City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you folks. We're about to get started. Good evening. Thanks everyone for being here. Good evening and welcome to the city council regular meeting this Monday, April 6th. I now call this meeting to order. Can we please all rise for 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.

Thank you. Before we begin, I would just like to share that pursuant to California government code, our deputy mayor, Nicole Fernandez, will be participating in this meeting remotely. City clerk, can you please call the role? Certainly. Mayor Lorraine, council member Diaz Nash, present. Council members Fo Gditki here. Deputy Mayor Fernandez here. Mayor Lorraine here, and council member Nuome

here. Thank you and welcome. We are excited to be here in person with options for those who choose not to be in person to still participate virtually. There are several ways to participate if you wish to give public comment. For those attending in person, you may complete a yellow request to speak slip and hand it to the city clerk as he's indicating there. If you're participating remotely, you may use the raise your hand feature in Zoom and you can be called on at the appropriate time. If you're calling in via phone, please press star 9 to raise your hand. And when you're called upon, please press star six to unmute. These options for public comment will remain available until I close public comment periods for each specific item. For members of the public who may be watching us on YouTube tonight, if you wish to provide live public comment, we do not currently have that feature available via YouTube. You'll need to join our Zoom webinar instead. Please use the access information listed on the agenda for the meeting which is available on our website at city of samonteo.org. We're going to begin tonight with some ceremonial items. Uh item number one is Hillsdale High School 4.0 grade uh recognition. We have a number of students here. I'd like to note um that's what I wanted to note. And we look forward to also celebrating 4.0 We know recipients from Aragon High School, San Monteo, and Huniper Rosera High School at our May 4th city council meeting. But just uh tonight we're we have Hillsdale with us. I'd like to invite to the podium principal Jeff Gilbert to share a few words and uh then we will learn the names of of those who are here to receive recognition.

Uh thank you, Mayor Lorraine, and to the city council. Appreciate being here. Um, one of the students asked me if I'd done this before and um, this is my 21st time in front of the the city council. That's uh, three years longer than three years longer than they've been alive. Uh, and so that certainly made me think a little bit about being old and the stories we tell as we get older, uh, about the times when our parents would kick us out of the house on a Saturday morning and not see us for 15 hours, not know where we're at and have no way to get in touch with us. Or my, um, I remember trying to call my best friend. and I have to get on the telephone and see if the neighbors were also on the same line and ask to see if they'd disconnect so I could dial over and and talk to my friend. Uh that is not the world they live in. Uh often the stories we tell are of simpler times. Uh those days don't exist. And I think about the the world that they are navigating from the time they were born until uh a month a month six weeks from now when they graduate and walk across the stage. And yet, in spite of the challenges that they face, I think this group uh and the graduates from Hillsdale High School are more uh connected with the world, more compassionate, more ambitious, more willing to look outside of themselves and understand the world that they live in than I ever was. And in that, I have great hope not just for them as individuals, but for our community. uh they're remarkable and the people who are here and that we will recognize are actors and they are uh academics and they're athletes and they argue and mock trial uh and their list of accomplishments goes on and on and on. The volunteer work they do uh but

they're also a community. They are a community of people who care about each other who uh do the best they can to not just take but to give whether that's organizing a book drive or participating in uh a volunteer work at a community garden. So we're really really proud of them. Uh it's an honor to be here and it's honor to represent Hillsdale High School and to for these students to represent the city of Sanonteo should be very very proud of them. And so with that, we are going to bring them up.

Oh, I will join you. Excellent.

To shake their hands and then we'll take a photo. So, not with us tonight, Jonas Bell. With us, Miles Chattery. Laya Corkish, Anna Del Roso, Nadav Asanapur and Rona Alan and Runa Hakuda. Not with us, Justin Cucodomi and Allison Han.

Um, a few in a row who aren't here. Sierra Hartwig Jonah Emanuel, Sarah Joseph, Justinda King, Samantha Coup, Tyler Low, Samantha Lock, Tyler Lou, and Arthur Mari. Heroki Maryama and Nicole Mua Deus are not here. Scarlet Mutame Uh, Nandika Nang. Uh, Kylie No, Elijah Newzen or Joshua Perki. Uh Patrick Famulations

Samantha Rank is not here. Leia Saitto.

Congratulations.

Emma Seilla is now here. Stella she Navia Sha uh Brady Skidmore Shernasan Julia Screeder Vanessa Vieiraa Romanel Sean Whipkey, Tyrus Wong,

Adam Woo, Trevor Yao, Luke Young, Charlene Yu, and Eric Euan and Vivian Zarowski Morin. So, thank you. And one more for Jonas Bell because I feel like we clap for everybody

toward the center. We'll bring the city council over. Okay. Not going to forget those.

Congratulations. Cover us with your glory. You are what's now and what's next. All right. Go Nights on three. Right. One, two, three. Go Nights.

Most of you are 18. Make sure you're all voting. You all will be voting. Almost there. Stay for your adoring fans. One more good night. One, two, three, go. Nice.

Okay. Thank you, Principal. Absolutely. Thank you for everything you do. Appreciate it. Sorry, guys.

Thank you all. We'll move on to our next item in a moment or two. If we could just take a fivem minute recess to let everyone out, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Fivem minute recess

Okay, everyone. Thank you for your patience as we transition into our next ceremonial item. We are back and we have a proclamation for fair housing month. That's item number two on our agenda tonight. I'd like to invite to the podium Laura Diaz, fair housing community outreach coordinator. Thank you for being here. I have a proclamation I would like to read on behalf of the city and then uh you're free to share anything you'd like in addition, but thank you for joining us. And I have a proclamation here for fair housing month. Whereas adequate housing is a basic need and right of all people. And whereas this year we celebrate the 58th anniversary of the enactment of the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, Title 8 of the Civil Rights Act, which states that discrimination in the sale and rental of housing is illegal when based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And whereas the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 extends fair housing rights on the basis of familial status to families with children and on the basis of handicap to disabled persons. And whereas California statutes additionally protect citizens on the basis of age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and source of income. And whereas California celebrates the 66th anniversary of the Fair Employment and Housing Act or FIHA. And whereas the city of Sanonteo supports fair housing efforts to eliminate discrimination in housing and recognizes the benefits of Project Sentinel to educate home

seekers, apartment managers, and apartment owners on federal and state housing laws. And whereas in order to heighten public awareness, the city of Sonteo wishes to focus public attention on April as fair housing month. Now therefore, I, Adam Lorraine, mayor of Sonteo, and on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as Fair Housing Month and do encourage all residents and community organizations to celebrate the value of harmonious and diverse communities of neighbors and to support the goal of equal housing opportunity for all people. Thank you. Okay. Um, thank you to the city of Sonteo and the mayor for your continued partnership and support of Project Sentinel and fair housing in the community. Uh, fair housing u, like you mentioned is deeply rooted in the civil rights movement and the protections that we rely on today exists because of that history. While we've made progress, housing discrimination is not a thing of the past. It continues to impact um residents, especially during a time when housing challenges are front and center of so many families. Now more than ever, support for fair housing is essential to creating real solutions that promote access, stability, and opportunity. Project Sentinel is committed to this work every day, addressing housing discrimination one case at a time. Um, to learn more about our services and resources, community members may visit us at housing.org. Thank you.

Thank you very much for joining us. And I can uh take a photo with you with the proclamation and any other council members who wish to join me. Thank you. We have one more ceremonial item tonight, dispatcher appreciation. I'd like to invite to the podium Chief of Police Ed Barbarini and our dispatch supervisor Stacy Foster. Thank you for being here and for approaching. I have one more proclamation. Am I reading this proclamation? Very good. Okay. Pardon me. Whereas when an emergency occurs, the prompt response of public safety personnel is critical to the protection of life and preservation of property. And whereas the dedicated public safety dispatchers serve the citizens of the city of Sanonteo on a daily basis by answering emergency and non-emergency calls for assistance and coordinating public safety field units. And whereas these career professionals answer over 20,000 911 calls annually. And whereas these professionals measure their success in the lives that are

saved by the 911 system each and every day. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link for our police officers by monitoring their activities by radio, providing them information and ensuring their safety. And whereas public safety communications professionals work under challenging and stressful circumstances. And whereas public safety communications professionals dedicate their lives and careers to helping others. And whereas in 1991, the United States Congress designated the second week in April as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. And whereas California Public Safety Telecommunicators Week will recognize all public safety dispatchers who are an integral part of California's first responder team who work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and serve as the first critical contact our citizens have with emergency services. Now therefore, I, Adam Lraine, mayor of Sonteo, and on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim April 12th through April 28th, 2026 to be National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in the city of Sonteo in honor of the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our city and citizens safe. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. First of all, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to recognize an extraordinary group of people. Uh, as you know, our the men and women of our police department are continually asked to do more under very demanding and challenging circumstances and under a tremendous amount of scrutiny. And our public safety dispatchers are no exception. Uh, the pure volume or sheer volume of calls or work that we ask them to do and the pace that we ask them to do it at is truly

incredible. And I don't know how they do it. Uh they do all this knowing that the the lives um and the safety of not only the residents but our officers on the street um depend on what they do and they uh they they do an exceptional job. I could not be more proud. I think we have the finest group of people in any dispatch center. Uh they do care deeply about the community. They care deeply about their jobs and the in the manner in which they do it. Um even with uh faced with long 12-hour shifts uh sitting in the room answering call after call and making sure that we're all safe. So, uh, I want to thank our true, uh, first first responders, as we like to call them. Um, we we appreciate them for one week. Um, but, uh, the I I think most of our officers, if not all of our officers will will let you know that, um, 24 hours a day, we rely on them and they are appreciated every day of the year. So, thank you. I'd like to introduce our one of our um, dispatch supervisor, Stacy Foster, just to kind of recognize her and say a few words.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here to accept this proclamation along with the chief. Uh, next month marks my 30th year in public safety and I've been with the city of Sonteo since 2018 and I will say hands down it is one of the most talented and skilled group of dispatchers with whom I've had the pleasure of working. So, I'm very proud to be here to accept this on their behalf. Thank you.

Thank you. And we'll take a photo. Thank you everyone. We are now moving beyond the ceremonial portion of tonight's meeting which includes the business items being considered by the council. For that reason, I would like to remind all in the room and online that we will be enforcing our rules of decorum. As such, we do not allow for cheering, jeering, or booing during the business portion of the meeting as this tends to put a chill on public comment. Our goal is to ensure that all perspectives are heard. Our motto is give respect, get respect, and we appreciate your cooperation with this. The next item on the agenda is the consent calendar. City clerk, may you please read this consent calendar.

