City Council - Regular Meeting

No.

Are we gonna? I'm not really

I we weren't gonna do this.

Good evening, and welcome to your Pleasanton City Council meeting. Today is 05/05/2026, and it is 07:03PM. Thank you again for your patience. We're calling this meeting to order. And if I can please have council member Nyver lead us in the pledge, and if you can all rise if able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of The United States Of America Thank you very much. And can we go ahead and have roll call?

Councilmembers Eicher? Present. Ados?

Present.

Nybert?

Here.

Testa? Here. Mayor Balch?

Present. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I have a few announcements as we start off just for our community to be aware of. The first and foremost is we are hosting, not the Pleasanton City Council or or City of Pleasanton, but our Pleasanton Downtown Association partnership with Workday Foundation and Pleasanton Connects are hosting the longest table in Pleasanton, which will be Saturday, June 6 at 06:30PM, a community long table with a thousand or 999 of your closest friends. If you'd like to learn more, please visit wwwltpleasanton.org to learn more. Secondly, and I'm gonna steal a little thunder that our police chief may have, Cone with a Cop is coming up on May 27 from two to 4PM at the Meadowlark Dairy.

Third, I'd like to mention that May is public service recognition week, and our city manager sent out a email to our entire city departments earlier today. And I just wanted to express on behalf of all of the residents of our community as well as my fellow colleagues, I'm sure will join me in saying we truly appreciate those who choose public service, for the benefit of all of us. Definitely, when a pothole needs to be fixed or the water needs to be pumped, these people are there helping us make that happen, keeping us safe, and we can't say enough and appreciate that recognition. And then lastly, I'm gonna turn it over to council member Nybert who just got back from one of our sister cities.

Thank you, mayor. As you may know, Tulanzingo, Mexico is the sister city one of the sister cities of Pleasanton. And the Tulanzingo Pleasanton sister city association has members in both locations, and biennially, they each travel to the other location. This year was Pleasanton's turn to travel to Tulanzingo, and I must say it was a a wonderful trip. It's the first time I had been there. They treated us very, very well, and I have a sis, city to city gift that, I'm bringing back with me. It's a piece of obsidian. Don't drop it. Yeah. Golden obsidian.

I'm being careful not to drop it because it's fragile. It's from the largest obsidian deposits in the world, which are near Tulancingo, and it's embossed with the logos of both cities. And it says, Abrigo twenty twenty six. '43. So forty three years of friendship. That's how long the sister city association relationship has existed. Some of you may remember Bob Athenauer who was instrumental in starting it way back when. So forty three years is rather remarkable, and I'm happy to bring this gift from the citizens of Tulane Singo and share it with all of you.

And we'll put it out so people can Yeah.

It'll be in the Tulane Singo room, and it was this is Obsidian is highly prized by the ancient Toltec civilization which lived there.

Thank you very much for doing that, and glad you're back. Okay. We did not have closed session, although that's on the agenda, so we will move on from that. Are there any agenda amendments by staff?

Thank you, mayor. No changes this evening.

Okay. Any agenda amendments by my colleagues at this time? No. Okay. We will go through the agenda as posted and continuing on. With that, we're gonna move to the consent calendar. Items listed on the consent calendar are considered routine in nature and may be enacted by one motion. If discussion is required, that particular item may be removed from consent and will be considered separately. Are there any clarifying questions on consent by my colleagues at this time? No.

Okay. I have no public comment cards, but if you would like to comment on items one through nine at this time and have not turned in a card, please approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none, we will close public comment on consent, bring it back to the council. How would you like to proceed?

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

K. And, we have motion made and seconded. We're gonna evote now, which is our new process. Outstanding.

Motion passes unanimously.

Motion passes unanimously. One of those items in item number one is the appointment of committee and commission members. So with that, we are now proceeding to matter open to the public where the city clerk will call up our brand new committee and commission members to read the oath or take the oath of office.

Thank you, mayor. I'd like to invite the following individuals to the front. Please come up and when your name is called. For the bicycle pedestrian and trails committee, we have Nathan Harold. For the energy and environment commission, we have Josh Josh Shannon, Jennifer Miller, and Michael Demchuk.

Yep. Right here. And we'll face you that way.

For the library commission, have Seema Tavares. For the parks and recreation commission, we have Rahul Kulkarni and Adam Dreyfus.

Okay. So you can all kinda maybe move a step left and yeah. There you go. And then here you go.

Alright. Wonderful. So if I can have everyone please raise their right hand and repeat after me. I state your name

I, John.

Do solemnly affirm

Do solemnly affirm.

That I will support and defend

That I will support and defend

the constitution of The United States The

constitution of The United States.

And the constitution of the state of California against all enemies foreign and domestic against

all enemies foreign domestic

that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of The United States the constitution United States and to the constitution of the state of California

the constitution of the state of California

that I take this obligation freely

I take this obligation freely

without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations. Thank you very much. And I think thank you.

Yeah. I'm just gonna take a picture.

You're you're

gonna take a picture. And I

I will we'd love to take a picture.

So we're just gonna stand behind you, and then they'll, we just, yeah, we just stand behind them usually.

Alright. Ready? One two three. One

Okay. So they're gonna have you sign, and that

concludes this

part. Thank you, everyone.

Very much.

The the oaths are in the lobby with Danielle, ready for you to sign. So much.

Thank you.

So

we have some scouts in the room. And if I can just maybe point out, this is this this is what it is. This is us as a community, people standing up and being willing to serve on a committee or commission and help us to be a better, more inclusive city. So, tears me up and thank you very much. So some of the best. Okay. With that, we are gonna proceed now to item number 10. If you would like to speak, please fill out a blue speaker card. This is for public comments on items that are not listed on the agenda. I have a thing I like to read at this point.

Good evening and welcome. This is your opportunity for members of the public to address the Pleasanton City Council on any matter that is within the council's subject matter jurisdiction but are not listed on the agenda. If you wish to speak for a matter that is on the agenda, please reserve your comments until we get to that item later in the in the meeting. If you wish to speak now or any future item, please fill out a blue speaker card and turn him into the city clerk, and, that's how we'll know. I ask our community members to be respectful and help maintain decorum.

Speakers may have different opinions, and we wanna hear all perspectives and viewpoints. To that end, please no clapping, booing, or other disturbances. If you would like to show support with what the speaker is saying, simply raise your hand and we will see that as additional support. Please know that this is also your time to be heard. If you do ask questions, those won't necessarily be answered unless taken up by a council member at the conclusion of your time or the conclusion of the public comment period in total.

I have a this, I believe, so speakers will be limited to four minutes for this time. With that, our first speaker is Corey Corey Slattengrin, and you'll be followed by miss Vicky Labarge. And we'll just get the clock going, so give us a quick moment, please. Sorry, Jocelyn. I should've given you a heads up. Welcome. Four minutes.

Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you. My voice is little horse skinned over a cold here, so thank you for this. I put a request yesterday here, and Julie and I were able to talk about it here. Has to do with the really a safety safety issue in front of Aliselle School. I take my kid who's six years old on the bicycle, and we are just fine crossing the Santa Rita Road. Crosswalk person's there. Keeps everyone safe. It's great.

My concern is is after that, there's another stop sign with a crosswalk that unfortunately, this is what's known as Santa Rita Frontage Road. This is the road that parallels Santa Rita Road, but it's also right up against Ellis Island Elementary School. There's cars that are gonna jump the double yellow line usually about five or ten minutes before school starts because they don't, you know, they don't want their kids to be late for school. Unfortunately, what happens is that's a blind spot, and there have been a couple near misses of these cars almost hitting kids going through that crosswalk where there is no crosswalk supervisor there. I don't think there should be.

I think the the way to solve this, and this is what I sent out, Julie acknowledged it, is we can install what's called 36 inch delineator, like, flexible delineator posts. So that cars, when they see that, they say, okay. I can't cross that. They're gonna have to wait by the stop sign. And I know sometimes it takes two minutes to get through that because there's the stoplight on the intersection of Black Avenue and Santa Rita Road, but I think it's gonna help deter those cars from jumping or crossing that double yellow line and, again, almost hitting the kids going through the crosswalk. So

that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Okay.

