City Council - Regular Meeting

Madam sitting clerk? You ready?

Recording in progress.

Okay. Good evening everybody. Welcome to City Hall. Today is Tuesday, 05/05/2026, also referred to as Cinco de Mayo. So welcome to City Hall. It is 07:02PM. I'd to call this meeting to order, and I'd like to call upon council member Andrews if she can please say the pledge allegiance.

Please stand if you're able to.

Thank you. Next item is madam city clerk. Could you please take roll?

Good evening. Thank you mister mayor. Council member Andrews? Present. Council member Vonia junior?

Present.

Council member Goldstein? Present. Council member Roach? Present. Council member Sire?

Present.

Council member Sermano? Present. Mayor Salinas?

Present. Thank you. Next, I'd like well, actually, I have let me get organized here. I have two special presentations today. One presentation is for Lalianza students student recognition.

The second presentation is the public service recognition week. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start with the public service recognition week first, and then I will we'll do the Lallianza students. So what I'll do and then to receive the proclamation for our public service recognition week is our director of human resources, Ian Texan. Ian, mister director Takson, if you can come on up. And I will read the proclamation, and then I will give it to you.

And we'll take a picture, and and then we'll go to the next one. So proclamation. Whereas a whereas public servants are the unsung heroes who proudly do the work that keeps government moving at the federal, state, county, and city levels. And whereas the public servants of public servants servants employed by the city of Hayward are proud individuals committed to providing excellent service to the city to the Hayward community. And whereas the city of Hayward public employees take take not only jobs but oaths to protect, serve, and support the community.

And whereas, city of Hayward public employees are registered disaster workers who will return to work in the face of an emergency to provide service and promote to the Hayward community. And whereas, many public servants include police officers, firefighters, and others risk their lives every day to protect life and property and maintain a safe and clean environment for the community they serve. Whereas public servants include include maintenance workers, clerical and administrative workers, analysts, animal care attendants, programmers, community service operators, computer technicians, attorneys, counselors, accountants, and countless other occupations day in and day out and they provide the diverse services that the American people deserve from their government at the federal and state level. And for those in the communities at for those in their communities at at the county and city level with integrity and efficiency. Now therefore, I, Mark Salinas, mayor of the city here, we do here do hereby proclaim the week of May 3 to May 9 public service recognition week.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's give everybody who works in public service a big round of applause. You know, I we had a bring your kid to work day last week, and they I just wanted to just acknowledge that and say that it was it was a wonderful day. The weather was great, but it was a time where, you know, all these kids were all over the maintenance yard, the the the maintenance services department yard, and, they were all wearing orange, T shirts, and so they were, they were certainly visible. And but it was one of the observations and one of the takeaways I took on that afternoon was, you know, the city of Hayward, just within our organization, we have about a thousand employees plus or minus some. We do have in virtually every department, particularly in maintenance services and the fire department and police department, we have generations of families who work in our city.

Families that have gone back to the nineteen fifties, nineteen sixties, nineteen seventies, and and we have now grandkids and great grandkids that are that are working in some of our departments. And so it just demonstrates that public service here in the city Hayward, we take it seriously. We support our public service employees. And and director Texan, please tell all of the employees in the city of Hayward that the council appreciates them, acknowledges their work, and thanks them every day for everything they do for the city of Hayward. Thank you.

Let's give another big round of applause. Okay. Our next item what did I do? Our next item is the Lalianza scholarship recipients. And this is an honor and recognition of Cinco de Mayo today.

And these scholarships go to eight incredible students in Hayward who have demonstrated academic achievement and have demonstrated have demonstrated leadership in the city and amongst their classmates. And what I wanted to do is wanted to call up, and I know we have miss Mariana Treviso who is all who works for the school district. And and I know council member Cermenho is associated and is a member of LaLianza. And so I wanted to recognize them, so let's give them a big round of applause. And the students and by the way, I did hear I don't know I don't know if this is a secret or not, but, you know, there are they are scholarships, and this is no chump change.

Just just just for the record, these are some handsome scholarships. Each scholarship is a $500 scholarship. So let's give $500 a big round of applause. I mean, that that's worth a round of applause. You know? So so so these are the these are the students. We have Kimberly Murillo. Kimberly from Brinkwoods High School. Kimberly, is Kimberly here? Kimberly, why why don't you come on up and then yeah. Come on up. And then we have Edwin Antonio from Brinkwoods. Edwin, yeah. Come on up. Come on up.

Tais

Hino Strosa. Alessandra oh, and miss Hino Strosa is from Mout Eaton High School. Mout Eaton. Let's give a big let's give it up for Mout Eaton. You know, if I didn't do that, doctor, Walton would, text me later about that. So she would. Alessandra Cassini Hernandez, another monarch. Monarchs are in the house. Monarch.

She's a future gaucho

for mister Is that a Santa Barbara sweatshirt that you're wearing?

Is that

a Santa Barbara? Are you wearing that sweatshirt thinking that you would your check would be a little bit bigger because of council member Cermino? He's a gaucho. Next is Ramses Hernandez from Hayward High School. Nice.

And for any farmer that gets a scholarship, they get a lifetime supply of, I don't know, in and out burgers. I don't know. This go farmers. I don't know. I'm kidding. Just yeah. Let's see. Goat farmers. And then another farmer, Michelle Perez, Hayward High School. Michelle.

Michelle. And then Rebecca Carranza from Tennyson High School. Rebecca. And then I see we have another Lancer is Sofia Correa. Sofia, is Sofia here? Nice. Nice. So these are the Lalianza twenty twenty six scholars. So let's give it up for Lalianza. Miss Treviso, do you have a couple of words to say?

Hit the button. Red is go. Oh. Yeah.

There you

I just wanna congratulate you all and let you know what our process was. We asked for anyone to apply that was a first gen student and that had plans to go to college or career. So they had to they show that they have overcome or persevered through a challenge in their life to be where they are at currently. And so out of we received over 64 applicants from all four of the high schools, and so it was a really tough choice. I just wanna let you all know that you stood out, and we appreciate you taking the time and the energy and the effort.

We know a lot of you are AP testing right now. A lot of you are preparing for graduation, and so it is a really taxing time for all of you, but we wanted to show that we really care about the students of Hayward and them pursuing their careers or going to college, and it matters. And that's why we do what we do. We also sponsor the Cinco de Mayo event from this weekend, but really that is to raise money to give out scholarships and give back to the community. So in the future, we hope to give more scholarships, the more sponsorship and support that we receive through, the activities that we do in the city of Hayward.

So thank you, and please congratulate everybody once again for their hard work.

Nice. And, you know, I don't know I don't know if I'm if I'm legally capable of doing this, but mister city attorney, can I confer graduation today and just get it over with? No? Can't do it? Can't do it?

Okay. Well, if I could, I would. So let's let's pass out the certificate. Okay. Let's give let's give everyone a big round of applause again just because you know, school's school's almost out.

I don't wanna brag, but next week, Chabot College's last last last day of instructions next week. So

Yeah. Let's

congratulate the parents. And

and, of course, let's congratulate the parents. Let's give a big round of applause to the parents. Yeah. You know? If if your parents' experience is anything like my parents' experience getting me through school, you deserve a big round of applause. So so congratulations to all of you. So thank you very much, and, you know, get out there and and keep succeeding. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

Moving on to our next item. I wanted to go back in the agenda and ask our city attorney for a closed session announcement.

Thank you, mayor. I'm just gonna confirm what the council did in closed session, which was to convene at 05:30 with all members present to continue the evaluation of the city clerk. This is an evaluation of all council appointed officers that takes place annually. This was the second session. And, mayor, can you confirm that that actually took place?

It did take place.

And when did it adjourn? Approximately?

Approximately 05:50.

Right. Thank you, mayor.

Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to public comments. This is reserved for anybody in the audience or online that would like to make a public comment on something that is not on the agenda. I do have three cards here in person. Our first public comment comes to us by way of Chandra Joshi.

Good evening, honorable council members of the city Of The Hayward. My name is Chandra Joshi and I'm here as an American citizen and a proud Hindu. I'm here to draw your attention to the Hindu hatred spewed by a man named Peter Feidresh, who would likely walk into this chamber in the next few weeks. Mister Feidresh has spent years going to city councils, over a 100 of them delivering public comments that frame Hindu Americans as extremist networks loyal to foreign governments. He does this every time a Hindu American candidate runs for a federal office.

Miss Raghi Israni, who is a Hindu American, is running for congress, so I am sure he'll be here in the next few weeks. I want to be very specific about the language that he uses because it is more extreme than most people realize until you actually read it. Mister Friedrich published an article calling donors of Hindu American congressional candidates as Nazi sympathizers. He claims that any Hindu American candidate who has ever attended a Hindu temple event or donated to a Hindu organization is a would be Nazi. He built dedicated attack websites for mister congressman Krishnamurti of the Illinois, a democrat state republican state republican senator Padma Kupa of Michigan, another democrat, state representative Neeraj Antani of Ohio, a republican.

So the party doesn't matter. If you are a Hindu American politician, you are a foreign nation. That is his theory. He labeled Hindu Americans as fascist with links to violence without any credible evidence. Honorable mister Jesse Jackson publicly condemned these attacks on congressman Krishnamurthy who is a Harvard Law School graduate and a senior member of the house.

Mister Frederick prefers that the idea that if you are a Hindu American and you are politically engaged, you are not really a loyal American. Your donations to the congressional candidates are not civic participations, they are foreign operations. Your temple is not a house of worship just like any other faith. It's a front and you yourself are not a citizen but a foreign agent. This idea is not new, councilman.

Jewish Americans heard it for a century. Jewish money in politics, the claim that supporting Jewish candidates meant supporting Israel over America. Catholic Americans have heard this in the eighteen hundreds when people genuinely argued that Catholic Americans would not be trusted with US citizenship. The structure of the accusations is identical every time. Only the targets change. Mr. Feidrich, for what it's worth, described his own political

Mr. Joshi, your time is up. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Diane Casselberry. Ms. Casselberry, welcome to City Hall.

Good evening mayor mayor Salinas, members of the council, city manager Ott, community, and staff. So my name is Diane Casselberry. I'm with AC Transit, and I'm here just to make an update on the futures of our service, AC Transit bus service. On Wednesday, June 10 at 5PM, the AC Transit board of directors will consider reducing service due to a significant budget shortfall. This is a contingency service plan.

While a state loan has stabilized our budget for the next fiscal year, AC Transit is facing a $200,000,000 deficit over the next four years. Without new sustainable revenue, we are facing the possibility of service reductions of over 16%, and that equates to about 100 buses removed off the roadway and the loss of up to 300 jobs. AC Transit has started to prepare for this worst case scenario. If no new funding is secured, by the end of this, calendar year, service reductions will likely take effect in June 2027. At this time, there are, no decisions made.

The board will be receiving a report at their June 10 meeting where feedback will you know, we'll be asking for feedback from the board and also from the public. Our priority is to preserve current service levels. We also wanna be transparent about the challenges that we face. So once again, the AC Transit board of directors will be meeting to consider options to reduce service on Wednesday, June 10 at 5PM. It's a hybrid meeting, so it's also available on Zoom.

We invite the community to attend, an open house that will be available before that meeting, with service staff, available to help answer questions regarding some of the proposed changes. So, again, the address at AC Transit's main office is 1600 Franklin Street. We'll also be in the community here in Hayward, and that information will be provided, in a e newsletter coming out within the next couple of weeks. So you'll see us out in the community so that you can ask us questions. So with that, thank you very much for your time. I know that budgets have been hard for all agencies at this time, so, thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Skye Smith.

Good evening councilmen and women and members of the community. My name is Sky Smith. I'm a former high school teacher and current aerospace test pilot. And some of you will probably most commonly see me, running around the, SkyWest Golf Course property, which is a wonderful green space we have in the mornings with my McNab Shepherd named Jet. That is a gem of a property we have, and it's, at risk potentially of having industrial warehouses put there.

And those industrial warehouses, when we wanna reach a net zero kind of greening our city's plan for the future, it increases the noise footprint. Is 85 decibels is the noise footprint that you get from a air brakes on a trucker's on a truck. And if we were to promote net zero aviation, there are electric aircraft that we could use to generate revenue, and they only produce no, you know, immediate, environmental carbon emissions in the neighborhood, and they're only 60 decibels in noise. It's a log scale for those of you who don't like math. Let me break that down for you.

That's 300 the difference between sixty and eighty five is 316 times more sound force and that will arrive at your ears at 5.6% more noise. So that's one of the big complaints about aviation. And if we make green aviation sort of initiative that we push for at the Hayward Executive Airport that also enables us to keep out the warehouses and preserve much of that space for a green hub and put a five kilometer trail loop around there. That can also have us take care of the space to protect it for the migrating monarch butterflies and the western pond turtle. One of the key features in being able to do this is I would love to see us be able to partner with our local school districts.

I wish I had been exposed to the opportunities of aviation when I was in middle school and high school and there would be a great opportunity for STEM projects in maintenance, repair, and various science technology with aviation development that could bring great clean energy green jobs right here in our community for our local high school students. So I see if we you know some people I have not handled big infrastructure problems before. But I'm no stranger to performance in high stakes environments under pressure as a test pilot. As a former US Army infantry officer and as a Harvard trained neuroscientist. So I wanna see the community come together because I think it can give us great benefit for our future and for the future of our young people.

And so I kind of urge everybody to come together on this and choose innovation over asphalt.

Thank you. Thank you. Madam city manager, I was gonna ask our public works director. SkyWest, if I'm not mistaken, it's closed. Right? And it and nobody should be in SkyWest and nobody should be walking?

That's correct.

That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I don't have any more cards and let me see. I don't have I don't see anybody online, so I will close public comment.

Hold on.

I will close public comment and move on to a city manager's comments. Madam city manager.

Great. Thank you mayor, council members. Hayward Public Library hosted a very successful kickoff last Saturday of the fifth annual Lit Hop Festival celebrating poetry and literature in Hayward. This event which occurs every year on Independent Bookstore Day also marks the end of National Poetry Month. Our newest poet laureate Mo Kim Tong, He's our newest poet laureate and he's read a poem to the lovers of the written word in Hayward.

