City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the August 25th, 2026 Special City Council meeting. We have a quorum. Let's begin. Can we get a roll call, please?

Council Member Maloney. Present. Vice Mayor Pearson. Present. Council Member Mendoza. Here. Council Member Orleman.

Here.

Mayor Meyer. Here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Public comment time for tonight's items will be three minutes each. To ensure that all speakers feel welcome to share their views, members of the audience are kindly requested to refrain from applauding or speaking to the council from the audience without being called upon first. In addition, in order to maintain decorum and ensure that no one's site is obstructed, public commenters are reminded to not approach the dais.

At this time, members of the public are permitted to address the city council on items listed on tonight's special closed session agenda. We did receive one written public comment in advance of tonight's meeting. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand to speak. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. I do have one speaker card in person, Danny.

Good evening. Before I begin, I want to tell you at least one of my FOIA requests will be forwarded to the grand jury. This has nothing to do with Amanda. She has gone above and beyond in trying to provide the information within legal due dates. More than a few times in the last 70 days or so, I've not made an issue of missed deadlines, of which there are many. Not this time. At the end of business yesterday, there were at least two people who did not respond. You know all of the people that I've listed, I've kept you well aware. I'll let you determine who failed to provide the legally required information. It looks like the only way to get the information now will be under oath. The FOIA requests were made because I believe our current city manager will be terminated. Who knows, you might be making this decision tonight. The advice, there is some there there. meaning that the witch hunt bought on by seven women and one gay guy may have motives well outside the claims of gender bias. I don't know if Wannabe or the legal team are aware of what I found. I don't know if they even tried to look. I do know that after my last open comment, when I pointed out the fact that almost $100,000 was paid for him not to do his job, Mr. Duffy's attorney finally received a call back from your outside legal counsel after almost 70 days. i'm telling you this because i suspect you are not aware of the behind the scenes shenanigans and putting it on the record seems to be the only way of making you aware before i close mr duffy's attorney asked your legal outside counsel what were the allegations that person's response it's out there on the internet is this what we're paying for A city attorney who has ties to an insurance company is even playing a part in what appears to be a conflict of interest. 70 days and God knows how many billable hours, only to imply that Mr. Duffy's attorney is gonna get the boot because of Oakland. I do not know what your discussion will be tonight. Despite rumors to the contrary, I have no inside man feeding me information. I'm just a pretty smart guy who sees gaslighting in real time and does not want our city to be punished. Lastly, some of you have known me for over six years. I think you guys know I do not lie. And I only back those who have receipts for what it's worth.

I have no additional requests to speak or hands raised in Zoom. Thank you. Could I get a motion to recess to closed session?

I make a motion to recess to closed session. I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

We are recessed. Thank you.

Thank you.

you um,

What was the question? Thank you. I'll just give it to you. Everybody. uh

I think there's a microphone.

We're gonna go ahead and get started. Good evening, everyone, and we are coming back from closed session. We need a motion to adjourn closed session.

I'll make the motion to adjourn.

All in favor? Aye. And I should confirm there is nothing to be reported out. And so closed session is adjourned. We are moving into open session. We have a quorum so we can begin. Can I get a roll call, please? Council Member Maloney?

Present. Vice Mayor Pearson? Present. Council Member Mendoza? Here. Council Member Orlimans?

Here.

Mayor Meyer? Here.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We are going to start with a presentation and I would like to welcome the American Legion writers, American Legion and other veteran service officers present to lead a presentation of American flags to the Brentwood Police Department and to the Sheriff's Department.

I need the Marines. Come on, sunshine. Travis, come on, sunshine. Dan, come on. Get them all up here. Yeah, exactly. Good evening, mayor, city council, staff, chief. A year and a half ago, I started on a project. The project was based on the absolute respect that I have for military personnel and law enforcement officers. While it is seldom that it occurs, it does happen at a scene a Leo or active duty military veteran is found deceased. It's common knowledge that their bodies are usually covered with plastic, a blanket or similar items. And that always seemed wrong to me. My goal was to have a retireable American flag in every squad car so that if this tragedy ever occurred, these noble men and women would be covered appropriately befitting the service to our country and community. Therefore, after the last year and a half with the help of the veterans organizations, associated auxiliaries, we have accomplished a goal that means a great deal to our family at the Brentwood Brentwood veterans memorial building sorry that ties my tongue all the time we have the greatest respect and admiration for local leo's and that will never change. So today, we are proud to present a five by foot American flag to the brentwood police department and Contra Costa county sheriff's department dedicated to the professionals who safeguard our city county and our local communities. Thank you for your service, allegiance, and devotion that you provide every day to our community, the risk that you take yourselves every time you step out of your car, and we deeply appreciate your daily commitment and faithful service. From the bottom of our heart, we value each and every one of you.

So.

I've known most of you for a long time.

Sam, come on, don't be shy. I'm going to be at the back of the bus waiting for you.

Chief, can you say that into the microphone so the people at home can hear? Thank you. I'm so sorry to interrupt. Beautiful moment, but I feel like everyone should be able to hear that.

Thank you, Mayor. But this here is just a symbolic sign of respect, not only for those that have passed, but as well as the family members that are left behind. So thank you so much for the amount of work and effort that went into it. It's very much appreciated. Thank you.

Mayor, can I just say, Paul, thank you for taking all of your time to do this. You know how we feel about you. So thank you.

Thank you. And thanks to all of everyone who helped Paul in his in his project here. This is a really nice moment to see people standing together like that. Thank you. And thank you all veterans in the room for your service as well. Moving into public comments. The public comment time for tonight's items will be three minutes each. To ensure that all speakers feel welcome to share their views, members of the audience are kindly requested to refrain from applauding or speaking to the council from the audience without being called upon first. In addition, in order to maintain decorum and ensure that no one's sight is obstructed, public commenters are reminded to not approach the dais. Thank you, everyone.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the city council on items that are not listed on the council agenda, items listed under informational reports or on the consent calendar or requests for future agenda items, new requests. We did receive one written public comment in advance of tonight's meeting, which is summarized on the screen. Please limit your remarks to three minutes. The microphone will be muted if you speak on items from tonight's agenda or when the timer has expired. First speaker I have is Danny, followed by Lori, followed by Tracy.

Okay, here we go. I don't have that chief voice though. Thank you for lowering it.

Hey, stop the clock. I'm burning daylight here trying to get a nice sound.

Hello, hello? Okay, there we go. All right, so before I begin, I want to be clear. I do not believe you, the city council, condone harassment or racism of any kind. The following rant is not to infer that you, the city council, supports any inter... Ooh, I can't even say the word right. Supports any difference of justifying any type of injustice. Unfortunately, it appears that one or more of you are influenced by certain members and groups in this community, specifically the small but loud group of the melanin-challenged. Oh, I don't have the whole two minutes, so I will just jump to the punchline. Facts regarding the actions of former city manager Tim Ogden. The previous Brentwood city manager was accused of sexually harassing a subordinate. While under investigation, this man was able to continue his duties, including managing the black employee that filed the claim. The potential retaliation to this employee was never considered. The previous Brentwood manager was found culpable of sexually harassing this employee. The city of Brentwood paid $95,000 and he was able to leave without a cloud over his head. Facts. Mr. Duffy was hired to take on the role of city manager. Mr. Duffy, along with other candidates, were vetted by an outside agency. The agency provided Mr. Duffy's name to you along with other candidates. When he was hired, his responsibility was clear, streamline the city of Brentwood's day-to-day operations. This initiative upset several employees, specifically seven women and one gay guy. Some, if not all of the seven, previously attempted to oust him. That first attempt failed. Then there was the release of the text. Now these seven women and one guy had a golden ticket. A black man mentioned but not accused of any wrongdoing in the text message. This finding was conflated to imply that Mr. Duffy was a part of a harassment claim. This proof is that he, this proof rather, was that he harassed these seven women and one gay guy. So bottom lining it, we had one former city manager who was accused of sexually harassing someone in their workplace who was found culpable and we paid the price. We have another man who is on administrative leave right now, who hasn't even been officially accused of anything yet. And this is based upon talking to the city manager who has waited over 70 days to get a response from our outside council. And our outside council, when they finally answered the question of what am I being charged with said, You know what you did, it's on the internet. Exactly. If it wasn't so sad, it would be laughable.

The next speaker is Lori, followed by Tracy, followed by Cindy. Lori Abreu.

My name is Laurie Abreu. 20 years ago. Yeah. 20 years ago, we were dreamers, but rule followers. The city supported its local businesses and people who invest in the community. I own 134 Oak Street, a three tenant commercial building located between caps in the library. My private parking lot behind the building access from my private parking lot to the front doors of the building is through Parkway, a city alley that is approximately 17 feet wide. Makers Boulevard events, the permit holder parks her vehicle horizontally across Parkway and blocks access to my private parking lot. My tenants have asked for access and she refuses. Based on the permit documents, I found no authorization allowing a vehicle to be parked across Parkway. A vehicle positioned as a barricade must not create unsafe conditions. This is not how we should treat Brentwood brick and mortar businesses. Businesses pay rent, property taxes, assessments, employ people. We serve the community. and should not be removing barriers for us. The city actually has a 90-page plan about being ADA compliant. It's ADA self-evaluation and transition plan. The city has specifically committed itself to identifying and removing barriers of accessibility. I am required to be ADA compliant, yet the city allows a car to park and be 16 feet long in a 17-foot alley. As a property owner, I am required to maintain the accessible path for travel for people coming from my parking area to my business. I am asking a very simple question. How can the city require private property owners to maintain accessibility routes while simultaneously allowing the event operator to place a vehicle across where people need to walk? I went to park and rec, I went to the Brentwood Police Department, I went to code enforcement, and nothing was done. The issue escalated to the acting city manager. Instead of receiving assistance, I received an email stating the city employees had been instructed they were not allowed to communicate with me. This is extraordinarily Concerning, I filed my complaint. My request was not complicated. I asked the city to keep Parkway accessible to protect my pedestrian and ADA access. I met with Terrence and Amy Tilly. I showed photographs from other major downtown events. Parkway was not blocked by any of those other events. The intersection of First Street and Chestnut, which is where the farmers market starts, it's a four way stop sign. There's two full driving lanes, there's two full parking lanes and there's five foot sidewalks. And that is that is only used for traffic codes. That is their prevention for security. Yet I have a car parked horizontally in an alley. So make it make sense. Why is the city not adhering to their own rules? I learned from Terrence Davis at the maker's Boulevard permit was revised on July 24th. Consequently, after I reported my complaint, which nobody responded to my attorney now is waiting because he too is concerned. The city may be exposing itself to unnecessary ADA accessibility issues and potential litigation. Should I hire a private attorney to convince my city to protect my basic access to my property?

Speaker's timer has expired. The next speaker is Tracy, followed by Cindy, followed by Roger.

First thing I want to do is I want to thank a few people. I want to thank you, Jovita, for my traffic issue, for calling me. I'm reaching out regarding that. Thank you. Mayor, I want to thank you for pushing it to staff. Fay, thank you for following up on this sidewalk issue. And you, Bakwilar, okay. Well, thank you for taking action because it was a mess. Anyway, I want to go and speak a little bit about the county. They had a meeting today and it was awful. Diane, I want to attribute it to a snake spewing venom about Brentwood and about Brentwood not cooperating and how, you know, the city is wasting millions and it's not their fault and how everybody should call the city. And, you know, I have to listen to it again because it was awful. My head was spinning, but there was some, there was something in there that I felt like was sort of a threat, like the youth center and that how they could use it for something else and some other plan they have. I'm telling you, if you were doubting for a second that you didn't want to or didn't understand this recall, it is important that we all step up and say our piece. Let her know that she needs to be a good partner with this city. Her ruling versus representing She is going to come after Brentwood. You can hear it in her voice by the things she says. She's going to come after you guys in any way she can. It was awful. And I couldn't believe what I was hearing from this person's mouth. And so if you want to protect your city and how it's being developed versus what she's going to do, she has not learned anything from even being put on a recall. She is not. She's secretly buying property without mentioning it, acting like the city's breaking the bank. But yet she's turning around and giving raises, bonus and buying property in Martinez. But the stuff she was saying about Brentwood today was awful. And I am raising the alarm bells because I'm telling you what, this is going to turn into a mess if we don't put a stop to this woman. And I am serious. It was awful. And I know I've said that a million times, but it really was. So I wish you all luck on that and good luck.

Cindy, go ahead.

I'm Cindy Gailey and I'm here about concerns on the Lone Oak Road improvement options. We have lived at 1681 Lone Oak Road for 55 years.

I'm sorry, we have an agenda item later on in the evening that is specific to the item. I'm sorry, I can't. This is open public comments, so it's for items that are not on the agenda. But Lone Oak, the situation on Lone Oak is an agenda item for later on.

I just want to do it during open.

Is that, yeah, I'm sorry. The rule is that you have to speak on items that are not on the agenda during this time.

The last time I was here, you let me speak during open and not on the agenda.

I don't recall what that was about.

That was in April, the start of this.

Okay. It maybe wasn't an agenda item at that point.

Yeah, it was.

Okay. My apologies.

The next speakers I have are Roger, followed by Paul J., followed by Paul.

Good evening. For those of you who are at home, my name is Roger Coxage. I'm here tonight on behalf of, oh, it lowers. Oh, thank you very much. I can see you all now. Let's start Roger's time over, please. All righty well well, thank you so hi folks at home i'm Roger i'm the short guy. I want to start by first of all, thanking the city council, I want to thank amanda she's awesome and I want to thank the amanda from the recreation department. but when i told my fellow seniors at the senior center that i was going to be here tonight for the flag ceremony they several of them approached me and asked me to to speak to the council in regards to some pertinent items that they were deeply feeling and so i i wanted to make sure i did so on on their behalf Item number one is that pedestrian safety. A lot of them don't feel safe walking the sidewalks anymore because of the kids on their e-bikes. These kids on their e-bikes are causing havoc And they're racing through the sidewalks and they're racing through the crosswalks. So not only are we dealing with cars who blow through stop signs and blow through red lights, but now we're dealing with these scooters and electronic scooters and electronic e-bikes that are just moving too fast of a clip. Secondly, there has been an uptick in the in people trying to commit senior fraud. There's a new, I received these phone calls myself, a push of people who are trying to convince seniors there's a new program going on in the Contra Costa area where they're going to provide funding for new roofs. And it's a total scam. I actually had one of the representatives come out to my house to try and convince me and it was a complete scam to start with. But most concerning to me is that the seniors are afraid to interact with the Brentwood Police Department as a result of the death of Yolanda. They're afraid to go to the Brentwood Police Station and they're afraid to call the police to their house because Of the perception that if they engage in Brentwood police, they're going to end up getting killed by our officers. This is their perception. And as a as a former reserve officer myself. as a senior and as obviously a guy who is six foot eight and standing on his own two feet, this is concerning to me. And I would like for our police department to come out to the senior center and talk to our seniors about this and get something straight. Thank you very much. That's my three minutes. And I wanna again, thank the city council and the city staff.

Madam Mayor, I was actually just going to say, Chief, could you arrange to present to the Senior Center?

Yes, Mayor, and I've had an opportunity to chat with Roger on some of these issues.

Okay.

I'll follow up.

Also, the fraud issue was one thing we talked about at the age and disability-friendly communities, and so if we can get the date to get it back to Roger so that he can communicate since they feel comfortable to speak to you, that is one topic that will be coming up, I think, by the end of the year that will be discussed.

That would be great. Just remember, I don't have a cell phone, so don't text me. You actually have to call me. But thank you, Patanisha.

Absolutely, Rob.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you. The next speaker is Paul Jay.

It's real. Can you reset me, please?

Thank you, good evening.

Today we live in an era of asymmetric threats where digital and physical infrastructure can be instantly overwhelmed by coordinated cyber attacks or flash disruptions to our fiber, power grids and water systems. Two examples, the cyber threat. Recent news revealed cyber activities and attacks on small town water distribution systems across the country. These systems may have been using outdated software called SCADA to manage their water flow remotely. If this is the case here, a hacker could manipulate our water treatment systems from across the globe. On May 11th, LMC Safety Expo, I noticed the use of DJI drones. The US military has banned these aircraft due to hacking threats by China. China is hyper engaged in espionage warfare in America. We should only use vetted American made drone systems. IF AN ATTACK TAKES DOWN OUR POWER GRID, CONTROL SYSTEMS AND WATER PUMP, BY DAY TWO OUR TOWN WILL FACE A STAGGERING LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE OF DISTRIBUTING 120,000 GALLONS OF EMERGENCY DRINKING WATER to our residents per day. By day three, excuse me, without water, the outage turns fatal. We need to stress test our system now using the Black Sky Exercise Framework and simulation that models the simultaneous loss of power, water, and communications like the one designed by EAS Council. That's the Electronic Infrastructure Security Council. Does our town have an up-to-date risk and resilience assessment? THERE ARE TWO ZERO COST HIGH IMPACT SOLUTIONS. FREE FEDERAL INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENTS. INVITE A REGIONAL PROTECTIVE SECURITY ADVISOR FROM CISA OR HOMELAND SECURITY TO CONDUCT A FREE CONFIDENTIAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF OUR WATER TREATMENT AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS. THIS IS THE FIRST STEP TO DETERMINING WHERE ENHANCEMENTS MUST BE MADE. Secondly, low cost hybrid cert. We do not have a traditional community emergency response team. A hybrid cert can be formally established by coordinating existing volunteer groups like local amateur ham radio clubs and faith-based disaster networks. They may have radios and the staff to to handle neighbors checking neighbors and water distribution when civilian cells go black. It's always better to anticipate a civil defense crisis than regret we didn't and it's too late. I was also curious about the entertainment center beside near Trent, where I understand is moving forward. I was wondering if it makes sense to make the historic building, the John Marsh House, part of the complex. Is this something that you would consider? Thank you.

