City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Okay, good evening, everyone. Welcome to City Hall. Today is Tuesday, August 18th. It is 7.04 p.m. I wanted to welcome everyone to a City Council meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order. And Madam City Clerk, if you could please take, oh no, actually, before we do that, Council Member Andrews, can you please do the Pledge of Allegiance?

Please stand if you're able to.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, you can please take roll.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening. Council Member Andrews. Present. Council Member Bonilla, Jr.

Present.

Council Member Goldstein.

Present.

Council Member Roach. Present. Council Member Serra.

Present.

Council Member Sermonio. Mayor Salinas.

Present, thank you. Next, I'd like to have our city attorney comment on our closed session announcements. We will be making announcements on June 16th, July 22nd, and August 18th closed sessions. Mr. City Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Welcome back from the recess. It was a busy summer. So in addition to conferring with the real property negotiators this evening, at which the Council took a reportable action, the Council also concluded the lawsuit called Golly v. City of Hayward. The Council was advised that negotiations are complete. The Court has entered a final order approving the city's payment of $600,000 as in forced settlement. The council also heard that the lawsuit called Smith versus City of Hayward also concluded over the summer with the city's insurance partners, the excess carrier, agreeing to pay $850,000 as in forced settlement. The city is paying no new money in this case. Finally, as the mayor indicated, the council met July 22nd in closed session to complete the annual evaluation of the city attorney, and the council took no reportable action. That concludes the report. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is we have a special presentation, and I am... Again, very pleased to be able to do this. We did one a few months ago, and it's always good to start a new session with some wonderful news, and particularly with great acknowledgments. We are joined here today by our Hayward firefighters and the Hayward Fire Department. Ladies and gentlemen, can we please, let's give our Hayward firefighters a great big round of applause. Today we are going to be I wanna make sure. Today, we are acknowledging two of our city's finest firefighters. Today, we are gonna be acknowledging Battalion Chief Ferguson, Battalion Chief Ferguson. Give him a round of applause. And then Firefighter Clemmick. I just saw him, there he is, right in front of me. And, of course, Firefighter Klimek and Battalion Chief Ferguson are here. And our apparatus operator, Irizarry, is out. He's out on a fire. He's out on a call right now, and so he is not with us. I believe he is out of the city, and he's on a... um reporting for duty so um we will be acknowledging him uh when he returns um nonetheless i would like to call uh battalion chief ferguson and firefighter klimic up to the front and um and also if i can have uh uh chief hamry uh join us I'm going to read some comments. We have some letters of accommodation for them, and then I'll bring them, and I'm sure you'll have some comments too. But let me proceed. Actually, why don't you turn to the camera facing outwards? First of all, I'll start with Firefighter Clemmick. On behalf of the City of Hayward and the Hayward City Council, I would like to extend our appreciation and commendation for your actions on January 27, 2026, during a structure fire at 26761 Bahama Avenue. Your actions directly resulted in the rescue of a resident from the home and their safe transfer to medical care. Your quick recognition and response illustrate the importance of preparation, clear communication, and individual initiative during rapidly evolving incidents. The successful outcome also reflected coordinated team performance across fire attack, primary search, support functions, and EMS. When seconds mattered, you recognized the life safety priority and acted without hesitation. Firefighting is an inherently dangerous profession, and it takes exceptional individuals to rise to the occasion when lives are at stake. Your actions reflect the high standards of the Hayward Fire Department and the deep dedication to service that our firefighters exemplify. You have made a lasting impact on our community and we are proud to recognize your service as part of the Hayward Fire Department. As a symbol of our gratitude, we are honored to present you with this letter of commendation and May Saint Florian watch over you as you continue to perform your duties with courage, professionalism, and integrity. Thank you, Firefighter Clemmick, for your decisive action and continued commitment to readiness, teamwork, and service. Your performance reflects the highest traditions of the Hayward Fire Department and has made our community safer. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give Firefighter Clemmick a big round of applause. Our next recognition, of course, is Battalion Chief Ferguson. On behalf of the City of Hayward and the Hayward City Council, I would like to extend our appreciation and commendation for your actions on February 7th, 2026, during a residential structure fire at 1181 Buchanan Way. The incident presented significant access and search challenges, including security bars and gates on the doors and windows and heavy hoarder conditions inside the residence. Your rapid assessment and direction to search operations directly contributed to the successful rescue of a resident. Your situational awareness, communication, and decisive action helped focus the rescue effort under difficult conditions. The successful outcome also reflected strong coordination among the crews performing forcible entry, ventilation, fire attack, search, and EMS functions. Your leadership and willingness to act when seconds mattered contributed directly to the rescue of a resident from an immediately dangerous environment. Firefighting is an inherently dangerous profession, and it takes exceptional individuals to rise to the occasion when lives are at stake. Your actions reflect the high standards of the Hayward Fire Department and the deep dedication to service that our firefighters exemplify. You have made a lasting impact on our community and we are proud to recognize your service as part of the Hayward Fire Department. As a symbol of our gratitude, we are honored to present to you this letter of commendation. Furthermore, May St. Florian watch over you and as you continue to perform your duties, encourage professionalism and integrity. Thank you Battalion Chief Ferguson for your leadership and your commitment to the safety of our community Your actions exemplify the profession, readiness, and service we expect from the Hayward Fire Department. I am so happy that Battalion Chief Ferguson works for the Hayward Fire Department. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give Chief a big round of applause. And one more. So while apparatus operator Erizarry is not here this evening, but his family is here. Can we have the Erizarry family stand up, please? Yes, absolutely. Nice. So let me, I also have something to read. And if you want to, how about the family come up here and present themselves. We can, you know. And welcome to City Hall. On behalf of the City of Hayward and the Hayward City Council, I would like to extend our appreciation and commendation for your actions on February 7th, 2026, during a residential structure fire at 1181 Buchanan Way. The incident presented significant access and search challenges, including security bars and gates on the doors and windows and heavy hoarder conditions inside the residence. Your search efforts directly resulted in locating and rescuing a resident from the home. Your ability to maintain focus in a hazardous and physically difficult environment was instrumental to the rescue. Locating the victim amid heavy debris required strong situational awareness, disciplined search practices, and decisive action. Your performance together with the coordinated work of the fire attack forcible entry, ventilation, search, and EMS teams contributed to a successful life safety outcome. Firefighting is an inherently dangerous profession, and it takes exceptional individuals to rise to the occasion when lives are at stake. Your actions reflect the high standards of the Hayward Fire Department and the deep dedication to service that our firefighters exemplify. You have made a lasting impact on our community, and we are proud to recognize your service as part of the Hayward Fire Department. As a symbol of our gratitude, we are honored to present you with this letter of commendation. And may St. Florian watch over you, especially tonight. as you continue to perform your duties with courage, professionalism, and integrity. Thank you, apparatus operator Erizate, for your courage and professional service. Your actions demonstrate the readiness and commitment that make the Hayward Fire Department and our community and communities across the state of California stronger. Thank you and congratulations. And then, Chief Hammer, you wanna make some comments before I go down there and present the letters?

Yeah, real quick. Yeah. I think it's very fitting. This is fire season for us, and it's a first. Our families over the years have stepped in for us when we're out, and that support system of extended family you know, relatives, kids, wives, husbands, stepping in when you're gone for weeks at a time is so important, but this is the first time I've ever seen them accept award for us, so pretty remarkable. Good evening, Mayor Salinas, members of City Council, and residents of Hayward. Thank you for giving us the opportunity tonight to recognize these three members of the Hayward Fire Department for actions worthy of special recognition. Firefighter Klimek, Battalion Chief Ferguson, Apparatus Operator Irizarry were nominated for unit citations based on their actions during two separate structure fires earlier this year. In both incidents, their training, situational awareness, and willingness to act had a direct impact on the people we serve. Firefighters generally do not seek recognition for doing their jobs, and I think most would tell you they're simply doing what they were trained to do. However, there are moments when individual actions stand out and deserve to be recognized. These moments also demonstrate why we invest so much time in training, preparation, and developing our people. When conditions are at their worst and decisions need to be made quickly, that preparation matters. These rescues were not accomplished by one person working alone. Fire attack, forceful entry, search, ventilation, EMS, communications, and command all had to occur simultaneously and effectively for those incidents to have successful outcomes. These incidents also reflect the work our members have put in to strengthen our search capabilities and preparing our firefighters to make good decisions under pressure. That preparation creates the opportunity for individual actions to take meaningful difference. Tonight, we recognize these three individuals while also recognizing the crews who worked besides them. Unfortunately, apparatus operator Irizarry was unable to join us tonight because he's currently assigned to the Timmer Fire in Big Sur. His deployment is part of a broader commitment to Hayward firefighters this season with our members responding to incidents in Washington, Oregon, and throughout California. While we wish he could be here tonight, we are grateful that members of his family are here to accept the award on his behalf. His absence is a fitting reminder that our members not only serve the Hayward, but communities across the country when they are called. Firefighter Klimek, Battalion Chief Ferguson, and Apparatus Irizarry demonstrated that situational awareness, decisive teamwork, and commitment to serve that we expect from the members of the Hayward Fire Department. More importantly, their actions made a difference for people experiencing what was most likely one of the worst days of their lives. I am proud to recognize their performance and their service to the community. With that, it is my privilege to present Firefighter Mitch Klimek, Battalion Chief Darren Ferguson, and Apparatus Operator John Arizari with the Hayward Fire Department Unicitation.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

OK. Why don't we all go down there? Yeah. Nice. And Chief Hamry, if you can, and please, please tell the men and women of the Hayward Fire Department to please be safe out there, and particularly the folks that are throughout the state and throughout the western region of the United States to please be safe out there. Thank you. Let's give the fire department another big round of applause. Okay, what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna move on to public comments. Public comment is reserved for anybody in the audience or online that would like to make a public comment on something that is not on the agenda. The public comment section provides an opportunity to address the City Council on items not listed on the agenda or informational staff presentation items. The council welcomes comments and requests. that speakers present the remarks in a respectful manner, within established time limits, and focus on issues which directly affect the City or are within the jurisdictions of the City. As the City Council is prohibited by State law from discussing items not listed on the agenda, items will be taken under consideration and may be referred to staff. The City Council welcomes comments, including criticism about the policies, procedures, programs, or services of the City, or of the acts or admissions of the City Council. Speakers shall not use threatening, profane, or abusive language which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of a City Council. the city is committed to maintaining a workplace free of unlawful harassment and is mindful that city staff regularly attend city council meetings discriminatory statements or conduct that is hostile intimidating oppressive or abusive are per se disruptive to a meeting and will not be tolerated And we can and we may refer items to staff at the conclusion of public comment. So with that said, I'd like to move to our first public commenter is Marla Sather, or Sather. Sather, thank you.

