City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. My name is Kaia Aiken. I'm the Vice Mayor. I'd like to welcome all of you to tonight's City Council meeting. I will be presiding over tonight's meeting as Mayor Martínez Ceballos is unable to be with us in person, although he is there. He is with us remotely. We hold meetings in hybrid format with both in-person and virtual participation. The city welcomes public comment on topics within the city's subject matter jurisdiction and members of the public may provide comments as follows. In-person speakers will be called first. Speaker cards are located at the back of the c

And with that, I would like to ask Council Member Gee if he would lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please rise and join me in saluting the flag of our country, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Thank you very much, Mr. G. And now I would like to make a notification that meeting participation by teleconference due to just cause pursuant to government code subsection 54953.8.3 is permissible. And on this point, I am now going to turn over the microphone to our Mayor, Elmer Martinez Ceballos, to discuss this further.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and hello, colleagues. Hi, team. I'm not there in person today because I have a contagious illness. I will have my video and audio activated, and there's nobody here above the age of 18 at my remote location.

Thank you very much, Clerk, and thank you, Mayor Martina Ceballos, for keeping us all safe and finding a good way to participate. We are now at item number five, which is presentations and acknowledgements. The first proclamation that we are presenting tonight is in recognition of suicide prevention month. During this month of September, our goal is to spread hope and spark meaningful action around one of the most urgent mental health issues of our time. This month is Suicide Prevention Month. And what we are recognizing tonight is that 65 people died by suicide in San Mateo County in the last

Well, thank you both for enlightening us on ways that we can get involved and work on this public health problem. I would like to ask my colleagues to join me. We have a plaque for you to recognize this month. We can do it again. Yeah, let's do it again. Thank you. Let's do it again. It's digital now. Congratulations. Thank you for your work. Thank you so much. Thank you again. And now we have an additional proclamation that we would like to share with so much good work going on in Redwood City. We are welcoming a new community-based, program-focused organization fostering safer, healthier pla

Well, don't go away. We also, for you, have a plaque to recognize and welcome you. So if my colleagues could join me in front.

Our third proclamation this evening, our third and final proclamation this evening, recognizes National Service Dog Month. And I will now turn this item over to Mayor Martino Ceballos.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I'm really sad to miss this. I think just the sheer amount of cuteness in the room could have healed me outright. But I'm really delighted to share that for the month of September, we're celebrating National Service Dog Month. a time to honor the significant contributions of service dogs and their handlers and to raise awareness about the importance of these service animals, which are individually trained to perform specific tasks for peoples with disabilities and these handlers put their their heart and their time and soul into these dogs and it truly shows they rai

Well, well, thank you so much and we have a handy dandy proclamation here for you and we'd love for you and your canine friends to come up in front. Wolf is back to us. Okay, the other way. Puppies!

Thank you all again. What an adventure. And with that, I'll turn it back. Oh, all right. We are now at the part of the evening where we accept public comment on the consent calendar, matters of council interest, and items not on the agenda. So if anyone would like to make public comment, we will now... We welcome speakers providing public comment, but please be advised that this is a limited public forum. As such, speakers must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of Redwood City. If speakers do not, they will be warned, and if they continue to disregard city rules, their opp

Manny, Manny, you need to keep your comments related to the subject matter jurisdiction of this body. If you don't stop, if you don't keep within the jurisdiction of this body, I'm warning you now, if you continue outside of the jurisdiction, I will limit you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Heisinger. Turning now to the public comment section of the agenda. I will now turn it over. We now have the consent calendar. Items on consent are routine in nature and approved by one motion. Are there any items on consent from which council members are recused? Seeing none, I will then ask, are there any items on consent that council members would like to pull for discussion? Yes, I couldn't see your microphone. Yes, Marcella.

I'd like to pull 7D, resolution of local support for the central El Camino Real plan. Oh, I just had a few questions.

One moment. Are there any other items that council members would like to pull for discussion?

Vice Mayor, I'd just like to make a comment on item 7G.

All right. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent aside from 7D and 7G? So moved.

All right. Madam Clerk, if you could now do that vote.

