City Council - Regular Meeting

OK, OK, we're going to get this meeting started on July 27th, 2026 at 5.01 PM. I'm just confirming everyone's mic is on please for this part of the meeting and I'm going to have a roll call please.

Councilmember Bronco councilmember Klein your councilmember Fugazi your councilmember Hilton Councilmember marks your councilmember Ramirez.

Yeah, they're about so here Do I take it from here my legal counsel we're gonna move into clone session Okay, typically We don't have to

We don't have to vote to go into the closed session because it's not litigation. This is employment. I mean, employee unions. And so we only enter into the closed session after we take public comment on the closed session item. We close it. And then when you get into the closed session, then you vote. And that vote is reportable.

OK. So I'm looking for consensus that we're going into closed session. Everybody? All right.

Open public comment. No public comment. I have no speakers.

Thank you. All right. Let's move into closed session.

Yeah, we are yeah, thank you. Yeah

All right, thank you very much we'll go ahead and get this meeting started July 27th 2026 601 p.m Before we go into roll call. I wanted to announce that we came out of closed session prior to this and there is no reportable action. I

And the vote to remain in the closed session was 6-0-1 with Hilton.

Thank you. All right. Moving on to roll call, please.

Council Member Bracco. Here. Council Member Klein.

Here.

Council Member Fugazi.

Here.

Council Member Hilton.

Here.

Council Member Marks. Here. Council Member Ramirez. Here. Mayor Bozo.

Here. Moving on to 4.3, City Clerk's Report on posting the agenda, please.

Thank you, Mayor. This agenda was posted on Thursday, July 27th at 4.10 p.m.

Thank you very much. Next will be the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Klein. Please remain standing for invocation by Pastor Malcolm McPhail.

Please remain standing if you could for a moment. I'm Pastor Malcolm from New Hope Community Church here in town, and I want to express my thanks to the council for the privilege of being able to serve you in this manner from our church. and also for the job that you are doing and the service you are providing to our city. I read a quote recently. It says, great battles are won sometimes a little at a time. And you cover and hold very many battles in the pursuit of progress. And sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. So thank you for staying the course, staying on mission. accomplishing the work that you are called to do. May we pray? Lord, thank you so much for the privilege of being able to pray for our city and being able to pray for these council members. Lord, I pray that You would bless our city, that you would keep your hand upon our city and a hand of protection and watch over the gates of our community. Lord, I pray for our first responders that you'll keep them safe, bring them home at the end of every watch and touch our council members as they convene. Give them wisdom, give them guidance, and may they have the best interests of the city in mind in every decision they make. We thank you again for the privilege to serve our city and to serve this council. In your mighty name we pray, amen and amen. All right, thank you.

Thank you, Pastor McPhail. Moving on to item number 4.6, orders of the day. We are going to remove item 8.8 for the consent calendar, which is the approval of a partnership with Kaboom for the replacement of a Hanna playground at Los Animas Veterans Park. Next item, 4.7, Employee Introductions. We'll start off with City Administrator Matt Morley to introduce Michael Horta and Derek Cray.

Great. Good afternoon or good evening. I get the great pleasure of introducing Michael Horta. Michael began with us on July 6 as our Human Resources Director. Michael came to us from Morgan Hill, so it's great to have him this way again. He lives in Gilroy. Michael grew up in Gilroy, in fact, and he's got 20 years in the Human Resources career. He's also worked in the cities of Santa Cruz, Los Altos, Gilroy, Morgan Hill. Yep, twice in Gilroy, because he's back now with us in Gilroy. So with no further ado, I'll introduce Michael Horta.

Well, good evening, everyone. My name is Michael Horta, as Matt mentioned. I'm really excited to be back in my community, but also serving you all as the new Human Resources Director. So thank you, Council, and thank you, City Administrator Matt Morley, for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Michael.

And rounding out our executive team so that we're fully staffed on the department head side. get to introduce Derek next. Derek started with us last week as our Utilities Director. He came to us from Marina Coast Water District just down the road to the south. He's also spent time in Turlock and Ceres and South San Joaquin Irrigation District. So got some great experience over his 23 years in public service. Derek lives in Salinas with his wife and his nine and a half year old daughter who are here present with us. Sophia is a horseback rider. So she loves riding horses. So of course that means Derek has to spend his time with horses as well. Sophia got to join me up on the dais a few minutes ago. She got to see the view from the mayor's seat. So that's why your seat was all ready for you, Mayor. And hold the gavel and take a look at the audience. Welcome Derek and welcome to your family.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Council, members of the audience, staff, Sophia. Pleasure to be here. Really excited to be with Gilroy. I am a little jealous that Sophia has already sat in the Mayor's chair before me, but just a great opportunity. I want to thank the City Administrator, Matt, and his Council for the opportunity. I look forward to leading the Utilities Department, working with the dedicated staff here at the City of Gilroy and with the Council. So thank you. Thank you.

Next, we will have Police Chief Brandon Sanchez to introduce three new employees, Julianna Tam, Jonathan Fernandez, and Giselle Rodriguez.

Good evening, Chief Brandon Sanchez. I'd like to introduce Jonathan Arroyo first, if you can come up. Jonathan was born and raised in Watsonville and graduated from Watsonville High School in 2017. During high school, he participated in football, wrestling, and track and field. After graduating, he attended Hartnell Community College, where he studied criminal justice. while continuing to compete in track and field. Before beginning his career in law enforcement, he worked at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in several different departments, including food service, right operations, the bowling alley and security. While working as a security officer, it gave him valuable experience in customer service, conflict resolution, professionalism and responding to a variety of situations. Outside of work, Jonathan enjoys fishing, fishing with friends, hiking, walking his dog, spending time outdoors, He looks forward to serving this community and working alongside everyone as a detention service officer. Please welcome Jonathan Arroyo.

First and foremost, I just want to say thank you guys for the opportunity. I am super grateful for Brandis Sanchez giving me the opportunity to start my career here. I promise to do my best as a detention service officer, eventually becoming a police officer and moving up the chains and seeing where that takes me. I just want to say thank you guys all for being here and thank you guys for the opportunity.

Next I'd like to ask Julianna Tam to step up. Julianna was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Ramon. She has one brother and two cats. She received her BA in in philosophy, specialized in law and society, with minors in business management and criminology at the University of California, Irvine. She went on to receive her MS in crime analysis at the Arizona State University. Juliana worked one year as a data annotation specialist at Tesla, working on full service driving feature. She also spent four years as an analyst at Blue Shield of California. working on Affordable Care Act and Medicare programs. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, eating, reading, going to the gym, running, karate, and being outdoors in nature, and spending time with family and friends. Please welcome Juliana Tan.

Hi, everyone. I'm so glad to be here. It's been a great opportunity. This is my first crime analyst position and my first time being in law enforcement. So it has been very interesting. I've been learning a lot from everyone. And I'm so glad to be here for this opportunity. And thank you, Chief, for allowing this opportunity as well. I'm excited to have some data driven analytics to support investigations and operations for the police department. So I'm excited to see going forward how I can contribute to this city as well as the police department. Thank you very much.

And last but certainly not least, I'd like to welcome Giselle Rodriguez. Giselle started her new role as a police records technician on April 2nd. Before that, her introduction to the City of Gilroy began the summer of 2025 as an intern for the South County Youth Task Force, where she worked alongside the police department to help bridge and strengthen bonds between law enforcement and our local community. She graduated in 2025 from San Jose State with a bachelor's in criminal justice with a connection, concentration rather, in criminology and a minor in forensic science. Giselle enjoys baking in her spare time and is excited to officially join the Gilroy Police Department family. Please welcome Giselle.

I just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity and I'm excited for my new journey in the Gilroy Police Department. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Moving on to Public Works Director John Dowdy. He will introduce new employee Victor Romo.

