City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to this, the February 23 meeting of the Livermore City Council. I call the meeting to order. Roll call, please.

Council member Barry Antos? Present. Council member Branning?

Here.

Council member Dunbar?

Here.

Vice mayor Wong? Here. Mayor Marshawn?

Here. If you please join me in the pledge of allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, for delivering and justice for all.

Thank you. We just came out of closed session. I'll ask the city attorney, is there anything to report from the closed session?

Yes. Kim Sealy, city attorney. I'd like to report the following. Pursuant to California government code section five four nine five seven point one a, I'm reporting that in the matter of Lee versus City of Livermore, the city council voted unanimously to accept the settlement agreement in full and final release of all claims signed by the three plaintiffs that released the city of Livermore in exchange for a payment in the amount of 325,000. This case involved a complaint for damages arising from a motor vehicle pedestrian accident in 2023. That concludes my report.

Okay. Thank you very much. We'll move on now to the open forum. This is an opportunity for the public to address the city council. I'll ask the city clerk to tell the members of the audience how they can participate.

To provide comment, please fill out and turn in a speaker card found at the entrance of the council chamber. Speakers will be announced in the order received. Once public comment opens, each participant's name will be announced, and their three minutes will begin once at the lectern. Please note a speaker is not required to answer any questions from the city council, and the city council is not required to answer questions from the public. However, the mayor has the direction or the I'm sorry, the discretion to ask staff to address a speaker's comments. When a council member believes it is relevant to a particular business item. We have two speakers Okay. For the open forum. The first is Peter Friedrich.

In November 2020, the Hindu Swaim Sevaksong hosted a Diwali event where then mayor Verner attended and presented HSS with a proclamation, and the consul general of India was the guest of honor. Anseva International was there, and mayors from seven other Bay Area cities were in the room. Then in in September 2024, HSS came back, this time to the Livermore Police Department, where members tied bracelets on your officers and photographed the ceremony, and your department posted about it on social media calling it, quote, an honor. It was not an honor. It was a photo op.

HSS is the American wing of India's RSS paramilitary. SEVA International is the RSS's service wing. And last month, a woman who sits at the center of both organizations announced that she is running to represent this district, California's fourteenth in congress. Her name is Rocky Izrani. Her campaign describes her as an attorney and educator, a mother of four.

What it leaves out is her role as vice president of government and public relations for SEVA International, where she leads a national team of over 5,000 volunteers and her seat on the board of a yoga university that India's consul general and India's minister of state for external affairs launched together alongside board members who hold HSS leadership at the local, regional, and national level. She is not a community leader who happens to be Hindu. She is embedded across every layer of a single organizational RSS linked network, the same network that approached your mayor for a proclamation and sent members into your police station with cameras. And that network killed s b five zero nine, a bill in the California legislature that followed the DOJ's indictment of an Indian intelligence officer for directing an assassination plot against an American citizen on American soil, a bill to train your officers to recognize that kind of foreign government targeting endorsed by the California Police Chiefs Association, passed by both chambers without a single no vote, and governor Newsom vetoed it after their lobbying campaigns. Here is what I need this council to understand.

The proclamations, the police photo ops, the school supply drives in your local districts by these organizations, these are not simple community service. They are building infrastructure. Every handshake and every signed proclamation and every social media post from your police department builds community trust and donor networks for these organizations, which is how Iraqi Israeli, for example, raised a million dollars in twenty four hours. That comes from a decade of exactly this, city by city, proclamation by proclamation, photo op by photo op until the network is strong enough to field its own candidates for federal office. And that matters because the person casting votes on foreign policy, law enforcement funding, and on FARA enforcement will be someone who holds leadership across HSS, SEVA International, and an institution that India's government launched.

You didn't know then. You know now. And in June, this district votes, and I hope the council will reconsider any further association with the HSS. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Joe.

