City Council - Regular Meeting

from closed session and there is nothing to report out. So I will go ahead and adjourn this special meeting at 6.02 p.m. And at this time, I would like to call to order the parking authority of the City of Elk Grove regular meeting. Today's Wednesday, the July 22nd, 2026. The time is 6.02 p.m.

And for the roll call, I will do a visual roll call noting the absence of Vice Chair Suen, but we have four members of the Parking Authority available tonight in order to go through this procedural item. I'd also just like to note that there is no additional stipend or pay that any of the members of the City Council get for their concurrent enrollment as membership of the Parking Authority. And with that, we can go to general public comment for the authority.

Thank you at this time I will go ahead and open up public comment opportunity. I do not have anyone signed up on this item. I will close the public comment opportunity. Next is our annual update on the parking authority.

There has been no activity of the parking authority.

All right, that was our update. Excellent. I will open up public comment. Nobody signed up. I will close public comment. And at this time, we will adjourn the Parking Authority regular meeting at 6.03 p.m. And now at this time, I would like to call to order the Elk Grove City Council regular meeting. Today is Wednesday, July 22, 2026, and the time is 6.03 p.m. Clerk. Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor. This meeting of the Elk Grove City Council is recorded with closed captioning. The recording will be cablecast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel, and the Comcast and DirecTV U-verse cable systems. The recording will also be video streamed at metro14live.seccounty.gov. Tonight's meeting replays will be on Friday, July 24th at 1 p.m. and Sunday, July 26th at 6 p.m. on Metro Channel 14. Once posted, the recordings of this and previous meetings can be viewed on demand at the www.elkgrove.gov or youtube.com slash MetroCable14. For members of the participating audience who may have personal electronic devices, please place them on silent mode during the meeting or on mute when you are not speaking. Belgrove City Council welcomes, appreciates, and encourages participation in the City Council meeting. City Council requests that you limit your presentation to three minutes per person so that all present will have time to participate. City Council reserves the right to reasonably limit the total time for public comment on any particular notice agenda item as it may deem necessary. Pursuant to resolution number 20... 2026-099, no individual speaker concerning public comment may address the city council for more than three minutes per item. If you wish to address the council during the meeting, please complete a blue speaker card, which can be found at the back of the chamber and provided to assist to the deputy city clerk prior to consideration of the agenda item. And I do have a footnote as we venture into a new adventure here in the city of Elk Grove is that we do have a zoom environment that's currently active. So we are receiving audio remote comment from our public and that'll be a new procedure that will be moving through this evening as we go through the council meeting. What I would ask for our participants that are in the Zoom environment is that there are opportunities for public comment, which will prompt through the Zoom environment as we move forward. But that would be the time when you use that raise hand feature in order to sign up to speak. And of course, there will be a little bit of some engaging with folks that are engaging with us online as we work with you in order to unmute you in order to participate in the environment. And then you will unmute on your side as well. And we just ask, just like we asked everyone to place their electronic devices on silent mode or on mute when they are speaking, the same will be for any devices that are in your home. Otherwise, sometimes we can get some feedback that comes through. But with that, we will be endeavoring into our online public comment this evening. With that, Mayor, I'll be moving into the roll call for tonight's regular meeting. And starting with the roll call, I'll start with Councilmember Robles. Council Member Spese. Present. Council Member Brewer. Here. Vice Mayor Suen is absent, and Mayor Sing-Alan.

Here.

We have a quorum, we can proceed.

All right, thank you. Next up is our land acknowledgement. Since our Vice Mayor is not here, I would like to call upon Council Member Brewer, if you would kindly read the land acknowledgement.

Thank you, Mayor. We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elk Grove's first inhabitants, the Plains Miwok. who lived as sovereign caretakers of this land and these waterways since time immemorial. We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria Tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County who endure because of the bravery, resiliency, and determination of their ancestors, tribal members, and leaders.

Thank you. Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance, and I would like to call on a special someone whose birthday it is today, our very own Police Chief Bobby Davis. Thank you and happy birthday, sir. All right. At this time, please join us for a brief moment of silence. Thank you. Next up is the approval of the agenda. May I get a motion?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Next item.

Under both section three for the closed session and section four for our presentations and announcements, there are no items scheduled on those for a regular meeting this evening. So that will advance us to section five, public comment.

All right, excellent. I would like to open the public opportunity starting with in-person attendees. After the last person has spoken, we will go to the online platform. We have two people signed up to speak. We will start with Bonnie Stensler, followed by Aziz Yusufzai.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, Chief Davis, and city manager and staff. I'm here this evening with our members from our community to our former board members, Karen Dorn and Marian Almeida, and our fourth individual, Paul Heard. I don't know why I get nervous. I've been here enough not to get nervous. We're here tonight because we want to invite you to join us out on the patio of Glenbrook for our National Night Out gathering. We will be kicking that off at 5.30. We realize it's a very busy evening for you. We just want you to know that we'll be looking forward to your visit, and we want our chance to express our appreciation for all you do for us, the city, and all the residents. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you all on the 4th.

All right, thank you for being here. Next up, Aziz. Okay, please help me with that. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Aziz Yousafzai. I live on Triple Fenway. And my issue with the speed bumper, there's a speed bumper right in front of my house, and it's not a good one. And nobody slowed down. They're using the basketball court, the folks, the soccer field, getting really worse now because the effects done with the soccer field and tennis court, basketball court. They're using the street that I live and they're not slowing down. So. If you guys take that in concentration, the belted or build a quality 1.

Thank you, sir. Can appropriate staff follow up? Yeah. Jeff, we'll meet you in the back. Thank you. All right. That concludes our in person public comments. Are there any online.

And as I look over at our Zoom meeting, we don't have any attendees right now, so we don't have anyone signed up to speak on our online, so that would conclude the online comment.

Excellent, then that will also conclude the public comment opportunity. Next up is our city manager's report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the city council, Jason Behrman, city manager. First of all, wanted to report this very successful 4th of July celebration out at Elk Grove Park. We had over 46,000 people that attended, which is about 13,000 more than we had the year before, so a great, great event. No major incidents, and just wanna thank our staff and the community for showing out and for our staff working together to make sure it was a safe, successful event. So looking forward to an even better event next year. And later tonight we'll have a report on the illegal fireworks and the calls for service that occurred on the night of the 4th as well. I want to do a shout out congratulations to our Civic Summer Class of 2026. We had 50 youth throughout the City of Elk Grove that participated and those 50 interns are now working at City and CSD and other organizations and agencies, and they finish up this week. They have a celebration on Friday, but if you recall, the city council last year authorized a $500 scholarship for the first time for each of those students, and the CSD and the Sacramento Area Student District joined with the city in sponsoring those scholarships, so that was a great success, and I know the students are really appreciative, and we were able to get students that otherwise might not have been able to participate for financial reasons. Straus Festival returns to Elk Grove Park coming up on Thursday through Sunday. The city is pleased to once again be a sponsor. The pre-show begins at 7.30, followed by performances at 8.15, and fireworks will close the night. Admission is free. There's a $10 parking fee. Food and merchandise, including the city's Dowdle Puzzle, will be available for purchase. Visit the Straus Festival website for more information. Elk Grove Library branch here on Elk Grove Boulevard and Elk Grove Florin is going to close starting Saturday, July 25th as they begin the move into the new library just down the street on Waterman Road and Elk Grove Boulevard. The drop box will continue to be available during the closure. Any remaining holds not picked up by July 25th will be moved to the Franklin Library. Elk Grove residents are encouraged. to visit the Franklin Library or one of the Library Authority's other nearby locations during the closure. A grand opening for our new library is scheduled for October. And I was just out there with staff today and it is looking amazing. So they're gonna be starting that move in very, very quickly. Speaking of the library, the Elk Grove Library that is the current location We've started a community conversation about the future of that site, which is 8900 Elk Grove Boulevard. The goal is to create a vision for the site that meets the evolving needs of our community. Residents are encouraged to provide feedback via online survey, which is available on the city's website. Outreach meetings with a variety of stakeholders, including nonprofit organizations and nearby business owners, have been planned this summer. Public engagement conversations will be hosted in the fall. All feedback gathered during the process will help shape recommendations presented to the council later this year. Uh, the animal shelter is aiming to find loving homes for 250 shelter pets. This month. Adoption fees are just 25 dollars throughout the month of July. Adoptable pets can be viewed online at the city's website at the animal shelter or pet smart. Here now grow from noon to 5 0 PM. And finally already heard mention of national that is coming up. Local block parties are being planned. That's on August 4th. If you'd like our officers to visit you, please let us know and go on the city's website and you can request and let us know where you're planning your. Your parties, we would like to receive that information by this Sunday, July 26th. And that concludes my report. I'm happy to answer any questions the council might have.

All right, thank you for your report and updates. Any questions, looking to the right, questions, comments? None, yes? Council Member Robles.

Thank you for that update and looking forward to attending National Night Out.

Yes, Council Member Burr.

I know the Franklin Library's gonna be open during the transition to the new site. Do we have the address for that for the public? Because I know we haven't mentioned the address for it. We know it's at Toby Johnson Middle School, but for a lot of folks who are not familiar, where the Franklin Library is at, can we provide an address for them so they know exactly where they're going? Because the other library is obviously is the one by Cosumnes River College, the Valley High Laguna North Library. The Franklin Library's gonna be the site where all of our Elk Grove books will be going to.

Yes, we'll put that up on our website. 10-0-0-5-5 Franklin High Road. 10-0-0-5-5 Franklin High Road.

Perfect yes, I know that's the that was like a little pothole for us is where a lot of folks just they know where to go before a lot of folks who are not familiar with the area just knowing from from our from the East side where they would go so that that's helpful.

All right, thank you next item is consent calendars. At this time, I will open up the public comment opportunity starting with in-person attendees. After the last person, we will go to online. We have a few folks signed up here. I have one signed up twice. So we'll go with Curtis Buten followed by Lynn Wheat. Is Curtis an online comment?

It should be in person, Curtis.

All right, we will move on to Lynn Wheat. And if Curtis shall appear, then we'll go back to Curtis.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm gonna speak on two items today, 7.15. As I reviewed the staff report, I believe on page 15 under the water section, it is important the city recognizes its commitment to the groundwater sustainability plan as Elk Grove is within the South American sub-basin. Most importantly, within our city is a rural residential area with its dependency on domestic wells. A domestic well advisory group, of which I am a member, is focused on providing a community perspective on domestic wells within the South American sub-basin. This should be noted within the water section. Also, I will note the Elk Grove Water District owns and operates deep groundwater wells along with purchase of wholesale water. This should be included in the report. As I have stated in past years, and will do so again tonight, I believe this report should not be hidden under consent items. It deserves a staff presentation. I want to thank the staff for this report, the Annual Growth Report. The next item is 7.18, and I refer to the page five of the report, Project WTRO94, Citywide Traffic Signal Enhancement and Congestion Relief. The report indicates the project is 96% complete. Should I be hopeful that at 100% complete, there will not be the backups along our roadways and that the number of red light renters will decrease as traffic will be flowing more smoothly decreasing this red light behavior of impatient drivers. I will remain hopeful, understanding that staff is doing the best they can, understanding our general plan acknowledges we will be living with traffic, and you granted overriding considerations for traffic in all of your EIRs. It is the sad reality. In 2012, when I said traffic was the best it was ever going to be, call me wrong, but I don't think so. Piecemeal and unbridled growth brought us the promises of becoming a destination city, soccer mecca, pool mecca, tech mecca, zoo mecca, and possibly data center mecca. Who knows? Thank you. Thank you.