Thank you, Mayor, council members, community. My pleasure to introduce Victor Romo. Victor is our newest engineer, one with focus on land development, but working on many, many things. Victor is a lifelong South County resident. Sorry, at Morgan Hill, but that's close by. And he graduated from San Jose State in civil engineering. And prior to joining the city, he worked in the private sector as a structural engineer working on complex single family homes primarily. Victor has fond memories of childhood birthday parties at Chevy's and adult confirmation at St. Mary's so he's well familiar with the community and part of Gilroy already. When not working Victor spends time with his family and he goes off-roading in camps and remote spots. I think he does tours for folks as well who want to go out and learn how to go backcountry on that point. So if you would please join me in welcoming Victor to the party.

Hello everybody. It's great being here and I'm really looking forward to serving the city and the communities here in an engineering capacity. I'm very thankful that the department is giving me this opportunity and this career change that I'm really looking forward to. So thank you all.

OK. And finally our finance director Cindy Murphy will introduce Julie Mancera.

Good evening. Julie will you come up. All right. I'd like to introduce Julie Mancera. Julie started last week as an accounting assistant in the finance department, and we're so excited to have her in finance and part of the Gilroy team. Julie has called Gilroy home for most of her life. She attended local schools from kindergarten through high school and began a professional career at local restaurants here in town. Julie brings a strong background in customer service, inside sales, account management, and administrative support. And Juliana worked for Sheething Technologies as a sales development representative. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her family and friends, gardening, exploring new adventures, a good cup of coffee, and plenty of laughs. Welcome, Julie. We're excited to have you here.

Good evening. I just want to thank the City of Gilroy as well as the City of Council for giving me the opportunity to be here. I am super excited to serve the community that helped raise me and shape me into the woman I am today. So thank you.

Thank you, Cindy, and thank you, Julie. Moving on to item number five, we have one ceremonial item today, a proclamation, which will be presented to Leanne McPhillips, our Human Resources Director. Come on. Okay, so I have a City of Gilroy proclamation for our longtime employee of City of Gilroy, Leanne McPhillips. So let me start it. Whereas Leanne McPhillips has honorably served the City of Gilroy for over 27 years, and whereas Leanne has served the City with dedication and distinction as human resources director and risk manager and assistant city administrator. Leanne has also provided leadership over information technology, fleet and facilities and served as interim city clerk among many other responsibilities throughout her tenure. And whereas Leanne is a graduate of San Jose State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Masters of Public Administration. She further advanced her professional expertise by obtaining the Senior Professional in Human Resources and the IPMA Senior Certified Professional Certificates. And whereas Leanne also provided leadership and guidance to the City of Gilroy Personnel Commission and Youth Commission, reflecting her commitment to both the organization and the community. Whereas Leanne further advanced the human resources profession and local government through her service on numerous professional organizations and committees. She represented the Personnel and Employee Relations Department on the League of California Cities Public Safety Policy Committee, served on the California Public Employers Labor Relations Association Conference Planning Committee, was Vice President of the Local Agency Workers' Compensation Access Committee, and participated in the Santa Clara County Human Resources Directors Group. Through these roles, she contributed to policy development, professional advancement, and collaboration amongst public agencies throughout California. And whereas Leanne provided leadership within the city organization by serving as chair of the Accident Review Board and Safety Committee, while also contributing her time as a member of the Employee Appreciation Committee. And whereas Leanne skillfully managed the City of Gilroy's risk management and workers' compensation programs, overseeing complex claims, ensuring regulatory compliance, coordinating with key stakeholders, and implementing strategies to mitigate organizational risk. And whereas Leanne successfully guided labor negotiations, strengthened recruitment and workforce development efforts, and helped ensure employees and the tools, training, and support needed to succeed. Her contributions have helped shape the organization, strengthen its workforce, and establish practices that will continue to benefit the city and its employees for years to come. And whereas Leanne's enduring legacy, knowledge, guidance, friendship, and steady presence will be deeply missed by colleagues and employees across the organization, Leanne retired from the City of Gilroy on December 30th, 2025 and looks forward to a well-earned retirement spent with family, traveling, relaxing and enjoying many fishing adventures. Now, therefore, I, Greg Bozo, Mayor of the City of Gilroy, and on behalf of the City Council, the citizens and employees of Gilroy, join in thanking LeAnn McPhillips for her years of service and commitment to the City of Gilroy and wish her well in her retirement for years to come. Congratulations.

Thank you, everybody. I did not know this was happening tonight. But my 27 years here at the City of Gilroy have been nothing short of amazing. I have had such a wonderful time working here. For those of you who are just starting your careers, this is a great place to work. And you are going to love your time here. It's hard to step away. But when you get to 36 years in the public sector, it's time. And so passing the torch on to my friend Michael Horta to take over. And so it's just a bittersweet time. I gotta thank my team. Angelica, stand up. Jason, stand up. Alyssa, stand up. And Diana and Adriana and Andrea are not here, but this doesn't happen alone. It happens when you have a team that is amazing to work with and work alongside. They have made my time here just fabulous, fabulous. And the executive team, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Council, Matt, thank you, thank you.

Just a little bit.

You're good. You're good. All right. Ready?

One, two, three. I'm going to take a couple more. One, two, three.

All right. That's where they do it.

OK, moving on to item number six, presentation to council. The next is public comment. I'm going to go a little bit longer tonight because we are beginning a new era of public comment PROCEDURES IN THE CITY OF GILROY WHICH MEANS THAT WE'LL BE GOING DIGITAL. SO I WANT TO READ SOMETHING THAT I PROBABLY WILL DO OVER THE NEXT FEW MEETINGS JUST SO PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT THERE ARE SOME NEW WAYS THAT WE'RE DOING PUBLIC COMMENT AT THE CITY OF GILROY. SO PUBLIC COMMENT BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. THIS IS THE TIME FOR PUBLIC COMMENT BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA BUT WITHIN THE SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL. THE PORTION OF THE MEETING IS RESERVED FOR PERSONS DESIRING TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL ON MATTERS. within the Gilroy City Council's jurisdiction, but not on the agenda. Persons wishing to address the council in person are requested to complete a speaker's card located near the city clerk and hand it to the city clerk. Persons wishing to address the council virtually, and this is what's new, requested to raise their virtual hand and please remember that virtually or in in in person speakers will be limited to one to three minutes depending on the volume of speakers varying at the mayor's discretion so depending on the number of speakers at length of the agenda will make that decision as we always have done when I hear from the city clerk the law does not permit council action on extended discussion of any item not on the agenda except under special circumstances And if council action is requested, the council may place the matter on a future agenda. So with that being said, I would like to go to city clerk on public speakers.

We currently have 12 speakers. What?

12? Yes. OK. So we have 12 speakers. So we will go to three minutes. And then once we begin, then we will go ahead and close public speak.

After three.

After three. After the first three, we'll go ahead and close it. So right now, we're going to go for three minutes. So please feel free to call the first three.

Charlene followed by Georgine and Susan.

I don't know yet.

Hi. Good evening.

My name is Charlene.