And accordingly Hayward Library Director Giunty Adelman, the lineup of poets was exceptional this year including poets from faculty of both Chabot College and CSU East Bay and our youth poet laureate at Zeri Ulloa and Hayward's first poet laureate Bruce Reibert. We also upcoming on May 9 have the ever popular City of Hayward Spring Compost Giveaway which returns to the SkyWest property this Saturday at 1401 Golf Course Road adjacent to Hayward Executive Airport from 07:30AM to 10:30AM. As our Hayward gardeners know compost is a nutrient rich soil amendment made of decomposed organic matter which can improve soil moisture retention, promote plant growth, and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So all Hayward households and multifamily property managers can pick up as many as four one cubic foot bags of compost while they last. To participate you must bring proof of Hayward residency and a signed waiver.

The waivers are available on the city's website. Also on May 14 we have bike to work or whenever day or wherever today. It makes more sense. Bike to Work Day is a region wide event on May 14 to celebrate biking as a part of daily life and to encourage new riders. There will be several energizer stations throughout Hayward and the East Bay offering coffee, snacks, and giveaways including two city sponsored stations where you can meet friendly members of our transportation and environmental services staff.

The Energizer stations will be located at Downtown Hayward Barts Station from seven to ten and the South Hayward Bart Station from 4PM to 6PM. And then lastly, earlier we heard we had our formal public service recognition week twenty twenty six presentation and I thank you Mayor Salinas and council members for recognizing the contributions and excellence of our city staff. And I also just wanted to take a moment to thank the organization myself and as you and our staff know, are in a period of extraordinary challenge on the budgetary and fiscal front and I honestly would not want to be meeting these challenges with any other group of professionals. So Team Hayward is an incredibly creative and committed family of public servants. So thank you very much.

Thank you, absolutely. And I know this week there are some activities planned and but when you do have the next opportunity, when you have an all staff meeting, please tell all of our employees that we all appreciate their service and contributions to the city.

I will. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to our action items, we will go to our consent calendar. Nobody has asked me to pull anything, so I will Oh, Council Member Andrews would like to make a comment on an item. I

wanted to make a comment on number seven. Alright, I just wanna thank Commissionerformer Chair Melissa Millman for her time on Cleaning Green Commission. I know that she worked really hard on the commission on many events and outreach for the city as it relates to our Clean and Green goals. So I hope you're doing well and we look forward to seeing you out at cleanups in the future. Thanks.

Thank you, absolutely. Let me,

oops. Hold on.

Okay. Before I go to the mover and seconder, I'd like to close counsel comments, open it for public comments. Is there any public comment on on consent calendar? I don't have any cards. I don't see anybody online. Let me confirm that. I don't see anybody online. And so I do have a motioner who is mayor pro tem Syrup. I don't have a seconder.

A second. Sorry. I didn't

But seconded by council member Goldstein. Moved by mayor pro tem Sarep, seconded by council member Goldstein and madam city clerk. Who's the vote? And the first vote of the night, it is unanimous. Thank you.

Okay. Next, moving on to our work session item. Work session is our is item number eight, WS26Dash012, capital improvement program, review of recommended capital improvement program for fiscal year twenty seven through fiscal year thirty six. And this is gonna come to us by way of our public works director, Alex Amiri. And I wanted to acknowledge my colleagues who are on the airport and infrastructure committee, mayor Pro Tem Sarup and council member Andrews.

We have heard this presentation before, but wanted to thank our public works director for all his work, and your staff for all your work on this, on the capital improvement plan. So with no further ado, Director O'Meary.

Thank you and good evening Mr. Mayor and Council Members. I'm pleased to be here this evening to present the city's FY '27, FY '36 ten year capital improvement program. The development of the CIP has been a process involving many staff from various departments over the past several months. Public Works and Utilities team have been led by senior management analyst Ellie Lowe and the process managed by management analyst Marissa Mata.

As always, engineers, planners, management analysts, and other staff in various divisions and departments have been involved in the process and contributed to it. The CIP was presented to the Planning Commission in April, and the commission found that the CIP is consistent with the city's 2040 general plan. As you mentioned, the CIP was also presented to the Council Infrastructure and Airport Committee, and the committee recommended its approval to council. I now turn this over to Marissa Mata to kick off the staff presentation. Thank you. Marissa, are you there?

Yes, good evening City Council. Just confirm you can see my screen and hear me clearly?

Yes.

Great. Okay. As Alex mentioned, my name is Marissa Motta, a management analyst for Public Works and Utilities. Tonight, I will be presenting the recommended fiscal year twenty seven capital improvement program or CIP for your review and comment. For the past several years, the CIP has been developed as an online book using OpenGov Stories.

The online version can be found on the city's website linked on the screen here. OpenGov Stories is intended to increase the user friendliness and ease of navigation within the document and make it more publicly accessible. Although council is already familiar with the online CIP, I will now provide a brief tour for the public of the online book. One moment while I switch screens. The online version of the CIP can be accessed at www.haywardca.gov/cip.

Scrolling down on the CIP webpage, the public will see this first blue bar here, which will take the public to the online version of the CIP. This is the recommended viewing experience for the CIP because it includes a number of interactive tables and charts. The second blue bar here is to view the entire CIP document in a PDF format. There is also a section on the website for the fiscal year 2026 CIP Semiannual Progress Report where the public can view status of current projects. Now I'll open the online version of the CIP by clicking on the first blue bar here.

On this page, will see the homepage. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the four main sections of the CIP, which are the introduction section second, the strategic priorities section third is the explore the budget section, which is the heart of the CIP with key budget insights and lastly, the table of contents page. First, we'll take a look at the Explore the Budget page. This page summarizes the fiscal year twenty seven CIP at a high level. The recommended fiscal year twenty seven CIP budget is $264,000,000 with the total ten year budget at $1,300,000,000.

Below are other key insights, such as the fiscal year twenty seven general fund transfers to CIP funds, the fiscal year twenty seven internal service fees, and the total identified but unfunded capital needs. Scrolling down further, you can choose to view details of the recommended CIP by fund or by category. I'll start by clicking on the By Fund link here. Here the public can see an overview of the city's fund portfolio and the total recommended budget amounts for specific funds. If the public keeps scrolling down the page, they'll see a description of each fund, and every underlined text will link to a new page that will show the various projects within each fund.

For example, if I click on Fund two thirteen Measure BB Pedestrian and Bicycle, I will be taken to a separate page dedicated to Fund two thirteen projects. I can view the various projects within the fund and category in the table, And beneath the table, there is also a short list of featured projects with each having their own project page. For example, if I click on the high injury network safety plan project here, I will see an image and description of the project, revenue sources that contribute to this project, the general fund or measure c impact, and the project expense budget. Now we'll go back to the explore the budget page. And this time, we'll look at the budgets by category page.

Once again, the public will see a pie chart with the fiscal year twenty seven total budget, but this time broken down by category. Just

like

the fund page, the public will see a table with a list of projects and their budgets organized by category. If the public continues down the page, they will also see links to the pages for each category. For example, if I click on the livable neighborhoods category here, I'll see a description of what the category is and then another table with the projects and budgets that are in this category. Similar to viewing by fund, the bottom of the page will also show all of the featured projects within this category. Now we'll go back to the Explore the Budget page one more time.

I would like to point out a few helpful resources. First Appendix A, which allows the public to search for a specific project budget. Second, Appendix B allows the public to search for a specific project description. And lastly, I'd like to point out the bottom of every page has a link to the Table of Contents section. When you open the Table of Contents, you will see an overview of the structure of the CIP and links to every single page in the CIP.

This is the best way to navigate to a particular section or page quickly. This concludes the tour of the online CIP budget book. I will now return to the presentation. One moment as I switch screens once again. Okay. The proposed CIP includes a total recommended budget of approximately $264,000,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven and a total budget of approximately $1,300,000,000 in the entire ten year planning period from fiscal year twenty twenty seven through 2036.

Marisa, we can't see your presentation. Sorry

about that.

There we go. Can you see now? Yes. Great. Okay.

So as I mentioned, a recommended budget of approximately $264,000,000 for fiscal year twenty seven and the total budget of approximately $1,300,000,000 for the entire ten year period. The document also includes a proposed general fund transfer of approximately $3,700,000 in fiscal year 'twenty seven. Detailed information about transfers requested at the Council Infrastructure and Airport Committee meeting from April 22 is included in the staff report. Most of the general fund transfer increase covers nondiscretionary expenses supporting basic operational needs for multiple departments in Fund four zero five, such as police equipment, like integrated cameras and field operations equipment, and fire equipment such as fire radio replacements. For the Facilities Management Fund, staff is currently proposing a $1,100,000 general fund transfer.

However, as part of the preparation for the May 12 operating budget work session, staff has identified another possible source of funding for this transfer. If the funding source is feasible, staff will make that update to the CIP document that comes to council for adoption in June. The transfer amount fluctuates from year to year depending on needs. The recommended CIP also includes proposed internal service fees. These are fees that are collected when one city department provides a service to another, drawing those service expenses from the operating budget of the benefiting department.

The fiscal year twenty seven CIP currently includes a recommended ISF of approximately $2,000,000. However, as part of the preparation for the May 12 operating budget work session, staff has identified another possible source of funding for the facility capital ISF in fund seven twenty six and savings to reduce the IT capital ISF in fund seven thirty one to $460,000 If feasible, staff will make these updates in the CIP document that comes to council for adoption in June. Further, staff was able to defer purchases for fiscal year twenty seven in Fund seven thirty six, Fleet Management Capital, removing the need for a general fund transfer. This slide provides a snapshot of the recommended CIP budget broken down by category. The amount shown are the forecasted expenses that are planned for fiscal year twenty seven.

As you can see here, the largest portion of the recommended fiscal year twenty seven budget has been programmed in the sewer system category in orange. This category encompasses a wide range of projects which support the ongoing replacement and improvement of our utility infrastructure. Projects include the annual sewer line replacement and the phase two improvement project at the water resource recovery facility. The second largest category is the water system projects category in blue, which includes projects like the annual water line replacements, various groundwater sustainability projects, and the needs assessment for a new corporation yard. Other categories include municipal facilities improvement, pavement rehabilitation, and airport projects, to name a few.

On the previous slide, we displayed the recommended CIP by category, such as road and streets. This slide shows a snapshot of our recommended budget broken down by fund as opposed to category. So you will see funds such as gas tax which actually support the road and streets category. As you can see on the chart, funds with the largest allocation of the recommended budget are the water and sewer system funds in orange and blue. The fund with the third largest budget allocation is fund four zero five for capital projects.

Many projects in fund four zero five fall within the livable neighborhoods category such as La Vista Park and the South Hayward Youth and Family Center. The livable neighborhoods category includes beautification, safety, and neighborhood amenities and improvement projects like the South Hayward Youth and Family Center and La Vista Park. Other examples include the Campus Drive Improvements Project through which a series of traffic calming measures are being implemented in the stretch of Campus Drive between 2nd Street and Hayward Boulevard. Next, the Alameda County Transportation Commission Safe Routes to School Program connects regular school safety assessments for public schools in Hayward and throughout the county, resulting in a set of infrastructure recommendations to make it safer and easier for students to bike and walk to school. Hayward's Safe Routes to School program was created to implement these recommendations in collaboration with Hayward Unified School District, Alameda CTC, and various community organizations.

The plans for this project are currently being developed. The city's Safe Routes for Seniors project identifies areas in Hayward to focus accessibility and walkability improvements through collaborative efforts between the city and local senior housing facilities, senior centers, and community based organizations. The design for this project has been completed, and staff is currently working on a plan to implement construction. The improvements will be near Weeks Community Center Park along Patrick Avenue and Tampa Avenue and at the intersection of Tennyson Road and Oliver Drive. Lastly, another project in this category is the Industrial Parkway Roos Road intersection improvement project, which will improve safety improve traffic safety at the intersection.

A key project in the roads and streets category is the Interstate 880 interchange improvements, Winton Avenue A Street. The first phase of this project focuses on the I-eight 80 A Street interchange location, where the project will construct shared pedestrian and bicycle separated paths, make enhancements to the interchange and improve the freeway ramps and traffic signals for safer, more efficient operation. It will also address safety at the I-eight 80 on and off ramps and will create improved pedestrian and bicycle connectivity under the freeway. Another project in this category is the Tennyson Road railroad crossing safety enhancement project located by Tennyson High School. This project will improve the safety at the at grade rail crossing located on Tennyson Road by mitigating potential hazards to reduce the chance of future incidents, especially as this area is frequented by students.

Proposed improvements include installation of cue cutter signals, signage, striping, crosswalk, bulb outs, pedestrian channelization, fencing, and trespass mitigation. This project is fully funded by the Rail Highway Crossing Program or the Section 130 program. The pavement rehabilitation category comprises all annual pavement rehab projects and is the fourth largest category in the CIP, with approximately $13,300,000 in recommended programming for fiscal year twenty seven. The table on this slide shows the city's historical pavement condition index, or PCI, for the last ten years. It is measured on a scale of zero to 100, where 100 means a newly paved road.

As the table shows, PCI has had significant improvements over the last several years. A key project in the municipal facility improvements category is the Public Safety Centre project. The existing Hayward Police Station no longer meets the space, operational, staffing and security requirements for the Hayward Police Department. The new Public Safety Centre project developed the conceptual design of the new facility, which included site assessment of two potential locations, were the former California Air National Guard site and the former City Hall building on Foothill Boulevard. Although the city is now focusing on the California Air National Guard site as the preferred location for this project.

The scope of work encompassed identifying space needs, conducting site analysis and design, creating facility layout plans, and cost analysis. The sewer system category is the largest of the categories in the CIP and includes projects which are enterprise fund supported and are related to the improvement of our sewer system, water reuse efforts, and the water resource recovery facility. Some major projects in this category include the fiscal year twenty seven sewer line replacement project, the water resource recovery facility phase two improvement projects, and phase two recycled water projects. Staff is currently developing a recycled water master plan to guide design and construction efforts for phase two of the recycled water program. Phase two will involve increasing the recycled water customer base, which which will require designing and constructing an expanded treatment facility to meet the increased demand.

