City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the city council meeting for January 27th, 2026. Madame Clerk, will you please call roll? Council member Dillard here. Council member Lotheian here. Council member Suzuki present. Vice Mayor Kazarez here. Mayor Repstatis here. We begin every meeting with an invocation and flag salute. And tonight, the invocation and flag salute will be led by council member Suzuki. Council member Suzuki.

Good evening. We gathered tonight at a time of unrest and uncertainty in our country. When many of us are feeling divided or unheard, we pause to acknowledge our shared responsibility to move forward with good faith, honesty, and a commitment to working together. Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a solemn reminder of the consequences of hatred, silence, and the erosion of truth and of the enduring responsibility we all share to stand for human dignity and justice. At one of our nation's earliest moments of conflict, John Adams reminded us that facts are stubborn things. His words call us to truth, restraint, and moral courage, especially in difficult times. May we approach our work this evening with humility, respect, and a sincere dedication to serving the people of Laame Mesa. Please rise for the allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. City manager comments. I have none.

Community bulletin reports. We're kicking off the construction of the new downtown district sign. and the Laame Mesa Village Association in partnership with the city of Lame Mesa and the Laame Mesa Parks and Wreck Foundation is hosting a groundbreaking on Tuesday, February 3rd at 10:30 a.m. at the southwest corner of Laame Mesa Boulevard and Palm Avenue. Please be aware that La Mesa Boulevard will be closed starting February 3rd until February 5th from Spring Street to Palm Avenue for the construction. Uh convenient parking is available at Date Avenue parking lot. Uh the city of La Mesa is testing temporary speed humps as part of the pilot program to improve neighborhood safety and reduce speeding. Two temporary speed humps are currently installed at Date Avenue near city hall. We encourage residents to try them out and share their feedback through a short survey on our website. We're looking for bands to play at our popular Sundays at 6 concert concert series. Um if you have the sounds to get a crowd on their feet, we want to hear from you. submit your press kit and demo links to uh by this Saturday, January 31st. Uh more details are found on our website. Um this is something that actually that I started with um former uh park and wreck director and former um city manager Ivon Garrett. And our our goal is if you do have a band that it's um songs that you think would span a wide crowd. Um because we have ages young to older than me. [laughter] Um our [clears throat] winter two and spring recreation guide is available now and we're offering a variety of classes, activities, and community events for all ages. Programs started this week, but it's not too late to sign up. MTS wants to hear from people who live, work, and visit La Mesa about their experience

with the bus and trolley. Take a threeinut survey to share your feedback. and be entered to win one of three $25 gift cards. And that's it for me. So, I'll hand it over to Vice Mayor Casaris. I have none. Thank you. Okay. Um, Council Member Suzuki, Council Member Loian.

Yeah, just one. Um, on February 12th, uh, the mayor and the city council are going to have an in-depth tour. Uh, Helix Water has invited us to check out their new advanced water purification program. Uh, it's it's goes online this year. Uh, and it's a 950 million dollar project, so we're going to learn a lot. It's like a half day tour with lunch. Okay. [laughter]

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Dillard. Um, I I did announce this uh earlier this month, but I think it's worth me announcing again because we just had a really small crowd uh two weeks ago. Um, we are finally going to break ground uh at the Spring Street MTS um uh platform. That uh property is going to be uh have affordable housing on it. and um the final grants finally came in to finish up the funding that's needed for that property. Uh this is uh to just to remind you MTS gifts the land so that um a uh develop developer can come in and build the property at an affordable uh expense and make it available to people uh that fit within the category of affordable housing. And the breaking of the ground is late May early June. So, I just wanted to make sure I shared that because it's a long time waiting uh for them to get the final funding. So, thank you.

Thank you. Any additions or deletions by staff or council? None from staff.

Thank you. Item number five is a presentation climate action plan progress report and presentation. Quite uh alliteration there. Um Miss Hillary Ago, welcome. Good evening, mayor and city council members. I'm Hillilary Ago and I'm joined by my team, environmental program coordinators Serena Lee and our civic spark fellows Cleo Goodwin and Maya Feldman Dragage. Together we work on implementing the climate action plan or CAP for short. and we're excited to present highlights from the past six months. In 2018, the city of La Mesa adopted its first climate action plan, which is a roadmap of actions the city can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And in 2024, city council adopted an updated CAP to ensure that the city is up to date with state targets, policies, programs, and technologies. An implementation work plan was recently completed with the support of the Environmental Sustainability Commission to feature CAP actions in the approved fiscal year 26 to 27 budget. The CAP also highlights co- benefits demonstrating how actions can also improve community members lives. For example, improving bus and trolley options reduces traffic congestion, improves health and mobility, and increases access to jobs and services. In alignment with the CAP, in 2021, city council adopted a climate emergency resolution and a formal response in 2022, reaffirming its commitment to climate action. Over the past six months, staff have addressed all resolution actions through community outreach, school workshops, interdep departmental collaboration, regional partnerships, and support from university fellows and interns. Pictured here are some examples of events and programs. With the updated CAP, there is

continued focus on equity, youth engagement, and reducing vehicle trips. Regular progress reports to commissions and council remain part of this ongoing work. Sources of greenhouse gas emissions in La Mesa come from energy, transportation, solid waste, water, and wastewater and can be removed through the urban natural environment. The city has received greenhouse gas emission inventories from Sandag and the most up-to-date inventories from 2016, reflecting the best available prepandemic data for communitywide transportation emissions. The city is part of a regional grant award for Sandex Smart Growth and Center program for future greenhouse gas emission inventories and anticipates an updated inventory in 2026. On this pie chart, you can see an emissions breakdown with transportation being the largest contributor followed by electricity and natural gas. The graph on the right depicts the CAP's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets which align with state targets. The 2024 CAP includes six strategies. Building energy efficiency, clean and renewable energy, clean and efficient transportation, water efficiency, waste reduction, and urban natural environment. Within each strategy are measures and actions that include programs and projects such as installing water refill stations, planting trees, and community cleanup programs. The CAP team includes two full-time city staff and two civic spark fellows who serve in 11month Americanore positions for recent college graduates. We're also supported by two part-time college core fellows from the University of San Diego funded by the state. The team regularly collaborates with the Environmental Sustainability Commission, other city commissions, and serve on the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Advisory Board. In the past six months, the CAP team has hosted or participated in 24 outreach and education events, connecting with

over 2100 Laame Mesa residents. Highlights include Clean Air Day, Laame Mesa Safety Fair, Helix Charter High School Career Fair, tableabling at the Laame Mesa Farmers Market and Halloween in the village, litter-free La Mesa cleanups, bicycle and ebike education classes, household hazardous waste collection events, paper shredding event, and clothing swap events. In alignment with the climate emergency resolution, the CAP team has expanded its youth engagement efforts through collaborations with local school districts. These efforts include participating in the Helix Charter High School CareerFare, presentation to the youth commission, assembly presentation at St. Martin of Tours Academy, bike rodeos and safety classes, and family-friendly events such as litterfree La Mesa and tree planting demonstration. The CAP is interdisciplinary in nature and we continue to engage city staff through team meetings and hands-on activities. Recent efforts include staff participation in clean air day, presentations with the public works department, and a tree with the community development department to learn about public and private trees. Clean and renewable energy highlights include continued participation in San Diego Community Power in which Lame Mesa is a member agency to provide renewable electricity to residents and businesses. Community Power awarded the La Mesa Park and Recreck Foundation with a grant to replace gas powered landscaping tools with electric landscaping tools, significantly reducing noise and gasoline exhaust being inhaled by employees and parkgoers. With the support of a $400,000 grant from the California Air Resources Board, the city has begun the design of a solar panel array and EV chargers for city fleet at the public works operations yard. for building energy efficiency. The city continues to identify municipal facility energy saving opportunities such as replacing street lights with LEDs. As part of the La Mesa green business network and being a certified green business, the city was awarded a $1,000 grant to replace a fridge with an Energy

Star fridge at city hall. And during the month of October, energy education on social media was shared to encourage best practices at home, such as unplugging unused devices to prevent vampire power. Clean and efficient transportation highlights include continued partnership with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition in hosting safety classes for adults and kids through bike rodeos, city cycling classes, and ebike webinars. And the city was recently awarded the recognition of 2025 public partner of the year award from the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, who you will hear from next. The city continued to work on the EV charging station master plan, identifying priority locations based on community feedback and feasibility for future grant applications for transportation and land use. The city continued to implement vision zero projects such as the complete streets integrated design manual for water efficiency. The city partnered with I love a clean San Diego to provide student water education to over 200 students. The city continued to partner with Helix Water District through a presentation about water recycling and supporting their participation in the La Mesa green business network and being presented their green business certification. Throughout the city, water efficient landscaping practices continue to be implemented in city parks, sidewalks, and medians. For waste reduction, the city continued to advance organics recycling efforts in partnership with the city's waste hauler, Edco. Additionally, to encourage waste reduction, the city hosted two clothing swaps in September and December at the Laame Mesa Library, and participants diverted over 3600 pounds of clothing from the landfill. The litter-free Lame Mesa community cleanups continue to be a popular event and in the first three years of the program, there has been nearly [clears throat] 1,500 volunteer hours at

18 cleanups. Residents also continued to benefit from waste reduction services, including household hazards, hazardous waste collection events, paper shredding events, and free access to community compost and mulch. To reduce food waste, the city has partnered with produce good to encourage residents to donate the excess fruit from their fruit trees. Urban natural environment highlights include the launch of the free tree giveaway and education series in partnership with Tree San Diego. This included five educational events like tree steward trainings, a tree planting demonstration, tree tracks, and gave away 103 free trees to 53 Les Mesa residents. The city continues to be a leader in the planting and maintenance of public trees and was recognized as a Tree City USA for its 44th consecutive year. 2026 priority projects are listed here and include projects that reduce communitywide emissions, keep our air and water clean, increase local jobs and e economy, and improve the public health and livability for La Mesa community. Thank you for your continued support and we are available for questions.