I'm a resident of Gilroy. A recurring topic presented here by the residents of Gilroy has been related to the data centers and a feeling by residents that there's been a lack of information, whereas the city is saying that lots of information has been provided. Recently, the city has put together a new website. I really appreciate that, but one of my concerns about the site is that the information there seems to be provided by Amazon. So it's unclear to me if this information is just promises that they're being made with no penalties or enforcement mechanisms if they don't meet them. There also seems to be a discrepancy between Amazon claiming that they are paying for the recycled water pipeline and Valley Water Records that say, their official minutes say that rate payers are paying for that. And finally, at the last June council meeting, when the public was told by council and staff that we had not made an effort to keep ourselves informed, the city neglected to reveal when they could have that a pre-application for an additional data center site has already been received by the city. So that didn't seem very transparent to me. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. So ironically, there is an item on the agenda later tonight. And as you guys have known in the past, when we do public comment, that the decorum of this council room is to refrain from clapping. So if we could do that, please, that would help move the meeting along. We have a lot of speakers that want to speak tonight. So I want to make sure that everybody gets their three minutes. So the hope is that the decorum of the room is that we're not clapping during public comment, please. Go ahead. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Georgene Scott-Kodiga, Americans for Transparency. This comment isn't about a specific agenda item. It's about something more basic, how the public is supposed to have dialogue with this council. In recent months, I've submitted detailed, carefully researched written materials to this council, letters, comparisons of ordinances from other cities. Analysis specifically tailored to Gilroy's own municipal code on matters including the largest development project in this city's history. Hours of research so this council can make informed decisions. I have received in most cases no response, not a courtesy notice of received or a thank you. for your submission or i'll review it absolutely nothing on several occasions i find it extremely troubling that when the community comes together to try to have a dialogue with the city council members about important issues in the proper venue the council's response is to cut time to one minute and to or now to place a decorum policy on the consent calendar where absence someone in this room asking that it be pulled, it would have passed with a single vote and no individual discussion. Respect goes both ways. The council demands courtesy and respect, yet it appears to be one-sided unless someone can explain how failing to respond to the public is respectful or courteous. What troubles me the most beyond the disrespect or lack of courtesy is when the public brings forward research and council either dismisses it or fails to acknowledge it, then turns and asks staff or city attorney to explain what the research already answered. That's not a criticism of any individual. It's just a genuine question about the process. If the public does the work of researching an issue and puts it in writing so council has time to review it in advance and that work goes unread, then the public input isn't actually being used. It's being collected and set aside. So my question tonight is sincere, and I would like a direct answer, not a general one. What is the method I'm supposed to use to have actual dialogue with this council about issues the public considers significant? If it isn't written letters and it isn't phone calls, what is it? And I'd like to know, honestly. Is this how the council treats all the public input, or does responsiveness depend on the topic. I recognize every council member's time is limited, but acknowledging a letter or returning a call takes less than a minute. When that doesn't happen consistently and specifically on the issues this community has told you matter the most, it sends a message. Whether or not it's intended that the public input is welcomed in word but not in practice. I'm asking respectfully and directly for council to tell us to engage with you. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. That was just a warning.

Thank you. So, as I mentioned before, we are instituting some new policies and a really loud new bell, apparently. So, thank you very much. We're going to go on to the third speaker. Kim.

Kim, call the speaker.

Susan, followed by Ron and Armando.

Good evening, my name is Susan Bassey. I lived in Gilroy for 30 years, raised my children here and walked in the door this evening and recognized probably about 30% of the people in the room or know their children very well. In the interest of full disclosure, Tom Klein and I conspired post 9-11 to remove Malcolm from church on Sunday and we flew on a plane with him to Las Vegas and we were not struck down. So we are still here and he is a city council member now. I left Gilroy in 2010 and moved to Los Gatos with my two remaining children who were finishing school through Los Gatos Schools. And I began publishing my Out and About, which was a magazine printed in the community and did it to the north for the Silicon Valley community. I then, in 2017, obtained training as an investigative reporter. I'm a member of investigative reporters and editors. I cover the police, I cover local government, and I cover the courts. I came to Gilroy in the beginning of July because I'm investigating the costs that taxpayers will pay related to a public records lawsuit involving our police department. I want to say that I'm investigating the lawyers who the city contracts with, I have an intimate knowledge of Jolie Houston and her law firm's conduct related to public records based on their representation of the city of Los Altos. I specialize in covering domestic violence cases and Jolie Houston has had a problem with how she has handled that and legal advice to the city of Los Altos, which ended up funding a nonprofit known as Women SV. One of the 53 Jane Does I initially reported on was from Gilroy. And I've done extensive reporting on that nonprofit and the funds and how it moved through it. I want to say that when I came to ask for the behest payment records from the city, that the city is not complying with public access laws. This evening, I arrived at 4 o'clock today and asked for access to the nomination records where some of our city council members and mayors have relatives that are running. And I had a right to see those nomination records under Elections Code, Government Code 17100. Ms. Jolie has not properly advised the city on how to comply with access to public records. I want to also give a shout out to the Gilroy Police Department that is at the center of that lawsuit that is going to cost taxpayers a lot of money. We now have a new police chief. I have done several inspections and access for records. And this evening was given access to records on the arrest logs in the city, which the city keeps for seven days. And Brittany, who handles the communications for the department, in the lobby area knew how to comply with the law and the police department is doing a better job than the city hall is doing with respect to public records. We're going to be investigating your local elections this year. We're going to be investigating the data center and the public records behind that. We're also going to be investigating a lot of the behest and other public records policies. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Ron's next and then Armando Benavidez. Excuse me. Diana Diana Benz.

Thank you, sir Good evening mayor and council and Matt and Jolie At the last meetings there was some conversation about sharing goalie and I was kind of confused what was going on. So I decided to put my two cents into and During these last several years, I've been attending our Gilroy City Council meetings. I have had the pleasure of getting to know some of the most talented folks who work or have worked for the city of Gilroy, especially those who worked in the planning department. Some of the best of the best talent to work in Gilroy includes Rick Smelser, Henry Serving, Christy Abrams, and Lee Butler, and I believe

Leanne will agree.

All who provided the best service and product for our city and who performed excellently, keeping Gilroy running at a maximum efficiency and ticking like a well-crafted Swiss watch with exceptional precision, reliability, and efficiency, keeping our city of Gilroy running smoothly. I would like to add Sharon Goey to this list of folks as her work product and professionalism exemplifies the best of the best. The city of Gilroy is very fortunate to have Sharon as a member of staff, as a director of community development. Thank you and best regards.

Thank you, Ron. Mayor, City Council, I want to say I appreciate the work the staff is doing to bring forward amendments to the architecture and site review ordinance to regulate data center development in the future. I believe the proposed amendments that will be submitted to the council for consideration should fully address the concerns that many residents have expressed following the approval of the Amazon data center. The determination of which bodies should make the final decisions on projects of extraordinary community significance is important. The Planning Commission made the recommendation that if an Environmental Impact Report is required, the Planning Commission makes the approval of authority. If an Environmental Impact Report is not required, the project may be approved administratively by the Community Development Director. The council's role is limited to hearing an appeal after the decision has already been made. I respectfully suggest that this approach gives too little involvement to the elected representatives of the community. Large-scale data centers have the potential to shape Gilroy's future for decades through their demands on land, electricity, water, emergency services, and infrastructure. These are public policy decisions. The final approval projects of this magnitude should rest with you, the city council, regardless of the level of CICA review. Also, the city needs to develop objective, measurable development standards for data centers outside of the CICA process. CICA is an environmental review process. It identifies and discloses environmental impacts, but it does not establish policy regarding what size of data centers is appropriate for Gilroy. It does not determine the maximum building heights, building square footage, electrical demand, water consumption, generator capacity, battery energy storage, or diesel fuel storage. Those are land use standards that should be established by the city. Without clear standards, every proposal will continue to be evaluated individually, creating uncertainty for residents, developers and decision makers alike. Some of these standards could certainly be incorporated into the architectural and site review ordinance. However, given the complexity and unique impacts of modern AI data centers, I believe the better approach would be for this city, this city and it's coming before you fairly soon, for the city to develop a separate, and I mean separate, data center ordinance, a dedicated, ORDINANCE WOULD ALLOW THE CITY TO THOUGHTFULLY ESTABLISH OBJECTIVE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR FUTURE PROJECTS.

YOU STILL HAVE A FEW SECONDS, CORRECT? NO. YOU CHANGED THAT. SORRY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Diana's next.

