City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We're going to call the City Council meeting to order today being June the 11th. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. May I have a moment, please? It's not static. Oh. Everyone take a seat.

That was just a run.

That was a warm-up for today. How did that go? Did that go okay?

Try it again.

Just try it again. There were no boos.

I think I need to get a smoother motion coming up, a little less choppy. Okay.

THE CITY MANAGER TAKES OFF AND THE CITY MANAGER TAKES OFF AND ALL HAVOC BREAKS LOOSE.

ALL HAVOC BREAKS LOOSE.

RECORDING IN PROGRESS.

RECORDING IN PROGRESS.

TAKE TWO, LADIES AND TAKE TWO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. GENTLEMEN. CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO ORDER.

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.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to close tonight's meeting in memory of a longtime Newark resident, Mr. Jack Dane. Many of you folks knew Jack. Jack was very active in the community. Lived in the city of Newark for many, many years. Was active in a number of different committees and programs throughout the city. I stopped by and had a chance to chat with one of his sons. Jack had seven children. Seems to be a nice round number. Many, many grandchildren. Jack lived to the ripe old age of 95. 95. The fun stories I love to tell about Jack, if you had a chance to know Jack, Jack ran for city council quite a number of times. And when I first ran back in 2014, I had the pleasure of going to a Toastmasters meeting at 7 a.m. in the morning. And it was really more for the purpose of just getting to know folks. I didn't really know much about Toastmasters other than, gosh, they start early in the morning. But Jack Dane was there and they put me on the spot. So you're running for council. Why are you running for council and what do you hope to do in terms of your leadership throughout the community? So I gave a two, three minute presentation. Then of course they critique you on how well you did. Well, you know, Mr. Hannon, you used the word about four times. That's four too many. So they critique you on how you do on your speech. And my intent after that meeting was to go over to the city clerk's office and file for running for city council. And Jack Dane, who I really didn't know that well, caught up to me and says, you know, Mike, I thought you did a nice job. I thought you did really good. And I'm glad you're gonna run for city council. In fact, you've now motivated me. I'm gonna run for city council. And I said, Jack, that wasn't my intent. My intent was not to see who else I could get to jump on board to run for city council. But Jack did run against me in 2014, as a number of folks did. But the other fun story I like to tell about Jack, I'm campaigning in his neighborhood. I asked Jack, Jack, would you mind if I put a sign up on your property? Jack goes, sure, no problem. Go ahead and put a political sign on my property. And Jack says, can I go ahead and put a sign on your property? I said, sure, Jack, you can put a sign on my property. So I put the standard political sign on Jack's property. Well, about three days later, I come to my house, and I see two 4x4s and another big board with a big sign that says Jack Dane. I said, that's not what I intended to see on my property. So I never told Jack, but I... I have slowly removed his sign from my property. But I know other colleagues may have known Jack. Is there anybody else that would like to say a few words about Jack that knew Jack? Otherwise, we will close the meeting tonight in his memory. And when you see Jack smiling there, that's exactly who the man was. a man that loved our community, a man that loved to participate in the community, and he was at the council meetings many, many times. He'd sit in the back row, and he would always be at the State of the City addresses and things of that nature. He was just an active member of our community, always seeking what was best for the city of Newark, and Jack's one of those residents that I didn't want the time to go by where we didn't recognize him, and so thank you for that, and Jack, you'll be missed, so thank you. The next item on our agenda is a presentation by Myra Tuttle. Let me come down to the podium and ask Ms. Tuttle to come forward, please. We are going to be issuing Let me just give you a little bit of background information. Ms. Tuttle was a senior in Mr. Crosby's class over at New Memorial High School. And Mr. Crosby invited me to come with one of the city representatives, and I think it was Ms. Gonzalez, to his government class, communications class, to talk. The students wanted to make presentations to us. Normally, we go there and make presentations about government, local government, the importance of local government, but this was an opportunity for me and the city to sit down and watch, I think it was probably 15 to 18 videos that the students had put together demonstrating where they think the city can improve or things that we ought to be thinking about as we look to beautify our community or best practices for our community. We're going to show Ms. Tuttle's video, but before I do that, I want to take a moment to recognize her and I could actually issue this commendation to all those students that day but hers was the first video that I saw and coincidentally it has to do with art and at that time we were in the process of formulating our first public arts committee so it couldn't have been the timing couldn't have been more perfect and we now have a public arts committee and So I thank you for your innovation, you're spot on. So the council's gonna be issuing you accommodation whereas Myra Tuttle is a senior, was a senior, she's now gonna be going to Ohlone College at Newark Memorial High School and is a student with Mr. Crosby's economics class. Mr. Crosby assigned the students a project where they were to come up with a creative redevelopment plan to benefit the city of Newark. whereas Myra Tuttle envisioned developing Newark into a visually appealing place to live through public art, whereas Myra Tuttle suggested an art walk through town that would display various pieces of art throughout the route, whereas Myra Tuttle produced a well-thought-out and professional-looking video describing her vision. Now, therefore, I, Michael Hannon, on behalf of my council, would like to thank Myra Tuttle for her creative suggestion that would beautify as well as enhance the quality of life of our community, so I wanna present this to you. Introducing your video. And then when you're ready to show it, I'm gonna have a seat here, you can have a seat with me.

Hi, I'm Mira, and as our mayor just very nicely put, my video presentation is about public art because I think public art is a great way to bring our community together and to give our community a sense of identity. And I think that's something that's really, really important and that I would like to see here in Newark. Thank you. or you're on your way to school, or you're outside just taking a walk. Either way, you've probably had at least one moment where you stop and think to yourself, I take this route every day, and there's really nothing to look at. I mean, gray roads, beige houses, there's some pretty trees, but that's really about it. It doesn't have to be that way, though. We can make the city a visually appealing place to live through public art. Okay, so public art is this huge term that can mean a lot of things. In its widest definition, it is any sort of art that is both publicly accessible and intended for the community. A lot of the time, art is combined to museums, exhibits, places that you might have to travel or pay to get into. Public art is the opposite of all of that. It's free, it's easy to get to, and it's very often made by the community that it resides in. Just as art can take many forms, so can public art, but I'm going to specifically be talking about art of the painting nature, like murals. My mom has been getting back into fitness recently, so she's been taking a lot of long walks around town to get herself out and about. More than once she's come back and noted how boring it gets walking through the same places, and how there's nothing really to look at. Newark is pretty basic suburbia as far as the eye can see, which is fine, but imagine how great it would be if residents took walks or drove around town and they're greeted with colorful, creative art. What I want to see in this town is art. I want to see murals on the sides of buildings. I want to see electrical boxes decorated. Heck, we could even have art on the sidewalks, kind of like when a child draws with chalk on the sidewalk, except done by a professional and doesn't melt away in the rain. I want Newark to be colorful and a nice place to look at.

I want a reason to go outside.

The organization Americans for the Arts writes that public art matters because our communities gain cultural, social, and economic value through public art. Populating our city with art makes it a better place to live for current and for prospective residents. I want to see all sorts of public art in Newark, but I also know that it's a huge undertaking and that we have to start somewhere, so I have more of a focused proposal. I would love to see some sort of art walk, a route that goes through town, maybe a park, by a school, or through a shopping district that has various art pieces on display as you walk through the route. This would be a great attraction for the residents of Newark as well as those visiting as it would provide a scenic walk that shows off beautiful art and it could promote people to go outside or to exercise or to visit shops. Having public art would also support local creatives by recruiting artists in the area to make it, fostering a sense of community within Newark and Alameda County artists. As a suggestion towards a good organization to offer an opportunity for painting a mural in Newark, I want to bring up Brushstrokes for the Bay. They actually came to Newark Memorial recently during an art show that I was part of, and I stopped by their booth and was really blown away by what they're doing. It's a group of local, young, environmentally-minded artists painting murals that promote eco-friendliness through their art. I'm not affiliated with them at all but I really really like what they're doing and I want to bring them up because I'd love to see some of their murals in Newark and it also makes it clear to me just how much public art is wrapped up in the community. I want our city to not only be populated with art, but art that reflects the community members that made it, who they are and what they value. And I think that's what art, especially publicly accessible art, can bring to Newark. It's a conversation between community members. To see more art around town would not only make Newark a more aesthetically pleasing place to live, but it enriches our culture and it inspires conversations about what we as a community care about. I don't want to see houses and buildings as I go down the road, I want to see public art that makes me proud to live here.