Matt Squaza. Did I say your name right? Yes, ma'am, you did.

Good evening, Mayor. Mr. Robert, Chief, happy birthday. Council members, my name is Matt Squaz. I live over on Triple Fenway. I'd like to address 7.19, the permitted parking. I've been in direct contact with Mr. Brewer for a hot minute now and talking with the Chief, having meetings over at Oasis Park. I just kind of wanted to voice my opinion over here about Pretty much everybody coming over, taking up all the parking in front of our neighbors houses, causing luckily the night with everything with that. But. Just last night, somebody blocked 1, my neighbors driveways. It's 1 of the bigger issues that we've been having. So we call that in a couple weeks ago. I think somebody moved my trash cans the day before. Uh, trash day, just come back to them all over to the side. Didn't put them back. Later on, so it's just been a hassle with everything people threading our neighbors. Um, like, literally kids getting a ticket, their parents coming over and threading my neighbors as well. And Curtis who will be here. He's the coach from consuming the soaks wrestling. So he's running a little bit late, but he'll be here to talk. And yeah, it's just, it's been a play to us pretty much and we really just want to try to get parking back over to here. I have a big Filipino family, married to Filipinos, so trying to have get-togethers. We have no parking out on streets when soccer's here, tennis, pickleball, everything, people don't utilize the parking structures over there. So we're really trying to push for this permanent parking. Thank you.

Thank you. Curtis Butin. Last call. All right, I will go ahead and turn it over now to our online.

And we've got a prompt up for folks to sign up for our consent calendar items online, but we don't have any signups on our online audience that'll conclude the online experience for consent.

All right, then I will go ahead and close the public comment opportunity and look for a motion to approve. So moved. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. All right, next item.

I'll take us on to section eight, our public hearings. And that item is 8.1, a public hearing to consider resolution confirming and approving the report of delinquent solid waste and storm drain utility charges prepared by Republic Services and authorizing the finance director to take actions necessary to collect the delinquent charges on the Sacramento County tax roll.

All right. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. I am Kara Taylor Seaman. I'm the finance manager, and I'm here tonight to present the public hearing to consider tax levies for storm drain and solid waste accounts that are delinquent with the city's contractor, Republic Services. As some background, the city has contracted with Republic Services dating back to July 1st, 2017, and they provide billing services related to both solid waste and storm drain utilities. The accounts proposed this evening are for the upcoming property tax roll at Sacramento County. They represent delinquencies for charges that were incurred prior to March 1st of this year and were unpaid for at least 120 days. Each year, Republic Services uses the county tax roll to recover costs for past due accounts, and the city's role is to provide support for the process. The tax roll is a cost-effective measure. It ensures that Republic recovers their costs to bring all accounts current and does not impact any city funds, particularly the general fund. On June 23rd of this year, Republic Services notified those delinquent account holders of tonight's public hearing. There were approximately 1,700 account holders that were notified. The total dollar amount is slightly under $1.2 million. And then of that, the solid waste portion was 1,698 accounts and 1.1 million. The storm drain was 1,721 accounts and about $174,000. In closing, customers were provided a deadline of tonight to bring their accounts current. If they do bring those accounts current, then their account will be removed from the delinquent report and will not be submitted to the county for collections. All others, however, will be included in the Sacramento County property tax roll for fiscal year 26-27. There are representatives from Republic Services here tonight to speak directly with customers, and they are hanging out in the lobby. Finally, staff recommends that you conduct the public hearing, adopt the resolution to approve and confirm the report, and request that delinquent charges be placed on the fiscal year 26-27 property tax roll with Sacramento County. And I am available for your questions, thank you.

All right, thank you. At this time, I will declare the public hearing is now open and open up the public comment opportunity. I do not have anyone signed up to speak. Anyone online?

And we do not have anyone signed up for remote public comment on this item.

All right, I will close the public comment opportunity for all attendees and declare that the public hearing is now open. Any questions? Otherwise, I will look for a motion. So moved. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Next item.

I'll take us on to section nine, our regular agenda action items and recommendations. And that first being item 9.1, which is to receive a presentation on enforcement efforts implemented to address the use of illegal fireworks on the 4th of July holiday.

Okay, good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Jose Mendez, enforcement manager with the community development department. And tonight I'm accompanied by Lieutenant Nathaniel Lang with the Elk Grove Police Department. Tonight we'd like to provide a brief overview of the city's 2026 illegal firework enforcement efforts. A little background. In April of 2024, the City Council took significant action to strengthen the City's ability to address illegal fireworks. Council adopted Section's amendments, Chapter 17.06 of the Elk Grove Municipal Code, including the adoption of the Host Liability Ordinance and an increase in the administrative penalties to $1,000 per individual illegal firework that is either possessed or launched. in possession or launched. In addition, the city began leveraging the Elk Grove Police Department's drone as a first responder program. This technology has significantly improved our ability to identify violations in real time while increasing officer safety and allowing enforcement resources to be deployed more efficiently. These changes provided the city with stronger enforcement tools while reinforcing our commitment to protecting public safety. Enforcement is not the only part of our strategy. A significant portion of our efforts focus on educating residents before the 4th of July to ensure that they're aware of the amendments and to ensure that they were aware of the increased citation amounts. This year, the city reached more than 166,000 people through social media, distributed information through our weekly email newsletter, and reached approximately 65,000 households through the citywide newsletter. Staff also partnered with local businesses to distribute educational materials at restaurants and at permitted fireworks stands throughout the community, throughout the city of Elk Grove. Additionally, the city hosted two illegal firework amnesty events. Last year, we hosted one. This year, we increased the number of days to increase voluntary compliance, providing residents with a safe and convenient way to voluntarily surrender illegal fireworks before the holiday, no questions asked. These efforts are intended to increase voluntary compliance and reduce the need for enforcement.

Thank you. So this year is our third year doing fireworks enforcement with a drone as a first responder program. So it's important for us to highlight some of the benefits of having the drones as a first responder for these types of events where we can respond to the large amount of variety of calls that we get for fireworks within our city. So this year we also leveraged with code enforcement again. Some of the changes that we made this year is we had a code enforcement officer sit within the real time center during our operation so they could view in real time the violations that were happening to help when there's any sort of It's the word, sorry. Substantial violations. Yeah, the substantiality of the violations and if there's any appeals for those particular violations. We had four drones operational within our city this year. With that, we had one pilot and one observer from code enforcement for each one of those particular stations. So eight people total for drone enforcement within the real-time center. In addition, there was strike teams out in the field that were paired up with code enforcement, so four code enforcement officers as well as four officers from the Elk Grove Police Department doing enforcement out in the field to try to enforce with those residents that had large quantities of fireworks. We do have a $10,000 cap per the property violation from Elk Grove, from a municipal cap. And then our red, white, and blue event, we did want to touch on the fact that we had, like city manager Merriman said, that we had approximately almost 50,000 people there and it went off without a hitch. So it was definitely a collaborative event across the city. So this year, we'll call it a success. We didn't have any significant incidents, any significant arrests, injuries, and things of that nature.

you

As far as the call volume, I think this is important to highlight. Jose will speak to the actual fines. That's not as relative to the amount of calls that we're having. The fines are important. I think the ultimate goal is to have zero calls, zero fines. That's what we're trying to attain. This year, our 911 calls, we had 116 911 calls. Those aren't specific to fireworks per se, but they are specific to 911 calls during the firework enforcement time, which was 6 PM to midnight. eight fire calls this year versus seven last year. The enforcement went up by a few. We had 34 last year as far as locations that we could actually cite with quality evidentiary video. This year it went up to 37. And Jose can speak to some of the numbers as far as how we obtain those numbers to get to those numbers as far as the fines.

Sure, so in total, there were 37 properties that were identified in violation. Cumulative citations counted to 259,000. I think the big something to really note and celebrate is the reduction in fires from 24 to today, right? So it's a significant reduction in fires over the last three years. Some recommendations and some items that we're considering for next year's plan is to continue to leverage PD's drone as a first responder program. We're going to continue to educate and outreach specifically to landlords. What we're finding is a lot of property owners, a lot of these properties that we're citing are occupied by tenants and so we want to make sure that landlords understand that it is a responsibility to educate their tenants that they can be cited for these violations. We're also looking to increase our amnesty day and also have some educational material in different languages as well. And that concludes our presentation. We're here for any questions.

All right, let's see, at this time I open up public comment opportunity. I do not have anyone signed up to speak in person. Anyone online?

And we do not have any participants for remote comment either.

All right, then I will go ahead and close the public comment opportunity, open it up to council comments. and direction, I do wanna thank you for your hard work keeping our city safe. The fires are always very concerning and I was on a ride along a couple of years ago and witnessed that firsthand and what that looks like and it's frightening. But it's great to see that number decrease and hopefully we get to zero through the educational efforts. You've done a great job educating our community. I'll start with the left here, Council Member Brewer. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. No, I want to thank you because this year I was fully expecting more activity because we were celebrating our 250th anniversary and that wasn't the case. Code enforcement, fire department, police all together did a really good job of educating the community and informing the public on the risks of of having illegal fireworks and done in a very educational but humorous way to where people saw on social media is like, I don't want to pay this fee. I have other things I want to do and spend money on other than paying a fee to the city to make their coffers a little richer. And that's important and I want to thank you guys for doing that because having the number of fires down is huge compared to other areas. And so education, responsibility amongst neighbors, being vigilant, all playing a big role. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Council Member Spies.

Um, so I just want to do a big thanks in the 1st place is that, you know, people think about, you know, it's, it's busy, of course, for for PD and of course, it is very busy for code enforcement. But there are also a number of other employees throughout the rest of the city that are putting in a lot of time on July 4th at the at the festival and getting prepared for it and things like that. So I want to make sure that. Then I think everyone on staff, because it's really July 4th really is 1 of those all hands on deck kind of days. So I appreciate that. And I guess my 1 question, and I got an opportunity to ask you guys this before, so you would have been prepared, but hopefully this is an easy 1. Were there any repeat customers? Is there anybody who didn't understand the get the message last year? They didn't understand the assignment.

Luckily, everyone got the memo. There were not any repeat.

Okay. Well, then hopefully, hopefully it'll start coming down. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's interesting because. The amount of firework activity depends upon. Where you are located and the violations nearby for me, it was like, 1 of the loudest I've ever been in only because. My neighbors enjoyed doing some illegal fireworks probably, but I know that it's, you know, it's, it's, it's whack a mole. I understand that. So, anyway, congratulations. Fantastic job. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Spies, for your words. I agree with you. You guys have been doing an amazing job. Thank you for keeping our city safe and making sure that the fires are going down. And just thanks for everything you're doing. Appreciate it.