With pleasure, Mayor Lorraine. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion without discussion. If discussion is desired, that item may be removed and considered separately. Item number four, council member, chief of police, and city clerk travel authorization. Item number five, deputy mayor request for budget reallocation for events, trainings, and conferences for fiscal year 202526 approval. Item number six, clean water program annual major components dissolved air flotation tank replacement agreement. Item number seven, El Camino Rial Street light relocation project bid rejection. Item number eight, main library lighting controls upgrade. And finally, item number nine, 2026, annual investment policy approval. And through the mayor, just a brief note about consent calendar item number four. Um, since packet publication on Thursday, staff has learned of some scheduling conflicts. So, what's being uh requested for approval here is a console members uh authorization to travel for uh the 101st Airborne, and we will um circle back with the council with uh confirmation of uh scheduling on that item. Okay, thank you for that. Is there any member of the council who would like to pull an item for the consent calendar? Nothing online as well. Thank you, city clerk. Um, if any members of the public would wish to comment on any consent calendar item, now would be the time. Just these items that the city clerk just read. This is for consent calendar items only. City clerk, do we have any public comment?

Mayor Lorraine, there is no request to speak on the consent calendar. Okay, thank you. I will close public comment on the consent calendar. Is there a motion from council to approve? I motion. Second. Thank you. Motion in a second. City clerk, can you please call roll? Certainly. Council member Sphere Gaditzki, yes. Council member Nuome, yes. Council member Diaz Nash, yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, yes. Mayor Lraine, yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. This will close our consent calendar items and we'll move on to general public comment. Next on the agenda, members of the public who wish to comment on any item not appearing on our agenda tonight may address the city council at this time. State law prevents council from taking action on any matter not on the agenda, but your comments may be referred to staff for follow-up. This public comment section is generally limited to a total of 15 minutes. However, that is subject to council's discretion and can be extended if council wishes to do so. If needed, an opportunity for additional public comment may be provided later in the agenda. City clerk, can you please tally the number of requests to speak on general public comment?

Certainly. Um, as uh Mayor Lorraine mentioned, we will be accepting requests to speak on general public comment. Items not on the agenda. Um, if you wish to speak and have not provided a request to speak slip, we request that you do so now. We will be closing the request to speak period. Mayor Lorraine, that is a total of 14 requests to speak for general public comment. The last speaker I have in chambers will be Michael Reagan and our last speaker in our virtual environment will be Max Mner. Um so per council adopted rules and procedures that would set the time at two minutes per speaker. Okay.

And we'll begin with our in uh request speak uh inperson request to speak. We'll start with an organized presentation um which will be the magical family and that will be a 5-minute organized presentation. Hello, my name is Brandon Madri. I'll be speaking on behalf of my family. On March 28th, 2026, my dad and two younger siblings were walking a Safeway to get snacks to watch a movie at home when they were hit by a vehicle while crossing a marked crosswalk on Delaware and State Street, leaving my 16-year-old sister bruised and in a lot of pain. My 8-year-old brother, also in a lot of pain with a fracture in his skull and minor cerebral bleeding. and my dad who attempting to protect my siblings sustained much more serious injuries, a dislocation at the shoulder, six broken ribs, internal bleeding, and requiring surgery on his femur along with many other injuries. These last couple days have been the most mentally, physically, and emotionally draining days of my life. Having to watch my siblings and dad in the hospital knowing I couldn't do anything to help them makes me feel defeated as a son and older brother. Having seen my dad lay there on the floor unable to move in a puddle of blood and my younger siblings scared crying and in pain will be something I always remember and wish nobody will have to experience. Although they are in better condition now taking medication, my dad still has a long recovery ahead of him. I hope my family and I had experienced can not only bring some positive changes but also remind everyone to cherish every second of every single day and everyone they care about. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now move on to our individual request to speak where our first if I call your name if you could please line up to my right um that'll make sure we get to receive all of the public comments um as efficiently as possible. Our first speaker will be Kevin Simpson followed by Ronald Gulen and Rich Hedges. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and thank you, Mr. Mayor and honorable members of council. I'm sure you're going to hear tonight from anguished and angry voices. This is not the first time we've come here to talk about this topic, and I'm afraid that with the way things are going, it won't be the last. Just a few months ago, a lady was killed in a similar accident over by the Safeway at 17th Avenue, just a block from where the Madreal family uh tragedy occurred. We had a lady killed in a crosswalk. There's been no changes at either one of those crosswalks. We have a long list of safety needs to address in this community. What I'm asking this council to do tonight is to look in your hearts and ask yourselves, is this a crisis? Something's different. This is happening too often and it's tearing people and families in our community apart. We've got to do something different. And in a crisis, what you do is you set aside the normal ways that you act on things and you start looking for more comprehensive, thorough, and deep meaning and structure to how you're going to respond. And I believe that's what this council has to do. We have to look at everything. Do we have enough of our budget allocated to enforce traffic controls, speeding, distracted driving, and everything are out of control? the

ground to shift it under our feet. Are we going to keep spending money on frivolous things like the year that that occupied our traffic engineering department looking for a way to route bike lanes down two narrow streets? Or are we going to really focus on the things that we know will make a difference? It's time to set things aside and raise this to the level of crisis that it is. And we've asked you this before and we're asking it now. Thank you. Please do that. Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Ronald Gulen, followed by Rich Hedges and Belinda Hansen.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Ronald Gian. I'm here to formally place the city of Satan on actual no notice of life safety violation and administrative failure at 2910 Edison Street. Specifically, 646 ft of main sewer infrastructure was recently replaced and immediately buried under concrete prior to any city's expens expected. In an email sent to me this Friday, the building department admitted the disc work was illegally concealed. They also admitted their public permit portal, which shows the project only 4% complete is inaccurate. When the city owns safety tracking system fails, they live the lives of everybody at the resident building are compromised. The department intends to run a pressure test this week. council. The pressure test is insufficient. This gravityfed sewer line, a pressure test, only checks for leaks. It cannot verify the slope of grade of a pipe that is out hitting under concrete. Most concerning is the confirmed involvement of cementel public works employee Carlos Martinez at the illegal job site. An issue city admits is now a human resources is now with human resources. When the city official is present at a site to bypass safety protocols, it's no longer a civil matter. administrative collusion and it creates a massive tort liability for the administration to migate this liability the and resort to public trust. I am asking the council to enforce the power to uncover under CBC 109.1 require the landlord to expose the 46 ft sewer lines and so the slope and the bedding can physically verify and the city inspector before any further proceed works proceeds. Investigate the conflict of interest involving Carlos Martinez. Direct the city manager provide full report on why a public works official was present at an active unpermanent private construction project that bypass city safety codes. Ensure the transparency and HR investigation. Halt any re uh reentrrenal of the building. Order that the new tenants or final approvals occur until the permit is 100% complete and entire building

drainage is verified safe for all households to household occup. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Rich Hedges, followed by Belinda Hansen and Claudia Argot.

Good evening, Mayor Lar and city council members. I'm here tonight to talk about safety. We've had so many incidents. I've already heard them discussed tonight, but I want to bring one that caused a death. Veronica Lopez. Say her name. I say it occasionally to keep her memory alive. A woman who was the center of a large family, took care of her 95 year old mother and uh uh was the main bread winner with a husband that was in his 70s. She's gone. She didn't own a car. She took the bus. Things we ask people to do. Yet, for lack of a 30 second delay on lefthand turns at 17th in Alamoto, she is dead. I'm asking you to give a report on your discussions with Calrans on that intersection. It has to be done. I think it's the most dangerous intersection in the city. There is nothing we can do to stop people from being distracted to driving recklessly because they want to. But there is ways that we can make these streets safer. We know what they are and we need to do it. and a simple 30- secondond delay crossing uh turning left for drivers will make that street safe enough to use. I'm there all the time. I have several businesses I deal with. I'm really frightened when I cross there. Go there and cross during Rushard and see what you think. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Belinda Hansen followed by Claudia Argo and Lena Ken Kurinar. Hi. Um, I live on Bill Terrace on two blocks from State Street in Delaware where one of these many accidents happened. The three families. There was also um a bratality about two years ago on Peninsula in Delaware. That neighborhood in general has gotten very dangerous. I'm a pedestrian and I cross that intersection almost every day to go to the our neighborhood safely there and I'm getting very afraid to cross the street. Same with El Camino. Today I took the bus after I came to find out how to come to this meeting at El Camino and 20th. I went all the way to Hillsdale Mall to take the 292 bus to go back to my neighborhood the other way just so I didn't have to cross Al Camino to catch the bus. It's getting terrorizing. I'm not as educated as everybody else has spoken in front of me. I've never done anything like this, but I want to take this opportunity to speak and say please help us. We do need to make these streets a lot safer. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Claudia Argo followed by Lena Kummar and Donald Yu.

Hi, good evening. My name is Claote and I live in 530 State Street where the family mag uh his father got run over and this is not the first time that this happened in our street. I think though only and I plead to you guys to put maybe some speed uh bumps um some lights because that intersection is very dangerous especially for the kids that go to high school there. I went to San Mato High School and I seen so many accidents. I walk always with my dogs and it's very dangerous street. I plead to you to go and walk that street to see how what it feels like. Um the drivers always speeding up, not not doing the double stops. It's very unsafe and this is not the first time that this happens and I wish you guys to pay uh close attention to our street. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Lena Kmar, followed by Donald Yu and Ruth Anderson.

Uh, hi everyone. My name is Lena. Um, I've been a resident of Sanonteo for about three years. While living at Villa Terrace before this year, I had to take an unprotected left turn onto Sonteo Drive every single day. And it was I was always worried about getting hit by oncoming cars. and I had even witnessed a twocar accident at that intersection. After moving to State Street this year, I was relieved to find a place nearby that felt more residential. I was excited by an easier start to my morning commute and the convenience of walking to Safeway. But after moving in, we met neighbors who immediately told us how dangerous the North Delaware and State Street intersection is. Now, turning left onto North Delaware every morning has been harder than my experience at Village Harris due to the lack of visibility and the cars that speed. Just a few months into our new lease, my partner and I heard Mr. Sandaval and his kids get struck by a car from our window the night of March 28th. I'm here today in support of that family and to make it known that I want something to be done at this intersection. Sonteo is often considered one of the more walkable cities in Bay Area. To those visiting downtown, that might feel true. But to those of us that are living here, we see how much work needs to be done before the entire city can really be walkable. I hope the recent outcry from neighbors shows you that the community wants to be heard. We need your cooperation in making conditions better at every Sonteo intersection, not just the ones that received attention. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Donald U followed by Ruth Anderson and Mike Swire.