Diana, followed by Landon, and then Anadar.

Thank you. And while, Diana, just give me one second. Jen, and those of you in the back, there's plenty of seats up here if you guys want to sit down. Don't be afraid to take a seat. So they're there for you if you want. Nobody's reserving these seats. Okay. Take it away, Diana.

Mayor, City Council, as you guys know, I am a member of the Open Government Commission, but the audience might not know that. And I am here to tell them that we have heard their concerns about not getting information when asked. And we invite them to come to our August 13th Open Government Commission meeting. That's it. Come talk to us. Don't leave it on next door. We want to hear from you.

Thank you, Diana.

Landon followed and adore and then Dion.

Good evening, council members and to those in the gallery. My name is Landon Sepulveda and I am here with other concerned residents of Gilroy to speak once more for a ban on all future data centers within Gilroy. The city council has seen the pushback on this data center already in construction. And when there is one, there's more already. Amazon has another site in the works here in Gilroy showing that this is not a another one off incident. You have heard the pleas of the people who have voted for you, the people who trust you to look out for them, the people who hoped you'd warn them about projects like these. All of them doing this for over six months now. With November coming up, it is time you show that you are listening, not only by passing more transparency for projects like this, but placing a moratorium on all future data centers. Thank you.

Thank you, Landon.

After Anna Dorritz, Dion, and then Michelle Nelson.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, staff. I am here one more time to request a moratorium in the short term and then an updated ordinance to address new data centers. And Armando took a lot of my talking points as far as us needing to develop standards. One item I wanted to add to it, one of the standards I think we need to add to any future ordinance is consequences, like how are we going to enforce any of the items that are listed that these are actually taking place? And one of the things is a decommissioning bond. What happens to a facility that if the occupant decides at some point that the business is not there and they're just abandoning it, will the city of Gilway and the taxpayers then be responsible for decommissioning the project and what's sort of left of the building but anyway I'm hoping that you consider looking at doing an ordinance because clearly your community is asking for it and and I really appreciate you giving us all three minutes because cutting down speakers time from three minutes to one and kind of robbing them of two-thirds of their time gives very much the impression that you're not interested in what the community has to say. And I know you're just trying to keep the meeting a little bit more reasonable, but it translates into community members, your constituents not being heard. And I think that's one of the big issues right now. And I know that in the early notification that you guys are working on it. Planning commission has met and has given recommendations. So that's a great thing, but that's like the first step in a long line of things that really need to happen. And I hope you seriously look at that because it's tearing the community apart. So appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Anadur.

Dionne, followed by Michelle Nelson and then Connie Rogers.

Edison.

Sorry, Diane.

Sorry about that.

Good evening, council. I am a citizen of Gilroy. Again, I'm coming to talk about the data center. I live here and I am concerned. I am concerned that lots of people are asking questions and they're getting very lightweight answers that don't hit the core of what people are asking. There may be no stopping the one that's already being built. But there are ordinances and codes and chapters that we are going to be here to ensure this city and the mayor and the council follow these ordinances to protect our safety. Code Chapter 27D Well number eight on Gilman Avenue is less than a half a mile from the data center. A half a mile. There needs to be a creation of a stormwater control plan because if there is any kind of runoff from this data center it's heading for that half a mile away well. You need to start looking at plans now that mitigate potential safety hazards for this community while there is still time to possibly mitigate problems before they become escalated to a point where, oh crap, everything's hit the fan, now what do we do? So if we can't stop the one being built, We are definitely gonna be following the codes and we are gonna be holding you all accountable to ensure the safety of the citizens of this city.

Thank you.

And we're watching.

Michelle.

Michelle, followed by Connie Rogers, then Batman of San Jose.

Good evening. I was here before. I can't compete with Batman, but I'll do my best. I attended the planning commission meeting earlier, and I was very impressed with the dialogue that they were having with each other. And now I have an idea about what they feel about the data center. The attorney tried to keep it focused on the process for approving projects that trigger an EIR, but it ultimately drifted to conversations around the data center. I request that the city council also dedicate some time to a discussion about the data centers that are here and coming. We all know phase one was already approved, but phase two needs a permit to proceed. We would like to know how you feel. Can we have a dialogue rather than just us talking at you and you're not able to respond. Now it's also been confirmed that Amazon wants to build another data center at the corner of Camino Arroyo and 152 East. I also would encourage the council to adopt an ordinance dealing with data centers as a separate item. The current project was approved because it was able to mitigate certain impacts, two of them, or it met the threshold in several areas including noise, which I addressed at the last city council meeting. The threshold for Gilroy is 60 decibels and as I mentioned at the June 15th meeting the EPA recommends a day night sound of no greater than 45 decibels for indoors and no greater than 55 decibels for outdoors. This level also does not take into account tonal noise or low frequency sound waves which can go around barriers. I believe it would be prudent to have the developer conduct a noise study that takes this into account. Even with that, I'd like to play for you what I recorded on my phone. I visited two data centers in San Jose plus a battery storage facility, visited a data center in Santa Clara next to a substation. Actually, both had substations. This does not include the low frequency, so just take a listen. And I was standing next to the battery storage facility, but I also heard it from maybe a distance from here to Church Street, to give you an idea. And it was about in the mid 60 range for decimals, which is over and above the threshold for Gilroy. Can you hear it? Anyway, I was curious, so I went up there to see. Will there be a similar noise from the building that's being constructed right now? Because the plans also say that there's going to be a similar battery storage facility, the BESS. Darn it.

Okay. Thank you, Michelle.

I do want to thank city people here because they've been very helpful in letting me access planning documents and building documents hours and hours.

So I am doing my homework. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Connie Rogers, followed by Batman of San Jose and then Catwoman.

Good evening, council members. I've been in your position. I know it's not easy to be there. But I want to confirm that the public is very upset. You can tell by the people that have shown up here tonight. And they feel very left out of the decision-making process. We all were taught about we the people, we the people, and you are our representatives, so we would like to be, like you to understand why the public is so upset. We don't want any more data centers. One is gonna be more than we wanted in the first place. We certainly don't want the second one. We also, at a minimum, would like our 1981 ordinance updated because it's 40 years behind the time. And I believe we, all of us in Gilroy, could establish our own standards for industrial development. They're actually starting to do this in the city of San Jose. at the request of four council people and the mayor. So if they can do it, we can do it. It would be a long process and would need to be a thorough process. But Gilroy should have its own standards for what we want in industrial development, not what any particular company thinks is right for their bottom line. Thank you.

Thank you, Connie.

That man of San Jose, Catwoman, and then Britt Smith.

I think we can say as the Bay Area, as a community, we are beyond disappointed with you. I'm attempting to show restraint here because I'm really, really pissed off right now with the fact that you have decided to not sign on to the letter to help aid in the fight against the concentration camp that is coming to our community. The fact that you have not even looked into it, that you're not putting it on the agenda, is fucking ridiculous.

That's not the quorum that we're looking for in this room. Sorry. So please watch your language. Very ridiculous. Please watch. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. You have every single reason to fight for your Hispanic population. It's over 58%. Fucking Google's right.

Can you watch your language, please, in the room? No. Please watch your language.

I would like you to actually do your job. I want you to show up, put it on the agenda, and fight for your community. I know that you guys do a Bible verse at the beginning of every city council meeting. That's great. I was raised Catholic. If you are truly God-fearing people, if you believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ or whichever denomination you believe in, you would be fighting blood and bone to stop this concentration camp from coming to your community. Blood and bone. But instead, you are choosing to hide, tuck your tails between your legs, and be cowards. I would like to respectfully ask you to stop this cowardice. Fight for your people. We can't do what you have the power to do. All you have to do is sign onto a letter. It is the bare minimum that people are asking you to do. And you are treating over 58% of your population like they don't matter. And not just your population, San Jose, Santa Clara, the rest of the Bay Area. This building will not just affect your community, but all communities in the Bay Area. So respectfully, do your job and stop being a Judas. Next is Catwoman, please. All right. Sorry.

