City Council - Regular Meeting

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lady in the red sweater back there asking about she has signed petition. How did she get that to us? She's also today. She can hand it when she

Good evening. Welcome to the uh city council meeting for November 13th. Sorry, November 12th. Madame clerk, will you please call roll? Council member Dillard here. Council member Lotheian here. Council member Suzuki present. Vice Mayor Kazarez here. Mayor Rapid Status here. We start every meeting with an invocation and flag salute. Uh, Council Member Loian. Good evening everybody. Uh, tonight my invocation will be in honor of fallen officer Lauren Kazarus. Uh, no. No. Oh, Craven.

Craven. Oh my god. I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I say your name all the time. I'm I'm so sorry everybody. Officer Lauren Craraven. Lord. Uh anyway, um I would what I'd like to do is I would like to quote Chief Sweeney. Uh he was interviewed Friday night and these were his words and I thought they were fantastic. Uh he said, "She saved lives that night. She stepped up and she did what our police officers are are expected to do. We run toward the danger, not away. Rest in peace, Lauren Craraven. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance." Ready? Begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. City manager comments. I have none.

Thank you. Community bulletin reports. um join the community for the last litter cleanup of the year to beautify neighborhood around um the Salvation Army Croc Center on Saturday, November 15th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The event will kick off from Rolando Park, 6600 VO Drive. Let's swap. Bring a bag of your gently used clothes, accessories, and toys for a clothing swap event at La Mesa Library December 6th from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. Uh, Council Member Dillard.

Thank you. I have uh two items. Um, uh, November is recognized as National Al Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, aimed at raising awareness about Alzheimer's disease and supporting those affected by it. November was designated as Alzheimer's disease awareness month by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to increase public awareness of the disease which affects millions of individuals and their families. The Alzheimer's Association encourages individuals to wear purple throughout the month uh to symbolize support for the cause and to promote awareness. And that's why I have my little purple right here. Um, and then also um, uh, we know that, uh, this is a a time, uh, where, um, there are individuals that are, um, affected by SNAP or CalFresh. Uh, so I just wanted to um let the public know that the county is working closely with local food banks, community organizations, and state and federal partners to help fill the gap from families affected by these delays. Um, uh, unused October benefits will not expire. Uh any remaining funds on the EBT card will stay available for use until you're ready to use them again. Uh and uh new November benefits will be delayed until the federal uh shutdown ends, which I understand is coming shortly. Uh and uh and additional processing delays may occur as a result of that. For more information, you can look up 211 San Diego, which is at www.211

San Diego.com. Feeding San Diego, which is www.feeding San Diego.org, or Jacobs and Kushman San Diego Food Bank at www. San Diego uh foodbank.org. And there are others uh other um organizations that have uh food, but these are just some of the uh local uh countywide services that are available. And if you or a family member or a neighbor or anyone that you know that needs help, uh please ask them to um reach out. Of course, if you can help them, but that there are places where uh we are still h we still have food. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Loathian.

Yeah, a couple. First of all, I want to say happy birthday to Genevie. She just celebrated a big birthday. Um, also too, um, I don't know if you guys have seen it yet, but there is a 80 foot tall Christmas tree in La Mesa Village. It's in front of Kasa Gabriella. And um I partnered with the Cohen restaurant group and Webster Insurance, Frank and Ava Pasiglia, Andrea Flint Go, Robert Steve and Janelle Clay and Dory Miller to bring that 80 foot tall tree to the village. Um uh uh Prolite Hangers did the job. It's 9,000 LED lights. And on Friday, we had the um the tree lighting ceremony and we also had a dedication ceremony to officer Lauren Craraven. Uh there's a blue a 4 foot blue lit star on the top of the tree. You can see it for miles. Uh we had uh the news was there. Hundreds of LaMason showed up. It was a great community camaraderie event. It was it was beautiful. So I'm so glad we had that. Uh the lights will be lit throughout the holidays. Uh we are testing the temporary speed humps and so I've asked city management if they can test them on some neighborhoods that have requested traffic calming over the years. Right now they're on date uh by city hall. And then Hercules Street off of Center Drive um has requested painted TE's on both sides at Journey Church and then the car dealerships there. Anybody in La Mesa who's having car congestion problems on their streets should fill out the like a onepage application for parking TE's. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Suzuki.

Thank you, Council Member Lotheian, for telling everybody about my birthday. I'm 50. So, I will save you the kick and the stretch that Molly Shannon did. Um, I have been doing it all weekend. Um, I also want to thank uh Council Member Loian for spearheading that and taking charge of that that wonderful tree in our village. I think it's really beautiful and it's going to help us all just really celebrate and also it's a beautiful tribute to um, Officer Craraven. Um, it is also diabetes awareness month. And I I'm bringing it up because I um in honor of my 50th birthday, I was diagnosed with diabetes. And it's not that funny, but it is cuz uh you know what? It was coming. Most of us with diabetes saw it coming. I think a lot of us, especially now living in 2025. And so um I I want to encourage everyone to really um take advantage of the fact that we live in 2025. There's so much information out there and you can learn how to be better. I myself have lost 27 pounds and reversed my A1C or not reverse, but I lowered my A1C so that it's um in a healthy way. And I'm I'm sorry I'm I'm going on and on, but I'm really proud. But I'm also I believe if I can do it, anybody can um because it's just a matter of saying, you know what, I'm going to start a new and it's a great time for anyone and you don't have to be turning 50 to do it. So, um the second thing is that uh please on November 22nd at the um First United Methodist Church here in La Mesa, they're holding the FR, um the fresh start event before Thanksgiving and it's a wonderful, you know, please volunteer if you feel like you need to be out there and we all need to be out there at this time. We all do together and so um please contact them. Lynn at the at the church um organizes it. It's a fantastic um event to help our unhoused or uh

people who are feeling like they need people. You can be there for them. And um so look into that. And and also on November 30th at St. Martin of Tours Parish Hall, they're going to I'm going to be hosting the fair trade fair. And so if you want to go and buy some things for Christmas for any of your friends or family, please check it out. 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Um, we're going to feature uh fair trade chocolates. So, there'll be a chocolate tasting station as well as um you know, things for sale that are peeing pe paying people a decent wage because you know, everyone around the world deserves a decent wage. So, or a living wage really. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Casares.

Thank you. Um I also want to thank uh Councilwoman Loian. I think the tree in the village looks fantastic. Myself and uh Council Member Suzuki were both there to watch it get lit up. And um if you haven't seen it yet, definitely go see it tonight. Um and if you don't see it tonight, bring your kids along and see it another time or see it both times. Um but the other thing, and I think most of you in this room are actually here for this. Um I I wanted to share that I met with Martha Burles and Jim Mulligan today um at MacArthur Park. Um, and I just wanted to say that our city manager and city staff are working really hard on uh figuring out what we can do um to make uh MacArthur Park more dog friendly for for off leash dogs and for the owners of um of of those dogs. Um I'm a dog lover. I think all of us up here are. So, um yeah, we can't I can't make any promises. We can't make any promises right now, but what I can say is that they're already taking it very seriously and working really really hard um on it. So, thank you to our city manager, Greg Humora, and to our city staff, um, for for taking this seriously, and I look forward to hearing from all of you tonight, I imagine. Thank you.

Um, thank you. Additions and or deletions by council or staff. None from staff. Right. We have presentations. I'm going to start with Vice Mayor Casaris. Okay. So, so I'm going to ask uh for Carol Kim to come up. Uh there's a public comment regarding this. Never had a public comment on

No problem.

Good evening everyone. Um thank you so much for uh this recognition of our sister. our union sister Randy Hedgeco today. Um Randy is a longtime lifelong iron worker who has um been a real trade trailer trail blazer in the trade. Um iron work is some of the most physically rigorous and challenging work. Um when you're talking about work that happens on a construction site, I often tell people that iron workers are like the marines of the building trades and construction. Um, they're the ones who are climbing those high beams. They're the ones who are often hanging off the side of the pier if they're like doing work repair on on pier ocean peers. They're also the people who are laying rebar and carrying really heavy stacks of rebar as they move back and forth. They're doing all kinds of really incredible things to help build the infrastructure and the buildings that make up our communities and allow us to live the lives that we live with the quality of life that we have. And um Randy, sister Randy is really astonishing because not only did she join the trade, she joined the trade and became an advocate for other women to join the trade. And this is something where she's now in retirement and but is still very active in her union and still active in advocacy. But she's just a stunning representation of what we can do for each other to make the next generation's opportunities a little bit less hard than the ones that we experienced, the challenges that we experienced. And um we're very grateful for her. We're also very grateful for you recognizing her tonight. She was awarded with a lifetime achievement award. And I just want to note in construction, I don't know if everybody here knows this, but it's a very maledominated industry. Um right now women make up about 5% of all

construction workers. Just a decade ago we were at 2 and a half%. So over this last decade we have doubled the number but we are only at 5% as it is. And so but the fact that Randy joined the iron workers became an officer of the iron workers union and actually fought to ensure that other women had the opportunity. She helped do that. She helped double the number. She helped keep women in and um and helped them build really durable, middle class, lifelong careers um in the construction trade. So, I thank you so much for this. Um congratulations to Sister Randy Hedgeco and uh we appreciate everything that you've done.

Thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself, but I'm gonna try. So, I'm gonna invite Randy Hedge up here.

