City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I would like to call to order the Elk Grove City Council regular meeting. Today is Wednesday, August 26, 2026. The time is 6 p.m. 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, August 28th at 1 p.m., and Monday, August 31st, also at 1 p.m., and 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. Elk Grove 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, per item, 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 noticed 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. you wish to address the council during the meeting please complete one of the blue speaker cards which can be found at the back of the chamber and provided to assistant city clerk brenda haggard prior to consideration of the agenda item as we continue on in 2026 we are also in the zoom environment for our meeting and so we will have some prompts in which we will be looking to see if we have attendees in the digital audience for all of our items where we have public comment But unique this evening is that we have Vice Mayor Suen calling in, and he is participating what we believe is by remote participation. And so Vice Mayor, if you can unmute yourself, it's just if you can let us know. We believe that your remote participation is part of your service as an employee with a local agency and that you're on a work trip, but you're able to join us by remote participation. So if you could just confirm that, and then I'll have a second question for you after that. So let's see if your muting abilities are working.

All right. Good evening, Mr. Clerk and my colleagues. I'm here. Can you hear me?

We can. You were good. You just muted yourself. So now you're unmuted right now. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Yes, I am. I'm here and there's nobody over the age of 18 or anyone else for that matter in my presence. Excellent.

It's like you read my mind of not having anyone. That's one of our government regulations is that you do have to announce if there's anyone in the room with you. That sounds like that condition is not met nor are you in a location for that. But if it changes at any moment, Vice Mayor, feel free to let us know before you chime in and speak. But we're under the assumption that's your condition. And again, I'm just confirming that you're there for a work business trip for your service as a local agency employee.

Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Excellent. So with that, what I'd like to now do is move on to the roll call. And we're all going to get kind of used to the roll call tonight because we are teleconferencing one of the members of the city council. So all votes that we do this evening will be roll call votes. So to get a practice on for our... Call to order for our roll call. I'll start with Council Member Robles.

Present.

Council Member Spies. Present. Council Member Brewer. Present. Vice Mayor Suen. Here. And Mayor Sing-Allen.

Here.

Everyone is here. We have our quorum to proceed.

All right. Thank you. Next up is our land acknowledgement. Assisting with that is Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elk Grove's first inhabitants, the Plain Miwoks, who lived on sovereign caretakers of this land and these waters since time immemorial. We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria Tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County who endured because of their bravery, resilience, determination of their ancestors, tribal members, and leaders.

Thank you. Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance. Chief Davis, would you please assist this evening? Thank you. Next up is our moment of silence. Please join us for a brief moment of silence. All right. Thank you. Next up is our approval of the agenda.

So moved. Second.

And for the roll call vote for the approval of the agenda, I will be starting with Council Member Robles. Aye. Council Member Spies. Aye. Council Member Brewer. Aye. Vice Mayor Suen. Aye. Aye. And Mayor Singh-Allen? Aye. 5-0. We have an agenda.

Excellent. Next item.

Under Section 3, the closed session, there are no closed session items on the regular agenda, which will advance us to Section 4, our presentations and announcements. And that first item being 4.1, a proclamation recognizing September 2026 as Diversity Awareness Month.

Excellent. Thank you. Assisting with that will be Councilmember Brewer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. If I could have the members of the Diversity and Inclusion Commission... COME UP. I want to thank you all for being here tonight and definitely want to thank you for serving our community as commissioners on the Diversity and Inclusion Commission. As we round into the second half of the year, Diversity Awareness Month is definitely important given the broad scope and largesse of our community. We have a lot of people that represent a lot of different backgrounds and to have all of you in capacity serving in that role is really commendable, and so I want to thank you for that, for your service, but I also want to read this proclamation to acknowledge Diversity Awareness Month, September 2026, and then we'll turn it over to the Chair to speak, and then we'll come down and do a picture. Whereas the city of Elk Grove is widely recognized as one of the most diverse mid-sized cities in the United States and values its rich cultural fabric. And whereas during the month of September, the city of Elk Grove and its Diversity and Inclusion Commission will celebrate the city's vibrant diversity through various events and activities. And whereas providing information, education, and communication, we may facilitate better recognition, understanding, and appreciation for both our commonalities and differences. And whereas by collaborating with various organizations to create events, activities, and forms to promote peace and unity, within our community, and whereas the City and its Diversity and Inclusion Commission endeavor to create a more equitable, accessible, safe, welcoming, and inclusive government and community in the City of Elk Grove, and whereas the City and its Diversity and Inclusion Committee invites residents to attend the many events offered throughout Diversity Awareness Month, celebrating our city's diversity. And whereas all Elk Grove citizens, businesses, organizations, and the news media are encouraged to participate in activities and programs during this designated month, to take the city's diversity pledge of no place for hate, and to appreciate the diversity that thrives within the City of Elk Grove. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Elk Grove hereby proclaims September 2026 as Diversity Awareness Month in the City of Elk Grove, signed this 26th day of August 2026.

You have the floor.

My name is Tina Lupo, and I have the privilege of being the chair of University and Inclusion Commission. I'm going to allow my other commissioners to introduce themselves very quickly. Hi, council members. This is Teresa Pamotel.

Hi, council members. My name is Carly Slorant.

So as always, I want to express our gratitude for the ongoing commitment and support that this council continues to provide to the diversity of our city. One of the things that's really great about serving on this commission is having that support and knowing that when you talk about how you support the community and the cultures and making sure that everyone knows that we're a city welcome to all, you guys really stand behind those words. It's more than just something that you do for a photo op or just to say them. One of the things we'd like to do is to make sure to invite folks to come to the many events that we have planned. I won't cover all of them, but I did want to give a little history. Initially, our commission was built as the multicultural committee, and then the city understood the importance of focusing on more than just multicultural in a single event, but understanding the celebration of all the diversity in our city. Our premier event is gonna be our Global Feast Fest on September 12th, and if you like to eat some good food, come on down. But it's more than that, it's music, it's vendors, it's the ability to really celebrate all of our cultures. One of the things that we like is as the city has grown and evolved over the last quarter century, so has the nature of this month. We have events all throughout the month where we celebrate. We're gonna be partnering with the local business to celebrate coffee and culture. We're partnering with our library system. And what's so great about that is the youth committee with the library developed some programming that we're doing there. So we have all kind of different events happening throughout the month. So again, we invite people to come, keep an eye out for the different events that we have going. And as always, we again want to thank the council for your commitment because the work that we do couldn't be done Of course, I always have to recognize our staff. We have Fauna and Sydney who continue to prop us up and support us. And when we say we, we know they're doing a lot of the grunt work. And in terms of the event, Jody is just an amazing rock star. And so she makes it all happen and kind of herds the cats that are on our commission to make sure that we step up and do our part. So as always, thank you so much for this recognition.

Thank you. We'll come down and take a picture. But before we do, I just want to thank you and all of our commissioners for the great work that you do serving your city. Thank you. Well done. All right. Let's come down there.

All right. All right. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up is public comment. We have a number of people signed up to speak. As a reminder, you have three minutes. We'll start with Lindsay Halsell, followed by Noah Arsala.

Hello, my name is Lindsay Halsell and I'm an Elk Grove resident. I'm once again asking that the city end its contract with flock safety and that Elk Grove end its use of automated license plate readers entirely, not seeking an alternative vendor after canceling flock. Putting everyone under constant surveillance is an inversion of how our justice system is meant to work, innocent until proven guilty. Identify a suspect, get a warrant, conduct an investigation. Using AI cameras to track everyone's movements is the opposite of this process. There is no probable cause to surveil everyone all the time, but that's what using ALPRs like Flock amounts to. By continuing to use these systems, the city is letting us know that we're all in a state of perpetual guilt, just waiting for the police to decide on our crimes, which Flock's AI system can generate using pre-written prompts provided by Flock itself. In April, the mayor said she was open to an audit of the city's flock data. Several weeks ago, DFLOC Elk Grove published a community audit based on data obtained from Public Records Act requests. The data indicate that the city of Elk Grove has violated state law by sharing our data with other states and federal agencies. The city has claimed our data are secure and not shared on FLOC's national network. Do the mayor, city councilors, and chief of police not understand how FLOC works? Or are they lying about what happens to the data collected from constant surveillance? While the city and police department have stated that our data are secure, it is clear they have no way to enforce that themselves or even confirm its truth. Two weeks ago, Flock announced updates to its privacy safeguards, recommending a seven-day retention period unless there is an active investigation. Yet, a week later, a Flock representative let slip in a public meeting in Marietta, Oklahoma that they retained data indefinitely. Flock's terms and conditions state that even if the Elk Grove Police Department owns the data, Flock has the right to, quote, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide license to A, use and disclose customer data to provide the Flock services, and B, use customer data to support and improve Flock's products and services, end quote. While the city may claim it can keep our data safe, these terms make it clear that the city does not have the power or authority to do any such thing. There is no responsible, secure way to maintain an active contract with Flock, and there's no reason to believe that a company that makes its money from spying on everyone is telling the truth about what it does with the information it collects. We deserve better than living in a city where we are constantly treated as suspects of crimes not yet committed. We should not have to be observed by a system that makes it not only possible but trivially easy for police officers to stalk and harass women, for immigration and customs enforcement to monitor activists, or for the federal government to observe the movements of political opponents. Whether the city believes it's aiding and abetting the surveillance state is irrelevant. The purpose of this system is objectively to make it easier for those with power to maintain it by collecting an inordinate amount of data on all of us. The only responsible thing for the city of Elk Grove to do is to end its relationship with Flock immediately and start treating us as citizens rather than suspects. Thank you.

Thank you.

We need to conduct this meeting. Thank you. All right. Next up is Noah Arsala followed by George Doank. I'm sure I'm butchering it. Oh, sorry. I just saw the sign.

Uh, got to crouch down, I guess. Uh, Oh, it said please do not adjust the microphones. Okay. All right. So I'm a heavily concerned Elk Grove resident. AOPR cameras and flock cameras specifically have been known to be a failure and a public safety risk. Denver resident Christina Elser was wrongfully accused of package theft by cops using flock cameras, which led to her having to get her own car's GPS data, neighbor camera footage, and phone records to show proof that she wasn't in that area. If she didn't have that proof herself, she could have possibly been incarcerated and charged for something she did not do. Eva Pizzarelli of Rhode Island just a year ago was undergoing a routine traffic stop, ending with her being wrongfully in handcuffs due to her being tied to a random vehicle that was not registered to her whatsoever. How did the cop wrongfully accuse her? By using a flock camera that mistakenly matched her name to another vehicle that was involved with a local crime, when in reality it was not registered to her at all. In both Arkansas and South Carolina, the use of a flock camera led to the result of officers drawing weapons on innocent people, including a baby, then later realizing that the plates were incorrect. Lindsay Isaacs from Florida was charged with eight felonies, which included serious charges such as vehicular homicide. This caused her to spend 13 days in jail and her car being impounded for a total of seven months. Prosecutors quickly realized that her and her car weren't involved with this crime at all and that this was an error from the cops' end, that error being the use of flock cameras. So as a whole, Flock and ALPR cameras as a whole inherently pose a risk to our safety and privacy, which was once our community rights. And it's something that our board members should respect, our police department should respect, our city should respect that as a whole. And by doing that, they should cancel the Flock contract and cancel any future ALPR contract. And I know a lot of people in the past, and I'm sure a lot of people today are going to express the same thing in probably better detail than me, But the city of Elk Grove has violated our privacy a multitude of times through this by giving our data to outside agencies. Regardless if you're oblivious to the implications of that or if you're lying through your teeth, the conclusion is all the same. This is showing signs of incompetence should you continue to persist with using any sort of ALPR and FLOC as a whole. Putting, once again, our privacy and our safety at risk, I yield.

Thank you. Next up is George. After George is Omar Opiani.

Hi. Good evening. My name is George Doan, and my family has lived in the city for about 30 years, give or take. I'm here to express my opposition to the use of warrantless mass surveillance by automated license plate reader or ALPR cameras. An independent audit of ALPR usage has revealed that over 97% of the queries made against our region's data came from entities not directly affiliated with the City of Elk Grove. This would certainly appear to be a direct violation of SB 34, but more importantly, it represents a violation of the community's trust in the City Council. We asked, through legitimate channels, how our data was being used and what it was being used to do. What we got back was a brick wall of redactions. Only by cross-referencing the data against that what was disclosed by Woodland PD did we learn the truth of what these searches were being used to find. That shouldn't happen in any municipality paying more than lip service to the ideal of transparency in government. Fundamentally, none of Elk Grove's citizens have asked to live in the sort of open-air prison that mass surveillance creates. Even under this regime, this is still the United States of America, and we are still entitled to our Fourth Amendment rights. We as a community deserve better than to have our privacy violated by unaccountable vendors and mismanaged federal agencies. We deserve better than to have our citizens stalked by rogue law enforcement agents as has already happened in Mooresville, North Carolina, Orange City, Florida, Katy, Texas, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and God only knows where else by now. We deserve better than to finance the erosion of our own civil liberties. I implore the City Council to reject mass surveillance or to get out of the way for those who will. Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you. Next up. Order in chambers, please. Omar, oh, oh, yeah, hi, Omar. After Omar is Rob Hanson. How do you say your last name?

Opiani.

Opiani, okay, I was pretty close.

