City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. you . . Thank you. Bye. . . . . . you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the Half Moon Bay City Council for September 1st, 2026. As a reminder, if you are joining this meeting via Zoom, you can still make a public comment. During any public comment portions, attendees may use the raise your hand feature and will be called upon and unmuted when it is your turn to speak. If joining by phone, use star nine to raise your hand, star six to mute and unmute. We also have Spanish interpretation services available in person and via Zoom. On Point Language Solutions is in the back left corner of the room if anyone needs assistance with interpretation services. And On Point will now provide information on how to receive those services. So it looks like it's Nicholas here tonight.

Hello. Yes. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Honorable City Council members, Mr. Chidester, Ms. Bassano, Ms. Rodriguez, and all city staff and members of the public. Miembros del público, se les proporcionará interpretación en vivo de toda esta reunión en español, obteniendo el aparato en la parte de atrás de este auditorio. Para acceder al servicio de interpretación en vivo por Zoom, ya sea por una computadora o una portátil, haga clic en el icono del globo terráqueo, es decir, en un mundo, y seleccione el idioma español. Si usted está usando un teléfono inteligente o una tableta, busque el menú de tres puntos y seleccione interpretación. Luego seleccione el idioma español y por último haga clic en done o listo. Y los que están usando en el teléfono y quieren hacer algún comentario, pueden pulsar el asterisco nueve para levantar su mano. y el asterisco seis para activar su micrófono. Thank you.

Gracias, Nicholas.

Could I have a roll call, please? Councilmember Roundstone?

Here.

Councilmember Johnson? Here. Councilmember Nagengast?

Here.

Mayor Ruddick? Here. We have a quorum. Thank you.

I'll rise for Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I will just mention that Vice Mayor Penrose is traveling and will not be joining us this evening. Thank you. Could I have, the next item is approval of the agenda. So I would entertain a motion to approve that agenda in a second.

So moved.

Second.

Everyone say aye, if you approve of this. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, so we're moving on to proclamations and presentations. And we have two this evening. The first is to honor Suicide Prevention Month. Tonight we recognize September as Suicide Prevention Month. In 2025, 65 people died by suicide in San Mateo County. There were 9,212 calls, 1,073 chats, and 1,735 text messages received by 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. We urge our local Half Moon Bay community to play a role in supporting each other and preventing suicide by knowing the signs of suicide, finding the words of support, and reaching out to local resources, including 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. We now welcome San Mateo County Suicide Prevention Committee member Verna Barrientos, who is also a member of our greater coast side, to say a few words. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Reddick, council members, city staff. Okay. I can't hear. Thank you. I didn't know if I was going to pick up on me or I need to do something.

I don't do this very often, as you can tell.

Okay. So let me start over. Good evening, Mayor Reddick, council members, city staff, and members of the Half Moon Bay community. Excuse me. My name is Verna Berrientos, and I use she, her pronouns. I am a licensed clinical social worker, and I am here on behalf of the San Mateo County Suicide Prevention Committee. The Suicide Prevention Committee is a countywide coalition that provides oversight and direction for suicide prevention across San Mateo County. These meetings are open to the public and meet on the first Tuesday of the month via Zoom. For more information, you can Google San Mateo County Suicide Prevention Committee. Thank you to the city of Half Moon Bay for recognizing September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Month. Your proclamation affirms that suicide can be prevented and that each of us has a role in supporting the wellbeing of our neighbors, friends, family members, colleagues, and community. This recognition is especially meaningful because suicide affects families, workplaces, schools, and our entire community. In 2025, 65 people died by suicide in San Mateo County. Research has shown that for every death by suicide, 135 people are affected to some degree. 135 people. That is a lot of grief in the world. Thankfully, there is support out there to hopefully decrease the number of suicides in our county and beyond. For example, also in 2025, our local 988 suicide and crisis lifeline received more than 12,000 calls, chats, and text messages from people seeking support. 988 is a life-saving resource. It is available 24-7, 365 days a year. And a heads up, 988 is not just for those in crisis. Folks can also call 988 to get emotional support as well. To learn more about this valuable resource, go to 988lifeline.org. This year, the Suicide Prevention Committee has chosen the theme, The Weight We Carry. It recognizes that many people, particularly men and boys, as well as BIPOC and LGBTQ plus communities, may carry visible and invisible burdens. emotional pain, stress, grief, isolation, mental health challenges, and pressure to meet expectations without asking for help. The theme calls on us to reduce stigma, strengthen connection and belonging, and make sure that no one feels they must carry these burdens alone. Learning signs of suicide, checking in with each other with an open mind and open heart, and connecting someone to support can make a huge difference. Suicide prevention is near and dear to my heart. In October 2023, my stepson, Joshua Marshallan, completed suicide. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. or what his life could have been like. And I just miss him every day. As a suicide loss survivor, I feel it is important to talk about suicide prevention so that hopefully others do not go through the pain and anguish that myself and my family have been through. I invite everyone in Half Moon Bay to find their role in suicide prevention. You do not need to be a mental health professional to make a difference. You can start with these three actions. First, reach out and share the weight. Check in with someone you care about, especially if they seem withdrawn, overwhelmed, grieving, or isolated. Listen with compassion and remind them that they don't have to carry everything alone. Second, know the signs and where to turn. If you or someone you know is struggling or thinking about suicide, call, text, or chat 988 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline. Third, build knowledge and connection. Please, everyone in this room, please tell others about 988. This can save a life. You can also take part in Suicide Prevention Month's free virtual and in-person events. Learn more at smchealth.org slash suicidepreventionmonth. One event to highlight in particular is a county hosted mental health forum for first responders, veterans and their support. The event will be on Thursday, September 10th, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and it's at Central Peninsula Church in Foster City. Please invite a first responder, veteran, or one of their supporters to attend. Thank you again to Half Moon Bay and the City Council for this proclamation and for standing with the San Mateo County community in preventing suicide, promoting connection, and reminding everyone that help is available. Together, we can help ensure that no one carries the weight alone. Thank you.

Next, we're going to recognize somebody very special, Samuel Ramos Palomino. On Tuesday, August 18th, after our last city council meeting, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to assist CHP with a large bull running loose on Highway 35. Late into the night, our local hero, Samuel Ramos Palomino, was called into action to help. His actions prevented harm to the animal and our community. I'd like to welcome our Sheriff Captain, Eamon Allen, to say a few more words.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members, city staff. Excuse me. Just a brief synopsis of this event. Just two weeks ago, August 18, 2026, the California Highway Patrol requested assistance from the Sheriff's Office deputies with a bull that had been running loose along Highway 35. The animal presented a significant danger to motorists, nearby residents, and responding personnel. After approximately two hours of unsuccessful attempts to safely corral the bull, deputies sought assistance from someone with the specialized experience and equipment necessary to bring the incident to a safe to conclusion. At approximately 12 a.m., deputies contacted half of a community member, Samuel Ramos Palomino, a four-minute seahorse ranch with 35 years of experience working with horses and large animals. Despite being asleep at home and scheduled to report to work at 4 a.m., Samuel immediately responded. He prepared his truck and livestock trailer and followed deputies to the bull, which had traveled approximately a mile from its original location, crossed multiple residential properties, and displayed aggressive behavior towards the responding deputies. Over the next several miles, Samwell worked alongside deputies and CHP officers through repeated attempts to lasso and control the animal. The difficulty and danger of the task were underscored when the bull repeatedly snapped Samwell's lasso. Nevertheless, Samwell remained composed and persistent, relying on decades of experience handling large animals to help guide responding personnel towards a safe resolution. Samwell, sheriff's deputies, and CHP officers ultimately succeeded in lassoing the bull and securing it to a tree. Samuel then took the lead in safely loading the animal into his livestock trailer. When it became apparent the owner did not have a sufficiently secure location to prevent the bull from escaping again, Samuel went even further. He left his own truck and trailer with the bull safely contained inside at the property until arrangements could be made to relocate the animal to a secure location. Deputies transported Samwell home at approximately 2.30, leaving him a little more than an hour before he was scheduled to report to work. And it's my understanding he went to work that day. Little sleepy, little bleary-eyed, but he went to work. Samwell's actions that night were consistent with a long-standing commitment to the safety of the coastside community. During his 35 years at Seahorse Ranch, Samwell has repeatedly intervened in dangerous situations involving loose dogs, chasing horses on local beaches, helping prevent injuries to riders, members of the public, and animals. Willie Chapman, a longtime community partner and the owner-operator of Seahorse Ranch, has described him as someone whose experience and judgment have repeatedly helped avert injuries and told us that in an emergency, there's simply no one better than Samuel. Samuel's actions that night went far beyond what could be reasonably expected of a community member. He answered a request for assistance in the middle of the night, providing his specialized expertise and personal equipment. willingly entered a dangerous and unpredictable situation and remained committed until the threat to the community was resolved. A loose bull this size traveling on Highway 35 presented the potential for a catastrophic traffic collision and posed a significant danger to residents and first responders alike. Samuel Ramos Palomino's courage, selflessness, expertise, and extraordinary commitment to his community were instrumental in bringing a dangerous incident to a safe conclusion. His actions exemplify the partnership between San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the communities we serve. For these actions, I'm extremely proud to announce that Samuel has been nominated for and will be recognized with one of the highest civilian honors the Sheriff's Office has, our Community Member Service Award, and he'll be presented that later this year. So, thank you.

we recognize Samuel Ramos-Palomino for his courageous help on August 18,

Sure. Sorry, Mayor, just briefly, do you mind if I have a moment to just recognize the deputies as well that were there that night? All right. So as you can see, the team that worked two weeks ago is on tonight, and some of these deputies were up there alongside Samuel roping and wrestling and doing what they were doing. I think it's just a testament to the character of these folks. One of the most dangerous things that any of us deals with is hubris. And sometimes, maybe not quite as dangerous as a 2,000-pound bull, but it can be dangerous for sure. And for these folks to know what they didn't know and to go knocking on a door and finding an expert, just a real testament to their service. And this isn't something that's been widely publicized, but... Uh, two weeks ago, they actually had, uh, authority from, uh, or authorization from the, um, the bull's owner to dispatch the animal, uh, if need be. And, um, you know, being good stewards of the community, for them to exhaust all other options and fortunately knock on Sam Well's door that night just shows the character and the decision making. So extremely proud of these folks and extremely proud that they were able to partner with Sam Well and Superman was able to come out of the phone booth that night and it just worked out great. So thank you very much.

Madam Mayor, at a future council meeting, I'm going to bring forward an item so we can purchase a big light that shines like a bull head in the sky when we need to call on Samuel in the future. Does that sound good?

We might need you again. Yeah. I have one speaker slip here, Joaquin Jimenez.

Thank you. Good evening. I've known Samuel for many years. Actually, our hometowns in Mexico, we are neighbors. I've known his family. They're all vaqueros in Mexico, and that's how I know about them. I worked with Samuel many years ago, and always willing to help. He's been part of the Vaquero Day celebration, 4th of July parade. And one thing, actually, you didn't mention, he was wearing sandals when he got the bull. So he could do it in sandals. That's a testament to who Samuel is. From the Vaquero days group, we have a gift for Samuel, a recognition for his skills of a vaquero. We got him a rope. We got him a lasso. This lasso is almost 40 yards long. You have to be really skilled to be able to use this. And he can actually pull anything over 3,000 pounds. So the bull will not be able to break this. And I know Samuel deserves to have the recognition of a new lasso because he ropes with us. When we do roping, he comes and he ropes with us. So felicidades, Samuel. Muy orgulloso de ti por tu labor. Y un reconocimiento bien merecido. Y felicidades. Thank you.

So is there anyone else in the audience who would like to comment on Samuel? Or anybody online who would like to congratulate him on this amazing miracle?

Greetings, everyone. Just to paint the fullest picture, when the deputies knocked on Samuel's door, he was fast asleep, of course. and thought he was being asked to provide a stock trailer for deputies in need. So he did not get out of his jammies or his house shoes.

We're not going to call them slippers.

They were house shoes. And off he went. So it's not enough to understand he roped a bull out of the bed of a sheriff's deputy truck. tied the bull to the truck, but he did it in his pajamas and his house shoes and thought it was funny. He told me at 5.15, 5.30 that morning what had gone on as the bile was rising in my mouth. He was laughing. He thought it was an excellent way to break the tedium of just another evening at home. So what I've come to know about Samuel, who I've worked with for 35 years, is that he helps when help is needed. He never thinks it's a big deal. And I really do mean that there's nothing, no one you want by your side in an emergency more than this man. So kudos to him and thank you for honoring him.

A very high recommendation. Thank you. Yeah. James Benjamin.

Thank you. On this item and on the previous speaker, we have spent many years, you and I and other members of the City Council and Planning Commission, hearing proclamations. The two proclamations that were addressed tonight, incredibly heartfelt and kind, represent the beating best heart of this community. And if every proclamation we gave could have that kind of inspiration, we would be an unstoppable city, would that we get there soon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jimmy. Anyone who would like to discuss this item or the previous one on Suicide Prevention Month, you can come forward now. Or if you're online, you can raise your hand and you'll be unmuted. Seeing none, I think we will move on. Thanks, everyone. Thank you, Samuel. All right. Item four is mayor's announcements of community activities and community service. Nothing to report tonight. Item five is report out from recent closed session meetings. I'll ask the city attorney whether she.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. This evening, the council met in closed session on four items. There is no reportable action from those items. Thank you. Thank you very much.

So item six is commission and committee updates. The first one is Parks and Recreation Commission report out.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, council and community. Karen Decker, interim deputy city manager. I can't believe I have to follow someone. Do my best. Since our last meeting, council appointed two new youth commissioners to Parks and Rec and both were in attendance at our last meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Meyer and Commissioner Del Negro. They were warmly welcomed by the existing commissioners and we're so excited to have their perspectives. We did talk about an update to a Carter Park donor policy, and you'll actually hear about that item. It's the last item on your agenda tonight. There was also an update provided by Public Works on bike speed limits on the Coastal Trail, and some great feedback was provided by the commission. And you'll also hear more about that item probably the second meeting in September. We also chatted about Movies in the Park, which is an exciting pilot that we're releasing. The first movie is going to be taking place on September 26th. It's gonna be Back to the Future, so bring your hoverboards and your Pepsi free. We're in close collaboration with Beach Break Entertainment. There's gonna be a second movie as well on October 3rd, and that will be Princess Bride. Movies will start around dusk. We're telling people 7.30 and starting to heavily promote these exciting events. It was also really great because the commission narrowed down the choices to five movies and we put out a brief community survey and we got wonderful participation. I want to say about 400 entries and that's how we ultimately landed on these two movies.

That concludes my updates. Thank you. Good show. Thank you. The next one is the planning commission report out.

