City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening. I'm going to call to order the City Council regular meeting for June 9th, 2026. Please call the roll.

Council Member Adler. Here. Council Member Joynette is not with us this evening. Council Member Veros.

Here.

Vice Mayor Rubio. Here. And Mayor Armstrong.

Here. All right, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, 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.

All right, thank you. Please be seated. OK, next item, please. Any announcements?

Item three, announcements. Item 3.1, changes and additions to the agenda. There are none. And if you wish to speak under public comment or regarding an agenda item, please fill out a blue speaker card located in the back of the room and submit it to the city clerk.

All right, thank you. At this time, I'm going to open up public comment. Public comment is permitted on any non-agenda item related to the business of the city council. You can speak on items that are on the consent calendar, including requests to pull an item from the consent calendar and the reason why you wish to pull the item or items. And please note that the decision to remove the item from the consent calendar is strictly at the discretion of the City Council. You can make requests for future agenda items, and you can speak on special presentation items under Section 6 of tonight's agenda. We do have one item there. You can also speak on items that are not on the agenda but are within the City Council's jurisdiction. Please be reminded that while the City ensures the First Amendment rights of its citizens, we do not accept nor endorse any offensive or hateful comments made during our meetings. The City celebrates the diversity of our community and we strive to be a welcoming and open community for all. If you wish to speak on a public comment or regarding an agenda item, please fill out a speaker card located in the back of the room and submit it to the city clerk. And while we encourage your comments, unfortunately, state law prevents the city council from discussing items that are not on the meeting agenda. The city council does take them very seriously, however, and if appropriate, the staff will follow up. And when you are called to speak, you will have three minutes. You should be able to see it displayed on the monitor that's behind me. Do we have any speaker cards?

We do. Don Normat.

Good evening. Just a second. Can you speak in and make sure it's...

I'm not going to be able to see over that. I'm so short. Can I stand over here?

Sure, absolutely.

So anyway, I'm a member of the Tri-Valley Indivisible Climate Group. I've lived in San Ramon for 60 plus years, 40 years a homeowner. Last Saturday, we hosted a very successful town hall. It was part of the Polluters Pay statewide tour. The town halls are being held to generate support to get a bill that is coming up before state legislature this year to get it passed. The bill would mitigate the burden of climate change from the taxpayers to the fossil fuel companies, which knowingly concealed their role in the climate crisis. I personally have seen the effects of climate change in my own yard. My apples and olives are getting so sunburned in their early development that they rot before they're even fully mature. This has only been occurring the last two years and never before. I can't imagine how all of our food supply is being affected. and the increased need for more water. I don't know how we will keep up with the demand and maintain the quality. The Make the Polluters Pay Superfund Act could help create hundreds of jobs in clean energy projects, funding electric buses and construction, and help mitigate the damage that has been done, with at least 40% reserved for the most vulnerable communities. So far, there has been 30 resolutions passed in the state, in cities and school boards, Residents are urged to share the message, attend city council meetings, and support local resolutions backing the bill. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. All right, next speaker, please.

Catherine Grace.

Evening. Are you going to adjust the mic back over? There you go.

How's that?

Great.

OK, thank you. I never thought I'd be here in front of you once, let alone twice, but here I am again. Who's going to pay for the costs of rapidly increasing, often unpredictable climate change? Imagine if someone set their neighbor's house on fire, stood by as the flames spread, and then refused to help pay for the damage, pretending it was someone else's problem. Unthinkable, right? But it's exactly what big oil companies have done worldwide, including here in California. They knew their products would set off climate disasters, super storms, wildfires, unpredictable weather extremes, and still chose massive profits over responsibility. Now we're the ones paying for the mess. That's why we need the California's Polluters Pay Superfund Initiative. If you cause the damage, you pay for the cleanup. Over the next few council meetings, I'll be back. to talk about exactly what the Superfund Initiative is, and most importantly, how this council has the power to help make polluters pay. The power to hold polluters accountable is in our hands. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Next speaker, please.

Jim Blickenstaff.

evening good evening mayor and council it's me again there you go um i read an article in the times a couple days ago and it was quite enlightening in the sense that it was about california's population And they say it's in a state of stagnation right now. And it looks like it's going to be a protracted state because of several issues of low birth rate and immigration going down and people not transferring here like they used to. So it's kind of a little bit of a trend. And they even expect we'll lose three, maybe four congressional seats as the new census comes out and how many, eight years, whatever, because of the population, they call it stagnation. So what I'm trying to say is there is no housing crisis. The only crisis would be an event pretty soon, we're going to have too much housing. So when you get the vested interest that says, oh, there's a crisis, or there are people that support them up in Sacramento, then take it with a grain of salt. Because if you ask an impartial person that's just studying the numbers and sees the trends and economy effects and everything, it's not a crisis. And that's been a justification for a lot of overdevelopment. And I thought I'd just let you know that consider the source when you get to hear more about, oh, we need more housing. We've got to be a bedroom community. And that's good to answer the housing needs. housing reduction, which I think is so-called population reduction, will kind of be a future for San Ramon and other cities. So anyway, I just want to bring that to your attention because it's not a crisis anymore, if it ever was. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Emily Barnett.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members. My name is Emily Barnett. I'm the Communications and Government Relations Manager for the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District, better known as Central San. I would like to personally invite you to our 80th anniversary celebration and all the residents of San Ramon as well. You may see some of our social media, maybe even our commercials on television. Central San is your friendly neighborhood sewer agency, proudly serving San Ramon and Central Contra Costa. We're hosting a once-a-decade sewer party. We pull out all the stops. Yes, you heard me, a sewer party. There is such a thing, I assure you. And this is our time to say thank you to our customers and engage them, show them how much we appreciate them entrusting us to safely collect and treat their wastewater. And all of this is to protect public health and the environment. So on Saturday, June 13th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., we'll host this 80th anniversary event at our headquarters in Martinez. The party will be multi-generational, family-friendly, educational. Of course, it will be very fun. We'll have educational displays, treatment plant tours, big trucks that make all this work happen, free food and poop emoji ice cream. I'm not making this up. A one-ton toilet you can actually get inside. I know, Vice Mayor, you will be attending. I expect you to have a photo of you in that one-ton toilet. There'll be a photo booth there. racing toilets and racing bathtubs. So it's like a go-kart, but it's a toilet. I'm also not making this up. And all of this is free to the community. So for more information, you can visit our website, centralsand.org, and we'll have free off-site parking, and we'll shuttle you right to our facility. So we'll have parking on Arnold Drive and Martinez. at the assessor's office, county assessor's office, and also the Contra Costa County Public Works Department on Glacier Drive in Martinez. Again, centralsand.org. I'm going to leave some flyers in the back of the room because I see some fabulous people in this room that looks like they want to attend. Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

There are no more speaker cards and no written public comment has been received.

Okay. All right, then I'm going to close public comment. We didn't have any requests to pull any consent items. Does any council member wish to pull any consent items? I move the consent calendar.

I will second that.

All right, we have a motion to approve items 5.1 through 5.12. Council Member Veros and a second by Vice Mayor Rubio. Any discussion? Okay, motion passes 4-0-0. And now we're going to move on to special presentations. We have a special presentation this evening. Item 6.1, it's a proclamation declaring June 2026 as LGBTQ plus Pride Month. This will be presented to Anna Gupta, president of PFLAG Danville, San Ramon. And council member of ROSE and evening, Anu.

Good evening. Can I speak after?

Yeah, we're going to do the proclamation, and then you'll have the opportunity to speak in just a moment.

Thanks.

So congratulations on LGBTQ plus Pride Month. So I'm going to read the proclamation. A proclamation of the city council of the city of San Ramon declaring June 2026 as LGBTQ plus pride month, whereas the city of San Ramon is committed to making San Ramon a place where everyone is welcome and. whereas the nation was founded upon and is guided by a set of principles, including that every person has been created equal, that all have rights to their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and that all shall be afforded the full recognition and protection of the law, and whereas the city of San Ramon recognizes the importance of equality and freedom, and is dedicated to fostering acceptance of all its citizens and preventing discrimination and bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity and whereas the city of san ramon is strengthened by and thrives upon the rich diversity of ethnic cultural racial sexual orientation and gender identities of its residents all of which contribute to the vibrant character of the city. And whereas many residents, students, employees and business owners within San Ramon who contribute to the enrichment of the city and are part of LGBTQ plus community. And whereas June has become a symbolic month in which the LGBTQ plus community and supporters come together in various celebrations of pride. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of San Ramon does hereby proclaim June as LGBTQ Plus Pride Month in San Ramon and encourages residents to recognize the contributions made by members of the LGBTQ Plus community and to actively promote the principles of equality and liberty. Congratulations.

Sure. Yeah. I need to maybe, because it looks like it's going to be a lot of me. Oh, you guys. Yeah, no, you got that covered. Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right, the floor is yours.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. This year, I know which way to face and when to speak. Next year will be better. I'm Anuradha Gupta, president of PFLAG Danville-San Ramon Valley, and I'm honored to receive this proclamation on behalf of the community. and partners including San Ramon Valley Diversity Coalition, Discovery Counseling Center, Danville Congregational Church, Rewire, and others who are working to create a just and equitable future for our LGBTQ loved ones and community. Thank you to all the allies present here. This proclamation is secured through the courage of those who came before us and made this inclusion possible. It affirms everyone who has felt unseen, unheard, or unwelcome. It reminds us that every person, regardless of who they are or who they love, deserves to live openly and authentically without fear and are contributing important, precious members of our community. I want you to consider, all of you, what if a family member, a child, comes out to you? I'm sure you wouldn't marginalize or disrespect them, but put yourself in their shoes. When they come out, they know how risky it is. One in three LGBTQ kids are rendered homeless. So many lose their families, support systems and resources. Some lose peers. Eight in 10 are bullied in school. They face four times the violence. They could be discriminated against in health care, in housing, in education, in employment, in laws. It takes courage to live authentically. Some lose their lives. Some struggle with physical or mental health, some fight for basic rights. LGBTQ people are not others. They are our precious kids, neighbors, family members, colleagues, elders, our teachers, our students, athletes, business people, artists, healthcare workers, lawyers, service members, veterans, first responders, and so much more. There should not be a cost of living in their authentic gender identity or sexual orientation. The Pride Proclamation reminds us not to slide back in the darkness which can render a nation or a city from welcoming to unsafe. The Pride Proclamation we are so honored to receive is a commitment to inclusivity which is life-saving. That inclusivity from even one adult can reduce the probability of an LGBTQ youth attempting suicide by 40%. We know that the road ahead nationwide is not easy. With so many anti-LGBTQ, particularly anti-trans bills and measures, we may have to debate the very existence of our LGBTQ community. We all will be remembered in different ways. Are we going to be on the right side of history with our policies? Today, through this proclamation, we want every LGBTQ person to know your life matters. You belong here in San Ramon. You are not alone. You are valued. We will keep showing up for you. Thank you once again, Honorable Mayor and San Ramon City Council. Somewhere, someone who knows you issued this proclamation feels safe tonight. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. There's no council action required on this item. Any council member want to say anything? Go ahead. Okay.