Well and can I just so we spoke and the recommendation was to speak with Mike Tosano and city manager? What were you gonna

Yeah. The it sounds like email has been has come in. We'll definitely close the loop within the next day or two, and we'll be back in touch with you directly.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Okay. Our next speaker is miss Vicky Labarge. If you would like to speak on matters open to the public, please fill out a blue speaker card at this time. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, Walsh, city council members, and staff. Vicky Labarge, 42 year resident. And I'm probably gonna get emotional with this, but I'm going to read my this is I believe statement, and these come from my heart. I believe the values we learn in our family shape us for a lifetime.

Some of the most important lessons are in life are not taught in classrooms or learned in books. They're learned quietly, day by day, and the way our families love us, guide us, and stand inside us beside us. In my family, I was taught that love means showing up for one another, especially in the ordinary moments that often matter the most. I learned that listening is one of the simplest ways to show respect. I learned that kindness is never weakness.

And I learned that even small acts of care can stay with a person forever. As I've grown older, I've come to realize how deeply these lessons shape the world I see. Even now, there are moments when I find myself thinking, this is gonna be hard. I wish I could call my mom. Because the love and guidance we receive from family never leave us. Family gives us our first sense of belonging. It teaches us that we matter. It gives us the confidence to care for others and the strength to face difficult times. And family is not the only people we are only people that we are born into. Sometimes family is created through friendship, through neighbors, through people who continue to show up for us throughout our lives.

I believe community is an extension of family. A strong community is built the same way strong families are built, through patience, respect, compassion, and a willingness to care about one another even when we disagree. Every person wants to feel valued, safe, and heard. When we truly listen with open hearts and open minds, we begin to see each other not as opponents or strangers, but as fellow human beings. Small moments of connection matter.

They build trust. They build relationships. And over time, they build stronger communities. I believe each of us help shape the spirit of the community we share, the grace we show in disagreement, and the respect we offer even when perspectives differ, create the environment we all experience together. A healthy community does not require us to agree on everything, but it does require us to remember that our choices affect the people around us.

I believe the world becomes brighter when we remember how deeply connected we truly are. Every act of kindness strengthens the fabric of our community. Every effort to understand one another creates a new creates new possibilities. And every moment we choose compassion over division, we help create a more hopeful future. This I believe, when we choose kindness, understanding, and connection, we don't just strengthen our families or our communities, We light the way for future generations and leave the world more hopeful than how we found it. Thank you.

Thank you. Very beautiful. Okay. That is my last speaker card for matters not on the agenda. If anyone would like to speak at this time and has not turned in a blue speaker card, please approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none, we'll close public comment. Thank you very much. That concludes item number 10. And we are now proceeding to public hearings and other matters. Introduction of a proposed memorandum of understanding between the city of Pleasanton and the Pleasanton Police Officers Association with terms ending 05/31/2029. Yep. Welcome.

Good evening.

Just take a minute to switch over the PowerPoint here. Yeah. No problem. Thank you.

Thank you, and good evening, mayor and council. My name is Xavier Scoggins. I'm the director of human resources and labor relations, and I'm here to introduce the principal terms proposed for the proposed contract between the city and the Pleasanton Police Officers Association, which we refer to as PPOA. As you are aware, under Myers Melius Brown Act, which governs us, we are required to meet and confer in good faith with all of our bargaining units over terms and conditions of employment. So today, I'll introduce the background and the timeline and the key elements of the contract.

So for a little background, PPOA represents 74 sworn personnel, 61 officers, and 13 sergeants. The term the current term that we have for our MOU expires on 05/31/2026. The city's negotiation team, which includes Tim Timothy Davis of Burke, Williams and Sorenson Law Group and city staff engaged in five meetings with representatives of the PPOA. We reached a tentative agreement on April 15 and the agreement was ratified by the PPOA membership on April 21. So for the principal terms of the tentative agreement.

So this chart reviews key elements of the tentative agreement. To start, it is a three term contract expiring in May 2029. We negotiated and proposed the following salary general wage increases to begin with a 3% increase June 1, followed by the second year of a term of a 3.5% increase. And the last year of the contract will see a 4% increase. The proposed agreement includes three new premium plays to address retention and recruitment and to keep us competitive in the current labored market.

Longevity section here is our proposed replacement to our current master officer pay, which has officers eligible officers receiving 2%. And so we are replacing that master officer pay with a two tiered system with the first year being 2% for employees with eight years of service and 4% for employees with twelve or more years of service. This will increase in the last year of the contract to 3% for eight years of service and 6% for twelve years or more. In addition to longevity, we are introducing a new bilingual pay for certified employees. Employees will have to go through a certification process and those who are eligible will receive a $100 per pay period pay for bilingual pay.

And then and lastly, the shift differential for employees with shift hours between midnight and 6AM, those who work those shifts will receive a 3% increase and that will increase to 5% in the last year of the contract. Again, these are all retention and recruitment, initiatives that other agencies in our area have and we want to be competitive. So the city has a practice of a two step process as you know. Step one is to introduce the tentative agreement for council, common, and public input. And then step two will have the contract agendized on the future meeting for consideration of adoption, which is as actually scheduled for May 19.

So staff recommends counsel obtain public input and provide comments regarding the tentative agreement. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you very much. So just since we do have a large member a large number of public here, so as as Xavier Trojans has explained, this is to daylight the contract so that you may have an opportunity to speak on it. We won't be voting on it tonight. That is scheduled for our May 19 meeting, but we are gonna be able to ask questions and go through that. So just a heads up on what we're doing up here. With that, clarifying questions. Council member Eicher, you're starting us off. Any clarifying questions at this time?

I actually don't have any. Okay.

Council member Testa?

No. I don't.

Council member Nyberg?

Having been involved in the meetings prior to this, I have no questions either. Okay.

And vice mayor?

I have none. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. I don't as well. Alright. I have no speaker cards for item number 11. If you would like to speak on this item and have not turned in a blue speaker card at this time but would like to speak, please approach the podium at this time. Okay. We'll close the public comment and bring it back to the council for comments. Council member Iger, same order, same starting position.

One comment I would like to make is I do wanna express my gratitude for both, HR and for the POA for engaging in, constructive negotiations and coming to a quick resolution on their contract, something that both parties could agree on in short term, and we appreciate that. And taking into consideration our financial objectives and some of the challenges that we have as we move forward. So thank you.

K. Council member Testa.

Well, I won't repeat everything that's just been said, but I will add, my appreciation also to, city manager Bowden for leadership in helping us get through this in such a productive way. Thanks.

Okay. Councilmember Nybert.

I also would echo the previous comments, extend my thanks to city manager Bowden and Xaviera, the of HR, And I also express my appreciation to the POA and for reflecting the professionalism that we desire all members to exhibit in which they do exhibit and making Pleasanton a hopefully, an employer of choice for officers such as the members of the POA. Thanks. And vice mayor.

Echo everyone's comments and especially Terry Erskoggins and Tim, our attorney on the matter. I think both of you just it is on. It is on. Both of you just exude class, Jerry, as well. Thank you for going through, and thank you to the other side for having such a painless process. We appreciate it. So thank you.

And I'll round out a similar comments to all my council members. I have a few others, which I'll just add to it. Thank you for the hard work professionalism that you do every day twenty four seven for our community. Our next agenda item reflects the realities that many of you face in the force. There's gotta be good days and there's gotta be difficult ones.

So I know that our residents sometimes call you in the darkest moments and you respond. And so I appreciate that. For longevity pay, I just wanna explain it's an element that I think is really nice to add to be competitive. But more so for me, I think the longevity of our officers are something that our community understands is an asset and value to us. When our community can understand or or knows the officers that are here, sees them regularly, and builds trust and connections with them, we are able to have a community dialogue, and, that partnership matters.

So I think that advances our public trust and appreciation. And then lastly, because it's public service week, I do wanna say thank you to the families who are supporting these officers as well. We know some of them were graveyard shifts as expressed, but our community appreciates the work you do. And I think we're all looking forward to ratifying this at the next meeting, but we'll agendize it then. Okay. Anything further, staff? No?

No. Thank you, council and mayor.

Okay. That closes item number 11. Now we are proceeding to item number 12. We're gonna do a a shift change at the staff dais, and I'll introduce the item. We'll begin from there. Item 12 is receive an update on the police department's operations, services, and activities. This is an annual update that the police department does for us. And thank you, and welcome.

Chief Avalara is just gonna get this PowerPoint up and running, and we'll be off and get right into it.

And while we're waiting, I don't have any speaker cards on item number 12. If you would like to speak and have three minutes, it will be three minutes, please consider filling out a blue speaker card. They're located just outside on the credenza, and then you can turn them into the clerk. If you don't do that, you're we welcome as I do it at the end of, at the time. Sorry.

