City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

I'm going to go ahead and call the city council to order for May 28th. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let the record show that all city council members are here. And I would ask Mr. Daniel Cardenas to join me at the podium, Mr. Cardenas. Is there a representative for brain tumor, for brain tumor awareness? I'll be happy to be a representative. No, I'm gonna continue this till last.

Okay.

In case Mr. Cardenas is running late. So can we hear it for Daniel Cardenas as he enters the room, please? That's the way we treat all of our special guests.

Oh, boy. Nice to see you. Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is proclamation number 1982, Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Whereas the month of May is known nationally as Brain Tumor Awareness Month, and the awareness ribbon is gray, which prompts the widely accepted motto, go gray in May. I went gray a lot sooner than May. Thank you. Whereas brain tumor awareness serves a vital opportunity to honor the courage of patients, remember those we have lost, and renew our commitment to finding a cure through advocacy, innovation, and community support. Whereas brain tumor, which affects individuals of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, are a critical public health issue with nearly 700,000 people in the United States currently living with primary brain tumor and over 108,810 expected to be diagnosed this year alone. With brain tumor can be malignant or non-malignant, yet all have the potential to significantly impact the quality of life due to their location and complexity of treatment. Whereas increased public awareness, ongoing research, and expanded access to advanced care are essential to improving early diagnosis, treatment outcomes, and the well-being of those affected. And whereas organizations, medical professionals, caregivers, and advocates work tirelessly throughout the year to support brain tumor patients and families, promote awareness, raise critical funding for research, and promote education. Now, therefore, I, Michael Hannon, on behalf of my colleagues on the Newark Council, declare the month of May as Brain Tumor Awareness Month in the city of Newark and encourage all residents to wear gray in solidarity and partnership with brain tumor patients and organizations participate in awareness activities and support efforts to improve the lives of those impacted by this devastating disease. So Daniel, I'm proud to award this to you in recognition of the council's setting aside May for Brain Tumor Awareness Month.

Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome, sir.

Well, first and foremost, I was talking to my mom before I walked in here. And if you know Spanish moms, they're like, go in there and say your thing and keep your eyes up, hold your head up high. But so when I walked in here, thanks, man. That was definitely a way to get my heart pumping. But to the entire council, thank you so much. Thank you so much, not just for recognizing us, but because you guys take the time to come out and see us when we're at Newark Days or when we're here supporting the state of Newark. All of you guys, I've seen all of you guys come out and spend some time with us, take pictures with us. And thank you so much for that. It's really important. You know, I got involved with this organization back when Jameson Everson, which we call Jammers, was three years old. So it was right before or during the pandemic. He was diagnosed with something called diffused leptomeningeal glonorono tumors. And it's probably a word that you probably don't want to know what that means, but it means that you have about 100 tumors between your spine and brain. This little boy is three years old, diagnosed during COVID. And his mom and dad, we connected and they asked me, I asked them if I could do anything to help. And what they said is you could lend your voice to actually telling his story publicly so it'll bring more awareness to that. So to the Everson family, I say thank you because it takes a lot of courage, strength to share your son's trials and tribulations in this long journey. And I'll tell you, God bless all those nurses and doctors at Lucille Packard Stanford Children's Hospital for doing amazing work with Jammers. Jammers was diagnosed at three years old. Today, he's nine years old. And clap it up for Jameson. That's an amazing thing. But more importantly, this little boy's journey has gotten, you know, it's traveled nationally, on a local level, and the word is out. So to have the Newark City Council recognize May as Go Gray in May for, you know, pediatric cancer and brain awareness. We also have September as Go Gold for Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, and I just, I'm beside myself to say that thank you for taking the time to recognize us, to recognize the work that we're doing. A lot of the work that we do goes to Lucille Packard. It goes to supporting the Lucille Packard Foundation. We work directly with a leading scientist in the world named Dr. Michelle Mangi. Why she took interest in our small little foundation, I don't know. but she took interest in us. And we are side by side with her trying to make a small, I always say a small difference, but an important difference in this whole battle against pediatric cancer. So I say thank you to you guys. Thank you to Jamison Everson for changing my life and my boys' lives and a lot of other people's lives that get touched by it. And I would also encourage you That it doesn't require you, your son, or someone in your family to be stricken by cancer. It is already a very difficult thing when it happens to an adult. But to deal with it on a pediatric level, on a childhood level, is even more devastating. Because that takes the entire family. And so get involved. Do something about it. Come out and learn more about the Jammer Strong Foundation. And thank you again for the platform that the Newark City Council gives us today to tell a little bit about our story. We're a small foundation, but we're mighty and strong. And we're going to make a huge difference in this world. So to Jamison, Jammers, Everson, and the whole family, thank you. Mayor, thank you. And to all these city council members, You guys are the most active city council that I've seen, and I've been around a lot. They get out there, they shake hands, and they're not just shaking hands for the pictures. They really do take the time to actually learn about our foundation, to get involved. And I say to you, thank you. Thank you so much for that. Appreciate you, Mayor.

This man is too humble. He does more than just what he does for Jammers as a spokesperson. You'll see him out at a lot of other community events volunteering his time to help other organizations around the city. So this man is not just a spokesperson. He's a fundraiser. He's committed to this organization. And because of his efforts and the efforts of all those that volunteer with him, they're making a significant difference in our community. So thank you for your leadership. You're appreciated. Take care. Thank you.

May I say something real quick, if that's OK? I just want to let you guys know, I don't think you guys realize how common brain tumors are, and they're very, very common out there, and how many people actually have it. I have a brain tumor. I have what's called a ganglioglomoma brain tumor. And so if anyone's up for it, they can see where I've drilled. I've got a bunch of holes in my head. I've got cuts all over the place. And I'm what's considered a very long-term survivor. I'm 26 years this year. It's unheard of. 26-year brain tumor survivors are unheard of. and he made some really good points. There's a lot of things that are going on and a lot of difficulties and things of that sort, but I got diagnosed at 17, so I was a pediatric as well. So I just wanna let you guys know it's a lot more common than you think and it's what's called an invisible disability, which can have a lot of big play in it as well. So I just wanna make you guys, these guys, Jammer Foundation does a lot of really good things for people and really the more we can help connect, it'd be really good for that. So jammers, I mean that, especially for me, it's all inside my head, literally. Seriously, thank you for what you do.

I'd like to ask Diane Cotati Gomez, the Teacher of the Year for the City of Newark. Had a chance to chat with her dad before we did this. I coached his son in basketball. What a fabulous family, fabulous family. And we are, before I even read this, we're so proud of you. You know, we hear a lot of criticism about Newark schools, but you're never gonna hear anybody criticize the quality of the teachers that we have at our schools, period. They are outstanding. So whereas Diane Katadi Gomez graduated from Newark Memorial High School and Cal State University Chico, whereas Diane Katadi Gomez has been teaching in Newark since 2012, has become an integral part of the Birch Grove intermediate community. Whereas as a third and fourth grade teacher, Diane Cotati Gomez not only delivers high quality instruction, but also leads her grade level team through collaborative curriculum planning and meaningful student experiences. Whereas Diane Cotati Gomez is widely respected for her strong instructional expertise and her role as a mentor to colleagues. She actively contributes to school-wide leadership through involvement in the school site council and school events committee. Whereas Diane Catani Gomez, see, teachers don't just teach from eight to two. They have lesson planning, they have other committees and things that they participate in. I almost think it's a 24-7 job. You know? I know all the other teachers agree. So whereas Diane Catani Gomez has been recognized as Newark's Unified School District's Teacher of the Year, now therefore I, Michael Hannon, on behalf of the council, want to congratulate Diane for being selected Teacher of the Year and thank her for her years of service and dedication to her young students. And I know that the superintendent is here. I'm going to ask the superintendent to come up and join me and present this. And I imagine the superintendent might want to say a word or two. This is a big week for New York schools, as you know. A lot of kids are graduating. Please welcome our superintendent, Ms. Vaccaro.

Well, good evening, Newark. This is an exciting week for Newark Unified School District. This is our week that we're celebrating our students and our great teaching that's happened to get our students over that finish line, whether they're promoting from TK going into kindergarten, kindergarten going into first grade, our fifth graders going into our middle school, and then our eighth graders going into high school, but most importantly, our graduates that are leaving us, going out to the world to make a difference for our class of 2026. and honestly it's because the work of our teachers and it's their job throughout our children's life cycle to be able to continue to motivate them encourage them provide those deep learning skills when they think they can't do it to give them the encouragement to continue and just try a little harder and that's the work that our teachers do and i'm so excited about being here this evening congratulations we are super excited She'll be going on hopefully to our next level here at the county, and we're looking forward to seeing what those results are in the fall. And so a little bit more yet to come. I think that you might hear about how Diane's doing.

Thank you so much.

And I'm going to ask my colleagues because I have teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher on the council. I'm going to ask him to come down and join me in a photo with you as our teacher of the year. And Mr. Carr, if you'd stay as well, city manager, if you would join us, because he taught at Schilling as a teacher many, many years ago. And we realized he wasn't successful.

One, two, three. One, two, three. Thank you. Okay. Watermelon. One, two, three. Watermelon. Okay. One, two, three. I don't have much prepared. But I want to say, yeah, no, you know, we're winging it. Happy last day of school for Newark Unified. This is our last day of school today. The kids were excited. Teachers are excited as well. Exhausted, but it's really wonderful work. And I felt, I've been very lucky to be very supported by fellow colleagues and principals. It's been an incredible experience and I feel very, very honored to be recognized in this way. And I hope to serve Newark for years to come. So thank you.

I always love teachers, they're so humble. I never expected to get this. They're just so appreciative of the awards that they receive because they don't do it for the awards, they do it because they really have a love for education, a love for the kids, and a love for those to be successful. I'm also pleased to welcome Nicole Lemus, Miss Lemus. I love the last day of school. My son is a teacher at Murrow High School, so he's already looking at his summer vacation. And some of my other kids were a little critical of him as a teacher, like, oh, you get the summer off. They don't realize the amount of work these folks do just to get the summer off to cleanse their mind and be able to start the year fresh. It's such a tough job. Nicole was the Classified Employee of the Year. Let's hear it for Nicole. Nicole demonstrates exceptional service and leadership through her role and work in the pupil services department supporting key programs such as attendance, enrollment, student discipline, and student services, whereas Nicole's ability to analyze data, improve systems, make information accessible has strengthened support for students and families across the district. Whereas a proud graduate of Newark Unified School District, Nicole embodies the district's vision of developing the unique abilities of every student. Whereas Nicole is widely respected for her positivity, reliability, and genuine care for others. Colleagues, students, and families alike recognize her as a trusted, compassionate professional who consistently puts students first. And that should always be the goal. Nicole Lemus has been recognized as New York Unified School District's Classified Employee of the Year. Therefore, I, Michael Hanna, on behalf of my New York City Council, want to congratulate Nicole Lemus for being selected as Classified Employee of the Year and thank her for her many years of service and dedication for her students. And I'm going to ask the superintendent to come up one more time to say maybe a few words and then help present Nicole with this certificate of achievement.

So I'm delighted to be able to share a little bit of information about Nicole. One of the things that we've done is we've been able to work together every single Wednesday to identify how we can better serve our families and our students here at Newark Unified School District. And one of the things that we really talked about was creating a one place where our families could go to to be able to enroll, to be able to get their questions answered without going from school to school if they've got multiple children at different grade levels or at different schools in the district. And so what we did is we centralized our enrollment center. And it's become a welcoming center for families to be able to come in, to be able to help them and support them so that they can easily enroll and make it a simple process and identify a good location for their children to be served. for us to recognize other services that families may need right here in the community and to be able to partner with the city of Newark and with many organizations that are right here in our community to be able to help our families. And that one-stop shop really makes a difference. I have a little secret to let y'all know that wasn't in your recognition for Nicole. Nicole is not only the Newark Unified School District Employee of the Year for Classified, she is the county person.

And we are so excited.

So she's the Allen County Employee of the Year for Classified Services, and she is now competing at the state level. And so we are super excited. But that work that she had in identifying that it would be helpful for families to have one place to go to, and that they had talked about it for years. She actually made it happen. We solved the problem. But it really is the heartbeat and the welcoming center that happens with being able to serve our family. So thank you, Nicole.

Let's get a picture. Let's do that. I love the collaborative relationship we have between the city of Newark and the school district. As I tell community members out there when I'm talking to folks in the community, we the council consider the schools really part of our city network. uh when people think about newark they think of business they think of recreation they think of residential but schools is an integral part of that and this council is always going to speak positively about our schools because we have outstanding employees outstanding teachers and we're going to continue to emphasize that the next proclamation is for water safety month and i'd like to ask race ryan storms ryan storms boy we met last year nice to see you ryan I worked with his dad, Ray Storms, back in San Jose. What a outstanding public servant Ray was and is. I imagine he's retired now, but please give him my best. The people that we hire from the city of Newark are just outstanding individuals. So this is now National Water Safety Month, whereas individual and organized forms of recreation and the creative use of free time are virtual to the happy lives of all residents, whereas residents of the City of New York recognize the vital role that swimming and aquatic-related activities play in good physical and mental health and enhance the quality of life for all people. Whereas the community understands the essential role that education regarding the topic of water safety plays in preventing drowning and recreational water-related injuries. Whereas the City of Newark is extremely proud of the George M. Silliman Activity and Family Aquatic Center and its contribution to providing critical life skills, a safe and healthy place to recreate, a place to learn and grow, to swim, build a self-esteem, confidence, and sense of self-worth. which contributes to the quality of life in our community. Now, therefore, I, Michael Hand, the Mayor of the City of Newark, on behalf of my colleagues on the Newark City Council, proclaim National Water Safety Month in Newark and urge all Newark residents to enjoy, recognize, and help promote the benefits derived from quality water safety programs and recreation resources, which provides something of value to everybody. And of course, living in California, we got some rain today. Thank you for that, Ryan. You brought the rain. We also need to be mindful that it's such a natural resource that we need to make sure we preserve and protect our water resources. So it's with great pride to present this proclamation to you, recognizing National Water Safety Month, my friend. Did you want to say a couple words?

I really don't like the public speaking.

Yeah, but it's so long.

I know.

Thank you, Mayor Hannon, city council members, and the city of Newark for this proclamation. Drowning is still the leading cause of death for children under four, a second leading cause of death for children from ages four to 14, and the fourth leading cause for adults over the age of 54. There's an average of over 4,000 unintentional drowning deaths each year and over eight times that in non-fatal drownings that lead to emergency medical care. Drowning can often be in as little as 20 seconds and is most often silent. The Newark Recreation Department is deeply committed to preventing drowning through a comprehensive approach that includes awareness, education, training, and supervision through lifeguarding over 4,200 hours of annual aquatic programming. We provide American Red Cross Learn to Swim lessons to over 3,300 students annually, ensuring foundational water safety skills for all ages. While our recreation swim program can see over 30,000 people per year, And to further support safe recreation, we provide over 4,300 life jacket rentals during our public swim hours, enforcing our belief that safety should be accessible to all. Our staff are highly trained through regular in-service sessions, as well as a robust certificate program that includes certifications in lifeguarding, water park lifeguarding, CPR, AED, first aid, administering emergency oxygen, water safety instruction, and Title 22 advanced aid for public safety personnel. And as I close, I'd like to leave you all with a few important reminders, simple yet powerful steps we can all take to promote water safety. Non-swimmers should always wear a properly fitted Coast Guard approved life jacket and stay within arm's reach of a responsible adult in the water with them at all times. Always actively supervise children by being in the water with them. Remembering that 88% of drownings occur with a distracted adult nearby. So assign a water watcher or be in the water with them. never swim alone, always swim with a buddy and in areas guarded by a lifeguard, and know and follow all posted safety and facility rules. By keeping these tips in mind we can all do our part to ensure a safer and more enjoyable experience in and around the water. Thank you.

Officer Jason Germano, a new employee. Ladies and gentlemen, it's always a pleasure to introduce new employees. Officer Jason Germano was hired as a lateral police officer on March 30, 2026. Officer Germano grew up in Fremont and San Jose. He graduated from Mission San Jose High School and went on to study automotive technology at De Anza College in Cupertino. For 21 years, Officer Germano worked as a lead master technician and California smog technician at AutoNation Volvo Cars of San Jose, where he collaborated collaborated closely with Volvo factory representatives on complex repairs. While still in his automotive career, Officer Germano served five years as a reserve police officer with the city of Newark. He later transitioned to a reserve position with the city of Piedmont, where he was promoted to full-time officer after one year. During his seven years with the Piedmont Police Department, he served as a firearm instructor, CIT officer, which stands for Crisis Intervention Training, and mentor to new officers. Officer Germano earned two life-saving awards, one for rescuing a person from a burning vehicle and another for reviving a 14-year-old who had overdosed on drugs. Hmm. thank you he also received three one zero eight five one pins for stolen vehicle recoveries officer gemano's proudly following his grandfather and father's footsteps in public safety together they served a total of 42 years combined with the san jose fire department in his free time officer gemano enjoys restoring his grandfather's 1948 chevy 5 window pickup from the ground up, riding his Harley-Davidson, going to family lake house, camping, shooting, and spending quality time with his wife, Skye, and his dog, Halligan. Welcome aboard. I'd like to now invite Angel Esparza. Angel. So this brings back some memories. I worked at San Jose's code enforcement for quite a number of years. So it's always a pleasure to introduce a new employee who worked in San Jose's code enforcement division. So Angel joined the community development department after 11 years of service for the city of San Jose. So you started just after I left. Thank God for me. A first-generation Mexican-American, Angel was born in Oakland and raised between there and Hayward. Tennyson High School graduate and a proud Puente Project alumnus, having participated in the program through both high school and college. Angel later earned his associate degree in criminal justice from Chabot Community College. Angel joined the city of San Jose in 2015 as a parking compliance officer and was promoted to senior parking compliance officer before joining code enforcement in 2017. As a versatile inspector, he first served as the city's tow liaison, managing the city's tow contract. That was always fun, wasn't it? The tow contracts. That was fun. and helping independent auditor recommendations. During his time, he expanded his expertise as a sole inspector in the vehicle abatement, dismantle, and illegal dumping programs, and later transitioned into the general code program. Most recently, Angel has served as a vacant building inspector, managing vacant buildings, and as a tobacco retail inspector, enforcing the city's flavor ban and licensing requirement. Angel's excited to join the small but mighty community preservation team and help preserve a safe and clean, attractive community for everyone. When he's off the clock, Angel enjoys writing poetry, hunting for vinyl records. Above all, he loves spending time with his three-year-old daughter, Yaretzi. Close? Okay. Whom he proudly raises along her mother, Nye. Please welcome.

My battery died.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next item on our calendar is the public comments section. This is an opportunity for anybody in the public to comment on any item that is not currently on the agenda. Is there anybody that'd like to speak to the council? Yes, please, come forward and state your name, please.

My name is Ariel Hu.

Welcome.

Okay, thank you. So yeah, good evening mayor and members of the city council. My name is Aaron Hu and I'm a resident living on Jarvis Avenue right next to the Oasis Palace. I'm here tonight because our neighborhood's peace, safety, and basic quality of life are being systematically destroyed by this commercial establishment and we need the city to step in and enforce its own laws. What makes this situation truly unacceptable is the blatant defiance. All this palace is located less than two blocks away from the Newark Police Department. Yet, literally under the nose of law enforcement, they blast commercial-grade low-frequency bass every single weekend that rattles our windows and vibrates the walls of our homes deep into the midnight. usually even after 11 or 12 a.m. This is a direct and flagrant violation of Newark Municipal Code Section 17.24.100, which strictly regulates commercial noise limits. We have tried reasoning with the business management. We have expressed our concerns, but our police have been met with nothing but empty promises and stalling tactics. The commercial disturbance has only gotten worse. Because the business refuses to comply, we had no choice but to involve law enforcement. Over the past two months alone, New York police has been dispatched to this location repeatedly. I want to read the five official police incident numbers directly into the public record tonight. First, incident number 2604030088 on April 3rd. Second, incident 2604110105 on April 11th. Third, incident 2604170106 on May 15th. Fourth, Incident 260-515-0079 on May 17th. And fifth, just days ago during the holiday weekend, incident number 260-524-0104 on May 24th. Five police dispatches in less than 60 days. This is a documented recurring public nuisance and a flagrant defiance of the city code by commercial operator. Our local tax dollars and police resources are being wasted every weekend just to tell a business to turn down a base that should never have been allowed to shake our houses in the first place. I am formally asking the City Council and the City Manager to direct code enforcement to launch an immediate investigation into Oasis Paddocks' conditional use permit. We ask the City to review their operating conditions and mandate the installation of permanent commercial-grade decibel limiters. We love Newark, we pay our taxes here and we deserve the quiet enjoyment of our homes. Thank you for your time and I will be handling over a copy of this incident report to the city clerk for the official record, thank you.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, just to summarize, that's really what public comment is all about. If you have issues both to bring to the city's attention or concerns that you have in the community, that's what the public comment section's all about. Our city manager certainly heard your request and our city manager and our staff are very responsive. I would imagine that they'll get in touch with you in the next few days to let you know kind of the course of action that they're going to proceed. So thank you for bringing that to our attention. Is there anybody else here that would like to speak on a public comment? Please come forward. Good evening.

Good evening.

You can pull that mic down if that helps. Sure, thank you. You're welcome.

Yeah. Good evening, esteemed mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Namaste to you all. Namaste. My name is Aarti, and I'm a volunteer of the HSS, which is Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh. So I'm here to be sharing you briefly about our recent Guru Vandana event. The event was a heartfelt celebration dedicated to honoring the teachers and recognizing their invaluable role in shaping our future generations. It was truly inspiring to witness the participation of educators, students, families, and community members coming together in gratitude and respect. Through cultural performances, presentations on traditions, and the teacher felicitation ceremony, the program highlighted the deep-rooted value of our Guru Vandana, which means offering respect and gratitude to the teachers. We are very proud to share that this initiative continues to grow across the United States, bringing communities together and to appreciate the educators and strengthen connections between schools and cultural organizations. We are especially grateful for the continued support of civic leaders like all of you, which helps make such community-driven initiatives very meaningful and impactful. Thank you once again for your time, encouragement, and commitment to supporting our educational and cultural programs in our community. Namaste, and have a wonderful evening. Namaste, everyone.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, please come forward in your name, please.

