City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I am bringing us back to our regular city council agenda this evening. The council has previously opened the meeting and met in a special closed session, and we do not have any information to report from that closed session. So we are going to continue on with our regular agenda, and if you are able, please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance.

So thank you all so much for being here with us this evening. I'm going to go ahead and reorder the agenda because I'm just so darn excited about the proclamations. And I'm going to start with the proclamations. And we have two this evening. We have one that I'll read first in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. And then the second proclamation that I will read is with respect to Sidekicks Day. So I'm going to go ahead, and when I'm done with the proclamation reading for Hispanic Heritage Month, if I could ask Chelsea Alberto and Gabby Flores to come up to receive the proclamation and then share any comments that you'd like to share with us. So I'm going to go ahead and get started.

The City of Piedmont Proclamation.

Whereas, from September 15th to October 15th, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month. a time to celebrate the heritage, history, traditions, and cultural diversity of Hispanic Americans whose heritage is rooted in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, España, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. And whereas the observation began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and was expanded to a month-long celebration by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, formally enacted into law on August 17th, 1988. And whereas September 15th is a significant date that marks the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, with Mexico and Chile celebrating their independence days on September 16th and September 18th, respectively. And whereas Hispanic Americans have made profound and positive impacts on our nation and our local community through their strong commitment to family, faith, hard work, public service, entrepreneurship, and cultural traditions. And whereas the theme For this year, 2026, Together We Are More, Unidos Somos Mas, celebrates the strength found in community and recognizes how diverse cultures, experiences, language, traditions, and perspectives strengthen the places where we live, work, and connect. And whereas local Hispanic and Latino residents enrich the civic, economic, and cultural life of this community and their contributions continue to shape the shared future of our city. Now, therefore, I, Betsy Smagle Anderson, Mayor of the City of Piedmont, do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month and encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the many contributions of Hispanic Americans to our community, our state, and our country. Thank you. So, if The students are here to accept the award, Chelsea and Gabby, if you could come up to the podium and maybe they're not here. No, do I have the wrong student names? It's possible I have the wrong student names. So please come up to the podium and make sure the green light is on. perfect and if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourselves first names are fine thank you so much

Hello, my name is Joaquin Fierro. I'm a member of the Affinity Mentorship Program, and I am here on behalf of them. Additionally, I am a Mexican-American student at Piedmont High School, and I just wanted to come here and thank everyone for being here and just mention how important this month is for acknowledging personally my Hispanic culture and all the Hispanic culture in Piedmont and just bringing attention to it and being able to celebrate it throughout this month.

Great, thank you so much. We really do appreciate that PHS Affinity Mentor, so thank you so much. Thank you. I see we have some other speakers there. Oh yeah, go ahead.

Microphone, please.

Great, thank you, Isaac. I think we need to get a stool.

You can just speak loudly. They'll hear you.

My name is Zoe Pelletier. I go to school at Havens Elementary, and I'm just here to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us. So it's our tradition to take a photo. So anyone who wants to be in the photo, please come on up and the council will come and we will take a photo. Anyone in the audience who wants to be in the photo, please come on up.

Y'all got to get a little closer. Be a little friendly. All right. Smile. Beautiful.

Thank you Our next proclamation this evening is in honor of our sidekicks teen sidekicks program and I'm gonna go ahead and read the proclamation and again invite Those involved in the program who want to share comments to come up to the podium and then we'll do a group picture City Piedmont proclamation whereas the Piedmont Recreation Department is committed to meeting the needs of the community by creating safe fun and and affordable, inclusive programs for neurodiverse school-aged children. And whereas to better serve our community, the Piedmont Recreation Department created SideKicks, a specialized adaptive program intentionally designed for the unique needs of the neurodiverse population, and this program was launched in January of 2022. Whereas teen SideKicks support campers in building relationships, strengthening their recreational skills, and creating lasting memories while having the time of their lives. Whereas teen sidekicks attended training prior to the beginning of the summer, learning about the specific needs and basic principles of behavior management for neurodiverse children. And whereas the Piedmont Recreation Department offered 10 adaptive camps during the summer of 2026 exclusively for neurodiverse campers. And during these adaptive camps, 48 teen sidekicks assisted camp instructors with activities to provide amazing camp experiences for 38 campers. And whereas the Piedmont Recreation Department also offered three weeks of sidekick one-on-one programming in the summer of 2026 with the goal of integrating neurodiverse children into mainstream camps. And during these inclusive camps, I almost said exclusive, inclusive camps, 16 teen sidekicks were paired with eight campers and attended 15 camps together. Now, therefore, I, Betsy Smagle Anderson, Mayor of the City of Piedmont, in recognition of the admirable accomplishments of these teens and campers, proclaim September 8th, 2026 as Teen Sidekick Day. I love it. On our screen, we see all the teen sidekicks from this summer. That's great. Welcome, Eva Phelan.

Yes, good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. I'm Eva Phelan, Recreation Supervisor for the Piedmont Recreation Department. Tonight, we have the wonderful opportunity to publicly recognize our fabulous, caring, and compassionate teen sidekicks. 48 incredible teens, ages 14 to 18, volunteered their time and energy over the summer. Before I start gushing, I wanted to briefly reintroduce the sidekicks program to those who may not be familiar with it. The Piedmont Recreation Department launched the Sidekicks program in January 2022 with just two after-school programs. Fast forward to today, and now we offer year-round programming throughout both the school year and the summer. Every Sidekicks program is thoughtfully and intentionally designed to meet the needs of our community by creating safe, fun, and inclusive recreational opportunities for neurodiverse children ages 4 to 15. Larissa Martiniak is my very own sidekick. Together, we carefully consider every detail from facility specification to selecting highly skilled instructors when developing a new program. During the summer, we offered two different types of programming, adaptive camps and inclusion-based camps. Our adaptive camps are designed specifically for neurodiverse children. Our inclusion camps pair a teen sidekick with a camper and together they can attend any of PRD's camps. This summer, 16 teen sidekicks were paired with their very own camper and helped them successfully participate in mainstream programs. They built relationships with other campers and strengthened their recreational skills. And along the way they created lasting memories and had the time of their lives. Our teen sidekicks play an integral role in making sure that every child has the same access to recreation and most importantly that every child feels included because everyone deserves to feel that sense of belonging. Unfortunately, many of our summer teen sidekicks were unable to join us tonight, but every single one of them deserved recognition because they each gave campers the opportunity to experience camp for the very first time. They were a key component in campers feeling seen, valued, and accepted, and they chose to spend their summer vacations giving their time, energy, and their heart to the growth and overall experience of children in our community who need it most. Being a sidekick requires responsibility, communication, punctuality, dedication, a whole lot of patience as well. We ask a lot of our teen sidekicks and they just delivered a thousand percent over the summer. So on behalf of the entire recreation department, we want to extend our deepest thanks to every one of our teen sidekicks for their commitment to this program and to the children and families we serve. We're continually impressed by their maturity, compassion, and dedication to giving back to their community. Tonight, we invited two people to share their firsthand experiences with the Sidekicks program to help paint an even clearer picture of the impact of this program. First, I'd like to introduce Karen Booth, the mother of one of our amazing teen sidekicks, Madeline Booth. Madeline has been a Sidekick volunteer for nearly three years, participating in both our school year and our summer programs. She's one of our most dependable, warmest, and empathetic teen sidekicks. Madeline has such a wonderful way of connecting with each participant, getting down to their level, and really learning who they are. It has truly been a pleasure to work with her and to watch her grow into one of our sidekick leaders, as well as become one of our campers' favorite teen sidekicks. I should also mention that Madeline has even recruited several of her friends to join our program and volunteer with her. This is the first time we've invited a parent of a teen sidekick to speak at the proclamation. We're incredibly proud of our teens, and as you can probably tell, we love to brag about them. We thought Karen could offer a unique perspective by sharing the impact the program has had on her own family and how being a sidekick has contributed to Madeline's growth and development as a young person. So Karen, can you come on up? And while you're joining me, I want to quickly introduce The second speaker, let's see. When Asher Dolid interviewed to become a teen psychic, he told us that he wanted to volunteer the entire summer, or 80 hours. We loved his eagerness, however, given the number of teens who apply and volunteer with us each summer, we explained that we likely would only be able to offer one or two weeks of volunteering. As luck would have it, for a number of different reasons, we ended up needing substitutes almost every single week of summer. Given Asher's incredible can-do attitude, his enthusiasm, his fun and sweet demeanor, and his ability to connect with every camper, Asher quickly rose to the top of our sub list. So while I can't say if he quite reached 80 hours, I think it's safe to say he got pretty close. So Asher, you're on deck. And before I hand the microphone over to Karen, Asher, Larissa and I just wanted to personally extend a huge thank you to you for everything you gave to the sidekicks this past summer. You're a natural friend. And it was clear from the very first time you walked into camp that you have innate ability to connect with the kids. So in a nutshell, the campers adored you. We can truly say that we couldn't have done it without you. So thank you. Okay, I'll hand it over to Karen.

Hi, I'm Karen Booth. I'm the mother of Madeline, who she just spoke of. And as she said, this is Madeline's third year in Sidekicks. I think her interest in Sidekicks started much when they start in high school. They are interested in achieving and through volunteer hours and And I think I remember as a freshman seeing a table during orientation. There was something there about sidekicks. And so I think we picked up a flyer. She picked up a flyer and took it home, although I think she began to volunteer in sidekicks when she was a sophomore. I think, as with all kids, she was nervous. She was not little, how am I gonna feel qualified to do this? How am I gonna connect? But sort of knowing her throughout her childhood and into middle school and high school, she's always been somebody that is connected with little kids, all kids, kids of all ages, kids of all backgrounds, and so I didn't have any doubt that she would do fine. She went shopping for the process. She got her own fidgets. And so she was prepared. And then the beginning of it, she would come home from every session with a different story that was just relating back and forth what the child said to what she said. And I could tell she was so invested. And the stories were funny. She made me laugh with the stories. She then progressed to doing the one-on-one matching, which was a lot more intense. With the integrated camps, there's adult counselors there, but with the one-on-one matching, you're kind of on your own. and she rocked that and in fact she did one-on-one matching with the same child sort of two years in a row and has forged a friendship with that child and the family even outside of Sidekicks so she spends time with him babysitting him and very recently we were driving to an event and we were going through the Caldecott Tunnel and she takes out her phone and she starts videoing it and she says I'm making a video for him because he loves the Caldecott Tunnel so But then I think most significantly looking forward as she's thinking about careers and applying to colleges, she's interested in working with kids with neurodiversity and special needs, specifically in the area of speech language pathology and communication. She's taking American Sign Language to learn additional ways to communicate kids with different backgrounds. And so just the evolution of watching her go through the program and how she's thrived and how she's come into her own and looking forward into how she can continue to impact the world around her. And I have no doubt that sidekicks will have been a huge part of where she goes in the future. So thank you.

