[0:00] Great. Hear you embody your voice. [laughter]

[0:26] Good evening commissioners. After all, things are going to be a

[0:30] little bit different this evening as we have a um commissioner participating uh

[0:35] via Zoom in a public location. So, all votes, [clears throat] excuse

[0:41] me.

[0:50] Any and all votes will be a roll call vote. I will announce the remote

[0:54] participating member and their location address and we will then conduct a roll

[0:58] call vote to authorize the remote participation.

[1:02] Commissioner Kaibenfar provided notification regarding a Zoom

[1:05] participation but we were not provided an address in time therefore may not

[1:09] participate but can make public comment on one item as a private citizen.

[1:16] I will now begin roll call. Commissioner Canard here. Chair Gotautle

[1:23] » here. >> Vice Chair Morgan

[1:26] » here. >> Commissioner Parbanet.

[1:32] We have a quorum. Commissioner Morgan is participating

[1:37] remotely from Crown Plaza, Englewood, 401 South Van Brunt Street, Englewood,

[1:43] New Jersey 07631 in the USA.

[1:53] When your name is called, please state your vote of yes or no authorizing the

[1:57] remote participation. Commissioner Canard,

[2:01] » yes. >> Commissioner Morgan,

[2:04] » yes. >> And Chair Gotautle,

[2:07] » yes.

[2:24] We now have review of the agenda. If there are any items that arose after

[2:29] the 72-hour posting deadline, this is the point in the meeting where a vote

[2:33] may be taken to add the item to the agenda.

[2:39] Looking like we don't have anything to add,

[2:42] we'll move on to public comment. Members of the public in the chamber,

[2:49] please approach the podium, members on Zoom, please use the raise your hand

[2:52] feature or dial star9 from a phone.

[3:07] » Good evening. Uh my name is Alex Miller and [clears throat] I am a city council

[3:11] member for the great city of Seaside. I'm here today to uh thank you. Thank

[3:16] you for your service to the city. Uh it's uh 3 days before Christmas and here

[3:21] you are at 5:30 at night when you could be with your families and your loved

[3:25] ones, but you care so much about our city that you're here dedicating your

[3:29] time tonight to help the betterment of the city. And so I want to say thank you

[3:35] and uh I appreciate what you guys do as a commission. I started uh as a

[3:40] commissioner myself. I was on the neighborhood improvement commission and

[3:43] I remember it was tough. We had meetings on my birthday. We had meetings right

[3:48] before Christmas, but it really showed the dedication and the true value of our

[3:52] of our volunteers. So, thank you for your service. Uh my ladies in the back,

[3:56] Irene, and she is a huge giftgiver. So, she has uh two gifts for you guys as a

[4:03] uh thank you for your service and especially as close as we are to

[4:06] Christmas, you spending the time here at city hall is commendable. Thank you.

[4:19] Thank you. Thank you.

[4:43] Thank you very much,

[4:50] » chair. We don't have anybody else uh wanting to make public comment. Public

[4:55] comment is now closed. We'll now move on to the approval of

[4:58] minutes. Approve minutes from October 27th, 2025.

[5:13] Um, I make a motion to approve. >> I will do a roll call vote.

[5:18] » Oh, sorry.

[5:22] » Yes. Go ahead. We'll get a second and then I'll do a roll call.

[5:26] » I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from um from October.

[5:31] » I'll second.

[5:35] Minutes are approved. I will now do a roll call vote.

[5:40] Please state yes or no when your name is called. Commissioner Canard,

[5:44] » yes. >> Commissioner Gotautle,

[5:46] » yes. >> Commissioner Morgan,

[5:49] » yes. >> Minutes are approved.

[5:58] » We now move on to uh business. Item A, discuss tracking of the city business

[6:04] and commission meetings by environmental commission members.