Thank you, Mayor Reddick and council members. The last Planning Commission meeting was August 25th. And at that meeting, the Planning Commission approved a new 4,471 square foot house and attached accessory dwelling unit. This was at 2781 Pullman Avenue, and you've probably seen the story poles and the netting there as you drive by Cabrillo. They also made a general plan consistency determination for property acquisition west of Railroad. And of course, there's no address for that property. If anyone is interested, the APN number is 056-126-040. They also received a lengthy director's report from me, and I'm not gonna repeat all of it, but I do wanna repeat the part about the implementation plan update. The roadshows are starting. There's eight locations throughout the city, and the first one is this Thursday at Wave Avenue and Pilar Cedos. You're welcome to attend, of course. We had our first working group meeting last Friday. So that's two commissioners and two Coastal Commission staff members and our staff, of course. And then the Joint Planning Commission and City Council study session will be September 22nd. So looking forward to that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there anyone in the room who would like to address either of those reports, one on Parks and Recreation Commission and one on the Planning Commission meeting? If so, you can come to the dais now or to the podium. And if you'd like to discuss it online, you can raise your hand now and you'll be unmuted. Seeing none, we will move on to the City Manager updates to Council.

thank you madam mayor we have a couple of updates for you tonight I'll start and then I'll be turning the time over to our city clerk to finish the first one and then she'll do the second one as well the first thing we wanted to share is much like we've done in the past as we start to move towards the November election we have two measures within the city of course there's also a school district measure but two measures within the city that voters will be considering measure I which relates to the map under measure D for the downtown area and Measure Q, which is the referendum measure related to 555 Kelly. We've created web pages for each of these that can be accessed on our website, and the purpose is to provide a quick and easy place for people to find the facts about these measures, find more information, details, and we'll also be including public comments that have been received in relation to these items. I'm going to turn the time over to Maggie, who will talk more about each of those web pages and how people can access them.

Thank you, Matthew. So first we'll start with measure I. Up on the board, you will see a QR code that will take you directly to the webpage. You can also use the tiny URL listed on there, which is tinyurl.com slash HMB26I. And this will direct you, here's a screenshot from our page right now. In the future, the page will be a little more fancy. Is it too small to see? I'm sorry, yeah, we're really going after that tiny URL with the screenshot here. But you'll find just factual information about the project listed here. And then the same for Measure Q. Again, another URL that will take you directly to the page, which is tinyurl.com. And a screenshot as well here, lays out the background, some summaries, the actual ballot question is listed, and then at the very bottom of the page, you will find a section for public comments that have been submitted. So these webpages are live right now. We expect them to be a little more pretty in the days to come, but right now all the necessary information can be found there. And that's all we have for that item. I don't know if you want to take public comment on this one now, Mayor, or if you want to do both and then do public comment.

Well, we have a few speaker slips here, so why don't we just do that. Okay. So the first speaker would be Evelyn D'Souza on 7A.

I'm here tonight to speak about Measure Q. I do so because I care deeply about our community and about the trust residents place in our local government. And in an era where misinformation abounds, be it on social platforms and other, I think it's an imperative that we have factual reporting. So I am very grateful for the Measure Q pages. but I'm also very concerned about what has happened in connection with the 555 Kelly ballot measure. A current council member and a former mayor signed the yes on 555 Kelly ballot argument while acting as a private citizen. He has every right for his position to advocate for that and I fully respect that right. But when those materials contain statements that are misleading and factually incorrect, as tested against the city's own agreements, public records and adopted policies. It's very troubling for residents and residents are watching and asking questions. I want to be clear, this is not about political viewpoint or whether someone is for or against 555 Kelly. I do not want my comments today to be characterized as taking a position on the ballot measure. This is about something much more fundamental, truthfulness and integrity in our government processes. So my request today goes beyond Measure Q. While I believe Measure Q has an important role to play, and sorry, specifically the website, that Maggie has created and Matthew, which gives residents access to clear factual city produced information so that they can truly evaluate the issue and make informed decisions. But I'm asking the council and city staff to go one step further. Specifically, I asked that the council invite Ms. Bozzano to provide ethics, factual reporting training for our council members with a particular focus on the responsibilities that come with public office and the importance of maintaining public trust. That's particularly timely as we will now have at least one new council member. We can disagree, we can advocate, we can campaign, that is democracy. But the facts should not depend on which side of an issue we are on. In times like the present, we need to uphold the highest standards of ethics, accuracy, and factual reporting in the work that represents our local government. So please make truthfulness, accuracy, and integrity non-negotiable.

Thank you, Evelyn. The next speaker on the same item is Nancy Fontana, followed by Sandy Vela.

Council and staff and members of the public, I'm not as prepared as Evelyn here. I thought, didn't know that the website had already been created. I just found out about this at the meeting here. So I'm not sure that I'm on point on this, but I believe the project was approved mid 2024. In 2025, during meetings, indicated I thought that the public should be provided regular updates on the cost per minute, not regular, but periodic updates on the cost per unit, because a lot was happening in our country at that time. And I believe the 1.3 I hear most often right now is old. And I think it's very important that this website, if it's going to give facts, provide updated figures on that. Another thing that I would like to see is a simple statement identifying the maximum number of adult residents that could be housed in the Kelly project. I believe the ratio is a two bedroom can house five, a one bedroom can house three, And a studio too, I'm not even sure on those rules, but I think that might be right. And if so, providing a simple total, because it will give people a sense of the potential number of cars that could be there. Thank you.

Thank you, Nancy. Sandy Vela.

Good evening. First of all, I want to thank you guys so much. That's great. And thanks for painting the bridge, by the way. That thrills me every day. But for Measure Q, thank you very much for putting up the webpage. This is great. It's so important that voters have accurate, timely, factual information and non-biased information i mean that's key so um i just wanted to point out you know like some of my previous speakers that the information or some of the information in the measure q argument in favor statement was in fact inaccurate 555 Kelly, if built and when it's built, if or when it's built, will present a cost to taxpayers. That's without a doubt in several ways, including county taxes to fund the project. In addition, if the lease goes through as approved, the city of Half Moon Bay will forego the market value rent, which is at a significant cost to the city and its taxpayers. And we're talking about a city, our city, which is now operating in a deficit already. Will that deficit continue in perpetuity? I don't know. I mean, it's hard to tell what's gonna happen in 99 years. And there'll be a cost for increased services such as police, emergency, fire, et cetera, that the city would have to bear. Anyway, in summary, thank you again for putting up that information. I can't wait to look at it. And thanks for all your efforts around this.

Thank you, Sandy. Is there anyone else in the room that would like to discuss the measures I and Q city information webpage? Is there anybody online who would like to comment on these two items? Actually, starting with 7A, measures I and Q city information webpage. If you're online, you can raise your hand. SEEING NONE, I'M GOING TO BRING IT BACK TO THE COUNCIL FOR CLARIFYING QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THAT PARTICULAR REPORT ON 7A. COUNCIL MEMBER NAGENKAST.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. you know, city council members, community, and the public and staff, it's been a hard few weeks for me. I've really been trying to figure out, you know, WHAT'S RIGHT AND WHAT'S WRONG. AND PART OF THIS, AND I APPRECIATE THAT HAVING THE CITY PROVIDE FACTUAL INFORMATION OR NEUTRAL, OR NEUTRAL ON EITHER MEASURE I OR Q, WE SEEM TO FOCUS ON Q, you know, measure eyes equally important. And then I want to comment just generally about what kind of webpage we're going to provide, because I'm, this is first for me, what the city is providing. I've seen them in other cities I've worked in when there's referendums that have been petition driven by the community, as opposed to city actually providing PRODUCING THE ACTUAL BALLOT MEASURE THEMSELVES. IN THIS CASE, THE CITY DID NOT. THIS WAS DRIVEN BY COMMUNITY MEMBERS. AND I FIRST WANT TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS ON MEASURE I. WHEN I WENT TO MEASURE I TODAY AND MAYBE THINGS CHANGED TEN MINUTES, BUT IT DIRECTED YOU DIRECTLY TO MEASURE D. I would hope we try to keep some things on Measure I specifically, and I didn't have a chance to read what was posted 10 minutes ago on the computer, but to be able to know what is posted, that we could have it actually on the Measure I site. And also the city attorney did provide an analysis. Is that gonna be posted, an impartial analysis? I know that that goes with your, could you explain what that is and if we could, I'm interested if we could post it on the city's website too.

Yes, so the city attorney's office prepared an impartial analysis and submitted it to the clerk per the resolution that the council adopted. It specified the timeline for the impartial analysis submission. So that is on the county's website, and I'm sure we can put links to that analysis on the city's webpage as well.

Right, I just, you know, I'd appreciate it just to have it there so somebody wouldn't have to necessarily go or wait until the county publishes their ballot. And then I just have a number of questions I want to ask about in general about posting something on site. Are we going to have an FAQ question or just what exactly are we posting on the website?

Sure. So what we tried to do was anticipate you know some of the questions to be out there and and kind of just build something out that would give people restfully more information about it so there's a very very high level just summary at the top there's background and history of both items for measure I and measure Q there's details about the actual and some summaries about what a yes vote means what a no vote means what happens if we vote no on if the community votes no on either of these measures as well as specifically for measure q quite a lot of facts just about the 555 kelly project. itself and what's what's contained in the agreements and then links again as you pointed out the link to the measure D page for background on measure date measure D which is related to measure I and a link to the 555 Kelly project page for measure Q and that page has the whole history the project going from the RFQ that the city issued in 2022 all the way through the referendum being accepted so There's quite a bit of information there. I'm sure we'll add to it as we go I mean, I think the city clerk is adding links to the impartial analysis as we speak and Again, the point is to get as much factual impartial information in front of the community as possible

Right, so because when a city attorney provides an impartial analysis, to me that's impartial. So to me that was important to provide the city attorney's analysis. But you had also mentioned, and I don't know if that comes from the city attorney, summaries of yes or no vote, what that means.

what is that when you when you say we're going to provide what a yes vote means versus what a no vote means how are you providing that the detail did you want to take that the detail there is at the very base level so I guess on I means that the map for measure D will be amended to be the map that's contained in the LCL UP as the town center map a no vote means that Measure D will not be changed, and the map will remain as it currently is. I mean, it's that level of detail. It doesn't go into consequences and costs and all those things. It's really just, at the bare minimum, what happens with a yes or a no, so that people truly understand what their yes vote means versus what a no vote means.

so so let me go to measure Q what does what would I know what are you gonna say what a no vote me maybe I'll let you cover that because it is a little bit nuanced oh so and this is also covered in my impartial analysis but the impartial analysis is a very it has to be a very succinct statement of what the ordinance does and it can't extrapolate beyond what the actual ordinance does. It does identify yes or no, but I was also limited to number of words, so I also had to be very sparse with the language. The city's webpage on Measure Q also identifies yes and no, but I think gives a little bit more context. So a no vote would mean basically that the ordinance is not adopted cannot be effectuated so that the agreements would not go into effect and there is a time frame by which the city would be limited to reintroducing the ordinance to one year after if the ordinance is not adopted.

Does it get into whether the permits are still valid? No it does not. Do we know if that's true or not?

Well, the coastal development permit has a specific time frame, but this ordinance and the website doesn't identify it. I think it links to the 555 Kelly page where people can find the coastal development permit, and that information may be there.

And does it talk all about, let's say it is a no, does it talk about a different project or submitting something?

No, it does not, no. So we are limited to providing factual information that it has to be factual, unbiased information.

So, but let's just say, let me just throw out a question. Does Measure Q show any funding sources? You know, would we ask the question, does Measure Q have any funding sources that are taxpayer funds?

So in this instance, as we provide the details about 555 Kelly, there is a reference to the funding, the budget, the current estimated budget, and the funding sources for that budget.

So individuals would have to go through on their own to figure out whether those are private or taxpayer funding?

Well, it references state and county grants and loans.

Which are taxpayer funds, right?

Right.

Okay. It's public money.

Then does, what about talking specifically about the lawsuit? Is the lawsuit against the city of Half Moon Bay about 555 Kelly or is it about our housing element?

and I can't speculate on what the lawsuit is about beyond what's on the paper so the writ petition does not mention 555 Kelly and so the page for measure Q doesn't identify the lawsuit hmm

Okay, here's another one. My understanding, and I think I heard somebody tonight speak about it, that there were members of the community that provided comments to the city that examined the argument for or against, I think it was the for argument, that provided comments to the city. Did the city review those comments to determine whether those are factual or not? Or will the city actually produce or provide links or provide those comments from the community that questioned what those arguments?

I can't answer the first question. We did receive them, but for the second part of the question, each of the Measure I and Measure Q webpages at the bottom, we're having an issue getting it to sync properly, but I think by tomorrow you'll be able to go there, and there will be a link that will take you to a page that will include public comments that we've received related to these items, and the emails that you're referencing will be included there. Yes, so people will be able to see them.

So they'll see, you know, because it's my understanding there were some specific concerns on arguments for from members of the community that perhaps they were false and misleading statements.

perhaps I don't yes those emails the city to respond those emails will be there yes those were those emails were received by the city and those will be linked in the public comments page on each measure web page and if any public comments come in after tonight right they would be also identified and put in that so we'll keep it yes we will keep it refreshed as things go on yes okay so

it's not our intention to have an FAQ necessarily on this. We'll just have links to various items You know, because a lot of times we'll do an FAQ when we're trying to explain or typical questions that we hear in the community asking. You know, big one's always about taxpayer funds. I'm going to use taxpayer funds for a while now. But that question does come up. Are we going to address it anyway or are we just going to direct folks to various sites that they can determine on whether state and county funding is taxpayer funds or not?

So I think that there are some questions on the webpage that are answered, but for the most part, the intent is to just provide factual information.

So sometimes factual is a degree of what somebody thinks, interprets they think is factual or not, right? But what we're gonna produce as a city is actual documents that we have or that have been approved or that have been submitted by the public, and then it's up to other people to determine whether that's factual or not.

Well, I think that there are some links to documents, but there is also information on the page that can just be read and so as the city manager mentioned there's information about the 555 Kelly project generally and it has just details about the APN the the parking spaces that are required on-site and off-site there are details about the units the the size of the units that type of thing so those are listed out in form on the website but there are also links to other pages within the city's website to provide more information

And then the actual document that gets printed with the county ballots will have who the signatories who signed on behalf of the argument will have those there. right is that where that shows up or is that going to show up on our web page too no that's on the county's website that has the argument and it does identify the five individuals who are listed as because i heard i think i heard tonight that there's a current council member but there's also a past council member and a candidate council member that signed the pro-argument so i'm just wondering how To me, the city doesn't, it's not going to deal with that, right? That totally just sticks with the county because that's part of the argument that gets submitted as part of the county's.

That's part of the county's ballot materials, right? Our goal is to provide factual information about the measures and what is being proposed and background about what is being proposed.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to address item 7A? Yeah, I'm just checking. And anybody online who would like to address this item, you can raise your hand and be unmuted. Okay, seeing none, I'll bring it back. Did you wish to comment or question? Okay, then we're moving on. Item 7B is the online city council public comment form.

