City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call to order the regular meeting of the City Council for the City of San Ramon for August 25th, 2026. Please call the roll.

Council Member Adler. Here. Council Member Joynette.

Present.

Council Member Varos.

Here.

Vice Mayor Rubio. Present. And Mayor Armstrong.

Here. And if you'd all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to be led by Ishan Athanval.

All right. Thank you. Please be seated. And again, thank you to Ishan from Troop 805 for leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance this evening. We'll move on to Item 3, Announcements. Do we have any announcements?

There are no announcements, or I'm sorry, we do have no changes to the order of the agenda. And we have a public comment announcement. If you are attending in person and wish to speak during public comment or on an agenda item, please complete a speaker card located in the back of the room and submit it to the city clerk. If you are attending remotely via Zoom and wish to speak during public comment or on an agenda item, please use the raise hand feature on your computer or dial star nine on the telephone to request to speak when public comment is open for that agenda item. When it is your turn, you will be unmuted and may provide comments for up to three minutes. after your allocated time has expired you will be muted again written public comments received by 4 30 p.m today were provided to the city council and are available for review in the red binder actually my apologies we did not receive any written public comment today and i'll hand it back over to you mayor okay thank you so at this time i'm going to open up a public comment

So at this time, the public is permitted to address a city council on any non-agenda item related to the business of a city council. You can speak on items that are on a consent calendar, including requests to pull an item from the consent calendar and the reason why you wish to pull the item or items. And please note that the decision to remove the item from the consent calendar is strictly at the discretion of the city council. We have seven items on consent tonight. You can speak on requests for future agenda items or on special presentation items under section six of tonight's agenda. And we do have one item under section six. You may also speak on items that are not on the agenda, but are within the city council's jurisdiction. And please be reminded that while the city ensures the first amendment rights of its citizens, we do not accept nor endorse any offensive or hateful comments made during our meetings. The city celebrates the diversity of our community, and we strive to be a welcoming and open community for all. While we encourage your comments, unfortunately, state law prevents the city council from discussing items that are not on the meeting agenda. The city council does take them very seriously, however, and if appropriate, staff will follow up. Okay, so public comment is open. And who's our first speaker?

Our first speaker is We the People. Okay.

Let's start the clock, please. Grievances by we the people. Council meeting and notification for different dates and times need to be sent in separate mail, email to avoid confusing the public by different days and time and posting rule of regular and special meetings under the Brown Act are different anyways. Agenda needs to clearly spell out acronyms so the public may understand the agendized subject matter without guessing or looking stupid. Council Member Veroes and Rubio stole from the police retirement fund by moving from their account to operate the city funding their pet projects, such as climate and building electric car charger stations, while our road deteriorate like Albion and Bollinger Canyon. have cracks now and shaved tops. City Manager Spadowski has led the city to financial dire strait by puppeteering the councils to lend money to affordable housing builders, invest in supernational bonds in millions overseas. Spadowski was absent at the 40th city anniversary celebration, and on his watch, a team of Democrat defund the police city agenda. were implemented by stealing from the police funds and tax and remove residents with more fees and sales taxes while withholding services such as road pavement, make sure the water goes to our water fountains, and force the police to bill overtime on national night out, as well as reducing their budget while our number of residents increase. Furthermore, unnecessary hire for executive assistance of city manager, such as an analyst that does work, which is unpublished to the public by an inexperienced recent college grad for a job that is reserved to a more seasoned and experienced person is unnecessary. unethical. Mayor Armstrong and the council members ought to have the courage to fight the political motivated leadership by Spadofsky, possibly compromised by bribery, by allowing the public to scrutinize consent agenda requests. I wish to pull the following consent agenda with many opaque I wish to pull 5.2, 5.5, and 5.7. I'm not suicidal, and I drive safely all the time.

All right, thank you. Next speaker, please.

Joyce Carr.