Hello, my name is Donald and I live on State Street. Uh, I use the North Delaware intersection daily to jog and shop at the Safeway across the street. And every time I have to cross this intersection, it's really hard for me to see oncoming cars. I have to step into the street and peek deep in order to see how fast cars are coming. And if I'm having difficulty seeing cars, imagine how hard it is for drivers to see me. I have this rule where I need to make direct eye contact with the driver, acknowledge them, and then acknowledge me, and then I cross. Sometimes I'm waiting for a while at that crosssection. And other times, the drivers will make eye contact with me, but they still continue driving fast past me, ignoring me. It's it's so dangerous crossing this intersection. And after witnessing the accident's aftermath on March 28th, it makes sense why that tragedy happened. Why do we have to live like this? We need something done to this intersection now, not later. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Ruth Anderson, followed by Mike Swire and Sema Patel.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Ruth. I live at Woodlake Condominiums at 814 North Delaware, right by State Street. I did not see the accident, but I saw all the aftermath from my window, and I was deeply affected by it. I saw Mr. magical lying on the street on the ground and I heard crying and I heard screaming and I immediately realized that something needs to change. I lived at Woodlake less than a year but I've always been scared exiting Wood onto North Delaware, either making a left or a right. Scared as a driver that I might uh that because of the speed of the cars going especially north uh going especially northbound but also southbound. um scared as a pedestrian trying to cross straight to State Street even in midm morning quiet weekdays um and just scared as a resident there that another horrible accident is going to happen after the one that we just experienced I uh implore the council if there's some way we could get some sort of emergency uh stop sign or something to calm that particular area which is especially vulnerable I think and looking at it uh there are two lanes going northbound that immediately at one lane rather that immediately widens to two lanes right at that that where the crosswalk where the accident happened. There's also signs telling drivers that the school slowdown zone has ended. So I think it's very natural as a driver to speed up right where the accident happened and I can imagine as a driver myself the temptation to speed up um and the tragedy happening. So, I uh definitely would appreciate the council's efforts to try to do all we can to make that particular spot and other spots um that are very dangerous much safer. Thanks very much.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Mike Swire, followed by Sema Patel and David Hunt. Sorry.

Hi, members of council. Thanks so much for hearing me and for your service to the community. Um, we're standing here tonight because the streets of San Monteo and especially those in North Central have become a gauntlet for the people who live here. In January, we lost Veronica Vasquez, a grandmother of three at 17th in El Camino. She was doing everything right. She was in a crosswalk. In 2024, we lost Yolanda at Peninsula in Delaware, a block from this crash site. She was a single mother and a protector for her special needs daughter. She was also in a crosswalk. And nine days ago at Delaware and State in North Central, we learned that Ramon Sandival, a father and his two children, eight and 16 years old, were mowed down in another crosswalk. This is not normal. This is violence and it is predictable. Over the last week, residents have flooded the city with,200 emails. They had a single desperate question. Why? Why, when the city's own data flagged Delaware as a high injury corridor years ago, did we do nothing? Why did the city not act when I emailed them about this danger on Delaware in June of 2023? Why was there no action when a driver hit a teen in this exact spot less than two years ago? I'll tell you why. It's because we've placed other priorities more highly. Uh for the past two years, the council has prioritized parking availability in North Central uh over the safety of many residents. Uh, as a result, the city has diverted precious public works staff and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into a quest to remove safety infrastructure just to satisfy or attempt to satisfy an insatiable craving for pre free parking. Every hour that a city staffer spent studying how to add more parking was an hour they weren't spending responding to resident concerns of pedestrian safety at Delaware and state. We could have been doing quick builds and we could

have prevented this Sandival family tragedy from happening. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Sema Patel followed by David Hunt and Michael Reagan.

Good evening, council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to note that I'm currently serving on the planning commission, but I'm speaking tonight in my own capacity as a resident. The first thing I want to do is actually thank the city council for how responsive you've been about this issue. I know that you've heard from a lot of residents and I know that you have been responding with the city's plan for near-term improvements at this intersection. So, I want to thank both you and the city for taking steps to address this intersection as quickly as possible. I want to echo some of Kevin Simpson's comments and say that I I think we need a more systematic approach. And as I've been walking around that site over the past few days, what struck me is how similar that condition is to Franklin Parkway where a three-year-old was nearly hit by a speeding car a few years ago. It's two lanes of traffic that approach a crosswalk. And what's unique about um this spot is, as someone else noted, it expands to two lanes right before the crosswalk. When I was there the other day, there were none of the cars to me seemed to be going the speed limit. I was going the speed limit. And at that place where it expanded to two lanes, people started zooming around me on the right to pass me. And I could see how easily because the distance is so short, someone doing that would miss a pedestrian stepping into the crosswalk, especially with the cars that are parked along the curb there. So my my ask of you is one to make sure that we're budgeting our quick build improvements, but also to when these incidents happen to consider what other locations in this city are similar and make sure we're addressing all of them at the same time. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next two speak Thank you. Our next two speakers will be David Hunt followed by Michael Reagan. Good evening.

Sorry, David. Real quick. Okay, just checking to make sure everything's working. Thank you. It's heartbreaking to hear the families speak of the impact this crash has had on them. And it's especially heartbreaking to hear the impact it's had on their young kids. Um I can't help but think of my kids when I hear of it, as I'm sure many of us do. And um my kids go to school a few blocks from where the crash happened. It's a super busy area. There has been some positive change in that area in recent years, but it's been too slow and just not enough. Um, I think we all know Samonteo has great plans for safe streets. We've seen them. They're there. They're great. We're not moving quickly enough on them. And we need a better way to respond. Echoing what Kevin Simpson mentioned and what Seaman just mentioned. When tragedies like this happen, there's other cities in our region that have policies of how to respond when a tragedy occurs. So, we don't have to hear a crash happened at the same exact intersection a few years ago. Um, we should step up. We should learn from what those other cities have. We should have a quick build response policy that sets goals and timelines and we should come up with a way to get the budget to respond to these tragedies so we can be sure they don't happen again. Thanks.

Thank you. And our final speaker in chambers will be Michael Reagan. Good evening. Um, Michael Reagan, uh, 48 years resident of Satel. Um, I don't put the blame on you guys. We shouldn't put the blame, um, on the way people drive and the um, the problem of people not paying attention. But I do find some blame in the fact, Danielle, you weren't on the council at the time, that for $10,000, you could had the traffic state certification, which still is in place, needs to be done, should have been done. But what what we do what we can do is what we is solve the problem. We need to increase the police force, our traffic patrol. I I attended the police academy and one of the things they mentioned was they don't have enough traffic enforcement. We need to get that and we need to be able to allow our police officers to write tickets and and make make people aware that Sonteo is is cracking down on this kind of behavior and we're not. Um the other thing we can do is you guys put in a 50 m 15 mph speed limit around the schools but it's not working. Nobody goes 15. put speed bumps all the way through in all the different school areas. That'll reduce the speed. Um, on a more personal note, in my neighborhood, I've lost four cars in the last several years. Four cars totaled. Three in front of my house. One, somebody t-boned me a block away from my house. My wife and I suffered injuries. So, I know what these people are going through. It's not any fun. But I've asked Adam, where is our speed? Where's our traffic

light at Hillsdale and Alama? I've been working on that for nine years. Still not in. And the uh work in around the high school at Hillsdale has not been completed. It needs to be done. Thank you. As with all these other improvements. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Moving to our virtual environment where our first speaker will be Colia. Cola, please unmute your mic. Good evening, council. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Um, first of all, I would like to echo all speakers here tonight who were asking for safety improvements to streets in Sato. This is badly needed. Please prioritize this. Secondly, I would like to ask the council tonight to take an official position on tomorrow's county supervisor discussion regarding the county purchase of the former Star Vista sobering center site in Buringame with the intention of relocating the proposed Horizon treatment facility from 101 North El Camino Real there. While our county district supervisor has chosen not to meaningfully engage with her constituents on the matter, her colleagues are now advancing a viable alternative. By any reasonable measure, this site is a far better fit. It previously operated as a sobering center is appropriately located and offers a path forward that aligns both operationally and with community support. This is a real opportunity to achieve the best outcome for both the county and surrounding communities. a treatment facility at scale in a location where it can succeed without push back. If you support treatment, this should be the logical choice. Please ensure that the voice of Sumatio residents are clearly represented at tomorrow's board of supervisor meeting by taking a position in support of the Malo Road acquisition proposal and relocation of the Horizon site. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to our next speaker, Max Mner. Max, please unmute your mic.

Yeah. Hello. My name is Max Mner and I patronize the Safeway that Ramon Sandival and his children were trying to reach last week when they were hit by a driver. And I'm here to urge the council to prioritize quick build safety interventions on the North Delaware corridor. Seven months ago, Yolanda VR was filled at the end of the block at Peninsula and Sonteo High School is on the same corridor as well, which is a street with 1500 students moving through it all school year long. and two critical collisions in under a year. I'm a new parent in the city, too. And I'll be honest, I've watched neighbors mobilize significant political energy around the horizon sobering center on El Camino. And I understand that instinct, but as someone raising a infant here, car crashes are a much more statistically immediate threat to my family's safety than that facility. I'd love to see that same energy directed at our city streets that have now killed one of our neighbors, several of our neighbors. Um, Bedes mentioned the one Veronica Vasquez on El Camino and put a father in the ICU all in a year. Uh, this area also is impacted by the train crossing closures at Villaas and Belleview. So, I'm hoping the city takes those into account as traffic patterns in this neighborhood change in the next year or two. The harder systemic issue is that our streets are still engineered to prioritize vehicle throughput and changing that requires political will as much as it requires money. I know the quick build program doesn't have a dedicated funding source in an enduring fashion and I know the city is carrying a structural deficit. So my specific ask is to direct staff to identify an interim local funding source for immediate quick build deployment and simultaneously begin an HSIP application for grant money for permanent

improvements. The crash history here is exactly what that federal program grant application is designed to fund. So the two tracks can run in Thank you. Thank you. And our final speaker on general public comment will be Allison McQueen. Allison, please unmute your mic.

Hello. Good evening. Um, city council. Thank you to all of who have spoken out tonight for safer streets in Sonteo in support the Sandival Madreal family. Tonight feels like another Groundhog Day. Yet again, we are here asking for the city's support to make an intersection safe. Delaware and state. What's become obvious to me over the past few years is that Sonteo has a long safety backlog. We can't keep playing whack-a-ole with each intersection when there is a crash. Our citizens are getting whacked by cars faster than the city can keep up. What we need you, the city council, to do is to prioritize completing the San Mo safety backlog and execute the pedestrian and bicycle master plans, and that means making major changes from how things are done today. This requires a major restructuring of priorities. Reducing funding in other parts of the city budget to fund a quick build fund to perform safe streets work at a much faster pace than we are seeing today. Sano is at a code red moment. It's time for a change. Let's make it happen.

Thank you, Mayor Lorraine. concludes public comment and through the mayor um deputy mayor Fernandez wishes to be recognized. Okay, you are recognized, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I apologize that my camera's off. I am finishing up my Easter holidays with my family out of town. And so, um just thank you for um thank you for for everybody who's there tonight. Thank you very much for being there. Um, unfortunately I can't address what occurred in any detail because it has not been agendaized, but I just wanted to say very briefly that my sympathies go out to Brandon Madigal, Ramon Sandoval, Ramon Jr. and Maria and all of those who were involved in the incident at Delaware and State. I live not two blocks from that intersection. I'm the council member that directly represents North Central and I live at Claremont and Grand and so I have to cross that same crosswalk um whenever I go to Safeway for my weekly groceries just like so many of you who live in North Central. Um, I've put some pressure on city staff to put in some interim pedestrian pro protections at Delaware and state and I'd like to thank them for moving so quickly. And I'd also like to ask city manager Kajik Kajjikian to update um all of those um watching on what is happening at that intersection and what steps we are taking immediately and sort of in the long run to increase pedestrian safety at that intersection and at Delaware and Peninsula as a whole.