[6:25] » Good evening, commissioners. Uh this item was a request from a commissioner

[6:29] to put on for discussion um in [clears throat] looking at the

[6:34] other commissions in the city and even city council meetings. Uh whether or not

[6:38] the commission wants to choose to formalize who what commission members on

[6:43] the environmental commission track what and report back to each other during the

[6:47] meetings. Um, so I put on a couple of reminders of the purpose of the

[6:52] environmental commission and uh the recommendation for this item and

[6:59] the discussion to take place. Um, a reminder of how this could overlap and

[7:06] guide you on what you do pay attention to regarding specific commissions. The

[7:11] duties from the municipal code for the EC are another reminder of that. um

[7:16] regarding what you're looking at in terms of being

[7:21] aware of and providing recommendations and guidance to other commissions and

[7:25] council in the city.

[7:30] And I went on to our website and if we need to, I think we can definitely click

[7:36] on a couple of the links, although it might not be hyper helpful for this

[7:39] first one because it just lists the same information. But this is a list that we

[7:43] have of all of our uh commotions that exist and when they meet although

[7:50] sometimes we don't have quorum and a meeting doesn't happen. Um but on the

[7:55] next page is our published agendas and minutes which is where you can gain

[8:00] access to as our uh clerk Jennifer sends you it when it is published. Um this

[8:07] applies to all meetings. So typically it's the week before um the meeting. So

[8:12] for example, if city council is the first and third Thursdays of the month,

[8:15] it would be the Friday prior that the agenda is published. So available over

[8:20] the weekend for reading and understanding and delving into those

[8:24] topics, but that is a huge resource. Um the city

[8:29] also has most meetings are uh live broadcast on

[8:34] YouTube, especially city council meeting. Um, other meetings are recorded

[8:38] and then posted later, but they're always accessible via YouTube after the

[8:43] fact. Um, that's another resource for, you know, if you can't make it because

[8:47] you have other obligations on the nights that you're not here, then you can go

[8:50] back and watch the meetings. That's very common for some staff who don't

[8:54] necessarily need to attend the council meeting but want to stay updated on what

[8:59] is happening with maybe an item that their manager is taking or just

[9:03] generally with public comment and what's the sentiment of the community. [snorts]

[9:07] Um so that's another resource available to you and if you want to open up that

[9:13] one it might be helpful just to give you a look at the website. If you want to

[9:18] click that link from the PowerPoint, you should be able to open it.

[9:24] Then I think you got to drop that page.

[9:36] Yeah.

[9:42] So this is how it shows up on the website. you can see our meeting tonight

[9:46] um which would have been posted since Friday. You can download the packet from

[9:50] there. Um and also you can go back in time um so you can select any time frame

[9:56] that you want and you can go through certain items and read or see what's

[10:00] coming up to scan through and see whether or not it is relevant for

[10:03] something to bring back to the EC. We kind of touched on a little bit on this

[10:07] when we were discussing whether or not we wanted to make any requests for

[10:11] spending from the NIC. So you're starting to connect the dots of how

[10:15] maybe certain commissions uh hold certain responsibilities and there's

[10:19] requests and eventually things filter up to council. Um so I just wanted to

[10:23] provide that just as a baseline for this discussion and you all can take it

[10:28] wherever you want to take it from here.

[10:33] » Great. Thanks thanks for that overview of the resources. Um

[10:38] yeah I just kind of wanted to open this up for discussion. We disc I think it

[10:41] was in the last meeting we talked about kind of tracking um city business and

[10:46] doing that in a more official way and seeing where you can kind of overlap and

[10:50] intersect with some of the other commissions. So, um

[10:57] » I agree with like uh kind of assigning certain commissions for in terms of

[11:02] follow >> um but not necessarily we should do that

[11:05] with commissioner or not here >> just to give her a fair chance of if

[11:09] there's any commission that she actually wants to follow. Um but it's along with

[11:15] this I was uh hoping to also

[11:23] uh not really just follow the commissions but different

[11:27] » have a representative at those. Um but I was looking at the website and there's I

[11:33] don't know if there's not events on the calendar yet for the first quarter.

[11:39] » Can I get you to um put your mic a little bit closer please? Um, and that's

[11:43] also for it picking up. Um, what was the question?

[11:47] » Uh, events on the calendar. Is it not published yet or there just no events?

