City Council - Regular Meeting

So, you . . Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. you Thank you.

It is now time to begin the special open session to hear public comment before closed session. Roll call, please.

Council Member Bana. I'm here. Council Member Brown.

Here.

Council Member Jimenez. Presente. Council Member Wilson.

Here.

Vice Chair Robinson.

Here. I'm Vice Mayor, sorry.

Mayor Martinez.

Here.

And Council Member Zepeda. Council Member Zepeda, are you here? Here. Here. Can you hear me? Yes. He is joining us online. He is located in Chicago. Address is 323 West Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois.

It looks like he's on the quad. Why don't you come on in?

Okay, during closed session, the council will discuss the following items. Item C1s, conference with labor negotiators, agency representative, Jerome Taylor, Jack Hughes, and Lisa Charronnet. Employee organizations include SEIU Local 1021, full-time unit and part-time unit. IFPTE Local 21, mid-level management and executive management units. Richmond Police Officers Association, Richmond Police Management Association, IAFF Local 188, and Richmond Fire Management Association. Item C2 is a liability claim. Claimant is Todd Kaiser, Agency Against the City of Richmond. We have two requests to address the council. Cordell Hendler and Claudia Citron. You each have two minutes. Please come forward.

So good afternoon, Mayor Martinez, Council. For the record, I am Cordell Handler, and I'm going to get right to the point. So when you go into closed session, think about all the hard work that the unions have provided. We are this close to the finish line. So now all the unions have to do is come to a conclusion. So when you go back in there, just resolve this matter, because this is very important. I'll just leave it at that.

Okay, our next speaker will be Claudia Citron. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council, please raise your hand at this time, Claudia.

So I had an interesting conversation with Sam of organ of, uh, an office of neighborhood safety regarding in five, eight, eight. And these are the things he, I recollect what he said, and I want to have this on public record because he always say, Oh, and as this, um, uh, this is a open session for closed session.

So, uh, that would be items C one C two.

So let me rephrase it. Can we just stop the time? I know I can pull this off. So this is the closed session, right?

Yes, closed session, page five.

OK, so labor. The police department does all the office of neighborhood safety tasks. The police department does steps in if there's crime. It's not office of neighborhood safety. If there's shootings, it's not office of neighborhood safety. It's the police department. If there are pimps who deal drugs, who just recently stole a car and crashed it on 26th and Gaynor, And he had a gun that is not Office of Neighborhood Safety. It was the police department. The police department was busy. It took an hour. The chief was there for an hour at the situation. Office of Neighborhood Safety is not doing the work the police department is doing. And somehow you keep saying, well, the police department shouldn't get involved in those things. But that's what Sam says. We are not doing it. It's the police department doing it. So you're saying, hey, don't involve the police department. If not, nobody comes. The shootings which happened in November, the police department couldn't do anything because they didn't have enough information. You want to negotiate with the police department, give them a raise, let them do the work they want to do. They deserve what they are asking for and stop wasting your time with them because they do more, they do two departments job and they're not necessarily able to drive around with a Mercedes like Sam does. I waive my time and thank you for letting me tweak it.

Yes, and I was about to cut you off because you took a long time to get to the point, but I appreciate the fact that you did.

And there are no other speakers.

Okay, if there are no other speakers, open session So open comment is over and we will retire to closed session.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's pray. Amen. Let's pray. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Mm. Mm. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you.

for the regular meeting of the Richmond City Council. So we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Trying to find us Trying to get on the right page Okay Our next item is roll call Councilmember Bonner Council Member Brown.

Here.

Council Member Jimenez. Presente. Council Member Wilson.

Here.

Vice Mayor Robinson.

Here.

Mayor Martinez.

Here.

And Council Member Zepeda is joining us from Swiss, Swiss Atoll, Chicago. Address is 323 East Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Council Member Zepeda. Hold on one second. I have to leave. Here. Thank you. All right. For next item, a statement of conflict of interest. Are there any?

I have a conflict of interest on N7A. I believe that it's actually an error that may have been corrected, but if it is not corrected, my organization Urban Tilt is mentioned in this. accounts receivables. I am the executive director of that organization, so that I need to recuse myself from that item.

Actually, N7A will be withdrawn by staff.

Yeah, because there was lots of errors, including my organization being on there.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, we will be pulling that. Staff will be pulling that item to go over and review the items, which will result in a new write-off list that we will present later. WE ARE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY HAVE CAUSED ANYONE.

THANK YOU. ANY OTHERS? IF NOT, THEN OUR NEXT AGENDA ITEM.

OUR NEXT ITEM IS AGENDA REVIEW. I HAVE SEVERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS. ITEM N1C. That item is being continued. That is the contract with Thompson Ruther's Enterprise for Legal Research Subscription Services. That item has been continued to May 26th. Okay, our next item is N5A. That item was pulled for discussion by Claudia Citram. That is the grant award from Chevron Community Engagement Foundation. Item in seven a has been withdrawn from the agenda. That's the approval of the write-offs of the uncollectible X accounts receivable. Okay. Item in 12 B has been withdrawn from the agenda. That is the contract with Richmond rod and gun club for shooting range facility rental. And item N13E, that is our e-bikes contract. And Mayor, I wanted to request that N13E and also N5A be heard after approval of the consent calendar.

N5A.

N5A, and that's the grant award from Chevron Community? And then the N13E bikes, that's been continued a few times.

Yes, well, I would like to have, I want N13E and E13F to be heard before budget. E13F? And so I'll put N5A in there with that.

What is E13? You said E13F? Yes. 13f yes, so you're pulling in 13f okay?

Yes It's going before budget in 5a and

which is the grant award from Chevron, N13E, which is the contract with the Charleston Mobility for electric bikes, and N13F, which is the ordinance amending sidewalk vendor regulations.

So if there's anyone that would like to speak on those items that were pulled that is in the chambers, please fill out a pink card. Speaker's card.

WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY ITEM THAT'S BEING PUT FORWARD BY COUNCIL MEMBERS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEAK TO THAT?

THANK YOU. I ASK YOU TO PLEASE SHOW THIS

BEFORE WE GO THERE, WE NEED TO MAKE THE FINDINGS. LET ME ARTICULATE THE STANDARD TO ADD AN EMERGENCY ITEM. IN ORDER TO ADD AN EMERGENCY ITEM AFTER THE AGENDA WAS POSTED, THERE NEEDS TO BE AN IMMEDIATE NEED TO ACT BEFORE THE NEXT REGULARLY AGENDIZED MEETING AND THAT THE NEED AROSE AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PUBLISHED AND THERE NEEDS TO BE A TWO-THIRD VOTE TO ADD THE AGENDA. or add the item, and then you have a subsequent vote on the item.

Thank you. So there was a horrible shooting at the mosque in San Diego yesterday, and our faith centers came together. KCRT, could you please show the joint statement by the faith centers? Thank you very much. There are two mosques, three churches, one Sikh center, one Jewish temple, one Nepalese, one Tibetan, and the signatures are being continued. who are stating that together they stand against hate and violence. I just want to emphasize that this is not political. It's a position of public safety that we need to emphasize because our vulnerable communities and residents need us to assure them that we watch out for them, we're here for them, any protection that they need. that we support them and we endorse the joint statement by the faith centers to prevent further fear and retaliation and unfortunately whenever a crazy act of horrendous terrorism happens there is more online radicalism and a wave of such acts starts. We would like to put a stop to it in our community So for the direct immediate public safety coordination, we want to assure the faith centers that we are there for them. That's why I'm asking to please the city council to show leadership and tell the community that we are there for them and watch out for their safety.

All right. So we need to take a vote.

Point of order, are we putting this on the consent agenda? I mean, the consent. Consent, yes. On consent. Okay, thank you. Yes.

So there's a resolution expressing sorrow and sympathy and... Yes, we are going to have a vote to put this on the consent calendar.

I move the item.

Thank you, and I second it.

Mr. Mayor, I have a point of order.

Yes.

Sorry, Ms. City Attorney Moore, can you please restate what is considered a emergency item?

This is actually considered in this instance an urgency item, not an emergency. And in that instance, there's an immediate need to act. And the need arose after the agenda was published. I think you would need to flesh out, and you articulated the immediate need to act is in support of the Muslim community.

And all the faith centers.

And the incident took place yesterday after the agenda was published.

Thank you.

Thank you. It's a matter of safety.

Council member Brown? Yes. Council member Bada? Yes. Council member Jimenez? Yes. Council member Wilson? Yes. Vice mayor Robinson? Yes. Council members Zepeda?

Yes.

Mayor Martinez? Yes. The vote is unanimous. So that item will be added to our consent calendar.

Mayor Martinez, I have two items that I would like to pull for discussion. One is N6A, and the other is N13B.

N13B, and what was the previous one? N6A. N6A, wow.

Mayor.

I'm sorry, the second was N13B. Yeah, sorry, 13B.

So in the last meeting, we all agreed that Q1 that is in the new business was going to be at the beginning of the agenda. So I respectfully ask if we can put that at the beginning of the agenda after public forum. Q1.

Well, let's, okay, so in 6A, which is, well, obviously, we're not going to get through all of this.

Mayor, if I may, respectfully, N6A is time sensitive and the Main Street Executive Director is here in the audience and can speak to questions pertaining to that. In addition, N13B is time sensitive in order to render payment to a vendor due to staff working on other items such as supporting the immigration work directed by the Council. So, of those five items that would like to be pulled, if the Council wanted to hear those two, that would be helpful. And maybe the sidewalk vendor ordinance could potentially come back as well as the grant item so we can get through the budget. So Mayor, what I was suggesting is that given that they were...

Which ones are time sensitive?

N6A, which includes Main Street. And the executive director is here this evening. And N13B, which is the bike item, that is also time sensitive.

N13E?

Oh, I'm sorry. N13B is also time sensitive. I apologize because community-based organizations like RISE are waiting for us to give an update on if the improvements are going to happen. And the third one is N13E. AND THAT IS THE ITEM FOR BIKES.

N13E? YES. SO THERE'S THREE ITEMS THAT ARE TIME SENSITIVE. YES. AND THEN THERE'S N13F SHOULD BE HEARD BECAUSE IT'S

In 13f because it's already been continued twice So we are you but you're pulling it mayor because it's currently on consent and 13f you're pulling the atom Yes, okay, because it shouldn't be on consent I

because it wasn't on consent uh... and and we already started the process uh... in in regular session so it should stay there so uh... uh... i will I believe those four items should go before the budget session. So let's be as succinct, concise as possible so we can get through all this.

Point of order, can you restate the four that are coming before budget?

The four coming before budget is N6A. N13B, N13E, N13F.

Can I? So N13B is Complete Street Improvement Element Project Funding Allocation Plan. And I thought that that was the $6 million that we allocated and that THE PUBLIC WORKS WERE COMING TO PRESENT AS THEIR PLANS, SO I DON'T KNOW WHY IT'S ON CONSENT CALENDAR AND WHY WE ARE GOING TO DISCUSS IT RIGHT NOW.

IT'S ON CONSENT BECAUSE THE STAFF ARE READY TO IMPLEMENT THE PROJECTS THAT WERE ON THE ATTACHMENT 12 LAST WEEK, AND SO THEY WANT TO FIND OUT IF THE COUNCIL was fine with it being on consent. Or if you want to discuss it, as you can see from this evening, right, we have four public hearings and budget. So that's why we put it on consent. If the council wanted to pull it and discuss it, we're happy to do that.

Yeah. Can we do it like when the CIP is coming to presentation?

We would suggest that given the request that we've received from community-based organizations and residents that we move forward with the proposed projects identified by staff on the list Ready

Okay.

All right. Our next item is report from the city attorney of final decisions made during closed session.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. No final decisions were made during tonight's closed session.

The next item is a report from the city manager.

Good evening. I'll try to be as brief as possible. KCRT, can you please put up the PowerPoint slide deck? Next slide. I want to... Next slide. Next slide. I JUST WANT TO BRIEFLY NOTE THAT WE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF WORKING WITH Y PLAN AGAIN THIS YEAR. THIS MARKS ALMOST 15 YEARS THAT THE CITY OF RICHMOND, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER WHITE, DIRECTOR VELASCO, PROJECT MANAGER GABINO ARADONDO AND MANY OF OUR NEW COLLEAGUES IN PUBLIC WORKS HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH Y PLAN AGAIN. THEY WORKED WITH SIX UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTS, SCHOOLS, HIGH SCHOOLS, AND Y PLAN IS PROJECT-BASED LEARNING. THEY PROVIDED THE STUDENTS AT RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL, DEANZA, uh several others provided input on transportation safety along 23rd street sea level rise and environmental sustainability as well as school climate so recycle more was also a client so this is an example of where we're partnering with west contra costa unified school district uc berkeley and the center for cities and schools deb mccoy y plan and so i want to thank community development community services economic development and public works FOR WORKING WITH US ALONG WITH THE STUDENTS. THIS IS THE TYPE OF PROGRAMMING THAT ALLOWS STUDENTS TO REALLY HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE INPUT ON COMMUNITY PLANS. AND THE STUDENT THERE IN THE MIDDLE WITH THE YELLOW SHIRT WILL BE ATTENDING UC BERKELEY IN THE FALL AND WAS A Y PLAN PARTICIPANT. So it's a great opportunity for us as staff to work with over 100 young people in our community. Next slide. We also, on May 14th, hosted Bike to Wherever Day. The Richmond team included local nonprofits, regional agencies, community partners, and outdoor cycling enthusiasts. There were five Bike to Wherever Energizing Stations throughout Richmond, and there were over 500 cyclists and other riders in the morning. And we've seen a significant continued increase in participation post-pandemic. If you want to see the data, you can view transparentrichmond.org. Next slide. This next slide is really exciting for me because these are the things that make me extremely happy when our Public Works Department orders fresh dirt. AND I KNOW THAT SOUNDS A LITTLE SILLY BUT IT'S REALLY EXCITING THAT THIS IS NICHOL PARK NOW AND YOU CAN SEE THAT THE FIELD HAS RECEIVED FRESH NEW IN-FIELD MIX. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. IT INCLUDES A LOT OF SITE PREPARATION AND WORK TO MAKE THE IN-FIELD SAFE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND INCREASE DRAINAGE AND MADE SURE THE SURFACE WAS CONSISTENT. SO I WANT TO THANK THE PUBLIC WORKS TEAM THAT WORKED ON IT AND IN PARTICULAR DARREN FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN AND THIS IS TAKING PLACE AT TWO OTHER FIELDS AS WELL THROUGHOUT THE CITY AND WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE UPDATES ON THE GREAT WORK HAPPENING IN OUR PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT AND WOULD LIKE TO THANK DIRECTOR CHAVARIA AND ALL THE STAFF they are doing the work. Next slide. On Wednesday, May 20th, we will host the 42nd Annual Senior Information and Health Fair. This is a great event, so if you have time, please come out. Next slide. We love a mulch party, so if you're available on Saturday from 9 to 1 at Unity Park, we will be hosting a mulch party. You can tell that there's lots of mulch that's been happening here at City Hall already, but we're trying to expand our efforts community-wide and would like to thank the Watershed Stewards Program, AmeriCorps, the California Conservation Corps, California Volunteers, and the Watershed Project for partnering with us to host this event with community services and public works staff. Thank you.

Our next item is open forum. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council under open forum, please raise your hand at this time. Open forum is an opportunity to address the council on items that remain on the consent calendar or items that are not on the agenda. Tonight, the following items have been removed from the consent calendar. Item N1C, N5A, N7A, N6A, N12B, N13E, N13F, N13B. See, during open forum, dialogue between the council and the speaker is prohibited. When your name is called and you are an online speaker, please be ready to unmute yourself and to begin speaking. For speakers in the chambers, when your name is called, please come forward and line up behind the speaker's podium closest to the wall. For safety reasons, all aisles including the area behind the speaker's podium and staff presentation area must remain clear. All speakers should state your name and your city of residence is optional. Please terminate your address to the council when your time expires. Tonight we have a total of 16 speakers, so each speaker will be allowed up to two minutes to address the council. City of Richmond welcomes your comments and requests that you resent your remarks in a respectful and appropriate manner within an established two minute time limit. We have two online speakers. We have 14 in-person speakers. So that's a total of 16 speakers. First 10 speakers are Cordell Hindler, Claudia Citroen, Antoine Claude, Juan Munoz, Tashi Johnson, Hilda Nava, Arnold Dimas, Cynthia Roman, Laura Gonzalez, and Camila Gonzalez. Cordell Hindler.

So good evening, uh, mayor Martinez council for the record. I'm Cordell Hanlon. I'm a Richmond resident. So what I am passing around is something that I have mentioned at, um, a few meetings back. So let's imagine this, the community engagement manager. If you recall a few meetings back when this item was first brought forward, if that position was re relocated to the police department, and now it got me thinking, should it stay at the police department or go back to the third floor? So I'm thinking having a community engagement manager is very critical because that way the information gets heard and is shared with the community. So that's one. And then number two is I want to thank you, Mayor Martinez, for appointing these people to be on boards and commissions because it is very important that we need to engage the residents so that way they're interested in learning more about what each board and commission does. So I want to thank you for that. And the item is regarding the city clerk's salary, I think that's a good idea because she has done a lot making sure that all these agendas is posted in a timely manner. So I want you to approve this item along with the rest of the items. and get it done so that way the city clerk can have more money and that's it. So please approve this item.

Thank you, Cordell.

So I want to just read what happened this week from the Grandview Independent. Monday 11th, theft of vehicle parts, south 32nd, 33rd. Car theft, Cutting Boulevard. Vehicle tampering, Gaynor. Theft of vehicle parts, 12th Street. Vehicle burglary, 19th Street. Vehicle recovery, C Street. Tuesday, attempted car theft, 37th Street. Vehicle burglary, cease fuel drive. Car theft, Collins Street. Theft of vehicle parts, Cutting Boulevard. Vehicle burglary, Barrett. Car theft, Richmond Parkway. Theft for vehicle, Belfast Way. Vehicle burglary, undisclosed location. Hit and run, Bissell. Wednesday, vehicle tampering, undisclosed situation. Theft of vehicle parts, Florida. Vehicle tampering, 37th Street. Vehicle burglary, Florida. Thursday, Waco Tempering Second Street, Waco Tempering Humphrey, Waco Burglary Ohio, Waco Burglary Hensley, Waco Tempering Shane, Friday, Car Theft Gaynor, Car Theft Pullman, Car Theft Lovell, Car Theft Humphrey, Vehicle recovery, car theft, South Hampton Court, car theft, Bissell Avenue, car theft, Nevin Avenue, Saturday. It's pretty much the same, so you get the idea. These are people who don't have cars when they go to work. These are people who don't, can't get to work, full stop, period. You need to do better in keeping neighborhoods safer. This is neighborhood safety we need, and ONS is not doing it. Thank you.

Antoine Cloer.

Antoine Claude, Richmond resident. I just want to let the community know I am being recognized for many of the decades. I asked some of the council members to come. This is a community award. This is not an Antoine Award. I'm a part of this community. And so when I'm recognized, I'm recognized by the community. So I'm asking you all to come out, support, meet our people, talk to our community, and it's going to be a festive event. Two, the things that we hear at this council for so many years are repetitious. and y'all really have to put your money where your mouth is. That woman just read off a list of crimes in our community, and these crimes are these youth. If you don't give them nothing, they have this thing called animalistic behavior. If you need a dictionary, find out what that word is. Are people gonna do stupid stuff to fulfill their own selfish feelings and gains? It's a quick fix. That's all it is. But we don't have anything for our kids. Our population has grown very much. And y'all putting this money everywhere but into the people. That's what it's been for the last 40 years since I've been here. Y'all ain't putting no money. That's why y'all got rid of all the black folks, because you didn't want to put no money here. Now the money here, and you still ain't spending none of it. Something is wrong with this picture, ladies and gentlemen. So y'all got to don't go for the banana and the pill pipe no more. Don't stop. Take off your sunglasses and see what you ain't looking at. Money talks and the rest of that stuff walk. Don't sell me a bricks in the box. Our community wants action now with this money. Don't talk about it. Be about it. Don't ask for no be put in office and you ain't doing nothing. Mean you ain't doing nothing when they come down to the community. We don't see you until it's time for election That's when you get elected. We don't see you Just keep it 100. You've got to be prevalent availability is crucial.

Thank you very much Juan Munoz Go they've been in city mayor City Manager, City Council. My name is Juan Muñoz from United Business Organization. I'm here to thank you for the support that you guys gave us to hold the Mother's Day event at the auditorium. Thank you very much. We had 175 mothers and their families. It was a great event for the community. So thank you very much. Hopefully you guys can help us to secure the place for next year. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Tashi Johnson.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Please refer to the photos we have scattered throughout to paint a story. My name is Tashi Johnson, lead organizing coordinator for Fierce Advocates and a proud Richmond local. I'm here because I think it's time we rename Humphrey Play Lot to Lake Humphrey Resort and Spa. Though the spa is really just a giant mud bath, I would like for you all to look at the pictures scattered throughout the room. These photos represent inequity. This isn't a small issue that can be rectified in one week. This is a problem that will require a monetary promise from our city rooted in integrity. We've reached a tipping point where our park is the storm drain for rainwater and moldy mulch, rather than a place for kids. I have supported Humphrey Play Lot in their park equity efforts over the past 12 months, and the work that they have done has been on the forefront of Humphrey Avenue as a whole, no matter which side of the street they reside. They've deemed themselves the friends of Humphrey Playlot. They've traded their weekends and family time for hundreds of hours of sweat, scrubbing graffiti, painting, removing paraphernalia, and refilling toxic mulch in a last ditch effort to level the foundation and to keep this place afloat. However, with every good intention comes another issue. The added mulch is just sinking the infrastructure. We've done the hard work proving we're all in on this project for this neighborhood. But let's be real, you can't fix a massive drainage crisis with a paintbrush. We've carried this project on our backs and now we need the city to carry the checkbook. Please approve the funding for a total rebuild in the 2027 budget for a full rebuild for Humphrey Play Lot. We've done the work already for you.

Thank you.

Hilda Nava.

I'm going to translate for Hilda.

We have translation services available, Wordly AI, so she wouldn't I want them to put it up.

Hold on one second. Estimado Consejo Municipal, gracias por escucharnos esta noche. Mi nombre es Hilda y he vivido en el área de Humphrey por casi 30 años. Este parque es importante para mí porque es donde nuestras familias se reúnen, donde nuestros hijos hacen amistades y donde nuestra comunidad se conecta. Pero en este momento, el Humphrey payload nos está fallando, cuando llueve especialmente. Se inunda tanto que los niños llegan en botas de lluvia y dicen que van al lago Humphrey. Puede sonar gracioso, pero no lo es, cuando nuestros hijos pierden su espacio de juego por semanas. Arnold Dimas.

