.
[28:45] The other one is following up on Mr. Seller Mallow and Mr. Barracks comment. We are just getting through
[28:54] a huge, overhaul of code enforcement in appeals and everything in Sonoma County. Both of the
[29:08] county level, county snowman level, and four cities in the city of the Windsor, Cloverdale, Sonoma,
[29:20] and Katati all are have, and it was to revamp the administrative hearing processes too because they were
[29:27] unfair. I think you should be proactive and get these kind of cases like Mr. Barracks that do need
[29:39] to have need to proper appeal and have reasons instead of being automatically guilty and not having
[29:50] a save or saying, okay, that I parked there and there's no sign, but there was one down the street.
[30:00] Those kind of staff need to be able to be heard. They're not just assumed, because what it ends up as people get resentful about fines, they can't access a fines, and then they end up costing everybody a lot of money when it should be handled well in the beginning.
[30:24] So I urge you all to, you might want to look into the multi-geridic signal contract that is coming online in Sonoma County.
[30:37] With will, will, will, will, will, will, um, engineering company as a company out of San Francisco, and how they're centralizing everything, um, they're separating investigations from, um,
[30:55] administrative roles, um, and katati, you, we have the same person can stop the society and, um, be the judge.
[31:10] So there's those things that we're, uh, much improvement. So, um, thank you, bye.
[31:19] Thank you.
[31:24] Okay. We have no, I don't see any other, um, hands raised. If you do wish to speak, um, and you are attending via zoom, please raise your hand now. Otherwise, we will move on, but I, I see no additional hands bare.
[31:35] Thank you so much. We're working through it.
[31:39] I think it's going to do, um, item six are consent calendar, uh, consent calendar items are considered routine and may be approved by a single vote of the city council, however,
[31:49] member of the public or city council may request that a consent item be pulled for discussion. There are 10 constant consent items identified on the agenda six a through six j.
[31:59] I have not received a request to pull a consent calendar item.
[32:07] Jim Hinton, I'd like to pull six c, as well as six f.
[32:12] I was dog six d, c, cat, and f.
[32:20] All right, council, I haven't, uh, any hands raised and I move approval of the remainder of the consent calendar.
[32:36] Second, motion by council member, Laura, second by council member.
[32:40] The remainder of the consent calendar, uh, all in favor, I posed.
[32:46] Care is unanimously, uh, the request for item six c.
[32:59] Jim Hinton again, 45 spring street, Napa.
[33:02] I grew up in this town and, uh,
[33:06] I've done a lot of things over the years, uh, in the way of trying to make a dollar survive or whatever, you know,
[33:14] I went to a sub-perniated baseball card show the other day.
[33:18] When I was in high school, I was selling baseball cards.
[33:21] Um, this sidewalk vending ordinance.
[33:25] I understand, you know, it's, you want to be able to get rid of the hundreds of hot dog people that are selling drugs and hot dogs after
[33:35] Bottle Rock down the middle of third street and all that.
[33:39] And that's, uh, you know, the spirit of the whole passing this is so you can enforce that and get rid of those people.
[33:47] And I don't think anybody's complaining about that too much.
[33:51] But like this last year, there were all kinds of lemonade stands in people's neighborhoods.
[33:57] Where kids were trying to, you know, make a buck off bottle rock by selling lemonade to pass or buys or whatever.
[34:05] If you go down to war as street, there are families that it really rely on the money they make off bottle rock to survive.
[34:15] And, you know, with your, with your sign ordinance, it's all, you know, somebody has to complain before you enforce it.
[34:23] I don't know if this is going to be like that or you're just going to go around and enforce it.
[34:27] But, I mean, you know, you, the more you regulate things, the more you kill things.
[34:34] The more somebody has to put up front to get in the game, the less likely they're going to be able to take that first step and start selling lemonade or whatever it is.
[34:44] And, you know, you, you should really try to leave the smaller people alone.
[34:50] You know, crack, not letting people park cars anymore and stuff.
[34:55] Where people have been doing it for years.
[34:57] They're relying on that kind of money and stuff.
[35:00] And you send out notices a week before telling them, oh, you can't do this anymore.
[35:04] You know, bottle rock impacts us all.
[35:10] And people should be able to, while they're, while they're being put out by having all this in their neighborhood, they should be able to make a dollar at least.
[35:18] At least their kids learn, learn an economic lesson and develop and they should be able to do this stuff.
[35:25] But your regulations, you know, you just bottle rocks the only one making money off it now.
[35:30] You know, the restaurants all are basically closed because everybody's at bottle rock by in the food at bottle rock.
[35:36] And it's like, all the money pours into bottle rock, but, you know, it shouldn't be like that.
[35:42] That's like straight up like communism or whatever.
[35:46] You know, we want to live in a free country with a free economy where kids can sell lemonade.
[35:56] This is the second reading of this proposed ordinance and at the last meeting.
[36:04] We did discuss lemonade stands and we discussed brownies sell girl scout cookies.
[36:11] And this ordinance is on public right away, not private.
[36:15] So shouldn't affect lemonade stands on a front yard or.
[36:20] Girl scout cookie sales.
[36:22] I was just going to say the same thing, this ordinance only applies to the public right away.
[36:26] So if somebody wants to set up a lemonade stand in their front yard, that's not prohibited under this.
[36:31] So if there's another no other comments, I will go ahead and move staffs recommendation for this item.
[36:36] Motion to move consent item six seed by council members, Laurel seconded by council.
[36:41] And vice on favor.
[36:42] I opposed here is unanimously in our second item.
[36:47] Same speaker six F and six F has to.
[36:53] To the acceptance of California high patrol cannabis tax fund grant program.
[37:00] Well, 261,000.
[37:04] Eight hundred and ten dollars and 58 cents.
[37:08] You're welcome.
[37:10] You are welcome.
[37:11] That's my money coming to you.
[37:13] That's what I fought for for many years is to have storefronts.
[37:19] And here it is.
[37:21] And here comes a quarter million dollars for you.
[37:24] You're welcome.
[37:25] I'm glad we were able to do it.
[37:27] And get rid of the war on marijuana and move it forward.
[37:31] You're welcome.
[37:35] And just to correct the speakers, it's not for us.
[37:38] It's for the community.
[37:39] And that's what these grants do to help our program.
[37:41] So it's not for us.
[37:43] Anything else from council?
[37:47] I would make a motion to approve item six F.
[37:50] I have a motion to approve consent six F.
[37:52] Seconded by.
[37:53] Move by council member.
[37:54] Painter saying by council member of our is on favor.
[37:56] I opposed.
[37:58] Thank you.
[38:00] That gets us to consent.
[38:01] We are at item seven administrative reports.
[38:04] And this one is our semi annual financial and economic indicator update for the summer of
[38:10] 20.
[38:11] 26.
[38:12] And I welcome.
[38:13] Doctor.
[38:14] We're going to make you stand again.
[38:17] I guess.
[38:18] I'm sorry.
[38:21] Well Mayor and council members.
[38:22] Thank you for continuing this work with me.
[38:24] And good afternoon.
[38:26] We're just going to get the slides up real quick.
[38:29] So as a slide you coming up just as a quick starting place.
[38:32] First slide will show you.
[38:33] The macro economic outlook is actually relatively positive.
[38:38] The data I'm going to show you now come from a Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank report that comes out of
[38:44] a quarter.
[38:45] The new one is going to come out actually in a couple weeks based on the data that are through the second quarter of
[38:50] 2026.
[38:51] We do have a preliminary report in terms of where gross domestic product at the US level grew or did not grow in the second quarter
[39:00] of 2025 grew by a little over 2%.
[39:04] Now when you look at that on the surface it looks like growth is actually pretty decent.
[39:09] The reality of it is growth is slowed down.
[39:11] So if you look at it on the let's say the last six quarters it is slowly descended from somewhere closer to 3%
[39:16] per annum down closer to 2% per annum.
[39:19] And if you look at this forecast which is what we knew from the first quarter of 2026.
[39:25] And the new columns in each one of these stops represent where we're at in terms of the latest data versus the previous quarters
[39:32] data with these four casters.
[39:33] And this comes from an interview that the Philadelphia Federal Reserve does a 44 casters of a quarter.
[39:38] You can see that for 2026 there's a slower growth.
[39:41] Now part of that's going to be the last thing I talk about which is the inflation forecast.
[39:45] But it's not necessarily because the labor market is going to contract.
[39:48] So if you think about the macro economy usually boils down to three major items that are all blended together.
[39:52] The income generation after inflation which is the first set called real GDP percentage.
[39:56] What's happening in the labor market where the unemployment rate is one way of capturing that.
[40:00] It's a somewhat flawed way but it is one way of thinking about the basic robustness of the labor market.
[40:05] And then what we'll call core PC inflation which is the inflation rate the Federal Reserve is considering when to think about interest rate policy.
[40:11] So from an unemployment standpoint we don't see much change over the next few years.
