Board of Education - Regular Meeting

the Albany City Council meeting for February 17th, 2026. Council member Mickey, could you read the land acknowledgement, please? Yes. The city of Albany recognizes that we occupy the land originally protected by the Confederated villages of Leashon. Acknowledge the genocide that took place on these lands and must make strides to repay the moral debt that is owed to this indigenous people, specifically the Aloney tribe. We thank them for their contributions which have transformed our community and will continue to bring forth growth and unity. City of Albany commits to sustaining ongoing relationships with the tribe and together build a better future for all. uh the for all that now make this their home.

Thank you. May we have roll call, please. Council member Hanser Romero here. Um Council Member, Council Member Lopez here, Mayor Mickey here, and Mayor McQuay here,

and Council Member Jordan will be here shortly. Thank you. Before we begin tonight's meeting, I would like to extend a warm extend warm wishes to all who are celebrating the Lunar New Year. As we welcome the year of the horse, a symbol of energy, perseverance, and forward progress, let us carry that spirit into our work together. We would also like to recognize the holy month of Ramadan, which begins tomorrow, and extend best wishes to those observing. Ramadan is a time of reflection, compassion, and community, reminding us of the values we all share. Patience, generosity, understanding, and service to others. There is no closed session. There are no ceremonial matters. So, we'll move to the city manager report. Thank you, mayor. Uh great update for the council regarding the hard work of our fire department in coordination with uh neighboring agencies. The East Bay Regional Fire Training Facility is what we are pursuing together and that is a uh initial funding award of $250,000. Uh fantastic work and a real great way to get this seed money started for this program. Well, Preston thinking um let's see uh sorry this will be a um a training consortium uh shared by the cities of Richmond, Elserto, Kensington, Albany and Berkeley. Phase one is to build out the training facility to use for first responder training. And this is clearly a critical component of how we work together across uh city boundaries in

the event of major emergencies. Uh reminder of a paratransit workshop that will be held at the recreation community services department on Friday, February 20th from 1:30 to 2:30 at the senior center. Community members are invited to learn about the various city and county paratransit services, ask questions, and share feedback and suggestions. As a reminder, this program is funded by measure BB funds and administered by Alama County Transportation Commission. We have another coffee with the cops scheduled very soon. Looking forward to another opportunity to introduce our new police chief, Greg Galliano, as part of this event. It will be held on Thursday, February 26th from 9 to 10 at the community center. And as a reminder, this is an opportunity to just chat with our police officers and other staff uh and get to know each other as humans. Um, another great event coming up as being led by our recreation and community services staff. This is the kids and family expo which will be held on Saturday, February 28th from 1 to 4. all kinds of opportunities at this event to learn more about city programs and services. There's also some discounted camp registration opportunities. So, definitely take a look at that event. Uh reminder as well that the friends of Albany seniors will have their pancake breakfast at the senior center on Saturday, February 21st from 9 to 12. This is an opportunity to support their overall programming and uh have a fresh cooked be breakfast by our fire department staff. Also, we are still running the city satisfaction survey. We've had some great responses so far and want to keep that going as we get feedback directly from the community and

as this is the second year we've done this survey. uh gaining a little bit more insight into ongoing interests, what's going well, what to look at improving. So, appreciation to all those that have taken the time to do that survey. It is online albca.gov city survey 2026 and grants for electric heat pumps. The Bay Area Air District through its clean HT heat program is offering grants for removing your existing wood burning stove, fireplace, or insert and replacing with a cleaner, more efficient electric heat pump. More information can be found on the air district's website, baqmd.gov, and we are also promoting that information through our own channels. And that completes my report.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions from council? There any public questions? Seeing none, we'll move to good of the city. Public comment. A time for persons desiring to address the city council on an item that is not on the agenda. Please note, city policy limits each speaker up to three minutes. The mayor may reduce the time limit per speaker depending upon the number of speakers. Brown Act limits the council's ability to take and/or discuss items that are not on the agenda. Therefore, such items may be referred to staff for comment or to a future agenda. Comments related to items appearing on the agenda are taken up at the time the city council deliberates each action item. The mayor will announce when the period for public comment is open on each agenda item. We have public comment. Good evening. I am Dr. Steven Albert. Let's start where I left off the last meeting on February 2nd. My wife and I have appeared more than a dozen times to ask the council to justify why Albany adheres to the absolute minimum state mandate of only alerting those within 300 ft of proposed new construction by mailing postcards but 10 days before our first planning and zoning hearing. Moreover, Albany does not require posting signs at the project site detailing the proposed structure. We are utterly baffled by the council's refusal to address this issue. As documented, other California cities have expanded public notification beyond 300 feet. Irvine alerts all properties owners within 500 feet of new construction with notices built 15 days before a first hearing. Burbank alerts all residents within 1,000 ft for new construction.

Alerting only those within 300 ft limits public discourse, allowing the planning and zoning commission to propose, and the council then pushed through new projects, no matter how inappropriate, with minimal awareness and input from the community. Such was the case for the oversized five-story modern box proposed for 1600 Solano. Only 73 properties were alerted about this project, which if built would be the tallest structure on Solano Avenue. Immediately following my February 2nd presentation in the lobby behind those doors, I encountered three Albany residents who even at this date were unaware of this project at 1600 Solano, demonstrating beyond any doubt that 300 ft notice results in minimal public awareness. This poster says it all. The approved plan for 1600 Solano is clearly not functionally appropriate nor harmonious with its surroundings. in total violation of Albany's planning and zoning mission statement shown here. Density bonus allowed for the building's increased height, no setback, and no resident parking. Nonetheless, in 2022, the planning zone commission and the council should have directed that the building's exterior be more compatible with the neighboring crafts and era structures and failed to do so. There is no legal reason preventing Albany from expanding public notice. If the current council generally believes the alerting only those within 300 ft proposed new construction just 10 days before a first hearing is appropriate, then defend that practice. Submit 300 ft notification as a meeting agenda item to allow for extended in-depth public discussion. Thank you for this opportunity to address the council.

Thank you for your comments. Are there any speakers online?

Hi, good evening. My name's Gene Woo. I'm a longtime resident of the city of Albany and I have been alerted to the fact that we don't have um anything resembling a resilience hub in the city and we do um have close proximity to one of the major earthquake zones in the country. Um also we're potentially in risk because of potential fires in the local neighborhood and at sometimes we're actually in the tsunami zone. So I would like to remind everyone that we have an opportunity to put together a resilience hub at the Albany Community Center. We have an invitation from Ava Community Energy to use their uh technical assistance which is a free program and develop an actual resilience hub plan and then they will also provide funding sources and we also have internal funding um because we do have some DD funds which over time can accumulate. One of the really big issues is the fact that we only have until July 4th of this year to start putting some money into the program in order to produce a longer runway to build it. If at least five and probably closer to 10% of the final cost is paid out, could be to consultants, could be to engineering um before July 4th, then you get a four and a half year runway. If you wait until after July 4th, then it must be completed and that's completed and interconnected by the end of 2027. And in some cases, interconnection with PG& has taken two years. This is a known fact. There's an actual lawsuit um against PG& for the amount of time that they take to do interconnection for more complicated cases. So early um as they say early to rise. Um it would be really

good idea for Albany City Council and u the staff to put together um a plan and to work with the AVA technical assistance group which will only require about two hours of the time of the Albany staff to start that process and develop a plan which can be acted on prior to the deadline July 4th 2026. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments.

Yeah, good evening. This is Nick Peterson, also member of Albany Climate Action Coalition. I want to second what member Gene Woo just put forward. uh there is this opportunity to get tech free technical assistance to evaluate the capabilities of the current community center to become a resilience center. This is also a good way to move along Albany's need to um follow the climate action adaptation plan and start converting the city's municipal buildings over to all electric non-polluting no gas usage. This would be a great combo um put together correctly. There could be leveraging several different sources of funds, but the the start off of getting AVA community energy to foot the bill for the initial analysis. All we need to do is have some staff time to provide that information. Might be a little bit more than two hours, but anyway, we've talked to members of the staff to try to figure out what that is. It seems pretty minimal and the opportunity is great. So again, we're we're now in 2026. We're six years past the 2019 update of the climate action adaptation plan. We've declared it a climate emergency. We need to get these projects going. The city needs to lead. Need to see the city leading and doing things like this. The thing is I will be bending the ear of the new police chief about we h why we have eight huge gas guzzling SUVs as police vehicles in a city where we're much more trying to do something. Police and fire um take up a lot of our budget. Uh they should reflect what's happening in the city and they should be mindful at least to some degree. you know, at least one vehicle supports reducing the

emissions that they put out by insisting on having huge SUV vehicles as uh patrol cars. So again, we want to see our city reflect our values. We want to see an urgent response to the climate action and adaptation plan that those those measures are going forward quickly. These years will never come back. Once the carbon is in the air, it's there for thousands of years. We put it in for hundreds and and it's time for us to stop. So, the city needs to lead on this. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Good evening. This is Lucinda Young. Uh I'm also an Albany Climate Action um coalition member. Um I first just want to mention um unrelated to climate last city council member at our last city council meeting a high school student spoke in support of uh the city council taking a position on banning the sale of tobacco in Albany. Uh and I would like to express my support for that uh students statements. Um, a couple of years ago, a group of high school students also spoke and since uh that time there are now four cities uh in California who have banned the sale of tobacco and I would love to see Albany become the fifth. Um but uh what I primarily want to talk about is uh I made a comment at last city council meeting um asking the city to take advantage of valuable incentives that are offered by AVA for technical assistance to um get a professional estimate for the cost of solar and battery installation at the community center along with a list of incentives that the city's eligible for. Um, I want to um just reiterate that there are very substantial incentives available right now and these are not going to be available much longer. Um, I uh want to express support for comments made by both Gene Woo and Nick Peterson tonight in support of looking at these uh incentives. Uh I think at a minimum we need to just take the first step and um submit the information uh that Ava needs from our public works department

