The Sebastopol City Council is holding a special meeting this Wednesday, July 28, to work through some of the items it had planned to work through during a meeting on July 20. The lengthy regular meeting stretched to midnight, causing the council to continue its remaining agenda to this Wednesday. While the full meeting agenda boasts about eight items, the council is restricted in how long it can meet on Wednesday, with the meeting scheduled to last from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The full agenda can be found here.
Any items not crossed off in the two-and-a-half-hour period will likely be continued to the council’s next regular meeting.
Water Conservation for Businesses
On July 6, the Sebastopol City Council adopted Stage 2 of its water conservation measures, addressing water use from city residents. However, the council asked city staff to come back with measures to address water use from commercial and industrial businesses in the city.
As part of the request, the council will be deciding whether to recommend that the following language be added to the water restrictions:
• Restaurants may only serve water upon request.
• Restaurants must optimize the use of commercial dishwashers and wash full racks only.
• Hotel and lodging establishments must message about the drought, including laundering of linens only upon request.
• Pressure washing (except for public health and safety purposes) is prohibited unless a variance is obtained from the City of Sebastopol Public Works Department.
• Water waste due to breaks, leaks or excess use is prohibited. This includes leaking faucets, toilets and appliances, as well as broken irrigation pipes, leaking irrigation valves, broken sprinkler heads and runoff from properties due to overwatering or misdirected sprinklers.
Fireworks Event Permits
The city council is scheduled to discuss establishing a competitive lottery process for the city’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show, which has historically been organized by the Sebastopol Kiwanis Club each year. The council initially discussed creating a lottery process for the permit to the single annual show to be allowed following its ban of safe and sane fireworks earlier this year.
The City of Sebastopol is responsible for permitting the fireworks show with the licensed and bonded pyrotechnics company approved by the State Fire Marshal’s Office, and the West Sonoma County Unified High School District is responsible for permitting the use of school facilities to host the event.
At its last meeting, the high school board voted to send the city a letter expressing its concern about the possibility of having the event permit held by rotating parties, since running the fireworks show requires a lot of work for both the organizing nonprofit and for the district.
Per the council agenda, “If the city council approves a policy that creates a competitive selection process for annual fireworks, it will have implications on district staff who oversee and manage this event annually.”
Additionally, the city’s fire chief met with all three nonprofits that were impacted by the ban on safe and sane firework sales, all of whom indicated that they would support the Sebastopol Kiwanis Club continuing to host the fireworks show.
As such, city staff is recommending that the council eliminate the lottery policy application process, permanently assigning the fireworks show to the Sebastopol Kiwanis Club.
Other items
Also on its agenda, the council is considering making Palm Avenue between Petaluma Avenue and South Main Street a one-way, westbound street, is discussing and considering approval of the use of the council initiatives fund for 2020-21. It is also considering several liaison and delegate position appointments.