I wrote this down so I don't forget anything. I have been a resident of Hayward for 40 years, more than half my life. I married a lifelong Hayward man and raised my two sons here. I was the office manager at Eldridge School for 17 years. I consider Hayward my home and I care deeply about her. But since March of 2025, I have been focused on what was happening in Washington, D.C. and how it was negatively affecting the whole country. So I started a protest group and we are here at City Hall by the farmer's market every Saturday for the past 17 months. I'm embarrassed to admit I was so focused on national issues that I knew nothing until a month ago about the SVYO3A data center being built in my own city. For the last eight months, I have been following the growing concerns of people in every state where data centers were trying to get built. I have seen these people find ways to pump information into their communities and rally people to stop construction from being approved or finding creative ways to limit water or electric access critical for the center's operation. What I discovered here is that most residents were like me. not even aware of the data center here being approved in March of 25 and construction currently underway. Like me, thousands of Hayward residents were shocked to learn only recently the water and electricity demands this center would place on our resources daily as well as the environmental effect of 28 diesel-powered backup generators. A huge roof with no solar collectors or storage batteries planned? We know you have agendized for a September meeting a ban on future data centers. However, we have grave concerns about this one, and we would like you to form a committee that includes community members as soon as possible. to study these issues to determine what amendments can be negotiated and added to construction requirements. This cannot wait as construction continues. And we would also like to know the expected date of completion of the SVY03A. I know you can't address the things I'm bringing up today, but I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about them. And I just want to put one note in here today Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania signed the most stringent executive order in the country to limit data centers, meaning they have to comply, they have to generate their own electrical power and they may not pollute water or air. I'm not sure that we've made sure that this data center is going to comply with things like that, but I certainly think it bears something that we should look into and I welcome the opportunity to see you more about this issue. Thank you.

And you are right at three minutes. Cheryl, is it Jure? Jure. No, hit the button.

Well, you can see from the signs on my shirt that I'm actually here to speak about Saving Sky West as an open space park in Hayward. Some of you know me from a previous committee meeting.

I want to turn and face the audience that you can also see.

I'm here to speak for the thousands of people in Hayward who support maintaining SkyWest, the former golf course, as an open space park.

You can rotate the microphone.

Sure, sure. Yeah, or the podium itself also rotates. Okay, good, that works, yeah. Because we need, first of all, excuse me, the rest of what I'm saying here has, yes to open space. Okay, thanks.

Perfect, thank you.

No to airport development. and parks for people who live here. That's what we stand for. And there's an actual campaign to save SkyWest. Before I say a little bit more about that, I want to say I completely support the comments made by Marla. I've only learned recently about the AI development in Hayward, and I was shocked, surprised. disappointed and extremely upset. But I believe we actually have four AI centers that are in process right now and nobody knew about them. So this is actually related to the topic of SkyWest because it has to do with land use decisions and resource making, how resources are used here in Hayward by the city council. sort of lost my train of thought here. If you don't know about SkyWest, I live right near the Hayward Airport. And as we speak, there is a proposal by the city council and by the airport to expand into this beautiful piece of open space land that provides habitat for monarch butterflies, endangered turtles. And it's just a beautiful piece of land where people can walk It's very important for climate change that we keep open space. So there's a proposal that the airport would like to expand onto this land, pave it over, build more hangars and provide more space for private jet owners. And there's a lot more of them now than there were 10 years ago because there's a lot of money in the tech sector who are landing and basically using the airport as like their private limousine service. I don't want any more of that and neither do thousands of people who live in Hayward. We don't need more diesel fuel, jet fuel in our air, polluting the air. I could go on and on. So if you're interested in learning more about this, this proposal is live. It's probably gonna go before the council in the fall. I don't know for sure. Please come and talk to me. We have a petition you can sign. And I don't know anyone in Hayward who wants yay for airport expansion or development. We want open space for our children for the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Gina Picaldo.

I'm here because I'm full of love for the land, for the sacred water that we drink each day, and for the beauty that I find here in this place we call Heart of the Bay. I'm here to actually ask you to consider cease and desist, pause the construction of this data center. I'm not the only one, as I've known this evening, that recently found out about this data center. I think it would be wise for everyone on your council to be well aware of what you have approved, because I think even in retrospect, there's a lot of information that is very dubious, questionable, and possibly illegal. That hurts me. Because I understand that you are public servants. I understand you've dedicated your life to the city. So I respect your work and your time. However, deciding on a data center, an eight story data center, when I am told that it's gonna be solar powered, how can that possibly be true when we know that solar power, 24 seven, it's gonna run 24 seven on solar power, impossible. On diesel fuel, Tons, gallons, tons of gallons, 167,000 gallons of diesel fuel. How can that not create pollution? How can our water, our sacred waters that we drink from the Hetch Hetchy not be affected We are in an environmental crisis. I still have a bucket in my bathroom because we still save water, okay? So the fact that our water is so precious to us, our lives, the trade-off doesn't match up. The math does not match up. the employees to the amount of exploitation of our resources, it does not match up for our future. So I'm asking you to please consider taking the measures to pause and reflect and understand that our actions will have environmental impacts for the future. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tom Wong.

Good evening, city council members, mayor. Good evening. Yeah, I'm here to speak about the data center and hopefully could change your mind, maybe issue an emergency meeting to actually stop future data centers or put a moratorium in. This is a very important issue to our community. And I don't think people realize how much power our data center is using. The four data center combined uses about 160 megawatts, that's about 220,000 homes running 24 hours. That's four times what the city of Hayward, the residents of Hayward are using. So imagine what the electricity bill will be once those other two comes online, once that comes online, when Hayward Exchange comes online. Not only that, the water, Hayward Exchange will use a million gallon of water a year. Stacks will use three million gallons. That's not including the two other Amazon data centers. There's no data on that right now. So I think there's an existential crisis in our community. I think that this warrants an emergency session to actually freeze any future data centers and put a stop on what is currently here. Another thing I want to address is that did we actually give this data center, Stack data center, any type of tax credit for building in our city? Because if you did, please extend it to our small business. They are suffering right now and they need tax relief versus an additional burden of more taxes. When these data centers come online, they contribute very little to our community. They promise 200 jobs at over $200,000, but none of them has ever come to fruition that these promises ever come true. So, for that reason, you know, we have to look at these data centers again, their application and scrutinize it to make sure that they're actually performing what they promise. The little bit of money that we do get to help with the services are not enough. One of the reasons why data centers are in the city is because they're using our resources. If they build a data center further out into the valley, they would have to pull all the resources there, the sewage, the fresh water, the power, the internet, police and fire, it takes longer for them to get there. That's why they're doing it in the cities to actually use our, using our resources. So they're not benefiting us, they're actually, they're actually taking advantage of us. And we're getting very little in return. What they do get is they get to boost to their investors pre-IPO. They get to tell them that, hey, we have so many data centers. We can rent it out. We could actually do all these things. That's how they get their money. So this is all for billionaires and millionaires and tech companies. Please put a stop to it. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Sheila, is it Cho? Or yeah.

Guess what I'm gonna talk about. Good evening, Mayor Salinas and council members. My name is Sheila, and I'm a Hayward resident. Lived here most of my life, moved back like over five years ago. I'm here to formally ask Mayor Salinas to agendize a dedicated council meeting regarding the current stack, SVY03A, that center on Even Landing Road. In April, the Council of Leadership closed a loophole that allowed massive, hyperscale data centers to bypass elected oversight by being classified as simple office space. You changed the rules so that projects over 50 megawatts must not face a public council vote. Unfortunately, the 76.6 megawatt stack project slipped through just before those rules took effect. As a result, the single largest consumer of power and water in Hayward's history was approved by city staff without a single vote from this elected body. At full capacity, this facility will draw enough energy to power 76,000 homes. It places an immense unvetted burden on our grid, sits right next to our shoreline, and includes the 28 utility-scale diesel generators that will impact our air quality. While I applaud the upcoming September 15 meeting to discuss banning future data centers, the immediate danger to our local resources is this one being built right now. Mayor Salinas, you acknowledged the process that allowed the SVY03A to pass was flawed. Please use your authority to agendize a formal item on this specific project. The committee deserves a public hearing to demand independent environmental monitoring and strict oversight of this actual resource consumption. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker is Joe Ramos.