[40:15] Growth is a little bit more sporadic if you want to say that way but kind of in that sort of 2% to 2.5% range.
[40:21] And the reason why we saw that change from the last part of 2025 to the end of the first quarter of 2026 is mainly because of inflation rising.
[40:29] Now a lot is because what we saw as a jump from energy prices increasing in the first quarter.
[40:34] And we're likely to see some tail effect of that in the second quarter once the final estimate is done.
[40:39] But inflation will remain elevated.
[40:41] Now why that's important in some ways is that you might say well that should elevate the percentage chance of having a recession or slowing the economy down.
[40:49] And it is but there's enough robustness in terms of the labor market and generally how we've been producing incomes.
[40:54] That economists generally do not expect a recession happen through the end of 2027.
[40:59] Now a lot of that's going to depend on two major items is one sort of the continued predictability of what's happening geopolitically.
[41:07] And it's not flaring in such a way to undermine growth in other words to augment the inflation pressure.
[41:12] And the second is the continued growth of our labor market.
[41:15] So if we see any wobble in either one of those two areas we're going to have that change and go the outlook toward the negative.
[41:21] But for right now that progression is relatively slow.
[41:23] But it provides a relatively decent foundation looking forward toward the end of the decade, which is good for the other items we're going to discuss with respect to the city of Napa.
[41:31] But you can see that real jump there in terms of inflation.
[41:34] Now we updated the dashboard as we do in a quarterly basis.
[41:39] And the columns here are sort of you can think of the hotel industry.
[41:43] What we've seen in taxable sales is related to what the latest estimate is for gross domestic product of the city of Napa and then the housing market.
[41:50] So on the hotel side we've actually seen the occupancy rate and the ADR or the average daily rate and then what that then becomes is the revenue per available room.
[42:02] Stay relatively stable and maybe grow just a little bit.
[42:05] So you can see those positive numbers in terms of occupancy growth as we're going to see in a long return graph in a minute we've seen it go up just a little.
[42:12] So it's kind of holding its own.
[42:14] The taxable sales are not necessarily holding their own.
[42:17] Generally speaking we've seen people pull back some of that's because of what we saw in the first quarter with the rise of prices.
[42:23] So how much of that in terms of getting in there and thinking about how household to rethink in the way that they're buying goods and services and sort of moving in toward.
[42:30] Let's say the end of the decade we're inflation is not necessarily high suddenly it's remain relatively elevated since the pandemic.
[42:38] It's just a matter of how we go from here toward the end of the decade.
[42:41] We've seen taxable sales regionally including Sonoma County Marin County and Napa County start to fade a little bit the state has picked up some of that's because our urban areas are seeing a little bit more consumption.
[42:51] Energy if you want to say it that way.
[42:53] But it was so we see the taxable sales and state wide pick up a little bit.
[42:57] The housing market is starting to flatten out across the state as I'll show you in a little bit.
[43:02] The forecast is somewhat pessimistic toward the middle of twenty twenty seven.
[43:07] The set position is we'll probably have more upward than downward pressure and interest rates at a time where there are some uncertainties in the economy.
[43:14] We're going to see a little bit slower demand but that's not necessarily the case we're going to see surging supply either.
[43:19] So it's this real sort of flat effect where it's more of demand slowly contracting and not necessarily supply rising very quickly in others.
[43:27] We don't expect to have an enormous number of existing units rise nor a lot of new units built.
[43:32] Demand is just fading a little bit versus supply and you're seeing some of that there in the data, at least over the last year.
[43:38] So this is a look at least at the way in which Napa in this meeting residents of Napa have seen the evolution of two sort of labor market data points.
[43:46] First one which is the one that's larger which is I think red color than the second one's a little bit more gray.
[43:51] Is the labor force or the number of napkins that are looking for work or have a job.
[43:55] The number that have a job is that second gray line and the distance between them is the unemployed and the ratio between that distance and the red line is the unemployment rate.
[44:04] The unemployment rate is actually fallen regionally over the last three to four months after seasonal adjustments.
[44:09] However, if you look at the data at one level deeper, the reason that's happening is because the labor force is contracting a little faster than the contraction of the number of local residents working.
[44:20] So from a ratio standpoint, it's making the unemployment rate sink a little bit but kind of for the wrong reasons.
[44:26] Not because more people are working but because the number of people looking for work is contracting fast in the number of people gaining access to work or how fast that's contracting anyway.
[44:36] Bottom line is that nap is not standing out as sort of a in that regional phenomenon is happening across the counties in the cities within the North Bay.
[44:45] Now, unfortunately if you look at the North Bay, the North Bay is a place where we have relatively higher wages than some other parts of California and other parts of California growing a little faster.
[44:55] But these are very robust unemployment rates if you think of the unemployment rate as a.
[45:00] Key metric of what's happening in labor markets. We've seen that drop just a little bit, but kind of for the wrong reasons. As I alluded to, this is a way of looking at what's happening in our hotel markets here in Napa. Let me walk back one step. We've been using a six month moving average. So you're seeing some of the peaks and valleys that you'd have with the seasonality, but the idea is really kind of thinking about more in the trend and seeing those things lift over time, keeping some of the seasonality inside of it. This is the year look back.
[45:29] So the final dots here are what we had through the end of May, which were the latest data when we published the latest round of the dashboard.
[45:36] And if you take those lines and you look back, it kind of gives you a sense of where the 12th month ago point was, rather than trying to decipher it on the graph.
[45:44] You can see that it's slightly elevated for the occupancy rate, which is the top line and then the so-called ADR, the average daily rate, which is the bottom line.
[45:53] The access on the left is occupancy rate, the access on the right is ADR. In either case, we've seen a little bit of a pickup, not robustly, but it also is not sunk quickly, which is good.
[46:03] Now, with that in mind, it also, you want to think about the inflation piece of it.
[46:08] For our local hoteliers, specifically our small size hoteliers, even though that's picked up a little bit, the real revenue you're generating because of inflation against costs is not necessarily gained much.
[46:20] You want to think about that somewhere in real terms too when you think about those data points, but at least we're not sinking, which is good.
[46:26] You can see that those peaks in terms of the long view thinking that we kind of came out of the pandemic shadow for the first piece in 2022, and we've seen those peaks get a little higher on the occupancy rate versus the ADR over the last few years.
[46:42] Now, this is the housing market, so we're going to look at this in two ways. The blue columns represent the latest forecast, the one I use, which is Zillow, and then I try to think about doing a little bit of adjustment here and there, but generally speaking, Zillow's forecast has been relatively robust looking forward.
[46:57] It's also a public database, which means we can find a lot of data within it, and there's a long period of time to sort of compare how the forecast has evolved.
[47:05] Negative across the board. Again, NAP is not standing out in terms of having a negative forecast. It just happens to be in our comparison set, the largest or the most negative number of this set, but we're seeing contraction across the board.
[47:20] Now, it is important to recognize a couple items. This is something that's not new.
[47:25] As I showed you on the top, in terms of the dashboard splash page, over the last year, we've seen a contraction in prices and NAPA does not stand out regionally. We've seen that happen in NAPA.
[47:34] I'm sorry, in Marin, Sonoma, NAPA County more generally, not just in the city of NAPA in Solano County, the North Bay is starting to stand out a little bit as sliding a little faster than other parts of California, but we still seen somewhere between 35 and 45% gains in housing and median home prices since 2019.
[47:53] So some of this could be seen as just the beginning of a small market correction and kind of getting back a little bit where the prices have been rising fast enough or there's a little bit of demand fatigue.
[48:02] And we've been talking about demand fatigue in these presentations for the last couple of years, we're starting to see that come to fruit.
[48:08] So most housing economists believe we're going to have kind of a flat to negative year, but not robustly negative. So that's good.
[48:15] So that's good in the sense of you think about all the geopolitical concerns about buying a home and with risk you may be taking the elevated prices of those homes.
[48:23] So might be happening with interest rates. There's more headwinds than tailwinds in the housing market right now and that's likely to continue probably at least the next 12 or 18 months.
[48:32] Now, with that said, you can see the latest home prices in terms of the estimates there. NAPA is a stand out of something I've said before is in 2001 NAPA.
[48:41] And the same in home price, you can see that that change has taken place over the last 25 years.
[48:46] It's a real shift regionally in what's happened, but rents have slowed down in NAPA, which is kind of curious.
[48:51] So we're going to watch that close to see if that percentage change in rents remains relatively slower than our regional comparisons.
[49:00] So forecast set came out since the last time I spoke with you, I wanted to just show you this briefly.
[49:05] This is what the latest data through the end of 2025 and some of the estimates that are out there between public databases from EDD,
[49:12] Department of Finance and private databases, light cast specifically is kind of the the standard bearer out there in the industry in terms of liberal recognition.
[49:22] Those blue columns represent the one year change in those industry sectors in the city of NAPA.
[49:29] And you can see that real estate government saw some pickup there real estate is a real wild blend of both sort of classic commercial and residential real estate professionals and the rental and leasing equipment.
