City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening everybody. I'm Mayor Erica A. Stewart and I am calling this regular meeting of the city council to order and stating that all of the city council members are here in person. So, will uh council member Shoresman, will you lead the pledge of allegiance?

United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you so much. Amazingly, we have no proclamations today, so I'm sorry for that. Uh, but I do I do want to let you know that February, like every month, has numerous things for you to be aware of. And one of those is it is National Wear Red Month because um there's a disproportionate amount of women who um either have heart attacks or strokes and this is to bring awareness to make sure that you get your uh care from your health providers. I know that's tough in this community but make sure you do and make sure your loved ones do. So with that uh we're talking about another month uh March for St. Patrick's Day and I believe we'll be receiving a presentation from Calpali and I'll just go like this. So, whichever one of you would like to come up first, we'll be ready.

Good evening, Madame Mayor and City Council. Uh, my name is Courtney Kino. I serve as the director of community relations and economic development at Calpali and we are um very grateful to be bringing to you our plan tonight for St. Patrick's Day. But before I turn it over to our other distinguished um representatives, I wanted to say a thank you um to the city um particularly the police department and all that are partnering with us in this significant event. Um we know that there are um many ways that we're able to um grow from last year both the successes and lessons learned and so are excited for this year and to kick it off. And with that I don't know if the are you all starting? Okay. So I'm going to turn it over to them and then we'll have our representatives from Kpali. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Courtney, for that uh introduction. And good evening, Madame Mayor, members of council. Thank you for this opportunity to present and update you on our plans for St. Patrick's Day. We are about a month out, but it's never too soon to talk about St. Patrick's Day here in slow. Uh this year, there are four key concerns, not drastically different than last year, that we're just going to talk about briefly and then go into more uh depth in our PowerPoint. The four key concerns overall city safety. We have to worry about the entire city as well as uh Calpali's special event going on. We'll be focused on noisy house parties. That tends to be um a constant here in our community as well as zero street parties. That's going to continue to be our focus for this year. We'll kick off our operational period beginning March 12th. This corresponds with uh farmers market. So you'll start to see enhanced uh security throughout the community beginning at farmers. That will roll into our party patrols which will be Friday, coincidentally Friday the 13th. Uh and that will carry over into the 14th which is Saturday and that's where we expect to see most of our activity and that also corresponds with Calpali's uh morning on the green. Finally, St. Patrick's Day proper will be the 17th of March and so we'll see lots of activity downtown. A lot of visitors will come to our community. So, you'll see enhanced police presence uh downtown and even out in the community if we see any uh uptick in house parties or events like that. Up next, I'll uh pass it over to Deputy Chief Schaefer. He's going to walk you through our safety enhancement zone schedule, what to expect for this year. It's always a little bit different depending where St. Patrick's falls, and then we'll also highlight the changes that we recently made to our ordinance to cover the two weekends prior. Uh after our presentation, we'll turn it over to our friends at Kalpali, and we'll talk about what their plans are for the Morning on the Green. Wonderful. Thank you, Chief. Uh, just to

give some context for people, uh, just going back to some key dates in our city's history, in 2004, the city adopted the first safety enhancement zone, uh, due to the riots that started from Marty GR. And this was February of 2004. In 2010, uh, with the expanded problems we were seeing in the city, um, we enhance, we added Halloween and St. Patrick's Day recognizing these as increase for disruptive behavior in our community. In 2013, uh we added an additional week which is the few weeks as a start of school as CalPoly starts as also safety enhancement zones. And then in 2024, we further expanded St. Patrick's Day to include whatever date the St. Patrick's Day and the two weekends leading up to it. Excuse me, I'm fighting a little bit of a raspy voice today. So, uh, this approach was kind of to deter disruptive behavior in our community by enhancing our fines, which you see on this next slide. So, we took the safety enhancement zone and we added public urination, open containers, unruly gathering, and noise complaints or noisy parties to that in order to deter uh our community members from hosting parties or doing these things in public. And those fines basically went up from 300, they basically doubled. So, from $350 to $700. Uh, the second fine is um $1,000 and each subsequent fine after that is an additional $1,000. So, hypothetically, if we went out and received four complaints on somebody, it could potentially be up to $4,000 on that particular location. This is just uh the MUN code defined in a graph. So, you can kind of see here that St. Patrick's Day falls on a Tuesday and the two weekends before. So from Friday through Friday the 6th through uh March the 8th is safety enhancement zone is in

effect and then as well as the following weekend which is the 13th through the 15th which includes the 14th which we anticipate um you know CalPol is hosting the event which they'll talk about in a few minutes but uh obviously our changes to the MUN code allowed us to include that weekend as well for the safety enhancement zone. So just in order to in order to make sure that our team's ready, we uh last year we really shifted to a proactive approach. Um as you can see from last year, we had very minimal disturbances in our neighborhood due to using other law enforcement agencies throughout the state to come and help us. Uh we also used our public works partners and other um city departments to ensure the safety of the community and the neighborhood surrounding that cowpoly area. This year we decided to do the same thing. So this the plan is very similar by use utilizing COES to facilitate getting those resources here to allow us to have ample amount of law enforcement personnel uh to prevent and create a safe environment for uh not only the members who live in our community or those who are coming from out of the area. Um a lot of our success is outreach. A lot of community outreach we've done last year. We're doing the same thing this year. We've met with different groups not only on Cowboys campus but off campus. Um, we have plans to meet with RQN and talk to the people that are in those neighborhoods who are living there and who have uh a vested interest in keeping that community safe and quiet. Um, we plan on meeting with them as well uh later this week. And the biggest thing that we solved in 2025 is we eliminated the street party that had occurred for the previous several years. and we had small groups in those areas but very minimal compared to the years prior.

So the key strategies for 2026 is just building on that winning strategy that we had in 2025 and to increase our partnerships and utilizing those partnerships to uh prevent a group of people gathering in a neighborhood that you know is not sanctioned and um we don't want them there. And so that partly is due to our zero uh tolerance approach that we've taken. So starting this weekend, we are actually going out proactively and doing neighborhood knock-in talks, if you will, with our community members just to advise them uh with marketing material. Uh we've increased our party patrols up until starting this weekend through the 14th incl. I should clarify, it's actually going to go through St. Patrick's Day, which is the 17th. And um it's important that we get that message clear. Last year we saw that being very beneficial. Every time we went to somebody's door, they were like, "Oh, I'm already aware of this." So all that stuff on the back end and coordinating with Calpali and going to fraternity sorty life and meeting with those people face to face and having those conversations super valuable. That that message is getting out and I would like to thank Kalpali for that because they're doing a really good job of a lot of outreach and and partnership with us. Also, while people um get as we get party complaints moving forward, we we be handing out flyers to each party we go to to remind them maybe here's your DACK or your citation as well as uh don't party in this neighborhood u moving forward as far as uh the safety enhancement zone. So obviously safety is our number one concern and last year we had very minimal incidences regarding arrests, citations, medical calls, very minimal. And so the goal is to keep that on our forefront to allow um them to have a safe event at PY while understanding that they're not allowed to um come into

the neighborhood and cause disturbances of the people that live there. So, it's a maximum deployment for our department and we're we're going to have a bunch of foot patrols, uh, bike patrols, motor units, mounted patrols, and those between all those units, they're going to be, uh, positioned throughout the city, very similar to last year. And we think for our partnership with fire, they're they're huge with county EMS. They are a huge partner to make sure that there if there are issues that we're addressing them appropriately, not necessarily with just enforcement, but also the proper medical care. I'm going to turn it back over to Chief Scott who's going to talk about the unified command.

Thank you, Deputy Chief Schaefer. And just a couple slides left and really want to touch on unified command. This was obviously something that we had in place last year working with our partners both uh mutual aid as well as Caloes and our partners over at Calpali. But to dive a little bit deeper into it, this year again we'll be focused on our relationship with Caloes uh our emergency manager Joe Little. So he's helping coordinate things a little bit higher up in the organization. Uh and then operating what we call a true unified command. And what that means is both police departments, slow city as well as Kalpali, um fire, EMS, uh our emergency coordinator in Callowas, will all be in the same room making decisions. So we'll have a clear operating picture of what's happening. What this allows for is additional flexibility where, you know, we know we're going to have limited resources as we do, you know, as we do every year. Um, but this will give us the opportunity to put those resources where they're needed most and when we uh as decision makers decide they need to go. The other thing to touch on is overlapping concentric circles of responsibility. And so that means while obviously we're we're focused on slow city, Kpali is focused on Kalpali, there's areas where we do overlap to provide protection to all of our community members and this unified command provides that structure. Finally, working with Kpali again to limit access to campus. This is not due. We did this last year as well as the residential halls and parking. I know CalPoly will touch a little bit more on that. So lastly, defining success and we get this question a lot. How do we define success? Um well, I think last year was successful. It doesn't mean there wasn't things that we couldn't learn and didn't learn. Um but we're going to build on those successes as Deputy Chief Schaefer mentioned. So, you know, effective coordination. We're doing that now. We've been doing that for a number of months. communication. That's the phase we're in now, is getting the outreach out so people can make smart decisions going into uh the holiday. And then again, just capitalizing on keeping the streets clear, keeping our noisy parties down uh as well as um focusing people to

go where we want entertainment for them, which is downtown or or over at the campus. Um obviously, no serious injuries. That is the goal. We want to preserve life uh make sure people are healthy as well as you know all of our community members and our first responders that are here at Sopedia as well as our visiting agencies. Uh the last piece I will touch on and and deputy she chief Schaefer mentioned this was uh last year we did see one of the lowest numbers of citations and arrests and and I think that's a very very important metric. I hope this year I'm able to report to you zero uh no injuries, no citations and no arrest. I think that would be a really really great measure of success. Uh with that, I'm I'm happy to take any questions or we can hear from Kalpali and do questions that way, however you choose. But that's the end of our presentation and I'll invite our partners up when you're ready.

I have a quick question, I think. Um you mentioned meeting with RQN. Will you also be meeting with the Alta Vista neighborhood? We don't have any plans to meet with them as a group. We are doing targeted outreach to Alta Vista which includes not only our student residents but also our established residents that are non- students and so we'll they get a little bit more personalized attention doortodoor um so they'll have that opportunity to meet with their officers in person. Great. Thank you. And lastly uh Qua are they getting any of this information if they happen to live nearby and have some surprises since they don't have the same uh concentric circles?

Absolutely. And so, um, we're coordinating with Quest to PD, uh, but we'll also be coordinating with their student leadership, and we'll see them at SCLC. They're going to get this presentation again. Um, but also just communicating with them in advance to have, um, uh, areas where they people they can reach out to with these questions and provide support and they've always been great partners in in the past couple years going into this. Perfect. Thank you. Um, I think let's move on to Calpali's presentation and then take uh questions. I don't see any burning questions. All right, sounds good. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Scott. Can you hear me? Well, thank you, Madame Mayor, City Council members. I'm George Hughes. on the AVP of public safety at Calpali and with my colleague uh AP Ryan Grass of the Performing Arts Center events and campus engagements. We thank you for having this opportunity to come speak with you tonight about our preparations for St. Patrick's Day weekend and our partnerships that we have with the city here. Um, for those of you that joined us last year, um, our our plan this year is very similar to last year's, which was very successful in limiting the behaviors we saw in previous years, but of course with some modifications on some lessons learned, especially around the alternate event that we had last year. our comprehensive response plan. Uh it includes but is not limited to proactive outreach to our students to discourage neighborhood partying and disruptions. Security on and off campus, including collaboration with the city and police to maximize enforcement, but also be proactive visibility as deterrence, special event that draws students to campus and out of your neighborhood streets, and targeted communication and engagement with our community. We on campus are going to have a zero tolerance approach. Um, we have the same approach that in hopes that your city police department does that we don't have to write a bunch of citations, you know, but we are going to have a zero tolerance approach on and off campus that includes holding students and their visitors accountable for violations of law and campus policies on and off campus. Off-campus violations will be reported to Kpali's office of students rights and responsibility as in previous years and held properly accountable for their actions. enhanced patrols and coordination with slow PD for maximum enforcement, high visibility and again zero tolerance. Ongoing outreach to our fraternity and sorority life and promotion of your safety enhancement zone times. Our onampus enforcement will look like this. Increased number of police officers and security on campus,

including at university housing locations. We will be enforcing a no gusts out allowed in university housing from March 12th to the 17th. This is very resource inensive, but last year it was probably one of the highest reasons of success that we had. Uh we will have strategic road closures and parking restrictions in place to ensure that non- students and non-residents will be utilizing our parking lots and then walking into your cities. We will be enforcing our quiet hours and then we will be h holding ID checks and increased staffing at all building entrances into the residence halls. With that, I'll turn it on to Mr. Gruss and our onampus event.

All right. Thanks, George. All right, so in terms of the the ticketed or the the event on campus, uh it'll be March 14th. Uh gates open at 4:45 a.m. and it'll run from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Uh it will be an early morning event with obviously amplified sound. Uh same basic location as last year, if you remember that, just on the other half of the field. Um the reason for that is so that it'll be a safer entry experience. That was the main I I'd say learning item from last year was uh the entry was kind of the front corner and created some bottlenecks and slowed things down. Uh and so having it at the back of the venue on the other side of that space uh it'll make make for a much safer experience for all involved. Um we're increasing the ability to accommodate uh more attendees. So last year there was 5,000 attendees uh was the plan and this year we're increasing with the number to 10,000 initially. Um and all of them will be Calpaly students initially uh to allow as many CPOL students to attend as possible. Uh other kind of learning items that we will be adjusting um it'll be a much more efficient entry process. uh bracelets instead of uh mobile tickets and going on phones. Um a waiver will be will be changing to allow for students to register um and go through the waiver process online as opposed to at the venue um which will increase the speed of the event uh and a much safer experience for all involved which is the goal. Um there will be no beer garden um involved in the planning this year. um more security and then uh a verification process through the ticketing uh process which will verify your student when you're registering. Um tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Uh and we're excited for uh the event to take place.

Thanks Ryan. We also want to highlight our safety efforts beyond law enforcement and security in our harm reduction plan. So, we do have harm reduction efforts which include hydration boxes, overdose education, food and water stations. We also have safety observation sites like we did last year, but we're increasing from one location to two throughout campus and it will be staffed by our friends from Good Samaritan and also our own medical reserve corps. We're going to have cleanup efforts as we did in previous years on March 15th organized by Fraternity and Sority Life and also our center for service and action. So, our multi-prong approach to ending the party, which is our goal here, ending that street party, right? Visible presence on campus leading up to and throughout the St. Patrick's Day weekend, clear communications and messages to all students, and of course, meetings with fraternity and sorority life community. Priorities for the weekend for us, health and safety, very similar to your city, for not only our students, but our entire community. Minimize damage and disruptions both on and off campus. successful university event to keep students on campus again with the intent to pull students out of your neighborhoods and onto our campus and end that party for good. So, in summary, we have zero tolerance for breaking laws and policies. We will hold students and their visitors accountable for violating laws and policies. Calpali will host a safe alternative event with every intention to keep students out of your city streets. Safety is our top priority. Many additional staff will be on hand with a focus on health and wellness. And with that, we always thank you for your partnership. We wouldn't be uh with as successful event as we did as last year and increase it as much as we will this year without your partnership in the city. And with that, we will take any questions.

Thank you so much. Appreciate the uh information and the grow larger capacity. And um is there any collaboration at all with downtown? So, will there be any events in the probably later than 5:00 a.m. uh downtown kind of pulling people out of the neighborhoods and away from Kalpali? I'm speaking to the downtown uh group I think in two weeks. Okay. Um but there's no initial plans in terms of my piece of it um related to to downtown. Okay. Thank you. I think the chief has some addition if

I could just add in on that. So, obviously with Calpali or St. Patrick's Day being on the 17th. We do have robust planning for downtown on the 17th. Saturday on the 14th. Nothing that I'm aware of necessarily that's going to offset that event. Uh but we do see an uptick earlier later in the morning and then into the afternoon downtown uh on the same night or the same afternoon as um the concert. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Vice Mayor.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate your presentation. I was curious about the elimination of the alcohol sales inside the Morning on the Green event and kind of wondered if you could give us a little bit more of the thought process there since I know traditionally alcohol has been a part of the St. Patrick's Day celebration and wondering about how do we incentivize them to go to that event um and will there be alcohol involved in in any capacity on campus?

Yeah, I can speak to that. Uh so thinking about who the alcohol would be available to, it was a very small percentage um because it we'd only be able to give it to those that are 21 and over. Uh so it was a very small percentage. It limited capacity greatly. Um and it shut down basically right when the event started last year because the gates got overwhelmed and it just there wasn't the upside um there wasn't the reward for the risk that were involved. Thank you for that. And also curious about um we heard some information about citations from our uh city police and and curious about um how your citations tracked last year in comparison to years before.

Yeah, very similar very similar to what you saw with city police. Um we had a huge reduction. We we had very few we had very few trans alcohol transports from campus. We had very few uh damage or vandalism reports inside the residence halls on campus like we did in previous years. uh and just minimal minimal um citations whatsoever. That's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, one more question. Um you shared a lot about the kind of preemptive plans uh so that hopefully negative behavior wouldn't exist. Um and have you increased the discipline for anyone who is not following the rules?

So that depends on the violation, you know. So, um, you know, just like in in the criminal side of things, you know, depends on the egregiousness of the crime. So, it could go anywhere from a warning, it could be a uh a suspension, it could be a long suspension, it could be all the way up to expulsion. But, as you know, that's that very rarely ever happens on our campus for an expulsion. But, you know, I think that our office of students rights responsibility does a very good job of of balancing what is correct um corrective behavior so it doesn't happen again. All right. Thank you. Well, if there are no other questions Oh, sorry, Council Member Shoresman.

Sorry, just to jump in with one. So, um, I might describe this incorrectly, so forgive me if I use the wrong terminology, and it might, um, be a question for our police to chime in on as well, but I I know that we have a a party registration program, and I believe that campus has a way of registering parties as well. Uh when will how will the communication happen on the night of the event or the morning the we hours of the morning of the event? How will that communication occur around the registered parties with each entity to make sure that they're following the rules that they're supposed to be following? And given the benefits of the party registration, how will that interaction occur? And I see the chief standing, but I don't know who wants to go first.

Thank you, Council Member Schwarzman, for the question. So, uh, according to, uh, our policies, anytime there is a safety enhancement zone active, party registration is is not an option. Thank you for that clarification. Is that the case also for the way that students or uh, fraternities can register parties with the campus as well? Yeah, it's it's very similar on campus and it's that's going to be organized through student or Greek life and sorority and fraternity life. I wish there was someone here to give you a better answer on that. I'm very happy to make sure you have that answer tomorrow. Thank you so much. That would be great. Thank you, Council Member Marks.

Uh yeah, I'm I'm glad that uh you all will be in one room and I'm just curious where that room is. Is it on campus? It's a secret. No, that that's okay. All right. If it's a secret, don't tell me. But uh the other thing is it's the unified command. Is anybody in charge of the unified command? Who's the chief? Is it Chief Scott or is it you or or somebody else? So

the beauty of unified command is we're all in charge. So uh so myself and uh Chief Lastino uh from Kalpali will we'll be working jointly the incident and from there we'll have a series of positions you know according to IC structure but uh myself and and Kpali chief will be in charge of the overall event. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Now it looks like we do not have any more questions. Thank you for your time. We appreciate you. And with that uh we will move forward to the city manager report. Okay. Thanks very much. Happy to share some updates with everyone this evening. Uh so we will start out tonight's report uh with an announcement and hopefully some folks are already aware that registration is open for our spring junior farmers after school program that is being done in partnership with city farm slow. This program is open for students in kindergarten through sixth grade at city farm located at the end of the culde-sac on Caillou. This spring program will be held on Tuesday and Thursdays from 3:15 to 5:30m from March 10th through April 23rd. This helps uh students learn how a farm operates from growing agriculture and raising small animals through interactive activities and play. So if anybody's even remotely interested, please check it out and hopefully um get your kids uh involved. Um, so register now for uh our spring uh break junior farmers camp. Um, which is also a five-day program that runs from March 23rd to 27th from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. And more information uh is available at our parks and wreck department at slowparks.org. So, just to clarify, that's a little different from the afterchool program, but both programs are available um providing that additional care opportunity as well as some great enrichments for our kids. Next, we want to make sure everyone is aware we are in our annual advisory body recruitment period. We are recruiting volunteers from the community to become members of one of our many advisory

bodies. Our advisory bodies are groups of volunteers who are appointed by our city council who advise staff and council on matters that affect policy and issues that affect the future of the community. Um, our citizens are encouraged to participate on these commissions, committees, and boards to engage in discussions with staff and other community members on a number of different topics. Um, and the committee names kind of help explain what those topics are. Our annual advisory body recruitment opened uh Wednesday, February 4th, and we will be accepting applications all the way through Sunday, March 29th. Um, as you can see up on the screen, if you can make it out in that type, um, we are currently recruiting to fill 27 positions across 15 different advisory bodies. So, I think something for everyone up there. The close of the application period, uh, we have a council subcommittee for each of the committees. identified there who will conduct interviews with selected applicants and the full city council will will consider approving the appointments at their meeting on June 16th. Terms will begin on July 1st. So folks kind of thinking about their schedules get those dates in mind. For more information and to start your application, please reach out to the city's clerk city clerk's office and our city website. Although, I will let folks know. I've heard that our website is currently down, but I know we have a team working on it right now to get it up and running again. One of those things when it rains, it pours, but I know we're on it. Next up, we want to make sure everybody's aware of our Lunar New Year celebration that will be here in just a couple of days. We are anticipating, you know, fingers crossed, that the rain will taper out by the time that the celebration will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Mission Plaza. Uh this is being brought forward in partnership with downtown slow farmers market along with our office of diversity, equity, and inclusion uh and our parks and recreation department. They've all come

together with our local community and planned performances uh by a viol violinist Rose Krellley, a CowPoly lion dance team, a number of local food vendors, and our special guest from Cowpaly, Chase the Mustang, to help us ring in uh the year of the horse, which is often associated with optimism, energy, and opportunity. Uh and so we want to make sure everyone's aware and hope hopefully we'll see everybody out there in just a couple of days. We also want to make sure everyone's aware we we opened um a survey and are conducting some additional public engagement opportunities related to our water and sewer rates. Um we undertake a rate adjustment process typically every two years. Um but we're looking at doing rate adjustments next year. So, in anticipation of that, we want to make sure folks are aware of what what is in the mix when it comes to our water and sewer rates overall. Um, the rate structure itself um can vary a fair amount from city to city and we are taking a look at that uh really in depth and we'll be talking about it with the city council coming up in a few months to make sure we've got a good structure in place before we go actually build out some proposed rates. Um we are looking at potentially um extending the time frame for our rates. So going from a every two-year to an every four-year process so that we adopt a set of rates that can be uh adjusted within those four years. Just want to make sure folks are aware of that. Um, but our community is invited to a public information session uh held on Monday, February 23rd at our library community room across the street from 7 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. This is just an educational session for our staff to provide a short presentation about our current water and sewer rate structures, the legal landscape we're working under when it comes to water and

sewer rate setting. Um, general principles for water and sewer rate design. Uh and again this is just education conversation about uh how the rates work as a whole. There are not any specific rate changes or dollar amounts that will be presented at this session. That's something we'll be talking about next year um through a couple different conversations at the city council. We're really asking for input um at this stage. We've got a a survey up there on the screen as well. It's really going to help us and the council as a whole make sure we're on the right track with the the structure we have. And then again, we're um inviting everyone to attend our uh study session on water and we're sewer rate structures uh on April 21st. So, all of this is uh leading up to that conversation. We'll be getting more information out. So, thank you to our uh public works and utilities team for putting all this together. Uh next up, we wanted we this is certainly on our minds. We think uh it's probably on the minds of a lot of folks here as well. Um, we know, uh, we all kind of woke up to an occurrence that happened with our Fremont Theater down the street. It was discovered this morning that a portion of the facade, um, had broken off and fallen into the street. There's a little photo of um, kind of what we came across this morning. The street is currently closed off uh to traffic in order to just ensure safety while we we get the level of engineering evaluations to make sure that it will be safe to open that up to through traffic. Um the businesses along the street are still all open and so folks can access them uh by foot and then just make sure we've got it all pretty um lined off with tape so everybody's aware of where to to walk around for safety. Um, we really want to uh thank everyone in the community for flexibility uh and also uh the property owner for jumping on this

issue and getting work out there to make sure that it is made safe and then that in the long run we get to see uh rehabilitated and used again in its original glory. So, um I know I got questions and maybe you all did too. Well, what about the concert there tonight? Um, we did hear that they have moved that concert to Slowbu Rock, which has been reported in in a couple of different news outlets. So, if anybody has tickets to that tonight, I believe you got to head out um out to uh Slowbrew Rock instead. But hopefully we'll be able to help uh get the Fremont up and running again in full. And um want to really again thank our teams for assisting as well. So, finally, just highlighting our upcoming meetings. We do have a special city council meeting happening next week um on February 24th. This one will be dedicated to a discussion of uh rental housing registry options. So, it's a study session and we'll we'll be presenting a number of options and getting um direction from the city council and potentially moving forward with some items there. Our following regularly scheduled meeting is March 3rd and we want to highlight that we will be um our public hearings and business items will include uh another conversation about the slow COGS local roads first measure and then um we'll be doing kind of a deep dive into our budget and a set of proposed budget reductions that we will be anticipating to put into effect for the next fiscal year. um really uh helping us tackle that structural budget deficit that we identified when we um developed our financial plan um last year. So that's a look at our upcoming meetings and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. That was quite a wild uh experience to wake up to the Fremont Theater and I'm so thrilled that the property owner is taking care of that so quickly. It's awesome. Um, I don't see any questions from my colleagues. Okay. Oh, there is Vice Mayor. I'm sorry, Council Member Schwarzman.

Uh, thank you. Yes, we we've had some agenda correspondence um about this meeting related topic, but uh I know that we have a study session coming up. We have the study session next week. That's a special meeting on uh the rental registry, but we have another study session that's coming up um at some point in the future that I wondered if you could give us the date that is related to code enforcement and some other housing issues.

Sure thing. So, we were uh we do have a study session planned uh in May to discuss code enforcement priorities and neighborhood livability. um you know how we are going to address neighborhood livability concerns and we were trying to land we're going to do a similar thing or our recommendation is to hold a special meeting to dedicate to that conversation and I think we were trying to land the data uh on a date in May 26th. There you go. Wonderful. Thank you. I just wanted to put that out there in case people were wondering where where that was. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, it's a big topic and uh full full meetings in between. So, here we go. Well, thank you very much. Um always so much happening in the community and that is part of why we live here and enjoy it so much. Um next up, we have public comment for items that are not on the agenda. So, if you are here to talk about anything on the consent agenda or public hearings, hold on. Um we'll we'll get back to you. Um any public comments? A city clerk? Yes, we have six speaker cards. So, I will call three and then three more. The first one is Sean Harris, then Ben Cook, and then Steve Schmidt. Thank you.

All right. Uh, good evening. Thanks for taking the time to let me speak. Uh, this is not on the agenda. I was detained by um ICE uh December 29 down on Lower Hya. I'm sorry. uh bullet claim in the dark at 6:15 in the morning on my way to work by masked and individuals wearing tactical vests. The police chief here in town has assured me they were not involved. That's I appreciate that. Uh however, my concerns are what may have gone in the gone on in the background with intelligence sharing between uh federal agencies and our local police department. Um though the police department physically may not have been on the ground when I was detained, uh I I don't know. I I have no assurance that there was no intelligence sharing with those agencies. So in that uh so with that in mind, I'd like to suggest two reforms for this uh St. Louis Police Department. Uh the first reform would be that anytime a federal agency, especially any that might be described as our nation's secret police or internal police, anytime they notify the PD of St. Louis that they will be conducting operations in the city, not related to to disaster relief, uh that the city council's immediately notified and provided the nature of their request. This is not to take away the uh police department's ultimate decision-making regarding this. Uh it is just to provide extra eyes on the request by what can only be described as a hostile federal government. Uh an audit number two, an audit should uh be immediately conducted by the city council the very next day, including the mayor. Uh anytime the Department of Homeland Security or Federal Security Agency notifies our local police department, they'll be conducting operations within the city. This audit will include reviewing all radio traffic emails, phone calls, GPS coordinates of drones uh and cars, text messaging between police officers for workrelated texts, uh any body cam footage and audio recordings. Each of these aspects of gathering this uh data can be shared amongst the council members so one person isn't overloaded. I think these two would be great to assure the public that not only are police department not assisting federal agencies in detaining people and uh um in the pursuit of immigration reform sweeps uh at this

point I don't know whether any insurance uh intelligence is shared. Now I believe in our police department. I'm glad we have one. Every city needs them. However, let's not forget the origins of our police. They were founded uh with slave patrols that would go after escape slaves and they would enforce the economic order of that period. Uh, also the police uh sent their German shepherds uh to attack African-American civil rights activists crossing the Edmond Pettis Bridge in the 60s on their way to the state capital. It was a police who in collaboration with FBI and a snitch murdered Fred Hampton. It was uh during uh with Cointel Pro. Uh it was the police who engaged in a police riot the 1968 Democratic National Convention and we haven't forgot that attacking hippie demonstrators. It was the police uh who sold dope in the Rampar division in LA. It was the police who beat Rodney King on live TV. It was the police who ran black uh sites in Chicago to throw arresties and with arresties into without public booking records and denying them a phone call. So, I would ask that the city council and mayor uh enact these two reforms that would help the public. Thank you.