Good evening, City Council. I come to apologize for last week. Anyway, I'd like to speak on seven quick points. The first one is, if you notice, there's a lot of taco trucks and vendors that are on all different streets, especially on the churches. I don't know if they're licensed or not, but it seems to me like they're not. That needs to be checked out. The other point I think is very important is that all city employees or Hayward School District employees, they should all live in Hayward. There should be a rule that if you're gonna work in Hayward, you live in Hayward. And once you're hired, you got 90 days to come live in Hayward. So I think if you're gonna be working for the city or any administration here or the school district, you need to live in Hayward. That's my opinion. I don't know what the rest of the people think. Number three, no data center. I just heard about it last week and I'm not sure where they were hiding it. Maybe I had my head in the clouds, but I'm opposed to it. Number four, we need to get quality employers to come in here. Number five, is a transparent city hall. You guys gotta be transparent. Like this thing about the data center, I never heard about it and probably numbers of other Hayward community members probably didn't either. I don't know, but I never heard about it. The last two points, number six, fix the Hayward loop. We've been going in circles. It was a waste of time. It's a waste trying to get to the other side of the city. Fix that damn loop. Excuse my French. And the last one, I took this from my friend Tom Wong, and I won't deny it. He is my friend. He said something about putting out zero-interest loans for business owners. I think that's a hell of a good idea. So now it's up to you. Do you think it's a good idea or not? Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your time. For those that don't know me, my name is Joe Ramos, and I've been living in Hayward for 41 years when the Marine Corps brought me up here. And if it sounds familiar, because I was on the school board, I'm not going anywhere yet. Anyway, God bless you all, and I hope you pay attention. George, keep it up. That's a positive word.

Okay, our next speaker is online. It's Caitlin, is it Kalia?

Yes. I don't know why my camera is not on. I just wanted to reiterate a lot of the comments that people mentioned about the data center. I think we are in danger with this data center that was approved without, again, any kind of public vote or city council vote. I was at the meeting on Tuesday, the town hall, that was fully packed with people outside, really just trying to listen in and hear more about the data center and, frankly, to protest it. As many people there have already heard, many of us Hayward residents were unaware. And I understand at that meeting on Tuesday, we were told that there were different forms of ways that people heard about it. But frankly, one of the first ways that I heard about it was through the Hayward Herald. I think if we still had newspapers like the Daily Review, more people would have been hearing about it on a larger scale. I'm very grateful to the Hayward Herald for all of the articles they've written about the data center and even the newest one that dropped today. But what I'm hearing is that many residents are not only scared, but they're very upset that this was approved without their knowledge. I think, as another person mentioned, that we were taken advantage of by a city. People picked Hayward because maybe they thought they could get away with this. And frankly, it seems like they are. And so I just want to reiterate the points that were already stated, that we do need to have some kind of public hearing. We do need to have some kind of environmental impact report. And I commend the folks who are currently organizing to stop stack SVY03A. And I just want to reiterate the comments that so many of us are deeply upset that this was approved. I've been in Hayward all my life. My father lives about a mile and a half away from where this data center will be built. I think just fathoming the kind of environmental impact is really difficult because we know that these centers are very difficult and they're not good for our communities. So if City Council can work together, whether again this is an emergency session as people discussed, a public hearing, we as a community want to get together to discuss this to see how we can stop it. and more importantly, how we can understand further the environmental impact that this kind of center is going to have. So I thank you for listening to me. And again, I appreciate everybody who's come up ahead of me to say that they are against this center and want to do what they can to stop it. So thank you for listening.

Thank you. Okay, I don't have any cards left, and there are no more callers online. So before I close public comment, I just wanted to make a quick statement. As all of you know, we cannot comment on items brought to us from public comment. But I do know it's safe to say that myself, along with Mayor Pro Tem Syrup and Council Member Andrews, We have co-authored a referral to hear discussion and to direct staff in the exploring of banning data centers in the City of Hayward moving forward. We will hear that on September 15th of next month. And so just stay tuned for more information. And if you have not done this already, I would go online, go to the city's homepage, scroll all the way to the bottom and subscribe to our newsletter, subscribe to the stack. And when you're subscribing to the newsletter, you can even click on, you know, you can subscribe for agendas to council meetings and planning commission meetings and so forth. and you'll get that. So stay tuned, and that item is coming in due time. So with that said, I would like to close public comment. And the city manager's comments, the city manager does not have any comments this evening, so thank you. So now I'd like to move on to a special presentation. If those who don't know uh in the front here we are um real pleased to have ac transit uh in the house so let's give ac transit a big round of applause and uh I'm not going to steal his introductions, but I wanted to introduce to you the AC Transit director who is in our district, who represents us, and that's Director Silva. So I'll let you introduce your GM and your staff. And, sir, take it away.

Fantastic. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Anthony Silva. I'm on the board of directors for AC Transit. I represent Ward 6, which is Hayward. Today, AC Transit is a special district serving 13 cities and eight uncorporated counties across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Three out of four riders are people of color, and nearly two-thirds are low-income, making AC Transit an essential lifeline for all the communities we serve. 40 million riders every year, more than 140,000 riders board a typical weekday. Each weekday, more than 9,500 riders use our Transbay lines. At least 30,000 students will depend on us to get safety to and from class each day. I will now invite you to our general manager, Sal Yamas, to follow up.

Good evening, Mayor Salinas and city council members. I'm Salvador Llamas, the general manager and CEO at AC Transit. In terms of AC Transit's economic impact, AC Transit supports more than 5,100 jobs across the East Bay. More than half of those jobs are created outside of our agency. Together, they generate over $604 million annual wages, and they inject nearly $1 billion into the East Bay economy every single year. Every bus we operate creates jobs, supports local businesses, and strengthens our communities. Today, our fleet reflects 58 zero-emission buses, and they're eliminating any tailpipe emissions from our streets. That leadership earned AC Transit $40 million in federal investment to launch the transit industry's first ever zero emission bus university, or as we call it, Zebu. Alongside Chabot College and Union ATU Local 192, Zebu will help our employees earn associate degrees while preparing to clean, while preparing to repair the clean transits of the future and our workforce. Next slide. Riders recognize our value because we're making transit more affordable, faster, and safer. E-ZPass provides unlimited rides at deep discounts for participating employers, colleges, and communities. Clipper Start gives income eligible adults half off every ride. We redesigned 104 bus lines last summer with our real line network, cutting travel times and making our lines a lot more reliable and accessible. Next slide. As was mentioned earlier, three out of four AC Transit riders are people of color, and nearly two-thirds are low income. More than half earn less than $50,000 a year, well below the federal poverty level, in one of the nation's most expensive regions. Many are already struggling to afford essentials like housing and transportation. That helps explain why 65% of our riders are transit dependent. So, service cuts will not be an inconvenience. They would upend the lives of those who rely the most on AC Transit. Next slide. At AC Transit, we're making every taxpayer dollar count. We know that when fares go unpaid, the cost does not disappear. It creates a funding gap. This summer, we launched the multilingual fare required for compliance campaign. The message is simple, pay the fare, protect the bus line. Also, a comprehensive California state auditor review found that AC Transit synchronizes its service well with other East Bay Transit bus agencies. Our collective real challenges are sustainable funding, not mismanagement. What's more, an independent review confirmed average annual savings of 33 million since 2020. This commitment to making every taxpayer dollar count is why we have a top tier AA plus credit rating. When the cost of running the bus network rises faster than the revenue supporting it, the results is a fiscal cliff. What's behind it? Federal pandemic relief funds are gone. Regional sales tax revenue has flattened and fare revenue growth has slowed. Fuel costs are up by 28%. Bus maintenance parts increased by 14%. The cost of buying new buses has increased by 35%. You can see it's lopsided and it's not sustainable. But we're not standing idle. Instead, we've taken action. In the last fiscal year alone, we tightened our belts by $9 million. We're hiring only front positions that directly support delivering service. We scaled back temporary staffing, saving roughly $2 million annually. We brought outside professional services in-house. We're partnering with other agencies to purchase goods and services for less. We're making every taxpayer dollar count. The dollars must count because AC Transit faces a projected $200 million deficit over the next four years. That translates to an annual funding gap at least $50 million beginning in 2027. Without long-term, sustainable funding, service reductions up to 16% become unavoidable. And so would the human impact, potential layoffs affecting as many as 300 employees. We've been thrown a lifeline, but it's not a permanent solution. It's a state bridge loan, and it's exactly that. A loan, not a bailout, and it must be paid with interest. AC Transit's share is $55 million, enough to close this year's budget and avoid service cuts today. But next summer, the loan is gone. Reserves are exhausted, and the funding challenge returns. That's why hope now rests with the Regional Transit Measure, or formerly Connect Bay Area Act, or Senate Bill 63. The measure would ask voters in five Bay Area counties to approve a 14-year half-cent sales tax, one cent in San Francisco. If approved, it would generate an estimated $980 million annually for Bay Area buses, trains, and ferries. AC Transit would receive approximately $52 million each year helping to protect existing bus service and prevent layoffs. Without long-term funding, our bus network remains at risk. To show what that could mean for riders and our communities, I'd like to invite our planning department to share an overview.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Owen Christofferson. I'm a transportation planner with AC Transit. So you've heard from Board Director Silva and General Manager Llamas about the local and regional importance of AC Transit as an agency, as well as the very significant financial challenges that are facing the agency. So, you know, in these uncertain financial times, how do you plan for the future? Well, our approach is simple, which is plan for the worst and hope for the best. which is why we've developed a worst-case scenario contingency service plan. This plan is just that, it's a contingency, and it would only take effect if no new long-term funding were secured by December 2026. If that happens, our priority is protecting as much service as possible. The contingency plan preserves the realigned network we launched last summer. Other priorities are to minimize wholesale route eliminations, protect hours of service when possible, and maintain frequent bus service where riders depend on it the most. Next slide, please. The proposed contingency service plan is designed to protect the most service for the greatest number of riders. It does this by preserving our backbone routes, or what we like to call the primary route network. We focus service reductions where ridership is the lowest, which minimizes impacts on the greatest number of riders. Weekday service of every 15 minutes or better is preserved on key corridors, including Telegraph, Broadway, San Pablo, and the Mission Boulevard corridor here in Hayward. Next slide, please. So let's talk a little bit about what this means for Hayward and these communities here. So in Hayward, Line 9, which serves the Mission Boulevard corridor, would be maintained at 15 minutes with the exception of early morning service and late evening service, where it would then go to 30-minute service. Line 97, which serves the Hesperian Boulevard corridor, would be reduced to 30-minute service all day and terminate at Union Landing Shopping Center instead of going all the way to Union City BART. Line 60, which is a really important line for this community, serves many key destinations, including Chabot College and Cal State East Bay, would see its current weekday service levels maintained, which includes the recently added trips between Hayward-Bart and Cal State East Bay. However, weekend service would be reduced to every 60 minutes. Other local lines, most of which are currently 40 minutes on weekdays and 60 minutes on weekends, would see reductions to 60-minute service seven days a week. All lines described here would see small reductions in hours of operation. And as I close, I'd just like to stress one more time that this plan would only take effect if no new long-term funding is secured by December 2026. Next slide, please. I'd just like to talk briefly about kind of the timeframe. So the AC Transit Board of Directors has set the public hearing for this plan on October 14th. So we invite community members to submit comments and feedback regarding that, and we will hold that Public hearing, formal public hearing on October 14th. As we all know, the general election is scheduled for November 3rd, 2026. And if needed, the AC Transit Board of Directors will consider on November 18th and approve on December 9th, 2026, this contingency service plan, which would then direct staff to implement the changes, which we would then see on June 13th, 2027. So again, if no new funding is secured by the end of the year, we would potentially see these service reductions on June 13th, 2027. And with that, I'll turn the mic back to Board Director Silva. Thank you.