[49:42] So when you have construction happening, there's a little bit of a pickup there.
[49:46] And you can see that in other in other in other spots specifically in manufacturing, which is mostly related to the line industry, you're going to see a little bit of the contraction there.
[49:54] Now health care is something that if you look across the region across the state and across the country, growth is taking place.
[50:00] And this is the forward look using the 2024 data as a base for forecast toward the end of the decade.
[50:06] Health care is one of those industries that we expect to continue to have a lot of tailwinds versus headwinds in terms of forecast.
[50:12] So when you're thinking about what's happening in the city of NAPA with respect to the demand for jobs and also what happens would be doing for work.
[50:18] There's going to be slow continuous energy around health care in almost every single way that services are provided real estate looks like it's going to continue to grow and some of that's going to be construction related in terms of not necessarily construction jobs.
[50:30] But the amount of equipment that's being utilized and other equipment that might be utilized in terms of whatever reversal we see in the wine industry over the next few years.
[50:39] NAPA overall though has a positive forecast think about dividing that sort of by five to get to or so by six I'm sorry to get to sort of an annual average.
[50:47] So NAPA is a little slower than let's say snowman in NAPA and Marin counties in terms of the forecast but not by much it's all very slow and steady going toward the end of the decade.
[50:56] So I want to show you this kind of give you a sense of what industries are at least in the latest forecasts looking forward to grow.
[51:03] Now a project that we've been working on often on with Brendan Jennifer and Neil is to look at wine index or set of wine metrics and we're leaning more toward wine metrics and we're almost there.
[51:14] But what I wanted to do because there's been a lot of consternation over the last four months about the wine industry is provide you kind of a general wrap up of where economists and sort of industry professionals are.
[51:23] If you look at the industry one of the biggest problems is there's a huge amount of wholesale bulk wine sitting there on the market from the last vintage.
[51:32] Some of the numbers I've been provided is that instead of having about 16 million gallons in wholesale it's somewhere in the high 30 millions.
[51:39] So you think about that supply surge as an enormous amount of bulk wine out in the market.
[51:43] Now the problem with that is that there's a lot of theories about what is going to be what's going to be necessary to get back to the sort of long term average of somewhere in the let's say the 16 or 17 million.
[51:53] That'll make some for some intriguing changes in the industry maybe in the next couple of years.
[51:58] I'll be how consumers will benefit from that. So what has happened in the past when we've had supply greater than demand and I'll come back to talk about the movements on that sort of a wrap up in a minute.
[52:07] As you get this kind of consumer Renaissance you get a lot of inventory being sold at lower prices, which could be seen as a marketing play by wineries to try to bring in new new.
[52:16] Wine consumers where you're providing some relatively high quality wine and pretty decent discounts because you want to move the inventory.
[52:22] So if you are like I am a subscriber to multiple wine industry daily emails about what inventory is out there prices are coming down for some amazing wines.
[52:32] Consumers are going to read the benefits of that on the industry side we're going to see more consolidation and change.
[52:37] So in Napa you probably will see some brands that you thought would never go away go away and either get consolidated or move on to some other financial outcome.
[52:46] Expect that to happen. That's just natural in a cycle with this much depth and breadth.
[52:51] Beauty of Napa which is different than let's say San Luis Obispo Santa Barbara and maybe do a certain extent Sonoma is the global branding and wanting to lean in toward that and what it means for a tighter tourism.
[53:01] So when you think about and we talked a little bit about some past times I've presented how much of what's happening in Napa is driven by the wine industry writ large vis-a-vis what Napa has defined itself as a place to visit regardless of the size depth and breadth of the wine industry as agriculture to glass.
[53:18] Something that's very difficult to decompose but we are seeing some fade and taxable sales which suggests there's got to be some action happening there.
[53:25] The volume of that change is going to be very difficult to figure out but we know it's tied somewhere.
[53:31] So we're going to watch over the next year to truly try to figure out if we can fair it out how much of that change we can assign to the wine industry vis-a-vis that sort of medium term project we've been discussing.
[53:41] So from a city standpoint the tourism outcomes if you look at what's been happening with the forecast for California it's actually relatively robust for the state.
[53:48] Some of that's the continued comeback of the Bay Area as a place to visit as well as some parts of Southern California LA in San Diego specifically.
[53:56] So the further north bay we're seeing some fade which is regional but a lot of it will depend on what happens with the Bay Area sort of more broadly.
[54:05] From a macro standpoint we're watching interest rates and what happens with new investment we don't have time to get too deep because I got to wrap up here in just a couple seconds.
[54:14] But so much energy around the policies that are going to come out with respect to macro policy whether it be monetary or fiscal will be about jobs will be about artificial intelligence and will be ultimately about where we see investment happening and how much risk that imputes in the macro economy.
[54:31] And their evolution will somewhat relate to that in terms of how investors are viewing those changes in those risks.
[54:37] For Napa what this means for the wine industry looking forward to what it means for travel what it means for broader industrial choice.
[54:44] Those are some things to watch for in Napa probably over the next 18 months is going to have to lean on not necessarily the wine industry.
[54:50] But the wine adjacent assets in terms of people coming to Napa because of the wine industry and kind of leaning into the other reasons why people coming to Napa.
[54:58] That lower unemployment is something we're going to monitor very closely we want to see how that's masking some demographic change i.e.
[55:05] Unemployment going down is cute, but if it's not happening because of employment growth we got to watch that closely to figure out as there's some underpinnings we got to be thinking about not now but five years from now that's the demographic change to monitor.
[55:16] For next year we do this again in 12 months we're going to be talking about the one industry we're going to be talking about housing we're going to be talking about the aftermath of elections.
[55:23] And hopefully we're not going to be talking about a real shock in state and local budgets as a result of equity market problems.
[55:29] But we know there's a lot of imputed risk in the equity market we if you're watching every day which i don't recommend you stomach maybe turning a little bit.
[55:36] But we have not changed the way we have our tax code built at the state level so if we see an equity market correction of any real volume we're going to have some issues come June 2027 with respect to what the state budget looks like and how that trickles down to our counties and cities.
[55:51] So watch for that that equity market focus is in going away as we go in toward the new year.
[55:56] So with that folks thank you so much and I'll take your questions.
[55:59] Dr. I thank you so much it was very interesting and the.
[56:04] First we'll ask for any public comment on the annual in-house.
[56:09] I have no comment cards if anyone here wishes to speak please feel free to come up if you are on zoom if you'd like to raise your hand.
[56:20] I see no I see no hands and no no movement.
[56:23] It's like to tell some women are biased.
[56:26] Thank you Dr. I look great to see you again. I just want to clarify you talked about unemployment that maybe the.
[56:33] Then the kids were a little misleading can can you clarify.
[56:37] Maybe the way I understand is maybe less people looking for jobs is it retiring opening business or living area.
[56:44] That's the demographic question solve is that.
[56:47] There are fewer people looking for work and working that are napens.
[56:51] The number of napens that are working has shrunk slowly which means unemployment has gone down.
[56:56] So you have to think about that mixed bag that's always good to look when lay or down.
[57:00] What's causing the smaller labor force is the question.
[57:03] Is it outbound migration?
[57:05] Is it aging and aging away from the labor force?
[57:08] Is it the choice not to be working meaning you have demographic change where people do not have to work?
[57:14] So we need to see kind of if we can find data that suggests that next layer of demographic change that tells that story.
[57:20] Do you know who's taking that data or is he taking that data?
[57:24] Yeah, so in general speaking it would come out from census when the American community surveys updated.
[57:29] There really aren't what you can consider to be robust monthly data.
[57:34] The current population survey has some of that but then it usually is rolled up to what the census will report at the year end when they true up some of the errors that might happen in those surveys.
[57:43] So we usually use the census bureaus data on an annual basis to really fared out what's going on in real sort of a real time.
[57:49] But there's a 9 or 10 12 month lag I'm sorry on those data unfortunately.
[57:53] So more to thank you.
[57:54] And then on the housing market, one area said 14% growth in real estate but then the housing market was dropping.
[58:02] So what areas is it multi-family growing or commercial because I saw real estate growing but then they say what part of real estate.
[58:12] So housing markets over let's say the 2019 to 2026 period have seen about somewhere between let's say a 15 or 25% increase in median home price regionally.
[58:23] And Napa's somewhere in the high teens from a like annual standpoint it's dropped a little bit the forecast is dropped a little bit and rents have crept up a little bit in Napa.
[58:35] So if there's growth in terms of pricing it is in multi-family that is in single family or homes for sale.
[58:42] But some of that contraction in the growth rate of rents is probably related to the contraction in the prices of single family homes.
[58:49] Meaning you're getting people to stop running and go into homes because maybe they've contracted in price a little bit which is slowed down demand at the speed it was before in rental and sort of catching up in single family home.
[59:00] You can think about that dynamic a little bit in there but I don't think that that solves the equation completely because we have to think about how much outside demand exists to live in Napa once a unit goes up for sale.
