City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Antioch City Council meeting of Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Mr. Clerk, can you please take the roll?

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

Here.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas?

Present.

Mayor Bernal?

Here.

Thank you. We have a quorum at 6 o'clock p.m. Thank you. Would you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance. the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, excellent. Do we have any public comments on tonight's closed session item?

We have no public comments.

All right, thank you. Madam City Attorney, if you could please let us know what's on closed session tonight.

We have one item for closed session tonight. It's a conference with legal counsel for initiation of litigation pursuant to California government code section 54956.9D4.

All right, excellent.

We will now adjourn to closed session. Meeting is adjourned at 6.01 PM.

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all right good evening everybody and welcome to our City Council meeting of Tuesday July the 28th 2026 mr. clerk you please take the role Thank You councilmember Taurus Walker is absent

Council Member Rocha?

Here.

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.

Will you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, Madam City Attorney, will you please report out on closed session?

There's one closed session item on for discussion today. It was a conference with legal counsel initiation of litigation pursuant to California government code section 54956.9 D4 and the city council following their discussion authorized the initiation of litigation under government code section 54957.1 subsection A2 by a four zero vote with council member Torres Walker absent. Defendants and other particulars may be disclosed upon request after the action is formally commenced. And that's all.

All right, thank you. It is now time for public comment. Mr. Clerk, how many comment cards do we have and virtual speakers?

We have five comment cards and four virtual speakers.

All right, so just to let the audience know, under new legislation SB 707, we now are required to allow virtual participation in our city council meetings. And so folks will be able to call in and speak on agendized items similar to people that come in from the audience. So we will- Now go to public comment, and we will be concluding public comment at 7.30 tonight to move on with business.

Thank you, can we please?

And excuse me, so once public comment, if you still wanted to speak under public comment, at the end of the meeting, there's another opportunity to speak on public comment on unagendized items.

Can we have Leslie May, followed by Thomas Trost. Trost. Trost, thank you.

Hello?

Hello?

Okay.

Good evening city council staff and community members. First I'd like to welcome the visitors from Chichibu and offer my prayers for your homeland and for any family members, friends that may have been harmed in an earthquake. Second thing I wanted to say is that I feel that Councilwoman Tamisha Torres Walker wasn't given a fair chance to be here. She did everything she was supposed to do in time, on time. And due to dereliction of duty, And I consider sabotage, that's why she cannot participate as a council person. And during the meetings, previous meetings, people have said for you not to be bullied by the mayor. And I always said, you're not going to be bullied. You're going to do whatever he tells you to do. And that's what you did. So that's dereliction of duty and sabotage. The next thing I want to speak about is the garbage pickup this past weekend. That was a fiasco. I was sitting on my porch early in the morning, drinking my coffee, and all of a sudden I see all these trucks coming, just trucks and trucks and trucks. I'm like, what is going on? And they kept coming. And I finally called in the house. I said, Erica, look online and see what's going on. And she looked. She said, it's a garbage dump down here in District 1, a citywide garbage dump. And that was horrible, a fiasco. Public Works, whoever's running Public Works, shouldn't even have a job today. I don't care if they are sitting up here, you shouldn't have a job. Because people waited over two and a half hours, some people to dump their garbage things, and they were turned away and had to pay to go to the city dump. That is horrific. That is not the way business is supposed to be conducted in this city. There's a lot of things going on in this city in terms of business and how you conduct it. It is wrong. It is not well planned out. And the citizens and community members are suffering. Gas costs a lot of money. I don't own a truck, but I know about how much it costs to fill a truck up. And for them to sit there and burn gas all that time, then have to go and spend money somewhere else to dump their things, that is too much. You need to try to do better. I know in some people's minds you don't want to do better, but you need to do better if you're going to hold an office. Thank you.

Thomas, followed by Crystal.

Good evening. My name is Tom Trost, and I'm representing the historical Hickmont Cannery site. It's the old site down off of A Street. I came to realize that the city wasn't involved with the environmental cleanup. and I'm putting it up for sale and I have the closure documents from the state of California environmental. So I want to submit that report so I don't hear anymore about the apricot pits, that it's polluted, it can't be built on. Because that's what I'm hearing around town, you're looking for property and the site can't be built on because the apricot pit's rotting and deteriorating. But the site's been closed since 2013, but I didn't realize you were out of the loop on the environmental. So I'm submitting it so you have it on record, okay? Thank you, Ron.

Crystal, followed by Frank. No Crystal Law, no Frank. Okay. Frank? Okay. There you are.

All right, everybody. I'm here about Officer Shipilov and the punching of Frenchie in the face. If you guys remember what happened right here in Waldey Plaza, you've already heard some of what I said about it. But have you guys seen the video? She got punched in the face after she bit him right down here. Officer Shipilov. Well, I feel like this is part of the reason that we could feel that the oversight really is not having an effect. The text message scandal really didn't. do everything we hoped it would in cleaning out some of these guys. So if you guys read the Contra Costa Pulse article about his past history and how he squeaked out of the text message scandal, maybe, maybe not, when he was making jokes, responding to jokes about dead N-words. Do you guys read that part? Because I got it right here. I can read a little bit. Not trying to offend anybody. I won't say the word. But this is what they said. Slow n-word, dead n-word, body bag n-word, 1055 n-word, 187 n-word, Wild West n-word, Huckleberry n-word. And then Shippalov, come back, coup de gras n-word. And he later said it was just a joke that he has. He's into hip hop, so he likes black people. He made an Asian joke too. It wasn't as serious, but he said he had Asian friends. So it's this kind of guy we wanted on the police department that's later punching this petite black woman in the face. This guy cracking these jokes about dead end words. I read your little part in the article that you were trying to do something. I couldn't make it all out what exactly happened from the article, the Contra Costa Pulse article. But it sounded like you were trying to do something. I got a little bit from Chief Addington here. Your failure to take accountability for your actions during the investigation and your willingness to offer excuses for your actions show me that you do not appreciate the gravity of your conduct. And then as a result of your actions, I no longer trust you to competently serve as a member of this department. But he's still here. And now he punched that lady in the face. So I asked you, mayor at your town hall, I asked you all if we can get our AP, our APOC to recommend this guy go, that you guys get him out of here. This ain't the guy we want here, how we got through this text message scandal. I don't know what these jokes about dead black people and laughing it off and saying he's into hip hop so it was just a joke. It was from some skit. Anyway, I don't have to say a lot about it. I think their words speak for themselves. This is not a guy that should be here. I hope you guys can get rid of him. And I'll spend my last few seconds saying that I feel like if there was some technical thing with Tamisha not being here, that you guys should suspend the vote on the home key. Thank you.

David Marsh, followed by Mark Jordan.

Hello, my name is David Marsh. I'm the senior community librarian for Antioch and Pruitt Libraries. And I just want to give you a few updates on various things at the libraries. First of all, we're capping off a fantastic summer. Lots of free programs, lots of community support. We're finishing up with a free jazz program on Saturday at Antioch Library, if anyone's interested. And we've had just a huge amount of help from the community center hosting free programs there. And it's been just a positive and fun summer for the libraries. We are moving forward with our building upgrades at Antioch Library. I know it's been delayed a couple times, but it has got a set date for September 1st, Antioch Library will be closing for electrical and ADA upgrades. It's looking like it's gonna be a four month closure, that's down from the nine month closure. And during that time, Pruitt Library will be maintaining its hours and being open. But Antioch Library will not be accessible during that time. In addition to the ADA and electrical upgrades to the building, thanks to the local friends of the library and a big donation from them, we're getting a pretty big furniture refresh too. So the library inside is going to have somewhat of a fresh new look, update electrical, and it'll be accessible to everyone thanks to the ADA compliance. And that's all I got.

Thank you. All right. Thank you.

Mark Jordan, followed by Crystal Law.

Good evening. It's nice to see all the people here. It means there's participation in democracy. I'm here to ask for an amendment to the municipal code. I have drafted an amendment. This has to do with just cause evictions and the proposal is that there be an exemption for mom and pop housing providers. It was discussed during the period prior to the adoption but was not included. We passed our ordinance prior to Concord. Concord passed theirs after we did. A year later they amended it. They amended not only the just cause provision but they also amended the rent stabilization section. I'm not here to discuss rent stabilization at this point. What I'm asking is that Any mom and pop housing provider that owns five or less properties within the state of California be exempted. There's a notification provision that I've written into this which corresponds to section 1482 of the civil code, which is the notification period required by the state of California. You should also be aware that currently with the payment of funds to tenants to vacate a property, it's causing great deal of problem with trusts and probates after the owner of the property has died. I've talked to numerous attorneys who discover this as they begin the probate and trust process. You have to understand the beneficiaries of the trust, they didn't own the house, but they're suffering under the provisions of this just cause eviction. Now, of course, I don't expect any type of decision today. This should be directed to the city attorney for consideration. The city should evaluate other cities It also requires the obviously and I'm sure all of you know this if you decide to move forward we would have two readings of the amendment people would have the opportunity to comment and And I welcome that. I'm hopeful that we will be able to get this amendment completed perhaps by January. Your consideration is appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Crystal Law followed by Carmen Taronis.

Good evening, City Council. The first thing that I want to speak on is the fact that we can see that Ms. Tamisha Walker is not here. She had put in a while ago that she wasn't going to be here, and Ms. Anna Cortez did not put her on the agenda so that she could be on Zoom. So she is unavailable to be able to make votes. She can only make a comment, which is absolutely ridiculous. I think that we should just shut down the meeting and wait because she should have been put on the agenda, which you did not put her on the agenda for whatever reason, judgment call or forgetting. It doesn't matter why she put in already her time off. So she should have been put on the agenda that she was going to be on the meeting on Zoom, and you did not do your job. So I feel like that should be addressed. Second off, the mayor's comments on Saturday, Mayor, Look, let's be real. Everything that has happened in this city thus far, whether it be the shot spotters to the sideshows, all those were policies and stuff that was put into place by Tamisha Walker, Ms. Wilson, and the last administration, which I'm not understanding why you're feeding off of the fact that things are getting better when you're ta it's like just seems like you're taking responsibility for something that was done previously okay i get that you want to ha you know you want people to see the great things there are some amazing things coming out but it's not because of you and it's not because of this specific city council it's because of the things do you know that tamisha walker was the one who put in the grant for the shot spotters We wouldn't even have gotten the shot spotters had it not been for her taking time on her own time to put in for those shot spotters. Secondly, the sideshow policies was because of the last city council. It had nothing to do with this city council. I'm just, not only the comments that were made by people that say that they support you when we were out there was just ridiculous. I can't talk about Homekey, but I'm just gonna talk about the fact that those comments was ridiculous. The fact that you guys think or even would put out there that these people just want a handout is absolutely crazy to me. People are really going through some things. Half of these people have jobs. They just can't afford a place to live, and yet we're letting our supporters make these ridiculous comments. Get your stuff together.

Carmen Taronas, you are on. You have three minutes. Carmen, please unmute your phone.

Yes.

Carmen is virtual.

Yes. There we go. You are on.

Thank you.

You have three minutes. okay thank you and good evening mr mayor city council our ania community i was uh at the meeting in person back in february with some of the same concerns that i'm bringing today which is uh the city safety you know uh trying to attract businesses that can generate employment for all these new projects that this city council is having and trying to build for any of like all this low and very low housing now the home key program and all that but i am very concerned because the city of antioch does not have the infrastructure we don't have transportation no we don't have roads the freeway is a mess every day you bring in an apartment With 100 units, that's almost 200 cars back out on the freeway. Lone Freeway and James Donut has become a racetrack every day. They run the red lights, hit and runs. I mean, bikers, electric bikes. I mean, the city is not safe anymore. I mean, I was... with the possibility of even our BART station closing after more than 25 years paying into it. And I don't know what you guys are doing about stopping this or even considering closing our station that we pretty much pay for it. Are we going to get our money back? Are you guys doing something? I haven't heard anything about it. Besides that, education, the K-12 program for Antioch is chaos. it's chaos i mean my daughter was a sub i mean a sub teacher in at one of the antioch high school she had to quit on the third day because students were pretty much blocking her way coming close to her face calling her names When she reported that, you know what was the answer? Find another way to come to the office, find another way to get out of the school, ignore this behavior. That is not acceptable. I know many teachers that are kids that were born and raised in Antioch. Now they're teaching in San Jose, they're teaching in other cities, Concord, and so on. Again, there's nothing that attract businesses. We have nothing big except for Kaiser, Sutter, and that's it. That's our biggest employers. Safety is a big issue. I was there back in February when I reported that someone broke into my house. They left blood on the curtain. They were supposed to come and check. Nobody responded to me. The day that I was there, the following day, an officer showed up. took the sample, did everything. I asked how long this is going to take. They told me it could take longer because it's been there more than nine months. But I'll call you today. That was back in February. He said, I'll call you by the end of the day, let you know an approximate time. I'm still waiting five months later. OK, so that's a big issue. I mean, we have nothing that attract big investors.

Thank you, Carmen. Can we have Melissa Case followed by Nicole Gardner?

Okay. This comment is actually not really about Agenda 7, even though I already kind of know what you guys are going to do. But I just want to mention again that I was there when campaign promises of public safety and economic development were made. What I haven't seen is any meaningful follow through. And I just don't mean lack of action, I mean there hasn't really even been a conversation at council meetings. And Tamisha and Monica, I went to both of your social media pages, there was no mention either. And you both are running for reelection, and voters need to know what your actionable plan is, if you even have one. There has been no study session dedicated to these issues, no task force, no commission, no comprehensive discussion. about where the city is headed. Instead, we get one project here, a hotel there, brought before council one at a time with no larger strategy or vision tying it all together. And to me, that's not a plan. It's just simply reacting to individual proposals as they come along. Meanwhile, our unhoused population continues to impact our businesses. It also influences any new businesses that are willing to invest in Antioch. Economic development in this city has been stalled, and homelessness is part of that conversation. This solely isn't an issue of compassion. It's also an issue of public safety, economic vitality, and quality of life, yet we haven't even scheduled a discussion to address it. And where is Contra Costa County in all this? East County continues to be left behind. ANIC is carrying a disproportionate share of this burden while the county's continuum of care system has had minimal presence and investment here and now has just started showing up. That needs to change and this council should be leading the effort to demand more resources and accountability from the county sooner than later, not waiting for them to decide if we're worth their attention. So tonight I am asking for something simple. Put this on a future agenda, hold a study session, create a task force, even establish a commission around this. Pick a date and begin the conversation, bring actual policy options back to the dais for public discussion and a vote. These campaign promises weren't made to sit on a shelf untouched and undiscussed. The residents of Antioch deserve more than campaign slogans. They deserve an actionable plan. I'm not going away. I will continue coming to this podium, meeting after meeting, until we start making this a priority with actions and not just lip service. Thanks.

Nicole Garner, followed by Devin Williams.

All right, thank you for allowing me to speak, council. Yeah, so I found that our representative in District 1 was not able to attend earlier tonight, and I was very disturbed by that. Many of our unhoused friends that are, you know, in the city, in District 1, majority of it is in District 1, is our unhoused friends that are unhoused and having a difficult time there trying to get this home key passed, trying to get all these different things, advocates showing up, and I'm not, this is not about home key, but this is just about the fact that, Ana? Very smooth, very smooth, but we're not fooled. We know exactly what you did. We know exactly what you did. Tamisha Torres Walker, our councilwoman representing District 1, she put in all the paperwork that she needed to put in for the Zoom meeting, stating that she was going to be out of town, that she had other business to deal with and take care of. She gave the location. She did everything she needed to do to follow the Brown Act. And you literally, what did you say? Oh, my mistake. So therefore, she's not able to join us tonight. Mind you, it's not a coincidence that we know that Homekey is on the agenda and she's been fighting for that for years. She's been fighting for it for years. And you know that. And you literally took her out of the conversation. We already know what the votes most likely are gonna have, we already know what most likely was gonna happen tonight. But you could at least gave her a voice. She needed a voice in this conversation. She deserves a voice in this conversation. She is speaking for the unhoused community in her district. And yet y'all decided to, what, are we cheating? I mean, what are we doing? We already know most likely where the votes are. Who's gonna vote for what? You always follow Ron. We know what you're gonna do. We know exactly what you're gonna do. Ron has been spreading misinformation to all of his constituents. Misinformation. We know exactly what you're gonna do. But the least you could have done was let this woman who has been fighting for her district and unhoused people in her district to have a voice. You wouldn't even allow her to be on a damn Zoom call. That's on you. Maybe you're, I'm assuming you're following the mayor and the mayor is giving you direction. That's why he got rid of Bessie because you're just going to do whatever he says. But we know we are not ignorant in here. You are to blame. You are to blame. Council member Tamisha Torres-Walker should have been here tonight. Regardless of whatever y'all decide to do, she deserves a voice.

Thank you. Devin Williams.

This will be the last speaker.

Yes. Yes, we have one more after, so we will move that to the end.

Good evening, Antioch Community City Council. Everything Nicole said, because I just found out about this 10 minutes before I got to the meeting, and I was like, whoa, what, what? So I'll say it this way. That's just not right. Anna stood up here a couple of weeks ago, said, do not. let anyone bully you. I'm not sure if that was the process and I'm not surmising, but I'm just saying my thoughts. I respect you. You know that you're my home girl, but I really hope that he's not putting you in an uncomfortable position where you get publicly, you know, humiliated by the community. And I know that's not your intention. I know you. Um, I wasn't going to speak tonight during public comment. But like, when God calls you to do something, you have to do it. And when God calls you to do something, you have to do it.

And so I don't know what God y'all been praying to, but it's not the same as mine.

And people can say, oh, he's speaking crazy. No. I... I'm here for my community. I look at the comments, I look at the slurs, I look at all these things online, and it's all in the name of... It's all in the name of let's get rid of them. Let's change this community. Let's get it back to where it used to be. The fact that Council Member Walker Couldn't be here tonight. And we have, thank God, we have online Zoom for people who can't get here to voice their concerns. I wish she could have her voice tonight because she did work on this. Home key, I can't speak on that. But I will say that I do care about Antioch. People might have differences on that. They have different viewpoints, and I respect that. But what's going on in the city is just like, you call a spade a spade. If it quacks, it's a duck, right? So I need y'all to do better. I need y'all to do a lot better. And if that's not clear, you guys got my information. Let's talk, thank you.

No further public comments? All right, thank you. We will now be moving on to item number one, proclamation. We're now going to be moving on to item number one, proclamations. The first proclamation is in honor of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Sister City, Chichibu, Japan, and City of Antioch. And so this, oh, can I get a motion, please? Sorry, to approve the proclamations.

Move approval of the two proclamations, one for Sister City, Chichibu, as well as Florence, Chiku, Rundell.

Motion from Mayor Pro Tem Freitas. I'll second. Second from Council Member Rocha. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Walker absent.

All right, so I'll read both proclamations. I'll ask if somebody could please come up to accept each of them, and then the city council, after we're done reading both of them, will come down and take pictures with folks who are receiving them. This is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the sister city relationship between the city of Antioch, California, USA, and the city of Chichibu, Japan. Whereas in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated a new international sister city program for the purpose of cultural and economic exchange by establishing relationships between cities of similar size and economic base. Whereas in the 1960s, Mayor Vern Roberts traveled with the League of California Cities to six countries, including Japan, to investigate the possibility of establishing a sister city relationship. And at the same time, Chichibu City was seeking a sister city in California. Whereas the two cities were likely candidates to be each other's sister city, as each city had manufacturing plants, were situated near a river, had a mountain in the vicinity, and were at the edge of the economic sphere of a large metropolitan area. Whereas in 1967, the city council adopted a resolution formally accepting Chichibu as Antioch's sister city, with annual exchanges occurring every year beginning in 1971. with Antioch visiting Chichibu on odd-numbered years and Chichibu visiting Antioch on even-numbered years. Whereas this year in Antioch and next year in Chichibu, we celebrate 60 years of enduring friendship between our two communities having been united by a shared commitment to international goodwill, cultural understanding, and enduring friendship. Whereas generations of students, families, educators, civic leaders, and volunteers have strengthened the bonds between our cities through exchange programs homestays cultural experiences and personal relationships that have enriched countless lives whereas this extraordinary partnership has demonstrated that genuine friendship transcends language geography and culture reminding us that respect honor kindness and mutual understanding builds stronger communities in a more peaceful world And whereas we proudly celebrate this historic milestone, we reaffirm our commitment to preserving and strengthening this treasured bond between Antioch and Chichibu City so that future generations may continue to learn from one another and carry forward the spirit of international cooperation and goodwill. Now, therefore, I, Ron Burnell, Mayor of the City of Antioch, do hereby proclaim the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the sister city relationship between the City of Antioch and Chichibu City, Japan, In honor of the rich history we have shared and look forward with hope and gratitude to many more decades of annual exchanges and lifelong friendships. I see Jessica Davis is here, and I think Toshi Ikeda with the exchange group, who actually was my host last year when I was in Chichibu, is gonna maybe say a few words. So come on up, you guys. You guys can go up to the – hey, Jessica, can you direct them up to the podium where they can talk there?

Thank you for inviting me. So, okay, thank you so much.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. You want to take a picture now? Okay. We'll go down and take the picture with you guys now, and then we'll come on back up and do the next proclamation. Is that okay?

All right.

Council members in the back.

John. All right.

Yeah, students should be up front. Yeah, here we go. There we go. There we go. The mayor has to be up front. Okay, you take yours and I'll take mine.

All right, over here, please. One, two, three.

I'm not sure my phone can get the wide shot. No, I can't. One, two, three.

Yeah, yeah, it's one of those.

So we had seven exchange students with us this year and seven adults that came as well. And so the mayor of Chichibu was here until Saturday and asked that I give you all his best. So he had hoped to be here but wasn't able to make it, had to head back home. But it's a wonderful time. The group's gonna be in town for another week or so. And so they're seeing all the sites with their host families and getting to be around Antioch. So it's a wonderful program. And also this back behind us, they gave this as a gift. It's a handmade, I don't know the name of it in Japanese, but it's where people change behind, and so they, it's a screen, okay, handmade screen. And so they made that and gave that to us as a gift this year, which is beautiful. And yeah. And if any of you haven't been out to Chichibu Park before, it is named after Chichibu City, obviously. They have an Antioch Park in Chichibu, Japan. And so if you go there, there's an area of the park that has a lot of items that they've sent to us over the years that are beautiful. So if you want to check that out, it's a nice little trip to see. All right, moving on to our next proclamation. We have everybody here and present.