Thank you again. Thank you. All right. With that, we will move on to our next item, 9.2. Receive information on the old town historic main street special planning area update and provide direction.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. My name is Kira Killingsworth and I'm the Senior Planner for the Community Development Department. Carrie Whitlock and I are in the early process of updating our special planning area for the Old Town area. Therefore, I'm here to present the Council a little bit of background, community outreach effort, and staff recommendations for the update. The original document was established by Sacramento County in 1985. It was updated and adopted in 2005 by Elk Grove City Council. Since then has multiple updates with the last one in 2025. Staff originally initiated an update in 2020, but COVID put a pause on that and now staff has restarted that process and is requesting that the council provide input, direction on moving forward with this update. The SPA is located along Elk Grove Boulevard. It extends about a mile from Elk Grove Foreign Road to Waterman Road. The Union Pacific Railroad intersects the SPA between First Avenue and Railroad Street. The SPA is about 200 parcels on 90 acres and includes the historic district, which is about 49 parcels. There's currently three existing zoning districts, which are Commercial in the pink, low density similar to RD5 in the yellow and high density residential similar to RD30 in the brown. First, the city originally started the process to update this SPA in 2020, but due to pauses in COVID, we wanted to start a new outreach, which was in 2025. The outreach included six personas that were created by staff, which are based on characteristics of other successful historic districts in California. These six personas included Artsy, which is vibrant arts, cultural scenes, examples were at Healdsburg and Nevada City, Family friendly, which is active commercial recreation entertainment. The example is fulsome historic, which included preservation, celebrated history character, and that was Clovis and Placerville. Nightlife active evening entertainment example was per lumen load. I relax is casual shopping and dining experience and that include winters and Hanford. Hanford, and then at scale was a mix of uses with boutique retail, and that was Tiburon and Sausalito. These personas were shown at six in-person events, and that was through August and December of 2025, and also include two meetings with the Historic Preservation Committee. Staff met with the committee, and the committee provided some input. The input that was provided was language consistency in the SBA. So as you, I'll go a little more detail, but as you know, the economic development department came through with the historic Main Street campaign, and so they wanted some consistency between all the different names, Old Town, Historic Main Street. The other they would suggest is the SPAB expanded the boundary to Williamson Drive. Also create a balance of uses and have a welcome sign monument signage at the end of each boundary. With that, some of the key findings from the Public and Historic Preservation Committee was there's no single persona that was preferred. Each persona had an element that was positive, that the public liked, but some personas did stand out more than others, such as artsy and family-friendly received the strongest support. Nightlife and relax had a huge mixed reaction between positive and negative. Overall, some residents expressed concern of any significant change in the area. Overall, historic was highly positive because people thought historic buildings and characters should be preserved. But overall, also, it didn't matter what the persona said. A lot of the major concern was traffic, parking, and the circulation of the SBA. However, with those type of findings, this supports a vision that combines features from multiple personas and examples. So staff is here to provide some recommended updates that we are gonna propose for the update when it comes through. Those updates include updating the vision statement. So currently the SBA includes four separate vision statements. Staff recommends replacing those four statements and have one unified statement to guide future development and investment. Page four of the staff report provides the proposed language, but again, staff will bring this back at a later meeting. Another recommended update is the official name change. Again, the city's economic development team presented the Main Street campaign in April 2025, and the team presented the Elk Grove Boulevard, historically known as Main Street, between, historic Main Street refers to Elk Grove Flooring Road to Waterman Road. Since 1985 of the original adoption, the SPA has been known as Old Town. However, staff recommends that the SPA and the planning document be renamed to historic Main Street. Third, some staff recommendations regarding the allowed uses. So currently the SPA classifies auto-related services as restricted commercial, which is not permitted in the SPA. Accessory auto services is allowed, is permitted currently. Staff recommends adding accessory auto services to restricted commercial, therefore would not be permitted. That includes window tinting, detailing, stereo installation, et cetera. Staff would like to promote pedestrian friendly mix of uses and historic oriented character businesses in SPA. And I'll get a little more information, more into this, but existing uses will remain as legal nonconforming uses. The other one is personal services. Personal services includes hair salons, nail salons, day spas, massage parlors. Since staff has received over many years of concern of over concentration of personal services. So therefore, staff is recommending that we limit personal services in the SPA. The number we came up with was 12 permits. Right now, a personal service, is about 20% of all businesses within the S. P. A. Um, again, legal nonconforming uses will be allowed to stay. Um, but they would be limit just like how bars and wineries are limited and that's a currently that goes with bars and wineries. The currently use is again as limited six, but it's bars, wineries, breweries and brew pubs. The Elk Grove Municipal Code actually has them not as one, they have them as three distinct uses. And so one would be bars and nightclubs, two would be restaurant and brew pubs, three would be wineries and distilleries and brewery. And so staff recommends that revising the SPA to separate the category into three similar to the SPA, oh sorry, Municipal Code. And I mentioned previously non-conforming uses Staff recommends, so currently the SBA talks about that a non-conforming use can maintain and operate. If they discontinue, there's a 12 month period that a business could operate the same after 12 months, they can go in. Staff recommends taking out that 12 month period. And so if a non-conforming use discontinue, they would no longer, do that same business at that same location. Staff believes removing that 12-month period would create more opportunities of diverse and vibrant new businesses that would come to SPA. The last recommendation is the murals. The current SPA requires planning commission as the approval authority for murals. It's a design review process. Staff recommends that the design review is still needed. However, the approval authority would be the zoning administrator. Staff believes that this change would continue with the public hearing and get input from the public, but it would provide more of a streamlined process. So with that, staff is requesting for the City Council to provide direction of the SPA update and review the recommendations from staff. The next steps would be that staff will go back and start drafting an SBA document with the direction from the council as well as all the input we received from the personas outreach. We'll come back before we come back we will do a public release draft review of the document and we'll do public hearings with the Historic Preservation Committee, the Planning Commission, and the City Council. And with any updates that are adopted, they will be incorporated into our Elk Grove Municipal Code, so they are consistent. And just note that the SBA is, the update is funded by our Community Development Department's fiscal year as part of the budget. And that concludes my presentation. Staff is available for any questions. Thank you.

All right, thank you very much. At this time, I will open up public comment opportunity, starting with in person, Lynn Wheat.

As I review the staff report, I note that the SPA update began six years ago but was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other priorities. Now the plan update has been restarted and a series of amendments to the current plan are being proposed. My primary concern is that there is no time estimate from staff on when we can expect a draft plan to be available for public review, and yet we have seen a long list of piecemeal changes and programs that appear to anticipate the outcome of that plan, which is still in process. I can understand the need to clarify the vision of Old Town, but anything substantial after that should only be considered in the context of a comprehensive draft plan. This piecemealing is contradictory to long-range comprehensive land use planning, and I think the public, and particularly the residents and business owners in Old Town, deserve to see the entire plan before any more changes are proposed. The creation of legal non-conforming land uses is fine when we have the complete picture as context. Other than the revised vision statement, I see no urgent need to jump ahead and create non-conforming land uses to the current SPA when there is a plan that started six years ago waiting to be completed. Current property owners of Old Town, business owners, and prospective investors need to see the whole picture, not a series of piecemeal changes leading up to the grand finale of when we don't know. Thank you. Thank you. Any online?

And we do not have any remote comment signed up for item 9.2.

All right, then I will close public comment for all attendees. Questions or comments? I'll start to the right. Council Member Spence.

Okay, so I'm generally supportive. My concern is relative to capping the number of any particular type. I understand that for years for years, the salons have been the target of too many salons. Right? My problem is that I have is what is too many who decides what is too many? Is there some standard throughout the nation that. small towns should only have a certain number, right? I guess I just get a difficult, when it comes back, I would like to see the reasoning specifically why some baseline standards of, hey, in other old towns, they only have so many hair salons per capita or whatever the measure is. But I'm greatly concerned just from a capitalism perspective of capital or of capping uses just based on some arbitrary number. So other than that, looking forward to seeing it. Thank you.

Council Member Robles.

Thank you for the presentation and thank you. I know it's something that we've been working on for several years. It can definitely be difficult to kind of, as time and as the city grows and as we look at different priorities and as the council as well changes and continues to develop and planning commissioners, we do know that there's a lot of change. I mean, I was on the planning commission prior to being on council and knowing and going through those growing pains as well. I truly appreciate it. I think I just had a quick question with the murals, though. So the Planning Commission has approval on there, but then it goes to...

So right now, as the SBA has stated, it's a design review and the approval authority is the Planning Commission.

Okay. And we want to keep it that way, correct?

So, no, the recommended change would be that the approval authority be the zoning administrator.

Perfect. Okay. Just wanted to double check on that. And then... I will agree with Councilman Spies on the salons. I don't know if we should put caps. I mean, I assume that that means the Elk Grove people get their hair done really perfect in Old Town Elk Grove. But that's all the comments I have for today.

Thank you. Councilmember Brewer?

No, I want to thank Kira for providing the overview. I mean, to a certain degree over the last few years, we've been seeing, for lack of a better word, a piecemeal approach in how we're dealing with historic Oak Grove, especially as we're looking at the baseline between Waterman and Oak Grove Flooring. And so looking forward to the report that comes back. definitely should be focused on our intention of how we want to shape historic Elk Grove with the residents. Because in a lot of ways, I'm hearing from a lot of constituents that live within that corridor where a lot of people are, some people have mixed reviews about Paint on the Grove. I love Paint on the Grove. But some people were complaining about some of the murals don't reflect the agricultural heritage or the Western heritage of Elk Grove or in the historical context. But in a lot of ways, some of those murals reflect that. It's a bridge. It's a bridge from the past to the present and as we look towards the future. And as we do that, you have these six personas where historic Elk Grove reflects a lot of what each of these towns have. But in a lot of ways, we're very much family friendly. It's definitely has an arts bend to it, but there is a historical context that we are respecting and not turning our back on. And so we are involving a lot of these traits as we're creating it and yes, we do have a lot of art there because there's a story to be told in everything that we have from Hello, Goodbye by Dust Bowl to Old Town Plaza all the way up to the current library spot. Everything tells a story and everything that what we have been doing as a city in telling that story lays it all out. We just encourage people to see the whole canvas instead of just looking at one thing and throwing something out there and saying you're missing something. But that's why I'm looking forward to the report that comes out because it'll lay out some of these facets but definitely encouraging some of those residents and business leaders to provide some input to help because we're not doing this in a silo. We're doing this together and so we're hoping that we can solicit additional comments from the folks who live in historic Elk Grove to help make everything fit within the bigger picture of Elk Grove in the long term, but thank you.

Thank you for all your comments. So help me understand why a zoning administrator is the preferred, I know you said streamlining, but so having one person oversee it versus a wider body and diverse opinions, trying to understand why that's the better route.

We thought, because the zoning administrator is still a public hearing, it's a little bit less timing for staff to take it to hearing date. So it's quicker on the applicant for going through the process. For the murals? For the murals.