All right, so I don't know if you remember, but last meeting we had a public comment with the suggestion of adding a form on our website to make public comments easier for members of the community. So we heard that feedback and we thought it was a fabulous idea. So we implemented that since our last meeting. And now we have a form on our website where you can submit a public comment directly to your council members. Whatever you put in that form will automatically be forwarded to the five council members as well as myself and our assistant city clerk for the record. So we're encouraging the public to take advantage of this awesome new form. And the way you can do that is you can go to the city website by clicking government and then going to the communication city clerk tab and clicking commenting at a city council meeting. And there is a link there and it will have you directed to a form that looks like Sorry this it's a very basic form and it's very washed out on the screen, but There's a section for your first name last name if you want to provide your phone number or your email And then you can fill in the subject line and then whatever comments you want to send to the council but we did want to give the disclaimer that your public your comment is going to be public record and And anything that you send will be added to the agenda packet and viewable to the general public. So if it's not something that you want there, I wouldn't send it. But if it's something for an item on the council meeting agenda, we would love to have you try it out. And we're hoping to have some test subjects. So if everyone wants to try it out, please give it a go.

I'm just wondering, do you think it would be a good idea maybe to have a link to it from the agendas page as well? Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, I think that would be helpful. Make it easier, less clicks to get there. It seems to trigger a lot of comments, so if we could cross-link those.

Yeah, we could maybe even do that on the first page of the agenda so people see it right away.

Yeah, I think it's great. Thank you for doing that. Councilmember comments? Okay, I do have a speaker, Kurt Bianchi.

Greetings, mayor, council members, and staff. I was the person who had suggested the form in addition to some... JUST SOME SUGGESTIONS ABOUT WRITTEN COMMUNICATION TO THE COUNCIL, AND SOME OF THE SUGGESTIONS I MADE FOR WRITTEN COMMENT GOT INCORPORATED INTO THE DOCORUM DOCUMENT. I APPRECIATE THAT. AND I CAME HERE TONIGHT BECAUSE I WANTED TO THANK STAFF SPECIFICALLY FOR ACTUALLY IMPLEMENTING THIS FORM. SO I FEEL LIKE I MADE A LITTLE DIFFERENCE HERE IN HALF MOON BAY. I HAVEN'T LIVED HERE THAT LONG, BUT IT WAS SOMETHING THAT MY PREVIOUS CITY HAD. Just wanted to say thanks to staff, so I appreciate it. That's it.

Thank you, Kurt. Thanks for coming on down. That's the only speaker slip I have. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to comment? Nancy?

Sorry, I didn't fill out a form. I didn't know I'd want to say anything because I didn't know about this. It's a great idea. What I'm only concerned about, having been a staff member for a city before and knowing what the council faces and planning commission face, is there going to be a deadline so that they have to get their comments in by a certain time so that you don't get bombarded with stuff at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the night of a meeting? It... I anticipate there might be some problems with that aspect. I think it's a good idea, but.

Yeah, so we had a discussion about the timing of comments specific to agendas. Now people can use that form to comment outside of meeting agendas, but we did discuss a cutoff date. What's the status of implementing that policy? That's all. Okay, thank you Nancy.

Yeah, so we didn't receive any comments for this agenda, so there's nothing to implement right now, but we'll take public comments up until 2 p.m. to be incorporated into the agenda, and then anything after that will be added as late correspondence at the end of the agenda. So if we get a lot of comments afterwards, they would just be added to the late correspondence section.

That's great. And I just wanna say that I noted another change at the top of the agenda, a recommendation from Jan Hanson about dealing with the meeting disruption and also making clear that people may comment online and it's okay, it's the hybrid way. You don't have to feel bad about not being here in person. So I see those changes are made too. I just wanna acknowledge that and say thank you. I don't have any other speaker slips on 1B. Is there anybody online who would like to address this item of the comment form? Seeing none, council members? Okay. So, I think we can move on. Thank you. We're going to public forum now. So, Trying to find a name here. Jimmy Benjamin, first speaker.

Thank you. Jimmy Benjamin, 400 Pellicitos Avenue. Good evening, council, staff, members of the public. It's nice to see you all. I didn't want to comment on the public comment form per se, but with respect to the late deadline, I did want to offer one public comment. that I'd mentioned in passing. I don't know if it filtered its way out to the broader group, but those of us who try to develop thought-integrated responses sometimes need time after an agenda item is published. And if it gets published on a Friday for a meeting on Tuesday, that doesn't give us a lot of time to do our part of the civic duty that I think you look for us to do. So my suggestion was to respect the idea of a late correspondence section, but to protect those of us who need more time to provide you with information, to be sure that the agenda report is published far enough in advance that we have that week of time that we need. So I'm asking that the, not that you work harder and faster, but that there's an offset of time from the time the agenda item is presented that those of us in the public need to comment on until the time it's discussed. And if we don't get it done in a week, that's kind of on us. But, you know, if we see it on Friday, Monday may not be enough time. Enough said about that. The item I actually wanted to speak on was the rehabilitation project for Highway 1. I think many of you were here for that part, and we at the time had a conversation about the potential impacts on hydrology of expanding the footprint of our roads. And it was a pretty carefully analyzed, thoughtful conversation, lots of documents. The Planning Commission looked at it and thought about it. Their resolution identified just a couple of places where we thought the road should be widened. When the item was appealed to the City Council, the City Council upheld those restrictions. And when the item was appealed to the Coastal Commission, the Coastal Commission upheld those restrictions. It's right there in the Coastal Development Permit that was issued by the Coastal Commission. And so it was quite a surprise to find out that Highway 1 is being widened willy-nilly, all along Casa Del Mar, north of Frenchman's Creek Road. I wish I'd been paying more attention, but my perception is it and the highway, the frontage road and the paved trails are getting wider. This concerns me because that's area that we should be able to absorb water that's coming into our sensitive habitats. It also concerns me because the plant vegetation that used to be adjacent to that area has been stripped away. And here we are just a couple of months before the rainy season. I've raised this with the Coastal Commission. I will keep you posted. Thank you.

Thank you, Jimmy. The next speaker is Joaquin Jimenez.

Good evening, honorable mayor, council members, city staff, members of the public. My name is Joaquin Jimenez. Joaquin Murrieta on social media. Here to speak again about Vaquero Days. The last meeting, it had been only a couple days after the event, so I did not have the opportunity to speak with our community members about the event. And a lot of different things came up. Most of them, 99.9% of the comments have been positive. The images, pictures, videos are still flowing into the social media, Instagram, Facebook, Nextdoor, I mean everywhere. Halfon Bay has been well-recognized as far south as Bakersfield for the event, for the Paquero Days. One of the things that came up, you know, is a concern. A comment came up from a person, a person who was, you know, as a position in half Bombay, about our, you know, downtown vendors. You know, they were complaining about the event. I made a call. I made a call to the president of the Danton Association to ask if any of the vendors had any complaints about Vaquero Days. And no, there were no complaints. So I don't know what this other person came up with, you know, that there were complaints from the local vendors. Actually, it came out positive. We want to see this event, having over a thousand people gather downtown, or local businesses benefit from. restaurants, stores. We went to Cunha Country Store, you know, my brother did, and asked George, you know, the father, about how was the weekend for them. And they said, great. They were happy. They were happy. Vaquero Days happened right there, right next to them. It's an event that celebrates the heritage of the coast side, or equestrian heritage of the coast side, San Mateo County, California, the Southwest, the vaqueros. Samuel, who is a vaquero, was recognized today for his work. A vaquero is not about just riding horses. Anybody can ride a horse. It takes more skills to be a vaquero. you know, and it shows proof, you know, with Samuel, you know, without a horse, he was able to, you know, to rob a bull, you know, and save a life. So, you know, the Paquero Day celebration, we are, you know, very proud, you know, to continue to do our celebration of the heritage of the coast and the equestrian culture of San Mateo County. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The next speaker is Jay Kling.

Good evening. I just have a quick question in regards to the use of flock cameras in Half Moon Bay. I'm wondering whether there's an update which you can share. Thank you.

I believe it's coming up on an agenda, maybe the next meeting agenda.

September 15th, we're going to do a study session on the flock cameras.

Yes, because the pilot contract that we have for the system only goes until like, what, October 1?

End of October.

Or end of October, yeah. So we'll be discussing it at the September 15th meeting.

Okay, good, then I'll come back at that meeting. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.

Is there anyone online who would like to comment on public forum? Seeing none, we will close public forum and we will move on to the consent calendar. I'm going to, sorry, go ahead.

I'd like you to pull an item, 9H.

Reading for the adoption of the zoning changes pursuant to the housing element, okay. So I'm going to read. Anybody else want to pull anything before I read the items? Okay. So the consent calendar consists of item 9A, wave reading of resolutions and ordinances. Item 9B, approve minutes of the August 18th, 2026 special city council meeting. Item 9C, approve minutes of the August 18th, 2026 regular city council meeting. Item 9D, conflict of interest code update. Item 9E, approve the amended 2026 calendar of city council meetings. Item 9F, approve mayor's list of updated city council representatives and designated assignments for 2026. Item 9G, award professional services agreement to Robert Nihas, Inc. for sewer rate study. And that's it. So I'm going to take a roll call if someone would like to make a motion.

I move what you said.

Minus 9H.

Yes, okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

Can I have a roll call, please? And Madam Mayor, we should take public comment on the items before we... Okay, that's a good idea. I almost forgot. I did forget.

Is there anybody in the room who would like to address any of the consent agenda items? You may come to the podium and comment at this time. Or if you're online and wish to address them, you can raise your hand and you will be unmuted to speak. Seeing none, I think we can move on to the roll call vote.

Madam Mayor, we don't have to take a roll call on items 9A through 9G because it doesn't include the ordinance. Or you can do that if you want. You can still take a roll call if you'd like.

I think we'll take a roll call on the other items.

Yeah.

Councilmember Brownstone?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Councilmember Nagengast?

Yes.

Mayor Reddick? Yes. Motion carries.

So we will move on and have a report on item 9H, adopt an ordinance amending the municipal code and local coastal program to implement the six cycle housing element.

Madam Mayor, we don't have a report prepared, and I wonder if maybe Councilmember Nagengas would share some of the reasoning, and then we can respond to that if necessary. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Perfect.

And I have just two questions and then a statement prepared. As you know, the first reading, I voted no on this. And so something did come up by this quick couple of questions and then I have a statement prepared I'm going to want to read. But section six says the ordinance becomes effective after 30 days and upon acknowledgement by the California Coastal Commission. What does the word acknowledgement mean in this case? I don't think I typically I see certified certification. I'm sure what acknowledgement means in this case.

yeah I think in this case it is just it means effectively certification it can't take effect until it is certified by the Coastal Commission

So shouldn't it say acknowledge the certification by them? I mean, to me it was just an odd thing to have hang in there just acknowledgement.

I think that's the intent is that it's acknowledgement is certification.

Can we say that?

Can we revise that term?

Can we add that in there, just acknowledgement of the certification?

Yes, I think that'd be a non-substantive change at this point if you want to substitute the word in and a majority of the council agrees.

just clear that up okay I mean I'd like to clear that again remember I'm I always have things about definitions and words they mean something right and you come back if we don't deal with right just to be clear though it doesn't matter what's in the ordinance about whether it's certification or acknowledgement the public resources code provides that

It has to be certified before it becomes effective in the coastal zone, which is all of Half Moon Bay. So we can change this word if a majority of the council desires that change, but it wouldn't negate the effect.

It's up to the council. Again, I'm voting no on this, but thank you.

The recommendation doesn't have that language, right?

I don' t think so. It just has acknowledgment in there whether we change it. That was my question why does it have acknowledgment not certification?

I' m not sure it' s control language for one.

it' s actually a really good idea. Let' s substitute certification if it' s okay with you guys.

Okay, and then the next question, the ordinance says no appeal of an approval of a by-right project is allowed. Does that mean no local appeal only, or does that also mean this ordinance does not, it does or it doesn't eliminate any appeal rights that may still exist to the Coastal Commission? So if it's a buy right, is there still any appeal to the Coastal Commission? I think I read if it's in a coastal zone, it's a department head coastal development permit. But does that mean no appeals to the Coastal Commission or?

Well, Denise may have to correct me if I'm wrong here, but my understanding of by right is that it does not apply in the appeals jurisdiction within the coastal zone, only in other areas, which in the town of Half Moon Bay is still in the coastal zone, but not the appeals jurisdiction, so it would not be appealable.

But is it still appealable if it's in the appealable areas of the coastal zone?

No.

No. So it's not appealable at all. You agree with that?

Is that correct? I believe so, but I haven't actually researched that particular issue. I believe Director Laco is correct, though.

Okay, well, there may be a test case. Something may come up. I mean, that's how I'm going to find out. Again, I'm voting no. But I think that it's a good question. All right, that's it on my questions. I have a statement prepared I'm going to say. Again, I'll be voting no on this ordinance. This is not because I oppose housing or completing our housing element. I simply believe we are moving forward while some basic questions are still unanswered. First, the ordinance says it becomes effective upon Coastal Commission acknowledgement, but the legal requirement appears to be certification.

I hear we're going to address that. We're going to have certification in there.

The ordinance also says certain by-rights projects will have no local appeal and no public hearing. again how does that work when the coastal requires may still apply I didn't hear an answer on that right so we're not for sure certain whether we can appeal to the Coastal Commission in the appealable zone.

I think director Laco said that if it's in the Coastal Commission appeals jurisdiction then it still is appealable to the Coastal Commission okay But if it's not in their appeals, in their specific appeals jurisdiction, then there may not be a right to appeal.

Right, that's how we are now.

Is that correct, Director Laco? Did I summarize it correctly?

Yeah, and I would add that it's my understanding that by right does not apply in the appeals jurisdiction.

Okay, if that's true. All right, I'm bringing these up if that's- Could I ask a follow up question to that point?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Irrespective of buy right, there are circumstances that development can be appealed to the Coastal Commission in the no appeal zone if there's environmentally sensitive habitat or it's a major public works project. I think I'm correct about that. That is correct. We went through that and we were doing the training, the fire training tower. And that was appealed because it was a parcel of land that was close to wetlands. And it was also, I think, a major... So now if there's a buy right, if a project area is zoned for buy right and these other things are discovered, does that become appealable then in the no appeal zone? Like do those conditions still apply?

It's a really good question. Under SB 35, which allows buy right, that would take that property out of the buy right possibility, the possibility of using buy right. By right, generally, I think it would be the same, but I'm not sure. And I'm not, I don't know if Denise knows the answer to that.

Well, I'm guessing when we establish by right parcels, we've looked at the issue, are there natural resources and what kind of a project would there be? So it might be answered up front, but yeah.

Right, and there is a recent bill, City Manager Chidester just pointed to me a bill that was signed into law in 2025, which does limit the Coastal Commission's authority to hear appeals on certain residential housing projects in the coastal zone, while also excluding projects in sensitive coastal areas from its broader CEQA in full exemption. So this is Assembly Bill 130. So, I think there are exceptions that would prevent an appeal to the Coastal Commission even in the Coastal Commission appeal jurisdiction based on that review of the law.

Okay. Did you get the answer? Okay.