Okay. Um I read the uh 2024 uh climate action plan annual report um and there was a sentence there a statement uh and I need to get some clarification. So it said from 2023 to 2024, Laame Mesa experienced a notable reduction in overall traffic volumes um alongside an increase in bike use and pedestrian trips. So according to the report, traffic or vehicle volume is down in La Mesa year-over-year 39%. Uh and then uh and this says pedestrian and bike lanes is up 37%. So to me and to a lot of people I've spoken with, it's obvious that traffic congestion is way up in La Mesa. Everybody talks about how much longer it takes to get from point A to point B. So I'm curious is that if that number is actually accurate and if it is if you could share your method your meth methodology how many vehicles you counted where you did it when because 39% is drastic.

We work with the consultant uh to receive our transportation data and so we'll continue to work with them as we uh get our next iteration of data for our next report. Say that again. So we work with a consultant for our data and they have traffic counts and they do this annually in certain locations throughout the city and with those counts we are then able to analyze the data that we receive from them. They analyze the data. I think what they're saying is they don't collect the data. The the consultant does. So how do we see it? H how do we see it? How do we see the Yeah, I I'd like to see the consultant's report. I mean, it's no way that the traffic's down 39%.

The city manager can provide you with that report. Okay. Yeah, I need to see that. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? Council member Suzuki, I don't have a question. I just wanted to say thank you because seeing all the work you're doing in the community and see I know that the St. Martin kids really enjoyed it. So, thank you for your work and for encouraging people to think um in a more renewable energy way. So, thank you for that. You just have one question. What is vampire power? So, vampire power is when, let's say, you have your phone that charger, if you leave it plugged in, it actually still pulls energy. So, unplug your phone.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you for the report. Thank you. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, I thought someone else had a question. Um, our next presentation is a public partner your award for city of La Mesa by the San Diego County Bike Coalition. Hi, welcome.

Hi, good evening. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Khloe Lowour, the executive director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, and we are pleased to present this Golden Gear Award for public partner of the year to the city of La Mesa. Partnership is key to advancing cycling in our communities and this Golden Gear Award honors a public agency that has excelled in collaboration with the bicycle coalition. It's been a joy partnering with the city of La Mesa on bike education over the last few years and more recently on the ebike incentive program. In addition, we're really thrilled to be collaborating on an office of traffic safety grant application for fiscal year um 2627 upcoming. City of La Mesa's consistent leadership is a beacon of hope in East County where active transportation hasn't historically been prioritized. In particular, we are grateful to Hillary Ego, Serena Lee, Maya, and Cleo for their dedication to a bike and pedestrianfriendly future, which is essential to achieving environmental sustainability. And congratulations on all the great efforts with the CAP. That's great to see. Um, so today and this evening, we proudly recognize the city of La Mesa as our public partner of the year. Congratulations,

[applause] And I'd be happy to offer this to you, mayor, or Yes. [clears throat] photo. Yeah, that would be

about right here. the director doesn't get those, but that's kind of a fun exchange. Um, next on the agenda are public comments. Um, [clears throat] first is Russell Buckley. Oh, Russell Buckley, come on up. Good to see you.

Oh, no, no, sorry. Yes, sir. Good to see you.

Good to see you all. Uh I came tonight to put on a plug for a place called the challenge center which is owned by the city of La Mesa and it's over on the on the north side in Sunset Park. [clears throat and cough] It caters to handicap people, not only those who are born handicapped, but those who have fallen off motorcycle, had a stroke or whatever. And um it's a it's a really great place, but the people that run it are planning to move to a different place in Claremont. Um my daughter and I have been going there for probably 30 or 40 years now. And I I want to put in the plug. And I don't know what the city plans to do with the building, but it's it's a historic Laame Mesa building. It was built by La Mesa merchants to house the San Diego Chargers about in the mid60s when they first came down from LA. And I think we ought to do something good with it. And what I'm here to to suggest is maybe the city could use that building, run it as a as a gym, not only for the handicap, but also for the uh the elderly people with EPS on flexibility and uh and balance and those kind of things. I I go to the adult enrichment center every now and then. a great place and maybe they could put that under their umbrella and do that. Um, so I just want to suggest that you consider that. I'm not sure what you've already considered, but if you haven't considered it, consider keeping it open and uh run it as a place for both handicapped and and elderly. Actually, anybody else that wants to go there, too, to get a good workout in a in a place that means a lot to the city historically.

Thank you. That's my pitch. Yep. I've been there. Yes. Thank you, sir. Next, uh, conflicts disclosures by anybody on council. All right, we'll move to, um, item eight, board incommission interviews. I'll hand this over to the city clerk.

Honorable mayor and council, the interviews that are being conducted this evening are part of the annual community police oversight board recruitment process. The applications from citizens who wish to be considered for appointment or reappointment to the community police oversight board have been provided to you and the applications have or applicants have been invited to attend the meeting and make a brief threeinut presentation describing their qualifications and interest in serving on the board. The appointments will be made at the February 10th council meeting and I will call the applicants forward and after each presentation you may ask questions if you wish. Our first applicant is Bonnie Baronoff followed by Clifton Eubank. Is Bonnie here?

Welcome.

Hi everybody. So, good evening, mayor, council members, um staff. Uh my name is Bonnie Baronoff and I live in Beat 2. Um I've volunteered so I've actually applied for the um advocate for people experiencing homelessness and other um challenges um seat. Um, I've volunteered and advocated for our unhoused um in East County for over 10 years. Um, I'm the La Mesa site coordinator for this week's um, annual point in time count and I know at least one of you up on the dis will be there. Um, I sit on the East County Homeless Task Force Advisory Board, the La Mesa Spring Valley Educational Foundation board. Also, there's a lot of um, unhoused families in our schools. Uh, and I also coordinate the Lame Mesa collaborative. I chaired Laame Mesa's ad hoc citizen task force on homelessness and our recommendations um came out in this uh homeless action plan. All of our recommendations were approved by city council several years ago and one of our recommendations is what we see as a very popular and successful um home program. So very very proud of um the work that we did there. I'm also a graduate of the citizens police academy and um would really be honored to be um serving on the comm the community police oversight board. So, thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next applicant is Clifton Eubank followed by Aaron Landal. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. My name is Cliff Eubank. Um, I was appointed to the board in the B3 spot last year midterm and I'm up for a reappoint. Um, I've really enjoyed the experience. I've learned a lot working um both with my uh co-board members and the chief and the members of the department. Did a ride along. Um, it's been very eye openening for me. My background, I'm a surgeon and I worked up in Oakland for a while. I helped establish the Department of Violent Prevention there. Um, which is a organization that worked in partnership with the police department. Obviously a very different situation up there from a law enforcement standpoint. was a lot more uh contentious to say the least. Um here we have such a well-run department and such a well-run city. Um it's been really nice to work in a collaborative environment um both with the officers and the other people in the department, the dispatchers um and the community. Uh not to mention the home program and some of the other really great offerings that we have here. So I think we're leaders in San Diego County. Um proud to be a part of it and happy to be here if and when um somebody does come forward and need an advocate from the citizen side um if there are complaints and so on and so forth. there really hasn't been much to speak of for the last year, I'm proud to say. But when that moment comes, I have a fair amount of experience in that regard. So, um, I thank you for the opportunity, uh, to potentially serve again on the board, and, uh, thanks for your consideration. Have a good night.

Thank you. Our next applicant is Aaron Landau, followed by Todd Mculley. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor, other members of the city council. My name is Aaron Landau. I was appointed in March 2024 as a member of the CPOB as advocate for the homeless. My term on the CPOB in this role ended on December 31st and I've obviously reapplied to be on the CPOB in this capacity for another term. Lame Mesa's motto is community policing. This is indeed a reality as the city council and the La Mesa Police Department recognize that the homeless are an atrisisk vulnerable element of the community. a community that is in need of a wide variety of services to transition out of homelessness that fortunately those of us who are sheltered are blessed not in need to avail ourselves of. At each and every monthly meeting of the community police oversight board, I've learned a tremendous amount regarding the arduous and noble work that the La Mesa Police Department performs on a daily basis. The citizens of Lame Mesa are truly blessed to have a police department as stellar as the La Mesa Police Department. Chief Raywinny leads by example. He's totally professional, transparent, empathetic, and spends innumerable hours after his regular long day attending events and meetings to get the word out about the work of the La Mesa Police Department and to answer the questions and concerns of La Mesa residents. Chief Sweeney is the best of the best. He will blush upon hearing this accolade. He will simply say that it is every member of the La Mesa Police Department that deserves this praise, both sworn officers and nonsworn officers. I've done three ridealongs with the home team. The home team is a productive, hardworking, and concerned element of the La Mesa Police Department. I intend to do more ride alongs if reappointed. I commend the city council for expanding the program to seven days. I have in my car home

team business cards referring any homeless person I encounter to the home team. I explain to them the role of the home team and hand them a home team card. I have registered to be a counter in the upcoming annual point in time count this Thursday the 29th. I feel that my service on the CPOB in this role has merited such a reappointment. Thank you. Thank you. Our next applicant is Todd Mculley, followed by Jeffrey Mcllwin. Welcome. Thank you.

Evening, mayor, council, and staff. Um, I've been serving on the board for believe the past five months as I was appointed midterm and I've been able to learn quite a bit about the o the inner workings of the Mesa Police Department especially how the community relates and and as Martin mentioned um the policing where people in need has been excellent and I've been been learning more about this. I look forward to learning a lot more about this also through tours and ride alongs also. Um I I have a background with working with a lot of employees and um and conflict in the past and uh I but I see we don't have a lot of that in La Mesa and it and as Martin mentioned also it has a lot to do with the police department and how they react and our chief Sweeney they do an excellent job. So I'm looking forward to continuing service um as long as I can and um I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next applicant is Todd McIllwine followed by Alexandra Mets. Welcome.