WILL BE FOLLOWED BY CYNTHIA ROMAN AND THEN LAURA GONZALEZ AND CAMILLE GONZALEZ.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. MY NAME IS ARNOLD DEMAS.

AND MY NAME IS TANYA DEMAS.

WE'RE BOTH RICHMOND RESIDENTS. WE'RE HERE TONIGHT BECAUSE LAKE HUMPHREY ISN'T EXACTLY THE SCENIC WATERFRONT WE WERE HOPING FOR. IT'S BECOME A NEGLECTED PLAY LOT THAT'S QUITE LITERALLY SINKING INTO THE GROUND.

Right now, families don't feel safe bringing their children. When it rains, it fills with dirty and moldy water. A lot of the times kids also avoid the park because it is misused. It's heartbreaking that kids don't have a safe place to just be kids.

For the last year, friends of Humphrey Playlot has been doing the hard work to reclaim the space, spending collectively hundreds of hours on weekends and evenings installing soccer nets and hosting events to revive the love that comes from getting to know our neighbors in the park. Some of our best memories from our childhood come from this neighborhood park. And we would love for children today and for future generations to enjoy the park as well. They too deserve a safe park on a safe street with proper signage and speed bumps, a place where they can spend time with their siblings, cousins, parents, grandparents, friends, and have fun. We've stayed optimistic even when we're elbows deep in flood water. We've done everything a community can do from adopting the park to even planning its future infrastructure as mentioned. But the truth is the city's disinvestment has left a giant bathtub that needs professional funded rebuilding. We've proven that the community shows up and tonight we're asking our city council to show up for us in the 2027 budget. Approval now is the only way to ensure equity for our neighborhood. We've already poured our hearts into this park. Please pour funding into its future as well. Thank you.

Cynthia Roman. Cynthia Roman.

Hi everyone, my name is Cynthia and I just live a short splash away from Lake Humphrey. I'm here tonight to ask you to fund a complete rebuild in the 2027 budget before we move toward needing a lifeguard on duty. Our neighborhood is full of homeowners who want to buy rent. vibrant and safe play lab for their kids and grandkids. Not a rusted and sinking structure infested with moldy mud and dangerous needles buried beneath the surface. We've been putting in the work. Our leadership team has hosted air day cleanups and we've been clocked with over 225 hours cleaning graffiti and painting 19 giant planters. We've been missing dinners and stay late after work for research because we treat this park like our own backyard. Now we need the city of Richmond to treat it like a priority. We built the social infrastructure and the vision. We just need you reinvest in the physical infrastructure. Please don't let all our hard work wash away in the next big storm. Thank you.

Laura Gonzalez.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez and council members. My name is Laura, and I've lived in this community for 34 years. I am here tonight alongside my neighbors to advocate for the Humphrey Play Lot. For a long time, we have been pushing for reinvestment because we see the daily reality of this park. The structural issues here are deep, literally. Because of the way the foundation was built, it traps water, floods constantly, and appears to be sinking beneath the mulch. It's a health hazard and it's an eyesore. And frankly, it tells the family in our neighborhood that their recreation and well-being aren't a priority for this city. We know that capital improvement projects take time. We understand there is a process, but that is exactly why we are here today. A YEAR AHEAD OF TIME, DEMANDING THAT THIS PLAN BE PRIORITIZED FOR THE 2027 BUDGET. WE HAVE SUPPORT OF THE PARKS AND REC DEPARTMENT. NOW WE JUST NEED TO GET THE BALL ROLLING AND THE TOTAL REBUILD. WE HAVE THE MOMENTUM, WE HAVE THE RESIDENT LEADERSHIP AND NOW WE JUST NEED THE CITY TO MATCH OUR ENERGY AND INVESTMENT. PLEASE DON'T LET ANOTHER BUDGET CYCLE PASS US BY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

Our next speaker is Camille Gonzalez. And will the following individuals please come forward? Mark Wasburg, Kimberly Graves, Cynthia Hernandez, and Guadalupe Enlana.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez and council members. I'm Camilla, a proud member of the Humphrey Park crew here in Richmond. We've jokingly started calling our park Lake Humphrey, but in reality, it's actually a serious problem. I work with some of our most disadvantaged children, and these kind of shallow waters make up for 75% of drownings due to a very short lapse in supervision. Without a total rebuild, it's just a basin for flooding that keeps children from playing safely. Our crew of 15 to 20 neighbors have been involved in a multi-year marathon of service. I've stood beside my mom, Hilda, as she's fought tirelessly and effortlessly for park equity on Humphrey Avenue. We've attended organizing trainings, held research meetings, and worked with designers to imagine a park that actually reflects who we are and what we value. We've sacrificed our personal time because we believe every child deserves a safe space to explore. We've built the momentum, secured community support, and even got critical needs status from Parks and Rec. The only piece missing is the 2027 budget commitment. We've done our part as citizens. Now we need you to fulfill your role as leaders. Please fund the Humphrey Playlot rebuild so all of the kids in the neighborhood can finally have a playground instead of a lake. Thank you.

Mark Waspert.

I had an interview with Fox News today for about an hour. I told them everything. I told them how the RPA supported Antifa, the BLM, how Guada was supporting terrorism and hate. And they was looking at me, are you serious? I said, man, I'm not serious, man, how the police department shut off the cameras, the AD binning criminals from the law, like the illegal immigrants that killed Lake and Riley, that killed that 14-year-old child, that beat her and raped her. This is what the Richmond PD and the city council are protecting. I mean, it's going to go national because when Hannity and these other reporters get a hold of this, it's going to go all over the United States. And I said, hey, do you have a chance to talk to Martinez and Jimenez? They said no. They never responded. I said, you were just wasting your time in the first place. They're not going to talk to you. I mean, I was on and on and on, man. My head was just blah, blah, blah, blah. So they just slid in there. So I just told them everything. And they knew about the massacre in Australia that Aguado was praising Hamas for, that he was over there condemning Israel for being a terrorist organization. They were just sitting there, are you serious? I said, well, what took you people so long? I said, you should have came in there early when all this stuff was happening. was going on. They said, well, we're here now, so I will let you know when it's going to be aired on Fox News. Because I guarantee when the people of Washington gets a hold of this, especially Trump and all the senators or congressmen, you people are gone. And you people are so stupid to run for office with all this stuff's going to come down in a couple weeks. That's, you people are really stupid. And hopefully they'll destroy the RPA. So it's going to be a good one, people, in about a couple weeks. Kimberly Graves.

I just want to make it clear we're not together. Good evening to my fellow constituents and the City Council. I want to start by making you aware that on May 8th, I requested the body cam from my traffic stop and I am still yet to receive that. I recently received a citation based on a pacing less than one and a half miles despite the patrol vehicle not remaining continuously behind my car and with other vehicles between us. Richmond police cars are not equipped with dash cams. There is no radar or LIDAR evidence to independently verify the stop. My concern is larger than my individual citation. When departments lack recording systems, residents, officers, courts, and the city itself are left without objective evidence in disputed encounters. Therefore, disputes become credibility contests instead of evidence-based reviews. Dash cams and body cams protect good officers from false accusations, help resolve complaints quickly, improve public trust, and provide critical evidence during serious incidents involving forced or alleged misconduct. The council has authority to require universal dash cams like our neighbor, El Cerrito, which is a much smaller police force. You must include the requirement of anti-bias auditing, stop data transparency, independent review, not the supervising lieutenant, which is in my case. Disciplinary consequences for failing to record encounters, complaints, statistics, and public release policies. Communities lose trust when enforcement's actions rely solely on officer testimony without objective evidence. This concern becomes especially serious when residents perceive patterns of selective enforcement or profiling. Your time is expired. Thank you.

Cynthia Hernandez.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez, Vice Mayor Robinson, and members of City Council. My name is Cynthia Hernandez, and I serve as a WCCUSD trustee. I want to sincerely thank the Mayor, City Council, City staff, and every department involved for making WCCUSD's first Latinx graduation possible. For many families, this graduation represents the dreams and sacrifices made so their children could have a greater opportunity. This celebration sends a powerful message to our students and our community that their culture, identity, and accomplishment matter. Thank you once again for recognizing and honoring our students and our community.

Our last in-person speaker is Guadalupe Enlana.

Good evening everyone, my name is Guadalupe Ñana and I am the WCCUSD Board President and I am here to thank you for considering and having on your agenda tonight, partnering with us to make the first night of next graduation Finally achievable for us. I know we are in a budget crisis and we are struggling but I really am thankful for the support that we are getting from the city of Richmond to host the first Latinx graduation and really put a closure to a lot of the hopes and dreams of some of our seniors, you know really ensuring that they understand that we are proud of them as a community that we're proud of them as a district and that we are proud of them, you know, and their achievements moving forward. So I am here thanking you guys. Hopefully you guys continue partnering with us. We want to have a really good relationship with the city of Richmond, as well as the other cities that we encompass. So thank you once again for partnering with us in the first Latinx graduation. And hopefully this is the first of many celebrations and several partnerships that we are able to come together. So thank you.

That was our last in-person speaker. Now we'll move to the two online speakers.

The speakers are Julie Freestone and Ben Theriault. Julie, you may begin. You will have up to two minutes to address the council.

My name is Julie Freestone and I'm with Richmond's grassroots Stop Illegal Fireworks group. It's getting close to July 4th and normally I would be frantic trying to decide if I should leave town to avoid the noise and danger and mayhem that inevitably comes each year to our community. But this year I am more hopeful. We've been working with the City of Richmond, especially in the last few weeks with Michelle Milam and Captain John Lopez from the Police Department. Last year, they were very cooperative working with us, and we think we're on track to see even more efforts this year, hopefully from the Police Department, Public Works, the Fire Department, and the City Council, we hope. The police department is working with television station KCRT to produce a public service announcement to remind residents of how dangerous illegal fireworks are. And they will be also making lawn signs and window signs available for free for everyone. So they'll be making an announcement about that soon. For people who have expressed concerns about enforcement, I have news for you. The police and fire departments are committed to keeping our community safe. They will be using drones, stepped up patrols and other strategies to discourage and stop people from endangering us. There are also other efforts underway because of us letting city council members know we want something done. Richmond has joined other cities asking the governor to work with Nevada to stop fireworks from coming into our state. We are urging Richmond to increase fines for illegal firework use to keep pace with other cities around us so people don't come to our community to break the law. So together, we can put the word out that fireworks are illegal in Richmond. We can change the culture. So join us. Call your city council members, put up a sign, talk to your neighbors, and find a safe way to celebrate. So hopefully we will all look forward to July 4th. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ben Theriault. Ben, you may begin.

Good evening. Ben Theriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association. The RPA will not be presenting at tonight's AB-2561 hearing, and I want every member of the council to understand why before any action is taken. Our government code section 3502.3 AB-2561 places affirmative obligations on the City at this hearing. The City is required to present the number of bargaining unit vacancies, the number of applicants, the average time to hire, and a plan to improve compensation and working conditions. To my knowledge, none of that data has been produced, not to the RPOA, and I ask the Council to look carefully at what has been produced to you. RPOA received notice of this hearing on Thursday night, May 14th, for tonight's meeting, that's three business days, And our council formally requested meeting confer over the procedures for these presentations last year when we were doing this on May 23rd. That's again, May 23rd of 2025. That request has been ignored for almost a year. A statutory mandated hearing on public safety staffing without the data the statute requires, without meaningful notice to the affected bargaining unit, that's the RPOA, and without procedural framework our council requested 12 months ago is not a hearing that complies with the law. RPOA respectfully requests that this item be continued, the staff produce the AB2561 data in writing, and that the meeting confer be calendared within 14 days. And we reserve all rights under the AB-2561, the Brown Act, and the MMBA, including before PERB. Thank you.

Thank you. And we have no more public speakers.

OK. Public hearing is closed.

Our next item is approval of the consent calendar. And items N1C has been continued to May 26. N5A, N7A, well, N5A has been removed for discussion. N7A has been withdrawn. N6A? Well, I'm going down a list that I have. I have N6A. Okay. Okay. So N7A has been completely withdrawn from the agenda. N6A has been removed for discussion. N12B has been withdrawn from the agenda. N13E, N13F, and N13B will be discussed. And there was an emergency item added to the agenda. And that is a resolution expressing condolences and solidarity with the Muslim community. So those items will be added and some will be, the ones that I've read, the list that I've read, will not be included in this vote. But the added emergency item will be included in this vote. Did I confuse everybody?

Yes, we're ready.

We're good? Okay. I move to accept the agenda, the consent calendar.

I second it.

Okay, that was a motion by Councilmember Brown, second by Councilmember Bonner. Councilmember Brown?

Yes.

Councilmember Bonner?

Yes.

Councilmember Jimenez? Yes. Councilmember Wilson? Yes. Councilmember Zepeda?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Robinson?

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez.

Yes.

The vote is unanimous. And I'd like just to make a correction. During open forum, usually when we have 16 to 24 speakers, the speakers shall be allowed up to one minute and a half. So I gave you an extra 30 seconds. I'm being generous. Okay, our next item. And these are the items that were pulled from the agenda. The first item we'll hear is item N6A. and that's to adopt a resolution authorizing the City of Richmond to levy assessments on property owners subject to the Downtown Richmond Property and Business Improvement District through the County of Contra Costa property tax rolls for fiscal years 2026 through 2027. We don't have any speakers for this. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council, you are a property owner that submitted protests, please raise your hand.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council, City Manager Curl, and staff. My name is Justin DeLeon, Senior Business Assistance Officer with Economic Development. I'm here with Director of Economic Development, Nanette Beauchamp, and also Executive Director of Richmond Main Street Initiative, Sarah Wally, here asking the City Council to adopt a resolution authorizing the levy of assessments for the downtown Richmond Property and Business Improvement District for the next fiscal year, 26-27. Director Wally has prepared

Comprehensive presentation for City Council so KCRT if you could put up the presentation I'm sorry mr. Mayor point of order if there are no speakers or nobody objecting to the item. Why was it pulled I?

Mayor, if I'm... Yes, go ahead. I was just going to ask if, given the time, if the council wanted to hear the entire presentation or if the council just wanted to ask specific questions, and it was pulled by a member of the council.

Thank you.

So I'd like to speak to this. I think it's important. Just during downtown walks, I heard a lot of concern from business owners in the district THAT THEY WANTED TO UNDERSTAND WHERE THESE FUNDS WERE GOING AND WHAT WAS HAPPENING WITH THE MONEY. I THINK IT'S A POINT OF PUBLIC CONCERN THAT WE ACTUALLY WALK THROUGH AND MAKE ALL OF THIS INFORMATION PUBLIC SO THAT PEOPLE WHO ARE TAXED UNDERSTAND WHERE THEIR MONEY IS GOING. AND BEFORE WE APPROVE IT, THAT WE FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS THAT THIS IS.

TERRIFIC. THANK YOU SO MUCH, SARAH WALLY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT RICHMOND MAIN STREET. I did prepare a presentation. You will find it in your files there. It starts on page 397. It is 81 slides. APOLOGIZE FOR THAT. BUT IT IS COMPREHENSIVE. AND THE IMPORTANT PART ABOUT IT IS IT STARTS IN JANUARY 2025 AND IT RUNS THROUGH THE FIRST WEEK IN MAY 2026. AND IT SHOWCASES THE WORK THAT WE DO IN DOWNTOWN. WE HAVE A VERY ROBUST AMBASSADOR PROGRAM. Every day, supplemental public works. We do weed abatement, rubbish pickup, hospitality. We do reporting. We do reporting every single day. And that reporting are things that help the property owners as well as the business owners. That reporting is for illegal dumping. It is for homeless encampments. It's to stay in constant contact with Public Works and the City of Richmond and our PD. And by having eyes on the street and having people there, there are six of us on our staff, a very small staff, but we do that work primarily to support our downtown businesses, but importantly, the property owners. Our property area runs from 6th to 16th and Bissell to Barrett. So it's fairly large downtown, 87 properties with I think it's 43 property owners. But our ability to be there is important.

I'm sorry to interrupt. Do we have a presentation?

It's not on the screen anymore. It's 81 slides. Oh, I'm sorry.

I don't see it on the screen.

Yeah. So I apologize for that. I didn't know we would have that up on the screen. So I don't have it on my screen, but I'm happy to run through it. So this describes the PBID, and I'm sorry, I did an overview of what these slides are. Next slide. And I'll just continue to say next slide to advance them. A description of what's happening in downtown. Next slide. This is about Main Street Initiative and the work that we do. Next slide. Thank you. I now have it up. This is our PBID area. Next slide. This is our funding use, maintenance, cleaning, abatement, events programs, business engagement, marketing. We provide resources. In the past four weeks, we have been doing design work and rendering work for our small businesses for the facade improvement program and the grant. They are not able to get architects and designers, so we've been stepping in providing that resource. This is our PBED amount. We're an accredited Main Street. That requires us to put forth a strategic plan to National Main Street. Next slide.

The slides are not working. They're all black or blank.

It's, I think, our monitor. If he's got them, we don't. It might be a monitor issue for us.

All the screens are not showing.

It is up.

Let me know when you have the slides, but I'll continue to share with what we do. So with our ambassador program, of course, that's critical. That's been in operation for over 17 years. We do take care of the community park that's on Harborway and McDonald. So we are the main keeper of that park. And that is critical for the downtown businesses and also visitors and residents. Do you have the screen yet? You don't have it. Okay, you do. You're on slide eight. Terrific. Next slide, please. These are our ambassadors. Next slide. There's our community park I just spoke of. That is a charming park. It has quite a lot of murals all over the walls. It also has some lovely little tile installations made by Nystrom Kids. And it also hosts a lot of events. Next slide. As you can see, there was an event there we partner with DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES AND NONPROFITS TO HOST EVENTS IN THE PARK. THIS WAS RE-ENTRY FOR SUCCESS ABOUT A MONTH AGO. NEXT SLIDE. AS YOU CAN SEE, IT'S QUITE TIDY. WE LITERALLY DO WEED ABATEMENT EVERY DAY AND THAT IS AS PART OF OUR P BID CHARGE TO SUPPLEMENT PUBLIC WORKS AND WE HAVE A VERY CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH PUBLIC WORKS. WE'RE GRATEFUL FOR THAT AND IT'S EXTREMELY HELPFUL FOR THE WORK WE DO AND TO HELP THEM. NEXT SLIDE. This is McDonald Avenue. We continue to do this year-round. Next slide. As you can see, this is the fence line on McDonald. Next slide. This is BART property, but we do this to support our downtown business owner, which is BART. They have yet to replant these landscape beds, so we maintain them. Next slide. This is some statistics on what we do. We report, which again, the City of Richmond app is phenomenal. I hope everybody signs up for it. We report abatement needs. We report illegal dumping, anything. And Public Works is responsive to us within two hours. And the same with Encampment. We've cleaned out the garage at Nevin and 11th Street. So it's really quite harmonious downtown. Next slide. As you can see, a little before and after. Next slide. Next slide, please. We power wash. Next slide. This is more of the description of what we do in downtown. So we're present, we participate, we meet with property owners, spend a lot of time with some of the larger property owners, including the shopping center, to try and assist them with what is happening there and their restrictive conditions for subletting some of their property. We've launched a new website. We have a very heavy social media platform. Next slide. Here are some of the things we promote. We've done an overview, Experience Richmond. Just highlights a few of the things in Richmond, but it's very attention grabbing. And then, of course, all about Richmond Main Street. Next slide. OF COURSE, WE HAVE THE MCDONALD AVENUE CORRIDOR TASK FORCE. WE KNOW THAT HAS BEEN CREATED TO SUPPORT DOWNTOWN RICHMOND AND LOOK AT AN OVERALL PLAN. NEXT SLIDE. LOOKING FOR NEW MEMBERS, WE HAVE PUT THIS OUT TO OUR DOWNTOWN PROPERTY OWNERS AND SMALL BUSINESSES TO SEE IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO JOIN. NEXT SLIDE. AGAIN REGARDING THE TASK FORCE SO WE INFORM OUR DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES AND OF COURSE OUR PROPERTY OWNERS WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE TASK FORCE AND IMPROVEMENTS AND OPPORTUNITY. NEXT SLIDE. AND THESE ARE OF COURSE IN MEETING WITH THE CITY OBJECTIVES, CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND PRIORITIES. NEXT SLIDE. WE REMODELED. SO WE DID A BIG REMODEL AT OUR OFFICE IN JANUARY OF LAST YEAR. NEXT SLIDE. THIS IS WHAT WE DID IN 2025 IN ADDITION TO OUR HOSPITALITY AND OUR PROGRAMS AND OUR AMBASSADORS. SO THIS IS WHAT WE PARTICIPATED IN AS YOU CAN SEE SMALL BUSINESS WEEK, OUR CONCERTS AND EVENTS, ZIP TRIP, WE PUT ON AN AI SEMINAR. NEXT SLIDE. WE COLLABORATE VERY CLOSELY WITH THE LOT FOR EVENTS AND SUPPORT THEM. NEXT SLIDE. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE. HERE'S OUR SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS. ABOUT 7,000 PEOPLE PLUS. SO WE'RE VERY BUSY ON THAT. NEXT SLIDE. WE PUBLISH NEWSLETTERS FEATURING SMALL BUSINESSES IN DOWNTOWN. NEXT SLIDE. MORE NEWSLETTERS. NEXT SLIDE. THIS WAS THE LAUNCH OF SMALL BUSINESS WEEK IN 2025 DOWNTOWN. NEXT SLIDE. The walking tour was launched at the Small Business Week. Next slide. Next slide. Music on the Main launched again last year in July with Andre Thierry. We brought in almost 300 people to that event. We hold it at the lot and it's very popular. Next slide. Next slide. Next slide. Next slide. Here we have Zip Trips with our long-standing board member, Yvette Williams-Barr. Next slide. This is our AI seminar. Next slide. Of course, we had Spirit and Soul. Next slide. Next slide, please. We got ourselves on the television and promoted Spirit and Soul, economic development, and downtown. Next slide. We also launched the Health and Resources Hub last year. This is a way for our downtown community and residents to connect with resources. So we brought them all under one location with the 11 pillars of health that we developed to support not only downtown businesses, but those that wouldn't be able to or would have difficulty finding these resources. Next slide. This, of course, is a list of those that participated. Next slide. Another spirit and soul. Next slide. Next slide. This is a community park. And thanks to Public Works, we have lights in the community park. They are stunning. So they light up all the murals. I was down there Saturday night after our jazz concert that we put on at Richmond Main Street. And they just are spectacular. So they light up that whole corner, and it's very vibrant. We don't have the park open at night. We open it in the morning at 8 o'clock, and we close it at 5 o'clock. Next slide. We have a walking tour map, so we continue to revise that and improve it. We'll be adding all of the city investments in downtown Richmond as part of our walking tour description and where the city's invested in a lot of the buildings in downtown. Next slide. We take advantage of having a downtown neighborhood. And in this walk, we go from, as you can see where the train tracks are, but we include Civic Center. Of course, it's only five blocks away, and it's very important. Not only is it walkable, but it allows us in downtown to promote downtown as a neighborhood. It's the bicycle boulevard. It's very walkable. And it takes the opportunity to showcase the spectacular Civic Center buildings. And then we talk about them, and we talk about the sculpture. Then we go down through Nevin and also on McDonald's. We get down on the longer walk to Nevin Park, which is a beautiful park and looking just wonderful. But along the way, we stop into shops. So we visit, and we take people that are on the walking tour into our shops that are downtown. WE TALK ABOUT, OF COURSE, ALL THE HISTORY. THERE'S A LITTLE LIST ON THE LEFT FOR THE TOUR STOPS OF THE BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES. AND WE TALK ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY. BUT, IMPORTANTLY, WE LIKE TO SHOWCASE WHAT IS HAPPENING DOWNTOWN AND, OF COURSE, ALL THE ANCHORS AND ASSETS THAT WE HAVE, INCLUDING FOUR CITY PARKS THAT, IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT IN A NEIGHBORHOOD, THAT'S PRETTY BIG. SO WE HAVE VETERANS PARK. WE HAVE METRO WALK 1 PARK. WE HAVE THE COMMUNITY PARK ON HARBOR WAY AND MCDONALD'S AND WE HAVE NEVIN PARK. IT'S REALLY QUITE SIGNIFICANT. NEXT SLIDE. THIS ALSO SHOWCASES THE DRAW THAT WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO HAVE WITH OUR WALKING TOURS. WE HAD, OF COURSE, CITY MANAGER, MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND OUR BUFFY WICKS OFFICE AS WELL AS REPRESENTATIVE MATT HANEY. And one of our tour stops is at East Bay Center. Next stop. Sorry. Next slide. This is the walking tour again. Next slide. This is another tour that we had with Senator Jesse Regan. These are important to also be able to showcase transit oriented development and development of downtown and importantly to talk about infrastructure that's already built. So downtown is a great opportunity because it has infrastructure and it has EVERYTHING NEEDED TO BE ABLE TO MOVE TO THE NEXT STEP OF DEVELOPMENT FOR HOUSING, ENTERTAINMENT, RETAIL AND COMMERCIAL. AND AGAIN, WE SHOW OFF AND SHOWCASE NOT ONLY THE BUSINESSES BUT ALSO THE PROPERTIES. NEXT SLIDE. OF COURSE, WE GET SOME GOOD PRESS. THAT'S ALSO VERY NICE FOR OUR WALKING TOURS. NEXT SLIDE. We host our holiday festival. This is the 17th year. That's in partnership with East Bay Center. And we draw 500 kids. So they come from all over. And we provide them with gift bags and Santas and pictures and the Nutcracker. And we also have participation with some of our small businesses, as well as the lot comes and does the food. Next slide. Next slide. More of the holiday festival.