Yeah, not bad, not bad. Cool, good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Omar. I'm an Elk Grove resident and I'm here to ask you to end the City's Flock Contract and stop ALPR in Elk Grove. I want to start by making something clear. This is not an argument against public safety at all. This isn't an argument against finding stolen vehicles or locating missing people or identifying possible suspects. The question is whether we need to routinely collect information about where ordinary people drive in order to accomplish this goal. where they go to school, where they worship, where they eat, their routes to work. Council members and Mayor, would you like that information about you recorded? Probably not, but it probably already was as there's two flock cameras outside of here that we passed by. And I understand there are stated safeguards such as access control policies and search restrictions and who the data is being shared to. But safeguards don't eliminate the underlying risk, they simply mitigate it. What happens when there is a security breach? What happens when an authorized user misuses their access? Are you willing to accept the high margin of error of these systems, as we have seen in Roseville, where over 71% of license plates were misread? And what happens when the city has to defend the implications of using ALPRs in court? These aren't hypothetical concerns. We are seeing cities cancel their contracts due to these concerns. But right now, the city is stuck taking on the responsibility of protecting sensitive data of residents during the duration of the contract. And that's why I don't think this should be reduced to a question about flock. If we cancel flock and replace it with another ALPR company, we've solved the vendor problem, but we haven't solved the underlying root problem, surveillance problem. and the risk that comes with it. The strongest privacy protection and risk mitigation to using these systems is simple, not using it in the first place. So my request tonight is this, end the flock contract, remove the flock cameras, and establish a clear city policy that Elk Grove will not operate or participate in ALPR surveillance, regardless of what company that sells it. Thank you.

Next up is Rob Hanson, followed by Kevin Barnwell.

I'm here to address the flock cameras also. I'm a veteran and I find this extensive use of flock cameras a violation of people's freedoms, which I didn't serve for. The flock camera data is not owned by the City of Elk Grove and is shared with police departments and cities throughout the country. There have been states who have used the flock cameras to arrest people and in other states they traveled where something is against the law in the state, in one state and isn't in another. There have been cases where women traveled to a state for an abortion. They come back to their home state, they arrest them because other states can use that, those flock cameras. Those flock cameras are used throughout the country. You know our laws in California aren't the same as Texas. So they're used, they're abusing those. Police departments for decades have not had cameras to police. Why do they do it now? Maybe just patrolling a police car instead of depending on a flock camera. I just find it's just being abusive. You guys don't control the data. It's controlled by the corporation. And there's been other instances. There's instances where the camera, instead of at the street, they have it pointed toward a cannabis store in states where it's legal or actually at a gun range, pointing at the gun range instead of being out in the street. I'm not saying this is happening in Elk Grove, but the problem is you do not control that data. The company does. So they can share this information, and that's a huge problem. I live in California because I like our freedoms. I don't like red states, sorry. And you guys or other states are using your data? Think about that for a minute. You don't control it, so you shouldn't use it. Why don't these police, you know, police are just patrolling their cars instead of using a camera. They've done it for decades. Without cameras, they can do it now. So that's what I have to say about it. And I think if you can't control the data, you shouldn't have it.

Thank you. Kevin Barnwell, followed by Ellen B.

Good evening. My name is Kevin Barnwell. I'm an Elk Grove resident within District 2 and wanted to share my strong concerns with you all regarding the city's use of flock and ALPR technology. This is obviously a hot topic this evening as the use of ALPR technologies are an unconstitutional use of surveillance and is uniting the left and right quicker than Donald Trump's insider trading. For a city who prides itself in its diversity, we are no doubt hurting our own community by aiding in the use of information passed on to ICE and simply by using and being complicit of extending the surveillance technology on each and every single one of us, gathering data and profiles of our daily lives. I've seen countless videos of PAC City Council meetings all over the country raising concerns about this very topic. I would much rather be at home with my family, but I'm concerned that if we aren't loud about this now, more of our amazing community will be hurt and tensions will continue to rise as no one should be surveilled without probable cause. We've already addressed a few issues this evening regarding the misuse of ALPR technology, leading to stalking, to mishits of bad license plate numbers, resulting in people being pulled over and having guns drawn on them. Please take action. No ALPRs, period. We will be watching and our future votes will match what changes we see. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Ella B. followed by Shay. I don't have a last name.

Good evening. I live in District 1 and I've been a resident of Elk Grove for 12 years. I am asking you to cancel the FLOC ALPR contract and not seek an alternate ALPR vendor, including Axon or any other. I hope council members have read the community audit of Elk Grove's flock records and reviewed the city's data it is based on. I have, and I've reviewed all the data. I invite everyone hearing this to go to dflockeltgrove.org to read the findings from the community audit. Look at the data for yourself. The audit showed that Elk Grove PD shared our data with more than 3,200 out-of-state and federal agencies, which searched that data more than 1.3 million times from 2021 to 2025. This violates California Senate Bill 34, enacted in 2016, and Elk Grove PD stated at a prior council meeting that this type of sharing had never occurred. These violations can carry a $2,500 penalty per search if litigated. Additionally, Elk Grove PD shared our data from 2021 through 2026 with 290 California agencies that do not have data sharing agreements or MOUs to search our data. despite Elk Grove PD stating at a prior city council meeting that only agencies with MOUs can search. Yet those unauthorized California agencies searched 4.3 million times. The Elk Grove PD ALPR website states that the police department audits the flock system every 90 days. If that's true, why did Elk Grove PD allow illegal out-of-state and federal sharing and unauthorized California agency sharing to go on for years? But this is not just about flock. Recently, we discovered an Axon brand fixed ALPR camera on the northwest corner of Bruceville and Laguna near the Walgreens. Here's a picture of what that camera looks like. Axon boasts that this camera provides quote, live streaming, ALPR and vehicle recognition in one device. So police officers don't just get a hit, they get the full picture in real time, end quote. ALPR vendors such as Axon and others are not better than Flock and we don't want them here. I believe that searches of ALPR data are Fourth Amendment searches, the type that require a judicial warrant. Yet these records are searched without a warrant. I believe that the recent Chantry v. United States ruling sets the groundwork for future lawsuits that will ultimately take these warrantless surveillance systems down. The issue is not that we don't want police to be able to effectively and efficiently solve crimes that occur in our community. Of course we want them to. We live here. But we want them to use investigative techniques that do not violate our constitutional rights. Cancel the flock contract and do not seek an alternate vendor. Thank you.

Thank you, Shea. Shea, you're up. After Shea is Jim Wilson. Shay? There we go.

Hello, my name is Shay and I have a vested interest in the topic of ALPR cameras as I do a majority of my shopping here in the city of Elk Grove. When I first bought my home two years ago, there were no flock cameras. As a homeowner and a taxpayer, I'm deeply concerned and rightfully upset that these cameras have been installed at every major intersection over the last two years with little to no input from the citizens who live here. Just on the way over here, I've witnessed 12 flock cameras, $5 gas, four Fenty Folded, three homeless camps, two sex trafficked, and a city racking up legal fees. all of the illegal searches that have happened that violate Senate Bill 34, there's been over a million of these illegal searches conducted, each of those carrying a penalty of $2,500 if litigation were to occur. And if you quickly crunch those numbers, that already equals $3 billion. We're going to go bankrupt. So that's a lot of money. And also yesterday in Sacramento, an ICE agent brutally assaulted a young indigenous woman These are the people, these ICE agents, that are utilizing our Elk Grove City surveillance cameras. Many of the cameras have facial recognition and AI capabilities that allow for searches based on appearance. We have a large immigrant population in our community, and it's your duty to protect them from harm. You had a land acknowledgement at the beginning of our meeting. How can we brag about being one of the most diverse cities when we're doing nothing to protect people from being snatched off the street? It's a mockery and it's a disgrace to make claims of safety and inclusion with no evidence to back it up. Words are nice and appreciated, but we need to see action. We the people of Elk Grove demand that all of the ALPR readers, flock, axon, and otherwise be immediately removed from our city. End the existing contracts and do not enter into any new ones. We are ordinary people who have a right to privacy when we travel. Thank you.

Thank you. Jim Wilson followed by Margarita.

Hi, I'm Jim Wilson. Can you hear me at my relatively high altitude? So I'd like to share something about Flock the company that you may not be aware of. It's kind of technical, but most companies have websites that are searchable that you can go back and you can see what the content of the website was months or years previously. And if you want to ask your IT people about this, they can show you how it's done. It's very easy to do. But it turns out that Flock has erased all of their websites prior to the present one. The present website is the only one you can see. Most people are not aware of this. They have basically scrubbed anything going back months or years, shall we say. And why is this a concern? Because perhaps they've made commitments in terms of who they're going to sell the data to and many other things that are important, their liability, their policies that they maybe used to have. And we don't know if they lived up to those commitments or not because those commitments have now been erased. So I urge you to talk to your IT people Find out if what I'm saying is correct. I believe it is. There's a website called gadgetreview.com. People might want to check with an article on this. And I think it's very important that we know what types of companies the company is doing, the city is doing business with. So that's why I'm presenting this information to you. I really appreciate the chance to be able to share that.

Margarita, followed by Samantha Brown.

Good evening. I am an Elk Grove resident, the valedictorian of my EGOSD high school, and an educator serving Elk Grove elementary schools. I was born and raised on the street where there is now a flock camera on the corner. I'm asking you to cancel our city's contract with flock safety for automated license plate readers, known as ALPRs, and not to seek out an alternate ALPR vendor. It is my understanding that the city of Elk Grove contracted with FLOC to promote community safety, but a community audit shows that 97% of FLOC searches of Elk Grove residents were made by agencies outside of the Elk Grove Police Department. FLOC technology makes community members vulnerable to more harm. AI technology is fallible. It makes mistakes all the time. The Roseville Police Department reported that 71% of felony or stolen vehicle alerts generated by their FLOC cameras were misreads. A woman in Milwaukee was recently pulled over at gunpoint due to a flock alert error. According to the Institute for Justice, she is just one of dozens innocent people pulled over, detained at gunpoint, or jailed based on a flock error. All over the U.S., police officers are being investigated for abusing their access to flock to track people. One Kentucky police officer was just arrested for using flock to track his ex-girlfriend over 2,000 times. Perhaps some of you might have a daughter my age. I dropped out of my graduate program at Stanford University two years ago, partially attributed to the stress I was dealing with trying to avoid a stalker. Thank God he wasn't a police officer. I moved back home so that I could feel safe. I and everyone else deserve to feel safe in our community. Flock is neither a preventative safety measure nor a solution. I urge the City Council to stand up for our right to privacy and safety by canceling the Flock ALPR contract and not replacing it with another ALPR vendor. Thank you.

Thank you. Samantha Brown followed by Jennifer Toon.

Thank you.

My name's Samantha, and I've lived in Elk Grove for 27 years. I'm in District 2. And I'm here to ask the city to cancel our contract with Fox Safety or any vendor of ALPRs. I think that indiscriminate tracking and surveillance is a violation of our civil liberties. And after reading about the audit, It's also unacceptable the error rates and the misuse of our data. We already have too much of our data on servers. And so again, I urge for a cancellation of any contracts and no renewal with any ALPR vendor. Thank you. I yield my time. Thank you.

Jennifer Tune, Adela Sher, Adela, Adela?

Hello, my name is Jennifer Toon, and I'm a resident of District 2 in Elk Grove. My family has lived here for seven years, and I am an educator serving Elk Grove Elementary Schools. I am asking you to cancel our city's contract with Fox Safety for automated license plate readers, also known as ALPRs, and not seek another vendor. At a previous city council meeting, Council Member Spies, you said that you are very serious about our civil rights and that you are a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and I appreciate that. As a member of the EFF, you will know that they are a leading nonprofit defending digital freedom and privacy, free speech, and innovation. A memo put out by the EFF in November of 2025 calls ALPRs invasive mass surveillance technology. This memo says one of the many problems with ALPRs is that police officers often search ALPR databases without getting a warrant. EFF and the ALCU of Northern California have sued the city of San Jose to end this practice, arguing it violates the California Constitution. Close quote. If you are truly serious about it, you wouldn't support them here either. It's okay to change your mind. Show us your courage. Leave this behind. It's okay to change your mind. And you can join us. Join us here anytime.

Adela, or is it Adela? How do you say it? Adela. Adela, okay.

After Adela is Justin D. Hi, my name's Adela Shen, and I'm calling for the ended use of automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, by terminating the contract with flock safety and not seeking other ALPR vendors. The Fourth Amendment protects our right to be free from unwarranted search and seizure. That right should not be sacrificed for unsanctioned surveillance disguised as the promise of safety. When surveillance systems are abused by people and companies with dubious intentions, we have a responsibility as a community to put an end to it. Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding fathers, once said, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. So stand with your friends, your family, and your neighbors in Elk Grove, just as we have stood with you, and reject the use of unwarranted surveillance. Thank you. Thank you.

Justin D. followed by Ricardo Slow.

Hello. Can you hear me okay? Hi. My name is Justin. I've lived here for about six years now. This is a great city. You guys are the stewards of this place. We really love living here. There's a lot of wonderful places to visit, stores to go to, people to talk to. We really appreciate this place that we all share together. I'm here because I'm very concerned about your use of flock cameras and other similar ALPRs. And other people have already given a lot of really good examples of why these have been misused, abused, or even used against the commitments that have been made about how they're supposed to be used, that you don't have control over them and other agencies and states can do whatever they want. I want to share a few other examples of how that could be a problem. These cameras can be used to build a comprehensive view of somebody's life, of the places they visit, the church they go to, the political rallies they care about, gun shows, shooting ranges, security conferences, abortion clinics, protests, or going to doctors about embarrassing medical conditions. These are all things that could be tracked down with use of stuff like these camera systems and the databases that they hold that information in. Additionally, this is not a partisan issue. There are people across the political spectrum who care about this. You'll see people in deep blue cities and deep red cities together all separately and independently choosing to vote against these systems because they do not like what they stand for and what they represent to the harms against the community and the way they could be abused. Some examples from both left and right-leaning perspectives, if you are right-leaning and you cared about the January 6th protesters, some of those people may not have done anything, but they were there, and databases like these were used to track those people to those locations, and even if they didn't do anything to anybody or to any property there, they were charged. So if you are right-leaning and you care about that, that would be a problem for you. If you are left-leaning, databases like these are used to hurt people from immigrant communities or people who even look like they might be from outside of the community. If they look like they might be an immigrant, ICE is using these databases to search these people up and pull them off of the streets, separate them from their families, and traumatize their children. Additionally, companies like Discord, Google, and others are working with the federal administration to gather information about people who share opinions that the administration doesn't like. For example, Discord is sharing information with the Trump administration and the Justice Department about people who have opinions that are negative of ICE. These databases could be used by the Justice Department to look for those people. I think that that's a problem, and I think that you should also find that to be a problem. Thank you for stewarding the city. I really appreciate what you do here. Please keep doing a great job, and please support all of us. It's clear that this is a very unpopular policy. Thank you for your time. I yield my time.