So this is... Go ahead, come up.

Yeah, this is... No, no, right to the podium. All right, thank you all. So this is the family of Florence Chicky Virginia Rundall. This is a proclamation in remembrance of her. She was our city clerk. It says, whereas the city of Antioch and the community lost a deeply cherished community member with the passing of Florence Chicky Rundall on June 11, 2026, Whereas Florence Tiki Rundle, born October 1st, 1940 in Miami Beach, Florida, dedicated her life to public service. Whereas Florence Tiki Rundle faithfully served the city of Antioch, first as deputy city clerk and later as city clerk, where her integrity and exemplary work ethic contributed significantly to the transparent operations of municipal government for nearly 25 years. Whereas Florence is remembered as a distinguished individual whose devotion to civic responsibility has set a lasting standard of excellence for all who follow. Whereas beyond her professional accomplishments, Florence was a loving mother, wife, grandmother, and devoted community member, leaving behind a legacy of kindness, warmth, and cherished memories shared among her family, friends, and colleagues. And whereas the city of Antioch honors Florence Chicky-Rundall and memorializes her dedication and commitment to the community. Now therefore, I, Ron Burnell, Mayor of the City of Antioch, hereby recognize the significant contributions of Florence Chickie Virginia Rundle over the course of her distinguished career and life and join the community in mourning her passing.

One of the things, if you are involved in your community early enough and you live long enough, you become very, very aware of the people who truly have made this a community. I remember Chickie very well working with Dottie Marks, and Dorothy P. Marks, I should say. We all knew her as Dottie. And Chickie was an absolutely incredible person. All the years I've known her from the 70s on as a deputy city clerk and a city clerk, I know she got frustrated, I know she got angry, but you would never know it. She never really, except for maybe Dennis. Dennis got it when she got home. But Chickie was epitomized, truly, a public servant. And for those people who are familiar with the old city hall, when you walked through the front door, to your immediate right was the city clerk's office. And Dottie and Chickie were, I would call them, the goodwill ambassadors for the city of Antioch. You know, they love to talk to new people, tell them what's happening in the community, direct them. They would also say, don't go to that restaurant, go to this restaurant, and things of that sort. But for those of us who worked with her, admired her, you know, she had four priorities. I think first and foremost was faith. Is my time up?

No. Wow. Okay.

Wow. Not the city clerk.

That was chicky. Yeah, that was chicky.

Yeah, it probably was chicky telling me to shut up. Anyway, the four priorities that I immediately think of her is her faith, is her family, is her friends, and her community. And so, you know, she was just an incredible person. Her death is our loss. But Dennis, God bless you. God bless your family. And thank you for giving her to us for all these many, many years. Thank you.

I was telling the mayor at the beginning that I didn't realize you were doing the sister city. Chiki was my mother-in-law. Her and my father-in-law went to Japan with the sister city. My other brother-in-law that's not here was able to go through that program. And Chiki and Denny had two exchange students.

all right but i really want to thank you guys for taking the time to do this to honor my mom i know that she truly loved this city she loved serving the city she raised us to really respect this city i graduated from antioch high school my brother both my brothers did my son graduated in 2009 from antioch high school we really do love this city and she raised us that way and I really do appreciate you guys taking the time to honor her in this way so thank you very much We'll let you guys read this on your own time. We didn't want to read this publicly. But thank you guys very much.

All right, you're welcome. Deanna, were you going to say a couple words? Oh, you're okay. Okay. They speak enough for all of us. All right, they had you all queued up. So we're going to come on down and present you with the proclamation. Okay.

Hey, this is their camera.

Well then. You can go ahead.

This is their camera. I want to make sure I get everybody in and not cut off any heads.

They're good. All right. For the news.

Jogging for position. Ready? One, two, three. All right.

He thinks he's a loser.

Chicky, you're pretty tired.

Oh, you're black. This is the curve.

All right, moving on to item number two, announcements of civic and community events. I believe Chief Vigil's gonna be telling us about National Night Out and the City of Antioch Police Activities League annual golf tournament.

Good evening, community council, Ms. Cortez, Ms. Sancion. I'll keep it brief. Across the United States, this first Tuesday of every August, it's the annual community building campaign across the United States, where police departments, fire departments partner with different groups community groups, neighborhood watch groups, neighborhood organizations to promote partnerships, unity, crime prevention awareness. For us, this is kind of a big deal because we go out and we visit our groups and we rotate through all our groups throughout the city. I'm happy to say this year, I think you all got the lists. The lists are going out. We have double what we've had for the last five years. in terms of the block parties and the groups that want to participate. It will be up on our socials here pretty quickly. If anyone in the community is interested in participating, you can come and talk to me at the back of the room. You can reach out to Sergeant Fashner or Officer Amiri for the details and we can help get you set up. And then secondly, I just want to promote the Antioch Police Activities League Annual Golf Tournament. This is a fundraiser that Antioch PAL does. All the proceeds go to youth activities throughout the city related to the schools and extracurricular activities. So the more money we raise, the more we can support youth in a host of different ways throughout the city. That's up on Antioch PAL Socials. It's on the golf courses website. And anyone that needs a quick link or any more information on it, I'll be in the back of the room all night. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you. Is there any public comment? Yes. Debbie Blazier?

Hi, Mayor, Council, and staff, and everyone in the room and out and on the TV. I wanted to piggyback off of the Chief's comments. This year will be our first national night out downtown. So with the help of the Lemon Tree as a new event center on G Street, we are going to close a block party downtown, and we're inviting all of the downtown businesses, residents, and Antioch, people that would like to come downtown and help us celebrate we've got some really good things planned down there some vendors coming up and and we want to thank sergeant fastener and officer amore and the chief for allowing us to do that i understand they have doubled the amount that they've had in years past so we're very fortunate to be able to do it so come down August 4th, 5 to 8, or whenever, and join us to celebrate. Thank you very much.

All right, thank you. And national night out is 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. But you guys will be open 5 to 8. Okay. All right. All right, thank you. Moving on to announcements of board and commission openings. Thank you.

The city of Antioch has the following positions open. Any interested resident is invited to apply for the following vacancies by 5 o'clock p.m. Friday, August 14th. The Board of Administrative Appeals has three full-term vacancies all expiring March of 2030 and one alternate vacancy which is a two-year term. The Sales Tax Citizens Oversight Committee has three full-term vacancies expiring March of 2030 and two full-term vacancies expiring March of 2028. To be considered for any of the positions, please complete an application and submit it to the city clerk's office by the deadline date listed. 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 office. 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.

All right, thank you. Are there any public comments about that item? No public comments. All right. City Council Committee Reports and Communications. Council Member Rocha. Yeah, he did mention the Powell Golf Tournament. Yes, yeah, he did. Yes, all right. All right, City Council Committee reports? Council Member Rocha?

No report. My wife and I were away celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary, so I was gone during this past ten days. So nothing to report, but glad to be back.

Nothing but marital bliss, that's awesome. All right, Council Member Wilson?

Yes, my Delta Diablo report will be at the next meeting. Last week, the mayor and myself met with the golf course. They talked about their financial performance. They talked about their financial performance. They're actually doing much better on their food and their event center side than they are on the golf course side, not by much. They have been putting a lot of work into the golf course and maintaining and improving the facility. However, I think, you may agree with me on this, I think the council needs to have a larger conversation about the golf course. because there's a couple items that came up that I think we need to have a conversation with the whole council in regards to the golf course. So I'm going to leave my comments there. Mayor, you can add to it if you feel so. But those are only the committees that met.

All right, thank you. Mayor Brotem-Fredes.

The Tri-Delta canceled their meeting for July for people to enjoy the summer months, and so there is no report.

All right, so since the last council meeting, we had two GPAC workshops, which is the General Plan Advisory Committee, which Mayor Pro Tem Freitas and I sit on. They were well attended in the community. They were a week or so apart, and so there were probably 50, 60 people that came and participated. I'm not very good with numbers. I think that was good and it was a very vibrant and good conversation. As Council Member Wilson said, we met with the Lone Tree Golf Course subcommittee. I believe, as you said, there's room for a bigger discussion and probably have the golf course come and make a presentation to us about some of the things that they're working on.

Yes, I definitely agree, and some other items need to be discussed, but yes.

And then also, we had two SOAR graduations. That's our internship program for 18 to 25 year olds. SOAR stands for Stand Out, Achieve, and Rise. One of them was at Loaves and Fishes in Martinez. It was a really beautiful event where the interns or the young people that interned made a meal and served it and it was really well done. And then there was another graduation for the last cohort over at Monica's. And so just really proud of the young people and what they're accomplishing through those programs. And so thank you for Director Cabral. I saw her earlier but she's been working really hard. on that program and making that successful. That's it as far as report out on those. Just as far as my comments, I'm gonna keep these really brief. I was asked recently by somebody, what are three things that Antioch residents could do that could improve our community? And so real quickly, I didn't have to think for long, and I actually shared this with Ms. Blazier when she had her downtown Antioch Association, but I said it would be, if I could ask for residents of Antioch to do three things, the first one would be for them to shop locally. Antioch depends upon our sales tax and our property tax for about 80% of our budget, as do our small businesses and large businesses alike. And so whenever we cross the border and shop somewhere else, we lose sales tax to those communities that doesn't get reinvested back in Antioch. The second thing is I would just ask everybody, young and old, to pick up one piece of trash on their way from wherever they're going. Leaving the car, coming into City Hall here, I'm sure there was a piece or two. If everybody picked up one piece of trash wherever they went, I think our city would look a lot different. And the third thing was I would really like to see people post a positive picture or a positive video of something they're doing here in Antioch that stands out to them as being something that they really appreciate or like. I see some folks think it's a sport to look at and bring up and video the things that maybe aren't so great about Antioch, which any of us could drive around and find that, not just Antioch, but a lot of communities but I think we all could do our part and do a little bit more to promote the things that are good about Antioch. So I know that this is rocket science I'm talking about here. These are real complex ideas, but I just would hope people can maybe think about that and maybe we just get back to basics and pick up a piece of garbage, shop locally whenever we can, go to Lowe's instead of Home Depot, and then make sure we're staying local. So I'd like to just share that with you all. Do we have any public comment on any of that?

No public comment.

All right, perfect. Now moving on to our consent calendar, are there any items that are pulled from the agenda?

Yes, the public would like to pull item D, as in David, I, and letter M, like Mary.

And H. D, I, M, H, any other ones? No, all right, so do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar except for items D, I, M, and H? So moved. Motion from Council Member Rocha, second from Council Member Wilson, please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Torres-Walker absent.

All right, item number D, approval of council warrants.

A comment from Johnny.

It's great to be recognized. How do I look? My daughter's watching, so. I was just wondering, I mean, you guys vote on all these big ticket items, millions and millions of dollars, but when you look at the warrants, item D, This is the actual cash going out. And my concerns are that what's going out is not actually what you guys are approving. And as an example, Last month, we paid Tracy Miller another $52,000. Now, that's the woman with the whiteboard, that every time, you know, she had a meeting with you guys, and every time you said, like, let's build a new street light on D Street, she went up to the whiteboard and said, congratulations. You're working together. Do you guys remember that? Because you paid her, like, over hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, just last month, she got another $52,000. I think we need a consultant to tell us that we don't need all these consultants. OK. At the Juneteenth celebration, somebody paid $7,000 for a DJ, OK? I happened to be in the entertainment business. You guys got ripped off, OK? I could have had a pretty good band there for $7,000. Let's go to the police department. Seems like Joe's gonna go hunting. Joe ordered $15,000 in ammo from a place in San Diego, Joe. Joe ordered $14,000 of new shotguns from a store in San Jose. Joe ordered another $46,000 in supplies and $15,000 in rifles from a store in San Jose. Ron, what were you just speaking about? Shop local. What do we have right across the street from here? It's called the Antioch Armory. And don't tell me they don't have your AK-47s because we could get them for you in the morning. You're the only bridge we have between Joe and the money. See, you're Joe's supervisor. Nobody's watching out for what Joe's paying. Some of these officers, believe it or not, they're making more than JD Vance. I know he's not a popular guy around here. But yeah, some of our officers are making more than the vice president. And who is Joe's supervisor? Anna. Why do they authorize all these purchases out of this city, but then they come tell us, don't go to the Brentwood Costco, just drive to the Antioch Costco. Thank you for listening.

No further public comments? All right, do I have a motion to approve item number D? I have a motion from Mayor Pro Tempredis. Second. Second, Council Member Rocha, please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Torres-Walker absent.

Item number H, amendment to the consulting services agreement with COE North America for the inspection of various marine facilities in the amount of $220,850. Thank you. We have two public comments. Can we have Mr. Becker?

Thank you. Yeah, I requested this item be pulled because a hot topic item in the city has been the city's budget, understandably. And so I'm wondering, when do we start having the conversations of where the money is going to be spent in the next couple of years? Because it seems like we're always in this responsive phase. kind of model in the city for the last few years, and we're not looking ahead. And we put into the consent calendar item a contract adjustment for $220,000 because the consultant that was hired to look at the marine facilities determined that two of the facilities needed extensive work. And so now we are literally paying somebody more money to find out how much money we have to pay to fix these facilities. And we put it in consent calendar item. And if Andrew Becker didn't pull it today, there goes $220,000, which is almost 25% of one year of Homekey to find out how much money we have to spend, which will probably be more than one year of Homekey. And then it's a wonder of, okay, but we need to spend this money because this is a city and we have to function. What are we spending the money on? If we're saying we're knuckling down on our finances and we're really hunkering in, we have to understand what is an essential city service. And one of these facilities is the fishing pier. Now, in the 1800s, you needed to go down to the Delta unless there was a store nearby and probably fish for your family. Today, that is a recreational facility. How does that constitute an essential city service? Why don't we just understand that if we are spending $200,000 to figure out how much we need to dredge the marina, if we're buying a lawn mower an underwater lawnmower for the marina, if we're figuring out that we need to fix piers or pylons that a restaurant sits on, Monica's, why aren't we stopping and saying, let's at least put this in front of the community and have a conversation about what we're spending our money on? Because you just gave a contractor a 400% bump in their original contract. without even asking us if that's okay or why they want it. Thank you.

Leslie May?

I want to speak on this as well. I went through the notes, all those thousands of pages, thousand plus pages, and I was really surprised to look at the last contract and read what it said and was signed by the city manager and everybody for this same contract. inspection of various marine facilities, and lo and behold, Monica's was one of the places. There's another place that's down here that was a restaurant is now boarded up. I think that's listed in there. So I'm saying, wait a minute, why are we paying for this when the owners of the property should be paying for these piling inspections? You own the property. Do you pay out of your pocket? Why is the city paying somebody to do this? So once again, to me, this is one of those kind of scams run again that have been going on for years and years in Antioch. Well, let me just do this, and let me put this on the agenda. We'll prove it, and then you don't have to take any money out of your pocket. Let the owner of Monica's pay his fair share to have his own pilings checked. Anything along this riverfront that people own, common sense should have told you before you purchased the property. Have it assessed to see if Is it still on solid land? Is it going to be sinking? All that sort of thing. I mean, common sense, you learn this in elementary school. You know, you don't build a house on sand. You build it on solid rock, a solid surface. Even then, you have checks for your foundation to make sure it's not shifting and sinking and all things happen. We're in an earthquake town. But it's not fair that we should have to be paying these consulting services to inspect other folks' properties. It's a scam. And I keep telling you guys, I know I'm not dumb. And I know I'm highly educated. And so with common sense that my mama, my daddy, my grandparents and everything taught me, plus book sense, I see through this. You let these folks pay for their own stuff. We've been getting away with not paying for stuff for the longest and permits and everything else. We're tired of it. And everything I'm saying is common knowledge. Look who owns Monica's. Look up who owns a lot of this property. Let him pay for his own stuff.

That's it.

We have no further comments? All right. Through the city manager, could we have Mr. Bunting please address some of these questions and comments?

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Yeah, so this project does expand on work that was previously done. We took some direction from the previous city manager to do some investigation of our in-water piers. This was a visual underneath on a boat, take some pictures to see what the structures look like to try to get an assessment of what we might have in terms of the condition of these piers. After that, we received a report and there was a couple of the structures that were deemed to be in need of some additional inspection. This inspection is a more intense inspection. We go underwater with divers, make sure you're taking a look at these piers. It is involving, the parking lot and restaurant where Monica's located as well as the adjacent fishing pier are the two areas that we're looking to do this initial investigation. In addition to the investigation will be recommendations, plans and recommendations for rehabilitation of any piers or anything that might need work. And the intent is to, like I said, get a better idea of what we have going on underneath these two facilities and then provide recommendations if necessary for any work that might be done.

Can you speak to the two things? One, the original bid of 49,000 is now going to 200 and something thousand and whether it was competitively bid or how that came about.

So the contractor involved in here, I did some extensive research back, and this was actually going back a couple years, trying to find somebody to do this work for us. Luckily, I was able to find this particular firm. They do work up along the river for Department of Water Resources and others. They were actually working on the the fishing pier over off our boat launch, off Fulton, was able to talk with this person. They were very well credentialed to do this sort of inspection. Worked with the city manager at the time to bring them under contract to do the initial inspection, not necessarily knowing exactly where it would lead and what kind of issues we might run into. This initial inspection was about a $50,000 visual from And then that just led to the report that with the recommendations from that report has led to us wanting to do some additional diving and looking at these facilities.

And then how about to the question about ownership of Monica's and doing work on that facility?

That is something that the council could want us to reach out to Monica's. The original direction that we were given was to take a look at the piers. We're moving forward with that. This is the recommendation that we have from that initial inspection. If there's another means that the council would like us to try to fund this, that's fine. We can look into that. But at this point, it was to try to move forward with the inspection of the city is partial owner of that facility. We do own the northern portion of that parking lot of Monica's. So that is part of city property, but not the majority of the facility.

Okay, and then my last question is, we're asking for $220,000. And when we went through the CIP, we were very diligent about deferring projects that weren't absolutely necessary. Is it absolutely necessary that we do this project now?

It's hard to say. Following the recommendations, if somebody wanted to take a look at the structure, I think that sometimes it can be prudent to make sure we follow through with the investigation. I don't know. I'm uncertain as to what might be under the water. I can only go with what the recommendations were from the consultant, the expert, as to what we might want to do to further investigate, remediate if necessary.

All right. It seems like a lot of money, $250,000 to inspect all these piers under the water when we have a lot of other things that we're working on. So any other questions from council? No? All right. Thank you, Mr. Bunting. Would anybody like to make a motion on this thing? I would like to have the item continued or tabled to do some more research on this item as it relates to the ownership of properties and just the need for this to happen now as opposed to some other things we're working on. That would be my motion, yes, to table it.

or have it go back to staff for?

Well, go back to staff for investigating it and it could come back when there's answers to some of these questions.

I'll second that.

It's a motion from Mayor, second from Councilmember Rocha. Pass your votes.

Motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Walker absent.

All right. Moving on to item number I, award maintenance service agreement with American Precast Concrete for on-call precast sound wall repairs and maintenance.

We have one public comment. Ms. May?

Yes, I wanted to comment on this because I did before. I can't remember what meeting it was, but we were talking about sound walls and repairs to these. And I had said at the time that why aren't we, people are paying fees, HOA fees, and all these different places where they have these sound walls. Why aren't they taking, what's going on with the HOA fees? I've driven through neighborhoods, I know darn well they don't have gardening. As I see some yards, it's horrible. Hell, I'm 74, and my yard looks better than some of these people's yards. So we know that they're not having landscaping coming through every week taking care of their yards. So I was saying, how come each HOA of each neighborhood, why aren't they, and haven't they been maintaining their sidewalks around their subdivisions or whatever it is? Because this, once again, this is money, you know, $200,000, not to exceed $200,000. You know, that these people need to be paying for it. Their HOA fees need to be paying for this. Why is it coming to the city and they're saying, well, we want you guys to come. No, that's not fair. That's not fair. So that is my comment on it. I think this is... the responsibility of the homeowners living in each of these subdivisions. And I won't say that they don't need to be replaced. It's embarrassing. When I drive, and I don't even live in them, I'm like, God, look at that wall. That is a hot mess. It's a hot mess. So that is my opinion, and that's all I want to say about it. Thank you.

All right. Mr. Becker?

Okay, now I'll tell you Miss May, I live along, I live in a property that has a sound wall along our, back of our property and so unfortunately we don't have HOA fees to cover our sound walls over off of Pruitt. But I will tell you that they are deteriorating. And so, you know, my question is, how much is $200,000 going to cover out there? What does that look like out in the city? Because I remember looking at a bid in Contra Costa County many years ago for 1,400 linear feet of sidewalk replacement that came in at $230,000. So I would like to know what the level of scope is or the expectation is, and then also what is the state of our sound walls out in the community. And then it kind of leads into the next point. Now I'll tell you that when three of my other fences fall down, me and my neighbors get together and it's our responsibility to try to figure it out. So I, as a resident here in the city, would be happy to have a conversation about what our responsibility is for those sound walls along our property lines. But more importantly, I'd like to have a conversation overall about the state of them and what the future looks like for them. And then it leads into, if we are paying $200,000 and this bid went out, Why did we not receive any bids back? What was missing that made contractors not want to come and respond? And then when they did not respond, why did we go and find a company that's 380 miles away? And more importantly, if they did not respond, I have strong faith in my public works department here in the city. And I know that our city staff has been saying we need more money and we want more work. I don't know if they're saying we want more work, but we want to support our city and we want to be a part of the work in our city and we want to see our money spent locally. So it's my understanding that if no responses come back in the bid, the city can then pay their own staff employees to go out and repair those sound walls. So why are we not keeping the money locally once again? And if our staff cannot repair those sound walls, why can they not? And maybe if there is such a state that these sound walls in our city need to be repaired and contractors don't want to respond to repair them, then we need to train our staff and we need to pay them to repair them. And lastly, once again, I live along one of these sound walls, so always happy to be a part of that conversation. Let's keep our money local. Let's maybe not repair a pier right now, but let's definitely make sure these walls don't crumble, and let's pay our staff. Thank you.

Director Bunting.