Lower the mic, there you go, thank you.

Thank you very much. All right, I'm ready. When discussing your decision to not sign on to the amicus brief, Mayor Bozo, you said, and I quote, right now we are going to focus on what Gilroy has on its plate, trying to meet all the needs of Gilroy. This is an exact quote from the article I pulled up in your response specifically talking about the decision not to sign on to the amicus brief. You also stated that we do not have the money, resources, or manpower to be able to handle the lawsuit. But I don't particularly see that as an excuse to stop at the resolution. I see that as all the more reason to fight tooth and nail with what resources we do have, because this is a life or death situation. Batman already said it. Over half the population of Gilroy is Hispanic. Black and brown lives matter. And to say that this is not an issue on Gilroy's plate, when I hear that, I'm forced to think you think my life does not matter. You think the life of the Hispanic community here in Gilroy does not matter. The hands that labor and grow are garlic, which we're known for, among other things, just don't seem to be human hands to you. They seem to be laboring hands that you can extract for labor. Have you ever heard of ice air? Concentration camps, yes, but these are also disappearing camps. People are being moved about, not just to their, not deported to their home countries, they are being moved left and right through to this country and to other countries that didn't ask for it in a system that mimics chattel slavery, that mimics human trafficking. We are living through an extremely dark time in this country's history. This moment in history will be talked about. And where do you want your place in local history to go? You can do more. Among other things that don't even include signing on to the amicus brief, you can establish a no staging policy, ban ICE from using public parks, resources, and buildings. You can deny infrastructure support and it won't cost you a penny. Refuse to grant utility hookups and municipal aid to the whole squat road facility immediately. This needs to be on the agenda. There is no excuse for this to not be on the agenda. And it shows that you don't care about our safety, that it's not even a matter of discussion for this council. Strengthen security and sanctuary protections. Formally prohibit the local police from collaborating with ICE. These are all things you can do that don't even include the lawsuit. Consider it, talk about it, or we'll be forced to think that you're just ignoring us.

Thank you very much.

Britt, Britt, followed by Juliet and then Jonathan. Britt, followed by Juliet and then Jonathan.

Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Britt Smith, and I'm an organizer with Stop Guillory Data Center Now. Like many people in 2026, I find out what's going on locally through social media. Aside from being a generational cliche, I am also professionally in social media marketing and communications. So a core of our community's demands have really kind of come back to transparency and communication on multiple accounts. Council members have pointed to the city newsletter and website as core channels of communicate of their communication strategy. So I decided to ask about it. On June 23rd, the communication engagement manager told me that the city newsletter, which is known as the Email Express, is sent to approximately 20,000 subscribers each week with an average open rate around 58%. So that means of the 20,000 people that get it, 58% are opening it, which is way above the industry average. So kudos. Although it's unclear that the timeframe for that average, that still means that approximately 17% of residents at most are receiving this information. When the city says that they're sharing information with the public, the fact is simple. They're not meeting us where we are. Though he isn't here, I do want to commend Councilmember Zach Hilton for sharing information openly and often across his own channels and community groups. I urge the city council and city staff to address gaps in communication immediately, issuing press releases to local outlets and optimizing those communications for relevant channels instead of copying and pasting multiple paragraphs in a platform that is not designed for it. There are plenty of us who would love to help and I'm throwing up my hand. So would love to chat about how we can actually meet the community where they are and getting the communications out the way that they need to be distributed. Thank you.

Thank you Britt.

Juliette and Jonathan and Araya.

Hi, my name is Juliet Toomey and I have just been out the last half hour in front of the building here with many leaders of the faith community locally. And it is very hard for us to imagine how you are not joining the Santa Clara County and the state of California in a suit against homeland security of the building of yes a concentration camp closest to your city we implore you to bring it onto your agenda to have a full discussion of it and we implore you to act to join that struggle to protect more than 50 percent of your community in the same way that i hope you protect the rest against the data centers These are not unlinked. They both are going to harm the common good of this city.

Thank you. Jonathan. Yeah. Thank you, Jonathan. Hello, council.

It's a little higher. So my name is Jonathan. I'm a high school student and a civil rights activist here in Santa Clara County. And today I'm here to let it be known that we, the youth are highly highly object the proposed Gilroy Detention Center. As a high school student, something as simple as sitting in a classroom becomes very difficult when a constant feeling of paranoia lingers throughout the classroom. We have all seen the horrendous actions that have occurred throughout the country in places like LA, Minneapolis, and more. And we cannot let that happen here. Currently, we haven't been targeted because the nearest attention center is about 200 miles away, but this could change in a matter of time. Studies prove that after detention centers built, ICE activity increases. So an ICE facility here would give ICE a gateway to target our communities. We find it very hypocritical that the council claims to support our hardworking families, yet chooses to not join the legal battle. We highly urge the council to show their solidarity with the community by joining the lawsuit. They say money talks, so let's talk money. In 2025, the Guerrero Unified School District received about $6.7 million in federal funding. To put that into perspective, the Department of Homeland Security secured a $26.5 million lease for this project, meaning they care more about targeting our neighbors than educating our students. We should prioritize, I don't know about you guys, but I personally think, as a student, I think, this is my belief here, we should prioritize the education of our students instead of building ICE facilities that terrorize our communities. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the hypocrisy of claiming to protect immigrant families while allowing a 438,500 square foot Amazon data center to be built in our backyard without public oversight. Data centers are a core part of the massive tech infrastructure that fuels ICE's data tracking and deportation pipeline, and we will not stand for it. ICE detention centers are places of horrible conditions. Food being withheld, water being withheld, mental health resources being withheld. Do we want that in our community?

No. Women being raped.

Additionally, I would like to call out Council Member Fugazi for sitting there and laughing, laughing, while Batman of San Jose stood up here and spoke for us. Now you know it. The community here, they all, you heard the noise when they came up here, and you stood there and you laughed for what your community represents.

Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you for your time. Araya, please.

Araya, followed by Kimberly and Camilla. Araya, followed by Kimberly, and then Camilla.

Come on. Watch your language, please. Watch your language.

Want to move on to the next speaker? Go ahead.

My name is Aria. I'm a teacher. And I'm profoundly disturbed to see a council appear unmoved by the content of these conversations, by the content of the conditions that the community of Gilroy, the community of the Bay Area is facing. What side of history do you What do you want to be on? Do you look back at Japanese internment camps? Do you look back at the Holocaust? And do you ask yourselves, what were people doing at that time? How did they let this happen? Do you look at the housing crisis? Do you look at our polluted community and planet? And do you ask yourselves, who let this happen? Who landed us with these circumstances? And here you are, politicians, elected representatives. And it is your job to shape the history. Do you have kids? Do you have kids in your life? Who elected you? What are you handing to them? Your community needs to be brought along. And the message is loud and clear. The community of Gilbert in the Bay Area does not stand for data centers, does not stand for actions taken behind their backs with serious environmental concerns, with profound humanitarian concerns, does not stand for that. So what are you doing to stop this? What are you doing to stand in the way? You have obvious actions in front of you, and the choice is yours. But we will not stop holding you accountable and demanding the future that we know our community deserves.

Thank you, Araya. Moving on to Kimberly and Camilla.

Kimberly, then Camilla, and Ethan.