My name is Tejas Nayak. I'm a volunteer from HSS and I respect the tradition of showing gratitude to the teachers. I enjoyed participating in the Guru and the teachers appreciation event.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you for coming. It doesn't matter what age you are, folks. You can be anywhere from five years old to 95 years old. If you have a public comment, you come to the city council and have your voice heard. Yes, sir. Please come forward.

Good evening. All right. If that wasn't a professional voice, I've never heard one. Okay. I'm sorry it's not as critical as the rest of these have mentioned. I just want to know what the heck is going on with the traffic lights in Newark. Every single left-hand turn light, every single light gets its full 35, 45 seconds, whether there's traffic in the lane or not. I thought it was just Thornton because they were doing all the water work up there, right? And I thought, okay, they put in metal plates. It's sensing that there's a car there. But that's not true. I found it out on the edge of... Stevenson and Ballantyne where the left-hand turn light just turns on and goes for like it was an entirely full lane. All the way out to the other side of Jarvis and Paseo Padre. So something is screwed up with the traffic lights in Newark and my concern is that because people know that if I miss this light, I'm going to be here for a full five, six, seven minutes. I'm gonna run this light. I'm gonna shoot through the yellow, okay? I personally know that if I turn, if the light is just turning yellow on Newark Boulevard and Thornton, if I can take the right-hand lane, I can go down a block, hit the U-turn, come on back all the way and make a right-hand turn and still beat the other lane going the other direction, okay? It's a problem and please find out why. Citywide. Excellent, thank you. That's a speaker's voice. That should make money. You should make money.

CITY MANAGER, DO YOU WANT TO COMMENT?

YES, YOUR HONOR, IF I MAY. TO THE SPEAKERS WHO CAME OUT TONIGHT AND SPOKE UNDER PUBLIC COMMENT, UNFORTUNATELY STATE LAWS PROHIBIT THE COUNCIL FROM SPEAKING AND RESPONDING TO YOUR CONCERNS. THERE'S VARIOUS TRANSPARENCY LAWS THAT GOVERN AND REGULATE HOW COUNCIL MEETINGS OPERATE. AS FAR AS THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS ARE Our city engineer our season our public works director. Mr. Howard young is our city engineers here as well. I didn't see him Either one of those two gentlemen would be happy to talk to you out in the hallway about our traffic lights And Mr. Was it goo sir, is that correct? Our community development director who oversees our community preservation unit would be happy to speak to you in the hallway along with a representative from the police department

Are there any other public speakers? Yes ma'am, please come forward. Yes.

Okay.

I can wait or I can come back and give that person an opportunity. Okay. Are they out there coming in now? Yes. Okay. Should we stand and applause as they walk through the door? Well, we've been waiting for you. Welcome. This is the public comment section on the council agenda for you to speak on any item not on the agenda. Please come forward and know that you're welcome and anything you have to say, we wanna listen to you. Turn right here, hon. Yeah. When you get elected to sit here, then you can be there. But that won't be too long from now, I don't think. Hello.

Good evening, estimated mayor, vice mayor, and councilor members. My name's Ananya Kalyani Shetty, and I'm an HSS volunteer, and I truly appreciate the tradition of expressing gratitude towards teachers, and I was happy to take a part in this event.

Well, thank you for coming tonight and expressing that. Anybody else under public speaking? Money also. I'm waiting. Anybody else on public speaking? On comments not on the agenda? Once? Twice? All right, we're gonna go ahead and close public comment section. Thank you for all those that showed up tonight, and thank you, Mr. Mnune, for making staff available to speak to folks out there in the hallway. That's what we do here in Newark. Let's solve the problem and move forward. That's what we wanna do. But thank you for showing up tonight. The next item on our calendar is our consent calendar. These are typically fairly routine items. We have five items on the consent calendar. City Manager, any item you want pulled from the consent calendar?

Not this evening, Your Honor.

Ladies and gentlemen, is there any item you'd like pulled from the consent calendar? Colleagues, any item pulled from the consent calendar? Council Member Grindahl.

Yes, I'd like, oh, sorry.

I'd like to pull item four, I'm sorry, item three, D3, the waiving further reading and adopting the ordinance for the purpose of I wanted to vote against this item as I had on its first reading. So I'd like to have it pulled so we can discuss it independently.

Okay, thank you. Can I go ahead and get, is there any other item pulled from the consent calendar from any of my colleagues? If not, can I get a motion to approve items one, two, four, and five? Moved by Council Member Contoncio. Seconded by Eve. Seconded by Council Member Eve Marie Little. Please vote on those items. Start voting. You wanted to vote yes on one, two, four, and five, yes?

Yes, correct. I'm sorry, I apologize.

That's right, can we show five-zero on one, two, four, and five? All right, City Manager, item D3.

Yes, good evening, Your Honor, members of the Council. If the Council may recall, at the previous Council meeting two weeks ago, the Council introduced an ordinance that made certain amendments to the Municipal Code specifically relating to funding of election campaigns. Place this item on the consent calendar for second reading. I'm happy to answer any questions that the Council may have.

Council Member Gundahl, any other comments?

JUST THAT I AM OPPOSED TO THIS MEASURE ONLY BECAUSE OF THE INCREASE IN THE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION LIMITS. THE OTHER PARTICULARLY THE LEGALLY REQUIRED ELEMENTS I'M IN SUPPORT OF BUT I HAVE TO VOTE AGAINST THIS ITEM BECAUSE I DON'T BELIEVE THE CONTRIBUTION LIMIT SHOULD BE RAISED BY 40% FROM 500 TO 800.

THANK YOU. AND MR. BANUN, I JUST WANT TO AND MR. BANUN, I JUST WANT TO CLARIFY FOR THOSE IN THE CLARIFY FOR THOSE IN THE AUDIENCE, THAT ISSUE ITEM D3 WAS AUDIENCE, THAT ISSUE ITEM D3 WAS REALLY TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT REALLY TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT THAT FOLKS COULD CONTRIBUTE TO THAT FOLKS COULD CONTRIBUTE TO CAMPAIGNS HERE IN NEWARK FROM CAMPAIGNS HERE IN NEWARK FROM $500 TO $800. $500 TO $800. THAT'S IN ESSENCE THE ISSUE. THAT'S IN ESSENCE THE ISSUE. YES?

YES? CORRECT, AS WELL AS REMOVING CORRECT, AS WELL AS REMOVING THE EXPENDITURE CEILING LIMIT FOR THE EXPENDITURE CEILING LIMIT FOR THE ENTIRE

I'll make a motion to support D3. Can I get a second? I'll second the motion. Vice Mayor, thank you. Please vote. This is on D3 only. And that passes on a three to two vote.

Okay. Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Newark repealing and replacing Chapter 2.11 election campaigns of the New York Municipal Code.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, the next item is public hearings. The first item is a hearing to consider a call for review of the Community Development Director's approval of a minor use permit, MUP 2025-21 for Adventure Van Show and Sale, a temporary three-day special event for three weekends in the Northwest parking lot in front of the vacant Sears building at 1100 New Park Mall Road, APN 901-111-19, and consider adopting a resolution affirming the community development director's action with changes, or in the alternative, consider adopting a resolution overturning the community development director's action. Mr. Bennoon?

Yes, good evening, Your Honor, members of the Council. This is a public hearing to consider a minor use permit that staff issued back on April 23rd. This permit, if approved, would allow a recreational vehicle show and sale event in front of the vacant Sears building at New Park Mall for three non-consecutive weekends this calendar year. The item was pulled up for review by Councilmember Grindahl. Per our zoning ordinance, the council essentially has three options. They are basically either to, number one, affirm staff's recommendation, two, modify staff's recommendation, or three, reverse staff's recommendation. Under option one, the council can simply affirm the decision that the community development director made in issuing the permit. If that is the desire of the council, we do have a slip sheet for council's consideration, and that would correct the typographical error in the enabling resolution. The second option would be to modify staff's decision, so that would essentially be approving the event, subject to whatever modifications the council would like to impose. The third one would be to reject staff's findings, which would essentially deny the minor use permit, and that would effectively prohibit the RV shows from occurring. We do have two resolutions for the Council to consider, depending upon Council's pleasure. Tonight we have a presentation from Assistant Planner Ms. Yvonne Nguyen. She will recommend that the Council approve the use. And of course, as per usual, we recommend that after the staff report is provided, that there be a public hearing, that that be opened, Council receive testimony from the public, including the applicant, and then the Council should deliberate. With that in mind, we'll go ahead and start off with a report from Assistant Planner Ms. Yvonne Huynh. Ms. Huynh, you have the floor.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, and city council members. My name is Yvonne Huynh, assistant planner. This hearing is to consider a call for review of the community development director's decision approving Adventure Van Show and Sale, a temporary three-day special event for three weekends in the northwest parking lot in front of the vacant Sears building at 1100 New Park Mall Road. Additionally, this is a hearing to consider a resolution affirming the director's action with changes or consider an alternative resolution overturning the director's action. For my presentation, I will cover the following topics, summary of events, call for review, project background and overview, California Environmental Quality Act exemption, fiscal impact, findings of fact, staff recommendations, and questions. The applicant, Steve Love, submitted an application for a minor use permit to allow for Adventure Van Show and Sale, a temporary three-day special event for three weekends in the Northwest parking lot in front of the vacant Sears building at 1100 New Park Mall Road. under newark municipal code section 17.26 260 b short-term special events that do not exceed three consecutive days may be allowed with the approval of a minor use permit from the community development director the applicant requested to hold events on may 8th through 10th june 19th to the 21st and october 9th through the 11 2026. On April 23rd, 2026, the director approved the project based upon required findings and subject the project to conditions of approval detailed in the notice of action, which can be found in attachment one of the staff report. A notice of action describing the director's decision was distributed to the applicant, members of the city council, and the planning commission. The notice of action included procedures for a call for review of the decision. The procedure allows for a member of the city council to submit a call for review of the decision made by the community development director. staff did receive a request for review of the director's decision to approve the minor use permit on april 26 2020 2026. THE ZONING CODE OUTLINES THE ZONING CODE OUTLINES PROCEDURES TO FOLLOW IN PROCEDURES TO FOLLOW IN ADDRESSING A CALL FOR REVIEW ADDRESSING A CALL FOR REVIEW WHICH INCLUDES PROCESSING IT IN WHICH INCLUDES PROCESSING IT IN THE SAME MANNER AS AN APPEAL, THE SAME MANNER AS AN APPEAL, SCHEDULING THE APPEAL FOR SCHEDULING THE APPEAL FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE AUTHORIZED CONSIDERATION BY THE AUTHORIZED HEARING BODY WITHIN 45 DAYS OF THE HEARING BODY WITHIN 45 DAYS OF THE DATE OF THE APPEAL IS FILED. and such call for review shall not require any statement of reasons and shall not represent opposition to or support of a decision, application, or appeal. MOVING ON TO THE OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT, THE APPLICANT IS STEVE LOVE FROM RECVAN. THE PROJECT IS IN THE NORTHWEST PARKING LOT OF THE VACANT STEERS BUILDING AT NEW PARK MALL LOCATED AT 1100 NEW PARK MALL ROAD. THE PROPERTY OWNER IS NEW PARK MALL LP AND THE REQUESTED ENTITLEMENT INCLUDES A MINOR USE PERMIT. THE PROPOSED EVENT WOULD FEATURE THE SHOW AND SALE OF ADVENTURE VEHICLES AND SMALL MOTOR HOMES. THE APPLICANT OBTAINED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR APPROVAL OF A MINOR USE PERMIT FOR SIMILAR EVENTS ON AUGUST 5, 2024, OCTOBER 28, 2024, AND The site is zoned RC Regional Commercial with a New Park Place specific plan overlay district and has a general plan designation of Regional Commercial. The site consists of New Park Mall which holds a variety of commercial uses such as department stores, restaurants, and entertainment venues and other similar uses. The parking lots at New Park Mall have accommodated a variety of temporary outdoor special events throughout the years, including carnivals, food festivals, promotional events, and other community-oriented activities. THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR APPROVED THE PROJECT ON APRIL 23, 2026 TO OPERATE ON THREE WEEKENDS IN MAY 2026, JUNE 26, AND OCTOBER 2026 AS DETAILED IN THE NOTICE OF ACTION. Since the public hearing could not be scheduled prior to the originally approved date in May due to legally required noticing dates, the applicant has requested that the previously approved event dates be replaced with the proposed August 2026 dates identified in this slide and on the slip sheet provided to you as part of tonight's hearing. The event hours will be from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for all event dates. The event will include approximately 80 to 100 new and used adventure vehicles, four sanitation facilities, two hand watch stations, and a generator. The parked adventure vehicles and small motorhomes will be used to delineate the event's perimeter and create a physical barricade. The total expected attendance is approximately 1,000 people over a three-day period. The applicant will have a team of 15 staff members in attendance during the event and one unarmed security patrol will monitor the event area overnight. The project is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to the mentioned CEQA guidelines listed in the staff report and on this slide. THE PROPOSED TEMPORARY EVENT IS THE PROPOSED TEMPORARY EVENT IS NOT ANTICIPATED TO CREATE NOT ANTICIPATED TO CREATE MATERIAL FISCAL IMPACT TO THE MATERIAL FISCAL IMPACT TO THE CITY. CITY. OPERATIONAL IMPACTS ARE OPERATIONAL IMPACTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE TEMPORARY AND EXPECTED TO BE TEMPORARY AND MANAGEABLE WITHIN EXISTING MANAGEABLE WITHIN EXISTING SERVICE LEVELS AND PERMIT SERVICE LEVELS AND PERMIT CONDITIONS. CONDITIONS. TO THE EXTENT ADDITIONAL CITY TO THE EXTENT ADDITIONAL CITY STAFFING INSPECTIONS OR PUBLIC STAFFING INSPECTIONS OR PUBLIC SAFETY While the event is not expected to generate material direct tax revenue, it may provide indirect economic activity benefits to the surrounding businesses within the New Park Mall area. Overall, the project would comply with the applicable provisions of the zoning code and would be complementary to the site and the existing commercial uses. The project would be consistent with many of Newark's general plan policies, including land use policy 4.4 which aims to modernize the greater New Park area to create a vibrant regional retail location that provides urban amenities and gathering places. A mixture of higher density housing, office, hotel, entertainment, civic, and other uses should be encouraged to the extent that these uses enhance regional retail as the primary use and to assist in the area's revitalization. LAND USE POLICY 9.1 TO DIVERSIFY THE MIX OF USES IN THE NEW PARK MALL VACINITY TO SUSTAIN AND EXPAND ITS ROLE AS THE PREMIER SHOPPING AND ENTERTAINMENT DESTINATION IN THE SOUTHERN ALAMITA COUNTY. BASED ON STAFF'S ANALYSIS AND THE DETERMINATION FROM THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, THE TEMPORARY USE FINDINGS AND THE MINOR USE PERMIT FINDINGS FOR THE PROJECT CAN BE MADE IN THE AFFIRMATIVE. And the strategic priority area for this project is to boost financial resilience and excellence in service delivery. WITH THAT SAID, STAFF RECOMMENDS THAT THE CITY COUNCIL CONSIDER ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS, CONFIRM OR AFFIRM THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR'S DECISION TO APPROVE THE MINOR USE PERMIT WITH CHANGES TO THE PROJECT TO REFLECT THE UPDATED DATES FOR THE SPECIAL EVENT AND TO INCLUDE A CONDITION REQUIRING THE APPLICANT TO DESIGNATE NEW WORK IN ITS REPORTS TO CDTFA AS THE POINT OF SALE FOR ALL RV SALES transactions occurring as a result of this permit to the extent required by and permitted by law. Number two, affirm the community development director's decision to approve the minor use permit with modifications proposed by the city council to the project, the required findings of fact and or the conditions of approval. And lastly, reject the director's decision thereby denying the project based on an inability to make the necessary findings for approval. staff recommends that the city council affirm the director's decision to approve the minor use permit with changes to the project to reflect the updated dates and for um and for and to include the new condition about the point of sale If City Council seeks to overturn the Community Development Director's decision, staff has provided a draft resolution outlined in attachment five. The draft resolution includes a space for City Council to identify where it was unable to make the necessary findings to approve the project. And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. The applicant is also here via Zoom. And Chris Spencer, a representative from Rec Van, is also here in person to answer any questions as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Nguyen for the presentation. Do we need to ask Mr. Mnune, do we need to ask the applicant whether or not they've reviewed and agree to all conditions in the staff report? We don't need to do that, okay.

We'd be happy to do that, but I don't think it's necessary.

Okay. Mr. Love, are you online?

Yes, I'm here.

Mr. Love, did you want to make any comments before I turn it over to my colleagues?

Well, first of all, we do want to take the time to thank you to the mayor and the council for allowing us to present this opportunity and application and having the ability to discuss any concerns there. You know, a couple of things I noticed in some of the presentations tonight, there's a lot of talk about recreation and family opportunities, which is what a rec van really applies to people who actually purchase, use and own one. uh you may not be aware of us we are actually uh located in fremont it's right behind uh carmax and the former cole store so we're more of a local store only about three to four miles from the mall and um you know i think one thing that we didn't probably include was that we do bring employees in from outside the area that will be staying in hotels using restaurants during these events And so I just certainly would be glad to answer any questions you have or concerns or anything else that we can address. And finally, during your question about the condition that's been added, we have already found and submitted a letter saying, yes, we will go to the California Department of Taxation or Franchise Board for reporting of where the sales locations are.

Thank you, Mr. Love. And I think we'll probably get to Council's concern when Council Member Grindahl has an opportunity to speak since he was the one that called up this item. Mr. Love, I only have one question for you. The delay from the May event, which had to be canceled as a result of this item being called up by Council Member Grindahl, was there any cost to your business as a result of this delay in having to cancel the May event?

Yes, because, you know, we've already placed advertising in multiple directions. There was some advertising that we were not able to cancel due to the lateness of being notified of this being pulled forward to the council. So I have not received those final invoices because they will not come out until the 1st of June. But based on what we purchased and could not cancel, I anticipate that expense is going to be between $3,000 and $5,000.

Thank you, I appreciate that and I'll look to my colleagues. Any questions for the applicant? No clarifying questions, okay. Let's go ahead and move on then. Is there any public comment on this item? It is a public hearing, I'm gonna open up the public hearing. I did the cart before the horse, did you notice that? This is a public hearing and it's open for comments. Is there anybody here that would like to comment on this item? Seeing none, I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing. And I'm gonna make some preliminary comments before I turn it over to my colleagues. And these are really more educational items that I wanna mention to folks. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a minor use permit. A number of years ago minor use permits used to come routinely to the Commission and or the Council for consideration and we made a determination back then that it was unnecessary for the Council to weigh in on minor use permits and therefore we changed the code section to give the Council and or the Planning Commission the opportunity to call up items and IF THEY FELT IT WAS NECESSARY TO DO SO. SO COUNCILMAN GRINDALE IS EXERCISING HIS RIGHT TO CALL UP THIS ITEM. HE DOESN'T NEED TO LIST ANY REASONING FOR HIS CALLING UP THIS ITEM. BUT I WANT TO JUST MAKE AGAIN SOME PRELIMINARY COMMENTS ON THIS. This minor use permit was approved by the community development director. That's where you start. It was approved by the community development director. He took a look at the general plan, he looked at the zoning ordinance, and he made a determination that this use is compliant with all those regulations. The item could have been called up or actually could have been referred by the Director to the Planning Commission. He didn't refer to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission decided not to call up this item. So the Council, Mr. Grindahl, made a decision that he was going to call this item up. If you look at the history, first of all this Use has been as mentioned by staff has been there several times before August of 24 October of 24 March of 25 No issues were raised the parking lot at New Park Mall has accommodated a variety of temporary outdoor special events throughout the years and including carnivals, food festivals, promotional events, and other community-oriented activities. So it's something that we certainly look to have happen at the mall as we look to regenerate and rejuvenate our mall. If you read the last part of the staff's recommendation, It is a temporary use and a minor use permit. It is consistent with all applicable land uses. It's compatible with surrounding uses and no, this is the key, no significant adverse impact on public health, safety or welfare was noted by staff in reviewing this application. When the community development director looks at these issues, the community development director, and this is directly from the city's municipal code, may approve an application for a temporary use only upon making both of the following findings. The proposed use will not unreasonably affect adjacent properties, their owners and occupants, or the surrounding neighborhood and will not in any other way constitute a nuisance or to be detrimental to the health, safety, peace, comfort, or general welfare of persons residing or working in the areas of such use or in the general welfare of the city. The proposed use will not unreasonably interfere with pedestrian or vehicle traffic or circulation in the area surrounding the proposed use and will not create a demand for additional parking that cannot be safely and efficiently accommodated by existing parking. You heard from my former colleague, Susie Collazo, shop Newark, shop Newark. How can we encourage residents to shop Newark when we continue as a council to call up minor use permit that at the end of the day are gonna be an economic benefit to this community? There are gonna be employees that are gonna be working those weekends. As mentioned by Mr. Love, they're gonna be staying in hotels. They're gonna be shopping in Newark restaurants. They're going to create a vibe at the mall in terms of folks looking to buy RV, recreational vehicles, which could have a residual effect on our revenues in terms of anticipated possible sales tax increases. I see nothing that doesn't benefit this community by having this temporary use of this location. Mr. Grindahl, why don't you explain to us why you're calling this item up for review?