Yeah. And I know we talked earlier tonight. Unique Half Moon Bay, we're totally in the coastal zone and it brings different challenges for us to navigate through than a lot of other cities don't have to. That's something we need to acknowledge and always reckon with. But let me finish my statement before we finish this item. So tonight, my question is why are we rezoning particular properties if we already are discussing removing or replacing them later? There was a discussion on several properties coming back later and taking those out. And I would ask, were other reasonable sites fully considered? Does HCD actually, Housing and Community Development, the state of California, which HCD, actually require these specific properties? Or does the city have flexibility to use other appropriate sites? The ordinance says HCD requires the necessary zonings, but does it not say HCD selected every parcel before us tonight? And if we remove these sites after certification, what process do we have to go through again? We go through this whole combo, very long process again. For me, it comes down to this. If we already know there are questions about the sites and questions about how this ordinance will work, why approve it tonight and try to fix it later? I think we should have got the answers first before moving forward. And again, for that reason, I will be voting no tonight. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from council members? I have no speaker slips. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to address this item of nine H, which is the adoption of the zoning changes pursuant to the housing element certification? Is there anyone online who would like to discuss this item? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion for item 9H.

I move that we waive the second reading and adopt an ordinance amending Title 18 zoning of the municipal code and local coastal program implementation plan to implement zoning changes identified in the local coastal program land use plan and the sixth cycle housing element.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Just to clarify to the maker of the motion Do you want to propose any amendments to section 6 or do you want to leave it as is?

You're talking about the word certification as it goes Yes, I think we want to do that. Do you accept that amendment to your motion?

Yes, so changing revising the word acknowledge in section 6 to certified.

Yes Second that amended motion.

I'd like to second the amended motion.

Okay.

Could I have a roll call, please? Council Member Brownstone?

Yes.

Council Member Johnson? Yes. Council Member Nagygaast?

No.

Mayor Reddick? Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. So I'm going to call for a five-minute break, potentially as much as a 10-minute break. Give everybody a chance to use the facilities and meet and greet and all that good stuff. And when we come back, we're going to talk about the Measure D transfers.

you

okay which is to approve 2026 measure d transfers all right good evening mayor ruddock and council members i'm ruby assistant planner and i'll be presenting on the measure d transfers for 2026 but first we want to give you a quick update on the municipal code amendments for measure d Staff has been working with Miller Planning Associates over the last four months on the larger implementation plan update. And part of this update is to address some administrative and implementation issues with Measure D as required by our Housing Element Program 6-8 and as requested by Council in the past. These code amendments are being drafted right now and the amendments we're considering are fractional, allocations for ADUs, some potential mechanisms for rolling over unused or expired allocations and improving administrative procedures for transparency and making the process overall less burdensome for both staff and applicants. We intend on finishing these Measure D amendments ahead of the larger implementation plan update, which must be completed by the end of December, 2027, but they will not be completed for the January Measure D application period. So getting into the transfers, Measure D is the city's growth management system. Its purpose is to provide for orderly, sustainable, and responsible development. It is incorporated into the city's local coastal land use plan under Policy 2-16, and it aims to concentrate development in existing developed areas, protect coastal and environmental resources, and accommodate infrastructural constraints. Measure D was adopted in 1999 by voters and certified in 2009 by the Coastal Commission. And it accommodates for up to 1.5% of population growth annually split between the downtown and the outside downtown areas. Within the downtown area, 0.5% is initially provided and council each year can approve an additional bonus 0.5%, which it has historically and for 2026 as well. There are very few exemptions under Measure D, which are the replacement of units on a one-to-one basis and density bonus units. So the transfer process has only been done a few times in 2019, 2021, and 2025. It's at the discretion of city council if transfers will be approved each year, how many, and also what criteria will be considered. In 2019, council adopted some criteria to consider for these transfers, given that the code provides very minimal guidance on the process. It does provide that if the downtown base allocations though have not all been applied for by September 1st today, unused allocations may be transferred. At the March 10th, 2026 planning commission meeting, commissioners ratified the outside downtown application scoring and recommended that the city council approve any available transfers. So this flow chart shows how the allocations were distributed for 2026. The 1.5% growth limit translated to 70 total allocations for this year, split between downtown and outside of downtown. All 23 available outside downtown allocations were distributed in March, leaving 20 allocation requests to be deferred. For downtown, we received only four allocation requests, and so there are 20 base allocations left over available for transfer. And staff provided an online form to all of these deferred applicants, asking them to complete it and reaffirm their interest in a Measure D allocation, and only 19 out of the 20 deferred applications requested transfers. So in 2019, again, when City Council adopted the resolution for procedures for transfers, there were five criteria that were provided. Among these, staff determined that the projects being recommended tonight meet all criteria. There are no known pending applications for downtown base allocations. All recommended projects include some form of more affordable housing and all recommended single family residences include an affordable component such as an ADU with one special case, which I'll go into later on. Lastly, staff has provided a recommendation for this evening, but council may provide any other applicable criteria to be considered for these transfers. There's one additional criterion that was written into the resolution that an applicant for a transfer should be able to demonstrate that the development permit applications be already prepared for submittal before a measure D allocation is awarded. But this was not required of applicants because plan preparation can be quite costly for applicants and would not be reasonable for staff to take in these 19 applications that potentially would not have received a Measure D transfer allocation or their project might change significantly. And this is the kind of barrier that we would want to address in our Measure D code amendments. So to summarize the requested transfers, again, we received 19 requests out of the 20 that were previously deferred. The table on the right breaks down the allocation requests by type of housing. So nine allocation requests are for single family residences with ADUs, nine for ADUs only, and one for single family residents only. Diving a little bit deeper, this table shows the 15 projects which requested the 19 allocations and their corresponding application scores. We've highlighted that one single family residence allocation request for 32 Jenna Lane, which would not typically be considered for transfer without an ADU component, according to the 2019 criteria. But this is kind of a unique case as there is already a built ADU on the property. This existing ADU was part of a combined single family residence and ADU application that was approved in 2001, but only the ADU was ever built. And over the years, the development rights to the single family home were extinguished. And the intention now is to build that single-family home and convert the existing structure on the property to an ADU Staff is recommending that the City Council approves the transfer of 19 of these remaining downtown base allocations based on the criteria explained earlier and the scoring approved by the Planning Commission in March If the council does not accept the recommendation, council could direct staff to return with other criteria to consider for transfers. But if council accepts the recommendation, the next steps would be for staff to return in December to establish the number of allocations for 2027 for the application period, which would start in January. And thank you very much.

Thank you, I'd just like to say I thought the staff report was very well done. And I thought it was a nice presentation too. I felt like I really had a grasp on the issues after reading that staff report. So thank you to staff, very well done. I'll open this with a clarifying questions from council members. Council Member McIncast.

I don't have a clarifying question but, I was a guy that was skeptical when we did the allocations, the 17 in multiple years. I wanted to split them up even more, but I see it this year. It's worked out where pretty much everybody that wanted a Measure D is going to get one, right, that's requesting one.

If the transfers are approved, yeah.

So, yes. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to comment on that too, because I had the impression when we were first talking about this, it was last year this time, and that some people weren't going to get their Measure Ds, and now I'm hearing that everyone's kind of gotten it, so I'm pretty pleased with this, because I thought we were having some issues with that. And it was easy to read. This is not an easy topic to follow along with, but you guys are doing a great job on it. Thank you.

Thank you.

So I think I'll just open this up to public comment. We have a couple of slips here. I'll start with Sophia Whiting.

Good evening and thank you. I'm encouraged that it sounds like the council is inclined to approve these transfers and I would recommend that as well. It would allow for additional housing in Half Moon Bay, which we all know is of paramount concern to the council and the city. This year so far, before the approval of these transfers, not a single family residence has been approved to be built in all of Half Moon Bay, which is pretty astounding. But allowing these transfers would let that happen. projects that consider all of these things that the planning department has invested in this point system. So it would allow for people to build on their land, but in a way that's responsible and encourages affordable housing. For my family, for the project at 22 Kelly, that would mean that my family can stay living on the coast on a property that's been in my family for decades. And we otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to buy in Half Moon Bay. And in addition to that, where we're currently renting would free up additional housing and our new project includes an affordable ADU. So I think this is a great recommendation and I hope the council follows it. Thank you.

Amy Miller.

Do you want to hold this or put it in here? I don't know. We'll see. Put it in there. We'll see how it works.

Hi, good evening. My name is Amy Miller. I'm a property owner at 59 Guerrero. We have applied for a Measure D allocation, and I just wanted to kind of give you guys an idea of what our plan is. My parents live in Santa Cruz. My dad is 80. My mom is 73. Ellen and Willow, they've been co-siders their entire life, and Our plan is to build an ADU where they're able to come and live with us, but still have their independence, living on our property, but being a part of our family on a regular basis. So that as they do age, they're in great health right now, thank goodness, but as they do age and they need help, were able to provide that. They were able to be a part of our children's lives, and I just am really hoping and praying that you guys approve the reallocation so that we can bring my parents' clothes so they're not making that drive up and down Highway 1, which is a little scary. Thank you, guys. Appreciate the consideration.

Thank you very much. I don't see any hands raised online. Is there anyone online who would like to discuss the Measure D transfers? You can raise your hand and be unmuted. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the council for additional comment or motion.

Yeah, I think this is great. I'm a big supporter of ADUs. There's been some years where we actually haven't used allocations up and I think having this transfer policy is great. So yeah, I'm ready. I'll be voting yes.

I'm ready to make a motion if we're ready. I make a motion to adopt a resolution approving the transfer of 19 of the remaining downtown-based Measure D allocations to be used for new dwelling units proposed in the outside downtown area, prioritize according to the scoring within the Measure D application checklist, and as shown within the Exhibit A that's attached to Resolution Attachment 1. Second.

Could I have a roll call?

Council Member Brownstone?

Yes.

Council Member Johnson?

Yes.

Council Member Nagengast?

Yes.

Mayor Ruddick? Yes. Motion carries.

Moving on to item 11A, consideration of extending health benefits eligibility to elected officials.

good evening madam mayor council members members of the public so i'm here presenting this item this is council health benefits of eligibility for elected officials a quick background on this so currently the city provides medical insurance and other health benefits to our employees as requirement by state law and and in the business of being a good employer Currently the benefits is that the city contributes up, the city offers health plans through CalPERS. CalPERS is another state agency that handles pension and retirement for public employees, but also offers health plans. They provide HMOs, PPOs, and because most agencies go with them, they come at affordable rates. The city contributes up to the Kaiser rate. Employees have their choice of a handful of plans, but the city contributes up to the Kaiser rate since Kaiser is a benchmark as an HMO provider, but also decent health coverage. The health benefits are not currently extended to council members. So about 10 months or so back in November or December, council was interested in exploring what that can look like, if we can extend health benefits to council members. We had our first presentation in February that had some information. Because the city was going through labor negotiations, council and the city decided to hold off until they concluded to return back to this conversation. Now that negotiations has ended, this item is back for council discussion, and we're hoping to get some direction if council wants to continue and proceed with this and what kind of framework council is interested in. So as I mentioned, we offer CalPERS Health, which offers a lot of different plans between HMO and PPO plans. You can see a handful of them on the screen there. Kaiser, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, United, and then for our PPO plans, PERS Gold and Platinum. So there's quite a bit of options available, and you can see the various rates between single, two-party, or family. So extending health coverage to council members or elected officials. One way to do it is just to extend the CalPERS offerings to council members. This is the most common way to go. Staff took a look at other agencies of what they do if they do offer medical insurance to elected officials. And by far the most common practice is to extend the CalPERS offerings. offerings. There is a bit of a wrinkle though as far as eligibility. So CalPERS is Famously restrictive and famously particular. The only elected officials that would be eligible are what they call non-PERS members. So if an elected official is currently employed with another CalPERS employer or retired from another CalPERS employer, they wouldn't be able to enroll. The basis for that is that CalPERS employees that person is already potentially giving health benefits or has the opportunity to get health benefits through their employer or their previous employer. And in CalPERS' eyes, they stick to, they're tied to that employer. For elected officials who aren't in CalPERS, either previously or currently, they would be eligible, and then their eligibility will end at the end of the elected term. overall for if council were to go this route calipers has an implementation it would take about 90 days from a signed resolution so if the scenario or council wants to go this route staff will come back with a resolution next meeting and an estimated implementation time would be of january of next year january 2027. So as far as cost, there's a different amount of strategies between agencies. Some agencies just do the minimum. Some agencies just extend whatever they offer to the employees to their elected officials. The big limitation and the big thing to consider and hold to is that, by law, The city cannot offer better benefits to elected officials than employees. So the practice that we've seen with other agencies is to extend the exact same benefit structure. So if an agency provides 90% of the cost to their employees, 90% to elected officials to treat everyone the same. Given that, there are a few options for council to weigh in and discuss about how to do the cost structure. I have three options for you. Option one is just to pay the legal minimum. This is called a PIMCA minimum, and it is $162 a month per enrollee for 2026. It goes up a little bit with CIP every year, but it's a very nominal increase. As you can imagine, this is the cheapest option for the city, but the most expensive option to an elected official who decides to enroll. This will cost the city about $10,000. Another thing about this is that, more likely than not, in order for the enrollee to pay for their portion, we will have to, the city will have to deduct from during the course of payroll, and then also on top of that, individually bill the elected official. So there's also administrative costs to this. Option two is that the city can have the elected official contribute up to the stipend amount, the $1,055 a month, and then the city pick up the remainder. This is a more uncommon structure, but it's possible. And this is really to get away from having to individually bill an elected official. But it's pretty uncommon to see, and it may be unorthodox. And then option three is just to extend the exact same benefit that employees receive, which is the city contributes up to the Kaiser rate and then really covers the remainder. This will be the soft recommendation to council as it keeps equitable between employees and council, but it is the most costly. So it would be about almost 200K additional a year. And also to note that this is probably the most common way to go with other agencies. So this is just an example of the breakdown using the Kaiser example. So that table on the first top half is what the cost would be for the unruly, and the bottom half is what the cost would be for the city. So in option one, the unruly for a family would pay about $2,800 a month, while the city only picks up about $160. option two the really Picks up up to their stipend and then picks up the remainder and in the city would pick up the remainder And in an option three there really wouldn't pay anything, but the city would pay up Essentially all of it if they take Kaiser and if they in the thoroughly chose a different plan that was more than Kaiser than they were paid they would pick up the difference and you can see on the right hand side the annual city cost between the options ranging from 10k a year and then option three is up is 182k a year it is important to note that these are estimates because not all council members would have might enroll maybe some maybe not so these really are estimates um but i will say that the higher end the cap would be around 180 for option three

Quick question. The annual city costs, looking at option three, is that for like all five council members?

All five council members, families, so it's really the... Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. One other thing to think about is dental and vision. The city also has the opportunity to provide dental and vision insurance. Currently, the city pays 100% of dental and vision. For this one, less restrictive. All council members would be eligible. And the recommendation there, if council were to include this, was just to use our existing provider. And as of yesterday, we were able to confirm that the rates for employees would be the same rates for elected officials. These are the general rates, depending on the enrollment level. So family, which is here listed as employee, and two or more dependents. Dental is about $220 a month, while vision is about $30 a month. And as I mentioned, city will pick up all the costs. And if this was extended to council, this is about 15K a year. So the policy questions that I have for council tonight is, should the city extend medical benefits to elected officials? And if so, how much should it contribute? And also policy question two, should the city extend dental and vision benefits to elected officials? And the recommendation is to receive information of a right direction regarding whether and under what framework health benefits eligibility should be extended to elected officials. With that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Questions for staff? Council Member Johnson? Yeah. Anybody else? I have no speaker slips.