Hello, my name is Kimberly. Yes, others have mentioned already a number of cities across not only the Bay, but just our general region, Central Coast, including Monterey, Marin, Santa Cruz have voted to take a firm stance against this detention center, the ICE detention center. And it is very shameful that two did not, especially considering how geographically close you both are, you Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Um, and so, yeah, I just do want to express my deep disappointment in all of you. And I do believe there was a resolution signed. Um, I think that that's insufficient to say that's all that is needed is to bend the knee. And I say, don't bend the knee. Um, in addition, Amazon web services, they do, um, benefit from this, um, obviously the data center, but, um, just anyone detained in the ICE facility. And so, yeah, don't let them get their way. They profit off of creating profiles, surveillance profiles from local, state, federal databases. And they're not just targeting immigrants or undocumented folks. They're targeting anyone who looks like maybe they're not from here or they are immigrants. And so, yeah, don't continue to bend the knee. and listen to your constituents. Thank you.

Thank you, Kimberly.

Camilla, then Ethan.

Hello, mayor. Hello, city council. I know that it is definitely frustrating for you guys to have to deal with people not following the decorum, but it goes to show how unheard the community feels that they feel like they have to swear and shout and clap for people because they feel like the council has not done anything for them. I think you all know that over the last few months, most public comments at city council meetings have been about either ice or data centers. it's an important issue to the community very clearly, especially judging by the reception to Batman and then Jonathan. I know that there was a symbolic resolution that was signed against ice, but that is not enough. Please, please join the amicus brief because if you don't stand up, And then the pause ends because the pause that is currently there is only temporary. What will you do when the pause is over? You've already shown us that you have not done anything now. So who will be there to fight for us? I also will ask you to please work towards a moratorium or a complete ban on further data centers. The world does not need more data centers, despite what Amazon and other companies that are building them may tell you. Please do right by your constituents. And again, the community really cares about these issues. And in November, if they remember people did not fight for them, they might have that at the top of their head when they're voting. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ethan.

Good evening. My name is Ethan Boe. I'm currently a resident of San Juan Bautista, California, though I grew up here in Gilroy with my father, Brian Boe, who some here may have known. I'm here to speak about both the AI data center and the ICE facility that are currently being constructed in the city or near it. As you've heard over and over, both of these facilities represent a danger to our communities. And frankly, they are against the democratic wishes of this community and several communities in the area. I organize with individuals as far south as San Luis Obispo who are concerned about the ice facility and the implications it could have on their community that far away. let alone the ones that are here or closer. As you've heard over and over, the current actions that the council has taken or not taken are frankly unacceptable. There seems to be a desire to dismiss the concerns or propagandize against the concerns of your constituency rather than try to meet them in the middle reach even something resembling a compromise. I don't see any efforts to take these concerns seriously from this council. Not signing on to the amicus brief for the lawsuit is, it's baffling frankly. I don't understand. It's, that's the bare minimum and this council could not even do that much. Neither of these facilities are a benefit to this community in any way. They don't represent economic growth or some sort of law and order. They're only a harm, only a harm to our neighbors, only a harm to this community and all the surrounding communities. I would ask that the council consider a moratorium or outright ban on any data centers or battery facilities. I'd also ask that they work diligently to either mitigate or completely stop the building or use of the ice concentration camp that's being built currently, or at least take actions to institute- No, you're good. Keep going. No staging laws against ice. The community here agrees with all of these things. These are the democratic wishes of your community, and I hope that you will listen and really consider and take action on what the democratic wishes of your constituency are. And I'm proud of everyone here for showing up and organizing, and I hope that you don't get discouraged. Thank you, Ethan.

So now we're going to go- I have one speaker on Zoom, Dashiell. I will go ahead and give you permission to speak.

Thank you. Hello, my name is Dashiell Leeds. I'm the conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter. I'm also here representing the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance. Our organizations strongly support the establishment of a moratorium and ultimately a ban on new AI data centers. We've been hearing from residents tonight that their questions, input, research, and criticisms are not being adequately considered by the city when it comes to data centers. It seems like there's a lack of trust here. There's been some talk of standards, but there is a problem with just standards rather than adopting a moratorium. The flaw with standards is that in many cases, they're not actually enforceable by the city. So for example, utility data from data centers, that's confidential. There's no requirement for the disclosure of let's say water or energy use by data centers. So you as a city, you're limited in your ability to actually obtain the information that is necessary to enforcing stringent standards. And standards that are not strong enough or aren't realistically enforceable might actually have the opposite effect of streamlining the approval of new data center projects and accelerating data center development. So in this environment that we are in right now, where the information we have is limited, the absolutely best tool that you have as a municipality to protect your community is a moratorium on data centers and ultimately a permanent ban. Just a little bit about data centers while I have the time here. I want to talk, as one of the community members mentioned before, infrasound. This is low frequency sound below the lower limit of human hearing. This travels extremely long distances through barriers. We can't hear it, but we can feel it in our bodies. This causes prolonged physical and psychological discomfort and a variety of negative health impacts. prolonged exposure to infrasound. It's been linked to fatigue, vertigo, headaches, nausea, changes in our heart rate, and that's just humans. We're not even talking about the impacts on the biosphere and on the environment as well. A little bit on grid costs. All of us in this meeting here, we are already paying for the grid improvements for AI data centers through CAISO, which we pay through our increased energy bills. So we're already paying for AI data centers. And just regarding market risk, I think there's this assumption that people have that it's good to build these things just from a financial perspective. But I think it's really a lot riskier than the companies are selling. AI data centers operate at massive ongoing losses And the companies on the other end that are implementing AI, they're not seeing gains either. The industry studies by OpenAI and Google on scaling laws show that building compute is exponentially inefficient during pre-training. So data centers themselves are just completely inefficient buildings. So what happens if there's a market correction? Well, then we've built a bunch of stranded assets that have made our lives more expensive and less healthy. So let's take a pause. Thank you very much.

Congratulations, Kim, for your first non-COVID online public comment. Great job. All right. Looks like that concludes our public comment period.

Well, there's a problem with that. What good is it for us to show up and then put a chain on us?

That concludes our public comment period. I don't give a shit. I'm gonna move on to item number seven for what for report. We're still there people here wanting to talk Because you guys make a rule yeah, yeah, okay, I'm gonna go on to item number seven reports of councilmembers I'm gonna go on Look we look just like I said a few weeks ago. I listened to the public right they did a great job speaking And now it's time to move on to the next agenda item.

This is something you guys hiding I

I'm going to move on to the next agenda item.

For what?

Because it's on the agenda, and I have an obligation to do so.

So I'm going to move on to item reports of council members. Mr. Bracco. Go ahead, Mr. Bracco. So how do you like that?

Yeah, I just wanted to... say our hearts go out to our neighbor to the north, Morgan Hill, over the shooting that they had this weekend. Hold on, Councilmember Bracco.

You're now being disruptive to the meeting and to everybody in this room. I would like to ask you to leave, please.

Okay, please go.

Please go.

Please go. You guys are ruining this community. What's in your guys' pocket? What do you guys got to hide?

Have a good evening.

Yeah, fuck yourself. Kiss my ass. Did you see me walking down that thing?

See, when they took one of your guys' family members, you see how it went.

That's just what I wanted to say, that our hearts go out to Morgan Hill, because we know what that feels like. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Furgati. Nothing to report. Council Member Marks.

I have just a short report. The Santa Clara County Habitat Governing Board met in early July to review the Executive Officer, Mr. Sullivan's, salary increase of a 3% raise and a 5% merit increase. Both were approved. Mr. Sullivan presented a financial report. The total investment account is $23 million, with an operating account of $1.3 million. The agency maintains a strong cash position. The investment portfolio remains diversified. Revenues are up, but grants received are down. Mr. Sullivan went to Washington, D.C. on an advocacy trip to lobby for support of the Habitat agency. He met with many representatives and staff. The overall feeling was positive towards what the Habitat agency does. That's it.

Thank you. Council Member Ramirez.