Thank you so much for those comments. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Asher Dolid, and this summer was my first time being a teen sidekick with the Sidekicks program. During that time, I participated in three camps, each of which was a wonderful experience. When I first joined, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I immediately felt welcomed, not just by the staff, but by the kids and the other teen sidekicks as well. It quickly became the highlight of my summer. Through this program, I've built lasting connections and friendships while developing essential skills like patience and communication, tools I know I will carry with me for life. What I love most about sidekicks is the inclusive environment. It's a place where everyone feels they truly belong, which makes the experience deeply meaningful. Being a part of this program has taught me the value of meeting people where they are, as well as the importance of being patient and supportive. I'm incredibly grateful to have been part of this community. A special thank you to Ms. Martiniak and Ms. Fallon for your support throughout my journey. To the other sidekicks, thank you for working alongside me to ensure this experience remains available to every child. And to the staff, the kids, and my fellow sidekicks, thank you for making this summer so special. Thank you.

Great, thank you both for those insightful comments. We love our sidekicks program here in Piedmont. I just wanted to give a special shout out to both Eva and Larissa for doing a presentation to all of the mayors of Alameda County earlier this year. It was the kind of beginning of summer time. And you could have heard a pin drop in that presentation. So my hope is that the efforts here will be replicated across Alameda County. Wouldn't that be amazing? to make our collective recreation programs as inclusive as possible. So thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. Thank you. So at this point, I'd like to invite all of the sidekicks who are here, and Ms. Phelan and Ms. Brontiniak and the council, and let's take a photo.

Come on up, sidekicks.

Thank you.

Okay, well, that was wonderful. Thank you all for coming. Really appreciate seeing everyone this evening. I know I love that. Okay. So we are going to continue on with our regular agenda. We are going to circle back to public forum. So now is the time for public forum. This portion of the meeting is when members of the public can speak to the council on any item that is not on tonight's agenda. If you would like to speak on a matter that is on the agenda, please reserve your comments for when that agenda item is called. The purpose of public forum is, of course, to provide an opportunity for the public to be heard. However, if your comments do not address a topic that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city, or if your comments are disruptive, I will provide a warning. If the warning is not followed, I will direct the city clerk to cut off the microphone. That's kind of exciting. Each speaker, I'm looking at you, Dimitri. Each speaker is usually given three minutes. This time may be adjusted at my discretion based on the number of speakers or number of items on the agenda. If you ask questions during public forum or during public comment with respect to an agenda item, Those questions will not be answered during your allotted time. However, a member of the council may, at the conclusion of public comments, direct your questions to staff for a response. Pursuant to state law, the council may not discuss issues brought up at public forum, but council members or staff may provide brief responses to statements made. Okay, after that lovely introduction, I'm turning to our city clerk to see if we have any speakers for public forum this evening.

We currently have one speaker card and there are no hands raised online. Okay. So Dimitri Maganas.

First, the extremely, extremely, extremely important issues. You were not looking at me. You were looking at this tie that because of Mr. Ramsey is very, very fond of. Now, with your permission, I would like to deal with some extremely, extremely, extremely trivial. Is that okay? Okay.

As long as it's related to something we have jurisdiction over. Yes. Okay.

Okay, there's a place, it's called Auckland, commercial real estate which includes multifamily. Most people don't know that the lenders consider over four buildings a commercial property. The situation has never, ever, ever been worse and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. very many buildings, including the Tribune, former Tribune, this, this, this, about four or five last month, they sold for 15 to 30 cents to a dollar of what they had been bought 10 years ago, which means 55 to 60% of the assessed value Okay, most people do not, of course, know because it's not published. Very many of the institutional lenders, mainly commercial banks, do not want to foreclose because they don't know what to do with the properties, and they will be flooded with litigation, tenants running away, and so on and so forth. So they are selling secretly. Secretly means it's illegal for them to do that. the notes, they are selling the loan starting at 30% discounts all the way to 70% discounts. This way the property does not change hands and means that the existing owners are just managers. Why does this mean for very many citizens who have money and so on and so forth. It means that they have all kinds of opportunities to invest their money and get significant returns and have control instead of speculating in non-existing, unbuilt, big, huge projects. And the institutional lenders, they are not announcing this, but basically they don't have the lending dollars. They have 10 applications for loans, and they have 10% of the money to lend. On this happy news, you have a nice, exciting pre-election season, Mr. Ramsey. I can tell you where to buy a tie.

Just like that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate that perspective. Any other speakers this evening for public forum?

There are no additional speakers.

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and close public forum, and we are going to turn to our regular agenda. We do not, oh, actually, hold on. I'm looking at an outdated version. I think we have a consent agenda. We do. Look at that. That's so exciting. Okay. We have an item on consent, and that is approval of the minutes for the City Council meeting held on August 17th of this year. Do any of my colleagues want to pull this item from consent? Seeing none, do we have any public comment on this agenda item?

There is no public comment.

Okay. Bringing it back for any comments and or a motion.

I would love to move consent.

Okay, motion made. Motion made by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Council Member Long. Let's go ahead and vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. The minutes are approved. We are now moving on to our regular agenda, which begins with item number two, presentation on the state of AC Transit. I'm going to turn it over to our city administrator to introduce our speaker.

Thank you. Ryan Lau with AC Transit has joined us this evening at the city's request. There have been a number of community meetings in the region at large to discuss an item that's important to all Piedmonters, which is the future state of public transit in Piedmont and beyond. And as part of these community conversations, we've learned that there could potentially be some service cuts specifically to Piedmont and recognizing what an important subject matter this is, both to residents directly impacted and an educated and voting public, Mr. Lau was kind enough to accept our invite to come to our council meeting and share the item that is on the November 2026 ballot, as well as some of the implications if that measure is not successful. So joining this evening, I would like to invite Mr. Lau up to the podium. We have a brief presentation for all of you and certainly welcome comments and questions and would like to note that we've also raised this topic up for our school district partners as well because we know how many families could potentially be impacted by service cuts.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. And just make sure the microphone is green. Great.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Paul Kincaid. I'm Assistant General Manager of AC Transit. Happy to be here and Ryan will be speaking in a moment. It's a real pleasure to be here to introduce for some and to sort of reaffirm for others the importance that AC Transit plays in the life of so many Piedmont residents as well as residents across the East Bay and the Bay Area. Alongside the members of our team, we're going to address exactly what you spoke about, the current budget challenges that we face that, frankly, without a long-term solution, will impact the bus network that all of our cities depend on every day. First, let's start a little bit with who we are. The Alameda Contra Costa, easy for me to say, transit district is not an agency of any of the East Bay cities. Instead, it's a special district. which serves 13 cities and eight unincorporated communities across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. We span 364 square miles, carry nearly 4 million passengers every month, and we're governed by a publicly elected board of directors, one of very few transit agencies in the country that has an elected board. Three out of four riders on AC Transit are people of color. Nearly two-thirds are low income, making AC Transit an essential lifeline for all of the communities that we serve. And it's why for more than 65 years, we've strategically operated bus facilities in Emeryville, Oakland, Hayward, and Richmond, keeping buses close to the communities that they serve every day. And it's also why we're proud to have received the American Public Transportation Association's top honor, outstanding public transportation system in 2023. Being a top transit agency translates to 40 million rides a year, and let's unpack those numbers a little bit. That means 140,000 people every weekday. We deliver more than 160,000 rides every weekend, and those numbers are growing faster than the weekday rides as people's commutes change. Each weekday, more than 9,500 riders choose to take our Transbay service instead of driving across the Bay Bridge. It's a critical service that connects the entire East Bay to the San Francisco Financial District. Now that school's back in session, at least 30,000 students every single day depend on us to get them safely to and from class. Riders recognize our affordability, especially now, and our value, and the numbers prove it. February, March, and April delivered our first three straight months of year-over-year growth across the same month since the pandemic began, and in August, we'll report another massive ridership gain. We're also a workforce-first employer. AC Transit supports more than 5,100 jobs across the entire East Bay. More than half of those jobs are created outside of our agency. They generate more than $604 million in annual wages, and they inject nearly a billion dollars into the East Bay economy. Every bus we operate creates jobs, supports local businesses, and strengthens our communities. And in fact, APTA, the American Public Transportation Association, estimates that across the country, for every $1 that taxpayers invest in transit, they receive $5 in total economic growth in their communities. While fueling our East Bay economy, we're also cleaning the air. For more than a quarter century, AC Transit has led the entire nation in the adoption of zero emission bus technology. Today, our fleet of 58 zero emission vehicles are eliminating tailpipe emissions from our streets across the district. That leadership earned us a $40 million federal investment to launch the transit industry's first zero-emission bus university that will be headquartered at our training facility. Alongside Chabot College and Union ATU Local 192, what we're calling ZEBU will help our employees earn associate degrees while creating the clean transit workforce of tomorrow. Riders recognize our value because we're making transit more affordable, easier to use, faster, and safer. We have a program called Easy Pass that provides unlimited rides at deep discounts for participating employers, colleges, and communities. Our Clipper Start program gives income-eligible adults half off every single ride. We've redesigned 104 bus lines, our entire system, starting last summer. We called it the Realign Network, and it's improved travel times across the East Bay. Finally, an AI-powered camera mounted inside our buses helps keep bus lanes clear and bus stops safe, improving safety and reliability so cars aren't stuck in the lanes and at the stops all day. I mentioned that three of four of our riders are people of color and that nearly two-thirds are low-income, so we can put that number into perspective. More people earn less than $50,000 a year who ride AC Transit than any other transit agency in the Bay Area. It's one of the most expensive regions in the country. And many people are already struggling to afford the essentials like transportation and housing. In fact, the United States Department of Transportation estimates that the average person, particularly low income folks, spend between 50% and 60% of their budget every month on transportation and housing alone. So when we bring those numbers down, they have more to spend on things like education and health care and trying to find new, better paying jobs. That explains why 65% of our riders are transit dependent. They have either zero or one car at home. Service cuts would not be an inconvenience to those people. It would change their lives. It would upend the lives of everyone who relies on AC Transit to reach jobs, to reach doctors, to reach school. And now I'll turn it over to Ryan, who can share a little bit more about the deficit projections and what it could mean to our service across the East Bay.

Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Ryan Lau, External Affairs Representative at AC Transit. You often hear the term good stewards of public dollars, and that simply just means that we make the most out of every single dollar that we spend. Independent reviews back this up. Since 2020, AC Transit has achieved an average savings of $33 million per year. And the state auditor also confirmed that AC Transit coordinates service effectively with other East Bay transit agencies. These results show that our real challenges is secure, sustainable, long-term funding, not mismanagement. This disciplined financial stewardship is one of the reasons why AC Transit has maintained a top-tier AA plus credit rating. That doesn't make any sense. Still, we know that when fares go unpaid, the cost doesn't disappear. It creates a funding gap. That's why this summer, we launched our multilingual fare-required fare compliance campaign. The message is simple. Pay the fare and protect the bus line. When the cost of running our bus network rises faster than the revenue supporting it, it results in a fiscal cliff. And what's behind that? Federal pandemic relief funding is gone. Our regional state sales tax, excuse me, revenue has flattened and our fair revenue growth has slowed. At the same time, fuel costs have gone up by 28%, bus maintenance parts have increased by 14%, and the cost of buying new buses has surged by 35%. So you can see it's lopsided and it's obviously unsustainable. But we're not standing still. Instead, we're taking action. And just this past fiscal year alone, we've trimmed $9 million from our belt. How do we do that? We've only been hiring for positions that directly support our service. We've scaled back temporary staffing, saving roughly $2 million annually. We've brought outside professional services in-house. We've partnered with other agencies to purchase goods and services for less. And we've even temporarily restructured payments to the pension plan to preserve cash. And so we are, in fact, making sure that every taxpayer dollar counts. And each taxpayer dollar must count because over the next four years, we're looking at a $200 million deficit, which translates into roughly $50 million a year beginning in 2027. So without a long-term sustainable funding source, we're looking at service reductions of up to 16%, and those are unavoidable. We're also looking at potential human costs with layoffs projected to affect up to 300 employees. So as you can see, we're facing a looming service workforce and community crisis. We have, however, been thrown a lifeline. It's not a permanent solution, but it's a state bridge loan. And that's exactly what it is. It's a loan. It's not a bailout. And it has to be paid back with interest. AC Transit's share is roughly $55 million, enough to close this year's budget gap and avoid service cuts today. But next summer, the loan is gone. The reserves are exhausted and the funding challenges return, which is why the hope rests with the Connect Bay Area or SB 63. The regional transit measure on the November ballot will ask voters in five Bay Area counties to approve a 14-year half-cent sales tax or one cent in San Francisco. If approved, it would generate an estimated $980 million annually for Bay Area buses, trains, and ferries. AC Transit's share would be $52 million a year, helping to protect existing bus service and prevent layoffs. Without long-term funding, our bus network remains at risk. To show what that might look like on the road, I'm going to present... I'm going to hand it over to Owen Goetze for a look at what that impact might be.

Thank you, Ryan. Good evening. I'm Owen Goetze, a transportation planner at AC Transit. In these uncertain financial times, our approach is simple. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. That's why we've developed a worst-case scenario contingency service plan. It is just that, a contingency that would only take effect if no long-term funding is secured by December of 2026. If that happens, our priority is protecting as much service as possible. This contingency plan preserves the existing realigned network we launched last fall. Its guiding principles are clear. Minimize route eliminations, protect hours of service, and maintain frequent bus service where riders depend on it most. Next slide, please. The proposed contingency plan is designed to protect the most service for the greatest number of riders. Its priority is preserving the backbone of the East Bay, or what we call the primary route network. To achieve that, service reductions are focused where ridership is lowest, minimizing impacts on the greatest number of riders. Where reductions are necessary, the plan first reduces frequency to every 30 minutes, rather than eliminating service altogether. Most routes would continue operating daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., maintaining access for work, school, health care, and other essential trips. More than 90% of the bus network remains intact under the proposed plan. so what does that look like for piedmont most piedmont bus service would remain large and open would remain unchanged the busiest corridors would continue to receive frequent reliable service in and around piedmont lines 18 and 57 would continue operating every 15 minutes or better during the peaks on weekdays in addition line 88 would be reduced to every 30 minutes after 7 pm on weekdays and hours of operation would also be reduced only operating between 6 a.m and 10 p.m seven days a week Similarly, line 12 would be cut to every 30 minutes, seven days a week, and would only operate between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The Transbay network would shrink considerably. For Piedmont, this looks like eight fewer trips on line P, that's four fewer trips in the morning, four fewer in the afternoon, and line V would operate four fewer trips as well, two fewer in the a.m., two fewer in the p.m. All weekend service on some of the surrounding Transbay lines at the NL, F, and O would be eliminated altogether. For the OWL network, the all-nighter network, service would remain intact on lines 800, which connects San Francisco, downtown Oakland, and Berkeley, as well as the 801 in South County, as well as the 851, which is Alameda, Oakland, and Berkeley, preserving overnight travel across the East Bay. Low ridership all-nighter lines 802, 805, and 840 would be eliminated under the proposed plan. The 805 serves parts of MacArthur Boulevard near Piedmont. To offset those reductions, some of our other local lines would start a little bit earlier, but would not cover the service gap completely. As I close, it's important to stress that this plan would only take effect if no new long-term funding is secured by December of 2026. So the road ahead. The board approved the service reduction framework in March 25th, 2026. The next big item is the public hearing, which is set for October 14th, 2026, where we will receive formal public comment on the record for all the proposed plans. And with that, I return the mic back to Paul to close us out.

So we have opportunities, obviously, outside of the October public hearing for folks to voice their input. We've been taking comments since the contingency service plan came out. We've discussed it quite a bit with our board in public forums. It's something that a lot of folks have heard about. Again, what I think is most important is that it is a contingency. We are planning for the worst. It is an unavoidable requirement. As Ryan pointed out, we only have the bridge loan until the end of next summer, and it takes a long time to get something like this off the ground and to figure out what we're going to do and how we're going to protect the routes as best we can and provide as much service as we possibly can. What I will also say is we touched 27 BART stations and several ferry ports. And so with BART being in the exact same position that we are from a fiscal cliff position, there are going to be, if the ballot measure fails, there are going to be a tremendous number of unexpected consequences that will come from that, that we have not modeled and that BART has not modeled because they just can't. They don't know exactly what they're going to do, and so we don't know exactly how we're going to react. And so this contingency service plan is the best that we can do right now, and our hope is that we will be able to throw it in the trash on November 6th. So happy to hear any thoughts that folks have on our social media. There's a QR code. You can also visit our website and go to contingency plan to drop any comments that you might have there. We have pamphlets as well that explain the contingency plan both here and on a lot of our vehicles. We put them on the buses in the morning. Most of the time they're gone by the afternoon. So people really do care, which is great to see. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you all might have.

Great. Thank you so much. Paul and Owen and Ryan, thank you all for coming in to spend time with us and tell us about what's happening over at AC Transit. I'm looking at my colleagues to see if we have any questions. Vice Mayor?

Yeah. My colleagues have allowed me to serve on Alameda County Transportation, so we talk about this regularly. And it's all transit agencies in the Bay Area. I know that there was a lot of gratitude when that bridge loan came in. clearly there is a fiscal cliff. Can you describe how we got here? Can you take a minute to tell us how we got here to where there's such urgency?

Absolutely. It's very strange to be asked this question. So prior to serving for AC Transit, I was the associate administrator of the Federal Transit Administration under President Biden. And we began at FTA seeing that the fiscal cliff was beginning to form in 2022. After COVID, there were three different tranches of rescue funding that were put out across the country, and one of the major ones helped bolster public transportation. For the first time, the federal government gave money to large operators to operate service. Currently and previous to COVID, the 5307 program, which is the urban mass transit account, was for capital only, so to buy buses, to build new rail, to build new ferries, that sort of thing. It was not allowed to be used for operations. When the tranche of money came in during COVID, it allowed transit agencies all over the country to operate service, including AC Transit and BART and Sam Trans and VTA. That money has disappeared. As Ryan said, inflation has become a massive issue. Right now, the zero emission buses that we buy that were a million dollars three or four years ago are now a million and a half dollars. So the technology is getting better, but the price is going up, which happens in almost no other industry that uses high technology. Our fuel costs have gone up even before the war in Iran. Now, with the diesel prices at the highest they've been ever, that's a concern. Our labor costs have gone up. We have one of the most dedicated, amazing team of mechanics and bus operators in the country. However, they... don't work for free. And so when our new contract was put in, again, we're in one of the most expensive parts of the country to live in. And so their wages and their fringe benefits went up. So essentially, you saw a lot of drop off of operations money. A lot more costs went up. And quite honestly, the commute patterns in the country have changed. And there have been a few agencies that have done exactly what AC Transit did completely reimagine their entire system to realign themselves with what the public actually wanted, which is why you do see more ridership across the country on weekends on bus service. But you also see high ridership on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, lower ridership on Monday and Friday. And so that fair revenue has has dropped off as well. Most agencies only get about between 7 and 11% of their budget through fair revenue. However, it is a substantial part. 10% of our budget is $70 million. We face a $50 million gap. So there are a lot of different places where inflation, COVID, and the change in commute patterns have kind of combined to create the fiscal cliff. And it has happened across the country. From New York's Metro to Los Angeles to BART, obviously, Chicago, Philadelphia, SEPTA, everywhere in the country that has a major transit agency has faced a fiscal cliff and has had to deal with it in their own way.

I have a follow up. Go ahead. This is obviously an incredibly important topic. And when you were speaking about the cuts to Piedmont, it was a little quick for me to understand her reference to the P. And I mentioned to my neighbor, Ryan, I can't let that happen because I can't let my husband stop working. And he takes that every day. He's not a golfer. He's got to go into the office. This is important for us to get out to our local newspapers, our local news sources. This is great. But do we have something that is really clear on what's happening in Piedmont? very specific about what the cuts would be in Piedmont?

I believe most of them are online on the contingency service plan website. It's incredibly detailed and it goes into exactly what will happen to each of our 104 lines. We will keep 93% of our lines if the contingency service plan is put into effect. only a few would actually be outright canceled. However, the vast majority of the lines outside of the primary route network, which includes the 88 and the P, would suffer weekday cuts. Our Transbay service, again, during the weekend would be cut entirely. BART also would suffer tremendous cuts on its Transbay service on the weekends. There has not been a lot of discussion about this, but essentially if the ballot measure doesn't pass, it will isolate the East Bay from the peninsula from a mass transit standpoint. That will also then isolate a lot of drivers from the East Bay and the peninsula because traffic will just be even worse than it already is. So we take on average 60 cars off the road with every Transbay bus we take across. So for the 12 buses that Owen talked about, you're looking at, you know, I don't do math in my head very well, but about 720 cars added every day to the Bay Bridge. So those are online to see.

Yeah, that's pretty harrowing. The other thing I was just going to mention to follow on in terms of losing service, you know, we've already lost some service here in Piedmont with the realignment. The 88 route used to extend all the way through the community and now it does not. And so we unfortunately have a lot of school families and students who can no longer have access. So we've already seen the effects of having to cut back and it's it's really difficult. It's really, really difficult because now those families have to, as you said, jump in their cars and hopefully they would bike or do other non-carbon emitting transportation. But the fact of the matter is they're probably getting in a car to drive. kids to school um because the bus service isn't there anymore so um so we know we have fresh fresh memories of of the cuts um and then i think we do have quite a few people in the community that use the p i mean that is that is a very popular bus line to and from the city and i guarantee you those commuters do not want to have to drive they really don't so i think that message will fall on receptive ears here in our community any other questions here Any comments? Go ahead.