Okay. Well, AC Transit wants to hear from Hayward residents, and here's how to engage. Scan the QR code up on the screen here to learn how AC Transit's proposed contingency service plan and fill out the feedback form. email planning at actransit.org, or visit actransit.org to learn more. Thank you. AC Transit is committed to keeping Hayward and East Bay moving with 40 million trips a year, connecting riders to jobs, schools, and essential services. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

Thank you. Thank you. And, you know, I just wanted to acknowledge, you know, the general manager Yamas and, you know, Mr. Silva, I have been in other meetings where I have heard you present your, you know, your stories and your histories in and in bus manufacturing. And I just wanted to just tell everyone standing in front of us, there is a lot of years, both on the bus manufacturing side and in the bus public transportation, but primarily bus service side. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. And there is a tremendous amount of experience and know-how in front of us this evening. So thank you very much for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you for that. I was going to have Councilmember Syrup first, but were you just going to make a statement or...? Oh, okay. So, Councilmember Syrup, go ahead.

Great, thank you. I'm sure Councilmember Zermeno has something similar to add, but just wanted to appreciate the presentation. I have the pleasure of serving with you and working with AC Transit staff as one of the city's two AC Transit interagency liaison committee members, along with Councilmember Zermeno. And it's been a wonderful partnership for the few years I've had to work together. We've been able to install bus benches across the city of Hayward, conduct accessibility assessments on all of our bus stops, We've been able to make traffic signal upgrades and improve pavement to ensure that we're improving bus service frequency reliability. And what I really appreciated about the presentation tonight is you demonstrating very strong fiscal stewardship. And I just wanted to communicate that the deficit that you're in, Most developed countries have federally funded public transit. And so you're in a very difficult position where you're trying to recoup fares in order to fund your own system. But just for anyone listening that's interested in our public transit system, if we had better federal funding for public transit, bar AC Transit would not be in this position. I also just wanted to add for folks that want to understand the importance of AC Transit in our community, we have 14,000 bus riders taking AC Transit every single day. And when we talk about climate justice and environmental justice, which, you know, when we think about SkyWest or when we think about the data centers, they're all interconnected issues when we're thinking about climate change. the majority of co2 output in the city of hayward comes from private passenger vehicles and so if we're serious about tackling climate change public transportation is one of the critical components of that strategy so just really appreciate the work that you're doing and i'm proud to be able to support it uh on this end from the city of hayward side and i'll turn it over to my colleague council members

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, my colleague, Sareb. I agree with his comments. I like working with you, Mr. Silva, in our meetings. We have a meeting this coming Friday at 10 a.m., so if anybody would like to provide some input as to how to improve public transportation. I've been with this committee. I think the only city that has this interagency committee I believe, of all the other cities in Alameda. So we're telling people how to do the job. We have done a lot, and I really appreciate, and I really like working with you guys, your tremendous team. Mr. Llamas, congratulations becoming the... the big cheese of AC Transit, and I love the tour. If you have an opportunity, tour the AC Transit office here in Hayward, as a matter of fact. And thank you again for a good presentation. Let's keep up, and I agree with my colleague Syrup's point. Public transportation is something that's very important to us, especially with climate change in the way. So let's pass SB 63. Please vote yes on it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Before I call upon Councilor Roach, I wanted to ask, towards the end of the school year and during the summertime, and I also wanted to acknowledge my colleague on the Alameda County Transportation Commission, Supervisor Marquez over there, were both the representatives on ACTC, so Hayward is quite represented on ACTC. There's the, we were able to get the bus pass program fully funded through ACTC, so all Hayward six, seven, or I'm sorry, seven, eight, nine, 12 students can get a free bus pass that would basically unlimited across the entire system also cal state east bay also has unlimited public transportation access on their id cards and they can get a bus pass so and in fact i just read recently san jose state uh just opened up uh you know it's good to see that hayward came in first on that one But I wanted to, of course, you know, we have Cal State but we also have Chabot College. And I was just curious, you know, how can Chabot College get on that, you know, bus pass plan. And I don't know if there's a, if it's through ACTC or if there's arrangements through agencies or what. But I just wanted to, if that's something that we can look into.

Thank you, Mayor, for the question. So we do have a staff that work with the colleges and universities for our EZ Pass program. That's designed for colleges and universities and also businesses. So we will make sure that we double check that they are communicating with the Chabot College. Excellent, thank you.

And then, let's see, I'll go to Councilmember Roach.

Thank you. I want to thank you for being here, for coming all together and presenting this, because I know it's tough times, or it's tough times for a lot of us, and this budget deficit is really serious. I want to say that I'm fully, I'm in support of SB, what is it, SB 63, and I really hope that you can get that past the goal line in November. I know it's sort of, I wanted to make the personal comment that I know the realignment you did recently, I was sort of worried about it. My son and his friends go all over the Bay Area on the transit, but they didn't care they just re they just sort of assimilated right and they just figured out the way to go and so i think that even though it feels daunting to do some of these things like i think people that are really good users of the bus they're going to get where they want to go because that's their freedom and that's how they are able to um get around without us driving them everywhere so i just want to thank you all for being here good luck with all of the um all the budget work that you're doing and i wish you luck for november thank you thank you council thank you uh council member andrews

Thank you for being here. I just wanted to thank staff for working on this staff report. I know it's a lot of work to present to different jurisdictions, and we don't get a lot of presentations from our special districts, so it's always good to see you all come out and talk to your partner agencies. And just a question I had was, with this funding, would you also see improvements to just different types of infrastructure that the public would actually see besides making sure we have ridership available? or making sure we have buses for the ridership?

Yes, thank you, Councilmember. So the budget, the funding that we're seeking is gonna preserve what we have today. The infrastructure reinvestments, we seek that funding through our federal partners, so bus and bus facilities from the Federal Transit Administration, and also now they have the low and no emissions programs. Those are primarily, and there's formula funds, that are called 5307 funds that we apply for funding. The 5307 is funding that we normally receive. The loan loan and bus and bus facilities are grants, and those are funding that we apply. Sometimes we receive the funding, so that's uncertainty there. We're gonna receive the appropriate amount that we need to reinvest in the state of good repair of our facilities and our vehicles.

Okay, and then has the agency also looked at private partnerships to offset some of the costs, just in terms of shuttles to industrial areas, apartment buildings? I've seen that in other jurisdictions.

So we are looking at every and exploring every opportunity. The P3 private public partnership is another opportunity that we're looking at. How do we invest in some of our facilities? I am happy to announce that here in Hayward, we are gonna build and we receive part of the $40 million that we received from the federal government in 23 and 24 is gonna be to build a hydrogen fueling station here in our Hayward facility so we can now bring clean zero emission buses to the city.

Okay, thank you. Well, okay.

I guess clap for that.

But thank you for, again, for coming out. And I want to thank your external affairs teams. I see them everywhere, and they really do come out and engage with the community. So just wanted to give them a kudos as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Absolutely. seeing no more questions um i wanted to again thank you for coming out and uh and i i did endorse the transportation measure that's coming out so we are crossing our fingers it will benefit all I don't know how many transit systems that are connected, but there's many, five that are directly related to this particular measure, but public transportation is absolutely important in the Bay Area, and I think Mayor Pro Tem Syrup is absolutely correct. If we really want to clean our air and really stop our carbon emissions, is that we need to start taking more public transportation as it gets cleaner and greener. So thank you very much. And I think that's it.

Thank you, Mayor. By the way, I just want to let you know, you know, I served 40 years at Gillig.

I know.

And I just retired.

I know. Yes, well, congratulations. All right, thank you guys. Thank you. And on a sort of a side transportation note, students, and I'm gonna say it only because Supervisor Marquez is here, we made it right before the beginning of school, but for all those students at Tennyson High School who walk along Whitman, or walk along Huntwood and cross the train tracks to get to Tennyson High School, yesterday they were able to, cross through a new railroad crossing section from Underwood or Huntwood to the school because of monies that we were able to pull together from ACTC. And so that is long time in the making. And that is a clear and a very good partnership that we have had with not only ACTC, but between the city and the school district. And so I just wanted to throw a shout out to the supervisor on that one. So we were able to get that done with ACTC. So, okay. Thank you very much. And I will close that item. I will proceed to our consent calendar. I do have a couple items I wanted to get pulled. I wanted to pull item 10 and item 12. I do have cards on those two items. And so what we'll do is why don't we proceed with moving and passing the remaining items one through nine, and one through nine, 11. I'll move those items. Moved by Mayor Pro Tem Syrup. I'll second. Seconded by Council Member Roach. Well, actually, before we do that, Madam City Clerk, I would be remiss if I did not open it up for public comment first. Is there any public comment for those items, not 12 or 10? I don't see any public comment in the room. I don't have any cards, and I don't see... Hands raised, so I will.

