City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress. Return to the agenda. Uh let the record show that all council members are currently present. We have no presentations tonight. Again, I'm going to go back to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak to um any issue that's not on the agenda this evening? Not on the agenda. Okay, let's go to the consent calendar. These are generally considered routine items. Certainly, if there's an item that you would like to have a conversation about, feel free to ask that it be pulled. The consent calendar consists of the following items. Approval of the audited demands, approval of the March 12, 2026 city council minute minutes. adopt a resolution designating by title the city manager, assistant city manager, and finance director as authorized agents and authorizing the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services Form 130, designation of applicants agent resolution for non-state agencies. Four, adopt a resolution acknowledging a receipt of a report made by the fire chief of the Alama County Fire Department regarding the inspection of certain occupancies requiring required to perform annual inspections in such occupancies pursuant to sections 13148.2, I'm sorry, 13146.2 and 13146.3 of the California Health and Safety Code. Five, mid-year budget review and adoption of a resolution amending the 2024 2026 banual budget and capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2526. And last, initiate initiate of fiscal year 2627 landscape and lighting assessment district proceedings and authorization to execute amendments number three to the contractual services agreement with Francisco and Associates for the administration of the city's landscaping and lighting districts and other special financing district uh administration services. Mr. Manon, any item you want pulled?

Not this evening, honor. Anybody in the audience that would like to have a conversation or discussion further on any of those consent items? Colleagues, any comments? Any items you want pulled? Can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar

by Council Member Canio? A second by Council Member Gindoll. Please vote. And that passes unanimously. We have no public hearings tonight. Uh we're going to go to other business. adopted a resolution authorizing an agreement with Max Craig Inc. DBA MAC 5 for consulting project management services in an amount of 4,398,229 for the fire stations 27 to 29 replacement project CIP number 1410. Mr. Medon.

Yes. Good evening your honor members of the council. Uh as I indicated earlier during the special session of New York City Council, uh tonight we'll be presenting to the council with a recommendation on a project management service agreement with MAC 5 and this would be for the replacement of fire stations 27 and 29. Uh the recommended contract is in the amount of approximately 4.4 million. I'm going to be passing the matter over to our city engineer, Mr. Mickey Sabota. He'll be presenting the staff report on this item. Mr. Sabota. mentioned earlier tonight there was a initiative to design and begin work to replace fire stations 27 and 29. Well, the purpose of this presentation is we're here and we're ready to go. Um the so the slides I'm going to show I'm going to cover the the background of this proposed project. Uh why we need a project management consultant. We'll go over the consultation uh consultant selection process, solicitation selection process, and then our staff recommendations. So, to provide some background, fire station 27 uh located a corner of Cherry and Mauy Avenue uh next to Sportsfield Park. Uh it was built in 1981. Houses a crew of three firefighters uh quite outdated. also include the training facility. Uh, fire station 29 located at the corner of Rushin Drive in Newark uh, Boulevard was also originally built many decades ago in 1962. Houses a crew of three firefighters. Uh, facilities master plan identified uh, these two among the three highest priority projects. Uh and you can see highlighted on the image on the right is an actually actually an excerpt of the facility's master plan identified the replacement of these uh fire stations so that they can be rebuilt and to comply with current safety codes and other building codes and requirements. So the

project background is to demolish the existing stations uh build new stations to meet current codes and standards. Um I do want to let's see go to the next slide here. So why do we need a consultant? Well uh basically all of this uh I'm not going to read through all of these um but it's quite an extensive list of of tasks that we needed. Now when we initially came to city council it was for preliminary planning. We've certainly added a lot more because we want to do as much as we can to expedite this project. So this scope of work does include not only preliminary planning but a lot of the design efforts necessary to get us up to the point of establishing a bridging document which is a document we need to go out and select the design team consultant so that we can start construction. I'd argue that this is a relatively large and complicated project. Um I was reviewing a CIP I I believe this is on probably the third largest CIP from a dollar perspective. Um, we'll talk about the two largest projects later on tonight. And I would also argue that this is probably more like four projects because we've got two fire stations, but during construction, we're also going to need to construct and make sure we have interim fire stations so that can so that they can continue to provide services during construction. I do want to note that we are looking for one consultant to provide uh this whole comprehensive list of of services. uh the the solic solicitation and review process. So back in November of 13th, I came to city council or s city council approved this project. Um we gave ourselves the weekend to rest and the following Monday on uh November 17th, we issued this RFP that uh we've got a photo on the right to see what we can do to select uh a comprehensive uh team to assist us with this project. Uh early

December was the due date. We got two proposals, one from coming group and the other from Mac 5. Uh, initially both proposals did not include the full list of of services that I have here listed on this previous slide. Uh, we contacted both consultants uh asked them to resubmit proposals that truly uh covered all of those items. Uh, in early January coming um provided a a correspondence seeing that they weren't able to do all that. they proposed a two contract approach which doesn't quite meet our needs. Um MAC 5 on the other hand was able to provide uh that list. Um on the lefth hand side you'll see our selection criteria. Uh these are the five points that we used to evaluate Mac 5 as well as coming. So why Mac 5? Um, as I mentioned, they were really the only consultant that were was responsive to our needs and and truly provided um a comprehensive uh list of consultants to assist us with this project. On the right, you'll see that under MAC 5, they bring a whole slew of subconultants to help us out. This includes uh geotech, structural, they've got fuel, mechanical, um landscape, architect, and architect. So they have a full comprehensive team to really get this project going again from that includes all the preliminary preliminary planning efforts, preliminary design up to the point of construction um construction management as well. Uh they demonstrated alignment with the city and the fire district's goals for project success. Um their qualifications were outstanding. Um their consultant team was great. They have a lot of experience on fire stations and I'll show that on the next slide. They were able to demonstrate effectively uh how they can manage risks, cost, schedule and quality and they um we do have uh

noted satisfaction from their uh previous and current clients. So this shows some of the other fire stations that MAC 5 has has done or are currently working on. I do want to note in the middle the Alama County fire stations. Mac 5 is uh currently working on three of fire of the fire stations in various stages of design and um construction. Uh back in November when we presented this item, uh I told city council that we expect four to five years from start to finish construction. Uh we still believe that's a reasonable um schedule for completion of this project. That's what the schedule reflects up on the screen. Um, we do have representatives from Mac 5 here today and I I'm hoping that they'd prove me wrong. I'm hoping that they can do things better in Newark and beat this schedule, but this schedule does reflect what staff feels is a reasonable schedule. Uh, four to five years is is a typical time frame that the current uh the other three projects in the fire district are are matching. So, we think this is a reasonable schedule. Uh that goes to our staff recommendations is to recommend amending the bal budget uh in the CIP to include um to four to $4.5 million and to ex execute an agreement with mech 5. I'd be happy to answer or take answer any questions.

Thank turn to our public. Is there anybody in the public that would like to ask a question or make a comment? Seeing none, I'll start to my right. Council members, either questions or comments. Thank you for the presentation. I really enjoyed looking at some of the other um fire stations that were recently made as well. I don't have any questions at this point. Vice Mayor Jorgens?

No, I'm happy that we were able to uh find, you know, consulting services with one consultant. I think I agree that's the right way to go and uh glad that we found a consultant that, you know, has a lot of success in building the kinds of projects that, you know, we're looking to build. So, you know, I'm, you know, you know, very pleased with, you know, the direction that this has gone. I think we're in a really good spot with it. Council Little, no, I appreciate what you're doing. I'm glad to see we're going to be updating these things. Good. Council Gall.

Yes. Thank you. Um, echo my my colleagues comments about the presentation, but I did have a question. How long will the um will there need to be a temporary fire station? I know they you got a construction period, but it obviously it's not going to you're not going to tear it down on the first day. So, how how long will will the fire will the firefighters have to be in temporary facilities? And is there any idea of where they those would be? One one to two years. Uh there is one facility that we are looking at at one of the stations, but we also have options to bring in temporary trailers. on the same location uh nearby. Okay, thank you. Um that's all I have.

I have no questions. Um uh it's a very aggressive schedule. I'm hoping that Mac 5 can uh do as you suggest and uh deliver the product and uh you know earlier than than than suggested, but um I I appreciate the presentation. This is an action item. I need a motion and a second if we're going to support this. I'd like to motion. Yes. Made by council member Little. Second by the vice mayor Jorgens. Please vote and that passes unanimously. I want to thank the representative from Mac 5 for being here this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you. Continue the good work you're doing for all of our communities and we look forward to you coming to Newark.

Thank you. I appreciate Ladies and gentlemen, the next item on the agenda is introduction of the five-year capital improvement plan and request for direction by the council on utilizing excess measure GG and measure LL funding with respect to the central avenue overpass project or the cultural arts center project. Mr. Bon.