Water system projects are also enterprise fund supported and are related to the improvement of our water system as well as projects which promote water conservation. Some major projects include the cast iron water pipeline replacement program as well as the annual water line replacement project through which we aim to replace two miles of water pipeline every year. The fleet management category is comprised of projects involving the replacement of fleet units in various departments, divisions or work groups and other city related vehicles. Fleet purchases benefiting the fire and police departments are predominantly funded by general fund, while those benefiting the airport, storm water, sewer, and water divisions are predominantly predominantly supported by enterprise funding. A project in this category is the citywide EV charging upgrade.

Staff is working with AIVA Community Energy to install one to three fast charging hubs for electric vehicle charging. The first of which will be Muni Lot 4, which is located between B And C Street East of Foothill Boulevard. The hubs will be entirely funded by Eva Community Energy, will serve the general public, and will also be sited to serve residents of multifamily properties, many of which are older buildings that lack the infrastructure needed to support EV charging. The equipment and software category primarily includes equipment related purchases supporting the fire, police, and information technology departments, such as the purchase of radios, fleet cameras, and replacement of aging fiber optic lines between city facilities. The recommended fiscal year 2027 CIP includes approximately $3,000,000 in this category.

While equipment and software is not traditionally included in capital improvement programs, in 2012, Council directed their inclusion in the CIP for better visibility and having all equipment expenditures included in the same document. The airport category is comprised of all projects within Fund six twenty one Airport Capital, which support improvements to the Hayward Executive Airport. One key project in this category is the Sulphur Creek Mitigation Project, which will allow for the design, engineering, and construction of enclosing portions of Sulphur Creek adjacent to airport runways. The project includes a total budget of $8,300,000 which is being funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, Caltrans Division of Aeronautics and the city's Airport Enterprise Fund. And finally, the miscellaneous category includes projects that do not fit into other categories such as the 2040 General Plan update, the Route 238 property projects and the Parcel Group projects.

The Parcel Group projects, which are currently budgeted at $500,000 combined in fiscal year twenty twenty seven, are used to facilitate the new cohesive development of former Caltrans two thirty eight property parcels with the goals of eliminating blight, creating public benefits for the community, and generating excess land value to the city. In addition to including recommended project budgets, the CIP also includes a list of identified and unfunded capital needs. One of the largest unfunded needs continues to be the renovation of the corporation yard. The necessary improvements to the corp yard were estimated to amount to more than $140,000,000 The fiscal year twenty seven CIP includes a corporation yard needs assessment project, which is funding the development of a revised assessment to determine the current improvement needs and update costs. Another significant need included in the unfunded capital needs list is the Stack Center, which currently has an unfunded need of an estimated $25,000,000 for future phases of the project.

Compared to last fiscal year, the unfunded needs have decreased by $70,000,000 which is largely due to significant improvements in pavement management. After publication of the recommended CIP, staff identified a needed update to Fund 405. Growth within the Public Works and Utilities Department means the current workspace would be at capacity with full staffing. There is also a need for an additional large conference room as an alternative to 2A for council, council committees, and various city staff meetings when Conference Room 2A is not otherwise available. Staff proposes adding a City Hall 2nd Floor facility improvement project to create a new large large conference room and potentially one or two offices for deputy directors' use.

The project, currently estimated at $550,000 would be funded through non general fund sources split amongst water, wastewater, and Measure D augmentation funds. This graphic is intended to demonstrate the CIP's alignment with the city's strategic roadmap. The list of projects featured here is not exhaustive but does demonstrate an overview of the priorities that CIP projects support. For example, you can see that CIP projects tend to directly support the invest in infrastructure priority. However, many of the projects supports multiple priorities simultaneously.

And that concludes the presentation. It is staff's recommendation that council review and comment on the recommended fiscal year '27 CIP. We are now available for any questions.

Thank you very much. Very good, very comprehensive. And before I call upon counsel, what I'd like to do is open it up for public comments. I don't have any cards with me here on the dais. I do wanna turn to online, and our first caller is TJ Hayward Concerned Citizens.

Hi there. Yeah. This is

TJ with HCC. I did I hear this right? And I know you're not gonna answer, but you wanna build a new conference room in the upstairs when you've just decided to minimize how many meetings that you're having per month, that doesn't make sense to me. I know it's a different bucket of funds, but it still makes absolutely no sense to me. Just had to say that. Thank you.

Thank you. That was the last public comment online. So I'd like to close public comment and then come to counsel. Mayor Pro Tem Syrup.

Thank you mayor, and thank you for the report. We have had a chance to look at this at Council on Infrastructure, but I think I just wanted to continue the conversation on where these items should live. There's Fund four zero five that comes out of the general fund and goes into the capital improvement fund. Part of the discussion and what was in the staff report was about bringing some of those items back into the general fund. But based off of the staff report it also sounds like there was an intention to move these items back in 2012 into this four zero five fund for better transparency which I think I understand the intention behind.

Mean I don't know if these specific line items would have surfaced if it was just within the general fund amongst everything else. So I see the value in it but I think the side effect that at I'm experiencing and let me know if I'm interpreting this incorrectly is then it becomes an extension of pre existing budgets for specific departments. So when we're looking at a $2,500,000 transfer or whatever the specific number is here, that's in addition to what's already being budgeted for let's say police or fire which are like the primary spenders in that $4.00 5 transfers. Is that correct? This is in addition to what we've already budgeted for?

That is correct.

Okay. So that really is my concern there is it makes it really hard for us to budget holistically when there's a surprise you know $1 to $2,000,000 coming down the pipeline. And I think culturally at least what I've seen prior to my time on council and while on council is sometimes a decision around a specific purchase might be coming forward and the excuse is oh well we've already budgeted for this. Which is different than should we do it or not. And so sometimes the fact that we'd already budgeted for it.

So for example you know let's say we move forward with this capital improvement budget isn't necessarily an approval of all these items. We still should have a conversation on license plate readers for example right? But just because we've budgeted for it and in case we do move forward with it, have the funds isn't necessarily a symbol of approval. But I don't think it's always treated that way. So I guess just from staff's perspective I'm curious, it says staff is evaluating whether or not to move these items back into the general fund so that they're not this additional fund on top of our budget. Where's the thinking currently as far as maintaining transparency but also not having any surprise balloon budgets?

So thank you very much for your comment. We actually wanted to bring this before you and to your attention. Talk about the pluses and minuses and whatever is the decision of counsel we are going to implement it promptly.

Okay. I guess I just, I don't want to lose transparency into these items so I understand why this was done. Yes, think Manjaro, don't if you have any thoughts on this.

Yeah, I think our recommendation is a lot of these things that you'll see and we're happy to answer questions about our annual subscriptions and things like that you wouldn't typically in other cities find in a CIP program. But typically are more one time expenses and so I think our recommendation would be to move and some of them are supplies that are just ongoing supplies. So we would recommend trying to move these into the relevant operating budgets in the subsequent year. We thought about doing it this year but with all the transition occurring this fiscal year, we just decided to not change the way we were doing the CIP to kind of try to keep something constant while we worked on the operating budget a little more carefully. But I think our recommendation would be to do that for the next operating budget.

Okay. Or

the next CIP I'm sorry.

Yeah I think I'm aligned with that direction. How do we maintain the transparency around some of these subscription items? Is it that we change our practice around budget time where certain subscription items are surfaced in our operating budget as opposed to the capital improvement budget?

I mean I think it's a fair question, I think there's something that you're particularly focused on, we can, I mean it's hard, we wouldn't normally in an operating budget get into the details of every services and supply line item? I think if you are focused on police department for instance, we every year we do our four eighty one So there are other mechanisms in play for those larger kind of new items. So it's really up to you, we could you know if there are particular department or particular source, certain types of costs that you want us to really highlight, we could do that through the process.

Got it and then could you remind me just for the benefit of the public, what is our current threshold when an item needs to come to the full council for a purchase? Is it $101.50?

It's 100,000.

Okay great, thank you for that clarification.

Yeah so

you would, so yeah same that's another opportunity that you would see items if they're above 100,000 they would come before you as

an great, okay. So I want to simplify operations but also maintain transparency so I think that makes sense to me. And then yeah just a comment on the 2nd Floor facility. I know we have a Room 2B that's underutilized maybe because it doesn't have the proper technology setup. I mean are there ways that we can retrofit pre existing rooms to be compatible for the conference uses that staff are recommending there? I don't think this staff room was presented at SEAC before. Guess just some more information on this recommendation that you're putting forward.

So as you may recall, Room 2B does not have a standard shape. It is awkwardly located, small. It's not suitable, for instance, to have a council work session there. This is a room that is going to be used for purposes of council work session, for instance. Or if there are commission meetings that conflict with the use of 2A, they can use.

It is right outside of 2A. It is slightly smaller than 2A, but still large enough to accommodate council meetings and such. For your council infrastructure meeting, if you recall, we had a conflict with a commission meeting that had inadvertently scheduled a meeting in 2A. So we had to take our meeting to the airport, which does not have the facilities that Room 2A has. So this is going to be an alternative to the use of 2A for council use, for commission use, and also for the departmental staff.

We have about 60 staff there on 2nd Floor. And sometimes we need to have larger meetings when 2A is not available.

Understood. So then my two follow ups would be, well the first question is the funding sources just to clarify this is not, you've identified funding that's not pulling from the general fund for this.

Absolutely correct.

Okay, great thank you. And then I guess the second point of clarification, more of a statement than a question is just that there are several meetings that take place at the city beyond just the council meetings which have since been reduced. We have commissions meeting, we have committees meeting and then it sounds like staff also has to have meetings. So if we're not pulling from the general fund to help streamline our operations here as a city and make sure that we're able to provide our function as a public forum, I have no issue with that and I'm open to hearing what my colleagues think about it as well. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Roach.

Thank you. Yes, thank you. And thank you to my colleagues that have worked on the infrastructure committee on this work who really sort of nailed down on this. I appreciate it. And the staff I know this is a huge project to bring together so thank you for that.

I do want to touch on what Council Member Sarip said because I agree I think bringing it back in the operating budgets to the general fund is probably a good idea because I think these are the kind of items that kind of got lost between budget lines. And you know and then the different departments would come mid year and say oh we have these licenses or subscriptions. And those amounts I think we're adding up over time. And if we aren't really clear about where they are like there has to be some sort of line item created even if that's some projection that is off, but that that's where those kind of items live. You know we absolutely have to do, I think it's what got us in trouble in the past.

And so I agree with that, thank you for pointing that out, Mehrotam Syrup, on that one. Thank you. Yeah and just to answer the caller's comment about the conference room. I understand why you're asking about the conference room. Does it feel efficient? But while we are going through all of this, we do have to continue to build for the future, for the need that the city hall has to be able to provide to staff and to future councils. You know, and we have to be efficient and sort of acknowledge what's not working, what is working. If it's not gonna hit the general fund at this point, I mean I can see where we're gonna move forward with that. So this is just a work session, but I can understand. You're right, 2B is such an awkward weird space.

I can see how it would be good for us to rework that space and create something that would actually be useful to staff going forward. Thanks for that. I wanted to add just on the budget line item, if we could bring the slide. Let's see what slide is it. I think it's the second, third slide, third slide.

Just looking at that, just for like clarity sake and for the community, the total CIP budget is $264,000,000. Correct. And that's obviously more than the general fund and it's more than the operating enterprise fund, because all of the other funds I think for FY '26 at least were $213,000,000 is that right? And so I just wanted to be clear about how this goes over, and that's because this fund, the CAP fund, is largely, the revenue is largely from fees, is that right?

They are from enterprises. Enterprises are usually from rates, like water rates and sewer rates, or from grants and other source of fundings that have nothing to do with general fund. As you can see here, about 98% of the $264,000,000 are from non general fund, non measure C sources.

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure we made that clear because even as we all get to know the budget, we all get to understand what the general fund is versus the enterprise accounts. I think it's really important to point out that this is a lot of money, there's a lot of projects going on, but a lot of this is not, so our projected transfer is 3.68, right? Correct. Besides that, it's all already funded in the COP. All these projects are already funded in the COP. Correct. Yeah, okay. Thank With

a tune of $258,000,000

Great, thank you for making that clear because it's obviously a lot. And then on La Vista, I'm so excited we had the groundbreaking. And I wanted to ask where are we in the ongoing budget for La Vista? Is there any, do we project any general fund transfers or anything like that going forward?

So the project is fully funded. And as I have informed counsel, we are working on removing a contribution from Measure C to La Vista Park. And that is going to come before you, before Council break, to approve removal of $5,200,000 Measure C contribution from that project because by having done some value engineering and working with the contractor, we don't need to have that contribution. And by the way, this removal has no impact on the quality of the part, the features of the part. It is just how the grading is done.

The key way is constructed.

Thank you. That's 5,200,000 that will go back into measure C?

Correct.

Okay, that's great. Thank you. That's really great news. Yes. Yeah, and thanks for reworking that because that'll obviously help in a lot of ways. Thanks. And then on the Public Safety Building, you know, I see, is that the final site that you put on the slide there? Or has that not been decided yet?

That's the final site.

That's the final site one.

Two sites, yes. This is the preferred site.

Okay. But we don't have any designs or anything like that, right? We're just on the site at this point?

We have a preliminary plan right now that just shows what is possible.

Okay.

So yeah. Know that's like a more to come later thing.

Exactly.

And then on the SAC Center, you know what's been done so far is wonderful. Are we now just kind of stalled on the next phases due to funding?

Actually we received notification. We were waiting to see if we were gonna get an extension on a grant that we received before we moved forward with kind of rescoping because it's gonna take us a little bit to rescope and scale down. And we just received last week notification that we did get the extension so we have an extra two and a half years for this library grant. So we'll be coming back to you soon sort of with talking what does that mean, it's definitely not the full scope but what could a phase two some possible future phases look like so that we spend that money.

And then meanwhile were the tenants that were in the part that has not been rid of, are they

still there? Well some but for the most part no that the majority of that building was occupied by Kadango who are now in prior MJCCC they're in that childcare center. And then who are still there is we still have the Silva Clinic, Diversity of Vasquez, the pediatric clinic is still there.

Oh okay.