Sorry. I stole the cone with a cop announcement. Maybe that was the last slide. I don't know. I didn't look ahead. Chief.

Okay. I think I need to do more presentations. I don't know how to run the system here.

That's not the skill we hire you for. Alright.

So good evening, mayor and council members and members of the public. Tonight, we'll be presenting an update for the police department operations, services, and activities for 2025. The report will summarize our activities across all areas of the police department, including service levels, crime trends, staffing, training, technology, and committee engagement efforts. There are several areas for several reasons that we will not be able to use comparative data. We have a new CAD system, and we've switched our FBI crime reporting, our uniform crime reporting to NIBRS, which is national incident based reporting system.

So it's impacted the data and and our ability to compare, but we'll we'll do our best to talk about. We will also discuss, more of this as we move through the presentation. So the police call volume, for 2025 was fairly comparable to 2024. 911 calls were up a bit with 18,599 calls. 10 digit emergency inbound numbers, 12,000, a little over, and administrative inbound, 34,000.

Abandoned calls, which are 911 calls that are made and, hang up, were 1,359. These calls take a little bit more effort because the dispatchers will then have to return calls, try to speak with someone. If they can't locate someone, then they'll have to send an officer out. And the outbound calls, calls that our dispatch center has made out to call vehicle owners for officers, call services, or they work it together with the officers in the field. So those were outbound 21,000, little over.

So overall, the dispatch center handled 87,525 calls. The response times, we have a different way of capturing that data. So as we discussed at our last report out, response to calls fall into different categories. And in our old system, it was calculated from the time of dispatch to officer arrival. Our new CAD system calculates response time from time of the call is answered to time of arrival.

So in 2025, our response time for priority one was seven minutes twenty six seconds. Priority two is fourteen minutes five seconds, and then priority three, twenty six minutes fifteen seconds. Starting this year, 2026, we've documented our emergency response, which is lights and sirens to determine our response time. And I can tell you when we look at our response time for emergency calls, it's typically we're on scene between three and four minutes. So that will be the emergency response numbers that we typically speak about the four minute goal.

Perfect. And then just as a comparison, Livermore and Dublin are also in the six, seven minute range for our priority response. Crime statistics is another one that's gonna be difficult to compare. If you remember during our last report out, we talked about switching from the uniform crime reporting, which is UCR, which was a summary based snapshot of crimes under the hierarchy rule, which is the most serious offense. That's what's reported.

While in NIBRS, which is the national incident based reporting system or cyber, same thing, California incident based reporting system, offers detailed incident level data that captures all offenses and contextual information. So if you think of an apple tree, UCR reports the apples, and NIBRS reports the trunk, the branches, the leaves, and everything else. So we anticipated that we wouldn't be able to use the data in 2025 to compare with past years and that the data would probably show an increase in crime because now we're reporting every offense. The good news is that we did not see an increase at all and actually saw a decrease. So this even though it's a decrease, there were more offenses reported.

So it's actually a really good sign. For our clearance rates, we've listed all the data here, but there's no way to compare data on clearance rates through NIBRS. The clearance rates are very specific. And while we may have identified a suspect, established probable cause for an arrest, and even having a warrant issued, the case is not cleared until the suspect has been taken into custody or is otherwise formally charged. That's an example of we would clear something before, but now under NIBRS, it's not clear until the person is actually in custody.

So clearance rates reported under NIBRS may appear lower than under UCR, not necessarily because investigative performance has declined, but because the reporting methodology is more detailed and restrictive. We did a little, experiment and looked at our numbers. Had we reported them the same way as last year, and they were very similar to 2320 '4 type of numbers. So next year, the cases that are cleared in '26 will probably be from cases in '25. So it'll just be a running total that we'll be able to compare going forward.

Arrests for '25 overall are down. However, felony arrests are way up. Felony arrests are are much more difficult, complex, and require a lot more work to investigate and document. And then officer initiated activity was also way up from the '23 and '24. And while we work through the hiring and training of officers, we expect to see these numbers continue to rise, and visibility in the community is that best crime prevention tool.

And just as a, as we talk about cases or reports that are taken, in 2025, there were 3,684 cases or reports written. Our CSOs took 910 of those and wrote over 1,000 citations, And they also do all of the vehicle abatement for the city. The animal services officer responded to 603 incidents, took 29 cases, and wrote nine citations. Our cadets are a big part of our records unit. Our they are, part time employees that are interested in being police officers but are finishing school.

One of the ones you see on here is, going to be one of our recruits going into the police academy. They took 60 reports, wrote 11 citations, and worked on over five hundred hours of video redaction. And all of the work that's done, everything in the field, whether it's a report or a PRA request or a citation and everything else goes through our records unit. And they they processed 1,287 PRA requests, which include any record, whether it's at the front counter or through the more formal channels, and process all of our cases and 256 citations. Traffic collisions were down for 2025.

Injury collisions were also down. We did see an increase in DUI collisions. We focused very heavily on DUI enforcement, including a checkpoint, and made a 131 DUI arrests. Unfortunately, our fatal collision stayed the same with two in 2025, and then our pedestrian collisions are down a little and bike collisions are up. The ARU response unit I'm sorry.

The alternative response unit, ARU, Call volume remained stable. Early intervention, safety planning, and other noncustodial response strategies helped to maintain hold activity at the same level as last year. In 2025, ARU completed 55 Pleasanton Unified School District related evaluations compared to 33 in 2024. However, the hold rate decreased from twenty seven percent to twenty five percent. ARU assisted with five major encampment cleanup operations.

They assisted with nine individuals securing housing compared to seven in 2024 and three in 2023. These numbers are indicative of the value of long term service oriented response model. And finally, a big congratulations on the award of 2025 program of the year by the Alameda County Emergency Medical Services Agency. And then, school resource officer program, SROs, continue to provide campus safety support with emergency preparedness, positive engagement across all school sites. In addition to responding to calls for service, SROs participated in lockdown and evacuation drills and safety training.

SROs responded to 323 calls for service and wrote 28 reports resulting in four arrests. SROs also work with ARU and school staff to address sensitive incidents and students in crisis with appropriate mental health and support services. Use of force numbers in 2025 stayed relatively the same. Physical force was used 59 times using all 89 incidents with a combined total of 61,695 officer initiated and request for service incidents resulting in 854 arrests. You would say force was used point 1% of the time.

In 2025, we received four external complaints. There were no internally generated complaints. There was a sustained finding on one complaint, and one additional complaint is pending. Our, authorized sworn position is 82, and we have one vacant position right now. We have, hired seven sworn and three professional staff.

We had six retirements and four promotions. And while hiring efforts have been successful, deployable percentages remain at 78% due to medical limitations, three military deployments, and multiple levels of recruit or field training. I think we're at six in FTO and three going into the police academy. So the numbers are high, but we are absolutely on a good path. And then for training and professional development, you have seen the hours really go up.

We've stretched our training across the entire department with a fairly young department, whether in tenure, assignment, or rank. Continued investment remains critical for developing the skills and competency and especially the, leadership development for succession planning. We have a fabulous volunteer in policing program, and we want to give a quick shout out to our volunteers. They worked over eight thousand hours for the community and assisted the police department with everything from citizens on patrol, foot patrols at community events, follow-up, traffic control, vacation check, parking enforcement, and a wider variety of administrative assignments. I can tell you, we had a call out.

It was one in the morning, and, there were eight of them out there blocking the intersection at four different locations. And in the normal world, those would be police officers. So they they are incredible. We also continue to grow our explorer program and currently have 23 explorers. And I just wanna say a huge thank you to the explorer advisers that put so much time into this program.

And then technology is an absolute necessity in policing and crime prevention and solving crimes. We had two individuals that created an almost cost neutral real time information center. They assisted with 303 calls for service and 15 arrests, completed 266 investigative research. We have high hopes for this unit's growth and are very thankful that Amber and Christine took the initiative to bring this forward. We also continue to rely on our neighbors for help when a drone was needed.

We requested assistance 18 times where one time it was unavailable and we canceled four, and we look forward to increasing our capabilities in this area. A quick note. In 2025, our promotions were dispatch supervisor Danielle Fowler, sergeant Brian Jewell, sergeant Ken White, and lieutenant Jason Hunter. We also had three individuals hit their twenty years, sergeant Bilt, officer Tujay, and reserve officer Higgins. And finally, on the horizon is the start of a drone program to allow Pleasanton to build our own internal drone capability so we can respond more efficiently and consistently.

