City Council - Special Meeting

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I was shocked at how wonderful that place was.

All right, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the City Council meeting of Tuesday, June the 9th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, will you please take the role? Thank you.

Council Member Rocha is absent. Council Member Torres-Walker?

Present.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas?

Present.

Mayor Bernal? Here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 4 o'clock PM. Thank you.

Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? All right, do we have any public comment on tonight? Yes, we do, Ms. May.

Would you like a microphone? Okay, I'll be right there.

Thank you so much.

You're very welcome.

There you go. Let me turn on the clock for you.

Good afternoon, Council. First I'd like to say I read this letter, email letter, that the city council and the mayor received. And this has really bothered me. I was here the day of the hearing. I think that's one of the first meetings I came back to. And now that I read the letter, I was kind of wasn't sure then, but I'm looking at it now and I understand exactly what's going on. I don't understand why you would not vote for this. This is leaving this city... substantially in the midst of having some serious lawsuits. We already got enough. You're claiming you don't have any money in the budget. We're talking $8 million and it could be as high as that much because they're talking about for every unit to basically penalizing every unit that they were going to do as a low income, below poverty, poverty level, I guess a low income. This should be a yes all the way across the board. But as I know, some people don't want poor people here. But that's too bad, because they're going to be here. They're going to be in every city. But I am objecting to any other decision about this matter. And I'm asking that you guys make a decision in your closed session today to go ahead and approve their decision. their request. First of all, it's not costing you any money. And it's just a deliberate, as they state through here, it's discrimination against the poor. It's discrimination, it's housing discrimination on the biggest level. This is housing discrimination. So I am uh... asking you guys to approve it you know and it's a shame that we as citizens have to come here and say if it's not approved and we are facing that that me as an individual will be filing i already talked with attorneys i will be filing a lawsuit against the city council because you as i say it just seems mayor bernard You know, like I said before, you want to burn this city down just to rule over ashes. I don't know it's because you are vindictive from having to leave the city the way you had to leave it. I don't know why. But that was your choice. That was your choice. The decisions you made as city manager back in the day, that was your choice. And you gained whatever you got out of it. But that is something. And the second thing I want to say real quick, I'll bring it up at a later time too, I'll speak more on it, is these secret meetings you're having with Chief Ford and Chief Brooks. That's crooked, you're crooked. Thank you.

Do we have any further public comments?

Testing. How many minutes am I allowed? Three minutes. What if I wanted to speak on all three subjects?

I believe it's three minutes in total, but I'll defer to the city attorney on that.

So it is three minutes in total, but if you want to allow, you have the discretion to give them time for each item.

Where is it written that I'm only allowed three minutes for three items?

I didn't tell him that you only have three minutes, I said that they had the discretion to give you the three minutes for each topic.

Right, so everybody else gets three minutes per item, so why shouldn't I get three minutes per item? This is why I was arrested earlier.

The city attorney just said that you are entitled to three minutes per item if the city council so allows. Would you like three minutes per item?

I want to speak just on one item tonight. the city attorney's evaluation. I just wanted to see what your response was.

So you could start the clock, please.

Okay, tonight you guys are doing evaluation of the city attorney and maybe give her some feedback on what you expect of her and stuff. Okay, you guys all know I got arrested because of the last city attorney, okay? My complaint with the last city attorney was, read the job description, okay? He's supposed to represent Antioch. He never went into a courtroom. You can go back and check it out. Mr. Smith, I wanted to come see him in the courtroom to see what kind of attorney it was. He never did a case for you guys, OK? And maybe Lori's going to do the same thing. I don't know. But every time you guys gave him a case, he contracted it out. So every month, I would look on the warrants. And you guys check the warrants every month. Almost $400,000 every month. the former city attorney, Mr. Smith, was paying to other attorneys to do what his job was, was to represent Antioch. Now, when I depped a little bit further, I did some freedom of information requests, and he refused my request. He says, I don't have to give you this information. I says, why are you paying these other attorneys $400,000 a month to do a case that you should be in there representing us? And he wouldn't give me an answer. So that's why every time I came into the meeting, I would look over and I'd say, hey, Thomas, if you want a case yet? He never tried a case. As far as I could tell, all the research I did. Even when the police were in Martinez, when the courts in Martinez were trying to get police officers in Antioch to testify during the text message scandal, our city attorney sent another city attorney to Martinez to squash the subpoenas. So I would just expect that if you're giving our new city attorney expectations like maybe she could actually like you know, do a case, like show up in court and represent us. Because if you look at who Thomas was paying to represent you guys, it was his former law firm, okay? That's why he was so upset that I was looking into it. So maybe it was okay that he was doing that. Maybe there was nothing unsaid about it, but you know. If there's an appearance of impropriety, then it's wrong. If you're sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to your old law firm, who after you're fired, you're probably gonna go back to, that's not right. So all I'm asking you tonight is when you ask the city attorney, go over her job description, there are certain cases she can go in and actually represent you. There's no reason for her to get on her computer and send it to somebody else. And she shouldn't be working another job. Like when Chief Ford was here, he was teaching college. How can you have a chief of police that's teaching college at the same time? Don't you want him here 24-7? That's all I'm asking. Thanks for listening. I'll be back later tonight.

Ms. Law?

Hello, City Council. I'm not going to get into negotiations for employee stuff. I don't really know why we're doing all this stuff. But anyways, what I did want to talk about was the conference with legal counsel about litigation for the Hillcrest Summit project, which is something that I'm not understanding why we're avoiding anyways. We can't afford another lawsuit in the city. especially right now. On top of that, we have a serious housing crisis. The reason why I started coming to city council meetings was because my husband got sick in 2019 and we were consistently homeless. Consistently, because I couldn't afford rent on my own with my salary. So for Tamisha and Ms. Wilson, they remember, but that's why I started coming to city council meetings, because of that. Because I couldn't afford rent with my husband because he was sick and couldn't get up and go to work. Still can't. And I still barely am affording it. So $2,200 a month, I'm not on Section 8. We need housing units that are affordable in this city, not just down here. They're never open. People don't move away. Once they get into these housing units, they don't just move away. They stay there forever. It's very rare that you get an open door to come in. So it's a necessity, you guys. We need this. housing unit. We need these housing units even if it's just 10 of them out of 160 or 20 of them out of I don't know how what the what the the spec is but whatever it is we need these housing units. There's people who are in dire need and are not on Section 8 that can really seriously use these units. Thank you.

All right, any other public comment?

We have no further public comments.

All right, Madam City Attorney, will you please let us know what the items are for closed session tonight?

There are three items on today's closed session agenda. The first item is a conference with labor negotiators pursuant to California government code section 54957.6. The city designated representatives are Jason Ewart and Anna Cortez, the acting city manager. The employee organizations are the Management Unit, Treatment Plant Employees Association, Operating Engineers Local Union number three, Confidential Unit, Antioch Police Officers Association, and Antioch Police Foreign Management Association. The second item is public employee performance evaluation pursuant to government code sections 54957B1 and 54954.5E, position to be reviewed, city attorney. And the last item is a conference with legal counsel for significant exposure to litigation pursuant to California government code section 54956.9E3, Number of cases one, receipt of a written communication threatening litigation related to the April 14th, 2026 Tepper hearing for the Hillcrest Summit Project, which is attached to the agenda for public inspection. And those are all three items.

All right, thank you. We will now adjourn to closed session.

Meeting is adjourned at 4.13 p.m.

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All right, good afternoon or good evening, everybody. Welcome to our study session, part of our Antioch City Council meeting for Tuesday, June the 9th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, can you please take the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Rocha is absent. Council Member Torres-Walker?

Present.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas? Present. Mayor Bernal? Here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 5.49 p.m. All right, if you could please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right, I apologize for us starting late. We're coming out of closed session, and so we are gonna start on budget study session SM1, fiscal year 26, 27, budget development. Acting city manager Cortez, please. She rushes in.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and City Council. So the item before you tonight is the budget for fiscal year 2026-27. We did continue working with departments and we were able to bring down the deficit significantly. So I just wanted to, again, say thank you to our team and also to City Council for all of their working together with us. So I'll pass it over to Finance Director Marchand.

Good evening, this will conclude our budget development before we bring back the budget on June 23rd for adoption. We may even have some further adjustment, just little tweaks to the numbers from what you see on the 23rd. But to discuss what has happened on May 13th, the city council directed that $230,000 be reduced from the economic development budget. That was not accounted for on May 26th, as we just didn't have time to turn that around and meet with the department. before that, so that's now included in the numbers for fiscal year 26-27. And then at the meeting on the 26th, approximately $1 million in further budget reductions were identified in the Public Safety and Community Resources Department related to the Homekey Plus project, and as well as the CDB, for homeless services that were duplicative services that were provided through CDBG and PLAH. So those have been adjusted in the budget. As you can see on page two of the staff report, this outlines the additional budget reductions that were made since May 26th. In human resources, we've made some adjustments, totally $25,000. In the city manager's office, we reduced business expenses and conferences. $59,500, we reduced some overtime in public works. In community and economic development, you can see that $255,000 represents $230,000 that was identified from city council. And then the department found some additional monies there. One thing to point out is freezing of the assistant engineer position. In prior budget sessions, city council had previously authorized unfreezing that position. with the move of engineering under community and economic development however on may 26 city council directed that the assistant city engineer position be frozen and in light of that we would not be able to have an assistant engineer with no one to report to provide direction or training so we're freezing that position yet again that's it was frozen in last year's budget it started out initially frozen for fiscal year 27, but again, the department had asked for that to be unfrozen, but now we're freezing that again. So because we have to freeze the assistant engineer position, we do have to increase engineering contracts to provide outside engineering services for projects, for development projects, but then they've also made some reduction to conferences and training, so that actually is a net increase to the community and economic development by $30,000. Then for public safety and community resources, you can see the 995,000 identified at the last meeting for reducing the potential outlay for the Homekey Plus project from 1.2 million down to 400,000, assuming that that project might really kick in near the end of fiscal year 26-27. And then there was adjustments made to the Angela Quinto Community Response Team of $27,825, so $1,022,000 was reduced from that budget. We made some reductions to the city clerk budget, but we also did have to increase for $80,000 the initial proposed budget for elections was only 60,000. Inadvertently, it had not included the cost for the general election for the actual city clerk position. It's a little bit lower election cost when it's just the by district council positions. However, the city clerk is city wide, so we had to bump up the election cost for that. And in the police department, they've made overtime and some other safety materials and contracts costs totaling 672,000. So since May 26, we were able to make additional adjustments of $1,704,838. We had prior adjustments which are outlined in attachments A and B. So in total, budget adjustments were made for $12,189,979 accounted for in the fiscal year 27 budget. So on chart A on page four, you can see how this translates to the budget. You can see for fiscal year 26, 27, whereas the revenues, less expenditures, the deficit has now been reduced to $4,778,423. So the budget stabilization amount has been reduced to that, so under five million, plus it eliminated the deficit that was beyond the budget stabilization transfer. We've also been able to increase fiscal year 25-26 revenue projections by about $775,000 due to significant building activity that occurred in May. And we've also been able to reduce 25-26 expenditures by approximately 898,000 with the majority of that in the police department and animal services for contracts and supplies. The combined effect of these adjustments in fiscal year 25-26 increases the general fund projected ending fund balance at June 30, 2026 by approximately $1.67 million beyond what was presented on May 26. The additional fund balance will aid in supporting general fund financial stability as we move through these next challenging years. So as stated, as I've stated in previous budget meetings, the fiscal year 26-27 draft budget does not include any COLAs as negotiations are currently underway. The only COLAs that are in the budget, not in the general fund, but are in the water enterprise fund for the TPA group, which was previously approved by city council at the prior city council meeting. And this budget maintains 105 sworn staffing as discussed on May 26th. Fiscal year 27-28, as stated previously, include the addition of 12 police trainees for six months of the fiscal year with a target of reaching 117 sworn by the end of fiscal year 27-28. And as previously mentioned and outlined in this report, we will come back in August and start the 27-28 budget and really have a longer time to dive into that budget. As a lot of these reductions in fiscal year 26, 27 are one time in nature, freezing for one year. They'll be evaluating again if council wants to continue to freeze those or not. Fiscal year 27 for 28 also includes reinstating the vehicle replacement fund transfer. But again, on a stripped down baseline budget, which will initially present and show the layers coming in as council discussed, that's not a required municipal service to set aside for vehicle replacement. So other items for discussion and consideration prior to finalizing this draft budget. One of the budget proposals was for public art to return that money to the general fund for $46,648. City Council had requested an update on the Hey Daddy Look statue that had been vandalized. Public Works reported that the statue was removed and that a quote had been requested. That quote was received for $61,500, which exceeds available project funds by $14,852. So city council direction is requested on whether to appropriate additional general fund money in the amount of $14,852 to complete the repair or return the project money to the general fund to further reduce the deficit by $46,648. Or of course, the council could just hold off on doing anything until we begin the budget review next year and just maintain the funds in place. Also, Mayor Pro Tem Freitas had expressed support of adding a purchasing position. The city currently has a buyer classification related to purchasing. The fiscal year 27 salary and benefit cost would be $165,772. The buyer position has not been filled in over a decade and the class specification and salary may be outdated. It is recommended to pause a decision on this position and bring back after we start the fiscal year 27, 27, 8, baseline budget review that will begin in August to not only allow time for human resources to determine if the current class specification and salary are adequate. But then to allow the city council to determine if this position aligns with the priorities that will build the draft budget. So attachment C provides general fund projections based on the current draft figures. The fiscal year 26, 27 adjustments and reductions provide quite significant and impactful impact on outlying projections. The fiscal year 25, 26, and 26, 27 adjustments and reductions infused the general fund with almost $9.5 million more in reserves estimated through fiscal year 29, 30 projections provided on May 13th indicated that fiscal year 2930 unassigned reserves were projected to be 11.47 million and stabilization funds would be fully depleted. As a direct result of the hard work of city staff and council, fiscal year 2930 unassigned reserves are now projected to be 21.52 million and budget stabilization funds are projected to have an ending fund balance of approximately 8.69 million at June 30th. The work cannot stop here. I cannot reiterate enough how moving forward, we can't continue to adopt an unbalanced budget and relying on reserves. We really should be spending within the money that the city brings in. So any feedback this evening will be incorporated into the budget and turn it over to council for any questions or direction on the report.

All right, thank you very much. Do we have any public comment? Yes, we have four comment cards. Can we please have Ms. May followed by Crystal.

Good evening, City Council. My concern, as with always with this budget, is that you have slashed money from youth services. You've slashed money from the Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Team, which was part of the DOJ agreement. You've cut positions out. I was just looking, reviewing again the report. There's nothing for animal services, so I guess that's just saying that we're going to turn our animal services over to the county. I looked and saw what the positions were when I was reviewing this, everything yesterday. Two part-time, one supervisor and one, I can't think of the title of the other position. So this is slash and slashing. I understand what Don Merchant was saying about not spending what you don't have going over and above. But with this continuing slash of services, money for people. Also, I read that you were trying to slash the APOP budget down. two numbers. Well, the budget was created when the APOC wasn't full. And so you took them from 75 down to 25 off, and then I saw again where you wanted to reduce it to exactly 25,000. That's not going to work for a full APOC. That's not going to work for them to get all the training. They're finally full. They haven't been full for over a year. They're finally full now. So what I see is that this is what you call Overslashing. Overslashing. Cutting out needed services. Cutting out services that, like I said, was part of the agreement with the DOJ. Cutting out services, especially for kids. So here we are, summer, these kids have absolutely nothing to do. Which I guess you don't care because you don't have any kids young. Young kids. You don't care. Well, other families do. The community members do. We do care. I have grandchildren. I care. that all the services and the programs that they were used to going to have been slashed to basically nothing. And I just think it's a travesty. I feel like you could have gone more into negotiations with the other units in this city, Public Works, all of them, to see if they would concede some. I don't know. We as the public have been left in the dark with all the negotiations you have done. And really we should be able to be part of that process and hear what's going on. But that hasn't happened since you became mayor and new council members came in. Thank you.

Thank you. Crystal followed by Erica.

Hello, City Council.

So what I'm hearing and what I've been reading is that we just don't care about what happened with Angelo Quinto. We don't care that this, you know, I understand that we got a cut somewhere, right? I get it. It makes sense. But we put in place for this Angelo Quinto because of what happened to him in 2020. and the fact that not only the family was traumatized and he's now not here, but the reasoning behind it. And so we put in place this program for a reason and for a purpose for our community who has mental issues and can't speak up for themselves. and can't necessarily speak to the police. He's now gone and we put it in place for future residents. We have a lot of mental issues in this community and so it's necessary regardless of whether you guys feel like it isn't or whether it is. necessary for us to keep this going and so I would really request for you guys to just take a look back and see what else we can slash besides stuff from our community you know the lower communities the district ones you know I'm not understanding why this is for all residents not just for district but it's for all residents so I would appreciate it if we just go back and take a look at it Erica followed by Miss Taylor

Good evening, City Council. Again, being a community member, I'm coming up again. I understand that we have a budget and we are trying to even it out. But again, the city, again, the community is being just blindsided by this. We've complained about public safety, about the issues that have come up. We complained about the youth services. But you're steady slashing the bill, including the youth budget. We need to increase the youth budget. We need... to involve the youth in the training and giving them opportunity for the people to come in that can create jobs. Again, I brought up about the fact for the last six years I've been coming up to city council bringing up the fact that we need to bring AmeriCorps. We need to be in Job Corps. We need to bring opportunities. We talked about different programs that we could bring for coding, different things so they can give the youth. And here we are again in June where the kids are not out again. And they have nothing to do. And so when the police start harassing them because they have nothing to do, what are they going to say? What's here in Antioch for us? Nothing. But yet you go next door to Pittsburgh, they got a community center for the youth. They're doing things for the summer youth programs. But here in Antioch, the community, mainly most of the youth, get bond-sided. There's just nothing for them to do. So of course they're going to get in trouble because they have nothing to keep them preoccupied for the summer. But these programs that I have brought up time and time again to the city council about bringing them to the community to bring revenue in, to bring money and give these children an opportunity to learn things. But all you're doing is getting more youth coming out there. They're not going to get younger. They're going to get older. Eventually, they're going to graduate from high school, go on to college, but giving them opportunities to make a living and make them something that can keep them preoccupied for the summer instead of getting into trouble. So again, as being a community member and seeing the children in the community, AND BEING IN DISTRICT ONE, ESPECIALLY SEEING ALL THE CHILDREN THERE, ALL THE YOUTH COMING IN, IT'S DISCOURAGING. BUT YOU WANT US TO BE SUPPORTIVE OF BEING A COMMUNITY, BUT WE AREN'T GETTING SUPPORT. AND THAT'S WHAT'S MAKING US DISOCCURRECT. AND THE MORE THAT WE, I'M GOING TO KEEP COMING UP HERE WITH THE PLANNING, BECAUSE WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. THIS IS GETTING TO THE POINT IT'S RIDICULOUS, AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MAYOR ARE TRYING TO DO, BECAUSE IT SEEMS LIKE TO ME YOU'RE TRYING TO MAKE US A POOR CITY INSTEAD OF IMPROVING THINGS THAT WE NEED TO IMPROVE AND MAKE IT BETTER FOR THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN THIS COMMUNITY.

Ms. Taylor?

Hello, my name is Ms. Taylor. The reason why I'm here is because I received an email regarding Antioch Youth Services. My son started working and he has autism. The programs that you guys are talking about cutting, we really need them within the community, because last year he received his first job. He gained confidence, he became more independent, and it's taking him further. At first, he didn't know if he wanted to apply for college. He applied for college, he wound up getting into St. Mary's. with the confidence that they instilled in him and just for you guys to want to cut the budget it's very disheartening and he's in the program again this year and it's really helping him so I'm asking you guys not to cut the budget because it helps kids who don't have the ability to get up there and speak for themselves and everything. They saw my sensibilities instead of judging him off his challenges. And that really, really helps. So I'm just asking you guys not to. Thank you. Thank you.

We have no further public comments.

All right, thank you. It's to the city council for any questions from Dawn, and then we can, if you have any, and then we can walk through the two specific questions that she asked of us that she needs some guidance on. So any questions on what she presented?

What was the questions?

The first question is... Yeah, whether public art, we have, there's $61,000 to replace the Hey Daddy Look statue that's on Lone Tree Way just south of James Donlon Boulevard. Yeah, over by CVS. And so the question is whether we want to add to the $46,000 another $14,800 to replace that or restore that piece of artwork. Yes.

So, Ms. Merchant is asking for direction. I think you made a suggestion, and I think it's the right one, is to hold the item over until we actually go into negotiation, not negotiation, but we start to look at the budget starting this August. I would ask, I assume Public Works has this at their facility, that they protect it and that it doesn't get destroyed during the intervening time, but I think with the budget that we have, that's a more appropriate action.

Does Council concur with that?

Yeah, I agree. I was looking forward for that statute to come back, but I agree that this can be held off until a later time, so I'm in agreement with that.

Okay, so yeah, we have consensus that that would be delayed. Okay, thank you, noted. And the second is related to adding the purchasing, the buyer position to the budget. And so this was Mayor Pro Tem Freitas' item that he had requested, so.