Thank you. Ricardo, followed by Alexander Bastin. Bastin.

So nearly a year ago on September 20th, 2025, a flock vice president logged into the Dunwoody PD's security camera system solely to look at a camera inside of a children's gymnastics class. He did not look at a single other camera that day. Cases like these and all the ones mentioned earlier today have been known about for months now, and yet the city council voted unanimously last April to renew and expand the contract of FLOC despite near universal community opposition. People with the power to access these cameras, both police officers and private individuals, have unprecedented ability to track anyone and anywhere, not because of what they do in the present, but because of what they've done in the past for the sake of such glorious, virtuous activities like a police officer stalking a woman who rejected him. A federal agent listing people who went to peaceful protests against Trump, a hacker scraping data to find a target they want to steal from or hurt, or a businessman, in this instance, spying on other people's children for their own sick, depraved purposes. And I must emphasize, the solution is not to simply pick another company's method of mass surveillance, such as Axion or Motorola in lieu of Palantir's flock cameras. We don't want one soulless corporation to simply be swapped out with another. No surveillance system has any place here in Elk Grove, period. We want the FLOC contract to end, and we want your oath that nothing will take its place. And if we don't get that, we will vote for other people. Thank you. I yield my time.

Thank you. Ricardo Silahua. Ricardo?

And Mayor, I put Ricardo back up. I'm covering a lot of bases over here, and I'm not sure if that speaker got called up previously. So I just wanted to make sure they had the opportunity to come forward.

Given the volume of speakers, I don't know the answer to that. Yeah. So you want me to move on? Unless Ricardo, are you here?

If we don't have Ricardo, Ricardo hasn't already spoken.

OK. Not seeing a Ricardo. OK. OK. Andrea Ramirez, followed by Kayla Coates.

Hi, Mayor and City Council. I am an Elk Grove resident, and I don't know what district I'm in. But I'm located over by Laguna and Bighorn. So I was walking my dog. I have a very reactive dog. And a flock camera was following me the whole time, or a drone. I called EGPD. I asked, is this associated with you? And they said no. They forwarded me to Sacramento PD. I talked to Sac PD. No one knew who was following me that night. This drone followed me for about an hour. I'm terrified to walk my dog at night. I am also located really close to flock cameras. I don't know if somebody is... I'm not accusing anybody of watching me or anything like that, but I've been seeing a lot of stories about women being stalked by police officers or by just other people in general using flock cameras. And I have concerns about my safety regarding things like surveillance in my area, especially as a young woman. I'm a homeowner here, and so I'd like to feel really safe when I'm walking around at night. And I generally really have great encounters with EGPD, so this is not a knock on EGPD. But I have to speak in favor of what everyone else is talking about and say I'm very against ALPRs of all kind, including Flock, Axion, Motorola. I really want to be face-to-face with officers, community officers, people who know our community, people who are talking to us, know our situations. I don't want to have to be dealing with AI. AI doesn't know who I am, and I don't want to be in a situation where I have to, I'm dealing with facial recognition of some kind and like that woman who is now being potentially prosecuted. So yeah, I would just like to feel really safe in my neighborhood and I will be keeping that in mind when I vote this year. So I really hope that you guys can do your best like the rest of us. So thank you for your time or I yield my time.

Thank you. Next up is Kayla Coates followed by Yevy Bergovy? Sorry for the butchering of the name. Hi.

Hi. My name is Kayla. I'm an Elk Grove resident and homeowner, and I am also asking Elk Grove to end its flock contract and not pursue any alternate ALPR contracts. I would like to address several points listed on the Elk Grove website ALPR frequently asked questions page. Elk Grove claims that ALPRs only record license plate images and do not allow for searches by demographic or facial data. Phlox freeform product searches for people by physical description. Patent number US11416545B1 describes classifying people by race, gender, height, and weight. The platform is designed to go far beyond still images of license plates. Elk Grove says the data collected by ALPRs is owned by EGPD and never used for anything besides law enforcement and never sold to third parties. In Mountain View, the city put in safeguards against both data vulnerabilities and data uses the PD wanted to restrict. Flock enabled a nationwide data sharing setting without MVPD's consent or knowledge. This is a vendor problem, not a PD problem. Independent tech researcher GainSec found 22 confirmed vulnerabilities in Flock's security. If the vendor has final say in how data is used and that data isn't secure, there's no way to ensure the safety of your citizens' data. EG says it prohibits the use of all ALPRs for immigration enforcement. FLOC has been running pilot programs with Border Patrol and Homeland Security. Their data pool has been tapped for immigration-focused searches over 4,000 times, and it is impossible to say whether or not data intended to be restricted by EGPD has been retained longer than the 30-day limit. FLOC terms of service allow for data to be saved up to one year, depending on its own discretion. As someone who had my information leaked by data brokers and disseminated by a concerted doxing effort, I'm familiar with the deleterious effect one's personal data can have against them when in the wrong hands. This was a personally motivated individual event with only one victim. Flock and ALPRs are systemic. Regardless of good intentions on the city and PD's parts, Flock and other ALPRs are demonstrably insecure and at best put all members of our community at risk of fundamental violations of our privacy, and at worst, open up our most vulnerable citizens to the evolving threat of stalking, deportation, retaliation, and other harm. I implore you all in the best of faith to consider my and all of my fellow citizens' concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. Yevy Bergovy, how do you say your name?

Yevgeny, or Yev. Okay, thank you. Hi, I'd like to talk about flock safety. What is really safe about it? By creating such a dragnet of surveillance, you paint a nice big target for every dictator, power hungry maniac, and wealthy psychopath. By making it safer, you open our communities to the absolute worst and those most able of causing great damage. Is the flock cybersecurity team really a match for North Korean state actors, AI? These loud glorified cell phones are nothing impressive or new. And strapping drones onto this flimsy foundation is just inviting our enemies to come take a crack at it. The reality of drone warfare is incredibly unnerving as it allows an enemy to cause great targeted damage. The city of Elk Grove is a community that a lot of younger people want to come to. Does Skynet really make it a more inviting place? In addition, do you think that wealthy people value their privacy? They value it greatly. Do you think that they will be purchasing homes in these well-watched neighborhoods? Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. I ask that you demand real accountability of the tools that you have unleashed on our communities. Cancel all ALPR contracts. I yield my time.

Thank you. Our last speaker in person is Jeff Toon.

Hello, good evening, City Council. I'd like to begin by acknowledging and thanking the many members of Elk Grove, many Elk Grove residents that have invested their personal time and their energy into conducting and publishing this community audit. The resident-led audit excuse me, the resident-led audit was not conducted by outside agitators, as we have heard you guys claim, but rather by engaged residents who care about their neighbors and the safety of all members of our communities. This audit should not be viewed as an attack, but rather as an effort to highlight a real concern Elk Grove residents have and to demonstrate that the city council has failed to provide meaningful insight and oversight of the police department's use of LOC. The community audit has provided reasonable evidence that EGPD has potentially violated state law. As a result, I'm asking again that you stop demanding that Elk Grove residents just trust you and trust the police, but instead I'm calling on you to end the contract with Flock and to not seek a replacement. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. To the clerk, are there any online public comments?

Indeed. So we do have two. We have some participants that are online, and what I will be doing is unmuting Eli first. And so, Eli, what you will want to do on your side is you'll first be asked to unmute, and you want to unmute, and then you will have the floor, and I will pull up that speaker timer for you to be able to see.

Excellent. Can you hear me?

Indeed, you're coming through loud and clear, and usually devices are very good at sound attenuating, so they should be pretty good at finding where we're at. I just have to find where my speaker timer is. Well, go ahead, Eli. Let's see if I can pull this online through a different method. Ready to go?

I'm ready.

Please proceed.

Excellent. Hi, my name is Eli. I live in the area. I just wanted to express my opposition to, you guessed it, the widespread use of Flocky LPRs by the city of Elk Grove. Using public records requests, we do know that police officers in the state of California have made searches on the behalf of ICE. These same officers that have network access to Elk Grove, most other PDs in California. I'm personally not anti-police, but I am anti-surveillance. I cannot physically leave my home without my location being logged by a camera, which goes straight to the police. If somebody said that to you 10 years ago with a straight face, you'd probably be looking for the tinfoil hat, but here we are. I really cannot believe that what I just said is true. This fact truly horrifies me. And I just wanted to remind everyone present that the surveillance infrastructure in China was built by American companies, namely Cisco and Oracle. But the same thing is happening here, one city at a time. One more invasive surveillance technology bought by local PDs. And I ask you before I yield my time, do we truly value our freedom or will we yield them for short-term gain? Thank you.

Okay, next public comment.

And I do have another speaker. So pardon me as I just kind of go through the motions of how we need to do this. So hold on just one moment. And it's going to be Isa or Isa. You should have a prompt to unmute.

Yes. Hello. My name is Isa. Oh, perfect.

Coming through loud and clear. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello, good evening, Elk Grove City Council. Thank you again for hearing us out on the ALPR and flock camera concerns. I'm a highly concerned community member because of the privacy concerns of flock cameras. We are living in a modern day 1984 society, which is frightening. And if some of y'all don't know, there is a novel called 1984 by george orwell which highlights um the surveillance and fascist regimes so quite literally big brother is watching and we all have a right to privacy Flaw cameras are also extremely expensive, and that money should be invested in improving our road infrastructure in Elk Grove. Our roads are so crowded these days. Additionally, we need that money to be poured into our public transportation, education, libraries, and community resources. We demand that Elk Grove cuts their ALPR contract, demand full transparency of how the data is being used, and that Elk Grove Police Department finds alternate ways of ensuring safety in Elk Grove. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other public comments?

And I do not have any other raised hands in the environment.

All right, then I'm going to close the public comment. And for those of you that are new to coming to a council meeting, just to let you know, general public comments are open to anyone to come and speak on non-agenda items, which this is. So the council cannot take any action on non-agenda items. So I just wanted to make sure for those of you who are coming for the first time. But thank you all for your passion and your advocacy and Also wanna recognize everyone that also sent in an email. Thank you very much. With that, we're gonna move on to our next item, our City Manager's Report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, Jason Behrman, your City Manager. First item is the ongoing discussions with our community relating to the reuse of the Elk Grove Library. It's in the process of relocating down the street. We've been having many community meetings and the final few are coming up on September 2nd. and September 16th to provide input on how the community would like to see that building reimagined and reused. At the same time, the former teen center building is also available, and so that will be part of the discussion as well as looking at the various uses that could possibly be put in either building. and then allocating those and then moving forward with some direction for the city council. So following those final community meetings, we'll be bringing something back to the city council in October for further review and discussion. A reminder, we have our Pitch Out Growth Startup competition coming up. $20,000 in prize money is at stake. This is the city's fifth anniversary of doing that. The date for the competition is Thursday, September 3rd at District 56. All are invited at no cost. However, RSVP is required to attend the event. Please visit the city's website for more details or to sign up. Also, nominations are being accepted for the Disability Advisory Committee's 20th Annual Above and Beyond Accessibility Awards. The end of that will be next Friday, September 4th. Please help recognize a business organization or individual who goes above and beyond for individuals with disabilities in Elk Grove by submitting your nomination online through the city's website. And tonight, the City Council proclaimed September as Diversity Month in Elk Grove, included in the many events and activities throughout the month. There are two happening that celebrate local flavors and great food. The City has once again partnered with Explore Elk Grove for Diversity Dining Week, September 4th through 13th. More than 40 local restaurants will encourage residents to try something new with discounts and special offers. And the City will host Global Feast Fest on Saturday, September 12th from 3 to 8 p.m. at District 56 with more than 20 food vendors, entertainment, and more. If you didn't go last year, it was a huge hit. Please come out this year on Saturday, September 12th, and have some great food and a lot of fun. And then finally, we do have a holiday coming up on September 7th, which is Labor Day. City Hall, Special Waste Collection Center, District 56, and Animal Shelter will all be closed. Trash Recycling Services and Public Safety Services will continue to operate on the normal schedule. And that concludes my report. Happy to answer any questions the council might have.

All right, thank you for that report. Looking to the right, any questions, comments? Looking to the left, nope. All right, thank you. With that, I'll move on to our next item, our consent calendar items. At this time, I'll open up public comment. I don't have anyone in person. Anyone online?

And online, we do not have any of the raised hand functions being used by our participants in the webinar.

All right, I'll close public comment and look for a motion to approve.

So moved. Second.

Thank you. We have a motion and a second.

And for that roll call vote, I will start with Council Member Robles. Aye. Council Member Spies. Aye. Council Member Brewer. Aye. Vice Mayor Suin. Aye. And Mayor Sing-Allen.

Aye.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor.

That's a 5-0 vote.

This is for one through, or seven through consent, correct? Yes. I just wanted to say thank you for supporting the 7.4 for the Sacramento Field Network.

Yeah, thank you for flagging that as well. I was gonna make some comments on that as well. Just as a, if you wanna go ahead and mention it, you can go ahead and do that.