And while I'm thankful that we've had such great partners in Dublin and Livermore, Pleasanton really needs to be able to respond independent of allied agencies. And that concludes our report, and we are here to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate it. So we're gonna go with clarifying questions. I do have a speaker card. So council member Testa, you start us off. Clarifying questions, please.

I have no questions.

Okay. Council member Nybert?

Thank you. Yeah. I do have a just a couple questions. In discussing the emergency response times, my understanding is that that time is a combination of the time it takes to for a caller to come in and dispatch to handle that and then pass it off to an officer in the field, and then that officer's time to reach the location. Is that a correct understanding?

That's correct.

Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. You just mentioned that the RTIC was almost cost neutral. I'm I'm glad to hear the words cost neutral. Can you describe what almost cost neutral I mean, how you came to that conclusion?

I think there's some screens that were involved. All of the technology we have, but the, you know, TVs that were put up and whatever staff time it takes. So

So is there some sort of revenue that off is offsetting expenses? Or

how No. We just used what we had and focused you mean? And focused staff on that assignment.

Okay. Being being resourceful. Great. Let's see. You mentioned the ARU participated in five major encampment cleanup operations. Just so I you know, we know what what that entails. Can you describe, you know, an encampment operation or cleanup?

All about yeah.

Hi. Good evening. Kurt Schley here, operations captain for the police department, and I oversee ARU. These are encampments that that pop up around the city. And when ARU is made aware, they work with the residents to either find them resources and or get them housing. We were able to house, I believe, eight people this year, which is the most we've been able to do. And once the, encampments are vacated, then we go in and and and clean up the encampments to, remove all the, stuff that's there.

Okay. So it does sound like the, ARU and officers approach that with the same degree of sensitivity that they would for other calls that the clinicians

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

I'll just add. There so before they do that, there's a noticing that has to occur, and and so that they don't just go in and someone property is there. So there's noticing and stuff like that. And then once the they may not do the exact cleanup, they'll be there to assist through that whole process.

I see. Okay. Thank you. And you mentioned the records unit handles what to me seems like an incredible number of PRA requests, 1,287 public records act requests. I know citywide, the the resources that it takes to handle all Public Records Act requests is rather substantial and costly. Is there is there any attempt to somehow reduce that or handle them in a way that they're less costly?

I would say we're required to handle them. However, based on what the record is

Sure. There's a

so is there a better, more efficient way? Is that the question?

I guess. Yeah. Mhmm. Well, I mean, I

know know.

I know there's a lot that's prescribed by the law. So

Yeah. I mean, part of that part time, we do have some three records clerks

Mhmm.

Is very low for the size of this police department.

Mhmm.

And there is a part time element in the there's a volunteer and then also the cadets take a big chunk of that work

Mhmm.

Without their help, then there would definitely be more efficiencies sought.

Mhmm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm glad they were able to handle that that load. Okay. And then just kind of on a lighthearted note, 603 animal control calls. Wondering how many were in the last two months for the turkey that with an injured right leg that's in my neighborhood. I think there were quite a few.

No. But there was Vice

mayor?

No questions.

Thank you.

Okay. I have a few. Apologize, chief, if I may. I I gave some earlier, and I appreciate the response and the supplemental related response time. So I just wanna for clarification to our community, our general plan has a target of four minutes. And what I'm I guess I'm asking is, with the clarification you provided in the supplemental and then here, we're looking like we're meeting that now three to four minutes from lights and siren. I just wanted to clarify. Is that from the call coming in, or is that from dispatch?

That's from the call coming in. So

Even more impressive.

Yeah. When you have a a call, the dispatcher will call. They'll get the information. They'll put it in the system. They'll send it to the officer in the car, dispatch the officer. So there's some time. When you're dealing with an emergency, they may be doing all of that at the exact same time.

Gotcha.

And so there's a different intensity that goes into.

Yeah. I I know we have the new system as well. So it sounds like we'll see that data or that clarity, next year, that the next report.

Correct. We're capturing it different. We're capturing the, hopefully, it it works out well. We're capturing the lights and sirens responses, and those are not very many.

Yeah. Well and and I appreciate it because I do believe the community's expectation is when they call, that's when they pick up the phone that they're expecting that four minutes met. And if we need to communicate to our community that it's gonna be a different time, I wanna make sure we're having that conversation at at this update. Okay. Clearance rates, I asked earlier about clearance rates. So there's no method to see under the new system if this is a good benchmark at the number we have versus potentially other municipalities or jurisdictions. Can you comment to that?

So I'm not sure.

Each crime is unique. And

Yeah. So when you're looking at violent crime, homicides or robberies, those are a much higher, solvable crime, typically, especially and so when you're looking at theft from a vehicle or

Like a smash and grab or

Auto burglary.

Saw yesterday at

Those are gonna always be a much lower clearance rate just because they happen in the middle of the night. They take ten seconds. They're in and out. They're gone. And so having the the clearance of those higher violent crimes is is always gonna be higher and lower. So that makes sense in what we presented. But, whether we compare or not to other municipalities, I don't have that data.

Yeah. Well and, like yeah. I I understand. Okay. I asked earlier, and there was a slide on the officer initiated activities. Do you mind flipping back to that, please? I think you just there we go. Oh, yeah. Right here. Okay.

So, I asked earlier in the present, in supplemental. These are all pandemic numbers or post pandemic numbers that we have, but we're on the upswing in '25. So we I know we had a force strength rebuild that we needed to do. But for traffic stops, we're expecting that number to come up in the future. Like, compared to pre pandemic, where is this overall? I don't have the history presented.

Yeah. I wasn't I wasn't with Pleasant Hill. I'm sorry. I will say there is a phenomenon happening in most police departments where there were a a handful or of officers hired during 2020, 2021. And so they grew up or learned in an environment that is different than our environment now, meaning they they weren't as proactive because that's just what was happening then.

And so now the training is, much different. It's proactive. It's traffic stops. It's being visible, doing all of that. And so my hope and my goal would be that proactivity increases each year with as we staffing goes up, training across the board goes up, and, yeah, it that it increases.

Okay. Yeah. And what I'm asking, I guess, is, you know, a lot of the community noted publicly the lack of people stopping or yielding to a stop sign or crosswalks and things like that. So that would be we'd expect increased enforcement as we increase force strength and are more proactive. Is that a

Correct. And, these numbers will also increase with the building of our motor unit, which we have, four officer positions and one sergeant, and we only have two of those filled right now. And so as we start getting more of the people we're hiring into

Special.

Their positions, then we can start filling those motor positions better.

Okay. A couple more. Sorry. Based on force strength today, our crime prevention officer is staffed and available for our community if they would like that service. Correct? Okay. Another one that comes up often is ebikes, ebikes enforcement. I know the state's doing some stuff. I know the five cities are trying to do some things with that. We don't track ebikes specifically or emotorcycles specifically. It would just be in this data, or how is that going?

We we do not have that right now, but we have been having conversations about how to capture that. We have conversations about ebikes all the time, and we, I'm hesitant to say, but, we don't wanna create another emergency by if if we try and stop ebikes, they typically will not stop, and so we will not. However, we can use our drone to do to follow. And so those ways we can say we can talk to the children that are driving inappropriately or going to get themselves hurt, and that's the reality. I don't think they understand the danger they're putting themselves in.

Yeah. And, just to ask, I know, but for our community, we're doing outreach to the schools and with partnership with the school district to talk about the appropriate ages of each of these classes of

What bikes are legal, what what what they can do with them, who can ride them. We've worked with Tri Valley, which is Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, and, looking at educational and enforcement opportunities as a region so that everyone's carrying the load together. We all have the same challenges. So there's a lot going on.

Okay. Yep. Perfect. Thank you. And then my second to last, the canine unit, are we had two, canines prior. Are we do we still have that, capability? Where are we at on that?

We have two canines.

Okay. I just wanna ask that. And then probably the question you know, because I ask it every time, is what as the elected officials can we do to support you and the police department in their job to keep our community safe? Is there anything we should be? I know budget, but

what else? Budget is probably the the biggest challenge because I think for Pleasanton, we are sorely behind in technology, and that's where we need to really make sure that we do not stop investing in technology.

Okay. Thank you very much. Any further follow-up questions by any of my colleagues before I go to public comment?

Yeah. You jumped over me.

Oh, I am so sorry. It's because I did the rotation this way. It started in front of the spot.