As part of my cheerleading effort to encourage City of Livermore to adopt more free software in its computing workflows, I was originally going to talk about City of Geneva's deployment of Nextcloud, which

is a replacement for SharePoint. But that one's that's well documented, so I thought I'd talk about my own experience deploying Nextcloud for the company I worked for previously about decade ago. The small company was running a lot of Microsoft services. And over the course of six months, I was able to switch the entire company to Nextcloud run on premises, on a little, repurposed laptop. The it was a small company, so it was less than a, it was it was about about 10 people in the office.

Each desktop was was switched to GNU slash Linux, and I installed an on premises server on a repurposed laptop that served all of the employees in the office. And it served them the entire three years that I was there in that office doing the IT for the for the company. And in in that time, at first, there was there I I got over the course of six months, I got most of the office switched to GNU slash Linux, and then the remainder was, the bookkeeping and accounting group. They expressed reticence, and I didn't want to force it, so I backed off. And it wasn't until a a few months later that, they called me in on an emergency and said, all the computers are infected.

All of our company files are being deleted or have been deleted. And it turned out it hadn't. I had backed up all all of the company's files had been synchronized to the server, this Nextcloud server that I'd set up for them. And, the only files that were deleted were, from the Windows systems, the Windows systems in the accounting and bookkeeping department. They, they called me in on emergency, and they they, I asked them

if well,

there there was a ransom notice that said, pay ransom, and, you'll get your files back. I said, don't pay ransom. The that you're it it doesn't make sense because, first of all, your files are still here. They're all on the Nextcloud. I, first took off the window all of the Windows computers offline, asked them if they would if they wanted to use the same operating system that everyone else in the office was using, which was Gnus slash Linux.

And at that point, I was able to, in the in six months, get the entire office 100% switched over to free software, and all their files were restored because it was all on the Nextcloud. I just, undid the deletions from the Nextcloud and synchronized right back to the bookkeeper's computers. And that so that was that's a a personal experience with Nextcloud as a replacement for SharePoint. And I encourage possibly Citi Bivenmore considering it sometime in the future. Alright. Thanks.

Thank you.

We have one additional speaker, Richard Streeter.

Hello? Can everybody hear me well? Yes. I'm a singer, so I want my microphone to work properly. Think I'm not writing these remarks, so I hope they're self explanatory. I simply titled my little document here city council remarks. Our mayor recently quoted Gandhi on the subject of doing small things, if you recall saying that. I think it was last couple weeks ago. Here's a small thing, a reminder that may or may not be necessary given that I'm unable to find online what any of your political affiliations are party wise. Not saying I'd mind that particularly, but that's what led me here.

I'm here to talk facts, not opinions. If anyone disagrees with anything I say or think that it's not fact, then when you change your mind, I ask that you hear my voice in your head saying, I told you so. Humanity can be accurately viewed as progressing the way an individual does but writ large throughout history. I suspect humanity is currently about 13, old enough to rebel but not quite mature enough to grasp why or how. In our infancy, we should be provided with a false sense of security and permanence which we are allowed to grow out of naturally into the knowledge that such security and permanence don't really exist.

But we are expected to reach that point sooner or later. It's called growing up. In humanity's infancy, we accepted a governmental model of tyranny, which amounts to control by the biggest bully in the schoolyard. It seemed inevitable, and we placed faith in it the way children do in their supposedly infallible parents. There have been benevolent tyrants, but anytime a nation is controlled by a minority or an individual, I'm still gonna call that tyranny.

Eventually, some of us said, we're done being ruled without our consent, so let's vote on stuff instead. An oversimplification, I realize, but you get what I mean. This is the start of the idea of democracy, which we are still learning how to do. Now we've been expected for a long time to buy into the notion of an equivalency or spectrum from political left to right, a balance of some sort. This model is false.

Conservatism, which resists forward movement and change, especially when it is most necessary, inevitably and unavoidably still favors the tyranny model. It is hardwired into the conservative mindset. Democracy is an inherently liberal mindset. To put it bluntly and perhaps rudely, conservatism is infantile and liberalism is not. The biggest elephant, so to speak, in our nation right now is that there is no real place for conservatism in a democracy. The two are not compatible. It's not a joke to say conservatives should maybe go live in Russia. I'm not making a moral judgment when I say that. It's just that, meanwhile, here, we are trying to have a democracy and conservative attitudes. Frankly, they hold us back.

