City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good evening and welcome to the Antioch regular city council meeting of April the 14th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, could you please take the role? Thank you. Council member Roachcha here. Council member Torres Walker, present. Council member Wilson here. Mayor Prom Freighus, present. Mayor Bernol, here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 5:30 p.m. All right. Will you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, we uh have um three items on our closed session. Um but before we get to that, are there any public comments tonight? Yes, Mr. Hernandez, please. Now, this will be on the close session. One of the items you guys have on there. Okay. If you could let us know one basically. Okay.

Okay. Uh Ralph Hernandez, um citizen of Antioch. What I'm looking for is some future proper negotiations that are carried out by the city. You know, everybody wants a good salary, benefits, uh city to progress and to have a financial future for the city. However, during negotiations for decades, what the city has done is they have used the wrong comparisons to reach what is going to be spent in particular on employees and on their benefits and equipment and so on so forth. Uh basically the city has used four other cities Walnut Creek, Richmond, conquered and one of the other ci Pittsburgh I believe uh to compare against when you reach what you are going to pay and what you are going to benefit your employees. However, that is absolutely wrong. It's a wrong approach. You need to change that. You need to really sit down and look at what the city of Antioch and Antioch alone can afford. We do not have the assets or the incomes that are coming into those other communities. You need to be real about what your negotiators are going to negotiate. With that in mind, you cannot compare with Walnut Creek. You cannot compare with Richmond. You have to use what we have and what we are going to get. You have to basically make sure that the public understands that that you only have so much money. We have a need for quite frankly, I've

said it over and over, 145 minimum sworn officers in order to provide the public safety that is necessary. and needed sadly needed here in the city of Antioch irrespective of what the other communities have they all have somewhere around 1.2 two officers per thousand sworn. We don't. We definitely do not. So, here's what you need to do. You need you need to get with some citizens. You need to sit down, have a thoughtful, honest, and realistic approach as to what you are going to spend. Quit comparing with other communities. quit telling some of your employee groups that they will be the second highest uh comparatively to the other jurisdiction in pay and benefits. It just doesn't work. That's why you don't not have the funds that you have and the other communities are going for increases, sales tax, property increases. Forget it. We will fe we will fight you. I will fight you. The last one I was involved in, it was 92 or 72% of the public voted no.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment? No further comments. All right, I'll turn this over to our city attorney now uh to describe our close session items.

There are three items on today's close session agenda. Item number one is conference with labor negotiators uh regarding the following employee organizations. management unit, treatment plant employees association, operating engineers local union number three, confidential unit, Antioch Police Officers Association, and Antioch Police Sworn Management Association. The city designated representatives are Jason Uert, Labor Council, Anna Cortez, Human Resources Director, and Don Rich, acting city manager. This close session discussion is authorized pursuant to California Government Code section 54957.6. Item number two is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation ray California resources pipeline corporation versus city of Antioch contrast court case number MSN21-2354. This close session discussion is authorized pursuant to California government code section 54956.9D1. And item number three is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation Ray Jason Robinson versus Antioch Unified School District. Antioch water park, city of Antioch, Contraosta Superior Court, case number C20-02420. This close session discussion is authorized pursuant to California government code section 54956.9D1. And that's it.

All right. Thank you. We are adjourned uh to close session. Meeting adjourned at 5:36 p.m.

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Heat. Heat. All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome to our city council meeting of April the 14th, 2026. Uh Mr. Clerk, can you please take the role? Thank you. Council member Roachche,

here. Council member Torres Walker, present. Council member Wilson, here. Mayor Pro Tim Freighus, present. Mayor Bernol here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 7:08 p.m. All right. Thank you very much. Will you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? All right. Good evening. Liberty.

All right. That's not our normal pledge of allegiance music either. So, just let you all know. Um um we were in close session prior to this uh start of this meeting. So, I apologize. We're starting a little bit late. And um madam city attorney, can you please report out on that?

There were three items on today's close session agenda. the first with conference with labor negotiators uh regarding the following employee organizations management unit treatment plan employees association operating engineers local union number three confidential unit anoch police ass officers association and antioch police horn management association and there are no reportable actions taken from that item u the second item was a conference with legal counsel on existing litigation for the California Resources Pipeline Corporation versus city of Antioch matter and there are no reportable actions taken from that matter And the last is the conference with legal counsel on existing litigation uh for Jason Robinson versus Antioch Unified School District, Antioch Water Park and City of Antioch. And there are no reported reactions on that item.

All right. Thank you very much. Um it's now time for public comments. This is on an agenda item, Mr. Clerk. Thank you. Can we please have Lisa followed by JR?

Good evening. My name is Lisa Kirk. I'm part of an advocacy group called Fix Our Shelters out of Sacramento. I see that you have you're going to honor your AC officers, which is a great thing, but I think most of you don't realize how complicated municipal sheltering has become due to the fact that we have a domestic overpopulation. The grand jury in Contraosta County estimated 450,000 indooroutdoor cats back in 2021. I'm here today to try to talk to you about some of that we need resources as rescues. I assist the public here in Antioch with spay and neuters of cats. I just did a home off of James Donlin, 30 cats. The man has cancer. He was on radiation and chemo. Had 15 kittens. When he called the Antioch shelter, no one would help him. He talked to Ben Winkleback at CC. no one would help them. It is individuals like myself and 501c3s that are actually doing the work. Now, because of the overpopulation, a lot of shelters have adopted community-based sheltering, meaning we'll leave it to you guys outside, which are rescues and people like me that do it as a volunteer. They have managed intake. If you don't get some spay and neuters in this city, it's just going to get worse and you're just going to overpop populate and over demand of your animal services. Ben Wlebach with Contraosta Animal Services has made a decision not to help the residents here spay and neuter their animals through Contraosta County. Historically, this has been done for three decades. Someone needs to talk to Ben and ask him what this is. If there's a play to get Antioch to join Contraosta Animal

Services, I'm I don't have an opinion on that. What you guys need is spay and neuter services. You have microchip clinics and vaccine clinics. They don't get at the problem. So, I am hoping that we we've contacted Mr. Bernell. There's been a few of us that we can sit down with you, explain the complications of municipal sheltering and the domestic overpopulation and get you some funding for some spay and neuter clinics. I am also in Sacramento. There's the animal balance clinic. They come in, they do 300 animals in a weekend, but you'll need to fund some of that. And if you go back to CCAS, their per capita rate for their contracted cities are between nine and 10 do $10 per capita. It might reduce your $2 million budget for your animal services. You might be able to figure out another plan. You have got to get spay and neuters because when people are now calling your shelter regarding cats, they are turned away, unaltered, left on the streets. Fix Our Shelters Facebook page. Please go to it. Thank you,

J.R. and Vilma Wilson.

It looks like my sister is not here to be with me. Um, but I would just like to announce that we are having a Memorial Day service at the Oakview Memorial um cemetery on East 18th Street. That's going to be May 25th and it's a city of Antioch sponsored event. So, everybody is welcome to show up. We have a 8:00 pancake breakfast that's going to be conducted by the Antioch Rivertown Veterans Lions Club. Um, and so that will start at 8 and the ceremony starts at 10:00. We may have a fly over. So that'd be kind of cool. And then at 12:00 we have a VFW barbecue at the Antioch John McMullen VFW post. So again, May 25th, Memorial Day services start at the Oak View Memorial Day or Memorial Ceremony Cemetery um at 8:00. Ceremony starts at 10 o'clock. Barbecue at the Antioch VFW at 12: All right. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. We have no further speaker cards. All right. Moving uh moving on to our next item, which is proclamations. Do I have a motion to uh approve the proclamations? So moved. Motion. Have a second. Second. A motion from council member Wilson, second from council member Roach. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 5-0.

All right. So, we have four proclamations tonight. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read the proclamations. the person who's going to receive that uh will come forward and say a few words and then we will proceed that way until we get finished with the four proclamation. Then the full council will come down and we will take pictures with each of the uh folks that um got a proclamation. So that's that's the way this will work. So uh thank you all for filling the chambers tonight. I suspect a lot of this is for um for one of one or more of these proclamations. So first one is in honor of reach project 50 55th an year year anniversary founded by the late Shirley Marquetti. Whereas in 1968 a group of Antioch parents led by the late Shirley Marquetti created the reach project which stands for rehabilitation education and awareness for community humanitarianism in response to challenges faced by youth in the community. Whereas the reach project was formed on April the 1st, 1970 by Shirley Marquetti and the Antioch Police Department with support from the Antioch city council leaving a legacy of service to the community. Whereas reach was established as a shared responsibility between the city of Antioch, Antioch Police Department, Antioch Unified School District and Contraosta Health Services Department focusing on youth factors and their community needs. Whereas REACH has delivered educational counseling and treatment services for ANOCH youth, adults and their families through innovative justice system alternatives programs in local schools and family based services. And whereas um April 1, 2026, reach uh project celebrated 55 years of community work joining local law enforcement, education, health services, businesses, and parent groups into a shared responsibility model of long-standing and community relevant family-based services. Now therefore, I, Ron Bernell, mayor of the city of Antioch, hereby salute Reach Project for its long-standing dedication, support,

and positive influence on the city of Antioch. And if Mickey Marquetti is here, the uh son of Shirley MarQuetti, uh if you'd come on down and say a few words on behalf of the black community, thank you, Mayor Bernal. Wow, how special. I was talking um earlier um about the significance. I don't know why I should be surprised, but when you hit these milestones and these numbers and 50 and 55, um just what a wonderful time and a and a a time to reflect. So, Mayor Bernol and members of the council, city staff, uh members of the audience, including, I understand, a championship, uh high school team of some sort. Um thank you so much you know for the u for the proclamation. If I can just quickly um it's not really introduced but um mentioned a little bit more than mentioned. We have uh today um with my mom's recognition and memorializing we have family members here. My siblings are here. Can they each wave so you all see them? We have members of the REAT staff. So Lou, you stay sit down. You're retired read staff. And Don, thank you. Um and can you wave our reach staff? Yes. So thank you. So, um I certainly don't want to go on too long with the busy agenda and and the other wonderful uh proclamation um recognitions that go on, but I'll just

say this much when I you know mentioned reflecting um looking back at um because it wasn't always smooth. I mean there there's you know that's just the reality of life. But with particularly with each accomplishment and I'll tell you probably none more than in 1986 when the then city manager and my mom found what is now and has been for decades the community reach center on D Street and just um looking back at those critical times I mean the city was shouldertoshoulder with us um I almost felt en envied um by other providers you know throughout. I mean being kind of you know disgrateful. So thank you so much you know on behalf of our board of directors and all our staff the many participants past and present and um in in all likelihood future. So thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. Yeah. Would the city council like to say anything?

Yeah. I just wanted to um share a couple comments. Um, many of you may not know, some of you do, that um, I worked for Reach Project for 10 years, uh, as a counselor when I first got out of college. And so I just want to share a couple of comments. Um, first of all, I met Shirley MarQuetti when I was a student at Aniac High School in 1978. That kind of obviously dates me in terms of years. Um, she was a reach counselor at time at that time. And there was a gentleman named Jim uh, Samford who was also a teacher. So there were two counselors at Antioch. Uh my brother introduced me to Shirley Marquetti because he spoke so highly about this person that was making a difference in his life. So I met her and before I knew it, she became an adviser, a mentor and a guiding light for me as she did for so many other students at Antioch High School. While attending Lasanas College trying to figure out what I was going to do, she brought me back to be a counselor intern and work with youth as like a big brother, working with kids that were in trouble and trying to do something I could to try to show them a different way. Following my graduation from San Diego State, having a degree in psychology and not knowing what I was going to do with it, I was fortunate that Shirley Marquetti reached out to me and offered me a position to work for Reach Project. I worked for Reach Project for 10 years. I also work with Mickey Marquetti and in a sense the Roachcha family and the Marqueti family have become one same family over throughout all those years. One of the things I wanted to share is that um during that time when I worked um at Parkshire High School for 10 years representing Reach and working with Rick Marchoke who at that time was the first school resource officer. Um, so I did that for 10 years with him and I just really believe that um, if it if it was that experience that helped me lead me away to where I am today. I just wanted to say I'm grateful for the support received from Shirley Marquetti and Reach Project for the career that has been so rewarding for me. An example of

that is just this week I had a gentleman call me from Oregon out of the blue. He contact me for the city council website and he just wanted to let me know that years ago I taught him this thing called cost and reward and that it taught him how to make good decisions and now that he's much older and he's still working, he's married, he wanted to thank me and it's phone calls like that from students of the past that make it all worthwhile. So, I just want to say on behalf of Reach Project and especially to Shirley Marquetti, she'll always be uh remembered for all the work that she did in this community along with the family that she raised that have done so much for our community, but she'll never be forgotten. I just want you to share that my words with you tonight.

Thank you, Louis. Thank you for those kind words. All right. Thank you. Yes. All right. Yes.

Um thank you for your work. Um, as a former systems involved youth myself, you all have found a way to make room for young people who are facing challenges in the city of Antioch. I sit on a lot of bodies at the county level talking about criminalization and incarceration. Still today, the city of Antioch has the highest number of young people in our juvenile facilities because they don't have access to diversion programs um and transitional opportunities. And just to note that reach exists in Antioch and want to actually have a conversation about what is the ex what does expansion look like? How do we make sure Antioch has no young people in our juvenile facilities because they are getting the diversion and the opportunities that they need here at home. So thank you again and looking forward to what a wonderful goal. I know our mother and our former director I never know how to call her mom. Shirley, I know that um she'd be uh on her cell phone with you tonight after the council meeting. I know. And that's how that's how reach moved forward. So, thank you for that. Yeah, that's a wonderful goal.

Perfect. All right. Anybody else? Thank you, Mickey. Thanks. Appreciate that.

All right. Our second second proclamation is uh recognition honoring Cornerstone Christian School's 2026 state championship basketball teams uh April 2026. Whereas Cornerstone Christian Center and Cornerstone Christian School have long served as valued institutions in the Antioch community, fostering spiritual growth, community engagement, and a commitment to developing young people of purpose, integrity, and service. Whereas Cornerstone Christian School has built a strong reputation for providing an education that supports the development of students academically, spiritually, and athletically while um encouraging excellence, discipline, leadership, and character. Whereas throughout the 202526 basketball season, both the cornerstone Christian school Christian school girls and boys high school basketball teams demonstrated extraordinary perseverance, teamwork, sportsmanship, and dedication, representing their school and the city of Antioch with pride and distinction. Whereas a cornerstone Christian school girls basketball team achieved an exceptional milestone by winning the 2026 CIF State Division Six Championship, reflecting the team's resilience, unity, and unwavering commitment to excellence. And whereas the Cornerstone Christian School boys basketball team achieved an historic accomplishment by securing the 2026 CIF State Championship, establishing a new legacy of excellence for the school and bringing great pride to the ANOT community. And whereas these accomplishments reflect not only the talent and hard work of the student athletes, but also the invaluable leadership of coaches, the support of families, and the strength of the broader cornerstone Christian school community. And whereas the success of these teams has brought honor to the city of Antioch and serves at an as an inspiration to future generations to pursue excellence in athletics,

academics, and character. Now therefore, I, Ron Bernell, mayor of the city of Antioch, hereby proclaim April 14, 2026 as a day of recognition honoring the Cornerstone Christian School girls and boys teams for their 2026 CIF State Championship victories and extend sincere congratulations to the student athletes, coaches, school leadership, families, and the entire Cornerstone Christian School community. Congratulations So, so I have I have down here, and I'm sure this could be subject to change, but we have athletic director Madison Alexander. Um, we have Ben Lucas and we have Danielle Bologan. Um, joining him down here,

sir. Um, so first and foremost, you want you want the trophy and this is Mr. Mike Montine coming down here.

I'm going to be brief because I want the kids to speak, but first I want to just give honor to God. Um, everything starts with a vision. Um, and with our belief and our faith and what you're demonstrating here, you're demonstrating 32 kids who just believe in what we're doing. And anytime we can honor kids in a positive way um is humbling and someone whose life been impacted by sports and whose life's been saved by sports. I know the passion we can do in ministry when it comes to sports. And so I'm just super honored and humbled to be here. U I want to thank the count city of Antioch the council. Um most of these journeys people don't understand it comes down to it takes everybody. Um it's picking a kid off the street, bring them to the bus, it's giving them opportunity. It's the parent who decides to tutor a kid. Um all these moments come together. And so when you look at our story and what we did this year, um it's it's it's a historical faith-based story and it comes down to so many people thought this was an opportunity. And so um I want to turn it over to Ben here first and have a story then then Danielle and then I have some closing words and then I again I want to make sure that we honor the coaches, the school itself, um everyone who played a part. There's 200 plus people who play a part of this. We only going to get three up here right now, but it's just not about us. It's about the parents and everything else. But when I do that, I'm give it over to Ben.

Uh yeah. Uh first and foremost, um on behalf of me, um my teammates, all the coaches, and you know, just the cornerstone community, I'd like to say thank you, uh Mayor Brenell, and the uh city council members for, you know, honoring us today. Um this is a a special moment, and we're all thankful for you guys. So, thank you. Um, and secondly, uh, the five or so months during the season, um, took a lot of hard work and determination from everybody. Um, and, you know, we're all super blessed and grateful to, you know, be able to be a part of this historic moment and we're all honored to, you know, be be able to, you know, represent not only Cornerstone, but the city of Antioch. So none of this pos none of this is possible without you know everyone's support. So thank you.

Okay. Hi guys. Hi.

So first I want to thank God for giving us the strength, the opportunity and the ability to be there here today because none of this is possible without him. We want to thank our parents and families for the love, support and sacrifices. You've been with us through every high and low and we're forever grateful. To my teammates, thank you. Our journey hasn't been perfect. We face adversity, doubt, and challenges, but we stayed together, kept working, and trusted the process. Every practice and every game helped shaped who we are. Winning a state championship this year is something we'll always carry with us, and we're grateful for the opportunity to experience that together. We also want to thank our coaches and school for believing in us, pushing us, and holding us to a high standard. You helped us grow, not just as players, but as a people. as some of us get ready to graduate and move forward, we're very thankful for everyone who has been a part of this journey and we're excited for what's next. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Danielle. Uh last thing I'll say is uh it's my goal 12 months from now for us to be doing this again because we win another state championship. So, put that on the calendar. We we're going to do this again one more time. But that said, I turn it back over you, Mayor. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Uh I don't know if any of the council members want to want to say anything. Council Roachcha.

Yeah. Um, for people that know me, they know that I've been affiliated with high school sports for quite a long time. Um, I had the unique opportunity to compete in high school in the North Coast section. Um, make it to the championships but never made it to state. I had the opportunity to coach high school football at Conquered High, Antioch High, win championships but not make it to state. I was the principal at Antioch High School for 18 years. And following that, I served on the North Coast section as president and I also served on the CIF executive committee. So I I know of Ethan and I know his family and so I've heard about your program and so I've kept an eye on it for years as a member of the CIF. Um, and so I just want to share that for a small high school from the city of Antioch, to have two high school teams, both varsity girls and varsity boys, advanced to the farthest they could go in the highest level of competition is quite an accomplishment. um for for my understanding was the boys were level six division before.

Yeah.

And they went to as far as they could and there was no state uh game for them at level six. So this year they were bumped up to level three at a higher competition. The girls team, which is division six, they went as far as they could. I had the opportunity to attend that game at Cornerstone Christian and see them win the Northern California Championship, the highest level they could go at level six. The boys who were moved up to level three this year to face stiffer competition. Not only did they face stiffer competition, they overcame and became the number one team and ended up winning the state championship at Golden One in Sacramento. Mayor Bernal and I happened to be able to be there courtside and to come and see the team after they won and congratulate them. And so the one thing I just want to share because I'm kind of a historian being that I was with the Antioch Sports Legend for a while, there's a museum down on Fourth Street that has all the history. I just want to say in all the years since 1910 in the state of California, Antioch, the city of Antioch only has one championship state championship team. That was from Antioch High School. That was the 1988 wrestling team from Antioch High. They won the state championship until now. And now we have a second team. So, I just want to congratulate the boys and girls and let the boys know that in some time down the road, your team will be honored in the museum as being the second state champion from the city of Anniac. Thank you for bringing pride in.

And don't forget the girls, Louie. Boys, girls,

well, the girls I think is going to happen with the girls is like the boys, they're going to get bumped up to probably three. and they're going to be able to see how far they can go next year like the boys did. So, but for for one I I was like I said I was at a higher to have one high school with two champions in the CIF in the same year is unheard of. I've never seen that happen until now. So, congratulations Mr. Roacha. That was a good save. That was a very good save. All all I would like to do is have all the team members, their parents, sponsors stand up. This is an incredible honor and we need to applaud you. And I just wanted to say I'm I'm super proud. Uh, you know, Ben was the MVP of that championship game and it was super exciting to sit courtside. Never never done that before. Now I know how all the celebrities feel. But uh, thank you thank you Mr. Roachcha for for that invitation. But no, it's super it's super cool to watch um an Antioch team compete uh at that level at a school that was much much bigger as were many of them that you competed against and just uh see how well you did and how well the the young men and I'm sorry I didn't see the the girls game but how how well the young men conducted themselves and so very proud of you all. So thank you. All right. And then we'll we'll get you guys back up with the whole the whole team and the trophy and the whole whole works. Get some pictures in a minute.

All right. Thank you. All right. Our next proclamation is in recognition of Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week, April 12th to April 18th. Whereas the National Animal Care and Control Association, NACA, has designated the second full week in April as Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week. Whereas animal control officers serve our community by enforcing animal related laws, protecting public safety and health, reducing the spread of disease such as rabies, and promoting responsible pet ownership. Whereas these dedicated professionals frequently put themselves in dangerous and emotionally taxing situations to rescue injured, abandoned or abused animals, providing a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. Whereas animal control officers provide essential services including reuniting lost pets with their families, handling wildlife, and educating the public on animal welfare. And whereas the city of Annioch wishes to recognize the compassion, dedication, and professionalism displayed by our local animal control officers and staff in their service to our residents and animals. Now therefore, I, Ron Bernell, mayor of the city of Antioch, hereby proclaim the week of April 12th to April 18th as Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week in the city of Antioch. Congratulations. Is uh Cat Cat Codle here? There she is. Fearless leader of animal control.

Good evening. I don't know how to follow that. I should have brought some puppies and kittens for everybody in the audience, but uh that's an amazing feat. You guys are awesome. Girls, too. So, thank you, Mayor Council, for this recognition. On behalf of Antioch Animal Services, we're grateful to acknowledge um animal control officer appreciation week and I want to recognize animal control officer Anderson who in her first year has shown a true commitment to this work and to the community she serves. She's standing in the corner. This recognition, this recognition reflects our entire team um including our animal care staff um volunteers and partners. And I want to give a special thank you to Friends of Animal Services who sponsor adoption fees and support so many efforts to help uh the animals get ready for adoption and continue the care in the shelter. As we look into 2026, we're focused on strengthening our field coverage and expanding access to services and continuing to meet the needs of the community. Uh Michelle is the president of Friends of Animal Services and wanted to share a few words as well. And thank you. Thank you, Cat. Uh good evening, mayor, council members, staff, and community. On behalf of Antioch Friends Animal Services, we'd like to sincerely thank you for recognizing National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week along with National Animal Care and Control Week. We're incredibly grateful for the dedicated animal control officers, the staff and interns, which is a great program by the way. Thank you guys for doing that. At Antioch Animal Services, their work is not only physically demanding, but emotionally challenging as well. We're so incredibly fortunate to have our own animal services within Antioch. Dedicated to meeting the unique needs in our community and to have animal control officers who recognize

and address the needs through established relationships. Our animal control officers are vested in Antioch. Every day they show compassion, resilience, and deep commitments to protecting both animals and the community that they serve. We'd also like to recognize the many volunteers who generously give their time and energy to support the shelter. Your efforts truly make a difference and you are deeply appreciated. Additionally, we would want to acknowledge the leadership at Antioch Animal Services for strengthening partnerships and rebuilding relationships with local nonprofits and nonprofits in the surrounding areas and outside of our surrounding areas. These collaborations have brought critical resources, services, and support to the shelter and the broader community, especially during a time when the need is so great. Thank you again for your support, your recognition, and proclamation.