Thank you. I don't usually speak. I come to the meetings, but I wanted to speak tonight because of your International Awareness Day for overdose. I think that it's a wonderful organization, and April has been running it for many years her son went to the school that i taught at unfortunately he was not one of my students but i've i've heard about this for years and she's still running it and she's how many lives has she has saved i just think she's amazing and i wanted to congratulate her thank you all right thank you next speaker please sharag kathrani

Hello mayor, council member and city staff. I am here because I wanted to announce that we have started printing newspaper and this is three months. We have completed first three months and we are distributing 5000 copies. It's available in libraries and every other places. One of the issues that we wrote in this city council was about the appeal fees, which is at this moment there is no limit on the appeal fees. So I was thinking anybody who is running for office should clarify their stand if they get elected. Would they make appeal fees a fixed fee or keep it infinite? And that's for all the three council, two council members and the mayor who is up for election. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Adam Cleary.

Good evening, council members. Thanks for having public comment. Just one item I wanted to address was the San Ramon Climate Action Plan. I was really impressed when I read this. So I appreciate the work that was done because I know it's a heavy lift to create a document like this that requires a lot of resources, a lot of time. So I'm very proud to be part of a community that has this forward-looking vision for climate action. I personally have been in the environmental field for almost 20 years now. I have a master's in environmental policy, natural resource management, been working environmental sustainability and compliance for quite some time. So as I was reading this document, I'm very impressed. When you talk about things like carbon sequestration, not everybody's talking about carbon sequestration. Talk about energy use, talk about smart transportation. Same time I was reading this, I happened to see the succession of the removal of trees in our downtown. And I can't help but think as I read through that, the inconsistencies that that lines up with our climate action plan. So as you go through, I have it here, as you go through the, I think what you call strategies, you have an energy strategy, transportation strategy, the carbon sequestration strategy. All carbon sequestration is, is photosynthesis, right? So we need a lot of vegetation to absorb carbon and puts oxygen back into the air. Simple, you know, simple biology, right? If we have, so the climate action plan calls for dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emission by 2030. And I think by 2045, it calls for zero net GHG emissions. That's a considerable amount of GHG reductions in 2030. 2045 is not far away. In order for carbon sequestration to work, you need a lot of vegetation. We've removed a ton, a ton of mature trees in our central core of our city. It puts us back decades, decades. So in order for us to make that advance, we've put ourselves way back from the starting line. Then also, when we talk about energy strategy, trees are a critical part there as well. Energy, the highest demand of energy is air conditioning use, particularly afternoons like today. Air conditioning, the need for air conditioning drops dramatically when you have shade, right? So shade from trees. Another tenant within the climate action plan is transportation. If we want to promote smart transportation, we need shade for people to walk. People are not going to walk to the city center, not going to walk to Whole Foods if they have to walk out in the sun on a day like today. So time's almost up. We have an opportunity, though, the Chevron property. I ask you to please, please do what you can to keep the trees there before anything else, before developers remove those trees. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Is it okay if we can get his contact information?

Yeah, put it on there.

You have it? Okay. I'll make sure to follow up.

Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Next speaker.

There are no more speaker cards and there are no hands raised for our remote participants on Zoom.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Well, I'm going to close public comment. We've had a request for the council consideration to pull items two, consent items two, five, and seven. And those items have to do with the register of demands, a resolution regarding meter public funds, and the resolution approving the fiscal year 25, 26 budget and actual adjustments. Does any council member wish to pull those items?

I move the motion for consent calendar. All the details that is requested by the public comment is available on the document. Any questions, they can always communicate, work with our city staff on further. So with that, once again, I'm moving the motion for consent calendar.

Okay. Do I have a second?

I will second that.

Okay, a motion by Council Member Vroes, second by Vice Mayor Rubio, and then we'll take it to a vote. Okay, motion passes 5-0. And so we will then move on to item six, a special presentation. We have a proclamation declaring August 31st, 2026 as International Overdose Awareness Day. And I'm going to present a proclamation to April Rivera.

Okay, I have a proclamation here.

This is a proclamation of the City Council of the City of San Ramon declaring August 31st, 2026 as International Overdose Awareness Day. Whereas the City of San Ramon does affirm and acknowledge the harm and impact surrounding drug overdose. And whereas we recognize that the purpose of International Overdose Awareness Day is to remember loved ones lost to overdose, to support those left behind, and to end the stigma surrounding substance use disorder and substance-related deaths. And whereas we resolve to play our part in preventing substance use disorder and overdose in our community, And whereas we recognize that those lost to overdose are children, parents, siblings, and friends, and that those they left behind are deserving of our love, compassion, and support as with any other tragic loss. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of San Ramon, along with the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse, and other community partners to hereby proclaim August 31st, 2026 as International Overdose Awareness Day. I've signed this myself, August 25th, 2026. And so I'll present this to you. And get a picture here.