Thank you. Have my slide deck.

Hi there. My name is Dr. Ben Cook. I'm a local physician here. I'd like to talk to you about a community project we've been working on for a number of years. I've spoken to you before. Well, some of you like to get it on the city's radar. Uh myself and several of our board members have formed a nonprofit for the development of a community ice rink and community event center. Now, I don't want to jump on the suffering bones of the uh Fremont down the street that happens to be crumbling, but this would be an opportunity for a large concert venue and community ice rink to host uh figure skating, hockey, uh speed skating, and events. You put insulated panels over the ice and it could accommodate up to 4,000 people. Could I have the next slide? So, we're significantly lacking community places for people to gather and to foster youth youth development. And I understand a lot of these things need to align with the city's long-term plan. I want to get on your radar so when the next next budget cycle comes around, you may be able to accommodate some of our nonprofits asks in partnership here. Can I go to the next one? So we've compete completed a feasibility study with Calpali um which worked with their business administration, real estate and architecture firms to confirm viability within the community. And uh on the next slides we'll discuss some potential sites east of the synagogue on Losos Valley Road as well as next one. Okay, if you see this reference slide on the airport in the bottom right corner, you can see on tank farm that's 438 tank farm or prao. We need a minimum of about 8 to 10 acres to accommodate 7 to 8 acres of parking and the facility itself would be 1.5 acres. Uh next, uh two of these parcels, the ones off Tank Farm and Praau are county territory, which are appropriately zoned

for this kind of large 20,000 square foot or larger, uh commercial community recreational building. Can you skip forward two more? Awesome. We've through our community outreach, we've uh have a petition over 600 local people who have signed up to support the idea. We have an active GoFundMe and PayPal campaign. We're partnering with Ceslock Bank to do a outreach program to the 50,000 members in their um banking community. And we also have a partnership campaign with the Los Angeles Kings for ticket and merchandise incentives for people as they um pledge. And one more. And one more. And one more. Sorry. Okay. Total estimated cost $15 million. We're asking that the city, if we reach a $10 million goal, would be willing to match at 33% in the long-term plan to help bring this project to fruition. And partnership with finding and approving appropriate land.

Thank you so much. After Steve Schmidt, it's Owen Blackwell, Steve Del Martini, and Fitzgerald Kelly.

Hi, thank you very much for allowing me to speak. My name is Steve Schmidt. I'm the executive director of the St. Louis Bispo County History Center. I'm halfway through my fifth month. Uh, and I'm basically here to give a brief update of the history center and give a lot of thanks. Uh, I'm I'm enjoying the partnership we have with the city. So, thank you for the beautiful Carnegie Library. Um, in terms of partnering, we I sent out an email to over 1,600 people asking them uh to join your advisory boards for your recruitment process. Um, I want to thank your crew. I'm really impressed with the people who take care of the Carnegie Alejandro Israel. Uh, Dave, Brian, I haven't met Latte. Uh, but the very first time it rained, they came in, checked for flooding. I asked for paint. They paint things quickly. Dave told me never get on a ladder again. Um, and they put in new thermostats. So, uh, they're great. I want to thank Bob Hill, who's been partnering with us, and I'm looking forward to having coffee with him soon. Apparently, that's how business in this city happens. Uh, I want to thank Jan Marks for coming to our Ethel Culie uh, exhibit opening. Also to the Tom Brochovich uh, Carnegie Lecture Series talk. We went out to lunch once with Amy Cardell. I was easily the third smartest person at the table. Um, I also want to thank you for availing Adrienne Harris and Becca Carcel to us. We're having a retreat with them with the board this Sunday, February 22nd. Um, let's see our exhibits. I'm here to formally invite you to our St. Louis Bisto County History Day this Saturday at noon. Uh, so that's February 21st. It's uh going to be a celebration of America turning 250 years old this year, seen through the eyes of a Latina from St. Louis Abyispo. Uh I've raised $16,000 in sponsorships for that event. Uh next Tuesday, we're having a Carnegie lecture series for African history month,

African-American history month, Black History. It's going to be Cameron David Jones from Calpali talking about his African California project. Let's see. Um, back to America turning 250. I have PSAs three times a day on KVEC. So, it's great partnering with them. Our gala is scheduled for next September 12th at the mission. And the theme will be America turning 250. That's the way it was 250 years ago today. This Thursday, I'll be speaking at the Lunar New Year uh celebration. The history center will have a booth in Mission Plaza. The museum will be open late. I've loaned a lot of decorations to the city. I've been enjoying working with Sam and Matt. Um, we have an intern program. They're doing social media exhibits and the Dalai Adobe open Saturday, April 4th, Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. And we're going to start having music in the Dalade Gardens for uh fundraising events. So, that's just a quick update and you'll hear more from Bob soon. Thank you.

Thank you. That's a lot. Wonderful work. Hello council members and madame mayor. My name is Owen Blackwell. I'm a student and resident of St. Louis Abyispo. This morning I along with dozens of other students who are residents of San Los Aispo boarded buses headed towards Kpali. As we boarded we were informed for the first time that day that we would not be taken to campus. Instead, drivers dropped us off at the intersection of Choro and Foothill, leaving us with a 1.1m, 25-minute walk across Highway 1 and California Boulevard in the rain to reach our destination. The lack of communication regarding this service disruption was total. There were no updates on the slow transit rider alerts and notices website. No information was posted to official Facebook or ex Twitter accounts and no notification was sent out by Calpali administration. Upon speaking with slow transit dispatch, I was informed that because of the CSU teamster skilled trades union strike, their drivers would not cross picket lines onto campus. However, when I inquired with the office of the vice president of student affairs at Kpali, I was told that slow transit supervisors had explicitly assured the university that supervisors would come and complete the final mile onto campus, yet they never arrived. With this strike scheduled to continue through Friday, students that rely on transit, especially those with disabilities, are being left behind by a breakdown in both service and communication, I urge city council to immediately intervene to ensure that slow transit provides clear, accurate service alerts and coordinates a reliable dropoff plan that does not abandon students and residents in inclement weather. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, council. My name is Steve Del Martini. Um, hang on here. Put these on. You know, when you get over when you turn 50, you have to put glasses on. Uh, on be on behalf of the Salem Espispo Coastal Association Realtors, we're looking forward to the staff report regarding the proposed rental registry and further collaboration with all property uh parties concerned. In the last month, there have been constructive conversations. I think part of the discussion has have given some focused ideas for consideration such as if possible enhancing the existing rental property license fee application to incorporate some of the information the city needs to address certain housing situations. Potentially a mediation process that tenants could go through to address problems to achieve positive results. possibly a simple one-page document that could be added to a rental agreement stating some tenant uh tenant and landlord responsibilities, educating tenants and landlords regarding rights and proper procedures, although this may be the the the hardest to achieve. Um um all in the city wants to have better a handle on the overall rental property stock. I believe we'll figure that out. uh we'll figure out a way to make that all happen. I think there's a better understanding that a majority of the rental properties in St. Louis Abyspo are managed by professional property managers and those managers have systems in place uh uh for tenants to deal directly with management companies to get problems resolved. It may be that the properties that are not professionally managed might have the bulk of the issues that are being brought up uh being brought up. How um how is that to be determined? I really don't know yet, but I'm sure we'll we'll figure it out. Um, along those lines, it would be interesting that uh for those

that are reporting housing issues, housing issues to also include whether they are professionally managed or not. So, again, once the staff report is out and the meeting on the 24th is done, we will all have some direction as to what we can do to help to get the city some of the information they are seeking on rental housing and a path the tenants can follow to help them out with their housing issues. Um the the realtors are 100% supportive of safe, healthy, and livable housing and will continue to be part of the solution. We look forward to the Tuesday night meeting and the conversations to follow. Thank you for your time and consideration. And I did want to say that having been born and raised here, I used to go to the Saturday matinea movie at the Fremont in the 60s. So there you go.

Thank you. But did you go to the rolling rink in Mororrow Bay? That's the question. Yes. And when I got older, I went to the midnight movies. Thank you. Our last speaker is Fitzgerald Kelly. Okay. Doesn't look like he's here. Fitzgerald Kelly. All right. No, maybe. Yeah.

Perfect. Thank you. Hi, I'm Fitzgerald Kelly and I live over on Bushon Street uh in the Low Brandt area and um I'm here about a couple of items regarding trees and I'm very concerned about the oak tree over here um which is taking up an enormous amount of space but I think it was also planned to be included in the original rep um proposal. And suddenly that tree is now expendable. And that's that's a gorgeous tree. And I think that I I respect Jan Marks for sticking with the no, she's not going to stay or say the tree is expendable.

Okay. But there is another tree which is happening in town and it's more ominous I think where the foster freeze is at Napomo and Marx Marsh excuse me and um there is a recess it is the first big ficus heading downhill towards uh the Jack house and it's a big ficus and there is some convoluted thinking that yeah, the tree is healthy, the sidewalk is healthy where you walk. Now, the adjunct on the sides of the tree trunk, yes, towards the curb where no one walks, yeah, those are disruptive. But as far as the sidewalk that people would walk on, yeah, that's perfectly fine. However, someone proposed maybe the bo the contractors with the big development which is wrapping up there. U they said, "Well, wait a minute. U we need to redo the sidewalk." Okay, but they're wanting to redo the sidewalk and the casualty of that one is the ficus tree because they assume that the root system is not going to be compatible with the concrete slab. that was not that was never in a plan, but it kind of came in through a back door. So, and I'm afraid that this is going to be the start of the removal of the ficas fai maybe in uh in St. Louis downtown and I think that would be an enormous loss to this city and I thank you.

Thank you so much. That was it. Okay. One of the challenges, and I I say this often, is at the end of public comment, we really can't comment comment on any of it because it's not been in the um public agenda. But I I do um want to have the chief great uh the chief of police come up and share. Um, I feel like we're a little bit on Groundhog's Day, but there has been a lot of conversation and public records request around the ICE um, uh, visit. Um, and so if you could share about what we do and um, if you want to share anything around the P, etc.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of council. Appreciate the opportunity to to respond. and I regret that uh our speaker wasn't able to stay. But I will say we certainly uh take this conversation very seriously for our community. And while he was discussing the origins of police, I was reminded of Sir Robert Peele, the founder of modern policing who said, "The police are the community and the community are the police." And we take that very seriously. We take our oath to our California Constitution exceedingly seriously, SB54, AB4, and AB 2792, Truth, Trust, and Values Act. And so I want to remind uh all of our listeners and our community to check out uh the California uh law and that's exactly what we have to follow and we're very proud to do that. And so um when we talk about uh what we're doing in the community, we're one of the only communities that I know here locally that have actually posted on our website what the police will do and what we won't do when it comes to immigration. And so just the the cliff notes, we don't supply information to ICE. We don't supply our resources. We're not out in the community with them doing their work. We don't impede the work that they're doing, but we're not assisting them uh in any way at this time in doing that work. And so, uh just want to remind um please call our dispatch. And so, if you see something in the community that looks uh dangerous or harassing or unsure, please call us. You can call our our non-emergency number 7805781-7312 or go to slowpd.org. on our website as well as our um office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have what the department will do and what we won't do as well as resources out in the community that can help all of our community members. And so, as we've said before, if you're in our community, we're here to serve you as members of your community. And we will treat our community as we wish to be treated. And so, anything that we can do to help uh provide comfort during this, you know, absolutely uncertain time, uh we take that role very um seriously.

Thank you. Thank you. And just as a reminder, you do not ask immigration status of people, correct? Thank you. Yes. By policy, we will never ask somebody of their status. It's it's irrelevant to our case investigation. Uh and the and the worst crime is the one that goes unreported. And we know there are unreported crimes, especially uh in our undocumented community right now. And we urge them to come forward and not be victims of crime. And we will investigate those fully and protect them like every other member of our community. Thank you so much. Thank you.

And I don't know if uh Director Floyd or anyone would like to um share any thoughts or input around the uh fus tree as well as um around the buses. I know I watched a lot of emails going back and forth today. Um it seemed like we were on it and then there were some challenges. So if you have any update you'd like to share that would be helpful.

I I do have a little bit on that. Thank you, mayor and council members. Aaron Floyd, public works and utilities director. Um there had been a plan in place to address any shortcomings we saw if in fact the pickers had crossed um some of the intersections and the transdev operators could not have brought the buses onto campus. I think where the intent was is the drivers had gone out in the morning to see what was actually going to be encountered out there. And then when they came across the picket lines crossing the intersections, they weren't going to cross. At that point, the plan had been in place for management to then take the bus across the line um and then go onto campus. I think it was I will say an opportunity for us to maybe ensure that we had a little bit more proactive approach on that where we actually had the drivers who were able to cross those lines show up first thing in the morning as opposed to be a little bit more re uh reactive in that which is unfortunately what Mr. Blackwell experienced this morning where those first riders showed up and then a situation was encountered where they couldn't cross the lines and they had to divert. Uh unfortunately it was remedied a little bit after nine o'clock but that doesn't help our writers like Mr. Blackwell in that instance. So moving forward I think that is something that we should require a little bit more is that we have a proactive approach on that. So again apologies to council and the community who were impacted by this.

Thank you. So, as far as as we go into these next couple of days, um do you have any information you would like to share with the public? That we are attempting to make sure that uh this does not repeat. So, it was cleared up. Um the uh activities at the campus today uh were over at about 3:00. So, normal uh routes were back in place, but the schedule and the activities on a day-to-day basis are a little bit uncertain to us at this point. But we are attempting to make sure that this doesn't occur again. Okay. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, did you want to share council marks?

Okay, great. Sorry. Um, all right. So, we had lots of interesting information. Um, and I think we'll come back to the budget conversation a little bit later. All right. Perfect. Okay. With that, we will move on to our consent agenda. So, these are for items that are considered maybe not controversial depending on the moment. Um, but today, um, we have items 5A through 5G. And council members, do you have anything you'd like to pull? All right. With that, um, do we have any public comment? No, we do not.

All right. Is there a motion for our items 5A through 5G? Uh, Council Member Shoresman. Uh, yes. If there's no discussion, I'll move approval of the consent agenda. Perfect. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Happy to second that. Wonderful. And can we have roll call? Council member Shoresman? Yes. Vice Mayor Francis? Yes. Council member Boswell, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Mayor Stewart,

yes. The motion passes. 50. I just want to say thank you for everyone who looked through the uh community development block grants. I know it's a lot of work to work through all of the grants and who is eligible and how this works. So, I just want to say thank you to all of our all of the help. Um and we'll go ahead and move right into public hearing. Um we'll go into our budget which is 6A maybe So, we'll go through our uh review of fiscal year 2526 second quarter budget report and then um after we get through that, we'll go ahead and take a quick break.

I'm happy to jump in as our um finance team gets our PowerPoint up and running and just kind of kick it off a little bit. Um you will hear and hopefully folks have had a chance to take a look at the report um which we were able to publish a little early this time as well. Um just giving everybody a look at where we're at halfway into our fiscal year. We usually get a fairly good sense of how we're doing with our both revenues and expenditures for the year. And the good news is things are pretty much on track there. Um I think that uh folks are probably here largely focused on uh the discussion we'll have about use of year-end money from last year. So every year we bring uh what we call a year-end report uh toward the end of the calendar year that takes a look at where we think we ended the prior fiscal year. Then we uh get our audited statements back, bring that to the council report on our annual comprehensive financial report which really validates the where we ended the year and then bring forward a conversation about whether we would like to allocate any of that funding if we have it um to uses during the current fiscal year. We typically try to make budgets adjustments really just twice a year. So when we adopt the budget uh in June for in effect July 1 and then at this time so midyear into the year make adjustments um that we might see fit. Uh so you will see a couple of minor modifications that we have brought forward on a couple cleanup items. Um but really that year-end conversation is I think probably where a lot of the focus is. Um for this evening we have uh provided staff recommendations for um allocation of what we identified through the audit which is about $3.4 million that we had at the end of the year that was unanticipated. Um our recommendations are based on

prior council policy and direction on a priority list of priorities for use of year-end money. Um, I think one thing that you'll hear from us a lot and um hopefully we even say it so much that folks um get tired of hearing it that this is uh really one-time money and so any of the recommendations for use of the money will be one-time in nature because we do not anticipate having this funding going forward. Uh and so that's a a big top of- mind approach that we take toward funding recommendations. Um, so we'll be happy to walk through our recommendations and then really um take uh support a conversation about whether there's any changes you would like to make to those recommendations uh and then carry those forward um from there. Uh I also want to uh make sure folks are aware we have included in the report a note of where we're at on our uh major city goal work plan items that would have been due at this point uh in our year. And so folks are wondering what's going on with those. Um there's a good summary in there. There are uh we are on track. Uh we have 15 different items, 14 or 15 different items that would have come up. There are just four of them we've identified as um potentially delayed um and maybe making a slight modification to what we had originally anticipated. So we're happy to speak to those as well if there's any questions. So, with that, just really um happy to support the conversation and I'll kick it over to our finance team. Thank you.

Thank you. U mayor and council members, as usual, I'll kick off tonight's meeting with a review of year-to- date financial results. Uh and as a reminder, halfway through the fiscal year, uh mentally we expect half of budget to be spent or received in revenue. Um revenue side, there's some important considerations why that isn't always true. Usually it's data is on a lag. So our sales tax data is on a two to three month lag. Um all funds are in good shape so far throughout the year. I've put a caution sign on the transit fund just because uh it is so sensitive to grants. The timing in which we receive those grants can have a big impact on year end results. Um, but none of those timing differences would create any operational or project challenges. Uh, within the general fund, sales tax is by far the single largest funding source and that includes the local revenue measure. Um, so something to keep a close eye on. Sales tax has been growing at subinflationary rates for the last few years. As we can see here, that is starting to inflct somewhat, which is great news. Um but with all the talk of tariffs and potential risk to the budget that our consultants have advised us on um uh we don't see huge growth coming just yet. Um but there were some good signs in our latest meeting with the consultants. They pointed to new car sales especially but not entirely driven by the expiration of the EV credit as being a driver for the current year. Uh another revenue trend that we like to look at this one mostly because it's more volatile. bullet is a lot smaller is development fee revenue trends and this has been in what's now a secular decline peaked in fiscal year 201920. Um we signaled kind of bad news a year ago on this one that fees were dropping precipitously but what we're seeing is actually it's very volatile. Um based on

where we finished last year and how the year to date has gone we think there's at least a million dollars in surplus for the current year. uh and we're going to see what we can do to forecast this just a little bit more accurately going forwards. Uh moving on to expenditures, there's again really nothing to report here. The 50% rule uh does not hold true once again, but in the opposite direction here, it's when ma managers open purchase orders for the full year. Um or in the case of the water fund, prepayments for water source of supply for the whole year. Uh so while we're over 50% expended across all funds, uh close analysis didn't find anything to be concerned with. Uh and as our city manager said on the major city goals update, there's uh very little to talk about. No tasks are delayed or canceled without a plan. Uh four tasks that were supposed to be completed in the first half of the year will be completed in the second half and 12 tasks were completed as expected. Uh, and quite a busy first half of the year for the CIP team. Um, the sewer team had a number of sewer main replacements and they also finished the multi-year water resource recovery facility upgrade with a ribbon cutting. Uh, the parking team installed multiplace pay stations downtown and the jack house received an upgrade to roof and windows. Um, also a number of big projects in the works that updates will be coming forth on soon. Uh, the Mission Plaza enhancements, the Cultural Arts District parking structure, which is opening soon, and the Mitiga bypass. Uh, and lastly, this wasn't included in the staff report, um, but we do have some good news in the last week or so. Uh, we've received about a million dollars from FEMA for reimbursement from the winter 2023 storms. Uh our original

expectation was that that would be paid within 12 months. It's been a little bit longer than that and we're still not quite to the 8.7 million original expectation. Um but our staff continues to work to appeal FEMA rejection letters and just last week we learned that another million dollars that we successfully appealed is now obligated. Again, we've been told that there's a six week timeline from obligation to payment. Um but we do have some projects eight months into obligation. So, it's increasingly unclear when, but we are seeing some good signs here. And with that, I'll hand it to Emily for the appropriation recommendations.

Great. Uh, thank you, Riley. Good evening, council. Um, like Whitney noted in her kickoff comments for this item. I think this is the the part of the evening that um most people are probably interested in in this item is um recommended appropriations of unassigned fund balance from fiscal year 2425. Um, as we've noted and talked about on several occasions, um, this is something that, um, we've we've had a had a sense, um, that we would have unassigned fund balance available at the end of the year. Um, in our year-end budget report last November, we signaled that this number would be in this range. It's slightly lower than it was after going through the audit. Um and this this slide shows um where the what the funding sources are for the recommendations that we're making to your council this evening as a part of this item. Um as we've historically done, we have um from 2425 assigned $2 million for our annual um additional discretionary payment to CalPERS. That's a payment that we've been making um since fiscal year 2018209 very regularly. And then as you will recall with adoption of the 2527 financial plan, the council at staff's recommendation increase the ADP to be commensurate with staffing cost growth um in all funds across the organization. And so the remaining um allocation to CalPERS um this evening is proposed to come from unassigned fund balance. Um I think it's really important to to go back to the policy context um around this part of the item this evening. Uh your council adopted a policy with the 2325 financial plan relative to use of unassigned fund balance. Um the most important and number one rule in

budgeting is that one-time money is spent on one-time purposes. And so all of the recommendations that you'll see this evening from staff are in line with that and also in line with fiscal policy section 8 related to Kalpers and unfunded liabilities. At a high level, what that policy calls for is that um the city should prioritize allocation of unassigned general fund fund balance for additional discretionary payments to Kalpers's infrastructure investments and emerging health and safety needs of the community. So, I'll run through um the recommendations before you this evening. Um so, after the audit, we landed with $3.468 468 million in general fund unassigned fund balance. That is after the $2 million that's assigned for the initial um portion of the Kalpers ADP. And this slide shows how staff is recommending to allocate the remaining or the um 3.4 million in unassigned fund balance. the 869,000 for the increased Kalpers's ADP ensures that the ADP that we're making is inflated enough above um the $2 million to account for staffing cost growth. That's both headcount as well as negotiated increases to employee um wages. The infrastructure investments uh are consistent with the policy and you'll be hearing more about this $1.2 $2 million. Um that's recommended to go into the infrastructure investment fund. That is where we set aside and hold money for future infrastructure projects. And the next item will recommend use of that funding for the Hyera Complete Streets project. Um the insurance fund recommendation. This is something that we discussed back with the year-end budget report in November as well where we had signaled that our

insurance fund was underfunded given the city's recent move to self- assured intention for uh workers comp and liability. Um, one of the requirements that has come with that is that we maintain a higher reserve so that we're in a a good position to be able to pay um and increase responsibility for initial claim costs. And so we're recommending um inching our way towards um closer towards the the required funding level there this evening. And then the um SLOMA contribution is um intended again to be onetime in nature consistent with the policy but makes good on council's decision back in November to provide a half million dollar allocation to SLOMA for their project in the downtown. And then um last but certainly not least, we are recommending restoration of some um caps stipens provided to parks and recreation um that are to be used only for child care purposes for child care provided by the city. Um those were received in fiscal year 23 24 and weren't spent and inadvertently fell to unassigned fund balance and were reallocated. And um given that those funds are restricted in nature, we are recommending allocation of the amount that fell to unassigned fund balance in 2324 so that they can go back to the parks and wreck budget and be used for their um assigned and specified purpose. Um we have a couple of slides just to sort of support some of the recommendations before you this evening relative to use of unassigned fund balance. The first is a table that we've an an updated version of a table that we've shown before that highlights what the city's um CalPERS funded status looks like today. Our um funded ratio is

just over 66 um% of our total obligations and our outstanding unfunded liability is 188 million. So lots of need there. I think it's really important to keep in mind though that you know in addition to paying this the Kalpers's ADP is in addition to paying our normal cost payment our unfunded liability payment and the $2.8 million recommended at least from the general fund 3.5 million in total this evening is in addition to all of the the payments that we are required to make to Kalpers on an ongoing basis. Um this chart um serves to to demonstrate what the city's unfunded liability has looked like over the next five years. Um the yellow line shows what our um funded ratio has been in each of the last five years compared to in the green line the average funded ratio for other PERS agencies. So, um, we're certainly not the lowest, but we are below other PERS agencies on average. And so, um, just a a good reminder and you know that we we need to stay the course. We had a a pension actuarial valuation performed by a consultant back in 2023 that was presented to council and provided some good information. And the the basic takeaway from that is that we are on the right path and um acknowledgement that it doesn't always feel good to make these um additional payments to Kalpers, but it is helping us and it's the right thing to do. And so staff of course is recommending and your council has has been really diligent about continuing to make these over the last several years. Um so like I said in total we're recommending 3.5 millions in uh $5 million in additional discretionary

payments to Kalpers. This is just what it looks like by fund. Um the po the bulk of the um the general fund portion is funded with that 2 million that's been assigned for this purpose plus 869,000 of unassigned fund balance and then the other funds are responsible for paying their portion and that's been factored into their long-term forecasts. Um as for the infrastructure investment fund, this is just a a preview of the item that you'll be considering next. Um the Hagiraa complete streets project is in need of about $2 million um in additional funding to complete that project. We are recommending allocation of $1.2 million to the infrastructure investment fund this evening which will fund a portion of that need for just this one project. Um but does not fund that need in total. And so there are some other recommendations included in the next item relative to that project. Um but a good reminder that we have a lot of other projects that are in need of some funding as well due to inflationary pressures um and a high level of need for some of these projects to move forward. And so that's why we believe that it's prudent that we're um continuing to set money aside and allocate one-time money for these one-time projects moving forward. um for the insurance fund reserve. I spoke to this a little bit, but there's two different ways to look at um the necessary funded level for insurance fund reserves. There's the historical claims basis and the actuarial basis. Um the historical claims basis is really the less formal method of um identifying and establishing an a reserve amount that should be set aside. Um but that is what the budget at this point can support. And so we're recommending the 800 um just under $83,000 to get us to

the historical claims basis, but recognizing that if we want to move forward to more fully funding the reserve to meet the needs of a self-insured retention program for our workers compensation and liability programs that we'll likely need to make further investments in that fund. And so that's something that is on our radar that we're we're thinking about as we move forward with the March 3rd budget item and we move forward with development of the budget supplement and future financial plans. Um so this this gets us closer to where we need to be, but likely not all the way to where we need to be. And we're still continuing to reach out to other uh agencies who are who participate in CJPIA's um insurance programs to get a better sense of what they're all doing um in the self-insured retention program to make sure that we're not an outlier. So, there's still work um ongoing there, but this certainly gets us closer to where we think we should be. Um and then with that, that uh concludes the presentation this evening. Um the recommendations are before you this evening. Um most notably the recommended appropriation of 3 um468 million for one-time purposes consistent with council's policy. So with that, we're happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you. It's a lot of information and I really appreciate you sharing just kind of little refresher reminders of uh the history of our um our Kalpers and the unfunded pension liability that maybe isn't always top people's minds. Um any initial questions? Council member Boswell.

Yeah, thank you. Um yeah, about the 1.1 million um additional possible revenue on the community development side. Are we seeing that offset by additional expenses? It's being driven by development, right? So is it resulting in additional contract staff or things of that nature? In theory, yes. Um I don't know if community development is here and wants to speak to this in more. I think your phone friend is working. Yeah, that is that is what the the fees are brought into is to support the work that SAP needs to do to get projects permitted and moving forward.

Yes, thank you Timmy Tuy, director of community development. Great question. We underestimated because we had a very low kind of six-month period as we were entering this financial plan. So, we wanted to be conservative with what we saw in the building and permitting side of things. And so the we also right now do not have an in-house building official. And so we are using some of those additional funds to address that need through a consultant. And we are sending more plans out to our contract plans examiners because we are seeing an uptick in the plans that we're getting which is good news for u meeting some of our major city goals related to housing. Um but we are spending more money with our consultants because of that. Thank you. That's all.

Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Yes. Can you go back to the slides about the beginning about storm recovery um and FEMA? Yeah, thank you. I I just wanted to kind of uh get a reminder, I guess, about how many projects we still have outstanding. I mean, this is great. We're we're slowly getting there. We're getting some of our money back. We're getting some of our um projects and our funds obligated. Um but how many how many more dollars are out there that we're still waiting for obligation? And how many more um projects do we have anticipated that uh we still are looking to get funded? Does that question make sense?

Yeah. Um, so we we've spent about um in the range of about 13 to 15 million on storm projects to date. Um, some of those are general funded projects, some of those are enterprise funded projects, and so we've had different ways that we've paid for those. Um, I don't I don't off the top of my I can follow up with the number of actual projects, but we've got a delta right now of about 11 to$13 million that we're waiting on from FEMA. Um, it's important to note that not all of those projects are complete. And so while we've submitted the information that we have available to submit to FEMA, it's very likely that given the way that things are currently going that we wouldn't actually see any obligation or funding actual checks in hand until those projects are actually complete. I think that's a a little bit different than how they've handled things in the past. Um but it it seems that things are continuing to slow down. Um we've had obligations on a number of our projects for about eight months now and there's uh typically supposed to be about a 6 to 8 week lag between when you get notification of obligation and when you get an actual check in hand but we have one like I said that we got obligated about 8 months ago. Um, so there's, um, we have a lot of kind of like tiny little onesie twoosy projects. And so the the big ones that were really watching right now though are our, um, January debris clearing project was which was a over a million dollars on its own. I think it was about $1.3 million. And then our St. Louis Drive project, which um was a $5 million project. Um those are um just have been moments away from from obligation I

would say for the last several months. Um we're continuing to be told that those require congressional approval though we don't have clarity on on what that means and we've been working both with um Congressman Carbajal's office and Senator Schiff's office to better understand what that process looks like and um they've been incredibly helpful. But I I think this may be a new process that FEMA and Congress have. And so there's a a little bit of clarity lacking there. But um those are ones that that the staff at FEMA has signaled that we will get reimbursed for. It's just a a question of timing at this point.

Thank you. So when when we do get those funds that trickle back in, that money because it's basically already spent in a a lot of cases um it just comes back in and goes straight back into our capital projects um holding accounts or like the infrastructure investment fund. Correct.

Yeah. So what we've been doing is um assigning uh money that we've had reimbured in the general fund for a future purpose. And that's I think something that, you know, we're going to need to talk about on a go forward basis is how do we want to handle any additional funding that comes in the door. But the initial intent um when when we were initially starting to work with FEMA was that we would take money that we were getting back from FEMA to fund additional projects, but we obviously haven't been able to wait on FEMA reimbursement to do that. And so we've um programmed a lot of projects into the CIP and they're moving forward absent FEMA reimbursement. Um but we are going to have to as the as money hopefully starts to roll in we'll have to come up with a plan for what happens with with that money whether it goes to capital or some other one-time purpose because it it should be it's it's one-time money. Yeah.

Thank you. Okay. I just have one other question. Um, it's about the 115 trust that we've kind of talked about periodically over time and uh, it's been kind of sitting out there. We set up this trust uh, several years ago and I think we've had $2 million set to deposit um, for a long time and haven't quite done it. If I'm understanding correctly, yes, there it is. Establishment of the section 115 trust. Uh, and so it's just been sitting there assigned for a while. And, uh, I'm wondering if at some point we need to have the conversation about whether or not we're actually going to do that or not. And I'm not sure if that's tonight or at a future night, but um, just wondering maybe you could give a little perspective on that.

Sure. Yeah, that's something that we've talked about, I think, in the last couple of budget updates. um that's actually going to be included for council consideration discussion in the March 3rd budget update item. So, in a couple weeks, we'll be talking about that. Um we're working to wrap that item up right now and it'll be published here um probably within the next 24 hours. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great questions. Looking forward to that March 3rd conversation. Vice Mayor,

yeah, I actually just had a followup to that. um 115 trust question and I know we're going to get much more into this uh in March, but just curious if because of the nature of those funds if they can be applied to any sort of account after we decide what to do if we're not going to fund the account or if they need to be obligated in a particular way um if we don't decide to move ahead with funding the 115

the Yes. So, we've we've had $2 million assigned for um to deposit into a 115 trust for several years now. Um how that money ultimately gets spent, whether it gets deposited into the 115 trust or um used for another purpose is entirely within council's discretion. Um the thing that I would caution is just like we we tried to hit several times on discussion of unassigned fund balances, that should be considered to be one-time money. And so, um, that's that would be $2 million that you could use, um, we would recommend that you use for another one-time purpose. Excellent. Thank you for that clarification. Yeah.

Thank you. Without seeing any other questions, um, I think we're ready for public comment.

Okay, we have one speaker, Adam Clark. Good evening uh madame mayor, madame vice mayor, and city council members. My name is Adam Clark. I serve as the director of development at Smartshare Housing Solutions. First off, congratulations. Congratulations on the city's budget surplus. Responsible stewardship of public funds does not happen by accident. It reflects discernment, maturity, and a commitment to long-term community well-being. I also want to commend the city for its continued efforts to make St. Sanloispo a more equitable, accessible, and inclusive place for all residents. These are not just aspirational words. They require policy decisions, partnerships, and meaningful investments that ensure no one is left behind as our city evolves. For nearly six years, Smart Share Housing Solutions has invested upwards of a half a million dollars to help bring our shared vision, Waterman Village at the Rose of Bhutan Adobe, to life. This project represents far more than new affordable housing units. It represents stability for seniors on fixed incomes, a community for individuals who might otherwise experience isolation, and dignity for residents who deserve to age and place in the city they love. Waterman Village also helps position St. Louis Abyspo as a frontr runner in developing innovative spaces that allow vulnerable populations to live independently while remaining connected to supportive networks and to downtown amenities. It demonstrates that we can honor our history while building responsibly for our future. As you know, our partnership has navigated its fair share of obstacles include regulatory hurdles, financial complexities, and the many challenges that come with a pioneering project. Today, we stand on the verge of a meaningful breakthrough. The momentum is real, and the vision is within reach. I sincerely thank you for selecting Smart Share Housing Solutions to lead this innovative project that addresses so many of the city's priority goals. We are proud of the trust you have placed in us and we are committed to delivering a development that

reflects the highest standards of quality, accountability and community commit impact. Together we will make downtown San Labispo an example of community housing innovation and demonstrate what is possible when public leadership and nonprofit dedication come together in service of the community. I look forward to an upcoming discussion with you about your financial support to bring Waterman Village and its neighborhood park to life. Lastly, thank you for your energy, for your commitment to our community. We have a lot to be grateful for. Thank you.

Thank you. With that, we'll bring it back to the council for deliberation. Um, I guess I wasn't sure if I should bring this up as a question to staff first or to us. Um, but I've I've seen quite a few requests come through. Um, there were more recent requests. They weren't part of the discussion to even be part of a staff report. Um there's been questions about um sorry the SLOM amount. There's been questions around uh the mediation um anywhere between 30,000 and 250,000. Um there's been questions about public art being moved. So, I guess um my question is with all of these potential requests um did you have any chance to chat about this in staff first before we get to the point of discussing this on the council side?

City manager.

Thank you. Happy to jump in here. Um certainly um our our normal budget process is a two-year financial planning uh real engagement that we go through including a lot of public outreach that helps us set our priorities. Uh lots of work behind the scenes making uh the numbers work and making all of our uh internal services continue to operate well. Uh and we do take into consideration outside needs and requests at that time. But things also we understand do come up at different points during the year. Uh and so uh we've had opportunities to review the requests and trying to find where they might land. Part of why you see staff's recommendations the way they are and the staff report for the funding allocations is really we're taking the policy adopted by uh the council in the past on the priorities for allocation of year-end and one-time funding. Uh, at the same time, we understand that things come up and change over time. So, we're really here to help support those conversations. I mean, certainly something like um an ice skating rink, that would be a incredibly huge uh investment and major piece of infrastructure and amenity for the community um would be a really big undertaking. That's something that um we would want to work through of a lot of different uh avenues including most likely uh inclusion in our parks and wreck blueprint and our general plan and things like that. But um those ideas need to start somewhere so we understand why they come up at this point and then we're here to really just help um walk through how we might accommodate them. If not now, then when. Um, I know one of the struggles we had with the request that we did receive from the Center for Dispute Resolution, which is a new, um, program that, uh, our local law school is looking to help get up and running. Um, really to take over where creative

mediations and slow solutions, um, left off when Wilshshire Hospice closed. Um, we don't currently have a grant program that seems to fit what they're asking for. So we have a set of other grant programs that we would also sometimes direct folks to if we think it might be a good fit. So we have human services grants that we offer. Um and there's a competitive process with uh really a request for proposals that we go through that our human resources commission um looks at and helps vet for the council. Um but with this type of a request because of the the priorities that we've set for that funding which um for the last few years has really been focused on um helping to address the needs of our unhoused community um the request from the center for dispute resolution didn't we wouldn't really uh send them that direction because it probably wouldn't be successful. So we understand the needs come up we look at them individually. We don't currently have um a laid lined out direct process for people to make these types of requests for the one-time investments in the community. Um and so we've kind of over time um taken them up as they come in. Uh so it's kind of a a a mix of both, but certainly if we're looking at a large capital project, we would typically point toward our our traditional capital improvement planning process and budget process. So if we're looking at moving a a piece of public art, we would certainly look at trying to incorporate that into um our CIP process as well. But again, happy to talk through all those different uh strings and how they all interconnect with one another and how we might line that up. uh as well as possible.

Great. That's really helpful. Thank you, Council Member Marks. Uh yes, this is a question for the mayor. I don't know how you want to handle this, but I would imagine that each of us here have got our own ideas for uh how to approach uh allocating the um unallocated uh funds.

I agree. And I actually um Dream World would have like a whiteboard going on right now where we all put down our notes, but um I think we can probably uh take that down ourselves. I think each person can share how you would like to um utilize the funding or not and then um come back to that. I do have one more question. Um I should have asked this earlier in agenda review, but I forgot to. Um obviously the 1.2 2 million for the later item in the public hearings today. Um is suggested for suggested for the complete street project. Um being that we haven't voted on that yet, this seems um a little awkward in the realm of let's put money aside for a project that we don't necessarily haven't necessarily voted on to say yes, we're moving forward. So, are we saying if this goes through, this is what we'd like to spend it on, or are we kind of um Yeah, just I guess what would what would you like to hear on that for the motion if we wish to go forward, city manager? Thank you. Um happy to take this on as a a first stab and then if there's any cleanup necessary. Um we totally understand it is awkward. we really we wrestled with the sequencing of actually not just this item but the other two that follow and so um you'll see the the recommendation to allocate the $500,000 to SLOM consistent with the grant agreement that comes later and that's really um also carrying out discussions and direction from a prior conversation at another meeting. the the item here for um what is identified as really a a shortfall and what we think we'll need to build out the Hegar complete streets item that's on uh our next item. Um the 1.2 million identified up on the screen

under infrastructure investments that's really the what's left over from the other allocation. So it's not an even number. It's not even the total amount that we think we are short for the Haggera uh complete street project. That uh projected shortfall is $2.5 million. So what we're actually recommending here is that the 1.2 be placed in the infrastructure investment fund which is really um essentially a separate part of our general fund that we hold separate for future uh largecale capital projects. And then if and when uh council authorizes us to move forward with the Hagera complete streets project, we would uh part of the recommended action there is taking this funding and allocating it um into that specific project. If we do not receive direction to to do this essentially if we were to let's say um receive direction to not appropriate that 1.2 2 million into the infrastructure investment fund. We would be looking to fill that $2.5 million shortfall in the project through essentially capital reserve funds in the next fiscal year. Um we have exhausted our capital reserve funds for the current fiscal year in order to build out more amenities for the Regetti Community Park. Um, we did have a brief discussion of this exact kind of scenario during that item. Uh, and explain that it's a timing issue there of cash flow. We do know that, uh, July 1, we'll have another $4 million replenished into our capital reserve account. Um, we can use that funding for projects such as Heggera Complete Streets. And so we the funding will be there. It's just then we would be using all we would be using more than half of the capital reserve for this uh one project at that point in time and just

have less funding available for other capital projects. So there's there's actually a fair amount of flexibility in there. Um and I think at the risk of adding another option to make it even more complicated. Um, one option that you all have as well is simply not appropriating all of this money. So, you can just leave it in the reserve and we can talk about allocating it at other uh points either potentially straight out of the next item later this evening or um as we get through additional conversations that we know we're going to be having on things like uh rental registry directions or code enforcement or even when we get to the next uh budget. So, we will be coming back um to build and appropriate the next year's budget in June. Uh and so the money won't go away. It will still be there and can be allocated at that time.

Perfect. Thank you. So, um right now I have in in order uh Council Member Marks, Shoresman, Boswell, Vice Mayor, and then myself. So if you would like to share um what you would like to see allocated and then we'll go in the order of that and then we'll come back to say hm I like that idea or not not um after everyone's given their chance to share their interest in allocation. Okay. So you don't want to have deliberation on each thing as somebody brings it up. You know so somebody's going to be take keeping a list. I'm keeping a list. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay.

All right. Uh well, I'll I'll start out with the um request uh by the uh center for dispute resolution at uh St. Louis Viso College of Law. I wanted to clarify that I uh stepped down from the advisory council because I realized that I would uh probably be having to vote on something as a city council member. So, I didn't want to have a conflict there where I think I can be fair. Um whether or not um the uh request for $30,000 comes from the um uh unallocated fund that we're discussing tonight. Um I feel very strongly that um the city should move forward to u make a grant and that amount to um to the center for dispute resolution. And um tonight we heard from the police department how um important u mediation is in terms of um neighborhood uh disputes. We've also heard from our real estate representative that mediation's very important for landlord tenant um slow solutions is a um or was a collaboration with Calpaly Qua and the city and $30,000 um was set aside in our budget for um slow solutions and then of course will Wilshire imploded Um, nonetheless, to get it started up again, um, the law school has, uh, stepped forward and being willing to, uh, take it on as a priority before establishing the academic, um, component, which uh, which they're

planning in the future, will require a lot more fundraising. So, I think um I think the city should uh direct staff to grant that $30,000 um a request that was made uh recently. We got a letter in that regard. Um in order to get it going, the um creative mediation staff um is working with the law school staff uh to make it happen. So it's essentially the same people and Christine Wallace is coordinating with Kalpali and Qua and the law school to create the scope of services uh at which time we'll know what the whole uh endeavor might um might really cost. But um to get it rolled out by the fall um we can't just let it u be dead in the water as far as I'm concerned. So there's that. Um I I think the idea of holding back some funding rather than allocating it tonight uh when it comes to the question of the rental registry is um would would make a lot of sense. a week from tonight, we'll find out how much establishing a rental registry would cost. So, we don't know that right now. So, to move forward with a dollar amount tonight, I think is is somewhat premature. I personally want to see the rental registry go forward uh and not just study it. We really need to take action. It's been decades that the city, in my opinion, has been somewhat irresponsible in terms of tenant

protection, renter protection, um, and, um, uh, dealing with the fact that the quality of the housing stock is going down while rents are going up. And I don't have to get into that whole thing. So, there's the rental registry. I I feel we need to allocate some money there. Um, I'm told it's $200 to $300,000. We could look at that figure. Um the uh and this is a minor somewhat minor thing, but moving the sculpture at the corner of uh Marsh and Hyera. We're told that that's $100,000. But um it's a a artist is worldrenown and where it's situated right now, it can't even move. It's a mobile. Um, and as long as we're contemplating making all kinds of improvements on Hyera and also the corner of Hyera and Marsh, I think it's an apt time to do it. Now, whether that money should come from the unallocated uh budget surplus or from the um public art fund is another question. It's uh I'm I'm told there's about $1,700,000 in the public art fund right now. Um, so I think that should be included in uh the work program for the public art. Um, so that's all I have at at present. And so in terms of the rental registry, I would suggest holding back probably $500,000 until of this amount until we go through the

study session. I also am interested in possibly following up on the request for um in uh an additional code enforcement staff uh as a one-time as a one-time thing um in terms of addressing the illegal fraternity uh activities in in the neighborhoods. Um, and I I would see that as uh it would have to be worked out in detail, but um a lot of it would have to do with uh creating a process, creating a system, and um figuring out uh a strategy for actually making the problem go away. And so those are my items right now.

Thank you very much, uh Council Member Shoresman.

Thank you. That was a lot. and it's kind of sparked some more questions for me. So, um before I kind of share my thoughts about the different proposals and um what we might do, I I guess of the ideas that have come in. Oh, I guess I'll just go through them. Um I and forgive me, I haven't gotten a chance to read all the agenda correspondents. So, the um uh the the sculpture moving issue um is that something that would normally be on our public arts staff radar and would be planning for the move of that particular item as part of the public art fund.

Um yes. So, we would because it is a piece of public art, we would be looking at that fund to um serve as the source of of money to make that change. And so, what we've been looking at is not just uh the cost to physically move this this sculpture to another location, but also trying to figure out then what do we do with this um essentially empty spot? Now, that is something we haven't figured out. Um we've we've talked about this issue a number of times. We just it's not currently planned in our um CIP. So it would be a capital um improvement project because of the level and scale of of need there. And so we would just want to slot it into the right place um to make sure that we have the right level of support um for when we can actually accomplish it. So I think it's more a matter of um capacity and timing of when we could get it into the queue compared to even uh the funding source. Exactly. It may also then shift out depending on our how we've looked at um our hopes and dreams for uh acquiring new pieces of art and making sure that they're installed. Um it may require some shifts in that funding and desires for future installation. So we would just need to take another look at that plan.

Okay. Yeah.

So that is sort of on the collective radar and would be worked into the plan at some point if we all the things kind of came into the right spots. I I think so. And I think um we of course we look at not just you know the funding and how to make it happen but the concern in this situation is that the sculpture and the piece itself um is in a place that is very crowded from a visual standpoint. Um people probably don't notice it or if they notice it maybe it seems like a lot and that's all they see. And so there are good reasons for wanting to relocate it into a space that may be more fitting of the piece itself. And so um we do see value in in that work. It's just trying to find the right place. Uh typically we would work that into our next financial plan and into the CIP so that folks are aware here's what we're doing and then uh staff can plan accordingly for getting it into their um their own cues and work plans.

Okay. Thank you. Yes. Part of what I'm doing here is trying to figure out where the proper pot of money is for some of these things and if there is another place other than what we're considering today. Um so my my next question is about um the the request from the Center for Dispute Resolution for their $30,000 um grant I guess you would call it. Uh we as a city have invested in mediation services in the past. Uh and Wilshire, you know, as as council member Marks mentioned, was a provider of some of those services in the community under contract with the city. And so just wondering um if you can clarify and I know we've talked about this but for the public that that is a place that we already have funding in our budget for uh a a new arrangement of some sort with a provider and it may be the center for dispute resolution. Um but we're just not quite at at the point where we're in an agreement with somebody yet and the center for dispute resolution is just getting started. So there may be an opportunity for um for a partnership in the future of some sort.

That's correct. We historically have budgeted for and entered into a contract with Wilshire. Um that is a total of $30,000 over two years. So we split it up in half um and pay them $15,000 a year to provide free mediation conflict resolution services to our community. um it's well utilized typically and we do see a lot of value in that for residents. I cannot tell you the number of hours and individual times in in my own life where and in my professional uh life and career where you're really dealing with um two neighbors or a group of neighbors who are just living through a lot of challenges and difficulties. So the services are very helpful. We are really grateful for the work that the law school has done and is doing to get this up and running again. So, we do have that uh funding set aside. It is budgeted currently. We have not spent the $15,000 that we normally would for this year because uh uh we we don't have a contractor to provide it to. So in total for the financial plan, we have $30,000, you know, burning a hole in our pocket that we will have available to provide for these services once they get up and running again, assuming they do. Part of the work that we are doing um in a in a group setting um is through city staff, Kalpali staff, and Qua staff. We are working on developing an RFP, a request for proposals um that we hope to issue over the summer for these services that may even expand them a little bit more to include some proactive training on conflict resolution for neighbors and students specifically. Uh and we're hoping that that will help not only, you know, ourselves and our our community members and residents, but also support the work of the law school themselves. I

know they're working on and hoping to get an RFP from the court as well. The court um uh would be looked to to help support services for folks who come in for say small a small claims action and oftent times what happens is the the judge asks you to just walk out the door and go talk to a free mediator to help you resolve your differences without um having to have a judgment um issued by the court. So I know that's another thing they're working on as well. All of these things are in process. Um, but they just haven't fully come to fruition yet. We do anticipate on our end between the city, Calpaly, and Quest of issuing that RFP. And we do hope that uh the center for dispute resolution will be ready. Um, and if not them, you know, I I suppose in theory there may be another group out there waiting in the wings, but we really are looking forward to getting those services going in the next um fiscal year for us.

Thank you. Okay, the last two things that have been mentioned that are having a little bit harder time wrapping my head around of how how to use one-time funds for is the potential rental registry expenses because we haven't talked about that yet. We don't know what kind of ballpark number. Council member Marks threw out a number of $500,000. I don't uh that seems like a lot of money to me. I don't really know how to I don't really know how to think about a number that we don't know what we don't know yet until next week. Um but uh so set that aside for a minute. The other one is the um requests from our community for uh dedication of some of these funds for code enforcement costs. And the part that I maybe you can help me understand about as as our finance director said um multiple times, these are one-time funds. Uh we can't uh it wouldn't be wise to pay for services or costs that were going to be ongoing uh with these funds because when they're gone, they're gone. And so, uh, if we were to pay for, um, contract staff or an additional employee to expand our enforcement, our code enforcement efforts for a year, then what happens when that money is over and we have to go back to the previous status quo? Do you want to comment or I don't know, give me some feedback on that thought?

Yeah. Um I think I might actually take the two issues in order. So the rental registry costs um we we do have a staff report that um I think we published but I'm trying to find it online and then our website was down but it's up now um tomorrow. So very soon it'll be yes, but our staff we did um include an a little bit of additional information in our agenda correspondence that provided a rough estimate. So at the at the high end of what we're looking at is probably $300 to $500,000. And what that covers is software costs and also additional staffing costs. Um, and that's an an estimate based on what we're seeing in other jurisdictions as well as what we think we would need ourselves to get that up and running and going. Well, some of those costs I think may come down over time just after we get it up and going. Um, we also would recommend um some type of fee program to help pay for it. And it kind of it really depends on how you set how we set the fees. what is the cost recovery rate we're we're looking for. It can make um the program revenue and uh costneutral for us. It just depends on how we set it up. The bigger constraint that we'll talk through uh next week is really the the resources we have on hand now and our staff to build uh the program to get it up and running. Um we have uh the same individuals who are would be tasked with doing that work are also tasked with uh many of the other housing related plans and programs um that are in our current work plan. And so the staff report will identify those work plan items so that we're all aware of what we might need to talk about shifting out um if we want to prioritize this work now. So there's

both the funding issue and really the timing issue um as well. Um, so hopefully that helps give you an idea of the cost, $300 to $500,000 kind of at the upper end. Um, and then but then really how do we deal with the just staff resource constraints? That's a not a money issue but a people time issue. the code of enforcement staff concept. Um I do appreciate out of the the correspondence we received there the request is for contract staff with the recognition that they are asking to essentially tap into this one-time funding for uh with the idea that this could be one-time staff. Um that is something we have done that in the past. it would essentially be sort of like, you know, a surge and additional help. Um, we've gotten some ballpark estimates of what we think that could cost. Um, we've even looked at potentially uh outsourcing that to consultants. We have a number of additional procedural steps we'd need to go through um related to new legislation. If we did use consultants, they're more expensive, so you're looking at about $220,000 a year. um it would be less than that, probably closer to 110 or $120,000 if we wanted to hire a contract staff member. The challenges we have there are around finding a somebody who wants to take a job on in a limited term basis is pretty challenging. It's hard work to begin with. Um and on top of that, it's not a a job that somebody could rely on having after the money runs out in a year. And so often what happens is we get to that end of the year and it we really uh need that work to continue going on and you've probably you recall times where we've had conversations where we've

turned contract staff staff positions into regular full-time employment positions which it's to meet a need that we've identified and has been working well. um it's just to say it's uh we there may be an intent for it to be one time and then it often can turn into an ongoing cost and that's not necessarily a bad thing but I think it's just something to be aware of eyes wide open when we say this is one time. Um so those are the concerns and considerations we put out there. Um but again happy to take the direction and you know keep working through it. The one other piece I guess there is we have that study session in May to talk about code enforcement priorities and neighborhood livability and how those work together. Ordinarily, I would recommend let's walk through those priorities, take a look at whether you think um and we all think we should increase uh resources and investments there and then talk about how we're going to fund that. Um, but of course, if we allocate the one-time funding that we have now to something else, it wouldn't be available in that moment. Um, but ordinarily, that's that would be the recommendation I would make. Let's talk about uh where we're at, where we want to get to and our priorities, how this resource will help meet that need and priority, and then how we would pay for it responsibly going forward normally through the ordinary budget process. Of course, your finance director and I will always recommend, you know, looking to our ordinary budget process, but we also understand that needs come up and that we want to be responsive to the community.

Thank you. Yes. And at our very well, not our very next meeting, but our first meeting in March, we're also going to be looking at budget reductions. So, um, with all that in mind, and thank you for all that additional context, you very articulately talked through all of the things that have been circulating around in my head, uh, and then some as I considered all the community members requests for this one time, again, a one-time funding. And so, uh, I I circle back to I think where I was leaning mostly in the beginning with a little bit of variation. Uh, I think that staff have used our existing policy to make some very smart measured recommendations in what they have put here on the slide. uh it follows our policy and we have our policy for a reason so that we don't make uh shall I say rash decisions uh in in the moment and I while I do feel pretty strongly uh that we need the services that the center for dispute resolution is gearing up to provide and we have uh have budget allocation in order to pay for those services in the future. we just haven't quite got to the place where we have a contractor to do them. Um I think they I will I hope that they will be a good contender for for that funding. And I'm also just really conflicted about the um the way we would use these enforcement uh code enforcement use these dollars for code enforcement. So I I lean against making a decision about that today. Um,

I still am I'm still struggling about what to do about the rental registry and other issues. So, I'm I'm curious to what you all have to say about that. I think I'll close with if we are going to change any of the numbers on this slide here because all of this is going to involve tradeoffs, right? If we decide to fund something with these one-time funds that is not on this slide, we have to trade it for something that is on the slide. And so I think the most important things on the slide that we need to preserve are the infrastructure investment fund amount and the insurance fund amount and obviously the SLOM contribution because we signaled uh we've we've gone back um to signaling that and we have an item later on the agenda where we're going to approve a grant agreement. the parks and wreck funds I feel um we need to keep consistent and so I think the only place where we maybe have some wiggle wiggle room in my mind is the Kalpers ADP um and I am hesitant and would like to hear your all's opinion about if we were going to reduce that amount by how much we should reduce it. So I'll leave it there for now.

Thank you, Council Member Boswell.

Thank you. And thank you uh council members Marks and Shoresman for those questions. Very helpful uh and hearing the responses going through all the items that we've had some additional requests on. So um yeah, I I think I I think I agree with your your last statements. I I've been inclined to support uh the staff's recommendation mainly because to me it reflects it reflects our previous policy direction and also some previous commitments. Um each of these do that. Um we've been pushing quite hard on infrastructure um investments. Um you know we really stretched with regetti for example um and we're pushing um we've been pushing on trying to get accelerated on some of the complete streets projects. So um you know I think we need to be mindful of that. Um the insurance fund the SLOM and the parks and w grant those seem like things we should not be adjusting. they basically are prior commitments or things that we're being, you know, we're having essentially have to do. Uh so I think you're right that the increased CalPERS payment is the is maybe the only place where we have some flexibility, but my understanding is here that what we're trying to do is supplement the 2 million recognizing that our kind of 2 million goal was set in a time when 2 million got you farther, right? We're recommending we're recognizing inflation in our uh Kalpers. Um and you know, it's a little distressing the chart that was put up that shows we're behind the average uh city in terms of where uh where we are with our unfunded pension liability. And fact, you know, I sometimes sit around and think like how can we even maybe do more there to kind of get us at least to the average. uh which I think would be a um a good goal at some point. So, um I I want to hear what uh u the rest of the council

has to say, but I think at this point I would I would be inclined to um stick with the staff recommendation. Um you know, the rental registry and code enforcement, we both we have study sessions coming up on both of those where we, you know, we really need to work through what are we going to do. Um we're only four months away from the next budget year as well. So there's some potential opportunity, although we'll see how much on March 3rd, maybe not too much. But um there is an opportunity to rethink more holistically some of our objectives for our budget year. Um and look at the possibility if these are priority over other items to move some uh bigger budget around. Um, so I I I kind of feel like, you know, I I want to go through those study sessions before I'm setting money aside for them. Also sounds like there's possibility there's some additional unassigned money coming up with the 115 trust money.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Uh, Vice Mayor, yeah, thank you so much. Uh, just a couple of, uh, quick questions. I know this one has been asked and answered, but I just want to make sure I really understand it completely. Regarding the 1.2 2 million from the infrastructure investments if we were to take some portion of that and set it aside for something else at this moment and uh utilize the the funds that will be replenished in the summer with the new fiscal year. Does that delay the project in any way at moving forward tonight?