Right, throughout this budget we've had a discussion about decentralized purchasing or centralized purchasing. And my recommendation to the council is under the city manager, this is where purchasing would be placed, that there be a purchasing officer and a second position that I'd leave to the city manager would be appropriate. The idea is that we would free up a lot of time and costs that is now diffused throughout the whole whole city and to actually you know bring it together and have this under the city manager's purview and i believe that frankly doing that will will actually save money on the long term i realize initially there will be some costs um and there will be some training but i do think that it's an appropriate For us to pursue so that's I haven't changed that position since we started a purchasing officer and a second person Like a buyer or whatever would be appropriate. I leave that up to the city manager make a recommendation All right council have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, and as I stated, it was just recommending just to kind of bring this back similar to the art until when we could get the cost of the two positions. And because even if this was, say, approved at it now, by the time the positions are reevaluated, go to the bargaining and essentially posted it would be way into the fiscal year so that's you know one of the recommendations was just to pause and bring this back with the budget review that we do and then council can decide at that point once we have the exact positions the exact costs so it literally gives you between now and August at least eight to ten weeks to have the information and come back to the council and make us aware of

Yes, we will definitely need to look at the salaries since the last time that was updated was probably like 15 years ago. So we'll definitely need to do a survey.

And the job descriptions as well? Correct, yes, we'll update them.

Yeah, because we only have one job description called a buyer. which I'm not even sure if that's a relevant position title now. I've seen it a lot of cities that might be called a purchasing officer or a purchasing compliance officer if that does get added. But again, I think with the two positions, it's gonna be important with the overall budget discussion if that's decided that that's a priority of the council or not versus is there gonna be a give and take kind of thing. So I think it's important to discuss it as we start in August with the budget.

All right, so is there a consensus to have staff bring that back in August with some idea of what that'll cost?

Yes.

Yes, yes. All right, yes, we have consensus to bring that back.

Ms. Merchant, the other one is the grant writer. So did you include the?

The grant writer is in the budget. There is just some vacancy savings built in because the position does have to be created and posted. And in the interim, we do have the Townsend public affairs that is acting in that capacity as part of their lobbying and other contract, but that is in the budget.

So, Mr. Mayor, I think the last sentence actually on this particular page that we're on, the work cannot stop here, however, as continued deficit spending cannot and must not be a pattern the city accepts or adopts. I appreciate that. It's tough medicine for us. I thank the city council, the departments, and the community, you know, getting us from a $54 million budget deficit to about a $5 million deficit this fiscal, next fiscal year, has been an extraordinary achievement, and unfortunately there have been cuts. From my perspective, I mentioned this last, You know, the two sources of revenue to the city is property taxes, our property taxes, and primarily sales tax. And there's not much that we can do with regards to property tax revenue generation, but sales tax is a different item. And if you look at chart A, general fund budget summary, for fiscal year 26, 27, 28, we are sitting there stagnant, basically $20 million for three fiscal years. As I have mentioned, my own personal opinion is that the city has not had an economic development plan for quite some time, and we have suffered mightily. And so I hope that we can direct the city manager to come back hopefully within, sooner rather than later, with really a plan of action, dates, times, what is needed, working with other communities that have a very successful economic development program for us to learn to work with not only the council but the planning commission and others and other community-based groups like the Chamber of Commerce or Downtown Antioch Association. I think this frankly needs to be the number one priority because we're not going to be able to have any revenue for future programs because when you take a look at fiscal year 27, 28, if people are angry about some of the cuts that have happened, you're projecting at least a $15 million budget one year from now. And we haven't even considered the COLAs for the various unions that we are presently negotiating. And so we don't have much time. But I do think we need to have a plan of action. How are we going to implement this? And I would submit that this really is a critical issue for our well-being today and in the future. So I just would emphasize that and ask the city manager sooner rather than later to come back, maybe as a discussion, invite business people, invite some of the groups and organizations so we can have a dialogue on this, because everybody has a vested interest, from youth employment, from public art, from water, sewer, transportation, on and on and on.

And I will just clarify for the public that there was no slashing done to youth programs. The reductions that have come have been a result of, one, there was a position that's being frozen just for six months in the senior division. But then the part time savings are because of everything going on at the water park and the delayed openings. So we're able to recognize some part time help savings for that. But no direct cuts to any youth programs were made. And there's programs also provided through our California Volunteers Grant that gives youth programs to the Public Safety and Community Resources Department. So City Council did not make any direct cuts to youth programs. I just want to say that publicly.

Thank you. And it's kind of true and it's kind of not true. So I want to, one, Thank you for coming and talking about the opportunities your son got through Youth Network Services through the Department of Public Safety and Community Resources. Congratulations to Director Cabral and her team for bringing in millions of outside state and federal dollars to implement those programs that have never been funded. Some of those apprenticeship programs and other programs have never been funded by the general fund. That has been all the hard work of Ms. Cabral and her team to bring in outside dollars to fund those programs and hopefully we can keep doing that for the community. The 1% sales tax, is that Measure W? Yes. So the 1% sales tax, the 20 plus million over time, that's the sales tax. The 1% sales tax that was meant to go to policing, quality of life, parks and recreation. And what else?

Youth services, which I think you're referring to as public service.

Youth services, which is under the Department of Public Safety. So the original percentages for the sales tax before the council made the decision to reduce those percentages were what? So it was 60 to the police department. 20 to quality of life and parks and recreation, and 20 to youth network services under the Department of Public Safety and Community Resources. And those percentages were reduced, were voted to be reduced by this council. And I'm also asking this question because there are people in the public who are saying we haven't changed those percentages yet, so they feel like it's an affront to them and that the council isn't spending the Measure W funds correctly because this council voted to change the percentages and that hasn't been acted on yet. But what was the changes to the percentages?

Well, so the percentages were actually changed in the 25-26 budget that was adopted last year. So it went to 70-15-15. So 70-15-15. Yeah.

So quality of life, parks and recreation, And youth services did take a cut from a 5% reduction from each to increase the percentage to policing services last year from this 1% sales tax. So there was some reduction to youth services, but out of 20 million... it probably maybe isn't as significant as a department that still remains at only 2% of the general fund.

If I may clarify, this percentage does not affect how much is actually spent on youth or recreation services, because those happen in the recreation fund. No money was reduced from that budget. What this is in the general fund, saying how much of the piece of the pie is going to each of these services. So it may be interpreted as we're cutting recreation by 5%, but we're not. We're just saying that 25% less in Measure W money is going to youth services.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

But the actual budget for programs was not cut. It's just what piece of the pie Measure W is going to that.

Yeah, so if a portion of the piece of the Measure W funds aren't going there, But then we have to continue to balance the general fund.

It comes from general fund, not Measure W. Right.

And if cuts continue to be made, people's concern is that there will be additional cuts made from the general fund, even though the first initial cut was only from the 1% sales tax. So that's what people are saying. They have concerns about future cuts. So it's the 1% sales taxes measure W. When you say taxes in total here, does that include property taxes plus?

That includes property tax, business license tax. And all of that. Yeah.

All the taxes. Do that, so it's property tax, business tax, Sales tax, all the revenue is included in this. So there's, it's also that we get franchise taxes, which is a big chunk, but the majority of that total is property tax and sales tax non-measure W. Property tax, sales tax, non-measure W. I just wanted to so clarify that for folks because the 1% sales tax is just 1% of our sales tax revenue, right?

Yes.

Okay.

I was looking at the APOC and it looked like what was spent on the APOC when it was not a fully seated body, it seemed to be a body of five members where they received NACO training and travel and it says it came up to $21,978.39 of expenses for training when the body wasn't fully seated and was only essentially like five people. So now the body is seven people Will that expense stay the same with a seven person body? Would everybody need a training or is the idea?

So the budget for fiscal year 26 and then 27, it was initially set up for $75,000. It was reduced in 26 and then in 27 to $50,000. And being that the current year is only $21,978, I'm not even sure if we're going to get the $50,000. But the $50,000 assumes that it's a full body, being that we haven't even spent.

So it was cut some, but there is enough here to be able to meet the needs of training every member of the body.

That is the consensus of the police department and acting city manager's office based on trainings that would be attended.

So I just wanted to clarify that for the public as well. Yes, the APOC budget was reduced, but according to the numbers that was presented by staff, including the police department, 50,000 would suffice to train a full commission of seven individuals for the proper training.

Any other?

Not right now. I'm still trying to see if I have more questions, but I could pause for right now.

All right.

Councilman Wilson.

Are we going through everything?

Well, those were the two. We weren't necessarily going to walk through the whole budget. Those were the two specific items that they had questions on. So if you had questions or comments on some of the other parts of what Director Merchant presented, now would be the time to ask them.

This is more of a comment. Chief, I need your help on this one, if you can come up. I thought you were going to go all the way. I'm like, what is he doing? No, no, no, no, no, no. It looked like you were going to go that way. I'm like, where is he going? Good evening, Chief. A couple questions in response to Angelo Quinto response team, which I believe from reports that you've said in the past, it's been a benefit for your department, because a lot of times there are issues that they can go to, and then your staff can go to other issues. I know we had to make some reductions in that in the past, but do you still believe that that team is a positive addition to your team? to the city? To the city, yes. And can you kind of talk about how it's been beneficial for?

Just in terms of the calls that they're able to handle, especially the calls that have to deal with mental health people and mental health crisis. We use them as well as A3 in trying to deal with and handle those calls.

And I know both of us, along with Ms. Cabral, have been trying to find funding to help continue this program. If that went away, that would probably add an extra load onto your team, correct?

there would be an impact to the increase in calls for service, yes.

Okay, so I mean, that's something, and I know, you know, we're looking at the budget, and I know, you know, thank you, Ms. Merchant, for your presentation. I know that's something we need to look at, because that's actually been an asset, and it's been concerning me, that I'm like, if that program potentially goes away, that's gonna be a big, a major hit to our community, for those particular services. I just need you for those comments to kind of back that up, and I... I'm really hoping that we can all put our heads together, Chief, myself, Ms. Cabral, city manager, and potentially Townsend, can find some funding to keep that team on. Because if that went away and we had to depend on the county, response times for mental health is probably gonna be very delayed, I'm assuming.

It's a possibility. Obviously, it depends on what's going on, not only in our city, but in the other cities that A3 serves on this side of the county.

Okay, thank you, Chief. You're welcome. And I just wanted to bring that up. Yes, there is a concern about that team potentially going away. And keeping in mind, there are those of us fighting to try to get funding to keep it there. So I don't want people to be concerned that that's going to go away. We're going to fight to find funding and find ways to keep that because it has been a benefit to our community. So thank you for bringing that up.

Yes.

So Ms. Merchant, I do have a question. Under Attachment E, City Manager of Business, expense detail on the the media public information section two weeks ago on the warrant register under the city manager's budget i believe there was an item for two thousand five hundred dollars for a publication and then i notice here it says top ten city manager publication $1,500, so have we expended $4,000 to have the city manager basically pay for an article to be in a magazine?

I would have to look at the detail of that warrant. The fiscal year to date was from when we did the last budget update report, so this was tying to that figure, so that warrant could have been paid after this detail. I'm not sure if the acting city manager has information on that.

I think the last one, the warrant, there was an additional charge. There was $2,500 in the last warrant. I don't recall the exact number, but I do recall there was. There was an additional charge, yes.

And so we've expended $4,000 so far. Is it anticipated that there will be more money spent for this publication?

I will have to look into it and contact them to see if we have any pending invoices.

Okay, so for this article, basically the city of Antioch has paid at least $4,000 to have it in. Okay, thank you. I just want to be clear in my mind what we were spending the money.

That's a question. Is this the first time the city of Antioch has had the top ten city manager publication themes? To my knowledge, yes.

I'm not sure.

Was this related to city manager Scott being identified as one of the top ten city managers with that award? Yes. And then we had to actually pay, the city had to pay to have that put in a magazine? Is that what happened? Yes, there was a fee associated with that. And for the city annual report, was that like digital, mailed out, did we have to bring in a consultant to put it together, or was that something, is that what it was?

There was, it was actual, a fee associated with using a third party to assist with the annual report, but there were additional fees associated with the printing as well.

Have we ever spent that amount or any amount on city annual reports in the past?

Yeah, that is an annual expenditure. The city manager releases an annual report, just besides the monthly newsletter that the city manager was doing, but an annual report just on the status of the city. And that does get posted on the website. I'm not sure if people can sign up to get an email, but I know it's been printed before.

So that's been something. So the city annual report is not a new expense?

No.

but the top 10 city manager publication is a new expense.

We believe it is. I'm not sure if we've had something like that in the past.

Just, because I know there have been city manager, like city annual reports before, but the top 10 city manager one is actually new. Okay, thank you.

How much are we spending this year on the Angelo Quinto Mental Health Crisis Response Team this upcoming year?

I will see if Director Cabral is able to. I know for the current ARPA funds runs through December 31st, 2026. And I believe it's just over annually projected to be 900,000, but I'll let Director Cabral. Good evening, Mayor and Council.

What was your question? What is the proposed expenditure for the Angelo Quinto team for the upcoming fiscal year?

The proposed, it's about $80,000 a month, and we're trying to get certain things lowered so that for the general fund, which would start technically January of 27, it would be about, I think, $408,000 for those six months through June 30th of 27. 408? Yes.

Okay, so it's down to around $800,000 a year if we were to.

Correct, based on some of the budget considerations that we've had in conversations with Felton.

And while you're up here, as far as the youth is concerned, the programming that you did in this last fiscal year is similar to what is being proposed for next year, is that true? Correct. Okay, so there isn't a reduction in funding for that. It's still what you're currently working on. Correct. Okay, thank you.

I have a question related, a follow-up from the mayor's last question about those youth funds. A lot of that was grant funding.

Correct.

So is the expectation that the city will continue to qualify those grants again? Were they one-year grants? Were they multi-year grants? Because we know a lot of it isn't funded through the general fund. So is it that you're expecting to get more of those grant funds coming in from the outside to sustain these programs?

Yes.

And then related to the crisis response team, currently the crisis response team has been funded by ARPA dollars. Correct. Correct, which is not general fund money, it's federal dollars that came to the city from the federal government and was spent to stand up the crisis response team. And there have been considerations for reducing the services to the community, like hours that they work, which could impact service, which does impact service, but hopefully not the quality of service. And so when that ends, then you're saying the request would then be that the crisis response team Unless, like Councilwoman Wilson mentioned, we can find outside either federal or state dollars to continue to fund it, the request would be that in the new, in 2027, that the funding at the reduced hours or any other potentially reducing more hours would be requested to come out of the general fund. Correct. Thank you.

So this, just to clarify still, so this fiscal year coming up, 2027, the general fund would expend $408,000, if that's your estimate. Potentially. And in 2027, we use $816,000 as the number?

Yeah, essentially for the 27-28 projections, we just doubled that with a small increase. No, we just doubled that. And so that is in the draft, 26-27, then 27-28. It's built into the projections that are...

And ongoing, correct? I mean, that's just, you built that into the next year and then the ongoing years. For the projections that are shown there. General fund. Yes, general fund.

Correct. It'll go transition and all come out of this year.

All general fund, correct. Yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you, Director Cabral. Thank you. Any other questions or anything for... Staff, I just wanna say that just as you started it off, City Manager Cortez, this is a really amazing effort to bring us to this point today because I know that a couple months ago we were at like 13 million, 12, 13 million, and so to be at $4.8 million Just wanna really thank everybody, the council and the staff for all working together and to bringing this to the point where I think it's something that we can all be, although it's still a deficit, we can be proud of and then moving into August, September, start working on that essential services and building off of that and seeing what else we need to do in order to make this budget sustainable. Just wanna thank you very much for that. So seeing nothing else, we will go ahead and adjourn this meeting, and we will resume at 7 o'clock with our regular city council meeting. So this study session is adjourned.

Meeting is adjourned at 6.39 p.m. Thank you.

Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. . . . Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the City Council meeting of June the 9th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, can you please take the role? Thank you.

Council Member Rocha is absent. Council Member Torres-Walker?

Present.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas?

Present.

Mayor Bernal? Here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 7 o'clock p.m. All right, if you're able, if you could please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Earlier this afternoon we were in closed session. Madam City Attorney, if you could please report out.

There were three items on the closed session agenda today. The first one was a conference with labor negotiators pursuant to California government code section 54957.6. City designated representatives were Jason Ewert, Ana Cortez, acting city manager. The employee organizations were a management unit, treatment plant employees association, operating engineers local union number three, confidential unit, Antioch Police Officers Association, and Antioch Police Foreign Management Association. And there were no action taken other than direction given to staff. The second item on the agenda was public employee performance evaluation pursuant to government code sections 54957B1 and 54954.5E, position to be reviewed city attorney, and there was no action taken on that item. And the last item was a conference with legal counsel, significant exposure to litigation pursuant to California government code section 54956.9E3, Number of cases, potential one. Receipt of a written communication threatening litigation related to the April 14th, 2026 TEFRA hearing for the Hillcrest Summit Project, which was attached to the agenda for public inspection. And there was no action taken, but there was general direction given to staff. And that's all. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. It's now time for public comment. Mr. Mayor. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.

I'd like to request we suspend the rules and bring proclamations ahead of public comments. And the reason is at the meeting that we had two weeks ago, we had approximately 50 people sit in the audience waiting for the proclamations and they didn't come up till 10 o'clock. And I would not want to repeat that and just strongly suggest that now and hopefully in the future that we take proclamations early. So if those people who come here to receive and be honored, they can enjoy it, but then they can go home if they want.

All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Freitas, second from Council Member Wilson. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

All right, we have two proclamations to hear tonight. What we will do once the city council adopts them is I will read it. The people that are receiving it, if they could come up and make a few statements, I'll read the second one. Those folks come up and receive that as well. And then the council will go down and take pictures with the recipients afterwards. So do I have a motion to approve the proclamations? So moved. Motion. second second please cast your votes Motion passes 4-0. All right, before I read the first one, which is the proclamation commemorating California Lowrider Day of June 21st, 2026. For those of you that aren't aware, there's some beautiful lowriders out in the parking lot, so you might wanna take a look at those before they take off. Whereas the California State Legislature has recognized the significance of lowrider culture by designating the first Sunday of summer as California Lowrider Day. honoring the heritage, pride, and creativity of the Lowrider community and celebrating the movement's role in giving voice to Chicano identity, community, creativity, and rolling art. Whereas the practice goes back to post-World War II youth culture and is deeply tied to the history of the Chicano and Latino communities in Southern California. It began as a way for working class communities to create space for cultural expression with participants often experiencing systemic discrimination and police targeting. Whereas central to cruising is the modification of vehicles, particularly classic cars, low riders embody the philosophy of going low and slow, and often feature custom paint, intricate pinstriping, plush velvet interiors, and hydraulic suspensions showcasing exceptional skill, innovation, and attention to detail. Whereas cruising involves gathering in groups and driving slowly down brightly lit or popular boulevards, it is a time to see and be seen, swap stories about car maintenance and build neighborhood bonds. And whereas the city of Antioch values and celebrates the diversity, traditions, and cultural expression that enrich our community and bring residents together through shared experiences, mutual respect, and civic pride, Now therefore, I, Ron Burnell, Mayor of the City of Antioch, hereby acknowledge June 21st, 2026 as California Lowrider Day in the City of Antioch and encourage all residents to join in recognizing the history, artistry, cultural significance, and community spirit represented by lowrider culture. Could I please? Could I please have Carlos Tacos Aguilar and Michael Solorzano come on up please to receive this.

Nervous, it's okay. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council, good afternoon. We're truly humbled and honored to receive this proclamation recognizing California Lowrider Day. Today we stand here not just for ourselves, but for the generations of people whose passion, sacrifice, and dedication built the California lowrider movement into the cultural treasure it is today. We want to recognize the elders who paved the way and kept our traditions alive during times when our culture was often misunderstood. Their wisdom, perseverance, and pride created the foundation that we stand upon today. We want to honor the car clubs whose members have spent countless hours building not only beautiful automobiles, but also strong communities rooted in respect, family, and tradition. We want to recognize our veterans, many of whom brought their discipline, service, and leadership into the Lowrider community and helped shape the values that continue to guide us today. We want to thank the artists, the pinstripers, the muralists, photographers, musicians, and builders whose creativity transformed lowriding into a living art form recognized around the world. And most importantly, we want to honor the families, the mothers, fathers, grandparents, and children who have passed down these traditions from one generation to the next. Lowriding has always been about family. It is about gathering together, sharing stories, celebrating our heritage, and creating memories that last a lifetime. The recognition of California Lowrider Day and the ending of the decades-long cruising ban represents more than a legislative victory. They represent recognition, respect, and acknowledgement of a culture that has contributed greatly to the history and identity of California. This proclamation belongs to every person who ever turned a wrench in a garage, polished chrome for a car show, cruised with pride down a boulevard. documented our history through photographs, or taught a young person the importance of honoring their roots. As we celebrate today, let us continue to preserve our culture, support our communities, and inspire future generations to carry this tradition forward with pride, dignity, and respect. Thank you all who came before us to those who continue the tradition today, and to those who will carry it into the future. It is an honor to accept this proclamation on behalf of the entire California lowrider community. Thank you and God bless you all. I also want to say on the 21st, June 21st, we're having California Loretta Day out here downtown from 12 to 5. We're going to be cruising out here, so come on down and check out the cars. We'd love to have you guys all there.

All right, Mike, would you like to say a few words? Would you like to say a few words, Mike, or do you want to say anything? I'll just say thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, well, thank you guys both very much. All right, great job. I'd like to also thank Carlos and Councilmember Torres-Walker. They're the ones that brought this proclamation forward for us to be able to present tonight. Is there any public comment on this item?

We have no public comments on this item.