Is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment on this item?

Is there anybody online who would like to comment on the item of consideration of extending health benefit eligibility to elected officials? Seeing none, I'll bring it back to council. Personally, I'm already a PERS member through the state, so I wouldn't be taking advantage of it myself.

And I'm a CalPERS too, but I also noticed, just speaking for myself, nobody else on the council, but the Medicare costs are different, a lot less. So I know you showed some scenarios there, but I have the CalPERS numbers here, and that can be, you're just a subscriber, less than $500 with the Kaiser, so... that changes costs dramatically depending on what each of us that are unique you know but i as a personally i'd like to also include the dental and vision if we're going to include that but i just i i kind of want to keep it as a you know, our stipend, what is it, nine something plus 100, so it's 1,000, is that 1,055, I see. So whatever we would, what we choose, we could choose up to 1,000, it may cost more, is what you're saying, and the city would cover the difference of, say, a family plan for somebody?

Yes, so that's option two where the enrollee would contribute up to $10.55, which is the stipend, and then the city would pick up the remainder.

And then how would, because vision and dental separate from... the CalPERS Health. So that's a separate, I saw you had MetLife. Is that VSP for vision or does MetLife do vision and dental? I thought MetLife maybe was only dental.

They do dental and vision.

Oh, so. Because typically you see VSP doing all the vision on it, but. Yeah.

Okay.

I WOULD BE INTERESTED JUST BECAUSE I'M FULLY COVERED MYSELF WITH CALPERS, BUT IF WE COULD ALSO INCLUDE VISION AND DENTAL IN THIS, I WOULD BE INTERESTED IF THE COUNCIL IS WANTING TO GO THAT WAY. LIKE THE MAYOR, I'M COVERED CURRENTLY WITH MEDICAL, AND I THROUGH ANOTHER CITY.

So the dental and vision, someone could, that could be used regardless if you're getting medical separately. Is that correct? They could, you can have one or either of those. No matter what other coverage you have, you can also, okay. So are we making this decision as if it was applying to us or other people who might not have any health insurance who are on council or very little? because I'm not trying to see this through my own eyes. Do you know what I mean in terms of having coverage? I'm thinking about future council members, et cetera, who also due to different circumstances in their life may have had coverage, then lose it, et cetera. And you know how expensive COBRA can get. You know, someone's had it, and then... So that's what I'm trying to... ask all of us how we, you know, thinking about this, right, in terms of, and then what would we, and I'd like, I think a lot of other cities do provide these, I think you said option three was typical of many of the other cities. So, yeah, that's what I'm just kind of wondering to hear from everyone using that lens.

Council member Johnson, you were interested in this item.

Yeah, the, I was, I, I told, I was having discussion with Ray Mueller in the beginning when, when he, he asked, are you running for council? And I said, yes. And I gave him any kind of want to do this background and ask me, what do you do? And all this stuff. And I gave him my game plan of what I'm doing. And I've also talking about, you know, at some point I need to retire and sell the shop, which is not easy for me because we've been doing it for 60 years and it's not easy business to run because I can't find anybody to help support me. So with that said, medical was always a big issue for me. And he said, Council members are supposed to be able to buy medical. That's why I brought this forward. And I didn't know that. So I mean, we didn't know it. I don't think anybody knew it here. But then as we're digging deeper, we're finding out, yes, they do. And even our sister city in Pacifica is doing it. And even Belmont's doing it. So I didn't know all this. So I'm learning with you guys. I feel a little kind of funny because I won't have medical probably by January. It's ironic because I'm taking notes here, January, 2027. So that's going to be an issue for me, but that's not about me. I'm looking at the fact that this is a load on our city, but the fact remains is there's other cities that do this. And I thought that was interesting that we are doing something that other cities are doing to provide medical for not one, but all council members if needed. Now, if we look at this in a lens that we're saying, Does everybody need it? Probably not. But there might be somebody that will. So we have a plan in place for somebody that would need to take care of their family that's on council, that's putting in their time and spending weekends and evenings and stuff. And also it's brought up in this report. This is something that you've also brought up, like, There's certain reasons of why we should do it. And it's in your opening statement. I can't, oh, here it is. offering health benefits may widen the pool of people who realistically serve particularly self-employed people or those without other coverages. That will be me in January. So it's not something I can control, but it'd be a good thing if I could have that option. And basically this is what we're doing. We're taking care of our people that are actually working for our city and we're taking care of people in our city. So I'm looking at taking care of all people and that's a vehicle that we can do it.

It's hard work being an elected official. I actually would have no problem supporting a policy of option three plus vision and dental as a menu option for people who need it. I think it makes sense. I know a lot of cities do it. So I would support that.

Yeah, I agree with option three. And of course, remembering, well, no matter what, having the ability to get dental and vision. I've learned as I've had different plans, not all dental plans are created equal at all. And MetLife, I think, was actually one of the good ones. But one of the major providers a lot of dentists don't even want to use anymore because they weren't getting... They won't necessarily get the right reimbursements, but that's why sometimes you have to shop around. But anyway, I like the idea of offering option three.

Yeah. You know, I want what we think is fair, and I like the idea of if it can make the pool of potential electeds bigger. You know, it's so hard, you know, to become, to commit to being elected, and I'd hate for something that the city could provide would hold somebody back from trying to do that. So if that's something that would provide somebody else, again, I'm already covered through CalPERS, and I wouldn't necessarily be using this particular plan, but I think if we could have it available, and it's fair for all of us, and whoever all of us are even in the future, and it keeps with what the city's policies are.

So I'm hearing support for option three plus vision and dental to have a policy in place for those who would like to take advantage of it.

Yeah. So tonight was just seeking some feedback and direction. I think it's pretty clear and we'll be preparing a consent item for the September 15th agenda to move this forward. and I think it's an exciting development for our community and I think it will create more opportunities for other people to run for office in the future that, you know, I mean, I don't think, it's ever less work than you expect it to be. I think you'd all agree, especially in a community like this. This is a highly engaged community. We're a small town, but my experience working with each of you and working with councils over the last nine years, you're putting a lot of hours in. And I think this is an opportunity to recognize that. So this is exciting.

Thank you for doing the staff work on this. Appreciate it. Okay, so we're moving on to item 11B, which is the sanitary sewer system summary and approval of professional services.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council. I am Dale Lita, your interim public works director and city engineer. Tonight, I'm presenting this item, which is to give a summary of some of the past work we've done on our sewer system with a little conditions overview, as well as present a professional service agreement for you to consider for engineering support services associated with our sewer system. First, you know, why is this coming to Council now? You know, we've had a lot of changeover in staff over the years, and over that time, as you might be aware, we've spent a lot of money on different types of sewer investigation work. We've spent a lot of energy understanding our sewer system. Some of these documents have been organized and consolidated, but some are kind of floating out in the ether, and it's a great opportunity for us to kind of get more organized and put these things together. In the last couple years, we've made better use of our city's GIS system, so that's a great tool for us to organize a lot of this data, and it's just, it's a good opportunity to kind of put these things together. also we're as one of the other items tonight on consent was we're getting started on our sewer rate study which we're expecting to present to council in april of of next year roughly why this is important is because as part of this work that we're doing consolidating our understanding of our sewer system and developing a list of projects for repairs or other investigation that we might need over the next five years we can we can quantify those costs and incorporate those into the rate study so it'll set us up for the next five years and additional improvements that we want to do to our system. So I'm going to dive into kind of some of these different areas we've looked in the past and just give a brief overview. Happy to answer questions. So the first is our CCTV that we've completed. So our closed circuit television. This is literally pushing a camera down sewer mains to explore and see what the condition of those pipes are. I'm happy to report over the last 12 years we've camera'd something like 80% of all of our sewer mains which was a surprise to me. I did not know we had completed that much. You can see some of the color coding you see here, the orange pipes are pipes that were camera back in the early 2010, so between 2011 and 2013. Those are getting close to kind of their shelf life where we're going to want to start going in and cameraing those pipes again to see if the condition has changed, if we have not. done repair work. So you could see, you know, quite a bit of work done. Probably, well, there's still quite a bit of work to do over the next five years. In areas that you see in black, we have not camera those pipes ever as far as our records indicate. So, but it's encouraging to see the extent that we do have records for. along with that carrying there's a national standard that we use to assess the condition of our sewer pipes and we give it a structural structural defect rating one through five and so when you think about like a level one defect that's like a minor blemish inside a pipe the ones we really care about are fours and fives these are like like noticeable large cracks in the pipes or broken pipe that's been deflected and you can actually see dirt or soil kind of running through that pipe and so this assessment is based on those CCTV camera footage from previously so the areas in black your first kind of inclination is that we don't have any issues with sewer but if we haven't camera them in the past we wouldn't know that there are issues with those. I do want to point you towards Arleta Park area, which you can see actually looks pretty good overall. There's not a whole lot of red or orange there. I just want to kind of point that out and you'll see why a little bit later in my presentation. In addition to the CCTV and pipe assessments, we've also invested a lot of time modeling our sewer system. This includes past metering and basically building a hydraulic model to run simulations of different storm events and see how different storms respond and where we have capacity issues in our system. So the standard we use in our 2025 master plan is a 10-year storm and what that does to our sewer system where we have issues. And there's really three kind of pinch points that we see getting close to the sand plant here. There's a primary main that runs from Belleville Avenue to the north through easements and through farmland where that gets to Bevcunia Road. That line is undersized and causes backups further upstream. There's also a main on Grand Avenue, which is also undersized. And I would point that one out. That one is important because it also would tie into the Podesta Tract on the east side of the highway. So addressing that issue is also kind of significant as related to potential development of that site. The third area over by the Kehoe-Costa Del Mar neighborhood is a little bit, there's an interesting restriction there. We're not really sure what's causing it. There's, well, the model indicated The model that this was run on was based on some information about how some of the pipes are connected in that area, and we've found some additional information, as-built data, that will actually impact that. So we need to spend a little bit more time investigating that and see if there really is a capacity issue there or not. And so that would be part of this work that we're planning to do later this year. Next, I want to talk about our I&I study, which we completed over the 25-26 winter. First, an explanation, what is I&I? So I&I, we're referring to inflow and infiltration. Inflow you can think of as illicit or illegal storm drain connections into our sewer system. So this would be like tying in a downspout or like a crawl space or foundation pump system into the sewer system, which we do not allow. The other is infiltration. That would be like cracks in either manholes or in sewer pipes, which allows stormwater to get into the sewer system through rising groundwater. So as groundwater levels rise, we get more storm water into the sewer system. So why is that important? Because I pointed out the capacity issues earlier, that's really only an issue during storm events where we see dramatic increases in flow. And we're also treating all that storm water that gets into our sewer system. By SAM's estimates, roughly I think 17% or 18% of all the water treated at the SAM plant is is stormwater getting in through either infiltration or inflow so a significant price tag associated with that water. For the study we did last year, we hired RH Borden to help us with this. And they use kind of a newer, novel approach to how they do their infiltration monitoring. So the conventional way would be to set a meter in the stream flow at the bottom of a manhole, which can be very expensive because you need confined space training. Someone needs to climb down there and install it. and they require more maintenance and more equipment. So what RH Borden does is we hired them and they would go in and they would scan the manhole with LIDAR and so we actually get this really high resolution model to see if there's any other defects and we actually found one illicit connection through kind of this scanning process. You could see other issues with your manholes as part of it. And they could take that model and install a meter near the surface and get an approximation for the flow through the system based on the water level through some fancy engineering math. So this is a different way of assessing flows. You can't compare, it's not an apples to apples comparison to inflow metering, but it's very helpful and it's roughly a quarter of the cost of inflow metering. So it's another tool in the tool belt. And when those meters are installed, you can see these very distinct changes in flow patterns that you can pick out the inflow from the infiltration. So inflow, which is kind of a direct storm drain connection, that really occurs like immediately around a rain event. And so we're measuring flows in the manhole at the same time they're capturing rainfall data. And so when you see a dramatic spike, inflow right around a storm event that's generally considered inflow. What you'll see over time as we get successive storms, you'll see the base flow that goes up and down in the manhole will gradually increase and that is an indication of groundwater or infiltration getting into the system. We used, we monitored seven sub-basins last winter and we picked these locations strategically to try and isolate different kind of main trunk lines or main areas going into our sewer system and into the sand plants. And the results came back Arleta Park, the area around Arleta Park and South Achille Avenue was really our most significant contribution of I&I flow. Roughly half of all the I&I flow that we saw came from Arleta Park. So a very significant amount. And that neighborhood has a lot of backyard sewer mains, which are not in the street. They're hard for the city to access. They're not visible. going back to the data I was I was pointing to earlier about just the condition of the early to park system it's actually. You know it it shows a very high amount of infiltration of groundwater getting into the system but As far as we can tell, not a lot of pipe defects that would lead you to that suspicion. This actually aligns really well with other data that we've heard anecdotally that there are a lot of crawlspace drains and a lot of pumps tied into those sewer mains. And that would be aligned as infiltration because those pumps are picking up groundwater and pumping it into the system. So you would see behavior much more like from infiltration from pipe defects. Also just being on the west side of the highway closer to the ocean, just having higher groundwater could be a result.

Yeah, so Arleta Park, I guess, the groundwater is pretty high because we're kind of perched on that Miramani's Terrace, which is granitic soil. rock underneath, so there's not a lot of soil. So that's why, you know, I guess in my situation, I live in Arleda Park, and these heavy atmospheric rivers on top of the high groundwater level, you know, I got a problem. So I don't know how we... Yeah, what to do?

It's also an issue where you don't have storm drainage in the street, right? And a lot of our neighborhoods lack storm drains or storm drains that are deep enough for someone to tie in from, say, a crawlspace drain on their site. And so, you know, that encourages people to make illicit connections into the sewer system, which is naturally going to be deeper. Um... So we have a lot of interesting data to mull through with the infiltration study we did last winter as well as kind of all this past historical work. We'd really like to bring VW Housing and Associates in to help us sort through this and establish a list of priority projects, repairs, and additional investigation if we're gonna do additional infiltration or I&I study, additional camera work, et cetera. So VW Housen has been supporting the city and the development and management of our sewer program for a little over a decade now. Actually, a lot of this data that I'm presenting came through a consolidated effort from their office. They've been a great team to work with, and considering our schedule and the timing to get this work underway and completed so that it's ready to integrate into our rate study, we think they're really the only suitable candidate to support this work.

Can I ask another follow-up question? Yes. So are we going to look at the stormwater issue and the sewer issue together? Are there some solutions that require us to actually address stormwater as opposed to pipes and all that sort of thing? I'm guessing we can't do stormwater with the sewer fees. But I'm just wondering if there's fixes that might deal with both sides of the problem.