[11:53] » Uh, most of the events you'll see on the calendar are typically park and wreck

[11:58] and maybe some things that occur on an annual annual basis. Otherwise, at the

[12:02] city council meetings, they always read off uh events that are happening. So

[12:07] that's within, you know, the beginning, typically 20-ish minutes, depending on

[12:13] what happens before that they're doing announcements to make the public aware

[12:16] of services in the city. For example, like the snip bus will get an

[12:20] announcement and any activity that parking wreck is doing that might also

[12:24] be on the calendar will get an announcement. So there's always a verbal

[12:27] at the council meeting going on. >> Thank you.

[12:37] This is Commissioner Morgan and I just wanted to chime in and say I think the

[12:41] spirit of this is great to keep us timely and relevant and also make sure

[12:47] that we can participate effectively in what other commissions are doing and in

[12:52] the city as a whole. But I think it would be helpful for me to have a sense

[12:55] of the priorities that we want to focus on so that when we do hear about things,

[13:00] we know what is most worth paying attention to as far as the our

[13:05] commission goes.

[13:12] » Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. Um, and so, you know, maybe when it is

[13:18] that we come come around to developing our work plan,

[13:24] um, and have like a clearer sense of what what it is that we're doing as a

[13:27] commission that that, um,

[13:32] this kind of like business tracking could could follow from that discussion.

[13:36] Um, and I guess I'm thinking that in the in the meantime,

[13:41] um, that just kind of having having our feelers out for a few a few of the

[13:46] meetings, um, might be good, um, just to kind of, you know, just be aware, start

[13:53] to get aware of like what the um, what the different um, groups are are meeting

[13:58] about and kind of get a get a finger on the pulse of what's going on. um

[14:03] » specifically with like the you know parks and wreck and um the neighborhood

[14:08] improvement commission which seem like they they have a lot of kind of natural

[14:12] overlap with um with the type of environmental work that that we might be

[14:18] getting. But I can definitely see the value too in in kind of

[14:22] » not formalizing this yet until we have um a work plan formalized. I think uh my

[14:29] idea is like leaving it up to the commissioners to kind of when we are in

[14:34] those meetings and we hear anything that might relate to the cap that we're uh

[14:39] » enforcing or not enforcing but uh encouraging um like um I think it is the

[14:46] planning commission I believe they were working on the storm water uh drainage

[14:57] over at in seaside at the America's Tire that they're building.

[15:01] » Um, and that I believe that has some

[15:04] relation to the CAP in our understanding. Um,

[15:09] » but yeah, just looking for those things that relate to the CAP and the different

[15:12] commissions.

[15:16] » And this is Commissioner Morgan again. I one of the things I really like about

[15:20] the spirit of this is to keep us proactively engaged and then also

[15:26] communicating with each other and the public during our meetings. I think um

[15:30] Commissioner Gotautle you brought to our attention some of the things some of the

[15:34] conversations about turfing the near the in the parks that kind of thing and I

[15:39] think this is a reminder for all of us to be paying attention to anything and

[15:44] everything we're hearing whether it's at an official meeting or around town or in

[15:48] one of the local papers. But there are certainly going to be some

[15:52] issues coming up related to the climate action plan and us linking back to the

[16:00] conversations that are being held at other commission meetings makes a lot of

[16:03] sense to me. So I really like this even if we don't have a formal plan to do

[16:09] this. It's just a call [snorts] to action.

[16:14] » Yeah. And I think too to sort of the you know part of the feeling behind this is

[16:19] to spread out the work a little bit and um

[16:23] » you know we all have busy lives and and jobs outside of this this particular

[16:26] volunteer work that we're doing. Um and so yeah kind of being able to designate

[16:32] um based on interest or availability which which meetings we might be able to

[16:36] tune into. Um, and Commissioner Canardi brought up a good point that um, since

[16:41] Commissioner Kimfar isn't officially participating in the meeting tonight, we

[16:46] might want to um, like I don't know in what capacity that could be decided

[16:50] during the public comment period, but it's not really part of the the dialogue

[16:55] necessarily. Um, but maybe just to kind of

[17:00] start to move this a little bit forward and we can continue the conversation

[17:03] next time. um would be maybe the if the three of us who are

[17:11] participating officially in the in the conversation can um could kind of figure

[17:16] out which which meetings we might be interested in being responsible for

[17:20] tuning in to. Does that make sense? Um,

[17:28] we I I don't know that every single meeting that like group that meets is is

[17:36] necessarily going to have any overlap. Some that I that I sort of lacked as I

[17:40] was looking through this was, you know, city council obviously, the planning

[17:44] commission, neighborhood improvement commission, um, and then parks and

[17:50] recreation. And then the other one that I actually

[17:54] had a couple questions about was the the Laguna Grande Park JPA which I um it

[18:01] seems like they meet on a quarterly basis. Is that right or not sure? Okay.