in order to just give us an estimate. What is it going to cost to install solar and battery? What incentives are available? It looks like just back of the envelope, you know, something like 70% of this would be paid for. We've got a 30% federal tax credit plus an additional 10% because Albany is an eligible considered is eligible for an energy um uh an additional energy tax credit bonus. Um so I I think this needs to be given more attention by the city. Um, our climate action and adaptation plan specifically addresses electrification of city facilities and it directs uh working with regional energy partnerships. It's action 2.21 specifically um directs um addressing energy storage and leveraging existing rebates. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Uh, hi. Good evening, honorable council. This is Elaine Stelton. Um, I'm actually calling tonight with a request for help with waste management. Um, one of my daughters uh was a college student at UCLA and then subsequently at a law school in Southern California. Then her place burned down in Pacific Palisades and she had to move yet again. So, in each of these housing developments, I just kind of observed what was going on with the garbage and um there was so much co-mingling of the trash and really no attention to separating out things in any of these large developments. So, here in Albany, things are quite different for housing providers and we're actually penalized. we're actually fined um if our tenants um accidentally throw something in the wrong garbage can. Um, additionally, it's just a very awkward situation um to have to dig through the trash to sort things out in advance of the pickup. And I always feel very uncomfortable about it because it feels like an invasion of privacy. um but if I don't do that, that means that um you know, I'm going to receive a fine and that just also doesn't seem fair. So, I got very curious about the whole situation about why Southern California didn't seem to be adhering to any sorts of regulations and why Northern California, at least in my mind, my little tiny world of Albany, seemed to be a very strict punitive world. So I

called Waste Management today and I said, you know, it's Waste Management is the provider in Southern California. Waste management is the provider in Northern California, at least in Albany. Why is it that we have two different standards? And they said, really, it's your city. So I am asking you, please take the cameras off the trucks. That is not something that happens in Southern California. I don't believe Southern California is penalizing housing providers if their tenants throw things in the wrong cans. I certainly saw that happen on a number of occasions and I just can't imagine that they're getting fined like we are. So, um, I highly I'm really really requesting your intervening with waste management to take the punitive aspect of this away from us and thank you so much for considering this matter.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi, my name is Brian Martin. I live uh near the bowling alley where uh the city approved several years ago the construction of 207 new homes and changed the zoning on San Pablo with the San Pablo Avenue specific plan to allow much larger developments in order to try to meet our goals in our regional goals for housing production uh outlined in the housing element. And uh also in the housing element though is of course the equity component that says a city can't just uh you know dump all their new housing and dense housing in one part of the city. So uh that's why I'm really grateful that the city has also approved the um the project at 1600 Solano Avenue and that it considers approving others along of the same type of size uh to try to take the pressure off of my neighborhood. Um and uh I did have a question for staff related to all this which is um there are two committees and commissions that deal with the housing element and with zoning in the city and there's a bunch of things I know on the city's docket to try to get through this year but I see that the on the that their meetings were cancelled in the last uh week. Well, basically in a oneweek period of time, we had the housing advisory commission's meeting canceled. We had the planning and zoning committee commission's meeting canceled and there was also the arts committee meeting canceled which generally doesn't touch on these topics but um my question for staff is and I know there are many reasons why meetings can be cancelled either because there's not a quorum or uh there's no there's thought there's no business ready for the you know so my question is is is there a staff shortage that's leading to

these Is there um does the city feel like the job is done or not pressing that the housing advisory commission is doing or the planning and zoning commission is doing or uh is there some insight the city can share as to why uh these meetings are are are cancelled um and the upcoming actually there's two more meetings as well another planning and zoning commission meeting the next one is canceled and the climate action committee meeting is also cancelled coming up. So, uh, that's my question. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Staff, do you have a response to anything?

Also want to encourage folks with questions that may be directed to staff to email me at any time might be more efficient. Um with regard to the first uh resiliency hub um item that was raised by a handful of people, thank you for your ongoing commitment to this important topic. Uh I want to reiterate that yes, we are working with AVA and other agencies continuously and have been for several years. First step in the overall building efficiency and improvements therein is what is in your adopted CIP which is currently underway. Uh RFP is being developed. This will be a 2026 project and it will entail a analysis of our buildings and facilities to determine next steps. That is a critical first step in information building and would really support um that work being allowed to move forward as efficiently as possible. Then absolutely we will have more information available to further that work and to leverage available rebates and other grant opportunities through both AVA and other agencies. Um, with waste management, it would be great to have specifics of the addresses. We could then look into it with their customer service team and really get to the bottom of what's going on and opportunities for improvement. Um, the cancellation of meetings is something that can be disappointing and can be interpreted in many ways. These are all unique situations. The HAC is on hiatus, if you will, until the council has another conversation on housing element next steps. We envision that will be on your March agenda. Um, I believe,

quote me, but it will be on one of your March agendas. Um, arts committee simply didn't have any agenda items this month. And planning and zoning commission is really contingent on applications received and how there is a process. So, from time to time, yes, those are cancelled. Um, that's also in addition to more being able to be approved over the counter, so not necessarily as many hearings there. And climate action committee did not have any substantive agenda items either. So, seems like a collection there, but all unique in their own regard.

Thank you very much. Hey, that brings us to say something. Um, brings us to consent calendar. Consent calendar items are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion by approval of the consent calendar. Staff recommendations will be adopted unless otherwise modified by the city council. There will be no separate discussion on these items unless a council member or member of the audience requests removal of the item from the consent calendar. Is there anybody on council wanting to remove an item? 78.

Okay. I was going to do that also. Um, members of the public. Sorry, I don't have the agenda item number in front of me and I do support this agenda this item, but I um wanted to make some comments on the it's electric um contract. Thank you. Thank you. That's 78. So we have pulled that one. Okay. Um others. Okay.

Um I didn't get my hand up in time for public comment. Should I wait for the next meeting? Yes, you you'll need to do that. Thank you very much. Okay, seeing no is that right and that there's no other to be pulled. So 78 um council member Mickey, would you like to ask your question or comment?

I just wanted to thank staff for their efforts um on researching and finding this program. Uh and um I'm hoping uh as its electric uh continues to explore options that it would consider including areas such as uh the area around Memorial Park and the blocks adjacent to Elserto Plaza. Uh I appreciate their program and their current approach of it being residential areas immediately adjacent to commercial uh streets such as Solano Avenue and Solo Avenue. I think that makes a lot of sense uh in terms of just there being a lot of users both the residential users and those who might be shopping in Albany u but recognizing that Memorial Park both as the school as the swimming pool um on the weekends could also be a very large draw that that might be another area of exploration and then just identifying that the area south of Elserto Plaza is one of the more intensely populated areas of our community. Elsto Plaza itself is already a commercial area. Uh and uh it might provide some additional electric charging for residents in those multif family buildings that uh do not have landlords who allow them to charge in their building or who have taken advantage of the programs we have put in place for multif family charging.

Thank you. Um I would also like to extend thanks to staff for a wonderful job getting this done. Um, I also did speak with the mayor of another city who h is using this vendor and had nothing but great things to say which made me feel really good about it. And um online yes this is Lucinda Young. I also want to express my deep thanks to uh the city and the staff for um bringing this forward. Um, and I know I'm not the only one on the Albany Climate Action Coalition that is really happy to see this. Uh, we have been um pushing to get more get some public EV chargers in for a while. So, this is we see this is very positive news. I have a couple of concerns, questions, but I totally support uh the city moving forward on this. First of all, um the primary need for this is to support our um folks that are in rental housing that are not able to have their um who have their own EV chargers. Um, and my understanding is the average charge isn't is is around for it's electric is around 40 cents per kil per kilowatt hour which is still significantly higher than uh you know homeowners pay who like myself who charge during um uh the non- peak hours are paying around 23 cents a kilowatt hour. So I am concerned that it be kept affordable. Um, and I also, although I think uh it's electric is important, I don't think um it is a solution in and of itself, I think we still need to be

pushing for um chargers in multifamily housing because that is going to be less expensive than its electric. Um I do see in the contract that the city has some I think they have to approve uh this charting structure. So I just ask that you please keep in mind the the fees be kept reasonable if at all possible um so that we can serve our rental community. I'm also wondering um if there has been any outreach yet to um property owners and who's responsible for that outreach. is that it's electric does that outreach or is that the city? I'm assuming it's it's electric. Um but I am looking forward to um you know hopefully we'll see some some chargers coming to our community so soon. I did look at the locations proposed locations. They all look good. So again um big thanks um to staff for um getting this through. Thank you.

Thank you. Um anyone else? Okay. Are these all on 78? I think so.