Good evening. The sound walls that are repaired first regarding HOA and other facilities that are maintained by others, those would not be maintained by the city. These are city maintained facilities, city owned facilities that we would be repairing. And there are some areas that are HOA maybe maintained by others. These would not be those. These would be city maintained areas. In terms of how far does $200,000 go, a lot of it depends on what we're talking about. Various things could happen to retaining walls that demand maybe some engineering versus just putting up the wall. A city's been going away from precast walls and more center block walls. Easier to find somebody to actually do that work. Why did we not get any bids? It's hard to say. When the bid went out, might not have been a good time for many contractors. The project itself is a project that is a good project. We've done things similar in the past. When we did receive no bids, Public Works did reach out to the company listed to negotiate a price knowing that we had a good contractor. We negotiated the price. They fulfilled all the requirements within the contract in order for us to get this work to you guys for your consideration.

All right, and as far as when there isn't an HOA to repair a wall, and I know that there's many in the city that aren't. This $200,000, as you said, it depends on the conditions. This doesn't go very far if it's up a steep slope or if it's a difficult location, correct?

Correct. There can be engineering that goes into difficulties for replacing stuff. There's many things that might increase prices.

And then how about the comment about our own city workers being trained and doing this work themselves?

So currently it's not something that our guys do. They have other jobs that they're working on right now. And this is not something that's in anybody's scope really that they're able to do within the city, as well as the other work that we're already doing.

All right, thank you. Any other questions? Yes.

HOAs actually have legal responsibility to take care of sound walls just generally?

Not many. You have some of the newer ones that are more self-contained. Most of the sound walls were built on arterial streets where they are city-owned.

And were most of them conditions of approval for development and builders and things of that sort?

For them to put up a sound wall, yes.

And so legally that responsibility transfers to the city once they have built them?

It can, depending on how the conditions are, but most of the time it does become a city facility.

So in reality, very, very few sound walls are actually the responsibility of HOA.

I would say that there's a limited amount. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Any other questions? Do we have a motion to approve this motion from Mayor Pro Tem Freitas?

Second.

Second from Council Member Wilson, please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

Thank you. Moving on to Item M, approval of the First Amendment of Professional Services Agreement with MS Investigative Services and Consulting LLC for Allen Settlement Agreement required monitoring services in the amount of $150,000 annually and fiscal year 26-27 budget amendment. Acting City Manager Cortez.

Yes, and actually this item, Mayor, I was going to request if we can move it to the next meeting. I did notice that the attachment that was on the report, we're missing some pages, so I want to make sure that we provide the full document next meeting.

All right, thank you. Do we have any public comment on this?

Yes, we have one public comment. Melissa?

Hi, Johnny Turzo's daughter. I'm watching him. I just wanted to comment on this because it's not the amount of money because I know we're required to pay that amount. The part that I am concerned about is with recommendation number four, As written, it says it authorized acting city manager to execute future amendments necessary to implement the requirements of the Allen Settlement Agreement. And without those amendments coming back to this council, that means the next increase, and maybe even the one after that, could happen without the public knowing, without a staff report on this dais, and without residents ever finding out until it's already signed. And the reason I'm concerned is APD's conduct is already costing the city over 400,000 a year in monitoring alone. And on top of the general fund that's projected to run a $4.5 million deficit, the public has every right to see every dollar that it expands, especially with the APD, and not to find out after it's already paid. So tonight, my ask is simple on this one. Approve the 150. I guess we're pulling in, so that doesn't, but strike the amount of, but strike the recommendation number four and any future amendment tied to this agreement should come back to this council in public on the agenda item and not to be handled behind closed doors. Transparency should not be optional on this one. Thank you.

No further public comments. Do we have a motion to move this to the next meeting?

I have a question. I have a question.

Of city attorney. With regards to missed case comments, I am assuming, since it's been the rule for decades and decades, these would come back to the city council for approval, is that correct?

Not necessarily. If those dollar amounts are within the city manager's authority, whatever those amendments are, they could be approved by the manager.

But there is a requirement of city staff to provide that information. to the city council on an annual basis, and so that document, because it goes through the budget period, would be a public document that all the community would see, that they could comment on each and every one of those items before anything happens, is that correct?

You're talking as part of the annual budget process?

The budget process, we give authority to certain officers of the city to approve on signature, primarily city manager. But we also require that there be a public process and a notice that we all are aware of what those items are.

So the council would be notified, but not the public. Yeah.

Well, because this item was discussed, excuse me, because this item was discussed, because this is an item near and dear to me, you know, we said that this would be a part of the annual process. They would be delineated. The cost would be itemized so that the public could discuss any item on there. Okay.

I'm not familiar with it.

Okay, if we could go back and take a look at it, because I remember talking extensively, my concerns and my fears about giving certain staff members signature authority for contracts and that that needs, we need to know as council members and the public needs to know.

All right. I see Chief Vigil has stepped up to the mic.

I just wanted to add, given the scope of this contract and the services, I cannot think of a single scenario where there would be an increase or amendment that would not come to city council as an agendized item.

All right, thank you. So any more discussion or questions? We have a motion to move this to the next meeting.

So moved.

Motion from Councilmember Wilson, second from Councilmember Rocha, please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

Thank you. Moving on to item number five, public hearing to confirm and levy annual assessments for street light and landscape maintenance districts 1, 2A, 4, 5, 9, and 10 for fiscal year 26 through 27. Acting city manager.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and City Council. So this item, it is being brought to City Council. It is a public hearing. We do have a proponent here tonight. It will be Brian Brown of Clear Source who will be presenting. And then I have Director Bunting who will also speak a little bit more on this item.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL. ON JUNE 9, 2026, THE CITY COUNCIL ADOPTED A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE FISCAL YEAR 26-27 CONSOLIDATED STREETLIGHT AND LANDSCAPING MAINTENANCE DISTRICT ENGINEERS REPORT AND SET TODAY AS THE DATE FOR A PUBLIC HEARING AND FOR THE COUNCIL TO CONSIDER THE ORDERING OF APPROVEMENTS AND LEVYING OF ASSESSMENTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 26-27. THE ANNUAL ENGINEER'S REPORT WAS PREPARED TO BE CONSISTENT WITH PRIOR YEAR'S REPORT, WHICH INCORPORATES DIRECTION PROVIDED IN PREVIOUS YEARS BY THE CITY COUNCIL. THE ASSESSMENT REVENUES WILL PRIORITIZE THE FUNDING OF COST TO MANAGE AND ADMINISTER THE SLMD FIRST, SECONDLY LANDSCAPE AND ARTERIAL MEDIANS, AND THEN THE PARKS. The Contra Costa County auditor's office deadline for submission of the assessments for placement on the Contra Costa County secured property tax bill is August 10th. It is recommended that the city council adopt a resolution maintaining the authorized improvements and levying annual assessments for street lighting and landscaping maintenance districts.

Good evening. My name is Brian Brown with ClearSource Financial Consulting. I'm going to go over just a few highlights about the item before you this evening and give you a little background on the district, process, things of that nature. So the city's Streetlight Landscape Assessment Districts are funding mechanisms used to fund maintenance of various landscape improvements in the city. These are funding mechanisms used by agencies across the state, including many of your neighbors. So this is something that's very common to public agencies. Annually, the city levies assessments to pay for and or contribute towards the costs associated with maintaining, operating, and servicing these improvements. In order to levy the assessments annually, there is an annual process required, which is outlined by the state statute, commonly known as the 1972 Act. This process must be completed prior to the county deadline of August 10th of each year in order to place assessments on the Contra Costa County property taxables. The council completes this process annually through actions taken at three separate council meetings. The first action requires the city to initiate the proceedings and order the preparation of an engineer's report. This occurred on March 24th, and council adopted a resolution initiating the proceedings and directing the preparation of an annual engineer's report. The second action occurred on June 9th when council adopted a resolution accepting the engineer's report and setting the date and time of the annual public hearing for July 28th, which is tonight. The third action, which is occurring this evening, requires council to hold a public hearing and take public testimony. Following the closing of the public hearing, staff requests that council consider the approval of the resolution authorizing the levying of assessments for fiscal year 26-27. A couple of things I just wanna highlight about the item. First of all, that the assessment rates for all of the districts and zones are unchanged with the exception of two. There are two districts which do have an annual, are authorized to have an annual inflator, if you will, to increase by CPI. So those are proposed to increase by 2%. And then secondly, that with authorization, If Council authorizes the levy of assessments this evening, it would generate approximately $2.3 million in revenue to contribute towards the funding of landscape improvements. So like prior years, staff requests that Council consider and complete the third required action, which is to conduct the scheduled notice public hearing and then consider adopting a resolution authorizing the levy and placement of assessments on the Contra Costa County property tax bills. This concludes my presentation, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the process.

All right, thank you very much. Any questions at this point? All right, this is a public hearing, so I'm gonna open it right now. Is there an opponent to this item? We just have a public comment. Okay, is there any public comment? Yes, Ms. May?

Okay, I'm not against this project, but I have a concern. PG&E has been sending us letters and having their people come to our home. And this is in District 1 saying that they're getting ready to do some massive major work. on the PG&E lines, the poles. And I was talking to my other dad. I said, well, what about the lighting? And he said, well, that would have to be worked out with the city. But they're getting ready to tear up and put everything underground. So I'm wondering if they have spoken with PG&E about this project. And if they're working together, have worked out something about this because, like I say, you don't want to tear up or you don't want to do something and then they come and tear it up or they tear it up. So I just think they need to be working in a collaboration, having talks with PG&E to make sure this is all going to work out right, especially for lighting. You know, I've been crying about lighting in my neighborhood. I don't know how long, because it's bad. It's real bad. And so I'm just kind of concerned. So this would be in District 1. I don't know about any other districts, but they have been telling us about our district. Thank you.

All right. Any other public comment? Yes, Mr. Bunting.

Thank you for the comment. I'm unaware of PG&E doing utility undergrounding in the downtown area. We'll reach out to them. I recently have sat with PG&E. They haven't said anything about it, so we'll confirm what it is that PG&E is doing. They're doing a lot of gas work within the City of Antioch, but we'll find out what the issue might be in the downtown area. As for lighting, our street light replacement project is underway right now. They've installed quite a few lights within the city. They're continuing to do it. You may notice pockets of areas that are a little bit brighter than they were before. We'll continue to do that. So I know that they've worked in multiple areas. So if they haven't got in front of your house just yet in the downtown area, they soon will. And those lights will be replaced with LEDs.

All right, thank you. Any questions from council? Director, I had a couple questions. We're going to raise $2.3 million through this. What's the general fund contribution to these areas?

Yeah, it's approximately $1.2 million.

Okay, and then the other question is on the two zones that do allow CPI or allow increases that are below the base rate. Yes. Those can be increased by more than CPI, correct? I mean, they can be technically increased up to the base rate, is that true?

I'll let Brian take that. As long as you mean by the base rate, the maximum rate.

As long as they don't exceed the maximum base rate, they could be increased by more than CPI.

That is correct.

So I guess my question is, are we satisfied with the level of, because there's a lot of room in both of those districts for a higher level of landscape maintenance. Are we satisfied or are the people in those neighborhoods satisfied with the level of maintenance?

To the best of my knowledge, those areas are satisfied with what they're getting and the increase that we're increasing by CPI is good as far as I'm aware of. I personally have not heard of any complaints to want to raise that. If the council so chooses to increase those more than just CPI, something we could do.

Okay. I mean, if there's no reason to do it, definitely don't want to do it. But if there's a higher level of maintenance that we could do because sometimes we kind of do everything the same so the whole city looks the same. And, for example, the downtown zone has over $100,000 in general fund contribution because we don't have very many people paying into it.

I agree. At this time, these rates that we're proposing are the correct ones.

Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Bunning, I don't know if this is you or, and I forgot your name, sir. Brian. So are the districts currently operating in a surplus or a deficit?

The districts, Almost entirely, there might be one I'd have to look at again, but are all operating with a structural deficit. Now, that structural deficit's being funded by the city through the general fund, and there is some fund balance that is in the district, it's not a lot, that is being utilized as well to kind of help offset that. But the district's largely, with the exception of the two,

um operate in a structural deficit deficit and how is how is funding coming into these districts through this assessment revenue okay yeah outside of the city it's going to be this these assessments that get placed on the tax bill and that's it okay and then deferred maintenance I know you guys talked about that um have any scheduled maintenance activities been deferred because of the assessment revenue um haven't been haven't been keeping pace with the costs

The stuff that we planned falls within our budget. Like was stated, there's always room for improvement, but from what we're doing, we build our plan within the budget that we have.

Okay, that's good, thank you. And then based on projected cost, does staff anticipate any districts requiring council action in the next three to five years?

Council action as to...

Things coming back to ask for approval or getting more money out of the general fund. Just coming back to council to get any approval for you to move forward.

In terms of this, we'll be here yearly with the engineer's report and we can have this discussion. It will happen on a yearly basis.

And are you able to, since it's happening on a yearly basis, are you able to project out, like I was asking, maybe three to five years, are you able to project out, or are you really limited to just year to year?

It can be projected, but what we're reporting is a year to year basis.

Is it possible when we do the year to year for you to kind of like, here's the year, I'm projecting next year to look like however?

Yes, that is something that we can come back to you with.

If you can do that, that'd be great. Thank you.

No problem.

And Mr. Brown, on the amount of fund balance or reserve that you utilized this year, it sounds like you tried to maximize that so there'd be the lowest general fund contribution, is that true?

Yes, largely yes. The one thing the city is kind of contributing largely to a couple components which help offset. But yes, outside of that, yes, we are looking to utilize fund balance first. And I think to something that you asked me at the June 9th meeting, the fund balance does exist in the districts that is sufficient to cover There will be fund balance left at the end of this fiscal year. Yeah, this fiscal year, but starting with 27, 28 is where we'll start to see there's one district that, again, there's so many assumptions that could go into this, but you have one that might be looking $15,000 in the hole without any more fund balance to contribute. But you start looking about two, three, about three years out is where you start seeing the districts kind of deplete that balance in the three to five year range.

And ideally, we keep up to a six-month balance, correct? That is correct. That's a max balance. So to Council Member Wilson's point, we're going to be seeing higher and higher general fund contributions in the next two to three years as those fund balances drop.

The six-month operating reserve, if you will, is a statutory reserve. item that is a limit, it's like a max, so you don't necessarily need to hold it, but usually it's suggested that it be there for cash flow purposes, right, so that the district could fund, you know, operate in and of itself without, in theory, the district or the city providing cash flow in the first six months before they receive funding. Anything above that, typically there's gonna be some sort of, what I'll call capital replacement plan or like a planned improvement that allows you to accumulate funds if your district's allowed for it to kind of hold and offset, so you can contribute to it annually and then pay for something that may, you collected for five years to pay for a large project, right, that you wouldn't want to fund in one year or maybe couldn't do. Now, you guys are gonna be very limited by your ability to do that, because your assessments are pretty capped.

So in the districts that do have capacity, are we setting aside money, say, for sound wall replacements? We just heard how expensive those are. Are we setting aside money for something like that at this point?

I don't have any specifics on what the projects are, but that's definitely something that's being considered as, hence the reason for adding a CPI. It's something we're looking at the fund balance each year to say, what is the fund balance at? What are we expecting the cost to be? What revenue are we generating? So it's definitely a consideration.

Okay, yeah, so I think it'd be good to identify, because I know some of these maintain parks, things like that, identify the items that need to be maintained or replaced and then start building a fund up for those things if we haven't started that yet. Absolutely. And I think we've also, council on a couple of occasions has asked for a report to come back on just landscaping and lighting districts in general. And so in the next month or so, I'd like to see that come back for the, the purpose of hopefully fully funding these in some fashion as opposed to having a general fund continue to pick up more and more yeah understood we've heard that we'll come back with something shortly all right thank you um i'm going to close public hearing uh this is before the council for a vote anybody like to make a motion to approve the i'll move to approve all right a motion from council member rocha Second. Second from Council Member Wilson. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

All right, moving on to item number six. This is also a public hearing, encroachment permit appeal of California Resource Pipeline Company, LLC. Could we get a staff report from the city manager, please?

Yes, again, this is another public hearing and we have Director Bunting here again. He'll be presenting on this item.

Good evening, Council. The Union Island pipeline operated under a franchise agreement that expired on February 7, 2021. Later that year, the City Council considered and denied California Resource Pipeline Corporation's, or CRPC's, request for a 10-year franchise renewal. the city subsequently notified crpc to discontinue its use of the city's right-of-way despite that action crpc continued to operate the pipeline and in 2022 submitted an encroachment permit application seeking authorization for the continued use and maintenance of the pipeline through the end of 2026. after reviewing the application it was determined that IT DID NOT COMPLY WITH THE CITY'S MUNICIPAL CODE SINCE ENCROACHMENT WITHIN THE CITY'S PUBLIC RIGHT-O-WAY REQUIRE AUTHORIZATION FROM THE CITY. BECAUSE THE FRANCHISE HAD EXPIRED AND WAS NOT RENEWED, THE CONTINUED OCCUPANCY OF THE CITY'S RIGHT-O-WAY WAS NOT AUTHORIZED. AS A RESULT, IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT THE APPLICATION WAS INCONSISTENT WITH THE CITY'S ENCROACHMENT REGULATION AND DENIED THE PERMIT. IT WAS ALSO DETERMINED THAT AN ENCROACHMENT PERMIT IS NOT THE APPROPRIATE MECHANISM TO AUTHORIZE THE CONTINUED LONG-TERM OPERATION OF 8.5 MILE NATURAL GAS PIPELINE. APPROVING THE PERMIT WOULD HAVE EFFECTIVELY AUTHORIZED THE SAME USE THAT THE CITY COUNCIL HAD PREVIOUSLY DECLINED TO APPROVE THROUGH THE FRANCHISE RENEWAL PROCESS. i would also note that the city has continued to issue separate short-term encroachment permits for specific inspection and maintenance activities on the pipeline those permits were limited in scope temporary in duration and did not authorize the continued operation or occupancy of the pipeline it is recommended that the city council deny the appeal and uphold the city engineer's decision thank you

All right, thank you very much. I'm gonna go ahead and open the public hearing. Do we have a proponent for this project? Yes. All right, you'll have 10 minutes. And I don't know, do you have a PowerPoint slide? We do. Okay.

We do. There we go. Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, and staff. My name is Dean Persinger. I'm the Vice President for Operations for CRC. CRC produces oil, gas, and energy for Californians by Californians. That's what we do. With me today is Esther Brawley. She's our Vice President of Technical Operations for CRC. I want to begin by thanking the Council for the opportunity. to present California Resources Pipeline Company encroachment permit application appeal in a public hearing format. Before I get started, though, I just want to make sure that you all received our comment letter that was sent yesterday. Oh, thank you. As this provides some clarifying information regarding the staff report for agenda item six. Did everybody get that from yesterday that was sent? No? All right, some background on today's presentation. On or about June 29, 2022, California Resources Pipeline Company's predecessor and interest, California Resources Production Corporation, applied for an encroachment permit to maintain its existing Union Island pipeline within the city's public right-of-way. CRPC's application included all information required by the city's form, including necessary renderings, a surety bond, and proof of relevant liability and property insurance. On May 15th, 2023, the city engineer denied the application solely on the basis that two years prior, the city council had voted to deny CRPC's franchise extension application. On May 22nd, 2023, CPRC timely appealed the city engineering's decision. Because the city engineer did not have substantive comments or technical conditions to place on the permit application as a basis for rejection, the city engineer had a duty to grant the permit. Per the Antioch City Code, an endorsement permit is required for any activity that places, alters, or maintains any structure, obstruction, or other encroachment within, on, or above, or below a public right of way. The city engineer provides the application form and determines the information required to approve an encroachment permit. Required materials include maps, sketches, diagrams, or similar exhibits clearly illustrating the location, dimensions, nature, and purpose of the proposed encroachment. posting of a cash or a bond to ensure restoration of the right-of-way, and evidence of public liability and property damage insurance. Where the city engineer determines that an application complies with the requirements of the AACC chapter governing encroachments, the city engineer shall issue a permit for the proposed use of encroachment.

Okay, so I have a team of engineers and inspectors, and we're tasked with maintaining the safety and integrity of this pipeline. It's actually 35 miles long, but eight miles of it runs through the city of Antioch. This is just from the FEMSA, the government website. It's publicly available and it shows all of the other oil and natural gas and refined products pipelines in the city of Antioch. So it's not unusual for our pipeline to be running through Antioch. You have many others that are in service right now. This is just kind of to speak to our operating and safety and maintenance history. We have an impeccable record in the state. We actually operate and maintain over 10,000 miles of pipeline in the state of California. We've gone through extensive audits by third parties and FEMSA and the fire marshal state fire marshal and we always have no findings or violations The city of Brentwood had a they did their own third-party assessment by a pipeline safety specialist and they found that our pipeline this pipeline through Antioch is an impeccable condition and And just to kind of give you an example of the level of care and the standards that we operate and maintain our infrastructure under, the line is rated well above any pressure that we would ever operate it under. We have lots of safety measures and protections that keep the public safe. And we also, at great expense and at a more frequent basis than is what is required by the regulations, we use a very sophisticated tool. that we run through the pipeline to do basically a full scan and measurement so that we can make sure that we maintain that large safety buffer and do any kind of inspections or repairs or replacement well before it could ever leak or harm the city that it runs through. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn this back over to Dean.

Yeah, real quick. So I'm just going to give you some perspective on the California energy needs, right? California has the highest energy prices in the country. That's no surprise. Strict environmental emissions and greenhouse gas regulations, strictest environmental emissions and greenhouse gas regulations in the world, and I can attest to that. I have to live up to those standards every single day we have anything on production. However, approximately 90 percent of California's natural gas is imported from other states or Canada. We import 90% of what we consume in California. California consume upwards of 2.1 trillion cubic feet of gas a year, with the average home consuming 175 cubic feet per day. And just to note, there's over 34,000 natural gas connections in Antioch City alone. So my message is keep it at local. Locally produced natural gas supports local jobs, CRC and producing partners, the Richmond Refinery, union jobs, over 3,500 of those. It's a shorter haul, lower emissions. The fewer miles you need to transport gas, the lower the emissions are going to be. Alternative Union Island pipeline, more imported gas. We want to continue to import gas further through the state. That's what will happen. Gas is transported via truck. pressurized trucks and haul gas where we don't have a network of piping to do that. And I believe this is my last slide. Perspective, the Union Island pipeline supports refinery production and local jobs. With the closing or conversion of major refineries, not something new to everybody here, California has lost about 30% of its oil refining capacity in the past five years, making fuel prices more volatile and expensive. We're all paying that price. With less in-state refining, California relies more on imported fuels, which cost more and more, affected by global conflicts, everybody's aware of that, most significantly the Iranian war has caused fuel prices to skyrocket for Bay Area residents. The Union Island Pipeline supports the Richmond Refinery and helps keep it operating. Keeping the refinery open supports local energy supply, good paying union jobs, and more stable energy costs. Without Union Island Pipeline, the Richmond Refinery must import its natural gas, making California California's fuel supply more expensive.