All right, we will then go alphabetically to number 7D and Ms. Padilla.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just had a few questions and wanted to check in with staff and see if we had gotten any update information from Santrans. I know I've made, I think now, a few, maybe a couple requests about ridership numbers along El Camino, the corridor between Brewster and Finger. It's just hard for me to be a part of, supporting something when I don't have all the data and I feel like I've now asked two times for Sam Trans to show us they've actually referenced it as their bread and butter I would just like to see the numbers along El Camino before we evaluate taking away an entire

If anyone has the numbers, I'd appreciate them.

We can, Malahat. If you would like to start us off, please do so.

Thank you, Malhat. And do you have additional comments you'd like, information you'd like to share?

Well, then, Vice Mayor, I don't feel comfortable. I would like to have the data before we make any resolution. I think it's important to our community that we look at those numbers before evaluating where we stand on any alternatives. It's prudent.

City Attorney, can we... move this item to the next agenda or anything you'd like to share there?

I move to take this item and move it to the next agenda pending getting the data and having time for us to review it instead of live right now in a council meeting. I don't feel comfortable doing that.

Thank you. Do we have a second? Actually, I will second it because I would also like additional information, and I'm glad you brought it up, about Brewster to the other end of the south end of El Camino. I know it was explained in the report, but I think the public, it would be great to have it, say it publicly. The reason that it only covers Brewster going north is a really definitive reason why we're doing that. and I think that could be explained as long as the numbers that you're asking for. So thank you.

We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk?

Vice Mayor, may I make a comment before we vote?

Now, I will follow up, make sure Sam Trans comes back to this chambers again. They were here earlier this year presenting on the ridership numbers and on the central El Camino corridor report. Just for reference, Sam Trans is the only public transit agency in the country that has achieved over 100% ridership post-COVID. And that's because of re-imagine San Mateo County and the route redefinition. El Camino Real is the workhorse. It carries about 7% of the ridership in the county. No question, separating from school service. But Sam Chance was here earlier this year. They gave a report. They ga

No, just to speak, Jeff. I was there for the presentation. They did not provide the data at the presentation. That's when I actually asked for it. So I'm actually not requesting. We have so much on our agenda. Please let me correct myself. I am not requesting they come back and do another presentation. I would just like to be sent the data that I've requested. Thank you.

All right. All right. Thank you. We will now go to 7G. If we could...

have they have a motion item are we had a motion and a second and we now need to vote on that motion thank you vice mayor may I just make a quick comment as well of course um I y'all know how important data is to me as well uh and I would prefer to have seen that data before making a vote tonight but Given everything that is hanging on our support of this plan, as well as the regional transit measure, I will not be voting for this motion tonight. So I just wanted to preface my motion. I agree with you in spirit, but the benefits outweigh the concerns that I have at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Sterkin. Could we now have the vote? Certainly.

Vice Mayor, maybe we could just modify it to say that this information is being requested and will be sent to all council members before our next meeting.

i think it's already been stated that the data will be sent so what we have now as i understand it the city attorney do we need to have another vote on seventy or did we vote on seventy fight fair you have not voted uh... the only thing you voted on was whether to continue this item or not that failed if you'd like to call emotion another motion uh... Yes, I'd like to call the motion including Councilmember Howard's suggestion that 7D be conditioned upon the data being sent to all seven members of the Council in a timely manner.

Yes. I'm assuming that Councilmember Howard did make that motion and I will second it.

I would like to ask the maker of the original motion if she would be all right with that.

Okay. Then I'll start with making a motion and see if that would... Because I don't mind voting on it. I just would like to be sure everyone has the information that they want and that it's clear and that if the public reads the report that they understand also. That's all. So I will move this motion with the Amendment that we will provide this information to council as soon as it's received to each council member and it's included How would we do that just put it out in a you want the public to know about it too, if it's not in the report already, and you don't want it to necessarily come bac

And could we clarify the difference between the Grand Boulevard Initiative and

I'm going to stop you, Council Member Howard. We've got a tight meeting. We have a lot going on. And I'm going to make the motion. And the motion.

I thought Council Member Howard was in progress.

I think so. No, I was just saying, in the report, just clarify, because it wasn't clear to me exactly why it stopped at Brewster. And that may answer some of the questions for Council Member Padilla. Thank you.