All right. Thank you so much. And our uh last proclamation is for Arbor Day, which is April 24th, 2026. Whereas in 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. Whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. Whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling cost, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. Whereas trees beautify our community and are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, and fuel for our fires. Whereas the city of Antioch has been named Tree City USA for the 21st consecutive year. And whereas the city of Antioch will be celebrating Arbor Day with a tree planting at Puit Community Park on April the 24th, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. and all members of the community are welcome. Now therefore, I, Ron Bernell, mayor of the city of Antioch, hereby proclaim April 24, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Antioch and urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. Thank you. Is uh Melissa Ortiz Gray here? I see her coming up to receive the proclamation. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you for having me here. It's such an honor to be recognized um here in the city of Antioch and amongst this fantastic crowd of people who've provided so much service and done so many great things um tonight. So um thank you for having us. I'm here rec um u representing Holy Rosary Catholic School. I'm the principal, first year principal this year, but this is the fourth year I believe that we've partnered with the city of Antioch to um recognize Arbor

Day and give service. Um I just wanted to say thank you so much for um inviting us out to do this again. I we really look forward to this uh activity every year. Um Holy Rosary is a Catholic school and this falls perfectly in alignment with our Catholic social teachings of um giving service to others and caring for God's creation. Um, I will say that our eighth graders, I have some of um, our eighth graders here tonight um, as well as our eighth grade teacher and um, we have a capstone project that all of our eighth graders um, go through um, before they graduate and it's a time of reflection um, and they have to focus on one part their academics but also their service and um, last year when I was sitting through the ropes presentations so many of our students listed this service project as their most favorite project that they've done um in throughout their time at Holy Rosary. We start our kids um with service to the community starting as young as preschool. And so they grow up doing service all year, every year, multiple times as a class, as individuals, as families. And so I just wanted to let you know how um how much we really appreciate this partnership and it means a lot to us that uh you ask us to come out and we hope to continue this partnership for many years to come. And um thank you for the lunch that the kids really enjoy the barbecue that you guys put on every year. And I was actually speaking with um a parent of one of our graduates. Um I think his class was probably the first class that um participated in Arbor Day and she was telling me that he still talks about that project and um one of his favorite things is that he can still go and see where the trees were that he planted and see their growth over time. And so I think it's really wonderful for our students to be able to participate to give back to our community um through service and to see you know the fruits of their labor. So thank you so much for having us.

All right. Thank you. So the city council is going to come on down and um hand out these um proclamations. Uh we're going to do cornerstone last since there's going to be a big group of you all up there. And then after Cornerstone, since I know it's a school night, we'll take a a short recess so everybody can kind of find their way out out if they if they want to. You're all always welcome to stick around and watch watch us in action. So, thank you.

Um, we'll start with Arbor Day first. All right.

I got called up by name. I'll go with Cassandra. Look at her. She's like sitting here. Take a picture.

Here we go. What happened?

Yeah. Let me do the same. She steps off. Watch everybody. video. I saw you guys.

Guys, come back. Are we supposed to be in

this? All right, I have the camera we want right now, folks. Everyone can just take a look at me. You That means the camera is going to face the center.

Paparazzi. Thank you so much. Meeting is in recess at 7:51 p.m.

Hey, Madison.

Oh, hey.

All right, welcome back from our recess. Uh, Mr. Clerk, can you please take the role? Okay. Council member Roachcha is absent. Council member Torres Walker, present. Council member Wilson here. Mayor Proemp Freigherus, present. Mayor Bern here. Council member Roachcha is is now present. Uh, thank you. We have a quorum at 7:59 p.m. All right. Excellent. Moving on to item number two, announcements of civic and community events. Do we have it? Yeah.

Is anybody gonna

civic? No. Civic and community. Okay.

Hi, mayor and council people and staff and residents of Antioch and all that are in the room. I'm Debbie Blazier, the president of the downtown Antioch Association and I'm here to announce four events. So, I'll talk fast. So, our Easter event on April 4th was quite a success. There were hundreds of families. Thank you, Mr. Bernell, for coming down and supporting us as well. Um, it was quite uh quite a success with the bunny pictures and royal banquet had uh activities for the kids. The egg hunt was run by Rivertown Community Church. I want to give a shout out to our pastor Jared who ran a very successful egg hunt. uh 4,500 eggs were given and 200 and more kids were were uh channeled through with no mishaps. So that's a that was a great feat. Uh stuffed animals uh Flory from Team Jesus gave 300 Easter baskets out. So a thank you to all that joined the DAA uh and the downtown and people that participated. So coming up is April 21st. The DA meeting will be at Lemon Tree on sec on Second Street. Uh we will be talking about the next upcoming events. We're very excited for April 25th. Rivertown Treasure Chest is is helping the Rivertown Jamberee. I don't know if anybody's here from Rivertown Jamberee. I don't want to talk for them, but we have tickets for a crab feed on April 25th. And um um Betty Smith is near and dear to our all of our hearts with the Rivertown Jamberee and the DEA wants to help support and sell tickets. So Crab Feed, wonderful Crab Feed at the VFW

April 25th. You can contact there's flyers all over and on um online, but also you can contact Rivertown Treasure Chest and we have tickets as well for sale. So, we need to get those tickets sold for Betty. Um, April 29th fashion show. So, Rivertown Treasure Chest has had this is our fourth year. Uh, we have a fashion show on Wednesday, April 29th. All the proceeds from the door and the sales of the fashions are um donated to the downtown Antioch Association for future events. So, this is our this is our first fundraiser and a way to get more um events and things for the businesses downtown. It goes directly back to the businesses. We're looking for some donations. We thank some of uh Ron Bernell has given a lunch and that. So, we have to bid high on that one. So, thank you very much. Uh chief also informed me today that he has a lunch. So maybe we can get some kind of bidding war between you and the chief on the on the lunchon as well too to raise money for a great cause. Uh last but not least, May 9th, a wine festival is going on. There are two events in town. Celebrate Antioch will be doing a Williamson Ranch festival and it goes a little bit uh shorter time than the downtown. There is absolutely no reason that everybody in town can't do both events. Come downtown, go to Williamson Ranch. Uh the wine festival, the DEA is going to be a part of it, but is also run by other organizers, Antoine Webster and Young uh Consulting. It's got big to-do downtown. May 9th, take for Mother's Day, and also go out to Williamson Ranch and support the

Celebrate Antioch team as well. So, two big things. We have 115,000 120,000 people. They should be showing up for both events. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. Any other All right. Thank you very much. Moving on to item number three, announcements of uh a board and commission openings. Thank you. The city of Antioch encourages residents to please be involved in your local community and you can serve on one of the various boards, commissions, and committees. The deadline is 5:00 p.m. Friday, May 1st. The sales tax citizens oversight committee has three fullterm vacancies expiring March of 2030 and two fullterm vacancies expiring March of 2028. To be considered for the vacancy position, please complete an application online and submit it to the city clerk's office by the deadline date listed above. They are located at the city's website and may be picked up in person here at city hall. Please email the completed application to the city clerk. You can also drop off your application at the water billing drop off box located in the parking lot just outside city hall. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Moving on to item number four, presentations. Uh we have two presentations tonight. The first one is coordinated outreach referral and engagement also known as core semianual report um from H3 presented by Shelby Ferguson uh the core program director. Shelby. All right. Oh, no. Shelby, welcome. There's actually a couple of us here this evening. Um, so, uh, I'm going to get us kicked off. So, good evening,

um, everybody, uh, Mayor Bernol and council members and the Antioch community. Um, I want to thank everybody for the opportunity to be here this evening and share updates on the work that we're doing in the city of Antioch to support our unhoused neighbors and community members. My name is Jenny Robbins. I'm uh the director of community response and I oversee our core program and I'm here with Shelby Ferguson, our d uh director of CORE. Oh, and I have a clicker. All right, next slide. All right. So to get us grounded in the work that we do, uh core stands for coordinated outreach, referral and engagement and we are a housing focused street outreach team. So we are working to get people from outside to inside through consistent engagement um and connection to services. Um we do everything on this slide from healthcare and behavioral health um connections, direct placements into shelter, transportation, um abatement support, connections to community resources, and so much more. Um, and these are really the tools that we use to build trust with people who are living outside so that they're open to our services, so that they're open to coming to inside. Um, and a lot of this work that we do takes time and it's complex. So, a lot of that time that we take to do trust building is working with individuals so that they will um, work with us to get them into shelter placements and other services. Um, I also want to underscore that despite not having enough shelter beds in our community, we still find creative ways to get folks into housing. And Shel's going to share some of those outcomes um with you later on in the presentation. All right. So, I want to start with giving a little bit of an update on how we got here today with having a core team that's um for the city of Annioch. And I want to acknowledge that we um have built strong city and county partnerships um to establish this team. Um the uh core team is partially funded by the encampment resolution grant. Um that's through the housing and community development program through the state. Uh city of Annoch was successful in writing an encampment resolution grant

and through that grant we were able to launch core. So this is a picture of the encampment at Sunset and Dev Park. Um I don't know if folks in here in the room are familiar um with this with this area. Um but it was a long-standing legacy encampment. Um these are pictures I think that were taken in I think about March or April of last year of 2025. Um and this shows um where we started. You can see there's pets, there's tents, there's debris, there's trash, there was a lot going on on this one site. Um and uh the next few slides are going to walk us through how we got our site from this state into a cleared clean um uh part of the community. So in order to do this work, it takes careful planning and preparation. So we worked closely with city staff to create a workflow to guide every step of this uh the work that we were um in engaged upon. Um the end goal was to transfer all of the 48 um residents of this encampment into uh the opportunity village program at the executive. Um but that took a lot of work and time and coordination. Um so we started with core um in April of 2025 and through that work we um we helped we got 39 individuals to get connected to document readiness to um their benefits, supports, income, um all the tools that you need to get into housing. I believe we did that for about four months. Um and then in August of 2025, we worked to move everybody into the executive in or otherwise known as opportunity village. Um, Opportunity Village has 247 staffing. We have a service provider on site and um, and they were ready to support um, the residents that were um, going into that program. Another part of this uh, work that we did is to get people into housing and developing a housing pathway. So that is through a rapid rehousing program with uh, rental

subsidies and wraparound case management support. And so, uh, you can see from the first picture to the end picture that you see, um, tents, cars, things of that nature. And now the area is clean and free of, um, anyone living there. Um, and now everybody is over at the, uh, opportunity village. So, in order to do this work, it takes careful coordination, planning, communication. So, we are engaged with city of Antioch, PD, um, Hope Solutions, uh, Housing Consortium of the East Bay. These are all partners that we work with in order to get our um project off the ground um and to work successfully. We are implementing a quarterly city meeting that will review all of our deliverables, our timelines for our grant and for the team. We also have monthly partner meetings which include the folks that are on um this slide. Um and we talk through our um all of our um updates at those at the monthly meetings. Um, we also have weekly by nameless meetings where we uh talk through each and every person that is at opportunity village and we talk through their housing plans and what their next steps are. And we um also meet with uh city of Antioch PD code enforcement every Wednesday to talk about um different hotspots in the community. Some of those to note are Wald Plaza, San Jose Drive, Lowe's Railroad, etc. and many more. Um Becky um who's here, she's our uh core coordinator was sharing that she gets um updates every day um regarding different encampments and locations that we are targeting and some of the lessons learned and the barriers that we've encountered through doing this work. Um pets is top of the list. Um I believe there were about 70 dogs and puppies that were at this encampment location when we first began. all those um uh dogs that went into the hotel, I believe there were 29, need to be microchipped. Um they were vaccinated and spayed and neutered. Um so that was one barrier. Um but pets are also a

barrier to get somebody into housing. So oftentimes folks have multiple pets. They might have two dogs and oftentimes landlords are not open to renting to somebody with multiple pets. So that has been a barrier that we are working to overcome. um getting folks on income and income that can uh sustain somebody in housing is also a barrier. So getting um people to um have benefits um increase their income um and such is an area that we are working very closely um with our partners on um document readiness can't get into housing if you don't have an ID, social security card, things of that nature. So that's also a big part of the work and that takes time, transportation um and perseverance from all of our partners. And then um last and definitely not least is folks who are have substance abuse challenges or needs. That's also um an area that we're working on um getting people connected to treatment when they're ready um and making sure that those opportunities are available. Um I will pass it on over to Shelby and she's going to talk about some of our outcomes and data points.

It's a little tall. Good evening. Um, so I'm going to talk about some of our core data here in Antioch for the first half of the fiscal year. So core served over a thousand individuals here in Antioch with 94% of those individuals having roots here in Antioch, meaning they're from here, they have friends or family here or their services are here. Um, the top two causes of people uh losing their housing here in Antioch are low income and being thrown out. 62% so over half reported disabling condition and over half 56% reported at intake with core that they didn't have any income and almost half reported being first-time homeless. So that's just a few of our demographics of the people that we served here in Annoch of all the core teams. Now let's look at our exit data for the first half of the fiscal year. So CORE was able to exit 190 individuals to a more stable destination like some of the things you see here on the screen that could be a rental unit, a shelter, or permanently with friends or family. One particularly important stat we want to highlight is that 98% of those who exited to stable housing, they remain stably housed. So I think that really shows that not only is core successful in exiting participants to housing that they're able to exit them to housing that they're able to maintain. So connecting into supportive services or the things that they need to be able to remain there long term. All right. And specifically looking at our ANOT core team for the first half of the fiscal year. So nearly 400 participants were served with over,300 contacts and 5,700 services that were provided to those 400 participants.

250 animal services were provided to 96 participants. That could mean food for the dogs. That could be microchipping or vaccine or spay and neutering. 354 warming center placements were made which are night bynight shelters. And finally, 58% uh participants exited to shelter, four to substance use treatment, and 18 to permanent housing. So, going back to our encampment, these are the pictures after it was cleared in August. So, you saw the original pictures like Jenny showed, it had a lot of debris. They had a lot of tents, lots of belongings. Now, the area is completely clear as of August. And because we have a dedicated core team in this area, they're able to go and check daily to make sure that this remains clear. And we can say that today that it's still clear. Uh the participants exited to Opportunity Village uh the shelter site in August. All right. So we want to highlight the impact that core has on the city of Annioch regarding encampment resolution funding and beyond which include improved public safety and cleanliness but coordinating to make sure that these encampment areas stay clean and free of debris, proactively engaging to ensure that all individuals at the encampment were outreached and provided services and resources. Another impact of having a core team available at these encampments is core is able to make referrals directly into shelters. They're one of our coordinated uh entry access points here in Contraosta County. So they can not only get participants into shelter, but they can help connect them to our continuum of care resources uh which could be permanent housing and beyond. And lastly, with course presence, really reducing the calls to emergency services, which we all know put a strain on our very limited resources that we

all have. Uh, and ultimately that strengthens Antioch's commitment to serving the most vulnerable participants here in Antioch. First and foremost, we want to thank City of Vanoch for its partnership and funding our core team and valuing the work that we do. And uh we want to uh also give a shout out to Antioch Police Department. We had recently attended their substation grand opening. We hope to continue that positive relationship. As Jenny mentioned, we have many community partnerships and the work that CORE does, we could not do without these partnerships. So just to name a few, Hope Solutions and HCB, they are two homeless service providers here in Contraosta that we work with for our encampment resolution participants uh both at Opportunity Village and doing rapid rehousing for our participants. And uh we want a special shout out to Joybound, one of the uh local nonprofits that has helped Microchip do vaccine clinics and things like that for people at Opportunity Village. Like I mentioned, core recently attended the grand opening of the Antioch PD substation. Uh the team regularly attends those uh homeless task force meetings that happened monthly that the city of Antioch hosts. We also attended the homelessness 101 event at the Antioch Library back in 2025 and the block party event at the community center. So all these activities provide an opportunity for core to uh show the public what we do uh and to offer resources and support. And we want to end on a high note a success story. So one of the success stories back in August our uh ERF participant uh core was engaging with was a veteran. They were referred to Opportunity Village for shelter and upon

moving into Opportunity Village. They quickly found out they had a terminal illness and because of that they realized they wanted to quit using substances. They wanted to engage in their medical treatment. So they began working on a housing plan upon arriving at an opportunity village hoping that they would get better. When this participant is continuing to seek treatment for their medical um illness that they had, they uh came up for a permanent supportive opportunity, a permanent supportive housing opportunity for veterans specifically. And before the holidays in December, they were able to move into that unit um which is a subsidized unit. So 30% of their rent towards income that comes with on-site supportive services. and happy to report that that participant remains there um and is stably housed and is able to get the support that they need while they still engage in treatment. And lastly, we want to leave you with how to contact CORE. So, CORE is operational 7 days a week, 7:00 a.m. to 12 midnight. Uh if you are a community member of the public and you want to reach out to us, you can call 211 and press pound three to get to our core dispatch. and then you can always email us at our management group. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Shelby and Jenny. Uh do we have any public comment on this item? No speaker card, sir.

All right. Do we have any questions for comments from council? Thank you uh so much for the presentation and um first I just want to give a big shout out to um Director Carroll and her team at the Department of Public Safety and Community Resources who without you all and your tenacity and the way you care for people. None of this would have been possible. Thank you for seeking out those funds so that we can continue to do this work and get our people off the streets and give them quality services. Thank you so much for your work. Um, I guess my question would be like I have been to that encampment before it was cleaned up because advocates um often tell us like it's not enough to talk about what homelessness is. You actually got to see what it looks like. So, I've actually been to every encampment in my district and it was amazing to actually see the transformation. Um, I actually live near that encampment. And so, um, it's it's amazing to see the transformation, to see the community cleaned up. But also, I guess my question is, you know, you mentioned Opportunity Village a couple times, and I think people believe that like we can just clear people out of encampments and then find somewhere for them to go, but if there's nowhere for them to go, there's nowhere to coordinate services. So how important was it to actually have opportunity village available to move people from encampment to coordinated services to either permanent or temporary housing or family reunification.

Extremely important because you have one holding place essentially where participants can go and you know exactly where they're going to be. Um so it's extremely important with our really limited shelter resources and those take time. So they would have been outside longer and it would have taken a lot of time to get them into other places and they would have been scattered throughout the county. So being able to have that centralized shelter site is really really important. Um and having on-site supportive services to be able to engage in um case management is really helpful in connecting them to those permanent housing resources. So um without that it would be really really difficult.

And can you remind us again how long you said it took from like start to finish? So they started uh in March cleaning up or uh engaging with the encampment and the cleanup happened in August and they were able uh within a week period to get the participants from the encampment to Opportunity Village. So really quick turnaround uh and then the uh restoration happened within those next couple weeks. Um, do you know when the uh I don't want to say when the funding will run out or when when is what is the when is it end? 2029. 2028. So 2028.

June 30th of 2020. June 30th of 2028. And that includes the opportunity village or is that just the core services? Go ahead. Yeah, the the grant funds opportunity village core um as well as a rapid rehousing uh subsidized housing. So, it's really the whole model that was um funded through this through this grant and I believe the uh lease with opport with the executive in is through the end of this year. Um yeah, January. Yep. And so by that point in time that we our goal is to get everybody into permanent housing from Opportunity Village. So nobody is moving out of Opportunity Village into an unhoused destination.

So the lease with Opportunity Village is over next January, January 2027. And then the hope is to have everybody transition to permanent housing, family reunification or some type of long-term transitional housing situation with wraparound services. Correct. But the encampment resolution, the the entire project is a three-year project. Correct. that won't end until the 2028 or unless more funding is brought in to support those populations. So how do you my friend over there saying the end of 2027 2027 um so what is so I guess I'm saying so that's the hope for those individuals but once

have you thought forward after the lease is over with opportunity village where else will people be able to go people who are still on the streets or remaining to keep the encampments from that particular encampment but we have other encampments throughout the city.

Yeah. So we we built into the grant or city of Annok built into the grant uh rapid rehousing um program and funding. So for all the participants that are in opportunity village, they will be matched with um subsidized housing and it's short-term subsidized housing wrapped with case management. So that will um support folks that once they move out move out of opportunity village that they have rental and case management support to maintain and sustain them in that housing um once they're once they um yeah once they're moved out. for the rest of the unhoused um neighbors in our community. That's a it's a um a gap that we have in our in our system of care. We don't have enough affordable housing, deeply affordable housing. Um but we do find very creative ways to help folks get into housing, shared housing opportunities, sober living environments. Um but housing is scarce. I think we have about a 2% um uh vacancy rate in Contraosta for anybody. And so um so yeah, we do a lot of work, but that is a a gap that um that we are working towards every day. But having a shelter to initially take people to was was the real strength of this program. And if we can in some way continue some of that correct and would be helpful for the process and to the at least the end of this grant and any other grant opportunities from the state to address homelessness.

Most definitely. It's a stepping stone. Um and specific to this encampment, it was a very um tight-knit community and so by being able to move everybody from this encampment into a hotel and to keep that community together was also super beneficial. So yeah, that was part of the magic in this in this grant is having all these different components that we had four months of outreach to work with folks to get them ready to move into the hotel and then a hotel that was um with um wonderful owners that understood the work that we were doing to welcome folks in and then array of service providers uh to support folks while they were there. Um and yeah, happened in a very short period of time overall. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome.

All right, any other any other questions? Thank you for your presentation and and the work that you guys do in the community. Um I believe you guys work closely with community bio solutions and love never fails because we find a lot of in individuals who are being trafficked oftentimes in encampment situations where people pray on them for survival things such as food, clothing, shelter. Um do you work with those organizations and how you know how many of the individuals you work with are referred to organizations like that? speak to that. Sure.

Um that's a great question. We definitely do work with those organizations. We also work with family justice center and stand. Um we don't have a specific stat on trafficking. Um but we can definitely look into that. Um we track more generally of survivors of domestic violence or fleeing domestic violence, but yes, we do work with those agencies. Okay. I would definitely love to connect you with them because a lot of times we we find survivors in encampments um just due to they're trying to survive and people are praying on the fact that oh I haven't eaten in a couple of days. Okay. Well, I'll feed you if you do. So I'd love to connect you with those organizations. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for your presentation both of you. Uh as far as we have our own core team in in Antioch now. we didn't have for a long time. And my understanding there's an East Contraosta team as well. How how did the two teams interact with each other specifically to Antioch and then just in all of East County?

Yeah, so we have the all county east team. Um and then we have our our uh Antioch team. So the Antioch team has been really focused on encampment resolution. The all county team is is focused on all East County cities. So if we get a dispatch out to maybe Pittsburgh, Baypoint, those kind of areas, Brentwood, they'll definitely take those. And Annioch, they kind of split depending on the workload. So if they're busy working with encampment resolutions participants that day, if they get a dispatch or a couple dispatches, the all county team will cover that. So they're good at covering each other's bases so we can get all the dispatches for the day. And then does Pittsburgh have their own core team as well? They do.