Thank you. Um I'm Dr. Jeffrey Mawne. I don't know Todd. Is there another Is there a Todd available? [laughter] That's all right. Don't worry about it. Um Ditto Chief Sweeney. You're wonderful. I want to make sure that Lando does get all the credit here. Um thank you. Uh thank you for having me here. Um, I've served on the board for the last two years and I've been brought in in a sense as the person who teaches policing at San Diego State on the undergraduate and graduate levels. Um, I have over 30 years experience consulting with police departments on the municipal, county, state, tribal, and federal levels, even globally. Uh, the idea is in my as I teach my students is to teach the issue of best practices to understand how research can back up different procedures. We've heard a lot for example about the home team here. There's you know for example there's research that looks into those sort of programs. We can look at research in terms of things like transparency. We can look at things in terms of how you structure patrol, how you do recruitment. These are things that I feel in the last two years I've been able to bring to the board. Uh every board meeting will have me chiming in and saying okay well here's how this works. Explain chief explain how this process works. And the chief or his staff is always willing to sit and answer those questions. I think that we are very blessed to have this uh community where we and we have [clears throat] this ethos and this mindset that really just encourages that transparency, encourages accountability and looks for the best not just for our community but also for our officers. For example, we have incredible wellness programs for our officers and um uh Captain Lynch of course is spearheading a lot of that among others. Uh but the whole commitment to the idea that you would take care of your officers, your staff, and others to make sure that they're at their best so that they do not let things that can impact them. Everybody has a bad day, right? We just don't want bad days to spill out in our community. Just like we hope that the bad days of members in our community don't spill out towards our officers.

The idea here is to basically understand that we have various amount of stakeholders in our community. Our job on this board is to listen to that to communicate that and then to communicate back the kind of the history since we're there to understand why the policies and procedures are set up that way. We are consulted with we are this is all transparent and it's an incredible process to be a part of and I would look forward to the opportunity of being able to continue to participate in that regard. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next applicant is Alexandra Mets. Um, next is Elizabeth Morgante, followed by Susan Reer. Is Elizabeth here? I apologize if I mispronounced your last name.

No, you got it. I'm Elizabeth Morganti. I go by Beth. And hi, uh, Mayor Dr. A and the rest of the council and staff. Thank you for having me here tonight to explain my application to serve on the community police oversight board. I moved to La Mesa 30 a little over 30 years ago and I absolutely love this community. I came here because I got a job at Grossmont Hospital and I wanted to live in the community where I worked so I could raise my children and be in close proximity to their school. I blinked my eyes and 31 years passed by and now I'm retired. And everybody asked me, "What are you going to do after you retire?" because I think they knew that I dedicated pretty much my whole life these past 31 years to my job and to my kids and didn't have time for much, you know, hobbies. I had to travel, but but they asked me, "What are you going to do?" And I said, "Well, what am I going to do? I'm going to stay involved in the community and and give back to the city that I love." And so this application for me is something that I um was asked to submit by my neighbor John Fanaeka who serves on the board and he thought I would be a good fit because he knows my experience in oversight in accountability. I've been to hundreds of if not thousands over the years uh committee and board meetings. I've served on many of the boards at Sharp Healthcare and so I know all about reading financial statements uh SWAT analyses and and developing plans and I looked at your plan uh for 2025 um online and and I thought you know this is something that I feel like I could really contribute to as someone not quite a newbie but I'm not been I have not been involved with the city of Lame Mesa as much as I like to and I feel like now is the time. I'm really looking forward to learning more. I I was fascinated when I read through the AB481 equipment plan and um looking forward to

learning more about uh how the city works, especially um this police oversight board. So, I welcome any questions that you have about me and my background. And again, thank you for having me. Thank you. Our next applicant is Susan Reer. all my former students parents.

Hello. Good evening. I'm Susan Reer. Um I am a licensed clinical social worker. I've been a social worker for almost 30 years now. Um I started my career in the projects of Chicago. My husband and I uh I'm a native San Diego from Pacific Beach area north PB La Hoya area. And when we moved back here 25 years ago, people said you should come to Laoya. You should come to La Mesa. Um it's a great little town. And so we came here and um I through the years, my husband and I, we have four adopted kids. Um our oldest son probably has interacted with the police many times, both in good and bad ways. Um and he is he talks to everyone. So um and so I have gone out with the homeless outreach team in downtown San Diego for years. I helped get homeless people off the streets. Um I would go to the jails. I would go out with them. And then after that, I took a little break because I had four kids. And I worked at Father Joe's Villages for about 10 years and ran all their social service and mental health things there. And for the last four and a half years, I've been a veterans village of San Diego. And I just kind of transferred more into uh working in a more outpatient role with college students at UCSD and other places. So I have a little bit more free time. My kids are all young adults still asking for a lot of things. And um I thought, you know, I saw this posted and I thought this is really time. I always tell my kids, you can only make change if you're involved. So, I'm I'm doing this for them. They're all like, "What? You want to go volunteer more?" But, um, my husband and I, we volunteer at AYo soccer. We do a lot of things with foster care. And this is very near and dear to my heart, the Les Mesa community and the police department.

Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the community police oversight board interviews. And I want to thank each applicant for attending tonight's meeting. And again, the appointments will be made at the February 10th council meeting. and you do not need to stay for the rest of the meeting. Uh, next on the agenda is um interviews for the unscheduled vacancy on parks and recck commission. Yes. Uh, the interviews being Mayor that is correct. [laughter] So, we have the applicants have been invited to attend the meeting this evening and make a brief presentation describing their qualifications. Our first applicant is Jonathan Austin followed by Sherry Meek. Welcome.

First, I like to say that was so beautiful everyone that spoke. Try to be incredible at Mesa. It was very heartfelt. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Jonathan Austin. I am a landscape architect. I have been a resident of Lame for about 20 years now. My local park is Collier and over the past few years it's been beautiful to see the redevelopment, the revitalization that's happened in that park and the usership is just way up and it's exciting to walk through there with my dog and just wonderful to see things that are happening here and I would like to be able to be involved behind the scenes a bit more too and to make things happen. Parks are important to our community. Our open spaces are important and it's just I think time to sort of step up and be part of the city that we live in and I would welcome the consideration for this position. Thank you.

Thank you. Next applicant is Sherry Meek followed by Jason Mullen. Welcome. Hi.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Sheri Meek and I'm here tonight because I'm interested in filling the vacant role on the Parks and Recreation Commission. I'm sorry when I walked in this room I got like this tickle in my throat. Maybe [clears throat] nerves, maybe. I don't know. We bought a house in La Mesa in 2022 and although I'm a native San Diean, I never realized the sense of community here in La Mesa. It's been a great experience and we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. When I saw there was a vacancy on the parks and recreation commission, I knew I could make a difference in my community because this role is perfect for me. I had a 35 year career year career in parks and recreation. I retired from the city of CNT, but my career actually started right here in La Mesa as a part-time recreation leader. So, I feel like I've come full circle. I had many responsibilities during my career in Santi, some of which included coordinating youth day camps and senior citizen programs along with creating several city special events that are still popular today. I had the opportunity to work with service organizations who volunteered at our events. So also responsible for the volunteer recreation program. Our adopted miring troop volunteered at events as well and I coordinated their city sponsored annual event for their families. Any city employee parties including retirements, holiday celebrations, oath of office and I even coordinated a league of California cities event. So basically any party type event connected to the city was my responsibility. I've also been involved in park and facility development and worked with outside organizations who brought sport events to our city and proposed activities for our parks. I worked with the Santi Parks and Recreation Committee as a staff member, attended several of the meetings, and created and coordinated their annual fundraising event. Not only have I had a successful career with a

wealth of experience, now being a La Mesa resident has brought me greater sense of pride for our community. I am even more deeply invested as my daughter who grew up in the Laame Mesa Spring Valley School system now has a two and a halfyear-old who I take weekly to many of the recreation classes which I used to teach. My granddaughter even renamed MacArthur Park Playground Coco's Playground. With that, I hope you have heard what an asset I can be and how much it would mean for me to join this commission. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next applicant is Jason Mullen. No. Welcome.

Thanks. Good evening. Um, [clears throat] yeah, my name is Jason Mullen. Uh, I moved down here in 2010 straight out of college. I got a degree in landscape management and didn't want to work where it snowed. So, I got a job in San Diego and in La Mesa here and never having been here was so impressed with how it was. um got married and uh my wife as families do I had she got a dream job up in the Bay Area so we moved for about eight years. We just moved back down here a year ago and bought a house in La Mesa and I was so impressed to see the progress that had been made at Collier Park as other people have said and just seeing the plant choices and everything like that. It was incredible. So um my history like I said I got a a degree in landscape management. I worked um with a large maintenance company here in La Mesa for about seven years. We worked on uh maintaining Grossmont College. We did or sorry, Grossmont Center. We did also Our Lady of Grace um up in Elcohone and a couple of other large areas. Um since I've been home with my kids, I've been the stay at home dad. I've kind of switched over to more of the design aspect. And so I feel that with the understanding how maintenance works and then also how the design works, I feel like I'm able to have a great input on what plants and what um other options are great for maintaining. Not just the actual design, but also, hey, this is going to be easy to maintain. This is not going to be easy to m maintain. Uh so yeah, I'm very excited to be a part of this. I think Laame Mesa does a great job with their parks and would love to be a part of it. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes the Parks and Recreation Commission interviews. I want to thank each applicant for attending tonight's meeting and the appointment will be made at the council meeting on Tuesday, February 10th. And thank you very much for being here. None of you have to stay for the meeting either, unless you'd like to. Um, next on the agenda is a consent calendars item 10.1 through 10.6. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second with one comment if that's okay.

Sure. Um so uh item 10.3 on the consent calendar is the acceptance of the single audit for the federal assisted grant programs um for the year ending June 30th, 2025. And um or 2024, I apologize. And um I read it. It's not the greatest uh audit unfortunately for our city. But what I was really impressed by, and the reason that I bring it up, is the management responses and the way that it's been handled. Um, I'm really really proud of the city for getting on top of this. Um, and and taking care of um, bringing on an interim finance director and now a permanent new finance director. And I'm really looking forward to um, seeing future audits um, that are really positive because I know there's been a lot of work done behind the scenes that um, our residents don't often get to see. Um, but I'm I'm really thoroughly impressed by the management responses and and also by um the work of our finance department. So, I just wanted to um recognize that and all the work that's been done there.