And now we go to 7G, which I believe, Mr. G, that you polled, and so please, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to make a comment on 7G. We did vote to move forward with expanding the GDAP area across Woodside Road, but the unique thing about this is we did this without any community engagement. In reviewing the scope of work from WRT, Wallace, Roberts, and Todd, several of the first phases or earlier phases of the engagement is to do community outreach. And so I just want to make sure through our city manager and our community development staff if there is not, if there's, come back to council and let us know what that feedback looks like. I don't know what

Thank you. Just for the record, I did conduct some in-person outreach to a few businesses following our vote a couple of months ago to WorldPak, Bear Robotics, and Express Kitchen and Bath Corporation. And WorldPak and Bear Robotics were both enthusiastic about the vote, although Express Kitchen and Bath Corporation was concerned that if their property owner opted to under new zoning um redevelop their property to say condos they could be displaced so that is a real concern that we do need to consider as we continue to finalize this plan going forward thank you council member sturkin

I'll make the motion to approve item 7G.

Hold on. I'm sorry, Mr. G. I just want to note that I don't want to relitigate this item. We spent a long time at a few council meetings before. But it's not lost on me that by expanding this area, I just want to reiterate that it's costing us an extra $750,000 and that also it's delaying the project by a year. And with that, I believe Council Member Gee, you have a motion to make.

Just to approve Item 7G, staff recommendation. Second.

All right, we are done with our consent calendar, and so I would like to thank my colleagues, and here we are at our first staff report. which is to introduce an ordinance amending the Redwood City Municipal Code related to motorized and non-motorized vending, parking of vehicles, transporting property for hire, solicitors, and charitable sales. As a reminder, Spanish interpretation is being offered this evening and I'll turn it over now to our interpreter to give instructions on how to participate in the meeting in Spanish.

Thank you very much. And now I will ask our assistant city manager, Michelle Poche-Flaherty, to introduce this item for us. And also our economic development manager, Amanda Anthony, will give the presentation.

Thank you so much, Amanda. Thorough report. Really enjoyed. It's exciting. I enjoyed reading the staff report. I think it's been so long in coming, and it's so exciting that we're finally back here. And I hope that even if we need tweaks later or we need to study later, that we don't delay further and that we take the next step I have one clarifying question, but I wanted to open it up to my colleagues. Does anyone have a clarifying question? Okay, I just have one. You said live scan. You said live scan is no longer permitted by state law. Number one, could you just tell us what live scan is?

Thank you for that clarification. And now I turn it over to the city clerk. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor.

And so I bring it back to my colleagues for us to discuss this proposal, this ordinance. Mr. Sterkin.

Thank you. Firstly, thank you so much, Ms. Anthony, for your presentation and all your hard work you have put into this ordinance. I really do appreciate how responsive you were to the community feedback in preparation of the ordinance. As an example, one thing I really appreciate is the flexibility in terms of the timeframe that vendors can operate. when they are in proximity in the same block as an existing brick and mortar bar, restaurant or other business, allowing them to operate beyond the 10 p.m. cutoff for the non-residential areas. So maybe there's a clarification.

Thank you. I really do appreciate that. I think that is very intentional and promotes community well-being and safety. I've seen vendors next to 840, for example, the bar right on Brewster operating late at night to make sure that folks get some food in their stomachs before they go home, right?

ABSOLUTELY. AND I ACTUALLY DID A LITTLE BIT OF A DEEP DIVE INTO THE CODE AND LEARNED, COUNCIL MEMBER, DO YOU MIND IF I BORROW YOUR CUB? I know you're like, why? OK. So this is the maximum amount of grease that can be disposed of. I think 100 milligrams, I believe, that fits in your average coffee cup. So that is, yeah, it is very granular, very specific. But moving on from, well, actually, before I move on from there, we did receive a public comment from Ernie Schmidt, owner of the Fox Theater, that I thought was very insightful. He did suggest extending the hours to 11 p.m. for operations of