I have a question. It seems to me, kind of intuitively, if service is reduced, it will ultimately result in fewer riders, and then service will reduce more because you can't afford to maintain the same lines. So I'm seeing heads nodding that my intuition is maybe correct. Are there studies on that? Is there something that you can do to combat that? What are the solutions?

more service. The simple answer is yes. Part of that is accurate. We are anticipating if we cut service by 15%, our ridership will decrease. We are not anticipating that it will decrease by 15%. One of the reasons that a line realigned set itself up the way it did is because it took some of the lines that were just not very productive off the road. This will do the same thing, but the lines it's taking off will be a lot more productive, but they won't be our main lines. The 18, the 51 series, the 72 series, the tempo line. And so you won't see a dollar for dollar drop in fair revenue and our cuts. you will see less service and you will see lower ridership the way we've planned out the contingency service plan assumes again fair revenue is not the largest part of of our our operations budget but the way we've planted out assumes ridership goes down to a certain level and so fair revenue goes down to a commensurate level And that's the level we cut to. So the people who are served by the buses that are left will still ride at the amount that we expect them to, ideally, and we'll get the fair revenue. So we shouldn't have to cut any more after that. I will tell you that we have a benefit. We're a bus system. We're the largest bus system in California. We're the third largest bus system in the entire nation. We are only a bus system. BART has rails, Muni has rails, VTA has rails. When you have rails, you have infrastructure that even if you're not using it, you have to maintain, you have to protect, and you have to run service through even if you aren't stopping there. So BART and the rail systems have a much larger concern with the money that comes in and out Even if they cut service to a station, they still have to pay for that station. And so their service conceivably gets progressively worse, and fewer people ride, and their fares matter more than bus systems do. And nationally, it's been nicknamed the transit death spiral. So while our system is set up to have these cuts occur but still maintain service, the system that we carry on, more than 300,000 people a day combined with in the BART is not set up to deal with cuts like this. And so that's why I said earlier, we don't know what the result of this would be overall. We know what it'll be on us, but we don't know how it'll be when we interact with other transit agencies. And so what you're talking about is a real concern. It's less for us than for our partners that have rail, but it is still, it's a concern for the service itself, but it's also a concern for the complete unintended and unknown consequences that we could face because of this.

Are there any, just as a follow-up, are there any that you're aware of, municipalities or agencies across anywhere else in the country that have figured out how to avoid that death spiral?

Yes. Almost every other major transit agency that is the size of BART, or every other market that's the size of BART and AC Transits, has done something to fix theirs. In Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania state legislature did something like this, but it wasn't a vote. It was just the legislature paid more. In Illinois, they've completely redone how the Northern Illinois transit system works with their bus system and the CTA train system. They've created new governance, and while doing so, also created new funding. With MTA in New York, the governor created a new set of funding streams while also putting the MTA kind of on notice that they had to make their spending a lot more efficient and effective. They also have a massive gambling vote that passed right around the time they were fixing their program. And so a lot of the casino money is going to go into MTA. MTA is a state agency. It's not run by the city of New York. So there's a lot of different communities around the country that have figured the transit fiscal cliff out in their own way. What they have in common, and to us, is that the governments in charge of the transit agencies did not act until it was at the last possible second, despite being warned for the better part of three years. And that is almost always the wrong way to do things. But for us, it's the only way we have left. And so the goal is to get a sustained revenue model for 14 years. And the hope is as soon as it passes and the first checks start coming in the next day, there is a discussion at MTC, at our MPO, the Metropolitan, Metropolitan Transportation Commission about what happens after the 14th year. How does the community and the state government and the municipal governments come together to figure out what a truly impactful, consistent spending plan is to make sure that public transportation is never put in this situation again?

Thank you.

First of all, we're calling it Connect Bay Area. What's the number of the measure on this? It doesn't have one yet.

Right now, it's just being called the revenue, the regional transit measure, RTM.

Okay. And then secondly, you guys are out, you fellows are out? several times a week talking to local councils about the same way you're talking to us tonight. Yes. And I know you're getting a lot of people protesting your very detailed proposed cuts. So I'm guessing the question is, is there somewhere else you could find the money other than making these many cuts?

I mean, conceivably, there's always places you can find money. There isn't for us right now. In fact, there are, I'm sure some of you saw in the papers the other day, the greenhouse gas reduction fund that funds a lot of our zero emission projects has been cut, the funding that's going to go to transit, which is a little frustrating because we're already dealing with what we have, and then the state government decided to cut some more. And so there's no money there. A lot of places have put in, you know, have used property tax, have created ad valorem measures, have created bonding issues. There are agencies that have tried to go and create new revenue streams. We have a sizable number of revenue streams in our own agency, things like advertising. We have some properties that we rent that are near our maintenance facilities and things like that. Right now, though, for the foreseeable future, this is the solution. And there is it's not a it's not a we can go find unicorn somewhere. It's a binary solution set on November 5th. We will have enough funding to operate AC transit at its current rate or we will not. Those are the options. And there are a lot of people who say, well, you should cut funding. As Ryan said, last fiscal year, we cut nine million dollars from our nonce without touching a piece of service. we are at the bone if we start if we keep cutting we will cut places where we will it will affect our service even if it's not firing an operator or a mechanic if we have fewer planners if we have fewer maintenance people if we have fewer of anything it's going to get to a place where we start having degradation of service in some way or another so There, you know, there are discussions to be had, like I said, in the future that I very much hope will be had. And there are obviously downsides to everything that there are opportunity costs, right, to funding public transportation. You have to get the money from somewhere. And right now, this is the only place that we can both get the money and that actually exists.

I appreciate that you had a slide talking about worst case scenario. If... this measure doesn't pass. When do the cuts begin?

June. June of next year is when we're estimating that. And that is what we call a sign-up. We have four sign-ups a year. It tells our bus drivers where they're going to go, who they're going to serve, where the routes go. That will be the first sign-up where we have the ability to Change what the route structure looks like it's also the beginning of our fiscal year So that's that's when the loan runs out is the beginning of our fiscal year And so that's when we stop having enough money to operate the service we currently have Another question I can't I keep looking at the printed materials.

Maybe they changed between This and what was presented this evening, but I swear I saw on their cuts to para transport. Is that something that I just Made up or is that it was in I don't think presentation

I don't think we have specific cuts on paratransit yet. The way paratransit is set up, it's built on how your regular service operates, how your normal everyday service operates. The paratransit mimics that as far as service area is concerned. And so there would likely be some change to paratransit and how it's run. We run East Bay paratransit in a pairing with BART consortium, yeah. not thinking of the words great uh so we pay for i think like 67 to 70 percent of it and bart pays for around 30 but because we touch so many places that bart does here in the east bay that consortium runs between the two of us and so their service also informs what East Bay Paratransit does. Because they have fixed stations, the way that paratransit is mandated under the Americans with Disabilities Act is different for fixed stations as opposed to bus stops. And so it will likely change. We haven't really modeled exactly how yet.

Okay. Thank you. One last question, and then I don't think we've taken public comments. Go ahead.

I just want to say, so Clearly, you've established the need here. What is it you're asking from us? I mean, we appreciate the information and you've given us a reason to act on it. What is it we can do?

Well, I think having these conversations in your community is incredibly important. As you said, Piedmont has a particular history with AC Transit and what happens when service is reduced. Our ideal world sees us getting a significant stream of revenue, people loving the bus system, and us making more than we expected and starting to return service to places where It doesn't exist now. That can't happen without that first step. And so having discussions with folks, you know, about what AC Transit faces, what the reality is, that service cuts would not begin until middle of next year at the very earliest, that right now we will maintain service 100 percent of our realigned program, that we are creating more and more riders every month and that the gas prices are not hurting that at all. And that weekend service is growing and that people are choosing new ways to ride the buses to get around the East Bay. I don't have a car. I ride the bus everywhere I go and bark. But it's having conversations with people about the importance that you see where you live and where you work and where you go to the hospital and go to school and everything else. The number of people you see get an on and off AC transit buses, the workers that depend on AC transit buses to help work at small businesses across the area, the people who run businesses who see their customer base getting on and off AC transit buses, having those discussions and letting people know how much the blue or the green and white bus means to the East Bay community and to our economy is the best thing that you can do to help. that we're allowed to talk about. We are a government agency and therefore election stuff is a little bit out of our purview.

Yes, thank you so much. Really appreciate that context. Looking at our city clerk, do we have any hands raised or anyone in the room for public comment?

I see no public comment in the chambers and there are no hands raised online.

Okay, bringing it back to the council. Yes, go ahead.

I just want to thank you all for the presentation. I know it's informative for us up here and as well as the community to be paying attention to these issues, to be engaged, get out and vote because it matters. And just, it seems like you all have done the best that you can with what you have and it's great to see a contingency plan, you know, and hopefully it won't come to fruition.

We are very much looking forward to wasting a tremendous amount of time.

That's good. Great. All right. Thank you so much.

Thank you all for your time and for your interest in your continued support of transit in the Bay Area.

Thank you.

We're here every two weeks.

Okay. We are now going to move on to agenda item number three, which is a public hearing consideration of approval of first reading of ordinance. 793NS amending Chapter 4 of the Piedmont City Code. This is about animals. So I'm going to turn to our city minister.

Thank you, Mayor Smeagol-Anderson. So presenting the item this evening is our Chief of Police, Frederick Chavies, who will lay out both the context for these changes as well as summarize the proposed adjustments.

Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council. Thank you. Hello. We're coming to you for consideration of approval of Ordinance 793 NS. It's amends Chapter 4 of the Piedmont Code, specifically around animals. And so Chapter 4 of the Piedmont Code establishes the city's regulations governing animals, including dog licensing, dogs running at large, animal bites, dangerous and or vicious dogs, impoundment, animal control fees, and enforcement. The proposed amendments modernized Chapter 4 clarifies the authority and responsibility of the city's community service officers, formerly our animal control officers, in the police department. And it establishes a more detailed administrative process for addressing dogs that may be potentially dangerous or vicious. The revisions also update definitions, clarify leash requirements, establish procedures for investigation, confinement, and hearings. It also provides clearer standards for findings, appeals, sanctions, and cost recovery. Many of the existing provisions in Chapter 4 were originally adopted several decades ago, with the last update being 2018. 2018 and During the periodic reviews and following community feedback staff identified the need to refine definitions and animal control regulations proposed amendments retain the basic framework of the city's animal control regulations, but updates terminology and procedures and providing greater clarity for residents and staff and becomes more in line with state law, both in the penal code and the food and agriculture code. These definitions support a revised process for investigating and adjudicating incidents involving dogs that may present a danger to people or other animals. The most substantive amendment to Chapter 4 are contained in Section 4.14. The proposed ordinance establishes a structured process for determining whether a dog should be designated potentially dangerous or vicious. Following a reported incident, an animal control officer would investigate to determine whether there's probable cause to believe that the dog is potentially dangerous or vicious. If the animal is deemed to be, the animal control officer would issue a written certification to the hearing officer. The ordinance would also permit consideration of a dangerous or vicious dog designation made by any other California jurisdiction within the preceding 12 months for animals within our city. When a dog poses an immediate threat to public safety, Animal Control may seize and impound the dog pending a hearing. Alternatively, appropriate confinement may occur on the owner's premises or at the department or any approved shelter, kennel or vet facility when necessary to protect public safety. The revised ordinance also establishes notice. In hearing procedures, so following certification, the police department will petition for a hearing before a hearing officer and provide notice to the dog's owner or keeper. Following the hearing, the hearing officer would issue written findings and a determination. And when a dog is determined to be potentially dangerous or vicious, the hearing officer could impose restrictions, including confinement, fencing, muzzling, or leashing, as well as removal from the city. Other appropriate measures so dogs permitted to remain in the city while restrictions are in effect will be required to wear a restricted dog license So the ordinance establishes an appeal process through the Superior Court and provides mechanisms for recovering certain costs for the city associated with the impoundment or abatement violations of a valid hearing officer or superior court order may constitute a misdemeanor. And then Section 4.33 clarifies the city's enforcement authority by providing that violations of Chapter 4 constitute infractions and may be addressed through the city's administrative citation process under Section 1.9 of the City Code. Applicable for applicable fines will be established by city care or have already been established by City Council through resolution the amendments also include numerous technical and terminology updates throughout chapter 4 The proposed amendment provides mechanism for cost recovery for certain impoundments and does not have any further fiscal impacts And that would conclude my presentation with regard to Chapter 4.

Thank you. I'm always a big fan of aligning with the state code. That seems like a really good idea. And I know much of this language is old because it refers to, I think I saw someone here, donkeys, horses.

Horse, cow, goat, and sheep.

Yeah, right. Mules, ponies, jacks.

Those definitions align with or are part of the historical definition of animals within the city.

I'm glad we're updating it. Obviously, now we have a whole new breed of dog called something poodle. We have a cockapoo, other people have a golden doodle, all that. A lot has changed in the last 20 years. Right. OK. So turning to my colleagues, do you have any questions about these code changes? Yes, we do. Councilmember, go ahead. The floor is yours.

I'm wondering, are we leaving in? Because you were talking about removing some of the old animals in the red line version I'm looking at. Horse, cow, goat, and sheep are staying in there.

Well, it can be removed, but then I think that I would have to look at other chapters of the code to see where it governs, whether or not there are an event that someone in community decided to have horses, cows, chickens. So if we remove them, it begs the question, do we then allow these because they're not governed by any of our codes? And I know that it's not completely, it's not all inclusive of every animal that exists on earth, but yes.

But I think some people in town have had chickens. I don't know. Correct.

Chickens aren't listed on here though. No, not chickens. I mean, like, can you have a horse in your backyard? I would hope not.

Yeah. Are we worried about vicious chickens?

No. Okay.

Well, sure. I mean, I don't know. What, bird flu?

I don't know.

I think actually turkeys are pretty vicious. Can be, but they're wild.

They can be. Yeah. Tom, the... Yeah.

Not you, Tom.

Anyway. Okay. Thank you. I have a couple of questions about some of the language... the word unprovoked is not really defined, and I'm worried about people, about manipulating that particular word, because you could, in theory, say that if my dog, if your dog attacks me or my dog, or the other way around would be, my dog attacked you or your dog, but you provoked me somehow, even though you think you didn't.

Right, I think that, oh, sorry.

Well, I saw that toward the end of the code, it was laid out a little more, but that's not in the actual definitions, and it might be worth potentially moving that up to the definition thing, just so that the definition portion of the code, so that it wouldn't be potentially misinterpreted.

We could add a definition. I think that unprovoked, so something without lacking cause or justification for an attack. And it's not necessarily for us to determine, but it would then, right? I think in your example, if you say, well, I was provoked or I wasn't provoked, that would be up to the hearing officer. But I think we could add a definition since it's already in. at the rear of the chapter. We can move it up to the definitions portion.

Yeah, so I've heard, I'm keeping a running note. This is our first reading, so this will come back to us, and we can make changes. So I'm just keeping a list here. So we're going to add a definition or move the definition for unprovoked to be earlier in the section.

Yes.

And then was there another concrete suggestion?

Before that, it was, well, it was about the weird animals, but I guess the consensus was that We want to keep that in there because... Or make sure it aligns.

Make sure we're keeping it for a reason. Maybe just double check that we're keeping... Yeah. Double check animal list.

Okay. So the next issue that I had was about the definition of severe... injury, which currently says any physical injury to a human being that results in multiple tears or disfiguration, lacerations, or requires multiple sutures or corrective or cosmetic surgery, which you would think would cover a lot of things. There are times when a dog bite cannot be sutured and it doesn't meet any of these other... It's long enough to be sutured, but there's a risk in suturing it because of the nature of the bite.

Because it's deep.

It's a puncture.

They're deep. They're not... Yeah. Right. It's not like a knife cut. That's right. It's uneven. Yeah. And there's also heightened potential for... Infection. Right. Because it's from a mouth bite. So they often want to keep it open without sutures and let it heal from the inside. Yeah. and that would not be covered under this. It says disfiguration laceration. It has to disfigure you in some way. I don't know. It just seems like it could potentially not. We can take a look at it.

Again, these, so GBI, SBI were taken directly from the state law, but we can change it to fit what's appropriate in Piedmont.

But we need to modify the state law, apparently.

Or just add, right? Like, so we can take state law and we can add to it, right?

And so we could add a bit that clarifies that a puncture wound is potentially... Or, like, you know, that requires multiple sutures or is otherwise, you know, a serious laceration.

I agree with Council Member Plymier. I know that oftentimes dog bites are left open so that they can heal, so that they... So that There isn't some sort of bacterial infection, however. Yeah.

Okay, so let's add it to the list, and then...

I think the final... There were some other little things, but... Oh, so I had a question about the restrictions and whether they can ever be removed because it doesn't talk about that in the code at all. It does talk about needing to wear the dog, needing to wear a restricted dog license for the duration of the time the restrictions are in place.

So the restrictions are set by California state law for 36 months and it's covered. And I have, uh,

I mean, it does talk about 36 months.

Yeah, it should have been added there, but it's that 36-month period is set by state law. Okay. I know the section, but it escapes me. Maybe 36194, but I may have made those numbers up. I can get the exact numbers for you, Councilman.

And we can cross-reference that in the ordinance as well, to be clear.

Okay. Yeah, I was looking at section G of 4.13. 4.13.

Is this at page 4-7?

Yes, bottom of 4-7, top of 4-8.

Got it. And the findings in public news and such.

Yep.

Okay.

I don't know if you, like there were a bunch of sections where we talked about owner or keeper and then sometimes it was only owner.

Yeah, I think that those can be aligned. It should be more aligned. I know that, again, the... We talk about owner and keeper, but I know that the state law differentiates because there can also be a person that has dominion or control over the animal, which may not be the owner. But I think that we can add so that it's consistent, both owner and keeper.

Two more. The first is the definition of ownership. Well, I guess it's not totally a definition, but it's the section on contagious or infectious diseases. So the way I read it, and I can't come up with any other interpretation, the paragraph did not let me take my dog, who I think has a cold or some other little virus, to the vet on the highway because...

Without an enclosure. Without committing misdemeanor. The way that the state law reads is that you can transport the animal to a vet, but it needs to be confined or contained. I understand, but I also think that this speaks to more dangerous or serious. If your dog has a minor illness, you need to take them to the vet.

I understand. I get that this is talking about more serious things where you could cause public danger.

We can provide some clarity and an exception for a standard vet visit and explain what the intent is.

Thank you. Last one. Oh, so when we were talking, there's a paragraph about the owner has duty to report. And I'm wondering... 4.9. Section 4.9. Thank you. Duty to report knowledge of bite is the overall title, but the onus is on the owner, which makes complete sense. I'm wondering if we want to include any language to encourage...

the victims to also report yes we we can absolutely include the language but i know that uh cccr 2066 says that anyone with knowledge of a dog bite should report it and i know that that's vague right and not everyone who may be privy to a witness to a dog bite would report it i think that they would I ask that the owner or the victim, if the victim is injured. But I think I can talk with the city attorney's office about maybe language to support encouraging victims. Or maybe there can be a campaign or some sort of literature either on the site or.

Yes, we can work on revisions to that to provide language encouraging victims to report and confirm in the state law what specifically it says to provide some clarity on that.

Those were my questions.

Yeah, and I just want to follow on. I mean, as an owner of a dog and having spent time in our dog parks, you know, most of the animals are very well behaved. Most people are following the rules, but I have definitely seen dogs bite other dogs, not just in the dog parks, but also on the, so this actually is a real thing that happens. And I don't know how often it is brought to the attention of our police department. Probably usually only when a person is bitten. But one of the things I observed is if you see a dog attacking another dog, that should actually come to the attention of the police. I hadn't really been thinking about it that way before. But yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it protects other people, right? And it's like, how do you know there have been five bites in the past? That's right. three years if nobody reported any of the previous four bites. Yeah. I mean, I feel bad for the dogs.

But sometimes people rescue dogs, right? And you don't know what the dog's history is. Because the dog acts aggressively doesn't mean the owner has done anything wrong. It could just be the dog, right? So I don't want to necessarily do owner shaming because it might just be that they have a dog that is not feeling well and or they don't know what the past experience of that dog has been to trigger it to do some behavior that falls under these definitions, right? Okay, yes, Council Member Ramsey.

I have a general question, so I'm going to bring it up a little, because I'm not a dog owner, but I'm curious, is the way that Piedmont manages dog licenses and defines dog, Is it vicious or dangerous animals? Is it different, or does it vary much from other jurisdictions, or is there anything we do less of or more of?

No, I think that, well, without knowing everything about every agency or jurisdiction in the Bay Area, I couldn't necessarily speak to that, but I think that ours is different.

very comprehensive and and it's one of the things that we benefit from is that things are spelled out and they're clear and folks are actually truly engaged in our community i'm grateful for that no that's good that's good to know and then also um just in general mainly about uh article three on the dog control and bite regulations too um will this clean up of the language will this make i want to say your job easier but will it make it easier to enforce or will this help

It makes it... It provides clarity for those that are involved, especially in our hearing processes. And so oftentimes, especially now that we have a hearing officer and where we are holding hearings, it makes it more clear for all parties involved. And it gives the hearing officer something to stand on and also the dog owner and the would-be victim things to point to. Without this clarity, there was a lot of ambiguity, and so we're trying to make this more, I don't like saying black and white, but at least paint a clearer picture for all parties involved.

Got it, okay, thank you, that was helpful.

So I don't want to take us in a totally derailed direction, but we have had residents complain to us about these. Okay. And bees being aggressive. And I know they're an insect. You're not a mammal. Everyone emails me. I know bees are an insect. I'm not an animal. But I'm just curious about that. Because I don't know that we have any regulation in town with respect to aggressive insects. Yes.