The next speakers are Paul, followed by Rudy, followed by Pastor George.

Good evening, my name is Paul Ramirez. Yolanda Ramirez was my sister-in-law, a 72-year-old grandmother, a Latina grandmother, who was killed at the hands of Aaron Peachman, Officer Aaron Peachman. Gonna be a year next month. And every one of you here from now your permanent chief of police, the mayor and the city council has shown zero leadership and responsibility. Most editorials written about the Brentwood City Council are all negative. So when you think about what the man just said earlier about senior citizens being terrified of calling the Brentwood police That's the fact. And even though I respect the veterans, the comments about the law enforcement, here's the most dangerous thing about law enforcement is when the leadership is an empty suit, when the city council does not have the integrity to make any statements, any position, My brother's wife of 50 plus years is gone. She's gone. And why? Did you ever ask yourselves why she's not here? 72 years old, a grandmother who never had any encounter with the police enforcement, and yet she's dead. And none of you, None of you have shown any type of leadership. And as we go forward, I don't know where the city of Brentwood is going to be. You're ridiculed countywide. The city council is ridiculed countywide. Competent city administrators do not look to come to Brentwood. So who are you getting in terms of hiring? My nephew has put in requests after requests for public documents, following all the policies and you, whether it's the city, active city manager does not even respond. How disgraceful is that? You have no honor. You have no honor or respect for your citizens because you don't respond at all, at all. People come to you about, I called the city department, got nothing. I hear that over and over. I've been coming to your city council meetings for a year. That's who you are. But make no doubt about it, we will represent justice for Yolanda.

I'm Rudy Ramirez, my wife Yolanda Ramirez of 54 years. had the bad luck of having Aaron Peachman respond to a call. The people that don't know about this, it was over an alleged coffee cup being broken. Her sister called the police department over a broken cup. She called the police department acting like she was in great danger. My wife, they had issues, but my wife had not seen her sister probably about eight or nine months. And Aaron Peachman went in, spoke with her. You could hear him talking with her, trying to find out what they could charge my wife with, because she tried vandalism, saying that she was kicking her door with open toed sandals. and that it ruined her door. Each man went to look, there was no such damage. He says to her, there is no damage, you got something else. Is there something else? Well, she broke a cup and then that started the whole thing. The female cop, Jean or whatever her name is, she was offended by, I guess, my wife. My wife was asking her, what did she do wrong? Like my brother said, it was her first and only encounter with the police department. She's about this tall. They felt threatened. They handcuffed her behind her back, threw her in the police car on her stomach. She was overweight. She could not breathe. You could see in the video how she was struggling to try and breathe. They did nothing. Peachman walked away, was away from the car for over 25 minutes or even more. Finally, they realized something was going on. They went in, opened the door. They saw that she was unconscious already. She had vomited on herself. At that time, she had been slammed into the police cruiser. It caused a brain bleed. Her skull filled with blood. She finally went into a coma. At that time, I believe she was already gone. They didn't call anybody, they didn't do anything. This is the second death on Grodnick's watch. The first one was on my wife and then, or maybe it was the one before was on a Christmas Eve, a man was killed, and then my wife was. And after a week, they allowed Peachman to go back on duty. We kept asking for information. They said, hey, the investigation's not done. Nine months, 10 months later, we still haven't heard nothing from you. I hope that when they leave, because I was working.

I met him. He's called the next person. The next speaker is Pastor George, followed by Tom. FOLLOWED BY OLGA.

HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL, GOOD EVENING. I'VE BEEN HERE SEVERAL TIMES. SO I'M PASTOR OF FORT FAYETTE CITY CHURCH LOCATED HERE IN BRINKWOOD, CALIFORNIA. WE ARE planning our city health fair at the community center right next door. We have actually started a collaboration with the community center now. And I'm not here for the third time out of frustration, only out of commitment. to the congregation and to the residents of Brentwood, I can only imagine how tough your jobs are. And so I don't blame anybody for not getting back with me just yet. I just want to come and say, we have John Muir, we have the fire department, but our investment, to make everything free at the fair would be stronger if one of the city officials would stop by for five minutes and just have words and let the community know that you're standing with them and that you care about their health and that's all i'm asking thank you

Hello. Sorry, I was working on a tractor and a Zamboni before I changed clothes. I did put a clean hat on. Good evening, everyone. Let's get these out quick. Good evening, everyone. I just thought I would like to come by and try to make sense of the discussion from a previous council meeting regarding the tattooing in Brentwood. Let's start with a discussion about grandfathering in those that have been illegal for months or years and grandfather them in, but charge the new business owners an $8,000 to $9,000 CUP. How does that make sense? How is this constitutionally fair to punish or charge the new business if you're going to grandfather? Then I guess since they've been in downtown waiting for this to move forward for, I think, 15 months, I guess it would be grandfathered in also. Council's punishing the only entity that is trying to get the zoning changed so everyone can be legal. and council punishes them for the efforts. Let's now discuss the email a business received according to one of the council members that makes them the only legal tattooing business in downtown. No offense to the business, but that's completely ridiculous. All council members know that there is no one at City Hall that can write a letter or send an email that allows a business to violate the zoning they're in. It's completely absurd to state that to be so. I have a different tenant that the city approved their plans and approved the use, and now it's going to court because the city made a mistake. If that was the cause, I might believe the business believed it was in the right, but a letter of email is not an approved set of plans. Now let's discuss the push by some council members to allow tattooing upstairs or tattooing in alleys. There are businesses that are tattooing upstairs. There are businesses that are tattooing next to alleys. You can align friendships and all that kind of stuff, but let's not tarnish those business owners for just trying to make a living. But it seems people want to tarnish the only ones trying to make change so everyone's legal. I also don't think it's correct that this change in verbiage that will allow these businesses to continue legally has been drawn out and delayed by a few people that don't like it when the majority want this change. When the survey was done, it was stated that 47% didn't want the change. So did anyone else in the room do the math and realize that it appears based on that statement, 53% potentially wanted the change. We also never heard how many businesses actually filled out that survey. I would like to know that, just a statement. On a second note, for those like Rod Flohr and the others that called in to tarnish the reputation of three of our city council members and myself regarding this discussion around the zoning change, we'd like to just state for the record, Rod, please see a proctologist and remove your head from your ass. And for the gal that thought I took Brentwood on Ice out of Brentwood because it needed to disengage rather than participate in the statement implying that Vice Mayor Patanisha theatrics. I could go through all the reasons why Brentwood on Ice left Brentwood, but I don't think that's relevant. As far as Vice Mayor Patanisha, I think she did exactly what was morally and lawfully correct. Thank you. Have a good night.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the city council and city staff. My name is Olga Vidrialis, and I'm here as a longtime resident of Brentwood. I'm here tonight to express my support for adding our nation's motto, In God We Trust, right here in this chambers. I want to thank Councilmember Toni Orleman for bringing this forward at the request of one of our citizens and giving the community an opportunity to have this conversation. I do not see these words as divisive. I see them as words that bring us together. God may hold different meaning for different people. For me, my faith is in Jesus Christ our Savior, but I respect that others may understand God and faith differently. I remember when our city council actually considered a resolution in support of Palestine. I found that completely divisive. but especially given the deeply held concerns within our Jewish community. But this is different. In God We Trust is about choosing one side over, it's not about choosing one side over another. It's our nation's motto. And I believe it can remind us of what unites us rather than what divides us. Please remember if this item does come back up on the agenda. We are one nation, one community together. Council Member Orleman, I know you're leaving us soon. That saddens me completely. I always saw you as a voice of reason on this city council, but I want to take this opportunity to thank you personally for your service, both on city council and also as a retired police officer. Thank you very much.

The final two speaker cards I have in person is Cinziana followed by Al. Thank you.

I good evening, I just want to say ditto to everything that Tracy mentioned related to the. behavior of our district. representative our district supervisor and I want to announce that we're still collecting signatures, please support the recall. Our city is being dictated what to do, where to build, what to build. And as a person who grew up in a communist regime, that brings back not very good memories. And I would like to still think that we have local control in our hands, at least from our county level so um whomever's listening tonight i will be at the farmers market this weekend collecting signatures so please come support the recall we cannot have this person destroying our city has she already done with the East County Center coming in, bringing people from all over the county, in the middle of our town, in the middle of neighborhoods, from felons to homeless to people who are out of control. And that will constitute an additional cost for our police department. It will bring warrant there for our streets that we pay out of our tax money. And also, she doesn't even want to have a dialogue with the residents of the city. However, she does call out our city staff, our council members, and everyone who stands in her way, calling them difficult to deal with. That's an utter insult, and she just doesn't deserve to be our representative at county level. So please, please, please support this effort to recall Diane Burgess, Supervisor for District 3 at Contra Costa County. Thank you.

Al? Al, did you want to speak on general public comments?

With three minutes, this is an edited version. There used to be a time when people from all over the world, in order to escape their nation's power of tyranny or just wanted to have a better way of life, came to this country to become Americans. My paternal grandparents traveled from Italy, left behind their culture and lifestyle to embrace and assimilate to the American way of life. They started a family in San Francisco and built a small business. Unfortunately, they also experienced the Great Depression, followed by World War II, yet they persevered and produced a generation of successful family members. And they all accomplished this without one penny of government assistance. Today, people still come from other countries, but somewhere along the line, things changed. We never had a problem with the way they wanted to live their lives until they told us how to live ours. We never had a problem with our opinions until they decided we couldn't have our own. Unlike my grandparents, they continued to push against assimilation. excuse me, assimilation. And they do this by receiving free government benefits, which are better than those on social security and those who are veterans who died for this country. They continue to display the reluctance to not have any interest in the American way of life, rather they demand that we change and accept their laws and traditions. Some are running for office on platforms that are dedicated to the destruction of the Western civilization. Lately, some have asked for elimination of the police, the Congress, as well as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other American traditions. Basically, This is their war against America in our own country.

I'm not gonna make it.

So when we have an opportunity to combat these platforms, in order to come together to fight for the American way of life, this council puts its tail between its legs and refuses to adopt our nation's motto, in God we trust. In doing so, you are fundamentally aiding and abetting those whose mission is to slowly chip away longstanding customs and change America to their way of life. Some of you have voiced concerns that such statements is divisive and contrary to their beliefs. can't read more because you only give me three minutes which I think is disgusting that anybody here has to only wait three minutes I do have one hand raised in zoom rod go ahead thank you Amanda I just wanted to

respond to some things that were said about my speech after i gave it last time um i did miss the last meeting because i was at sea and not able to dial in or show up personally i would show up personally today uh to talk to the patent agent to her face but i have a pretty bad cold and i don't want to get anybody sick um with that and i also want to reiterate that i speak for myself not through my position with the city. I only speak for myself. I want to speak about Tom Gregory first of all, and I did intend to say this before Tom said what he did today. He said the same to me online and I replied to him. I don't think he got my reply. What I said at that meeting, I said nothing about Tom doing anything wrong. Tom did nothing wrong that I can see. um i apologize for anything i said that led anybody to think otherwise i i went back i don't see anything where i said that tom did anything wrong um i never said any money changed hands despite what tony orlaman said in his capacity as a city council member which was just a lie just to make it so he could make a fuss but i never said he took any money i said he committed a brown act violation and patinatia And after they both made very histrionic responses, they both basically confessed to that very thing. They met with a private citizen, they formed an opinion about something the private citizen asked them about, and they carried that opinion They did that outside of a public meeting, outside of the view of the public. This is the kind of backroom dealing that people are not supposed to have because the Brown Act is supposed to prevent it. Everything they do is supposed to be done in a public meeting. And they both confessed to that, but they both said that they made up their minds after they talked to somebody about it, Kalpaksher and Tom. This is just not correct. It's not right. It's not fair. I can't see my timer, by the way, so I don't have any idea how long I'm speaking. Again, if I said anything that made anybody think Tom did anything wrong, all Tom did was come to his city council members express a problem and he should have been referred to staff so they could help him understand what he could do what he could bring forward and instead they just took it on themselves i don't know it's ego or what but they just decided oh we'll just bring this and in doing so they they poisoned the whole process to the point where i don't even think that that agenda item should return um so I have plenty more to say about this. Pat and Nisha, if you want me to say something to your face, come and see me. You're welcome to have my cold. And for now, that's all I have time for. But I have plenty more to say. Anybody wants to ask me about it. My head is not in my ass. It never has been. And that's why I have a positive reputation in this community. Thank you.

I have no additional hands raised in Zoom.

Thank you. Moving into consent calendar, items E2 and E3 will be presented following the approval of the consent calendar. Do we have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye. Real quick, just sorry. Does the motion include the revision to the meeting minutes?

the revisions to the agenda meetings?

Correct. And does the second still stand with that? Thank you. Yes.

Everyone still in favor? Aye. Okay, thank you. We are going to, let's see, present, I'm looking for the, E2 is a proclamation recognizing September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And E3 is a proclamation recognizing September as National Senior Center Month. So we will start with E2, if everyone would like to join me at the podium. I would like to welcome up Eliana Zelaya and her family, if they are here. Yes. And also the family of Dario Matmartos.

You can just, thank you.

And please forgive me if I mispronounced. Do you want to correct me?

Zelaya Eliana Zelaya. Thank you.

Wonderful. I'm going to turn around and face you. Okay. And it's the first one we're going to present to Eliana. In January of 2024, Eliana Zelaya, a seven-year-old, was discovered to have a malignant rhabdoid tumor on her spine and was diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Eliana endured over 200 procedures that included chemotherapy, infusions, radiation sessions, surgeries, and blood transfusions. After a courageous 10-month battle, Ellie was able to defy the odds along with strong support from her family, friends, and community. Yes. She was able to beat it and is now cancer-free. Yes. Eliana's father, Mr. Z, is a teacher at Liberty High School. So we have one certificate of recognition for your family. I wasn't positive it was you. Thank you. So we'll also do... Do you have anything you'd like to say, Eliana? Mr. Z, would you? Okay, wonderful.

Okay, on behalf of our families, I want to thank the Brentwood community for recognizing childhood cancer awareness and for standing behind the children and families in our area who are facing this journey. When your child is diagnosed with cancer, your entire world changes. Knowing that your community sees you, supports you, and stands beside you means more than words can express. It reminds families that they are not alone, and most importantly, it gives them hope. A very special thank you to the Ordaz family and the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation for sharing our story with the city of Brentwood and for choosing our family to help represent childhood cancer community at this proclamation. We are truly honored to stand alongside so many brave children, both these children are extremely brave, and families and help bring awareness to a cause that means so much to us. For families like ours who know this journey firsthand, thank you for showing up, raising awareness, and giving our children hope, thank you.

Thank you for sharing that. And to Dario Martos, is that pronounced correctly? Close, yes, okay. Dario Martos, an eighth grader at Bristow Middle School, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on April 23rd, 2025. Dario was taken off the soccer field and into treatment to battle for his life. Dario endured over 160 procedures, including chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, surgeries, and labs. With his family and friends by his side, Dario kicked cancer's butt and is now cancer-free and back on the soccer field.

Yes.

Tonight we are celebrating two tremendously brave young superheroes. So I'm going to give you this certificate as well.

Thank you. And would someone like to speak?

Or you, for that matter?

Thank you for my recognition. And thank you for our community for spreading awareness.

I just want to say how proud we are of Ileana and Dario for their resilience and their strength and just being so brave. We're really proud of them. And thanks to the community for this awareness and spreading the word. You know, it's beyond the statistics. It's really a child and a family that's behind it. And we're just honored to also be here to represent them as well. So thank you.

Thank you. And I'm going to read briefly the proclamation that's on both of those. Whereas September is nationally recognized as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time to shine a golden light on children and families affected by cancer, honor courageous young patients and survivors, and remember those taken from us too soon. And whereas the color gold serves as a national symbol of childhood cancer awareness, and communities across the country are encouraged to come together through acts of kindness, support, fundraising, and advocacy and awareness to help children and families facing cancer. And whereas the City of Brentwood celebrates the strength of our children, the dedication of families and caregivers, and the generosity of medical professionals, researchers, volunteers, and community members who remind us that hope grows when we stand together. Now therefore it be proclaimed that the City Council of the City of Brentwood does hereby recognize September 2026 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Congratulations. Next is presented to Devin Campos, Recreation Coordinator, and Lindsay Pinnell, Recreation Supervisor. And this is for National Senior Center Month. Whereas National Senior Center Month is celebrated each September to recognize the vital role senior centers play in helping older adults stay connected, healthy, engaged, and active in their communities, and whereas senior centers are welcoming community hubs where friendships grow, knowledge is shared, talents flourish, and older adults find meaningful opportunities for wellness, creativity, service, and fun, And whereas the City of Brentwood celebrates the wisdom, contributions, resilience, and vitality of its older adults, and recognizes that a thriving community is one where people of every age have opportunities to belong, participate, and look forward to what comes next, now therefore it be proclaimed that the City Council of the City of Brentwood does hereby recognize September 2026 as National Senior Center Month.

Thank you very much. Thank you for the council's support. And we have our Aging and Disability-Friendly Community Committee that has been huge. But again, thank you to our coordinator, David Campos, who can't be here tonight, and our front desk staff who make our senior center such a warm and inviting place to come to every day. We're open Monday through Friday, 8 to 4. 50 and better is our age over here in Brentwood. We have a huge senior population here in Brentwood and we have lots of fun things to do. It's very vibrant. If you just want to come and volunteer, if you want to come and play games, exercise classes, there's things in the evening, there's things in the day. So there's something for everyone. So if you haven't stopped by, please come stop by. We're on the corner of Balfour and Griffith Lane and we will show you around.

Was there anything regarding E5, Thomas?

I can read in that the completed preliminary engineer's report has been received and filed with the office of the city clerk pursuant to streets and highways code section 22586. Thank you. Thank you.

