speech and values diversity of opinion
and the full text is on the front of the
agenda. I'm not going to read the whole
thing right now. Um, town manager
Johnson, has the agenda been posted?
>> Yes, mayor.
>> Any changes to the agenda?
>> No.
Number three, disclosure of exparte
communications on items where the town
council acts in an adjudicatory or quasi
judicial capacity. Anything to disclose?
Hearing none, we will go to number four,
open time for public expression. This is
limited to three minutes per speaker on
items that are not on our agenda.
Anybody in the chamber for public
comment?
Anyone online, Donna, for public
comment?
No one's online. Mayor,
>> thank you.
The next item is the proclamation
celebrating National Fair Housing Month,
April 2026.
Whereas the principle of fair housing is
not only state and national law and
policy, but a fundamental human concept
and entitlement for all citizens. And
whereas discrimination based on race,
national origin, gender, disability,
familial status, exclusion of minor
children, religion, marital status, and
sexual orientation is illegal in
California. And whereas as a community,
we welcome all good neighbors,
recognizing the contributions and
richness tendered by a wide variety of
young and old, male and female, people
of all colors and ethnic backgrounds,
religious traditions, etc. and whereas
interested parties from both the private
and public sectors will participate in a
city, state, and national effort to
promote fair housing. Now therefore, on
behalf of the town council and the town
of Ross, I do by here I do hereby
proclaim the month of April 2026 to be
fair housing month in the town of Ross
and urge all residents of our community
to personally adopt the spirit of equal
housing opportunity and adhere adhere to
the letter and character of the fair
housing laws.
Number six is the mayor's report. That's
me again. Sorry. Um, Chief Pota's
retirement and celebration coffee, April
30th. The town of Ross has been so
fortunate that Ralph Pota joined us as
police chief in March 2021. Chief Pota
has demonstrated a deep commitment to
serve and interact with the Ross
community. Chief Pota began his career
as a city fire dispatcher at age 17,
becoming a police officer in 1985 at age
20. After 35 years, he retired from
Samfell in 2018 and then worked for the
Northern California Computer Crimes Task
Force, assisting and training
investigators
in Ross. Chief Pota has been known for
his open open door policy, broad smile,
and warm laugh. He has seamlessly led
his department of eight police officers.
Chief Pota engages with residents and
genu genuinely cares about our
community. He has been an excellent
partner with students and staff at Ross
School and Branson. He was instrumental
in educating Ross ebike riders and
leading the county's efforts to regulate
ebikes to enhance safety for the riders
and our community. He has attended
nearly every Ross town council meeting
providing a voice of reason and
collaboration.
After 5 years of dedicated service,
Chief Pa will retire on April 30th.
While we are sad to see him go, we are
deeply grateful for his exceptional work with the Ross community
and excited for him to begin his next
chapter. The town will host a morning
coffee for Chief Pota on Thursday, April
30th. Details will be coming soon, but
please plan to join us to thank Chief
Pota and wish him well.
Please support downtown Ross businesses.
Many of you are already aware that
beloved Crown and Crumpet has closed. We
are very sorry to see them go. Each
month, the Ross Review has been
featuring a Ross business. Please
patronize these fine businesses in our
charming downtown. They need our
continued support to thrive. At the
March RPOA meeting, Ross resident Kevin
Erdman shared ideas about how to enhance
the downtown Ross business environment.
Working with RPOA, Kevin will be
implementing some of these steps soon.
We thank Kevin and RPOA for their
efforts.
Finally, citizens advisory committee
recommendations. Wednesday, April 29th.
The Citizens Advisory Committee has been
hard at work since midFebruary and will
give its recommendations about the town
facilities and fire station at the April
29th council meeting. Please note that
the May council meeting has been moved
up to April 29th due to scheduling
conflicts. This meeting, like all
council meetings, will also be available
on Zoom.
Next seven, council committee and
liaison reports.
Terry. Yeah.
Yes. After conferring with our town
manager and public works director, I
voted no on the agenda item. The reason
I voted no is because we currently
receive a very modest amount each year
amount of money each year from TAM that
supports our local roads in Ross. The
amendment would reduce our funding along
with other cities and towns to support a
new category called reimagine roadways.
This new category will support and
improve regional traffic congestion
through advanced planning efforts. Ross
will not directly benefit from these
funds, nor will Ross be eligible to
apply for these funds. The vote on the
measure AA amendment was passed by most
of the TAM commissioners. Next week,
Christa Rich and I will meet with the
TAM executive director and the planning
director to discuss this issue and
hopefully identify opportunities for
additional funding uh opportunities for
us to maintain our local roads and
transportation infrastructure,
especially for small towns like Ross and
Belvadier. In June, the town of Ross
will also be asked to vote yes or no on
measure AA amendments. If 50% of cities
and towns in Marin vote yes, the measure
AA amendment will pass. Thank you.
>> Bill,
I have a report on uh MCE clean energy
uh which has been in the news uh off and
on this year. At this particular
meeting, um there was some um well,
first of all, some progress made on
issues that we've talked about for quite
a while. Uh one is um a governance
there. The the board has requested and
authorized a governance study. You may recall there's been concern that the
governance structure is unwieldy. Uh the
directors are all representatives of
towns in four counties uh and the
counties themselves. And so we have a
board of 34 members and an executive
committee trying to oversee in a very
complex business with a budget of about
$700 million a year. So um I was pleased
to see that there was agreement on a
proposal a request for services and I
hope that will come together soon. The
finance committee that the board
authorized previously and requested is
has been um um created and is is now
meeting uh periodically.
Um couple of controversial things. Uh
one was um
a proposal in connection with the budget
to cap the budget for staff expenses
without specifying how that would be
done. and the CEO said, "Well, then
we'll have to lay some people off." And
uh so that did not pass that that that
effort to cap the the budget. I think
there's concern on the board about the the staff expense. There's concern
about how much MCE is is charging for
electricity. It's now more than PG&E for
various reasons. And there is some
concern about trying to keep electricity
rates reasonable while still serving
MC's mission, which is to promote
renewable energy.
Um, and then there's also a controversy
about creating an interim committee
because of some concern about the
contract approval process.
Uh and uh the u the disagreement was
whether this should all be something
before the full board or some other
brown neck committee or whether an
interim committee which is a sort of an
ad hoc committee would be appropriate.
My view was we should undertake this
evaluation quickly and we should get
started. It'll all be public soon enough
uh when we get the recommendations from
the interim interim committee. So that
measure passed. So stay tuned. I'm sure
we'll have much more in the future as
MCE
and its board
attempt to sort of restructure things
and get things on track.
>> Thank you. Elizabeth, do you have
anything?
>> Okay.
Next is staff and community reports. Um,
Ross Property Owners Association.
Is there anyone online for Ross Property
Owners Association?
Okay. Town Manager Johnson.
>> Sorry, they're they're not on there.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Council.
Um, and our POA uh their meeting was not
uh scheduled this week, I think, due to spring break and other holidays.
Um, our esteemed town clerk, Cindy
Martell, retired last Monday, and I'm
grateful that our part-time office
assistant, Donna Redstone,
has agreed to fill in as our interim
town clerk until the position of town
clerk is filled. Donna has been with the
town for over 10 years, and we're
fortunate to have her extra assistance.
Fingers crossed that we will have a new
town clerk on board soon. Until then, we
ask the council and the community for
your patience as we are short staffed in
the administrative office. The council's
annual b uh budget workshop will take
place on Thursday, April 23rd, starting
at 9:00 a.m. in the council chambers.
Later on tonight's agenda, the council
will consider moving your May meeting up
to Wednesday, April 29th. So, we have a
busy month ahead. Uh the first section
of the Bolina storm drain phase 2
improvements uh was completed in March
and the contractor has cleaned up the
site and demobilized. The final section
of storm drain which includes the new
outfall into the creek will be completed
in July after the Sir Francis Drake
paving project is completed. Speaking of
the Sir Francis Drake paving project
which will be between Bolinus Avenue and
Elcom Camino Bueno is scheduled to start
after Ross School gets out for the
summer and will require one lane traffic
control for approximately 2 weeks. So
please mark your calendars, plan
accordingly and get out of town if you
can. And that's it. Thank you for the
opportunity to report.
Thank you. Number nine, the consent
agenda. Does any member of the council
wish to pull an item from the consent
agenda?
>> Does any member of the public wish to
pull an item from the consent agenda?
>> Okay. Could we have a motion to approve
the consent agenda?
>> I move we approve the consent agenda.
>> A second.
Just a roll call.
>> Mayor McMillan,
>> yes.
>> Mayor Prom Robbins,
>> yes.
>> Council member Kercher,
>> yes.
>> And council member Deli,
>> yes.
>> Thank you.
>> Measure passes.
» Now we are moving to public hearing on
planning projects. Part one
A is five Allen Avenue design review
variance and town council consideration
of adoption of resolution number 2615
approving the project subject to
conditions.
>> Uh good evening mayor and council
members. Uh tonight the applicant at
five Allen Lane is requesting a town
council consideration for design review
and a variance. The project is proposing
to renovate the exist the southern
portion of the yard which is which acts
as their rear yard uh to include
construction of a new pool spa uh
outdoor kitchen and arbor and patio. At
the ADR meeting on March 17th, the ADR
board voted 3 to zero in support of the
project uh citing that the site's
topography, irregular lot shape, and the
existing privacy on the lot. Also want
to point out the uh the in the
construction management plan, the
applicant has indicated that three
vehicles will be parked on site with no
street parking and all materials will be
stored on site. Staff requests that the
town council consider adopting
resolution 2615 approving designer view
and a variance. Thank you.
>> Thank you. That's great about the
on-site parking too. Thank you.
Questions from council members?
Nope. Um, does the applicant wish to
make a statement? It's not necessary.
You can if you want. Okay. Any public
comment on this item? Anybody online?
Donna,
>> no one's online with a hand raised.
Mayor,
>> thank you. We'll bring it back for any
discussion or a motion.
>> I move we approve resolution 2615.
>> Is there a second?
>> I'll second.
Mayor McMillan,
>> yes.
>> Mayor Prom Robbins,
>> yes.