Next slide, please.

Here we have the opportunity to show, and I have these blown up to very large poster size, because it shows the strategic location and the key location of downtown. And you don't often see that when you're walking on the street. And so to be able to have this and show that right down Harbor Way is Ohio, more murals. The Greenway, which is quite phenomenal. And just a little bit further is the ferry. And showing it in this way shows the proximity and the ease of accessing San Francisco and the Bay Area. And then, of course, we're able to point out the Bay Trail. Next slide. Same here. This faces to the west. So we're able to showcase downtown, downtown development areas, as well as proximity to the parkway, to Marin. And also all the assets that are down here. So schools, there's many schools. And also within two miles of downtown, all the businesses that we have from an employment base. So there's quite a few. We always think of Kaiser or we think of Social Security Building, but we have Contra Costa, we have City of Richmond. Within two miles, there's OTHER MAJOR EMPLOYERS AND CREATES DIVERSITY OF EMPLOYMENT FOR PEOPLE COMING TO RICHMOND. NEXT SLIDE. HERE'S A LINEUP OF SOME OF THE EVENTS WE'RE PLANNING FOR 2026. WE CAN ALWAYS ADD MORE IN HERE. THESE ACTIVATE. IN LIEU OF HAVING BAD BUNNY AND and put on a concert, we need to drive people to come downtown. And one of the ways to do that is to always be active, always be seen, always be having events, programs, and show foot traffic. And the more we get familiar and create familiarity with people coming and supporting downtown, then it becomes an easy destination to come to. Next slide. And here's some fliers. Next slide. We host the walking tour on the fourth Thursday of every month. Next slide. Next slide. We provide information for the programs. As I mentioned, we've stepped in to become a resource to do design work for some of our small businesses. We've made some applications on behalf of our small businesses, Salsa Taqueria, left side printing, the flower shop. And we provided a static design work. So as they were not able to get architects and designers up front, we stepped in and we did that work. Next slide. More information, city programs. Also on our website, you can have a link to all of the city programs and economic development. Next slide. Also, all these programs are on the website. Next slide. Arts Corridor. I'm also thrilled to be having Arts Corridor. We did have a jazz event on Saturday night at Richmond Main Street with our new office mates, Richmond Rising, and super well attended and just seems like the thing that will be natural for us to do. Next slide. Next slide, please. And here are our new office sharemates. So Richmond Rising moved in earlier this year and had a big welcoming party. And, of course, as we know, TCC and Richmond Rising are expending grant dollars down in our neighborhood in Iron Triangle, where the downtown is, as well as Santa Fe and Coronado. So there's a lot of collaboration there. Next slide. Richmond Main Street participated with economic development, Taste of Richmond. We're pleased and honored to be a participant. Next slide, you will see. We brought a lot of, in fact, five of our downtown businesses to the Taste of Richmond. Next slide. We did a Richmond Did You Know? and that was small business week. We had a great three hour event at the lot, again in collaboration and partnerships. Next slide. And here we showcased, we had four local vendors, we had three of our downtown small businesses, and we had eight small businesses on our panel of speakers. and we had two of our transportation, public transportation. So that's about getting people engaged, getting our businesses engaged, and bringing people to our businesses, but also having our small businesses participate in events that we're putting on. Next slide. It's a little small, but here's the listing. Downtown businesses, and we've added a few. So there is a new phone store. AND THERE IS A NEW CHURCH GOING IN NEXT TO THE FLOWER SHOP. NEXT SLIDE. Here's a listing of storefronts. And I spelled it out like this to be able to talk about existing storefronts. And that's important when we look at businesses and we look at downtown, what exists in terms of storefronts. So that's literally retail on the street. And then we have nonprofits that are located on McDonald and the Solon Harborway and Marina. And then we have some uninhabitable buildings at the moment. Next slide. You can have a look at our website. It's quite vibrant and robust. And you'll find a lot of economic development information on there. Next slide. Part of downtown is also our mural walk, so that also allows people to come if they don't know anything about downtown and we go on a mural walk, which is very exciting because it really shows off what's happening downtown and what exists. Next slide. Next slide. So our forward activation. We've got good momentum. We support the lot, collaboration with economic development, and of course, more foot traffic. And how do we drive more foot traffic? Well, it's through programs, events, continuity, consistency, having things present absolutely all the time. It's through social media, it's through marketing, so that people know just to come downtown, just to get off BART. to take the bus to drive so that we are trying to ramp up so that we're always in motion so that there's always vibrancy on the street. We know that on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the lot is in action, there's a lot of people downtown. And while that's not happening every day, we are getting a lot more foot traffic on the street. And that, of course, is through marketing and having more programs. Next slide. And these are more initiatives. Forward motion, trying to support the vacant spaces, of which there are not that many. It's listed on the sheet there. And how we can engage more real estate RETAIL BROKERS TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE PROPERTIES DOWNTOWN. THERE ARE SOME RESTRICTIONS AT THE ONE PROPERTY WHICH IS THE SHOPPING CENTER THAT HAS THE MAJORITY OF THE SPACES. SO THAT'S A DIFFICULT PROPERTY. BUT WE STAY AT IT WITH THEM AND WE'RE WORKING ON THEIR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS, PAVE THE PARKING LOT AS AN EXAMPLE. HOPEFULLY WITH THE NEW SIGNAGE IF THEY'RE SUCCESSFUL WITH THE FACADE GRANT. That will liven up because we put some lights up there. Next slide. You've seen this before. It's a lively downtown. Next slide. And that's that.

Thank you. Yes, go ahead.

So thanks for doing that, and thanks for everybody for giving us the time to do that. I think it is important to do that. I think that sometimes when people don't know what's going on, they assume nothing is going on. And that is really difficult, especially when a tax is involved. So I wanted to just ask a clear question about how much tax, how much is the total amount of tax that's assessed each year and applied to this amazing body of work? It's a huge body of work. What's that number?

Yes, Vice Mayor, the total tax being assessed is $245,761.

So that is the money that's being directed back to Main Street, back to the McDonald Avenue?

No. There's a net net less, which is in the past three years, $237,000.

$237,000 each year is directed back to invest in McDonald Avenue in the programs that you've described to us. Is that correct? And the Main Street Initiative is the one who administers those funds. Is that correct? When I was reading a little bit up on the assessment district, it said that it had the goal of accomplishing a few things, beautification, safety, special events, supporting small businesses, and then some administration. Can you tell us what percentages of those funds go to those different objectives?

Yes, so approximately 15% is operations. So 12% to 15% is operations. And the balance is split about 40%. to 44%. That is for hospitality, ambassador's work, programs, resources, events. And what that includes is the cost, so the gross cost for all of those. So events, programs, events. So that's a percentage. But our total budget, we also have sponsorship program so we bring in sponsors to support us as well as some grants.

So those funds pay for a percentage of the cost of all of the body work that you showed but not the full cost because you have sponsors. That is correct.

We wouldn't be able to do it at 237.

And so finally, you know, I walk downtown a lot. I live really close. I walk my dog there. I walked my dog there this morning. We walked to the post office. That was my morning walk. It downtown is often described as, you know, virtually a encampment from, you know, a full, a full, the whole downtown is just one big encampment or, you know, kind of, you know, it's so it's overrun with trash. That's not my experience of downtown. I do wonder, it seems like you do a lot of work on cleanup. You have a whole team employed. to do cleanup and do I have that correct? How often does that team work? Four days a week. Four days a week. How many hours a day?

It's 12, 14, about 68 hours a week. 68 hours a week. 70 hours a week. Yeah. In the morning and the afternoon. But you're correct in the perception and the perception is because of the large vacant land holdings and that doesn't scream opportunity that screams vacant lots and that is a perception when you see a building you don't think vacancy you but when you have a large swath that that becomes a deterrent and that's one of the reasons the walking tour helps out yeah

And then just the final question here is how do you communicate all of these things to the different business owners downtown? Because when we went around, I went around with Vernon from the Chamber of Commerce, it seemed like people didn't really understand where their assessment dollars were going. So how do you communicate all these things to the business owners downtown?

Well, we visit them quite often, but it's also a support of the property owners. who are paying the tax, and obviously they might be passing that through on the rent on the triple nets. But it is showcasing the work. So the cleanliness is important. When you go and you talk to a business owner, they're seeing that it's clean. And they also see our team out. So to answer your question more directly, we bring services to them. And it takes some time. A small business owner doesn't have a lot of time to do the sit down. That's why we've stepped in to do a lot of these applications and support the small businesses. But it doesn't get that big office feel where they have that time. We also don't see them come out a lot to our programs and events because they are single one person small business operators. So we really have to bring things to them and invite them as you saw through Taste of Richmond and Small Business Week, invite them and find a way for them to actually participate. You know, it wasn't easy to get the small businesses to come to participate in Small Business Week because it was during the day when they're running their business. So it's a lot of handholding and being there to support the ones that are downtown that are storefront. And then the nonprofits, the same way. We have, as I said, a healthy listserv and social media, and it's just being present.

Thank you for your time.

Mayor.

Thank you for the question.

Councilmember Cepeda would like to speak.

Okay. I'm going to allow Councilmember Brown to speak first.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation and all the list slides. You used the word harmonious. That's how it is down there. I don't know. That just hasn't been my experience with sharing part of that space being District 1. I also speak to the business owners down there. And the reason that they were inquiring about this tax was because of the blight. They're like, if we're being, if we're paying this money, why is the community in the same state? So that's what I've been receiving when it comes to the funding. The photos on here is not a reflection of the everyday experience that I have in downtown Richmond. So I was like, oh, when I was looking at some of the photos, oh, that's really clean. It It's like, and I'm going to get to my question. I just want to say that it's very difficult, in my opinion, for us to get control of an issue like this that we're experiencing downtown. if we continue to have these controlled narratives when it's time to present. Like I want the raw uncut, like the unhoused folks that have been living down there for four plus years in the same spot, going from one side of the corner to the other one, wanting the attention to the RVs, the mattresses, the weeds that You know, just all of the above. And again, I know that you all are putting forth the best effort, but I just want us to be realistic and also have an honest conversation about how downtown actually look, especially within the space that you're speaking about. So also I just wanna know how do we get to that part of like answering the question of a business owner saying, where's the tax money going if the blight and everything is still occurring?

Terrific question, and in particular about the unsheltered. So there is a process in the city of Richmond, right? There is a very regimented process. We report, and our reporting can be audited. We report every single day, but we have to work through the process. So there's reporting, and then when we're speaking about the unsheltered and the two people that move from side to side to side, that it goes through CORE, then it goes through ROC, And they tend to go away for a little bit of time, and then they tend to come back to the same area, the gentleman and the female. And so our job is to be as diligent as we can to do all the reporting and use all the tools that we have to do the reporting. For illegal dumping, I can tell you, if we see it, we report it. And we're on the street. We report a lot. And Public Works is so quick, within two hours. Other type of blight that's on private property, it takes a little bit more time, right? So that's code enforcement. We also do that reporting, but that requires the private property owner to take some action and then there's code enforcement and they have to go and they have to do the siting. So we stay up on that also. We had quite a lot of problems with the apartments, the Richmond City apartments on McDonald and 11th. The parking garage. And again, this goes back to if things are continuing to stay vacant, which they are until something occurs, People will always see the vacancy, right? So whether the parking garage or it be the vacant lots. And so that's just a function of cleaning because we're not going to be able to put a crane there, although I would like a crane because that signifies something. So you're always going to see vacancy. And vacancy in a person's eyes means dormancy and it can mean blight. So it's a never-ending, you know, every day we stay at it.

Okay. Also, I know you mentioned about 40 to 44% goes into hospitality. Are we shifting some of the funding from because I saw a lot of events? Are we shifting away from some of the events to more of what the urgency is in that area? not events specifically, but I'm just saying it's, it's 44 to is 40 to 44% in this area. But have we decided to shift more money towards the cleanliness there? Because I, the ambassadors, you know, they're there, but

That would be a function of capacity in hiring more people, right? If you're feeling or you're seeing that there's trash on the street. And to be fair, it's a big neighborhood, right? It's a big territory, 6th to 16th and Bissell to Barrett. We feel that there is a solid impact, but every day there's going to be trash. I can guarantee you on Monday mornings, there's a lot because of the weekend. how to manage that, how to get around the neighborhood better, open to suggestions, right? And then also monitoring, as I said, Dormant property is challenging, right? When it's vacant, it's vacant. And when buildings are vacant and boarded up, your eyes see vacant and boarded up. So there's a very difficult way to say, but there's no weeds. Somebody says it's vacant and boarded up.

Okay. I'm just lastly just aside from the vacancies that are in that area. It's still Lots of light in my opinion being there every day living there kids school all of the things I just wanted to Lastly access there any oversight to the ambassadors like is there anyone going by? Checking cross-referencing how often things are maintenance and so forth me.

I'm there.

I'm there. I All right, thank you.

All day long, yeah.

Council Member Cepeda?

Thank you, Sarah. I just want to acknowledge your great work. I know that you just recently took on Richmond Main Street, I think what's been two years, I believe, since you came on? Correct. So you've done a great job. I want to make sure that we, I'm trying to understand as well, if you can share with me here a little bit, Because the Richmond Main Street, you are there to help supplement the work the city's supposed to do, right? It's not that you now maintain these at 100%. Am I correct?

Correct. That is one of our charges, is supplemental, and we feel that that is a benefit. I'm sure the property owners see that as a benefit if weeds were to grow. I mean, that's a consistent problem, but that is correct. It's supplemental.

And I kind of want to, in a way, you're similar-ish to the LMDs that we are all aware of, the landscaping maintenance districts that we have in the Marina Bay and in Hilltop. But you're different because you work more with the businesses versus the LMDs. So I just want to make sure that we understand that you're just supplementing. So if there's anything else, the city needs to catch up.

Well, to be fair, we don't do landscaping. So that's not in our purview.

It's different.

Well, we do take care of the park, so.

Yeah, but what I'm getting to is that the city needs to give more as the base so you can supplement less. Your work should not be 100% of taking care of all the streets. It should be just picking up here and there. I'm just saying for us, I think we need to do more to help you out. Help you help us is what I'm getting at. And what I'm seeing in the rates there, it's 15 cents a square foot for commercial and 0.08 cents. I'm sorry, not even 15 cents, 0.15 cents for square footage of commercial and 0.08 square footage for nonprofit housing. Those are the two rates I was able to see in the report. What do you get?

Oh, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say that's flat square footage. So that isn't elevated square footage, right? So that's just a footprint square footage, what you see on the ground.

Just the ground. Okay, thank you. So you've got commercial and then nonprofit housing. What about other occupants that are not commercial or nonprofit housing? Are you getting any funding from them? No. Is there a way to potentially get funding from those that are not, don't fall into these two categories? Because not everything in downtown is commercial, right? I think we've got other type of stuff.

Well, we're not. It's truly a commercial district. So our footprint is commercial. We do have a little bit of residential on McDonald's. I mean, barely, not so much. So It's strictly a footprint of commercial, and that is a commercial district. So it was never meant to include a lot of residential, as in single-family homes. It does include a few of our denser multi-unit buildings that are in the neighborhood.

But they're not contributing?

They are, yes. I'm sorry. Yes, they are.

Are they falling under commercial then? Is that what their footprint is?

Yes, because they're mixed uses. Their footprint is on the ground, which is a commercial footprint.

Perfect. Thank you for that clarification. My last question, I had heard before in terms of the storefronts, what do you see for some of the storefronts having more business versus non-business storefronts? A lot of them, sometimes they're non-profits or there's something else that they're not necessarily a business. Do you see a need to try to push for more business related businesses?

VERSUS NONBUSINESS? 100% WE WOULD LIKE ALL RETAIL STOREFRONT BUSINESSES IN DOWNTOWN. HOWEVER, WE'RE NOT THE BUILDING OWNER AND THE PROPERTY OWNER, RIGHT? SO WE DON'T ALWAYS HAVE AN INFLUENCE AS TO WHO THEY'RE GOING TO RENT TO. AND THERE AREN'T A LOT OF PROPERTIES TO BEGIN WITH. YOU KNOW, WE WOULD LIKE TO INSPIRE THEM TO RENT TO A RETAIL, YOU KNOW, CAFE OR SALON OR SOMETHING THAT'S GOT COMMERCIAL FOOT TRAFFIC ON THE STOREFRONT. THAT WOULD BE IDEAL. WE ARE WORKING WITH A BRAND NEW LEASING AGENT WHO'S COMING ON TO THE SHOPPING CENTER IN ONE MONTH'S TIME. SO WE HOPE THAT THAT WILL BE ABLE TO HELP OUT.

Thank you. And I guess I was asking that question more to try to get your take on that, which you answered perfectly. I was hoping for that answer. So that the next step would be kind of on city council and with staff to work on policy to make sure that everything around that uh area is more business versus non-business because I think that will be more of a policy direction uh and maybe staff I know that they're writing notes there maybe staff can bring something forward in the future to help direct more of those uh property owners to rent out to businesses as you're saying coffee shops Etc uh to promote further business versus having non-business related tenants there. So we'll love to see if staff is able to bring something in the future for that. We're going to be able to help you out and continue revitalizing the area. Thank you so much for the presentation. Thank you.

Do we have public comment?

We don't have any speakers for this. No speakers?

Yes.

Thank you for the presentation and great work you're doing. Quick question. Do you really think without addressing homelessness we can revitalize Derry?

I would say, and I will let you know, in the past 12 months with Michelle Milam and the team at the city and the committed effort of Main Street, We have three people and it was absolutely being diligent in the parking garage and staying aware of it and reporting it. And other than the two couple people we have downtown, it's really, really markedly improved. But a lot of that is, again, when you have a lot of dormancy and you have vacant lots and you have abandoned boarded up buildings, There aren't a lot of people down there, so you don't have density. And when you have density and you have people, you have less people sleeping on the street. So it's about staying aware and present and supporting those that are unhoused and finding a better solution. Thank you.

May I make a motion? Go ahead. So with all of that information, hopefully people have a lot more information about where this tax goes, I'd like to move to adopt a resolution authorizing the City of Richmond to levy assessments on property owners subject to the Downtown Richmond Property and Business Improvement District through the County of Contra Costa property tax rolls for the fiscal year 2026-2027. I second. Go ahead.

You have a motion by Vice Mayor Robinson, second by Mayor Martinez. Council Member Brown?

Yes.

Council Member Vanna? Yes. Council Member Jimenez? Yes. Council Member Wilson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Council Member Zepeda?

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez? Yes. The vote is unanimous.

Thank you. Mayor, two things. One, I just wanted to note there was a comment made requesting staff follow-up. City staff and through zoning for religious institutions, those are allowed to occupy spaces and rent in the free market economy. We cannot DISCOURAGE THAT IN ANY WAY, AS WELL AS COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS. SO WE CAN DEFINITELY CONTINUE TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY WITH MAIN STREET, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND OTHERS TO SUPPORT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, BUT YOU CAN'T ACTUALLY Good prevent certain types of tenants in certain spaces in that particular type of manner And then also wanted to request mayor if we should potentially Given that it's it's approaching 8 o'clock does it potentially make sense to allow staff that are here for the public hearing as well as Richmond promise let them know that we will be considering those items at a subsequent meeting or Because there's a number of people here in the audience That it doesn't appear that we will get we still have three more items to discuss as well as budget Yeah OKAY. SO IF I MAY, JUST TO BE CLEAR AND CONFERRING WITH THE CLERK AND CITY ATTORNEY AS WELL, WANTED TO GET CONCURRENCE THAT THE COUNCIL WILL HOLD OVER PUBLIC HEARING P1, P2, P3 AND P4 TO THE NEXT MEETING ON MAY 26 AS WELL AS Q2. COULD YOU REPEAT? MAYOR AND COUNCIL, I WAS SUGGESTING AND WANTING TO SEE CONCURRENCE IF GIVEN THAT IT'S NEARLY 8 O'CLOCK IF THE COUNCIL WANTED TO HOLD OVER P1, P2, P3 AND P4 TO MAY 26 AS WELL AS POTENTIALLY Q2. which is a new business item.