Okay. So we have I guess three of them then in East Country and then BART has one as well. Correct. So that tra does that travel on the trains with or does it visit the stations? Yeah, exactly. Our BART team visits all the stations each day. Um and they outreach people in and around the BART stations. Okay, perfect. And I don't know if you have the answer to this, but our point in time count numbers went down from 25 or from uh 24 to 25 and then we had the count in January of this year. Do we know when we're going to have those those numbers available? Can I let you cover that in my presentation? Yeah, Jamie will cover that next. Okay. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions?

All right. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate that. All right. Are you

Hi everyone. Thank you for having me. Um I think my slides were right after Shel's so I think it's part of the same PowerPoint. Okay. So, I'm gonna go through all of that. Okay. So, hi everyone. My name is Jamie Shakar. I'm a homeless services chief with Contraosta Health Housing and Homeless Services. Um, and I'm here today to give you a little bit of a briefing on homelessness in Contraosta County. Uh so to set the context a little bit, I showed a really similar slide last year when we came to share this information. Um but workers need to earn $45.50 to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Contraosta County. Um and that's at an affordable rate, spending about 30% of your income, not being rent burdened. That's about $2 higher than the information I shared last year. So we know this, we see it. Life is getting expensive and housing is one of a household's biggest expenses. We know that the cost of housing is the biggest factor in a community's rate of homelessness. There are many communities that have similar rates of substance use, many communities that have higher rates of poverty, but because of the cost of living in California, in the Bay Area, and in Contracasta County, housing and homelessness is just a big big issue here. And in 2024, we served over 14,000 people in the continuum of care. That's a 40% increase since 2020. Um, and that is a big number. That's a big increase, but it also reflects the increase in services that have been available. This is a data point that reflects people served. So that number when it goes up, it sometimes is a reflection of the way that we've been able to increase capacity through all the various programs we have. I wanted to share uh our homeless awareness month video here. Um, this was our 2025 homeless awareness month video.

Last year we showed the 2024 one. It's just a quick minute or two video and I hope it plays. Probably won't.

Well, I know we are here kind of late. There is the link on the slides if y'all want to go see it. Um, but it really is meant to show the stories of folks who have come through our programs and who have uh, you know, been stigmatized, who live with a lot of the stigma that comes with being unhoused in our community. Um, but really the message is a lot of us are very precariously housed, a lot of us are dealing with a lot of things from divorce, health conditions, your landlord raised your rent to an unaffordable rate and you find yourself stuck. But there are resources out there. there are folks who want to help out there and many many people experiencing homelessness have been able to overcome a lot of challenges and barriers and to survive and thrive in housing. So really encourage folks to go back and watch that now. Let's see if it'll move. Any chance you can move the slides? Nope. Too far. Okay. Okay. One of those people I wanted to highlight here technical difficulties. Um is Kay. Uh Kay is a former foster youth. Uh entered the foster system at around six years old and she was dealing with a lot of things. She was dealing with having low income disability and a lack of community and family support to help her as she grew up. She spent over two years living in her car in Antioch with her dog, but she was able to get connected. Core was able to support her with getting basic needs and some care coordination. She worked with our county behavioral health services to address some of those mental health conditions she was working with. And she was able to receive support for her furry family um through Joybound, a great partnership. She got connected to a safe parking program through winter nights where she was able to sleep a little bit more safely at

night even though it was in her car still. And she worked with our Trinity Center Care Center in Walnut Creek uh to really engage in housing focused case management. She recently received housing uh at an affordable housing complex in Walnut Creek um and is continuing to engage with our behavioral health services and really recently reported that she just feels wonderful and happy in her new unit. Um she feels safe there. Getting to a little bit of data. Uh I apologize this data is a little old. It's 2024 data. We take a little bit of time to catch up and clean up and make sure that we um are reporting accurate numbers every year. So, we're still in the process of cleaning up calendar year 2025 data. But this uh chart really shows kind of geographically where folks are losing their housing and where they slept the night before when they are reporting this uh to their service providers. And so, you see in East County, those numbers are really similar. Uh they're both at 38%. This is really similar to what we saw last year as well when I gave this presentation. Um, and that really just shows that when folks lose their housing, they're they're staying in their community. They're staying where their friends, their family, their services are. Um, and that's particularly true in East County. A little bit of 2025 point in time count data. Uh to answer the question, we did host our 2026 point in time count in January and throughout the month of February, we collected surveys to um further get information on our observational count. Uh we are reporting that data to the federal government, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development by the end of April. Um and so we will be having data uh for 2026 available shortly. But in the 2025 count where we saw a pretty significant decrease here in Annioch, 40% decrease um we had a 26% decrease across the county. Uh we saw

that over 72% of residents reported they had been in Contracasta County for over 10 years. These are our neighbors. These are our friends. These are our family. Um these are our community members. 28% more than a quarter of folks reported being 55 years old or older. These are older adults who are entering homelessness and staying homeless. A little bit more of some impact data. Um, so we served over 14,000 people. That makes up almost 10,000 households. We know that homelessness is a racial equity issue where black African-American folks are over represented four times compared to what you see in our census count in Contraosta County. One notable area that I want to show is that we were able to see that decrease in our 2025 point in time count because we also saw an increase over two years since 2023 to 2025 by 34% of temporary and permanent beds and that's through programs like encampment resolution funded programs like our emergency shelters like our voucher programs with our housing authority partners. We want to note that we are serving highly vulnerable folks. uh almost 80% of folks receiving homeless crisis response services, that's people engaging with CORE, going to emergency shelters, etc., have disabling conditions. And we know that our programs are effective. 97% of our households who have received prevention services were able to use those services to stay in their housing or exit to other permanent housing destinations. So, if we catch folks before they enter homelessness, it's really successful to keep them in their housing. And on the other hand, we know that folks who enter into permanent supportive housing, 98% of them were able to retain or exit to other permanent housing destinations. These are really effective programs and we just don't have enough to meet the need. I want to highlight um some challenges

uh and some action that we're taking in in our county. So, if this slide looks a little busy, a little chaotic, it accurately reflects how we've spent the last year dealing with the federal government. Um, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development provides continuum of care funding to communities across the country. This is the largest source of funding for permanent supportive housing and in contraosta over the last few years we've been really successful at being competitive for this funding building bonus projects getting special uh no is what we call it special COC funding to our community because historically it's been very much based on outcomes and how the community responds to getting folks permanently housed. Over the past year or so, HUD's policy priorities have changed drastically. And so, we are at a a real inflection point where communities have been responding to homelessness for using evidence-based practices and in the way that the government prescribed for a very long time. And we are seeing a big shift. Um because of this big shift in the quick timelines, HUD was sued and uh we luckily were able to uh see some helpful language in our appropriations bills that have been passed. And so our providers have a little bit of a reprieve on these shifts that we anticipate coming. Um we expect HUD to release the next notice of funding opportunity or NOFO for our funding uh by June and we don't quite know what's going to be in there. So, we're in a little bit of a of a waiting period where we are working with our partners um and trying to game plan as best we can what state and local resources we have to try and uh strengthen our networks. So, if the big changes do come, if permanent housing is deprioritized like we expect it to be, um folks aren't going to be hit uh with a round of housing instability that through no fault of their own they might be encountering soon.

In addition to continuum of care, oh my slide got a little funky. Um, but in addition to continuum care changes, uh, the federal impacts from HR1 to Medicaid and to SNAP are going to hit our folks hard. Um, like I said, almost 80% of folks who are using these crisis response services have a disabling condition. These are folks who rely on Medicaid, who rely on SNAP to to survive. Um, and we know that plenty of low-income families are also relying on those programs. And when those when you have to pay for your healthare, when your food costs increase, your housing costs are also going to become that much more of a burden. And so we expect this to have ripple effects to everybody. The state budget cycles don't really help us either. Um, we in Contraosta have been recipients of homeless housing assistance and prevention funding or HAP funding. And the state in about five out of six of the current rounds funded that at a billion dollars and in round seven they're cutting that in half. Uh so we are expecting our next round to be cut in half and there is no promise of future funding. These these programs were not included in the governor's uh proposal and we don't know what the May revision will hold but we are um expecting to have to fight for these dollars and to keep these programs successful. uh local investments like the measure x housing fund, like the city of Annioch encampment resolution grant have been really critical to mitigating these threats and we know that they're not enough. We can't backfill federal and state investments locally. We just don't have that sort of uh revenue to be able to to do that without sacrificing other things that are critical to our community. And so I wanted to also highlight some of our uh successes as a as a county. Um we've really increased collaboration like Jenny and Shelby talked about. We have multiple encampment resolution funding projects. So not just with the

city of Annioch, but also the city of Richmond, the city of San Pablo. Um and we've seen really successful strategies and the model that our community response division has developed to win these awards with the state. Um, as part of one of those grants, we will be permanently expanding Brookside Shelter with modular units. So, we're increasing our capacity permanently through these temporary funding sources. We added 59 new units of permanent supportive housing. Um, Rick Jud Commons, Valor Village, Legacy Court in 2025. These are brand new buildings. They've blended in units to um kind of multi-use uh residential uh apartments. And we've partnered with our behavioral health uh and veteran services teams to lease these up. And we are expecting civic center apartments in Richmond, a home key project with the city of Richmond to open up in this summer to add another 48 units. Um we've increased contra uh homelessness prevention funding, so catching those folks before they lose their housing. The board of supervisors recently allocated additional general funds uh contingency reserve funding to support folks at risk and we've been able to increase those services and uh through Medicaid benefits medical benefits uh calim services have expanded to uh introduce transitional rent as a service for folks who fit a behavioral health population of focus. Um they may be eligible for up to six months of rent support through their health plan. So, here's a couple of links on how folks can learn more. Um, we have our homeless services page. We have our get help flyers and that'll have our three main ways to connect. You can call 211. You can connect to a care center in Richmond Trinity Center in Walnut Creek. And you can also, of course, engage with core. And then we have a on our website a link to our frequently asked questions. We get a lot of questions about homelessness in our community. And so we put a page up there on the website uh so folks can go and and get their questions answered and hope hopefully begin to um you know break some myths

down and have people get some information. And of course we encourage everybody to sign up for our newsletter. You can keep in touch with us, join us at a council on homelessness meeting every month. Um you get a lot of really great information and collaboration there. And that's everything from me. Thank you very much for having me today. All right. Thank you Jamie. Um, I know this was part of You guys can clap. That's fine. I I know this was part of the the pre prior item, but is there any public comment on this portion of it or or is Okay. Yes, we do.

Um, I have a couple of questions. So, one of my questions is um what is your guys's ability um to help with the mental health? Um like if you have people who uh you know they need the help but um they are not going to physically you know reach out um how do you guys deal with uh those people and um also um uh what was my other I'm sorry I got put on the spot and I forgot my other question. Um uh yeah, let's just answer that one first. Um and that kind of goes for both uh Annio core and uh Contraosta. Um so

all right. Thank you. Any other public comment?

No further public comments. All right. Um you want to go ahead and answer that real quick? You could please. Thank you. Really great question. Um, one of our great things, uh, with KOR is we're able to connect to, um, A3, which is our county crisis response program. So, if we do have people that are experiencing a behavioral health or mental health crisis, we can connect with them. So, our core teams often engage in in collaboration with our police departments. We might find someone who might be in a behavioral health crisis and that's not our area of expertise. We'll call on A3 to see if they can come out and assess the individual. Of course, things are voluntary. Um, but that is one of the main resources that we utilize if someone's experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

Crystal, sorry. Um, yeah, it's not not a discussion, so you can you can ask it take it up after, please. Um, you have any comments? Yeah. Um I guess my question is is it Jamie? Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. Um it's it's good to hear that um the numbers in Antioch are decreasing significantly and I know it's because of the work the department of public safety community resources opportunity village the city investing with ARPA dollars and then moving forward with encampment resolution. So you can decrease homelessness when you actually invest in strategies that work.

I guess my question is with the resources you provided, is it possible to go and see the list of like every city in Contracasta County and like new projects that they did? I know you mentioned the civic center one in Richmond and I'm aware of that. I you know I guess it would be good for all of us to know and the community to be able to do research. The city of Antioch has passed up three home key application opportunities. The city of Richmond has gotten three encampment resolution grants and we we're still on our first one. So what are you seeing cities doing that Antioch hasn't done? Like how are they getting three encampment resolution grants every you know what I mean? They're getting it every cycle. We on our first one, they're getting home key every cycle and we're still trying to figure out home key even though we know these solutions work. So, what have you seen other jurisdictions do that we can do better?

Yeah. So, I think it's a little bit of a matter of timing. I mean, Richmond was a little bit of a trailblazer in our county. They got an encampment resolution grant before the county did and they put forward a really bold application that the state recognized and with their success it led to our success in being able to replicate a model. Um I think the to your question we do have our 2024 annual report where we highlight some of these projects that we talked about. Um there's no one single kind of inventory of uh like the new projects that necessarily happen uh across the county. Um but our report is pretty comprehensive. It's almost 90 pages, so it's really good late night reading if you all want to get into it. Um, and it really does highlight a lot of the successes in the work. Uh, one thing that I think some cities have been experimenting with that I I'm not sure if Annioch is considering it, and Jenny and Shelby can probably speak to it a little bit better. Um, but I know some cities are with their funding for their core team. They're also investing in a flex fund. um so that core can you know easily access resources to help people quickly transition if they are like hey I can go stay with my mom in Arizona she's got a place for me and I just need a plane ticket there core can be able to help with that or hey uh you know I need boots for this job opportunity I got I can't go without my proper clothing and work wear core can easily help with that sort of stuff so I think that isn't a new innovation that we've seen um and I think across the board just just having a willingness to to put something out there and to collaborate and to try new things has been really what's led to a lot of our collaborations being successful.

Thank you. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Any other questions, council? All right. Thank you, Jamie, very much for your presentation. Excellent. All right. Moving on to our next presentation. Cclick fix 311 CRM organizational assessment presentation by Brandon Peters, GIS coordinator. Mr. Peters.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, Council. Thank you for having me. Um, tonight I have a brief overview of improvements made. Excuse me, get this adjusted. Tonight I have a brief overview of improvements made to our cicklic fix platform as a result of a recent operational assessment provided to the city manager. We'll start by providing an introduction on what cickix is for you all as well as give some background for residents who may have never heard of it. CClick Fix is our citizen relationship platform. It's essentially a reporting tool that's electronic that will allow residents to report non-emergency issues directly to the city. These issues can um allow potholes to be fixed, address broken street lights and other issues that the city's responsible for. The goal of this platform isn't just to receive and take in complaints from residents, but to also engage them and promote a collaborative relationship. The city began searching for a reporting tool in 2015 after trying out a separate system as well as evaluating several other systems. The city formally partnered with Cclick Fix in late 2016 with Public Works being an early adopter. Community Development began using the platform in 2018 to help address some ongoing quality of life concerns identified by the public. And in 2024, the PD began using the platform to address ongoing illegal parking concerns. After hearing of some prolonged complaints regarding Cclick Fix, the city manager directed staff to provide a complete operational assessment of the platform and to include every department

using the platform and to focus on what the data says, identify process gaps and find underutilized tools in the system that can help us out and achieve some efficiency. In analyzing the data, one of the first things that stood out to us was uh a large gap in our processing times. The gap was wide and the time frame until closure had never been provided to residents. We addressed this by introducing SLAs's, which are basically service level agreements. It's a time frame or a window of time that residents can reasonably expect a given request to be completed from start to finish. This is essentially um a major concern of the platform that kind of went unressed and that allowed several requests to kind of slip through the cracks, which I'll get into in a little bit. The second thing that stood out was how each department differentiated and processed requests separately and how many hands those requests touched before the requests arrived at the person who could approve the work to be performed or actually complete the work themselves. To address this, we used technology and set up an integration with Cclick Fix using Trimble Unity Maintain, which is the work order platform used by public works. We configured this integration to route requests directly to supervisors and to lead workers who can get the work done or immediately decide if a request falls outside of the city's jurisdiction, which would warrant no further action being taken, but of course notifying the resident or the requester. Through this integration, staff will now receive direct work orders. And once the work order is received, automated email follow-up directly back to residents will then happen um and notify the resident of whatever the appropriate action was that will be taken on that

cicklic fix request. This notifies the resident throughout the entirety of the process wherever it is and with whatever department it's with and keeps them informed and in the loop throughout its entirety. The third thing that stood out to us was that there was no easy way to look back on requests and that once a request was basically in the process of of getting routed and being complete, there was no one that said yes, this is complete or no, this isn't complete. This falls outside of the city's jurisdiction. This is P& this is Comcast. Some requests unfortunately just kind of sat. This was not the result of staff not doing their jobs. was purely the result of just um an operational gap that we had there in our processes that we just simply weren't aware of. To counter this, we established some accountability measures in the system with the first being request ownership. Um this was a collaboration across multiple departments including public works, community development as well as PD. And essentially what we arrived on is breaking the entirety of the city down into individual departments. So that once a department receives a request on its own, that department is then responsible for that loan and sole requests from start to finish. The process before basically work like a big pot of requests that came in. Staff would sift through the requests that were pertinent to them and then pull them out and then address it. So we then flipped that process on its head. After we broke the departments down into agencies is what we're calling them, um we now have a system where accountability can be placed on the department. We can now have management um overseeing and monitoring these requests to make sure they're getting done from start to finish as well as the communication component which is notifying residents throughout the entirety of the process which is critical

to further our accountability measures. We also introduced a dashboard which is currently a working draft to be released. But this dashboard shows the live status of all Cclick fix requests. This dashboard gives us an at a glance overview of the status and other data to to manage and better monitor any incoming requests throughout the city. And this is an example of what that dashboard looks like. Again, it's a work in progress. So, this is just a a good check to have um a good example of a way to have checks and balances within the system and just make sure that no request has kind of slipped through the cracks and kind of get forgotten about. Um, as we were going through this process, we found some requests dating back to 2018 and prior that just hadn't gotten closed and we made sure we short them up and got those taken care of. Additionally, we've begun to work on a second integration with community development's permitting and license system uh which tracks code code enforcement violation cases. This integration will work similarly to the integration that we have established with public works and unity maintain. Um, these two integrations combined will help improve our workflows overall and we expect sizable gains in efficiency uh, processing requests as well as an overall improved citizen experience. Lastly, we're also improving our communication to residents with revised responses and a cclick fix page that will be posted on the website to help educate residents on how we're processing requests. We're still about 30 days out from having that integration stood up and that FAQ page publish published, but we are working on it and we're finalizing that integration and that web page. Now, um,

next steps and lastly, I just want to thank staff involved with these improvements to ensure that our team members working behind the scenes uh, get their flowers too. I want to thank Julie Veret, our admin analyst, for sifting through a ton of data. Um, and really kind of doing just a lot of digging and and analyzing stuff that's pretty much not fun. Uh, thank you to Diana Wells and Diana Rodriguez and public works as well as Fran Vart and Felicia Cavinus in community development for always working together and collaboratively. Uh, thank you to Ivan Chavez and Hillary Brown for their work on the code enforcement integration thus far. And thank you to the csos who are being innovative and using cclick fix proactively.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, Brandon. Appreciate that. Uh do we have any public comment on this item? We have no public comments. All right. Any questions or comments from council?

Yeah, Mr. Peters. Um, first off, I want to congratulate you and acknowledge uh this is one of the most frustrating things that we have in the community and so I'm happy that it's has focus and that we're taking the necessary steps to improve the the service itself. So when I read read the report on the organizational assessment particularly on page six uh the public works you know cclick uh fix service request metrics you know what what concerned me was the service level response in days and I looked particularly on that 16 to 30 and then over 30 and I'm assuming that uh as we move forward those those will improve. Is that correct? That's the expectation. Correct.

So, in order that the council is aware of that because we all are in the community and I have to tell you this is one of the biggest complaints that citizens have. I put a put a request in. I haven't heard from them for a month, two months, a year. And so I I would hope that maybe on a quarterly basis that you give us an update, you know, not necessarily coming to council, but in a written report so that we're seeing how this is improving and what the resources that you need to make this happen and improve further in the future because this is just one of those things that citizens just get very angry about, you know. So I think it's definitely a step in the right direction. I appreciate your work and all the other individuals that are involved in this. I think the assessment, good and bad, you know, information, but with the idea that we're going to focus on improvement. I just think that we need to be kept up on a periodic basis. And I'd ask Miss B Merchant that as the acting city manager that we see something in three or four months so that we can see what type of work is happening and where we need to continue to improve. Okay.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Yes, Roach. Again, I just want to thank you for your presentation. I had the opportunity to meet you the other day at city hall and you were sharing some of the uh presentation you're having tonight and appreciate the action steps that are being taken to improve the process and I do agree uh as uh mayor promptus has stated um people who uh report um matters to city staff uh they want to see response and sometimes they anxiously wait and if we can improve or close that duration of time. I think it'll be well received by the community. So, keep up the good work. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. I've used C click fix. It's I mean I've I've reported everything from stolen cars to lights and I get a quick response. I don't know what it is, but I that but um I'm like but I try to do it anonymously but I mean obviously y'all know my address but I think seeing like some of the data around lighting and everything like that I think it is true. I'm excited about a live dashboard cuz I love those things

and I think it will be more interactive for the public and allow people to see the issues get taken care of in real time. So, I'm absolutely looking forward to that and yes, looking forward to a quick um turnaround on an update on some of the things moving forward and thank you again for your hard work. Thank you. Yes, I just want to say thank you uh thank you for your work on this. Thank you for I remember when you first introduced this C click fix back in 2015

bugs and all and thank you for coming back and and and talking about excited about the updates that are coming. Um, I did have a question because you talked about you had realized that there were um, uh, issues coming in that were kind of fallen into the wayside that would have gone to either um, PG& or Comcast. Who's going to oversee that in case those because, you know, those are still going to come through, you know, regardless if we put the SIS fix the system where they're not supposed to. Who's going to who's going to capture those that are still falling through and report back to the citizens that uh logged that issuing?

Yeah, the goal is to address some of those on the FAQ page to make sure that residents know if something falls within our jurisdiction, we absolutely have and will take action. Um on the other angle, the dashboard will basically address anything that's outlying and that that's unressed. And so with the FAQ page and the dashboard, what we hope to achieve is a list, a running list of all of our partners who may not necessarily be city of Antioch that would include the railroad, um the school district, Comcast, uh P Gen, we get a lot of requests that fall on P Gen easements. And just make sure that when things get sent in that's not ours and it falls on any of our partners' properties that staff knows that we'll close it out and we'll also give you the contact info for that respective agency. And hopefully what we're working on is a dedicated contact at each agency so that residents have kind of like a guiding process through getting whatever that complaint is addressed. And I'll give you guys an example of a of a common one um with the other field that we have which is now removed. We would get complaints of shoes tethered to a power pole. Right? So they're hanging from the power pole from their laces. Right? It's not the city of Antioch. we can kind of send it to P& sometimes we get a response, sometimes we don't. So if the resident sends it in, it's not ours, we send it to P Gen, we close it, check back a year, two years, those those shoes are still hanging from the same power lines, right? So the goal is to kind of combat this from multiple angles. One, um, give citizens those those FAQ and that that FAQ page so that they know this type of complaint might be P Gen or maybe it's Comcast. But then also make sure that on the dashboards and on the reporting side that we're keeping close contact of or co close track of every single request that comes in to make sure that they all get addressed and that they're all handled. If something's not ours, we want to basically give people the information that they need so that they can report it to the responsible party.