So Sacramento Fuel Network provides services for our families in need and provides education for our immigrant families. And I know that last year we contributed, we did an increase on that. And I'm happy to see that we supported this again because it's definitely in need. And I believe that we, did several workshops with Elk Grove Unified, and we're going to continue doing that. I just want our community to know that we take our immigrant population very seriously, and we will stand with you, and this is one step that, as a city and as leadership, we're doing this together.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for bringing that up. All right, so the motion passes. We will go on to our next item, which is 8.1, public hearing. Public hearing to consider an ordinance imposing a moratorium on the issuance of new entitlement approvals for personal storage facilities in the City of Elk Grove.

Hold on just one second Sarah while we. So now you should be able to go to your PowerPoint direct.

Thank you.

And then make sure it's projecting out into our webinar environment. And just hit the slideshow and you're ready to go.

All right. Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Sarah Kirchgesner, Planning Department. The project tonight is the consideration of a moratorium on the issuance of any new entitlement approvals for personal storage facilities citywide. Concerns have been expressed by council, staff, and residents regarding the proliferation of personal storage facilities in the city. The moratorium would remain in place while city staff conducts a study and considers further regulations of that use. The proposed moratorium would not apply to any projects with approved valid entitlements. The Planning Commission reviewed the item at its August 6th Planning Commission meeting. One member of the public spoke in favor of the proposed moratorium, and the Commission recommended City Council of the project 4-0. Pursuant to the zoning code, storage, personal storage facility means a structure or group of structures containing generally small, individual compartmentalized stalls or lockers rented as individual storage spaces and characterized by low parking demand. The use is conditionally permitted in the general commercial, shopping center, auto commercial, industrial office park, light industrial, heavy industrial, and light industrial flex zoning districts It is not permitted by right currently in any zone. There are 19 existing personal storage facilities within the city limits and four existing facilities within two miles of the city. Additionally, there are two facilities, including one auto and vehicle storage facility currently under construction and one approved entitlement, the Calvin Point Major Three Mixed Use Project, that has been approved by council but has not begun construction as of yet. The city's general plan includes policies that may conflict with personal storage facility use, specifically policy ED2-2, the city shall maximize the use of non-residential land for employment generating and revenue generating uses, as well as policy LU1-2, which emphasizes increasing jobs and economic development. Personal storage facilities typically do not create a significant number of jobs and are not a materially revenue generating use to the city. Additionally, they can consume large footprints of valuable land that could otherwise be developed into housing or other employment generating or revenue generating commercial uses. The project has been determined to be, excuse me, the moratorium has been determined to be not a project and further exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15061B3, the common sense exemption. Staff recommends that the City Council find the moratorium not a project subject to CEQA and exempt from CEQA review and adopt an ordinance imposing a moratorium on any new entitlement approvals for personal storage facilities in the City. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for questions.

All right, thank you for your presentation. At this time, I'll declare the public hearing is now open and open up public comment opportunity starting with in person. I do not have anyone sign up for this in person. Anybody online?

And I'm looking at our webinar environment. I do not see the raised hand function being utilized for item 8.1.

All right, then I will go ahead and close public comment on this and declare the public hearing is now closed and open it up for some discussions. We'll start to the left. Council Member Brewer.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank Ms. Kersinger for the presentation and for the information provided. Like I said, 19 personal storage facilities in Elk Grove is a good amount, especially for the growing community. I would say there's a lot of vacancy. I live near several of them. in Hampton Village and to see a lot of vacancy in those storage facilities is definitely points to whether we need more that are built in the city and there's another one on Waterman Road near the Elk Grove Water District office that is being built as well and so we have a good number of personal storage facilities in the city and I think right now it's good to put a moratorium on it just to put a cooler on having more facilities than there are households and the demand. And so that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Spies.

Yes, I thought I had this answer, but I didn't see it in the staff report, so I hope I don't get it wrong. This has, what is the length of time that this moratorium is?

Currently, the moratorium does not have an end date. It is indefinite until otherwise repealed or modified in some way.

There's no statute that limits the number of years or months?

Not for this type of ordinance. There is what I think you might be thinking of, Councilmember Spieth, is if you adopted an urgency ordinance with the moratorium and those are done on relatively short basis. This was not adopted or proposed as an urgency ordinance. It's just a regular ordinance. When it's done that way, there is not an express time period.

uh for a more term like this okay do we have a guesstimate on when we intend to bring it back i mean i i don't want to have a moratorium forever while we study it um so is there some length of time you think it'll come back

Our next step would be to start scoping an analysis around that, probably getting a consultant to come in and look at the market demands, look at the market concentration within the city compared to other jurisdictions. It'll take us a little bit of time to get that drafted and on the street for review and responses. So probably not before the spring. That may fall out later than that. And certainly we're going to have to balance that with other priorities as set by the council and the city manager.

Okay. I just want to be certain that we... While we're putting thought into it, that this doesn't become an endless moratorium where we're not actually doing the work of studying, right? So I have a little bit of concerns about doing this indefinitely. I'd rather have some time frame put on it. So I've changed. I probably will not be able to support this today because I don't have a time frame. Okay?

Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. No questions. I'm willing to support this project.

Yeah, I've had a number of complaints from the community over the last six years about the oversaturation of storage. And looking at the map, I do believe that we have, obviously not with any scientific analysis, but it appears that we have sufficient number at this time. I am in support of this. I trust staff to study this and bring it back as you see fit, but in terms of waiting indefinitely five, 10 years, I imagine you're gonna be monitoring this. I don't feel the urgency of putting a timeframe other than I'm much more interested in putting a moratorium. to at least stop any future projects of this kind. My apologies, I neglected to go to you, Vice Mayor, online. But that's sort of my concern. So I'm very happy to support it, as is knowing and trusting our staff to review this and bring it back as you see fit at a future uncertain time. of that date and come back with us once you assess the needs and as our population continues to grow and the existing projects that have been approved but haven't broken ground yet, looking at those, the availability of those units as well, balanced with what the actual need might be rather than just putting up Storage units and what I like to say, prime real estate and outgrowth. There are so many other wonderful projects that we could be doing other than just storage units. So very happy to support this vice mayor. You can go for it.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, this, you'd think this is straightforward. Cause I, I do agree that, uh, You know, we might be able to do some much better uses in certain places. I just worry that sometimes this, if this wasn't storage facilities, if it was something we did like, and we were going to put a moratorium on it. It, you know, the knife cuts both ways, so to speak. Right. And so. the uh i i would support a temporary moratorium just because they do take up so much land and so it is worth taking a look at the the uses around our city and whether we want to allow uh or where we want to allow storage units in for further actions but in regards to timing you know i agree with councilmember speech the not having a definitive time so i would suggest

Thank you.

I know Mr. Jordan is going to work on bringing and staff are going to work on bringing it back. I suspect it's not going to take longer than a year, but whatever, when we bring it back, I guess what I would suggest is we put in there a time to revisit that moratorium each year or something to that effect so that we'll be sure to look at it again and it won't be something permanent automatically. I would suggest that modification or when you bring it back, CJ, maybe we have that included in there.

So from my understanding, staff will, if this should pass as is, you will study this and should any changes, whatever the study yields, you'll come back at that time with what the study shows.

Correct. Based on the results of the study and staff's recommendation, we'll bring it back through Planning Commission and Council with some sort of ordinance, either undoing or with new development standards or use requirements or zone restrictions, whatever those things may be, would be part of our recommendation, either through Planning Commission and Council. If you're looking for some sort of renewal date where we'd have to affirmatively either extend it or have to get the work done by, we could certainly add some language about that in the ordinance this evening. I need to consult the city attorney on how best to include that in the ordinance itself, but I'm sure we could come up with something.

Let me offer some thoughts. Yes. If the council would like to have a hard-coded deadline, a year, two years, 18 months, whatever you feel comfortable with, we could add that in. If you want to give direction to staff as you essentially have already done, that this be brought back and reviewed and revisited periodically, that can be done too. If you want it to be expressly brought back on a certain schedule, that also could be accommodated. I guess my suggestion might be is probably the simplest approach is just pick a date, perhaps even a little longer than we might otherwise be suggesting, and just put that into the ordinance. And if staff feels a need to extend that, we can certainly bring that back. I have the timeframe of two years in mind, but there's no magic to that.

I like two years.

And so thank you, Council Member Soon. I appreciate your meeting in the middle there. I can support the two years. I don't mind the renewing once, you know, if we do it for a year and then renew. But what's nice about doing the two years is that we don't have to have another action, another item. So I can certainly support the two years, and I certainly appreciate the – my concern is just to put in a moratorium which could – sit endlessly without resolution, right?

Having some guardrails.

Right, so we have some guardrails on. I appreciate the rest of the council and their consideration on that. I think you're striking the middle. Council Member Soon was very good, and I appreciate you, Mr. Hobbs. I think two years would work well for me.

Does two years work for you, Mr. Jordan?

Yeah, I feel good about that.

Is that proper time, or do you need a little more?

I think two years would be good. If something happens, I'd certainly want to report back to council and ask for an extension for appropriate reasons, but we can work with that.

So the motion will be for a moratorium of two years? Yes. All right. All right, so then I will look for that motion.

So moved.

Okay, we have a motion for the two.

Second.

And a second. Vice Mayor? Yes.

And from here, we'll go to the roll call vote for this ordinance as amended for that two-year term or two years looking out. And I'll start with the roll call vote with Council Member Robles. Aye. Council Member Spays. Aye. Council Member Brewer. Aye. Vice Mayor Suin. Aye. Mayor Sing-Allen.

Aye.

That item passes five over.

All right.

Madam Mayor, I want to say thanks again. I'm really glad that as a group, we can work together to find solutions. Oh, absolutely.

I think having a guardrail in place is good. I think it meets really everybody's need. Most importantly, no storage units right now. All right. We will go ahead on to the next item, 9.1.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Raj Prasad, Finance Director. Tonight I'm pleased to introduce Carlos Oblites from Chandler Asset Management. Chandler has partnered with the city since 2020 to provide investment management and advisory services. Carlos tonight will provide City Council with the city's investment portfolio as of quarter end of June 30, 2026. Now with that, I'll turn it over to Carlos.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. Thank you very much for inviting me here to bring you up to date on the status of the city's investment portfolio. I've got a brief presentation. I'm going to just give you some description of the investment program, some factors about it that I think are important for you to know as policymakers, and then the status of the portfolio, and then some of the factors that have been driving the risk and return on the portfolio. My name is Carlos Oblites. As I was introduced earlier, I'm a senior portfolio and investment pool strategist with Chandler Asset Management. Chandler Asset Management manages approximately $50 billion nationwide, primarily for local governments, cities, counties, special districts, joint powers authorities. I myself have been in this industry for over 30 years, so I've got a lot of experience in working with city money across California and other states.

I think you're most... Mr. Litas, I don't want to... Sorry to interrupt, but we do have the PowerPoint up, and there is a keyboard tray under the speaker podium, and we let you drive. So the arrow keys are down and to the right, and you should be able to drive that PowerPoint if you want to be advancing the slides.

Perfect, and I'll advance this in just a second after a few comments. Thank you. And I actually hadn't seen this, so thank you.

I just wanted to make sure that you weren't five slides deep already.