All right. That's what we'll do.

Okay. Our next item is item N13B. That's to approve the Complete Street Improvement Funding Allocation Plan.

Do we have any speakers?

If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, please raise your hand at this time.

I'm sorry, which item is it?

Complete streets.

I think they were here. Thank you.

Mayor, you pulled this.

I pulled this item, and I can make it quick.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez, council members. For the record, my name is Daniel Chavarria. I'm the public works director, and with me today is Mr. Joseph Munoz, assistant deputy director for public works. Given the time that we have, we just want to bring your attention to attachment three of the staff report. This is a staff proposal to invest the $6 million, $270,944. So let me go one by one.

I think we could go faster if we could just discuss the issue that I had because I'm the one that pulled the item, and I feel like it was on consent, so maybe we could focus on the issue that I'm having. We could go quicker. So this budget item came up. And it was presented to the council, at least from my perspective, that we were going to be investing 6.4 million, now it's a little bit more it seems, in traffic safety improvements slash complete streets. I thought that was a great way to invest these monies because we get so many complaints from people around traffic safety issues. There's car crashes. There's things that are affecting people's communities and neighborhoods. the people don't feel safe on the street is the most consistent complaint you get when you go knocking on doors. You hear that over and over and over again. So I was alarmed when I saw that a third of the money was going to be applied to the Richmond Parkway. which is not addressing those issues, $2 million. I know that we have a responsibility at the Richmond Parkway, but maybe we could figure out another regular way to deal with that. And I was really concerned that I saw very few applications of this money that would actually apply to residential and kind of day-to-day traffic safety issues that we get so many complaints about. So I just wanted to hear more and have a public conversation about why are we prioritizing that over all of these concerns with this special pot of money?

Okay. So going specifically for the Richmond Parkway, we're talking about $2 million. Richmond Parkway is part of the high corridor injury in one of the main high injury corridors, I'm sorry, in the city of Richmond. The traffic collision data give us that 7% of all collision reports are in Richmond Parkway. And we're talking about a specific seven locations along Richmond Parkway. We're talking about Richmond Parkway in San Pablo Avenue, Richmond Parkway in Bloom Drive, Richmond Parkway in Lakeside Drive, Richmond Parkway in Hensley Street, Richmond Parkway in Godric Avenue, Richmond Parkway in Hilltop Drive, and Richmond Parkway West Barrett Avenue. Those seven locations will be addressed with these $2 million. And the idea is that we are going to improve striping. We're actually going to stripe the entire street, I'm sorry, the entire Richmond Parkway in the jurisdiction of Richmond. That's going to enhance visibility and improve traffic safety. And because Richmond Parkway is a long stretch, I mean, the price is that high.

Council Member Brown.

I just wanted to ask regarding the Richmond Parkway. I see that it talks about paving and safety work maintenance along. Does that safety work maintenance include the lighting? Because there are certain areas where it's like literally pitch black.

Not yet. But when we talk about paving is that where we're going to the intersections that I mentioned that we're going to improve the crosswalks, all the markings, all the... MARKINGS AND STRIPING, WE DON'T WANT TO DO IT OVER BAD PAVEMENT, AT LEAST NOT AT THOSE SEVEN LOCATIONS WHERE WE HAVE ALL THE DATA FROM collision data. So those we need to treat the pavement first.

Yeah, no, I understand all of that and agree that all of that needs to be addressed. I was just more so asking about the lighting because there are certain areas that are literally pitch black.

I hear you.

Is that with another part of the funding or some other funding and not this particular funding? So that's what I wanted to understand.

We would like the council to authorize additional expenditures as part of the fiscal year 26-27 budget to enhance street lighting throughout the city. And we will be discussing those recommendations in more detail next week. Okay. But what about for this particular area? THIS COULD BE ONE OF THE AREAS ADDRESSED. THAT'S WHY, ALTHOUGH IT'S NOT, THESE AREAS ARE NOT PERFECT COMPLETE STREETS YET, WE THINK BY COMBINING FUNDING OVER MULTIPLE FISCAL YEARS, WE CAN GET TO THE COUNCIL'S DESIRED OUTCOMES IN MULTIPLE AREAS. BUT FOR US, ONCE WE HAVE A KNOWN AREA OF INCIDENTS OCCURRING, WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO REQUEST THAT THE CITY COUNCIL CONSIDER AN APPROPRIATION.

So for me, like lighting, complete darkness is urgent. And that seems to... Am I getting that that could come at a different fiscal year? Yes.

So we're almost at the end of this current fiscal year. So these funds were actually from previous unspent. Yes. And so we're... depending on how the the budget process unfolds there is a possibility that when the council approves the budget on June 23rd that lighting could be part of that so that's what we're you know so you're basically a potentially about a month out right so how do I make sure that that's considered I just don't want that to go under right right so that good question thank you so what we would uh suggest is this uh this evening um when we um after when the council is allowed to ask questions at the end that's part of your budget checklist process that we encourage all council members if there's something in particular that they've noticed that needs to be addressed that you can ask that question and then we'll include it in the responses and it helps inform us in terms of the final recommendations for the budget THAT WILL BE PRESENTED IN JUNE FOR THE COUNCIL'S CONSIDERATION. THANK YOU.

YOU'RE WELCOME. THANK YOU.

COUNCIL MEMBER GIMENEZ.

YEAH, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I THINK LIKE IT'S NOT LIKE THAT WE DON'T NEED AND I AM NOT ARGUING WITH YOU ABOUT LIKE HOW TO SPEND THIS MONEY. What I want is also to see, we created a street calming program where there is so many intersections that you have, that list. When is that list coming? For me, it's how this got prioritized from being there and know all of the other list in the street calming program, right? And when are you going to come up with that list and tell us in this year we are going to need this amount of money for these projects that got prioritized with the prioritization matrix that you have. And then you like because and then you tell us every year we are going to have to allocate this money like you are saying with the pavement. With the pavement you said we need almost 18 million dollars or something like that every year, right? We allocated 10 million this year but you are saying that in order for us to, to have 10 millions every year, we need to have four million, to find four million dollars for the pavement. This is what I want to see, but when I see these and in consent calendar, and I don't know like how these come up first than the others, the other intersection where people are complaining and yelling to us in each of the districts, AND JUST GETTING A LITTLE FRUSTRATED. SO I AM NOT SAYING THAT THIS IS IMPORTANT. I KNOW YOU ARE THE ENGINEERS BUT I JUST WANT ANSWERS ABOUT WHEN THE OTHER PART IS COMING AND WE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THESE LEADS AND WHAT I SEE IS JUST 18 PROJECTS FROM MANY YEARS.

SO, YEAH. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT QUESTION. ALMOST TWO MONTHS AGO WE WELCOME OUR SENIOR TRANSPORTATION PLANNER GAYLE PAIN WHO IS WORKING WITH OUR ASSOCIATE TRANSPORTATION PLANNER WHO CAME BACK FROM MATERNITY LEAVE AND BOTH OF THEM NOW HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER FOR TWO MONTHS. WE INCLUDED AN ATTACHMENT LAST CITY COUNCIL MEETING ATTACHMENT That has a presentation about this specific program that you're asking about a We would we welcome the opportunity to present to the city council in a future city council meeting I don't know if they right now in between the budget season We're gonna have enough time to do it But it's not it's not part of the CIP because I was hoping that the in the CIP you will presented that I It's included, but the CIP includes all the programs. So, I mean, it's not going to be exclusive for traffic safety.

Yeah, no, I understand, but it's included.

Yes, it is included. It is included. And one thing that I would like to invite the council to think that a pavement program is a major program that when you're talking about pavement, it allows to... TO COORDINATE WORK WITH COMPLETE STRETCH PROJECTS, WITH TRAFFIC SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS. SO SOMETIMES WHEN WE SEE THAT THERE ARE AREAS WHERE BOTH OF THEM ARE NEEDED, WE CAN SCHEDULE THEM AT THE SAME TIME. YOU CAN LEVERAGE SOME OF THE PAVING PROGRAM FUNDING TO ADDRESS TRAFFIC SAFETY ISSUES.

GO AHEAD.

Daniel, thank you for bringing this forward. You mentioned traffic coalitions. I also want to make sure that we understand and that we can clarify some of these traffic coalitions also include traffic pedestrian fatalities. In the past couple of months, actually the past couple of years, there's been a couple of deaths at several of these intersections that you've mentioned. THE LATEST ONE WAS I WANT TO SEE MAYBE ABOUT TWO MONTHS AGO.

IF I MAY, COUNCILMEMBER ZAPEDA, THAT'S NOT THE SCOPE OF THIS ITEM, PLEASE.

No, no, I'm just saying that adding to the reason why these are important is because of all the traffic coalitions and everything else that's been going on in there. So I'm just trying to make the case for that there because we need to improve the traffic safety, the crosswalks, and everything that's on the list already. So I just want to put out my approval for it, saying that this is something that is needed. And also Parkway is shared with the county. So, making sure I'm sure that you're working with a county on the parts that are owned by them and not by us, but thank you for this and I'm hoping that we can get it passed. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman vice mayor Robinson.

I am also very concerned about this long list that we've been directing all of our constituents. to put their concerns on so they can be assessed and addressed that it languishes without being addressed. I would like to have a motion, bring forward a motion that accepts all the recommendations except to divide half of the money allocated to the parkway and use half of that to address as many projects on the list that are of high priority, that are the highest dangers, the highest kind of issue, so that we can continue to actually address the issues that our constituents have been bringing forward and put on this list and have been waiting to be addressed. That is my motion.

I'm curious, how much work would it be to reprioritize the jobs that are probably already mapped out?

I mean, we can pivot. I mean, I cannot answer right now. I mean, we're talking about reducing from $2 million to $1 million. I don't know what, on the spot, what we would have to eliminate from that work. For example, it could be the entire striping of Richmond Parkway. We only focus on the seven locations I mentioned. I don't know, right, what we need to reassess that. But... Could I adjust my motion then for you to...

tell me how you can, what is the best way to take some reasonable amount of projects from that list and also accomplish something on the Richmond Parkway so that we are not, so that we're addressing that list that we ask people to use and it has been sitting there for many years not being addressed.

We can provide that information. I mean, we can tell you how much we need to address the seven locations, but leave the striping of the entire roadway out. I can make that.

I second that.

Council Member Bonner.

Thank you. So I'm a little confused about, while I really appreciate the concern by Council Member Vice Mayor Robinson, and I hear it from residents a lot that they're concerned about the speeding and everything. But we need some objective criteria for safety. I remember that our former police chief told me she would never take Richmond Parkway because it's one of the most dangerous Routes enrichment. She personally never took it. So I appreciate your allocation and I Assume that you have already considered the safety criteria. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. We think we agreed that it would be an enhancement for the Richmond Parkway to be re-striped and to address these seven locations Remember as I said Richmond Parkway is one of the is in the high injury corridor

I agree. So I make a motion that we pass the item. I know I'm making an alternative motion, substitute motion.

Substitute. Substitute motion.

With your permission, Vice Mayor. Yes. I make a substitute motion that we pass the item as is.

I second.

All right. One last question before we go to vote. I know that there's Measure J monies that we've been working with the Contra Costa Transit Authority to address the issues on the Richmond Parkway. How, since that money is theoretical at this point, how would that impact the timeline on getting the work done?

Well, the work, we can perform the work in Richmond Parkway this summer. But what you're describing is something that is an effort that we're going to continue doing it. But as you say, it's not guaranteed. But even if we receive it, we're talking about five years from now. And we're not fixing the roadway. I mean, to fix the roadway in the Richmond Parkway, you're talking about $40 million plus. Right. Okay. This is just a striping. except for the seven locations that I mentioned, the rest is just striping over the existing pavement.

Can I ask a question as well? Sorry.

So so um maybe with the Measure J monies we could put in solar lights so that so that it would be Mayor with the Measure J funding if it is provided in five years by that time it will need a continual refresh given the volume of traffic the the issue that's identified now is that they're the striping is non-existent and

Right, yes, okay, understood.

An additional question before we vote. So there are a number of different locations that were identified as high fatality collision locations, Carlson being one of those. So the Richmond Parkway is not the only one and maybe even not even the one with the highest number of fatalities and injuries. In fact, I think Carlson is one of the ones that has a lot of those things happening. Am I correct about that?

Well, you're correct that Carlson and other streets are part also of the high injury corridor network.

But in the case of Carlson, for example, we have a project that is... That's only dealing with part of Carlson, not the part that's on the other side of Cutting that runs parallel to Pullman. Is that correct? That's going unaddressed. And that's where at least two fatal accidents have happened in that stretch that is undressed.

No, you're correct. The... The point here is not which one is more important because all of them are. It's which one we can do now and address now.

I feel like there's this issue that keeps happening where if you don't put any energy into making a plan to address something, then it's never shovel ready. It'll never be ready. And so if we only focus elsewhere, then these locations that have a similar or greater need because we haven't done the work to prep them to be ready, we'll never be ready. And so it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I feel like this is, it's very frustrating because I've been here in this position for three years now, only three years, but during this three years, I feel like I've been kind of trying to follow your lead, trying to listen, trying to, okay, let me watch what you do and trust the process. But I'm also seeing a pattern where we have serious issues But because we're not putting the energy in to create a plan for them, they're not ready. And so other things go first that are ready.

Maybe I misunderstood. So you're talking about the area that is towards the south of Carlson, right?

I'm talking about the area that is north of Cutting. Between Broadway and Carlson, that's where the fatal accidents have happened. There's memorials there to the young people who lost their lives. It is an area that has many fatalities, an area that has many problems. We've known about it for years, and there is no current plan to address it.

You meant Broadway and Cutting, right?

Broadway and Cutting on Carlson. That stretch is not a part of the Carlson project. It is definitely a high collision zone.

Joseph has some information right now to share.

Just to provide an update, the Carlson Crosstown Phase 2 project starts at Broadway. and ends at Tahoma, there are discussions to maybe perhaps leave the underpass area out due to some Caltrans coordination issues, but currently right now we are starting at Broadway and extending that traffic calming effort through various improvements starting from Broadway with your guys' support from previous budget adoptions.

This was an adjustment from the original plan? Because the original plan started at Cutting and went to Tahoma.

YES, THAT WAS AN ADJUSTMENT THAT THE COUNCIL CONSIDERED AS PART OF A PREVIOUS UNSPENT FUNDS ITEM. BUT THAT'S BEING FINE-TUNED. I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CONCERNS, VICE MAYOR ROBINSON, AND I THINK STAFF ARE TRYING TO MAKE DIFFICULT RECOMMENDATIONS. JUST FOR ADDITIONAL CONTEXT, ONE OF THE ITEMS THAT'S GOING TO COME TOWARDS COUNCIL IS, BECAUSE WE HAVE THIS NEW COLLEAGUE THAT'S JOINED THE TEAM, IS SHOULD WE PRIORITIZE LOOKING AT the traffic safety issues in the neighborhoods or should that person be spending time respectfully following up on the Ciclovia item. So one of the items that the council is going to have to consider is because this is the senior transportation person, right, is should we work with a community-based organization Encourage them to do that work and the senior transportation person can work through the list That's been identified by the community since we have a finite amount of staff So those are some of the policy questions that will be coming to the City Council to help prioritize What resource allocation I'm gonna make one last comment and let the vote happen so my concern is is that this is one of the number one issues that we hear from all districts

There are other zones, not just Carlson, but other areas where there's high fatalities, especially along the stretch leading up to St. Paul Avenue. The Richmond Parkway and Carlson are not the only zones. If you look at that report, it's quite clear. What I don't see is us addressing those zones. I felt like we had this additional money and I believed when we had voted for it that it was going to go towards addressing some part of those zones and I don't see that happening. So I have a concern. I have a concern that that we're we're not addressing. We're putting all of these things on a list that just sits there. So I just make that public and let it be.

Council member Wilson.

Hi, thanks for the presentation. So thank you for referring us back to the presentation for May 5th, the Attachment 9. It's helpful because we're getting literally hundreds of pages of these presentations, and so it's nice to go back to this one. And one of the questions I have is that, and again, I haven't had much time to cross-reference these two documents, but it looks to me like the projects that were picked for this additional $6 million in surplus are different from the ones that are listed as high priority, traffic calming, high priority design. Like I'm not seeing the projects that were flagged two weeks ago as being high priority. I do have a question of like, WHY, IF THESE ARE, IF THE ONES THAT YOU'RE PUTTING 6 MILLION TOWARDS ARE THE BEST ONES TO DO, WHY WEREN'T THEY ON THE HIGH PRIORITY LIST AND, CONVERSELY, WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST GO PICK FIVE THINGS OFF THE HIGH PRIORITY LIST AND STICK IT FOR THE 1 MILLION? I REMEMBER THE 6 MILLION. AND, YEAH, I'LL JUST LET YOU ANSWER AND THEN I'LL GIVE MY OPINION.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL MEMBER WILSON. The truth is the direction has been addressing more neighborhood concerns than the high injury corridor network. So that is what we're trying to turn into. The locations that you see here, some of them are part of the high injury corridor network, and some are projects that there's previous commitments. For example, improved safety and accessibility around the Rice Youth Center. This is a commitment that we have had for a period of time, and this improves the safety of pedestrians around that area, around that building. So that one is one that we not only want to improve by reducing the crosswalk length, but also to improve the pavement. Right now that we're going to be there and we're going to stripe and everything, let's do all that work right there. That is the first item. The second item is curb ramps. It's ADA. And it's a federal requirement when we pave the streets. And we are paving the streets right now. The rubberized cape seal project is ongoing right now. And there are some curb ramps that we need to finalize to be part of that project. The third item is more with all the new traffic that we're going to have in the three new parks. that we're going to bring to online this summer. We're talking about Boorman, Wendell, and Shield Street. We want to pave around those parks to complete kind of like the improvements in that area.

And so I appreciate, and sorry to cut you off, but I appreciate that my point isn't that these aren't good projects, and my point isn't that they shouldn't be done, but I guess I thought as well when we have surplus money that we were going to sort of move some of the things that were sitting on the list of stuff that was flagged for us both by residents and by presentations in previous months. And I think what this points to is a need for kind of the sort of like systems approach that you're doing with the CIP project. I think we This sort of points out, you know, for us to have sort of objective standards of what is the most important and the most dangerous. And because, frankly, I feel like I'm flying blind. You know, like, is it more dangerous on Richmond Parkway than on Carlson? I don't know. And I don't really have any information here to make that decision. And so I guess I have some discomfort with this list, not because I have discomfort with the specific projects, but that it I want to be able to say to constituents the reason we put the money here instead of there, even though you really wanted this thing, is because I can point out some kind of data, some kind of plan. And right now it feels like I can't tell you why these six or seven were put forward versus the six and seven that were presented or the 18 that were presented two weeks ago.

All right, it's time to move the item. The last, we have the substitute motion to approve the recommendations as written.

Yes, a motion by Councilmember Bonner, second by Councilmember Brown. Councilmember Brown?

Yes.

Councilmember Bonner?

Yes.

Councilmember Jimenez? No. Councilmember Wilson? No. Vice Mayor Robinson? No. Councilmember Zepeda?

Yes.

Mayor Martinez?

Yes.

The motion passes, but Councilmembers Jimenez, Wilson, and Vice Mayor Robinson voting no.

Next item.

Our next item is item N13E, that's to approve a third contract amendment with Charleston Mobility in an amount not to exceed $390,000 for a total not to exceed contract amount $3,540,341 to support the continued operation of the citywide electric bike share program till the end of the fiscal year to allow time to determine the future of the program during the fiscal year 2026-27 budget process. and appropriate $390,000 from the Environmental and Community Investment Agreement Transportation Budget to cover the cost of the contract amendment. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, this item was pulled by Claudia Citrum.

No in-person speakers?

And I believe she's the person that has their hand up online.

Mayor, would you like to receive a report from staff? FOR THE E-BIKE ITEM.

I'M SORRY, POINT OF ORDER.

WE DON'T HAVE ANY IN-PERSON SPEAKERS. WE HAVE ONE SPEAKER ONLINE AND I BELIEVE THAT'S THE PERSON THAT PULLED THE ITEM.

CAN WE HAVE THE SPEAKER, MR. MAYOR, TALK FIRST TO ANSWER THE QUESTION?

SURE. PLEASE CALL THE SPEAKER.

YES, THE SPEAKER IS ZOOM USER. PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME FOR THE RECORD AND YOU MAY BEGIN.

Claudia Citroen. So I would like to see the presentation. This is new business. And I also want to point out that this item has been pulled three times to the Council Fair to prioritize this over political gimmicks. Right now, this program, from the beginning, every ride is sponsored with close to $700. As far as I can see, there were 96 rides this year. You just bickered over spending for a traffic calming. This 300,000 should go to where Ms. Robinson want. It should not go into a black hole, which is... is Mayor Martina's pet project because he revived it after it died on the tomb, but I respectfully request, you ran the pro, you continued running the program for March, even though there was no funding approved. This is against the, as my understanding, against city charter. This program should have been temporary shut down because there was no funding. You did not do that. And city staff was now three meetings in attendance till 11 o'clock. hoping that this item will be discussed, but no, you, this was so extremely disrespectful for city staff. I do hope that the city manager continues to prioritize what really needs to be addressed. This bike project needs to be cut and it needs to be cut down and any funding needs to go to where Ms. Robinson, Ms. Jimenez and Ms. Wilson want. It needs to go to a successful program, which is the Richmond, RIDE program, which also depends on funding, which is running out. This program was a pilot program, bite into sour apple, and then shut it down as quickly as you can. Thank you.

Your time has expired, and we do not have any other speakers.

Well, I think it's only fair to do a presentation.