Yeah. That's alright.

Council member Eicher, former interim police chief, council member Eicher. Sorry about that, and thank you for

your patience. Have some questions. I do appreciate the update on the status of each of the 17 positions that the department has that are nondeployable at this point. You know, that was a question I had asked earlier with the city manager as to what that looked like in in each of those positions. So, I appreciate that.

But I do have a question as as far as the, you know, I've been out of the department for five years now, and and we were down approximately 20% staffing, and you're still kind of in that spot is what do you anticipate for the future of that? Do you think that's gonna get better? Do you think the trend is gonna that trend is gonna die off now that you have all these people in in, training? Or

I think, as you know, getting someone in the police academy doesn't mean they'll make it, and getting someone in FTO doesn't mean they'll make it, and putting them in probation doesn't mean they'll make it, unfortunately. And we see, that as the challenge, whether it's their ability or the desire to continue. So, hopefully, we we have nine coming in, so, you know, obviously, we are very hopeful for them.

Would overhires help, alleviate some of the crunch that you have in there? Because I know it's really hard to run the department for prolonged periods being short 20% of your staff.

I don't know because I think we have yeah. I mean, it the it's not like the pool of applicants is overflowing, I guess, is so.

If you had the ability to have that, would it be helpful?

Well, understanding that we have a retirement coming up with captain Gomez, and, we are actually he's not one of our vacancies, but we are looking at him like a vacancy. Sorry. Sorry, Roy. We love you. But we understand he he will need to be filled. So we are we already are looking at applicants in that way.

Okay. Didn't really answer my question, but okay.

If we need an overhire, if we say we have this applicant and we don't have the spot, but we need it in two months, we would absolutely come forward and ask for

that. Okay. What's being what's the department doing to to increase the use of VIPS to help serve the community and to develop help foster additional relationships in the community in regards to Vips.

I don't know that we're doing anything. I think it's word-of-mouth, and and the the community academy are behind the badge. People just wanna get involved. So it's grown since I've been here. So

Is there a potential to expand what we have, or are we is the department at capacity?

I'm gonna let you answer that.

I've seen, just as the chief described, our VIPS are instrumental in dealing with in progress calls, and they're so willing to come out and deal with that. So the if you give me a big enough incident, I'll take all the vips I can. Right? I mean, so the program, we have great advisers, and we're, you know, I think it's really the the cap is on is there enough for them to do? We are limited on the the types of vehicles that we have.

Our patrol VIPs go out and do, using VIPs inside the building. We've increased that number. We're training two new VIPs on that on to do some of those tasks inside the building. So I think it's just if there's people that are interested, we haven't hit the cap yet, and and we may get there. But, we're still, doing behind the badge every year, which is our entry point into the volunteer service at the police department. So as of right now, I think we could probably still still use some more if there was willing people willing to to donate their time.

Okay. And I have a couple questions that and they come from the staff report and not necessarily from the presentation tonight. One is, can you, just for the community's sake, can you, describe what the exceptional needs registry is and what it does?

So that was, where people can contact the police department and let us know if they have, a family member or someone that lives with them that has special needs so that if that individual goes missing or runs off or or, is in some way needs to be contacted, we understand the challenges and have information surrounding that individual.

So this could be somebody that has Alzheimer's or mental illness or health problems that might need that extra help from the department? Correct. Okay. And then in another part of it, I the staff report you articulated, there's expanded planning underway for the twenty twenty six national night out. Can you articulate what that means, the expanded planning? Because it doesn't really give me any insight as to what that means.

It's just planning for capability of responding to more because we had to shut it down because it got so big last year. So we're looking at ways to be able to not shut it down as early.

Okay.

We had, I think, 52, and people got nervous. The police department said, I don't know how we're gonna respond to 52. So we're looking at ways to be able to do that.

Well, it's it's amazing how the department always seems to find a way to make how to do it and get it done. So I really appreciate that. I do have a question about flock, which, I assume that I don't know if there's public comment on that coming up or not. But just for clarification aspect, I think the community gets misunderstands how Flock is run as a company, that there's two sides of it that you know? And maybe you guys could fill in a little bit or talk a little bit about what that looks like.

That there's the public side that law enforcement can access and the federal government has access to, and then there's the law enforcement side, which each agency regulates on their own. But maybe you could talk a little bit about what that looks like so that they understand that we control our data. And our data isn't available to everybody. So the data that our cameras are catching, isn't out there.

I'm not sure what your public side is. So if there is a private camera on a street here, they share data with Pleasanton, and that's it. So

Does does Flock go out and capture license plates actively? Are you sure about that?

Do we have Flock on the we can bring them in. We have, Lily Ho, I believe, from Flock.

Yeah.

Hello.

Hello. Welcome.

Hi. Can you hear me? Thank you. Thank you for having me. Hello, mayor and council members. My name is Lily Ho. I'm the public affairs manager for the Western Region Of The US for Flock Safety. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Hi, Lily. Council member Craig Eichert. Does Flock actively go out and collect license plate numbers or actively scan to add to their database?

Well, we do have our standalone cameras, which actively capture license plates. And if you're referring to what our agreements are with private cameras, the I don't believe it it would be FLAC that does it. But if your law enforcement agencies are interested in having private entities share their cameras with us that are also flock cameras, they may do so.

So law enforcement has access to some of the private data, but the but the private folks or the federal government only has access to what we allow them to have access to.

Well, actually, in the state of California

that access to our system, not necessarily the public public side of it.

Right. So I guess a couple of things here. You may be referring to just in general cameras. In general cameras, private entities, who are whomever they may be with whatever system. It could be a flock system or any other system.

They they may share with law enforcement agencies as they choose. There are some private customers who are also flock cam flock customers that have also our license plate readers and they typically do choose to share with their local law enforcement agencies. And then you're referring to federal agencies. In the state of California, no agency is allowed to share outside of the state of California, which includes federal agencies. So that sharing isn't allowed at all.

Perfect. That's that's what I was getting at.

And and, in fact, we are invisible. We do not exist in the system, to any federal agency. They can't even see us. K.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Okay. Further questions, customer Vereiker?

Can I ask a question on the flock?

Sure. It yeah. Council member Reich, are you okay with her Yes.

Yes. Please. Okay. Please, Veronica.

Finding my So a lot of our Pleasanton neighborhoods now have flock cameras. Right? And they're so what I'm hearing is that their data is shared with, our department, but it doesn't go outside of our department.

Only with who we share data with. It doesn't go out of California, and it does not go to federal agencies.

Who do we share data with?

We share data with California agencies, law enforcement agencies.

Okay. Okay. Then the other question that I think there was confusion in my neighborhood was, they believed that the flock cameras were being monitored live in our department. Could you clarify or explain really what they they've given access to their data, their camera, and they think somebody's sitting there. And if something a a vehicle comes in and there's they think there's somebody ready to act.

Right. So license plate reader technology will capture a license plate, and it is in a lockbox unless there is a it's it's a stolen vehicle. It's in in the system as a stolen vehicle or, we're it's a missing person vehicle. It can trigger a boom. Stolen vehicle.

Dispatch gets that alert, checks the picture against the plate, sends out an officer. So in that case, yes, we can immediately respond. Most of the time, we will have, that picture of whatever car goes into the system, and no one ever sees it because you have to have a case, a reason, the license plate number, or description of a vehicle in order to enter the system and look for the plate. Then if you have the plate, then you can go into another highly audited system, is our Kletz DoJ system. Okay.

So nobody is monitoring license plate readers unless it triggers a response based on the want.

Okay. But there is a trigger. I didn't that's good interesting information to me that I wasn't

That's how we understand if there's a stolen vehicle that enters the the city. Typically, they're they're not coming to see their friends. They're coming to do some kind of harm driving around, and so that's that's the the the bonus of that.

The trigger. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that.

So it's it's no different than if an officer pulled up behind a car and ran the plate and got a hit on it. So Flux just doing it for us and letting us know where the hit is and what the what the vehicle looks like. Right. So

Wouldn't it have triggered when it came into Pleasanton? Because don't

we have?

Yeah. Yes. Yes.

So before it got into the neighborhood, it would have already

It would have. Hopefully, yeah. We don't we don't have every single spot covered yet, but we're working on that. Alright.

So in regards to the, like, the neighborhood cameras, you know, a valid reason for going back into for somebody to look at look something up would be, like, one of our neighborhoods gets has some burglaries that happened to vehicles the night before. We know the date, the time, the location. So we might be able to go back and look at flock to see was there a vehicle that came through here during that time and what did that look like. So we may be able to identify somebody that's outside of the area by searching in that methodology, right, to try to get a suspect.