All right, moving on to proclamation commemorating Juneteenth, 2026. Whereas Juneteenth is recognized as Freedom Day or our country's second Independence Day, whereas Juneteenth was the day that slavery ended in the United States, resulting in the emancipation of all slaves and beginning the restoration of culture, name, language, faith, and identity. Whereas President Abraham Lincoln first issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, freeing the enslaved people in the South, but those orders were ignored by Confederate Southern slave owners. Whereas on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and enforced the President's order, freeing the enslaved people two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Whereas other systems of oppression and systemic inequalities, such as sharecropping, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration, The reverberation of black bodies and black impoverishment continued well past slavery, and some persist to this day, affecting the physical and mental health, safety, and even the continuing education of young African American children. Whereas liberation from these systems of oppression demands nothing less than black economic liberation manifested through financial literacy, a positive sense of self, an upright ethical and moral compass, hiring jobs, mentors willing to share the means of self-improvement, and the ability to own the land in one's own neighborhood. Whereas many African Americans have advanced academically, politically, and financially, and continue to strive to build wealth within the black community in and beyond. And whereas on June 19th, 2026, The City of Antioch will host its fourth annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration at Williamson Ranch Park, with speakers sharing our rich, proud history, music, food, and activities. We invite all brothers, sisters, and friends of every culture and ethnicity to join us for this historical event and celebration. Now, therefore, I, Ron Burnell, Mayor of the City of Antioch, hereby acknowledge June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth in the City of Antioch, the annual recognition of Black emancipation and celebration of the past, present, and future of Black economic liberation and our commitment to eradicate systemic racism that undermines our collective prosperity. So if I could please have Kimberly Payton, who I see right there, and also Gigi Crowder accept this, thank you.

Thank you, City Council, Mayor Bernal. The East County NAACP accepts and thanks the proclamation from the city today. We hope that in what you just read, in terms of redlining and all the injustices that you just mentioned, that it's important that not just in East County but Antioch upholds that. They uphold the ability for people of color to continue getting mental health services. They uphold being able to afford housing for those that are being hit now with needing for low income housing. And we hope that you continue to observe and realize that injustices still exist. That they have not gone away. They should not be swept under the rug. We can't forget them. We can't write them away. We can't wish them away. We can't take them off websites. but we can stand up and do the right thing, honor them, honor the promises that the city has made, and please, please continue to speak up for those voices that cannot be heard. We'd also like to mention that it's not just that we come up and accept the proclamation for Juneteenth. The NAACP also has other events that they put on for free for the community, one of which is the Contra Costa Careers in One Year event that's gonna be held August 22nd at Antioch High School from nine to three. It is for people with high school diplomas that are interested in getting a career that can be established. within a year, and it is union-based, it's for apprenticeship programs, and we look forward to your support and participation.

Right, thank you.

Thank you, Kim, and I want to especially thank Council member Tamisha Torres Walker because she asked if I could come and I'm going to be honest, I have torn feelings about doing it because I'm in a city that really needs to be having a conversation about reparations. And so it's hard to celebrate Juneteenth, listens to words on a piece of paper and not see the actions follow. I'm very action oriented. And so for someone like me to try and walk toward a community that often says step back, it's hard for me to do it because I know that in this city there really has not been a true reckoning with our past. We know that Antioch was a suntown city. When my own brilliant, beautiful sons were harmed by law enforcement, I was sitting in front of a chief that said, don't let this define your future. But you can't experience wounds like that and not have it impact you. And I get phone calls from the county family members who live here in the city of Antioch. whose children are being harmed every day in classroom settings because people just have not honored them because of the color of their skin. I have a niece who died at the Sutter Hospital because of the color of her skin. So I just want us to position ourselves so that we're not just looking at words on a piece of paper, We're actually doing the work. And when things like what I'm seeing happen to African-American women in particular, all across the state, all across the nation, they're losing their jobs. And when you look back at their brilliance, African-American women, by the way, are the most highly educated in this country. And so when they start losing their jobs, I have to wonder, are we going – is this city – also practicing what was put on paper with Project 25, or are we really going to commit ourselves to really making sure that all African Americans feel a sense of belonging? I love this city. I've had opportunities to move away, but there's something in my core that tells me, no, Annie, I could be a great place. Look at it. We have the first ever elected council member and Monica Wilson, who I support. I knew you long before I knew you were the mayor. I walked up and I said, are you a faith leader somewhere because of the energy that you carry, Mayor Bernal? And so now I just want us to really be honest about what direction are we going in? I want people to examine their conscience about are we doing the best we can for African Americans in this city? And if you're not, step away. Step away, because we really need to have a sense of belonging. We're also going to be having an event on June 19th I was waiting to see when other activities were taking place, so it will be in conflict with what's happening here at the City of Antioch. But we're gonna be honoring Tamisha Torres Walker at the Hub. We have gotten her beautiful picture, and she's made such strides. I'm honoring people who are not just African American, but took risks. So she'll also be along with, I don't know if you guys remember Pastor Eugene Jackson. Whenever I called him and had a conversation with him, he went beyond just being a black man. He was a black man that stood for change and for protecting his community. So those are the two individuals we'll be honoring. But again, examine your consciousness. Think about great people. And I always say this. I'm here tonight with Lanita Ward. She had a beautiful daughter who ran track and two young men who not only played football, but they were in the Super Bowl and champions. So I want you guys to understand great things come from African-American families when you give them a chance to thrive. So I'm hoping that when I When I come back next year, I can say, oh, they heard my words. And I do see a little bit of change because right now, I'll be honest, I feel like we're going backwards. Let's move forward. Thank you.

All right. All right. Thank you, Gigi. And I also like to have Brother Muhammad from Making Moves to come on up and be another one of the recipients of this, please. You almost missed your own party here.

I just was requested to get here. I didn't know nothing about this. So what's going on?

Proclamation for Juneteenth, Making Moves, was one of the first organizations to really partner with the city and put on what we call now our annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration. And so in honor of that work that Making Moves did with the city to really make Juneteenth a staple in this community, that's why I invited you to accept one of these proclamations.

That's beautiful. Praise be to God. First to the Mayor, Councilmember Walker, and to my Councilmember Freitas, and the rest of the members on the Diocese, I want to say thank you on behalf of the brothers. Super short story. I just left Tulsa, Oklahoma, Black Wall Street. It's a rally. It's a motorcycle, memorial motorcycle rally. About 10,000 to 13,000 people out there. If you've ever seen the movie Rosewood by John Singleton... it was a reactant of the bombing of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 21. That dollar stayed in Tulsa 14 days, in Greenwood 14 days.

14 days, it stays under six hours now.

And when we went to the museum, we stayed a whole day and they said that they had made a conscious decision, to make everything about Greenwood. And I just thought about Antioch. Antioch, as Gigi said, about the potential. Potential means energy at rest. Could be, not necessarily that it's active, but it has the potential. If Antioch became all about Antioch, to where we would subdue our own egos and our own things, whatever those things are. We could be a powerful city, powerful little city. I'll say this to the audience because my sister just said some things that if I was of another ethnicity, I probably could take it aback. But history says whenever African Americans win, everybody wins. Everybody, that's history, not me. So everybody wins because we always gotta think about everybody else. It's just in our RNA, DNA that we think about others. It's not necessarily when it happens on the other side that others think about everybody and it's inclusive. So celebrate in this because it's your celebration when you celebrate others. So I thank you. I salute you. It's better to be called up than told to sit down. So I stayed back until I was called up. So I want to tell you thank you. I appreciate it. I love that you were the first council person that we were able to go into the district do some of the civic work. And it was beautiful. I would pay attention to the residents. And when you were knocking on the doors and giving them their food, and it wasn't a standoffishness between either side, between the resident nor the council person. And so that told me a lot. And so I thank you. I know this is a thankless job that you all do. We always got something to say about you. You can never win. But this is what you chose. And I have a ask of you that you remember that you represent us. That means you have to subdue yourself and represent the constituents that you chose to do that. So thank you.

Do we have any public comment on this item? We have no public comments on this item. All right, so council will come on down there, and we will have the lowrider folks first. We'll present proclamations, and then we will have for Juneteenth.

Meeting is recessed for photos at 7.23 PM.

Thank you.

All right, here we go.

We did it, we did it, we did it. You got a picture? I did, I got them. And you got my gift card? I did, I was hoping for the lurch smile and you wouldn't do it.

All people who identify as African descent.

Are we all African?

And then all of a sudden, there's a bright light. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I was so close to my mom's name, my heart jumped out of my chest. I love that.

If I get teary, I don't mind if I get teary. My mom's going to get gone soon. Don't feel fresh.

Yeah.

all right we're gonna go ahead and uh get back going again thank you very much everybody for uh participating in that and we are going to move on to public comments right now oh i'm sorry Oh, did we take a break? Oh, okay. Oh, you took a break? Okay. Can you please take the role, Mr.

Clerk? Thank you. Council Member Rocha is absent. Council Member Torres-Walker?

Present.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas?

Here.

Mayor Bernal? Here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 7.28 p.m. All right, now moving on to public comments.

This is on unagendized items on the City Council agenda.

Thank you. Can we please have Crystal followed by Nicole?

Hello, City Council. In John 4, it says, greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. This means that we are greater than anything that the enemy throws at us because God is in us. Because of the fact... that we've invested in this location. It isn't just talking about doing things in this neighborhood and for the community, but they're actually seeing it demonstrated. These were the mayor's words to KQED on Saturday for the Peace Walk. In the famous song of Janet Jackson, what have you done for me lately? I want to know what have you done for district one, Mayor Ron Bernal. Last time I checked, everyone who played a role in the district one was Tamisha Walker, Miss Wilson, and Mayor Thorpe. You haven't done anything for district one, but you're taking all the responsibility. Tamisha Walker has fought for the creation of Antioch's Department of Public Work, Safety, Community Resources, and helped secure over 3.7 million in CalVIP violence intervention and prevention grants for violence. The police accountability co-authored policies equipping the APD with body worn cameras and dash cams, established the city's first police oversight commission, and supported policies to ban crisis intervention, helped establish Antioch's mobile mental health crisis response team to district calls away from armed police encounters. She has done more advocating for this district than anybody here, and with Ms. Wilson's support. I say all this to say that there is no reason why you should be taking responsibility for anything that has been done from the previous City Council. I also want to continue to say that you have elected people on the Commission Board that should not be there, especially Mr. Solis, Jr. He came up here and said, I'm gonna keep saying it again over and over until you get him out of there. He came up here and said, well, we don't, I was just surprised that Antioch PD was racist. Then he continues to say that why didn't people just come forward? Well, he's been in city council. We know that people have been coming forward for years. for racism in District 1 and all over Antioch, including with Mr. Freitas and you for being a manager from 2017 to 2021.

Hi, my name is Nicole Martinez, and I am the president of East Bay Animal Rescue, also known as EBAR. I wanted to talk to you about crazy comments, attacks, and warranted concerns. This all started in mid-April when one of our members was at your city council meeting and was shocked to hear that there was conversations being held behind closed doors between Contra Costa County Animal Services and former city manager Scott, as well as former consultant Addington. For us in the animal world, we were shocked when this conversation developed and we had no choice but to set aside what we were doing and respond to this information that came from your meeting. We spoke during public comments and we initiated a public records request for both Antioch Animal Services and Contra Costa Animal Services. The information was there and verified what we feared. Leadership individuals from Antioch reached out to Contra Costa County Animal Service in an attempt to merge. I have heard many comments from different council members, one of which stated that our attack was unwarranted. Now that lots of information has been coming out, it seems that our response was absolutely warranted. So I wonder why when we come to you with respect and concern, you don't do the same for us with transparency. I want to switch gears now and speak for Save Our Shelters Antioch Animals Matter, also known as SOS. The five members include Tiffany Middleman, President of Canine Pawprint Rescue, myself, who I've already introduced, Kathy Cabrera, President of K9 Animal Rescue, I'm sorry, President of Kitty 911 Animal Rescue, and Carolyn Steen, President of Roadies Rescue, as well as Michelle Kutlitz, Friends of Antioch Animal Services. SOS appreciates the recent reporting regarding statements from Contra Costa County that no formal proposal currently exists for the county to assume operations of Antioch Animal Services. We welcome this clarification, however, The absence of a formal proposal does not eliminate the concerns that have been raised by residents over the past several months. Our concerns have never been based solely on whether a finalized proposal exists. Rather, they stem from documented discussions between city and county representatives, references made during public budget discussions, communications obtained through public records requests, and the city's own consideration of options involving Antioch Animal Services. Thank you.

Kathy Cabrera followed by Leslie May.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, city staff, and the Antioch community. At the heart of these concerns is Measure A, a voter approved initiative adopted by Antioch residents in 1978 that established a local animal shelter and animal control services dedicated exclusively to serving the city of Antioch. For nearly five decades, residents have relied upon and supported a locally operated animal services department that understands the unique needs of our community and provides direct public safety and animal welfare services to our residents. Because Measure A reflects and expresses the will of Antioch voters, any discussion regarding the transfer, consolidation, reduction, or restructuring of Antioch Animal Services is a matter of significant public interest and deserves full transparency and public participation. Residents became concerned because discussion regarding the future of Antioch Animal Services appeared to occur without meaningful public engagement about a service that voters specifically chose to establish and maintain for our community. We believe the public deserves clear and direct answers to the following questions. Has the city explored transferring all or part of Antioch Animal Services operations to Contra Costa County? Has city staff, consultants, or county representatives participated in discussions regarding potential services, consolidations, or operational changes? Is the city currently considering any future changes to the operation, staffing, governance, or local control of Antioch Animal Services? How does the city intend to honor the purpose and intent of Measure A moving forward? What assurances can be provided that Antioch residences will continue to receive dedicated local animal control sheltering enforcement and public safety? Save Our Shelters, SOS, remains committed to a respectful fact-based dialogue. Our goal is not to create conflict, but to ensure that residences are fully informed and have a voice in decision affecting public safety, animal welfare, and services that generations of Antioch residents have supported and relied upon. We continue to support maintaining a locally operated Antioch Animal Services Department with adequate staffing, strong leadership, and the resources necessary to serve both the animals and residents of our city. We also believe that any proposed changes to a service established through Measure A should be discussed openly and transparently with the community before decisions are made. We encourage city leadership to provide a clear public statement regarding the future of Antioch Animal Services. The status of any discussion with Contra Costa County and how the city intends to preserve the intent of Measure A so residents can evaluate the facts for themselves. You underestimated animal rescue groups and you underestimated the animal loving community of Antioch. I think you thought you could fly under the radar and get this to pass without anyone noticing. But we did notice, we stepped up, and we shall be a thorn in your side till this is resolved.

Ms. May, followed by Michelle.

Good evening, Council. Listening to words from Gigi and Dr. Kim just welled up something even more inside of me. Okay, so Mayor Bernal, you went to Bessie Scott, our city manager, right after you were elected, asked her to bring Tammany Brooks back as the chief of police. She told you emphatically, no. You also went and asked her to bring Stephen Ford back. She told you no to that too. Then, what, about a week ago, You were spotted at Monica's restaurant in a meeting with Stephen Ford. The same Stephen Ford who was involved in the texting, the same Tammany Brooks involved in the texting, the same Stephen Ford who sued the city for $250,000 in Antioch had to pay that to him. But you're in secret meetings with him. We know what you did to Bessie, and especially after your good friend Stephen McCauley, Sean McCauley, was building and doing restorations on his buildings without permits. And when she shut him down and told him he had to get permits, he ran to you, told you, He had to get the permits, but then you put her on administrative leave or whatever you want to call it. Basically, you fired her. You harassed her the whole time she was in that position. You harassed this woman. You drug her down. You did everything to just make her feel like a nothing. This is a black woman for the people sitting in this audience and people watching on YouTube or whatever. This is systematic racism that you have done. Every black person that held a high position, you got rid of. You got rid of. Okay? Now, I'm looking at this. Here, you got rid of her. If you think you're gonna get rid of our chief, you're going to be facing a riot in this city. Okay? Because you had no business meeting with this man and meeting behind everybody's back, sneaking and meeting with him. I always said, God gives me discernment. He might have given me a broken body, but he gave me discernment. He gave me good mind, too. And I said from the time I met you that I felt like you were a demon. And all you are doing is ensuring my belief in what Jesus has told me, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that you're a demon. you're a racist, and anybody black trying to make any type of big moves here in Antioch, you're gonna make sure those moves ain't made, and along with making sure that you burn Antioch down.

Michelle, followed by Miguel.

Well, good evening council, mayor, city staff, and community. My name is Michelle Cousis. I'm the president of Antioch Friends of Animal Services. And I'm speaking on behalf of Antioch Friends of Animal Services. We appreciate the recent reporting and the clarification that Contra Costa County has stated there is currently no formal proposal for the county to assume operation of Antioch Animal Services. As 48 year advocates for the animals and residents of Antioch, our focus remains on supporting a strong, effective, and compassionate local animal services program. We believe the community benefits when discussions about the future of animal services are based on accurate information, transparency, collaboration, and the commitments made through the 1978 passage by the voters of Measure A. Antioch Animal Services plays an essential role in protecting public safety, caring for injured, abused, and neglected animals, including wildlife, homeless and lost animals, supporting pet owners, responding to animal-related Emergencies, investigating animal abuse and neglect, enforcing ordinances and animal welfare laws, providing resources and connecting adoptable animals with loving homes. These services matter deeply to our community and we encourage continued public engagement whenever significant decisions affecting those services are considered. We also recognize the dedication of shelter staff, volunteers, rescue partners, fosters and community members who work every day to improve outcomes for animals in Antioch. Their efforts help save lives and strengthen the bond between our community and the animals who depend on us. Antioch Friends of Animal Services remains committed to advocating for the welfare of animals, supporting transparency in public decision making, and working constructively with city leaders and community partners to ensure the best possible future of Antioch's for Antioch's animal services. We also support maintaining the intent of Measure A and ensuring that resources dedicated to animal services continue to benefit the animals and the residents they were intended to serve. Together, we can continue building a community where animals are protected, valued, and cared for. We encourage city leadership to provide a clear public statement regarding the future of Antioch Animal Services. The status of any discussions with Contra Costa County and how the city intends to preserve the intent of Measure A so residents can evaluate the facts for themselves. Transparency builds trust. The residents of Antioch deserve both. Thank you.

Miguel Mendoza followed by Paul Lamarck.

Hi again. So I said I'd be back until my issue's resolved. Thank you Ana Cortes for working on it. I know we're working together. Um, so I'm Miguel Mendoza, uh, former compliance officer, uh, also former tech leader. So the court, the code enforcement of, of Antioch has an issue, right? They have a systemic issue. Um, Amanda Lunsford I hear is pretty popular. I don't know if she's as popular as you Ron. Um, but she basically enforces inequitably. especially with me, and I've noticed it. I've escalated this. It's been going on almost three years. You're on a ton of emails I mentioned last time. Tamisha knows. Ana Cortes is aware as well. She's seen the PowerPoint. I think it's like 40 slides. There's a bunch of evidence, videos, et cetera. What I find very interesting is that I'm not challenging necessarily the code enforcement. I'm not trying to fight the codes. It's the inequitable enforcement. So my thing is, why does she get to retaliate? When I say retaliate, is that Anytime that I had communication with her, I mean, look at me, I'm here, what, three times in a row. Trust me, I have a mouth and I'm gonna use it. So whenever there was an issue, I would ask her questions, what's going on. So let me get to the good stuff. There was a picture at one point of a piece of blue tape, painter's tape. on the public sidewalk. Last time I checked, when I bought that house, I didn't own the public sidewalk. If that's the case, then we need to work something out. But she took a picture. This is how untouchable I think Amanda is. Took a picture, sent it to me, cited me for it of a piece of blue tape, painter's tape. Why? In other pictures, for the trash bins, again, I'm not fighting the code. I'm fighting the inequitable enforcement of it, if that's registering. So there's my neighbor's trash bins, which I've spoken to. They're right in the back of the picture. So she's citing me for it. It's equated to $3,500. Their neighbor's trash bins are in the back of the picture. This is how ballsy she is, OK? She doesn't care. So if we look at the texting scandal that the Antioch police has had, and I look to you, Ana Cortez, as handling this, when I say that I want the full scope investigation to be the entire department, the leaders that were involved, including you, Ron, and anyone that touched it, it's for a reason. So I'm not going to take a review of just Amanda. Do I want her removed? Absolutely. There's also complaints about her, multiple. And as I continue to dig and dig and dig, I'm sure I will find more information. And just know that anyone's name that has been on these emails, I mean, you're going to be on it as I escalate this. So I'm just letting you know, I will continue to escalate this. I know maybe right now I seem all bark, no bite, but I will continue to escalate however I can. Well, legally, of course. But I just want something done. I'm tired of coming here. And I'm sure you guys are tired of hearing me complain about this. But Amanda needs to be removed. She's retaliating. She's abusing her power. And it's not OK. And there needs to be new standards and procedures to the whole code enforcement department. Thank you.

Paul Lamarck followed by Ron Muhammad.

Hello, council.

My name is Paul.

I have an issue with the code enforcement also. I was cited last August for having mulch in my front lawn. I guess I had it there for like three days. It took everything I had, I'm a senior, to offload it, to put it there, so I didn't have enough strength to spread it yet. But I got cited for that, and she also got me for having my garbage cans where they could see them. You know, if you look down my block, just about every house, you could see their garbage cans. And I have no way of putting it on the side of my house, so I can't get it out of sight. So she got me for that on the same day, plus a utility trailer I had, which she claimed was an RV. So I came down here and talked with her and I couldn't get anywhere. Another lady came from behind the desk and they both kind of ganged up on me. So I took the trailer and I put it on the side of my house And I had this old U-Haul trailer. You remember the ones that you used to rent that were made from fiberglass? Remember those? The big tire? Anyway, they don't even use them anymore. I acquired one. A guy owed me money. He couldn't pay me, so he says, well, I got this trailer. Do you want it? I figured I better grab something, right? So I took the trailer. So anyway... I get this letter today that she's citing me for this U-Haul trailer, calling it an RV again. And I have a picture here of it. You could tell me if you think this is an RV.