Okay.

I think we're going to get another one here. Actually, if I could get the whole council to come down and we'll get a picture with the whole group.

All right.

Can you get us all in here? We can back up again.

Let's get back up here.

All right.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, staff, and general public. We're here again. I don't think this issue will ever fully go away, but we so appreciate the Council's support. It's always been there since we began this organization, and I really appreciate the continuing effort there to support our work. So I'm April Rovero, founder and executive director of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse, and CAPDA for short. We're based right here in San Ramon and that's where I live. On behalf of the NCAPDA, I want to thank you for recognizing International Overdose Awareness Day. What began 25 years ago in Melbourne, Australia has grown to be global in scope. People gather around the world and they all either recognize the day or around that day as International Overdose Awareness Day. And it's meant, as mentioned, to remember those lost too soon to overdose, and they're all too soon. Everyone that's been lost to overdose should still be here, at least for a long time after. And it's also to support those of us that were left behind and break down that stigma that still continues to affect this issue. Thankfully, there is actually some good news to report this year. We are now seeing a sustained drop in overdose deaths nationwide, and key contributors are cited by the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, to include community education, that's what we do, particularly around fentanyl these days, Also, treatment for substance use and mental health disorders. Those are huge contributors to the overdose situation. And the wide distribution of naloxone, and that's what we do also. And that is a medication that can easily be used by everyday community members to reverse an opioid-related overdose. We continue to work in our local community here and those around us to save lives through our pre-educational programs, overdose rescue training, and distribution of naloxone rescue kits and fentanyl test strips. We really encourage you to visit our website at ncapda.org to request overdose rescue training either virtually or in person. We're really excited to be working with the city of San Ramon personnel to identify locations throughout the city where we can install naloxone distribution units. Those are gonna provide free non-barrier access to life-saving naloxone. We already have several sites in San Ramon Valley hosting units that include our libraries, all three of them in the San Ramon Valley. Also the new John Muir Urgent Care Center on Camino Ramon has one up on the second floor. And you can always get a kit from us, NCAPD. Again, we're just down the road from here. We encourage both youth and adult community members to keep naloxone available. To save a life, think of it as an essential first aid kit item and be trained to use it. And you can come to us for that training. In closing, I just want to say that those we have lost to overdose, they really mattered. Their families, their friends left behind also matter. We need to make sure that stigma doesn't get in the way of us embracing and supporting them through their loss and grief. Again, thanks so much for the proclamation. We really appreciate that. It's really important that we recognize this day, and every community member in San Ramon, there's several of us out here who have been touched in some way by this devastating type of loss. All right, so we have a couple more people, if you don't mind, that can say a few more words. Thank you. Please.

Hello, my name is Etisa Wang, and I'm a youth ambassador for the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse. And I've seen firsthand how our organization unites students through service, leadership, and community action. I personally had a really insightful experience while volunteering at an Oakland health fair event where NCAPDA was stationed. A woman had spoke to me about her heart-rendering experiences with drug overdose within her family. And it really just, it opened my eyes to see how prevalent the problem was and that it's not just like something you see in shows. And before my high school biology and health class regarding drug abuse, I always had like an unspoken stigma thinking that, oh, it may be on them. But NCAPedia has really opened my eyes to that. And I'm extremely grateful to be part of this coalition. And I just, you know, I'm just so grateful. And I'm just really moved by them. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Good evening. My name is Alice Power. I'm the project manager for the San Ramon Valley NCAPDA. Thank you San Ramon City Council for recognizing National Overdose Awareness Day and for continuing to support our work. Overdose is real and it can affect any family, any community. If we truly want to save lives, we must continue breaking down the stigma that keeps people from talking about substance use, asking for help, or carrying naloxone. It's not lost on me that I survived an opioid use disorder myself. I'm very lucky to still have my life. We can make a difference through education, empathy, and by making sure people have access to naloxone when they need it. At NCAPDA, we believe every life is worth saving and everyone deserves a second chance at life. Thank you for helping us bring awareness to this issue and for standing with us in this work.