So first and foremost, I just want to say thank you to Anu and to Rewire, as she mentioned. So many groups, really. PFLAG, Nautica, Discovery Center. So many are working collaboratively to make sure that our children are safe, that they are respected as they come, as they present themselves to be in their authentic selves. It takes a lot of courage to do that. And I don't think anybody really understands until it hits home one day, whether it's your loved one or yourself, who knows. But one day you will face that and it will be someone you deeply cherish. And when that time comes, would you want the community that you live in to harbor resentment towards your loved one simply because they identify a different way or have a different sexual orientation than yours. So I think this is about respecting people's authenticity, who they are as they come. And I want everyone, at least in my capacity, I will always do my best to make everyone feel seen, heard, and accepted. Thank you so much, Anu, for all the work you do and to everyone else alongside you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Anyone else? All right.

Yeah, I'm proud that we could present this proclamation to you and your organization. I was proud to also be at the raising of the flag and be around all those good people, very positive atmosphere. And I'm glad that that's what San Ramon is. And we will hopefully continue to be. I don't see why we would ever go back. I also like your organization. I guess it's kind of your charter to create a just and affirming world for the LGBTQ plus community and those who love them and support families and educate allies across the country. I think that's really essential as we look forward. Again, thank you for being here. Thank you for the words you've just said to us here tonight. I'm just glad that we can honor you and the people who believe in the LGBTQ rights.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Wilkes.

As I already read the proclamation, a well-written proclamation, which all our LGBTQ plus community members deserves. And you see, there is always we fly a flag on the marquee saying everyone welcome. And we do mean it. We mean what we say on our marquee. So irrespective of your sexual orientation, gender identity, you belong here. And we care for you. And as a community, we all live here together with respect and dignity. So thanks to PFLAG. Thanks to REWIRE. Thanks to Discovery Counseling, San Ramon Valley Diversity Coalition, and many other organizations who are working together in supporting and making sure our community members are being treated equally within our community. Thanks for all your work.

And I'll just echo the comments of my colleagues here. And, you know, we do have the sign out on the marquee. Everyone is welcome here. And it's a heartfelt slogan. It's not just words that we put out there, but that's the way we are. That's who we are as a city of San Ramon. So thank you, Anu. And with that, we're going to move on to the next item. And the next item is we've got a public hearing. This is regarding resolution number 2026-077, confirming the landscape and lighting district number 1984-1 diagram and assessments and living landscape and lighting district number 1984-1 assessments for fiscal year 26-27. And we have a report by Gary, Gary Manuel.

Thank you, Mayor Armstrong and council and staff. Appreciate the opportunity. It's that time of year. We again reestablish the landscaping and lighting 1984-1 and approve the engineer's report. Little bit about the 1984-1, a little background. First of all, just for everybody, the amount assessed is not based on the value of your home. It is based on the general and specific benefit of the adjacent landscape and any improvement in the zone. And all the revenue from assessments, they fund all those improvements. It stays within the zone. It doesn't go anywhere else but within that zone. There are 19 separate zones, two citywide zones, and 17 special zones. And every year, and just look with today, the districts are reestablished by council action. And every time we have to raise a max assessment, we comply with Prop 218. Just a little bit about the rates. The levied rate, which is the annual assessment rate, is charged on the property tax bill. It's San Ramon LLD. and it's increased or decreased by council action, then there's the maximum assessment rate. That's the do not exceed rate. We can't go anywhere beyond that. If we do, then we trigger Prop 218. We have to go to ballot. So the goal every year is to maintain these zones within the current annual rate or a slight increase or sometimes occasionally a decrease. And these are the increases in some of the special zones. Citywide zones are both getting increased, including zones 3, 17, and 19. And the two citywide zones, incremental increases, $0.72 for zone 1, $1.55 zone 2, $10 for 3, $25 for 17, and then Zone 19 is the biggest. It comprises of three different parcels. So that's the largest increase. And these zones are underfunded, and what that means is they're kind of approaching the Prop 218 trigger, what we talk about, what we're always looking at with our reserve study. There's a number of zones here. I believe there's nine zones, and several at their max assessment rate. So, for example, Zone 6, $380 is your annual rate. They're at, and their max assessment rate is 380. So they're right there. And again, we can't go beyond that.

And you can see on the right side is the projected negative balance.

And that'll fluctuate based on contracts. It'll fluctuate based on staffing, anything else that water, if we have water savings, it could prolong the zone, stain solvent. So anywhere we can save money, we can to keep these zones healthy. A little bit about Zone 6. It's a hot topic for us in public services. We've been really working with them for at least two years that I know of, maybe even three. We had a resident meeting back in April. Very productive, very productive meeting. I think there was around 15 residents that showed up. And to me, that's a critical step. It may be a slow process, but it's critical to get feedback from zone residents. We can't make it, I'm sorry.

And Gary, just describe Zone 6, the location again, where the fountain is and everything.

Sure will. Yeah, so it's on Crow and Doherty, kind of at the Danville border. It has two fountains. The Step Fountain's probably the biggest that everyone knows. And it has a number of other improvements like gazebos. It has split rail fences. That includes landscaping, irrigation, and anything else that was built that was included at the time the developments were built. So those are what we call improvements. It's very unique among all the zones. No other zone in the city has the number of improvements that Zone 6 has. So it's quite challenging for the residents and also for us. Because the last thing we want to ever do is raise or go to Prop 218 step and have to raise that maximum assessment. We always like to work within the assessment. So again, that meeting we had was very productive. We plan to have another one. And if necessary, a third one after that. Again, we need to get feedback from as many residents as possible to make a good decision to present to them. So after all, like I mentioned, their assessments pay for all the improvements uh the stake we have is maintenance that's what we do we support the zone but it's their decision on what to do with the amenities and again we want to provide them as much information and the feedback we get we include in in our presentations to them After that, once we get to that step, we come up with a solid max assessment and annual assessment. Then we go through the Prop 218 part of it. We have to, per law, go through that. And that would mean going to the finance committee, going to the council, and discussing what the proposal is. And then from there, it really involves a city clerk with that. I'm hoping to get to that step in October this year. I really do. Because we're like, we're really moving forward. We got really good feedback. We don't want to let that go. So again, it's something after this meeting, we're going to really push and get that done. Here's some planned projects coming up. There's only four, and you're thinking, wow, there's 19 zones. Keep in mind, there's a lot of zones that already have funding that's a rollover funding from the previous fiscal year. And these zones as well, $1,000, it doesn't seem like a lot for a commercial landscape, but there's also funding not only in a rollover in the project funds, but also operating budget. we include some money in the operating budget to cover things like plant replacements and things like that. So that's the last slide. We're at the step number four here. We've completed the ordering of the preparation of the filing of the engineer's report. Finance Committee reviewed the reserve study. And we went again. At this point, we need to ask the council to approve the engineer's report to levy the taxes for the landscaping lighting district 1984-1. So we're at step four of the public meeting. And after this, the engineer's report gets filed with the county assessor by August 10th every year. All right. Any questions? What can I do for you?

All right. Thank you, Gary. The only question I had was with respect to the Zone 6 outreach and how successful has the turnout been? I mean, if you're getting a pretty good turnout, you're going to have multiple meetings. You're going to have some more. You get a decent turnout for these meetings?

Well, we so our first I guess our first step was sending out a flyer. for a survey, we did a survey. And they essentially said, okay, what improvements do you like? What do you feel about the fountain? What do you wanna do with the fountain? Do you wanna keep it? Do you wanna landscape it? Do you wanna do nothing with it? So those are kind of the three that we threw out that we think is best for the site. And we got kind of mixed feedback from the survey. The residents liked the fountain, but didn't want an increase in assessment to pay for the fountain. And for us in the maintenance world, that kind of doesn't equal. So we have to come to some in-between agreement. So again, we threw out the landscape option. Then we got favorable feedback from that, we did. But we had 15 people show up at the meeting. There's 704 households in Zone 6, and we had 15. But again, since that meeting, we've got emails, I got phone calls. We're encouraging the residents in the zone to talk to their neighbors, to come to the next meeting. And they're tough, they're tough, hard meetings, It's valuable information. And we hope on that next meeting there's going to be twice as many, three times as many. The more that show up, the more questions that could be asked, the more feedback we get, we can get to help make these decisions for the long-term sustainability of the zone.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Questions from council?

So two slides back. One more slide. So the new zone proposed, right? So these are the new ones which we are creating this year.

Now, these are existing project accounts, but these are the only ones we're actually moving money into for next fiscal year. So every fiscal year, we allocate funds to certain zones to help improve the existing improvements, like, for example, landscape infill. So as the landscapes age, the plants start to die back, and we have to kind of put some plants in place, or with trees. So the money on the right side is what we're going to allocate. We're asking council to prove to allocate for next fiscal year.

That is coming from the fund, from their specific zone fund, right? Exactly. Okay.

Yeah, self-funded. You know, every zone is self-funded. Every penny that's spent in the zone comes from assessment revenue.

Revenue.

Yeah, pays the expenditures. It funds projects and things like that. There's a vehicle accident and funds the repair of that accident. Sounds good.