So there's, I mean, there are, I mean, where we have issues with inflow, where people are tied in kind of illegally to a sewer system, if we don't have storm drain adequately for them to tie into, then that's a real issue. As far as... You know, other areas where you can get inflow are related to where we have flooding in streets and you have manholes. I think Belleville is an instance where this happens, which we learned through our study. There's not a good drainage system or good slope in the street. There's a couple of manholes out there that that get ponding, we get three to four inches of water after heavy storms, roughly four acres drains too. And we see these interesting incidents where we get a spike in flow from that meter well after a storm event. And what we learned is somebody was going out and popping manhole lids to drain the street because there's no other way to get water out. And they're protecting their property and it's, hey, get that water out. And we know it happens elsewhere in the city, but yes, looking at issues like that and what kind of storm drain improvements we could do to help facilitate keeping sewer and storm water separate that's that's a big part of it um and that and that's that concludes my presentation i'm happy to answer any other questions

Another one, so we had talked about issues around the high school. Is that part of the, would that be part of the issue around the Podesta property as well? I forget what the problem was at the high school, but there was some I&I going on there and we didn't know if.

Yeah, so there was previously a concern with that. We actually did some work which appeared to help improve that condition. So we didn't really see strong evidence of that with the I&I study we did this last winter.

Okay. Anybody else with questions?

One question. This concept was kind of cool, what you explained and how these guys are doing, but you were talking about previously doing the smoke testing. Is that kind of the same thing that you're doing also? Are you looking for leaks and you're looking for volume and flow?

Yeah, so smoke testing is one of the ways we can, it's one of the tools we can use to go about investigating inflow, illicit connections. And what you do is you go into, you find an area where you think you have a lot of inflow, illegal connections, and you isolate a section of your sewer system, and you pump smoke or fog into the sewer main. And what happens is that runs up through the main and it runs into sewer laterals on private property and it comes out through openings. Now your sewer system should not have any openings anywhere in the system. You should have traps on all your pipes. It should be entirely closed. But what you'll find is you'll see smoke coming out of people's roof downspouts or out of a catch basin. And that's an indication that those structures are tied into the sewer main. And then you know exactly, hey, there's a property that has an illicit connection or an inflow issue.

Interesting.

And then the other question I have is on these maps. And I like these maps. I mean, I took pictures of them. They're really good. on your piping and the one that shows all the pipes, okay, the whole system, do you actually have, is every one of those pipes indicated, like that's a nine inch, that's a 10 inch, do you have all that mapped out too? That's correct. Okay, that's good.

So... Thinking about this also made me think about the storms of 22, 23 there that winter and the issue of wet weather flows as opposed to dry weather flows. So, given that we have all these housing mandates and we will be getting projects coming forward for permitting, my question is like, under the existing system, how much more growth can we serve given the wet weather flow issue? Are we getting up against it given these heavy rainstorms, like the 100-year storm and things like that? How are we gonna deal with that? How are we gonna measure how close we are to that? to real serious problems? Are we gonna be looking at wet weather storage? I know the other agencies at SAM think we should have more wet weather storage. So I'm just wondering if we are thinking about those things too at the same time. I guess that would come under hydraulic capacity, but I think it would be good to know like, when do we start coming up against real problems with permitting development?

so that that is um that is an interesting question and one that sewer districts wrestle with constantly because you're looking at two forms of investment you could you can invest heavily in fun so uh the sand plant i believe has a has an average daily dry weather capacity of around three million gallons per day and i think the peak is around 15 million gallons per day during that 2023 storm season we were we were seeing We were right at the top there, yes. And so it is a concern long term. How do you reduce, and if we just had dry weather flow, we'd be totally fine. But how do you get that storm water out of your sewer system? You could invest in, say, wet weather storage, right? And that is, I would call it a lower-hanging fruit. Obviously, it's expensive to invest time and energy into build storage. That doesn't get your stormwater out of your sewer system, right? You're just holding onto it longer and giving the plant or your pump stations enough time to catch up to that flow. So you're still paying for that water. You're still treating that water. The other approach would be to tackle your I&I in your system, and that is... You know, it is a bit is a more of a long-term project It is a longer investment but there's a lot of benefit there that you that you see in savings long-term over that treatment and there's examples of cities that have tackled by and I very aggressively and you can see they see real dollar savings in in their operating and treatment flows as a result of that You start with the areas where you think you have the highest risk and the highest concern, and you tackle those first. And in some cases, it does require you going door to door. As far as the inflow, that is a challenging problem because in many instances, it requires you to go on a private property to see what homeowners are doing and to try and get them to cooperate with the rules, right? And whether that means building more infrastructure or, you know, threatening fines or trying to incentivize them to to do improvements you need to find a way to motivate people to you know fix their system and do what's right I think San Mateo was one city that has an incentive program where they will they they they have a limited number of residents and they will do like a cost-sharing for lateral replacement every year And that program is like fully subscribed every year. There's like a wait list for it because the city will actually, I think they split the cost up to like $5,000 for replacement of a sewer lateral from your house to the main. And basically replacing that lateral, you're effectively trying to isolate any other potential points of contact. So things like that are, you know, there's a lot of different ways you could approach it and invest money

And it's something frankly we should be discussing more kind of in thinking about how we're going to do this and then also I'm guessing this might come up as we look at our implementation zoning to like development standards You know having more rigorous requirements for on-site you know treatment of stormwater capture and treatment of stormwater to

I will say that we do we do require CCTV of sewer laterals as a very standard requirement for almost any private development permit that is going to modify plumbing fixtures or even if it's a bathroom remodel we'll say well you got to give us a camera footage of your sewer lateral so we can see that it's in good working condition and and you know it does increase the cost for development for these small projects but it you know, gradually that helps improve this condition for the whole city.

Okay, thank you.

I even noticed on one of your photos, it's like you've got this sewer lateral and you have a tree that's right above it, you know, just in landscaping design effects, you know, making sure that you're not planting things that are going to obstruct your sewer line down the line. Plus, the other one is, For your vent, you know, half of them in Castle Del Mar, I mean, I used to know where my cap was, but I know where everybody else's cap was because I had to measure everybody's property. I can't even find mine now because I landscaped it right over it. And that's another thing. You want to make sure that you have access to that cap. And then going on with the mayor we were talking about earlier was I'm worried about infrastructure issues. not catching up and we have like let's say the metzger project with 50 units low income i'm into it i'm digging that thing i'm loving it we have some issues that i think with drainage and we have some pipe size issues i've already heard it i heard some birds singing and i'm worried about we keep moving forward but we don't have the infrastructure for it not against You know, affordable housing, yeah, I want to be clear. I'm just saying we have to be ready for this, and I think that's where you're going with this. We have to make sure that we are ready for this, and that's what prompted Measure D and all these things was infrastructure wasn't ready for growth. If we keep going this route with affordable housing, our infrastructure is not catching up, and that's why we put Measure D in. So I want to make sure that we don't go crazy on all this stuff and we are ready for it.

Any other questions for our staff? Council Member Dagencast?

Thank you, and you're exactly right, what I'm hearing at the dais here. I think would also, maybe that could, when we talked about a storm drain priorities, we tended to stick to major drainage channels. I heard Kehoe, Seymour, and Pullman. You know, we also have to keep in the back of our heads, we go out and find all these illicit connections, what are we going to do? They're going to tell you, well, my backyard is lower than the street, unless I'm pumping it. I'm going to find gravity first, then I'll pump it if there's a pipe in the back. But I'm just thinking in the back of my head, maybe we figure out a way to help prioritize some drainage improvements outside of the major CHANNELS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, BUT TO TRY AND GET THE ILLEGAL CONNECTIONS, INSTEAD OF DOING MASSIVE WET WEATHER STORAGE SITES, MAYBE WE CAN PROVIDE SMALLER BASINS IN SOME OF THESE STILL UNDEVELOPED AREAS IN TOWN, SOME OF OUR PUDS THAT WE'VE IDENTIFIED, SOME AREAS NOT JUST EAST OF ONE, THERE'S SOME WEST OF ONE TOO THAT PERHAPS We could utilize areas, you know, just trying to think. Because if you try to start going after a lot of connections that are made, you know, in backyards, because, as you point out, Arleta Park is unique where the sewer isn't in the street. It runs through the backyards. Just thinking, what could we offer for them? And that could be something we think about as we prioritize the storm drain master plans.

Well, I think we're gonna find out during this Super El Nino, it's gonna be a test, right? We have to be prepared to get out there and gather some information and get a lot of photos and just get an understanding of how our systems respond, both at the street and neighborhood level and on our major thoroughfares and things like that. We ought to see this, treat this as sort of like a study session. and get ready for more of it, because more of it's coming.

I think that's an excellent idea, because we need to learn from this one that we're going to have, because I'm on the DEM, and they're talking about city, be ready, all you cities, and they're pointing and saying sandbags and all that stuff. And the graphs they're showing was pretty scary. So it's going to be 26 or 27, and it's going to be in that time frame, meaning this year or next. So we need to be ready for it, and you guys need to be ready for it, and learn from this, too. I think it's a great idea, what you're saying. See where the water's going, where's the pooling, and document, and that can go across the board with educating our public works guys when they're going out to go cut the lawn at Kehoe, that they're actually been briefed, let's look at where the, if the water's going, take a picture and send it in to you, Dale. You follow me?

Super El Nino scrapbook.

Yeah.

You need data so that you know what's going on. Yeah. We'll be giving an update on our storm preparedness, I think, at our next council meeting, at least an initial update. That being said, I always have loved the opportunity to go out and drive around and see how things respond during storm events. I mean, as an engineer, we kind of geek out in that. Yeah. So, you know, and we'll look, and I'll go afterwards, I'll see, you know, I remember the ditch along Highway 1, just south of Kelly Avenue, and that we put in, and it was designed for like a 25-year event, and I remember going out and looking at it, it was about full, and I went afterwards, and... said, oh, what was that storm event? And it was like a 25-year event. It was like, oh, wow, perfect. You know, it was just, it was, you know, so the math checks out. But it's very informative to go out and see kind of how things flood. And it's a great, it's always a great opportunity.

Can I just do one quick follow-up here? Yeah, so I actually sent a sign-on letter to staff earlier today. There's a sign-on letter to the governor and his wife the Department of Emergency Management to allow emergency clean out of vegetation and channels and a whole bunch of things. And they're asking for a lot of cities and special districts to sign on to allow for the next like 90 days to do some radical preparation. So I'd like the staff to take a look at that and it might make sense for us. And I sent it to Kishon too as a potential sign on for them as well.

Okay, go. Yeah, I think there's a lot of education pieces here that can more prepare us proactively. Generally, in many cultures, including American cultures, were more reactive than proactive. And so, We've done a lot of, well, we've started to do a lot of education about how to armor your house for fire prevention, right? And growth, and that's pretty scary when a fire comes through and it's very, it's more visceral than a lot of people are thinking about flood stuff, right? So, there can be a lot of education around in your own neighborhoods, right? And CERT can sometimes help out with this. During some of the real bad storms two years ago, three years ago, I noticed the water was coming up over sidewalks and flooding people's lawns. And I looked at the storm drains, you know, the ones with the bars, which the bars are there to keep debris out. But what was interesting that was happening was, some of the plant debris was actually creating almost like a ski lift on the first bar, and the water was completely avoiding the storm drain. It was literally going over it. So luckily I had some wellies, you know, in the garage. And I mean wellies way above my knees. And I'm walking around the neighborhoods just kind of grabbing this stuff out. But it was that easy. Immediately the storm drain's working just fine. But a lot of people don't even realize that, you know, right on the corners, you know, or... Maybe checking out, you know your traps, you know in your house Assuming you could fuck one can find them because it's covered by crap and You know people sometimes wonder yeah, why are there two buttons on why do I need a toilet with two buttons? Small and large. Yeah. Well that decreases water flow into the system so And then the whole point about replacing pipes, five-inch pipes, I mean, it's ridiculous what little capacity we might have. And if we're going to start doing any kinds of buildings we need, to proactively prepare for that, but also educate folks, you know, what can you do in your own home or neighborhood? What about neighbors getting together and paying for some Roto-Rooter services coming through and cleaning everyone's traps? Because we don't always have all, first of all, we don't have all the, you know, public works folks to be walking around in huge storms, looking at all the storm drains, but neighbors can do that. They can look in their own neighborhoods. So, and I noticed that, I don't know, it's almost, a little bit comic, but no one ever shows up for these sewer presentations. There's always two or three people left in the audience, and they're not here most likely for the sewer presentation, but it's one of the most critical things. If we have sewer breakage and raw sewage, remember El Granada a few years ago? 300,000 gallons of raw sewage coming down. So, I think the more we can help people be proactive, use our communication channels, we have a good communications person, and get some of those, because I see a lot of stuff on the fires, how to armor stuff, but I think we can do more, because we're not gonna fix all these problems immediately, so how do we lessen the tension incrementally on all these systems based on what's going on in individual homes and some businesses as well. And that can make a big difference. You just have a 5% decrease in a huge storm, because we will get walloped. That could make all the difference in the world of a huge catastrophe or a manageable one. And I would also give us an example how we've, you know, we've worked with PG&E to stage, remember we had all this PG&E trucks. It turned out the storms weren't as crazy as predicted. but it means we've rehearsed a plan to get that staging in place. So when this crap hits in the next year or two, PG&E knows, yeah, there's all these wires to be checked and branch, crazy amount of branches. Every time you have a storm, the branches get weaker, they don't get stronger. So you have an increasing potential hazard. So I like the fact that, you know, if you gotta have more proactive programs like that, it'd be terrific.

I'll add one real quick. Our social media gal that does all that for the Facebook, she's excellent. Let's encourage and let's try to get encouragement that we are, check your homes, be ready for Nina coming and all that stuff. Let's start seeing, I know it's great to see volleyball and pickleball and all that stuff and line dancing, but we need to start prepping for the storms that are coming.

Yeah, one thing I've noticed in my neighborhood, Arlita Park, is that So further east, you know, people are flush with or maybe a little higher than the road, but then you go west, like toward Railroad Avenue, and there's homes there that are actually below the road level. So people are using, you know, sumps to push the water out into the street, and then it's the people down on the west end who, like, whose yards end up flooding out. I mean, they have sump pumps. I see them operating and things, but... you know, with really intense storms, it's harder. So like people in the East End are sending the stuff down into the yard. So the people who live in the West End, how do we address that? You know, it's not fair to them. Okay, so I don't have any slips here. Is there anybody in the room or online who wants to comment before we move to motions? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion, the staff recommendation.

I move that having received a summary report on the condition of the city's sanitary sewer collection system, including the results of the recent infiltration and inflow assessment, And we therefore adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a professional service agreement with VW House and Associates for waste water collection system engineering support services in an amount not to exceed $99,217. Second.

Could I have a roll call, please? Councilmember Brownstone.

Yes.

Council member Johnson.

Yes.

Council member Nagingast.

Yes.

Mayor Reddick. Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on to the community banner program, item 11C. If anybody would like to discuss this item, I see one person who might want to. We've got a speaker slip. All right, come on. Thank you for your patience. Yes. Amber Stowe.