Conservatives also seem to think we have things like freedom of speech and due process for all because we're a democracy. I ran out of time, didn't I?

Yes. But you can come back next time and finish up.

Well, damn. Okay. I had it down to two minutes thirty seconds when I was reading it before. Guess I talk too slow. I'll be back. Thanks.

Thank you. And the quote was, as as Gandhi said, what you do may seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. And the city council is nonpartisan, which is why you couldn't find our affiliations. Any other speakers?

There are no additional speakers.

Very good. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the consent calendar. These are typically routine items that are passed usually on a single motion. Is there anything that anyone wishes to pull for from consent or comment or question?

Okay.

What's your comment? I've got a couple comments, questions. One,

thanks to the team working on the skate park or or the the pump track here in the audience. I know it's been a long haul, so thank you for all the support. And on the downtown kiosks, I just I've seen those. We've got one at the transit center, for example. Sometimes those displays die, but these these funds are restricted to this sort of informational thing and are not general purpose use funds, so I'm in support of the item.

Okay. Very good.

A couple of questions I have. 6.4 with the the mulch. Here comes Judy Arlinson. Just a couple of real quick questions. It's it's according to the senate bill, what's the the it requires 75% diversion of the organic material from the the landfills. What is our current diversion rate?

So the city of Livermore has a diversion rate of approximately 68% as of the 2024.

Okay. So we're getting close. Alright. Very good. And we have to buy a certain amount of, you know, tons of mulch. Can we add that to the the, like, the compost hub? And we have two compost hubs. Could we possibly had that as part of the the compost hub, having mulch as well, and just give that away rather than stockpile it?

Well, so we stockpile it and then spread it at the airport, and it serves as weed abatement.

Mhmm.

So we fully utilize that at the Livermore Airport property. In addition to that, we buy compost for the compost hubs

Okay.

And other community partners. So we could ask them if they would like mulch too. We would be happy to provide that if they have the space and the need.

Okay. Alright. Great. Because since we are having to use it, see if we can spread the wealth and share it. Great. Okay. Thank you very much. Those are all the questions that I have. Okay. If there are no further questions on the consent calendar, I'll be willing to entertain a motion. Oh, public comment. Any public comment?

Yes. We have two. +1 464 and +1 466. 64 is Tom Del Conte. Okay.

Didn't mean to run over you there, Tom.

I was gonna stand up.

6.4.

So thank you for letting us come, and good evening, city council and staff. My name is Tom Del Conte with Vision Recycling, and this is Angel with Vision Recycling. He's my support team, and need some support here for the public speaking. But I'm the founder of Vision Recycling. It's we have a great branch here in in Livermore, and we are on the consent calendar to supply that mulch that you were talking about to Livermore and right out of the Vision Recycling Livermore up on Greenville Road.

And we're really ecstatic to be able to do that. We take in green waste from gardeners and from homeowners in Livermore on Greenville Road. We convert it into some amazing products. We convert it into compost, and our compost is amazing. Colored mulch and what the city of Livermore has bought is what we call wonder mulch.

That's been the name for probably twenty years. I named it wonder mulch, and that's what you guys are buying is wonder mulch. Quick story about our company, and that is Apple when Apple built their big facility down in Santa Clara, they did samples. They took samples of our prod of product from multiple vendors, and they did it for fifty two weeks. They did it for a full year. We won. And you you guys are choosing us to supply your product. We're a local company. We love our Livermore branch. It's amazing.

Right? Absolutely. We have a really nice facility in Livermore. When we opened, mayor Marshawn did the ribbon cutting for us. Thank you very much, Livermore and John, and that was great. We're so grateful that you've that you're recommending us, which hasn't been consented yet, but we're so grateful that you're recommending us that we want to invite city council staff and others to a tour. We've done plenty of tours. The stop waste county agency has done tours, and they love our tours. We do a really nice job at tours. So I see you shaking your head.