Yeah, I'm surprised to see nowadays anything like $1,000 is like shocking. Anything like this low.

Some of these zones are small. They may only have under 100 residents or homes in the zone. And they don't have a lot of landscaping. They may have just a frontage landscape on SRVB or San Ramon Valley Boulevard. So the square footage of landscaping may not be a lot. So the $1,000 are really stretching those little zones. Glasshouse, we allocated for some landscape infill, plus that picket fence that runs around it. We want to do some repair to that. And there's also funds, existing funds, in the accounts already, which we don't show here. They may already have $1,000 in their account. So you think about the $1,000 we're adding to it, that'll double it. And there's also money in the operating budget for usually plants. We include plants in the operating budget. So operating budget combined with the project account, we kind of combine those to essentially get to where we want to go or achieve the plan we want to meet by the end of the next fiscal year.

Okay, sounds good. My next question is, I'll touch base the same as Mayor Armstrong touched base about Zone 6 West Branch, as we had a public comment multiple times about nothing is being done on that fountains. It's been there for like years, I remember, right? So, Are we involving HOA in these conversations? And is HOA able to share all the information that we are working with them? Because I see that when we are getting this public comment, I was surprised to see that they don't have any idea what is going on in this whole conversation of Zone 16.

So that's a good point. That was interesting to me in approaching this. So there's four HOAs, and then there's another section, Altamira, that's not an HOA. And that's by the park, Red Willow Park over there. And almost like the HOAs, at least for the people I spoke to, there's not a lot of communication. And that's why we're going out and we're saying, please talk to the other HOAs. Please speak to your neighbor about a lot of folks don't know what the improvements are in the zone. So we're also educating them on that. I spoke to a gentleman, I think it was last week, and he lived in the Altamira neighborhood. I believe there's 161 homes there, not in an HOA. And he was asking about the fountain. And I explained spinoffs since 2022 and the reason why it was out and what we're trying to do with this outreach. He had other questions beyond that specific scope, but he was receptive to the conversation we had. And so I encouraged him to talk to your neighbor, talk to whoever you see walk in your neighborhood. to get a hold of your HOA representatives. We can do, we can only do so much. You know, we can reach out to the HOAs like we've done. But again, word of mouth amongst neighbors is valuable. And it's extremely helpful to us to get that outreach out there and the ultimate goal of what we're going to do.

Okay.

Sounds good. That's it. That's all. Okay. Just to follow up on that. I mean, I know when you have to go to the ballot and do a Prop 218 thing, I mean, you're probably going to send out certified mail and that sort of thing. Are you sending out mail to the residents within Zone 6? I mean, are they? Are we sending them something or is it strictly HOA and word of mouth kind of thing?

No, it's so it'll be mail per prop 218. You send it via mail. Yeah. But for the survey, we sent mail. We sent 704 flyers out to the residents. And for the meeting in April, we sent 700 meeting mailers out. So we'll do the same thing. And the word of mouth is the best way. It's the best way. Yeah.

All right. Thank you. Any questions down on this end? Council Member Adler? Yeah.

I wonder, do we know the cost of these if they decided they wanted to repair it and get it going operational? Do we know? Do they know how much the cost is?

Yeah, so when we met with them, we had a presentation. It's approximately $850,000 to get it fully operational. And what I mean by that, to replace out... As the years go on, parts begin to fail because they need the water to run through it for operation, to remain operational. It initially started with a pump. Pumps are cheap for fountains. It was about 110,000. But there was also a leak behind the fountain that if we're going to replace the pump, we've got to fix the leak. And then as the years gone on, our reserve study flags items that need to get replaced. Ceiling of the fountain, that's around 450,000 to seal the step fountain.

Is that part of that cost that you indicated?

Yeah, that's part of the cost. Yes. Yeah. So it's quite extensive.

Wow. And so you have no idea what people are... You don't have a big enough survey group yet to really know what people are thinking. I mean, you have a smaller group that shows up, of course, but the surveys, have they given you, so you're indicating that they don't want to get it repaired at this point? Is that what they're saying?

So the survey, we had 85 respondents. 85? Yeah, as of about a week ago, out of 704 households. And as I mentioned, the consensus was keep the fountain, but don't raise our assessment.

The fountain is not working.

Yeah. And that's the problem.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So maybe thinking maybe we'll repair it down the road or something.

Yeah, and that's an option. And again, it's up to the residents of the zone. Whatever they vote on, we're going to try to make happen. But to $800,000, it's nothing the zone, even in a couple years, can support. We've got to build the revenue first to make the repairs. We also threw out a landscape option, which I think was a second option, to landscape it. But again, that comes with a cost. Not only an initial installation cost, but it comes with ongoing maintenance costs. A lot cheaper than maintaining a fountain. A lot cheaper. So the long-term planting might be the way to go. And we mentioned the cost of that to them versus having an operational step fountain again. It's... And then their annual rate could differ because we do have to build the revenue. Because if we have an operational found, we've got to start, okay, this pump's going to fail in seven years. It has to get replaced. It needs a reseal in 10 years. So we have to start plugging in $110,000. We have to plug in into this reserve study that we go off of. We have to plug in $400,000 and probably closer to $5,000 for a reseal. And it's an extreme cost.

We do have the other fountain, right, that works and seems to be very popular for photographs around graduation and things like that. Is that a similar situation with the cost involved? And, you know, I guess it's, has that always worked? Or did we have a situation where it broke down and had to survey the residents or has that ever happened?

To my knowledge, no, it's always been operational. Yeah, and that's a lot smaller. It doesn't have to push the water as high like the step fountain. So the motors, you know, all the infrastructure is smaller, drawing less energy and electricity using less water. So operationally, that's the cheaper of the two to keep working.

Was that an option to not just landscape, but build a smaller version or something?

That wasn't an option.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, that wasn't an option. And the residents seemed to like that reflection fountain. That's the name of it across the street from the stuff fountain, the reflection fountain. They seemed to like that one. And it does operate. There's a schedule on the website. It's operational. Lights has lit up at night and everything.

Okay. Well, thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. All right, Vice Mayor Rubio.

Okay.

Thank you. So I will start with continuing with what Council Member Adler was talking about, just so we make it a little easier for everyone listening in. So if 85 out of 704 responded, that's about a 12.1% response rate, which... I would like to see it higher. Do you know if there's any intention to reach out to the community, make a second attempt to get them to respond or maybe take notice? It's possible they may have just, you know, like many of us, we get our mail and sometimes we're in a hurry. And that's some particular point in our lives may just set it aside by accident. Is there any other efforts that you're considering?

Well, what we did during the public meeting in April, we encouraged everybody to go to that website. We included it on the mailer for the meeting, a QR code and a website address. We also, at that meeting, we encouraged all the residents to look at that survey. And so on the next meeting, mailer will, again, will have a link. Even though, you know, the survey's been out, I think, since January, the first or second week of January. It's been out a while. And unfortunately, other than word of mouth and also talking about it with the folks that call me or email me, it's difficult to get out there. And mass mailing is really the only way to get out there. We're trying to capture some email addresses, so we'll build a list so we can efficiently get a hold of folks in that zone. But other than the mailing we're going to have for the next meeting, whoever I talk to, I always encourage them to go to that survey, which is still active.

Any thoughts about just a text bank, a quick notice to all of them?

That's a good point. We'd have to obtain numbers, obviously, to get the ability to do that. But that's another avenue, a different avenue of taking versus mailing.

Yeah, I think sometimes it captures people's attention more because we always have our phones in our hands. Yeah. And then I'm just thinking maybe you can put a link in there where they can go directly to it. The HOA probably has a means to contact those people so you can get their phone numbers that way. Or you can give it to them to share it so that you protect their privacy in that regard. Just the thought of that. another way to try to increase outreach and increase the response rate to your outreach. Now, the only thing I wanted to, just for the good of the public, would it be possible to explain, there was a slide that was showing just the assessment increases, and I was just wondering if you could explain what's behind that. How were those numbers figured out?

Sure. So we work off what's called a reserve study. And the reserve study goes out 30 years. And I'll use Zone 6 as an example. So what we have for the Zone 6 is we know that a certain pump is going to need replacing. Let's just make it easy, say, in 10 years. So what we do with the reserve study is we'll plug in. Well, as soon as we install it, we'll count out 10 years and put in. the cost for replacement. And then 10 years after that, we'll put another cost for replacement. The same with the reseal, the same with painting of the sound walls, things like that. So we'll put that in, and what we'll do is look at, okay, what's coming up? What's coming up in the next year and the next few years? Do we need to increase their assessment so they can build the revenue to pay for this stuff? The other part of the reserve study are the expenditures. And expenditures, they go up every single year. Water PG&E go up every single year. And it's tough for all the zones because they, sometimes it goes up 5%, sometimes it'll be 10%. And we have to look at, okay, what's coming in? What are we taking in and up to, at the very least, pay for the expenditures of the zones? If that's the case, cool, then we can go back and say, okay, we're going to give $1,000, allocate $1,000 to refresh the landscape. Because they have the fund balance to support that. And that's what we're really doing for all the zones. We're building this fund balance, this reserve. And that's another reason why we increased the rates is If there's too much going out, we have to put it back in. And so if we increase, then we could either keep the revenue at a comfortable pace against the expenditures. And as it creeps closer, then we got to think about, oh man, We don't want to go under. There can't be an under. Because if there's an under, then the revenue starts eating away at the fund balance. Because there's too much expenditures going out, not enough revenue coming in. So whatever reserves they have, we have to draw from to make the zones whole. So the whole idea is to have enough of a fund balance to support all these projects. And that's via the reserve study. So anytime you see a small incremental change, $10 change in Canyon Lakes, we've done a lot of work in Canyon Lakes over the last few years. So we kind of have to build that reserve back up. And that's the idea behind this. And that's really the idea behind them. We've had a lot going out in terms of expenditures and in terms of projects. So we have to kind of build that reserve back up. So what we'll do is incrementally increase their assessment to kind of make up for that to build it back.

Now, to your knowledge, have you heard any responses back from residents about affordability for them? Because some people may be on a fixed income of some sort and they may not be able to respond to changes as easily. Have you heard any complaints from residents regarding that? And if so, proportionately, what would you approximately how many people do you think that is?