Yes. Good evening, honor, members of the council. Uh the purpose of this presentation is twofold. Uh first we'd like to present the council with an overview of a five-year capital improvement plan. Uh we've traditionally had two-year capital improvement plans. Uh for this banial budget cycle, we are recommending converting that capital improvement plan to a five-year capital improvement plan. So Mr. Sabotto will explain that in just a few slides in just a minute or two. Um the second purpose and frankly the main purpose for tonight's presentation is to solicit direction from the council with respect to um some preliminary decisions that need to be made on the capital improvement plan. So staff is at a juncture where uh unfortunately we cannot present the council with a recommended uh 5-year capital improvement plan uh because we need some threshold decisions to be made by the council and that will inform our analysis as to what should be incorporated into a 5-year draft CIP plan. Uh once council provides that direction to us this evening, assuming the council does that this evening, we will then uh craft a five-year capital improvement plan and present that to the council for review and consideration at a future work session um at the end of next month. Uh if not, then very early May. Uh the issue here uh to get straight to the point uh is really with is uh what to do with the the excess what we're referring to excess measure GG funds as well as measure LL funds. Those are two significant uh capital improvement plan sources of revenue uh that we need direction on. Uh XSG I'll talk a moment to just to explain it. Uh if the council may recall, as council's aware, in 2016, uh Newark voters enacted measure GG, uh the funds from that revenue source are largely being paid for debt service um on this existing facility. Uh we received incredibly favorable financing at the time of debt

service. uh when we went out to bond and right now we are observing a surplus a multi-million dollar surplus uh to the extent you want to call it a surplus of revenue received from measure GG versus the existing debt payment obligations that we have to pay on an annual basis. Uh at this point none of those funds have been expended. So we've been after every fiscal year we transfer those funds out of the general fund and they've been sitting in reserve accumulating approximately $20 million if memories serves me correctly. Um we're assuming of course that those funds would then be applied to the fire station and those projects. So when we fund those fire station projects, we'd be looking at um by the time we actually need to incur funds to pay for those projects, uh we would accumulate uh approximately 35 36 million. Uh and then we have recommendations to meet the difference needed for uh the fire projects. Um and that specifically is some transfers that Miss Lee referenced earlier uh in the special session of the New York City Council meeting as well as some public safety transportation fees. uh excuse me, uh public safety impact fees. Um so, uh the question is uh to what extent do we when we continue to receive that excess measure GG, where do those funds go? Should that be continued towards uh capital projects? And if so, which ones? Uh the second revenue stream is measure LL and as the council may recall, it's really more for the public. In 2024, uh, Newark voters enacted measure LL is an increase of the transient occupancy tax from 10% to to 14%. Uh, as shown in the reporting earlier this evening under the special session, uh, the city is not utilizing and not paying, not expending, uh, that 4% increase of tot revenue. That's also being put off to the side. So, uh, the recommendation tonight is to apply those towards capital projects. These are significant uh, sources of revenue. Uh

for the purposes of tonight's discussion, again, we assume that the council's um recommendation or or council's policy is to apply those funds towards those two fire station projects. After that, the question becomes what uh where do those funds go? Do they be applied towards a uh cultural arts center, which is a big ticket item identified in the facility's master plan, or do they be applied towards a Central Avenue overpass, which has been a long-standing vision uh of the city? And that's really the focus on here uh for us tonight. Uh at the end of the day, we ultimately have requesting direction from the council as to whether those funds should be allocated towards one of those projects or none of those projects and what are the consequences of those decisions. Um for the presentation tonight, Mr. Sabot again will be providing a brief overview of the 5-year CIP. Then after that, he'll be walking through all the considerations with respect to uh the Culture Arts Center and uh the Central Avenue overpass. So with that backdrop, I will go ahead and pass it over to Mr. Sabota. and I thank you in advance for your presentation.

Great. Thank you, city manager. Again, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I'm still excited to be here to present this item. Again, we're going to cover a high level the 5-year CIP, and we're going to talk about the two largest CIP projects. One is an existing project, which is the Central Avenue overpass, as well as a proposed new project, the Cultural Arts Center project. And then we'll talk about next steps. So, first about uh capital improvement projects in general. Oh th this slide this slide is a great example of why AI failed me. Um just answering the question of what is a capital improvement project uh took significant um effort and research at government codes at finance documents um Google did not help me AI did not help me uh researching other cities and their definition didn't really didn't really uh capture what we wanted to do here in Newark and we always do things a little bit differently here in Newark. So ultimately after much of do we we've narrowed down a CIP or capital improvement project to these five necessary things. The first is that it's a a project. It's a work or study that um is associated with the design or construction or improvement of any public facility. And this most of this came straight out of the public contract code. And this these are things that we're used to in the public works and engineering world, right? buildings, streets, parks, things like that. Um, but a CIP is beyond that. It's also something that is needed. And the concept of need is is very nuanced. Um, we look at a lot of different guiding documents to help define what is needed. Uh, we look at the general plan. We look at specific plans. Uh, we look at master planning documents. You'll hear me talk about the parks master plan, the facilities master plan. They do a great job of defining need and prioritizing needed projects. But we also look at things like the community survey. So the

recent community survey came out and there were some very clear things that the community needed from us uh in terms of CIP projects. The third item is that it uh the project needs to involve a capitalized asset which is uh an asset that is worth $10,000 or more that has a useful life of more than one year. And I do want to give kudos to our finance team in the finance uh world for providing that um definition. The fourth bullet is a is a new one here in Newark. Um, historically we've always had a CIP with a long list of wished projects that had no funding or no plan for execution. Um, so we've added this fourth item which is the the project should be reasonably anticipated to if not be completed at least started in the next 5 years. Um, if you've got no plans to get it going in 5 years or we've got no funding, we really don't want to have that um as part of the 5-year plan. And then finally, of course, it must be approved by city council. So, how do we identify a project? Again, these are just a sample of of planning uh documents and guiding documents that we use to help identify projects. On the left, we've got the master plans for the parks, the facilities master plan, the very specific plans that we look at. There's a general plan, and of course, um results from the recent community survey. So, how are projects prioritized? Um, I do want to give kudos out again to the government finance officers association for providing guidance and clarity on these eight points to score and prioritize projects and these are weighted items. Uh, so public safety and regulatory compliance, these are related to how well does a project address health and safety risks and government regulations. Second item related infrastructure condition and asset preservation. How well does the project rehab or uh

replace deteriorating infrastructure? Third item strategic alliance with coun council goals. How well does the project support adopt adopted strategic priorities or council goals. The fourth is how well does a project improve service delivery or operational efficiency. The fifth is how well does a project have funding sources identified. The six is how well does a project align with orop align with our um how well does a project align with or enhance um community benefit? Environmental sustainability is how well does a project improve climate resiliency, energy efficiency or environmental outcomes. And the last one is how ready is that project ready to be implemented? Uh, in terms of funding, this is probably the most misleading slide I have. Uh, contrary to what's shown on here, I do not believe our finance department or the city has bars of gold hidden in some secret location to fund projects, but nonetheless, it's provides a great graphic. So, when you think about project funding, there's there's many ways to divide funding. Um, you can divide you can talk about funding by its um its occurrence. So we do get multiple sources of funding on an annual basis on a regular basis. Uh various taxes, UUT, sales tax, gas tax, those come every year. Um some are sunseted after certain number of years. Uh major GG is a great example. It sunsets after 25 years. Uh some sources are one time such as grants. Uh we can talk about funding by its source. So there are federal sources. We have several projects that rely on federal grants. There are state sources. Um there are regional sources. You'll hear me talk a lot about Alama County Transportation Commission. Uh they provide a lot of transportation related funding for the city. And then there are local sources that we control

here in the city such as uh development impact fees is a good example. What I'm showing here up on the slide are whether or not funding is restricted. Um so we have some unrestricted funding sources. We talked about measure GG and LL. Uh there are a broad range of projects that those uh funds can be used for. In terms of the more restricted funding source, um that first bullet um I may defer to that or call that the the what is it the transportation acronym soup. There's so many different acronyms related to transportation funding. Um gas tax. There's regional funding. Measure B, Measure BB, Measure F, A R A R A R A R A R A R A R A R A R A R ARM 3, not to be confused with RMR, which is sometimes called SP1. So, there's a whole slew of restricted transportation related funding that we get here at the city. Um, impact fees are restricted funding that we collect here at the city and those are used for specific purposes. Uh, one of the largest ones are park impact fees and we do talk a lot about park impacts and park impact projects. Uh, development maintenance fees are fees we collect from developers. Um and those are used to fund the studies that I've had mentioned and then of course we get grants. I do want to note the bottom the last bullet um we are looking at uh excess GG and LL revenue to possibly debt fund projects. So our borrowing capacity into the future and again these are real rough numbers mid50s to low $60 million. Obviously, these numbers will have to be refined as we continue to to look into this uh types of CIP projects. Um the current CIP historically has just been a long list of projects just alphabetized A through Z. Uh 100 150 or so different projects. We're proposing to divide projects into five distinct categories. Infrastructure is related to anything that happens in our road right away. So, pavement, concrete, curb and gutter, traffic signals, um striping, things of

that nature. Uh one thing that was clear from the um recent community survey is that our community really wants us to focus on streets and sidewalks. So, we plan to continue to invest going forward in in the CIP on our roadways, our roadways, our sidewalks, curb and gutter, ADA ramps, things of that nature. So, we are planning to continue a lot of that effort. Uh, we do plan to hopefully break ground on a lot of the work that's going down Thornton Avenue. We have multiple projects uh going up and down Thornton, phase one, phase two, and Oldtown Streetscape. Uh, we plan to keep pushing on the design of the Quiet Zones project. Um, we are looking at implementing some new projects related to safe routes to school. We have a couple assessments that were recently completed. So, those include flashing beacons and other safety improvements. So that's gives a a sense of what we're looking forward in the next five years. Next bullet is parks. Interestingly, when I think about parks, I think about the Chinese zodiac calendar. Hold on. Hold this thought. So this So we're we're in the year we're in the year of the horse. And if let's see if my math is right. We've what's that?