All right, thank you. Any questions for council?

Nope.

All right, so the opponent to this is the City of Antioch Assistant City Attorney, Kevin Cunninger. So you will have ten minutes, Mr. Cunninger.

Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, the city requests that the city council deny the appeal and uphold the city engineer's decision in this matter. There's a couple of different reasons for that. First is that an encroachment permit is not the intended authorized permit for this type of long-term encroachment that PRC is seeking. An encroachment permit is generally used for some limited work, usually something limited timeframe for a limited scope. That is not what was being sought by CRPC through an encroachment permit process. they wanted the authorization to continue to pump gas through an 8.5 mile long pipeline and continue to do that. In order to do that, they had to do it through the franchise agreement process. So when the franchise agreement was signed, WHEN THE COUNCIL ELECTED NOT TO UPHOLD THE FRANCHISE AGREEMENT BACK IN 2021, THEY TRIED TO COME AROUND THIS WAY ON IT. I'LL ALSO STATE THAT THERE WAS A LETTER THAT WAS SENT TO CRPC WHICH WAS INCLUDED IN THE STAFF REPORT IN I BELIEVE IT WAS SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER OF 2021 ORDERING THAT CRPC WAS SUPPOSED TO CEASE USE OF THE PIPELINE. And so just to go back, because the encroachment permit process is not the proper process for a project of this magnitude, we argue that the city manager had the authority to deny the permit and the denial was appropriate. Second. Even if you were to find that the encroachment permit process was the proper avenue for something like this, CRPC failed to comply with the code. And thus, that would give another reason why the permit was denied. So first off, I would like to point to Antioch Municipal Code Section 7-2.204, which states that you cannot get an encroachment permit if you are already encroaching on the property that you're taking the encroachment permit for. Now, CRPC, in the letter that they sent, admits that very thing. They state that they continued to pump gas until they stopped pumping gas at least in May 2023. The franchise agreement ran up in 2021. The letter requesting or the letter demanding that they stop using the pipeline was also sent in 2021. Second, there is Antioch Municipal Code section 7-2.304, which requires the consent of the public agency before the encroachment is used. In this particular case, the franchise agreement was the consent. That consent was revoked in 2021 and was never reestablished. Because that, and that was the reason that was actually cited on the letter that was sent to CRPC. Now, the letter didn't actually quote this section, but it had those words, and they functionally operate in exactly the same legal realm. Third is that the denial was consistent with the public interest and city policy. The city engineer appropriately considered everything that was at scope of this, the scope of the project, the impact it was gonna have, took those into considerations, and then rendered a decision. Now, also I would note something that was left out in the presentation before this one was that the city engineer can actually do three things with an encouragement permit. They can approve it, they can deny it, or they can conditionally approve it. Now, with the way that this went is, yes, the denial, and let's just call it denial for now, but the denial stated one prerequisite for why the encroachment permit was not given, which was the failure to have or provide the franchise agreement. Had the franchise agreement been provided, the encroachment permit would have been granted. Thus, that could be a conditional acceptance as opposed to a straight denial. I would also like to address, I think, the main thrust of the argument from CRPC, which was that the city had a duty to approve this permit. There is no authority to that case. So without getting too legal into it, they would like to have you believe that as long as they check off all the checkboxes, They can get the permit. They have no authority to do that. And in order for that to be the case, there has to be some other controlling authority, either in our city code or in state law. In case you didn't notice, they didn't provide any of that authority here tonight and has not been provided to the city as far as we can see. There's a strong argument to be made that the city actually has discretion when it comes to approving these types of permits. And that can be seen in the fact that the city can conditionally approve the permits. And to read directly from the Antioch Municipal Code, this is from Section 7-2.305. It says, WHERE THE CITY ENGINEER FINDS THAT THE APPLICATION IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE CHAPTER, HE SHALL ISSUE A PERMIT FOR THE USE OF THE ENCROACHMENT ATTACHING SUCH CONDITIONS AS HE MAY DEEM NECESSARY FOR THE HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE OF THE PUBLIC AND THE PROTECTION OF THE CITY. THE FRANCHISE AGREEMENT WOULD FALL UNDERNEATH THAT BECAUSE A FRANCHISE AGREEMENT GENERALLY HAS DIFFERENT CONDITIONS THAT ARE IN THERE THAT GO TOWARDS THE PUBLIC POLICY. THAT WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS CASE. This was, as I said, argued before, this is an end route around this. I would also note that the franchise agreement was, the extension of the franchise agreement was denied as a city council action. If the city council were to decide that this was the proper avenue, that would essentially be allowing city council to be bypassed in something like this. As stated before, this was something that was deemed necessary to have a franchise agreement. And when the franchise agreement went up for renewal, there was public comment, there was a period for the public to be heard on the matter. This would also end route that. So based off of all those facts, the city would request that the appeal be denied and that the city engineer's decision be upheld. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment either in person or virtual? They're allowed a rebuttal after public comment.

We have four public comment cards and two on zoom. Can we please have Harry Thurston, followed by Bob Brown.

Mayor and City Council, thank you very much. I'm Harry Thurston, longtime resident of Antioch. Actually, I have read the staff report, and I fully agree with the staff report. I want to read the conclusion for the record. CRP's incursion permit application sought a permission that was not a customary use of the incursion permit. was not in full compliance with the requirements of Chapter 2 of the Anti-Administrative Code and was an attempt to seek permission the city had decided not to grant. Therefore, it is recommended that the City Council affirm the City Injury's decision, define the incursion permit of applicant for the reasons stated in the staff report. I totally agree with that as far as reading the entire report. Secondly, I had a question on the report. It mentioned that the city back in February 10th of 2021 actually canceled this application, canceled the use of this gas pipeline. And I didn't understand why the city submitted a letter for them to stop use of this pipeline and they continue using it. How can they keep doing that once we tell them to stop? That's my one concern. So just asking a question. And for the people that's in the audience and on the city council, do they realize the extent of this pipeline? Where it goes? Where it starts from? You know, it starts on the south border of the Antioch property. CITY ON DEER VALLEY. IT STARTS DOWN DEER VALLEY. ON THE WEST SIDE OF THAT IS ABOUT 12 OR 14 HOUSES RIGHT BESIDE THAT PIPELINE. CONTINUE DOWN DEER VALLEY, THERE'S A GULCH WHERE THE WATER DRAINS INTO THE CREEK DOWN THERE. IT'S ABOUT A 20-FOOT LENGTH OF EXPOSED PIPELINE THAT'S OPEN TO THE AIR. THAT PIPELINE CONTINUES ON DOWN DEER VALLEY. IT GOES PAST. the Deer Valley, the high school that's out there, goes past Kaiser Hospital, right along it. There's building all kinds of homes around that pipeline. You go further down, it goes all the way to Lone Tree. You turn left of Lone Tree, and it goes all the way down to James Donovan Boulevard. From James Donovan, it goes all the way to Summersville. From Summersville, it then heads into Pittsburgh, I mean, into the next city. You know how many houses are around there? We're talking hundreds, thousands of houses. We're talking hundreds of thousands of cars driving that road. We got a hospital there. My goodness, if something goes wrong with that, what's gonna happen? So I'm really, I've been opposed to this pipeline from the very beginning. Not only because it's environmentally concerned to me, secondly, not because they're city ordinance, but for public safety, for God's sakes. We need to get rid of it. Thank you very much.

Bob Brown, followed by Mark Jordan. Good evening, Council Members. Bob Brown on behalf of the Western States Petroleum Association, and I'm here to emphasize the importance of investing in regional energy infrastructure, safety, and jobs by supporting the encroachment permit application for the Union Island Pipeline. Safety experts have determined the pipeline is well maintained, in good condition, and thoroughly inspected. The pipeline operated safely and productively for many years. Now, in recent years, the oil and gas industry has undergone massive changes, forced by policy decisions at the state and local level. In the last five years, the state has lost about a third of its refining capacity. And in 2020, the Bay Area had five refineries and now we're effectively down to two. As a result, as you saw earlier, California has the highest energy prices in the country at a time when affordability is the priority issue for consumers and policymakers alike. We have the strictest environmental emission and greenhouse gas regulations in the world, and nobody produces it cleaner and safer anywhere than right here in the Bay Area. However, approximately 90% of California's natural gas is imported from other states and Canada. Locally produced natural gas supports local jobs, a shorter haul, and lower emissions. Projects like this pipeline support the jobs of many skilled workers, and I believe you've got comments submitted also by the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades in support of this, as well as the East Bay. leadership council before the comment deadline. And these skilled workers include operators, laborers, mechanics, technicians, inspectors, and many others who help keep our energy system functioning safely and efficiently. Modern pipeline systems are subject to extensive regulation, monitoring, inspection, and maintenance requirements. The workers who support these systems take these responsibilities extremely seriously because many of them live here too. And further, we'd appreciate additional information on the methodology, assumptions, and data used by the city to assess and calculate the projected economic impact. I can tell you we're an association that represents an industry that holds 150,000 direct jobs in the state. And when you look at indirect induced contracted jobs, that's over 350,000 jobs here in California and over 25,000 here in the Bay Area. The oil and gas industry is 8% of the state's GDP and it's essential in so much of what we do. It powers everything that we do. Safe and reliable energy is indeed essential. For these reasons, I respectfully ask the council to approve the permit application and allow the Union Pipeline, Union Island Pipeline to resume operations. Thank you.

Mark Jordan followed by Tim Jeffries.

It's up to five minutes. The rebuttal did have five minutes. Excuse me, no point of order. Go ahead, Mr. Jordan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a situation where both sides are right and both sides are wrong. And you might think, well, how can that be? Well, the last council and a group of people decided that we didn't want petrochemicals running through our city. Here's the problem you've got. If it's not organic and it's not stone and it's not metal, it has petrochemicals in it. We didn't make this world. Our grandparents and great-grandparents made this world. That diocese has petrochemicals in it. That carpet does. Leslie Mays Walker does. Everything has petrochemicals in it. And to believe that we don't need pipelines is wrong. The gentleman, we've been told that they ran gas through that pipeline after the franchise agreement. That's disconcerting. And we have Mr. Bunting say, well, this is the inappropriate way to allow them to use that pipeline. That's true. It's creative. I'll give you that. But it's inappropriate. You want a solution or you want a problem? OK? Because where you are is the juice isn't worth the squeeze. You've been fighting in court, running bills. His industry makes $3 billion a day. Billion dollars a day. They'll drag it out forever. Not a good way to go. You want it solved? You put them in a room with somebody who can negotiate with the city and a mediator. There's a penalty for using that pipeline. They're going to have to pay a penalty for using it after the franchise agreement was not renewed. But they need a franchise agreement. They don't need an encroachment permit. I strongly support giving them a new franchise agreement. We need energy here in California. And penalizing that company or any other company is not the way to go. The way to go is, what's in it for us? How much are you going to pay us for the franchise agreement? You need a mediator? I'll do it. No charge. I'll solve your problem for you. Quickly. They'll pay because they want it. And they make $3 billion a day. So why don't we do the smart thing and understand that we need petrochemicals and they need what we have, which is the land to run their pipeline through. The argument that they shouldn't be allowed to do that, it's just not smart. They can just, he told you, they can just load up a thousand trucks and drive them down our street and there's nothing you can do to stop them. So which is the better way to convey the petrochemicals? Under the ground or in a truck? By the way, that road has petrochemicals in it. The tires have petrochemicals. The cars, the trucks, all of it does. Why don't we solve the problem? Why don't we get to a room where we can cut a deal?

You want to cut a deal?

He wants to cut a deal. Let's do it. Let's make it stop. Thank you.

Tim Jeffries, followed by Jan Warren. Mr. Clerk, three minutes, please.

Hey, Mr. Mayor, council members, Antioch citizens. My name is Timothy Jeffries. I'm here on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. My members work in these facilities, supporting this energy infrastructure. And I want to start by, I'm not here as an executive, a lobbyist, or an engineer. I'm here as a worker. Every day, I have firsthand experience in the importance of maintaining our safe and reliable energy infrastructure. Projects like these pipelines support the jobs that many skilled workers, including operators, laborers, mechanics, boilermakers, technicians, and inspectors, keep our energy system functioning safely and efficiently. From my experience in this industry, it's not just a slogan, it's a way of life. It's the first topic discussed before every shift and the standard we are expected to meet every day. Modern pipeline systems are subject to extensive regulations, monitoring, inspection, and maintenance requirements. The workers who support these systems take these responsibilities seriously because of our own families who live here too. This project also provides important economic benefits. It creates and sustains high-quality jobs like those of Bullet Makers that provide family-supporting wages, health benefits, retirement security, and opportunities for skilled and trained workers right here in this city. As a union member, I have seen how projects like this create opportunities for working families. These jobs help people buy houses, raise children, contribute to local charities, and participate in communities. The economic impact extends beyond the workers directly involved. Local restaurants, hotels, suppliers, retailers, service providers all benefit from infrastructure provided projects like this. I understand that some members of the public may have concerns about environmental protections and public safety. These concerns deserve to be heard and addressed. I believe it is possible to protect the environment while also supporting good paying jobs and reliable infrastructure. Thank you.

Jan Warren, followed by Ralph Hernandez.

Hi, Chan Warren. I want to support Harry Thurston's comments. When I got the agenda today, I was shocked to find this item on the agenda. I had no idea it was going on, but I hear these same stories at the Air District, at the legislative bill sessions. It's as old as a whisper. I'm not sure, but I don't think that the 8.5 mile pipeline that's going through Antioch and the oil and gasoline or whatever going through the pipeline, that any job here in Antioch is being created by that 8.5 mile pipeline. Harry already told you the harm. of this pipeline around the city. My biggest beef is thank you, attorney and city manager, for saying no when they did not follow the rules. You know, we're in Antioch. This is, you know, this is... We agree that we should follow the law and the rules. This isn't Washington, DC. They're trying to work their way around and talk about all this other stuff about the jobs and the tough, strict rules and so forth. Y'all did the right thing. You followed the rules. They didn't miss it by a couple of days. They missed it by a couple of years. It's time to reconfirm and deny this appeal.

Ralph Hernandez followed by Mark Hughes.

I thought we were supposed to be given five minutes.

Yeah, it's up to five minutes. We're doing three minutes on this item.

Okay, well, anyway, I'm with the city. I think it should be denied the request. We should not have what is, in some instances, a very dangerous transportation of petrochemicals and gases and so on. I do live near James Donilon. I do live near Summersville. But that's not the issue. Can we citizens in the city of Antioch, can we hook up directly to this pipeline and have cheaper gas, gasoline, natural gas, or petroleum for our cars? Or are we just accommodating a big corporation who is using us, using our properties just to get it to somebody else? where they are gonna have the jobs, they are gonna have the progress. Don't let a big corporation come here and basically bribe you in order to what they want. You have to look at the safety of our community. I really don't know to what extent the city has looked at the potential danger that these pipelines create, at the potential environmental damage that is done or harm. We, and you guys, you guys up there as the policy makers, that and many other things you have to consider. Think of the city and its safety and our citizenry here as to whether this is a good thing or not. Don't be bribed. into agreeing to something that is not something that should be done here within our city limits. Just because we have easements, just because we have certain properties, don't let them buy you I mean, if I could hook up my car and get a dollar off per gallon, I might consider it. And say, yeah, that's a great thing. Or gas for our stoves, or electricity for our homes. That's a different matter. What they are proposing is not that. What they are proposing is to make money off of what the city owns. The right of way. And... Here again, I say it regular, you have to think about the citizens and the safety to our community. They're gonna cross by thousands of homes nearby. So please, I'm with the city on it for denial, thank you.

Mark Hughes and Frank Sterling Jr. Mark, you are coming in remotely. Please unmute your microphone. You are on, you have three minutes.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Mark Hughes. I'm the Executive Director of the Industrial Association, which represents many large, midsize and small companies in the Bay Area. I'm here tonight in support of the encroachment permit application for the Union Island pipeline. And I suppose I could spend most of my time, most of my three minutes talking about the economic benefits associated with the project or the many, many jobs that it creates or even the important role the project plays in the overall efficient operation of our energy system. But I believe, based on some of the things I've already heard, I believe the fact is that some of you and perhaps members of the public are more concerned about public safety and environmental concerns related to this project. And here's what I can share with you based on my experience Some of this has already been mentioned, but pipeline systems in the United States are subject to extensive regulations and monitoring, maintenance requirements and inspections. And beyond the national regulations, as was mentioned earlier, California has the strictest environmental emissions and greenhouse gas regulations, not just in the United States, but in the world. I appreciate the fact that members of the former City Council wanted to address issues related to the emissions of greenhouse gases. What I'm hoping the City Council understands is that the decision to not approve the encroachment permit actually results in a significant increase in overall greenhouse gases not a reduction at all protecting the environment and concern for public safety do not need to be in conflict with the safe and efficient operation of a pipeline and i believe in this case they are not i therefore respectfully encourage you to approve the permit application

uh and allow the union island pipeline to resume operations uh thank you so much for your consideration thank you can we have frank sterling you are on you have three minutes unmute your microphone please hey everyone um i had to take off i'm glad i could join by zoom now thank you all for that i hope you get a lot of participation uh by zoom I'm going to speak out against the pipeline. I was with the city back then. I'm with the city now. I don't think some of the arguments made were that great for the pipeline. Leslie Mays Walker is not going to detonate and blow the city council into smithereens, but the pipeline could. San Bruno was one pipeline that exploded. We all remember that one. I don't know the exact size comparison. And I think the city attorney laid out a lot of the legal stuff. And I'm just against it. It's something that the past city council had denied. I hope you all deny it too. And I think it's important because somebody mentioned that it's something that our grandparents and their parents and somebody fought for. That's not the greatest argument. They also smoked in hospitals. They smoked on planes. They had the horse and buggy. Well, maybe the pipeline helped that or the gasoline changed that. But I think the future is moving away from this. Maybe that's why there's only a couple of refineries left in California. So I'll leave it there to spare time. So hopefully you all could fit in your agenda. But I hope you all continue to deny this. Thank you.

Mr. Williams?

Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I would have to say that I'm against these pipelines as well. I had spoken recently with Councilwoman Wilson who said, reminded me that the San Bruno pipeline that exploded 15 years ago was because they were old and faulty and there was no responsibility or oversight on these and they could have been changed out. And so I actually live in District 4 and there's a pipeline running through my community where I live. And so I don't want that same thing to happen. Maybe some of these old pipelines need to be ripped out and replaced with clean energy. We need more solar panels. We need more access to those for people who are low income. And we need opportunities for people to have those types of support financially. And so I would say that this is a direction that we should go in the future. But I was enlightened, thank you, Council Member Wilson, about that education. And so, yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Mr. Becker?

Thank you. Now I'll tell you, understanding the CEQA and NEPA process, that's definitely well outside of my expertise, and so I couldn't speak to the amount of due diligence that went into the environmental compliance, but I imagine here in the state of California it is heavy. What I can speak to is the fact that I have lived less than a thousand feet from this pipeline for the last 30 years. I've walked to school across this pipeline as a young child and rode my bike down this pipeline to high school. What I really think about is the fact over the last 30 years as I've driven down Deer Valley or ridden my bike down Deer Valley The only thing I've really seen change is the sidewalks lift and crack and the landscaping fall apart. But there are those yellow sticks that are letting us know that there's a pipeline underground. And so I imagine it is maintained. And I can't speak to where California is moving or not moving. What I can say is every month, PG&E sends me a gas and electricity bill. And in 1996, KB Homes built our house with an electrical load that supported our appliances, but not our dryer systems and our washing machines and not our stove and not our oven. And so should this pipeline go away and many other pipelines go away, my bills just get higher and higher. And so I wonder, if cities are responsible for making these overall decisions for our benefit instead of those state regulatory agencies that do those environmental compliance checks and balances, why is PG&E coming out and putting bollards in front of our gas meter and the city of Antioch is not coming out with the checkbook saying we're gonna replace your appliances and make them energy and electricity efficient? Because all I hear is this is for the greater good of my community, but I get stuck with the bill. And so what I'll finish with saying to a previous speaker's point, what's confusing to me is if this industry is making billions of dollars and their pipeline is right under these deteriorating sidewalks and these plants that no longer exist, somebody in the city is not negotiating correctly. And so I hope that along with maintaining that pipeline, they might plant some flowers. Thank you.

We have no further public comments. All right, thank you. Is there a rebuttal from the opponent of the project on anything that's been said? We have up to five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Michael Mills. I'm outside counsel to California Resources Pipeline Company, the appellant. I wanted to point out to the council, I handed to the clerk a letter that was emailed to the clerk yesterday. It was to be distributed to all of you. It sounded like you did not receive it before the meeting, but you all should have seen it now. It responds to the points that were addressed in the staff report. And there is a lot of important history in that letter that I'd really like you to appreciate and understand. Most importantly, it's been now almost five years since the prior council decided to reject the franchise agreement. And since that time, there has been LITIGATION WITH THE CITY. AFTER THE FRANCHISE WAS REJECTED IN SEPTEMBER OF 2021, THE COMPANY NEGOTIATED FROM THE CITY A SERIES OF EXTENSIONS TO CONTINUE TO OPERATE THE PIPELINE THAT LASTED UNTIL FEBRUARY OF 2022, FEBRUARY 14TH, ACTUALLY. The company had a court hearing, the city appeared, and the judge at that hearing invited the city to make a motion to enjoin the operation of the pipeline during the course of the litigation. And the city did not do that. And so during the pendency of the litigation, the pipeline continued to operate up until the point that the company lost its legal challenge to the franchise decision. At that point, the company stopped operating the pipeline and has simply maintained it in a state of suspended animation while the litigation has proceeded. So I wanted to make sure that you understood that procedural history. It wasn't correctly stated in the staff report. The other thing I would like you to know is in In June 2022, we submitted the application for the encroachment permit because the company, even though we were involved in litigation, wanted to comply with city ordinances as part of maintaining the pipeline. The city engineer did not act on the application for almost a year. It was not until May 2023 that the city engineer finally rejected the encroachment permit application. The company filed an appeal, and that appeal was stayed until earlier this year when the city finally allowed us to proceed with the appeal, which we're doing tonight. The company very much wants to work out something with the city and that is the whole reason why we're here again tonight before you asking for this permit. And with that, I will conclude, thank you.