[18:05] So that one is um maybe something that we can that I can look into um which is

[18:11] the joint powers authority between the cities of Seaside Monterey and Monterey

[18:16] Peninsul Monterey Peninsula Regional Park

[18:19] District. to managing the park. So, um but yeah, if anyone else has um are

[18:30] there other meetings that that folks wanted to discuss tracking?

[18:40] Well, like if we're expanding the list, I think about some of the county level

[18:44] park focused organizations, um, public meetings, but also there's some advocacy

[18:51] organizations that would be helpful for us to be paying attention to

[18:58] FOSPA obviously, but beyond that,

[19:08] yeah, another one that comes to mind for me, and that category is the communities

[19:12] for sustainable Monterey County and the the seaside chapter as well. But that

[19:17] would be yeah more in the yeah community based organization

[19:21] » bucket.

[19:42] Yeah, I don't really have anything else on the discussion besides if we want to

[19:45] formalize it moving it to the next council meeting.

[19:48] » Okay. >> Um

[19:53] don't know how to go about that. >> Uh if I can add something.

[19:58] » Um so yeah, I think you have named the three main ones that seem most relevant

[20:03] at this time to this commission. Another thing to keep in mind regarding, you

[20:08] know, the emails that I send out asking for items, a lot of this is going to be

[20:12] commissionerdriven. Um, because it will be on a cyclical basis that we're going

[20:18] forward at times with items from the climate action plan, getting your

[20:22] permission to say we're going to move these ones forward. Then it goes to

[20:26] internal staff and then whatever makes it through that goes up to the council

[20:30] because like engineering will assess certain ones for even possibility

[20:35] viability. Um so I think in terms of the work plan staff isn't going to be

[20:41] handing that to you. It's more so that we will be coming to you maybe on a

[20:45] quarterly basis with this climate action plan and these various items related to

[20:51] it. But in that time in between, what are you as a group going to choose to

[20:56] do? Um, so we don't need to wait for the annual work plan to be established to

[21:00] start tuning into meetings, for example. Um, and it seems like there's some

[21:05] awareness of even groups outside of the city that would be beneficial um to

[21:09] start tapping into. Um, so a lot of it will be commissioner driven. And I read

[21:15] the charter um because you know having one item and being close to a holiday

[21:19] brought up the question of do we want to meet just to meet um that we're required

[21:26] to meet only six times a year. So in these future asks for agenda items um or

[21:33] even for guest speakers to come that I can help coordinate with for some of

[21:36] them where I do know people involved in those groups were more than willing to

[21:40] assist with that. Um, but if I don't get any requests back for an agenda item and

[21:45] we're kind of on our internal steps of the CAP process, then we might not have

[21:50] a meeting. Um, so think about in the time that we've started to now. Um, and

[21:55] then what you want to do moving forward to transition your efforts and when you

[21:59] would see those best placed and what type of maybe outreach you guys want to

[22:03] do as a group because there's always like the FOSPA events at the parks. Can

[22:07] we collaborate on anything? Um, so yeah, more conversations will help that, more

[22:13] exposure to boards and commissions will help that, especially when we find out,

[22:17] for example, like what the NIC is suggesting to council to vote on or even

[22:21] when that goes to the council, whether or not you feel it's appropriate to make

[22:24] public comment as a citizen or as a member of the environmental commission,

[22:27] but as a private citizen, totally up to you to start gauging uh the level to

[22:33] which you want to engage with the community via your role or as a member

[22:37] of the public who's just a bit more informed. because of your volunteerism.