You can just give that to the clerk, please. Thank you.

Like I say, I think this is a trend. It's getting kind of old, quick, and I would like for somebody to investigate this. This is getting ridiculous. I mean, nobody in their right mind would make that an RV. That's all I got. Could I get somebody to investigate that or consider it?

Let the city manager connect with you. If you leave your information with the clerk, please.

Thank you. Ron Muhammad followed by Gavin Payton.

Again, greetings to the Diocese. I'm speaking as a shareholder in this corporation that we all are in called Antioch, the city of Antioch. I do a lot of work in the city of Oakland, so I'm familiar. I walk the halls of the city of Oakland like I walk in my house for the last 30 years. I know that Oakland turned down, what is it, Homekey? What's the name of it? Being blessed to purchase a home here in Antioch, it's an investment. And it's not a knock against those that may be renting. But there are two different type of voters. The renters and the owners. We can both vote. But as the owner, I have to vote not only from my conscience and my heart, I have to think financially. The renter can vote from his conscience and his heart and doesn't necessarily have to pay the same way as the owner. This home key thing is going to severely impact homeowners. I've seen it over and over and over again. I don't wanna try to cast aspersion on poverty and criminalize people who need homes. But you've got to have balance in all of that. And if two or three cities have denied this, you should say, why did they deny it? It will have an impact on home ownership. That is an investment that I have over on Blue Rock. It's probably my biggest investment, me personally, not my wife, but it's my biggest investment. And so I'm really careful about what happens here because it's going to impact all of us. I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it. I think you're going to have more and more people come out and speak about it once they become knowledgeable on what's going to happen on the main thoroughfare. I think it's gonna impact development. Development is going to turn around and possibly run. It's going to impact the so-called thoroughfare and the retail, and it's gonna hit all of that. I do security, I do all kind of security, executive, all that. Wherever there is displacement, That's the new drug spots. That's just a fact. That's not what I think. And I don't know that we're totally equipped to deal with that. If it's spread out equally, then we have to take our fair share. But if we got to take it all, that's not fair. And as an owner, I got to push back. And I think I try to need to rally other folk for that. Thank you very much. Please consider it.

Gavin Payton followed by Robert Collins.

Yolanda Ramirez. Tyrell Wilson. Mollard Baldwin. Oscar Grant, Miles Hall, Angelo Quintos, and so many others have lost their lives to police brutality and gun violence. There's a lot of young people just like Tamir Rice who lost to police. So the question becomes, do we really fight back? Or do we sit down and submission? I don't know about y'all, but I refuse to sit back and be quiet. And I just want to make this statement. Once you disrespect the black woman, you disrespect ourselves. It doesn't matter what race you are. Doesn't mean that you're white, black, man, or female. Once you disrespect a black woman, you disrespect everybody. Because the black woman is the backbone of this country. If not, you can check the facts and the records. So to the comments that was, to the lady that was also sitting behind me, also making disgusting comments about a black woman, I find it really disgusting. Also, I just wanted to also say that, you know, after sitting here countless times again, I also want to point out that, again, it was the black woman who also not only birthed this country, hand-stitched this country, and made sure our African-American men had a place to come home to with a warm home-cooked meal, and took care of the kids, did a nine-to-five job, and worked day and night. I don't know who works harder than an African-American woman. But yet, they're the most disrespected. They're the most harmed. Anyway, like I was saying, if the commentary is done behind me, If there is no chance for youth to have a voice at the seat of the table, then let it be the black woman. Let them shine. Stop disrespecting them because it is not fair and it's not right. What is happening to black women across this country, even in the state council, is disrespectful, disgusting, and it needs to stop. I'm not here to take no sides. But what I am not going to stand here and take is disrespect to a black woman. Thank you.

Robert Collins.

good evening mr mayor and city council thank you for giving us this opportunity um i will say that i meant to come at 5 30 but i misread the agenda and thought that the um the budget uh preparation meeting that you had so some of this stuff bleeds into that a little bit and some other things that we're going to hear about tonight so i'm going to just speak once and try to deal with all those things so My name is Robert Collins and our son, Angelo Quinto, was asphyxiated in 2020 by Antioch police while he was experiencing a mental health emergency in front of his mother. He had no weapon, was not violent, was not under the influence of any common substances of abuse. and Chief Tammany Brooks at the time taught to cover up the whole thing. And we've been through a lot in this past six years. In those six years of hard work, we really do appreciate the work that the council has done since then to make things better in Antioch. Things like body cams where Antioch was one of only eight communities in California that did not require body cams in 2020. I was shocked back then. But we fixed that as a community. We also instituted the Antioch Quinto Community Response Team to deal with mental health emergencies and other emergencies that may require no police presence or maybe can benefit from somebody that's trained in those situations. And again, we really appreciate all that's come into that. So the original funding for the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team was some funds that were one-time allocated funds. And in your budget presentation, there was a proposal to cut $27,000 from the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team. and it would cut half the hours that the team is available to respond to the community, to the homeless community, to everyone in the community. That represents .02% of the total spending that the city does every year. What is that number? That is two pennies for every $100 the city spends. And for those two pennies, we're proposing, or you were proposing, and I hope you voted against that, but you were proposing to cut half the hours that that system is available. I just want to say that from all the officers I've heard about, it's a useful resource that even they rely on because they can understand that it's good to have that additional resource when dealing with these difficult situations. And so I encourage you to use that in recruitment and to make it, you know, we are moving forward and I don't want to move backwards on this. It would be really important for me that we continue to fund that program. and that we actually look at it with pride and say, this is a resource for the police, as well as the community, to resolve certain issues that don't have to be resolved in a violent way. Thank you.

Erica Charenko, followed by Andrew Becker.

Hello Council, it's nice to see you. Everyone keeps talking about code enforcement and I wasn't planning on coming up here, but I'm wondering if we have code enforcement on vacant businesses and the buildings that are stores or retail locations. that don't have tenants in them because our citizens have hard-earned money that is being taken away for trash cans. Come on now, it's ridiculous. What are we doing about the businesses that are not working hard, or these owners of properties that aren't working to get tenants in there? If I was a tenant with a business, I would not look to come to Antioch. I don't wanna be, the like the AutoZone on a street I would not want to rent there and I know that sorry super nervous i know that if um if we kind of maybe put some enforcement on these these uh building owners to get tenants in there and just stop leaving their their buildings vacant maybe we could do some better in the in the uh city so that's all thanks andrew becker followed by dr kimberly payton

Thank you. So I appreciate a lot of the comments that were made tonight because I think it really continues to show how disconnected we are as a community. I think sometimes we come here and we address council and sometimes it's not like we're speaking to you but we're talking to everybody else in the room. We're kind of sending out to the universe we're not finding solutions and we need to try to find them. The issue is that everybody leaves here and they don't connect with each other. You don't talk to each other about how to solve your problems or to work together. We always can come up with complaints, but we don't seem to come up with solutions. And, you know, I think that for me, it's because There's a lack of trust within our government. I mean, I'll be honest with you. We talk about Homekey and the community sees maybe 20% of the process. They see you at your last meeting saying you need to work with the developer on addressing these housing successor funds and moving this project. And the developer sees that. And they already wonder why you didn't reach out to them and bring them to that conversation. But then they reach out to you, you being the city of Antioch, saying, we hear you wanna have these conversations. And what do you say back? You say, we're looking into next steps and we'll reach out to you. And that leaves, I think, everybody confused because who are you reaching out to on the next steps? HCD is telling you, you have one last document that you as a city need to sign so that we can execute the standard agreement and you won't sign it. Why not? Whose direction is that? Who's making that decision? You committed dollars to a developer, and then you said, well, we're going to give them once the award is stated. And then you waited until it was publicly stated. And then once it was stated, you as a council said, now reach out to the developer so we can start that process. And the developer reaches out to you, because you didn't as a city, and you say, we're not ready to have that conversation. So when are you? Why did you promise dollars that you talk about in your budget but you won't give them out. Why are you holding up a project that is waiting for one last document to be signed, and for what? You're gonna stand on, oh, we're concerned about notice of defaults? This thing was supposed to be closed a month ago, but you won't communicate with the developer. So the next steps are not here. They're in a courtroom or in HCD offices in Sacramento.

Dr. Kimberly Payton, followed by Cassandra.

Good evening, Council. I'm just a little bit concerned because all, and maybe it's just addressed to a few of you, but Mayor, you ran on a platform of bringing people together. You ran on a platform of change that included expanding on programs, not tearing them apart. In fact, I think that's a quote off of your page, that you didn't want to lose staff. You didn't want to tear programs apart. But the thing is is that now we're looking at cuts everywhere. Where is your leadership? Where is your guidance? Where are you bringing people together? Where are you doing the part like was just mentioned where you look for resources to bring to the table instead of taking them away? If you cut things like the Angelo Quinto program, how do those services achieve? How do those youth get help and resources? Where's the solution in that? Where's the answer in that? Where's the support in that? How do those youth breathe, really? I mean, when are you going to start coming together instead of getting rid of city managers, getting rid of programs, cutting budgets, getting ready to take money again away from APOC when you know the service is needed, when you know that APOC is needed? Where's the platform for that? Where do you actually stand up and do what you mentioned? When's that going to happen? The NAACP is still waiting, they're still watching, and we're still supporting the community to make sure you get it done.

Cassandra?

Good evening Mayor Bernal and council members. My name is Cassandra Quinta Collins, Angela Quinta's mother. December 23rd, 2020, Angela Quinta died of positional asphyxia at the hands of Antioch police in front of me. If the Angela Quinto Christ Community Response Team was in place, Angela would still be alive today.

I'm so sorry. In October of 2020, when we moved to Antioch, I did not envision that after December, I would begin a lifelong journey to cope with the immeasurable loss of Angela. I will never forget what transpired that night of December 23rd, and I have no doubt that Officer Perkinson, Becerra, Shevelov, and Hopwood will too. It causes me great pain every day and night to know that my son had to die for this common sensation to take place. We ask that you support the future and not let us regress towards an Antioch that lacked this much needed resource. Please fund, support, and improve where possible this important community resource. I'm so sorry.

We have no further comment cards.

All right, thank you very much. We're gonna go ahead and take a 10 minute recess.

Meeting is recessed at 8.10 p.m.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. you

All right, welcome back from our recess. Mr. Clerk, could you please take the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Rocha is absent. Council Member Torres-Walker is not present right now. Council Member Wilson? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Freitas? Present. Mayor Bernal?

Here.

Thank you.

We have a quorum at 8.25 p.m. All right, moving on to item number two, announcements of civic and community events.

All right, good evening, council and residents. So we have June 19th is going to be our celebration of freedom. It's going to be at Williamson Ranch from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. It's going to be family fun for everybody. We have a tribute band for Frankie, Beverly, and Mays. We have local entertainment. We have some youth groups. We have carnival rides. We have about 10 food vendors, so it's going to be a good time. Everybody come out and enjoy it at Williamson Ranch. Parking is limited, so I do suggest we do car share. We have a drop-off zone for elderlies this year, but please do share a ride because parking is limited. And then also in celebration of the USA's 250th birthday, we're having Fourth of July downtown Rivertown. Parade applications are now available. If you would like to sign up to be in the parade, We're looking to have around 30 to 40 participants. There will be awards for best car, most patriotic, and so forth. And following the parade at five o'clock, we're gonna have live entertainment, a kid's zone. We're also gonna have something special on G Street. We're coordinating with some of the local businesses to do something special. I'll make that announcement of what that actually will be. So that's a little teaser. But the businesses are gonna get involved as well. So fireworks is gonna happen. at the end of the night, around 9.30. But before that, we're gonna have a great tribute band for Earth, Wind, and Fire. I cannot wait. They are well-traveled around, up and down the West Coast, Kalimba. So, very honored to have them with us for this event. So, it's gonna be a great time. Come out to those two events with your families. Thank you very much.

Council Member Torres-Walker arrived at 8.27 p.m. All right.

Acting Director Scudero.

We don't have a band at this event, but I'm very excited to announce our general plan update visioning workshops on June 30th and July 7th at the Antioch Community Center at 6 p.m. There's flyers out front. You're going to start seeing a big social media push from us in the city. We want to encourage everyone to reshare on their social media. We really want to get the word out. We want every voice in the community that wants to be heard to be heard. So definitely come out to one of these workshops. We're also going to have online surveys and pop-up events but this is really the kickoff to kind of our public part of this general plan process where we get to hear from the community and it's really going to be the community that shapes this process so once again Tuesday June 30th Tuesday July 7th at 6 p.m. at the Antioch Community Center love to see everyone there thank you thank you any public comment yes Gavin

Hello. I just wanted to one, say that the Youth Council this Saturday, we are having a garage sale on June 13th at 2118 Glen Canyon Drive in Pittsburgh. We're inviting the community out to come out and support. And also we are doing pre-orders for some of our merch and our shirts. So like the shirt like I have on today, we're also reselling them. So the community is welcome out and come out and support. Also, we're trying to get rid of like some stuff that we just, you know, like the youth council has, some of our members have, and we're trying to fundraise to go to leadership training. which also I would also like to small and quickly address that I am, you know, not sorry for what I just said for the outburst because I was disrespected. Thank you.

All right. Any other public comment? We have no further public comments. Okay. Please step.

Thank you. I just want to say, I know I sometimes, once again, always sound like I'm negative when I come up here, but I think that when we're dealing with everything that's going on in the city, we have to try to be proactive in a lot of the programs that we put out. And so for the Juneteenth celebration, you know, I want to say that I wholeheartedly support the event, love to see how much it's grown. I love the fact that the city has put the event on across the the city, but my frustration as somebody that goes by these events and lives over in that community is I think to say that parking is limited is an understatement. The last event that was held at that park, vehicles were illegally parked up and down Hillcrest. They were parked on the red curb They were parked. There was a U-Haul that was across the street on Hillcrest that was pulled up onto the landscaping sidewalk right of way. And a vehicle drives over a sprinkler line or destroys the bushes. And then we talk about in a budget session how we can't afford to replace or fix these things. And so my concern is that when I saw all of these vehicles there, the one thing I did not see was any city representatives or police department there. I think a lot of us that have been here a long time get complacent with Hillcrest, and we think, well, gosh, it used to stop there at Pruitt Ranch, so it's only the people that are going to that area. But now it goes all the way through to Sand Creek, and people are racing through that intersection at 50-plus miles an hour trying to catch the green light. And now you've got family members with young kids that are parked up alongside that bike lane that are getting out into the active traffic to go to this event. And so if we repetitively do this, eventually something's going to happen, unless we proactively address it. And so what's the middle ground? I mean, I would say from a police department standpoint, look at Hillcrest North. going from, I think it's Via Grande or whatever it is, down to Lone Tree, just terminate the number two lane. Have your police department volunteers come out and terminate that whole lane going down so now people can park in that emergency lane, bike lane going all the way down on that side of the road and have a whole right of way to be able to get out of their vehicles. And then there should probably be a volunteer that directs them to go down to the crosswalk to cross over. Otherwise, do it like Tri Delta and the city of Antioch did it decades ago when they opened up the wetlands where there was no parking and worked with Tri Delta to park people over at Deer Valley and bus them over. But if you're going to have an event and this is the result, you need to manage that result. You can't just ignore it. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker, you had a, you wanted a civic and community event? No, okay. No further comments.

All right, moving on to, excuse me, moving on to announcements of board and commission openings. Thank you.

The Sales Tax Citizens Oversight Committee has three full term vacancies expiring March of 2030 and two full term vacancies expiring March of 2028. The deadline date to apply for these positions is 5 o'clock PM, Friday, June 26th. To be considered for the vacancy positions, please complete an application and submit it to the city clerk's office by the deadline date listed above. Applications are located on the city's website and may be picked up in person at City Hall. Please email your completed application to the city clerk's email address. You can also drop off your application in the water billing drop-off box located in the parking lot just outside of City Hall. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Freitas.

Mr. Mandy, I have a question. Yes, sir. It seems that we are constantly trying to advertise for this position. Is that true or not?

It has been on a couple of previous council announcements.

It's a legal question for the city attorney. We may have come to a point that unfortunately public does not want to participate on this particular committee. Could you please take a look at this and see what options the City Council has with regards to this particular committee because if we announce and we announce and we change the dates you know, sooner or later we simply have to accept that people are not interested in serving or come up with some other method of trying to get people on there. I just, you know, this just seems like it's being announced every single city council meeting.

I will look into that.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Any public comment? No further comments. All right. Moving on to presentations. The 2026 second quarter Antioch police chief's presentation. I'll turn it over to him.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and City Council. So tonight we are going to have our chief present the Antioch Police Department's second quarter update.

Welcome, Chief.

Good evening again. I feel like I was just up here. Let's see if we can get the PowerPoint going. There we go. All right, this is just the quarter two update. It's a little bit different. This is just a brief overview of where we're at for the first two quarters of the year thus far. And we'll go ahead and get started. So we'll start with our personnel. Authorized 180, 105 positions, 85 positions are currently filled. I have two out of those 85 that are on long-term injury leave, and we have zero officers in training. We have 10 trainees in three different academies right now. Our recruit at Alameda County graduates August 24th. Our five recruits in Contra Costa County graduate October 30th. And our four recruits in Alameda County graduate December 3rd. And just as a reminder, our trainees do not count towards our sworn overall total numbers. So here are our current vacancies across all the departments in the police department. If you look at the police department, we're down one lieutenant, two sergeants, two corporals, and 14 officers, as well as three community service officers. In the comm center, we're down three dispatchers. And in animal services, we're down one shelter manager, one ACO, and we have two part-time vacancies. The good news is, and shout out to the HR team, they've been very diligent and continue to work with us. All of these positions are either posted, open, or we're in the middle of a process for each of these positions right now. So that's good news. Let's change gears here and get a little bit into stats. Let's look at our call volume and this is the work that our dispatchers do inside the comm center. If you can look, we're slightly down in calls taken and just a reminder, our dispatchers take calls for not only the police department but the county transfers, the medical transfers, the CHP transfers, All of the transfers where it's right on the border between Brentwood, Oakley, Pittsburgh, they're fielding all those calls. So even though they're slightly down this year compared to this time last year, our calls for service are up and so are our reports taken across the board. And our reports taken are up significantly, almost 500. Let's take a look at our crime statistics and I'll just kind of talk while you guys Look at the overview. Our aggravated assaults, keep in mind those are our major injuries or any aggravated assault involving weapons. Total offenses, slightly down year to date. We do have a little bit of a spike in our sexual assault rapes. And we have seen an increase in domestic incidents and incidents involving family members. Looking at our crimes against property, we're looking kind of close but down. Keep in mind that our thefts also include auto burglaries and auto thefts. And then overall, we're slightly down year to date. We are trending just as we were at end of year last year with everyone else in the Bay Area in terms of crime trends. And I do wanna take a moment and recognize Our partnerships and our task force that are helping us bring vehicle thefts down, our thefts down, focusing on some of the robberies, by networking and working with the other agencies on this side of the county and some of the RTCs and the regional task force in the area, we're able to put bigger cases together and when we're able to identify people related to some of the crimes here, we're able to track them to other crimes in different jurisdictions and partner with them when we present cases. So we had a rash of, Vehicle burglaries towards the end of the holidays into the first part of this year as well as vehicle thefts and working with those task force, we're able to put some big cases together and really take some people off the street who are doing harm to the community. And that was all related to our task force and the collaborative efforts that we have with not only the DA's task force but with the other task force going on. We recently, last week I'm sure you all saw, had a Target Blitz. We're partnering with Target and some of the other PDs in the area to do things like that where we can take a look at these people who are victimizing. One of the things that organized retail theft has showed us is that it's the same people hitting all the stores in all the different jurisdictions. So very much when we do the target blitz, we're able to tie people to other crimes Target does a really good job. Their intel section is really good. Their security section is really good at identifying people and putting cases together. So when they have multiple cases on the same person and that person gets caught, Target's able to say, hey, we have five other cases with him across six or seven different jurisdictions. We have 10 cases with this guy across four or five different jurisdictions. So we're really able to collaborate. Their camera footage is spectacular, their LPOs write fantastic reports, and they really like working with us when we're able to do stuff like this.

Excuse me, Chief, what's LPO?