[59:13] Thank you and do we know the numbers for first-time home buyers?
[59:18] We don't but we can find those.
[59:20] And then do you think at least in Napa we have a lot of homes that I've been around for quite a while they're aging homes.
[59:27] Does that play a fact or do you know if there's indicators on you know buy on new home versus old home when you have to renovate.
[59:33] Sometimes our 50s and 60s is that there's no real pattern to it per se.
[59:38] I mean it really just kind of depends on where the buyers see themselves and how the prices are giving enough of enough relief to go in and do whatever improvements you believe you want in those homes.
[59:48] Some people will just buy them and work on them over time.
[59:50] Some people want to invest right away.
[59:52] Okay.
[59:53] Thank you very much.
[59:54] Sure.
[59:56] Thank you Dr. Eiler.
[59:58] I just want.
[1:00:00] One common first of all, it's really helpful, at least for me, to see the forecast information that you provide, particularly semiannual. I mean, we may not see you again till after the election. A lot's going to happen between now and then. So I just want to let you know, particularly on, you know, all the numbers that you give us forecast on jobs, GDP unemployment, really helpful to see that.
[1:00:25] The more we can do on that, the better. I'll follow up on a couple of things in terms of the employment numbers. I'm also wondering, does some of that have to do with immigration enforcement?
[1:00:36] It might, in the sense that if you, if you, if you feel like that the original numbers were counting undocumented workers, yes, but generally speaking, if you talked EDD, they're not counting undocumented workers in those counts.
[1:00:49] I don't believe in because they might, yeah, great. So there could be secondary and tertiary effects because of that, that's possible. That'll be very difficult to try to figure out on on sort of individual basis.
[1:00:59] Okay, and then in terms of the housing and rent, you know, one of the, you know, jobs that we have that we try to work on really hard is adding units. We treat a housing is is a real priority for us.
[1:01:10] I'm wondering when you look at the housing numbers and also the rent numbers. If numbers of units or length of time houses are on the market is a variable and maybe we ought to look at, for example.
[1:01:22] Are we flat to negative because we have more units on the market for rental and is our rental price not elevating as much because we've done a better job adding more rental units to the market.
[1:01:35] So it's possible we can get those data and supplement the housing data by providing more on the quantity and the days on market for sure.
[1:01:41] If you look at the data, there hasn't been a real boss change and that's why those percentage changes are so slow is because they're, they look more like small adjustments and let's say robust structural change.
[1:01:52] And that's on purpose. You're not seeing a lot of action on the number of units vis-a-vis demand on either the single family or multi family side where it's really changing the market conditions structurally.
[1:02:01] Well, it just, you know, since we, you know, think a lot in terms of numbers of units and we're trying to put them it'd be nice to see that information added. Thank you very much.
[1:02:14] Thank you, Dr. Iler for the presentation. I just wanted to go back and talk a little bit more about our taxable sales going down 30 to half percent.
[1:02:20] I feel like I don't fully understand why that number so high, especially when the county numbers less and California numbers actually increasing.
[1:02:28] And then I looked at our online dashboard, it sounds like gas sales might play a role in that.
[1:02:33] So can you speak a little bit more to what's causing the taxable sales numbers and then what do you anticipate will happen with gas prices and is that going to impact our taxable sales?
[1:02:42] So part of the, the taxable sales piece is also how we're characterizing sales. So there's a gigantic bucket that unfortunately is called all other, which is this real blend of online sales and things that aren't sort of categorically set like let's say in gas stations, but gas stations definitely contract it.
[1:03:00] So that's the price increasing gas stations slowed down consumption and we had to expect some of that was going to take place. That's sort of a, a byproduct of the change in gas prices.
[1:03:10] How much of that is actually affecting the overall is small versus because there's other categories let's say, for example home furnishings is split a little bit but clothing another and some general retail has picked up a little bit so it's kind of a mix bag.
[1:03:25] The position is we'll see some flattening of that toward the end of the year if the economic situation kind of maintains itself and we don't have another surge in energy prices that is sustained.
[1:03:35] The question of the hours where gas prices may or may not be going so much of that is driven by kind of two major items one is the nature of how energy markets change in other words are they changing because of supply and demand conditions we're going in to the real robust part of the driving season now so we should expect a little bit of lift on the demand side.
[1:03:54] But if it's happening because of geopolitical changes or refinery problem or some supply chain problem for example if you close a major waterway in which petroleum moves through.
[1:04:05] Those things can change the conditions the critical factor is the structural change in gas prices the up and down in the stomach ache of it is painful.
[1:04:13] But what economists are more concerned about and this is why we use measures called core where we take food and energy prices out of the basket that we measure the price changes over time.
[1:04:23] We don't want to see policy change based on inflation changes that might be driven by short-term shocks to things like energy markets.
[1:04:31] But the longer there's the sustained increasing gas prices that starts to ferret itself out into supply chains and now start to root itself in some ways even if the gas price drops by a dollar again.
[1:04:42] It won't necessarily change the cost conditions generally that have changed because a lot of firms would be concerned about lowering their prices or not growing their prices because another shop might be running on the corner.
[1:04:53] So where gas prices are going is like the question of the hour specifically in futures markets which also drives a lot of current gas price activity.
[1:05:02] If I knew that I'd be on a beach and place trading gas futures.
[1:05:06] But we do not expect short of the geopolitical issues solving themselves much relief let's say toward the end of the year but we'll see how much relief happens as we creep closer to midterms.
[1:05:17] We might see some weird geopolitical games as we're worried about election results.
[1:05:20] Thank you and then just to clarify the California numbers going up and our numbers going down do you have any.
[1:05:25] I think that's more because the urban areas have continued to grow a comeback so some of that is the increase in travel toward let's say the Bay Area where they've seen a little bit more of a boost in in tax will sales especially around.
[1:05:37] And the sort of classic travel spending so restaurants and restaurants and then sort of general consumer goods have gone up.
[1:05:45] And this is also true in LA in San Diego so the volume of sales has picked up there to kind of pick the state up.
[1:05:51] And that might be short lived so some of this is also an anomaly of that growth and if that growth fades a little bit and probably see that fade on the state side.
[1:06:00] Of course.
[1:06:01] You mentioned online sales and my understanding is that the sales tax on that comes back to the county that was it was sent to.
[1:06:10] Is there a lag in the receiving that.
[1:06:12] There could be and there's also.
[1:06:15] It also suggests that maybe you're having some change and that people have bought whatever they're going to buy and so in its smaller places comparatively speaking you may have more volatility in that category because of that that even if it's like a one month slow down.
[1:06:27] That that just happens to be anomalous might really search that down we're going to watch that close to see of the next couple of quarters whether or not we don't see some come back there.
[1:06:37] Thank you so much I think council is absorbed much and I think our audience we have some members in the audience I'm sure they find this very interesting.
[1:06:47] So thank you doctor.
[1:06:48] Thank you.
[1:06:57] Well I think I see the fire chief up here so our next item of seven be.
[1:07:12] We're going to look at our CWP and a large document with a lot of information in there so this is an action item we're looking to adopt a resolution of our.
[1:07:25] Newly minted the community welfare protection plan.
[1:07:29] So first we'll hear a report from staff.
[1:07:37] Thank you good afternoon Mayor Sedgley and members of council very good to be here with you today I'm Zach current fire chief today I'll be presenting.
[1:07:47] An overview of our recently completed and first ever community wildfire protection plan or CWP and recommending the plan for adoption by your council.
[1:08:00] The development of the news snap a CWP involves collaboration among federal state and local agencies special interest groups residents and local organizations to make sure that we are coordinating our work.
[1:08:11] And being as effective as possible without duplicating efforts.
[1:08:15] Our primary partners include the NAPA resource conservation district or NAPA RCD.
[1:08:20] NAPA community, excuse me, NAPA community organizations active in disaster that's NAPA coad.
[1:08:26] NAPA community fire wise foundation or NCFF and Calfire who provided the funding for the project as well as our parts and utilities departments.
[1:08:36] I would like to point out and welcome members of these various agencies who are present with us here today and who contribute greatly to the success of this project.
[1:08:45] Out of high level this plan was developed collaboratively with our community partners and is based on state of the art technology with latest most accurate data modeling and mapping.
[1:08:55] It provides recommended actions needed to enhance community awareness and engagement identifies hazards that contribute to wildfire risk in our community.
[1:09:04] NAPA RCD organization strategies and gives us the necessary foundation for local state and federal funding opportunities.
[1:09:14] The NAPA RCD and partnership with our fire department and our other partners secured funding through the Calfire prevention program and California climate investments to develop the NAPA.
[1:09:26] NAPA RCD in the city work closely with fire and emergency management agencies, public health officials, land managers and community organizations to create this community driven plan.
[1:09:37] The CWP provides a framework for reducing wildfire risk through coordinated actions such as vegetation management, public education, emergency preparedness and strategic investment in wildfire resilience.