[22:52] » Yeah. So, I guess um given given all that um we can I think we could probably

[23:00] decide to either, you know, kind of put our names

[23:04] by by this listed organizations, commissions, um council meetings that

[23:08] we've just listed or we can probably decide to to do that at the next meeting

[23:12] if we wanted to um if we wanted to wait for um Commissioner Kimfar to also be

[23:18] part of the discussion. But yeah, thanks Beth too for reminding us that it's just

[23:23] yeah, Commissioner Dven. >> Yeah. Um just a note on proceeding with

[23:28] this item. Uh if you do want to make a motion, we have to open up public

[23:32] comment first and we will have three minutes if uh Commissioner Kyan Far is

[23:38] on as a member of the public to which she can speak. Um,

[23:44] and yeah, we can motion to continue the item to our next regularly scheduled

[23:48] meeting and that would be sufficient and for Jennifer to do the roll call vote.

[23:53] » Okay, sounds good. Um, and given that, I would I would like to make a motion to

[23:58] continue. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Public comment, please.

[24:02] Okay, so let's open it up then for for public comment.

[24:05] » Members of the public in the chamber, please approach the podium. Members on

[24:08] Zoom, please use the raise your hand feature or dial star 9 from a

[24:37] Diane, you may make your public comment. Thank you. Good evening, Environmental

[24:44] Commission. My name is Diane Nielsen and I am on the board of uh FASPA

[24:52] and I'm [clears throat] pleased to hear that uh

[24:57] you would like to reach out and learn more about FOSPA or collaborate with

[25:03] FOSPA. And also I I attend the JPA meetings

[25:09] that were started back um a couple of years ago now

[25:16] and it's really important to have support in that area. Um it's a

[25:23] slowmoving process but they have a lot of their uh

[25:29] requirements to proceed have been approved by the various entities that

[25:36] need needed to do so and there's a lot of opportunities um

[25:45] that can be brought up or ideas I should say that can be brought up at the JPA

[25:50] also. And we

[25:54] um jumping back to FOSPA probably you I don't know but probably

[26:02] somebody there may be receiving our weekly

[26:06] reminders about FOSPA work days every Saturday we're in a uh one of the nine

[26:13] parks that we steward and you can go to uh friendsof seasideparks.org or and and

[26:21] learn a little bit more and see our schedule.

[26:25] And I just want to thank you for being on this commission and um and the work

[26:32] that you're doing. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comment.

[26:48] chair. We don't have anybody else wanting to make public comment.

[26:53] » All right. Well, thank you. Thanks, Diane, for joining. Um, and yeah, we'll

[26:57] definitely be in touch with FASA. Um, okay. So, I would like to now make a

[27:02] motion to continue this discussion at our next regularly scheduled um

[27:07] environmental commission meeting. >> I second.

[27:16] We'll take a roll call vote. Um, Commissioner Canard,

[27:22] » yes. >> Commissioner Gotautle,

[27:24] » yes. >> And Commissioner Morgan,

[27:27] » yes.

[27:41] We'll go to Item six, reports from commissioners.

[28:04] We'll move on to item seven, reports from staff.

[28:13] Hi. >> Uh, I have a couple updates for you on

[28:17] things that happened at other commissions. Um, one was at the planning

[28:21] commission meeting and one was last week at the city council meeting. And again,

[28:26] it's just an item that maybe we've touched on that could be of interest or

[28:31] just on a larger scale of interest. So, this is maybe similar to what you would

[28:37] be doing if you do uh get assigned or choose a certain board or commission. Um

[28:42] coming back and briefly sharing with everybody.

[28:48] We'll give a second for the PowerPoint to come up. Thanks.

