City Council - Regular Meeting

0:53 – 2:11•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Hi, everybody. All right. Let me just get my computer up so I can see. There we go. All right, everybody. Welcome to the City of Riverside City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 1st. And we have an afternoon-only session today, which means we have no evening session. When we go into closed session, we will come back and adjourn, but there will be no evening session. I will call our meeting to order now, and I will call on Councilmember Robillard, please, to lead us in an invocation.

2:12 – 2:52•SRSteven Robillard

Thank you, Mayor, if you would like to bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather tonight in service of the people of Riverside. Grant us wisdom in the decisions before us, patience to listen to one another, and humility to remember that the authority entrusted to us carries our responsibility to serve. guide our council, our city staff, and all those who have come before us tonight. Help us look beyond the immediate challenges and make decisions that strengthen our community for the generations that follow. We ask for your protection over our first responders,

2:52 – 3:31•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Amen. Thank you. Will you please lead us in the pledge? the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Council Member Robillard. And this afternoon we start with our public comment, as we always do, and this is public comment on the consent calendar, closed session, and any matters within the jurisdiction of the City Council.

3:55•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. We have a couple requests to speak in chambers, and I will call on Dave Stolte, please. Who's first? Is Dave here? Hello, Dave. Good to see you.

4:06•SMSean Mill

Good afternoon, Mayor Locke-Dawson, City Council, and staff.

6:55•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Stolte. Next, I have Errol Kosiewicz.

13:22 – 13:39•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Elliott. That was our last request to speak, so we will close public comment and move on on our agenda. We are now at item two. This is our mayor and council member communications. And I will first start with Councilor Falcone, as I usually do, word one.

13:39 – 14:30•PFPhilip Falcone

Thank you, Mayor. Oh, loud there. Let me stand way back. There's a series of town halls that I'm doing on a town hall tour, and there's quite a few, so I won't necessarily list every single meeting that's happening, but sharing that we've had one last night, we had one today that both were well attended and successful, and having some still to come for students, for businesses, for Spanish speakers, as well as the general town hall for anyone who just wants to come and share what's on their mind so those are posted on social media for anyone who would like to get involved and this is in additi

14:34 – 16:20•CCClarissa Cervantes

There we go. Sorry, I wasn't turning on. Thank you. Yes, for myself, a couple updates I want to share. The first being that this is in Ward 1, but the True Revolution Wellness Clinic grant opening is going to take place this Thursday from 6 to 8, which we're very excited about. And so I want to congratulate True Revolution, their entire team, and everyone involved to help to support the wellness clinic that is going to be brought to our community and service hundreds, if not thousands, of folks throughout many years to come. Additionally, we do have the Labor Day Inland Empire Labor Council is

16:21 – 17:07•SRSteven Robillard

Thank you, Mayor. Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Riverside Police Department's awards and swearing-in ceremony at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Ward 3, along with Interim City Manager Tom Hatch. It's a great opportunity to recognize the dedication and service of our Riverside police officers and welcome those. Taking on those roles also attended the top and out ceremony with many of my colleagues here for the Museum of Riverside and that was a fun experience to see that last piece of steel being put together on the Skeleton of that new expansion of the museum and then with Lab

17:07•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Condor.

17:10 – 17:44•CCChuck Conder

Thank you, Mayor. Unfortunately, I couldn't be at that ceremony with our police department because I was with our director, Michelle Davis, and I'm not going to say what I was doing because I think she's going to probably talk about it in a few minutes. So that was a great day with Michelle and her team, though. And just one more thing. We're not going to see you until after September 11th. This is the 25th anniversary on September 11th. of the murder of 2,977 innocent souls. Take a moment on that day. Remember them. Remember the families that are left behind and just say a quick prayer for th

17:44•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Mills?

17:46 – 21:02•SMSean Mill

Thank you, Mayor. Last week on the 27th, my team and I had a wonderful town hall meeting at the Riverside Country Club Mobile Home Park right in Ward 5. I want to thank all the city staff that came out there to bring City Hall to the community. uh football is back and we all know that and especially on friday nights um i'm so excited as a former high school football coach nothing i love more than a friday night high school football game and uh last friday i went out and saw arlington versus ramona and arlington and ramona are where most of the kids in ward five go to school and it was a great

Thank you, Mayor. Only one update. This Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Arlanza Community Center, we'll be having a community meeting about the TCC, the Transformative Climate Community Grant that the City of Riverside is applying for. I encourage individuals, especially from Ward 6, to attend the meeting, learn more about the grant, and give their feedback. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks.