So the system will alert somebody like, "Oh, this is not us. This is here's the right." Yep. Okay. That's what because some you know people, you know, you can get people that not going to read the FAQ and go, "Hey, it didn't go through." But you're saying the system will alert saying this is not city, this is Yep, the system will. We're also uh addressing that through our automated responses as well. We're working with Jaden, our PIO, to get some modernized responses as well. And so I think it would be um kind of shortsighted to address it from one angle. So what we're doing is just kind of looking at things comprehensively and figuring out how we can hit this from multiple angles so that people feel better and more confident about using the system. Right. Thank you so much. Mhm.

Yeah. I I was just um happy to see that the police department's now included and you have CSOS and VIPs using it. And so lots of times we depend upon the community to make the the report, the complaint or the issue, but our own people out in the field probably are as good as anybody. So I think that's a great addition and hopefully we'll make things happen more quickly. So thanks for keep expanding the program. Yep. All right. And you're not going to make everybody happy. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Peters. Good presentation. U Mayor, yes.

I would like to um suspend the rules and make a motion to move up items nine and 10 to right now in the agenda. All right, we have a motion to suspend the rules and uh move items nine and 10 after presentation from council member Torres Walker. Second by Mayor Prom Freighus. Cast your votes, please. Motion passes 5-0.

All right, perfect. Uh moving on to item number nine. This is um Antioch Police Oversight Commission appointment for one partial term vacancy expiring in November uh 2026. uh this um uh vacancy uh this is the the seventh and last or final um vacancy on the um Antioch Police Oversight Commission. Uh and so uh there was interviews with uh three um individuals for this uh for this position. Um Emanuel Solis Jr. was the person who is um being that I'm going to nominate for appointment by the city council for this position. And if Mr. Solis is here, if you could come on up and say a few words, please, why you're why you want to be on the commission and why you're the the best person for that for that role, please. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, I'm not going to say thank you for the appointment. I'm going to say thank you for the opportunity at this point. Um, you know, I think um, every one of you can relate to the idea that uh, if you see something that needs to happen or you see something that you get upset about, you do something about it. And every one of you had a number of people that were competing for your seats as well as well as yourselves of course. And they were coming to the voters of Antioch with the same spirit that they saw something that needed to happen and they decided to instead of just complain about it to get involved. So um the police oversight commission is a

unique opportunity. It's one of the first uh um commissions that I'm aware of that is in direct response to things that happened here in Antioch. Some very unfortunate events. Uh things that I would certainly would not have believed were possible given my long history here in Antioch. I was born and raised here and uh some of the gray hair I have in my head is because I actually served in office here too. So if that doesn't give you gray hair, I don't know what does. But uh that being said, um I was concerned and uh shocked and um in disbelief really about some of the allegations and what were ultimately proved to be actual things that happened here in Antioch. So um I was one of many thousands of people out there that I think felt the same way. So I decided that uh when this opportunity came up, this vacancy, even though it is a partial, instead of just sitting back and complaining and talking to people at church and at the grocery store and other places about how idiotic things had become, I decided that it was more important to get involved in the process and to try to make sure that those kinds of things don't happen again. The other thing that um I would say that uh there were really two other things that happened that made me think that this could be an opportunity for some improvement. One of which is that um I think anyone here in the audience or any of you that might have had reason to call or report something to the police department, there's been a delay in response. So I

think these two things go hand inand in many ways. So, I'm really interested in getting involved in that process and seeing what improvements can be brought to the table to improve responsiveness and responsiveness that is reflective of our community and doesn't mean that you every situation uh requires a sledgehammer to fix it because that's not the case. And then um I would say the third thing honestly is that uh we have a community that's very diverse and has been um a part of our county for hund you know more than a hundred years at this point. Um, I really think that um, you know, everyone that lives here in Antioch, whether they're working or they're not working, whether they're housed or unhoused, whether they're healthy as horses or they've got a number of issues that they're dealing with. You deserve to have the very best of services. That's what we pay for. That's what we elected you folks to do. And then that's why people pay taxes. And then some are more supportive than others of the police department. But I think the common thread is people believe that we we deserve the best. We deserve the best. We may not be seen as the best community out there, but we should expect the deser we should expect the best because I think we deserve the best. So, um I saw the list of the other two people that applied and I know that um if I uh had some mishap on the way home tonight, I do know that those other two individuals would do a good job of serving this commission as well. But uh I think given my business background uh the time that I've been a volunteer with

city commissions and then having the privilege of serving in office for four years actually four years and one year that was appointed too so six years which is odd but I think that gives me some unique um background and insights into some of the issues that the commission will undoubtedly face. But um I do feel like I'm ready to deal with that. I want to I want to hear from the community and I want to hear from the police department because I do believe that we deserve the best and that the best is somewhere in the middle somewhere in the middle that we continue to strive for. But the more um involvement that you have in that process, the closer we can get to what I think we deserve as a community.

All right, that's it. Thank you very much. Uh, do we have any public comment on this item? We have no public comments. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ciz. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Do I have um comments? Yes. Oh, yeah. The comments council.

Mr. Ciz, thank you for applying. Um, I actually do I do have a question because I see um community members here in the audience who have been victims of state sanctioned violence here in the city of Antioch, including myself. And I know I know that you you say you from this community, homegrown in this community, has also served for many years in this community as well as on this dis. And some of the crimes of the Antioch Police Department go back even as far as your service and as well as you when you were serving on the council. And so, as I've spoken to many victims of state sanctioned violence here in the city of Antioch, violence through the hands of the police department that is supposed to serve in an unbiased nature and not through force. I want to ask you, you said you were surprised, you were shocked, you were upset, and you couldn't believe it.

That's right. What would you say to victims like myself, others here in the audience, and others watching today about what what do you believe would be different about your thinking today on this commission than years ago um when you were up here in our position?

Well, I don't think there's a whole lot that would be different. I think what the difference is is in terms of the response. So I think the times that you're referring to there was probably a difference in the way the information was communicated. So um with time that's gone by and with information becoming more readily available and uh calls for transparency that's not anything that uh you heard about maybe 30 or 40 years ago. Um, I think all of those things have led us to a point where people were not afraid to ask those questions of what they've traditionally thought of as uh symbols of authority and community. In the very old days when people would question authority, you'd get your head chopped off like in the days of ancient Rome. We thankfully have moved beyond that. So, I think that um for people that have been victims of that of those issues um we need to hear about that because if we don't hear about it, we can't do anything about it. It's just like if you recognize that there's a problem out there and you don't step forward to try to fix it, are you not also part of the problem? I would say yes. So, I mean, I could ask any one of you or your predecessors or the mayor before you, mayor before Mr. Bernal, why didn't you do anything? You probably didn't know about it. Why? Because maybe someone didn't say anything about it. Or people said, well, you know, Council Member Walker, she's she's a she's a unique person. She's got

a very unique background. So maybe that's just her experience not realizing that that could be a much more common thing that's gone on in our community and people just didn't talk about it or because it didn't affect them, they didn't care about it. So um I think we need to move beyond that. I think we need to move beyond that really, not just in terms of this commission and in terms of the people that are here in this audience, but it's if you see something, say something. If you know something's going on, get involved and try to fix it. And that's what I'm here to try to do. So, as I said, there could be other people out there that might be better candidates, but uh uh I will certainly do the best I can to try to remedy situations and hear from people who have had some experiences like that and get involved in terms of fixing that because I think again we we we deserve the best. We really do. So, uh part of that is just being involved and not just being a complainer. Thank you for your response. I I I will say people have been coming to this council as far back as 2009. So there were people who did know and and continued to brush it off because they didn't want to believe that state sanctioned violence could happen here in Antioch and it did. And I'm glad something happened now. And I appreciate your words about how we can move forward. Couple of things I I I just would like for you to potentially be a leader on on this commission. diversity training training for this commission around diversity, equity, and inclusion. There also needs to be more outside training for this commission to know how

to operate functionally, not just hold our police department accountable, but how to be also credible messengers and witness to the challenges community members face and find solutions to those challenges. I do believe that you and the commission will be able to come to these agreements. I would also like more community engagement from the commission. Not leaning or leveraging on the police department for that engagement, but finding strategies and ways for the commission to engage the community um on their own in part maybe in partnership with the police department or the public safety and community resources department, but not as a crutch because I do believe it is our role as public servants to engage the community especially from the seat. It is very important commission. I appreciate you stepping up today and I would like to make the motion. If there are no other

any other any other comments? No. Um I would like to where make a motion to approve. I would like to make a motion to for the city of Antioch to um for the city council to adopt a resolution approving the mayor's appointment of Manuel L. Ciz Jr. to the Antioch Police Oversight Commission for one partial term, one vacancy expiring November 2026. I have a motion from Council Member Torres Walker.

I'll second that. Second from council member Roachcha. Please cast your votes. Wait, what's Oh. Oh, there we go. Motion passes. 5-0. Thank you. Congratulation, Mrs. C. Thank you. And Mr. Ciss, um, after the the next couple of items, the city clerk's going to swear all the folks in at the same time. So, you can Thank you, Mr. to hang out for a minute. Thank you.

All right, moving on to item number 10. This is uh regarding the general plan advisory committee uh appointments and uh this committee is made up um or will be made up of two members of the city council, two members of the planning commission, five at large members with two um two alternates at large and uh and we will be meeting uh about every month or so to be going over the uh general plan update which is going to be an approximate two-year process. And so, uh, so these appointments tonight that we'll be going through are for the two planning commissioners, the five, uh, community members at large, and the two um alternate community members at large. So, the first um the first appointment that uh that I am going to be making a recommendation I'm sorry,

I do have a question. Okay. Yes, sir. Yes. Excuse me. Before you do that, um, the city attorney, so on this these these particular appointments, I'm assuming or Mr. the city clerk can respond that each of the uh successful appointees will have to fill out form 700.

That's correct. Okay. So, for the audience and for all the those who may be nominated, a form 700 discloses a lot of financial information, property information and things of that sort. So, I just want to make sure that everybody who has applied understands that that is a legal requirement for full disclosure. On that particular point, one of the things that you would have to disclose are your property holdings throughout the city of Antioch. And I assume particularly one of the individuals is a developer. If that person has any particular business within the city, that would have to be disclosed. And the reason one the form is legally required but there are particular standards if you are a property owner you have to recuse yourself from discussions. So if you own property in the downtown area and we're talking about the uh downtown specific plan I would assume that you would have to recuse yourself because you own property. I know that there are certain measurements within a 500 foot radius or a,000 foot radius or things of that sort, but I think the record needs to indicate that the listing of the property has to be disclosed and you yourself if you are successfully appointed need to recuse yourself for your protection but also for the protection of the city of Antioch. Is there anything that I've said that is is wrong because I want to make sure that those who are receiving this appointment clearly understand there are some legal responsibilities.

No. And just to underscore that um the reportment the reporting requirements are for reportable investments, business positions, interest in real property and income defined under the statutes. And the the actual standard is that if there is a discussion or a decision that you are involved in that could have a material financial effect on personal finances or property interest then that's when it requires recusal. And just for the record, again, since we're making the record, the if you need guidance, that guidance should come uh while the city attorney's office can provide general guidance, the guidance uh to provide you with an affirmative defense should you, you know, either recuse or not recuse um is has to come from the FPPC

which FPPC stands for the Fair Political Political Practices Commission, which is the entity charged with enforcement. Right. So I I make I make you those questions just to be clear because some people do not like to disclose their property, their stocks and things of that sort, their income and a lot of information and it's public information. It's not confidential information. It is open to the public. So I just want to make sure uh particularly with the creation of this commission that that is a responsible each individual has. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Um, I'm not sure how you wanted to do this, mayor. Maybe you wanted to do it just kind of wholesale where we just take everybody together. I would prefer to do each appointment individually so we can hear from the appointees on their opinion, why they want to be appointed, why is it important to them. It's a big time commitment. It could take upwards to two to three years for a general plan process. So just would like to hear from individuals and appoint each person individually. Yes, that that was my intent. Oh, nice.

So yes, any other any questions or comments before we get started? And we have any public comment on this item?

Yes, we have a public comment. Stephen Deposi. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, and members of the city council. My name is Stephen Deashley, and I'm the land use advocate at Save Mount Diablo. We are nationally accredited nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting open space and important lands on and around Mount Diablo and its sustaining 205 mile long Diablo range. We include more than 13,000 donors and supporters. I'm here tonight to speak on our organization's decadesl long involvement in Antioch and our excitement towards working with the city during this general plan update process. Antioch's remaining open space includes some of the most scenic and important lands in the Mount Diablo region. Specifically, the Sand Creek area bordering Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve presents an obvious and exciting opportunity to enhance parks and open space in an area that already provides exceptional public benefits. Save Mount Diablo has worked to preserve this land for years. We did this through the no onmeasure Ka in 2005, supporting the acquisition process of Rody Ranch, now the Deer Valley Regional Preserve by the East Bay Regional Park District. We also did this a decade later with Measure T, letting Antioch voters decide how they wanted to see the San Creek area be used. Measure T, which won in a landslide 79% victory, sent a clear message that Antioch residents value their beautiful open space and want to see it protected. Save Mount Diablo's continued advocacy during this general plan update will help ensure that Antioch residents are better protected from fire and that climate smart affordable development through infill,

transit, and sustainable development principles are prioritized over urban sprawl. It is well recognized that sprawl creates traffic pollution and dramatically drain city funds in the long run. We're already seeing how much Antioch residents care about incorporating open space prioritization into this general plan update. Just last weekend, we had a great turnout at a Save Mount Diablo walk that we had led. A couple dozen residents braved the rainy weather to visit the beautiful Empire Mine Road area to learn about the general plan process and how to resist threats to this important recreational and open space amenity. Save M Diablo is looking forward to more progress on this general plan update and working with city residents and leadership to emphasize community priorities and make Antioch a safe, vibrant, and enjoyable place to live. Thank you for your time.

All right, any other public comment? We have no further public comments. All right, thank you. Uh with that, I'll go ahead and start with my first um nomination for appointment. This would be for the planning commission vacancy. Uh the planning commission discussed this on February the 5th at their meeting and two of the commissioners um offered up their desire to be on this uh committee. The first one is Courtney Jones. And Commissioner Jones, if you could come on up and let us know why you want to be on this committee and why you're the right person to appoint to this. Hi.

I didn't plan anything or um uh my name is Courtney Jones. A little bit about my professional background. I spent the better part of two decades in government contracting designing, constructing, and operating um multi-million dollar enterprise on US military installations. Since then, um I recently um started with HCD as a workforce development specialist there. Um and so and I've been on the planning commission for about two years now. Um, in addition to that, I serve as chair of the city uh sales tax oversight committee um and also on League of California's advancing equity advisory committee. So, I um I say all that to say that I'm extremely passionate and I care about the city. I moved here about 10 years ago. I bought my house and I've been here since then. Um, and so I think the general plan is an amazing opportunity to um, guide and direct the way the city wants the city should be. And so I would love the opportunity and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Um, any questions for Commissioner Jones? Move approval. All right. We have a motion from Mayor Promis. Second. Second from council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5-0. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you.

Um the second nomination uh for appointment from the planning commission is uh for Kevin Riley. Kevin, if you could come on up, please. Commissioner Riley. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, and mayors of the council. Uh, my name is Kevin Riley, and I am a lifelong resident of Antioch. I was born on the Sutter Delta Medical Center here on Lone Tree Way. I am a student of Louis Roaches when he was pres uh principal at uh Antioch High School and I am an AUSD graduate right here. Um, I remember um, Antioch from a long time ago, from a time when our last general plan was made in 2003. That was a time when Antioch had, I believe, half a dozen video rental stores and packages were hardly ever delivered to anyone's residence. I see this is as a great opportunity to discover and to revitalize the future of Antioch for the next 20 years in 2046 uh when this next general plan expires. I hope to have more of a vision for Antioch. I want to see uh what we can do for the future as and what we can do for the 21st century in Antioch. I have um great aspirations for underutilized uh parcels. The Babe Ruth um the Babe Ruth uh sports complex should be revitalized into something great for our recreation, for the leisure of our residents. The Summersville Town Center could also do a remakeover in this 21st century world where, as I mentioned, everyone gets packages delivered to their house. Um, but I hope that not only does my vision help see what I would like to do with Antioch, but I hope that also my career and my perspective can also help shape too. Um, I was um for a while while ago um I was a drafter at one of Antioch's engine um

engineering firms that we do work with uh CBG. Um, I've also worked at nonprofits uh around the Bay Area, including Green Belt Alliance and did some work with uh Save Mount Diablo as well. Um, including um help let Antioch voters decide with Measure T. Um, my current perspective is as a school teacher and now I live as this kind of millennial where I'm uh much older than my students and I think around the same age as the council too, right? Huh? Yes. Me anyway. Yeah. Hey, mostly helping mostly helping Louis Roach out over here.

I wasn't talking about you. You're good. You're good. Um, but um but with that, I want to help revitalize our town to not only just build more housing, which yes, the arena numbers, they are important and getting housing under control is important, but we also have a lot of other things in this city, too. uh recreation, leisure, health, aspirations in this city, education in this city, and of course our police and our safety in our city, too. I think it's wonderful that we just opened a new police substation. I hope that maybe in the future we can open another one. But um that's um kind of all I had. I didn't really write too much, but that's my spiel. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner Riley. Any um any questions or comments? No public comments. All right. Move to approve. Second motion from council member Roacha, second from council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5. All right. Excellent. Now moving on to our atlarge uh members. Uh the first one um that I am nominating is James Becker. Mr. Becker, if you could come on up, please.

Good evening, uh, council members, mayor, mayor prom, city staff. It's good to be here. My name is Jim Becker, and I've been proud to call Antioch home since 1989. Over the past decades, I've seen our city grow and change and face both challenges and opportunities. That long-term perspective is something I'm excited to bring uh to the general plan advisory board. I currently serve as the chair of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce where I work closely with business, nonprofit leaders, and civic partners to strengthen our local economy and support responsible and inclusive growth. Through this role, I've gained a really deep appreciation for how land use, housing, infrastructure, and economic development all intersect in ways that directly affect our residents quality of life. My professional background includes extensive experience in community development, nonprofit leadership, economic development, and housing. I've worked on initiatives that require balancing growth with affordability, opportunity with equity, and vision with practicality. I understand how important it is to listen carefully to bring diverse stakeholders together and to make decisions that serve both today's needs and Antioch's long-term future. I'm committed to helping shape a general plan that reflects our community values, supports sustainable development, and ensures that the city that I love and call home remains a vibrant, inclusive place for families, businesses, and future generations. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Becker. Any uh questions or comments from council? Mr. Mayor, I move approve. Uh Mr. Mr. Recker for let's see one of the atlarge vacancies. All right. Second. A motion from council member Wilson, second from council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5. All right. Um, the second person that I'm nominating, this is in no particular order. I put in alphabetical order, would be Edgar Alejandro Martinez. Um, Mr. Martinez, if you could come on down, you already have one one vote. Wow.

Okay. So, I could have sworn I gave a a speech out loud in my car like three to four weeks ago, and I was just like, what would I say? What do I say? I mean honestly um uh a lot of the individuals who have already spoke have said a lot of the the things I I could tell you um and I was just trying to think I'm like what can I say? I mean, Aok has become uh home essentially and so being able to uh to see to live in different parts of the city uh the downtown area now in central Anoch and being able to build a community whether it's at the individuals residents who go to the gym who are Anoch residents and you know we talk about certain things and look out for one another being able to look out uh my backyard seeing people ride their bicycles or running. They're walking, exercising, you know, near uh the trails that we have here in the city of Enoch. Uh it's it's certainly an opportunity that doesn't come around so often. Um and there's so much potential in the city of Enoch still um in terms of how to use certain land and how to update certain things, you know, the land use and all that stuff. And it's given a lot of opportunity for not just me but for a lot of other individuals you know in in the city of Anyok. I believe the city of Ano has become the second largest city in Contra Contraosta County almost surpassing or I want to say surpassing Richmond. Um and I would I dare say it's it will surpass Conquer at some point. Um but the region is changing. Any is certainly changing. It has changed obviously, but again, the region is going to be it's it's going to continue to change. We're already starting to see that. And being able to work with local businesses who do business here,

business in the city of Anoch, talking with them, who um who serve um individuals um with medical services and all that stuff. Uh it really is nice to have those individuals set their business in Anoch, have the confidence to have a location here in the city of Anoch serve uh residents here uh both of low income and and of commercial um insurance and it it truly is nice because they do care about the community. Um but yeah, again just has become home and just looking forward to uh potentially serving and and getting community to to get engage as well.

All right. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Um I'm glad to see we finally got you. Edgar would come to the council meetings and he would be like, I got to go to school. I don't have time, but I'm showing up. and to see you finally like getting involved deeply and getting this appointment. I'm really excited for you, Edgar, and I'm also happy about it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would move approval. Second your nomination. All right, we have a a motion by Mayor Prom Freya, second by council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5-0. All right. The uh the third um appointment that I'm recommending is Sean McCaulay.

I think that is it's not by first names by last names.

Gotcha. Hi, I'm Sean McCauley. Um I think u the value I'd bring to this committee would be in econ economic development. Um I have a passion for it. I not only do it every day uh in this city, but um I want to see the future of Antioch come back to where it was uh when I was a kid. As a Far East County resident for the last 50 years, I feel like um Antioch's taken a beating. And I think we need to get back uh to where it was when I was younger. And the only way to do that is to have intelligent people on this committee that understand what this community needs and what the city needs. And I think economic development is number one thing that we need to focus on as well as expanding our borders. I feel that expanding our borders is important and I think uh making a stake where Antioch is back in business is important to do with other cities surrounding us. So uh those are the two things that I'd like to see and I think I bring value uh to this committee. So I don't really have anything else to say. Um but I'll take any questions. I know Don you probably were referring to me um with your comments. So,

I just want to make sure you know. Yeah, I just have to have many pages on that document. That's fine. Fill it out. All right. Any any Yeah, go ahead. Um, thank you so much. And, um, when you say so, mostly when people say economic development, I know me and Mayor Pro Tim Fredus have spoke about this. That means jobs, local jobs, where people can work, where they live. Is that what you mean when you say economic development? Is it a lot? Is is it more expansive and also includes that as well?

Yeah, a good question. So, I mean, I feel like economic development in for us really looks like taking people off to off the road. People do not want to commute three hours, four hours a day and then come home and, you know, live. They want to I feel like we have our workforce right here in Antioch. And I think economic development means getting these people off the roads, getting them to work where they live. And I feel like uh we have the land, we have the community members, we have the we have basically the workforce to do that. We just need a plan to get it built. And so that's what I feel like in my book uh the number one thing economic de development looks like in Antioch.

And and when you and I just want to clarify because when when we hear often when I hear people say this, I don't know what they mean. When you say take Antioch back to what it was, what does that mean? When I was a kid, I remember uh Brentwood was like the best way I could describe this is and I know I'm probably older than you, but yes.

Um yeah, from the last comment here, uh but when I was a kid, this is the way the pendulum swing is Brentwood was like Nitson is today. They looked at us like Antioch looked at us like we look at nights and is today. And Antioch was the place to be to shop, to go to out to eat, to go be entertained, to go to the movies, to go pick up a blockbuster video. Like somebody said earlier, that's where we had to go. And Antioch had everything that the communities around it needed to live. that has not to fast forward to today, we have not kept up with that demand. And I think that we need to make sure that we understand that agility is probably the most important thing that we can do um with vacant buildings with absentee landlords. Um giving them an opportunity to say, "What can I do with this particular property to make a difference in that community?" And giving them those constructive ideas and also giving that expanded zoning to do that. So that's Does that make sense?