Loss Prevention Officer, sorry. Yes, sir. Let's take a look at our ShotSpotter stats year to date compared to last year. We're down in most areas. And just a reminder, the ShotSpotter alert itself detects individual gunshot sounds. So it's not uncommon if there's more than one call, more than one activation, that gets funneled into one call. That's why the next category, the incidents, those are the calls for service. So that's a result of the category above them. The cases are where someone or something is hit. The non-fatal shootings are where a person is hit. And the shooting assaults are somebody or something is shot at but not hit. So with the exception of non-fatals, we're slightly down across the board in all areas. Always a work in progress there. Sorry, I have a lot of notes up here. I don't want to leave anything out. I know there'll be questions. Let's talk about some of the community engagement we've had going on year to date, 126 different community interactions. Mr. Sapal will kind of get up and talk about this when he presents. But our big focus as we came in through the new year is getting, not just relying on our structured community events, events that we partner with the city with, but getting our officers across the board to take more of an initiative out in the community, take some ownership with the schools, some of the partnerships, some of the churches, some of the boy scout groups across the city and participate, go out there, um, answer questions, be part of what they have going. and just be a regular face. So getting away from just meetings, events, all of our officers around the city, a huge partnership with AUSD. They're asking us to come into the schools more and more and do a host of different things and partnerships with our faith-based groups. We're seeing churches reach out to us. Hey, is it possible for an officer to come by? Are you hiring? Can they come by and answer questions and then do like a recruiting thing, what kind of positions are open across the board, not just necessarily police department, but all of the services that the police department offers, whether it be through communications, our non-sworn, and our animal services side of the house. And then just 2026 at a glance, we just finished wrapping up a meeting public safety and community resources about substation and its use. We just filmed a video late last week that hopefully we can put out on our socials along with instructions with how people can utilize that space, our nonprofits and our faith-based groups. as well as some of the other things that we're doing. The Blue Envelope Program, I think that was presented at council two months ago. It's made its way around APOC. We're presenting it at all our community meetings as well. I don't think a lot of people realize we partnered with AUSD to produce and film that video. So that was all done by students at Antioch High. The video turned out fantastic. It's posted on our socials if anyone wants to see it or learn more about it. And the students did a really good job. And of course, now we're trying to transition, hey, what else can their audio visual club do with us where we can put information out there, partner with them, and give them some experience too. So when school pops back into session, we'll be exploring opportunities with them to see what else they have an appetite for. Our neighborhood watch program has been in full swing. I'm sure everyone's gotten the emails from Sergeant Fashner and Officer O'Meary about all the goings-ons in your districts and around the city, as well as our flock transparency portal. What is it? Which one? The neighborhood watch or the flock? So the flock transparency portal is a portal that's on our website that shows all the flock hits and how they're being used. I know there's been some. I'm sorry? I was trying to find the right word. There's been a lot of questions surrounding Flock ever since the issues in the South Bay. And we just, hey, let's just turn it on and let everyone see what we're using it for. For us, Flock has been very good. We've been able to, and I don't want to say too much, solve a couple homicides with information that came from Flock, as well as a hit and run where someone was killed. which we wouldn't have anything without the flock cameras in the neighboring intersections. So flock transparency shows any user who wants to pop onto the portal to see how we're using it, what we're looking at, as well as other jurisdictions. The good news about FLOC and the transition with the grant that our area politicians gave us, just over $1.5 million for a real-time crime center, we'll be able to pipe in all this data into the FUSIS program that's already built in to the Axon products. So when that gets up and running, it will be a data center where it will help solve crime, solve some of the community issues that are happening around illegal dumping, speeding, car accidents. So we're really excited about that and what that's going to develop into. We're still on our SpiderTech daily feedback. For those people who respond and have a negative comment, I think a lot of people aren't aware we take the time to call each one of those people back individually and address their concerns. So regardless of how big or how small the issue is, they're getting follow up from someone at the police department. We're also starting to continue to expand and grow the cultural shift and debriefing of critical incidents and high-risk incidents to improve handling and safety. I know several people have brought that up, especially from our wellness standpoint and what that does not only for our SWAN and non-SWAN staff, but our partners in the city as well, meaning our fire and EMS personnel, they found it highly beneficial and for them it's become part of their debriefs after every critical incident on their end and it's joint. Citizen Rims is up and working fine. We have all the bugs worked out. That's where people can go onto our website. They can see the kind of calls that are happening in their areas, what officers are responding to. And I'm not computer savvy, so I'll try to explain this the best that I can. You can put a geofence around your area and kind of see what's going on in the area that you live, crime-wise, what officers are responding to. Late last year, and I didn't include this in the end of year report because not all the patches were here yet, we started doing themed police patches to promote mental health, domestic violence awareness, breast cancer awareness, LGBTQ+, and autism awareness. And we haven't debuted it yet, but we also have a Mexican Heritage Month patch. And we are developing an African-American heritage patch to be like some of the bigger agencies out in the Bay Area and use it as a conversation starter, a way to share information, educate people, and have people ask us questions. Equipment and technology, I think this is probably the biggest boost in equipment and technology that we've had in the last couple years. We've been able to get new tasers. We've just finished cycling in and upgrading all the body cameras that we had across the whole police department. Personal shields are now on every police car. In case there is a critical incident, an officer can have a measure of safety. I can't read my last one. I apologize. And the first of our two armored vehicles arrived a few weeks ago, and the second one should be here shortly. In terms of some of the technological stuff we're looking at, we're beta testing automated report writing system that overlays to the body cameras. And we're also in the early stages, hopefully this is something we can bring to council next month, of working on a generative assistive call taking slash translation service for our dispatchers. And again, all of that technology will work with the real time crime center and pipe all that information in. when it gets up and running. And I just want to take a minute and I'll kind of end this slide on this. We have been moving forward on the training front for our officers. We are working through both of our DOJ agreement and the settlement at continual police training. But I think one thing I left out last time is I'm not highlighting what we're doing above officers. Yeah, everyone in the police department is taking these trainings, but from a supervisory level, I think this is the first time where it's been included in our culture as we change things that our supervisors will continue to expand their knowledge to. This is the first time in a long time lieutenants and above are going to training other than the mandated post-training. I have two different lieutenants at Executive Development Institute right now. I have one captain who just graduated from the University of Chicago's Professional Leadership Academy. That automatically guaranteed us a second spot. Lieutenant Franco Caesar will be going to the next cohort. I have Captain Bittner, who's halfway through command college, and Lieutenant Maloney, who graduates Saturday from Executive Leadership Institute, which is so hard to get into. They only do one cohort a year. and it's only 40 people from the entire United States. I went two years ago, he was fortunate to get in for this cohort, and the plan is as the supervisors, as the leadership of the police department complete, one course, they continue their education to give them not only the tools, but the perspective of how to deal with the real world problems that we're dealing with here and have been dealing with for the last few years. So I just wanted to take a moment to highlight the admin staff because I don't think I get to do that enough. And it's one thing for me to stand up here and tell you how great the police department is, but I couldn't do it without all of them. and we relaunched the so i just want to take a second to talk about the police activity league because they are doing more and more in the community they're partnering with the police department with more and more initiatives especially around youth programming in the city we relaunched it in 2025 new bylaws new board we continue to support youth in the city we're hosting several fundraisers throughout the year a few weeks ago you might have heard me come up here and talk about the poker tournament we're getting ready for our golf tournament They are talking about possibly doing a crab feed. I don't eat crab, so please don't ask me for any of the specifics. And we are working with several groups within AUSD to partner and promote youth sports. Towards the end of the school year, we partner with them for a flag football program. And we look forward to the upcoming school year and trying to partner with them across the board in more areas. Just a couple of DOJ updates. With the California DOJ, we're still in the patterns of practice stages. Again, there's no timeline of completion. We just had a monthly meeting last week. And I feel like we're in the same spot we were in at the beginning of the year. I think they're waiting for some things to happen on their end. And we're just kind of in a waiting game. I'll let Mr. Sapal report out on the US DOJ. agreement and the negotiated settlement. We had our first meeting yesterday to kind of go over what it will look like moving forward, what compliance looks like. Mr. Stapal will include some of that in his presentation, but I think the biggest thing that we agreed on in the first meeting is after we present to you our quarter updates, we will then meet with them and present to them the same data. When we build out the data sets, when we fill these non-sworn positions, these presentations will be a little more in-depth. You'll have a little more meat on the bone to look at in terms of what we're doing internally across all our fields, not only on the crime side, but on the officer side too, and we look forward to sharing that. Last but not least, any questions?

All right, thank you, Chief. Before we have questions from council, do we have any public comment? Yes, Leslie May, followed by Erica Ralston.

Oh, they took it down. I was going to look at the numbers. I did see that the number of rapes is higher. And I'm just wondering if the police department is working with any of the... agencies are outside, inside of Antioch, the city of Antioch, that work with prevention or recovery from sexual assault. It's kind of disheartening that that number is up. So I'm just kind of wondering what's going on. How are they working with other agencies or within the department to decrease that?

Erica Ralston? No? You're good? Okay. Please, speaker.

Hello, everyone. I just wanted to take a moment to come up. Thanks, Chief, for the report. And I'm glad that we're still trying to stay into compliance with the GOJ. And I look forward to the report coming up. And I just wanted to take a moment to comment about the testimony that we heard from Cassandra Quinto. And I feel like when I see the report from the chief, I feel like Where does the Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Team fit in? I know that they come and they give their reports on occasion. It'd be great to see the Chief to make a comment about it, because I know that we're all struggling here with the cutting back of the program, and it was hard to see Cassandra in that state tonight, so I hope that we can look forward to maybe seeing how we can really fund that. I was in the Richmond Pride event this weekend, and I got to see, I believe it's called ROC, I can't remember what it exactly stands for, but responding something with care and compassion or something like that, but they're just starting their non-police community response team. It's got five people. They're working 12 hours. I didn't get a lot into how they're funding theirs, but the bottom line here, I'm just trying to hope that you guys could somehow find a way to really fully fund the Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Team. They've responded to an important call at my neighbor's house over the past couple of days and I was glad to see them. The police did eventually come and get involved because the person was not really responding to the crisis response team. But it turned out with a good ending with the person voluntarily getting an ambulance and going to seek help. So I was glad to see that the crisis response team was able to be there at that moment. It could have been a little bit later that might not have been the case. And when I seen out my window when the person was struggling with this mental health crisis, a lot of times the police would be the first one they call. And if the crisis response team is not available, that's going to be the only person to call. So again, I'm repeating myself now, but I hope you all could find a way to really fund that the Angelo Quinto crisis response team and keep it on 24 hours would be my preference. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe, Chief Joe, for that report. Council, city manager, city attorney, I was wondering, did anybody, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but did anybody hear anything about our traffic enforcement? Because we have like 100, 120,000 people in the city, and apparently, I mean, Joe can come up here and tell me I'm wrong, I live on one of the busiest streets in Antioch, and I haven't seen a person being pulled over for speeding, registration, reckless driving, drunk driving. I haven't seen it. And you guys are my representatives. I don't know where Louie is, but you know, it's gonna mess up my drinking game because whenever Louie mentions that he was principal of Annie Alkiah, I have to take a drink at home. So that messes it up tonight, but. You guys don't ask any questions of the chief. Why do we have any enforcement? Why can't we take, since you're negotiating with the police department now with their contract, why don't we take some of the investigators or detectives that apparently, you know, and put them back on patrol? We don't have... All we have is officers responding to incidents. We don't have any patrol officers that are driving around, and if they see something wrong, they can fix it. They can get help. We don't have that. And you guys are not acknowledging that. Lamar, like, made us live with that. First thing they cut, and we don't have any money, traffic department. But the traffic department is our eyes and ears. Those guys on the motorcycles, they've got radios, okay? Radios are important. The first thing you cut is the traffic department. And how many times have you been on Facebook and you see somebody got pulled over, and guess what? They got a gun, they got a drug, they got everything right there on the front seat. But they're not getting pulled over in Antioch. When I grew up in Burlingame, San Mateo, we all knew that you stay out of Hillsboro because the cops are tough. The cops in Hillsborough were tough. They pulled you over. They enforced the law. They weren't afraid of being on Facebook at the end of their shift. We've got no officers enforcing our traffic. Here's our police chief. Here's your chance to ask him, why don't we have any officers? He keeps talking about these big, when they bring in the officers from all over, these big, you know, they do these sweeps and stuff, that's fine. But everybody sees them and they know it's only once every two months. Where's our traffic department? Why don't we have six police officers on motorcycles like Concord? Thank you.

We have no further public comments. All right, thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Yes.

Chief Vigil, thank you for the presentation, and I was inspired by the numbers. We know it took a long... Oh, don't you go. You sure you want to give him? Please detect at work. Be careful. We know that... You don't reduce crime, you know, you don't get these kind of numbers in a year. It takes time and it takes work. And all of the pressure that the city has been under, and especially yourself in this role, I would say you've done an amazing job, and I want to appreciate that. I think you've worked harder than anybody I've ever seen through your belief in this department to be... a real police department that focuses on community engagement, community support, and changing the culture. And I want to thank you for that. I also want to thank you for going to those trainings yourself. I think I wrote a letter for you to go to the leadership training. And now you're being a model for other people in this department. And I want to thank you for that. And before I continue, I want to just say, can you tell us about the trainings a little bit more at the higher level, the leadership training?

Yeah. In my opinion, I think command college is the premier executive leadership training in California. It is basically a master's level training program for law enforcement executives, and it's centered around future casting, looking at trends, looking at what's happening now, how to avoid it in the future. How do you get involvement? How do you get buy-in? Trend analysis, what does that look like? If you are going to change the culture, change the rules, change the game, how do you do that? And it is a comprehensive year and a half long program where you have to go and live on site for one week every other month for a year and a half. They bring in top level instructors from all the top level universities in the United States and some of the top of the line instructors from outside the country. I have the honor to not only work with people here from Yale, from Harvard, some of the esteemed universities in Southern California, but instructors who are experts in their field from Japan, from Europe. And they're sharing how they do it, what they do different, how you can add that to what you're doing now.

Thank you.

You're welcome. And yes, your letter was so I could get into command college. Thank you. The first one here to go. Desmond's our second.

Somebody got to be the first, right?

So we'd like to keep that going.

And I love that you are keeping it going.

Yeah, Captain Cook's the first one to go to PLA. That was a reference from my friend Kathy Lester, who's the chief in Sacramento. Hey, I think there's an opportunity for your department. I've been following what you've been going. This might be a good opportunity. Six months, one week a month, he's in Chicago learning strategies on community engagement. and crime statistics. His capstone project was what we're leaning towards for the substation at Sycamore Square. I'm proud everyone is buying in. I'm proud everyone thinks, ah, training, training's no good. You know, it kind of gets old, but this is the kind of training that develops you into the leader we want, into the leader you need to be, especially in this day and age, especially now, given these times.

I'm pretty good on a computer, but I was navigating rooms and we talked a little bit about that. So thank you for the, you called it a fence, a geofence. Thank you for that. So now I can actually like spread out and see what's going on. and other areas, I advise the rest of the public to utilize it. Also, thank you for the transparency around flock cameras, the use of flock in the city and what it means. I know there's been some controversy behind it, but the portal will give more transparency, I'm hoping. Would you say it's relatively easy for the public to navigate?

It is. And I think the biggest misconception about Flock is we're sitting there 24-7 watching the cameras, trying to find license plates, trying to find people. It doesn't work like that. There has to be a legal reason that you're looking into it. And same thing with the agencies in California that we share with. Enabled for them to access our cameras, there has to be a legal reason. You can't just put, ah, because I want to. There's certain parameters, and all those parameters get shared in there. And ours are even a little bit tighter than some agencies because you can't just put a number or we want specifics so we can track it. For us, this was a no-brainer. We're getting PRAs on this two to three times a week. And when the opportunity arose to turn it on, hey, just turn it on and now we can stop dealing with the PRAs. They can just go to the portal and see.

Thank you for that. I also want to thank our supervisors, Chanel Scales Preston, as well as Diane Burgess for supporting. I know some people up here were skeptical about the substation, but I want to thank our supervisors for supporting us fiscally to get to stand that up. And I also want to thank you and Ms. Cabral for working together. And I'm just wondering, have you seen a difference in the community, or what are you hearing, or do people feel comfortable speaking with individuals from PD about what else they want to see change as a result of having a substation?

The feedback has been positive, and I think everyone who lives in that area and all the business owners know it's a process. The expectation wasn't, hey, the substation here, the world just changed. We've been very open. Our offices are there, working out of there several times a week, intermittently. The feedback has been positive. Everyone there knows, as we continue to build capacity, there is a plan to have it staffed on a more regular basis, partnering with Montserrat and some of the other entities within the city and in the community. I think we have a good plan moving forward. But I don't want to spill too much before the video comes out, because the video looks really cool. And there'll be a link and directions on how you can participate, how you can use the space. They hosted the safety walk out of there Saturday. It was well received. It was very positive. I think she wants the space for her own, but I don't know if I'm going to share it with her yet.

Thank you. Thank you for all of you. I know that earlier in the year, we talked a little bit about your goals for traffic enforcement in the city. I don't know if you feel comfortable talking about that tonight, or will it be on a future conversation?

No, I don't have a problem talking about it tonight. Previously, I had said we have one sergeant and two traffic officers. They do write tickets. We do check their stats. They are complaint driven as well. Obviously, I can't tell them where to go if I don't know where you live or if I don't know there's a problem. That's been the biggest thing in our community meetings that we're sharing with community, especially our traffic officers. Hey, the city is so big, as we continue to build capacity and get more officers on the team, if there's something going on in your neighborhood, you gotta tell us. The city's so big, if everyone, hey, I have a problem here, if no one tells us, we don't know. Our traffic unit's good, our entire unit shows up to most of the meetings, and everyone who's had a comment about traffic in their area within a week emails me or calls Sergeant Green directly. Hey, thank you very much, the presence is hugely noticed. It's no secret, Josh Egan was the senior motor officer. He was promoted to sergeant a couple weeks ago. We have an active process right now to replace him, hopefully before the end of the month. I hope none of the guys back at the station are watching, because it's not done yet. And the plan is, as our graduates from the Summer Academy and the Academy at the end of the year, Get through training and cut loose. The priority is traffic and investigations. So I would like to put at least two before the holidays and two more just after the holidays, bringing them back up to six.

Thank you. You don't have to stand up here for the rest of this. I just want to thank the community and the public, people like Frank Sterling, who has showed up consistently over the past six years advocating for these changes. And I'm glad that you were here tonight, Frank, to actually see the fruits of your labor over the past six years. Well, more than six years since the early 2000s. And I think we got here because we have good people in the department who actually had the same, even though you might not always agree, had the same vision you do for community non-biased policing in our city. I know Ms. Scott isn't here, but I know if it wasn't for her past 18 months of leadership in this city, I don't think we would have gotten as far as we did with the DLJ agreement and also the settlement agreement, as well as supporting the police department and other city departments. The collaboration between the police department and the Department of Public Safety and Community Resources has greatly improved since this all kicked off, and I know that it had a lot to do with your leadership, Chief Vigil, as well as the leadership of City Manager Scott. I also want to say that mutual aid is important, so I'm glad that you are doing interagency activity here in the city, because we know we can't do it alone, so I want to thank you for that. People might critique it, but every city does it, And Antioch needs to do it a lot more. And I also want to thank Genesis Church and the Cavallo Corridor and all the nonprofits across the city and other folks for making this reduction in crime in our city possible because the police department could not do it alone. And we all have to row this boat together. So I just appreciate all of the work from the police department, every agency in the city for making this possible. I'm excited about the changes that I'm seeing. And it was great to be on Sycamore at the Peace Walk and to talk to residents about what they want to see more and prove and how excited they are to finally be invested in. So thank you, Chief, for being here. You're welcome. Thank you.

Chief, I just have a couple quick questions. This is called the second quarter report, but it's for the first five months, so it just means it's happening during the second quarter. Is that what it?

Correct. Yeah, I didn't want to post stats from June on there, with June not being over and the timing of the way. I think we haven't worked out for the rest of the year how the meetings will flow. We'll be pretty close to capturing all that data.

It's a minor thing, but sometimes people will grab this and think this is for the first six months, and it's first five.

Yeah, January 1 through May 31st.

I think you're definitely understating some of the crime reductions that you've been a part of experiencing. Our homicides in 2024 were 16. They went to six last year, and we're tracking. I know I'm not supposed to talk about that, but we're tracking along the same this year, which is great. Auto theft was 1,700 in 2024, it went down to 900 last year, and we're 50% below that right now this year. So that's tracking even another 50% reduction, which is huge, because that was one of the big complaints that I've heard about was auto theft. So just wanted to say that some of these crimes, shooting assaults down 50% from last year, same period. So there's a lot of really good work that's being done, and more importantly, good results. And then also just want to thank you for standing up the traffic division right away as far as being out there and having a sergeant and a couple officers. That was one of our biggest complaints is people racing around town and running red lights and not following the law. So I know that in spite of only having 85 sworn, you still have three of them committed to doing traffic, which is appreciated not just by me but by the whole community.

And just to clarify, even when we were fully staffed, traffic is our number one complaint. It has been for the last couple years.

Right, but to the extent that you've staffed it with three folks with that limited staffing is great. So thank you for hearing what folks are saying and taking that to heart and seeing us out in the field doing that. So if there aren't any other questions on this, thank you again, Chief, for your presentation. And we look forward to hearing Mr. Sapal make the next one. on the APD MOA Compliance Progress Report. Mr. Sapal, welcome.