Exactly. So I think you're all aware that the city's investments are subject to California government code. This California government code is very restrictive. You are not able to purchase stocks. You're not able to purchase real estate or high risk or highly volatile investments. You are investors in the bond market. which means that you rent your money out and you get income from that rental. You get interest income from that. The value of that future payment due to you can also go up and down depending on what current investments in the markets pay today. So you really make money from this investment portfolio in two ways, interest income and the fair value of the principal and future payments coming to you go up and down. And our job is to structure the portfolio to maximize that return within the objectives that are outlined by California government code. Those are safety first, followed by liquidity, and after those two are met, and then it's return. It just means that code wants you to have your money safe, and they want you to have your money available when you need it, and after those two objectives are met, then they want you to generate some sort of return on it. If you think of the investment program of the city, think of a bucket of water, and when you collect revenue in the form of fees for services or property taxes or sales tax, that's water coming into the bucket. And then when you make expenditures to make debt service, to pay for for pension and for all the services that you provide for citizens, there's water coming out of the bucket. There's always a residual, and that amount, there's some amount of water going up and down all the time. And your job as a fiduciary, which is placed on you by code, is to keep that safe, keep it liquid, and generate some sort of money on it while it sits there. And that's the best way that I can describe the investment program. When I think of the overall investment program, I want to make sure that I describe it really well. It is a collaborative approach. As your investment advisor, we do the heavy lifting on the analysis, on identifying the opportunities to generate income on this, on the risk management, on the credit analysis to make sure that we're buying securities that are going to pay you your money back. and that your money is safe. And that is a very important aspect of our service that is sort of behind the scenes. But when we're buying a security, we've put our best effort and our best minds and our processes to identify it as an appropriate investment for the city. When I say that it's collaborative, it's because, as I mentioned that analogy of the bucket of water and there's funds that come in and then go out and come in and go out, there's a liquidity component. And we collaborate with staff to make sure that that component is also invested. So the city's staff handles that component of it, utilizing some very strong, very well invested pools, such as local agency investment fund, which is the state treasurer's pool, as well as other local government investment pools that are available to them here, as well as funds in the bank and money market mutual funds that are tied to those funds. So it is pretty sophisticated. The portfolio is actively managed. Unlike the stock markets, the bond markets, you can actually generate more revenue when you actively manage, and that's just scientifically proven. So what we've been able to do is we've been able to collaborate with staff on multiple levels, not just on the management of the portfolio, but also the governance of the portfolio, on making sure that this portfolio is optimized from a liquidity and core fund status and making sure that we stay on top of the changes to California government code which come to us every year. So one of the things that we collaborated with staff was to make sure that your investment policy is up to date. Every year there's a change to the code or almost every year. that change either restricts some aspect of your investments for a reason, or it expands it for another reason. And we've stayed on top of that, consulting with staff, making sure that those provisions that change, the appropriate ones are added to the investment policy. That's permitted you to optimize your portfolio and diversify it even more over time, and I'll show you some slides on that. When we were engaged, the portfolio that we that we inherited was initially the staff that was here had made a decision to gradually give us some funds, but the finance director at the time moved on to another position and the portfolio, the internally managed portfolio was unmanaged and they were just giving us a small portion of cash to manage. We collaborated with staff at that time to bring in and unify those two portfolios to have a unified strategy going forward so that you could have maximum diversification. The portfolio that we inherited was well diversified, but it was not very liquid. It did hold several types of securities that did not have robust secondary markets. And liquidity is a very important objective of the investment portfolio. So we collaborated with staff to reallocate those funds to make sure that we had liquid investments in there so that in a pinch, in an emergency, we could turn around and sell them and there would be a counterparty to buy those securities. The third thing that we've worked with staff, and this is all continuous, is just to, again, continually review how the city is using its cash and determine the appropriate amount of funds that should be kept liquid versus those funds that are more idle and sit for a longer period of time. And those two beg for different investment strategies. And when you have too much liquid, you leave money on the table in the form of revenue. So we want to minimize that as much as possible. We work with staff very closely and analyze that and run models to see what that should look like over the long run and extrapolate into the future what it may look like so that we have an appropriate balance of liquid versus core so that we don't leave any money on the table. When I look at the portfolio, this is what we call the externally managed portfolio. This is the portfolio that we inherited, as I mentioned, back in 2020. It started with about $50 million of cash. If you look at that market yield, it's the third row from the bottom, that 0.03. That's the yield that investments were paying you in December of 2020. If you recall, in March of 2020, the world fell apart because of the pandemic. And one of the things that the Federal Reserve did is they lowered the overnight lending rate between banks to zero. And it effectively drove all yields for all fixed income investments to almost zero. You could earn a whopping 0.03% on your money back then. It was a very difficult environment. yields have risen and our work, our collaboration with staff has rebuilt this portfolio to capture the highest yields available today in a safe and prudent manner. And so you can see the portfolio today averages about 2.5 years in duration. We're looking at the middle column, second row from the top. And the strategy is to stay somewhere around two and a half years. There's mathematical reasons for that. But effectively right now, the way the portfolio is set up, we are set to earn somewhere around 4.25% per year into the future the way this portfolio is established right now. And when we reinvest those funds, as of June 30th, that market yield is 4.3. So when we have a maturity in the portfolio or we receive new cash into the portfolio from staff, that gets reinvested as of June 30th at 4.3. And that number is closer to 4.4 today because yields have risen since that time. It's invested in very high credit quality securities. This component of your program, this is about two-thirds of it, this component of your program is valued at around 434 million dollars. When you look at it, when we inherited, it was mostly cash back in 2020. Today, you can see that you have a good diversification. On the left-hand side is what it looks like as of June, the end of the fiscal year. So it's the most recent make of the portfolio. About half of it is invested in bonds from the U.S. Treasury. Those are considered the safest of investments and the most liquid. And that's kind of the backbone of your liquidity. Notice we don't buy a lot of federal agency securities. Those are sort of secondary in liquidity to treasuries and considered very safe, but they're very expensive. They don't pay you very much in yield. We're not getting any payment for being in them. We'd rather have the liquidity of the treasury. We also buy very high credit quality corporate bonds. Corporate bonds have done quite well since after the pandemic, given the amount of stimulus that they receive from the associated CARES Act, the $5.5 trillion of fiscal policy that was given out by the government. Today, we're seeing a little bit of a shift. You're watching the hyperscalers, the people that are building AI and all these data centers and all this outlay in capital to be able to build the infrastructure of artificial intelligence. And a lot of the tech companies are involved in issuing record amounts of debt to be able to build these things out. So now we're now shifting on watch to see how much of high credit quality corporate bonds we buy because we're noticing the trend in credit issuance and we want to make sure that we're not too overexcited. But as you can see, very well diversified. When I look at the returns for the last 12 months, so your last fiscal year, your return was 309. This is a total return. I mentioned earlier that you make money two ways, interest income and fair value. Over the past year, you had very strong interest income. As I showed you, you were set to earn 4.2 into the future. But because rates rose, in the bond markets, it's just a truism, and it mathematically works out that when rates rise, the value of your holdings actually goes down. It's an inverse relationship. I can get into the math if you like. But in essence, you had strong interest income, but there was a little bit of a drag on the return from the fair value of the portfolio. So there was a change in value on paper, and that 309 captures that number right there. This is considered a strong return for the year. When you look at the benchmark, and the benchmark is a similar market risk benchmark, so it's measuring the risk you took on to generate this return, and you can see that you were well above it. That return was 282. The prior two years averaged 4.74 per year. That's an annualized number. That's the annual average taking compounding into effect versus 449 of the benchmark. And then the last three years, 476 versus 444. I want you to notice the five-year number and then the census exception number. Again, these are the annual average. They're smaller. Why? Because these encompass years when rates were almost zero. So you've climbed out of a big zero-rate hole to really generate some robust income in this portfolio. I mentioned to you that that's just the component that's managed. There is... Good question.

Yes? I think our online, our vice mayor has a question for you, sir, and you'll hear... Yes, vice mayor.

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate all this information. Just curious, you know, we mentioned you met U.S. Treasuries and their bond yields. And, you know, recently Secretary Besson made some moves and caused yields to drop. How exposed are we to those kinds of actions by the federal government, or are we invested in – Are you managing it in such a way that the volatility is minimized?

So, we are definitely managing it in such a way that the volatility is minimized. About half of the managed portfolio, the component that we manage, about half of that is in treasuries. The movement that you're describing is that right now we're seeing upward pressure on longer-term rates, much, much longer from where you invest. California government code generally limits you to around five years. In some instances, you go slightly longer. But you generally don't buy out to the 10-year range and beyond. The action that you're describing is the US Treasury announced that they would be buying longer-term bonds, 10 years or longer. What that does is it would create artificial demand for those securities, which would drive their price higher. and in turn push their yields lower. They feel that those yields are a little too high. And no, you weren't exposed to that. But yields on the balance are higher today. And what that has done is it's devalued slightly. So this is what I was saying. Because yields are higher, the values have dropped just a little bit. But what it's done is it's set you up for when we reinvest, we reinvest in higher yields. Your income is going to go higher. If you think about this as a policymaker, Those two components of your return, valuation of your assets, the value of the assets, which we're trying to increase or protect, and the interest income, well, both of those components flow into your financial statements, into your ACFR, your year-end statements. But only one of them flows into your budget. It's the income. And the budget is what you use to pay for services. So that's a very important part of your component. That component is on the rise, and you should see it go higher as a result of that treasury activity, though that treasury activity was specific to 10 years and longer, and you do not invest in 10 years and longer.

Got it. Thank you.

Okay. So if you look at the consolidated portfolio, this encompasses both the portfolio that I just showed you plus the component that staff manages through the use of some very efficient investment pools. And that combination of those two is what handles your core investments, and your liquidity. That portfolio, so when you look at the totality of your investment program, that portfolio is valued at $735 million. If I average out the yields on those shorter investments, they're lower than what the main portfolio generates because that's just the nature of investments right now. You're generating almost a 4% per year when we factor in those liquid, those lower yielding investments that are held for liquidity. This is what I mean that those We try to minimize what's in there because that's an opportunity cost for you if you hold too much liquid. You're reinvesting somewhere around a 402. Again, very high credit quality. And you look kind of like a one and a half year portfolio. When I look at the makeup of that portfolio, you can see the treasuries are still the largest component. They make up about a third of the portfolio. The next one is LGIP that says for local government investment pool. The city utilizes a couple of local government investment pools that are sponsored by joint powers authorities. Those are triple AM rated. They're very well managed. They're very, very liquid. Corporate bonds followed by cash. That cash was just a capture of cash at fiscal year end. Generally, the city doesn't keep that much cash on hand. We just captured it at a time when you had a flow of cash coming through there. And then followed by LAIF, Local Agency Investment Fund. And that's the state's pool. The nice thing about the state's pool is that in addition to it being very well managed, the state treasury does quite a fantastic job they're very good team not only that but that pool tends to even though it provides daily liquidity on a book value basis that means that people can take money in and out at on a dollar in dollar out basis the the average maturity of that is just slightly longer so in this current environment that provides a yield advantage to you and and so the city staff wisely utilizes that But you can see that it's very well diversified. We don't like to hold our eggs in one basket. We provide reporting, all the accounting for this, to city staff. They are able to book their earnings efficiently every month end. They see all the holdings on a 24-7 basis because we track these and report on them daily on our portal. They see the month-end statements. They track all of this, and they consult with us. And we meet with staff quarterly to make sure that the objectives are on track, that the that risk is being managed and that return is being generated. When you look at the term structure of the portfolio, as I mentioned, you had a little bit more liquidity than normal. This is how we break out. There's just a breakout. The green is June 30th versus the prior year. You can see that you have held a little bit of cash towards your end. But again, like I said, we work with staff to minimize that as much as possible and get it spread out so that we are diversified not just on an issuer basis, but also on a sector basis, as well as a maturity basis. Diversification is the name of the game here. And risk management is the name of the game. You carry superior credits in this portfolio. And because it's safety and liquidity, we like to say in our shop, you win by not losing. You win by not losing. That means that we don't take undue risks in this portfolio because safety first. If this were a baseball game, we're hitting a lot of singles and doubles. If we're hitting a lot of triples and home runs, it means that we're taking too much risk in the portfolio, which would be in violation of the very first objective. With that, what I'd like to say is that we've enjoyed a very strong relationship with staff over a few administrations, a couple of people that have rolled through here. All of them are very well-respected people that we've known in other places. This is a very important relationship to us. This is a very strong investment program, very well diversified. We're very proud of the collaboration that we've had with staff. And we look forward to this portfolio generating its objectives for you into the future. With that, I'll stop and take any questions that you may have.

All right. Thank you. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open up public comment. We'll start with in person. I do not have anyone signed up on this item. Anybody online?

And in our webinar environment, though we have attendees, I do not see the raised hand function, so we do not have any folks signed up for item 9.1.

All right, I'll go ahead and close public comment. Questions, comments, I'll start to the right. Council Member Spitz.

Okay, first, thanks for the Ricola, appreciate it. It stopped me from doing a lot of coughing up here. I had to acknowledge the gift of a Ricola, right? Second, I wanted to, first of all, thank you very much, particularly in the, you know, noting the diversification of the portfolio, right? I mean, I am absolutely no expert in finance, but one of the things that I recognize that as, you know, being, trying to be conservative and be a good steward of of our finances that diversification is one of those hedges against being all in one type of investment. And so I appreciate that. It's important that we have a nice solid basis for our investments. And so I appreciate that. And of course, I appreciate you. Of course, I appreciate behind the staff that is working on this and working with you. And so I appreciate the report. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just want to say thank you for the presentation. I think for a lot of us who, or even the general public who doesn't have like kind of the idea of what's going on, you definitely, definitely presented that really well. So appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Brewer.

Great job, Carlos. Thank you, Council Member. I want to thank you and Rajanil and the finance team for being very responsible over this past year and maintaining our AA plus rating. It's very intricate. And not a lot of people understand the balancing act that is taken to keep a well-balanced portfolio when you're diversifying, especially from where we came from, from the COVID era, where you had to focus on US Treasury bonds and money market accounts just to keep the ship going because everything was pretty much shut down. But now that things are running and running at a very high clip, the fiscal conservativeness in making sure that we stay within the boundaries, and being a very smart and skillful fiduciary, steward of the city's money, very appreciative of that. I sat over here and looked at everything and I was definitely geeking out over it because we have our meetings to make sure that our budget is staying responsive and responsible for the public through our audits. And when you're going through and doing the investments for the city, that's part of what we look at and that keeps People feeling confident and comfortable about the city. Operating on behalf of everyone and doing it in a very responsible manner. So, thank you for giving us this rundown greatly appreciative.

Thank you. Council member.

Thank you. Vice mayor.

Thank you, Mary. Yeah, thank you. Carlos and Raj for the presentation and explanation. I think everyone will appreciate your presentation, Carlos and. recognizing that we're only trying to hit singles and doubles when we talk about government finance. versus our own personal portfolios for retirement or something like that. So in many ways, the goals are different when it comes to the local agencies. So thank you for explaining that to everybody.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yep. Same general comments from my colleagues. Thank you for walking us through what could be very complex and making it very easy to understand. And your passion, it clearly shows on this subject as well.

I love what I do. Yes, you do.