Thank you. Thank you. At this time, I would just look to staff to see if they would wish to comment on public comment.

Yeah, happy to comment. So, I want to first thank the residents uh this evening who spoke during public comment. And just before I provide an update on how we're addressing transportation safety, I want to just acknowledge that for our community, any one accident is too many um here. And roadway safety is an ongoing priority for the city of San Monteo. And I'm going to highlight just kind of where we're at um with some projects and initiatives that the city is taking on. So first and foremost, just at Delaware and State Street at the intersection there. Uh near-term, we are procuring right now light beacons, uh rectangular rapid flashing beacons, um and shortened crossings with high visibility striping delineators. That's the first step that we'll be doing in the near term. And I'm hoping that I'm looking at Matt Fabry, but I'm hoping that it's in the next 8 to 10 weeks. Is that correct, Matt? Good evening, public works director Matt Fabry. Um, I think the biggest issue is the procurement of the rapid rectangular flashing beacons. Uh, that that's the the thing that has a longer lead time. So, we're hoping that at the most it would be 3 to four months, but we'll get it done as soon as we can get the equipment.

Well, in the meantime, I'm still just right here live directing you to go ahead and put A-frame signs out there to make it even more visible for the public as well. So, in the near term until we can get those uh rapid lighting beacons, I'd like to see that out there um ASAP this week. Um just capital improvements just overall followup. Um we're looking at extending the curb cuts out. So, basically having bullouts to shorten the crosswalk in this area as well. Um, and really we're looking at uh new curb ramps, ADA curb ramps, and also doing some daylighting to get clear lines of sight and also including yellow high visibility crosswalks. As I mentioned previously, long range, if you look at our local roadway safety plan, well, I guess it's the bike master plan in this case, we're looking at um having bike lanes going from State Street to Peninsula. Um, but also just speaking to I heard a speaker talk about just what happens with similar intersections. That's our lo local roadway safety plan that this council adopted that plan and that we are looking to make improvements at similar intersections in our community as well. Uh just let's focus on North Central. Um we have a significant focus here in North Central. Um one is really looking at the $400,000 that we're investing for street lighting traffic calming on Humboldt that council gave direction uh just a couple months ago. We also are looking at $450,000 for pedestrian safety enhancements along our school and senior walking routes in North Central. Uh we have $550,000 for protected left turns at Popler and Humbult. This is local roadway safety plan priority number two that the council has approved. Uh we're also um working on $1 million for pedestrian improvements at the Peninsula and Delaware intersection. This is part of our local roadway safety plan priority. Um, we're also completing traffic surveys by this June. We heard that from the public and so that'll be going um into effect. Then we've also reorganized

our entire transportation team uh to add staffing. The council approved that a couple meetings ago. And with that, the council also adopted a strategic plan last fall and transportation is one of the top four priorities for this council to take on, you know, and just citywide. We just continue working on transportation all across this city. And I know that we've reported out at previous council meetings $24 million investments. That's now up to $40 million investments throughout this city. And that's utilizing grant awards. And we'll continue to go after grants and also local funding um including just doing our quick build program as well. and that is annually also funded by staff uh or by the council but recommended by staff as part of your capital improvement program budget. While the city moves forward on all these infrastructure projects, our San Monteo Police Department is conducting enforcement and education on a daily basis and this includes specific patrols and enforcement throughout the city in highly trafficked areas. Safety is a shared responsibility and we urge everyone to respect traffic controls. And so just to close out here, we value the community's advocacy and remain dedicated to a transparent ongoing dialogue as we work together to make San Mo safer for all. Thank you.

Thank you, city manager. At this point, that concludes general public comment and I thank everybody for joining us. I echo the sympathies toward the families as well and I believe that is shared by the council and we appreciate you being here and sharing your comments. We'll now move on to our next item of business. Item number 10, status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts. Assembly bill 2561, government code 3502.3, public hearing. We have a presentation from Aracelia Esparsa, director of human resources.

Thank you, Director Esparta. Welcome.

Great. Um, good evening, Mayor Lorraine and council members. Um, Aelia Sparza, human resources director. The purpose of my presentation is to present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts for the city of Sonte. I'm going to start by providing a quick overview of AB2561. Then I will present citywide information, including an overview of our workforce, vacancy, and recruitment information. the hiring challenges we are facing and suggestions on how to address these challenges and citywide retention information. Then I will present vacancy information per bargaining unit. AB261 aims to address the challenges with vacancies in the public sector requiring annual disclosure of workforce data. Assembly Bill 2561 became effective on January 1st of 2025. This bill requires public agencies to make a public hearing presentation before the governing board on an annual basis prior to the budget being approved. During the presentation, the following must be included. the status of vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts, and any necessary changes to policy procedures, recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process. If the vacancy rate is 20% or more in a bargaining unit, the following information on this slide must also be presented. I am pleased to report that all bargaining units in the city have vacancy rates below 20%. The city of Sanel has 551.5 full-time equivalent positions with 170 different job classifications. 96 of our workforce is represented by

one of the seven unions associ associations listed on this slide. As you can see, the majority of our employees are represented by the San Mattel City Employees Association with 28% followed by the San Mattel Management Employees Association and Police Officers Association with 22%. Followed by SAU Maintenance with 19%. 83% of our workforce lives in the surrounding counties, Satel, San Francisco, and Alama. 300 of our employees live in Santel County. That's almost 60%. In 2025, the city created a total of 3.5 new positions. In 2025, we filled a total of 110 positions. As of January 19th n 2026, we had a total of 36.5 vacancies. The number of vacancies fluctuates every month. Therefore, we had to select a date and time for this presentation. Again, we have a total of 551.5 FTE positions as of January 19th, 2026. Our vacancy rate was 6.6%. The slide, this slide represents vacancies per department. As you can see, the majority of the city's vacancies are in the public works department with 19 vacancy. We do anticipate filling five vacancies in the next couple of months. In 2025, we filled a total of 110 positions using the different methods of appointments, existing eligible list, ongoing recruitments, external internal recruitments, internal only recruitments

or promotional only and reemployment. On this slide, we have the number of vacancies filled and the average number of calendar days it took to fill vacancies per method of appointment. I want to point out that we experience some challenges with gathering the data on the average number of days um to fill vacancies as the Eden system used in 2025 was not automated and the data was captured manually. Also, I want to note that the reason for the delays in filling certain positions were due to positions being placed on hold for various reasons, including positions being reviewed, reorganizations, and individuals working out of class. As you can see, it takes a longer time to fill vacancies when opening an external internal recruitment. um a little over 6 months compared to approximately 3 months for promotional recruitments. Okay. Now, I'm going to review the hiring process. Uh once a vacancy is created, the hiring manager submits a recruitment requisition to fill the position. Once approved, the recruitment method is determined and the advertisement begins. Applications are screened for minimum qualifications. The majority of our examinations are oral only. However, we do have some that may have a written or performance component. Those that pass the examination are placed on the eligible list. The hiring manager will interview and select from that list. A conditional job offer is made to the selected candidate pending background and medical clearances. Once all has cleared, an official offered is made and the candidate is provided with a start date.

The city continues to review our policies and procedures and recruitment activities um to identify any potential challenges that we might have with our city hiring process. The city has identified the following challenges for 2025. a delay in the recruitment and examination and selection process due to various factors which I discussed a little earlier. Need to continue to enhance our recruitment activities and increase participate participation in outreach events. Earlier um in 2025 there were some classifications that were were not linked to a benchmark classification. The city did initiate a benchmark classification study. As a result, a citywide total compensation survey methodology was agreed upon by all the bargaining units and approved by council on February 23rd of 2026. Um another um challenge was opening of the new wastewater treatment plant and operating two plants simultaneously um which contributed to a delay in the hiring process for the public works department. Thank you. All right. So suggestions um on how to address these challenges. Um, we are going to continue to review each phase of the recruitment and selection process, identify these challenges and barriers that may exist, and make recommendations to streamline the process. um implement the recruitment and outreach plan which was developed um a few months ago and in hope that we could increase our efforts to increase our candidate pull. Continue to set salaries

for benchmark classifications to median based on the total compensation surveys during contract negotiations when feasible. um develop a formal employee recognition and rewards program um to motivate and retain employees. Um there are certain things obviously that we have no control and unfortunately the city's unable to address the cost of living and any unpredictable um outside factors that may exist. We had a total of 85.5 vacancies in 2025. 4% of these vacancies were due to staff staffing growth. We had 3.5 newly developed positions. 40% was due to internal opportunities. The city promoted 34 um employees. 15% was due to attrition. We had seven retirements and six involuntary separations. 41% of the 85.5 vacancies are due to turnover or voluntary separations. Here we see the vacancy rate per bargaining units as of January 19th of 2026. The police officers association, policy sergeants unit, safety management association, and SEIU library had no vacancies. For the San Mattel Management Employees Association, seven out of 116 positions were vacant. This was a 6% vacancy rate for this association. Summit City Employees Association 10.4% vacancy rate and SEIU Maintenance 12.6%. This slide provides a comparison between

2024 and 2025. As you could see, full-time equivalent positions increased from 548 FTEES to 551.5. Our total vacancies decreased from 121 to 85.5. Our vacancy rate, which I'm very proud of, decreased from 11.5 to 6.6%. 6%. Voluntary separations also decreased from 44 to 35. Our turnover rate decrease overall from 8% to 6.3%. As you can see, um we are clearly moving in the right direction and this concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, at this time, uh, due to the public hearing structure, we're going to follow staff presentation with a presentation from an employee organization.

Hello, council members. Um, thank you so much. Thank you, Arcelia. Thank you, Sandra, Alex. Um so uh we are just going to present on all the SEIU units this evening. Uh we do want to give the city if you could go to the next slide please. Thank Oh thank you. Um so uh we do want to give the city some credit. A lot of the uh the vacancy data has been getting better. The vacancy rate is better than last year. Maintenance unit is still the highest vacancy rate of any city department. However, uh and if you could go to the next slide for me real quick or sorry or yeah uh really the the biggest issue though is that uh retention is continues to be a problem. Speaking quickly on the financials for the city. So obviously there are some financial headwinds. However, the city still does have eight months worth of unrestricted funds in the general fund. Uh and the union also does want the city to know that we would be eager to be partners on the vehicle license fund issue. We understand that this is a legitimate financial concern for the city and we would be eager to discuss opportunities to partner with the city to secure that money. You can go next slide please. Uh one year ago I was bringing attention to the incredibly high turnover rate in our unit and despite the best efforts by the city council, the problem still persists. The problem of retention is not due to bad management. It is due to low pay. I have only good things to say about the people running the city. Alex and RSL are creating an inclusive environment where our employees can be heard. Matt Fabry and Rob Mirmoff are fostering a culture of respect where employees are appreciated. The reason that people leave is financial. We can make significantly more money working in for neighboring cities and other organizations. I can personally attest to this dynamic. I quit working for the city of San Monteo last fall. I quit for a position that paid 20% more. That kind of money cannot be ignored. But money isn't everything. And I came back to the city. This is my city and it is where I belong. Jesus slide.