Thank you, good evening. Mayor, city council members, city staff, and community. I do have PowerPoint, ah, there we are. So today what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna provide a snapshot of where we are with the USDOJ agreement. I'm also gonna provide an update on where we are with the Allen Agreement that is moving along and we're gonna start building up some momentum as we move forward to implement progress under that agreement as well. If I can just get this to work. Oh, you're going to turn it on? Thank you. Magic. All right. So the memorandum of agreement is broken up into several categories. One of them is on policies, directives, and training. And so the department has been working on modifying and updating policies based on the agreement. And those were all completed, and those were done through a working group that included the Antioch Police Oversight Commission, staff from the police department, myself, and Cal DOJ actually participated in those discussions. So all of the policies that are tied into the agreement were updated. They're still going through the process of approval, but The Allen Agreement has some additional items that need to be included in those policies. And there's actually several policies that do not exist in the police policy manual spectrum that most departments subscribe to. And so those will actually be created. So Antioch will probably be one of the first departments, at least in this county, that will have a specific policy, for example, on traffic stops. What an officer is supposed to do during a traffic stop in terms of notifying dispatch, how long should that stop take? how they greet the individual and inform them of why they're being stopped. So there's some very specific parameters that have to be included. That policy will have to be written. There's also gonna be an implementation of an early warning intervention system. A big part of that is looking at quantitative and qualitative data. So if there's patterns of, bad behavior or there appears to be a problem with an employee that's picked up on and dealt with and addressed early on before it becomes a scandal or something large scale. So while the policies are working their way through, there's going to be a second iteration of review and editing before that's disseminated. So that's on progress and on track, as it should be. As far as training for police department personnel, this is one area that the department is not in compliance with completely. DOJ understood that it was gonna take some time to get a full 16 hours of training for every employee. And they would like the training to be certified through the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training. That has been somewhat of a challenge because We're trying to figure out what that certification actually means. I actually spoke to the executive director of EIDList last week, and it turns out that it's an entity that allows certification of training through different states. So if I'm a trainer, I'm teaching a class, rather than going to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission for each state, I can go to this international association and have them bless the training for several states. So in our application, it doesn't necessarily apply. We will be following up with the Department of Justice and asking if we can find an alternative because this is being delayed and we need to get this moving on track. So I'm fairly confident that we'll find some workaround to get the additional eight hours of training for all the personnel. And timing-wise, this actually works out because the Allen Agreement has some additional parameters that need to be included in that training and so it'll be modified and changed. So we're looking at an outside vendor to assist with that and we're working towards completion. In terms of hiring backgrounds and promotions, that portion of the agreement, the department is in full compliance with. There is a recruitment and retention plan that has been written. Most of the documents I referred to today are available for review on the website for Antioch PD on their transparency page. So there were two self-assessment reports written by the department, and there's a first compliance report that I wrote about a month and a half ago, and that's posted online as well. So for the public and for city personnel, for the council, those documents are available. The recruitment and retention plan was one of those documents that's been completed, and it's already been operationalized within the department. So in other words, the requirements for background checks and some of the additional information that was required by the agreement are already operationalized. There were some requirements for the promotional exams that had to be changed, and there's certain things that need to be looked at. So when you're promoting an employee, you want to make sure that they aren't involved in any kind of internal affairs investigations, they haven't been subjects of discipline over the last two years, and there's a much more comprehensive review of their personnel files. So that's being done, and we're on track as far as that's concerned. There were some specific requirements for background checks for employees that are being hired. Those were actually being done long before the agreement was operationalized. And we just have to make sure we're doing it consistently. That's what we need to make sure we're completing. A data analysis and collection. So this is another area that the department is struggling with for a couple different reasons. One, both of these agreements require analysts to evaluate data. And this data is not the typical crime data. It's personnel related data. It's demographic data. So looking at information from every stop that's conducted in terms of race and gender and sexual orientation, and tabulating this information and looking for patterns. Identifying whether there's an issue with a specific patrol shift, with a specific officer, and this has to be institutionalized and done on a regular basis. Well, it requires some level of expertise. It may actually require some additional software platforms for the department. We don't quite know yet. I do know that one of the two analyst positions has been approved by the council. It will be posted fairly soon. And the second one will probably be coming to the council here shortly for approval. In the interim, the department is looking at hiring a consultant as an analyst to help evaluate the systems and make a determination in terms of what we need and start putting the framework into place because right now the data is being harvested from the system, it's just not being analyzed as it should be. And this is one of those pieces that's gonna take some time to resolve. I would hope that within the next few months we'll have one analyst on board and we can start this process. The goal for the department is to be in compliance by the end of this year. The hope is that by January, we can start the 12 month clock. And if the department can consistently demonstrate that it's in compliance with all aspects of the agreement, then this agreement will come to a conclusion by the end of the year. That's the goal, that's the hope. So we need to work on getting that analytical portion. As I said, the recruitment is in progress at this point, and we're gonna have to get that resolved. Mr. Stoll? Yes. Do you want questions during or after? Take the main time.

So I'm interested on the demographic data. How do you collect that?

So by law, every department has to capture stop data. So anytime an officer makes a traffic stop or a pedestrian stop, they have to enter information into their computer system. And that's the date, time, location of the stop, the reason, and then demographic information based on their perception. So when they make a stop, they have a certain perception of the race of the individuals who are stopping, and they have to document that.

So they're making assumptions, I assume, on age, race, and things of that sort? Correct, correct. Has anybody studied the accuracy of getting that information?

So this is all based on the RIPA, which is a racial identity profiling act, and the data is being studied. That's an ongoing process, so I couldn't tell you one way or the other whether it's working as intended. That legislation was put into effect about ten years ago. And it's been phased in by size of department. So the department's been collecting the data for a while. Here's the problem though. We're collecting data for what we're required to by law, which is stop data. The Allen agreement requires that to be expanded to pretty much every call for service. And so the amount of data that's going to need to be collected, is fairly large and the department has to have systems in place to do that and they have to have the analytical capability to make sense of the data.

So an officer can't just ask the person? It's all assumption? It's all based on perception, correct. And you said this has been going on for 10 years. Have there been any study about the accuracy of that information?

The data is studied not necessarily for accuracy, but when an officer conducts a stop, the purpose of gathering the data is to ensure that they are not stopping based on race. So if there's an assumption being made about the race of the individual you're stopping, that's documented and it's assessed. So I don't know why the legislation was written the way that it was. I can understand there's some problems with the perception piece and basing the data on what you think, but that's part of the issue. It's not about confirmation of race or demographic information of a prison stop. It's what the officer is thinking about at the time. And is that impacting their decision making? Part of the challenge is ensuring that when a department is involved in constitutional policing, it's not based on someone's race or gender or sexual orientation. And this is one mechanism of ensuring that you're capturing that data and at least assessing it.

I guess my concern is racial profiling. and the person making the assumption.

Well, that's sort of the point. You should be thinking about these things before making a stop. It's not necessarily coming up with a legal justification to make a stop. It's assessing why you're making that stop, and part of that is who you're stopping. So I think part of the purpose of this is for officers to think about it. because it's important. So.

Can I, so like, I remember talking about this a while back, and the purpose of a lot of this is to be able to prove whether there's disparate impact. Correct. Or unequal treatment based on race. Correct. So if all of your, say, traffic stop data shows that you are stopping, let's say, black or Latino residents at a higher rate than, say, somebody from the Asian diaspora or whatever, then what are the justifications for those stops? Is it just that every, are you stopping this person based on race? Are you stopping them for expired tags? To be able, because if we can prove desperate impact to a certain community, then advocates and other folks can actually say, hey, you need to change your practices because you're actually racially profiling folks. One of the, I'm just, I'm also trying to get to what Council Member Freitas is getting to is like, you don't ask for people identification when you stop them for any reason. Like on my driver's license, it says my race, the color of my eyes, the color of my hair, my height. Thank God they don't ask for my weight. I don't think they do. And they also ask for my race or even my gender. So if I'm required to identify myself, rather than deducing whether I'm black or Latino, you would also get that information from identifying me even if it's from running a license plates with a registered driver. So will some of that factor in rather than somebody just having to guess my race?

Do we have access to that data? Yes. But we have to build and make sense out of it. I will tell you from a DOJ perspective, we use what's called a racial disparity index. And so what we look at is race data and then your demographics of your city. There should be some proportionality, right? If you have 20% of race A, your stop data should reflect about 20%. If it's 20%, then your racial disparity index is zero, which means that it's proportional. If it's double what it should be, then you'll have a racial disparity index that will show that. And that requires some context. It requires some qualitative analysis. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's bias. I will tell you right now, if you take a look at the compliance report, the racial disparity index shows that black and African Americans in this community are stopped at a higher rate. It doesn't necessarily mean that that's based on bias, but we have to have a mechanism and a process in place to find out why that is. There could be a whole host of reasons for that. And the department does have a process in place for it, but part of what the department is struggling with is without an analyst, we're not able to capture that information in a timely manner. So if I look at data from last month, I need to be able to get that data to supervisors as quickly as possible so they can review it, go back and look at the stop information, and talk to the officers to figure out why is there a disparity here. If it takes three months to get the officers, the sergeants that data, it's really pointless. One, they're not gonna remember anything and it's gonna take more time to try to figure it out. It's gotta be really operationalized in the department so it's done on a regular basis. So we've run the disparity numbers for this community, and there is some disparity, but that's not the entire story. And so part of this entire process for the agreement is to make sure that there's a process in place for digging through that information and that data to make sense of it.

Mr. Sebald, you had mentioned that the data analysts, there's one in the process of being hired, and there's a second one that you're waiting for approval. My understanding was the council had already approved all of the positions that were necessary to satisfy the DOJ settlement, so I'm curious whether those are in the budget or not.

So one was for the DOJ agreement. There's a separate one for the Allen agreement.

The title for that, it's actually a policy director.

Are they both in the budget? They are in the budget, yes. Okay, so those are both approved and ready to go? Yes.

Okay, perfect. So both those positions are going to be critical. The other thing I'll point out is it's not just about harvesting data and analyzing it, but it's about doing audits. And so part of the agreement and well beyond the agreement is ensuring that the department is doing audits. They're doing integrity checks. pulling random body camera footage and evaluating it. They're looking at police reports and uses of force. What we don't want is to be reactive. There's a problem that comes up, it's been stewing for six months, no one figured it out, and now we have a problem. It's about doing this on a very regular basis. And you're gonna need analysts in order to do that. That's gonna be essentially their full-time job.

All right, let me go back to the PowerPoint here.

Complaints and misconduct. So there's a section of the agreement that talks about how complaints are supposed to be investigated and there were some requirements for adding additional information into the policy. So that policy has been edited and changed. There's also investigative guidelines that have been produced for the department to follow so that there's a consistent process in terms of how they investigate personal complaints. So that's been done. The other aspect of this is having early intervention strategies. So the department does have software that will track data to inform if there's a problem. So what the department's gonna do is work through setting these thresholds. So if you have an officer, let's say, that has six uses of force in a three-month period, they may indicate a problem. And so they're going to look through every type of police contact, use of force, report writing, litigation, pursuits, and come up with these thresholds. That's part A of the process. It gives you quantitative data. The second part is looking for qualitative data, where you have to kind of dig in deeper and try to figure out why that is. And a big part of this is gonna rest with the supervisors and the watch commanders. Those folks that have daily proximity to the police officers are gonna have to be evaluating the behavior based on these early intervention signals, systems. So it's fairly complicated, but the department is working through that. And fortunately, we do have the software in place to help manage it. But again, that's gonna require some analytical support. As far as... providing the Department of Justice specific information based on use of force complaints and bias related complaints. They're being provided to the Department of Justice as they're received and completed. So we're in compliance with that portion of things as well. Language access plan, this is another area that the department is not in compliance with. There is a plan that's been completed and approved by DOJ, which is good. But the remaining work includes a couple things. One, we gotta look at the top four or five languages in the city, and we have to make sure that there's information available to them in written form in their languages. So how they can make a complaint, Who do they contact when they have questions? What is the process for a personal complaint investigation? All those things should be documented in specific languages. The second issue is having translators. So the department does have a list of officers that speak different languages so that they can assist with those that have limited English proficiency. That's great, but it doesn't cover every language. Vietnamese and Tagalog are two of the languages that are spoken highly in this community. And Spanish, for example, you have numerous employees that speak Spanish. It's far more limited with Tagalog and Vietnamese. And so currently, here's what happens. Someone calls the police. They speak a language other than English. The dispatcher will connect to a language line and will get translation. There's a delay in that process, takes 15 to 20 minutes sometimes to get someone on the phone, and during an emergency, that's an inordinate amount of time. So there's a solution in place for that. When an officer's in the field, they can do the same thing, but again, it takes quite a bit of time. So the department's looking at alternatives. There is some technology now available through body cameras that will do real-life translation. I just saw an article yesterday. Stockton PD is now using it. It may serve as a good option for the city, for the department, but there's a cost associated with it, and so the department is doing some research on how to leverage that and potentially use that as a solution. So this is an area that the department is still working through, and we'll see what happens with that. Community engagement. So if there's any one thing that's being done extremely well, it's community engagement. The department did the right thing by early on selecting a sergeant and an officer to focus on community engagement. And both of them work for the compliance division of the department. As the chief had mentioned, there's been a lot of community events. I mean, I think they've gone from 30 a year to close to 130 now that they're creating and sponsoring and attending. And I constantly get positive feedback for both of those employees from the community, which is great. The other thing that they're starting to do now is they're now they're trying to ensure that the patrol officers are also engaged in showing up at events and taking the time to meet with residents in the community and build those relationships. And that's gonna be critical going forward because two folks in a community of 120,000 people is not sustainable. The goal is to make sure that every officer is a community policing officer and that they know who's in their beats and who the merchants are and who the residents are. And so that is being slowly implemented. And so it's been very successful. I'm not sure if the council is aware, but next week the community engagement will be running its very first youth academy. It's never been done in the city. They're going to be working with youth. And it's kind of like a police academy where youth that are interested in law enforcement will learn about what policing is. What does it mean? What does it entail? And that's a two-week program that kicks off next week. So I'll be excited to see how that pans out. But from my understanding is there was quite a bit of interest. It was application-based and there were quite a few applicants that put in for that training. So just to provide an overview, the departments in compliance, with everything except for three areas. One, as I mentioned, is the I-List certified training. That's something we're gonna have to work through, but in the interim, there was some training that was put together, and I've attended the training. It was actually done fairly well. It was very interactive, and every employee had eight hours of training on bias-based policing, and that's gone well. We just need another eight hours, and then going forward, it's gotta be 16 hours every year. The other two areas that I've discussed are data collection. That is gonna be a challenge for the department moving forward. The DOJ agreement has certain guidelines for analytical data. The Allen agreement fleshes out much more. And I guess the best way for me to describe this is the DOJ agreement really sets the foundation for constitutional based policing. The Allen agreement operationalizes it and puts systems in place. And so there's quite a bit of work that needs to be done. That data collection piece is going to be absolutely critical to that portion of it. So the department is working towards that. The city's working towards that goal. I'm hoping that in a couple months we'll get some good candidates and work through that process. And then the last part is the language access plan. To meet the bare minimum of compliance for that, we need to look at written documentation in different languages. At the minimum, that with a language access line does meet the very lower end of the requirement. But now with technology, there's better ways to look at it. And so it's an investment. Ultimately, it's a better service, something that the department's gonna be looking into and we'll evaluate based on cost. So the next steps are looking at that IDLIS certified training and trying to find alternatives if possible. Implementing the language access plan which has already been written. and then looking at the data and policy analysts that are going to be hired for both the agreements. And the ongoing work continues on a daily basis, and that's monitoring uses of forests. It's looking at all investigations, evaluating any bias-related complaints, making sure that those are submitted to the Department of Justice on a rolling basis as they're completed, and that's being done. The analytical position, I talked that to death, but that's a big one that is working its way through the system. And the department has been on time with all the reports. Every six months they do a self-assessment report, and there's two that have been completed so far. Another one should be completed here in about a month or so. And the first compliance report was completed as well, so that's available online. Again, as a reminder, this agreement will terminate when there's 12 consecutive months of continued sustained substantial compliance. So the hope is we can start that in January. That's the hope. And as things are moving currently, I don't see any reason why the city will not be done with that agreement at the end of next year. That's the hope and that's the goal. The annual agreement, it's fairly more substantive and will take a little bit more time.

But to the degree that we can do those things simultaneously, that's the goal.

So as it stands, the department is on track with the agreement and all the timelines as they're required to be. And I'll take any questions.

All right, it looks like the questions are popping up. Council Member Wilson.

Yes, thank you for your presentation. I noticed you said we had three points that were not in compliance? Correct. And you kind of, to me, you kind of went over it pretty quickly. Is there concern from DOJ that we still have three things that we're not?

No, in fact, this agreement was based on a five year timeline at the most.

Yes. And so- And we're what, year two?

We're year two. Okay. Yes, actually, it's year two of the agreement being signed. The actual work didn't start until a year ago. So the department is moving along at a pretty good clip, at a pretty good pace. And DOJ is not concerned. In fact, I think there's a high level of confidence in what the city and the department is doing because they want to see the city get into compliance by the end of this year. They want that clock to start in January. And so they wouldn't be coming up with that recommendation if they didn't think the city could do it. And so far, the track record for the department is impressive. And this is a lot of work. You know, you're talking about not just putting systems in place, but you're looking at changing the culture of the organization. And putting in practices and systems that are gonna go on for perpetuity. And it's an inordinate amount of work. I mean, this, it's labor intensive, it's very taxing for the department. It's a completely different way of looking at things. You really have to be proactive. It's not waiting for some scandal or something to happen. You're looking, you're digging deep on a regular basis, trying to use every piece of data that you have to make those assessments. And it can't just be the chief doing that. And by the time you get to the chief, it's too late. You've got a big problem on your hands. That's gotta start at the supervisory level. It's gotta start with the line level officers understanding what they're supposed to be doing and what is absolutely out of bounds. And I think one of the things that's been very helpful is you've got a lot of younger tenured employees. A lot of newer folks that I think are coming to the city for the right reasons. And they're willing to learn and learn things the right way. And so there's all sorts of things that are in motion that are very positive. Even though you're not in compliance in three areas, I'm not overly concerned about it because I see that there's progress being made. There's just some things that are beyond the control of the department. Finding an analyst that can do these sorts of things, it's a challenge. It's not a readily available skill set. Most analysts are great with crime data. Now we're trying to take that and apply it into personnel level data, which is different. It's not something that departments do. And so some of this is being created from the ground up. Some of it exists, but it's been untapped. And this is one of those things where whoever puts in these positions is setting a foundation for the next 20 years. So it's gotta be done right. That's gonna take some time. That's understandable. But so far, the progress has been phenomenal.

Okay, and then my follow-up question to that, with all the changes going on at the federal level, the Department of Justice group that we were originally meeting with has dissolved, and now it's constantly changing. Are there concerns on your part that, hey, they may change the rules on us? No. It definitely seems there's a lot of fluidity. It's the best words I can use for that going on in the Department of Justice right now.

Yeah, the good news is that we're still being governed by a local office.

And actually our point of- Are they still the same people in the regional office?

Up until last week, there were. My point of contact has left the Department of Justice.

His supervisor, who has been part of this process, is now my point of contact.

And so we'll be hosting a meeting this month with the city attorney's office and the chief and myself. to introduce ourselves and discuss any concerns. But this individual has been part of the process throughout, just from more of a supervisory standpoint as an observer. So now I'll be reporting that individual. And in my conversation with Michael Kehoe, who I was working with before, he's the one that basically said, you know, I need you to work on an implementation timeline to get the department in compliance by January. They would not be asking that if they didn't feel confident. I think they're impressed that the department is moving as quickly as it is. I mean, there's some substantial work that's involved in this. The fact that the department has put a unit in place, the compliance professional standards division in place just to manage this agreement says a lot. Some departments are at this for 20 years because they are applying the resources to get these things done.

I'm happy that you still have that contact and we are getting some good feedback. I think where my concern is coming to place is all the changes that have happened on the federal level and particularly with the Department of Justice. But if you're saying it's going okay, I would just like you to keep us really updated on that because it seems like there's a lot of change going on.

Absolutely. The agreement is not going to change. And the interpretation of The success and the positive momentum has not changed since the very beginning. I'll definitely keep the council informed if there's a problem, but at this point, everything is working as it should.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

So I have a question with regards to APOC and Police Oversight Commission. So we've been here for 18 months, and I don't really ever remember receiving any recommendations from APOC on anything. And so my question is, how are they engaged in the various elements that you've presented today? Is it being primarily handled by police staff? I mean, how does APOC work? Because I'm surprised that as a council member, we never see any recommendations from them.

So the commission has several subcommittees. Sure. One is the policy working group committee. So there's members on that committee that we're showing up every week to discuss policy. We send out the policies, we look for feedback, we discuss the feedback and try to find ways of ensuring that the lens that they bring from the community is addressed and used in those policies. And that's very critical because police officers look at this in a very specific way. But APOC gives us a community lens. It really points to being able to pick up a policy, read it and understand it, rather than being in some kind of police jargon. And some of those policies are not easy to follow. So they've helped navigate that piece of it. Quite frankly, it's been a very good experience from my perspective. I think that's what you want to see in terms of engagement. In terms of what's being reported back to the council, I'm not really part of that process. I do know there's a meeting coming up next week, a joint meeting with APOC.

We do. One of the reasons why I'm asking is how are they on all these elements that you presented, it seems to me their role is to basically respond to whatever is presented in the subcommittees.

Yes and no. There's one requirement, for example, that requires APOC to gather information from the community. And so that subcommittee has sort of taken that on their own and they have crafted some listening sessions for the community. There is a listening session set up for next Wednesday with the youth. So I don't know whether that's being reported back to the council or not, but I will tell you that the department didn't have any hand in that. From my perspective, there were some conversations about the structure and how those things should happen. But that subcommittee has sort of taken it and run with it. So I'll be attending that listening session next week to get a better idea of how it goes. And part of it is for folks to sort of share their thoughts about the police department and their perception of the police department, especially in light of everything that's happened. Because there's still folks in this community that are traumatized and wounded by that. And so this is an opportunity for them to hear from the community and then make sure that information is passed on to the department so it can be addressed in a comprehensive way.

It just seems in this day and age that it seems like they're 100% in agreement and that there's no disagreements because as a council we don't hear on an issue what the various positions are, majority opinion, minority opinion. We hear no opinion.

So at least in my experience with the committees, there isn't a lot of voting in terms of what they're going to do. They've structured it in such a way where they have subcommittees that are assigned to do certain things. So there's one for community engagement, there's one for a policy review, and I'm sure they're communicating behind the scenes, but My involvement is assessing what it is that they're doing currently. The agreement calls for certain requirements, like they have to have a certain level of training. So the community engagement unit, those folks have put together training blocks for APOC. Whether they've completed those or not, I don't know. So I will have to follow up and ask. But from my perspective, they're fulfilling the role that they're required to for the agreement. anything outside that scope is not something that I necessarily monitor or pay attention to. I show up to the meetings, I listen to the discussion, the dialogue. My interactions have been with those subcommittees, and that has been working well.