And we don't need to approve anything else, okay. Moving into business items, are we able to move the, I'd like to move the Lone Oak item since we have people here in person. Are we prepared for that? Okay. Yeah, okay, so we're gonna move into item F4. We're gonna move the calendar around a little bit, or the agenda, I should say, because we do have people here in person for the Lone Oak Road Improvements Option item. So we're going to welcome, hopefully, Anish Sen, Engineering Manager, will present the next item regarding Lone Oak Road Improvement Options.

Thank you, Mayor. Pardon the delay. Monish is coming down at the moment. If you guys, if we could hang out for.

We can take, we were going to take a short break after this item. We'll go ahead and take the short break now.

Thank you.

test.

Okay, we're going to get started. Don't make me hit this. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. Do you love it?

Okay.

We're going to move into item F4. Monish Sen, Engineering Manager, will present the next item regarding Lone Oak Road improvement options.

Good evening mayor vice mayor and Council members, the purpose of this presentation is to provide information and estimates for potentially widening and improving a portion of loan oak road to current city standards. If wind and improved speed hump installation could be accommodated on the roadway if it were to meet certain criteria required for traffic calming devices. We asked Council members receive information regarding cost estimates financing possibilities and options for construction of improvements to bring loan oak road from grand street to Cape or drive to current city standards. And after careful review of the options presented provide staff direction on how or whether to proceed with this project. lone oak road was originally constructed as a county rural road without the amenities, we see on a modern roadways. As we see here, there are there have been substantial developments in the vicinity of lone oak road over time i'll discuss further the major developments orchard grove and SNS farms later in the presentation. In 2004 and 2005 Planning Commission approved the SNS farm subdivision. In 2013 and 2019 speed hump surveys were conducted and did not meet the criteria for installation. In September of 2022 and August of 2023 the City Council approved phases one and two of the Orchard Grove subdivision. january of 2025 a town hall meeting was held to discuss traffic around marsh creek elementary vineyards academy and the surrounding neighborhoods in october and november of 2025 staff replaced curb gutter and sidewalk along lone oak road in january and february of this year staff performed speed hump analysis again and it did not meet the criteria for installation subsequently in march staff installed additional speed limit signs on lone oak road this summer the intersection of lone oak road and caper drive was rehabilitated as a part of our pavement management program shown here is the city's standard detail for residential street cross section Within a 56 foot right of way and a total of 36 feet of pavement with with 210 foot travel lanes and eight foot shoulders. also featured our five foot sidewalks in five foot landscapes areas, the landscape strips can also be designed as clean water facilities other features of a standard city roadway or overhead led lighting. underground utilities storm drainage five foot public utilities mints signing and striping as needed. The current pavement with fairies in range from 17 to 30 feet, a majority of the roadway does not feature curb gutter sidewalk or landscaped areas street lighting underground utilities or underground storm drainage infrastructure. As shown here the overhead utilities generally run along the West side of lone oak road from grant street South to Gracie lane. shown in green is the area that has already been underground it from Gracie lane South to caper drive the overhead utilities run along the east side of the road. These overhead utilities would be underground it if the roadway is widened to city standard. Now coming to recent residential development on loan oak road the SNS farm subdivision was developed in the mid 2000s. The developer was required to widen approximately 600 feet of the roadway to city standard along the project frontage. The improvements were only installed along the West side of the loan oak road along the project frontage the improvements installed were road widening sidewalk utility undergrounding and storm drainage infrastructure. Unlike prior subdivision sns farms the orchard grove developer was not required to fully widen and improve loan or grow to city standards. This was due to Community opposition to road improvements on loan oak road nearby residents on loan oak road mentioned that they wanted to protect the integrity of the rural country lifestyle a Community means held by the developer. However, as you can see the developer installed landscaping drainage features and underground utilities along the project frontage. It should be noted that even if all the improvements on lone oak road were completed to city standard the roadway would likely still not meet speed on bridge criteria for installation. speed on criteria for traffic coming include roadway characteristics data collection for traffic volumes and observed and measured vehicular speeds. The unintended consequences of installation of speed humps where they are not warranted can introduce operational safety and liability concerns. Establishing a precedent of inconsistent application of traffic calming measures that is outside of the city's adopted criteria and not data driven can then result in an unnecessarily and costly proliferation of these devices. Prior to construction, activities to prepare for the project include public outreach, topographic and utility surveys, geotechnical investigations and environmental studies, right-of-way and public utility easement acquisition, permitting, preliminary and final design, preparation of construction documents, and selection of the contractor. Meanwhile, longer term processes include identifying funding sources property acquisitions utility coordination and environmental review. The city would need to acquire portions of private property and public utility easements to accommodate the proposed improvements. As a part of this process, staff would first identify the specific property interests needed through preliminary engineering and prepare legal descriptions and exhibits identifying the proposed acquisitions. Shown here is an example of a property acquisition along one parcel that would be required. After identifying and mapping the portions of property that would need to be acquired, staff would obtain independent appraisals to establish fair market value of each property and provide the property owner an offer based on the appraised value. The appraisal process would also require quantification of existing private improvements that may be impacted by the proposed right-of-way acquisition, including landscaping, driveways, fencing, decorative features, and other site improvements. The city would evaluate the extent of removal relocation and replacement necessary in negotiate appropriate costs with effective property owners as part of the right away acquisition process. Staff would seek to negotiate voluntary acquisitions with each property owner, based on the offer provided, while considering reasonable terms that allow the project to proceed, while addressing property specific concerns. If the city and property owner reach an impasse after all reasonable efforts to negotiate have been exhausted and no agreement has been reached, the city could consider acquiring the property through eminent domain. Eminent domain would only be necessary where the city determines that the property interest is required for the public project and the property owner is unwilling to voluntarily convey the necessary interest. The use of eminent domain would increase project costs and extend this project schedule due to additional legal appraisal and court related requirements, therefore eminent domain should be viewed as a potential last resort when all other reasonable avenues have been thoroughly explored. It should be noted that the project cost estimate does not include potential cost escalations due to eminent domain actions. Modernizing the roadway would provide long-term public benefit by improved safety, accessibility, drainage and utility reliability. Bringing the roadway up to current city standard would also reduce long-term maintenance liabilities and improve the level of service provided to residents. There has been discussion of closing the roadway to through traffic at Grant Street. This would introduce operational challenges with emergency vehicle access, neighborhood vehicle circulation, turnaround requirements, and additional right-of-way acquisition impacts to affected property owners. Shown here visually are some of those impacts. A traffic study to model potential circulation impacts to closing Lone Oak Road should be conducted to fully understand the impacts to the community by this option. This option should not be considered further without a majority of the residents on Lone Oak Road and affected peripheral roads being in support of the measure. Due to the complexities of delivering such a large project with significant right away acquisitions in the current environment and assumption was made that at least five years would be needed to complete the project this assumption puts us at a projected project completion date of 2031. Based on this assumption and expected cost escalations over the time frame, the estimated project costs would be approximately $5 million 152,000 in the year 2031. An additional 478,000 was estimated to complete a permanent cul-de-sac closure at grand street. There is currently no funding identified in the city's adopted capital improvement program for planning, design, environmental review, right of acquisition, utility relocation, or construction of the improvements on Lone Oak Road to bring into current city standard. Advancing the project would require the identification and appropriation of new funding sources. Should the city council wish to proceed with the project, direction would be needed regarding the desired funding strategy. Potential funding sources for a future capital improvement program include general fund appropriations and possibly state and federal transportation grant opportunities. Another source of potential funding could be through the formation of a benefit assessment district to recover some of the project costs from benefiting property owners. Since the project would provide direct and long term benefit to adjacent nearby properties with improved access infrastructure drainage landscaping and lighting and overall aesthetics, a benefit assessment district formation could be considered. A benefit assessment district allows a local agency means to finance eligible improvements through assessments levied on properties that receive a special benefit from the improvements. For this project to district could potentially include some or all of the approximately 37 properties directly benefiting from the considered roadway improvements. Formation of an assessment district would require the city to demonstrate that the property is being assessed receive a special benefit from the proposed improvements that is distinct from the general benefit provided to the public. The city would also be required to distinguish between the projects general and special benefits and could not assess a property more than its professional set personal share of the special benefit received. An engineer's report would be required to document the improvements, district boundaries, project costs, special and general benefits, assessment methodology, and proposed assessments of each property. Shown here is a step-by-step benefit assessment district formation process, starting with development of a project cost estimate, making outreach efforts to affected property owners, preparation of an engineer's report City Council adoption a mailing of proposition 200 218 218 notices and assessments ballots to infected property owners a public hearing and a tabulation of the ballots based on proportional financial obligation per property. Notices and ballots are mailed to each property owner. Each ballot is weighted according to the amount of the proposed assessment for that property. For instance, a property proposed to pay twice the assessment of another property would have twice the ballot weight. Also, if the weighted ballots supporting the assessment exceed the weighted ballots opposed to it and all other legal requirements are satisfied, The the city council can proceed with formation of the district and levy the assessments. options before the city council's option one could be for the city council to direct staff to evaluate potential funding sources return to city council with additional information regarding project costs and recommend an implementation strategy. Meanwhile, staff could be directed to explore further the potential formation of a benefit assessment district and estimate property owner financial obligations. Further discuss the options to permanently closed loan oak road at grant street discuss property acquisitions and impacts to individual property owners discuss potential utility relocations and construction impacts. alternative to lead the City Council could move towards option two, which would be directing staff to add the project to a future capital improvement program. As funding is pursued this option would involve staff seeking grant opportunities, while continuing to respond to the Community regarding requests for traffic calming and enforcement phased or incremental improvements could be considered as funding becomes available. And the third option would be to not proceed at all. Staff would continue to respond to requests for enforcement and routine road maintenance. City resources would not be expended on Lone Oak Road improvements at this time and the roadway would remain as it is. This concludes the presentation and I'd be happy to answer any questions, thank you.

Thank you, do we have any questions for staff?

I have one question Okay, since we've had this item come to our Council how what has been the outreach from our city to that community like how many times have responded there what kind of enforcement have we done there. What traffic calming measures have we done.

Thank you, Council Member Maloney. Based on when we last reported back to Council, I think it was in March or April of this year, we have not received any further specific complaints or requests for enforcement. And then previous to that, like Monish mentioned, earlier in the year, we did a study to evaluate speed hump uh criteria and that was really the last thing so basically since since the last council meeting we there was no further action taken besides preparing this report thank you and for our police chief chief have we had any type of traffic enforcement in the area

yes we've um have performed directed enforcement and we know some of the concerns out there so although we haven't received complaints i know that our sergeant that oversees our traffic safety unit has directed staff to go out there and proactively conduct enforcement i don't have the figures or numbers but i do know that this area does you know remain an area of concern and we do try to focus our efforts when we can thank you

From the benefit assessment districts, are these areas or these properties, are they currently being assessed? Any type of, any assessments or any LLADs?

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay.

And then also, the report kind of tends to lead, and I just want to ask for confirmation. Right now, that area is not to city standards, correct?

much of the roadway does not meet current city standards again it was built many years ago and probably in the 40s and then as development has occurred we i mentioned there's been several locations that have been improved um but much of the roadway remains in its existing at its uh and at a non-standard to current city standard okay thank you no additional questions

I just have one question. There's that one house that's the newest house that was built on Lone Oak when you're coming down and you make a left. I guess I'm not understanding, because we always hear developers do the infrastructure. Had we made them do the sidewalk when they built that new house, would we have to have gone through the whole rigmarole of... you know, the land and the LLAD and the assessments, and whose ultimate decision is it not to require those sidewalks?

So I can't speak to that specific location, but my understanding is if somebody just pulls a building permit on a single property, then they probably will not be required to do full frontage improvements. it's usually through entitlement of a subdivision that those require those frontage improvements are typically required.

Why.

land use law?

I'll chime in here. It's in our municipal code specifically for land development subdivisions that they're required to improve their frontage.

Do we get any fees for that? So is it in the code that if it's a single house, it doesn't have to do it?

And it doesn't specifically say, so I'm not sure if it went through a design review process or if it was straight to a building permit, but in that regard, it doesn't have, it doesn't go through the process of getting conditions attached to it. And the other difficulty is when, depending on where it's located, it's very difficult to ask the developer to install a sidewalk curb and gutter where there's no connections next to it. But I have to look at it generally for land subdivisions when someone needs to subdivide property or even a larger commercial development where there's additional studies done, that's where, and it goes through a much larger entitlement process and conditions of approval are attached to a project. That's where a lot of these furniture improvements come in.

Do we get fees to like bank for later installing the sidewalks?

Currently, we do not have that in our municipal code to to ask, like for if it's a one off building permit for them to like, like you mentioned, put into a fund or give the city money to to save that money for future improvement. We do not have that.

Okay, do I'll wait, we'll discuss other stuff later. Thank you.

John Potter, January we when we did the traffic study out there and we were counting the number of vehicles and it doesn't qualify that section of loan doesn't qualify for speed bumps. John Potter, But Gracie lane. which curves right off of it, also a relatively rule, no curb and gutter, has two speed humps, and it's a dead end. I don't understand how that could qualify, but something that's actually a road that goes all the way through doesn't qualify. Can you clear us up?

Thank you. Graceland, similar to Lone Elk Road, was built some time ago. If, you know, some of the speakers here could probably provide that history better than I can. But my understanding is Graceland at one time when it was initially built was actually a private street. And I think with the timing of S&S Farms, the development that Monisha was talking about, it was at that time that the city agreed to take, you know, for Gracie Lane to, or they convinced the developer to have Gracie Lane become a public street. And at that time, from the notes I've received from, I don't know if it was previous city engineers or previous traffic engineers, they told me that at that time, the city engineer at that time honored Gracie Lane and having those two speed humps, and they kind of just kept it there. So in that regard, it was already there was a private street. I think at one point, Gracie Lane may have connected with Adams Lane. So there might have been a little bit more traffic through there. But now that it's not connected. That that was the kind of the history of that one. It it's different from what we're talking about today. So that's where I would stay.

I'm just, maybe I'm not clear. So Gracie was a private road. They had speed humps already on it. Then the city of Brentwood took it over and we just left the speed humps there since they already existed. Correct. Okay.

So I, that was one of my questions about Gracie, but I'm also curious, do you know at the time when those speed humps were installed, if they actually met the criteria, just to clarify?

I don't know when those were installed. They were installed at a time when it was a private street. So as you know, in private streets, they don't necessarily go through a public process. They don't go to the city engineer to install those. So when it was originally installed, I can't speak to it, but I would assume, yeah, I would be cautious in speaking to that part.

My last question is just going to be around the idea of grants, because I frankly don't think that's a viable option. In my experience, state grants are not specific to a neighborhood the way this option would be. Excuse me. So I just kind of, I know we're now working with an agency that helps us to secure grants, but have you seen any relatable public safety or street safety or specific grants that would do something like this, because I have not.

Yeah, my experience with grants is you're correct, Mayor, that it would be difficult for a neighborhood kind of road to qualify. My understanding with grants it usually if there is an identified safety concern. There it's easier to get grant funding in this case there's no safety concern that has been identified and then number two it's it's basically a local road, not a reach a route of regional significance, so it would be harder to get those kind of grants.

Thank you, so when you're talking about the no specific safety concern.

As in identified collisions or those kind of items, I believe there's been no.

There has been collisions.

Okay, if there are no other questions, we can move into public comments. No other questions, correct?

I guess a question about the grants. Something that Mickey and I worked on when Mickey was here is that we had to apply for grants, not me, him, but him and I talking about it. And I think it took four years to get Fairview done. So just because they say no, I don't think that means we can't continue. I think we should continue to ask, especially because we have had collisions on that street. There was that white truck that came out. So there's things that have happened. I think we should continue to ask for money. If we don't get it, we don't get it. But if, you know, he's like, it's basically the same application every year. So he just sent it in every year and then he finally got it. So, I mean, I guess those are my comments about grants. I wouldn't be discouraged applying for them if they're available in some way, shape or form.

And to be clear, I'm not saying we shouldn't apply for them. I'm saying we shouldn't rely only on them.

No, no, but I think we should apply for them.

Sure. Yeah. Okay. No other questions. We can move into public comments.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda or after the timer has expired. We received four written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting, which is summarized on the screen. First speaker I have is Cindy, followed by Lori, followed by Jim.

My name is Cindy Gailey, and we have lived on Lone Oak Road for 55 years. And just as a point of history, Gracie Lane never connected to Adams Lane, and Lone Oak Road also used to be a private road. We fought annexation for a long time, and finally were taken over anyway, and that's when the city accepted our road. to be maintained by the city. The majority of the neighborhood is content with the way it is now in a country atmosphere. I'm aware that a couple of residents aren't happy, but the majority of us are. As a traffic survey showed, The traffic on our road is minimal. I don't know what the collision you were talking about because I've never seen any safety issues there at all. People feel comfortable walking dogs or just strolling in the street. Sidewalks are more difficult if one has an unsteady gate or is pushing a stroller because of the driveway dips. Few people use the existing sidewalks that are there. It's only in front of four houses. Lighting isn't a problem because most residents have driveway lights. The closing of Lone Oak Road onto Grant would be a major inconvenience for residents in that area. And it would significantly increase the traffic in the south end, the section near Caper. And so we say, why? Why are we even thinking of that as an option? For five million plus dollars, why approach this small area? It's not even about two football fields long. It seems an inefficient use of money and taxpayers' money at that. And if an assessment district was formed, we, the people in the area, would be paying for it. Other areas don't have sidewalks, but they do have wider streets. And we just don't understand why you're focusing on us. A long money spent better would be along the south part of a hair are going into going into Brentwood where there's no sock sidewalks it's unsafe to walk into town there's no.

The speaker's time has expired. The next speaker is Lori.