I WOULD BE HAPPY TO. FIRST OF ALL, I CONCUR WITH THE MAYOR'S COMMENTS ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF A USE SUCH AS THIS. MY CONCERN IS WITH THE CONDITION OF THE SITE, WHICH IS THE PROPERTY OWNER, NEW PARK MALL ASSOCIATES, WHATEVER THEY CALL THEMSELVES NOW, BROOKFIELD PROPERTIES IS THE OVERARCHING OWNER, THE CONDITION OF THE SITE IS APPALLING. EVEN IF YOU LIMIT YOURSELF TO THE AREA OF THE STUDY, THERE ARE MASSIVE POTHOLES, FAILING CONCRETE THAT ARE TRIP HAZARDS. THERE ARE STACKS OF CONCRETE CONDUIT THAT WAS THAT WAS BROUGHT ON SITE AND HAS BEEN STORED THERE FOR YEARS AS PART OF AN ABANDONED CONSTRUCTION PROJECT. I PERSONALLY HAVE REPORTED THESE CONDITIONS FOR OVER A YEAR TO CITY MANAGEMENT AND THERE ARE, I UNDERSTAND, ONGOING code enforcement concerns. The owner of this property is simply not taking proper care of their property, and as a result, you cannot make the findings for a minor use permit, A, G, F, or E, which refer to there being, that the project and thus the site is consistent with the city's regulations and codes. We don't allow, We don't allow activities such as this to occur on the site. It's unfortunate that this issue was brought forward through this process rather than the owner simply complying with our regulations as they've been told to do numerous times and to simply pave the holes that they have in their parking lot, remove the construction equipment. There's also very close by here an abandoned vehicle, which was in some sort of a car wreck, and there's a tarp thrown over it. It's in close proximity to this site as well. So the owner of this site could have easily addressed these issues and instead they thumb their nose at what we're doing and go forward with minor use permits that benefit them financially while they simply when they simply thumb their nose at the city's regulations so i that that is the reason i called up this activity i don't believe you you should be issuing minor use permits and making the findings when there are massive numbers of ongoing long-standing code enforcement concerns that that by definition code enforcement is is opening a case because there is a violation And I don't have the details of those cases. It's not appropriate that I would have. But I can tell you that the timing has been a very, very long time. And the owner had, the property owner, not the tenant applicant that wants to do this project, which again, I'm in support of, but the property owner has not done his proper care of his property. And I don't think those findings can be made. So I hope my comments clarify things to you, Mayor.

Well, they actually don't. This is not an issue about the mall. The mall's not standing before me looking to benefit in any respect as a result of this use. This use has to do with a RV show and sale. They've already lost $5,000 as a result of your calling this item up. I don't want the public to get the impression that this council is not open for business and friendly to small business. This council member called up Masha Swogg, A CULTURAL DANCE STUDIO IN THE MALL WHO ALSO LOST THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS BECAUSE THEY HAD TO DELAY THEIR OPENING. I DON'T WANT THE MESSAGE TO BE OUT IN THE COMMUNITY THAT WE'RE UNFRIENDLY TO SMALL BUSINESS. WE NEED TO STAY FOCUSED ON WHAT IS BEFORE US. AND WHAT WAS BEFORE US IS AN RV SALE APPLICANT. NOTHING THAT YOU SAID TONIGHT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HOW THEY'RE GOING TO OPERATE THEIR BUSINESS DURING THOSE SPECIFIC WEEKENDS LATER THIS YEAR. Colleagues, I'm gonna go ahead and make a motion that we support staff's recommendation based on the information that I provided. There's nothing in what Council Member Grendahl said that sways me one way or another. In fact, it's simply a direct impact on small business and we need to get out of this, we need to get out of this habit of calling up small businesses every time they wanna operate in the mall because what we're doing is we're sending a message to small business that the revenue that you bring to our city, whether it be hotels, restaurants, et cetera, employees, That's not important to us. It is important to us. And for that reason, I'm gonna support staff's recommendation. Can I get a second? I'll second the motion. By Vice Mayor Jorgens, please vote. And that passes four to one. Mr. Love, thank you. Staff, thank you for the excellent report. We just spent close to 40 minutes on an item to which we should not have had any conversation. So thank you for your presentation. I thought you did a fabulous job. The next item, ladies and gentlemen, on our council agenda is other business presentation by Godby Research regarding results of the November 2026 revenue measure feasibility survey related to a potential business license tax simplification and modernization. Mr. Mnuchin.

Yes good evening your honor members of the council. If the council may recall back on April 9th the city council received a report from the city's tax consultant providing an overview of the city's existing business license tax otherwise known as BLT. This ordinance was enacted in 1970 and has not undergone a comprehensive update in more than five decades. At the conclusion of the presentation, council direct the staff to continue evaluating potential modernization and simplification options for the BLT structure, as well as conduct community outreach and voter feasibility analysis. To that end, the City retained Godby Research, an independent public opinion research firm, to conduct a feasibility survey. That research has been concluded and Mr. Godby will be providing a presentation regarding the survey results. This item is for information only. No action is being requested of the Council this evening. At the June 25th City Council meeting, staff intends on presenting to the Council on two items. First, we will provide the Council with the results of our stakeholder and community engagement. And secondly, we'll provide an overview of the proposed and recommended ordinance that would simplify and modernize our BLT structure. After that presentation, the Council can have a discussion on whether there should be a measure on the ballot for voter consideration later this year. Before I pass it over to Mr. Godby, who will be appearing virtually, I also note that Mr. Charles Heath of Team Civ is here as well, appearing virtually. He's the city's communications expert. With that in mind, I'll go ahead and pass it over to Mr. Godby, who will be providing the presentation to the council this evening.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Let me share my screen for you. Everybody should be able to see the presentation now.

Is that okay? Is there something on our end, Ms. Salwan? Mr. Miranda, if you could be so kind. All right, Mr. Gavi, if you could be so kind as to put that in presentation mode, we'll be ready to proceed.

uh yeah sure certainly all right great uh well thank you very much for the opportunity to present the results and do this project for you as the city manager mentioned we conducted a survey for the city of newark we looked at a variety of different things we looked at satisfaction with provision of services about perceptions of taxpayer funds we assessed potential voter support for the revenue measure that the city manager mentioned we looked at things we might spend the funds on and have a priority there from the voters we tested both informational and critical statements and then of course we looked at the direction of the economy come this fall the sample is based on a demographic and behavioral characteristics that help ensure that it is likely representative of the city of newark A little more about methodology. The survey was conducted on phone and online. A phone meaning landline. Yes, there's a few people, very few, that still take surveys on landline. And then text and email invitations to an online survey. The universe was likely November 2026 voters. We were in the field from the end of April through the beginning of May. The average phone survey was 25 minutes long. Our sample size was 326 completed interviews, which gives us a margin of error plus or minus the 5.37 percent. Moving into the data, Again, the first section about quality of services and management of funds. This is a question we've asked multiple times over the years. You can see 2026, 2024, 2020, and 2016 data. uh in the most recent survey we're at 68 percent uh when we had the variant some what's together that's higher than it was in 24 by about 10 points a little bit higher than it was in 2020 but it was highest in 2016 which is pre-pandemic and that's a pattern we've seen in virtually every city and community in California The next question that we asked, again, was about management of taxpayer dollars. Same thing here. When we add the very somewhat favorables together, we're at 52 percent. In this particular survey, in 24, that was lower at 47. It was virtually identical in November 2020, and it was slightly higher in November 2016. at that point in the survey we switch gears and we have an actual ballot question this uh on the right hand side of the slide it meets all the statewide legal requirements it's not more than 75 words uh it has a um a rate which is rates up to 3.5 or but 3.3 percent of gross receipts uh and raises 5.4 million dollars it has a term of until ended by voters and was reviewed by, the ballot question was also reviewed by your city attorney. When we add the definitely and probably yes together responses from this question, we see that 63% uh of the respondents support this measure um without much information just the ballot question that is on the right hand side of the slide uh there's uh probably no of 9.2 and definitely no of 12 with 15 still not having an opinion at this point The next set of questions no longer had the 75-word limit, so this is a longer list of items that we could spend the money on from a potential business license simplification measure. And we ask these in a random order, but the order that you see here is the order based on our intensity scale. And we create that scale by assigning numeric values to each of the response categories. So a much more likely gets a 2, a somewhat more likely gets a 1, a somewhat less likely a minus 1, much less likely a minus 2. that gives us a scale that ranges from a high of 2 to a low of minus 2 and you can see that reflected in the numbers next to the burgundy bar the reason we do this is if you just add the much more likely and somewhat more likely together you could have something that's 40 much more likely and 20 somewhat more likely that's 60 but you could also have the reverse it could be 20 much more likely and 40% somewhat more likely, still 60% in total, but not the same 60%. so that kind of error is eliminated by this intensity scale and then we do add the much more likely and some are more likely together but we've already ranked them based on their intensity we also group them in tiers and each tier is statistically tied and you can see given the margin of error 78 to 67 are basically tied could be the same but there are numeric differences for sure and that's helpful in figuring out how to proceed with the measure. So at the top of this list, we have repair potholes and city streets at 1.05 or 78%, at least somewhat more likely, to support the measure. Then we have reduce blight and keep neighborhoods safe and clean, maintain 911 emergency medical response and fire protection, maintain parks and recreation programs, and finally, in our top tier, maintain emergency services in case of an earthquake or flooding at 0.86 or 67 percent at least somewhat more likely to support the measure all of those are substantially above the simple majority threshold required for this kind of measure in california in our next tier we have maintained neighborhood police patrols repair sidewalks and maintain storm drains this question continues on the next slide where you see still scores in the 60s and low 70s for things that are important but just not as important as the items that i read off on the previous slide but still of importance to the respondents The next question then switches gears a little bit, and this is the informational statements. These are factual statements as well as accountability provisions of the measure. The methodology here is largely the same in terms of the ranking, although the scale is different. So that means that the math works the same way, but you just can't compare 1.39 here with the previous two slides. but you can compare the uh percentages uh much more likely and somewhat more likely with the previous slide as well so at the top of this list we have for victims of heart attacks strokes accident and other emergencies seconds can be the difference between life and death this measure will help ensure fast 911 and medical emergency response times That's 80 percent, at least somewhat more likely to support the measure. Then we have local control and can't be taken by Sacramento, an accountability provision. Large businesses will pay their fair share, so homeowners don't shoulder the entire burden of maintaining the quality of life in Newark. The measure is not a property tax, so homeowners don't shoulder the cost. And finally, it is fiscally responsible to repair potholes now so they don't deteriorate and become more costly to fix in the future. This question set again and extended to the next three slides. These items are all important. They're in the mid-70s as well. So really, these items, rank at about the same level as the first slide here, so there's a lot of things to talk about. Small businesses support the measure because it updates an old, outdated structure. The measure will continue high standards in Newark for fiscal accountability and transparency. The measure will ensure rapid response times. The measure will ensure our fire stations located near the Hayward Fault remain open during an emergency. And the measure will ensure that businesses in Newark pay their fair share again. The next slide is a little bit lower in terms of our intensity scale, but still lots of really good scores here, which suggests that these factual statements help voters understand the measure quite a bit more. And that continues again on to the last slide, which I won't read in deference to the council's time. So at this point in the survey, we have introduced the measure. We've talked about what we could fund with it in terms of city services. We've talked about some factual statements about the measure and accountability provision. So we come back to our ballot question a second time. It's the exact same wording as before. And we would expect at this point in the survey to see an increase in support. And we do in fact go from that 63 to 74, which is a significant jump. based on the positive information. Of course, the world is not just one-sided, so we do also ask negative arguments. The methodology here is largely the same as the informational statements. We don't put minus signs in front of them to make them seem bad. The higher they are, the worse they are for us. So at the top of this list, you see this measure is a blank check. That's a reference to the general tax measure, which is what this is. The city says the measure has funding priorities, but they're not legally binding. That's a 0.91 or 55 percent, at least somewhat more likely to vote no. uh this year they'll also be regional transportation sales tax on the ballot and this is another tax on top of that the measure is a forever tax that will never end which is uh the way opponents talk about the typical business license tax term uh and the business the businesses in newark already parent pay a lot of fees and the measure will just drive them out of out of town at 0.73 or 48.2 percent at least somewhat more likely to vote no the next slide shows the remainder of the negatives including the economy which is given the high cost of gas groceries and other household necessities interest rates global recession businesses can't afford this tax now if our tax dollars weren't going to high salaries and benefits and pensions we wouldn't need the measure and finally the city does not really need the money they're just taking advantage of businesses by updating the ordinance All of these on this slide are below the 50% threshold necessary to defeat a measure, so they're still of interest and importance, but they're not obviously as negative as those on the previous slide. so now again after we presented the negatives we come back to our ballot question yet a third time and you can see we started at 63 we went up to 74 we're now back at 65 and that's a worst case scenario i think the real world is averaging the second and third tests which you see down here in the lower right hand corner and the reason we do that is because while the survey structure is very intentional the real world people here the positives first and then the negatives or the negatives first and then the positives and it gets mixed up a lot so when you average the second and third test you take you control that condition and you can see here that we're at 70 percent in round numbers that are at least probably yes on those second and third tests the next question uh spoke to uh various organizations and groups in town to see uh what their favorability is firefighters are at the top of the list at 82 percent uh low local newark small businesses at 71 the newark police officers association at 64 senior groups at 53 the mayor and council at 54 and the alameda county taxpayers association at 27. And then our final question dealt with the forecast for the economy. And as you can see here, the burgundy bars are what catch your eye. At the top of this chart, 53% think the economy is going to be worse in the fall. Now, given the time that we were in the field, 39 percent, 29.8 that think it's about the same, I don't think that's necessarily a positive thing because gas prices had already gone up when the survey was fielded. So they're expecting them to stay high and grocery prices, et cetera. So people are pretty pessimistic. that's baked into the results in the survey uh so even though they are pessimistic about the future of the economy economy they're still supportive of the measure you can see that that was substantially lower at 24 percent worst uh in 2024 and i don't think the same thing applies to the about the same then because you know the economy didn't have the hurdles that it does now

so that's the data that we have for you this evening certainly happy to answer any questions you might have uh and mr heath is here available to answer questions as well thank you mr godby this is ladies and gentlemen this is an informational item is there anybody in the audience that has a question regarding any of the information that you heard okay colleagues questions comments councilman cantancio

Thank you, Your Honor, and thank you for the presentation. I just wanted to state that I really do also appreciate that we did include the critical statements, also known as the negative ones, because it gives us an understanding of a voter's mindset, especially when we're thinking about the critical statement section two. I think that was around page 16 or so due to today's climate of the gas prices and various other items that already are high so that we could have an understanding of what people would think with the various comments. Thank you.

COUNSELOR LITTLE?

YEAH, I MENTIONED THIS BEFORE, NOT THIS ME, BUT I'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE AND I HAD A GREAT PRESENTATION. BRIAN, THANK YOU FOR COMING OUT HERE AGAIN AND TALKING TO US ABOUT THIS. ONE OF THE SUGGESTIONS THAT I DID HAVE ABOUT THIS IS I WOULD LIKE TO, INSTEAD OF THE WORD AMENDING, I'D LIKE TO HAVE THE WORD UPDATING INSTEAD BECAUSE I THINK PEOPLE ARE MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE MORE CASUAL WORD AND THAT'S REALLY WHAT WE'RE DOING. WE'RE UPDATING WHAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE. SO MY SUGGESTION ON THIS IS IF WE COULD CHANGE THE WORD TO UPDATING VERSUS AMENDING. I JUST THINK THAT WOULD BE I THINK IT MAKES IT LOOK EVEN MORE FAVORABLE IN MY OPINION.

THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER LITTLE. COUNCILMEMBER GUNDAL.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. SO THE LAST TIME THIS WAS PROPOSED TO THE CITY COUNCIL OR DISCUSSED BY THE CITY COUNCIL, THERE WERE THREE LEVELS OF TAX THAT WERE DISCUSSED. WERE THOSE THREE LEVELS OF TAX a part of the polling process or was the medium one used? What was the what was the which which one was used, if not all three of them?

I'm going to defer to Mr. Godby on that question. I would like to add likely to his response. Why don't we start off with Mr. Godby?

Certainly, council member, as you see the wording on the right hand side of the slide for virtually all ballot measures. Well, this is a summary to start with. We only get 75 words. We can't describe everything. There is a variety of additional information in the voter handbook, and you can see that's referenced in the ballot questions. So we say rates up to a 0.3 so we're talking about the high rate the highest rate but the others are described in the ordinance which is accompanying the measure in the voter handbook so that information would be in that place. And there's also an impartial analysis by the city attorney that appears in the voter handbook. All of that is where that information is provided. But we did use the high end of the rate, not the low end.

So the proposed ordinance that staff is currently evaluating, that was factored into that question there that's on slide 17. So that out of those six or seven categories where you have the various rates on the type of business, the 0.3 would be the highest. It would generate a total of 5.4 million. And that's the proposed ordinance that we're currently evaluating. When we come back at the second meeting in June, staff will provide the various ordinances that the council can consider in terms of the various tax rates. And should the council decide to put this item before Newark voters this fall, after that discussion at the second meeting in June, well, at that second meeting in June, that would be the opportunity to have that discussion in terms of what are the exact rates and what that looked like. In terms of Ms. Little's comment and question, I'd be happy to evaluate that, that discussion should the council decide to put this item or continue further with this analysis, we would have that discussion at the second meeting in July.

Well, that answers my question. As I stated last time we discussed this, I'm supportive of a update of the plan or whatever other word we use. But I am not supportive of using the update to generate significant additional revenue. So that's my concern. So I wanted to know if that sensitivity was tested and I understand it wasn't, I understand why you wouldn't, but that was the reason for my question.

And we'd be happy in terms of the options presented to the council at the second meeting in June, we can certainly offer a cost neutral option for council's consideration. We will present to the council at that second meeting in June a list of all the various models that we looked at and explain the rationale for recommending the one that's listed here and identified on the screen.

Mr. Mayor, just one more comment, if that's okay. I neglected to thank you, Mr. Gobby. Your presentation is excellent, as always, and we very much appreciate the work you're doing for our community, so thank you.

I join my colleagues, Mr. Cobby, in thanking you for your presentation and the hard work that you do for the City of Newark. The statistical information in terms of favorability is certainly something to be looked at positively. I think the one point that you made in your presentation, among others, the control of local funds, You know, we, the city of Newark, we can't rely on the state and federal government when it comes to funding opportunities, funding sources. You know, we have a responsibility to the community to provide police services, fire services, parks, clean parks, streets. You know, we have so many responsibilities as a government. And as I tell folks who want to complain about state and federal government, I remind them that all government is local. You know, we're going to make sure you have clean streets. We're going to make sure when you call 911... officer or firefighter is going to show up at your property. Those are the funds that we can control and we need to pay particular attention to our revenues and our expenses. Police officers, no disrespect to police officers, I'm still driving the Tesla by the way, but no disrespect to police officers. We're competing against every other city in the Bay Area for outstanding police officers. And we're doing our best to hold on to police officers here in the city of Newark. And the only way we're going to do that is to be competitive with our salaries. And the same, I would say, Mr. Banoone, with all city staff. I mean, folks are looking for engineers. They're looking for all sorts of IT folks. They're looking for folks that bring a specific expertise. And that expertise costs money. And we need to make sure we're positioned in such a way that Those staff that we appreciate and want to preserve here in the city of Newark, we're willing to pay a competitive salary. The only way we can guarantee that we can do that is to raise taxes, unfortunately, at the local level so we have direct control of those funds. Mr. Scott, when you talk to small businesses, were they aware that the council is considering lowering the business tax license for small businesses?

Well, first of all, the sample is of likely voters. So there is a small minority of those people that are business owners. But this was not a sample of business owners. So we did. So that's who we talked to. I mean, if you it's not a bad idea, certainly. in considering putting this on the ballot to reach out in a different fashion and engage those business owners because they are such a small portion of the likely voter universe, but they weren't included in here. We did talk about how small businesses would be impacted in the survey, and that was a positive, and we also saw that small business owners are a very positive and highly rated messenger. IN THE COMMUNITY.

AND JUST FOR THE COMMUNITY'S INFORMATION, MR. BANUN, IF THIS DOES SHOW UP ON THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER, WHAT PASSAGE RATE DO WE NEED TO ACHIEVE FOR THIS TO TAKE EFFECT?

IT WOULD BE A GENERAL TAX MEASURE, SO IT WOULD BE 50%

Okay, and similarly, with Measure LL and Measure GG, we've asked our citizen review committee to kind of oversee how these tax dollars are expended. Would you anticipate, again, assuming that this is passed by the voters, that we would set up a similar mechanism for folks to kind of oversee the revenues and how those funds are being expended?

correct mayor should the council wish to proceed with this further at the july second meeting in july we would put together a draft ordinance for council consideration as a part of that draft ordinance there would be a requirement that all the funds received be subject to the city's tax committee which we use for measure gg and ll so we consolidate that for one tax review committee

And just my last comment. Ladies and gentlemen, the last time we updated our business tax license here in the city of Newark was 1970. I think most people in this room were probably not even born in 1970. So it's long overdue in terms of it's, don't shake your head, Vice Mayor. I don't, you know, we... So this is long overdue, and it's a benefit to the community. So I look forward to further conversations, especially with business, Mr. Bennoon. We haven't even really started the marketing out there in terms of gauging business input on this item. When we were advised, as I think you advised us last meeting, that we actually derive more money from our utility tax. which actually hits homeowners and residents more directly than the business tax, that's certainly something for us to consider moving forward. If there's no other comments, this was an informational item. Thank you, Mr. Godby. I appreciate what you've done. You did a great job, by the way, on the... TOT YOU HAD US COMING IN AT 60 SOMETHING PERCENT WE CAME IN AT OVER 80 PERCENT SO DON'T SHORT CHANGE YOURSELF WHEN YOU PUT OUT THOSE ESTIMATIONS BECAUSE YOU WERE SPOT ON AND WE THANK YOU FOR THE HARD WORK THAT YOU DO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN Next item on the agenda is the presentation of the draft 2026-2028 biennial budget. Mr. Mnuchin.