Just real quick, I'd like to do a shout out to Downtown Business Association here in Jersey. Live events have been well attended. It's really a great opportunity to bring everybody to downtown Detroit. And not only is a lot of residents coming, but a lot of times we're very contracting as well. And I would also like... out to Gilroy Unified School District, YMCA, and Youth Alliance for their power school program. They had a showcase. I had the privilege of attending that and they do a great job for our students here in Gilroy Unified. And of course, Garlic Festival.

Thank you. Councilmember Klein. Just speaking of Garlic Festival, I just want to say a shout out to the Association. to the board and all the volunteers, everyone that was out there. It was a great event this weekend. It just really, again, shows who we are as a city. And it was a great event to celebrate what we're all about. So thank you.

Thank you very much. OK, moving on. Excuse me. I have no report on my reports of council members and mayor. So I'm going to move on to item number eight. It's a consent calendar. Any questions? I'm sorry. Sorry. Okay, sorry about that. Okay, moving on to the consent calendar. Any questions from council? Any public comment?

Yes, I have two speakers, Georgene and then Mary Yates.

Hello again. I'm just going to do the quick one. I'm asking that item 8.12 be pulled from the consent calendar. I don't believe this policy is necessary.

Perfect example. The civil law worked just fine right now.

The city already controls the mute button for the remote participants. So I'd like to know what problem 6.4's ban on clapping and noise actually solves that muting doesn't. This also arrives right after public opposition to data center and ICE facility. I'm asking you, the council, to say on the record whether that's connected. And if this moves forward at all, it should only be after real public input. and with the same clear written procedures for enforcement that this policy demands of us. I sent you each clarification on all that, so hopefully you'll read it. It's not very long. Thank you.

Thank you. Mary?

Good evening, Council and Mayor.

Mary Yates, Gilroy resident, 40 plus years. And I've been very involved in this community, working at the Garlic Festival, helping to build our library. I was on the bond committee and responsible for all of the yard signs and big four by eights, ordering, placing, et cetera. If you don't think that was a job, I got to tell you, that was something. I'VE PREVIOUSLY ASKED FOR THIS ITEM TO BE REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR, REMOVED PERIOD, BUT IF ANYTHING IT SHOULD BE PUT IN THE PUBLIC HEARINGS FOR THE CITY TO, FOR THE RESIDENTS TO COMMENT ON. ACCORDING TO ONE COUNCIL MEMBER'S POSTING ON NEXT DOOR, THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE REGULATING CONDUCT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS HAS BEEN IN THE WORK FOR YEARS. INTERESTING THAT AFTER THE JUNE 15, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING, IT SUDDENLY APPEARS ONLY IN THE CONSENT CALENDAR AND NOT AS NEW BUSINESS TO BE COMMENTED ON BY THE PUBLIC AS IS THEIR RIGHT. THERE IS NO PUBLIC OUTREACH AS STATED IN THE STAFF REPORT. This policy is an affront to this community's civil rights and begins, in my opinion, the slippery slope towards fascism by means of suppression, since the rule of law specifically states that such behavior like clapping must actually prevent the continuance of business and no such thing has happened. Furthermore, Mr. Mayor, you have stated that we are meeting under new policies related to clapping, et cetera, tonight, yet you haven't even passed the ordinance. This is where we are at the point of the agenda now to pass it, which I'm sure you probably will, but not to the benefit of the community. Finally, it's a good thing that elections are coming up. Maybe we'll get some people who are not just sitting here collecting pay and full health insurance coverage. Thank you.

I have no further speakers. Thank you very much. So before I take a vote on this, since since as a position of mayor, I have a few comments since I'm the one that has the opportunity and responsibility to speak on behalf of the city. I understand the concern from the community that this idea of clapping is something that we're trying to eliminate in this room completely. And that's not something we're trying to do. The goal of the policy is to make sure that unintentional intimidation. Right. So I want to say that clearly. not intentional intimidation. I want to say unintentional intimidation by a well-intended group that might have on a small group of people part of the public. It's not about how council feels right. As you can see we are we ran for this office that sometimes it's uncomfortable for us. But I do have a responsibility for the people in this room to be comfortable and and for others to follow decorum. And so I assure you, as I've said before, I know you guys have seen me talk about this idea of clapping before. There are plenty of opportunities that we should be clapping in this room. But when there's also public comment going on, this is really about during public comment is that When there's a large group of people that feel really, really passionate about something, there also may be a few people or young people or new people that would be intimidated by that. And this is something that I know it would be for some folks, they would want really, really, really clear guidelines. And look, maybe down the road, that's something we can talk about one on one in this community for people who want that. I have no problem having that conversation at all. This is why I'm gonna support it. And then additionally, I will say publicly, this is not something that has gotten put on the agenda just because of recent dialogue in this community. Our open government committee has been talking about some of the changes that we can do to these policies for a very long time. They've invited you to their meetings. This has been going on since post COVID. So those are my comments. And with that being said, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendars. I'll make that motion. Item 8.1, thank you, through 8.12, excluding item 8.8. As a reminder, we took that out. And it sounds like I have a motion from Council Member Fugazi and a second from Council.

No, Bronco.

I'm sorry, Council Member Bronco and a second from Council Member Klein. Roll call please.

Council Member Bracco. Yes. Council Member Klein. Yes. Council Member Fugazi. Yes. Council Member Marks. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Mayor Bozo.

Yes. Motion passes six to zero. Thank you very much. Moving on to item nine point one. Bids and proposals. Award a three year contract to advance integration and controls with the option to extend for two additional one year periods. for a total contract amount of $450,000 for water and wastewater SCADA control systems integration and support request services. Staff report, please.

All right, should be a go now.

Yeah, we hear you now. Well, thanks.

Okay, great. All right, so I'm Tyson Insweiler, Operations Utility Manager for Water and Wastewater Division here at City of Gilroy. And here to make this presentation to Council on awarding a three-year contract for our SCADA system included in water and wastewater controls and automation. So what we're going to cover here is a couple of things. So we currently had a contract with Mission Controls that expired in last month. And so leaving us out of contract, we're having the opportunity to look at our infrastructure and see what we can do to improve it and also have the reliability that goes along with having subject matter experts that can assist us in this sort of work. And this requires specialized ongoing support with these subject matter experts that, excuse me, that we went through the RFP process. We sent out the bid and AIC was the contractor company that scored the highest. And based on what we found, awarding a three-year contract at the total amount of $450,000 was appropriate. And so once again, three-year term for this contract was what we're asking for, with the option to extend that after that three-year period for an additional one-year extensions over two years. So in 2016, this original contract with Mission Controls came to fruition and they've been supporting our infrastructure since then. In June, the contract did expire and we went out to bid with the RFP process. It was a competitive bid. We had five proposals through qualified firms. AIC is scoring the highest. They're out of Sacramento is one of their closest facilities that they'd be supporting us. One aspect is having that 24-hour support in this contract. It's important to us to have ongoing support since our water and wastewater delivery is 24-7. We scored these firms on a specific criteria based on approach, their qualifications, how close they are to the city of Gilroy for that fast response time. And ultimately, cost is important to us and how we can perform at the highest level being that cost effectiveness is important to us here at the city. And AIC is the one that was really Like I said, we're really competitive, but AIC is delivered upon that. So I want to talk about SCADA. So SCADA might be a little unfamiliar to some in water and wastewater terminologies. We have kind of a specific language. So I want to talk about that a little bit. So SCADA, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, it really automates how we deliver water and wastewater from the wells that we have that are extracting the water out of the aquifer to pumping it and delivering it to customers and storing it and creating the adequate pressure with our storage tanks. So it is a control system that operators will use for remotely monitoring and controlling the system, also getting real-time alerts. So there's sensors that we have deployed on the system, pressure, flow monitoring, level monitoring on our reservoirs, and it gives us that real-time data so we can have real-time response. That data flows over a communication network through radio antennas and microwave communication. And the operators can view this here at our headquarters and control, monitor, respond accordingly. They can also give specific commands based on any issues that may occur, have early detection of system faults, before something may occur on the system. So we asked to award the contract for $450,000 over a three-year term to AIC. The city administrative to execute that agreement and then in addition to have two future one-year extensions added to that three-year contract. One of the fiscal impacts to the $450,000 is being funded out of the water and wastewater funds, $707.05. And I just want to open it up to any comments or questions you guys may have.