It's good to be here for the sewer discussion too because A couple years ago, I think on January 5th, 2023, my husband and I had to go across the highway from our house to Main Street in sub-Gale Force winds with rakes in our car to go rake out the storm drain at Main and Mill to make sure that Main Street didn't flood and endanger our business. As far as the community banners program, sorry, my name is Amber Stowe. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak tonight. My family owns the paper crane. We've been in business for over 40 years on Main Street. And we fully endorse what was in the agenda for the community banners program. We have been involved as stakeholders at every level of the decision making. We've gone to architectural advisory and planning commission meetings about the community banners program. We would love to see this program be implemented. The vitality ordinance was a major part of revitalizing downtown, as was the bridge repairs that were done this year. And I think that this would be another important component in making downtown a beautiful place for people to visit. So I'm eager to also see with you the presentation. And thank you so much for hearing my comments. Thank you. Thanks for waiting.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council, and community. Julissa Acosta, Interim Economic and Community Vitality Manager, and I'm joined here tonight by Dale Leda. You just heard from him, and we're going to talk to you about the Community Banner Program. Like Amber mentioned, this has been a difficult time An exciting project to work on, and I'm happy to share that we've made a lot of progress over the last few months, thanks to the support from the Downtown Association, Chamber of Commerce, and in addition, technical assistance from the Community Accelerator Program project, sorry, from the Leadership Council of San Mateo County. As you know, the banners and the basket along the light poles on Main Street are a community asset, and they've been thankfully maintained and uplifted by the Beautification Committee over the last 40, 50 years, we wanted to step forward and create an opportunity for community organizations to showcase or advertise or promote community events that are of public benefit. and we wanted to make sure that the policy we brought forward was inclusive and equitable, accessible for anyone. We have met with several folks, different stakeholders, did extensive research, and landed on a program that will allow community organizations to participate in this program, and whenever we're not promoting any community events, we will be presenting a standard banner that showcases our downtown. We presented to you earlier in February, I believe, this year. You gave us direction to move forward with this. We continue to partner with different stakeholders, and... We presented to the Architectural Advisory Committee, presented also to Planning Commission, and here we are now in front of you. I also want to highlight that on top of the banners being a community asset, this was identified as low-hanging fruit from the Downtown Streetscape Master Plan, and we wanted to include this as part of our conversation tonight. We'll be briefly going over the program overview on eligibility. Again, with the extensive research that we did over the last few months, we're proposing that the program is managed by city staff with a standard application process that is easy and it's attached to the program guidelines that were included in the staff report. The city will control the installation and removal process in partnership with the beautification committee. And I'll go into more detail about that a little bit later. The maximum display for community banners are four weeks. We had originally discussed two weeks, but given that some of the community events last a little bit longer and don't necessarily conflict with other events, we can extend up to four weeks if there are any other requests for the community banners. We are trying to make sure that not one single organization or entity takes over the community banners, so we want to allow them to participate one time per calendar year. And the priorities, as you see on the screen, first the city-sponsored events, the nonprofits, and then community events. After we presented to the Architectural Advisory Committee, part of the feedback was to include a style guide. This was in partnership with the Downtown Association and the Chamber of Commerce, and what you're seeing in front is some of the examples that were pulled from that style guide that is also attached to the staff report. We wanted to, again, make sure that the designs were cohesive and that they felt uniform and we wanted to provide just a little bit of guidance for community organizations applying to this program so they can see the typefaces the color palettes and and just a sample of the different designs so we can all see something that is uniform throughout town and now i'm going to turn it over to dale for some of the technical

Thank you, Julissa. So the locations we're talking about for the program, these primarily are the ornamental streetlights you see on Main Street. There are 42 locations, including 15 locations north of the Main Street Bridge through North Main Street up to highway 1 in 27 south of the bridge the program also includes consideration for the two existing flagpoles front of Half Moon Bay coffee shop on the north side of the bridge and the circular emblem rosette at the South Gateway at South Main and highway 1 and So if you walk down Main Street today, you can see kind of a typical existing installation. Not all the streetlights are adorned with banner hardware or flower pots. I think of the existing 27 south of the bridge, I think roughly 20 or so have existing hardware. They don't always have banners on them. Many of them are empty and they're kind of oriented in different directions. Ways using a small variety of different hardware that's been replaced from time to time next slide For the proposed kind of program and to standardize things, we had to look at things like the pole height to meet minimum accessibility requirements. We needed minimum seven-foot clearance under the sidewalk for walking, as well as looking at things like severe fire hazard zone separation from buildings from walking. from flammable objects, which, you know, those codes are still in development, but it's something we're very conscientious of as we're putting this together. So with those constraints and looking at proportions, we're planning for roughly 24-inch, 30-inch banner height, and that's roughly the depth that we would look at to maintain those minimum clearances with some buffer given the height of our existing streetlight poles. So our existing poles out there today are aluminum. We spent the last six months exploring different options for what we want to use for new hardware. We spent a lot of time discussing with a local fabricator who very strongly recommended stainless steel for its performance in the marine environment. similar recommendation from the fabricator we've been currently working with based in San Carlos who also has a lot of experience on the coast and doing work in places like Hawaii and Pacific Islands, other marine environments. Other options we considered, we also, I think when we presented to AAC, we also presented galvanized steel as a potential option as well as aluminum. With galvanized steel, it's cheaper, but you're going to get lesser performance out of that given our environment. And aluminum performs comparable to steel. It's not as hard as steel, but the cost has actually gone up significantly since we started work, given the international steel producers. There's the conflict in the Middle East, and also tariffs with Canada have caused aluminum costs to go up to almost—they're very much comparable with stainless steel today. So, you know, we're looking at hardware from the lens of public works and our philosophy is to, you know, choose the highest quality materials we can that are going to save us long-term and maintenance costs because we know we struggle with maintenance here and we really wanted something that was going to perform long-term well, very well. And so, as part of this, we're, you know, we're looking at the hardware. We're also considering how that's going to interact kind of with the existing aluminum poles. And just, you know, thinking through this in a way that when we come out of this project, we have something that looks great and it's going to continue to look great. So that does come with some costs associated with it. We're estimating around $100,000 today for program implementation. So that would be fabrication of 42 custom sets of hardware as well as the associated facilities that we'd use across those 42 poles. I should note that there's a significant cost in here associated with just cleaning up and prepping the existing light poles. If you go out and walk today, you see a lot of them have peeling paint. They're dirty. Some of the lights have issues. There's stickers on them. And so if we were going to move forward with this, we would want to take that opportunity, invest some additional energy to get those poles cleaned up and basically primed and looking good again. um funding for this project we're we're proposing to use funds from our downtown streetscape implementation cip project if you remember this project started last year with the gateway arch which was discontinued and we held funds in reserve we added additional funds to that cip this fiscal year and and expanded it to include banners as well as wayfinding and other elements from the from the downtown streetscape master plan. And so currently we have around $120,000 within that CIP. This would be taking a huge chunk of those funds. We're also looking at an upcoming grant from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, which just came out. It was just released this week and aligns very well with our transportation demand management plan, our getting there together, which we adopted last year. And that plan includes a number of elements which the council has prioritized, including downtown wayfinding and gateway elements, as well as parking study to look at our parking impacts downtown and assessment for our structure. So these things are all covered in our TDM. The grant program is a TDM program, so it aligns very well with these priorities and would go really well with our Downtown Streetscape CIP. Go ahead. I'll turn it back over to Delisa.

Thanks, Dale. So as far as application fees and annual costs to the city, we're proposing a $450 application cost to community organizations. This is in consideration. Staff put together roughly $600 in cost. That includes installation and removal in partnership with the beautification committee and a little bit of staff time for administrating the program. Assuming a 26... 26 rounds of banner installation cycle through the year. The direct cost to the city will be $15,600 with a net annual cost of about $4,000. This is because the city would generate $11,700 in application fees. So the city subsidy to the program would be roughly $3,900 per year and assuming again a 26 cycle. So meaning we have 26 banners installed every two weeks, right? And the subsidy and the cost we're proposing allows organization to continue applying for the community banner program while maintaining also control and access of the program in a small subsidy to the city. I mentioned earlier that there's an installation partnership with the Huffman Bay beautification committee Given the fact that they're the experts and they have been doing this for decades And they in our conversations with them about this program. They want to step forward and continue to do that It made sense for us to enter into a partnership with the Huffman Bay beautification committee for the installation and removal of the banners whenever we have a new applicant they are excited to do it and we're happy to do that too if council decides to move forward with this obviously this will be blessed by our city attorney and you know giving any direction and as far as insurance and any concerns that we would have they would be addressed then And I also want to mention that just like with any new programs that we proposed to council recently, we want to monitor the usage of this over the next 12 to 18 months and see how many community organizations we have applying for this, if there's any need to amend or make any changes. And at some point, you know, over the next year or two, we'll come back with an update to city council and let you know how the program is going and if we... anticipate any potential changes. And so with that, I'm going to just briefly go over the recommendation. One is to establish the community banner program and approving the program guidelines. I'm just going to leave it at that. Amend the master fee scheduled to establish a community banner program application fee. Allow the city manager to negotiate an agreement with the Haven Bay Beautification Committee for installation and removal of the banners. And another authorization to the city manager to procure services, supplies, materials, and all equipment necessary for the initial implementation of the community banner program at a cost not to exceed $100,000. And we're happy to take any questions from council. Thank you.

I have a question. It looks like a lot of banners to me, especially on historic Main Street. I'm wondering if it's better to do like maybe every other light pole as opposed to every light pole. I mean, it seems like, I think it's important to not sort of cloud the visual experience looking both south and north on Main Street. That seems like a lot of light poles. I'm just wondering, and we thought about maybe staggering them or...

staggering the banners for the standard city banner or for just community banners?

I'm just thinking like every other poll rather than just having, you know, banners galore on both sides of the street. I'm just wondering if maybe we don't need as many, maybe 43 is too many. Maybe on North Main Street, it seems to make a little more sense than it does like south of the bridge. or south of 92, but it just struck me looking at the map of the locations, that seemed like a lot, but.

Yeah, part of the feedback we've heard is, you know, consistency throughout, and so it doesn't feel like one is missing something. That's part of the feedback that we've heard from the different folks that we've engaged with.

Could I ask Amber what she thinks about that?

Thank you. If you look at the way that the blocks are laid out, I know it's difficult to zoom into that actual view, but let's say you take the 300 block, that's five light poles on that block. There's also trees that are competing with visual space. There's going to be baskets that are competing with visual space. And when we're talking about someone who's driving through town, we want to make sure that they're not diverting their eyes up to the banner for too long. And I sort of worried that that might have been a concern in terms of safety for pedestrians and motorists if someone is reading a banner from too far away off to the side of the road. Whereas if they can flick their vision up every so often, then that's not going to be quite as big of a problem. Maybe if we reduced it to a certain number of street polls per block, like maybe three polls or four polls per block, that might be enough to create the visual space that we're looking for when these events are being promoted. Perhaps five might be excessive, like we see on the I think that's the 500 block right there.

Yeah, and I'm not making any firm recommendation one way or the other, but it just struck me as a lot. And I just thought I'd bring that up and have people talk about that.

One other minor consideration is we did not want to just limit the banners to the three main blocks of historic Main Street, we felt that wouldn't create enough cohesion with the other portions of Main Street that are being developed and up and coming, like the six and 700 blocks, which are experiencing a lot of really good tourist growth right now, and creating that as a thoroughfare and planning for the future when those blocks really kind of bloom and come into their own, we thought was important.

Madam Mayor, can I chime in on this? There's a couple of considerations here. One, of course, is just the economies of scale. Reducing, and I know your argument isn't about money, it's about visual clutter, and so that's a broader conversation. But I think it is important to think about reducing the number of banners and banner, you know, the hardware will reduce the cost, but it's somewhat incremental because there's mobilization, there's economies of scale for buying the hardware. The other thing we have to think about is kind of our hopes for the future. And that is with the Hyatt being built, I would like to see the, you know, right now these ornamental poles run from North Main at Highway 1 to about the IDS Hall, just south of IDS Hall. And then they stop. And eventually I think it'd be great to see these continue all the way down to the South Main intersection. And then I keep talking about it, and I think we're going to get there, is we really need to consider East Kelly, basically between Main Street and Highway 1, as an extension of Main Street. I think it's important for drawing in visitors and creating a more cohesive downtown environment. So I think one of the things we could think about is with an approval tonight and a little bit of direction to kind of take a step back and look at, okay, how many of these do we really want to do right now with this initial placement? There could be the opportunity with one of those future phases to add more if we feel like we need more or replicate what we think is working on the rest of Main Street on those other areas. So... A lot of words being used, but I think there's an opportunity for us to take that lens, work with some of our community partners, and look at, okay, where maybe do we not need a banner puller? Which block is already congested with these things? So I think we could do that without modifying kind of our discussion today. Everything could be up to at this point.

Thank you for that.

Yeah, I was thinking all the same things that you've mentioned. You know, side streets, people... coming down from Highway 1 during, but I like the incremental approach that we're using. We're gonna put some stuff up. Let's get some feedback. What are we hoping for? What are the results? And then getting all the feedback from both the public, citizens and business owners and see what they think. And I think that'll build a nice energy and that's the way to do it. And then we'll collect more fees later and put some more money into it. But I just really appreciate that for a while we were getting feedback from downtown associations saying, is the city gonna put in some effort and some resources? And I'm just glad that we're coming around to doing it, but in a very planful way that we can measure the results of. So, great presentation. Love the slides with the images, with the flower pots. I mean, you're an artiste, what can I say? But really nice PowerPoints there, so thank you.

The two big poles there on the bridge, which I put in 20-something years ago, I noticed, I read in the report, you're still looking at perhaps some type of flagpole or something to put in there. Because we decided it's not going to work with stretching a banner across, but maybe a flag type. I think that's what you call them, right, when you...

Yeah, so we have discussed hardware at those two locations. And you can see that image on the left there where those poles are. It's kind of been an interesting discussion with the local fabricators. To some extent, they're a little... There was some initial concern expressed about using those poles in a way that they were not originally intended to be used, which, you know... I think that is something that we can address. But there's some limitations on the hardware, how we would do this on those existing poles. It's a little bit different than mounting on our streetlights. We really don't want to be drilling into them. And it just requires a little bit more thought on how we would implement that.

You're still working and trying to think that one out a little bit.

We are still working that one out, yes.

And I still see the wire across the top there. You could string some Christmas lights or something across.

I also, I'll just note, one of the things I like about using these poles is... it almost starts to create that entry gateway archway. Now it's not the one that's gonna draw people off of 92, but it does really welcome you into the downtown and across our beautifully refurbished Main Street Bridge. So proud we can say that finally. So I think that the utilization of these poles is going to be part of that welcoming experience. I'm really excited about that as well.

A good acknowledgement.

I'm excited about this. It was a year and a half ago, I was sitting in Betsy's Johnny's and talking to her, and she's the one that brought it all up to me. Amber, you remember this whole thing? And she really wanted brass balls, just so you know. I don't know if you got the brass balls, but she wants brass balls. I want to make sure we get the brass balls. But it's taken a long time. I mean, honestly, it's taken a long time, but I'm glad to see it's now here, and I'm really impressed with the work. I'm impressed with this report. Amber, thank you for coming here. Thank you so much and being involved. And you have been since day one. Dale, you talked to me about and we and thank you. We had a little side discussion on the brackets and the pain in the ass that was. Excuse my French. But did you get that all dialed in and how are you going to screw it into the poll? Because the picture makes it look like it's beautiful. No big deal. But I know there's more to it than that. And then the other thing I want to know is the aluminum versus stainless steel and corrosion. And you're also going to powder coat that. Will that adhere to the powder coating or the powder coating adhere to the aluminum or the stainless steel?