Yes, good evening, Your Honor, members of the council. This is a work session review of the draft 2026 through 2028 biennial budget. If the council may recall, back on March 26, the council received the presentation from city staff that provide an overview of the city's budget process, major fiscal and economic trends, revenue projections, and long-range financial considerations. Staff also provided an overview of key initiatives and projects that the City is implementing for the next two fiscal years. For the past two months, staff has been busy preparing a draft budget that aligns our expenditures with the priorities that the Council reviewed at the last meeting. The purpose of tonight's presentation is to provide some brief updates to the Council on our financial outlook. to review the five-year forecast and proposed budget, and to solicit feedback from the council on city council compensation, which will be incorporated in the final budget that we adopted next month. This will be a joint presentation from our finance director, Ms. Kristen Lee, our assistant city manager, Ms. Linka Havorka, as well as myself, and we'll start off with Director Lee. Ms. Lee, you have the floor. Thank you, City Manager Green.

Okay, thank you, City Manager Mnuchin. Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, city council members. I'm Kristen Lee, finance director. Before we begin, I would like to thank all city departments, city department heads, as well as staff for their collaboration through this development of the proposed 2026-2028 biannual budget. And this budget reflects months of coordination. It required operational review and financial planning across the entire organization. I also want to thank the city manager and assistant city manager for their leadership and their guidance throughout this process. And thank you mayor, city council members for your continued support and your stewardship and public funds. Most importantly, I would like to recognize the finance team for their tremendous work on many late nights preparing the budget document. Special thanks to accountants Ivan Kuang, Roberto Garcia, Acosta, management analyst Siobhan Henderson, Senior Accountant Michelle Villanueva and Deputy Finance Director Gloria Del Rosario. Thank you for their diligence, their dedication, and the countless hours of the hard work to get us through this process. With that, staff is pleased to present the proposed 2026-2028 biennial budget tonight. In tonight's presentation, I will cover the current economic and financial conditions, provide an overview of the proposed biannual budget and the five-year forecast, and then I will turn it over to City Manager Boniun to review the proposed budget additions, and Assistant City Manager Havorka will then provide the City Council's compensation review. Finally, we will conclude with the next steps leading up to formal budget adoption. You have seen this slide before. It illustrates how the city develops our two-year biennial budget, and it's within the context of a rolling five-year financial forecast. The first two year represents the proposed adopted budget for fiscal year 2026, 2027, and the second year fiscal year 2027-28. These are the operating years before the council tonight. The remaining three years are representing planning years and are used to identify emerging long term fiscal pressures. This framework allows the City Council to make near term operational decisions while maintaining visibility into long term financial sustainability. And the proposed biannual budget tonight maintains current core service levels, and it is balanced through ongoing revenues, strategic transfers, and available fund balances. It includes limited strategic operational enhancements, and it continues our reserve and our pension funding strategies. At the same time, the forecast also identifies the fiscal pressures that are in the out years. While the near term budget remains stable, maintaining the long term flexibility and sustainability continues to be a key financial planning priority for us. This slide summarize the broader economic environment that influences the proposed budget tonight. Over the past year, revenues generally performed above baseline and the baseline assumptions were due to strong consumer spending and favorable investment performances. However, the city is beginning to see economic activity normalized following unusually strong post-pandemic growth. And at the same time, expenditure growth. As we look ahead, expenditures are projected to grow faster than revenues over time. And according to the proposed budget, we continue to emphasize conservative forecasting, cost containment, reserve management, and long-term planning. Several economic conditions that continue to impact the local government finances include economic uncertainty and geopolitical volatility. Consumer spending growth is moderating and inflation has improved, but operating construction costs remain high. Interest rates remain above historical norms and investment earnings are expected to moderate as interest rates gradually decline. Also, our cash balances are planned to support major capital improvement projects, citywide initiatives, infrastructure investments, and service enhancements. So all of these conditions were incorporated in the city's revenue and expenditure assumptions. From an operational perspective, several key cost drivers continue to impact the city. Inflation, it continues to affect our service delivery and construction costs. Personnel related costs remain one of the largest expenditure pressures. And the future sunset of the utility users tax remains a long term fiscal risk. Recruitment and retention challenges continue in our hard to fill positions. And these trends are consistent with what many other California cities are currently experiencing. Okay, on the slide, it shows that our estimated general fund revenues for the current fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026 are approximately 94.8 million and this excludes transfers and designations. This is approximately 4.6 million or 5% above the amended budget, 1.2 million or 1% below prior year actuals. Property tax remains the city's largest revenue source and continues to perform relatively stable. Sales tax activity has begun moderating compared to prior peak years while the TOT and the UUT revenues continue performing generally within our expectations. This chart illustrates the city's general fund revenue composition. Approximately 39% comes from property tax, 17% from the city's 1% Bradley Burns sales tax allocation, and 8% from Measure GG, which is the city's additional half cent sales tax, or half cents transaction and use tax. Combined sales tax and Measure GG represents approximately 25% of general fund revenues. AND THEN 13% FROM LICENSES, PERMITS AND FEES, 8% FROM TOT AND 6% FROM THE UUT. SO OVERALL THE CITY REMAINS SORRY OVERALL THE CITY MAINTAINS A RELATIVELY DIVERSIFIED REVENUE STRUCTURE. The estimated 2025-26 general fund expenditures total approximately 89.7 million, excluding transfers and designations. And the estimated expenditures are approximately 800,000, or 0.9% below the amended budget, and 10.5 million, which is 13% above prior year actuals. The increase over the prior year is driven by personnel-related costs, inflationary pressures, contractual obligations, and operational cost increases. In some cases, though, budgeted expenditures from prior years did not occur before year end, and so the remaining funds were carried forward and re-budgeted in current years. This chart shows the expenditure allocation by category. Personnel-related expenditures, approximately 52%, continue representing the majority of general fund spending. And it's followed by non-personnel operational costs at approximately 26%, and fire services approximately 17%. And this reflects the labor-intensive nature of municipal service delivery. When the Alameda County Fire Department contract for fire services are combined with direct personnel costs, approximately 69% of general fund expenditures are personnel related. And approximately 65% of our personnel costs supports public safety services, which includes 42% police and 23% of fire. This slide summarizes the proposed strategic year end transfers and designations for fiscal year 2025-2026. The current year end is projected with an operating surplus before transfers of approximately 5.1 million. Staff is recommending several strategic actions, including long-term capital and future debt service planning, contributions to the emergency and fiscal uncertainty reserve to maintain reserve policy targets, and pension stabilization through contributions to the Section 115 trust. These plan transfers and designations reduces the ending unallocated fund balance, but are intended to strengthen the city's long-term financial position, our reserve stability, and our future preparedness. So as of June 30th, 2025, the city's emergency and fiscal uncertainty reserve is projected to continue meeting the council adopted 30% reserve policy target. In addition to the emergency and fiscal uncertainty reserve, the city has continued maintaining designated reserves for pension and OPEB obligations, section 115 trust funding, equipment replacement and maintenance needs. This slide reflects our estimated reserve balances as of June 30th, 2026, after the proposed strategic transfers and designations. The emergency fiscal uncertainty reserve is projected to increase to approximately 25.9 million and continues meeting the council adopted reserve target. SECTION 115 TRUST BALANCES ARE ALSO PROJECTED TO INCREASE AS THE CITY CONTINUES IMPLEMENTING ITS LONG-TERM PENSION STABILIZATION STRATEGY. AND AT THE SAME TIME, UNASSIGNED FUND BALANCES PROJECTED TO DECREASE AS FUNDS ARE INTENTIONALLY DESIGNATED TOWARDS LONG-TERM OBLIGATIONS, INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS, AND OTHER STRATEGIC FINANCIAL PRIORITIES. These reserves provide financial flexibility, it supports the city's AA plus credit rating, and it helps to stabilize their future budget and economic impacts. Based on the current forecast, the city has sufficient general fund balance in fiscal year 2026-27 and fiscal year 2027-28 to maintain the current 30% reserve target. However, staff is currently updating the city's GFOA reserve risk assessment, last completed May 2023. And since that time, Citi has implemented several positive financial actions that helps reduce the fiscal risk, including establishment of the Section 115 trust, creation of the maintenance reserve, and increases to the TOT rate. Following completion of the updated Risk assessment staff anticipates returning separately to City Council with reserve policy recommendations, including potential consideration of lowering the reserve target from 30% to 25. And this is one of the potential strategies that could help address long-term structural budget pressures in the out years. This slide summarizes the proposed two-year operating forecasts. Some of the key assumptions included are continued stability. Sorry. Some of the assumptions included is the continued stability in our property tax, the moderating sales tax growth, and continued expenditure pressures from personnel-related costs. While the budget remains balanced in near term operating margins narrow significantly by the end of fiscal year twenty twenty seven twenty eight. This reinforces the importance of long term financial planning and monitoring future structural pressures. The proposed biannual budget is balanced through strategic transfers and designations. This slide further illustrates that the city's planned use of reserves and long-term funding actions are as follows. Staff is recommending funding set asides for debt service planning, emergency reserves, pension obligations, and future infrastructure needs. These amounts shown in purple reflect the plan policy designations. These are for our long-term financial strategies rather than the traditional operating deficits. A way to look at it is we are intentionally moving money from our checking account and putting into savings accounts so that when we do have plans for strategic uses, we can have the options that council can review. While these actions reduce unassigned fund balances over time, again, they do support a reserve stability that helps us with future obligations and long-term fiscal sustainability. So this slide presents the city's five-year general fund forecast with the primary focus on the proposed biannual budget years of fiscal year 2026-27 and fiscal year 2027-28. The forecast is updated annually as reserves and expenditures and economic conditions and council priorities evolve. The first two year again represents the near term operating plan and it focuses on maintaining core services supporting reserve stability and addressing current operational needs. The remaining years which begins fiscal year 20 20 29 represents a long term planning projections that are intended to identify future budget pressures infrastructure obligations and other long term financial considerations. As shown in the out years, revenues are projected to continue growing modestly while expenditure growth gradually outpaces our revenues over time. So over the five year forecast period, general fund revenues are projected to grow conservatively at approximately 1% annually, while total expenditures are projected to increase approximately 3% annually. Operating deficits before transfers and designations are projected to increase from approximately 2 million in fiscal year 2028 to 29 to approximately 6.9 million by the end of fiscal year 2031. This forecast is primarily driven by the personnel and pension cost growth, the inflationary operating and construction cost, long-term infrastructure and capital obligations, and the utility users tax sunset date of December, 2029. In this slide this summarizes the city's long term general fund outlook and the impact of the strategic reserve funding and the financial commitments over the five year forecast period. Again the forecast reflects relatively stable operations in the near term. with an estimated operating surplus of approximately 390,000 in fiscal year 2026-27 before transfers and designations. And beginning in 2027-28, the forecast shows a modest operating gap of approximately 970,000. So on this slide, it shows that the forecast also incorporates several intentional funding strategies, including contributions to the PARS Section 115 trust for pension stabilization, continued funding for emergency fiscal uncertainty reserve to meet our target, continued funding, maintenance and equipment replacements, and planning for future debt service and major capital obligations. And it's also important to note that in previous fiscal years, specifically fiscal year 2024-25, sales tax and measure GG revenues had benefited from elevated one-time economic consumer spending activity. And rather than using these temporary revenues to support ongoing expenditures or ongoing operations, the city strategically directs these portion directs a portion of these revenues towards capital investments, our reserves, pension funding, and other citywide initiatives. This approach strengthens the city's financial position and it helps us manage our future revenue volatility and it also reduces our reliance on one-time revenues to support ongoing operating costs. Actual results will vary based on economic conditions, revenue performance, inflation, staffing levels, council priorities, and future policy decisions. Overall, the forecast serves as an early indication tool, helps us identify emergent fiscal pressures, and it provides council with time to evaluate financial strategies, operational adjustments, and other long-term funding options before those pressures become more significant. And with that, this concludes my portion of tonight's presentation. I am happy to answer any questions before turning it over to City Manager Bunyan.

Great. I think we will take a moment to have questions so we don't get lost. Council Member Little?

I love numbers. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it. So one thing I wanted to double check with you. So I know you made a really good comparison. I really like it. Our checking account versus all the different savings accounts and 401ks and Roths and things that we invest in. So from what I saw on your slide, it looks like our saving plan, I added it up. It looks like we have about $64.18 million in savings and investment accounts. Is that correct?

What slide would you refer to?

I think it was slide eight or something. The fund balance. Yes, 15. So that was one of my questions that I had. So all this amount is what we currently have already. So if you will, we have. 64.18 in savings. I added it all up. So it's that correct, right? Yes. And these are general fund balances.

So we do also have special revenue funds that are not shown here, but those are directed towards specific special purposes.

Awesome. My second question is, so that's awesome. That's really good because we hear from a lot of other cities what they're going through and stuff like that. The fact that we have 64

million is fantastic and apologies may i also just clarify the section 115 trust that one is more of an investment tool and so um that money is specific for it's evil it's an irrevocable trust and so it's not considered a savings account it's money that we had in the savings account the pension and opeb reserve and we had invested it into this 115 that was my next question

My next question was which one of these accounts can we actually If we need to, we can get into it and spend it, and which ones, like you just said, are untouchable for many years?

We actually can't use any of these accounts, but the most restricted one is the Section 115 trust. If we need money to pay for increased pension obligations, then that would be our first option is to... to decide how much and when to start dipping into our Section 115 trust. And therefore, the reason why we would like to continue to invest into that fund to take advantage of the investment returns and to take advantage of long-term investment, the time.

Yeah, that was my question, because I want to know which ones had restrictions, which ones were more flexible. So I know everything's like that. My next question was on slide 18. Slide 18. It was actually more of a compliment. I am a huge fan of how conservative you are with your numbers. I love how you overestimate your expenses always and you underestimate your revenues. And that really makes a big deal in the plot of things. So I really appreciate that. I was pointed out to me in a previous meeting, but I wanted to kind of point it out to people who are watching and whatnot online. Could you talk a little bit about the utility user tax UUT? And then as you see it, it's, you know, four, five, five, five till we get to the 2029 and 2030. I know the answer, but just to let people know online too, why does that magically disappear? And why are we, you know, why are we using these numbers?

Yes, so our residents had opted to extend the UUT for nine years and the sunset date is planned for December 2029 and therefore we are reflecting only half a year of revenues and then the following year you'll see that once it's sunset and at that time as we get closer There will be direction of whether we can bring this back to our taxpayers and see if we can further extend the UT.

I just wanted to bring it to the audience's attention, the importance of how much this amount of money actually really makes. And I think it's important for us to look at the forecast of 2028, forecast of 2030, and just how important this 5 million is. So I hope we consider it and consider running it again when we re-voting it, because I do think it plays a really big role, as you can clearly see in our number. But once again, thank you for being conservative where you should be conservative and being a little bit more aggressive in other areas. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Guindoll.

Sure, thank you. Thank you for the excellent presentation and also all the work that you and your team do in putting all this information out for us to review. I very much appreciate it. I'm sure my colleagues do as well. So on slide number 19, there's a lot of red on that one. So can you, And I just want to say, just so I understand, you've got red in that area, which means you're taking money to, that you've got, you're taking money, you're using money, not necessarily our dedicated reserves, but to fill the gap between the revenue and the expenditures. Does that red mean that we're that our revenues are essentially less than our expenditures and we're filling it with reserves.

Yes. So in the out years, you do see the trend that our expenditures will be outpacing our revenues. That is if we do not make early policy decisions or adjustments now. And therefore, the focus that we looked at is the near term years, the next two to three years. And oftentimes, because again, this is a plan, it's a dynamic tool that constantly will change based off of revenue projections, where we are conservative in our revenue projections, and we are not using one-time money to fund any ongoing services. And so what we, when we're monitoring the revenues and expenditures and the finance perspective, we're looking at the green line up above. When that green line stays red, then that's when we have what we would refer to as structural imbalance. What we are showing is a short-term structural balance because we do have obligations that we're still making decisions on. And so the conversation that we will hope to have with council is what are our options and what are the directions that we should take to exercise these options? the the purpose of reserves is really to provide us with options and that's why we want to keep our reserves healthy and we don't we don't ever want to deplete them and I mentioned earlier that staff will be reviewing the GFOA risk assessment and we will bring back to council a recommendation to reduce the target. Currently our target is at 30%. That is quite high compared to surrounding cities. But our city, we've had several years of lower reserves and then we had several years of increased revenues. And so there's a lot of exciting things happening in the city. And right now would be a time to really be able to assess what is the right level of those reserves. When we did the risk assessment back in May of 2023, It did indicate that we should be between 28 to 35 percent reserve level and we opted for a more balanced 30 percent As I mentioned since then we've actually implemented a lot of positive financial actions we one of the largest one was to ESTABLISHED THE PENSION 115 TRUST AND WE ALSO ADDED A MAINTENANCE RESERVE AND WE ALSO HAD BROUGHT IN THE, WE INCREASED THE TOT TAX MEASURE SO WE'RE BRINGING IN MORE REVENUES WITH THAT. AND SO IN DOING SO, WHEN WE RELOOKED AT THE ASSESSMENT MORE RECENTLY, IT ACTUALLY RECOMMENDS THAT WE CAN LOWER OUR policy target to about 25 percent. Our surrounding cities are at 20 percent right now and so I think 25 percent is healthy and by doing that it actually will give us a few million dollars back into our general fund. And what that does is we're lowering the target but it doesn't mean that at this time we will be reducing our reserve amount immediately. It just gives us that flexibility so that when in the out years when we do need to we have that flexibility to do so.

Right, so I understand we'll have a chance to discuss that later, if we want to do that, yes? Yes. So, and I'm sorry, if some of these questions are too detailed, and because I didn't give them to you in advance, if you want to defer them and provide the counsel later, that's perfectly fine. I wanted to know if you knew at least roughly what the interest rate we're paying on GG is. In other words, is it a good interest rate? Is there any refinancing in our future? I see it's 5% of our expenditures. So that's not insignificant. So are we in a good place with that debt?

Yes, I think that would be one of the few interest rates that we would probably not look into refinancing. I think we have a good effective rate close to 2.75. And even when interest rates do come back down, I don't think at least in my career we'll ever see interest rates. I hope to, but it would be advised that we don't refinance that particular debt.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that you knew that off the top of your head. I appreciate that very much. So I really, echoing my colleague, I really appreciate the conservative approach that's used. And one of the ways that my understanding is, and you're going to correct me if I'm wrong, please, is when it comes to estimating the cost of, and most of our expenditures are salaries and benefits. When you're estimating the cost of positions, you're using like the top, you're using like the top step. You're making a conservative assumption that everybody in those positions is at or near the top of their pay, which of course is not the reality. And of course you're also assuming 100%, or are you assuming 100% that those positions are filled, or are you assuming there's a certain number that we can't, that we haven't filled in your assumptions?

THANK YOU FOR THAT QUESTION. WE ACTUALLY USED TO BUDGET AT MID-STEP, BUT TO STAY COMPETITIVE, WE'RE REALIZING THAT WE ARE CLOSER TO TOP STEP, AND SO WE STARTED INCREMENTALLY BUDGETING AT TOP STEP, AND IN THIS BUDGET CYCLE, WE ARE BUDGETING AT TOP STEP. WE DO BUDGET ACTUALS, AND THEN WE BUDGET IN ANY PLANNED STEP INCREASES OR MERIT INCREASES OR any vacancies and the vacancy factor that we're currently using is 10%. And so what that does is as our vacancies are filled, as we become closer to fully staff, then it gives us that flexibility in the budget to do so. I think the truer vacancy rate at this point is closer to 13%. But again, that fluctuates quite often. And sometimes it's more particular to one department versus another. And so on an average, we budget 10% across the board.

I was going to ask that, I would think that police officers and dispatchers are harder positions to fill, and so that vacancy amount might be higher. Not that we don't want to fill all of them. We certainly want to make sure we have adequate police force, but my understanding is that that amount is lower. That is correct. so just just and i really appreciate your answers um i just have a kind of a comment i i am concerned about those out here um red ink and just i i would i would really like us to rededicate ourselves not staff council um to seeing that we grow our economy that we that we that we fix the derelict owners at New Park Mall, that we attract good quality jobs where there's employees eating in our stores. And so I think we really need to stay focused, in my opinion, on growing our economy because I see those out years in there. I'm concerned. And we have enough time to fix it if we dedicate ourselves to it now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Contaccio.

Thank you, Your Honor. Thank you for your presentation. Director, I really do appreciate having reserves and so I appreciate your team and putting this together as well. And I thank your team. I am interested in understanding if you can elaborate on the ongoing recruitment challenges for the hard to fill positions that I believe you referenced on page seven. For example, do you happen to know which vacancies are most impacted and how that would affect our city operations, can we entice people if we leveraged a little more money or is money not the issue?

I think I might have to defer to our human resources director to help with that but on the financial side we we are trying to stay competitive as a city and so you will see again personnel is always the highest expenditure pressure for any city and so we Again, we budget conservatively, and so we do budget at top step. And we do bring in great talent with that budget. In terms of hard to fill positions, again, we have certain departments that have higher vacancy rates, and therefore the high vacancy factor. The vacancy factor probably could be higher when we budgeted, but we wanted to leave that flexibility in the budget.