There she is. Got some reading to do. So, as I begin, I want to briefly share why honoring Randy Hedge tonight means so much to me. Brandy is not only a proud Marine veteran, and a trailblazing iron worker, she's also a dear friend, a role model, and an inspiration to me and so many other women in our region. For more than three decades, nearly four, Brandy has shown what true leadership looks like, opening doors that were once closed, lifting up those around her, and proving that women belong in every corner of the trades. She has helped build some of San Diego's most recognizable structures, but she also has built opportunity, dignity, and community through her union and through her mentorship, especially for women and for the LGBT community. As we celebrate the Marine Corps's 250th anniversary this week and Veterans Day, Brandy reminds us that service doesn't end with a uniform. She has continued serving through her work in the trades, through her advocacy, and through decades of volunteer commitment to our region. I believe she embodies the very best of Lame Mesa and it's an honor to recognize her tonight. Now I'm going to read the wherees. They're not they're uh they're very impressive but not so whereas Randy Hedgeco is a proud Marine Corps veteran and 37year member of the Iron Workers Local 229. His members have helped shape San Diego skyline and she has contributed to many of the region's most recognizable. Whereas over nearly four decades, Brandy has served as a foreman, union officer, mentor, breaking barriers for women in the trades and setting a standard for excellence, safety, and inclusion. Whereas, she received the lifetime achievement award at the Trades Women Build Nations Conference in Chicago, presented by North America's Building Trades Union President Shawn Maccgarvey.

Whereas the 2025 trades women build nations conference themed she's not waiting she's leading through more than 6,000 trades women labor leaders and industry partners from across the country celebrate and advance women's leadership in the skill trade whereas Randy has been a strong advocate for diversity apprenticeship training and women's advancement within Iron Workers Local 29 helping to recruit train and inspire future generations of traders whereas since moving to La Mesa in 2010 with her wife Andrea Beth Damsky Brandy has been an active volunteer with San Diego Pride, AIDS Block San Diego and other organizations supporting veterans and the LGBT community. And whereas Brandy Hedgeco exemplifies integrity, service, and inclusion, representing the best of inspiring others through her lifelong dedication to building community, opportunity, and equity. Now therefore, Marrapa staff, 23rd mayor of the city of Lamees Mesa, and the entire city council, we hereby recognize Brandy Hedge for outstanding leadership, mentorship, and contributions to the building trades and congratulate her on receiving the trade women's donation lifetime. All right. Thank Thank you. Thank you very much for this means a lot. I love living in La Mesa. So I I just have to correct one thing. I am not retired. Not yet.

So thank you very much. And I want to thank my labor council for being here. San Diego Building Trades, thank you very much for being here. Thank you all my other friends and and family and um hello all my family. So thank you Oh, we need a group photo. I'm sorry. Um, I'm up here to recognize the mates of First United Methodist Church. So, if there's a representative

There he is. There he is. These are These are not my regular Whereas Laame Mesa United Methodist Church has been a vital and vibrant presence in the heart of La Mesa for 130 years, serving as a place of faith, fellowship, community since its founding in 1895. With its distinctive Spanish style architecture, bell tower and stained glass windows, LMI has a long stood cherished landmark gathering place for celebrations, healing, civic discussions, neighborhood and learning for all ages. Church's children's center serving the community for 70 years continues to provide quality care and education for local families. The church supports neighbors in need through the fresh start ministry feeding nearly 170 each month and partnering with La Mesa Police Department the home program and provides showers and assistance to home clients. Church act actively engages in civic and community life, hosting candidate forums, participating in Junth cleanup days, park appreciation days, and contributing to local events like Halloween in the village and its beloved spooky Oregon concerts. The church leads by example in service and sustainability, earning recognition from interfaith power and light for energy efficiency, participating in the city's green business program, extending its mission globally through its efforts like the Guatemala project, the days for girls initiatives. LMI embarks LM1, sorry, I keep saying that sorry time,

right? La Mesa first. Sorry, I did say, didn't I? Pardon me. Uh, Lame Mesa First embarks in its next century through the turn of the church inside out campaign and continues to strengthen its commitment to hope, healing, and service and community for all people. Now therefore, I, Mark Rapistatis, the 23rd mayor of the city of La Mesa and the entire city council to hereby congratulate Lame Mesa First United Methodist Church on its 130th celebration this Sunday and recognizing 130 years dedicated service, community partnership, and a lasting contribution to the city of La Mesa and its residents. Before I let um pastor speak, just on a personal note, I've lived here my whole life. So, I've known this person since he was in second grade. And um I wasn't his teacher, but um the theater that I run now, Peter Pan Jr. The theater, he was a member of that and I was too. I'm much much older than he was, but um I remember we shared the stage together. So, it is I feel like a brotherly pride that I see that he's the leader of the church in La Mesa. So, I'm proud of him. So, I'm gonna do this. He's much taller than me as well. So, I'm gonna let Pastor Demit.

Thank you, Mayor Ray. Uh, on behalf of uh all the people of La Mesa First United Methodist Church, not just presently, but over its 130 years, we thank you, city council and staff for recognizing this special milestone event. We would have liked to celebrate 125 years, but that was in the middle of the pandemic. So we punted and and changed it to 130 years of of being in the community. And uh one of the things that we just really um appreciate is is spoken of in in the model that we've been carrying throughout this year of celebrations uh where we are here for good. And our goal is to be uh a a good resource in our community. uh to be doing good for our neighbors and um for uh our partners in business and and beyond our community, but also recognizing that we seek to be here for generations to come. And so um our efforts are not only to celebrate the past, as I'm so thankful that you're allowing us to do, but also to share in our hope for the future of this uh community. Uh that we can can be a part of continuing to strengthen it. um continue to make it more healthy in a variety of different ways physically, emotionally, relationally, and that we can come together and be a support for one another uh in in both the celebrations of life and also the challenges and and and difficulties that we share with one another. Um it it's evident even just in this moment as as uh we remember our police officer, we've been praying for the entire department and this entire community in this time as well as the uh the young man who also lost his life in that uh crash. But um you know it we remind we're reminded of our life cycle. Uh we had two members who passed away just in the last 24 hours, but I just got a text that a new grandchild has been born today as well. And so that's just the life of the church and being able to share in in that experience with all of you. It's not just church members, but our community that that we seek to be connected with and and um to partner with. So I thank you all for your support and I pray that we can be a

support to you. whatever faith you may be or whatever belief you have, we want to be there for you, too. Um 9:30 on Sundays, though, if I'm not just saying, uh we will celebrate our 130th this Sunday. And I will uh want to just one last thing is um uh tomorrow night on KPBS, if you watch uh Ken Kramer's about San Diego, they did a feature on our church and the 40th uh anniversary of the installation of our uh of the organ that is in that sanctuary. So um a lot of things to celebrate uh along with this 130th milestone. Thank you so very much. Yeah. If you were here for either of the proclamations, you are free to leave. Next on the agenda is our city treasures quarterly report. Sir, glad to have you here. Welcome.

Quarters go by fast, don't they? They

sure do. Very good evening to staff, the mayor, the vice mayor, the council, everyone joining us here in chambers and watching at home. My name is Matt Stbone and I'm the elected city treasurer of Laame Mesa. What follows is my quarterly report for the quarter ending September 30th, 2025. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. There we go. I will start as I always do with a quick recitation of the three principles that guide the city of La Mesa's investment policy. They are in order of importance. Safety, liquidity, and earnings. Safety meaning we prioritize the principle of our invested funds above all else. Liquidity, meaning we ensure that we are able to meet the liquidity needs of the city at any given time. And finally, earnings. Once the first two principles have been met, I go into the marketplace in attempt to achieve the maximum yield possible on our investments. Next slide, please. Portfolio activity. We had one CD mature and we were glad to see it go as you could see by the interest rate there. We had $4 million worth of agencies also mature. Not great there either. But we also had $3.5 million in agencies called that actually did return a fairly good rate. But that's okay. I'll explain what we did with that money in a bit. As you can see at the bottom, the earnings for the quarter totaled $824,164. And I will get back to that number in a bit. Next slide, please. Portfolio profile. As of September 30th, we have been putting more and more money into Lif. There is a good reason for this. Right now, life is returning a very healthy margin over 4% and it is entirely liquid. Uh I do this because there is uncertainty in the marketplace in the financial world generally and having as much liquid as possible means we have what's called dry powder which we can deploy when things start to shake out and we have a general sense of where things are going to go. We don't have that right now and life beats anything we might be able to buy. So our money is in life earning a healthy return. Next slide, please. Proformer earnings for the quarter ending. This just means what

would happen if we were to annualize what happened this past quarter? Uh we would earn about $2.4 million. Uh which is kind of funny because through three quarters this year, we have already earned over $2.3 million. But I'll talk about that too in a minute. Next slide, please. So $824,164. I am here to tell you for what seems like the eenth time that that is the most money we have ever earned in a single quarter in Laame Mesa's over 100year history. I simply can't keep getting away with this. Uh it's going to end eventually. Uh but not right now. As I said, we are greatly benefited by the fact that Lif is so strong. There is a drag with Lif's returns that works both for us and against us depending on where we are in the cycle. Right now it's working for us. Lif is going to be ahead of the uh the excuse me actually the opposite. Lif is going to be behind where the yield curve is on 5year and 10-year treasuries because those have dropped slightly. Lif is still returning better than that and that's why it's better than anything we could put money in right now. So not only are we liquid but we're earning money like this. And if you add this to what we earned in the first two quarters of the year, which was about $1.5 million, we've already broken $2.3 million, and we're well on our way to breaking the record for calendar year 2025, which I will tell you all about in February. Next slide, please. I am required to tell you that the city's investment portfolio complies with the city's investment policy as well as the relevant sections of the California government code that concern the safety and liquidity in the investment of public funds. Investment strategies are based on budgetary and liquidity considerations and interest rate projections and have been collaboratively determined by myself, the director of finance and the city manager. Next slide, please. Final thoughts. I'd first like to say uh very hearty thank you to our former interim finance director, John Herrera, whose uh contract has completed. He was a big

help um certainly to my work as we tried to get our arms around things. Um he did a good job. Just want to say it publicly. I'll also say again, it is a very uncertain time in especially the fixed income marketplace right now. That is why I've tried to maintain as much flexibility as I think our portfolio can bear. I'm going to continue to be flexible until we have a little more certainty and I say uncertain not to cast dispersions on any particular policy or outlook, but simply because things are happening out there that we've never seen before and we don't know where things are going to go. So, we're just going to wait and see. And in the meantime, we're going to earn a great rate on our cash in LA and we are going to keep making a lot of money. And with that, I will take your questions.