It shows. Thank you very much. This is just a presentation item, so no action needed. We will move on to the next item, 9.2. Receive an update on the City Council Priority Projects.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. I'm Aishwarya Kumar. I go by Ash. I'm a Senior Management Analyst in the City Manager's Office. And as Mayor mentioned, as we heard, I'm here with the receiving item, the City Council Priority Projects and Update, which we provide every six months. So the city council conducted its biannual retreat on February 20, 2025, where it reviewed and updated its goals for the following two years and identified strategic initiatives to address them. The city council adopted the mission, vision, goals, and priority projects at its April 2025 meeting. And to implement the mission, vision, goals, the council identified projects that are deemed as high priority. Staff reports on the progress of implementing these priority projects twice a year, and today's update covers the period through July 2026. So these are the city's mission and vision statements. The mission is to provide exceptional services that enhance the quality of life for our residents and promote a thriving economy in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The vision is that Elk Grove prioritizes a superior quality of life for all that builds upon the community's diversity and heritage through safe, welcoming, and connected neighborhoods with a variety of residential, educational, and employment choices and amenities that create a sense of place. The mission and vision are supported by four goals listed here. Each goal is reinforced by four to six supporting statements. All of the details can be found on the city website. We then implement the mission, vision, and goals through our priority projects. So we have 25 projects that have been deemed as high priority. And these have been organized into four categories or areas, as you can see below. civic amenities, transportation, community and economic development, city operations, and public safety. So tonight we'd like to highlight some of the major accomplishments, all covered in the staff report as well. The first one is the Historic Main Street Library Reuse Project. We heard earlier from City Manager Behrman about the updates coming in. Following the initial community outreach plan presented to the City Council in December 2025, Public engagement began in March. Between May and July, targeted co-design sessions were held with local youth, nonprofits, and businesses, accompanied by an online survey for all residents. Additional community-wide events are scheduled for September 2026, and staff will be back with an update to Council in October. The next project we'd like to highlight is the Laguna Creek Trail at Highway 99 overcrossing. Staff continued design work for the new pedestrian bicycle overcrossing over Highway 99 at Laguna Creek. The current schedule anticipates bidding in October, and if all approvals are received on time, construction can begin by the end of the year. Construction will take approximately 18 months to complete. The next project we'd like to highlight is the permanent homeless shelter. At the February 11th, 2026 meeting, council selected the site for the future homeless shelter. The city has entered into a purchase and sale agreement for the property located at the corner of Survey Road and East Stockton Boulevard. Design and entitlement review for the project is underway. Construction is expected to begin in late 2027. The next project is the Southeast Industrial Area Grant Line Business Park. The project description is to facilitate infrastructure construction and marketing efforts that further development in the Grant Line Business Park. Construction of the Grant Line Business Park monument sign was completed in October 2025. Road improvements along Waterman Road associated with the Kubota were substantially completed in April 2026. Additional property, which is the 65 acres of county land, it was purchased by the city in June 2026 and will be annexed into the city and made a part of the business park over the next several years. Staff continues to market properties within the business park to interested developers and tenants. The next highlight is for the Climate Action Plan. The updated Climate Action Plan, known as the Climate Compass, was approved by City Council on June 10, 2026, and staff are working on implementation of the actions. The next one is the Fleet Electrification Project. Staff finalized the Fleet Electrification Plan and started working on pilot deployment of electric vehicles within the police department. There are plans for the electric vehicle supply equipment infrastructure at city facilities, including City Hall and the PD campus. The next project to highlight is the Corp Yard Master Plan. The completion of the Corp Yard Master Plan to accommodate current needs and future growth, including timing and funding strategy, went through to Council on May 27, 2026. A new project was added to the Capital Improvement Program to initiate design of a new Corp Yard on the city-owned property behind the Special Waste Collection Center on Disposal Lane. With that, I would like to conclude my presentation. Staff would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for that excellent presentation. At this time, I will open up public comment opportunities, starting with in person. I don't have anyone in person. Anybody online?

And in our webinar environment, I do not see the raised hand function, so that'll conclude online comment for item 9.2.

All right, then I'll go ahead and close public comment. I'll start to the left. Any questions, comments?

No questions or comments, but I wanted to thank Ms. Kumar for the report. Have a lot of great progress that we're seeing on the priority projects and very excited to see some of these hit the full completion. So congratulations. Congratulations to everybody at the city staff and looking forward to seeing the other projects come into view.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, would you like to chime in?

Thank you, Mayor. Just echoing those sentiments. Thank you for the report. I would like to highlight, just because it wasn't mentioned, but I think it's important and worthy of mentioning, the Whitelock Interchange project, the planning process is continuing. So I know folks might be getting a little frustrated with traffic out there on Elk Grove Boulevard. We're definitely working as fast as we can to get that done. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Council Member Spies, anything?

Just very quickly, I know there's a lot of community interest in the, let's call it legacy library reuse. And so that's exciting. Glad to hear that. As well as looking forward to that overpass happening. It's going to be a very good benefit for Elk Grove residents. So thank you very much, Ms. Kumar.

Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Ms. Kumar, for the presentation. And I echo what my council colleagues have been saying.

Yep, excellent presentation. It's always good to see where we're at, how things are moving along, and a lot to celebrate. There's a lot of progress on priority projects that will ultimately benefit the residents of Elk Grove, so thank you. This is just a presentation, no action, so we will move on to the next item.

That is item 9.3, which is to receive a presentation of the Elk Grove Police Department's red light camera traffic enforcement system and consider a ninth amendment to the contract with Red Flex, which also includes the installation of five new red light camera systems.

There we go. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council, my name is Bobby Davis. I am the Chief of Police for the City of Elk Grove. I, along with Lieutenant Reggie Williams, are going to do a quick presentation regarding traffic safety in the City of Elk Grove, in addition to the red light camera program that we currently use. So quickly, I wanted to cover some of the traffic or concerns that we've had as our city has grown. Obviously, population and vehicles on our roadways, as well as young people driving. We've seen a rise in collisions. And just kind of a quick graph here. In 2023, we had 984. In 2024, that went up to 1,125. In 2025, it went to 1,250. and 48, and as of this year, we're already halfway to where we were last year. In addition to that, we see the fatalities that are associated with some of these collisions, 5 and 23, 6 and 24, and 9 and 25, and we're at 6 this year already. Traffic is a concern, and collisions are a large part of that. The collisions increased approximately 14% from 2023 to 2024, and another 11% from 2024 to 2025. And again, our fatalities increased from five to nine over the same three-year period. Service collision points to specific driving behaviors, so the behaviors the EGPD is working to change. Speeding is a significant one, unsafe lane changes, failure to stop. 20 fatal collisions were reported across 2023 through 2025, five involved pedestrians. The common fatality factors include DUI, speeding, reckless driving, and a failure to yield. This reinforces the need for both officer-led enforcement, education, and targeted technology. The enforcement objective really is the increase in voluntary compliance with traffic laws that most directly affects serious and fatal collisions. Really, it's trying to change the pattern of behavior that's happening on our roadways. And it doesn't matter what age they are driving. We're trying to change a pattern of behavior to change the way that our streets are viewed. The risk is concentrated in major corridors and intersections. The highest collision intersections we have, Laguna Boulevard at Bruceville, Elk Grove Boulevard at Franklin, Calvin Road, Elk Grove Flooring Road, Laguna Boulevard, Franklin Boulevard, Elk Grove Boulevard, Bruceville Road, Whitelock Parkway, and Franklin Boulevard. Major collision corridors are Franklin, Laguna, Elk Grove Boulevard, Elk Grove, Florin, and Bruceville, all highlighted in this, and it continues. We had a pretty serious accident today, which blocked traffic east and westbound on Elk Grove Boulevard. It had a significant impact and, unfortunately, another potential fatality there as well. Elk Grove PD is responding with a broader traffic safety strategy. This strategy requires more than one enforcement tool. Targeted enforcement deploy officers to high collision areas and at certain times. This is when people call us and tell us that they're seeing or experiencing things on the roadway near their homes, around their homes, And we're able to create an operational plan, almost like an intelligence-led policing project where we can go out and do enforcement at those times that folks are seeing it or really hearing it. Our traffic unit, in addition, 2026, our staffing increased to 14 positions. And then school safety, we focused our presence during dismissal and parking and around parking around the schools and in the neighborhoods around schools. This year, as an example, the beginning of school for the first four days, we had officers at every single school in the city of Bell Grove, elementary to high school. And we're very proud of that. And it takes a lot of work to do that. But that was our commitment and we're continuing to do so. In addition to that, we're going to have when schools come back on track, those ones that are off track that come on, we're going to do the same thing at those schools throughout the entire year as well. We're going to try to maintain a significant presence during the school year so that we can mitigate some of the complaints, but more importantly, we can enforce traffic laws and we can ensure that our kids are coming and going to school safely to the best of our ability. Data analysis. We use collision and enforcement data to continually refine our deployment. It's something that we do here in the city with technology and data. We are always trying to be better and always trying to create an environment that is safe. The red light cameras are just one component, and they are not a replacement for officers. I think that's extremely important. The red light cameras are a tool in some of the data gathering that we do. Traffic enforcement and collision activity, January 1st through July 31st. We're just gonna do a six-month comparison. In 2024, we had 5,020 citations in that six-month window. 2025, we had 5,300. This year, we have 9,436 in that same timeline. Even with that, we're seeing that our numbers are still continuing to climb. But I think the important piece of this is that we're actually able to go out, do more enforcement, do more education, and have an opportunity to try to change patterns of behavior. A lot of these tickets are associated with people being on cell phones, on top of speed, going through intersections, but a lot of it is distracted driving, which correlates directly to many of the fatalities that we've seen. Traffic collisions, again, through that same period. You can see where we're sitting at 852 for the year. It's already above the others. Then injury collisions are at 297 versus the last two years at 269 and 257. And again, traffic fatalities already we have this year, it's at six, not five. I think one of the most important things about the red light camera is that it's a revenue resource, and it is not a revenue resource for us. We're lucky if most years we're able to actually break even. Some years we've had to assist at that program here in the last couple of years because we've had somebody work in it. We have had a little bit over what we actually put out, but it is not a revenue grab for us, for the city. This is purely a program that is based on changing the pattern of behavior and trying to make our intersections safer that we're seeing significant collisions. And Lieutenant Williams.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Like the chief was saying, we definitely aren't in this for revenue. This is more for behavior change, kind of changing people's mindsets when it comes to driving and coming to red lights. Obviously, police officers can't be at every intersection all day long, 24 hours a day. So we're just more of a force multiplier for these red lights. We have specific intersections that we've just, you know, found to be the most needed for these red light cameras. So just having something there 24-7 that can kind of discourage people to correct their driving is what this is all about. This program does have a little bit of oversight and kind of explain the way the red light camera works. Red light actually collects all the hits on the camera, sends it to the PD department, and what we do is we look at all the things that the red light camera sent us and basically find out what are valid violations. Of those valid violations, not all are gonna get citations, and I'll explain a little bit more about that later. You can see the existing, or basically how the trend has been going up in 2023 to 2024, and to 2025 and 2026 has been a significant rise. It's important to point out that in the 25 to 26 years, there was a six-month that the cameras were down. one of the cameras down because of the harvest winter pipeline improvement. And then there was another month that the camera's down because of a collision on Laguna Springs and Laguna Boulevard. So these numbers are just with the cameras that were available when they were available. And so basically what happens, as I was going to explain to you, is when we get it, the cameras, we verify the collisions. Just because the, or not the collisions, the red light violations. Just because it's a violation is verified doesn't necessarily mean that everyone gets a ticket. There's multiple reasons. It could be a long vehicle. The second half of the vehicle goes to the intersection when the light goes off. It could be someone who actually stopped right after the limit line, which is technically a violation, but they stopped safely. So we wouldn't give that person a ticket. That's not reasonable. And so there's a little bit of officer discretion. It might be singular on a window where we can't identify the driver. We used two independent data sources to propose the locations. The first was the EGPD traffic analysis, and that's basically the amount of collisions at certain intersections. So we looked at high-volume intersections. The Red Flex intersection survey looked at the volume of traffics that are going through. So some of the numbers for both surveys didn't match up, but we did the best we could to combine those two surveys and two analyses. to determine which intersections we want to use. For instance, one of the intersections doesn't show a high collision rate, but it does show a high flow rate. And I think it's reasonable for us to use that as an intersection to put a red light camera in because I think we may have been lucky because there have been a high volume of cars that go through there. And in that survey, it shows that in maturity, They see that maybe five to six cars per hour will run the red light. And for a maturity, once everyone's used to that intersection and those are red lights there, we'll still get five to six people that may run that red light. These are the proposed expansion of the five intersections, Laguna Boulevard, Bruceville Boulevard, that's westbound, Elk Grove, Lauren and Sheldon Road, Franklin Boulevard, and Elk Grove Boulevard, Elk Grove Boulevard, Franklin Boulevard, Bruceville Road, and Laguna Boulevard. With a relocation of one of the cameras that we have on Bruceville and Elk Grove Boulevard that's facing, I think, westbound direction, we want to change it to a northbound direction. You'll notice that One of the intersections, actually a couple of intersections, particularly Laguna Boulevard and Bruceville Road, we already have a camera there, but it's facing, I think in the northbound direction, we want to put one westbound as well, because that intersection is the highest collision intersection that we have in the city. With that, do you have any questions?

Thank you for that presentation. At this time, I will open up public comment for in-person. I don't have anyone signed up to speak. Anybody online?

And from our online webinar for item 9.3, I do not, we have participants that are in the audience, but they do not have the raised hand function up. So we have no speakers online for item 9.3.

All right, I'm gonna close public comment on that. And questions, comments, we'll start to the right. Councilmember Robles, you can go.

Chief and LT, thank you for the presentation. I agree. I've seen several of these accidents take place at all times. Oftentimes when I'm going to do some military stuff, whether I'm coming back home or I've seen it done in the evening where there's been some accidents there, there is a lot of traffic and a lot of cars definitely speeding through that area. And I think this will, you know, deter people from actually blowing these lights and going on a speed force, especially as we're enforcing, making sure that, one, our students, when they're taking their e-scooters or e-bikes and, you know, they're keeping, they're being safe. Even as I was heading over here today to council, I saw several folks on their bicycles and just making sure that, you know, I was even slowing down because we want to make sure that they're safe. Even on Bruceville, And I think it's Bruceville and Elk Grove. I've seen a pedestrian being hit when trying to turn and witnessing that stuff. So I truly appreciate the presentation and making sure that one, we're deterring folks from speeding and two, we're making sure that our public is being safe so that we don't have fatalities that we can have prevented.

Thank you. Council Member Spies.