However, living in the city of Ceme was hard. Costs are high and the American dream we all strive for is outside of our reach. You can help. You can help us feed our families. You can help us achieve financial security. You can help us build a future where we're not merely surviving but thriving.

Good evening council. I'm Paul Vaughn. I'm a librarian at the main library and have been for almost 21 years. Um, echoing on what they said about the financial aspect. Um, the city's just started bargaining talks um with the library merit and pdium units and we were not surprised. We've been telling the city for years that our wages were far below other comparable libraries and the comparable surveys that were provided to us showed that overall the library was 20% below. So, we are 20% below median compared to other libraries in the area. This is a big uh issue for both retention and recruitment. We just lost a uh senior library assistant last month who got a job at Redwood City paying just over $5 an hour more for the same position. Um so, as we go into negotiations, I hope the city will u address that issue. Um thank you. Hi, my name is Jillian Collins. I am a library assistant, one PDM. I'm here because um I'm speaking on behalf of the PDM PDM employees in the library unit. One of the first things I want to point out is that the majority of PDM employees at the library do not just work at the Santo Public Library. We work at additional libraries in the area. We cannot make a living wage at a place we love. So I would urge the council to please explore creating full-time positions out of these pdium positions. You also will not lose any knowledge or have to train people if you create these positions. I would also like to mention that it was an outrage but not a surprise that we were being we saw that we were being paid as low as we were and I would just like to say that it was very discouraging but it will not

discourage us from continuing to do the best we can and we do look forward to working with you on addressing the these issues. Thank you. And then if you go to next slide or you just do you go to the last slide. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Perfect. Um and then so again understanding the financial situation we did just want to offer some free solutions to improve employee retention. Uh we want to briefly speak on schedules 98410 schedules are uh very in demand especially amongst the public works unit and that might help in fixing the streets the traffic issues that we've talked about getting those folks out a little bit earlier. and also um there's support from the department for barracks at the treatment plant which again can reduce commutes burnout and improve retention. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you to the organization for its presentation. At this point I will open public comment for this item. Mayor Lorraine, we have not received any requests to speak um on this item.

Thank you. I will now close public comment on this item uh and bring it to council to see if they have any questions or comments related to what we've heard so far. Council member Diaz Nash. Thank you through the mayor and thank you Ariselia for the presentation and thank you to everyone out there for all you do and coming here on a Monday night when you've all probably got work in the morning. Um, I guess one of the things I'm always interested in, number one, I'm excited to see the progress that we're making and thank you very much for the comments that you made about the partnership that um, city manager and our director are really trying to build and I know they've said the same about you. So, I I appreciate that environment. Um, what have you learned both from your own vast experience as well as what you've seen here about things that other cities might be doing to either speed up vacancy recruitments or how we how we approach things? I mean, is is there anything more we should be doing that you would you're planning on doing or you would like to see us do?

Right. One of the things that I'm looking forward to is

oh there we go. Um, one of one of our initiatives is to take a look and digest the different um, HR processes that we have and be able to identify what are some of the challenges and obstacles and make some changes, right? Whether it's an internal process or whether it's a procedure or whether it's a role. Um, so that's one of the things that I'm looking forward in um hopefully digesting and hopefully speed up the process. The other thing that I learned over the last year was um is how we organize human resources is very important. And one of the things that we have done is we have restructured where instead of having specialized individuals perform certain functions now instead of having one person do recruitment now we have an entire team which makes a big difference. Um, the other component is having a recruitment and outreach plan where we didn't have anything formal. And what I've learned is that we need to collaborate and partner up not just within our own departments, within our own city departments, but also with different stakeholders to come up with a plan in terms of how we're going to recruit, whether it's for general recruitment or whether it's for hard to recruit positions. and be able to attend and put the city of Sanel out there and do outreach campaign. Um, why do people want to come and work for the city of Satel? We need to be involved in the career events. We need to be out there in the community events and get the word out there. I think that's very important. And develop these partnerships and develop programs. um we are going to be developing programs and one of the things that I'm really looking forward to is developing a

fellowship program where we could bring talent into the workplace. Um so I'm very excited about that. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. And you know I would also when you were talking about outreach um it looks like you have a lot of potential partners sitting in the audience tonight who would have a lot of good feedback as to where those opportunities might be. Um, so I would strongly encourage everyone, all good ideas are welcome. Um, absolutely. That's that's excellent. So I will stop it right here and share with someone else. Thank you, Council Member Spar Gadinsky.

Thank you for the presentation. Um, this question is probably more for the city manager. Um, could you share an update on where we are with VLF and funding?

Yes. So on VLF, uh this past year was the first year that we did not get the full payment from the state of California. They are by law supposed to provide 100% of uh VLF funds to the city. And so we were on tap to receive 6.6 million, but I believe we got where's that be? 2.2 million shy, right, Abby? 2.2 million short. Um and so with that, we have to utilize reserves to go ahead and plug that hole. Did you want me to talk more about VLF or just all other funding? Okay, I'll give you a precursor because it's going to come to the council for the study session uh on April 20th and I'm hoping that everyone will tune in so that they can hear our financial state as a city. So, just on the funding side, so first and foremost, I know in the presentation you saw 89% unassigned. We can actually put up a a PowerPoint slide here that's not 89% unassigned. There's actually assignments for all these funds. Um I'm happy to share that with SEIU so they can see exactly where all those monies uh that we have in reserves are actually assigned to. Um in addition to that we are looking at just with our future forecast over the next 10 years $7 million deficits by not doing anything right now. Now, the council has directed staff to look at exploring a revenue measure uh for this upcoming November, and that would bring in $7 million annually if it were to be successful. So, in addition, so we got 7 million of VLF we've lost. We have a structural deficit of 7 million. And then on top of that, there's this new uh proposition that just received 1.3 million signatures in the state of California. They need 850,000 signatures for it to get on the ballot. But this would actually get rid of the city's real property transfer tax, which is an existential threat for our city. This is talking about we budget $10 million annually for our real property transfer tax. This is the sale of homes and sale of commercial properties. And should that pass in November, then we're going

to have to really go back to the drawing board overall regarding our financial condition as a city. And so it's a so it's a sobering thing to have that discussion, but it's something that we'll be bringing to the council to really show you that next year at this time you could potentially if everything goes negative, you're looking at at least a minimum of $24 million annually in a deficit. And that's year after year after year. And so when you look at just the unassigned reserve, you know, even if we are I think it's like what 117 it's not unassigned, it's the reserve. It's a total like 117 million 119 million. when you're looking at clips of 24 to 25 million a year, that's gone really quickly. And so we are working on a financial sustainability plan as a city organization. The council has directed staff to work on that. And so that's why you were talking about even billboards. I know I heard from the public, hey, this is poultry, these numbers, but every bit counts. It's every single penny we're looking at to try to increase revenues for our organization so that we can be sustainable so we can provide the great services that our staff already does day in and day out for our community. But money comes in and money goes out and so we have to balance the budget too at the same time. Uh you know we're able to do deficit spending in lean years but there's only so much that we can do and so that's something that we have to really look at long term. And so with that we're going to try our best. We're looking at our financial sustainability plan, looking at increasing revenues. We're also looking at belt tightening and that was something that we uh showed the council I think at the mid-year budget. Abby, it's 3 million. We already belt tightened so far this year. Yeah, about 3 million right there. And then in addition to that, we're looking at how we can increase revenues like the parking on the sixth floor over at our second El Camino garage, bringing in new revenue off of our real estate portfolio as well. It was sitting there vacant previously. And we're also really looking at grant opportunities. That's why the council gave um approval to get grant writing consultants to help us out. But we can't rely just on those

one-time funds for ongoing activities. So onetime funds are used for one-time activities. Ongoing revenues are used for ongoing activities. And so I just gave you really a short snapshot of what you're going to see at your special or your special city council meeting on April 20th. Um so I just gave you a really cliffnotes version there. Yeah. Thank you very much. Um, and then I did just want to commend Arcelia on getting the um, vacancy rate down to 6%. I'm just curious what what you feel is like an appropriate or healthy number.

Well, I definitely want to make sure that it stays below 7%. Um, I think 6% is a really good number. If you look at other counties and other cities, I mean, you have individuals that are in vacancy rates are 15%, some of them are even 20%. Um, so I think we're in a very good shape. Wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, just checking if the deputy mayor has her hand up or not. Sorry, I can't tell. Okay, it appears not. So that's fine. If if she does, you can let me know. Thank you. Very good. Um, and I just have a question or two. Um, Director Esparza, you had a slide in your presentation that noted that we have uh experienced some delays due to various factors, but I wondered if you could speak a little more to what what you we've uh witnessed. I think you touched on a little, but maybe you could just clarify to help me.

Sure. Um some positions um are not always filled right away. Um when they become vacant, um it's an opportunity for the department to look at those positions and determine whether or not there's an an operational need um for restructuring, reorganizations, u maintaining the same classification. Is there a need to reclassify? So at times there could be a delay because um the department might be in the process of re-evaluating that classification. Um another reason why sometimes it may not necessarily be filled right away is because there might be somebody working out of class in that capacity um pending the recruitment um being opened, right? So it could be multiple different reasons. Those are just a few.

Thank you. That's helpful. you mentioned uh the challenges of operating effectively you know in some ways two wastewater treatment plants. I imagine those who are uh with us today are are quite familiar with these challenges. Um thankfully it uh we it appears we're getting close to the completion of the clean water program and and the wastewater treatment plant um major steps going forward. Do we anticipate less stress on maintenance vacancies as a result?

Yes, we are um working very closely with the public works department um working with our supervisors. We just administered a maintenance um examination. We have an eligible list and we are hoping um to fill those positions um hopefully in the next couple of months. Um but we are working very closely with public works in terms of moving the process along. And is is this related to the the five upcoming hires you had mentioned? That is correct.

Okay. Um and I I remember the a request from last year related to barracks and uh I wondered if I could ask the city manager for an update on this.

Yes, happy to provide an update. So, uh, a coordinated team of our HR director, our public works director, and our police chief. We looked at our barracks, uh, currently over off of Norfolk at, um, an old fire station that our police department utilizing is utilizing. uh based off of just the operational uh piece of the barracks and the security piece of it, we you know came to the conclusion that would not work out um in order it needs to remain solely a police department facility. Uh so we looked at pivoting and that's what we were working on right now actually. So I know that director Faby's been working with staff to look at bringing in uh sleeping quarters over at the wastewater treatment plant. I believe there's been an informal survey that has gone out about um who might be interested in utilizing that facility specifically during emergencies or people having to work backtoback uh shifts over there as well. And I believe a formal survey, right, Matt, is going to be going out to staff here shortly uh to talk about the utilization of uh putting that facility together. And it would be a facility that we would be renting uh moving forward to provide uh that resource to our staff who have to, you know, drive from far away and also work long hours and backtoback um days and shifts.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the pivot. Um, I think those are my uh questions at this moment. Did just checking to see if there's anything else. Yes, Council Member Nome. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Marselli, I was just curious, so besides the maintenance, is there anyone else that's currently above 7% vacancy?