Any questions for Mr. Chabone? Thank you again. Nice job. You got a good streak going there. All right. Keep it going. Thank you. Well done. Uh we're now on to public comment. I'll start with uh Martha Berles, followed by Melody McCelroy. I have some petitions.

Hi everyone. Hi Lauren. Thanks for letting me speak. Um I'm here representing the Friends of MacArthur Dog Park. And if I could just get you all to do one thing and just stand up so the council can see how many of us are here. Well, John, thank you so much. Um, there's no need to repeat what I said to you back in September. Um, you know, we want more space than what is currently available. A survey of opinions of the res of the residents of a city is never accurate because the response rate is mitigated by how many people are even aware a survey is being taken. The proof is in the pudding. How has the space been used since the closure of the of the

Okay. Okay. Um, is this any better? Okay. Okay. The proof is in the pudding. How has the space been used since the closure of the golf course? It has been resoundingly used as an off leash dog park. The most recent iteration of the master plan for MacArthur Park from what is available online is from 2021. The thing that caught my eye in the master plan was a survey that showed that the majority of people wanted to just leave it as it is. The next most popular idea was the dog park. I'm at MacArthur Park twice a day, almost every single day of the week, except for the days that I can get out of town and take my dog, Churro, to the mountains. I am frequently there as soon as the gates open in the morning and then again in the afternoon. And what I see are people with dogs. I see a few people without dogs, but very few. People with dogs make up the majority of the folks who go to the park. And until the ticketing began, there were more people with dogs. Ticketing has scared people off, but they haven't been replaced by people who don't have dogs. If there was ever an endorsement of making it more of a dog park, that is it. The people who use MacArthur Park are people with dogs. According to the government of California's pet calculator tool, Laame Mesa should have a total of 23,424 dogs. That could be considerably higher in the light of the fact that Laame Mesa has declared itself a bonafide dog city by allowing up to five dogs per household. I met with parks and wreck leadership at MacArthur Park on Monday and they showed me what they proposed with reasons why they come up with the the the footprint that they're working towards and it is to increase the incurs uh the current large enclosure by about 150% expanding the fence line directly west and I was incredibly grateful that they met with me and that they would they were willing to hear what we had to say. 30 seconds.

I h Oh, I passed that information to onto my group Monday evening. A number of our members thought that was a good compromise, but majority did not think it comes even near enough to the space we want. Um, based on the a report recreated by the city of Sacramento by the off leash task force in 2005, we could describe MacArthur Park as somewhere between a community park and a regional park. Why? Not only because of the size of the park and the population it serves, but also because of the physical properties of MacArthur Park. I'd like to recommend something novel. We have a unique space at your comment. Your time is up. She can have my time. I was next to somebody else. You don't. We don't usually do that, but could

she have some? Okay, that's fine. I'll Okay. Thank Thank you, Melody. Okay. Um, it feels like an urban park and it feels like a hike in the mountains at MacArthur Park. Let's conceive of it as a hybrid of a community and a regional park. Let's leave the unmanicured spaces as they are as wild spaces. We all know dogs love those spaces. You can you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time. Let's not dilute the perfect balance that is MacArthur Park. We have we can save millions of dollars by keeping it as it is. The size of the park is perfect for what is being used to to jam other features into it or create a frenetic space. Can I Can I ask you to sum up, please?

I'm almost I've got Yeah. All right. Thank you. Um, the friends of MacArthur Park are asking for something simple and costefficient. Don't change anything. Leave the enclosures where they are. Build a fence around the middle through the middle of the park where the row of five trees are and designate the northern half of the park for off leash play and exploration. I'll stop there. Thank you so much. Melody McElroy, followed by Christine Bond.

Hi, my name is Melody. Um, I just think that the way that they have it set up now, those of us that have been going to the dog park and we are a family and we are a a group of people just like the boys that play baseball and have their area, we are out there with our dogs and when you put them all in a closed area and there's like dogs that are there that get nervous because they can't get out. They get they get they get aggressive. And we're having more we're seeing more like dogs fighting because they're in they're enclosed and they can't get out. And dogs don't dogs want to get out and run just like we like to get out and run and have space. Dogs need that too. And they're in apartments, they're in homes, they need to get out and run. And we would just appreciate it if you would like just rethink this and maybe even go out and see like how happy are they when they're out and running and are when they're enclosed or they're getting into little, you know, little fights more. And we do see that. And so we're just asking you to kind of maybe rethink this go that there is a community, there's dog community and maybe they just need more space and allow them to have that space and we would really appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Chris, I'm sorry. Christine Bond followed by Zea Ech.

Welcome. Welcome. Good evening. Hello.

Uh sorry for my blushing face. It just happens. It's natural and I'm Nothing's going to be wrong with me. I promise. Um well, good evening. Uh my name is Christine Bond. I'm 36 years old. I've been a resident of La Mesa all my life. I've known that uh MacArthur Park to be a golf course, a disc golf course, and now a beautiful open dog park. Um it's beautiful. It's already enclosed. A lot of what has already been said. A lot of space to run around for dogs is really healthy. It promotes health for both the dogs and the owners. Um so what kind of what the previous people were talking about. Um what thank you though for Parks and Rex for offering that um original proposal um to expand our beauty our beautiful park um by incorporating like the northern portion um as an off leash dog park um would really be really beneficial as mentioned before with the ticketing um that has really kind of put a lot of people off. Um, so if we can get rid of that and allow the space to be a great park for our dogs and for the owners, um, would be amazing. So, as Martha was mentioning, those in the middle of the park, uh, the five three or five tree line in the center of the park and beyond, uh, reaching the back portion would make a ter terrific location for our amazing pets, um, and dogs, um, to have a safe and large area to roam around off leash. Um, dogs need large uh spaces to explore and run. Um, as of now, minimum 30 people uh community members such as myself are in favor of creating this large off space uh for our dogs, off leash uh for our dogs. As a community member that is at the park every morning before work, generally between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. about 90% of the people are dog owners with

their dogs. Um, so it would not be encroaching on anyone. Um, it would not bother anybody. Um, let's see here. Um, having the northern portion of the park as an off leash dog park would not disturb others, as I mentioned, and would be an amazing opportunity for our dogs to roam free, sniff around, and explore. um this uh safe area um really promotes overall health as I mentioned for them and for ourselves. Um in conclusion though off leash dog parks attract more people to the community which uh stimulates surrounding small businesses like cafes, dog groomers, pet supply stores um and o and promotes overall well-being and health for our beloved dogs as well as for ourselves. Please consider our proposal for an off leash dog area at MacArthur Park. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Zeba Akimei, followed by um Andrew Stores.

Welcome.

Hi, thank you. Hi, my name is Zeba Acme and I have been a La Mesa resident for nine years. As many here, I love the city and most of all our community we've created at MacArthur Park. This has been my sanctuary for both my dog Tucker and for myself. This is where during the most difficult times in my life has brought so much joy. This is where I've met amazing people that now I now call my best friends. In the past 2 years, there's been a change that no longer encompasses a relaxed environment. As a dog owner, MacArthur Park is a place where I used to be able to depend on to decompress and let my dog do the same. Now, as many here, I am on edge and not able to find that same comfort with the thought of a high fine as a big possibility and feeling like a criminal. We are always respectful of those with no dogs or dogs on leashes, either moving towards the back of the park or making and making sure that we're on leash if that happens. We aren't asking for anything fancy or expensive. We're asking for a larger dedicated section of the park where we can let our dogs run free, safely, and not in a confined small dog park as it stands now. We're asking for our friendships to flourish without restrictions. MacArthur Park master plan is estimated at $70 million. We aren't asking for anything of that sort. Ideally, off leash designation would be to the start of the uh current dog park fence up to the um fencing where the east side fencing is at at the uh parking lot up there to the back of the park utilizing all the fencing to the back of the park which is the north end all the way up to the top where the front of the dog park up to there. So, we're utilizing so much of the fencing

in our plan that we would really love to have so much open space for our dogs um and reducing cost utilizing the current uh fencing already at the park. Um we're asking uh for our friendships to flourish. I already said that ideally off leash designation would be where I explained um the hills and the embankments are truly not used for any humans. They're used for the dogs to as a treasure hunt and for fun. So that wouldn't take away from anything of uh any humans want to walk on. So

um let's give our dogs and taxpaying community a safe place so the humane society can focus on more urgent matters such as animal abuse and neglect. Thank you guys so much for your time.

Thank you. Andrew Shores followed by um Kiana Katherine. I'm Andrew Stores and I moved to La Mesa uh also uh nine years ago. And when I first moved to La Mesa, it was literally so quiet. I moved from University Heights over here and I was astounded how quiet the city was. I It was bliss. My dog came over here and just completely calmed down. And now we're getting such a high concentration of people. I live in an area where it's one of the alternate emergency routes. And so now that the city is becoming more dense, there's a lot more aggressive people in traffic out there now, especially here in La Mesa and seeing it. And I can see when I take my dog over to the park and him to be able to decompress, as long as there's not just this massive concentration like over at Henry Griffin Park, that dog park is so small that they have a lot of aggression problems because the it cannot serve the amount of people that are utilizing the dog park. And so many people have animals. I mean, and it's like they're part of our home. They're our families, you know. It's like bring a great thing. And it's like, and not only that, but it creates a family within us and a group of us that come out there. This is a real joy for us. And we don't want it to be like over there at the other park. I mean, it's there's that area is not utilized. Nobody ever goes back there. I mean there's and for us to be able to utilize it and to enrich us, enrich our friends, enrich our family, enrich the community and it's like it's a place for peace and it helps us all decompress and it's just if you guys could really honor that and just make it a wonderful place for us. I mean because we love the place and I

mean our dogs are just so much more happier and it brings peace in our homes too. I mean, and it creates community within us where we can get together. And not only that, as one of us said before, when we get together, it also brings us out to where we contribute to the community more. We go out to eat, you know, we get gatherings and stuff like that, and we just love it. I mean, I love La Mesa. I really enjoy it here. They've done a real nice job and everything like that. But everybody knows in San Diego in general, the density of San Diego in comparison 20 years ago is unbelievable. And it's the whole city. And when I go to other cities, say for instance, if I go to South Park, South Park has a dog park. The whole park is a dog park. And the the expanse of it is so nice. I mean, you don't see a lot of aggression problems because there's enough room for everybody, which is really really beautiful. And I thank you all and please consider us and we thank you guys very very much.