All right, that will conclude our public hearing. This is before the council for questions.

Mr. Cunningham here, could you please come forward? So I think the testimony I've heard is very interesting. I'm sure Mr. Jordan would love to be in negotiations with the company, as will some of the other people in this room. But the issue for the council, as far as I'm concerned, is under the recommended action. And that is, you know, is an encroachment permit application appropriate? And the recommendation to the city council is that we affirm that it isn't.

That is true.

We can talk about labor. We can talk about jobs. We can start pointing fingers back and forth. And we got, Lord knows, so many issues in the environment and everything else. But the question is... And please correct me, was the encroachment permit a proper use? And the answer was no. And so the issue before us is to confirm that, correct?

Well, the issue is for the council to decide whether or not the city engineer's decision was correct. But yes, you are correct in that it is simply about whether or not the encroachment permit was the proper process for what CPRC was requesting.

I do think that it was creative. But on page two of the report that we received, on or about February 10th, 2021, CRPC applied to renew the franchise for an additional 10 years from 2021 to 2031, and it was denied by the prior city council. And so then there was a new approach by the company to go forward and try to use the franchise, the encroachment permit, correct?

That is what the city's contention is, yes.

Okay, so I think the issue before us is exactly that. Let's not make it difficult. Let's not bring in all these other issues. The issue is, was the encroachment permit proper? The city engineer said no, and that's the issue before us. Now, that being said, and there are lots of controversies with regards to this particular pipeline. I think Brentwood, a couple years ago, had a very, very big upheaval about this particular issue. The company is not precluded from asking the city to sit down, maybe invite Mark Jordan to come in and talk about a franchise agreement. There are other alternatives. And all we've been doing is litigating back and forth. I don't think that that's the proper course of action. We're not going to solve all the world on this particular issue. God knows there are a lot. But, Mr. Mayor, I think the item is just very clear and very basic, and that is to affirm or not confirm. And if I understand the staff report, the company has not been using that pipeline for several years now.

Based off of their statements, they have not. I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not they've been using it for the last few years. I have no personal knowledge.

Okay, so, you know, I'm very pro-union, but, you know, this does not impact jobs, union labor jobs, because if this is to be believed, they haven't been using it. And so it's hard for me to understand the argument with regards to labor. It's simple, it's basic, and as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Mayor, I will move that we do affirm the city engineer's denial of the encroachment permit application submitted by California Resources Production Corporation.

All right, we have a motion on. Mr. Mayor? Yes.

I'll second it, but I have a question for Mr. Conninger. So I'll second the motion. How much in mitigation fees were we getting?

That I do not know.

Do we know?

I do believe the original franchise agreement was for $75,000, somewhere around that amount. But I'm not aware of any other additional fees that were on top of it.

So $75,000 in totality?

I believe so. I would have to double check that. But even if it was $75,000 a year, I don't believe there's any other fees on top of that.

Just need to see if we were getting any mitigation fees. Thank you.

Yeah, it says in the staff report $226,000 from February of 91 to February of 2016. So that was the fees.

Well, that was for that time period, but then there was an extension that was granted from 2016 to 2021. $72,500. I believe that that was for that entire five-year time span.

Are you aware if those amounts are fixed by law? Those were amounts that were fixed by agreement, as far as I understand. By agreement? Yes. Okay. So negotiable. I have another question for you, Mr. Kendinger. So if we had a franchise agreement in place, then it would be appropriate to approve an encroachment permit subsequent to that? Would you say that's the correct order that this should go in?

Yes, I believe so. It could be an encouragement permit for, you know, the franchise agreement would normally contain the permission to run gas through the pipeline, but there may be other things that fall outside of that permission. So that's what the encouragement permits would be proper for, saying like, you know, maintenance of the pipeline. EMERGENCY FIXES, AND I DO BELIEVE THAT IN THE INTERVENING YEARS, AND DIRECTOR BUNTING, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, BUT IN THE INTERVENING YEARS, WE HAVE ACTUALLY GRANTED SOME LIMITED SCOPE ENCRUSHMENT PERMITS, BUT NOTHING TO THE SCOPE OF WHAT THEY'RE REQUESTING WITH THIS, NAMELY TO CONTINUE USING THE PIPELINE THE WAY THAT IT WAS UNDER THE FRANCHISE AGREEMENT.

So permission to use the pipeline is not found solely in the franchise agreement. It would also require an encroachment permit with it. Is that correct or could permission be given through the franchise agreement?

Permission could be given through the franchise agreement, yes. Okay, thank you.

All right, so we have a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Freitas, a second from Council Member Wilson. Any other questions or comments?

Well, to confirm the way that it's written, it is recommended the council affirm the city engineer's denial. So to confirm a yes vote would be to deny. Correct.

A yes vote would be to affirm the denial.

Just clarifying, thank you.

All right, please cast your votes. Motion passes 4-0. All right, we will now take a 10-minute break and reconvene at 9.55.

Meeting is recessed for 10 minutes at 9.42 p.m.

you you Thank you. Amen. you Thank you. Thank you.

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

Okay, Council Member Torres-Walker is still absent. Council Member Rocha?

Here.

Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas?

Present.

Mayor Bernal? Here. Thank you.

We have a quorum at 9.56 p.m. All right, moving on to item number seven, Home Key plus CSH Mahogany Housing Project Report. Acting City Manager Cortez.

Yes, so item number seven is the Homekey Plus CHS Mahogany Housing Project Report. The next item is a follow up to our Homekey Plus study session we held on June 29th. At that meeting, city council requested additional due diligence regarding the proposed CHS Mahogany Housing Project. Since then, staff has worked closely with California Department of Housing and Community Development, California Supportive Housing, outside legal council, and multiple city departments to gather additional information to evaluate the project from financial, operational, legal, and implementation perspectives. So tonight, I will have Director Cabral, our public safety community resources director, who will be soon to be a community resources department. And she will present the report for City Council.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council and community. Before I begin, since the last study session, we've been working diligently to collect as much information and collaborate with different departments and the developer to include as much information. However, I received additional documents information and was unable to make the edits to attachment A at the bottom for financial requirements, financial items. I've received all of them with the exception of the last two bullet points, the updated appraisal and the independent financial review which is recommended. I also want to acknowledge that this project has generated significant community interest and thoughtful discussion. I also want to thank the council for the direction provided at the June 29th study session. The questions raised by council guided the additional due diligence that staff has undertaken over the past month. This evening's discussion is about determining whether the city wishes to continue moving forward as a home key co-applicant. Staff's role has been to conduct an objective review, present the facts as thoroughly and transparently as possible, and ensure that the council has the information necessary to make an informed policy decision. Since June 29 staff focused on our due diligence in five primary areas We met with HCD to clarify program requirements timelines and the city's obligations under the home key award We worked with California supportive housing to obtain updated documentation including the purchase agreement and revised financial information we consulted with outside legal counsel to evaluate the city's authority and contractual obligations and legal considerations. We met with the city of Richmond to better understand its experience implementing a home key project, including lessons learned and best practices. Staff engaged with Contra Costa County partners to discuss service coordination, referral processes, and how the proposed project would integrate the county's existing homelessness response system and supporting housing network. We are also joined this evening by outside legal counsel Eric Kasher, representative from California Supportive Housing, the Antioch Inn and Suites owners, and representative from the Contra Costa County Behavioral Health, Health, Housing, and Homeless Services, who are available to answer questions with their respective areas of expertise. We are happy to answer and walk counsel through any questions or concerns. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Any questions or comments from counsel? All right, do we have any public comment on this?

Yes, we have 20 comment cards. Can we please have Melissa followed by Denise.

This comment is actually not for me. You all know how I feel about Homekey. It's for my neighbor who couldn't make it tonight and didn't really know how to use Zoom. So her name is Juanita Delnay and she lives in Maravista Hills. She says, dear members of Antioch City Council, I'm writing to express my opposition to accepting the proposed HomeKit grant for Antioch and in Swedes. And I ask you to vote against it due to our serious budget crisis. It is a significant commitment of taxpayer resources. It does not guarantee any placement of Antioch unhoused people. and we simply cannot afford it right now. I understand the importance of addressing homelessness and providing for those in need. However, we already have approved projects in place for housing extremely low, very low, and low income residents. We must now appropriate our limited taxpayer funds where the majority of residents will benefit, not just a few. There are serious concerns about whether this proposal represents the best use of public funds and whether it adequately considers the cost of long-term potential impacts on public safety demands, including additional police, fire, emergency medical services, behavioral health, and peer support specialists. and the crisis intervention personnel which may be needed before approving a project of this size. City Council should provide clear evidence that the cost is justified, explain on how ongoing operating expenses will be funded, and demonstrate measurable outcomes for the residents and community. Transparency, fiscal responsibility, and community engagement should guide any decision involving such a substantial investment. For all the above reasons, I respectfully request you vote against Homekey Project and appropriate the funds or they will benefit the welfare and the majority of Antioch residents. Thank you for your time and consideration and service to the city. Sincerely, Juanita Delnay. Thanks.

Denise, followed by Patrick Scott.

First of all, I want to thank the current council. You inherited a mess, and you've only been here for two years. You can't fix a mess in two years. I want to tell you that I am against the Home Key project because we don't have the funds for it. We are in debt. Number two, putting at risk teens with at risk adults, that's not safe. Number three, it's an unsafe area in the first place. Number four, How come Antioch? Where are all the other cities? We are already the poster child for low income housing. I have the floor, wait your turn.

Please refrain from making comments when anybody is talking. Show them respect, please. Thank you. Everyone, please.

Thank you. Number five, there's no guarantee it will house Antioch residents. And yet we're supposed to pay up to $19 million in 15 years. And I've been Googling this. It can go on for 55 years. So that's a lot more money. Thank you.

Patrick Scott followed by Leslie May.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'm here tonight to express opposition to the Homekey project, primarily for economic reasons. the city finds itself in a very difficult position as far as budget wise. Um, and this project, uh, will actually, uh, increase the future deficits, which I understand and listening to the previous person that, you know, you inherited this. So unfortunately, um, you know, there needs to be some decisions. Um, we've already spent about 25 or actually more than $25 million on the homeless programs and services from the community. In spite of these expenditures, we still face homeless on our, uh, in our storefronts, shopping cart trains on our streets, sidewalks, camping on public property and, uh, shuttered around shuttered businesses. In three instances, the shuttered businesses were burned as a result of fires started by homeless. So what's more disturbing to me are the huge encampments that are allowed to grow, especially around our railroad tracks, and in downtown, and in some of the areas off of Hillcrest. I would like to say that in contrast to the city of Antioch, Neither our neighbors to the west or the east are experiencing the same situations and problems we have. And that's a conversation for another day. In a recent article in Contra Costa News, they outlined trouble ahead for the community regarding budget deficits. This should come as no surprise since the finance manager has been warning the city council since May of 2020 about unsustainable use of reserves to balance budgets, deficit spending, and growing future deficits. It is estimated in 29 and 30, the deficit is expected to approach 20 million. This project alone will cost an initial $750,000 cost and then up to $1.2 million per year for operating costs for up to 15 years. That's an $18 million cost to the city. which will increase our deficits. And it's doubtful that that 1.2 will remain at 1.2 for operating costs over 15 years. We don't... That's it.

Leslie May, followed by Evelyn Scott.

First, I'd like to say that the Brown Act was violated. It was probably another act violated a couple of meetings ago by Louis Rocha when he sat there and said, didn't we talk about future generations having to bear this burden? And then Don Freitas said, yes, we did talk about that. I found out a week later that was discussed in closed session. And you brought it out about Homekey. right here, right after you had had closed session. So that's a violation, and that has been reported. Second of all, there's a lot of myths and rumors about this home key. I will say this much. The place is located in District 1. Most of these people that are raising sand against it don't even live in District 1. You don't even drive down here to District 1 because you look at it and say, eek. Okay, about the railroad tracks, that is not the city of Antioch's responsibility to clear the homeless. That is the railroad company. That's their responsibility to clean up the railroad tracks. Okay, and unless you live in District 1 and have to work with the people that are unhoused, give them water like I've done, take some of their belongings and hold on to them like I've done at my house because they were like, I don't want to lose this. And see them walking up and down the streets where I've had to call for help for them because of mental health crises as they were going through. You don't understand what it is. It is humane to give these people a clean place. You're hearing a lot of rumors and lies. This place is going to be housed. Antioch residents We'll be getting first choice. As a matter of fact, I got somebody who called me from the county to ask me would I be willing to work there. I said yes. I got the call yesterday. I called her back today and said yes. When they open it, I'll be willing to work there with the people as a mental health therapist. And I gave two more people's names that I said would be willing to work with them. How do y'all... residents will definitely have first choice. The reason why they're not in Pittsburgh and not in Oakland and Brentwood is because they've pushed them all here to Antioch. They've pushed them here. So you want to say, oh, I believe in God and I love the Lord, but you speak with a forked tongue because you look at there and say, oh, but I can't stand them humans. They're nasty and dirty. But you'll rescue a dog off the street. Now, Newsom just fined a city, I think it's called Norfolk or something, $365,000 for refusing to do this. He said every 90 days he's gonna keep. So City of Ionica can mess around if they want to. You'll be paying more in fines than you're paying already. You're already paying over $1.2 million for them to do the sweeps every single year. Do the math, you guys. So why not pay the first payment, which is $750,000 and up to $1.2 million a year?

That's it. Evelyn Scott, followed by C.A. Lowe.

Good evening. Why would the council even consider adopting the Home Key project in Antioch? It's ludicrous. It would be financially irresponsible to commit for 15 years, fronting $750,000 and up to $1.2 million each year, with no guarantees of annual increases, especially with the current budget shortfalls. The state is offering a $35 million startup grant, which the California Supportive Housing, a nonprofit organization, will oversee the program, which the city wouldn't run or have any input as to who lives in the hotel. Residents can come from anywhere in the county. There are too many unknown variables such as maintenance costs, rising costs, lawsuits, an exit plan if the overseer leaves, damages, etc. And when the money runs out, who's left holding the bag to pay and maintain the program? How will it affect the surrounding businesses in that area? Has anyone asked their input? I see no positive benefits for the city, only increased burdens of providing services for police, code enforcement, street maintenance, which are already strained. You cannot continue to dip into reserves to fund budget deficits, especially when we are losing prime locations to non-revenue generating projects. The council can spend my tax dollars more wisely on more important projects within the city than the Home Key project. Annie Alcaza-Loco reads, Opportunity lives here, but for who and who pays for it? Make the right decision. Just vote no on the Home Key proposal. Thank you.

Cielo followed by Rebecca B. Rebecca B. Cielo. Is Cielo available? You're next.

If you want to, you can.

Hi, my name is Cielo Martinez. I'm 29 years old. I've been out here homeless for almost seven years. And I actually work myself. And I don't understand why, you know, we can't get the homekeeper people like us because we get accused of drugs and alcohol abuse. Well, I don't do drugs. I don't do alcohol. I work every day. And so does my husband. And I would appreciate a home. I can't afford rent right now, especially the rent out here. It's crazy. My father and mother have been out here for years. And my dad even left because the rent was high. And he was a hardworking man at Denny's. That's all I have to say, to be honest with you. I ain't got nothing else to say to nobody up here.

Thank you, Fiona. Thank you.

Rebecca B., followed by Michelle. Okay, Michelle. Okay, Crystal Law. Michelle left. Okay.

I need to fix some misinformation. The first five years of this, we have already been paid by CDBG funds, and it's up to 15 years that we have to dedicate To my knowledge on reading, like everybody else could have read the staff notes, instead of just listening to hearsay, 55 years is the motel owner's commitment, not ours. The sustainment is going to come from 30% of income being paid for rent and grants that we can still apply for. The funny thing is, is that this whole thing that you guys are talking about of what they've inherited, ooh, they've inherited all this. The crazy thing is is that Mayor Ron Burnell, that is your mayor now, our mayor now, was city manager from 2017 to 2021. He had full control, and you know how he kept us so-called sustained is because he didn't hire. Full staff. I went through all the financial reports from two, we've actually been in a deficit from 2015. That so-called deficit. We've been in since 2015. If you download the financial reports, you can see exactly what I've seen. I can't even believe, I have never seen so many people here for something like this. The last time I saw this many people here wasn't because we had a text messaging scandal, because God forbid we talk about what happened with our police officers. God forbid we bring up the past, right? but now we're sitting here talking about allowing people to lay their heads down on a pillow, but because you think that people have addictions. Yeah, some people out there are mentally ill. Some of our unhoused friends have addictions. But what would you do if you were being put in that position? Not everybody reacts the same to trauma. Not everybody reacts the same to issues that they've had to pain and anger and frustration. Not everybody acts the same. So people go through different issues, different things. They deal with things differently. A lot of these people have jobs. They just need a chance. I was homeless with my family four times in this city because my husband got super sick and we couldn't afford to pay rent. So I don't wanna talk, hear anybody else talk about this dumb stuff about how, oh, we're just gonna be sympathetic towards them. Give me a damn break.

Rebecca B followed by Mark Jordan.

Hi, good evening. Hi, good evening. It's kind of tiring, huh? We've been doing this a little too long. Mayor, City Council, City Council of the Women, Children, and Animals. I've been on the streets for 15 years. In 2009, my mom died two days before my 30th birthday. I was five months pregnant with my second child. That's when my divorce started. Because of my divorce, I lost my kids. I have a cow. She's been with me for nine years. Enough is enough. We need homes. A lot of us don't want to be out here anymore. This is not a choice. This is not an option. It is what's given to us, and we are getting better, not bitter. You know, my group, we try to keep it clean, PG-13. But this is tiring. You guys can buy houses. The city can own them. They do it in Clayton. They bought back Diablo, and there it is. You know, you guys run it. A lot of us want to work but can't work. I've been a diabetic since I was 14 and I am 47 years old. I have no teeth because between Caltrans, Concord PD, Pittsburgh PD, Antioch PD, Railroad PD, taking your things, I have no more memories of my mother. 47 years, my life is gone. Pictures from my mom in El Salvador with color. She came over here. I can't get a job. Still cannot get a job because you want to judge me by my teeth, by my face, by my dog, by my craziness, whatever it is. I'm done. I want a home. My body can't take it anymore. You know, you guys do your jobs. No. Between everybody else, I want to thank Rika, you, Nicole, for feeding us. People come and feed you, and they don't even, they give you, oh, one pizza. You got 10 boxes in front of you. You're like, here, no, two slices with the cookie and the soda and the water, you know? And you, the other night, I'm like, people want to give, but they're not really giving. Remember where we come from. Bible basic instructions before leaving Earth. How much more am I supposed to take? It's not my duty. It's not my job. It's your job. Help our animals. They need it. She's nine years old, and her teeth are done. And I've never given her human food. Everybody else spoils her. Yeah, please. District one, she's not even here. She was fabulous, you're fabulous. Maybe it's the woman thing, you know, I don't know. But please help us. We don't wanna be out there. It's not by a choice. Trust and believe. I have palm trees, but I also got rats and rodents that fall on you. My animals, they get scared with the firecrackers. Thank you.

Thank you.

mark jordan followed by reverend millie phillips this is an incredibly emotional discussion however the city of antioch only has one option and that option is option b to withdraw from the home key project and i don't say that lightly i say that because the contract price is not a realistic price. The contract price of $15.1 million is insane. The height of the hospitality values was in 2016. It has declined approximately 75% from that number. Currently, there is a property

and Pleasant Hill for sale for $11 million with 143 units.

It's occupied. This particular property has a 17% occupancy rate. The value is determined, there are three different ways to appraise property, cost, income, and comparative market. This type of property use income to determine the true value. A 17% mark occupancy rate, it does not support $15 million. There are specific codes that prohibit you from moving forward. The auditor's report from 2024 indicates that we've spent $24 million and we don't know where that money has gone. There is There is no appraisal that has been presented to the public. Under California Government Code 7267.1, prior to negotiation you have to have an appraisal. None has been provided. I have never seen one. The only exception is if you were dealing with a low value property or a gift. California Government Code Section 8314 specifically prohibits elected officials from using public funds for unauthorized purposes. That also includes waste. If you overpay for the property, you are wasting our money, and you have violated that code. California Penal Code. This is not a threat. This is information. California Penal Code Section 424 prohibits makes it a felony if an elected official overpays for a property and commits waste. Protect yourself, protect the city, set this aside, the property's in foreclosure, bite at the foreclosure sale if you want to move forward.

Also, I'm here to answer any real estate questions.

Thank you.

Reverend Millie Phillips, followed by Joey,

Hi, thank you for letting me address you tonight. I stand in favor of this project because it is not just a fiscal issue. Yes, it is that, and I can empathize with the council on wanting to maintain city finances. That's a legitimate concern. However, as we have heard earlier in this meeting, there are plenty of uses of city money for things that are not essential. And housing is the most essential thing that you could spend your money on. The crisis of affordable housing in the Bay Area, and in Antioch specifically, is one of the biggest problems we face. And it is our obligation as a society, it is your obligation as elected officials to meet the needs of the people that live in your community. whether or not they have a roof over their head, especially if they don't have a roof over their head, to make sure that they do. And as far as the cost of such projects, I think that there has been many some comments about this. But I think you can find the money, as several people have said already, that there are grants you can apply for. You can continue, you have some offsets for this. And besides, the amount of money that is spent on serving people who are unhoused currently is offset once those people are housed, because many of those costs go away at that point. So it is not fiscally responsible to keep people unhoused, besides being a moral abomination. So I think it's very important that we welcome people in this community into having a roof over their head, because that is the most important use I can think of, of city funds. Now I think that there may be difficulties with any project, but you address those difficulties if you care about the end result. And this is an end result which I think all of us must care about because we can't tolerate what's going on in the Bay Area anymore. The difficulties, you've heard some of the testimony tonight of what people face. Even roughly middle class people are struggling to pay their rent. They're 30 and 50 percent rent burdened, even people who have decent jobs and decent pay. and I think it is your responsibility to address these issues, and I pray that you will, and you will make the right decision. Thank you.

Joey Flegel-Mishlove, followed by Ralph Hernandez.