Yes. You're welcome to join. And people around where we love doing these tours, and it's gonna give you a really great sample of what we do at at Vision Recycling, how we take your local product and convert it locally into these awesome products. We're gonna do it on Earth Day. Earth Day is April 22, and you're all please invited, and I'm gonna encourage you and maybe push thank you for putting that up there.

I can be done. And we wanna really get you guys there. It's it'll be really good to get there. So we'll do probably 09:30 on, Earth Day, and that'll allow us to provide you guys with lunch. We'll probably have a nice lunch there and, let that happen. Probably about a 100 people would be our limit, and we'll work with, Judy and Anne and my staff.

Okay. Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker for consent item 6.6 is Mike Ralph.

Hello. Hello. My name is Mike Ralph. I've been part of the pump track project, since day one, which is about twelve years ago now. Construction's going on. Looks fantastic. If you haven't seen it, please check it out. Very exciting. On behalf of all the use, future users, the skaters, the bikers, the rollerbladers, the scooter riders, I just wanted to say thank you. Thanks for all the teamwork, here, behind the scenes working with the LARPD to come up with a compromise, to keep, you know, basically, to keep the wheels turning and come up with a a solution for the parking lot that's always been kind of a a snag, you know, the as the parking lot runs right through the park area there.

So, thank you. Your flexibility has kept the wheels turning with this project, and, it's gonna be awesome. And there's thousands of people looking forward to it, myself included. And that's it. Keep up the good work.

It's a group effort. Thank you. Okay. With that, any further comments?

There are no further comments.

Okay. I'll close the comment period on the consent calendar, bringing it back to the council. I'll entertain a motion.

Mhmm.

Motion made by council member Barrientos. I'll second. Seconded by council member Dunbar. In discussion of the motion, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Passed unanimously. We'll see you on Earth Day. Okay. Moving on to our public hearing. This is a public hearing and landowner election declaration results for Community Facilities District 2026 Dash 1, Garaventa Services.

Honorable mayor Marcia and members of the city council, this is your city manager, Mariana Birch. Item 7.1, your public hearing is going to be presented by Jared Rasmussen, associate civil engineer. Thank you, mister mayor.

Yes.

To my close proximity. There? Oh, okay.

We'll come and get you. Don't worry.

All your other cookies.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. Tonight, we are conducting a public hearing for the formation of community facilities district twenty twenty six dash one, which which will provide funding for the maintenance and services of new public amenities in the Garaventa Hills development. Community facilities districts or CFDs are a type of assessment district that allows cities and counties to collect funds for new development, infrastructure, and long term maintenance. Property owners within a CFD are assessed annually based on their proportionate share of maintenance and replacement costs depending on the level of benefit the property receives from the improvements. CFD twenty twenty six dash one will provide funding for the maintenance of public amenities within the Garaventa Hills development area.

The boundary of the CFD, shown here in red, coincides with the boundary of the Garaventa Hills development area located at the end of Bear Creek Drive between Laughlin Road and North Vasco Road. The property consists of 44 residential units comprised of 38 single family detached units and six duet slash couplet units. Lafferty Communities was conditioned to participate in the CFD to fund the maintenance of the Garaventa Hills development. To fulfill this requirement, Lafferty has submitted a petition to the city requesting the initiation of the CFD formation process. The special amenities within the Garaventa Hills development that will be maintained by the CFD include new storm drain outfalls to Altamonte Creek, multiuse trails located within the project's open space, the repair and replacement cost for the new pedestrian bridge with emergency vehicle access connecting Hawke Street to the development, the public potable water system, and various other street improvements.

Staff recommends that the city council do the following. First, adopt a resolution forming CFD twenty twenty six dash one. Two, adopt a resolution calling for the CFD election. Three, break for a brief recess to conduct the special landowner election. Four, adopt a resolution declaring the results of the election. And five, introduce an ordinance to levy a special tax within the 20 the CFD twenty twenty six dash one boundary. This concludes the staff presentation. Staff is available for questions. Thank you.

Okay. This is the time and place for the public hearing of the community facilities district number two zero two six dash one Garaventa Services. This hearing is to inquire into the formation of the district and the levy of special taxes for municipal services in the district. Before I formally open the hearings, are there any property owners or registered voters in the district who wish to file written protests? If so, they must be filed with city clerk now.