I would just like to add to that response. I think the two largest departments in the city, clearly, it's the police and the public works. And those are the departments that would naturally have the highest amount of vacancies. The first challenge, of course, is law enforcement in recruiting and retaining very talented police officers. And that's just the nature of the situation here in the San Francisco Bay Area. And the challenges we face are certainly not unique to other law enforcement agencies. I think just from a broader perspective, topically speaking, I would say that we do fare better than other jurisdictions in terms of recruiting and retaining those officers. We have made significant strides in that regard. And you'll see in a few moments when we get to our side to talk about budget additions, some additional resources that would support in that endeavor. The second department where we face some vacancies would be in public works, specifically in engineering. It's just a very tight field right now to recruit engineers who are talented and dedicated to the profession. We do have some open recruitments. We are making progress on that front. Our city engineer, Mr. Sabota, has dedicated the past few weeks to bring in some new talent. We hope to have some new employees introduced at upcoming city council meetings later this summer. With that in mind, Ms. Frye, I don't know if you have anything else you'd like to add in response to that question.

Yeah, thank you, City Manager Burnoon and Kristen for sharing that data. I am actually drafting a presentation for you all. We will be coming in front of Council on June 11th to share the vacancy reporting data for this last fiscal year. And what I can share is I think some good news, and I don't know in light of this conversation, but our vacancy rate last year was around 13%, and currently it is hovering around 10%. So we've made great strides in recruiting a lot of that in police positions. And so specifically, NPA and NPMA have come down significantly. But as City Manager Ben Nguyen mentioned, I think those are the highest vacancy rates that we have.

Thank you for the elaboration and clarification.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor? No questions from you. It was a very terrific presentation.

Thank you.

I just have a couple comments. By the way, thank you for combining the public safety personnel costs, because in most jurisdictions, public safety does represent the most significant personnel cost to any organization, and when we're showing 50-whatever percent for PD, showing really it's closer to 68, 69% when you throw in the Alameda County Fire. It does send a message to the community that we're putting a lot of our resources into public safety. And I think that's a more reflective in terms of where the budget's going in terms of our employees is really public safety. And that's really, as we've stated here at the council, that's really our main concern is public safety. And you can certainly see that with the 69% being dedicated to that. I also want to thank you for, again, showing and continuing to show a historical perspective on the budgets. Whether you go back two years or three years, I think it's important for the council and folks to see the budget in context of where we were and where we are and where we're going. And sometimes it's important to see that trend. To Councilmember Grindahl's question, which I thought was a good question, regarding the lowering the reserves down to 25%, you didn't factor that in at any of your tables at this point because the Council hasn't weighed in on that. I would ask that at some point you provide the Council kind of a sample of what it would look like in terms of the revenues to the expenditures if we were to lower that to 25%. I know we'll see that at some point. Wouldn't you anticipate bringing that item before the Council?

We were anticipating and bringing that when we actually closed the fiscal year so that we would have better numbers to run that scenario.

At that point, you would show that reflected in the tables. Yes. Perfect. And again, the big issue, and I think Council Member Little mentioned this as well, the expiration of UUT. And this, of course, doesn't... include a possible passage of a business license tax. So those are some pretty significant revenues that we're not anticipating in 3031, but certainly could be there depending upon the mood of the voters.

That's correct. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, good evening, Your Honor, members of the council. I do have two slides for your review this evening. As the council, of course, is aware, we take the existing baseline budget and make the necessary adjustments and we roll up those numbers and we present them into a binder for your review for the entire budget. Secondly, we do add some additions to our budget to really ensure that we have proper delivery of our services to our community and ensure that we have alignment with the resources and what the council's vision is and the initiatives in all the strategic plans that the council endorsed at the last council meeting. The two slides that I will present on this evening are all the requested budget additions that would implement all the initiatives and programming that the council endorsed at the last meeting. The first slide is with respect to personnel, and the second slide will be on the non-personnel side. As you can see for each of these slides, we have some listed positions, their respective departments, the FTE count, and then the impact for each of the two fiscal years in the next biennial budget. I'm just gonna briefly walk through each of these positions. The first one is a request for 3.5 FTEs, a total of 1.5 FTEs. This is for community service officers for our police department. And the rationale for this being requested is twofold. One, we do have, with the closure of Fremont City Jail, our officers are obligated to take all prisoners and detainees over to Santa Rita Jail for booking and holding over there. That is a lengthy time period of anywhere between three to six hours depending on the circumstances. It could be longer if there's medical clearance that's necessary. That then means that an officer who's doing that prisoner transport is not available to patrol within Newark City limits and that reduces the number of officers on patrol. We do of course consolidate. There's two separate arrests. We'll send one officer with both prisoners and send both of them to Santa Rita Jail in one unit. So we do have so many economies of scale there, so to speak. But anytime we do arrest someone, it does result in less officers on our streets. Having a CSO do the prisoner's transport would then mean more officers here in Newark to patrol our streets. Secondarily, we've had success in having community service officers who later then, after enjoying their career here with us in that role, do enter the police academy and become police officers. This would be a great entry point for us to evaluate these part-time employees. They're typically students enrolled in some university and it's an opportunity for us to evaluate them, for them to see if they enjoy law enforcement And assuming it's a good match, we'll hire them as officers and send them to the academy. We actually have an officer in the academy now who previously was a CSO and just a graduate a couple weeks ago who's now working in patrol who was a CSO. And we've been very fortunate to have them. So that's the first request. A second one is a request for two recreation specialists. These would be upgrade to existing part-time employees. One of them is an aquatic specialist, and this is instrumental in ensuring that we have a smooth operation. for our aquatic center. Obviously, it's a serious matter when you're talking about safety and pool compliance. We just celebrated Water Aquatic Safety Month and having a full-time position, upgrading a part-time position to a full-time position would certainly help us in that regard. Secondly, the other recreation specialist would be somebody who would be working, it's an expansion of an existing FTE to a full-time and that person would be allowed to focus on our facilities, our growing rentals, the growing sports program. We've seen a significant increase in community events as well over the past several years, and this would help in that regard. The third line item there is administrative support specialist for recreation community services. Frankly, this is something that we've been planning on since we came up with the Newark Resource Center several years ago. We do have a part-time employee who is managing that, well, is working at the Resource Center, which we plan on opening in the next few weeks. And that position, the plan all along was to increase that to a full 1.0 FTE, and that's what's listed there. The fourth item, it comes to us from our planning department, community development department. This would be an entry-level planner to assist with permit reviews. This would be offset, as you can see there in the parentheses, from a reduction of our contractual services agreement budget. We currently rely on contractual services to help with entry-level plan reviews. There's been significant work the past few years so as to justify a full 1.0 FT increase. and the goal would be to reduce the number of overdue plan checks which we do are unfortunately experienced from time to time and we would want to make sure that we can bring those all within the estimated and stated turnaround times and this would help in that regard uh the fourth one two three the fourth fifth item excuse me administrative support specialist two this would be a shared employee between the city manager's office and the i.t department and this would be for entry-level office support it would be 0.75 with it and 0.25 in city manager's office The current IT department, the way it's structured now, there's six FTEs, including one director, two technicians, and three analysts. There's nobody in the IT department who's dedicated to office support. So that means that we have a director and technician working on contracts, purchase orders, invoicing AP, all that sort of thing. For best operational efficiency, it would make sense to pay those folks who do computer work, to repay them computer work wages. It would make sense for them to do those types of things and therefore free them up and would help with our service delivery to all of our other departments, as well as, of course, address cybersecurity. In terms of the CMO office support, we do have an increase in public records requests as well as commendations and proclamations that we'd like to continue issuing and that 0.25 would help support in that regard. And then the last one, senior management analyst, human resources. It's been a number of years since we've added an FTE to the human resources department, using the best standards in terms of what is the appropriate ratio of human resources staff to overall size of an organization. It's FTE for the past 15 years, probably longer, we've been below that industry standard. And even with adding in at 1.0 FTE, we would be still slightly below that industry standard. The roles of human resources continue to evolve and be complex in issues with interpretation of CalPERS rules and all the California labor laws does demand necessitate an additional person and that would also help us with risk management. We would like to shift risk management all from CMO to human resources so that we all under one roof instead of the division that we have now and having those duties fall on an analyst would be helpful. These are the things, frankly, that would be necessary to continue to maintain our operations. There's not a significant expansion of programming or resources other than, like I said, just kind of basic managing everything that's going on with the city. the i would be remiss if i didn't mention that this would also be included we'd also include some adjustments to management analysts excuse me to classifications in the management group we every Every budget cycle we do a comparison of all employees' wages. There's some classifications within the management group that are under market. And should the council approve this budget, there would be some adjustments to bring those existing classifications to market. And we would meet with the affected employees and ensure that that happens. I would also be remiss if I failed to mention that all these budget additions are included in the draft budget that we will go over momentarily, and those were contained in the five-year forecast that was presented earlier by Ms. Lee. If we go to the next slide, please. The next slide is the non-personnel budget additions. Same, similar format, description there on the left, the relevant department. We do note whether it's one time, two year, or limited term, and we show the fiscal impacts there. The first one is an organization and service level assessment. This comes to us from Public Works. This would be an opportunity to evaluate our current staffing model and compare it to similar sized organizations and the services that we provide to ensure that we're appropriately staffed and also take a look at the workloads and ensure that everything is properly balanced. And so that would be the first request right there. THE SECOND ITEM IS AN ENHANCEMENT OF THE STREET SWEEPING PROGRAM. WE CURRENTLY HAVE ONE, WELL RESIDENTS CURRENTLY SEE THAT THEIR STREETS ARE SWEEPED ONCE PER MONTH. OTHER JURISDICTIONS WILL DO IT TYPICALLY TWICE PER MONTH. We're putting in requesting some funds be spent for additional resources so that we can expand the street sweeping program on a temporary basis to see what this looks like, gauge its effectiveness and see if this is something that will be helpful for our residents. I do note that at the community survey from last fall, there was a desire to see increased cleanliness of our streets and sidewalks and infrastructure. The third item is capital projects manager. This will be limited term position. This would be a contractual service agreement, so it wouldn't be an FTE with the City of Newark. This would be basically to have a person here at City Hall dedicated to taking the reins on some of the large projects that we have in our robust capital improvement plan. That includes, namely, the fire stations and the Cultural Arts Center. So this person would be able to negotiate on the city's behalf all of the appropriate contracts necessary to bring those projects into fruition. That would include the construction contracts, project management contracts, and all those sorts of things. This would be proposed for three years. Rather than paying it from the city's general fund, we would recommend charging it to the appropriate projects, and hence that's why you see the subtraction out there in the parentheses. The fourth item listed there is recruiting and background investigation software, a request for $30,000. As I spoke to a few minutes ago, we continue to face some challenges in terms of recruiting and maintaining talented police officers. This software that we're looking at is used by other jurisdictions and they've found it to be successful. So it would be including developing the brand for the Newark Police Department, a recruiting website all the appropriate videos and social media content and that would be that we then implement and use to share with our community and hopefully lead to attracting some awesome police officers to come work for the city of newark and so that's that request there the star chase pilot program This is a, essentially it's a GPS tracker. We currently have it, I believe, on four patrol vehicles. That's correct. And what this essentially does is it, we currently have a non-pursuit policy. So if we have a situation where police officers are chasing a suspect and the suspect goes into dangerous rates of speed, we have this option of putting a GPS tracker on the vehicle using a launching mechanism and then be able to chase the suspect in a safe manner, compliant with constitutional laws. As I said earlier, we have this on four police vehicles. This would expand it to the entire fleet for 17 additional patrol vehicles. And then last but not least, canine program expansion. We currently have two canines who work on patrol. One is retiring soon. and so this would be a third canine officer which would increase our patrol and our effectiveness. This is a specialized assignment for our police officers. They do test for it. It is a retention tool. The officers do particularly enjoy working with their canines and this would be something that would assist us with recruitment. So those are all the budget additions that we're requesting this year. As I indicated earlier, these are incorporated in the five-year forecast and they're incorporated into the budget book that we will go over in a moment. I'm happy to pause here and answer any questions that the Council may have.

Thank you, Mr. Mnuchin. Is there anybody in the audience that has any questions on any of the information you just heard regarding the proposed non-personnel budget additions or the other items? Councillor Little.

I have a question real quick. So I noticed here, just to go back on one slide for the people that are listening, what does FTE stand for?

Yeah, my apologies. That stands for a full-time equivalent. That's government finance accounting for those are the positions.

So a full-time employee that we're bringing. Okay, good. So it's just for anybody who's listening who's not sure what that is. Okay, so next slide. My question is for the Star Chase pilot program that you guys, that we're looking at. So we have it currently on four vehicles, and if we purchase them to put them on all the vehicles, wouldn't that be a one-time thing? fee that we do or is there like everything else these days a subscription that we have to keep in that's correct and as the technology gets outdated it would come with the necessary improvements in new technology so it would be two hundred thousand dollars every single year correct okay so even purchasing them it's more is it more of like a lease or i'm just trying to figure out or is it Do you understand what I'm saying? Are we going to purchase them once for like $1 million and then there's a $200,000 every year? Or I'm just kind of curious how lease to own, rent to own.

Our police chief, Mr. Jonathan Arguello, would be happy to answer that question.

I think it's a great opportunity. I just want to know how we're going to be paying, how exactly it's paid for.

Yeah, their platform is set up to purchase the hardware. And then there's cost with installation of the hardware. And then the life expectancy of the hardware is only, I think, if I remember correctly, about five years. Along with that, you're actually paying for the service for the GPS tracking and monitoring. They also will replace the projectiles as part of the service. So if you deploy a projectile and you need it replaced, they'll give you a brand new projectile. So, it's kind of a whole platform and the app is based on the dispatchers and the officers to see so that they're able to monitor the vehicles every three to five seconds. Right now, since it's just in the trial period or more of a pilot program, we wanted to be physically responsible and just do a small sampling and we're continuing to evaluate and we will for the next several months.

So kind of like the Comcast, pay an amount for the rental of the thing and kind of the whole package type deal.

Yeah, but we do anticipate costs to go down after the first couple years. That was my question. But then there'll be another, like in about three years past that, would be another looking at, okay, now we need to get new hardware again with the front-up front costs, and then it'll go down for the ongoing year three, four, and five.

So this is an average, what I'm feeling you're saying, an average per year?

It'll probably go down, but this is the front end of it. So that's why finance has it as a bigger dollar item on there.

Okay, thank you.

Sure. Chief, what is the distance on the projectiles? You know, I don't recall specifically. You have to be within a distance so you can actually see the vehicle clearly and be able to get to their bumper. It's deployed from the front of our bumper. I haven't gotten the technical training myself to deploy it, so I don't have it on my car. We have all our officers trained. That took quite a bit of time. It took some months to get everybody trained in it and certified. Because you also, it is a projectile, so you want to make sure everybody knows the parameters of when you deploy it, when you can't deploy it. For example, if there was some type of turning maneuver going, you would reevaluate whether that's a good time to do it. You know one of the things we are looking at is suspects are becoming accustomed to this and other jurisdictions They've had these longer, so they've had some success initially, but it's waning a little bit So that's why we also want the kind of conservative approach And so we we see it maybe potentially as a good partner pairing tool with a drone as a first responder program Thank you any other questions for the chief while he's here.

Yes, Councillor Grendel

THANK YOU, CHIEF. NOT ON THIS ITEM, BUT ON ONE OF THESE ITEMS. I JUST WANTED TO UNDERSTAND THE CSO, ADDING CSO SEEMS LIKE A VERY GOOD IDEA. I WAS WONDERING IF IT WOULD ALSO REDUCE OVERTIME. I HEARD THE CITY MANAGER TALK ABOUT WHEN WHEN THE OFFICERS ARE TRANSPORTING TO SANTA RITA, MAYBE EVEN TOWARDS THE END OF THEIR SHIFT, THEY WOULD BE HAVING TO CHARGE OVERTIME WHEREAS THE CSO IS PART-TIME AND THAT WOULD BE MUCH LESS LIKELY. IS THAT ACCURATE? ABSOLUTELY.

THE RATE OF A CSO IS MUCH LOWER THAN A POLICE OFFICER AND WE WOULD POTENTIALLY SAVE ON OVERTIME THERE EVEN IF YOU HAD TO PAY went over. And we also, the way it's structured, our game plan is to actually, you know, be wise about where we schedule that. And that's why we went for some part-time folks. It also allowed us to look at more potential candidates to develop versus if you did, you know, a full time and then just one half time, we were looking at doing three half times to actually kind of leverage, you know, our...

even further reduce over time yeah um thank you for that sure appreciate it councilman gondola actually just one more comment um i think that i think adding the canine officers is really important i love that it's part of our attraction process and i think it's it's a it's a great way to make our community safer so i i'm very happy to see this going forward

Yeah, they're very good tools, and they also do save on time. If you have a large facility, and we do have some large facilities, and you're dealing with an alarm call at 2 o'clock in the morning, that would take a team of officers much longer to search. The K-9 is a lot more effective tool.

I won't tell you my personal story, but maybe some other time. Absolutely. All right, thank you.

Chief, my suggestion on the canine is that we double the cost on the sale of the animal back to the officer. That would increase it, Mr. Binoon, from what to what?

It would be from $1 to $2.

All right, excellent, excellent. 100% growth. Correct. Questions on this side of the aisle? Okay, yes, Council Member Contaccio.

Thank you, Mr. Bernoune, city manager. I do agree with the proposed non-personnel budget additions, which appear reasonable. I also really support enhancing the street sweeping program as the street conditions remain to be one of the most sought after issues by residents, as was also mentioned at a previous presentation tonight. Thank you.

Council Member Contoncio, I absolutely agree with you 100%. I received a complaint a number of months ago from a citizen regarding the condition of the streets on Sycamore between Thornton Avenue and Mayhew's Landing. And City Manager, thank you to you and Public Works for the first, I think for the first time in our city, We actually have no parking on, I think it's on Tuesdays, every other Tuesday, to give the street sweepers an opportunity to actually clean the streets. And I was walking down Sycamore with one of the dogs and I thought, These gutters are clean. And then all of a sudden I noticed that there was the sign. And I said, well, that explains it. I know it's going to create an impact in terms of the possibility of towed vehicles and things of that nature. But I think if we do the education right up front with our residents that we want the streets clean and we're willing to put up a sign if it's necessary to encourage – Nothing more frustrating as Councilmember Cantancio was undoubtedly alluding to than to watch the street sweeper and just kind of drive down the middle of the road. And our middle of the streets were very clean. It's the gutters that we need to focus on. So I absolutely support the enhancement of the street sweeping program as well. Any other comments on any of these items? Okay, next item, Mr. Bennoon.

Thank you again, Mayor and Council, for your support. We very much appreciate it. With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to our Assistant City Manager, Ms. Linka Vorka. The next portion of the presentation addresses Mayor and City Council Members' salaries. Ms. Vorka.

Thank you, City Manager Boone. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I will take the next few slides to review mayor and council member compensation. And this review is in alignment with our municipal code that says that we shall review council member salaries every two years during the biennial budget process. That review does require that we look at at least two items that includes consumer price index and that's for all urban consumers in the San Francisco Oakland San Jose area as Well as any adjustments that were provided to city staff since the last City Council salary increase I'd also like to mention that California government code also regulates staff, or excuse me, city council increases, and per the code, we can increase council member and mayor salaries by looking at CPI, and there is a 10% cap on that, as well as a 5% cap per calendar year since the last increase was provided.

The next slide, please.

Thank you. So what the review has showed is that our last increase was provided on January 1st of 2025. That was a 6% increase, which coincided with staff adjustments for two years, 3% each year since the prior increase. And with the review of the consumer price index since the January 2025 increase, We've showed two annual increases in February of each year at 2.7% and 2.5% for a total of 5.2%. And staff adjustments since the last increase given to the mayor and council members equals 7.5%. That includes a 4% that was provided last July and the 3.5% that is anticipated this July per the compensation and benefit plans and memoranda of understanding that we have in place. And those staff adjustments apply to the majority of our staff. It does not include some of our police department increases that are higher. So again, the maximum increase that can be put into effect would be 10%. And how those increases become effective is we can't have council vote to put an increase into place before we have our next election, which is this November. So what we typically do is have the discussion and review now. and then take direction from council to incorporate those numbers into the budget if there will be an increase. And then we'll come back to the council usually in September or October and present a change to the ordinance that would include an increase if you were to direct staff to provide that. and then have a second reading of the ordinance during the fall. And then again, that increase if determined there would to be one would become effective January 1st, 2027. So the next slide provides some budget impact information So using the information we gleaned from the review. We just came up with a few potential scenarios This is in no way limits the council to come up with any number up to 10% per the state law cap that you wish to to consider. So currently with the current salaries that are in place, we have an annual cost of about $108,000 total for the city council salaries. If we were to apply a 4% increase and that would equal the salary adjustment that has already been given to staff in year 2025, That 4% would be an annual increase of about $4,300. And so for the 26-28 budget, you would be looking at 18 months of that salary, effective January 1, 2027, going through June 30, 2028. So the impact to the budget would be about $6,500. And then if you go through the table again, the 5.2% would reflect the CPI for the last, for the two calendar years since the last increase The 7.5%, again, reflects the staff adjustments for 2025 and 2026. And then the 10% reflects the cap per the state law. And again, the approximate addition to the budget would be about $16,000. So that is the information I have for you. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have on this item.