Hi, this is Brian Martin. I also wanted to thank the staff and city council for working on this. It seems like a really creative solution to what's otherwise a very daunting problem, a solution I hadn't heard of before. Um, I'm considering it for my three-unit residence and uh which is in the one of the corridors. I I do second um city council member Mickey's recommendation to consider those other parts of town as well. I don't know um what the considerations are for the company and and broadening its scope. Um but there are also number of questions I have about the details and I also wonder how the word is going to get out. um for the the PR. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, Nick Peterson with Albony Climate Action Coalition. I think it's important to really thank staff for um following through on this. It's been a a long arduous struggle to try to find ways to get public um EV charging out there, especially near and around or for uh people that don't own their own property. So, I think this will be a good boost. Kudos to those involved. We're continuing to hammer away at this one. It's important. Um it it'd be nice to make sure these are affordable. The other thing I think should still be pursued, I know there was a pilot project with three apartment buildings where level two charging was installed and that that was reasonably successful. Although it' be nice to get kind of a followup and see if that has attracted renters or made renters consider electric vehicles more. So, it' be good to get some follow-up information on that now that it's been a couple years or at least a year. Um, but I think it's important to move to maybe a phase two of that, which would be putting in level one charge outlets in garages of existing multif family buildings, which are a lot easier to get in um run at a slower speed, but if you just charge overnight, you can get enough for a local commute. And it's been shown in other areas where these are actually quite effective. Um, you know, because there's a good length of time at night where a vehicle can be plugged in and even though it's only giving about eight miles per hour, uh, you get eight hours and that's 64 miles, which is usually good for what most people are commuting. So again, I think doing a pilot project, finding an interested large multif family building that would be interested in in

putting that forward, we can get more information. We can get more outlets out there for for renters that are right where they park their cars. So they won't have to like roam the streets trying to find reasonable locations and then walk back uh to their homes, which is kind of an awkward way to fuel your vehicle. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Hello. Uh my name is Bryce Nesbbit and uh I operate a company that installs electric vehicle charging in multifamily buildings. Our nearest installation to the city hall chambers are at 966 Kes Avenue, a good two-minute walk. As such, you might see us as a competitor to its electric, but that's not what I'm going to say here. I'm going to say go for it. We need all of the above. And what its electric provides is something that my company cannot provide, which is wide area access to EV charging for anyone who needs it quickly. It's a really good solution. I encourage you to do it. I also encourage staff to read the city of Berkeley's curbside charging program report. That program was a failure and it died based on excessive regulation. At least that's what the city of Berkeley analysts said. The reason that program died. I encourage you all to take a look at the 966 Canes installation though. Um, for any company that resells electricity, the issue of fee markup is important. And I strongly encourage you to ensure that that profit margin is both supportive enough of its electric that they can make a profit and continue to expand, but not so high that it's awkward or expensive for residents. It's a tricky balance to find and that will be difficult for you to do. I further encourage the city to create a a program allowing residents who wish to charge off their own electric service within their building uh to be able to get a small incentive and staff help in order to do so. Apartment owners who wish to install EV charging have quite a

number of incentive programs available for them. But renters have no such program and no such help. A small grant program could be very effective in getting people who use a car more intently to be able to charge right in their apartment, which is a better solution even than the inelect electric curbside chargers. Thank you so much. um staff has many of the staff people have seen the installation that we've done um with my company and uh happy to give tours to anybody else who's interested. Thank you and good night.

Thank you for your comments. Any final uh council comments? May I get a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. I'll second. May we have roll call, please? Vice Mayor Hansen Romero, yes. Mayor McQuay, yes. Council member Jordan, yes. Council member Lopez, yep. Council member Mcki, yes. And the motion.

Thank you. That brings us to item number eight, presentation. Presentation on the fiscal year 20 2526 midyear budget review. May we have a staff report, please? Indeed, no preliminary comments. Okay, I'm off and running. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Raina Schwarz, your finance director. I have a brief presentation this evening on the midyear budget review uh to uh set us off on uh the next phase, which will be getting ready for next year's budget. I know it hardly seems like that could be the case, but uh these things just click along so quickly uh each uh season it seems like. So, um, taking a look at the overview for our midyear, uh, budget, uh, expenses are at about 50% or slightly over half. Revenues are at about 46%, slightly less than half. Um, there are some very regular reasons why this typically occurs after the first six months of the fiscal year. There are a few large expenses that come due in the very first part of the year. the pension unfunded liability and our insurance payments are always in that first quarter. So we know that we run ahead of schedule relative to the whole year. Secondly, revenues and I'll talk a little bit more about it, but there are a number of revenue sources where the cash that we receive is delayed and so by halfway through the fiscal year, we have not received half of the cash that we will receive or account for in a single fiscal year. Um, so if we could go to um the next page, just kind of starting off with the the slightly bigger picture. Um, uh, in September of last year, we came to you,

we had a Q4 look at 2425. We said, "Oh, not so bad." And then the audit came, as you may remember, last month, and it was like, hm, not so good. And one wonders why there was a relatively um large swing. Um one there are always audit adjustments that um can change those values. But the bigger reason this year is we had a cleanup of some of our accounting entries that really resulted from a much deeper dive that we were able to do this year into some of our um accounting sort of the the underlying pieces of what um goes into place in our uh financial system. And as a result, we ended up realigning both cash and equity. So cash is cash just like you'd imagine in your bank account. Equity being what are all of the assets and then net of the liabilities. And in our system, those hadn't been aligned correctly really sort of subsequent to implementation um particularly in our payroll liabilities account. So, while the cash in the bank and the cash on our books always matched, which is good, right? We had as much cash as we thought we had. However, it meant that the way we were reporting it wasn't um wasn't correctly aligned. And so, when we make that correction, we see this large one-time adjustment. Do we expect further adjustments to come about like this? No. I will never say never because um financial systems are sometimes slightly mysterious as to what they do under the hood, if you will. But um we do think that this was one of our last big cleanups. And so it's very

satisfying to be able to say, "Okay, got this one cleaned up as well." And um we have our system um operating the way it should be to reflect um what we see in our bank accounts and in our um sort of regular um expenses and revenue. So that's really uh what we saw that um made for such a big change since quarter 4. So just to get that out of the way as a reminder, how did we get from there to here? That's what happened at the end of last fiscal year. So now looking at this fiscal year, next slide, please. Um and looking at um the revenues, revenues are predominantly on track. Um some good news. Um, property taxes are expected to run a little ahead of what we had anticipated in the budget. We get our property tax revenue estimates from the county. Um, the county gives us two estimates each year, one in April on which we base the budget and then an update as um, the role is finalized um, in the first part of the summer. So, when we got our updated numbers from the county, they were a little bit higher, which means that the um county assessor uh as they were finalizing the property tax role, um our numbers looked a little bit better than they did when we had gotten the preliminary number. Um the assessor's role um changes from year to year really as the result of either the regular property tax increases which are capped at 2% under um Prop 13 or as a result of investments in property or turnover of properties. So, um, when we

see year-over-year growth that's in excess of 2%, we know that there's some, um, turnover or reassessments that are associated with, um, improvements made to properties. So, what we see from the assessor in this slightly higher property tax revenues than we anticipated is that as they were finalizing the role, the assessed values looked a little bit better than they anticipated. um when they gave us our first um estimate in April, which is great. We like estimates that go up. On the next slide, I'm going to talk a little bit about estimates that go down. First, I'm going to talk about franchise and other taxes. Those are um continuing to perform well. Um the those are all on track to meet budget. Um real property transfer tax is on track to meet budget um as it looks. um the uh real property transfer tax, some of the franchise and um utility user taxes. Those are examples of revenue sources where we do not receive 50% of the revenue by 50% of the year. So most of those revenue sources we have only received five payments from whatever the source of the funding is. So 6 months, five payments. We make an adjustment when the projection is done for the end of the year. But if you just look at the cash, it looks a little alarming because it's much less than half. Um but that's to be expected. Um and we know what that pattern of receipt is. Um licenses and permits are also trending to exceed budget, which means that construction is staying reasonably strong, which is great. um that is um driven by economic activity and we like to see that staying relatively strong. Um we shall see you

know that that can uh certainly change as the year goes on or as we look toward next year. Sales tax is the one area that is really performing quite poorly. Um it is also a uh reflection of overall economic activity but in a little bit of a different way than some of those other taxes. We are primarily a property tax jurisdiction. We don't have a very large sales tax base. We have a decent sales tax base but not a very large one. Um and what we see across the board is that um sales tax revenues in the Bay Area around the state, they're not growing terrifically fast um across the board. Ours are growing a little more slowly than that. So, we don't typically do um as well as some of the areas that have bigger or more robust um malls or um other sources of sales tax revenue. Um and so when we get our estimates of what we think our sales tax revenues are going to be, they're looking like they're going to be fiveish% below budget. Um several hundred thousand below budget. Um that's unfortunate because every little bit um hurts when we are losing some of those sales tax revenues. Um just as a note, as I said before, some revenue sources come in more slowly. As of 6 months into the fiscal year, we will have only received four months of our sales tax revenue. So when you look at the sales tax numbers year to date, you really get concerned. But um those lag uh always lag significantly and we know that. So, um, again, we adjust for that when we do the projection, but the overall message on sales tax revenues are that they are

they're sort of limping along and um, you know, we'll just continue to to watch that, but that is a little bit of a concern for um, the upcoming fiscal year as well. So, that's probably the one area on the revenue side that is really um, I would say quite soft. The final area that I want to talk about on the revenue side is um the category that we call transfers in. As a reminder, this is a a place where um we have a number of revenue sources that are restricted for particular p purposes, open space, parks, um streets, storm, etc. Um many of the projects that are supported by those revenues are budgeted in the general fund and completed in the general fund. And when we budget a certain percentage based on what public works tells us um is eligible to be reimbursed by those special revenue sources. And so um every quarter now we go and we um accumulate what the appropriate reimbursement is. we reimburse from those special revenues to the general fund. In cases where um projects have either not have either generated savings or have not yet gotten as far as we might have imagined at the six-month mark, um those transfers in will run below. So that means that you see well it doesn't look like we're going to get all of our transfer in revenue. You also see some savings on the public works side. Those numbers will tend to ride up and down together um as projects um move forward toward completion but may not fully expend those funds. So just something to be aware of when you're looking at that transfers in revenue source that some of that is driven on the expense side as well and