You know, I've been in, this is my third time around, and I've really heard feedback just from one resident. And it's a relationship we have with one of the zones, and she brought it to our attention. And we were going to raise them, I believe it was $10 annually. And that's because we did a lot in that zone over the last couple of years, a lot of landscape improvements. The idea for it was to kind of build the reserve back up. So maybe in two years or three years, we could do something else with another part of the zone. So that was feedback we got. We ended up keeping it flat this year. But I don't get a lot of feedback for that. Yeah, I mean, I welcome feedback. I welcome all feedback. I wish we had relationships like we do with Zone 5, Summerwood Loop, and some of the other zones. It'd be nice to have that.

Well, it's good to hear that not so many people are feeling that pressure because my follow-up question would have been, okay, what options do they have under those circumstances if they are in a pinch and they're feeling like, okay, this is going to be more than I can handle? Do they have some kind of recourse in that situation?

Yeah, I can't. I'm not sure with that. I mean, imagine... I don't know if that would be a county assessor, if there's any programs for that. I know there's programs for veterans, but I think that would be an outreach to the accounting assessor's office to get some info on that. But we'd consider any request. I mean, if it's something we could do, if it's a project we could even push off for two years just to keep the zone flat, we can do that.

Okay, so thank you. And then just a couple more things. One last question is, can you explain what the projected negative balance here is to...

Yeah, I'm coming up with a different term for that because that's not a good term. I don't like it. But all it is, it's the break-even point. That's all it is. When they have no fund balance or no reserve, that's what we consider a projected negative year. That's all it means. And we never want to get to that point. So as we're doing with Zone 6, we're staying ahead of it. We're about five years out before it gets to that point. So we're trying to stay ahead of all this.

So, and, and well, thank you. And then the last one's just, my last question is just more, and it might be too late for this because you're already kind of putting out ideas out there to the community, but it just crossed my mind because it's not all of the pumps in the fountain are broken, right? Just some.

There are, I wish aquatics was here. There's at least two pumps.

Okay.

Very early. First of the step found at least two pumps.

It's just something that was crossing my mind. And I was like, okay, even if we turn it into a garden, you could, I wonder if there's a way you could create like a little stream and there's still the effect of water with the ones that are working.

Right.

And then you could still create the effects of water, which is very tranquil, very relaxing to people, but still have the garden. And it's kind of a hybridized version with what we have that works. So not tossing everything out and replacing it entirely, but working with what's there and, And actually creating something that's actually might be a little bit more enriching, you know, versus one or one extreme or the other. I don't know. It's just the thoughts.

I know the pumps that are there are way too robust for a stream. If you think about they're pushing water up, it'd push it probably into Doherty, which we don't want. But it's a, it's an interesting concept. I like the idea of a cascading flowers, mimic water.

Yes.

I kind of like that idea. But every idea we'll consider. Every idea.

Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for your presentation. I really appreciate it and for taking the time to answer all of our questions.

All right. We're going to move to the public hearing portion for this item. And so can I get a motion to open the public hearing?

So moved.

Okay. Motion by Vice Mayor Rubio, second by Council Member Adler. And let's go ahead and take a vote on that. Okay. Motion passes 4 0 0. We have any speaker cards on this item.

There are no speaker cards and no public comment was received.

Okay. Can I get a motion to close the public hearing? So move motion by vice mayor Rubio second by council member Adler.

Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Okay, motion passes 400. Alright, so we've closed the public hearing. It's over to the council now. If there's no other discussion on this item, then we've got to get to the business of approving the engineer's report. And we'll need a motion to adopt resolution Number 2026-077, confirming the landscape and lighting district number 1984-1 diagram and assessments and levying the landscape and lighting district number 1984-1 assessments for fiscal year 26-27. Is there any discussion before we get a motion?

I just have a comment. This whole... Zone 6 is going on forever. If I remember right, I was in Parks Commission. So it's been forever. So a lot of the community members, they keep asking the same question to us about what is the final step, right? So... Let's see how we can expedite and get this to a closure, whether we are going with a landscape or with a fountain. And if I remember right, the fountains, even if you repair, there is no guarantees or warranty. If they go bad, again, you have to pay the same money to fix it. So, yeah, I think we need to bring it to closure on this one. That community is definitely anxious about this whole thing.

Yeah, they've been waiting a long time. And the push will be the first of the fiscal year to continue with the public meetings, get to a number that they're comfortable with, and then go to the Prop 218 vote. I'm projecting October maybe for the vote before the end of the calendar year. This vote could occur at any time. It doesn't have to be in November. So I'm hoping by, if we can get the meetings in place, then we could hopefully have it done by October. Because at some point we have to stop. We're going to have a lot of feedback. We're going to have public meetings about it. But at some point, they have to go to vote. We can't just continue, as you mentioned, go year after year. It's got to come to an end at some point. And whatever that decision is, public service will work with it. Yeah, we'll work with that decision. There'll be some hard decisions to be made. If it goes the other way, that's, you know, not healthy for the zone. But again, we'll work with that. That's whatever they decide.

That's good.

Thank you.

Okay. Are there any other discussion on the side? I'm with a motion. Okay.

I will second.

All right. We have a motion by council member Rose, second by vice mayor Rubio. Okay, motion passes unanimously. So we'll move on to the next item. Thank you, Gary, for that. We have another public hearing. This is for resolution number 2026-078, confirming the preserved landscape and lighting assessment district diagram and assessments and levying the preserved landscape and lighting assessment district assessments for fiscal year FY26-27. And so it would be the same process here. Same process. But I thank you for your detailed discussion the first time around. We may not have as many questions this time around. This is a smaller zone. Let's give it a shot.

Okay. Well, I appreciate, again, the opportunity. This is the Preserved Landscaping Lighting District. This is the newest district in the city. So a little background on the district. It was formed in 2018 and again with 19, same with 1984-1, the assessment fund maintenance to all the public landscaping and other improvements. Most improvements in the district were accepted and maintained by the city in fiscal year 25-26, current fiscal year. The outstanding, the roundabouts have not been accepted yet. However, I expect before the end of this calendar year, the roundabouts will be accepted and therefore maintained by the city. And then we'll have the entire zone as far as maintenance goes. And again, the difference with this zone is the max assessment rate is tied to inflation, and there's no cap to it. The cap is the inflation number. This year, inflation, the CPI, was 2.5%, so the max assessment rate went up 2.5%. some of the planned projects for the zone. So this is the first year we're gonna have a project account for the zone. Like I said, it's a new zone. Everything, the plants, trees, the hardscape infrastructure was all brand new. But we're getting to a point where we're starting to see plants in decline that maybe they just, the conditions weren't favorable. I know with the trees, the ginkgo trees, there's a lot of wind that blows that way, and they're starting to lean. There's also rodent damage to the trees, which is very interesting. So what we're going to do is select a tree, most likely a California native tree. We're leaning towards coast live oak or somewhere in that effect. We may go with two different types of trees. But the advantage of a native is, well, they're native. They're going to survive. And the environment out there, especially, you know, they're pretty sturdy trees and they'll do really well out there. And what our goal is to plant something that's not going to fail. It's a waste of money for the zone and it's a waste of staff time to maintain it. So that's going to be our goal. The other planned project is to improve the gold decomposed granite path. That's on the east and west side of Faria Preserve Parkway. It's failing because of there's almost the rainwater, broken irrigation even, is causing fissures in it. And Most likely due to compaction when it was installed or insufficient binder. A binder is kind of like a glue that holds it all together. Possibly insufficient binder. I know there's a lot of areas where the decoupage granite is really thin. And that doesn't do well. It easily cracks. Even with sufficient binder, it's just going to break. So we're going to repair sections of that over the next most likely two fiscal years because there's a lot of square footage of it. So the plan is to start it next fiscal year. Also, there's going to be some infill of dead and dying plants and trees. So getting on to the assessments, the current max assessment in that zone is 443.96. The proposed max assessment is 455.06. That's the max assessment. That's the do not exceed amount. We can't go over. So the proposed assessment rates, it currently is 295.99. We're going to go up to $315.15, which is a $19.16 increase. We don't feel we need to charge the max assessment. The zone is healthy. It's got a healthy reserve. And in 10 years, if something fails, we'll have a really good reserve to start fixing that stuff. And that's the way we, that's what we plan on doing with other zones as we go out to ballot. Zone six is gonna be the same way. We're gonna set it up to where we look out and we have the funds available to fix this stuff as it fails. This zone was set up that way since 2018. And they have a healthy reserve. And we're get to one of the final slides here. Same one as the last one. These are the steps to reestablish the zone. We're in step four right now, the public hearing. And recommended action, we conduct this public hearing. Consider approving this resolution confirming the Preserved Landscaping Lighting District assessment diagram and assessments, levying the Preserved Landscaping Lighting District's assessments for fiscal year 26-27. This presentation was not as long. All right.

Thank you, Gary. All right. That was very clear. Any questions?

Only one. I was just wondering on the fissures that are being caused along that path, is it because the design is just sort of a downward slope and there's nothing breaking up the water as it comes down?

That's my guess. Yeah, I've installed gold finds, DGE, and it's tough. Even with trails, if you see trails in the open space where they're just dirt trails, you get enough during storm events, you get enough water rushing, it's going to wear it away. Mother Nature is going to win. And that's exactly what it is. I think it's the grade of the slope on those, especially I think on the east side. And it's going to follow the path of least resistance. On the east side, you can see it running along the curve. So the curb line. And yeah, it's from rainwater and admittedly maybe broken irrigation as well. But it's definitely from rainwater. However, a proper installation, like with the Crow Canyon Winding Project on the north side, that's solid rock. That was installed correctly with sufficient binder in it. And that's going to be the goal for the next year and the next probably couple of years is to add sufficient binder so this never happens again. It's not guaranteed. Mother Nature will win. But at least it's going to give it a fighting chance against that.

Right. And I was just wondering, like, if there was something that we could do on a design level to try to mitigate that to sort of, you can't avoid it 100%, but perhaps postpone that from happening, make it to, you know, by creating sort of mitigating factors, efforts to in design that will help, you know, prevent that from happening as quickly as would normally be.