Thank you.

Motion carries with all council members voting yes. Item 11 is a first ordinance reading and we have a staff report first. Okay, Miss Santos, thank you. Welcome. Good evening. Before I begin the presentation, I just wanted to take a moment to thank our restaurant owners, many of which are here this evening, um, for their time and ideas and input that they've provided to staff. Their feedback has helped shape the policy that's before you this evening. And we just can't say enough for their patience with us and the collaborative effort that they've put into this. And I know they've had uh long boring evenings reading this policy. It's not as exciting as people would hope, but we're hoping that it will uh do several things. And first, it's going to expand where sidewalk dining can occur, and that's really exciting. Um, it's going to be easier to use and it's going to help activate more of our public spaces. And most importantly, it's going to provide flexibility so that we can have considerations for unique circumstances because we can't account for everything in any one policy. So, with that, we're very excited for uh to present to you this evening. First, we're going to start with item 11.1, and this is um related to repealing the ordinance. So, first as I mentioned is the ordinance and this is going to repeal chapter 18.18 for sidewalk cafes. And then second this evening for your consideration and possible adoption is sidewalk dining policy which will be considered under 12.1. Currently in La Mesa, we have two different opportunities for outside

dining. Sidewalk cafes and outdoor dining. Sidewalk cafes are specific to dining within the public rideway and outdoor dining is specific to dining on or within private property. The sidewalk cafe ordinance was adopted in 1984 and allows for dining opportunities in the sidewalk area of the public right ofway specifically in the downtown village. An example of this is centivantes as can be seen on the screen on the left. The ordinance which allows for outdoor dining opportunities on private property in all commercial zones was adopted in 2000. An example of what outdoor dining is is Casad Pico's outdoor dining area located in Grossmont Shopping Center as can be seen on the screen on the right. In 2020, the state of California suspended indoor dining for San Diego County due to CO 19. To support businesses during this time, the city issued an executive order which temporarily allowed eating establishments to increase flexibility to utilize public and private outdoor spaces for dining. Since the end of the pandemic, the city has received consistent community support for maintaining and and expanding dining opportunities citywide. So based on this feedback, the city began its efforts in updating policies for outsour outside dining in the public right ofway and on private property. The city will be updating regulations for outdoor dining in both the public space and private property. But in an effort to clarify the distinct differences between the two, staff is

bringing forward the sidewad sidewalk dining update now. And then once the updated policy is adopted and implemented, staff will move forward with updates to the outdoor dining ordinance for eating and drinking establishments on private property. So our goals for the updated sidewalk dining policy include we want to create a more streamlined process. We want to activate major street frontages and commercial properties throughout Lame Mesa. We want to promote economic development. And we want to retain clear paths of travel to ensure that our sidewalks and commercial properties are safe and accessible for everyone's enjoyment. With the adoption of the sidewalk dining policy, the existing sidewalk cafe ordinance would no longer be applicable. Therefore, staff recommends that the city council introduce the first reading of the draft ordinance which is found in attachment A of your agenda packet to repeal LMMC chapter 18.18 and staff is available for any questions that you may have.

Question staff before we go to the ordinance. Sorry, that's correct. Okay. Yes, please. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Lame Mesa repealing Lame Mesa Municipal Code Chapter 18.18 entitled [clears throat] Sidewalk Cafes. I'll make a motion to approve. God, thank you. Sorry about that. I'm sorry. Motion carries with all council members voting yes.

And now we have a staff report considering the adoption of the bedwalk policy. Welcome. Thank you for being here.

Hi. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Laura Murker and I'm here to present uh for your consideration the draft sidewalk dining policy for outside dining and commercial zones. By way of reminder, tonight's policy would only apply to outside dining areas located within the sidewalk area of the city right ofway. As mentioned in the last presentation, the goals of the sidewalk dining policy are to create the streamlined process, activate major street frontages and commercial properties, promote economic development, and retain clear paths of travel. With the goal to develop a policy that balances support for local businesses, safety, accessibility, and overall experience of the public rightaway, staff started their efforts by conducting best practice research of existing policies from other jurisdictions. Following this research, staff conducted a variety of community outreach methods, which included attending the La Mesa Farmers Market, distributing social media posts and flyers, a project uh web page, meeting with local stakeholders, and hosting two community workshops, one at the Lamesa Community Center, and one at a regularly scheduled planning commission meeting. Based on all of the community feedback provided and best practice research, building engineering, risk management, city attorney, planning, and fire staff have worked together to draft the proposed sidewalk dining policy that has been presented for your consideration this evening. A first draft of the sidewalk dining policy was posted for public feedback in November 2025 prior to workshop number two. Staff received valuable feedback from the community and provided an overview of public comments and

questions received on the draft policy in attachment F. Public comments and questions received included the following questions related to how existing sidewalk dining would be impacted by the new policy. Requirements for renewals, change of ownership, termination, and no detrimental reliance. path of travel requirements, attachments to fencing, furniture on tree grates, and hours of operation. In addition, folks were excited to hear about the possibility to expand within the popouts in the village, but wanted further clarification on street furniture relocation. Since the planning commission workshop, staff has met with local restaurant owners to talk through their existing and proposed sidewalk dining areas and to to discuss how the policy would apply in each case. Staff also met with a group of restaurant owner representatives to to discuss questions on the first draft of the policy and to review revisions that were proposed to be made from the input received from the restaurants. Based on the feedback provided, additional revisions were made and a strikeout underline of changes made to the policy was posted for public review on January 16th. Community feedback from both restaurant operators and the broader community provided valuable insight that helped shape the proposed sidewalk dining policy in front of you today. The proposed policy is intended to address streamlining the process, expand opportunities, and ensure safe, accessible paths of travel within the public right away. I will now highlight key components of the policy, any changes made since the first draft, and how they respond to the feedback and questions we've received. First, I'll go over the proposed changes in the review and approval process.

Currently, the approval process for a sidewalk dining area requires a site development plan, an encroachment permit, and an encroachment maintenance and removal agreement, also known as an EMR. The site development plan is a discretionary process, which means that the approval is not automatic and involves evaluating if a project meets findings. The encroachment permit is required for those to do work within the city's rightofway and the EMRA is the agreement which would outline the responsibilities of the permit and the city to operate in the rightway. To further streamline the process, the policy proposes a staff level review process which would eliminate the site development plan and any public meeting process and the standard encroachment permit. The proposed policy requires only a sidewalk dining permit and an EMRA. The sidewalk dining permit would function similarly to the encroachment permit, but is specifically tailored to dining in the rightway, and the EMR would still remain to outline the responsibilities. Insurance would also still be a requirement for sidewalk dining areas. As part of the new policy, staff will be creating a user-friendly process to submit insurance annually to ensure there is current and valid insurance at all times. This is essential for businesses to operate within the rightway and will be a safeguard for these businesses as well. Notification will be provided to permites when the annual review is required. fees are proposed to remain consistent with the existing fees for a new sidewalk dining area. Any businesses with an approved site development plan for a sidewalk dining area will not have to pay new fees unless changes are proposed. [cough and clears throat]

As part of the proposed policy, sidewalk dining permits and EMAs would be renewed every 3 years. A three-year renewal pro policy is included because publicly owned land requires oversight. We anticipate that this will be as simple as notifying a peradeee when renewal is required, scheduling a site visit, and updating agreements as necessary and therefore no fees will be required unless major changes to the permit are proposed with the renewal. We will further develop this program to ensure clear requirements for all applicants at time of renewal. In response to feedback received, staff will create a user-friendly change of ownership form. Because these agreements are non-transferable, a change of ownership would be accomplished through a simple no fee administrative process to update any agreements with the city and insurance as necessary. Moving on to location, existing standards allow for sidewalk dining areas within the downtown commercial zone. This area can be seen on the map on the screen. Locationally, sidewalk dining areas are currently only permitted adjacent to a street level eating and drinking establishment. The image on the right demonstrates what this would look like. The proposed policy would allow for even more opportunities, including sidewalk dining consideration in all commercial zones. Existing widths of sidewalks may not accommodate sidewalk dining in all commercial areas, but the policy will allow for approval on a case-byase basis. Through the proposed policy, sidewalk dining areas would still be permitted adjacent to the building wall, but staff has drafted a condition that will now allow for sidewalk dining areas within a

city designated pop out with a street furniture relocation program. An example diagram is shown on the screen to demonstrate what this could look like. The street furniture relocation program would require all city-owned street furniture located within a proposed sidewalk dining area uh be replaced and or relocated by the city to another location subject to city approval. This would not include street trees. An example of what a pop out is shown on the screen. So here you can kind of see that the sidewalk area pops out further um past those parking areas. And so this example provides um where there's some existing sidewalk dining and then where benches and um a trash container, street trees, everything like that are located. So, um, obviously this is the location of where the new city of Lameisa sign will go, but, uh, pretending that this is not where it would be going and that a restaurant was located there, if they wanted to go into that pop out space, the city would be responsible for, um, relocating any of those benches. Um, and so the draft policy was originally written that the relocation would be done at the sole cost of the permittee, but after further consideration of feedback received on the draft policy, the city will be responsible for necessary relocation of street furniture and those fees. To ensure opportunities for all current and future food establishments, outdoor dining in the public rightway would be allowed um located either adjacent to the building wall within a designated pop out as discussed or both, but limited to along the length of each establishment's frontage. This will help to ensure that dining areas are clearly defined with consideration of neighboring businesses and shared public