You'll have someone say, oh, it was a small black two door car, and then you can the time frame, the location, small black two door car, then you can get a plate.

Okay. And it's generally those types of circumstances that that the lookup is being used. It's not used by everybody under any circumstance they want.

No. There needs to be a case or an incident number put in or you can't even enter the system.

Okay. Perfect. And I I think my last question here is in regards to the school resource officers, do we track the number of ARU assists or referrals that that they provide?

I don't know if we track it. I mean, we certainly could. I think they work together. So okay. Yeah.

When ARU first started, there was a lot of that going on. Now the schools are are trained. They reach out to ARU directly before, you know, calling the SRO. If the SRO or the ARU is not available, then the SRO is called in. So I don't think there's a large number. It does happen, but I don't think it's a it's a metric that rises to the level of something that we needed to to pay attention to because the system, the the procedures we have in place are working so well with that direct contact with ARU.

Okay. I was just trying to figure out if they're in the 323 request for service, if there's ARU calls in that or if that's just other associated calls that don't include

That's that's all patrol. The way that we're we're measuring that is all patrol requests, I believe.

For the school resource officers?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Was looking at the ARU. The ARU. Yes. The the SRO request for service. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's from the schools. Yeah. Yeah. They probably if they're in there, they they they are, but I would imagine they're a small number.

Be depending upon how that call for service was generated? Correct. Okay. And I think that's all I have as far as questions.

Thank you for reminding me. I went out of order. I appreciate that. I'll try not to do that again. Alright. Any further questions before we go to public comment on this? Okay. I have one speaker card on this item. If you would like to speak on item 12, please fill out a blue speaker card. Our first and only speaker

is

Arthur Ashmove. Welcome. You'll have three minutes if we can put three minutes on. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor. Oh, can you hear me? Yep. Yep. Good evening, everybody.

And, actually, my question is about the safety for residents, our family. We are residents, city of Pleasanton, for over twenty five years, and the safety was never our concern. After March 4, when our family, actually, my wife and I were attacked, armed robbery in my house was using a gun, safety became our primary concern. And I have noticed that, actually, when police officers came, they they did not find any recordings, any cameras around our house. None.

And they they've been trying to use drones. I don't know. Cameras were licensed recognizing as you just mentioned here. So my question is, I just noticed right across the street from my house, like, 20 feet, there is a sign which looks like a standard sign saying, warning. This is a neighborhood watch community.

And it says here, we immediately report to all suspicious persons and activities to our police department. And it's hard to describe more suspicious, the guy, the criminal who actually invaded our house with a gun in hands. Very typical outfit, black hoodie, mask on face. So my question is first about the region of this sign. Is this from from the city or from the police department or who because it looks standard, and I've seen them several, not only one.

And the second point is, what does that mean? The statement we we will immediately report because this criminal invaded our house not at the nighttime. It was dark, but it was 8PM. So no cameras, no anything that just actually reporting to the police? Is is this just for decoration? I'm just trying to understand the origin of this sign. If you can please comment on this. K. Okay? Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And we

have the maybe the police department?

I will in a second. I I do wanna mention I met with your wife as well, and I appreciate that. And I'm sorry that you've been touched by crime. So, yes, chief, do you mind helping us there? And then I'll I'll also ask the the neighborhood watch program and the and the National Night Out. Could you maybe touch on all of that? Yes,

sir. I'm that was a scary situation for your family. So Neighborhood Watch is a program that neighborhoods put together, and, it's run by your neighbors. And the sign if your neighborhood has a neighborhood watch program, then the city will put a sign there. So the challenge with it is there needs to be a captain in your neighborhood that runs the program, and that that's typically how something might fall off.

And so you you really we will support with trainings and information and all of that, but a neighborhood watch program is just that. It's it's neighbors getting together and and watching each other's

So no surveillance around this?

It has nothing to do with the city. It has to do with your neighbor your neighborhood and getting together. And so you would communicate with your neighbors. And if you wanted to, there would have to be someone that hosted meetings. There would have to be someone that gathered information, a contact point. So, maybe that's a good place to start in the neighborhood, and and we can assist you with that. And then

What can I ask? Yeah. Well, so we'll touch on that. One of the questions I also know from our history with you is the neighbor is actually one of the best start of defenses against crime or crime prevention supports. Right? Can you talk about that with our crime prevention program that we do? It is really the neighbor, your your old time neighbor that will help you report something if they see something. Right? Just like the sign says. I know you don't have

that stat.

You you you need to know your neighbors. You need to communicate. They need to know, who lives in the house, who doesn't live in the house, when you're there, when you're not. They're picking up your newspaper. They're picking up your mail. They're doing things to make your house look like it that there are people there. You should have your lights on at night. When I go to bed at night, I make sure my front porch is on and the all the lights around my house are motioned, so, well lit areas. And we have a crime prevention officer that can go out and do a, crime prevention through environmental design, review, safety review of your residence or even business.

And how would how would someone, engage those services?

And contact the police department and ask for crime prevention. Does Yeah. Actually, I don't know. Does officer Montgomery have a direct email?

Okay. So I apologize. So because we do this as a public meeting, you're welcome to come to the podium to speak, or we could have you meet with the police department after, but we can't facilitate this.

We met with her today.

So Okay.

Officer Montgomery is the crime prevention officer, and so you would just reach out to the police department and yeah.

Okay. And and I've met with you, and you're welcome to continue to follow-up with me, and I will make sure we put you in the right contacts if if there's any confusion. So, thank you for your understanding in the public meeting space that we are constrained by. Okay. So that was public comment.

I have no additional speaker cards. If you would like to speak on item 12 and have not filled out a speaker card and would like to speak, please approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none, we're gonna bring this matter back to the council for further conversation. It's a report for information so the council can evaluate or understand what the police department is doing. So there's not a vote, but we will start in the same order for quest or I read question. Comments, and council member Eicher, if you can just make sure I don't forget you on the on the number four position there. Council member Testa, you are first, please.

Alright. Thank you. Vehicle thefts are down dramatically. Is there a reason for that? I mean, anything really identifiable?

I think crime is down regionally, so that might be that might be a a contributing factor. Hopefully, it's visibility at night and making an impact with the rest we do make so that the goal is people don't come here to commit crime.

Right. Okay. Alright. Thanks. I mean, yeah, it it's wonderful to see the statistics with crime down on almost every level. That's the vehicle thefts went from one seventy one to one fourteen. That's that's dramatic. That's that's good because they had been going up for a couple of years. Then the other that I wanted to touch base on is our ARU data. I I mean, couldn't be more pleased.

And I think that the the ARU has dramatically shifted so much of the culture of how we, as a community and certainly as a department, respond to our youth and our vulnerable populations. And and that's great to see. So I wanted to ask a little bit about the it people ask have asked with our budget situation, is the ARU at risk? Well, when we look at this and what's written in the report, and it makes clear that the ARU is deferring calls away from our officers. So if you could expand on that, and I think that's also very positive.

And captain Schleihuber, I know, has a a a big role in all of this and a big history as well. So whatever you can share.

No. I I think the the effectiveness of the program speaks for itself. It does divert calls from patrol. So even if we didn't have this program, the calls would still be there. So it makes sense to have the the people and the specialties to to respond to those calls.

And it would be the calls would be being dealt with by our more expensive personnel, which are our officers. And there is a savings because of this program. Is that true?

I mean, the op there the the program has police officers.

Right. But they don't respond to every call. Right?

Right. The officers with the clinicians?

Right.

They respond with the clinicians. For every call? Every call.

Most of them.

Yes. Okay. Those would be the calls for service, but the ARU does a lot of outreach where it isn't necessarily involving an officer as well. Is that true?

Yes. There is there is times where the clinicians will will self deploy, especially to the schools because that relationship has been established. But most, if not every call that comes in within the community that has that unknown factor, they're they're responding together.

Okay. And even with our, unhoused, we always still have the officer with the team. Okay?

Yes. That's correct. What what you would miss without ARU is the case management is now these calls are being diverted to a patrol officer that now has this call and then has a four five nine report, burglary report, and then is helping a citizen. And the consistency and the relationship building and the trust that sometimes takes months to establish to even get some of our unhoused to to trust the fact that we're there to help and connect them with services, that's what you would lose. And that's where the savings comes in is the fact that you're not going to the same call over and over, and you're working towards some sort of resolution with most most of our our clients out there.