Mayor Salinas? Yes. Mayor, my apologies, but we have TJ.

Yes, I do see that, yeah. So TJ for Hayward Concerned Citizens.

I actually, it's for item 12.

Okay, okay. So I'll pause on you for a moment. I will close public comment. Moved by Mayor Pro Tem Syrup, seconded by Council Member Roach. Madam City Clerk, if we can please take roll. And I think it passes unanimously, thank you. Item number 10 is adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a memorandum of understanding between the City of Hayward and the County of Alameda for the administration of Russell City Redress Fund and phase one payments and related actions. And so I believe I, And before I acknowledge them, I just wanted to just really publicly thank council members Andrews and Roach and of course our legal team for really keeping this issue at the forefront and really making sure that the process is followed, families are heard, and I'm really pleased to see the point that we're at today. So with that said, Council Member Andrews.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and especially through the leadership of Supermarquez. We would not be here today to get to this moment. I also want to thank her staff. In particular, I just want to thank Rodney Loesch as well as Megan Turner and Alex, her chief of staff, and all the other folks that have really stepped up in assisting us in figuring out this MOU, as well as the auditor's office and the legal team. I want to also thank the Russell City Steering Committee. Russell City was always a community that was discussed here and there, that was talked about here and there. We would talk about it when we would approve things on planning commission about how this area was formerly Russell City and we were approving things in this area and we would hear it from the different families that used to be from this area and they maintained their connection and community through annual picnics. I would say in 2020, 2021, the conversation started of how we can address what happened here and how can we continue to respond to restorative justice. And so we feel that this MOU has created a step to respond as a way as a city as a as a partnership with the county and partnership also with alameda county of education to respond to what happened this is not something that will make total amends but this is a step this is an acknowledgement of what happened here and i want to thank my colleague council member julie roach who has been with us every step in a way in terms of providing guidance And again, I wanna thank the supervisor, but also I wanna thank the city staff when we made the apology through the recommendations of the Community Services Commission and it was their job to figure this out. And I really appreciate all the work and time and commitment that they have given. on a almost daily basis on trying to figure out how do we get back to this community. So thank you and I look forward to hearing a unanimous vote on this item.

Thank you. Council Member Roach.

Thank you. I wanted to take a moment to recognize what a historic moment this is for Hayward and for the rest of the city community. With this vote, we are taking a step that goes beyond acknowledging a painful chapter in our city's history. For decades, the displacement of approximately 1,400 Russell City residents caused profound economic, personal, and generational harm, harm that was never meaningfully addressed. And I'm proud that we're moving forward from apology to action, something tangible, by establishing this redress fund to make payments to those who were directly harmed. I want to thank the Restless City community members and the Restless City Repair Justice Project participants who kept the history alive, shared their stories, and participated in this process and continued to advocate for justice. I specifically want to recognize Supervisor Lisa Marquez, who together with her staff in District 2 have not let this work fall. When it looked controversial or got difficult to get approved, Supervisor Marquez did not let up. She kept pushing forward and made this happen. And here we are today. I also want to thank her Board of Supervisors colleagues, Supervisors Miley, Halbert, Fortuna Bess, and Tam for their contributions and wholehearted support of the fund. I want to thank Aisha Knowles and the Knowles family for keeping the memory of the Restless City community alive and for Aisha's work on the movie The Apology, which told the story of Restless City and what happened during redevelopment. If you haven't seen it, keep your eye out for a local screening of that. It's really informative. I want to thank my colleague, of course, my fellow member, the Redress Fund Working Group Councilmember Andrews, who's really guided us along the way and how to show up for this kind of work and just really appreciate her work and compassion in this. And I also want to thank my colleagues up here in the council for your compassion in moving this work forward too. It's really been a team effort. And I want to thank the city attorney, Michael Lawson, who envisioned a way forward for this to happen and got us on our way. And I'm hoping he's going to make some comments afterwards as well. Thank you also to the Alameda County Office of Education for finding this to be a meaningful cause to support. I also want to thank, I look back a little bit and thank Arzo Madavi, who was the former chair of the Community Services Commission that sort of kicked off this work. And Sarah Landman, who was the city council member at the time that was the liaison to the Community Services Commission during the apology. And finally, I want to acknowledge that this does not undo what happened, of course. It does not fairly compensate what was lost, but it is an important step toward making amends and honoring the people of the community of Russell City. I'm grateful to the Russell City community for their persistence, courage, and the willingness to participate in the process, even when it got hard. and painful, and I hope today's action demonstrates that their history matters, that the losses mattered, and their voices matter. And yeah, I thank everyone for participating in the project, and I hope our city attorney will also say a few comments.

Thank you. Before I defer to our city attorney, oh, okay. Mr. City Attorney, would you like to make a comment?

Well, thank you, Mayor and Council. I just wanted to acknowledge staff members who have been working on this project and who really started the work and continued it up over the last couple of years. Former Equity Officers Jenny Chacon and Josephine Iancoya and former Assistant City Manager Regina Youngblood.

Absolutely, thank you. So before I, well what I'll do now is I'll, before we go through the voting procedure, I'll go to public comment and see if there are any public comment. And I see, and I see TJ from Hayward Concerned Citizens.

Item 12.

Oh, item 12. I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. All right. Before, oh, wait, hold on a second. Oh, okay. Mayor Pro Tem Cyra.

Thank you. I just also wanted to acknowledge the work of Councilmember Andrews and Councilmember Roach for helping lead this with city staff and the supervisor. And I think a lot of acknowledgement has been given to the Russell City Steering Committee and of course the families that were engaged in that process, both in the steering committee and outside of it. There were a number of consultants we worked with, as well as the Community Services Commission. And I think I just wanted to put into perspective, and this was a long arc, not just the historical displacement of the Russell City families, but from the apology in the wake of the George Floyd uprisings, for organizers to come together, for the Community Services Commission to come together, for the council to have the courage to embark on an apology. and try to think how do we make these historical wrongs right to the degree that we can, raise really interesting questions around legality, around history, around how do you make something right when it was so far in the past but is still impacting folks today. And some folks have struggled with this project. Some people think it's not Hayward's fault. The city did nothing wrong. But when we look at the industrial park that was built where Russell City is today, every day we're extracting tax revenue that pays for the services, that keeps the city's lights on, that keeps our roads paved, that pays for our public safety services. And so I just wanted to put into perspective how important this vote is because it's our effort to at least try to attempt to set things straight and make amends for a decision that harmed a lot of families to benefit the greater public of Hayward. We benefit from that harm today and so I'm just I'm glad that this council has stayed focused. I mean, it's not easy to move a project through five years of time, and we've been able to do that and get to this point. And I think the design of this redress fund, what I'm most excited about is it will help serve as a new model for other cities to explore as well. When Councilman Roach said this is a historic decision, I believe it is because it will demonstrate to other cities how they can also address racial inequities and historical harms as well. So I'm very pleased to be supporting this item tonight, and I just really commend you all for your work on this. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Okay, so I'm gonna ask for a motion and a seconder and I'm gonna defer to Council Member Andrews and Council Member Roach and Council Member Andrews.

Mayor, it would be an honor for me to move this item. And thank you for the opportunity, I'd like to second.

Moved by Councilmember Andrews, seconded by Councilmember Roach, and before I call the vote, I wanted to just briefly just tell a very small story. I'm going to take the privilege of the chair. My father moved to Hayward in 1954, and he moved here because he had an aunt here that had lived here some years before that, so probably in the late 40s, early 50s. My family has a very, very long history here in Hayward. Two years ago, when my mother's sister passed away, my mom and I went back to New Mexico for the funeral services. And after mass and after the services, we go back to the church, to the reception hall to pray. you know, have the reception. And so we were there, and there was people all, you know, milling around. And I don't know if I said this, but my family is originally from New Mexico, small town in the southeastern part of the state, a little small town back there. And as we were there at the church in the reception hall, We were eating. This couple walked up to me, and they were probably in their late 80s, 90s in age. And the wife, the woman, she asked me, she said, aren't you the nephew or the grandson who is from Hayward? And I said, yes. And she goes, you're the mayor of Hayward, aren't you? And I said, why, I am. And she, and so she went into this little story about how she lived in Hayward right off of Hesperian in a little neighborhood in Winton, right, you know, over there by Chenault Way and in those streets over there. And she had fond memories and she said, yes, we used to, after school we used to go across the street and play with our friends who lived in that little community right next to the airport. And I was like, yeah, yeah. And I go, it was probably Russell City. And she says, yes, absolutely. And she was sitting there, she was standing there telling the story. She kind of quietly shook her head. And she said, it was a travesty what had been done to those families. A travesty. And so here we were, three states away. A woman who was in her 90s, maybe older, had great memories of growing up in Hayward and living in Hayward. But the one memory that she wanted to share with me was her friends who lived in Russell City and how she remembered the treatment of that neighborhood and how it was neglected. And I was very happy at that time. I was very happy to say, you know, ma'am, I think the council, we are about to embark on a process where we are going to acknowledge those families and repair the harm that was done. And she just, you know, she stood there and she goes, it's about time. It's about time. And so I am so glad we are doing this. I am so pleased to be the mayor of a city with a council like this, making this vote tonight. We're certainly not going to reverse everything that had been done, but at least this here demonstrates our value as a city. The value that we focus on is diversity, inclusion, and justice. So with that, it was moved by Councilmember Andrews, it was seconded by Councilmember Roach, Madam City Clerk, can we please take the roll? And ladies and gentlemen, it passes unanimously. Thank you, Supervisor. Okay, our next item is item number 12, and I just wanna be sure. Our next item is item number 12, and I believe Mayor Pro Tem Syrup wanted to pull item 12, correct? Yeah, and there's all, and I do have two public comment cards on that. So let me, before I go to public comment, let me first defer to Councilmember, or Mayor Pro Tem Syrup, and go ahead.