We are 38 year residents of Lone Oak Road. We moved out there because of the way it looks. We also vehemently protest any improvement on the road. That's why we're there because there's no sidewalks. Like Cindy said, some of us aren't good on sidewalks. In 38 years, I know of no traffic accidents on our road, nothing serious. And there have been a couple of accidents on Grant since it's been punched through. Grant used to dead end at Lone Oak, but those are on Grant. Those are streets that are wider and have sidewalks and the kids are comfortable racing on them. You can't race on our streets, you end up in the ditch and we like it that way. Basically, please, please just leave us alone. We're happy with the way things are. I will be emailing you pictures of our street. We happen to be one of the smallest lots on the street And if it lines up with the piece of road that's already there, you would want too much of our street. Our front door would be on the road. We don't want this. We're happy with the way things are. Please leave us alone.

The next speaker is Jim, followed by Cinziana, followed by Chris.

Hi. Good evening Council members, my name is Jim Frazier I live at 1635 lone oak road, one of the developed parcels with a sidewalk and one of the ambiances when we bought our House, a year and a half ago was rural kind of ambiance of lone oak. hearing the chickens in the morning and. You know. The traffic count is more than accurate. When I spend most of my time out in the front yard doing my landscape and when I'm retired now, and I will tell you, there's a knucklehead that comes around once in a while, but as a whole, most of the traffic we see now are the Amazon trucks, the UPS trucks, you know, delivering to all us, people that don't go to the brick and mortars anymore. But as a whole, people are responsible on that road. There's not a lot of cut throughs. So I implore you not to even consider the speed bumps. I lived in a gated subdivision in Fairfield in the HOA to the angst of the homeowners putting speed bumps. And there was one that was close to my home And all I heard was a bump, a bump, a bump all day long. And if I had my window at night, the same thing. And where I live on Lone Oak, I'm a prime target for a speed bump if you were to put it in there. I really would not appreciate that. But again, as your staff has noted, it doesn't warrant it through the study. On the overall improvement of Lone Oak and talking about a CIP, You're right, there will be no opportunity for money. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Bay Area only does RM money if it has a nexus to a bridge. If you're gonna get a grant, it has to be safety related. I sat on the California Transportation Commission for seven years and we never did a neighborhood road. There's 400 and something cities that are all competing for priority projects and they get funded. But also considering a CIP and putting it in the works, my property taxes are more than my house payment already. And I cannot tell you how much that would add to my property tax and me being on a fixed income now possibly forced me out of my home because I couldn't afford it. Um, so I'm begging you not to consider it as a benefit district assessment district, because if that's the case and you put that in, in writing, we will have to disclose that if we sell our home and you will devalue each and every one of our homes. Thank you.

The next speaker is Cinziana, followed by Chris.

Good evening. I really appreciate all my neighbors coming and speaking in front of the council. And I couldn't help reading the staff report to wonder if the author sat in the same room and listened to the same meetings that I've had listened to. or I attended the direction from the Council was to offer a viable solution for traffic calming. On top of the staff report being incomplete, it offers some suggestions as opposed to solutions. And one is a cost prohibitive because 5.2 million in improvement that nobody discussed or asked for I don't know how that came about. We want to keep, as my neighbors mentioned, we want to keep the look and feel of our neighborhood. That's one of the main reasons we moved there. However, the numbers don't lie. The 2019 report compared to 2026 traffic report, shows a 57% increase in traffic on our street. 57%. The numbers don't lie. And the city staff has the report. I can also share it. The point is we need a solution. And we need it today, not in five years, not in six years, Not in seven years and what we heard was just an engineering. Opinion in my view that's how I heard it and it's just not think viable. Gracie lane was mentioned, I do know firsthand that the city installed those humps. And yes, that road never connected to Adams. There were a lot of incidents between 2014 and today. And again, in conclusion, I just want to ask the city engineer to either redo the report, present real and innovative solutions that will not impede with our quality of life, and the limitations of the population in our neighborhood and allow us to really have a safe place to live. Thank you.

Last speaker card I have in person is Chris.

Hi, everybody. Good evening. Thank you for the staff report by the way, very informative. The only thing that stood out at this point is all the residents coming out too is really helpful to hear what the folks that live there had to say. I don't understand how the staff report was written based off of the feedback that we got from these residents. What was listed in the staff report here is this $5.6 million infrastructure project. It's modernization, LED lighting, gutters, repavement. And we're hearing a lot of these comments that say, well, we like our street to be rural. And a rural street doesn't really have a lot of that infrastructure. So it doesn't... It feels like the request was not consistent with what they were asking for. And maybe there's not... I find it a little unfortunate only because if this is truly an issue, how are we not incorporating that type of feedback appropriately? The solution here is not always going to be this wave of magic wand yeah we're gonna it's like five and a half million dollars for i mean how long is that street what one and a half miles maybe something like that it's not it's not very long maybe a lot less than that and i would just hope that there would be more of a dialogue that existed there to say like, these are the primary concerns. I mean, there's the traffic obviously, but then if there is enough of a rejection for this idea of modernization, I don't even know why it would be remotely considered. And so I would hope that we'd have the opportunity to go back, have a look at what the true asks are for the community, if any, and make a decision based off that. I'm seeing a profound disconnect there, and I would really hope that the council would remedy that. Thank you.

I have no additional speakers in person. I do have one hand raised in Zoom. Rod, go ahead.

Thank you. Yeah, speaking as a citizen and a taxpayer, and not in any official capacity for the city, I'm struggling to understand what happened here. I've been aware of this issue for a long time. I have friends that live on that road. And I've seen it come through city council a few times. And what my understanding is is that some people that live on lone oak are concerned about excess excess speeding on lone oak they wanted some solutions traffic calming um who knows a speed bump maybe uh one of those lights that that gives you your speed and tells you slow down you know have a police officer um there at a certain time of day when they know that people are going to be coming um these are all reasonable things and and i don't know you like i'm not a traffic engineer but it kind of shocks me that the traffic engineer comes forward and says none of these reasonably affordable actions will help what will help is if we go through and widen that road and force the people that are that don't want it to pay for it and force them to sell part of their front yard to get make room for it what what does that tell the people that live in that community they came to their city they asked for a little help and they're just getting smacked in the face as hard as they possibly can be And in the meantime, as a taxpayer, I'm sitting here looking, why do you want to spend $5 million plus of our money on something like this? And not even try the solutions that you sit up there and swear up and down will not work, cannot work, or should not be allowed because God forbid we give somebody a speed bump and then somebody else wants one. You know, that's what I got out of that is that somebody else might want one if they got one. And we'd end up having to pay for all these speed bumps. Well, you know what? Speed bumps are cheaper than road widenings by a long shot, by so many miles I can't count. I just don't get it. I don't understand what is going on here. But I think somebody needs to figure it out pretty quick. Just help these people get control of the traffic on their road. It's all they ask for. It's all they want. This other plan is just insane. I just don't get it. Thank you.

I have no additional speakers.

Thank you. Okay. Moving into discussion, who would like to start?

I want to go and say thank you to everyone who came to speak today. It's nice to hear from the people who live on the street what they actually want or don't want because that's why we're slated to be in this seat by you. This originally came up and I brought it because we did have residents here who were saying that there were traffic issues on the street. And in all fairness, staff at the time actually didn't want to do any mitigating, like didn't want to do it, but we asked them to go look. and they came with what they thought was a solution. One, I want to go to say that the absolutely don't think the, the thing, the reason why I asked the question earlier is we said that the street doesn't meet the city standards. I don't think our residents should have to pay for us to get a street to its standard. So the benefit assessment district should absolutely, in my opinion, not be anything that we consider as a council. to inflict on these people. And then also we have, I think we've had so far three or four or five residents from that neighborhood tonight speaking. This is in my district. I definitely love hearing from you all about what's going on there. I mean, we keep hearing them say, leave us alone. And so the street widening to me is excessive. Five million is excessive. And we originally just asked, can we get a speed bump on the street? I think that was the only question that night is, is that feasible or not feasible? And from the staff report, I'm hearing that it's not feasible, I think, because the street is not large enough is what my understanding of it is. Is that correct, Alan?

Thank you, Vice Mayor. So kind of what brought us to what was presented today was, as you mentioned, a lot of the focus last time was on speed humps. And we're going through the criteria for speed humps, and among those criteria is the need for curb and gutter. And the question was how do we get a carbon cutter and I mentioned, where our city standard streets have carbon gutter you know other improvements sidewalks street lighting in it, etc. So that that's where it became for my recollection oh let's let's look at you know options to improve loan oak so it was sort of connected with with that discussion.

Yeah, I think I mean, we hear people saying basically they like the Norman. I think it sounds like to me like the Norman Rockwell look of your street. And but, you know, also we weigh the public safety concern and we're hearing from one or the others. I don't feel like I have enough information tonight to make a determination if we don't know what the numbers are for the safety issue. on the street and so that's something that i would ask us to actually get is like what are the incidents how frequently are they occurring because we have people who are saying yeah there's there's been collisions and then we have another like i live there and i don't see the collisions i don't i'll tell you something in my neighborhood which is literally about two minutes away from you all right by dolphin park We see so, we saw so much speeding and I contacted at the time then the engineer, it wasn't you Alan, you've been getting some shots fired, sorry. But it was the last director of engineering. Well, it was actually someone, a manager in engineering who's now retired. And he actually came out to my street and said, there's no speeding here. And I'm like, I look out my window and I actually see it. You don't have the benefit of living here. So I take what everyone is saying very strongly. And I think that it would be nice to see what the numbers actually say. So I know that I brought this back. I definitely am completely against any benefit assessment district. And 5 million seems ridiculously excessive without knowing the numbers about the safety issues.

Yeah, I agree. I think $5 million is too much. I think what I'm not understanding is, I understand that someone said speed bumps or humps, but I think we talked about what other options would there be, and I'm a little disappointed, not actually I'm disappointed, not a little disappointed, that there is no other options, that it was straight, it's... It's almost like $5.1 million or nothing. And I think there's other options that we can look at. And again, here I go sharing my screen. Sorry. Because there is other options that we can do. So speed humps is the first one. Then there's speed cushions. And let's go back to speed humps. When I read the California code, it says a lot of cities require the curb and gutter. Not all cities in California require the curb and gutter for their speed speed humps. But we can move on from that. There's other issues. I mean, there's other solutions like the speed cushions, the speed tables, the offset speed tables. And when I think we talked about last time, I didn't know what these were called, but we were talking about it conceptually that there's other things. So I'm not sure why if we think speeding is an issue, then why didn't we look at anything else that we could do for the speeding? Because we were open to other solutions. So I agree this needs to come back. And I want to find a way not to redo everything and redo their area, but I want to find a way to help them. This is their tax money. It is what pays us all to be here. And what I feel when it comes to this issue, or actually some other issues, I just keep hearing no, no, no. but they're our customers so i mean having worked in retail i always try to figure out how i can make the customer happy even the ones that aren't nice and might be shoplifting like i try to be nice so um i just need to i want you to be a little bit more open-minded when it comes to this and how can we help them not just this or no but how do we help them get somewhere

Thank you. If I may, the difficulty with speed humps is we have set engineering criteria that we look for. A lot of the focus has been on speed humps. As we mentioned earlier, we did work with PD on some targeted enforcement, and we also had installed additional speed limit signs to kind of emphasize the speed limit through Lone Oak. Just going back to it, A lot of what we do in engineering is based on the studies. And again, the study is not showing. We've done it three times now, and we don't see the speeding issue. The 85th percentile of the latest study was 29 miles per hour, which is adequate for a 25 mile per hour street. The volumes are not there, not even close. I did agree to continually analyze the street, and it sounds like that's the direction we're headed. The other option, besides the one you presented, which I really think those are not applicable here, but radar feedback, permanent or mounted radar feedback signs, that way when drivers are driving down the street, they can see how fast they're going. that can serve as a traffic calming measure. It doesn't require an engineering study per se. But again, the reason why engineering's not recommending it is because our study is not showing this as a problem. But that could be something that we could, the council can direct staff to pursue is the installation of radar feedback signs.

Yeah, I'd like to understand why these other options are not viable. Again, they're the ones that live there. We don't, I don't live there. You don't live there. And if there's, you know, if there's people, and they even came up, like, I think last year, National Night Out, the residents brought it up when I was there. So it's... I just would like to look at other options. I wish we wouldn't just have been so like, this is it because we did mention them in the last meeting. And I was hoping that we would, you know, if it wasn't a speed bump, would it be one of these other things would be possible. So I want to put the residents first and answer their concerns first and foremost, whenever we think about anything and hopefully we can come back with a solution of some sort.

Well, it doesn't sound like anybody's really excited about widening Lone Oak, including the residents. The, it also sounded from the residents that are here, they're not that excited about a speed bump either. So maybe the alternative, the calming measures being the less traffic, because one of the speakers talked about a 57% increase in traffic volume. What's the volumes for instance, 2005 to 2026, how many cars go down that road by the study we just did?

Thank you, Tony. I don't have the volumes in front of me, but they did, of course, they did increase between 2019 and 2026, because there was development that occurred not only in this area, but around the city. But however, it still did not meet the criteria for speed humps. So I'm sure it has increased, but not to the point where speed humps are warranted.

And by the comments that I'm hearing today, the residents don't necessarily want the speed humps because they don't want to hear the thump thump outside of their door. But if we calmed that, I remember in the previous meetings, people talking about cut through traffic coming from the schools, the no right hand turn sign on grant street during particular hours with a radar sign giving their speed while they're on lone oak and try and calm the measures with other other than speed humps other than trying to block off the roadway other than trying to shut the whole roadway down just any way to to get the people that are on the road to slow down and maybe decrease the number of people that are there if that's at all possible. But I don't know if that would even work with a no turn sign there and how easily that would be enforced by PD, but they could. And once that word got out, less people would make that turn during those hours.

Do you want to go?

First off, thank you to everybody that came here to speak about this item. It's your neighborhood, so I'm so happy that you're engaged in everything that's going on with it. The second thing, as I do remember the last time this came to Council, that we all heard from our Director of Engineering that any type of speed hump required curbs and gutters. So one of the things that we did ask for to come back is what would it look like if we did bring the streets up to city standards because that did get mentioned. So I appreciate you bringing that back because it was something that I think I mentioned it. So thank you for that. I'm not interested in a benefit district assessment. And I think five million plus is also excessive. So I'm interested with more calming measures that maybe aren't against the engineering standards. Also, the other thing that we did get from the last meeting is that you did do a presentation on where engineering standards came from because we did question that. So and that. engineering standards meeting, I think, or presentation happened probably a couple of city councils ago. So a few things came out of that item. So I would like to see data. I would like to see police department data, also your traffic study, along with how the traffic increased from 2005 till now, and just kind of see what kind of calming measures that we can adopt Maybe some residents are seen and some aren't, but something that's not too drastic.

Thank you. I think we've got consensus, no five and a half million and no benefits district assessment either. Those seem very extreme. It was kind of a pun intended zero to 60 and five seconds flat kind of thing. I don't think those were necessary. I was also looking for some of the smaller items, if you will, that will mitigate. And I know that Council Member Mendoza brought up the website talking about some of these other calming measures. And one of the ones was one that I had thought of and I couldn't think of what the name was. I think it was the speed cushions. Is it feasible to consider kind of a limited version of that that would keep people at least on the road and not going off into the ditch, if you will, but still a reminder to kind of keep the speed down? Can you talk about that a bit?

I might hand this over to Monish. He previously did a tube coming to Brantwood. He worked for the county, and he has a lot of experience with similar types of roads and measures, so...

to put you on the spot monish yeah thanks alan um so in terms of speed cushions my understanding is basically those are a form of speed hump but they have some gaps in them um typically uh those gaps are prefer to allow uh emergency vehicles to go through um unimpeded so there's some benefit to that um it's something again we can look at um there's I have to bring this up because, again, with some of my background, speed humps are thought of as kind of a great speed control device and they are a really good speed control device. However, studies have shown wherever you put the speed bump, people slow down to get to the speed bump. After they pass the speed bump, they speed up to make up time. So in essence, it's a human psychology problem, and we're moving the problem from one person's house to in front of another person's house. So with every type of traffic calming device, we try to introduce the intuitive or the ingenuitive mind always looks for another way around it. That's not to say lumps or these kind of other devices can't be considered. We can look at it closer per your direction.

Thank you. And then the radar, the permanent radar sign, what is the cost of that? And is there any disadvantage to it?

I don't have the cost in front of me. I think it's cheaper than installation of speed humps.

Alan, my experience is they're in the probably $10,000 to $20,000 range per, and that's if they're solar. Because again, these are going off all night, so you need a good power source.

So we'll say $4,990,000, right?

Do you have any information about how effective they are, study-wise?

Honestly, I don't, so here's where a speed feedback sign is very powerful. The people who want to follow the law, it's really powerful for them. The people who actually want to exceed speed limit, again, it's a human psychology issue, We actually have to cut off, because there'll be people who wanna race to try to get that number up. So we actually cut it off after a certain speed. So how effective is it? It's a mixed bag, I'll say that.

Okay, so it does appear though that consistently across the council here, we are looking for some other options, something that is lower than five and a half million and doesn't involve an assessment district. So if I'm understanding correctly, it appears that we're looking for this to come back with additional information. I would personally like to see the study not done in a concentrated one week, but kind of over a period of a few months to get a sense of, time of year, sometimes there's school traffic that's a little heavier, that sort of thing, and different times of day. Do we have a sense of what other things we're looking for here?