Sure, I'll give a brief version of our recommendation, and then if you want us to do the full presentation, we could also do that. So city staff brought this item forth as a contract amendment to pay past due invoices and to run the program till June 30th of this fiscal year, so the council could have AMPLE TIME AND COMPREHEND THIS PROGRAM'S EXISTENCE FOR THE FUTURE WITHIN THE WHOLE BUDGET PROCESS IN JUNE. SO THE FUNDING THAT WE'RE ASKING FOR IS TO CONTINUE THE PROGRAM UNTIL JUNE 30TH AND ALSO DURING THE BUDGET PROCESS WE WILL BE GIVING THREE OPTIONS WITH DATA RELATED TO CONTINUING THE PROGRAM, ENHANCING THE PROGRAM OR TERMINATING THE PROGRAM RELATED TO OUR EBIKE SHARE PROGRAM.

Okay, thank you.

I think that's pretty clear as to as to why we need to Adopt this agenda item. Go ahead.

I wanted to make a motion that we adopt this agenda item Yes, I just want to ask a clarifying question so is this funding for us to Close out any arrears that we currently have

CORRECT, IT WOULD MAKE US BE ABLE TO PAY THE ARRIERS AND ALSO TO JUNE 30TH BEFORE THE BUDGET IS ADOPTED FOR THE CITY COUNCIL. And if we want to continue, then we would ask for a different allocation.

Revisit at that time. So we don't have a choice but to approve this amount to close out basically until it's reconsidered at the June meeting.

If I just may, for context, both Deputy City Manager White and Project Manager Arredondo ARE PART OF THE SPECIAL FORCES THAT GO TO HELP WHEN THERE'S SOMETHING OFF THE WHEELS A LITTLE BIT IN THE CITY. SO THEY WERE PREVIOUSLY PART OF THE RHA CLEANUP TEAM AND NOW I ASK THEM TO SUPPORT TRANSPORTATION AS IT COMMUNITY SERVICES TO PUBLIC WORK. SO THIS IS PART OF THAT CLEANUP. AND SO I WANT TO APPRECIATE THEM BOTH FOR WORKING VERY DILIGENTLY NOT ONLY ON THIS ITEM BUT MORE BROADLY ON CCTA AND WORKING TOWARDS GETTING OVER $2 MILLION REIMBURSED FROM CCTA. AND SO THIS IS A CLEANUP ITEM BOTH HAVE WORKED COLLABORATIVELY ON THE IMMIGRATION ITEM AND SO THIS IS A SITUATION WHERE THERE WERE A HOST OF PRIORITIES THAT WERE GIVEN TO CITY STAFF AND THEY WERE TRYING TO WORK EXPEDITIOUSLY ON MANY FRONTS AND SO WE DO NEED TO HAVE A CLEANUP ON THIS AREAS ITEM. THERE WILL ALSO BE AN ITEM COMING FOR CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERATION WHERE WE'RE TRYING TO GET CONSENT FROM A GRANTOR AROUND ECIA FINAL APPROPRIATION TO BUILD OUT THE E-BIKE PROGRAM AS PART OF OUR TCC GRANT AND SO THAT MAY BE A WAY THAT THE COUNCIL KIND OF CONSIDERS SUNSETTING THIS PROGRAM AS PART OF BUILDING A NEW FACILITY THAT WOULD BE OPERATIONAL. SO THAT'S SORT OF WHAT IS TO COME IN THE FUTURE BUT JUST WANTED TO PROVIDE THAT CONTEXT BECAUSE THERE'S A LOT GOING ON.

Yeah. And the per ride amount is really excessive, in my opinion. And so I just want to know approving this this evening is handling the arrears, something that we have to do anyway, because the program still has well, the program has continued until it's active right now. Back up. Got it. OK. That's what I want to clarify. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. We have a first and a second.

Yes, we have a motion by Councilmember Wilson, second by Councilmember Jimenez to approve the item. Councilmember Brown?

Yes.

Councilmember Bonner?

Yes.

Councilmember Jimenez? Yes. Councilmember Wilson? Yes.

Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes.

Councilmember Zepeda?

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez? Yes. The vote is unanimous.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our next item is item N13F, and that's to introduce an ordinance for first reading, amending chapter 7.42 of the Richmond Municipal Code Sidewalk Vendor Ordinance to update administrative procedures, waive provisions, and enforce mint mechanisms. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address a council on this item, please raise your hand at this time. We do not have any in-person speakers.

If I remember correctly, we did have a presentation, we did have a discussion on this item. Is that correct? Do I remember correctly? Yes. Correct. So at this point, it's really a matter of voting. Did you have questions?

No, I said there was, when we were preparing to vote last time, there were questions and some comments that, um, vice mayor had, uh, at the last week at the meeting that when we were preparing to vote for this, they said they needed more time.

Oh, I asked questions in between meetings and got things answered. So I'm fine. Make a motion. So I,

I thought that we didn't do public comment. I think we did the presentation because I remember one of the vendors, one of the merchants was there, and they were there all the way until nighttime, and they were not able to speak. So I think we might have left without having public comment. Does anyone remember from a couple weeks ago?

Well, we do not have any public speakers.

There are no public speakers.

Perfect.

Okay.

Can I make a motion to approve the ordinance or the item is written? I second.

Councilmember Brown? Yes. Councilmember Banna? Yes. Councilmember Jimenez?

Yes.

Councilmember Wilson? Yes. Vice Mayor Robinson?

Yes.

Councilmember Cepeda?

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez?

Yes.

The vote is unanimous.

Thank you.

Can we move to one? It's already presented, just some discussion and vote.

So we had a presentation, we had speakers, just a matter of voting.

No.

No speaker. We did not hear the speakers. Okay. Yeah.

No, we had speakers. We didn't have public comment. It was a four-minute presentation. Okay. We can ask questions.

Yeah. Okay. So.

Which item are we going to?

Q1. Q1. Do we need a motion?

No, I can. Q1. We'll do Q1.

Okay, item Q1 is, okay, we received the presentation at the May 5th meeting. And now the item is for public comment and council deliberation. And it is to adopt a resolution that opposes the proposed Montezuma Carbon Sequestration of CO2 Pipeline Waste Dumping Projects, CO2 Pipeline Enrichment Contra Costa Solano Counties. We do have in-person speakers. Four in-person speakers. Anyone joining us online that would like to address the council, please raise your hand. Speakers are Don Gosney, Mark Wasberg, Marian Brennan, and Gary Hugis. Don Gosney.

Thank you. When we look at the agenda description on page 15, we read, this would require a massive build-out of pipelines through Richmond. Yet when we look at the attached maps, we're seeing zero pipelines in Richmond. The only ones we see are actually underwater in the Straits. So this is a simple, is this a simple error or is it a scare tactic to garner the further support of the, we hate Chevron fan club. We heard a presentation a couple of weeks back from your expert pals with CBE, but nothing from people that actually know anything about pipelines. By the way, you're aware, aren't you, that I am the retired president of the Steamfitters Local 342, the very people who are most highly skilled craftsmen in the country when it comes to the installation of pipelines? It's funny that knowing of my own expertise, not a one of you reached out to me to learn anything other than what you heard from CBE. Huh, funny how that works, isn't it? Exactly what are your concerns? Are you going to bring up the San Bruno pipeline explosion from the pipeline that was built more than 70 years back? Are you aware of the safety features built into today's pipelines, especially those that are placed underwater? Or are you going to rely on your expert friends, the ones with the extremely biased agenda? Are you going to take the path against actually cleaning up the refineries and making them safer because that better fits into your model of shutting down all the refineries? Forget about election politics where you try to out-progress the other candidates by showing your hatred for Chevron, no matter what the facts may say. How about you do your homework, learn the facts, and make a decision based less on campaign politics, the demands of that social club you seem to adore, and do what's best for the community?

Mark Waspert.

He's gone, okay.

Maureen Brennan.

Good evening, let's see here.

Yeah, there we go. I support the resolution that is before the council tonight, and that would be to oppose construction of a CO2 pipeline on the 45-mile stretch along the Carquinez Straits. I live in Rodeo and face the same dangerous scenario as that of Richmond. This technology is not scientifically proven. We are once again being guinea pigs here. It is extraordinarily expensive and the CO2 collection results at other global locations fall well below the predicted outcomes. The technology is not working. There are no plans for for secondary containment at the present time even near sensitive receptor sites. There are no plans for CO2 detection monitoring Regulation should establish that no CO2 pipeline project can be approved if there's any credible scenario where pipeline failure could result in fatalities or serious injury among the public, workers, or our precious wetlands. So we live in earthquake country. That's a threat. But also... Seeking a pipeline in the straits leaves it vulnerable to anchor drag of the many ships that use this busy and narrow thoroughfare. The refinery industry is even concerned at the runaway costs to them of technologies to connect their facility to the pipeline. I SERVE ON THE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS COMMISSION. WE RECEIVED THE SAME PRESENTATION THAT YOU RECEIVED FOUR WEEKS AGO. AND SITTING NEXT TO ME WAS A BUSINESSMAN ON THE COMMISSION. HE SAID CHEVRON IS LIVID. THEY DON'T WANT TO PAY THE BILLION-DOLLAR HOOKUP FEE THAT IT WOULD COST THEM TO HOOK INTO THIS PIPELINE SYSTEM. SO IT STRUCK ME THAT YOUR TIME HAS EXPIRED.

THANK YOU. GARY HUGE.

Hello, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members. My name is Gary Hughes. I work with the international organization Biofield Watch, and I'm here to speak in support of the resolution. just to speak very briefly to know that we are really facing a tidal wave of climate false solutions in this state. And it's really clear right now anyone who's paying attention to climate politics with the current reform, for instance, of the cap and trade program and the evisceration of the allowances that would be sold for revenue for supporting programs like the AB617 program, that the state is not necessarily in favor of communities working to protect themselves from these speculative technologies. So in this context, it's really important what you are doing in taking this step to approve this resolution in opposition to carbon dumping in the region. So I'd like to commend you. I'd like to thank you for taking this action. At this point in time, it's really important that we have local leadership stepping up to speak out against the false solution of carbon capture. So thank you very much for your time.

That was our last in-person speaker. Now we move to the online speakers.

We have eight speakers, and they are Jenny Stowers, Tom Cunhart, Gail Irwise, Lucinda Young, Isabel Penman, Valerie Hutton, Claire Brown, and Emma Ishi. Jeannie Stowers, you may begin.

Okay, there we go. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council, my name is Jeannie Stowers. I'm a Richmond resident. I am in Councilmember Bona's district. And I want to thank you for proposing this resolution and encourage you to approve this resolution. My fear about projects like this is they are deceptively, they sound deceptively easy. I mean, how easy it is, it would be if we could just take carbon, CO2, pipe it under the ground, stick it in the ground and be done with it. And it sounds deceptively easy and it is deceptively easy. It's not accurate. As has already been pointed out, where it's been done before. They have not found the results they have sought. And we don't want to be the guinea pigs for it being tried here. It's potentially dangerous. The pipelines have already been discussed, but the injection wells as well are also potentially dangerous to our communities. So please support this resolution and oppose this project or any other projects like this. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The next speaker is Tom Cunhart. You may begin.

Hi, I'm assuming you can hear me. Yes. My name is Tom Cunhart. I live in Oakland. I've been a Bay Area resident since 1977. I have two daughters and four grandkids in the Bay Area. And I'm very concerned about a project like this, so I commend you. for um wanting to pass this resolution to oppose uh carbon transport and pipeline under the bay uh leading from potentially uh two or three refineries to a sensitive wetland in solano county which unfortunately has been used as a dumping ground for the decades that i've i've been here and i think um it's wise to oppose this pipeline and uh i hope you do uh pass this resolution and and not take this risky step because as you've heard and you heard from isabel's presentation a couple of weeks ago the efforts to achieve this in other places and in the u.s and around the globe have failed miserably and in some places like satarsha mississippi pipeline exploded sending dozens of people to hospital first responder vehicles couldn't reach them because there's no oxygen in the air when it's displaced by CO2 gas. So that's just one example of how dangerous it could be. And in our area, we have far denser population than Satarsha, Mississippi. So it could affect many more hundreds or thousands of people here in the Bay Area if we have a rupture of this sort. So please do pass this resolution to oppose uh pipelines now or or sometime you know anytime in the future because this is uh unproven technology that's just too risky for us bay area residents to be dealing with this thank you for your time i appreciate your work thank you the next speaker is gail erweiss can you hear me yes

Hi, I'm not Gail Iyerweiss. I'm Jeff Kilbreth. I just forgot to change the name on the shared laptop. So some of you, most of you, I think, know me from the work I've done with AB617 and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. This means two things. I have regular interactions with CARB and regular interactions with Chevron. And although I sort of liked what Don Gosney said about, you know, like, did anybody ask the pipeline people about the safety? Well, and that's an important thing to do if this was mostly about the pipelines. But it's actually mostly about Using a technology that's unproven has a lot of risks associated with it in various places and not just in the pipelines. And most of all, for Richmond, it means getting Chevron to do something that Chevron doesn't want to do particularly. This is not being driven by Chevron, I hope you don't think. What Chevron would have to do would be burn a lot of fossil fuels to transform the carbon dioxide into a material that goes through the pipelines. You know, you're not putting a gas through, you're putting, you know, it's called sequestration, and it's a transformation of the gas into something that's very dangerous, but it also means a lot of pollution in our neighborhood, in our city. And trust me, we've got a lot of problems with pollution. And that's what AB 617 is all about, trying to actually reduce pollution and reduce our high asthma rates. But we do not need this. This is kind of a project that's designed by people whose only mission is to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And that's not the only issue. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Lucinda Young. Lucinda, you may begin.

Hi, my name is Lucinda Young, and can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes. Yes. And I'm a longtime Bay Area resident. I really appreciated the presentation at the last meeting. I am writing, I am speaking tonight to express my strong support of the resolution and strong opposition to this project. This is a seriously flawed plan, transporting dangerously compressed CO2 across the Bay Area by barge and pipeline. opens up our area, including Richmond, to catastrophic risks of CO2 leaks. These leaks, as has been referenced before, can lead to loss of consciousness, asphyxiation, seizures, even death, and that has occurred in some communities. We know from the state's EnviroScreen data that Richmond and other communities along the Coquina Strait are already subjected to very high levels of pollution and other environmental threats. And these proposed injection wells, which are to be built near the wetlands restoration project, these are very important to the Bay Area and our California ecosystems. So you have to ask, what's gonna be gained by this project in return for all of this risk to our health? Not very much. Carbon capture has been shown again and again to not be a viable solution to carbon pollution. Carbon capture is expensive. It's inefficient. It doesn't deliver promises to reduce carbon pollution. So I would strongly urge you to pass this resolution and send a message that we are not going to allow this in our community. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Valerie Hutton. Valerie, you may begin.

Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, thank you. Good evening, Mayor Martinez and council members. My name is Valerie Ventry Hutton. I'm with 350 Bay Area Action and I live in Contra Costa County. I want to thank the council for considering the resolution and I'm urging you to adopt it. As you've heard from all sorts of folks, there were documented safety concerns with carbon capture and storage and specifically with carbon transport by pipeline. And these concerns increase when the pipelines are near water. The Chevron refineries part of the Montezuma project and any CO2 pipelines related to the Chevron operations will likely be located near and around water as are their current pipelines for the oils and gas. This means any leaks going to impact San Pablo Bay ecosystems as well as the city of Richmond and surrounding communities. As you've heard from others, the technology is extremely expensive. It's not economically viable without our taxpayer subsidies. And every dollar spent on carbon capture and storage is one less dollar spent on health, safety, and known solutions. The resolution is a critical step in protecting the health and safety of the city of Richmond and surrounding communities, and I urge you to pass the resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Claire Brown.

Hello, good evening city council members and mayor. I'm really pleased to be here tonight because I appreciate all you all do for our city. And I want to talk, oh, I'm an economics professor also. So let me talk a bit about the economics of what's happening with this proposal. The projects being presented by Big Oil is a climate solution, but the economics tell a different story. Although the Richmond City Council would not have upfront costs, the city and its residents will still bear substantial hidden costs. Pipeline construction degrades the land, disrupts the neighborhoods, and creates significant dust, truck traffic, vibration, and noise pollution for the nearby residents and businesses. These impacts fall especially heavily on lower-income, vulnerable communities that are already disproportionately exposed to pollution. The project would transport the compressed CO2 from Chevron and the nearby refineries with the goal of extending the lifespan of those polluting industries rather than accelerating a transition from fossil fuel. And then when accidents happen, which they will, the local government bears the substantial cost of emergency response and cleanup responsibilities. So there is a cost facing the city council and the city down the line. Richmond taxpayers could ultimately shoulder significant financial burdens associated with pipeline incidents while the private companies behind their projects retain the profits. So for these reasons, the Richmond City Council should hopefully oppose the Montezuma Carbon Project and its associated CO2 pipeline infrastructure that would run through our city. The risk to the public health, community, and safety is far beyond what we would get in return. So thank you so much for all you do for Richmond.

Thank you. Your time has expired. Our next speaker is Emma Ishii.

Hi there, if you all can hear me, my name is Emma Ishii and I work at Asian Pacific Environmental Network in Richmond, and I'm here speaking in support of Resolution Q1. I just want to say APEN stands firmly alongside our other communities like Venetia and Sassoon City, who would also be impacted by this carbon hub. It's so important that we understand that whether we know it or not, we're all connected in that fight. And all of our communities actually live those health impacts every day. And so we also can take the research and like the actual examples like in Sartosha, in Mississippi to see that this is really a risky and dangerous technology. and um you know just really want you to be considering all the residents of your city and also those who already have asthma and respiratory issues and think about like the potential like what could happen is something um ruptured um we can't keep polluting our communities by building out more infrastructure like this that to keep the infrastructure online um And we really need to move towards investing in health and safety beyond the fossil fuel industry. So thank you to Councilmember Jimenez for bringing this item forward. And I urge urge you all to vote in support of this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. And that was our last public speaker.

Very educational. I'm still confused about this scenario. Has Chevron applied for it? When is it going to happen? What benefit does it have? What the alternatives are? Is it a mandate that Chevron has to do? I have no idea why this came to the city council and why we're supposed to approve it. Seems like a You know, good thing, pro-environment, this resolution. And as a member of the Hazmat Commission, I know we already have too many hazmat pipelines under the city. We don't want to add to it. But I'm totally puzzled what the whole thing is about.

I can say that this was a plan that was proposed by Mr. Levine to make money. And basically what he wants to do is to promote cap and trade through the sequestering of CO2. By getting rid of the CO2 as a pollution, what he's actually doing is giving Chevron and other polluters tax credits or cap and trade credits so that they can raise their pollution level.

So did we ever have a presentation from them here?

We did. That was... When was it? It was last session.

No, it was pro the resolution. How about the application for the project on Levin and Chevron?

No, we haven't had that. We did have a presentation at the hazardous waste materials And I believe you were there for that.

So, but yeah, but I haven't heard the other side, so it's hard for me to make a decision.

I don't think it's that difficult to make a decision considering that that between 2010 and 2023 there were over 8,100 reported pipeline incidents in the U.S., averaging roughly 1.7 incidents per day.

Mr. Martinez, I would like to be well informed about both sides, so I won't be able to vote.

Is the presenter on Zoom? Can you raise your hand if you are on Zoom and are able to answer some of these questions?

Actually, I want the questions to be answered by the other side. I believe we need to have a balanced view and, you know, well-informed to make a well-informed decision.

I put this item on the agenda because some of the residents in Richmond came to me about the issues that this project could have. And I think it's more a prevention. It's not like it's going to happen right now, but it's a preventing thing to know that these kind of projects we are not going to accept in the city of Richmond. And you saw the presentation and the information and the dangers of these kind of projects in the city of Richmond and in the other cities. So I think like for me, it was enough to really put the resolution and to have the city just have a position about projects like these that are dangerous and present unsafe conditions to the city of Richmond.

I really appreciate that and respect that and I am pro-environment and I would definitely vote no once I know more, but to me it's just too hypothetical.

It's not hypothetical. There are many incidences in which these have failed and they have created pollution. In fact, there's been incidences in which people have lost consciousness because they approached the pipeline without knowing that it was the CO2 pipeline. And so I would like to make a motion to accept this.

I second it.

We'll call.

Council Member Brown.

Abstain.

Council Member Bonner.

Abstain. Sorry, I abstain, but I would love to learn more and be able to support it in the future.

Council Member Jimenez.

Yes.

Council Member Wilson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Robinson. Yes. Council Member Zepeda.

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez.

Yes.

The motion passes with Council Members Brown and Bonner abstaining.

KCRT, can you please put up the budget PowerPoint? Our next item?