All right, thank you, Chief. Thank you, Lieutenant Williams. I appreciate it. Thanks for the presentation. Yeah, so I'm supportive. One of the things that I've, and maybe it's just observation of when I've been out, but I've seen, I feel as though I have seen more people recently within the last six months, a year, maybe since COVID. I don't know exactly what the timeframe is, but there appear to be more people running stop signs, running street lights. And sometimes it just astounds me that they just blow right through. And so I think these particular cameras are very helpful. Personally, I wish we didn't have to do anything like this, right? I wish everyone followed the law, right? That said, they don't, right? And I think when we have to, when we're charged with the public safety, we have to use tools appropriately, right, to make that mission happen. And so I wanna thank you, I wanna thank you guys for being out there every day, out there in the traffic. dealing with probably some people who are distracted, some people who might be unhappy because they got to go to work, some people who might be in a hurry because they're coming home. I know that it's probably, well, not to mention, it's probably one of the most, what would you call it, high-risk encounters because you're out there on the road, and so I want to make sure that I thank you for that. So, all right, with that, thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Brewer?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I wanna thank Chief Davis and Lieutenant Williams for providing the data and the information that supports the need for these new intersection locations. These are the high traffic areas throughout Elk Grove that are highly likely where we see accidents. And it's always helpful to have the lights up as a deterrent. They're not meant to make money. It's pretty much to educate, to inform, but to also keep people safe and to just basically be good stewards. I used to be one of those people with a heavy lead foot. But over time, you kind of come to the realization that it's not worth trying to run a red light, you're gonna get home nevertheless. And the key thing is you wanna make sure that the person in the car next to you or across from you, we want them to get home safe too. And that's what these lights represent, no more, no less. And so with that said, thank you. Thank you for providing this data and thank you for working with all of our partners within the city. to make sure that we're trying to promote safety as much as humanly possible.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, also thank you, Chief Davis and Lieutenant Williams. Appreciate the information. The numbers really tell a story. So appreciate your hard efforts in trying to keep us all safe and trying to change behavior.

Thank you. Thank you. I agree that this is needed. And I think we've all seen those bad behaviors. So hopefully we have changed behavior and it keeps everybody safe. So I'm definitely in support of this. All right. With that, I will look for a motion.

So moved.

Second.

Second. And so we have the motion and the second, and we are going to the roll call vote in our teleconference environment. So starting with that vote, I will start the roll call with Council Member Robles. Aye. Council Member Spies. Aye. Council Member Brewer. Aye. Vice Mayor Suen. Aye. And Mayor Singh-Allen.

Aye.

And the item passes 5-0.

Thank you. Next item. Receive results of the National Community Survey.

Okay, I'm back, and this evening we will be reviewing results from the most recent national community survey. The NCS is a benchmarking survey developed by the National Research Center and the International City County Management Association, and it provides a comprehensive picture of livability and resident perspectives about local government services, policies, and management. This survey has been conducted every other year in Elk Grove since 2009, providing us with over 15 years of data. The results of the survey are used to determine community needs, to support budget development, to measure progress, and to improve service delivery. This year's survey was mailed to 5,000 randomly selected households in the city. This random sampling allows the results to be representative of the residents of Elk Grove. 432 responses were received during the six-week period from late April to mid-May 2026, which gets us to a 9% response rate, which is higher than the 6% response rate from 2024. In addition to the random sample survey, the city posted a link to the survey on our website and allowed any resident to complete the survey. This opt-in portion was available for two weeks and results got us, we got 253 responses. One thing to note is that the results of the opt-in portion of the survey are not included in the data presented here, so as to not introduce any bias into the random sample survey, but they are included in the report on a separate tab. Moving on to the data analysis, the survey data sets were analyzed using all or a combination of the statistical package of the social sciences, SPSS, R, Python, and Tableau. The demographics of the survey respondents were compared to those found in the 2020 census and the 2024 American Community Survey ACS estimates for adults in the city of Elk Grove. The primary objective of weighting survey data is to make sure that the survey respondents reflect the larger population of the Elk Grove community. The results of the weighting scheme for the probability sample are presented in the table to the right. And just for everyone to know, if we take, for example, the first bucket for the 18 to 34 age range. It represented 4% of the unweighted survey responses compared with the population target of 25%. Weighting increases the influence of responses from that group to better reflect their representation in the community. Conversely, groups that are overrepresented among respondents receive less weight. This process is applied across several demographic characteristics including age, sex, race or Hispanic origin, housing type, housing tenure, and area. One of the key items that the survey captures is community livability. Residents are asked questions that are intended to capture perspectives around these 10 facets of community. So we have safety, utilities, economy, parks and recreation, community design, natural environment, education, arts and culture, health and wellness, mobility, and community connection. You can see here that the percentage of respondents who rated each of these areas as either essential or very important. Safety continues to be a top priority for our residents, as do utilities and the economy. Safety and economy were priorities in the last three iterations as well. One of the useful ways to look at the data is through a gap analysis. This helps to view the difference between the importance that the community places on the various aspects in comparison to the perceived quality for that aspect. So the closer that these two scores are, therefore smaller the gap, the more aligned these community priorities are with the perceived quality. So the NCS reflects residents' opinions about the entire community and all services. So some questions asked in the NCS are not under the direct influence of the city, such as those related to water, sewer, and telecommunications. Our partnership with CCSD is reflected really well here under the Parks and Recreation section, which has not been highlighted separately in the presentation tonight, but it is included in the agenda packet for you. So before jumping into specific sections and questions, a broad overview shows these results from the survey. Of the evaluative questions, there were 119 questions included on both the 2024 and 2026 survey iterations. 94 were statistically similar to previous results. Upward trends were seen in 13 items, while 12 ratings decreased since 2024. If the difference is greater than seven percentage points between the 2024 and 2026 surveys, the change is considered statistically significant. Also, results from Elk Grove were compared against 400 communities nationally who have completed the NCS within the past five years and over 30 communities within California. In these comparisons, Elgrove ranked higher than the national or custom benchmark in 52 questions and lower in eight. So now, highlighting a few of the facets that I had mentioned earlier. The first one is the quality of life. Hopefully the font is not too light, and also all of the information is available in the report that's attached to the staff report. So first, residents continue to believe Elk Grove provides a positive quality of life, with those rating this area as excellent or good at 88% in 2026, up from 84% in 2024, and significantly higher than 73% back in 2009. So you see here, the data we have is, we've pulled the data from 2009, 2019, 2024, and 2026, but again, we have data for every other year since 2009. Elk Grove as a place to live also continues to receive positive responses, which increased from 80% to 89% between 2009 and 2006. Results showed that 88% residents rated the quality of life in Elk Grove as excellent or good, up from 84% in 2024 and 73% in 2009. The overall image has changed from 64% in 2009 to 82% in 2026. Also, one thing to note that I've not included in the graph here is 91% respondents recommend living in Elk Grove to someone who asks which is higher than the custom benchmark, 91%. Moving on to governance. In 2026, 80% of the Elk Grove residents rated customer service as excellent or good, showing a continued upward trend from the initial 66% rating back in 2009. Public information services ratings improved to 76% in 2026 from 69% in 2024. Confidence in city government rose from 51% in 2024 to 56% in 2026. Moving on to economy, similar to the 2024 results, 72% of respondents rated overall economic health as excellent or good in 2026. Respondents' evaluations of the overall quality of business and service establishments increased from 74% in 2024 to 77% in 2026. The overall quality of economic development has continued to grow steadily from 33% back in 2009 to 62% in 2026. Some areas for continued improvements include Elk Grove as a place to work and as a place to visit, with 51% and 50% of respondents rating these positively. Jumping into mobility, ratings for the overall quality of the transportation system went up from 49% in 2024 to 57% in 2026. Excellent or good ratings were received for street repair, street lighting, and sidewalk maintenance, all higher than the national and custom benchmark communities. Ease of travel by public transportation went up from 31% to 39%. The ease of walking went up from 59% to 64%, all from 2024 to 2026. Here again, areas for continued improvement include traffic signal timing and traffic enforcement. We will also hear shortly from the traffic engineering team to get some insights on traffic signal timing. Jumping into community design, 86% of respondents were pleased with their neighborhood as a place to live, and 83% with the city's overall appearance. The overall design or layout of residential or commercial areas in the city was rated positively by 58% of respondents, down slightly from 62% in 2024. Ratings for the variety of housing options was 51%, availability of affordable quality housing was at 60%, higher than custom benchmark communities, and also that of overall appearance at 83%. Areas for continued improvement under community design include code enforcement, well-designed neighborhoods, and overall quality of new development. Jumping into safety, safety, as mentioned earlier, continues to be a priority for Elk Grove residents, with 94% of respondents deeming it an important focus area for the coming two years. 95% of the respondents reported feeling very or somewhat safe in their neighborhoods during the day, and 88% said the same for the city's downtown or commercial area during the day. An area for continued improvement here is animal control, for which the dropping has gone down from 80% in 2024 to 70% in 2026. Although, if you look at the graph, the long-term trend remains consistent with ratings back in 2009 and 2019, ranging between 58% and 63%. The last facet that I'd like to highlight is community connection. For the third time, the NCS included a series of questions related to inclusivity of the city. Elk Grove continued to receive positive ratings in this area, rating higher than the national and custom benchmark communities in some categories. Overall, 59% of respondents felt connected and engaged with their community, an increase from 51% in 2020. The city received excellent or good ratings from respondents for attracting people from diverse backgrounds at 81%, valuing or respecting residents from diverse backgrounds at 83%, taking care of vulnerable residents at 69%, and openness and acceptance toward people of diverse backgrounds at 75%, again, all of which are higher than the national and benchmark communities. The survey results, all of the results are available on the city's website and available for review, which again includes more detailed information. Some of the charts would be easier to digest there. But also the results of the NCS will be considered when developing the scope of the city council retreat, which is planned for the first quarter of 2027. The high priority projects list and the upcoming budgets. With that, staff is happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for that excellent report. This time I'll open up public comment. I don't have anyone signed up to speak in person. Anybody online?

And I do have a speaker online, so just give me a little bit in order to get all of my buttons correctly tapped here. So... And I have Ashleen Singh. You can unmute on your side in order to speak.

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me?

Indeed. You're coming through loud and clear. So let me just pull up at this point a speaker timer for you.

Awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate this report. I was one of the citizens involved in completing it because I am very proud of where we live and I guess just a question or future timeline, just things to assess for future living and growth in Elk Grove. I know a lot of public commentators have brought it up, but seeing that we've got amazing numbers through the Tableau programs and just all the metadata on how we're attracting diversity and growth, I would just urge city council members to consider, again, we've had so many discussions on it, just automated license plate readers and the block cameras. This will create a detriment to these numbers just because, again, we see that safety is our number one housing. I mean, sorry, priorities on top of the fact that It's also a big hit to the economy to be spending so much on this, whereas we could have more for housing, economic growth, even our AGPD. So I yield my time and conclude that. Just please consider removing the contract, any future contracts, and to continue to follow our mission and the numbers to support our growth, safety, and economic potential for our city. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Any others?

And no, I do not have any other requests to speak.

All right, then I'm gonna go ahead and close public comment. Questions or comments? Starting to the left, Council Member Brewer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. No, I wanna thank you, Ms. Kumar, for providing the information for the report. Obviously, we sent out 5,000 postcards, the overall response rate is higher than what it was last year. Hopefully we can compel more folks in the public when they receive it to fill it out and return it. It's part of being a stakeholder in our city, all of our city. It's part of the process. It's like we wanna know where we can do better. in the spirit of continuous improvement. There's a lot of good marks in here, but there are some areas where we can obviously rebound and do better, but it's part of the process that we do as we strive to make Elk Grove a strong community. I mean, we do have the number one rating, but to have that number one rating comes with a lot of hard work. And so,

yeah no this is this is good information but as we see we can we can always strive to to be better and do better thank you thank you vice mayor thank you mayor and thank you miss kumar for the information i i do uh appreciate it and agree with what councilmember brewer said uh continuous improvement should continue to be our mantra i i will say i'm i'm pleased to see the the general trend of a lot of these categories i am you know i know there's some areas that that we uh we will continue to work on but uh they're you know people still um really enjoy living here and people do feel safe here and so i appreciate this this information thank you thank you councilmember speeds

Thank you, Ms. Kumar. I appreciate the presentation. I think, you know, just a couple of nuggets to take away from it is that yet again, it's further evidence that Elk Grove values public safety, right? It is an important concern for everyone, or I would say an overwhelming majority, right? That's what public safety is important to us. The other things that I wanted to, you know, obviously we're gonna talk a little bit about traffic later. And then, you know, it would be interesting to, we shouldn't just talk about all of the great things, but we recognize there are some blemishes as well. And I would definitely like to hear, you know, some other ways when it comes to, you know, Elk Grove is a great place to work or other things. to try to find out how we're going to dig in, get a little more information, and continue to improve those. But I think overall, great report. And those things that we've got to work on, traffic, shocker, we're working on it. Thanks.

Thank you. Council Member Robles. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you for the presentation. I'm excited to see that 91% of residents would recommend living here in Elk Grove. It speaks to just the services that we're providing, the streets that we're driving, and just making sure that families feel like they can live, work, and also do shop around and get to experience that. I'm looking forward, if all goes well, for the retreat, because we will definitely be talking about everything else that Councilman Sphees was saying when it comes to employment and looking at what Elk Grove will look like in the next coming years.

Thank you. Excellent report. Always good to see some of the feedback. I'll echo the same comments when it comes towards continuous improvement. I think those are easy to identify. And I do know that we have a presentation just after this one on one of those key items. So we're paying attention to some of those areas that we can be better. But I, too, am very pleased with the response of 91%, which is just amazing, recommending our great city to live in. And I too wanna highlight as well the public safety. That was an overwhelming strong response for public safety. But the underlying theme is Elk Grove enjoys a high quality of life. And that's something that we all work towards collectively. So thank you for providing that feedback. So this is just a receive information item as well. So I'm gonna move on to the next item, 9.5, which is also a presentation. I receive a presentation on traffic flow. and traffic signal timing.