>> Council member Kercher,
>> yes.
>> And Council Member Deli,
>> yes. The motion passes.
>> Thank you.
» Next is 10B3 Allen Lane, Design Review,
Variance, and Town Council consideration
of adoption of resolution number 2614,
approving the project subject to
conditions. Alex. Good evening, mayor,
council members. Uh the neighbor of five
Allen, 3 Allen Avenue, Elaine, is
requesting town council consideration
for designer view and variance. They
also are uh renovating their rear yard
uh to construct a new pool and patio.
And at the ADR meeting March 17th, the
board voted the ADR board voted 3 to
zero of the project in support of the
project with modifications. The primary
concern was the pool's proximity to the
side and rear yard property line. The
and the AD armor recommended increasing
the setbacks. In response, the applicant
did revise the plans by reducing the
length of the pool and patio resulting
in an increased setbacks along the side
and rear yard setback. And also in the
construction management plan for this
one, the applicant indicated that uh
they will provide three parkings on site
and no parking, no street parking. Staff
request that the town council consider
adopting resolution 2614
approving designer review and a
variance. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And that's wonderful news
about the parking. Also questions from
council members.
Um
the the applicant can make a statement,
but it's probably not necessary.
Okay. Um any public comment on this
item?
>> No one online, mayor.
>> And nobody in the chambers. Um we'll
bring it back for discussion or a
motion.
>> I move we approve resolution 2614.
>> And I will second.
>> Mayor McMillan.
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Prom Robbins.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Kercher. Yes.
>> Council member Dalling.
>> Yes.
>> The motion passes.
>> You're welcome.
>> Thank you.
» Okay, that is the end of public hearing
on planning project one.
We're moving to the administrative
agenda item number 11. Town council con
to consider adopting resolution number
2618 approving the police chief
employment agreement between the town of
Ross and Raul Ernesto Aguilar for the
period April 27, 2026 through June 30,
2029 and amending the salary schedule.
Town manager Johnson. Thank you, Mayor.
Uh, current police chief Pota is
retiring after serving as the town's
police chief since March of 2021. The
town conducted a thorough process for
selecting a new police chief and Raul
Enrersto um Aglar was the top candidate
for the position. Chief Aglar brings
more than 25 years of law enforcement
experience in Marin County to the town
of Ross. He previously served with the
San Rafale Police Department in a range
of specialized assignments and later
held leadership roles overseeing
traffic, street crimes, and community
engagement teams. Most recently, he
served as chief of police and director
of safety at the College of Marin.
Deeply committed to community
partnership, Chief Aglar prioritizes
building trust through transparency,
accessibility, and compassionate
service. He believes that strong
relationships between residents and
public safety professionals are
foundational to a thriving community.
Chief Aglar meets all the state
requirements for the position and in
addition holds a master's degree from
the Goldman School of Public Policy at
UC Berkeley. I negotiated an employment
agreement with Chief Aglar structured
similar to the existing employment
agreement with the current police chief.
The agreement is for 3 years and 2
months through June 30th, 2029 and
expresses the terms of the agreement
between the town and police chief
including salary and benefits. The
town's pens pension system uh called
Kalpers requires the town council to
adopt a salary schedule by resolution.
Each time salaries change, the town must
adopt a new resolution amending the
salary schedule to reflect the changes.
In summary, it's recommended that the
council adopt resolution number uh 2618
approving the police chief employment
agreement
um and amending the town salary
schedule. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Questions, council members.
Public comment on this item.
Anybody online?
>> No one's online. Mayor,
>> thank you, Donna. We'll bring it back
then for discussion and a motion.
Well, I would uh recommend we adopt
resolution number 2618 approving the
police chief employment agreement
between the town of Ross and Ral Ernesto
Aguular for the period of April 27 to
2026 through June 30th, 2029 and
amending the town salary schedule.
>> Second
making a motion or recommend.
>> I I make the motion. Thank you so much.
Thank you,
>> Mayor McMillan.
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Prom Robbins.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Kercher,
>> yes.
>> Council member Dowling,
>> yes.
>> The motion passes.
>> Uh, thank you, Town Council. And um, now
that you've taken action, I would like
to take a moment to introduce Chief
Aglar. And he is here this evening. And
if you would be so kind, chief, as to
come up to the podium.
And uh just this is this is our new
chief. Yay.
>> YAY.
» Good evening. Thank you very much for
the warm welcome and uh thank you very
much to Mayor McMillan, honorable
members of town council and um Miss
Johnson. Uh, I want to thank you for the
opportunity for this.
>> Oh, he needs the mic on.
>> Sorry, we have to turn your microphone
on.
» Perfect. Um, I want to thank you for the
opportunity, and I am committed to
leading uh the department with
integrity, accountability, and
transparency, and a a deep commitment to
our shared goals. Um, so I look forward
to working with all of you. And once
again, thank you for the opportunity.
>> Thank you.
Uh we will be uh the chief's uh starts
on April 27th and at your meeting um
assuming the c well the council just
made the decision to move your meeting
to April 29th, we'll plan on having a a
swearing in and and some other
opportunities to um celebrate our
outgoing chief and to welcome our new
chief. So thank you so much.
Thank you. Good work.
Number 12, town council to consider
adopting resolution number 2611 amending
the town fee schedule and receive a
presentation from staff in NBS of the
fee study report. I don't think we're
doing that again, are we?
>> We are again. Okay. and and receive a
presentation from staff and NBS of the
fee study report including evaluation of
fees for services for administration and
finance, planning, building, public
works, police and general plan updates.
Roberta,
>> good evening mayor and council members.
Our presentation is only five minutes,
so it'll just hit the key points on the
fee study. So, this item is for the
council to consider the adoption of
resolution number 2611, which is an
amendment to the town's schedule based
on the fee study report. The council did
receive a presentation during the
February meeting regarding the purpose,
the analysis from the fee study uh which
evaluated finance and administration,
planning and building, police and public
work fees to accurately reflect the
actual cost of providing those services.
Since then, staff did add a false alarm
fee um which would apply after three
occurrences per calendar year. State law
allows the town to recover but not
exceed the reasonable cost of staff time
and resources required to process
applications,
conduct inspections,
and provide services that require fees
to be supported by a cost of service
analysis as outlined in the fee study
report. The recommended fees are
consistent with Prop 26. Since the last
update in 2016,
staffing costs, workloads, and
regulatory requirements have changed.
So, the study updates the fees based on
current service levels and documented
time spent with the goal of fair cost
recovery. So, the action before the
council tonight is to adopt the
resolution approving the updated town
fee schedule as presented in the staff
report and resolution and will be
effective July 1st. So, now let me turn
it over to Nicole Kissum with NBS to
provide a fiveminute highlight of a few
of the key points from the fee study and
then after that Nicole and I are happy
to answer any questions.
So, uh, good evening everybody. Um,
Nicole Cassam here with NBS. I'm not
sure if you can see me. Can you see me?
» Nope.
And Robera, I don't I don't have sharing
capabilities, so I don't know if you're
putting the presentation up.
>> Sure.
Nicole, can you accept the prompt?
» Okay, there we go. Good evening
everyone.
So, Robera, would you like me to share
the presentation from my screen or do
you have it up?
» Could you say that again? I didn't quite
hear you.
>> Oh, yes, please.
>> Okay, no problem. Um, good memory. Yes,
we were. Okay, so I do not have screen
sharing capabilities, so that the clerk
would need to grant me grant me that
Okay, looks like we're moving now. Can
everybody see the presentation?
>> Yes.
>> Great. Thank you. And I I heard when you
introduced this item, are we doing this
again? Um, you are correct. We were here
in February and we made a much more
extensive presentation about the fee
study and its results and what all goes
into it. This is a very truncated
version just to refresh your memory and
you know provide a refresh for any
community members that maybe weren't
there um in February that might be
interested.
So I'm just going to review very briefly
what the goals of the study are, how we
approached it, what the results are, and
of course leave time for questions.
Um, so the goal of any fee study, we're
calculating fees for services and in
California, fees cannot exceed the cost
of providing services. So the majority
of our work with the town is to
establish what the full cost of service
is for each individual fee. And step two
is where we're at tonight where the
council uh hopefully is taking action to
set fees according to local policies.
So these types of fees are cost recovery
opportunities. They can be adopted by
town council. They don't require any
voter or voter protest. These are fees,
not taxes. And we also did not analyze
anything that is not a fee for service.
So where you see that no bubble, we did
not look at any taxes, fines, penalties,
impact fees, etc.
So these are the fee programs that the
town has that we studied. We've got some
miscellaneous administrative fees. Um
quite a few I think your core fee
programs are really your planning and
building departments and public works.
Police has some miscellaneous
administrative uh and processing fees.
And as Robera mentioned in her intro,
the last time we really did this big of
a deep dive was uh almost 10 years ago
in 2016.
So the way we approach any fee study is
really we collect certain types of data
um mostly budget information, staffing
information, current fee schedule
information, workload information. We
review the fee structures in each fee
program to make sure that fees are
structured fairly equitably and do
target cost recovery.
Um we also sometimes need to bring
things up to date or remove fees that
are not used anymore. Uh and then from
there we perform the cost analysis which
is what makes the fees defensible and we
look at that on in three ways annually,
hourly and per unit which per unit just
means per fee. So, where you guys are at
tonight is adopting the outcomes of the
study and setting each individual fee
according to the 100% maximum or less
depending on on a local policy.
So, this is the annual summary of
results here just to recap this also in
the staff report. So what we found is
that on average or d for the time period
of the study um the town is collecting
about 1.3 million in these different fee
programs. So we didn't have any
information to um get that for some a
handful of fees for admin and finance.
But when we compare that to the full
cost recovery levels for each fee
program the town could recover 1.6
million in costs. So you can see here in
this table where it says existing cost
recovery percentage um building is is
recovering closest to 100% cost and then
every every other fee program is you
know somewhere around 60 70% and police
very low because police has very few
fees. So, by industry standard, this is
a pretty good outcome
um for an overall 84% recovery rate. And
the recommendations that staff have
provided to set all fees at 100% or
lower are just bringing that up um a
little bit from where the current revenues stand.
