City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Give me one second. Alright. Clerk, I'd like to call this meeting order at 02:05. Please call the roll.

Council member Kaplan? Here. Council member Dickinson? Here. Council member Pluckibom? Council member Maple? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Guerra? Council member Jennings?

Here.

Council member Vang?

Here.

Mayor vice mayor Talamantes?

Here.

Alright.

We have

a quorum.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands. To the original people of this land, the Nisenan people, the Southern Midu, Valley and Plains Miwok, Patwin Wintun peoples, and the people of the Wilcher Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe. May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgment and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' histories, contributions, and lives. Thank you. Salute.

Pledge. Great. 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. Is there any report out from closed session? Thank you so much. And today, we have a really special presentation led by council member Kaplan for National Public Works Week.

It is a special day, and I really wanna thank all of our public works individuals who are here in the audience. This is National Public Works Week, which it's a time for us to honor public works professionals, not only here in our state, but in the country from the amazing work of fixing our potholes to our trash to our fleet, to code enforcement, to our signs, to our lights. You know? Yes. It's maybe a little cliche, but public works, you guys are kinda the glue of the city.

You keep things together. You keep things running. And, you know, it's it's not that sometimes people see public works and they're going, what? But you really are the essential, and you look at knowing that we as the city don't always have the money that we need. How can you be creative?

How can you look at things in a different way? And how can you make things more efficient so it's easier for everyday citizens here in the city of Sacramento. A highlight just to thank all the work you do. We love Sacramento. We are the city of trees, and the last two days have really shown whether our trees can stand the test of time or not.

I will tell you yesterday driving around my community, it looked a little apocalyptic, which I'm sure it did downtown and everywhere else, and I was mindful as I was walking. I kinda sometimes walked in the street and not under the tree branches because I'd been hit a time or two when a gust of wind came through, but you guys are on top of it twenty four seven, helping our community from the thousands of three one one reports that you guys get to also reminding, I will call it out, parents behaving badly and parking where they should not be parking during drop off and pickup, which makes it dangerous for those who are walking and biking and cars who are on the road. You guys help keep people in line and and keep people safe, and the ingenuity of the quick build safety team of something we talked about of how do we make it safer and how do we do something with less. Thank you for your creativity, but really it is a time to thank each and every one of you because public works really is what makes our city. It's the little things that people forget about, but they expect.

They just know it's gonna be there. So thank you for all that you do from the ground up and helping in every way that we can. So I wanna turn it over to Soon retiring. I really, you know, I don't want him to retire if I can find a way, city madam, city manager, that mister Ironman, we we should keep around. But before I turn it over to because we share a birthday, so I get to harass him.

I just wanna call out two individuals who this year with the American Public Works Association, which I love. Every year, I need you two to come on up and come on down. I love that our employees get honored and and recognized. So thank you for all that you do, Jose Sanchez and Ria Ria Salvador, for being honored as managers in the field for one public right away and for administrative management. You guys help create, you know, public works and shine a light on what's amazing about our staff in the city of Sacramento, and it's a well deserved recognition.

So congratulations to you. Ironman, all yours.

Thank you. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Sorry. You.

So it's it's it's actually four months and six days, but who's counting? Right? So so good afternoon, vice mayor and members of the city council. Matt Eyerman, director of public works. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize National Public Works Week.

Public Works is the backbone of our city. Every day, 780 dedicated employees show up early, stay late, and respond around the clock to keep Sacramento safe, moving, and functioning. Our department also manages billions of dollars in public infrastructure and assets that support our residents, visitors, neighborhoods, and the economy. Our work spans over nine divisions, engineering services, transportation, mobility and sustainability, parking services and marina operations, maintenance services, facilities and real property management, fleet services, recycling and solid waste, and the office of the director. Together, these teams plan, build, design, operate, maintain, and improve the infrastructure and essential services residents rely on every single day From delivering major capital projects and improving traffic safety to maintaining streets, managing parking systems, operating fleets and facilities, advancing sustainability initiatives, and keeping the city responsive during emergencies.

Public works plays a critical role in Sacramento's quality of life and future. And the work doesn't stop there. Behind the scenes, teams are also auditing and processing invoices, managing budgets and grants, providing administrative support, hiring and developing the right staff and putting together complex contracts and agreements that keep projects and operations moving forward every single day. One example of this work under the leadership and support of city city manager Smith, our maintenance crews filled more than seven hundred and seven seven thousand seven hundred potholes in less than fifty days during a recent coordinated pothole blitz. It's a reflection of what this team can accomplish when aligned and focused on delivering results to the community.

Over the past several days, our team has also responded to significant wind events across the city, including wind guests exceeding 50 plus miles an hour. Crews worked around the clock clearing down trees, damaged traffic signals, and roadway hazards while continuing to respond to routine emergency calls and service requests. You can think of Public Works as the Maytag repairman of the city. It's like the glue. Right?

When something breaks, floods, fails, or needs to be built, this team responds. Most of the time, we're doing our jobs right. The public doesn't even notice. But behind the scenes, employees are working every day to keep Sacramento running. I also want to recognize as well the American Public Works Association chapter, which highlights excellence across our profession.

This year, two of our own, as was mentioned, Jose Sanchez, who always answers the phone at two in the morning, by the way. And he's it's like he's awake. I'm like, is everything okay? And and Ria Salvador, support services manager. Without them, we would definitely not be where we are today.

We are incredibly proud of the leadership and example they set for the organization. I wanna thank the city manager, mayor, and each council member and your staff for the continued partnership and support and extend a special thank you to council member Kaplan for sponsoring this resolution. And finally, to the 780 public works professionals who services Citi every day, thank you for your dedication, your professionalism, and unwavering commitment to Sacramento. Thank you.