Thank you. All right. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Katton followed by Steve Bender. Welcome.

Hi. Good evening. Um and thank you for allowing us to address you. U my name is Kiana Katon and up until about 6 weeks ago I was a resident of La Mesa. Um, unfortunately I did just have to move over to Spring Valley, but it was for good reason. I bought my first property. Um, thank you. Um, and uh, as much as I wish that I could continue living in La Mesa, for right now, I'm just going to have to be a user of the resources here. Um, and so one of those resources that I personally favor is MacArthur Park. Um, I previously used to live right across the street from there. Um, and I also have my dog, Ginger. Um, and she also loves going with me to MacArthur Park. Um, we go over there pretty frequently, or at least we used to. Um, and now we go over when we can. Um, but one of the things that was mentioned uh by the last speaker was that there's just so much space. And I I haven't been able to find somewhere that has quite as much space either in La Mesa or in Spring Valley or anywhere really close. Um, and so the next nearest place is the South Park, uh, Grape Street Dog Park, which I also go to relatively frequently. Um, but of course that's about a 20-minut drive from where I currently live. So, it would be really nice, uh, if I could just, you know, drive down the highway a little bit right back here to where I used to live. Um, and if I could continue enjoying MacArthur Park and its wonderful space, um, and if we could expand that space in the way that other speakers have already mentioned, um, then I would greatly appreciate that as well. and I know that many people would also appreciate it as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Steve Bindle.

Um, Steve Bindell. Welcome. Hi. Thanks for listening. First, I want to go whoever's bright idea was to contract the Humane Society to do enforcement, you should be ashamed. That's not their mission. And it you've corrupted and perverted the the organization and it's not a good thing. They they've been given tickets. Nobody has a problem with them giving tickets to people that have problem dogs out there. But when there's no problem, there's no reason to issue a ticket just because there's an ordinance. Ordinances were created to address problems. And if there is no problem, there's no reason for them to give tickets unless this is just a revenue generation, which that's not why ordinances were created either. And having this there almost all the people that go there, they're nice people. They have well-behaved animals. If somebody brings a dog that's not behaving, we ask them to leave. And humane society isn't there for that. And it's it's just a lot of really nice people

used to come there quite often. They've stopped becoming because of the tickets. And it's the people you want in the parks. They take care of the park. They clean up after their animals. The homeless people that are there when they are, they respect the park because the they respect the animals. And I've seen them. the Humane Society out there giving tickets to people. The dogs are sit standing right next to them or they're sitting on a blanket under a tree. They gave tickets to them just because their dog didn't have a physical leash on them.

They weren't running around causing problems, anything like that. And I think either talk to the Humane Society, make them more just in their who they give tickets to rather than just go out and give tickets to everybody. It's not a good thing. It's keeping good people from coming to the park. Thank you for your comment. Your time is up.

Thank you. And do we have any other public comment? Okay, that concludes public comment. Our next um conflict disclosure number seven from anyone in Thank you.

So, next is the consent calendar. I'm going to take public comment for consent calendar and then instead of asking for a consent calendar, we can pull all the items. I think we're pulling every item on the consent calendar. So, we'll just just do each item. I'm just I'm being facitious. Okay. Um for item, we'll just do them in order. 94. Barbara Torres. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor, council members. Thank you so much for the opportunity to address you tonight. Uh my name is Barbara Torres. I'm with Towns and Public Affairs and I'm so excited to work alongside you and staff to advance city priorities on behalf of this vibrant community. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Um so before so I'll actually start. Is anybody pulling? Not 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 94. Okay, I'll go back to 94. That's okay. All right, so 94, I will hand it over to you.

Thank you. Um, I I wanted to share that uh I believe contracting with towns and public affairs for government advocacy and grant writing services is a smart and strategic investment in Lame Mesa's future. And I think our city treasurer would likely agree with me on that. Um, out of an abundance of transparency, I want to share that my background is in local and state policy and public affairs. And after I joined the council, um, a longtime colleague, Barbara, uh, reached out to me uh, to connect with the city of La Mesa. Um, I want to make it clear that I have no financial ties to towns and public affairs historically or currently. Um, but I'm very pleased to see this contract on our consent agenda tonight. The USPS relocation, our civic center and library expansion planning, and several major grant opportunities all require specialized and timeconsuming support that our current staffing simply can't absorb. Partnering with Townsen provides us uh positions us to advance these priorities efficiently and to compete for significant outside funding for projects like weight park and a new fire apparatus. A big thank you to the Townzen team. We look forward to working with you to bring the big bucks for big projects that our city deserves.

Very good. Okay. So 97. And what what number would you you did you need? Mine nine 13. So nine. Let's go to 98. Is that okay? That's fine. Thank you. Sorry to lob them both at you. Write it. That's That's okay. Um, take your time. Sorry. I've got a few.

I had a lot of things to say tonight, so I promised I'd write them down so I wouldn't be too long. Um, so as one of our current aerial ladder trucks um reaches the end of its reliable service life, this purchase um of a uh ladder truck represents a meaningful investment in the safety of our residents um and the firefighters who protect us. Replacing a 15-year-old apparatus ensures our crews have the tools they need to respond quickly and effectively when every second counts. to our firefighters, those of you that are here tonight, I want to say thank you for your service to La Mesa and all of our community, and also thank you for helping us during your time off get Measure L renewed with a resounding 82% so that we have the financial ability to make these kinds of purchases. So, thank you and we're really excited to purchase this ladder truck um for you all because it really is for our community.

Very good. So 911 uh two speakers Jamie Jenkins followed by Sean Coniker.

Welcome. Thank you.

All right. Um my name is Jamie Jenkins. I'm very nervous so I'm sorry. Um, I'm a community member of Lame Mesa, a parent, um, and a board member of Lame Mesa National Little League. Currently, um, the field allocation and use policy is up for your approval this evening. Uh we are overwhelmingly supportive of the policy and believe it will aid sorry the decision making when it comes time to grant field permits. The process and the embedded rubric will remove subjectivity when allocation conflicts arise. Any decision-making done in a transparent nature benefits the greater good and in our case La Mesa youth. Currently, there are a couple points I'd like to speak to and suggest that perhaps the policy as drafted isn't ready for final approval this evening. The primary talking point is related to the residency on page four of the policy. Um, so it's related to the residency percentages. Our league is wholeheartedly Lame Mesa with 83% residency and 98% of our youth attending Murdoch and Lemon Avenue. Currently, only two organizations fall in the 90 to 100% tier, both being what appear to be club soccer teams. One we know for sure is Rebels. We feel that this scale needs to be revisited and potentially revised with a minimum LA Mesa residency requirement of 51% by 2030 to play on La Mesa's fields. It appears as though there's room um to change that guideline. Um, so we're

suggesting 81 to 100% being weighted three points, 61 to 100% being weighted two points, 51 to 60% um being weighted at one point. This will also resolve an oversight that we noticed last night in our board meeting. The policy as drafted omits 60 to 69% in its residency scale. We also observe that the club and competitive, it's just the language are used interchangeably and we feel that clarifying that those are one and the same or if they're not um to further clarify that could be helpful. Again, we support the policy development and in light of the fact that the athletic council field allocations are just beginning, approval tonight may seem urgent, but we believe that with adjustments, it will serve the Lima community and youth in an honest, fair, and transparent nature. Thank you.

Well done. You did very well. Thank you, Sean Coniker. Good evening. Welcome,

Mayor Rapastasis, uh, Vice Mayor Kazarus, council members, city staff. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your consideration, and most importantly, thank you for the service you provide to the people in the city of Laesa. Uh, my name is Sean Conniker. I'm currently serving as president of La Mesa National Little League. Um, in a long line of presidents of this particular little league, uh, it's been around for over 70 years. We celebrate our 70th anniversary in 2023. Several of you were part of that that particular celebration. Um, so we have a very proud history that's inherently tied to La Mesa. Uh, in fact, our slogan is one league, one community. Uh, as the community grows around us and it thrives, so does Laame Mesa National. As my fellow, uh, volunteer and board member Jamie mentioned, um, this FA field allocation and use policy, uh, we applaud it. We we think it should be developed. We love that there's removing subjectivity, there's a rubric, um, but it does present some challenges that we feel should not be ready for prime time for approval in the consent calendar. So, we requesting that you remove it from the consent calendar and kick it back to Elmac and the organizations to better understand it and agree upon it. Uh, my primary issue with the policy, as stated, is that there is a amount of time metric in the rubric. There are several different metrics that are each assigned a a weighted value um to decide if there are two conflicting organizations vying for field allocations. One of those metrics amount of time is an absolute. So if if an organization seeking a particular field allocation comes over a certain threshold in this calculation, it's automatically disqualified for consideration. So the challenge here is while we have a really smart and thoughtful rubric that assigns weighted values to each individual metric, there's one metric that trumps all of them. Right? So just because we are a large organization that is again 98% tied to the two elementary schools that feed us. Um we would lose out in those particular opportunities even if we have

higher residency rates. U we are in season. We have better field needs. We have um no breaches of of contract over the years. Our history, our pedigree, we're a nonprofit. we serve the community, we are La Mesa, we would automatically lose that conflict to a potential club team or some other team that's smaller. Um maybe they don't make all the other standards, but because of this automatic um particular metric, it would put us in a rough spot. So um we recognize tonight this is not uh the venue for updating the policy. So we would request that we bring it back, take it off the consent calendar, move it back to the folks over at Elmac so that we can uh properly think it through and make sure that we're doing the right thing. Thanks for your time. Thanks. Uh, could I request Misty Thompson, our director, director of park and wreck.