Um so, there are some fees that are
recommended at below 100%, those are
listed in the staff report. We're just
repeating them here. So, in planning and
building, there are a handful of fees um
that the town would like to keep low.
ADU permits,
small design review permits, use
permits, uh solar, which is capped by
the state law, and resale inspections.
And then with police, you know, a lot of
these processing fees are very difficult
to charge at 100%. they depend on
ability to pay and sometimes people are
just trying to get these reports you
know for insurance purposes and so
forth. So with police it's really to
make the service available and encourage
compliance while getting just a little
bit of incremental recovery.
That's it. We truncated this down to
five minutes. So if you have any
questions or anywhere where I can, you
know, elaborate for you, let me know.
>> Thank you very much. That was very
concise and we appreciate it. Questions
from council.
Public comment.
Anybody online?
>> No one's online.
>> Okay, we'll bring it back for discussion
or a motion. I just want to say I I
really I mean it's a dense report, but I
really appreciated all the work that
went into this. It's also the staff's
work that went into this, too, to
determine the cost. So, um it's nice to
know that we've got something that's so
um well done and well organized. So,
thank you.
» I I move we approve resolution 2611.
>> I'll second.
>> Mayor McMillan,
>> yes.
>> Mayor Prom Robbins,
>> yes.
>> Council member Kercher,
>> yes.
>> Council member Dalling,
>> yes.
>> The motion passes.
Thank you for all your great work on
this, Roberta.
>> Nicole. Yeah. Thanks so much.
>> Thank you. Have a good evening.
>> See you. We'll see you in 10 years.
>> Yeah.
Feels that way, too. Yes. Thank you so
much, guys. Bye.
>> Thank you. Bye. Bye. Item 13, Ross
Recreation Update. Moren,
» please give me a brief minute while I
load our presentation.
You don't need
Roberto is making herself indispensable.
She's gonna have to be here to the end
of every meeting.
We are getting there. Thank you for your
patience.
Okay. Good evening, mayor and members of
town council. Um I am Morin Borthwick,
your recreation manager. Um and sitting
next to me is Wyatt Man, our recreation
coordinator. Um and thank you for the
opportunity to present an update of the
Ross Recreation Department.
Uh to start off, we pretty much do this
every presentation. Um we just want to
remind the community um and town council
of Ross Recreation's mission um which is
to provide a program of instruction to
the public on subjects beneficial to the
Ross community in which an individual
may improve or develop him or herself
physically, mentally, andor socially.
Our team has changed a little bit over
the past year. We've added some
wonderful new um staff members and team
members. So, I wanted to reintroduce you
to them if you have not met them. Um
Ross is now fully staffed with an
experienced and engaged team. Serving in
the admin office is Mallerie Baron,
recreation clerk, Wyatt Man, uh
recreation coordinator, and myself,
Moren Berwick, recreation manager. Uh
Kira, uh Kira Ortiz, and Kelly Nunees
lead the after school kids club program.
Uh, Lorenzo Cowell, also known as Coach
C, is our Ross School after school
sports lead and kids club support. And
Sophia Vasquez is our happyhive after
school lead. Um, and coach John Mark
Schaefer, who is not pictured above, is
our sports program lead at Bayage
Elementary. Uh, the department is
focusing on team and individual
strengths to increase motivation,
morale, and overall performance, and the
results have been significant.
The team has produced a broad list of
new initiatives for uh fiscal year
ending 26, including those you see
listed and more. Programs span from new
game clubs like Dungeons and Dragons and
the Wheel Kids Bike Club to Driftwood
Painting and Wine Workshops for adults.
The department also worked with local
community sports clubs such as Ross
Valley Lacrosse um also known as the
Grizzlies um on after school lacrosse at
Ros School and at Bage.
In addition to new program initiatives,
Rex staff are proud to share the
following accomplishments thus far this
year. Um new to this year was our
agreement and partnership with Magic
Marine Art and Garden Center. Um helping
to kick off a successful program held on
Magic campus. uh such as HappyHive After
School for preschool students. Um the
team further expanded flexible
afterchool child care options such as
gap care for kids club families um for
kids club uh for families needing care
to fill the 1-hour gap between
kindergarten dismissal and dismissal for
older siblings or when later programs
begin. The team saw growth of the
RossRack Basketball League increasing to
312 players for this 2026 season. um
which was approximately 50 more players
than last year. The department has
offered over 150 programs to the Ross
community from September to today. This
does not include summer camps or events,
mind you. Um lastly, staff was expect
was excited to support the
reestablishment of the organic farm
stand on Ross Common um and and due to
the uh approval of the consent calendar
that it will be coming back again.
All right. Okay. So, focus on Kids Club
After School. So, an accomplishment in
its own right. Kids Club After School
has been flourishing with between 16 and
31 students now served daily. Um staff
have listened to families who have
requested support uh for the gap between
kinder dismissal um at 2 p.m. when their
older children are released at 2:45 p.m.
We have been successfully offering these
families this 1-hour care option at a
reduced rate to cover this gap. Still,
majority of families utilized the
program uh from the full program from
dismissal to 5:00 p.m. Additionally, new
to the fiscal year ending 26 uh season
was the uh 6 week short session for
kindergarten families. Uh this was a
separate kids club program registration
that covered the 6 weeks where
kindergarteners transition to the school
schedule. Uh, the program was offered to
kindergarten families from 12:30 p.m. to
5:00 p.m. for the duration of the the
first 6 weeks of school.
Um, our total year-to- date um income
for Kids Club um was is currently
$124,000.
Um, and that's uh in comparison to the
$99,000 from from last year. So
um yeah, so we are very excited of the
um of just the growth and support from
the community um to see this program
grow and flourish.
Right on to Happy Hive. Uh so created
with kids club in mind. Um HappyHive
afterchool program began this past fall
with the launch of theou agreement. Uh,
similar to kids club, Happy Hive runs
daily and is offered to garden school
preschool families from 1:00 p.m. to 3
p.m. with a 4pm extended care option.
The program began with five students per
day and now serves 9 to 11 students per
day, which is our max capacity.
Um, our total year-to- date revenue for
this program um is $51,000.
Um so 12% of that actually comes from if
you look at our chart um so 12% of that
comes from our we created a flexible
drop in pack. Um so 12% of that income
comes from that. Um we also are offering
no school day camps for when the garden
school is not offering um school. Um so
12% comes from that and then 34% comes
from our fall enrollment and now 42%
from uh current winter enrollment which
uh uh is January through June.
All right. So, looking more broadly
across the department, um fiscal year
ending 26 estimated revenue is expected
to reach close to a million dollars in
comparison to our budget of $97
uh,000. Um, significant callouts include
growth in the kids classes account due
to an increase in daily enrollment um
and the addition of the six-w week
kinder short session. Um, also
successful Happy Hive After School and
an increase in the basketball league
program enrollment.
Um, excuse me. The department did see a
modest reduction in field rentals um due
to the loss of the Ross Valley Lacrosse
Club. Uh, staff are working on ways to
promote field rentals to other sports
groups and community partners. Um, two
account categories tots um and
contributions are held at 0% for the
year as we do not receive income uh for
either of these. Um, and currently TOT's
classes fall under kids class accounts
which will be split into its own account
for next year so we can see the
breakdown a little bit better. Um, staff
look to continue strengthening our
positive momentum across the board in
all program categories well into the
summer and next fiscal year.
Okay. Um, expenses year-to- date um are
higher than expected due to our class
program growth and an increase in
overall enrollment. Specific callouts
include an increase in the contract
instructor program line that is around4
to $50,000 um 40 to $50,000 um higher
than budgeted due to an increase in
contractled classes. Additionally, staff
are reporting an increase in wages and
benefits um due to the need for more
staff. Uh for example, kids club went
from two staff members daily to three in
order to accommodate the growing program
and meet ratio safety and fun standards.
Okay. Uh, Rex staff have placed a
greater emphasis on community
involvement this year. Uh, Rossre has
been an active partner in RPOA, Ross
Auxiliary, Age Friendly Ross, and Ross
School events, most recently activating
a live action Candyland at the March
28th Spring Fling event.
Staff are also hard at work preparing
for the 2026 Fourth of July parade and
celebration. Um, which is scheduled to
kick kick off on Saturday, July 4th from
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Shifting gears
slightly for this year, staff is excited
to organize the American Pie Baking
Contest uh for all baking enthusiasts
and bring back the popular mechanical
bowl. Uh, don't worry. Our patriotic
pooches will be highlighted in our
parade in the Dogs on Parade group. Um,
staff have also set a date for the 2026
Rosstown dinner. Um, which will be held
on Friday, September 4th. Um, after a
successful 2025 event, the Rostown
dinner will once again be held at Magic
Campus. Um, it will just be moved to the
Great Lad Gazebo while construction is
happening. Uh lastly, staff have begun
initial planning for the 2026 Ross
Turkey Trot, which will be held on
Sunday, November 15th.
Next steps for the department includes a
focus on summer camp enrollment and
promoting our incredible lineup of
summer programs. Running the Happy Hive
spring break camp for 2 to 5-year-olds
next week. Firming up plans for the 2026
Fourth of July parade and celebration.
Uh coordinating the fall 2026 program
guide book. And continuing to nurture
important partnerships and
collaborations across Ross and
throughout Marin County.
Thank you, mayor and members of town
council. Um, if you have any questions,
we are here to answer them.
>> Thank you, Moren. That was a great
report. Questions? Council members?
>> I I just had a question. Um, I recall
several years ago we were on the verge
of cancelling the kids club. Is that
correct?
>> That is correct.
>> And now it's thriving, surging. Yes.
>> It's great.
>> Okay. Great. um public comment on this
item.
Anybody online, Donna?
>> No one's online. Mayor,
>> thank you. Then we'll bring it back for
um any further discussion. Elizabeth, I
>> I wanted to mention kids club also. Um
you know, we we were the only town that
didn't have any afterchool care for
quite a long time and kids club was
really on its last legs. Elizabeth Breus
gets a lot of credit for pushing hard to
keep it going, but you've really run
with it and made it something that that
a lot of families want to participate
in. I think that's really wonderful.