Thank you, I'll start with questions and give comments after public comment. But just for the public's knowledge, this contract is discussing transitioning off of flock cameras to Axon, given that a flock camera is expiring. or sorry, our flock contract is expiring. From my understanding, we have two concurrent flock contracts. How many remaining flock cameras would there be in the city if this transition goes through or if we allow the contract, the current flock contract to expire?

I had that number last night and I just need to look at it.

Or I can also ask Chief Matthews if that's easier. Yes.

If he can get there faster. Oh, 23. Okay, 23.

Great. Thank you. I'll keep the rest of my comments for public comment, after public comment.

Okay. Council Member Roach.

Thank you. I wasn't going to speak, but since we brought it up, I was hoping that we could comment on the funding, that it's not going to, my specific question is, it's not going to draw on any additional general fund dollars for this item. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay, thank you.

Great. Okay, I will go to public comment. I have two public comment cards. First public comment is, is it Ariana?

Good evening, Council. My name is Arianna. I'm a Hayward homeowner and small business owner, and I'm speaking on this item and urging Council to vote no on this item at this time, or at least continue this item at least 60 days minimum to have a full audit completed, such as those done by Mountain View and Los Altos Hills. These audits have found out-of-state access, and we don't yet know the vulnerabilities of access or the FUSUS Center, which is also on this item. Will this technology be similar to the flock AI capability that journalists were able to see in a video which shows a man rollerblading with the camera panned out and then zooming into his phone playing a video while he takes a break? Should I set the expectation that these cameras can zoom into what I'm doing? Drones' first responders are described as flying LPR cameras. Drones are considered military equipment, and a recent audit of Elk Grove's Flock ALPR system shows only 3% of searches involving data recorded in the city were made by the Elk Grove Police Department. The other 8 million were searches from 3,600 other cities, counties, states, federal agencies, and governmental organizations. This included fusion centers which collaborate with the Department of Homeland Security. It does not appear that police departments can control who is searching the data despite saying certain agencies do not have access. This police department also has a robust drone as first responder program and RTIC, which is also a part of this resolution. Is this what we can expect as evolution here in Hayward as well? Do we have policies in place that align with the 2017 California Senate Bill 54, which restricts state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents? Does anyone know? ICE has spent almost $100 million in contracts with Axon in the last two decades since it was created. In February of this year, ICE signed another contract with Axon for $220 million. At least 50 police officers have been charged or accused of using Flock for unauthorized purposes, and over half of those involved using it on their wives, girlfriends, exes, exes' new partners, or women they wanted to meet, according to the Washington Post. How is this technology going to be different? As a survivor of gender-based and sexual violence who was not able to report to the police for those same reasons, I have serious concerns about this. And representatives could come up here and say anything today. In Wisconsin, the city council had to rescind a FLOC contract within 24 hours after FLOC representatives lied about the technology's capability. So without an audit, how can we, the residents of Hayward, be expected to trust this decision, especially after what just happened with the AI data center? Is that the standard that we're setting here for Hayward? Axon makes police-worn body cameras, which also have AI functionality. According to Axon's own website, police can ask the AI general info about facts, definitions, calculations, what are common street names for Xanax, what is 15% of 198? These answers are AI-generated, but the site encourages verification before critical use. This item also approves the Axon Fusive Center for HPD purchase, which is a real-time platform that unifies public and private video streams and ALPRs. It also is approval of the full RTIC package. Does this include Axon Outpost and Axon Lightpost? Both of these have live streaming capabilities. It does not list any other equipment. They also have tasers and vulnerabilities have been found with the tasers, meaning general public can tap into the Bluetooth. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Schott.

Good evening, Council, Mayor. My name is Brian Schott. I'm a resident of Hayward's new District 1 and have been for over 50 years, and I live on Morris Court next to Cal State East Bay. And I'm here speaking in support of this project and the drones as a first responder. I had an opportunity to see a demo of it from Hayward PD to the Chamber of Commerce and the technology to me is what we need in this city. It's a necessary investment to meet the number one issue of Hayward residents and that is public safety and the need to feel safe. Sorry. And I ask, what price do you put on public safety? Right now we have anywhere from nine to 15 teams of police officers, some work in solo, some in combinations, at any one time on our street. With the drone program, they can get somebody out, they can get eyes on the scene before an officer arrives. The officer has more time to be knowledgeable about the situation, they don't have to sit and be assessed. It also protects the safety of our personnel so they know what they're up against. The scene we saw was a guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at the drone that they showed in the demo and I believe you saw it. Bottom line, the five year contract of roughly $2.9 million breaks down to about $1,600 a day or around $68 an hour. I can tell you that if you could reduce police, or if you can reduce crime at $68 an hour, it's a bargain. And I would hope that a similar program be instituted with Hayward Fire, launching these drones down from the nine fire stations in the district. I live in the hills, I want somebody to see the smoke that's coming out of my canyon, whether it's a barbecue, or tree on fire. So I would urge you to pass this consent item. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next item, our next speaker, sorry, is TJ.

Hello, now speaking on item 12. I'm TJ with Hayward Concerned Citizens. I wanted to pull this item again to extend our organization's steadfast support, not only for the DFR program itself, but also for the proposed technology package that comes with it. We had an opportunity to get all our questions answered by Captain Dan Olson, and we're assured this is a great deal that will be a force multiplier for our police and aid greatly in criminal investigations and maintaining community safety. I appreciate Captain Olson's time, and I urge council to not only approve the five-year agreement, but to consider it a good investment for our city's future beyond that, as Brian Schott referred to. Thank you, and have a good night.

Thank you. Next speaker is Theresa R. Hi, good evening, everyone.

This is Theresa Resentis. I'm also a member of Hayward Concerned Citizens. And just like TJ, I am fully supportive of the DFR program and of the package from Exxon Enterprises. I'm also not at all alarmed at any recording by these devices that can be used by the FBI or other law enforcement agencies in other cities in order to track criminal behavior. I am much more in favor of safety, even if it is reducing a little bit of our civil liberties, because safety is the number one concern that I have. Thank you very much. MR.

Thank you. Okay, so I'd like to come back to the Council and put a close to public comment in Mayor Pro Tem Syrup.

Thank you, Mayor. I won't belabor the point just because I think I've given my position on the expansion of surveillance tech in the time of ICE. And so I think I'm going to remain consistent with that tonight. I'm really happy to see that we're transitioning away from flock. I do want to say that first and foremost. So I want to acknowledge the work that's gone into looking for alternatives. I do have concerns about the alternatives. As I do research on Axon versus Flock, I see this becoming a battle of almost two investor camps, the Wall Street investors and the Silicon Valley investors. Silicon Valley is interested in Flock. Wall Street's interested in Axon. Trump is also invested in Axon. And so, you know, this push to move away from Flock towards Axon I think saves us a bit of money, sure, but I don't think it addresses the underlying issue of the expansion of mass surveillance infrastructure in our communities. This time when we're seeing really blatant abuse by ICE agents and contracts being signed with ICE agents, I just can't get behind the expansion of more ALPR cameras and surveillance infrastructure in our communities. I understand that it is a good investment to invest in public safety. I think we spend close to 80% of our general fund on public safety features as a city, our largest chunk by far. I also would retort, what price do we put on our own civil liberties when we have neighbors that are being kidnapped by ICE, and we're not 100% sure if our tools are being used for these purposes. So I won't belabor the point anymore, but that's my stance on it, and if the item passes, it passes.

Thank you. Councilmember Bonilla. Thank you, Mayor. I just had a quick question for the police chief. You know, the main issue I think that I have is, and not with this particular contract, but in general, is the inappropriate usage or access to this data and to this information. I think we heard examples. today of how these cameras or this footage has been used by ICE or it's been inappropriately accessed by members of the community. Can you just talk a little bit about sort of your level of confidence with data security and access to this footage and how that's gonna be sort of monitored and audited to make sure that this is only being accessed in accordance with HPD policy and through your oversight?

Yeah, absolutely. I'll start with the audit process first because we are doing that with our current program. On a monthly basis, Captain Olson and his staff are mining our ALPR data to make sure that it is not being inappropriately accessed by people who shouldn't have it, including people who are outside the state of California, people who are from federal agencies that are responsible for immigration enforcement. We do comply with SB 34 and SB 54, and this technology that we're proposing does also. The other audit that we're doing is on the staff side. So in order to access information, everybody has an individual user ID and everybody has to include a reason code for doing a search. And so that is what we're auditing. We're making sure that people are accessing this for legitimate law enforcement purposes and not for personal reasons. So that work is ongoing with our current program. One of the reasons why we selected Axon as a vendor is because we are confident in their ability to protect data. We have evidence.com. All of our digital evidence is currently uploaded into that system. This information would be uploaded into that system as well. We contract with them for body-worn cameras. We have fleet cameras that already have their ALPR capability and so confident in their ability to protect information, keep it out of the hands of people that shouldn't have it.

Thank you, and then, as it relates to drones there's going to be particular use cases in which those drawings those drones get deployed they're not just going to be kind of roaming around the city during during doing general surveillance like on a regular basis right.

Correct. We have very explicit prohibition language in our policy. Random surveillance is not allowed. The DFR concept is solely based on calls for service. So it's 100% in response to somebody calling 911 for something, whether it's on the PD or the fireside. Those are the cases where we're talking about using this concept. Got it.