Okay. Seeing none. The hearing is now open. I believe we have had our presentations by the staff about the district, although the rate and method of apportionment of the special tax. After that, we'll receive written comments and questions and any oral protests from any interested persons. When all comments have been received, the hearing will be closed. Okay. Are there any public comments?

There are no public comments.

Okay. With that, I'm going to close the public hearing. We may now consider the two consider and adopt two resolutions, a resolution of formation of City Of Livermore Community Facilities District number 2026Dash1, Garaventa Services, which will establish the district, and a resolution calling special landowner election for the city of Livermore community facilities district number 2026Dash1 Garaventa Services, which will call for the property owner vote to approve the special tax and the appropriations limit for the district. Okay. Council considers and adopts.

Do we have the ballots?

That will be later. First, these two resolutions should be considered.

Okay. So a resolution formation of the city of Livermore community facilities district number two zero two six dash one Garaventa Services and a resolution calling special landowner election for City of Livermore Community Facilities District number two zero two six dash one Garaventa Services. Will the city clerk please open the ballots for this election and announce the result of the property owner vote?

Could I get a motion on the two resolutions?

Oh, okay. That's not in the script. Okay. So do I have a motion?

I will move approval of the staff recommendation over the first two portions.

Okay. Motion made by council member Dunbar, seconded by

I'll second.

Council member Branning. All in favor, city of PrEP saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passed unanimously. Now will the city clerk please open the ballots for this election and announce the result of the property owner vote? For the record is the motion for both resolutions.

Okay.

Correct.

Yes. Yes. I will now open the ballot. Mister mayor, one ballot was received. The ballot represents 32 votes, and it was voted in favor of the ballot measure. As a result, there are 32 yes votes and zero no votes. The ballot measure passes.

Okay. The record shows that at least two thirds of the property owner votes are in favor of the levy of the special taxes and the establishment of the appropriations limit. We may now proceed with the final actions for the district. Consideration of a resolution declaring results of special landowner election and directing recording of notice of special tax lien for city of Livermore community facilities district number two zero two six dash one, Garaventa Services, which will declare the results of the election and direct the city clerk to record the notice of special tax lien and the introduction and waiver of a full reading of an ordinance levying the special taxes in the district. After its introduction, this ordinance will be considered for adoption at our 05/09/2026 meeting.

Okay. So now the council considers and takes the following two actions to adopt the resolution declaring the results of a special landowner election and directing recording of notice of special tax lien for the city of Livermore Community Facilities District number twenty twenty six dash one, Garaventa Services, and risk introduction of ordinance by title only and waive further reading, an ordinance levying a special tax within the city of Livermore Community Facilities District number twenty twenty six dash one, Gira Venta Services. So do do another formal adoption?

You need to do yes. Okay. Motion.

A a motion. I will I will first state that, you know, this is a process, a heavy item that we've seen many times before. What you said. And sometimes it never gets easier, but this is a matter that seeing some social media and news traffic on this that keeps us from we so we have a stable funding source from new developments to pay for all the infrastructure that is within those developments in perpetuity. It's a pretty routine thing, and there's process involved, so we can't just raise taxes on anybody willy nilly.

Well, it's it's the the property owners' vote And that's on whether to assign taxes to the property owners. Exactly. And, this way, new development pays its own way. It is not subsidized by the current residents. Exactly. That's very important.

So with that being said, I will move approval of the second two items.

Okay.

Second? That's there are two items to approve. Yes.

I'll second.

Okay. Motion made by councilor Dunbar, seconded by vice mayor Wong. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? It passed unanimously. And then the mayor says, this completes tonight's proceedings for the district, and we're done. Okay. With that, moving on to matters for consideration and council reports.

Yeah. Would you be so kind as to get council member Ariantos? Didn't want you to miss the rest of the fun.

I ate all the chips. Okay.

With that, council member reports and report out. Council member Berrientos.