You've done a great job with kids club.
>> Thank you. I would I definitely want to
recognize um the whole Ros team for that
effort. Um it is definitely not just me.
It is it is their staff. They are
wonderful. They listen to families. Um
and we created a flexible option that
families want. Um, and that is clearly
shown here.
Great. Thank you, Moren. Thank you,
Wyatt. Wonderful.
» 14. town council to receive a
presentation from Fieldman Rolop, the
town's municipal advisor, regarding the
town's financial condition, budget
outlook, and capacity to support debt
service associated with implementation
of the facility's master plan and
potential capital and operating costs
related to the friends of the Ross
Firehouse FORF initiative.
Manager Johnson,
» thank you. Um, we have a space
constraint. David, would you like to do
the introduction just from the podium?
Is that all right?
>> Oh, okay. Okay. Um,
just a moment.
Are are I'm I'm just waiting. Are you
guys happy to you ready to go? Okay.
Um I'll just give it just a short
presentation. So um good evening, mayor
and council members. Um this evening,
this item before you tonight is not an
action item. It's a presentation and um
I worked with our project manager David
Kelly to um bring this forward to the
council because your uh facility uh
master plan to be implemented is could
very well require um some kind of
financing plan. And so I think that
there I'd like to start off with with
having an education for the council and as well as staff as well as um our
res our residents and um members of the
uh citizens committee that has gotten
together these past couple of months. I
thought this would be a good opportunity
to have us all learn about the different
kinds of financing that is available and
um have some professionals take a look
at our budget to um be able to confir in
our 5-year uh financial forecast just to
confirm with some of the things that I
and our and the staff team have been
saying about the the status of our of
our financial well-being. So, um, we
have a, uh, David Kelly prepared with me
the staff report that's in your agenda.
Attached to it, we have a memorandum
that was prepared by our consultants
with Fieldmen and Rollup. And, um, they
are here this evening. I'm going to let
them introduce themselves and take off
with our presentation. Um what should we
um are we going to see if the council
wants to ask questions as we go through
the slides? Is that as okay? We didn't
discuss that earlier.
>> That is that all right mayor if you
>> probably makes more sense.
>> Yeah. Some of the um slides have have
some have have a good good robust amount
of information. So I think it would be
good for the council to be able to ask
questions as you go along. And um David
Kelly did put out a um a request for
proposals to have this work done. The
scope of work was specific to uh review
our materials, our our budget documents
and other other financial information
and prepare this presentation for the
council. And we did receive three
proposals and uh our treasurer Jeff
was able to uh take a a review of the
proposals along with David Kelly and
myself and we chose um the firm of
Fieldman rollup to to do this work for
the town. We entered into an agreement
uh with them to prepare for this and uh
we gave them about a week or week or 10
days to prepare this. So really
appreciate that um they've stepped up to
the plate and and helped us put together
this information from the council. So um
thank you. I'm going to let you guys
introduce yourselves if that's okay.
» Good evening. Um Mary McMillan and
council members. My name is Onie Veren
and I'm from Fieldman Rele Associates
and I'm here with my colleague.
>> Hi. Good evening. I'm Dan Shaw. I'm also
with Fieldman. Yeah. And just uh before
we get started, just a a quick uh
overview of our firm. Um we're based out
of California in Irvine. We have offices
um in in the Bay Area. Um we've been in
the industry for over 60 years and our
sole practice is advising public sector
agencies, cities, school districts,
federal districts throughout the state.
Um we're a regulated industry. We're
licensed by the the SEC. We both have
our licenses and it's very important um
or understanding our role. We act as a
fiduciary to our clients. Uh we provide
um advice um that's in the best interest
of our clients only. So um with that we
can turn the next page. Uh this is uh
just an overview of what we plan to
review tonight. Um just discussing the
town's
um capital plans and needs that your
financial capacity in terms of your
general fund uh and discussing your your
budget trends. Um and discussing the the
funding gaps of the capital facilities
that uh you're currently reviewing and
potential revenue options.
And be before we get into the town's
funding needs, we wanted to review uh
the the the town's revenue profile. As
you um know, the the town's revenue
profile is largely based on property tax
base
u revenues. Um 85% of those coming
currently from property taxes.
uh 13% coming from your measure E uh
parcel tax and the the remaining 2% are
from other sources like uh sales tax uh
business license tax and property
transfer taxes. So uh you have uh the
majority of uh your revenues coming from
property tax revenues which are um a
very stable revenue source there. there
isn't a lot of variation there. And um
and uh in terms of your projections, the
projections are largely fixed and really
are heavily dependent on your assessed
valuation growth.
» So in uh what is the the town trying to
fund? We have three buckets of uh CIP
plans here.
Um the the first one is the the town's
facilities master plan ranging
in cost of 26 million to $30 million.
The friends of Ross firehouse or fourth
initiative which include a capital cost
of about 22 million to $28 million as
well as ongoing operation needs of uh
about 3.4 four million to five 5 million
a year. And the third bucket covers the town's ongoing capital improvement
uh funding needs that are supported
currently by the town's general fund and
those range from
um about
those total about $3 million a year and
that includes a million dollars for your
Ross common project uh funds for
facilities and equipment projects as
well as your undergrounding project.
So this slide provides
u numbers setting out the the town's
financial
capacity. So what can you realistically
afford based on what your current
revenues produce? And that's
approximately about $1.2 million. based
on your adopted fiscal year 26 budget.
Um, we applied uh Standard Empors or
S&P. They're a a leading credit rating
agency in in our industry and their
general rule of thumb is that for a
well-managed
uh municipality
uh that um their general fund shouldn't
carry more than 60 6 to 8% of their
general revenues. So for Ross that means
a maximum of about $670,000
to $890,000.
Those are your outer limits of of debt
service that can can be carried each
year. And so um just to bring that into
context, we ran um certain hypothetical
bonding scenarios. And what we've shown
in this graph here is the debt service,
the estimated debt service uh needed to
produce a $10 million bond issuance,
that is about uh uh roughly $650,000 a
year in annual debt service. So, uh
while that is just slightly below the
S&P guidelines of 6%, you you know there isn't a lot of room there. Um,
when we look at the $20 million bond
issue, it jumps up to an annual debt
service of approximately $1.3 million.
And that uh it far exceeds what you can afford at
this time. And then again, looking at uh
a bond issuance of $30 million, that's
uh approximately $1.9 million in in
annual debt service.
So,
go ahead. have a question on this. Is is
this assuming that the town is using its
facilities to service the or mortgage
the debt or is this assuming that
there's some kind of an election and all
the homeowners are being assessed? So,
this is just looking at your current
picture. If you if the town were to move
forward, you would need to approve some
sort of new tax revenue to do that. And
then um Dan will get into the different
type of uh debt options available to
you. Um there is a lease revenue option
that the town will have to um encumber
to move forward with that type of
financing. Um we'll talk about a geo
bond financing which does not require
that. I don't know if that answers your
question.
So, may I may I just add um mayor that
this is if the town were to take out
debt itself. This is not this is not
before going to to property owners. This
is just if we wanted to take out a loan,
and I'm sure we'd have to secure it in
some way, right? But if we wanted to
take out a loan, do we have the capacity
to do this to pay for it ourselves
without going to the voters? That's what
the voters are, you know, they're going
to want to know. Are you sure you guys
can't afford to pay for it out of your
existing budget? And that's what this is demonstrating that
according to the S&P guideline, you
know, we might be able to come up they
we might be able to come up with some
money. However, I just wanted to note
that if you look at the green line when
it says that 10 million, we could come
up with um maybe we could come up with
$600,000 a year. Right now, for example,
for the past several years, the council
has been putting away um paying uh
optional payments to um Kalpers to
address unfunded pension liability in uh
at at a minimum of $200,000 a year. So,
you make that choice with that. You've
also been putting funding aside in your
capital projects fund. So those are the
things that when they talk about there
wouldn't be a buffer,
you wouldn't be able to do. You would it
would be very difficult for you would
take away a lot of your discretionary um decision making. Am am I am I
speaking out of turn or is that right?
>> That's okay.
>> Thank you.
So this slide assumes that the town
would be funding the debt based on the
town's revenues and budget and
facilities that could be mortgaged or
you know secured for for the debt. I
think it's important to understand that
>> that's what this slide is.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Great. The the takeaway that is
that the town can only afford a very
little amount each year to pay towards
debt. It needs to go to the voters for
approval of additional taxes or or bond repayment.
>> Okay. Thank you.
» So, this slide illustrates something
that isn't obvious by looking at a a
balanced budget. Um the the town's
revenue grows by 4%. It's largely based
on your property tax revenues growing 4%
in each year. Um the the expenses
are a different story. um those are
growing um according to the the town um
by a higher number each year of anywhere
from 6 to 10% per year and those cover
um various expenses like personal
expenses, fire, uh insurance and and
pensions costs and those are growing
faster than your your revenues of 4%
each year. So there's a gap. Um and uh
what the town has been doing is that
you've been uh reducing transfers to the
general fund. Um excuse me, you've been
reducing transfers to the capital fund
to help bal balance the budget. And so
over time you the gap between the the
revenues and expenditures will just
grow. Um so your um
uh cushion will decline as well. And so
it'll be more much more difficult for
the town to balance its budget by
reducing um transfers to to the capital
fund. And um so we wanted to explain
that. So if you're taking on debt
without approving any new tax revenue
measures um there will be little to no
uh additional revenues to pay debt
service. Kim
>> another question on the expenditure
growth the six to 10% is that based on
this year
>> um I'll defer to David we uh received
that from the town
>> I'm just want my my question really is
how how much faster is that expenditure
trajectory going to go
>> that's a great question Mayor McMillan
and uh the the team was provided a copy
of the 5-year year forecast and we're in
the process of uh fully validating the
forecast and looking at the both revenue
growth and the expense growth. Uh the growth in expenditures of 6 to 10%
per year is is not so much reflective of
this year's budget but future year's
budget. Um and so kind of the point of
it is that uh as you see those the
expenditures grow, you're going to have
less flexibility within the budget to
fund the debt ser you know to to to fund
uh or uh have the general fund fund any
debt service. Uh even though it's
already limited uh in terms of the
amount that could contribute to debt
service, it's likely to be uh
constrained going forward. So it's
really kind of uh looking ahead um and
which is very prudent to do is to to
look at the forecast and see you know
what is the trend going forward and and that's what the 5-year forecast
really uh predicts and tells us is that
there's going to be um uh you know
greater expenditures
uh greater expenditure growth than than
revenue growth.