Sure. Thank you very much for your very first report. Thank you very much.

Yeah, I know. As you can tell.

You did good. You did great. Good job. Thank you. Any questions from council at this point in time? None. Any public comment?

I have no speakers.

All right. I'm going to bring it back and get right to it. So I have a motion by Council Member Fugazi.

Second.

And a second by Council Member Marks. And let me read this out. We're going to do them all three together, so give me a moment here. Award a three-year contract to advance integration and controls for a total amount not to exceed $450,000 with the option to extend two additional one-year terms for water and wastewater SCADA control systems integration and support request services, and authorize the city administrator to execute the contract and all associated documents, and authorize the city administrator to execute up to two subsequent one-year contract amendments subject to review recommendation by the utilities director. Roll call, please.

Councilmember Bracco?

Yes.

Councilmember Klein? Yes. Councilmember Fugazi? Yes. Councilmember Marx? Yes. Councilmember Ramirez? Yes. Mayor Boesel?

Yes, motion passes six to zero. Thank you very much, Tyson. Moving on to number 10. 10.1, approval of the Ask Me Local 101 General Unit and Ask Me Local 101 Supervisory Unit Memorandum of Understanding and Related Salary Schedules for the period of July 1, 2026 through July 30, 2029, and the unrepresented, confidential, full-time, non-exempt, and hourly, part-time, temporary, seasonal employee salary schedules for the same period. Staff report, please, Leigh Ann.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council, members of the community. The item on the agenda tonight is to approve the updated MOU with our miscellaneous employees, which are AFSCME Local 101. They have a general unit and a supervisory unit that has approximately 125 covered employees. We've been negotiating since April and the conclusion of this process is a successor memoranda of understanding and the salary schedules for the period and three-year period dates that were just mentioned by the mayor. The final copies of the MOUs and the salary schedules are included in the agenda packet and provide all of the details of the changes that are included. The MOUs have been reviewed by representatives of the bargaining unit. And as you can see with the copies that are in the agenda packet, they've been signed off by members of the bargaining unit. So they are in final form, ready for approval. The main areas of change to the labor contracts are that they're a three-year term. So they will run through June 30th of 2029. Salary increases of 3.8% beginning July 1, 2026, 3.7% beginning July 1, 2027, and 3% beginning July 1, 2028. There's also an agreement to complete a total compensation study for AFSCME classifications by December 31st, 2028. And the purpose of that is to inform successor negotiations for the period beginning July 1, 2029. So that study would provide data to be considered in the next MOU period that comes up. There's an increase to the medical and dental insurance premiums by 5 percent each calendar year. There's also a cap on the amount of medical in lieu pay for those employees who waive medical insurance. There's a realignment of the certificate pay program for our public works operations and utility operations employees to reflect the reorganization and establishment of new sections with the utilities department. We also had some new job descriptions that were included in the process. And then there's a variety of other minor cleanup items and minor clarification items within the MOU. The same salary and benefit increases are applicable to our unrepresented confidential non-exempt employees And the pay rate increases are also applicable to our unrepresented part-time temporary seasonal at-will employees. So the fiscal year cost for this, these changes for fiscal year 27, the MOU and salary resolution changes are estimated to be about $655,000. 62% of that is borne by the general fund and 38% by other funds. In fiscal year 28, cost is about 712,000, and in fiscal year 29, 690,000. And this includes for all three groups. The fiscal year 27 costs will be absorbed within the fiscal year 27 budget and the 28 and 29 costs will be incorporated into our next biennial budget process. Following council approval of the new MOUs and salary schedules, the final MOUs will be signed by the city representatives and implemented per the terms and the timing indicated within the MOUs and the salary resolutions. Going through the negotiations process is a time-consuming process that involves a lot of people. I wanted to thank the members of the AFSCME bargaining team for their professionalism throughout the process, John Shouse, John Sousa, Susana Ramirez, and Carol McEwen. And I also want to thank the other members of the city bargaining team, John Dowdy, Angelica Harris, and Charles Sakai. It took all of us to get it to this point across the finish line. So thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Questions for Leigh Ann? None? Public comment?

I have no speakers.

OK, I'm going to entertain four different motions here. I'll start with the first one. Approve the memorandum of understanding with Ask Me Local 101 General Unit and Ask Me Local 101 Supervisory Unit for the period of July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. Motion. I'll second. I have a motion by Council Member Ramirez and a second by Council Member Klein. Roll call, please.

Council Member Bracco.

Yes.

Council Member Klein. Yes. Council Member Fugazi. Yes. Council Member Marks. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Mayor Botso.

Yes, motion passes six to zero. Next one, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Giroir approving the July 1, 2026, July 1, 2027 and July 1, 2028 salary schedules associated with AFSCME Local 101 General Unit. Need a motion, please.

Motion.

Second. I have a motion by Council Member Klein and a second by Council Member Bracco. Roll call, please.

Council Member Bracco. Yes. Council Member Klein. Yes. Council Member Fugazi. Yes. Council Member Marks. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Mayor Bozo.

Yes. A motion passes six to zero. Number three, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Gilroy approving the July 1, 2026, July 1, 2027, July 1, 2028 salary schedules associated with Ask Me Local 101 Supervisory Unit. I need a motion.

So moved.

A motion by Council Member Marks and a second by Council Member Ramirez. Roll call, please.

Council Member Bracco. Yes. Council Member Klein. Yes. Council Member Fugazi. Yes. Council Member Marks. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Mayor Bezo.

Yes, motion passes 6 to 0. Number four out of five adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Gilroy, approving the July 1, 2026, July 1, 2027, July 1, 2028 salary schedules associated with the unrepresented confidential full time and non exempt employees. Motion, please. So move second motion by Council Member Bracco in a second by Council Member Ramirez. Roll call please.

Council Member Bracco. Yes. Council Member Klein. Yes. Council Member Favazzi. Yes. Council Member Marks. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Mayor Bozo.

Yes. Motion passes six to zero. And finally, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Gilroy approving the July 1, 2026, July 1, 2027, July 1, 2028 salary schedules associated with the unrepresented hourly, part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees.

Motion.

A motion by Council Member Klein.

Second.

And second by Council Member Marks. Roll call, please.

Council Member Bracco. Yes. Council Member Klein. Yes. Council Member Fugazi. Yes. Council Member Marks. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Mayor Bozo.

Yes. Motion passes six to zero. Thank you, everybody. That was a long one. I'm moving on to item number 11, City Administrator's Report.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of items. First, still living on the high of the Garlic Festival. Proud of the police department, the fire department for representing at the Garlic Festival and serving the community so well. Not often that the police department gets more photo ops than the fire department. That was certainly the case this weekend. Also, there were a number of of city employees that volunteered at the garlic festival on their own time for their own organizations. So we wanted to acknowledge that as well. And then this meeting today was a big change. We had state requirements SB707 that created a significant amount of work for staff to implement over the last at least four or five months as they worked tirelessly to make that happen. So thank you to Kim Mancera, our city clerk, and RIT department, and the rest of the city administrators office that put all the time in to make that happen. Very grateful for that work. The good work showed off tonight as the meeting was quite successful. Thank you.

Thank you very much. City Administrator. Excuse me, City Attorney.

No report.

Okay. Thank you very much. With that, moving on to item number 13, which is adjournment at 7.43 p.m. Thank you.