so they'll rise and fall together with the expense. um we are doing better over the last several years that um I've been looking at it in tightening up how we budget those. So those are running a lot closer to budget. Um but there's still some um estimation that goes into that that we don't um we we can't nail down with complete certainty. So that's it for the revenue side. Moving on to the next slide and talk a little bit about the expense side. Um overall um expenses are above 50% at the halfway point. As I said, there are some significant expenses in the first part of the year. Um, additionally, salaries and benefits are are even more misweighted toward the first part of the year because UI um comes in and is counted as a salary and wage um related to pensions, but also because we have had a couple of significant retirements. Folks who had 30 years of service in um in our fire department, you'll see that it had affected the fire department's numbers. Um we do anticipate that that will put pressure on the fire department budget over the course of um this whole year. And those two retirements occurred in the first half of the year. They occurred at the end of December. So um uh most of the other departments are at the um expected to come in around budget. Uh if we go to the next slide there, in addition to the fire department um with the two retirements as well as some extraordinary equipment repairs, the one other uh area that's really um uh challenged so far this year is um the administration or city clerk

budget that is um has the cost for the November 2024 election showing up in this fiscal year as we pay those bills, elections are expensive and so that when we didn't budget for it in the FY26 budget, it takes what is a very small budget and massively inflates the actual expenses, but it's not your city clerk's fault. Um, blame the county No, don't blame the county register. We love their work. Um, we just wish it were a little less expensive, just like we wish everything else were a little less expensive. Um but that's really the other um budgetary area that is um facing a significant amount of pressure and and will go over budget just by virtue of not having had those numbers um anticipated in our budget. So um in summary, uh we're generally on track to meet the balanced budget that we set out for fiscal year 26. Um there are no adjustments that are requested at this point in the year. Um we will be continuing to take um a look each month at our revenues and expenditures. We may come back in May for some final adjustments depending on what that looks like over the rest of this year. Um, we still are, um, I remain, as will not come as a big surprise to any of the members of the council, I remain cautious. Um, I am a cautious person, which probably explains why I'm a finance director and not a finance seir in the private sector because I would um, not be a happy person doing that work. I love this work. Um, and I uh I

think the departments are doing a a good job of being aware of um what they're doing. They're good at managing their expenses. They know that we're on a very tight budget. They all made commitments to everybody say together. Everybody wants to be a zero, right? To make a commitment this year to to have a balanced budget. As we look toward FY27, when we adopted the two-year budget, FY27 was out of balance, what we said was, well, that will require a commitment to make an um appropriation from reserves if that were to come to pass. uh we will come back in May and June with um any recommended changes to FY27 hopefully to tighten that up so that number is not as large and we're not necessarily as much at risk but um it's hard to say at this point exactly what that will look like. Um the biggest challenges will be um labor costs because they are the biggest piece of our budget. And so I'll be um really starting to dig in and scrub those labor projection numbers again as we look toward FY27. So staying the course um remaining um optimistic but cautious is the the message um for our midyear review uh at this point in FY26. And the last thing I'd offer before answering any questions is just the other attachment that you have in your packet is um the most recent quarterly investment report we have from our investment manager um through December 31st, 2025. Our investments are doing well um especially considering that the market is very hard to um get a handle on um with any kind of predictive value. Uh it also shows the city's uh experience and accomplishments in the

arena of environmental, social and governance ESG investing. So the city by the end of September uh first part of October was fully into um the ESG investing and um all of the investments had been scrubbed to be in alignment with the policy. So that continues and the portfolio is continuing to perform well um as well as meeting the um criteria uh associated with the ESG investment. So that's there for your information um as we continue to watch how those move forward. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Are there any council questions? No. I asked so many questions during the uh know but another one occurred to me just sitting here now. Um amazing. So but first thank you finance director and department for uh for all your work and for answering my many questions in the audit and fiscal sustainability committee meeting. I'm definitely encourage any council members who are interested in learning more to watch that meeting. There's a lot of information there. Um, it occurred to me, and I don't expect you to know this off the top of your head, but um, what fraction of sales tax revenue comes from online orders? I know the state solved that problem, I don't know, a decade ago or so, such that that when somebody buys something online, the tax acrru, I believe, to Albany, if I'm not mistaken. I would think that would be growing. And in some ways because we don't have tremendous retail in the city for certain things that actually would be to our benefit. So it never occurred to me before I wonder is that going up? How's that sector of the sales tax revenue performing? That is a seemingly simple question with an exceptionally complex answer and the city manager is well uh involved in this right now because there's been a lot of discussion among the city managers about particularly about the allocation of online sales tax. Um there are slight differences in how um just for perspective how the 1% sales tax is allocated and how our halfsent sales tax local sales tax is allocated. So just those flow a little bit more differently. Um on the 1% the um much of the online purchasing that

goes from either a distribution point out outside the state um or depending on how it's warehoused and distributed inside the state. um much of it is allocated through to cities through what's referred to as the county pools. So um online sales tax um is some of it is allocated through these county pools. So it means that um everything that comes into the county gets allocated to this county pool and then it's allocated back out to the cities based on the city's percentage share of um sales tax in the county. So ours is a very small share. Um, and so our online sales numbers in terms of the revenues that would be flowing to the city are increasing, but we don't see a ton of um growth in that area in the 1%. Um, we do better on the half cent because it comes directly to us. it is um it flows differently than the 1% amounts. So um I off the top I can't tell you what the percentages that um comes in from online sales. Um but um it is what we see is that the percentage that's coming from online sales is increasing. Brick and mortar is declining and it is increasing at a faster rate. Um but uh it's there's some noise in the system that makes it more challenging to pull apart exactly what's happening. But generally

speaking, yes, it does. Um it is increasing. Um and uh there is a lot of discussion right now about how how those e-commerce sales tax revenues should be allocated. So they've been allocated one way as you said about 10 years ago. There was a um court decision, the Wayfair decision as we call it, that um basically said out of state stuff that you still have to pay sales tax coming, you know, into the state. And that was a big boon. Um and then a couple years after that, Amazon changed its business model, which um really just meant that uh a smaller portion of e-commerce sales through Amazon flow through the county pools and um cities like Tracy or Stockton that have distribution centers um uh receive a relatively higher share because that's considered considered the point of sale. So, um it's it's a uh got a lot of individual components. Um but it definitely um is performing well. It's just not a straight line improvement over time. Um and I can come back with information on what the relative percentage is in our in our overall uh sales tax revenue.

Thank you. So, if I understand what you're saying, which I may not, so I always like to repeat to make sure I am. Um, if a dollar spent on taxable item in Albany will generate more sales tax revenue than a dollar spent on a taxable item online because not all the 1% comes to Albany for a variety of reasons. of the 1% on the half percent it's a much more um consistent flow um on our local half cent

and on the 1% so a portion of that 1% comes to Alama County because some of it goes to the distribution cities which I fully appreciate and seems reasonable given the burden their infrastructure bears and their residents bear of the portion that comes to the county and this is probably quite complicated but maybe it's not sometimes it is sometimes it isn't. Um is the distribution formula based just on population is actually taking into account sales in each city. It's percentage of um sales. Okay.

So if sales is 100% we I want to say we get like 7% or something. It's a very small number um relative to um uh what the other jurisdictions within the county um their overall sales tax base. Okay. It sounds like it's based on the appropriate metric of Yes, actual purchases as opposed to some proxy. Okay, thank you very much. Any other council questions? Are there any members of the public with their hand raised?

Um, hi. In a previous meeting, um there was discussion about 16 and 17 year olds voting and it sounded like when the initial contact was made with the registar of voters in Alama County, the estimated cost was somewhere between $18 to $21 to get these kids registered, but subsequently I believe it's more like over $100. So when you say that, Miss Schwarz, when you say that these uh elections like the 2026 election is very expensive, what proportion of that expense is due to Albany choosing to have 16 and 17 year olds vote? And how many 16 and 17 year olds do we have? And what is the actual cost per 16 and 17 year old? Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. That's it. Okay. Um, do you have a response? I know it's a estimate.

There are a lot of things in that question I don't know the answer to. The one thing I will say is we don't yet know what our 2026 election costs are going to be. um the costs that we're bearing are for 2024 and so there weren't 16 and 17 year old voters in that election. So that doesn't affect the the pieces um that went into that 2024 election cost. Um the the biggest um contributors to the 2024 election costs were the number of ballot measures um and then the decision that the um city made a number of years ago with respect to rank choice voting that also I mean and that's been true for two three election cycles now two election cycles now um so it's not new for 2024 but um it uh is additive um coming into it I I don't know the answer on the number of 16 and 17 year olds, etc.

Thank you. Just to add to that, as the council clearly remembers from that discussion, we don't have those estimates yet from the county, and we're still waiting to receive that information. And even when we do receive it, we'll likely need to triple check it to make sure it's actually accurate. So, in terms of implementation of youth voter um 16 and 17 year olds, we're not there yet. And uh conceivably we don't have an estimated date yet because right now it's contingent on the county providing information back to the council to make an informed decision. Thank you.