>> So the six to 10% is based on a
five-year projection going out.
>> That's correct.
>> Okay. Thank you.
David. And and I'd just like
to add, mayor and council, that um so
your your budget work session is in just
a few weeks, and one of the items we
always bring forward is an update of the
five-year um 5-year financial forecast.
So, we're scrambling right now to put
all that together in order to get it out
to the council. So, but this analysis
was based on on the one in the current
budget.
Yeah.
sit down.
>> So, the next couple of slides uh put
some numbers around the um the different
buckets of uh CIP plans that the the
town is reviewing. This first one
reviews the uh facility facilities
master plan and what the town can can
carry as far as debt service. Um again
the facil's master plan cost is between
26 million to $30 million. Um annual
debt service related to those uh amounts
are approximately $1.7 million on the
low end and approximately $1.9 million
on the high end. And when you add the
existing annual costs of uh the town's
CIP needs, which are a range of $1
million to $ 1.5 million, you get a
total annual burden of about uh $2.7
million to $3.4 million.
Um, and that represents approximately
24 to 30% of your general fund revenues
each year, which is a a quite a big
amount.
um and and one that you you couldn't
really feasibly um uh um enter in at
this stage based on your your current um
condition of your or based on your
current levels of of your general fund
revenues.
Okay, the next slide looks at the the
fourth financial burden and it's a a
bigger number because of the annual
operating costs required to to run the four initiative projects. Um
we took a look at the the fourth uh bond
debt service related to the the cost for
that initiative and that is uh $17.6 $6
million. Uh the annual debt service
related to that is about $1.1 million.
When you add the estimated annual
operations cost of $3.4 million and $5
million as well as the the city or
excuse me the town's ongoing capital
needs of $1 to $1.5 million, we get a
total annual burden of uh $5.5 million
to $7.6 $6 million and the uh ratio to
the town's annual revenues is is much
greater between 49% to 68% and that is
just uh isn't financial financially
feasible to do that. So, um, one note I
did want to make is that the the fourth,
uh, preliminary cost estimates, um,
doesn't include the
doesn't, uh, include all of the needed
facility master plan elements from
I just wanted to provide that
clarification.
>> If I might just clarify, so that what
she's saying is that that is based on
for's uh,
presentation that they meet made to
council on January 8th. So that $17.6
million number is the number that FORF
came up with and presented to the
council and their plan. Um it does not
include all the elements that the the
council's the council adopted facility
master plan for example. It doesn't
include um the our public works and our um storage yard for the um a secure
yard for the police cars, etc. And um so
that's we just wanted to make sure that that's where that $17 million
number is coming from. Thank you.
And for uh illustrative purposes, we
wanted to combine both plans, the
facilities master plans as well as the fourth initiative.
And the total annual costs of of those
plans, including the the town's existing
capital needs, uh ranges between $7.2
million to $9.5 million. and that
represents approximately 64 to 85%
of the town's revenues. And and uh so
you know in in all of these scenarios t
taking on um these obligations without
uh raising new revenues is just isn't
financially feasible for the town.
>> I was just going to check. So the fourth
is the annual operations which would
include staffing but if staffing if the
cost of staffing would go up between six
and 10% every year
ongoing
so that number will get higher and
higher over time
>> right
>> okay
I just have a question do any other
towns or cities have this kind of burden
64 to 85%.
>> No, no, you you wouldn't be able to go
out into the market with that type of
burden.
>> Okay.
>> Thanks. and
>> and and just to clarify, so the SMB
guideline
says that um towns and cities should not
spend more than 6 to 8% of their annual
revenue on debt service. Correct.
>> Right. So this when it the the low is
not 6 to 8% it's 64%. And the red one is
not 6 to 8% it's 85%. Is that
>> that's correct?
>> Is that correct? Yeah.
>> So it's 10 times the S&P guideline.
>> Right. and and it it we need the revenue
to cover
all of your expenses to provide services
to the community such as law
enforcement, such as the fire
department, such as planning and
building and public works.
>> Could I ask a question?
>> Look at the same slide. Um the first
line item FMP bond debt service that's
the facilities existing facilities
master plan concept B
>> that we're talking about and then the
next line fourth bond debt service that
would be their competing proposal but we
wouldn't do both of these right we do
one or the other I aren't we double
counting that's my concern
>> go ahead David
>> thank you council member Kerscher for
your question and and I think we we
wanted to note that that this is really
for illustrative comparison purposes. Um
the the difficulty is as was stated
earlier in the presentation that the the
fourth initiative does not cover all of
the facilities
uh uh all the elements of the facilities
master plan. So there's uh there's
definitely some overlap, but you you
know that would that ultimately need to
uh do some additional scenario planning
to pull out what items are in the
facility master plan which aren't in the
fourth initiative. And as as as uh the
town manager uh opined earlier, some of
those items include uh of course public
works, uh the new admin facility, the
police storage yard, the public works
storage yard. So uh you know, again,
this is just to illustrate if council
desired to fund all of those elements,
uh what that would look like in terms of
a burden to your general fund. So there
so really the the if if you want to say
um double counting would be um the the
there's a a fire facility and there's uh
potential
opportunity to house the paramedics in
that fire facility that the cost of the
paramedics is also included in the
facility master plan. But other than
that there's really not a whole lot of overlap currently.
It just seems as this is on the high
side because of of that. I think you you could take the fourth cost their
projection and add something to it for
the public service I mean the public
works yard for example or secured
parking or anything that they haven't
covered. remember they had a a fairly
specific proposal for rehabbing
rebuilding the um the existing uh public
safety building and then they had and they came up with I forgotten it $11
million or something like that and then
they had just a kind of a catchall
saying well perhaps another 7 million
for the administrative buildings and
then during our discussion it turned out
they had not really taken into account
things like the uh public works um uh
yard and so forth. So obviously that's a very general number and would
have to be threshed out. But just the
same I I you know I'm a a little
concerned about these bottom line
numbers of 7 million to 9.5 million. I I
do think there's enough of an overlap
that it would it would not really be 7.5
million
» through the mayor. May I um I'd just
like to direct um
remind the council that um staff did
prepare a memo in the end of February. I
think we published it on February 26th,
27th where we um evaluated the fourth
uh proposal and um compared it to the
facilities master plan and came up with
some things that it because it's not
just as it's not just that it doesn't
include elements that the facility
master plan does. Our staff team, which
includes um our consultant team, also
had concerns that were identified and um
and findings that were identified in
that memorandum that also talked about
um the uh forest forest proposal and it how well or how really rather how it
doesn't um um it doesn't take care of
any flooding take care of the flooding
issues as much as it needs. to so there
are other um deficiencies in that plan
from staff and consultants perspective
that um it does make it difficult to to
come up with something you can't it's
not we can't really compare apples to
apples but I I just think that the
takeaway of this initial part of the
presentation is just that we don't have
um we just do not we don't have funding
in the budget to be able able to take on
very much debt ourselves. You need to go
to the voters and and I don't think
that's a surprise to to everyone, but I wanted to make sure that our
professional consultants
took a look at that and confirmed what
staff has been reporting out to the
council on that matter.
>> Thank you. I have a question.
Aren't we doing this like a month or two
early? Because we're talking about the
fourth plan, but we have a committee
that's working right now to try to
reconcile plan B and the fourth plan.
So, why aren't we looking at this after
April 29 when we hear what that plan is
and if the council approves it? It it
seems premature to be going through. I
understand that the debt burden that's
important but comparing for to plan B to
me that seems premature because it there
may be changes next month or late at the
end of this month and I think that's
what we really want to be focusing on.
» Um thank you Mayor Prom Robbins. Um you
know I I was charged with implementing
concept B and moving this forward. The
item before you tonight is not an action
item. It's simply it's a presentation.
It's to start to make sure that the
council has a foundation on financing options. And we we haven't
gotten to the primer part of this uh
presentation, but it's it's to start
this conversation. And one of the
reasons I really wanted to bring forward
this initial step so that the council
could receive some education would have
an opportunity to ask questions like
you're doing tonight would have the
opportunity for ask for more information
so that we are prepared to come back to
you to provide the information that
you're looking for because uh I don't I
don't know what's going on with with the
committee. I don't know what they're
going what recommendations they're going
to give. Um, however, if this has
anything to do with um putting something
on the ballot this November, the council
is going to be under an extremely tight
timeline. So, I wanted the council and
the community and frankly staff, we all
need to be learning about this. I wanted
us to all have an opportunity to to to
start asking questions to start
receiving the information and I wanted
you to have that information before the
committee comes forward because they I
don't know for sure but they might have
recommendations about um different kinds
of debt financing and I wanted the
council to be able to already be
informed. So that simply is it's nothing
nefarious. It's nothing. It's just
simply uh I want to give the the council
uh good information before you start.
So, we'll definitely, you know, if the
council wants to move forward with this
conser conversation, we'll be coming
back and providing more information
tailored to both what the town what the
council wants.
I was going to say I think Elizabeth too
this may be very useful information for
that citizens committee as they're
working to understand these costs.
Uh we ran a few stress tests on the uh
town's property tax revenue because that
is the the biggest driver of the the
town's annual revenues. And um as we
discussed earlier, it's about uh 85% of
the property tax revenues come um or or
the revenues come from property tax
revenues. And um we ran three scenarios.
So the first we called the best case
scenario that assumes a revenue growth
of 4% in each year. The the second
scenario we ran assumed a revenue growth
of 3% in each year. And the third
scenario uh we called the the downside
case. Uh we assumed property growth of
1% in each year. And um it's kind of
hard to see in that top graph there, but
the uh total expenditures growing six to
10% over the the next five years. Um the
and the gap between the the three stress
test scenarios. You can see that that
gap uh slowly declines over time. And
under the um uh 2% the the downside case
scenario you can see that uh there are
no surplus revenues in that final year.