Yeah, so that's a challenge. So it is a walking path. What we've done in other, like in the open space trails, we've actually cut lines diagonally across it. So as the rainwater goes down, it pushes it to a side. However, we got to think about pedestrian traffic and whether that's going to cause a trip hazard. We've also used what's called straw wattle, that big, with the big stuff. It comes in long sections. It's for erosion abatement and stuff like that. But again, it defeats the purpose of having a walking path if we're installing those type of devices. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's definitely something we can look into, maybe consult our engineering team if there's anything we can do about it.

Yes, that still maintains the walkability and safety of pedestrians, of course.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Any other questions from council? All right. Thank you, Gary. Then we're going to move to the public hearing portion. Can I get a motion to open a public hearing?

So move. Second.

Okay. Motion by Vice Mayor Rubio, second by Council Member Adler. All right. Motion passes unanimously. Public hearing is open. Do we have any speaker cards?

There are no speaker cards and no written public comment has been received.

Okay. Then can I get a motion to close the public hearing? I move the motion to close the public hearing.

I'll second.

Okay. Motion.

I'll second it. That's fine.

Yes.

Okay. Motion by House Member Rose, second by Vice Mayor Rubio. Okay, motion also passes unanimously. The public hearing is closed. And so now is there any further discussion on this item before we call for a motion? No other discussion? Okay, can I get a motion to adopt Resolution 2026-078? So moved. All right. I second. Okay, we've got a motion by Senator Rubio, a second by Councilmember Adler. Okay. Again, the motion passes unanimously. Well, thank you, Gary. Appreciate it. And we will now move on to our next item, which is the new business, item 9.1, Teen Council 2025-2026 Annual Report. And thank you for hanging in there. And we're looking forward to your report. And we have Jessica. You're going to do the introduction. Is this Varsha General Agata?

Yes.

Okay. Welcome.

Thank you so much. Just give me a second to pull it up for you. All right, good evening, Mayor Armstrong and council members. Thank you so much for taking the time to have us here. It's always great to get before you and have an opportunity to present, especially when it's such an excellent topic and something that is so important to our community, which is our teen council. And so just to tee it off before I hand it over to Chair John Logata, this year, she also jumped in as our chair was not vice chair last year we lost our chairperson and so um it actually was not until our like very first meeting of the year that varsha stepped in as chair um and so she really did a great job you know jumping in kind of under the gun but because of being on teen council the year before And doing such an exceptional job in some of our ad hoc committees, she was able to provide a lot of continuity to our board. And we've, as you'll see as we go on in the report, and then once we get to the goals at the end, we've restructured it a little bit. There used to be between 11 and 13 goals. And you'll see as we get to the end and Varsha will get into it, but we've really narrowed that down to be about six goals that are more all encompassing. And then in response or in a way at, you know, making sure that we're seeing on top of what we need to do to be effective as a board. One of those will be to look at our bylaws, how are we conducting business? How are we making sure that teen voices are not only heard in the meetings, but then feel like they're being able to be effective, actually making change in their local sphere. And so it's a steep learning curve. But it's been great to have Varsha heading it up. And I'll let her get into the presentation.

All right. Thank you, Jessica. Evening version.

Good evening.

Okay, good evening council members. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. So as you know, my name is Varsha. I've served as the chair of the San Ramon Teen Council for the last year. So tonight I'll be sharing some of the projects and the initiatives and accomplishments that our Teen Council has worked on throughout the year, as well as the effort that, the impact of the efforts that these items have had on teens in San Ramon and more importantly, the broader San Ramon community. So first, I'd like to briefly introduce our committee. So the San Ramon Teen Council was established in 1997 after a recommendation from the Parks and Community Services Commission. This year, our council included 17 members and two alternates representing multiple schools across San Ramon. Some of them were Cal High, Doherty Valley, and Monta Vista. And our members are really passionate about leadership, community involvement, and really creating meaningful change for teens in our city. So throughout the year, we focused our work through four major ad hocs, Teen Wellness, Outstanding Teen Citizenship Award, Senior Tech Days, and then our Ambassador Program. But before discussing our projects, I just want to take a moment to recognize all of the incredible students who made this possible. Teen Council is truly a very collaborative effort. Every single meeting, every single member contributed time and ideas and energy throughout the year, and I'm sure Jessica will agree in saying that we're extremely proud of everything that we have been able to accomplish this year. Yeah, so to help us accomplish our goals this year, we formed temporary project-based committees, also known as ad hoc committees, and they allowed specific members to focus very deeply and hone in on specific community needs and then develop projects with the goal of more of a long-term impact. So now I'll walk through each of the committees and then I'll highlight some of their accomplished individuals. So our teen wellness ad hoc focuses on making wellness more accessible, relatable and responsive to teens in San Ramon. So this year, our committee worked to identify barriers that prevented students from using mental health resources and explored ways that we were able to improve awareness and awareness. engagement with for example school wellness centers and of course this applies to every future plan that I'll be mentioning in this presentation but creating these long-term plans was very important because it allows next year's teen council to continue to build on our progress rather than having them start from scratch and that was a big goal of mine this year helping ensure that this lasting impact within the community was a big focus this year. So some of our proposed initiatives included peer led transition programs for incoming freshmen, incorporating student speakers into mental health presentations and creating story to art programs that encourage creative expression. Our committee also developed a student centered survey idea to better understand what teens in our community truly need for the future and something that the council can use for next year as well. So this ad hoc was the Outstanding Teen Citizenship Award ad hoc, also known as OTCA. And this award recognizes teens who make a meaningful impact in the San Ramon community. And this year, a huge focus for us was working to improve the overall application process by releasing applications earlier. We gave applicants a larger time window as well to apply, to be eligible to apply. And then we also created a little bit more of a streamlined process committee structure and review process within the actual ad hoc itself. We had incredibly strong applications and it helped increase our engagement within the program itself. So, yeah, so this year's selected nominee was Donya Burke. She goes to Cal High, and she's a senior, and her accomplishments were truly inspiring for us all. She is really the reason that we have programs and awards like this. It's to inspire not only the council, but to the teens in San Ramon. So through her nonprofit, Humanities in Focus, she helped raise over $400,000, and she expanded the organization internationally, actually, as well, with more than 40 student officers across the globe. She also started a podcast to spread awareness. She served as a youth ambassador for the National Coalition Against Prescription Drugs Abuse, and she has collaborated with mayors and school boards on drug prevention initiatives. So her work truly, truly reflects the exact type of leadership and the type of community impact that Otka was created to recognize. You know, we were so honored to be able to bring to light a student with so much impact and drive. And we hope that the student also inspires future students of San Ramon as well. So our third ad hoc was our Senior Tech Days ad hoc. So this program focuses on helping seniors in our community feel more comfortable using electronic devices. So throughout the year, we organized four Senior Tech Days at the El Costa Senior and Community Center. So volunteers from teen council were able to answer questions, provide a little bit more of a one-on-one support as well as helping seniors navigate more everyday technology challenges. And then based on some of the feedback that we received throughout the year, we also expanded our workshops to include a little bit more of a cybersecurity education aspect and simple how-to technology supports. So like looking back to Last year and the progress that we like to track, these events are extremely well received, we feel like, and participation increased through another increased effort this year, which was our outreach efforts that was recommended from last year, like more flyers and lunchtime announcements for the seniors. So yeah, looking ahead, the committee also proposed a future senior game day or game night initiative. So the goal here is to create a little bit more of a relaxed and social environment where seniors can engage in technology and more of like a fun, low pressure setting. Our thoughts are that by combining something like a familiar activity like card games or bingo with more simple digital games that they'll be able to kind of link with the process. We want to make technology feel a little bit more approachable. We want to make it feel enjoyable, which is obviously the goal of all of these tech days. And I think a big part of this idea is really making seniors feel like technology is something that they want to use, not something that they have to use or feel like they necessarily need to and don't like using. And yeah, just something that they will enjoy learning more about in the future. So our fourth ad hoc was our ambassador program. And our ambassador program this year focuses on expanding teen councils outreach, especially to middle schools and communities that aren't currently directly represented on the council. So this year we received 50 applications. We interviewed 37 applicants. And then we selected 19 ambassadors from schools across the San Ramon Valley area. So there's a little bit of a larger range of schools represented within our ambassador program. And these ambassadors serve as student leaders. They gather peer perspectives, and they help bring more voices into our discussions, which is one of the main goals of the program. So from January to March, ambassadors created presentations and projects that were focused on important issues facing teens today. And this was where they had a little bit of freedom to focus on things that inspired them, things that were important to them, and things that they felt like other teens in their community would benefit from. So some of these topics included financial literacy, public speaking insecurity, environmental concerns, mental health, and then career guidance. So teen council members would mentor ambassadors throughout this process and then kind of support them in developing their ideas. But I think a big part of this program was allowing a larger number of students that aren't already in teen council to learn about local leadership, even if they aren't directly in a smaller group. you know, allowing them to develop those problem solving skills, understand how their ideas and their passions and things that they care about can really turn into real community impact and initiatives that can go further than just an idea or just something that you talk about with a friend. So while our ad hoc members that are in teen council did assist with the logistics of the program in terms of how it's set it up, the meetings, forming the groups. These ambassadors really put so much time and so much effort into their projects themselves. So two of the strongest projects moving forward were basic financial literacy classes for teens and then the development of a career mentorship hub. So we're excited to continue to support these initiatives in the future and see where they go as well. So outside of our committee projects, teen council members also remained actively involved in the community through volunteer service and outreach events. So some of our members participated in events like Senior Tech Days, the Teen Job Fair, and the Tri-Valley Youth Advisory Committee Roundtable. And these experiences really allowed teen council members to continue to strengthen their connection with the community while also really representing and supporting teen council members San Ramon teens in whatever ways that they can. So yeah, as Jessica was talking about, another important change that we made this year was restructuring our goals, our recommended goals for next year. So in previous years, our goals were a little bit more specific and limiting, which sometimes made it harder for the council to kind of adopt and take initiatives on new ideas because obviously the board doesn't stay the same every single year. So we want to really create goals that help us keep that flow of continuing initiatives and flow of information. So we kind of work to create a little bit of a broader, more flexible set of goals that still provide a direction. But I think what's great about these goals is that it really gives next year's council more opportunities to take action in whatever ways that they can, whatever ways that they feel is meaningful at the beginning of the year, and try and expand our programs and just respond to what is a very evolving need of San Ramon. You know, every single year it's different. We want goals that are going to reflect that. So the recommended goals that we have for 2026 to 2027, the board for that year is number one, review the San Ramon Teen Council bylaws to ensure alignment with existing city goals and the board's ability to make meaningful impact in addressing teen council needs, addressing teen needs within the city of San Ramon. Number two, strengthen and expand partnerships with local organizations, businesses, advisory committees, and staff to support teen wellness, mental health, recreation, and resource sharing while leveraging community spaces and intergenerational opportunities like our Senior Tech Days. Number three, recognize and celebrate teen achievements by continuing and enhancing programs like the Outstanding Teen Citizenship Award and partnering with other programs or platforms that highlight youth contributions and community impact. Number four, increase engagement with the middle school population through the ambassador program and work with staff to connect with the correct agencies to advance initiatives for high school students, to connect with peers and middle school students in a mentorship capacity, teaching specific technical skills. Number five, enhance team council's outreach, visibility, communication efforts by developing a coordinated strategy that includes social media expansion, community partnerships, and increased promotion of programs, events, applications, and opportunities. And finally, number six. Continue to establish necessary ad hoc committees to support the Teen Council's effort to appropriately represent teens in San Ramon and continue to build upon successes in addressing mental health, intergenerational opportunities, mentorship and skill building opportunities and helping connect San Ramon teens to resources. So overall, these goals are made to really try and give next year's teen council a stronger foundation while still leaving room for new ideas, new initiatives that they want to propose, whatever new leadership occurs next year. And we really hope that they help future members of teen council continue to expand its impact across San Ramon. And we really hope that it plays a role in that. Before concluding, we would like to recognize our graduating seniors and thank them for their dedication and their leadership throughout their time on team council. So Nishka will be going to UC San Diego, and she will be majoring in cognitive science. Ava Brooks is currently undecided, but she will be pursuing a major in public policy. Maya is going to UC Riverside, and she will be majoring in public policy and criminal law. And I will be going to Berkeley, and I'm majoring in data science in the fall. So thank you again for your time and your continued support for Teen Council. This year has really been incredibly meaningful for all of us, and we really look forward to continuing to serve and support the teens in Santa Monica. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Varsha. Yeah, let's give her a hand. Very impressive by the team council this year and a very impressive presentation. Congratulations on your selection to go to Berkeley. So let's open up for any questions. Anyone have any questions? All right. Well, thank you very much. Any final comments from council members?