That is a very good point. And I believe something maybe we could consider is, I believe we did discuss the first time we received information about food regulations. Extending hours in the downtown area, I think Council Member Gee, you may have mentioned that, and Mayor Martina Ceballos as well. So that would be something I would be open to. Because you raise an excellent point, Ms. Anthony, about the industrial area of the city, for example, being adjacent to neighborhoods and friendly acres, and maybe wanting to be sensitive to those neighbors. All right, so moving on to, that was the, we o

Thank you, Mr. Sterkin. Anyone else want to weigh in? Mr. Gee.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Strickland, for getting us started. And I would be supportive in looking at maybe a special carve-out for the downtown district, just because we've invested a lot to make sure that our downtown is active, but I also want to be sensitive to the mixed-use residential nearby. And so there's a balancing act between the two, but... you know, with the Fox Theater and maybe the Century Theaters, there are lake crowds that may avail themselves separate from the nightclubs and things like that downtown. So, not sure what the right answer is, but there is

Which I'm very supportive because it is a safety issue. Our medians in some places aren't very wide.

and there's a lot of cars, and have someone approach you or walk through lanes of traffic at a red light isn't the right answer. Having them in a safe place for everybody involved is a better answer. Another clarifying question. When you talk about door-to-door in my community in District 1, there are a lot of HOAs. So how does that comport between door-to-door and somebody who's following the rules in homeowners associations, which are basically private property? Do they overlap? Do they have the right to? Because a lot of HOAs have signs up that say no solicitation, no door-to-door. That I d

That'd be good, because there's a lot of confusion and I get inquiries from constituents across Redwood Shores and District 1. Getting into the nuances here, One of the biggest complaints is the non-motorized vendors at non-profit sponsored events. While one of our speakers talked about city sponsored events like the Friday night concerts, there are several events downtown that are sponsored by non-profits in which the non-profits are required to obtain insurance. and work with the fire marshal, work with health on all that. How does the ordinance now intersect with the bigger issues, the non-

I think it's on page 34 or 42 maybe, or 193 in the staff report. No vending within 200 feet of a school or park?

be considered a temporary special event and would have to get a special event permit so um i think that that is aiming to cover that that would be tremendously helpful because i hear about that from all over non-profits on a regular basis and they don't want to go up to a non-motorized vendor and confront that individual or part or whatever yeah and

It's a start. I mean, this is a new ordinance, and if we figure something isn't working, I'm sure you'll be back and saying, well, let's change it, which is fine. That's true. But the key, though, then, is who will enforce? Is it PD or park and rec staff? I mean, there's going to be an art there.

Yeah, no, enforcement is always the challenge, particularly in some of the new businesses and Once we figure that out, they'll figure something else out and things like that. So when we get to that enforcement piece, especially for non-motorized vendors, my request, as you work with across department teams, is make sure we enforce against the right individuals. Some of these carts are delivered to downtown and vans or large trucks. I've seen them. I'm sure our city manager has seen them. An hour before the event, a large van shows up and six carts come out the back. And then individuals are ou

Thank you, Mr. G. Lots of food for thought there. Anyone else want to weigh in?

Yes. Yes. Council Member Howard, please.

Thank you. Really, really, really good report. Very thorough. Really appreciated the outreach that you did, obviously, to get all the information that you did. So this is going to be a work in progress. I mean, I really believe that this is going in the right direction. And yes, changes may need to be made or modified along the way. But what a good beginning. We're actually tackling the problem and trying to be in compliance with the state. And try to give the tools to our necessary departments, like code enforcement and police department, give them the tools that can enable them to really cle

Well, could I ask you then, one city does have a restriction about you can't be within, where did I have it here? 75 feet of an existing restaurant and we're not doing that?

I KNEW ABOUT THE STATE REGULATION BUT ALSO I'M LOOKING AT A CODE COMPARISON AND IT SAYS SAN FRANCISCO. THAT'S FOR FOOD TRUCKS.

Okay. Also, I wanted to know, we talk about intersections and not parking too close. Could you tell me a motorized vendor, how far away from the intersection do they need to be?