Thanks.

Thank you, Alex. All right. We do have a fairly light agenda this evening. Would any of the council members like to make comments?

Yeah. Congratulations again, April. As you remember, this was part of our project for our leadership, San Ramon Valley, and we participated in the ribbon cutting at one of the locations at the Danville police station. So congratulations and thank you for everything you guys do. Thank you.

Thanks, April. Thanks to your entire NCA PDA team. Special thanks to all the youth who participate in this as volunteers, bringing the awareness about the overdose prescription drug abuses that goes through in the community, not only in our community, but throughout the nation. This is one of the biggest epidemic that as a nation we are facing. So thanks for working and your dedication in bringing this awareness and education. And it is always pleasure to see you at our Arts and Win Festival for your coaching program. Thanks for all the great work. As our previous, our former council members, Scott Perkins used to say that we don't know how many lives you're saving, but we know that your work makes a huge difference in our community. So thanks for all the great work.

Thank you.

All right, Council Member Adler. Yeah, it's always a pleasure to see you out in the community. I think I first met you maybe five years ago, and I didn't know much about the organization then. But I think every few months I see you at Rotary and the antidote machine, the device that was placed at the police station. And you were out there making a difference, and you were really a treasure there. to our community. And I get emotional because you've just done so much. You know, we count on the police for saving lives, but you, you know, you're a citizen and you are, you and your colleagues, you know, are saving lives. And, you know, you just took a tragedy and made it into something positive. And it doesn't happen very often in this world. So we really appreciate any time we see you and this award is well deserved too. you and your organization thank you question ruby

Hi, April, and everyone in the volunteers, too, who just spoke, some of you. I just wanted to say, April, your tenacity and perseverance and persistence over the years is truly exemplary. However, I'm not surprised how a tragedy as heavy as yours could spur you to really turn a very painful situation into hopefully something positive in the world by preventing other fatalities from happening, unnecessary ones at it. And thank you for also creating a bench of young people who will go on to carry your legacy and the legacy of your son. You know, I can personally relate to those personal challenges and how it really shapes our lives. And my heart has always, every time I see you, it just really goes out to you because I know this was extremely painful for you. So I just admire your courage, your fortitude to turn pain into something really wonderful for the community. And thank you to all of you and the young people who are doing something to support that cause.

All right, thank you. My colleagues really said it all. I just also want to extend my personal thanks to you, April, and thank you for coming, Allison. Good to see you, Elaine, and the ambassadors. Thank you for speaking up as well and being here and for all that you do for our community. Just this year, I've already participated in two of your packing events for Naloxone Kids just recently in July. There's a young person who participated in a SIWA international effort. That's a Hindu faith-based organization. They do a lot of volunteer work, and they packed up some kits. It was about 240 kits. Then they distribute them here at City Hall. and then also at the farmer's market and just a great effort by that team, Veer Kapoor from out in Doherty Valley. And I see you everywhere, April. So it's, I know you're out there in the community. You're getting the word out. It's an important word. I know... it's, you know, it's heartfelt for you because it's real and personal for all of you. And we just really appreciate all that you do. So thank you for that. I, you know, I have, I have kits myself in my vehicles. I have kits at home. My father-in-law has a kit. He, He is 96 years old. He has suffered from some serious falls and some surgeries recently. And he's taking Dilaudid, which is one of the strongest opioids that's out there. And so he has a kit at home. And we're kind of prepared and trained to use that if we need to, which fortunately we haven't had to yet. But thank you for the training that you do, for the information you provide to our community, and for all the work that you do. and all your ambassadors do. So thank you. Right.

And mayor.

Yes.

We did receive a last minute public comment from a resident who would like to comment on this. Would you like to accept that or has public comment passed?

Well, public comment has passed, but I'll allow it this time.

We, the people.