Okay. Alright. Well, thank you. And I've also really appreciated the shift in culture with the how our students are interacting and how the ARU. I I like the language in the staff report where, where appropriate actions are needed.

And I think that that's a, a real important value that this program has brought instead of an overreaction at times. It is really an ability to look at what's appropriate, and it goes on to talk more about the importance of handling in a manner that keeps our students at at the schools. I I just comment wise, this is really very positive. Captain Schlehuber, have we been doing these reports just since 2022, or did did that start before then?

I don't know exactly, but it feels like it started before that. I believe with the listening sessions that we started in

In 2020?

In 2020. I believe our first report was 2021.

Okay. That that's what I would have guessed, but the numb what we were seeing in the started in this report at 2022. So yeah. It's there's just really, I think, been a great transition in culture in really valuing our residents and the vulnerable populations, and I certainly appreciate that. There's been a new resource program that has started, the ARU has really played a big role in helping make our vulnerable populations aware of this new service, this new resource that is so valuable.

So thank you for all of this. I I think our community is really in a better place with all of the work that's been done. Thank you.

Okay. Council member Nymbert.

Thank you. And thank you very much for the presentation. I really appreciate the update. It reflects positively and highly on the entire force, so I appreciate that. I did notice that there was an I believe an increase in training hours that you noted, and I do think that's a positive.

Anytime that our well trained force can be even more effective through additional training, that's something that is to be supported. You mentioned well, I was just wondering. In in the past, there has been a focus on, among other things, deescalating, volatile situations and and and, using tactics to deescalate. Just wondering if there is any further to say on that. Is that still a, a focus, in training or for for, you know, you know, approaching situations?

Is de escalation still a focus? Is that what

Of course.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. I mean, in everything.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. I I guess I was just wondering whether it it has become, I know, in the past, an additional emphasis emphasis in training, and so I would just like to, you know, not see that decline, of course, and I'm glad that it's not. It's an important part of the professionalism that the community expects and also enjoys on the part of our police department.

Shifting a little bit, I just wondered you mentioned that regionally, Pleasanton is subject to the same phenomena as other departments in the area as well. I think I think it was in relation to staffing, but I don't remember exactly. Are there any other phenomena, you know, quote, unquote, industry wide or in California that is affecting our police department either positively or negatively, you know, as a general, you know, thing?

I mean, all all of there are no borders around the cities. You know? That we all experience the same sort of, whatever's happening somewhere is happening here as well. So it's everything no matter crime or applicant pool or traffic problems or I mean, we all share the same issues.

Yeah. Okay. So I guess I was just wondering, maybe it's not your purview, maybe more the topic for academics and studies and law enforcement topics about, you know, trends and things like that. So I do wanna ask also about, and this may be another academic thing, crimes that are unreported, of course, can't make their way into a report like this because it's report unreported crimes. But do you know kind of the the extent of unreported crimes and how yeah. Let me just leave it as a a question. I know I know

The absence of crime? Do I know where they're what crime is not yeah. I But the prevalence of crimes occurring

and it not being reported.

No. I understand what you're saying. I think we try really hard to be out in those communities that might be afraid to not report crime. If people are not reporting crime because they just don't want to or they don't feel it's to say that my sunglasses were taken out of my car, my unlocked vehicle, so they don't report it, I would say absolutely report it because we might find someone that's in possession of this property. Mhmm. If it's because they're afraid to report it, we are, for whatever reasons, we are, we are in the community, speaking to individuals, all the time. So the the hope is that we make sure that they they do feel comfortable reporting crime.

Okay. Alright. Thank you very much. Nothing else. Thanks a lot. Okay.

Vice mayor? Thank you. I don't have a tremendous amount. I just wanna say thank you for the presentation. I'm especially impressed and delighted that you made the promotions that you did. I think our dispatch supervisor is very appropriate. Jason Hunter is the lieutenant officers or sergeants sergeant Jewel and sergeant White. I think what what I'm getting feedback from the community is all positive and from within the agency that the the right people are around, in charge, getting promoted, and it's a it's a good culture right now. So I just want to say thank you for that, and I see everything moving in a good direction. And I'll I'll leave my comments there. So thank you.

Thank you.

Council member Iker. I did have a couple extra questions that I had here that I forgot to ask. So, in regards to the real time crime center, has that reduced or impacted the workload on the dispatch center?

I would say it reduces it. They are doing things that dispatch might have done if they had time in the past.

And it also provides some relief in the investigations division because they're doing some of that investigative crime analysis work.

Mhmm. And on on in progress as well. So we might they might pull up a camera and say, the vehicle went this way or you know?

Okay. Thank you. And and this is gonna go back to your to the transition to Cybers or or NIBRS. They're both the same.

Same thing.

You know, the the methodology is we report to the state, and then the state reports to the federal government, which is why you have all those acronyms that get in there. So in regards to that, I would have anticipated instead of such a dramatic drop in, crime numbers or crime statistics that we would have actually had an increase in crime statistics.

As well?

Because you with cyber, you're actually counting each each offense for every victim, which would have been a multiplier of those. So to see this really drop in numbers kinda concerns me. So with the transition to the new CAD RMS system and going to Cybers, have we had somebody come in to validate the accuracy of our system to make sure that we are catching everything and that, you know, it may be going in, but we may not be getting it back out the right way?

There are, checks and balances that go through the system. It's the data's correct.

Okay. I just just wanna make sure that we we know it's correct, not just we're trusting what we're get what we will me. We're trusting what we were sold. So it's knowing versus trusting.

Then system doesn't I'll just say, the system doesn't allow you to make mistakes. It you have to enter this information correctly or it won't let you move forward. So, do you have anything to add on that? I would just add that.

Thank you.

Commander Megan Wolski.

Thank you.

Thank you, council mayor. I would just add that the our new CAD system is the a majority of the agencies within our county are on that, and it is because they have vetted out and done the checks and balances for Cybers, and they update it the same for this is not an out of the box solution. It is preprogrammed that way, and so we're consistent with the other agencies that are using the same CAD vendor. And it does have the checks and balances as chief mentioned. And anytime there's something pushed out from cyber, snipers, DOJ, they push that out immediately into the software.

Perfect. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you.

I can hear myself now. So thank you for your presentation. Well done. Overall, I'm very pleased with the direction the department's headed. The increase in use of technology with the new CAT RMS system, I know that was a lot of work in that transition.

I've been through that before, and that I mean, that's a huge undertaking to accomplish. The real time information center, which is another huge project that you guys undertook and completed within the year, and you're advancing a drone program, which I think are huge assets for our community. And all of this to enhance your ability to firmly affirmatively respond to and address crime and safety in our community. I appreciate the department's efforts at increasing proactive enforcement efforts, despite your continued staffing deficiencies, including traffic enforcement, the alternate response units effectiveness of reducing 51 fifties and fifty five eighty five holds, and the decrease in number of complaints that the department's had over twenty twenty five. So I'm kinda summarizing your your accomplishments, which I think are are key, indicators of good work being done by the police department.

I wanna thank the department for your efforts and, in making Pleasanton safer, would like to acknowledge our volunteers in police services who have provided eight thousand seventy one hours of service to our community. And for, those that don't know, that's the equivalent of three and a half full time employees, worth of work during the year, and that's a that's a lot of time. So thank you to those that get involved and and make our community what it is. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. I'll I'll wrap this up and try to be briefer. So I I personally feel like that this was started for transparency so that the council would be able to exercise its responsibility of oversight. But at the same time, I know a lot of the information has to go through a very protected process for the victims of crime and also the criminals to have process. So I appreciate the continued transparency the department is doing, but it also, I think, helps the council and the community understand the complexity of the job and what goes into it. So I truly appreciate that. Our public expects public safety. Our community expects public safety. It is a core expectation of our of our community.

And so I appreciate hearing the depth at which we are trying to achieve and meet that expectation every day. And I think we see it's it's a complex, difficult job. It really is. So to the entire department, the sworn, professional, volunteers, cadets, thank you very much for what you do. It doesn't go unnoticed, and hopefully, with cone with a cop, it will be celebrated and and reflected upon.

I really personally appreciate seeing force strength get better because I personally believe that helps everything. Response times, worker comp claims go down, proactive policing with a crime prevention officer, the motors, all of that starts to get restored, and and, we're able to, you know, police around schools better when we have force strength. So, that is a huge, element. And, again, officer wellness, safety, worker comp claims, all of that matters for for it. So the MOU we just did on the prior item ties straight into what we're doing here.