I'm hoping that when we have an opening on the Public Arts Committee that Ms. Tuttle will certainly seek an opportunity to participate because in fact, Ms. Havorka, I'd like to ask that this presentation be presented to the Public Arts Committee to show why our community believes art is so important and how we're thankful for these folks that have stepped up and volunteered to be part of the first Public Arts Committee that we have in the city. And one of their first assignments, Ms. Tuttle, that they're going to be focusing on, similar to what they've done in Fremont, Hayward, and other communities, is look at the utility boxes. So that'll be, and you mentioned it'll be one of the first things they'd look at. So you were spot on when you talked about the benefit of art in our community. Not just beautification, but then recognizing the value of the various cultures in our communities and why they're so important in making us who we are today. As we walk down those boring streets today, I'm envisioning in the next few years we're going to see some very colorful art, some beautiful murals, some things that really make you and other residents of our community proud of our community as well, and you're a big part of it. So thank you for that. Well, this is a night where we're, again, we the city of Newark like to recognize the outstanding efforts of the youth in our community. So I wanna call up all the members of the Youth Voter Movement Student Leaders 2026 and their sponsors. Folks, come on up. Nice to see you, congratulations. These are really some outstanding leaders in our community. We just went through an election and I was a little dismayed. When you see the Alameda County and the percentage of voters that actually take the time to vote, it's somewhat disappointing because there's no greater responsibility and right that we have than to participate in the voting process. Whether our candidate wins or our candidate loses, we can say, I voted. I took the opportunity to vote for an initiative or vote for a candidate that I think shared my vision for my community. And whether they won or they lost, I participated. And that's our responsibility. It's a responsibility. And what these students do under the leadership is they encourage other high school students even those that are not ready to even vote, because you want to kind of get them queued up. You know, you're 16 years old, you're gonna have the opportunity to vote in a couple years, let's start talking about the importance of it now. And I don't know if I have on here the statistics in terms of the number of students that registered, et cetera, et cetera, but let me go ahead and read the commendation that we're gonna give to these student leaders. Whereas the League of Women Voters, and big thanks to the League of Women Voters, Every year, every year, out there, nonpartisan, right? They interview candidates, they talk to candidates about what are the important issues in your community. They don't take sides. But their view is I want to be able to educate your public in terms of who you are, what you stand for, so that when they get into the ballot box or when they get their ballot in the mail, they can make an informed decision. And that's the purpose. So the League of Women Voters has registered, educated, and engaged young people through its youth voter registration projects since 2010. Whereas the League volunteers have continuously found that utilizing youth leadership gets students more engaged and excited about voting in elections. This includes engaging in peer-to-peer voter registration and education. Whereas the students register, they are challenged to recruit other youth to register and or to organize new registration drives and are encouraged to vote in every election. Whereas on February 27, 2026, the Newark Memorial High School Youth Voter Movement student leaders led and completed voter education presentations at Newark Memorial High School, resulting in the registration and preregistration of 272 new California voters. 272. Now, therefore, I, Michael Hand, on behalf of the Newark City Council, want to commend the Newark Memorial High School Youth Movement student leaders for their outstanding efforts at civic engagement of Newark youth. So I want to present each one of you with a certificate. Again, thank you for the work that you do. It's greatly appreciated. I'll ask my colleagues to come on down and join me. We'll take a group photo, if you would, please. And I know my council members have attended this in the past. I know Council Member Contaccio joined me this last time. But I know others have as well. And I'm going to let one of you folks speak. And followed by the lead. Who would like to speak?

Go ahead, Ro. This is precious. They were not that quiet that day. They were not quiet. This group of outstanding students took on the challenge to work with students throughout the Tri-Cities area, create a presentation, learn about the history of voting rights in this country, the importance of voting and the fact that every vote matters, as people in Newark well know, and then put on the presentation. It was a day-long effort with all the junior and senior social studies classes at Newark. And this year, the total was 276 students were registered. Over the years that this program has been in existence with our league here in the Tri-Cities area, We've registered over 700 students in Newark and in the Tri-Cities area generally over 15,000 new voters. So these are the people who are going to be making the decisions for our future. Thank you all.

Again, big thanks to the League of Women Voters for all that you do as well. You're greatly appreciated.

Well, I'm going to say one quick thing.

Certainly.

Michael Murphy, the principal at Newark Memorial High School, is absolutely fabulous, as is Sarah Kanellis, who is the Student Activities Director. They would be here tonight, except summer school's in session, and summer school doesn't end until 7.30, so they couldn't be here tonight.

Well, when they show up late, I'll make sure they get a certain. No, I'm kidding. Let's get a photo.

Colleagues, let's get a photo in the front. Anyone else want to hand me phones? Because you have like four hands. Yeah, I do. All right.

We're going to take a couple here. One, two, three. This way.

to a non-iPhone. Okay, one, two, three.

I figured it out.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Thank you.

Let's hear it one more time for our student leaders. So I didn't want to put any of the student leaders on the spot, but so which one of you student leaders envision yourself sitting in any one of these chairs in the near future? Which one of you envision yourself sitting on the city council? Come on. All those hands should go up. Come on. Come on. I mean. I'm ready right now. This is what leadership's all about. It starts at a young age. We need to be teaching our kids the importance of education, the importance of voting, because those are life lessons. Now, another part of the agenda that I always enjoy, I want to invite Amelia Timbers to join me. Amelia? Funny story, I don't even know Amelia, but I already have a story. So I said to the assistant city manager, so I see what the items are on the agenda. Amelia Timbers, I mean, Amelia, who's that? You'll be introducing her tomorrow as a new employee. And then, oh, by the way, she's gonna be able to make a presentation tomorrow night as well. So congratulations, we're proud to have you. Amelia Timbers is the City of Newark's new environmental service manager I'm happy to give up the podium. No, I'm just kidding. She's a new environmental services manager in the Public Works Department, overseeing items such as the stormwater program, waste management, including the garbage franchise agreement, continuing to work on the climate action plan, sea level rise adoption plan. Amelia brings 13 years of experience supporting and managing environmental projects, programs, and initiatives. Amelia has a background in energy policy, greenhouse gas reductions, transportation, climate adaptation and resilience, and air quality. She has helped advance sustainability efforts in both the private and public sectors. Before joining Newark, she worked on environmental and sustainability initiatives at the cities of Pinole, El Cerrito, and the San Mateo County Transit District. Amelia holds a Juris Doctor, another lawyer in the family. Another lawyer in the family. and a Master's of Business Administration from Northeastern University, as well as a Master's of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. See, we just don't hire people here in the Newark. We go for the top, top of the class, and Amelia certainly has those credentials. We're so proud to have her here. In a free time, which I can't imagine there is any free time dealing with all these environmental issues, Amelia enjoys the outdoors with her dogs and spending times with her nieces. What kind of dogs do you have, Amelia? I have a golden retriever and a golden lamp. And they get two walks a day each. So welcome aboard. Nice to have you. Let's hear it for Amelia. Ladies and gentlemen, the next item on the agenda is the public comments section. This is an opportunity for you as members of the public to comment on any issue or item that's not on the agenda this evening. Is there anyone that would like to discuss something with the council that's not on the agenda tonight? Ben, please come forward. Former Mayor Lily May, please come forward. Please welcome the former Mayor of Fremont, Lily May.