Thank you very much. Is there anybody in the audience that has questions or comments on this item? Colleagues, let me just make some preliminary comments on this item. And I think this last chart is really reflective. We're dealing with a $95 million budget here in the city of Newark. And the cost to raise the council salaries, whether it be 7.5, I'm gonna use 7.5 as an example, is $12,000. And it's 12,000 because it doesn't take effect as the assistant city manager mentioned until January. So it's one full year and a half a year. So it's $12,000. And it's really incumbent upon us to really focus on this. Nobody likes to talk about salaries when it comes to the mayor and the council. I don't mind talking about it because I want to be transparent as we've talked about in the past. if you want to attract people to become council members you need to pay them a salary that merits the time that they're going to invest in this assignment council meet it's not just coming to council meetings every two months to spend you know a few hours here to do the city's business there's a lot of prep work that goes into being prepared for the council meeting many of my colleagues in fact all of my colleagues serve on other committees whether it be ava Stop Waste, the Housing Authority, ACTC. So it's not just simply council matters. We represent the City of Newark in a variety of other county boards and commissions that you need to consider. So there's a significant amount of work that goes into being a council member. And I don't want anyone to ever want to serve on this council and look at the salary and say, you know what, I can't afford to sit on the council. with the amount of hours that they're expected to put into this position, I just simply can't afford to do it, taking time away from family and my other obligations. And just out of curiosity, I took the time to take a look at the 7.5% increase in salary, I just took one for example. If you take your current salary as a council member and multiply it by 12, and divided by 52 weeks, and divided by 15 hours. I'm assuming you work 15 hours per week on council. Yes, I know, councilor Little. For some of us, that would be a reduction in work. Many of us work a lot more than that. But I took 15 hours as just an average. You know the current council, you currently make $22.35 per hour. I just wanted to put that in context. The raise of 7.5, and again, I just used that as an example, your salary goes up to 24.02 per hour, a difference of $1.67 per hour. So we're really talking, in my estimation, I know it's an uncomfortable discussion, because it's the mayor and I, it's basically our salaries. But if we want to attract talent to sit up here and be council members and devote the time necessary to be prepared to discuss complex issues, whether it be the budget, whether it be CIP, whether it be the proposed business license tax, you need to be prepared. You need to be prepared to discuss these items because you represent the community. You can't come in here and do it half, you know what the term is, you need to come in and be prepared. So I'm gonna suggest, and I'm certainly open to comments, I'm gonna suggest that the council look at the 7.5, which represents the raise that our employees received, and it's consistent with the raise that we gave our employees the last time around. We gave them the 6%. We stayed with the 6%. We gave them 7.5. I'm suggesting we stay with 7.5. Keep in mind, none of you were here except council member, Vice Mayor Jorgens. Between 08 and 2022, this council got no pay raise. if I recall correctly, assistant, no pay raise between 08 and 2022. And rightfully so, we were dealing with a crisis in the housing market. We were cutting back services. It made sense for the council not to take a raise, but times are different. There's a great expectation that these folks devote the time necessary to attend community events, tree plantings, business openings, We got a hotel opening tomorrow. I got two graduations tomorrow. We're spending a lot of time representing our community, and in my mind, this is a small, small compensation for the amount of work that we do. So open to questions and comments, and otherwise, this motion would come as part of the budget motion, I would imagine. It's not a separate motion. Am I correct in that regard? Or do you need a separate motion on this?

I don't know if we necessarily need a motion. As long as we have some consensus and direction as to what we can incorporate in the final budget, I think that's all that's necessary. The action necessary to implement this will occur in September.

Council Member Contagio.

Yes, Your Honor, thank you. I just wanted clarification for our audience regarding when we see the current cost of annual costs where we see $107,000 plus for city council salary costs, I think perhaps we might need to elaborate a little bit on specifically like we have four council members including the vice mayor. Can we for audience purposes explain about how much that is for each person? Because we're looking at the 107 and there might be confusion regarding what that actually indicates.

Yes, yeah, of course. The mayor's wages are about $38,000 of that amount. And then each council member's wages is about $17,400 per. So it's four times each council member wage and then the mayor's wage of $38,000.

Right. Okay. So then with the $38,000 for the mayor and $17,400 each council member, including vice mayor, then that's how we get the total cost of the $107,000. Correct. Right. So that's everyone combined, including the mayor. Right.

Correct.

Okay. I just wanted clarification. Thank you. Thank you. Right.

Council Member Grindahl.

Yes, I understand the mayor's point. I am concerned about this. I don't think I can support doing any pay increase at all for the council. Given the red ink and the out years, I think we should be responsible and leave the salaries as they are. And that's my opinion.

And just for clarification, based on Council Member Grindahl's comment, the out years, the salary increase would go through 26-28. So this, in 26-28, we're not looking at a negative balance at that point. We're looking at beyond 28, if I recall correctly. Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. Other comments? Council Member Little.

I have a couple of comments about this. So as any of you guys know, I put my heart into this. I'm all involved in the community. I do a lot of good things. I was just looking right now at my schedule for today. I did three hours at a school graduation, which was awesome, Birch Grove Intermediate. I'll be doing minimum three hours tonight. And I did one hours with the veterans, speaking with them and stuff like that. That already puts me at seven hours today. And I love it. I love it. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love it. But it is a lot of time. And one thing that the mayor didn't mention, too, is when we go to a lot of events, we purchase tickets. We purchase raffle tickets. We pray for our entry and stuff like that. So I checked about two months ago. I actually made negative money, which was awesome. And I understand this is a service to the community, and I understand all of that stuff. And the fact that there hasn't been a page raise since 2008 is pretty wild. So we're looking at almost, what, 20 years? Or what did you say, about 2008?

No, Councilmember, to be correct, we did get a raise in 2022 and 2024. In 2022, we actually got a 10% raise because there had been no raise since 2008. That's the question. Okay. But you know what that cost? Because I recall directly, that cost us, if I recall correctly, about $9,000. Okay. So we're not a significant budget item.

Well, one thing I love when I go speak to kids groups, one of my favorite things to ask them is how much do you think I get paid? And I get everything from $30 to 1 million. And it's one of my favorite questions. And I actually am very honest. I say I get $484.41 after taxes and deductions taken out twice a month. And just to watch the parents' straws drop is even funnier, because they're in disbelief. Because it is service to the community. But he's making a very good point. I've already put in seven hours today. I'm going to put in even more hours tomorrow and Saturday. And we do it because we love it. But there are still, love doesn't pay the bills. So it is nice to, I think this is a good idea. I think it's a good suggestion. I also am curious. I do have a question. I know what we get paid, which is $3,100 for the mayor and $1,450 for the city council. You may not have it on you, but what is the pay for Fremont and what is the pay for Union City?

I can provide you with that information. So currently for Fremont, the mayor is $4,313.28 per month. Council members are $2,427.76 per month. In Union City, the mayor's salary is $2,937 per month, and a council member in Union City earns $2,125 per month.

So if we look at this, city council is way underpaid compared to our neighbors. So either I think this would be something we consider or maybe we look into moving to another, no, I'm just saying, but I mean, that right there tells you 2100 for Union City, 2400 for Fremont, we're sitting at 1450. So I think this is a valid point. I really do think this is a valid point and I would like to be the first to go ahead and move forward with this. I think it makes sense.

I think, Vice Mayor. Yeah, I think to be honest, my preference might be looking at the two numbers of the CPI and then the increased staff, which those, and taking the lower of those two, which would be the 5.2 in this year. I do, you know, think that it's important that we, keep in mind the importance of city council salary as it may attract others to wanna be on this council. If we sit for 14 years without raising salaries because of worries about some future financial struggles, I think we're gonna have it's going to be tougher for us to attract good people to wanna sit on this body for that time. So I would say my preference might be closer to the 5.2, just kind of as a principle, taking those two numbers and taking the lower of the two, but I'm certainly not opposed to your recommendation.

Council Member Contaccia, do you have a recommendation on the increase?

Yes, my recommendation actually would be the 7.5 because I feel that in addition to other council members, I'm looking also at inflation and cost of living as well as the dedication that we really have for our community. and in looking at the other councils in other locations that are similarly situated to us. I also want it to be fair and competitive just as we are with our own employees outside of council. So what I mean by that is our everyday city employees, the ones that are planting the trees, the ones that are protecting us with the police stations and everyone else. And so I feel that we should be included in that.

And then Council Member Littler, did you have a recommendation on the percent increase?

I'm comfortable with whatever the group wants.

Well, I'm hearing 7.5 from Council Member Contoncio. The mayor said 7.5%. The vice, I'm sorry, the mayor said 7.5. The vice mayor said 5.2, but he could live with 7.5. And then Council Member Gondal said zero. Do you have a recommendation?

I'll go with a group which would be 7.5, but I would be comfortable with five as well. I'll follow your initiative on this, Mayor.

Okay, so let's, yes, our recommendation, I think, from what I'm hearing from my colleagues is a 7.5%. Let's start with that. Okay, great.

So to summarize, we'll go ahead and put in the final budget for council consideration next month. Budgetary authority for the 7.5% pay increase. That would be effective of January of 2027. And then the necessary implementing ordinance would be on the calendar for a council meeting in September. all right thank you okay um the next portion of the budget presentation the last one we're just going to walk through the budget document this will be an opportunity for the council to ask staff any questions as it relates to the actual budget book that was attached to the to the staff report we thought it'd be appropriate to go section by section before we jump into the introduction section which is that can be found on pages seven through 50. I just wanted to highlight and point out that we did attach two budget awards that the city received for the existing budget document, the 2024 through 2026 biennial budget. That's contained on pages four through six of the proposed budget.

staff won't brag uh for themselves about how awesome i'm going to brag okay so if i may have the microphone for just a moment uh city manager and miss lee and the folks may may or may not know this but they received the government finance officers association distinguished budget presentation award for the City of Newark for the period of July 1 of 2024. And they also received the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers Certificate of Award, Operating Budget Excellence Award, fiscal years 24, 25, and 25, 26. And by the way, these are not the first awards that this organization has received from these various organizations presented to the City of Newark. in February of seven of 2025. Ms. Lee actually needs a larger office to contain all of the awards that the finance department has received. And I just wanna take a moment, if I could have Ms. Lee have your finance department folks stand up, because I think it's important that we applaud them for an outstanding effort. Council Member Grindahl and others have talked about the conservative nature of how we handle our budgets here and that's why we continue to receive these awards because the state and other financial institutions look at us and say, now that's a city that's doing it right. We hear about the cities that are not as fiscally responsible as we are here in the Newark that are dealing with not only significant budget deficits, but significant cuts in service. And we're not facing that scenario now. And it's because of the outstanding work, Mr. Bennu, you and your staff do to make sure you bring a budget to us that makes sense, that looks at the council priorities and makes sure we have the funding necessary to meet the community's needs and i didn't want to gloss over the fact that that department small and mighty as they are do an outstanding job and we appreciate their efforts mr balloon

Thank you, as always, for those kind comments. Very appreciative and very well thought out. Very much appreciate that. Why don't we start off with the introduction section, which can be found on pages seven through 50. It's the first tab of the budget document. Does the council have any questions or comments with respect to those pages?

Colleagues, just go ahead and speak up. I won't call you. Just speak up if you have questions or comments as we go through these various sections.

Okay. Sections, excuse me, pages 52 through 80, that contains the executive summary, including strategic plan, economic forecast, and the five-year forecast. Are there any questions about this section? Okay. Pages 90 through 96, these are the summary of all of our funds, including the general fund. Any questions about that section?

Actually, Ms. Mnuchin, I'm going to go back just real briefly on the pension and long-term liabilities. And I know we talked about the 115 Trust. Again, just a huge thanks to the finance department for bringing that suggestion to us that really looked at our long-term pension liabilities and said, here's a financial mechanism that's going to help us deal with the fluctuation in terms of the actuarial rates that the PERS folks provide to cities. I talked to my colleague over in the city of Fremont. I don't know if Fremont was aware of the Trust 115 fund. So he got a copy of what it's all about. And it may be something that if they're not currently utilizing for pension and long-term liabilities, they may be doing so in the near future. You might anticipate a call city manager from the city of Fremont. So thank you for that, Mr. Grindahl.

Yeah, I just wanted to go back to page 53. And I'm concerned about the strategic priority areas. The last one, strengthen community through education and engagement, empower and connect the community through partnerships with the school district and equitable engagement opportunities. And I don't see much of that priority in this budget document. So I'm concerned about that.

And Council Member Grindahl, I know you're concerned about that. I think we're all concerned about that. We all want to see success at our school and we recognize as a council that we have a responsibility to work in partnership with our school district colleagues and I think we do do that. I know the city manager, the general plan is coming back to the council when? What do we anticipate?

General plan would be in years three or four, I believe, of the CIP doc, three or four years, yeah. So 29, 30, something like that is when we'd start gearing up for updating the city's general plan.

And so Council Member Grindell, recognizing your interest in this issue, and I think that's what you had requested previously, is that we incorporate some language in the general plan regarding education. Is that my understanding?

Well, there may be opportunity to talk about it when we get to the CIP. Okay. However, I'm talking about an element of the general plan, which is like a chapter of the general plan that focuses on education.

Okay, we'll get to that during the CIP. Please.

Any other questions or comments with respect to anything in the, all the way through pages 96, I believe is where we're at? Okay.

I did have one comment. Mr. Benun, when we start to look, and maybe it's not this section, and I apologize if it's not, there are so many sections. As we look at, actually it was in the CIP. I apologize. Go ahead.

Okay, the next section is the department summaries, including department budgets, staffing, and service levels. Are there any questions in regards to that?

I think, too, one of my colleagues' comments regarding vacancies, and I understand we're never going to know at a point in time the number of vacancies that we have, but I think some general comment regarding vacancies, as they may impact service delivery, might be something we might want to just make note of, okay?

Noted, thank you.

All right, the next section would be the capital improvement plan, which can be found on pages 140 through 145. Are there any questions on that section?

Is that the time for me to ask the council to reconsider?

That's a separate item. That, I believe, is the next item where we have the educational component.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, by next item, I meant next agenda item, not the next item on this, so.

I understood that.

Okay, cool.

So, Mr. Bonuna, as we look at all these capital projects and the facilities, these are ones that we're anticipating funding. We don't include the list of the unfunded, or do we?

A list of the unfunded? No, these are all the ones that would be funded.

Perfect, thank you.

And the next section is capital projects, facilities, infrastructure, parks, equipment, and studies, 146 through 155. And last but not least, the glossary.

I have a question. We were given this information and you and thank you, Lincoln and David. We had a good, I came in with all my purple post-it notes and they answered. See, they're smiling over there. I had a thousand questions. That's why I'm not asking questions because I already asked my questions. I had a lot of questions. But my thing is, will all this information be available on our website for people who want to, because they're just seeing people who are watching online. Okay, good. So it will be available to everybody so they can take a look at it. So thank you.

And to be clear, where it's available is it's attached to the agenda item on the agenda?

Yeah. Will it be available on another page or something else later on? Correct.

So after the council approves the budget, we will upload it to the city's website. Something that is new for this budget book is we are using ClearGov. So this is an online portal. So we actually are planning for a presentation of the council later in the fall. so we can demonstrate to the council and to the community the transparency of this budget. The public will be allowed to easily search the document and look how programs are funded and in what amounts. So it's an awesome tool and we look forward to sharing that with our community later this year.

So as you talk about an online portal, which I appreciate because it makes it convenient for our residents to navigate through this information, does it also give them the capacity to ask a question through that portal in case they come across something in the budget that they are unclear of or just simply want to provide some input? Does that portal give them the opportunity to ask a question or make a comment?

I don't know if it does, but at the very minimum, we'd be happy to list our email address and be able to contact us.

Great. Great suggestion if they don't pass it along.

We haven't embraced AI to that extent yet.

Councilman Goodall?

No, I was just going to make another crack pass.

It's not too late for those. Mr. Benin.

I did have a question. Yes, Councillor Gondel. Did you already go through the debt services overview? Sorry. I'd be happy to go back. No problem. I kind of went a little fast.

I'm sorry, which page? 157? 157.

I just wanted to understand my understanding is the Energy Conservation Assistance Act loan agreement and that we're paying that off. I I'm very happy that we have this program in place. And I just wanted to understand, we're probably saving as much as the cost is, but if I could get an idea of how that is, because we had some very old and inefficient light fixtures. So if there's any indication as to whether we're actually in the black on that or not?

Go ahead, Ms. Lee, unless you'd like me to answer. We don't have that data here in front of us this evening unless Ms. Lee happens to know that off the top of her head. I can't imagine we would not enjoy any savings. The basis for us to enter into this was to enjoy savings so we wouldn't have to pay the exorbitant cost to PG&E. But we'd be happy to provide some materials to the council and provide an update on that.

Yeah, and if it turns out to be true, it might be nice to have just added to this paragraph to make it clear that even though we're paying it off, we're paying it off with savings.

We'd be happy to do that.

We'll have a similar situation with the solar panels we're putting up in the parking lot, correct?

We'd be happy to provide a relatively simple explanation in the final budget book. Thank you.

And just for clarification, Mr. Bidoon, on the debt schedules for the 2019 Certificates of Participation, would that be, in essence, Measure GG? Correct, Mayor. Thank you.

You're referencing the next page, page 158, the 2019 COPs? Yes.

That's correct, Mayor. And just to Councilmember Grendall's, I did notice the solar panels up at the Silliman Center.

Correct.

So congratulations.

Thank you, Mayor. We're looking forward to seeing that at our Civic Center starting, I believe, next week.

Any final comments on the budget?

We are ready to go to the last slide just to briefly give a next steps update. But before we do that, any other questions about the draft budget book?

And we'll be seeing, again, this in a final version on what day?

That would be the second council meeting in June, so that would be June 25th.

No, I just want to say once again, thank you to both of you for answering my thousands of questions I had for you guys, my little purple tabs everywhere. You guys were very patient, so I appreciate it. And everybody else, thank you. Thank you for the conservative numbers. Thank you for keeping it low. It means a lot. I really, really do, because I don't ever want to be the city that we get the evil eye looked at. So I appreciate what you guys are doing. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys, Finance Department.

It's our pleasure. Thank you. So the next steps is we will make the necessary refinements to the budget book. And then we will put it on the agenda for June 25th. And the council at that time would adopt it at a formal budget adoption process. It does require a public hearing. And then we'll be off July 1st operating with a new biennial budget. So that concludes our presentation. There's no further action necessary for the council. This was for information only and the solicit feedback from the council.

Thank you, Mr. Mnune. Ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna take a five minute break. So it is currently 1017. We're gonna reconvene at 1022, okay? Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your patience. And the next item on the agenda, Mr. Banoone, is the receive information or provide feedback regarding the draft 2026-2031 capital improvement plan with funding recommendations. Mr. Banoone?

Yes, good evening, Your Honor, members of the Council. If the Council may recall, back on April 23rd, staff presented to the Council a list of projects to be included in the 2026 through 2031 capital improvement plan. Staff received feedback and comments on the proposed projects and for the past few months, staff has been diligently preparing a proposed capital improvement plan document and that document is attached to the staff report. For tonight's presentation, we will solicit council feedback on the draft document and then put together a final document for council review and consideration in June. As we've done in the past, we have broken this item into four separate agenda items to address conflicts of interest. Our city engineer, Mr. Mickey Sabota, will present on all these items. The first presentation is the main one, and then the following ones involve the conflicts. With that in mind, I'll pass it over to Mr. Sabota. Mr. Sabota?

great thank you city manager banoone uh good evening mayor vice mayor and council members i'm glad to be back or we are glad to be back here um you may recall as mentioned that i've been here presenting a couple different things in the in earlier in this year we talked about the transition from a two-year to five-year cip what a cip is what a cip project is um we're getting close the the lights at the end of the tunnel we're now ready to actually present the draft plan and will come before City Council in June with the final capital improvement plan itself. So, a brief agenda of what we're going to cover. This is similar to the presentation last time. I'll give a brief overview of the CIP and CIP projects. We'll talk about how we've incorporated Council's feedbacks in the CIP document itself. We'll review the actual plan itself, and then we'll talk about next steps. This is the same slide that I presented last month to recognize that this new five-year CIP is truly a work plan, no longer a wish list of unfunded projects. We effectively utilize various funding sources, and these are capital funding sources. So all the red you saw in the operating budget presentation, keep in mind that we're talking about capital here as part of this presentation. There are well over 100 projects valued at, actually closer to $280 million of capital projects over the next five years. This is a living document. We do plan to come to city council on a regular basis to update the CIP. So it is, again, a living document. and it will be approved concurrently with the budget. Again, we do plan to come back to City Council in June. The presentation today is, there's no formal action today, but we obviously solicit and welcome Council feedback. So some of the feedback we got from City Council, from last time. So you may recall that I had a very detailed description of what a capital improvement plan or capital improvement project was. One of the criteria was the minimum dollar threshold. Council provided feedback to staff to look at increasing that threshold. So we've incorporated that. We raised it from $10,000 to $25,000. That'll allow us to really focus on the big ticket projects. We've also refined a lot of the project descriptions, costs, and schedules. I'll cover those or the big ticket items later as part of the presentation. We have added and updated some of our projects. To note, the first bullet item we did add, a new product is for the design of a Bayside transit-oriented development pedestrian bridge, $2.8 million from traffic impact fees. We added a couple of vehicles as well. We added some additional funding for landscaping and lighting for the various park signage. A couple of projects that we've removed.

Mr. Mnuchin, do you want staff, I'm gonna ask the City Council if they wanna ask questions as we go through the presentation. I think, because it's fresh in their mind as they're looking at the slide. So, Council Member Grendel.

Thank you. So in terms of the transit-oriented development pedestrian bridge design project, you indicate traffic impact fees. Why wasn't the special fee that was collected from the TOD, YOU KNOW, THERE WAS A SPECIAL FEED DIRECTED ONLY FROM THE TOD WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TOD OR THE OVERCROSSING. WHY WASN'T THAT UTILIZED INSTEAD?

WE CAN UTILIZE THAT. SO WE CAN UTILIZE THAT OR THE TRAFFIC IMPACT FEES. BOTH OF THOSE FEES ARE LUMPED TOGETHER AS TRAFFIC IMPACT FEES.

I THINK THE INTENT HERE, WE USE THAT. I THINK THE COUNCILMEMBER, YOU'RE REFERRING TO THAT FEED developers paid with respect to all those residential units out there. I forgot the exact dollar amount. Yeah. $3,000 per unit.

