City Council Live Updates

6:11 City council is in session with Councilman Tom Rouse absent. He phoned in for the earlier closed session.

6:12 Public Comment: A SVHS high school debate team member came to city council meeting to invite the council to their tournament: Sat., Nov. 12 starting at 8am.

6:18 Public Comment: Herb Golenpaul would like to know the unemployment rate in Sonoma as compared to the rest of California, given the increase in tax rates this quarter.

6:18 Councilman Ken Brown announces that Bank of Marin will have a ribbon cutting on Thursday at a Chamber of Commerce event. Mayor Pro Tem Joanne Sanders will participate in the ceremony.

6:21 Sanders attended the League of American Cities Conference in San Francisco. She says the event was exceptionally expensive, "at a time when people and cities are really suffering, I couldn't get out of there fast enough," she said.

6:23 Brown wants to remind everyone that it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The is offering free mamograms for the month of October. Call 935-5125 to reach them.

6:28 Mayor Laurie Gallian said that she enjoyed the Vintage Festival last weeked. "114 years of supporting a festival is something we can be very proud of," she said. The festival is looking for more volunteers for next year's festival.

6:32 Gallian said she spent time at Merrill Gardens, a senior community, to allow seniors, who may not be able to attend council meetings, to have a say in the political process. Many seniors are available to volunteer, if your organization is in need.

6:34 Gallian also participated in an exchange with the Springs, and is excited about a number of educational gardening programs for youth.

6:38 Councilman Steve Barbose said he was heard a presentation by a new vermiculture group, which have opened a storefront on Hwy. 12, at the waste management meeting.

6:41 Gallian attended the Cemetery Sub-Committee and discussed the Valley Cemetery policy of limiting mementos by graves. "A lot of times statues are in the way of maintaining the grave site and it's extra time to move them on and off," she said. The cemetery will do a full financial review at its next meeting in Nov.

6:50 Proclamation for Walk and Roll to School Day, which encourages students to take to the streets on foot for their weekday commute. "Community leaders and parents can determine the walkability of their community by using a walkability or bikeability check-list," she said. The event will be celebrate Oct. 5.

7:00 Sanders would like to postpone item 5E on the council's consent calendar, which involves the demolition of the Maysonnave Cottage and Barn at 289 First Street East, until the next meeting.

7:03 Consent calendar passes 4-0.

7:04 Onto the first calendar item, which is more discussion of the formation of a community swimming pool.

7:10 Because the swimming pool sub-committee has been disbanded, says City Manger Linda Kelly, there's no formalized ongoing conversation about the process of creating a community pool.

7:14 Councilwoman Sanders asks if the city will be the lead agency on the pool project, or if the high school will be active in planning.

7:15 "Recently another child in Sonoma County lost their life because they didn't know how to swim," said Councilman Brown.

7:24 Barbose: "If the pool was not on the Adele Harrison campus, as I recall, there wasn't likely to be a school district commitment to partner, because it wouldn't be likely to bus kids to and from school." Answer: Perhaps, there is room for discussion.

7:28 Sanders: "I want to avoid having so many studies: we study, we study, we study and then we don't get anywhere."

7:29 Brown: "A lot of this is just old stuff, how we looked at the swimming pool – the landscape has changed, and I appreciate hearing from one member of the school board that for him the pool is on the table."

7:32 Public Comment Mike Gillaspe: "My daughter said we need a pool, because ours popped...It seems we seem to over-complicate this, the high school has a location, they have money, there seems to be some sort of issue of access – why can't the city just get together and figure out when the public gets to use it...there needs to be stronger leadership on behalf of the city council."

7:37 Public Comment: Dominic Quin-Hirkin, who's sister owns Agua Caliente and will work as water polo coach at Sonoma Valley High School. "We are finding some difficulties with scheduling as far as Hanna Boys Center." He also urges the council to look at indoor as well as outdoor facilities and look at other municipalities for examples.