space. An example of this is highlighted in yellow on the screen. In a corner situation, as can be seen, both of these would be considered building frontage. As stated previously, one of the goals of the policy is to ensure safe and accessible paths of travel for all users of the public right ofway in compliance with California Accessibility Standards, including the California Building Code and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In accordance, the policy includes requirements that all exits, dining areas, and the public sidewalk meet accessibility requirements. We received feedback that the path of travel requirements could potentially limit the size of sidewalk dining areas. Um, and so we went back and we looked at it with our building official and um, there's a lot of nuances to the California building code and ADA. And so we've included a more generalized requirements um, because there's some changes with the uh, wheelchair accessible seating and everything like that. But um one thing that will definitely remain is the unobstructed path of travel of 4t wide by 7 ft tall along the sidewalk area specifically. Uh since the draft also includes dining within the pop out areas. Now we also had to review site distance requirements at intersections. Best standard practice for public safety is a 15t radial clearance. And so I've highlighted what this would look like. And kind of from those blue areas, you can see that it would be measured from back of curb center point out radially. Currently, the existing ordinance requires that all sidewalk dining areas be defined by railings or fencing. And

in an effort to provide for expanded options for businesses, the draft policy would allow for um enclosed meaning fence dining spaces and unenceds, meaning dining spaces not defined by a fence. So when is fencing required? Fencing is required for businesses that sell, serve, and or consume alcoholic beverages, sidewalk dining areas located within a pop out, and for sidewalk dining areas on raves platforms. Um, I've included an image on the screen showing what the unenclosed dining area would look like. Um, if a business wants to get a permit for an unenclosed sidewalk dining area, it would have to be located directly adjacent to the building wall. All furnishings, equipment, and landscaping for the unenceds sidewalk dining area would have to be broken down or removed and placed inside daily by 10 p.m. And in addition, this type of dining would not be permitted for businesses that sell, serve, or consume alcoholic beverages. It shall be noted that all fencing will be provided, installed, and maintained by the city within the downtown village parking district. All fencing within this area shall be consistent and conform to the city's standard drawings, which requires a three-foot raw iron fence. The parking district area is outlined on the screen. for fencing within the village. The intent is to create a cohesive, clean, and safe streetscape that aligns with the charm and character of the village. Staff recognizes the desire of business owners to provide options for umbrellas and shade. So staff is looking at infrastructure to accommodate that. The policy has been revised to allow for

umbrellas to be affixed to fences if demonstrated to be done securely and safely through a separate building permit. An example of this is hienda casadors. Other attachments to fencing would typically not be allowed within the public right away. However, the city will consider case by case situations. Some examples include holiday decor may be displayed temporarily provided it is installed safely and subject to the city's discretion and approval related to health, safety, and welfare perspective. Another example is special event signage for city approved special events such as our famous October Fest. Uh staff recommends city council to add a condition to the draft policy stating special event signage placement will be authorized subject to review and approval of the director of community development. Moving on to street trees. Street trees are part of the character of the village. So, we've included additional provisions for policies that are designed to preserve and protect the existing street trees in the village. The draft policy ensures that trees will not be removed, trimmed, or pruned other than by the city. It also ensures that no awnings, lighting, or other furniture equipment associated with the sidewalk dining area shall be attached to the trees and that no liquids, ice, or waste shall be disposed of in tree wells or landscaped areas. Originally, the draft policy included a condition to not allow tables and chairs on tree grates. After discussions with some restaurant owners, staff gained additional context on how these spaces have been traditionally used. Staff confirmed that the tree grates throughout the village were constructed to be pedestrian and ADA compliant and are able to support tables

and chairs. Staff shared this information with the director of public works who agreed to remove the condition within um the downtown village with the condition that damaged grates within sidewalk dining areas would be repaired and replaced at the cost of the permitting. During the first workshop, we heard that aesthetics of the sidewalk dining areas was a high priority for folks. The intent of the furniture conditions was to create consistency by further clarifying what type of furniture and equipment is permitted in a sidewalk dining area and require outdoor furniture to be of a higher aesthetic quality, such as through colors and materials. staff received some feedback from community members and further revised the policy to clarify that colors shall be consistent with the building design and no neon furniture logos or branding on furniture. And instead of no plastic furn, we've revised the policy to require outdoor rated furniture which could withstand outdoor elements such as heat or rain. Um obviously snow too, but that doesn't occur here. The draft policy also requires that furniture be maintained, cleaned, and replaced if broken. The hours of operation of sidewalk dining shall be the same as the associated food or beverage establishment, but no later than 10 p.m. The proposed hours of operation align with the city's noise ordinance. Failure to comply with the noise ordinance may require a noise technical study which could uh trigger a lengthier and more costly discretionary review process. A review of other jurisdictions also shows that the proposed hours of operation for sidewalk dining areas is consistent with those of surrounding cities. For example, the city of San Diego, including the Gas Lamp uh district,

requires sidewalk cafes to close no later than 10 PM on weekdays and 11 pm on weekends. Any furniture noted on the site plan as part of the approved sidewalk dining permit may remain within the sidewalk dining area outside of hours of operation. Exceptions for this rule are all furniture for unenclosed um so those uninfenced areas uh and all non-affixed umbrellas shall be brought in daily. If umbrellas are affixed to fencing, they must be securely fastened closed after hours. The policy also requires that any furniture or equipment not associated with the approved sidewalk dining area must be stored indoors at all times to ensure that these sidewalk dining areas don't become storage spaces. The proposed policy also gives the director of community development the flexibility to consider and apply project specific conditions to sidewalk dining permits on a case-byase basis. when necessary to address the unique characteristics or constraints of a particular proposal from a health, safety and welfare standpoint. So that concludes my presentation. Um next steps are council consideration and adoption of the policy. So tonight, um, you are hearing and considering the adoption of the proposed sidewalk dining policy. Um, and you just heard the public hearing, first reading to repeal the existing sidewalk cafe ordinance. Um, since that was adopted, the first reading. Um, on February 10th, 2026, there will be the city council public hearing second reading of the ordinance repeal.

30 days after the second reading on March 12th, 2026, the ordinance repeal and the sidewalk dining policy would go into effect. So after adoption of the policy comes policy implementation for existing sidewalk dining areas. Um 30 days after adoption of the policy. Um, all businesses with existing sidewalk uh, cafe or dining areas, whether it was approved through a site development plan or were permitted through COVID temporary era, um, will have the opportunity to apply for a temporary sidewalk dining permit to continue operations while final permits are processed. This will be a streamlined process and no fees will be required. The intent of the temporary permit is to ensure insurance is provided and there are no public health or safety issues. Information on how to apply for a temporary sidewalk dining permit will be provided after adoption of the policy. The deadline for all existing sidewalk dining areas to obtain a sidewalk dining permit um is proposed to be 90 days after adoption of the policy. Um, for those that have an approved site development plan but do not conform to the approved drawings on file, this would also be the deadline to come into compliance with the new policy. You might be wondering, how do I apply? So, once the policy is adopted, there will be an option to apply for a sidewalk dining permit on the city's permitting software. Mainstar permits and middle requirements are outlined on the draft policy. Um, please note that those dining areas with that approved site development plan and are in compliance with the drawings on file with the city do not need to submit new drawings. In conclusion, the draft policy before you this evening reflects best practice

research of other jurisdictions, community input, and local and state regulations. It provides a balanced approach that supports expansion of outdoor dining while ensuring safety, accessibility, and public use of the rightway for all and provides consistency, clarity, and flexibility for unique situations. Therefore, staff recommends the city council adopts the draft resolution adopting a policy for sidewalk dining in commercial zones. Staff is available to answer any questions. initial questions or comments before [snorts] we go to speakers. Okay. Either one. Flip a coin.

Um I just have a quick question or really clarification. Um it said that trees shall not be pruned, removed, etc. Um but I just wanted to clarify if there is like a branch that starts becoming a potential danger that that will be taken care of by the city free of charge. Yes. Yes. And so all um if somebody notices that there's an issue with any of the existing street trees, they can call the city out um and we will fix it. Excellent. Thank you.

Okay. First of all, guys, wow. I know how long and how hard this has been. This is probably the biggest challenge I think you guys have done. I know the city, the d the restaurant's been waiting six years for this. Um they've been happy with the temporary, but at the same time, you're in limbo because you don't know what the future holds and the outdoor dining is so important. So, this is so so critical to La Mesa and to our businesses. And again, I love most of this. Um, I have a couple of concerns. They're not from me. They're from restaurant owners that I have spoken with. Uh, one of them and clarify this for me. Um, on number seven, first of all, you have an exhibit A and a little bit the wording was a little bit different than some stuff on the screen. So, would the screen override what was printed as exhibit A? Like for example, um the renewals, like here on number seven, it just says a sidewalk dining permit shall expire and may be renewed every three years, but on the screen you went into detail and it made it sound like, oh, okay, it's going to be kind of passive, but here it doesn't sound passive.

Yes. Um the intention is for that to be as easy and seamless as possible. And so, um, what we wanted to clarify in the presentation is what that process might look like because we did hear some people had some concern that it might be some a big deal, a big lift. Yeah, it will not be.

And I'm in real estate and sellers promise things and buyers promise. It doesn't matter what you what your intent is or what you say, it's what's written. So, I want to make sure that what's written doesn't end up backfiring on on a restaurant owner. The other big concerns are nine and 10. Um, this language is very scary to a business owner. Um, any sidewalk dining permit may be terminated for the city's convenience. If I'm a restaurant owner, I'm thinking like that sounds kind of arbitrary and capriccious. So, that's a little scary. And then I thought that the um the patio closing at 10, not a big deal. But then I'm hearing that if you shut it down exactly at 10, the it takes time. It takes an hour or so to to shut down that patio. which means if somebody comes in at 8:30 or 9ine, they almost can't get a reservation. They're told, "Sorry, we've we've stopped seating." So, I I've heard there's concern about that, especially when we have warm summer nights. And I know I'm a big restaurant person, and if people start folding up chairs while I'm outside having dinner, I that bothers me. So, those are seven, nine, and 10 seems to be the ones that we're a little concerned about.

Would you like me to speak? Okay. Sure. sure that it's not like don't worry uh we've got good intentions because 10 years from now it could be a whole different thing.