$1,500 a unit or something like that. Something to that effect. Yes. So that fee would have sort of a different nexus than the other fee. So I was just curious about that.

yeah we we ended up rolling that fee into the traffic impact fee fund and so i think it's correct that we would use it technically from traffic traffic impact fees but i believe we would use those earmarked funds that we collected through the bay shores development is that not the intent miss lee mr sabota

It is the intent that the TOD fees can be used for infrastructure within those TOD areas. The pedestrian bridge for the design certainly counts as that. Traffic impact fees can also be used or are also being collected for that bridge as well.

Yeah, I was really just suggesting that the fee that's got a more specialized direction be used first when you have a project that you need it so you don't end up with money and no project. Understood. That rarely happens in your world, I know. UNDERSTAND BUT THANK YOU.

JUST FOR FURTHER CLARIFICATION JUST FOR FURTHER CLARIFICATION ON THAT $2.8 MILLION AND YOU ON THAT $2.8 MILLION AND YOU MENTIONED THERE WAS FUNDS MENTIONED THERE WAS FUNDS SET ASIDE BY THE DEVELOPER TO SET ASIDE BY THE DEVELOPER TO PAY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS PAY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN THAT TOD AREA. WITHIN THAT TOD AREA. DO WE HAVE AN ESTIMATION AS TO DO WE HAVE AN ESTIMATION AS TO HOW MUCH FUNDING THAT WAS?

HOW MUCH FUNDING THAT WAS? 3 MILLION? 3 MILLION? 3.2? 3.2?

I THOUGHT IT WAS LOW 3 I THOUGHT IT WAS LOW 3 MILLIONS. MILLIONS.

THAT'S MY UNDER

So about 3 million. And this here would just simply pay for the study. Do we have an estimated cost, Mr. Mnuchin, if we were to actually build the bridge as described here, what we would anticipate that cost would be?

I'll defer to our city engineer, Mr. Sabota.

This site, well, there is no preliminary design of a bridge based on a preliminary review of the TOD site, the infrastructure, the fact that you've got a railroad, flood district, central sand, PG&E, you've got the IT'S A VERY COMPLICATED SITE. IT'S A VERY CONSTRAINED SITE. IT'S A VERY CONSTRAINED SITE. BALLPARK FIGURE FOR A BALLPARK FIGURE FOR A PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE. PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE. EVEN IF YOU COULD FIT ONE IN EVEN IF YOU COULD FIT ONE IN THERE, PROBABLY IN THE LOW TENS OF THERE, PROBABLY IN THE LOW TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. CONTINUE. CONTINUE. COUNCIL COLLEAGUES, FEEL FREE COUNCIL COLLEAGUES, FEEL FREE AS THE SLIDES SHOW UP, FEEL AS THE SLIDES SHOW UP, FEEL FREE TO RAISE YOUR HAND AND ASK

Some other changes to accommodate council feedback on the CIP, we removed certain projects, certain pieces of equipment we removed. The Public Works robotic mower staff reviewed that recently and determined that that's actually a piece of equipment that we don't need at this point. If we need it in the future, we'll bring it back. But right now, we don't see a real need for that one. THE IT NETWORK REDUNDANCY 5G ROUTER AND THE POLICE UTILITY VEHICLES, THOSE ARE BELOW THAT $25,000 THRESHOLD. SO WE'RE GOING TO MOVE IT FROM CAPITAL OVER TO OPERATING. ON THE FACILITY SIDE, THE ACTIVITY CENTER POOL REPLASTERING PROJECT, THAT PROJECT IS ONGOING RIGHT NOW. WE DO ANTICIPATE THAT PROJECT TO BE FINISHED THIS FISCAL YEAR SO WE REMOVE THAT PROJECT FROM THE CIP. And then not including the draft CIP, council had discussion and directed staff not to spend time or money or create a project for AC bus, AC transit bus shelters, or the addition of an educational general plan element component. Council member Grindahl did provide information related to that, which is attached to the staff report. So there's some additional information about that last bullet item. I want to pause if there are any questions or comments.

Councilman Gundahl.

Is this the time for me to ask that the council reconsider spending nothing on the schools on the entire CIP? Sure. I'd like to ask the council to reconsider putting some money aside to help with understanding and preparing for better coordination between the school district and the schools. At the last meeting, there was discussion that there wasn't enough information. I did provide information. I did flesh that out to some extent and provided it to the city manager who included it in the staff report. So I would like to ask that there be a reconsideration of that and that we can bring one eight hundredths of a percent of the CIP to help start us down the road of this community valuing our schools more.

I'm still not gonna support the request. We support the schools, so I'm not sure that that was a necessary comment. We support our schools. We have a council member and the mayor that currently sit on the liaison committee where we meet with the school district representatives at least three times per year to talk about joint issues of importance to both the city and the school district. I don't think it's a fair comment to suggest that we don't care about the condition of our schools and the students that certainly go to those schools. I am willing, though, to ask the city to incorporate the next time we do the general plan update to include some discussion on the education component, but I'm not willing to put any money aside at this point. Vice Mayor?

Yeah, just a clarifying question for Council Member Grindahl. I GUESS MY CONCERN HERE IS I GUESS MY CONCERN HERE IS WHY IS THE GENERAL PLAN A WHY IS THE GENERAL PLAN A GENERAL PLAN CHAPTER THE RIGHT FORM GENERAL PLAN CHAPTER THE RIGHT FORM FOR THIS KIND OF COLLABORATIVE FOR THIS KIND OF COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENT? DOCUMENT? THE GENERAL PLAN IS A UNILATERAL THE GENERAL PLAN IS A UNILATERAL STATEMENT OF THE CITY AND WHEN WE STATEMENT OF THE CITY AND WHEN WE TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH OTHER TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTS, WE'RE WORKING IN GOVERNMENTS, WE'RE WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THEM. right, we're developing a collaborative relationship with them. You know, looking at, you know, the information that you had sent, right, you know, we're creating a community-wide vision for advancing, you know, educational excellence. You know, we're assigning responsibilities. We're developing, you know, performance metrics. We're, you know, creating policies on this. You know, that's a concern for me that, you know, we're working unilaterally. I wouldn't necessarily mind putting together some kind of document that with the school district and with Ohlone, over time we develop joint documents. I guess, can you clarify why the general plan is the right place for that document?

Certainly, thank you for the question. The general plan is the constitution for development for a community. It's the fundamental basic law, so to speak, to put the law in quotations. the general plan is the place where even the actions that are taken by other agencies so for example you'll have you'll have a safety element that talks primarily about flood control and and most of the most of the action items are for flood control but you still put it together and you and you work together with the flood control district to have to have a unified document so in in places where cities have done education elements, it's become a place where the discussion occurs, not just from the city. It certainly isn't a unilateral statement. It would be something that would be done, even though it would be adopted by the city in the general plan, it'd be done in coordination with the school district and the Ohlone College and ROP and all the people who provide education in the community.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I just have, you know, concerns about, you know, where, you know, we're kind of, from what I read from what you sent to me, I'm reading it as we're assigning the school district and Ohlone as a subordinate government. And to me, I have a big problem with that. You know, again, I think there's opportunities for, you know, joint documents that, you know, we would see school district input on and that both bodies would vote on. But to me, adding something to the general plan outside of you know, we're going to partner. And then if we have another document that defines that partnership more clearly, to me, doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah.

Let me comment also, if I may, Vice Mayor. I did take a look at the school's website, and I'm looking at some of the objectives that Council Member Grindahl has put forward, develop a shared vision for Newark's educational future. Well, they have already developed a strategic plan at the school district that really lays out their goals and expectations. YOU KNOW, NOT ONLY FOR THE SCHOOL BOARD BUT FOR THE SCHOOL DISTRICT AND THEIR STUDENTS AS WELL. IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERSHIP AND SHARED SERVICES BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. WE CURRENTLY DO THAT.

NOT TO CUT YOU OFF. SURE. ONE OF THE THINGS WAS POINTING OUT ON SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOLS. THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE DISCUSSED IN OUR LAST CITY SCHOOLS LIAISON COMMITTEE MEETING. THAT'S DATA THAT'S GOING TO BE BROUGHT FORWARD WHEN WE DO OUR active transportation plan. So a lot of these mechanisms are already in place. So that's, you know, adds to my concern of I'm not sure what the problem we're solving is other than making the school district a subordinate government.

Yeah, and I certainly don't want to do that. As I mentioned in our last discussion on this, that is a separate elected board by the community, and I don't want them to perceive at any point that we, the City Council, are really wanting to take a lead on the educational outcome for our community. I have a couple other comments, but I want to defer to my colleagues. Council Member Contaccio.

Yes, Your Honor. I also wanted to chime in regarding this conversation because I think we have to keep in mind that not only is it a separate board, but it's also a separate legal agency from the city in California. When you think about it, actually, City Council is governed by the government code, school districts are governed by the California Education Code. So we also have some barriers that we would have to overcome, such as Article 16, Section 6 of the California Constitution, any time that we're considering gifting or giving public funds to a separate agency. And so we have to really consider the legal issues and hurdles that we could be walking into, especially when we already have the liaison committee, which not only the mayor, but also the vice mayor are also part of. And I also understand that there's many people that want to be part of the liaison committee. I think everyone on city council was interested in it as well. Additionally, though, Newark residents also do support our school districts because we did pass Measure G in 2011 and Measure O in 2024. So there are goals that are in place. I just wanted to end with, I also recently read an article on Tri-City Voice, I believe it was on May 12th or so of 2026, which Superintendent Vacar was indicating that they're planning to have a fall task force to review the budget that the school district has. And so that's something that's also in place in addition to our liaison committee. Thank you.

I just pretty much agree with it. I mean, I see everyone's side of this. I see everyone's point. I see Grendel's point. I see Julie's point. I appreciate everything. It's just we can't get money involved in that type of stuff. And I wish we could do more. And I think the fact that we had our two wonderful people of the year with the school that came out today shows you that we can do as much as we can. But when it comes to money and mixing that, I mean, I wish we could, but we just can't.

So there's no intention and there's nothing in what I wrote that talked about turning the school district into a subordinate government, nor am I locked in in any way on how we get to the end. The goal is to see greater cooperation, more support from the city to the schools, the right way to do it in a way that helps the schools. I thought that a general plan element, given that it's been done in some cities nearby and successfully, was a good way to approach it, but if the council would rather DESIGNATE SOME RESOURCES AND DIRECT STAFF TO WORK WITH SCHOOL DISTRICT STAFF TO FIGURE OUT HOW WE CAN DO IT. I'M FINE WITH THAT. I'M NOT LOCKED INTO HOW WE DO IT. WHAT I WANT IS TO MOVE FROM DOING WHAT WE HAVE TO DO TO HELP THE SCHOOLS TO WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP THE SCHOOLS. UNDERSTANDING COUNCILMEMBER DEL CONTENCIO'S CONCERN ABOUT THE LEGALITY, I CERTAINLY UNDERSTAND IT, BUT THERE ARE THINGS THAT WE CAN DO IN COORDINATING THAT IS MORE THAN JUST RECOGNIZING THE TEACHER AND CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR.

OKAY. WE CERTAINLY DO A LOT MORE THAN THAT, BUT AGAIN, I'M GOING TO GO AHEAD AND CLOSE THIS ITEM. CITY MANAGER, WE'VE HEARD THE COUNCIL, THERE SEEMS TO BE NO ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR INCLUDING THIS IN THE DRAFT CIP. GO AHEAD AND CONTINUE.

GREAT. NOW WE'RE GOING TO REVIEW THE ACTUAL DRAFT 2026-2031 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN. In light of the time and rather than going through page by page or section by section, I trust council members have reviewed the draft CIP. Before I go over the high-level changes, are there any specific changes or specific pages the council has questions on or comments on?

I do. On page 50, I want to suggest that As we expend capital funds during this fiscal year, and you already mentioned that we've taken a couple items off the CIP because we are already doing, for example, the replastering. I do want you to put a footnote on those where we are already starting to spend money on those projects. Right now, I think you currently show it as ongoing or current year estimates or things of that nature. I'd like to have a little bit more of a footnote in terms of how much money we've already expended on that project for this current fiscal year, okay?

And I assume that's for any project where we've expended funds to date, provide a summary of what we've spent the money on.

Yeah. Got it. That was my only comment on suggestions that I would have moving forward. Are there any You're gonna go through section by section, are you going to do that or what are you gonna do?

I was just gonna defer to council to see if they have any comments.

Great, why don't we just open it up. We've seen this document before, folks. Take a moment to formulate your thought process. While you do that, I'm gonna come back for a moment. If you could go back a slide or two on the, yes. No, one more. I'm not ready to support the expenditure of $2.8 million for the Bayside Transit oriented development pedestrian bridge design. It did come up at the council meeting, but there was really no discussion on this item. I just don't know enough about it in terms of some of the issues that you've raised that may be some complications when it comes just to the design of the project. So I'm gonna ask my colleagues not to, I'm gonna ask city staff, Mr. Mnuchin, would you bring this item back for a little bit more information, maybe at the next council meeting in terms of what are some of the impediments on the design? Let's keep in mind, folks, this is an unfunded project that we're now raising to a funded project. And we heard from staff that the initial study for the design is 2.8 million, but the actual cost for the bridge could be well over 10 millions of dollars. So I'm concerned about that. My second point on the same issue, if I may, Vice Mayor, was we just approved what is called the, and I'm looking for the acronym, Mr. Mnuchin, the FLAP. Help me remember what the FLAP stands for.

Federal Lands Access Program.

Great, and we just approved millions of dollars for that program. How much money do we have dedicated for the FLAP?

The FLAP program is associated with the Thornton Avenue Complete Streets program.

Oh, I found it. Here it is. It's $3.2 million, $8.8 million project.

$8.8 million. And in essence, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Mnune, that really is gonna provide access once we do that completion between Gateway and Don Edwards. Right now, we don't really have any access. We don't have pedestrian access. We don't have bike access. we certainly need to get those roads improved. This money from the Federal Lands Access Program is gonna provide those improvements along Fortin Avenue as you head from Gateway to Don Edwards. Would that be a fair conclusion?

Yes.

So in essence, we're really already dedicating almost $10 million to create a pathway between Thornton Avenue and Don Edwards, which I find would be more than sufficient. I just don't see we're going to get significant traffic, even from the Bayside development for spending what could be anywhere between $12 and $15 million. But I'm willing to defer this until the June agenda if we could have staff bring back some additional information on this. Vice Mayor?

yeah when you bring that item back i would be curious a huge portion of that cost is to put the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks that are just used um and just in terms

There's railroad tracks there?

Yeah, the idea is that this is a pedestrian bridge that would go from the Bayside TOD from Grand Park or somewhere in that area up and over the railroad tracks and then back down.

Because those railroad tracks are disused and are unlikely to be used at any time in the future, that does create... an amount of uncertainty over clearance. I'm just curious about when cities deal with disused railroad tracks that technically could be used in the future, how they plan for that. Because with not a lot of forward momentum happening, that project we wouldn't want to build an overpass that didn't meet the specifications that a train ever does come that way and we certainly don't want to also over build an overpass assuming that a train will someday pass by that way when it never will so I'm just here I would be curious to see about how other cities deal with disused railroad tracks in similar situations

And I think you mentioned it's also going to go over that portion that's Hetchy?

Hetchy aqueduct crosses that location as well.

And that may create additional complications for us to have you consider when you bring this item back.

But I think less so on height, which is like the height requirements to go over a train is going to be very expensive and very technical. And we don't have that at this time. So I'm just curious how other cities deal with that.

so colleagues any any objection to bring this item back on june 11th for some more information okay thank you any additional information that the council would like to have in regards to this proposed project i would also you know

This was not something we were gonna build anytime soon anyway. And what I would also suggest is we really need to reach out back to the Bayside community to find out if there's any desire for this to be constructed. They may have some objections to it being constructed because as you mentioned, it may impact the Grand Park. There may be other some impacts that the community may not be desirous of seeing. in terms of traffic into the area to cross the bridge, whatever the case may be. It might not hurt when you come back in June to see whether or not this merits further conversation with that community and maybe at that same time remind them that we do have some funds that are set aside in our traffic impact fees that were dedicated for this community and see if there's some ideas that they may have that they might find more of a priority. So those would be my suggestions.

I do have one comment. Given the complexity of this project, we may not necessarily come back in June. We may need some additional time. And I'm not thinking that we will do that community outreach by then.

Just something for us to consider.

Well, I think we need some information to present to the council as to whether or not this project should be included in the Fiverr capital improvement plan, correct? So we do need to have that capital improvement plan adopted by July 1st, correct, Ms. Lee? So in order for that to happen, we'd have to have the fleshed out fully prepared capital improvement plan for council consideration at the June 25th meeting, which means if we're gonna include this project one way or another in that final document, that would only leave us for July, excuse me, June 11th to have that discussion, make that determination. Is that correct, Mr. Sabota, Ms. Lee? Is that correct? Yes.

However, again, the CIP is a living document. We can add projects. And that was going to be my point.

If this is something we're going to be reviewing on an annual basis, you know, maybe colleagues, as we think about this, maybe we don't make a decision in June, but we actually come back in the next year, which gives city staff time to do the work necessary to figure out what this is going to cost. It then gives us the opportunity to meet with the community to find out, is this something they still want or are there other priorities for that community? So I'll leave it up to you, Mr. Mnuchin, to how you want to craft this, but I personally wouldn't be opposed to having this simply put out another year and come back to us in 2027.

Okay, so staff would be glad to discuss this matter internally and determine whether or not this item is prepared for discussion for the council on June 11th. And should we not be able to have the necessary information, the appropriate amount of information available to the council for their review at the June 11th meeting, then what would be the council's pleasure in terms of this project? Should it be included in the five-year CIP or should it not be included in the five-year?

Vice Mayor, you have a comment? Yeah, I was going to say I think my preference would be to include it on a kind of longer run kind of understanding without expenditures going in until obviously we comes back to us but the default to have it there you know following uh staff's recommendation here subject to further analysis subject to further analysis so i i would say if we can't you know if we can't come back and say this doesn't make sense then let's keep it there until um because i i think it is there's a lot of elements that could be very beneficial to our community so i would like to before we don't have it there You know, let's make not having it there be the active decision that council makes would be my preference.

And I agree with the vice mayor suggestion on that.

Okay. Council Member Grindahl? I agree.

Okay, good. So it sounds like staff's recommending that you do the analysis. Correct. And if you believe that additional time is necessary to accomplish this task and that we simply move this item as a, UNFUNDED PROJECT FOR THE NEXT YEAR FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION. IS THAT KIND OF WHAT I'M HEARING?

IT WOULD BE A FUNDED PROJECT IN THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN. BUT LATE YEARS.

THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY EXPENDITURES GOING OUT UNTIL WE COULD LOOK AT IT.

CORRECT. IT'S CURRENTLY FUNDED BACK IN 2031.

COUNCILMEMBER LITTLE, COUNCILMEMBER CONTACIO FOR THE COMMENTS ON THIS ITEM? OKAY. GOOD. GO AHEAD AND CONTINUE.

Are there any other comments or questions on the CIP?

This is a broad question. Any questions on the CIP?

I will be covering the big changes.

I do have a question. I still can't get over the $10 million to fix my lights on Cedar. Remember we discussed it was gonna be $10 million.

I'm sorry, Ms. Little, we do have a conflict of interest on this, so this is a separate agenda item. So we'll get to that one next, I believe.

Notice how we conflicted you out when you raised it as an issue? Yes Folks before we get to the recused items which will be Coming up shortly any other feedback on this item. You'll have an opportunity I'll come back to it if you want to formulate further questions after we do the recusal process on some of these items So unless there's any comments

I do have a comment. I know that there's a lot of charges going on with Silliman Center. We have a lot of charges that were going on with Silman Center, but I think one of the things we have to remember as a community is that this is one of our biggest community gathering spots that we have. And I think it was really well brought up to me that this is, that we're not here to make money. We're here if we can make break even would be awesome, but usually this is one of the services that we apply. So I know that there's a lot of cost in it, but it is one of our most sought after locations EVENTS ACTIVITY THINGS TO DO IN OUR CITY SO I THINK CONTINUING TO FUND IT AND KEEPING IT MAINTAINED IS SUPER IMPORTANT YOU KNOW BECAUSE THAT'S JUST I THINK IT'S REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT BACK TO WHAT WE DISCUSSED ABOUT THE 12 FEES AND INCREASING AND WHATNOT WE'RE NOT HERE TO MAKE MONEY SO I'M GLAD TO SEE THAT WE'RE KEEPING IT AND MAINTAINING IT AND I KNOW IT'S EXPENSIVE BUT THAT'S REALLY WHERE A LOT OF PEOPLE GO ESPECIALLY DURING THE SUMMER SO THANK YOU GUYS FOR WORKING ON THAT COUNCILMAN GUNDAL

Yeah, just a comment on that, because I agree with Councilmember that it's an important thing to maintain. The issue I have is that the charge that we're charging, we're making a massive subsidy of this area, and the charge we're charging to non-Newark taxpayers is the same as we're charging to Newark taxpayers. And that's what I have an issue with. Certainly not in any way thinking that we should not maintain it. So fully support maintaining this. Just the people who are not paying Newark taxes should be paying slightly more to enter and use the facility than those that are paying Newark taxes. Thank you.

And just to remind Mr. Benun, those that are listening or watching at home, you anticipate bringing back that study?

In September, Mayor.

In September, thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I will come back to this item for additional questions or comments that you may have on item number three. But as we move forward, item F4 is to receive information and provide feedback regarding the Thornton Avenue overlay phase one, Interstate 880 to Olive Street and traffic signal interconnect construction projects to be included in the 2631 capital improvement plan with funding recommendations. And I do understand the Vice Mayor Jorgensen may need to recuse himself.