Good evening, Council. My name is Joey Flagel-Mishlove. I'm here with East Bay Housing Organizations, and I'm feeling very moved by some of the comments so far. I know there's a, as Reverend Phillips said, there are important budget considerations, but to start with the budget question and not starting from the human question, of what is it like to sleep in the cold or in the heat or the rain or with rodents and pests. To start without all of us imagining that is unthinkable. Homelessness is one of the most inhumane, traumatic, and sometimes fatal experiences that somebody can have. And as elected officials, it should be our first and primary duty to address this. We shouldn't be asking, you know, hearing these comments, we shouldn't then ask, well, it sounds like a good project, but I don't know how we're gonna pay for it. What I would, as a community member, like to see is each of you up there saying, I want to pay for this, we're going to figure it out, it is my top priority. And there are ways to pay for this. We know this is true. As the Reverend said, it is a fiscally sound choice to engage in this contract. First of all, because it's bringing in $35 million from the state. How in a deficit can we turn down the largest grant the state of California has ever offered us? How in a deficit can we put ourselves in a position where it will be more difficult to get funding moving forward? We need to be doing everything we can to make our city attractive for investors, for people who will fund our core government services like homelessness. I know you understand this. We have options. We are in consideration for a federal continuum of care home building grant that the county helped us apply for. Partners have been lining up to help us apply for grants. Let's not give up on those partners. Let's not turn our backs on this project. There are other funding mechanisms. The city could, for instance, adopt an inclusionary housing ordinance with a housing trust fund that would pay for this project in full. We have not exhausted our options yet. So I hope that at the end of this night, we will take up the energy that's in this room and say, we want to pay for this. We can pay for this. Our staff has been working diligently. I appreciate the staff's work looking for more options. And I encourage you to capitalize on that and say, we can get this done, and we will get this done. Thank you.

Ralph Fernandez, followed by Renee Phillips.

Yeah, Raul Fernandez. The home key thing, I don't think we can afford it. Now, I am for the homeless. I am for trying to find solutions for those that are unhoused. It is the humane thing to do, and it is the right thing to do. However, if you're talking about Comfort Inn, you're talking about taking off of the public area something that is income generating to the community. Those people who would go to Comfort Inn to a motel, hotel, they come, they shop at the local business area, which would be that area also, and they provide additional income, ultimately tax monies to the city. So that's a positive, but I don't think that taking on Comfort Inn was the right thing. I'm not saying deny the money from the state. I think you should take advantage of it. But is there some other way that that money can be used? The city should look for, and I've spoken with a lot of people, there should be some permanent housing that is acquired for those that are homeless, that are in need of housing. You do have some communities like Oakland, they're building the tiny homes or whatever you wanna call those. The tiny one or two bedroom units with a small kitchenette, some bathroom. Now, when you're homeless, Any housing is a great help, and I think the city should rethink the homeless problems and go in that direction. Now, get some of the developers involved. They're making multi, multimillions of dollars off of the projects that you approved. They come and say that we're gonna have affordable housing. That's a lie. How many of the homeless can afford what they call affordable housing that they're gonna provide? That's a lie. Now, if you, the city, were to tell them, well, you know what, we want 10% of what you are gonna bill that we are going to approve, that you only charge them $200 a month, they're gonna laugh at you. You need to look at other potential solutions. But this one, with the Comfort Inn, it's the wrong one. Financially, the city cannot afford it. And the homeless people have to understand it. We can't put at risk, financially, the city and its remainder of the community, over 100,000 residents. Thank you.

Renee Phillips followed by Joe W.

Good evening, everyone. Basically, I'm Pastor Phillips. I am out here in the streets. I don't have a church. Me and my grandkids and my son, we sell. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm for the housing for the seven. I'm for the people to get housed. But I just want to tell you a short story. Me and my grandkids and my son, we sell cupcakes. We sell cupcakes to feed the homeless, because guess what? I'm on disability myself. I got hurt. God gave me a solution. My son is a baker. So we feed in this area. So I'm praying. that God touch your heart, because imagine if it was you or your family members. You know, it's necessary. You know, they complain about the homeless, but give them somewhere to live. If you got the money, you can pull it. I know you can pull it. You pull it for everything else. And so much money go to garbage. We need to live. You know, that make them look better, they make them wanna work if they got somewhere to wash theyself and clean. I do catering, so it's just me and my kids. We pack up so many plates and feed. We do Brentwood, we do here. We see the people under the bridges and stuff. We just roll, we ride around. And we put the money back in the community. So if you all ever want to buy some cupcakes from us, basically it's a nonprofit that I have. My ministry is called Healing Through Praise Ministry. And I would be glad to help if you all give me the tools to show me, because guess what? I would love to open up. a women's home to show them how to shower, to show them how to bathe, to show them how to take dignity back into themselves. You know, when you look pretty, you know what I'm saying? You can think better. And then they'll care about their mental state. You know, so it takes a village. You all can put your hands together, your heads together, and help the people. I know you can. I know you can. Because guess what? All things are possible through Christ. So have a heart. Have a heart. Have a heart. Have a heart. I hear God saying, have a heart. God bless you all. Have a heart. It can be your family. Have a heart. Help these people, and then you can clean up the community. God bless.

Joe W., followed by Lily Tucks.

Greetings, Mayor, City Council, Mama New Merchants, Antioch. But this issue of homelessness is something that is very cut and dry from just what I've heard in the little time I've been here. Now, the fact that you have money coming in, the deficit, if you have money coming in, it helps the deficit. You give the people a place to stay, you have a place that they have to stay in which they are then become more positive members into the community. because they're able to then become maybe more working and the money that he's going to renovate the place, that's jobs and money coming into the community. So all this talk about like, are we wasting the money? You're already wasted $25 million. And if you ain't went to jail or got your own felony off of that yet, you ain't gotta worry about no felony on this. That's just basic common sense, I'm just saying. I see on the sign over there by the Walmart that the city took money to put up a sign to say don't panhandle, don't give the money to the panhandle. That's the sign that you all put up, right? And it said that you should put your money toward.

Excuse me. Please be, please be quiet. Quiet. Take a five-minute recess. Five-minute recess.

Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you.

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

Tamisha Torres-Walker is absent. Council Member Rocha? Here. Council Member Wilson?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Freitas? Present. Mayor Bernal?

Here.

Thank you. We have a quorum at 10.44 p.m.

Excuse me, sir, before we get started, I want to extend this meeting past 11 o'clock since we've already interrupted you. If you could give us another second. So can I get a motion to extend the meeting?

I'll make a motion to extend the meeting.

To what time?

How about 11.30?

Okay, 11.30. A motion to 11.30. I have a second.

Second.

A motion from Council Member Rocha. Second from Council Member Wilson. Please cast your votes. Motion passes 4-0. All right, Mr. Clerk, is this the time that this gentleman had when the disruption started? Yes. Okay. Sir, you are able to proceed. Thank you.

Well, I was making the comment about the signs that state that we should not pay to pay handlers, that we should invest our money into programs and things. You literally have the money from a program to invest into the issue that you put up a sign that you spent the money on to pay, and you're saying, I'm not going to take that money. And I'm not going to invest it. And anytime that you invest in people and giving them housing and stuff, it's going to be, it's a fiduciary responsibility of the committee to make sound decision. And that is a sound decision that you are putting toward these people. and that the community of District 1 is very supportive of this to make sure there's success, like the resources are there, the money is there. Also, you need to also look inside yourself as well as the city council's supposed to do. It's supposed to solve the problem. You do 25 million at things to push the problem away. the boulders, the replacement of the encampments, you have wasted the money if you want to say when the money has been wasted and this is the actual solution. As far as the value of the property, It's property in California is pricey. If it's a rundown shack, you're paying $300,000, $400,000 for it in the house when you buy them. So this appraisal thing, like the land, and it's a hotel. Talking about the lost revenue, and if we put a hotel there, like, yeah, people are coming to District 1 to go spend biblicals of money. But basically, you have a decision to invest in your people, build people up. Thank you.

Lily Tucks, followed by Gigi Crowder.

Good evening, everyone. So I work with, I have something to read, but I work with homeless people a lot. And you don't understand. Those people believe in you. This is why you're all here today, to be leaders, to make decisions that impact the life of people. And I have been here, sitting here, and this is the most important issue as far as I'm concerned. I have seen pregnant young girls, I've walked with them. I've been in this country, my husband brought me to this country, and I've been in this country and I see people, young children, that could be our children, with pregnancy, taken into trafficking. And I have had the opportunity to walk with these people and hear their stories and you think, It's because they are homeless. Sorry, because I don't want to use the word unhoused. I want to use the word homeless, because we don't understand. It could be our children. Some of us will also say, oh, no, it could never be my children. But you don't know. Life happens. The table could turn tomorrow. We have opportunity of making. I've worked with some of them that their life turned around for the good. And they see me, they run to me. They are happy to see me. I've worked with children. I learned from them. Why can't we save these people? It's not easy to be in the streets. If you work with the homeless and the needy, it will humble you. It will humble you. I worked with a little baby, and they were looking for a place to stay. And he said to me, and they ruined your toy. And I was like, oh, you ruined your toy? And he was like, Miss Helen, it's just a toy. And it's just money, people. And we can do it. We talk about refineries. We talk about this and that. We have big brands. They have social responsibilities. I lived in Dubai, and they care for their people, every one of them. I work in the domestic violence community, and in Alameda County, they have a lot of domestic violence county. What is this thing with stinginess with this county? We only have one domestic violence shelter. Every weekend, I go and receive calls, crisis line calls. People are calling. They need a place to stay. The Bible says close hands doesn't receive. We can make it work, all of us. If we come together, we will make it work. And we will empower these people and posterity will remember us. But if we say no to these people, one day it might be our children, our grandchildren, our generations.

And I'm asking us why?

What will it inconvenience you? What will it do? We can all come together. And if you don't want to contribute, it's okay. But if you want to contribute, let's make this thing a reality. And that is why we choose all of you to lead us. Thank you.

Gigi, followed by Devin Williams.

I guess I'll say good night. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I was really delighted when I was coming down Golf Course Road and I saw all of the maintenance workers or street workers. And now we have a beautiful landscaping out. But as I got a little closer to Lone Tree, what I saw was an unsheltered person. who had actually fallen out of his wheelchair. When I first moved to Antioch in 2002, I never saw sites like that. And if I did, many people would have gotten out of their cars to try and help the person up. Now you see it so frequently, we don't have that reaction to supporting a person who's unsheltered and living on the streets. I hoped that I'd be able to come here and celebrate with you all as you decide to take the money because every day in my role as the CEO of NAMI, National Alliance of Mental Illness, we get phone calls from family members who are looking for their loved ones who live with severe mental illness who went untreated and then so what you see typically is the symptoms of the illness because they're self-medicating a lot of times with drugs, unfortunately, but that's because they were untreated. And guess what, mental illness impacts one in four individuals. So every single person in this room could potentially have someone they love who ends up unsheltered because of a medical condition. where they're not able to get the support they need. The idea that we would reject 34.9 million dollars and complain when we say we're a city that carries faith, it baffles me. I know that there's opportunities to get the funding needed, not just from grants, but from other bonds and other things that we've done. The city and county has worked very hard. I have a contract in the city of Concord. We've gone out. We've made connections with people. With the small amount of money that NAMI has been able to get, we've housed already 13 individuals, and our contract is only for 113, because we make connections with the individuals, and then we have this little small amount of money to help them get on their feet. What we do with GodWork is connecting people to their purpose. If this housing opportunity is rejected, you're really denying people an opportunity to live. And then you'll have blood on your hands because when we had a memorial this year for the county, the bulk of the names that came up of people who died on the street was because they lived in the city of Antioch. Second largest city in the county, that was followed by Concord, but there were very few names from Concord because they're doing what they need to do. They have Hope Solutions, and Hope Solutions is doing exactly the same thing. They got some funding, and now they're building a hotel. You should have saw it in the newspaper the other day. Rejecting this money would just be cruel. Thank you.

Devin Williams, followed by Vicki Proctor.

Hello. First off, I'm going to say, Devin Williams, Lift Up Contra Costa, we support Project Homekey. Devin Williams, long time Antioch resident, supporting Project Homekey. I think you guys all have a responsibility. I have seen Antioch change, just as Gigi Crowder has mentioned. I moved here in 2002 as well. Because it is so frequent, it's hard to help everyone. We have an opportunity from the state. Not that we have the best answers. It's not a perfect opportunity, but we can work together to make this happen. $35 million being turned down is completely, absolutely insane. We have an opportunity to work together in this city And I don't know how hard it is for people to understand that, but I see a lot of hardened hearts tonight in this room. I see a lot of people rolling their eyes, twisting their tongues, and out of favor of people being housed. I've walked with Nicole. I've served food with Nicole. I've walked with the unhoused people in our community. It breaks my heart every time. Council Member Freyda said that a few weeks ago at one of the meetings. I am sad too, but I will implore you guys to use this opportunity. that you have because this is not going to happen again. If we deny these funds coming into the city of Antioch to solve a problem that you, Mayor, campaigned on, first and foremost, you said you want to solve the homelessness. That is me paraphrasing. But this is an opportunity that lives here and should be here. You cannot turn this away. And besides the rumors that I heard that you are already writing a letter of dismissal for these funds, it's a rumor. I'm sorry. It's not fact. But I'm just saying I hope that's not what you have decided on tonight. Because we, as Antioch residents, want to see everybody housed.

We can all go home tonight to a bed, to a pillow with a roof over our heads. And we have people downtown. in this city that don't have that same right. Because housing is a human right. And I don't understand why it's so damn hard for this city to understand that. We have city leadership here negotiating something that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to uphold. We don't have Councilwoman Walker here because she was dismissed from this meeting. We have an opportunity to change lives tonight. Why is that so hard?

Vicki Proctor, followed by Andrea Ochoa.

Good evening, Mayor and council members, and everyone who is in attendance. I am coming to speak on behalf of the Home Key Project. As I said at the last meeting when we had the study meeting, I have been homeless myself. I know what it is to live on the streets, to have to lay on a park bench to go to sleep, to try to find some kind of shelter when it's raining. And I live on mahogany. I live right down the street from the hotel that we want to have turned into permanent housing for the homeless. There's a lot of businesses down there, but it doesn't matter. I've served the homeless people in this community of Antioch for over six years. Not exactly alongside Nicole Gardner, but we had opposite days. I would feed on Thursdays and she would feed on Wednesdays. But the thing is, all these people need help. You have the funding. It's presented to you. What if you were to turn that funding down and when other opportunities were to arise, you wouldn't even be recognized or even be allowed to even receive anything because you turned down one and you're not faithful. You're not consistent. You're not living up to the promises that are given to us. This is a mighty, mighty opportunity. And just because you think that you're going to be in a debt or deficit later on during the years, that's not necessarily so. People can come and partner alongside of you. Organizations can come and sponsor you. Organizations can come and donate money to help. But you've got to take the first step. They've got to see that you're willing to put forth an effort and you're willing to do what you said you wanted to do, serve the homeless population. You'd be surprised if they could turn these apartments, the hotel to different apartments, and these people can come in and live. You can analyze them and check them out and see how they can operate and get business and get their own employment. If they can get stable and get employment, then they can bring in some money to help pay for the building. There's all kinds of avenues, all kinds of opportunities. You say opportunity lives here in Antioch? Show us.

Andrea Ochoa, followed by Gavin Payton.

Good evening. I am here in favor of Homekey program. When we talk about the Homekey program, we're not just discussing buildings and budgets. We're talking about people, right? Every person in this room knows how it feels to come home after a long day, lock the door, prepare a meal, and sleep in a safe place. Shelter and food and safety are not luxuries. They are the most basic human needs, yet our neighbors experiencing homelessness, they don't have these basic needs every day. It's out of reach for them. Some people might see this project as an expense, but really research shows that chronic homelessness costs taxpayers more than permanent housing. Why? Emergency room visits, ambulance rides, police responses, court proceedings, jail stays, and temporary crisis services that cost tens of thousands of dollars per person each year. In many communities, providing stable housing and supported services has reduced those public costs while improving health, increasing stability, and reducing interactions with emergency systems. But beyond the number, there's something more important. Every person experiencing homelessness is somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's parent, somebody's veteran, somebody's friend. Many of them have experienced job loss, domestic violence, disability. mental illness, or unexpected medical issues. They are not a statistics. They are members of our community who deserve the same opportunity that all of us will hope if we were on the same position, okay? Tonight we have an opportunity to choose a solution that strengthens our community, saves public resources over time, and restores dignity to our neighbors. I respectfully urge you to vote yes on this housing project because housing is more than a roof. It's the foundation for health, safety, recovery, and hope. Thank you.

Gavin Payton. What is your name, ma'am? I will see what order you're in. Okay. Yes, you are in the list. You may start, Kevin.

So I'm a little bit confused. If this says like really on Google that it's actually supposed to help the homeless and it's a building grant that's supposed to help the cities and it's one of the biggest that the state of California has given. Because right here it says funding billions statewide. Confused. But maybe I'm confused. Maybe y'all got some billions that we don't know about. Did one of y'all hit the lottery? Did you hit the lottery? You? I didn't think so. I sure didn't. I got some student bills that I need to pay too. But I'm glad to hit that lottery, remember? I'm glad that the homeless people are here. But also I wanted to point out, again, the same tactics that I've seen that are against us are similar. Where have we seen them? Oh yeah, segregation. We've seen them in slavery. It's the same tactics. Y'all not doing nothing new. In fact, if any of y'all come back and stand up and say something really in ignorance, then please just sit down and do not talk. Because what is actually happening is that you're using the same playbook that it's been doing for over 200 years. Pick something else. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm not sure if y'all have children, grandchildren. That's none of my business. Maybe y'all have some children somewhere. But what if they was homeless? But maybe y'all cool with that. Just like some of y'all forbid that we talk about protecting black women, and then at the same time, the black women that was speaking up, that was here, got disrespected. But still, the people that disrespected the black woman that was sitting here at the few city council meetings ago, y'all didn't protect them. In fact, y'all just allowed the person to still call them gorillas and racist bees. Black bees. Let that sink in. But, you know, I get caught out of my name all the time. I see the same black homeless person out in the street. That could be my uncle. That could be me. Better yet, that could be you. Thank you.

Anne Kitt, followed by Warren Lutz.

Well, the energy in this room is unreal. And it's great to see all of the supporters are still sitting here, and those who are opposing have already left the room. So that tells you a lot. Let's clarify some of the false narrative that was put in here. Excuse me.

There are two.

These two over here. I'm watching them and hearing them talk. I can hear them from here. They're doing the same thing.

Excuse me, could we please just be quiet while the speakers are speaking? I really appreciate that. And if not, then we will take another recess and try this over again. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

So let me clarify some of the false narrative. One gentleman mentioned there's a hotel in Pleasant Hill that's for sale for $11 million with 140 keys. Well, it's already on LoopNet, and I just checked, the land is on lease. So you have to pay land lease every single year. So there is no real estate. So you cannot compare this hotel with that hotel. Another clarification, appraisal. He mentioned there was no appraisal. Yes, there was an appraisal that was done by the city in 2025, and it was signed and delivered to city manager. Cost to build a room? Well, there's a brand new courtyard that got built. It costed him $300,000 to build a hotel room. So you're getting a deep discount. This project was already signed, conditionally approved by the city. So I have a few questions, because we met 30 days ago for the study. If the city pulls out, what's the HCD's ramification? Is it going to cost thousands of dollars to city, hundreds, or millions? And we should clarify that to the people here. And somebody outside mentioned that DOJ just sued five city. So if we pull out, are we going to be the sixth one? And if so, city attorney can clarify how much it's going to cost us to defend that. And I have a solution. If we don't have money, we're in deficit. The city of Antioch has a golf course that's ran by a nonprofit. 40,000 round of golf courses that they sell per year, times four is 160,000 golfers. I bet you every single golfer can afford $1 per round of golf course, or $4, or $5. That's $600,000 annually. Guess what? Perfect PR for City of Antioch. They're not even going to check their tab. $5 extra per round of golf solves your problem. You don't have to go out. You don't have to find any solution. That's your money right there. You've got many other sources you can work on. We can brainstorm it together, but it will be inhuman for you to not approve this project. Thank you.

Warren Lutz, followed by Sandra Roseman.

Is it okay if she goes ahead of me? Would you like to go ahead? It's up to you.

I tried.

My name is Warren Lutz. I'm an Antioch resident, and I'm here speaking in favor of the Home Key project. It was interesting what the last speaker said about the golf course, because I was talking about it with somebody today, and talking about where the city puts its resources. My understanding is we're spending about $400,000 toward that golf course, and we're getting $20,000 back from the operators. and we're talking about a deficit and fiscal emergency, I just don't get it. I did some research and I really can't find any evidence that we're in any sort of fiscal emergency or even that we can't afford this project. What I did find is Antioch has a minimum 20% reserve requirement for the unassigned funds in the general fund. And right now we're at 44% of the general fund, more than double the required amount of reserves. That's over $44 million unused. And I couldn't find a single city our size that's sitting on that amount of unused money. In fact, on a per capita basis, we have enough money in the general fund to fund the daily operations of both this city and a city the size of Brentwood. This is not even mentioning the city's budget stabilization fund. There's another 36 million sitting in there, enough to fund almost two home key projects. The city literally has more money in reserves than it uses every year. Homekey would cost less than 1% of everything the city spends money on each year. We could spend all the reserves on this project 15 years in advance and still have money left over. If you don't want to spend money on the city's Hunthouse residence, just say it. But don't say we can't afford it, because that's bullshit.

Sandra Roseman, followed by Diane Gibson Gray.

Hello, my name is Sandra Roseman. I've been homeless for about 18 years. And it's not because I did it myself. It was because someone who lived next door to me, you know, they came into my house. They came into my apartment, invisible, doing some stuff. You know what I mean? Some strange stuff I never knew nothing about. I never knew people could do stuff like that. These neighbors lied to me. And I've been outside for a long time behind those people. And I want to know if y'all can do something about it. And the lady's name is Joyce Williams. Yeah, I'm homeless because of her. And that's the honest to God truth. And I've been unhappy because of that woman. And I did a lot of homework on her, because the stuff she was doing in my house, I really didn't like none of that shit, because it was real irritating. I never knew people can do shit like that. I caught her in my house. I got out the shower, she was in my room. And her kid was going through my door. And she was putting gloves on. And the woman told me she was jealous of me. I said, well, I don't know what you're telling me. Because I was asking her why she was doing what she was doing. But I never knew people can do shit like that. And I made police reports on her. And when nobody tell me the truth about this woman, they just, you know, had like, you know, they didn't know shit about her. But that shit is true. And I went to other channels on her ass. She's from any, I mean, Conker. And as soon as I, you know, I went out there and I told whoever I was going to, they knew I wasn't lying. They were rusting her ass. But the people out here, they don't want to, they don't want to do, they don't want, they're lying for her. They do all kinds of shit, you know, and try to act like, you know, that shit ain't real. That shit is real as fuck. What's that lady do? And, you know, that's been 18, my daughter was eight, a baby when I came out here. I'm a millionaire. Why would I need Homekey? Well, but no, I'm a millionaire. Why would I need Homekey?