If I may, since this is an issue I've been working on for years now, um maybe to start off with, it would be useful to state the actual um cost of the 20 2024 election. either the finance director or the clerk know it in round numbers offhand. I I have a number in mind, but I'm not sure

off the top of my head and the the clerk may be able to correct me. I want to say it's in the 150 to 60ish,000 between the base voting rank choice and the ballot measures. if I remember three big pieces um that I've seen come through. Yeah, it's about 160. Yeah, about 160,000. Okay. And for scaling, I mean, I know this number, but what what is the the budget general fund budget for say 2025? That just the total number? 33 and a half million.

Okay. Um part of the reason for that 150 150 160,000 I want to put out is that the the registar surprised us. Um so the registar charges doubles the charge for the base cost of the election or over a certain number of measures and historically that number has been over six measures. Alan's had six measures before gotten single charged. We had five measures in the 2044 election and we got a double charge. Um, and there's no written record that we were ever informed that we would get a double charge if we went over four measures. So, now that we know that, in theory, we can take that into account. Um, in terms of the 16 and 17-year-old voting, um, the council may recall that it authorized a letter to be sent to the board of supervisors. um app propo that the the commenter brought this up and I didn't stage this by any means but um this has resulted in the the county elections commission that was established by the board of supervisors due to the various errors the registars made over a number of elections um to have on its agenda for this Thursday an item to try to hold the registar to providing binding estimates. Um and a big need for that was as the the commenter noted the registar told the board of supervisors in July of 2024 that the cost for youth voting would be $1821 per voter and ended up charging over 150 and no consequences to the registar. Um so anybody who's interested that meeting starts at four o'clock it's available online on Thursday. I encourage you to participate in the meeting. Um unlike our meetings, it only has comment at the opening on all the agenda items. So should you want to comment be there be there early. Um this is a new business item though. So it comes up late. Um so we are trying to we are trying to get

the registar to do better. I will note the current registars. We need to get back to Fair enough.

Thank you for your comments. Are there any other council comments? Okay. Seeing none, this is a information item. There's no action required. Thank you for your um for your presentation and your time this evening. Okay, that brings us to 8-2, sewer system management plan update. May we have a staff report, please? Good evening, city council members, mayor. Uh, happy to be here tonight uh to talk about sewers. It's kind of a running gag, I think, at this point how much we like sewers and want to talk about them. And I hope you all um enjoy. Uh, I was asked to make this as fun as possible and I had to say fun is relative, so bear with me. Um, so the reason we're here tonight is because of the 2026 sewer system management plan item, uh, which is being updated, uh, mostly for administrative reasons. We've had some staff turnover. There's some minor, uh, adjustments we need to make, uh, but primarily kind of staying the same. Uh but taking this opportunity to give some context to where this fits into our sewer program and give an update on the sewer program as well seemed like a good idea. Um so next thank you. So um we're going to start with the kind of summary and overview of why we're here but then move on to a presentation on the sewer program. Um so we're going to talk about the program generally. Um James Celli over here is going to talk about 2026 updates um where we are and then I'll

wrap it up with a kind of an overview of long range kind of sewer program planning followed by our staff recommendation that's in the agenda tonight. Uh next page please. Um so to start off I think just big picture understanding the regulatory framework that we work in on the sewer program um as well as the regional system. And we talk a lot about our sewers here in Albany, but we are tied into a regional system uh that involves others. Um and finally, kind of program organization. So that leads into some of what James is talking about on both uh both sides of our program, our operating program as well as our capital. Next page, please. Uh with that, we have two main uh regulatory permits and agreements that guide our work here in Albany. We have our waste discharge requirements, WDR. This is a statewide um kind of permit I guess you would call it. This is uh required of any agency operating a sewer system. Uh so the main focus on this um the WDR is kind of keeping our system in a state of good repair and general system management. So as long as we're doing well, this is all that's kind of required. Um it covers management and operations. Um and one of the ways that we look at whether it's functioning well is number of SSOs. SSOs are sewer system overflows. So this is where sewage exits the city system and surfaces essentially. Um and part of that is also making sure we have adequate capacity. Um this includes a triannual internal audit which has been completed as well as these requirements for our management plan update that we're bringing tonight. Additionally, the city of Alman has a consent decree. This is an agreement uh with the EPA uh state water board um along with uh East Bay MUD and seven

satellite agencies. Um there's very prescriptive requirements. So rather than being kind of a general permit for operations under general conditions as long as we keep it in good standing, this is specific requirements we are required to perform on an annual basis for operational and capital work. Um the end goal of the consent decree is to collectively reduce discharge from the East Bay mud treatment plants and I'll cover that in a little bit more detail on a later slide. Next page please. So in the city of Albany, we have about 33 miles of sewer mains. These were primarily constructed in the early part of last century in conjunction with subdivisions that occurred starting in around 1910s um leading up to the 1940s. So most sewers were in by the around the 1940s. Uh of these sewer mains, these are called collection mains. That means they're taking sewage that's coming out of properties, collecting them, and sending them off to East Bay MUD for uh transport and treatment, which I will show in the next slide, please. Uh so, East Bay MUD takes the sewage from the city of Alby's parcels and transports it to three regional uh treatment facilities. The one main one that you may see at the uh Bay Bridge near the Bay Bridge is the called the main wastewater treatment plant. Uh there's also two wet weather facilities uh that treat additional flows that exist um during rainy weather. And these uh additional flows are some of the things we're trying to resolve with the consent decree, which is to reduce the number of um the amount of flow change that we see in rainy weather. meaning that we don't want anything but sewage in our system. What we find is there are some uh storm water and groundwater

that's coming in. The Eastbay mud sewer treatment facilities serve six other agencies, stage sanitary district, which is parts of Elserto and Richmond Annex, uh cities of Berkeley, Elmaryville, Alama, Oakland, and Piedmont as well. And so the consent decree covers all of these agencies. Next slide, please. So outside of the regulatory context uh I think the next question is how do we then take that and apply it to our sewer system program. So our program is covers the programmatic planning documents the guiding documents that say how we operate the program which one of which is being presented tonight um as well as the funding to support the requirements. Uh this feeds into our operations and maintenance needs. And when operation and maintenance needs go up and increase, we start looking at doing capital projects to renew the sewage system and bring the operational cost back down to a steady state. Next slide, please. Um with that, we have functionally also separated our sewer system program in this way. Uh James will kind of talk about details about these two programs or these two sides of the program in more detail, but functionally they look pretty similar. So that's of the four pictures on there. Um two of them are operations and two of them are capital. It's sometimes hard to tell. Um generally it's subdivided by impact and size of project more than the actual work that's occurring. Um, but one of the things I wanted to highlight here is that on an operational front, that's where we do our sewer system planning and that's what then feeds our capital renewal and improvement projects uh including those that are presented at council periodically for uh advertisement and approval or award. Um, next slide please. With that, uh, over to James.

Okay. So, um, I'll elaborate a bit on our capital and our operating program starting with the 2026 update specifically to the capital program. So our capital program as you know described in our CIP is our annual sewer rehabilitation program. It's a program for design and construction of our sewer assets and facilities in need of repair or replacement. And that's driven mostly by our sewer master plan. That's where we identify what pipes essentially need to be replaced. Um and the last time we did that was the 2014 um sanitary sewer master plan. We've gotten through the majority of those projects. I think sorry there's three remaining now. The 2026 SSRP phase A that's uh in pre-construction right now and we're probably going to substantially complete it within the next few months. The Bryant easement sewer project that's in advertisement right now and we're also looking to complete this one by the end of the calendar year. And then lastly, phase B of the 2026 SSRP, that's in late design and we're hoping to substantially complete that one by the end of fiscal year 27. So under the CIP program, we've replaced around three quarters of the system over the past 30 years. U this map in particular very low res here I'm not sure why but um the green lines essentially are all the pipes we've replaced since the 2014 master plan the blue is uh where we're about to do those three project projects I just described and you can see that you know just in you know the past 12 years a significant amount has been rehabbed when we did the 2014 master plan um we were looking at an average pipe age of 50 years. As of last calendar year, the average age of our pipe now is 25 years

old. So, Alb's got a, you know, pretty young system relatively speaking. Um, ever since we, you know, really hammer down on the CIP program. Next slide. So, you know, CIP is all that pipe replacement rehabilitation. Next is our operating program which makes sure that, you know, we're continuing to run the system well. Uh the major elements are cleaning and CCTVing it. We look to clean about 20% of the system per year. So every pipe in the system has been cleaned a minimum of a 5year frequency. And the second is we try to inspect 10% of the system this year. So that way we have CCTV footage on hand of each pipe that's no longer no older than 10 years. In house we do hotspot cleaning. This is pipes that are in need of rehabilitation or have sags where essentially we get debris buildup um fog, fat, soil, greases that need a more frequent cleaning to ensure that we're not you know triggering any kind of sanitary sewer overflows which is the you know the highest metric of how well our system is doing because no one wants sewage leaving the system. Then there's also our minor spot repairs. This is just small repairs, not on the extent, you know, on the scale or magnitude of our CIP program. And typically, it's lower laterals. Um, this is actually where we typically even see our SSOs in the city. We very rarely if ever get mainline SSOs. The maintenance crew is also responsible for the sanitary, the spill emergency response plan or the SER, um, as we call it. They are the first responders to any sanitary sewer overflows and it's I'm happy to say that they actually don't do that role very often now because there's been such a notable reduction in our SSOs. Um some of the last elements of

our operating program is you know doing that internal audit that Allison mentioned earlier. It's required by our WDR but you know it we take a look at our SS you know our management plan and the system. Um there's a few metrics we use uh to kind of identify deficiencies and also where we're doing well and we roll that into the sanitary sewer management plan update. Um and again really no significant revisions. The most significant was probably just an updated SER in 2023. Next slide. So this is a chart uh kind of showing the SSOs over the past 10 years between 2014 and 2024. Um, this specifically is August to August. The state uses a pretty weird reporting period. The blue bar is the actual amount of SSOs in that given year. And then the green bar is a three-year running average. And the data kind of speaks for itself. You know, we just generally seeing it SSOs trend down over time thanks to our rehabilitation program. Next slide. So another metric we use is the volume um per from these SSOs. You know SSOs can vastly vary in terms of the magnitude of environmental damage or releases. So we normalize this normalize the volume against 100 miles per system and we compare against region two which is essentially just all the agencies within the Bay Area. Um we pretty much are average or significantly below the amount of the the volume that we see around region 2. 2022 2023 was a particularly wet year. Wet years correlate with a lot more SSOs just because of the amount of water that gets into the sewer to older sewer systems. Um so I'm actually going to kind of zoom in on that lower part um the 100,000 just to kind of give a better relative.