And then Eden Youth has a computer clubhouse there as well.

Okay, so there's some, does that mean there's still some revenue coming in from

that site? On rent? Yeah, very minimal.

Okay. Then, all right, I'm sorry everyone. So then on to SkyWest obviously that's a big point of interest. I'm wondering has anything been decided yet on SkyWest, The previous golf course part of SkyWest?

We are collaborating, working with HEART to see what's possible. We have had some conversations. We are working together to basically accomplish what council and communities wanted, which is to devote a good portion of that property to open space and parks and recreation, trails and so on. So we are in conversation right now to see what we can bring before council.

Okay, great. There's more to come on that Yes. Okay, thanks. I'll look forward to that. And then the last question I have is around the water treatment facility upgrades. Where are we on that project and the funding for all of that?

So we are waiting for funding of WIFIA, which is Water Improvement Infrastructure Act. The federal government has stalled in approving our loan for just over a year right now. We have been very active in talking to different, you know, representatives and active groups and so on. And just, I think last week or two weeks ago, Senator Padilla mentioned at a congressional hearing that hey, this loan for Hayward, and he mentioned it with two other smaller districts, but Hayward was first. Should come through, so everyone is active now in terms of what to do in order to provide more information to Senator Padilla's office to get OMB, Office of Management and Budget, to sign off and then EPA to sign off.

And EPA administrator was there in the hearing and was taking notes and said, you know, sure, sure, sure. I'm gonna look into it and get back to you to Senator Padilla. That's one positive thing that has happened. Recently I can tell you that there are several other activities that we have done from working with and coordinating with California Association of Sanitation Agencies writing letters, campaigning, everything. So we are doing all we can to get this going.

I have told them that we have plans and specs ready to go. This is a shovel ready project. And it is going to result in 1,500 local jobs during construction, dollars 100 plus million worth of private investment, and also improving the quality of the treatment plan for the next twenty five years.

Well thank you for staying on top of that, right? That's obviously, so that project, do we have a deadline when we have to meet that requirement?

2034.

2034, okay. Thank you for staying on Sounds

like a long way away, but we need to start the process soon.

Yeah, well it sounds like staying on top of you and all the lobbying efforts are maybe paying off. We'll wait and

see.

All right, thank you for taking all my questions.

Thank you.

When we break ground on that, council member Bonilla and I will personally bring senator Badia to Hayward. Haven't asked him yet, but he's committed. Council member Zermenio.

Mayor, thank you. And Alex and Melissa, I think Melissa Mata, yeah. And thank you very much, very good report. I sure wish we had that $1,300,000,000 so we can get all of these items off the table and complete it. A couple of comments.

I still love seeing the fact that you are, we're talking about public bike and pedestrian safety. I think that's tremendous. Not forgetting the trees, 1,500 trees every year that need Thank to be you very much for that. Those are amazing. A while back we were discussing or talking, we brought up undergrounding Tennyson below the railroad tracks. Is that dead or is that anywhere near? Because it's too expensive. Any thoughts with that?

I will research that and get back to UN Council.

It's a what?

I'll look into it and get back to you.

Oh, okay. Yeah. I think maybe about ten years ago. But I think that will be the best solutions because it's done in harder, etcetera. If we can do that one, that'd be much better. Let's see. I'm often asked, we spend money on these capital improvement projects, but especially this year, we have no money. Then I tell them, well these are enterprise funds. They don't understand that. What else can I tell them about, these are not general fund money?

So the source of funding for enterprise funds are either rates that rate payers like water customers or sewer customers pay. Or developers pay for connecting, let's say, to the water system or the recycled water system. Those are funds that are very different from general fund. They do not impact general fund or measure C. That's a steady source of funding that we receive on an annual basis or when there is development in the city.

Okay, And they are not part of the general fund? They can be spent because they're coming from Measure B, etcetera, or other, etcetera?

Absolutely. Special funds like Measure B or DB or state funds and so forth.

Good to hear about the Stacks Center, good to hear about La Vista, good to hear about bringing back some measure C funds. Okay, and our Public Safety Building, that area that was encircled is more or less where it's gonna go. And you say you have plans, there are actual plans somewhere?

We So it's Are they shareable? Absolutely. They are citing plans just to show us that it is feasible to have a building can accommodate all the personnel, all the parking needs, all of the different facilities that now are not located at the police department. Okay. Like you know, animal control in the lab and so on and so forth. So by doing this plan, it has been proven that for the use of about 10 acres of land we can accommodate all of those features on one side.

Okay, so we're sure that we can, so we don't need a two or three story building? It'll be just a one story building perhaps?

No, would be two or three story. They

would not

be higher than that.

Okay, alright.

And I'm sure it'll include a jail?

It has a temporary, yes, holding Alright,

alright. So how far away are we from, are you from sharing preliminary plans as to what it would look like? Is that too far off into

the future? It's just a siting plan. It doesn't show facade or features or what have But we are going to begin the process of seeing what is feasible in terms of what can allow us to move forward with the funding that might be available to implement the project. There are different ways of doing it. One would be the regular design bid and build process.

The other one would be to work with private sector in P3, which is public private partnership to do projects. There are examples that have been done in California that have been successful. City manager and myself are looking into those approaches to bring before council to see what is feasible and what is most economical and also to meet all of the needs of police department.

So I gather you've been meeting with our captains and with our chief on this.

Absolutely. Okay. We've been meeting with them on a regular basis now for a long time.

Oh excellent.

Can Can I just add on that? I think the key for this because of where we are fiscally is to try to think about how we can take some initial steps using the funding that we have or using money that we, you know, trying to find a way to kind of make some incremental progress in the Bulk Safety Center. The next logical step, well there's two, one is to get the land use entitlements because if we move forward with the Kang site it is in the overlay zone for the FAA so we could start to make some progress on some of the entitlement and land use changes and approvals that we would need to seek and those take twelve to eighteen months. So those are things we can do now until we can figure out what our longer term funding plan is. So we're gonna try to find ways to do that.

It still may take some funding and we're talking about how that we might be able to move that forward. The other thing is to whether or not there is a private partnership that we could use and leverage that might allow us during that phase to leverage some outside private funding or staff capacity that they have that might allow us to do it little more efficiently and move the project forward more quickly. So we're trying to find ways because we don't have the money to build it right now. Trying to think of ways to expedite it so when we do have the money available we're ready to go.

Very good. Okay, it is going to be on airport land. So can any of the airport enterprise funds be used for the building?

No. Enterprise It's on airport funds land. Yes, cannot pay for construction of facilities that are not used by the airport.

But if there's a problem, the police will go over and solve it, correct?

To the extent that there are those kinds of services, yes, some accommodations can be made, But that would be a small portion of the total cost of that construction.

Got it. Okay. Yes. All

right. And just a couple of thoughts on the sky. So thank you on the airport, I mean on the Public Safety Building. That's tremendous. I'm glad that we're going ahead with this. SkyWest. We've already lost two community centers in the city of Hayward. One was over by Foothill, the other one was our old library which I kept insisting that we ought to save it as a community center. So now we have a golf course clubhouse at SkyWest Golf. And in my mind, we ought to work on having a Hayward Community Center there.

Can we rent it out? Make some money with it? And simply because we don't have a Hayward Community Center. Most cities do. So that may be something that you can put in your to do list, look into it, how feasible it is. I don't think that it's in the way of airplanes, so it's off to the left. I think it'd be a tremendous addition to our city. Please look into that.

Understood, thank All

right, and I think those are all my questions. I thank you. I thank you both for a good job and let's look for some more money let's build these

things. Thanks.

Council Member Andrews.

Thank you for the report. I always appreciate your CIP staff reports and the demonstrations. So thank you for doing that. I had a question about the stack center and wanted to know if there have been any conversations of possibly partnering with Hard on that as well? Yeah,

so we, now that we have this news that we have a feasible phase two, we are intending to re approach them and have a discussion about the sort of open space there, non building space and if they're interested in engaging in any way with that project.

Okay, what about the building space as well? For recreation and whatever, managing of buildings and offices?

We can bring it up and see, yeah

Okay, for

all right. And then had a question about the fiber optic and wanted to know if we, I heard fiber optic is being part of installing with our buildings, connecting our buildings, and wanted to see if we were partnering with any businesses on doing any of that fiber optic.

So over the past, I would say over the past five years, there has been a tremendous increase in installation of live fiber optic in the city. One of the challenges that we have is working with all these different companies that want to install fiber optic. We want to ensure that they are not going to damage any of the underground facilities. Timing is different now than it was ten years ago when we had to go ahead, the city had to go ahead and install, if you recall, dark fiber, hoping that companies would come and want to use it. Right now companies like AT and T and others, Verizon and others, are very, very active.

Part of what keeps all of our inspectors busy right now is just inspecting all these different installations to make sure that they are done properly.

Okay, all right. And then wanted to know more about the February partnership with Caltrans. Just anything you're able to give an update on.

Yes, we met with Caltrans last week actually to just talk about where we are and where we, how we want to, might want to move forward. I think the real challenge with that program right now is the real estate market is extremely stalled. Not just commercial but residential too. So I don't know if the city council remembers but we had kind of agreed to this kind of base price that we would sell the properties to Caltrans would get a base price and the city would get excess of that. I think given where we are in the real estate market, we're concerned about whether or not we'd even meet those base prices based on the appraisals that were done previously.

Let alone get excess revenue and there's no kind of end in sight in terms of the real estate market at least for probably another twenty four months. I So think that and we have carrying costs probably around 300,000 a year in carrying costs for those properties. So we were talking to them about how we might rework that framework. You know should we be looking at potentially just selling them according to a certain process and then figuring out some way to kind of get them off the city's books because they are in some cases holding property like that creates liability and so we're exploring different ways forward. But every property is a little different so you have to be a little careful.

Like there are some properties that actually have existing households that own private parcels within the property or adjacent to the property dependent on the infrastructure on the property we own and others have tenants that are still on them. So we're trying to figure out a way to move those properties so that they don't remain a burden to the city. Okay. And trying to work in partnership with Caltrans. And they were open to having those conversations.

Okay. And anything we can do to support in those conversations, I would love

to support you. Mentioned that to them.

Okay, That I was hoping

they would help us at the staff level. Okay, great. So that we could, yeah. So if that doesn't work or there are issues, we'll be sure to engage all of you.

Okay, great. I think those are all my questions for now, thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Bonillo.

Thank you mayor and thanks for this report. I love the format. It gets better and better every time. I remember when we were on the planning commission and we got this in a paper binder back in the day, so to see it so digitized and so easy to go through, I really appreciate. I also appreciate how we're thinking creatively about partnerships to help us move some of these programs forward even though we're facing kind of some of our own funding issues.

Like you explained sort of the police department, but then there's other projects that you see are kind of a culmination of different funds that we're bringing together. So I just really appreciate that creativity in moving these projects forward. I also support where it makes sense moving funds back into the general fund for transparency sake. I think having things consolidated in one place just makes it so much easier than trying to figure out where is it and why is it here versus there when it should I think just be all consolidated in the general fund under the relevant operating funds or budgets. And then I get the point, I totally get the point around the conference room, right?

And I get, I understand enterprise funds versus general funds and all of those nuances. But I think to the general public, I don't know if they really care, it's their money, right? So if we're putting out our money because we're paying rates that are increasing that we've recently increased that we all had heartburn about but we know we had to increase or if we're paying a general tax, it's just more of a burden on the average person in Hayward who's having to come out of pocket for whatever it is. So I know that the conference room, and it's not just a conference room, it's bigger than a conference room. We're remodeling a space that needs to be remodeled and we're using funds outside of the general fund to do it.

I get it and I support it, but just making sure that the narrative isn't only it's coming out of the enterprise fund because the enterprise fund is still funded through the people of Hayward just through a different way of them having to fund it. And then as it relates to the Stack Center which is the project that I'm really excited about, when we look at the funding for that in the CIP for '27, it says 8,700,000 is proposed. Is that 8,700,000 funded through Measure C or somewhere or is that?

No at this point we're fully, both the funding for '27 and '28 will be fully covered by this library grant and the county's prior commitment.

Wow that's fantastic.

Yeah we're it is fantastic, it's less than we originally had planned for and so we're having to scale it down which is just that's what's gonna take a little while for us to figure out how to do that and we'll come back with you with plans, but yes.

I see,

I see.

That's what those, yeah the library grant was a large sum of money we're so grateful they extended it.

Then I guess you know as the general fund rebuilds then there could be opportunities to kind of continue maybe moving forward some of those initial ideas, but I do like the idea of us figuring out what can we do now to not hold up the entire project until we get sort of the bigger, grander community center, but how do we get something in that community ASAP? And I think that this is one of the smartest ways of being able to do that considering all of the other constraints that we're under. So thank you mayor, and thank you for this great presentation.

Thank you. Councilmember Goldstein.

Thank you. Yeah, I too remember receiving these in printed paper format, and they were quite large. And really just the thrill of seeing it online. The transparency factor is fantastic. My constituents come and ask, business owners come and ask, where are we spending our money?

What kind of improvements are we doing? We can look it up and actually show them and take them to that page. It's very, very useful to build that collaboration that we really rely on to continue to make improvements and progress throughout the city. So, thank you for doing that. One of the things that I had taken delight in tracking was the solar farm. And I understand that we built out about three megawatts of solar capacity so far. Are we continuing to build out solar capacity or what's the story there?

Correct. We have a solar farm at the water resource recovery. The problem I have is that I don't have use now for additional solar power. As soon as our project at the plant is under construction and we have that needs. We have plans to expand the solar farm to produce more clean energy.

Okay, great. Yeah, I sort of thought that might be the case. And do we have, we still have lands available because I understand that we used a portion of the land that we have there at the water treatment facility. We have more land in other locations that we could continue to build out? Correct. Adjacent to where the solar PV is right now, there is land that is dedicated for that purpose, has been earmarked for that purpose. Alright, excellent. Thank you very much. Know, honestly, I don't really have a whole lot more questions. My colleagues have really nailed it tonight.

So again, I just want to express my deepest gratitude for the great work that you and your team do and the transparency that this brings to our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. I just wanted to point out just a couple of things. One being our focus on safety. I know that we have been putting a lot of emphasis in making streets safer, protected bike lanes and making them safe for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. And I appreciate that.