Maybe she doesn't understand what Homekey is.

Let her tell her truth. No, I don't know what Homekey is.

Well, just tell your truth.

But I am a millionaire, and I have people in this town, a person in here. And, you know, my mother and my son died. My mother, what? Thank you, ma'am. The time is up. I'm not through.

Diane Gibson Gray. If you could just hold on a second. Hang on one second.

All right. Thanks, Dan.

Yes.

Thank you. I'm an MBA. First of all, as an elected official, your job, one of your main jobs is fiscal responsibility. And having served on the school board for 12 years, I can give you an example of what happens if you accept the money and not understand long-term what it meant. I think your microphone. I'm starting over.

Yeah, can you start over so we can have you recorded, please? Sorry, yeah.

Okay, I'll do it again. Thank you.

You have your full three minutes.

Thank you. First of all, again, you're not an easy job here tonight. And although our hearts break and there are so many things we'd like to do, one of your first jobs is fiscal responsibility for the greater good. And I'm gonna give you an example of when I was on the school board, I learned that the school board had accepted $1 million for a great project. It was for a land lease for the senior housing across from Safeway, $1 million about 25, 30 years ago. They should have entered into an income stream. So for 55 years, that land does nothing for them. I don't know what's going to happen in 15 years, but your deficit spending... So you're living on savings, and I know he had other numbers, but deficit spending is not good. There are still so many answers, and I've emailed you my concerns. What happens, we're gonna be sued if there's fights or housing discrimination, so many things. If the operator goes out of business, what happens? the city could be held liable for a lot of things. Right now you spend a lot of money. You spend money on executive end. I haven't figured out what's it being spent on, how much you spent, what the success rate is. I know that the number four encampment movement is 1.2 million, who knows what it is. You say something often enough, that's what happens. Wouldn't it be lovely if you guys took the money you're already spending and find out how to help individuals that are here. Right now this is 83 units and it's $14,500 per year. And I think you guys, that's out of your portion. And all 83 may not be from Antioch. If you want to spend $14,500 per unit, spend it here in Antioch. Find other alternatives. I know people are saying, what else could you do? I'm sure there's some good things you can do with that much money. So anyway, I really don't envy your decision making. I don't envy the homeless people. I don't envy anybody whose emotions are just heartbreaking. I just thought I would come and share my thoughts. Thank you.

The next speaker card, they just put their address, Bamboo Way.

okay come on down hello to everyone I wasn't even gonna get up here and speak until my heart was just pulled not so much by the situation but by the heartlessness of some of the people I am Elder Desi. I'm a minister here. I've been here for a while. I'm also a respiratory therapist, retired from Kaiser. I'm also a real estate agent. And like the gentleman said, come see him. Don't come see me. I don't take everybody. I'm retired from Kaiser and went back to work in San Pablo to take care of people with traits in their necks and pegs. After my mom passed, and I'm going somewhere with this, I work for NAMI, National Alliance for Mental Illness, and I make sandwiches, pizza, potato chips and stuff. Me and Nicole works together on Wednesdays. She feeds at night. I feed in the morning time. Right now, my grandson is at home making 80 bags. When we run out, I pay for it. I have a four bedroom, three bath house with a swimming pool. And sometimes I'm looking to see how I can make ends meet. Okay. I want to go back to COVID. When my patients came in, the protocol was to put on all the astronaut looking stuff. But I wasn't thinking of myself. I was thinking of that person, black, white, pink, green, purple. OK? Inside our veins, they're green. But when the blood come out, it's red. We all have that. And I'm trying to sit here and understand. I'm not talking about the money. I'm just talking about human rights. Just as a human being. How could anyone sit, wiggle their legs? At your conference, you had somebody said that the unsheltered just want pity. So you can guess why I'm here. I'm saying yes to the home key. I'm saying yes to human rights. I'm saying yes to just people being a son and a woman of God. I'm saying yes to do the right thing. Just the right thing, like I said, I filled out the paper and my name wasn't even on it. Consider if it was you. We talk about mental illness. If I didn't have anywhere to stay, I might be doing some drugs and everything else and walking around like who, let me stop. Praise God, thank you.

Next we have Tamisha Torres-Walker. Ms. Torres-Walker, please unmute to your phone. You are live, you have three minutes.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hello, Tamisha Torres-Walker, Antioch resident, as well as council member for Antioch City Council District One. wow tonight it has been very interesting my comments related to this issue are as follows hello to the city of antioch hello mayor renault and my fellow council members they have heard a lot tonight we have heard a city that is morally divided on an issue that we could all be on the same page on if enough information had been presented to the public in advance we have had months if not years to address this issue the former council took risks and investments seeked outside funding and put that into safe parking programs opportunity village investing in clearing encampments off the side of roadways and railways at the request of the community

To my peers on council, I don't envy you tonight, even though I cannot be there.

You have a large moral dilemma you have to consider tonight. We're thinking about the budget deficit in the city and how we can cure that after decades of not having a strategy for economic development. Cities that struggle with economic development either don't invest in proper infrastructure, staffing, resources like clearing the homeless from our streets. Not just pushing them around from corner to corner. There are cities that are taking this money who have gotten less than what we've got and they've done more. I don't know what the solution is tonight. I know that if I was there and I had an option to vote, I will vote for the city to move forward. And I am not there. To everybody who spoke tonight, I respect your opinions, as well as your assumptions, as well as your desires.

We're carrying the heavy load of caring in Antioch with a logo that says, opportunity lives here.

And as we address this issue tonight, I hope that we understand that opportunity should live in Antioch for everybody. And it is not just a slogan, but it should be a promise and a commitment. Whatever decision you make tonight, I know it will be because you thought you made the best decision. And we can't do anything but respect that. But I would ask you to think about me and my neighbors who have to live with unhoused folks every day. And we care about them, support Homekey.

Jenny Morales, followed by Brianna Morales. Point of order. Excuse me.

Point of order. We're almost at 11.30, so we'll need to have another motion to continue the meeting. So I will move that we continue until, that we don't have to take the whole time, but to 12.30 a.m. We have a motion to continue the meeting at 12.30.

Mayor Proton. I'll second that. Second from Council Member Rocha. Please cast your votes.

Motion passes 4-0.

All right, back to you, Mr. Clerk. Thank you.

Hi, can I speak now? Brianna Morales?

Jenny Morales.

Um, hello, any city council I'm Jennifer Morales organizing manager for the community engagement program at monument impact where we are also a member of East Bay housing organizations. I'm sorry. I cannot be there in person today, but I'm here virtually. We are here to applaud you for having accepted the stay home keys grant in March of this year and urging you to not backtrack by declining it. I do have to say it is shameful if anyone on council or anyone in this community thinks that giving someone housing is a handout. Where is your humanity? Thank you so much to our unhoused neighbors who have spoken today to share their stories about how important this grant is going to be. I care about you. We care about you. And we will continue to advocate regardless of what happens today. And with that said, though the city faces budget challenges, again, we think it's more important that Antioch residents get to live in a safe and habitable home. Again, the Homekey grant is the largest grant that the state of California has ever offered our community for any purpose. And it's going to allow the city to provide homes for Antioch residents and families experiencing homelessness. And if you all are worried about, oh my God, it's not going to go to Antioch, you can make the requirements, make sure that that will happen. Declining the grant now without continuing to seek funding sources for the project means giving up on the community this project is intended to serve and giving up on numerous partners, including the state, Cocoa County and nonprofit partners who have already pledged ongoing support for this project. Homelessness is one of the biggest issues facing Antioch and accepting this grant would mean the council is demonstrating that you're all committed to acting on this problem than complaining about the problem. Again, we urge you to not backtrack on this 35 million grant and commit to the future homes of Antioch residents. Thank you.

Brianna Morales. You were on, you have three minutes.

Is that Brianna?

Hi, good afternoon Mayor Bernal and city council members. I'm speaking on behalf of the Housing Action Coalition. We're a member supported organization advocating for housing at all levels of income across California. Our members build market rate housing, affordable housing, small infill projects, and large developments. I'm also speaking as an East Bay resident who's watched fellow neighbors get pushed out further and further. We're asking you to accept the Homekey grant and move forward with the project. Creating a sustainable community starts with allowing people to pursue stable livelihoods, which includes housing. We understand the budget pressure the city is under, but turning down $35 million doesn't solve the deficit, but it exacerbates an already existing problem. Permanent supportive housing is one of the most heavily studied housing interventions in the country, specifically because cities keep raising these objections and the research shows overall positive outcomes when investing in supportive housing. As a previous speaker said, every dollar invested in this type of housing creates a return in savings on health care, emergency services and other public costs. Antioch can help deliver 84 homes for people exiting homelessness, folks who are already here and already a part of the community, funded by the state, already approved once by this council. It also has the opportunity to show it can be a reliable partner to the state. Under HCD's own policy, backing out of an accepted grant means penalty points on every future application the city makes across state housing and homelessness funding. Also, just say this as a person who works with developers across the state, predictability is key. And when a city walks back on an agreement, it's not just HCD watching. It's every developer, lender, and partner deciding whether Antioch is a place worth investing in. Earlier in this very hearing, we've heard residents express desire for more resources like transit and other local amenities. Cities that follow through on commitments are the ones that attract the next project and the one after that, and cities that don't aren't. That's true for a home key grant, it's true for market rate housing, and it's true for business and infrastructure investment that overall supports economic development. We don't see this as a decision between fund it now or never fund it. Once the grant agreement is executed, we understand the city has a year to build partnerships with the county, philanthropy and other funders before it's responsible for costs. Declining the grant tonight skips the year of problem solving entirely and kills the project before anyone's had the chance to do anything about it. I regret not being there tonight in person, but listening online, we can see Antioch residents showing up to advocate for what they need. We're asking you to honor the commitment you already made and accept the grant. Thank you for your time. We're always available as a resource as we think creatively to bring housing to Antioch.

Darren Lowndes, followed by Jan Warren. Dan, Darren.

You are on, you have three minutes.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is Darren Lowndes. I'm the Executive Director of Housing Consortium of the East Bay, a proud city and county partner at Opportunity Village. HCB is also a member of East Bay Housing Organizations. HCB is in support of the CSH Mahogany Project as quality, deeply affordable housing for the unhoused, including veterans and transition age youth, is of critical need throughout the region. I urge you to select option A and keep the committed funds from the state here in Antioch. This is your opportunity to invest in a permanent solution to homelessness. I thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Jan Warren.

It's almost good morning. My eyes aren't focusing too well. I want to acknowledge the work that the city staff and the prior council did in order to Get awarded this grant. It wasn't like it was just handed to you You had to qualify and get enough points to beat out somebody else. It was competitive and so Congratulations, you you have been chosen and why we are here tonight. I don't know because We should be honoring what was already signed. You voted back in December the 9th in 2025. It was a done deal then. Why we're coming back and causing everybody to lose sleep and anxiety, I don't know. But I do know that your programs have been working, that people have gotten housed from your safe parking program. The company that's co-partnered with you, the California Supportive Housing, went ahead and bought the property. What are they going to say when you say, well, we don't want the money? They've got to have a partner. They can't work by themselves. Committing to this project has given residents hope who are suffering without shelter in an increasingly hot climate without a safe place to lay their head. Repurposing the comfort end will spread hope to others in surrounding communities. When the council keeps their word and reaches out to find help to say yes, trust is built in the community. This project will also create jobs and an influx of money into the community that has a ripple effect. The 17% occupancy for the existing, bringing in some money, but this will bring in a lot more because they're going to have to build it. The project is an investment. Somebody else stated earlier that ANIAC's already discovered another opportunity in HUD's Continuum of Care Bills Program, a competitive federal funding grant source that provides capital financing for eligible acquisition, rehabilitation, and development, pursuing approximately 11 million through this program. Governor Newsom chose not to ask for additional housing and homeless funds in this year's budget. There are many legislative partners who said no to that response. Our legislators want to continue the progress we've made to create more affordable housing, including for extremely low income. There will be a Prop 1, Proposition 1 on the ballot this November 3rd, the Veteran and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026. I encourage everyone to support this proposition that will provide additional funding for housing, hopefully for you.

Thank you. We have Frank Sterling followed by Elizabeth Levasse. Frank, you are on. Unmute your microphone. You have three minutes.

Hey there. Again, sorry I couldn't stay down there. But I'm glad Tamisha got to say what, get her voice in because I'm really, I'm a little disappointed that you would move forward with this. when a technicality kept out one of the champions of it. But I'm glad she got her voice in there. Shout out to Reverend Millie Phillips and the other clergy, the conscience of our community. And I just want to say, I feel like we sure got a lot of people there doing their best to make an argument for why not to help house people. I don't know where their conscience is or how they develop the soul for that argument, especially by watching some of them probably came around when houses were about $28,000 in Antioch. And you know how much they are now. When going to school to get a higher education in the UC system was probably a thousand bucks, maybe 1200 a year. Okay. And for some of the more religious folks, you might remember this old proverb, there but for the grace of God, there go I. And whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. That's Jesus speaking there. Yeah. I feel like we all know this project isn't going to solve the housing crisis in Antioch or Contra Costa County, but it's going to house these 85 people and change their lives. I told you it saved a live of a friend of mine that used to sleep down there by the Alano club. He's still alive because he got housing. You've heard people testify expert testimony here, um, that the research shows that housing people actually saves money. Um, you've also heard numerous times tonight that there's other options to help take care of the fund. It's not always going to be, or it may not always have to be on the 1.7 million. Uh, I don't know. I didn't really come prepared to say a lot about this. I just feel like this is something the city needs to do. If you're not just if you're going to be a leader and not just an elected official, we need to get housing for these folks like i said it's not going to completely solve the problem but it's going to make a big difference and it's going to make the complete difference for those 85 people and other folks that might get in after that um so i'm running out of time here so i would urge you all i hope you've been moved tonight up there on the council We're without one of the champions you know who would be voting yes. So I hope you all get moved tonight to take this grant and to vote yes for this.

Elizabeth Levesque, you are on. Please unmute your computer. You are on. You have three minutes.

Thank you so much. Are you able to hear me?

Yes, ma'am. You are on.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Council, and residents of Antioch. My name is Elizabeth Lavasse. I'm a national award-winning special education advocate, and I'm also the CEO and president of We Get It Foundation. We are a nonprofit that serves the city of Antioch and the surrounding. I want to talk about supporting moving forward with Homekey Plus. I've been talking about this for some time. What has been truly heartbreaking to me is to watch the people in this city talk about human beings in the most disgusting way. Our unhoused are being spoken about like they are trash, like they are criminals, simply for existing. Like they are not someone's child, parent, sibling, veteran, a former foster youth, a disabled loved one, or a neighbor. I have seen people comment to me directly, take them out to pasture. That is disgusting and it's cruel. We can have hard conversations in the city about homelessness without losing our humanity. Homekey Plus is not just about a building. It's about permanent supportive housing. It is about people who need stability, services, and a real chance to get off the street. This project includes support for our veterans and transitional aged youth. We are talking about young people who age out of the system. who have nowhere to go. We are also talking about veterans who have served our country and should not be left outside in the city that they have come home to. Antioch already has unhoused residents. They are already here. They are already sleeping outside. They are already being moved from place to place. Businesses are impacted. Families are impacted. First responders are responding and doing nothing is not free. That costs us money and it costs lives. The question shouldn't be, how do we make this disappear, and how do we hate people more? The question should be, how do we do this responsibly? Rejecting the project because some people hate the unhoused is not leadership. Leadership is not letting the loudest and cruelest voices decide whether vulnerable people deserve shelter. Leadership is about moving forward with accountability, with compassion, and with safeguards, with a real plan. Please, City Council, consider moving forward with Homekey Plus, support our unhoused residents, our transitional aged foster youth, our families, our veterans, and send a message that Antioch is not a city where cruelty is mistaken for common sense. As a resident of District 1, I am incredibly disappointed that District 1's voice is not sitting on that council tonight. We are not represented tonight in District 1. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, you know, I want to first say thank you to city staff. Um, who've really worked very hard over the last few weeks and last month to address a lot of the concerns by the community and the council. I will say that for me, this is very difficult tonight because when I first started talking about Homekey and this city, I saw that our city was broken. and that we needed some help. And I really thought that this was a solution. And I don't know where we went off track because something that should be seen as a blessing, that is a first in a lifetime revolutionary funding opportunity has actually come in and fractured our city more. And to me, what that says here in our city with all of the different problems that we're dealing with is right now inside of ourselves, we're fighting the healing. I don't know if it's because we're scared. I don't know if it's because we've lost faith. I don't know if it's because we've lost trust. but we are pushing against each other. And what was supposed to be a bridge has instead created this chasm in our community. To hear individuals get up and say that property costs too much money, to hear people say this is something we can't afford, you realize that a project that costs over $300,000 per unit to acquire and convert, your one-time commitment to acquire and convert that property is $8,900 per unit. $8,900. Mr. Mayor, At that community event, you said maybe we need to look towards short-term transitional solutions instead of permanent solutions. And you even mentioned pallet shelters. Do you know that those temporary pallet shelters cost $22,000 a piece? You would pay twice as much for a temporary solution as a permanent one? That doesn't sound like a smart fiscally responsible decision and I don't think the state would see it as such either. And what has been missing is what does happen if we don't go forward? What are the ramifications? And so that's my three minutes and we talk in circles, but I will say that for $14,000 to house an individual and provide services is a remarkable, remarkable cost.

Nicole?

Good evening, council, again. My apologies for my behavior earlier this evening. No excuses, my apologies. This is really a passionate conversation and time. A lot of us advocates have been fighting for permanent supportive housing for many, many years. I guess what I want to say, and I don't even think I'll take the whole three minutes. I always say that, but I do. And I just mean that because I've been coming up here for 10 years saying the same thing over and over. We've all been saying the same thing. Housing is important. Of course, we need this. We all know that, right? I don't really appreciate the misinformation, Mayor, that has been put out about this project to your constituents or to your supporters. That's been frustrating. It's been really frustrating having to deal with that and combat some of the things that people have been saying online just by listening to what you're saying. But I guess I just want to say, I WAS PRAYING A LITTLE BIT JUST A MINUTE AGO. I THINK I JUST WANT TO SAY TO THE COMMUNITY THAT I UNDERSTAND, I AM NOT NAIEVE THAT PEOPLE HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT THIS PROJECT. OKAY? IT'S NOT EVEN ABOUT THAT. TO ME, I THINK EVERYBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES AND THEIR OPINIONS AND WHAT THEY AGREE WITH OR THEY DON'T. AND SOME OF THE CONCERNS ARE GENUINE CONCERNS. And so I've always said that I am for home key. Many people have been fighting for that for years, including our councilwoman, Tamisha Torres Walker. And I just feel as though To everybody in the audience who does not want this, we still have to figure something out. I think all of us love this city of Antioch. And regardless if I'm passionate about unhoused people and want to see them housed, we all want to literally see them off of our streets for whatever reason, whether it's economic development, whether it's our business owners that are losing business, businesses not wanting to come here, all these different things. So we have to figure it out. And we have to hold our elected officials accountable because even though our mayor may have had some of y'all come here tonight and say, no, we are not for this, but I have not heard one solution tonight. Not from him, not from anybody on council that might oppose this or anybody in the audience. So if we really love this city, and I'm talking to people that don't even agree with me. If we love this city, like we say we love this city, we need to deal with this homeless problem. We have to, regardless of whatever it looks like. It may look differently to everybody else, but we need to get folks off the streets. So please, we need to come together. Please do not make a decision without letting us know what is the plan. We all should be wondering what the plan is.

Thank you. We have no further public comments.

Oh, nope, oh, okay.

I don't see a card, I'm sorry.

All right, let's get it.

Okay, because I'm very tired. I'm Kirsten Johnson-Bell, a resident of District One. I was in my bed watching this and I was quite puzzled why Tamisha wasn't here because I know this is something that she's quite passionate about, number one. Number two, Short story, I'm a former foster youth. Surprise, right? And I was able to access services through San Francisco. And I know that you and Daniel Leary, y'all both went to that mayor's class. It was like when you first started becoming a mayor. And I think y'all in this training program were like Harvard together. So I was thinking, like, maybe y'all should have talked about this, because, you know, I work for San Francisco. I work with homeless people, unhoused folks that are dealing with mental illness, coming out of foster care, coming out of... Jail, right, that's what I do every single day. I get on the four at five in the morning, six, I wake up at five, get on the freeway, gotta get to San Francisco by eight, right? Two hours of traffic in order to make a livable wage because opportunity doesn't live here, right? I'm someone that's well educated, in school now for my social work degree. And this is the work that I literally do. Even if I came to work here, I wouldn't make the money that I make in San Francisco. That's a separate topic. However, this is my job that I do every day. And the amount of people that are impacted by receiving services, which is getting connected to mental health treatment, behavioral health treatment, because I work for a behavioral health program, getting connected with residential treatment for substance use disorder, outpatient treatment for substance use disorder, getting able to be connected with case management, which is what I do, partner with a clinician. And there's one other thing. Oh, getting connected with medical, like just a regular primary care physician and the importance of that, right? Because I did used to work at another program that served people that had alcohol use disorder. Alcohol in San Francisco, you guys can look it up. It was a very... What do you call it? Prestigious forward-thinking program, right? And they spent $5 million to house 56 people. They did close it, but it did have great success because those people were spending... the city's money by calling the ED, by getting all these different skirt team coming out to pick up people, taking them to the ED. Then the ED, like it's a continuous cost, right? So I don't, I'm so confused on why this is like happening, why this conversation is happening. I was like baffled in my bed. And I also didn't know that y'all opened a public comment. So that should have been posted like somewhere else. Like, I don't know where this stuff is at, but I didn't know. And I had to get up. out of my bed to come and say what I wanted to say, that's irritating. But I don't understand why this is even a conversation at all.

Thank you. Thank you very much. That is your time. We have no further comments on this agenda item.