I don't know. All right.

All right. We don't have to answer that tonight, but I'm just putting it out there for further thought in the future. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Do you have any public comment on this important topic? We have no public comment. Okay. Public comment is closed. This is an action item. It is a first reading, I think, and I'll double check with our city attorney that we can go ahead and pass this first reading with the suggestions for review as presented to staff.

Yes, that's correct. Per the city's charter, changes can be made between the first and second reading.

Great. I guess now is the time to speak up if you're not comfortable with that approach. Well, good. Okay. Any other last comments, questions, thoughts? All right.

I just want to thank Council Member Pommier for going through this literally with a fine tooth comb. Yes, thank you. And it was very helpful. Thank you.

You're welcome. Sorry.

No, no, I appreciate you. Thank you.

Okay, so at this point we'd entertain a motion.

I move that we approve the first reading of Ordinance 793NS, amending Chapter 4 of the Piedmont City Code relating to animal control as amended by the comments received today.

Great. We have a motion made by Council Member Plumier. Second. Seconded by Council Member Ramsey. Let's go ahead and vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. First reading passes unanimously. Thank you again to staff for the presentation, and look forward to having this come back to us at a future meeting. All right, we are now moving on to our last agenda item in our regular agenda, and that is item number four, information report on summer statistics from the Piedmont Recreation Department. And I'm already smiling. We love PRD. We love summer. It's like best topic ever. Okay we're getting the presentation lined up here. Lots of anticipation, this is exciting. Hope folks watching at home are staying cool. It's really hot. We are flexible, adaptable and have a can-do spirit.

can't see that I can see that hi we're ready to go here I'm here tonight to talk good afternoon good evening mayor and council about PRD and our summer we've had a very exciting summer and I thought We thought this would be a great chance to really talk about what PRD delivered over the summer and what we learned during the first opening of the pool and how we're going to use those lessons to shape fall services. So this wasn't a typical summer. We knew this as we were getting ready for it. We're a small but mighty team over in PRD. There's 11 full-time staff, including me. There's 12 of us. and in the summer we coordinate 270 part-timers that help deliver the programs to the community. We knew this was going to be a unique summer because we were going to open a pool. We were planning on expanding programs and adapting to some new facilities. We reorganized some programs this summer, but we continue to really deliver safe and welcoming experiences for the community that they've come to expect. None of this happens by accident when you're planning for the summer, so behind every camp or swim lesson or practice, field trip, there's months of planning coordination. and problem solving that takes place. So the summer programming really starts in the winter. Believe it or not, we start in December. And registration, and that happens really early because the community has really asked us to be able to open summer camp registration as soon as possible, which for them in planning is February. This was the first year we were able to open. This is our earliest. In early February, we opened summer camp registration. And then we start hiring. So that hiring, you know, we hire probably 40 summer camp staff that come in. And this year we tacked on another 116 swim staff that were going to work at the pool. And we were really preparing to figure out ways to really maximize our use of city facilities. So summer starts before June. So next slide. I thought we'd start with basically our overall camps. We run camps that are in-house, and we run camps that are run by contract instructors. But overall, we ran 10 weeks of camp. We actually have a week zero that we started for families that may not be in PUSD on that schedule. They could be homeschooled. They could be in a different district if they have a different schedule. And we offer some camp programming in the week zero. So that's the week before PUSD starts. gets out of school. So about 37 campers participate in that. But we consistently offer over 300 camps each summer. This is amazing for a small town. I've never seen, I don't think you would see it in a very small town with thousands of kids that are registering for programs. So This summer was no different with 4,100 registrations. What's fantastic is that the staff of PRD, we just don't run the same things every year. We run some of the things because we know they're popular, but we had 73 new camps we offered and six of those taught by new instructors. That's keeping it fresh, knowing that interests change from year to year from the schools, kids in school. So kudos to staff for keeping an eye on that. That also reduces the number of cancellations of camps during the summer, so a great job by all PRD staff to work through that. So next slide. We're gonna move to, we actually, oh, did I do that or did you do that? I thought we'd start with in-house camps because we had some shifts in this, and it was really focused on being more efficient with the programs that we are offering and utilizing staff and really consolidating our programs into single spaces. So a great example is our preschool explorers program, which used to run for each one of the different preschools in a different room throughout the city running separate camps. And this year, we put all of our preschool directors in one location at Community Hall, and they rotated and had a range of age groups. And they all got a chance to work with different ages and run different parts of programming. It was really successful. We saw an increase of 32% over 25 numbers in our preschool camps. Funtopia is a different age group. We used to have two camps. One was mini campers and Funtopia. We put those together because age groups are pretty close. And we also put it at one location, and we were able to increase capacity in that from 40 to 60 each week. So another way that we're being resourceful and trying to maximize the use of our facilities and being more efficient with our staff and our facilities. So Camp Everything is our in-house camp, and it really serves as all-day childcare. Many years ago, we stopped offering summer schoolmates, and we shifted to a Camp Everything, which is summer's version of full daycare. This year we kept, last year we started, we piloted doing field trips. We didn't quite get pool days last summer, but this year we did. So we offered weekly pool trips and weekly field trips. This year we had, for the first time ever, over 100 kids in a camp. That was a peak for us. So we had really high numbers and it was basically a 38% increase over 2025 numbers. We kept the fees the same. I think they've been the same for at least three years. And we offer free drop-off in the morning and extended care until 5. So it's been a wonderful program for families in town. It's probably the cheapest camp in town. That's what I'd say. And then another program we're really excited. Katrina keeps changing the name, so I have to keep track of it. It's called Next Gen CIT. We have to stay hip, I think is what it is. But this is for our older grade 7 to 10. And what I love about this is that... We had 124 kids that went through this program over the seven weeks. And this year, we revamped it. So they worked with the fire department, got CPR certified. They got a water safety training from our aquatic supervisor, Paula, does a great training. And then we take advantage of our sidekicks staff, and they got sidekicks training. Once they go through their trainings, they actually help on the pool days for Camp Everything. They go work in Fontopia. So they get work experience as well. And then the people who lead it, they work on their resumes and interviewing skills as well. So this, I see it as our sneaky way of building our future part-time staff workforce. But we don't tell the kids. But we have a hundred and... Got to get to work. We have 124 teams out there now that are CPR certified and water safe and are conscious of that. So they can be babysitters. They can come work for PRD. It's really a community benefit of having them go through this program. So we really love that. And then we move into, which you've heard enough tonight, wonderful things, and you are familiar with summer sidekicks. So the next slide. So I won't go into it anymore, but this is really recreation for all, and including all those kids in any one of our summer camp programs. What I think is wonderful, you've met the volunteers and what they do. Again, we have 54 volunteers that have been trained by our staff in inclusive programming and how to be inclusive. excellent supportive people and adaptive with kids with adaptive needs and we also get that benefit of training our own staff so and our summer camp staff get a training on adaptive needs and neurodiversity so it's a win-win for us. All right here we go next slide. This is the hot topic right our first summer at the pool So obviously opening day wasn't it. We weren't just opening the door and done. We were really standing up a full operation and learning how to do it all while in real time, which has been quite an adventure. But I think staff is hanging in there, and we've actually done a lot. So when we start to look back at it, we're really proud of the work that has gone into it. We hired, as I said, 116 staff. We've launched new registration software. that we started using. We've sold summer passes, and we came out strong offering learn-to-swim classes in summer camps right off the bat. And we're really looking to learn and get feedback from the community as they start to use the pool and have been. And with the help of ECHA, we have a digital comment card and currently have a survey that's out. the community. We really see this as just us going through really learning every moment that we' re working in the pool and it' s been enlightening and interesting as we go through different seasons so we' re just going to keep translating that into the different programs that we' re going to offer and how we continue in that operation. What we came out, I like to say we came out swinging. And we came out swinging with swim lessons. Teaching kids to swim and having kids be water safe is just a core priority for any community pool, especially in this community. And so when we came out with swim lessons, and there's a huge demand and there's a really hard to get in swim lessons. And so we wanted to make them as available as possible. And they were really successful. So 355 swim classes today. There were 814 individuals that took swim, which accounted for the 1,428 swim lesson registrations. And you can see by how that chart breaks down is that 69% of the swim lessons we offered were really focused on the fundamental beginning preschool learn to swim age groups. And so the spots filled in that chart show We offered lots of classes, and they were filling up. And we were going to use this information, and we have, to make choices for the programs we're going to offer in the fall for swim. Which ones are successful? Try to plan ahead. Preschoolers are now moving up in their skill level, and try to anticipate how they're going to move through our swim lesson program. We also did swim camps, which was amazing. We didn't even know if the pool would be open. And we just publicized them. And we said, we're going to go for it. And they filled, of course, immediately. So it was such a bonus that we opened the pool and we could offer them. We offered seven weeks of camp. And there was 155 registrations out of 168. So it's 92% of those spots were full. They were popular. The splash camp is great. Splash camp that you get, it's not a long, long day, but you get a swim lesson, you get swim play, you get water safety. And then we even had our master tie-dye, Mr. David Hopkins, come back and do tie-dye with kids for some fun times. Splash and tennis is just taking advantage of these two facilities that are connected. So you have morning swim, walk them up to the pavilion, they have lunch, and then they go and they would do tennis with our two tennis instructors that we work with, Jim Landis up there and those were really popular and then junior lifeguard camp again we're training that next group of lifeguards we're trying to bring them up it was an excellent camp learning you know cpr learning water safety understanding what lifeguards are doing is just an asset to have those kids out in the community okay next slide Not only that, we had programs, we did rentals, and we were doing events at the pool. It's just really becoming this community hub, and there's group exercise gatherings and having events. We had kind of a slow start to adult AquaX registrations. We had an injury to our instructor, but these have been wonderful. They're water aerobics, or right now we're doing AquaHIT, which is high-intensity interval training. And they're really popular. And we set them up in a way that you can register for just one class because you want to come try it. Or you can register for all of them. So it's basically a drop-in model. But you can pick the days that you want to go. And that's been really popular. And then we've had 42 rentals or pavilion events. So 32 poolside rooms. That's the very lovely Sméagol family poolside room. And people are learning how to do parties there. And we are too. how to best use that, and then 10 pavilion events. That's a mix of internal events and some rentals. And then we've celebrated together. So we celebrated opening. We did Splash Bash, which was our other kind of fun kid opening of the pool. And then we had Fourth of July. So we have some more events that will be coming as we get more accustomed to how we can use the facility. All right, next slide. Pool pass sales. We sold some passes. People were excited. We sold some passes. We made some people very nervous for a while that we were so successful in selling passes. But we came up with this wonderful model that really allowed people to buy a pass that fit their household or how they were going to use the pool. And that's been something that's been evident in the number of pool passes that we've sold. So these numbers represent all of the pool passes together, resident, non-resident. And then any add-ons, because remember, you can buy an adult pass and then add on a child. So this is what annual passes were. And then our summer passes, which were awesome, too. that we shut them down a little early. But you can see that people wanted to be at the pool. And what this one stat that I think is great is that people are using their passes. They didn't just buy them and sit on them like my fitness membership. People came, 35,000, almost 35,800 almost check-ins. That means people with a pass were coming and checking in. That's just since April 12th. And then just so everybody knows, the summer pass ends on September 30th. So we're hoping that we convert some of those people into annual pass holders. Okay, next slide. So this shows you how busy we've been. When you see Paula, our pool supervisor, and she looks a little frazzled, that's because there's a lot of people going to the pool each month. So almost 50,000 visits. So that's not unique people. That's people coming and they're lap swimming. using the pool, checking in, lounging. It also includes drop-ins. So I think that's a really interesting stat that we weren't sure how that would turn out. We didn't know if we sold pool passes, if we would still have drop-ins, if the price would be something people wouldn't want to pay. But it looks like people are utilizing it as maybe an exercise venue. One of the highest drop-in check-ins is an adult. either a resident or a non-resident using the pool. And I thought that our April introductory $5 drop-in rate was amazing because that was 4,200 people came to just check out the pool in that first couple weeks, which was good. So these numbers don't even include when we're doing lots of tours or we have teams there or we have team practices or spectators that are coming to watch events as well. So you can see June is our busiest month, which makes sense. I'm going to shift gears into the next slide, which is more about PRD in events. We do a lot of community events in Piedmont. These are just some that happen in the summer. And I've added that they're continuing on into the fall as well. So I talked about the pool opening events. Obviously, PRD has a big role in 4th of July. All of city staff do a lot of work on the day of the event. PRD works with the volunteer group that helps plan that, and we do a lot of the kind of behind-the-scenes logistical things that happen prior to the actual day of the event and the day of, too, and the party in the park. We also have a Fourth of July pool party of sorts. We have been doing movies in the park for a long time, August, September, and October, so a few coming up. And our adult fun over at 801, which we call 801th's a month, we have it in august september october november that lineup has come out um some they're just really fun things to do the one in august was a puzzle palusa and it was sold out there were 12 teams and they're all competing to see who can finish a 500 piece puzzle the fastest the winner a second time in a row in 34 minutes and six seconds finished that puzzle it's amazing So I think we're going to take that to the next level. I think the council should enter.