All right. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Jeff Horner. I'm the Public Works Director. My staff and I are really happy to be here with you this evening and this opportunity to present this information to you regarding traffic flow and traffic signal timing, including an overview of our existing roadway network and how that may contribute to congestion, how we manage the traffic signal system in Elk Grove. including the challenges that we face in doing so, the projects and initiatives that we're doing in addition to managing the traffic signals and the traffic signal timing that can help reduce congestion. And then ultimately, we want to provide you with some alternatives to how we manage the traffic signals and get your feedback. The reason I'm up here, because Jose has done a great job preparing this presentation and will be giving the presentation, is I wanted to preface this a little bit by acknowledging the fact that this can be dry, technical subject matter. We're gonna do our best to get through it in layman's terms and present to you and the community with this information. Our goal is to educate, and again, answer questions and get feedback. So we look forward to your questions, we look forward to your feedback, and without further ado, I welcome Jose.

All right, good evening. My name is Jose Gallardo. I'm your traffic engineering manager. And I'll be talking to you about traffic flow and traffic signal timing. Here's an overview summary of our learning objectives for tonight. So the city of Elk Grove has had significant growth since incorporation. With that growth comes the increase in traffic and traffic congestion concerns. In 2017, staff received direction from city council to prioritize traffic flow on the main arterials, specifically east-west directions on Elk Grove Boulevard and Laguna Boulevard. Since then, staff has expanded that approach to other arterials in the city. However, prioritizing certain movements over others comes with challenges and trade-offs, which I will be touching on throughout this presentation. First, it's important to understand Elk Grove's roadway characteristics. As a suburban community, with a lot of cul-de-sacs, it allows for low speeds and low traffic volumes in neighborhoods, but this results in higher traffic concentrations on arterial roadways. compared to maybe a more urban environment where there's a grid system that allows for additional mobility and access roads. Additionally, the majority of the commercial areas are located in the center of the city and near freeway access points. These areas are where we have the largest traffic volumes and the most congested signalized intersections. To help with traffic congestion, we utilize signal timing to manage a limited resource, which is the green time. So every single signal operates on a cycle length, which is how long it takes for all the movements at an intersection to be served, which can be thought of as a pie, and where each movement receives a slice of that pie. A traffic signal timing tool that's commonly utilized is traffic signal coordination, which is the synchronization of a group of traffic signals to increase the power ability for drivers to arrive on green through multiple traffic signals. There are some misconceptions with traffic signal timing and coordination. One of them is that it doesn't actually add roadway capacity when the vehicle demand exceeds the physical roadway capacity, for example, during peak hours. It also does not guarantee that drivers on the mainland will get drained all the time. So this is where I'm going to get a little bit more technical and I'll be going over how traffic signal coordination is accomplished. So there are three main components for a group of signals to be synchronized together. The first one is that they'll have to have the same clock, cycle length, or pie. However, if we give too much time or too big of a pie to a small intersection, it causes a lot of extra wait times on the side streets and left turns. And if we don't give enough of a pie to a larger intersection, all movements may not be served. So we have to balance the size of this pie. So once we have established our pie size, it's divided up in between all the movements based on demand and priority. The last component is assigning when the mainline movements turn green. Because we are coordinating in two directions, we have to balance out the time it turns green for both directions. So the main takeaway here is that if we give more time to one movement, someone else will have to wait. One of the biggest trade-offs with coordination is that since the mainland gets more time drivers waiting on the side streets and left turns, will have to wait longer until it's their turn in that cycle. There are also various disruptions that occur throughout the day, and interruptions to coordination are listed here, and at times what causes the disruptions is not always seen by the driver. It's also important to note that Elk Grove is one of the few agencies in the region that operates the signals at the freeway ramps. So we're able to incorporate this into our local coordination. And because of this, we are mindful not to create excess queuing that spills over to the freeway. Currently, we have eight corridors that are coordinated throughout various times of day. The latest timing update was completed in 2025, and the results can be seen here. However, with these improvements do come trade-offs. And again, one of those trade-offs being that side streets and left turns do have to wait longer in order to improve the traffic flow on the main line. And we've received concerns from the community, which can typically be explained by one of these trade-offs. However, while we can explain most of these concerns associated with the trade-offs, we do investigate every request we get, utilizing technology and data from our Traffic Management Center. Additionally, we track events that generate traffic or a change in traffic patterns, like holidays, schools, and different community events, or the opening of a new commercial area. And we are constantly evaluating coordination, which all of this leads to us adding, removing, or modifying coordination continuously. So in addition to coordination, there are various projects that staff is working on to reduce congestion. You may be familiar with most of these, one being the traffic signal adaptive system pilot project on Elk Grove Boulevard, which adjusts traffic signal timing dynamically throughout the day. We also have the critical intersection project, which will add turning lanes and storage capacity to high volume intersections, like the one shown on the right. And we have large, we're also continuing the evaluation of flashing yellow arrows. And we have two of our large infrastructure projects that will be adding freeway access points to the city. So there are various alternatives to managing the system. Coordination can be completely removed. Also, the side street and left turn movements can be prioritized, but both of these options result in less throughput on the main line. Alternatively, even more green time can be added to the main line to increase main line traffic flow, but it would result in even more wait times for side streets and left turns. However, staff's recommendation is to maintain the current approach of prioritizing arterials by balancing the needs of other movements by continuing to modify and adjust coordination based on changing traffic demands. This concludes my presentation and I'd like to open it up for questions or feedback.

All right, thank you for that presentation. At this time, I will open up public comment. Nobody has signed up to speak on this in person. Anybody online?

And I'm looking at our webinar environment, and I do not see the raised hand function being utilized. That concludes online public comment on 9.5.

Great, I'll close public comment. Council comments, questions, I'll start to the right this time. Council Member Spies.

All right, thank you, Mr. Gallardo. I appreciate your expertise. Mr. Werner didn't set you up very well, but he wasn't wrong. So the traffic and signalization and all that is kind of like, accounting, finance, right, where it's like, oh, I want to see the budget, right? And then when you see the budget, you go, oh, thanks a lot, I appreciate it. Nobody wants to see how the sausage is made. I guess that's what I'm trying to get towards, but I appreciate the lesson. One of the things that I think I would, what I would suggest or encourage us to do as a city is to, Thanks to the voters. Thank you to Measure E. I think we have a financial opportunity perhaps to look to more, what would you call it? More innovative opportunities perhaps surrounding AI or, well, we used to call it big data, but now I guess it's AI, as a way to level the traffic across, make it faster. Look for innovative solutions, I suppose. Get a little bit out of the box on it. I want to encourage us to do that. I mean, it's the downside to getting what we asked for, right? We asked for more retail, right? Well, the downside to getting that is that more cars on the road, right? And so, you know, when we open up the, or when we build the on-ramp, the overpass, that'll be helpful. But I think it wouldn't affect, it wouldn't help everywhere. So anyway, I just encourage you to take a look at some more innovative ways to kind of alleviate our traffic issue. So thank you, appreciate it.

Thank you, Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, Mr. Gallardo. I think this is your first presentation, great job. Thank you for shedding the light on the timing and then also what we're looking forward in the next coming years. Appreciate your presentation.

Council Member Brewer.

No, I have no comments. I just want to thank Mr. Gallardo for the presentation and really providing us with the information on what we're seeing in the central part of Elk Grove. A lot of strides have been made on the east side, especially when you're looking at historic Elk Grove and everything south of Elk Grove Boulevard. start, and it's really good to see, and I want to thank Jeff Werner and the Public Works team also, because it's starting to see the fruits of those benefits, because that's a high traffic area. There's really not a whole lot much more we could say regarding the train running through Elk Grove, Lauren, and and Bond Road, that's one of those things that we kind of deal with as we're growing, because it also goes through historic Elk Grove Old Town as well. But on the whole, a lot of good stuff is being put in place to ensure that people are safe, and that traffic is flowing a little more clearer This study helps move things in that direction and I think a lot of that is one of the benefits we have with Measure E is to allow us to do some experimenting and seeing what we can do to help traffic flows move a little faster given the time of day when traffic is its heaviest. So thank you.

Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Mr. Gallardo and Jeff. Again, appreciate this information. And, you know, it's sadly there's only so much of that pie that we can work with. And if we want to move the majority of traffic, we're going to have to ask for patience for folks that are, you know, if you're going in the cross traffic, if you will, if you're not on Laguna or Elk Grove Boulevard and you're on the You're on the cross streets. We can just ask for some patients as we. Give give more green time to the to the bigger traffic flow, trying to move people through. The other thing is, I think. You know, we're trying with the bike rentals, trying to bring in transit. Looking for other ways to to give folks options so that we're not all only in cars on the road. And so as we progress on those things, hopefully that will help, too, in addition to what Council Member Spieth referenced, the Whitelock interchange, and we get that built. So anyway, it's a very good presentation, very informative. And thank you again.

Thank you. Excellent comments from my colleagues here. So when it comes to traffic congestion, it is probably the biggest thing that we all hear about. But the other flip side of it is when 91% of our respondents mentioned that they would recommend Elk Grove as a place to live. Well, people are listening and they're moving here because it is a great place to live. So synchronization I think is part of that innovation of moving traffic through our city. But I definitely would be supportive of other innovative ideas. But I do believe that our city looks to innovation as part of our real life, real time solutions. But I'm happy with this report. The other mention, as chair of SACRT, and we've got Councilmember Brewer who also sits on SACRT, those changed behaviors will also play a critical role when it comes to traffic congestion and moving people through our greater community. It's a longer term project. It doesn't happen overnight. The funding for something like either light rail or bus rapid transit, it's a heavy lift, but it is a priority of SACRT. So one day when we have better options to move people through our region, getting them to work efficiently and quickly. If it's not quick and efficient, people aren't going to ride it. I mean, that's just the reality. You have to be able to get from point A to point B quickly. But there's possibly other alternatives that potentially exist as well. So great presentation, like what I've read here. So thank you with that. This is also just a receive. presentation so no action is required, but thank you for highlighting the disruptions. Those are real and I think they often get ignored of what are real life, in real time, these disruptions that occur. So that is something that we should be aware of and thank you for just dedicating a part of your presentation just for that factor as well. So thank you, excellent job on your first presentation. Thank you, Mr. Gallardo. All right, so I'm gonna move on to our next item, 9.6.

Let's consider appointment of voting delegate and alternates to the 2026 League of California Cities Annual Conference. Mayor, vice mayor, and council members, I'm Jason Lindgren, your city clerk. Procedural item that comes up as we march forward towards the fall of 2026, the annual conference comes up. It'll be down in Anaheim, so I'm not sure how much they do remote participation for where the vice mayor might be. But that date is on September 25th for any folks that are going to be participating. There's a spot for a delegate and up to two alternates. We leave it to the council. Although I suppose we do have an open. This is an item that has public comment. So I got to check all of our comms and make sure we're doing all right. So.

All right, opening up public comment. I don't have anyone signed up to speak on this in person. Do you have anybody online?

And I do not have any of our attendees in our virtual environment with the raised hand function. So that'll conclude public comment on item 9.6.

All right, and who is currently our delegate and alternate? Well, I'm not, so who is the delegate?

I believe last year I was in the belly.

The question is if any of the members of the council are planning on attending at the league and if you'll be available on that Friday. All right.

Well, I will not be attending. Is there a desire for someone, one of our council colleagues here, to be the delegate and then an alternate?

I'll be the delegate.

You're interested in the delegate role? Anybody else attending that would now be interested in the alternate delegate?

I'll be an alternate.

Because you're attending? Yes. Okay. Excellent. So... Excellent. Well, so our voting members, our voting member delegate will be Council Member Robles with the alternate being Council Member Brewer.

Sounds good. I will let the League know.

Very good. All right. Council comments future agenda items. Council Member Robles, anything to report out?

Had a sewer meeting today and we'll be doing a Sacramento Art Quality Board tomorrow.

Thank you. Council Member Spies.

Library tomorrow and then cable television commission next Thursday. It'll be fun. Bring some popcorn.

Council Member Brewer. We had SAC RT board on Monday and we have Sacramento Public Library tomorrow. Thank you. Vice Mayor.

Nothing to report. We have SACOG. Well, I say that nothing to report. SACOG policy meeting next week.

Okay. So SACRT, one of the interesting items that we talked about as we looked at the Stockton Road, as they look at bus rapid transit, one of the things mentioned is the possibility of an autonomous vehicle, an autonomous bus, to serve that need. It's a possibility, but again, that going back to that earlier comment on innovation and looking at alternatives to move people through the community, that's something that SACRT is looking at to fulfill a possible need for the bus rapid transit project. So before I adjourn, I do wanna adjourn in the memory of someone who was near and dear to my heart and probably many people in this room. Ugh, it's hard to even talk right now. We lost a giant, Mark Jansen. I served with him on the Elk Grove Food Bank Board of Directors going back, gosh, 20 plus years ago. He was the epitome of service above self, someone who was deeply religious but respected all religions. He served God through serving his community, his family, his country. He served in the Air Force. And we extend our condolences to the Jansen family May his memory be a blessing to everyone that knew him. He is someone worth emulating in our own daily lives. That kindness, that respect of just breaking down the barriers and serving humanity. And that's how he saw himself serving God, by just serving the greater good. And he lived by those principles every single day. So thank you, Mark, for your friendship. for improving the lives of our community and everyone that you touched. Thank you. May you rest in peace. Thank you, Mark Jansen. With that, we are adjourned at 8.52. Mr. Moore.

Good night, everyone. Thank you.