Certainly certainly I think what the benefit is of us doing a policy versus an ordinance is it is easier for us to uh realign um make changes and also we included language there that there would be flexibility on a case-bycase basis. So, um I think also we've included in there that the intention is to support local businesses, economic development, all of those things go to us being a userfriendly policy. So, that's first um about the um use of the right of way and there being any thought that there isn't a guarantee. That's language that's necessary to authorize the use of the right of way if there's not market consideration, fair market value. So, we want to make sure that folks have the right to use that and so that language has to be there because we have to oversee that. That is city property, public space. Right.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm just going to add, and I'm not going to out anybody that I've spoken to that is a a business owner, but um yes, we want to make sure this is as easy as possible for business owners, but we also have to protect the city and what comes along 10 years from now. And I'll say that some business owners have said that sometimes they they are in business or around businesses that are not good actors. Not here in La Mesa, but in other circumstances. And they want to have the ability to step in if someone isn't being a good actor. You're assuming that everybody is going to play nice and do everything. And that's great. And I hope they do. And I want this to go as well as possible. And I want everybody to get everything they want. But we also have to protect the city because we represent the people of the city, not the restaurants of the city. So, I understand that. I I'm a huge fan of our restaurants. I hope everyone becomes a gazillionaire and they they're there for 100 years and I'm glad we're doing this. And so, thank you for your time. I'm going to go to speakers now. Uh, first speaker is Gerald Torres, followed by um Mark Hunter. [cough and clears throat] Welcome. Thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me. Yes, sir. Good evening. Good evening,

council members. Um, as you know, I'm a business owner here in LA and have been here for many years, the last 22 years, I believe. And the city has always been great to me. I have no complaints. Um, and I want to thank Lynette and Laura. They've been very accessible. I had an opportunity to meet with them about my particular situation. Uh there was a couple of things that kind of struck me a little odd. Uh my original patios have been pre-approved and were part of the site plan. Uh the only modification that was done for example to City Tacos was that the the tables instead of one long table. There was three tables once upon a time. Uh Don Palmer authorized that once upon a time a long time ago. However, it was never on paper. It was it was lame of yester year. So, um now for the new the red re redevelopment or fixing of the patio, uh I have to pay a new permit fee of $3,000 to basically make it accessible for ADA. I have nothing against making it accessible, but I believe that paying $3,000 for a permit fee for people that have been doing this for a very long time and have been supporting the city for a very long time maybe can be reduced or waved. Uh I'm the same thing for tour of the tapas. I inherited a permitted patio and what I'm going to have to do is basically modify it to accommodate ADA. I have no problem with that, but I don't think that the $3,000 permit fee should be, you know, something that we all have to pay. That's just my two cents. Thank you very much. I appreciate you.

Appreciate that. That is noted. Thank you for that comment. I'm glad you came up here and spoke. Thank you. Thank you. Um Mark Hunter, followed by Tony Gipa.

Thank you. Write that down. Welcome. Hi, good evening. Um, I'm one of the owners of uh several of the restaurants in La Mesa and um I'm sure all of you have gone to downtown Laame Mesa and had dinner hopefully in the summertime because the summertime is obviously the best time to go to many of the outdoor restaurants in La Mesa. They're uh they're very relaxing. They're very fun and uh all of us have a good time operating them. They're expensive to operate, but but we do it for the community. And I think uh it brings a lot to our community, the out outdoor dining. I think my only concern tonight is 10 p.m. It's very hard to have a last seating 8:30, 9:00, and just like Laura said, you're sitting out out outside enjoying the evening and uh all of a sudden umbrellas are coming down and chairs are being folded and it's just not a a relaxing experience. So, I think something could be a little bit uh different than that. Maybe we do 11 o'clock. That way, most people don't come to dinner in La Mesa after 9. They usually show up 8:30, 9:00 for the last seating. They sit down, eat, they're done by probably 10:30, and then we start cleaning up. So, maybe we did something like San Diego. You could even do 10 on the weekdays and 11 on on uh weekends, something like that. But uh I think most people they really don't want to be surrounded by a bunch of employees cleaning up and wiping down tables and things like that. So that's my only concern for this. Otherwise, they did a really good job. Thank you very much. Because they worked with all the restaurant owners and uh took a lot of consideration from us and and uh I think it's I think all of us want the same thing. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Mhm. Um, Bindle followed by Alberto Mora. Oh, Tony Gipa followed by Brenda League. Sorry. Sorry. Onset early onset dementia. Sorry. I apologize. I'm I'm uh right there with you.

All right. Uh, good evening uh, mayor, staff, and uh, city council. Um, I know staff has worked really hard on this and I appreciate all their hard work. So, thank you. Special thank you to staff. Um, as you know, La Mesa's downtown village sidewalk dining strikes at the heart of what it means to foster vibrancy in our community. Uh, this document draft will eventually become the guiding force for the next several years, uh, decades, um, on what the rules are. Uh, I think the document is good. Uh, but I think it needs some finetuning here and there. Uh, my concerns are just a couple. Item 11, which covers the dining on both sides of the walkway. um which [snorts] would be like the cafe dining and the pop out um area. I don't think it it really covers that well. Um it'd be nice on the back if we can add uh an example an establishment A, B, and C which covers the the uh sidewalk area, the cafe, and the the um the Z1. But it'd be nice if we can add a description of what the um cafe dining and the the um patio dining would be look like and further define that in item 11. Uh a little further further discussion on that. [snorts] Um also on n item 10, hours of operation shall be no later than 10 p.m. maximum. Uh it's problematic for many reasons as you just heard. um what do we do with the customers that are having their final glass of wine? Um Lynette asked or stated that city of San Diego has uh 10:00 and then 11:00 on weekends. You know, that's that's a little better better setup um for the customers and I don't think it's too too extreme to to ask for that. Um, this is also this once this gets

approved, this will also be the framework for the next phase of outdoor dining on private property. Um, what will that draft include? Will that include the same 10pm language? So, the the outdoor dining on private property is people like Casadoras, not I'm sorry, uh, Caspico, uh, Kas Gabriella, uh, Surf Rider. Will they have the same restriction on the 10pm also? And if if if not then a lot of these two different dining styles are right next to each other and um it it kind of makes a conflict like one can have you know beyond 10 and one has to remain at 10 as a maximum. So that's kind of problematic with other future phase of planning on private property. So, it'd be nice to have both those be the same throughout Lame Mesa. And um those are my concerns, big concerns.

So, thank you very much. Thank you, Brenda Leak followed by Alberto.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening. Um mayor, council, city staff, especially you ladies. I mean, really, it was a lot. Um, and I really want to thank you all for your time, your energy, your attention and efforts in this because it's been a lot. Um, and as you can tell, we're all pretty passionate about it. Um, and I'm I concur with you, mayor, in saying, you know, the good actors because, um, item number nine for me, like we we are all getting along right now. We're all great family, right? But sometimes we might not have a good actor. So the next um [sighs and gasps] the next group of people that come in when we're still trying to dine and have our restaurants, we may not have such a understanding group of people that come into us and they may want to stick their finger in our faces and tell us we can't do something and it's quite triggering for me. So, I feel like working with something that has a little more of a um regarding the um you know, the city's convenience to terminate within 30 days, you know, we need to have a little bit more time than to just pull the permit in 30 days. What if we're out of town or sick or taking care of something when we don't even know about it? Um, now we're we're coming back to our restaurant and one of our employees has allowed something to not happen and we already have a um municipal code regarding the 10 p.m. right that we have to enforce and we need to and we have a great police department that will assist us in that. But with number nine, um I really hope that we would have a little more language in there regarding what entails the withdrawal of a 30-day per of 30 days for that permit. And I respect that this is your property and you're allowing us to do this. Um but but that feels like it should be a little a little deeper. We should we should really have a few more taglines on that.

Um, and then the hours of operation. You know, I appreciate that maybe we're a case bya case, but maybe have some flexibility written in on that 10 p.m. the 11 o'clock on the weekends. Um, Sunday nights, um, when we have a holiday the next day on Monday, Sunday nights can actually be pretty pretty fun for people to be out as well. So, I would encourage us to, you know, on occasion have the Sunday night. Um, but I really and I also want to mention that at 10 o'clock, if we're closing at 8:30, we I curbside's a huge dog friendly restaurant. And so we only have outside dining for the most part.

And if we have to say at 8:30 or 9:00, I'm sorry, we don't have accommodations, then that opens us up for a little a little bit of some shadiness. Um, but I respectfully appreciate all of the work and all of your energy and all of your considerations. Thank you so much. Thank you, Alberto. Welcome. [cough and clears throat] Good evening, Mayor and uh council. Uh well, it's very little left to say because everybody's been say, but uh just uh [clears throat] first of all, I want to take uh the chance to say thank you for the all the work. you know, they've been very patient also with us and understanding because you know, last time uh we came uh long way from uh the previous uh you know, proposal. Um it it was really tough for us to understand what we're going for and uh you know, when we present all the all the uh uh challenges that we would have faced, you know, they understand they they they really work with us. So, thank you for that. We appreciate it. uh come uh to the again to the two points that everybody really uh uh pointed out. The first one uh is the 10:00 and I agree um you know being there uh and I'm sure everybody understood how important it is the patio for restaurant tour especially there 50% of the occupancies on on on the patio. So li limited that and uh and stop by uh I mean be ready actually be clean by 10:00 I agree there's basically you know we got to stop serving uh 8:30 and uh on the weekend is really will compromise uh the the business so would appreciate like reconsider that and uh like you've been say already couple of time if we can uh stretch uh weekend by 11:00 I think it would be okay by 10:00

because you know everybody uh you know stop dining in La Mesa at 9:00. So the other thing I understand there is something a language that has got to be done you know 0.9 there um the city have to have you know power over the players they have to protect the you know the city and I do understand but again I want to make sure that everybody understand you know when we go and um and invested so much money in a restaurant and uh by illusion probably because we shouldn't do that we count really count on the patio because it's part of a part of the restaurant. Having no security whatsoever like any blink of an eye, this thing can disappear. It's kind of scary. So, you [clears throat] know, uh one thing that make me happy really, I mean, I see that we're repeating the same uh uh points and that shows that, you know, we stick together. We're group uh we're family more than a group. I mean, and um uh I love that and I I feel like I'm speaking for everyone. And uh if you reconsider this uh language that probably you know there is some kind of a

20 seconds little protection uh it will be much better for us. Thank you again for all of us to work so hard on this. Thank you. Thank you. Right now I'll open it up to comments andor questions for staff. Council member Dillard.