So

all of our public works individuals that are in the audience, you are going to be called up. So we're all gonna take a picture together. Wanna say thank you, but turn it over. I see council member Maple punched up. So if you wanna come on down to the well in the meantime while council member Maple makes a couple comments.

Thank you. Thank you council member Kaplan for bringing this forward. Thank you to our entire public works team. I just wanted to say just like a real world example. We all saw what happened over the weekend. It was quite frankly scary at times being out there, and I it didn't go unnoticed to me as I was going around my district that there were people out there working from city staff all hours of the night. I saw people with chainsaws. I saw people clearing trees off of cars. And even in my own neighborhood, just just one block from my house, a street lamp had fallen over from the wind and was on the sidewalk in the street. And I reported it to 311 expecting that it would take some time to get fixed given how much work was on your plate.

And I was shocked when I walked out of my house the next morning and it had been addressed. And so I think that's just an example of how efficient and effective our team is here that, you know, you please use 311 if you're listening out there. It does work. We do listen. But it's I was just really, really impressed. So thank you. Thank you for everything that you do, the entire team, and all the workers who aren't here because they're out in the streets cleaning up trees right now. Thank you.

We could have fit 700 in here. You know? Can we start filling out the other side as well, please? Thank you so much. Yeah.

Yeah. Can we try to squeeze in a little bit more on either side? Oh,

you can move it out

the way.

Thank you. You guys

are still a little cut off over there. Alright. Looks good. I think. Alright. Three, two, one. Aren't we supposed to say pothole?

One more.

I might as well get another two. 123.

123. Is it okay if we take a video? I'll pan

you guys still like

them. You

gotta send it to us all. Alright. Congratulations.

Nice to see you. Thank you, guys, for all the work that you do. You.

Of course. Thank you. Of course.

Thank you. How did

you sneak in there? You weren't supposed to be in there.

Thank you. Let's proceed with the consent calendar.

Comment on item two please.

We have 10 items on the consent calendar and I have public speakers items five, eight, and 10 so

far. Okay.

I'll comment on eight and ten.

Do you want to do public speakers first?

Yes. Okay.

Our first public speakers, I'm gonna call the first three. If you could please light up in the aisle way. Kobe Cannon, Cameron Nicholson, and Atlas Jackman.

Kobe? We're waiting for Kobe to Oh.

We can We can go through to the the mail. Mail.

Okay. Cameron?

Hi. Thank you so much to the mayor, the vice mayor, and all the members of council for funding such a beautiful program. My name is Cameron Nicholson, and I am a program fellow for Sierra Service Project under the Sacramento Sustainability Academy. This job has helped me in ways that I can have never imagined. Pretty much we mainly go to different guardian public spaces and we help maintain them.

And through doing so, we're able to connect with nature. And surprisingly, I'm able to just de stress from everyday responsibilities, which is very unlike any other job I've ever had. I'm I'm also able to connect with my coworkers and to be able to network with our partners and stuff like that, which is really great and has challenged me in that I never thought I could be challenged. Also, sorry, one second. I've learned how to better support our environment.

For instance, I learned the importance of bringing waste. I've learned the importance of including compost and changing dirt to soil. And even especially turning our neighborhood from a food desert into a food hub. I mean, just the other day, we literally planted over 40 trees and created a food orchard, and that was really great to do. I've always been a person that has wanted to support and help my community, and it's great to be able to do so through this job. And I hope SSP can continue to help people like me within the community in even more ways than I've mentioned. Thank you.

Atlas?

Hi. Yes. Go ahead. Hi. Good evening good afternoon, everybody. I appreciate your time. My name is Kobe Cannon. I'm a member of the Sierra Service Project, more specifically, the urban agriculture cohort, and we're funded by Sacramento Youth Corps. And, man, just before Sierra Service Project, I was incarcerated as individual from '17 to '22. And coming out from that incarceration, it was super hard to get work.

More most of the jobs were back killers, and, you know, I just had to make ends do. And meeting Max and Alice was super beneficial to my life. I, like, over time, have an ends is still becoming a better person, dealing with just everyday life. Like, it's more easier when I have the support system now that I didn't have before. And sometimes I just think, like, if I had, like, this type of support before I turned 17 or 18, like, who knows what I could have became?

But I'm here now as a better person each and every day. They helped me. I learned how to become a farmer for real. Like, I went from becoming, like, a city boy to now I wanna live in the country and create my own farm. So that being said, to continue funding this cohort and this program would be super beneficial to those like me and other kids coming up and that wanna be exposed to better things. So I appreciate you guys for your time, and keep it up. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Atlas. After Atlas, I have Maximilian, Rosa, Lucas Shearson, and then Isaac. Go ahead.

Hello. My name is Atlas Jackman. I am the program manager for the urban agriculture and food sovereignty cohort at Sierra Service Project. I help run a program called Sacramento Sustainability Academy, which is funded by Youth Service Corps. I started out two years ago in this program as a participant. I was a fellow, and because of all of the leadership skills that I was given, I have now moved up to managing the creating the curriculum myself. I've really been uplifted. I've been given access to so many resources and community partners and mentors. It's really helped me grow as a young adult to the point that I am now able to be that mentor to other young people that need that guidance. So I'm really grateful for everything that the program has done for me.