Go ahead. I think the way the, you know, looking at all the options, whether, so thank you for bringing back, because you did bring back what we asked for, but it missed some of the other smaller things that we asked for. In my day job, even if someone is applying for something, I have to, when they are appealing it in court before me, I have to go through an assessment of every item, let's say Medi-Cal, with every different eligibility even if they're denied i explain it right and so the way you just explain that makes sense we can't have you fudge data if it if it's not lining up but we need to have the um the analysis brought back to us so just like council member mendoza just brought the whole, like these different options, even if they don't make sense because we don't do engineering, we can go look for the resource. We can be dangerous on Google or other resources, but we didn't go to school for it. But if you can look into different things that may have worked or in another neighborhood, but won't work here, but just tell us why it won't. I think it's helpful for us to know that you already assessed it and based on the doubt, juxtaposing it to the data, why it doesn't work, then it can quiet us to know that maybe we should either let it lie where it lies or, hey, when we look, this may work, but just not acknowledging it, not that that was the intention, it makes it a little difficult because we're still sitting here like, well, what about all these other things that were brought up? And I think you all brought up some of the rumble. I know the rumble strips came up. and then the broken up whatever hump. See, this is how bad my, I don't know anything about engineering. The little dot, she said the dot. We don't know the names of them. See, we need Google. But if you can provide us with just an assessment of some of the more less cost reduced alternatives, and why they don't work, then I think then it also would make sense to the residents too to say. And then we also, let's call it what it is. We have a whole list of residents who said, just leave us alone. They're not even saying we want anything. They just want to be left alone. And so if we could, have we done any community survey or push in? I think Council Member Orliman's asked that at the beginning. It'd be nice to hear from them where they don't have to sit here until almost 10 o'clock at night to be heard. But if we can do some type of community engagement project or some survey to them, I think that would be really helpful.

And maybe even accommodation, by the way, of mitigations too. Not this no, this no, but maybe these together might actually help.

what we're talking about okay with do we have a motion are we still discussing yes um i'm just going to add to what um our vice mayor had said is that i really would like to engage everybody on lone oak because we do have a large group here that's saying they don't want anything and then we also have other residents that they do want something so everybody on that street that's going to be affected i think it's really important to engage them i don't want something to just pop up on their street and then they're like nobody had talked to us about it so

Mayor, if I can.

Please.

Informative conversation. And so what I wanna make sure is before you make the motion that I've been listening and make sure that I understand exactly what staff's next steps are, particularly since there seems to be some disconnects around what has been said and some of what the community feedback has been. So I heard a couple of things, but the first is certainly we wanna do some additional analysis and make sure that that's varied. We also want to bring back information on existing collision data, speed data that we have and make sure that that's very well stated and very clear. Do some community engagement with the folks who are in the community. And then that said, bring back what I would call like a toolkit or some menu options of what some lower cost options would be. I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S CLEAR THAT UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT THIS DOES NOT CONTINUE TO MEET ENGINEERING STANDARDS FOR SOME OF THE MORE AGGRESSIVE MEASURES, AT THAT POINT IN TIME THE TRAFFIC ENGINEERING STAFF WOULD JUST BE LOOKING AT MORE CREATIVE MEASURES WITHIN THEIR DISCRETION THAT THEY FEEL ARE SAFE. that they don't create a liability issue, and that is going to be their lens when they bring those forward. So certainly, unless the data significantly changes, some of the things that we saw here won't meet that criteria. That said, there's plenty of other things that we can kind of look at, and maybe it's a combination of things. It could be striping. It's dot is what you were referring to. But there's lots of different options and what I would just ask will allow the traffic engineering staff to use those degrees that they have and really take a look and make sure that they're not only addressing this from a customer service perspective, but also making sure that we maintain liability and that it's safe for all users. that in order to do that, there will be some time and Alan can speak to this, but there will be some time necessary to do the additional traffic analysis. So that may take a little time and that's really the kind of prerequisite before we can do anything else.

I think I understand that people have their degrees for this, but degrees only go so far, right? Because we had an issue with the stop sign. Everyone advises against it. You told me that the engineering standards said not to do it. I mean, even our chief of police at the time, Herbert, said not to do it. We did it. And it's one of the things that I get the most thanks for is that stop sign. So while I understand that degrees are important, the human being and their quality of life is the most important to me when I'm making a decision. So, thank you.

So, can we get a motion? Is someone ready with that?

Sorry, menopause being going.

Okay. Um, I make a motion to provide the following direction to staff, um, that staff be allowed staff time and attention to further develop, to provide us with other improvement options, um, that we do not move forward with any benefit assessment districts or street widening. But, um, cheaper, more reduced remedial measure options, whether they are feasible or not, and give us the data from police and engineering to run a study over a little bit of a longer period of time. And community survey and community outreach. And yes.

I'll second. All in favor? Aye. And that motion passes. Thank you for coming and for sticking with us on this. Okay, moving back. The item we're going back to is F1. Amy Tilly, Senior Management Analyst, will present the next item regarding a Professional Services Agreement for Veteran Brentwood Marketing Services.

Okay, here we go. We're getting started again. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Tonight I am presenting agenda item F1, which is the approval of a professional services agreement with Michelle Lossley Consulting for Better and Brentwood Marketing Services. I will provide a brief overview of the program, the results that we've seen, and the proposed agreement. Veteran Brentwood is a coordinated economic development and community marketing initiative for the city. The program promotes our local businesses, restaurants, events, amenities, and overall community identity. The goal is to strengthen economic vitality, encourage local business activity, and increase awareness of Brentwood as a destination. I'll give you a little bit of background in the proposed terms of the agreement. In April, the city staff issued a request for proposals for Better and Brentwood Marketing Services. After evaluating the proposals and conducting interviews, staff determined that Michelle Leslie Consulting best met the criteria to establish an RFP. The proposed agreement would run September 1st through June 30th with an option for an additional year. The terms of the agreement state that the agreement, the timeframe would be slightly shortened under a year just due to some staff changes. And the marketing services are outlined in the agreement and full details are in the agreement and exhibits that are attached to the staff report. I wanted to pull up a few of the recent program highlights, one that I thought was particularly interesting. The social media program has continued to build a digital audience, and during the last fiscal year, Better in Brentwood content generated more than 4 million social media views, with approximately 18,000 Instagram followers and more than 6,000 followers on Facebook. The website also averages around 25,000 visitors per month, and this gives us a strong platform for promoting Brentwood businesses and community activities. Digital marketing is just one part of the program. Brennan Brentwood was present at more than 40 community events last year and maintained a visible presence at the farmers market and other local gatherings. An important part of this work is intentionally visiting and highlighting businesses that are not located in the highest traffic areas. Looking ahead, the focus is on maintaining what's working while continuing to refine the program. Staff will work with the consultant on a more comprehensive marketing strategy that aligns with the current economic development priorities and market trends. We also want to continue focusing on collaboration and communication, and we'd like to do some work improving the website experience. Staff's recommending that council adopt a resolution approving a professional services agreement with Michelle Leslie Consulting for Better and Brentwood Marketing Services and an amount not to exceed $67,884 for a term beginning September 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027. approving an option to extend the agreement for one additional term of a one-year subject to the mutual written agreement of the parties and the availability of funds appropriated by the city council and authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement and written amendment exercising the extension option each in a form approved by the city attorney who helped write that i am happy to answer any questions and michelle lastly is also here this evening if council has any questions regarding the program or proposed approach thank you

Thank you, Amy. Any questions at this time? I have a couple. One of them is, can you talk a little bit about whether there's any overlap or even collaboration between Veteran Brentwood and Weblative?

That is a really great question. So I dug into that a little myself, having worked with both organizations before. I knew a little. What I found out more in terms of if I was to define them, Weblitive focuses more on city-sponsored events, right? So you'll see Better in Brentwood at... at city events like Juneteenth or State of the City, things like that. So their focus is more, I would say, promoting the things that we are doing like as an organization, whereas Better in Brentwood is promoting businesses that are happening around town, right? So that would kind of be the way that I would define the difference is one is more experiential. Better in Brentwood is more like the experience of Brentwood and then Weblative provides marketing that is more informative.

Thank you, that helps. Another question would be, have we, in our RFP actually, are we clear on the deliverables that we're asking for for this funding?

Yes, so I've reviewed the RFPs, and let me make sure I understand your question. So are we clear on the deliverables for the agreement? So looking at the RFP and what the requirements are for that, and then measuring that up against the quarterly reports and the annual fiscal report when I reviewed them, to me, I can see that those things match up. The things that we've been asking for do appear to match up. Like I can find metrics that match each of those things.

Okay. Thank you. We can move into comments on this one then. Thank you.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to the agenda item or after the timer has expired. We receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I do not have any in-person speaker cards. or hands raised in Zoom. However, if the applicant wanted to speak, then she'd be invited to the podium.

I was really hoping I'd never have to be up here in front of you. I don't necessarily have anything to say as far as in my defense. Really just a thank you for the support over the years. I know I've interacted with all of you at some point multiple times over the years. And it's been an honor to be able to do this job and to try to help as many businesses in town be as successful as possible for as long as possible. And that's the ultimate goal. Thank you for at least hearing me out. That's all.

I have no additional public comment. Thank you and thank you, Michelle. Moving into discussion.

Well, first I want to say thank you, Michelle. And if you go to an event in town, Michelle and her family are always there. So thank you for always being present. And this doesn't have to do with you. It has to do more with the contract. On task number two, content writing and editing, where it talks about write and publish two or three spotlights per month on veteran Brentwood website, social media featuring rotating topics such as businesses, dining, art, family, fun, and special occasions. I don't know if it's legally, if we can do this, but can we add that they have to have a Brentwood business license? Because I've been asked before, are these legitimate Brentwood businesses that pay a business license in Brentwood and are in Brentwood proper? Because I think we saw some that were outside the city limits. And then people that are inside are like, we're the ones paying the property taxes. We're the ones paying the sales tax. And they're highlighting things outside the city. And I love the farm stuff, but we pay harvest time for farm stuff. So I mean, I think we can reshare harvest time on Better for Brentwood. since we're paying them to do that, let them do the farm and then let us stick to kind of the businesses. I don't know how everyone else feels about that. And then what else? Okay, so branded merchandise. I'm not sure that we need branded merchandise. I know it's not that big of an expense, but we all got the email on how much we spent over the last three years. And I'm not sure if we need it, if we're hitting the target of like, if we're giving away swag, what's the purpose of the swag? Like, cause I really, I don't see it. I see it every once in a while in town, but it's not like I'm seeing it a lot. So like, I'm telling you, when I get swag, I wear it to bed. So like, if we're making pajamas for people, I'm not sure that I'm like... And if I get another tote, oh my gosh. So I don't know if we need the swag. So those were my two things. Can they be businesses that pay in Brentwood for their business license? And do we really need the swag or is there something else we could do in that regard? And then it's fine sharing the Harvest Time. I think that would be a good collaboration between all the videos that Harvest Time is doing that we funded and then this.

And who is going to be able to answer those questions, by the way?

the so the business license question i guess the underlying question i'd ask is so the businesses operating in Brentwood are supposed to have a business license so you're essentially saying you go ahead sometimes there are businesses that don't have business licenses in Brentwood or they're outside of the city limits

So I kind of like to focus more on the city limit businesses.

Yeah. So if that's something that you want to do, you want to limit that circle to, I believe you can do that. We'd have to make sure that I understand a complete sample set of folks who were left in and left out to see if there's some sort of reason that's underlying as to why you couldn't do something like that. So they're in Brentwood, they have a business license, and then there's another set of businesses that we're talking about that just don't have the business license. Oh, yes. Oh, I see, I see, yes, yes. Yeah, that sounds like, if that's something that council wants to do as a whole, I mean, that sounds like,

I think my only concern is, for example, when I was the law firm before we moved to Brentwood, we were in Antioch, but a lot of our clients were in Brentwood. And so we had a Brentwood business license, which is required by law. If we even had one client in Brentwood, we had to obtain a license in that city. So it wouldn't matter to me where they are located brick and mortar. I'm more concerned about do they transact any customers and if so they legally are required to have a business license so it sounds like to me more regulation around if people are in there if they have a business license in brentwood versus where they are it seems discriminatory to say like oh but you you are a realtor in antioch conducting 90 of your transactions in brentwood but we can't yeah yeah and i think that's why i said they just they have to have a breadwood business license with the focus on brentwood business okay

I do actually have a question. And maybe this is for Michelle. How often are you going to the farms and spending your time at the farms?

If you have an answer, please come up.

Yes.

I apologize.

Um, farm. it's really during like the peak you pick season realistically because the rest of the year there isn't really a whole lot happening at the farms to be honest so i would say if i had to hazard a guess without looking at my phone i probably i don't know maybe five ish videos highlighting different farms or farm stands. And I know, I understand what you're saying about the harvest time already covers that obviously, that's their focus. But I do know that part of Ben and Brentwood is supposed to highlight what draws people here. And I know you pick is like a huge draw for people out of our area. That's usually why I try to at least share one or two videos about that every year. But I try not to belabor the point.

And I think for me, that's kind of what I wanted to highlight is that we do have the focus of highlighting, OK, go do you pick, then come to dinner, come see a movie and just kind of do the collaborative aspect from one part of Brentwood to the other, even for the farms. So I'm OK if she did something like that. Not necessarily that she spends all her time at the farms, but I am OK with her being at the farms because it does show a connection with the rest of our city. And we do have the ag tourism

um going on right now so i would support you being there just obviously not excessive but i would support the collaborative effort yeah and it but there's um some okay let's talk i mean we can talk oasis is not ag right i mean they're not like you pick they're animals right so how do we feel about something like that

Well, I think if it's drawing people to Oasis, what happens after Oasis? Are they a part of? But they're, like, farther out, right? So they're not even going to come to Brentwood. I mean, are they a part of Harvest Time?

No.

Then, I mean, it would be a, we obviously have an initiative with Harvest Time.

So how do we know? I guess we can, so we want them to be part of Harvest Time and, or have a business license.

Yeah, I'm OK with that. But I think the business license aspect, if it's on the outskirts and we're trying to connect, I'm OK with it. So, I mean, I'm not saying go to Pittsburgh and, you know, but I mean, if it's on the outskirts.

We're getting a little in the weeds, I think, on this. I think it also applies, like, say, for example, if you were to highlight a nonprofit. Nonprofits don't necessarily have a brick and mortar within the city, but they very definitely serve Brentwood residents. I think there's some of that. I would absolutely 100% say 95% of the focus should be on the Brentwood-licensed residents businesses or that bring people to Brentwood like the you pick season. I think that makes sense. But outside of that, I think it's more like a guideline than it is part of an ordinance or anything or part of one of the deliverables per se. So I think you're kind of picking up on what we're talking about, right? Yes. Okay. Do we have any other questions for Michelle so she can sit down if not?

I just wanted to say, Michelle, I think you do your job in excellence and not a jab at anybody up here. I don't need to please you. I trust your instincts. You hear what everybody wants. Yeah. And I think you do it in excellence. So I'm grateful for everything that you do. Thank you.

And I appreciate that you're very willing to accept feedback. And I know that it's, you know, staff enjoys working with you. And I think you do a great job. You've really helped to build up this brand in a way that identifies us very well. Thank you. Thank you for that.

And thank you so much for highlighting and showcasing our city. So. Beyond, thank you.

We have entertain a motion? Absolutely. How do you guys feel about spending the money on the swag? Do you want the swag? I'm fine with it. I actually don't mind the swag.

It's a different kind of swag. We can be more creative. Maybe rotate some swag.

No more t-shirts or totes we'll think outside the box. I've never seen them.

I see you giving them away. I see the stickers. I can see it from here. Where are they? She got it on her thing while she talked. I got my sticker. But where is the swag? But like a t-shirt. I understand. So rotate the swag. Work with Amy. Work with Amy on the swag. How y'all all do your job. Engineering, how you do your job. Do your thing. Don't mind our business. Work with Amy. As detailed in the staff report, Madam Mayor, may I make a motion? Please. As detailed in the staff report, I move to adopt a resolution approving a professional service agreement with Michelle Lassie Consulting for Better and Brimwood Marketing Service in the amount not to exceed $67,884 for a term beginning September 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027. And I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Michelle.

You can come speak anytime. Okay, next item is another Amy. F2, this is Amy Tilly, senior management analyst. We'll present the next item regarding an amendment to the purchase and sale agreement with Hagar Realty.

Oh, great. Thank you, Catherine. We're already up and ready. Okay, so thank you and good evening again. This item is the fourth amendment to the purchase and sale agreement between the successor agency and Hagar Realty for the property at the southeast corner of Oak Street and Walnut Boulevard. This is a successor-owned property that was previously approved for sale to Hagar Realty, and the Fourth Amendment makes two primary changes. It adjusts the price based on the revised property area, and it extends the closing deadline to December 1st. There is some urgency tonight because the current agreement expires on August 31st if closing does not occur. So I want to clarify what's changing. It's quite straightforward. The original purchase price was $390,000 based on approximately 79,226 square feet. The revised configuration is approximately 76,371 square feet. So the estimated purchase price is now $375,745.32. The agreed upon valuation of $4.92 per square foot does not change. And the final purchase price will be adjusted once the description's complete. There's a maximum of 390,000 without any additional board approval. I want to just clarify why the property area changed. The original agreement contemplated approximately 79,225.73 square feet. Revised configuration removes 2,854.73 square feet. The removed area is associated with public right-of-way purposes. so this makes the revised estimated area 76 371 square feet and again the 4.92 per square foot valuation remains unchanged from the original um agreement A little bit of history because I know there's been a lot of moves on this one. In August, let's see here. The board originally approved this sale in August of 2024 for $390,000. Since then, three amendments have extended the closing deadline while the buyer completed the entitlement process and the city completed work related to the property configuration and legal description. This fourth amendment would provide the final extension to December 1st and update the purchase price based on the revised area. The recommendation and key takeaways are that staff recommends the approval of the Fourth Amendment. In summary, it extends the closing deadline to December 1st, establishes an estimated purchase price of $375,745.32, and it maintains the existing 4.92 per square foot valuation. And thank you. Staff's available to answer any questions that you have regarding this amendment or the status of the property for sale. Mr. Hager is not able to join us tonight. He's out of town. He can be available, though, quickly via Zoom if we had a question that I couldn't answer.

Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any questions for Amy? No, it looks like we can move right into public comments.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the city council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please follow speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired. We receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I have zero requests to speak in person and I have no hands raised in Zoom.