[28:56] Uh so on December 10th, we had a planning commission hearing. We had two

[29:00] items, one of which was for 795 Broadway. Uh they were were granted a

[29:07] use permit um for a meeting facility at that location as well as uh

[29:12] architectural review approval for some uh exterior installations they were

[29:18] doing around an enclosed uh a trash enclosure. Um

[29:23] this is the corner site um across the street. It's on Elhhamra on Broadway uh

[29:30] where a lot of the goal activity is happening on the rooftops of those shops

[29:35] and uh code enforcement made us aware a while ago about this specific property

[29:41] and property owner receiving a citation regarding the nuisance of some of the

[29:48] waste associated with the nesting sites there. Um, this wasn't a project that I

[29:53] worked on. My colleague did, but um, being advised by our manager, I'll give

[29:58] you a minute or so to read a condition of approval that we placed on the

[30:04] project. Um, and

[30:10] just let you see how we approach this for it being a first time coming across

[30:15] our desk associated with a project on a site that had previous uh code

[30:20] enforcement activity.

[30:39] And I guess I will read it just in case there's any uh

[30:44] connection or just accessibility issues. It was a condition of approval added

[30:48] that said prior to each nesting season, deterrence shall be installed to prevent

[30:53] the establishment of colonies of birds. Prior to procurement and installation,

[30:57] the applicant shall submit a deterrent plan to the community development

[31:01] department for review and approval. Approved deterrent shall be promptly

[31:05] installed and maintained in working order. Abandoned nest shall be removed.

[31:09] Nothing in this condition shall be construed to require the applicant to

[31:13] harass any birds with established nests on the site, nor to disturb or remove

[31:18] any nests with eggs or chicks still present. And where this is kind of left

[31:22] open is that they submit a plan to us for review and approval and we didn't

[31:27] want to get into naming for example like we will consult with the autobond

[31:31] society and we will consult with matter I don't know what other organization um

[31:36] but in leaving that open it gives us the ability to reach out to those who do

[31:41] have the knowledge and expertise to provide us with guidance on what is

[31:45] appropriate. um it's more so requiring the applicant to take the first step of

[31:50] giving us something so we can provide it to an outside agency to turn around and

[31:54] give us guidance on that way it will be done correctly. Um so this is just an

[32:00] example of something we've come across in this uh you know presentations or uh

[32:05] reports from commissioners or staff isn't a time for discussion or

[32:08] questions. of course via email. If you have questions about this or anything

[32:12] that you want to share regarding resources for us, you can go ahead and

[32:15] do that. Um text on this is a little bit small. I definitely won't be reading

[32:20] this all in, but I will read the top uh item, which was the item description on

[32:24] the city council meeting uh from last week. 121825 adopt a resolution opposing

[32:30] the inclusion of new offshore oil and gas leasing off the coast of California

[32:34] and the federal 5-year national outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing

[32:38] program. Um you can go back as we showed you on the agendas and go back in time

[32:44] and select the 1218 meeting. you could pull up the actual resolution where

[32:48] you'll see all the declarations that were made in that and um what the city's

[32:53] stance on it is and essentially the bottom

[32:58] um footnote bullet says if adopted the resolution would convey the city's

[33:02] position to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and to state and federal

[33:07] elected officials through distribution of the approved document. So,

[33:12] just another example of what's happening outside of the EC, but definitely rel

[33:17] related to the environment on a larger scale. Um, this was probably floated

[33:22] around by another agency to cities in the area asking for support. Uh, oftent

[33:28] times a template's given. It could have also been initiated from the inside um

[33:32] by somebody who's just keeping track and is aware of things. So, those are a

[33:36] couple of examples of pieces of information that, you know,

[33:41] commissioners could be sharing in the future by following their respective

[33:44] commissions that they're assigned to or volunteer for. And that's all I have for

[33:48] you.

[33:53] » I have a question. Is is the appropriate time?

[33:59] There's um no discussion or questions on report items because they're not open

[34:03] for public comment either. But if you want to ask a question, yeah, send me an

[34:08] email, please. >> Okay.

[34:25] Are we ready to move on to the last item eight, adjournment?

[34:29] Um, we'll start with a motion and then end with a roll call vote.

[34:33] » Okay. I make a motion to adjourn today's meeting.

[34:36] » A second.

[34:42] » I will do a roll call vote on adjourning the meeting at 6:06

[34:50] p.m. Commissioner Canard. >> Yes.

[34:54] Commissioner Morgan,

[34:57] » yes. And Chair Gotautle, >> yes.

[35:07] Uh, the meeting has been adjourned.

Environmental Commission Meeting | December 22, 2025

Transcript