[1:09:50] As you are aware the need for this action is urgent.
[1:09:53] More than 50% of NAPA County has burned in the last nine years, resulting in billions of dollars in damage and loss of thousands of structures.
[1:10:01] Recent urban wildfire disasters and communities such as Altadena, Santa Rosa and LaHina as well as those impacting communities across the western United States today,
[1:10:11] underscore the potential for similar events that could affect the city of NAPA.
[1:10:16] The CWP is intended to guide our efforts to reduce both the likelihood and impacts of wildfire through collaboration among residents, agencies and community partners.
[1:10:26] Its goals are to increase awareness of wildfire risk, reduce ignitions and hazards, strengthen community preparedness, protect lives and property, and support implementation of priority mitigation projects through coordinated planning and funding opportunities.
[1:10:43] To achieve these goals, the CWP identifies policies and actions that enhance wildfire resilience, including protecting critical infrastructure, improving emergency vehicle access, transportation networks and communications, expanding public education and outreach both in English and Spanish, identifying opportunities for large scale fuel reduction projects, addressing public health impacts, strengthening evacuation preparedness and assistance.
[1:11:12] In empowering residents to take an active role in reducing both individual and community wildfire risk.
[1:11:18] In a nutshell, the document serves as a planning and guidance tool for the city as an engagement and education tool for our community and as a collaboration tool to use with our community partners.
[1:11:38] It is important for the council to know that we have made every effort to build a community informed and community driven plan.
[1:11:43] Overall, we received input from 65 different agencies, held a variety of in-person online and hybrid community meetings, featured the plan at our annual fire department life and safety of day events.
[1:11:57] held multiple community surveys and hosted a variety of online and educational resources intended to both inform our community of our planning efforts and to seek their input into both the plan and on potential prevention and mitigation projects for our community.
[1:12:15] The city of Napa CWPP aims to enhance understanding by providing a clear view of our current environmental conditions to identify hazards by pinpointing areas with high fire risk and potential for extreme fire behavior.
[1:12:29] To foster engagement by creating opportunities for public involvement and education of fire preparedness.
[1:12:36] To protect communities by safeguarding vulnerable areas and essential infrastructure.
[1:12:41] To develop strategies by form formulating effective methods to reduce fire risks in our community.
[1:12:47] And finally, to plan collaboratively by integrating and coordinating with existing plans including the Napa County CWPP to leverage resources and to implement projects that maximize benefits for both city and neighboring Napa County residents.
[1:13:05] Hazard and risk assessments were conducted using a data-driven approach and included fire mapping and fuel models are local fire history, a focus on key infrastructure and community resources.
[1:13:17] Alignment with state fire hazard severity zone mapping and a consistent approach to state and county hazard and risk assessments.
[1:13:25] Maps of fire hazard and risk developed during the CWPP process, which are included in the plan document.
[1:13:31] Show that the areas in the northwest and eastern parts of the city of Napa have the highest hazard and risk.
[1:13:37] While areas in the southwestern part of the city generally have the lowest.
[1:13:41] The risk assessments performed for this CWPP closely reflect the local responsibility area hazard maps that were updated by the state fire marshals office in 2025.
[1:13:53] Outside the city limits, almost the entirety of city owned land is designated as either a very high or a high fire hazard severity zone within the state responsibility area.
[1:14:02] This includes the areas surrounding militant reservoir, Lake Tennessee and a water treatment plan at Jamison Canyon.
[1:14:09] Projects to address these hazards and vulnerable areas range from fuel reduction and forest watershed health to environmental clearance, mapping, planning to go along with outreach and educational campaigns.
[1:14:22] These project types are aligned with the fire adapted community program spanning the entire cycle of wide wildfire from ignition prevention.
[1:14:30] Prefire hazard reduction treatments along with outreach and education planning.
[1:14:35] And finally to emergency response support and post fire recovery.
[1:14:42] The CWPP action plan itself is the result of a comprehensive hazard and risk analysis and the collection of possible project ideas gathered from city staff, the community and our consultants.
[1:14:52] These recommended actions include project descriptions potential project leads priorities resources required and helpful project.
[1:15:00] The projects are based on the CWP goals and objectives and will serve as the backbone of implementation efforts, moving forward.
[1:15:08] While I show here an example of what this looks like in the plan, information on these recommended actions can be found in great detail in the CWP document action plan section.
[1:15:18] Which summarizes and integrates the information and findings from the CWP to provide specific recommendations for the implementation of projects programs or other mechanisms to help achieve the CWP goals and objectives.
[1:15:31] The city of Napa CWP action plan also includes the lead agencies which may initiate or take action on each item, and suggestions for the timeframe for implementation.
[1:15:42] The type of resources needed and metrics for tracking progress and outcomes.
[1:15:49] It is important to note that the planning team took great care and ensuring that our CWP closely aligns with and supports other related planning efforts, including the city of Napa General Plan.
[1:16:00] Depending hazard mitigation plan update, the recently completed urban forest management plan and the county of Napa CWP.
[1:16:09] In fact, as our CWP was funded through Calfire, the local unit chief who also serves as the Napa County Fire Chief and his staff reviewed our plan for consistency with the county CWP and the Calfire CWP requirements.
[1:16:24] These plans strengthen each other through parallel goals and also open opportunities for additional and unique funding pathways for future projects.
[1:16:35] I would like to mention that in addition to the resources in the CWP itself, our planning effort resulted in a variety of useful resources for our community members.
[1:16:46] These resources will primarily be accessed through our city's CWP website.
[1:16:51] These resources include access to our city's new GIS hub, where residents will be able to quickly determine if they are located in a fire hazard severity zone or a flood zone,
[1:17:01] and which evacuation zone they are in, as well as quick link access to our shared alert Napa County emergency notification system.
[1:17:10] They will also have access to a new wildfire action plan developed in coordination with Calfire, which contains information on emergency preparedness, home hardening and defensible space, evacuation plans and postfire checklist.
[1:17:24] All of these resources, including the CWP, Drafts in both English and Spanish, are available on our city website today.
[1:17:34] I'd like to take just a few moments and look forward to next steps after plan adoption.
[1:17:39] As with any planning effort, the real work begins with implementation.
[1:17:43] I do want to note to the council that the CWP is primarily a planning and recommendation tool which informs the city of hazard vulnerabilities and possible future actions to mitigate community risks.
[1:17:56] A adoption of the CWP in and of itself is not a commitment to any specific future action, nor is it a decision to approve or fund any of the potential mitigation actions identified in the CWP.
[1:18:08] That's dead, nets steps do include transitioning the CWP management and initiatives to our new and pending emergency manager.
[1:18:17] Working with Napa County to ensure that city specific items are included in the pending Napa County CWP update.
[1:18:25] Continuing work on projects already completed or in progress, such as maintaining the fuels reduction in those aligns near timber hill park.
[1:18:34] The watershed protection projects near our water resources and the pending westwood hills fuels reduction project with our community partners and CFF and Napa RCD, who as I mentioned are here with us today.
[1:18:46] We will consider the establishment of fire safe communities and fire wise councils expand community outreach and education materials to both English and Spanish speaking community members.
[1:18:59] And finally to seek new and additional funding for mitigation and public education projects.
[1:19:04] I am confident that the new CWP provides the resources and suggestions for us to increase our community wildfire preparedness and safety.
[1:19:14] And that the plan aligns with your council focus areas of climate action, economic resilience, parks and community spaces and community engagement.
[1:19:26] Now, I can geek out on this and talk for hours and to be sensitive of your time.
[1:19:31] That's the end of my presentation today. However, of course, I can address any questions or comments that you have and the action desired is before you as well.
[1:19:42] Thank you, Chief. First of all, we'll go to public comment. Anybody in the audience wishes to address the council on this item.
[1:19:54] Hi there, my name is Ali Blodor and I'm with Napa Resource Conservation District. I just wanted to say it's been a really pleasure working with she current on this, as well as other members of city staff that have been involved.
[1:20:06] Napa RCD has a long history of partnering with the city and a variety of contexts, including long running work with the utilities division on water conservation works with the parks department on invasive management, oak stewardship, etc.
[1:20:23] Really valued the opportunity to deepen our partnership with the fire department and our role in the wildfire resilience space within the city and bring grant funding to support this important project.
[1:20:36] And then, you know, I, Chief current mentioned this, but I just want to say that we're also a resource to you, as we're advancing these priorities going forward. Much of this work is already in motion.
[1:20:47] We brought funding to the table from the Department of Conservation to develop forest management plans for westward hills and for the Lake Tennessee property.
[1:20:56] And as Chief current mentioned, we have some funding to support some initial broom treatment at westward hills and are working with Napa fire wise to secure additional funding for that.
[1:21:05] And then we also put in an application to Cal Fire for their forest health grant program to support fields reduction treatments at Lake Tennessee.
[1:21:15] So fingers crossed with that gets funded, but if not, we'll continue to work collaboratively to seek additional resources.