And uh these 1% swings in assessed value
great assessed valuation growth are are
not big swings but they do have a a very
big impact on the the town's um um
budget o over the next five years. And
you know, we we all know it's all market
dependent and it's really out of the
town's uh control on how um this source
of revenues are uh fair over the next
five years. So, uh, we just wanted to
illustrate,
um, that, um, you know, these, uh,
assumptions over time will eat into your
revenues and if you take on debt
without,
um, approving new tax revenues that your
ability to repay debt u
diminishes as well. So,
any questions on that? No. Okay. With
that, I'll turn it over to Dan.
>> Hi. Hi. So,
with our analysis showing that a tu is
new debt would likely need new revenue
streams, I'd like to just go over what
those are. Um, just as an educational
starting point for everybody.
There are four main options for a town
like Ross to generate additional sources
of revenue. The first option is an
adorum general obligation bond measure
which taxes property based on assessed
value. This requires 2/3 voter approval
and can only fund capital, not
operations.
Next, a parcel tax is a flat fee per
parcel. You guys are familiar with this
with measure E. Um, it also requires a
2/3 approval. It can fund operations,
capital, or debt service.
Our third option is a CFD or melus tax.
And unlike a flat parcel tax, a CFD
special tax can be structured by square
footage or land use. It can fund both
capital and ongoing services. And CFDs,
they can be complex to administer and
they do require twothirds voter approval
as well.
Our our fourth revenue option is the
real property transfer tax. It applies
at the time of sale of a property. It
only requires a simple majority, not
that 2/3 that these other three options
require, but it's very volatile
depending on how many homes are sold
that year. Um, another caveat is Ross
would actually need to become a charter
city temporarily in order to raise that
uh tax rate above the default state.
» Yeah. on the um on the becoming a
charter town. Um is there something on
the fall ballot that is going to
preclude potentially towns converting
into charter towns?
>> Uh potentially. Yes, that could be. Mhm.
And our next slide will will kind of
show because that real property transfer
tax is so volatile, it's very hard to
bond against and it's probably the least
suitable option.
I know Belvadier tried to do that a few
years ago and was unsuccessful even
though it only required a 50% 50.1%
majority.
May May I just um to clarify the the
item that is I think it just qualified
for the fall ballot statewide ballot.
It's for um it would preclude cities
from becoming charter cities for that
purpose. The purpose of increasing their
real estate transfer, not preclude
cities from just becoming charter
cities. It's just for that purpose.
But why would we want to be a charter
city if it's not to
add this tax?
>> I'd defer to the um town attorney for
that.
There's a lot of reasons why some cities
become charter cities, but I think
that's beyond the breadth of what we're
talking about tonight. I think they're
presenting it as an option for this tax
and I just want to correct something.
Once you become a charter city, you are
a charter city. It's not for a limited
time. You know, the voters would have to
take away the charter at some point in
the future.
Um, just a question about the the CFD
flexible tax based on square foot of the
piece of property or the building on the
property or
>> there's a lot of flexibility there, but
it's typically the property the um
>> the square footage of the of the
building.
>> Yeah.
>> And the land use this
>> land use whether it's commercial, ret,
residential.
>> Okay.
>> Developed, undeveloped,
>> and acreage would be about the same.
It's like the square footage. Okay,
great. Thank you.
>> Yeah.
» All right. This table here summarizes
the differences between these four
options. Um, I'll point out a few
things. The GEO bonds are the only
option that can't fund operations or pay
as you go capital. They are strictly for
backing long long-term debt. Um, every
other option has a little bit more
flexibility when it comes to how the
money is used, how the revenues are
used.
Three out of the four options require
twothirds voter approval. The transfer
tax is the only exception needing just
that simple majority. But as we noted is
extremely volatile and market dependent
which makes it a um worse choice for the
primary funding source for a long-term
bond.
Uh revenue stability matters a lot when
you're pledging it to debt service. You
need predictable cash flows to make bond
payments that favors parcel taxes, CFD
taxes, and the geo bond levy.
All right, after going over those
revenue sources, I want to give a little
basic overview of municipal bonds.
are how local
governments borrow money to fund public
projects. You, the town, issue the bonds
and investors provide the cash up front
and then you repay principal plus
interest over the next 20 to 30 years or
however long the term is of the bond
issuance.
The interest earned for municipal bonds
is typically exempt from federal and
state income taxes which allows
investors to accept a lower interest
rate which means cheaper borrowing for
the town. How bonds are repaid depends
on the type. General obligation bonds
are repaid through that advalorum
property tax levy we discussed. Lease
revenue bonds or certificates of
participation are repaid from the town's
general fund. Um that's when we started
this presentation, those were
leasebacked um either COP or a lease
revenue bond. Um so they're an
obligation of the town's general fund.
And then CFD or special tax bonds are
also known as mealus bonds. They are
repaid through that special tax on
properties within a a specific district
a within that CFD.
Uh lastly, I just want to say municipal
bonds often require voter approval. Uh
with most local bonds in California
requiring twothirds. The key exception
is leaseback financings, which are lease
revenue bonds and certificates of
participation. They do not require voter
approval, but those, like I said, do
create an obligation of the town's
general fund.
So, California's Constitution,
specifically article 16, uh, section 18,
sets the framework for local government
debt. The general rule is 2/3s voter
approval for cities and towns before
taking on the long-term debt. But there
are the three recognized exceptions. Uh,
the first one we've talked about, it's
the lease financings that are backed by
the general fund. That's the first
exception. The next two exceptions are
not very applicable to the town. Um the
first one being enterprise revenue bonds
which are repaid from utility revenues
um not the general fund and then the
third exception being court-ordered
obligations. These are involuntary
court-ordered obligations such as
pension obligation bonds. Um I just want
to point out one nuance. Special
districts like CFDs operate under
different rules and have more
flexibility than cities and counties
under article 16.
Could
you just explain again what is lease
financing?
>> Lease financing. So lease financing,
there's two main bond types that fit
under lease financing. It's a uh lease
revenue bond or a certificate of
participation. They are structured a
little bit legally, but the way the debt
is repaid is very they're very similar.
Um, essentially the when the they're
with lease revenue bonds and coops, uh,
the issuer has to put up collateral,
real property as collateral and then the
repayments are paid from the town's
general fund.
>> Those were the first few slides that you
were covering.
>> Exactly. Yep. And what we've seen is
that it would e there's too much um the debt service would be too high, be
too much of a burden on the general fund
of the town without an additional
revenue source. One of the options I'm
going to go through general obligation
bonds first. When we discuss lease
revenue bond options for the town, we're
assuming a parcel tax gets approved to
repay the general obligate the lease
revenue bond.
And we'll get to that.
So the uh first option I wanted to show
is the general obligation bonds. They
are the lowest cost borrowing tool
available to the town. They're backed by
an unlimited property tax pledge. So
investors find them to be the highest
level um of security. They have the
highest confidence with them and that
translates into the lowest um interest
rate and a lower borrowing cost for the
town.
The trade-off with general obligation
bonds, you need twothirds voter approval
and the proceeds can only go towards
capital improvements, not operations.
One thing worth noting um on equity
because geo bonds, the taxes scale with
assessed value and with Prop 13, meaning
similar homes can have completely
different um assessed values depending
on when they were purchased. Uh
neighbors can end up paying very
different amounts for the same bond
measure.
So, our our chart on the right here um
shows a few options with a geo bond
issuance. If the town were to issue a
$10 million, $20 million, and $30
million geo bond,
we've uh found that a $10 million geo
bond issuance would require a tax rate
of $20 per assessed per $100,000 of
assessed value in order to cover the
debt service on the bonds. Um, just for
an example, we we found that if a home
was $2 million or had an assessed value
of $2 million, that levy would be
approximately $400 in year one.
A $20 million bond would double that tax
rate to $40 per $100,000 of assessed
value, which would be a levy of $800 for
a $2 million home. And then a $30
million bond sale would be a tax rate of
$60 per 100k of assessed value resulting
in about $1,200 for a $2 million home.
Any I'll pause here for any questions
because that was a lot of information.
>> I have a question on your 4.75 interest
rate. What is that? The current interest
rate?
>> It's there's a little bit of room in
there, a little bit of just protection
in case the markets move. Um,
so I
>> I would say a 30-year geo bond now is
about four and a half percent. You would
be a very highly rated uh town. And so
about four and a half% would be
>> um the current levels.
>> And what do you think it'll be in
November?
» The joke I always hear is if we knew
where rates would be, we wouldn't be
working. So yeah.
>> Yeah. And if you can price before then
you you should
» and Oh yeah go ahead.
>> So this is just for capital improvements
only not ongoing.
>> Correct. Yes.
>> And it would be for how many years?
>> Um typically the max term is 30 years.
>> Okay. So every year a property owner
would have to pay if it was a $10
million it would be 402 for 30 years.
402.
Uh, yes. If they had a $2 million home,
>> if they had a $2 million
>> Yes. With with There's one thing here
and Yeah. With these bonds, we have
level debt service and assuming assessed
values go up each year, which they
typically do around 3 to 4%. The tax
rate would actually drop down. It would
get lower as time goes on because
everyone's assessed value is higher.
They need to tax each one less to cover
the debt service.
>> Got it. Does that mean that the term is
reduced or does that mean that our tax
the amount on our tax
>> the amount on the tax bill would go
down?
>> Huh, that's interesting.
>> I've never seen that happen.
>> A lot of the times with the the school
district geo bonds, they will escalate
debt service to match the assumed growth
in assessed values. So that's why you
see your the your tax bill for school
bonds kind of stay constant
>> and the the town would not have the same
tax rate constraints like the the the
local school district does. The school
district is falls under proposition 55
where they're limited by their tax rate.
Um, I think the school district is
limited to$25 or $30 per $100,000 of AV,
but but the town would have greater
flexibility.
» All right.
We'll move into the the
leasebacked financings, which are lease
revenue bonds or certificates of
participation.