Uh yes. Uh thank you, mayor, and um thank you so much for all the hard work and your um endurance in all of being patient and and really listening. Um it's it's um commendable. So, thank you for that. Um I do have uh some a question about the 10 o'clock. I think that that really stands out to me. And I'm and I'm thinking when you say 10:00, first I need for you to define what exactly happens at 10:00. So cuz maybe that's the first thing that maybe people are misinterpreting cuz I'm thinking 10:00 doesn't sound reasonable either. Um, so what does it mean when you say 10 o'clock?

So 10 o'clock would be that the operation outdoors would be shut down. That was the intention of that and the that follows in alignment with our noise ordinance in our municipal code. So when we were drafting this policy, one of the key factors was that we wanted to keep it outside of an environmental review for both the project level. So when we're doing this as staff bringing forward a policy to you, that could be subject to SQA as well. So we wanted to make sure we stayed out of that. And then also on a case-byase basis as folks propose a a a sidewalk dining opportunity, we don't want it to go into that realm. So the best way was for us just to be in alignment with our municipal code.

So that that's where that comes from. But there is again flexibility of that. Um what

that was my next question. What can we do about this so that it's not so disruptive? So, right. So, what I'll say is again, we don't the city is not actively going out with code compliance and we're not going to be there at 1000 p.m. with a a clicker and counting, right? So, these folks self-p police as does our community, right? They're going to advise us if something's not working or is working. The great thing about the policy is that we can adjust accordingly. So what you know if the if the council wants us to consider something else we can see if that will work um implement it and then if it doesn't we can come back to you with a report and um you know such as the weekends being a little later

and that's what I was thinking of too because it's not just the weekends but a lot of times there is a holiday on Monday

and people are able to stay out later um And you know, we we don't want it to be so uh stringent that um you know, workers are coming out and rudely, you know, taking everything off the table, you know what I mean? I mean, it just sounds so rigid, you know? Um, and I I kind of think that um the owners are right about the hour and a half uh window that, you know, pushes them over 10:00 if they um continue to serve their customers outside. And it sounds like we're restricted. So, what kind of flexibility could we have if we're restricted by law? So, how would that work?

Could I just um ask the city manager to comment on this? Absolutely. Just for for clarity here, um these are the current operating rules right now. 10 o'clock. Correct. We're not changing anything. This is how we've been operating. So, whatever the restaurants have been doing, they they can keep doing what they're doing. There's no change.

So, for the for the the sake of I know this is not an ordinance change. We're not this is not an ordinance, a policy. for the writing part of it. If someone wanted something in writing, I'm a restaurant owner. I would only last 10 days. But anyhow, just pre pretend I'm closing my doors at 10:00. I'm not I'm not clear of the patio at 10:00. it I and I hear what you're saying whatever you're doing now but if someone is concerned that well that's because we're all sitting right here and like you said we're if there if there needs to be a guarantee when we're all gone um and we're not sitting here on the dis um what could the policy reflect to give some assurance that at 10:00 you've said last call to everybody or whatever you're doing I don't know what's happening now in your restaurant I'm Okay.

Well, and bad and a bad actor, too. I mean, you have to consider everything might be great for them that the restaurant owners might come to the city and say, "Hey, person X just started 5 years ago or two months ago, and they're making it bad for all of us. They have, you know, that's why some of the restaurants came and said, "We want uniformed seating. We don't want neon, whatever." And again, I'm not going to call anybody out or put my be on any of you who've told me that, but I get that you it we rise and sink together sometimes in this in this field. And so, you want to be protected as well. I'm going to I'm going to defer to uh Vice Mayor Casaris.

Thank you. Did the city attorney have something? I see your lights on. Am I good? I'm just getting ready just in case. Okay, perfect. [laughter] Say something. I just got a feeling. Okay. Okay. Wonderful. just as soon as we start breaking the law, he'll jump in. [laughter] Feel it.

Uh well, what I'm going to share I I uh I've already worked with our our city attorney and our and our city manager, so I feel I feel pretty good about and councilwoman Loian, but I'm going to start uh about why this kind of matters to me. Um so something very real and very local is the huge success of our Laame Mesa restaurants. Um, over the last few years, it has been easier and easier to get more of my friends who were in our 20s and 30s out here for happy hour, staying out here to go out instead of partying in Pacific Beach and throwing up on the curbs, which no one wants to do. I would much rather us have a glass of wine at one of our wonderful restaurants and then go home, grow up in your own homes. Um but uh last week my dad uh turned 65 and uh at his birthday party many of the gifts that he received were actually gift certificates to restaurants on La Mesa Boulevard. Um and that really stood out to me because most of those gifts didn't actually come from people that live in the city of Laame Mesa, but they knew about our restaurants because they have gone to them on their own because they have incredible Yelp reviews and Google reviews. They've heard about them on word of mouth. We even have our own Lame Mesa and East County um uh influencers like on social media these days. Um and I think that's been so great. But that's not why they've succeeded. They've succeeded because of the people that came here tonight and the ones that haven't been able to that have been working really hard. Um as I've shared before, my parents um are small business owners and that has allowed me to have the life that I love. um that put me through college as the first one in my family and I know that's the same for a lot of their um restaurants and um so I'm so glad to have them here tonight. But our restaurants aren't just serving our residents. They really are a regional draw. It's economic vitality. It's something that we should be proud of and actively work to protect. And um so I really want to acknowledge the partnership that brought us here

tonight. Um, this process began rocky at times, but I truly believe this is a strong example of collaboration between city staff, particularly Lynette Santos and Laura Murker. Um, our city management team, um, the council, um, including Councilwoman Loia and myself, who we've been able to work together on this, um, and she's been talking about it since before I was even elected. Um, right. [laughter] and um and our many wonderful restaurant owners and operators um especially Brenda Leak who I've had many a morning in inside curbside before they open um to chat about this. Um the changes from the first draft are quite significant and immediately when we brought them to you, you were already working on them and you you wanted to make sure that this worked for everyone. And so I'm so grateful for the time and effort and energy that you have put into this, that our owners and operators have put into this, and that my colleagues and I um have also been able to put into this. Um this kind of collaboration is it's how we create good policy in the city of La Mesa. And so thank you to everyone. Um we've also watched what happens elsewhere. The city of La Mesa's or city of San Diego's spaces places policy while initially exciting and while working in some areas of San Diego it's nearly decimated outdoor dining in some areas like the gas lamp district and that was really a hub postco now La Mesa is becoming that hub um for the region and if we're going to lean into that identity it's critical um that the policies we pass support our restaurants and protect the dining experience for patrons respect pedestrians using our public sidewalks and benches as And I believe that we're very close with the proposed policy before us, but I am going to propose a few amendments. Um they're minor, but I believe that they're important. Um and I think that they will provide clarity, transparency, and fairness, especially around enforcement and permit termination and

hours. Um because I believe it's critical that we get this right. Um so with that context, I'd like to read the revised policy language I'm proposing into the record. Section seven would I would like it to now state the sidewalk dining permit shall expire three years from the date of issuance and may be renewed for successive three-year terms. Permits shall be automatically renewed administratively unless the permit has incurred multiple significant violations as determined by the city of of applicable permit conditions or municipal regulations. In the event of such violations, the city shall pro provide written notice of infraction to the permade within 14 business days of receipt of a complaint. The permade shall be afforded 30 days to correct the identified violations prior to the permit's expiration date. Except where the nature of the violation poses an immediate threat to public health or safety. If the permit expires and is not renewed within 30 days following the expiration date, all sidewalk dining furniture and equipment shall be removed in its entirety from the public right ofway by the permade. Section nine, any sidewalk dining permit may be terminated for the city's convenience at any time on 90 days prior written notice by the sole determination of a vote of the city council. Section 10. Sidewalk dining hours shall coincide with the operating hours of associated food or beverage establishment beginning at 10 p.m. No additional patrons shall be seated in sidewalk dining areas. Patrons seated prior to 10 p.m. may remain until their dining service is complete. All sidewalk dining furniture that needs to be removed shall be removed from the public right ofway within 1 hour of the establishment's closing time. So with that, um, I move to approve

Wait. Oh yeah, start moving. Yep. Everybody hasn't had a chance to talk yet. No problem. I wasn't sure if anyone else wanted to. Right. So, we got to give them that opportunity. Council member Dillard was in the middle of talking, so I interrupted you. I'm sorry. No, I'm pretty much um uh and actually um Lauren, you actually answered the question about the 10:00 thing. That's what going I was trying to get a clear understanding of that so everyone was on the same page. So, thank you. Thank you for that. And I didn't have any other uh questions. Okay. Council member Suzuki. Okay. Just want to make sure I just I because we have to do this.

All right. 100%. Okay. So, I move to approve the new sidewalk dining policy with these amendments. And I further move that city staff be directed within 60 days of adoption to publicly publish a detailed and transparent process outlining how violations are reported and addressed and the process by which businesses may appeal enforcement actions or permit termination decisions. I second

if if staff could. We also had a recommendation in our presentation about special event signage and so if I could read that to see if you agree. Um, the special event signage placement will be authorized subject to review and approval of the director of community development. Yes, I accept that in my motion.

Glenn, did I break the law? You're you're uh stealing my thunder, [laughter] but go ahead. It's a very good job. I think it really addresses the concerns. We'll fit it into the language that's existing right now in the draft just fine. vote. It's the system is thinking. Okay, there we go.

Motion carries with all council members voting yes.