So what I will say that there... Part of my heartburn on this is some murals in other jurisdictions did not have the litmus test in enough peer review, and an inappropriate mural was put in place that was very much culturally inappropriate. It wasn't anything obscene or anything, but it was not appropriate for the culture. So when it comes to murals and art, generally speaking, I like more eyes and more of a vetted review process. So are you comfortable telling us that the administrator will have the tools to have that diversity of thought and a checklist, if you will, to go through and use that lens to make that determination that would be in the best interest of Elk Grove?

Take that you'll take that I'm going to try if I can. Can you hear me? Yeah, there we go. That's a good question. Madam mayor. I think. When we brought the mural festival forward to historic main street. There were multiple stops along the way to get to the planning commission. It started with the arts commission, and they are our eyes and ears on what's appropriate and. cultural appropriateness and context and all of that. And so they will always review any publicly funded or supported mural.

So this will go through our commission, then there's another review process with the administrator and the public being involved in this process? I just want to make sure there's many opportunities for engagement.

I think we want to talk about that internally as staff, but we have an arts commission, and I think we could put them to work to do that. If the mural was being installed on a historic resource, it would also be presented to the Historic Preservation Commission, which we did with the Mural Festival. And then ultimately it would culminate in a visit to the zoning administrator, which I kind of support because it is quicker and it is less cost to the applicant. We have a great zoning administrator. I see her sitting right over there. But I think that would be a good path. We start with the Arts Commission. They advise and counsel you and staff, including, and could counsel the zoning administrator as well. And then the zoning administrators aren't with all the facts. The review, I'm gonna try to get this right, but the review by the planning department is not about the content or quality of the art. It's only about the place and the materials and the colors. So it's a very technical review at that point.

Okay.

The Arts Commission is really the group who's doing the more contextual analysis that I think you're looking for.

The Creative Economy?

Yes.

Since we don't have an Arts Commission.

What do we call it now?

It's the Arts... Oh, come on now. I should know that.

You champion this. I am the champion. You're right. It's the Arts and Creative Economy Commission. And we're going to come back and add cultural soon, so we have all the buzzwords.

What I want to do is to ensure that there's... many opportunities if something is not appropriate or suitable, that there are opportunities along the way, that we have enough peer review, if you will.

Yeah, that's our intent.

Okay, all right. Well, then I feel comfortable with what has been presented. Thank you. We will now move on to our next item.

The next item is item 9.3, which is receive information and consider resolution for executing an amended and restated memorandum of understanding between the City of Elk Grove and the Cosumnes Community Services District related to the development of park and recreation facilities.

All right, hello again, this environment, city manager, happy to present on this item tonight. Of course, I didn't do a lot of the work here was a combination of finance staff, public works staff, city manager's office staff and and Kara kick this off and now she's gone. So it fell in my lap to finish it up. So I'm happy to present this, but we've got a great partnership with our with our friends at the consumerist community services district. We were working hard to. To streamline and identifying areas that we can not only work closer, but work smarter and make sure that we're identifying those. And so that's what this is 1 of the 1st steps in what we're calling this clear initiative to identify opportunities for being more efficient. What we do. But this 1 specifically talk about this that's existed for a number of years, going back to 215. we updated in 2019. So this is the latest update we're recommending to you that we think we'll, we'll do some things that will allow us to be more efficient in delivering parks. Ultimately, this is about the delivery of parks in our community, how they're built, how they're funded and how that operates between the city and the. Um, so some of the goals again are to improve efficiency, avoid duplication of services, maximizing our taxpayer value, accelerating the delivery of new parks, um, areas experiencing active development. And so, um. Get into a little bit of how we're going to do that. So, because Elk Grove is a little bit unique in how we deliver deliver parks, because we have a community services district that is the parks and responsible for parks and recreation. The city has land use authority and other financing authorities. So we collect the funds for the development of new parks in especially our new growth areas, which includes Laguna Ridge and Southeast policy areas. We then have a process in the current MOU where we distribute those funds to the CSD as parks identified for development. So as they go through master planning and design and in various stages of construction, there's a task order process that we kind of dole out the funds as they go. We retain the funds that results in a lot of. Time and any energy and effort between both staff to kind of coordinate that work. The reality is, there's not really any good reason why the city needs to hold on to those funds. And so our recommendation 1 of the recommendations here is that we just remit those funds as they're received on a quarterly basis and they'll then program them for parks. There's lots of ways that we still have involvement. In the planning for parks, and I'll get into that in a second. This is the same way that we do it right now for fire impact fees. We collect the fire impact fees from new development, and we remit those to the CSV on a quarterly basis. And so we don't see any reason why we wouldn't do the same thing for parks. Um, city's responsibility and parks is coordinating kind of land use entitlements and then park location. We're still involved in that. Also, there's other other few other steps that I'll get to in a 2nd, of course, owns the parks with a few exceptions district 56 rain garden. There's a few other opportunities. Future opportunities are also identified in the agreement. CSD designs and constructs the new parks and then maintains them once they're built. So they assume sole responsibility for doing those things. And so 1 of the changes in this is that they will assume full responsibility for the naming of the parks and the branding and signage of the parks right now. That's kind of a joint thing. So, if you go out to Laguna Ridge, you'll see the city logo and a CSD logo and we have a joint naming thing and we think it's. both of us, the city staff and the CSD staff, think it's more appropriate for the CSD to take sole responsibility. Because it is confusing if somebody goes to one of our parks in those areas and they see a city sign there, they're gonna think that it's either partly owned by the city or we have some maintenance responsibility when in fact we do not have either of those things. And so we think for public transparency, it's cleaner and clearer if we have only the CSD logo and branding on there and leave that to their sole responsibility. authority and discretion of course it doesn't mean that all those signs are going to go and get changed out overnight by the cfc they'll do that i imagine as the signs were out or to whatever weather extent and timing they desire to happen but certainly with all new parks going forward you'll see only the csts name and logo on those new parks So city still has some other involvement, so they are, CSD will continue to provide city opportunities to comment on new parks design at the master plan level, 65% design as well as 100% design. We also wanna make sure that they are consistent with the Um, joint park design principles is something that the city council and the board jointly adopt. And so these are the things that make up what's appropriate to put and what different size parks and the amenities and things that are there. So we still have some say in that as we partner with with them to meet the needs of our community. There also will continue to be an option where the will allow developers and say, would allow developers to build parks in their subdivisions. We've done that on numerous occasions and sterling meadows and and others and so that remains an option for new development that might allow the district to more quickly, or have have more parks develop more quickly. as they're built by developers rather than always going through a CSD design process. And so I know they're weighing both of those options, but they remain available in the revised MOU. So, some of the key benefits to the community include more predictable, more timely park delivery, better ownership or clear ownership and maintenance responsibilities for the public that are coordination land, planning and park construction, improve transparency and stronger streamlined city and partnership and coordination. With this revised MOU, the funds that the city has right now in its accounts relating to these 3 park fees. So we have the starts of the Laguna Ridge specific plan supplemental park fee that's focused on land acquisition. We have about 8Million dollars sitting in that account. We're going to reach specific plan supplemental parts for facilities, but new parks has about 20, almost 21Million dollars. And then the SIPA parks is about 24Million dollars. So. Those funds would be remitted to the district. If the city council approves this agreement, there will be some funds that would be retained by the city. We have some outstanding obligations that we need to make sure we meet. And so there will be a kind of reconciliation that we go through on our end to make sure we're retaining enough funds to do those things. But then the balance of the funds would then be remitted to the CSE. And then going forward, they would also be able to receive, right now there's a 3% administrative fee that's collected One of those three presents would go to the CSD for their role in collecting and administering those fee programs. But the city would still be the owner of the fee program itself, so we would have to update the fees on a, typically it's a five year cycle, we do that, and so we bring in a consultant to do that. So we'd still be involved. Again, it's not their fee program, it's ours. Right now the law requires that it stay with the city, but over time that might change. And with new annexations, that might change as well. And so if there's an opportunity in the future for the district to collect those fees directly, then the MOU allows them to do that. And so right now, that's not the case. But in the future, that may be. And we would support that and their effort to do that. So that concludes the report. The recommendation is the council adopt the resolution approving the amended and restated MOU with the consumer CSD and authorizing the transfer of funds to the CSD, as noted in the staff report. And that concludes my report. I'm happy to answer any questions the council might have.

All right. Thank you for your presentation. At this time, I will open up public comment opportunity. I do not have anyone signed up for in-person. Do we have anyone online?

And we do not have anyone signed up for remote public comment on item 9.3.

All right, I will close public comment for all attendees. Open it up to council comments. Questions? I'll start to the right, go ahead. Council Member Spies.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I'm gonna bet that most in the room don't remember back when CSD and the city were at odds, loggerheads, gnashing of teeth, lots of arguments, lawsuits, back and forth. It was an ugly time in the city the civic world back then. And as a result, an MOU was created after a lawsuit, an MOU was created to solve it. It wasn't a perfect solution. There was distrust between the city and the CSD. I bring this up only because I want to thank you, Jason. I want to thank Tim Ogden, over at the general manager of CSD and of course, CSD staff who's in the back of the room. And of course the CSD board for working together collaboratively to let down the guard, to work on a solution and to come up with a solution that works better and is actually better for the taxpayer and actually makes things easier to maintain and to administrate. So again, most people don't have that history. That history is important so that you understand that this MOU, while seems very, very boring, is actually yet another milestone in resolving longstanding relations between CSD and the city. Thank you very much to Kara, who's not here today, but if you're, I know Kara can't miss watching, so she's probably tuned in. But thank you very much to everybody involved in moving this forward, thanks.

Thank you. Council Member Brewer, did you have any comments?

No, I just wanted to thank, I just wanted to thank you, Jason, for the report, for the work you've been doing. You pretty much have been steadfast working behind the scenes on this and on the front since the MOU first came about, and very thankful for that because you've worked through three general managers at CSD, now four, and But during this whole time, the relationship between CSD and the city during this entire process has improved the relationships between the two agencies, which the big winners is the Elk Grove community. And so this falls in that process, and I'm very thankful for the work that you and Cara Reddick has put into it on the city side, and making sure that we stay on this road. So definitely big thanks.

I'm lending my support all around as well. I definitely am a big supporter of government efficiency. So thank you to CSD and to staff for bringing us to this place. So with that, I will look for a motion.

So moved.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. All right, next item, 9.4, consider appointment of three voting members to the Youth Commission.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Jason Lindgren, your city clerk. We had 32 applications come in. You have only three spots for making the appointment. Thank you. I will let all the, we have numerous individuals signed up to speak, and we may have an online speaker for this one, but we'll wait for that moment when that comes. But I'll hand it over to all the applicants to speak on behalf of their applications.

All right, as I get ready to open up the public comment opportunity, just note that every single person that applied, we all have the packet that's quite detailed, so I would encourage for all of those that are present that when you are speaking, I am gonna give you the three minutes, but please feel free to not use the full three minutes. Brevity sometimes is the best, but again, it is your opportunity. I won't limit the public comment opportunity, but again, I do implore you, if you can, keep it under two minutes. With that, I will open up public comment opportunities, starting with our in-person attendees. And we have a number of people signed up to speak. We will start with Arnaab Mondal, followed by Meera Shah.