And Planning Commissioner Ben Lee. So good evening. Thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity. We were listening to some of the discussions. And I think it's important for anyone to make a difference and care about their community and to get engaged. And so we were asked by Mayor Hannon and Mayor Nagy, since we are one of the happiest cities and we want to spread that joy. And especially for Asian heritage, we have such a diverse community. to be able to share some of that at the New Park Mall. So we wanted to share a little video of a vignette that captures a little bit of our recent Asian Heritage event. This is our fifth annual festival. We started it in Fremont, and we expanded, and we have more love and more joy to share. So this year, we had about 100 vendor booths, 21 performing acts, and then we had our first drone show. And so why don't we let the video speak for itself? Yes. SPEAKER 1, SPEAKER 2, SPEAKER 3, SPEAKER 4, SPEAKER 5, SPEAKER 6, SPEAKER 6, SPEAKER 7, SPEAKER 8, SPEAKER 9, SPEAKER 10, SPEAKER 11, SPEAKER 12, SPEAKER 13, SPEAKER 13, SPEAKER 14, SPEAKER 14, SPEAKER 15, SPEAKER 16, SPEAKER 16, SPEAKER 17, SPEAKER 18, SPEAKER 19, SPEAKER 21, SPEAKER 22, SPEAKER 22, SPEAKER 23, SPEAKER 24, SPEAKER 24, SPEAKER 24, SPEAKER 25, SPEAKER 26, SPEAKER 26, SPEAKER 27, SPEAKER 28, SPEAKER 28, SPEAKER 29, SPEAKER 29, SPEAKER

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New Park Mall.

We hope that this is something that we could perhaps do on an annual basis and we can also help with the New Park Mall and other venues. We feel that having seen COVID and that time period where we didn't get to get together as much, bringing the arts, bringing the community together, whether it's sports, physical health, mental health, and physical health, hopefully, are all ones that work together in concert. And so we're really hoping, we also had some, everything from our classic bus, from the Pacific Bus Museum over here, to our PEPL Mobility, which we have a lot of amazing, innovative technologies that I love that we can showcase here, as well as they had a Stanford blood drive, because we don't want you to take your blood. We aren't just saying that as taxpayers. But we want you to give back to the community. So we hope that this is just something we can begin with you as partnership and continue to thrive in the community. So thank you for allowing us just to share a little bit. And we hope to be back.

Ben, you want to say something? A couple other things. we've been doing this over at Fremont Hub. And what we've seen is that new businesses are coming in. So we have eight new businesses coming in there. The nice thing I wanna share with you too is that now that we've done this here at the New Park Mall, there are actually two businesses that are looking to go into the New Park Mall because of what we have just done. So we realized bringing in content to the mall will bring them all back. And so that's what we've seen in Fremont and we're hoping to do that for you here as well.

And before I go, I'm gonna give a shameless pitch, which is I see all the students out there, is that I know that you were talking about youth voter movement, but you don't have to be elected and you don't have to just vote, but you can have the care. And so we're always looking for students to volunteer. Every project that you see, whether it's the art, or sports or seniors as i know mayor hannah and i've joked about us both being seniors and working to rule the senior commission but in those efforts we need all of you to help out and i also see the fire department police we have explorers and other programs a lot of what the community thrives on is the opportunities to bring people together so we hope that you'll spend the time and invest in your community thank you for the time to share tonight

Again, we're still under public comment. Is there anybody else that would like to speak under the public comment section? Yes, please come forward. Please give us your name, please, for the record.

My name is Dev Ravindranath and thank you mayor and council members for having me here. I'm a local Newark resident. I moved here about two years ago and I've loved the city and I've loved enjoying being part of the community as much as I can. I'm here to make a plea to the mayor and the city council to consider a cricket field. We have so many kids and so many youth wanting to play the sport and unfortunately we do not have a field in the city of Newark. I also understand that real estate and parks in the city are few and far, and therefore the request here is we want to coexist with other sports. We're not asking for a dedicated cricket field. I can keep repeating that, but we're asking for a sport, a field where soccer, cricket, volleyball, everybody can play and enjoy the sport. I also want to call out a few things because we're in the FIFA World Cup, and I'm sure everyone here is rooting for the different teams in the FIFA World Cup. We had an international cricket event just last year in the United States. We had a lot of international players, a lot of countries representing their different players play here in the city. And we have right now an MLC League, which is the Major League Cricket, actually happening just down the road in Oakland Coliseum starting in June. So there's a lot of cricket. There's a lot of growth. We have international players from the Bay Area playing for the USA right now. And you can see all these kids here are our future potential to grow the sport. And therefore, it's a humble request from my end and every kid here to support them and have a weekend for them to enjoy the sport as well.

Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, excellencies. Just wanted to request that, you know, we have a huge crowd in the Bay Area. They are willing to play cricket and we have like very less grounds. We have to go to like other cities to play, especially these kids. It would be great to see a cricket ground out here in Newark, which will be helpful for the community. And thank you everybody for your time. You're welcome. Yeah, thank you guys. You're welcome.

Other folks wishing to speak under public comment? No, other folks? Anybody else? Yes, sir, come on up. Mr. Mayor. What is VKCA?

It's VK Cricket Academy. Okay, excellent. We are located in the Bay Area right here in Fremont. One of the, I want to echo, and I am Shravan. I want to echo my friend here, Dave, who just suggested that the request for the cricket grounds in the Bay Area He suggested there was an international event, but there's been more than an international event. Oakland Coliseum has hosted what is called Major League Cricket, and cricket is becoming bigger and bigger, but the facilities or the infrastructure is not as many or as great as it should have been or would have been. Being a coach, being the administrator of the academy, one of the troublesome points that we have always had or had to face was having the infrastructure to conduct games continuously for the kids who love to enjoy playing, right? We are here representing all the kids and the community of Newark as we are landing next week to start playing some of the games in the local grounds, showcase what we've got, how we coach, how we train, what is the game of cricket itself, how fun it is and all that fun stuff. So we're here requesting for the fields and see what Newark City thinks about it. Thanks for the opportunity.

You're welcome. Thank you for coming tonight. Anybody else that would like to speak under public comment? Yes, please come forward.

Good evening. Thanks for your time. I grew up in this country. I came here when I was nine. fell in, I came, fell in love with baseball. And the reason why I fell in love with baseball was because of cricket. But there was no infrastructure here. I see these kids, I see myself in these kids when I was nine years old, came here looking forward to playing cricket, but there's no infrastructure. Many of the people in this room weren't even born. So I request the city to do, I mean, we have a large South Asian community. So I request the city to look into cricket, And it'll be a good revenue opportunity also for the city also with rentals and stuff like that. But give us a chance. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Come on up. Somebody has babysitting duty tonight.

No, no, no, no. She just needs to start playing cricket. And she asked me to take cricket. I cannot spend $40 for indoor nets when baseball is being played for in the regular community grounds. So that's my request. I've been staying over here in New York for almost 21 years now. And my son, he started playing cricket when he was sick. six just living my dream through him he wants to play same thing um just have to go to san jose to get him just to bowl some balls because you cannot just find any ground and play cricket you need to have a proper pitch to play cricket and it's just not available in newark area you just have to go outside of our vicinities to play and it's almost 20 25 30 minutes drive to go so just ECHOING THEIR REQUESTS, ECHOING KIDS' REQUESTS JUST TO HAVE SOME GROUND AVAILABLE HERE. THANK YOU.

I THOUGHT MAYBE YOU COULD HELP ME HERE. I THOUGHT WE HAD A CRICKET TOURNAMENT OVER AT OUR SPORTS FIELD PARK WHERE THE SOCCER IS. CAN THEY USE THE SOCCER FIELD FOR CRICKET OR IS IT SIMPLY NOT THE RIGHT DIMENSIONS?

So at different age levels, they can do it, right? You need minimum of minimum circular, I'll say 80, about 95, 90 yards minimum, a diameter from the center of the wicket. That's the kids playing. As you grow, you need up to 180. You can go, it goes. So it depends on what we have available. And I'm not sure which local tournament was it, but if we can help us.

I can comment. Yeah, please. So the cricket that was held was through USA Hub. So that's basically regional tournaments that USA Cricket organizes. And they have different hubs across the Bay Area for it. Fields for kids under 11, they can be really small. And they can play there because the intention is not to go. They're not going to hit that hard. But as you see in baseball, too, as the kids become older and 16, there's every chance that ball will go and hit somebody. And therefore, there's a chance of either a person getting hurt But what we're requesting, what we've identified in Newark is McGregor Field, the park that we've seen not being used full time. We said that's a great park for us to start. But the only request is cricket needs a kind of a pitch very similar to baseball. So what we do with other districts is we put a very similar carpet mat on the grass field so that it's a rectangular mat. It's not going to trouble anybody. Soccer can play over it. Volleyball can happen on the sides. So this mat then becomes the pitch. And the diameter, the players have to play around that on the circle of the things. So cricket is a circular game. I unfortunately didn't come prepared with our presentation. But I can do that next time and show those things. We've also been working with the Parks Commission's team. I think her name was Roya. And Mickey, in terms of helping figure this out, but we've not made any progress in the last three months. So that's why I'm here and trying to say that we can coexist and we can try and make this happen in the city of New York.