Yeah. Thank you for that clarification because of often like as somebody who's only lived in this community for 12 years now. You never know what people mean when they say that and so it's always great to get clarification and and I understand what you mean and I also agree with you. So, thank you for that. All right. Any other questions or comments?

Sure. Uh, one of the things I appreciate what you said, um, about local work, um, with the when the bond measure passed for Annak High School, which was 56 million to renovate, modernize that old high school, one of the most, um, uh, rewarding things that I saw happen was I would walk around the campus and see the construction zones going on, whether it was a stadium, the swimming pool, classrooms, library, whatever it was. So many times I would see a worker who would say, "Hey, my kid goes here." Or, you know, or they would let me know they lived in the community, they were proud to work in the place that they live. And that was kind of my experience coming from Oakland to Antioch was my dad was able to buy his first home here, our family home, and then work locally, you know, in the steel mill. So, to me, I think those things make sense. How do we get people to be able to work here in the community where they live? uh opposed to having to travel on the road and look for work um beyond. So I know that many over the years a lot of our industrial work that was happening along the riverfront have shut down. Um we have the river right here, a port that potentially could happen here. Just a lot of potential um ideas to happen here and so um so I appreciate your comments.

Yeah, tons of good assets that we should be taking advantage of. Yeah. All right. Any other comments? Um, I'll make the motion. I'll second a motion from council member Torres Walker, second from council member Roachcha. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5-0. All right. Thank you. All right. Um, the next uh nomination for appointment is for Rodona Means. Uh Dona, if you could come on up, please, and tell us why you want to be on the uh committee and why you're the person to be there. Patience. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you all for I just wish I had the energy of their child.

He is quite funny. That is my great nephew. Um so good evening mayor, mayor pro Tim, city council, staff and community. My name is Rodonna Means and I am here to say thank you for the nomination on being part of this committee. I am interested in this committee because I'm a new resident uh for the city of Antioch. I've been here for the five years. I I moved out here. My sister and her family, they have been out here for 18 years. 18 years. So, I've come to Antioch quite a bit over the years. Um, and decided to settle myself and my family here. Um, I have three children and they are adults. So, I didn't have the opportunity for my children to attend school um here in the city of Antioch. Um but but I love this city and what I love about this city is that it is growing. Um there is opportunity for um just more development and I've had an opportunity to sit and really observe the uh the city over the last 5 years to you know see where there are some places where you know we can continue to grow. Um, I am a person that leans into my community and not out. So, I'm not just here. I'm not trying to, um, take the money that I make and take it out of the city. I believe in recycling the dollar within the city. And so, I have lots of ideas of what that could look like. And I feel like being part of this committee would allow me um to just kind of put those ideas forward and you know for all of you to be able to make those final decisions on what uh the city would look like in the next 10 years, 20 years, which I'm excited about cuz I just

bought a house. I'm going to be here for at least 30 years, right? Um, also I am a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, the Contraosta Alumni Chapter. And I have to do a shameless plug because they are watching. Hello. Um, I am the past president for uh the chapter. And one of the things that we pride ourselves on is community service. Um we have a five-point program that focuses on economic development, physical and mental health, social justice, um international awareness and phys I already said physical and mental health. Um and I'm having a brain freeze. Oh, but those principles we try to put into the communities that we're serving, which is all of Contraosta. And we have several programs that are here um in the east county. Um and so we've been here for 35 years. And so we have really, you know, we've planted ourselves here. And I'm just trying to give back. you know, I'm now living on this side of the county. I'm from Richmond, California. I've spent all of my early years there. Um, and so now I'm I'm spreading. And so, um, Antioch has my love and I'm here to see it flourish and grow for the future.

All right. Thank you very much, Miss Means. Any questions? Thank you. I um I call it the five-year Antioch itch. can't be here no longer than five years before you before you just died. It took me five years, too. I was like, "Oh, oh, no." Um, I wanna I need to get involved. I want to get involved. So, I just want to say thank you um for wanting to get involved and I'll make the motion. All right. If there are any more comments, we have a motion. Said she's a Delta. I know all the work that you guys do. So, thank you. as a daughter of a Delta who who just joined the Omega Mega chapter, I know the work that you guys do. Thank you. All right. Is that Is that a second? Yes. Okay.

All right. A second by Council Member Wilson. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. All right. And and the fifth uh recommended appointment is uh J.R. Wilson. One up. Jr. I know it's been a long long long time. Sorry. No, no, it's all right. My sister could agree and

Tamisha could agree. Walker and Wilson with W's were always last. Um, but no, I uh be quite honest with you. I I do appreciate the opportunity to be able to serve my community in a bigger role than just my neighborhood. And that neighborhood would be the veterans uh component of that. Um I grew up in Antioch and Pittsburgh. Um got my sense of community uh from growing up in both of those uh communities. I think everybody understands what my idea of community means. It's uh we are made up of many different neighborhoods and so people that come up to me and talk to me about community, they often are surrounded by people that look like them, talk like them, love like them, vote like them, and they have to realize they're part of a neighborhood, right? So, we want to have all of our neighborhoods have voices and be able to grow. Um I agree with a lot of what uh the other people that came up have have said. Um, we want to build things here, but we also want our citizens and residents to be able to stay here. Right? When a mom leaves and goes 35, 45 miles to a job and leaves her kids here, often times she's relying on other people to take care of that if anything happens in schools. I think we need to keep her here in this city and working and raising her children. um just like I h I have an 8-year-old. I want to be able to stay in the community and uh and do that. But we have to be able to look at all the different neighborhoods and raise them all up together and keep them off of Highway 4. Um so just my little background, grew up out here, right? But I was also living on the streets. Um made a very good decision when I was 19 years old to join the military. U made very bad decisions when I was 15. That's when I when I left home and started

living on the street. Um but we did have wonderful people in our community um that were able to guide me towards the military. And then after the military, I turned that service into service of of other veterans and other community um members that I serve serve now. I've done that at a state level, a national level. Um I like to be in my own backyard and to serve and to volunteer um with no a you know expectations of any of that. Um, but I do want to jump in there and I do want to be able to work with uh with everybody um and be able to listen to those ideas and then uh you know come back with some some advice and some feeling um in that. But just know I love everybody. I love all of you. I do. I do. I do. I think when we put love into those kinds of things, we start to see things through other people's eyes, right? we start to understand where they walked and what their life lived and what their contributions are. So, um you may not look like me, talk like me, vote like me, but I'm still going to love you and I'm still going to listen to you. Um so, I hope everybody has their listening ears on. Um but uh Right. Um

Right. Exactly. And and I do want to thank you, Tamisha, for moving that up. I think we were all back there going, "Come on, we can move these things up." Um, but uh I don't I don't really have a lot to say. Um, if you know me in the community, I I talk all the time, so I don't have to do that here at 10 o'clock at night. But if you guys have any questions or anything like that, um, feel free to uh, hammer away. I have a 8-year-old at home. Thank god she's not mine, so I get a break. So, God speed. And, you know, mine's a boy, so you know, if you need any, you know, we they can hang out. I'm telling you, that's all. Moving right along. I will move J.R. Wilson as the next nominee.

A motion from Mayor Freus, second from council member Roach. Please cast your votes. Thank you. Motion passes 5.

All right. And before we move on to the alternates, I just wanted to mention that Mayor Prom Freighus and um senior planner Kevin Scadero were um on the interview panel with me. There was about 15 candidates. It was it was a a long process. We had some really good folks who applied. So I just want to thank Mayor Brom for being a part of that and making that a successful process. Okay, moving on to our um our alternates. The first one is Viona. Yesi. I'm sorry. I I butchered. I told you I wasn't going to, but I did. Viona Wesi. Veong Wesie. Von Wesi. Sorry. I want

No. Hi. Thank you guys. Hello. How are you guys? Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, and council members. Um, and also Annioch. Um,

good evening. I know it's pretty late. Um, my name is Vayong Wesie, but you guys can call me V. Um, I've been a part of this community for the last seven to eight years. So, to Misha, you are right. After the 5-year mark, you start to get that itch. I'm just going to briefly go a little bit of my background. Um I bring uh 12 plus years in financial services specializing in fraud investigations compliance and also risk analysis where I've de developed a a strong foundation in accountability ethics and protecting vulnerable populations. Um, beyond my professional background, I currently serve as a board member with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention with the Greater San Francisco chapter and I am also a walk chair for Oakley. So, we pretty much organize um, uh, community walks out of the dark out of the darkness darkness walk. Um, and that work is deeply personal to me. Um, and it's shaped how I show up for others and um, with empathy, also advocacy and a commitment to making sure every voice um, is heard and supported. Um, but after, you know, serving as board for San Francisco and being walked chair for Oakley, um, I live here in Antioch and that's when I started to ask myself, what is it that I can do to help contribute to the city? Um, I drive down here all the time, so I see a little bit of the change. I see a little bit of the cleanup in certain areas. Um, and I I want to be part of that change to help revitalize and and bring more opportunities to this city. Um, so I am very passionate about serving and strengthening our community overall. And as mentioned, um, I do bring a back background in fraud, risk, and advocacy work, but, um, as an

alternate, I'm here to listen, contribute, and also advocate for solutions that reflect the needs of our community. All right. Thank you very much, Bay. Any any questions or comments from council? Move approval for our appointment. Second motion from council member Wilson, second from council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes. Motion motion passes 5-0. All right. Thank you.

Um Desiree Coronado, could you please join us up here? Thank you for coming out here tonight and weathering the length of this meeting.

Hi, Mayor Bron Bernell, Mayor Prom. Hello. Good evening, uh city uh council members. Um, I've been a resident of Antioch for the last six years and um, I've during this time I've been on um, all children allowed advocacy team for special education and I also have been uh, volunteering at team Jesus ministries um, handing out free food to the community and I'm very happy to work with such great people there along with Miss um, Miss Floria Pinaga and um, I applied because uh, During the time I've been a resident here, I see where my helping hand can help others in the community. And the population is growing. The children here at the schools, they're growing as well. And um I would really like to have the opportunity to help everyone here where improvements can be made and um jobs can be created and any areas that need to be cleaned up. Um and um I would really like to be part of the committee to be a great ambassador, an honest ambassador for the residents and um to be also a great leader as in many ways as possible. And um you know what makes a great leader is when you hear the voices of your people and that's the kind of ears I would like to have for everyone here. And um I'll be more than happy to um serve and um be part of a great new group of people and uh see how we all can connect and network positively so we can have a positive outcome for everybody from here on out.

All right. Thank you very much. Any questions from council? Just move to approve.

Right. Motion from council member Roaches, second from council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 5 Z. So at this time um our city clerk Mandy is going to if everybody could come on down here please that we um the whole I guess that's going to be all nine of you going to come on down. Um, clerk Mandy's going to read the oath of office and then uh have you sign have you guys sign a sign a resolution right there is fine.

Yeah, it's going to be that way. Jr. raise your right hand, please. I state your name. I, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear or affirm or affirm that I will support that I will support and defend and defend the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of the State of California of California against all enemies against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic that I will bear that I will beare true faith and allegiance

true faith and allegiance to the Constitution to the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of California of the State of California that I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely without any without any mental reservations mental reservations or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will And that I will well and faithfully well and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties upon which upon which I am about to enter I'm about to enter Congratulations

could I say something members members members I just want to I just want to say something I actually have the honor of being the mayor and involving in involved in the creation of the existing general plan. It took over three years and it has been the guiding document for our community. Some successes, some failures. I think the mayor and I would agree. We had about 15 individuals and frankly they had all you had one thing in common. We want to make Antioch better. And it's exciting because clearly when you take an oath of office like this, this is very very serious business. And we expect you to attend. We expect you to read all the material and we expect you to participate, you know, to ha hear what you have to say because you all do live here. You have children, you know, and some of us are getting older. You know, nobody said anything about senior services, but that's important as well, you know. But, you know, really, I think the mayor and I were so incredibly impressed with all of you that applied. We're excited and we're going to do a good job. God bless you and thank you.

Yeah. Thank Thank you all very much for stepping up to this um big commitment and uh looking forward to working with you all. Um, clerk Mandy is going to have you all sign um sign the the um certificate the certificate. And uh while you guys are doing this, we're going to take a fivem minute break. Recess.

Yeah, it might have been a lot. Zoe against it. Oh, hey.

artist and direct meeting. Good job. Okay.

All right, everybody. Welcome back from our recess. Uh, Mr. Clerk, will you please take the role? Council member Roachcha here. Council member Torres Walker, present. Council member Wilson here. Mayor Prom Freighus present. Mayor Bernell here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 10:16 p.m. All right, moving on to city council committee reports and communications. Council member Wilson, none of my committees met. Mayor Pro Tim, none of my committees met. Council member Roachcha,

committees met, but I'll I'll make it really short. uh Sanding School City Schools Committee. We have a community resource event happening next Thursday, April 23rd at 5:30 BD Auditorium. It's intended to provide the array of services available to our community. There'll be some workshops and it's at Antioch High School and BD Auditorium at 5:30 to 7:00. And if you're want to know more information about it, go to the Antioch Unified School District website or to the city of Antioch website to find out more information. That's a committee that council member Torres Walker and I sit on. What what what date is that? Uh next Thursday the 23rd. Okay.

And then also the um CDBG uh community development block grant uh standing committee. We had a meeting and it was um it was our uh consultant or coordinator's final meeting, Terry House. So, we um recognized her for her service and we will be bringing back recommendations on May 12th with um what we proposed to move forward with with budget for CDBG. Um we're hoping that we will get um an update on the budget from um the federal government. We're waiting to see what that looks like. And I believe that's it. The other one I know there's another committee that I sit on. Trying to remember which one it is. Um the last one Oh, try Delta. uh council mayor pro Tim Fredus and I sit on the tri delta transit. We had a meeting a few weeks ago and one of the big hot topics right now obviously is public transit and the uh ballot initiative that'll be on the November ballot related to public transportation and and if it's not if it doesn't pass the potential significance it would have on closing some stations BART affect Tri Delta. So there'll be more information to come. So anyway, that's a snapshot of the three committees.

All right. Thank you. Um Council Member Torres Walker,

nothing to report. Um have not met, but I know um myself and u Mayor Pro Tim Freighus. We have our first cannabis site visit this week. It's tomorrow actually. It's going to be super exciting. And um we are planning our very first meeting of the downtown standing committee which I've been on forever but hasn't met but Mayor Pro Tim Freighus we're revitalizing that committee and we will be meeting May 28th and we will be developing an agenda for that committee um all downtown all the time. So be on the lookout for that if you are interested in joining those meetings. And that is pretty much it because council member Roachcha covered everything else.

All right, perfect. None of my um committees met and my mayor comments is that we're moving on to the consent calendar. So um consent calendar item number five. Anything to pull? U mayor. Oh, sorry. Uh would staff would like to pull item L and move that to the April 28th meeting. That's for the Contraosta County Regional Alternative Compliance Joint Powers Authority participation. Okay. All right. Item L moving to the 428 meeting. Anything else to pull? Yes. Uh G, H, J, and that's it. Okay. So we have um do we I'll move uh the remaining consent calendar.

All right. Remaining consent calendar except for LG H and J. Do we have a second? Second.

We have a motion from Mayor Prom Freight. Second from Council Member Roachcha. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 5. All right. Uh moving on. Item number G, award of consulting services agreement to environmental science associates associates for the fish screen monitoring study in the amount of $594,180 prom. So on this particular item, I I really don't understand because as I went through the document, it talks about the the work both in the scope of work on page two and page 10. And it specifically talks about the scope of work from March 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2026. But the the request is that we enter into a three-year contract for $500,000, two-year option for another $400,000 for a total budget of 900,000. It makes no sense to me why we would enter into a five-year contract when we have to just we're just going to now do this and figure out what the findings are. I I don't know why we have to do five years.

Thank you, mayor, city council. Um yeah, so this is a result of the brackish water project that replaced our uh intake over at the Sanin River. Um this is a process that's done by the California Fish and Wildlife uh to monitor the fish screen to make sure the screen is operating properly. Um we were told and need to get this underway immediately. Uh that's why you see the initial March to June to get this stuff done now with the initial $100,000. May or may not need all of that to get things started, but it's to get them out there to get the process to going to get them to be able to start the investigation, start the reporting. That's something that we can do now. This is probably or could go on indefinitely. It basically ends when uh the agency determines that our fish screens are in compliance. Um we're assuming that it could last for 5 years. That's why this is set for five years. The reason for one contract is so that if we do have somebody to do this initial testing that we keep them for successive years so that we can remain consistent with our reporting to the state as well as the consultant that we're dealing with to do the work. So that's the reason for the five-year plan and and again this is going to be reconsidered every year because we only have a one-year budget that we're going into. It's a five-year plan but until the money is allowed. The way these things are written basically it's something that we have to you can't we cannot ask for money that isn't being budgeted currently but the idea is to keep this consultant under contract for 5 years for the duration of this process to get this fish screen certified.

Okay, it makes no sense to me. I mean I think that we go we do a test for maybe this year and next year, learn from it and go out again if if there is a requirement. But you're going to be budgeting $900,000. And that's what I have a problem with when we have, you know, this year if 11.3 plus $5 million from the um other reserve funds. So we're in deficit 16.3, but yet we're you're you're asking the council to basically budget $900,000 for the next five years. I it makes no sense to me. I I I I I think that we're going to do an initial review. I'm hoping that the results are going to be good so that we don't have to do this each and every year as we we go forward. But I I I don't think it's appropriate for us to enter into a fiveyear $900,000 contract

um through the city manager. Quick question. So the the the title says $594,000, but then you have 500,000 for the first three years and then $400,000 for the next two years. Um, one, the numbers don't don't add up. But the other question is why why does the cost the final two years go up to $200,000 a year and the first three years it's like 166,000 a year? What's the what's the difference there?

So the first year is $100,000. The following two years are $200,000 and then the final three year the final two years would be an additional $200,000. There's no escal escalation after the first year and the first year like I said is to cover the next few months to get the process going as we're being you know mandated to by uh California's Fish and Wildlife. Okay. And then to to Mayor Prom's point, the um this is this is um enterprise funds, correct? This comes out of the water fund, not the general fund. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Thank you. That's all the comments. Any anything else? Do we have any any public comment on this? We have no public comments.

All right. Would anybody like to make a motion? I'll move to approve. I have a motion from Council Member Roachcha. Second. Second from Council Member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes. I thought I

motion passes 4 to one with Mayor Prom Freighus voting no.

All right. Item number H. uh award an agreement to Laurel AG and Water LLC for the water treatment plant 16inch pump control valve and B backwash tank altitude valve replacement in the amount of $545,342. My question on this exhibit B, it says to be determined. And then when we go to exhibit C, the city manager, action city manager says, well, exhibit C is actually the scope of work. I don't get it. What was what's B supposed to be? It's a blank sheet to be determined. Um again um sorry that that should have been omitted. It was a mistake within there. The actual scope of service is the scope of service. It's defined in exhibit C from the contract or from the consultants proposal. But to be determined was should be admitted. It's not it's not what the scope is. The scope is what the contractor has provided. And

so city clerk I mean city attorney. So, I'm assuming that if we approve this, there'll be a correction in this agreement. Yes. And you can actually include that in your motion. Okay. So, I will move approval and um and that the exhibits be redone to accurately reflect the scope of work and all the other insurance requirements and things of that sort. All right, we have a motion. Second. A motion for mayor promp second for council member Torres Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5-0. All right. Item J, resolution authorizing and accepting state of California cannabis equity grant funding and authorizing the city manager to execute the grant agreement. Director Kabal, good evening. Good evening. And I'm looking for the It's good to see you. It's me. I know.

Jay, you know, u on this particular item, uh, you need to help me out because as the canisters committee has been meeting, I understand when we use the word equity that what I thought was equity equity isn't equity. It's actually council member Torres Walker has tried to educate me, but it's still hard for me to understand the difference between the social equity and between this equity. So, if you could please please educate me what what is it that we're talking about here?

Okay. Well, I think you have what equity means, which is fairness. So this particular item is speaking about planning and assessment efforts to inform our future policy decisions. So it's a local assessment of our potential gaps and barriers within our current cannabis program. Now, the social equity that we talk about when we meet, you know, we talk about all the different components, but it's about the cannabis operators paired with nonprofit programs and we provide they provide funding to those nonprofits to support the community programs and address harms from past cannabis enforcement. So this is nothing to do with the social equity piece of what our operator agreements dictate when it comes to our nonprofits and their programs.

As you know, we have actually talked about saturation in the city of Annia cannabis. So I I'm trying to reconcile that's been some of our discussion at the committee level, but this is actually to help people open cannabis. This particular one is really assess assessing what we currently have. For example, how is it that we can better if we wanted to make updates to our municipal code, which is something that in our cannabis standing committee we've talked about, what

what is needed to better support in order to gain equitable access to the cannabis market. It doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to bring more cannabis businesses. It's just an assessment with the goal of with the goal of seeing where our gaps and barriers are currently at like with the current cannabis businesses. Okay. So that in the future we could because we are talk we have talked about you know um admit uh what's to amend the existing ordinance. So this in fact would dovetail into that effort. Correct.

Okay. All right. I I just would suggest that when we use equity, you know, maybe some definition because we often discuss this at the cannabis committee about the differences. Yes. I I can see where it's confusing because we say social equity program and there's a cannabis equity grant and it's like hey one is one is the other and it's not

there I I do want to clarify something if I can. It's like, yeah, we had a social equity piece where the the nonprofits actually this piece is about making sure that people impacted by the war on drugs and criminalization of cannabis in California can get can can have access a doorway to access um the cannabis field. So, this actually is about assessing our current um cannabis operations in the city for equity, but it's also to create pathways for individuals impacted to be able to be an operator themselves in many and get involved in many different ways. So, you don't have to be an actual operator of a dispensary to get into the field. you can get into cultivation. Um there's also the um issue around um job access in in this field like is it equitable? Are people actually working in this field at different levels? So there are a couple different cannabis. There's a lot to cannabis than just the stores where they're selling, but people who have been impacted by incarceration, criminalization as a result of the war on drugs have found it very hard to get into the field. This analysis of our current base of operations around cannabis in Antioch will tell us if we have been keeping people out of the field and what we can do in the future in the event opportunities open up so individuals with a past background of being criminalized can have their foot in in the door. So, it's a little bit of both.

We got our site visit on Thursday. We going to learn a lot about cultivation and all this other stuff. All right. So, do uh have a motion from Mayor Prom uh Freighus. Second. Second from Council Member Toys Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes. 5-0. Thank you. Um item L staff has recommended that we continue that to the next city council meeting. Do we need to take a vote to move that or can that just be stand as staff's? No, I think it was moved to a date and certain and staff has directions. So you're good. Okay, perfect. All right, moving on to um item number six, public hearing. Uh this is conduit financing for the Hillrest Summit Apartments project. and turn this over to acting city manager Merchant. Thank you. Um we have Nathan Tinclair from the planning division here to uh start the presentation.