[1:21:22] I also just want to thank our partners that supported this work and currently the Carol Rice, who's a consultant that supported this.
[1:21:30] Our city partners, Napa Coad, Napa Firewise and all of the great partners that participated throughout the planning process. Thank you so much.
[1:21:39] Thank you, RCD. Thanks for coming. Thanks for your comments.
[1:21:49] Hey there, Council members, Mayor Chief Current. My name is John Ordlinger. I'm the CEO of Napa Firewise and I just want to take a minute to really commend all of the partners that put energy into developing the community wildfire protection plan, which Chief Current originally reached out to me.
[1:22:03] I was really pleased and grateful for the opportunity to pull together many of the consultants and the playbook that we've used to develop community wildfire protection plans around the county for other cities.
[1:22:14] And to pull in the RCD and some of the other partners and then work side by side with them to develop this plan.
[1:22:20] I think it's a really important document in many respects to guide the city to think about investing in resilience and also to access a lot of other resources that are out there.
[1:22:32] We were, you know, assisted in helping to secure the grant that paid for the CWPP and we have a long history of working with our fire safe councils and members of the community to pursue funding to underwrite the work that often is identified in these in these plans and it can be fairly expensive.
[1:22:49] So I think it's a really, it's a great event today and I hope that you all will obviously adopt the CWPP and then we look forward to locking arms with the RCD with the city to really go out there and chase the money to implement many of the projects.
[1:23:03] One source of money obviously would be this measure be if it passes I've worked with chief current to really go through and identify not only all the projects that are in the city CWPP and to sort of quantify them financially but also projects that are just outside of the city limits that impact the city that are in the county CWPP and there's a substantial amount of.
[1:23:26] resources that potentially will be available with measure be so I'm really grateful to see the crystallization of this effort and really look forward to just continuing to work with all the partners that were involved in developing it and with you at the city here to realize many of the goals that are laid out in the document.
[1:23:44] Thank you Joe and thank you Navofar was any other speakers in the audience.
[1:23:53] If you are attending the assume are there anybody who was just a comment on this item please raise your hand now.
[1:24:01] I have no zoom hands mayor.
[1:24:04] Thank you very much and bring it back the council council mayor and painter.
[1:24:08] Okay.
[1:24:10] Thank you so much that was a really great presentation thank you to our CD and all the partners you know there's a lot of great minds behind this and so I'm really really excited to see this the number that you gave about 65% of the county burning in the last seven years I mean this is really urgent.
[1:24:30] This is our first ever is that correct yeah and so that's pretty exciting and it's a huge amount of work so I want to just first acknowledge that.
[1:24:41] But given that I do have a couple of questions well before I do that for those who are listening and looking at it you know if you read anything and look at anything in this plan I definitely would suggest that you look at the ten page action plan which is table six in the plan it's very thorough it's very detailed.
[1:25:00] It gives us a road map if you will for how we want to prioritize the work moving forward.
[1:25:07] You did mention that this report is hopefully going to get included into the county CWP can you tell us a little bit about the timeline and process for that.
[1:25:19] Sure thank you and it's important to note as we discussed that that we use some of the same consultants that worked on the county CWP as well and so our goal was of some alignment in the efforts in the sides that's behind.
[1:25:30] So the county has a plan as you may be aware they've had a CWP for a number of years they're good to refresh.
[1:25:40] In speaking with our county partners I don't expect a wholesale change to the plan it's a very good document that the county has as well.
[1:25:47] But I do expect some refresh a lot of the work that was initially contemplated in the original plan has been done and there are some new projects as well.
[1:25:55] So one of the priorities that I have and in represent in the city is to ensure that there's alignment between our plans.
[1:26:01] And including some language I hope to achieve in the county CWP that encompasses the other planning efforts as well.
[1:26:08] Yeah and any sense of timeline on when we might see that and and also just to be clear that that it would the counties update would include specific reference to our plan should we move forward to approve the plan this evening.
[1:26:21] That's what I'm asking and I hope that we can achieve that as far as specific timelines. Joe might be able to speak about that.
[1:26:30] NCFF is the parent of the.
[1:26:33] Yeah, you don't.
[1:26:34] I think we can sort of uncoupled these things.
[1:26:40] So the actual update of the countywide CWP might take a year or a year and a half sort of definitely with the creation of the city CWP.
[1:26:50] As far as how we work on the county CWP it will sort of wholesale roll up into the county CWP.
[1:26:56] So we're constantly adding projects to our other fires.
[1:27:00] They've Council CWP and then we update the master CWP.
[1:27:04] So today at the countywide level there are a number of city projects that are identified timber health for example, you know containment lines that we've worked on.
[1:27:12] But it will not require the the update process of the county CWP to be completed for the city CWP.
[1:27:19] CWP to be absorbed into it.
[1:27:22] Okay, so what I'm hearing is that that would happen in a shorter timeline than the year to year and a half.
[1:27:28] And is there a way that we can memorialize that?
[1:27:32] Yeah, I think we we're ready to sort of stand with the city and work with the county, you know county C Board of Supervisors etc.
[1:27:38] To make sure that this thing is sort of embedded into the countywide fabric because the countywide update.
[1:27:45] As I said, there are we're constantly adding projects of the countywide CWP and it doesn't.
[1:27:50] Doesn't require us to wait for that complete updating process to occur.
[1:27:54] Yeah, well, I think that coordination is really important and whatever we can do short term to acknowledge and memorialize that in incorporation and then long term, you know, you'll do there or the county will do an update.
[1:28:06] You know, that that's that's good as well.
[1:28:09] So I would I would definitely be in favor of trying to do that more short term.
[1:28:15] You mentioned the fire safe communities and fire wise councils.
[1:28:20] If we were to establish those and look at those and I think they are really effective and I'd like to maybe explore that at another meeting or another opportunity to look at that a little bit more.
[1:28:32] How would those councils work in terms of.
[1:28:38] Coordinating countywide coordinating on looking at grant funding coordinating on potential, you know, should measure B pass.
[1:28:46] How what, you know, what are the benefits of having those in terms of local state and federal funding.
[1:28:52] Yeah, thank you.
[1:28:53] NCFF is really the pros at coordinating those efforts and generally speaking when those are formed in the neighborhoods and in the communities that want to be involved.
[1:29:03] And so there's some differences there between each of those, but the key point being an NCFF is already in communication with some of our city residents, particularly in Browns Valley, they want to form these communities.
[1:29:14] And they supplement the work of the CWPP.
[1:29:17] So some of the work of the CWPP is focused on public lands and then it's engaging the private property owners to engage in wildfire prevention and safety through fuels mitigation.
[1:29:28] And so really it's it's a community based approach that we plan on working with as as those communities develop.
[1:29:36] Certainly we hope that there are some benefits as those develop to not only homeowners insurance, but just increasing the community fire safety overall.
[1:29:45] And those communities when they're formed and and recognized can also seek grant funding as well.
[1:29:52] And so we're hoping that all of these efforts align between us as a city county in NCFF.
[1:30:00] And any new far west communities that we can form in the city of Napa?
[1:30:05] Well, you can bring back to us maybe at another meeting. What that might look like and how many
[1:30:12] would seem reasonable for the city of Napa? Because I think it could be really beneficial to have those smaller meetings.
[1:30:19] Certainly.
[1:30:20] And then my last question is, given that this is our first ever. And thank you again for the shout out for Westwood Hills.
[1:30:27] That's something I've been talking about for a long time. And I'm really excited to see that we're moving forward.
[1:30:33] How often do we come back and either take a look at the plan in terms of how the priorities fall in the list?
[1:30:42] And then be give some sort of update on the metrics or what's been accomplished.
[1:30:47] Is that an annual thing? I didn't see anywhere in the plan. We're talking about that.
[1:30:52] Yeah, thank you. It's not required. A CWPP is not required of our community like some of our other planning efforts are that said we still hope to refresh the plan itself every five years.
[1:31:03] But we can absolutely return more often with the spotlight approach. If you wish on our planning efforts on the formulation of these communities and any exciting projects or grant opportunities that we have.
[1:31:15] The one project that we're actively working on right now that we hope to that we can return with an update is specific to Westwood Hills.
[1:31:21] In the room removal it's long, long plagued that part. And so that might be an exciting opportunity where we can return and highlight the work that is happening as a result of the plan.
[1:31:32] Yeah, I think whether it's an annual update or it would be really helpful to see and then to tie it back to how it fits within the CWPP would be really beneficial.
[1:31:44] I really like how it's laid out. I like the actionable items. I think it's really easy to read.
[1:31:50] So really well done not only in terms of content, but also presentation so that it's accessible to the readers. Great work everybody.
[1:31:59] Thank you.
[1:32:01] I'll submit a little bit.
[1:32:03] Thank you. Well, I go and come from a paper painters comments on this. It's so important for us to have a coordinated strategy so that we can be as prepared as possible.
[1:32:10] I think an annual update is a good idea or maybe every two years to match the budget that might make sense.