Uh, good evening, uh, madam mayor and council members. Uh, my name is I'm a rising junior at in council district 2, and I'm also a youth commission applicant as for my background. Um, I've held many leadership and outreach positions within my community and school. including being an officer in my school's coding and robotics pathway. I want to quickly elaborate on the two issues I mentioned in my application. Basically, the two big issues I see within students and in my community today is access to public transportation options and access to low cost third spaces outside of school or home. Firstly, I think that the bus schedules can much better serve our teens if they were to be aligned more toward the extracurriculars that many students participate in after school. Often, students are unable to attend certain activities due to a lack of transport. They either have to walk very far to get to a bus stop, wait a long time, or they may find that the bus simply does not arrive nearly often enough to be of use. I think a viable solution to this problem would be to gather data based on which areas students need to reach most frequently after school, and then work with the City Council and the SACRT to adjust or create new bus schedules based on this demand. Alternatively, a program similar to the previous SmartRide Microtransit program could be reintroduced aimed specifically this time at high school teens. And secondly, on third spaces, the city should work to provide more resources and communication for low cost third spaces designed specifically for teens in mind, like the Elk Grove teen center just for context. A third space refers to spaces and resources outside of home or school. designed for people to connect and collaborate together. Many students do not know that the city possesses these places for them to be at, and many of the places that they are aware of, like cafes and libraries, either possess monetary challenges or are not particularly good for actively socializing. Um, the city could introduce targeted marketing campaigns inside of high schools and middle middle schools to effectively increase awareness for these spaces and provide additional funding to allow these spaces to support more students. I believe that these are the most easily addressable problems affecting youth today. And these are steps in the right direction that will improve the lives of many teams in our cities. As a member of the Youth Commission, I would work with my peers to find the best solutions to the problems my fellow teens are facing today. Thank you very much for your time, and good luck to the rest of the applicants.

Thank you. Very sweet. Yeah. Mira Shaw, followed by Cartier Lin.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Mira Shaw, and I'm a rising junior at Pleasant Grove High School, where I currently participate in the biomedical pathway, play on the softball team, and was involved in student council for three years. I've also had the opportunity to run for class president, student board representative, and apply to the Civic Summer Program, because I believe that leadership begins with listening to others and giving every student a voice. These opportunities have led me to become the vice president of my school's mock trial team, where I have advanced the skills of leadership, public speaking, and communication. While leadership has shaped who I am, one of my biggest passions is improving the health, well-being, and nutrition of youth in my community. Through Girl Scouts, I've completed my Silver Award, which is 50 hours of volunteer work focused on educating first and second graders at Pleasant Grove Elementary School about balanced nutrition, healthy eating, and gardening. I was able to build a school garden and teach interactive workshops at Pleasant Grove Elementary School. Watching young students get so excited about healthy eating taught me that education can really create lifelong change. My commitment to serving the community extends beyond Girl Scouts. I'm a volunteer at the Food Bank, CalFresh Outreach at Locals Farmers Markets, the Teen Advisory Board, and as a program coordinator for Lunch at the Library, where I help distribute free meals and help plan activities for children and teens. One issue that has become especially important to me is mental health. As someone who has personally struggled with anxiety and an eating disorder, I was initially scared and I didn't realize how to ask for help. Through therapy, treatment, nutrition advice, and the support of my family, I learned that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness, and I want others to feel supported like this as well. My eating disorder experience has inspired my Girl Scout Gold Award, where I'm educating teenagers on the connection between nutrition and mental health. I'm creating educational videos, websites, informational flyers, and teaching workshops at my local high school. Another lesson my journey has taught me is the importance of embracing who you are. As an Indian American, I have found that one of the best ways to care for my mental health while connecting to my culture is through dance. I've been dancing Bollywood dance for 13 years, and I have shared my passion by choreographing musicals at my local middle school. That is why, if selected to the Youth Commission, I would love to help create a Cultural Spotlight Month initiative. Every month, Elk Grove could highlight a different culture at public spaces and schools, celebrating traditional music, art, history, dance, and language. These events could feature nutritious traditional dishes from the highlighted culture while providing mental health boosts that provide information about support, resources, and available resources. Thank you for your time and consideration. I'd be honored to serve on the Youth Commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Cartier Lin followed by Weiqi Wu.

Good evening, madam mayor, members of the city council and fellow residents of Elk Grove. My name is Cartier Lin and I'm a rising junior at Consumers Oaks High School. Thank you for taking the time to consider my application and for giving young people the opportunity to have a voice in shaping our community. To me, a community is more than just a place where people live. It is a place where people support one another, build connections and feel proud to call home. Think about why people cheer so passionately for their favorite basketball team. It's because they feel connected to something bigger than themselves. In the same way, when young people feel connected to their community, they become inspired to contribute to its future. That is why I am seeking to serve on the Youth Commission, to represent the diverse perspectives of Elk Grove youth and help build a community where every person feels that they belong. This summer, I had the opportunity to participate in Elk Grove's Civic Summer Program, and I am truly grateful for the experience. Before the program, I often feel uncertain about my future whenever people ask me what I wanted to do. I didn't have an answer, and I wasn't sure where I belong. Through the program, I heard from community leaders who shared that they also did not know, they did not have everything figured out at my age. Their stories reminded me that growth comes from being willing to explore, learn, and take chances. That experience is one of the biggest reasons why I'm here tonight. I know there are many students in Elk Grove who, like I once did, may still be searching for where they belong and how they can become involved in their community. Through my internship with the city and my work with the YES Youth Engagement Section team under the JYL Foundation, where our youth-led group was honored with the City's Star of Service Award. I have seen firsthand the impact young people can make when they are trusted with the chance to lead and serve. If selected to serve on the Youth Commission, I hope to help make sure young people feel represented, supported, and encouraged to participate in their community. Thank you again for your time and consideration. It would be an honor to serve in the City of Elk Grove.

Weiqi Wu, followed by Fabienne Fowler.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS. MY NAME IS WEIQI WU AND I'M AN INCOMING SENIOR AT PLEASANT GROVE HIGH SCHOOL. I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY ENTHUSIASM TO SERVE AS A CANDIDATE FOR THE ELK GROVE YOUTH COMMISSION, SPROUTING FROM MY DESIRE TO BE A VOICE FOR THE CONCERNS AND IDEAS OF MY PEERS AS WELL AS TO BE MORE DIRECTLY ENGAGED WITH THE EXCITING CHANGES HAPPENING WITHIN THE CITY. Previously, I've involved myself through actively volunteering at community events, such as Elk Grove's Lunar New Year Festival and the Path to Positivity, alongside being a frequent volunteer at the Elk Grove Animal Shelter. This summer, I'm interning with EGUSD at Elk Grove Elementary School, where I have taken on leadership positions in daily activities, in addition to an opportunity to mentor and work with younger students. When it comes to issues that affect the youth of today, as indicated by the Youth Needs Assessment Report by the Elk Grove Youth Commission in late 2024, mental health is a significant one. To address the challenges that youth may face, I believe that community events and an increase in their awareness and promotion are a valuable area to invest in. Events like these offer opportunities to meet others, encouraging the city's community to grow even closer. Through both volunteering and attending previous community events, I have personally experienced and understand directly the importance of feeling that you belong within your community. I look forward to the opening of the new Elk Grove Library and can already imagine the many new opportunities it will provide, allowing for even more youth involvement within the city. If I were appointed to partake in the youth commission, I will put great efforts into supporting the organization of even more community events, utilizing the many existing youth resources around Elk Grove and do my part in bringing even more positivity to our city. Having lived in Elk Grove my whole life, I'm eager to be considered for appointment as I would like to give back to the community that has raised me and my sisters and hopes for other people to experience the joys of calling Elk Grove their home. Thank you for your time and consideration this evening.

Next is Fabienne Fowler followed by Maya Baron.

Good evening, madam mayor and council members. I think I'm jumping in in the middle here of all of these wonderful applicants. I'm excited to hear about this opportunity that these young people have to serve on the city's youth council and commend them all for taking the initiative to pursue the opportunity. I'm actually putting forth a comment in support of one of the applicants, Jewel Pitcher, who is here tonight and is yet to speak. I have been, I've had the privilege of being her teacher with Feather River Charter School for the last two years and during this time have been able to get to know this wonderful young lady who I hope you'll consider for this position. I've been an educator in the area for 14 years and I've had a lot of students come through my classroom and been on my roster as a charter school teacher and this is really a standout student. I've been able to witness firsthand how Jewel gives of her time and talents to care for and work to improve the lives of others. In my letter of recommendation, which was submitted with her application, I listed a plethora of ways that Jewel has already shown initiative and dedication to serving others and making a positive impact in her community. I won't go over those all now, but just pointing out she's been very active in our school community. She participates in many volunteer opportunities and also has an amazing outward mindset. She's not focused on herself. She's focused on those around her and how she can impact and improve their lives. Jewel has genuine care and compassion for the well-being of others, and I can't recommend her enough. Skills that she possesses that would be invaluable for this position include leadership skills, innovative thinking, the ability to articulate her ideas clearly, the desire and ability to collaborate well with others, both students of the same age as well as working with adults, and a willingness and commitment to problem-solve situations and change. challenges in order to find solutions. Jewel takes her commitment seriously and approaches tasks with 100% effort to achieve excellence. Another interesting item to note is out of these 35 applicants, from my quick review, I think she's the only applicant that does attend a public charter school. So I think that would give a really great opportunity for her to give a diverse perspective for the needs that youth are facing. I think she'll talk a little bit about her passion for mental health, which is a passion of mine as well as I have two teens here in Elk Grove that are my own. So I think that's just a really important, we're in an important moment for that to be addressed. So thank you so much for considering Jewel Pitcher for this position, and I can't wait to see the positive impact that the Youth Council has on our community. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next up, Maya Barron, followed by Heilin Zhang.

Good evening, Council. I'll try my best to keep it short. My name is Maya Barron, and I know that I can relate to a lot of these young applicants. Let me start off by asking you guys a question. How many kids in here today have mentioned they're active in many different programs in and out of school and part of various sports teams? I'll take a wild guess and say a lot, but unfortunately for you guys, you'll have to hear about it once more. So I'm very sorry about that. For starters, I was vice president of my freshman class this past school year at Franklin High School. I had a blast discussing problems and solutions with my peers. I spent countless hours outside of class time trying to ensure every student felt like they had a strong support system. And at the end of the day, I believe that's what truly matters. But before I dive into who I personally am, I will finish off by mentioning a few examples of how I like to challenge myself. I am in many different honored classes, including an AP this year, so wish me luck. I'm going into my second year of leadership and AVID. And lastly, I have been in multiple captain roles on different sports teams, but mainly soccer. Now that we finished with all the service level stuff, let's get into who I truly am. From preschool all the way to sixth grade, I attended St. Elizabeth and Seton. And for those that don't know, it is a very small Catholic school located right here in Elk Grove. I truly adored that school, but what I liked most was our monthly service projects. Although then it just seemed like another assignment to check off, looking back now, I realize how important it was for us to experience things other students didn't. Some acts of service I did include working at the Elk Grove Library, food bank, animal shelter, and many more. These acts of service made me realize how important it is to help others. Switching from private school to public school was a huge change for me. But what I quickly realized was that I still cherish helping others and going the extra mile for everyone. There's nothing more rewarding than that smile people give you when you offer a helping hand, especially when they don't ask for it. I am hardworking, open-minded, unique, and observant. I know that I can bring fresh ideas to Elk Grove and make everyone feel valued. We all deserve everything this world has to offer, and I want to make that possible. All in all, everyone's voice matters, and I'd be honored to make them heard. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Halian Zhang, followed by Hemant Hunter Singh.