It's a budget. Item 01 is to receive an update on departmental presentations from community services, economic development, and fire departments as part of the continued review of the draft fiscal year 26-27 annual operating budget and fiscal 26 through 31 five-year capital improvement plan with discussions upon completion of all departmental presentations and receive updated financial and operational considerations. Anyone joining us online that would like to address accounts on this item, please raise your hand at this time. We do have in-person speakers.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council and Richmond community. Tonight, we are continuing the city's review of the draft fiscal year 26-27 operating budget and the five-year capital improvement plan. On May 5th, we presented the first set of department overviews along with the initial draft budget. Next slide. Historically, the city of Richmond has trended and lagged behind the broader Bay Area when there are layoffs and downsizing and other negative economic trends. Recently, Bay Area tech company layoffs have included numerous companies, Meta, LinkedIn, CloudFare, Pinterest, Cisco, Amazon, and Coinbase, to name some. Companies are requiring AI skills and are streamlining and consolidating roles and spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure and new technology. We should anticipate that if other cities are experiencing contractions in revenue and warned notices are being issued, that we should be cautious. We also want to remind the council and community that negotiations remain in progress for three public safety units. Once those MOUs are finalized, we will update the financial projections and we will continue to refine the budget. We are also requesting that the city council keep in mind the 34 council key initiatives requested since January, 2025, and look to refine those based on the staff that is available upon completion of those MOUs. This evening we're requesting that the City Council also receive presentations from Community Services, Economic Development, which will include the Richmond Housing Authority and the Port. The Richmond Housing Authority, per federal guidelines, will have a specific presentation under RHA in the manner that is required for adoption under the federal guidelines. but this is to give you a programmatic overview this evening. In addition, you will hear from the fire department. Our intended goal is to ensure that the council and the community are aware of the operational needs, cost pressures, and factors shaping the budget as we move forward to the May 26th study session and for final adoption of the budget in June. This slide provides an overview of the sequencing of the presentation this evening. Next slide. IN ADDITION, PER THE CHARTER, I HAVE CONFERRED WITH THE MAYOR REGARDING THE BUDGET DEVELOPMENT AND I HAVE MET WITH YOU INDIVIDUALLY OR OFFERED TO DO SO TO REVIEW THE DRAFT FISCAL YEAR 26-27 BUDGET. frameworks for priorities and are open to council recommendations on how to refine those or offer others. Thus far I have received a definitive recommendation for a fourth item to be considered and want to encourage the council to provide your recommendations for consideration during the budget checklist upon the conclusion of the presentation this evening and again on the 26th. THE FRAMEWORK THAT IS RECOMMENDED IN TERMS OF PRIORITIES IS MEANT TO BE A GUIDE, BUT IT IS NOT BY ANY MEANS FINALIZED AND WE WELCOME THE COUNCIL'S INPUT. This is the recommended action. Next slide. In terms of the budget schedule, we want to remind the city council that we will have an additional round of presentations on the 26th. We'll endeavor to get through all the remaining departments and that we will return on June 26th for the majority of the discussion. That leaves us one week to turn around the final budget for adoption on June 23rd. So you can see that's a pretty aggressive timeline. AS SUCH, WE WANT TO REMIND THE COUNCIL THAT THE BUDGET ADOPTION ON JUNE 23rd IS MEANT TO BE AN ADOPTION OF THE BUDGET ENVELOPE AND IF THE CITY COUNCIL WANTS TO MAKE REFINEMENTS AFTER THE BUDGET ADOPTION, YOU ARE CERTAINLY ALWAYS WELCOME TO DO SO. WE ENCOURAGE THE CITY COUNCIL TO DO SO AT THE QUARTERLY BUDGET PRESENTATIONS THAT YOU RECEIVE THROUGHOUT THE FISCAL YEAR. NEXT SLIDE. AS WE SPOKE ABOUT PREVIOUSLY, WE WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE COUNCIL IS AWARE THAT CITY STAFF ARE CONTINUING TO MONITOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND INFLATION CONDITIONS BECAUSE THEY DO IMPACT OUR CITY OPERATIONS. WE'RE PARTICULARLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE GEOPOLITICAL CONFLICTS AND DISRUPTIONS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY energy supply and commodity markets. In particular, not just here locally, but internationally, there's significant concern regarding food prices and how these ongoing global conflicts can lead to, unfortunately, there not being enough food available to sustain specific countries because they import food. So this is very concerning when we're having these sort of fluctuations in the market that it can cause devastation not just here locally but throughout the world in terms of food access. Next slide. some of the uh things that we wanted to make sure that we lifted up for the city council as it relates to operational costs that are impacting our budget things such as spleet are significantly increasing in costs our utility costs continue to outpace inflation and in addition our capital projects as deferred maintenance continues for longer periods of time increases exponentially We are also having to pay increased costs for maintenance and repairs and our service delivery is outpacing the revenue growth. Next slide. In terms of our workforce capacity and position affordability, we talked a little bit about this last week, but just wanted to reinforce this, that commencing in fiscal year 21-22, we had 581 FTEs, and we are initially targeting 684 FTEs. That's a net increase of approximately 92 FTEs. DURING THAT TERM AND SO WE WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS AS WE MOVE FORWARD IN THE BUDGET PROCESS BASED ON HOW MOU NEGOTIATIONS CONCLUDE AS WELL AS AS WE RECEIVE UPDATED THE CITY COUNCIL WILL ADOPT THE BUDGET PRIOR TO US RECEIVING OUR FINAL CALPERS PREMIUMS. AND SO THOSE HAVE BEEN INCREASING EXPONENTIALLY AND SO WE WILL MAKE REFINEMENTS IN Q1 AS NEEDED TO SUPPORT THOSE INCREASED COSTS IF THEY EXCEED OUR CURRENT ESTIMATES. And so you may recall last week we put up for City Council consideration the desire to focus on three key priorities. Again, we welcome input and seek City Council alignment on these three priorities or some other priorities that the Council would like to offer and come to consensus on. We do have the Veolia contract that's expiring in May 2027 that has been an ongoing concern for as long as I can recall. ALSO CONTINUED REQUESTS FOR PARK RENOVATION AND MAINTENANCE CITYWIDE AND A NEED FOR US TO FOCUS ON INNOVATION AND UPDATING SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY OF OPERATIONS AND INCREASE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN TERMS OF DIGITIZING THINGS, MAKING FORMS ACCESSIBLE ONLINE AND REPORTING OUT IN REAL TIME ON THE PROGRESS THAT WE ARE ACHIEVING AS CITY STAFF. NEXT SLIDE. IN TERMS OF THIS WAS BROUGHT UP EARLIER REGARDING PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT AND HOW DO WE ALIGN THAT WITH COMPLETE STREETS AND OTHER PROJECTS AND SO CITY STAFF IS WORKING EXPEDITIOUSLY TO TRY TO ALIGN THE 80 CAPITAL PROJECTS WITH FUNDING RESOURCES AND CONTINUING TO APPLY FOR OTHER GRANTS. I DO WANT TO NOTE THAT AT MY LAST CHECK IN WITH FINANCE THIS WEEK ON OUR MONTHLY UPDATE, I'M PLEASED TO SAY THAT WE NOW HAVE OVER $309 MILLION IN GRANTS AND THAT AMOUNT IS INCREASING. AND SO REALLY WANT TO THANK AND COMMEND ALL CITY STAFF FOR THEIR ONGOING COLLABORATION BETWEEN DEPARTMENTS. THIS IS THE MOST COLLABORATION THAT I'VE SEEN IN MY TENURE WITH THE CITY OF RICHMOND ACROSS DEPARTMENTS TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES IN OUR COMMUNITY. I THINK THE CITY COUNCIL SHOULD BE VERY PLEASED WITH THAT NUMBER. THAT'S A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT. Of revenue that's coming into our city by applying for grants and so when we are able to procure grants to accomplish some of our CIP needs that then allows us to hopefully be able to invest a significant portion of our revenue for CIP into paving and complete streets and so You'll see here that what we really need on an annual basis is approximately $18 million. Next slide. AND WITH THAT I WILL TURN IT OVER TO DEPUTY CITY MANAGER WHITE WHO HAS THE PRIVILEGE OF HAVING THE MOST DEPARTMENTS UNDER HER LEADERSHIP AND SO WANT TO THANK HER FOR ALL THE GREAT WORK THAT SHE DOES IN ADDITION TO ALL OF THE COLLEAGUES FOR THE COMMUNITY SERVICES TEAM THAT ARE HERE THIS EVENING AND I'M SURE SHE WILL PERSONALLY ACKNOWLEDGE ALL OF THEM.

SO THANK YOU. I OF COURSE WILL. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council members, enrichment community, LaShonda White, deputy city manager. So as deputy city manager over community services, I get to serve as the director of community services and also have the opportunity to work on lots of other projects such as labor, negotiations, and the things that Shasta mentioned in terms of the cleanup crew. Community Services is one of the most visible, people-centered departments in the city of Richmond. We serve residents every day through recreation, libraries, literacy for every adult program, workforce development, violence prevention and crisis response. City staff continue to deliver high impact services across Richmond, which reflects a strong commitment to community wellness, safety, education and economic opportunity. Before I go too deep into the presentation, I do want to take a moment to thank the city council and the city manager for the continued support and investment of community services. I also want to thank all of the deputy directors that are here in the audience. Even though I am presenting this presentation tonight, all of them worked on their own slides, so this is their voice coming through. We have Kate Epler, who oversees the library, Rajana Maharaj, who oversees recreation, and Neighborhood Services. Sam Vaughn oversees the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Community Crisis Program, and then Tamara Walker, who oversees Employment and Training. Staff work collaboratively across programs to deliver equity-centered services. We manage facilities, and we respond to evolving community needs. The success of this department is driven by dedicated staff who continue to maximize partnerships, resources, and community engagement. Community Services relies heavily on collaboration both internally and externally to maximize impact. We coordinate with community-based organizations. As an example, ONS works with RISE. The library works with the Bay Area Tutoring Association. We also work with county partners. CCRP works with the county health department in A3, work with schools and other city departments to deliver programs efficiently and effectively and creatively. These partnerships allow Richmond to stretch limited resources while maintaining strong community-based delivery. Some of the pictures you see here are some of the exciting programs that I also get to work on and participate in. You have an image of the arts corridor. I get to work with the economic development department on doing that strategic plan with the consultant. I also am working with public works and community development around the MLK Community Center and trying to engage community in Santa Fe and Coronado neighborhoods and what it would mean to bring back the MLK Community Center. We are excited to state that we are part of the grant making team within the city of Richmond. Um, we, within calendar years, 25 and 26, we have received, um, over 19 million is the right slide up. Oh, it is. Okay. Sorry. Over $19 million in grants. SO IN NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES, WE HAVE 750,000 WE'VE RECEIVED FOR NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR GRANT. RECREATION HAS RECEIVED 662,000 FOR OUTDOOR ADVENTURES. OFFICE OF NEIGHBORHOOD SAFETY HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN RECEIVING CALVIP FUNDING. WE JUST ENDED A THREE-YEAR CONTRACT OR GRANT FOR $6 MILLION AND HAVE AN ADDITIONAL 2 MILLION COMING. Rock is has over a million dollars for opioid related services The library has a large amount of money for the library renovation project, but also grants to support library services and literacy services And then employment and training receives funding from through the state as well as they go after grants to provide continue services Thank You Jerry We love supporting events in recreation and in community services. And this is an example of the 17 city sponsored events that are included in the budget that council adopts every year. You can see the 25, 26 events that are listed here. And then we have a proposed list of events that we are recommending that city council consider allocating funding to for the total of 187 events. THOUSAND DOLLARS. AND IT ALSO OUTLINES WHAT WE REQUIRE FROM THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT LEAD THESE PROGRAMS A MAJORITY MINUS THE LITERACY FAIR WHICH IS LED IN HOUSE BY THE LIBRARY STAFF IN COLLABORATION WITH OTHER GROUPS. BUT ALL OF THESE OTHER SPONSORED EVENTS ARE PRIMARILY LED BY OUTSIDE ORGANIZATIONS. SO WE DO WANT TO MAKE SURE WE'RE STILL BEING GOOD STEWARDS OF THE CITY'S FINANCES AND WE ASK FOR INVOICES, PROPOSED EXPENDITURES TO MAKE SURE THEY ALIGN WITH CITY OF RICHMOND POLICIES AND PROCEDURES. WE WANT TO HELP ADVERTISE EVENTS AND AFTER THE EVENT WE'RE NOT ASKING FOR MUCH. WE WANT PICTURES AND A SUMMARY WITH SOME HIGHLIGHTS AND ALSO RECEIPTS TO SUSTAIN THE AMOUNT OF FUNDING THAT WE RECEIVED. It is important for me to note that the amounts listed here do not provide the full picture of the City of Richmond's fiscal investment in ensuring these events happen and are safe for the community. For example, larger events like Juneteenth and Cinco de Mayo require substantial support, usually in the form of overtime, from recreation, public works, police, and fire. And as an example, just because we just had Cinco de Mayo, it was an amazing event, YOU KNOW, THOUSANDS OF RESIDENTS AND INDIVIDUALS CAME TO CELEBRATE WITH US HERE IN RICHMOND, BUT IT COST OVER $100,000 IN STAFF TIME. WE GAVE 20 TO SUPPORT THE EVENT, BUT RPD PUBLIC WORKS FOR BOTH STREETS AND PARKS AND FIRE COLLECTIVELY IN TERMS OF STAFFING, IT WAS OVER $100,000 IN STAFF COMMITMENT. SO IT JUST SHOWS THE CITY OF RICHMOND'S INVESTMENT IN THE WORK THAT WE DO AND THE EVENTS THAT WE SUPPORT. These are a few images of some of the events that happen throughout the city of Richmond from the list I just mentioned. So now I'll go into employment and training. They support workforce development through the administration division as well as Richmond Works, Richmond Youth Build, and Youth Works. They support all of the goal areas with the main focus and goal area two around revenue and economic development. ENT's core functions are outlined on this slide. They manage extensive workforce programs, employer partnerships, apprenticeships, initiatives, youth employment services, and federal compliance requirements. The existing staff balance intensive reporting, grant management, case management, and participant support responsibilities simultaneously. A lot of the work happens behind the scenes, but it is essential to maintaining funding, compliance, and workforce opportunities for Richmond residents. Staff are managing an increasing number of grants, initiatives, reporting requirements and federal policy changes while continuing to deliver core services. Existing staff are balancing opportunities for program growth with the need to maintain compliance, direct participant services and workforce outcomes. On this slide, I really want to highlight that there's an upcoming federal participation requirement that is tied to public assistance programs, which is HR1, and we are expecting this to significantly increase demand for workforce services in Richmond. Staff are proactively preparing for increased requests for job placement, training, and supportive services, despite no additional funding being attached to these mandates from the government. Staff are preparing for potentially significant increases in participant value. without corresponding operational funding increases. We also, in a few slides, I'll talk more about the youth works and what is happening there around our summer and year-round employment programs, but staff is balancing rising program costs, increasing wages, and growing demand while also trying to maximize available opportunities. Staff is managing grants, compliance systems, workforce programs, and participant needs with limited capacity for expansion and innovation. So for YouthWorks, I know we've had a number of questions about what's happening in our YouthWorks program, and we really do want to thank the city council for the investment in YouthWorks. So we do have, YouthWorks provides a variety of programs and services and support outside of just the summer and year-round workforce program. They have workforce experience, on-the-job training, They do business and industry trips and supportive services through the staff there. They provide life skills workshops and work readiness workshops. But the focus for this slide is around the summer and year-round summer employment opportunities that support workforce readiness, career exposure, and positive youth engagement. This program continues to serve as both a workforce strategy as well as a long-term violence prevention investment. In fiscal year 25-26, this program was supported through Reimagine funds as well as WIOA funds. In total, only $2.2 million. And as you can see here, you know, we have five full-time staff that are supporting all of the young people that go through this program. And the funding has to support their personnel costs, which you have seen previously have been rising over the years, as well as participant stipends. And we pay out $19.18 since an hour that will go up in January. And we offer participants a minimum of 100 hours. And there's a trade-off there. Because we have limited resources, we have a finite amount of resources, you either can have more participants with less hours or go deeper with fewer participants and more hours. And so some possible options for consideration once council is able to discuss and provide recommendations. and we are asking some policy questions around what is the desired number of youth that the council would like to see us serve, both under 18 and over 18, and what's the desired number of hours we would like for those different age groups to be able to receive. I've heard that there are some individuals who may want us to consider that young people under the age of 18 get 300 hours and individuals over 18 through 24 get 500 hours. Just for 100 youth at $19.18, that's going to total $1.5 million for just 200 youth. So that gives you a sense of what it means if we have less youth but more hours versus more youth with less hours. And I do want to note that the city is paying for if somebody gets 100 hours and they're working for an organization, we're hoping that that first 100 hours gets them in the door, the employer is excited because the city of Richmond is paying for that young person to come work for them, but that because of the support from employment and training staff, that they will shine once they're there. And the employer has the option to keep them all longer. And we have done that within the city of Richmond. But we are looking for some policy direction when the time comes. Employment and training continues to deliver measurable results for Richmond residents. And these are just a few of the outcomes that reflect the dedication and effectiveness of the work. We at the site close to Civic Center, we do have a career center and individuals could come in and access computers. I worked there for like three hours and I was really tired because of all the individuals that came and the questions that I had to answer that I was not able to answer. So I really, my hat is off to employment and training staff that are sitting there in the community, in the career center and they're helping people look for jobs, complete resumes, fax things or email things. And some people come in with different levels of skills. So we are serving over 4,000 members that are receiving resources there. We have award-winning Richmond BUILD program. We have cohorts that graduate. We will invite you all to come. But we have 48 graduates this year so far, and they receive a lot of training so that they can go into the trades and have high paying jobs. And then we have a youth build program that also the young people also get skills in the trades, but then also have the ability to graduate with a GED if they have not been able to do that through the school system. This is a few pictures of Richmond Works, our employment and training in action. We have YouthBuild graduation with the RichmondBuild graduation. Staff are consistently, they are everywhere. If you go to a community event, you're going to see somebody from ENT at a community event sharing about the amazing work that they do. So thank you to ENT. Next, I want to share about recreation. Recreation staff deliver programs and services for youth, adults, seniors. We do aquatics, sports, camps, and neighborhood services. We remain essential to quality of life, public safety, wellness, and community connection. This also is a division that hits all six of the city council's strategic goal areas. Recreation staff manage a wide range of responsibilities including programming, facility operations, permits, contracts, rentals, events, volunteer coordination, and neighborhood services. Staff deliver these services while also supporting outreach, marketing, policy development, and operational compliance. I do want to mention that we have seven community centers, two senior centers, two swim centers, and an auditorium that staff are programming out of but also managing day to day. These are a few pictures of the events that we host in-house. Literacy fair we support in recreation, but that mainly is done by library. These are 19 events that recreation staff hosts. So we plan, implement, debrief. It's a lot of work if you've ever planned anything. I've planned many a birthday party for my kids. And it is tiresome. So I just want to thank staff for all of the varying events that we do at different locations throughout the city. This year, we were able to do some special one-time events because of our Neighbor to Neighbor grant, but we want you to be ready for some of the upcoming events that are happening. We're celebrating the Plunge's 100th year anniversary. That will happen in August. We're also celebrating 10 years for the Richmond Tool Library, and we're excited to work in collaboration with public works and community-based organizations to celebrate the grand reopening of the beautiful Shields Reed Park. more pictures. We love pictures. We'd like to capture all the fun that is happening in recreation. So this is just a few pictures that while we're activating parks, facilities and public spaces. Recreation staff are managing growing demand across aquatic sports camp senior programs rentals and community center operations while also absorbing increasing workloads supporting expanded facility use new park amenities and year-round programming and these operational demands continue to grow as community expectations and facility needs increase and We also manage a stationary tool library and a mobile tool library. We do grant administration, neighborhood services, and community partnerships alongside our core programming responsibilities. Staff absorb additional responsibilities across programs and facilities, which can affect our division's ability to expand programs, coordinate outreach, and launch new initiatives. but we continue to prioritize core programming, public safety, and direct resident services despite growing workloads. Protecting recreation's core services means supporting existing staff with operational improvements and streamline processes that will help protect program quality and responsiveness and to ensure that facility maintenance and infrastructure improvements happen that directly support recreation programming, safety, and long-term sustainability. Just some numbers. This is a correction. We made a correction from what was shared earlier. But we have issued 390 permits, which equate to over 7,000 bookings for facilities, parks, and special events. We have processed over 186 fee waivers for organizations that have wanted to access our city facilities and also given over 200 discounts for those facilities. And as I share, we've held over 20 grants. We have served over 4,800 young people through our various programs from tiny tots all the way to our senior programs. I mean, sorry, not seniors because it says youth. Through summer camps and specialty camps, we've served over 1,000 individuals through our 40 outdoor activity days and have provided over 100 opportunities through our adult day program. Like I said, we love pictures, more pictures. We have served over 5,000 participants in our aquatic centers for drop-in swims, swim lessons, Aqua Zumba, et cetera. We've also served over 3,000 adults through a variety of different fun activities from computer lab to Zumba to volleyball. And we also served over 3,500 meals, hot meals and excursions and workshops and daily enrichment activities for our seniors. A few pictures of our tool lending library. A lot of cities don't have this. I will say that Richmond is extremely unique and diverse in terms of what we do in community services. Um, we have tool lending libraries, we have neighborhood services and, We coordinate really well with our neighborhood councils. We mentioned we have an office of neighborhood safety and we have a community crisis response program. We manage our own library. The counties do that for every other city. So we do a lot of things that aren't, and we have our own workforce development board as a city, which is unlike any other city because they all are managed by counties. BUT FOR THE TOOL LENDING LIBRARY, JUST FOR TWO DAYS A WEEK AT OUR STATIONARY SITE AT THE RECREATION COMPLEX, WE HAVE LOANED OVER 4800 ITEMS AND HAVE OVER 284 ACTIVE MEMBERS THAT UTILIZE THOSE SITES, THOSE TOOLS. AND WE ARE LOOKING TO EXPAND UP TO DISTRICT 4, WORKING WITH THE FIRE DEPARTMENT TO HAVE SOME TOOLS AVAILABLE IN THAT AREA TO HELP WITH FIRE SAFETY AND DEFENSIBLE SPACES. We do a lot of great work in trying to engage our community members. So we've engaged over 200, almost 300 volunteers through five volunteer beautification events. And here are some pictures of the things that we do. Mentioned grants that we receive. We really are trying to focus some of our grant activity and awards around serving youth or teens. And we have been able to do some great adventures with our young people within Richmond. For neighbor-to-neighbor program, we just concluded our neighbor-to-neighbor program. We received a $750,000 grant, and we were able to work with 17 neighborhood councils to do a variety of different projects to make neighbor-to-neighbor connections stronger. So thank you to recreation staff. Now I'll move to library and our Literacy for Every Adult program. They support residents of all ages through libraries, digital access, literacy instruction, and community engagement activities. And these services remain essential to education, access, and lifelong learning in Richmond. This group also hits and contributes to all of the six strategic goals within the city of Richmond. Staff manage public spaces. We have one main library, which is under renovation, but we're at a temporary location, which we're sharing with the auditorium and we have two branches. So they manage public spaces. They provide customer service. They help people find the books of their dreams that spark their imagination, their imagination, We host a variety of free events from magicians to jugglers to reading to a dog. And we also provide reference and reader advice to customers. We ensure residents have access to books, technology, educational opportunities, and can just be in a space that they trust and feel safe in. LEAP staff continue to provide GED preparation, adult basic education, ESL instruction, digital literacy, family literacy services throughout the community. Staff, we have full-time staff, but we also have volunteers that support tutoring and individualized education support for our adult learners. Super excited. Coming soon is our new bookmobile, 28 feet of fun. It is coming to a location near you. It is all electric. We received a grant as well as we're able to use ECIA funds to support the purchase of this new bookmobile. Our old one, we had to put it out to pasture. We could just look at it. It couldn't drive, so we're really excited. It wouldn't pass smog. We had to put it down. Oh, no, it's okay. So we're excited about the bookmobile. We are currently outfitting it with books and equipment and trying to determine what our service schedule will be. So we will share more about that. And some of that is dependent on staffing about who can drive the bookmobile. We want to thank council, community, everybody again for coming to the groundbreaking for the library renovation. We're really, really excited. I cannot wait for you all to see what it's going to look like when it is open. We have dedicated teen space, a dedicated space for story time for the babies, study rooms, maker spaces, community space, and then the outdoor courtyard will be an additional space that will be available for programming. Library staff are balancing expanded facility operations, new technology systems, vendor transitions, grant reporting, and preparation for the new library while maintaining day-to-day library services across Richmond. These operational demands require significant coordination, flexibility, dedication from current employees. Library and LEAP staff are focused on maintaining safe and welcoming spaces, expanding literacy services, modernizing technology, increasing access to underserved communities, while also protecting reliable service schedules and sustaining literacy programs are a critical priority for us. Existing staff continue to protect essential services despite reduced operational flexibility and funding challenges. Unlimited capacity impacts our ability to expand evening, weekend, and neighborhood-based services. Libraries across California are experiencing significant reduction in state and federal funding support. Staff continue, however, to work to maintain our service and absorb funding reductions while protecting core library and literacy programs. These financial pressures make operational efficiency and careful prioritization increasingly important. Protecting library and literacy services requires maintaining reliable staffing, supporting technology, sustaining educational programming, and continuing investment in collections and public resources. Pictures, just youth programming. We had an amazing literacy fair recently, and that is a picture of an author that came. My kids have gotten their books. They got them signed, and they've read them and are ready to go get more books. So they love the literacy fair. So it's always great. And we had puppeteers that were there as well. And just more pictures of a beautiful baby reading a book. Leap graduation. We are out. That's Dewey. Everybody doesn't even know what that is. You have to have a little age to you to remember that card that sat in your book that you had to fill out. I do, wonderful memories and picture of the outside of the renovated library and then we have staff that is everywhere they can be to share about what the library and LEAP are doing for the community. Library in action with some numbers. We have supported over 441 students in LEAP. We have had over 15,000 attendees. The majority of those are for our children's events that I shared that are free and exciting for our young people with their families to come to attend. And we also have events for adults. And we don't just do things at the library. We also try and find spaces and ways that we can go out and meet community where they're at. We have over 145,000 items borrowed in both digital form and in children's books and other books. All right, so thank you to our amazing library staff. Now we'll go to Office of Neighborhood Safety. The Office of Neighborhood Safety continues to provide violence prevention, outreach, mentorship, and intervention services throughout the city of Richmond. They support all the goal areas as well with a strong focus in areas one through four. ONS staff provide daily street outreach, cage management, life skills programming, conflict mediation, and grant compliance management. Existing staff continue to build trust and maintain consistent engagement with participants through highly relationship-based work. Much of this work requires significant time, coordination, and emotional commitment from current employees. ONS relies heavily on collaboration, community trust building, and partnership coordination to sustain violence prevention efforts. Existing staff continue to manage these intensive operational demands while maintaining direct participant engagement and crisis response activities. Building and sustaining trust within the community requires ongoing visibility, consistency, and relationship development. Within current staff capacity staff is limited in their ability to go through the RP process and execute additional contracts with additional service providers and then limited administrative capacity can impact responsiveness coordination and long-term program expansion. Protecting ONS services requires operational stability, staffing support, and strong grant compliance capacity. Maintaining operational support helps preserve continuity of care and trauma-informed service delivery. Strong compliance systems are essential to protecting future funding and sustaining violence prevention programming. Some numbers for ONS, we've had over 12,000 fellow engagements. So this is where our neighborhood change agents deliver one-on-one mentorship to the individuals within the fellowship. The neighborhood change agents also go out and work with individuals that are not in the fellowship program. And so these are over 2,300 street outreach contacts. And then we have 94 active fellows in 2025 that are in the program. At the conclusion of 2025, because we do do an independent analysis and report and evaluation on ONS every year, it is on our website. The fellows have reported a variety of different things, and these are really important. One that I just want to highlight is that 94% of them have felt like their conflict resolution skills have improved, and 85% feel safer in their community. Now I'll move to our last division, Community Crisis Response Program. That is our newest one. The ROC team provides an alternative community center response to behavioral health and lower acuity crisis situations through Richmond. I also want to thank FIRE and PD and all the other departments that have helped and county and numerous organizations that have helped us implement the ROC program. These are the areas that they mainly provide support in. The ROC program right now includes one program manager, one analyst, and five community intervention specialists, also under the leadership of the deputy director, Sam Vaughn, and we also have two amazing UC Berkeley interns, Go Bears. ROC staff continue building a new department while simultaneously delivering mobile crisis response services, administrative operations, outreach and policy development. Existing staff coordinate with multiple city departments and community partners to establish long-term operational infrastructure. Their work lays the foundation for sustainable and responsive crisis intervention services Staff's limited capacity affects policy development, operational expansion, and crisis response capacity within the program. Staff are balancing immediate service delivery with the long-term development of department infrastructure and procedures. Existing staff are building a complex and highly collaborative service model while continuing day-to-day crisis response operations. Operational support helps sustain effective communication, stakeholder coordination, and community engagement. So in December, we hired our five community intervention specialists. They went through comprehensive training in January and February, and we started collecting data in March. And we have a database with a dashboard that we are still developing, but that is the way in which we are collecting data. um so this just gives you a sense of how many calls we responded to how many individuals we supported and some of our recorded outcomes and this was in march and we have increased those numbers in april so we're excited to continue to do this work provide direct support de-escalation referrals and wellness services to our community members experience behavioral health and support related crises. And existing staff are building trusted relationships while responding to a wide range of community needs. And these metrics demonstrate the growing utilization and impact of the program. And these are just some pictures of ROC in action out in the community, training with fire, coordinating with the county as well as in the right-hand corner that is a really moving moment where Michael Romero our first hire who's the program manager in collaboration with public with fire and PD was able to help this individual down from a tower in a very life-threatening situation to get him to safety and get him help For our continued work, while we celebrate, and I think it's really important to celebrate all of the work that amazing community services staff are doing, we remain focused on strengthening our core services, improving operational efficiency, streamlining processes, and enhancing collaboration across departments and partners. The staff continue to pursue grants, improve systems, develop procedures, and celebrate success while maintaining high demand service. I want to highlight a few things here. We do want to streamline our special event permit process to make it easier for staff to process but also for community to complete. We are working right now with the vendor to release our online reservation system for facilities. We're excited about that and we're working internally to enhance the online calendar and to promote services and events within the city of Richmond. As we conclude, I just want to do this in memory and close our presentation for community services in memory and loving memory of Abigail Sims Evelyn. She was an amazing, she just, she passed recently. A lot of us went to her service on Saturday. So I just thank all of those who were able to come and support her, but she had a lasting impact on the Richmond community, on the LEAP program, and on the library. And her legacy reflects the compassion, dedication, and community center values that continue to guide the work of community services staff. And we remain grateful for her service and commitment to the city of Richmond. And these are just some more beautiful pictures of her, because she deserved them, so I had to just put them out here. And I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that another member of the Richmond community passed away in public works. His name was Jose Davis. He was a facility maintenance worker for over 40 years. And so as staff continue to provide services, we also have moments where we have to mourn those that have worked alongside of us and done this amazing work with us. So I thank you for your time. Community Services is definitely moving Richmond forward. I thank you again to the mayor, city council, community partners, and residents for supporting the work of Community Services. Most importantly, I thank Community Services staff whose dedication, flexibility, and commitment to continue to sustain these programs and services every day. Thank you.