I appreciate that and we don't typically comment on public comment but I do want to express on behalf of the council we know that this is a community priority and I know you mentioned Ms. Gonzalez and I imagine we probably have some updates to our parks master plan coming to the council in the near future do we have any dates on that at this point?

We do not have a specific date that was last updated in 2024 with eight groups of priority projects. We are with the current capital improvement plan that we hope to adopt at our next council meeting that will include the priority, the rest of the priority one and the priority two projects.

So we know it's a priority, and my suggestion to the community is when the Parks Master Plan comes back to the council for updates, because we listen to the community. When we hear the community stand in front of us and say, this is a priority for us, it becomes a priority for us as well. So look at that next opportunity when we discuss priorities in our parks, that that might be an opportunity for us to move sooner than later.

Okay? I have already done that, Mr. Mayor. So I did speak to Roya again, and she did share the park's the priority plan, this falls in priority three. So it's very far out. We're looking at 2029. These kids would have been already grown up by then. And you know, school takes always priority, right? Like as you grow older, you're more focused on your academics and sports kind of slows down. That's what happened to me. So I'm like, how do we make this move faster? That's the goal we're trying to achieve here. So yeah, I know this is not a public comments forum and we can connect again.

No, I appreciate your comments. They're important to us. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Anybody else under public comment? Any other, yes sir, please come forward. Good evening. Come on.

So dear Mayor, I am Vihon Pancholi representing BK Cricket Academy. I am 13 years old and as our coach mentioned that the need of the field, we are looking here for a good quality infrastructure which is suitable for cricket to have more fun and learning the game that we wanna play a lot. So I tried multiple sports and cricket is a lot of fun with teammates where we have a lot of wonderful moments and we would like to play closely in Fremont and Newark. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you for coming tonight. Nice job. Anybody else in the public comment? And again, public comment is every council meeting. So feel free if there's any issue of concern or issues that you want to raise or ideas that you have, this is the opportunity to do that. And we welcome those comments. Please come forward.

Can I just make one comment?

Absolutely. Put his timer back on again. Yeah, sorry, guys.

I would like to remind everybody here, maybe a lot of people don't know, the first cricket match, unofficial cricket match, was played between Canada and USA, and this was back in 1877. So I think from that time, we have pretty much lost track of cricket in USA, and then I love this country, and I would like to see all sports taking place in this country, guys. We agree. Thank you for your time.

But no, no, no, no, no, don't leave us hanging. Who won that game between Canada and the United States? Yes. Who won that game between Canada and the United States?

It was a draw. So it was an unofficial match. So what happened was it was played between New York City and Vancouver. So this was first unofficial match. And there's a format in cricket which is called test match, which is, I find it boring, but that's the real cricket because it goes on for like five days. And most of the games in that format comes out as a draw. So it's the shorter version which is result-oriented. But besides those two formats, the longest format basically most of the time doesn't have any result. So the first game was dropped.

All right, thank you. Thank you very much. Anybody else under public comment? Yes, please come forward. Maybe you need to lower that mic a little bit for yourself. There you go. You know what you're doing.

Hello. My name is Adi. I am 10 years old. I'm representing VK Cricket Academy. Just one comment I would like to make. If we can add a little more cricket fields to Newark, because I know parents out there, they don't like to drive as much. Yeah, so that worked, right? The boss is complaining, why aren't you working? So, yeah, we would like to have more cricket fields. Yeah.

I hear you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else under public comment? Yes, please.

Hey, everybody. Thanks for giving your time and attention. I know when we pitch an idea, we call it as a pitch. If you don't know where cricket is called, played, it's also called a pitch. So I'm pitching for a pitch here. I appreciate everybody's time. A lot of folks here, parents, kids, have have put in a lot of hours in Fremont, loving this game, playing this game. If we can have the adjacent city have more fields, that will be really helpful for us. Like my kid has said that he doesn't like his dad driving a lot, so that will help me as well. But it's not just about the game. A lot of things, like we saw about the Asian Heritage Festival, it's about bringing other cities, other parents to our area and helping grow our businesses as well. And what I feel not just about the economics here, but having other parents come into our city and exploring our businesses while they are here in Newark is something that I really feel is an opportunity for us to grab. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you so much.

I agree. Thank you very much. Other comments? Other comments? You looked behind you to make sure they were still there.

Hi. Hello, everyone. So this is Amar. And I represent a club as well as I'm representing in a league as well. And my son, playing from last three years, he's ready to play now. And yes, we have been traveling to different cities when we go for long distance just for playing the cricket from here to Tracy, sometimes Latrop, even sometimes San Jose or even the Morgan Hill so having being living in this particular section of the Bay Area and having this particular infrastructure if we have it can build it will be like much more helpful for all of this young kids who are potentially going to be cricketers going forward as our friend just expressed that USA also has its own international cricket team and the one of the event which was hosted is World Cup 2024 it was hosted in USA so So it will be really good if we have this particular infrastructure built over here in the city of Newark, helping all of the kids, academies, and clubs, and mainly building this particular cricket community to grow. And also, the objective of the cricket is not to just play cricket, but also giving back to the community to see how exactly we can help the community to grow forward, how we can bring the interest on the cricket. And if we have to correlate like a baseball, people actually, when they see the the cricket game going on, they always try to correlate with the baseball, like a striker and a pitcher, right? So they ask a lot of questions. So there's a lot of interest in the event public. So we would like to make that particular interest grow more and have more and more potential to grow here in the cricket. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for coming.

Any other folks who would like to speak under public comment? Well, I want to, again, thank everybody here that represents the cricket community. We understand and we hear that it's a priority for the community. And hearing that, this council is not deaf. We hear what your priorities are. We're certainly going to look at the opportunities in the near future because there's such an economic benefit to cricket. There's the social activity. There's the athletic activity. So there's significant benefits to the community. So we'll certainly... we'll certainly have further conversations about this. So thank you for coming tonight. Anybody else in the public comment? If not, I'm gonna go to the consent calendar The consent calendar, these are typically considered routine items. You as an audience can ask that any one of these items be pulled and you can comment. The first item is the approval of the audited demands. The second item is the approval of the May 28, 2026 City Council Minutes. Third is adopt a resolution approving the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, Senate Bill 1. fiscal year 2027 project list. Four, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a reimbursement agreement in the amount not to exceed 480,000 and other related documents necessary with Union Pacific Railroad Company to effectuate the Quiet Zones implementation project. And five, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a side letter to the franchise agreement with Republic Services regarding credit to commercial and multifamily account holders to resolve the 2025 service disruption. Is there anybody in the audience who would like any one of those items polled for discussion? City Manager, any item you want polled for discussion?

Not this evening, Your Honor.

Colleagues, any item polled for discussion?

No.

Yes, Council Member Grindahl.

It may not be having polled for discussion. I just would like to comment that the I'm very happy to see the Quiet Zones project moving forward, so I don't think you need to pull up for that. But if I have an opportunity to make that comment, I'd appreciate it.

Great, and I'm okay with that. I'm going to make a comment following my council member's lead. I'm going to comment on number five, simply to say thank you to Republic. Thank you for the city staff. Ladies and gentlemen, you're going to see a credit on your garbage bill for the two-week service that we did not receive in the city of Newark. A lot of work went in by the city to negotiate that settlement agreement, so I'm pleased to see that that's gonna be adopted by this council. I need a motion and a second on the consent calendar.

So moved.

By Council Member Contaccio. I'll second. By Council Member Grindahl, please vote. and the consent calendar passes with five ayes. Ladies and gentlemen, the next item is a public hearing. It's a hearing to consider property owner's objections to the 2026 weed abatement program and instructions to the superintendent of streets to abate public nuisances. Ms. Svorka.