City manager. Thank you. and I'll um probably want to get confirmation, but it it would it would not um we still would be identifying other funding sources. It's I believe the real issue is we would be taking from all of the shortfall from next year's um capital reserve which leaves a less funding available for other potential needs. So definitely want to make sure I'm correct on that.

Yeah, correct. We we intentionally set this up in this way to take from the infrastructure investment fund to make sure that the project could move forward and you could take separate actions uh with this agenda item and the next um so that it did not delay Higer complete streets. So regardless if whatever we do here, if we decide to move forward with Hagera Complete Streets as um outlined in in the staff report, we will find funding to move it forward as scheduled. Correct. Yeah, even if you wanted to adjust the amount um we can still make that work with the next. Really appreciate that clarification. Thank you. And I have a a question for director twe about uh tolley

the tolly software. Thank you. Uh so we're currently using grant funds to experiment with tolly and not in the capacity of using it as a rental registry but just to can you remind me what we're using it for currently? Yes. So we were using it related to green and healthy housing. Thank you. So it was related to that grant and then we received um an award actually for competing with that work and um have allocated that award money to continue to use tooly. It's been really helpful for us to understand the basic landscape of the rental market in St. Louis as we put together these study sessions

and if we during our our hearing next week decide we do want to move forward with some form of a rental registry. Um, I understand Toli has has and is used in Monterey and some other cities uh for that purpose. Would we have to go through a formal RFP process in order to to choose them or because we're already contracted, can we just expand the the services that we're utilizing or or how would that work?

Sure. I'm going to leave the technical questions to finance staff, but from a policy consideration, I think we would want to look at the whole landscape of options, not just go with with the consultant that we've used because we had them as part of the grant money. They certainly are used by other jurisdictions, but I think there's a host of other options out there, and we just want to make sure that what they have works with our other systems. It provides the type of platform we would want to use. So, I think we would um regardless of whether required or not want to go through an RFP process to make sure that we fully understand all of the other options that we have.

And I know you've have experience with these rental registries. We've seen them functioning. And so there there's not a world where you potentially sort of use this software as like a sandbox and then transfer it over after you've done all the due diligence um to figure out what software you actually want to use do the RFP or figure out consultants or whatever that

so since we do have experience with Tommy I mean that is helpful for us to understand what are helpful tools what has been useful to us what are the aspects of it that we think could use work and maybe a downside. Um, but if we were really going to move forward with a rental registry program, I'd want to make sure we're again we're kind of looking at everything. We do have additional knowledge about tooly that may be helpful in those conversations. Um, but so we have kind of used it as a sandbox. They could be the the option that is the best in the end, but it wouldn't be because we've already used them if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely. I I guess all my questions are kind of getting at the idea if there's a a world where kind of a smaller seed fund gets us through until we have a more comprehensive understanding of what we want to put in place. I I think the challenge there would be we have to me for another year because of this uh award money. The challenge would be if we wanted to launch something using one software and then because we already had access but then we did a research and we decided on something else that would be really difficult uh for the public you know the external facing and internal I'd want to know exactly what software we're using before we launch everything just so that people to minimize confusion over time.

Awesome. That's what I assumed but wanted to kind of get into the weeds on that. Thank you so much. I think that's it for my questions for now. Actually, one more question. Um, not not sorry, not for you, Director Tay. Uh, more about the Center for Dispute Resolution. When do we expect that we'll have um finalized kind of the scope of services and the negotiations? When do we expect that to be complete?

We do. We are uh hoping to have the RFP completed this summer with them online and ready to provide services in the fall. Um but uh our deputy city manager Greg Herman has been uh working on that project directly uh and can provide a more detailed update.

Thank you. City Manager McDonald, hello Mayor and council members. So that's correct. We're actually meeting at the end of February with the partners from both Calpaly and Qua to review a revised scope of services based upon some brainstorming sessions that we've been able to have with that group. It's correct that at this time we're looking at an expanded set of services because we spend a lot of time dealing with issues that perhaps uh could have been solved on the front end with greater mediation and conflict resolution skills. We'll look to uh have the partners agree to that revised scope of services. If there is the potential for an increased amount of budget to be able to support that broadened scope, we would then include that as a part of the supplemental budget for council consideration on June 2nd. We would then not release that RFP for services until right after that meeting and look to have a provider selected around mid July, which would then allow them to have services ready to go by the end of August when Kalpali and Questa start.

Thanks. And one quick followup if if you have a moment. Um the I'm not sure if maybe uh you know this out of the letter the the request for the $30,000. Um is it your understanding that that was an additional request on top of the budgeted funds? Um so we have budgeted funds but those are operational funds. So there would be a request for those funds on top of the 30,000 that was requested in the letter. Is that correct?

Correct. from speaking with the representatives, that's their what they consider to be their one-time funding needed to start up a program. They would then uh work to make sure that they've got the capacity to then reply to those RFPs both from the courts and both the joint RFP that we expect to issue with Calpali and Qua later this summer. And then the funding that we would have in future fiscal years would likely go towards the services that we would contract for from a future organization. Okay. Thank you so much. I think city manager would like to join in on your answers. Thank you.

Thank you. I I realized I needed to clarify one point about our budgeted funds for this service. Um while we haven't spent anything so far this year, um we are uh trying to work on potential interim services with individual mediators in case there are needs in the immediate term. And so, uh, we anticipate it's possible we we may end up spending maybe up to $5,000 of that budget for this year if we do get those needs coming in, uh, essentially through the door and we're able to get individual contracts set up with um, some individual mediators in town. So, just wanted to clarify, there might be $5,000 less at the end of this fiscal year available for that service uh, for the next year. Um but again, as our deputy city manager mentioned, if the cost of the services go up, which there's a good likelihood that it will given the expanded scope and other concerns, we would be looking to budget that through the supplement process.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Yeah. Um, I I find myself kind of coming back to where I think a couple of my colleagues uh landed, which is, you know, we have a pretty conservative allocation of of funds here following our policies that we've had in place. Um, but I I really am worried about continuing to uh move forward with the several of these hearings that we have in the next couple months. Um, where we've made some promises to the community and um, you know, I believe in in the spirit of making progress this this year, this budget cycle, um, and not having any funds to potentially be able to move forward with that. Um, I was heartened to hear that we had funds allocated already to the dispute resolution. That was great, but I'm worried that if we don't allocate additional funds now that the startup's going to be tricky. Um, I like the idea of potentially having the rental registry somewhat um fund itself through uh some sort of fee program, but that's a discussion we won't have until next week. And I know there'll probably be some startup fees associated with that. So concerned about making sure we have a little bit of um startup funds there. And uh with all of these, you know, kind of the the scope is really important to understand before we start um putting dollar amounts next to them. And so that makes this a really challenging conversation. I think we've all articulated that so far. Um I I'm wondering if we take some small fraction of the funds out of a couple of these pots if they can sort of sit uh for some interim time and then we make the decisions we're going to make and then get reallocated to these initial recommendations. Is that a possibility if if they don't get used in the way that we're talking about? Do they have to be assigned tonight or can they sort of just sit? I think you answered that. They can just sort of sit and get

assigned to something later. Okay. Um, in that case, I think I would like to set aside just a small fraction of the the Kalpers's contribution and a small fraction of the infrastructure investment just so we have a little bit of startup funds um so we can have these conversations and be able to take some action. uh amounts is a little bit tricky, but I'm thinking somewhere in the realm of 150 from each so that you know they we have a little bit of money there um to get things going and I'm totally flexible in having a conversation about that because I don't have any not married to those numbers. All right.

Well, thank you. Thank you to all of you for your um initial concept conversations on the appropriations. Um, I guess I have one more question. I thought I didn't, but um, so the 2 million that may go in to the 115 fund, that's not going to be discussed until March 3rd. So, some of this 869804 could come out of that if we end up deciding differently on March 3rd. Correct. Okay.

Or any other thing that council would direct that money to be spent on. Um you'll see in the in the March 3rd report, you know, not not to pile on more things to be considering tonight, but um the March 3rd item will include a list of upcoming initiatives that we don't um currently have a plan to um for how to fund. Um those things, you know, range from um an impact fee study, a user fee study. We have we've had two staffing studies that were presented to council a year ago um that we've not um fully implemented. And so there's there's a number of things on the radar. also understanding that you know there's the upcoming rental registry conversation um upcoming discussion about code enforcement efforts um implementation ongoing implementation of fire maps and education and outreach related to that. So um we we've included that information in the March 3rd budget item just for context of you know what's coming so that we're making decisions today to set ourselves up for success in the future.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, I think for me when I started seeing the requests come through, one of the things that I mentioned to the city manager is some people know that there's some extra money, some people don't. Um, it's not necessarily kind of even ground right now for people who are interested in potentially getting money. um you know, yes, ice rink, we would normally say 2027, come back and talk to us during our um budget budget conversation. And typically, honestly, all of these things that are requested extra, I would kind of think the same way is well, let's talk about this in January of next year. That being said, um I do think the mediation is very important um based on the fact that Wilshire went away instantaneously. Um it wasn't a we're going to phase it in, phase it out. And on the slow COG board, one of the things that we saw was the major gap in um funding for seniors and their their transportation. So we were able to partner with another organization carrying callers I think anyway um and so they were able to do something very similar to what Wilshire was doing with the senior transportation. So I think of this now this mediation with the school of law as very similar to that situation. We had kind of an implosion of Wilshire and so I think that um putting this initial amount to get them started quickly quicker moving forward would be ideal if it were up to me. Um, the rest I think all will go through the RFP. I don't think we need to give the whole 30,000. If we normally would give 15, let's talk about that. I, you know, unfortunately we couldn't bring this up when Calpali was here, but I would hope that they would also consider giving because we're in this conversation

around code enforcement, noise, um, housing issues that are community members of all, uh, all ages and, um, students make up part of that. So I do think that it would be logical. Um I know on campus people used to use those solutions for staffing as well. Um staffing issues as well, not just not the union issues, but um so just seeing that there's something to me that I'd love to see that 10 to 15,000 move further along um or sooner than later. Um, but I don't think the whole 30,000 needs to go right now since we have soon another year um of of budget to talk about. I think um as we move forward the rest of this I would love to see wait until um after May because as we've said we have rental registry, we have um budget reductions to discuss. We have um code enforcement and neighborhood livability. So all of these are issues that I would love to be able to look at the pot together and say here we go this is what we need to do. Um as far as the SLMA contribution as as many of you have said that was that was a commitment we already said. So I feel we need to move forward with that. Um similar to the parks and w grants um need to move forward with that. So those are the ones I see that are like dire we need to like move forward and take care of that ASAP. the other three. Um, not saying they're not dire as well. Um, but I think we can wait a few months before we have to, you know, write the check and send it out. So, that's my two cents on this. And, um, Council Member Marks.

Oh, thank you. Well, I just want to um thank uh the mayor for bringing up the um the circumstances, the unusual circumstances that we have with Wilshire just uh uh disappearing uh essentially overnight. um in order for the Center for Dispute Resolution, which right now doesn't exist except conceptually, uh to do things that would be required to administer a slow solutions uh project, they need to have some startup money. So, that's what it is. They're asking for startup money. They're asking for one-time startup money. and um uh then that would equip them to be able to come up with an RFP. Right now they don't have any um how do I say any basis they don't have any organization that would be capable of coming up with an RFP. So essentially you would be saying forget it as far as we're concerned. So, I I think that would be a mistake. $30,000 is not a huge amount of money. And uh I think we should uh go ahead and and uh um make the grant very much like what we're looking for SLOM, very much like what we were looking at with slow rep. So these were well they're in the arts but they're basically it's like uh a vote of confidence for future performance and so that's what we would be doing. In fact, the there aren't that many mediators,

community mediators in town in the whole county with the kind of mediators who actually have businesses pretty much work within the legal community and they're very expensive. what we're talking about is free services for our residents that I don't know I think they're really crucial and the longer that we have trying just to scab it together um uh I I think the greater chance there is that nothing will happen or it'll be really um disorganized. So anyway, I would like to um suggest in terms of what we're looking at tonight that we just don't allocate um in terms of the Kalpers ADP uh that we take that we just don't well first of all we do take the grant uh to um the center for dispute resolution um out of that amount out of the Kalpers um ADP amount amount and set aside $300,000 that we don't allocate from that amount for the rental registry. If it turns out when we go through the whole thing a week from today, we don't we decid decide, oh, it's too much. We don't want to actually do anything. We just want to study it. Then we can put that $300,000 back into it. we don't have to make um a decision tonight. Um and I do appreciate all the work that um that staff has done in this also with the infra infrastructure I'm sorry with the insurance fund that is a matter of policy. However, uh to me there would be a possibility of taking like $150,000

out of the um Kalpers ADP and another $150,000 out of the insurance fund allocation um and just not doing anything with it till we've had our study session next week. So anyway, that's that's my wish and at some point I'll try to make a motion. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

I'm going to take a stab at proposing a compromise here. We'll see if it goes anywhere. Um, so I was looking at uh the Center for Dispute Resolution. Um, what actually first a question generally when um and we're doing it later tonight um with SLMA. Generally when we grant funds to an organization uh staff develop a grant agreement and so there is a document that says here's the money we're giving you here's what our expectations are in exchange for those funds. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. We we would definitely recommend an agreement to document the exchange of funding and for what it's going to be used for. So in this case, if we are directed to allocate funding for this uh purpose, we would recommend that you also direct us to go develop a grant agreement um that we would negotiate with the the law school and bring that back at a future meeting to be approved on the consent agenda. Most likely we do that with uh we do that with our human services grants. We do that with our promotional coordinating committee grants. We I think we we do that with almost all of our grants. Tons of

gr all of our That's correct. All of our grant um grant programs do uh result in grant agreements with every specific uh grantee that includes the scope of work and our traditional rules and requirements that apply to use of city funds.

Um okay. So I I'm looking at the center for dispute resolution um web page that they have built. Um they've you know as as you mentioned I think council member Marks they're um they're low on resources and I know I've talked to some of their leadership as well and they're pulling this together to try and meet a community need that they see and it's something that we've identified that we need as well and I I really believe that this is an important service that they're trying an important gap that they're trying to help us fill. uh on their website they have uh joined the founder circle. So they're they're beginning their fundraising efforts um to try and meet the the funding gap that they need to to do these startup funds. Their um founder circle is $10,000 to join. So, um, my proposed compromise regarding the Center for Dispute Resolution would be for now, um, knowing that there are some opportunities for them to, uh, potentially apply for funds later to perform more of the services, but to help get them started, maybe we offer a $10,000 grant to, um, get their founders circle um, going um, on the maybe setting aside other funds for uh rental registry expenses or safe housing expenses or something else in the future that we have some meetings coming up and some study sessions that we don't know the results of yet. Um, I would uh sort of just playing off of what council member or I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Francis uh suggested, I'm I'm hesitant to take money out of the infrastructure investment fund because we know that we need more than that

already if we are to approve the item that's next on our agenda. But, um, I could wrap my head around reducing the Kalpers's ADP by $150,000 or so. um a and holding that money aside for some other future uh cost that is again a one-time cost um that results out of some of our upcoming study sessions. Uh and then if we decide we don't need that money, then we would commit ourselves to putting it back towards the Kalpers's additional ADP payment. So that would be my proposal. Um curious to hear if anybody wants to jump in on that or propose something different.

Thank you, Council Member Boswell.

Yeah, I think that um generally sounds good to me. I I'm in terms of the uh for the funding for the dispute resolution, I think there I really do want to see a staff report on that. I want to better understand why that money is needed. I mean, we generally expect nonprofits to do some fundraising on their end and then we help fill in what they can't raise. And so, I'd just like to little understand a little bit more about that. So, but I'd be willing to direct staff to to go ahead and and bring that back to us uh for discussion at the amount you've suggested. I think that's okay. Um, uh, I think as long as we're not, the money that you want to pull back from the ADP, as long as we're not specifically allocating it yet and it's just held aside, I think that's totally fine because again, a few months from now, we could say, "Yep, just put it all back in the ADP." Uh, so that would leave us the option um to do that. I do have one question. Um, if we are if we did provide a if we did provide this grant um for the Center for Dispute Resolution, would that prejudice their participation in an RFP?

City Manager, that was my question as well.

Well, I had my light on not for that question, which I didn't see coming. So, I'm going to let the back of my brain um think about that. but more likely our city attorney. Um, one thing I I wanted to remark on is if we're looking at less than $30,000 that would be granted to them, um, we we do anticipate having funding from that line item in our current budget that we wouldn't necessarily need to take from year end of last year. It's sort of, you know, at the end of the day, it's the same pot of money that we're really talking about, but if that helps, you could give us direction to go have more conversations with the center in an evaluation of whether this is part of uh an upfront grant um that would come back at a future meeting that we could use funding from our current budget for. So, we we could do that. It could be it's essentially like a budget amendment. It's very small though. But that's a really good question um for a a different like a tricky legal issue and it's come back to us smarts at the time of the agenda item too,

right? Yeah. So you maybe one option is to give us direction to go research that really good issue and um bring it back to your council with a result. Um, and if it's something we think we can accommodate, then we could go ahead and bring a an agreement forward. I think it would the one question would be what would be the amount that you would be looking for? And we could either accommodate that potentially through our current line item or through um an allocation from fund balance. the city attorney knows at the on the top of her mind

right before city attorney for mine to kind of tie into that question to me my question was more not a certain amount but are we soul sourcing this because if this if we're soul sourcing then it's fine but if it's opening up to RFP opening up RFP to anyone who might provide mediation services even though right now we haven't seen it that seems as though we might be creating kind of a conflict in itself so city attorney So, a couple of things. There are some different rules for nonprofit organizations, and my guess is that most of the folks that are would be bidding or submitting proposals for this kind of thing um would be subject to some of those exceptions. the uh con the contract issues that you think about um off the top of your head are sort of 1090 issues and that is where uh somebody has a financial interest in the contract that they are entering into. We worry about successive contracts. I think there are some distinctions here that are relevant. I think it I think they're good points and I think we do need to look a little more closely at them, but on the face of it, I I'm not seeing an automatic prohibition here based on sort of my back of the napkin analyses. Um, we'll have to I'll have to look a little bit more closely, but I I appreciate the the raising the issue and we will look further into it.

Thank you. Council member Boswell, were you finished? I'm good. Okay. Council member Torresman.

Yes. So I think the reason that I was thinking that the whatever amount we gave to the center for dispute resolution would have to come out of these funds rather than the budgeted line item. And I realize it's kind of a shell game a little bit, but um is that that money is set aside for the services and this is what they're asking for is more like startup funds to set up their website and maybe hire some grant writing staff to help them with the upcoming RFPs and things like that. Whereas I would think the money in the line item we would want to get actual mediation services from. So, um, I'm okay with wherever you all think is best. My intent is to pledge that $10,000 of support in this one-time fashion. Um, so if there's conflict issues that we need to work out, then, um, I'll leave that up to you, of course, to advise us further.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I appreciated your commentary on the the urgency and kind of the unique situation here, but I also appreciated you bringing up um potentially getting a little bit more information on exactly scope of services. And um you know, I'm in my mind really hopeful that this is going to fulfill some of our needs for housing disputes and tenant issues kind of wrapping into next week's conversation and want to ensure that they're going to have the capacity to actually fulfill some of that need. Um, I'm worried that though if we restrict ourselves to only the 10 and we come to find out that uh in order to get off the ground, they really do need some amount more. Um, I'd like to maybe kind of just set the pot aside without allocating a specific number to it right now until we come back with uh the additional report including information on making sure that we don't have any conflicts if we do a grant at this point. So, I'll leave that there, but just kind of a gentle let's maybe set aside a slightly larger amount and see what we learn.

Thank you. I think um some of the comments around um a guesstimated amount 100 150 here, 300,000 here. Um yes, the report has not come out yet. Um and we have seen numbers that go everywhere from 200 to 500,000 for rental registry. Um, we don't have exact numbers on um, sorry, I'm trying to make sure I say this all as smoothly as possible. Um, exact numbers on the mediation. So, I guess if we had to pull a certain amount, then I would just rather hold the increase Kalpers ADP, not because we shouldn't pay Kalpers. I want I want to get us to the point where we're at least on average going forward in our in our unfunded pension liability and we haven't had some of the other conversations yet about 115 and other things. So I feel like we we we have some potential options that we can't fully discuss today. So if we need to identify one of these appropriations to hold, I would say hold the Kalpers's ADP in a reserve that we know will either potentially go right back to the Kalpers's ADP or to rental registry or to code enforcement or to, you know, we could continue this fun um options um song. But I think the other option that we've all made pretty clear is the mediation's needed. Bless you. The mediation's needed. So, I think um whatever is appropriate that we don't fall into a weird soul source moment with the RFP or um like you said with it, as long as nonprofits have the appropriate exceptions and we can do that, that's great. Um similar to the tolamy conversation earlier with the software though, are we by default then giving one group a leg up on the RFP? And it seems like to me logically I don't know how we're not. Um, I'm again

I'm not saying that we should or shouldn't because I don't know what other people even want to answer this um call to action. We haven't heard of anyone wanting to answer this call to action since Wilshshire went away. And so we were all pretty excited to hear that um Council Mars was bringing to us originally that this could even happen at the dispute center. So um definitely not trying to say I'm against it. just wanting to make sure we're keeping everything all on the up and up as we do RFPs and we have certain processes that I want to make sure we're upholding. Um, and at the same time, here we go. Bureaucracy wins. Um, so I just want to kind of think about that as we're talking about it. So, if we must have something we hold off today, I would move that we go with stack recommendations based on what's um on the screen right now with the exception of holding the increased Kalpers's ADP funding of 86 869,4 to be determined at a later date. That would be my motion to try to hopefully gather all of what we've been kind of asking or mentioning. Council member Shoresman. Um, I was going to ask another question about the um about the Center for Dispute Resolution funding and now it's escaping me, but um happens. Um, I think I came up with the $10,000 number because it is a because it was on their website and because it's a small enough amount that I feel like kind of going back to what you said, mayor, about not every entity knows that they can come and ask for funds. And I think we need to be really deliberate and fair about how we give funding to different topics or

different purposes. And we have to be careful about, you know, just being the entity that anybody can come and ask for money. And this is an awkward off-budget situation. And so if it's a small amount of money, it feels a little bit better for me to be able to make that one-off judgment call um in the moment. Um, in terms of holding aside the entire increased Kalpers ADP amount, I'm not sure I feel comfortable supporting that. I see the the logic of why you're you're going um with that amount. Um, but I think it's important that we make a commitment towards um moving closer to to what we need to be putting into Kalpers to pay for our pension obligations. So, I would like to see us put um some money towards that um now and hold aside a smaller amount. And I I realize that this is difficult to try to come up with an arbitrary number when we don't know what we need. Um so, I'm struggling with that a little bit, but I'm not sure that I would be support of in support of a motion that holds aside the entire Kalpers amount.

Thank you. you and I was just thinking that this would be held till like the June 2nd meeting, not for in perpetuity or anything. Uh, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you. Director Jackson, is there any are there timing issues with the additional additional CalPER payment? Like if it comes in on a particular date, does it help pay down a high proportion of the the base? Um I mean anything that anything additional we pay to calipers is a good thing. Um I think the thing to keep in there there's not necessarily a significant timing issue. The thing that you know we and every other PERS agency um contends with is the investment returns because that is that is the single thing that impacts our funded status the most. And so, you know, we've swung from um, you know, really high returns to really low returns. And that's kind of why you see some of the up and down in that graph that showed you how much um, what our unfunded liability was from a pure dollar standpoint. So, it, you know, I guess, you know, there's a risk that if you put money in there now and then you they they have a loss that it goes down. But I, you know, the amount that we're talking about isn't gonna is important to contribute, but isn't going to make a huge, it's not, it doesn't combat a a win or loss on the investment side.

Well, in that case, I'd like to make a stab at trying to make a motion here. Um, I agree with Council Member Shoresman. I really want to see some funds going as soon as possible towards that additional uh discretionary payment. Um, so what I'd like to propose is that we um move ahead with staff recommendations except um reduce the increase ADP to 500,000 um uh with the assumption that at the March hearing uh where we look at the 112 or at the next hearing where we talk about some of the funds and when we hear back from um our staff about the dispute resolution. We'll have some more clarity there, but 500,000 today. The rest just held aside to answer some more questions. And see if I can get a second on that.

Thank you, Council Member Marks.

I'd like to second that. And um I'd also like to say that to me the um RFP um um could fail completely if there's no organization that comes forward. You can go ahead and make an RFP. We've had that experience before. Um so uh uh I I think um when we come back uh to look at this uh 369,000 uh March 3rd, we should also um not feel like we are committed to $10,000 when 30,000 was the request. So that's my second.

Thank you, Council Member Shoresman. Um, yeah. I guess maybe a clarification or an amendment kind of related to what council member Mark said. Um, can we direct staff to uh to talk to the folks from the Center for Dispute Resolution Law School and try to understand a little bit better where the $30,000 number came from and what would potentially go into a grant agreement to kind of get clarity about what we would be sort of contracting with them for for for the whatever fund uh funding amount we end up on. So, we can certainly talk with them and get information that we'll be able to report out at least whatever we learn. um our staff report for this budget reduction and conversation um is going to be published tomorrow and so we we won't be able to address this or potentially even um have answers to those other kind of potential legal RFP questions, but we can ask and and report out what we know. Um and then the other opportunity for us to talk through this is of course the budget supplement hearing in June. So certainly by then we should have more um and it could be you know if we get direction to go back and have those conversations with the center for dispute resolution get clarity potentially even put a grant agreement together. It's possible we could come back with a whole package. It's just going to take us, you know, longer than a few hours to get that put together. Um, I imagine and hopefully by by our budget supplement hearing, we'd be able to have that part done. That question though being how much funding is. I'm I haven't quite heard a of consensus on what we would be looking at there. And so, if you're ready to give us that

direction, that would be great. If you're not, that's okay, too. will continue having the discussions to get clarity. We can report out and maybe get further direction on March 3rd on the dollar amount. I'm seeing thumbs up to that idea. Okay. So what So that would be like a memo from the center for dispute resolution to us of kind of the 10 to 30,000 what that would be because why are we giving more than a founder would give?

I think ideally that's what it would look like. I would hate to commit them to that work and so at a minimum we would just tell you what we learned and if it's enough great and if it's not that's okay we can keep working at it. Sounds good. Thank you council member Boswell. So, we're still not designating an amount right now for the center for dispute resolution and the direction is to go back and bring a more clear proposal or more clear agreement that we could then um decide how much the amount would be. We're going to have to decide the amount at some point. Right. Okay. Right.

And that some point could be March 3rd, could be June 2nd. Right. Right. The agreement wouldn't be done by then, but we could we'll we'll let you know what we find out and maybe it'll be enough to settle the amount and then the agreement could come later. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I'm ready to vote then. Okay. Thank you. Actually, maybe we could have the motion clarified one more time before we

uh the motion is to uh approve staff recommendation except uh to reduce the increased Kalpers's ADP um amount to $500,000 and hold the balance uh in advance until um we have u more information about the rental registry and more information about the Center for Dispute Resolution uh startup request.

All right, I'm getting nods from um Vice Mayor, Council Member Marks, City Clerk, Do you have all that? Wonderful. Can we have roll call? Vice Mayor Francis? Yes. Council member Marks? Yes. Council member Boswell? Yes. Council member Shoresman? Yes. Mayor Stewart?

