City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

That helps. It is now 430.

Time to start this special open session to hear public comments before closed session.

We'll start with the roll call.

Council. Council Member Jimenez. Present. Council Member Wilson. Here. Council Member Zepeda.

Here.

Vice Mayor Robinson. Here. Mayor Martinez.

HERE.

COUNCILMEMBER BONNA IS ABSENT AND COUNCILMEMBER BROWN WILL BE ABSENT FOR THE ENTIRE MEETING. DURING CLOSED SESSION, THE COUNCIL WILL DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. THERE'S ONE ITEM, ITEM C1, CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS. AGENCY REPRESENTATIVES INCLUDE SHARON TAYLOR, JACK HUGHES, AND LISA CHARBONNAIS. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE SEIU LOCAL 1021 FULL-TIME and part-time unit, IFPTE Local 21, mid-level management and executive management units, Richmond Police Officers Association, Richmond Police Management Association, IAFF Local 188, and Richmond Fire Management Association. We do have one request to address the council. Cordell Hindler, you'll have two minutes.

So good afternoon, Mayor Martinez. Council, for the record, Cordell Handler here. I'm going to be speaking to you all about the unions. So we come before today and I'm asking, I am requesting that when you go into closed session, the unions deserve a raise once again because they have put Richmond on the map. So when you go back in there, think of all the contributions that they have put into Richmond. So that's it.

We do have a few speakers online. If you'd like to address the council, please raise your hand at this time. Okay, we don't have any more speakers.

All right, if there are no other speakers, then session for comments is closed and we will retire to closed session.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. . . Thank you. you you you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. so Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. so so do do Thank you. you you Thank you.

Welcome, everyone. This is a special joint meeting of the Richmond Housing Authority of Richmond and the Richmond City Council. So we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL. OKAY. COMMISSIONER AND COUNCIL MEMBER JIMENEZ. PRESENTE. COMMISSIONER AND COUNCIL MEMBER WILSON.

HERE.

COMMISSIONER AND COUNCIL MEMBER ZAPATA.

HERE.

Vice chair and vice mayor Robinson here chair and mayor Martinez here tenant commissioner Scott here for the record council member and commissioner Brown will be absent the entire meeting commissioner and council member Bonner here. Next on the agenda statement of conflict of interest. Are there any. Hearing none, our next item is a report from the executive director.

There will be no report from the executive director this evening.

Okay, this is for agenda review for the special joint meeting of the Richmond Housing Authority and Richmond City Council. Are there any changes to the agenda? Hearing none. Next is the Housing Authority Open Forum. We have one request to address the commissioners. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the commissioners during Open Forum, please raise your hand at this time. Cordell Hendler.

So good evening, Chair, Mayor Martinez, commissioners. For the record, I am Cordell Handler, and I have looked at the consent calendar, and I don't have no problem with it. So Chair Martinez, I'm asking the commission to approve the consent calendar as presented.

Okay. Next is approval of the housing authority consent calendar. Need a motion? I motion that we pass.

I second.

Commissioner, Council Member Urbana?

Yes.

Commissioner, Council Member Jimenez? Yes. Commissioner, Council Member Wilson?

Yes.

Commissioner, Council Member Zepeda?

Yes.

Vice Chair, Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Chair and Mayor Martinez?

Yes.

Lieutenant Commissioner Scott?

Yes.

And for the record, Commissioner, Council Member Brown is absent. The motion passes. Our next item is a joint Richmond housing authority, Richmond city council budget session. And there's one item. I don't mean one is to adopt a joint resolution approving the proposed fiscal year twenty six twenty seven Richmond housing authority budget with total estimated revenues of four million one hundred fifty four thousand five hundred seventy nine dollars and total estimated expenditures of five million four hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred fifty two dollars approved and RHA subsidy from the city of Richmond general fund in the amount of one million two hundred sixty thousand seventy three dollars and authorized the use of available Hacienda proceeds in the amount of $25,000 to balance the RHA budget to $5,439,652 in estimated revenues and $5,439,652 in expenditures. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council under this item, please raise your hand at this time. We have one in-person speaker.

KCRT, can you please bring up the PowerPoint? I just went blank. I don't have it on my screen. KCRT, can you please help us with the PowerPoint? Good evening, Chair, Commissioners, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, and members of the public. My name is Antoinette Terrell, Executive Director of Richmond Housing Authority. Tonight I'm presenting the proposed fiscal year 26-27 Richmond Housing Authority budget. I will provide a brief overview of our operations, revenues, expenditures, accomplishments, challenges, and the requested general fund subsidy needed to support continued operations. Next slide, please. At its core, this budget is about maintaining safe and habitable housing today while preserving affordable housing opportunities for future generations throughout redevelopment. The Richmond Housing Authority provides affordable housing opportunities through programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

Excuse me, we still don't have the presentation.

KCRT, can you please help us with the PowerPoint?

It just came on.

Okay.

But the audience doesn't have it.

It's not up for the audience.

KCRT, it's not up for the audience. It's not up for the audience. Okay, there we go. All right. So once again, at its core, this budget is about maintaining safe and habitable housing today while preserving affordable housing opportunities.

I'm sorry, there's still one commissioner without. Okay, we have it solved. Thank you. Sorry.

So the Richmond Housing Authority provides affordable housing opportunities through programs funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. RHA directly owns and manages Neistrom Village, a public housing community with approximately 100 units. The authority is also associated with approximately 683 affordable housing units through Richmond Village, Triangle Court, Friendship Manor, Hacienda Heights, and Nevin Plaza, for a total portfolio of 783 units. Richmond Housing Authority continues to operate under the Public Housing Authority Recovery and Sustainability Agreement, or FARS agreement, which focuses on financial stability, compliance, and redevelopment of public housing assets. Because federal funding continues to fall short of actual operating costs, this budget includes a request for city general fund support to maintain operations, preserve housing, and continue redevelopment efforts. Next slide, please. The proposed fiscal 26-27 budget includes approximately $4.15 million in revenue and $5.44 million in expenditures. To balance the budget, RHA is requesting a general fund subsidy of approximately $1.26 million and the use of $25,000 in HACI and DeSalle proceeds. The budget also supports five full-time employees, an executive director, senior property manager, building maintenance supervisor, resident manager, and administrative assistant. Five employees currently support a portfolio, of course, of 783 units of public housing operations, redevelopment activities, procurement, compliance, audits, maintenance oversight, resident services, and two affiliated housing corporations. Next slide, please. The proposed budget also includes approximately the $4.15 million in revenue before the general fund subsidy. The largest revenue source is the HUD capital fund program at approximately $2.5 million, followed by HUD operating subsidy funding of approximately $737,000 and tenant rent income of approximately $384,000. Additional revenues include allowable capital fund transfers, oversight fees, repayment agreements, and available Hacienda fund balance resources. While HUD remains our primary funding source, federal operating subsidies have not kept up with the pace of the actual cost of operating and maintaining public housing, creating the need for local support. Next slide, please. Total expenditures are now approximately 5.44 million. The largest expenditure category is equipment and contractual services at approximately $1.8 million. These costs include unit rehabs, plumbing repairs, electrical repairs, appliance replacement, landscaping, and maintenance service. Because Neesham Village is more than 85 years old, many units require substantial rehab before they can be reoccupied. Repairs frequently include plumbing replacements, sewer line repairs, water intrusion, flooring replacement, electrical upgrades, accessibility corrections, and structural repairs. The budget also includes professional services, utilities, insurance, and grant-funded activities. And the city's cost allocation charge is necessary to support our daily operations. Next slide, please. The proposed fiscal year 26-27 budget includes a request for a city general fund subsidy of approximately $1.26 million. This request is driven by declining federal operating subsidies and increasing operating costs. In fiscal year 25-26, RHA received approximately $400 million $45,000 in operating subsidy funding for Neistrom Village and approximately $73,000 for Nevin Plaza. For fiscal year 26-27, Neistrom Village operating subsidy funding is projected to decrease by $360,000, while operating subsidy funding for Nevin Plaza has been reduced to zero due to the repositioning. As a result, RHA is projected to lose approximately $158,000 in annual operating subsidy funding while labor and utilities insurance maintenance, compliance, and audit costs continue to rise. Without the support, RHA would be forced to defer maintenance, reduce operational flexibility, and delay critical housing preservation activities. The requested subsidy will help maintain operations, meet our FARs agreement obligations, preserve our compliance, and continue our redevelopment efforts. Next slide, please. These images illustrate some of the conditions that staff deal with at Nystrom Village and also highlight the challenges with maintaining housing that's more than 85 years old. Next slide, please. And here are just some additional photos. Next slide, please. So at Nystrom Village, RHA continues to focus on maintaining safe, decent, and habitable housing while moving forward with our long-term redevelopment efforts. During the past year, staff completed annual inspections of all occupied units. We rehabilitated 11 units and completed approximately 350 maintenance and operational work orders. Since 2023, approximately 40 units have undergone substantial rehab, representing roughly 40% of Nystrom's housing inventory. And all the redevelopment activities continue to progress. Construction is not anticipated until approximately 2030. Until then, RHA remains responsible for maintaining safe and habitable housing for current residents while continuing the planning and pre-development work necessary to move our redevelopment projects forward. Next slide, please. So Nevin Plaza 1 represents one of RHA's most significant accomplishments, preserving and rehabbing 142 affordable housing units. Nevin Plaza 2 remains in pre-development and is planned to provide additional affordable housing opportunities for seniors on adjacent housing authority-owned property. Environmental review, financing, and planning activities remain underway with construction currently anticipated around 2030 for Nevin Plaza 2. Next slide, please. At Richmond Village, environmental review activities, physical needs assessment, and stakeholder coordination remains underway, with repositioning anticipated to be completed by the end of the fiscal year of 2027. And staff are continuing to evaluate future opportunities associated with the Hacienda Exit Slot to maximize long-term value and support RHAs and the City's strategic goals. Next slide, please. As part of the FAR's agreement recovery efforts, RHA has made significant progress addressing outstanding audit requirements. The Housing Choice Voucher Program closeout has been completed in fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021 audits have been completed as well. Fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2024 audits are currently underway, and our goal is to begin fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026 audits in January of 2027. Next slide, please. Now, while RHA has made significant progress, several long-term challenges still remain. First, Neistrom Village is more than 85 years old, and maintenance needs to continue to increase as staff address the plumbing failures, as I mentioned before, water intrusion, structural decline. Second, federal funding continues to lag behind actual operating costs, while labor, utilities, insurance, materials, and contracted services continue to rise. Third, RHA operates with only five full-time employees supporting a portfolio of 783 units while managing the public housing operations once again, redevelopment, procurement, compliance, audits, maintenance, oversight, resident services, and our two affiliated housing corporations. Finally, redevelopment still remains several years away and construction at Neistrom Village and Neva Plaza two are around are anticipated for 2030, meaning some buildings will be more than 90 years old before replacement housing is even completed. Until then, continued investment is necessary to preserve safe and habitable housing for our current residents. Each year we defer an investment, the cost of maintaining these aging buildings will increase. But despite these challenges, RHA staff still continues to work towards preserving housing, completing our audits, improving our compliance, and rehabbing our units. Next slide, please. So staff recommends approval of the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 Richmond Housing Authority budget, including the requested city general fund subsidy and authorization to use available Hacienda funds. This budget is simply not a spending plan for us. It's a housing preservation plan. It allows us to maintain safe housing today while continuing the necessary work to replace the aging public housing and protect affordable housing opportunities for future generations of Richmond residents. Approval of this budget will allow us to continue the preservation while preparing for the replacement housing our residents deserve for tomorrow. Thank you.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPORT. IT'S ALWAYS AMAZING TO ME HOW MUCH THE HOUSING AUTHORITY DOES FOR THE PEOPLE OF LOW INCOME HERE IN THE CITY OF RICHMOND. SO IT'S NOW TIME TO OPEN THE OPEN FORUM FOR THE PUBLIC.

WE HAVE ONE SPEAKER.

Thank you. So good evening, Chair Martinez, Commissioners, Cordell Handler here. I have looked at the item and I don't have no problem with it. So move the item.

Thank you. Anyone online? No? Okay. Public hearing is closed. And now we will go to comments and questions from Council Members. Council Member Cepeda.

Thank you for the presentation. Quick question. Are any of the housing that we provide, are they based, do we provide housing specifically on a gender? So like women's housing, male's housing, is it all intertwined or mixed? It's all family housing.

It includes family, seniors, and disabled.

Okay. And it's not based on gender or anything? No. Okay. And then HUD is giving us about 2.2 million. Is that the total that they're giving? The capital fund subsidy.

I'm sorry, what was that?

So the 2.2 million, that is collectively with our capital fund subsidies. So for capital funds from HUD, you only can use them for certain approved categories, which we outlined in our five-year action plan. So what we do have in our five-year action plan is rehabbing units. We can do staff improvements. So if we need to upgrade our property management system, we can pay for it out of the capital funds. We just can't use the capital funds to cover salaries and benefits and day-to-day operations.

Okay. Are there any potential grants that we could be, and you might have already been doing this, so any grants that we're applying for or that we could be applying for to help us not be so attached to HUD?

So HUD does send out alerts when there are grants available and we do look into them. But the challenge that we're encountering at this point is that we've entered a phase of our redevelopment where HUD has accepted our application to move forward with the redevelopment. So we are not eligible to apply for a lot of the emergency grants that are out there. Because when they do come across, I'm like, oh, we can use that. And then they're like, if you received your CHAP, which is a continued housing assistance payment contract that we received last year, you're not eligible to apply for those.

But what about for other projects or other ongoing anything? Anything to chop off from the budget? Because we have... 737 from operating subsidy, for example. So do we have any grants that we can go after to not be using and being so reliant on HUD?

An additional challenge is that the housing authority has been under the FARS agreement, which labels as trouble for several, several years. And so that has ruled out possibilities to have additional grant funding for the housing authority.

Mayor, if I may, part of the tagging on what Director Beecham said is that we're in a environment of decreased federal support for public housing. And so part of what the way that I would view this is as an investment to support low income families and unhoused families in our community because the cost to build a new unit from scratch right, is upwards of 700,000. And so, to the degree to which we can preserve and completely rehab and add new units, that this subsidy essentially provides a significant return on investment. Because if not, right, then, HOW WE WERE, FOR EXAMPLE, ABLE TO BRING HACIENDA ONLINE, HOW NEVIN HAS BEEN COMPLETELY REDONE EXCEPT FOR FOUR UNITS, AND WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THERE TO BE ADDITIONAL PHASES AT BOTH SITES. AND IN ADDITION, IT'S ANTICIPATED WE'RE GOING TO ADD ADDITIONAL UNITS AT NIESTROM. SO I WOULD THINK OF IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ASSIST THE CITY AND ALSO MEETING THE REQUIREMENTS OF OUR HOUSING ELEMENT.

And just to be clear, I'm not questioning us giving this money. I'm just trying to find money because what I see out there is HUD is not going to be increasing their assistance and they're constantly changing the rules. So it was just brought up to me actually yesterday that HUD has been changing the rules around gender. So certain individuals in our community are no longer going to be qualified to go into housing because they're part of the LGBTQI community because HUD has put that new regulation in. So I just want to see if we can start moving away, one, being reliant on funding that they're going to continuously decrease. And then two, putting rules on the little money they're giving us, that is going to make it much more stricter for our communities to being able to get housing. So that's where I was aiming at. I'm all good with giving the subsidy from Richmond because we want to provide that housing. I just want to see if there's opportunities that we can look for so that we're not so reliant on this pot of money that is shrinking and is creating a lot more headaches for our community.

So we are doing that with the a sick grant for example at the BART station And so there has been a lot of positive momentum With our team and supporting the development of housing especially affordable housing the challenge we have here is that because of the legal structure with HUD the reason why we Suggest that the council continue it is because then we have more local control And so that's the challenges that they have been changing the rules as you had said in a very challenging way and so but we think it's important that we stay at the table so then that way we can try to Provide as much support to residents as possible and then make them aware of if there's other programs that they may be able to apply for Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for answering that that's it for now. Thanks so much

Thank you. If there's no other questions, I need a motion. Motion to move the item as is.

Roll call.

And this is for item in one commissioners and council member Bona.

She stepped away.

Oh, she's absent commissioner and council member in minutes.

Yes.

Commissioner council member Wilson.

Yes.

Vice chair and vice mayor Robinson.

Yes.

Commissioner and council members of PETA.

Yes.

Chair and mayor Martinez.

Yes.

Tenant commissioner Scott. Yes.

Thank you, Commissioners.

The motion passes with Commissioner and Councilmember Brown absent and Commissioner and Councilmember Banna absent.

Okay. Thank you, Council, Commissioners. And with that, we will adjourn. Which will give us the opportunity to start the regular meeting of the Richmond City Council. And we'll begin that with a roll call.

Council member Bono.

Yes.