The fire.

The fire horse. That's right. The fire horse. And then we've got the year of the goat coming up. I believe it's monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. I could be off here and there, but So, and what I'm planning is that uh we here in Newark have um kind of a Newark zodiac list of park projects. So, obviously, this is a year of playgrounds. We've got four playground projects we're planning to execute and complete this year. Uh looking into the next five years, we are looking at a year of new restrooms. We're looking at a year of sports facilities. We're looking at a year of sports playgrounds. We're looking at another year of of regular playgrounds. And we're looking at a year of I think pathway lighting and other improvements. So, uh we are grouping those the the scope of works by by year. Uh facilities. Uh these include major renovations or reconstruction of of buildings. Um obviously uh we we talked about fire stations. Uh there's a lot of work still going on at the Silon Aquatic Center. Um we'll talk about uh the facilities master plan does envision uh beyond the three highest priority projects which is the two fire stations and hopefully or fingers crossed on a cultural arts center. The next round of projects are related to the the public works service center as well as fire station 28. There's some needed improvements at that facility. um new equipment. Uh these are mostly related to new vehicles, although we do have a couple drones that we're proposing to purchase uh in the future. And then the last item are studies. So these are massive these are uh large planning studies related to capital assets. Uh this is slide is is a repeat from last year. So what uh what is a capital improvement plan? So, it is a a common again a CIP is a very common document

used by many cities and jurisdictions for long-term planning and budgeting for for improvements and to fund capital projects throughout the city. It does help the city maintain and improve assets um aligns investments with the community goal and council goals and ensures responsible financial planning and transparency. We are very excited about the uh roll out of clear gov. It'll allow the government or allow council the public to clearly see where we are with various projects. The bottom uh bullet we are planning to update the CIP on a rolling basis. So as mentioned uh as as the budget comes to city council whether it's midcycle, midyear, bianually we also plan to review and update the CIP as well. Uh this is a snapshot of our our website. I do encourage uh the public and council to please uh check out our website uh for more detailed information for our larger projects. So, we've got park improvements, uh the quiet zone, our annual uh street improvements and sidewalk replacement projects, all the work that's going up and down Thornton phase one, phase two in the oldtown streetscape. Um the last two items, the Central Avenue grade separation and the fire station ones, we'll have to update based on uh council direction from tonight. On the right is a a a screenshot of our bid openings and RFP. If you go to that website right now, you'll see that we have three of our four park projects currently out to bid. And um enjoy this because when Clear Gov comes, it's going to replace all of this. Uh oh, I should I should back up. So before I talk about Central Avenue overpass, are there any questions? Any questions until now?

I'm concerned about um the maintenance and operation costs of the facilities that we build. Is that figured into the the costs or um do do we look as as a part of this process at what it's going to cost to operate the facilities that we're building? Yes, we do. Thank you. Continue.

All right. So, now let's talk about the Central Avenue overpass project. This is uh by far the largest CIP project we have in our books. Uh it's been in the books for many years. U project highlights. So, this is uh along Central Avenue. It's a four-lane bridge with bike lanes and sidewalks to go over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Original purpose was to enhance circulation safety, eliminate traffic rail conflicts. Uh based on record search that uh we did, it looks like this project was initiated at least back in 1999 if not earlier. Um right now the existing rail network does split Newark into north, south, east, and west. So we do have a an overcrossing just outside this building that u provides connection north south. This project was supposed to provide connection east, west. One thing to note about this particular project is is that it is uh extremely challenging. uh lots of utility conflicts and utility relocations, rightway acquisitions necessary. The soil conditions are extremely terrible uh which which help guide some of the design elements and ultimately the high cost associated with this project. This is the current financial status of this project. So we do have approximately 79 million in available funding from various sources. Uh the first two are measure B and measure BB administered by Alama County Transportation Commission. We've got uh 6 million from um CMA8 improvements. This is basically a county uh traffic impact fee. Uh next two items the 3.2 Dumbartan transit oriented development fees as well as the traffic impact fees. Those are fees that we collected here in the city for this project. And the last two bullet uh the railroad reimbursements and utility reimbursements. Some of that is unsecured funds. Um, but those are funding that we anticipate getting reimbursed from the various utilities to have those utilities relocated out of

the foundation for the for the bridge. Total estimated project cost escalated in 2031. That's a reasonable time frame. We thought we could start construction if we were to finish design is 131 million. The project is in the midst of design. We've got most of it designed right now. There's still a lot more work to do in terms of processing with utilities, finishing the design, and of course finding additional funding. So, we do have a funding shortfall of approximately 52 million. Um, we did reach out to ACTC to see if there are other, you know, can we can we can we get more measure BB funding? Are there other funding sources? And they've basically told us not realistically. Uh we have reached out to uh look at other rail separation grants or a federal and state rail separation grant, other sources. Um they are possible, but there are nowhere near the they won't they won't cover nowhere near the $52 million project shortfall. So we do have a funding agreement spent to date of about 3.5 million. We've been reimbured about 3 million. These numbers are still in flux. Um we still expect to submit another trunch of reimbursement request uh to ACTC. Uh some of the value engineering efforts we did uh there's not a whole lot we can do. Uh again very complicated project. It's actually not really it's not one bridge. It's actually a seven span bridge that requires eight different sets of foundations. Um there's not much we can do in terms of of shaving the design. Um if you look at the the typical section on the right, uh each one of the eight foundations requires drilled peers. These peers are are 9 to 10 feet in diameter. They're massive. They need to go down 70 80 some more than 100 feet deep filled with

reinforced concrete. And again, that's all due to very poor soils conditions. Uh we did talk to ACTC about possible uh reallocation of the funding from this project to others. They were amenable to that. They said that they would work with us to see if uh we could reallocate some of this funding. I've got a list up here which includes signal interconnect improvements. Um the signal traffic signal interconnect has been designed. We don't have money for construction, so that may be an eligible project. Um, improvements along major roadways, which include Thornton, any of our collector arterial streets that help move traffic from I 880 to along State Route 84, transit projects, transportation improvement technology projects. These are all potentially eligible projects uh that ACTC staff have have talked to us about and um may be uh eligible uh to reallocate the measure B and measure BB funding. So all these of course are subject to ACTC review and approval. This is the last slide I have on Central Avenue. I want to pause and see if anyone's got any questions.

I'm going to turn to the audience first. Any questions from the folks in the audience on what we've seen or heard thus far? Colleagues, council member Little, when was this idea for this project brought up? I mean, what was the main reason behind it? Uh, again, I believe the the original idea was back in the 19 late 1990s. Uh, the and the idea was to improve to do great separation to really separate um traffic from rail that conflict u improve circulation. So not even this century. This was this was an idea in a previous century. Is that correct? I believe so. Okay. Thank you. Well, not century. Uh at least 26 years ago,

there was a one in front of it. Other questions, comments? Yeah. Yeah, vice mayor. Um so just questions. These uh signal interconnection improvements, I I know what that is. Uh that's something that's been brought before the council. Um the other three, can you talk about those a little bit more? And is that something ready to go or are these projects that we're saying are we would we just be trying to defer um these funds to projects that you know we may be starting another 26 year cycle on our do we have projects ready to go? I guess is my question.

As long as I'm here, we're not going to wait 26 years to get projects executed. But uh to so the the improvements along major roadways, some of those are in design, some of those we haven't started yet. Uh transit projects, transportation improvement technology. The technology projects, they haven't been designed, but they're relatively quick to implement. Um transit projects can include, you know, transit station. Uh there I believe there are some uh planned improvements in the Numbarton corridor or the the TOD area as well that could be eligible for this funding. So, and then my other question is, we've mentioned the uh Dumbartan corridor a couple times. I've got a map in my head of Newark. Where is the Dumbartan corridor? What are we counting as that? So if you look at the map on the right, it's it's it's uh it's a general area and the the concept is that um to the extent that improvements improve traffic along, you know, from the Dunarton Bridge over to I 880, those are potentially eligible projects. So it's a broad range. It's a broad scope and it could include a wide variety of projects here in the city. Has ACTC given us any indication of what they might count as the Dumbartan corridor or are we um they've just given us they want a broad they want the broad area definition. That's where we're getting that from.