I think so, too. Three days. No, I'm just kidding.

That'd be good team building, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. It's really amazing. And to PRD's credit, we tried a new thing. We were looking at June's. It stays too light out to show movies, so we stopped doing June movies. Same in July, we were a little burned out, so we thought we'll do a food truck Friday, and it was a hit. And so people loved it, and this is what we do. We kind of adapt and say, all right, so we added three more. So we had one in August. We've teamed a couple of them up with a movie in the park night so you can get dinner, hang out, and then stay for the movie if you'd like. So this has been really fun. We like it because it's fairly minimal on stuff we have to do. we can't help ourselves you know we add a dj and we add other things and i kept saying no just call food trucks and that's it but people who come to those are making the fun right it's a beautiful park nothing better than having a picnic and having great weather so you'll see more of those coming up harvest festivals coming up and new families night just so you know those planning for that happens throughout the summer and then i threw this on there because i didn't make another slide but we also are you know are the rental uh People for Community Hall and Vets Hall for People's Events. So this is really weddings. This is Evie in our office. Just in the three months in the summer, we had, I think, 40 weddings or parties at Community Hall. That means every weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's a very busy venue. Next slide. And then we do sports. We do all kinds of sports, luckily, for me, for youth and adult sports. But the highlights for this, we run an adult drop-in basketball during the summer. And in the summer, we have adult softball teams. These are the champions. This year, the Beach Bums, I think they beat, I can't remember the other ones, the other names, but it was a pretty good game. Also, we added, and this was work that we did this summer, but a lot leading up to it, this year for middle school athletics, we added sixth grade girls volleyball for the first time, and we added girls flag football. which is also new. Those came out of work that we did through our girls in sports survey and asking girls what they want to play and that's where we got to this point. Also a lot of work in the past two years of offering developmental volleyball program for younger kids and it taught by this amazing player from St. Mary's. Her jersey's retired. She's a Hall of Fame setter for St. Mary's and she's incredible and now this year so we had volleyball we have 72 girls that are out from volleyball. That's six teams. Sixth grade team have two teams this year, which is the first. We have just enough girls to play flag football, seven. That means they have to play both ways, offense and defense, but they're doing it. And so we're really excited about that. We do a lot of planning for basketball junior running Tuesdays. And then if you didn't know, we had all the court reservations, tennis courts, and all the sports field reservations working with youth organizations to plan that out. So a lot going on in the sports world. Okay, two more slides and we'll get going. All right, preschool. So this, we've been really doing a lot of work to get ready for this year's preschool and really in two different areas. And one is we've been preparing for, and if you've heard about this, transitional kindergarten. Each year, the age group, it's called TK, it continues to drop. So the kids get younger and younger and they can enter TK in the school district. And this year, we have kids that started TK and they were under four. So we had three three-year-old plus walking around backpacks, dragging, going to school. They're in the big kid world. And so this year, the school district, we're a partner to the school district. We're trying to always be there to support any changes they have and make sure that families have after school care. They announced that they added TK at Wildwood. It was the last school to add TK. All the other schools, the other two schools had it. And so this summer we plan to add our many mates program, which supports TK. and offers AM and PM programs. This was a big shift for us because it's hiring staff and planning, and then it's a whole other operation that happens, but it's pretty cute, actually. So that was one thing we were getting ready for. The impact of that is we used to have a pre-K program. We thought the pre-K would go away last year due to TKers because it's the same age groups. Parents weren't ready. This year, they were ready. Kids were going to TK, and we lost our pre-K program. But we were kind of ready for that to happen. So our pre-K teacher transitioned in, and she's now running Skipping Stones program. So we're excited about that. The other thing we've been prepping for is a move out of community hall lower level of our most popular preschool program, which is Tiddlywinks. And it's actually two programs, caterpillars and butterflies. Rosanna loves my preschool names. The caterpillars are the littlest ones. Then they become butterflies. Yes. They moved to Hampton. So they moved to the Hampton facility, which has allowed us to expand the number of kiddos in our most popular class, which is butterflies, to 20 kids on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And then we have caterpillars on Tuesday and Thursday. So we've got a lot of kids in that facility. And it opens up the middle part of the lower level community hall, which is a really large space. And now we can use that for PRD classes in the afternoon. We can use it for rentals on the weekend. It becomes an open space. usable for us for our programming, which is really great and we're excited about. The other thing is that Skipping Stones last year was renting at the Piedmont Community Church. We're able to move them into one of the side rooms at Community Hall lower level and stop paying rent and have a really nice spot for them. So we're excited about Skipping Stones moving over there, run by Lisa Bunn. And then our Hillside Preschool, which is the last one, is staying in 801 East Wing. So a lot of moving parts but some really exciting new things coming up for preschool. And the last one I thought I'd say for the best for last, Schoolmates is, I think, celebrating 45 years of operations started in 1981. It is literally the program that is there on three sites providing after school care for as many kids as we can try to fit in. It's a wonderful program. And this year, we've done a lot of work to expand our capacity at each of the sites, creative with the amount of space we have. And some really great things that happened this year. So we talked about TK happening and expanding Wildwood Mini-Mates program. Camp Kaleidoscope is a program we have that's a bridge. The school district has reading assessments for the first three weeks of school, which throws off all parents' schedules. And so Camp Kaleidoscope helps fill that for families. even if you're not in Schoolmates. So it just gets people through that bridge time. And then in Schoolmates, we've expanded capacity. And we, at each one of our sites, really trying to be creative and really staff up. We're offering wait lists, if you've heard about a wait list in Schoolmates, which was a thing. It's something that we battle and we try to get creative with. And one of the things that we put in play is last year we piloted the Hangout, which is schoolmates for the fourth and fifth graders and we started at the Piedmont Community Church. We're continuing that this year. It was so successful and this year we're opening one at Beach and so we're really excited about that. That pulls kids out of the Beach schoolmates regular facility and puts them into another spot on campus. So fortunate the principal at Beach has been a great partner and we got a space for that to happen. 162 kids weekly in that program at Beach and and 108 I think at the Piedmont Community Church. So if you've ever followed the wait list, Beach Schoolmates does not have a wait list in any of the programs. Havens does not have a wait list. And Wildwood is getting a little wait list, but I think we have some ideas to help tackle that. So we're doing, we're maximizing our creativity in childcare. Okay, I just, you know, what did we learn from, the summer of 26 we learned we learned a lot we learned a lot about the pool but we have strong participation as you know PRD offers great programs and the community really likes to use them the pool is heavily used in a super important community resource now that people are excited about and we want to keep up on the patterns to make sure that we're wherever there's a huge demand for something that we're able to make adjustments we need to And we're really focusing on matching our capacity and our staffing and spaces as things evolve. And we always want to make sure that we're having fun. So we did a lot this summer. But one of the things I think that PRD always comes through with is that we adapt and we collaborate. And we continue moving forward with the needs of our community at the center of all of our work. And that was that.

Thank you so much for this very comprehensive presentation. Just right off the bat, though, I was curious if we have a date for the Harvest Festival and or the New Families Night? Yeah.

Announce it.

Oh, you're going to announce it later. Okay, so we'll wait on that. We're teaming up. That's the fall. That's not summer. Jumping ahead. No, it's okay. I'm just so darn excited.

Okay, any questions? Go ahead. I mean, what can you say? Truly outstanding, and I get to witness this at the rec commission meetings. I just, I mean, I'm a little... lost for words because it is kind of incredible what you all are able to do. I don't know if you want to take a little bit of time to actually help us understand how you all accomplish this with a full-time team of 12. I mean, the master planning, the space, and all of these things, I think it would be illuminating for us as well as the community. The other thing that I would like you to talk about are sort of the opportunities, some of the things that have come up in the commission that you think that this body could be helpful in either understanding and or supporting your efforts.

Those are big questions The first one you want to just kind of hear about how it works, you know We are a small team and a very talented the supervisors in the rec department all do many different things and They're very good at what they do That makes a difference and then we have incredible coordinators but I think that planning we do we do a annual we call it a retreat in December and we plan for an entire like year and a half ahead of everything that's going to happen and that really gives us a chance to like sit down and troubleshoot and talk through past times that we've done something but I think that there it's it's a unique experience to be in a community that really loves recreation and what we put out and and and and they want to do it. That makes all the difference, because you can have great things. And if no one cares to do it or not, then it's not very much fun. So I think that it's a really coordinated effort. It's a wonderful team of staff. And it is really the way that they work with hundreds of part-time staff. the time and we're at our high point with 270 we may drop down to a hundred and something but that's a lot of people to manage that are out there working with the community so it is it is all about it's all about the people that we work with and our saying is love is in the details and so every time we look at something like we're trying to make sure that it's really special for the community And you're very successful at it. Thank you. I mean, this is such a supportive council in everything, in pool and all of our programming. That just is the best part of being able to work here. So I think the rec commission will be working on some things that hopefully we'll be able to bring as we go through pool operations, being able to bring those items here or, you know, be able to have the community learn more about that and how it's going. I think I don't have a laundry list of it, but I appreciate you asking.