Are you here present? Council member Jimenez. Presente. Council member Wilson.

Here.

Council member Zepeda.

Here.

Vice mayor Robinson.

Here.

Mayor Martinez.

Yes. I'm here.

For the record, council member Brown will be absent for the entire meeting. Our next item is statement of conflict of interest. Are there any? Hearing none. Our next item is agenda review, and I have a few announcements. Items that have been requested to be removed from the consent calendar are items Z, sorry, item W3C. That's the housing item, and that was requested by Claudia Citron. And also removing from the consent calendar is item W-10E, that's the McBride Avenue Safe Routes to Park project that was requested by Don Gosney. We have a request to add to the consent calendar item Z-5, and that's the support from SB-1259, and that is from Councilmember Jimenez. And then we have a request to continue item Z1, that's the annual military equipment use report. That's a request from staff to continue that item to July 7th. We also have a request from staff to continue item Y3, that's the ordinance modifying chapter 12.19, our Richmond Unicode onsite wastewater treatment system to July 7th also.

I have an agenda request.

Yes. I have an agenda request.

I'd like to request, oh, geez, I didn't write it down. It was W1. I wrote an email about it.

W. What is it about?

I'm sorry, which item was it that Mr. Gosney pulled?

Item W1010E. Okay, thank you.

Sorry I should have had this prepared. I would like to pull from consent W5B for discussion.

Can you talk to staff? Yes. W5B is also removed from consent. And that is contract with All Star Painting.

Could you repeat the... Pardon me? Could you repeat the...

I didn't hear you. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Could you repeat the items that were taken off consent calendar? Okay.

The items that are removed from consent? Can I make one clarification?

Oh. On Z5, it should note from the council offices, they normally do the letters of support on Z5 instead of the city manager if it's moving to consent. Mayor, if I may, through you as the chair, Madam Clerk, on item Z5, I was just, it should note that the council office would submit the letter of support.

Council office? Okay, so can we add that to, so.

So instead of the city manager? Yes. Would be the council office.

Perfect, thank you.

Okay, so would you like me to repeat? Let me repeat. Okay, item Z1, that's the annual military equipment use report that is being continued to July 7th. Also, item Y3 is being continued to July 7th, and that is the ordinance modifying chapter 12.19 by the Richmond-Munich Code on-site wastewater treatment system. Item W3C, like Charles, that's the housing item that has been removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Also, item W10E has been removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Item W5B has also been removed from the consent calendar for discussion. And, okay, item Z5 has been added to the consent calendar for approval. Did I get it?

I MOVE THAT WE APPROVE THE CONSENT CALENDAR.

WE HAVE TO DO OPEN FORUM. OKAY. OPEN FORUM.

YOUR MICROPHONE.

SORRY, I WAS DISTRACTED. WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOUR MICROPHONE? YES.

Can you repeat the question? I was distracted by the yelling from the audience.

There was no question. There was a motion.

OK.

Yes.

I'm sorry. I missed the statement of conflict of interest in this section. And I just want to be careful and be clear that there's a portion of the budget that addresses the TCC grant. And so I want to make sure that I, for the record, state ongoing conflict of interest that I always state with TCC grant things, and that is that before I was elected, I was a part of the group of people who were submitted and were awarded the TCC grant when I was elected my first time. And that grant is in motion. And while that grant is in motion, I am still the executive director of Urban Tilth, which is one of the recipients of the grant, along with the city and a number of other organizations, including the organization that my partner works for, Najari Smith, who's executive director of Ridge City Rides. So when those issues are discussed, I will not participate in the discussion. I will leave the room. And I will not vote on any of the TCC budget items or recuse myself from those. Thank you.

Thank you. So we had a motion to approve the agenda items.

So are we going to open forum first?

Just get to the adjournment part already. We're all over the place.

Our next item should be report from the city attorney. FINAL DECISIONS MADE DURING CLOSED SESSION.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL, MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. NO FINAL DECISIONS WERE MADE DURING TONIGHT'S CLOSED SESSION.

AND NEXT WE'LL HAVE A REPORT FROM THE CITY MANAGER.

THANK YOU, KCRT. NEXT SLIDE. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR MARTINEZ, RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL, SHAWSA KURL, RICHMOND CITY MANAGER. YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS SLIDE DECK IN THE WEEKLY REPORT OR BY CALLING THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE AT 510-620-6512. NEXT SLIDE. On June 9th, the community members celebrated the groundbreaking of Richmond's first universally accessible community garden designed to serve seniors and residents with disability. It was really a great pleasure to participate in this groundbreaking. I would like to thank all of the city staff involved and key stakeholders in particular. I would like to acknowledge Beatrice, Our Lady, and Lena. AS WELL AS ROBERT STEPHENS AND HIS FIRM AND BILL KELMAN. IT'S A GREAT NOW OUR FOURTH PARK PROJECT UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND IT'S REALLY AMAZING TO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO INTERACT WITH SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF NIAID OUTSIDE OF NIAID AND TO PARTAKE IN THIS GROUNDBREAKING. IT WAS REALLY A BEAUTIFUL AND LOVELY EVENT. I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS PARK. NEXT SLIDE. COMING UP ON JUNE 18TH, THE RICHMOND MUSIC ON THE MAIN CONCERT SERIES CONTINUES. THIS YEAR WE'LL HAVE ANDRE THEORY STARTING OFF ON THURSDAY, JUNE 18TH FROM 5 TO 7 30 P.M. AT THE LOT. THIS IS THE FIRST MUSIC ON THE MAIN CONCERT OF THE SUMMER WITH MUCH MORE FUN AHEAD. WE'D LIKE TO THANK MAIN STREET AND ALL OF THE BUSINESSES THAT HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH SUPPORTING THIS EFFORT. THIS IS A REALLY EXCITING TIME TO come out, enjoy our downtown and to please support the various vendors at the lot. The food is amazing. And so please come out and have a great time. Next slide. The City of Richmond invites the community to attend the City of Richmond's annual Juneteenth Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 20th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Nickel Park, which is located at 3230 McDonald Avenue. And if you haven't been there lately, there's a great new way to cross the street that improved and enhanced safety. SO THANK YOU, PUBLIC WORKS, FOR MAKING THAT HAPPEN AND FOR ALL OF THE CITY STAFF ACROSS OUR ORGANIZATION THAT ARE SUPPORTING ORGANIZING THIS EVENT, IN PARTICULAR MICHELLE MILAM AND ALL OF OUR COLLEAGUES IN PUBLIC WORKS AND IN FIRE. THIS YEAR'S CELEBRATION WILL HONOR FREEDOM, CULTURE, HISTORY AND COMMUNITY WITH LIVE MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT, LOCAL VENDORS, COMMUNITY PERFORMANCES, FOOD, ART AND CRAFTS, YOUTH ACTIVITIES AND A YOUTH STAGE. Residents and families are encouraged to come out and celebrate Richmond's spirit and rich cultural heritage. For more information, please call 510-620-6512. And also in particular, I would like to note that Joe Fisher Sr. will receive the Lifetime of Service Award. He's the recipient. And I will announce the other awardees at the subsequent city council meeting when we show all the great photos of how wonderful the event was. And also would like to thank all of the sponsors. Next slide. ON JULY 3, THE CITY OF RICHMOND RECREATION DEPARTMENT IN COLLABORATION WITH PUBLIC WORKS AND MANY OTHER DEPARTMENTS ARE PREPARED WITH OUR PUBLIC SAFETY TEAM FOR THE THIRD OF JULY FIREWORKS SHOWCASE. PLEASE JOIN US FROM 5 TO 10 PM IN THE MARINA BAY PARK. FOR THE ANNUAL COMMUNITY CELEBRATION THAT FUTURES MUSIC, FOOD, AND ACTIVITIES FOR ALL AGES. THE EVENING WILL CONCLUDE WITH A SPECTACULAR FIREWORKS SHOW BEGINNING AT 9 15 PM. PLEASE BRING YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND FESTIVAL SPIRIT AND COME TOGETHER FOR ONE OF RICHMOND'S FAVORITE SUMMER TRADITIONS. IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN BEFORE, I ENCOURAGE YOU TO BRING A CHAIR and a blanket and a coat because you know it gets chilly on the shoreline in Richmond. But it's really a great event and please come out and enjoy it and have a good time with us. Next slide. The City Manager's Weekly Report contains valuable information for the community and we want to make the information easier to find, read and use. Starting soon, we will publish weekly news posts on the City website to highlight key items from the weekly report, including upcoming meetings, important dates, major project updates and other information residents may need for the week ahead. The fully searchable weekly report is still available and this format will serve as a shorter searchable mobile friendly companion to help residents stay informed. The primary goal of the weekly report is to provide a comprehensive overview of everything that is happening in the City of Richmond across every department and every division and so this shorter format will help highlight key activities for those who want to get information on specific things in the weeks ahead. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH AND APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S LISTENING TO THE PRESENTATION.

OUR NEXT ITEM IS OPEN FORUM. OPEN FORUM IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL ON ITEMS THAT REMAIN ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR OR ITEMS THAT ARE NOT ON THE AGENDA. ANYONE JOINING US ONLINE THAT WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL DURING OPEN FORUM PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND AT THIS TIME. The items that have been removed from consent calendar are item W three C that's the housing item and item W 10 E that's the McBride Avenue safe routes park project. If you'd like to speak on those items, please submit a pink card. We'll file a pink card with the clerk to speak on those items when they come up later in the agenda.

Uh, you missed W five B and W five B.

Thank you. Also, if you would like to speak on that item, you need to fill out a pink card. Okay, during open forum, dialogue between the council and speaker is prohibited. When your name is called and you are an online speaker, please be ready to unmute yourself to begin speaking. For speakers in the chambers, when your name is called, please come forward and line up behind the speaker's podium to this area closest to the wall. For safety reasons, all aisles including the area behind the speaker's podium and staff presentation area must remain clear. All speakers should state their name and your city residence is optional. Please terminate your address to the council when your time expires.

I also want to let it be known that Z5 will not be on the consent calendar.

Z5 is not being added to the consent calendar.

And we will move it to the 23rd.

Okay. Sorry. To 6-23. Okay, so item Z5 has been moved to continue to item 2, June 23rd. Tonight we have a total of 38 speakers, and these are in-person speakers. I do not see any hands to address the council from speakers online. So with 25 or more speakers, a maximum of one minute to address the council. Okay. The City of Richmond welcomes your comments and requests that you present your remarks in a respectable and appropriate manner within the established one-minute time limit. So call your name, please come forward. Travis Keeton, Cordell Hindler, Don Gosney, Kimberly Graves, Anthony Contreras, Claudia Citroen, Philip Rosenthal, Jill McLemore, Mark Wasburg, Sue Dean McGillipin. This is our first group of 10 speakers. Please line up and be ready to address the council. First speaker, Travis Keith.

Hello. My name is Travis Keaton. I come from Potrero, but I also come from Hilltop, so I just want to say two things. I just want to say thank you to whoever decided that for the parking citations, you sent out a letter to remind you, because that whole little process was garbage. And the second thing I want to say is, I skateboard, and as a skater, I just want to say that I very much appreciate the fact that y'all are doing a lot for bicycles. But the streets are garbage. Namely, I just want to point out McDonald's and Nevin. And I also want to say Carlson, specifically that stretch after you get past Barrett. So it'd be nice if, you know, you don't repave one random part of McDonald's. namely that one little part in front of Nickel Park and then ignore the rest of the street because it don't make no sense why the hills got better streets than we do. But thank you.

Cordell Handler.

So I'll try to keep it short. So good evening, Mayor Martinez, Council. Cordell Handler and I have presented to you all the economic development plan from Walnut Creek, which they will be talking about this evening. And so when I look at this, I'm like, how can we make Richmond more friendly? And I said, if you look at some of the images that you see there, they bring it in retail. And I'm thinking to myself, It's wonderful to see something downtown. It would be proposing it in downtown. Like, we got a lot of hotels. We got a lot of retail. We need to do the same thing for Richmond. So I do want to thank the mayor's office for appointing Sherwin Harris to the McDonnell Avenue task force, because we need to hear from other perspectives. Not only that, I will be talking with Palace Furniture later this week to get them on board to be on the task force. And with that, I'll pass.

Don Gosney.

Once again, for the record, I think this rule about silencing the public is ridiculous. Believe it or not, I was actually going to talk about communication today, but in order to fit it in in the amount of time, I'd have to skip every other word, which would tickle you guys to death, I know, but I'm not going to do that. I'll pass on to somebody else and just remain silent, at least in front of you. I'll have to go out to the general public. Benefit of owning a newspaper. I can say whatever I want, and nobody counts the words.

Kimberly Graves.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Kimberly Graves. I live in Richmond. I'm here today to ask and request that you provide dash cams with your police officers. I was recently pulled over and there was no evidence. According to the US Department of Justice, about 69% of law enforcement agencies in the United States has dash cams, all the way back to 2016. This shows that the majority of departments have already recognized the long ago how important the technology is for accountability and public trust. Without this technology, we are left with uncertainty, which erodes public trust. In today's world, where transparency is expected and necessary, not having dash cameras puts our city's standard practices in jeopardy. I am asking this council to seriously review the policies and equipment of our police department and consider making dash cameras a requirement in all patrol vehicles. Our neighboring city, which is much smaller, El Cerrito, has that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Anthony Contreras.

Good evening. My name is Dan DeCatrez, a lifelong resident of Richmond, California. I'm just here to speak on behalf of an organization, Safe Organized Spaces, I believe, SOS, City of Richmond. I'm just here to speak on their behalf just to say that they've been there. for every bump in the road that I faced. They were there to support me when I was homeless and helpless. And they just were there to guide me through what I was going through and help me get to a place in life where I wanted to be. Thank you.

Claudia Citron.

Okay.

The public is entitled to observe, participate in decision-making process. And this is not with private conversation on the days, as it happened today again. This is not by special council members giving additional time to speak and then cutting off other council members, even though there was like a half an hour for Jimenez and Brown only got three minutes. This is not for council members to put together their special agendas and then move them around as they please without the public knowing about it. Just tonight, again, you showed that you have no understanding for how council rules work. You have no respect for procedures, and this is government corruption, plain and simple. We have a right to participate in the conversation, not by things that happen at 11 o'clock. And I just want to remind you, if I'm raising my hand at home on Zoom, there's a 45-second delay. If you immediately go to a motion, if my hand is up, I cannot speak. Philip Rosenthal.

Hi, Council. I'd like to first of all start by thanking Council Member Robinson, Zepeda, and Bona who are here for allowing the flock cameras to go forward because when we had a murderer in the city recently, the murderer was almost immediately caught entirely because of our cooperation with flock with our neighboring community. Otherwise, that murderer would unlikely have been found. Secondly, I'd like to encourage the council to quickly approve and pass the contracts for police and fire. You can't possibly approve a budget until the accounting department has a chance to analyze all of the unions. The other unions have been passed a long time ago. I also want to object to the city's use of the term military equipment. to describe a drone that any 10-year-old child can buy at Walmart or on Amazon. That's not military equipment. That's a child's toy. Jill McLemore.

Hello, yes, my name is Jill McLemore and I was born and raised, I raised my three sons in Marin County, but I have been a resident of Richmond for 26 years and I just recently joined the SOS program and they responded right away. I was a case manager for 40 years and a disability advocate in Marin County. What my issue is, or what my concern is, my goal is to support SOS program. I see all those people. I used to do that work in Marin, provide housing and all kinds of services. But my main focus is to request that ROC police program be defunded. Thank you. Mark Wassmeyer.

All you old people here in Richmond remember the 1972 riot we had in Point Richmond when we was throwing rocks and bottles at the police. We was winning. We was beating them up. Then they came out with the tear gas. It all started when the police registered some guy. They put him in the police car so his friend tried to get him out. And when he was walking up to the police car, the police started beating him, hitting him with the clubs and kicking him when he was on the ground. So we ran down the bar and got some more bottles. We started throwing more bottles at the police. So they started hiding behind their police cars. We started surrounding them. And then they brought out the tear gas. And then it was all over for us. Then they had the police helicopter flying above us. We was all flipping off the police helicopter. I'm sure some of you old people remember that. We had a good time that day. See, this is why they don't have no more celebrations in Point Richmond on Fourth of July.

Our next speaker is Sue Dean McGillipin. And will the following individuals please come forward and line up behind the speaker's podium. Jane Dean McGillipin. Carlos Torres. Irania Delamora. Tarno Abbott, Manuel Marino, O'Neal Fernandez, Jennifer Brayfield, Janie Castillo, Terrell McMillan, and Justin Wilson. Sue Dean McGill.