[1:32:16] You know, we have limited resources. I think this is the best way to make sure that those resources have the greatest impact.
[1:32:22] And hopefully we can be competitive for grants.
[1:32:25] So I just wanted to say I appreciate how much collaboration went into this project. Thank you to our partners for working with us.
[1:32:31] And if there's no more, I'm sorry. I see the boards lit up. So I will hold my motion.
[1:32:38] Well, for a motion.
[1:32:40] You will I will accept that motion. But we'll wait for a second after we hear from Councilman Reinhardt.
[1:32:46] Well, thank you for for this. This is exciting. I think it's obviously learned a lot more since 2017.
[1:32:53] And you know, although we can't get rid of the risk.
[1:32:56] It's an enormous number of cutting paper.
[1:33:00] Sorry.
[1:33:03] I have learned a lot about that.
[1:33:05] But because of this, that's really important.
[1:33:08] I notice in the plan on one of things as I cut out was preparedness.
[1:33:10] And some actions taken are signed up for alerts.
[1:33:15] We expand a little bit of how our residents would be alerted and the method of communication
[1:33:23] is it websites and app, personal visit, how would that work?
[1:33:27] Yeah, thank you.
[1:33:29] Napa County is all united in using the same emergency alerting notification and that's
[1:33:33] that alert Napa County that I mentioned earlier in the presentation and so we're committed
[1:33:38] to continue to share that resource with all of our city residents.
[1:33:43] I don't have the data at my fingertips, but a large portion of our community, this is coming
[1:33:48] from Napa County, OES, has signed up for those emergency alerts.
[1:33:52] And so we encourage everybody to primarily use that as the means for official emergency alerts.
[1:33:58] Those are all vetted, accurate information as they come out from either ourselves or from
[1:34:02] our county partners.
[1:34:04] And so to anybody listening, we're in the audience today, I certainly encourage them to sign
[1:34:08] up for those emergency alerts.
[1:34:10] Of course, in the GIS resource that I mentioned, people can see what evacuations own
[1:34:14] they are in and so they can identify as we target for evacuation specific areas that need to be
[1:34:20] evacuated.
[1:34:21] For example, in the situation of a wildfire, we would use that alert Napa County resource as the
[1:34:27] official method of notification.
[1:34:29] And of course, we continue to use our normal social, city social media tools and everything
[1:34:33] else as well.
[1:34:34] But that official alerts will always come from that alert Napa County resource.
[1:34:38] Great.
[1:34:39] And we're using what we already have in place.
[1:34:42] I think that coordination with Calfire and Napa County is really great.
[1:34:47] And I know there's a lot of mutual aid when an issue occurs.
[1:34:52] Are we also doing this with other counties, if there's mutual aid from other counties, I don't
[1:34:57] know how that works.
[1:34:58] But how does this help what the mutual aid, whether it's to hear or from her to somewhere else,
[1:35:03] if other communities have this to.
[1:35:05] Yeah, thank you.
[1:35:06] The community wildfire protection planning in and of itself is not about emergency response
[1:35:11] per se.
[1:35:12] And so it doesn't touch much on mutual aid.
[1:35:15] But our city does have and benefit from wonderful mutual aid partners, including Calfire who
[1:35:20] provides fire protection for Napa County.
[1:35:23] And we're part of the California Master Mutual Aid System.
[1:35:26] We actually have one of our engines right now, who just arrived up in the state of Washington
[1:35:29] in Spokane area to help fight those fires as all coordinated through California OES.
[1:35:35] This is a reminder to our community as well as to our council.
[1:35:39] When those resources are sent out, those are reimbursed costs from the state OES or the federal
[1:35:44] or our federal partners.
[1:35:45] And so that's a way where we can help and certainly in 2017 and 2020, we're the ones that benefited
[1:35:50] from that mutual aid response.
[1:35:51] Great.
[1:35:52] Thank you very much.
[1:35:53] And I'd like to use second motion.
[1:35:54] Okay.
[1:35:55] Thank you.
[1:35:56] We do have a motion and a second on the item that is a resolution.
[1:36:01] I tend to look at these.
[1:36:04] I go right to the resolution first because that's worth the media video.
[1:36:09] That's what we're signing on to and you touched on the fact that it's not committing the
[1:36:14] city to any project or financial liability at this point, whether we can identify something
[1:36:22] that comes to later part.
[1:36:24] That was important to me.
[1:36:25] But yeah, great.
[1:36:26] I looked all through it.
[1:36:27] I was looking for the where goats come in.
[1:36:32] There's an assembly bill going right now about the minimum wage for the the the herders.
[1:36:38] We haven't used goats yet in the city, haven't we?
[1:36:41] Like the they eat Scotch brew?
[1:36:42] I don't know if we've used goats specifically in the city, but it is a common practice for
[1:36:48] vegetation man.
[1:36:49] Yeah.
[1:36:50] Very successful method.
[1:36:51] I'm not sure they take care of the brew itself.
[1:36:54] That plant seems to plague us up there, but you know every year we have goats in our annual
[1:37:00] fire life safety day and the kids love it and it's a good opportunity to learn about it.
[1:37:06] Here we are.
[1:37:07] We're very happy about our goats in our partnership with NCFF.
[1:37:11] We've done quite a bit over the last several years, particularly on Con Valley Road, where
[1:37:18] we are on the backside of our watershed.
[1:37:20] We love a trails there by the way, Julia Eldridge, Utah, he's good.
[1:37:24] And yes, these partnerships are great.
[1:37:26] The community in those areas, they've had some near misses in 2020 specifically, 2017 as well.
[1:37:35] And so coming together and then their energy, them coming together starting to work on lands.
[1:37:41] You'll see if you drive through those areas where along the right away it's been cleared
[1:37:46] back quite a bit and we've tagged onto that and taken care of a lot of our city owned watershed
[1:37:50] areas, which are not easy to
[1:37:53] to always get to, they tend to be these, you know, it's watershed so it's area that we're
[1:37:58] using to preserve and keep that clean water coming into our reservoirs and so it's been
[1:38:03] a fantastic partnership and goats are a great application for keeping that vegetation down.
[1:38:08] Yeah, thank you for that.
[1:38:09] Mm-hmm.
[1:38:10] Thanks, Julia.
[1:38:11] All right, we do have a motion by Councilman Laura II by Councilman Vias on moving this resolution
[1:38:18] forward.
[1:38:19] All in favor?
[1:38:20] Aye.
[1:38:21] Opposed?
[1:38:22] Here is Janana, I must say thank you, Chief.
[1:38:24] Thank you.
[1:38:27] Item 7C, our salary schedule and full-time and part-time extra help and police as for the salary
[1:38:34] schedule.
[1:38:35] So another resolution for action item, so I think MJ's coming up.
[1:38:45] Good afternoon, Mayor, Councilmembers, MJ Toros, Human Resources Director,
[1:38:51] the action before you today is to adopt the resolution documenting the salary
[1:38:56] schedules for full-time employees and part-time employees.
[1:39:00] This is a routine administrative item that is periodically brought to Council.
[1:39:05] The proposed salary schedules for full-time and part-time employees incorporate compensation
[1:39:10] and classification changes previously approved by Council and are necessary to maintain compliance
[1:39:15] with CalPERS and state law reporting requirements.
[1:39:20] This is the salary schedules include executive staff compensation, state law requires that
[1:39:25] those salaries be poorly reported prior to Council taking action.
[1:39:29] So I'll now read the executive staff positions and the respective salaries.
[1:39:36] So Assistant City Manager is 266-524, City Attorney, 322-524, City Clerk, 177-375,
[1:39:51] 309-855, Community Resources and Development Director, 253-833, Deputy City Manager, 237-073,
[1:40:05] Finance Director, 238-346, Fire Chief, 295-117, Human Resources Director, 238-346,
[1:40:17] Parks and Recreation Services Director, 253-833, Police Chief, 312-824, Public Works Director, 253-833,
[1:40:30] and Utilities Director, 253-833.
[1:40:35] So state law requires that the City maintain the current and publicly adopted salary schedules.
[1:40:40] And this action today would update those official salary schedules and reflect those compensation
[1:40:46] actions previously approved by Council, just to re-emphasize it does not establish any new
[1:40:51] compensation beyond what has already been authorized. Staff recommends the adoption of the resolution
[1:40:57] and have been answered any questions.
[1:40:59] Any anybody in the audience want to address the council on this item?
[1:41:07] I have no cards mayor, anyone on Zoom was to address Council on the site and please raise your hand.
[1:41:15] And I see no hands raise mayor.
[1:41:18] Thank you. Bring it back to Council.
[1:41:22] We'll recommend the motion to move the resolution.
[1:41:24] I will go ahead and make that motion to move the resolution.
[1:41:27] It's a private council mayor, painter. Second. Second, by council mayor,
[1:41:30] Mayor of Los Angeles, all in favor. Opposed?
[1:41:33] Here's unanimously. Thank you. Thank you.