Right. Um, thank you very much by the way. Thank you for participating and meeting with our staff and going back and forth. I mean what I say. I hope that you're all gazillionaires and are here and um but I'm glad that you're doing business in La Mesa, not as a member of the city, but as a lifelong resident. So um when I was growing up and driving home from Gemco at 9:30 on my 10-speed bicycle, 9:30 at night, nothing was open. So So I'm glad that you're there. So [laughter] They probably served me too when I was 14. Who knows, Chief? Look into that. Would you look [laughter] look into that? Would you, Chief? Possibly. Who knows? Anyways, but um nothing that a 14-year-old could go into was open. So, anyhow, item 13. Let's move on. Um council initiated item. I'll hand this over to Council Member Suzuki.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm um proposing city staff research electric bicycle safety regulations for La Mesa. This isn't about limiting access to alternative transportation. It's about protecting our residents, especially our young people, from a rapidly growing public safety concern. The numbers are alarming. According to the American College of Surgeons, over 20,000 people are injured while riding electrical electric bicycles annually nationwide with approximately 3,000 requiring hospitalization. And these aren't minor scrapes. These are serious injuries that are straining our health care system and devastating families. And here's what's making these ebikes particularly dangerous. They're significantly faster than traditional bicycles. While standard bikes travel at modest speeds, ebikes can reach between 20 and 28 mph. That's highway speed on what looks like an ordinary bicycle. Even more concerning, these bikes can be easily modified to bypass maximum speed restrictions, dramatically increasing the risk of catastrophic injuries. Our current safety infrastructure isn't designed for this reality. Helmets certified by the Consumer Product Safety Commission are only tested and intended for bicycle speeds of 20 mph and under. For speeds above 20 mph, Department of Transportation certified helmets are recommended. And yet, most ebike riders don't know this distinction exists, and many aren't wearing helmets at all. The American College of Surgeons recommends universal helmet use for ebike riders with the type of helmet determined by the speed capability of the electric bicycle. This makes sense, but it requires education, awareness, and potentially regulation. I'm asking city staff to research what other municipalities including Chula Vista just passed an ordinance and it's pretty thorough. Um what they're doing

to address ebike safety, what regulatory options are available to us and what education campaigns might be effective. Um, we have an opportunity to also be proactive rather than reactive to implement sensible safety measures before we see significant statistics reflected in our own community and it's been reflected in social media online. um what is starting to go on with our kids riding these ebikes and it's it's it's dangerous because you know you have traumatic brain injury and you have a lot of consideration with these our kids you know riding bikes that could go up to 20 to 28 miles per hour and they're doing wheelies and I I was just in Bird Rock and um a a boy he couldn't have been older than my son who's 10 was doing a wheel was was doing wheelies in back of me and um that's frightening because you know if if they're driving like that and we don't have the the the um correct regulations or at least you know appropriate regulations in in um we have to really think about putting those into it's just I think it's a safety concern and I'd like to see less injury at least if something if it's something we can um prevent I think we should by all means try to do it. So, I'm asking um for uh consideration of of directing staff to draft an ordinance establishing rules governing the use of ebikes within the city to protect the health, safety, and welfare of riders and the general public.

Is that your motion? I am making the motion. I will second that motion. Motion carries with all council members voting yes. To your point, I think the vehicle code should be changed. I talked to someone about going to Sacramento just because um there's young people taking the pedals off their bikes to make them into flatout motorcycles. Y So they're taking the chains and the pedals off their bikes and retrofitting them. So they're not ebikes anymore. But it needs to be

across the state to really get some of these laws to work. And so we have to there's a 13 person committee and that's vehicle code that needs to be changed. I'm all for it. So anyways, uh item 132 is uh oh, Council Member Suzuki, I'll hand it back to you. Thank you. I wish everybody had stayed. No, I'm just kidding. [laughter] They're like, we're out of here. Okay. Well, so I'm We had an option to leave. What? What? My besties.

No. Oh, sorry. [laughter] Okay. Um, so now I'm proposing Lame Mesa join the Gov AI coalition. It's a network of municipalities working together to navigate the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence and local government. Art artificial intelligence isn't coming to local government. It's here. Whether we're ready or not, AI is being integrated into municipal operations. From traffic management to permit processing to public safety systems. The question isn't whether it will affect how we serve our residents, but whether we'll shape that transformation thoughtfully or simply react to it. The Gov AI coalition offers us something invaluable. Collective wisdom. Rather than reinventing the wheel or learning through costly mistakes, we can benefit from the experiences of other cities facing the same decisions we are. This collaborative approach allows us to share best practices, identify pitfalls, and develop responsible AI policies together, consider the challenges ahead. How do we ensure algorithmic fairness in city services? How do we protect resident data privacy when using AI tools? How do we maintain transparency and accountability when decisions are informed by machine learning? These aren't theoretical questions. their practical governance issues that demand informed coordinated responses. Joining Govai positions Laame Mesa as a forwardthinking community and it would be we would be the first San Diego city joining this um coalition which comprises 200 cities around California. It demonstrates that it demonstrates that we're committed to responsible innovation, that we take our stewardship of public resources and public trust seriously and that we're willing to learn from and contribute to a broader conversation about technology and governance. And you know, I don't think it's 200 cities. It might be just 200 um

organizations around California because um there aren't there's still really the 900 uh organization coalition includes places like city of Seattle um New York so across the board city of Honolulu. Um so it costs nothing to join Govai. The cost of isolation of making preventable mistakes or missing important opportunities could be significant. I' I'd like to um move to consider or at least move to move for the city to become a member of the Gov AI coalition founded by the city of San Jose to advance responsible and purposeful artificial intelligence practices in the public sector.

Is that a motion? I Yes, it's okay. I'll second that. All right. Um but I I wanted to

Oh, yes. I'm sorry. So, first of all, I love this. I do. And I want to thank you for taking the initiative uh and drafting something so lawyerally [laughter] um uh and there's a lot of people that are talking about this and a lot of um concerns and uh all all it does take is one bad actor. Um so I appreciate that. The only question I have um and maybe you can help me um just understand uh number one uh what's the difference between going online and um and being a part of the um what do you call it a gov AI or and um when it is updated how quickly are we hold um and to the point where it would be helpful for us to know like as soon as possible.

Yeah. So, actually that's a really good question and that's something that I asked the city of San Jose and I was lucky to be able to speak with the co-founder and it's important for us to be a member because you get to be part of the conversation right away and and AI is changing. It's changing as we speak. I mean it's constantly changing and right now on the website they're um the resources are six months to a year old versus if you're part of that conversation you are um you know having dialogues with people at that time and able to confront it at that time. And so we'd be part of the chats. we'd be part of the we'd be part of the community that is having those discussions and and and so it'd be real time versus seeing what they're putting on and it might be stale unfortunately because the when you think about it even just five five maybe a year ago two years ago how many of us were using chat GPT now how many of us are using it you know and and at the league of California cities last week they asked that question they said they asked that question last here and only 50% of the members raised their hands. This year they asked us all and all of us use it. So we need to put these um we need to be part of the conversation and we need the resources um and access to the resources in real time so that we can confront the issues um and be proactive versus reactive because if you're reactive obviously it's going to get into um then there it increases the chances of litigation. For instance, one of the things that we should know and um that I learned is that you know um our chat GPT conversations as council members or as staff um are are um then they could be public records act um and so if you're having a conversation with

chat GPT about what you know what you're learning. If someone makes a public records act request and and wants to know everything to do with ebikes, you have to produce those chat. You could you could potentially have to produce all of your chats if you have access to it. So these are things that we really need to be part of. And we also owe it to our um constituents to be transparent about how we are using AI, you know, and and and and whether you know they can reach and we're I have to say um city manager and I spoke about it. I'm really proud of Mesa because we have our people have access to real people because it's very frustrating to get on the phone and call people and not be able to reach someone. So, um, being able to give people access to someone, if you can't use AI or you can't use the chatbot, then you really, you know, it's important for us to do that. And these are things we're going to have to consider. And being a member of Govai would afford us that access. I'll call the vote. motion carries with all council members voting yes.

Thank you. Council committee reports. Uh, Council Member Dillard. Okay. Council member Lotheian. Council member Suzuki.

Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. on on um I I sit on the San Diego Community Power Power Power Board. So, I just wanted to say on January 15th, San Diego Community Power approved new electricity generation rates that deliver the biggest savings compared to San Diego Gas and Electric in the AY's 5-year history. Most customers will see a 4% discount through through the default power on service, while customers who choose the powerbase option will receive a 10% discount. For those who want to go fully renewable, the power 100 option provides 100% clean energy for um just $1.30 more 30 cents more month per month than SDG&'s bundled service which is only 41% renewable. So good news from SD um from San Diego Community Power and um I'm I'm really glad that Lame Mesa is a member of of community power.

Uh Vice Mayor Casaris,

thank you. Um, Sandak has been in the news uh a little bit lately because of the Argis system, which is where all of our cities and the county um input uh data from our police officers and sheriff's department. And um there's a lot of misinformation about how um how accessible that data is. Um there were accusations that um ICE was using it for deportations and that ended in 2017. Um but we are currently reviewing it at Sandag. um to make sure that everyone um is is thoroughly protected. Um the the city of La Mesa is very much in alignment with SB54. And so I am not concerned um about our city, but because it's been in the news and because um I've gotten outreach, I just wanted to share that we started the review on Friday. We're going to continue that review and if any major changes occur, I will make sure to share them here from Sandag.

Thank you. Um, one AB one, two, three, four. No one. Uh, oh yeah, there's Oh, sorry. Sorry. [sighs] Okay. So, [laughter] I don't I Oh my goodness. Okay. I know, but you have vampire power. So, I [laughter] I traveled to Sacramento January 20th to 23rd to participate in the League of California Cities Conference. I was appointed in December to the Governance, Transparency, and Labor Relations Committee in December. And so I met with the committee on January 22nd um and that is how I met the city of San Jose um GVI co-founder. So we discussed AI policies and how to build on public trust.

That's a good report. Thank you. Uh city attorney uh predictions for the Super Bowl. Better hurry. It's coming down. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Time's up. Great. We're I'm I'm rooting for the Patriots because of because of our city manager. Our city manager is from the uh Massachusetts area and I know he's rooting big for him. So, I'm behind him.