21:32•MDMayor Lock Dawson

And last but not least, Council Member Hemmering.

21:34 – 22:34•SHSteve Hemenway

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank the Mayor for being at the RTA ribbon-cutting last Thursday. We were able to celebrate the next chapter of sustainable transportation at the RTA headquarters where they – had the ribbon cutting for their new hydrogen fueling station it was uh it's quite a thing there and um we were really excited to be a part of it and uh supervisor medina was there and the mayor thank you for your meaningful comments uh in celebration we got some good ice cream as well so um then the the last one is that uh for next wednesday september 9th Council Member Hernandez and I,

22:35 – 23:23•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member Hemingway. I just want to share with everybody, it was like 180 degrees when we were at that RTA ribbing cutting. And they were going to do, like, you know, snacks, the charcuterie board. They had an ice cream truck instead, which I thought was just brilliant. So I'm going to steal that idea. And it was delicious ice cream. So maybe you and Council Member Hernandez should have it at your net zero. Yeah, no, that was great. And I had to twist Council Member Hemingway's arm to come up with me to present the certificate that Council Member Cervantes and I had signed. But

23:26 – 25:22•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Connie is as well, so hopefully that will be done 27, yes? Oh, early 28, okay. Thank you. And also, where I was able to attend with Council Member Condor, the Regional Homeless Housing Subcommittee meeting that our Housing and Human Services, Michelle will talk about that, I think, today. But Michelle Davis and her staff did an amazing job bringing people together from across the county to talk about various solutions to our homeless and other issues around that, housing issues. And then finally, I wanted to thank the Building Industry Association of Southern California. They are recognizing m

25:24•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. Council, any conflicts of interest?

25:30 – 25:48•CCClarissa Cervantes

Yes, Mayor, and I do need to recuse myself from the public hearing at 3 o'clock, item number 40. This is due to a contribution I did receive through my campaign, not from Grapevine, but through a different entity, but that is tied to the developer. So I want to be mindful and be safe and will formally recuse. All right. Thank you, Council Member.

25:48 – 26:11•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Anybody have any ex parte communications they need to report? Okay, perfect. All right, that brings us to our presentations. And first up, we have our Housing and Human Services Department overview and employee recognition. And I will call on our exceedingly competent director, Michelle Davis, to come forward and please give us a report. Ms. Davis.

37:30•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Was I under 10? This thing doesn't move. It didn't move.

37:33•PFPhilip Falcone

We're not timing as we should, so that's why you weren't. But you did a great job, Michelle.

37:37 – 38:02•MDMayor Lock Dawson

I was wondering, but you did. I was looking at it, and I was pretty sure you hit it under there. So thank you for that. And wow, what a lot of work you all do. Thank you, all of you, for doing this very important work within our city. And can I add to you, Michelle, I thought that was very nice that you recognized your partners within the city and the different departments. That was very nice. Thank you. We have a couple comments from our council members. Council Member Condor.

38:02 – 39:25•CCChuck Conder

Michelle, thank you to you and your very diverse staff for all the work you do on this very difficult issue. There's been homeless hell since the Egyptians built the pyramids. Everyone says we're going to solve it. It's a very difficult issue. If it wasn't difficult, we would have solved it by now. But you guys do a good job answering all these issues. And I think what is great about your presentation, we all hear every day about the homeless. And people will yell at us, you're not doing a damn thing for the homeless issue. They have no idea what your people are out there doing every day with

39:29 – 41:07•SRSteven Robillard

Councilmember Robillard. Thank you, Mary, and congratulations to the team. It's one of those very, very tough jobs that a lot of times the results are hard to find sometimes, and I think it's individual problems and issues that you're trying to deal with, and everyone's different. There's no silver bullet. If we had it, we would use it. But I think one thing I wanted to suggest for next year's faith-based gathering A lot of the churches I've talked to, they have ministries that they have within their churches that do outreach and have a heart to serve the homeless population. a lot of times it

41:08•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Mill.

41:10•SMSean Mill

Thank you, Mayor. And first, how are we having a celebration without Marquise here?