Hello. All right. Good evening, Madam Mayor and city council members. It's an honor to be here with you guys today, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to introduce myself. So let's get started. I'm Helen Zink. I'm a resident from District 4, and I go to school at Franklin High School, Elk Grove. I'm an incoming senior, and this might be my last year in Elk Grove, but I was taught with the idea to make things better than you found it before. So which is why I seek this opportunity to be here with you guys and serve on the youth commission so that I can serve the community that once took me under its wings and raised me graciously like its own. So let's get, so as I was filling out the form, I had a few priorities I left in mind. So let's get started with that. First of all, I would like to talk about representation. In my school, we had this recent incident where a faculty member was caught diminishing the voice of our students, and this left me shaken, because how many other places might this be happening in? And which is why I vow, if chosen as a youth commissioner, to amplify the unheard voices of our community, because I believe that everyone in this room deserves a voice, every student, everybody, every individual. And I vow to uphold that with dignity, honesty, and respect. Next, I want to move on to mental health. I was raised in a family that valued grits and determination. And so from a very young age, I was instilled this idea similar to a lot of people to toughen it up. But you can only toughen up so much before everything breaks down. And that breaking point came with my grandpa's passing. And this led to a really quick fall in my grades, and I just felt like everything was disappearing from my grasps. But through this time, I found other people. I found my fellow classmates, I found my friends, and I found that they had a similar problem as me, and which is why I realized that mental health It's like a vicious monster that tax of vulnerable and it is the duty of youth commissioners to uphold this to allocate resources and to make sure that no student feels left out unheard and struggling. And this is why I'm here. And lastly, I want to expand on clutch readiness. I'm from a very limited resource family. And so college always felt out of my grasp. Right and so. With the help of a lot of resources near me, for example, I went to my counselors, I went to my college advisors, I got involved with QuestBridge, this online college advisory, I gained more exposure than what my school offered me. And I realized that a lot of youth these days need that exposure. for prepare them for college. And that is one thing I want to expand on if I become a youth commissioner. And so I'm really eager to be considered for this role. And I thank everyone here for their time and consideration. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Hemant Hunter Singh, followed by Hemant Hayden Singh.

Good evening, members of the City Council, members of the Youth Commission, and esteemed guests. My name is Hema Hunter Singh, a rising junior at Consumers South High School, and it's an honor to speak before you today. As a high schooler in our community, I see firsthand challenges the youth's faith every single day. While mental health, social media, and substance abuse are all very important, I would like to talk to you today about something I feel really strongly about, which is youth job opportunities, which I believe is equally relevant and should be talked about a lot more. Over the past few months, I have personally applied to over 20 different places, waiting weeks at a time for responses or anything to reach out to me. But all I heard was no response and automated messages that gave no reason or response to me. Each one is more discouraging, as I am wanting to say steps into the future of my life, but this causes the youth to have no option but to give up and go back to their devices, holding resentment towards the future. This is not just about having a job, but this issue connects to so many more major problems facing everyday mental health. I have a friend who is a troubling home environment. She applied to various jobs. She was even wanting to bike all the way to central Elk Grove, and she was not able to do that because she had no opportunity. She didn't feel heard. This led her feeling there was nothing she can do in a sense of helplessness. This encouraged bad habits and forced her to endure the toxic situation that she was already in, making it even worse. We have thousands of eager, capable young people who want to work and contribute to the start of building their lives, but the opportunities are simply not meeting us halfway. We need local businesses, nonprofits, and community leaders to recognize our potential and create accessible, real pathways for youth employment. Investing in young people isn't just hiring another entry-level worker. It's giving someone a check-in chance and a time they may need it the most. I hope to speak with you all again, and thank you for your time. Thank you.

All right, Hamath Hayden-Singh.

Hello, City Council and members of the Board. My name is Hamath Hayden-Singh, but I also go by my middle name Hayden. First, I'd like to start off with some things that I feel like haven't been addressed with the Youth Commission. First is our youth engagement with the environment. I feel like it is the city's responsibility to create a positive relationship with the youth and their environment. I feel if the youth have a positive relationship with the environment, it will cause our youth to have better social skills that have been weakened with COVID-19, as well as the pandemic. Um, introduction of electronics next I would also like to speak about mental health also, but mainly the non traditional sense as like. What do you call it? Um, stress and things related to non like depression and. more so the things that we usually do not talk about. Thank you for your time. And as a member of the Youth Commission, I would support and continue supporting cultural events. Thank you for your time.

All right. Afoma Ozioko. Hi. You'll correct me on my spelling.

It's Afoma, so. Okay, oh okay, thank you. I'll just start now. Hello Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Afoma Chukuluzioka and I'm a rising senior of 17 years of age from Franklin High School. While my age means I'll have to serve a shorter term than others if appointed, I can assure you all that my love for civic engagement and passion for uplifting my community more than make up for this limitation. I express these traits of mine through various extracurricular activities. Notably, I'm the Director of Finance for the Teen Advisory Board of Franklin Library. Through this position, I've helped to strengthen the leadership skills of both myself and my peers through advocacy. Additionally, I'm currently in the Elko Civic Summer Program, which let me intern with Consumer CSD's Youth Development Branch. These experiences have enhanced my emotional intelligence skills through gained experience in professional settings and from important life lessons from youth leaders like yourselves. Lastly, as both a homework coach and teacher's assistant, I've directly impacted the educational needs of students K-8 in my community, and I've become more empathetic in order to better accommodate to the needs of the students I teach. Through the Youth Commission, I would especially like to advocate for a particular group that I feel many tend to overlook. Disabled youth. Nationwide, disabled students are statistically much less likely to attend and complete college than their non-disabled peers. This is in no way as a result of disinterest or laziness, but often because of limited preparation for our education and the academic and social rigor that comes with it. If appointed to the Youth Commission, I'd like to directly combat this issue. To make this possible, I'd collaborate with local organizations such as Consumers CSD's Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation Department and EGUSD to provide free STEM-based educational programs to disabled youth. This would allow disabled students to gain a deeper understanding of STEM fields like engineering, biology, and more. These courses would also take place in small groups to help students learn with more individualized support as opposed to the one-size-fits-all teaching approach adopted in many classrooms. Through these programs, Elk Grove's disabled youth can become better prepared and encouraged to enter higher education in the future. I strongly believe that it's important to combat all issues negatively affecting youth, especially those affecting marginalized groups, to best uplift our city. For that reason, I'd like to take a more equitable approach. With Elk Grove having such a diverse community, this in turn means that the needs of its citizens can be vastly different across separate groups. With this in mind, I would make a lasting impact through the Youth Commission by using targeted methods. This would look like, for example, advocating for free language classes for immigrant families, but at the same time, more accessible gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Through this approach, I believe the Youth Commission could better achieve its objectives when assured that nobody is left behind. With this in mind, I hope you will all consider me as a candidate for Elkos Youth Commission. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up is Ruby Matthew followed by Jewel Pitcher.

Hello, Mayor, council members, and to the rest of the staff in this room. My name is Ruby Matthew. I'm a rising senior at Cosima Stokes High School, and I'm here hopefully to be on the Youth Commission. Over the past school year, as one of the vice presidents on my school Student Equity Council, I have seen multiple issues which deeply impact the students on my campus, such as unaddressed racism, broken incident report forms, drug use, and unreliable transport. These issues need to be stopped. and they need to be addressed. Although this is a problem on my campus, I'm sure that they affect students across Elk Grove and on other school campuses as well. Now, what I propose to solve these issues are more communication between the Youth Commission and youth advocacy clubs and student equity councils, more resource preparation on drug use to be presented directly to youth, and more local community events with local nonprofit leaders to highlight these issues, such as fentanyl use and juvenile crime. Now, on top of these issues and solutions I have, I would also like to help out with planning fun events for the Youth Commission to uphold Elk Grove's number one spot as the best place to live in California. I have a lot of experience with event planning, having co-founded the organization SVM UNC, which has hosted three conferences this past school year with over 30 student participants at each one. We have even had the honor of having you, Mayor, at our last conference, which took place at Franklin High School as a guest speaker, which I'm glad. These conferences have greatly increased civic engagement among youth, providing an outlet for these students to research on policy and discuss policy, and then write resolutions on said policy. And on top of this, I saw with that, I hope to bring that experience into the role for the Youth Commission to planning events. I'm also I've also recently been appointed as the director of organizing for K to 12 students at Generation Upwards, which is California's largest student led education, equity and policy organization. The reason I bring this up is because I'm going to be actively working on organizing events and opportunities for youth to get involved in government. And through this and through my other roles, such as at SVM UNC, I've seen how passionate students are about learning more about the government. And if you look around this room, we are all here, the students are here because we are passionate about public policy. I believe there is so much opportunity for what the Youth Commission could organize to provide opportunities for these students, even if we aren't on the Youth Commission, to talk about issues that persistently affect us within the community. I just hope to be one part of that process. Thank you. That is all. Thank you, Council.

Good evening, madam mayor and city council members. My name is Joel Pitcher. I've lived in Elk Grove my whole life. I'm a rising junior at Feather River Charter School, and I'm involved in dual enrollment at Cosumnes River College. I would love to be selected for the Youth Commission because I'm passionate about youth, my community, making others' voices heard, and making a positive difference. As you can see on my application, I've done many things in the past to make a positive difference, including my Girl Scout Silver Award and Girl Scout Bronze Award. But I'm really here to address the issues that I see in our community. I've observed teen mental health issues and teens on their phones or screens too much. To combat these issues, I would suggest events similar to Path to Positivity, which the Elk Grove Youth Commission hosted in the past, where we create a safe space for teens on their mental health journey by providing resources and a safe community space where they can learn and grow on their journey. To combat the screen usage I see in teens today, I would suggest hosting screen-free events where teens can be without their phones. These could even be service opportunities like park cleanups or service days at the Elk Grove Food Bank. I feel like I am a great representation and I hear lots of people's voices and I would love to represent those people if I were to be selected for this committee. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay, next up is Kamalpreet Kaur followed by Manreet Kaur.

I will try my best to keep it short and sweet. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Kamalpreet Kaur. I'm a student at Consumers Oaks High School. I believe the best decisions are made when we take the time to understand the experience of the people that are affected. As a student and member of the Student Side Council at my school, I've seen how important it is for young people to have the spaces where they can feel comfortable sharing their ideas and challenges. I want to be a part of creating those spaces in Elk Grove and help connect youth voices with leaders who can turn those ideas into action.

To me, a community is like a garden.