So good evening mayor and members of the city council. I'm Nathan Tinclair, associate planner. We're here this evening to conduct a public hearing pursuant to the Federal Tax and Fiscal Responsibility Act or TERA. TER requires that a public hearing be held by the governing body of the jurisdiction in which a project to be financed with taxexempt financing is located and that the governing body approve the proposed financing. Cypress Equity Investments has asked that the California Municipal Finance Authority or CMFA be the issuer of taxexempt financing in an amount not to exceed $50 million of taxexempt revenue bonds to one finance or refinance the acquisition construction improvement and equipping of Hillrest Summit Apartments which is a multif family rental housing project located at the corner of Hillrest Avenue and East Talis Road. um and two pay certain expenses incurred in connection with the issuance of these bonds. The California Municipal Finance Authority is a joint powers authority formed to assist local governments, nonprofit organizations, and businesses with the issuance of both taxable as well as taxexempt debt. The debt to be issued by the CMFA will be the sole responsibility of the borrower and the city will have no financial or legal obligations or responsibilities regarding the repayment of the debt. All financing documents will carry disclaimers that the loan is not an obligation of the city. The city will bear no costs in the issuance of the proposed debt and this is a private loan with the borrower and their bank. It is recommended that the city council adopt a resolution approving the issuance of bonds by the CMFA for the borrower. Um, and again, such adoption is solely for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of TERA, the Internal Revenue Code, and California Government Code section 6500.

I'm joined this evening by Jared Suzuki from the California Municipal Finance Authority who can help to answer any questions you may have about this as well as the following two tering items. Um and representatives from Cypress Equity Investments, the project developer are also available tonight via Zoom. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um this is a public hearing so I will go ahead and open it. Do we have any uh proponent for the No proponents, sir. Do we have any opponent to the No opponents. All right. Do we have any public comment? We have no public comments. All right. Then I will close the public hearing and it is before the city council um for deliberation.

Yes.

So, Mr. Mayor, it's been several months, but I had a presentation from the proposed builder on this and I was very much opposed to the proposal. And the reason why is that this is surrounds a gas station, a car wash. There are vacuums and things of that sort. and the developer wants to build on the property line that surrounds the gas station. And some me from my perspective that presents a major sa public safety issue. And so one of the suggestions was to flip the um the high density development so that the development actually is away from the gas station itself. And so I I'm curious I mean there is a connection or a nexus here you know if if we approve the financing how does the project come back to us? So the this project is part of the commercial infill housing overlay district um that was adopted um several years ago by the city council. The project designs were approved administratively by staff in line with the commercial infill housing proposal. Um and so the project would not come back to the council. Um in terms of the design.

So that is what I am radically opposed to because u I think the designs were done in in 2022 and now we have new council. So these are being handled admin admin ministerially. They do not come back to the city council. I I am just so opposed to this format that they have surrounding the gas station. So frankly, I have a very difficult time embracing the financing for this particular program because I don't want this built. And so I I think it's a danger to us. The other part that I have a problem is the ingress and egress. For those people, it's right off of Hillrest. You come off of Highway 4. You go, you turn right. And what we have, we have Shadic Drive for anybody who uses this, particularly from about 4:00 to 7 o'clock. The traffic backs up on Shadic as well as Talis. And yet that's supposed to be the entrance in and out of this property. And then when you look, that's the entrance. That's the ingress. The egress, it goes through the project and it goes to Hillrest. And you know, Hillrest is going to be unendated. There's a a traffic light, you know, that will, you know, somewhat regulate the the traffic. But all those people that are wanting to leave can enter only one way and exit. And I think that that from a circulation perspective is a level F. And so just like in school, if you got a F, it's a failure. From my perspective, this is a failure. So the problem is, I mean, Alan Payton, I think, probably sent some of us, you know, you you guys should approve this.

And that we've also heard from some of the citizens about this. And so I had some discussions. It's like, well, what happens if we don't approve this? So the city attorney was gracious enough to send a document that, you know, reflects uh the California Department of Housing Community Development. And so the problem I have with this and this is why from the public pers perspective it's like how can the city council approve such a horrible project because the city council has no jurisdiction. That's the problem. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever but that's the world that we are living in. And so when I looked at this particular le letter which was a couple years ago to conquer I just want to read some of the the the wording as the city is aware through the housing element law. The legislature, this is the California legislature, has established the availability housing as a vital statewide importance and the early attainment of decent housing and suitable living environment for every Californian is a priority, the highest order. So it's literally in in 2022 then city council not this city council approved these overlays which basically means that these projects don't come back to us there's no discretion there's no discussion they get approved and then further on in addition it talks about the government code HCD shall review any action of failure to act by the city that it determines is inconsistent with an adopted housing element, including any failure to implement any program actions included in the housing uh

element. Moreover, HCD quote finds that the action or failure to act by the city does not substantially comply with this article. HCD may revoke the findings that the HA city's housing element is in compliance with the housing element law until it determines that the city has come into compliance with the state law. This is a gun to our head. It's not acceptable in our community that the city council has no discretion over the uh over the approval of this particular project. So, I I I don't like to have a gun to my head. I think this project is horrible. I think it presents safety considerations. I think circulation considerations and uh the other part is like when you read the staff report and it's well written but they talk about wow you know what the city of Antioch is going to it reads that the CMFA shares a portion of the issuant fees to uh it receives with its member communities and donates a portion of these issuance fees to the foundation for the support of local charities. And so I appreciate Miss Zoe Mer Meredith sending us information. So I thought, wow, that's great. We're going to get at least some community benefit. So I wonder how much we're going to get for the Antioch Hillrest project. It's estimated at $13,700. Not very significant. So yes, there's a gun to our head. Yes, there's a promise to fund local charities. And wow, we get $13,700. So from my perspective, I think this I will be protesting this as well as the other

two and voting against it. It's not in our well-being and I am very very unhappy that the state legislature is shoving down these regulations and not helping us at the local level. All right. Any other comments or questions? I I just like to say that um I appreciate the information that was sent today by um Miss Meredith. Thank you for the the elevations on this particular project are really stark. Right. It's four stories high. It's got a little bit of in and out. It's gray and a couple variations of gray and a off-white. I mean, it's going to be a really really um in my opinion unattractive building sitting out there four stories high when you get off the when you get off Highway 4 and start start your way up Hillrest. And so it's going to be the first thing a lot of people are going to see. And I just I don't think it's a very a very good statement for uh for for what the city of Antioch wants to look like, especially as we have these 10 overlay properties that we're we're potentially going to be seeing more and more of these going up. I just think this is not. And then to Mayor Prom's point about the proximity to the gas station and the car wash, they put the whole project around that particular property which has lights and noise and all of that and and away from the hill. And so again, I just think the design was not well thought out. And then the ingress and egress, we all know what Hillrest is like. There's no deceleration lane. There's going to be people trying to to turn in and out of the project off of off of Hillrest, it looks like and then Shadic and it's uh it's going to be a traffic problem. I can pretty much guarantee. So, there's just a lot there's a lot of issues and to the point that it appears we don't have a lot to say about it or be able to change about

it. And then to the the fact that we're not getting property tax off of this project. So, you know, if it's a if it's a $50 million project, it's $50,000 a year. It's not maybe not a lot, but it's something. And then it has the statement that um with respect to the city of Antioch, it's expected that a portion of the issuance fee attributable to the city will be granted by the CMFA to the general fund of the city. Such grant may be used for any lawful purpose. And again, if if that $15,000 or $13,000 number is anywhere close to that, that is not even that's basically a joke of how much money they're going to be giving to the city off of a $50 million bond sale. So, I guess there's just a lot of things that, you know, obviously are not I don't think are in the best interest of our community, apart from the fact that we're we're we're providing affordable housing. And then when it comes to the afford affordable housing um aspect of it, we have 10% very low 10% low and then uh um of the AMI and then you have the rest of it at 60 and above. And so as far as our arena numbers are concerned and all three of the projects have basically the same the same formulas as far as that's concerned, uh we're not going to be putting a huge dent in our lower end of our arena numbers with these with these projects that we're doing. So, um, yeah, just not not super pleased with with what we're what we're asked to approve here tonight.

All right.

I'm just kind of stuck on what are our options. you know, when you look at the big picture here, um we um we're a general law city and we follow state California state uh government. And if that's what the rules we have to play by are I don't know what's to be gained by voting it no because the consequences as we've discussed before and other issu projects could be very detrimental to the city of Antioch um moving forward. So, I'm not crazy about it either, but at the same time, I think we have to look at um what our options are. And it doesn't seem like we have very many options since the local authority on this um we don't have a whole lot of control. That's just my perspective.

All right. Any other perspectives on this? We could become a charter city. I don't think that helps. But

no, I think I mean does as I'm assuming that what coun council member Roach is saying is true. It's like we fall under what the state requires as a general law city. I think that I'm a I'm a huge supporter of affordable housing, but everything I've seen come forward in this city has not been affordable to the people who who actually need it in general. Um even most of the developments that have been improved through this city, have not met the threshold of um low to very low in to meet low or very low income needs. And without a, you know, inclusionary housing overlay, that's going to continue in the city anyway. And so, I mean, none of these, I'm just hearing from my colleagues, none of these developments are in my district. So, just sitting back and hearing what people believe the impacts might be is is what I'm here to do tonight.

M council member,

yeah, I have a question for city attorney. Uh and thank you for the email that uh you had sent kind of really breaking everything down and why and I hear what my fellow council members are saying. Why isn't like traffic mitigation one of the caveats for saying hey this may not work because as you know as mayor promises was talking about the ingress on Trigalis and egress on Hillrest wouldn't if it's like a safety issue I'm gonna have to punt this over to Zoe because I think that's part of one of the the checklist of standards that they look at because it's a fire rate Yeah. So, uh, engineering does look at these projects as part of our review. So I believe uh director Bunting stepped out but um his staff did review this uh project and then um more generally and broadly um the CI projects um all 10 sites were part of an addendum to the general plan EIR and that addendum was did study traffic as required by SQA law. Um so that was approved in 2022. So the projects generally have um the addendum and the traffic work there and then individual projects um are reviewed by city staff including engineering staff. So they thought because I'm thinking about the other projects too, you know, because we have the Hillrest and Talas and then we have this Lone Tree Blue Rock um and golf course which we're going to be talking about later where that's there's kind of significant traffic issues. So, I'm kind of a little stunned on the the the traffic.

Yeah. I would also point out that all of these sites um that we're seeing today had um you know, or were designed for commercial use that also had large traffic volume. So, that's part of the factor um as well. Um, but you know, if you have more specific questions, I can

it's about the traffic because I know I' I've heard from, you know, people because there's one of the projects in is in my area that people are kind of getting upset about, but you know, it states passes something down and we have to kind of follow suit. Are you saying that it was zoned for commercial and the traffic issues weren't a problem when it was zoned for commercial, but now that there's a housing overlay and it and housing is trying to be built there, then now traffic is a problem.

Uh, no, I was just saying that like for example, this project um there was a commercial uh entitlement on it in the past. So those traffic counts were taken into account as a land use that already existed with a um a high traffic volume. So having residential was also studied and the um difference between those two uses.

So Mr. Mayor, so on the just because we are discussing this and so we're talking about 165 units on this piece of property. Four stories. four stories surrounding that gas station right there on the corner. And so it'll be 63 onebedroom, 52bedroom, 52 3bedroom for 165 units. What's fascinating parking 145 stalls. So, if each one of these has a a car, they're going to have to park on the street, which we have a church right across, which will continue to cause issues with parking and the church being extremely angry about this. And so, I realize some of the sentiment as well. You know, it's a state, we're general law city, so we have to go with it. Yeah. And and if we don't ever if we don't protest, if we don't fight, this is just going to continue and continue because those in Sacramento sit there and say, "I know what's best for you at the local government." And yet the people we represent get extraordinarily angry at us when we have to punt and say, "It's not our problem, it's the state." So, Miss Meredith, let me ask you, what happens if we do say no? What what are the disadvantages for us?

Yes, I would look more directly to the city attorney on the ramifications there. So, I think if the council denies the ter approval, the project, you know, can still identify alternative funding. Um, and if it doesn't, there's a possibility that it could be rendered infeasible. But the developer, you know, also or the conduit issuer issuer, which is the California Municipal Finance Authority, they have the ability to ask the county or the state to be the host approver as opposed to the city. So, it it's possible that you could they could still get approval through one of these other entities. Thank you.

Um, is it okay if the CMFA Sure.

Yes. Good evening, honorable mayor, mayor prom, city council members. My name is Jared Suzuki and I represent the conduit bond issuer, the CMFA, on all three of these transactions. Couple of points. Um, the purpose of this meeting tonight is strictly about the financing of the tax exempt bonds. As mentioned, this has been entitled, zoned, gone through all of the steps to get to this point here at the city. And so the the purpose of this is about the financing whether or not this can be issued as a these bonds can be issued on a taxexempt status. Um about the issuance fees the amount of the bonds if for example a $50 million bond sale the the fees that we're talking about are the CMFA issuance fees. So, we share 25% with the city as well as 25% of the of our fees with with local charities. So, while 13,000 isn't a large number for one deal, over the years, we've been able to donate millions of dollars to local charities around the state. And as members of our JPA, City of Antioch being a member, um the cities, counties, special districts, water districts have been able to use those funds for whatever lawful purpose they see fit. Um and about any questions about the design, we are joined by Kim on Zoom. I don't know if she's able to unmute herself and speak if she has anything to say. Is that is that a possibility? See not

generally in the back back room they can if not that then in in the meantime I'd like to ask a question about the so so you said that that the CMFA gives 25% of your proceeds for the bond sale to local charity and 25% to the general fund to cities correct cities. So that's 50% of your of our fees, correct? So So TW, so 25% if if the number was 13,000 would be 52,000. So you're saying for this bond sale, you guys only generate $52,000 in revenue. Correct. It's it's based off our fee schedule. Correct.

Wow, that seems really low for a $50 million bond sale, but Okay, that's that makes sense. So So So the bond, if I might

Oh, there she is. is not to exceed 50, but the actual the actual bond amount will not be 50. The 25% test lowered the expectation for the amount of bonds necessary to finance affordable housing. And to speak to the design and the things that you are speaking against, we did everything we could to design a building that fits within the code that got approved. I don't think that providing 165 affordable housing units, including residential services, to people in your community, is a misuse of land. and providing affordable housing is very difficult across the state and developers are still finding a way to do it and we want to do it in conjunction with the city especially because we have another senior projects planned that's going through planning approval in your city. So we want to be a good partner and we're doing everything to the extent that we can and so I just want to make sure that you guys are aware that I've been in affordable housing for over 13 years. I actually worked for a developer who has existing properties in Antioch so I'm familiar with the city. those units have been highly highly occupied and so to not allow more units our projects and other projects to not go forward is a big disservice to the community.

For the record, who's speaking to us? This is Kim from the developer of this project. Is that the first name, last name?

The first name. Right. So, I can't disagree with you more because affordable housing should not be built jeopardizing the welfare of those people who live there. Being built next to a gas station and a car wash and vacuum cleaners and it's a 247 convenient store. I don't think just because they're affordable does not mean they have to be treated like secondass citizens. So, I really your comments I I we are we designed the project and it is zoned for the use. I live in a highly populated area. I've lived in I've lived in Seattle. I lived in Los Angeles and I've not been living in affordable housing units, but I have lived near convenience stores, gas stations. It's

and that we designed a project that actually we designed a project that was approved through planning again state mandate gun to our head and I don't think we housing that they should be next to a gas station there was based off of your zoning and regulations we built a project that was approved by your city's is zoning. Well, shame on you for building this type of project. Shame on you. I didn't create your zoning laws.

Doesn't mean that you can't could not do a better job. You could have done a better job. There are there were options. I did talk to the the developer. I did mention how dangerous I thought months and months ago. Clearly, you ignored it and you hide behind the state mandates. That's not commendable. All right. I appreciate your opinion. Any other questions or comments from council? Anybody like to make a motion to It's nothing left to do but vote. So,

yeah. So, so we have we have four there's actually on this one there's four different things that we're voting on. We're going to be uh the conduct we we're conducting the public hearing. We're authorizing the mayor or designate to execute the joint exercise of powers agreement with CMFA. We're adopting a resolution approving the issuance of bonds by CMFA and we're authorizing the city manager or designate to take all necessary and appropriate steps to carry out the purpose and intent of the resolution. So, that's that's the action for on this item. Do we need to take them one by one or is that okay? No, it's one vote and all of those items will be a part of it. So moved. All right. A motion from uh Council Member Torres Walker.

We have a second. I will have to second it.

All right. We have a second from Council Member Roachcha. There's no other comments. Will you please cast your votes? Motion fails. Two pass, two yes, one abstain, two no. The two yeses are Mayor Bernell and uh Council Member Roachcha. And I did not catch the one abstain. I'm sorry.

It was me. Thank you. Tamisha Torres Walker abstain. Motion fail. All right, moving on to item number seven. Uh, conduit financing for the Buchanan Crossing CI project. Uh, is this pass over to Zoe?

Uh, yes. So, we have another presentation by Nathan Tinclair uh for the Buchanan Crossings project. So this item is again to conduct a public hearing pursuant to the federal tax equity and fiscal responsibility act or tera. TERA requires that a public hearing be held by the governing body of the jurisdiction in which the project to be financed with taxexempt financing is located and that the governing body approve the proposed financing. Standard Communities has asked to be uh has asked the California Municipal Finance Authority to be the issuer of taxexempt financing in an amount not to exceed $43 million of taxexempt revenue bonds to one finance or refinance the acquisition, construction, improvement and equipping of Buchanan Crossing CI, a multif family rental housing project located at uh 3210 Buchanan Road and two pay certain expenses incurred in connection with the issuance of the bonds. Um again, the CMFA is a joint powers authority formed to assist local governments, nonprofit organizations, and businesses with the issuance of both taxable and taxexempt debt. The debt to be issued by the CMFA will be the sole responsibility of the borrower and the city will have no financial or legal obligations or responsibilities regarding the repayment of the debt. All financing documents will carry disclaimers that the loan is not an obligation of the city and the city will also bear no costs in the issuance of the proposed debt. Um, again, it's a private loan with the borrower and their bank. It's recommended that the city council adopt the resolution approving the issuance of bonds by the CMFA for the borrower. Um, and such adoption is solely for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of TERA, the Internal Revenue Code, and California Government Code section 6500. Um, again, we have Jared Suzuki from the California Municipal Finance Authority. um uh as well as representatives from standard communities um both here in person as well as on Zoom tonight.

I think we need to take a vote to extend the meeting. We do. Do we have a motion to extend the meeting to 11:30? So moved. A motion from Council Member Torres Walker. I'll second. Second from Council Member Roachcha. Please cast your votes. If I may, mayor, I'd also maybe ask um if the representative from CMFA could come up because the joining of the J um PA agreement was in the Hillrest resolution if the resolution would need to be modified or um just a point of order there. Motion passes to extend the meeting to 11:30.

Yes, thank you for bringing that up, Zoe. The city would need to be have approved the resolution to join our joint powers authority to approve these subsequent items as a if the city is not a member then we would not be able to get these approved. So, madame city attorney, would would it be permissible to add that portion of the first resol first first resolution to this second item um at this point in the meeting? You can do it only if there's going to be only if you have a motion on the table, you can add that to your motion.

Okay. Okay. So, we'll proceed and see what happens with motion. Okay. So, this is a public hearing. We'll open the public hearing. Do we have anybody um proponent? We do not have a proponent. We have an opponent, Mr. Becker. No, this is opponent, correct? Yeah. Oh, sorry.

My mistake. It wasn't true. Would a proponent go first or Normally? A proponent would go first. Would you like would you like to speak? Sorry. Sorry. Yeah, please come on up.

Hi, Mayor, Mayor Prom, members of the city council. My name is Tommy Atley. I'm a uh assistant development manager for Standard Communities. Uh and uh we're the uh developer partner on the Buchanan Crossing and and Lake View Center. Um uh I think you know I've sat through the council meeting tonight and I've I've heard your concerns uh mayor prom about the design of affordable. We at Standard believe that we want to create uh projects that you can't tell are affordable from the outside. You know we want well-designed homes that everyone can live in and with economic upside for all. So some ways that we do this is, you know, we have a strong focus on mixed income housing. We have uh income levels from 30% AMI all the way up to 70% AMI. So you get a range of people living in our communities uh from you know the custodians at uh you know the school district all the way up to you know a first year police officer or um you know a fire cadet something like that. Um uh we are employing a uh resident service coordinator at the site. It they're a company called Oscare. Um, and so they are um a an organization that works uh with our residents to help provide them connections to social services and uh help them, you know, make use of uh the resources available in this community uh in order to, you know, help them grow their incomes, move out of

low-income housing, take advantage of uh the opportunities available to them. So, you know, hearing this presentation tonight from the uh contraosta homelessness, you know, we would use ounce of care to connect people to uh reach to all of these different or community organizations in order to ensure that the residents of our community are not falling through the cracks. We want this to be more than just a, you know, an apartment complex. We want this to be a place that enables residents to um to be able to uh better their lives, have a place that they can call home, and also um you know create a community that is not just um residential, it's it's supportive and and uh and transformative. Um, I hear you're concerned about parking. Our both of our park uh both of our projects are parked at 1.5 spaces per unit. Um, this is a standard that we have throughout our company for new developments. Um and and you know we believe it helps with you know leasing the project and and making it an attractive project that pay people would want to live in especially since we do have uh a mix of two and threebedroom units. So we want families to think that I can park my two cars here. Um and then finally um you know we we're we're applying through this community infill uh project. Um so I understand you're saying this is our only leverage point but this is an important one for us. Um our lenders require evidence of a TERA hearing and if we don't get the TEA

hearing we can't close on the project. This has serious implications for uh our uh deadlines set by the state for the tax credits. Um and uh and because these two projects are linked, we're taking the dirt that we excavate from uh from Lake View Center to Buchanan. uh if if we don't get approval, we lose both projects. Uh because the uh the way that we were working on our con our contract with our general contractor, if if we can't close in the next uh two months, we're uh we're going to lose our pricing and and the project's going to spiral out of control. So this is a crucial uh meeting for us in terms of just as a point of financing and as a as a point of uh uh um keeping the process moving along. Um you know if if we delay this deal it it could die and and it probably will die. um which is is tough because we we're providing 25% of our units at uh either a extremely low or or very low income level. Um and uh you know I was doing the math during the homeless presentation. We're going to be providing 35 units at Buchanan and 29 units at Lake View that at the 30% AMI level. So, someone who is making minimum wage 20 bucks an hour will be able to afford our project on 30% of rent, a single mom and her two kids. Uh, we're going to be providing 20 units at 50% AMI at Buchanan and 24 units at 50% AMI at Lake View. Someone who is making 3459 an hour is going to be able to afford a unit uh based on 30% of their rent.

These are these are units that are going to be super accreative to low-income working families uh in your community. And um I just think that you know standing up for your rights. I I totally understand the position that you're in uh with the state. I I get it. But I think that it would be foolhardy to make uh an empty gesture against the state uh you know cutting off the nose despite the face. So uh I highly encourage you to support these two projects and um you know we're long-term holders. We're here for the next 15 years. So we're not this is not a you know a build and flip operation fly by night. you know, we we when we invest in a community, we invest with the intention of staying and sticking around. So, uh, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. And, uh, yeah, hopefully one of our communities will be hosting a CIF state champion, uh, you know, in the next three years or four years.

All right. Thank you. U, do we have an opponent to the project, Mr. Becker? Thank you. You know, I'll say when you are a developer, um, and point of order, do I get five minutes or 10 minutes as the 10? Yes.