41:21 – 46:03•SMSean Mill

But, no, Michelle, I got to say, you know, thank you, especially to the people who are out on the front line. You know, it's got to be just – it's a thankless job, for one. But it's just got to be tough. I mean, every day coming back after being out in the streets and sometimes you've got to come back and feel as if like, what did I get done today? But they get up tomorrow and they do the same thing. And that takes a lot. I know, you know, when I'm having a tough day, the last thing I want to do is revisit the day I had before, tomorrow. But your team does that every day. Our city's a better p

I just want to thank you and your team. I'll keep it short. I'm the council member of Ward 6. I know you guys are out there day in, day out. And although it may seem like a thankless job sometimes, I am very grateful and sorry to the residents of the area. So thank you for all your hard work.

46:32 – 47:26•CCChuck Conder

I WANT TO TRIPLE DOWN ON WHAT MY TWO COLLEAGUES TALKED ABOUT. WHEN HE TOLD ME THAT STORY ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THAT CHURCH, I WAS FLOORED BY IT. I HAVE PASSED THAT STORY ON TO PROBABLY 35 or 40 people in town, including our church, and they want to get involved. They want to do that. I was going to talk to you, and this is perfect timing. I'd like to bring Jason up for the Inland Empire Forum and let him talk about how to do it. You're bringing pride back to a person. Even the money they earn, because they were earning $20 a day, even if they spent that on a pack of cigarettes... They ear

47:28 – 47:50•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member. Just a couple things. Michelle, we get a lot of money from the state every year, HAP funding, which is the Housing, Homeless, and Assistance Prevention Program. Can you just very briefly say what those funds are used for throughout some of the programs that you've used? What do they go to?

48:41 – 48:55•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. And I know we have a dashboard. We're looking at a dashboard to see the efficacy of where those dollars are going to programs that work, which don't work, and which ones should we shed, which ones should we beef up. Correct. And I know someone in my office is looking at that as well.

48:58 – 49:30•MDMayor Lock Dawson

I think she's great. And then I know you mentioned TAY youth or transitional age youth. That's who we focus on when we talk about functional zero for youth homelessness. I think there was a comment made at a committee meeting yesterday. Council Member Mill said that someone said we hadn't solved it, youth homelessness, because there were so many issues. McKinney-Vento students in the school district, I think they said there was something like 2,000. That's an entirely different group, and they fall under different designations and all these other things, correct?

49:41 – 51:32•MDMayor Lock Dawson

I mean, that's part of the issue with that group, I think, so. And lastly I think one of the things I wish our public would know was we've I think all the council members up here got requests within the past couple weeks about why aren't we doing like other cities and doing police sweeps of our encampments and I think you showed we do them on the regular basis and we have done them every We do them a lot. So I think a couple cities around us have made it public lately that they've been doing it, but we've been doing it for a long time. And, in fact, I think your data show there was over 600 ar

51:38 – 52:39•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay. Moving on to our agenda. Oh, wow. This is a fun one. We've got September is Deaf Awareness Month. So this is our last presentation, and this is in recognition of Deaf Awareness Month. And because CSDR is in his ward, I want to ask Councilmember Robillard to help make this presentation. But I just know our friends from the deaf community and CSDR, we worked very hard to get our commission established since I've been in office. We worked very hard to work with our folks at CSTR. We continue to. And thank you for sticking with us. We appreciate you just bearing with us. So thank you. And wi

52:42 – 55:38•SRSteven Robillard

All right, before we present the proclamation, I wanted to make a moment to recognize Riverside's vibrant deaf community. Deaf Awareness Month is an opportunity not only to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of deaf and hard of hearing community, but also to remind all of us the importance of accessibility, inclusion, and understanding. California School for the Deaf, Riverside, has played an important role in fostering that community for generations. CSDR has been a part of Riverside for more than 70 years and today serves more than 400 deaf students ages 3 to 21 from 12 counties

56:20 – 56:32•SRSteven Robillard

All right, thank you. And if you guys can go ahead, we'll come into the well right here, and we'll take a picture with the certificates. And everyone here, as well as our deaf commissioners as well, can come into the well.

59:30 – 59:52•MDMayor Lock Dawson

So thank you all for coming, and also just congratulations to everybody, and thank you, Councilor Robillard. All right, Council, we are moving on our agenda, and we are at our consent calendar, and I will ask our city manager if you have any items you wish to pull.

59:55•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Ward 1? Pass. Ward 2? Pass. Ward 3? Pass. Pass. Ward 4? Pass. Ward 5? Pass. Ward 6? Pass. Ward 7? Pass.