Yes, I will need to recuse myself for this discussion. I have a real property leasehold interest that's in the proximity of Thornton Avenue and the Traffic Signal Interconnect project. That leasehold interest is my residence. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Mr. Bennet. Mr. Sabota.

Okay, great. Great. Still excited to be here. This will be the second of four presentations. We'll keep it short and sweet. So this is the same information I presented last month about these two particular projects, Thornton Avenue overlay phase one, IAD to Olive Street, as well as a traffic signal interconnect project. The information that's up here, the scope, the cost system at the funding and the schedule has not changed. So this really concludes my presentation. I welcome comments and questions.

COUNCILMEMBER LITTLE.

I'M STILL, HOW IS IT $10 I'M STILL, HOW IS IT $10 MILLION TO FIX A BUNCH OF MILLION DOLLARS TO FIX A BUNCH OF LIGHTS? LIGHTS? THIS IS JUST ME VENTING. THIS IS JUST ME VENTING. I'M NOT GOING TO GET TOO MUCH I'M NOT GOING TO GET TOO MUCH INTO IT. INTO IT. MY QUESTION IS BY REDOING THESE MY QUESTION IS BY REDOING THESE LIGHT OPERATIONS IS THIS GOING TO BE LIGHT OPERATIONS IS THIS GOING TO BE ADDRESSING THE ISSUE THAT THE If there's no one around, will my light be turned on immediately, or is this to do my magical lineup of Cedar if I go the speed limit? It's nice and fantastic.

This project won't address the previous commenter's issue. That issue is specifically with a signal in the loop detectors that we need to go out and check. This project is to interconnect, to physically interconnect 19 or so signals along three major arterial roadways with a fiber optic network. So it's literally directional boring underneath the road right away, installing fiber and connecting all the signals. That's why it is $10 million.

And Mr. Noon, I think you mentioned to me that It can either be fiber optic or there was an alternative technological.

Wireless.

Yes. And do we have an estimate on what that might cost if that should be the route that we take? I don't have a.

Is that still in the $10 million range or less? The wireless is significantly cheaper. It is also less reliable. We've reached out to consultants and some of our neighboring agencies. Most folks use the fiber optic, the wired system, because it is more reliable. It does cost more up front. BUT AGAIN, TECHNOLOGY ALWAYS CHANGES. WE CAN TAKE A LOOK AT WIRELESS VERSIONS. IT WILL DELAY THIS PROJECT.

IT'S A GOOD SUGGESTION. OR TIMO, WE COULD LOOK AT TIMO.

I HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THIS IS VERY LAST CENTURY SORT OF THINKING OR AT LEAST LAST DECADE. SO GIVEN THE PREVALENCE OF WI-FI AND CELL NETWORKS, THE IDEA THAT WE'RE GOING TO GO OUT AND SPEND $10 MILLION TO DRILL A PHYSICAL FIBER CONNECTION BETWEEN ALL THESE ALL THESE LOCATIONS I THINK IS JUST MISGUIDED. I THINK WE SHOULD BE LOOKING AT FUTURE WAYS OF PAYING FOR THIS. I WOULD BE SUPPORTIVE OF KEEPING IT IN THE CIP WITH A LOWER AMOUNT JUST SO WE CAN INVESTIGATE IT FURTHER SIMILAR TO WHAT WE DISCUSSED IN THE LAST ISSUE. BUT IF IT IS $10 MILLION I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD DO IT. I'LL BE FRANK. because it doesn't solve those problems. If the controllers break or the loops break, that's the computer causes the problems. If you interconnect signals that are broken, you get nothing. So if the interconnection fails because of a cell connection, we simply go back to the system that we have today, which is NOTWITHSTANDING THE COMMENT OR THIS EARLIER IS GENERALLY WORKING FRIENDLY WELL AS LONG AS THE EQUIPMENT IS. ANYWAY, I THINK KEEPING IT AS A $10 MILLION PROJECT IS MISGUIDANT.

I'M WITH GRINDALL ON THIS. I CAN'T IMAGINE SPENDING $10 MILLION ON ENDING IT TO BREAK OR SOMETHING. I WOULD RATHER PUSH THIS DOWN AND THERE'S OTHER PROJECTS I WOULD RATHER WORK ON THAN THIS. I'LL THINK OF THIS EVERY SINGLE TIME I'M STOPPED AT THE RED LIGHT. I WILL. BUT I JUST DON'T THINK $10 MILLION IS FEASIBLE MENTALLY FOR ME.

But this is just a placeholder at this point in time. When would we anticipate the staff would be bringing a recommendation, whether it be one mechanism or the other mechanism in terms of how to resolve this issue? When would we see that? Best guess.

Couple months, best guess. We're gonna need to do a lot more outreach and research on the technology and how that technology is evolving. Do more research with our neighboring agencies that use the wireless technology. but we can certainly leave the 10 million as a placeholder for now, or again, at council's direction, reduce that funding amount, and literally put the design on hold while we do the research.

Yeah, I don't want to put the design on hold. I think we need to move forward with, it's only a placeholder. They're going to come back with a recommendation, and at that point, we can certainly make a decision to either support the recommendation with the cost in play or not. Would that be correct? It's got to come to the council for approval.

Correct.

So if the cost is significant, the council at that point can say, you know, it's a significant amount of money. We don't want to spend that much money on this project. And, you know, go back and let's do some more research or find out other opportunities to go ahead and get this work done. So we'll have another bite at the apple. This is simply a placeholder at this point in time.

Will staff at the very minimum like to have the opportunity to do the proper analysis? We've expended approximately what two and a half million dollars on the designs that sound about right am I wrong? Well, I was way off I'm sorry.

I didn't hear the response.

I said it was 300,000 so far It's a date on the design for this okay

All right, colleagues, are you okay with just leaving it as a placeholder for the time being?

Okay. I think it should be held as a placeholder, but at least 50% cut back. If it's $10 million, we shouldn't do it.

Okay, well, you heard that comment. Councillor Contaccio, any thoughts on this one?

I think as a placeholder, it's .

Okay, so at this point, what I'm hearing from my colleagues is let's keep it as a $10 million placeholder, but more information when we come back to the council in the future, okay?

Okay, great, thank you.

I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, were there any folks that wanted to comment on item F4? Thank you, city clerk, for the reminder. Ask if anyone from the audience wishes to address the council on this item. Right there. Ladies and gentlemen, the next item is F5. We're gonna receive information and provide feedback regarding the Thornton Avenue Complete Streets Hickory to Gateway Fund project to be included in the 2631 Capital Improvement Plan with funding recommendations. And my understanding is Council Member Grendall needs to recuse himself.

yes um uh i need to recuse myself because i have real property interest within the proximity of thornton avenue complete streets hickory to gateway project um that is my residence i'm gonna go in the other room and please come and get me i know you're tempted not to oh no i will of course

great great to still be here this is the third third or fourth it's getting late we're a little jumpy um again similar to the the previous uh presentation uh the information that i'm presenting is the same information that i presented a month ago about this project thornton avenue avenue complete streets like the mayor had mentioned this is to install a cycle track and pedestrian access along thornton avenue from hickory to gateway Scope, cost, funding, and schedule is up on the screen. It's the same as a month ago. So this concludes my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions or comments.

Well, I love the fact that the funding is all coming from the state and the federal government. Love that idea. I love this project. I walked that pathway many times, and I know folks ride their bikes. It's not the safest route currently. That's why I walk with traffic heading at me versus behind me. and uh but i love this project i look forward to it any other comments on this item council vice mayor also agree i love any project that i see state and federal funding coming towards so i i like it i like it as well maybe we can ask for some money for our lights on cedar from federal or state we'll work on that is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak to this item okay i think we can invite uh councilman grindahl back in I forgot a good phrase. Ladies and gentlemen, the next item is F6, receive information to provide feedback regarding the Lakeshore Park new interim restroom and Lakeshore Park new pathway lighting projects to be included in the 26 through 31 capital improvement plan with funding recommendations. And I understand that Council Member Contaccio needs to recuse herself.

Yes, I'm recusing myself because I have real property interest within proximity of Lakeshore Park projects, which is my residence.

Actually, Your Honor, I too have a conflict of interest, so I'm going to step out. I own real property within very close proximity to Lakeshore Park. As a result, I took no involvement in the preparation of the staff report, no direction related to this item. It was approved by the Assistant City Manager, who will have the staff report this evening.

Assistant City Manager Fajorka.

City Engineer Sabota.

Great. Last item. Great to still be here. Unlike the previous presentations, there is one minor change to the information that's presented on these two particular projects. So the Lakeshore Park new interim restroom, Council provided direction to see if we could advance this project from 2030 to 2027. So we've done that so here. other than that all the other information here is the same as what was presented last month for both these projects in terms of scope cost funding and schedule that concludes my presentation i welcome any comments or questions well thank you for advancing it we've heard this from the community for many years the need for a restroom and i think the cost for

A INTERIM RESTROOM IS EXCELLENT TO SEE WHAT TYPE OF USE WE GET FOR THAT, ET CETERA. THANK YOU FOR DOING THAT.

I REMEMBER WE HAD COMMENTS ABOUT HOW UGLY THE VERSION THAT YOU HAD UP THERE WHICH I THINK WAS JUST FROM THE MANUFACTURER'S CUT SHEETS. WERE YOU ABLE TO DIG INTO THAT ISSUE IN TERMS OF WHETHER WE COULD BEAUTIFY THE BUILDING AT ALL?

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS OF TEMPORARY RESTROOMS THAT WE FOUND ONLINE.

And they don't all have to have the company's name in 18 inch letters across the.

Or the large railing, the ADA railing. We can certainly look into making sure that whatever interim restroom we pick is more beautiful.

Thank you.

And I know that they have a HOA out in that neighborhood. Have we done any discussion with them regarding this is what we're looking to do in terms of an interim restroom and kind of get their feedback? If we haven't done that, I might suggest we do maybe check with the HOA and see what their thoughts are.

That's right. That's one of the first steps once the CIP and this project gets approved is to do community outreach. Beautiful.

So vice mayor. Yes I do as we go through the CIP process would like staff to remember that we are calling this an interim restroom so you know we should you know hopefully can come back with data of both in terms of usage and then also you know community input over time not just you know at the front end but over time what is the community saying you know, as we come to the next CIP, maybe we want to make different decisions there. So just, you know, as we go through this process, just as a reminder that we're calling this an interim restroom and that we should be collecting data on kind of what that means for the future.

Understood.

DOES THE CIP CALL FOR A PERMANENT RESTROOM AT THAT LOCATION OR DOES THE CIP CALL FOR A PERMANENT RESTROOM AT THAT LOCATION OR DOES THE PARKS MASTER PLAN DOES? DOES THE PARKS MASTER PLAN DOES?

I BELIEVE THE PARKS MASTER I BELIEVE THE PARKS MASTER PLAN DOES. PLAN DOES. ANY OTHER COMMENTS ON THIS?

ANY OTHER COMMENTS ON THIS? I DO HAVE A COMMENT. I DO HAVE A COMMENT. HOW LONG IS THE RESTROOM GOING HOW LONG IS THE RESTROOM GOING TO BE INSTALLED? TO BE INSTALLED? A YEAR, SIX MONTHS, TWO WEEKS? A YEAR, SIX MONTHS, TWO WEEKS?

TWO YEARS. TWO YEARS? NO, UP AND RUNNING FOR TWO NO, UP AND RUNNING FOR TWO YEARS

Are we yet on the pathway? Can I ask a question about the lighting? Sure. Okay. Is there any way we can bump that up to earlier? As someone who walks it all the time, I think it'd be pretty easy to put in. I'd like to move it up instead of 2031. I'd like to walk my dog there before he passes. WE CAN LOOK INTO THAT.

WE USUALLY TRY TO GROUP SIMILAR WE USUALLY TRY TO GROUP SIMILAR PROJECTS TOGETHER SO WE CAN BID PROJECTS TOGETHER SO WE CAN BID THEM OUT TOGETHER. THEM OUT TOGETHER. I'LL HAVE TO CHECK AND SEE WHAT I'LL HAVE TO CHECK AND SEE WHAT ARE THE PATHWAY OR LIGHTING ARE THE PATHWAY OR LIGHTING PROJECTS WE HAVE. PROJECTS WE HAVE. IF WE NEED TO SEPARATE OUT TO IF WE NEED TO SEPARATE OUT TO MOVE IT OUT, IT'S NOT A LARGE MOVE IT OUT, IT'S NOT A LARGE PROJECT. PROJECT.

I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST IF I I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST IF WE CAN MOVE IT UP A LITTLE BIT WE CAN MOVE IT UP A LITTLE

The thought escaped me for a moment. Underground? No, no, no, no, no. Solar. Do we use solar to help on the pathway lighting? In other words, have the solar capture the energy during the day, provide the lighting at night? Is there such technology?

There is technology. We can certainly look into that as part of this project. Just a thought.

Just a thought. OK. Other thoughts, comments? OK. I think we're done with this item as well. Yes, ma'am, oh, I'm sorry. Is there any public comment on this item? I know where you live. You could use some lighting. Colleagues, I'm gonna return to THREE, IS THERE ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR FEEDBACK YOU WANT TO PROVIDE TO CITY STAFF REGARDING THE CIP IF YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO THINK ABOUT ANY ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ON THE CIP? SEEING NO COMMENTS. OKAY. THANK YOU FOR THE REPORT, MR. MNOON AND STAFF. THE NEXT ITEM ON THE AGENDA IS CITY MANAGER UPDATES.

Yes, good evening, Your Honor. Members of the Council, we have five informational items for you and the public watching this evening. I'll start off with the first one. This is a friendly reminder that we have our survey out to inform Newark's future housing options. We're currently exploring ways to create more housing choices for our residents, including homes of different sizes and styles that can meet a variety of needs. We ask the public to please take the brief survey and share your thoughts with us. The survey closes tomorrow and the website is listed there on the screen. Second announcement, Bike to Boba Trail is now continuing through the rest of the month, which ends on Sunday. We are partnering with Boba shops and restaurants to bring Newark's Boba Trail an opportunity to explore the community and support local favorites. Visit any of the participating shops or visit City Hall, grab your passport, purchase your favorite drinks, and collect the stamps along the way. Public's encouraged to submit their passports with at least one stamp by Wednesday, June 3rd to be entered into a raffle, and one lucky participant will receive a special prize. The third announcement for this evening is the City Hall Solar Project that begins next week on Wednesday, June 3rd. We're working to install carport mounted solar pane systems here in our Civic Center parking lot. This project will take about 12 weeks. We strategically waited till literally the day after the election so we don't have any disruption on our electorate. Construction is currently underway at the Silliman Activity Center. I'm sure the council and the public have seen the new towers there adjacent to the soccer fields. We will see some parking impacts, but there'll still be plenty of space for the public to park, but the public may have to walk a little bit, that's all. These sustainability improvements will help support long-term energy efficiency and provide some much needed shade to our cars. The next one is the City of Newark Youth Police Academy. Join our free Youth Police Academy and receive hands-on training, real-world skills, and a closer look at law enforcement. This Youth Academy will run from Monday, June 22nd through Thursday, June 25th, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily at our police department. It's open for youth ages 14 to 19. More information is contained on our website and the deadline to apply is Friday, June 5th. And last but not least, we're inviting the public to join us for our annual Big Truck Day. This is also a free event. It's the perfect place to let your curious little ones explore the vehicles and machines that help keep our community clean and safe. Kids can take pictures, ask questions, and even climb aboard. And this is on Wednesday, June 10th, from 10 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. at Newark Pavilion. We are not doing it at our Silliman Center due to the solar project I just mentioned. So we are working with the Newark Pavilion to bring this event to the public. That concludes our announcements this evening. Thank you, Your Honor.

City Manager, quick question regarding the solar paneling that's gonna go up at City Hall. And you mentioned there's gonna be some parking impacts. We're not gonna reduce any of the handicap parking in the parking lot, are we? No. We will not be, okay, excellent. Councilor Comments, let's start to my left, Councilor Little.

I just wanted to do a big shout out to the city employees who put together the Bike to Boba Trail. It was fantastic, I did it. I went bike riding, I went to some boba places, and not only did I get a boba tea, but my son got his first job at a boba shop. So go to Tasty's when you guys want, starting next week. Austin will be working there. He's going to kill me because I said his name. But yeah, so just a heads up. It was really well. Maybe next time we can do it for like a month or maybe just more advertising because it is a great event. We just want to do more of it. So I thought it was great. And all the calories I lost were gained back with my boba teas. Secondly, next Saturday, June 6th, is going to be my VIP Pokemon meet and greet party. It's going to be at 88 Cardhouse right next to Tasty T's where my son's going to be working. And on the right-hand side of... It's right next to, oh my gosh, dark horse, not dark horse. Where dear Lord am I going to? Lazy dog, not a dark horse, a lazy dog. So wrong one. So lazy dog, I'm exhausted. Lazy dog, so it is gonna be come out, kids can come from 10 to 12, come bring out your Pokemon cards, come trade, come have some fun and do stuff like that. And as for June 8th to 12th, I will be running, I will be the camp executive director for Camp Goat, greatest of all time camp at Ardenwood Farm. We're gonna be helping with the animals. It's gonna be a week long. I have 97 kids I'm in charge of and 32 volunteers and me. and 14 goats so if i come to that city councilman i'm exhausted it's because i'm barely there so that's what's going on with me and those are the things that are going on and i hopefully have some new more announcements next meeting councilman grundahl

Yes, I'm gonna have a coffee with the council member meeting on June 8th at 5 p.m. at the Cedar Starbucks, that's the one near the high school. And it'll be, since high school's not in session, it'll be pretty quiet, so come on by. And we're also excited to be cutting a ribbon at the senior housing project. However, I know the mayor's gonna be speaking there, so I'll leave it to him to go into more detail about that.

Okay. Council Member Contoncio.

Yes, thank you. I represented Newark at the board meeting for Southern Alameda County Geographic Information System, or GIS authority. The update for this year is that they're redoing the aerial updates. For example, to include active pipelines, structural changes like pools and decks, athletic fields and vegetation outlines and construction areas. And that was on May 20th. On May 16th, I was a judge for the annual spring classic car show. So I was judging the cars out there in Newark. And so that was pretty fun. And tomorrow is the graduation for Newark Memorial High School. So I'm going to be attending. I believe many of us here from the city are going to be there as well. And remember to shop Newark. Thank you.

VICE MAYOR JORGENS. THE LAST TIME WE DISCUSSED CIP I TALKED ABOUT HOW CIP CAPITAL PROJECTS WERE FUNDED IN NEWARK IN THE 19th CENTURY. AS NEWARK GREW IN THE FIRST DECADES OF THE 20th CENTURY THEY ALSO HAD GREATER CAPITAL NEEDS THAT THEY NEED TO FILL. One way that they did that was create some more formal structures was a second iteration of the Newark Chamber of Commerce, which was founded in 1922 to fill this need. There had been a previous version that wasn't successful, but the 1922 version stuck around. And that group, which was led by Louis Rushen, who was also the city's volunteer fire chief, Their first big project was to rally support in Washington Township for the state to fund a highway bridge between Newark and Redwood City. That project, which would become the Dumbarton Bridge, secured state funding just two years later and opened for traffic in 1927. In their first years, the Chamber also secured funding for a new signal at the railroad tracks at Thornton Avenue and improvements for the town flagpole. They also worked with the post office, the railroad, the salt company, and other community groups to partner on other improvements, building the town that we continue to build today.

Yes, Council Member Goodall. Yes, I'm sorry, I neglected to mention that I attended, by the way, I want to thank Matthew for his historical footnotes. I appreciate all of them, so thank you. I know my colleagues do as well, and the community. So I just need to say that I attended a retail conference last week. I went along with Newark economic development staff. We had a very robust discussions with a number of potential developers and tenants that we're looking to bring into our community. So I want to thank staff for their excellent work in organizing it and and and i also by the way i i did talk to many pavement contractors so when when the mall wants to actually fix their problems i can send them some folks so um so with that um thank you for letting me jump back in mayor sure so uh vice mayor jorgens the cost to build the dumbarton bridge did you did you tell us what that cost i don't have that in front of me but uh

THE HIGHWAY BRIDGE WAS ACTUALLY THE RAIL BRIDGE EXISTED BEFORE THAT. THE RAIL BRIDGE WAS BUILT IN 1910. SO THERE'S ALREADY CONNECTIONS BETWEEN NEWARK AND NORDWOOD CITY. THOSE CONNECTIONS DON'T EXIST NOW. MAYBE THEY CAN IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE THEY DID IN THE PAST.

EXCELLENT. THANK YOU. SO A COUPLE THINGS. ONE, ELECTION DAY, JUNE 2ND, PLEASE TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE. THEY'RE NOT ANTICIPATING A HIGH VOTER TURNOUT. but there's a lot of candidates and issues that are on the ballot that warrant our participation. So it's a great responsibility that we don't take lightly to vote. So let's make sure we do that and encourage our family and friends to do so as well. Like many of my colleagues, I had the opportunity to attend the promotion ceremony today at Kennedy. They were hoping to have an outdoor event, but we got rain last night. So we moved it indoors. And it's fun to see the kids being promoted from Kennedy to the middle school. So that was a lot of fun. And lastly, as Council Member Grendel mentioned, we're going to be opening up open house tomorrow for the senior housing project over on Cedar. timber thank you and uh it'll begin at noon and um i appreciate the fact that this council and the prior council made it clear that we wanted to give newark residents a little bit of a leg up on this process so i'll be interested to see at the end of the day how many new york residents were able to take advantage of this opportunity so We look forward to seeing that at noon tomorrow. And again, finally, big congratulations to all those kids that are graduating tomorrow at Bridgepoint and at the high school. I know my colleagues will be at the high school. I'll be at Bridgepoint as well.

So congratulations to all those high schoolers and we wish them the best of luck as they start beginning developing their future moving forward.

So with that being said, this council meeting is closed.

I don't know. I don't know.