Thank you. Hi, my name is Sue Dean McGilpin, and I live in Hilltop Green. Tonight, I bring a reminder to you that we need an escape route out of our neighborhood. Today, I walked from the far end of Park Central to the proposed exit at the Pinal Vista Shopping Center. It's less than 100 steps. That's how far we and how close we are to peace of mind. The only point of entry and exit is steps away from a gas station. If it is compromised for any reason, thousands of residents will be corralled and isolated. There is no way out for homeowners and no way in for emergency vehicles. As stewards for public safety, Please restore this funding and complete the project. It's a need for all of Richmond because all of you are welcome in Hilltop Green. And so, Hala, congratulations on your reelection, and I look forward to you serving once again District 4. Thank you.

Jane Dean Gilpin.

Hello, I'm a homeowner in Richmond's Hilltop Green neighborhood. Our neighborhood has a single point of entry, which is also a single point of exit. In case of an emergency at that location, which is Park Central Street and Hilltop Drive, should our exit be blocked by fire, fallen trees, a major vehicle accident, those sorts of things. No resident would be able to leave by vehicle, nor would any emergency vehicle be able to access those residents. I understand Councilmember Bonner will be seeking funding approval for this initiative again. We've been here a few times. Richmond has proclaimed public safety as a priority, and this is a case of simply funding the work that is needed for essential public safety FOR THE MORE THAN 1,400 LIVES IN HILLTOP GREEN. I THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OF THIS. PLEASE APPROVE FUNDING FOR OUR MUCH-NEEDED EXIT.

Hello. I was once unemployed for one and a half years and life was rough. I was able to score a job in Santa Fe and on my third day at work, my car failed. It felt like life was against me. I bought a bike on Facebook Marketplace for $50 and a place that could fix the brakes called Rich City Rides. I met a young Najari Smith there who fixed my bike for free. I couldn't believe it was free, but it was what Rich City Rides did. I proceeded to ride my bike across the Richmond Center for Hill Bridge every day for six months until I no longer had to. My name is Carlos Torres, and today I stand before you to proudly say I work for Rich City Rides Now. Our programs make a difference. Our e-bike lending library program will help hundreds of community members that we've been talking to because, unfortunately, my story is not unique. So I come here today to ask you all to support our library and help folks get to where they need to go. Thank you.

Hello, good afternoon. I really wish you guys would bring it back to two minutes. I think a minute is ridiculous, makes no sense. On top of that, congratulations to Claudia. You'll be running, and I think you'll win. That's not promotion. That's just an assumption. Also, other than that, I'm singing at the Flea Market in Richmond, which is on Garrett Street next to North Richmond, and I've been going there since I was a child. It's not really a gloating thing because, I mean, if you've been to the Flea Market in Richmond, it's not a fancy place to grow up going to your whole life, but... It is a very fun place, and I will be singing there for free. And Tim Stiles, who usually sings in San Francisco, will be singing there also on Sundays. This Sunday, if you guys want to come out and see us and support us, that'd be grand. Also, I might be singing at the Juneteenth or rapping at Berkeley next to the Ashby Station. I'm not sure yet. I'm going to see if anyone lets me do a song. But thank you so much. Two minutes. Please bring that back. Bye-bye.

Tarno Abbott.

Good evening, council members and staff. My name is Tarnell Abbott. I've lived in Richmond. I'm a homeowner for 35 or, I don't know, I've lost track of the years. I'm here tonight in support of SOS, Safe Organized Spaces. To help, I would urge you to please protect their full funding allocation for fiscal year 2026, 2027. This project has done an incredible amount of work to help people who have nowhere else to go. And we know how badly it hurts with the hard economic times. Well, imagine if you had no job, no home, no family. to help you. And SOS has been providing services to a population that is in desperate need. And of course, I will always urge you to keep all our arts and cultural and things like the bike project going. Your time has expired. Thank you so much.

Manuel Marino, followed by O'Neal Fernandez.

How are we all doing tonight, council? First, I want to thank you for how far you guys have taken us. Without you guys, we wouldn't be here. But I'm sure my staff's like, wow, Neil's going to cut this short early. I don't want to speak a bunch of words. I want to invite all of you, as well as all of you, everybody in this room, to come any Monday or Friday from 9 to 1. Come visit us. Get to know who we are. See what we're doing. Just don't assume what we're doing. Come get to know us. Spend some time with us. So I invite all of you to 32 Harbor Way any Monday or Friday. Come walk in. Anybody wearing a shirt, say hi. I would love to see the place. Come experience us. That's it.

O'Neal Fernandez. That was O'Neal Fernandez.

O'Neal Fernandez. I thought that was you.

I thought that was you. Manuel Marino. Okay. Did Manuel Marino speak? No. Okay. So O'Neal Fernandez, you just spoke, right? Jennifer Brayfield.

Hello. Good evening, everybody. I'm Jennifer Brayfield. I'm a long, lifelong resident in Richmond, California. And I just want to say thanks for supporting our programs and our revenues because we provide a lot of things to a lot of people a lot of times. But every day as a shuttle driver, I see firsthand how our services provide an impactful dignity to people that are already limited on the dignity of just being unhoused and judged and everything. So anyways, every day as a shuttle driver, I get to see, take people to cleanse themselves and do their laundry, and the transformation is immediate. People come out and say, thank you, I feel so much better, and that doesn't have a price tag on it. No budget is going to PROVIDE SOMEBODY WITH THEIR DIGNITY TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES. SO IF YOU STRIP AWAY THESE LIFE LINES, CHANCES ARE PEOPLE WILL BE MORE GERMY, MORE SICK. THERE WILL BE A LOT MORE TRASH IN RICHMOND. SO BASICALLY HYGIENE IS A PUBLIC HEALTH AND DIGNITY IS A HUMAN RIGHT.

YOUR TIME HAS EXPIRED.

PLEASE PROTECT US.

JENNY CASTILLO.

GOOD AFTERNOON, HONORABLE Mayor and honorable council members, my name is Janie Castillo. I'm the director of workforce operations for SOS Richmond. I urgently request that you keep SOS Richmond's housing funding fully housed. I'm sorry, let me do it right. SOS Richmond's funding fully hold for the next fiscal year. Thank you. What SOS provides for Richmond residents housed and unhoused is unmatched. SOS is the city of Richmond boots on the ground, providing absolute essentials. These are more than basic services. They restore human dignity. If you cut SOS Richmond, you open up a massive gap in services that Richmond cannot afford. If you pull SOS funding, we lose an important part of an already under-resourced safety net, destabilizing a fragile connection between people and employment, between people and housing, and between people and hope. So thank you.

Terrell McMillan, followed by Justin Wilson.

Good evening, council members, Richmond community. My name is Chair McMillan, and I work at the SOS Richmond Warm Hands Center that O'Neal just mentioned. One of the things we hear most often is that people just need a job. But what I wish more people understood is that employment doesn't happen with the snap of your fingers. It takes a supportive and trusted vibe that helps people to keep showing up even when life is unstable. I see that process every day. I watched as eight members of our latest six-week job readiness program come through our doors of the Wellness Center for their work and training. They drink coffee with us. They completed assessments with us. They worked on resumes with us. They met with our resource specialists and kept coming back. They didn't just ask for an opportunity. They put in the work. If funding for SOS is reduced, life will become harder for the people already up against the wall. Thank you for helping Richmond residents move to stability, employment, and self-sufficiently so far. We hope you continue our support. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Justin Wilson, and will the following individuals please come forward? Ricardo Heros, Latisha Starling, Sambi Perkins, Marcella Hidalgo, Emily Lowry, Manuel Mendoza, Nana Johnson, Robert Pascal, Armando Litanori, and Zahra Zayed. Justin Wilson.

Yeah. So SOS, they helped me out a whole lot. I knew them for a couple of years now. When my RV caught fire, they were there. And without them, I probably would have done something stupid and been in prison for the rest of my life. Only when I met him, he's cool. So please, help keep SOS going.

Ricardo Harris.

Good evening. Thank you for having me here. I'm just here to give a thumbs up to the SOS. They've been a really good support for the community. Actually, even for Richmond Works, a lot of places that don't cover a lot of spaces here in the area. I'm a prodigy of that. I've seen a lot of differences in how they change areas and, you know, clean up. And the efforts in that, you know, people like to live in clean environments. They like to see people with the decency and courtesy to walk around and not have to pick up after other people. But with this, I mean, with me hearing that, you know, THEY NEED FUNDING AND THE POSSIBILITY OF THEM GETTING SHUT DOWN. I JUST WANT TO SHOW A LITTLE SUPPORT FOR THEM. IF IT'S JUST BY THESE WORDS, KIND WORDS, THIS COMMUNITY KNOWS BETTER AND NEEDS BETTER. I MEAN, I'VE RAN THESE STREETS BEFORE WHERE IT'S BEEN WORSE SCENARIOS FOR RESIDENTS TO HAVE HOMELESSNESS.

YOUR TIME HAS EXPIRED.

BUT THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME.

LATISHA STARLING, FOLLOWED BY SHAWN B. PERKINS.

HELLO, MY NAME IS LATISHA STARLING AND I LIVE IN RICHMOND. I'M ALSO HERE IN SUPPORT OF SOS, FUNDING FOR SOS. I WENT THROUGH THEIR JOB REGNITUS PROGRAM AND BECAUSE OF THAT, I HAVE A PERMANENT JOB THERE. have learned and I do see how SOS affects the community and the people that's in the community. It's a very good place to work. It's a very good place to be. A lot of people have... Kashambi Perkins.

Kashambi Perkins.

Hello, I'm Charlie Perkins. I work for SOS, and I'm here to represent SOS. And what SOS does, the people that are unhoused, they lose their hope, and we give them their hope back. And that's something that you can't really understand unless you've been homeless. And that's something that's really important. That's what we ask for you to fund us. Again, please, thank you.

Marcella Hidalgo. Followed by Emily Laurie.

Hi, I'm Marcella Hidalgo. SOS gave me a chance when I needed one most. And today I get to see firsthand how something as simple as a shower and clean clothes can change a person's day. When someone experiencing homelessness can shower and put on clean clothes, they stand a little taller. They feel a sense of dignity and hope. We never know when life can change and put us in someone else's shoes. That is why these services matter. Even if we help just one person take a step towards a better future, it's worth it. Thank you for your time and your support.

Emily Laurie, followed by Manuel Mendoza.

Hi, my name is Emily Lowry. I'm here with Shelby Lowry, and we're here representing Housing Consortium of the East Bay. We're service coordinators. We work closely with SOS, and without SOS, we would not be able to do the job that we do or make the impact that we do. SOS provides a critical lifeline for individuals and families facing some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable and the hope, human dignity and connection that they provide is essential.

I would say that both my wife and I were homeless and we really wish that we had known about SOS because of the services and resources that are available there. We were able to connect with a variety of people, and I believe due to SOS, you can see the forefront change in the streets in front of us, because really, truly, they're in some of the places that were considered one of the roughest, toughest during the 90s, 2000s, and up to now. And I believe that's because of the...

Your time has expired. Manuel Mendoza.

Manuel Mendoza. It's my boyfriend. He's kind of scared. He's bilingual, though. My name is Leanna Duchesne, and I'm speaking on behalf of my boyfriend, Manuel Mendoza. He's been homeless in Richmond a very long time, but I have lived in Richmond my whole life, and I know that SOS is a good company due to the fact they have helped me a lot. At first, I have not seen, I didn't see good with the company, but I know that they have come a long way, and I think that you guys haven't given them a chance to complete their job. They have to complete their job. You have to give them a chance because it's not done. There's a lot of homeless people still in the community that need help, and I'm one of them. The only reason why I'm not housed is due to the fact I wasn't being compliant, but all that will change, and I'm sure if you guys help them, at least... You don't let them complete everything. It's a lot of homeless people still in Richmond that hasn't been helped. People on the train tracks, y'all got all these different problems in the community, and it's because the unhoused people, and that's unfair, and it's unfortunate towards the people who hasn't been housed. If y'all get them the funding that they need, then maybe everything will be changed. But y'all can't stop their funding because a lot of different things will- Your time has expired.

Thank you. Nana Johnson, followed by Robert Pascal.

Hello, City Council. My name is Nona Johnson. I'm here today to talk to something a little different. I have a letter that was written by a friend, Mrs. B. And the letter is regarding a serious incident that occurred on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, during the early evening hours at the Budget Motel, located at 621 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito. Mrs. B, she was the subject of threats by another member with a machete, involving a machete. We'll call him Mr. J. DURING THIS INCIDENT, SHE FEARED FOR HER LIFE AND BELIEVED THAT SHE WAS BEING PREVENTED FROM FREELY LEAVING THE SITUATION. THE CONDUCT WAS INTIMIDATING, THREATENING, AND CREATED REASONABLE FEAR FOR BODY INJURY OR DEATH. SHE'S EXTREMELY CONCERNED THAT THE PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS APPEAR MORE INTERESTED IN PROTECTING THE VIOLENT PARTICIPANT THAN PROTECTING THE VICTIM OF THE THREAT. SUCH CONDUCT RAISES SERIOUS QUESTIONS REGARDING PARTICIPANT SAFETY, PROGRAM OVERSIGHT, NEGLIGENCE AND COMPLIANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE COUNTY AND THE STATE SUPPORTING THE PROGRAM.

NEW SPEAKER ROBERTS PASCALE.

NEW SPEAKER ROBERTS PASCALE. I am proof of work for SOS. When I met them, I was homeless, addicted, everything down on luck. They gave me a chance. They encouraged me to take care of myself, medical and mental and everything. So I got straight, I got clean. I'm now employed with them in the house. proof that they do work. You just got to put the footwork in. So if you just fund them, a little bit more funding, other people could have the same story. Thank you.

Armando Latinero.

All right.

Sara Saeed.

Hi. Good evening. My name is Zahra Syed. I work at SOS Richmond. Homelessness is one of the most dire and atrocious things that we humans have allowed to happen. One of my colleagues at SOS Richmond, they explained this to me. They said that they had lived in poverty growing up and nothing that they had gone through had prepared them for a night in the tent. They also came up with the idea that elected officials and city staff should have a simulation of that experience sometimes. And I don't think it's a bad idea. I just want to remind us all, everybody present, that it takes actual presence, trust, and accompaniment to address homelessness on the ground. And the work is very fragile. And the work of SOS Richmond is the connective work that is required. As Ms. Janey was saying, Richmond cannot afford to lose that connective tissue. So I'm asking you to protect SOS Richmond's full allocation as you make budget decisions tonight and stand behind the people who do the work. Thank you so much.

Our next speaker is Taylor Del Rosario. And will the following individuals please come forward? Angelina Prasanna, Matthew Bretholt, Daniel Barth, Ayeli Rico. And our last speaker, in-person speaker, will be Randy Scott.

She spoke already.

Taylor. Okay. Angelina.

Hello. Five years ago I was living at the Castro encampment trying to survive being homeless. SOS Richmond gave me a way out, and today I work for SOS using my own experience to help others who are right where I used to be. I'm writing because if we lose funding for SOS services, it's going to completely crush the homeless community here. We provide mobile showers, laundry services, and outreach, but honestly, what we really give people is dignity and a reason to trust again. Out there on the streets, you feel completely invisible. SOS changes that. If these services are cut, people aren't just going to disappear. They're going to lose the safety net. We'll see more encampments, more health issues, and a lot more people losing hope. I'm living proof that what SOS does for our homeless community works. Please keep funding us so we can keep helping people like SOS has helped me.

Persona. PERSONA SHOULD BE FOLLOWED BY MATTHEW BREATHOUT.

HI. HELLO, COUNCILMAN. I'M HERE TODAY TO URGE THE CITY TO MAINTAIN ITS VITAL FUNDING FOR THE COMMUNITY'S MOBILE SHOWER AND HYGIENE PROGRAM FOR INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCED IN HOMELESSNESS AS SOMEONE WHO WORKS DIRECTLY ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE INTENTIVE IC FIRSTHAND EVERY SINGLE DAY. THIS PROGRAM DOES FAR MORE THAN JUST PROVIDE HOT WATER. It restores human dignity, protects public health, and saves lives. It accesses basic hygiene. It is fundamental human right, yet it is one of the most difficult resources for unhoused neighbors to find. Our shower program provides safe, clean, and welcoming environment where people can come and get clean and refreshing clothes. Our shower sites serve as a trusted point and consistency cared for at our program. We are able to connect them with housing resources, mental health services, and substance use support. So please continue our funding with SOS. Thank you.

Matthew Brault.

Hello. My name is Matthew Brault. I am a volunteer with Safe Organized Spaces, SOS, and I'm speaking on behalf of them. I've been volunteering with this organization since March of this year. First of all, I would like to say thank you for the funding that you provided thus far. It's an organization that is doing really a lot of good work. I've been involved in starting an arts and crafts program there. I've seen many people come in off the street and get an hour of respite from their difficult lives. I've also been involved in helping people find employment. And we've also started a 12-step recovery program there, which is helping to bring the message of hope to many people. So I would like to plead with the council to continue funding. I think it's an organization that is worthy and is helping the city of Richmond and a lot of people. So thank you very much.