Next slide. Uh comparison. So even when we zoom in about like 90% we're still uh on average you know as of a few years ago or significantly below in terms of volumes released compared to the region which is great. Um and it really does show that we're not really seeing mainline SSOs. are seeing it in laterals which is you know a one prop one or two properties um collection versus a mainline where depending where you where it is you're seeing much higher flows. So with that you know that's looking good I'm going to switch over to a longer term outlook and Alison will talk more about

I guess I'll use this microphone now. Um, so longer term outlook and kind of more information about the consent decree because I think this is sometimes a little bit of a we talk about the consent decree a lot. Uh, but we really don't have a chance to talk about exactly what's in it. Uh, so the um James mentioned some of the ongoing work we do under the capital improvement program and our operations um side of things. Uh the other things we do under for Albany specific work and requirements is we participate in the regional technical support program. This is a program led by East Bay MUD to look for uh previously undiscovered sources of inflow infiltration. So they're looking at high volume or high impact areas. And we've been coordinating with them over the last uh 10 years since the consent decree, 10 plus years since the consent decree uh started to find places where there's accidental connections between storm and sewer uh or large areas that aren't being managed well and uh we've been able to find some places that have had reductions and it's been quite a successful program. We partnered them with them also looking at new technologies that come out of it. Um there's actually currently there's a this wasn't part of the presentation. Uh but uh there's roly poly balls um being deployed in the city of Albany earlier today. Uh this is a GoPro camera in a plastic ball that gets sent down the sewer system during rains and they watch for sources of an INI that may not be realized during um the cleaning and CCTV. we do during dry weather or drier weather. Uh so that's a lot of fun. They do call it RPD, Roly or RPB, not Roly Polyball, but that was the initial name. Um we also participate in the private sewer lateral program. Uh

anybody who's uh purchased or sold a home in the last several years uh last 15 years is probably aware of this program and it's uh kind of while the city is doing our role, we also want private properties to be managing their on-site private sewer laterals as well uh because they functionally coexist in the same system. um outside of the work for Albany. So um as I mentioned earlier, we're part of seven satellite agencies and East Bay MUD. So we really are collectively one system operating together. Um we want to bring down the reduce the amount of uh overflows at the East Bay mud treatment plants um especially during wet weather. This is where it generally happens. um to do so we had theoretical models built at the beginning of the consent decree expecting a certain amount of achievement of flow reductions. Um the consent decree wants to make sure that we're on track. So there's intermediate check-ins. Uh so the first check-in was in 2022 and we met the target reductions across the board um for all three of the treatment plants that I mentioned previously. Our next one is in 2030 and this is now we're getting you know the lowhanging fruit uh so to say is being taken off so it gets more and more challenging as we're going towards zero uh for overall compliance. Um and so 2030 is the date we're going to be doing this check-in. It's a three-year monitoring effort leading up to it. Um if we don't meet check-ins uh there are additional requirements that may be necessary kind of highlighted uh in red. Um we don't know what that is. That's the problem is it's going to depend on information we don't know until we do those full monitoring exercises. Um it may be increasing the amount of

rehabilitation. It may be storage depending on how far off. It may not be anything. So, it's kind of a an known unknown that we're going into um in of in the next 3 to four years. Um as we have uh more information, we'll be sure to bring it to council uh so we can have a better understanding of our kind of ongoing risks um going into this check-in. Next slide, please. So, outside of the consent decree or to support this consent decree, I should say, we have our sewer master plan update. So, this is in progress. Uh James mentioned our previous one. We're reaching the end of the proposed work. Uh and so we're doing the next round of improvements. These will include uh kind of a 10-year CIP outlook. Going back to my previous slide. No, don't don't need to. Sorry. Um speaking about my previous slide, um this does anticipate no change to the consent decree requirements. Um partially because we just do not know what that is. we have to operate within what we can foresee at this time um and maintain compliance with the existing consent decree without any changes. So we want to foresee what that will look like um to as we as noted here a firm basis uh for project priorities and budgets. Um ultimately the sewer master plan's end goal is to move the program towards business as usual uh to a point of good repair minimizing SSOs and kind of proper management. to support the projects that are in the sewer um master plan along with our operating needs. Uh we have a sewer rate service rate study which is in progress as well and this has been brought to council and ultimately we want to make sure that we have sufficient capital to continue the requirements that are in the consent decree uh required for the next five-year look slide please.

And finally wrapping back around all the way to the beginning with our very exciting presentation. Uh the sanitary sewer master management plan update is being provided at council tonight. Um this is our kind of primary guiding document on how we manage the sewer system. Uh it's to reduce and mitigate SSOs, provide adequate capacity and satisfy regulatory requirements. And so we're asking tonight um our staff recommendation on the next slide please to uh asking that the council adopt resolution number 202609 approving the 2026 sewer system management plan. And with that I open up for questions.

Are there any questions? I have a very important question. Is there any way we could get a YouTube channel on those roly poly balls? I we have videos I I will share, but maybe we can find a way to put it on the website. It's it's a lot of fun. I think it'd be great. Are there any other questions?

I did have one other question, but may maybe a followup to council. I have a question, but also follow to Hansen Romero's uh point. I well uh I actually think it it would be great for the city to put videos up like that just to help explain to the community how we as a city actually do the job that we need to do. And it's pretty funny to be able to tell someone to go watch the roly pool video. Um I did have a question. So I think um you said that we are part of seven agencies um trying to reduce the overflows at the East Bay MUD stations. Um, so when we're under the consent decree, is it the city of Albany is under a consent decree to reduce our overflows or everyone associated with the seven agencies is under the same consent decree. I'm trying I'm trying to understand like

absolutely could do everything we want to get our system and but if someone else in the in the system is not are we still accountable for that or are we just accountable for our so so so I don't I shouldn't say no like that um it's never that easy

we we are all participants um all seven sewer agencies and East Bay MUD and we all have individual requirements towards reducing INI uh inflow and infiltration uh with the collective goal of reducing what comes out of the East Bay mud treatment plant. Um the the check-ins are to confirm that that's happening properly. We are also trying to make sure that we get our system buttoned up so that we can kind of defensively show that we're doing what we need to do. And so this is something all of the sewer agencies are making their requirements and defensively showing proof that to the extent feasible that we're we're meeting what we're saying that we would meet.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions?

Thank you, mayor. Um well, first I'm very very appreciative. Uh when I moved to to Albany in 1996 um or 1994 actually thereafter I heard of regular toilet paper events along I can't remember it's either Portland or Washington and the need to like bleach the street and bleach the lawns and so this is a of great consequence um what is being done to correct this. Um is the reduction in in hotspot hotspots that need cleaning is that sort of similar to the reduction in SSOs that are occurring? this or those sort of tracking together.

So, it it depends. Um, there are there are hot spots that we've fixed over the years with either repairs or rehabilitation that exist predated some of the work we're doing recently. Um there are also remaining hotspots that haven't yet reached a priority as a capital project meaning that we have higher capital renewal needs than to take care of something that kind of an operational level we can manage. Uh but it's something that as we transition to a state of good repair we would hope to take to tackle so that we can further reduce operational needs managing that.

Great. Thank you. Are there any uh questions online? We're back to final council comments and then we'll take a motion. Somebody please move adoption of resolution 2609. So moved. A second. I'll second. Do we have a roll call? Council member Lopez. Yep. Council member Mickey. Yes. Vice Mayor Hansen Romero, yes. Mayor McQuay, yes. Council member Jordan, yes. Motion carries. Thank you all for being here tonight. Thank you.

We have no public hearing. We have no unfinished business. That takes us to new business. Item 11-1, permit fee waiver for installation of electric vehicle chargers, solar voltaic panels, and power storage via batteries. May we have a staff report, please? That be you? We have a council member report.

Guess so. Yes. Uh so, thank you for reading my memo if you read it. Um I went on the the affforementioned tour by one of the public commenters earlier on the IST electric item um of the installation on canes that was mentioned and learned or had my conscious raised at that or that we had not waved the fee for installation of EV chargers on multi-resident properties unlike on single residence properties that didn't seem consist consistent in terms of policy nor with our climate action adaptation plan. And so that's why I wrote this up and and brought the recommendation to ask staff to bring back a potential adjustment to the mastery schedule to additionally wave um the permit fees for installing EV chargers on those properties. as well as in general um we've not waved the permit fee for solar PV installations or battery backup installations and both those also have an additional nexus with reducing greenhouse pollution um not directly obviously because Alby's electricity is provided by AVA community energy um and by and large most accounts are on their 100% renewable so they nominally don't generate or are responsible for generating greenhouse pollution for electricity consumption. Nonetheless, with more and more being electrified, that is even a bigger load than what has been on electric in the past, specifically space heating, transportation, water heating, um the need for more electricity generation is great and battery backup um plays a big role in reducing greenhouse pollution. Um if you look at the daily sourcing curves for the state which are available every day from Cal ISO you can see as compared to a few years ago um the state has reduced its draw on

natural gas combustion plants dramatically by mandating increase of grids scale batteries. Just kind of along those lines um it also has a resilience benefit or energy that is stored in Albany individually the more resilient various neighborhoods will be individual will be. So, I'm happy to answer any other questions to the extent I can um or staff if it's a more technical question. Considering the recommendation, are there questions from council or Mickey?