Talk to HR about that. Thank you. um after hearing from our community members, um I'm personally interested in uh bringing this back on the 129 meeting, but I understand that this may be pressing because of time. So, I wanted to see if it if it would give you enough time to be able to start um scheduling this out um if we brought it back on 129. We'd be happy to make the changes and bring it back. Okay. In that case, um I I would like to formally pull um item 911 for a separate vote. We'll So we'll just pull it from the agenda. Oh, we can do that. Great. Just pull it from the agenda. My motion is to pull it from the agenda.

So we'll pull it from the agenda. All right. Thank you for that. Yep. Thank you. Um okay. Uh on to item 913. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Um I sent a an email to the uh the chief. Chief, you don't have to come up. I know that you you won't have an answer until later. Um but uh tonight we were supposed to have uh or on the uh consent calendar is the um homeless outreach and mobile engagement program quarterly report. Uh and so um I have received several phone calls and texts and just personal conversations from people who have had um some pretty shocking uh encounters in the last quarter. Uh homeless uh individual encounters. Uh, one gentleman uh was had a he was on his motorcycle at Highwood Park. He was chased by um a homeless man's pitbull and crashed his motorcycle and he damaged his motorcycle and hurt his leg. Um on Friday morning, October 31st, um some ladies who were playing pickle ball very early in the morning, had an encounter with three homeless people in the call your bathroom, including one man who was fully naked. Uh, and then there is a shop on the boulevard that seems to have a persistent homeless person on it. So, I told these people and others that I would ask you um if the city of La Mesa is participating in the new shelter ready homeless app u and that's something that um was launched four months ago in San Diego County. That app matches homeless individuals with with matching shelter beds. And so I just feel like um the people of La Mesa I think they need to see some more action. And do you want to say something or

Yeah, if I can. Okay. Because that could be that could make a big difference. I I don't I don't you uh council member I we're not at that level yet. We're getting close. Uh there's what they're doing right now that app is through the district attorney's office. So they're putting together right now. They're trying to go through all the logistics of who gets beds, services. is we don't have a shelter in La Mesa. There is one in East County in in Elcohone. So, they're still going through that. We're hoping to have it up and active with our home team within the next two months or sooner. Thank you.

Okay. Got it. Okay. Sorry. Understood. So, I'm going to ask for a motion uh 91 to 917 excluding 911 911. I'll second.

Thank you. Second.

Motion carries with all council members voting yes. And now under the city council LaMesa Public Financing Authority, we have consent items um 101. And so I'm going to um offer a motion to approve. I'll second.

Thank you. Motion carries with all council members voting yes. Thank you. Item number 111 is the second amended restated uh regional wastewater disposal agreement.

Good evening. Hi, Joe uh, public works engineering, environmental manager. So, this is the second amended and restated regional wastewater disposal agreement. Also, goes by acronym Sarah. It's easier to say Sarah than long thing. And also administrative agreement number one. We have some additional speakers after me. Uh, La Mesa Metro Japa Representative, former council member Mr. William Babber and also city of San Diego executive assistant director Miss Lisa Sallay is here. So this is a sewer item that addresses how La Mesa's sewage is conveyed and treated. So if you see the map, this map shows uh the regional facilities which receive sewer flow from Laame Mesa and other metro JPA agencies. The whole system is owned and operated by city of San Diego and flows are conveyed and treated per agreement. Laame Mesa sewer conveys flows to the metro system. So all the flows that come from Lame Mesa are transported through this system and everything is discharged at the wastewater treatment plant which is located at PointLoma. So as Lame Mesa we don't operate operate any of our own treatment works. We convey all of our flow through these metro facilities uh to city of San Diego. So a little metro sewer history. The point outfall was constructed in 1963 and in 1998 city of San Diego and 12 metro participating agencies signed a 50-year regional wastewater disposal agreement for sewage treatment services from San Diego. So basically this ended the time of individual agreements. In 2000, Metro JPA was formed for

authority and responsibility to take actions and make sewage treatment decisions. So before 2000, there was no sewer APA. In 2021, Metro JPA parties amended the 1998 agreement to incorporate necessary operational revisions. And now Metro GPA seeks to have an approved and amended agreement to further update incorporated necessary revisions to an outdated billing system. So that's the timeline of kind of where we're at uh currently. The key updates to the agreement include establishing a cost share approach for phase one and phase two of San Diego's Pure Water program. And the second one is the one that affects Laame Mesa the most. It introduces a new billing system to allocate metro system costs more accurately based on how each agency uses the metro system. So essentially this is getting into a new form of sewer billing called functional allocation billing rather than strengthbased billing which is what we have had historically and the next slide I'll get into a little bit more about the billing and how that works and how that affects LA. The other items here, establishing a uniform enforcement of pre-treatment by city of San Diego. That's another update outlining how future RA regional water reuse projects may be included in capital cost calculations that has to do with the Pure Water San Diego project, which I'm sure everybody's read about in the news, and how the different um costs are allocated for Pure Water San Diego. Um, it also provides a sample formula for calculating revenue from repurified water. So, as Pure Water San Diego uh develops water, there's credit backs to each jurisdiction and this provides information on how that works. And also, it includes provisions for treatment from military bases, which um doesn't

really have anything to do with us. So essentially this uh new updates ensures that the current arrangement is preserved and updated to serve the current needs of the system. So the new functional allocated billing system it uses um a functional allocated billing rather than strengthbased. It allocates costs based on usage of facilities in the metro system. There's new peak capacity charges for pump station 2 and the 0.1 moist water treatment plant. It's anticipated that 2027 is going to be the year that this new billing system is going to be implemented and but that depends on how fast all of the agencies approve this uh updated agreement. Extra costs to the city of La Mesa are estimated at about $750,000 per year and that's primarily due to the new peak capacity charges uh that are added to the system as part of this new building system. And then any LA Mesa sewer rate increases will be phased in uh per our current practice. So with that, the recommendation is on the screen and I'm going to turn it over to JPA Commissioner Mr. William Baber. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe. Thank you, council. Welcome. So good to see you all again.

Um, as you know, I'm in honor of Randy, I have to correct one thing. I am retired. In 20 um 22 when I retired from the council um the JPA I had been working on this um second amendment restatement agreement for about two years and the JPA staff um went to Greg and Mark and said hey can you just keep AB on until we finish negotiating this and I thought fine six months it's been three years okay this is what we've gone through um and it's been great it's a 500page contract. It it is a legal document. It's a finance document. It's an engineering document. It's a political document. We are part of a group of 12 agencies who are sort of the best analogy I can use is sort of like we're the we're the condo association. We all rent from the same owner, the city of San Diego. and our condo association had to figure out how we were going to interact with the city of San Diego and we went into negotiations, five years worth of negotiations and we eventually got this deal done and it took a lot of work and first of all Joe was magnificent and I I've got to thank him. Uh thank you also Michael Greg who used to be on one of the technical adviserss to this was great. Uh we it was a bipartisan uh group that met. I mostly worked with Jerry Jones who's here from Lemon Grove who have a moment to speak on behalf of the JPA. Peter De Huff from Powe, Jose Preiato from Chula Vista, John N Duncan Coronado, and Gary Kendrick from Elcohone spent a lot of time and I have to introduce you some very important. Adriana is was our

primary attorney who put this together. Brilliant. Okay. Um, Dexter was our engineering advisor, also brilliant, and Lisa, you'll hear for a minute in a minute, who represents the city of San Diego. And it has been a lot of work with a lot of people. I had I'm not going to read them all, but I r I rattled off all the people I worked with. I have 25 names of people that I worked closely with, so I'm sure there's three times more who I didn't work with. But it's a deal that we put together after a long piece of it. And it the purpose of it is we want to go to a pure water program. But before we can build the system, we had to figure out who is going to pay for what. So the condo association of the 12 of us had to figure it out with the owner San Diego because they own all the pipes and it took us this long to do it, but we got it done. So, in order to get this done, we really really had to have um um the support of the city of San Diego. She's a very tough negotiator. And I'm going to introduce uh Lisa Ca, who's assistant director of public utilities, but as tough as she was, she had always had a soft spot in her heart for La Mesa because she's a Helix grad. So, so on behalf of the city, our negotiating partner, Lisa,

welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Bill, and thank you, Joe. And um thank you, honorable mayor and city council members. Um so, as mentioned, I'm Lisa Slay. I'm executive assistant director for the public utilities department for the city of San Diego. And appreciate the opportunity to speak before you as you consider approval of Sarah. We love our acronyms over in our wastewater world, so it makes our life a little bit easier. Um I just want to note that your agency did play a very key role in these negotiations. You were at the table. you're steady, constructive, and instrumental in getting this across the finish line. As Bill said, many years were spent on this. Um, and so your collaboration helped shape a fair, workable agreement for the entire region. This process truly showed what regional partnership looks like. For San Diego, Sarah is more than a contract. It is a reaffirmation of our partnership. It protects public health and safeguards our environment. Sarah modernizes how we share cost and responsibilities. It improves transparency and prepares us for future projects like Pure Water. And most importantly, it reinforces that we are partners maintaining a system that connects all of us. Um, looking ahead, we do still have challenges before us. And those challenges will be complex, whether or not that's aging infrastructure, climate pressures, or new regulations. But we've proven we can work together and find balanced solutions. This agreement gives us a strong foundation for continued cooperation in trust. San Diego values your leadership in partnership deeply. And thank you again for your dedication and collaboration.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, if you approve this tonight, Lame Mesa will be the first of the 13 agencies to approve it. So, as I told everybody, I wanted LA Mesa to be Delaware because Delaware was the first state to do the Constitution, and here we are. Our our next speaker represents our other negotiating partner, Jerry Jones, represents the other 11 agencies that we've had to work with. So, I'll let him speak on behalf of those agencies.