I'm just coming.

Go ahead.

Thank you for great presentation. Thanks for leading Teen Council. You really led very well our Teen Council. Awesome leadership. Thanks, Jessica, for mentoring and guiding these teens. They're very precious and important for our community. And congratulations. All the best for your future endeavors. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. Council Member Adler.

Well, we have a couple of bears here. So I want to congratulate you for going to UC and upcoming. I think I'm almost feeling like you've you've already gone by college with that presentation. You're on your next job interview or something. But I'm the liaison over the last year, and I just am so impressed with the team council, how efficient you are and organized. And you have a lot to do with Jessica, but it's also you and your other school students who are just caring about the community. And I... I'm particularly glad that you are involved in mental health. You have the Ad Hoc Committee on Mental Health and then the peer-led transition program for middle schoolers, which I think, you know, going from middle school to high school is a big step and there's a lot of anxiety and, you know, and that's so good that you have people that can come in and talk to the middle schools and help with that transition. And I also like the financial literacy. I always think that we start way too late in educating our kids on the financial aspects of life. And so I'm just impressed. I just remember when I was involved in... And, you know, student government, I think there was a lot more goofing around in my day than there is right now from what I see. But congratulations. Great report and continue on. Do good things at Cal and also your teen council program will continue and do great things. So thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Rubio.

First and foremost, Varsha, go Bears. You're going to have to get used to saying that a few times, right? It's a great university. And I don't say that just because that's the university we went to, but it's a very rigorous academic school. I studied science there at my MCB neurobio. So you're going to be, I know what data... You're really going to be extremely busy there. But, you know, this is the future and it's a great university. So congratulations to you on that. And thank you also for stepping in last minute. That is hard. You're in your senior year. You're going through applications. You're going through all these different things. I mean... it really it's a testament to your character really to take that on and to do it with the grace that you did as well as jessica stepping in as well to support you through that and honestly what you have put what all of you have put together on the teen council this year when i see there is is beautifully done i think something that i have not seen in the previous years i think we kind of used to be very focused on like these very specific goals rather than like a vision and something like you said that leaves some room for creativity and building kind of building upon that foundation. And you really stepped it up this year, I think, and gave it, gave it form, something that the next wave of teens that come in can pick up and build on. So that was just my, I commend you all on that. Very well done. And, you know, just, you know, thank you. And please don't hesitate. You don't have to wait a year. to come and tell us if there's anything that's on your mind. Just know that we are accessible to all of you. And if you ever have any questions or anything comes to mind, please let us know how we can support you. I was on the teen council my first two years as a council member, and it's one of the best run committees. And it's really a testament to our community and our young people. So thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, and I'll just kind of close it out by again saying thank you and wishing you the best. I was glad to see the review of the bylaws up there also. I mean, we had a... young, uh, lady come and speak to us at, at city council. And, uh, we also got some emails on that about wanting to be more actionable, more, you know, make a difference, actually do doing things and that sort of thing, not just having a meeting and talking about things, but actually getting out there and making a difference. And so, uh, perhaps that review will, you know, kind of realize some of those things as well. But again, thank you for your presentation and, uh, and great work by the council is here and we look forward to more good things in the future and good luck to you.

Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. All right. With that, we are now on to item 9.2. We're going to talk about a resolution. This is a proving technology disruption of telephonic and internet service during public meetings policy to establish procedures for responding to a technology disruption. Ooh, in the telephonic or internet services that provide two way remote public access to meetings of the San Ramon city council. All right. That was a mouthful, but we know about SB 707 and we know this, we knew this was coming. So let's hear what you got. Evening, Alicia.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. I'm Alicia Poon. I'm the City Attorney. I'm just here simply for a very narrow reason, which is to ask that the Council approve a technology disruption policy. Just for... To be abundantly clear, this does not have anything to do with disruptive individuals at meetings, whether they are in person or whether they are remote. This is solely about the technological aspect of it and when there's a disruption, what steps the staff will take to resume the meeting again. So as the mayor has already mentioned, this is required under SB 707. The policy is required to be adopted by July 1st, 2026. So I am asking to spare you from reading the staff report further. I just am asking for the council to review the policy, provide any comments, amendments if necessary, and adopt the resolution approving the policy. And I will note that we did go to policy committee. In my staff report, I mentioned the comments. There was only one text comment from Vice Mayor Rubio that is reflected in Attachment B. And I will take any other comments. And then lastly, it just came to my attention that the original title of the policy that started with just disruption might have been a little confusing. And that inserting technology before disruption might be a clearer in making the point that the policy is just about technology disruption. So if you would, if it so pleases the council, you can recommend that the policy be titled technology disruption, because currently it's just disruption. And that's, I just ask that that be part of your motion, if that's the pleasure of the council.

Yeah, that makes good sense to me. But just for the record, though, just review quickly what is in the staff report. We saw the red line part of the staff report and everything else. But what in particular is it saying, just for the public to understand, what happens if we have a technology disruption? What do we do?

Sure. So what happens is we will be offering remote public access for public to participate remotely. And should the remote service go down, which we're using Zoom or we use Zoom and we use Zoom, If there is a point where it goes down, we need to try to, we need to adjourn the meeting and hope that it will, we can reestablish connectivity for the next hour. If we do sooner than an hour, then great, resume the meeting. If we do not, then you have to make a decision whether to fully adjourn the meeting completely and resume another day, another time, or you'd have to make alternatively you could continue the meeting after making a finding that that the benefit of continuing the meeting outweighs the the drawback of not having the ability for those who are remotely participating to see them to see and hear the meeting

Right.

Is that clear enough?

Yeah, thank you.

Sure. And I'm here for questions, comments about the policy, if anybody has one.

Yeah, we had Vice Mayor Rubio, you're on a policy committee, but let me just start with Council Member Adler, Council Member Ross, any questions on the policy?

No, I went over today, so I think I understand pretty well. I was curious to hear what Vice Mayor Rubio said about it.

Okay. No questions. It's pretty straightforward. Anything?

So, no, it was a pretty straightforward meeting. I think the only part of the red part was just to more clarifying language, like under what conditions would it merit that we should adjourn, just to make it clear. Because if we explain it for one person, I felt it was important to also explain it for the other situation, the opposite situation, just to make it clear so that there's a process and that we can follow should we feel that it's important to adjourn for some reason rather than continuing under the circumstances. But and I do agree as well that I think telephonic disruption would leading technology disruption, I think, is a great amendment. um, because it leads with specifically what we're talking about rather than the other way around. Yeah. Okay.

That's it.

Okay. Any, any further comments? Any other questions or questions?

Okay. Uh, well, before we kind of move on, then let's, uh, open up public comment on this item. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak?

There are no speaker cards and we did not receive any written public comment.

Okay. I will close public comment and, uh, It's up to the council now as to what we do about this new policy. Does anyone wish to make a motion? I move the motion. As amended with the title change.

Title change. Just add technology before disruption. And I will second that.

All right. We have a motion by Council Member Gross, second by Vice Mayor Rubio. All right, motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Alicia. We're one step closer to implementation of the SB 707 change on how we conduct our meetings.

Thank you.