That's right. That's correct. Okay. But I think we're looking at improvements both bike and pedestrian if I may suggest between Willow and the Dumbartan Bridge. Would that be a fair uh assessment? And other locations within the city as well. Okay. Thank you. Right. Yeah. I think I walk my dog down that way, so anything we can do to make it safer for me is appreciated. Counsel and your dogs. And my dogs. Oh, yeah.

Um. All right. So, um, how can we how can we assure that the funding that's already been committed to this project? Because when it comes to these regional agencies, they commit to projects and when the project is abandoned, the vultures that are circling always descend. And usually Newark comes out on the short end of that stick. For example, um money that was set aside for the Dumbartan Bridge was was taken by MTC and then with a promise that the and was taken by MPC and actually applied to the um Warm Springs BART station, which ironically enough is now being proposed for closure um by the same people who made that decision. Um, so, um, so I I think if if we're going to if we're going to put this funding at risk, we have to do more work as to to make sure that we can actually keep these resources in our community and not have um not have other, you know, that other that that F-word city that surrounds us um descending on on our on on resources that were dedicated to us partially. By the way, some of those resources were dedicated to us as a um bribe um wait bribe as an encouragement to to exceed to that money being shifted over to the to the Warm Springs BART station. So, I think there's a lot of work to be done to find out whether we can actually keep our funding. Um I don't think saying we probably can we can probably be eligible is enough. Um the the eligibility is is not is not enough. We have to we'd have to get some certainty, I think. um to make sure we can keep these resources in Newark and not just have them drained off on onto other resources. Um secondly, I'm let let me comment on that one first of all if I may. Council member Gudall first of all I do

represent the city of Newark on ACTC and uh as I understand it uh Mr. Benoon certainly correct me if I'm wrong. My my recollection is the measure BB funds are fairly secure. That's the 40 plus million dollars. Those funds are pretty secure for the city of Newark to utilize either on this project or to request that it be used for other projects, but that that 40 million is fairly secure with the city of Newark. Is that your understanding? That's my understanding, but I would invite the city engineer to um provide some information specific to that issue.

Correct. I I would say it's fairly secure. I wouldn't say it's guaranteed as long as it's used within this general corridor. Yes. And these these commitments by ACTC as it relates to the central P and correct me if I'm wrong as it relates to the central pass uh the overpass uh those are funds that were committed quite quite a number of years ago and though uh using the analogy from council GDAL about you know kind of sharks circling the you know the waters you know we we've established really great relationships with our counterparts both in Fremont, Union City, Hayward where we are looking to work uh collaboratively on uh any ACTC project that will not only benefit their community, but will benefit our community as well. So, we're no longer kind of standing alone and hoping that the sharks don't kind of circle around us and take whatever funds have been committed to Newark, but we are working with our partners in the South County area and the tri- city area for that matter to make sure that we make commitments to ensure that whatever projects they advocate for, if it makes sense, we support them and then vice versa as well. So, uh I I'm I'm committed that as our representative uh and I think Mr. Grindall is our alternate representative that as long as we have strong advocacy at ACTC, uh I see those funds uh at least in my opinion being returned to the city of Newark for um alternative projects uh to improve transportation throughout our community. Council good.

Um I certainly hope you're correct and I I just think I just think a deeper analysis of that would be would be beneficial before we decide to um put those funds at risks. But but I certainly hope you're right, sir. Um the um this this the study that was done to assess the amount of delay that that occurs as a part of this project used a single oneweek analysis. I'm a person and I'm a person who uses that corridor daily, twice daily sometimes, depending how many Costco runs I have to do. Um the um and I can tell you that that you know uh there there are lots and lots of delays where the where the road the roadway is blocked by a train stopped. The railroad uses that that train sometimes for the freight trains as actually a switching yard where they're adding they're adding they're they're backing trains up going back forward. So that those tra those guy those those locations can be down for a long time to the extent that people are making dangerous moves of turning around in turning around in traffic trying to go to other locations. So I just think that the analysis of how much delay will occur if going forward is deficient and I think we I think we need and it is not hard nowadays to put a to put a camera up that watch the train. You could even train an AI to count the trains for you. Um, you could train the train. You could train the AI to to to count the trains. Um, so um so I I just I just think the the very limited data that assesses the impact because um this this this is one of the major delay points in the in in our whole community. Um we we and to the credit of our public works department um and and the people who preceded us um we have a very well-designed road system and we do very well. So we don't have

intersections like Fremont does um that that that have five minute single cycles and and where you have to have two signal cycles to get through. We we have a fairly high high operating high highly functioning transportation system. This is the one spot where you can have massive you can have massive delay and I think and I think before we make this decision we should we should know better about that. Um, second law, second of all, I I I can't understand how a a roadway that's going to drop to one lane just to just to the west of this project, why this needed to why this mission creep occurred to where it became a four-lane roadway plus bike lane plus sidewalk. and and in this giant area and as you said in a in an area where it's geologically challenging to build something for for for this project to have just drifted for the years and have become become this massive project um is is is a is a huge mistake. I think I think there needs to be a look at how we can how we can minimize the cost, how we can how we can focus this cost on the the money that's available. Um, and I I I just looking at it, it's I think the the project's just gotten out of control. Um, and so I I have a big I have a big problem with that. You can that's more of a comment than a question, but you can address it as as you wish.

Yeah, I I can address a couple of the comments. So, it's it's my understanding that this project since it inception was a four-lane road. I'm not aware that it was it ballooned from a two-lane to a fourlane. Um, related to the study, yes, we did uh have a camera out there that watched the crossings for 7 days in December, 24 hours a day. It did record all the crossings. I think there were over 100 different crossings. It did a demonstrate that it a wait time for uh cars was between 2 to 3 minutes. Um the longest wait time was 7 and 1/2 minutes and we did look at the video. It was a train a freight train that was going back and forth. Um but it was for a 7-day 7-day period. I also want to make sure that I highlight that uh we're just this is just talking about the measure B and measure BB funding. Um there are other funds that we control here in the city. The traffic impact fees, um the Dumbartan transit oriented development fees. Those are fees that we here control here in the city and we can allocate those to other uh city projects as well.

And I'd like to make a couple further comments if I may. And you know, I don't know if if we're ever going to have a study that's going to be so comprehensive that we're going to walk away saying that's the right amount of time. You know, we hired experts to come in and do an analysis. folks that have done this analysis before for other communities and I I would agree with council member Grenal on the issue if the level of service that was conducted or concluded basically came away with a rating between B and C which really uh indicates and certainly correct me if I'm wrong that there's very little uh impact in terms of delays on those that are at the um at the at the railroad crossing. So the level of service um was very minimal at best. And as you look at the report that again we hired this consultant to come in and do this work for us. Um if you if you read their conclusion, it's fairly straightforward. Um based on the available traffic data and analysis presented in this memo, there is a minimal vehicular delay and queuing associated with train crossing events. All intersections perform at LOSC or above and the vehicular cues do not spill back up to the upstream intersections. Therefore, a grade separation project at the Central Avenue Railroad crossing is not necessary based on existing vehicular operational results. And as I again as I look at this issue um really from a citywide perspective, our residents have been gracious to give us a half cent sales tax increase that we were able to build city hall on time and below budget. I for one would not want to go back to my residents and say thank you very much for that half cent sales tax. You know what we've decided to do with that additional monies that

you were kind enough to give to us to do improvements around the community? We decided to build an overpass over Central Avenue. That that's never come up as a priority in our community. I've not heard anybody indicate to me that that's something we need to get done. What I do hear is that when you look at a community, you look at it from the quality of residential, you look at the quality of schools, and you look at recreational amenities. We don't have a community center any longer. One of the priorities and I think you showed it in your last presentation in terms of the priorities where the fire stations were listed as a priority. So is the community center. We've heard from the community that the community center is a priority. So I I certainly appreciate Council Member Gondall's comments. Uh this was something as uh Council Member Little mentioned was first first conceived back in the late 90s, first part of the 2000s at a cost of $8 million. We're now up to I think I saw you say $131 million.

$131 million. I'm not saying that it it's something that wouldn't be nice to have, but when it comes to community priorities, I just don't see it rising above a cultural arts center. That would be my opinion at this point. Question. Yes. Uh, C, Vice Mayor Jorgens,

I'm I'm sorry. I had another question that I was trying to find and then so we'll be switching topics a little bit. Um, so we are estimating a start time at 2031. Um, that's a long time from now. What's the how do we come to 2031 is there's no way that we can start this before 2031. I guess who is what's the what's the part that takes five years? There's a there's still a lot to do. We're 70 80% done with the design. We still need to finish the design. We still need to do um utility relocations. Uh we have some agreements in place, some we don't. We've got to uh acquire rightaway to accommodate this this um this overpass. There's so there's there's still and there's a lot of paperwork we still need to do for this for this project. So we're we're anticipating again if we were to continue the design 2031 represents a reasonable time where we could actually go out to bid and break ground.