Thank you, Your Honor. Good evening. Good evening, Council. At the April 23rd, 2026 City Council meeting, the Council initiated the annual weed abatement program for the year of 2026 and set today's date as the public hearing in which any objections from property owners could be heard. Tonight's presentation will come from Maintenance Supervisor Dan Cianciarulo.

Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening, Your Honor, members of the City Council. Item E1 is a public hearing to consider any objections from property owners regarding the 2026 weed abatement program. On April 23rd, 2026, the City Council initiated this year's weed abatement proceedings and scheduled the public hearing for this evening. Notices were mailed out to 118 affected property owners, providing them with a two-week period to notify the city if they intend to perform the weed abatement themselves or object to the city's proposed abatement. Property owners who chose not to participate in the 2026 weed abatement program must ensure their properties are brought into compliance prior to the city's contract work beginning on June 17th. If the city is required to perform abatement on a property, the property owner will be responsible for reimbursing the city for all direct abatement costs plus a 20% administrative fee. Staff recommend that the council open the public hearing and consider any comments or objections received. Following the closure of the public hearing, staff recommend that council authorize the abatement of the identified public nuisances. That concludes our staff report and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you, any questions for Mr. Dan? Great, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna go ahead and open up the public hearing. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to protest or object to their property being placed in the Weed Abatement Program or anybody else who would like to comment on this item? Seeing none, I'm gonna close the public hearing and any discussion on the council, otherwise I'll look for a motion. Council Member Grindell.

I just want to thank staff for being on top of this. This is not only for beautification of our community, but also these intense weeded areas are a safety hazard. So really appreciate staff doing this work and beautifying our city and keeping it safer, thank you. Other comments?

Council Member Contagio?

Yes, Your Honor, thank you.

I think that when we are thinking about weeds, not only are we thinking about the beautification of our city, but we're also thinking about the pride that we have, that we all are from Newark. And when we drive through the areas, we want to make sure that all of the owners have the same pride and happiness, especially for our next generation who's driving through on their bicycles and everything. So sometimes the weeds and other things, vegetation gets too deep into even the sidewalks. AND SO NOW TO HAVE ACCOUNTABILITY, SO NOW TO HAVE ACCOUNTABILITY, I THINK THAT'S GOING TO BE REALLY I THINK THAT'S GOING TO BE REALLY AWESOME FOR OUR CITY.

AWESOME FOR OUR CITY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. ANY OTHER COMMENTS? ANY OTHER COMMENTS? I JUST HAVE MORE OF A I JUST HAVE MORE OF A QUESTION. QUESTION. DOES THE WEEDS ALSO INCLUDE THE DOES THE WEEDS ALSO INCLUDE THE FOXTAILS, WOULD THAT BE FOXTAILS, WOULD THAT BE CONSIDERED A WEED?

CONSIDERED A WEED? OKAY, GOOD. OKAY, GOOD. I HATE FOXTAILS. I HATE FOXTAILS. I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THEY I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THEY GET IN YOUR DOG'S EAR AND THEN and that passes unanimously, thank you. Next item, ladies and gentlemen, is a public hearing pursuant to government code section 3502.3 requirements for reporting on City of Newark vacancy rates and recruitment and retention efforts. Assistant City Manager Havorka.

Good evening again, Mayor and Council. This is a state mandate that was signed into law September 22nd of 2024. Tonight's presentation is from our Human Resources Director, Brittany Frye. She'll be reviewing the, making sure to cover our legal obligations under this state mandate and discuss our vacancies among our city employees. Ms. Frye. Welcome.

Thank you. You got a sneak preview of what I was going to say. I will start off before we get that back on the screen. But I will just say good evening, honorable mayor and council members. As Assistant City Manager Havorka mentioned, I am Brittany Frey. I'm the Human Resources Director. And tonight, I will be presenting the city's annual AB2561 update. This is our public report on vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts. In other words, tonight we will be discussing how many seats we have, how many are filled, and what are we doing to make sure we get the right people in the seats, as you witnessed earlier. Press this. Okay. AB2561 went into effect on January 1st, 2025, and its purpose is really transparency. So it requires public agencies to discuss staffing vacancies in a public setting before the final budget is adopted each year. The law asks us to cover three main points. One is where we have vacancies, what are we doing to recruit and retain in those vacancies, and whether any policies or procedures make it harder to fill or prevent us from filling those vacancies. In addition to providing citywide data, AB2561 requires that we review staffing information by bargaining unit. So for the city of Newark, that includes three represented bargaining groups, including Newark Association of Miscellaneous Employees, Newark Police Association, and Newark Police Management Association, as well as two unrepresented bargaining groups or employee groups, which is the management, supervisory, and professional employees, and confidential employees. If any one of those groups has a vacancy rate over 20%, the City must provide additional recruitment data if requested by the unit. I'm pleased to report that none of our employee groups have a vacancy rate that is above that 20% threshold. So this is a look at the citywide data from July 1st of 2025 through May 26th of this year. Over that time period, the city hired 21 new employees, promoted four internally, and had 18 separations. Out of 188 budgeted full-time positions, we had 19 vacancies as of May 26, which results in a citywide vacancy rate of 10.11%. This is down from about 12.5% last year. It's important to note that this data includes regular full-time employees and does not include temporary staffing such as lifeguards, some recreation leaders, and seasonal or temporary roles. This data shows vacancy rates by employee group over the last three years. If you focus on the red area, it's more information contained specifically for this year. This is listed by lowest to highest vacancy rate. For our confidential employees, we maintain fully staffed in that group for a 0% vacancy rate. That group includes HR and payroll technicians, administrative assistants, and executive assistants. NAME, or Newark Association of Miscellaneous Employees, has the lowest vacancy rate of any of our represented groups, which is 8%, and that means that four positions in that group are vacant currently. This group includes recreation coordinators, maintenance workers, parks and landscape, administrative support, childcare, mechanics, and inspectors. NPA is our next group on the list, and it includes police officers, sergeants, dispatch, classifications, record staff, and other police support staff. This group has a 9.5% vacancy rate, which is almost 5% lower than this time last year. Management, supervisory, and professional employees are next with a 13.21% vacancy rate, and this group includes engineers, directors, supervisors, management analysts, planners, and other professional staff. And lastly, NPMA has a 14.29% vacancy rate, which is cut in half from last year, but you can also see that that means that this group has one vacancy. This group includes lieutenants, captains, police support services supervisor, and the community engagement manager. As you can see overall, we're still seeing vacancies, but the trend in several areas and citywide is moving in a positive direction. A little bit more data about the recruitment. Over the past year, the city has filled 25 vacancies, opened 37 recruitments, and received 1,148 applications through that period. Of those 1,148 applications, 416 applications were specific to the police department and their vacancies, and 179 were specifically for the police officer role. which makes up about 15.5% for that role itself. We also currently maintain 20 active eligible lists, which is essentially a pool of qualified candidates who have already gone through a recruitment process, and that makes it easier for us to fill vacancies without having to open a full recruitment every time. And then you will see, well, you won't see, but the highest percentage of applicants we received was for police officer. That does continue to remain our highest vacancy per classification, which is not abnormal for cities in our area. However, we are moving in a positive direction. We have currently five viable vacancies in the police officer classification out of 44 possible positions. That is an 11% vacancy rate, which this time last year we were at an 18% vacancy rate in that classification alone. To address that specific classification, the city has implemented several recruitment and retention strategies, including referral bonuses, lateral police officer hiring incentives, moving expense reimbursements, dedicated police recruitment support, regular interview opportunities, and expanded outreach. Then for our citywide vacancies, including this classification, some of the improvements that we've made across all classifications, we're focusing on improving communication throughout the recruitment process with candidates, reducing delays, troubleshooting application issues, and tailoring advertising based on the position. I think in a competitive labor market, speed and communication matter and are essential. So that is why we have a focus on that. And if a qualified candidate gets stuck in the process, we want to know why and how we can help. In closing, the city's current vacancy rate is 10.11%, which is within the typical range for Northern California cities, which is, I believe, 10% to 16% on average. So we're at the lower end of that range. And this represents an improvement from last year. We're going to continue evaluating our recruitment and retention strategies, monitoring vacancies by employee group, and looking for ways to support employees once they're here. So our overall goal is not just to fill positions, but to retain talented employees who are committed to serving the Newark community. Thank you for your time. And I will stop talking about vacancy percentages unless, of course, you have questions about vacancy percentages.