Let me get to that slide and I'll be able to answer that question. Oops. Okay. In terms of our um vacancy rate, um we have SEIU maintenance at 12.6%. Um and the Satel Cities Employees Association at 10.4%. So, it sounds like you have a plan already in place for maintenance. If we bring on five people in the next 3 to six months, that'll put you below seven. Uh, any any concerns or ideas what the problem or what challenges you might be facing with the city employees association?

Um, at this point, um, I think it's the number of vacancies, um, are being looked at. my staff is working with the managers um for the respective departments to try and fill these positions as quickly as possible. I think one of the main reasons is we do have a couple of folks a few folks that are working out of class and there are some positions that are currently being reviewed. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Of course. Um, at this time I think uh we will move on in this public hearing structure to receive a closing statement from staff.

Should I start? Okay. I believe that's right. Sure. Okay. So, I'll go ahead and begin. Um, I think overall the city is making a positive progress in its recruitment and retention efforts. I look forward in um to continuing to work with and develop partnership with the various bargaining units um including SEIU and to address the identified challenges that we um have outlined here today. Okay. Thank you. And now we can uh receive a closing statement from the employee organization.

Thank you for hearing us. We I do appreciate all the effort from our Alex. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. I want to make sure I put it on the record that Alex is fantastic. Ourelli is fantastic. City council is fantastic. We thank you all for putting the effort in and we really help uh appreciate um what is being done and we just hope that in the future we can find more ways to keep people in the city of Sano. I can tell you I love working here. Everybody loves working here and we're all just looking for the financial opportunity that keeps us here. So, thank you very much for hearing us. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you.

I'll allow it. All right. Um I will close this item and thank everybody for uh who who came to present on that. Uh, city clerk, if we could please take a a quick bio break. We'll just be taking a twominut recess and then we'll be back. Thank you.

actor Abby Ber. Great. Good evening, um, Mayor Lorraine and members of the city council. Uh, my name is Abby Viser. I'm the finance director and I'll be helping kind of shepherd through the TER hearing tonight. Um, just as an a reminder, TERA stands for Tax, Equity, and Fiscal Responsibility Act. That is the kind of hearing uh, we're doing for the Kerry School this evening. Oh, and I did want to mention we do have Neilie Norris from the Kerry School in the audience today. So if we have any additional questions after what I cover, she's available as well. Um so just to do a quick kind of overview, I mean I think folks know the Kerry School founded in 1928. It's a nonprofit corporation um CAIS accredited uh school. Uh has about 292 students right now from preschool to fifth grade. Um and so they're looking uh to do some tax exempt financing. Um remember which one I'm using. I think as you're all aware uh the Kerry school recently came to the city council in January of 2026. Uh they had a zoning code amendment and zoning reclassification so that they could uh provide development standards for an educational facility. So they received approval to construct an early childhood education center at 2033 Lasal Drive to relocate the preschool operations to be next to its main campus. Um so this is going to be financing in relation to that project. um just to give you kind of a sense of what we're doing. So under the cal under California government code, public agencies can form JPAs. And in this case, there's a number of JPAs that currently exist um in California to facilitate tax exempt financing programs for qualifying nonprofit and private sector projects that provide public benefit to their communities. Um, so one of these JPAs, the California Association for Local Economic Development, CALED, and its financing arm, the California Enterprise Development Authority, CEDA, have been

working with the Kerry School to secure financing for improvements to their school facility. So, in order to help secure tax exempt financing, there is a requirement that the agency where the financing project is located must be both a member of the JPA and conduct a public hearing. Um so this is a requirement under the provision of the tax equity and fiscal responsibility act. So that's why we refer this as a terra hearing. Um again the um there's no financial obligation to the city to become either a member of the JPA or to conduct this public hearing. Um it's just to allow uh the Kerry school to go after this tax exempt financing for their public benefit. Uh and they have we actually have uh the last ter hearing we conducted for the Kerry school was actually in 2019 when they did some previously uh they bonded at that time. Um, and so with that, the recommendation, just to kind of summarize, is to conduct the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act public hearing and adopt a resolution approving the issuance of tax exemp revenue obligations or executing of a loan transaction by the California Enterprise Development Authority for the purpose of financing, refinancing, or reimbursing the cost of capital improvements to the Kerry School at their two Sanonteo locations. Um, and with that, um, I'm here for questions. And again, as I mentioned, a member of the Kerry School is here if there's any questions about the public hearing.

Thank you. Okay. Um, at this point, we would take public comment on this item. City clerk. Mayor Lorraine, we have not received any requests to speak on this item. Okay. I will close public comment on this item and bring it back to the council for any questions or feedback. Council member Diaz Nash. Thank you. through the mayor. Um, thank you, Abby. This makes perfect sense to me and I'm glad it's happening because we want to make this this whole early childhood education center come to life and I'm interested in what other progress has been made. So, come on up and and share with us.

Hi everyone. So nice to see you all again. Um, thank you for the question and thanks to all of you for being here late on Monday evening. Um, We're very excited about progress been made um on our early childhood education center. Um this temper hearing obviously is um a hurdle for us so that we can hopefully secure tax exempt financing. Um we very luckily were able to um get a rate lock uh before the recent uptick um in rates and so um Abby was very very kind to help us get on this agenda. so that we can um hopefully get this done within the terms of our rate lock um and then move forward with financing. Um we are in the process of finishing our contract um and um finalizing the GMP, the uh pricing initiative for the project um and hoping to have that signed in the next two weeks. Um, and we're on track to break ground um, in June, right following um, the school year ending. So, we're hoping that we're going to be breaking ground the week of June 8th um, which keeps us on time on our timeline um, to hopefully have the project done in about 9 months. So, um, next spring, March or April hopefully of 2027 so that we can open the center um, for students in the fall of 2027, August. Yeah. So things are are trucking along on our end, but um yeah, it's been a busy few months since I last saw you in January. I finally got my voice back, though.

That's great. Well, thank you, Neilie, so much. And uh please let us know the date of the ribbon cutting. Definitely. Definitely. We can plan for probably August of 2027 and I will send invitations to each of you. I know you won't all be able to attend because of the Brown Act, but hopefully someone from the council will be able to join us for ribbon cutting. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Y that was my question. Thank you for it. Anyone else? Um I just wanted to see if we can move forward if if nobody had any other questions. That works for me. Uh sir, do you see a comment from Deputy Mayor? We need a motion and a second.

I think we have a motion and I'll be a second. Very good. Uh, may we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Council member Spiko Gditski, yes. Council member Nuome, yes. Council member Diaz Nash, yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, yes. And Mayor Lraine, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. And thank you, Director Viser, for your presentation. That will close that item and we will move to the next one. Item 12, fiscal year 2026 27 comprehensive fees schedule approval

with ready to go. Rock and roll. Sorry, one more with a presentation from senior management analyst Carly Toffee.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Lorraine and members of the city council. My name is Karly Toffee. I'm the senior management analyst in the finance department. The item before you this evening is the comprehensive fee schedule and the anni annual revisions to that. The fee schedule is the document where all of the fees charged by the city are listed. Finance leads the process of review and revision of the document on an annual basis. Public notice was made on March 21st and March 27th of this year. A majority of the fee changes that we have proposed tonight or cost recovery and the fees are not to exceed the cost of providing the service. Typically fees are increased annually by the Bay Area CPI or consumer price index. Usually we use the October CPI number from the BLS or Bureau of Labor Statistics, but that data is not available due to the 2025 lapse in alloc in appropriations. After some analysis and discussions, we decided to use the August number which was 2.5% this year. Some of the changes I've highlighted for you tonight include new fees, fees increase in excess of CPI, reduced fees, and removed fees. And I've also covered these in further detail in the materials provided. Generally, new fees are for new services or services we had not previously charged for, like in the case of the campaign sign collection fee. This was added to capture the cost of staff time involved in the collection, storage, and release of campaign signs in prohibited locations. Another couple of new fees I'd like to highlight include the BMR unit annual monitoring fee, the BMR research fee as well. The research fee is being added so

that we may charge for research requiring extensive housing staff time. The annual monitoring fee is being added and will apply only to new market rate developments with BMR units. And this will be charged on a per unit per year basis. Uh oh, sorry about that. Okay. Um, one of the reduced fees, I'm sorry, let me go back one second. I skipped the annual monitoring fee here. Um, so this is being added and will apply to the per unit per year basis. I did cover that. Okay. So the one reduced fee that I wanted to highlight for you guys is the residential heat pump water heater. Um, the proposal in front of you tonight reduces this fee by 50%. This is to encourage the conversion from residential gas water heaters to heat pump water heaters. We did eliminate some fees as well. And the one I'm highlighting for you tonight are the IT fees. So, we are removing these because these fees haven't been changed or um charged in many years. The fees that are increased in excess of CPI that I wanted to highlight for you tonight were the golf fees. Market research was done and proposed increases before you tonight were determined based on comparable rates from golf courses in the area. And with that, I'd like to thank you for your time this evening. Um, I'm here for any questions you might have.

Thank you. Uh, I'd like to open this for public comment. City clerk, do we have any? Mayor Lorraine, we have not received any requests to speak on this item. Okay. Thank you. I will close public comment. Bring it back to council. Council members Gaditzki.

Yeah, thank you. Um maybe Joanne since you're here sorry this is less related to these fees but I am wondering where the getaround program fits into this um in parks and wreck and and how much we allocate. Good evening. Joan McGrainy uh director of parks and recreation. The first several pages of our fee schedule covers our uh fiscal sustainability policy and that's where our programs are taken into consideration. So those specific fees are not in the fee schedule. They're the ranges of percentages for um our programs. That being said, we do charge $2 per ride for our recreck fee assistance program um and $5 a ride for all others for the getaround program. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Uh, okay. Just looking around. Um, I have one quick question. Uh, Carly, BA, given that we uh given that staff made a decision to use the August number for CPI, um, given the challenges, I guess I'm just curious if you could, uh, give me a sense of what might happen next year, assuming we have, uh, a regular year, um, in which there isn't like a a shutdown that causes the same challenges. Um, I I I guess I won't ask you to speculate too much, but I'm just curious um if there's like some sort of adjustment that that might occur as a result of of shifting to this number.

Yeah, that's a great question. So again, the October number was not released for this year. The data was not collected. So again, next year we'll face the same issue. At that time, I would imagine we'd have a similar conversation um with department leadership and do an analysis on the data that was released and decide which direction to go at that time. Do you have anything to add, Abby?