Welcome. Well, I'm not going to give you any details other than to tell you that Sarah is not a person. Okay. My my board my board always asks, you know, who's Sarah? Um, it's appropriate that we're here here tonight because I began my time as chairman of this organization with your city manager, as my TAC chair, and the TAC chair essentially served as the as the manager. So, I want to say first of all, thank you, Greg. you you did did me well, you did La Mesa well, and you did the JPA well, and I and I thank you for that. I also need to thank you for sending this guy back to to watch my back. Um uh I'm retired from my council. Bill and I both had retired um at the same time and and we both got asked to come back and um I've been here three years getting this finished. Um so um here we are. You guys are first. Um, this is a this is a generational decision that that you all make tonight. This is, you know, it benefits the environment. It benefits your rateayers. It benefits future generations. It provides us a water source, although that's controversial, but you know, I think we'll get through that part. Uh, at any rate, um, that's all I want to say is thank you, La Mesa. Um, and thank you for taking care of my family. my my son my oldest son lives in La Mesa. So, um and uh I'm a Helix parent. I didn't go to Helix, but I I'm a Helix parent. So, thank you all.

Great. Thank you, Jerry. If you have any questions, council, we have our staff, we have our attorney, we have our engineering expert, we have the city of San Diego, and we have the JPA rep. We can answer any questions. Any questions on item 11? Then I'm going to make a motion to approve. I will second. and also um extend my thanks to everyone here, but especially to former council member Bab for uh serving on the JPA all of this time. Um really appreciate the work that you have done um for LA Mesa and also even more than that appreciate that we're the first ones. I think it's really important that we set this precedent. So, thank you.

Motion carries with all council members voting yes. You're free, Mr. Bab. Thank you. Please say hello to all the other babers for me. I I will I will I will give him your regards. Thank you.

Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you. Item number uh 12 hearing um first reading. Um I'll hand it over to the city attorney. There's a staff report. I don't really think this needs a staff report because I don't make those decisions. Okay, but go ahead. It's it's um pretty straightforward. Um the it's only the first reading. Go ahead.

Proof of the pudding is in the title. Consideration of an ordinance of the city council of the city of La Mesa adding a new section 24.053.080 D to the La Mesa Municipal Code requiring city council authorization to approve cancellation of affordable or senior housing agreements. Mr. Mayor. Yes. All right. Oh, sorry. I apologize.

Oh, it's okay. Not a question. Um just just a a comment. Um uh this I as uh Council Member Suzuki and I look back on our almost year, the next meeting will be one year of being um on the city council. Uh we've been talking about what we've actually, you know, been able to get done um for the city. And um this ordinance um was a a council initiated item that that we brought forward together um that I'm really um excited that this got done in a really timely fashion um very very quickly. So, thank you to um our city management team, our city attorney, and our city staff um because I um hopefully this uh first reading gets through tonight, but uh this is something that uh I know I'm going to be very proud to um claim as as something tangible that we got done for La Mesa. So, thank you.

Sure. And I uh I will also make a motion uh to uh what is it? You're the first to introduce uh the first reading. We We need to close the hearing first. Make a motion to close the hearing. I should have done that first. Sorry. That's okay. I I seconded it. No, it's okay. So, we're going to close the hearing first and then I'll hand it back to the vice mayor.

Motion carries with all council members voting yes. And I will go ahead and make a motion to introduce um the ordinance to the city council for a first reading. I'll second that as well.

Motion carries with all council members voting yes.

Thank you. Item 131 is a subcommittee uh report a consideration updating updating resolution um for council initiated items. resolution. Um um I won't read all of this, but just to say that um council member Dillard and I met and it's to bring forward um this would just apply to the council that you would need a second person to initiate a council initiated item. Um what that would do is ensure that you at least have one vote to bring it forward so it wouldn't die for lack of a second. Um this would not preclude um a member of the public coming forward and requesting the council to put something on. This is just for the the um the council, not the public, but to um also u as we looked at the number of council initiated items in the past um six years, um it was a little lopsided. And the other part that we brought forward was um that we're re instituting something that an action that we took as a council back in 2009. I'm going to ask the city attorney to um state what that was. Uh very well. Um let me just read it and then comment on it briefly. Um back in March March 10th, 2009, the council adopted via minute motion a policy that provides as follows. only council members uh via city council initiated items and and the city manager may place items of city business on the agenda. Any outside requests for items to be placed on the agenda by the public may only be made during the public comment portion of the agenda. The council shall only consider items requested by the public which and this is the important part directly impact city administration or operations. In short, the import of

this paragraph is that the city council uh shall consider only items of city business rather than external matters that don't touch and concern the operations or administration of the city. Um, in the resolution that you have, the draft resolution, it contains action to reaffirm this existing policy and um and formally adopt it by resolution as opposed to the motion that it was adopted by initially. And and just to reiterate before I hand this over to Vice Mayor Dillard is this isn't um again that um that was just read by the city attorney. Um this doesn't constrain the public at all. So the public is still free to come forward if there's an issue and then the city council can decide whether or not it goes on the agenda. This is just to try to streamline for for the for the staff. And so we care about the world. Obviously, we all care, but but our limited ability and what we can do. This is to when we're using this the city as a mechanism that we're focused on just city business and not something else. So, I'll I'll let uh council member Dillard speak, please.

Yeah, I I'm I'll just be short. I think that this is um simp basically reiterating what is simplistic and fair. uh I think this is the way to look at this and um there's it's it's also an opportunity to get feedback instead of just one person um you know having that feedback from someone else that may have a different opinion uh is also helpful uh you know to have two instead of just you know leaving it to one person without any feedback before it comes to council. So

it's kind of a check and balance thing and I think we always need that in government. We have one speaker um sorry two speakers

um Manny um Assaarus that Oh Seus I'm sorry Manny Seis sorry but they they wrote it. Sorry they I I didn't look at your names. They tried to write it phonetically. I looked at that. Sorry. Sorry buddy. Sorry. I made it. Uh good evening uh council members. Thank God for social media because I was alerted that this uh you were going to have a request on item 131 which is to consider two council members to place a council initiated item on the agenda. I strongly oppose this request and let me tell you why. Um our democratic republic was designed to protect the minority. Um it was to we as citizens elect public officials you guys um that best fit our political beliefs and values and while I consider you my brother Mr. Mayor growing up in La Mesa and running all the around the the you know La Mesa state being in Libman Avenue um and I'm sure I would get along with a lot of you um council members if we you know had some coffee. The reality is is that there's currently only one city council member that best matches my vision of La Mesa and what La Mesa's future should be. And to require two city council members to place an item on the agenda will essentially quench the lone council person that works tirelessly for what and and other for me and also about 40% of the residents of La Mesa which I have been a um resided here for 45 years. I'm an alumni of Libman Avenue, La Mesa Junior High, Helix. I love this city. And so I am strongly asking you to reconsider and just to reject 131. Thank you guys for your service. God bless you guys.

Thank you. Um the attorney

I'd like to make a a clarification just so everyone understands. Um any council member at any time at a public meeting can make a request for an item to be put on the agenda. um this uh action that the subcommittee is proposing involves actually placing it on the agenda before the request is made by council. So you see the distinction as council members under the proposal it would take two council members to actually place it on the agenda. Otherwise any council member could make the request at a council meeting to put anything that they saw fit on the agenda. Is that distinction clear? Thank you, Jack Shu. Good evening, council members. I'm opposed to this action. U and let me explain why. First, I think it potentially will violate the Brown Act. In order to uh put something on the agenda, it would require two council members to essentially talk about a topic and then have the mayor put it on the agenda and convince the mayor that it needs to be on the agenda, which means three people would have to talk about the item outside of a council meeting, which makes it a violation. The other reason why uh it could be a violation of the Brown Act potentially or at least curtail one of you from taking any action is if I think something needs to be placed on the agenda and I talk to one of my fellow council members. I'm sorry I'm pretending I'm a council member for now. But if I do so and that particular council member says, "Ah, I don't think I want to put it on agenda." That kills it. I can't go to another council member to talk about it because that would be violation of the Brown Act. essentially killing this idea simply because one of my fellow council members uh um said no. But if one council member can bring something to the to the table, even when we have a majority of the council

supporting that, this allows for that to happen to have one council member have the power. Let me also remind you that since we don't have districts, each of you had to win votes for all the ones fighting for those council seats. So you actually have the support of the people of Lameisa equal to the mayor. It's just that the mayor with no disrespect to the mayor ran for the mayor seat and and won that seat. That means each of you should have the same amount of power to bring something to the council as the mayor does. The proposal also gives this mayor this huge amount of power. You know, the the mayor already has, I think, a lot of power dealing with the agenda. And I remember several times I would want to bring something up and I would work with the mayor said, "Hey, you want two more months, we want to delay it, that's fine. We can do that. We all can work together to put things forward." But to straight out have a policy to curtail that kind of discussion and bring something forward kills the democratic process. We don't have kings in this country. We don't have kings in our cities. And lastly, there's this portion about the previous action that the uh uh council made about not bringing things forward.

30 seconds. Uh that that may not pertain to the city. That's just idiotic. La Mesa is part of a county, a state, and a federal government. Our people should be uh able to express our opinions through resolutions. And if one council member thinks that's important and we have a majority of council members that want to do that, let's put that resolution forward. It does not have to op deal with the operation or administration of the city itself, but the communities that we we live in. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm going to go to the city attorney just for clarification on everything so we have everything accurate because we want to talk about the truth. So, first of all, will any of this be a Brown Act violation?

Absolutely not. And and let me explain that. Um the in terms of two council members putting it on the putting an item on the agenda, they're going to work through the city manager and the clerk. The mayor is a member of the council and really doesn't have anything to do with that process um at all. In fact, um u it gets placed on the agenda automatically even without the mayor's consideration or input under the policy. Correct. Is there another question, Mr. Mayor? I have a question.