Yes. Thank you so much. That's 5-0. That was a lot of conversation, but you know, budget and when money is tight, it's it's a difficult conversation. So, I appreciate all of the audience waiting through this and anyone that was on online or will watch this at 2.0 speed tomorrow. Um, and we are going to take a 10 to 15 minute break and I will see you back here for the complete streets and 50 Hera widening projects conversation. Well, welcome back everybody. We are back to talk about Hyera complete treat complete streets and revised 50 Hyera widening projects for construction. We have uh transfer transportation manager Luke Schwarz and not director Floyd. Okay. No, I just want to make sure and Adam Fukushima to give us the report. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Members of council, good evening. I'll start with the staff recommendation. As you can see in the council agenda report, the full staff recommendation is quite detailed, and rather than read off each one line by line, uh they can generally be summarized into three areas. One, approve the plans for the Hyera Complete Streets Project and the 50 Hyera widening. Two, approve the funding strategy for both projects. and three authorized a bid advertisement for both projects to start construction. I go down. Okay, just looking at the project background, we wanted to address how we got to this stage. The Hyera complete streets project is identified in the active transportation plan as part of the tier one network. This is the highest priority network that the city has committed for completion. And of the tier one network, the Hyera

project was ranked as the highest priority project by the active transportation committee. And it's no surprise since the corridor received the most comments from the community as the highest priority project during outreach for the plan itself. And during that outreach for the active transportation plan, we frequently heard about the importance of the corridor for north south travel in the city uh as well as the apprehension about biking and walking along the corridor due to the high number of trucks as well as vehicular speeds and volumes much like you can see in this photo. Along with the concern uh we heard from the community about the corridor is the safety factor. Since 2018, there have been 11 fatal or severe injury collisions on Hyera with four involving victims who are walking or bicycling. And thus, Hyera is identified in the draft vision zero action plan is part of the high injury network. This is the network of 10% of city streets where over 75% of fatal and injury collisions have occurred. And with that, we want to remember some of the individual victims of those statistics uh who are pictured here. This project provides connectivity to a variety of services. Uh one is the corridor is just one of a few north south routes in the city. Uh the project provides connections to local schools. One is the gateway to uh Laguna Middle School as well as uh in the other direction heading to Hawthorne Elementary School. Uh it provides connections to the 40 Praau homeless services center as well as some important housing developments such as the Avalor Ranch and the Margarita area housing uh developments. It provides connectivity to Meadow Park as well as several grocery stores along the route uh and connections to the Bob Jones Trail, the existing uh trail on Losus Valley Road and Pra Road as well as future connections to the Octagon

barn. Just looking at the project scope briefly. Uh the project will extend on Hyera Street from Los Sos Valley Road to Mar Street. Uh and then also on Madonna Road from the entrance to the Madonna Inn and the US 101 southbound ramps to Hyera Street. And then it also includes the Meadow Park area. This is going to be a neighborhood greenway uh connecting Hyera Street east to Broad via the uh Meadow Park local streets and South Streets. Just to hit briefly on the phasing of the project development in 2022, shortly after adoption of the active transportation plan, we initiated planning for the project and preliminary outreach. We're also fortunate at this time to be awarded a $7 million grant from CALR. And then from 2023 to 2024, we are lucky in getting additional funding from Slowcog and conducted environmental review and traffic studies. And during this stage, we uh coordinated extensive planning uh and outreach activities with the studies, extra planning and outreach. We brought all that information together uh to city council in early 2025 for a study session. Um based on that input from the council, we've been working over the last year in finalizing the design and securing the necessary permits and allocating the uh CALR grant funds with the state so that we're ready to be used uh use those funds for construction. Just to uh describe our public outreach at a very high level, uh we held both traditional openhouse uh workshops at the library. We also tried to meet people where they're at along the corridor, including a popup at Foot for Less grocery store as well as at the middle park neighborhood. Uh we were also uh invited to a resident forum at the Schumash Village uh and held several meetings with the uh active transportation committee to gather input on the projects. Other outreach

activities included a project web page, uh postcards sent to all businesses and residences along the corridor, uh several press releases and interviews with local media as well as just meeting individually uh with community members. Uh I'll describe some of the project highlights which serve uh the broad spectrum of road users. Um it includes the roadway repairs and ceiling along the full project area. It includes over 70 uh curb ramp upgrades, uh 45 high visibility crosswalks, over two miles of protected bike lanes, uh radar speed feedback signs, as well as emergency vehicle preeemption at traffic signals, and a new signal at the Hyera Elks Lane intersection. And before uh handing this over to Luke, I just wanted to share a few of the renderings of the project with the proposed elements. Here you see Hyera Street near High Street, and it's showing the refreshed road striping as well as high visibility crosswalk markings and protected bike lanes. Here's a rendering of what the project will look like uh near Hine Street, which will retain two lanes of vehicular traffic in each direction, uh a center turn lane, as well as protected bike lanes. And then uh the uh Madonna Road overcrossing where the project will only feature painted green bike lanes uh with no protected separation at this time. Uh and Luke will have further info on potential plans for future upgrades to this segment. And here I will hand it over to Luke.

Thank you, Adam. Good evening, council members. Uh I'm not going to read into the project design sheet by sheet. However, there's a couple really key focus areas that I want to hit on um to both tie in back to the design direction we received from the council back in February of last year and also some updates of how we've incorporated that into the final project plans. Uh the first kind of key topic area was the proposed road diet on Higara Street. As you recall, the limits of that would be between uh from starting just south of Bridge Street south to just north of Margarita Avenue. And the reason for that proposal is that this road is just too narrow to both provide width for a center turn lane uh which is recommended to improve uh safety as well as adding some separation between moving vehicle traffic and the bike lanes and sidewalks. Uh the design proposal is to restripe the lane uh lanes to one lane in each direction with a wider center turn lane and additional width for buffers to separate the bike lanes as you see here. And in the staff report and project plans, uh during the study session, um we highlighted this area because this is where we see higher speeds on Hyear. And I've also seen some of our more severe crash crashes occur, including this spot, um looking to the south, just south of the cemetery where we had a fatal crash involving a cyclist hitting the bike lane just last year. Uh just to refresh, we asked some questions to the council um early on last year with the draft designs that said, "Is there interest in modifying the limits of the proposed road diet and modifying the lane configuration before we guide final designs?" And just to refresh, the the input we got was to retain the road lights, the road diet limits as initially proposed again from just south of Bridge Street to just north of Margarita. Um but to look at expanding the width of the center turn lane where possible as that adds more clearance for emergency vehicles and also for vehicles that are turning in and out of side streets and intersections along the stretch and also to where possible to improve the designs

and timing and signal plans for the new signal at Higura and Elks so that where possible it could help with providing gaps for folks downstream such as at Chums Drive to have gaps to turn left onto Higura Street from their side streets. Um and we've incorporated those in the final designs. You'll see the road guide limits um remain as proposed previously. We have ex extended the width of the center turn lane wherever feasible and we believe that the designs for the new signal at Hy and Elks will increase the number of gaps you see particularly in the southbound direction on Hyera for users downstream of there particularly at Chums Drive with finding opportunities to turn left um onto Hyera Street. Uh I'll get more into the specifics regarding the Chum mesh drive um designs in a second here. But um the second kind of key topic area we discussed at the study session was what's the kind of form of material used to provide physical separation for bike lanes where protected bike lanes are proposed. Um and there was also questions about um with respect to the designs for the protected bike lanes and the road diet of you know could we just direct cyclists to ride on the sidewalks or widen the sidewalks as was done recently along Madonna Road um to kind of retain the number of traffic lanes but provide that protected facility. And I just want to highlight that would be a nice design. That's actually our preferred design too for protected bike lanes is to bring them up to kind of a grade elevated level like we see on Madonna Road. The challenge is um one there's some additional costs associated with that but largely two it's just the constraints of the existing road. So to do that on this stretch of Hyera street and to avoid reducing any traffic lanes we need to be widening the existing road by at least 2 to 4 feet on each side of Hyera beyond where the existing backup sidewalk is and that would require some additional offsite rightway acquisition and just looking at um utility relocations and just looking at costs. If you took the cost for what was done on Madonna Road and just apply that here, you'd be looking at additional $5 million on each side of the road to try to do that, it wasn't something we could feasibly advance at this time, but it

doesn't preclude something like that from being explored as a future project if the council desires to do so. Um, focusing on what materials are used for bikeway separation, the staff recommendation was to primarily use flex posts. they can fit within a narrow width and they're more forgivable if they get hit um by mistake by vehicles. Um and there is a stretch where we proposing the road deck where we have a little bit more width for those bike lane buffers where we think something more substantial like a concrete curb could fit. And the direction we received from council during the study session was general support for using flexos for the majority of the project, but some interest in trying concrete curbs if they could be done feasibly within our funding limits and with the available road width on that stretch where the road diets proposed. And also if if concrete curbs are proposed to make sure they're as visible as possible to avoid them from getting hit by mistake. And then also there's general support for using designs that allow for flexibility. So if there's concrete curds that proposed that they could be adjusted or removed relatively easily if they're not working as intended. Um and the current plans do reflect that direction. So this map just for reference is rotated kind of 90°. We're looking to the right is north towards downtown. And just briefly the color coding shows what types of bike lanes are proposed in the final plans. Where you see blue that's where road the road is is just too narrow. There's not width for any kind of bike lane besides just a painted bike lane. Adam mentioned on the Madonna overpass, which I'll discuss a little bit more detail in a second. The green coloring is where we have narrow kind of buffered bike lanes with flex posts used only for separation. And then that purple area that really again is that road diet stretch where we have a little bit more width for the bike lanes is we have um flex post with the potential option for concrete curbs. Uh the way that is included in the current plans is we have a base plan set and a base bid that includes flex post only everywhere. And then we have a bid additive alternative which is basically an

optional add-on to the plans that would add concrete curbs just where there's width along that road diet stretch. Um this would what this would look like these example photos where we've designed these as pre-cast curbs. It's essentially like a big parking stop like you might see in a parking lot. they're they're constructed offsite and placed just on top of the road. That means that they can be easily removed, adjusted, or temporarily moved during construction or if there's a need to remove them in the future if they're simply not working as intended. Um the intent here is to include this as a bid additive alternative for two reasons. One is that we do have some concerns about funding resources and if bids come in high, this gives us some flexibility to defer the concrete to a future phase or eliminate it from the project. It also gives the council some flexibility. If there's um direction from the council tonight that there isn't interest in starting right away with concrete, uh we could advance a project with flex post only with the way the project's designed and and set up to bid currently. Uh another focus area I hit on just briefly was the intersection of Hyera and Losus Valley Road. The primary challenge here was that southbound cyclists, as you can see in the image on the right, currently have to weave across a heavy right turn traffic lane if they want to continue straight heading towards Octagon Barn or in the future the new county's extension of the Bob Jones Trail, which would terminated at Octagon Barn. Um, we presented a couple of design options to the council back last February, um, with different trade-offs and ultimately the preferred design option was what we were previously calling as option two, which avoids this conflict by keeping the bike lane along the curb side and separating the bicyclist and right turning vehicles with a new traffic signal phase. So, the bicyclist would have their own signal phase to cross the intersection while right turning vehicles have a red light. Um, so that is the design alternative that's included in the final plans uh to advance to construction. Um, we had input from both the council and the active transportation committee expressing interest in some additional safety improvements if feasible at the

intersection of Hyere and Suburban. We've had some real severe um history with right turn hook crashes with vehicles and cyclists. So, we have some improvements that are actually coming sooner. These are already designed. The contracts awarded. We're just waiting for the contractor to get the equipment where we have some minor traffic signal modifications going in. You'll see these in the next month or two. That includes making the left turn movement from Hyera onto Suburban a a green arrow only. So that helps avoid some of those conflicts and challenges with drivers too trying to make that turn during heavy traffic. But also you'll see a big electronic illuminated sign that northbound drivers will see as an additional warning to be careful and yield to cyclists that might be continuing straight while they're making a right turn. We think there's, you know, potentially more robust improvements that could be advanced in the future, but they require off-site right away and things that weren't feasible with this current project. But we'll see some of these benefits coming soon. Um, there's also a lot of interest from the community, the council, and the ATC and doing something bigger on the Madonna Road overpass. We spent a lot of time exploring this. There was clear interest to do some form of better protected bicycle and pedestrian facilities on the overcrossing specifically interest in extending the existing shared use path that kind of terminates on the north side of Madonna near the Madonna in up and over the 101 all the way to Hera Street. So we prepared some conceptual designs um spent lots of time coordinating with CALR and reviewing the feasibility and what we had come to a conclusion last year was like it wasn't something we' realistically be able to advance within the time frame and funding of the current project and also gotten some more specific input from CALR um structural design engineering traffic operations safety group saying you know the existing bridge is so narrow there's a pinch point where this likely isn't going to be feasible without something bigger specifically widening the existing bridge bridge or adding a parallel separate pedestrian and bike bridge in addition to the existing overpass. So, this is something still could be advanced in the future. It's

just going to require more planning and and cost than what we currently um have available. So, this is something we're happy to discuss in more detail. Might be best as part of a future budget recommendation to continue work on this concept. I will note though that the intersection at Madonna and Hyera has been designed currently so that it works well as is but also allows for the future extension of that shared use path to connect with this intersection with little additional changes or needs. We wouldn't have to reconstruct this intersection. It's designed to work well with that future project if it can happen down the road. Uh we we've had a lot of input from the residents of Chumash Village. I do want to hit on this um and that as Adam mentioned um we were uh really appreciate the opportunity to come in and answer questions and present project information to their community um previously and some of the main concerns we're hearing were one just general concern about the road diet and potential to increase congestion um delays particularly for emergency uh response um and just a priority to say to just reduce the posted speed limit and get the speeds down on Hyera rather than making major changes. There was interest in um exploring a dedicated traffic signal at the GHMS Drive intersection and also some concerns with illegal parking and a need for additional pedestrian visibility and lighting um near their driveway. We looked at all these um these these desires um as part of the project. Um and I'll hit on like what we think we can accomplish and what we've added to the project and what we weren't able to uh address at this time. Uh this graphic just shows briefly what this portion of Higara Street looks like now at Chime Village. You can see there's currently one lane in the northbound direction because of kind of a narrow point just north of there and two lanes in the southbound direction. Um what would be changing with the project is in the northbound direction it would remain one lane. In the southbound direction we'd be going from two traffic lanes to one at the Chimes drive entrance and increasing the width of the center turn lane and adding more

separation between the sidewalk and bike lane and vehicle traffic. Um, this is just an excerpt from the plans to kind of show what this looks like at a bird's eye view. And I want to highlight that the project would not be changing the number of lanes exiting Chumash Village. There are currently two lanes and that would remain. And again, in the northbound direction, there's one lane currently and that would remain. So really the functional changes, we're seeing a change from two lanes southbound on Ahira to one. Uh we've analyzed that in detail as part of the traffic study for the project and found that we do expect that that change will add a few seconds of delay for drivers trying to make those left turns out at Chimash Drive. But um in turn, it might be easier to actually judge when there are gaps that are safe to to make that left turn and that you're judging the speed and direction of traffic in in one lane coming southbound versus two. And that with that extra width in the two-way left turn lane, we think there's some additional ability for drivers to be able to kind of make that left turn in two steps. Um uh but again it will likely increase the delay at least by a few seconds and but the intersection operations would remain within the city's standards and uh and would operate with acceptable level of service per our general plan thresholds. We did take a close look at seeing if we could make the case for a new signal at CHMS Drive. And unfortunately, there are engineering standards that we we have to follow that says when a signal might be an appropriate design decision. And the traffic volumes and safety history and just conditions at the intersection don't meet those requirements at this time, but we're more than happy to continue monitoring that if that changes in the future. That could be a possibility. Um, we have added some things to the project to address some of these concerns where possible. So, we've added the high visibility crosswalk markings at the driveway. We've added radar speed feedback signs in both directions on Hyera on this stretch of Hyera to try to get speeds down and make it a little easier to judge gaps when you're exiting one of these driveways. And also, there were some challenges with illegal parking right in the line of sight of their driveway that we've already added a bunch more red paint, no parking signs, and feel like the

striping changes with the project make it even less appealing to try to illegally park there. Um, and we have been working with PG to try to get an additional street light installed nearby. It's a challenging proposal and that they're going to need to put in taller poles and replace overhead lines and things, but it's still something we're happy to pursue. It just wasn't something we could build into this project at this time because of those um challenges with um with additional infrastructure needs for that lighting. Uh, one of the other key pieces of input we had from the study session was to increase some more robust discussions and review of emergency response concerns and particularly evacuation considerations with the project. Um, so we've spent more time reviewing the project designs in more detail with our emergency service providers. Um, first I'll just state that project designs meet all standard fire code and emergency access requirements. Um, but we've also made some additional refinements to the plans I think that reduce those concerns further. Examples include increasing the width of that striped median and turn lane as much as possible so that there's as much clearance as we can provide for emergency vehicles to bypass uh traffic. We've increased the gaps between any vertical elements in the bikeway separation particularly where there's flex post proposed as we have gaps between every post. Really pulled those back at intersections and driveway so there's more space to vehicles to pull to the side of the road and add that clearance. We've also used pretty narrow elements where we have vertical separation for the bike way, either flex post or even where we have the option for concrete curbs. They're 18 inches wide. So, we have a four or six foot wide buffer with a pretty narrow curb in it. So, there's still extra clearance to try to pull to the side and make as much space as possible for an emergency vehicle. We've also made sure that all the intersections, the city intersections in the project area have that emergency vehicle preemption equipment and have um secured funding for both slow fire and slowed to modernize and make sure that they have that equipment in all their vehicles too so that both in this corridor and elsewhere in the city that they have the ability to talk to the traffic signals when they're approaching to clear traffic out which we think will help

reduce response times here and elsewhere in the city. We also had some additional follow-up recommendations um including both continued coordination and communications with emergency services prior to, during, and after construction of the project um to see if they're having pinch points or friction points and being prepared to make minor changes to the project if we're seeing those issues. So, the vast majority of these improvements are things that can be quickly modified, whether that's unscrewing a few flex posts or changing some striping or signal timings. So, we're prepared to monitor those and make some quick changes if they're if they're in fact needed. Um, we also prepared a focused evacuation study for the project. So, it looked at kind of two different areas and potential emergency events that might create the need for an evacuation to the Hyura corridor. Uh, that includes both fire or flooding events in Slow Creek, kind of on the west side of Hyura to the south, as well as a potential wildfire in the South Hills open space. And so we analyzed uh potential time it would take to clear those full neighborhoods in the case of an evacuation both with the existing street configuration and with the proposed project. And what that analysis concluded which which I'll note has some conservative assumptions um is that you would see a potential increase and that's largely driven by both the lane reductions with the road diet but also the modeling assumes that we get a 5 mph reduction on the whole hyura quarter with these added features. Those add some additional time to fully clear out these zones. Um for an event in Slow Creek, whether it's a fire or a flooding event, the projections with that project could potentially add 10 to 14 minutes of time to fully clear out um that zone. And with a potential fire in the South Hills open space, the projected to add about seven or eight minutes to that total clearance time. Um what does that mean? Um, and we have representatives from Slow Fire and Slow PD that can weigh in in more detail um, as as needed. But essentially, we don't have a local, state, or federal adopted

standard that says this is our target time for an evacuation event, and anything above that is unacceptable. Anything below that is fine. It's much more nuanced than that. Um, some of that depends on the specific location, the context and risk of a potential emergency event. what kind of fuel is there? How quickly could a wildfire start and spread? Um, but this analysis basically gives some planning level information to help guide these types of discussions and decision- making. And our emergency professionals have concluded that even with the project, the projected time to fully clear out these zones would be under two hours, which again there's no formal threshold, but for general planning in this type of context is not considered to create a significant um impairment in the ability of or impediment I should say in the ability to evacuate using the Higera corridor with with the project. Um, there are recommendations to pre-program custom signal timings that are prepared to turn on in the event of an evacuation on Higara to flush traffic out and add more green time away from the event, which we are prepared to do. And also use the findings uh of this study to help guide future communications with the city, with this neighborhood, and plans for how we'd be prepared to respond during event if it were to happen in this part of town. Uh, I'm not going to get into all the fiscal details. Those are well um documented in the staff report. I just want to highlight that for the Hyera Complete Streets project is a big project. 61% so the majority of the funding is coming from outside grant funds. We've secured over $9 million in outside funding and the majority of these costs are things like essential pavement maintenance, accessibility upgrades, safety and pedestrian accessible improvements at intersections that we would be needing to do or wanting to do otherwise. So, this grant funding lets us do a lot of those things while also advancing some of our safety and complete street goals in one package. Uh shifting to the 50 Hyera widening project. I'll hit on this briefly. It's a separate project but overlaps in area with the complete street project. So we're discussing that tonight as well. Um for those of you that recall, this is

a legacy project that's been in progress for years. It's a challenging project. The primary objective is to provide width for a center turn lane on that stretch of Higera between Bridge Street and Elks Lane where we have no turn lane currently and have a history of crashes, people turning in and out of driveways, stopping in the road. Um this is funded through a federal highway safety improvement um program grant um that has fund rightaway environmental reviews design work to date. And we had an original project design that included widening about 530 ft on the west side of Higara Street along the CALR District 5 headquarters to provide with the add that center turn lane. Uh and we had plans approved by the council last year. ready to break ground. And seeing some of the other conflicts you've been aware of with other tree concerns with projects in construction, we said, I don't want to find out there's a huge tree issue when I have this whole road already torn up. Out of an abundance of caution, um, we secured uh a a updated independent arborist report to look at several uh trees fronting this widening area that were looked at previously and had an arburish report that said, "I think you can protect these with certain measures." and said, "Well, let's just be extra careful." And um specifically, there's there's seven heritage trees that are designated along the 50 Hera property on the this side of the road, and four that are particular risk within the limits of the road widening or the road um yes, road reconstruction. And those were planted between the 1930s and 1950s. They were designated as heritage trees in 2010. And unfortunately, the updated arpish report said, "You know what? We really don't think that you can do this widening without real severe risk to the health and livelihood of these trees and the likelihood is these are probably going to be killed following the work or need to be removed as part of the project once you expose the full root structure. Um so it really changed our approach. Our our city policy says you can't remove heritage

trees and you can't harm them. There's not unless they pose a clear immediate uh concern to public health and safety. We we couldn't make that case with these trees at this time. and we don't really have a formal process for removing or undesated heritage trees. So, uh at this point we didn't really see a path forward as currently envisioned with the project. So, we provides the project um approach to do widening that we can do without impacting the trees but a much smaller area and some striping modifications that would still provide a center turn lane without the full widening at this time. that essentially restripes Hyura to advance a portion of the road diet that's ultimately planned with the complete streets project. It just would happen in kind of a phased approach. Um CALR is our um highway safety grant administrator has already approved this as an acceptable change to the project and it also reduces ultimate cost at this time. Um a couple of quick questions I think the council is likely to have a graphic here just shows a kind of the yellow area is a small area widening we can still advance Um, one main question is why are we doing some road widening while also doing a road diet? And I think what we want to, it seems counterintuitive. The widening is needed to be able to provide any width for a turn lane onto Bridge Street on that portion of Higera and also allow for that transition with the road deck from two lanes down to one in each direction. So, it adds some safety benefits even if we're also still recommending restriping the road down to fewer lanes south of Bridge Street. And also um why wouldn't we just combine this with the complete streets project do all this work at once so it's a seamless change for the for the public and one mobilization. We would love to do that. The challenge is we have one project that's tied to federal grant funds and a larger project that's not. And if we did this work as part of the complete streets project that federalizes the full project which means we have to redo our environmental work. There's also more ownorous bidding and grant administration requirements. It's not something we'd like to recommend at

this time. Um, we also had the question, could you just not advance this as a federal project and just say that's not tied to this any longer? And the challenge there is we could likely be asked to refund the $400,000 we've spent in pre-construction work for the 50 Hera widening project, which we'd also like to avoid. Um, also, could the full widening be revisited in the future? And I'd say yes. It would need some more robust environmental review and ultimately would need council action and approval from CALR to remove these heritage trees which some wasn't something we thought we could take on at this time but we'd welcome council direction if there's interest in pursuing this as a as a future or separate project again. Um next steps um we'd be looking to advance these projects to construction with the road widening project at 50 Hera coming first. This will take about a month. We think that could be done towards the end of the spring with the larger Hyerea Complete Streets project starting this summer and will take about a year from start to finish, particularly with lead times on a lot of the electrical and traffic signal equipment. Um, that concludes our staff presentation. Um, we welcome any questions and I'm prepared to answer any other detailed questions that the council community might have. Thank you.

That was impressive as far as how fast you made it through all of that. Um uh also just highlighting to the community there was a 23page agenda correspondence just in case you are free have some free time like to read it. Um but it does answer a lot of questions that we receive from the public as well as that we had um and some of us asked those questions ahead of time so they pulled that together which I thought was really helpful. Um, at this point I will bring questions to the council. Council member Boswell.

Yeah, I'm just going to start with a couple questions. Um, the current posted speed limit um, at least on the northern section is 40 miles per hour. Is there a proposal to reduce that speed? And if it's due to the 85th percentile issue, do we expect that post project we might have the data or justification for reducing that speed? Great question. And yes, our desire would be to reduce the speed limit on that stretch. And that's between Madonna Road and Prader Road where it's still 40 mph. Currently, the speeds, as you mentioned, the 85th percentile speed is too high. We can't it's at it's posted down at 40. We can't post it any lower legally right now. Our hope would be the design elements of the project would naturally get those prevailing speeds down to the point where we could post it and enforce it at a lower limit.

Thanks. Um we had some agenda correspondents. Um a neighbor asking about uh in the neighborhood portion of the project whether the flex post were required. Um I think it's mainly where the bulb belts are proposed. Could you speak to that design choice?

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great question. Uh, if you can recall, the the early draft plans for the project and that were approved through our our grant had more robust traffic calming throughout the Meadow Park neighborhood, specifically many roundabouts at several of those intersections. As we were doing focus outreach, including a workshop at Meadow Park, what we heard from a lot of the residents was use a gentler touch. We we don't want the parking loss and potential confusion with these major roundabouts. is can you do things to reduce speeds where it's a problem but with less robust and major changes. And so what we did is we took out the roundabouts and provided speed humps where the speeds are high and then improvements at the intersections to reduce the kind of conflict area and what those are in the form of kind of quick build bulb outs with flex posts. Part of that was needed to get approval from CALR to that change in scope. They said, "Well, if you're taking out some of these traffic calming measures, are you doing something of similar benefit um to meet the intent of the grant that we awarded to you?" And so, part of that was providing those those bulb outs. So, I'd say for the grant criteria, we probably need to keep the flex post initially. I understand they're not aesthetically great. Um, but there's flexibility that if they're not working as intended or not desired by the neighborhoods, they could be removed in the future um, without risk of having to pay back grant funds, but I don't know that we have the flexibility to pull them out at this time. We'd be happy to look at if there's other models of flex post that are nicer looking. Another option is if there's volunteers in the neighborhood that are interested is we could put planter boxes out within the ballouts if there's interest in maintaining some nicer looking plantings. so that they look nicer than just plastic, but they're still not going to look amazing, and we understand that.

Um the uh is is the decision to use painted bulb outs versus concrete, is that just a a cost and budget issue? Yeah, we we are already seeing some cost creep with this project, primarily with the civil improvements, the road paving and the curb ramps. And just for context, the difference of a a standard curb ramp to a bulb out could be the difference of $20,000 to $50,000. And so a lot of it was just cost driven. So we would love to do these in a more permanent way. We just were concerned that we could couldn't afford that at this time. So it's something we could potentially pursue in the future. Yeah, that would be great. Okay, that's all for now. Thank you.

Can I just tie on to that? When you say in a more permanent nature, then wouldn't that affect the emergency response where flex post it doesn't? the even the flex posts and the bout bullouts are designed that an emergency vehicle can still navigate in and out of those those intersections. So we wouldn't want to create even a post that would require a firetruck to have to drive over them. Um and we would do the same if we made those a more permanent bulb out is design them so that the shape and the footprint of those still work for fire trucks and ambulances and trash trucks. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you so much. Uh we had a lot of awesome correspondents from folks. Thank you so much for writing in. Um, one of our uh, folks wrote in and was requesting that we add in space to provide uh, right turning bicycles um, uh, space to avoid uh, straight through bicycles who are queuing for bike signals and I was wondering if you could speak to that a little bit and if that's a possibility to modify at this stage.

Yeah, Madonna Hagera and Hagera and Los Valley Road. Yeah, I'm happy to um to get into the weeds on that. So, at the Madonna Higeria intersection, yes, we have a nice wide area that basically it's some protected intersection where the bicyclists southbound on the approach kind of ramp up to a big wide shared space. So, there's area for a cyclist to queue if they're wanting to continue south and others to bypass them and continue to make that right turn sweeping on the Madonna Road. At the Higarian LVR intersection, it was much more challenging. we don't have the rightway to have that extra space. So, if you were and as a cyclist, if you're continuing to make that right or to go through, you're going to have to wait for the bike signal, which is a it's it adds delay if you're making that right turn if someone's in your way. Um, with the trade-off of that, it makes that conflict a little less stressful. So, it doesn't mean that that intersection can be modified further in the future with a bigger project. Maybe that can widen and make a more protected style corner where you could bypass that easily if you're making a right. But the current design you could get stuck behind someone that wants to go straight at the bike signal.