Well, I'll just add that we did keep an eye on the CPI. So, we also looked at January and December data because that was available and it was between 2.5 and 3%. So, we felt like we were in the right ballpark with our 2.5%. So, we'll probably do the same next year where we'll kind of do kind of a survey to look at the different CPI numbers since we won't have an October to October to compare to. Thank you. I appreciate that. At this time, I would entertain a motion to I motion. Very good. Second. Excellent. Thank you. City clerk, may we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Council member Spoitzki, yes. Yes. Council member Diaz Nash. Yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez.

Yes. Mayor Lorraine. Yes. Council member Newsome. Yes. Motion carries 5. Thanks, Carly. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Ready. We now have item number 13, charter amendments, public hearing number one with a presentation from city attorney Presa Ray.

All right. Good evening, city council. personas city attorney. Uh so this as you mentioned is the first of two public hearings. Um it is very similar to the presentation you heard last time and will be almost equally as short. Okay. So this is the same uh discussion as the last presentation. There are a lot of words on the slide, but in summary, uh this language change reflects the shift in our election process to district elections. And it also specifies that after each uh federal denial census, then we will go through a redistricting process. And again, uh, for council members elected in 2017, there was a change to the charter to comply with state law, but those council members elected in 2015 and 2017 have completed their terms. So, this language just isn't necessary anymore. Uh, the next uh couple of slides provide a little more flexibility. Uh this one provides that with this change uh council members don't have to seek permission from the city council to be absent from the city for more than 30 days. 30 days is pretty short. So the proposal here is to change that to 60 days which also aligns with state law that applies to general lawies and similarly more flexibility on uh as to filling council vacancies. Uh so as I mentioned last time sometimes a council vacancy will occur when a council member maybe is elected to a different office which will happen in November. That means the 30-day period to pick a new council member is during November and December, which is kind of a challenging time. So, the proposal here is to extend

that to 60 days, allow for more public outreach um and some extra time for staff to uh recruit or to get the word out and to allow applications to come in and then for the council to then make a decision. And again, uh, this language shown in strikethrough text at the end of the slide is, uh, no longer needed because you no longer have council members running for, uh, one of, uh, for multiple offices for because, uh, previously for at large elections, you could have uh, different terms. And this language specified that if you receive the most votes, then you'll serve the longer of the unexpired terms. But since council members run by districts, this language is no longer relevant. Okay. So now we're on to something that's new, something that's different and inspired by council member Newsome's question from last time. So uh here it shows that the existing text and the highlighted language is what is proposed to be changed. So again, the current charter just says the regular meetings of the council are on the first and third Monday of the month, not earlier than 6:30 p.m. So this change uh pushes all of that language, all of those specifications to a resolution because the charter doesn't need to be that specific as to the time of the meeting, when it has to begin, and also which day of the month it has to begin. It still could be exactly the same. Could be a little bit different. You could say start the regular meeting at 6 if you wanted to. You know, it's up to the council. But then this provides a little more flexibility and removes overly specific language from the charter. That's all it is.

And feel free to jump in if you have any questions. And I'll say that to the deputy mayor online, too. Council members. Oh, we have a question. Okay. Yeah. just on slide seven. So, we would still need someone would still need to bring it up and then we'd still have to get a resolution to change the times. Uh well, staff I think if this charter change uh passed or potentially in advance of the charter change, you know, staff would bring forward a resolution saying, okay, if the charter is changed to make it more generic, then this resolution would go into effect. say for example. So I think staff would bring this we would take it upon ourselves to bring this to the council.

Okay. Um so it wouldn't be uh the council wouldn't be required to initiate that on your own. Yeah. Cuz I I think I I like it a lot because times have changed and we should modernize to the working schedule. But I could also see it backfiring where then you have like a bunch of people asking to change times constantly. So, it should really be, I think, in staff control. Well, I mean, it's it's really up to the council by adopting a resolution that you you would that would only change if the council majority decided to make a change and after public input.

So, yes, there's more flexibility to make a change. Um, but it still requires council action. So, I don't anticipate it changing that frequently. Does that answer your question?

Yes. Okay. Great. So moving to the next slide. Um so this is the same text as last time. I know a lot of words in the slide. The idea is for urgency or emergency ordinances uh we would be able to publish a summary. That's really it. But and also currently the charter says that uh emergency ordinances automatically expire after 90 days which as a general rule um it doesn't pose that many problems but emergencies can last for longer than 90 days. So I think uh if this were to pass then we would bring uh say an emergency ordinance back to the council for it to be repealed when the emergency is over. And I think we could just handle it that way instead of having to bring an emergency ordinance back and say the emergency still exists. Okay, so moving on. Uh so this one is our finance director still with us. Okay, so um this just really codifies what our practice is. This is something new from last time. Um, so it specifies that the finance director's appointment is not subject to approval by the city council. It's just subject to the uh approval by the city manager and also just modernizes the name of the finance director. And then uh this is the same as the last presentation. And there's a very lengthy portion of the charter that addresses specified biographical information, civic group involvement, and a variety of other things that candidates have to provide to the city. And this would just eliminate that requirement since the reasons I mentioned last time, namely that the city is not the same source of information in 2026 that it was in 1922.

Times have changed. Okay, so this is something a little different. Last time you don't have to read through all the I'll summarize it for you. All the the um struck and struck text. Um so previously I had suggested making more surgical changes to how you select a newspaper for publication of notices. Um instead of saying the low bidder, you could just say uh request for proposals. Now I'm suggesting just getting rid of the entire section and then we can specify how you go through this process through a change in our purchasing ordinance and you can just say um an ordinance or rather uh request prop for proposals is appropriate to select a newspaper for publication of notices which we still have to do since uh public hearing notices still have to be published. Maybe that state law will change but for now we're still have to abide by it. Okay. And that's it. Uh the current schedule is before you. Uh this is the first public hearing and you'll see second one is coming up in May with a potential council action in June to put this on the ballot. And that concludes my presentation.

Yeah. Just to so I understand like what is the ballot actually going to say because we obviously don't we can't put all these details,

right? So the ballot well there will be a ballot question. And so the way it works in terms of the council action putting this on the ballot, there will be a resolution. Um it will specify a ballot question and then the text of the actual ballot measure will be like an will be an attachment to that resolution showing all the strike through text and underline text. Um, and then after the council a if the council acts to put this on the ballot, then I have to prepare an impartial uh summary of the ballot measure that will then be put in the uh packet of information that the county elections office, you know, puts into the voter information guide. So th this is just the raw text that I'm presenting to the council, but it'll be in a more polished form um for council action and putting it on the ballot. And you know, there's there's other requirements that apply. Um but that's kind of the gist of it.

Thank you. Okay. At this time, I'd like to take a question from Council Member N. Sorry. Thank Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh just two quick questions. Is there a requirement for a public hearing notice in terms of what the circulation has to be? Like does it tie to it's a city of 106,000 people so it has to have a circulation of 10% 5%.

I think you're referring to the process for selecting a newspaper for public hearing notice public right. Well, no. It's it's right now the only constraint is really what's in our charter and that's the issue that it requires. It's calls for a low bid process that does not take into account things like circulation in the city which I think is important to do in addition to things such as how frequently is the newspaper going to be published right because that also has a practical impact on staff. Um, so to your point, the charter does not expressly allow consideration of that type of thing. Um, or it does, it's not as cleanly worded. And the idea of eliminating that section and just putting a much simplified section in the municipal code would allow staff to more clearly take into account uh, local circulation as a factor.

And and right now it is limited to it has to be a printed publication. Correct. Well, right. I mean, the um the public hearing notice has to be in a printed publication. Yes. It's a newspaper adjudicated, which is this whole it's a specified process adjudicated by a court to be a newspaper of general circulation, you know, within the city or if not the city, then the county. Um and that is a physical newspaper. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And then my second question is so the redistricting of of the districts is dicenial is that every 10 years

right it's every 10 years because the of the US constitutional requirement to conduct a new census uh every 10 years not to speculate but the federal government doesn't always behave especially recently the way they're supposed to. What happens in the event of if they don't do a census that year? If they don't perform a census, well, um I think we'll have to just cross that bridge when we when we come to I think we just have to depend on the constitution being and when is the next one scheduled?

The next one is scheduled just every again every 10 years. So it's done 2020, 2030, 2040. Um the the actual production of the census numbers and with the sufficient detail so as to draw districts, it doesn't come out exactly in 2020. there's there's a little bit of a delay. Um, so it's really the next year that we get the numbers. So the redrawing of district lines would most likely happen in uh 2031, not 2030. Got it. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Mr. May. Okay. This time I'd like to open public comment just in case there are any. Mayor Loren, there are no requests to speak on this item.

Okay. Okay, I will close public comment for this item and return it to the council for any further questions. Seeing and hearing none, I would uh I I I don't believe we need to move or do we need to move on this? There is no action required. It's just a public hearing and there will be another one of these as shown on the slide on May 18th and then council action is proposed for June 15th which is well ahead of schedule but it's going to be a busy summer. So that's why we wanted to get in front of the council sooner rather than later

indeed and we thank you for this presentation and uh this concludes hearing number one. Thanks to all for participating and we have one more item. New business for the Sam uh the city of Sanonteo and Joint Powers Financing Authority. Item number 14, City of Sonteo Joint Powers Financing Authority Variable Rate Demand Revenue Bonds Public Safety Project Series 2007A, letter of credit renewal. And it appears we will have a presentation from finance director Abby Viser.