I want to give my gratitude to the resident volunteers. However, why is it that this country has regressed to everything is coming from the people? Why is it that the government is not regulating the physicians and the dentists? who are not prescribing proper painkillers. Some painkillers don't need to be opioid-based. They could be taken care of by Tylenols. That's what I used to take growing up. If I go to a dentist for pulling wisdom teeth, I don't need something that's opioid-based. However, these days dentists will... prescribe opioid painkillers just for pulling teeth. Is that necessary? Now, this really is not your jurisdiction. That is really the jurisdiction of a higher level of our government. However, our municipality, our tax dollars have so been misspent and abused Activists, such as people who want to come and ask you to spend our money on carbon, honestly, carbon is everywhere in the world. It is part of the photosynthesis process that gives us oxygen. If you guys should remove carbon forever, we would also not have any oxygen. So please, we need to understand as educated Americans what governments can do what other people can do, and what businesses should do, as well as doctors should be responsible prescribing proper painkillers. Lastly, I want to give my heartfelt empathy and blessings to April for all of her good work in honor of her son. Thank you.

All right, thank you. All right. So I'll close that public comment. And with that, we are going to close out this item number six. And we're going to move on. We have no deferred item consent items. We have no unfinished business. And it's really on to the

to wrap up the meeting here it's a short meeting we'll move on to city manager's comments and uh council member comments matters initiated manager please thank you mayor and members of the council just two items for this evening uh one the rec registration for fall programs is now open the fall rec guide is available in imprint online and the registration is open to all Visit SanRamonRecGuide.com to view programs and sign up. And also a reminder that our athletic fields utilization survey is out and you can help shape the future of athletic fields in San Ramon. We're conducting the study and we want to hear from residents, athletes, parents, coaches. sports organization, park users, neighbors, whoever is interested in our field use. You can complete the survey and comment on the interactive map and share your thoughts through October 4th. And you visit sanermone.ca.gov slash field study to share your thoughts. And with that, that concludes my updates for the evening. All right. Thank you.

I'm going to turn over to Council Member Adler. Any Council Member comments?

Sure. I don't have too much to say because I was out of state visiting relatives in Michigan. But yesterday I did go to the San Ramon Historic Foundation and went to Carol Rowley's house and Carol has been there. involved in San Ramon as a city council member and done a lot of great things and continues to be involved in our city. And we talked about a number of things. One of the most important, I think, is our own Becky Adams reported on Forest Home Farms. And we have a lot of events there that involve families and tractors. But there was some concern about potential liability. uh with the tractor and uh you know we have cal osha who monitors all that stuff and uh so we're going to take another look at how we conduct uh these events uh it might actually open up more more events uh but um you know we can uh we can have uh tractor pulls some of the other we can't have kids on the tractor that's we have the driver but the kids can't other people can't be on the tractor But we can pull people, kids on the tractor. And so we're looking into that. We may open up the bigger field as a creepy crawler device that we could use. And we probably will consult with vendors on some other ideas. So maybe in the long run, we'll have more things to do there. But we've got to overall look at the safety aspect. And so that's what we're doing. So that's my report.