Have in the past and this is maybe a question you don't have the answer to because it's we haven't done a capital project at this scale before when we've anticipated costs that far out. How good are we at that? I mean, this is, you know, we're we're looking to potentially expend a great amount of money on what to me seems to be a number that's very fuzzy just because it's so far in the future. My worry, one of my worries on this project would be is we do all that design work, we get the utility relocation and then I guess the 2031 and instead of the uh number that we're looking at now, you know, that's 50% higher and you know, now we don't have the funds to be able to do it anymore. Um, so I'm just curious about how those projections are made and kind of what our confidence level kind of our confidence level is in that. So, one of the things that I've noticed is that we historically here in in in the city haven't really escalated costs to when we actually expect construction to start. That's what we're starting to do as part of the 5-year CIP. Um, keep in mind that the time value of money is very important, especially the larger the project gets. So, if you're looking at a hundred $130 million project, that's a escalation of one to three maybe $4 million per year that project gets delayed. So we can certainly look at value engineering, redesigning it. We might be able to save 20 or 30 million to reduce it from four to two lanes, but now we've delayed the project because we have to redesign it. So that adds money. So the net savings isn't as great as you may hope. Okay. That you anticipated my next question, which was about a redesign because it does go down to two lanes pretty quickly there. I would want to see the sidewalks and bike lanes continuing through on if we did look at a redesign uh just because there are sidewalks and bike lanes there currently and I wouldn't want to reduce our transportation infrastructure. Um but if it doesn't seem like it's reducing it by that much and we've already looked at

that then you've anticipated that question for me. C I'm sorry Council Little.

Um so so I'm kind of like blown away by this whole project. I feel like I'm watching like the video right now of punked and Ashton Kutcher is going to hop out of something. I I I mean, we've got so many great things. We had a great presentation on finances. It's we're doing all this conservative things and then you're telling me we're going to spend $131 million on a bridge. I mean, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I mean, with all due respect, I don't think it's a really good idea. And with all due respect, and I'm trying to keep it not Eve level, but like semi-eve level, um I think there's better ways we can use that money. Uh, I know if you was to take off my city council member hat and I was a citizen here, which I am, if I found out that $131 million of a city's budget was used to build a bridge, and we have all these parks that need to be updated and all these new things and better projects, me with a child and a dog. I would want to have our parks improved. I would want the Newark Community Center. I want the recreation and I want the public works to have everything they need. So, I just don't feel that this should be if it's if it was back in the '90s, I think we should go and leave this idea back in that century and and I think we should keep moving forward to the future. I just don't I don't this just doesn't make any sense at all to mean four lanes, we might as well put a helicopter pad in and maybe like a runway or something of that level. So, I I do appreciate all the work and the research, but I just don't think this is good adequate use of our resources or our time.

Yes, just two more points. Sure. Um, so the the the intersection of Sycamore and Central right now is a temporary intersection that was was set up to be as a part of this project. So that would have to be replaced with a permanent permanent intersection, I would assume. Talking about signal lights. Yes. Um, in addition, this would this this would be a if this if this project were to be abandoned, this would be another location that would would needed to be addressed as part of the quiet zone project. That's correct. Potentially. Yes. Potentially, it's it's if council wants us or if I get three nodding heads from council to make this a quiet zone, we would

Right. But we have a the quiet zone program that we've we've approved so far includes every crossing in the city. Um so it it it includes the map that that's on the city's website, which will be replaced by the new system, of course. Um the map on the SIGs website includes includes every um every at least shows consideration for every single at grade crossing in the in the community.

I believe it accounts for most of the crossings. Uh I don't know if it accounts for all of them. But again, yeah, if this if this project is abandoned, we can certainly include this particular crossing as part of the bigger quiet zone project. I'm just saying it would kind of need to be because because you'd have one you you'd have one place in the center of the city where the trains were still blowing their horns. Correct.

Um so um just wanted to indicate that and again I'm advocating that we study this properly. If if if anything this project, you know, to to council member Little's point, if anything, this project has not benefited from the as much analysis as it should have received over the years and to to make a a decision, I think needs to look at what funds are actually at risk. Can we assure them and and to look look again with better in with better data at the the amount of delay that's that's going to that's going to be racking this community for the next 100 200 300 years. So I I think we need more information. That's what I'm advocating. I'm not advocating for making the decision um just based on the lack of information. I want I want more information. just just clarify some information that would be helpful for me to see. um would be um the projects that if we especially the measure BB funds and the funds that um we do have um I I would like to see what what's our project list um are we ready to go on those projects um rather you know than just kind of here's what we you know want to do and I I believe that exists somewhere so it's just something that you know does need to be presented um and And um you know I wouldn't mind seeing a we we did it one week in December, doing it one week in April, you know, to me kind of you know seeing if we're getting similar results um I don't think would be um out of line with a decision that we're going to need to make here. Um but in general I have you know real concerns about this project. But in terms of like as we're asking for more information, just wanted to throw in these are these are the sorts of this is the sort of information that I would like to see. So

your honor, yes, Council Kachio.

Yes, thank you. Um, thank you for also uh really explaining where this thought originated and what year it was and how much it was. And I'm just kind of thinking also about the $8 million in 1999. Even if we think about inflation, it wouldn't get us to $131 million today. And so I'd be it it would put us, I would assume, into a difficult position to say that the council then has made a decision for us today when we're actually looking at not only different factors of finances, um, but also it seems like it's a moving target like the final cost because we don't really know if it's even going to be more than that amount as well. And then I'm also thinking historically about the 26 years that have passed and the fact that we haven't seen a deep desire from our community asking for this particular overpass, which is why other things continue to be prioritized over it. And so I'm just thinking historically and where we are today and then how much money we're going to be willing to spend today on a idea or thought from before. But thank you so much. Um so those are just my thoughts on your presentation. Thank you.

I just want to make a couple more comments. Um based on Vice Mayor Doran's um comments in the staff report that we saw um it does indicate for measure BB, I'm sorry, measure B remaining 12.5 million. There's a thought that we would use seven uh 7 million towards a traffic signal interconnection project on Cherry Newark Boulevard, Thornton Avenue. by the way, long overdue. Uh, also $3 million for Thornton Avenue improvements between Hickory Gateway Boulevard, pavement improvements, bike lanes, sidewalks, traffic signals, things of that nature. And then on the measure BB, the $40 million potentially quiet zones, old town improvements, projects identified after the completion of the city's active transportation plan, which included a number of projects. I just go back folks to really when we surveyed our citizens recently, the number one issue that our residents were concerned about was not public safety as it is in every other community. It was condition of our roadways. If this gives us an opportunity to free up $50 million to utilize throughout our community with new streets, new sidewalks, new curbs, new signals, things of that nature that will significantly improve our residents transportation experiences throughout our city. Um I I think that's where where we need to focus our attention and that at this point assuming as as as um public works has done having pre preliminary conversations with ACTC that they would be likely from what I understand to support the redistribution of those funds because the project's so old that uh then of course then we free up the additional GG money and LL money for the um cultural arts facility. So those would be my last comments on that. Any other comments? Otherwise, I'll let you continue.

Okay, great. I'm sorry. I do have a work on it. Sorry. What is the little red dot there? A mistake. Okay, thank you. What red dot?

Okay, great. And uh now off to the the cultural arts center. This is again this is the second largest CIP project dollar-wise that we're we're contemplating is the new project. Um you've seen this image on the on the right. This is again an excerpt from the facilities master plan. Um I did talk about the fire station earlier tonight. That's the circle the oval circle or the oval in red. Um you'll notice in green we've got the uh replacement of the the community center demolition of that building and uh building a new art center or what we're calling a cultural arts center. So, this project does require the demolition and and building a new facility as well as parking at that at the location. Um, you can tell it's a prioritized project among one of the highest prioritized projects from the facilities master plan. Um, one thing to note is that this project will already involve extensive community engagement and outreach. We do anticipate more community engagement, outreach, programming analysis if council so chooses to pursue this project. Uh the facilities master plan identified conceptual options. Uh I do want to note that these are just conceptual. They are still subject to change. They looked at three different options ranging from $18,000 to 32,000 square ft, one to two stories, anywhere from the high30s to high 60 million with preliminary programming options for um these three options. Uh from a more visual standpoint, option A at the high 30 millions, uh you're looking at a lobby, reception room, community gallery, uh one or two preschool classrooms, an art classroom, sports facility or staff facilities, sorry. Um room for chamber of commerce as well as a devisable community room. For additional funds, you get the next trunch of uh programming improvements which includes meeting rooms, a

conference room, um a lounge for the seniors, consultation room, uh and cafe and vending. And then the Cadillac, we add studios for dance, music, art, and ceramics. Again, these are preliminary program concepts for the new cultural arts center. Still subject to change and refinement. This is another view of uh the various options. You've got option A on the left, option B1 at one story, option B2 a twotory, and option C uh the Cadillac option. Obviously, this is as much detail as we have so far. You can tell there's not a whole lot of detail. So, again, we do uh plan to do additional refinement, programming analysis, community engagement, and real uh almost marketing studies to find out what we really need here in the community. Uh so in summary, so we are excited about uh the new projects we're proposing or plan to propose in the five-year CIP. Uh we do have an option to debt fund and borrow money to pay for um some large projects, one or the other. Um the overass project is approximately 131. It looks like it's got a funding shortfall of approximately 52 million. The new cultural arts center uh requires a range of again high30s to high 60 millions again subject to further refinement. Um these are the three uh options. Uh the first option is staff's recommendation was just to suspend the overpass project. Uh worked with ACTC to reallocate uh regional funding. Obviously, the funds that we control, we can work to re reallocate those to other uh city projects and to continue uh the refining the funding analysis to pay for a new cultural arts center. Option two is to flip that is to not have a cultural arts center project uh to continue refine funding analysis to see what we can do to pay for the overpass

project shortage. And the third option is to not do the overpass or the cultural arts center project and continue to refine funding analysis and look at other projects such as parks projects or other facilities. I have a question. When you use the word suspend, suspend means is that are you saying temporarily suspend or suspend aka cancel? Unless someone shows up with bars of money that's worth $51 million. It's essentially cancelling the project.