Every young person has the ability to grow, but growth happens when they're given the right opportunities and guidance. If selected, I hope to help increase awareness of mental health resources, promote healthy ways to manage stress, and encourage more youth to become involved in their community. Most importantly, I want to listen to students, learn from their experience, and help them bring their ideas into actions. Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be honored to serve the youth of Elk Grove. Thank you.

Thank you. Manreed Kaur, followed by Yuvraj Singh.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and fellow council members. My name is Manry Carr, and I'm a rising sophomore at Consumers Oaks High School, and I'd like to thank you for granting me the opportunity to speak today. It is an honor to be considered for the Elk Grove Youth Commission. My desire to serve on this commission is derived from the pride, advocacy, and personal anecdotes I share. As an adolescent, I know the harmful inconveniences my peers have vented to me about, and all I want to do is make sure their voices are heard in important decisions. I want to ensure that everyone is being representative positively and getting their beliefs out, whether it be through me. I know that I have what it takes to make the people of Elk Grove feel safer, more representative, and overall more content and happier. Throughout school, I have been slowly building myself up in hopes to get where I am today, right here. My experience with being chairperson at Consumers Oaks School Site Council allows me to express changes needing to be made regarding students' academics as well as feelings. Being secretary of the sophomore class has taught me how to incorporate and make compromises to please our people with the events I plan. Being site director and co-secretary of Model UN has shown me how to be more publicly confident and express conflicting topics in a room full of people. Those are a few experiences that have showcased how leadership isn't about being superior. It is about how you serve and represent the youth in your community. If I were part of this commission, I would owe it to myself and others to represent all of Elk Grove youth and continue to learn rather than be close-minded because at the end of the day, this is a process. It's a process of understanding how to better yourself, remain selfless, and be better for the service of the community. Thank you very much for your time and considering me.

Thank you. Next up is Yuvraj Singh, followed by Diljit Guman.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, city council members, and everyone here this evening. My name is Yuvraj Singh, and I'm an eighth grade student at Elizabeth Pinkerton Middle School. I have been proud to call Elk Grove my home, and this community has played a major role in shaping me into who I am today. Over the years, I have been able to gain experience. I've been able to experience what makes Elk Grove such a special place, the diversity, the people, and the strong sense of community that brings everyone together. I'm honored to be here as a candidate for the Elk Grove Youth Commission and proudly endorsed by Vice Chair, Planning Commissioner Mr. Varinder Singh, as well as Ms. Teresa from the Diversity and Inclusion Commission. I truly care about the community and the people who live here. I believe young people deserve a voice in the decisions that affect them, and I want to help make sure that every voice is heard, as well as bring new ideas from different perspectives and experiences that can help make our city even stronger. Over the past year, I've worked to become more involved with Elk Grove through volunteering, attending community events, as well as taking on an internship with Council Member Rod Brewer this summer. Through that experience, I have learned how important it is for leaders to listen, work together, and serve the people that they represent. I have learned leadership is not just about being in a position or having a title. It's about showing up, listening to others, taking responsibility, and working with people to find solutions. is selected for the Youth Commission, I want to bring the perspective of students and young people across Elk Grove. I want to help create more opportunities for youth involvement, improve communication between the city and students, and be someone who listens to the concerns and ideas of young people. I want young people in Elk Grove to know that their opinions matter and that they have the ability to make a difference in their community. I want to encourage more students to get involved and understand that their voices encourage more students get involved and understand that their voices can shape the future of our city. I'm not just applying because I want the title. I'm applying because I want to serve. I want to continue learning, work with other youth commissioners, and contribute positively to the future of Elk Grove. Leadership is not about having the loudest voice in the room. It's about listening, showing up, and taking action when people need you. Thank you to Madam Mayor, the City Council for this opportunity and considering me. for the Elk Grove Youth Commission, I would be honored to serve this community and represent the city of Elk Grove.

Thank you. Next up is Daljeet Guman followed by Balbinder Poreval.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Daljeet Gooman. I go by Dolce. I'm an attorney, founder of Gooman Law Group. I live in Elk Grove in the country where I like it. I love it, actually. I would have everybody here that spoke, all these children, young people, People, they should run for president. It's beautiful. And I think they would do a better job. No offense to anybody. So I am here, though, however, to endorse and in support of Yuvraj Singh, who just spoke. He's only 13 years old. He has already shown qualities that make him an excellent candidate. He's respectful, responsible. He wants to make a difference to the community, as you heard from him himself. He listens to others, cares about the people around him, and willing to step up and serve. I believe that Yuvraj will take this responsibility seriously and will grow into an outstanding leader. Some personal observations I've had. Mr. Yuvraj, seeing myself and some other, seen at some fundraising events and outgrow of community events, He has truly given in hardworking spirit. He loves volunteering for his community. He's a great DJ, knows how to keep the fundraisers live and fun. I always see him roll up his sleeve and ready to clean up whatever's going on. No one has to ask him twice. I think that he's young, but if he starts at 13 and he's just gonna only get more better at the position and hopefully serve again. So I respectfully ask council to consider him for this position and investing in his dedication to the young people like him deserve this type of representation. So thank you for your consideration. Thank you.

Next up is Bulbinder Parival followed by Alex Haag. Someone will correct me.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Balvinder Puriwal, and I'm here today to speak in support of Yuvraj Singh for the Youth Commission. Although he's only 13 years old and is in eighth grade, he has already shown qualities that make him an excellent candidate. He is respectful, responsible, and genuinely interested in making a positive difference in our community. He listens to others, cares about the people around him, and is willing to step up and serve. I believe that Yuvraj will take that responsibility seriously and will grow into an outstanding leader. I respectfully ask the Council to consider his application favorably Investing in dedicated young people like him is an investment in the future of our community. So in the end, I thank you for your time and consideration, and please consider him for the Youth Commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Alex, is it Haig? Haig, yes. Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. My name is Alexandria Haig, and I'm a 38-year resident of Elk Grove, and I am very pleased to see the youth that Elk Grove has grown, and it is very encouraging. And tonight, I am honored to speak today on behalf of Yuvraj Singh. I have known Yuvraj and his family since he was just five years old, and have had the privilege of watching him grow from a young boy into the outstanding young man he is today. What has always impressed me with Yuvraj is his heart. He has always been kind, respectful, and willing to help others, whether it's supporting his neighbors, participating in several community activities, or simply being there for someone who needs help, Yuvraj has always shown a genuine desire to make a positive difference. Over the years, I've seen his maturity, confidence, and sense of responsibility grow, and I truly believe Yuvraj would be a great voice for the youth in our community, especially here in Elk Grove. He understands the importance of listening, bringing people together and creating opportunities for young people to be heard. I am proud to support Yuvraj Singh for the Youth Commission, and I know he will serve with dedication, compassion, and the same kindness that he has shown since he was a little boy. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next up is Judea Jones, followed by Rania. I'm not going to even try to pronounce the last name. I'm sorry, with an E.

Good evening, Mayor Singh-Allen and members of the Elk Grove City Council. My name is Judea Jones, I am 15 years old, and I applied for the Youth Commission because I felt that my experiences as a homeschooled student would be valuable to the Commission in representing the youth of Elk Grove. Our city has always stressed the need for diversity, and this also includes diversity of thoughts, values, and interests. As homeschooling grows to become a popular option for many families, it also becomes necessary for cities to better understand the students within their community. Many of my own values and skills were developed by my homeschool family. For instance, I developed care, patience, and communication when I worked with my peers to help lead a children's Bible study. Additionally, I learned dedication and focus when I served on two event planning committees for my homeschool. Furthermore, the essence of diligence, hard work, and responsibility was cultivated through my homeschool academic experience, which included preparation for graduating high school in my freshman year and taking online dual enrollment courses at Colorado Christian University. If appointed to the commission, I intend to work hard, be honest, and encourage my peers. I hope to respect my fellow commissioners' perspective while sharing and maintaining my own values and beliefs. Thank you for your time, consideration, and this opportunity.

Next up is Rania. Please help me with your last name. I want to say Elkisab, but... It is? Hey. I think I just rolled off my tongue.

Perfect hello good evening mayor and city council and I appreciate so much this opportunity to be considered for the youth commission and I'll make it snappy because you've heard tons of these. I'm currently rising senior at consumers folks and I think there's 3 big issues plaguing Elk Grove's team and youth. Right now, I think there aren't many third spaces. In my junior year, I fell into kind of a deep depression, and I found that there wasn't a place for me to meet new people. I felt trapped by the people I already went to school with since kindergarten, and they made false assumptions about me. So I began the third place project with my fellowship in Youth Lead the Charge Fellowship with Cal Center. In this, I'm creating a third space at monthly coffee shops where teens are able to talk to people of all different ages and backgrounds beyond just the educational atmosphere. And I would love to bring this initiative forth to... the Youth Commission because I believe that the loneliness crisis hasn't been considered in civic engagement or civic spaces yet, since it's so difficult to quantify. Additionally, it's no surprise that youth mental health hasn't been the best. As a student who went through COVID homeschooling, it's been rough. And I felt like ever since I haven't really jumped back from that I served as consumers oaks peer counseling president for a few years and there I held a mental health day where I brought activities to people right there in their schools who might not otherwise go out and reach these activities. Additionally.

Oh, excuse me.

Additionally, my last thing is environmental initiative. I feel like when I was taught about environmental initiative, it felt so far away and I felt like it was pretty hopeless. I got the internship at California Youth Climate Policy program, where I began, and I spoke to the school board about adding AP environmental science to a course in every 1 of Elk Grove's 8 main high schools. I continued this through Cal centers, young climate champion, and I would love to continue the. continue the initiative through being given this position. Now, what would this position give me? It would give me a scope beyond the people I already interact with. Right now, I only hear from high school students. I want to know how we can bring these initiatives to kindergartners, even though it might seem like they don't need mental health support, but them too need it. And I think that I would be a valuable asset, and I would love to be considered. Thank you so much, and good evening. Thank you.

Our last speaker is Hannah Isabella Legaspi.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Hannah Legaspi and I'm a student at Franklin High School and upcoming junior. I decided to apply and I genuinely care about the Elk Grove community and want to make a positive impact for the youth who live here. I believe that young people have valuable ideas and perspectives and I love the opportunity to help represent them. At Franklin High School, I serve as a vice president of the Fellowship Christian Athletes Club. Through the role, I've learned the importance of leadership, teamwork, and other, and, excuse me, sorry. and teamwork and listening to others. I've also had opportunities to organize events, work with other students, and serve my school community. If selected, I will come prepared, listen with open mind, and work hard to shine the light on problems young people go through, such as drug use and mental health. I still have a lot to learn and I would be honored to grow with this community while giving back to my community. Thank you again for this time and your consideration. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today and I hope that the privilege of serving on the Oak Grove Youth Commission. Thank you. Thank you.

And are there any online speakers?

So Mayor, we do have a speaker, we have an attendee who's in online, but we'd ask the attendee if you can use the raise hand feature if you do wish to speak. We kinda need that trigger point in order to call you into the meeting. And we'll see if our attendee's responding. but they may just be listening. So we don't have the raised hand feature being used, and so I would say that they're here to listen and hear the deliberations, so.