Thank you, Amanda. Any discussion or even a motion?

I can make a motion. As detailed in the staff report, I move to adopt a resolution approving the Fourth Amendment with Hagar Realty for the real property situated at the southeast corner of Oak Street and Walnut Boulevard.

I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Amy? And the motion passes. Moving into item F3, Christine Andrews, acting director of finance and information systems, will present the next item regarding the donations accepted report for April 2026 through June 2026.

Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. Tonight we are presenting the April through June 2026 quarterly report of donations received by the city. The quarterly report has been prepared in accordance with Council administrative policy and donations policy approved for update on march 31 2026. In addition to presenting the report for city council review staff is seeking direction, if any, for desired updates to the donation policy or the content and presentation of future quarterly reports. The current policy requires city council approval for any donation greater than $10,000 or that would impose a more than minimal future maintenance or replacement costs on the city. The policy also requires quarterly reporting of all monetary donations over $500 and reporting of all non-monetary donations. Additionally, the policy requires that donations greater than $5,000 be reported to the city council within 30 days. The donations received in this quarter are detailed in the staff report and no donations received exceeded $5,000. The policy defines a donation as a voluntary contribution or transfer to the city for public purposes without expectation of material benefit in return. The policy does not currently separately define or regulate sponsorships. The city council may wish to provide direction regarding whether and how sponsorships should be reported in future quarterly reports and if amendments to the donation policy addressing sponsorship are desired. This concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Christine. Any questions for Christine? Okay, moving into public comment.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item. Or after the timer has expired, we receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I have zero requests to speak in person, and I have no hands raised in Zoom. Thank you. Moving into discussion.

The only thing I'd say is when we talked about that, we mentioned any kind of donation. We said sponsorships. We wanted to be fully transparent. So we did get the list of... And we haven't gotten... I know Handy Dads did the summer concert, so they'll be on there. But all of the Kaiser, the Sutter, the Fremont, I would like all of the sponsorships added to the list just so the public knows. Because for me, this is about the public knowing I don't care. And when we talked about it, we wanted it in there. So we can make an amendment to add the sponsorships to the report as well. And, you know, I don't want to play the meeting, but we did talk about that in the meeting. So, I mean, I don't know how everyone else feels about that.

so i will say i also thought the sponsorships were part of that i also thought the in-kind donations would be a little bit more um separated out and i think like for example there's the the part in the policy that says uh current policy requires that donations be documented through a city donation acceptance form but that i don't believe covers in kind or sponsorships and i know that for example like for amy's not there Community Day of Service, there were in-kind donations from Grocery Outlet. I believe some of the events have like a porta-potty donation, that sort of thing. So I just want to find out when it qualifies for that form, when it doesn't. And then whatever we can do to kind of support the idea of transparency on this. There was also employees and city officials shall not solicit donations from individuals or entities doing business with the city unless the solicitation serves a public purpose. I'd love to see a little bit of a clearer definition on what a public purpose is. And for me, I think that's it.

Do you have a discussion? A little bit, maybe. The sponsorships, and the only time I'm thinking about them was maybe with Juneteenth. I think when the sponsorships come in, we announce them to the public that are in attendance, and that's our public notification that it's being sponsored by Kaiser, it's being sponsored, the events are being sponsored by organizations that are putting up sponsored by, so we are notifying the public that that's what's going on, not necessarily needing to be done here. Otherwise, why are they a sponsor if they're not getting the recognition of sponsoring the event?

So I'm going to take this putting on my executive director of a nonprofit hat. For me, for that, it's about the accountability piece. Like, for example, any kind of a sponsorship that comes in the door, I have to be able to report back that this is how those funds are being used. And typically a sponsorship is going to be more like a trade of here's funding that's going to get you back some promotional recognition, like you're talking about the shout out during the event or placement on a brochure or whatever it is. But it's still there is still a financial investment that needs to be tracked.

I think also when we announced it, the public doesn't know how much they each donated. So I think just being transparent about the amount, and we mentioned it on March 31st, we said sponsorships in that meeting, and we even used Juneteenth as an example when we talked about it.

I'm not arguing the fact, I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, I'm just, the thought was that the sponsorships were already there or getting the notification. I have no problem with them being on the report. I'm just saying if the intent is to notify the public we're receiving donations, that's being done at the event when we're giving them the shout outs or whatever they are. Your explanation makes perfect sense, thanks.

And as far as in kind donations, for example, Community day of service, do you think it would be a little bit excessive if everything got reported back because there's so many things being donated is there like some sort of form. that's being left with the city, this is how much the value is that maybe could be a report out with the Community day of service, but I think it would be a long list because there's so many things being donated.

And I think that's part of what the discussion is about, too, is there a criteria? Is there a value, for example, or is there a number, a quantity? And is it per event or is it by part of this quarterly? I think that's all up for discussion. It's not a matter of trying to make a 500-page report. I think it's just a matter of people understanding where the funds are coming in, donations are coming in, how they're being tracked, how they're being recognized, that kind of thing.

And I guess that's maybe for Terrance, if you can answer that. For example, with in-kind donations, how does the city track that?

Let me turn it over to Christine.

So in particular, when looking at Community Day of Service, I have a lens on donations. So donations, which was kind of strictly defined in the policy, which we're obviously gonna come back and expand. I look at a donation as something that the city receives a value that's kind of in control by the city, and therefore we can issue an IRS letter, like you would donate to an organization. there can be other organizations that contribute to the event in other words they might pull up serve food but it's not really given to the city if that makes sense we don't have control of it it's not like hey here's our water bottles take them distribute them city okay so it would be very difficult because under the policy on the donations we're trying to say what qualifies for an IRS deduction if a business or someone is looking for that and that was kind of the documentation now we've gone through and Parks and other staff have done a really good job of trying to identify everything that came in and we can provide that information what is hard to do in a case where somebody pulls up gives out, however much you're gonna give out, really hard for staff to evaluate the value of that. In the donations policy, we say that any kind of non-monetary donation, we're gonna disclose it, right? Again, very hard for staff to say, okay, what you gave me was worth $300. We put that in the report and the organization says, no, That wasn't $300. Again, there's just little subtleties that we can 100% say this was the city's estimate of the donation. We can do that. Obviously, we're looking to make sure that if anything physical is donated is over $5,000, we have to come back to you in 30 days, right? So we're gonna be on the lookout for that. But what we can do is provide you everything that we saw of tangible goods or money donated in excess of $500 to an event. But some may be donations and some may be what I would call event participation, like you said, in kind.

And I have no objection to us having added the sponsorships on there. I'm grateful that you guys do track. You guys are actually, even if we didn't see it, you do track it because really nasty people constantly on, you know, I'm such a Mac up here. Everybody wants to talk about me all the time. So they went to the FPPC and said that I was the one who solicited sponsorships for Juneteenth, which I did not solicit any sponsorships for Juneteenth. So I'm so happy that our city tracked who actually does solicit that stuff. Um, So that I was able to use it to prove that I had nothing to do with that. You guys put me over Juneteenth while I was here and they tell me what comes up, but I wasn't the one soliciting. So I'm grateful that staff had accountability and had it here. The one question that I do have is I did bring to like the community day of service. I know the Rotary did pancakes. pancake breakfast, like to Christine's point, like how do we put a number on it? Like, you know, it would have been a dollar a pancake or, and this is the value of it. The other thing that I had a question about was, I know Hijos de Campos was there and it was another one and I brought items to put in their bins. Do we pass that off to the third party to give the 501C3 designation or like the, hey, thanks for donating to them? Are we tracking that as an in-kind donation? Are we giving that to the third party to track? Because I know there were bins out there. We, on behalf of the city, solicited hey support these groups which was great right because we got goods for those individuals like i know ehost needed sun sunblock and they needed gloves for the workers and then there was another organization that needed clothing and i brought brand new items in the box from amazon that had a monetary value to it so are we waiting for the third party to give those slips or that out or are we doing that like how far does this go when we're saying track

So in the tracking that I had, that was not an item that we were tracking. Again, I think those are individuals in my mind, that's individuals donating to that organization that we facilitated a donation spot maybe by that event. But that would be extremely difficult if we had to follow up with those organizations and like find the value of that. And again, that would be like tangential to the actual

event itself in in my mind although a good obviously a really good use of the community coming together so if i'm understanding correctly it's kind of a what you were talking about before like almost like a pass-through because the city doesn't take ownership and then kind of distribute it from the city it's more like from someone to the other non-profit then okay

You're nodding. We should probably have that. I think you have that correct. Okay. Because again, this was not anything that we were tracking on our spreadsheet or talking about internally. Okay.

um when when you reach a um emotion uh one of the things you will want to consider if you if you want to add the sponsorship piece um the current policy doesn't define the sponsorships and so and the definition of sponsorship is different from donation and so staff will have to take direction to update that policy include a definition for sponsorships and then kind of conform the policy to the reporting that we're going to do because With the donations, nothing expected in return. With sponsorships, something expected in return, yeah.

Go ahead.

Are you guys ready for a motion? Yes. Okay, so I move to provide staff the following direction to staff to add sponsorships. And did we want in-kind? I think we're not gonna do in-kind. I mean, the only, hold on, let me back up my motion. Like I'm looking at this in Soiree Love. They did $558 of in-kind decorations. So when we put it on an agenda packet, people see that and they're like, oh, look, it's like these companies are doing all this great stuff. So I'm torn right now. Now that I've talked about it.

Can I just add something to that? So a sponsorship is only granted by parks if it exceeds $500. And they were actually designated as a sponsor. So I know you said donation, but I think there's like two paths, right? So they would be recognized simply because a minimum amount of contribution to the city to be a sponsor, the minimum is 500 and it goes up in gradations.

And there was an expectation that in return they receive promotional value. Yes, so yeah.

I move to provide the following direction to staff to add sponsorships to the donations policy. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay. Moving into, I think we're at informationals, and we will start with Council Member Orlemans.

Since the last council meeting, East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy Board Meeting Over the two weeks, I probably had six, seven different coffee invitations downtown with either business owners or citizens that were very curious about different things going on with the city, but nothing was specific to an entire event, just a lot of coffee. So a lot of caffeine, a lot of information passed that they were asking questions and we were just sharing information. um and then a gender review most recently with the city manager and city attorney council member maloney

I attended the, I went to Willie's on second street and saw their grand reopening. Congratulations on their remodel. I also had a meeting with the streets of Brentwood management. There's a lot of exciting things coming through. I can't wait. I also attended the chamber of commerce mixer at the Brentwood funeral home. That was very enlightening. Met one of our industrial area businesses and introduced them to city staff to talk about some of the issues they're experiencing. and also connected one of our downtown businesses to city staff to talk about permitting. And I also met with members of Holy about causes they're supporting and how they can collaborate within the community. And I also spoke to a couple of our residents that are in the Valley Green and Minnesota areas regarding quality of life issues that seem to have resolved themselves. So I'm glad about that. And that's it for me.

Council Member Mendoza.

Since the last time I met, I, we met, I met myself, attended the 15-year anniversary for the Brentwood Arch and the Children's Fountain, along with the mayor, and Lance came out from SDG Architects and gave a little bit of history, so it was nice to see here, and his family was present as well, about his family and how they inspired the fountain and the inspiration around the So that was really cool. Thank you everyone who came out. And then I was very honored to attend the police open house where we welcomed our new chief. There was so many people out there and everyone was so excited. It was nice to see all of the families come out and thank you for putting that on with your team. They did a great job. attended Indian Independence Celebration at Rose Garden and that's a nice event they have every year. Let's see, I think, oh, I attended the county meetings today to learn about how they've been participating with ICE And, you know, they're going to ask all the cities. And I said, you know, we definitely talked about it. I brought that up during public comment. We don't participate with ICE. And I was actually very disappointed with the sheriff and his response, basically, that the county supervisors can give him direction. And he's an elected official, so he can do whatever he wants when it comes to that. He doesn't have to take the direction. and i made it very clear that to the board that they hold the purse string so while they might not be able to give him direction they can definitely impact his um his budget i then attended a portion of the um county fire meeting and they spoke as to the changes that we requested when it came to the downtown fire station they say that they that our changes drove a million dollars and um We have design standards. So those design standards, because they didn't listen the first time, cost them another million dollars. Diane did attack the city. She attacked staff. She attacked the city council. She attacked the planning commission. And she talked about how staff had given the chief certain direction and this and that, whatever. They then talked about the fire station coming on Lone Tree and how... you know, we have standards and I did call in and they said they'd only gotten positive feedback about their design. And I had to correct her that there is a website out there where people were calling the new design a Pep Boys, that it looks like a auto supply store. So Yeah, I am not happy with the way she talked and the way she wants to bully our city into just being submissive to what they want. We have design standards. I was elected to represent the people, the people of Brentwood have a certain standard when it comes to our architecture and they will call and tell you if they don't like something. So I'll continue to fight for our, our objective design standards for residential and our commercial design standards.

Sorry, Vice Mayor.

I met with a member of the Liberty Union School District to kind of discuss what I'm going to go over tonight and and some other issues in our district and also went to the farmers market president.

Since we met last, I celebrated a 100th birthday of a resident of Cogar Senior Living, attended the American Legion Dinner to recognize girls' state and boys' state participants, attended the Public Works and Engineering staff meeting. Thank you very much for the welcome. That was a really great opportunity to get to meet some staff members. Attended the Isaac Montanez 90th birthday celebration at the Isaac Montanez Elementary School. the 15th anniversary recognition ceremony for the downtown arch and the fountain. Lance Cornell did share some really great stories with the people that were attending as council member Mendoza mentioned. One of the really neat ones that I wanna point it out because it's kind of an Easter egg that you can go and look for when you're facing mount diablo and you're looking at the arch on the right side there's a map and if you look at the map on the lower left corner there's a round circle with an end on it that stands for north evidently when he was at his desk designing that map his kids kept bringing him nilla wafers so that circle is actually a representation of a nilla wafer to represent the north direction so kind of some neat stories hearing about um how his family influenced some of the design um attended the meet the chief event at the police station again very well attended and i think it looked like there was a lot of really positive interactions going on so thank you for that um did a brief podcast interview with moms building community on public safety and then i think i'm turning it over to terence and thomas if you have anything to update

Just an announcement, and thanks to the rest of my colleagues here on the dais, we did have our candidate orientation for city council candidates, which was, I think, very successful. This team did a great job providing information in a short amount of time about all of our department operations. So just wanted to thank all of my colleagues here for their efforts and also our illustrious clerk for her organization. So thank you.

And the one plug I'll make is this is Vette Tolan's last week, and Council Member Orlemans has already taken a picture with her in our retirement celebration. If you come to see the city attorney's office, you will see it is completely decked out. I mean, it looks like a wedding scene. And there is even a photo place where Council Member Orlemans was able to take a picture. And so if any of you come down, then you will be able to take a picture with her. There's balloons there, a nice backdrop. And we're going to put that into a book. And we're we've also started signing farewells, kind of like a, you know, drop back to like yearbooks when you used to sign yearbooks and things. Well, we're going to take your picture. We're going to put it in the book and then you can sign a farewell. So I just want to invite you to participate in that.

And Thursday's our last day. um her last day will be friday but thursday is uh we're having a celebration for thursday at 11 30. okay thank you very much um and i did want to add and please extend our congratulations to her by the way and it's safe and healthy retirement um i want to add one quick thing too and we're there's a lot of buzz about brentwood right now um there's media addressing a lot of different issues out there there's bloggers addressing a lot of things um trying to stir some things i think it's just a reminder to people that if you have any questions about city council or the city or questions of city staff please reach out to us and please don't always believe the headlines some of those are really directed towards um making the city making the staff making the city council look bad and not necessarily uh have any meat to them there's um a lot of misinformation out there and i would just ask i mean we're all used to the hard questions we're all used to people coming to us and staring us in the face and saying hard things it's we're not fighting that part of it people have the right to say what they need to say they have a right to question it is a transparent government process but please if you have questions if you read something that concerns you don't necessarily believe the first article if it is an article don't believe the headlines necessarily come to us talk to us we would be um very happy to explain why we vote a certain way why a design standard is a certain way why a specific plan allows certain things why zoning does seriously we are we are happy to be transparent and informative for you um but if we don't get the chance to do that then there's just a lot of buzz without any real information in response to it so i'm just asking the public if you get the chance reach out to us we will do our best to respond to you get you connected to staff if you have questions for staff We are more than happy to engage with you to help you truly understand the reasons for the way things happen up here. So moving into any requests for future agenda items. Okay, then our initial future agenda item, which is I-1 to consider a request from the vice mayor to temporarily discontinue juvenile diversion referrals to the REACH program.