And in addition to criminal stuff that we'll be using these, you know, this technology for, can't it also be used to help us kind of respond in large scale fires or natural disasters? Can you just help us understand the application of this technology beyond, you know, crime reduction or crime response?

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, in the example of a wildland fire, getting eyes above it to figure out what direction it's traveling, having the fire department have the ability to take a look at a structure for integrity reasons before they're sending staff inside of it. I mean, there's a total application for it in emergency response. We sit on a major fault line. I don't have to tell you, I'm sure we all share the, you know, that 2 to 4 a.m. window in the middle of the night where we worry about things like that. If we are subject to a major earthquake, not only are we gonna have to do damage assessment, we're gonna have to do rescue operations Um, You know, this is a situational awareness tool that's going to help us direct staff and direct them faster than we can now. Thank you.

And just because this is approved, we're looking at this on an annual basis to ensure conformance with policies and applicable laws. And if there's ever a deviation from that, we would have an ability to stop this, right?

Yes. So this falls within AB 41. We have to get authorization from the council annually to continue to use that equipment. If there's an instance of an employee misuse or a problem with the program or something that the council says, hey, we're shutting it down, you absolutely have the ability to do that. So this will be something that we talk about on an annual basis. to talk about it at the will of the Council Public Safety Committee. We have that forum as well. So we're happy to share information and present on it. We do have a public-facing website that people can take a look at. Our policies are there. And this concept will be integrated into that. So we will be reporting out on usage. People will be able to look at that stuff. I appreciate that transparency.

Thank you, Chief, and thanks for your leadership. Thank you.

Thank you. Before I call on the next speaker, what I'd like to do is I'd like to go ahead and move this item. Moved by Mayor Salinas and seconded by Councilmember Bonilla. Councilmember Goldstein.

Yeah, thank you. Chief, you have daughters. How would you feel if you found one of your officers using the surveillance technology to monitor one of your daughters?

The person misusing the technology would be subject to discipline up to and including termination.

I knew that would be your answer, and I know you're a man of integrity. And I absolutely agree with my colleagues that this technology can be a real lifesaver. It can also really extend our ability to reach people who need a responder right away. It's got applicability with police and fire and rescue operations. and also in monitoring fleeing suspects and fleeing vehicles in a way that does not jeopardize our employees or our residents. So totally understand that You know, there's some debate around this, but this is honestly the most cost-effective force multiplier that we could possibly apply. And we have, you have put into place, we have as a city, put into place the mechanisms to make sure that the technology is used responsibly and not abused, correct?

Absolutely.

Very good, thank you for your service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Rangers.

Thank you, I wanted to ask another question. I understand that we have reporting annually. I wanted to know if we can increase the reporting in terms of if there's any misuse, if there's any reports that come out on Access Hayward, anything that's been called in the residents felt like there was misuse. I know there's been calls that I've received where people thought it was a police drone, but it actually was a private drone, so just wanted to see if that was possible.

Yeah, so anybody can report a suspected case of misuse, either by contacting Internal Affairs. They can send me an email. You can go to Access Hayward. There's a variety of mechanisms for doing that, and they will be investigated. We do audit the program. We have not found a case of misuse with the drone program or with the license plate reader program on behalf of staff. I mean, that's something that we've had in place since about 2022, I believe. But there is a mechanism for people to report that, and that's part of what we will report out during AB 481. If we get a complaint or if we get a case of misuse, that's part of what we're responsible for telling you all as our counsel.

is it possible you can just report that out at every public safety committee meeting and then we can we can include that in the standing presentation slide sure okay and then also how you all are meeting recommendations that you found in aclu's standards for operating a drone program or license plate reader program is there any kind of cross-reference of that moving

So we did, in fact, one of the people who helped shaped our policy was an attorney working for the ACLU at the time, was part of the former advisory panel to the chief. And we did review a lot of material published by the ACLU on privacy concerns when we built the program. And that was presented to the council and approved. So we did look at all of that.

And can you confirm that Hayward PD does not coordinate with ICE?

We do not. And it's under SB 34 and SB 54. It's illegal for us to do that. Our policy has been in place well before the current federal administration and seeing some of the things that we're seeing now. We've had that policy in place for a long time. Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

A few comments.

Yeah, Council Member Syrup.

Thank you for answering my colleagues' questions, Chief. I appreciate the thoroughness with which you're bringing forward this proposal. I have a few requests. I think you have the support you need here, but I want to make sure that we're, what's the expression? Dotting our I's and crossing our T's. So are we able to ensure that we're not live streaming through these cameras, but that they're drive-by triggered? I want to make sure that it's not a constant surveillance feed if this proposal goes through. What is your understanding of how these cameras are going to operate?

Are you talking about the LPR cameras or the drone technology? The ALPR cameras. So my understanding is that they operate the way that the cameras that we have now operate. The ALPR's technology is a detection technology. It does capture images of vehicles with a date and time and location stamp. The technology that we're proposing of bringing on board doesn't live monitor the movement of people.

I think my concern is we were told that about Flock. We were told a lot of the similar arguments about Flock, and then it was found that people could hack into these cameras quite easily. They were consistently live streaming, and so, you know, I'm hearing that Axon has better privacy standards, but I just want to make sure that we're able to confirm and audit that there's not a live stream happening, but rather that it's detection-based so that we're protecting people's privacy. I see Captain Olson behind you, too. You might have something to add. I want to turn it over to Captain Olson.

Who knows all of this stuff? Great.

Just a Just a quick clarification on that, Council Member Saar. So the Outpost product, the ALPR product, does have the ability to live stream when we are viewing it in the FUSUS platform. It does not pan, it does not tilt, it does not zoom, and it does not record for later recall down the road.

Okay, and then just as a point of housekeeping, for the flock cameras that are expiring, how soon are we able to remove those poles from the ground so they're not in our communities anymore? One of my concerns with them is the way they're installed, they don't have a brake plate, so they become a risk for drivers. How soon can we expect to see those 60-ish cameras removed?

We haven't discussed that with flock quite yet. My expectation would be is when the contract ends in December, they're going to come get them in December. They're not going to leave their equipment here in our town unpaid for.

Okay, because sometimes I have canceled their contracts. I've had to put bags over them because Flock refused to come and remove them. So I just want us to be prepared to remove them if needed. And then as far as reporting goes for the Public Safety Committee, I would appreciate reports similar to what Council Member Andrews was asking for. I would like to understand the efficacy of these ALPRs What is the solvability rate currently? How are the ALPRs contributing to that? Which cases have been associated with it? Not just the highlights. I know it's fun to tell a story of this particular shot caught this guy. But I want to understand in general, is this technology truly benefiting our community? And is it worth the cost? And without the efficacy, it's also hard for me to approve a budget amount of this caliber, given that we're in a deficit.

Yeah, we're happy to do that. On that topic, I'm happy to share two cases. In the last two or three months, we had two infant abduction cases. One was a domestic violence incident where an offender who had prior attempted murder charges involving the mother of his child physically assaulted her, took their infant and left. And we had that person in custody in 20 minutes. Without ALPR technology, that would have been a statewide Amber Alert and who knows what the outcome would have been. It was safely resolved. Maybe a month later, similar situation in that a mother abducted an infant that she was not supposed to have. We were able to locate her vehicle down in Southern California, and with the assistance of a Southern California law enforcement agency, we were able to apprehend her as she was trying to get a passport for the child to take the child out of country. So those are just two examples of the effectiveness of the...

I'm really happy to hear those cases resolved. I think I want to understand on a macro level within this city, just in general, how much usage are we seeing from this program and how is it benefiting the city? I think it's great that those two cases, those ALPRs may have contributed to them being closed and those crimes being stopped. I just wanna make sure we understand what we're buying here and the effect that it's having citywide. And then lastly, just one of the concerns that came up from a constituent is there have been cases of an ALPR misreading a license plate, maybe registering it as a stolen vehicle or a vehicle registered in somebody else's name and people having negative altercations with police officers or law enforcement because of that.

So we have not, and that's not to say that it can't happen. I think one of the things that I've read about and I'm familiar with in talking to chiefs from other agencies is, Part of that is human error, right? If a vehicle is reported stolen and it's recovered but it's not taken out of the stolen vehicle system and it goes under an AOPR camera, yes, it will alert. Okay. And officers have to, you know, make a decision about how to respond to that. I think the important thing to understand is that this is not decision-making technology. It's detection technology. The decision-making rests with the individual officer who's processing everything at the scene. Could that happen? Absolutely. Am I familiar with it happening to us? No. And again, we are constantly in conversation with our staff to make sure those things don't happen.

Okay, great. And then this last question here is, you said that in order to log into these systems, it requires a reason by the officer logging into it. This also includes the FUSA system. Is that what you're describing? Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. I see council members are menu.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for actually moving on the item. So I third it. One of the main emails, the group of emails that I receive is public safety, public safety, public safety. So in this particular case, I certainly agree with the majority of My colleagues up here, and I think that we are going to pass this particular item. The drone system can be used by both the firefighters and by police officers. Talk about saving lives. It's being used right now up in the mountains, et cetera. I've seen it in operation. I don't... It was mentioned that somebody may be using it to spy on their girlfriend or whatever the case. That happens, but if that were to happen, then there's possible dismissal. I don't think we have that kind of personnel in our community. I trust the leadership of our two forces. I trust all of our officers in the firefighting and in the police force. I don't see it at all. This is not going to come from our general fund. This is five years. The change from Flock to the other company, I think it's good for the company. 23 cameras, that's fine as far as I'm concerned. So I will support this because every email that I receive, where is the police? I don't feel safe. Public safety, please. And this is gonna help us out, so thank you.