Thank you. Yeah, I do have a few things to say. When when you are a developer and you are stewarding bond dollars or tax credit dollars, when you are building affordable housing in the state of California in these inflated markets, there is a responsibility to the community that you are serving and that you are coming into. Now, I'm not against affordable housing, but I am against these projects and this project specifically because how do you say we identified this project site and we're bringing majority 60% AMI, but the community we're bringing it into is predominantly under 50% AMI. So for us here in Antioch who live here, who represent people on Fair View, Hudson Court, Delta Fair, or over on the other side of town, the individuals that are struggling to try to rent over in the Laurel area or over in the Country Hills area, you have your existing community there. We're not even talking about our unhoused. We're talking about the existing community that's struggling to find a place to financially afford and sees this new beautiful development that you can't even tell is affordable from the outside, but they can't afford to live there except for maybe 35 of them. And now they're going to be up against the individuals that are in our unhoused shelter space. So, do the people from the shelters get these PSH units or do the people in that community? So, then understanding that these

require capital stacks and are tied to tax credits and uh sometimes other funding sources. And so, how does that work? Well, what's frustrating to me is that for an experienced affordable housing developer that says, "We want to come into your community and serve your community's needs," they would understand that Home Key just amended to include bond and tax credit opportunities as a gap funding source for PSH driven units, 30% AMI predominantly, and those dollars come as grant dollars so that it improves your bottom line and pushes you to those PSH units, but you don't have those conversations because it's your internal bottom line. It's not the community you came into. Now, I'm sure that there is a market study that is tied to this project and I'm sure that that markets our police department starts at $96,000. Our police department starts at $96,000 and Contraosta County is $108,000 for 100% AMI. So unless you're going to go outside of your regulatory agreements and bring in 80 to 120% AMI, no, those people will not be able to live there. They will go and try to find a single family that they can rent or an apartment that they can cram their family into because once again, who did your market study? And did you bring any of that conversation here? The affordable housing sustainable communities program is closing on May 4th, round nine with 730 million available specifically tied to tax credit and bond projects like

this where for projects that are along major corridors, not only do we get the affordable housing, but the state gives you up to $15 million to improve improve those ride ofways like Mayor Prom was talking about so that you do have safe vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle access. But your project doesn't qualify for AHSC because it requires a 50% average of 50% AMI, which you are well above and you know that. So now we go to the private equity firms out there. We go to the investors in the private market and we say make money because that's what this capitalistic world is built on. Make money and your money is going to a great thing and you're building affordable housing but it's here in Antioch. And then you say things like, "Well, we are building to your standards." No, you're not. Because along with that design review application, you submitted a density bonus law application that give you an abundant amount of concessions, waiverss, and incentives, which you have utilized on I think the majority of your projects. things like facade improvements on the exterior so that when you say we don't want it to look any different than market rate housing, but we are going to utilize a concession so that we can make it look different. That's contrary to what you're saying. So at least don't stand up here and flagrantly lie to us. At least don't do that. our coordinated entry system who was here earlier talked about the incredible

need for permanent supportive housing and respectfully then you bring up that same presentation and talk about the the dismal amount of PSH level that you're bringing to our community. They know what our arena numbers are. The council does. City staff does. And we definitely know that you do. So please tell me why you chose the most utilized category for all of your projects because it is your bottom line. It is your pro-forma. It is you capitalizing on our economic downturn in the market. Our property values in the commercial space falling. land sitting vacant for a long time allowing you to capitalize in your purchase agreements. And so there are financing mechanisms and there are models here that you are bound to and that if votes don't go your way, it puts you in a difficult position. But to Mayor Proms Freighus' point, at what point do you say no? At what point do you say gosh if the state is going to say we have to build affordable housing? And if that's what these tax exempt bonds are for and if the state says that we have to build it to this design standard, then we at least want you to come and build what we actually need. It's scary. two of the projects. This project specifically is this Buchanan pro crossings project. This project specifically I believe qualifies for an AB2097

would give you a lot of parking reductions but per AHSC you could in bring in car share programs. You could bring in bike share programs. How do I know this? because I work for a developer and we're doing a project up in Sacramento County that's exactly structured to the community's needs of intensive PSH capitalizing on like the individual earlier stated the now state available opportunities. So I won't take a full 10 minutes on the next item. I think my feelings have been made clear here. I rushed back here after a family emergency because I wanted to speak on the last item and I want to speak on all of these items and saying that we need affordable housing. You steward affordable housing and you put a mission statement on your websites both for the finance authority and both for the developer. So respectfully, I stand here as a community resident where you're bringing these communities and say shame on you. That doesn't mean I don't support future developments, but if you'd like to have a realistic conversation about what we really need, there's more than 10 minutes available.

All right. Does the proponent have a rebuttal to that that they'd like to state at this time? It's fine.

I I know it's late. It's 11:27, so I'll I'll try to keep it quick. Um and and and uh just address a couple of the things. Um the ASIC grant that this person brought up is there's money there, right? But it's an incredibly competitive program that you have to fight to get. And so the way that you win that is by stacking on a grant here, another grant here, a grant there, and you build this super crazy capital stack that is, you know, something that takes years. You know, these these affordable housing, sustainable community grants take almost a decade to build. We're we're trying to build projects now um that that will have an impact. And you know, there was some muddling of of PSH and very low income. We're proposing to build very low income units. PSH requires wraparound services. So, this is not a, you know, a a wraparound services thing. This is a, you know, a homelessness prevention thing. We're providing a safe harbor for residents who, you know, are trying to make it on a low income or a very low income wage and provide them the unit that they can find security in. They don't have to worry about their housing while they're living in our units because we'll be able to provide them uh rents at at at levels that are commenurate with with their wage. Um, you know, I would love to, you know, have a discussion with this person outside of the time of, uh, 11:30 at night about ways that we can explore further projects that, you know, are maybe geared towards what he's asking

about, um, you know, PSH providing home key funding uh, for for projects in in Antioch. And you know, now is is the time to be building deedrestricted affordable housing in Antioch while land values are low because this is how you you know if you don't do it when land values are high, right? Because then you're getting competed by market rate uh developers. So I think, you know, there's there was a lot said there, but I still think these are two very strong projects and I think it would be foolhardy to to vote them down. So, uh I I strongly urge you to vote yes um or three of you to vote yes and um uh and uh I'm very appreciative of your time. So, uh I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this? No public comments. All right. The public hearing is closed. We will now turn this over to the council. Don't you need a vote to extend the meeting? Oh, we do. Uh, do we have a vote to extend the meeting?

I move we extend to 12:15. Second. A motion from Mayor Pro Tim Freighus, second from Council Member Wil, Council Member Roachcha. It's getting late. Please cast your votes. Excuse me. Do we need to make the motion to We want to keep want to keep the meeting going. Did everybody get

motion passes three to two? The nos are Tamisha Torres Walker and Monica Wilson. All right. So, um, back to city council. Any comments or questions of staff or consultants? I'll go ahead and make a motion to move to approve. Do you uh want do you want to do you want to add membership? Yeah, it says authorizing the mayor or designate to execute the joint exercise of powers agreement with the CMFA. Will you do you want to amend your motion to add that

in addition to the other All right. So, we have a motion. Have a second. I'll um second that. Can we have discussion? Yeah, we can have discussion. So, we have a motion from council member Roacha, second from council member Torres Walker. Any discussion?

I just want to say that um I abstained from the last project, not because I had issues with the development. I had issues with the gas station issue like if children and family are going to be living there. I'm just not the hazards and all of that. So that just for public clarification like that's why I'm abstaining from that project. Um and this one I'm going to figure out my vote right now.

All right. So we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? All right, please cast your votes. Motion passes three to two with Freighus, Mayor Pro Tim Freighus and Monica Wilson voting no. All right. Excellent. Moving on to um item number eight. Uh this is uh conduit financing for the Lake View Center CIH project.

This is our final TERA hearing of the night. Um, in this case, Standard Communities has asked that the California Municipal Finance Authority be the issuer of taxexempt financing in an amount not to exceed $50 million of taxexempt revenue bonds to one finance or refinance the acquisition, construction, improvement, and equipping of the Lake View Center CI, a multif family rental housing project located at the west side of Lone Tree Way between James Donland Boulevard and Golf Course Road. um and two pay certain expenses incurred in connection with the issuance of the bonds. Again, the debt to be issued by the CMFA will be the sole responsibility of the borrower and the city will have no financial or legal obligations or responsibilities regarding repayment of the debt. It is recommended that the council adopt a resolution approving the issuance of the bonds by the CMFA for the borrower. Uh such adoption is solely for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of TERA, the Internal Revenue Code, and the California Government Code section 65000. Um again joined by Jared Suzuki as well as representatives from Standard Communities. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh this is a public hearing. I'll open it now. Do we have uh anything from the proponent of the project that would like to speak? Just want to say thank you so much for your time and your consideration. I just want to say thank you so much for your time and your consideration.

All right. Thank you. Do we have an opponent to the project? Thank you. Um, I think I just want to express that it's a little confusing as a community member to hear from developer, you know, um, we would love to have conversations with you outside of this hour at 11:30. Um when six or seven months ago I reached out to the developer directly and the developer's architectural partner on the project who had submitted the application and requested a meeting to discuss the project and was told they would not like to have a meeting. They were not interested in complicated programs like ASIC and completely left me in the dark. And so I'm just confused to hear that we are receptive to community conversations, but it always seems like by and large developers want to open up that invitation when they're here in this setting and they're hearing push back against their projects. And so once again looking at the community's needs specifically in these corridors, you're bringing more traffic volume. You're bringing residents from outside of that area. Individuals that are not

in that AMI group that are in that area cannot live in those communities. That means they have to continue to live where they're living and new residents are going to come in and so it increases the traffic volume in that area. These developments continue to push rents. Affordable housing developments have pushed market rate housing rents. So at the same time you're not meeting our current housing needs. You're exacerbating the individuals that are in these existing AMIs that are barely hanging on. When $90 million in bonds were issued for Mira Vista Hills, I spoke with a resident in that community that said since that community went to a 60% AMI, his rent went up and he's struggling to afford to live there. Do we know how many bond dollars have been invested into the city of Antioch in the last 10 years? In the last five years, between tax credits and bond dollars. I mean, we are well over half a billion dollars or close to, but we see our arena numbers are climbing. How are you saying you're bringing us affordable housing and bringing us solutions, but then these issues are getting worse? And from a design standpoint, how do you expect residents to come into a community? Now, we're on the Lone Tree project, right? They're going to come into that community.

Did you build a pool? No. But the new development that was built with the same overlay down the road has a pool. You're literally saying the city created this overlay so that we'll have equal opportunities, but the people that can afford more, the people that pay more get the better amenities. And then to hear, oh, well, there's a difference between PSH and very low or ELI housing. I completely understand that. But for you to even say that means that you completely don't understand that our 30% AMI is the PSH group. It is the people that need the wraparound services. You heard our county say that it was the individuals with mental health behavioral health challenges. People like Kay. Why did Kay move from Antioch to Walnut Creek? because standard communities didn't build the community that Kay could live in. And so I think my question is part to standard communities but parts of the city of Antioch. This is not just on them. This is on you too because you let ASIC go by. You let the multif family supernova go by. You are continuing to let home key go by by not pursuing additional home key opportunities as the program still sits with dollars available. You could have come to developers like Standard Communities and said,

"We have surplus land that we can put up in a homekey project and you can match with bond and tax credit dollars and we can go homekey assisted on our VLI and ELI populations and go PSH on those." And who would have supported you? the people that were here, those are the people that are going to be putting people in your units. That's your coordinated entry system that you have to go through for your 30% and and all deed restricted housing. So, I'm genuinely confused when I hear we would love to have those conversations. I reached out. reach out to me after the meeting. I will I will tell you who I spoke with. I'm not sure who used LCA for the architectural. I don't know if it was all of you, but I reached out to LCA and they were not happy to connect me. And what's frustrating is that the reason I reached out, you want to know the saddest part? I knew what you were going to build. I knew how they were going to receive it. And like I constantly try to do in this city, I reached out to try to mitigate it. And I'm not going to ask for a response. I'm just directing comments to the council. And I'm saying that we when we talk about getting people to a table, this is what we mean. If our city is having affordable housing workshops and inclusionary housing programs and you're building three affordable projects in our community, why weren't

you at any of those meetings? Why do we have to hear from staff? We talked to some developers and this is their feedback. If you're committed to our community, then be here. If you want to build in our city, then build with our city. This project was before council over 20 years ago. Not this project specifically, but an affordable project on this site and the community heard overwhelmingly, the developer heard overwhelmingly that it was not wanted. Now, I'll stand here and I say I don't support nimiism and we have affordable housing needs all across our city. And I was the first one that said we need to spread out our affordable housing. But if you're going to put all of our affordable community in one community right there on Golf Course and all of our market rate in another community half a mile down the road, that's to me akin to redlinining and then it moves into gentrification because you're not meeting the existing community's needs and you're not working to uplift people. The last thing I will say is that if you are an affordable housing developer that does not develop wraparound services or any PSH component, then you're going to know the case managers at your site are the neighbors that live next door. The social workers that are at your site are the aunts and the uncles, the cousins. That's what a community is. they step in and they fill that service. So build on that, bring people together, mixed income,

diverse, and show the community that we can uplift each other, and then maybe some people don't have to settle for a dog park versus a pool. Thank you. All right. Do you want to respond to that?

Yeah. The re the reason I'm here tonight and and not my colleague Yael is that she is a a recent first-time mother. She was on maternity leave for most of uh the fall uh and and has a newborn son at home. Um he mentioned LCA. We we never employed a company named LCA as an architect. We had SDG initially and now we have KTGY as as our architects. So I mean I'm I'm happy to talk to you about where where the communication breakdown went down and and I I sincerely apologize but to to my knowledge it it slipped through the cracks and and so I'm sorry and you know we are committed to this city. you know, we we intend to build these projects if if you'll let us and and we want to be here long term. So, we'll be at the next affordable housing planning meeting. We'll we'll be there. We're we're committed to, you know, making sure that if if there's a way that we can get PSH into this into this house that, you know, works, we'll do so. Um, but we want to make sure that we get these projects built first. And so let's not be, you know, pennywise and pound foolish here. Let's let's approve this project. Let's get it built and let's continue this dialogue because we want to be here for the next decade, two decades with this project and and make sure that we deliver something that brings pride to the city of Antioch.

Right. Thank you. Any public comment? We have no public comments. All right, public hearing is closed. It's before the council. I'll move to approve as I did before. All right, a motion. Second. Have a motion. Second. Um, any discussion?

All right, I want to ask a quick question. So um on the on the first project there was a a comment about the fact that when these became CIH's the environmental document for the I think it was for the general plan was was amended in order to accommodate that. Correct. Yeah. So it's an addendum traffic. Yeah. So it's an addendum and I the addendum studied traffic and found there were no impacts with having the CI

Okay. So, so like this this project specifically with Lone Tree and in Golf Course and putting all these units out on the both of those two streets is going to be I mean not even close to working. So, I don't know how the traffic was found to be um similar because you know residential's peak hours different than a commercial peak hour. So, it's not just the total volume of traffic, it's the it's the impact at those times of day. So, uh I just, you know, I see this as being something that's going to be really um it's yeah, it's going to be it's going to be a big problem at at this location. So, I just wanted to just wanted to mention that specific to this project. Mr. Mayor,

yes. On that particular note, we found out that level F is acceptable. We did we found that out with the denova project that level F will exist on the Empire Mine Road. I have to believe on the the Hillrest between Hillrest itself and Trigalis and whatever the other street is, you know, um it's going to be level F. I mean, we are making Lone Tree Way almost inoperable. That's that's why I have a a problem with accepting F. And then

that intersection that intersection is is already problematic. There's lots of accidents. Um I've heard from a lot of community members that are very upset about this project. But I don't know how this this project here is going to work just with the traffic on Lone Tree and traffic on Golf Course and Blue Rock. We have a lot of accidents that come out. That's little the little center with uh the Starbucks. It's I don't see this project working at all in this in this area.

I um remember getting the email, I won't name any names, but everybody up here probably know who it is. It's like, oh, we're going to approve these developments so that everywhere around Antioch could look like Sycamore and other areas of District One, right? I'm wondering where was all of the concern about traffic when people were developing in in what we now call district one in Antioch where like on Sycamore there's literally no traffic coming and kids are getting hit by cars. Where was all of the issues around traffic off of East 18th in Kavalo when it was a speedway before we had the demand a four-way stop sign over by Bid Wheel where there's a school? Where was all of the concern about all of these developments and poor and and lowincome housing and people living on top of each other and mixed income and all of this? It's like it seems like I'm not a nimi either, but when I hear nimi language, I know what it sounds like. And so I'm just wondering like what are the solutions? And I also do agree with Andrew that like it would be nice to have conversations with developers before we get to this point. So some of this could be mitigated and for community to have those conversations. But I also don't appreciate some of the the side commentary that that really does a disservice to people who already live in communities because people didn't challenge these things. Aren't challenging weren't challenging these development issues until just now when it's going to be in the community where they live.

Actually, they challenged my project. where I live. Yeah, challenge my project. You might want to know the history about this area.

No, but what I'm saying is like it was challenged, but I still hear the only place where homelessness projects could be is in district one. The only place where we can have lowincome housing, multif family development is in district one. The there there is a division of labor going on here in this city. And so if we going to continue to do affordable housing in this city, it need to be a division of labor. District two need to have some. District four need to have some. And district three need to have some. We need lowincome affordable housing all across this city. And I don't know how we plan to get there. I know that people are frustrated about this and it's probably not the way. Um and we just have to figure out in the future like how do we move forward? But I I will tell you some of this commentary is frustrating especially the things that I have to hear before I even get here. um from people punching down on folks who already live in communities like like the communities on Sycamore and other places. And I'm just going to put that out there and I hear what you're I definitely hear what you're saying and I I agree. I'm just saying for this particular project because I live right at this intersection, I see the accidents happening every day. That's where my concern is because I see that here. But I agree with what you're I agree with what you're saying that we need to spread this evenly. We we shouldn't even be redlining because that's what it is. We shouldn't even be redlining in particular districts. I agree it needs to be spread out. I was just saying I see firsthand at this particular intersection the accidents that happen, but that's just

I just want to say that it's frustrating that level F is acceptable. um because that seems like where it could have been halted. But with it being approved as acceptable, then it comes to this level with no with no authority to um to change it. That's kind of where we're at. And the reasoning is is part of this as well, which is before our time. So, I'll just say again, as frustrating as it is, um I believe we need to uh support the legislation, the laws that we abide by in the state of California and addressing the housing crisis. Even though I'm not crazy about these projects that we've discussed here and even previously in other meetings, it's unfortunate it got to this level and wasn't stopped at a lower level when we were looking at traffic and where it could have been mitigated and uh now we're here. So,

so we we have a we have a motion. Council member Roach, second by Council Member Torres Walker. If there's no further comment, please cast your votes. Someone has

motion passes three to two with Mayor Prom Freighus Wilson voting no.

All right. If I may, mayor, I would respectfully request that we um discuss the sewer rates. We do have a consultant that flew in for this evening um and is flying out very early tomorrow morning. So, so do we have a motion to move item number 12 up ahead of item number 11? Suspend the rules and move the water move item number 12 ahead of item number 11 on that. Yes, I will. You have a motion, council member Roachcha. Second. Second from Council Member Wilson. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4 to one with Council Member Walker voting no or Tamisha. Yeah, Torres Walker voting no.

All right. Item number 12, receive a report on utility revenue requirements and adopt a resolution setting a public hearing for sewer charge increases for July 1st, 2026 and authorizing distribution of Proposition 218 notices. Good morning. Good morning. We're not there yet. Almost. Um good evening, mayor, city council. Uh Tommy Pavle is going to give you a little summary of where we are with the water um sewer, excuse me, sewer rate study. Uh and there's a little presentation that we'll pull up in the back. Thank you.

Good evening, council members. Thank you. We have a short number of slides here. The objectives are to look at cash flow, look at the target balance, customer characteristics, and we did a survey. Our source data was your budget, a CIP provided by engineering, the utility billing system data, and the annual comprehensive financial reports. The methodology we used was similar and same as uh for the water enterprise and previous sewer enterprises. The prop 218 requirement of proportionality and then the technical aspects of um examining the re revenue requirements for five years, developing cost of service allocations and examining the rate structure. Before we get to the the findings and um recommendations, a little bit of background. We did studies where we changed the sewer rate structure in 2015. It was amended or updated in 2021 with when we looked at the residential uh discharge characteristics. And in this study, we were again changing the wastewater discharge characteristics of residential. The last two bullets talk about uh the Delta Diablo connection and that just to emphasize that the city uh transfers the wastewater, conveys it to Delta Diablo for further treatment and disposal.

We'll see that in when we do the rate survey. We'll uh later on their charges. The customer characteristics here are on the left in terms of wastewater discharge with a big portion 71% being single family and on the right the number of accounts or dwelling units and you can see that the city is 98% residential. Um this slide is in the report. I put it up here for to just uh briefly look at the idea behind the change in wastewater characteristics where we looked back to 2021. uh we looked at the FY25 actual and then we did projections for the three subcategories of residential and we made uh changes to the uh recommended rates based on the underlying discharge characteristics. And now the revenue portion then in the next two slides the first bullet um gives a information on expenditures. The second bullet revenues and the third bullet is the difference. They use the fund balance and finally the ending fund balance in FY31 will be about 4.6 million and the um target fund balance is met in the last year and preceding years. You have another wastewater fund for capital projects only. The funding source in this one is the developer uh charges, capacity charges if you will. And again, the first bullet is the expenditures, capital expenditures. The next bullet is those revenues. And here

there's going to be a substantial use of fund balance. It's what it's there for. And the ending fund balance is still in the black. Back to the operating fund, we have this sta uh set of lines and stack columns. So you can see in one setting the um expenditures and stack columns operating with a green capital stacked above it. The black line is the fund balance. We're drawing down the fund balance to meet the red hashed line, which is the target fund balance. And on top of all that, we can see the single family monthly bill percent increase. And now the those bills single family are shown here. The uh actual numbers they're the top line under residential beginning with the current in 1980 and increasing to 2535. uh multif family and apartments are below that and the change in wastewater discharge results in a change in the recommended rates for multi and apartments so that they're going to be the same rate at this point because they have the same wastewater discharge characteristics and the non-residential is not a is not a fixed monthly rate. It's a combination of an account charge and a volume rate and those preceding uh rates which are going to be in the Prop 218 notice that is what you're acting on in a few months weeks when you

close the hearing. These are the percents and the changes in rates associated with what the pre rates in the previous slide and then a little about Delta Diablo their service area number of customers but the final two bullets uh they did an 8.5% increase in the current fiscal year and of course your residents pay that on the tax role and then the final bullet But they've approved an 8 and a half% for the next four years on top of whatever you folks are doing tonight. And then finally, this puts it together, the survey. This is our uh where you can see to the left Antioch uh existing with Delta Diablo on top of it. 1980 4282. you're just a little bit above Pittsburgh. And the recommended goes to the middle of the chart with in Golden Rod 2050 and Delta Diablo's increase stacked on top of that. And finally, the 218 process which you've used for water and previously for sewer is described here. and our timeline where we've done the workshops and at this tonight we're asking the council staff is asking to accept the draft report and authorize mailing of the 218 notice and the next time I would see you would be at the close of the hearing on June 9 and the implementation in July 1. And that's it.