I started out moving to Sacramento. I had just escaped an abusive relationship, and I didn't really know anyone here. But through all of the people that I met at Sacramento Sustainability Academy, there was already a built in community and people that we were all in solidarity with each other because it's largely folks that are struggling barriers to employment in some ways. So, whether that is being unhoused, past incarceration, food insecurity, We all sort of saw each other in our struggle and collectively have been working to lift each other up. Not only are we lifting each other up, we are trying to lift up the communities that we're working in.

We largely work in Del Paso Heights, which is a food desert. And, as Cameron mentioned, we have planted two community fruit orchards. So, that's around 40 fruit trees that are accessible to anyone in the public that wants access to that fruit. We are constantly trying to feed people. We are teaching life skills like nutrition and cooking, because if you're in a food desert, can't expect that people know what to do when you hand them healthy food. You have to meet them where they're at, and so we have also been doing cooking classes and partnering with local chefs to do cooking demonstrations. So by continuing to fund Youth Service Corps and Sierra Service Service Project, you're helping us to continue on that curriculum and continue helping young folks in Sacramento that need that help and that guidance. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Maximilian.

Good afternoon, council. Thank you for having us here, mayor and vice mayor and respected council members. I'm Maximilian Rosa, director of sustainability at Sierra Service Project. I created the SAC Sustainability Academy three years ago with funding from Youth Service Corps. So the fact that we have these jobs that we're able to offer is in no small measure possible because of the work you've done, and I wanted to thank you for that.

I also wanted to bring them to this meeting to share with you about their experience and about some of the work they've been doing. We have three program tracks that we offer in this program. One is focused on urban agriculture and food sovereignty, trying to transform our food desert neighborhoods to food hubs in the farm to fork capital, as well as improving health outcomes, creating economic output, and transforming vacant underutilized space into productive and lucrative spaces that are investing in our community. We have another couple program tracks. One is construction and energy efficiency.

We're constructing timing homes for transitional housing programs. And we have another program that's focused on design manufacturing and entrepreneurship. I wanted to invite you all to participate and come work with us. We've got a couple of opportunities including a food preservation workshop tonight at Mount Cavalry Missionary Baptist Church in District 2 in North Sac in Del Paso Heights. And we've got a cookbook that our urban agriculture cohort is putting together.

So if you have a meal that is important to you or a food that's culturally significant to you, we would love to include you in that and share with the wider audience some about the food and nutrition and health that's important to you. I also wanted to say that we created this program several years ago to address the conditions in our neighborhoods that many people complain about and aren't and not a lot of people are doing things about. We just wanted a way to incentivize the leadership and action that everybody says young people should be doing.

Thank you

all for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lucas. After Lucas, I have Isaac, Cyril Williams, and Michelle.

Good afternoon. I just wanna say thank you to the mayor, vice mayor, members of the council. My name is Lucas Shearson. I live in District 4. My time serving Sierra Service Project through the Youth Service Corps program has helped me to find a stronger sense of community in this city.

As part of the urban agriculture cohort, I've had the opportunity to meet and learn in a hands on way from many different experts experienced workers in our area by working side by side with them in the field. I've gotten chances to practice networking, meeting community members and learning about their service projects at our many events and by using the breadth of knowledge that our staff has to find new opportunities I would never have seen otherwise. I came to this program after moving to Sacramento just a few years ago, and I was still feeling pretty disconnected and finding my place in this community. By hosting and attending volunteer events, learning from our community partners how they're able to make a living serving the city of Sacramento, And by finding my own sense of community among my coworkers who are so supportive and are able to connect through a shared passion for helping others, I have a much stronger sense of my place in this city and how connected the community of Sacramento really is. By continuing to fund this program, you're offering young people like me the opportunity to discover new work and life paths and allow us to continue to build a stronger, more resilient community in the city of Sacramento.

Thank you.

Thank you. Isaac. Isaac, go ahead.

Hi. My name is Isaac Abatunde. I am a student of IYT. I also go to Sac State University. I'm a computer engineer major.

Last summer, we did internships with Sac State, and I was doing my internship with Salesforce, learning the backgrounds of Salesforce, learning how to contribute data, and also build data for companies to work better and, you know, input their data better. This helps me a lot because I got to experience a new way of finding new pathways in my career, just being a computer engineer in general, also being able to step into that field early on before actually, you know, finishing the degree, it gave me a lot of more it gave me a lot more ways to look at it. And that being I was able to experience new things with it. And I feel like a lot of other people that are just like me that don't didn't know the field that they're entering having these internships, you know, to continue to do them and also join them willingly, can also give them another light of the job field that they would like to enter in as well. This being said, I do want to say thank you to you to you all for funding these, you know, internships and letting us be able to be able to do these internships and do it to our best abilities.

I do say, like I said, it really did help me a lot. And now I do feel, you know, stronger in the field that I am in. And I do feel like, you know, it's just a great opportunity in general to have. And thank you.

Cyril.

Hello everyone. My name is Cyril Williams. I am a IYT brother and a student at Consumers River College. I was in the OIT internship program. I did mine at First Finance.

I would say that definitely opened my eyes into why finances matter and how to really take care of your finances and how to take care of your finances. And I just want to say thank you guys all for helping fund those for all RYC brothers that didn't so they can have an open eye on what career field they would want to get into and as well as gain opportunities to possibly work with their internship that they did. And sorry.

And

I would say through this internship, it definitely taught me how to do better with my finances, how to keep it under track, and good that you why you should have it under control and under track. And and through saying all that, I just want to say thank you again for funding and helping IYT.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Michelle. After Michelle, we have Tack, Jalen, and Alyssa.

Go ahead, Michelle.