All right. All right. Thank you. Council Member Irv's right up.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick update, and then a matter is initiated. I'd like to thank the Street Smarts program and Dolores Pita and our school resource officers. Last week, we attended a... presentation in front of Iron Horse Middle School on street safety and bike safety and classifications of electronic bikes. So thank you to the program. I know there's other middle schools that we're going to go out in the next quarter. So great job to Dolores and the Street Smarts people and our school resource officers. So thank you. Thank you, Chief. And please pass on the thanks to those officers as well for me. Mr. City Manager, if I may, I took down some notes and wanted to We talk about the financial resilience work, if I may, and I see Jennifer here in the audience. Hi, Jennifer. So I wanted to explore more of a broader strategy for increasing our point-of-sale revenue. And where I'm coming from and where I've thought about is increasing our sales tax revenue doesn't have to mean relying on additional storefront retail or restaurants. I don't want us to be pigeonholed into... into these, although they are strong in San Ramon and they are prevalent. But I believe we're maturing enough where and we have the facilities enough where we could invite other other businesses here with higher points of sale. And so what I'm thinking here is why we should study it is if we have a significant point of sale revenue, that could also come from businesses with relatively modest physical footprint. I know retail sales require large amounts of footprint. I think you brought up a very good example of the number of Costcos. I don't remember the number, but that would have to... A lot. I think it was eight. It was eight. Okay. So what I'm thinking is how can we diversify our economic footprint? How can we diversify our revenue base without relying on a particular retail development or industry? And what I believe in, you know, driving around San Ramon and looking at, you know, just walk into any of the offices and look at the... The directory, you know, you could find that, you know, we we are well positioned to invite, you know, we have corporate headquarters, regional sales offices, medical device, health care product companies, semiconductor networking, technology, hardware companies, clean energy. You know, if we're a gentleman, he left. But gentlemen here discussing our our clean air initiatives. you're talking about wholesale business-to-business sales operations, companies with substantial tax basis and taxable sales that we could generate through San Ramon offices, potentially look at existing businesses in San Ramon and maybe provide them incentives to help grow businesses that footprint here. Maybe perhaps bring their financial team, their headquarters, excuse me, back here to San Ramon as an option. And so some examples from other cities I pulled is, you know, Torrance has a business attraction program tied to increased sales tax revenue. San Diego has a performance-based agreement to retain manufacturers and point-of-sale operations. Irwindale recently introduced limiting its incentive program to verified net new sales tax revenue. And so I'm suggesting studying these models as a blueprint that would enable us to grow and to, um, put San Ramon thinking ahead as far as, uh, another, uh, another avenue of, uh, revenue generation. And that's, that, that's really a city manager. I was just jotting down some notes thinking about it over the weekend. And, uh, you know, part of the mayor and I are sitting on the finance committee meeting and, the great presentations by the finance team that they do and got me thinking, how could we, um, How can we better support ourselves? And, you know, we talk about measure N, but, you know, we have however many years left. Let's start doing it now. So that's a thought.

I'll leave it there with you. Okay. No problem. Some of what you've mentioned we're already working on. And we do have, I don't have a firm date yet, but we will be presenting economic development strategies to the council as we're spinning up our economic development efforts.

Perfect. Yeah. And if it's possible, if it can't be done in one, I know some meetings go long, but if it can't be done in one, I'd prefer that it be done with the council's permission, if it be done in In stages, right? I understand it can't be done all at once.

Yeah, it's not an end-all, be-all 20-minute presentation and one-hour item. It's going to be intertwined with other issues. Part of the development of the core and the plan of the core of the city, we see more businesses moving in because they're seeing what's happening with the core. It's a wider view. It's not just down to one particular activity. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. All right. Council Member Rose.

Thank you, Mayor. August 19th, I attended Arts and Advisory Committee meeting presented by our Recreation Supervisor Adam Chow. Two items. One is an overview of current public projects, art projects, and the 4.1, which is a cultural growth grant program. This is pretty interesting exercise that he gave it to all the members, including Parks Commissioner Bill, as well as myself. So the two items that came up on top is how in order to improve or increase the cultural programs that are happening within the San Ramon. One of them is encourage our nonprofit organizations, local nonprofit organizations. That is a top item that came up. And also the second item is bringing more well-known artists to perform in our So that is, those are the two top items. There are a few other items, like for example, increasing or improving overall the system that we are using, as well as the products that we are using within the theaters. So that's another one that came up. And then thanks to Adam for such an excellent exercise. That was fun. And then on August 20th, attended MCE board meeting. The first one is review and approve recommended response to Marine Civil Grant Jury Report. This came up because recently there were some issues that came up within MCE board as well as with CEO where CEO recently departed. But I would suggest that this is a great case study for any public elected or any board members to learn what is the importance of being focused on your agenda items as well as the work and operations that's going on within your jurisdiction so that it won't get slipped out and get into the issues. So because in this grand jury, they did pointed out the challenges or issues that were board members didn't bring it up to speed that is needed. So it is very important why as a council or members or any public elected official, why it is so important that you need to be thorough on your agenda as well as thorough on what is going on within your city. So that's a good case study. Thankfully, we have a great staff. So we are not into such situation, but yeah. So that's one. And the second item that we followed up on is ad hoc CEO search committee. So as you know, that CEO of MCE, departed from the from the organization so we are now searching for a new ceo so that work is going on so those are the two alternations thank you okay all right thank you

Thank you, I just wanted to city manager sorry I just want to make sure for the request. Agenda item requested by council members why not did we get the 3 nodding heads confirmed.