1:00:09•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. We have a motion and a second. Please vote on the consent calendar.

1:00:18 – 1:01:10•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay, great, thank you. So, we are now at our closed sessions, right? Yeah, so, council, we're gonna move into closed session for a bit, and then we will come back out for our public hearing, which is scheduled to be 3 p.m. Do we, where is it? It's not on, sorry, it's not on my tab here. Okay, it's right here. Pardon me, it skipped on my notes here, so apologies. All right, so we are now at item 30A, and this is our interim city managers to execute a contract with two interim deputy community and economic development directors. So with that, I will open public comment for this item.

1:01:32•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. With that, I will ask Miriana Gonzalez please to come forward and give us a staff report. Ms. Gonzalez.

1:04:02 – 1:04:16•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. Let me see if we have any requests to speak on this item. Nothing in chambers, and I don't see anybody online. We'll close public comment. Council, any questions, comments?

1:04:20•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, we have a motion of second, word three, word four. Please vote.

1:04:33 – 1:04:48•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. Item 30B, this is a resolution establishing rules and regulations for a procurement process. So we will open public comment for this.

1:05:10•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. And with that, I'd like to ask Jennifer McCoy, please, to give us a staff presentation on this item.

1:20:37 – 1:21:01•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, thank you, Ms. McCoy. Let me see if we have any callers. We don't have any requests to speak in chambers. I don't believe anybody's online. So we'll... Do we have any callers? Okay, I don't see any. Okay, we do have one caller. Let's have our caller, please.

1:24:05 – 1:24:25•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Mr. Hunter. We have another caller. Please, let's have our next caller. Hi, if you're online, unmute, please, and you can start speaking.

1:26:13 – 1:26:24•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Ms. Chavez. I believe that was our last caller, so we will close public comment and come back to our city council for discussion. Council Member Mill.

1:26:24 – 1:27:00•SMSean Mill

Thank you, Mayor. You know, I'm all about reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, but I'm not willing to do so at the expense of competition, transparency, or council oversight. I think that's what this is asking us to do here today. I do have some questions I have for you. Thank you. My first question is, why is staff recommending a $220,000 formal procurement threshold when the peer agency average cited in the report is only $116,923? The goal was to have it align with CUPCA. So there are some

1:27:41 – 1:27:59•SMSean Mill

Now let's talk about the informal procurements. What exactly do you mean by three bids if possible? And who decides when three bids are not possible? And are you planning to justify that publicly?

1:28:39•SMSean Mill

So who decides, well, one, like... Oh, an exception.

1:29:03•SMSean Mill

So help me understand, because I'm not... Sure. Help me understand, again, who makes the decision that three bids are not possible?

1:29:41•SMSean Mill

Will every informal procurement between $50,000 and $220,000 be publicly posted or will the vendors be solicited privately?

1:30:29 – 1:30:43•SMSean Mill

Is there a local requirement? Do we give local businesses, you know, Let's say all things are equal, or are we giving preference to our Riverside-based businesses?

1:31:43 – 1:32:32•SMSean Mill

and shop locally as well and be reaching out to the vendors that are here in our community. So we're putting money into the pocket so that it gets put back into our community. So I'm always so disheartened when I see we're hiring vendors that are out of state, in fact, some that are on the other side of the country, I'd love to see us try to keep as much money as possible here in Riverside because it goes to people who live in our community and it puts money right back into our community. Just two more questions for you. Why are delegated contracts only reported annually? And will staff commit

1:32:54 – 1:33:12•SMSean Mill

And my final question would be, since y'all are acknowledging in the report that the estimated 996 redirected staff hours will not produce actual budget savings, what measurable taxpayer benefits must be achieved before the council renews these changes after 12 months?

1:33:35 – 1:33:53•SMSean Mill

Yeah, I mean, you're acknowledging that what you're trying to do is to streamline the process, eliminate the bureaucracy. You know, it's going to save 996 staff hours, it's going to cut down on items before the council. What's what's the real benefit to the community?

1:34:21 – 1:36:35•SMSean Mill

Thank you. I agree with, again, as I stated previously, I'm all for reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. I think our residents deserve a government that's efficient, but I also think they deserve and I think they demand a government that's accountable. I think what we're doing here is we're taking away I actually don't like when I see, oh, we're going to reduce the number of items that come before council to a lower number. I'm not really in favor of that. I worked hard to get into this position. I don't care how long. I know people want to get out of here sometimes. We can be here all night. I t

1:36:36•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you, Council Member Mill. Council Member Cervantes? Yes.