Hi. Good afternoon. Name is Michelle Gelford. This is Ezzy. I am someone who's immensely benefited from the CRE pathways program. As a new mom, I was able to obtain Two. Yes. I was able to obtain employment and training with an income, and this was extremely invaluable to me. I didn't have to decide between building a career or spending time with this sweet, crazy little one. And during postpartum, I really struggled with finding myself and really understanding new motherhood. And so to have the ability to have mentors who understand, who provided flexibility, and genuinely wanting me to succeed was extremely important to my postpartum journey. I

was able

to truly have the best of both worlds. I felt my independence of having income to provide, and I also gotta watch her grow and blossom in real time and not through the lenses of some others. For that, I am truly and forever grateful. I learned and continue to learn valuable communication skills, how to manage time sheets and invoices, how to provide administrative support, and I've had great job coaches that continue to check-in on me, my career, and even my own personal development even years after being

in the program. No. No.

Yes. Myself and others myself and others receive these services even a year after obtaining our jobs. And so I'm thankful for CRE pathways and extremely grateful and proud to have and continue to be a part of this program. It is extremely invaluable, and I hope that many others get to join this program and continue to be a benefit and navigate seeking their career development and independence.

Speaking of independence.

I have a very independent two year old. Thank thank you.

Good morning, good afternoon. My name is Tak Allen. I am the president of CRE Pathways. Michelle is one of our fellows. I'm very excited to come up here and just thank all of you for the opportunity to be engaged with the Youth Service Corps funding. CRE Pathways is a BPPE exempt and approved institution, and we emphasize nontraditional means of career services. So anyone that comes to our program has access to both career certifications as well as workforce placement immediately. Because we don't believe that people who come into our education systems should have to decide between completing their education, completing training, and paying their bills. So this was an immense opportunity for us. Just some of the highlights of this program that we were able to get achieved in just a couple of months.

We've had over fourteen thousand hours of workforce training that has been completed. We served over 12 students working no less than thirty two hours a week. I mean thirty two hours, yeah, a week coming through the program, everybody made a livable wage. 95% of our students are now placed in permanent permanent employment with the placement that we have them in for this program. A 100% have embarked on higher education because it's not just about coming in and getting those certifications, we want them to be able to sustain themselves through this program as well.

And, another large highlight is the job coaching continues. So no matter what they do with their lives, whether they're in education or they've achieved that job, well, everyone who's been hired gets an additional year of services from us just by the very means of our program and how we function. This has been a tremendous opportunity, especially for individuals who are early mothers, individuals who just needed the opportunity for career exploration to come out on top. And then I just wanna highlight a couple other things. We have had two realtors come from this program.

So we've made two realtors. Both are in first time home buying foundational work at this time. We've also created two community health workers as a means of this program so far, and we have one registered behavior technician as well. Everybody is in a public service space doing exactly what they're supposed to be.

Thank you for your comment. Your time is complete. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jalen. Thank you. Thank you.

Greetings everyone. My name is Jalen Joyce. I'm here representing Improver Tomorrow. And I've been in this program for five years now, starting out when I was a junior in high school. Now I'm a third Sacramento State University studying accountancy.

And this program has provided a lot of opportunities within internships over the past couple years. Started off when I was a freshman. They gave me opportunity opportunity to to work as a brotherhood action committee assistant. The very next year, they allowed me to work as an intern in a lobbyist firm, so I got to read and understand the law. And that same year, I was able to work in the accounting department at Improve Your Tomorrow, which they allowed me to study what they do, how they budget, how they finance, how they get grants, and all the contracts that come with it.

So I was able to understand that at a young age and early in my studies. The very next year, I was able to work in a lobbyist firm, and that really taught me how to read and understand the law. The reason why I say all that is because they taught me the ways to actually understand how business procedures work, and how to conduct myself. They actually prepare us for the internships, they gave us workshops, They taught us how to act professional, how to speak, how to conduct ourself, how to dress. And all those skills went into my everyday life. It taught me how to be prepared. And now I got upcoming brothers. I was a mentor for this program. Now I got brothers I told about the internships I did through Improve Your Tomorrow. And now they're starting to get their opportunity because now they're starting to graduate.

And it's great because the internships have provided me insight on my studies and allowed me to know what I'm actually studying because I actually did the work early on. And I wanna thank you guys for the grants that we are getting because it's gonna help out my brothers coming up, just like how y'all helped me when I was going going through college. Thank you guys for your time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Alyssa. After Alyssa, we have Alexander for item number eight and Jeff and Regina for item number 10. Go ahead, Alyssa.

Hello. My name is Alyssa Moffitt. I worked with Urban Strategies and the Career Academy program. I worked in the garden mainly, and my job was to care for the plots. I got to watch them thrive and listen to the birds all day. My biggest Mhmm. Sorry. Through Strategies, took a finance class. This finance class helped me manage my money with my first paycheck. With my first paycheck, I made a big purchase and I got a laptop.

With this laptop, I've used it to utilize my education. And it's helped me get myself out of my shell, and that's why I'm able to do this here speaking. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Alexander?

Good afternoon. My name is Alexander Hampton. I am a organizer for North Coast State Carpenters Union here in Sacramento. In addition to representing our members on job sites and in the community, our organization serves as a watchdog resource for awarding bodies like the Sacramento, City of Sacramento, the county, and SHRA. Recently, a lawsuit was filed against Emerson Construction, the general construction arm of Chelsea Weisman Corporation, alleging one of its subcontractors failed to make required wage, fringe, or other benefit payments to workers on affordable housing projects in Woodland.