All right, so we're through public comment. This is before the city council for any questions we have. Eric Hacher is an attorney who is here to also answer some questions related to, specifically to Homekey Plus. He has a lot of experience with these projects, so open up to council for any questions or comments.

One of the things that we have someone we can ask questions to, When this process started, I've supported this application process because of the significant amount of federal dollars, state dollars, in this case state, that would be coming to bring a permanent housing opportunity to our city. And sitting on the CDBG committee, the standing committee, I'm always looking to find ways to take state funding, federal funding, to be able to provide services that are necessary to our community. Each year, I think this is my second year on the CDBG, we have a budget of about $850,000 to $900,000. that we allocate to provide services to youth, families, veterans, to keep people in their homes with rehabilitation and different things that we do to try to utilize those money. I also am on the board of the Antioch Community Foundation, and we do the same thing. We look at how we can give funds that are available to nonprofits to be able to do the work that needs to be done in our community. When it comes to this home keep, there's been a lot of questions along the way. First of all, when I first heard about the 34.9, I was thinking that that would come, part of it would come to the city to kind of offset the cost so it doesn't impact our general fund. What I've learned over the time is that the 34.9 million is going to go to the property to be able to rehabilitate, convert from 120-something rooms down to 84,000, and I understand the model, the structure. When I speak to people that are in District 2 or citywide, there's no disagreement that we have a responsibility to do what we can to help our neighbors, our unhoused community. So it's not a matter of whether I think people think this is an important issue or not. What I get hit with and what I think about is that I'm elected to be a steward of people's taxpayer dollars. And when I look at the 1.2 million, up to 1.2 million, over the course of 15 years, which is the agreement, it would be around 18 to 19 million. And in looking at that, I originally was thinking that that would be 84 beds that could potentially, I think as Mr. Becker had said previously in other meetings, about a third of the population of our unhoused community. But what I've learned in asking questions, and I spoke to people at the county this past week, is that the coordinated entry system has a waiting list of unhoused community throughout Contra Costa County that they would place into this facility wouldn't be our decision. And looking at it that way, it appears to me clearly that it's a regional problem in Contra Costa County. It's not simply Antioch's responsibility. So for me, when I hear that the city is looking into potential additional funding, like I think it was 11 million is what I read in the report, that could come to offset the cost so that we wouldn't have to put money out from our general fund. Because when I look at our general fund, when we came onto this council, it was a $54 million deficit. So we literally had to cut like 50 million in two years by looking at next year right now. I think right now it's, it's estimated to be about 13 million that we are to 15 to reduce. So we're not in a position really to be taking on longterm taxpayer dollars for this particular type of project. Instead what we should be doing, which I know we've just talked about since I've been on this council, is a partnership with neighboring jurisdictions, other cities, so we can address this issue together. That hasn't transpired. So we're sitting here by ourselves trying to figure out how we're going to serve not only the antioch community but the the unhoused community throughout contra costa county and that is what i've been hearing from the the the residents in district 2 and beyond is that they want to see us do something you know like we've done with the um with the encampment resolution fund over on opportunity village cdbg funding housing successor funding There's a lot of things that we're doing to try to support and help youth, families, and announced community. But when it comes down to taxpayer dollars, that's the part that I am struggling with because we have a responsibility to be stewards of our financial stability for long range, and I don't see money coming in to help offset our deficit that we're looking at next year and the years that follow. So that's where I'm having some difficulty with this.

So this issue is extraordinarily difficult, and there isn't a simple answer to many of the questions and many of the comments that were mentioned tonight. And the emotions are running extraordinarily high. There has been, in my opinion, a lot of misinformation that's been spoken about. But I will tell you, when the council did decide to go forward, it was based on the information that we had at the time. And we thought the information was complete, comprehensive. and that I voted for it because based on that information, I believed that we should move forward. Unfortunately, almost simultaneously afterwards, a lot of questions began to come up and more and more questions came up without answers. And so this council and working with staff, working with some of our regional and state and federal partners have tried to respond and give us as a city council answers to a lot of these questions. Now, a lot of the speakers say, you know, this is $35 million. What's your problem? Just approve it. Well, as an elected official, with a community of 120,000 people, we have a responsibility to make sure that we manage our resources in a prudent, responsible, transparent way. And to Ms. Cabral, the staff report that you provided us is extraordinarily good, and unfortunately, A lot of questions were answered, but more questions are there. And so I believe, as an elected official, and frankly, I have either been an elected or appointed official for more than 50 years, based on very different special districts, city councils, and things of that sort, fiscal responsibility is not a negative thing. Bankruptcy is not a wonderful thing. And we have to make decisions individually and collectively on behalf of the whole 120,000 people we represent. And it absolutely befuddles me when people just say, just do this. The money's there. Jump in. Let's spend... hundreds, millions of dollars on this particular project, knowing that it is irresponsible, knowing that some future city council, or maybe us, will have to declare bankruptcy. On December 10th, 2024, when the three members were sworn into office, we were told we have a $54 million deficit. And if we didn't take action, it would grow and grow and grow. We took no pleasure in cutting and cutting and cutting and using reserves, $5 million last year, $5 million this year, and as Councilmember Rocha indicated, all indications are that we are going to be faced with a 15 to 20 million dollar deficit for the next fiscal year. And that is why we're so concerned about this, that the council in August, I think the beginning of the third Tuesday of the month, will begin to focus on the budget to try to guarantee that we, the city of Antioch, will not go into bankruptcy. Because all of us would be impacted. All of us. Water, sewer, police service, fire service, recreation, education, and on and on and on. The services that we provide. Having receivership is not something that you want welcomed in this community. So like it or not, there are responsibilities that we have to address. And it's not simple to simply say, take the money. It's not a simple answer because we know there are consequences. Number one, I would love to address the homelessness in the city of Antioch. This Homekey Plus project doesn't guarantee it. We could go ahead and spend almost $19 million in the next 15 years and the $750,000 and the impact that we will have to spend money to oversee how we're spending money. And that is, well, I can't, you know, I just can't understand Why there's such fight in this community and division. And frankly, a lot of hatred. A lot of hatred is coming to us. Because we want to be fiscally responsibly, we want to have a foundation that we can build on for the future. We want solutions to the homelessness. We want them. And Ms. Gardner, frankly, her comments were outstanding. If not this, what are we going to do to figure this out? And almost two years ago, we talked about a community engagement where we address that particular issue. For me, Homekey Plus application is not it. Because what are we spending the money on? We're gonna spend about $15 million to buy a piece of property that's in foreclosure. Really? Foreclosure. We're gonna spend, let me just find it. Ms. Cabral, if you could help me. You have it broken down. I'm trying desperately to find it. I wanna make sure that I use the correct numbers.

What number are you looking for?

Okay, so the source, Homekey, $27.5 million is for acquisition and rehabilitation. City of Antioch, $750,000, and then develop financing, $1.5 million. And we could go through all of this, and not one Antioch homeless person would be helped. Not one. That's not acceptable to me. We jeopardize our physicality in the city of Antioch. That is not acceptable to me. So my position is, I agree with Ms. Gardner, I'm sure she would love to have us approve this, but this is not the right project at the right time with the consequences. And so I believe that the prudent, the fiscally responsible position for this city and for its future, which includes trying to come up with a solution on homelessness, is to choose the second option, which is rescinding the home key plus application.

Fight, fight, fight! Housing is a human right! Fight, fight, fight!

Not very constructive. Not very helpful. Because that's part of the problem we have. You know, we do need to come together as a community. We do need to sit across one another. People that we might not particularly like or trust. And we need to be focused. But the problem is, this report, if you read it in its entirety, provides the reasons why this is not a particularly good project to move forward. And because of the late hour, you know, I will stop here. But I would hope that this is not the end, that we can come together and begin to talk to one another, not shout or scream or rant and rave, but actually try to be constructive, supportive, respectful, and transparent.

Thank you. Council Member Wilson.

So it's been a long night. It's been a very, very long night and it's been filled a lot of passion on both sides. Sorry about my voice is getting more raspy towards the end of the day. My first comment related but unrelated. I need to hear from staff, particularly city manager, tomorrow on what happened with why Council Member Torres-Walker was not here or was not permitted to be on this line. I've heard late today that she was not gonna be in this meeting and she gave the right notification, but I need to know from staff by tomorrow what happened and how we're gonna avoid this, whatever the situation was, in the future. So I wanted to get that off my chest. because she's been the number, I can't take any credit, but she's been the number one advocate here, and her voice was not heard today, and I think it was very disrespectful that we did not give her the opportunity. She did let staff know a month ago she was not gonna be here, but I know I'm getting off topic. Sorry, Mayor, I'm gonna get right back on. Thank you for all the people that stayed tonight, regardless if you're for or against Homekey, and you came and you spoke. It takes a lot of courage to come here and speak. Everybody knows where I stand on Homekey, I support it. But my question was, and I asked this question a few weeks ago, our last meeting in June, or probably second to last meeting in June, if we don't do this, what are we gonna do? We just can't turn away and go, okay, we're not gonna do Homekey and we're gonna do nothing. Because right now what we're doing is not working. It's costing the city a lot of money, and we need to figure out some type of solution if we're not going to do this. I was very encouraged by this program, this permanent housing program of wraparound services, because I firsthand have worked with organizations that house homeless and survivors coming off the street from human trafficking and have been very successful in programs like this. But it seems like the majority of the council is not going to vote for this. So I pose back to the question of if we're not going to do this, what is it we're going to do because It's a crisis on the street. We heard from this young woman here who works for a lot of our homeless on the street. We need to figure something out because people call us every day. People email us every day. Majority of the time with no type of solution because although they say they're concerned about homeless, and I'm taking this quote directly from Councilwoman Torres Walker, they're concerned about homeless, but they're concerned because they don't want to see it. And we as council, we need to figure something out. We need to come together and figure something out. whether it is we do a scaled down version of Homekey that we can figure out that works or some other solution, we need to figure something out because we cannot turn our backs on this population. Yes, we are a population of almost 120,000 and those who are homeless in the city of Antioch because other cities have pushed their problems, pushed their problems from city to city and I refuse for us to be a problem pusher, that we need to solve this. You know, it's interesting about the comfort, it was the Ramada Inn when I first moved to Antioch in 2006, and then became the Comfort Inn, and now I believe it's Antioch Inn. And at one point, a hotel operator Fix that hotel up. Fix it up, invested money in it, and as a city, we ignored it, we didn't support it, and nobody really kind of cared about that hotel. Even prior to that hotel getting fixed up, we were not paying attention to it. We were not utilizing it, and we weren't maximizing it. Here is something, a potential opportunity where we can help the community with a property. If we don't do anything, it's going to be vacant. We're gonna see the fences go up, it's gonna be vacant, it's gonna get vandalized, and we're all gonna complain, it's blight to the city. So we need to figure something out. If not home key, what? I've heard some solutions tonight. Thank you for those people who came and complained and came with a solution. I may not have agreed with your solution, but you came with a solution. But we need to do something, and I'm gonna ask that we have a council meeting come up, or a study session. I thought we were supposed to have a homeless task force. I don't know what's going on with that, if it's happening or not, but we need to come and have some type of study session on figuring out, because this is a crisis in our city that we need to address, and we can't keep walking away from it. I'm not as an eloquent speaker as Councilmember Torres-Walker, but I believe she'd feel the same. We need to address this because what we're doing now is not working. It's not working. It's costing us money. It's costing, you know, police department has to come, code enforcement comes. You know, it's costing us a lot of money to push people from corner to corner to corner to corner. So I'm gonna leave it at that. I know I'll probably be the sole person that still supports Homekey, but I also support, again, if not that, we need to find some type of solution. So I'm gonna leave my comments there, because it's a late hour, it's already the morning of Wednesday, so I'm gonna leave my comments right there.

Thank you. In April of 2021, the city council adopted policy guidelines for the city's approach to unhoused resident services. That's still in place. That's the baseline plan that the city has developed and adopted back in 2021. That establishes how we're gonna handle helping people that are on the streets currently that need assistance, how we provide interim housing or transitional housing, and then with the ultimate goal of providing permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals. In December of 2023, a plan for the Department of, it was Public Safety, now it's Department of Community Resources, to reduce homelessness and increase access to critical resources for unhoused residents was presented to the City Council. That was in December of 23, and it provided specific tactics and strategies on how the staff was going to help the homeless situation in the city of Antioch. So we have, and my understanding is, I don't know if this is the exact number, but we spent close to a half a million dollars developing these two plans that we now have in place. So to make a statement that there's no plan in place, there was one adopted in 2021, there was another plan for staff adopted in 2023, And we are doing aspects of that plan when it comes to CDBG funding to the tune of $400,000 or $500,000, when it comes to ERF funding for $6.8 million that we're spending to help 30 to 40 homeless get off the street. We just applied for another $8 million to help get more homeless, if I'm not mistaken. So we are not doing nothing. I just want to correct that.

I would thank staff for doing that work, because it wasn't council that did that, so thank you. This is Ms. Cabral and your team.

Yes, I mean, yeah, I wasn't saying it. Council did this, absolutely. This was what staff has been working on in getting the grants and things. But when it comes to permanent supportive housing, That's a whole different animal. That's something that housing authorities handle in other communities. Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, they do not use their general fund money to pay for permanent supportive housing in those communities that I'm aware of in the research that I did. And so the city of Antioch does not have a structure like that. And so when this proposal came forward, it required us to use our general fund money, which as we all know is very precious and limited because as has been said many times, we were facing a $54 million deficit. Back in May of 2025 when this came forward, I did not feel like the city, while we were working on our budget in the middle of our budget, had enough information and enough assurances and enough resources to be able to support committing up to $1.2 million per year for 15 years to this project. If it was something that our city council was in complete control of, that might have been different, but we're committing future councils and future residents to something that we're doing right now. And so at the time, I was the only no vote on this project, as everybody well knows. And that throughout the course of this, I've been the bad guy, which is fine because I wanna make sure that we have the resources to be able to keep our city going as we're moving into the future. And I did not feel like we could afford adding $1.2 million to our deficit. As we sit today, as Council Member Rocha just mentioned, we're looking at a $5 million deficit today and a $15 million deficit next year. So we still have, and that's with freezing 10 to 15 positions, that's what's deferring all of our $4 million in roof projects and our Pruitt, water park, and all the different stuff that we have, a building across the street, it's gonna cost us another two and a half million dollars to finish, I don't know why we have that, but we have a lot of commitments that we don't have the resources readily available to address that. This project, as important as it is to help, and I wanna make this very clear, as important as it is to help our homeless find permanent supportive housing, whether they're from Contra Costa County or not, we as a city do not have the resources at this time to be able to make that sort of a long-term financial commitment in good conscience in my opinion it's my opinion only and so i cannot commit my this city council this community and future communities to having to pay that up to 18 million dollars in the future so for those reasons and the fact that we have a plan in place, we are funding it, we have the permanent supportive housing element, which I believe in a regional discussion with the county, with other cities, is something that we can maybe talk about addressing. But I can tell you what, I've reached out to other cities and There is not an appetite, I will say, and this is not electives taking these to their city councils. This is having general discussions. There is not an appetite for people to come and commit money to what oftentimes people believe is Antioch's homeless problem. And it isn't perceived as a regional problem. It's perceived as Antioch's problem because we are the ones that are experiencing it firsthand. And so I want us to definitely pursue regional opportunities. I want us to definitely take this plan that we have in place and build upon it and make sure that we have new and maybe better opportunities and solutions. But the fact of the matter is This project is not going to solve homelessness in Antioch where we have 250 to 300 homeless in Antioch. This is 85 units. It will help maybe half of Antioch. I don't know how many are in the, the continuum of care or the system in the county, but this is a very expensive proposition that's gonna help people, no doubt, very important, but which Antioch, in my opinion, does not have the ability to fund. So my position remains as it was last May, as it was in December when we saw the resolution come through again, My position's gonna be to support rescinding the resolution that approved the funding for the Homekey Plus project. So I don't know if anybody has any other comments. Or should I call for a vote, call for a motion to vote?

I'll second the motion.

Oh, okay, I'll make a motion. Okay, I'll make a motion to rescind the resolution for the Homekey Plus project. We have a first by Mayor, second by Councilmember Rocha.

So it's rescind the prior authorization and withdraw from the project?

Yes.

It's option B?

Yes. Yes, option B. So we have a motion, a second, any other questions or comments? If not, please cast your votes.

Motion passes three yes to one no. The no vote was by Council Member Wilson and Tamisha Torres Walker was absent from that vote.

All right, moving on to item number eight, tentative agreement between the City of Antioch and the Antioch Police Officers Association for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.

right do we have a staff report on this yes uh so this is um item eight is uh the tentative agreement between the city of antioch and the antioch police officers association for the period of july 1st 2026 through june 30th 2027. so for this item the city did um met and confer in good faith with the Antioch Police Officers Association. And after many meetings, we have actually a tentative agreement.

Excuse me, folks. Could you, okay, thank you.

So this tentative agreement will This tentative agreement will actually provide for the, we're gonna be having a contract with the APOA and the key things that we will be having as part of this tentative agreement is the one year contract effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. There will be a cost of living adjustment of 3% in the first full pay period from July 1st, 2026. There will be an increase to the floating holidays from three to four floating holidays. The travel meal reimbursement increased to $25 for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. And some additional cleanup items that we had as part of the contract, the MOU had some language that needed to be cleaned up. So we went through and were able to make those changes. And a lot of it was due to changes in the law that we needed to bring current. So we are asking city council to accept the resolution approving this tentative agreement.

All right, thank you. Any questions of staff? Do we have any public comment on this?

Yes, we have three comments. We have Melissa, Hanny Thunston, and Frank Sterling.

Thank you. All right, I find it kind of funny that we're giving such a big COLA raise after just talking about we can't afford stuff. Don't pull me over for my comments, APD, but I just want to say my comments are not aimed at the dispatchers, record staff, or any civilian employees. who help keep this department running. I do believe they deserve a raise and I'm not asking you to touch those raises, but I do have a real problem with giving sworn officers a 3% raise this year and it's only for one year, not even over three or five years. It's basically on top of everything that the city is paying and because of how this department has conducted itself. We are in a $5 million hole in the general fund this year. And a big piece of why we're in a hole is because of police accountability that we didn't choose as a community. We're now paying $400,000 a year or more just on this agenda, approved tonight, just to monitor, well it wasn't approved, it was held over to the next meeting, but just to monitor compliance with the DOJ agreement and the Allen settlement. This is not actually a hypothetical cost. It's a real cost to our city, real money, not play money. And every year, this is this because the officers broke the public trust. So before the council hands sworn officers a full 3% raise like nothing's ever happened, I'd ask you to think about what message that sends. Officers should be helping the city recover from the embarrassment, and I think they're making great progress doing that. But we are still in a financial mess and we're still paying for it. As a city, we're paying for their mess that their conduct created. So now we're adding to our bill. It's like you're rewarding a child for misbehaving. So my ask is simple, approve the rates for dispatchers and civilian staff. that they've earned, but for sworn APD personnel, bring that number down to 1% for this one-year cycle. To me, it's not punitive, it's basically proportionate, because it's costing our city money, and I know that doesn't help in hiring, but I just don't believe in rewarding bad conduct that's costing us money right now. Let's get back onto stable ground like you want, thanks.

Harry Thurston? Mayor, I just wanted to remind you, it's at 1227 in . I don't know if you want to extend the meeting.

Do we have a motion to extend the meeting to 1245?

I'll extend it to 1 AM, just in case.

Okay, I have a motion to 1 AM. Do I have a second? Second. Motion and a second, please cast your votes. All right, Mr. Thurston. Motion passes 4-0.

Good morning. I'll make it real quick. I'm not here to actually talk about the specifics of this. My concern is, do the ordinance, did the Antioch Police Oversight Commission have a chance to review this, make its recommendations back to the city council by the ordinance? I think they should have been part of that. And so that's just my question. Did the APOC actually be part of the review of this? That's it. All right. Simple. Oh, and if they didn't, you should reconsider this motion until they have the chance to review it. Anyway, that's it. Thank you.

Frank Sterling, you have three minutes. You are up. Hello, Frank?

Hey, thank you.

There you go. You're on. You have three minutes.

Yeah, thank you. I'm just really saddened that we really have to work with these scoundrels of an organization, I would call them. At the time of the text message scandal, their leader was a lying, cheating, homophobic officer named Rick Hoffman. who assaulted me, kicked me in the face, and you guys know what he called me. And then he proceeded to lie in court about what happened, talk about the fight of his life when I was attacked and beaten with flashlights by two cops. These guys should not get no raise until they are fully in compliance with this DOJ thing. And I don't know if you all remember. I tried to look it up. I wasn't having a hard time finding it. The letter that Michael Raines, another scoundrel, wrote after the police killed Angelo Quinto that he wrote for the APOA, basically saying that his parents were looking for a payday. Yeah, my blood's boiling over here for what I really want to say about these guys. Many labor organizations don't even recognize them as APAs, as labor. They shouldn't be in labor. And one of the main reasons why is you could see with the CNA sugar strike out there that the the cops will always come out and defend. For the company. Against labor. So I know it's a bigger conundrum than what's happening tonight. having an APOA in general, especially this one in Antioch that rose, that elevated to their president. Rick Hoffman, who's probably still there, that squeaked out of this damn text message scandal, just like Shipalov, that made jokes about Dan Edwards, dead N-words, and then just punched that woman in the face. So I know the dispatchers and the other folks are in on this deal. But I'm totally against the Antioch Police Officers Association. And I wish I could have stayed down there and brought my sign because you know the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil symbol with the hands over the eyes, ears and mouth. That's the Antioch Police Officers Association when it comes to police violence. Not only that, but they're the perpetrators. Good night.

Thank you. We have no further public comments. On this agenda item, item number eight. The home key, the home key. That was already done.

but there was three votes for a yes and one vote for a no. How are you saying that we lost our home?

If you would have given us our money five years ago, we wouldn't be in this situation right now, and I wouldn't be homeless for 17 years.

Ma'am, ma'am, we want to finish the meeting up, please. Thank you.

The blood is on your hands. Shame on every single one of you except for you and this group. You guys were there for us. I'm so sorry. Shame on you. Shame on you, Mr. Frita. No, no computing numbers. Three yeses and one no. Four bulls. And our girl isn't even here. No, no, no. You just need to speak to me, baby. Speak to me. Blood, anybody who dies of fentanyl and all that, it's on your hands.