Thank you. You know, before I call on the roll call here, I, you know, I just want to just say that, you know, this world is full of cameras. There's cameras everywhere. And, you know, everywhere we go, we can go to a grocery store, quick stop, 7-Eleven, anywhere. We're all on camera. And no one asks us whether we want to be on camera. But we're on it. As a public official, all of us are often videotaped without our permission. And it's done in hostile ways. People are waiting for gotcha moments. And they pull out their phones. And they get us off guard. They get us unprepared. And we don't ask for it. We don't invite it. But the cameras, phones are in our faces. They're across tables. And oftentimes people monetize all of that when they catch us off guard as elected officials. And then they post it, and they post it on their platforms, and they monetize all of us, me. It's been done. It's happened to me. And that's one way of using cameras in the public. But in this case, we're using cameras to protect people. And I don't know, I know he means well, and I have a great deal of respect for my colleague, Syrup, over there. We simply disagree on this issue, but, you know, and I don't think he meant this in his tone, but we need to be very careful on how we dismiss the victims of crimes in this city, victims of child abductions in this city, that if it weren't for a camera or a license plate reader, we would still be looking for that baby. And so I take this issue very, very serious. I take this vote very, very serious. I have been observing this issue for a very long time. I've watched council meetings. I've watched other council meetings in the Bay Area grapple with cameras, with license plate readers, And councils all across the Bay Area, from conservative councils to far left, progressive councils to moderate councils, every council I have seen across the Bay Area, councils aren't 100% fully behind this. You've got council members that are for it and you've got council members that are against it. And even in some of the most urban cities where we have seen kids, the city of Richmond being another example, where there was a girl abducted, a purely avoidable case. It was completely avoidable. And not only was that little girl abducted, but the person who abducted her came back to Richmond to leave again and to be missed because of cameras, because of the lack of, or the cameras being turned off. So I hope, I hope that in this discussion that we keep front and center the victims, the potential victims. We sit up here and we talk about the most vulnerable. We talked about protecting the most vulnerable. Well, this is just one piece. And you know what? If it doesn't work out, we can pull it. We can pull it. As the chair of the Public Safety Committee, we'll pull it. We'll stop it. But I've said this before, and this will be the last point I make. As a mayor, and as a council, but as a mayor, I have a lot of responsibilities up here and as a mayor. But my number one responsibility, number one, is to ensure that we have a safe community. Full stop. And while While there is a lot of conversation and discussion around this topic, around cameras and license plate readers and all this, I still think that this is yet one tool available to us that will keep people safe, and in particularly, keep people that are arguably some of the most vulnerable in our community safe, and those are kids. So with that said, Madam City Clerk, you can please take roll. And the item passes with six ayes and one no. Thank you. That's it, okay. I'd like to now move on to our one legislative business item, which is the Cal Cities 2026 Annual Conference. Adopt resolutions one, designating a voting designate and alternate for the conference scheduled for September 23 to 25, 2026. And two, directing the city's voting delegate to vote on a proposed League of California Cities General Assembly resolution calling for a working group to consider actions to ensure final local authority over housing and land use decisions. And this report will come to us by way of our city clerk and our city manager. But I think who's going to win on this one? City manager?

I win. Do you want me to do a staff report and presentation?

Yeah, just do a... How many slides?

Three.

Three? Roll the slides.

Okay. So there's two actions we're asking you to take. There's, as you may know and the staff report said, there's a, the Cal City Conference is coming up in September. This is a really important opportunity for the city council to advocate for the city's local interests. within the state to understand what best practices are occurring and to vote as part of the Cal City's, on Cal City actions. So there's two actions. One is to essentially designate the delegates and alternates for that. So one delegate and two alternates. And then the second action, if someone could go to the next slide, that'd be great. is that there is a proposed Cal Cities resolution. The city of Murrieta is proposing to form a working group to develop strategies for strengthening local housing and land use authority. This is consistent with the city's current legislative program that we're in the process of updating that we do want to make sure we maintain a balance with local control and and housing laws. I will say, I think the jury's out in terms of whether or not the staff would support what ultimately comes from that working group or not, but we don't see any reason not to support the creation of a working group and discussion about that and then to be a part of those discussions. So we do support this resolution. Again, what comes from that working group and whether or not we ultimately support what comes from that, I think we'd have to look at that more carefully. But the formation of that working group makes sense to us. And so we are recommending that once you designate a person to represent the city, that they also support this resolution. So those are the two actions. Go to the next slide. Designate a general assembly representative and support the proposed Cal City's resolution.

Okay, thank you. So I'll start up here, and I'm going to nominate Councilmember Bonilla as the delegate and Councilmember Roach as the alternate. How's that?

Second. Thank you.

Two alternates.

Oh, two alternates. Oh, okay.

How about... You can be the primary, and then we'll use your alternate.

Okay. Okay. So I guess I just got past... Are you okay with that? Okay, so I'm going to be the primary and two alternates. okay i can do that all right i think we have to have public comment first yeah yeah so so we'll do okay so we got that covered um and then what was this oh and then the the the uh the resolution can you go back up to the the screen with the resolution go to the slide before there we go oh on the yeah Okay, so Councilor Syrup, Mayor Pro Tem Syrup.

Thank you. Just a question around this, because the way it's framed gave me the feeling of like the NIMBY movement a little bit, where the state is really pushing for more housing development in communities that have traditionally blocked a lot of housing development. And I'm curious if this is a way framed under the guise of local control to try to take back some of that power where, you know, that I think would lead to worse housing production results. I guess I just wanted to hear your perspective on this.

I agree. I think that is where this is headed a little bit, that that's some of the tone that I'm kind of gaining. But I don't think what the action before you is really the formation of a working group. I actually think that might be a good thing because then you have discussion and there could be different voices. So I don't see any reason not to support that and having a discussion about it. I do think we have in our legislative program some concerns about maintaining local control. So having a robust discussion about that, I don't see that as something to be concerned about. But I do think what comes from that working group, there could be recommendations that when that time comes, if it comes, and we may come to you and maybe recommend not supporting some of those specific recommendations if they turn out to be really focused on anti-housing or not promoting housing production.

Okay, great. Thank you for that clarification that I'm okay with the staff recommendation to support.

Great. And I tried to get out of being a delegate, and I automatically became a delegate right back. So, okay. Okay, let's see. Okay, so I will close. Any other comments on the dais? No, so I will open up for public comment. I don't have any cards, so I will close public comment. I don't see any public comment online. So, hold on, since I do so. Oh, Glenn Kirby, one public comment.

This is Ro Aguilar. I couldn't resist saying that I would support a working group to discuss this because I see pros and cons on both sides. And I want to make sure we're fully cognizant of that and discuss the impacts. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, so I'm seeing no more public comment. I'll come back up here to the dais and I'll entertain a motion.

I think Council Member Bonilla already moved it, so we need a second.

Hold on. Okay, moved by Council Member Bonilla, seconded by Council Member Roach. Madam City Clerk, if you can please take a roll. And the item passes was six, or I'm sorry, was seven votes, yes. Thank you. Before I adjourn, I do have an adjournment this evening.

Mayor Salinas, I believe there's one more informational item.

Let's see, I think I... Yes, sir. I apologize. Our next item is item number 14, fiscal year 2026, Q3, quarter three and quarter four, semiannual capital improvement progress report. This is an information item. This is, I wanted to, well, there's no staff report, but I just wanted to, well, there is a staff report, but I just wanted to see if there's any questions from council regarding this item. Seeing none, so I will close that item. Thank you, Mr. Amiri. And next, I'd move on to adjournment. But before we do that, I do have an item that we're going to be adjourning. We have lost an incredible individual here in Hayward. Judy Harrison passed away on July 19th. And I met Judy Harrison when I became a council member back in 2010. And I was the liaison to the library, the council liaison to the library. And, of course, this was when we were ramping up and we were working on the Measure C campaign. And, of course, Measure C was, you know, the measure that we were going to do a lot of infrastructure building, the firehouse, roads and so forth. But probably the main project that we were really talking about out of the Measure C project was, or the Measure C, it was Measure C, was the library. Judy Harrison and her friends on, the friends of the Hayward Public Library, a group of retirees, single-handedly, and I mean, you know, there were a lot of support on Measure C, and there were a lot of hands on deck on Measure C. Judy Harrison and her colleagues in the library just went out there and knocked on doors, made the case. They walked every single day. There are a lot of people responsible for the passage of Measure C. Judy Harrison and her colleagues arguably are one of the main ingredients in that campaign. They were key figures in that campaign. And, you know, Judy, one thing that she will always be remembered for, one thing that I will always remember her for is her work on Measure C campaign. That library is her legacy in this city, no doubt. So let me read this so that. Beloved longtime president of the Friends of the Hayward Library, Judy Harrison, passed away on July 19th of this year. Judy was a librarian at HUSD for most of her career, and she had a huge impact on students in the school district. Judy also believed strongly in volunteering and uplifting all those in need of help. Her impact as a volunteer through her early work with the Peace Corps at Sierra Leone and on local area residents through the American Association of University Women, and her tireless advocacy for Measure C, and of course, her work at the library, to name just a few, is immeasurable. And through all this, Judy was always fun to be around. Judy's passion for traveling continued to the very end, and nothing could keep her down. She traveled all over the world spreading joy, wherever she went, Judy's legacy will live on for many generations. Hayward Public Library is planning a celebration of this amazing woman's life on Saturday, August 29th, from 2 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. at the downtown Hayward Library. All who knew Judy are welcome to join us. You know, Judy was always full of smiles. She was always friendly to talk to. She was, you know, she collected books. She sold books. She convinced people to buy books. And she just, oh my gosh, just a wonderful, wonderful person. Not only is the city of Hayward missing her, but I do know that the Hayward School District is also missing her. So it is in Judy Harrison's name that I adjourn tonight's meeting. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. God bless you.