So where we can do it, we can we're going to do that. Great. There was one other suggestion to provide um adequate advanced gap for leaving barrier separated bike lanes where there's a left turn permitted for motor vehicles like driveways and commercial residential areas. Um and so I was curious if that's something that we can provide uh sufficient gaps for people to leave the bike lanes in those areas. Yeah, we we've tried to do that in the current designs not just with the standard kind of 20 so foot gap between each flex post

but approaching intersections as driveways is adding even bigger gaps. Well, trying to balance like still retaining some level of comfort but making it easy for cyclists that do just want to leave the lane, merge ahead of time to make that left turn is uh is that that is provided we believe. With that said, the value of the flex post is you can go unscrew a few if you need to make a little bit bigger gap um to make that work better. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Thank you. I just want to start by thanking staff for the incredible amount of work over many years that you have put into this and the amount of time that you have spent getting community feedback on it is really commendable. It's remarkable actually. Um, there have been lots and lots of community meetings in lots of different venues and I just really appreciate your willingness to kind of make suggestions on the fly and continue to take feedback even, you know, even here tonight when we're at kind of the 11th hour getting ready to go out for construction bids. So, thank you and thank you. I know there's a couple members of the active transportation committee meeting uh committee here as well and I know they've spent multiple meetings on it in addition to the meetings that we've spent and the time that you've put in. So, so thank you for all of that work. Um and the 23 pages of agenda correspondence that you literally must have spent all day writing answers to to us. Actually, not all day because you got it out to us by about 1:30 this afternoon, I think. So, so all morning at least. Um, and forgive me because I was still sort of thumbming through the last few questions uh as we were approaching the meeting tonight to make sure I got everything. So, if I repeat something, I I apologize, but it might also be good for the community to hear. Um, there are a couple of intersections that are still big concerns for me. uh the there is some agenda correspondence about Madonna and uh Hikera where you've talked about that pretty extensively and there's some really great improvements there. The section that I'm most concerned about is in front of the gas station there next to Slow Dooo and then that right turn from Hyera onto South Street. Um I know it's a pretty difficult area with not a lot of real

estate to work with right now. The bike lane just literally ends at the driveway to the gas station. I've crashed there. I think I saw a post from the police department that someone else got in a collision there uh last week. Um is there what what were we able to do with that area and is there anything more we can do?

Yeah, that that stretch. So, we're talking about northbound Higher kind of between Madonna and South Street. You're right. Right now, the road kind of narrows the bike lane just drops. Uh we spent a lot of time we looked at an an option basically we said well how can we get enough width to maintain a bike lane through here and ideally keep them to like the left of the right turning traffic so they're out of that weave area and what it was going to take to do that was one we can't widen the road into the building which is kind of right at the back of sidewalk of that Pacific Coast Center. We did look at an option that would re that would remove the existing center median and move it west. What that would do is remove one of the traffic lanes southbound between South Street and Madonna Road. And what our traffic engineering consultant said, "Ah, this really blows up this intersection. It's going to back up throughout most of the day through South Street if you take one of those lanes away."

And so we ultimately were not recommending that. But that was really the only viable option that we could find at this time that would have added width to retain a bike lane northbound. What we've tried to do is within the framework of like, hey, there's not enough room for a bike lane is what can we do is we've added some additional green pavement markings just so it's super clear that's a space for cyclist to share the lane and additional warning signage. Um, and also we've added a little bike box so if you get to the front of the intersection on a red light, you can kind of saddle up and be in front of traffic and out of the way of the right turns to continue straight on Hyura. With that said, those don't completely eliminate that stress, but um part of this project is also creating these kind of branches where you can get off of Hyera to the west towards Madonna and to the east. So getting this cohesive greenway link to the east if you're a cyclist going northbound and you're wanting to go towards like downtown is you have a better option to kind of branch off at Bridge Street, get through the Meadow Park, cross at the upcoming crossing at South and King and continue that way and just get off of that stretch of Higara alto together. Um, great. That's great to hear. Will the existing paint that is there that kind of makes the bike lane go down to basically nothing, that will be eliminated? Correct. Will there just be um sherrows sort of in the lane? That's a problematic spot there where where if you're in a if you're a biker and you're trying to kind of go straight or make get into the right turn lane, all of a sudden your bike lane is just literally gone.

Yeah. the ultimate user experience won't be all that different, but we feel that there's some refinements that make it a little more visible knowing that that is coming and that it's super visible for both drivers and cyclists to try to take your space, but ultimately there still will be a need where you get to that point to take the lane. Got it. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. At least it doesn't look like it doesn't sound like it's going to still look like a bike lane is disintegrating there. It's just going to be It won't just narrow to zero. It'll be kind of that dash green and then N. Got it. So, a little clearer transition.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. Um the other intersection that I know we've had a community member um crash and die in is I believe it's at Suburban and South Hagera kind of on the other end. And I've I've known other people that have been uh sideswiped essentially um by cars trying to turn right onto Suburban going northbound on Hyera on South Hera. Um I I think I saw in the staff report that the plan there is to add some additional lighted signage. Um but there's really not any and and maybe some green paint. I don't remember. But can you clarify what's um proposed for that intersection and again if there's anything more that we can do?

Yes. So we've already added some green paint and some warning signs on that approach already. The plan would increase the visibility of those, but also those improvements that will be coming separate from the complete street project, but sooner in the next couple months, is going to be both the illuminated sign that gives extra visible warning over the roadway to drivers, hey, be careful, yield to cyclists on this approach, and also eliminating what is now what we call permissive left turn from Hyera onto Suburban. So, we've got drivers looking for gaps in traffic and then just making that turn when there's a gap. That also adds some conflict and exposure to cyclists. That's going away where that would be a left arrow only at the signal. Um to really make a huge improvement to that conflict with those right hook concerns, what we would need to do is widen the intersection into that parking lot that's kind of on the east side of the street. That involves some off-site rideway acquisition, cutting down several large trees. There's some overhead utility lines that would have to be undergrounded or moved. It's something that we couldn't advance in the short term. um would still be a valuable I think long-term project to consider down the road. And that could give you the option to either one keep the bike lane to the left of the right turn pocket so that you don't have right turns kind of squeezing cyclists along the curb side or potentially you could do like a more of a protected intersection style design where you have more of a setback. Really get those speeds down for the turns. Um but something more robust like that we couldn't achieve at this time within the rideway and and the current funding for the project. So trying to make as many incremental improvements as we can but that will still be a less desirable design as currently exists without something bigger beyond this project.

Uh what is our flexibility if we have any to restricting right turns at all on that street? Yeah. So the right turns on red are already restricted and part of the reason is we have large vehicles making those turns and the paths overlap. So like if you had left turns coming out of Suburban at the same time as right turns from Hyera to Suburban, big trucks will will collide. So we already have right turn restrictions there. We're refreshing and relocating those signs so that they're super visible. There's still it's not 100% compliance. You know, additional enforcement over time helps with that, but that's something we it's already been done there.

Okay. And my my last uh question is about I think it's Margarita and South Hyera. I can't remember exactly how many lanes it is each direction at that intersection, but I think I asked in the agenda correspondence about uh the possibility of bike boxes for left turning um bikes at that intersection and wondered if that came up when discussed with the active transportation committee or if that seemed like a relevant or useful solution at that intersection. I I think I asked about PRAA also, but I know there's going to be additional work happening at Praau in the sometime in the future. Yeah, I I don't remember that specific um topic coming up from the ATC, but in part of the design, we did look for opportunities to provide those left turn boxes wherever we could, knowing that it's much easier to kind of saddle and make that turn in two stages rather than merging across multiple lanes of traffic. And Margarita, it'll be the same number of lanes as exists currently. um where we have width for those boxes at a couple of those tea intersections where we're able to widen a bit into the sidewalk at Praa and and at Margarita. What you need is you need some extra width on the street. So like in downtown and other places where we've added those turn boxes, they're basically in the width that was the parking lane on the approach. Um we don't have that width at those other intersections you mentioned. And looking at it again, I think we could potentially squeeze one in on one side at the Margarit intersection. Unfortunately, probably be the side where we have less people making the turns be going into like the DMV northbound where that and the reason is the crosswalk is set back a little bit. So, we have a little space for that box to fit

on the other side where the DMV is on. I don't think we have the width to do a bike turn box. What I would expect cyclist that are used to the areas might kind of do a quick loop into the DMV and come right back out on that side street. Um, but I don't think that's something we could fit there. For PRAA, same thing. Current width, there's not really a space for a bike box. However, that intersection will be reconstructed as a bicycle protected intersection with the Praa Creek Bridge project that we be hope becoming in the couple years here at following the complete streets work. So, more improvements coming at Praau for that specific um topic. Margarita more challenging in the short term. Yeah, that's I was especially thinking about Margarita because I know at the end of Margarita there's, you know, a lot of a lot of housing back there now. And so, um, for neighbors to feel comfortable being able to turn in and out of the busy arterial that leads to their home, it would be nice if we can avoid them having to cross, uh, one or two lanes of traffic to get into the left turn lane so they can turn in and out of their in and out of their house. So, I would encourage that, you know, we we look at that if um if there's space to to do that kind of thing. I think that's it for me right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you so much for all your questions so far and all these awesome answers. Uh, one more thing I I forgot to ask earlier. I appreciated the encouragement um to utilize the safer neighborhood routes and thinking about particularly our our middle schoolers coming from the east side of town, the southeast side of town. um you know there a lot of them using the Pacific Coast Center and coming through at that stoplight there and then um using that nice little modified uh crossing on uh Madonna which will be fabulous. But I was wondering if there are any improvements that the Pacific Coast Center was willing to do in their parking lot area. Um there are occasionally some conflicts in that and I know that that's outside of our jurisdiction but just curious um what was explored there. and we're happy to reach out to them. Um we don't have a lot of leverage to kind of compel them to do some improvements, but we're more than happy to reach out. Um right now, you see many of the cyclists coming out of that street circle through there to use the signal.

And as far I can tell, there's no signs restricting people from doing that. We can't really tell them to do that. Um but um we're happy to reach out. I'd say also another option is um if you're a cyclist, you could come out to Brit Street and make a right and then we're adding a two-stage turn box at that leg of the Madonna Hyera intersection. So you could make a quick right, be on Hyera for I don't know 70 feet and then saddle up in that two-stage turn box to cross the intersection. So there's a way to to get to that same point without having to go through their parking lot. Yeah, I was looking at that, but I was thinking about kind of our younger riders that are, you know, 12, 13 years old trying to navigate getting out onto Haggera and that that Pacific Coast Center just offers such a safer feel. Um, but it is tricky having parking lot in there. So, any outreach you can do on that front would be really fabulous. Appreciate it.

Well, tricky, but there's also a very clear uh light there, so it's helpful for people whether they're going straight or left. So, yeah. Uh, Council Member Shoresman,

sorry, I forgot one question about curbs. Um, uh, the curb protected bike lanes versus the um versus the flex post. Uh I noticed that and I this was in the agenda correspondence and thank you for your answer but just for the public and for um council when we get to deliberations. Uh I noticed that it seems like the um additive alternative a that you propose is basically just adding curbs um in some of the spaces as opposed to just the the flex posts. And um and the estimate the estimate right now is approximately $358,000 just for that that part of the of the RFP. Um which is a relatively small amount in the grand scheme of $12 million um for you know for the whole stretch of roadway including all the all the different neighborhood components and everything. Just wondering, usually when we do these additive alternatives, uh, you're looking at how much the bids come in at within the total allowable amount. Um, and the allowable amount right now is based on your total estimate, which includes the additive alternative and the the rest of the project, I believe. Correct. Um, my question is, how do I I'm trying to figure out how to articulate this. If if council wanted to uh once the bids come in, if council wanted to include that, if the if council wanted to include that small, relatively small extra expense, um, what would be the process for for doing that? Um, right now my understanding is you would just uh select a bidder based on whether or not they were able to get under the council approved amount. But

if we wanted to increase that amount, um, how would that happen?

Sure. The bid structure in the authorization requested in this item includes the full cost for the base bit and the bid additive. So bids came in within our our estimate, we can award the full project right now. If the bids came in high right now, we would have to come back to council to ask for more money if there was interest in advancing the curbs. And you're right in that staff report, the actual bid cost for that type of curb is largely unknown here. We've been build them like that. They depends on local concrete fabricator and what that cost is to make those at scale. Um, we've talked to cities that have done this in the past and rolled them out substantially, but they've often have found a contractor or concrete fabricator that has made them and can make them at a reduced cost moving forward because they kind of have a handle on it where we've taken information from them what these might cost, but it's could be volatile. These could come in twice that or under that. It's hard to say. Um, if there was interest in making sure that there was an ability to fund those or having us to come back, we would have to come back if the bids came in above our current funding amount. Regardless, uh, there's interest in coming back to get specific direction on whether to award the additive alternative or not, we'd be happy to do that. The only kind of trade-off I would note is that we do have kind of a hard deadline to award a contract by the end of June. So, we if we get no bids, we'll need to that could affect that. If we get high bids, we might have to come back either way. if there's specific interest in adding additional extra funds to make sure that can happen. Um be nice maybe if we have that direction tonight. Other otherwise we're happy to put an item on this on the calendar and come back um if there's interest in doing so.

Thank you. I know our agendas are very packed so our city manager might be cringing um at the thought of another item but I appreciate that context. Thank you. Thank you. Um, sorry. I have a really silly question. I feel like I've gotten better with all of this infrastructure, but the bike boxes, just clarify for me, that's just the little green box in front. It's not where you sit on it and then the the signal goes, right? So, there's there's two, I guess, kind of things you might see that would fall under the bed of a bike box. One is kind of a standard box where if you're on the main street and you come to a red light, you can kind of shift to the left and get in front of traffic. You see that on like Pismo Street at Hyera. There's a bunch of those in town.

Yeah. The other is um and this is more useful when you're on a main street that has a green light most of the time is it's called a a two-stage left turn box. So those you'll see some places downtown and that lets you if you show up on a green light, you kind of saddle in that box and then you use the green light for the side street to then cross the intersection.

Okay. Thank you. I was like I thought I was good and then all a sudden I'm like as you're describing I'm like maybe I'm not clear on it. Thank you. Um, and then there's you answered something in the Jenna correspondence around Walker Street. Um, oh, here it is. And when I looked through everything, I didn't think this went that far. So then I I I drove it again before I came to to council meeting today and I thought, well, that wasn't in my in my picture here. So when when do you get to the point that you would be turning to to get to Pacific? Can you do you have any um pictures of that? I do, of course. Awesome. Thank you.

All right. It's down here. We got some slides that we thought may come up. Yes. So, if you're aware now, like the intersection of Hikera and Pacific and Walker Street all come together at this kind of funky big wide

ambiguous area and it's confusing for everybody and we've had crash history because there's a lot going on. The Midhira enhancement plan that was adopted I don't know 15 20 years ago had some concept level architectural sketches that says well we should close this this off at Walker Street and as part of that we'll put in a culde-sac we'll make it a little pocket park um there wasn't really any engineering or costs developed for that so um and we we were seeing this crash history happen here so we said well we have interest in closing this off as a safety improvement and what could we do to to get that safety benefit and also make it nice nicer and aesthetically pleasing with what we can do at this time. The concept in the midhigh area plan requires some offsite rightway to widen for a culde-sac. And another big constraint was um this is in the flood flood zone,

right? So if you raise this whole thing up to a sidewalk plaza, now you're impeding the flood path and you rise the flood levels in that whole area. So what we've designed is something that we think advances the concept of the street closure. And again, it's just at Walker right where it hits Iger. So, Pacific Street still open. Okay. You can still turn in and out. It really just closes that very end of Walker Street, but with ways that make it somewhat nicer looking, but also with um removable ballards that if there's an emergency need or maintenance need, you can reopen it to traffic temporarily if you need to.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. And you said in your um presentation, but I just thought to kind of like highlight a little bit um our conversation about a C in my mind grade wise isn't very high. Um but as we are looking at our emergency um that whether we do this project or not, we're basically still in the C range as far as emergency response, right? Yeah. And specifically talking about like the Chumash intersection.

Um we use a term called level of service as kind of a traffic engineering term to describe like the performance of a road. It's largely based on level of congestion and driver experience. It's measured from level service A to level service F where A would generally be free flow. There's no one else on the road. You can go clear as fast. Where F would be complete gridlock. Um and what we're seeing is at that specific intersection, the level of service would be C both with and without the project in the near-term and long-term horizon. And what that means is a driver making a left turn at a chew mash is going to have somewhere between 15 to 25 seconds of delay on average during those peak morning and commute and afternoon commute times where traffic's heaviest on Hyera and waiting for a gap to make a left. Um that would the project would increase that by about 5 seconds of delay. Um I'll note too level service C is within our acceptable range. getting this to like a level of service A would require something like signalizing this intersection. With that said, it might still operate at B or C as a whole because now you're stopping traffic in a much higher volume of traffic on IRA more frequently. So,

so you're not flowing. I you probably aren't going to get to an A at this intersection short of like an interchange or something where there's just not an intersection any longer.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I don't see any other questions. So, I think we'll move on to public comment. And as usual, those who are speaking for one minute go first, two minutes go second, three minutes go last. See clerk. Oh, all of ours are three about three minutes and there are 15, but I think some of them have left. Um, I'm going to call three names at a time and so you'll know when you're ready to come up and speak. Our first speaker is Jean Nelson, then Robert Aaya, and then Helen Mustachi.

Can you turn the public? Yes. Thank you. I keep hitting it and it's not going. You reset the three minutes. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Stewart and Council. My name is Dr. Jean Nelson. I live in Chumash Village in the city of St. Louis Abyispo. I I sent you correspondence earlier today uh with the February 17th uh uh KSBY news story which supports keeping the cyclists on the sidewalk for their safety just as was done on Madonna Road between Madonna in and Lagouna Lake Park. And um clearly if the cyclist that was killed there last year, if he was on the sidewalk, he probably would still be alive today. So back in December, I met for about an hour with the uh uh disaster manager Joe Little. And my message today is really about public safety. And I want to guarantee first responder access to Chumash Village uh during rush hours and when there's a Highway 101 blockage. Um and what we've got right now in this plan uh is basically something that's going to eat precious seconds. And I've seen fires go fast. I know those seconds count. I know in the case of heart attacks which happen with people at Schumar's village seconds count. So, uh the idea that oh, we'll just add a few seconds onto this that could be the difference between life and death. Uh I suggest that the concrete blocks that are being considered for this, no, get rid of them. Put the bicyclist on the sidewalk. We don't need concrete blocks then. And that's going to reduce cost because I'm hearing very clearly we're having budget problems. This project is having budget problems.

Get rid of the concrete blocks. And I ask you to think about Pacific Palisades and the the access of people getting out. Now, conveniently, the modeling that's been presented to you ignores the fact that we have, according to Cal Calire, we have severe fire hazards in the LAS and SRAAS to the northwest of the city. And we're not looking at those that evacuation. We should be looking at that evacuation because again, as is noted, Hyera is a vital north south arterial road. It needs to stay at four lanes. Please put the bicyclists on the sidewalk, protect public safety, and keep the rest of the project fine, but keep that section of Hyera at four lanes. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh, hello. My name is Robert Aalian and um I just had a spirited debate with someone who doesn't agree with me or Dr. Nelson. Um I totally concur with the idea of having the bike bikeists oh my god. Anyway, ride on the sidewalks. Okay, this is done in other cities. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco even does it. Uh they allow it allow it for th under 13 years old. Um we uh having people on the sidewalks with bikes is not necessarily a conflict. Every time I go hiking, I run into mountain bike bikers. We share the same trail. It's it's narrower than the sidewalk. They're even going up and down together. And I've managed for 10 years never to be hit by a bicyclist. They're always very, you know, 95% have been very respectful. So, let me see what my notes say here. Um, so because Hyera is very light pedestrian, uh, it it is a perfect place to have the, um, bicyclists, bike, oh my god, bike riders use the sidewalk. Um second I want to um comment on some things I read from Mr. Fukushima. And I think some of the um impetus behind the the safety issues or have been the statistics like uh four fatalities that occurred and one of them was um Saul Goldman and Jean mentioned

correctly that if he had been using the sidewalk very most likely he would still be alive or at least not been killed at that time. And then um one thing about the popularity of it here is the topography of San Abyspo and uh the this ambitious goal that uh Adam has about getting us up to 20% bike ridership is not going to happen. And the reason is because St. Louis Abyispo is not flat. were in a bowl and all the neighborhoods h are to get to them you have to go up on grades and these grades can be up to 10% and it's just not friendly for for older adults families and people commuting to work in professional attire and it's the reason that you don't see thousands of Calpali students who are young and fit riding on the streets and we've got plenty of these safe uh roads to ride on. Thank you.

Thank you, Helen Mustache. And then Mark mustache and Dan Gart. I guess my turn. Are the Maches here?

Uh my name is Dan Gart. I do not represent formerly any bicycle club or neighborhood. I represent someone who has ridden 30,000 miles on a bicycle since 1984 after my knee operation. Uh from San Diego to Seattle, I haven't ridden the distance. I've been in those cities riding and I would say 20,000 miles of those is probably commute traffic. Uh I agree with several things Dr. Nelson said that needs to be four lanes. In the presentation, I saw a big semitr there. I don't want that truck coming down my back when I'm going down that road. I want a right-hand lane I can go in and go my 25 miles an hour. I don't go 40. I don't go 35, you know. Uh and then but but they should not be on the on the sidewalk. Bicycles should never be mixing with cars or people. You're just asking for trouble. Matter of fact, on those 30,000 miles I rode, never a scratch, never a broken bone. So, I know what I'm doing. Uh, yeah, like I said, the four lanes is better for slow drivers like me. I come out and for people coming out of the out of the businesses there in the on the west side, they have a lane to get into. They didn't have to quick get in there and cut in front of somebody. Uh, the cement barrier box, he's right, they're terrible. Throw them away. I find them more of a hazard. Uh, I ride my bike from Margarita. Well, I've ridden all the way from Tank Farm Road all the way down to Santa Rosa. But the scariest part on that bike ride for me is when I get downtown with those protected bike lanes. They're hazardous. I get a guy behind me, I drive my bike slow, too. I get a guy behind me wants to pass me. Well, he can't. And now with the advent and the popularity of electric bicycles, that's even worse because they're wider than a regular

bike. There's no way they're going to get by me. They try and if I if I don't watch in my mirror, I get knocked off the road. And then another issue with those uh bike lanes like that, like the story earlier where the piece of theater fell off today. What if that falls in the bike lane? How do I avoid that? If I can't go out into the street and go around, what's going to happen? And now with all the rain, the flood water is going to congregate towards the curb. How do I go through a puddle? I have a mirror and I know when I can get into the car lane. And I would suggest that all bike cutters do the same thing. Uh, and there needs to be no light at at Elk Lane. Nobody lives there. It's by a cemetery. You know, the only people light,

huh? What was that? No light. There's nobody living on Elk Lane. There's no traffic there. You don't need a light there. You don't need to interrupt the traffic anymore cuz it's by a cemetery and any life there is at the other end of the road. Maybe better off going out that way under Pra Lane then over to Hyera. Well, I'll write your letter for the rest. Thank you. We'll read it. We have plenty. Kim Bartley, Beverly Gilbert, and Candace Dear. Kim Bartley here. Okay. Mimi McCller. Mimi. Mimi Keller.

City clerk. There was three people that weren't there. Okay, hold on.

Okay, first of all, thank you everybody. I have been to quite a few of these meetings. Thanks. Hi, Kenny. been to quite a few of these meetings. Um I've owned a business on South Hyera for the last 33 years. Um I also live over there for the last 10 years um off of Praau. So I have a lot of experience on that side of town. Um first I'd like to say that I think the Hyera Street project is incorrectly named because it's South Street, all these different streets that are involved. Um, I think it should be delayed for a number of reasons, including the budget. Um, I also would like to suggest that maybe the city come up with a bike GPS for alternative bike routes to keep the bikes off the busy lanes in the busy streets. Um, my suggestion has always been the same, that you put um a really nice bike path from Madonna on the widened sidewalk where the trees are that you were just talking about. It's already a wide sidewalk there. It's also um an extra wide street in front of Central Coast Brew. I'm sure you could make a bike lane by the graveyard there that goes on to Elks Lane, a beautiful bike path because there's not even sidewalks over there and down to Praa Road. And eventually the overpass will connect it to Madonna, Target, all of that. Um bike path that's already created. That's a nice bike walk path, but you can connect to the infamous already there Bob Jones Trail that goes all the way to Losos Valley Road. So, there is no reason to put protected bike lanes on South Hyera. Um, I agree. I look at all the work and everything that goes into this and all the intricacies that seem to be causing issues when we

already have a onemile stretch of a bike path parallel to South Hagera. It doesn't make sense to interrupt South Hagera with protected bike lanes. I do agree that they need to be striped better. Um and the main issue is the homeless shelter. So just tonight a gentleman was riding the wrong direction on Praau. I'm sorry on South Haggera. He was going north towards Praau. Um he was literally coming the wrong direction which happens every single day because I make that left turn off of Praau onto South Ara. We almost hit him. So he wasn't even in the bike lane. He was riding into the lane. So there's a lot of issues with this project. Um I commend these guys. I know they've been working hard. It's just a shame that grant money is is making decisions rather than what's best for our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Cynthia Press, Danielle Chimo, Jack Chimo, you can come next. I just calling the next ones after you. Oh, I'm sorry. We called three in a row so people could be ready to go next.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for this time and I thank for thank the gentleman for the presentation that I have not seen quite that thorough before. But I find that uh like like it said lot of a lot of they're talking about bikes all the time. We're not talking about people who live there. There are six communities between Margarita and uh Elks Lane. They have not even been addressed. I appreciate the fact that we had time uh with these gentlemen and all and to come to Shoe Mash. I've lived there for 24 years and I definitely have seen the change in the traffic and what's going on there. Um but there are six other communities there that try to go in and out and there businesses there in that short distance and yes there's more than one graveyard. There's two at that corner and there is Yeah. So, uh, slowing the traffic down at Elks Lane to me doesn't make a lot of sense. Uh, traffic speed would make more sense. And, uh, I know there's a lot of confusion about where a bike should be. I really would like to see them safe and up out of the way. I see families coming down there with children on the back and cars going by them 35, 40, 50 miles an hour. I'm good at judging speed because I like speed. But um that's no place for people to be riding bicycles. And uh number one, they think they have quote the rightway, but they only weigh 200 lb opposed to 2,000 lb. It's really not a good choice. And I really thank you for this time. Uh gentlemen answered most of the questions I hid in here and the concerns. And that was uh uh the choking

of Hyera. Uh the the safety the safety is the biggest concern. The entrances for uh emergency equipment. I've lived there and I see what they have to do just to get around our community, let alone choke that area. Um why can't they go on Bridge Street? You know, get them off of that crazy corner that goes to South Street. That would be easy if they're going that way. So I thank you for your time. Thank you.

Um good evening mayor and members of the council. My name is Candace Dair. I'm a board member at Tumash Village and I am here to respectfully urge you to re consider reducing lanes on South Iger Street. Um, I'm not going to look up at you because I'm reading and I can't do both in these glasses. I can't see you. Um, I agree. I want to agree with the man that came up and asked about having a skating ring because that would actually serve more wider range of our community than just people who are on bicycles. I have a granddaughter who's 7 years old and she would love to be an ice skater, but there's nowhere around here to really go to ice skate. So that I think would really serve a lot of youth and that would be a good thing. I also wanted to commend Mrs. McDonald for her budget report. Even though um we're not really staying on the course of it, I think it was a really thorough report and I appreciate that. Um lastly, I guess here's what I want to say. South I gear is not a lightly traveled road. It is primarily a corridor connecting our community to 101 schools, workplaces, and local businesses. Transportation studies constantly show that when vehicle capacity is reduced on high volume corridors without significant ex capacity, congestion increases, especially during peak hours. Congestion is not an inconvenience. It's a public issue. Schumash Village has one entrance and one exit exit. This is not an opinion. That is a structural fact.

Any increase in delay directly affects emergency response. The National Fire Protection Association states response time standards because seconds matter. When lanes are reduced and traffic backs up, emergency vehicles have fewer options to maneuver. that risk should not be minimized. Um, let's see. Lowering the speed limit and increasing enforce in enforcement are evidence-based safety measures. Students studies consistently show that even small reductions in vehicle speeds significantly reduces both crash frequency and injury uh severity. These are targeted costeffective interventions. I guess I'm gonna finish with Oh, I guess I can really quick. What are the protect projected peak hour delay increase? Well, what is our projected hour decrease? Ah, I got dry mouth. Thank you.

Thank you. And feel free to send in an email if you want to finish the rest. Beverly Gilbert, Cynthia Pres, Dan Daniel Chima, Beverly Gilbert. Okay, that was Beverly. Okay, Cynthia Press, Cynthia. Cynthia. After Cynthia be Daniel Chimo, and then Jack Chimo.