I think it would. I'm thinking of Stafford Park in particular. When I go there, they're wrapped around the street, Lowell and Hopkins, and you cannot see when a car coming if you're crossing. It's very dangerous. And so I know I'm not supposed to say it's very dangerous. Sorry about that. But it is. And I know we can do better. And so if we paint it red we have something to say, see that red line? You can't park there. So you can't have a food truck blocking a whole intersection and people peeking around and trying to cross with their children to go to a concert or the park. So I think that's

Well, I think it's worth trying for sure. I was going to say another question here. Today, I'm going down Middlefield Road, and there's a food vendor who's parked in an auto repair parking lot. I'm guessing they could be paying some money to the auto repair or not, but right across the street is a food establishment selling similar food. Are we able to prevent that or is that just going to have to be

He was clearly in the parking lot, yeah.

Then I would imagine it would be something that could be just for now, maybe on a complaint basis. If someone, if the business across the street does complain about it, then you'd look into it and see, is it properly zoned to handle that? Correct. OK. Thank you. Now, I'm just curious, because if there's no complaints from the business, there's no need to upset the apple cart and let things be. But you still want to be sure they have the health certificate, the business license, and then all the permits necessary to be properly working. OK. Enforcement, I agree with what you said. We're gonna h

I very rarely see anybody have ID or something from Redwood City. Yes, I have permission. I have a permit from Redwood City. And so I just want to let people know if someone comes to your door and they're not properly identified, don't open the door. Don't even bother because that could be dangerous.

That's a good idea. Thank you. I agree with starting maybe in the new year with some of the... Enforcements, I suppose, because you have a lot of time to educate. And maybe before the concerts start, before the Lunar New Year celebration and Fourth of July, because there's going to be a lot of information that we, or a lot of things we're going to have to concern ourselves with around these different events. Let me see here. I didn't realize that, and I'm glad you're sharing this, they need a trash receptacle of their own. Again, Ernie Schmitz confided. He says people go out and use the city c

That's great. That answers my question. Lastly, thank you for the comparative fixed cost of doing business. And it doesn't even include employee salaries or the cost of goods sold, which I know will be higher in a brick and mortar. I am very much feeling that we need to be fair and respect our brick and mortar. They do pay so much more to do their business. I don't want to... be punitive with the non-motorized and the motorized, but I want to be fair because the brick and mortar has just as much right to succeed in their business as does someone who wants to do it in a different way. So I thin

Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Howard. Really good points. Anyone else like to weigh in? Council Member Padilla, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Anthony, for your presentation. I want to echo some of the things you mentioned about the daylighting. So even if we pass some of the things, I think it is important that we prioritize things that make it functional and happen. So I had a question, and I'm not sure who it's actually to, but I thought we had prioritized parks and areas by schools for daylighting. Can someone speak to that?

Well, yes. So what I'm saying is I think this is important. And safety, when I'm thinking of Stafford, I'm saying that I do recall us talking about how this is such a big issue today.

You're talking about painting 20 feet from an intersection red? What are you talking about? Yeah.

Thank you. So no, I was just saying that while in parallel, while we were working on things like this, it would be nice to align with our different departments to make sure we can all work together with the current laws we have that will help with the safety of these ordinances. So I was just saying that that would be a great thing to work together for the safety of crossing. If we can add it to these particular areas. For the garbage, thank you and Council Member Strickland for pointing out that. I think that it's important With any of this, I think I want to echo everyone. We don't want to b

Okay, so would it be then if, but food trucks move, so would they have to have multiple permits for location?

But it would be more than. So like if someone says like, you know, on Mondays and Wednesdays, we're at this spot, but you know, on Fridays and Saturdays, we're, I don't know, somewhere by the port that they could just have, could they fill out a request for like specific days of, I'm just trying to say if we're, could they request specific days of the weeks and times per permit? And then that would also maybe help us with an understanding of where we're spreading out our,

Okay, then I guess my only question would be if with these encroachment permits, would our ordinance of time supersede that permit? Like in case someone was going to say, well, I have this, I paid X amount for an encroachment permit, PERMIT, I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THE TIMES THAT WE PUT IN PLACE WOULD OVERSEE THAT.