Yeah. Yes, I mean you all are doing a lot and sometimes the whole picture is not clear to the community and obviously there are opportunities to improve communication and understanding and so this is great for us to get this report and for the community to hear it and also to understand that. I think the incredible thing about your department especially, but staff in general, is how responsive you are. And if there's anything I can communicate is that the bar is set high by you all and there's always the willingness to adapt and to evolve. And the pool is a great example of that. So just something that I think people should know and keep in mind. Thank you.

Okay, any other questions at this time? Go ahead, Council Member Ramsey.

That was all well put. You know, the energy, the joy, the creativity, the value, the reach... you know, just the range. I mean, that's all, you know, just hearing it in your voice. I mean, it got, I think everybody excited, but there's another side here too. That is, um, the, uh, the business savvy or I don't know, or the, you know, just the, uh, efficiency and the, I mean, this is just master planning too, to have all these things going on. I mean, I was trying to count there's like almost 400 people that you hired this last year, right? 116 at the pool plus 270 part-time people too. I mean, that's, I don't know how you do that. Um, I do have enough now from that. I would like to go back to about the, um, Hampton park. Um, and I heard you say that, you know, that, opened up community hall now too for some use too. Could you talk a little bit about how that's going? Is it, you're getting maximum use, do you need anything else to make that successful?

Yeah, thanks for bringing it up because I didn't talk about the other part of that is that with preschool going into Hampton is that we will also be using Hampton in the afternoons as well. So you'll see this go into play in the fall because we just moved to Hampton beginning of August. And so you'll see we will have, or you'll see it in the guide already, a fall program that is scheduled at Hampton in the afternoons, and you will see programming scheduled in community hall lower level. And so having that space as a city space where we can schedule when we want it and kind of as part of this master plan is so valuable to us in continuing programming and keeping the offerings that we have. So you will see that start to, to build up over this next fall and spring going into next summer.

That's great.

Thanks. Thank you for all of this. I echo my colleagues' comments. I won't repeat them. I had a question about the summer camps. I'm sure you don't know this off the top of your head, but you had laid out the schoolmates, I think it was, with not just the total registrations, but the total number of people. And I'm wondering if you have similar data for campers. And if I'm assuming you also keep resident, non-resident data and I'm curious how many of our resident, you know, how many residents from neighboring communities we also serve with our rec department, because I know Piedmont sometimes gets backlash for being exclusive, and I would like to think that we're not, and I'm sure there are a lot of people that use our programs that don't live in Piedmont.

Yeah, it's, in our current recreation, in our registration community passes for the main recreation, it's a, it's a little difficult to get a report on resident versus non-resident, but I've gone through that on various times. It typically comes out to about 70-30, about 70 residents, 30. It does depend on the program. So there are some rec basketball might be closer to a 50-50 in terms of non-resident and resident. But usually it hovers right around the 70-30 or so. Yeah. But I haven't done it recently. But there are a high number of users that are not Piedmont residents. They pay a non-resident fee. They pay a little bit more, similar to the pool. But yeah, it's a very, we are surrounded, right? And when you find a city program that you really like, that's where you want to go. I mean, I live in Berkeley. Some of the things I'll use in Berkeley, we play rec basketball in Piedmont, you know, because it's a great program. And so once people find those programs, then they tend to come and utilize them.

Thank you. And I was curious what the ages were for the junior lifeguard camp.

Oh, I think it's 8 to 12, I think is the age range. No.

Darn, you got me.

Do you remember? 14 is the high? Yeah. Yeah. 14 is optimal because you can take the lifeguard test at 15. And so they're prepping them to take the lifeguard class ultimately. But we had some younger kids in there also with your daughter who should be a lifeguard too.

And I want to comment that those aerobics classes or whatever they have going on there in the activity pool, those are really popular. If you want to swim laps when those classes are happening, ride your bike to the pool because you will have a hard time parking. They're really popular. So that's very cool. And then... Just am really struck by the fact that schoolmates Does not have I'm getting almost teary about it does not have the waitlist anymore and like that was such a big thing for families and like You heard it and we made changes and now those families have the care that they need Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah Katrina Morris and everybody that's working at those sites are just stretching right and And we battle the staffing up thing every year, but they're making it work, and they are creative. And just like you're saying, we're responsive and adapting. Weightless can be a moving target, right? But I checked today, and there's room in programming. So I think some of the moves that we're making are helping. We also, like I said, if you give us space, now we can program it. And so anytime we get that opportunity, we're going to take advantage of it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, moving the older kids to Beach instead of having them walk up all the way up the hill to the center of town. Yeah, that's huge. So, thank you.

Or take the bus.

Well, it's still there.

Thank you.

Yeah, I want to jump on this bandwagon. It's amazing what you've done, and I was going to also comment on the schoolmate scenario. This time last year, parents were stressed and in pain over what their choices were and um you are such again i get teary-dew such a consummate problem solver and the 12 of you who work in rec are unflappable because to have i mean we see all the good you're doing all the time. And then when people are still not satisfied or something, you just fix it. You just fix it. It's amazing. And I think we're all just, the few times I get to walk into that rec department, I walk out with just a big grin on my face because it's just infectious happiness. You guys working together and for all you do for this community. So this was a fabulous report. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I don't think I can add to any of that other than we love PRD and we love our staff. Thank you so much for the team that you had, that you've inherited and built. It is an amazing group of professionals, and we're so grateful. I do have a question. Because you're so good at what you do, I always want to add on. And I'm curious about a potential future agenda item that crosses over, which maybe I can bring up later, but I can bring up now. which is we had a sustainability parks plan recently presented to us, and it talked about kind of creating some more usable spaces in our parks with the addition of picnic tables. And when you mentioned being able to program space if space is made available, it just got me thinking, oh my gosh, maybe we should create some more spaces for PRD to program. Sounds good to me. So anyway, that's my thought bubble for the evening. All right. Really appreciate this. This is not an action item, right? This is just informational. And again, please pass along our appreciation to the staff. And I know it's been a heavy lift bringing the pool online, but we're, again, so grateful.

Thank you.

Okay, that closes out agenda item number four. That was our last agenda item. We now have announcements, reports from council member and discussion of future agenda items. And I cannot wait of getting out my calendar to put on Harvest Festival and New Family's Night. So I'm hoping council member Long, you'll go first.

Yes, I have quite a few announcements tonight because there's a lot going on. So on Friday at 8.30, you're invited to the fire station to commemorate the 25th anniversary of September 11th. All are welcome. A.M.? yes yes yes yes yes thank you um and also encouraging residents to set aside time in the coming weeks to complete a simple easy to follow at home wildfire evacuation exercise at our website um pmont.ca.gov slash wildfire drill with their households the exercise created by the piedmont fire department works community members step by step through realistic local scenario based on conditions in Piedmont with simple pause and discuss prompts for each stage of evacuation. The exercise, which includes a video and a downloadable worksheet, is available at the city's website. So please go check it out and thank you for creating it. We also, on September 26, have our annual coffee, cars, and cops in the morning. And we'd like to invite all the community to come out and spend time with one another and get warmed up for the Harvest Festival. And then on September 18th, we have another Food Truck Friday, which has become quickly a fan favorite. We have on September 19th, Piedmont Cup at the Pool. This is outstanding. Kids build a boat out of cardboard and duct tape and try it to race it across the pool. Like, I know that is going to be so, so fun.

Big kids? Yeah.

It says kids, but, you know, kids is, we haven't defined the term kids, so. And then on September 25th, we have our Welcome New Families Night. Okay. And then on September 25th, we have a movie in the park. And then on September 27th, we have Harvest Festival. So there is something for everyone. So please come and engage in all the amazing activities happening in our wonderful community.

Great. Thank you so much. Yeah, that was great. That was a good report. Okay, who else would like to follow?

Who can fill up the rest?

Try your best.

Yeah, exactly.

I've got a few openings left.

I don't have a Piedmont event, but I do have an event that is co-hosted by Stockways, which is our regional Alameda County.

Microphone, Laurel.

sustainability things, and they are co-hosting a workshop in Alameda called Edible Perennials and Building Healthy Soil. And so these are perennial plants that you plant once, but you can enjoy the fruits of your labors year after year, which I thought was really impressive. So it'll be held September 19th. From 1 to 3.30 PM, it's in Alameda at the Alameda Point Collaborative's community garden. And there's an address, 2799 Lamore Road. No registration required. You can find more details, or basically the details I just gave you, from the Stockway's website. but for the gardening enthusiasts, that's a good event. And then I have an agenda item request. Oh, my microphone isn't on. You can repeat what you just said. I don't need to repeat it. There you go. That's OK. I got Tom's microphone sign. I'll quickly repeat. The Stop Waste event is September 19th, 1 to 3.30 p.m. at Alameda Point Collaborative's Community Garden. The address is 2799 L'Amour Road in Alameda. You don't need to register. You can find out more information at stopwaste.org. And then my agenda request is item is to put a bike rack at City Hall. I would like a bike rack at City Hall so that you don't have to park bikes around like a block and a half around the corner one way or the other if you are wanting to do business at City Hall. That's all I have.

Okay. Great. Any, like any of my colleagues? No. No? No? Oh, no. I like that suggestion. Okay, so I was going to announce a couple of Piedmont High School-related functions are coming up, rec-related potentially because it's for boosters. We have the first one is AI going to end the world or save it, and that is coming up on September 26th. That's going to be a big weekend. That is 6.30 to 9.15 p.m. There's a screening of a documentary, and then there are residents who are involved within the AI community doing a panel afterwards to talk and answer questions. And I think it's mostly sold out. There's a few tickets left if people want to attend that event. And then the PHS boosters have Oktoberfest coming up on October 24th, and that's from 4 to 9 p.m. And then, of course, we have Turkey Trot. Early registration is now open. Move your feet before you eat. And that, of course, is on Thanksgiving, but it's always good to sign up early. And I was going to also alert the community that our next city council meeting is going to also be on a Tuesday. That's going to be on September 22nd. And that is so that we do not conflict with Yom Kippur, which is the day before. And do we have any other announcements? I'm looking at our city administrator. We do not. Okay, going once, going twice. I am going to go ahead and close the meeting in honor and actually in memory of all those whose lives were ended and impacted by 9-11 on this 25th anniversary, and I especially want to appreciate the first responders at that event and also the first responders who continue to serve all of our communities today. So, thank you. Meeting is adjourned at 8.21 p.m.