Okay. Good evening again. Um the next item before you is a letter of credit renewal. And um we are doing this as the city and the city JPA. And just to kind of do a brief overview on that, um the city JPA is one of our public financing authorities. So back in 2007 when we did these variable rate bonds, the city JPA was the authority that did the public financing for that. We do have a second public financing authority. That's the Sanonteo Foster city uh public financing authority. So that's the one we've been using more recently because that's the ability to bond on the sewer fund and for wastewater treatment plant because that involves the city of Foster City as well. Um but I this is one that we have had. It's we've had it since about 1993. Um, so that's why tonight this new business item is both a city and city JPA item. So, just to give you kind of a rundown on our 2007 variable rate bonds. Um, we did do an initial bond issuance of about 17.4 million back in April of 2007. Um, and that was to complete the police administration building that our police department is currently in. Um, these variable rate bonds require a bank letter of credit that will be drawn upon if the bonds cannot be remarketed at the weekly variable rate. Um, Wells Fargo has been providing this letter of credit to us since 2009. Um, as you can see, we had a renewal in 2012, 2015, 2018, 2021 was the last renewal. That was five years ago. Um, our we were intended to renew by April 5th of 2026. Um, based on that agreement, um, we did not get to the council before we had that deadline, but we were able to have the city manager sign, um, and we met the terms with Wells Fargo Bank and with our uh, the Bank of New York, which does the

variable rate bond um, issuance for us at the time. So, we were able to meet that, but now we're coming back to the council for ratification of that approval of that letter of credit. and we're I just gonna talk. Oops. Let's see. I don't know if we lost the agenda or not here. Um, but I will just kind of keep moving forward. Um, because I did want to tell you a little bit about the cost for these variable rate bonds. Um, we do pay a remarketing fee because again we do the the variable interest rates reset weekly. So, we pay remarketing fee about nine basis points and we also uh do a um the credit fees to Wells Fargo for the letter of credit. That's about 75 basis points. Um and then of course we also do pay the interest each week for the bond holders. So given all this, we do still think this is a um a good financing deal for the city. Um currently we have about 11.5 million left on these bonds. Um, we have met with our municipal adviser, had her review the deal, and it's still a very good deal for us. We don't need to go to fixed rate yet. Um, so that's why we were going ahead and renewing the letter of credit with Wells Fargo. Um, it is a three-year deal and if for any reason we find that going to fixed rates within the next before the next letter of credit ends, we can always terminate that and go to a different rate structure. So, we will keep an eye on that. But for now, this is the best rate we have. We've actually um over the last 5 years we had interest about 1.71% on the funds. So it's been a very good um bond for us and that's why we'll continue to keep it this way. And I think the resolution for tonight is to adopt a resolution as the Sanato City Council and a resolution as the governing board of the city of Sonteo J Powers Financing Authority. each ratifying city manager approval of the

fifth amendment to the reimbursement agreement as well as the second amended and restated fee agreement for the renewal of an irrevocable letter of credit with Wells Fargo Bank according to the terms in the agreement. So that is what I have and if you have any questions please let me know but we do uh we're looking for ratification of those agreements. Excellent. Thank you for the presentation. I'd like to open public comment and ask the city clerk if we have any. Thank you, Mayor Lorraine, and apologies. We experienced a brief technical interruption of the meeting, but we are back in our virtual environment now. Um, I have we have not received any requests to speak on this item through public comment.

Very good. Thank you. I will close public comment, bring it back to council for questions and comments. Council member Speaker Gadiski. Um, I'd like to see if we can motion to ratify this. Let's see. Council member News,

I have one question briefly. Sorry. Uh, and I actually already asked this of the city manager, but just want to ask it publicly. Um, just I was the last one to finish my form 700 last week, and I'm wondering, looks like we are actually on two additional JPAs than I think we're putting on our form 700. Do we need to be including the joint Samonteo Foster City Public Authority and the Sonteo Joint Public Finance Authority Honor form 700s? We can look into that and get back to the council. Thank you. That was my only question. Thank you. At this time, I believe I can entertain a motion to ratify. I motion. Second.

And city clerk, may we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Council member Sphere Gaditzki, yes. Council member Newsome, yes. Council member Diaz Nash, yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, yes. Mayor Lorraine, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Excellent. Thank you for the presentation. That concludes item 14. And now we have reached reports, announcements, and committee updates. Would anyone like to go first or

start? Okay, Council Member Diaz Nash,

if that would work. Thank you very much. Um, as we heard tonight during general public comment, there is going to be a meeting tomorrow morning, the the regular county board of supervisors meeting. And at that meeting, they are going to take up the potential purchase of a property uh in Berlingame on Mer Road and Beayshore as an alternative site for the proposed Horizon Detox Center. Uh that is currently proposed to be cited at 101 North El Camino. Um, and I will be attending that as a representative of uh, district 1 uh to make public comment, but I also would appreciate my uh, fellow council members support so that I could go and attend the meeting and say that not only I as the D1 council member, but the Sanonteo City Council is supportive of this alternative purchase because it is a larger property. It's better. It's already It was where the Star Vista Sobering Center was. So, it's already built for a number of the uh number of the services that are being proposed. It would be an investment by the county so that it would grow over time and they would control the service because they would own the property as opposed to Horizon owning the property. and if they changed their mind or their service wasn't so good, the county would not be in as as good a position. Um, and it would also be better situated for the community and similar services have already been provided there. So, I wanted to bring this up during reports and announcements. There was a public comment to the same am effect and I would appreciate support.

Council member Kadiski. Uh, thank you, Council Member Nash. Um, how does this differentiate from our meeting on the 15th? Excellent question. If I could answer that, mayor. Um, so this will be specifically about the the purchase of the property. Uh the meeting on the 15th which I think is going to be even more important is an opportunity probably the f kind of extended discussion between the community and Horizon as to all the questions that the community has about what is the service, what is the center, how it will be operated. I've got a question list of probably about 45 questions that I've collected so far. I'm sure it will go on far greater, but it's an opportunity for us as the city council and city staff to welcome our residents and our constituents in to ask questions of Horizon. Uh whereas the meeting tomorrow is the first regular or is the first item on the regular agenda of the county board of supervisors specifically about do you know do they make this alternative purchase or not. So we'll not go into all the details about what the service is, what are the security procedures, what are the safety plans, how is also how is the decision to site the service there made and um you know continue the discussion.

Well, thank you. Okay, so you're asking for the council's support. I would I would appreciate the council's support so that tomorrow I can go to the meeting and say that I am speaking not only on as a D1 council member but on behalf of the Sanonteo City Council to uh support the the supervisor's purchase of this as an alternative site. Okay, I'm okay with that. I would also be excuse me I'd also be supportive I that's a majority. So you have direction. Okay. You can speak on behalf of yourself and the city council.

Thank you very much. I wanted to make sure I was very clear with everyone. Thank you. The mayor, if I may just add, so this is there's no formal action being taken by the council. This is just uh informal statements by individual council members uh that you are then carrying forward when you uh if and when you make comments at the meeting tomorrow. Right. Yes. Thank you very much through the mayor. Um Deputy Mayor Fernandez has her hand raised. Uh please go ahead, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um to uh I I you had the majority votes, but I am supportive of you, Council Member Diaz Nash, on representing the council tomorrow. And good luck. um to the city manager, can you give us an update on the special council meeting that we'll be holding and who the who from the county and who from Horizons will be represented?

Yes. So, we're planning for a special city council meeting to discuss the Horizon proposal to have a behavioral health facility at 101 North El Camino here in the city of San Mo. Um, at this meeting, it'll start at 6:00 p.m. on April 15th, and we have received confirmation from Horizon that they will be attending this meeting at this time officially.

Anything else? Dep will there be anybody from the county representing? I have not received confirmation to date. I've received a respectful decline from county or board president Noelia Cororso at this time. Thank you. Council member Diaz Nash, did you have any other reports, announcements, committee updates? Okay. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, did you have any more uh reports, announcements, or committee updates you'd like to share?

Uh, not at this time. just a a swift thank you to um city staff for working so diligently on the issues that have arisen with the incidents that happened at Delaware and state and thank you for to the council for um giving us the the width to get something done immediately.

Okay, thank you council members. Yes, we heard a lot about infrastructure tonight and I just wanted to let the council know that on April 25th, um not only is there a bayfront cleanup, but there will be um a few bike rides happening across the city to the third and Norfolk um new infrastructure that's being put in for a ribbon cutting and celebration for that safety upgrade. So would really appreciate if everyone could prioritize coming to that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member N. I'll be there.

Um, let's see. Met with the Foster City, San Monteo Elementary, Middle School District. Um, really not anything to report out for them other than um had a good meeting. Um, and then also sat in on the SFO round table on Wednesday, April 1st. Um, not a whole lot going on there either other than they're working to try to find ways to reward airlines who run quiet, meaning don't observe the uh the hours of quiet uh during which is I think is between 1000 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. So, that's been happening. Um, there has there is a surprisingly high number of people that make complaints on a monthly and quarterly basis from the city of Sanonteo for the events. Uh I I wouldn't have thought it would be it's it's in the high dozens, not quite 100, but like 80 something. So uh that was surprising. And then the only other thing is that you guys have all probably heard, but the FAA changed a ruling, which means that um they're no longer allowed to land at the same time side by side. they have to alternate which means that for the next year and a half to two years uh there will be close to a 26% delay in all incoming flights to SFO. So uh doesn't really have a huge impact on the city other than inconvenience but um those are my report outs. Thank you. Thank you for those. Okay. Uh yes, I will just note that the city's legislative committee uh comprising myself and the deputy mayor had a meeting last week with staff uh and our uh and uh CPPG uh who is advising us on legislative matters. Um,

we used the legislative platform that the city council approved and uh had it guide us on decisions on whether to take positions on particular bills. There are a number of bills. I'll spare you the positions on all of them. But, um, the the platform, I think it's safe to say, was generally adhered to. Um, and I asked our city clerk just today if we could potentially get a summary of the actual positions uh shared through weekly digest for the council. And I'm seeing nodding heads that that will occur. So, um, you can look forward to that. And the if the public is interested, they can take a look at the agenda which is in our uh city website. uh the agenda report has a number of bills lined out and if they have questions on any particular position they could uh reach out. So I wanted to share that I attended a uh monthly meeting for the board of directors of Peninsula Energy uh in March and I think the you know one one note I wanted to share was that uh you may recall last year a decision was made to uh dissolve the citizens advisory committee which had a number of uh citizens uh including some from our uh sorry community advisory committee. uh community members including some from the city of Sanonteo in favor of a series of community feedback forums and uh the first of those occurred in Half Moon Bay and had 100 plus attendees some uh positive feedback a lot of interacting in Spanish with many attendees and uh there's the next one will be May 4th in Redwood City. Uh so for those interested there will be another opportunity. Um and

I think we you know we received an overview of rate changes and uh affordability one what and uh we took a an opportunity to increase a bit of solar and storage uh for public buildings funding. And um in that we had a uh had an opportunity to review a number of projects that have happened with uh you know what they call gov which includes uh the carport project recreation center which I wanted to make sure to highlight in our state of the city address um because I I feel that this program has been uh great for agency cities to invest in renewable energy technology uh at effectively no additional cost. So um I was uh pleased to see some uh you know next steps being taken on on projects like that and potentially investing in batteries uh to go along with future projects. Um I'll just see if I had any other quick announcements. We we had uh we hosted a couple of youth ambassadors from our sister city of Toyanaka recently. Um it was uh we had the city manager met them. I I met them here at city hall. We we got to see uh some presentations and council member Diaz Nash and I and I potentially others saw them at the uh library when they were uh on Saturday. Um yes, we we did some kendo practice and uh we uh uh we saw dance uh interpretive dance, cultural dance uh shared and uh just great to have them. And I want to thank uh the city clerk and staff uh deputy city clerk uh for for uh being such great and welcoming hosts uh to our ambassadors.

Th those are my reports, announcements, and committee updates. Sure. I think on behalf of of the rest of the council, we would like to congratulate the mayor on his state of the city address. It went extremely well and thank you to all the staff who supported him, but it it's been very wellreceived.

Thank you. Yes, definitely a team effort and I was uh heartened to see a number of folks in the library. Um it was a good opportunity as always to have the department heads uh at after the speech line up and and uh interact with the public on their questions and and show just how much were uh is is happening in our city. So uh it was a privilege and honor to be there and thank you. Uh okay and with that I will adjourn the meeting for tonight. Thanks everybody. Good night.