Yes. So, I'm more concerned if one of one of one of us wants to bring something up and let's say that I asked um council member Kazarez to bring it up with me so we could place it on the agenda and she says no. Am I then procluded by the Brown Act from approaching council member Lotheian? Well, if you're not discussing the matter in detail and it's a topic um then you're free to do that. Um, you're free to make a request, but you're not free to discuss it with a quorum of the council,

right? So, if one of them just follows up with what do you mean or why, I can't talk anymore. Correct. You want to avoid that and just talk about the topic. Thank you. You can't lobby them. You can't say we're going to do this because but they have to make up their own decision. But no, the mayor does not have any of those powers. Mayor doesn't control the agenda. Um, so, Council Member Loian.

Okay. Um, I have a question and some comments. Um, the the requested by the public, so I keep hearing that if someone is speaking during public comments, like for example, the dog park, we could on the city council say, "Wow, we need to put that on the agenda." And that's what you mean by that, correct? Like, is that what it like? So, if we hear so a council member can go, you know what? That sounds really important. We want to put that in agenda. A single council member can do that at a council meeting.

At a council meeting. Absolutely. Now, if a council member receives an email or letters from, let's say that the dog uh park people did not speak tonight, but we were getting emails and I go, "Wow, that sounds like something really good. I'd like to put that on the agenda. Can I do it from letters and emails or does it only have to be from public comments?" Can be from anything. Okay. So, anything. Now, at that point though, I have to I have to get another the way this is written. Now, I can't put anything on the agenda unless I have a partner, another sponsor. That's correct for putting matters on the agenda. Okay. And but as a single council person, you can make the request at a council meeting to put anything on the

right. But I might want to put something on the agenda that was not spoken out on a public during public comments. So here here's the comment I have on this. I think this is still incredibly unfair and I know I know the objective of it. The objective was we we have had too many council initiated items. Uh and sometimes colleagues over the years have used council initiated items to to be political. Um but and so I think that you could get the same efficiency if you just simply did this. If you just adopted a resolution where you reaffirmed what you already did in 2009 which says only consider items which directly impact city administration or operations that would stop a lot of the politicking. Um but to make two people that when you have a city council, we have a city council that's five members. Um I am the only Republican on this city council and I don't want to hear people nonpartisan. It's partisan. And so I might have an idea or a policy that I want to put forward and I don't think I'm going to get support from a council member and then you go okay fine that means during the city council meeting it would die from lack of a second but it would still get a public hearing and it would still have the public be able to make comments on it. So this this before when it was majority Republican and Colin Parent was the only Democrat or David Allen was the only one. So it doesn't matter if it's just me this time. whoever's the lone member is getting silenced. It's not right. You You should not have a minimum of two council members because you can literally marginalize and minimize the lone voice that's different from everybody else. Almost anything the city council puts anything uh Vice Mayor Khazarus asked uh Council Member Dillard all the way across the board's going to get a yes. I'm the one that could easily get a no. And so and and and I in the last election I won 8,400 and something votes. Approximately 20,000 people voted. That means 42% of the electorate.

That means I'm silenced and so are they. So I think that this needs to be rewritten so that it is only directly impacting city administration operations. But that two minimum it's it's it feels like censorship. I'm really opposed to it. Any other comments? Yes.

Um thank you. Um, so I want to start my comments uh on this item that saying that I also understand why this item has come forward. Um, I believe that it's likely out of protection of uh the time of city staff and city management so that the council members and the council can get more done um for the city. I also want to um thank the mayor and thank council member Dillard um for your work in the subcommittee. Um I know subcommittees can be a lot of work behind the scenes that no one else sees. So um thank you for using your time. Um, so I I I I don't believe this item was brought forward out of malice toward anyone or or any viewpoint or to cause any um intentional harm. Um, but I am very concerned that the passage of this would unintentionally and directly harm um a fellow council member, council, councilwoman Loian, uh because her viewpoints are sometimes opposed to the current majority on the council. Um, we get lots of five zeros, but definitely not all. Um, and I cannot and and will not contribute to what I also feel would be the silencing of one of my colleagues, even if it is unintentional. Um, no matter how much we may disagree. Um, each and every one of us up here was duly elected um by thousands of La Mesa residents all throughout the city um with different political party affiliations and viewpoints. And I consider myself to be frankly the most progressive person on the dis. Um and I have been able to effectively work with all of my colleagues including councilwoman Loian. Actually I think we have the most active items going together right now. Um and I think that we all agree um that we should strive to work uh with one another. And I think the current council and mayor, we already strive to do that. Um I'm going to tell a very short story. So before I was elected to the city council, I actually organized dozens of people to come speak out uh against one of Councilwoman Lotheian's council

initiated items that I felt was harmful. Um so many people came that it drew uh multiple news associations and whatnot to uh come out. That item ultimately died from a lack of a second and the council woman on the dis acknowledged that she knew it wouldn't pass. Um I don't think she should have brought that item forward, but I also don't think she should have been prohibited from doing so. Um, I'm also frankly concerned that this could be weaponized during election years. I don't think any of my colleagues would do that, but I can't predict who is going to be on the council next and if something would were to get more politicized. Um, I I hear that you don't believe this would be a problem um for the Brown Act. Um, and and while it might not violate the Ralph and Brown Act, and as you all know, I'm not an attorney. Um, I I I do feel that not being able to, you know, speak to another council member about the actual like meat of an item and the ideas um would would be very difficult to bring something forward because I I don't want to just have to rely on well uh Councilwoman Suzuki and I agree on 95% of things so I'm just going to rely on her to bring something um forward to me or whatnot. And then you get to the point of, okay, well, let's just say me, we create an agreement or whatever. We don't have one, but let's say we have one that we do that, and then let's say Councilwoman Dillard and and the mayor do that. You're leaving someone who doesn't have a partner. Not that you can't all work together, but it I think there's just too much potential for weaponization. I I I I'm I'm also just not comfortable. Um, you know, I feel like it's violating the spirit of the Brown Act. um even if it's not violating the Brown Act and I don't I I'm just not comfortable supporting um an item that I believe would expose members of the council or the city of Lame Mesa to significant um legal and financial risk. Um so for for those reasons I oppose

this item. Um regarding the 2002 and 2009 supplemental decorum operations part of the item um I don't feel it needs to be reaffirmed but uh I would be fine uh reaffirming it. Um but specifically I think um these the the decorum and operation should be regarding resolutions not necessarily um or no ordinances not necessarily resolutions. Um I think it's important that we are able to um do resolutions. For example uh last year or the year before um the the city of La Mesa uh supported the uh sharp nurses union uh or healthcare work. it was SEIU uhw healthcare workers union for their $25 an hour healthcare worker minimum wage. Um while that doesn't directly impact um city operations, I I do think that it's um an important show of uh support for um people within the city of La Mesa and that make the city of La Mesa bright. So I I'm sorry that it was very long, but for those reasons um I will not be able to support item 13.1 at least as uh currently written.

Okay. Well, I think we can discuss this openly and look at this, you know, and th this wasn't brought forward except that the staff has a stack and we're talking about ordinances that come forward that have very little to do with the city of La Mesa and one person can push that forward and they can argue for it here and then if it gets three votes, it adds to the body of work. This isn't to silence anybody. This isn't to weaponize anything. I'm open to looking at this and taking pieces of it that work. The reason we took that issue in 2009 was the council and this isn't for us. This is for the future and for every it was getting out of control and people were bringing things forward and even a resolution can do that. Someone can you know we've had people in the past that have brought things forward that have to do with the world which are important. They brought them into the chamber and then it what happened was people got hurt because it some hate people came toward us because they brought that forward. And so it I think that we're here to represent the citizens and I understand everything you both said and that makes sense to me but we also can't use this unilaterally as our as our as our operation. we have to use the council responsibly in the respect of why we were we were hired to do this job. So, I'm willing to entertain things. I won't speak for um my colleague, Council Member Dillard.

Yeah. Because um and I I I appreciate the feedback because I don't want to be unfair. No.

Especially to Laura because she's the one that's here now and she is uh alone. And I I do when I say that I mean I don't I don't mean alone you know we have we do and and and so I didn't think of uh the that that you would be isolated by this. So this was not the intention. No. So, I think that maybe um uh city attorney, is there any wording that we can use to protect um any

I think we mightward I think what we might have to do is just if if this is the direction the council's going is strip that part out and just reaffirm that things that are brought to staff staff they're not our chew toy, right? they're not, you know, that they they're here working for us, but they're working for everybody that we can't just bring things willy-nilly, you know. I think that's I agree. I think that's what we need to do. I think that's where we were trying to go. So, without that, we were trying to do a check and balance, not to isolate anybody. This wasn't to try to target anybody at all. I I think with this DAS, it probably wouldn't happen anyway, but we can't predict uh what would happen in the future. Um, and so,

so I guess this is going to turn intoformational I was trying. Yeah. An item. And I I definitely want to say I'm glad that we sused out because things are said up there sometimes that are erroneous. Yes. But the mayor doesn't have any extra powers. I'm one vote. I'm the executive of the city clearly. So when you vote on something, I'm the signature that goes on it after you vote on it. But I've never controlled the agenda ever. I've never told anybody what they can and can't do. Obviously, I run the meetings, but I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to set that record straight because things are said and you can say whatever you want. Obviously, but um I mean, we've had that happen a couple times.