I took it as just information that was requested and we're planning on the majority of that anyway. Got it.

Because I know we've been talking all about this and I think it's nice to see that we're going to talk about it on a broader scale because there's so many intersectional components to that other than just the type of business. Okay, good to know. I just want to make sure we didn't skip that by accident. So on August 12th, I attended the LAFCO meeting, but there was really no specific items related to the city of San Ramon. I will skip the details on that one. August 15th, I attended the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Independence and 80th Independence Day of India in San Jose. It's my first time that I went to attend this and it was huge. It was a huge event. They had apparently there were multiple celebrations throughout the Bay Area that day. for Independence Day. And it was just really lovely to see the community come out and people celebrating and just really celebrating the, you know, their dual cultures that they have here in the United States. And then on August 18th, I went to the Roya Foundation, Rabin Cutting. And that was a really special event. Ribbon Cutting, they're a nonprofit that helps children suffering from a lack of nutrition, education, and medical care. And they organize community and charity events such as the Anganuruz, I hope I pronounced that correctly, Charity Bazaar at the San Ramon Community Center and provide international relief schools, supplies and medical infrastructure projects. They really do incredible work within the community. They also have one in Tracy and they came out here to San Ramon. So it's nice to see that they're here now. and looking to provide support to our own community members, especially our children. And then on August 20th, I attended a County Connection meeting. We really pretty much just went over the bills, what's working for us, what's going our way, what's not. I think most people know there are some concerns about transportation right now, specifically just adequate funding. But we will, I'm sure, just be on the lookout. There will be more information about that coming to your mailbox soon. And then the other thing I will say is I did mention something. I went to the DVC here in San Ramon and I spoke with some staff and came across an interesting story. sort of item, I guess, or something, a project they'd like to pursue, which is having a shuttle service between the DVC campuses, which I thought was fabulous because it not only helps, you know, the students, but helps children with disabilities. I know my daughter had to get, I had a driver between the campuses because there are some classes that are not offered here in San Ramon. but they are offered in Pleasant Hill. And it would just be really wonderful and open so many doors and opportunities for young students to be able to, you know, take the classes they need and not feel restricted by the fact that they may not have a way to get to the other campus on time. So. That is something I introduced to County Connection and hopefully we'll get a chance to see that through and make that happen. Let's see. And then on August 20th, I attended the Heller's Jewelers 30th anniversary ribbon cutting. And that was a really wonderful event too. I mean, it's just amazing. The turnout was amazing. The whole family came and we had a chance to meet everyone. who's really, it's, it's a family business. Um, and they truly are passing the torch. Um, and it's just nice. And we feel very honored to have them doing business here in San Ramon and we hope they stay another 30 years or more. So, um, with that said, that's the end of my report. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. And I, I don't have a lot, I, but I do want to explain, uh, why I missed the last council meeting. I was not here, uh, I was in Austin, Texas. My father-in-law, who had been recovering from back surgery at the age of 96, had fallen in the middle of the night and fractured some ribs, hit his head and cut a vein. And so blood was all over the bathroom floor. He was lying around. It took him 13 hours to on the bathroom floor, was there all night, and finally got to his nightstand where he could shake the table, pull down a phone, and then call for 911. So I've been there with him. He's been in and out of ER, and we've got him now in skilled nursing, doing some rehab, trying to build up some strength to transition from wheelchair to toilet or to bed and things like that. So some things to look forward to with respect to aging and your aging parents and loved ones. But that's why I missed the meeting. And so I don't know what was said during council member comments. But so this might be a little bit repetitive. So stop me if it was. But I'll cover just a couple of things. One was on the 30th of back in July. was the Tri-Valley Mayors Summit. And so all five mayors from the Tri-Valley got together at Garay Vineyards in Livermore. And we talked about, it was a moderated panel event. And we talked about a lot of things like economic development, housing. And, uh, uh, I emphasize some of the housing build out in our city core area. Uh, there's been some ribbon cuttings to the new Okie Poke, uh, Hawaiian themed, uh, restaurant over at marketplace, a huge crowd, a hundred, hundreds of people showed up for the opening, uh, of that, uh, restaurant, uh, very popular. Some people showed up at six in the morning for an 11 o'clock ribbon cutting, uh, And then also I had the good fortune to be able to throw out the first pitch in the Little League World Series game out at Max Bear Park in Livermore. Our Bollinger Canyon Little League team from San Ramon played in a game against a team from Tampa representing the Southeast to determine who would go on to the U.S. championship. Our team won 8-5, and then We played the following Sunday at the same location against the Livermore team. So you had two Tri-Valley teams playing in the Little League World Series to determine who would be the national champion to go on and play in the international tournament. Our San Ramon team lost that. We lost 5-3. But the Livermore team did go on to that final. And unfortunately, they lost to South Korea the next day. So... It was pretty exciting to be able to participate and watch those games. And I think the only other thing you'll probably cover National Night Out took a great deal. And that was a wonderful event as well as it is every year. So to see our first responders out there and are engaging with our community, the fire district, our police officers, and it was just a wonderful evening. So, and with that, I have no other report. I'm getting a wave here that we have a request for public comment on this item.