1:36:42 – 1:39:41•CCClarissa Cervantes

All right, these mics are being a little funny today. Thank you for the presentation, and I appreciate some of the questions from my colleagues so that we could just get some more clarity. I think for myself in going through this, I feel most comfortable, and I'd love to hear from my colleagues. In looking at both options, I think I like option two in seeing on the procurement process, and I appreciate your elaboration on some questions I would have had as well. What I like about this one is that it provides the same, just reading from the report, same operational benefits through a dual thres

1:40:37 – 1:41:33•CCClarissa Cervantes

I guess I'm thinking of kind of how like a planning has their DRC reviews where they run through things that then aren't going to come here, you know, and it's almost like if you're already going to have a list of, you know, that's going to be clear to be kind of cut out and it's going to be maybe authorized. Maybe there could be a channel through city manager's office that then it's like, you know, council, please see attached. These are the items that are already essentially authorized to go again, it almost could be like, let us know if there's anything you need clarification on, you know,

1:41:34 – 1:44:57•SRSteven Robillard

Thank you, Mayor. I think efficiency is always good. People always say, why don't you run the government like a business? Well, if we ran it like a business, we wouldn't have any of this oversight and so forth. But there's importance to the oversight because it is not our money. It's the public's money, right? But I do want to echo some of the comments made by Councilmember Cervantes because we're seeing this kind of play out in real time in Ward 3. where we have this very long, complicated procurement process, and we're looking to replace flooring in a senior center, and they have purchased a

1:44:59•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Council member, council member Hernandez.

This one's a bit of a tough one. I appreciate the presentation and I appreciate you answering all of our questions. I agree kind of with a little bit of everybody. I agree with Council Member Mill. We were voted to go through the process and make sure that we are being held accountable for A lot of how our procurement process goes forward and the purchases that we make spending taxpayer money. I also understand on, you know, Councilmember Cervantes and Robillard is, you know, efficiency and, you know, I appreciate your story about, you know, the senior centers. Maybe I'm not comfortable with t

1:46:24 – 1:47:59•PFPhilip Falcone

i'm going to have to stay with leaving it the same i'm not comfortable with the 200 000 threshold uh so you know that's that's where i stand on the issue thank you thank you councilmember councilmember falcone thank you mayor i'll be brief i i see both sides of this i do think it's i definitely resonate with what councilman mill shared about that we we are elected to make these decisions and when we go to neighborhood meetings we get yelled at and held accountable and we get yelled out here too and get held accountable for things that sometimes we don't have any control or say in. So I think t

1:48:01 – 1:48:39•SHSteve Hemenway

uncertainty here. So sometimes that means there's a little bit more work to do. If it would be useful to send this to the Finance Committee for more fleshing out, I'd be happy to take it and do some more work. I would second that. And if other certain folks have an interest to sit in that space and to substitute in, Be happy to have that happen as well, so It sounds like there was a appetite so I'll move that we move take this to finance committee for more vetting apologies for the all the work and delay, but I Think that might be the better route than to try and make decisions on the fly up h

1:49:15 – 1:49:27•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Do you have a list of those? I do. Because I do think it's something that this council has to decide on the dais. It's always a very difficult thing to do, to parse out, which is why I think they want to study it in committee.

1:50:00 – 1:50:23•SHSteve Hemenway

so are you meaning only one then would need to be i guess it would it would be option one that we would request that you consider just just clean up language yes please yeah so i would um approve item one and the remainders two through four two three and four will go to committee is that that that would be that'll be my motion i second that motion

1:50:25•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, council, are you clear on what you're voting for? Okay. I have a quick question. Yeah. I have a quick question, if I may.

1:50:30 – 1:50:56•SMSean Mill

Sure, councilor. Is there a reason why that piece can't wait until, I mean, is there something pending that we need to do today? I mean, we can't bring the whole thing back. I'm not real big on slicing things up. And I'm really not big on unelected bureaucrats making decisions. But if you can tell me if there's a reason why we need to.

1:51:18 – 1:51:29•PFPhilip Falcone

I would, I agree with what you said, Councillor Mayall, but in the instance of fleet, poor general services, we need to help these people. We need to help general services get stuff across the finish line, and that's one department that this, I think, would help.