Millions of our local, state, and federal dollars are being considered for investment in the Scottie Station apartment, and our organization supports that, and we want more housing. But we also demand physical responsibility when millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent, our members, and the rest of the tax paying community should be assured it will not go to companies with questionable business practices. We can call on Sacramento City staff, SHRA, to work with the Carpenters Union to ensure that there are no instances of wage theft on this project and that the project does not become a crime scene, that our tax monies are spent responsibly. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and council for speaking today. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speakers are Jeff and Regina, and I can give you a notice at thirty seconds when you have that left if that works for both of you. Okay. Go ahead. Your time is starting now.

Mayor and city council members, we are speaking today in hopes of removing Item 10 from Sutter Park Landing from the consent calendar. Just like to point out a few lessons that I hope have been learned with respect to this matter, whichever happens today. First, I hope that everybody understands that we really object to the type of trail that is created with the beginning being serenaded by a concrete recycling plant. And we hope that a better trail can be found in the future. Perhaps there's still going to be enough money in the grant to modify the trail within the current grant.

But if not, we hope that you will consider doing this in the future in a better way with an accessible website that will allow us to have more access to providing you with information in a more timely manner. And finally, that because we have heard from members of the Disability Advisory Commission that they did not receive a complete picture and we hope in the future when these items come up that staff will provide them with all the information that they should have. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

K. Go ahead. Your time will start now. Honorable mayor and city council members, first thanks to council member Guerra for taking the time to visit the site, to talk to us, to let us talk to city staff. As Jeff mentioned, there's we got more information on the short call and from people at the recent visits than was received by the DAC according to the recordings of the meeting that I went back and found.

This plan, we found out, is preliminary. And as you know, the web accessibility is an issue, including surveys conducted on this project. So I would like to point out that we were not consulted in a deliberate manner or an intentional matter. There's no city ADA coordinator as what has been requested by the Disability Advisory Commission. So ideally, we want more time for stakeholders to review and give feedback.

But barring that, we want to ask you to work with the, disability communities going forward. We have expertise. We know about safety, compliance, and possibly preventing possible legal actions if regulations aren't met. We have that expertise in our community, and I'd like the staff to commit to looking for grants into making a trail possible where people with sensory disabilities as well as physical and neurodivergent can enjoy the beautiful river we all love.

You have thirty seconds.

Partners with you and not adversaries. We just really wanna make this work for everybody, and we ask that we have some input going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor, I have no more public speakers.

Okay. Thank you.

Councilmember Maple on item number two.

Thank you, madam clerk and mister mayor. This is this is just an adjustment to the Florin Road Vision Zero safety project to allocate more funds for the design. So, you know, not the entirety of the project, but I did wanna take this moment to just express my strong support for the project in general. This is one of, you know, one of our vision zeros high injury network corridors. It's an area in my district and along with council member Vang.

And I think Floor Mode also passes through council member Garrett's district as well. So we all touch it to some degree, but it's definitely a part of the city where we know that there's a lot of injuries and and fatalities, and we we need to pay attention to it. These projects are so important. So I just want to appreciate the staff that's been working diligently on it to make sure that we meet all of the design criteria and we work with the community and so I hope to support this today. Thank you. And with that I'll move the consent calendar.

Thank you. Second.

Council member Garrick, do you have a

Thank you, mayor. You, mayor. This is on item number eight first. And first, know, one, I'd like to thank all of our team who've been moving this project forward. This is an affordable housing project of 66 units, which will also provide 15 units for housing for those with development disability individuals and families.

And what's unique about this project and its location on 69th Street is that it is ten minutes from walking distance from Sac State or through an accessible route through Sac State. It's also five minutes through a low impact street to the light rail station, and three minutes from a walking or accessible location to a grocery store nearby. And so this is a unique location that I think I am excited about how the applicant has made sure that we use an open space that's near the 65th Street Light Rail Station to really take advantage of infill. So excited about this and glad that it's another step moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I have a motion by council member Maple and a second by council member Caplan.

Item number 10, is anybody else punched up on item 10? Just want to speak on item 10.

Go ahead.

First, I just wanted to thank both our all of the applicants, the city staff as well, and the proponents who took the time to sit down with us. One, I do think this is as an email I received from folks on this, there's a lot of lessons learned in this process moving forward. And number one, this is conceptual, so there's more steps to go. And I do want to thank our park staff. Jason, thank you so much.

You noticed there was a gap in communication, and then took the initiative to start being much more engaged. I think that's important, you know, in this process. And there's a couple requests that I would like in its direction for our for the maker of the motion and the second. As it's conceptual, and I think both of teams and I are there, is one, better outreach in the communication with the community, particularly the ADA community in this as it moves forward. Second, there are two very significant old oak trees there that as we're looking in the conceptual phase that we need to try to preserve.

It's part of that natural state as well. And there are those in the community who felt that even any activity here would impact the natural state of this area. Well, this isn't one where I do disagree because we do have a skate park there. We do have heavy tractor trailer traffic moving through there. There's already a corp yard.

It's a reclaimed landfill. But I think there's an important message for our staff and our team to take away from this. And that's the concern of death by a thousand cuts at on the American River. This location is already impacted because of its industrial site. But if we don't take cautious view of all of our American River, a little walkway here, a roadway there, a gate here, next thing you know, we are changing what is the natural and beautiful state of that area.

So, I'm going to support this moving forward, but I do want to make sure that two things happen. We look at the two old oak trees that are there on the route path. And second, the engagement with the ADA community, I think there were alternatives posed that our staff looked at, and everyone looked at and said, oh, there's a path forward here. With that, thank you, mayor.

I'm happy to include that direction as a part of my motion.

Thank you. With that, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any those or abstentions? Seeing, hearing none, items passed nine zero. Okay. Next item.