Stretch.

Yes, I think it's time for us to... Council members.

Mayor, next we have the economic development team.

Yes. All right. Council members.

Can I...

You may have a request, yes.

Okay, so I would love to request something of each of the teams that are coming. Before you end your presentation, can you please highlight what it is that you would need, like what you would be requesting in the budget, and let us know if it's already in the recommended budget or if it's not in the recommended budget. If you could just tell us that, that would be really helpful, because then we would understand what the needs of each department are that either are being served in this next budget or are not being served. Thank you.

And if I may, Mayor, we did provide a slide at the last meeting and there were 29 million that of requests from departments that were not included in the budget. So I do want to just.

That's not helpful to have a big number like that. What would be more helpful. It was a line item. What would be more helpful is as we're getting these very detailed explanations of each department, and they're talking about what their work is, if they could bring forward and say what would help them do that work while they're giving the presentation, because then we can put it in context and understand what is being talked about.

Mayor, I was going to make a motion to extend the meeting so it's not interrupting when the economic development is presenting.

Extend the meeting until this item or?

Or to complete the budget.

I second that.

Okay.

So then we have a motion to continue until this item is finished.

Well, it's going to cut off at 11 anyway, in hopes of completing.

Council Member Brown? Yes. Councilmember Bonner.

Yes.

Councilmember Jimenez.

Yes.

Councilmember Wilson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Robinson.

Yes.

Councilmember Zepeda.

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez. Yes. The vote is unanimous.

Mayor, if I may, so the reason the staff are not going through exhaustive lists of what they need to be more effective is because at this juncture there isn't additional revenue to support additional requests. So what we're trying to do is be propositional about the great work that staff is doing. And then on the 16th, we would welcome the opportunity to have a conversation regarding the council priorities. and what those are and we can ask the departments to go back and refine the list of requests that they have in excess of the 29 million because at this juncture if we started doing that right now that means the other departments will not have an opportunity to provide that same level of detail and what we don't want to do is we want the council members to hear the departments working together collaboratively as a team versus trying to prioritize their own interest as individual departments against THE GREATER GOOD OF THE TEAM. SO THAT IS HOW THE BUDGET PRESENTATIONS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MAYOR. SO IF THE COUNCIL WANTS US TO CHANGE THE STRUCTURE OF THE BUDGET PRESENTATIONS WE WELCOME AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO AND THEN WE WOULD HAVE TO HEAR RESPECTIVE PRESENTATIONS FROM THE OTHER DEPARTMENTS. AND WE WOULD REQUEST THAT THE COUNCIL CONSIDER TWO ADDITIONAL DAYS TO HEAR BUDGET PRESENTATIONS. BUT AT THIS JUNCTURE, THAT IS NOT THE FORMAT THAT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED. AND IF THE COUNCIL WANTS TO CHANGE THE FORMAT, WE CAN CERTAINLY DO SO.

COUNCIL MEMBER WILSON.

SO I THINK YOU JUST ANSWERED ONE OF THE QUESTIONS I HAD. SO ARE YOU SAYING LIKE THE the appropriate point for council members to raise the initiatives, projects, things that they want to advocate for having additional investment in. Are you saying that's not until June 16th that we're supposed to?

No, you're supposed to do that at the conclusion of every meeting when you ask questions or ask for refinement. So this last week we had 35 questions and or slash priorities. And so at the conclusion of every meeting, you're provided an opportunity to provide input. When in terms of priorities, that would be on June 16th.

Okay. So just to be clear, But I have to formulate them. I was told I was supposed to ask questions after this, not advocate for certain program. Like, to me, that's a different thing. Like, I'm sort of the impression... Yes, but that's what the council does. Right, but I'm trying to respect the process here. And so what you're saying is that we're supposed to tonight advocate for the things that we'd like to see.

Yes, everyone who I met with about the budget who was willing to meet with me, that is what I suggested that they do, that they formulate their questions and they ask staff. So for example, if you have a park, so there was constituents that came earlier about a park. So if that's a priority for you as a council member, you would say park A, how much would it cost, right, to develop schematic designs or develop a construction plan for X park?

And tonight would be the night to do that since we have heard from, or no, should we have done that during public works or should we have done that during recreation?

You can do any of the items that you want to do at any meeting.

Okay.

All right.

Okay, I was not.

Okay, but I defer to the mayor because he's the chair.

I do not have that understanding.

Okay.

My understanding was that we were supposed to ask questions about the budget, not necessarily tied to any project.

I defer to the mayor. He's the chair.

Yes.

So I would love to be able to understand what each department needs that, is not being currently fulfilled by the draft budget. Because the way I would like to work is to try to work on what staff needs first before any other things that come up for whatever means. And so if I could have clarity on the things that are funded or unfunded, like for instance, on slide 53, where the capacity challenges are listed for the library, That's very helpful, very helpful. But what I would even be more helpful is to know if any of these things are included in the budget and if the things that are not included in the budget, if they could be prioritized by staff. So for them. Which one of these things is the most important thing if we were able to move on it in this budget cycle? Which one of these things would be the most important things? And what's the second and what's the third? That would be helpful for me because I am happy to belay anything that I might be thinking about if we can help staff work better. So far, there's only a few places where it's been kind of clear what the staff is saying that they need. And so what I was asking for is if we could, as we finish these presentations, just let me clearly know what you need. and what's included and what's not included so that I can help. So my process is based on your needs.

Understood. I'm just suggesting that if the council, for example, wants three recommendations from each division, then we're happy to have people formulate that.

I'll put that into a question and hopefully we can have that just maybe written.

Okay, we turn the agenda packet for the 26th and 36 hours. So we can have that by June 16.

Yeah, I think it would be good to continue with the budget presentation as it has been and at the next meeting provide needs from each department so that we get them all because we've already had presentations from other departments and they weren't able to do what we're asking these departments to do and it would only be fair for them to be presented all at the same time.

Right. So, Mayor, I agree. And so what I'm saying is that we're happy to do that for the June 16th meeting. Because the meeting for the 26th, we turn that agenda packet in 36 hours. Okay.

I think it would be good to include line by line budget and what is included and what is not included. And it's not like you had to do that, like you have a line by line budget, right?

We'll have it on the 16th.

Okay, perfect. Okay.

Yeah, so you should assume that the baseline budget, right, based on the MOU increases that you've approved, right, we have a baseline budget.

Right, what you call the envelope, which can be manipulated, altered to, according to the needs and desires of the public.

Yes, we would, right, so what would happen, what would need to happen is some discretionary expenses the council would need to appropriate from the discretionary categories.

Go ahead.

Thank you. So I wonder how long the next presentation is while our minds are still fresh on the last presentation. Can we share our questions before we move on? I'm afraid that this presentation, if it goes until 11, we forget our questions.

Well, I think we should write our questions down because they're not going to answer. We're just going to ask the questions.

Yeah, so we can just ask them now.

Well, you can write them down and we can ask them later. Thank you. Because I think we need to get on with this.

You're a good teacher, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Let's hear the presentation.

Okay. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council, city staff, and representatives of the community. I'm Nanette Beecham, economic development director. I have my staff here with me. Everybody raise your hand, stand up. We have six divisions in the economic development department, including arts and culture, business development, environmental and health initiatives, real estate, port, and Richmond Housing Authority. I want to thank each and every one of my team for helping put this presentation together. And those that are here, thank you for being here and participating tonight. The economic development department is already operating at full capacity with core services. CONSUMING 100% OF STAFF BANDWIDTH. WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE, WE WORK NOT ONLY ACROSS DIVISIONS, BUT WE WORK ACROSS DEPARTMENTS COLLABORATIVELY AS WELL. THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT SUPPORTS ALL SIX GOAL AREAS WITH THE GREATEST ONGOING CAPACITY DEMANDS AND GOALS ONE, TWO, THREE AND SIX. Now move on to the specific divisions. So we have arts and culture. You can see how arts and culture division supports core functions while also contributing to several city council's strategic goals. Our work spans housing and homelessness, economic development, community health, everything from integrating public art into housing projects, to strengthening Richmond's creative economy, to delivering cultural programming that enhances quality of life. These are essential services, but like the rest of the department, we are operating at full capacity. As new initiatives emerge, our ability to maintain this level of support becomes increasingly challenging. Our team supports public safety by activating public spaces with arts and cultural programming, strengthens internal processes through administration of public art program and the Richmond Arts and Culture Commission, and advances shoreline ecological sustainability through art and cultural initiatives connected to Richmond's waterfront. These responsibilities span all six council strategic goal areas with the highest capacity demands in housing and homelessness, revenue and economic development, quality of life, and shoreline sustainability. As with the other divisions, we're performing essential work but doing so at full capacity. This next slide represents the core work that keeps arts and culture running day to day. These aren't optional tasks. required functions tied to city ordinance, public funding, and community expectations. Our team manages the full life cycle of public art projects, oversees grants and cultural investments, and delivers community engagement and arts programming across Richmond. What you see here is that each of these areas is already operating at capacity. The division is meeting essential mandates but with limited staff much of the work becomes reactive rather than strategic, which affects our ability to expand programming, maintain public art assets, and fully support artists and community partners. Currently, there is an open recruitment for the arts and culture manager. The arts and culture division focuses on commissioning, council support, strategic planning, and operations. These responsibilities include everything from Brown Act compliance and staff reports to managing the public art master plan, managing mini grants, coordinating developer public art requirements, and overseeing procurement contracts and stewardship of our cultural assets. What's important to highlight is that these tasks are essential, mandated, and continuous, but our staffing remains limited. As a result, we are able to keep required operations going but we have very little capacity left for proactive cultural planning, expanded programming, or long-range strategy. Operational pressures, especially grant administration, public art program management, commission support, and maintenance backlogs are stretching the arts and culture division's limited capacity. Many major initiatives are rated high or medium capacity demands, signaling that staff are overextended and core service delivery is at risk without additional support. Currently, I already announced that we have an open recruitment, so tell everybody you know. Several major public art projects are currently underway. These projects include Sills Reed Park Artworks, the Civic Center Apartments, which is Project Home Key Mural, the Allen Brothers Warehouse Installations, and IMTT Public Art Coordination. Each require intensive management from artist selection to fabrication oversight to coordination with developers and other city departments. All of these projects are active at the same time, and most carry medium to high high capacity. What shows is that while the division is successfully delivering significant cultural investments across the city, we are doing so with limited staff, which makes it challenging to keep up with project volume and maintain timely progress. Another set of major public art projects that are currently in progress, each requires significant coordination, and oversight from the arts and culture team. These include large scale installations tied to the main library renovation, Boardman Park improvements, developer funded public art reviews and ongoing artist procurement and contract administration. All these projects are active at the same time and most fall under medium to high risk again demands. What this really shows is the division is managing a complex portfolio of public art investments across the city. And this means longer timeline, heavier workloads, and less ability to take on new initiatives, even as expectations and project value continue to grow. Right now, the arts and culture team is essentially running on the bare minimum needed to keep things moving. With the manager position still vacant, Economic development staff are covering the core operations just to make sure that we stay compliant and meet our basic responsibilities But what that means is other important work gets pushed aside these things like long-range planning community projects and mandates come in we have to pull resources away and away from the proactive work that really brings value to the community and for the residents and It shows up as a slower project timeline, fewer programs, and reduced access to art and cultural opportunities. In short, we're doing everything we can, but we don't have the capacity to grow or even keep pace with what is being asked of us. On this side, I would like to highlight the kinds of support that will make the biggest difference for protecting our core services. Right now, our team is doing everything we can to manage public art projects, cultural programming, commission coordination, and all of the regulatory requirements that come with public art program. More capacity would help manage multiple public art projects at once, properly maintain our growing art collection, and expand community programming and grants. It also strengthens our ability to coordinate with the RAC, other city departments, developers, and our community partners. And finally, added capacity would allow us to invest in long-range cultural planning and activation of work, which is essential for expanding arts and culture citywide. In short, this slide shows what it takes to protect core service delivery and what we need to truly support Richmond's cultural growth. Now we're gonna move on to business development. Our staff is here to support this presentation. They do a lot of work across the city as city manager. EXPRESSED EARLIER, THIS IS ONE OF THE FIRST TIMES THAT I'VE SEEN THAT WE WORK TOGETHER ACROSS DEPARTMENTS BUT ALSO ACROSS DIVISIONS HELPING EACH OTHER OUT WHERE THE NEEDS ARE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE RICHMOND COMMUNITY. THE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIVISION SUPPORTS MULTIPLE CITY COUNCIL STRATEGIC GOALS, NOT JUST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. OUR WORK DIRECTLY contributes to housing stability by supporting mixed-use development and workforce opportunities. We also play a role in public safety by helping activate commercial areas and reduce blight through business retention and job creation. Of course, revenue and economic development are core to what we do, attracting and retaining businesses, building local jobs, and strengthening the city's tax base. We also support internal process improvements, helping streamline permitting, business services, and interdepartmental coordination. And finally, we advance sustainability by supporting environmentally responsible development. The main point here is that the business development division is stretched across all six goal areas with the heaviest demands falling on economic development work and internal process coordination. The core of the Business Development Division is the day-to-day activities that keep Richmond's business community supported and moving forward. Our team leads business attraction, retention, and expansion efforts, helping bring new business in while supporting the ones that we already have. We guide businesses through permitting, licensing, and access to grants and technical assistance. We also connect employers with workforce partners to support hiring and training. On top of that, we provide direct support to small businesses and entrepreneurs through outreach workshops and resource navigation. And finally, we oversee broader economic and community development initiatives, things like corridor revitalization partnerships and funding opportunities. All of this makes the backbone of our work. And like other divisions, these core services already take up 100% of our capacity. So here's a snapshot of how active business development division is out in the community. In 2025, our team completed more than 60 business engagements, everything from retention visits to expansion conversations. We continue to provide technical assistance, and resources to help businesses navigate permitting, licensing, and available support programs. We also work closely with employment and training to connect employers with hiring and workforce development opportunities. For small businesses, we deliver major support through programs like ARPA, small business program, which provided $350,000 to 48 businesses as well as the Facade Improvement Program and the Lot Food Court, which continue to incubate local entrepreneurs. Beyond that, we help coordinate a wide range of economic development events each year, from Taste of Richmond to National Small Business Week, community festivals, and task force meetings. This slide really demonstrates the volume and variety of work happening year round to support Richmond. This slide actually illustrates how many different responsibilities fall on business development team at the same time. We support commissions, task force, manage regional partnerships, and carry out proactive business outreach. We're also advancing major initiatives like economic revitalization strategy, the Green Blue New Deal, and the Economic Development Strategic Action Plan. On top of that, we help coordinate community events and workshops and we manage grants and cross-departmental project work. What's important to take away here is that all of these initiatives support council goals, but they rely on the very same staff who are also responsible for the day-to-day business services and operational work. As these demands grow, it becomes harder to maintain proactive outreach keep projects moving quickly, and respond to the community as promptly as we like. Our workload and range of responsibilities we manage can influence the way services are delivered. When new priorities come up or when multiple projects overlap, our team has to shift focus to meet the most urgent and time-sensitive needs. As a result, some of the more proactive work like business outreach, long-term planning, and community engagement naturally gets delayed. Operationally, this often means staff are balancing multiple roles at one time, which can extend timelines for project coordination and response to inquiries. For businesses and community members, this may show up as longer response time or slower movement on initiatives. What helps us maintain strong, consistent service delivery with the Business Development Division is maintaining core business assistance. Things like permit coordination, answering business inquiries, and helping navigate city processes. Ensures business get timely support and don't experience delays. Keeping up our proactive outreach is equally important. because it helps us retain existing businesses and attract new ones before issues arrive. Cross-department coordination is another key piece. So much of our work intersects with planning, public works, finance and others, and effective coordination helps move projects forward smoothly and avoid unnecessary delays. At the same time, we continue advancing long-term strategic initiatives that support the city's broader economic goals. And finally, supporting community and economic development events helps activate business districts, highlights local businesses, and strengthens community engagement. Together, these efforts help keep Richmond business ecosystem strong, responsive, and well-supported. So now I'm going to turn it over to Samantha Carr and Yonah Williamson who are in environmental and health initiatives.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Samantha Carr, Environmental Manager in the Environmental and Health Initiatives Division, also joining, as Nanette mentioned, Yana Williamson, Management Analyst. Quickly, I do want to summarize the goals of the division, which aims to build the city and community's capacity to improve and promote sustainability and health equity through the implementation of two documents, the Health in All Policies, also known as the HIAP, and the Climate Action Plan, also known as the CAP. Both of these documents were born out of the General Plan 2030, and our team collaborates with the community and other city departments to implement actions identified in the Climate Action Plan, health and all policies, strategy and document, as well as the energy and climate change element, and the community health and wellness element of the General Plan 2030. Next slide. environmental sustainability climate resilience and health equity projects and initiatives touch all six of the City Council's strategic goal areas with a specific and direct focus on goal area six shoreline and ecological sustainability next slide Richmond's core services and functions include environmental and health equity services like the implementation and monitoring of the climate action plan and health and law policies and