That is correct.

Okay. All right. Well, I'll go ahead and open up public comment on this item. And again, if you'd please limit your comments to those things that were said only during this item.

I can respect that. And also, I just want to disclose to the audience here, because I was approached by a young person earlier. I want to let everyone know that I'm operating based on the same rule, which is the law that also governs you, the government. And that law is called the Brown Act. So if you're interested as young people, please look it up. Therefore, you will have the wisdom and the knowledge to know that should anybody tell you anything wrong and deprive you of your right or stop you from exercising your right as an American, you can fight back because you have the knowledge. That's called the Brown Act. Okay, now my comments regarding what you guys said. We the people should not be made to pay taxes to fund political activists' purses and their jobs. So please be very careful when you want to bring corporations that can possibly lend us into a society of the oligarchs. I am a little bit uneasy about that, but I'm open to it. If they're able to bring in taxes, then why do we do away with Chevron? Chevron was here for years and years. They helped out the communities. They funded youth sports. Why didn't we do away with their land and built a bunch of affordable housing? I don't know. This sounds a little bit iffy, but I'm open to it because I'm an American. So I'm always willing to listen and be educated by other people's point of views. Next, transportation matters. Under this council's power is within our city's limits. I have problem with you guys authorizing our tax dollars to fund other municipalities' transportation needs. And of course, there is a lot of mixed ups that were not disclosed to homeowners. When I was buying a home, I was never told that my taxes will kind of in an indirect roundabout way to continue to fund the county because of a tax, because of a lawsuit. So that is a woe that all the Windermere and Gale Ranch homeowners are made to be eternal tax slaves. via County, Contra Costa County. And young people, please look into what I'm saying. Ask questions. Lastly, National Night Out must include proper police budget. I heard a city council member, and I'm not going to point out who, because I respect him for being new, should not ding the police for billing the city taxpayers over time because you guys didn't give them proper budget and that is your job. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Would you like to, we have another request for public comment? Go ahead.

Greg Carr. I'll turn in a card for your records at the end. Greg Carr, San Juan resident. I'd like to follow up on something that Robert brought up. So I'll stick to the topics here. The concept of converting commercial property, zone property, into housing is the wrong way to go when you're having a hard time making the budget, period. The old adage, A commercial businesses earn money, housing costs you money. That's true when I was sitting up there and that's true today. The ability for that city to hold up the conversion of commercial properties to residential is being obviated by the power of the state and the fear of the state puts into us, should we not do that? And there are certain folks want to see more housing. Okay, that's nice, but that doesn't balance the budget. So I think Robert's onto something that should be followed up and we ought to stop the conversion or slow it down. because once you turn it into ticky-tacky boxes, it's going to be hard to convert that back to something to generate tax money. So I would hope that we would look at finding ways to get high sales tax businesses in the city, find places to put them, And not think that we have to be driven by the state government and people of that political ilk that feel that we need more housing. No, that's the wrong way to go. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you very much. All right.

Thank you. Anyone else? I'll take it from the floor. Is there anyone else? All right. Seeing no one else, I'll close public comments. And with that, we are adjourned to our next regularly scheduled city council meeting, which will be scheduled.