Hi. Uh, my name is Cynthia Pretzel. Thank you, Jin. Um, and I am a resident of Schumash Village and I am speaking on behalf of Kathy Smith, who is a 25-y year resident of our 235 mobile home development and she's not feeling so well tonight and so I am going to read you her message. Um, the two-lane road diet proposed to garner grant dollars for the Hyera Complete Streets Plan almost exclusively negatively impacts the 400 plus senior residents of Schumash Village. The four-lane roadway Hyera, which begins all the way south of San Los of Los Osus Valley Road, is reduced to two lanes just south of our entrance and then is hampered by an unnecessarily enlarged turn lane and permanent concrete barriers. I sincerely view this as a disaster waiting to happen. Oh, I'm doing good. It cannot be compared to the south street road diet experience as the residential pockets in that area have numerous opportunities for access to other roadways in slow at Sumez Village. It is the only way in or out. Uh it's not like nearby Rancho St. Louis 100 unit senior mo mobile home park with two exits, four traffic lanes and a single signal light at Praau or Silver City 297 all age mobiles, three exits, four traffic lanes or Creekide Village, 215 all age mobile. It has one exit, but it has multiple special turn lanes onto with a traffic with different traffic management modalities, including a major traffic signal. I urge this

council to direct staff to confer with Gene Nelson and apply his his plan at the entrance exit of Schumash and adopt the and adapt the bike and pedestrian sidewalk concept he describes as already functioning on Madonna Road and supported by Shamesh residents. Lastly, I would like to thank all of you for your committed public service and I have to all the citizens in this community and a special kudos to our mayor Erica and Jan Marks for their special outreach. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Daniel. Um, I am an avid biker and in the 15 years that I've been living in St. Louis Abyispo, I have used biking as a way to commute to work uh in downtown slow in to school when I went to Qua um and to get groceries. Um, and I've felt that the work that has been done to the bike infrastructure in the downtown area of San Losispo has been fantastic. But if you live outside of the downtown area, um, it's very difficult to get from those those periphery areas to downtown. And this proposal, I feel, would uh greatly help a lot of the issues that I've seen with the bike infrastructure on the outskirts of town. And I want to encourage the council to go forward with protected bike lanes. And um I think the idea of having um concrete uh protection for the bike lanes is a really good idea. Um there have been many moments when I've been afraid of getting hit by a car and when I'm downtown I don't feel that way when I'm in the protected bike lanes. So um I think it's a great idea. I think um one thing that comes to mind when uh talking about the South Street area by the gas station um I I wish there was a better solution for that. Um uh that that uh intersection is very scary especially um when you get past that interse intersection uh there's a sewer grate right in the curb there that's basically takes up half the bike lane and if you're on a road bike the and you're not paying

attention this the slats for the sewer grate uh it'd be very easy to fall into to those and so that's something that I wanted to bring to attention Um there are several of those sewer grates throughout the city uh that maybe there's a solution that could they could just have horizontal slats as well. Um anyway, just uh thank you guys and that's it. Thank you very much, Jack Chimo, then Ken Der, and Bill Toma.

Uh thank you, council and staff. Uh it's really encouraging to see all of the incredible details that you guys uh have gone over back and forth. Uh it's it's honestly uh I wish I knew more about it to be able to speak better, but these are just some thoughts that I had. Uh uh I live down at the south end of Hyera, like near Trader Joe's, so uh I frequently uh bike from down there to downtown. So I would be heavily utilizing this and I have been waiting for this for for many years. I know it's it's like uh kind of been in talks for like 10 or 12 years or something like this. So it's kind of like yeah finally here. So I really want to encourage you please do not delay. Uh we've been waiting for this for a long time and it's really encouraging to see it happen. Um I just wanted to echo a couple comments that uh Daniel made. Uh I feel also very scared sometimes and I have had uh neardeath collisions uh specifically near where South Hills is uh along that there's like a billboard there. Uh unfortunately uh sometimes drivers I don't it seems like it's personal aggression or something that there's and I'm sure bikers do the same thing. So I think it's a really good idea to keep that separated because uh you know personal safety uh comes into safe public safety comes into the the conversation a lot and I think uh this would be safer for both drivers and bikers. Um and just a couple other little quick things so I don't forget. Um so I also would support as much concrete curbs as possible. Um, and the pre-cast curbs are fine. I think we could do some art public artwork potentially. I know we did a great job with uh artwork around the electrical boxes. Uh, so maybe there's something

there uh that could be thought of. Uh, or the flex posts. The same idea. Um, and then lastly, uh, just something else that was mentioned which I didn't know about was, uh, this Bridge Street widening project. I would advocate don't kill the trees, please. Uh, so I don't know if that's going to be in consideration today, but thank you guys so much. And uh, by the way, I'm also a driver, so I I'm I'm on both sides of this, so I I think it's really uh going to be beneficial for everybody to keep going forward with this. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, good evening, madame mayor, vice mayor, council. Um, thank you for this time. My name is Ken Der. Um, I'm urging you to delay this project at this time. Um, I am partners in three different properties on South Hyera and also owner of Piso property on Praau Road. Um, I'm looking at this from my business interest. I'm getting ready to endure two and a half to three years of construction on Prader Road while we widen the bridge at the creek. Um, which may make Elks Lane the primary entrance and exit for many of us who work on that road in addition to those who travel from Hyera to 101. Um, I'm not all knowing. I don't know everything, but um I do observe I fear that by reducing the lanes on Hyera to the center lane, it will become a truck parking and loading unloading zone as you see in downtown San Louis Abyispo every morning. Um when the produce trucks and the FedEx and UPS drivers do their job. Um that's just my observation. Um, so thank you again for your time. I'm sure I forgot something, but uh I didn't come prepared to speak tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. After the next speaker, our final speaker will be Leah Brooks.

I also came unprepared to talk tonight. I was just going to listen. But uh and for whatever reason, I I thought I knew a lot about uh city council, but I didn't get the message. Apparently, I wasn't in one of those groups. My business has been there for 40 years. I've been lived in St. Louis Sabispo since I was uh born uh 71 years ago. Um Saul Goldberg was my teacher at Kalpali. Uh and but he was killed by a drunk driver. It wasn't because of the bike lane. Um D bike trails are are uh are all um we have we have a thorough thor thorough fair um from Broad Street to D through Damon Garcia. We're going through Ava Ranch. We have that connection already to the south of us. I think as Mia said that we have uh Bob Bob Jones. If we just do some of the finishing uh touches on Bob Jones and and use the as you guys mentioned um the the the sidewalks that are on the on the certain the the the west side of South Airaa, we can solve a lot of those problems. Um let's see. Uh we we we were uh there's there's probably thousands of employees that are in that commerce commerce park area. We have uh we we're CSZoned. We are manufacturing zoned in all through that area. That's where trucks are supposed to go. It's it's and and there are yes lots of residential uh areas in that area, but that's where all the trucks are supposed to be. If you want us out of town, then you need to tell us because this is this is this is

insane because trucks have to go down that that road. That's how our that's how how our products get to our businesses. I have 80 employees that come and go every day. I have 45 trucks that are up and down. I I usually have them go to their job sites, but some of them have to come into the office to pick up equipment. Uh and uh I don't see bike bicyclists towing the line when it comes to traffic safety either. I see a lot of them. I'm I also have uh my wife has product property on North Toro and people are blowing through those stop stop signs every darn day. So um again I'm sorry I wasn't prepared but uh I think this project is crazy. Uh the presenter talked about you know we can't do this because of money. We can't do this because of money. I think as one of the other uh speakers mentioned this is suffering from uh a budget bust and it's okay. I guess it's my my I plead with you do not

Thank you. make this thing continue. Thank you, William Brooks.

Well, good evening. I'm Leah Brooks and I am representing your active transportation um committee. We enthusiastically support the staff recommendation. These significant projects will help address the dangers posed by distracted speeding and drunk drivers who have been responsible for some horrific crashes. Increasing active transportation trips to meet city goals requires facilities where bicyclists and pedestrians feel safe. This these projects will really help. We hope the bid comes in low enough to include the concrete curbs because we they've been very effective on Churro and Broad Streets. The Madonna Road shared juice path must stay on our radar screen for funding because it is a crucial safe routes to school project for Lagona School, Lagona um Middle School. Thank you for supporting this transformation of South Hyera to improve improve safety for all road users. And thank you to everybody who actually follows the traffic rules. We wouldn't need a lot of these facilities if people put their phones away, if they paid attention to the road, and we it we'd save a lot of money, too, and a lot of lives. So, I'm It hurts my heart to hear the hostility towards bicyclists and to say you can only ride on a bike path. I'm sorry. We ride everywhere. It's our transportation and um we need to be safe. This is in the bo the bottom line is this is a safety project and thank you very much for supporting this.

Thank you. No other speakers? No, that's my last speaker card.

All right. Thank you. Well, let's bring it back. Um, I do I would love to hear from um Chief Harris about the safety when I hear adding 7 to 14 minutes of additional time. Um, there's the conversation of, you know, EMS and just if people are trying to get to someone's heart attack has been mentioned, but also in the case of a fire or something of that sort. So, I'd love to hear from you as to what you have experienced, what kind of the norms have been from um a public safety side.

Madame Mayor, members of the council, Randy Harris, interim fire chief. I couldn't agree with Dr. Nelson anymore. Seconds do count, but the team from um engineering has been super collaborative on this project. And I'd like to break it down to to two different things. one is on the access so emergency response and then the other piece of this would be on the egress of the residents from that area and evacuations in general. So on emergency response there's a couple key pieces to that. One is um and the engineering team once again to their credit worked with our um op staff and our emergency manager Joe Little and what they looked at was hey how can you get the engine there? This is in particular in between two different zones for us. So it's the south end of the truck from the downtown station responding and it's also the north end of engine 4 which is coming north on Aggera. So we looked at that from both perspectives and and really what it comes down to and especially when the truck is trying to get through Madonna that is a very difficult intersection that doesn't currently have preeemption. And so uh Luke and his team looked at that and included uh preeemption technology not only for fire but also for PD. And so we're working on getting smarter signals and that's also going to be a point um when we talk about evacuations, but that signal tie-in piece to our emergency vehicles is absolutely critical. One of the um speakers mentioned NFPA. So NFPA 1710 um does put out a standard travel time for emergency response and that's four minutes 90% of the time. That 90th percentile that is um the gold standard. that is what our our response goals are uh with a water travel lane and with preeemption especially through that key intersection there at Madonna that'll actually help us save some seconds off of response. So, while there

is fewer lanes going southbound, northbound um once again in front of Chum Mash in particular will remain the one lane, but while there is fewer going south, we have that wider turn lane that we don't feel is going to be an operational impact. And that comes directly from our staff who do the response. Looking at evacuation routes, um that's, you know, very difficult. we when we look at evacuations, we look at different zones and we look at what the different hazards are. So, there's never a one-sizefits-all piece and and the evacuation um topic will come up um to council later on. So, I I don't want to get into um anything beyond this immediate area. You did see the the fire safe council did give us a grant. They did some modeling for this area. Um the ladis technology that's used actually looks at the uh population-based commercial residential how many vehicles are included and then it does that modeling. Yes, it does add some time but ultimately when you look at Hyera going southbound it chokes down to one lane and it goes through some intersections there. And so that's why I want to bring up the intersection technology again is when they are able to control those intersections and get them timed that will actually open that route up. um if it's a southbound evacuation that we're looking at. One thing that I can tell you from um the fire perspective because if I was living in Chum Mash, I also would be concerned about having, you know, South Hills right behind. That's a different fuel model than a lot of the the major disaster areas. So, for instance, Paradise much larger fuels, the topography was much different. Uh what is behind uh their community is a light grass. It's only about knee high most of the time. And it's also um very sporadic with a rocky outcropping. That's not the type of fire that's going to push into a community. That's the type of fire that we're able to go

direct and we put fire engines in that community and we're able to do hose lays to to put the fire directly out instead of having to necessarily evacuate people and fight fire indirectly. So that's that's a little different operation than what you see on a lot of the major campaign fires and especially when you you look at you know the town of paradise and the the horri horrible tragedy that that was. So different scenario there. Uh with that said evacuations are a little bit longer. Um, I don't feel it is significantly longer, especially when you're looking at the 2-hour mark, but I will say that there is shelter in place, there's evacuation warnings, and then there's actual evacuations. And so, when we break up zones, we're able to give people more notice ahead of time by putting the adjacent zones on a warning. That way, they can, you know, have an idea, hey, we're in an area that might be evacuated. And so, that time measurement actually starts when we give that first notice. So, we're able to do that a little bit um a little more intelligently, a little more proactively by looking at these different zones, and we don't have to evacuate everybody at once. And so, that also helps um the flow down, you know, tighter streets. But we don't feel that um either impact is uh going to necessarily affect emergency response or evacuations to a level that um is unacceptable. Public safety is a definite balance. I don't envy your decision tonight, but um we do realize that there are, you know, bicyclists that um do get struck there and and vehicle speeds are, you know, fairly high in that area.

Happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much. Uh Council Member Shortsman,

thank you. Don't go anywhere. That was I have a follow-up question for you. So, um, thank you for touching on the wider center lane because that was one, um, sort of thing that I was wondering about is, uh, with fewer traffic lanes, it seems like having that big open space sort of running down the middle of the road would actually give an emergency response vehicle a little bit more space than they currently have with a just a double center line and two traffic lanes. if those traffic lanes are congested, then there's nowhere for the for the um emergency response vehicle to go. So, thank you for touching on that. The other thing that I wanted to ask about was in the next fewish years, we're planning to have a new fire station in the Avala Ranch area, and I'm wondering if that will impact response times in the South Higera area that we're talking about here. That will certainly help. Um depending on where the the permanent station is located, the interim station uh located on Cessna Court, we'll be able to get up to the lower Hyera area um to about Hind. Um north of that is outside of the 4minute response time. Um but it still gives us redundancy in service. Um, and that's huge because basically what we have right now is if an engine goes on a call, that's a large coverage area and a large drive time for somebody else to come across town if there's a second call in that area. So, as we start looking at um our data and looking at calls, we want to just especially take into consideration overlapping calls. That's really what puts us outside of our ideal response times on a regular basis is is the overlap of calls. So, that fifth engine will be critical for that.

Thank you. That's all the questions I have for the chief. I have a couple follow-up questions for other staff. I don't know if other people have questions for the chief. I don't have anyone else with their light on, so go ahead um with the rest questions. Just a just a couple more based on some of the comments that people made. Uh the question that was brought up about loading and unloading of trucks in the center lane. Obviously, this is a pretty big arterial with some pretty large businesses along the route. Um, do we anticipate any problems with people using the loading or using the center lane as loading and unloading? And do we have a way of dealing with that if it does happen?

Thank you. Um, right now we don't have any designated like curbside commercial loading areas on the street. So, we're not displacing any area that's already intended for that purpose. With that said, the the vehicle code does allow commercial vehicles to load in the road if there isn't a designated spot to pull to the side. So, right now, my I don't see a lot of it. I'm sure it happens sporadically. Um, and currently, my guess is that they're loading in the bike lane or in the outside traffic lane. A lot of the stretch, the bike lane's not even wide enough for a car to be fully in it, not blocking the adjacent line of traffic. So, we wouldn't be encouraging that. I don't know if there's a lot we can do to prevent it from happening if the vehicle coil allows a driver to use the center turn lane or the adjacent lane. I think we would still either way we would have enough width that other vehicles can still pass through. Even if a driver decides to load in the outside lane, you can get around them. Um it's something we can closely monitor. If there's ability to explicitly prohibit it where there's a better option, we're happy to do that. Um it's not something that I've seen come up previously and nor do I see a lot of that loading on high gear happening currently.

Great. Um the last question I had was about uh the that intersection that I asked about earlier, the South Street uh gas station, South Hera. Um one of the speakers brought up an issue with a sewer grate and I know I've experienced those in some areas. Um, is that something that we can take a look at just even in the short term out outside of this project to see if there's anything that we can do?

Yeah, I have that noted. I'm pretty sure we already have the replacement of that grade in the plans. If not, it's something we can certainly add. We've been doing that as part of other paving projects and either fully replacing them to those side opening types of um drain inlets where we don't have a great in the road and where that's not possible, we replace it with a great that has more of a honeycomb pattern where there's not an area for tires to within the grate. So yeah, that's something we're happy to to address.

Okay, great. Um if no one else has any ask that so is that already part of um our CIP project or is there some sort of similar to our ADA curbs that we are slowly getting all of the curbs updated. Is there already a plan to update the grates as a whole?

We don't have like a comprehensive plan. A lot of them have been done already where they're in streets with bike lanes. Um the ones that largely remain are on like what formerly were like state highways. We don't even do that style of like inlet anymore and we've been incrementally upgrading them as we have other projects or if there's a a request. So if we get a request from a bicycling resident or the ATC saying hey there's one that's really a problem we've often swap those out sooner if we can. So I'm hearing ask slow app scan it send it in. That's a good ask slow request. Yes. Perfect. Thanks council member.

Yeah. Great. And so um my my last sort of question I guess is you know we had I know we had this discussion when we were embarking on the construction of the North Toro Greenway and we've made some alterations to that as a result of experience over the last year year and a half or so since it's been um fully operational. um you know to to some of the people who have concerns about specific parts of the um construction or the road diet or the curbs or the flex posts. Uh if we put all this in and there are problems with it, it causes massive traffic congestion or um we start seeing other sorts of collisions or accidents at some of these points along the route. Uh do we have a process for making modifications along the way or tearing things out if needed?

I'd say yes. and the prominent design features are pretty relatively easy and quick and low cost to modify. Um, we're not if you widen the sidewalks into the road and realize now the road's too narrow, it's hard to unwiden the sidewalks, for example, where you can modify striping. You can remove things like flex pose pretty easily. Even the pre-cast curbs you can pick up with like a pallet jack or a a forklift and put them on a truck and haul them away. And there's something that will need to be refined with almost any large capital project. And so we're prepared to be watching and monitoring for those, getting input from the community, emergency response providers, and um our ATC as the project's moving along and prepared to make those changes as quickly as we can. If uh and be coming back to the council saying, here's what we're seeing over these first months or a year of this project. You know, are we seeing traffic patterns change? Are we seeing delays? Are we seeing pinch points? Are we seeing crashes go down? That's the kind of stuff we want to guide refinements to this project and future projects on other streets that maybe we're not doing something quite like this, but we're trying to get better with each project of these types.

Thank you. And I know with the North Toro Greenway, you all just completed a report looking back on the last uh 12 to 18 months of that project's completion. And there's plans in the staff report if folks didn't get a chance to read the whole thing for a pretty robust monitoring and um and and look back uh after the fact in in a year, 18 months, that sort of thing um as we move forward. So um I'm just going to I'll try to keep my comments short. Um the I want to go back to the sort of beginning of this though for those who um aren't familiar with the statistics on this particular stretch of road. We've had 11 fatal or severe injury crashes between 2018 and 2023 on this stretch of road. That's 29% of all the fatal crashes in the city have happened along this route. So these improvements are really a safety you some of our speakers mentioned these are these are safety measures that we're that we're proposing to put in place here. And just for context too if you look at page 342 uh in the packet um the staff report there's a table six that talks about the the breakdown in costs. And from the comments today, you would assume that a lot of the improvements are uh related to to bike lanes, but in fact, that's really only 5% of the cost. So, this is a safety um plot project that really benefits everybody. Just uh let's see, 56% if I do math quickly, is paving, pedestrian curb ramps, sidewalks, and crosswalk beacons. So, a lot of the a lot of the costs is really on those pedestrian and street safety elements that are going to be used by everybody uh no matter what type of of mode of

transportation they're using. So, I think that's really important to point out and remember uh as we look at um these improvements going forward and that's why we got 9 million over $9 million of grant funding. So the $9 million of grant funding are not just to put in curb um you know curb separated bike paths or flex posts. That stuff's helps, but it's the it's the whole complete streets project and a lot of the pedestrian and just paving elements that are going to benefit um the corridor overall that that got us that over $9 million in grants as a city. And and congratulations and and thank you to staff who are very very good at getting grants for our city. So, I want to give them a little bit of kudos for that. Um, to some of the commenters that said, um, they'd like to keep people on the sidewalks. Um, honestly, that I my my favorite stretch of of facilities in the city is the separated bike path on Madonna Road that my um that my family has used. Uh, thankfully went in just as my son was in middle school. And so, uh, I I wish we could do that on all of our streets where all of our, uh, pedestrian and bike facilities are. Unfortunately, it's extremely cost prohibitive to build those elevated sidewalk, uh, areas for for active transportation users. Uh I've had the great um privilege to travel this past year to both France and Spain and I visited some communities that had those uh elevated bike paths throughout the city and you see 5-year-olds and you see 80 year olds riding because they're outside of tra of car traffic. They don't have to worry about uh having nearly as many collision points um except when they cross the street. Uh so I would love us to be able to do that.

Unfortunately, they're just too cost prohibitive at this time. Also, in those places, um there are lots of these curb separated bike paths uh that are in what has been a traditional roadway of even on old cobblestone streets. Uh they have built curb separated bike paths on some of the major arterials. So, this is not new and it's uh it's new to us or it's it's not as new to us as it was a few years ago, but it's it's not new internationally and it's uh making it safer for people to get around in other modes of transportation besides um besides individually driven cars. So, um with that, I think staff has done a really good job at listening to the community members. I know that not everybody is getting um everything the way they want in this project. Uh it it that's unfortunately how these projects work. Everybody gets some things that benefit them and some things that they don't like. And it's up to staff uh to do the best they can to listen to as many voices as possible and make things as safe as they can for everybody. And if it doesn't work, we will pivot. We will adjust and we will make corrections as we go. But um I'm prepared to support the project. I appreciate the work that staff has done. I would like to see a way that we can come back that if um if adding the curbs is not a significant expense if it doesn't come in double the price of what we're anticipating that we have the opportunity to weigh in and make adjustments because we've heard from from the community members tonight and all throughout this process that people

feel safer when they have the separation of a curb uh even more so than a flex post. Uh it makes people feel safer and it also we have evidence now from the North Toro Greenway that it slows traffic down and that's that's a big part of what keeps um all road users uh more safe too. So I' I'd love to have the opportunity to weigh in that on that if it's uh if it's not cross cost prohibitive to add those elements in. With that, I'll pass it on to somebody else.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you for kicking us off, Vice Mayor Shoresman. I think you spoke to a lot of the notes that I had uh jotted down here. Um ultimately, you know, in trying to decide how to to navigate this project, I I feel like my biggest responsibility is safety for our community. I I hear concerns about these infrastructure changes, but our current infrastructure is killing people in this stretch. Um, as council member Shoresman talked about, there have been 11 severe or fatal crashes in just a 5-year period. It's killing drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. So, this road diet isn't really just about creating, you know, safer roads. It's not just creating safer roads, but it's also creating safer infrastructure for pedestrians and bikers. And as council member Shoresman pointed out, we're spending 5% of the total project budget on um bike specific infrastructure. The rest is just making the uh sidewalks ADA accessible, creating wider turning lanes, putting uh signals with emergency controls in so that we can better respond to emergencies across the city, clearer striping. These are the things that we're really spending this this money on. I I heard somebody earlier saying, you know, this is no place to ride a bike. And I would agree with you. It is no place to ride a bike, but people are riding their bikes on it right now as it is. I watch a whole crew every single morning and every single afternoon riding from South Hagera over to Lagona Middle School and it makes my heart stop because it is incredibly dangerous right now. And if I can be a part of improving the infrastructure so that those kids can get over to school every day because that's that's their option. That's how they're commuting. Um I want to be a part of doing that. I understand that there's worry. I hear the worry from everybody and there's going to be big

changes to to the roads that we are all using, but I'm just really hopeful that these changes mean that car crashes and bike crashes become a thing of the past. That's the goal we're all working towards here. Um, and I think it's really important to remind everybody that, you know, we're we're going to be monitoring and we're going to be collecting data and we're going to be nimble and modify as, uh, we look at the infrastructure and and see what's working and and what's not. And, um, it's my great hope that that we're going to see slower car speeds and safer roads. Um, side note, when we have a chance, when we have funds, that Madonna overpass shared use path, it is a mustdo, you know, for I've got a middle schooler. I'm watching her friends. I'm watching her try and go over that every day. And it's it's a nightmare. Um, and that's our one connection for our kids trying to get back and forth across the the community right now. We have beautiful infrastructure on both sides. We need to to finish that. I know our team's working really hard on that piece, but I want to make sure that that's a big priority for us in the future. Um, and I will be uh supporting the project and thank you for all of the hard work that you've put into it.

Thank you, Council Member Boswell.

Wonderfully said. Um, I'll also be supporting the project as proposed. Uh, at our study session last year, we did a lot of work um on this. Gave staff quite a bit of direction. And I want to thank them for uh you know really working hard to respond to the direction that we gave you and coming up with some new designs and then looking at some other alternatives as well. Also thank you for what did we ask over 20 questions in agenda correspondence. That's a lot of questions. So thank you for uh taking the time to answer those. Um I just want to add just a couple of things. Um uh we heard from staff that doing the uh bike lane, doing the combined sidewalk, uh bike paths is not possible in this stretch of road. It's simply not an option. Uh be great if it was. Uh but the idea that uh bicyclists belong on sidewalks is not only wrong, it's uh not consistent with California law. California law defines uh a bicycle as a vehicle and gives it the right to be on the road. Furthermore, uh AB1358 is the California Complete Streets Act, which says that California communities have to divi design their streets for all users, uh whether it's car drivers or bicyclists or pedestrians. Um and so in moving forward with a project like this, not only are we doing good planning and making safer streets, um but we're uh complying with the letter and spirit of the law in California uh regarding um all road users. Um I've heard the concerns uh with folks in Schumash about making the unprotected left turn. Um I'm very sympathetic to that. I live on South Broad Street and I have to make a unprotected left turn onto South Broad Street every day. Uh that's the least fun part of my commute.

Um in fact, I wish I if I had a magic wand, I would do two things. Uh I would slow cars down. Uh because part of the problem there is with a posted speed of 45 and often drivers going 55 or 60, it's very difficult to judge that left turn. Uh the second thing I would do is get rid of two lanes. That's never going to happen on Broad Street. No one panic. Um but uh uh the the challenge is is at 50 plus miles an hour is judging the behavior of four automobiles when I'm trying to make an unprotected left is extremely difficult. Especially when they do my favorite thing, which is they they're in one lane and then suddenly they get uh to within a block of me and the car whips out from behind the other one into the second lane going at a much higher rate of speed. So those are two things like you know that would be nice to happen. Well, we're going to make those happen on South Ara. We're going to slow speeds down uh through all the uh design and traffic calming measures and we're going to reduce the basically the mental load of having to judge uh multiple car speeds to make an unprotected left turn. Um I certainly don't know for sure, but I through my experience and through what we've heard from staff and their design decisions, I believe it's going to be safer and easier to make that unprotected left turn. Um, I'm encouraged that we'll be monitoring and watching uh for that as well and make adjustments um if need be. Um, and then finally, because I just have to I just have to say this because council member Marks always likes to talk about back in the day. I looked at the Midhera plan that was 2001. You were on the city council and I was on the planning commission. So here we are 25 years later about to realize the vision of one piece of the mid higher street enhancement project. So when we talk

about infrastructure taking a long time yeah that sometimes takes a long time. So thank you. Thank you council member Marks.