You accused that somebody was my friend and I'm like, I've never even met them. You know, copy that. All right. So, well, why don't we why don't we do this? We we don't need to take a vote on this then if we're just reaffirming that, you know, this I'm glad that we sused this out. We brought it forward not to hurt anybody. I'm glad that your comments, you know, heard everything you're saying. Again, want to work in collaboration, but to be mindful that we need to be that what our job is, you know, that we can't use the this this body for whatever we want, right? So I mean it has to be for the will of the people and it has to be well and Laura and I have been here long enough to see how that affects us

when erroneous uh items are brought and then it just tends end ends up being a complete and total uh not just a disaster of a of a meeting but extremely more timeconsuming as well. I mean, we we sat here way past a time uh on an issue that was not um city uh focused. Agreed. Okay. Okay. So, we'll so we'll leave this that it it was an educational piece then and I will I will not call for a vote on this and take it off. Okay. All right. Thank you. No. Both hands. Yes. No.

Because we we all work really well together. So, I want to keep that. I want to keep that. All right. I'm going to go to council initiated item. And there's for Oh, Vice Mayor Casaris and Council Member Suzuki. Two people on this. There are two. There are. Okay. Um and and and I will I will publicly say I will do my best to have a second when I when I can. If we can. All right.

Um so, um we are uh finally at the the kind of tail end of our meeting. Um this is the consideration of reinstating the library task force. Um so council member Suzuki and I uh recently attended the annual meeting of the friends of the La Mesa Library and one message came through very clearly. Our community is asking for the library task force to be reinstated. As we advance the civic center revitalization and plan for a modern expanded library, it's essential that residents, library supporters, and key stakeholders have a structured place to help guide that vision. Reinstating this task force ensures meaningful, transparent engagement as we shape a library that meets Lame Mesa's long-term needs. I'm grateful for the community's advocacy, President Kirstston Iverson, who I see back there, and the friends of the Lame Mesa Library, and proud to bring this forward tonight with my fellow council member, Genevie Suzuki.

And we have one speaker, Kirsten Iverson. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Kirsten Iverson and as she shared, I'm the president of the Friends of La Mesa Library. I'm here on behalf of our Lame Mesa community as well as 435 members to ask the city council to support reestablishing the library task force. We've already seen how effective it can be. The last task force advanced the library expansion study, leading the city council's decision to pursue option two, expanding the library into the adjacent post office. We're in full support of this decision. That was more than 2 years ago, and since then, progress has slowed. Meanwhile, community demand continues to exceed our library capacity. The La Mesa Library is consistently standing room only for events, and many programs book out within an hour of registration opening. Some programs and community partnerships have even been turned away or postponed simply because there's not enough space. Restarting the library task force now ensures this vital project continues moving forward in a timely and coordinated way for our short and long-term goals. Today, our library is approximately 10,373 ft, well below the 15,000 square foot standard that the is recommended by the San Diego County Library Master Plan for a medium-sized library branch. It also lacks a dedicated community room and other amenities identified as high priorities in the city's 2023 LMA needs uh library needs assessment. Our members are highly engaged and ready to help advocate in any way. We believe this task force is essential to bring clarity and focus to the collaborative partnership between the city, the county, the friends of the library, and other key groups. So together we can deliver what our community has been asking for. As a new president, I'm

proud to continue to lead the advocacy effort that has began more than yes, 20 years ago. And the friends of the La Mesa Library believe that a library is the best investment a city can make in its people. It fuels learning, belonging, and opportunity for everyone, enabling growth for all generations. With your leadership and partnership, we can move forward together to make the La Mesa Library expansion a reality. Thank you for your time, and we ask our city council to vote yes. Hopefully, it's the easiest decision of the night uh to restart the Lame Mesa Library Task Force. Thank you so much and follow us on Instagram, Friends of Lame Mesa Library. We have a great Instagram.

Thank you. So, I'm going to support this, but I would ask if if we could the best you could do that since this you're bringing this forward to recruit new people because the the task force so we don't have the same faces because I think the people of La Mesa when when I talked to them taught at a school with 1100 Lmasons parents and when I would talk to them about Lamea Library I'd get a deer in the headlights and I thought they didn't know that it was an issue because it affects different people and I I think the best we could do is if we're going to do this, bring them along so more people know that we're trying to our plan to develop a new civic center, move the post office, and expand the library. So, if that's possible, that's not a requirement. I'm just saying the best we can try to do, it's a good way to recruit new people to be to be part of this. So,

yeah, I I uh I agree with you. Um, one of uh one of the questions that uh our city manager asked me when we when we brought this forward was like, "How do you want to do it? Do you want to recruit new people to be on it or do you want to try to see if the folks who were on it a few years ago are available? Not to say that we won't accept people from a few years ago. I want to be clear about that. But uh I I think um one the friends of the La Mesa Library is huge and um so I definitely think there are folks that we should have from the Friends of La Mesa Library on there, but but I agree as someone who also grew up here um with you with thousands and thousands of people that are still here that that grew up here um that may not know about the library um and and uh they might not even know that it's uh not a technically LMAS library. they might think it's just a county library. Um, and they might not understand, you know, what what we do to to work in uh with with the community. So, I'm happy to do so.

Thank you. Um, Council Member Dillard.

Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, uh, back when I was running uh for this seat, I didn't even know about Friends of the Library. Uh, and I raised all three of my kids uh, through um, Lame Mesa's school system. Um and I had a chance to meet uh with John initially and um he shared a lot of information with me and what I found was that they were you know they had a a lot of feedback and I think that this is helpful uh to hear from the community uh and you know they covered that portion but it's it's you know it's not on social media in that way and for for a lot of people these days, you know, social media is a big help, but um but I I think that it's important for us to approve this item um because and and the expansion of, you know, trying to make sure that we're getting a diverse group uh uh so that we have fair um uh feedback. And this helps us and it also helps our staff. um because we, you know, we're here to listen to you. We care about uh how you feel about this and I really got a sense of passion, true passion. Uh and I I want to say thank you to all of those uh of you who have contribute to that passion. And I I my mouth app uh opened up when you said 20 years. I think when I met with John it was 17 or so. Well, actually 16. Um, and the passion was there and reflected

then and I I just really appreciate that. And so I think we should um we should be diverse and then but we should definitely uh have this reinstated. So I'm sorry I'm taking so long with it, but it's a passion. Yep. Uh, and I I want to recognize that passion. It's important. I agree. Thank you, Council Member Suzuki.

Just really briefly, when I was running last year, one of the things that was on all of my materials was that I'm running for the library. And it's because I'm a mom and I'm a reader and I love the library. And I think that mayor is absolutely correct. We need fresh faces as well as our experienced um members, but we need fresh faces because our kids have different needs now. Um we need we need people to be smarter as far as um social media goes. We need kids to be able to access um AI in a helpful way, not in a hurtful way. We need to be able to have the library adjust to our growing and pro, you know, our needs that are changing. They're everchanging. And so I absolutely believe that we need to do this. I'm excited to to um to join Council uh Vice Mayor Kazarez in this. And I'd like to move to um uh I would like to move to consider reinstating I don't know if I have to make

You can That's a motion. That's I'd like to make the motion to consider reinstating the library task force. Second. There you go. Motion carries with all council members voting yes. Thank you. Council committee reports. Council member Dillard.

Uh just one thing. Um it's been a while since I've had any report on MTS. A lot has happened but uh in short I just want to report that the total uh amount of writership between October the 19th through October the 25th uh we had a a total of 82,600 uh people that uh rode during that week uh for both the blue line, orange line, green line and copper line for orange line which is what runs through our city. We had a total of 119,428 people for that one week. Uh so we're still going strong. We're still offering uh free rides for children uh who are students and uh which is is become quite popular and has created habits uh for those uh who have found that it is a way for them to uh move about the city and and beyond. So that's all I have to report. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Council member Lotheian. Uh, no committee reports. Um, but I do have a question for uh for Councilwoman Dillard. Um, I spoke to Steve Goel who's also on the MTS and he said that the number the 800,000 100,000 all that he goes that's rides not people. Yes. So if one person rode it there and back that's two. Yeah. Okay. Because when you give the report you say people and so if you added that up there would be one million people use the subway in one I mean the trolley in one week.

But it is a person who gets on the trolley. Not everyone uh gets on the trolley and takes two rides. Even though the the majority of people who are riding on the trolley are the working class that have no other alternative. That's fine. But it's just rides, not people. Yeah. And it is rides, but it is people that are taking those rides. Um council me Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. Okay. Council Member Suzuki, uh, Vice Mayor Casares,

I'll be super brief. I've been at Sandag a lot lately. Sandag has a lot going on. Um, and, uh, the trolley prior, the Spring Street trolley prioritization, uh, project, uh, is in its infancy. Um, so if you can go on the Sandag website and check it out, our city staff alongside Sandag are um, already starting outreach. are considering uh how to make uh the trolley more uh user friendly and accessible um but also for um folks that are just walking around the downtown. Um how can how can we make traffic flow better for people that are on their feet on their bike etc. Um so please uh check that out. Also um the Sandag regional plan is coming in December. If you are interested in anything having to do with infrastructure or how people get around the county, please check it out and feel free to uh email um the mayor and myself who serve uh and and uh Councilman Lotheian who serve on Sandag um or come to a Sandag meeting, etc. So, uh lots going on, but I'm off this Friday, which I look forward to.

Thank you. Uh council committee report from me. Um item number 16, uh 1 2 3 4. Anyone travel? Okay. Uh, city attorney remarks. Tonight for the adjournment, I'm going to be adjourning our meeting in honor of officer Lauren Craraven's who served the city of La Mesa and the police department with dignity, with courage. She became an officer because of an experience with other officers in her life that stepped up and showed her that you could make a change. And from the time that she started in academy, from the time she first introduced this idea to her family, it was with the intent of making change. And every day that she was on the police force, whether she was in academy, whether she was um before she was um riding alone, when she was um a probationary officer, it was with the intent of making change. She lost her life in the line of duty making change, literally saving lives and making a change. Um, her attitude and her commitment has been shown by the outpouring of support not only in the law enforcement community but in the community at large. people still coming and offering their condolences and asking to share those with the police because every interaction that she had with people in La Mesa seemed to impact people and imprint on them. And so in honor of Officer Lauren Cravens, we're adjourning tonight's meeting. May her memory be eternal. We're adjourned.