In addition, I just wanted to point out that we are making great strides in railroad protection and railroad safety. And I know ACTC has been, the Alameda County Transportation Commission, they have been very active both in Sacramento and in Washington DC in advocating for more and more money, quite frankly, to enhance railroads. One of the things about the railroad here in the city is that the railroad slices right through, of course, from the top of the city to the bottom of the city, or from the northern to the most southern part of the city. But it also goes through, it cuts through elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, apartments, low income neighborhoods, and where there's a lot of walkers, a lot of strollers, a lot of elderly, and the environments that the in some of these train ways, pathways, know, they're unprotected and they're old. The infrastructure is just old.

So the the railroad crossings, most importantly, are being enhanced, and and so I just wanted to acknowledge that. The other one is the East Bay Greenway project. Of course, that is slated. It is getting developed. And that is the road, sidewalk, and protected bike lane enhancements, particularly bike lanes and sidewalks that will go from the northern part of the city to the southern part of the city or at least until South Hewitt Board I should say.

And so that is a project that I think is really good. I know on ACTC we've been talking about finding more funds to extend that and to just continue with the protection on that. So just wanted to acknowledge my colleagues and all of their work. Know, bless you. Bless you.

I know that the Caltrans properties over the years have been, we walked into these properties you know bright eyed and you know looking towards the future and but it's also been a very hard project over the years. And the pandemic did not help us at all. And so But we continue to work on that. So anyways, I just wanted to thank staff. Director Mary, do you need anything else from us?

No, thank you. Thank you for your leadership and your direction. And we will continue to work on the CIP and bring it to a public hearing in early June.

And then Madam City Manager, is there anything else you need from us?

No, this is really helpful. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. So I will close this item and I will move on to the public hearing item number nine, which is the which is the p h two six dash zero two one, community develop development block grant approval of fiscal year twenty twenty six through 2027 community development block grant allocation recommendations and annual action plan. And this report will come to us by way of our assistant city manager, Mary Thomas. Mary Thomas.

Yes. And I'm going to immediately hand it over to Emily Wong who is a management analyst in community services and has been amazing at stepping up since Amy Cole Bloom departed for the county and has been helping. So there you go.

Thank you Mary. All right, let's get settled in here. Okay, great. Good evening council, my name is Emily Huang. As Mary mentioned, I'm a management analyst and the new CSC Community Services Commission staff liaison.

I'm here to present the fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven Community Development Block Grant or CDBG funding allocations and staff is seeking your approval of both the CDBG allocations and the annual action plan which outlines how CDBG funds will be used for this upcoming fiscal year. So you all should have received an email from Assistant City Manager Mary Thomas asking you to disclose any specific conflict of interest that you may have with any of the agencies associated with the recommendations which included in attachment two of this item. If you do have any conflict of interest, now would be the time to disclose them. All right, it looks like we have no conflicts of interest, no conflicts or interests. So thank you for that.

Before we dive into the details, staff wanted to provide counsel with an overview of this year's timeline that looks different than previous community funding process years. In September 2025, the city published the notice of funding availability or NOFA that was intended to allocate funding for fiscal years '26 through '28 and unfortunately due to fiscal constraints in October 2025 the city had to cancel its NOFA and most general fund supported CAF contracts were terminated after their initial 50% payment. In January 2026, the CSC discussed this new occurrence and discussed the impacts that this would have on agencies. Given budget challenges, the city did decide to not allocate general fund dollars to fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven and to prioritize CDBG funds for one time internal projects. During these conversations, the CSC expressed preference against using CDBG funding for ongoing operational costs like additional staff costs or year to year supplies costs and that is ultimately to ensure that the CAF process will be available in future years.

In March 2026, staff presented funding recommendations that took considering previous year's priorities and in April the CSC CSC's finalized and voted on these recommendations to present to you today at City Council. So while we're here, we're here at the public hearing and council will be primarily approving the CDBG allocations and the annual action plan today. The CSC has also been having these ongoing conversations about its role and looking to council for additional guidance which I will go into further detail in a later slide. So now that we've provided an overview of these past few months, I'm going to shift us over to the CDBG annual action plan for fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven. The annual action plan does provide a framework for identifying housing and community development needs and these priority needs for this upcoming fiscal year include facility and infrastructure access and capacity, preserving existing home ownership housing and providing supportive services for special needs in low to moderate income households.

A draft annual action plan was published to the city's webpage on April 17 and public comment period for community feedback was announced at the April CSC meeting. Later in this presentation I will provide more details on how to submit a public comment on the annual action plan and the CDBG recommendations that I will present in the next slide. So last month the city received its entitlement award from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, we also call them HUD. This came in around $1,500,000. This table provides a summary of the CDBG recommended amounts by category and project.

Staff identified one time CDBG eligible projects that could fund internal services while incorporating the commissioner's feedback to avoid ongoing costs such as additional staff time or repeated one time costs that would, are expected year to year. These recommended projects include HUD mandated activities such as the fair housing activities, projects that the city has already committed to funding such as the housing programs that we have included in our housing element plan and anticipated city projects that meet CDBG eligible requirements and can be completed within a reasonable timeframe. We have to, in order to be allowed and offered, you know eligible for funding federally, we do have to make sure we're spending down our funds in a timely manner. So we're happy to answer any specific questions about these recommendations but for the sake of time we will keep on moving forward. The CSCs role has significantly shifted while the CAF process is on pause and now they are looking to counsel for direction on next steps.

In the recent months, the commission has discussed moving toward a more advisory role focusing on community needs and strategic planning and while they're also you know in the future hoping to prepare for future grant making when the city's financial situation improves. One opportunity that there is for their improve, is to be involved to develop and conduct a community needs assessment along with staff. The last one was 18 and updating it would help the city better understand current needs and make more along informed decisions not just for the CAF process but also for all city programs and services. The CSC also discussed providing technical assistance to nonprofit agencies sharing their expertise in grant writing, looking for external funding sources and other needs expressed by our agencies. So to conclude this presentation, staff recommends that City Council approves the authorization of the CDBG fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven annual action plan submission and the CDBG funding allocations.

The public can provide a public comment on the annual action plan to emily. Huanghayward ca dot gov. Any public comments will be incorporated into the annual action plan before we submit it to the county on June 2. And I also wanted to call out that we do have a few CSC members and representatives here online and in person that will be here to provide public comment on their insights of the process. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm gonna start up here first. Mayor Pro Tem Seyrup.

Thank you mayor and thank you for this report and for supporting the CSC and to our commissioners for bearing with us as we try to figure out how to find our footing after CAF funding was eliminated for the year. I think my main question is just around eligibility for projects. When I saw that the housing rehabilitation program of around $350,000 was on here, I think it's a great program but I'm always thinking about are we getting the most bang for buck. And about a year ago, maybe September, half a year ago, we were discussing how we might fund something like a rental registry and the cost of that would have been lower than what we're proposing here to rehabilitate. I'm not sure how many houses 350,000 might cover.

So I guess I'm just curious, I don't know there's not a ton of overlap necessarily between community services and development services, But just trying to understand would something like a rental registry qualify for the ways in which we're trying to use CDBG funding now or would that not be an eligible project? Why or why not?

Yeah it's a great question. It's something that we looked into. So there's the pot, you know there's different categories that CDBG has. So there's housing programs, there's also public service programs, those are the two that we could see as a connection there. However housing programs are restricted to rehab, home development and down payment assistance.

Got it.

And then we can look into the eligibility in the public services category but one caveat is that the service would have to be a direct service that's being provided to the community which it sounds like there could be maybe an opportunity there.

Okay so TBD on the public service side of things.

Yeah we'd have to vet that with our consultant.

Okay got it. Yeah just trying to understand opportunities for council initiatives or priorities to make its way into those conversations too. It felt like a missed opportunity for the commission to not consider that as a potential outlet for those funds. Other than that, I think, you know, I'm in alignment with what the staff is recommending and what our commissioners are putting forward. I'm eager to hear what their comments are and then I'll share my comments afterwards. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Andrews.

Thank you for the report. Wanted to get more insight into the fire equipment purchases for stations located in low to moderate income areas. Is that based off of the grant requirements of why that was going to the fire department?

Yes, so it is an eligible project, it would be in specifically an area that is low to moderate income, predominantly low to moderate income. We did several explorative activities to see what this funding could potentially be utilized for like looking at improvements to La Vista Park or doing ADA upgrades in City Hall. However, there are constraints limited to the city's ability to deploy CDBG funds because of federal requirements like Build America, Buy America. We even put $1 of federal dollars into any of these activities, we'd have to follow that and it would significantly increase cost to the project. While none were identified at this time, we will continue to have conversations about potential projects.

And will these purchases, will they have like upgrade costs like year over year, replacement costs or just new equipment?

I mean our fire chief is here but those would be standard to any other equipment. It's not, it's really to help us make sure that we're able to keep most modern equipment but not adding additional maintenance costs.

And there was no training, additional training for staff for this equipment or no? No. And no extra staffing?

Yeah existing like we have, because we have a couple of engines that we need to get like the various health, cardiac monitors, different things on the engines. Don't know if you wanted to have chief memory come up or

is that good enough

to do? That's good. I just wanted to make sure that No additional training, yeah. Because sometimes equipment can drive ongoing costs, so I just wanted to make sure this was good.

Yes, we're just wanting to ensure that we have up to date equipment that hasn't reached its useful life in these neighborhoods.

Okay great. And then was also curious, are there any metrics of success for these programs?

Yes, so as we go into contracting specifically with agencies they do have to meet objectives. So not only they create their own objectives specific to the program, Like for example Habitat for Humanity, we've worked with them continuously each year, they do have to increase their objectives that they say that they're going to meet so it's not like the same year to year. In addition to that, they do have to submit data that shows that they they meet the requirements of CDBG like serving individuals who are low to moderate income.

Okay and then also wanted to know about Eden Information and Referral System. I know years ago we did a referral on three eleven and we all started looking at September and just wanted to see the efficacy of two eleven and I don't know if this is something that can be brought to the public safety committee or infrastructure, but I would like it at the full council at some point a presentation or just like a quick update on what's happening with 211 because when I'm looking at the police blotter and seeing weekly calls of service about 5,000 and then you see about a thousand of those calls get calls for service. I'm just wondering if there's something like people are still dialing the 911 system instead of other resources and I'm seeing the number of crimes that are committed are low in comparison to the calls. So I'm just, I would like to digest that a little bit more and maybe this is something in the public safety committee they can flesh out what a report would look like to the full council. But if we're giving them funding, I wanna see some of that connection being made where it can reduce, like this 50,000 should be an investment of reducing causal service on our public safety.

Just in case people are calling and not understanding that there is another resource and I am seeing other cities across the region, across the country using three eleven and we are continuing to reject that idea but if we're gonna give 50,000 to two eleven I wanna know what we're getting for it.

Yeah I think this is, I've only recently had the opportunity to start working with community services division and that's something I have a question about too and I think we'll, this coming year be definitely asking some questions and the community services commissioners had you know some questions too about how we make sure there's enough information So available maybe there's some discussion about doing an evaluation particularly of that system.

Yes that can be something that the commissioners can dig into and also if they want to look into Access Hayward as well because maybe they should be some of the test drivers of Access Hayward to reduce calls to two on one or something where we can reduce those weekly calls of service, that'd be great. And then what are we, so with some of these grant allocations, particularly with the Hayward Navigation Center, I'm just wondering what are the metrics of success for that? I know that you have identified in the contracts, but as we're seeing surrounding cities look at encampments, they're starting to close encampments, cities surrounding those cities are being impacted, other states are gonna be impacted. What is our measurement when we know that this news is coming regarding local encampments being closed? Is this 184 gonna help address it I guess?

Yeah, I can give a statistic so one of the metrics that we have is that 83% of all exits from the agency were to positive housing destinations and that's near and above than the national average. So that is just one example of a metric. If you wanted more specifics I can always go to the contract and ask our staff.

So you have a percentage identified in your contract?

Yes, we have multiple, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Zermanyu.

Mayor, thank you and Emily, thank you very much. Mary, also you. Could you go back to the next or last slide? I have a question about something there. There, no.

Oh,

Sorry, next one.

This one?

Yes. What does technical assistance to nonprofit agencies mean? That's really my only question.

Yeah, that's a great question and I'm sure the commissioners can go into more detail in their public comment. One, there are a few things. So, writing support, maybe doing a webinar to agencies and having that being publicly available to all Hayward agencies, other ones is looking, one other thing that council has provided direction on is having agencies be or having the commissioners provide support on seeking external funding sources, so those type of activities. We were sort of, we were having these ongoing conversations, we have another CSC meeting in June to talk through the details but we wanna make sure that it is public enough that CSC members aren't like you know, getting too far into the weeds of an agency's operations that would make them have a potential conflict of interest in grant making in future years but also supportive enough to being able to provide that assistance to agencies in this time where we can't offer them monetary support but also could support them in other ways.

Gonna help them to be a little more sustainable perhaps. Yeah. I like it, thank you.

Thank you. I'm gonna move on to public comment and our first, oh, I'm.

Thank you. You know I realized I got confused because on the slide you have the BACS allocation as 50,000 and the $2.11 is 184. I just thought I realized No,

that's sweet.

But thank you. I think Councilmember Andrews was able to ask that question so I'm gonna skip it anyway, thank you. I don't know which, it's 184 we're supposed to go to BACS, right, in 'fifteen? Correct. Yeah, thank you. I keep going back and forth, I'm like, I think I'm missing something. Okay, I just wanted to ask about the timing. So these projects, have to, they have to use these funds within a certain period of time or HUD calls this money back, is that what happens?

Yeah, we'd like to spend down these funds by the end of next fiscal year, so 06/30/2027.

Okay, great. And then on the fire equipment, I know Councilman Andrews already asked, so you said it's not like a one truck or something, it's equipment that's gonna go on different trucks or engines, don't know what the right term is, is that right? Correct. Okay. Okay thanks.