Uh this might be a question for staff. Um am I could am I remembering correctly that new residential construction in California is required to install photo of Is that is that correct?

Looks like we may not have an answer to that immediately. Um so then maybe a slightly different question is uh assuming that when one does new construction is a solar is a photo solar photovoltaic panels permit required is that is that required with the permit for the construction of property or is just the construction of property like or is it a separate fee or is it an included fee and the reason why I'm asking this maybe this goes to council member Jordan is that if the state is require ing you to install photovotics, then you're installing them no matter what. And then so my question is if we are charging a separate fee for that kind of like they're going to build them anyways versus if we're talking about people retrofitting a historic building or older building that is an incentive for them to go ahead and install it. And so thinking of this as a an incentive uh I'm in favor of doing it for uh kind of uh or not not not reducing the fee for new construction if there is if there isn't even is a fee I guess is what I'm saying. Sorry I'm kind of going a lot of directions there. Uh so that was kind of my first question for staff. My second question was um solar water heating. It's not something we see a lot in Albany. It's not something that we do frequently. There are solar power generators that also heat water. Don't know that it makes a sense ton of sense in Albany because our solar panels don't get overly hot. So if a solar panel gets too hot, they produce less energy. But when you combine the solar power generation with water heating, it tends to lower the temperature. So both tend to be more efficient. I don't think that's an issue in Albany, but uh I don't know if we

even have a fee for solar water heating. And so just wondering if if that would be something we would want to include as well.

Sorry, that's not a question anymore. That's a discussion point. Sorry. Um, but my question to staff was really just about whether or not solar is required in new construction. If it's required in new construction and there is a fee for that, I would say that to me that's not the highest priority of a fee to remove uh versus uh uh a retrofit. Are there other questions? Um, any questions online? Thank you. Um, Nick Peterson, I I thought this was public comment.

You're correct. Go ahead.

Yeah. Okay. So, Nick Peterson, Albany Climate of Action Coalition. I want to thank Council Member Jordan for bringing this forward and spearheading it. Another great effort on his part. I fully support this as does Albony climate action coalition. We should be doing everything to make sure people do the electrification transition. And also I I agree with him even though Ava clean energy provides us the opportunity to say we use electrons that only flow from renewable. really just paying a premium for the right to say that and they are purchasing that percentage and allotting it to us. But the electrons go where the electrons go. So the more you can create um with your solar panels, the more you just help the system get even better. So I think uh eliminating the permit fees or or or impediments to people going solar with battery um putting in EV charging is key and especially for uh multif family. I think we need to really encourage multif family unfortunately because the tenants are paying the utility bill. There's really zero incentive for a lot of the building owners. I mean, you know, to even do anything along the lines of reducing uh carbon emissions. So, if we can make it that much easier for them to do EV charging on site, that that's really critical doing quick permits and whatever. we

should actually be reaching out and encouraging them to do this. And I'm hopeful that a new pilot project with a a good multif family structure using maybe level one chargers would be helped along by the city as a model for what can be done because putting um ED charging in multif family housing is is key to what we want to do. half half the uh population in Albany is ran renters over half and a lot of them live in the multif family buildings and so they need to be able to drive carbon-f free and hopefully their homes will be carbon free too. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Hello, council. I'm uh speaking in favor of Preston's uh action to uh on the fee waiverss. I think one of the reasons that hasn't I haven't heard said tonight is that some of these are really quite small projects and the permit fees can end up being 50% of the cost of the project. And what that may do is encourage people to do this work without a permit. I think it's just better public policy to have a professional check of the work that's being done. And if it takes a fee waiver to do it, then by all means. That's my only comment. Go for it. Thanks.

Thank you for your comment. Um hello. Um I'm Katherine Enos. Um I'm a home homeowner. Um I am curious as to whether there was any investigation of uh the security aspects of uh installing charging systems which are known to be rife with uh security flaws. um and also the environmental uh impacts that could occur to them. Um, and what I mean by that is, uh, as a homeowner who's, uh, basically surrounded by several investors trying to force my home, uh, to sale, I found that, uh, it's quite easy to use power walls and other uh, charging systems uh, to uh, mess up uh, the person next door, especially if they have galvanized piping, which I have upgraded, But um you know there are the um you know charging systems do have uh EV chargers and other charging systems do have certain drawbacks and you know these should be considered when you're going to uh put you know when you're going to encourage them to be put into rentals or any other any other residential setting. Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else online? Okay, sorry. Yes. Um, this is Lucinda Young and um I'm a member of the climate action alman

climate action coalition as well. I want to thank uh committee member B Jordan for bringing this forward and I completely support a waiver of permit fees. I completely disagree with the previous speaker who said that there are disadvantages to charging uh to installing EV chargers. Um as our city is well aware, we are in a climate emergency. The city has issued a climate emergency declaration. We have a climate action adaptation plan. A full over 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation. We need to move to EVs. Um um it doesn't uh currently we've got a EV charger permit fee waiver for uh residential for uh private residences and it's only fair that that should be extended to multif family dwellings otherwise it's really discriminatory of people who are living in multif family. Uh so I completely support that. I also support extending the um fee waiver, permit fee waiver to solar and battery. Um our city is encouraging a movement away from natural gas and to electrification in order to meet our climate goals and uh solar and also battery are a really uh important foundation for electrification. many many people are unwilling to electrify until they have solar and battery. Um so I completely support um the waiver and to answer um a committee member um Mickey's question according to chat GBT most uh Cal under California law most single family homes new single family homes have to install solar um again

that's chat GBT and I haven't verified it but it does say that uh it's part of the 2009 19 update to the state's building energy code. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else online? Okay. Um, hi, my name's Jean Woo and among other things, I'm a member of the Albany Climate Action Coalition. I'm also the owner of a solar and battery installation company and um my understanding about the title 24 regulations for new construction is that it is permissive. It is required in certain large construction tracks, but for individual um new construction for single family homes, it is one of many things that one can juggle in order to reach a point where you meet the title 24 recommendations. So, it is not absolutely essential for everyone to get solar. So, actually reducing the the permit fees could be useful. Um the other thing that is really important is to understand that if we are promoting electrification, we really need to get people to add the solar and batteries. And my recent um work in the city put me in a situation where I was in quite a bit of shock about the size of the permit fees for solar and batteries. And that's not even counting the EV charger. And I was really quite surprised and so was the homeowner. So, I I think it would be a really good thing to do this fee waiver. Also, I think it would also be helpful to include the solar um hot water in case somebody wants to use that as an option. Um, you would think that people down here don't actually get that much heat on their homes, but we are facing increasingly warm climates and it may be something that could be useful for people who don't want to install a

ton of solar panels, but would like to reduce their bill and use solar hot water. So, it would be good to add that. The other thing that's really important about EV chargers, I want to admit, is that there is very little reason to believe that they are a risk for anyone's security. The only risk for security has to do with the inverters, which can actually be hacked. And so, it's important for people to install inverters that can't be hacked. And that is an inverter specific um item. And it's not something that you know installers know what to put in. So um you don't need to worry so much about that. But increasing the number of people who have electricity from sun being able to charge their cars from the sun being able to utilize the battery to reduce the excessive PG& chargers um would be a real bonus not only for Albany but for the entire grid. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments.

And let's come back to council for comments and I can um thank you council member Mickey for thinking this over and I certainly agree with all your ideas for adjusting the recommendation I made. No further ado, I will go ahead and establish. Uh not yet. That's all right. Not yet. Not yet. Okay.

I have a few comments. Um, I think this is a good idea. I think we should really look at it. We just had a budget report. Um, what I'm concerned about is if we take away revenue on one side, happens on the other side. So, I think this needs a little bit more study. I'm not sure changing the rules midstream is really necessary. This already all practical purposes. March. We're going to look at this in June or May May or June. I would I would like to see us wait, study it a little bit more, make sure we understand what the cost is, how we're going to make that up in the budget that's really continuously balanced. Um, and maybe think about if there's other options like you came up with maybe some other ideas. I think this needs just a little bit more thought and I'm not sure that waiting another five months is terribly detrimental. So that would be my my proposal. Having said that, you may make your motion.

I will add a cost analysis to the motion. Um, which I imagine staff would do anyway as a part of staff report. I will move to Can I say something about that then? Sure. If we're going to wait again until we we get a staff analysis, maybe several months, you know, a little time. Again, we're getting closer and closer to the and that we're going to do this um master fee schedule. Why not wait and put it in the master fee schedule starting July 1?

That may be when staff brings it back. The motion won't have a particular time to it. It will just be um should it pass a request to staff to bring back a master fee schedule with this these features in it um did not attend and I didn't include a recommendation as to when staff would do that. So that would be up to staff's discretion based on their capacity should pass. But I think we need to make the request now if that has to happen rather than wait for the master fee schedule to come forward which otherwise would not have this included in it. Would you agree with language it says for the next master fee schedule update?