Yeah. Yeah, I just want to clarify that that doesn't mean we leave it half done. It means you we that we you go back and complete the intersection at Sycamore. You don't say it's suspended so it's left it's left open-ended um and not that roadway not completed.

Correct. We would actually look at uh incorporating that as part of the quiet zone. We would look at uh doing the traffic signal improvements and including that section of roadway as part of our annual pavement management program. Yeah, you can see my concern that suspend sounds like we we're not going to we're going to leave it sort of on stasis and not um and not and not actually finish the work that was started as part of the construction management for that project. So just want to make I want I just wanted to be clear that when you say suspend that that's what it means that we can we can we can word smith it and I I'm certain open to picking another word. No, I just wanted to understand. Do not proceed. Understood.

So maybe what I would use instead of suspend vice mayor as a question because we've talked about the intersection at Sycamore and Central. Um we've in the past I believe had in my time on the council had two different members of the community come and talk about needs for improvements at Central and Cherry. Would that be a part of the Dumbartan transit corridor? Can we highly highly likely um we are aware of uh of possible needed improvements at that as well as other intersections

and and I know staff's taken those down so it's in a record somewhere. It's just you know we obviously can't improve every intersection um to the way that we wanted with the funds that we've had in the past. Um, so I just want to make sure that, you know, because we've had members of the public come forward that that is something we don't just stop at Sycamore that we look throughout, you know, the the whole roadway system, not just, you know, the couple intersections that we need to rethink if we were to um look at different opportunities rather than the overpass.

Right. In addition to those, it's it's my understanding that we'll probably be doing a general plan update sometime in the near future, and I assume that SQL analysis will look at all the major intersections citywide. Um, we are also in the midst of doing an update to our traffic or our um uh impact fee study. And so, we're looking at at that as well as a funding source for intersection improvements. That's really exciting. Um, are we doing questions right now about the cultural arts center? So, I'm looking at the different options and one of the options in option B, um, we've got the, uh, senior lounge as a part of option B. As someone who's not a senior, um, you know, I'm looking at a little more in the abstract. Um,

I'm not. It's it seems it seems like So, my question is it seems like in most communities there is a separate senior center as a separate facility. That's what we've got now. Um, so I'm just curious about, you know, how did the senior lounge become a part of option B? Um, is that something that our seniors have indicated that they wanted? How I I know there was an incredibly robust, uh, public input process there. So, I was just curious about how the senior lounge ended up um, year rather than at a separate facility. One thing I I will note is that again, these are all conceptual programming options. We do plan to do additional community engagement, additional analysis to really refine this. Again, these are so these are just conceptual.

I'm going to invite our assistant city manager to add to that response. Yeah, it was a recommendation in the facilities master plan. It did um mainly come from our consultants. We don't have the raw data to show exactly how many seniors participated in the survey or the incoming engagement process. Um, I do know that there are seniors at the current senior center aware of the these potential plans and we haven't heard concerns, but that certainly doesn't reflect the overall senior population.

Well, I mean, I remember when we went through and did the facilities master plan update that the number of folks in the community as total it was a huge number. So, I assume you know seniors represented a huge number and that public input represented that too. So, I was curious by that as a part of our recommendation um that you would like us to make

um would you like us to as a council to pick one of those these options tonight or to simply um more generally go option one, option two, option three. Um and then if we as a council were to decide to um go with option one to you know refine funding an analysis to pay for the cultural artic center that's general or do you want us to pick one of the uh optionalities within the uh cultural artic center tonight as well?

Um of course we'll take direction whatever direction the council provides this evening. Um the request here would be of course to provide direction as to one of these three options. Should the council uh decide to proceed with option one uh then we would request some further authority uh to look at these uh potential options in the culture arts center. Uh the facilities master plan was it's about 2 years old. Uh it was done in the facilities master plan context. So uh the numbers that we provided um to the council at that time are through that lens. Uh so the recommendation would be for us to go forward, refine, hire a consultant and begin the programming, the community outreach, um the needs and and come up with um a potential uh option for the cultural arts facility. Rather than selecting A, B or C, we would recommend allocating a specific dollar amount uh so that we can then maximize the use of uh those funds and do what we can to realize efficiencies both in terms of programming uh space needs uh things of that nature. And then we would of course work with the council and come back and uh present to the council here is what you can do to maximize taxpayer dollars uh with respect to a cultural arts center. And if we cannot include all the options that the council would prefer to see, then we can come up with a price list. Um, at that same time, we'd be working closely with our finance department uh to further refine, you know, the borrowing capacity. See, obviously, this financial situations will change over time and make sure that we have that bonding capacity necessary uh to fund whatever options that the council would like to proceed with.

All right. I that that sounds great. I do worry about as with the uh the Central Avenue overpass project, I do worry about kind of timelines and making sure that this is something that if we're going to move forward with it that we have the capability to move forward with it relatively uh expeditiously. So when would So if we were to say if council was to uh look at option one um under these options this evening, when would staff be a when do you expect staff would be able to come back with something more concretive? This is what this is our given this dollar amount, this is what we would be able to build.

Okay. Um well technically of course uh the funds wouldn't be available until the start of the capital improvement plan year which would be July 1st of of 2026 but of course that doesn't mean we can't do the work right now to issue RFPs to get a consultant on board. Um I'll invite Mr. Sabotto to provide a a more definitive timetable. Are are you talking about how um how how much certainty do we have of reallocating the transportation funding if you were to suspend

less less about that? Um I I know I think we've had that discussion. It's more about if we were to look at the cultural arts center um and we were to this evening say okay we're looking at this putting this amount of dollars in the CIP towards a cultural arts center. Um what would a very blurry timeline look like of when uh we could start seeing uh this kind of come back to council. I think to add to the vice mayor's comments, you know, we've already done a robust uh community outreach on this issue. Uh we've certainly have done it at Newark Days. We've had conversations with the community. They've weighed in on uh option A, B, and C uh in the past. I So to to the vice mayor's suggestion, I think we've had this conversation and the longer we wait, the price tag goes up. So, I think we're looking at having done a significant amount of outreach with our community, we kind of know, at least from their perspective, they want a cultural arts facility. If we were to say, for example, to city manager, we're willing to uh allocate between 35 million to 65 million because I think that was the range you were looking at between A, B, and C. Doesn't mean we're committing to that, but we're simply giving you the opportunity to look at that as your range. How soon would you be able to come back to us with we've hired this consultant. Uh this is where this is what the plan looks like in terms of moving forward. I think that's to the vice mayor's yes comments. That's

at at minimum we'll we'll be able to pro provide some information when we come back to council as part of the fiveyear c fiveyear cip. We do we can get a consultant on board Monday to start the analysis. Yeah. you you love taking that Friday off and just getting on Monday, the weekend to relax and take it easy, but start Monday. Let me go to council member Gren.

If if I may just add to the exchange, the concern here is that we don't want to uh set expectations if the council has a particular affinity for one of these options and the council is uh uh has their heart set on a particular option. I just want to make sure that we're managing expectations because this was a facilities master plan studied done two years ago. once we get a consultant on board, we can get more definitive costs and work with the council on that. So, that's really was kind of the the rationale behind the approach that we were taking. I

I'll say at least for me and because I I kind of started this conversation, my my affinity on a project like this is, you know, we approve it on Thursday and there's work being done on Monday. So, some level of work, it seems like we can get that done. So, you know, that's really exciting for me to hear. Council Gdall.

So, um, in in regards to the cultural arts, um, facility, I'm really concerned about the lack of of analysis about the whether we can afford the programming that that's going to go in some some of the some of the wish list, some some of the programs that are on that sheet are sound really exciting, but those aren't reflected in um in our budget numbers that we had looking at in terms of operating being able to to be in the black year after year. So I I would certainly want to see um as a part of this discussion of getting forward. I'd want to see an analysis that we can actually afford to program these this facility and maintain it properly and use it. Otherwise, it becomes a giant embarrassment if you got a building that replaces a shuttered building with a shuttered building. So, um, so I'm I'm really concerned about about making sure we have the operating capacity in terms of revenue and and also bandwidth to actually operate some of those programs.