In my report, what I did do is I jumped out of the car over with the new construction that's going on at the Springtown Golf Course. Mhmm. Those community garden boxes are huge. So someone's gonna have a lot of fun finding tomatoes, and I just hope I get one of the tomatoes. And the other thing is just be aware. Somebody has been take well, tore out one of the what do you call the field? The Frisbee.

Oh, the, the Frisbee golf?

Yeah. They took one out. Alright. They see someone with a ATV running around there, and they ripped one out. Wow. So, hopefully, the community will keep their eyes open on those guys.

Yeah. What's been done to her?

Pretty normal two weeks. Pretty pretty low key. Everyone should go and visit the Blacksmith Square expansion patio. The fences are now down. It's quite beautiful, and we've got a statue with some history as Livermore likes to do, adding to the long history of that site formerly adjacent to the railroad, and here we are many years later.

The blacksmith of Solmingen.

That thank you. I knew you would have a picture or or have it handy.

Well, yeah, it's it just speaks to the the heritage of that of that site, the original blacksmith. And one of my favorite things was that there was a muffler shop that moved in after that, which was just dealing with a different type of horsepower.

Customer branding. Thank you.

Just a couple of things to highlight. So first of all, today was the, the laptop projects and services subcommittee. One of the things we're considering and that will be brought to the board on Monday is route realignment for the 10 to avoid the summer traffic caused by the drive through for the dairy. It's been quite a long process to actually get the alignment to work out in a way. But for the world's shortest history on this, the dairy causes a lot of backup and makes it unsafe for the bus to turn on Neal Street during any warm month, actually, not just summer months.

And so the the committee has been looking at different options. It's gonna be brought to the board on Monday for recommendations. Keep an eye on that for anyone who rides the 10 r. It's it is not going to change your commute very much if you're going from Livermore to BART. But if you are going through downtown, it's gonna be a little bit different.

It will add the the recommended option out of the subcommittee goes basically to the fairgrounds. So it adds actually a few extra options for people going to Pleasanton's downtown. So I wanted to highlight that for people, especially if you read the ten hour. The other item, I just wanted to highlight is, on Thursday so one of the items on, my report out is I went to the craft beer association's Livermore on lunch party. And this Thursday, for anyone who would like to downtown, there's a number of stops where you can go grab a pint or a can, support a good cause.

The Livermore Craft Beer Association is a great organization that gives and mixes a little beer in with it. So if anyone is around downtown and would like to celebrate and support a good cause, that is this Thursday.

Thank you.

Alright. Very good. Vice mayor.

So February is a big month for a lot of cultures, and I love that I can celebrate all of them right here in Livermore, those of you who know I how much I don't like to travel and leave my city. So I went to a lot of Lunar New Year celebrations, Black History Month events, many of them hosted by Livermore Public Library. So I really appreciate all the work they put into all these celebrations. And then also, mayor Marshand and I attended the neighborhood Iftar by the Muslim Society of Dublin, and that was great too to break the fast for Ramadan. And I attended a couple of events with the wine growers on what's going on in our vineyards for people who've seen some of the vines being torn out at a community forum to sort of explain that to the public and answer questions about it, and then also a separate workshop for the wine growers to talk about strategies for decommissioning the vineyards and what they need to consider when they're pulling out their vines.

And then lastly, I I attended a fundraiser for Culinary Angels. I believe it was their first major fundraiser, and that was great because they provide nutritious me organic meals for people going through cancer treatment. So it's a really great nonprofit to support, so I was really happy to be part of that. That's it.

Alright. Very good. So last Thursday, we celebrated our employees. The our employee service awards where we honored 68 employees that had served anywhere from five to thirty years. And when you've worked for an organization for thirty years, that's that's not just a a job.

That's it's dedicating yourself to a career, and it's one of the reasons that Live More is the remarkable place that it is. 60 employees with over seven hundred seventy years of service to this community. So honored them. As the vice mayor pointed out, it's the the year of the fire horse, So wish a happy New Year to everyone. And with regards to the the Craft Brew Association, this year, they honored Wendell Jordan, who is a historic brewer here in Livermore, and I believe his story's on the can. So with that, there being nothing further to report, speedy is adjourned. Thank you.