Daniel Barth.

Well, thank you. You're hearing stories that are also fully explained, much more fully explained in those letters. I really do suggest that regardless of how, as things go, that you take a few moments or a few more than a few moments to read those letters from community members that came in independently from the participants who come to our Wellness Center and our Safe Harbor facility, and our staff who are struggling and challenged to put down every single day their hard effort, our board members, and our community partners. So much was said in those emails and those letters of support. But it's that hard work that I really want to focus on in the last 15 seconds is we are family and we are the ones that stay up late at night, the ones that get up early in the morning. That's all of us. That's all of us. This here tribe is part of that movement to put hard work into this issue. Thank you.

Mayeli Rico. And our last speaker will be Randy Scott.

My name is Mayeli Rico. I am the project manager for the TCC e-bike lending library at Ridge City Rides. And I am here tonight in support of using ECIA funds for the construction of the e-bike lending library building. The e-bike landing library is not an e-bike share program. Our focus is education, long-term access, and helping residents adopt clean mobility with confidence. This building is just not a place to store bicycles. It is a place where residents can learn, attend free bike clinics and safety workshops, participate in community rides, and receive hands-on support. We want to build a space where e-bikes are the focus, but people are the priority. WE KNOW THERE IS A NEED FOR THESE SERVICES BECAUSE THE COMMUNITY HAS ASKED FOR THEM. THERE IS AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY OUT THERE THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE TO MEET, BUT WE HAVE. WE HAVE MET AMAZING INDIVIDUALS, SENIORS WHO WANT TO STAY ACTIVE, WORKERS LOOKING FOR AFFORDABLE TRANSPORTATION AND FAMILIES SEEKING HEALTHIER AND MORE AFFORDABLE WAYS TO GET AROUND. THE MORE WE EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT CLEAN MOBILITY, THE MORE WE CAN REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, IMPROVE AIR QUALITY AND PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY.

Our next speaker is Randy Scott.

Hi, good evening. I'm Randy Scott. I'm a Richmond resident. I was born in Brookside. My father owned a bar for 31 years. I was raised, though, by the California Department of Corrections. For the next 33 years, that was my dad. When I got out, SOS Richmond was there. Before, it was really what it is today. Without them, There's no changes happening in my level. A three striker is not somebody you want mowing your lawn or getting your trash or anything else. You don't want them in the neighborhood. But SOS accepted me. And from there, every opportunity I've had in the world has come through them. My home today, my other jobs today. I'm still an employee there. But my education, my giving it away to other people, speaking the language of other people where I've come from, That's the access they need that they don't have. Without SOS, we don't have that. We need SOS.

Thank you. That was our last in-person speaker. We have two online speakers. Jess Ward, please call the speakers.

Hey there. Kevin Maloney and Jenny. Kevin, you'll have two minutes to speak. You can go ahead and start.

Yes, hi, thank you, council, for hosting us here tonight. My name is Kevin Milani. I'm a longtime Richmond resident, and I'm the current president of Hilltop Green Homeowners Association. And I would like to advocate for our community that we do only have one ingress and egress. We do not have an emergency access at all for our community to be serviced should our main point of entry be blocked. So I would like for the council to heavily please reconsider ensuring funding for our secondary egress so that we can escape in an evacuation. And if there's a fire incident, our 1,000 plus residents will be in very dire straits. Please make sure you help us.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Jenny. If you'll please state your full name for the record, you'll have two minutes to speak. You can go ahead and start.

Hi there. My name's Jenny Benorden. And I'm calling in today just to voice my opinion regarding the e-bike lending library. After reading about the alternative solution, which costs over $10 an hour for people to rent, I can't really see a good argument against allowing the lending library to provide e-bikes to Richmond residents for free. The Unity Park location is a central hub for so many of the city residents, and then providing opportunity to train people how to maintain the bikes, Um, it's a great way to get around town. I'm a long time cyclist, um, and, um, it's a clean and green solution for transportation. So I just wanted to voice my opinion to, um, in favor of the e-bike lending library.

Thank you. And that was the last speaker.

Thank you. I need a motion.

WE NEED A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT CALENDAR AND FOR THE RECORD ITEMS W3C, THAT'S A CONTRACT AMENDMENT NUMBER TWO, JUST CITIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HOUSING EQUITY ROAD MAP. ITEM W10E, THAT'S THE ROADWAY MODIFICATION OF GLEN AVENUE, MCBRIDE AVENUE FOR THE MCBRIDE AVENUE SAFE ROUTES TO PARK PROJECT. AND ITEM W5B, THAT'S A CONTRACT WITH ALL STAR PAINTING, KATIE INCORPORATED. THOSE ITEMS WILL NOT BE INCLUDED IN THIS VOTE.

All right, motion second from anyone?

I move the consent calendar.

Second.

Okay.

Council Member Vanna?

Yes.

Council Member Jimenez? Yes. Council Member Wilson? Yes. Council Member Zepeda?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Robinson?

Yes.

And Mayor Martinez?

Yes.

The motion passes. Council Member Brown absent.

All right.

Moving to the budget. That is, sorry. That's a long agenda. The budget item. Okay. The budget item is to review proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget and five-year capital improvement plan budget for fiscal year 2026-27 through 2030-31 and provide direction to staff prior to final budget adoption. If anyone would like to speak on this item, please raise your hand at this time if you're joining us online. We have a few speakers in person also.

KCRT, can you please pull up the slide deck? Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council and Richmond community. I want to remind the City Council that this presentation this evening is a continuum in our budget review process. You may also recall that last week we concluded without formal direction. And so the way that we have framed the item this evening is in order to get to what we hope is a point of consensus. Around the budget and so what we're going to do is we're going to walk through the budget overview process budget development We were here from Administrative chief Patrick seals regarding the City Council requests because we were asked for an update of that going back to 2024 to the present And then we will go into some updated information just so the Council is clear regarding the opportunities that we've had collectively to work on increasing our general fund revenue. And we will go through specific near-term shortfalls and the proposed solutions. And so we're not suggesting that in our balanced budget, we're not suggesting, we're recommending the status quo and that means essentially business as usual and that in order to address some short-term budget shortfalls that we would swap out some other high priority funding requirements for those that have less urgency associated with them. to enable us to complete some projects so that is the um the point of our presentation this evening and then we want to get input from the city council on if this is headed in the right direction so we can bring back a a balanced budget for adoption next week so the information you have before you is the draft powerpoint that we were working on up until a little bit ago

Point of order?

Yes.

Sorry, so we're given a packet.

That's what I'm getting to.

We have two of them.

Okay. Jerry, do you want to come highlight why there are additional presentations? And then I will finish my statements.

Good evening, City Council and Mayor Jerry Gerold, the accounting manager over the budget division. So you have two copies. There is probably one from Friday. That was a draft as of Friday. And then there were some updates during the past few days. So that's the most updated one was dropped off just now. And that one reside or is the same presentation that we'll be presenting this evening tonight.

And just for my own, so the one that says 611 in the corner is out of date now, and the one that says 616 in the corner is the correct one? Okay, thank you.

SO AS WE CONTINUE ON A PATH OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT BECAUSE GENERALLY AFTER OUR TUESDAY MEETINGS WE HAVE APPROXIMATELY 36 HOURS TO TURN THE NEXT INNERATION OF THE DOCUMENTS. SOMETIMES THE DOCUMENTS THAT ARE POSTED ON FRIDAY NEED TO CONTINUE TO EVOLVE TO MEET OUR QUALITY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE COUNCIL AND THE COMMUNITY. AND SO THAT'S WHY THERE'S TWO VERSIONS. So next slide. So tonight we're going to continue reviewing the fiscal year 2627 proposed operating budget and 2627 capital improvement plan. As noted in the staff report, you will receive the proposed budget package for adoption next week. on Tuesday. Our goal is to ensure that our shovel ready CIP projects that are already in progress, that those are completed in a timely manner. We also want to make sure that the Council is aware that recently city staff have recently applied for four new additional grants totaling $31.4 million. And we have new grant applications submitted in total in excess of 79 million with additional grant applications in the pipeline. And so thus far, our total grant awards at this juncture are 328 million, not including those in the pipeline. So I want to take an opportunity to thank staff for working so judiciously and collaboratively to look for opportunities to continue to augment what we're able to do with general fund revenue by maintaining so many active grant applications and active grants because that's a heavy lift. We also want to share with the City Council and the community that what we're doing as it relates to our budget here that we're in a very strong position relative to some of our other surrounding jurisdictions and so we appreciate the collaboration that we've had with the City Council and the community to ensure that we are in a financially sound situation. Currently, federal policy changes, inflation and interest rates fluctuations continue to provide a great deal of uncertainty for our budget. And in particular, we've had conversations and want to make sure that the Council as a whole is aware that as we are currently receiving and earning higher interest on Treasury bills and other investments, it's important to recognize that these earnings do not represent new discretionary resources available for ongoing spending. HIGHER INVESTMENT RETURNS ARE GENERALLY THE RESULT OF TIGHTER MONETARY POLICY DESIGNED TO COMBAT INFLATION. SO THE SAME ECONOMIC CONDITIONS THAT GENERATE HIGHER YIELDS ALSO CONTRIBUTE TO INCREASED OPERATING AND CAPITAL COSTS THROUGHOUT OUR ORGANIZATION. SO THE ANALOGY I USED LAST WEEK WAS REGARDING THE COST OF GAS AND HOW IT'S CONTINUED TO INCREASE SEVERAL DOLLARS OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS. AND SO HOW IT'S IMPORTANT FOR US AS A CITY TO BE PREPARED FOR INCREASES IN CONSTRUCTION COSTS, MATERIALS, EQUIPMENT, INSURANCE, AND OTHER SERVICES THAT WE NEED FOR OUR COMMUNITY. AND THAT AS A RESULT OF INCREASED INTEREST INVESTMENT EARNINGS, THAT THOSE ARE OFFSET BY INFLATIONARY COST PRESSURES THAT ARE FOUND ELSEWHERE IN THE BUDGET. For these reasons, we recommend that we should exercise caution when evaluating higher-than-anticipated earning interests. These revenues should not be viewed as excess funding capacity as they are largely a byproduct of the same economic conditions that are increasing our costs. I also want to provide a brief update. We had a meeting with our liability risk pool and they have notified the City of Richmond and other member agencies that we should anticipate receiving an additional assessment. That amount has not been finalized nor when exactly it will commence but we are anticipating based on our conversation with them in an informal manner at this juncture THAT THE ADDITIONAL PAYMENT REQUIRED WILL BE APPROXIMATELY 3.5 MILLION. SO IT IS THESE TYPES OF UNINTENDED EXPENSES THAT WE USUALLY HAVE TO COMBAT AS A CITY THAT ARE NOT ALWAYS INITIALLY IN OUR FINANCIAL MODELS AND THAT AS WE GO THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUDGET PROCESS IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE THINK OF THE BUDGET AS AN ENVELOPE AND THAT AS NEW EXPENSES EMERGE AND NEW PRIORITIES WE WILL HAVE TO SHIFT the budget to accommodate those new turn of events. So I want to just reiterate that city staff and myself will continue to monitor our budget closely, evaluate potential fiscal impacts, and return to the City Council with recommendations regarding any future budgetary or funding considerations. Next slide. SO THIS IS THE RECOMMENDED ACTION THAT WAS PROVIDED EARLIER. NEXT SLIDE. HERE'S AN OVERVIEW OF WHAT WE WILL DISCUSS. NEXT SLIDE. AND THIS SLIDE IS TO ILLUSTRATE THE COMPREHENSIVE AND THOUGHTFUL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROCESS AND BUDGET DEVELOPMENT REVIEW THAT HAS COMMENCED. WE'RE NOW IN OUR EIGHTH MEETING. NEXT SLIDE. And these are the City Council adopted goals. I do want to reiterate that it is very important that we adopt our budget on time. Financial markets do measure things like this to help gauge how we are performing financially and we want to have the highest possible bond rating to help ensure the lowest possible potential borrowing rates for the City and its residents as we move forward. to illustrate significant financial discipline and to make sure that we can meet the needs of our community and with that i will turn it over to administrative chief patrick seals thank you

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Martinez, Vice Mayor Robinson, City Council, staff and residents. My name is Patrick Seals. I'm the administrative chief. As a follow up to our last city council meeting, there was a request to do a retro analysis, just pulling in some additional requests from council. I DID THAT ANALYSIS AND PULLED IN WHAT YOU'RE SEEING HERE ON THESE NUMBERS AND THIS DOCUMENT IS ALSO LISTED AS AN ATTACHMENT IN THE CHECKLIST. AT THE END I THINK IT'S EXHIBIT THE 24 REPRESENTS THE CALENDAR YEAR AND ONE JUST REPRESENTS THE COUNT. SO THESE REPRESENT THE REQUEST THAT CAME IN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF COUNCIL DIRECTION AND SO REVIEWED ALL THE MINUTES FOR THAT CALENDAR YEAR AND YOU CAN SEE ALSO AT THE REQUEST, THE PREVIOUS MEETING THERE WAS A REQUEST TO INCLUDE WHO THE SPONSORS WERE FOR THOSE PARTICULAR ITEMS OR DIRECTORS, THE COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO DIRECTED THE ACTION. So looking back over the past two years, there were approximately 55 requests from city council to provide additional action to staff. Next slide. And we've also cross referenced them against the strategic goals areas as was the city manager highlighted that were concluded in the end of the fall of 2023 with former city manager of Oakland, Henry Gardner. Next slide. And so these are opportunities for you to recognize or to view the council request by particular sponsor over the past TWO YEARS, JANUARY 1ST OF 24 TO PRESENT. AND AS WAS ALSO HIGHLIGHTED AT OUR LAST MEETING, WE ARE HOPEFUL THAT WE CAN ALSO WITH YOUR DIRECTION STAND UP A SET OF CRITERIA SO THAT ALL NEW REQUESTS THAT COME FORWARD THERE'S A FRAMEWORK FOR PRIORITIZATION FOR ALSO SEQUENCING THOSE PROJECTS AND REQUESTS IN A WAY THAT FEELS EQUITABLE BASED ON THE SET OF CRITERIA THAT WE INCLUDED AND IF YOU REVIEW YOUR LAST WEEK'S PACKET THAT INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE THANK YOU

One of the other questions that was significant last week that we want to make sure we highlight is the tremendous work and effort that has happened across the city and in collaboration with the council and our colleagues to increase revenue. And so what you'll see here is that in fiscal year 2021, we were at about 188 million. And then in 24, 25, we are at 256 million. And so it's very important for the city council to see that there has been a significant growth IN REVENUE, STEADY INCREASES IN PROPERTY TAX, UTILITY USER TAX, ALSO OUR SALES TAX HAS BEEN STABLE AND THERE HAS BEEN A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE ALSO DUE TO MEASURE U BUSINESS LICENSE TAX. AND SO WE ARE ANTICIPATING MOVING FORWARD THAT OVER THE FIVE-YEAR TERM WE WILL HAVE INCREASED FROM 188 MILLION ORIGINALLY IN FISCAL YEAR 2021 TO APPROXIMATELY 310 MILLION. SO THAT IS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF INCREASE IN REVENUE. SO EACH BAR CHART, YOU'LL SEE A NUMBER ABOVE IT AND THAT IS 16 MILLION, 15 MILLION, 23 MILLION, 14 AND 16 MILLION COLLECTIVELY. THE AMOUNT THAT'S INCREASED FOR THAT RESPECTIVE FISCAL YEAR AND THEN SHOWING THAT THE LARGE AMOUNT OF REVENUE THAT HAS COME IN, AND THIS SLIDE IS TO ILLUSTRATE WHAT TOOK PLACE IN ADVANCE OF THE LIMITED TERM REVENUE THAT IS BEING EXCLUDED FROM THE BUDGET AT THIS JUNCTURE. THIS OTHER LOVELY SLIDE AT THE BOTTOM IS THE WORK THAT'S IN PROGRESS AT SHIELDS REED. IT IS WHERE A NUMBER OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY, I THINK OF IT AS LIKE THEIR LIVING ROOM AND THEIR PLAY SPACE, AND SO WE ARE DOING OUR BEST, NOT ONLY WORKING ON THE EXTERIOR, BUT WORKING ON THE INTERIOR, AND SO YOU CAN SEE THAT THE SPACE IS BEING UPDATED AND IT'S GETTING A SIGNIFICANT REFRESH, SO JUST WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE STAFF FOR THE HARD WORK THAT THEY'RE DOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. NEXT SLIDE. AND WITH THAT, I WILL TURN IT OVER TO EMILY. Director of Finance, Emily Combs.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council members. And the slide you have in front of you right now is a slide that you've seen before. And these are all the funds that we have secured and leveraged in the amount of about $59 million in total grants to support our in-house services. SO THESE INVESTMENTS HELP SUSTAIN EMERGENCY SHELTERING, OUTREACH, HOUSING PLACEMENTS AND PROGRAM OPERATIONS. IT'S A STRONG FOUNDATION. BUT MUCH OF THIS FUNDING IS ONE TIME AND REQUIRES CONTINUED PLANNING FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY. AND WITH THAT, I'LL TURN IT OVER TO OUR PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR.