Thank you. You're welcome. I know it's been hard work, but thank you for doing this work for us in the city. I know if it wasn't for you, Chief Vigil and Ms. Scott, and all of the advocacy from the city attorney's office, and particularly Kevin Kundinger, we wouldn't be as far as we are right now. So I wanna appreciate that whole team. And also all of the individuals at APD who are really striving hard, not just to get into compliance, but to think about sustainability, right? You mentioned that the clock will start in January and then it will be 12 months of consistency with very little hiccups to be able to be out from up under the federal DOJ agreement. However, the Allen settlement will take a little longer. And there's also still this looming question around the California DOJ. Has there been any engagement around if they're just kind of watchdog in this process to see if everything go okay before they send a letter and say, hey, y'all doing good, we outta here? Or is there anything related to that?

So my understanding is that they haven't really shared a lot of information in terms of where they are and what the intent is. I know that they're meeting monthly, but There hasn't been any definitive information in terms of what they plan to do. We will reengage with them for the policy review, because now we have to go through a second iteration of those. And they participated in those. From my perspective, it wasn't as though they, my impression was they didn't see that there was a major deficiency. because the committee was working as it should. I mean, there's some education, there's some discussion, and the department has been fantastic. There hasn't been any pushback, which for me is a little bit surprising because most departments push back. And to your point, I mean, the council's involved in this too. This is a team effort. Everyone is on the same page in terms of wanting this to succeed, wanting a department to change. And that's happening, it's just this is going to take time and it's not a perfect process.

It could be that everybody that pushed back is gone, but we can only hope. I do have a question. Where does Assembly Bill 847 come into play with APOC? related to personnel and misconduct and things that need to be reviewed. I know in the ordinance they were supposed to be able to review complaints, but then now you have this assembly bill that gives civilian oversight bodies a little bit more authority

to look into like personnel issues and misconduct where are we with that has has that been discussed with apoc do they know that that's an assembly bill do you all know like have there been discussions about that so the the commission is aware of that legislation in fact a few months ago they had a presentation that was set up but there were some technical difficulties and the the legislator wasn't able to to attend via zoom And so that was pushed out. My understanding is that on the joint meeting on Monday, the city attorney's office will be providing some information on AB 847 for both the commission and for the council. Ultimately, the governance of APOC and their involvement is based on the ordinance. And so ultimately, it's the ordinance that gives them or doesn't give them the authority. And so I think once the council gets more information on where the legislation lands and some of the potential issues and problems that can arise and some of the benefits of it, then the council can probably come to a better conclusion in terms of how that will impact things going forward.

Thank you for that. I would, I guess this would, I mean, I will recommend that council take a look at Assembly Bill 847 if you haven't already. I don't think it's sufficient enough to give people information on the spot, so I don't know if the city attorney and city manager was planning on sending something to the council and APOC to review before having those discussions, but I just want to put that out there to the council members up here who might not be aware of this, that it is a thing. And APOC has been asking for a little bit more strength to what they can do here in the city. And they actually, like, there have been complaints that they don't feel like they're being productive or that the council is hearing their recommendations, so I'm wondering how we remedy that as well. But I'm excited to see where we go. I want to be optimistic, but this is, like, years in the making to get here and it's a little I have a little skepticism but I'm staying optimistic so again thank you Chief Vigil and Ms. Scott and Kevin Kundinger who all got us to this point right now do we have any public comment on this we have no public comments okay please

This is about APOC. I think that, oh sorry. Okay. Not just APOC have been asking for more.

Excuse me. Thank you.

Okay. Not only has APOC been asking for more accountability over oversight, the community has as well. I watch all those meetings. Don, you should watch them because then you would have known the answers. Okay. Well, I know the answers. I watch them. I think their community outreach is amazing. They don't just have meetings here, they go out to different places to have meetings to try to engage the public, which is commendable because they don't have anybody at their meetings because we're too tired or something. but I know a lot of people watch it. I think that something that needs to be done, hopefully someone can help them, is there's no processes, like if a complaint is heard, or if a community member puts in a complaint, what the processes are after that complaint. If they want it reviewed, I think it's appropriate that APOC review any complaints that the member is not, familiar with without giving personal details, like just an oversight, because that's what they are, an oversight. And I just think that that's not, that's really needed in Antioch. Because we had police texting and most of us in Antioch were shocked. Some of us weren't. I wasn't one of them. But a lot of people were. And we didn't listen. As a community, we didn't listen to those people that were complaining. So we need something in place so when people complain, the police investigate themselves. If the community member is not... Satisfied with that, they have APOC and there's a system they can go through that's written on paper. There's not that right now. There's just not, and it needs to happen. And as far as Manny Saluz goes, Manny Saluz is a nice guy. He wasn't the only one shocked that this happened. I was shocked. Tamisha, Monica, you know I was here upset as well. And I think the fact that he wanted to be on APOC shows that he cares and that he wants to be part of the accountability system. So I like him on the council because he's just like me. I was shocked that that happened. But I would really like to see some processes put in place for complaints because I don't want that ever to happen again in Antioch.

Ms. May.

I wanted to find. I wanted to know, with the recent firing of those six consultants, has that had a negative effect on the work being done here in Antioch and the work also with Ms. Scott being gone? Because she did a tremendous amount of work. She and Kundinger, I can't remember. Kundinger? And a few more people did a lot of work to get where we are now. I was surprised when you did the presentation. But my concern is with her removal, And with the six consultants, right after she was removed, being fired. And from what I understood, they were doing, each one was doing the work of five people. Five people, what kind of impact has this had on right now and where we're going? Because the way you're sounding, it's like, oh, it's flying straight on ahead. When these people were put in place, hired and put in place to make sure that we got this far. And now they're gone. because of somebody's will. And I just need, you know, I'm concerned that it all sounds pretty tonight, but within the next month or so, all this could be going all the way back.

I can address that.

There hasn't been any impact to the agreement or my status and work on the agreement. There was a lot of preparatory work that was done before I came here for finalizing the agreement. And I think there were a lot of folks that were involved in that process. As far as my involvement goes, there hasn't been any change. And I'm sure the council could decide to fire me and find someone else. That could change things, but I don't see that happening either, I hope. Ultimately, we've made significant progress and everyone who's supposed to be doing the work is doing the work. And that's the important thing. My job is to sort of provide guidance and oversight and to make sure that we're fulfilling the mandates of both these agreements. And it goes beyond just checking the box, it's really making sure and doing a deep dive to ensure these things are working as they should. And that they're embedded in the culture and changing the culture of the department. But from my perspective, there hasn't been any change on that.

All right, any other public comment? No further public comments? All right, any other questions or comments from council? Seeing none.

I want to point out that some of the skepticism is understanding that you can't change a culture overnight. And going back again when you put a timeline on it it gives people anxiety because you can't change a culture in a year 2 years 3 years. The culture that has persisted in the city has been for decades and to say that we don't change it just all the way in 12 months might give some people anxiety. And I trust you in the work because I know your background. I know the work you've done. I trust the hill because I know his background and the work that he has done. Mrs. Scott had an amazing background and we just had great people. And so even in the absence of people who did great work, there are still people here in the city doing the great work. And so I'm looking forward to the next report and seeing more change.

I appreciate it, thank you.

All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Stapal. Moving on to item number four, second part of it, City Council Committee Reports and Communications. Council Member Torres-Walker.

Myself and Council, Mayor Pro Temp. Freitas had a cannabis standing committee meeting and we will be having another meeting. I don't even remember when the date we said for that meeting is. But we did a lot of talking about compliance for the dispensaries, making sure that they are not only in compliance with their standard agreements with the city, but that they're also in compliance with the agreements with the nonprofits and making sure that those nonprofits are not missing any payments. There were a couple operators that we identified who have been missing payments to our nonprofit partners. and that made us believe that they might be in violation. And so we are looking into some of that. Also looking into our equity programs and seeing how we can potentially make recommendations to implement more accountability there. And I'm also looking forward to visiting four new dispensaries with Mayor Pro Tem Freitas, because we had so much fun at the last one. And we will be scheduled, hopefully.

We did not sample. I just want to be very clear. No, there were no samples. We did not sample.

We didn't have that kind of fun.

Before that rumor gets spread.

We didn't have that kind of fun. But it was nice seeing somebody who'd never been in a dispensary before, you know, asking all of the newbie questions. So that was amazing. So we have those coming up. city school standing committee did not meet um but we i believe we are scheduled for a meeting on the 15th unless that changes that meeting will be happening right before the joint apoc and city council meeting next month is my green empowerment zone meeting and the peace walk i attended was amazing in the community we're looking forward to doing more of those And that is all I have.

All right, thank you. Council Member Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm kind of looking at the time. And so I was going to report on Delta Diablo from our May 27th meeting, but I have a Delta Diablo meeting tomorrow. So in lieu of the time... I'm not gonna do my report out until the next meeting, so I'll have two meetings worth of Delta Diablo.

All right, thank you.

No additional reports.

All right, real quickly, the mayor's conference on the fourth White Pony Express made a presentation, their CEO did, of the over four million pounds of fresh food that they collect and distribute, 1.2 million pounds of it comes to the city of Antioch. I was interested in hearing, so we are one of the biggest customers. Also on the fourth, there was a Contra Costa Transportation Authority Administrative and Projects Committee meeting. Our fiscal year budget was recommended for approval. 55% of our total funding for CCTA projects comes through different types of funding through state and federal and matching sources. So we leverage that amount this year. is projected for $123 million to come in to CCTA for the purpose of projects and leveraging that money, which is a 2.5% increase. For my mayor's comments, I'm going to keep these brief because we're 10.06. When we are discussing items during the budget process as a city council and things come up, such as animal services or water parks or golf courses, things like that, I understand we need to be very careful in even bringing those subjects up because they're very sensitive to the community as they are to the council and people will oftentimes jump to conclusions that just frankly aren't correct or true. As the city council's grappling with large budget deficits, at the end of the day, there were no layoffs, there were no furloughs. We are still actively pursuing COLAs as a council. I just wanna just let the community know that, at least from my standpoint, There's no hidden meetings going on behind the scenes to try to do anything more than create a good stewardship of the limited resources that we have and make sure that anything that we are spending money on and subsidizing is the best way to spend our money. So I just wanted to just make that comment. Moving on to the consent calendar. Are there any items to be pulled off the calendar?

Yes, the public would like to pull items I and T, as in Thomas. And L.

I, L, and T. Does council want to pull any items for staff? All right, so do I have a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve consent calendar excluding items I, L, and T. All right, Council Member Wilson.

Second. Motion seconded by Council Member Torres-Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

All right, item I is consideration of bids for the renovation of City Facility at 800 West 2nd Street. Did someone from the audience pull that?

Miss May?

Yes. I asked to pull that because I have concerns now we're talking about the renovations for the building but then what the last meeting we were talking about you the mayor was saying something about Well, we went through the name change of the building, but I think it was some talk about giving that building back or selling that building or doing something with the building. So I'm just here to speak up and say that My, for one, want that building to be used for what it was intended for, for what we got the funds, used the funds to purchase it for, the Office of Community Safety and the whole title. I can't remember. You guys changed the title.

I believe it's Community Resources.

So it's Community Resources now. Well, okay. So... OK, so I definitely want to see that happen. Also, before Bessie left, there was talk about moving HR in there. So it's just too much discussion. in here about what that building's use is for. I want to see it used for the intended purpose, for that office, those people to be able to move in there, out from up there by the pool, whatever, those offices up there, to go into this building in terms of beds, I never saw any RFPs, so I would like to know where the RFPs are posted for people to put in bids to do this kind of work for the renovation. So I'd like to know why the city doesn't post it so that people in this area or anywhere would be able to apply to do an RFP for the bid for that. How many people did put in for a bid because is that due to the lack of a competitive bids, well, how many people did put in bids and what were the numbers of those bids? I think that should be shared with the community. So, and I have no problem with the re-advertise and re-bid the project at a later date, but the whole community needs to have access and be able to see when those bids come out, when the RFPs come out and have opportunity. I know somebody personally who would love that opportunity license. to do the federal government, state, cities and everything to do that type of work. So I'd like to see myself when it's bidded out and have a tally on how many people applied for it, what the bids were and everything because that's what you call transparency. That's it. We shouldn't have to look at the report afterwards. I'm talking about during the process. We need to be part of this.

Any other comments? Erica Ralston? I'm sorry.

I'd like to hear from Scott Bunting on this issue. One moment. For the sake of transparency.

Director Bunting, can you clarify? This is for the building across the street, the 800 building, not the new , correct? That's just- Sure. Yes.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Yeah, the item that's before you is regarding the 800 West 2nd Street. We did receive a total of one bid for the project. It was at about $1.6 million. The lack of competitive bids, basically, we only have one bid for the project. We really don't have anything to compare it to. so putting it back out there. We'll extend the working days a little bit, do a little bit more reaching out to some people to see if we can drum up some more interest. In terms of the way these work, there's no RFP for something like this. This is a public works project. biddable plans and specs that are advertised through our website. They are distributed through many plan rooms throughout the area, so contractors have the ability to view them in the plan rooms, which most contractors are members of. Then, with that knowledge, they need to purchase a set of plans and specs through BP Repographics. That's a way for us to keep a handle on a plan holder's list when we put out addendums and stuff. things that need to get to the contractors. We need to have a way to reach everybody. So that's how people need to purchase a plan. You're on a plan holder's list. The plan holder's list is available. It's on our website. The plans and specs are available through our website to be viewed by anybody and purchased through PB Express given the correct licensing. They can bid on the project. But no, there isn't an RFP sort of process. That's not the way this is. This is a construction project.

And when you say it's on our website, anybody can go to our website and see what we are advertising?

Anybody can go to our website. It'll send you to, actually it'll send you to BP Reprographics website where you're able to view a complete set of specs, complete set of plans, see whether the project is something you might be interested in bidding on. But then yes, you have to make the purchase of the plans and specifications to become a plan holder to make you eligible to actually bid on the project. But anybody can go on the website right now or go to BP Express within Antioch's folder and view our projects.

It sounds like it's a very open, transparent process.

I believe so.

So if Ms. May wanted to see anything and everything, it exists today, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

It's on our website, and if there were to be more, she's more than welcome to come down to the basement, capital improvements.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Bunting. Do we have any other public comment on this?

Yes, Ms. Raulston?

Erica Ralston? No.

No?

Thank you. All right. No further public comments. Okay. Does it have a motion from council? Or a motion from Mayor Pro Tempredis?

Second.

Second by Council Member Torres-Walker. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

All right, moving on to item number L, amendment to the construction agreement with Adams Pool Solutions in the amount of $308,754 for the Pruitt Water Park pool resurfacing project. Is there public comment on this? Yes, Mr. Becker?

All right. I'll tell you, Mr. Mayor, I don't mind talking about the water park, the golf course, or any of the other city facilities. You know, I think, you know, once again, as a community member, I have to express, you know, my feelings here. And it just really feels like we are, someone's chain is getting pulled here. I mean, over a year ago, you know, maybe two years now, we were told there's a lot of struggle at the water park and we're gonna get a report back on what the needs are there. The only thing that's happened since that time is millions of dollars allocated out. And those are not surplus dollars. To your point, every dollar matters. How are we literally sitting here saying, we planned for a water park to be open at the beginning of the summer, but now we're pushing back a project that should have been completed because now more work needs to be done and more dollars need to go into it. But at the same time, we didn't know that until we started this work. And because we don't have the capacity to be able to identify these needs, it makes more sense for us to just pay the money to fix it and freeze positions like assistant city engineer. I mean, you talk about quality of life. There are facilities out there that are in dire need of repair. You're literally sitting here talking about how we're gonna come up with money to pay for roofs to stay over public administration buildings that manage the day-to-day affairs of our city. And we're gonna address those future budget deficits? You earlier today literally commended Finance Director Merchant for acknowledging the future struggles that were gonna come to this city. But yet here today, once again, you say, well, we were told it would cost a million plus dollars to close the park. So we need to continue to pump hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars into this park? And then earlier today it was said, well, it's okay because there's some salary savings that came out of the park because we didn't open in time. Do you know what I hear as a community member? Those salary savings are the people that were supposed to start their part-time jobs that now are not started those jobs that they were expecting to start. When does this stop? I do not support more dollars going into this water park until we see that comprehensive report that you promised us, you promised it to us.

Okay, my name's Johnny . On March 10th, the city council awarded a construction agreement to Adams Pool Solutions in the amount of $483,000. Project consists of resurfacing the pool. The work includes removal, replacement of the following components. Okay, during removal, okay, now these guys go in there with their jackhammers, right? They got this big contract from the city. We're gonna go in there with our jackhammers. During removal of the concrete, excessive moisture was encountered beneath the concrete, okay. Help me out here. It's a pool. What is excessive moisture under a pool? So during the removal of the concrete, excessive moisture was encountered beneath the concrete. An investigation of the water source, this is by the guy that we're paying, determined that the sports pool is leaking water from multiple areas, not just one, multiple areas. Now it could have been from their jackhammers, who knows? Is there any oversight? I don't know. The guy from Public Works, he seems to do these projects, hundreds of thousands of dollars, no RPFs, whatever. Who's oversight? Look at Joe. Joe's got control of 60% of your budget. Who's oversighting Joe? When the cops come to these talk-alongs and they shake your hand and come have coffee with the cops, they're all on overtime. You guys don't tell us that. But if you give me 150 bucks an hour, I'll come and shake some people's hands too. So the water park used to be a nice place, peep schools from all over. I've told you guys this stuff many times. San Ramon, Richmond, they all used to send, you could see all the school buses lined up there by the water park during the week. They all came here for their end of the year party. It was all kinds of revenue for us. Now this guy, Brad, what's his name? Brad Heffenberger. Okay, Brad used to be head of public works. What happened? Well, when Betsy came in, she promoted him to assistant city manager. That lasted about a week when Betsy figured out we don't have money for that. So Betsy made up a job for Brad. What is it? Director of Information Services, Brad. Oh, he popped his head in here a few minutes ago, but what the heck does Brad do? After ruining the water park, you know, Brad was originally hired from the city of Antioch. He brings over 25 years of experience. Not with water parks, that's for sure, okay? So you guys made a big mistake promoting the guy who's now costing you millions of dollars. He sat there and let the water park run into the ground. No oversight. Please stop.

No further public comments.

All right. Any questions or comments from staff, or from staff from the council? Seeing none, do we have a motion?

Move approval.

A motion from Mayor Pro Tem Freitas, I have a second.

I'll second.

Second from council member Wilson, please cast your votes. Motion passes 4-0. Moving on to item number I, resolution adopting the statement of investment policy. Before we have public comment on this one, can we get a brief update from staff? I don't know if the, is this the treasurer's or is this?

This is a treasurer's report.

Is the treasurer here tonight?

He's not. I can give you a little background on this. So this is an item that we are required to bring every two years or and present it to City Council or if there is any changes to the policy. But this time we did not have an opportunity and we did not have the request to update the policy. So for now we're just asking City Council to approve this policy. And if council does wish to make any changes to the policy, then we'll have to start working on it and bring it back. But for now, we have to get this signed before the fiscal year.

Okay, so before the end of June? Correct, yes. Okay, thank you. Any public comment on this?

Yes, can we please have Akbar followed by Casey.

Hi, my name is and I'm a young Antioch resident here. I'm here to speak about the city's investment policy. And I'm personally not a fan that we're investing in Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Caterpillar bonds. These companies are part of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions list, which was provided by the Palestinian Civil Society. And they ask of us Americans to divest from these companies in solidarity with them. in order to help them in their resistance against Israeli apartheid and genocide. Now I personally believe in this council and I believe that we can renew this discussion on gaining a more ethical and better form of investment that still accomplish the city's goals and allows it to be a place where opportunity truly lives here. and I want us to have the opportunity to be on the right side of history. Now, I think it's just really important with us that we continue this discussion again and renew it, and so that we can have maybe, so we can't have something done today or tomorrow, but as soon as possible, and with consideration with the Palestinian people. Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a nice one.

We have Casey followed by Chappie.

So hi, my name is Casey. I'm part of the Contra Costa branch of the East Bay DSA. I'm here to speak on the review of the city's investment policy. And I'm honestly appalled that the city of Antioch can so shamelessly invest in bonds with companies complicit in war crimes and genocide. Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Caterpillar are all well-known actors aiding an apartheid state as it commits the worst atrocities. These companies are listed in the boycott sanctions divestment list and have been for some time. Every day, Chevron partners with the genocidal Israeli government to extract fossil fuels from Palestinian land, denying its indigenous population the rights of sovereignty as well as aiding its abusers in raking in profit. Every day of the week, videos can be found of Israeli soldiers using caterpillar bulldozers to carve stars of David into the once thriving fields of Gaza. Every day, solar panels are being torn down in Lebanon by the IOF. and every day the devastation increases as Israel uses Lockheed Martin fighter jets to indiscriminately carpet bomb innocent children. Palestinian civil society has asked every individual of conscience to please divest from companies complicit in their murder and erasure. They ask for the solidarity with the resistance against the ongoing Israeli apartheid and genocide. I believe that the City Council should agendize a serious review of this investment policy instead of passing it by consent today. I object to the way Antioch City Council is allowing the community's hard-earned money to flow into supporting war crimes and atrocities. And I wonder how any city employee can stomach profiting through such despicable means. I would like to hear a firm commitment from the council members today that they will commit to establishing an ethical investment policy for this city along these lines. Thank you.

We have Chappy followed by Grace and then Ayla.