Thank you. Well thanks for being on the planning commission way back when. I appreciate that. Um, so I am going to support the the plan tonight. I think um I think it's uh it's been a long time coming and uh safety first as uh we as everyone has pointed out. Uh I do feel um uh a lot of compassion uh uh with the uh residents of Chumsh uh village. um in terms of the fear of um uh of they their fear is that it will be less safe for them and um uh I appreciate the way that staff has taken that seriously and made as many accommodations as possible. Um, I'd like to just uh add a couple more. Um, which is that um if you're going to put concrete curbs uh on the east side, I guess east side of Chum of uh Hyera. Uh I hope that they can be uh painted with reflective paint or possibly some kind of solar uh powered um lighting somewhere along the the bike path because at night if there's no street light there um and you're uh let's just say making a right-hand turn out of shoe mash and you can't see the concrete. I'm imagining there's not a bicyclist there with a light on. If you can't see the concrete curbs, it's it's possible that that could cause an

accident. So, I I just hope to that um and I know the flex poles, they are not very pretty. It's true. But they do reflect the light, right? So, it's more um visible that something is there. Um the other thing I want to say is uh going along with what council member uh Francis was saying the Madonna shared use path um today in agenda review. I brought that up as uh you know I was thinking might be a possible um use of the unallocated um funds that we now set aside some of um uh uh but then I was told by staff that there Calron is saying you need actual separate bridge or widen that bridge and uh uh anything that can be done to make it safer Not just for the bicyclists and not just for the cars, but the pedestrians. And there are a number of pedestrians who are crossing um uh crossing the on-ramp to 101, the northbound on-ramp to 101, who are coming up from the creek. Um and uh there's no sidewalk there. They're heading to a a part of the bridge where there's no sidewalk and they're wandering around frankly. So I I don't want to run over anybody. This is a big deal for me when I'm driving. Um anything that can be done to in some way uh deter people from doing that or uh make it safer safer so that they are not uh in harm's way. I think that'd be

really good. That's all I have to say right now. Thank you. Uh, this has been a very challenging project to me. Um, knowing our council, I was pretty sure that it was going to go through no matter what. Um, and I think there's some things that we have to look at that I'm really all over the board on. So, sorry ahead of time because it's very late. Um, on one hand, we are trying to make it safer to get around this town, this city, whether you bike, drive, walk, one wheel, stroller, wheelchair, whatever it is, however you get around. And that is that is our goal. And that being said, I think there there's some challenges to money driving projects. And there's a bit of that that's true because we can't do some of the work without the money. Um, I would love to see future projects where we would reduce the speeds first, put the sidewalks, extensions first, and it doesn't work like that financially with $5 million for a widened sidewalk. However, I will say um you know over by Madonna or over by Orchet near the um pedestrian bike um walkway, it is one of the most relieving things when you are a not a very good uh cyclist, not a very good experienced cyclist or you've got little kids. It's one of the best experiences. Um one of the things I also look at is we're trying to plan things for people who follow the rules. That's just what we have to um plan for. That's that's just how our policies have to work. And time and time again, people

don't follow the rules. People are on the sidewalks. People go the wrong way. Um cyclists get upset because they get tickets. Um drivers in a car get upset because a cyclist goes in front of them or goes the wrong way. I mean, it's it's I get told all the time um things that are working or not working for people. And um and I honestly hear that and agree with all of that and and that's and that's it's probably weird to say, but I hear that that that's frustrating. People are not following the rules. And um I'm also thinking about, you know, I was talking to a friend and if if every place we had in our town, we just had the safe ride back to if I had the wand. Um Council Member Boswell, safe rides to every single school. That's what I'm looking at because if we have safe every single school, all of us can get everywhere. It has nothing to do with even just the kids at that point, but it does. Um, and in in the in the conversations and the emails, I can't tell you the amount of people who live on South Hera trying to get their kids to Hawthorne or even to Beto. And there's no other way until you get to Bridge Street. You can go to Meadow Park and go through Hawthorne that way, but you have to go on South Agera. So, there's this um catch 22 I'm feeling um with this project. Um I also could not believe that we didn't have the um emergency lighting already. I assumed all of our lights were that way. Um that's just I guess polyiana of me. Um but I I think that alone will be huge um for our PD and for our fire department. So, I'm I'm very aware of that and I think when we look at money well spent, that is definitely money well spent. Um, similar to the grading, can we look at all of that um and see how can we get the safe um access to our

emergency vehicles quicker? Um, I I'm I'm still a little concerned and you know, Luke and I talked about this quite a bit during my agenda uh meeting today is data and how do we get it to make the quick pivot? There's nothing quick about this. This is construction. It's not fast. And um there was someone had reached out to uh our team in public works and parking and talked about the North Toro Greenway and there was supposed to be hey well when are we going to look at this? Um when can we look at potential changes if that was the case? And it's like well we're two years behind on data. Sorry. And so that feels very uh discomforting for the community when it's like yeah we'll pivot but we don't have the updated data. So that I feel is um it doesn't feel good for our for our community to feel that we're not going to make decisions based on today's reality and that and that's just part of construction taking a while. Um, I will say that, um, as a past business owner of a couple businesses, I am very concerned. Um, we a gentleman mentioned we have construction happening for Praidge that has to happen. Um, we have construction then happening on South Hyera and most of us in this room have lived here for a while. The South Higgera LOVR construction was painful, very painful. So imagining that we have from there all the way down South Hyera, what is this going to look like? How do we communicate to our businesses? How do we communicate to our um general community members, but also people who aren't paying attention to this at all? I mean, as as Bill Toma said, you know, he's pretty involved in this. Didn't even realize it was happening. Um how are we going to get information past social media? Yes, we have a posting. there's there's got to be a way that we actually reach out to more people to let them understand, hey, this is how you

can sign up to get the updates. Um because as small businesses, they're working on a thread. I mean, just a margin of of profit that is so small and they're going to have construction around them all at once. And that is I don't want to be the reason the city to have the city be the reason that their business goes down. That is that is not okay. So, um having the conversations about when different parts of the road are going to close or um um then that's not the word I want to use, but um um that is um really a concern to me as to how are they going to be able to get their customers in and out, get their vendors in and out. Um and we had a lot of questions around semi uh semis and unloading downtown when we went through our major change downtown and that's been difficult. In this case, we do have a lot of um larger parking lots in a lot of the um places where people deliver. But I I want to make sure that as we're going into this process, talk to the businesses, find out what does this look like, when do people load, what is what timing can we work with? I know we can't always make it work perfectly, but that is um a big concern for me. Um and then the other part is when construction was happening during North Toro Greenway, the amount of people who drove down incorrectly because of construction and not understanding um how to stop and people stealing the cones and the whole entire thing that will happen again. I mean, no question. So, how do we help um improve so that cars are not going down the wrong way um and not even aware that that's what they're doing? So, I'd love to talk about that more. Um, and and I also very much realize that as we talk about grant money, this expires June 26, 2026. We would love to, well, not everyone would, but some people might like to delay this project a little bit to work out some more of the little details. And if we delay this project, $9 million gone. If this grant fails, we

will not get other grants. And I'm very aware of that. And I understand that this is the process and how we get funding for other projects. We have a huge PRA overpass. This doesn't go through. Do we want to not see the fra overpass go through with 100 plus million dollars? That would happen and that's concerning to me. Um so, oh, and then the last thing I think the concrete curb should be the alternate alternative addition. Um I very much agree, council marks, please do the paint or the reflective whatever on the whole side. Um, I cannot tell you how many people still ran into the curbs on Oso Street, on Choro Street. They tell me about it because yes, the ends are painted and there's a flex post at the end, but they they can't see it. So, um, and then last, I think my other wand would be I would love to see the GPS of alternative routes that make things smoother, easier, and it's kind of something that we can't do as a city because it's it's cheat codes really. um you know, whether it's going through Pacific Do It Center or whether it's going to the backside of um closer to the co-op so you can get to the Woodbridge Beacon. There's aspects of how to get around our city better, easier with bikes that would be really great to be able to understand um how do we share the information more and that's not just from using the maps, Google Maps or Apple Maps. It it doesn't come through as clear. So, I um you know, I'd love to be one of these people who says, "Oh, that should be a senior project." Um, just kidding. But I think there is an aspect to what does this look like? How do we help people get around our community smoother, easier, and not on the arterial street sometimes? I mean, this is going to be the only way some people go, but other people may really wish they could go pretty much any other way. Pick me. Um, so that is, I guess, my two cents. I um personally will very begrudgingly say yes to this project

because I see all of the positives. I think safety for all different forms of transportation is the most important to get people around our uh town. and um hearing from our chief of fire and um having a lot of conversations about this, seeing that this actually is easier for fire to be able to get to um some of the areas in this in this uh location with the EVP. I think that's going to be um very helpful and it's again something that we need that we haven't had and we couldn't afford otherwise. So, um, Council Member Marks,

um, I'd like to make a motion to have this meeting go past 11:00, and I hope not much further past 11:00 because I'm going to fall asleep right here. Um, is there a second? I'll second. We need to at least get this done. Okay. Do we need a Can we do a voice? A voice? Yeah. Okay. All in favor? All I Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I would like to make a motion to approve staff recommendation. Um, thank you, Council Member Boswell. Second. Thank you, City Clerk. Can we have roll call? Vice Mayor Francis?

Yes. Council member Boswell? Yes. Council member Marks? Yes. Council member Shoresman, I'm sorry. Okay, I needed to ask are do we need to provide any other direction or guidance if we want to see this again if for adding additional allocation or will that happen automatically? City manager.

Thank you. I believe staff's recommendation would be to we we would add the alternative if there's funding. If there's not sufficient funding then we would move forward without the additive alt. So if you do want to have it come back before that's final you know trigger is pulled then we would I think we would uh benefit from direction in the motion. Is there other appetite for that besides I will modify my motion to uh include that uh staff come back if we need additional funding for the uh concrete barriers.

Uh Council Boswell. Yeah. Second. Okay. Approving the second. All right. So we need to roll roll call again since we changed it. Vice Mayor Francis, yes. Council member Boswell, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Shoresman, yes. Mayor Stewart,

yes. And the motion passes 5. Um, with that, we have one last final topic. Thank you so much to um Luke and Adam for all of your hard work. Okay, our final item of the night short of potentially leaison and communications which I think we'll delay is uh considering an approval.

Yeah, considering approval of a grant agreement with the St. Louis Vispa Museum of Art and we have Deputy City Manager Greg Herman and sustainability and natural resources official or Bob Hill.

Thank you, mayor and council members. Uh we will try and be as brief as we can, but we do think there's some important things to be aware of and consider as a part of the grant agreement. So, just kind of bear with us as we get through a few of the um slides in the presentation. We are happy to be here tonight. I'm happy to be joined by my colleague Bob Hill. Uh as was discussed earlier this evening, we do a lot of grant making at the city and we've done a lot of grant making uh grant agreements over the years and things that are really similar to this and I point that out because sort of the format and template and what we're requiring as a part of this grant agreement is very much in the form that we have done for previous grant agreements of similar types. Uh and I think you'll see that in the presentation this evening. I also want to acknowledge Leanne Standish and Armina Kareem who I believe are still here. Yes, good job. Uh who I know will be happy to answer any project specific questions and also I think continue to share their vision for this site and everything that it's going to bring to our downtown. Uh with that, I'll hand it over to Bob.

Uh good evening, mayor and council. I'm Bob Hill. Uh really um a pleasure to be here tonight and present this particular item uh following council's direction last November 4th of 2025. Uh tonight we're here to talk about the S Bispo Museum of Art and a draft grant agreement um that comes pursuant to their proposal for the future uh museum uh in downtown St. Abyspo. Um the recommendation this evening is to adopt a resolution. Uh that resolution would entail uh finding that the grant agreement uh with San Bispo Museum of Art is of public benefit. Um that it also uh is in accordance with California government code 53083. um and find that that grant agreement serves the public interest by advancing arts and culture, economic development, and other public benefits. And lastly, to approve that grant agreement um and authorize our city manager execute the agreement in a final form satisfactory to our city attorney. Um I thought I'd start off by uh just sharing a few uh renderings. These are from the proposal furnished by SLM. This is the Haggera Street uh perspective where we see the uh proposed new facility uh in entailing three storefronts along Hera totaling about 24,000 square ft. Uh this is a museum gallery interior perspective. Um in this particular one you can see how you can see all the way through the entire building all the way out the back window and see Mission Plaza and Mission Sispo right out the window. Um this is another uh interior perspective. Um then here we also have a patio perspective uh that would be uh introduce an outdoor element um to the museum as well as provide that

connectivity all the way from Hera Street through the museum to the creek walk and then ultimately to the cultural arts district parking structure. Um, as council is aware, the u pisto museum museum of art currently occupies an existing facility on land that we lease for a dollar per year at 1010 Broad Street tangent to uh Mission Plaza. So, this would uh still remain a facility operated by SLOM where they're proposing to uh have educational activities and feel that they can really serve a a part of our community around arts education and um and continue to use that site as well. So, they'd have that connectivity through this area. In terms of policy context, I also appreciated the conversation that occurred earlier about how do we evaluate a grant like this and how do these proposals happen? I think um it's really important to take a close look at the policy context that is associated with this particular uh grant. And when we really took a step back and looked at how that this project uh meets um with existing policies and plans and uh priority setting documents that we have, it really um it really shows out and has a lot of consistency. Thought I'd just start with some of our most uh current. I don't list them all here, but um one of our major city goals is for cultural vitality, economic resilience, and fiscal sustainability. Goal number two is support the arts, including the cultural arts district. Our economic development strategic plan is just a few years old now from 2023. Has a whole um section called placemaking and promotion. One of them includes a goal highlight the diverse culture, history, assets, and amenities of the city to help foster a sense of inclusion. It also states that we should support opportunities to speed the implementation of the downtown concept plan and that strengthening working relationships with and maintain financial support of the arts community

to enrich the cultural offerings of the city. And lastly, continue to work with community partners um to ensure the vitality of the city. That downtown concept plan preceded that document in 2017 and was referred to and it um has a goal to foster a strong identity, an economically and culturally diverse downtown. And also a section about art, culture and history stating expand cultural, historical and artistic opportunities. And lastly, uh myself being uh from a planning background, our our general plan and our land use element of our general plan in particular is on point here. Policy 4.1. Downtown is the community's urban center, serving as the cultural, social, entertainment, and political center of the city. The city wants its urban core to be economically healthy and realizes that the private and public investments in downtown support each other. Finally, and bluntly, cultural facilities such as museums and galleries should be downtown. So, there you have it. I think that um this was what we looked at when we were evaluating this proposal and having early conversations with SLOM and their staff and their board to really help assess and make our recommendation to city council. And so, um just again as brief background, our relationship dates back to the 1950s with the SPISMPO Museum of Art and our our original lease for the facility where they're located now at 1010 Broad Street, if I'm remembering correctly, is from 1954. Um the SPISPO uh Museum of Art has really built a strong staff and board and and invigorated itself as an organization. Um and they've done their due diligence. They've hired professionals to help them investigate their needs for assembling a contemporary museum space of sufficient size and characteristics to meet their needs. When I say contemporary, I don't

necessarily mean contemporary art, although they do that in all kinds of art, but contemporary meaning that it has proper heating and ventilation that can control humidity, for example, so that artists that have um works of art that they don't want to be damaged are appropriate to be shown there. Um and that they have they understands that museums are changing and that the way that museums need space and the way they occupy space, the way they rotate uh offerings and theater and sorry their museum showings, it changes over time and how people participate and go to that museum changes over time. So uh that's what we mean there. Um, Sloma approached uh your city council here in November with their proposal for supporting the future of the San Boom Museum of Art. And again, they that museum space 204,000 square ft, three storefronts on Hera Street along with that connectivity to the Creek and the Cultural Arts District. The draft grant agreement is for $500,000 and it supports phase one of the project. Uh phase two described in the proposal as eventually in a few years from now the um acquisition uh the final acquisition of the building itself that they are expanding into. In terms of a few key uh terms and conditions, things that we want to see happen um both uh to to prior to our dispersement of funds under this draft grant agreement if it were to be approved and also in terms of how we might specifically uh choose to amend that uh grant agreement to move towards phase 2 in the future. These are a few of the key terms. Um right now we have a three-year uh term for phase one implementation. that that that three-year term starts on the date that we sign the agreement. Uh I know that our city clerk's office uh should you approve tonight is very uh quick in routing those around in docuign. So it would probably be three years starting from sometime this week. Um the city's

funds are a one-time grant up to $500,000. They don't necessarily have to spend all of it. Um so up to 500 uh and that would be paid on a reimbursement basis based on the presentation of satisfactory invoices and evidence of that those were funds used for eligible soft costs only associated with this project. There's also a term in the grant agreement that uh it could only be used at this particular site. And so I wanted to be clear that um we conferred with Soma staff that they didn't intend to use this at the 1010 Broad Street site. And certainly if they decided to suddenly move and do something else somewhere else altogether, these funds wouldn't be eligible. Um, in order to uh move the project forward here in phase one, they'll need to get all their necessary uh project entitlements and building permits, which are under review right now by our community development department. Um, and they'll need to submit to us a fundraising plan and a three-year budget forecast demonstrating project um feasibility out into the foreseeable future. Um, we've asked SLOMA to identify additional public benefits such as public arc in the creek walk area or similar that can reasonably implemented and facilitated. We don't know yet exactly what those things will be, but um the goal here was to really focus on that connectivity between the new space and the existing space and the cultural arts district. Um the city of course wants to be recognized as a funding source and a project partner like all the other uh many partner partners and funders here. Um we'll ask that slow submit quarterly reporting and financial assurance documentation that they're on track. Um in the uh meeting minutes from November 4th, um city council provided fairly specific direction about having a a a way to consider phase two and to make some sort of commitment to phase two. Um having thought about that, the most realistic sort of way to do that

mechanically would be to simply take our existing grant agreement and amend it uh with additional funds and protect potentially also additional requirements that we'll want to see at that time. So to be considered for phase two funding that such an amendment um first and foremost SLMA would need to satisfactorily complete all the requirement elements in this grant agreement as stated now and uh implementation of phase one. Um submit a detailed project description and supportive justification for the additional funding request. So we need more information. We need to see what they're doing. We need to see how much does it cost. We need to know where the other funds are coming from and what the status is of how forthcoming those funds are. And because in that case now we would be talking about participating in real property then well we're asking for sufficient due diligence items so we can ensure that our funds are well supported and documented and appropriate. Um lastly, this grant agreement includes a standard conditions, conflict of interest, indemnification, um standards for termination and then that would need to be upon notice and then the notice would need to be for substantial breach and those things are specifically defined here. We didn't want ambiguity. We didn't want the city council to be in a gray area in a worst case scenario in the future about well are they in breach or are they not. We tried to get as clear as we could here. Um, one of the key reasons we're here tonight so late is and that this is a public hearing is because uh part of this project input entails what's called an economic development subsidy under California government code 53083. An economic development subsidy is uh defined when an expenditure of public funds or a loss of revenue to a local agency in the amount of $100,000 or more for the purpose of stipulating economic development within your juris jurisdiction. and that may include the making of grants. Um so here um I think

first and foremost our goal is to promote arts and culture but we also um are hopeful for the economic developments that will occur in our downtown and um that's really clear in our economic development strategic plan and why we make this link here is there as well. In this case, um, as noted, uh, city council is considering a $500,000 grant, and so the economics delt development subsidy code section clearly applies. So, I'm just going to go through quickly through what those findings are that we're required to make. Uh, the name and address, SPIM Museum of Art at 1010 Broad Street. The start date would be upon entry into the grant agreement for a period of 3 years. The amount $500,000. a statement of public purpose which um again is to support arts and cultural activities in the downtown which are expected to generate direct and indirect local economic impact benefits. Um, SLMA uh in their proposal included uh data from American for the Americans for the Arts, the Economic Prosperity 6 report published in January 2024. And um that model um estimates that SLMA's new museum space would result in $123,500 in local government revenue, would generate uh four over $4.9 million in total expenditures on an annual basis. Um this is a very broad sort of question that they're asking us particularly getting into tax revenue. So um in our experience as staff SLOM is likely subject to possessor interest property tax as a long-term le um but we don't know what that taxing rate would be because it hasn't been constructed. We don't know how the assessor will determine a value for that. Um so we don't know what that looks like yet. Um it it is also true um that if uh um SLMA is able to move forward and purchase the building that they would be eligible for

what's called a welfare exemption. Um so they can reduce for reduced property tax rate in that situation. That's based on annual filing based on state board of equalization rules. Um the last part is uh the estimated number of jobs uh created by the economic development subsidy. Um, again, according to the Americans for the Arts data report, um, the operation of the new museum space would generate 93 jobs. Um, it's important to note that the way that that data is calculated is based on a a commonly accepted model called the IM plan model. Um if we were for example to define to decide to apply for a grant with the economic development administration say for a uh workforce development hub um they would ask us to use the implant model. So this is the sort of standard method of doing that and it's based on an annual average of handc count for full-time part-time and seasonal employment. same way that um other uh Bureau of Economic Regional Economic Accounts uses a Bureau of Labor Statistics Census and W employ Employment and Wages. Sorry, I'm going fast. Uh that so that's how that's sort of defined and where that data comes from. Um, in terms of next steps, the staff uh would work closely with SLOM, establish a med meeting, a regular meeting cadence to maintain timely communication, support their project delivery, answer questions, ensure proper oversight of grant funds and reporting requirements. when we have this type of a relationship and we're seeing this now with our other relationships. It works best when there's a sort of a point of contact, somebody that can, you know, be on speed dial so to speak and make sure that questions get answered and that um we know how to get things uh get to yes attitude with this type of a project. Um, in terms of uh phase two, u SLOMA needs to complete property negotiations for that acquisition

um and and more particularly share that with us and uh and complete fundraising plans towards the eventual purchase of the buildings. They need to complete all of their conditions proceeding to be considered for phase 2 funding shown in the grant agreement itself. Um, and that would put us in a position to provide council with options and recommendations. um at at the next scheduled budget hearing. That was also clear in the minutes from the November 4 meeting to have this type of discussion in the context of a regularly scheduled budget meeting. Um so the next available would be June 2nd. That's bud uh the uh budget supplement. It doesn't have to be June 2nd. It could be thereafter. And of course it would be entirely your discretion. You can uh docket this item whenever you uh so choose. Um, also I just wanted to point out um that uh I had a chance to speak with Soma staff and uh confirm that the overall fundraising goal is still $20 million. It's $10 million for phase one. It's $10 million for phase 2. They've secured uh 7.7 million for phase 1 and 3.2 for phase 2 already. Then lastly, as uh you'll recall, one of the basis for the original request made November was to ask the city participate in a challenge grant made by a local family foundation and they were successful in completing that challenge grant. So your your action did indeed catalyze that challenge grant. Um our recommendation again is the draft resolution making the findings for the economic development subsidy um and the public interest uh nature of our grant agreement and approve the grant agreement and authorization for signing. That concludes our presentation. Thanks.

Fabulous job. Thank you so much. I know it's late and it's a lot of detail to go through, but I appreciate also going back to the context of all the way back to 2014. um just kind of a reminder of all the work that has been kind of leading us up to this point. So, thank you. Any initial questions? Okay. Any public comment? Yeah, we have two. Um sorry, you're fine. You're fine.

Leanne Stish and sorry there. Good evening and thank you Mayor Stewart and honorable council members. At the end of 2020 when I took over the St. Louis Abyispo Museum of Art, we were in a financial tail spin. We had lost the trust of our community. On top of that, we were forced to be closed due to CO. So we did something truly bold and we turned the building itself into a work of art. It was during that installation that I witnessed one of the most moving moments of my museum career. The artist, Juan Alberto Negrroni, was painting the building's exterior and had generated an audience. One of the families gathered around, asked him a few questions in Spanish, and he responded in kind. The exchange continued, and then Juan invited their young son, who was maybe eight years old at the time, to help him paint. Together, they painted one perfect stripe. And when it was finished, Juan turned to the young boy and said, "Now it's yours, too." For more than six decades, every city council, including this one, has made bold investments to reinforce and enrich our community's economic and cultural vitality. From the creation of Mission Plaza to the support of the pack soon to be to the support of the pack and the soontobe slowrep theater, each generation of civic leaders has proven through their vision and action that city investment in our social infrastructure is essential to shape shaping the vitality of a vibrant and resilient community. In each case, the presiding city councils recognize that transformative projects seldom come without risk. They weighed long-term returns, ensured alignment with major city goals, and move forward to strengthen the cultural and economic fabric of our community. Slow plan expansion has been conceived in that

same tradition, and your continued support is essential. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And good evening. Still, good evening, um, Mayor Stewart and council members. So Lean's story about that young boy being told, "Now it's yours, too." I think captures exactly what public investment does. It creates belonging. It turns a building into something the community owns. So I just want to really sincerely begin with gratitude. I have been here many nights, thankfully not as regularly recently. Um but I know that these decisions are challenging ones. So, I want to begin with thank you for considering this $500,000 grant. We recognize the weight of the decisions that are in front of you continuously and your stewardship matters deeply. So, as um as was shared earlier, this grant allows us to really further phase one of our ambitious project. It will allow us to fully outfit the new museum so it can open its doors to serve students, our families, our residents, and our visitors from day one. And it really, very importantly, allowed us to meet that um Forbes family grant, the $2 million matching grant. So doubling the impact of these public dollars in real time when you signaled your critical commitment in November. And you haven't been alone. as as was shared earlier over the last seven months, I love hearing those numbers. Over $11 million committed by community members to further what has been a longheld community goal, as Bob noted. So, I just want to respectfully ask that as part um as you consider all of this, as part of your upcoming normally

scheduled budget discussions, um that this conversation comes back um if there are additional funds, one-time catalytic funding because this is not an ongoing operational request. It's a strategic investment that secures this property as a permanent public-f facing asset. So, I just want to say that when the city you're back when the city commits early uh along your city priorities, it reduces the risk for everyone as has been shown by unlocking private philanthropy. Strong cities, as Leanne noted, require both economic infrastructure and social infrastructure. So, museums support our small businesses. They attract dollars. They create foot traffic. They attract talent. And they do so much more than any kind of spreadsheet can fully measure. Um, so just as that young boy said, now it's yours, too. This museum belongs to all of the people of San Los Aispo. So, thank you for the support of this $500,000 grant tonight. We and I hope it comes back soon. Thank you tonight.

Thank you. And thank you for being here this long. Uh, Vice Mayor,

yeah, I'll I'll keep it short. You know, we had a lot of time to talk about this when it came to us the the first time, and I'm I'm really blown away by this project. It's it's remarkable. It's ambitious. Um, and you know, I I I believe that there's a team in place that can pull this off. So, I'm I'm so impressed by the progress they've made so far. Every time I look at the renderings, I just get excited about especially the activation of I you have really underutilized creek space and um really going to invigorate that little little piece of slow and I'm just really excited to see this come to fruition and glad we get to be a part of it. So, thank you. I will be uh Whatever.

Yeah. Gotcha. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Getting late. Yes. Uh thank you for um thank you for your comments. Uh thank you for giving the city this opportunity and thank you for um shephering in this next phase. I'm really excited to see where it goes next and really happy. This has been a big night uh big night of of lots of discussion about um you know being very thoughtful and careful with the city's uh money yet still making big um changes and improvements to infrastructure and and arts and culture. And I love that story. Um it gets me a little choked up every time I've heard you tell it a couple times now and it chokes me up just every time you you uh you tell it. Um there was just one question that I kind of wanted to run by um my colleagues as I was reading the grant agreement which as usual um staff and um SLMA staff have created a a really well-ritten easy to follow document. Um, just thinking back um, well over tonight, but also back to our November meeting when we discussed making this commitment, I remember pretty um, clearly talking about making that commitment at that time and bringing this back to possibly consider a phase 2 donation at another time if funds allowed. Um, and there's honestly just one phrase in the grant agreement that made me a little uncomfortable that it was promising something that we might not be able to deliver later. Um, and it's on page 442. Um, it says it is expressly anticipated that this grant agreement may be amended. And for some reason, I guess words matter in this case, at least to me, I was concerned that that was maybe

promising something that we weren't sure yet at this point that we can deliver. And I think it could be easily struck out and just start with this grant agreement. Um, just to give us that flexibility later. But I also want to check it with you guys that I'm not reading something a little too um careful. What page are you on?

Um 442 of the um it's section 8 of the grant agreement. It does say at the end of that section, city shall have no obligation whatsoever to enact and approve an amendment to provide additional funding of any amount which is subject to the actual availability of funds at the time a request is made and is within the then seated council sole discretion. So, I I do recognize that there is some other language there, but I just wanted to check my own gut and the rest of yours that we weren't um overpromising, I guess, um with the initial start of that sentence.

Yeah, I'd be comfortable if you just started with this grant agreement and just got rid of the it is expressly anticipated that you could totally get rid of that.

You sure may, city attorney. I I believe that that language is incorporated to try to avoid the successive contracting issue that and so we're contemplating if this is going to happen. It's contemplated as part of a single transaction and it creates that potential. You also have language in there that does not obligate you to do that but it doesn't wouldn't require then a sort of successive uh stage that wasn't originally contemplated within the original project. So that's there is a purpose to that. So I would recommend that we not alter that. Love it. Thank you so much for the legal

expertise. Thank you. I just needed to hear that. So thank you, Council Member Marks. Well, I um I just want to say this been a long time coming. I think we made a good decision when we earlier pledged the uh funds and I'd like to move the staff recommendation tonight. Thank you. Um, I have to say that I agree. It was, this has been an amazing process to watch. Um, not just currently, but through the years, it's been an amazing process to watch. So, I would be happy to second that motion. City clerk, can we have roll call? Council member Marks,

yes. Mayor Stewart, yes. Council member Boswell, yes. Council member Shoresman, yes. Vice Mayor Francis. Yes. And the motion passes 5. Thank you so much um for all the work and making sure that all the eyes are dotted and the tees are crossed. So thank you. Thank you. And with that I look forward to the future home of SLOM and um I will say that we will be skipping the leazison communications report. Sorry it's again but it is 113. Pretty good. Thank you so much. Have a good night and we'll see you next week for the rental registry study session.