THANK YOU, EMILY. MAYOR MARTINEZ, COUNCIL MEMBERS, FOR THE RECORD, DANIEL CHAVARRIA, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR. This slide highlights the near-term project shortfalls identified at the June 9th study session. These funding gaps are needed now to deliver complete projects that are already in construction or nearly in construction. For the Richmond Wellness Trail Phase 2, the additional funds are needed for intersection improvements, including ADA curb ramps, upgraded signals, and required trash capture devices that help keep our waters and creeks clean. At Point Molari, the funding will close the gap between the construction estimate and the actual bid, allowing the project to move forward and be completed as designed. At Shields Reed, the shortfall is tied to a PG&E required change during construction. And at Wendell Park, the gap covers the purchase of a restroom that was submitted from the original bid, but is essential to deliver the full scope of the project. Across all four projects, there is very limited scope that can be removed without altering the intent and function of the improvements. That's why staff is recommending that these funding needs be addressed now so we can deliver the projects as intended and avoid disruptions or redesign. Next slide, please. Regarding the Richmond Wellness Trail Phase 2, just to give you an idea how, what this project is about, talking about a complete street project that's going to have improvements. You'll see a picture of the current conditions. Next slide, please. And how it's going to look afterwards. You're going to add bike lanes, trees, and more to accommodate all modes of transportation. Next slide, please. Regarding the locations of the Richmond Wellness Trail Phase 2 that we want to incorporate, we're talking about two intersections, Wright Avenue and Regatta Avenue. We also talk about installing trash capture devices and curb ramps at Hull Avenue, Potrero Avenue, and Holman Boulevard. Next slide, please. These are the locations at Wright Avenue, and you can see on the right side what upgraded design we're talking about. We're talking about adding concrete sidewalk, curb ramps and detectable surface, full signal upgrades, including fiber optic connection. Next slide. Regatta Avenue, we're talking about two new crosswalks, curb ramps, and detectable surface, new sidewalk, median curb extensions, rapid flashing beacons, six of them, and relocating bus stops. Next slide, please. These are the trash capture devices that we need to install, and this is a requirement with the water board that we need to install not only in these locations but in others by 2030.

Next slide, please.

On Howell Avenue, we're talking about curb ramps now. We're talking about two new crosswalks, curb ramps, and detectable surface, new sidewalk, and relocation of bus stops. Next slide. Potrero Avenue, installing curb ramps in all the corners. Next slide. And Hoffman Boulevard, same thing, curb ramps in the four corners. Next slide. Regarding the Point Molari, I want to make this distinction. I know there's many community members very interested in this area. We are talking about two separate projects, even though they're connected, but they're separate. The first one is the trail. You can see it in the orange line along the shoreline. That trail is currently under construction. Right now it requires $1 million to be completed. And there is a section, a gap, the blue circle, that is project two, that is the beach stabilization, that we need to stabilize the beach and construct the trail. Next slide, please. So as I mentioned, for the Point Molari Bay Trail project, the one that we are currently under construction in partnership with the East Bay Regional Park District, we have a shortfall of $1 million that we need to cover. Next slide, please. And then we mentioned also the Shields Street and Wendell Park. In Wendell Park, we're talking about a shortfall of $435,000 for the installation of a new bathroom. And for Shields Street, a shortfall of almost $200,000 for PG&E improvements and bioswale relocation. Next slide, please. And I'm going to pass it now back to Finance Director Emily.

THANK YOU. WE WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT AGAIN ASSEMBLY BILL 1383 WHICH WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THROUGHOUT THE BUDGET SESSIONS SO TO STAY CONSISTENT I'LL MENTION IT AGAIN. THIS SLIDE HIGHLIGHTS THE ESTIMATED ANNUAL FISCAL IMPACT OF THAT ASSEMBLY BILL WHICH WE'RE PROJECTING TO BE APPROXIMATELY ONE MILLION. AND THIS BILL WOULD MAKE SEVERAL MAJOR CHANGES TO PENSION RULES FOR PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYEES. RAISING THAT SALARY CAP FOR PEPPER EMPLOYEES AND LOWERING THE RETIREMENT AGE FOR PEPPER SAFETY EMPLOYEES FROM SO THESE SHIFTS WOULD INCREASE THE SEIZE PENSION COST GOING FORWARD AND WHILE THE IMMEDIATE IMPACT IS ESTIMATED AROUND 1 MILLION ANNUALLY, THE LONG-TERM EFFECT WOULD COMPOUND AND WOULD INCREASE OUR UNFUNDED LIABILITY GOING FORWARD. WE'RE ALSO HIGHLIGHTING THIS AGAIN SINCE IT'S THIS BILL HAS SEEN SIGNIFICANT MOMENTUM AT THE STATE LEVEL. JUST GIVEN HOW QUICKLY IT'S ADVANCING, WE ARE PLANNING AS THOUGH APPROVAL IS LIKELY. So this slide summarizes the action staff is recommending based on the analysis you've seen today. We're asking that council direct staff to move forward with the funding options to close that 2.676 million in project shortfalls. These adjustments would allow us to keep the CIP balanced. It would allow us to keep the operating budget balanced while ensuring that these projects that are already underway can be completed as intended. WE WILL INCORPORATE THESE CHANGES INTO THE CIP AND CONTINUE MOVING FORWARD WITH THE OPERATING BUDGET AS IT'S BEEN PRESENTED, THE STATUS QUO BUDGET. SO TODAY IS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR COUNCIL TO PROVIDE ANY FINAL DIRECTION BEFORE WE BRING THAT FULL BUDGET PACKAGE BACK TO YOU SEVEN DAYS FROM TODAY. We also want to acknowledge the city's current vacancy rate on here. We are, the budget before you tonight assumes a 12% vacancy rate to balance that budget. And we will continue, that will continue to evolve as MOUs are approved and we'll need to increase that vacancy rate in the future to help balance the budget. And with that, this is the recommended action before you this evening. AND THAT CONCLUDES OUR PRESENTATIONS.

AND MAYOR, CAN I JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO ACKNOWLEDGE ALL THE STAFF IN THE AUDIENCE AND EVERYONE THROUGHOUT THE CITY WHO'S ASSISTED WITH THE BUDGET DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY HEAVY LIFT AND SO JUST WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND THANK ALL OF THE COLLEAGUES THAT HAVE BEEN INVOLVED AND ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE FINANCE BEING WILLING TO BE INNOVATIVE. For the first time this fiscal year, they essentially rolled the budgets forward. And so that reduced an extremely heavy lift for many of our colleagues and made it a much more streamlined process. So I want to acknowledge our finance team for being innovative and bringing new ideas into implementation.

So staff in the audience who has contributed to this, could you please raise your hand so we know who to applaud? I saw that they stretched all the way to the back of the room. Amazing.

Yes. I have questions.

Is it time for questions? No, we're going to do public comment. So public comment is open.

Okay. For this item, we have five in-person speakers, and we have three online speakers. Speakers in person are Cordell Hendler, Claudia Citron, Bruce Byard, B.K. Williams, and Tarnal Abbott. CORDELL HENDLER.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR MARTINEZ, COUNCIL. I AM CORDELL HENDLER AND I AM A VERY OPTIMISTIC PERSON. WHY? BECAUSE AS I WAS REVIEWING THE BUDGET AND IF YOU RECALL A FEW WEEKS BACK I SHOWED YOU MY CHECKLIST BECAUSE I'M ALL ABOUT POSITIONS. I'M ALL ABOUT IT BECAUSE EVERY DEPARTMENT NEEDS STAFFING BECAUSE IT WILL CARRY THE WORK LOAD OFF THE DIRECTOR AND DIRECTED TO ANOTHER PERSON. SO I'M ALL FOR THAT. SO I DO THANK FINANCE FOR PUTTING ALL THESE PRESENTATIONS TOGETHER AS I'VE HEARD IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS. SO UNTIL I'M NOT PESSIMISTIC, I'M VERY OPTIMISTIC. BUT THAT WILL CHANGE BY NEXT WEEK ONCE I SEE THE WHOLE BUDGET PACKAGE. AND WITH THAT, CLAUDIA, IT'S ALL YOURS.

CLAUDIA CITRIN.

So I'm going to repeat what I read last time. Public safety and core municipal services should be city's highest priority. Siglobia is not a measurable improvement for neighborhood walkability and does not cut through traffic. School districts and unions are legally responsible for providing adequate educational workforce programs. The GD should not replace those responsibilities. Council liaison functions should not be consolidated. Great accountability and separation is needed. Funding priorities are traffic signal programs, street paving, and road rehabilitation. adding traffic management and congestion mitigation, emergency response capacities, fire protection services, police services, and public safety infrastructure. Out corridor funding is inessential to a certain met. It's not infrastructure needs. A fire station rebuild needs to happen. So it needs SOS, a tiny home village expenditure 200K for one year per year is ridiculous. It needs forensic audit. Pointe-Polate maintainers' expenditures need to be justified through a transparent reporting. 250K annually. It was a surprise even to Cesar that most of Pointe-Polate still belongs to the city. ONS has a huge budget and only serves 96 people last year. The bike share program is still... unnecessary compared to other budget needs like employee. Taxpayer funding should be prioritized towards programs with measurable results and demonstrated community benefits. Essential services, infrastructure, and public safety should be funded before discretionary programs are being funded. And that includes my presentation. I'm sorry I was fast.

Bruce Beyer.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, for the record, my name is Bruce Byard. I'm the chair of TRAC, Trails for Richmond Action Committee. TRAC supports the excellent recommendations staff has presented to you for funding the shortfall and four priority capital improvement projects. Our highest priority, and I hope yours too, is completing the Point Malady Bay Trail section. It's under construction. It will open two and a half miles of shoreline to public access, but it's not at all now other than the beach park and also has the most widespread and strong public support. Last week, you received about 50 emails from residents of all parts of Richmond, from Pogo Parks, Save the Bay, Citizens for East Shore State Parks, TRAC, and others. This Point Malady Trail will expand opportunities for walking, bicycling, wildlife viewing, environmental education, outdoor recreation for residents of Richmond and visitors alike. By opening access to a previously inaccessible piece of shoreline, the trail will provide, will carry out city council strategic goals areas three and six, improving the quality of life and community health and addressing shoreline ecological issues. The Richmond Wellness Trail phase two, the improvements Daniel, Mr. Chavarria outlined to you are also very important. Marina Way South is a section of the Bay Trail. And this project is very important for providing a protected bikeway there. There's not even a bike lane there. There's nothing there for bicycle safety. So Richmond-Williams Drill Part 2 is also very important to track in its Bay Trail mission. So thank you, and I hope you will adopt and embrace staff's excellent recommendations for covering SHORT FALL OF THESE FOUR PROJECTS AS WELL AS THE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS WHICH ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND NEED MORE FUNDING. THANK YOU.

OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS B.K. WILLIAMS AND OUR LAST IN-PERSON SPEAKER WILL BE TARNELL ABBOTT. B.K. WILLIAMS.

HI. THANK YOU. MAYOR GUARDO MARTINEZ AND COUNCIL MEMBERS, IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN. SO MUCH OF WHAT I'VE HEARD IN HERE TODAY, I JUST, WORDS LIKE the arts corridor being unessential, it just made me change my whole framework of being here and the reason I'm here. But I also sat through all of the support for SOS when I came in. And I wanted to say that the items that you choose to support in your budget represent your values. And I think that some of the initiatives that the community has brought forth also are the values of your community. And those things I hope that you will find a way to keep in the budget. Things like the arts quarter. I wanna talk about the arts quarter because you gave us a charge. I'm with Richmond Renaissance. You gave us a charge in 2023 to provide a strategy for an arts quarter. Arts has the capacity to change people's lives, and I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to work with SOS, because I am more proud of what they did and what they brought forth tonight than probably I've ever been. But I also sat on the task force for four years of my life as a volunteer, and we worked for things like Youth Works, and we worked for SOS, and we worked for things for the community. And then later we came to a conclusion that we also wanted to work with the arts quarter because it has the potential to create economic value in the city. It has the potential to bring community together, just like we work with SOS. We've worked with other components of the community and all of that because arts helps to build community. So I hope that in your valuation of what's important to you, the things that you value, will preserve the values that you have. I hope that the arts are part of that, and I hope that the black resiliency is part of that. I hope that SOS is part of that, and I hope your values are the same as ours. Thank you.

Tarnell Abbott.

This is a, what do you call it, a process question first before you start my time? I didn't hear you call X1. I heard you call a name of an agenda item, and I believe people signed up late or wanted to sign up late because they didn't know what item you were calling. And I would ask that you allow them to speak if they're still here and they want to speak. My name is Tarnell Abbott, and I'm a longtime resident, homeowner in the city of Richmond. I love Point Malady, and I'm worried that the bike trail will cut out part of the Point Malady beach and use riprap, which is not the correct current understanding of what should be done in a sensitive area. The bike trail should happen, but it should be rerouted, and it should definitely not compromise the beach. I support SOS and many other community programs that are included in the reimagining public safety. I therefore urge that you adopt option one to preserve these things. And yes, art does save lives. And SOS is saving lives. And bicycle access is saving lives. And the community needs are being torn apart here in a way that is not right. And please support these community grassroots community programs. And yes, of course, I love our parks as well. But please remember that the human need is so huge and you can't cut one to save the other. You have to give, everybody's going to have to cut back a little if that's what happens. The main overuse of money in the city of Richmond.

Your time has expired.

is the management staff that gets bigger and bigger and bigger budget.

That was our last in-person speaker. Now we'll move to the online speakers and we currently have one speaker.

And the speaker is listed as planning division. If you'll unmute yourself and please state your name for the record, you'll have two minutes to speak.

Good afternoon. Kevin Tisdale, president at SEIU. I want to make a few comments. Just one second. Apologize. So SEIU worked collaboratively just a few years ago, back in 2021 and in that time with the city, as well as different community partners and residents, as many of our members are, that live, work, and play in Richmond when funding measures fell short. Those measures include Measure U, documentary transfer tax, and the Chevron General Fund settlement. These actions changed the direction and attitude of the city from fiscally troubled to fiscally sound. Acknowledging raising the vacancy rate to 12% while the actual vacancy rate is at 19% shows the city is again saving citywide a lot while leveraging the services of the community that are so desperately needed. We need a line by line review of the budget so that the council and the public can properly identify the various budget items and funds to be expended. I yield my time.

Thank you. And that was the last speaker.

Okay. Thank you. Then public comment is closed. Um, and it's time for questions and comments. So, um, I will, since we have so much to do, I am going to time people. Um, so everyone has five minutes to comment or ask questions. Um, council member Wilson.

Hello, thank you for the presentation. I wanted to just start off by, especially given the fact that we had so many community members coming to speak on behalf of SOS, I wanted to sort of ask a question to make sure I understand to what extent our unhoused services on the chopping block, so to speak, in this budget. If I understand it correctly, last week there was presentation saying that there was 2.6 million in projects, and then as a way to sort of close that budget shortfall, unhoused services and the arts corridor and a couple other things, some council initiatives, were sort of all raised as possible ways to close that funding gap. But then, although we didn't take a vote on it, I THINK FROM THE COMMENTS, STAFF THEN WENT AWAY LAST WEEK AND CAME BACK WITH SOME ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO CLOSE THAT 2.6 MILLION BUDGET SHORTFALL THAT DO NOT CHANGE OUR ALLOCATION FOR UNHOUSED SERVICES OR THE ARTS CORRIDOR.

THE PREVIOUS BUDGETS THAT WERE SHOWN TO COUNCIL INDICATE THAT THE SERVICES THAT WERE AVAILABLE IN THOSE PARTICULAR BUDGETS REMAIN BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT SERVICES WILL BE AVAILABLE TO A SPECIFIC SERVICE PROVIDER. staff have to follow the appropriate procurement processes that are outlined in the Richmond Municipal Code. So I just wanted to provide that clarity that there are essentially buckets within the budget. And yes, there is still budget allocation for the arts. There's still budget allocation for unhoused work.

And are those essentially the same allocation as we did in the last fiscal year, or has it gone up or down?