Understood. The operating revenue can be incorporated in the financial analysis that we provide. That's what I'm suggesting. It needs looking between A, B, and C. It's not just the building. We we need to be it needs to be an inter interactive process, right? And that underscores the rationale for allocating X dollar amount of funds and then working off of that. And while that's being done, I think you've indicated that this is, you know, A, B, and C is part of the facilities master plan, not necessarily um what we're locked into. We have to do A, B or C.

You know, if kind of the optionality of if that when you do that analysis, you're going to have to break down kind of each of these spaces anyways before you put together a total. So the breakdown can come to council as well as just the total. uh that that would be helpful as we try to figure out, you know, how do we create spaces that can be flexible for the needs of the community. I mean, current community centers uh more than 60 years old, 65 years old. Um so, senior citizen. Um, so as we look, you know, that far in the future, you know, making sure both in the medium term that when it opens, we we're able to program it and then that that space is going to be able to be flexible enough to

uh address those needs decades out. Council Kasio.

Yes. Thank you, your honor. Um, when I'm thinking about our current community center, I I also do note um that in the most recent past, as of last year, we were also trying to reserve it, but we received an email back that we that it was going to be subject to weather permitting um because of leaks. And then and additionally for my daughter, sweet 16, we actually did reserve it. Unfortunately, uh it was a beautiful place. However, there was a lot of rain that day and so the kitchen did flood. there was buckets that we had to put out to catch the water. And so I would really like the idea of having a new cultural arts center because I really believe that our citizens are asking for it and and they're really would like to have something that we're proud of and instead of having to go to other facilities um and be able to have different events like weddings or different engagements and different things at any month regardless of the weather. I think it will also attract people um to our community as well. Thank you.

Um I think we need to go big. I think we need to go as big as possible. I think we need to make it awesome and incredible. Um the reason I say that is the number one thing people are asking for is activities. People want to do stuff around here. People are asking for things of that sort. I I feel the pottery classes might be a little bit too much. Even though I like pottery, but the expense of that is really big. But my point is, you know, one thing with the Silman Center that's a big advantage is it also brings in revenue. Now, it may not be millions and millions of dollars or it may be millions of dollars, but the point is it brings in revenue unlike other departments. Now, I'm not being negative, they care, they carry another role, but we have a department that brings in revenue. So, I think that's a big opportunity number one. Number two, we don't want to make the mistake and make it and then after we make it, man, I wish it was bigger. We should have gone always go big with something like this. This is awesome. This is incredible. I know that the theater the theater sector of this community is dying. They have no place to perform. The schools don't have places to perform. I currently know that is who is one of the people for the public arts. She has to go to Hayward or she has to go to Dublin to do all the plays and stuff like that. We could have musicals. We could have performances and that we could charge money to for entrance there. So you guys are not looking you guys are looking as expense. I'm looking as a revenue source. This is great. Another thing is I've heard from a I have done my research as I always do and I've spoken to a lot of senior citizens and they have all said one thing with the current senior center it's out near the bridge the near the overpass central overpass and they want something closer and I think that location is even better for senior citizens. It gives them two options. I think it's great. So in my opinion I just think we should do the biggest the do everything go big. I mean let's do as great as we can because this is what people are asking for. This is exactly what people want. So, I think the biggest mistake is doing plan A or doing plan B and then going, "Man, we should have done it bigger. Man, we should No, just do it right the first time." And I think a good example of this is our city hall and our police and our our library. We went big and we're very proud of that. And I I mean, I never hear of anybody going, "Man, it was too big. We should have gone

smaller." Everybody always says, "We should have go bigger." So, just go all out. Let's do it right. And let's give the other city we do not speak of a run for their their uh downtown area. I always love when you have a council member from the state of Texas, you know, go big. I mean, that's that's the motto from Texas, isn't it? Go big.

Go big. Other comments, council member. Um, it looks like staff needs recommendation. What I'm going to recommend, and I'll I'll certainly look to my colleagues to go ahead and make a motion if they support that. I would certainly go with option one. Uh, I also like to give uh if we're going to do it, let's do it right. Let's let's bring as many amenities as we can uh to the facility. I love uh don't know why you call it a Cadillac version, but I do love option C and would certainly request that we look at that really as this as as where we want to go to. Um the fact that the finance director has all those gold bars in her office that I wasn't aware of, by the way. I didn't know she had all these gold bars, you know, with the price of gold. What is gold? $5,000 an ounce.

Holy mackerel. So, I'm going to recommend that we go with option one and that um we ask staff to allocate up to $65 million, which I think was the amount 67 million. Can we do 67? If if you can take an slight amendment to the motion um that recommend option one with uh staff coming back with some of um obviously more details here on the things we asked for but also that they come back uh with some of the specific transportation improvements and a presentations on some of those things. Well, oh, as part of the will that come as part of the fiveyear cip part of the five year CIP,

will that come as part of the fiveyear CIP? The some in other words, if we go with the cultural arts facility and let's assume for a moment between now and I think it's is it June, Mr. Benoon, that CIP is coming back. It's coming back in uh late April. Late April. when when would we hope to be able to get some kind of commitment from ACTC that the council's made this given us this direction um that they would be willing to give a commitment that those funds in B and BBB now can be reallocated for their transportation needs within our community. Is there a timeline? I mean, would that be something that has to be considered by the full board? I would imagine. Just to clarify what I was saying, what I what I don't want to have happen is we approve a 5year CIP or we're looking at a 5-year CIP

without some of these uh road improvements that uh we're saying, you know, are going to be necessary without the overpass. Um I don't want those to get lost in the shuffle is my worry that it you know it so that's that that's my only hesitation with option one that we're trying to do you know we're trying to thread the needle where we're doing both of these things to the best that we can do road improvements throughout the Dumbartan quarter do the cultural arts center that's what I would like to see I just want to make sure that to the best that we're able to that we're able to make sure these road improvements are on

I I I hear you and I think it would be helpful If we have specific road improvements that we want to see incorporated that we advise the city manager, if we're going to be moving on some of these other transportation or infrastructure improvements as part of option one, these are some of the things I want to start I want to see. Right. I I would just sometime during the CIP process if those things can come back to council specifically, but I want to make sure that they know what that list looks like that we're recommending. I think that needs to be a a separate item where we're looking at all of those possible things.

Well, if if council's direction here this evening is to pursue with option one, then at a subsequent work session, we'd come back to the council with recommendations as to the use of those ACTC funds. There would be laundry list of projects and we'd have to go through the conflicts of interest, shuffle, and so on and so forth. And that really is the the rationale behind tonight's meeting. Um, we can't proceed any further on a presentation of a draft CIP without direction from the council as to the disposition of measure UGL funds. That that what you described is what I would be looking for that a subsequent meeting. We would go through the potential uses of those ACTC funds. Correct. We would do the best we can in the next few weeks to present that to the council should we need more time. Of course, we have made a work that

I got. Yes. I'm I'm opposed to um suspending the over overpass project, suspending cancelling without without more information. So if and but I'm strongly in support of moving forward with the cultural arts center in terms of using the GG funding um for it. So if if just as a request, I would appreciate if we could separate those two items so that I can vote for um so I can vote for the Cultural Arts Center. But if if not, I'll I'll just vote for the I'll vote against the motion. Help me help me understand what that might look like.

Well, I I I don't know if we necessarily need a motion as long as there's a consensus with the council as to the direction of where we're going. Um if there needs to be a record clear with voting patterns and clear positions with respect to the council members, then of course the council can play that out. But so I think Council Gundo, to your point, I think you're you're okay to say I support the Cultural Arts Center. Uh, I'm not willing as part of my agreeing to option one to sus to necessarily suspend the overpass project. I think simply making that statement would be sufficient, would it not? I It's up to the council member if it's we can just want to break it down into three different sections. We can vote on the overpass, then we can vote on the project C plus wink wink. And then we can focus on the other item of where we can reallocate the other money.

I it depends on the council's pleasure if you'd like to take a motion or not. I think that the the the consensus of the council is fairly clear to me as to the direction of city staff. But all right, let's do this then. Uh let's go ahead and take a motion on whether or not to suspend the overpass project. That's a standalone motion. Do I get a motion to suspend the You got my motion here. Yes. I'm sorry, Council. Prior to that motion, uh I wanted to double check if you were still planning on changing or amending the word suspend. I think there was some um some discussion about if you wanted to change it to do not proceed with or to keep it as suspend eliminate.

I think direct staff to not proceed with any further action on this. Was that that would be my recommendation? So I'll go ahead and make a motion that we do not proceed with the overpass project. I'll make that motion. I'll support it. Seconded by council member Little. Please vote. Can there be discussion? Sure. Um, I'm going to be opposing this motion because um, we need more information before we we make these actions. This is there's been a lot of resources that have been put into this idea. There's a lot of safety issues involved with with at grade railroad crossings and I think it's it's imprudent to um, make this decision with the information that we have in front of us. So, I'll I'll be opposing it.