1:51:31 – 1:51:46•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right, so are we modifying the motion, or are we keeping it where it is, or are we waiting? It would be... Okay, so Council Member Hill's comments don't, and her answer doesn't affect that. Okay.

1:51:48•SHSteve Hemenway

I don't know if we can repeal the previous resolution, although we have something to fill it, right?

1:52:23•SHSteve Hemenway

When we say repeal, essentially we just mean modify. Repeal the current one and modify it to create a new one. With the new language, amend to modify.

1:52:33•MDMayor Lock Dawson

I'm hearing, let me let our city attorney weigh in very quickly here. I think he has a suggestion.

1:53:15•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Or are you okay with the original motion?

1:53:19 – 1:53:47•SHSteve Hemenway

Well, my gut says, why don't we then have this, the portion that you would like that has to do with the cleanup, why doesn't that come back to the next council meeting as its own approval where folks will have time to get through and read it, and then the other stuff will go to committee? I feel like that's probably cleaner than us trying to do stuff on the fly, unless there's an urgent, urgent thing in the next two weeks or three weeks.

1:53:47•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Is there anything urgent? Is there time sensitive on this? The fleet vehicles is time sensitive.

1:53:56 – 1:54:08•CCClarissa Cervantes

And I think my suggestion would be then is that we just break these up into two votes so that if we could see if there's a majority that was willing to support item one, we take a vote on it, and then we vote on the item that's on the tape motion for the rest of the week.

1:54:10 – 1:54:28•SHSteve Hemenway

Sorry, I'm not trying to belabor this I think that's what the motion was already is to move one through and put the rest But it seems like there's language embedded in the resolution that needs three to go through on some level. Correct. But not fully.

1:54:28•SRSteven Robillard

We need to rewrite the recommendations, I think, to reflect that is what the city attorney recommended. Okay. That's fine. Okay. We'll do that.

1:54:38•SHSteve Hemenway

Thank you, city attorney. Thank you for that.

1:54:44•SHSteve Hemenway

Continue until after close. That's it. Perfect. Sorry. Thank you. Yes.

1:54:47•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Do we need to take a vote on that? No, we're just continuing it.

1:55:01 – 1:57:12•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay. Let's do that then. All right, council. We're going to bring this back and city attorney's going to have a look at it and give you a written thing. Thank you, Julie. Or Jen. Appreciate it. Thank you. Council, we have a public hearing at 3 p.m. Let's just take a five-minute break and then we'll come back. We have returned from our break and we are now at our 3 p.m. public hearing and this is a Agreement with grapevine development and for the sale of a Housing Authority property Just a note councilmember Cervantes has recused herself from this vote because of a monetary or financial intere

1:57:34 – 1:57:45•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay, and I have Agrippina. I don't see, where'd Agrippina go? She was here. Are you gonna give us a presentation? Assistant City Manager? I saw her earlier.

2:04:06 – 2:04:26•MDMayor Lock Dawson

thank you to all the pinch hitting thank you you guys did great good work out there well done um let's see let me see if we have any callers um for public comment we have no caller so we'll close public comment we've received nothing in chambers and i will come back to council councilmember mill

2:04:27 – 2:06:00•SMSean Mill

Thank you, Mayor. And, you know, Michelle, I'm just, after sitting here and saying, oh, Michelle's always there, and then when we go, and then, you know, we gave you all these, you know, gave you your flowers, and then, but no, thank you, thank you. You know, as a member of the Homeless and Housing Committee, we've been chomping at the bit for this project for for quite some time. I know Councilmember Robillard's seen it and our colleague Councilmember Cervantes. We've been seeing this for two plus years. Every meeting at the end of the Housing and Homeless Committee meeting, that slide would

2:06:01•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you. Motion and a second. Council Member Falcone?

2:06:05 – 2:06:51•PFPhilip Falcone

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Mill. Happy to second that. I just am appreciative to both Grapevine as well as to the team that make this happen. And I want to share what I always share when we have projects that come before us. This is, again, proof that when people come down here and tell us that there's no affordable housing happening in Ward 1, that Ward 1's not doing any of this. that it's fake news it's misinformation board one has the most so uh to all the news agencies in our city that love to share misinformation about um that we don't build anything that we don't approve

2:06:54•CCChuck Conder

So it's $5.7 million for the 10 units? Correct. Just for the 10 units?