Our next item is on the discussion calendar. It's the audit of the Sacramento Police Department evidence and property section. Is our oh, not the auditor. Okay.

Okay. Good afternoon, honorable mayor and city council. My name is Kevin Christensen, assistant city auditor with the city auditor's office. With me today is Fristo Rory, our city auditor, and Chevelle Jackson, the senior fiscal policy analyst who worked on the project. We're here today to present our audit of the Sacramento Police Department's Evidence and Property Section.

First, I'd like to thank the police department for their assistance and cooperation in completing this report. So let's start with a little background. The Evidence of Property section plays a critical role in the criminal justice process by maintaining the integrity of evidence at the moment it's collected through its final disposition. This function directly supports successful prosecutions, reduces legal and operational risk, and helps maintain public trust. The section operates under the Department's own General Orders, which requires that all evidence be stored, documented, and tracked to preserve the chain of custody.

As discussed later in this presentation, the Department has also developed two draft procedural documents that guided the day to day operations within the Evidence and Property Warehouse. So, I'll briefly walk through how we conducted the audit. Our objective was to assess the Department's operations and compliance with policies, laws, best practices, all while maintaining evidence integrity and accountability. We focused on warehouse operations through 2020 to 2024. We reviewed national standards and the department's draft policies, conducted facilities walk throughs, and interviewed peer agencies and subject matter experts.

Given the volume of property related to homelessness, we engaged shelter operators, department leadership, and city officials to assess best practices for handling and returning these items. We benchmarked against guidance from the California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training and the International Association of Property and Evidence. We performed statistical testing on high risk items including firearms, narcotics, cash, and jewelry, and verified them through physical inventory checks. And finally, we analyzed access controls, booking errors, and corrections. So, for our first finding, we concluded the department's evidence location and retrieval processes are generally operating effectively with error rates within acceptable industry standards.

In terms of process, officers are required to book items at the end of their shift, properly pack and document them, and ensure they are secured in designated storage locations. Evidence and property staff then review the submissions to confirm the accuracy and compliance. We found that maintaining chain of custody is a central control, with procedures in place to track evidence from intake through storage, transfer, and finally disposition. Our testing of high risk items which included drugs, firearms, securities, and jewelry showed that nearly all items were properly accounted for. We found that firearms were located 99.6% of the time or 99.66% accuracy with the item that was not found, being a fingerprint and all items in all items were ultimately located or supported by chain of custody documentation.

We also identified several opportunities to strengthen storage and security practices within the evidence of property warehouse. First, with respect to ammunition, we observed that some ammunition is being stored on open pallets on the warehouse floor due to the facility's dual role supporting both evidence and armory functions. So, practices call for ammunition to be stored separately in fire rated containers. We recommended moving ammunition into these fire related storage containers and updating the procedures accordingly. Second, for firearms, we noted that while some were previously stored outside secure stages, management has taken corrective actions by adding lock securing racks.

This is a positive improvement however, these practices are not yet formalized in written procedures. We recommended updating policy and training staff to ensure consistency. And finally, for surveillance systems, we observed that video monitoring workstations are located on the open warehouse floor and accessible to staff. Best practices call for restricting access to authorized personnel to maintain system integrity, so we recommended securing the workstation and securing access controls. So, for our second finding, we identified opportunities to improve the evidence and property sections policies and procedures.

While comprehensive manuals exist, they remain in draft form and have not been formally adopted. As a result, management's ability to enforce standards and ensure consistency is limited. We recommended finalizing the manuals and training staff to support consistent implementation. We also identified an opportunity to strengthen how high value items like jewelry are handled. Although items over $100 are supposed to be secured, there is limited guidance on how value was determined.

This has led to instances where items were not initially identified as high value and had to be moved later. So, here, we recommended clearer procedures to ensure potentially valuable items are identified and secured. So, for our third finding, we identified an opportunity to improve efficiency by changing how the Department handles property collected during homeless enforcement actions. Currently, the department spends significant time and resources collecting, storing, and disposing of this property about 8,000 staff hours annually or roughly $588,000 in hourly costs. So, this time is mainly spent by Evidence and Property Section staff, as well as members of the Department Impact Team.

So, we found that this work strains warehouse capacity, it pulls officers away from their core duties, and creates barriers for homeless individuals seeking to attempt and retrieve seeking to retrieve their belongings. We found that other agencies have addressed these challenges by using third party providers to collect, store, and return property, which has improved efficiency and increasing retrieval rates. So, we recommended that the Department explore a similar approach in coordination with the Department of Community Response and further implement monitoring to ensure it delivers time savings and operational benefits. So, now for our fourth finding. We identified that evidence and disposition practices have not kept pace with incoming inventory, leading to a growing accumulation of property.

Between 2022 and 2024, the Department booked over 143,000 items but disposed of about 122,000 resulting in a net increase of more than 20,000 items in storage. In other words, space is getting tight in the warehouse facility. So, while processing has improved, intake has generally outpaced removals, contributing to overcrowding, increasing risk related to storage capacity, safety, and chain of custody. So, these challenges are partially driven by legal and court requirements that extend how long evidence must be retained in the warehouse. However, best practices emphasize the importance of timely routine dispositions and dedicated resources to manage the inventory effectively.

So, we identified opportunities to improve disposal timelines, prioritize items already authorized for release, and establish performance goals to better control inventory growth. Okay. So, specifically, analysis and recommendation focused on improving how quickly the department disposes a property after it's already authorized for release. So, we found that 75% of the items in the warehouse require external authorization for the police department to move it out, such as from prosecutors at the district attorney's office. So, this is an important point, that items must remain in the warehouse until authorization is provided to remove them.