AND THEN I HAD A QUESTION FOR THE SIGNAGE. ACCESSIBILITY IS SO IMPORTANT FOR ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY, AND TO COUNCILMEMBER G'S POINT, NOT ALL OF OUR SIDEWALKS AND PUBLIC SPACES ARE THE SAME SPACE. It would be nice to make sure that people who are in wheelchairs, people with strollers, it really is troubling when you see people have to go out into the street when there is a sidewalk they should be able to use. So I just want to echo my colleagues in making sure that there might not always be that magic number, but that we are always making our spaces accessible for people to connect and walk aroun

Yes. Oh, I saw something about having COs use it. I just want to also go back to the enforcement. Same thing I feel like with parking permits. If we don't have people to go, we have to meet the need. We can't just say our code officers only work from 9 to 5. If these businesses are out, we're going to have to adjust some way. It's not going to work. So we're going to have to be creative. I think we have to meet the need. We're going to have to adjust. So I'm also for adding staffing if we need this because there's no point in making things that we cannot enforce. So I just want to echo that. I

Okay, thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Padilla. I will start with what you ended with, with enforcement. I agree with Councilmember Padilla. I think you put it very well. There's no point in us working on this ordinance if we can't enforce it. And somewhere in your lovely report, and congratulations, excellent work. somewhere in your lovely report you talked about how you know startup enforcement might be fifty to a hundred thousand dollars and I for one in echoing what Ms. Padilla said if it's more that's okay with me you know if we have to hire swing shift workers that are there w

Or encourage. Sure, that was just the point I was trying to make. That could be something about our downtown vitality strategy or our outreach strategy or some other strategy, but it's not about this ordinance tonight. Right. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to make that clear. I agree with my colleagues who have talked about, gosh, we don't want these hand carts to impede folks from being able to use the sidewalks. And so maybe that's... I trust you on your 36-inch determination because you worked a lot on it, but I think that's something the comparative cities had different determinations on t

Thank you for reminding me about that. That's right. To Council Member Howard's point about the brick and mortar versus the mobile vending, they have pretty strict enforcement of minimum wage laws and all that kind of stuff. And my guess is with these multi-handcart folks, it's pretty loosey-goosey. So yes, thank you for that reminder. Very important to me. Oh, Mayor, your turn.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, colleagues, for the great discussion and Amanda for the presentation. I also really appreciate the staff reflecting so much of our 1st conversation in the staff report and. And also adding the 30,000 dollar. Amount in the budget for us to be able to do education and outreach on this. I guess my first question, or before I jump into my questions and comments, did just want to add my support behind the idea to expand the operating hours in the downtown core. I know we'll have to think carefully about where exactly folks, you know, will be able to set up shop

Thank you, Amanda. That helps. And I was also wondering how same questions around the county health permit. How long does it typically take and what's the cost for that too?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Deepa. And you said that was for the food trucks. How about for the non-motorized vehicles?

Great. Thank you, Deepa. I appreciate that. And thank you, Amanda. And that is really helpful to know. I'm thinking about how we can inform vendors about the timeline as they come into compliance what they can expect and just in the costs and how how long it'll take for them to come into compliance especially knowing that if they're missing a document or two it's going to take them that much longer and be a little bit of a journey for them um and this really reminds me of our last discussion on the parking um on the parking enforcement um item at our last meeting i i think our policy is only a

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted a point of clarification. I think you said you were considering doing the outreach in-house, so it hasn't been decided if it's going to be a non-profit or in-house.

I just wanted to clarify that we haven't, we aren't for sure hiring a non-profit. So I just

I guess I would just suggest that I don't want to micromanage staff. What our task to do here tonight is to approve this ordinance or not approve this ordinance. And yes, there are many moving pieces beyond implementing the ordinance, enforcing the ordinance. I will make a motion that we approve the ordinance.

I'll second that. And I know that staff's been keeping notes on everything else we've been talking about, so we don't have to do that. But yeah, I'll support that ordinance.

I think we have a request to approve the ordinance and a second.