Good evening, City Council. I'm Chappie Daviakin with Contra Costa County branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. I'm here to speak on the review of the city's investment policy, and I take issue with the investments in Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Caterpillar Bonds. These three companies fall in with the boycott, sanctions, and divestment list, which Palestinian civil society has asked us to divest from in solidarity with their resistance against Israeli apartheid and genocide. Let's be clear that it's not an opinion calling what Israel is doing to Palestinians, but a conclusion based on a rigorous analysis by an independent international commission called for by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights at the United Nations. We must see this as a call to action, not just morally, but legally, as the United States is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. A treaty such as this is considered one of the highest laws of this land, second only to the nation's constitution. Article 3, Section E of that convention states that complicity in genocide is or shall be punishable. We definitely shouldn't be financially supporting it. I insist that the City Council initiate a serious review of its investment policy, one that would invest Antioch's community as opposed or into Antioch's community as opposed to companies that contribute nothing to Antioch and are participating in apartheid and genocide on the other side of the world. I would like to hear a firm commitment from the council members that they will commit to establishing an ethical investment policy for this city along these lines today thank you very much grace followed by ayla

Hi, I'm Grace, and as someone who has grown up in Antioch, I want to see the Antioch that is community-centered and caring be reflected in our budgetary and investment decisions. I'm here to speak along with many of my allies about how we don't like that we're invested in Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Caterpillar bonds. Again, all three of these companies fall on the BDS list, and we should not be complicit in genocide. And this is something that other counties locally have done, and we should follow their lead. I also want to emphasize that Lockheed Martin also has a history of harm presently and in the past. This defense contractor provides technology surveillance and logistics as well to support ICE. And as a daughter of immigrants, I never want my money going towards the people terrorizing our communities. I also want to emphasize the harm that Chevron has caused our neighboring cities and us through the contamination of the air and water in Contra Costa County. And again, I don't think we should be investing our hard-earned money into supporting harm locally or internationally. I really would love to hear from commitment from our city council members today that they will commit to ensuring that our investment policy is one that is ethical and consider what me and my allies are here talking about today. Thank you so much.

Ayla followed by Matias.

Hi, my name's Ayla. I'm also here to speak on the review of the city's investment policy. And I want to note that these harmful investments, while incredibly harmful, make up a relatively small percentage of Antioch's total portfolio. And like our neighbors, Dublin and Alameda, both of which have adopted ethical investment policies, Antioch can shift these harmful investments into other highly rated corporate bonds. I'm asking city council to agendize a serious review of our investment policy instead of passing it by consent today. I know that there are parents and teachers, unfortunately our high school principal is not in the room today, but people who deeply care about children in this room. And this council has the agency to adopt an investment policy that doesn't support companies that profit off of the murder of children. Antioch would not be the first city to make this commitment. Our neighbors in Dublin and Alameda have already made it, and Antioch should do the same. Thank you.

Matias followed by Justine.

Hello. I would like to say that it is beyond disappointing to me that this city is invested in companies that are actively participating in the genocide of the Palestinian people. Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Caterpillar are all on the boycott divestment sanctions list. If we care about human rights, if we value human life, if we view people outside of the United States as full and equal human beings, we will divest from these companies. This is the bare minimum we can do to show solidarity with a people and a culture that is being erased off the face of the earth before our eyes. I object to the money of me, my friends, my family, and my community being funneled into supporting a genocidal apartheid state. And if this city council does not amend the investment policy to ban investment in the aforementioned companies and any companies that support genocide, then this city will have failed the Palestinian people. And it will prove to me that the members of this council do not represent me. and do not view Palestinians as human beings. I urge this council to do the right thing, amend the investment policy, and stand on the right side of history.

Justine, followed by Catherine.

Good evening, Council. My name is Justine Wiebold, and I'm here to speak on the review of the city's investment policy. It has come to my attention that the city invests its taxpayer dollars in military weaponry, oil drilling, and landscape and home destruction. These companies are complicit and active partners in the destruction of Palestinian lives, livelihoods, and culture. I am asking today that the city council agendize an in-depth review of the investment policy rather than pass it by consent like today. I would like to hear a firm commitment from city council members today to discuss more ethical investment options, many of which yield even higher returns, both monetarily and for positive community benefit. Your accountability to this city matters, and we hope to see action on a stronger investment policy that doesn't commit taxpayer money to cultural and environmental detriment. and loss of life. Thank you for giving empathetic consideration to the moral and financial stability of this city.

Catherine, followed by Ahmad.

Hi, good evening Council. Thanks for your time. I'm sorry if I'm not a very good speaker. I'm here to speak on the review of the city's investment policy and I want to call attention to the same thing that some of my friends and community members have been calling attention to. A few bonds in particular, the three that we are currently invested in, namely bonds with Lockheed Martin, Chevron and Caterpillar. So I just want to share some quick background information, as others have done. Lockheed Martin manufactures fighter jets and missiles that the Israeli army uses in their attacks on Palestine and the broader Middle East. Chevron runs natural gas extraction and pipelines off the shore of Palestine and Israel, meaning that they are profiting from the illegal exploitation of Palestinian land and resources. And lastly, Caterpillar manufactures bulldozers that are used by Israel to destroy Palestinian homes. So there is an existing legacy of divesting, making the active choice to stop investing our taxpayer dollars into the war machine. Last year, internationally, Norway's largest wealth fund of two trillion divested from Caterpillar, deeming it an unnecessary financial and ethical risk. And contrary to popular belief, ethical investing can position Antioch and other cities to be better positioned to mitigate risks associated with environmental, social, and governance rules. This can result in better long-term financial performance. And locally, the cities of Dublin and Richmond have really led the way, as well as Alameda County, in adopting ethical investment policies. And I'm here today to ask that the City Council of Antioch consider doing the same. I hope that the Council sincerely contemplates the City of Antioch's role in the political and financial solidarity with Palestine, and I'm asking you to consider reviewing our investment policy in more depth, and not just simply pass it for a timeline's sake. Thank you.

Ahmad, followed by Dawn Yaw.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, and fellow community members. I want to thank you all for showing up here to support. I was actually here in front of this council exactly a year ago when we first brought this issue forward. So I do want to thank you again for the opportunity to speak as a local resident of Antioch. I'm here to advocate for the adoption of a formal ethical investment policy, one that ensures our city's financial decisions. aligned with our shared values of human rights, social justice, and environmental responsibility. I'm going to echo what others before me have said, but as it stands today, our investments support these corporations, these financial institutions that are profiting or complicit in an ongoing genocide. This is not a political issue, it's a moral issue. Our tax dollars, our local tax dollars should not contribute to the suffering of civilians, nor should our city profit from human rights violations anywhere in the world, including Antioch. As others have mentioned, this is very possible. Other local Bay Area cities, such as Richard, Dublin, Alameda, have been able to divest from these entities, showing that it is both possible and fiscally responsible. So it's a win-win. But more importantly, it shows our commitment to peace and equity and justice, which is what our city stands for, what we should all stand for. Ethical investment, it's not just about avoiding harm, it's about actively choosing to support the kind of world that we live in, and the money makes the world go around. So again, I want to work with the city council members and the mayor and our community to build a sustainable, humane, and just system. So I do urge this council to take a firm stand with your constituents, such as myself, To be a city that leads with our conscience and to commit to adopt an ethical investment policy. We know we could do it and we could do it together. Thank you for your time.

Don Yaw followed by Frank Sterling.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS. I AM A MEMBER OF EAST BAY DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA. I AM ALSO A DOCTORAL STUDENT IN ETHNIC STUDIES AT UC BERKELEY. I AM HERE TO URGE YOU ALL TO REALLY THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT THE CITY'S INVESTMENTS. the kind of statement that it puts out to the world and the kind of impacts that it makes in the world with the financial decisions that you all make as you navigate governing the city. I'm Iranian-American. I have family members who live in Iran. My grandmother lives in Tehran by herself, and she's disabled. So when the Israeli military attacked Tehran, I was fearing for her life. And Lockheed Martin supplies the weaponry that the Israeli military uses to put my grandmother's life at risk. So that's really why I'm here. It's really about my family. It's really about my community as an Iranian American. I want a country, I want cities in this country that reflect my human rights as an Iranian American. I want the governance of this country to not trample over my family's human rights. And I want a city where everyone can really feel that the governance reflects them and their interests and no one feels on the sidelines or on the margins or othered or feels foreign or feels whatever. So that's why I'm here. has been out of control, frankly, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prior to this administration, actually. But especially under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a far-right leader, similar to Donald Trump, The Israeli administration has been out of control under this territorial expansionist agenda all across the Middle East that has reached my own homeland of Iran. It's affecting Lebanon, it's affecting Syria, it's affecting Yemen, and we as Americans, as the self-proclaimed beacon of the free world of democracy need to use our voices and our institutional power to step in and say enough is enough. We're not going to fund this. We're not going to support genocide. We're not going to support apartheid.

I'm wearing a shirt right now that says anti-apartheid social club.

What if the city of Antioch became the anti-apartheid social club? So I'll leave you with that thought. Thank you so much.

Frank Sterling, followed by Katherine.

How y'all doing? Good to see y'all again. Let me say thank you to all you folks that came out. As we say in my dad's language, that was almost extinguished in a genocide notion, which means my heart is good. So thank you all for coming. I'm going to read a little something. Hopefully I'll have time to add my own little heartfelt comments. But I want the city to adopt an ethical investment policy because I want the city to strive to invest its funds in ways that promote the well-being of our communities and our environment. and favoring investments in entities that support the needs of peacetime daily life in companies that offer renewable energy and other climate mitigation strategies in companies with a strong environmental labor and social records or in socially responsible community projects within our community. I don't want our city to invest in harmful industries such as tobacco, fossil fuels, mass incarceration or immigrant detention, and weapons of any kind or in companies with a consistent record of direct involvement in severe human rights violations such as slavery and prison labor, war crimes, illegal military operation, racial segregation or apartheid. And that is ethical investment policy. I just read Alameda's ethical investment policy. And this is what we're asking you to do. It's not a major thing. It's not going to cut money from the city. It's, as my friend said, it's a moral decision. We're doing $1,600,000 in Caterpillar, $650,000 in Lockheed Martin, and $1,800,000 in Chevron. And we've looked into the discussion that we kind of had here on the thing. We can do this. This is something that's possible for us. And so what I'm asking you and what these folks are asking you is that if you could take a pause or whatever you can do, if you can't do it today, that you amend this policy and adopt an ethical investment policy. As some of the other folks said, it could possibly lead to even bigger and better returns, especially in a future that is going to be going green. We need to move out of these fossil fuels and stuff. And one thing I will tie it to, we had an emotional testimony from Cassandra Quinto tonight at the loss of her son. There's tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Cassandra Quintos in Palestine that have lost. And they're not just moms, they're dads, uncles, and grandmas. so this is why we're here tonight to ask you all to make an ethical investment policy the words are so clear it's ethical investment and that's what we want the city to do so we're hoping that you all will take the time and do that thank you very much Katherine followed by Justine

And Tim Drew.

Hello, council. Thank you very much for having the time for us to speak. My name is Tim Drew. I'm with the Democratic Socialists of America. I am here with my colleagues to ask for you to adopt an ethical investment policy and to divest from Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, and I'm sorry, I forget the other one at the moment. Chevron, thank you. And we heard earlier from City Manager Ana Cortes. It sounds like you're up against a deadline in order to pass this current renewal of the investment policy. And by the end of the fiscal year, which is this month. And so I wanted to ask if it's possible for a council member to motion to amend what you're passing today with a statement of commitment to meet with people in the community and other advocates who want ethical investment policy in the city of Antioch, either individually or in the form of a forum. I believe that might be possible. That's what I'm asking for today, as well as I support everything that my colleague said prior to me. Thank you very much.

Conger followed by Rora.

Hi, my name is Connor Schomburg. I won't take too much of your time. My colleagues have already said so very much and I just want to echo their sentiments and hope that some of these have connected with some of you at least on some level and to, yes, push on adopting an ethical investment policy and everything else that has been addressed today. So thank you for your time.

Aurora?

Hi, my name's Rosa. Sorry, I think my handwriting was unclear. Thank you for hearing us today about our comments on the city's investment policy and our wish to see Antioch join other cities in the Bay Area in adopting an ethical investment policy. In September, so mid-September of last year, the Dublin City Council, I'm just citing one instance of a nearby city that has done this, voted unanimously to update its statement of investment policy making sure public dollars don't fund harm. Under the new policy, Dublin will not invest in companies that develop or manufacture commodities that facilitate violence or war, engage in border or mass surveillance industries, or are involved in mass incarceration or detention, it's my understanding that Dublin has been joined in this by Richmond and also Alameda County in adopting an ethical investment policy and we believe that you Antioch us we are kind of the next step in this we think that it's fairly simple that public dollars should not be be put into doing harm of the kind that Caterpillar, Chevron, and Lockheed Martin are doing at the level of war atrocities and at the level of environmental devastation. Thank you very much.

We have no further speaker cards.

All right, thank you. This is before the council for any... One more public speaker?

Yeah, I had turned in a

Please come on down, sir.

My name is Dan Woods. I wear different hats. I'm a retired member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, also a member of Labor for Palestine and East Bay DSA. In the early 1980s, the degree of state, county, and city government involvement with the government of South Africa was so intense that people thought it wouldn't end. And when activists then, and I was one of them, tried to get the labor movement not to load and unload ships from South Africa, both from the West Coast and the East Coast. People said it was a waste of time, it wouldn't happen. Also tried to get governments, city governments and local and state governments to divest from South Africa, same thing. But by the time Nelson Mandela was free, and the South African apartheid regime collapsed. It had all occurred. And so at this point in time, due to the, well, everybody's heard about the notorious influence AIPAC has with a lot of elected officials. A lot of people predict the same thing now. But the degree of outrage about what's going on in Gaza, the war in Iran, and also the dangers it poses to Americans of any ethnic or religious background, What if, for example, uses of nuclear in Tehran? Sounds crazy, but it's not impossible. I think that Antioch could join the numerous other cities that are either implementing it or strongly considering implementing divestment from Israeli military establishment. Thank you.

We have no further speakers.

All right, thank you. It's before the city council for questions, comments, discussion, motion.

Thank you all for coming out and being here literally all night for your comments. You all have been showing up for more than a year now asking the city of Antioch to look into the potential of an ethical investment policy, and I believe there were comments stating that it might, you know, we don't believe that we're investing in anything unethical. Well, if you're investing in anything in this country, you better believe there's something unethical about it. I will say that, I mean, I support an ethical investment policy. I also, if you look at section five, under prohibited investments in this policy, it says any security type or structure not specifically approved by this policy is hereby specifically prohibited security types, which are thereby prohibited, included, but not limited to. And then it mentions three, but it says we're not limited to these three. And under the third one, it says that the city will not invest in any companies that produce alcohol for public consumption or tobacco products. And I have, I've sat on this council for, a couple years now, and I have seen people advocate to close gas pipelines in the city of Antioch because they pose a risk to the community. I've seen people ask, request, and champion limiting gas station development in this city to limit the number of gas stations being created because it pose a health to public risk and public safety. I have heard people come to this council and individuals on this council advocate to limit or put a moratorium on more liquor stores in this city. I was on this council when individuals advocated to prohibit and ban the use or sale of flavored tobacco in this city. All of that advocacy is in alignment with, has seemed to be in alignment with also what's prohibited under this investment policy. I don't see why this city council cannot look into adding ethical investment policy language in the current policy comeback review and pass it, starting with, yes, divesting from Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Caterpillar. But that's always been my position, and I'm one vote.

Yes, first of all, thank you guys for coming out and staying very late, so I have to applaud you and give you much respect for that. I'm in agreement with Councilwoman Torres-Walker. I believe at one point, and she can correct me if I'm wrong, When we had a list of things come back, we were the only two that voted for, let's have a discussion on ethical investments, and unfortunately, we were outvoted on that. I definitely would like to have a conversation about this and not be so quick on some of these investments, because I was one in the past about the amount of gas stations and and tobacco and alcohol, why is this any different than anything I bought up in the past? So I'm definitely interested in having that conversation. Bless you.

So tonight, I think because this is under legal consideration, I think approval of the existing policy is appropriate. But number two, it's unfortunate that the city treasurer is not here tonight. And I think that this falls under his purview. And so my recommendation, and I would be making a motion, is that the city treasurer, as well as PFM, which is our investment firm, meet with some of the representatives that are here today, have a discussion about this, and come back with any recommendations. Not that, you know, it's a foregone conclusion that... Some of their requests will be approved, but I do believe that discussion needs to take place in a more formal atmosphere. The city treasurer is responsible. This is part of his elected duties and responsibilities. There we have PMF, and I think from my perspective, You know, what would be the impacts if this policy is changed? Both legal, moral, ethical, and so forth. So if there's no other debate, I will make.

When does the, what is the timeline you're up against to adopt this policy?

It says in June, so by June 30th.

So by June 30th, and we have at least one more council meeting before, that this can actually come back to and be voted on before the end of the month.

Yes, we'll still have a June 23rd council meeting.

Given that timeline, I will not be supporting moving forward tonight. and would like the public to have some conversations. Everything Councilmember Freyda said outside of voting to approve this tonight, I will not be approving this tonight.

With that comment, then I'm just simply going to make a motion to approve the existing policy.

We have a second. I'll second the motion, and I'd just like to add a comment that the city elected treasurer recommended approval of this policy, and so without him being here to state a reason why we would do something different, as has been stated, we can have a future discussion, but I would like to see this approved and make it to the, before the end of the time, so we have a, A motion by Mayor Pro Tem Freitas, second by Mayor Bernal. Please cast your votes. Yes?

On the point, I believe the agenda on June 23 may be long and extensive. And we're talking about two weeks. Legally being in compliance is important to me. And so I don't think that June 23 should stop us from approving what is legally required of the city. Are we meeting the first meeting in July?

No.

So then we could be directed for the city treasurer and PFM. to meet with various representatives and come back at the second meeting in July. So there's dates specific. We are telling the treasurer to do this and to make recommendations. I'm sure that they will be working with director of finance as well as the city manager in this regard. But I think the responsible thing is to get this done and then direct the individuals in one month to come back to the city council

and have further discussion but that's my own personal i appreciate that and like this agenda was long tonight we got a vote right now just to extend the meeting every meeting the agenda is packed so that's one and if the legal requirement is before the end of the month If conversations happen like the expectations of the community, there could be two drafts that come back, the one we saw tonight and the one with any possible revisions, and then the city could still vote on a policy, one that either includes ethical investment or one that doesn't. But still tonight, I'm not voting to support tonight.

I have a question of our city attorney. If the policy were to come back with the current resolution, could it just be amended to add wording and whatever exclusions or additions without having to write two separate resolutions? You understand what I'm saying? Instead of duplicating something, can it just be amended at a meeting to add or subtract wording?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. All right, so we have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion before we cast our votes? No, please cast your votes.

Motion does not pass two to two.

So, city attorney, you need to advise the council what would happen if we are in non-compliance and what the impacts are to the city so that we can deal with this fully aware of the consequences.

I will provide that advice to you via email, but I can tell you if you're out of compliance, you're probably going to face penalties.

I know that.

I think we need a vote to extend the meeting, and hopefully the mayor could prioritize in putting this on the agenda for the next council meeting so that we can make a vote and not be out of compliance by the end of June.

All right, so do we have a motion to extend this meeting to 11.30? No, midnight.

We have public hearings. All right, do we have a... So I don't want to do continuous motions.

Do we have a motion to extend this to midnight? Yes. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I will second.

Council member Wilson has stepped out of the meeting for a minute.

No.

Yeah, we have a vote for it? We have public hearings.

I have a moat.

Here is what, what needs to get done tonight and what could go to the next agenda? That is where I would decide on whether I'm supporting extending this meeting.

Staff, for a public hearing, we had to comply and advertise and press.

We did, yes.

So if any of the public, if we don't handle this, we have to again incur all this cost, have the consultants who are here, and pay them too, they've been sitting in this room now for about four or five hours, they're not cheap, so frankly, yeah, we're not gonna get a good night's sleep, but I think the responsible thing to do is to do the public hearings.

Then I would, I mean, I guess we could have a motion to extend the meeting to get through the public hearings.

Well, we can just extend it up to midnight. Doesn't mean we have to go that long. We'll go through the agenda as fast as we can. So we have a motion to extend the meeting until midnight. Do we have a second? I'll second it. Please cast your votes.

This is irresponsible. This is a waste of public dollars. I'm really disappointed.

Motion passes 4-0.

If we would quit packing the agenda, then people who actually have to work in the morning because they're not retired up here and got to take care of a family and pay bills could get through the meeting.

You're not the

But we have a policy that says we have to vote to extend the meeting after 11. And so the meeting's supposed to end at 11 unless we vote to extend. The policy says we vote to extend the meeting at 11. And if I decide I do not want to extend I can raise my voice as loud as you raise your voice. No, but I'm not trying to raise my voice. I'm just saying you're frustrated and you're trying to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing.

No, I'm trying to say to do the responsible thing. It is a waste of public dollars.

We're going to take a five minute recess.

Meeting recessed at 11.06 p.m. Councilmember Wilson did return at 11.05.

Stop packing the audience. I'll be packing the audience.

So, Thank you.

All right, welcome back, everybody, from our recess. Mr.

Clerk, could you please take the roll? Thank you. Council Member Rocha is absent. Council Member Torres-Walker?

Present.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas? Present. Mayor Bernal? Here. Thank you. We have a quorum at 11.10 PM.

All right, moving on to public hearing. Item number six, consideration of the proposed sewer rates in the sewer rate study listed in the Proposition 218 Public Hearing Notice. City Manager?

Yes, this is a public hearing on proposed sewer rates under Proposition 218. The item includes consideration of the sewer rate study prepared by Pavlitik Consulting. The study outlines the financial requirements of the sewer enterprise fund and supports the recommended rates to ensure continued operations and maintenance of the system. And we have Director Bunting here who's going to present this.