[1:41:39] All right. Taylor has been waiting in the aisles for our next item.
[1:41:47] 70 are another resolution to adopt our sister city and friendship relationship policy update.
[1:41:55] Welcome, Taylor McDonald.
[1:41:56] Good afternoon, Mayor and council. My name is Taylor McDonald. I'm a management analyst
[1:42:01] in the city clerk's office and city staff request that council adopt a resolution of dating the
[1:42:09] city's sister city and friendship city policy. The current policy was last revised in 2001 and no
[1:42:18] longer aligns with current administrative practices. At the direction of the city manager's office,
[1:42:25] staff reviewed policies from other municipalities and developed a clearer,
[1:42:31] more consistent and transparent process. The updated policy establishes eligibility criteria for
[1:42:38] partner cities, defines participation, expectations, and outlines administrative procedures for
[1:42:47] city staff and visit Napa Valley. It also clarifies roles and responsibilities
[1:42:53] along with financial and engagement requirements. A key objective of the policy is to ensure
[1:43:01] that any future sister city partnership reflects the character size, economic profile,
[1:43:10] and cultural identity of both the city of Napa and the Napa Valley. It's important for these
[1:43:18] relationships to be intentional and active, which creates meaningful opportunities for educational,
[1:43:26] cultural, economical, and communal exchanges that can be sustained long-term.
[1:43:33] It's important to note that this policy is not intended to modify or affect existing sister city relationships.
[1:43:43] Rather, it provides a clear and consistent framework for evaluating and considering future
[1:43:49] sister city requests. Overall, the revisions create a modern and effective framework for administering
[1:43:57] the city's sister city and friendship city program. Thank you. Thank you very much and a great program.
[1:44:07] Anyone in the audience, wish to address the council on this item under comments. I know Lindsey's
[1:44:15] in the back listening and I was as I read through it and I saw a lot of involvement with visit
[1:44:22] Napa Valley. I appreciate your willingness to help us manage this policy. So great city clerk, anybody
[1:44:29] online? I have no cars. I see no one and I do not have any hands raised on my mayor, so I think we could.
[1:44:36] Very good. So we'll bring it back to council. I think it'll go to council member and revives to
[1:44:42] either comments or questions. Thank you for bringing this forward. Just want to hear what the
[1:44:48] process is of somebody in the city approaches us as, hey, we want to be a sister city. What's the
[1:44:53] first step did they take and just what the process is like?
[1:45:00] I do have the policy in front of me, so just one moment.
[1:45:04] I think the first step to form. Do you have some clerk?
[1:45:08] Yeah. Exactly. So, request will be submitted to the city clerk's office, and be the request form.
[1:45:15] And the city clerk will conduct the initial review of their request for completeness.
[1:45:21] It will then be forwarded to the mayor and city manager for review.
[1:45:25] And if they determine that the request qualifies for further consideration, it will be referred to visit Napa Valley for evaluation.
[1:45:37] Thank you.
[1:45:40] Elsewhere, planner.
[1:45:42] Thank you. Thank you for updating this policy only 25 years old. Like this it's time.
[1:45:48] And so, and I think it's really great. And I like the language and definition of sister city and friendship city and building these relationships.
[1:45:58] I'm just wondering.
[1:46:00] It doesn't, I didn't see anything in there in terms of how many sister cities and friendships cities.
[1:46:06] I mean, we might want to consider because sometimes, you know, there's benefit in having more, but there's maybe not as much benefit in having too many.
[1:46:17] So, how, how do we make those decisions if we get, you know, because I think maybe a lot of folks want to be our sister or friend. I hope.
[1:46:27] And so, how do we make that decision in terms of what is the right quantity versus quality?
[1:46:34] Sure. So, that is addressed in the policy.
[1:46:39] We state that the city strives to maintain one sister city per continent symbolizing that this commitment to global collaboration.
[1:46:49] Thank you. I don't know how I missed that. I was looking for that.
[1:46:52] I like that.
[1:46:54] Right.
[1:46:55] What would that?
[1:46:56] That's the current practice.
[1:46:58] Correct.
[1:46:59] Yeah.
[1:47:00] I thought I didn't realize it was per continent.
[1:47:03] And I'm happy to offer a motion to move it forward and let's say there can be a motion to move it forward and let's say there can be a motion to move it forward.
[1:47:12] I see.
[1:47:13] We have a motion by some kind of painter, second by councilmember bias.
[1:47:17] Yeah, and in councilmember pan, you're exactly right there. There's been an uptick and a lot of interest because as we talked about.
[1:47:25] Well, Dr. Isler was talking about the Napa brand.
[1:47:28] So, a lot of areas around the world are looking to associate with Napa.
[1:47:33] And so, I've received many calls.
[1:47:35] And it's going to be looking at the policy to kind of tighten things up, update it, to make it a little simpler.
[1:47:41] And I'm so appreciative of visit and have a value being able to step in and help that process along because the burden of running it and managing it has to be really done from the private sector.
[1:47:52] So, that's to be a group like we've had in the past with the UNUMA and longsten.
[1:47:57] You know, there was active community members that were interested in doing that.
[1:48:01] And then that's what I hope to do with Montel Chino is reinvigorate that's that's our new sister city.
[1:48:06] And we need a group, we need a group in town that really wants to take that on.
[1:48:11] And this policy will help us just manage the whole sister city and friendship city relationship.
[1:48:17] So councilmember.
[1:48:18] Yeah, just along with the same lines, thank you Taylor for the presentation.
[1:48:21] And I like to what you said about it being intentional.
[1:48:23] I think that's really the important part of it.
[1:48:25] Just wondering if we should check in with all these cities and make sure that we're on the same page and maybe.
[1:48:30] I'm looking at Lindsey because you're the person to do it.
[1:48:33] Maybe just kind of check in and see if there's something we can do to reinvigorate.
[1:48:37] And if not, maybe we look at other options.
[1:48:40] Well, and I had a conversation with the clerk this morning about maybe the mayor.
[1:48:46] House of Lake of Alley, maybe I should, you know, send an email or something to say,
[1:48:50] I was a blanket.
[1:48:51] We haven't talked to you in a while.
[1:48:53] And I think that our intent, first of all, was to get the new policy established that we do have the framework moving forward to.
[1:49:00] You know, look at new and and and rein really look at our current and and make sure it is, again, meaning for.
[1:49:07] I know Lindsey has mentioned the first one would like to extend the thank you to Lindsey from visit.
[1:49:12] For her participation, she was equally involved in in the review and writing of this policy to and in the work and in keeping it going so thank you Lindsey.
[1:49:22] We're hoping that now that the policy is updated, we may have new art.
[1:49:26] There's a potential art project for city hall that can come up this so we're we're excited that this this is being reinvigorated so to speak.
[1:49:36] All right, so we do have a motion and a second on the item for this resolution on favor.
[1:49:41] Any opposed.
[1:49:43] Gary's unanimously. Thank you for staying late.
[1:49:45] Thank you.
[1:49:51] All right.
[1:49:57] Any comments, but councilor city manager, go city manager first.
[1:50:01] I have one real quick.
[1:50:03] Mayor, essentially.
[1:50:05] Excuse me.
[1:50:06] That's just a reminder for everybody that the applications for the 2026.
[1:50:09] The Academy closes Friday.
[1:50:13] August 7th.
[1:50:14] The city Academy is free program for an average of 18 and older.
[1:50:18] It runs for six consecutive Wednesday evenings.
[1:50:22] The sheer it'll be from September 9th through October 14th.
[1:50:26] It's a great way for people to learn how the city works.
[1:50:30] Meet the council members meet department heads to our city facilities and learn about the different city operations.
[1:50:37] And I thank everybody who is already pushed out.
[1:50:40] There are the reminders on their social media.
[1:50:43] If folks are interested who are listening, they can go to cityofnapa.org.
[1:50:48] Slash city Academy.
[1:50:51] And they can fill out an application there.
[1:50:53] Again, it closes Friday, August 7th.
[1:50:57] Thank you Steve.
[1:50:58] Yeah, I put one out.
[1:50:59] I saw council members were put one out.
[1:51:01] So maybe I didn't.
[1:51:03] There you go.
[1:51:04] So we did.
[1:51:05] Got one too.
[1:51:06] All right.
[1:51:07] Okay.
[1:51:08] Thank you.
[1:51:09] Thank you.
[1:51:10] Thank you.
[1:51:11] That's the many council comments.
[1:51:15] I will go to the city attorney to announce required information for close session.
[1:51:20] Thank you, Mayor.
[1:51:21] Certainly.
[1:51:22] Just wanted to announce for the public that the council will convene in close session to consider
[1:51:25] one matter with two potential cases in the matter as conference with legal council
[1:51:29] initiation of litigation.
[1:51:32] Thank you.
[1:51:35] Thank you.
[1:51:36] Thanks everyone.
[1:51:37] We will now adjourn to close session.
[1:51:39] Have a great evening.