Thank you. Any other comments on the motion? Please vote. You were too fast. I didn't even vote. Neither did you.

I'm waiting for it to be removed. So, the motion is to remove the overpass from the priority list. Everyone voting? Yep. The motion is to suspend all action for staff on this. Yes. until the next century. And that passes four eyes to one no. Council member Gwindal voting no. Thank you. And I appreciate bringing.

You're welcome, sir. So, the next motion um which I'm willing to make unless there's a third motion is to go with option one uh giving staff um the opportunity to sp to use up to $67 million. I think that was a dollar amount. Mr. Uh the staff report indicated I think 63 million which is our projections as to uh what it would cost to build uh option C based on information known to us at this point at this time. Um I would recommend we can go with 63, we can go with 60 million. It's a nice round number. Um, we of course whatever number we come up with, we would come back come back with recommendations at some point as to here's what you can do uh within this budget of x amount of money, whatever that dollar amount is, and then here's some additional um uh scope we can add on to the project should the council desire to do so. And assuming of course we have the budget capacity to do that.

I'm going to leave it at the 63 million since that was what was in the staff report. And I'm also going to include uh the vice mayor's recommended amendment to the motion which was to ensure that you come back with um uh updates to the u infrastructure improvements as suggested. Right. The disposition of the 50 plus million dollars in act funds and how we would expend those and shuffle ready projects. So I'll make that as part of the motion and I'm I'm happy to second. Seconded by the vice mayor. Any comments on that motion? Please vote. Awesome.

And that passes unanimously. Thank you very much everybody. Thank you for the report. Thank you. And you started Monday. Yes. Monday. I believe I asked for comments uh early on on this project. City clerk, do you recall? I believe I asked for Yes, Mayor, you did. I did. Okay. Thank you. City manager announcements.

Yes. Good evening, your honor. Members of the council, we have three announcements uh for the council and the public this evening. Uh I am proud to announce that all three of these programs/events are freed to the public. Uh the first one and I'll wait for Miss Raj. All right, next slide, please. Uh the first one is a free document shredding event. Um this will occur on Saturday, April 4th, uh 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. over at the City Courtyard on Filbert Street. This is open to Newark residents and business owners here in Newark. Proof of residency uh and business is required. Uh, no appointments are necessary. First come, first serve. Uh, the limit is two banker-sized boxes per household or per business. Next slide, please. Uh, the next, uh, program that we're offering is free compost delivered to your door. Uh, any resident can sign up on the website listed right there and request delivery of uh, free compost. Uh, I believe it's two bags uh, per household. Uh the that the delivery is list dates are listed right there. First come first served and we have 200 spots still available. We've been able to arrange for 8,000 single family households to receive that compost and we have 800 signed up so far. And then last but not least, this Saturday is our annual family day at the park celebration over at Community Center Park. It will occur from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30. Uh there will be egg hunts, egg dying, arts and crafts, photo booth, fun activities. We are partnering with the Newark Educational Foundation and we'll have some performances from Newark Memorial and Newark Middle School students. No registration is required.

And for those who attend, there is an epically awesome coloring book available to the public. And that concludes my announcements this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bon. I'll start to my left. Uh, Council Member Little comments.

Yeah, I've got um I want to talk about a couple of great events that are coming up tomorrow. There's two great events going on. You have the Pan E Cafe grand opening right next to the Artaga Supermarket. It's going to be this Friday, March 27th, from 3:30 to 5:30. They're opening up a brand new so you can get your little remember that big old thing of breads you got and then you can get Mexican hot chocolate. Uh, they're gambia's giveaway, ribbon cutting, and more. Please consider coming out. It's the Artega grocery store right there on Thornton and Cedar. So, that's going on. After you're done with that, go have a little bit of fun. We have the comedy night going on at Swiss Park tomorrow. They also have a Swiss I'm sorry, at Swiss Park. Um, and it's going to be a surf and turf dinner for $25. Local comedians are going to be coming out there. So, first go get your hot chocolate, then go get your mixed drink and your surf and turf. Um, and then some other great things that are going on. I wanted to share with you guys that we did have a bunch of softball players come out tonight, but they had to leave a little early. But what's going on? The Newark Knights nonprofit softball organization, they actually are going to go compete in a national championship at Reno, Nevada. Uh so they need to raise some money to get themselves there. So on April 17th, there's going to be a bingo night to help raise money for them. So all of you guys with your lucky numbers, it's going to be at the Tri City Athletic Center at Central and Boulevard behind the lumber area right there, please come out. It's very important. You can go to Instagram, Knights softball_program, and they'll probably come out and talk about it again the next time. Um, and then I'm organizing the third annual Don Edwards Coastal Cleanup on April 25th from 9:30 to 12. As you guys may know, there's a lot of budget cuts to federal government from Washington DC. So, Don Edwards, which is our national park that's located in our backyard. They need some help cleaning some stuff up. It's getting really bad and they need some volunteers. So, if you're interested, this is being put together by myself, Green Belt Alliance, Save the Bay National Wildlife and Refuge System. So, if you're interested, greenbelt.org uh/events and this is for all the young people. This is volunteer hours. And last but

not least, I actually got to watch the Newark Cougars High School male volleyball team play on Tuesday. I don't know if you guys know, but we have a male volleyball team in Newark. They're very good. This is their second year, and I was really impressed for never having done a softball. I mean, never done volleyball before. They played very, very well. So, if you guys are interested, I consider you guys, they're right now trying to get gather money together and fund raise to get new uniforms and stuff. This is just their second year. So, if you guys are interested, please reach out to them. Newwork Cougars male volleyball team, second year, and they're looking for for money and opportunities so they can do better and get bigger. And as you guys know, if we can get kids off electronics and doing stuff outsource with athletics, that's what I'm focused on. So, thank you. Uh, Council Member Little, please put them in touch with the Newark Rotary because right now is the grant application process and they can probably get a grant probably up to $1,000 for uniforms and things of that nature. So, it's on the Newark Rotary website, correct?

And uh the application is one page, very simple to fill out and uh you have a number of Rotarians in the room, so I would imagine there's probably a pretty good chance that they might be able to get that grant funding. They did really well. Well, I mean, for a second year playing, they very I was there cheering to mom and I brought my little padded seat to sit there on the bleachers and they really did a good job and honestly, we just need to support them because the more we can help and there's a lot of these kids if we can if you get them involved in sports, they don't get in trouble and that's really what's important. So, if we can keep them occupied, that would be great. So, I'll I'll reach out to the coach. Thank you, sir.

Great. Council member Grenal. Yeah, just to add to the um family day of the park, just want to indicate that Optimus Club is sponsoring the egg hunt and uh so that's a really exciting activity out there and um so really appreciate the partnership with between the Optimus Club and the city. I miss the old egg hunt when all the eggs were out there and the kids were all standing behind the uh the barriers and all of a sudden the whistle blew and all of them took off. I know there were some parents concerned about health and safety of their children, but it was certainly a lot of fun to watch. That was not an Optimist Club initiated change. Oh, thank you.

Was that inappropriate? Council member Kachio. Thank you, your honor.

Well, spring is here and spring season has also started. I was able to go to Newark Girls Softball League um as a guest speaker and I was able to meet all the girls there. So again, that's ages four and a half until middle school. And I think that's really an awesome um time for our girls and our boys who are doing uh the baseball as well as well as other spring sports. Additionally, last weekend I was able to go to the Newark Middle School and that was their color run and so I was able to have pancakes with um the fire department who was there helping with the community as well. Um as well as run with some of the other students and uh Mr. Grindall, council member was also there as well. For family day at the park, I do plan to be there volunteering at a booth. I did want to note um that at 10:00 a.m. is the adaptive needs hunt. And so if your child may have some special needs, then they they do have a special hunt that happens at 10:00. As opposed to if you have children four and under, that's in a different section. That's at 10:30 and children over five is a different section. Also starts at 10:30. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Jorgens. Yeah. So today was uh Major League Baseball's opening day. So thought it would be a good idea to talk about how baseball is played. How the Giants do game one part in Newark history. That's not in my notes here. Better than Oakland. Yeah. Ouch.

Too soon. So like like most small towns at the beginning of the 20th century, Newark had a baseball team made up of local community members, which in our case was mostly iron workers who would practice after work in a sand lot adjacent to today's railroad avenue. Team was sponsored by Graham's foundry, so was known as the Wedgewoods to advertise uh for the stoves made at the foundaries. Newark Wedgewoods would play against teams from uh throughout the Bay Area, including a famous game played at uh the pavilion to celebrate the 1910 opening of the Dumbartan Rail Bridge. The Wedgewoods representation of Newark is an early example of Newark residents coming together and building our own unique uh identity and creating a sense of community pride among Newark residents. Excellent. I have nothing else to report tonight. Um do we have a close session tonight? Yes.

No close session. Oh, thank God. Oh, with that mic still on. I know that. Um, with that being said, this council meeting is adjourned.