So the powder coating will adhere to both. It will perform better on the stainless steel than it will on the aluminum due to the pitting with scratches and exposure. So that was one of the reasons we wanted to... we were leaning towards stainless and that feedback we received from the fabricators. We had looked at, in addition to the two local fabricators, we did look at two, ready-made options for hardware, two different sources on online retailers, and we ordered samples, a variety of samples, which we looked at, and we could not find anything meeting kind of the specs that we were looking for with the stainless steel, and You know, what we did get, it was, you know, it wasn't correct. It wasn't what we were looking for. The welding was sloppy on it. It just really didn't meet the standard that we were looking for that alleviated our concern about ongoing maintenance with these. So working with the fabricators obviously is a huge benefit. They're willing to look at different gauges, different thicknesses of material, different points of connection. And as the fabricator we're leaning towards moving with right now in San Carlos, they're planning to to do prototype options for us to look at. We could try those out and see what they look like and feel like before we go all in. And that's included in a scope of work that they've provided us. As far as the brass hardware, that was another thing we asked about to get feedback. So dissimilar metals, have potential to cause unexpected corrosion one way or the other. So aluminum and steel, that can happen. It's more problematic when you have a large steel body and a smaller aluminum body. The aluminum is more reactive and will corrode more readily but it is still a concern here and so we would as part of this we would there's a plan we would use a preventative we would use a sleeve to help separate and reduce kind of the contact between the steel and the aluminum I'm told that the brass would be compatible with stainless steel it would be less compatible more of a concern if we went with aluminum who's gonna polish the brass balls

I think you'd have to expect any brass balls would have the green patina on them very quickly here on the coast side. And we'd probably have to accept that.

Yeah, that's another reality with brass is it will tarnish. And, you know, if you like that look, if that's the look we're going for, you know, great. But it is it's another thing to consider.

if the desire is for shiny brass, I think we're setting ourselves up for failure.

I think, Amber, can we check with Betsy that she can go with black and get a blessing on that? That'd be good, because I think we should change that. I knew this was going to evolve to that, but I just wanted to keep saying Betsy wants brass balls. The other question I have is on the four weeks, I think it's a great idea that you keep that going for four weeks because you have, let's say somebody came into town and they love Half Moon Bay and they look up and they go, oh, there's a pumpkin festival, oh, we missed it, but then they see it. Or there's an air show or whatever, the Dream Machines or Odd Fellows had some movie night or whatever, or the Rotary Club. So I'm hoping that we're gonna branch this out to all the venues that we have, Boys and Girls Club, everybody. you know, park and rec and all that, whatever we have, like pickleball, whatever tournament, if we do that. But the four weeks just shows that, boy, we've got something going on all the time. So we extend that out. was the oh like the when i do the one on 92 and this is from crystalline and betsy and everybody was like what was it play stay shop and eat whatever it was that i did i can't remember exactly if we have that one because you're talking about no event banner correct right so let's have a no event banner but that's also saying hey come play stay shop and dine that's what it was dine That's it.

Here we go. The examples you're seeing on the screen right now are the ones that came from the style guide. And this will be the standard banner whenever we don't have an event. So let's say Pumpkin Festival is over and we don't have anything up until the winter, which is Nights of Lights. And so for the month of November, we can have something like this throughout town.

and it'd be a variety of them. We wouldn't just have one on every single sign. We'd get multiple of them made, so you'd have some variety as you drive down the street of color and design, yeah.

I'm excited about this, and thank you so much. It looks great.

Okay. Make a motion. It's a long one.

Sure.

Keep them busy.

I recommend that we adopt a resolution establishing the community, first establishing the community banner program and improving the community banner program authorizing the city manager or his designee to make amendments to effectively implement and administer the program subject to the approved special sign program. Two, amending the master fee schedule to establish a community banner program application fee in the amount of $450 per approved banner cycle. Three, authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee for the installation and removal of community banners in a form approved by the city attorney. And four, authorizing the city manager to procure services, supplies, materials, and equipment necessary for the initial implementation of the community banner program, including banner hardware, banners, banners, paint, and related materials at a cost not to exceed $100,000. Second.

Councilmember Brownstone?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Oh, yeah.

Councilmember Magongast?

Yes.

Mayor Reddick? Yes. Motion carries. Exciting. Okay.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

Okay, now we're moving on to... the Carter Park donor program update.

Okay, good evening again. I'm Julissa Acosta, Interim Economic and Community Vitality Manager, and I'm here joined by Karen Decker, our Interim Deputy City Manager. And we're going to talk to you about the Carter Park Donor Program. Great. Just for a little bit of background, in 2019, the Parks Master Plan identified Carter Park as a potential site that was being underutilized at the time and recommended some updates. In 2022, we received funding from Assemblymember Mark Berman for $.75 million plus additional funding to add improvements to the park. During that time there was a policy adopted for donations specifically related to Carter Park. This was in anticipation of the construction project that was going to happen and included a little bit more of construction sort of scope to the park. As of 2026, the park's renovation have been completed and the program is in active use. You may remember back in May, we brought forward a recommendation to adopt a new fee structure for Carter Park so we can start including it in our rental facilities program. What you're seeing in your screen right now is the park being active. We've used it for city sponsor events, like the Fourth of July Fun Zone. We've had our first summer's end last year after the park was renovated. We hosted a VIP reception. We have Movies in the Park coming up later this month in early October, and we want to continue utilizing the park. As you see, this is a very active space right now and local community organizations have also rented the park as part of the new structure. Because we've switched from construction to program needs, now that the park is active, our needs for a staircase or restrooms have, and now we're more into how do we continue promoting the park and its activities and add enhancements now that the park is fully renovated. Staff worked closely with the Parks and Recreation Committee and received feedback. We wanted to present an opportunity to update the program, the donor program for Carter Park specifically, and we came up with four recommendations tonight, or four recommendations, different options to donate tonight. One of them is what we're calling Give to HMB. This came from an inspiration from Give to SF program that the city and county of San Francisco has. We want to try this online opportunity to allow community members to make donations via online, which is something that we don't currently have. We are working with a vendor that offers this service at no cost to the city and so we're excited to explore this opportunity for folks to donate online. We also have plaque opportunities. for folks who want to have larger contributions. And Karen's gonna talk a little bit more about what those plaque opportunities would look like in the actual park. We also are considering naming opportunities for gifts that are larger than $100,000. And this will obviously be in collaboration with city staff, individually managed and obviously city council approved. And then also in-kind contributions. Somebody may want to support a succulent garden up at the rooftop or produce some sort of landscape or update to the park in just that form. I'm going to turn it over to Karen so she can talk to council about the different options.

Okay, so this table shows the plaque locations that we're proposing. There's a seating area, there's the amphitheater wall location as you're descending those stairs of Carter Park at three different sizes and price points. We are proposing recognition terms of five to 10 years. We learned a lot from our Memorial Bench Program. There was no limit to plaques and it caused a lot of confusion. There was a lack of policy at the time. So we're trying to take lessons learned from inactive program and provide some parameters and flexibility going into the future. Unlike in 2022, this isn't an open-ended tier system. It's a fixed finite inventory. So once a location is claimed for such a plaque, it's kind of off the table, so to speak, until a future capital project creates a new space or until that term ends. So this picture illustrates that seating area, what we mean by SA1. And those rectangles that you see that are evenly spaced across those tiers were strategically chosen because the intention was not to look too cluttered. We talked to other agencies that have a lot of plaques and the feedback that we got was that tourists felt like it was almost like a cemetery. It started to look cluttered quickly. Also, these are strategically placed over existing lights. So if it got to be dusk or nighttime, this would really beautifully illuminate what's already there in a way to draw attention to that donor. So these are the actual locations tied to the table that you just saw, the seating area behind the amphitheater seating, and then the two wall locations flanking the amphitheater. We believe that having real photos tied to real location IDs makes it easier for prospective donors and for us to track what's available. So just to summarize what we're proposing that would change from the 2022 policy that was adopted compared to what we believe makes sense moving forward since the park is already renovated. We wanna move from one time capital focused fundraising to an ongoing giving program. We are replacing open ended dollar tiers with a fixed priced inventory of locations. We're establishing naming opportunities as a formal separate pathway. And we're setting $100,000 as a threshold for what we're considering a major gift. or folks could earn other named recognition opportunities, but that would be individually negotiated and it would require city council approval. It's just a really quick example of what I mean by that. If someone say they made a donation, but it was tied to a particular enhancement or piece of equipment, somebody wanted to purchase an LED screen for ongoing use for the city to the tune of $35,000, we want council to be in a position to be flexible and that screen could potentially have the name of that entity or that company at the top of the screen if council approved it, even though that wouldn't meet the $100,000 threshold. So naming could go to a particular place like the rooftop garden or the stage, or it could be tied to a particular enhancement or amenity like lights or a screen. So recognition terms are now capped at five to 10 years for plaques and one year for a website listing that's renewable. And we've added clear content standards for inscriptions, a donor disclosure and release process and clear terms on maintenance and removal. So the city retains full discretion. And just for convenience, we pasted the recommendation. We are recommending that council adopt a resolution approving an update to the donor recognition and naming policy for Carter Park, replacing the policy that was adopted on June 7th, 2022 with the Carter Park Donor and Sponsorship Program. And Julissa and I are open to taking clarifying questions or comments.

Great. Great progress. Councillor Negengast.

Thank you. Three quick ones. First, what about a sign that says Carter Park? I keep asking for that one. I've actually had people not know where it is. So we're still working on that, right?

Yeah, I'll jump in on this. That would be a CIP project outside of the donor program. And it is something that when we bring the priorities work plan forward to you at the next meeting is listed as one of the options. We'll want to talk about where to prioritize it.

That'd be good. And then... And then if somebody would give, let's say for maintenance, because I believe somebody already has, that that money specifically stays there, that a recession or something happens, we're not tempted to put it somewhere else, that it stays specifically. If it was given specifically for maintenance of Carter Park when you don't have the ability to maintain it anymore, it is there for that reason, right?

Yeah, this is not a hypothetical. This is a real thing. We have one large donor thus far for Carter Park, and that's specifically their request. With the caveat that if there was a specific need, we could approach them and talk about it. And Ken has earmarked those funds within... And Ken, you might want to speak to this. I believe we created a separate maintenance fund for Carter Park, and that's where that money sits, and it's earmarked for that purpose.

And then, God forbid, I'm not on council anymore, or you're not a city manager, but it will still be there that somebody will know it was for Carter Park maintenance. Yeah. Okay.

Just one more point to that. We also have the new Give to HMB digital platform. This is specific to Carter Park, and when the pull-down menu comes up, there's three choices that a donor can make, and maintenance is one of them. The other two are enhancements or programming. And so we will honor that tiered system through a very easy to manage database. And we're able to vet all our questions by the city and county of San Francisco. And they were incredible in talking us through our concerns, lessons learned, feasibility. And this trial of setting up this new platform is at no cost to the city. We initially interviewed the vendor that San Francisco uses. We received a quote we weren't quite comfortable with. And so actually, Ken and Julissa interviewed our current vendor, Numo, who does our sales tax, and they were able to develop something at no cost. And so we're really hoping that that platform will be available by an evening at Carter Park, the night before summer's end. But... It's all systems go, but we're not quite sure if it will be ready. Regardless, folks can be given a QR code that will take them to a landing page if city council approves this donor policy so that they'll have options to donate that night and beyond. But we're excited to try the new platform. And if it gets legs, we could potentially use it for other projects too. We're just using Carter Park donations as a proof of concept.

Okay. I mean, like I said, I just, I know how tempting it can be if you set up a fund and you need it. It's like, right. But just, I'd like us to make sure it's there. And then one last thing, interesting, you put a term limit. So if I gave $25,000, I'm only good for, what is that, five years or maybe it's a little. Eight years.

It's eight.

It's kind of weird. I don't know, maybe that's the going rate for a plaque now, is that we do that?

Well, we did extensive research on this as well, just to make sure that we were offering something substantial for the donor, but not to make... Not to make that donation in perpetuity and they would have their plaque or name there forever And also to allow other folks to continue donating and this is what we discovered some other entities do as far as Yeah, that's typical and donors

are used to that.

There are some that are, but I think what we found, some of the ones that are longer recognition are the smaller, sort of the pavers or something like that that are smaller and easier to maintain. I don't know if they will defer, but.

We also don't have as many, if you look at a place like the library, there were so many rooms, areas, sections for more naming opportunities without trying to look too cluttered. We have the succulent rooftop garden. We have the stage. We didn't really have a lot of interest near the bathrooms. And so we just wanted to have, give council flexibility of 10 years into the future that that could be revisited instead of no term limit.

Okay, that's it. Thank you.

So besides the maintenance, how are you going to sequester donated funds for specific purposes? Just to make sure, assure the public that the money that they're giving will be applied to the intended purpose and not co-mingled with general funds or other stuff.

Yeah, when Ken and I met with Numo, which is an online vendor for the online donation, they specified that they could break it down for us if we received donations. Like Karen said, there will be a drop-down menu, so when you log in or you go into the portal, you can select your donation for programming. And we'll have a brief description of what that entails, CD sponsor events or classes or recreation programming. And when the... Company provides the monthly report you can will know X amount of dollars were donated toward programming X amount went towards maintenance X amount went to Park enhancements and so that's how we will track it on our end and it will be similar to the maintenance fund And so it will stay there.

We I just want to make sure that We're not commingling funds.

Yeah, we asked San Francisco that question as well. And the way they addressed it was they set up separate charter accounts and then donors select which fund or we have three choices for them within Carter Park, how they want to give. And then the donation goes to accounting and it gets reconciled. And then monthly reports are generated. So at any given time, we can give updates on said funds.

A recommendation, yes. Yes.

I worked with Paulette over the weekend about the list, and we looked at your guys' original list, and then we came up with a modified list. Have you gotten that list?

Yes.

Okay. I'd like to make sure that we utilize that list.

Date then? No direction yet? I can. I'm having computer troubles, that's why I can't call.

Is there any members from the public? There we go.

Yeah, I will, but I wanted to see the recommendation first. So is there anyone in the audience would like to address the donor program? Is there anyone online who would like to address the proposed donor program for Carter Park? Seeing none, I'll bring it back for any further discussion or a motion.

I'm ready to do the motion. Okay. That we adopt a resolution approving an update to the donor recognition and naming program for Carter Park, replacing the policy adopted on June 7, 2022, with the Carter Park donor and sponsorship policy. Second.

Second.

Roll call, please. Council Member Brownstone?

Yes.

Council Member Johnson?

Yes.

Council Member Nagengast?

Yes.

Mayor Reddick? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you for an excellent report. Thank you. So item 12, any future agenda items people want to recommend? Seeing none, any city council reports? Seeing none, we can adjourn this meeting. Thank you. All right.