All right, so I still have plenty of comments I would like to make. If I may, I understand we have a motion that's been seconded, so I can make comments on the motion. All right, thank you very much. So what I'd like to propose is a friendly amendment. I did hear... majority support from Council Member Gee, you as well, Vice Mayor, Mayor Martinez-Zaballos, and I, and maybe there's others as well, to extend the hours for vending in the downtown area. And I wanted to pose a suggestion to be a little bit more specific. You know, I've heard from vendors that I think we've heard from vendors tonigh

And while we're pulling that up, I actually was going to suggest the greater downtown area plan area to be consistent with our new downtown area that we are adopting. So I'll pause there. Thank you.

So if I'm understanding, we have a motion and a second, and you've requested a friendly amendment. So I have a question for the city attorney, but I'll wait until we get that up. I have a question for the city attorney, but I'll wait until you get that up.

Well, now that we have this up, Mr. Schwab, can you point to where you're talking about?

Thank you so much. So my question to you, City Attorney, is... Okay, so let me orient myself again. So there's a motion and a second and a request for the friendly amendment. And the request for the friendly amendment is to extend the time in, what is the blue area called?

The entertainment district to extend the time for mobile vending or non-mobile vending to, what did you say, 2 o'clock in the morning? Or what did you, what, 11, midnight till 2?

I proposed leaving it up to staff to offer a reasonable time based on the feedback we received from the community as well as the council discussion. And I also suggested the greater downtown plan area as the applicable area in my friendly amendment.

Well, that's okay. So thank you for that clarification, Mr. Sterkin. So my question to you, attorney is changing a time on the ordinance that already is written does that mean we have to come that we don't pass it tonight and then It goes back to your shop and you rewrite it and then it comes again. What's that?

Okay, so I... Here is a friendly amendment, Mr. Sterkin, that I would consider as the maker of the motion. The friendly amendment I would consider is so that we can approve this tonight and not delay. The friendly amendment I would consider is extending the... hours that non mobile and mobile vendors can work to midnight in the entertainment zone of the downtown area. If you accept that friendly amendment and before that city attorney with those specific changes, could it still pass tonight?

You mean a brick and mortar? Correct. Yes.

Let me just say, I really don't like legislating on the fly like this. I would like you to confirm, Madam Attorney, that there is no change to anything in residential. Is that correct? That is correct.

Okay. I have a clarification. Is that all days of the week? Is that weekends? For clarification, please.

Mr. Sterkin, does that accurately reflect your friendly amendment?

firstly i just want to say thank you very much for workshopping that uh with me on the spot my understand i apologize i was i did not realize that we could not use the greater downtown area plan area despite us having voted on the boundaries thereof and to study it. But that aside, my understanding was that we identified the downtown area, which is currently defined as the downtown precise plan area, which includes the golden area in this image before you as a downtown. So I would accept what has been proposed with this small substitution of the downtown precise plan area instead of the entert

I don't accept that expansion of, so I don't accept your friendly amendment if you're expanding it because as we discussed, we don't know where people live THAT'S TOO EXPANSIVE AN AREA. WE HAVE TO RESPECT THAT PEOPLE NEED TO SLEEP, AND IT IS NOT KNOWN, IT HASN'T BEEN STUDIED, SO NO, I DON'T ACCEPT THAT FRIENDLY AMENDMENT.

OKAY, THEN. I HONESTLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE GROUNDS TO YOUR COMMENTS, BUT I WILL ACCEPT YOUR friendly amendment, my friendly amendment as it was described by the city attorney.

Then I accept your friendly amendment and Madam Clerk, should we have a vote? Pardon?

As I understand it, it would be the entertainment zone, and we're extending the hours as you specified. And there's nothing to say we can't come back if there are complaints within three to six months, whatever, and make a change. I would think that would be. But I'd like to start small with a footprint, and let's see how we do. But I think we need to remember that the motorized have generators that are very noisy. And I happen to know of one food truck across the street from a house on Broadway. And he says it drives him crazy. He can't put his windows open at night. So it's something that we

I just want to clarify, Councilmember Howard, when you say entertainment zone, we're talking about the blue, right? Correct. Okay.

Well, thank you very much, colleagues. That was a robust discussion. I really appreciate it. We are now going to matters of council interest. Do any city council members have reports on meetings and conferences attended?