All right, then I will close the public comment opportunity for all attendees. First of all, can we just give all of our amazing applicants a round of applause. I always regret these moments because I wish I had 30 plus spots for all of you, truly. The quality of the applicants is quite remarkable. And it's, you know, you wanna go through some sort of a system in terms of how to appoint someone, where might there be gaps. And so that's the best way for me to sort of manage all of the applications because honestly, All of you are very well qualified. Some of you are just amazing leaders already doing such great things in our community. So what I will do is I'll let me just read out the commissioners that we do have and the schools that we, well, just the schools that they represent. We have a representative already from Sheldon High School. We have two from Cosumnes Oaks. Actually, we do have two commissioners that are in our charter school program. One is from the Elk Grove Charter and the other is Fortune Early College. And I only bring that up because I thought I heard one of the speakers mentioning the need for a charter school voice. So we actually have two. Elk Grove High School and we do have Franklin High School. And then our lovely city clerk provided a chart, which escapes me right now, on where we still have gaps, where we could use representation. So those are sort of the check marks that I'm looking at, but it's just one benchmark of guidance. I will say, we do have, I'll just go off and name at least, to start off the conversation, The first recommendation made a pretty compelling case with all of the support. I've never seen this kind of support for a Youth Commission applicant before. So I would like to nominate the youngest applicant. I think having a middle school voice would be a great segue into high school and having that connection. So with the tremendous support and application and of course the testimony. The first applicant for your consideration would be Yuvraj Singh. And for the record, we have the same last name but there is no relationship. Just wanted to make that clear that there is no relationship with Mr. Yuvraj. So with, are we good with Yuvraj Singh consensus? All right, congratulations to Yuvraj. Now it gets much harder because looking at different benchmarks, a number of you are involved in so many things, so many things. I thought I had my mind made up reading through these applications and hearing your amazing testimonies. And then I went back and put on my school board hat that I once wore for eight and a half years. And that was always to be a champion for students who aren't already involved to that great level that you see that are involved and they're the president of this club and volunteering everywhere, part of even our summer civic program. There's always students that get left behind who also deserve to have a seat at the table. And I always, as a former school board member, I always wanted to be a champion for those voices because all of you are high achievers. You do great work and you're already giving so back, so much back, that that is another sort of layer that I wanted to consider. I have a number of names and I honestly, it's very hard for me to pick. So I don't wanna be the only bad guy. I'm gonna enlist all of you to be the bad guys in this to help narrow the decision. So what I'm gonna ask is, I have a huge list here, so if I can get two names from each of you, and I'm gonna match them with who I have, this way it'll help me, because it's not easy. And please consider those that don't traditionally have a seat at this table. who aren't involved in Summer Civic Program or who aren't volunteering in our local nonprofits and already leading their schools, who stood out to you? I would love, so I'm looking for guidance from you. Who stood out for you? Give me two names. I mean, there's gotta be.

All right, you guys have three more minutes to come back and give the presentations again.

There's gotta be a couple that stood out for you. We can come back to you. Let's start with, I'll start with Council Member Brewer. What two names stood out for you?

There were, again, we had another great group of applicants, but the two that stood out to me were Afoma and Hannah.

The first name?

Afoma Osiyoko.

Yep.

And Hannah Legaspi.

And Hannah Legaspi. Okay. Kevin.

Okay. So... First thing I want to do is say... I really appreciate the audience and the respect that you have given to each other and the kindness and the support and listening. Normally we don't do the clapping thing here, but Are we trying not to? Because it adds more things to time. But I want to make sure that you understand that I really appreciate you supporting each other because you come from different schools, different backgrounds, et cetera. And everybody has a different perspective. But your kindness and your respect to each other is fantastic. So thank you for that. OK, so two names. One would be, I know the last name's correct, but is it Mira Shaw?

Yeah.

Mira is one. And then, I'm sorry, Afoma, but I can't remember your last name, and I apologize because, say it loud, that's fine.

Osiyoko?

That.

Afoma.

Excellent. Council Member Robles.

This is like very difficult.

Exactly. So I don't want to be, you know, since I have the power of appointment, I'm sharing the burden here.

Share responsibility. No, I feel like today I'm kind of just writing a like really youthful story. energy and high I want to say because I also have the ability to go speak at the Capitol with a youth leadership program and it's been like a day full of young amazing individuals who we talk about the future so much but we don't need to look to the future they're right here president and each and every one of you your speeches were so diligent thoughtful and eloquent like literally you guys can give a course on communication skills that many of us adults don't have, right? I wanted to just ask Jason to start giving applications to apply to Elk Grove. We had someone talk about, I just found out a new word, third space. I didn't know what that was, right? And it's going to, go look at what does that look like. And some of the stuff that many of you young students talked about, I mean, in addition to looking at who we're gonna appoint to these commission seat, I'm thinking like, okay, we need to do more for you guys. What can we do to bring that ingenuity, to bring that creativity, because you guys have that already, right? Yes, the commission is something that obviously you get to put on your resume and use for college, but I think there's something that we have to kind of do I think in Elk Grove we're expanding as a city and I don't know what that looks like. I'm gonna take literally this evening and maybe the whole week to kind of figure out and eventually we'll see if we can bring it back or maybe when we have our council retreat to talk about how we can have a conference for you guys, whether it's in the AI space, whether it's in the mental health space, or even I know that our staff does it right for youth, but I think our city deserves something really cool and to have all you who who applied for the Youth Commission to participate in something like this. I think that goes very much far. I mean, we have people who I know are gonna be taking our seats pretty soon. Someone, I think, that talked about policy. To talk about policy at that, like very passionate, at your age, like, I'm like, oh man, this is my new campaign person. I'm not going campaign talks. I'm just saying someone who's gonna be, not mine, but someone who's gonna be making a difference in our community because you guys are just so passionate about policy and being able to change and transform that. And genuinely, we see that you wanna do that for the city. so i think it's it's amazing and awesome that you guys uh are doing that so you see i think you're you're filibustering yeah you're what you're doing is yeah you don't want to name names i don't want to name names that's the hard part but um i i'm probably going to throw you for a loop because i will say different names uh so i'm gonna but i think that jules uh and i'm please picture picture I think she did an amazing job presenting I also looked at a lot of the folks who who wrote recommendation letters was pretty good and then I also have to another one I know I think it was the hard one this isn't the hard one Jules and then I had

If you don't have one, that's okay too.

Well, I have like two more. Ruby, Matthews, I think. And then I'll also add another one. Okay, I don't want to pronounce this. Afoma, sorry. Yes, Afoma. That's a lot of my third one.

All right, so I hear Jewel, Ruby... and a FOMA. So what I will say that we wanna fill areas and we don't have representation currently in area one. Mira will be my recommendation to fill area one. She goes to Pleasant Grove and we don't have representation in Pleasant Grove. How does that sound?

Sounds good, sure.

Yes, congratulations Mira. Okay, so, let's see, our makeup currently, we have one, two, three, four, we have four females on the commission now, two males and one non-binary. I'm all about female empowerment, let's not mistake that. Okay, so I have a few names as well. I do want to put on the record that Councilmember Suen did reach out to me and made a recommendation, so I want to put their name here. for consideration, and that is Maya Baron. So Maya is one name. The other name that I have, because I love the transportation discussion as a SACRT chair, Arnav did a great job for a policy discussion. Arnav was the first speaker. I also have... I also have Maya, so on my list. I also have Helen Zhang from Franklin. I also have Ruby Matthew, I think I heard that from one other. So what I'm also considering is the different ages, because you want to have continuity, otherwise we'll be here next year filling several more vacancies. and going through this exercise, which is not going to be easy. So Ruby is another name for consideration that I have on my list. I have a FOMA as well. Now what I will say is let's now use the lens of those just different names that, and Rania is another one that I have, who's a champion for the climate, which I think is great policy work as well. So that's the fifth name, is Rania. Let's consider the age. Let's consider representation. So if you don't have this sheet here, there's different groups that are not currently represented on the commission. So I want to give consideration to have a wide variety of representation. So mine, I'm gonna now narrow it down to four. And then I need your help on that. Maya, Arnaub, Ruby, and Rania. And Helen, sorry, yeah. So of those, one, two, three, four, five names. I have Maya, Arnaub, Ruby, Rania, and Helen. Do you have a favorite from those? Again, wearing the lens of where we need representation, where we already have representation, the age and the schools. Maya, Arnaub, Ruby, Rania, and Helen. Mr. Brewer. Give me one. And while they're helping me actually make my decision here on who would be an excellent appointee, all of you can actually participate in the Youth Commission. They're much like council meetings, you get to go there, and participate and lend your voice in shaping the policies. So just because you're not a voting member, you can still participate. Your input is still invaluable. It looks like you're still deliberating. Okay, so I will go to Council Member Robles, Maya, Arnaab, Ruby, Rania, Helen.

Can I give you two names?

Sure.

I'll go with Maya for first one and Ruby for second one.

Okay. Council Member Spies.

I can support any of them, but I would say that Maya would certainly be the pick out of the five.

Okay, so your one vote there. Council Member Brewer. And again, as a reminder, Maya was also recommended by Council Member Suen as the one vote. So I'm gonna consider his vote in here.

Now you have a lot of good choices, but of the five, I'm looking at Maya as a standout of those five.

All right, and I have Maya on the list here along with the others, so I will also lend my support and recommendation to all of you to fill that third seat, and that is Maya Baron representing Franklin High School. Yes? As you know, this was very difficult and just such an amazing pool of wonderful students. Our future is bright. I am so proud of each and every one of you. I know the future is bright because I know you all will be leading and creating that beautiful future. And like I said earlier, please, Don't let this be the end for you. I know so many of you are already doing amazing things and you will continue to do amazing things. But if the Youth Commission is an area where you have a lot of passion, show up to the meetings, look at the agenda, shape the conversation. Your voice will still matter regardless of whether you're a voting member or not. So thank you all. One more time, another round of applause. Thank you all for applying, and congratulations to our three new youth commissioners. All right, we still have business to conduct, so we're gonna continue on with the meeting. Thank you all once again. We are on, let's see, item number 10, which is just council comments, reports, future agenda items. Anything to report? I'm looking to the right.

sewer meeting today, and then looking forward for National Night Out.

Excellent. Council Member Spies, anything?

Council Member Brewer and I have a segment of public library tomorrow. I think that's it.

Thank you. Council Member Brewer?

My comments are aligned with Council Member Spies.

All right, and a lot of the meetings start this weekend on. It's been a summer recess for most of all of the commissions, so we've got SAC 14 next week. Did you have something?

Before we end, or when we end, can we end in honor of the soldiers that passed away this past weekend in Jordan, overseas?

Absolutely.

We have First Lieutenant Tyler James Freeman, or Freeman, of Hawaii, Private Isabella Gonzalez of Texas, Sergeant Angel Rampstead of New York, and a couple others. But just one in the memory, and just praying for the families and praying for the units.

Absolutely. Thank you, and It's always hard to adjourn in the memory of lost loved ones and those particularly that fought for their country. So let their memory be a blessing to their families and their friends and let our nation forever be grateful for their service. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned at 8.21.