This limits control over when they can be disposed. However, once approved, the department has greater influence over how quickly the items are cleared. So, most of most items are processed within a few months, but small but a smaller share remain in storage for extended period of times extended period of time, sometimes years, due to capacity scheduling and coordination challenges. We found that more consistent monitoring of items authorized for release, especially those between sixty and one hundred and eighty days, as indicated by the red circle on the slide, could help reduce delays and improve throughput. Additionally, we found that current procedures do not clear do not provide clear performance goals for timely disposal.

So, here, we recommended establishing time bound disposal targets and prioritizing older authorized items to improve efficiency and reduce backlog. So, for our fifth finding, we concluded that the Department's Evidence and Property Section has implemented strong security access controls to safeguard evidence, particularly in high risk areas such as firearms, narcotics, and currency storage. So, testing found no instances of unauthorized access into the facility, indicating that current controls are functioning effectively. However, policies do not consistently require routine periodic reviews of access permissions, and so without we found we found that without regular audits, there's a risk that access permissions may not stay aligned with current roles in the future. We recommended formalizing periodic access reviews to ensure permissions remain current, appropriate, and consistently enforced.

And finally, for our sixth finding, we identified the Department's Evidence and Property Section demonstrates strong performance in booking accuracy and error correction, also exceeding best practice benchmarks. Across more than 143,000 items reviewed, the booking error was less than 1%, indicating a high level of accuracy in evidence handling. And, when errors did occur, were typically identified quickly and corrected within a few days. These processes align with best practices and help maintain an uninterrupted chain of custody and overall evidence integrity. Overall, this reflects a well functioning system with strong internal controls over evidence intake and correction. This concludes my presentation, and we are available for questions.

Speakers? Yes, we have three public speakers. The first one is Joshua, and then Sierra, and L. R. Roberts.

Sierra?

Hi. I just wanted to talk about the audit because I had a few concerns about how they handle property and evidence down there. When my teepee was seized, I don't think anybody even knew that it was down there in Kinnet for a good two months because it wasn't even labeled correctly. The tribal culture resource, first you had to even contact the tribes and the Native American Heritage Commission, and I mean, the mayor to even seize it. And the police department didn't even do that, so that was their first crime that they committed.

And then when they put it in property and evidence, and I mean, I'm sure this guy probably should know because this is probably his fucking job, but he should have known that a whole teepee in Native American church was completely labeled wrong. You guys labeled it as a tarp and sticks, so that way it would be completely overlooked. And so that way the city, the mayor, nobody would even know that the police and property and evidence was holding a Native American church. So I have a big concern about that not even being mentioned in this audit, and him not even he probably doesn't even know that, you know, his whole building did that. Your building kidnapped a church, a native American church, just so you know, and it was my church.

Kidnapped a church, and then he didn't even label it correctly. And I would just I don't know. It being your job, you actually knowing that and doing it correctly. When you guys steal

native American comments to the council. Thank you.

When you steal native American items, please just label it correctly because it was a crime that your county committed. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister speaker? Joshua?

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, council. I am happy that there was an audit for the Sacramento, police department, their evidence section, and it is good to hear the positive things that they are doing what they're supposed to do. You know, it is positive that there are findings, especially finding for, that are going to increase efficiency and, you know, stop well, specifically for Finding four in the homeless property and everything like that, stop the attacks on homeless people simply for being homeless, the retaliation, there are things being destroyed, stuff like that. It is a waste of time and effort and resources for Sacramento Police Department to be doing that. So a caring, independent, third party organization that can help with that, I think no one should be in disagreement of that.

It is also good to hear that, you know, the other findings are kinda catching Sacramento Police Department up with 2026. It is slightly alarming to hear that they're just now doing these things, but I guess better late than never as the saying goes. So all very positive things so far with the city auditing and everything like that. Happy to see those changes and hopefully hopefully you do implement them. With regards to the teepee and everything like that, there was a campaign to get the teepee back.

Whether it was just a simple lack of education on the Sacramento Police Department with some of these laws, treaty rights, the Native American Freedom of Religion Act to be specific. Hopefully, there'll be some training there, maybe some inclusion training, things like that because there are a variety of religions and people represented it here in the districts of Sacramento in our great beautiful city. So we don't want any egg on the face of SAC PD and SAC City Council, the mayor unduly. So thank you all for your time.

Thank you for your comment. L. R. Roberts?

Oh, I ran Los Abuelas Legal Services in Oak Park for fifteen years. I represented disabled people for benefits, many of whom had been homeless. Often, the police had thrown away their baby pictures, medical records, and ID, etcetera. During Occupy, the police took away hundreds of blankets. When I tried to get them back, Lonnie Wong, who was reporting for Fox at the time, was kicked out of the building.

I was told that I had to produce, I love this one, a receipt for each blanket. Ron Emsley, who was in Oak Park United against Slim Lords with me, gave me a receipt for over $300 worth of blankets that he had purchased. So I brought the receipt. The property clerk said I had to produce each person's ticket to get the blankets back. So, you can give someone a ticket and not take all of their possessions.

Mayor, I have no more public speakers on that item. Okay.

Thank you. Council?

Move approval of the item.

I have a motion from council member Guerra.

I'll second.

Any questions or comments about this item for city staff? Seeing none.

No. Yes.

I just

Vice mayor Talamantes.

We heard this item at budget and audit, and so a lot of members of the committee, we asked a lot of questions. And thank you so much for getting back to us on our answers. And so for anybody that's curious about this item and having no public comment, please go to the Budget and Audit Committee meeting on this.