Thank you. Amanda, do you mind sharing your? Thank you. So I do have a little presentation. This one means a lot to me because it has had such a profound impact on my household. And then I'm finding out now that I've brought this to the attention. Even recently had someone who was impacted by this in a major way. I am completely against the REACH Youth Diversion Program for several reasons. And next slide, please. Sorry. The REACH program lends itself, well, let me go back. The REACH program, as I encountered it, was brought if your child is in a fight on one side, and if this is what I was told, and this was my experience, Even if they're defending themselves, the SRO at the time has the discretion to make a referral to the REACH program, or if the child does not take the option of REACH, then they'll be referred to the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office with a criminal allegation against them. It almost feels like your hands are tied when you go into the department to talk to the REACH program. You're not encountering police officers after the incident. You're countering REACH staff. The way they describe is basically it's almost like a threat. If you don't, you may be convicted of a crime. And so if you are a teenager, if you were operating in self-defense, it is very scary. If you are someone who is not savvy with the law, it is very scary. My son, as I said before, who I've asked permission to share this with the public, was a victim of someone doing something so egregious that will probably live on the Internet forever. And when he was simply taking care of his personal self, his body, and defended himself was referred to the REACH program, him and the other child. At the time, the SRO and the assistant principal said, oh, if it were my child, I would probably encourage them that they would do the same thing. And when asked, they actually said in the presence of my child and actually in the presence of my husband who's here tonight, yeah, when I asked if you were a girl, would you have referred her to the REACH program? They said, probably not. So if this had happened to a girl, if a girl was violated in the bathroom by someone and she took measures in her own hands to defend herself, would you have, and one of our SRO officers and one of the people who work at our school said, I probably wouldn't, which is gender bias. So as a parent, I was really upset to then think, okay, I'll leave it alone. I won't go any further. We're not, even though we're lawyers, we're not litigious, where we gonna just take everybody to court, but we do know how to. And we just wanted it to be gone so that we can work on the measures that it takes to get our child back to a place where he can get therapy, counseling, whatever he could. And also we were thinking about the other child, like how do we get these boys to get some mediation so that they Two brown boys could try to work through their issues. That was an offer to us by the school district. I love you, Chief, but our SRO at the time should not be a SRO. He's still there. He did not offer any of those, nor did the school. My son was offered the REACH program. I then learned that REACH diversion program was at the discretion of the SRO, and I also learned that I was told by our SRO at the time that Brentwood police officers always have to refer someone in a fight, no matter what side they're on, to the REACH program. When someone says always, it's always a red flag for me. I did learn through my own ways that our police officers do not always refer. It's at the SRO's discretion. And the concerning point that I also learned is that from the REACH program, when we went before them, that there are more black and brown people referred to the REACH program than are white people, white children, which to me creates a school to prison pipeline. As a parent, I was pissed. As an attorney at the time, I was even more livid. And my husband, who had done criminal defense for years, was like, hell no, our kid is not going to go through REACH program. Do the referrals reflect the racial disparities documented across our region? Well, I have numbers for you. I do not have the exact numbers from REACH because, again, as Councilmember Mendoza asked for last time, they did not present that during their presentation. And is it sound to place youth referred for physical altercations alongside youth in substance use treatment programs? So at the time, we were told the number of weeks and that our son would be going through drug rehab. He was not a drug addict. He defended himself in a fight. And after he had been violated in a bathroom, and I won't go into details of that, but he was then being told that he needed to go to a substance abuse treatment program with other youth who have substance abuse problems. And so talk about exposure. But the one thing that I think is misleading is the REACH program sells itself as a Contra Costa County diversion program. It is not the DA's diversion program. Thank you. What the REACH project is, it is a community nonprofit, not a county agency. It is founded by Antioch parents in 1968 and funded beginning in 1970. It operates under the contract with the city of Antioch and is housed in the Antioch Police Department. So we're sending our kids through Antioch system. The Youth Intervention Program, REACH coordinates a police-based juvenile diversion program for Antioch, Brentwood, and Oakley. Through the police departments there, intake hearings are held at Antioch Police. And actually, our intake hearing was held in the Brentwood Police Department in the front room. We were told that the other young man was waiting outside. And it was almost like, here, sign the papers. A three-part model. Again, it was not our police that did it, but it was the REACH program using our facilities. three-part model prevention education intervention diversion and outpatient substance use treatment also the counseling staff i asked the racial makeup of the counseling staff and we were told that the therapists were all white but the majority of the people who they were reaching were black and brown kids um they are to complete 10 to 50 we were taught more if it was 50 hours to avoid prosecution is how they sell it And it serves roughly 2,000 East County youth and families each year. Why this reaches Brentwood? Brentwood Police Department is one of the three departments that refer youth into REACH. Brentwood is a police, I mean, sorry, REACH is a police diversion program, not a DA diversion. So again, like I said, it is not a diversion program. It is not of the Contra Costa County. If you want to know what diversion is, you have pre-plea and post-plea diversion programs to get around having a criminal record. You can go through a diversion program. This is not a diversion program. And anyway, but it was described as a youth diversion program and it is not. Next, please. Um, The why the classification is not a technicality, different oversight. So prosecutors led diversion operates with the DA's public reporting and accountability structure. So people who are in a pre plea or post plea diversion program actually check in with the DA's office and with probation. This is not one. It is a police contract, a nonprofit program. It does not automatically carry the same oversight. So it's like, hey, work with us and we'll avoid you going to to jail, but the reality is the DA might not even pick up the case. And I think any DA who saw what my son went through would not have picked up that case. Different eligibility gatekeeping when police make the referral decisions before any charge or attorney review. Discretion sits earlier in the process with the police versus with the district attorneys. And also one thing that was big for me was we were not offered different remedies. So I literally sat in a meeting the next year because my son was then placed into a class with the boy who victimized him. And it was triggering for him. And we had to pay for an absorbent amount of counseling because now after we have worked for over a year to get him through this, then the school district put him in a class with a young man and it was a trigger. And we sat at the table with the school board and said, well, with the school principal and some of the people there, why have you guys not set these boys in a room? Why have you not mediated them? So there's alternatives. to justice that we can do in our school district and that we don't need to get involved in. from a police perspective, from a city perspective. If the school needs us, they can call us. And at the last meeting, I did represent what in a school interagency meeting, I brought this up. And what you said there was like, no, we do not want to get involved. We want to let this go back to the school. But then Reach came here at the last thing saying, nope, we still work with Brentwood. So I kind of want clarity on what we're actually doing or not doing. because it sounded like one thing and then they presented something totally different. Can we go to the next slide, please? I want to be honest with you. I don't have the reach numbers. I'm waiting for somebody to provide the reach numbers because we should never be involved with an organization that can't tell us what the documented racial disparities are at every level at State, County, and Brentwood schools. But I do have some data, so I want to show the data. This is contra costa. This is the suspension, right? If you look African-American, Hispanic, Latino, and an American Indian are more likely to be suspended than their white counterpart in a school for the exact same incidences. White youth are more likely to be diverted from formal systems involving the black youth. Black youth are more likely to formally be processed and to be arrested at first arrest. Students in school with police presence and zero tolerance policies face higher odds of arrest, suspension, and expulsion. And this data is for, this is California-wide. I'm sorry, this is not Brentwood. This is California. Brentwood's gonna scare you. I mean, Contra Costa's gonna scare you. Let's go to the next page. While we make up—Black youth are 9% of the county's population. 55% of our youth are in detention for Black youth. It's not because we have—I heard someone say, well, you know, I think Black people have a predisposition to be more aggressive or angry. That's not it. We need to figure out why are we referring our children. The same thing when I served on the Family and Children's Trust Commission. I found that the data showed that Black families are more likely to be referred to foster care than white families at a disproportionate rate. And if you knew that it's not because we don't take care of our children, it's because we don't have the same access to resources. In 2014, black youth in the county were 14 times, think about that number, 14 times. As a mom, after George Floyd, I was afraid to send my boys outside. And now to this day, if you ask them, I do not let them leave the house with a hoodie on their head. That's sad. That's an article of clothing. Not because of our fear with law enforcement, but because of numbers like this. Black youth in the county, contra costa, are 14 times more likely to be confined than a white youth. Let's look at the number on Latinos, just as high. In 2019, the county DA created its restorative justice diversion specifically to reduce disparities, but we're not using that, we're using REACH. What does this mean for a referral-based program when a county already funnels youth of color into justice systems at these rates? Any program that depends on police and school referrals will tend to inherit those same patterns. Even if they say they don't, they pick up the patterns. Next slide, please. In our own district, black students were 4.7 times more likely to be suspended than white students. Native students 6.6 times more and Hispanic 1.5. Same incidences, but less likely to be suspended. And we saw if it was a girl, she wouldn't have been sent to the program. So I'd love to see male versus female too. REACH does not publicly report who it serves. If you go on their website, if you look at it, they do not publicly report who they serve. But they, behind that session, told us who they serve. And they looked really sad when they were telling us about it. But it's their job. They get paid to do what they do. So I don't think we put any money or make any referrals. What the council should require is For any person that we do is a MOU that one, the referrals by race and ethnicity for each referring police department, including Brentwood, we find out. the data. I'm suggesting that we don't use the REACH program anymore. Referred reasons for each youth, for example, what was it? Substance versus behavioral. I think Councilmember Maloney asked them, like, do they want the same one? And they couldn't even answer the question clearly. Three, completion, non-completion, any subsequent citations, arrests broken down the same way. And then the comparison group, youth cited for similar conduct who were not referred. I'd like to know the people who did the same thing and weren't referred. I want us to be completely transparent. So I think I've told already what my concerns are. And yeah, this one hits hard because these numbers are not just for Brentwood or Contra Costa, but this is a nationwide issue that we have been talking about. But when I talk about it, I'm only trying to support Black people. I want all people to be treated the same. So that's it.

Does anyone have questions for the Vice Mayor? Okay, moving into public comments.

At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on this agenda item. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're in person, please file a speaker card. Your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired. We receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting. I have no speaker cards in person or hands raised in Zoom. Thank you, Amanda.

Into discussion.

Not to put you two on the spot, but I'd like to hear you with the police background, because I know how I feel about it, but how should we handle this from where you two sit and how you've dealt with things in the past? And also, Chief, any feedback that you have, I'd like to hear, because I was stunned when they came and presented. I'm still stunned now. So, you know, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, although that might be what we have to do, but you know, any feedback would be great.

Kind of probably easiest for me dealing with REACH. I was with Brentwood PD for 10 years. I don't think I worked a single day watching the entire 10 years I was there. I was either swing shift or graveyards for my entire 10 years and I never experienced or got involved with the program very much. The people running the program were around the building, but I really didn't have much interaction with them. the Oakland Police Department or San Francisco Police Department really didn't have the program set in place. So I can't answer most of the questions. From a supervisor standpoint at Brentwood Police Department, the school resource officers referring a program or a student to REACH as opposed to the DA's office, seemed to work out better for the kid in the sense that, and I know you had a horrible experience, I'm not saying this was the norm, that they got the opportunity to not get put in the system. They got referred to REACH. I never had to deal with it, so I can't answer the questions as far as going in the door or how they were treated or how it was offered to them, whether they were always referred to. I'd never had that interaction. It was more of the approval of the report process.

I would have to say from my own personal experience, as if a youth has been contacted with law enforcement, there's either the district attorney referral or the diversion. Alameda County operates a little bit different than Contra Costa County. So the DA's office does have a diversion program, but also in my own personal experience, we do have a youth and family services within my personal work. So we have that element where it's controlled, whether it's our own counselors, our own program where everything is tracked and there's actual feedback that's being provided and data that's being collected. So I've never really heard of a nonprofit. This is my first time. I thought it was a district attorney program. I didn't realize it was a nonprofit. So I do feel that it's really important for our police department to have that data and actually that nonprofit to show that information. But from an accountability standpoint, I'm not quite sure that it's not what I'm used to professionally.

Go ahead, Chief.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. I wanna preface what I have to say with when I took over September 6th of last year under my leadership, One of the things that I did discover is there were inconsistencies with the school resource officers in both of the high schools. So I made that a priority to connect with our superintendent, Denise Ragani. And I wanted to level set what those expectations were and that there was gonna be consistency in how we were dealing with the lowest level incidents in both of our high schools and the elementary school. Superintendent Regani was very receptive. She agreed. I think part of the disconnect perhaps was the relationship that were developed with the school administrators at the time and the school resource officer. When I set my expectations, they had a clear understanding that low level misdemeanor type offenses where parents are cooperative on both sides The priority should be let the school handle it under school sanctions. We were in agreement with that. And as far as I know, that's been the expectations that have been followed. Now, I will share that the REACH project does not dictate nor will they dictate how we operate as a police department they're there as a resource they are a non-profit um forgive me if this was covered in executive director uh mickey marchetti's presentation this program dates back to 1983 or even further when it was founded as as vice mayor mentioned i can't tell you how many referrals that they processed since then i did ask for more recent numbers over the last three years. And what was provided was this is just specific to the Brentwood Police Department and the entities that REACH works with in terms of referrals. The Brentwood Police Department 23-24 made 35 referrals. 24-25, that number increased to 69. 25, 26, that number is at 83. In addition to the 83, they also, REACH project also works with the schools, regular education, alternative ed program, home schooling, private school, behavioral health, mental health services, community health center, substance abuse, social worker case management. And then there's self referrals that they will not deny if somebody comes in and they're seeking treatment I can't tell you how many times as a patrol officer I referred. We were able to mitigate and mediate. Certain situations by referring somebody to reach and. The. priority with the REACH program is the education, intervention, and treatment. And at the end of the day, we're trying to avoid introducing a young adolescent or child or their parents into the juvenile justice system. And they do that by offering a variety of different diversion programs within their model. I have in my own, I can speak to my personal experience. It's not appropriate for me to speak on the vice mayor situation that I have found their program to be invaluable. We now more, it seems more often than not, As a law enforcement entity, we're constantly being asked, what are we doing to provide alternatives so that we completely avoid introducing an adolescent or child into the juvenile justice system? And this is one program that holds a great deal of value.

I want to say one thing. I think the missing piece here, and thank you for that, the missing piece is the consistency, right? And the fact, I appreciate your transparency, that there was inconsistency. And when did those numbers increase? Let's look at the years that they increased, because if we're going to be transparent, you said it was one number, and then 2025-26, it went way higher, and 2023-24. What happened? We hired an Antioch former police officer to come to Brentwood and we gave him a job as an SRO and he sucks at it. I'm just going to tell you my experience sitting on his diet. He did a horrible job. His representations were horrible. And I found out from past, from other people who's done this job over decades, that that discretion, that that would never have happened. We were told we always refer. And that was not true. I want, I'm not saying, oh, we shouldn't, be connected to a program, but we should be consistent because my concern is that, and now I appreciate you telling us, that we are not consistent when it comes to who's being referred. And that's the transparency piece that I think that is constantly missing if we don't have a regulation in place. If we're gonna refer them, always refer every single one, all the time. If we're not, we need some guidelines on what that discretion is gonna be, because then it's gonna look like we are only referring our black and brown boys. The other issue, and we don't, I mean, we don't always know what someone comes in, their bias, until we try to avoid it in Brentwood. We do a phenomenal job, but I am concerned for what I experienced. I'm happy. I hate my child went through it. I'm happy to have been a parent to be able to navigate that space because other parents would not, I don't think they would have dealt with it well. And then also, we still, we got numbers on the number of referral. How many of those were brown? How many of those were black? How many were Asian? How many were white? Like I want to know. And then I also would love for Denise to give me, well, how many incidents did you have that you didn't refer that didn't get referred by our police officers? We should track all of that stuff. We should, whether we refer or not, it should be tracked by all race, gender, ethnicity, all that stuff should be tracked. So we're, we're completely being trans transparent. And I love a reporter also, how much, do we spend money for to this non-profit if so i'd love to know how much money of my tax dollars went for them to violate my son and finally the the main thing and everybody else's son and daughter who may look like mine who didn't do anything but the main thing one other thing is exposure yes we're preventing them to to maybe go to jail. But we don't know that because the DA would not pick, as a lawyer who's done this, my husband right there, they would not pick half these cases up. They're too small. They wouldn't pick it up. It's the threat of fear. Oh, you may go to jail, which literally happened in our police department. That was my experience. It was fear factor. I sat there with my husband, my ex-husband, my child. We were basically told he's going to go to jail. And we were like, hi, that's a joke. He's not. So please refer to our I choose the D.A. 's referral over that referral any day because it was a joke. But the main concern was you were going to put a kid who had never been exposed, had no drug treatment in a treatment program. He would have to do 12 weeks of drug treatment with people who have drug issues. I don't have my kids around drug users and drug addicts. But now he was going to go into a system that we've been working my whole life growing up poor in Oakland to keep my kids away from. We were now going to be forced to put them in there if we believed it. So something has to change because that doesn't serve the people that look like me or him at all in this city.

So I think you've raised some really, really good points. And I think it's important that regardless of where we end up, we've got to get some accountability here. If REACH is not currently tracking race and ethnicity and gender, they really should be. I asked the question about whether we're investing as well and found out that we have a fee waiver. situation with them. So I believe with that, there's some accountability that should be included. Do we have any oversight over them? I mean, do they report to you on a regular basis to share what's going on or to talk about referrals? I'm sure there's some interaction, just not clear on how that works.

We do, I was actually the liaison prior to my appointment as a support services captain that responsibility just transferred to Captain Dave shore, but yes, we do. schedule regular check ins with the director and the program manager that operate out of the police department.

Okay, I appreciate that you're focusing on the consistency with the SROs, because it sounds like that was a big part of the problem here, and if it isn't fixed, hopefully we're on a path to get it there. It feels like interagency should be a really good place to be looking at these kinds of things, but I don't know if they ever actually had REACH come and be part of that conversation. It feels like that should be, yeah, see.

No, we don't, what are you talking about? Oh, I don't know. What happened? I'm like, come on now. Your mic's not on, but... And then Chief brought up and they're like, well, we try to do the things, like you said, the misdemeanors. We're trying to let the school district handle that stuff. If they need us, if the bigger items, of course, we'll go through this process. I couldn't even get a credible answer. So if we're going to end the school interagency meeting, yes, these topics should come up. But if we're going to continue to use them, we need to be transparent. We need to find out what their numbers are. And if they're not tracking, we shouldn't use them until they track.

So I do think all of this needs to come back and there needs to be a more broad staff report and potentially a little bit more hard questions for REACH just to kind of make sure that we're getting the full picture of what's happening here. But what I'm concerned about is ceasing everything until we have it back. I fully believe we've got to get a little tighter in our oversight and accountability with them and in their reporting as well, and maybe understand why REACH instead of some, you know, going through the County Restorative Justice Program, and I'm sure you've got thoughts on that as well, but I am curious, like, If this were to, I mean, okay, if we're looking at how long it would take to get this report back to us and we were to cease at this point as of tonight, any kind of referrals to reach, what impact would that have? Not just on the, you said, what, 80 referrals in the last year? So what does that look like?

yeah I don't I would personally consider that to be detrimental, just because I do feel that there is an expectation from the da's office to that we will refer or defer to the REACH program to lessen their caseload if you would. So. I described some of the other entities that are making referrals within the just within Brentwood alone and that that total number is 269 with the other you know between the schools behavioral health self referrals and juvenile probation. I do see it having a detrimental impact if we were to cease today. Do I agree that I can still pull, at least I know I can pull data and demographics from my data. I can't speak for... the REACH project. I'm going to have to peel that back a little bit and dig a little deeper on that.