Then I wanted to ask also as far as that last slide that Councilmember Zermaini asked about. I always thought, one thing when I was on CAC that I wish I could have done was, that, I mean staff would obviously have to help, but this idea of sort of auditing how all these funds are being used. So I think we always, I know when I was on, I'm sure you guys have this sort of struggle of do we spread all this money out like a big peanut butter spread and give everybody a little bit to try to leverage that money? Or do we be really targeted because we know x agency is so good at serving x amount of Hayward community members? I feel like we never really got to that work.

We're just constantly, we get the applications. It looks like a good program and we're gonna fund it. And I think we've talked about this in the past. Who is really doing work that person for person is really making a big difference? I don't know, getting people housing, making sure they're using the funds so efficiently to feed people, whatever that is.

I don't know if that's possible and maybe that would be more soft time, but I would love it if the Community Services Commission would be interested in finding a way so that when we get back to funding, and I'm glad to hear what you've decided to do with the missing funds, or you know with the funds we couldn't allocate that we're gonna hold that space so when we do have funds we'll get back to it. Because I mean I wanna get back to that agency funding as soon as possible. But that when we do, we're being, that the Community Services Commission is so aware of how they want to really target what's really working. If that's something that staff would work with, if you know, obviously this is gonna be up to the commission to take on, but that's just a comment I guess about moving forward because I'd wish we had time to do it but we didn't, you were just off to the races every cycle you know like get that funding out and get those applications. Yeah

I will say in the last year the services committee did a lot of work to consider priority. So, I believe their top priorities was housing, food and services that support individuals that are supporting immigrants. So, it is this ongoing conversation about where can this commission direct funds to the most impact and the most need and that is something that we can consider maybe exploring in the needs assessment.

Great, thank you.

Thank you. And I apologize for missing you but I didn't see your name on the thing here. So I'm gonna move on to public comment. Public comment number one is Calvin Wong. Who is a CSC commissioner.

Is done. Okay.

Hey. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Calvin Wong and I'm here in my capacity as a individual community services commissioner. And so I'd like to address two things in my comment tonight.

The first is that I was the only CSC member who voted no on these recommendations, and that is because of my belief that these recommendations before you did not deserve the consent of the CSC, which is a body charged by the Hayward City Council to solicit input from the community and service providers to help inform community agency funding decisions. And I believe that these recommendations before you, albeit they are the product of considerable staff time and effort, that there was minimal to no input from members of the CSC. I believe that these recommendations before you can be traced back to the city staffs' to sudden really sudden decision to cancel the cap funding cycle, a decision that I believed is marked by its opacity and that it really caught myself and many service providers by surprise. And in my conversations with service providers after this declaration was made that the funding cycle was canceled, I learned that there was a general understanding that there were going to be changes to this funding cycle because of the city's budget situation, but none of them and even myself expected to not have been able to even comment on this decision before the before this decision was even made.

And I think that our service providers are perhaps too good of a partner good of partners to say it, but frankly, I thought it was kind of disrespectful to have just suddenly made that decision without allowing any of their input. So just on that, because of these recommendations are the result of a process that I believe denied our service providers a voice and have been deprived of the usual rigorous analysis provided by members of the CSC, I, at least personally, could not in good conscience support these recommendations. Secondly, I also want to ask that the city council not cancel the next CAF funding cycle. My fear is that by canceling another funding cycle, this the city is pushing itself toward or contributing toward the hollowing out of its own authority or capacity to be able to solve our community's most most difficult problems. And so as our as our community service providers have to scale down services or even abandon operations in Hayward because of a lack of funding, that makes the city vulnerable to the entry of for profit organizations who will operate with very minimal oversight.

And that's not really an exaggeration because we do see examples of that all across the country, in fact. And I'm just worried that where the government abdicates its authority over these sorts of decisions, that these private forces will come in to profit off of human suffering. And so I really hope that the city does not try to balance the budget off the backs of our most needy most needy residents. So that's the second thing. And then I guess I'll just talk briefly on an idea that I would like the city council to consider. Although

we did not determine a time, and I know we gave you three minutes for public comment, I'll give you another minute if you can just sort of wrap it up and Yeah.

This part's really short. I just added this on. It's an idea that I would like the city council to consider just for the CSC where we just had that discussion. I think that commissioners should be given an opportunity to be involved in the auditing of agencies, especially since we were just talking about metrics. I think that commissioners should have some role in being involved in seeing how agencies are really meeting those metrics, especially as that does influence how we think about funding recommendations.

And I personally don't think that we should be that afraid of getting that deep into the weeds. I'm sure that yes, maybe if you get too deep into the weeds that maybe you don't want people making decisions with regards to those agencies, but I do think there are enough commissioners to the point where we can still fully staff like our individual commission arts to be able to make these decisions while allowing other commissioners to be able to be more deeper involved in those agencies. Thank you.

Thank you. And thank you for your service on the commission. Our next speaker is Jesse Gunn.

Hello. Good evening, city council. My name is Jesse Gunn. I'm the vice chair for the Community Services Commission speaking on behalf of myself tonight. I first wanna acknowledge city council and staff for doing a phenomenal job at a task that none of you asked to do, which is to balance a surprise deficit that I'm sure none of you anticipated.

So and also with the exceptional portion partnership of the stakeholders who ultimately ultimately will be carrying the burden of these cuts. While this year's CSC allocations are not what any of us had hoped to see, I am hopeful that we can continue to identify holes in the support network that are arising from these cuts. I'm very excited about the idea of doing a community needs assessment if that is available. I also want to consider that this is in the context of broader cuts that are happening at the state level, the regional level, and then largely in part of federal decisions happening. To get into the granular details, I do wanna talk about the fire equipment purchase.

I think it's a great use of the funds for this time around, but I would like to it to not be a a placeholder for equipment purchases of of certain kinds. I don't want this to be an ongoing how do we buy this OU CDBG funds for it. I would love to get us back to the point where we can start honoring and supporting our service providers with the vital services that they are doing. I also want to acknowledge that the opportunity costs of meeting this challenge may never fully be measured. We won't know when a senior misses a meal.

We won't know when a youth doesn't get the med tour that they're looking for or attend the art exhibit that will make them change the world. And our residents need this, and I know that my fellow commissioners would agree they're quite passionate about continuing this work. Also wanted to thank our council member liaison Bonilla for his idea on looking at other neighboring agencies to see what is happening in other community services related commissions and bodies. Several interesting ideas have come about, and I hope we have a chance to actually pursue those. And then thank you, Councilmember Roach, your idea as well as how we can look at the way we fund in the first place. Maybe we have ways that we can kind of change things now

that we have a little

bit of time to ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you. And thank you for your service on the CSC. Okay. I wanna come back and appear and let me start with the council liaison to the CSC. Oh yes, that's right, that's right, that's right. Yeah. I apologize. So let me

hold on.

Rita. Oh, Lanita. Oh, Lanita. There you are. Lanita Wheeler. The chair. There you go. I apologize. Madam chair, go right ahead.

Hi. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Anita Wheeler, chair of the Community Service Commission. And I want to begin by acknowledging the city's serious budget challenges, including tens of millions of dollars in annual shortfall. We recognize the difficulty of these recent decisions, and I wanna share how this year's CDBG community action fund process landed with the CSC.

The CSC exists to help steward c d g CDBG funds through a transparent participatory process that uplifts nonprofits serving low income Hayward residents. And this year, after the bidders conference was scheduled, we'd learned the competitive process would be canceled due to the budget shortfall and funds would instead be redirected through existing city funding commitments and infrastructure priorities. We certainly understand the urgency, and still the way this unfolded left many commissioners, feeling sidelined from a process central to the CSC's role. There's disappointment. There's also hurt, because members care deeply about the community voice in public funding decisions.

So our hearts are with the nonprofits who were preparing to apply. Organizations are already stretched thin and doing essential work for vulnerable residents. We respect the city staff and the CDGB expertise that inform the final recommendation. However, the CSC had limited opportunity to meaningfully engage in the allocation decisions themselves, raising questions about our role moving forward. This year also follows changes to the CSC structure, to the bylaws, to our size.

And with the suspension of the funding process for potentially several years, there's uncertainty about whether the CSC remains a funding recommendation body or shifts into a more advisory role. Within the commission, there's mixed feelings, a strong need for clearer guidance from council on expectations, on our scope, and future direction. We remain committed to the city and serving as residents, And we're certainly not in opposition. We are in partnership, and we also recognize and hold space for the city staff and the council in these very challenging times. Because of that sheer commitment, this process this year felt, especially difficult, and it did not always feel like we were functioning as true partners.

So, tonight, we're asking for, clarity and connection, so we can understand how to move forward together in a way that honors both the fiscal constraints and community voice. We hope the city will preserve meaningful community participation in future CDBG decisions, because that participation is what gives this process its strength. Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair, and I apologize. I you know, I was gonna, if you, if you have anything else to say, I will extend another, thirty seconds or a minute for you if you have any other, comments.

Oh, that's so very kind of you. I believe the commissioners that are there in the room, along with the presentation and myself, I've I've pretty much covered, how this just was just a very unique and different year for the CSC. We're very much looking forward to you all in giving us some additional guidance, particularly in light of the recent changes that took place last year with giving us new guidance on our direction. And so we're just really looking for that partnership and knowing how to move forward appropriately.

Wonderful. Thank you. And and again, thank you for your, service on the commission, and I don't wish anyone your job to wrangle with the CSC any day of the week.

Thank you all.

It's a pleasure.

Okay. Thank you very much. I will now come back to the dais, And I will go to the designee to the CSC, Councilmember Bonilla.

Thank you mayor. I wanted to start by first just thanking the CSC, the folks that came out tonight, the chair who spoke and just the entire commission for your flexibility in rolling with us this year. I know that this has not been easy. There's been a lot of sharp turns that have been made. There's been decisions that have no one's been wanting to make but they've had to been made because of the physical reality of all of the constraints that we're balancing.

I think that I'm not going to really justify why the decisions were made in the manner that they were made because I think the feedback and making sure that we're more collaborative and transparent in how these decisions are made going forward is good feedback. But you know I also understand that the constraint isn't just around the funding, it's also around how we use staff time and I think that part of the decision around making these allocations was because we don't necessarily have the staff time to go and do a full funding process on such a small set of funding that we already know is constrained by federal guidelines and other requirements. So I was also in the CSC meeting when this was presented and I think that the community was noticed that we were having this discussion. I think that the community service had an, this community services commission had an opportunity to provide input. I think they did.

I think the input was shared again tonight. But I do think that the process was different than the process that we've been through before. So I can understand why it feels not maybe as rewarding as it has in the past to do these more extensive evaluations, to bring the voice of the community, to have these deliberations and to what can be perceived as being more thoughtful in the decisions. But I think we can all recognize that there was a lot of thought that was put into these decisions and that we're all committed to finding a way of revitalizing the CAF process as soon as possible because we know how important that funding is to our agencies and to our community and to the people in the community who rely on those services to be provided by those agencies. So I'm in full agreement with the CSC's recommendation to make sure that none of these expenses that are being used to cover internal costs that are directly providing the services that are aligned with the grant requirements.

So I also don't want to make it seem as if the city is reallocating money to keep lights on at city hall. The money has been reallocated in a very intentional way to make sure that services that are core to the community are still able to be provided through trusted providers who we know that we can rely on to provide these services in a way that meets the grant requirements of both the results we're looking for and the timeliness requirements as well. But I do agree that we should not be using any of this for anything more than a one time project and we should probably have a requirement that says we're not gonna consider a project twice for this funding just to really make sure that we're committed to not funding projects year over year that should not be funded by this as an ongoing source of funding. So I've spent a lot of time thinking through what does the next iteration of the Community Services Commission looks like and how do we put these very talented group of community members in a position to make the broadest impact in the most deeply needy parts of our community.

So you know, auditing, although I understand why, I don't think it's the best use of the commission's time. I think it's better if the commission wants to understand how agencies are performing to make sure that we're setting clear performance requirements and to make sure that we're setting clear metrics. We don't need to go in there with a checklist and start turning over things. What we do is we said very clearly in the beginning, in order for you to be successful in this grant, these are the metrics we're looking for. This is when we want them reported.

You can come to us and you can talk to us and present on a biannual basis the status of the program and the services that you're providing and I think that that's a good use of time. But I think oversight is different than auditing and I would like to see the Community Services Commission in a role of understanding the viability of these agencies and their ability to perform as a basis to make future funding decisions. I don't think we should be making any funding decisions if we're not sure if an agency could perform or if we don't have historical data that can support that agency's performance. So when I was thinking about, okay so that's that. Now when I thought about kind of this ongoing discussion of what the CSC should be and what two point zero looks like.

So when the CSC first came together and I was on it, it was the combination of Citizens Advisory Commission and the Human Services Commission and those were the names of the two commissions that came together. I remember we looked at the mission and kind of the direction of both of those and we tried bringing together a commission that can serve both of those purposes. I personally think over time that the commission has started to become, for whatever reason, probably through the direction of counsel two, the commission has become really focused, almost solely focused on funding. And I think that there might be an opportunity to introduce that sort of community and human services aspect to how it is these commissioners can help us move forward in the city by helping us think through how we address some of the social and human service needs and how we strengthen the networks of safety net organizations that support our residents. So how do we make sure that that is reflected in the mission and in the work plan Community Services Commission, I think aligns perfectly with the intent of why those two commissions were brought together in service to the community and in particular our most vulnerable residents.

So when I think about kind of putting the human services and the community back into the community services commission,

I

do think that a city's community needs assessment aligns perfectly with the work that the CSC could be doing. In order for us to make decisions and make sure that we're serving the community, we have to have a deep understanding of what the community needs are and who it is in the community we need to serve. And then we start connecting those needs to service providers to make sure that we're addressing the root cause of issues like you guys are suggesting and not band aid approaches that are solving things once but not really solving the deeper issue that's systemic. So I I like that approach because I think it brings this kind of community orientation back to the work of the community services commission. But then when I started to kind of think about even the funding that we're looking at today, of this funding is for housing and stuff, right?