All right. Now we are on to the next item, which is public hearing as item 9.3. This is an ordinance next in line amending title A, general and administration, Division A4 officers and employees of the San Ramon Municipal Code to change the time for holding city council meetings. And I will turn it over to Christina Franco for the staff report.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. We are here today to introduce the ordinance that updates the Santa Rosa Municipal Code that changes the start time for the regular City Council meetings from 7 o'clock to 6.30. At the last City Council meeting, this topic was discussed amongst creating various items to support meeting efficiency. So this ordinance would update the mini code reflecting the new start time, as well as we did update the location of City Hall. It used to be 2222 Camino Ramon. So we did change that as well, but otherwise no other procedural city council elements to the city council meetings are affected. And of course, there's no fiscal impact associated with this change. So tonight's staff is recommending that the city council introduced the ordinance, waive the reading, read by title only, and place the item on the next city council meeting on June 23rd for adoption. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

All right. Thank you. So, I mean, this is timely. We did have a discussion on this at our last meeting, a detailed discussion. And it's also kind of coinciding timely with the SB 707 changes to go in with the future of two-way communications now. So there's an impact of that process with the time change. Any questions for Christina from council?

No, not on my end.

Nope.

You got it right in last meeting.

We asked everything possible.

Okay. All right. Very good. Then can I get a motion to open the public hearing? So this is the open to public hearing, introduce the ordinance, waive the reading and read by title only and Again, ordinance next in line of the City Council amending Title A general and administration Division A4 officers and employees of the San Ramon Municipal Code to change the time for holding City Council meetings.

So moved.

Second. Okay, motion by Vice Mayor Rubio, second by Council Member Verros.

To confirm, this is opening the public hearing.

This is opening the public hearing.

Thank you.

Yes. And motion passes unanimously. The public hearing is now open. And who's our first speaker?

There are no speaker cards and no written public comment.

Okay. Well, then can I get a motion to close the public hearing?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Vice Mayor Rubio, second by Council Member Veroz. Okay. Motion to close public hearing passes unanimously. So, uh, we're now to the point where we, uh, do we have any, uh, more discussion on this item? Okay. Hearing no more comments or discussion, then, uh, let me turn to our city attorney. Uh, As far as a motion to continue the item, is that the ordinance for adoption at the City Council meeting scheduled for June 23rd, 2026, do we need any additional reading of the title? I did that previously about read by title only and all that, or do we have to kind of do that as part of the motion also?

I believe the title has been read already, so we're good on the reading. Okay.

So then can I get a motion to continue the item and set the ordinance for adoption at the City Council meeting scheduled for June 23rd, 2026?

So moved.

Second. Okay. Motion by Vice Mayor Rubio, second by Council Member Burroughs. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Christina. And we're going to move on to item 9.4 now. This is a resolution number 2026-080, establishing a word count limit for the voluntary candidate statement for the 2026 municipal election. Okay. And we have... Jones-Neschel is going to be our presenter.

Well, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. The item before you is a resolution establishing the maximum word count for voluntary candidate statements for the November 2026 municipal election. The City contracts with Contra Costa County to print and distribute these statements as part of the official elections material. California Elections Code allows local agencies to authorize candidate statements up to 400 words. Contra Costa County's standard candidate statements fee is based on a 250-word statement. The county will accommodate statements up to 400 words. However, exceeding 250 words is doubled the standard statement fee. For the November 2026 election, the county estimates cost for candidate statements are, for the mayor, it's $1,218 for up to 250 words, or $2,436 for statements up to 400 words. For District 2, it would be $461 for up to 250 words, and $922 for statements up to 400 words. And for District 4, it's $438 for up to 250 words and $876 for statements up to 400 words. The city has historically allowed candidate statements that exceed the county standard of 250 word limit. For the November 2020, 2022, and 2024 municipal elections, the City Council approved candidate statements up to 400 words. Allowing up to 400 words provides candidates with greater flexibility to share information about their background, qualifications, and priorities with the voters. Candidate statements remain entirely optional and all costs associated with preparing and printing the statements are paid by the candidate. As a result, there are no fiscal impacts to the city. The policy committee reviewed this item on May 27th, 2026, and after discussion, recommended maintaining the city's recent practice of authorizing candidate statements up to 400 words. Staff recommends that the city council adopt the resolution establishing either the 250 or 400 word limit for voluntary candidate statements for the November 2026 municipal election. And then following council direction, staff will notify Contra Costa County Elections Office and ensure the approved word limit is reflected in all of the candidates' filing materials. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you, Joan. Any questions for Joan on this word count item? Okay. All right. Hearing none, I think... I think we've all, I know, I guess this might be kind of new for you, Council Member Adler, but I think the rest of us have been through this discussion before. Do you have any, let me just kind of clarify with you, any questions that you might have on this?

So if you're verbose, you need to pay more. I know you are allowed if you wanted to. to have more words. You just have to pay the difference, right? Or are we saying that we are going to stick with a 400?

It is a set amount. So the council must decide if they're going to limit it to 250 or 400. Yeah. And as I recall,

you're basically paying for space on the voter guide. So it's either a small space or a big space. If it's the 250-word space, it's this much. But even if we authorize the bigger 400-word count, you could still only do 250 words. You don't have to fill every word on there. But what we've talked about in the past is that For many candidates, this is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach the most amount of people with your qualifications or what you're all about and how you want to sell your message. And so that's why in the past we've had a tendency to go with the larger word count just because it gives more opportunity to kind of make a case for why you are the best candidate.

Well, since you... Have you guys have been, have done this before? Do you feel the 250 was sufficient or do you feel like you.

No, we had the 400.

Yeah.

Historically. Yeah. Historic historically we've, we've followed that pattern where it's up to two 50 is the first column or if more than two 50, but no more than 400 words, it's a second column. That's historically the pattern we've followed. And I think it's worked pretty well. I think so.

And again, this is optional. You don't have to do a candidate statement. It's up to you if you would like to have that information included in the candidate guide. Right.

Makes sense to do that. Okay. Okay.

Okay. All right. If there's no questions, I'm going to open up public comment on this item. Do we have any speaker cards?

No speaker cards, no written public comment.

I will close public comment. And, uh, so it's over to the council on, uh, what we would like to do. We have a resolution basically establishing a word count of 400 words, uh, word count limit for the voluntary candidate statement for this upcoming election. And, uh, If there's no other discussion on this item, can I get a motion on the resolution?

I move the motion for resolution number 2026-080, establishing a vote count limit for the voluntary candidate statements for the 2026 municipal election.

Okay, motion by Council Member Rose, second by Council Member Adler. Any final discussion? Okay, then we'll go ahead and vote. All right, motion passes unanimously. We're moving right along to our final new business item of the evening, item 9.5, resolution number 2026-081, establishing a voluntary campaign expenditure limitation for the 2026 municipal election. And we have a presentation again by our city clerk, Joan Snashel.

So the 2026 election will include the offices of mayor, council member for District 2, and council member for District 4. And state law in the city's municipal code allows campaign expenditure limits on a voluntary basis. The purpose of these voluntary limits is to promote fair and orderly elections, encourage realistic campaign spending, reduce campaign costs, and minimize the appearance of the appearance of improper influence in local elections. Historically, the city has established voluntary expenditure limits using a methodology based on the number of registered voters, anticipated campaign costs, postage rates, printing expenses, outreach activities, and campaign signage costs. So for the 2024 election, the council adopted voluntary expenditure limits of approximately $1.50 per registered voter for the mayor's race and $2.50 per registered voter for the council's. As of April 3rd, 2026, there were approximately 52,259 registered voters citywide, 14,523 were in District 2, or I'm sorry, registered voters in District 2, and 13,308 registered voters in District 4. So using those voter registration figures, staff developed several expenditure limit options for the council's consideration, and they're on page three and page four of the staff report. The city's policy committee reviewed the item at their May 27th meeting. And after reviewing historical spending data, voter registration totals, anticipated campaign costs, the committee recommended establishing a voluntary expenditure limit of $1.75 per registered voter for the mayor's race and $2.75 per registered voter for the council race. This is an increase of 25 cents per registered voter from 2024. So based on the current voter registration numbers, those recommended limits would result in a maximum voluntary expenditure of 91,453 for the mayor, 39,938 for District 2 and 36,597 for District 4. So there is no physical impact associated with establishing these voluntary expenditure limits. The council has several options this evening. You can adopt the policies committee's recommendation, maintain the same per voter expenditure limits used in 2024, increase the limits to reflect a higher campaign cost, or establish lower limits to encourage reduced campaign spending. And following the council's direction, staff will prepare candidate pledge forms reflecting the adopted limits and will post each candidate participation decision on the city's website consistent with prior years. So staff is recommending that the city council approve this resolution, establishing the voluntary campaign expenditure limits for the 2026 municipal election that would be reasonable and fair for all candidates. And that concludes this presentation. And again, I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

All right, very good. Thank you. I understand the staff report. And again, Vice Mayor Rubio, you were on policy. Any additional things you want to add to it?

So basically, Councilmember Joynette and I were in that meeting and basically we thought it was just reasonable to maybe just go only one level above the 2024 election to account for any increased costs. As we all know, there's been inflation. So it's just to account for any unexpected increases in cost to run your campaign. There's just inherent costs that have increased inevitably, but we felt that that should suffice.

Okay. All right, thank you. Yeah, and these are voluntary expenditure limits and very generous amounts. It's not impossible that someone could get up to that limit. In fact, I guess there's some history in the past, but for the most part, I think most candidates... are well below the maximum allowable on this voluntary limit. So I understand what you've proposed and any questions from Council Member Veroes or Council Member Adler?

Only what did you do call the print shop and find out the cost this year compared to 2024 in the sign shop? Is that kind of-

I know postage has gone up for sure. That's true. Postage has gone up quite a bit. And so but but as mentioned in general, I think most of us have usually stayed quite a bit below that. But nonetheless, we also want to account. We're trying to be consistent with the process that we've had historically. and really increased it just slightly to adjust for that cost of, you know, increase in inflation, obviously the impact of that, which is being felt at every level of our economy. So, yeah.

Yeah, I noticed in past results that just because you spend more money doesn't guarantee you're going to get more votes either. So that's another factor, just looking at the past few years. All right, thank you.