managing compliance with the solid waste and recycling agreements, as well as state and local laws. California's SB 1383 is a statewide climate law mandating that all residents and businesses reduce organic waste in landfills to cut methane emissions. It requires mandatory composting, organics, recycling, surface subscriptions, and the donation of surplus edible food by commercial businesses. Additionally, we provide support services and reduce resources for citywide and regional initiatives to address blight and beautify the city. Examples include the I Heart Richmond booklet that we created and pass out to Richmond residents. We also support with neighborhood dumpster days. Next slide. When it comes to grants, our division researches and pursues new grants, new and reoccurring grants, and manages the administration, monitoring, and reporting of the awarded grants. As mentioned earlier, we also oversee waste management contracts and moving on to the climate resilience and emergency preparation, we work with multiple city departments to advance this effort. Next slide. Our division also provides guidance and feedback on new development permits, as well as enforcement of local and state laws that protect environmental quality. We table at various events, sharing information about environmental sustainability, climate resilience, and public health programs. Lastly, we had an amazing turnout for bike to wherever day where we passed out over 500 bags between 6 AM and 9 AM to bikers all over Richmond. And we wanted to make sure that we gave a huge shout out to everyone that was involved in making that effort happen. And moving on to Workforce Development Fellowship, lastly, but certainly not least, our division recruits and builds staffing capacity of student interns and fellows to support with workforce needs. Next slide. And just a few highlights, as mentioned earlier, there are, these are the divisions, two governing documents, the health and all policies and climate action plan. And additionally, the division oversees the, uh, cities food, where ordinance. Next slide. These are all of the laws that our division oversees or is involved with, um, in some ways. So there's nine, um, assembly bills and Senate bills. Additionally, we table at approximately 10 community events throughout the year. We host and support about 18 workshops or events. This list does vary from year to year based on community requests or new programs available. One highlight is the annual no-cost solar workshop, which is a well-attended event every year where we get low-income households signed up for solar panels at no cost and also offer financial support for root upgrades for residents as well. Next slide. Our division currently manages and oversees eight contracts. We are a part of or support with 14 boards, commissions, and working groups, and usually throughout the year we host about three interns or fellows. And next slide, and I'll pass the mic back over to Sam.

Thank you. Our division does about three classroom presentations each year. A definite highlight this year was having the opportunity to work with the Y Plan De Anza High School IT Academy. That was a really wonderful both field trip and presentation and final presentation. Additionally, we manage or collaborate on four grants and then send out mailers about upcoming workshops or provide letters of support for grant applications. Next slide. The operational demands and special projects the division is working on is the ongoing contracting and vendor management for our division, healthy options at point of sale, also known as hops ordinance development, advancing racial equity and community health through the development of the city council directed black resiliency project and fund. SUPPORTING WITH WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT SUCH AS UC BERKELEY STUDENT INTERNS, CIVIC SPARK FELLOWS AND HEALTH CAREER CONNECTION FELLOWS AND MORE AND THEN ENGAGEMENT IN THE GREEN EMPOWERMENT ZONE IN COLLABORATION WITH Y PLAN. NEXT SLIDE. Over the past 10 years, the state has adopted unfunded recycling mandates, workload demands have increased, and staffing levels have remained limited. As new priorities or unplanned demands are assigned, resources may need to be reallocated from existing functions and planned initiatives to sustain essential operations and meet compliance requirements. So work that's getting squeezed is community education outreach, data reporting and monitoring, submission of grant applications, compliance monitoring of state laws and city ordinance, and reporting and management of grants. This does increase our reliance on consultants and external partners, slower timelines for internal coordination and project deliverables, decreased oversight, and the residents and city is impacted by delayed rollout of new programs, reduced visibility of city-led environmental and health initiatives, missed opportunities for deeper community partnerships, which is really important for this work, environmental and health equity is a team effort. And then decreased response times, reduced workshops and events. Next slide. What's helpful for supporting our division success is for there to be sufficient staffing levels, for there to be a concentrated focus on adopted council goals, policies and legal mandates, to enable collaboration with existing regional and community organizations, IN ORDER TO LEVERAGE EXISTING RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS WHERE POSSIBLE AND TO ENSURE SUFFICIENT STAFF CAPACITY TO MONITOR LEGISLATION AND GRANT OPPORTUNITIES. NEXT SLIDE. THANK YOU. BACK TO NANETTE.

OKAY. SO NOW WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT REAL ESTATE. Our real estate division plays a central role in managing the city's property portfolio and supporting the real property needs of our city departments. The team serves as a primary point of contact for city tenants, other public agencies and the community when it comes to city-owned real estate. The division also manages former military-based properties in coordination with other departments, oversees the MARINA LEASE AND OTHER CITY PROPERTIES AND CARRIES OUT REGULATORY RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEED RESTRICTED ASSETS ACROSS LOCATIONS LIKE MARINA BAY, THE CORP YARD, RICHMOND PARKWAY. ALL TOGETHER THIS WORK ENSURES THE CITY PROPERTIES ARE MANAGED RESPONSIBLY, REMAIN COMPLIANT AND CONTINUE TO SUPPORT DEPARTMENTAL AND COMMUNITY NEEDS. The Real Estate Division supports multiple City Council strategic goal areas through its core work. Our team plays an important role in housing and homelessness by coordinating city-owned housing and redevelopment projects like Richmond Village, Hacienda, Nevin Plaza 1 and 2, Nystrom, Civic Center Apartments, and Metro Walk. We also contribute to public safety by managing building security, fencing and site stabilization across city-owned properties. On the economic development side, we generate revenue through lease administration, tenant coordination and managing revenue producing city assets. In terms of internal operation, the division coordinates permits, leases, contracts and regulatory compliance for properties across many departments. And finally, we support shoreline and ecological sustainability by working with the port and regulatory partners on marina operations, environmental compliance, and waterfront stewardship. Go to the next slide. In addition to its core responsibilities, the real estate division has also supported several important city council directed space and lease needs. Recently, the team completed space allocation and lease development for three key tenants. The watershed at wastewater treatment plant as it transitioned from owner to employee cooperative. Congressman John Garamendi, who remains located here at Civic Center campus, and State Senator Jesse Errigan, for whom the team quickly identified and secured an appropriate and cost-effective leasehold space. The division also coordinated and executed the lease for the California Strategic Growth Council, TCC program staff, who are now housed in city facilities. These projects reflect the division's role in supporting high priority civic and regional partners while managing a complex real estate portfolio. Here are some of the major projects the Real Estate Division is managing right now. These include building security, site stabilization for properties that require frequent monitoring, environmental compliance, and remediation at sites with long-standing regulatory requirements, and coordination capital projects that involve multiple departments and consultants. We are also supporting ongoing marina and waterfront operations which require regular tenant coordination, maintenance planning, and dredging related work. Each of these efforts is active at the same time and many of them involve properties with complex histories or evolving regulatory needs. The real estate team manages everything from basic property oversight to large-scale environmental and capital projects. These ongoing initiatives shape the pace and prioritization of work across the city's real estate portfolio. Real estate division's workload affects day-to-day operations because one project manager oversees a wide range of of responsibilities, everything from property management and leases to redevelopment coordination and environmental compliance. The team often has to balance multiple priorities at the same time. When several projects overlap, certain tasks naturally take longer. Things like deferred maintenance, planning, property activation and long-term redevelopment efforts may experience delays simply because more immediate operational needs have to be addressed first. For the city and for residents, this can show up as slower progress on activating city-owned properties, longer timelines for capital improvements or delays in moving projects. From planning to implementation, it can also result in properties staying underutilized longer and maintenance needs becoming more visible over time. The Real Estate Division keeps core services running smoothly. A big part of our work involves coordinating regulatory requirements and compliance for city-owned properties, everything from permitting and environmental oversight to leases and their obligations and project review. We also manage grant capital projects and funding coordination linked to city facilities and redevelopment efforts, which require close collaboration with multiple departments and consultants. Another key responsibility is monitoring city-owned properties to ensure they're being used effectively, that tenants are supported, and that long-term planning efforts stay on track. Finally, maintaining accurate property inventory valuations and asset management records helps us make informed decisions and ensures we're stewarding city real estate responsibly. All of these elements work together to support efficient operations and long range planning across the city, the city's real estate portfolio. And I want to thank you and I want to turn it over to the art department. We have Charles DeRodd, I think remote. He's attending California Port Authorities Association annual conference. And we have Lizette Zapater right here, senior business assistant officer presenting this evening.

Hello, is this on? Good evening, everyone. I'm so sorry it's so late. I just had my husband put my PJs out for me in the living room. I'm like, I don't want to bother you, just put them out. Thank you, everyone. Again, my name is Lizette Zepeda, Senior Business Assistance Officer for the Port Division. And Charles Gerard should be online, and he's actually attending, he's at Long Beach attending an Offshore Wind Summit. As you know we did receive some offshore wind grant funding so that's really exciting for us. I did want to acknowledge some of the port division staff that makes us small and mighty. Port director Charles Gerard, myself, management analyst Kyle Lamb, Rita Martinez is AS OUR FINANCE MANAGER. ROBERT STEVENS IS OUR ACTING PORT ENGINEER. DANNY WAN IS ON A PART-TIME BASIS BUT HE'S OUR PROJECT MANAGER THREE. SO I JUST WANTED TO GIVE MY STAFF A SHOUT OUT. TONIGHT WE'RE PRESENTING THE PORT DIVISION BUDGET OVERVIEW COVERING WORKLOAD CAPACITY service delivery impacts. The Port of Richmond is responsible for operations, infrastructure, capital improvement projects, industrial waterfront, lease management grants, port tariffs, these are local port tariffs that we pass, and regulatory compliance. Next slide. The slide highlights, and these are the pictures from East Bay Economic Development Alliance, that shows we've been doing a lot of tours at the port. A lot of people want to come around and hang out and just tour a lot of the PORT TERMINALS AND THIS IS JUST THE EAST BAY EDA GIVING OUT A TOUR AND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE IT'S PORTS DAY WE ACTUALLY HAD THE FIRST PORTS DAY LAST YEAR BUT IT REALLY SHOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND PART OF THE CITY COUNCIL STRATEGIC GOALS is to really put together and bring in community. So this really hits goal number two, which is port is advancing strategic planning efforts for port revitalization, including development of port strategic planning. A good example of this was recently, thank you to city council, we passed a contract that will study the economic impact for quantifying the economic value generated by the port maritime operations. Now, this is super important because it's part of the strategic planning that you all want to see from the port, and this really is going to talk about the data, because we currently have no data for the port, how, who employs, the port, how many people are employed at the port, what type of, how many jobs are there, what are the jobs that are there. So things like that are the, this contract will give us that type of data. And not only will they be talking to the public terminals, but they will also be talking to the private terminals as well. So this is really good data that we currently do not have. So we want to increase community engagement, so this is really why we last year we started to create Ports Day and we will continue to do that work with this year in September we'll have another Ports Day. Under quality of life, community health, goal number three, the port continues capital and infrastructure improvements including Canal Boulevard traffic safety measures. So this past year and this year, we did some paving and some safety measures around Canal Boulevard. We want to improve a lot of the berms, a lot of the flashing, K rails. So if you've been out there, we wanted to do, A lot of those protective measures, if you went out there, those are really simple, but they're very important to the community to have. Next slide. Under public safety, goal number four, the port maintains the Coast Guard Emergency Operations Center, which implements the CPTED informed improvements and enhanced site security clean environments and traffic safety and calming measures under internal infrastructure and processes. So that's goal number five. The port manages enterprise fund financial activities. grant applications and compliance, capital improvement project coordination, contract administration, and interdepartmental operation coordination. Under shoreline and ecological sustainability, goal number six, the port supports the Green-Blue New Deal, shoreline resilience, and environmental remediation efforts. These are the court services and mandated functions that the port must deliver to keep Richmond running. Key functions include managing port-owned terminals, leases and assets, serving as Richmond's economic engine through leases and tariffs. These are local tariffs that generate revenue. A lot of our revenue are built on those core pieces, ensuring regulatory compliance with federal, state, regional, and local agencies, waterways management, dredging, to support safe maritime operations. This really includes our deep water port. This is why we are deep water and keeping a lot of our terminals dredged is important. safety security coordination with police, fire, and public works, grants development, we really wanna keep a momentum on our grant pathway, and capital improvement projects and business development and engagement. These are not optional, they're required functions that we must maintain and keep going. So continuing the course service inventory, these are additional mandated functions that the port performs regularly. These include interdepartmental coordination with city departments and external agencies. We want to start doing some marketing and promotion to position the port as an international maritime, industrial, innovative waterfront destination. We want to keep the momentum on community engagement and partnerships. Keep the momentum on strategic planning, long-range planning, industry conferences, and regional representation, public and private partnerships, environmental stewardship and sustainability, including shoreline resilience, electrification and planning, habitat stewardship, and carb-related compliance. Some of the birdwatchers are my best friends, just letting you guys know. They're there every single day. We have Richmond Osprey there, and he has a new mate, Wendy. I don't know if you guys have known that, but I've known way more about Osprey now since I'm out there. So, the critical need for grants and capital management projects at the port. As you know, you guys had a presentation last year when Moffitt and Nicoll conducted port condition assessments at the Port Potrero Marine Terminal and identified 11 priority infrastructure improvement projects across first five through eight and Two Finger Piers, Five Graving Basins, immediate and priority projects needed within A VARIETY OF YEARS WITHIN ONE YEAR ALL THE WAY THROUGH LONG-TERM YEARS. AND THIS WAS FOR PROJECTS ADDRESSED SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS AT THE GRAVING BASIS, SEISMIC AND OF COURSE THE CRACK BEAM THAT YOU SAW WHICH WAS A DIRE NEED FOR BIRTH SEVEN AND EIGHT. MID AND LONG-TERM PROJECTS ADDRESSED WARF REPAIRS, FENDER SYSTEM UPGRADES AND CONCRETE REPAIRS THROUGHOUT THE FACILITY. These projects require dedicated capital of project management, grant funding, and sufficient staff capacity to plan, coordinate, and deliver improvements, and also coordination for grants. And so in addition to maritime infrastructure, the port is actively managing historical buildings out at the port that require evaluations. And these two pictures are reflective of that. We have the processing building that processes BUILDINGS THAT ARE EV THAT COME OUT OF ROAD ROAD SHIPS THAT ARE ROLL ON ROLL OFF AND THESE ARE BRAND NEW AUTOS THAT ARE PROCESSED BUT THEY'RE PROCESSED IN A HISTORICAL BUILDING AND THIS YEAR WE GOT A CONTRACTOR TO CONDUCT A FACILITIES CONDITION ASSESSMENT ON THE HISTORIC PROCESSING BUILDING TO EVALUATE THE EXISTING CONDITION OF THE BUILDING. WE KNOW THAT THE ROOF IS IN VERY BAD SHAPE AND NEEDS REPAIR SO WE ALSO NEED A LONG-TERM PLAN TO PRESERVE THE BUILDING AND TO TELL US WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES OF THAT BUILDING. ON THE SAME SIDE, THE NEXT PICTURE IS THE CAFETERIA BUILDING AND IT'S ALSO GOING TO BE GOING THROUGH A CONDITIONS ASSESSMENT AND LETTING US KNOW WHAT'S THE PLAN FOR THAT BUILDING, WHAT'S THE TARGET AND WHAT'S THE ACTION PLAN TO GET THAT BUILDING READY AND ABLE.

LET'S SEE, THIS IS MY GRANT PAGE.

AND SO FOR THE GRANT DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS A CRITICAL FUNCTION THAT DEMANDS SUFFICIENT STAFF AND STRATEGIC COORDINATION. THE PORT ACTIVELY PURSUES LOCAL, REGIONAL, STATE AND FEDERAL GRANT OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE, RESILIENCY, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES. GRANT DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION REQUIRES SUSTAINABLE STAFF TIME, STRATEGIC PLANNING, TECHNICAL ANALYSIS, CONSULTANT COORDINATION, WHICH REQUIRES PROCUREMENT AND INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION. PREVIOUS GRANT APPLICATIONS INCLUDED FISCAL YEAR 2024, FISCAL YEAR 2023. PIDP grants through U.S. DOT and MIRAD and BUILD grant for transportation and infrastructure improvements, and then EPA Clean Ports grant application for zero emissions and clean port infrastructure. While these applications were not awarded, they represent significant staff investment and fundamental groundwork for future endeavors for grant applications. THE SLIDE HIGHLIGHTS PORT GRANT SUCCESSES, THE CURRENT PIPELINE. THE RECENT GRANT AWARDS INCLUDE THE CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION'S OFFSHORE WIND GRANT FOR $750,000 TO SUPPORT OFFSHORE WIND TERMINAL PLANNING AND FISCAL YEAR 2025 PIDP DRIVE GRANT FOR $11.2 MILLION FOR DOC RESTORATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE. NOW THAT WAS HELPFUL FOR THE MOFFET AND NICHOLS REPORT WHICH WE INCLUDED WITH THE GRANT APPLICATION FOR THE PIDP GRANT FOR 2025 WHICH THEN GOT US THE $11.2 MILLION. AND WE'RE NOT STOPPING THERE. WE'RE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF CONTINUING THE PIDP GRANT FOR 2026. CURRENT ACTIVE GRANTS ARE INCLUDING THE SHORE POWER AND ELECTRIFICATION GRANT, TERMINAL FOUR WARF REMOVAL PROJECT GRANT WHICH WAS A COLLABORATIVE GRANT WITH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, LINA VELASCO'S GROUP AND PUBLIC WORKS. SO THAT WAS A REALLY BIG GRANT THAT WAS A TOTAL OF OVER $8 MILLION WITH THE CALIFORNIA STATE COASTAL CONSERVATORY AGENCY FROM for Terminal 4. So this is really a slide talking about our aging infrastructure seeking grant funding and historic building management. This slide identifies the major operational initiative and pressure points currently drawing on port staff capacity, port strategic planning and revitalization efforts are a council directive initiative requiring coordination across public and private terminals, economic development priorities and workforce initiatives. CURRENTLY ACTIVE AND ASSESSED AS HIGH CAPACITY DEMAND. CARBACK BIRTH REGULATIONS REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT COMPLIANCE EFFORTS, INCLUDING ELECTRIFICATION FUSIBILITY, EVALUATION AND COORDINATION WITH TENANTS AND AGENCIES, ALSO HIGH CAPACITY. THE RED OAK VICTORY SHIP MOVE IS A HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND WATERFRONT PLANNING EFFORT, EVALUATING RELOCATION OPPORTUNITIES ACTIVE WITH CONTRACT AWARDED WITH LIFT TECH AND DESIGN STUDIES. And the port and surplus property authority coordination involves ongoing legal operational and planning coordination across multiple public entities. CONTINUING THE OPERATIONAL DEMANDS FOR ADDITIONAL HIGH CAPACITY PRESSURE POINTS AFFECTING CORE SERVICE DELIVERY. AGING INFRASTRUCTURE AND GRANT FUNDING NEEDS REQUIRE ONGOING GRANT PURSUITS AND CAPITAL PLANNING. A CONTRACT HAS BEEN EXECUTED WITH DYNAMO CONSTRUCTION FOR BIRTH 7 REPAIR. THIS IS THE CRACK BEAM. HISTORIC BUILDING MANAGEMENT REQUIRES EVALUATION OF STRUCTURAL CONDITION, MAINTENANCE OBLIGATION AND ADAPTIVE REUSE OPPORTUNITIES. Assessment at Point Potrero Marine Terminal and cafeteria building have been completed. So there's ongoing infrastructure maintenance and compliance involves daily demand and maintenance port assets, utilities, facilities, pavement, drainage, regulatory compliance across a large industrial waterfront. All of that is done with the current staff that we have. This slide represents the current staffing reality and its impact on service delivery. As of fiscal year 2025-26, the court operates THREE FULL-TIME STAFF POSITIONS, ONE CONTRACT PORT ENGINEER, ONE PART-TIME PROJECT MANAGER, THREE SUPPORTING SPECIAL PROJECTS. SO CURRENTLY THAT'S THE STAFF THAT WE WORK WITH. SO WHEN CAPACITY IS LIMITED THE WORK GETS SQUEEZED, INCLUDES DEFERRED CAPITAL PROJECTS, INCREASING MAINTENANCE BACKLOGS. delayed revitalization, strategic initiatives, and reduced capacity for proactive brand sustainability and community initiatives. This slide outlines what support is needed to protect core service delivery at the port. Five key areas of need have been identified. Capital projects and on-call contracting, expand port-focused on-call contracts and greater emergency contracting flexibility to improve responsiveness and address aging infrastructure. Workforce retention and organizational capacity. A grant regulatory and technical support, operational and administrative capacity, reducing the need for staff to consistently shift between administrative, operational, project management, strategic responsibilities, and strategic planning and revitalization capacity. This is some of our really proud numbers that we have at the port. Dredging last year was over 30,000 cubic yards. Paving was over 30,000 square feet. And the assessments that we have done is over 20 acres. That's what it accumulates to. And thank you so much. I would like to introduce the Richmond Housing Authority, AT.

At this point, we have eight minutes.

Yeah Looking at the number of slides. I don't think we'll be able to do justice right so so I think we should Hold it over to the next meeting

So we can, doing a presentation would be for the benefit of the public. Council members can read it over and send you questions and have discussions with you if necessary. Okay, so with that.