So then I'm thinking we have housing and homelessness strategic plans that require community input, right? So we have like the Liz House Hayward strategic plan. Maybe this could be the commission that provides community input to that plan that when we have to do whatever biannual review or review it every three years, maybe this commission also because that is a need of some of our most vulnerable parts of our community. So I do like the idea of saying how do we transition the commission not just from a funding capacity but also to an advisory capacity because I don't think it's one or the other because I don't want them to lose the important work that they do around grant making. But then I also think that in this moment we have an opportunity to really build a stronger advisory capacity for the council and for the city so that when we are position of being able to reignite some of these programs that we're doing so in a way that's driven through the voices of our community and through the commissioners who I think are very well suited to look at both the community and the human service issues across our city.

So as Commissioner Gunn had said, and I had talked to the city manager about this, in the city of Alameda they have a social service human relations board that assesses community social needs. They report their finding to city council and they encourage the development of kind of partnerships to create unmet needs within the city. So to really kind of look at models like that, to stay true to how it is we're being responsive to the community but also how we're looking at kind of those social safety net and those human service issues that then I think bring together the real purpose of this community services commission being that advisory board which kind of the CSC was because it was the citizens advisory commission and that human relations work along with the funding that's needed to really drive that in a sustainable way. So I appreciate these type of innovative approaches and I think that they do demonstrate meaningful ways that the Community Services Commission could continue to serve and support the needs of our community. So that's kind of the direction that I would give, but I'm really interested to hear what my colleagues have to say in terms of the future direction of this.

And thank you guys so much for the work that you've put in here and for being out here tonight and for really sharing your voices within this process and us to take that in to say how do we do better to make sure that as we go forward we're doing so in the most inclusive way that's informed by the CSE. Thanks mayor.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Cyrock.

Thank you mayor. Thank you for the report And, yeah, thank you to all of our community service commissioners. Thank you, chair Wheeler, commissioner Wong, commissioner Gunn. I really appreciate your honest and candid feedback. I think that's what makes us stronger as a city is not to hear everything's going great, but to understand where can we improve because we're not doing our job if we're not hearing what's happening on the ground and being able to respond appropriately.

I think I echo a lot of the sentiment that Councilmember Bonilla shared. I think having the CSC play more of an advisory role as part of their function feels important. We are going through a similar transformation in the personnel commission as well where rather than just being a rubber stamping commission, we're trying to look at our residents who are people who are our greatest resource and we recruit really talented commissioners. Wanna hear their input, we wanna see their insight, we wanna understand where our blind spots are based off the lived experience and professional experience they bring to the table. So the ways that we can experiment with opening that up so commissioners are providing more value to the city and also making the best use of their time as well is something that I'm very supportive of, and I think the advisory capacity makes sense there.

As far as technical assistance goes, I'm not entirely sure given that we haven't received a lot of nonprofit feedback leading up to this meeting. I'm not entirely sure if that's what the nonprofits want or need. I see the benefit to the idea of providing technical assistance but a lot of these nonprofits also hire staff grant writers. I think it takes in a tremendous amount of staff time to coordinate with volunteers and onboard them into their own processes and practices. There's a level of complication that I'm not quite sure if I want to go down that path as it relates to working with non profits.

I think training up commissioners on how to properly audit non profits to make sure that as a resident they feel like the service that they're getting from maybe the customer or user, end user experience is positive. Is something you know that I think when Councilmember Roch mentioned auditing, I'm open to a version of that but one that's not super involved or it takes up a lot of staff time. I'm also interested in treating the, when we say advisory, seeing our commissioners, our community service commissioners as a bit of a focus group where we provide a lot of services as a city from Access Hayward to our permitting process, to our water bill process, to our public WiFi process. And I'm curious just as folks that we are appointing to be out and represent you know aspects, different aspects of the community, what are their thoughts on how we're currently provisioning services and how could those be improved? I think that's a ripe opportunity for on the ground feedback.

Are the services we're providing meeting the mark? Not just through our non profit providers but as a city as well. And can we facilitate easy ways for us to maybe queue up and say your assignment this month is to understand how the city is doing water and come back with feedback on it at our next session. I don't know. I'm open to the commission hashing out this idea and seeing if it makes sense to them.

But I just, the core of my feedback is I really want the commissioner's insight more than just a budget that they put forward. I want to understand where we're missing the mark and where we could get better. I also agree that you know we need to move equipment type purchases out of CDBG funding so I'm definitely aligned there. I also want us to be very serious and maybe this is something we formalize in a strategic road map process down the line. Restoring our community agency funding feels very critical.

When we talk about fighting a lot of social ills everyone talks about how prevention is really the most effective, cost effective and effective in terms of like saving lives. And I see our community agency funding as that prevention fund. And I think it's really important that we bring that back otherwise we're adding cost to ourselves down the line and to people's lives as well. I think, yeah I think I'm mostly in alignment with the comments that were made before me. Just wanted to provide a few more dimensions to it.

But otherwise you know I'm supportive of what's before us tonight. I'm happy to support the CDBG recommendations. I'm really excited about the community needs assessment being something that the commissioners can carry out. And again a little skeptical of technical assistance specifically open to auditing but in a very lightweight fashion that you know I would deprioritize that if it was too difficult to manage from a staff perspective and coordinate from a staff perspective. But open to it nonetheless.

And those

are my comments, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Andrews.

Thank you, thank you to the commissioners and the chair for calling in and thank you to staff for this report. I wanted to just acknowledge the funding being cut. I know that was really tough for your commission and I am interested in seeing what other opportunities the CSC can do that would be beneficial to those folks that are impacted by the cuts. And one thing I was thinking about was yesterday we had our economic development committee. And the thing that really sticks out in economic development is this pain point of managing events.

Who manages events? It seems to be a hot potato in this city. And I know that arts and culture was a portion of the community services review and I was looking at what other cities were doing and we were discussing how it would be great if we had a fund similar to what we see in other cities like the Oakland Fund or we have East Bay Community Foundation Fund, Silicon Valley Community Fund. And just figuring out a way how do we retain that arts and culture given our city budget issues. And so a lot of us, council members included, we go out and seek that funding, we go out and try to fundraise and do this work on our free time.

This is not part of being a council member is to go out and do arts and culture and events, this is something that we like to do to bring community engagement to the city. And it would be great if we can have some research done by the Community Services Commission to give a recommendation to council, how would you create this fund and what would the city's role be in that in order to replenish what we were doing with the Arts and Culture Fund, but also make it bigger. Mean I a lot of the funds that we were distributing were really small grants, where other cities, they have really large grants and they're reaching out to these foundations to get a lot of money in order to put on events in arts and culture. So I would think that would be something that would be in line with what you all were doing when you were reviewing grants. Maybe this is a way to just do more research for us so we can see how we can support those efforts in the future.

One of the reasons why I brought up the fire department equipment in this fund is that I do have some concerns about that too. I would like to see us, for that category of funding, I would like to see the actual language of what apply, what items can be applied for that funding and I agree, I'm not sure if we should continue those kinds of allocations given that so many community partners were impacted. But just being transparent to the community as well, the fire department was impacted too and the equipment that is being acquired is gonna help those that are gonna be, they have been identified as low to moderate income and they do have that need. There was a needs assessment that was for the allocation. But I do understand confusion that could be and so that's why I did wanna call it out, especially because it was the largest dollar amount.

So I would like to revisit that category in the future, but I understand the needs for this year. I do actually agree with the CSE having an advisory role, but more, I do have also concerns about the second bullet point of providing technical assistance because we have a community services commission with people with varied backgrounds. And to provide technical assistance to something, to a non profit can be I think actually concerning for me. So what I would recommend is that the CSC refer folks back to either economic development or to the small business development center at Cal State East Bay. Those people are trained to help nonprofits become nonprofits versus relying on our our members to help them with their operations and and budgeting.

I I have concerns about that too. And I'm sure there are probably some members who may not feel comfortable doing that type of work. I think they would prefer just reviewing the application and allocating funds. So that's my feedback. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Goldstein.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Wheeler and Commissioners Gunnen Wong for your years of dedication to the Community Services Commission, and especially for coming tonight and expressing your points of view. Appreciate that. I agree with my colleagues.

In fact, I think that the recommendations that they've spoken about are worth pursuing. Similarly, I have concerns about the technical assistance part of that. If there's new information that comes to light about how we might proceed with that, I'd be willing to revisit it. But at the current time, I have some issue with that. But I do like the idea of putting in some measurement and accountability.

So, we've been actually talking about that even during my tenure as the liaison for CSE. About how do we ensure that the community agency funded agencies are actually achieving the results that they say that they are. And more importantly, are those results actually aligned with our goals? And then, in addition to that, are there overlaps? Are we spending too much money in certain program areas and not funding enough in other program areas.

We know, for example, with BAT's Bay Area Community Services that the variety of wraparound services they provide need to be coordinated. And so, part of my concern when I'm addressing this question is, are we providing the right supportive steps in the right manner at the right time to achieve the holistic end result that we're really after. And, you know, I've been involved in the recovery space for about a decade and a half. And my feeling is that there's not a lot of coordination. And so, I really would like to see more coordination along those lines.

I think BACS does a great job. But I think we, as a community, can do more. And I think Community Services Commission might really be able to step up into that role. So, would like to see that go on. I agree with the recommendations, with the staff recommendations. I'm especially pleased to see that we're continuing to support the Navigation Center, Home Rehab, and Habitat for Humanity. I think those are really key programs to assisting people in various stages of homelessness. So, I thank you for that. Good job on the report. Thank you for the recommendations. I will be supporting it. Thank you.

Council Member Zermenio.

Thank you, Mayor. Emily, thank you again for the report. My question was asked. I'm not as concerned as some of my colleagues about the technical assistance because it may mean several things. It may mean, it may mean being referred to somebody else. So I'm open to it. I think it's a good idea. I also like the other item on the other recommendation. I appreciate Mr. Gunn and Calvin. Mr. Wong? No. Yeah, Mr. Wong.

And Ms. Wheeler who called in. It is really sad that we did lose all those funds, I'm sure that all of those folks out there who are getting funds every year, all of sudden, it stopped. So it's not right. I'm hoping that when the fat cows return, we can go back to issuing some some helpful funds to these organizations because they are our community.

We're here for our community and they are here for us. I've always seen the commission as a recommending body, but also I've seen it as an advisory body because every year they come in, they give us ideas. They give us ways to improve the process. So I appreciate the words from a colleague, Bonilla, about advising and telling us what can be done better, how we can improve, maybe looking at other parts of grants. So that's very important as far as I'm concerned.

Those are all my comments. I thank you again very much. Please keep doing a good job. I think next year it will be better. And apologies to all of our organizations who were not recipients of any of the funds this year. So thank you.

Council Member Ruch.

Thank you. I wanna thank Ms. Huang for picking up where I know Amy left off especially in such a strange year, you know, when things had to change as you went along. I appreciate you moving everyone forward and continuing now to work with the commission and how to see it as a two point zero, think as Council Member Bonilla said. And thank you to the commissioners for being here tonight and for your work on the recommendations.

I will be supporting the recommendations. I also really wanna thank our liaison on this work because he served eight years, eight years on the Community Service Commission and including has the history of how the commission was changed when he was on there between two previous commissions and how to move that forward. I got to serve for four years with him on that. But I'm gonna, I like all the recommendations that were talked about tonight. As long as it's something that sort of the liaison and the staff are discussion with the commission and they come up with a comfortable way forward, I'm gonna support that and defer to everyone doing that hard work.

I said audit, doesn't have to be an audit, but some other way of looking at what our agencies are doing and we're gonna get the most bang for our buck basically in this hard work. And I just want to acknowledge, you know, it was a very severe thing that we did by cutting that funding this year. And, you know, it was not something anyone wanted to do. I mean, are our agencies doing all of the hard work in the community. Filling that need for our most vulnerable populations.

And, that was obviously not done lightly. I'm committing to bringing back those funds as soon as we can bring those funds back, so that this sort of talk of what it looks like in the future will just be on top of the good work of the funding, of getting back to funding our community agencies. Because that was the work I loved to do when I was on the commission, and I'd like to see us go forward with that in the future. So I will look forward to that day when we bring that back. And I just continue to thank you for the work you're doing, continue to try to figure this out now as we go forward and appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. I agree with the general sentiment up here. I also like Councilman Roach, wanna defer and respect the decisions by our liaison who has know, a decade of experience on the CSC and has seen it develop and grow over the years. So with the general ideas agree with. I do, I was very happy to see that some of the stuff that I had wrote prior to the meeting articulated by Mr.

Gunn and Mr. Wong. You know as I was looking at this report you know quite frankly I was just thinking about let's just pause. I mean let's take this time to really think rethink what it is that we're doing in the community. I mean, let's do a community assessment.

I mean, we you know, the Community Services Commission, you guys are all respected, you know, professionals in your own careers. I mean I mean not all of you, but most of you are educators, you're social workers, you're nonprofit leaders. I mean, the the technical expertise that you have in this space is, know, and and we and there are service gaps out there. I know they exist. They're out there. And so what are those gaps? What are the funding sources? You know, there's and, you know, and economic in the area of economic development. What are some of the gaps in economic development? What are you know?

Yeah. You know, no one wants to seem to own events around here. I mean, they're expensive. You know? And they not only are they expensive, but they they require a lot of mobilization of people and of resources. And, I mean, you know, the street parties and the Cinco de Mayo and all I mean, you see them. I mean, you know, it's right down to the stage. I mean, that's you know, just the logistics of it. Not to mention the the the preplanning and the and, you know, and all that. But, you know, I think there's and I should say, just to go back to the event, and everyone loves them.

You know? Everyone loves the events. And so anyways, think the you know, this is an opportunity I think for the CSC to really, you know, think about what are the needs in the community. And and if we can assist if we can come up with a strategy to assess that, that would be great. You know?

And and really take a a very deep dive, comprehensive look across across the city. You know, I just wanna make a comment about, you know, this well, I wanna make a comment about being careful about the gloom and doom, know, attitude about our budget situation. You know, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna get out of this. You know? I mean, know, I like to be optimistic and say it's gonna take us a year.

I think it's gonna take us probably two years, but we're gonna get out of this. And and I'm hopeful. And we're gonna we're gonna, you know, start to scale up. Hopefully, you know, we're gonna learn from learn from what we've done before. And, when we return, we'll do we'll be better. Service will be better. Agencies that we fund will be more calibrated. They'll be tighter. And, you know, I mean, it just let's just let's get past this year, these next two years. The work will get done.