Open the public hearing. The public hearing is open for folks to comment on this item. This is in reference to government code section 3502.3. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak to this item, comment on this item? I will close the public hearing. Turn to my colleagues for comments, questions. Council Member Cantancio.

Thank you, Your Honor. Thank you for your presentation. I did have a question about retention. Is it ever the case that we do recruit someone, like an officer or any other physician, and then we lose them after we start training them? Or how is our retention?

That's a great question. I could come back with specific retention rates. It's not something that we've looked at for this presentation. And I would say, yes, it is the case that sometimes, once you begin training somebody, you do lose them. And typically, when that happens is if it's right in the beginning, where they were already involved in a number of different negotiations and offers, and it's usually just before they start. There are times, though, when we do have a probationary period. And for whatever reason, either the city or the employee decides in that probationary period to terminate employment. So that's typically when you see that. I would say we don't have an abnormal rate

Okay, I did have one additional question. I believe that you're mentioning if we have a qualified applicant, then they're put on an additional list that could help the process be quicker in the future. Are the applicants notified too that they're on this particular list so that they don't keep applying or how does that work?

Yes, they are notified that they're placed on an eligibility list. Those lists last for a minimum of six months and can be extended up to two years. The candidates are notified of that initially and when there are extensions. Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

Questions on this side? Council Member Little.

No, I just really appreciate the information. Thank you very much.

Can you go back to slide four, I believe it was. Actually, slide five. What an outstanding effort, Ms. Svorka. What an outstanding effort. Our vacancy rate for our police officers was at 15.07, down to 13.89, down to 9.59. Here we're the city of Newark, a smaller but dynamic and outstanding police department competing against every other city in the Bay Area. who are throwing huge dollar amounts for new recruits and new hires and laterals, et cetera. But I think what this doesn't indicate is how Newark is such a pleasurable place for folks to work. I'm really pleased with that 9.59%. I wanna commend Chief Arguello, Captain Macias, outstanding job. It's the reputation of the Newark Police Department that folks in the public safety arena hear about and they wanna be here. We've hired a number of folks that have made lateral movements over here to the city of Newark. And it's because of the culture and the climate that our police department has created in this community, coupled with the fact that we emphasize public safety here. And Ms. Frey, you're to be truly commended as well. It's a process to get these folks through the process. any opportunity we can do to expedite the process so we can bring people that are really qualified who are undoubtedly looking at other opportunities in other cities. People don't apply for one job in one city and I'll wait and see what happens. They're applying to three, four, five different cities and it's kind of the first one that gives me a call because I'm looking to make a move or I'm looking for employment. They're going to hop onto it. The work that you're doing and your staff are doing to expedite the hiring process undoubtedly has led to folks wanting to come to work for the city of Newark. So commendable job. We appreciate the work that you're doing. Any other comments on this item? This is a public hearing. We've closed the public hearing. I'll take a motion and a second.

I'll motion it.

This is informational only, Your Honor.

That's what I thought too.

and that's what you were going to advise me.

I was going to advise you to let's look at it again. No, I really do appreciate the work. Thank you very much.

Yeah, I appreciate you all. I think I just want to give a shout out again to PD as well. I think one of the ways that the communication is really important with these candidates is as soon as somebody applies, we're not waiting until they go through the process. So PD is reaching out to them and saying, hey, we saw your application. Let me tell you more about Newark. So I think that's PART OF THAT COMMUNICATION PART OF THAT COMMUNICATION PROCESS THAT I THINK HAS PROCESS THAT I THINK HAS WORKED SO WELL.

WORKED SO WELL. CAN I ADD SOMETHING TO THAT? CAN I ADD SOMETHING TO THAT? SURE. SURE. ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS AND STRUGGLES RIGHT NOW WITH HR AND STRUGGLES RIGHT NOW WITH HR AND HUMAN RESOURCES. HUMAN RESOURCES. JUST KNOWING THAT YOU GUYS ARE JUST KNOWING THAT YOU GUYS ARE CALLING, LETTING PEOPLE KNOW I CALLING, LETTING PEOPLE KNOW I GOT YOUR APPLICATION. that one single phone call really means a lot. So I really appreciate you guys putting humans back into human resources, because I know a lot of people that are looking for jobs that get very, very frustrated and it just feels like hours and hours that you just keep hitting walls and it's really difficult. So thank you for putting that personal touch in there, more than you know, thank you. Thank you.

We have a number of young men on this side of the audience, Captain, that we might want to chat with who might look like they might be wanting to join public safety at some point. Thank you, Captain. Ladies and gentlemen, the next item is the adopted resolution approving the City of Newark Senate Bill 707, Meeting Disruption Policy. City Attorney Chris Coccatello will make the presentation. City Attorney. You know you're gonna have all the executives jealous. Wait, I can sit in my chair and run the PowerPoint from there?

Thank you.

Sorry, Linka.

As far as my background, Senate Bill 707 was signed into law in 2025. This was comprehensive Brown Act reform. Some aspects of the law related to participation by members of the legislative body for just cause. Some of the revisions took effect on January 1st of this year. The revisions that were discussed this evening take effect in July 1st of this year, so in a couple weeks here. Senate Bill 707 particularly requires eligible legislative bodies, which is to include city councils, county board of supervisors, and certain qualifying boards for special districts to allow for public participation or remote participation at public meetings through either a two-way telephonic service is available or two-way audio-visual platform is available. Related to that, Senate Bill 707 also requires that the City Council adopt a meeting disruption policy. This adoption has to occur as a non-consent item. It has to be as an open agenda item. And the changes must be implemented by July 1st of this year, consistent with the effective date The proposed policy that is attached to the resolution to be considered by the council this evening outlines the city response to promote access fails during the city council meetings, particularly a disruption defined in the law as a failure of the telephonic or internet service, which prevents members of the public from attending, observing, or providing public comment remotely. So any of those aspects of the public participation Council has to recess the open session and make good faith efforts to restore the service for at least one hour unless service is restored sooner. And I'll talk about what occurs once that one hour expires. I will note that when the Council recesses the open session, it could still go into closed session if it desires to consider closed session items until the service is restored. IF SERVICE CANNOT BE RESTORED AFTER THAT ONE HOUR AND CITY COUNCIL CAN CONTINUE THE MEETING WITHOUT THE REMOTE ASPECTS BEING FUNCTIONING THROUGH A ROLL CALL VOTE, FINDING THAT GOOD FAITH EFFORTS WERE MADE TO RESTORE THE SERVICE AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN CONTINUING THE MEETING OUTWEIGHS THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN REMOTE PUBLIC ACCESS, OR THE CITY COUNCIL CAN CHOOSE TO NOT RECEIVE THE MEETING. DISRUPTION AND RELATED ACTIONS MUST BE DOCUMENTED IN THE MEETING MINUTES. Additionally, the proposed policy outlines steps that staff should take in advance to ensure the technology is working, and also outlines how to document the disruption and the attempts at restoration. With that, I'm certainly glad to answer any questions, but the staff recommendation is to adopt the proposed resolution approving the SB 707 meeting disruption policy.

Thank you. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to have a question, comment on this item? Council, questions, comments? Yes, Vice Mayor Jorgens.

Yeah, so in a case of a disruption, if we were to continue the meeting onto a future meeting, a future date, I'm assuming the same agendizing rules. Currently, with the Brown Act, we would be required to follow for the what would essentially be a special meeting or a continued meeting? Or is there different rules there? It would be the same rules, that's correct. And then when we would post the agenda, would it be the identical agenda to the meeting that was disrupted or would it be a special meeting starting say with item, whatever item need to be continued? Would it be a new agenda for that continued meeting? It would be the same agenda. It would be a meeting continued to a date certain. And would we have to select the date certain at that time?

Yes. Or the council could just agendize a special meeting as a standalone item. So those two options are there.