There's a slide. Emily, can you indicate the slide that has the unhoused funds that you went over so then we can see if there is a differential? Because what's important about the unhoused work is it's not just funded by general fund dollars. It's funded by various sources, including ERF 1, 2, and 3. So if you look at fiscal year 25-26, you can see that there were other funding sources that were applied for. So ECIA funds were identified and provided housing first funds. Also, you'll see that there is a continued allocation of reimagining public safety for different amounts. AND THAT'S INCREASING AS WELL AS THE UNHOUSED EMERGENCY SERVICES. AND YOU CAN SEE THAT AND I'M LOOKING AT THE RIGHT COLUMN ALL TO THE RIGHT WHERE IT SAYS FISCAL YEAR 26-27 BALANCED. SO YOU'LL SEE THAT THE TOTAL UNHOUSED EXPENDITURE PLANNED FOR UNHOUSED INTERVENTIONS IS 19.9 MILLION.

I guess the point that is important here is how much of the general fund is going to this?

We can go back and look specifically, but it would be the 1.32, the 309, the 500,000, so then you're at 1.6, 2.1. 2.15 and change. It's in excess of $2 million from my math.

Okay, and I take your point that as part of budgeting it is not our job as City Council to promise money to any specific vendors or contractors, but from what I can understand from this slide and what you just said, we're not making any sort of cuts to our overall budget for our unhoused interventions.

Correct, but I'm not privy to, and I would defer to Director Velasco and Jesus on where they're at in the contracting process, where the contracts are, and what the status of the procurement is. I'm not privy to that, but there is a significant amount of general fund dollar investment here, as well as the Homekey project, which is meant to provide 49 units of transitional housing, is anticipated to come online in September.

OK, so I hope that's reassuring for the folks who came out and spoke about that service and those programs, that we are going to continue to invest in those. I also have questions. I sent some of these via email, and so thank you for Public Works Director Chavarria for answering. But I just want to make sure for the community that they understand this as well, is that you've heard me talk about before my concerns about the position of the Point Miladi Bay Trail and the impact that that trail is going to have on the Point Malady Beach. And if I, again I'll do another if I understand it correctly question and if you can just verify that I have it right and this is based on what you told me over email, is that what we are, what this current version of the budget is doing is proposing that we take one point something million, I'm sorry, I don't have it right in front of me, that we had sort of already set aside for shoreline stabilization and saying, well, we're not going to do the shoreline stabilization project this fiscal year anyway. so we can take that money and put it towards what's shovel-ready, which is completing some part of the Bay Trail. And then my question for you was, well, by putting this money forward, before we have a clear vision of the position of the trail and the shoreline stabilization solution, is it rip-rap, is it something else, I'm uncomfortable spending on this before I understand what I'm spending for. And what you explained to me is the part of the trail that is controversial, which is the part of the trail that goes along the beach, is not the part of the trail that we're talking about funding right now. Is that correct?

So let me show you the first slide that it was showing there, KCRT.

Yeah.

So the amount that we're talking about is $1,250,000, right? That is an allocation to the Point Molari Trail Beach Stabilization Project. That as you said, as you said it right, It's a project that right now we are discussing the solution, right? In fact, there's a lot of stakeholders that we're reaching out right now and discussing that. So it's an amount that we're going to need at some point. but we don't need it right now, right at this moment. However, we have the Point Molari Bay Trail project that is under construction right now that we need the funding, and we need $1 million. So it's not the one-to-one. It's about the bottom line, as you see there in the table, $2.676 million. So that is our recommendation at this point. If we... If we don't want to touch anything else, okay, let's do that while we make more progress with the Point Moulati Trail Beach Stabilization Project.

And I appreciate that, and that makes sense to me. And sort of the last piece that maybe I didn't explain very well is one of the things I think I said last week is, well, I don't know if I want to give $1 million to the Point Moulati Bay Trail until I have some reassurances that the trail is going to be positioned in a way that doesn't require the maximally invasive shoreline stabilization. But I believe what you and others have told me is the part of the trail that I'm worried about, which is the part along the beach, is not the part that we'll be funding with this $1 million. Like, there's a gap that the city, like, there's a piece of trail that I'm sort of looking over at Brisbane, or maybe you can, I don't know if, Because do you know what I'm talking about? Like there's a piece of the trail that is under city control and it's not the parks department or anybody else who controls the position of it. Am I? Is this familiar to someone?

Correct. The Point Molari Trail Beach Stabilization Area, right, that also has a piece of the Bayou Trail is in city property.

Right.

So nobody has control but us.

And we decide where to place the trail as well as what the, so you're not reassuring me.

What happens is you make it sound that we have multiple options, right? I mean, there are limitations. There are spatial sites. There are constraints, topographical constraints. There are, and with those topographical constraints you have financial challenges, right? If you want to make a mega project, it's going to cost you more.

Right.

So our job is to provide a solution that is engineerly sound and financially sound. And that's what we're working right now. And that's why we're meeting with so many different stakeholders about it. Because some stakeholders are concerned about one specific project ITEM OR OTHER ITEMS AND SOMETIMES THOSE GET IN CONFLICT.

AND I KNOW THERE'S A MEETING ON THURSDAY SO MAYBE WE'LL HAVE MORE CLARITY AFTER WE DISCUSS A LITTLE BIT MORE.

BUT THE OTHER THING IS THE MILLION DOLLAR THAT WE'RE ASKING IS FOR THE PROJECT FOR WHICH WE HAVE COMMITMENTS RIGHT NOW. WE HAVE AN AGREEMENT WITH ANOTHER AGENCY. WE HAVE A CONTRACTOR ONGOING. I MEAN, IT'S LIKE WE HAVE IT THERE. IT COST US ONE MILLION RIGHT NOW. We delay it. I guarantee you it's going to be more. I don't know how much. It depends when we do it. And the gap that we right now are facing in this trail will be bigger.

And from my perspective, so I agree. I hear what you're saying. We do have a little bit of the power of the purse strings here. And I agree that there's lots of constraints, including budgetary ones, that we have to take into account. But I think sort of as a condition of providing this money, I'd like to get some more reassurance that everyone involved is doing everything they can to position the trail in a place where it doesn't require us to cover the whole beach in concrete.

Well, the only assurance I can give you is the assurance I gave when I started as your public works director, that we were going to make progress. And by now we have not proven that. It's going to be very difficult for our team to convince anybody else that we're going to make progress at this point, that we have a team. WE HAVE MORE ORGANIZED STRUCTURE AND A VERY SOUND FINANCIAL SUPPORT IN THE LEADERSHIP OF THE CITY COUNCIL, CITY MANAGER AND STAFF FROM OTHER DEPARTMENTS.

Mayor, if I may just respond to the question about the unhoused, if we can go back to slide, what was it? Seven, 12. So there you'll see in the middle total city funding, 9.615 million. And so if you take out the home key project, which is a loan from the general fund, That means that the city is providing $2,179,948 to support unhoused services in the current budget that is being proposed. That doesn't include the ERF funds, which are below in the amount of $10.3 million. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Robinson.

So first I wanted to say thank you. This is really a helpful way to look at all of these things. And I also thank you for going and using your expertise to find ways to cover the budget shortfalls. I really appreciate that. It makes tonight a lot easier. I had one question for future. My other question was answered, so I have one question for future and that was I would really wonder if we could see the increase in revenue from non-housing related economic development, i.e. sales tax or business license tax or any other that's from non-housing related economic development over a term, over five to 10 years like we were looking at. I find this slide 11 really informative which shows kind of increase in revenue overall. But I would also like to understand how this would look if we're looking at only that kind of economic development, non-housing related economic development, just for future. I don't know when it's most appropriate to do that, but it would be helpful for my understanding. And then is that possible just at a future?

I think so, but what I'm trying to, and Antonio, feel free to jump in. Part of when I think about non-economic development, then I would, so are you wanting us to- Non-housing, so I'm not talking about the sale of houses or property taxes.

I'm more talking about revenue that's generated from businesses and business activity. Okay, so exclude from the-

So exclude from the analysis the taxes that the assessed values and the increases in assessed values related to housing, but include the commercial, but include the other sectors in the assessed value. So just exclude. So this analysis, but excluding the assessed values of residential.

I'm trying to understand how business activity, business activity specifically impacts and contributes to our revenue.

OK, WE CAN ALSO, YES, WE CAN DO THAT AND THEN WE CAN ALSO, ANTONIO, WE CAN BREAK IT DOWN BY SECTOR. THAT WOULD BE REALLY HELPFUL. WE'LL HAVE TO BE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT DISCLOSURE AND HOW MUCH WE CAN'T TALK ABOUT SPECIFIC BUSINESSES BUT WE CAN TALK ABOUT THE CATEGORIES. AND WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO HAVE IT GO BACK TO FISCAL YEAR 2021. BUT WE MAY NEED A COUPLE OF DAYS AFTER WE PUBLISH SINCE FRIDAY IS A HOLIDAY, SO WE'LL DO OUR BEST TO HAVE THAT FOR TUESDAY AND IF NOT, WE'LL EMAIL IT SHORTLY THEREAFTER. THANK YOU. YOU'RE WELCOME.

I'LL INFORM MY UNDERSTANDING IN HOW WE INVEST IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. OKAY. One of the questions that I have is I'm really happy that we were able to find the funds to make sure that the projects that are in motion can complete, but I do wonder if we can consider making sure that the funds that were found from those different budget items on slide 13, can we make sure that if funds become available in the budget for any reason, we get a grant and it replaces something, or something like that that we go back and fund those items that we cut before we fund something new unless it's an emergency. That is a question I'm putting to my fellow council members. It's something that I think would be fair and I'd like to see. I know that the things that were cut were also things that are needed and we're trying to kind of juggle things.

CAN I SUGGEST WE CONSIDER IT LIKE THE BIKE RACK, SO IT'S NOT IN THE PARKING LOT, THESE OTHER ITEMS, RIGHT, STARTING WITH THE CORPORATION YARD, BUT WE'LL THINK OF THEM AS BEING IN THE BIKE RACK, AND SO IF ADDITIONAL REVENUES BECOME AVAILABLE, THEN WE'LL TRY TO WORK THROUGH THESE, UNLESS, AS YOU MENTIONED, THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE. THAT'S A HIGHER PRIORITY. Like if there's some new, I'm making this up, right? Like every day, once a week I get an email from Public Works about what they're bidding and they tell me if we come in on budget or if there's a shortfall. So unless there is a new shortfall or something, some other emergency that we would look to the bike rack list.

If there is some way to do that where we ensure that, what am I, I'm trying to say that, you know, In my mind, these are also things that are in motion that need to be completed. And so if we can make sure that they have the appropriate priority so that they can be completed if funds become available. Yes.

AND IF IT'S OKAY, IF I MIGHT ADD, IN THE STAFF REPORT WE DO INDICATE FOR A COUPLE OF THE PROJECTS LIKE THE PARKS AND OPEN SPACE PROGRAM AND THE POINT MULATI TRAIL BEACH STABILIZATION, THAT PART OF THE REASON WHY WE LOOKED AT THIS LIST IS BECAUSE THOSE ARE GRANT ELIGIBLE AND THAT WE WOULD BE PURSUING GRANTS.

I SAW THAT, BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT, YOU KNOW, AGAIN, I DON'T WANT THEM TO FALL INTO NOWHERE LAND AND BE KIND OF UNFINISHED.

Thank you. Council Member Cepeda.

Thank you. Thank you. We're here again. Happy City Council Day.

And you and your colleague, well, three colleagues almost have on the same kind of aubergine color.

We've got the memo. And two other ones. It's only three because then we break the Brown Act. We have to memo along to more than three. DON'T START MY TIME YET. THAT WAS JUST FUNNY. OKAY. THE SHORTFALLS, I'M TRYING TO UNDERSTAND A LITTLE BIT MORE. I'LL START ON THAT PAGE THERE. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE HOW DO WE GET TO THEM? DID WE UNDERPLAN? DID THINGS GET MORE EXPENSIVE? ARE WE CHANGING THE SCOPE? I KNOW FOR THE BOTTOM TWO, BUT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE TOP TWO.

RIGHT. SO WITH POINT MELATI, GENERALLY WHEN YOU START A PROJECT YOU HAVE LIKE A ROUGH ORDER OF MAGNITUDE AND THEN AS YOU DESIGN THE PROJECT AND THEN YOU MIGHT FIND THAT THERE'S OTHER THINGS THAT YOU NEED TO AMEND, THEN IT INCREASES. SO CAN YOU GO TO THE POINT MELATI TRAIL ITEM WHICH IS ON 23 AND 24. Okay, next slide please so this is a breakdown of the cost so you'll see like in 2021 a lot has changed since then You know we're almost six years in by the time We actually will probably get to construction and you can see that the how we're getting to the increase in costs from 4.2 million to 5.5 and hence the million-dollar shortfall A LOT OF TIMES WHEN WE REQUEST GRANT FUNDS FOR PROJECTS ALSO, THEY DON'T ALWAYS FUND THINGS LIKE PROJECT MANAGEMENT OR THE PERCENT FOR PUBLIC ART ORDINANCE OR CONTINGENCY. AND WE KNOW FROM CONSTRUCTION IN THIS AREA THAT IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE HAVE CONTINGENCY AND THAT WE ALSO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE APPROPRIATE TRIBAL MONITORING. SO THAT'S A BREAKDOWN OF HOW WE GET TO THE 5.2 MILLION.

Thank you. And then how much of the big trail is going through the new East Bay parks land? I'm looking at their map and it looks like we're going, so I'm trying to figure out, are they also giving us some funding since it looks to be going through some of their property?

ABOUT THE SPECIFIC MILES, ONE OR THE OTHER, I'M GOING TO LET DARCY ONLINE TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION. THIS IS A PROJECT THAT IS IN COORDINATION WITH THE DISTRICT. THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVED IT. THE CITY COUNCIL ADOPTED THE AGREEMENT WITH THEM. IN THE AGREEMENT, THE DISTRICT BEAT THE PROJECT FOR BOTH SECTIONS, THEIR SECTION AND THE CITY SECTION, AND THE CITY CONTRIBUTES TO THE PROJECT.

SO THEY ARE GIVING MONEY TOWARDS IT?

Well, they're not giving us money. They are investing in their property, their side of the property.

In their chunk of the orange line.

Yes, but we can get a, I want to acknowledge that Darcy has been attending a training, and so we'll see if she has that information by a mile. And if not, we can try to provide that information for the next meeting.

Thank you.

Hello, everybody can hear me? Yes. Hi, everybody, Mayor and Council. This is Darcy calling in, and apologies that I can't be there in person, but howdy, because I just flew in from Texas. I was able to attend a really great sustainability conference. And so just to clarify some of these questions, the total trail is 2.5 miles long, and it's almost an even split between East Bay Regional and city property, so 1.25 miles each. and when the shortfall occurred um between the 2021 construction estimate and the 2025 bid that was the million dollars that we're discussing today it is um it is actually a greater differential than the million dollars it was closer to two and so that is split evenly between the two entities now if there are change orders that are associated with city prop properties specifically then those will be city responsibility a hundred percent. So at this time it's a split, but there is a possibility that some items will be city responsibility. So hopefully that answers, but feel free to follow up with questions.

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. And if we approve this here, I'm hoping that, and I agree with Council Member Wilson, that we kind of make sure that we're not encroaching into the beach area and into that area there. I've walked it before, and it's going to be, I mean, there's no way around it. So I think we have to figure out a way to maybe push it back a little bit. So if there's any chance that we can look at that, I would appreciate it. Thank you, Darcy. In regards to the trash captures, I see it twice in the budgets, so I want to make sure, is it being counted twice, or am I just seeing it twice? So on slide 16, we've got $71,000 for trash capture devices, and then in one of the other attachments, I BELIEVE IT'S ABOUT $9 MILLION FOR TRASH CAPTURE.

WE NEED A LOT OF TRASH CAPTURE DEVICES.

I KNOW WE DO, BUT $9 MILLION IS A LOT. WHY ARE WE PUTTING IN MORE MONEY SEPARATELY? WHY NOT JUST COUNT IT IN AS A PART OF THE $9 MILLION? WE'RE ALREADY SAYING THAT THE WELLNESS TRAIL IS SHORT BY $1 MILLION 45.

FOR THOSE TOUGH QUESTIONS, COUNCIL MEMBER ZEPEDA, WE BRING OUR A'S. PERFECT.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. FINANCE MANAGER IN THE BUDGET DIVISION. TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, COUNCIL MEMBER ZEPEDA, THE $9 MILLION THAT YOU SEE IN THE OTHER ATTACHMENT IS A CALTRANS GRANT FUNDED PROJECT, AND IT'S A BIGGER TRASH CATCHER DEVICES IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. THE $71,000 SHORTFOLD IS PART OF THE RICHMOND WELLNESS TRAIL PROJECT, AND IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER.

SO WE CAN'T BORROW FROM THAT $9.7 MILLION?

THAT'S CALTRANS FUNDED. WE CANNOT DO THAT.

SO IT'S A MINI AND A SUPER SIZE. I get it.

I'm trying to find the money anywhere we can.