And then I do did notice, as council member Testa said, the guardian mindset, I remember it from back in 2020 as a conversation. I think Pleasanton's police is showing that they have embraced it and continue to try to embrace it. And I know that we have some individuals that have been touched by crime, but I think our community overall truly appreciates the efforts that you are going through to to try to keep it at bay as best as we can. And so, you know, we talk about the statistics and the metrics and all of the data, but it really is a feeling if people feel safe in our community. And a majority of our residents feel safe, and that is through those efforts.

So a true thank you to you for, the Herculean effort. So okay. With that yeah. Please.

Just just on a humorous note. Every time you say neighbors, it grabs my attention. So I wonder why.

Okay. Alright. With that, this completes item number 12. Thank you very much. We are completed with that. Appreciate all of you coming down and presenting that information. And we'll, go with matters initiated by council. Are there any matters initiated by my fellow council members at this time?

No. Not today.

Seeing none, we'll go to council reports.

I I do wanna I'm sorry. I apologize. We're ending early. You know, I I've been kind of exploring, wondering why we, as a council, gosh, six years ago, we're talking about doing a single use plastic ordinance, and we put it off because it was going to be we the county was working on something. And and I've wondered why our restaurants are still using so much single use plastic, this many years later.

And I guess there isn't really an or a county ordinance, and I would be interested in having a discussion about some communities did in fact do their own ordinance, and I can tell the difference when I'm in another community and order food and it's not all plastic. So is that something that, I guess, that would be, something to identify for a future priority? Or

Can can I can I offer to you guys on the stop waste board? I can talk to the director about that and feedback some information so we can kinda see what the county and the state are doing and maybe bring us more information to the council on that as that representative, and then we could bring it talk about bringing it forward if if

I would love that. I I did already ask, and I think I know the answers, and it's not good. But, yes, I would love that. Thank you.

I will I will do that.

Okay. Anything further on that? Seeing none, council reports. Since I've been going left, council member Nybert, you're leading us off.

Okay. Thank you. Did mention earlier that I had represented the city kind of by default. The Tula Nsingo visit by the by our sister city association. They treated us very well. As I said, the mayor of Tula Nsinga was called La Presidenta, and she's the first woman mayor. She truly does act like a president. She has her own cabinet. She has a council that she presides over consisting of four different political parties. So How many residents in that city? 180,000 residents in Tula Tsingo.

Twice the size.

Yeah. So it's it's it's something to see, and, yeah, they don't have a city manager. City manager is the president. Anyway, while we're there, we met with a we were invited to a session of the state legislature called the council of deputies, and we were introduced by the local member during that time. And we also visited four different service clubs while we were there. So highly recommended for anyone who wants to become involved with our sister city association here in Pleasanton.

And we're looking for host families here.

We are looking for host families too for the summertime exchange program. My family served as a host family one year, and it was it's three weeks in the summertime to host

a

student from high school in Mexico and very rewarding. On the April 30, I attended the league league of California City's East Bay division meeting. On the May 4, I attended the Wheels meeting of the board in place of council member Eicher. I also served as a judge over the weekend at the Acton Academy Kids Business Fair, which is a lot of fun. And just also to highlight an alert since I'm on the mosquito abatement board, there has been the first occurrence of West Nile virus in Alameda County this year.

It's found in Newark. So a reminder to everyone about clearing out any standing water and reporting any dead birds you might find. And that's all.

Thank you. Vice mayor?

Oh, thank you. Well, reportable actions, the stop waste board meeting on April 22, and then I believe the joint PUSD city council workshop on the twenty eighth.

Thank you very much. Council member Eicher.

On April 23, I attended the Alameda County Transportation Committee meeting. On April 25, I attended the city of Pleasanton Earth Day event at the Pleasanton Library. Monday, April 27, I attended the LAFTA projects and services committee meeting. On the twenty eighth, I attended an LPFD joint powers agreement meeting and received an a budget update, and I attended the joint PUSD Pleasanton City Council meeting at the district offices. On April 30, I attended a waste and recycling subcommittee meeting with council member Gatos.

And the same day, attended a League of California City's East Bay division meeting where they provided a presentation and discussion on ebikes. Thank you. Council member Testa.

Alright. Let's see. I attended a laugh to Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority Finance Committee. I joined most of us at the PUSD joint meeting. I very much enjoyed the redevelopment ribbon cutting at Ridgeview Common, spending some time with our seniors, and what a beautiful, facility that is, and it's even more beautiful now.

Another LAFTA, board of directors meeting, and I think that's it. Yep. That's it.

Okay. Thank you very much. On the twenty fifth, I attended the Earth Day celebration as well. I heard that I missed council member Eicher by, like, minutes. On the twenty seventh, I attended the Ed Kenny ceremony where Pam Yaw was awarded as one of the awardees.

She alone has dedicated over eight thousand hours of volunteer service to the police department over her years of service, And Brock and Anne Roby were also awarded at that night. On the twenty eighth, the LPFD JPA meeting as well for the budget update, although council member Eicher didn't mention that we're projecting to be nearly $1,000,000 under budget, and over time is significantly hemmed in, which is something I know our community has been interested in. The twenty eighth, the Pleasant Unified School District joint meeting, which was very productive and frankly, a great partnership there. The twenty ninth, the Ridgeview Commons, rededication ceremony as well as council member Testa. Very, beautiful to see that in our own community.

As they said, location, location, location, what a great place to be. The first, I attended the we the peep we are pleasant in ceremony and plaque dedication with Three Valleys Community Foundation. They put in the ADA ramp for the Foothill Stadium used by many. On the second, the Action Academy East Bay business fair with council member Nybert. I'm glad I was slightly late since he got the judging responsibility instead of me, which was thank you very much.

And then just yesterday, the Tri Valley counts mayors met. And tomorrow, all five mayors from the Tri Valley go to Sacramento for a legislative update if there's anything you'd like me to raise. And we do have the pension reform on top of mind for Pleasanton. And that concludes it. So with that, city manager.

Thank you, mayor. Just a few items tonight. We've got several upcoming initiatives and opportunities for community engagement in Pleasanton and in the Tri Valley. So, we'll kick it off with National Small Business Week, which is this week. Our economic development team is launching a social media campaign highlighting our Pleasanton businesses, and we're encouraging residents to follow along, and really support local during this week and throughout the year.

Bike ped master plan update is underway. We last looked at this plan in 2018. It's important for us to keep it updated every five years or so, so we're actively competing for grants and other opportunities for funding. So the update is gonna prioritize safety, accessibility, connectivity, linking our downtown school or downtown schools, parks, transit, and neighborhoods. So, just like everything we do, community input is really essential.

Residents can participate with the an upcoming community meeting May 21 from 6PM to 7PM at the library, and you can take an online survey, which it's got an it's got a bunch of acronym letters in it, but it's Pleasanton BPMP 2026. So Pleasanton Bike Pedestrian Master Plan BPMP 2026. The last item that I have, is the the Tri Valley affordable housing fair. It's May 7, and this is the cities of Dublin, Livermore, and Pleasanton. We host this together.

It will be at the WAVE Community Room in Dublin, and it's May 7 from 2PM to 7PM. So afternoon into the evening, it's a free event. It connects residents with affordable housing resources, including rental opportunities, first time homebuyer programs, tenant protections, and other support services. So just encouraging anyone who's seeking housing resources in our area to to get to the to get over to that event, or if you know someone who may be in need of that to share this opportunity. Again, May 7, 2PM to 7PM at the WAVE in Dublin.

And I said that was my last one, but I am gonna echo the mayor's comments about public service recognition week. Work with a lot of really amazing people here in the city of Pleasanton who deliver every day for residents, businesses, visitors, and really for the council. So I wanna just give my shout out as well to, all of the partners that I collaborate with every day. So thank you.

A very rewarding career. We appreciate you all for that. Okay. Council member Nybert, will you take us out, please?

Sure. Oops. Sorry.

I'm sorry.

I should mention my visit to to Lanzingo was entirely at my own expense. Okay. The Pleasanton City Council adjourns this meeting with a tribute to our nation's men and women serving in the military and with gratitude for every United States veteran who has bravely answered the call to serve. Further, we wish to honor the memories of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in conflicts both past and present in defense of our country.

Thank you very much. We are hereby adjourned.