All right. And, uh, and thank you, uh, Joan for putting in, uh, the 2022 and 2024 data also that helps give a context as to what we're talking about and the numbers we're talking about. All right. Uh, no other questions. I'm going to open up public comment on this item. We have any speakers.

There are no speakers and, uh, no written public. Okay.

I'm going to close public comment then. And it's over to the council and how we want to move forward. Uh, If there's no other final discussion, then can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2026-081, establishing voluntary campaign expander limitation for the 2026 municipal election as indicated here and recommended in the staff report? Move the motion.

Second.

All right. Motion. Council Member Varroa, second. Council Member Adler? Second.

All right.

Everybody hit save on your button.

Voted. I'm sorry. Do we have everybody in? Okay, good.

All right. Motion passes unanimously. And that was the last business item. We're going to move on to item 10, city manager and city council members' comments and matters initiated. I'll just start off by thanking the council. We had a lot to cover tonight. We had 12 items on consent, a special presentation. We had two public hearings of unfinished business, new business. We had an annual report. We had three resolutions and a public hearing. So I think we moved through it pretty good. It's nine o'clock, but it's now time to close it out and hear from our city manager and council members, and we'll close it out for the evening. Scott.

Good evening, Council. Just one update for tonight, given the red flag warning. For those listening from home, the National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for the East Bay Hills from late Wednesday night, 11 p.m., through Thursday morning, 9 a.m., Strong winds, low humidity and dry fuel can cause fires to spread rapidly. Of course, that's what we're concerned about here. We encourage residents to stay informed, review emergency plans and avoid activities that could spark a fire. I'm happy to report that our public safety partners, both at the police department and the fire district, are partnering and monitoring and posting on social media this evening. So this is a timely reminder for anyone who might be tuning in. uh in our community to take action and get prepared uh the fire district has an upcoming pep course which is a preparedness emergency management preparedness course center on valley protection district is offering the personal emergency preparedness classes every month in 2026 Participants will learn to create a home emergency plan, build an emergency kit with supplies, and complete basic emergency response tasks in and around their home. The next class is Thursday, June 25th from 6 to 9 p.m. It's a family-friendly class, so all ages are welcome. Anyone 16 and under needs to register with an adult. And we encourage people to go to the fire district's website at firedepartment.org forward slash PEP. And that's the update for tonight.

All right. Thank you, Scott. Council, who would like to go first? Let me turn to Council Member Adler. Sure.

Thank you. May 26th, I went to a driver appreciation lunch for our school bus drivers, and they were giving, because of their good safety record, and there were actually some kids in the bus that they had to wake up who had just kind of not gotten off, so they had to make sure they got home safely. They were given certificates of recognition, and I enjoyed speaking with some of the drivers. The next day on the 27th, I attended the Street Smarts Advisory Conference, we discussed the 2026 20 2027 school assembly program we're going to have local middle schools we'll do a e-bike safety and educate education program with local police departments and at the high school level the chp start smart teen driver safety program will will take place um and we conclude the 2026 or 2025 2026 presentation. Those were concluded last month. We're also doing a 2026 Community Bike Festival, which will take place at the Iron Horse Middle School Blacktop September 12th, 2026. So that's happening a little bit later this year. We also they also did some outreach tables at the Art and Win Festival, and they're also going to do another one of those in Danville's at the Walk and Roll program. The Tri-Valley City Council meeting we had. I didn't write the date there, but it was just a week or so ago. Yeah. May 27? Okay. It was very interesting. What I like is we talk, we have our people that are schooled on the bills at the State Assembly and tell us what is going on. And there was a discussion, a lot of discussion on AB 1383. and some consternation about that bill and back and forth about that. The session will end August 31st. June 15th, which is coming very soon, is the deadline by which the state budget must be passed. So that's got to be done soon. Let's see. Also on June 1st, I attended the raising of the pride flag, and we talked about that a little bit earlier. I attended with the vice mayor, who made very nice welcoming remarks to kick off. uh pride month and remember the lgbtq uh community so that was very very well done a good event to have here in san ramon on june 6th i attended the 20th anniversary celebration of cert which is the community emergency response team And we have a lot of local volunteers, something we can all be proud of. We have about 1,200 active volunteers who undergo a multi-day program which teaches disaster preparedness, fire safety, and medical training. I enjoyed speaking with the fire chief, Jonas Aguilar, along with our assistant city manager, Scott Cole, was there as well. And it was great talking to some of the volunteers. Also, it's a great facility, a very modern training center that we have there here in San Ramon. We have a great communications command vehicle, which can be used in all kinds of disasters around the state. It's a state-of-the-art vehicle, so it's another thing we can be proud of. So that's what I did.

All right. Thank you. Let me get down to Council Member Evaristo.

So as Council Member Adler already mentioned about TVCC on May 27th, I also attended. One key item about that is the tightening e-bike classifications by lowering the speed with AB 1557. So a lot of community members, they are worried about these e-bikes, the speeds that's going on in our community. So this is coming up. This is going to tighten the e-bikes classifications. And on Thursday, May 28th, attended our Congressman DeSonia's town hall meeting. Vice Mayor Rubio kicked it off and we had a good information about what's going on with our current situation, especially with the federal grants and how we are, the new laws, how they're impacting our regional as well as within local communities. There was pretty interesting town hall meeting. So that's pretty much from my side. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Vice Mayor Rubio.

Okay. So on May 27th, I attended the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District Board meeting. Basically, they were just covering a whole host of different capital improvement projects and like the cost that a cost review and their budget, basically. Then May 27th, we obviously had the policy committee meeting and what we just discussed earlier. May 27th also, as was mentioned already by Council Member Adler, I attended the Tri-Valley City Council dinner. May 28th, I attended the San Ramon Valley Unified School District Liaison Meeting. It was a joint meeting with Danville. We spent a great deal of time talking about e-bikes again. I think there's just... Really, it's a difficult situation where many of us are trying to still figure out, grapple with what's the best approach, what's going to work, what will work, what won't. So I think it's just kind of like we're watching what the different cities are doing to manage that and seeing which ones are producing better results. The other thing was May 28th, as was mentioned already by Council Member Rose, I attended the Congressman Desaulniers Town Hall. As mentioned, he provided an update of what's happening in D.C. May 29th, I attended the EBRIXA board meeting, basically talking about mostly budget and what new contracts are on the horizon. We're working on trying to secure I'm serving on an ad hoc committee trying to identify potential new clients to work with them. And then on Monday, June 1st, I attended along with council member Edler, the pride flag, the raising of the pride flag over here at over at the park. It was a really well attended event. We had P flag discovery center. And rewire was there, I believe they were there as well. And we had just a whole bunch of people there. It was a good turnout. And then on June 4th, I attended the Marketing, Planning, and Legislative Committee meeting for County Connection. Basically just went over, again, state legislative bills that will obviously impact ridership, anything from workplace surveillance on buses, as well as PEPRA and retirement benefits contracts were kind of the big key issues. a part of that. And also we just got an update on the youth ride free program, which is going to start kickoff soon. And obviously we're working with CCTA as well to make a transition eventually, hopefully starting next year and to continue that program year round. But, and I think that's it. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. Yeah. Just a couple updates for me. I, The 1st of June, I attended the Southwest Area Transportation Committee Board of Directors meeting, and the CCTA, Contra Costa Transportation Authority Executive Director Tim Hale, provided an overview of CCTA and highlighted some of the investments and different community benefits that are delivered through the Measure J funds, that's county half-cent sales tax. He also discussed the development of the transportation expenditure plan that's ongoing. And then he also spoke at my mayor's breakfast last Friday. Same sort of thing, talking about transportation impacting San Ramon, some of the changes in the future, as well as took it as an opportunity to listen to some of our San Ramon residents as to what some of the pain points are for San Ramon. and some things that we can do in the future to make transportation better in our area. On the 4th of June, I attended the Contra Costa County Mayor's Conference. The special presentation there was by Eve Burge. She is the director for White Pony Express, and she talked about food recovery and food distribution. There's a lot of food that's wasted, about a third of the food, Our grocery stores and restaurants and things like that are wasted. So they have a recovery and distribution system so that they can recover as much food as they can. They distribute about 12,600 pounds of food daily. So that's over 10,000 meals daily for those who are food insecure, who might otherwise skip meals or perhaps are on a nap or just can't afford food. in general so uh and that's that's it for my report and i was just okay i'm sorry that's that's not a point of order but i'll allow a public i was just going to ask you if you would allow a public comment under this item generally speaking we don't do this for council member comments matters an issue but i'll i'll allow it

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you. This is not about whether you allow me or not. This is my right under the Brown Act. And the clerk really doesn't have any right to deprive me of my right. This is not the first time she's done it to me. And actually, I would like to... comment today based on your comments regarding e-bike. Recently, I'm so surprised that we actually have budget to hire an assistant to the city manager's office and he's a young man and so I think he's the right age, Mr. Shah, to be able to maybe help our city to get a good picture on the ages of the students who have e-bikes in our city, as well as maybe expand with the school district to see how are those e-bikes used. Why is that important? Number one, safety. Number two, if we can identify peak use of these e-bikes, then we can properly, sort of like with the help of the police officers, maybe detour certain bike lanes or such as like right here, peak hours and e-bikes just don't mix very well together. We want to make sure that the students are protected, don't we? So I would like to make that one of the city manager's office responsibility to be agendized to present that to the community, please. Secondly, I just came from the school district. It seems like we really have money problems across the board, and I'm not sure why. The only thing I can think of is really like, either legislation or staff or I'm not sure, but we're really at the mercy of you guys to properly help us oversee spendings. And it's very important that if you should miss anything or if you can't really speak to it because of your relationship with the staff, then the public needs to be able to speak to it. So I ask you to please give me consideration whenever I ask you to please allow me to pull a consent agenda and also to make sure that, you know, just really watch carefully because sometimes clerks may allow you to pass something that really should be an open discussion item. It's not the first time I've noticed that our city is not really following Brown Act. But I don't have the money to sue you. So please just, you know, respect my rights as an American citizen living in communist California. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Any other speakers?

No, that was it.

OK, then I'll close public comment on this item. And with that meeting is adjourned. The next meeting will be June 23rd, 2026. Thank you very much. Good evening.