Okay. No

further questions or comments. We have a motion to second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any nos or abstentions? Hearing none, item passes nine zero.

Do we have any council comments, ideas, questions, or a b one two three four reports? Madam City Manager, do you have a report? No? Alright, I have five comments for matters not on the agenda.

Okay. Please proceed.

Our first three speakers, Annette, Cynthia, and Paula, if you could please line up.

Which, right there.

Hi, I'm Annette Emery and I'm a member of both the Gardland Northgate Neighbor Association and the woman democrats of Sacramento County. Both these organizations are in support of ranked choice voting. And I understand that there is discussion about the city council bringing this up to put on the ballot and would like to say totally supportive of this. We won't talk about the 50 people talking for governor. That's totally, beyond us here.

But let's think about when we do vote and we have candidates who are going, I really like both from one slightly more. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to say, I'm gonna rank one person the first, another person second, and so on. If we could get rid of the primary, the amount of money and people are so burned out and they're confused frankly about I'm one of the weird people boys love politics. But for many people, if you start, they're going, why are we having two elections? What is with all this that they have to get this number and we go back again?

There's just confusion there. This would simplify. I think it would really address that we can get people's we can get the candidates out talking to people, finding what the issues are so that that's what they're running on, not I'm better than this person or anything else, and just have one election which would save so much money, and I think would really get more people engaged in the political process because it'd be easier to understand. So, I wanna let you know, I know it's not on the agenda, but very supportive of Sacramento adopting ranked choice voting and being a leader in this. Thank you.

Sorry. Thank you. Our next speaker is Cynthia. And after Cynthia, we have Paula.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. I'm Cynthia Shalott, and I'm here representing Indivisible Sacramento. We're a close ally with League of Women Voters in supporting ranked choice voting. We've had the luck of having Paula Lee come and talk to our group several times about the benefits of ranked choice voting. The they have done a lot of research in all the different models of voting, and really ranked choice voting is the best.

What I personally like about it is that it really helps and encourages all the candidates to talk to different constituencies, different groups of people, different issues, because those people might vote you as a second person, and so you don't want to alienate them or not have heard them. So I think you more broadly would be listening to the larger community. Also, I want to point out that this was really a grassroots effort. Paula had us writing having petitions out and being signed for only the last six weeks, and we got tens of thousands of signatures. And it was only a slight glitch that makes it that we can't quite make the deadline.

That's why we need you to really put this on the ballot so we can vote on it in November. Is there any questions about that or do I just

Thank you. Our next are you Okay.

Are you done? Thank you for supporting ranked choice voting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Paula. After Paula, we have Michelle.

I have a little more than two minutes. Please don't cut off my mic. I would request. I'm Paula Lee, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Better Ballot Sacramento Coalition. As you know, democracy and voting rights are at risk in this country.

But here in Sacramento, we have the opportunity to empower voters and empower candidates by upgrading our system for electing city council to rank choice voting as 52 other cities in two states have already done with great success. For the last almost three years, we have done exactly what many of you asked us to do. We have educated voters, built a strong and diverse coalition of support way beyond the League of Women Voters, including the Sacramento County Dem Party and the Central Labor Council who are, as you know, knowledgeable players in our community when it comes to elections. Our coalition also includes motivated activists from Indivisible Poor People's Campaign, chartered DEM clubs, Latino DEMs, Young DEMs, Women DEMs, Stonewall DEMs, Wellstone DEMs, College DEMs, and more. The National Women's Political Caucus, environmental groups like Third Act, Bay PAC, which is the Black American Political Association, two youth mentoring groups, includes the one including the one that was here today, and also neighborhood associations in your districts, the peace and freedom party party and the forward parties too.

We tried three times, but have not heard back from the local GOP. Additionally, we have invested in a signature campaign and professional polling which shows majority support among voters that are not associated with any of these groups. Voters wanna have one election instead of two and have a majority winner in November when more people vote. They don't want costly and notoriously

Thank you for your comment. Your time is complete. Our next speaker is Michelle.

You can read the rest

of her statement. We have to follow our rules.

Voters want to have one Voters wanna have one election instead of two and have a majority winner in November when more people vote. They don't want costly and notoriously negative runoffs, and they want choice without worrying about vote splitting. They want positive issues based on November elections. And, if adopted, we believe candidates will benefit as well. So, after almost three years, it's obvious that we have built the grassroots support needed for you as our elected representatives to do what it takes to move this forward to November's ballot.

Michelle Collins, I live in District 4, and I'm a member of the Sacramento Women Democrats and the National Women's Political Caucus, both of whom signed on to the the coalition to support this. And we thank you for your consideration today.

Thank you. Our next speaker is LR Roberts.

I live in District 5. I want to thank the District 5 staff for telling me about a police and sheriff task force on the underage trafficked girls who are there, it seems, daily. When was this task force created? Because within the last three times that I called, I got this weird thing where you get sent back and forth between the police and the cops because each of them says they're the girls are in the other jurisdiction. So, a task force is nice.

I'd like a phone number. I went so, let's see. I had a great talk with city manager about this last week. So, yeah, this is a good idea. So on a couple other issues, I'm concerned about the constant ice squads leaving the John Moss Building dressed as for war. I have a rainbow family and a circle of friends who are rainbow, and I, are feeling unsafe due to the presence of ICE and, the mass kidnappings they engage in. Lastly, it's a shame that our city school district is having a meltdown. I blame overpayment at the top of the school district and the constant rip offs by corporate charters and shame on those who who supported that.

Thank you, mayor. I have no more public comments.

Okay. Thank you. That concludes this council hearing. We will adjourn and reconvene at 5PM.