First of all, I wanted to be sure that every council member and staff member knows that on October 15th, Thursday, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Devil's Canyon Brewing Company, we are all invited to come to Devil's Canyon to hear more about the Housing Endowment and Regional Trust of San Mateo County, otherwise known as HART. I'm a director on that board, and it is from 5 to 7, and if you look at the back, there's a QR code, and you can put that in so that you can enter for free, that you wouldn't have to pay a fee. But what I love about this event is we have all cities there, the county there, staff mem

Thank you so much, Councilmember Howard. Anyone else?

Sure. Okay, so I attended the League of California Cities conference last week in Anaheim, and I learned quite a bit to bring back to Redwood City from our neighbors and cities across the state. Just some highlights for myself that I want to share. I did not realize that we have AI classes at our library that members of the community are welcome to use for free to help us ease into the AI transition. But I learned about City of San Jose's library AI center that is a good resource for us to look at going forward. I also learned about Not ready here. Again, Council Member Sergio Robles from the

I also attended the Cal Cities Conference, and I appreciated attending the sessions and networking with other colleagues in the region. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Padilla. Mr. Gee.

Vice Mayor, thank you. I also attended Cal Cities in Anaheim last week and attended some of the similar sessions that Council Member Sturgeon and Council Member Padilla attended. Also attended the one about the changing immigration landscape and policies, learned about AI, learned about how funding big projects and the economic development that it generates. I think the model presentation was from the City of Ontario with their major projects. and the challenges about passing revenue measures in this climate that we're all in. And equally important was recognizing and acknowledging leadership

Thank you so much, colleagues, for attending CalCities. And I know... Mayor, I'm so sorry.

No problem, vice mayor, I just wanted to add my name to the list of council members who also attended Cal cities really quickly. Just some personal highlights. The Latino caucus had an incredible business meeting and an opportunity to meet with Paul Hernandez from well, which is water education for Latino leaders. And we got along great talking about Silicon Valley, clean water, and his sister lives in Redwood City, which was a fun learn. But the other highlight is that the city of Murrieta had their resolution passed, which is going to create a working group across the state looking to evalua

Well, it's fantastic that you all attended, and I know city manager and also city attorney did, as well as some other staff, so thank you so much. I'll just be very brief, but I see that Justin and Adrian are here, and I attended today the one shoreline event monthly meeting, and we got briefed on what is going to be a very wet winter. In particular, they're predicting that the king tides this year will be the highest in two decades, and that the tides will be six to eight inches higher than they are right now, and that they expect maybe one or perhaps more than one Kelvin waves which can prod

I was just told by one shoreline that these two gentlemen were coordinating between the state, the county, one shoreline, and I just want to make sure our private property owners know about it so we can help those folks that might flood otherwise.

That's all I have. And now, Council Member Gee.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to report on two other events. Coming back from Anaheim on Friday, I was invited to attend the Orion Alternative School Mandarin Immersion Program as they celebrated the Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival. And it was just great to see that program flourish. There are up to 25 classes now from TK through 5 with the demand from the parent community to add two more classes next year. And they don't have the space. And so to see that program grow from where it was to where it is now, and the students continue on to Kennedy Middle School in Mandarin, it's just wonderful

Thank you so much for that and congratulations to Sam Trans. Now we will go to City Council Committee Reports and we'll start with Governance Subcommittee and Councilmember G.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. The governance subcommittee comprised the Mayor, Martina Ceballos, Vice Mayor Akin, and myself met on September 21st. The city's legislative consultant from California Public Policy Group provided a legislative overview, which included updates on legislative timing, the vehicle license fee, VLF shortfall, tort reform, wildfire liability, data centers, budget trailer bills, and information on additional legislation affecting Redwood City. The next governance subcommittee meeting is scheduled for October 19th.

Thank you so much. And now, City Manager's oral update.

We will now adjourn to closed session to discuss anticipated litigation as identified on the agenda. Before we move to closed session, I'd like to ask the city clerk if there's any public comment on the closed session item.

Thank you. The City Council will now convene to close session. In the event there is reportable action from the closed session, the Council will return to the dais for the report. There will be no reportable action following the closed session. We will now adjourn the meeting immediately following closed session, and the City Council will not be returning to the dais. Thank you, and good night.