Okay. Thank you. And just to follow up, so the special meeting could actually just be the next council meeting? Correct. Or the items could be added to the next council meeting as well. That's what I'm saying. And if I understand the vice mayor's suggestion, you would almost basically just continue where you left off before you get to the actual new business of the new council meeting or no?

The items, because there is a set order at the regular meetings, the items would just probably be added as regular meeting items. So for instance, consent items, or I should say that if there was some council business that was not addressed in an open session, those would just be added under the same section. Okay.

Other comments on this side of the aisle? Council Member Grindahl. Thank you for the presentation.

as we all of us I'm sure dealt with the pandemic and all the halting technological problems and how frustrating it was for not only for people on this side of the pandemic dias but for the for the entire community so i i certainly am glad that there is a policy in place that that dictates how we handle it i i understand my understanding is that if we desire if we desire to amend that policy as we learn how this works we could do that really at any time as long as it was agendized and brought forward absolutely because that's heartening to hear because it's gonna be a moving target. We're gonna have to think about this. On page two of your presentation, if you could back, thanks. My memory's not that good. it says the meetings are through the following means. Does that mean both of those means have to function for the meeting to be considered in function? In other words, we have to have both the Zoom and the telephone in order for us to be considered COMPLIANT THINKING? COMPLIANT THINKING?

THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION, THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION, COUNCILMEMBER. COUNCILMEMBER. SO THE WAY THE LAW IS WRITTEN SO THE WAY THE LAW IS WRITTEN IS IF YOU ARE ABLE TO DO BOTH IS IF YOU ARE ABLE TO DO BOTH IN A FUNCTIONING MATTER, YOU IN A FUNCTIONING MATTER, YOU HAVE TO ALLOW BOTH. HAVE TO ALLOW BOTH. WE DO NOT HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO WE DO NOT HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO FACILITATE MULTIPLE CALLERS FACILITATE MULTIPLE CALLERS THROUGH A TELEPHONIC SERVICE. THROUGH A TELEPHONIC SERVICE. SO WE ARE ALLOWED TO JUST UTILIZE SO WE ARE ALLOWED TO JUST UTILIZE THE AUDIO VIS

So just to reiterate, if we only use Zoom, then that's all we have to use, that's all we have to rely upon. Great, thank you. That's correct, Councilmember, thank you. And on one of the other slides, you don't have to go to it right now, the word fails is used to describe this system. What is the definition of fails? Because we've had situations, I'm sure we've all experienced this, where you could barely hear the person calling and or they couldn't hear us, so on and so forth. So is there anything in the policy that defines what fails means?

Yes, certainly, Councilmember. That's defined under state law. And essentially, if there's a error on the other side, so I'll say if someone else, the user's calling in, their computer's not working as well, or their volume's not correct, that wouldn't be considered a failure. If there is a failure on our side, it wouldn't be that, say, the microphone isn't picking it up very well. It'd be like it drops. so that it's not functioning. If the microphone is cutting to such an extent that people can't tell what's going on, that would be considered a failure. If we are for some reason unable to, the video goes out but people can still hear, that's a failure because people can't observe the meeting. So it's multiple functions and it's gotta be something that stops or is so defunct to a point that you can't tell what's occurring.

great thank you and then one just one more point and i think this can be can be dealt with if it arises well actually there's two more points but one is i'm a little concerned about this process if there's a problem with the system we have we have to shut down we have to stop the meeting that makes sense um and we have and we we can we could do something else after an hour um what happens if Ten minutes in to the outage, we were able to fix it. But meanwhile, citizens have changed out of their pajamas and headed into the city to make a comment in person because that's what a lot of people would do when an electronic system goes down or a small town. They just come across. Excuse me. So I'm a little concerned we could have somebody caught in the middle in that regard and they wouldn't have a chance to take their actions to hear their comments. So it's my understanding that council can, if that person were to arrive after the item had been heard, we could by I think probably a super majority reconsider the item and allow the person to speak and then reconsider that item.

Absolutely. Council would have the ability to do a motion to reconsider if it's so desired and reopen the item and re-vote on it.

And I don't think it takes a super majority. I think, you know, we are fully transparent and we want folks to be able to have an opportunity to be heard. And so to your scenario, somebody arriving late under the situation you described, I think this council is always going to be interested in what they have to say. We want them to be able to participate. So we'll certainly make that happen.

Right. But I do understand that that can't be part of the policy because it does require a vote of the council.

Yeah, that's a standalone, the motion reconsider is a standalone aspect of procedure.

That's great. So we'll see how that works itself. I don't think I'm gonna propose any change at this point. I was originally thinking we should, if we're gonna shut it off, we shut it off for at least 20 minutes to allow people that were in route to make it here. But given the potential of the, the potential of reconsidering the motion and given the fact that we can adjust this policy, if we learn how this works better, I'm fine with it as it's structured. So I appreciate the answers to the questions.

Absolutely, Council Member. And if the Council so desires, certainly we'll have the city clerk monitoring who's on Zoom and how many people are participating. The Council can always choose to hold a longer recess knowing that maybe some folks might jump back on try to reconnect and so that's always an option that's certainly available as well.

Yeah, but I'm saying I don't think we have to put that in the policy at this point. We'll see how it works out. Absolutely. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other comments? I just have one quick question. So I did notice that you were talking about providing public common remotely. is this going to be kind of set up like a zoom meeting where somebody can log on and say hey i have a question about this and my my question is would she be reading the questions or would the person get to freely speak or because there are some people as a college professor myself i can tell you people will try to log on to zoom meetings and cause opportunities um so i wonder if we're going to have a way to monitor that or something of that sort it's just my question of like what are we doing to kind of not censor, but keep an eye on people logging in and taking the opportunity.

Yeah, certainly council member. So that's correct. People do get to speak so that it doesn't get filtered or translated by the city clerk. So essentially the way it'll work is when the public comment period comes up, you know, the person can raise their hand on zoom and the mayor will ask, you know, the city clerk, you know, is anyone on online that wants to speak and the city clerk will kind of go through, they'll get the same time restrictions as anyone here in public, but that's how it will operate.

It's also the mayor's responsibility or the person sitting here, in this case maybe the vice mayor, to make sure folks stay focused on the issue that's being discussed. Sometimes people will be talking about an item and they'll start to digress somewhere that's nowhere close to the item that we're discussing and it's my responsibility or the vice mayor's responsibility to kind of bring them back to the item that's being discussed. But I do appreciate Councilmember Gondal's comment that this is going to be a learning process all over for us, that as we go through this process, lessons will be learned, and we'll make what modifications we think need to be made down the road. The only concern I have is a number of us sitting up here have attended meetings remotely, and I've seen more of it. For example, when I go to an ABAG meeting and I listen in remotely, where the person that is up here talking either forgets to turn on their microphone or the communication starts to break up where you don't actually know or understand what they're saying. I don't know if there's a way to really ensure that because we may hear them, but they may not hear us. All I would ask the public to do, the city clerk to do, and all of us to be mindful of is if... we're not hearing or it's not being communicated clearly that we either stop there and have them start over again or figure out what's going on because too much time gets wasted trying to decipher I hear every fourth word as to what they're saying but you don't want to be the one always interrupting I don't hear what's going on I'm not sure what's going on but we want the public to know as we do these that if they're not hearing what's being said at the dais they need to let us know because that's the only way we're going to cure that that situation This is not an information item, so I need a motion and a second to accept this staff recommendation.

So moved.

By Council Member Del Contancio.

I'll second.

By Council Member Grandal, please vote. And that passes unanimously. City Manager reports, Assistant City Manager Havorka.