And I think that's part of the point is that it does need a peel back, but I think that it's going to take a little bit of time. I think it's also, based on what the Vice Mayor said, it would be good to have some feedback from the DA's office. Maybe if they have an opinion on this, if they have any feedback on how if they've interacted with the REACH program at all, or if they consider it to be a valuable resource. But I think all of that needs to happen. I just don't I don't personally think we should cease everything while we wait for that report to come back, because I think it's going to be a while. I would hope that red flags are being raised for you right now and I would hope that you're you know checking and maybe checking in more just being a little bit more present in the interactions that are happening now and the report should be pretty thorough and like I said I think it needs to go pretty deep into peeling back layers but I just don't think we should completely cut everything off until we find out I just I that worries me for the kids that have benefited from the program

And I have some questions. When you talk about the kids that get referred, do we have statistics on liberty versus heritage? And is there a huge disparity in one or the other? Because I mean, And the human factor does come into play. I don't know this officer. I mean, I've seen him, you know, we say hi, but I don't know him. But I would like to, if we get our reporting, if we can get it by school site, I think that would be helpful. I wanna understand. Because if you have one officer that's doing it a lot and not the other one, that's kind of one indicator. It's not the end-all, be-all. But I would be interested in seeing reporting that includes that.

But all four high schools, right? Not just Heritage and Liberty?

No, only Brentwood. He only has data. I only want to see Brentwood. No, no. I mean... yeah yeah yeah the middle schools yeah right um no not the middle schools la paloma yeah oh yeah yeah whatever high schools we have um but you know the the census is bigger at so it that would be a percentage of students if we start looking at that so that we can't equalize it um it's concerning to me hearing the numbers of how they jumped up i don't think anyone can sit here and say like okay wait that that sounds totally normal right because you it's it went up a lot um What is, and you're new to your role, but what other levels is there? So if this officer says to these kids, you gotta do this program, and the parents are like, hold on. Is there like a chain of command when it comes to how these cases are handled in the police department? Or is the SRO the end all be all when it comes to calling the shots?

So going back to when I took over, the policy of Officer Bloomberg was that anybody on campus that engages in any type of physical contact will be cited. That was his standing policy. The school resource officer assigned to Liberty did not have that same policy. That was the, when I touched on the relationship between the school administrators, the thresholds, the expectations, they kind of have a little bit of grace on getting to know their administrators and how they're gonna approach the different type of incidents. And in this case, it was, I was told, everybody who makes physical contact and is involved in a fight receives a citation. Now that citation then, if, if a student was cited and i'm just speaking for the schools because this applies to all misdemeanors across the the city that we respond to whether it's petty theft a vandalism a trespass a specific um and i guess it's i can point this out any criminal violation whether it's a citation or a juvenile affidavit that's issued it then goes to our uh youth liaison or the uh youth liaison division officer for review. If the person that's being accused accepts responsibility and accountability, it is my understanding that's an automatic referral to reach and not the juvenile justice system. And then they take it from there. More serious crimes, those go straight to the juvenile DA or probation department. depending on the history with the accused.

Yeah. And when I look up REACH Project online, just looking it up, it does say it's like a drug rehabilitation program. So I do have concerns about having children, because they are children. Frontal lobes are not developed until their mid-20s. So it's like... you have children with very different issues. And mind you, we all have issues when we're young. I mean, we have issues now. But when you're young, there's always going to be issues. How do we feel about putting children that got into a fight? Like, yeah, fights aren't great, but they happen. And I'd rather them figure it out when they're in high school versus when they're older. So how do we differentiate when we put them into this program? Like she was saying, her son was sitting with drug addicts. I would not want my daughters to... befriend someone who's a drug addict. They all text. They all go on these apps together. So I have concerns about that, putting them together in the same counseling sessions. I'm torn because I know you got to do what you got to do because of your police department. I just don't know if this is the right program, the way that it's set up now. And is there ever opportunity if they have a council, if they have counselors, is there ever opportunity to do the counseling on at the Brentwood PD instead of the Antioch PD? Like, is there conference rooms they can use here for that and schedule here instead of having our kids go there? Is that an opportunity? Which thing you would have oversight of from our police department?

Yeah, so I can speak to the space at the police department. Operationally, I can't speak for reach on that, on whether that's a staffing issue. There's not any availability inside the police department, but we do offer space, private space for clients. But again, I don't know if that was an operational thing that required somebody to go to Antioch versus Brentwood. uh facility so that's another piece i would have to peel back just to get a better understanding as part of this comprehensive overview um on some of these questions on why those decisions are made or why you know a client may be forced to go to antioch versus uh versus brown where they could again i don't want to i don't want to speak for reach yeah um in terms of their operations um and the mayor was saying how do they get how do they get paid

How do they make their money? Because I was just looking at their tax forms. They make a lot of money. So we don't pay them? Like Brentwood doesn't pay them?

We don't pay for any of their funding. We have a fee waiver that covers the space, the electricity, PG&E, the rental square footage on the space that they occupy inside the police department. But there's no funding that's provided for them operationally.

because I'm trying to figure out in my head, how were they paid? Because, and not saying you guys are doing this, but if I was paid by head, like I would want more kids in the program so I can get paid more. So I just, and I'm not saying you guys are doing this, but like, it's just weird to me that the numbers went up so much. And then you look at their tax returns and their income went up so much. You know, it's just, it makes me a little uncomfortable.

There's, you know, I can attest that in terms of the Brentwood Police Department operations, there's no contractual expectation agreement. Okay. Increase your numbers. Absolutely not. Okay. And again, I go back to what I said earlier, that REACH project does not dictate or set standards on my operations. Yeah. Absolutely not.

Okay. I mean, I don't know where to go, so I'm going to, like, I don't know what...

i i get what the mayor is saying i just want us to get some numbers back on the data but also from a from an operational perspective if we're going to be referring to this program where our kids are just going to go shouldn't i would like to find out what are your sop your standard operating procedures for sro for a referral because it seems like there's been some changes And I'd love in the report back is to find out like what, cause you're, you, you are phenomenal and you will one day right off into the sunset and call retirement, hopefully no time soon. And they're going to be someone else there. And when we know when leadership changes, so does policies and procedures. So love to find out what is going to be the standard operating procedure that no matter who we plug, plug and play in the SRL seat, um, they'll know that this is how we do it because it is discretionary in my like it sounds like i was told is discretionary and then i'm hearing something totally different so it'd be nice to know what policy you came in and standard the standards you said It'd also be nice for this to come back to council just so we can hear an update. And I'd love if we are going to send our kids, I think it is only asking so much to ask the REACH program to give us what the numbers are. And I think our SROs, they're there for everything. They actually can start to track the numbers for incidents that were and were not referred to REACH so that we have complete transparency. hear like a report out when you give out your annual report, like, by the way, also for REACH, or it can then eventually go to school in our agency. And when we host it, we can say, here are our numbers. But there needs to be some type of tracking system because it is daunting to be in a space when you see something and people don't believe you until you pull up the data. And it happens. It happens. I'm not an angry black woman or hyper worried about like shit happens. It really is out there happening. People really do discriminate against kids of color more than white kids. It's really happening. So I'd like for us to track the data and get back. I mean, we want to keep it in place because you're saying it serves some kids. That's fine. And with your new parameters, but love to know what those parameters are. It'd be nice to get that information. Yeah, that's my motion. I'd like to make a motion to give staff time and attention to provide an additional report out hopefully before the end of the year while I'm still on council. A report out on if we can get additional data on demographics for race, gender, ethnicity. for both school sites, right? All four, sorry, for four. In the last, I'd like to go back three years, actually four years, so we can see what the difference are if they have that data and that information. And then also, what are the standard operating procedures for a referral that's made by SRO from our police department? And maybe some more collaboration on the school district with the school district and the REACH program to figure out, I mean, if this program needs to be cleaned up, then this is where cleanup starts is we make recommendations. They can do what they want or nonprofit, but we can also decide whether or not we want to keep referring our kids. Is there anything else? Yeah, let's explore that too. And also let's explore. That wasn't on the mic. Oh, explore bringing on-site to Brentwood. And also let's explore the idea that a child who has a physical altercation is not put in a direct rehabilitation program. What REACH has to say about that?

Any questions? And I just want to say thank you to the Chief. I know this is a difficult conversation, especially because it's kids, and I do appreciate you already working on it before this meeting.

Thank you. Before I vote, Terrence Thomas, any questions about this motion?

No questions.

Okay, thank you. All in favor? Aye. Okay, motion passes. Thank you for that. And thank you again, Chief. Okay, the next item is I point to consider a request from Council Member Maloney and Mayor Meyer to review City Council Policy 110-1. Council Member Maloney, do you want to start?

Yes, so this is the Council Administrative Policy 110-1, and my concerns, I'd like more clarification, probably a change to 6.1, where it goes into voting and decision ordinances, resolutions, and other matters submitted to the Council. must be adopted by a majority vote of the total membership of the council unless greater number of votes is required by law. A majority means three votes for the city council and for each city commission with a total of five members. If one or more council members is absent, a majority vote cannot be obtained and no additional actions taken. The matter shall automatically be added to a future agenda to be considered at least once with all council members present. If a member qualified to vote does not vote in the affirmative or negative, the member shall be deemed to have voted in the affirmative. I am concerned about that one. We've had a couple of situations here where some of us have abstained and to automatically rule that into an affirmative, I would like to have that brought back for discussion with my colleagues. And Mayor, do you have anything else to add?

I do, thank you. There are some parts of this policy that are not super clear and I start with like the quorum and the teleconferences. I think we should establish, add language to establish rules about how many council members can be remote and a quorum still established. And I say that because the language talks about whether someone's in Brentwood or not as being a valid reason and a valid member of a quorum. If we have two people that are out of state and one person that is home sick, are two people in the council chambers considered to be a quorum if everyone is remote? Or the ones that are not here, for example. I think I know the answer to that, but looking at the policy, it's not super clear. So you don't have to answer that right now if you don't want. The other part of that is... Let's see, in looking at the abstention concern too, I think there's language that talks about that makes it not very clear if someone can actually take part in a conversation and still abstain, or do they need to leave before? I mean, there's a recusal and there's an abstention, and some of the language is a little confusing around that too. There's language that talks about conflict of interest as a reason to abstain, financial interest, that sort of thing, but there isn't language that is specific to, for example, personal religious reasons, that sort of thing. And I think we should be clear that if we abstain that that should be a reason we can abstain. Let's see. Yeah, I think the question, the big one about the abstention is does a council member have control over their vote if they choose abstention or are they forced into an affirmative vote? I think we really need to get some clarity on that. And I think that covers it. I think actually also this is a really good time to hone in on some of these things because we're about to have a change in council. So we wanna make sure that these kind of rules are really clear. When it was updated, Terrance, you told me, when was it updated last?

2023. Okay.

And was that the entire thing or a portion of it? Or do you know?

That I don't know.

Okay. Okay. I think it was just a portion.

Yeah. um and i guess that's all i have so do we have um at this point any questions from council okay and any public comments

at this time the public is permitted to address the city council on this agenda item if you're participating via zoom please raise your hand if you're in person please file a speaker card your microphone will be muted if you speak on items that do not pertain to this agenda item or after the timer has expired we receive zero written public comments in advance of tonight's meeting i have no cards in person but i do have one hand raised in zoom rod go ahead

Thank you. This discussion on abstention, I think that you're going to end up leaving it the way it is. You've got two choices. An abstention can count as a yes or it can count as a no. And the logic behind counting it as a yes is because otherwise you're denying a quorum. If you don't want the thing to pass, say no. Um, I, I see no real value to abstention actually, because you've only got five members total. Um, if somebody abstains, it doesn't do anything to reduce the three that are required to pass. So if you say, well, an abstention is a no. then that person may as well vote no. I mean, if you say an abstention is a yes, that person ought to vote yes. So I think if you go back to some other resources that are kind of the basis, possibly Roberts, I don't really know right now off the top of my head, but I think you'll find that the policy is just standard for any kind of a committee vote. So it's just something to think about. And at the end of the day, I think that having the abstention available is not really necessary. If a person really wants to abstain, they should recuse. They should leave the room. If you're going to sit there and go through the discussion and have a vote, then vote one way or the other. That's my personal opinion. Again, speaking as a

as a citizen not for the city in any capacity thank you i have no additional hands raised i just have a question like if i wanted to abstain and i sat here can i just walk out and just be like i'm not going to vote like you can walk out whenever you want to nobody can not vote because that might yeah okay just wondering because i don't i don't know the rules or anything so i was just asking the public always says oh you have to sit down somebody told me sit down on something nobody can force you to sit

They hear the residents did vote you the people voted you so their expectation is that you're going to fully participate, but my little two cents would would be that we. Sorry, my two cents would be that one we do a good job when we have Council members we tell them the difference between an abstention and explain things clearly because I don't think a lot of people included myself. knew that abstention meant yes. I don't want to change the policy, but I do think that we need to do a better job at explaining that so that somebody can recuse themselves if they want to abstain. Or they can recuse themselves, go have a conversation out there. Because I think you were like, the last time it was your neighborhood and you were like, well, this is how I feel. And I'm like, just recuse yourself and go right there and be a member of the public and say what you want to say. You don't have to go sit in the back. Sit right there and say it. Yeah. So I think we just recuse ourselves if you feel passionately. And if you still want to have a conversation, go have a conversation there. But I don't think we changed the policy. On the flip side, though, I have no objection to review any policies. So I would agree. Let's look at everything and make sure that it is clear and makes sense because we do have a new council coming in. So let's just make sure. But I would not be in agreement to change what it is because it just wouldn't make sense to change it.

If we recuse ourselves from an item that we are technically qualified to vote on, then it would be considered an abstain, correct?

Um, if you, the question is if you're qualified to vote, you know, it depends on the actual phrasing of the word. And so it says qualified to vote. And if you, so the reason for the recusal matters, right? If you're just doing it for no reason, um, and you're qualified to vote on the matter and you're present, but then again, if you leave the room, you're not present, right? So it depends on the facts of the situation. Um, But what we can do is when we bring this back, I can show you a few different options for what's actually possible. And then you can look at your current policy versus what different options for each of these could include. And that also includes the piece which is dealing with the telecommunications and remote participation, because those rules have changed recently. And so there are updates that are not contained in this policy that could be contained.

Can you bring back also, because recusal can be very broad, the grounds for it. I mean, if you can sit up here and say, I don't believe I can be fair and impartial, then you need to recuse yourself. If you say, like, I mean, I think even like with your example of last time, it's like, I'm very passionate about it. And I don't know if that would tend to lead towards being impartial, like maybe biased or not, not saying that how you felt or not. But if you can literally say that, then you are not qualified to you should be recused. You should recuse yourself if you if you think that you can't make a decision one way or the other way. So without being biased or something like that. So if we can tell what would constitute a recusal, that would be good, too. But I'll tell you, when I came on our council, this was not This orientation piece part was not given to me. I was not given. And I think there is this expectation after you've had people who've been on council for so many years and then you get someone who has not been on council. the expectation that some people tend to in orientation and not a lot of you are all new up here. Um, but before it was just like, Oh, it was the same courses, you know, orientation did not include this as well as other things. And I think some of that caught Tony and I, when we first came on off guard, some of the, the, uh, procedures on how we can bring emotion forward, how you can not, how do you bring a future agenda item request in? Um, yeah. So I think it's helpful to do it at the inception of a new council member.

We didn't get an orientation.

I was just going to say, but I think it's a good idea very much, especially because a lot of this is very nuanced and confusing. And, you know, again, the difference. How do you decide if you want to recuse yourself versus decide if you want to abstain from a vote? And I think there is some value to abstaining if you still feel like you can make a comment. But again, that's why I mentioned the personal religious reasons, and I don't know if those are specifically worded the correct way, but I feel like there should be an allowance for that based on those terms. And so that language is not in here currently, and this policy is confusing.

um and i don't again orientation would be a great idea having this cleaned up before new council starts would be a great idea as well and i'm sorry for you guys because we got one i have to say police and public works give the best orientation casey wasn't it the best pony m um going and police mickey and everybody it was the best the best um and yeah i think we decided do we want

when you abstain is it a yes or a no right because some cities it's a no i think most people i've talked to it's a no which i've never heard of it being i've never heard of it being yes either ever and then of course there is the con the question about closed session versus open session if that should be different or does it matter it could be considered completely separately okay do we do you want to make a motion

I move to provide the following direction to staff to bring back policy 110-1 with the updates requested into The abstain, whether it is a yes or a no, what it meant. Also, the updates into what exactly a quorum is and how it constitute in person, along with teleconferencing and all the new laws that have also changed. What was the other one, Mary? And the recusal session. The recusal versus the abstention and also.

Language for what's allowable for an abstention, a reason to abstain, like religious reasons, for example.

any reasons for abstention, what's allowed, what's not allowed, what's common practice, and then there was something else. Oh, and the closed session versus open session.

And may I also suggest just a full review in general, just so we're not limited to those, we'll highlight and focus on those specific items, but then a full review just for anything that might, we do have a lot of state law updates that can be.

And a full review to encompass all changes in state law. And I will second that. Yes.

Orientation to all.

and the council will be given an orientation to all this policy.

Yes. And my second stands. All in favor? Aye. The motion passes and we need one more motion.

Make the motion to adjourn. Second.

All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Thanks, staff.