I want movies for all somewhere.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for that answer. And then for Terminal 4 wharf removal, I see it again under proposed 2627. Are we doing more for Terminal 4?

What else are we removing? And Rita, our finance czar for economic development in port, if she wants to assist in answering that.

We can bring our ace again.

Just stay there.

The Terminal 4 project is completed in terms of the construction. What we're doing right now is the monitoring, which is required and is grant funded. And that's the budget that you see on the economic development for next fiscal year.

So the $1.1 million is grant funded?

Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Avinash.

All right. Grants are good. And then, I had mentioned earlier to the city manager that there's a proposed ballot measure, Initiative 1983, that's potentially, if passed by the voters, it could undo tax measures passed by the city, retroactive, for anything that passed over a 60% threshold. There's a couple of them that are in danger, the 2014 Measure U, for example, and others. So could we get a list in the next budget to see what's IN DANGER AND THEN HOW MUCH?

WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING WITH THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES AND THE CITY MANAGERS HAVE MET AND WE MEET WITH THE LEAGUE AND THE COUNTY MONTHLY AND SO I'M NOT SURE GIVEN THE OTHER ITEMS THAT WE CAN HAVE THAT ON THE 23RD BUT WE CAN TRY TO HAVE IT IN AN EARLY early July because we have the holiday on Friday and then we need to enter the new budget for the fiscal year so people can get paid expeditiously and we don't have a break or lull in services so we'll try to do it as soon as possible but no later than the beginning of July thank you I think I'll be important to know what what's at risk because we might not have the money come January 1 and we would appreciate the City Council if it moves forward to support education and outreach so we'll make sure to give you an opportunity to spread all the positive news

THANK YOU. AND THEN FOR THE KEY INITIATIVES ON ONE OF THE ATTACHMENTS, I'M SORRY, THERE'S SO MANY, I DON'T KNOW. WHO CREATED THAT LIST? ACTUALLY, IT'S ON THE STAFF AGENDA.

Patrick Seals created the list from your minutes that were approved by the City Council and from the agenda items that were that you submitted an e-scribe. So there is the e-scribe check and then the minutes were checked.

Because some of them, I don't remember them as being agenda items. They were like one-time funding, but I'm seeing multiple year funding. So I'm just kind of just curious.

I don't have all of 50 plus memorized. So if there's any specifics, we welcome feedback on the question.

AGAIN, JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY, BUT IT'S THE I COSPONSORED THE ITEM, THE IMMIGRATION SERVICES. THE AMOUNT IS $700,000. WE ALREADY GAVE A MILLION THE FIRST YEAR. THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL MOTION. SO 700 EVERY YEAR, IS THAT?

OH, OKAY. SO THAT ONE IN PARTICULAR, WHAT WE DID, AND HE CAN SPEAK TO THIS IF HE HAS ADDITIONAL CONTEXT. IF I UNDERSTAND THE STAFF RECOMMENDATION CORRECTLY, IT WAS BECAUSE WE WEREN'T GOING TO EXPEND THE ENTIRE MILLION DOLLARS WITHIN THIS CURRENT FISCAL YEAR, AND SO BECAUSE OF THE HIGH PRIORITY NEED IN THIS AREA, RIGHT, THAT WE WOULD THEN request a reappropriation for the balance in a subsequent year so it's an essentially because it's a it's not a capital project right then you have to reappropriate every fiscal year same thing with black resiliency we haven't expended those funds so we're reappropriating for the subsequent fiscal year

Got it. Okay. So then that just means we haven't spent it. We're just moving it forward until we fully spend it.

But the technical term is the council has to reappropriate it. So we include it in the budget for your adoption.

Okay.

And sometimes it's hard because none of this is automated yet, right? I mean, there are some components that we can roll forward, but a lot of this is manual. So from time to time, something does get omitted, and when the council brings that to our attention, we fix it.

Thank you. And then in regards to the citywide fleet, electric vehicles are my thing. I want to make sure that as we're doing the citywide fleet, are we now looking at EVs because we're getting closer to 2030? Yes. Perfect. And then a much bigger question, are we making sure that we're buying local? Because the past couple agenda items, I haven't pulled them because I don't want to pull them.

We'll do our best. Buying local keeps our taxes local.

Local vendors have the opportunity to provide their proposals. But if they don't do it, we cannot go to them and just give them a contract. So they have to provide proposals. We have reached out to them and

I mean, I'll reach back out to them again. But one of the last agendas had a sole source. So that means nobody had the opportunity to bid.

So sometimes there's specific equipment that like if it's available now and we need it quickly for the department, especially as it relates to public safety. then we do well sometimes staff will do a piggyback contract because we need to make sure just for the safety of the Personnel that we have the appropriate vehicles, okay? Your point is well taken and we'll continue to reach out to them.

Thank you. I'm glad they were going to Evie's. Thank you and then for another we're approaching finalizing shield reads and And in there, I know a couple of months, very exciting when we got the updates. Were we able to add safety windows and remove the bars?

No, we have not been able to do that. But we did, as you know, we got a new water fountain. We painted the Darcy and Darren and I, and we've been on our HGTV community center addition. We have new sidewalks. We have new signage.

We have the pig.

Peppa the pig is there. Tomorrow I need to get over there and drop off the books. The kids today were swimming, Troy tells me. That's what I was talking to him about, like how there were 80 kids there today. So I think overall with the new public art that's going up around the center and all the great work we were able to do with city staff, their painting, new furniture is arriving tomorrow. So when you walk in, it's going to look nice and refreshed. So it's really exciting. It's going to look like a new weight room. The gentleman who was our reading tutor there, he's in youth works and he's going to be working in my office this summer as a youth worker. Let's see what else positive came out of the Shields Read visits. It was just great all around.

DOING GREAT STUFF FOR A WHILE. I'M HAVING FUN. THANK YOU. BUT AGAIN, WE'RE ALMOST THERE AND REMOVING THOSE BARS WILL JUST MAKE THAT CENTER LOOK SO MUCH BETTER.

WELL, APPARENTLY WE HAVE TO As I mentioned to some of you, you may know that people have been trying to steal the fence. And not just the fence, the construction fence, but the whole fence around the soccer field. Give them the window bars.

Well, so I don't want to come to the park and the whole fence is gone.

SO WE'RE GOING TO INCREMENTALLY TRY TO CONTINUE TO IMPLEMENT SEPTED THERE, AND WE ARE WORKING WITH COMMUNITY SERVICES STAFF, WITH ROCK STAFF, WITH ONS STAFF, AND, YOU KNOW, OBVIOUSLY, YOU KNOW, SEPARATELY WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT TO REALLY MAKE SURE THAT WHEN THIS FACILITY COMES ONLINE, THAT WE'RE COLLABORATING WITH THE COMMUNITY AND TRY TO KEEP IT AS NICE AS POSSIBLE.

THANK YOU. I'LL STILL MAKE THAT REQUEST, BUT THANK YOU.

OKAY.

ANYONE ELSE? OKAY. GO AHEAD.

THANK YOU FOR BALANCING THE BUDGET AND KEEPING THE ITEMS THAT YOU CALL DISCRETIONARY. SO I JUST HAVE SOME QUICK QUESTIONS. IS THE WALFIRE AD HOC COMMITTEE'S BUDGET IN PLACE?

If the item says that it's not completed in key initiatives and if there wasn't a specific recommendation for appropriations of those 55 items, then all of those 55 items are not in the budget. So your key initiatives, those are the 55 items. They're, it doesn't, they're, to the degree that we had a specific request for a dollar amount, they were included. But I would, I'm not sure if Chief Osorio or Mubeen or Emily can answer that.

I believe the, go ahead.

Oh, there you go.

Can't hear it. Definitely above my pay grade.

The only items that were, there's four recommendations. The only one that is in public works budget is the 200,000 of the 250 recommended for grazing, for grazing contract for next year, next fiscal year. None of the other items are in the budget.

I'm sorry, what happened to the other items? I'm confused.

Council did not give direction to add that and it needed to be brought up here.

No, I thought we gave direction for that.

No, you received a written presentation on the recommendations of the ad hoc.

So can we give a recommendation now?

If the council wants to give any recommendations, we welcome them, but we would also respectfully request a corresponding decrease. And I have been asking about the grazing too, so I'm not sure if, do we have grazing? Okay, okay, all right.

$200,000. Okay.

SO IF YOU WANT TO REAPPROPRIATE IT FROM GRAZING AND LOWER THE GRAZING AMOUNT.

I'M SORRY. I THOUGHT GRAZING WAS 200. YOU REQUESTED IT TO BE INCREASED TO 250.

Correct. That's what I just said, that of the 250 recommended, 200,000 of that was already in the Public Works budget proposal that they submitted for next fiscal year. The recommendation was to increase it an additional $50,000. That part is not in there, just the original 200,000.

So none of your recommendations went through?

No, there was $29 million worth of requests from department heads and departments in particular, like the staff. All of the $29 million worth of requests, we previously provided those. There was not adequate revenue to support all of those requests. So the departments and finance, you know, we sharpened our pencils and we tried to cover as much ground as we could. So instead of $250, there's $200.

Yeah, Council Member Bannon, just want to say I think the ultimate goal is to address these areas, right? I mean regardless if it's 200, 250, half a million, 3 million. The public works have acquired equipment recently, in recent months, that have increased our capacity. So we are reassessing different things right now, including the grazing. WE PROBABLY WILL BE ABLE TO REDUCE IT IF WE CAN. SO WHAT I WILL ASK IS A LITTLE BIT MORE TIME TO LET US ASSESS AND MAKE PROGRESS AND I THINK YOU CAN ATTEST THAT THERE'S BEEN PROGRESS IN DIFFERENT AREAS. THERE'S A LOT TO DO, RIGHT? I RECOGNIZE THAT. BUT I THINK THE CONVERSATION, WE CAN HAVE THIS CONVERSATION IN A FEW MONTHS.

BUT I'M ALSO CONCERNED ABOUT THE BUDGET FOR HOME HARDENING THE COMMUNITY WERE SO EXCITED ABOUT IT. $2500 PER HOUSEHOLD FOR HOME HARDENING IN THE LINE OF WILDFIRE.

SO WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO IMPLEMENT THAT PROGRAM IF THAT'S THE DIRECTION OF THE COUNCIL AS A WHOLE AND LET US KNOW WHAT PROGRAM YOU WOULD LIKE US OR WHAT APPROPRIATION WE SHOULD REDUCE.

I HOPE THAT YOUR CREATIVE TEAM CAN COME UP WITH A SOLUTION FOR THAT.

DID WE ACTUALLY HAVE A, WAS THERE A MOTION FROM THE COUNCIL DIRECTING THIS? THAT'S WHERE I THINK IT BECOMES TRICKY. THE COUNCIL CAN RECEIVE A REPORT ON SOMETHING. THAT MEANS YOU ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIVING IT. IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY ALWAYS MEAN THERE'S AN APPROPRIATION. right those are different things it did different administrative processes and so um given that it wasn't an appropriation at that juncture and it was to receive a report if the if the council wants to make an appropriation or direct us to make an appropriation this evening we could certainly do that for any council request and we can try to figure it out but at this juncture we have a balanced budget so we would just want council to give some guidance on If they want to add some programs, then we need to know what we could reduce.

Yeah, so the ad hoc committee worked on it, and it was the fire chief recommendation, so I hope we can have a motion tonight to include that. It was a total of $100,000, I believe.

SO ALSO I THINK THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS PUT FORWARD AND THEN THERE HASN'T BEEN A FORMAL, ONE OF THE ITEMS DIDN'T HAVE A FORMAL ITEM YET COME FROM THE MAYOR TO SEAT IT FOR AN AD HOC. SO THAT WAS THE OTHER PORTION. THERE WAS DISCUSSION OF IT. BUT IN ORDER TO HAVE THAT, THE FINAL PROCESS IS DICTATED BY THE MAYOR'S OFFICE TO MAKE THE FORMAL APPOINTMENTS. AND THAT HASN'T TRANSPIRED.

I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T GET THAT SAID AGAIN, PLEASE.

So if there's a discussion at the meeting and it says, oh, we want to have an ad hoc about X, Y, or Z, right? In order to effectuate that, it has to be an open session and the mayor makes the appointments. That's what it says in your council rules. So if the mayor hasn't made appointments yet, it's not actually formalized.

THE MAYOR MADE THE APPOINTMENT AND I'VE BEEN WORKING WITH YOUR OFFICE AND THE FIRE CHIEF AND OTHER OFFICES FOR A LONG TIME. YOU DON'T REMEMBER?

THERE'S TWO DIFFERENT ONES. THERE'S THE WILDFIRE SAFETY AND THEN THERE'S THE EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS. RIGHT. SO I THINK THE LATTER, THE EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS IS THE ONE THAT HASN'T BEEN COMPLETELY EFFECTIVE. AFFECTUATED.

IT WAS DECIDED IN AN OPEN SESSION BY THE MAYOR. THE MAYOR APPOINTED US.

BUT THE PROCESS IS THAT THERE HAS TO BE AN ITEM ON THE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA. SO SINCE THAT HASN'T HAPPENED, IT HASN'T BEEN 100% AFFECTUATED. THAT'S WHAT YOUR RULES SAY.

SO WE SHOULD BRING IT. SO THE MAYOR HAS TO BRING IT OR I BRING IT?

YES, THE MAYOR HAS TO BRING IT BECAUSE THE MAYOR MAKES THE APPOINTMENTS.

So Mr. Mayor, could you please bring it and make it formal?

YES.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. THE OTHER QUESTION I HAVE IS ABOUT.

EXCUSE ME. YES. I JUST WANT TO CLARIFY THE WILDFIRE BUDGET.

PLEASE.

SO IN OUR PARKS DIVISION BUDGET WE HAVE SPECIFIC LINE ITEM FOR WILDFIRE MITIGATION IN THE AMOUNT OF 140,000. THERE'S A FLEXIBLE ALLOCATION WITHIN THE BUDGET.

AWESOME.

So if there's council direction, we can pivot that. So there's a total allocation of $260,000. Generally for wildfire mitigation, that can be used to address the concerns you are raising if council has a consensus.

Okay. So I would like actually to ask the fire chief if he could make a recommendation to city council and support my request. to use a portion of that $260,000 for the home hardening and the other portion for Hilltop Green emergency exit because the budget, if I remember correctly, was $80,000 by Confire, $120,000 by Public Works. And Confire has kept its promise and they still have the budget for us.

But the home hardening program takes additional staffing. If something is in the public works department, Darren then can effectuate. He can buy equipment. He can authorize staff to work with the fire department on overtime when they're doing inspections.

No, no, that's by reimbursement. THE HOMEOWNERS DO IT AND THEN THEY GET REIMBURSED.

BUT EVERY SINGLE THING THAT THE CITY OF RICHMOND DOES INVOLVES STAFF TIME. HAVING A FESTIVAL, HAVING A COMMUNITY MEETING, HAVING A PROGRAM. SO WHAT I'M SAYING NOW IS THE APPROPRIATION WHEN IT SITS WITH PARKS, THAT MEANS IT ROLLS UP TO DARREN. WE DO NOT HAVE A FIRE STAFF PERSON THAT to take on that task right now. There would have to be an additional appropriation of personnel. And so I think the question for the council is, we're going to hear about ALS next week, get the polling data. At this juncture, it may be prudent to think about how do we focus on the ALS item and try to understand where that is before we ask our fire chief to take on more things because there was already consensus from the council to work on ALS.

But this was already the recommendation by the fire chief. I'm not imposing anything. And I would expect you to be a little more collaborative and cooperative in finding a solution for wildfire safety, which is a major issue for District 4 police. And we're only talking about allocating that $260,000, which is already for wildfire mitigation. Maybe a portion of it could be allocated for the staff time and the rest of it for home hardening. We can find a solution if you want to, right? If there's a will, there's a way.

Respectfully, I disagree with the way you're characterizing things. I think staff has tried to be extremely collaborative, and what we've said throughout the budget process is everyone has a finite amount of capacity. Right now, we're at a crucial inflection point with ALS where we're trying to bring you polling data. So if I have to say, Fire Chief, what do I want you to work on in the next... THREE WEEKS, MONTHS, RIGHT, LAUNCH A HOME HARDENING PROGRAM OR BRING INFORMATION BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL THAT THE CITY COUNCIL HAS ALREADY DIRECTED US TO PROVIDE ON ALS, RIGHT, AND THE POLLING DATA, I'M GOING TO SAY THE LATTER. ONCE WE FIGURE OUT WHAT WE'RE DOING RELATED TO ALS, THEN I THINK WE COULD PIVOT BACK AND RESUME CONVERSATIONS ON HOME HARDENING. WE DON'T HAVE THE CAPACITY TO DO ALL OF THIS CONCURRENTLY.

I AGREE. But it's for the entire budget year.