Um I personally don't want to wait that long. Um, I would rather leave that to the discretion of of staff because there are projects as we've heard that are that are happening where these fees are a pretty substantial part of pretty substantial percentage of the cost. Um, how about no later than? No later than No later than getting it into the no later than that's fine. And does that give um you enough guidance to

it? I'm not sure no later than helps to be honest though. I think if it if it's acceptable to the council, what we would do uh with Dena and myself is um take the recommendation, do the analysis, do the cost analysis, and come back with something that's actionable, but also outline some options. And whether that's folded into the master fee schedule when it comes to you in June, July anyway or a little bit in advance of that, I think we can can be aware that our marching goal is most likely as of that master fee schedule update um comprehensively and less sooner. So if you want to add language, that's fine, but I think we

Okay. Do you need a motion to even go that far? um or is as developed I think is um fine including the if there was I don't I didn't hear the motion yet so well I haven't made a motion I haven't had a chance my question is do we need do we need a motion or do you have enough direction to prefer a motion yeah okay

so I will move um to ask staff to uh develop a master fee schedule that waves permit fees for all EV charger installations um for solar PB installations that are not otherwise mandatory and for um battery storage installations as well as solar thermal installations. I will second. And does that give you what you need? Okay. May we have a roll call, please? Council member Jordan.

Yes. Council member Lopez. Yep. Council member Mickey. Yes. Vice Mayor Hansen Romero. Yes. Mayor McCoy. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that. Okay, that brings us to item 12, council subcommittee reports. Members on appointed representation of Albany and other meetings and events. Let's start over here before I start.

Um, so I attended a waste management meeting and as many of you may have noticed going into your local stores, you are no longer seeing those plastic bags. They're being replaced by paper bags. Some are better than others, but also, you know, still to encourage that you bring your own reusable bag is is really ideally the goal that we're moving forward with. Um, one of the things that I do have to say is that um, one of the past meetings and realizing that, you know, even the compostable uh, bags or that the ones that are are brought to you saying, "Oh, you know, your uh, green waste in these bags and they're not good either." So, at least maybe you can use those paper bags and put your compostables in that before you toss it out so it's not so messy. But, um, yeah. and and uh one of the things that was mentioned at the meeting is that there's still kind of um not uh sufficient uh explanation of that people are still purchasing these bags. So when when consumers are at the checkout, sometimes the uh people helping them at the checkout are forgetting to say, "Would you like this 10 cent bag or you know, so uh just to be kind of aware of that and that they're they're working on some more language and prompting in that." So and that's it. That was about it. and um oh also attended the Lunar Solano Avenue Association hosted the Lunar New Year festival uh at Church on the Corner. Thanks to Church on the Corner for that. Um and uh this uh school um the schools and their programs were there and and um

did poems and songs and dances and it was a wonderful wonderful event. um lots more people this year because it wasn't on Super Bowl Sunday for a change. Um being that we had it at church on the corner, it had to uh be on a Saturday in instead, but it was a great event and uh looking forward to doing it here again hopefully next year. So, Jordan,

thank you, Mayor. Um, I attended the planning, policy and legislative committee of the Alamia County Transportation Commission and happy to report that the development of the active transportation plan is for the county is moving forward. um staff announced that the survey of how all the jurisdictions in the county maintain their sidewalks or approach sidewalk maintenance has been done and I'm quite curious to see what comes out, what Albany might learn um what others might learn from Albany. Uh it's been trying to get the the agency to do this um inventory for a decade. Uh so final finally success on that. Um, and I attended a meeting of the Alama County Mosquito Obement District and it had a presentation on a particular approach that potentially could be used in the future to reduce andor control the population of 80s Egypti which is an invasive mosquito that is a disease a vector from numerous diseases. Um this particular technology is to b you breed mosquitoes, select out the males and infect them with a bacteria called wbakia which is common among other insect species and when a wbakia infected male mosquito eventually dissipates over time is selected against obviously um and so the the environmental studies that have been done found that that it has no long-term impact. It's a shorter term remedy. So there'll probably be more information coming forward about that, but I just want to let this body know. Um that's something that's out there. Uh we don't have a adj um and likely endemic at this time. Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

You member Mickey.

Uh no updates. Uh yes, I had uh attended the Ocean View Elementary um I don't even know uh spring dance festival. I all I know is my chief of staff had a blast when he went to the little children's rave in the gym. Um uh but it was an opportunity to help support uh some of the happenings on on the campus and trying to provide um monetary support for the field trip that the the students are aiming to to accomplish. And I believe I heard they met their goal. I was really happy to hear that. And I do know one's coming up for Marin Elementary as well. Um I'm making my rounds. Um and then I'd also participated in um a webinar session for Senator Padilla and Senator Schiff uh federal appropriation um session which is very insightful. Um I think there's probably plenty of information. I see uh Mayor McQuade nod in their head. So probably information that uh maybe the both of us will probably be funneling over to city staff. But um it again is really insightful to hear and learn about the process and that um you know just how to better streamline it and how we could advocate for our communities more effectively. Um and just being able to have that door open uh means a lot. Um and I do have my AVA Energy Board meeting tomorrow. So next meeting I should have some fruitful update. That concludes my reports.

Great. Thank you. Um, I attended the housing authority where I um volunteered again to be on the scholarship committee which is always just a really amazing experience. And I attended the um I'm to shine event and I attached information about the um family self-sufficiency program to the agenda. It's a summary of last year and the amazing work that program does and I brought you all a program. I attended the chamber mixer recently, the mayor's conference, which luckily was in Berkeley this time. It was great, wonderful speaker on um homelessness and housing. I attended the school district black history month celebration and then we went to Sacramento for VIP day with the uh why use government program, which is always outstanding. I look for your daughter. Was she there? Did your daughter go? No,

my daughter unfortunately could not attend uh that conference because she found herself in New Mexico uh interviewing for a boarding school program. Um okay, so that was that. Um and we do have our representative to oops to the uh Alama County Parat Transit Advisory and Planning Commission. Um DD Pacino is here. Would you like to say hello and give us a brief brief update. And as you're coming up, let me thank you for all the time and energy that you put into being on that um advisory body.

Thank you. I've enjoyed it. It's been good. Um everybody, thank you. You all do a great job and I appreciate having you here and being able to share what I'm doing with Papco. I'm really really enthused about it. Um I believe like Mahatma Gandhi that basically you measure a community by how it takes care of its most vulnerable members and basically Papco does a really good job with that. Um barring of course financial that's an issue as it is for everybody. Um so what we've done in uh what we're looking forward to basically is um we've implemented guidelines and performance measures for paratransit programs and that has been approved um and it's been approved independent of funding which tells me that implicitly there's a nod to not enough money. So, that's just something to kind of I'll have an eye on. Um, basically, we are in the middle of doing an Alama County mobility needs assessment for older adults and that's been moving along a pace and we just had a vote on what the most important things were. Um, my number one priority was emergency evacuation. I cannot imagine what a living hell it would be to be in a natural disaster and you can't get out, you can't take care of yourself, and nobody can come help you. That would just be a nightmare. So, that's my my vote. Um, so that is moving along and it's getting finalized and we'll have it ready by the end of this fiscal year. We will also be approving our budget for all the cities

within Alama County again the end of the fiscal year. Any questions? Well, thank you very much for coming tonight and for sharing. Very interesting meeting.

They all are. And that brings us to item 13, future agenda items. Anyone on council have future agenda items? None. Anyone in the public? Oh, my hand just went up. Yes, this is Lucinda Young. Um, and um, uh, I think this is appropriate for new agenda. This is, um, really something that I'd love to see our city um, do again. Um, in 2020, if I'm recalling correctly, um, the date the city held a workshop on waste, uh, responsible waste management. And, um, I think there's a real need for that. Again, um, that was led, it was a a collaboration between waste management and city staff. I had talked to waste management, the waste management rep for Albany. She'd said that she'd love to do it, but she needed to do it um with the city. Albony Climate Action Coalition had actually reached out to her to see if she would do it. And I know there was a commenter tonight, Elaine Stelton, who was complaining about the city enforcing um the sorting rules, which is actually state law SP 1383. Susan,

I'm I'm going to stop you now. We got the agenda item and we don't want to get into discussing it. Thank you very much. Anybody else?

Hi, Nick Peterson, Albany Climate Action Coalition. Just a quick thing. I think the city should consider moving the update on the climate action and adaptation plan goals that Michelle Plaus gives to the climate action committee to a to a city council um event. I think more of the public would attend, more people would be able to um be aware of what's going on, what our goals are, what the city's doing to support it, and you know, measures and and advantages and rebates they can get via the city. So, I'm not sure when Michelle gives that climate action committee, but it would be good to make it something that's more citywide. Um, ideally, there would be like some event at the community center.

Thank you. having it at the city council meeting would be fine. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Hi, this is Jean Buu again. Thank you so much for having such a great meeting. Um, I wanted to agree with Lucinda that for many of us in the city of Albany, the waste um, measures and what we're supposed to put in which bin are a complete mystery and it would be time to have some kind of a public meeting where people can really learn how they're supposed to do this rather than getting slapped on the hand for doing it wrong because they just didn't know. Um, the other thing is the climate action and adaptation plan needs to be updated. It needs to include um one or more resilience hubs. It needs to look at how Albany will

I'm gonna I'm gonna stop you. This we heard you and this is the time just to state your agenda item, not to discuss it. Thank you. We did note it. Thank you.

That it um upcoming meetings and events are on the website. City manager listed a bunch that are coming up. As we move to adjournment tonight, we're going to adjourn in memory of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. As we close this meeting, we reflect on his enduring reminder to all of us. The only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up. And with that, we are adjourned.