2:07:13•CCChuck Conder

Okay. Well, I mean, I'm just trying to do simple math. If I take 5.7 and divide it by 10, it's $570,000 per unit. Yeah. Per unit.

2:07:42•CCChuck Conder

I'd go to Moe Valley and buy a three-bedroom house for that cost. All right, thank you.

2:07:49•MDMayor Lock Dawson

You're welcome. All right, Council Member Ropard.

2:07:52 – 2:08:44•SRSteven Robillard

Yes, just back to those numbers. That's someone who knows what goes into building housing. The majority of that cost, what people understand is the carrying cost, if you go back to it, is because these are affordable units. They are offsetting the profits and the rent that you would have been making if it was market rate. They're subsidizing that amount. And so when we talk about affordable housing, that's what it takes to make affordable housing is all that extra money. pays the the subsidizes that that fee and so that's why it's not actual per unit cost it's the rent abatement or rent subsid

2:09:07•MDMayor Lock Dawson

And I will call on our attorney, please, to announce our closed session items.

2:11:05 – 2:11:49•MDMayor Lock Dawson

everybody council is just returning from closed session and we're going to take up item 30b again which we continued from the earlier in the afternoon and our city attorney has uh helped us with a red line and i don't see him here is he he's coming back in Okay, so he'll be out momentarily, but Jen, or sorry, keep calling me Jen. I have a friend named Jen McCoy. I go by Jen. Yeah. Yeah. Another one. But if you would like to start, can you start without the city attorney, or would you want to wait? No, absolutely, I can start. Okay, let's have you do that then. Okay. Thank you.

2:21:08 – 2:21:19•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Any questions? Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Jen? Or do you?

2:21:20•SRSteven Robillard

If we can go back to the staff recommendations page, because I think that's what we had to go back to now that we know what the changes are in the resolution.

2:21:36•SRSteven Robillard

They need to go back to the staff recommendation for this item because there's four different pieces to that recommendation. This is just one of those pieces.

2:21:45•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay. So can we get the staff recommendation for the original item 30B back up? Is it B? Yeah.

2:22:01 – 2:22:28•SRSteven Robillard

All right. Okay. And so essentially what we just went over is the number one, which is all the changes that were made to the resolution. And then in order to adopt those changes, we have to do number three, which is the repeal. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And then, um, number four, um, I could still move forward cause that'd still be relevant whether or not we increased the, the authority purchase authority. Correct.

2:22:34 – 2:22:50•SRSteven Robillard

And so essentially what Council Member Hemingway is still proposing is to bring number two back for further discussion to the Finance Committee. Is that okay? I understand that. So if you want to clarify your motion, then yeah.

2:22:53 – 2:23:06•SHSteve Hemenway

What you just said. No, I'm kidding. Then I guess we'll move staff's recommendations for 1, 3, and 4, directing 2 to Finance Committee for the review.

2:23:07•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Okay. Everybody clear on what the motion is? You have a question?

2:23:12 – 2:23:36•SMSean Mill

I think going back to my questions earlier, we talked about potentially, because if Section 2 is passed, I had some questions about coming back more often than quarterly as opposed to yearly. Yes. So if we vote on number four today.

2:23:37•SHSteve Hemenway

Do you want number four to say quarterly instead of 12 months?

2:23:41 – 2:24:01•SMSean Mill

Because it depends. I'm fine with it staying at 12 months if we don't make big changes. But if we're making changes that are proposed in Section 2, that's when I would like it to come back to us more often. So that's why, for me, in order to say, yeah, I'm good with number four, I have to see what happens with number two.

2:24:32 – 2:24:43•MDMayor Lock Dawson

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Appreciate that. All right. Item number 41. I will call on our city attorney, please, to report on our closed session decisions.

2:24:47•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you. Council members, any items for future agenda?

2:24:51 – 2:25:36•SRSteven Robillard

Yes, Mayor, I have an item I'd like to request that we establish a three-member council working group on artificial intelligence strategy and policy. With the appointments brought back to council at our September 15th meeting, I envision the working group taking a comprehensive look at AI, not only policy governing the city's use of artificial intelligence, but also the broader implications of AI. for economic development, workforce development, data centers, infrastructure, land use, energy, and water, cybersecurity, education, and our local economy. These issues cross the jurisdictions of se

2:25:36 – 2:25:47•MDMayor Lock Dawson

All right. Thank you. Anybody else? Any other items? right thank you we will see you all on september 15th i think yeah okay bye-bye we are adjourned