All right. Thank you. Is are there any uh puh public comments on this? We have no public comments. All right, seeing none, do we have any questions or comments from the council?

I'll just make a comment. I mean, I had the opportunity to um learn from a presentation um with Director Bunting um in his office uh regarding this information tonight. And I if my notes are accurate from 27 2027 to 2031 um there'll be a fund balance deficit of about approximately I think it's 6 million if we don't um make some adjustments and I think the adjustments if I remember correctly in my notes is that when you look at the three different levels single dwelling multifamily apartments mobile homes there's variations between the three and with the population of single dwelling being like 80% I think it was was pretty high

um compared to the smaller 20%. That the rate that the 80% are paying is is at a higher rate than the the 20% and the other whether it be multif family or apartment mobile homes. And so to find a balance of the way he described it up there um can then capture enough revenue to offset that deficit. I don't know if I said that correctly, but it's kind of what my notes led me to believe and that's why we're here. Mr. Mayor, yes. I move that uh we receive the reports at June 9th as the public hearing authorized distribution of Prop 218 notices.

All right. We have a motion from Mayor Prom Fredus. I I'll second that. Second of Council Member Roachcha, please cast your votes.

Motion passes 5-0. All right. Um moving on to uh item number 11, consideration of bids for the Antioch CCL project 2026. Director Bunting going to take this.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Actually, good morning. Um, so the item before you right now has a is an acceptance of a bid that we received for installing the Antioch Cape Seal for 2026. Uh within there, there's a budget amendment uh necessary uh to provide funding for the project. Uh the project will consist of installing a/2-in polymer modified asphalt chip with a microsurface coating over the top of it. That's our Antioch cape seal. Um there's a the list of streets provided that this will be done over the top of um was is within the staff report. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. When is whitetail going to be done?

If you look, it looks like it's within the next cycle of streets. Um, what does that mean timewise? So that would mean this year uh we finish up the set of streets we're doing. Next year we would start with doing the uh initial phase which is a plug and overlay of of the road followed by your handicap ramps and cape seal. So uh you're talking in two years the roads would be completed. So, in 38 years, there have been no improvements. 38 years. Council member Torres Walker has left the chambers at 12:06 a.m.

Any other nothing else? All right. I um I appreciate having the the pavement management system information in here. We don't have time to talk about this tonight, but or this morning, but I think at either as part of the CIP or shortly after, it'd be good to to have a discussion because looking at the red line dropping from 64 down into the 50s at the current rate of um work that we're doing is is going to put us in a a world of hurt. And then just watching the deferred maintenance going up significantly as well. So I think we need to talk about what our plan is for future.

Yeah, that sounds great. So uh the city the city has been authorized a PTAP grant which is a form of funding that we get to help with our pay develop our pavement management system. That process was delayed a year by the state. So we're picking it up now soon. Uh that process will then allow us to then reevaluate the streets coming up with a new pavement management system and help us re-evaluate the next 5-year roadway plan. That would probably be the best time to be able to present when we have a new plan after the PTAP's created. So, when is that? So, when is that? Yeah. When is that gonna happen? I've been asking for PM PMS, you know, for a long time, over a year. It looks like we're a few months out dealing with Adara, uh, who will be our consultant. Is that June? I want to know.

Okay. Then, uh, I would like to come back to you at I'll get that back to you because I'm not exactly sure when they plan to be finished with their work. Okay. But when they're finished, then we can have a report out on what what that looks like. Yes. Cuz at that time, they would be coming up with a new set of PCIs that will that will actually show what we've done because we have done a lot over the last couple years. Um I I I really do believe that our PCI is better than the 63 that they're giving us right now. Uh and I look forward to doing this new evaluation because our roads, I believe, are in much better shape. Okay. Okay. Perfect. So, um, is there any I already asked for public comment on this? There are no public comments.

Okay. Um, do I have a motion to approve, uh, this project? So moved. The motion. Council member Wilson. Second. Council member Rochip, please cast your votes. Motion passes 3 to one with council member Freighus voting no and council member Torres Walker absent. Thank you.

All right, moving on to item number 13, presentation regarding Senate Bill 707, uh, revisions to the Brown Act. Just as a Well, good morning everybody. Uh, is this something you want to do uh this morning or do you want to move this to your next meeting? I just Wasn't this very important to council member Torres Walker? Wasn't this like her? I mean, actually, no, that was me.

Oh, that was you. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. I I originally asked about um council members who may not be able to be physically present. Can they have access asked to virtually attend and then I was told that this initiative was coming forward in July and so we're supposed to learn about what the new language is. Got it. I couldn't remember. I knew somebody so. Yeah. And if I just may, um, you know, I've been advised by the city attorney's office, we're kind of getting on the deadline of when we need this to be heard for any actions that we may need to to take to implement. Okay, let's go ahead. I'll move quickly. I move that. Yeah, he's got to do the meeting time

that we extend this 12:30, our meeting to 12:30. A motion to extend the meeting 12:30. I'll second. Uh second by council member Roacha first or motion by mayor promises. Cast your votes please. Motion passes 40 with council member Tamisha Torres Walker absent.

Okay. Um if they can ceue up my presentation. I'm going to go through this quickly. I I know firsthand how much you all prepare for these meetings and how intently you review your agenda packets, so I'm not just going to go through this. Um, but the bottom line is we have a new era in the Brown Act. Uh, we've had significant uh, revisions and there's really kind of two phases. one we've been working under since January 1 and the next phase which I'll talk mostly about in my presentation will be phase two and that takes effect on July one so it's your fiscal year. Um, so just to there I I provided some context, but I do uh Council Member Roach, I know this was something you raised multiple times uh when I was sitting where Mrs. Sunion is sitting and uh so I'm happy to address this, but in this slide, you know, there's a history going back to the COVID days and uh we're going to be working with a new era. Um and just as a background, we're a city of 120,000. So all of it applies. There are small cities that don't have to apply with some of the new requirements for audiovisisual two-way broadcast, but we certainly do. Um so phase one is where we are now. Um one item that we took care of in January is all of you got your copy of the Brown Act. That's a requirement. You have to actually get a physical copy of the Brown Act in all of its glory. uh every board, every council and that was taken care of. Um the social media um this has been clarified. There was some ambiguity. There was a social media addition to the Brown Act in 2022. U but there was some you know obviously in the era of Facebook and I guess what

used to be called Twitter is now called X and Next Door seems to be the rage in local government. Um wh what can you do if literally if if if you read if the mayor read council member Roachcha you posted something on Facebook let's say and it pertains to something that's going to be discussed in one of these meetings and all of you read it isn't that a meeting because you're all learning what council member Roachcha thinks about a particular topic outside of an agenda. Um, in 2022, we had some changes that made clear that just reading somebody's social media post is not essentially a uh serial meeting by silence. And this uh change to the Brown Act makes some further revisions. It does talk about engagement with social media. Um, so there can be some engagement uh answering questions. So, you know, using picking on Council Member Roachcha, if someone comments, as people often do on your on your social media and you answer a question, this clarifies that that is not going to trigger any Brown Act issues. Um, but the big part here is when one of you po posts something, if the others see it, don't engage with it. And engaging is broad. You can comment, you can retweet, you can forward, you can like, you can put an emoji, you can put a thumbs down emoji, whatever. Um, that's engagement and that is registering an an opinion. Uh, and that is essentially deliberating outside of a council meeting. So, that's a nice clarification. Uh, the compensation transparency. Um, one of the things and we we we addressed this with when when when your city attorney was hired, it used to be that the Brown Act transparency requirements were that you had to when

you approve your highest executive, which is your city manager in city government, uh, when you approved that person's contract, you actually had to read out the, uh, the the the compensation. And I think a lot of us probably remember the old City of Bell scandal. Uh, it's interesting. I do Brown Act trainings and I mentioned the city of Bell and there's a whole generation that has no idea what that means. Um, but I think all of us here are very well aware of it and so I'm not going to, especially at this hour, I'm not going to talk about it. But that was a change to the Brown Act is you actually have to orally state on the record in the meeting so everyone can hear what the value of the compensation is. That now applies to our department heads and other folks. So that was another big change in this uh iteration of the Brown Act. And then accommodations. Uh there was an attorney general opinion that says that you can provide audiovisisual as a way to accommodate someone who may have a disability that uh needs to attend remotely. That's been codified. And now the good news is as you go to an AV that platform will always be available. And the good news is that if someone is needing an ADA accommodation, they do not count to the physical quorum that has to be present. So we'll talk about the AV requirements in a moment, but there always has to be three members here if we're if if others appear remotely, but if if you're getting an ADA accommodation, you you're essentially abstaining from voting. Your vote doesn't count. And so that's that's something that was clarified in this new iteration of the Brown Act. Uh so now the remote participation. So it used to be that you have to be and we we didn't really deal with this here because we

didn't have audiovisisual setup uh at least for the time that I was here. You could always call in by phone and there were a few occasions where we would accommodate bringing you in by phone. But now with VAV, um you'll be able to invoke the uh we used to have a just cause and emergency circumstances and it was always kind of confusing which is which and they always seem to kind of sound like the same thing. Uh but now you just basically you can have any qualifying reasons, family and medical emergencies, child care, caregiving, military service, or some type of illness. Um, as long as you make that clear at the beginning that you're invoking a qualifying reason, you're you're fine. Um, but you do have to uh provide notice uh of there are some procedural requirements that you have to follow and um you are only allowed to do this five times per year. So um there was a sliding scale in the old Brown Act. Uh that that scale exists but for a city like ours we meet uh given the number of meetings we have two meetings regular a month that gives you five absences not absences remote appearances. So, as long as you can invoke one of those exceptions, you can use the uh you have five. Uh and then we are required to track that our city clerk's office will that is something that we've discussed with the city clerk's office. Uh when you do claim this, you have to disclose if you are in a room with anyone in the room with anyone who is over the age of 18. So, if you have a child that's different, um you do have to just make disclosures immediately and uh the the minutes do have to reflect that you are invoking a remote

appearance. So, that and actually has to be in the minutes. Um the uh there there is some dealing with the Zoom bombers. I know that in the era of COVID when everyone went to Zoom or Teams, there was the Zoom bombers phenomenon. That is being addressed now. Um there are basically the the chair and the mayor or the vice mayor when running the meeting basically has to give someone a warning and then at that point they can be removed. Um that also applies physically to people who are here. I've never seen it done. There is a removal standard. I' I've seen a few YouTube videos where this has come up. Um it usually seems to happen in Southern California. Um I have never seen it physically happen in any meeting I've ever been in and I hope I never do. Um so that's kind of a very quick summary of what is it just the changes that were already made. Now I want to talk about um phase two which is the interactive process. So we have to have on July one a two-way interactive process. um that is there there there there were discussions with the city clerk's office with is so that is is a process that is in place uh that is moving forward um you can choose you could choose just a telephonic uh version um not not technically telephonic you can use like a teams or a zoom platform but not have cameras or you can have cameras that is a choice that you can make I believe you're already set up for cameras so I think the intention is to have a camera options so that people will be able to see um but just posting on YouTube which a lot of people do is not enough uh which bodies are eligible. So basically it's just the city council at

this point only the city council has to invoke the two-way process. There is authorization for other bodies if the council chooses. So I want to be clear, this is an optin. I mentioned Apoch, I mentioned your cannabis subcommittee as two committees um that might qualify. Um but you would have to make findings and I I put the findings in the second uh portion of this slide. Um there are uh and then there are some standards obviously if if you're having a subcommittee where you might have fewer people at least one person and one staff member have to be there so you can't have you know if the cannabis subcommittee meets council member Freighus and council member Walker Torres Walker um one of you is going to have to be there um we can't have both of you appearing remotely but but that assumes that that this council would want to have that committee. You don't have to do that yet. And and I don't I think it's better to simply just implement at the council stage, see how that goes. Give it six months, give it a year, and then you can look at bringing in these other bodies. Um there has to be a policy that that that is in place, a meeting disruption policy. Uh we do actually have a draft of that policy. It's something that will be coming forward to the council for approval. But basically, um you can if you have technological disruptions, you can stop the meeting for up to an hour. Um the good news is if it's going to take some time to fix and you've got the folks in the back working hard on it, you could convene to uh close session, so you can burn up some time. Now, this council meets in close session before usually, but there are some councils that meet afterwards. So, for them, they

have the ability to just go into close session while the issues are being addressed. Um, but once the hour mark goes, if you reach that hour mark, then you can continue the meeting. You just have to make certain findings that you know the technology, you can't fix it. Uh, but there has to be a policy in place. And so we will have an opportunity to revisit that pol not revisit to actually visit that policy with you going forward. Um as far as uh there's a public interest finding. So I mentioned the finding that has to be made. You have to show that moving forward with the meeting is in the public interest. Everything has to be roll call at that point. Uh so if the audio visual doesn't work after an hour, you can continue going but there are some conditions. Uh language. This is a big one. Um, we have confirmed that we do not have to translate our agendas into any other language. But once a uh jurisdiction reaches a point where 20% do not uh speak a different language at home and 20% speak that language less than or speak English less than very well. So, here the American Community Survey, which is part of the uh census, we've looked up the data. It's it's online. You can find it. Uh it's broken out. 23.4% of uh households speak Spanish at home, but uh 11.1 report that they speak English less than very well. So we meet the first part the front end but we do not meet the second part the back end. So there is not a requirement yet to translate into Spanish language. It does

appear in my view that there will be translation requirements live in meetings but the legislature actually put in the very beginning of the bill that that's not required yet. it's encouraged, quote unquote, which means to me that that's probably a sign that in a couple years the legislature is going to mandate that. So, the good news is right now we do not have to meet these requirements, but they may we may at some point and though a lot of cities are having to meet the requirements and having to deal with translation services and other things. Um, we do have to have a dedicated web page of public meetings. I think we've already met that. Uh we have to prominently display the dial in and AV instructions. I believe we are already meeting that with the platform that we have, but that has to be uh preserved. So just a conclusion page. Um there will be a disruption policy that will come forward. If there are any IT uh upgrades, obviously the city attorney's office will review those. Um the city clerk's office will have to uh handle some of the tracking that I mentioned and then obviously is will have to work with the folks in the back end of the room and making sure we have the two-way platform. So that is the discussion or that is that is the presentation. I'm sorry I'm coming up on the 11:30 uh or not 11:30 12:30. Um but at this point it's before the council and I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh, do we have any public comment on this item?

We have no public comments. All right. It's before the council. I do you have a question? I know it's very late and I know we're already want to leave, but um most of the things are going to come back to the council that you've gone over. Yes.

But the one thing that is a city manager issue and it's at the beginning. I don't know if it's this page. Uh mandatory training and distribution. Yes, we did get the copy of the Brown Act, I think electronically, but the timing requirements is materials will be distributed immediately upon boarding. When we were sworn in on December 10th, uh, 2024, we talked about the city council and all of our boards and commissions needed to have an a clearly articulated onboarding process. We also talk about having a code of conduct. Here we are 18 months later, we still have neither. And so I think as we move forward, you know, I read this as not being in compliance with this requirement and that, you know, city staff need to take a look at this so that we can get into compliance. And there's other questions I have,

but I'll just wait, you know, until all these other issues come forward. Uh, so I I what you're what you you slaff are looking for tonight is whether we want to just have city council only. Is that true? Are you looking for some direction as far as that's concerned? At that point, that's what we're preparing for. Um, if if you want to have a consideration of bringing other bodies under under the the AV requirement, then that would be an that would be a request that you can make and then we could start to plan for that and bring that back to you.

But are you looking for a consensus right now on whether we just want it city council only or is that not necessary until you bring the policy back? I think I think for now if if that's something you want us to explore, we will. But for now, I think we would ask just to let us implement the AV policy. That's a bit of a lift that we want to make sure we take care of and that we're ready for on July 1. And mayor, if I may state that if the council does decide to do the other committees, there is there will be a significant impact on staffing for overtime costs for information services, plus making sure all those other committees meetings are set up properly. Um, so that is a consideration for the the subcommittees and other boards or commissions that the if the council wanted to consider that. So, you know, at this point, I would recommend at least, you know, giving direction to move forward with city council only and perhaps other committees at a later date for review and evaluation with, you know, where we could have costs and everything before that's even considered. Let's get this one working correctly.

I agree with city council at this point. I mean, let's face it, they're going to be issues that are are going to happen. I'd rather just be particularly focused. But the other, you know, we have 10 we're 10 weeks from from our deadline. Are we going to make it? I believe we are. I mean, I I know we we've had a lot of internal dialogue. Um, so really this was more of an educational item for for council, but staff is moving this forward. Council member Wilson, just uh just city council only at this point. Yeah. Okay. I agree. Okay. So, we'll just go city council only. And then there was another question about whether we show uh we have video or it's just audio only. Do you want

We I think we're planning on video. Um, you know, I don't I I mean, obviously you have good cameras, you already have a live broadcast. I think it would be a little weird to switch to just audio only um because then I think that's going to affect your ability to broadcast. So, I think that the plan is is to move forward with an audio is actually audiovisisual presentation unless unless that just strikes council as the wrong approach. Well, in some respect, I would defer to council member Wilson, but that didn't always work well. Yeah. And and I'm thinking back to Zoom, so you can correct me if I'm I'm wrong.

Council, if we were we were all visual, but people that were joining that may want to do public comment, we could hear them and see their name, but that wasn't visual. That I think that is that the question you're getting? Yeah. The question is, do we want the public the public to be the public to be visual? Okay. So, we do not have to. So that that that we do not have to have the public be visual. We can just have you know the the name if that's if that's that was my that was my question. But as far as the council's concerned the council would be visual. Correct. Yes. You would be visual.

Okay. Yes. Um, if I may ask, um, is there any ADA accessibility by not having the person's face for someone that because I know in the past when we were in COVID, the city clerk's office had brought to my attention make sure people can be seen because for 80day accessibility, you have to be able to lipre or whatever, you know, to see a person. I don't I don't know if that's about that. Well, that, you know, that's sort of a separate issue that that would be something that we could could require. Uh, was there anything else that we that you were looking for direction from us? No, I mean this is more meant to be educational and and you know and I'm sorry about the hours.

So, will you be bringing back a a policy then for us to approve that memorializes exactly what we we do and don't want? Yes. Well, yes, we will be bringing items back for you before July the 1st. Yes. Okay. And then on the first the first meeting after July 1, we'll be up and running with all this stuff. That's the intention. Yes. But we do we're already out of compliance with onboarding. We don't have an onboarding the it does not exist

the the understood. I mean that that's that's an item that staff can can address. I think technically the legal requirement is to make sure you have at the start of your term um and at the beginning of every year a copy of the Brown Act. Onboarding is a little broader than that but um but that doesn't mean that that that's what you discussed and that hasn't happened. So, I do understand. And then having a code of conduct. I mean, that's something that would have to be drafted and then presented and, you know, I've I've I've seen those. I've been involved in other cities with the drafting of those. All right. So, does does council have any other comments or questions for

Mr. Cole? All right. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, council. Uh do do I have a somebody that wants to extend this meeting for a couple more minutes so we can finish the You don't want to. Aren't we done? Well, we have public comment at the end of this. Um I'll move that we extend this to 12:37. All right. Have a motion till 12:37. I have a second. Second.

All right. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 30 with council member Wilson absent and council member Torres Walker absent. All right, public comments. Mr. Sterling, sorry to be so late. We're sorry it was so late, too.

Sorry, I missed my opportunity. stepped out for a phone call at the earlier public comments, but um this Tuesday I attended a memorial service for a man um Luis Gongorat. This is kind of a artist rendition of him. And some folks may recognize that name because um Luis was killed in San Francisco um by a police officer in 2016. And that police officer violated um department policy in San Francisco and was set to be um disciplined by his department. I've spoke about this before um but rather than faced discipline, he quit his job and then he was immediately hired here in Antioch and that officer is Mike Malone. He's still employed here as far as I know and people may say it's 10 years ago. I know me and chief talked about it in the past. Um he's moved here. He's got comfortable. He's just a officer now that's, you know, rising in the ranks here. Um, but I went to the tenure memorial and, um, Luis's family and Luis hasn't got to move on. Luis is gone. Um, they're out there 10 years later, um, still memorializing, um, their brother. This is Luis's brother. He couldn't even really talk to the crowd because he said the pain is still so fresh 10 years from now. and the Antioch um the Apoch we had a um I think it was like 2021 or 2022 we passed a um ordinance the city council that we wouldn't hire officers who are fleeing discipline which is what was in this case or under investigation at the time and it was found that that um policy is retroactive. So, we the family, myself, and I know um folks might be uncomfortable with it, but we still don't want Officer Malone to be a police officer here, even though he's gotten comfortable here for 10 years. Um their family does not get to be

comfortable. They're out there 10 years later setting up a new memorial in the very spot that he was killed. And I'm I'm saying it because when he um killed Louise, he violated two department policies about escalation of the situation and then not waiting for um command officer to arrive. And that violation resulted in Luis's death and then instead of facing that, he quit his job and came here. Now, as I ask if that's the kind of person we want, what if he violates a policy here? Is he just going to quit and rather face discipline? He also started in Antioch. He went to two other departments, went from Valo, some other place, wound up in San Francisco. And as far as I understand, it was because of some troubles that he had in his departments. So, I just want you all to consider I'll be back to the Apoch to tell them about it, but I wanted you all to know um that they are still out there 10 years later, not moving on. He got pretty comfortable here. He's moving on. He's rising in our apartment. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Any other public comment? Thank you. Um just a couple of quick words. Um, I wanted to mention Kurt Klene's name. He passed away uh March 23rd. He was the son of Fred Klein who was mayor here in Antioch and principal at I think Kimble. Um and Kurt Klene, even though he was 80 years old and left Antioch at a young age, um to join the Coast Guard and go do wonderful things in marine biology science, um he always had a heart for this city. And I remember in 2020 when I started in the advocacy space, um Kurt was one of the first individuals that reached out on Facebook and wanted to donate and wanted to support his community. You know, he always had a post on Facebook about life. uh he went in for routine heart procedure and unexpectedly passed away with his family there. And he was trepidacious the days before that and a bit ominous and you know I think it really speaks to the frailty that we all you know are living in this life right but the connection that we all have even as he's gone and moved and enjoyed life and I know the Klein family still has a large presence here in the area you know I I just

wanted to memorialize him here and and mention his name. You know, he never met me, but he was happy to mail me some biscotti that he had made. And so, um, I just want to say that that's what community is here. And, um, in that same tone, I also wanted to mentioned that this last week, we had another fatal motorcycle injury, uh, accident on James Donlin and Tabora. And I know that the city is working through traffic enhancements for the area and the police department is working to address some of these concerns, but um you know those are the those are the issues that we are dealing with in life. And so as we talk about new development, growth, um more traffic, you know, more residents, um I just want to be cognizant of these accidents, you know. Um, that's district four and that's the area where the dollars went for the bicycle garden and I'm struggling to understand how a bicycle garden is going to do anything to stop a motorcycle death on James Donland. So, I'm hoping that we can um start to move some of these enhancements, these safety enhancements and um bring some more safety to the roadways. Thank you.

All right. Any other public comment? No further public comments. All right. Staff communications. None. All right. Council communications and future agenda items. None. All right. Motion to adjurnn. Motion by council member Wilson. Second by council member Roacha. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 40 with council member Tamisha Torres Walker absent. Meeting is adjourned at 12:40 a.m. Meeting adjourned.