Right. But what I'm saying, if I may, is that it's not fair to characterize it as not being collaborative when chief and I and staff meet with you all the time regarding your concerns. So it's not fair to characterize it that way because we meet with you all the time.

WHILE MEETING IS DIFFERENT FROM FINDING SOLUTIONS. CITY MANAGER, RESPECTFULLY, I'M NOT ASKING THEM. MAYOR, I'M DONE.

WE'RE GETTING A BIT COMBATIVE HERE.

RIGHT. I DON'T MEAN TO BE COMBATIVE.

WE NEED TO ESTABLISH THE QUORUM.

RIGHT. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE WITHIN THE NEXT THREE MONTHS. WE'RE ASKING FOR THE BUDGET FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR. So number one, I'm asking for that wildfire mitigation budget. I'm glad it is there. Let's leave it. Let's allocate $120,000 of it to Hilltop Green and leave the rest to the fire chief's discretion. So if you find the time, we go for home hardening. Otherwise, other solutions. Do we need approval by the city council or it's already there?

We are establishing the budget, and right now we're having a conversation about the things that we would like to include. This is not the time where we vote for one thing or another. Otherwise, we're going to be here much better.

I'm trying to clarify because next week is going to be finalized, right?

It's... It's an envelope that can move around. Right now, we're just trying to get a budget together that we can work from. After the budget is formalized, then we can start having conversations about how to move money around. We're trying to do that now, but there are so many things that need to be moved around. We're not going to get to all of them.

Right. But I'm just emphasizing on Hilltop Green budget which is only $120,000 for the lives of 1,400 people.

Right. And we have heard you. And when it's time to talk about how we want to formalize this envelope, that will be one of the considerations that will be part of the conversation.

Thank you.

Okay. Councilmember Jimenez.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the presentation and thank you for all the things that we see that are happening in the cities. Really amazing that we are renovating the library, renovating the parks, fixing roads, fixing sidewalks, providing, keeping the money that we have for our own house and youth intervention. and the services, so I am glad that we are at this moment with a budget that is balanced and still preserve the services that we are having. So thank you, Public Works. I really appreciate your leadership, Daniel. AND EVERYBODY IN THE CITY. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I WANT IS I FEEL THE ADVOCACY THAT COUNCIL MEMBER BARNA HAS AND I FEEL LIKE WHAT WE NEED LIKE WHAT I WANT TO MAKE SURE IS THAT AS AN EMBALLO WE HAVE THIS MONEY IN THE BUDGET AND THEN WE CAN AS COUNCIL IF THAT IS NOT ALLOCATED FOR OTHER THINGS THAT THIS PART THAT SHE'S ADVOCATING WE CAN EVENTUALLY BRING UP AN ITEM SAYING WE WOULD LIKE TO APPROPRIATE OUT OF THE 250 OR OUT OF THE MONEY THAT IS THERE FOR THESE PARTICULAR THINGS. I KNOW THAT SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE ARE THESE MONEY ALLOCATED SPECIFICALLY FOR A DIFFERENT PROJECT OR WE CAN BRING AN AGENDA ITEM THAT DEDICT STAFF TO DO THE THINGS THAT COUNCIL MEMBER BANA IS ADVOCATING FOR. AND THE SPECIFIC, WE DON'T WANT THAT TO BE RIGHT NOW. WE KNOW THAT STAFF IS WORKING ON OTHER THINGS. BUT JUST TO MAKE SURE THAT IF WE CAN ALLOCATE, IF WE CAN DEDICT WITH THAT MONEY TO BE USED FOR THAT, THAT WILL BE APPROPRIATE IN THE FUTURE.

SO IF I MAY, MAYOR, THROUGH YOU AS A CHAIR, SO I WAS TALKING WITH DARREN BECAUSE THIS IS ACTUALLY HIS BUDGET. SO IT'S NOT SO I'M TRYING TO CREATE A CULTURE OF COLLABORATION SO WE DON'T HAVE LIKE ONE DEPARTMENT LIKE TAKING MONEY FROM ANOTHER DEPARTMENT. SO I ASKED DARREN AND CHIEF IF THEY COULD PLEASE COME UP AND PROVIDE THEIR RECOMMENDATION ON HOW TO APPROACH THIS. the issues within the short time frame of the initial first part of the fiscal year with the staff that we have and what would be appropriate and meet both of their needs based on what Councilmember Bona has been requesting. Thank you.

Mayor, Council, so just to clarify that $260,000 that Avanesh brought up, that includes the $200,000 for grazing. So if we split that all up, if we keep the grazing money, that would leave $60,000. So if we take that full amount, there's no grazing. We could use the $60,000 towards Hilltop and keep the $200,000 for grazing if that is what you guys decide.

Yeah, so if that's the desire of the council, if you can incorporate that in your final direction this evening, that would be helpful.

Okay. Well, I will follow the recommendations if that is okay with Council Member Urbana. I have other questions, and it's about the staffing. So, as I said before, I just wanted to say thank you. I am really happy to see how, as you mentioned, City Manager, we are moving Richmond forward and PEOPLE HAVE SEEN IT AND FEEL IT, SO THANK YOU.

WE HAVE A WHOLE BUDGET ITEM THAT WE HAVE TO GET HEARD THIS EVENING ON STAFFING. I JUST WANT TO REMIND THE COUNCIL OF THAT. BEFORE YOU CAN ADOPT YOUR BUDGET NEXT WEEK, YOU HAVE TO HEAR THE PRESENTATION THIS EVENING ON THE VACANCY RATE PER STATE LAW.

OH, OKAY. BECAUSE MY QUESTIONS ARE, WE ARE ADOPTING THIS BUDGET WITH vacancy and the position listing control said that we will have 812 positions. So that means that the 12% vacancy is that we are only going to be able to fill 714 staffing. So my question, and if they are answering the vacancy presentation is, how many positions are filled now, how many extra positions we will have to fill with the adopting 12% vacancy. So if that is something that you think is going to be answered in the presentation, I don't need an answer right now.

Okay, we can answer it during the presentation.

Okay, perfect. Then the other thing is city manager I am going after your budget a little bit.

It's our budget.

Our budget. Our budget. But like city manager, you went 46%, and you're like from $1.53 million to 3.3%, which is 46%. So you are adding in your city manager, and I am not against that. FROM SIX STAFF POSITIONS TO NINE, SO THREE MORE.

RIGHT NOW, I HAVE LESS THAN YOU DO IN YOUR COUNCIL OFFICE. I HAVE IRENE AND I HAVE THE CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER AND MYSELF.

I JUST, LIKE, I REALLY WANT, I AM ADVOCATING FOR THE CARE NAVIGATORS THAT DRUG NEEDS.

BUT I MIGHT NOT HIRE ANYBODY. I MIGHT JUST STAY WITH MY THREE PEOPLE DEPENDING ON THE VACANCY RATE BECAUSE OF THE MOU INCREASES. I've told everybody right now we're pausing. We're gonna see how things finalize with the MOU negotiations and we're pausing.

So I am just, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just want to make the point that as we are voting for a vacancy rate and I am seeing all the staffing that we are approving, I just really think that we need to find ways to have the care navigators. And we can start with one, not the two that are, but I feel like if we, like we are starting this program, I have a really nice conversation with many and knowing that RAC is increasingly having, taking more calls, that is like the goal. But I feel like if there is not a care navigator, then we are asking, like we are responding to the emergency. But that emergency is not addressed by the care navigator to put people into services. We will keep going to the same calls again and again. So I think it's a saving also in terms of like the program will bring to us. So I just want you to think about that because I will be coming to advocate for that. I know that we had to pass this budget, and I understand the constraints and MOU negotiations. We haven't closed the safety negotiation, which are the highest BUDGET PIECES. BUT I THINK LIKE IF WE THINK IN THE LONG TERM, I THINK THAT WE BENEFIT IN TERMS OF BUDGETING SAVINGS. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE THAT. OH, IT'S FOR ME?

THAT'S FOR YOU.

OH, WOW. OKAY. WELL, I MADE MY POINTS.

All right. Robinson?

I just have one additional question, and maybe this is a next week thing too. I do appreciate, I know we're going to go into vacancies, but I think in order to consider the budget, it would be great to get this multi-year comparative position listing, but have columns drop down so we can see actuals. BECAUSE THESE ARE JUST WHAT'S IN POSITION CONTROL, BUT I'D LIKE TO UNDERSTAND WHICH ONE OF THESE POSITIONS ARE FILLED AND WHICH ONES AREN'T.

YEAH. I MEAN, THE PRIMARY TAKEAWAY THAT IS UNFORTUNATE IS THAT ESSENTIALLY, YOU KNOW, WE'VE ADDED THE POSITION CONTROL LISTING HAS INCREASED, BUT IT HASN'T INCREASED AS MUCH AS WE NEEDED TO GIVEN OUR INCREASING REVENUES, AND SO WE ADDED POSITIONS AND WE CONTINUED TO FILL POSITIONS, BUT WE DIDN'T SWAP THINGS OUT OR DELETE POSITIONS VERY FREQUENTLY.

Is it possible to get another version of this that shares actuals? Sure. And maybe it would also be great to mark maybe the ones that you feel are not, there's no intention of ever filling them?

I think we should do that. Maybe if we could do it after the budget is adopted, I think that would be helpful. I think that when you eliminate positions for departments, it causes a lot of angst.

Would it be possible to just get the actuals for the budget cycle, and then we can cross the other bridge later? I know that it's come up a few times where you've said that we've added, but we haven't taken out things that are no longer in play. So it would be nice to understand when you mean that.

Yeah, we're happy to do that. We can work with HR to do that.

Great, thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else? No? I know that we have a tight budget, we have a lot of projects, and we also need a lot of people. people cost money and I've advocated for someone in the legal department and for someone in the planning department. So I will continue to advocate for them. I will not make an issue of that tonight but I want you to know that it is foremost in my mind and I will continue to push to have those positions filled because I think it's essential for us to have a well-equipped, well-staffed city in order to do all the work that needs to be done. So that's basically all that I'm advocating for now. I mean, I have a lot of other positions, but those two are the I think the two most important positions from my point of view at this time. Okay, so if we have no other comments, then we need a motion and a second.

But do we need to approve because it says direction?

Yes.

KCRT, can you put it on the recommended action slide, please? Thank you. So we just need to get consensus on the direction? I'm happy to repeat what I heard. If you can, that would be great. Well, in summary, for the adoption, so there were a lot of questions, and so we will come back with as many responses to the questions as we can. And that in terms of the current appropriations that would be revisited, it would be as Darren and Chief Osario outlined, pertaining to the budget there and the request for us to continue our work on supporting grazing with sheep or goats where we're equitable and we will also provide funding from that line item to continue to work and move forward on Hilltop Green and

THANK YOU.

IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT ALL THE OTHER COMMENTS ARE NOT WELL HEARD, BUT THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT REQUIRE AN IMMEDIATE ANNOTATION IN THE BUDGET.

MAY I ADD A LITTLE AMENDMENT TO THAT? I KNOW PUBLIC WORKS CONSIDERS CONTINGENCIES. IF THERE'S EXTRA MONEY, CAN WE HAVE HILLTOP GREEN ON THE TOP OF PRIORITIES FOR ADDITIONAL $60,000? TO MOVE FORWARD.

WE JUST TALKED ABOUT THE ITEMS ON THE BIKE RACK, SO I WOULD SAY THAT THAT WOULD BE A BIKE RACK ITEM LIKE THE OTHERS THAT WE TALKED ABOUT. SO CAN WE HAVE IT ON TOP OF THE BIKE RACK? NOT ON TOP, IT GOES IN THE BIKE RACK.

THIS IS PUBLIC SAFETY. I'M ASKING THE COUNCIL TO CONSIDER IT ON THE TOP.

I THINK THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS IN THE BIKE RACK AND PUBLIC SAFETY WOULD ALSO INCLUDE THE CARE CARE MANAGERS FOR ROCK. AND THAT'S ON THE BIKE RACK AND THE TWO POSITIONS THAT I WOULD LOVE TO SEE ARE ON THE BIKE RACK. THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS WE'VE DISCUSSED THAT ARE ON THE BIKE RACK THAT WILL BE CONSIDERED. BUT RIGHT NOW WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE A BUDGET THAT WE CAN PASS AND THAT WE CAN AGREE ON. Council Member Wilson.

May I ask to have, can I see the plans for the piece of the Bay Trail that the $1 million would be going to fund?

Darcy, are you still on or did you hop off? I don't know the status of the plans. Do you know if we're at? Yeah, I can. Are we at schematic? What stage are we at, Darcy, do you recall?

Yes. So my understanding of the question is that Council Member Wilson would like to see the plans for the frail that's under construction that would be receiving the million dollars. Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay. Yeah. I can send you those tomorrow and I will indicate where the gap is located at the stabilization project.

Thank you.

I think our concern is that we don't want this trail to be like the governors of Alaska's bridge.

Can I make a clarification on this motion? I want to make sure that I'm understanding the motion correctly. The motion is to move forward the staff recommendation, which is essentially option one from last meeting, which is everything that we had done before where we're keeping it and we're just moving it forward into the 26-27 budget with the adjustment that we're taking the recommendation from Chief And from Darren on how to allocate the $260,000 to apply some to hilltop green and some to grazing. And that everything else is going on to this bike rack and we'll see how things emerge throughout the year and work through prioritizing things. Is that correct? Well said.

No, that is right. Yes?

Sorry, but we also, what's different from what I understand from last week to this week is closing the $2.6 million gap is a whole set of other things being postponed. I'm sorry, yeah.

But that's the staff recommendation. The staff recommendation identified a whole list of things that we could postpone or belay in order to fill the four project funding gaps. So we're accepting that staff recommendation. So it's option one plus the staff organization plus the recommendation from Chief and Darren.

Yes. And so Madam Clerk and City Attorney, I feel confident with the information disclosed. And so it just says provide direction to staff. So I don't know that you need a motion. So we do need a motion next Tuesday, please.

Yes. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay. All right then. Thank you. With that, we'll move on to the next item. Okay. Go ahead.

In regards to the bikes.

Oops, sorry. In regards to the bikes. So that was one of the questions last week as well and we gave no direction. So can we bring a presentation to compare the library and the bikey share and who is where, left, right, whatever? Because that wasn't resolved. We had no motions. We had no further anything. And I asked for a meeting and we weren't able to meet.

Yeah, we said we could meet after the budget was adopted.

But it's part of the budget, so we can't.

Well, yes and no. So I framed it like it was a... that we were pivoting right but once we have a program and it's out of funding and this council doesn't make any additional appropriations my direction to staff was that we have to send a letter telling the operator that the program is ceasing because we haven't the council hasn't made an additional appropriation and i i i considered the bikes to be on the bike rack

But we can't make an appropriation because we haven't discussed it enough. So how do we put in more?

Well, I would say if the council's last appropriation was like 260, right? And so what we said is that that was the last amount. And we weren't recommending anything else right now regarding to the bike appropriation. DISCUSSION RELATED TO THE BUILDING, THAT'S NOT PART OF WHAT WE WERE ASKING THE COUNCIL TO RECONSIDER RIGHT NOW. THAT WILL BE A SUBSEQUENT ITEM.

SO THE LIBRARY, THE EVAC LIBRARY THAT'S ON THE ATTACHMENT, WE'RE NOT DISCUSSING THAT?

WHATEVER THE PREVIOUS APPROPRIATION WAS, A NEW APPROPRIATION TO INCREASE THE DOLLAR AMOUNT IS NOT.

And then for the e-bike share, also not. And that will come back to Council.

E-bike share is going away because there hasn't been an additional appropriation. It's out of money. So de facto, when any city program or anything is taking place, if there isn't a new contract extension and an appropriation, it has to go away.

And then my point is that it's going away because you haven't given us a chance to discuss it.

Respectfully, we did have a discussion. Deputy City Manager White and Project Manager Gabino Arredondo, who Gabino can certainly come up and help fine-tune this because he's now the bike expert and transportation czar.

I think... I THINK THIS, WE CAN CONTINUE FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT TALKING ABOUT THIS. I SUGGEST THAT WE, YOU'VE GOTTEN DIRECTION AND YOU'VE GOTTEN FURTHER DIRECTION TO CONSIDER THE BIKES ON THE BIKE RACK.

OKAY.

THANK YOU. NEXT ITEM.

WE'RE GOING TO GO FOR A RIDE NOW.

OUR NEXT ITEM IS UNDER PUBLIC HEARINGS. ITEM Y1 IS TO INTRODUCE AN ORDINANCE FOR FIRST READING, ESTABLISHING CERTAIN FEES FOR THE PROPOSED MASTER FEE SCHEDULE. WE HAVE ONE IN-PERSON SPEAKER. ANYONE THAT WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS A COUNSEL ON THIS ITEM, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND AT THIS TIME.

One of us cannot leave.

That's right.

I was just going to say that's all we can. Run. Run.