7:44 Public Comment: Coach of high school swim team says that her last school, which had a pool on campus, had a much higher level of health and swimming abilities than in Sonoma.

7:49 PC: Herb Golenpaul "Everyone would like ot have a swimming pool, problem is, where are you gonna get the money? You have some of these people here who want to give half a million dollars than great, if not..."

7:51 Renado Sottile: "I was told years ago if you build it, they will come...I think the problem is what's already been pointed out: feasibility studies, blah blah blah, somebody has to coordinate all this so it gets done."

7:54 "Pools that have opened in the last ten years have not had a stellar track record," said Councilman Brown, so I think doing it right is the right way to go. "The city provides an enormous number of recreational activities...so I think the city does a good job with the money it has at hand and I don't always agree with Herb, but I feel on this one it's about the money and where the location, as Sam said...speaking for myself this needs to be in a central location."

7:58 Brown: "I don't think its for a lack of will, it's for the responsibilities of developing a swimming pool, maintaining a swimming pool, building a swimming-pool." He also doesn't think that the money provided from the district will fund ongoing expenses, the city is responsible for maitenence.

7:59 Barbose: "It's not enough to just say, 'I want a pool go build one,' it's way more complicated than that."

8:03 Barbose "We're not ready to spend money on a feasibility study until we know what we're studying...I would be in favor of studying the economic feasibility of a pool on school property."

8:04 Sanders: "We have the money to build a pool – yes we have a deficit – but we have money to contribute to the ongoing expenses of a pool." She said it should cost $160,000 per year, or $10,000 a month. "We've spent millions of dollars on the community center, we spend about $220,000 a year on the nonprofits, those groups are able to fundraise on their own – I think it's time the city of Sonoma take some of that money and put it towards its youth...We have the money, I just want to stress that it's how we spend it."

8:13 Gallian argues that a study would provide a needed outside opinion. "It would be factual, it would be unbaised, it would be information," she said.

8:14 Brown: "I have no desire to set up some sort of devisive battle between 'Friends of the Sebastiani,' Friends of the Swimming Pool,' 'Friends of the Community Center.'" He also says if the pool is at the high school the city "will loose people who just don't go that far into town."

8:17 Gallian would like to discuss fees and economics of a pool at the school system. "You're talking about low cost, but how would you handle some of the other programs and how people would be able to be a part of these fees – I want to make sure that that's a consideration."

8:23 Sanders wants to corrent Brown, who said that she had not expressed long-term support for the pool project. "I would suggest that you check your facts and not make a motion that you can't substantiate," Sanders said.

8:24 Sanders motions to bring back the pool feasability study at a later date. Gallian seconds.Barbose would like to add an economic and use part to the study.

8:24 Brown: "Sanders, I credit you with going to one meeting – good for you." Motion passes 4-0, with Rouse absent.

8:28 Five minute break. Pool chatter is big outside the meeting room.

8:36 Linda Kelly says the most recent unemployment rates in Sonoma, as compiled by Laurie Decker in February are 8.3 in the city of Sonoma, 10.2 percent in Boyes Hot Springs and 13.5 in El Verano.

8:41 Gallian would like to fulfil a roll on the League of California Cities. Brown worries that she has too much on her plate. "I've traveled to many cities, I've been able to put that together, we've talked about the responsibilities's," said Gallian.

8:43 Motion passes for Gallian and Susan Harvey, 3-1, with Sanders in dissent.

8:44 Brown: "I'm interested in the crucial decision of who gets to run our veterans building, as soon as we get any kind of word I'd love to know that."

8:47 Sanders will be giving a speech at the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau annual meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m.

8:48 Sanders, as well as Brown, would like to have the first section of the meeting to be more efficient. "It become burdonsome for them to wait around to express their positions," she said.

8:50 Gallian wants to point out that the meeting goes longer because of the reports on committee activities. Meeting adjourned.