Muristek
The Santa Barbara City Council today will take two steps to get the new Fire and Police Commission up and running in January: interviewing 24 applicants seeking five seats on the commission and hiring an outside independent consultant to help monitor citizen complaints.
The council will meet at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 735 Anacapa St.
Councilmembers also will hear reports from their Finance and Ordinance Committees which will meet earlier Tuesday, the former to consider a proposed fee structure for the outdoor dining parklets and the latter to consider ordinance amendments affecting accessory dwelling units.
Also earlier Tuesday, the full council will meet in closed session to discuss recruitment for the position of city attorney to succeed former City Attorney Ariel Calonne, who the council voted to fire effective this Thursday.
Mr. Calonne had been on paid administrative leave since July 25 following reports of a heated argument between him and another attorney in the City Attorney’s Office which was overheard by others and reported to Human Resources.
Assistant City Attorney Sarah Knecht has filled in at the City Attorney’s Office since his suspension, including appearing at council meetings.
Staff says two dozen people have applied to sit on the Fire and Police Commission, all from Santa Barbara and two with former law enforcement experience. The council is scheduled to interview the applicants today and to make their appointments to the board next Tuesday.
The council voted unanimously to create the new commission and assign additional civilian oversight duties in an effort to improve transparency, accountability and public trust.
Barbara Andersen, senior assistant to the city manager, will serve as an independent police monitor who receives and processes complaints about alleged police misconduct, analyzes complaint trends, and prepares reports for the commission in coordination with the police department.
The council, however, is expected today to authorize the hiring of an experienced independent police monitor to advise Ms. Andersen in creating and implementing the new civilian oversight commission of the Santa Barbara Police Department.
After a comprehensive vetting process, the City Administrator’s Office is recommending Hassan Aden of The Aden Group, LLC to be retained for this purpose. Staff recommends the council authorize the city administrator to sign an agreement with The Aden Group for professional police monitoring advisory services, for up to $67,200, covering the period from Dec. 6 to June 30, 2023.
Mr. Aden, a 26-year-veteran of the Alexandria Police Department in Virginia, rising to the rank of deputy chief, and later serving as police chief of the Greenville Police Department in North Carolina, now serves as deputy monitor in the federal consent decree imposed on the City of Baltimore Police Department overseeing all of the accountability requirements and managing various aspects of the team.
He also serves as an associate monitor in the Chicago Police Department consent decree and oversees the supervision requirements. Additionally, he has served as the lead monitor for the Cleveland federal consent decree and as deputy monitor for the Seattle federal consent decree.
The Finance Committee, meanwhile, will meet at 12:30 p.m. in the David Gebhard meeting room, 630 Garden St., to consider and recommend a fee structure for an outdoor business facility (parklet) to use the public right-of-way on the State Street Promenade, including the 400 and 1300 blocks.
On Sept. 20, the council directed staff to present rate options for restaurants with dining parklets to the Finance Committee for members to consider before returning to the full council with recommendations and approval of a rate structure.
Rates would be charged on a per square foot basis at a level sufficient to generate enough revenue to pay for costs associated with ongoing maintenance of the State Street Promenade.
Promenade-related expenditures in Fiscal Year 2023 are estimated to be approximately $600,000, including daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning, as well as quarterly deep cleaning, staffing, contracting and equipment, staff said.
Noting the current rate of inflation and impacts on costs and services, and the need for additional equipment, expenditures for Fiscal Year 2024 are expected to be approximately $675,000, staff said.
This could include the cost associated with employing a half-time code compliance officer, or similar, to provide regular enforcement of ADA requirements and, if needed, design requirements throughout the State Street Promenade, including the 400 and 1300 blocks of State Street and citywide parklets, staff said.
As of now, only ADA requirements are enforced on outdoor dining facilities and parklets.
In developing rate options, staff continue to account for various attrition rates, understanding that several of the roughly 45 businesses with in-street outdoor business facilities will likely opt out of the program or reduce the size of their outdoor business facility.
Currently, approximately 14,000 square feet of public right-of-way is used for instreet outdoor business facilities, with approximately 9,500 square feet representing space immediately in front of businesses and an additional 4,500 square feet reaching beyond business frontages.
Assuming an overall attrition rate of 25 percent, the estimated total of remaining in-street outdoor business facilities would be approximately 7,125 square feet of frontage space and 3,375 square feet of additional space, staff said.
The proposed rate presented to the council on Sept. 20, was a graduated rate based on square footage starting at $5 per square foot per month. Businesses that expand beyond the width of their business frontage (property line) should be subject to a higher rate for use of the additional public space, as well as receive formal approval from the adjacent tenant(s) and property owner(s), staff said.
City staff recommended a graduated rate for the use of space beyond a business’ frontage as follows:
– A proposed rate of $5 per square foot for all space within property frontage (from one to 100 percent), leading to an estimated monthly revenue of $35,625 and an estimated annual revenue of $427,500;
– A proposed rate of $7.50 per square foot from 100 to 200 percent beyond the primary frontage;
– A proposed rate of $10 per square foot above 200 percent beyond primary frontage.
The combined annual total at a graduated rate starting at $5 per square foot is estimated to be $731,250 per year, staff said.
At the Sept. 20 meeting, council members mentioned possible rate structures based on the block on which businesses are located (different blocks pay different rates), the type of business (restaurant, brewery, coffee house, etc.), and annual revenue generated based on business tax returns.
Noting the many complications involved with pursuing some of the various rate options and the desire to provide a business environment that encourages businesses to include outdoor business facilities as part of their business model, staff developed a rate option based on the type of outdoor facility the business decides to develop.
This model provides each individual business the opportunity to develop the outdoor business facility based on their particular needs. The rates are graduated and provide lower price points for outdoor business facilities that are portable and at-grade, meaning they do not have a platform.
A portable facility is one that can be completely removed from the street with 24 hours’ notice without the use of mechanized equipment. Portability allows for more regular cleaning by the business as well as through the city’s quarterly deep cleaning program. The more complex or permanent the structure, the higher the associated per square foot rate.
In other business, the Ordinance Committee will meet at 12:30 p.m. in council chambers. Staff is recommending the council adopt amendments to the Inland Zoning Ordinance and Coastal Zoning Ordinance for Accessory Dwelling Units.
New state legislation intended to increase production of ADUs necessitates updating the city’s zoning regulations, staff said. The changes proposed by the new state laws include an increase to the maximum building height limit and a number of technical changes intended to make ADUs easier to build.
Staff also is recommending several changes to further facilitate production of ADUs, consistent with the city’s Draft 2023–2031 Housing Element program recommendations regarding conversion of commercial portions of mixed-use buildings to ADUs and construction of two ADUs (double-ADUs) on existing multi-unit properties.
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