Um, they are general fundbacked
obligations that don't require voter
approval. uh that what happens is the
town pledges an essential facility as
security that can be existing or one
that's uh a new a new building and then
a JPA or nonprofit issues the bonds on
the town's behalf. The town makes annual
lease payments to pay the debt service
on the bonds.
The advantages are speed and simplicity
basically with there being no ballot
measure. Um so sometimes the financing
can take only 3 to four months. The
structure is widely used and well
understood by the market. It's very
common. The limitation with this option
is that it creates a general fund
obligation and from our present you know
previous presentation that is an issue
for the town. Um so for
yeah
so while the uh lease revenue bonds
would still be a general fund
obligation. Okay sorry I lost myself. Um
as so the for our modeling for this
option we've assumed that the town
adopts a parcel tax similar to measure
E. um that that money flows and repays
the debt service. So the parcel tax
money would flow into the general fund
to pay the debt service on the coops or
lease revenue bonds. So it's still a
general fund obligation. There's just a
new revenue stream that helps pay it.
The uh the table on the right shows the
same 10 million, 20 million, and $30
million scenario for the structure.
And what we've come up with is in order
to generate enough revenue to cover the
cost of a $10 million lease revenue
bond, the town would need a parcel tax
of about $777
per parcel.
If we were to up that to a $20 million
issuance, we would it would require a
parcel tax of about $1,500 per parcel.
And a $30 million issuance would require
a parcel tax of about $2,300 per parcel.
Um, this table also kind of adds in uh
what the parcel tax would be when
combined with measure E. Uh, with it
being about just under 2,000 per parcel
on the $10 million option and rising up
to $3500 on the $30 million option,
>> that would require voter approval.
>> Correct. Correct. So, these these pro
these benefits of lease revenue bonds is
that it's speedy and doesn't require
voter approval. However, for the town to
be able to do it, they would need voter
approval on the parcel tax to repay it.
>> So, a question. So, a very small parcel
would be paying say for $10 million
uh
190 90,000 and a very huge piece of
property with tennis courts, the
swimming pool, and everything else,
they'd be paying the same amount.
>> Exactly.
>> So, there's an equity issue.
>> There's an equity issue as well with the
parcel tax. Yep. Mhm.
Any any other questions on
>> And this is also for just capital or is
this capital plus
>> the the parcel tax money can fund
capital and operating? Yep.
>> Mhm.
>> I I just also wanted to point out that
uh
a parcel tax is a general tax. You can't
uh pledge that directly to the payment
of your lease revenue bonds. What is
pledged is the the town's general fund.
So all legally available funds of the
general fund would repay the the annual
debt service payments.
» All right. The last form of municipal
bond um that we will go over is a CFD.
It's called a special tax bond, also
known as a melerus bond. Um they are the
most flexible in terms of what you can
fund. Um unlike geo bonds, they can fund
both capital facilities and ongoing
services. The tax structure is
customizable a lot more so than a parcel
tax. Uh you can base it on square
footage, land use, acreage, and other
characteristics. Um it can be phased in
over time.
Some trade-offs with CFDs, uh they carry
a lower quality rating than go bonds, so
the borrowing costs are often a bit
higher, so higher interest rates uh when
the bonds are sold. The setup is a bit
more complex with the CFD formation. And
then you also need that 2/3 voter
approval from those within the CFD.
Our table on the right here shows the
melus tax for our three bond sizing
options. For this preliminary analysis,
we've assumed the melus tax is flat fee,
a flat fee per parcel. Um, however, as
we discussed, the town could really
structure that any way as they that they
please.
And our analysis shows that a $10
million melarus bond would cost roughly
$751 per parcel in year one. A $20
million bond would result in a $1,400
levy per parcel in year one. And a $30
million bond would result in a
$2,100,000
levy percel in year one.
Any any questions on the Melus tax?
All right. So, this table is a quick
reference to compare the three financing
vehicles that we just discussed. Um, if
your top priority is the lowest
borrowing cost and you have the voter
appetite for two-thirds approval, a geo
bond is a is a really strong candidate
for a capital pro for funding a capital
project. Uh while lease revenue bonds
don't require voter approval, uh they
create a general fund obligation that
the current budget can't easily absorb
without a new revenue stream.
And then a which would require likely a
parcel tax to be approved. And then
lastly, if you need to fund both capital
and ongoing operations from a single
financing structure and you're willing
to run a more complex administration
process, a CFD is definitely worth
exploring.
So, I will uh wrap this up with a few
key takeaways. Uh as we've discussed,
the town h the town has limited
financial capacity to fund their desired
projects with 11.2 million in general
fund revenue and expenditures already
growing faster than re already growing
faster than revenues. There is no margin
to make to to take on meaningful debt
new debt service from the existing
budget. Issuing new debt would require a
new revenue source. Whether that's a geo
bond measure, a parcel tax, a CFD, or
some combination, you would need voter
approval for a new dedicated revenue
source before a debt financing becomes
viable. A general obligation bond would
provide the lowest borrowing cost, but
would not be able to fund operations. A
CFD special tax bond give the most
flexibility on how the tax is levied,
but can be complex to administer and
comes with a higher borrowing cost. And
lastly, a lease revenue bond would
likely require a parcel tax be approved
in order to provide revenue stream to
repay that debt service.
And with that, we are happy to take any
questions.
» More questions.
>> So, one could do a combination. A town
could do a combination. You could you've
got a capital that needs to be built.
So, you could do the geo bond and then
you've got ongoing costs for people,
staffing,
um, equipment. So that might be a
different uh parcel tax or something
else.
>> Uh that's correct. Yep. You could do a a
mixture of these three of these four
different revenue sources. Well, three
that are good good options for the town,
>> right? But the the homeowner is going to
have to end up being paying for
both.
>> Mhm. That's correct.
>> There's no free lunch.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um any other questions?
Council
public comment on this item.
Mr. Rosenbomb,
>> just Michael Rosenbomb at 14 Madrona.
Just a quick question if the consultants
have considered the age of the people in
the parcels because there's the
um senior opt out of parcel tax and also
a I believe SSI and um also if depending
on your median income you can opt out.
So the amount of parcels in the Ross
will go down. So I do get a free lunch
potentially.
>> Ah,
>> you never know. I'm just So, but there
is a there is that and just whether
that's in your report or not or thought
about that there really aren't 835.
There may only be 800 to pay.
» The numbers that Dan presented were just
hypothetical
uh scenarios. Um to the extent that
there are parcels that are exempt, uh
that would increase the uh amount per parcel
>> and that would be something that the
council would decide if there was going
to be some kind of senior exemption,
something like that.
>> You would carve that out into the the
language, I believe. But
>> okay,
any other public comment? Anybody
online?
>> No one's online, Mayor.
>> Okay. We'll bring it back for any
further thoughts or discussion.
>> I think I need to spend some time
looking at this. I think it was very
helpful, the differences, uh the
options. Um so I appreciate this
information. It's really helpful and
giving us more information so we can
make a wise decision about moving
forward with the town.
>> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you.
» Number 15, town council to receive an
update from staff regarding the status
of the implementation of the town of
Ross facilities master plan.
Manager Johnson.
>> Yeah. Thank you, Mayor and Council
members. Uh this evening we um we have
brought forward um your third report
regarding the status of the
implementation of the facilities master
brown. We uh brought forward one in
September and then our second in uh
December and uh David Kelly our pro
part-time project manager will be giving
the report. And
are you ready? I'm gonna do the handoff.
Take it away, David.
Thank you, manager, town manager
Johnson. Good, good, good evening, Mayor
McMillan,
Mayor Prom Robbins, Council Members
Dalling and Kercher, and uh our esteemed
town attorney Benjamin. Uh I am David
Kelly. I'm your project manager. I'm
here uh for the third update on your
facilities master plan and to talk about
some of the progress that we've made uh
on the council's behalf. So the agenda
tonight is uh really to provide again an
update and uh discuss progress.
We will talk about the cost estimates
that were updated to reflect the cost of
implementing the uh facilities master
plan as well as the completed uh section
9212 fiscal impact study. Uh give you an
update on the two RFQS that council
approved both for affordable housing and
architectural and engineering services.
uh discuss real brief the uh selection
of the municipal adviser which you just
heard tonight give a presentation from
Phil Lap as well as uh a a minor update
on SQUA and the um current citizen
advisory committee evaluation.
So again, uh, as as I've, uh, updated
the council, we we prepared a roadmap at
the start of this process to really
guide the implementation of the
facilities master plan. It's, you know,
it's a a best practices tool and project
management to, uh, guide the timing and
delivery of a project. Uh, and
ultimately, it's a tool for
communicating implementation to the town
council as well as the town manager. uh
the the G the Gant chart that was
prepared uh it is intended to be
flexible and adaptable as conditions
change and certainly uh it the timelines
have been uh affected by the fourth
initiative.
So, one of the key updates was uh
updating the cost estimates that were
included in your facility's master plan,
particularly uh for concept B, but also
the paramedic facility. Uh both of those
uh cost estimates were completed in
December. The um uh cost estimates for
the paramedic facility was in uh updated
to inform the lease agreement with the
Ross Valley Paramedic Authority. And
then the cost estimates for concept B
were updated to reflect uh cost
escalation through 2030. Uh as many of
you know the facilities in the master
plan uh and and which could include
modifications proposed or recommended by
four uh will be done over time and cost
escalation factors uh are a driving a a
cost driving factor that's really
important to track. uh in particular the
uh cost update will help inform your
budget and CIP as uh the town manager
reported earlier that is in process and
the updated cost estimates will help
inform the the the next year's budget
and budgets going forward
in terms of the uh election code 9192
report again that is a fiscal impact
study uh that was really a response to the FOR initiative. Uh the
report required contracting with uh a
number of specialized firms including
RSG who was the lead contractor but also
uh the the master plan consultant KPA
along with Mary McGrath Architects who
uh did a an evaluation of the costs of a
new capital fire facility and citygate
associates which prepared the staffing
analysis for uh two scenarios. one uh
either contracting with uh Ross Valley
Fire or a standalone fire station. Uh
the the outcome of that is uh that it
helps inform both the town council and
the voters. Again, uh recognizing that
council approved the fourth initiative
for placement on the November ballot. Uh
that's a key piece of information uh for
both council and and voters. Um
ultimately it does uh help inform policy
direction and and financial feasibility
associated with the fourth the fourth
initiative. Um I I want to note that the
uh election code 9192 report is uh
included on your website and is
available for review by the community.