Thank you, Your Honor. We have a few items this evening. And we will start with the Alameda County Minor Home Repair Program. This is for income qualifying seniors that are 62 years of age or older. They can apply for small grants of up to $3,000 to make plumbing, carpentry, electrical, and other repairs to their homes. As I said, it's income qualifying. It's $95,050 for a one-person household or less than $108,600 for a two-person household. So if anyone is interested in applying, the phone number is there on the screen. And next, we would like to let you know about a full-scale emergency medical point of dispensing exercise that will be happening this Saturday. And it will include both our Newark and also Union Cities Community Emergency Response Teams, as well as the Alameda County Emergency Medical Services Agency. So this will test the emergency response capabilities and regional coordination during a simulated medical emergency. So the event will take place at the Union City BART station. So residents and visitors may notice an increased emergency response activity in the area. There is no emergency. It is just an exercise. And we look forward to this supporting our emergency preparedness efforts. Next, we have a survey that is closing tomorrow, and the deadline was extended, so if you haven't taken the future housing options survey yet, it is open through tomorrow, and this is to assist us in exploring ways to create more housing choices for residents, including homes of different sizes and styles that can meet a variety of needs. And the website is there on the screen to access the survey. And lastly, we're looking forward to next Thursday's Juneteenth Freedom Celebration. This is our third annual celebration. We have moved it to the Newark Pavilion since the Silliman Center is undergoing some solar carport parking improvements. It is from 1 to 5 p.m., and it's a free afternoon full of joy, culture, food, and community, and there will be live music, entertainment, family-friendly activities, and good vibes for all ages. And that is the end of my report.

Excellent. I'll look to my left, Council Member Little.

So I recently had my VIP Pokemon meet and greet. It was a lot of fun. We had over 35 kids come out and switch out their cards. We had a lot of really good time. It was really fun. As for this whole week, I'm a little cross-eyed and exhausted because I'm currently hosting the Camp Goat Mission Peak Cub Scout Day Camp. I have 84 kids running around Ardenwood Farm. And I'm there 8.30 to 3.47 every single day. And it has been a lot of work, but very happy kids. Today in the 100-degree heat, the Californians were dying, but this local Texan was just fine. We call it early spring. But we did accidentally get some water balloons on some of the kids, and we used spray guns. Oh, no. So we did have a lot of really, really good time. Tomorrow's our closing ceremony. It's going to be a lot of fun. But I have 84 Cub Scouts. I have... 41 youth volunteers and 21 adult volunteers that have come out to help these little kids have good summer memories. So I'm very, very proud of that. The other project I'm working with, Ms. Link has been very kind in giving me some ideas. I'm trying to get a pop-up roller rink. If we cannot get a regular roller rink here, we're trying to get a pop-up roller rink so that people can come out, put it out for a couple hours. I know Ms. Roy has been talking as well, and I think it would be a really good opportunity for our city to have a roller rink for a day, come out, we can hopefully rent it, And they're looking at some ideas and looking at some vendors that I presented to them and hopefully this summer Maybe we can make it a tradition to have them every single month come out of pop-up roller rink all the kids come out get roller skates on I know what our police individuals loves roller skating, so I've definitely it right there So it was an honor of her she was also part of the inspiration on this as well So my goal is to have roller skating parties in Newark and bring back a little bit of the old-school stuff So thank you linka and thank you THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Thank you. And hopefully this doesn't steal the mayor's thunder, but we both were able to attend the grand opening of the Timber Senior Apartments. It's a fantastic project. Oh, and also Council Member Little as well. And Timber Apartments, the mayor was able to speak and made some very, very pertinent comments, really excellent comments, how Newark is cherishing our opportunities to build affordable housing. So I thought his words were valuable. very appropriate and was really happy that we were able to be there. So thank you.

Two items. One, I want to commend Council Member Grindahl. He also presented at the opening of that senior affordable complex. I had the chance, as I'm sure Council Member Grindahl did, to talk to some folks. I talked to some folks that were previously homeless for, in some cases, 10 plus years. And to see the joy in their face when they have a home, a roof over their head, was priceless. But Mr. Grindahl represents the city of Newark. on the housing authority of Alameda County. And as he knows, and we all know, there are thousands of people looking to get vouchers so that they can afford to live in a home. And it's a tough process every year because you're relying on federal funding and that's always a unknown. And so I appreciate his leadership on that. Finally, Ms. Avorka, I really want to take a moment to comment and commend Colleen Letier. I saw the last Newark News, Newark News. What an outstanding document. I mean, it's colorful. It's full of information. It tells folks what's going on at various meetings. It's really a page turner in my mind. You are to be commended as the city is about what an outstanding product, something I think we are really proud that our residents are able to receive. So thank you for that outstanding work. It's greatly appreciated. And then lastly, I want to remind my council colleagues to confirm with the assistant city manager link up by June 15th if anyone is interested in serving as the city's voting delegate or as an alternate delegate for the Cal City's annual conference and expo hosted by the League of California Cities. The conference, which includes the General Assembly, will be held September the 23rd through the 25th. Will it be the next council meeting that will make that appointment as to who our voting member is?

Yes, we can do that.

Okay, so please let her know of your interest. And as I understand it, all the expenses are paid by the city for council members to attend this event.

Yeah, registration, hotel, and travel.

Great. So thank you for that. It's an opportunity to attend. Now, I do see that we have a council meeting on that 24th. Would the council members be able to attend that remotely from Anaheim? Yes. Okay, so we don't need to have a quorum here. As long as we have a quorum online, are we good?

You'll need to have at least three people here in person. Okay, so. Or in the city limits.

So we can only send two of you. Yes. Or one of you comes back. Or one comes back. Or we schedule a meeting. I don't know, we got lots of things to talk about. So I want to thank Council Member Grendahl. He was our voting member last year. If you'd like to attend, let me know. I'm sorry, let the Assistant City Manager know. And once we have that list, we'll go ahead and make a proposal as to who our voting member is at the next council meeting. Did you have a comment, Vice Mayor?

Yes.

Okay.

So as I've been sharing some New York history to celebrate our 150th year, I've been... staring at that picture of the Newark Hotel on the back and with the World Cup starting today and hoping to see an increase in our hotels, I thought I would talk about Newark hotels for a little bit. So first hotel in Newark was built a year after the founding of the town in 1877. It was called the Railroad Hotel. The one picture in the back is actually called the Newark Hotel. It was built in 1882. Both of them are located at today's near Carter and Thulbert. Obviously you got two hotels that are gonna be in competition with each other. So they both hired people to go out and be barkers and meet the incoming trains and call out prices and menus to the passengers. you know, try to win customers to their hotel and from the other hotel. It seems like a good idea, except for the locals would see what was happening, see where the people going from the train would go, and then go get a meal at the hotel that was going to be less crowded. So, you know, the two hotels probably came up pretty even on the deal. You know, as we're going through our budget over the last couple of months, you know, it's good to know that Newark is still a place where people want to come and stay in hotels. And, you know, that's been a cornerstone of Newark's economy for years.

you know the last 150 years yeah thank you for that uh vice mayor has assured me that there will not be a quiz at the end of this uh fiscal year on the items that he's discussed well not the fiscal year the calendar year that's up for debate oh my gosh you're gonna have so much fun next meeting aren't you with that being said if there's no other comments yes councilmember cantancio

I wanted to comment that when we're thinking about people who really make a difference in Newark, Jack was really a familiar face in Newark, not only for our community, but also for the schools. And he was definitely very invested in a local volunteer. I also wanted to mention that today I was able to represent Newark at the Lunarios. They're opening a news channel for Northern California. They have one already on the East Coast. And so there was a kickoff today. And I was able to go there. Last week, I was able to cook with many residents in Newark for Jung, which is actually been going on for 2,000 years. It's the kickoff for the beginning of the dragon boat races. So that really starts the summer. Additionally, I really liked, thank you Mayor, I wanted to say that I really liked that we were able to incorporate Ms. Tunnell's presentation about art in Newark. especially because it does represent our community and it's one of our youth and our young voices. So it was great that also the legal women voters and students were able to attend too. And all of us were able to attend the Newark Memorial High School graduation. And that's always wonderful to see our students going to the next level. I also lastly wanted to comment that the streets that were able to be redone look spectacular, especially compared to how they were previously. So thank you, everyone. Thank you.

an item that was on the consent calendar in terms of the streets residents can go to the website and see where their street or is their street being identified for work in the near future isn't that correct city manager yes once the project is underway then there will be maps that will show which streets are included in the project work right great any other comments on this side All right, again, we're closing this meeting in memory of Jack Dane. Jack, thank you, and thank Jack's family for his contributions to our community. They were appreciated, and he was appreciated. So we are adjourned.