We've never said no. I mean, I'm just gonna say it. We've never said no up here. And but now we're saying no. We're saying no. Give us two years, and and we'll get back. And so, you know, I just I I wanna be careful and and not I wanna be careful and not send the message like it's over. All of this is done because it's not. You know? And and so I wanna you know, I just wanna sort of be clear about that because there's a you know, I just don't wanna fall into that trap.

You know, secondly, I've said this before. In fact, you know, I've been up here some time and I've said this more than three times. But every time we get to when we're at the front end of this process, when we plan and we make suggestions as to what we wanna do with the CDBG funds, you know, I've always been a big proponent of let's identify a problem and tackle it. One problem. If it's homelessness, let's tackle it.

If it's if it's youth homelessness, let's tackle it. If it's if it's food insecurity, let's tackle it. One issue. But, you know, if we I think we are sort of spreading you know, we're not gonna solve homelessness with a $100,000. That's not gonna happen.

You know? We're not gonna solve hunger with a $25,000 check contribution to the food bank. That's not gonna we're not gonna solve it that way. And so, you know you know, maybe this is that opportunity where we sit down and think about what is that one thing that we really wanna solve. And, you know, I'll tell you, you know, just to, you know, kinda throw this out there.

You know, one of the one of the most successful projects we've seen here in the city of Hayward And, you know, CSC never, you know, didn't fund it. And I don't wanna say never funded, but CSC had no role in funding it or anything. But it was the Hayward Promise neighborhood. Here you had a cradle to career pipeline that had 14 agencies, all well coordinated with the backbone agency at Cal State East Bay. And, you know, they were trying to stop poverty within one generation from preschool to graduate school.

And, you know, and, of course, the Trump administration pulled their funding and and, you know, not everything has stopped. They're still doing some things, but they trimmed back exponentially. You see. And that was one one model that truly was citywide from from early childhood education to health care, prenatal, postnatal, early childhood, k 12, community college, university to career. And so we have models out there, and and and, you know, there are things that we can do, and, you know, and we've seen, you know, these these successful things.

So, you know, I just in summary, I just wanna say I don't want the community to think that where we are at today, we will be for the rest of our lives because we're not. And, you know, and we're gonna, you know, we're gonna come back. We're gonna we're gonna come back stronger. And you know, and we're gonna be better for it. So before I close my final comments, Miss Thomas, do you have everything you need and We

do need to, yeah we need you to vote. Better than that, yes. Yes, okay. Okay,

so well I appreciate that. I will and, of course hold on. Okay. Moved by Okay, so Councilmember Bonilla would like to state the motion.

Thank you, thank you mayor. So my motion is to move forward the funding recommendations with the clear understanding that this is one time only and shall not be considered ongoing or automatically renewed in future years. I actually want that in the motion. And then additionally I moved to expand the role of the Community Services Commission into an advisory capacity to help identify and advise the city council on the social, community, and human service needs including informing updates to the city's community needs assessment and related strategic plans that support vulnerable members of our community.

I second that. Thank you.

After this first sentence I was looking at

But I wanted to be clear that I'm not including technical assistance at this point for all of the reasons we mentioned, thank you.

Go ahead.

I just wanted to ask a clarifying question. Is the resolution before us just on the funding recommendations or does it also include recommendations for what the future of CEC should look like?

Just funding recommendations and the annual action plan.

But it's fine to include the others. Okay great, no staff concern.

Thank you.

Okay I just wanna make sure I have the city attorney looking over here. Can you turn the mic?

I think from my perspective I'd probably prefer a motion on the funding and a separate motion on essentially giving the commission sort of expanded role. I mean I understand the desire to sort of connect the two. But I think my preference would be to sort of focus on the funding recommendation first. If that passes, separate motion on the role of the commission.

Yep, I am totally fine with that.

Wait, I do have a click, can

I ask?

Yes.

Okay, because I appreciate everything you've done tonight, it sounds like you've worked with the commission, but my hesitation here is that you're making a decision about what the future of the commission looks like, but I thought we just said we're gonna try to work with the commission on what that looks like, and so I'm concerned about defining it right now because I thought that part was sort of more of a explore this and see what that looks like. So I'm a little concerned about the the definition even though I support the definition. I'm just worried that you haven't necessarily like you know workshop that with the commissioners.

Yeah I appreciate that. I thought that what staff was asking, correct me if I'm wrong, is what do we see as the future direction of the CSC? And I think the CSC is asking us to give them direction. I think we workshopped in our last CSC meeting what you guys wanted. I think my motion reflects that. And I also think that it's aligned with the feedback that you guys are asking to receive tonight. But if I'm misunderstanding, I'm open to being corrected.

So let me so let me say this. So I understand the city attorney. We need to make a motion and and and decide on the item on hand as a clean a clean vote. I get that. Secondly, with the comments that council member Bonilla made, all of that all of those all all of his comments along with the rest of the council comments are all point taken, note taken.

Staff staff has heard us. The CSC has heard us. And and all of this was encompassed in in the questions on slide whatever it was. So can we move and and vote on item nine with the understanding that all of the subsequent comments are included in that motion? Without putting aside the the the the the just call it the special motion that that council member Bonilla made. The comments that have all been made, will all of those be synthesized and and workshopped?

Can I offer an outcome that agrees with what you're saying? I think what council member Bonilla is looking for is a concrete change to the CSC scope here, which I think is important. And to council member Roche's point, I think there still is room within that scope. I think Councilmember Bonilla is providing a definition that then allows that freedom of movement for the commission to figure out together with staff and with the liaison. So I'm still supportive of that language.

I think my hesitation here is that motions on an item that wasn't agendized and so my request would be the motion to approve this item and the amendment is to bring back on consent an updated expanded mission statement for the CSC that is aligned with what Councillor Mabonio just articulated here. And then that way we're voting on a formal change to the CSC bylaws and it's not like we're mixing up two separate items. Does that sound reasonable to you Councillor Mabonio or does that make sense to my colleagues here?

Yeah, no that makes sense. And I don't even know if we need to do a formal vote here, but if we're at a consensus to say what I just said that we want this to be an advisory body, we want it to be focused on these three things, we want it to include the community needs assessment, blah blah blah, right? How do we get that? Do we need to then do what council member Syrup said and come back and agendize that? Because I'm totally fine doing that. But I think the contention that I don't want to continue to perpetuate is this lack of direction that the CSC is feeling that they're not getting from counsel. And unless we're ready to make a decision tonight, the issue is still gonna be the issue and it's gonna go unsolved.

Agree.

I like the mayor pro tem's suggestion.

Then I agree

with would that as recommend recommendation tonight, direct staff to come back with an action item that encompasses the expanded role community assessment and so on.

Using Councilor Brunia's language that he articulated in that original motion, just to be clear. So I liked the language that he had put forward. Okay.

We will return to the recording.

Okay,

excellent. So then I'll amend my motion and just keep

it

focused on approving the funding recommendations that came forward tonight.

So I don't want to parse words, but instead of amending it you're just restating your motion.

Sorry, you want to move the item on the table with the amendment that staff brings back the updated CSE definition on consent in the future. I think that's the motion you're trying

move forward. Perfect, thank you.

And I will second that.

Okay. City attorney, we're good? So

we're we're clear that staff will bring back an action item to be agendized to vote on with the expanded role.

Yes. Clear. Yes. Okay. Okay. Moved by council member Bonilla, seconded by mayor pro tem Sirep, madam city clerk, you can you can we can vote. And it looks like we are two for two for tonight. Thank you. And it passes unanimously. Okay.

Moving on to item number 10. This is our legislate our legislative business. California Public Employees Retirement System contract, adoption of a resolution of intention to introduce an an ordinance approving an amendment to the contract between the city of Hayward and the California Public Employees Retirement System or classic members in the International Association of Firefighters Local nineteen o nine, Hayward Fire Officers Association, Hayward Fire Chiefs Association, Hayward Police Officers Association, Hayward Police Management Unit, and Underrepresented Safety Executive Group. This is gonna come to us by way of our human resources director director Tex Texon. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna forego staff report, and I'm gonna return to counsel and see if they have any questions concerning the report.

Seeing none, I will open up for public comment. I don't have any public comment cards, and I don't see any hands online. So I will come back to the dais and see if there is a motion and a second. And it has been moved by council member Goldstein, second by somebody. Second by council member Zermenio, madam city clerk.

We can vote. And the item passes unanimously. Next is council reports and announcements. Council member Andrews.

I just wanna thank all the staff who organized Make a Difference Day at Weeks Park on Saturday. And I also wanna thank Hard who was also out there and all the community partners that came out for the day. I think there were, I think at least 200, close to 300 attendees. So good job, thanks.

Yeah. And thank you for El Taquito for serving all that food. Yeah. I don't know what it takes to serve all that food, but I just saw a lot of to go boxes. Mayor Pro Tem Syrup.

Thank you mayor. Chiming in for my occasional role as mosquito czar and hayward representative the on the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District Board of Trustees. Alameda County had its first case of west reported west Nile virus. They found a dead bird and it tested positive for West Nile virus. There are no cures for West Nile virus and so during the mornings and the evenings please do try to wear long sleeves.

Try to avoid being out or being bit by mosquitoes. And if you see any dead birds then one thing I want you to remember is to report dead birds. You can go to mosquitoes.org, it's a very simple URL. Mosquitoes.org report any dead birds you see because we'll come pick it up, we'll test it, it'll help inform where we can trap mosquitoes so we can target where it's coming from and keep it out of our city. So please be safe out there and report dead birds. Thank you.

And stay away from council member Syrah. No, I'm kidding. Don't stay away from him. Okay, anyone else? Okay. There are no council referrals. And so I wanted to adjourn tonight. There are two people that we have lost in our city. I first would like to adjourn in the name of Rosemarie Ramos. Rosemarie Ramos passed away at the age of 97, leaving behind a remarkable legacy of family, service, and creativity, and deep community involvement.

For seventy nine years, Hayward was her home. And after marrying the love of her life, Joseph Francis Ramos in 1947, together they built not only a loving family, but they also they also built a a trusted independent insurance agency that served Hayward families and businesses for more than three decades, helping insure homes, vehicles, and local businesses throughout the community. Rosemarie was a devoted wife for forty eight years and a proud mother of two children. Her greatest joy came from her growing family which expanded to include three grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, all of whom were touched by her warmth, wisdom, and unwavering support. A woman of deep faith and service, Rosemarie was an active member of All Saints Parish for many decades.

She dedicated countless Saturdays teaching in the CCD program, supported students and families through the Parent Teacher Association, while her children attended parish school and worked throughout worked through the Young Ladies Institute to help secure scholarships for students attending Catholic high schools. Her commitment to Hayward extended well beyond the church community. Rosemarie proudly served several terms on on the Burbank Area Redevelopment Commission where she advocated for neighborhood preservation, community integrity, and she continued to improve she can and she continued improvement of Hayward neighborhoods. Rosemarie's artistic talents brought beauty and inspiration to countless people. As a member of the Hayward Arts Association, she served as artist in residence and volunteered on numerous mural projects throughout Hayward.

She was also active in San Leandro Art Association and the Castro Valley Quilters Guild, where she created beautiful quilts and painted and paintings that became treasured gifts for her children, grandchildren, friends, and neighbors. Her artistic excellence earned her dozens of blue ribbons at the Alameda County Fair. She embraced life with curiosity and adventure, traveling extensively with her husband, later with her sister, and her dear friends. Her journeys included a steamship voyage down the Mississippi River, an Alaskan cruise, and memorable travels through the Azores, Madeira, Italy, Greece, France, Germany, Austria, and Israel. In her later years, Rosemarie became the beloved matriarch of both her family and her husband's family, serving as the oldest surviving member of her generation.

She remained a steadfast and loving presence at weddings, birthdays, graduations, family gatherings, plays, and concerts, and holiday celebrations. Her smile, her holiday cookies, and her consistent encouragement will deeply be missed by all who knew and loved her. Rosemarie leaves behind a lasting example of civic pride, generosity, faith, and active involvement in her community in her community life. She has believed she believed Hayward was not simply a place to live, but the best place to live. A value she passed on to her family and to everyone fortunate enough to know her.

And I I just wanted to say personally Rosemarie Ramos, she attended every city event. She attended every street fair. She attended every every event we had in the rotunda or here in the in the front, in the in the plaza. And she was she was always here and and she always found found time to make it. So in her name, in her memory, I adjourn tonight's meeting.

And madam city manager, if we can connect with her family and we can find a place to plant a tree in her name. We also lost, in fact, recently the other day, we lost a gentleman named Dennis Up, a long time resident of Hayward's Southgate neighborhood, and a dedicated advocate for public safety and community service passed away on the evening of May 2 following a courageous battle with cancer. Dennis was widely respected for his years of service and leadership in the Hayward community. He served as past president of the Bridgepoint Condominiums and was an active block captain with Hayward Neighborhood Alert. For many years, he organized national night out gatherings, helping strengthen neighborhood relationships and foster safer communities throughout South Hayward.

Committed to emergency preparedness and public safety, Dennis was cert certified through the city of Hayward, through the city of Hayward, and generously shared his knowledge by assisting with training seminars for others. His dedication extended beyond extended beyond Hayward through his involvement with San Jose search and rescue where he participated in search and rescue missions across the Bay Area. Dennis devoted countless hours to ensuring the safety and well-being of others and leaves behind a legacy of service, leadership, and compassion. Dennis was also a valued neighbor and dear friend to many who knew him over the years. His kindness, civic spirit, and unwavering commitment to helping others made a lasting impact on the Hayward community.

He is survived by his wife, Daisy Up, a nurse at Saint Rose Hospital. Dennis will be deeply missed by his family, friends, neighbors, and all those lives he touched through the years through his dedicated service. And madam city manager, we will connect with his family and we can have a tree planted in his name too. So I adjourn tonight's meeting in the name of Dennis Up, a long time resident of Hayward and in the Southgate neighborhood. So for Dennis Up and for Rosemarie Ramos, God bless him, meeting adjourned.