Uh at your February meeting, council
gave direction to staff to move forward
with two requests for qualifications. Uh
the first of which was for a affordable
housing. uh to prepare that RFQ. Town
staff coordinated with both planning
staff and the town attorney's office to
ensure that the RFQ reflected
consistency with your your housing
element and your regional housing needs
uh compliance objectives uh in addition
to consistency with your both your
zoning and your development standards.
that uh RFQ which was authorized by
council on February 12th and
subsequently released requires
statements of qualifications to be uh
submitted to the town on on uh April 3rd
which is tomorrow. Uh thus far we have
received uh uh one SOQ uh in advance of
the due date and we are hoping to
receive additional SOQs um in accordance
with the due date. Uh next steps do
include review of uh all received SOQS,
uh interviews of uh the potential
development partners, and the goal would
be to bring that forward to council for
consideration of an exclusive
negotiating agreement with the uh the
preferred housing partner.
Uh as as I mentioned earlier, council
also approved RFQ for architectural
engineering services. Uh thus far, we've
received and just just by way of email
received the the fourth uh SOQ today. Uh
we are expecting additional SOQs uh by
the due date tomorrow. So I'm thinking
we'll have at least five, if not more uh
SOQ's. Uh again, the the uh council in
their discussions and approval of that
RFQ did uh recommend including language
to uh support potential evaluation of
alternatives
site configurations and development
particularly in response to the fourth
initiative which you're going to uh as I
understand receive a presentation later
this month. So if we can get an
architect on board uh that will help
with some critical evaluation of of of
that proposal assuming it comes comes
forward. Again, next steps in in that
process will be to uh you know,
diligently review the uh SOQs that have
been submitted. Uh conduct interviews
with the top two or three firms and
ultimately uh negotiate a scope of work
that would be the basis of a a
professional services agreement with the
selected or recommended firm uh which
would uh require council approval. So
that would be placed back on your agenda
for review and approval. And that would
be a professional service agreement with
a detailed scope of work. uh providing
the architectural engineering services
which would include uh of course design
services, landscape uh uh architecture
uh uh civil work as as along with what
we call MEP um uh for all of your uh air
conditioning ma and electrical equipment
so forth.
Um
as council just saw uh the you received
a presentation by Fieldman Rolap. Um
within the last month uh we moved very
quickly to uh issue a request for
proposals uh document uh for municipal
advisory services to uh three firms as reported by uh the town manager. Uh
we we received those three proposals and
quickly uh made a decision to retain
Fieldman Rolap who is very qualified uh
firm to serve as municipal adviser for
kind of this phase one effort to do an
evaluation of the town's budget but also
to look at potential uh financing
options for for the council's
consideration. Um and as part of that
you assess debt capacity and what the
tax impacts are for the for the
residents for associated with a
potential uh revenue measure. Uh of
course the presentation tonight was was
somewhat general. I mean the budget
stuff was very specific uh but it may uh
it would ultimately be need to be uh you
know f further clarified when we
understand what costs the council may
want to uh cover as part of either the
fourth initiative or the master plan.
Uh just briefly on SQA environmental
review, I just want to uh restate that
uh you know staff conducted a um uh kind
of a mini environmental review to assess
the environmental impacts of the
facility master plan. Uh one of the key
you know study areas uh from a SQA
perspective
uh is of course land use planning but uh
maybe more significantly includes uh
transportation issues, transportation
safety around uh your your two major
thorough affairs adjacent to the town
hall uh along with biological issues and
historic resource issues.
Um
the
earlier uh Gant chart did identify that
we'd be moving forward with
environmental review. Uh town manager
and town attorney and myself have
discussed bringing an RFQ forward. Uh
but we we did uh hold off that process
was delayed to allow for the citizens
advisory committee to provide a
recommendation to town council because I
know that was a concern of council is
that there was we maybe moving forward
too fast. So uh that that that process
has been delayed but we do think one of
the key next steps is to uh hire
necessary subconultants to that would
inform the environmental review process
uh going forward.
So that really concludes an update uh on
the facilities master plan. Again, just
to uh emphasize that the goal of the the
master plan was, you know, mo
modernization of your your town
facilities in in alignment with
community's desires, but also while uh
protecting public safety and service.
>> Thank you, David. Questions? Elizabeth?
>> Uh thank you very much. Um uh regarding
the um architectural and engineering
services, you mentioned that there'd be
a professional service agreement that
would come to the council with details.
When would that be coming to the
council?
>> Uh we don't have a a specific date
scheduled yet. Um you know it's going to
be uh based in part on arranging
interview well first conducting a
thorough review of proposals and um uh
you know negotiating a scope of work
with the the the top firm. Uh and that will kind of set the the schedule
for when we bring that uh when that
scope of work comes back to council.
Because I was I was thinking if if there
are changes to the plan come later this
month, that would have to be something
that would be part of this part of the scope of work. Is that right?
>> I think that's that's that's fair to
say, Mayor P.
>> And we don't have a May meeting, so it
wouldn't at the earliest it would be
June. Is that is that too late or is
that okay?
Uh, I would probably defer to town town
manager whether a special meeting would
be necessary, but otherwise,
>> you know, it it's it definitely we're
not going to be ready for your next
council meeting, which is April 29th.
So, that this item it will not be on
April 29th, and you are correct that
there's no meeting in May. So, the first
other opportunity would be June 11th.
Um, but honestly, I we we we need to
talk more about um the evaluation and
all that that stuff. So, um, and I'm I'm
really interested in hearing, uh, from
the citizens committee, too. So, um, we wanted to, uh, give we wanted to get
the word out to architectural and
engineering firms. We're happy we we
have, uh, received um, and expect to
receive a few more tomorrow. That's
really exciting. And, um, so we're not
it's we're not rushing this, mayor prom.
Um,
>> so June would be the rush, but I was
just wondering it has to be held up a
little bit for the citizens committee
and then will these firms be not happy
if they aren't signed on until sometime
in June or later? I I I think that firms
are are very used to when they work with cities, especially on projects of
this size, and they uh as the council
directed us when we came to you to get
your approval to release these
documents, we did add language into
these uh requests for qualifications
that talked about the fourth initiative.
So, I'm sure that they're expecting that
there's going to be some ups and downs
and some changes. So, I I don't think
they're going to be surprised.
>> Thank you.
>> Any other questions? Any public comment
on this item?
Anybody online? Donna,
>> there's no one online, Mayor.
>> Okay. Um, any further discussion? I I
just wanted to thank you for getting
these things, the the municipal finance
opinion consultation and the architect
engineering and also the affordable
housing getting those moving instead of
waiting until after April 29th because
if we want to do something by the
November election, it's going to be a
huge scramble. So the more we can do in
advance, as Christa, you wisely set up,
the the better off we'll be. So, thank
you for continuing to push forward on
the items that we can push forward on.
>> You're welcome. Thank you.
>> All right. Item 16,
town council to consider adopting
resolution number 2617, approving and
authorizing the mayor to execute a first
amendment to the amended and restated
employment agreement between the town
and town manager Christa Johnson to be
effective April 2nd, 2026.
Den,
>> good evening, mayor and council members.
This is your town attorney, Benjamin. I
like that introduction. That was a nice
angle. You referred to that for now on.
>> He used the word esteemed, too.
>> Esteemed.
Benjamin. I enjoyed that.
>> Uh, tonight before you is the proposed
first amendment to the amended and
restated town manager employment
agreement to increase the town manager's
vacation leave cap from 300 to 400
hours.
During the last 5 months, a heavy
workload has prevented the town manager
from taking vacation leave, resulting in
the consistent loss of vacation leave
due to the cap on the vacation leave
balance stayed in her current employment
agreement.
Most city managers in Marin have the
ability to sell back a certain amount of
vacation leave hours each year. Uh the
town manager does not have that benefit
in her existing contract. To prevent the
loss of vacation leave, the town manager
has requested that the council consider
a request to increase the cap from 300
to 400 hours. And there's a proposed
amendment in your packet with a
resolution accompanying that. And that
concludes my report.
>> Thank you, esteemed council person
stock.
>> Benjamin what's your middle initial?
Um, any questions on this council
members?
public comment on this item.
» No one's online, mayor.
>> Okay. Then we'll bring it back for any
discussion or a motion.
» I just want to say I I worked for the
city and county of San Francisco for
many years. And so I went back and said,
what do we have in San Francisco as a
ceiling for where you can't carry
vacation over? It's 400 400 hours. So,
it's pretty consistent with how it is
other places.
» And I I think given how hard our town
manager has been working and juggling so
many things that we need to make sure
that she is able to take a break
>> and not be penalized for working hard,
which is you're getting penalized right
now for working hard um by not being
able to use your vacation time or carry
it over. So, I'm totally in favor of
this.
So, I'd like to make a motion, unless
somebody else wants to speak, that we
adopt resolution number 2617.
» Second.
>> Mayor McMillan.
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Prom Robbins.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Kercher.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Dally.
>> Yes.
>> Motion passes.
>> Thank you, council and esteemed
attorney.
>> Take that vacation.
>> Yes.
>> All right. Um, the no action items,
council correspondence. I just
distributed a nice note from Anna about
us giving her a proclamation. Is there
any other council correspondence?
Future council items. Anybody have
anything?
Council member participation at the
communications table at our next meeting
which is April 29th. I am able to be
there. If anyone else wants to join me,
>> I can join you.
>> Okay.
great. Um 18 is our meeting evaluation.
It's 8:07.
>> That is good. Any any constructive
criticism or comments?
>> Nope. All right.
>> I think it went very smoothly.
>> I agree.
>> Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
>> All right. And I and I actually was glad
to see so many people in the um sitting
area audience.
>> Yeah.
>> People. So that's great.
>> All right. With that we are adjourned at
8:08. Thank you.